Text 6.16e: Bay Psalm Book (1640)
A second second printing appeared in 1647 and a revised printing in 1651 (revision by
President Dunster of Harvard and R. Lyon). All in all, there were 25 printings in the first 100
years. The authors were Thomas Weld, John Eliot (the missionary to the Indians), Richard
Mather, and Francis Quarles (for the Hebrew).
In the Preface John Cotton argued for a poetic translation and for singing because (1) we
agree to translation; (2) the Hebrew is poetic; (3) the Hebrew was sung; hence (4) the English
should be poetic and sung as well. He wrote, “Neither let any think that for the meetre sake
wee have taken liberty or poeticall licence to depart from the true and proper sence of
Davids words in the hebrew verses: noe ... .” The translation should, however, not be a
paraphrase, but a translation: "If therefore the verses are not alwayes so smooth and
elegant as some may desire or expect; let them consider that Gods Altar needs not our
polishings: Ex. 20. for wee have respected rather a plain translation, then to smooth our
verses with the sweetnes of any paraphrase and soe have attended Conscience rather then
Eloquence, fidelity rather then poetry, in translating the hebrew words into english
language, and Davids poetry into english meetre ... Gods Altar needs not our polishing”
(HAAL 1994: 329f).
Background to the Psalms. The colonists enjoyed “only music that was quite simple and
fully functional” (Hitchcock 1974: 2). There was social music, but we know little of it. We do,
however, know something about their religious music. For the Puritans this was Psalmody.
Its origins lay in the mid-16th century sects in Western Europe. Calvin, for example, felt that
the only music that was proper was the Psalms. These groups generally rejected polyphonic
music, instruments, hymns, and non-biblical texts as too Catholic. The Psalms were sung in
unison without accompaniment (ibid.). An English Psalter was published in 1562 (by the
London printer John Day). Both English and continental tunes were used: popular songs,
older hymn tunes; and they were often sprightly, often polyphonic (ibid.: 2-3).
The Bay Psalm Book (1640) contained no music. Later melodies were appended (9th ed.
of 1698), but a total of thirteen tunes were enough for all 150 Psalms (ibid.: 4-5). Almost all
the book made use of three meters:
Common meter (8-6-8-6)
Long meter (8-8-8-8) and an
Irregular meter (6-6-8-6).
Hymnody also gradually made its way from Lutheranism into Puritanism (before the 18 th
century). Isaac Watts was the most prominent writer of hymns.
The Psalms themselves are rhythmical, but unrhymed verse with three-beat lines and
parallelism (synonymous, antithetic, synthetic). Thematically, there are roughly four types:
hymns of praise, national laments, individual laments, and individual thanksgiving.
The BPB was a best-seller and a source of Puritan values, which it helped to disseminate:
HAAL calls it a “basic text of Puritan culture” which “made possible individual participation in
the culture” (1994: 326). It was written in idiomatic, metrical English for singing in church
and at home. But it has also been assessed as "clumsy stanzas and tortured lines (Spiller et
al. 1974: 63).
The following is the rendition of the 23rd Psalm in the Bay Psalm Book.
The Lord to me a shepherd is,
Want therefore shall not I.
He in the folds of tender grass
Doth cause me down to lie:
To waters calm me gently leads,
Restore my soul doth he,
He doth in paths of righteousness
For his name’s sake lead me.
Yea though in valley of death’s shade
I walk, none ill I’ll fear:
Because thou art with me, thy rod
And staff my comfort are.
For me a table thou hast spread.
In presence of my foes:
Thou dost annoint my head with oil,
My cup it overflows.
Goodness and mercy surely shall
All my days follow me:
And in the Lord’s house I shall dwell
So long as days shall be.
(Source: HAAL 1994: 334-35)
Heath Anthology of American Literature (HAAL) (1994), 2nd ed. vol. 1. P. Lauter (gen.ed.) Lexington,
MA: D.C. Heath.
Hitchcock, H. Wiley (1974) Music in the United States. A Historical Introduction. 2nd ed. Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Literary History of the United States. History (1974) 4th ed. R.E. Spiller, W. Thorp, T.H. Johnson, H.S.
Canby,k R.M. Ludwig, W.M. Gibson (eds.) N.Y.: Macmillan.