Prof uncovers new view of Puritans

While the Mayflower Puritans were giving thanks for having survived in the New World, the Church of England and literati of the day were portraying them as people incapable of anything so noble, according to Kristen Poole, English.

In her book, Radical Religion from Milton to Shakespeare, Poole uses16th- and 17th-century poetry and prose to demonstrate how authors of the day created an image of the pilgrims that is quite a contrast to the view Americans hold of these forefathers and mothers.

To contemporary Americans, Puritans were grim, self-denying, religious reformers, but to their contemporaries in England, Puritans and other religious rebels were seen as debauched, self indulgent blasphemers, ridiculous and without credibility. In fact, the word "puritan" was used to describe something or someone trivial and ludicrous, Poole said.

Poole discovered these references in literature when she was doing research. As she read various works, she became confused whenever the word "puritan" was used. She said the way she understood the word, the sentence made no sense.

For example, a tract written in 1579 by minister John Knewstub, begins, "The holy whore no fellow hath, the Puritan is she, That midst her prayers sends her here, The purest man to see."

So, Poole began to look for references to the Puritans in the literature of the day and discovered an image quite opposite to the concept Americans have of these religious reformers. Once she put the word into context, she had no trouble understanding what she was reading. As she delved more and more into the literature she began to realize the extent of the Church of England's attempt to vilify religious sects and the collusion on the part of the scholars and writers of the day.

Radical religious reformers were characterized by the establishment as anything but God-fearing, she said. Through Poole's analysis of pamphlets, sermons, poetry and plays, the Puritan emerges as a grotesque and carnivalesque figure depicted as overeating and drinking, sexually promiscuous, monstrously procreating and overtly contemptuous of religion.

Poole writes that one of Shakespeare's most debauched, irreverent characters, Sir John Falstaff, was said to be patterned after Sir John Oldcastle, a martyr of the Protestant Reformation.

By revealing this rarely discussed image of religious revolutionaries, Poole magnifies the power and pervasiveness of the establishment's propaganda and provides insight into the atmosphere that made the Puritans seek a new world.

A recipient of the Francis Alison Society's Young Scholar award, Poole received her master's and doctoral degrees in English and American literature from Harvard University. Since she joined the UD faculty in 1996, she has received grants from the Folger Shakespeare Institute, the Folger Library, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Huntington Library.