William BradfordとCotton Mather : 文体からみたNew England Mindの考察

抄録

Reading of these two historians, William Bradford (1590-1657) and Cotton Mather (1663-1728), reveals an interesting change in the psychology of early New England people within half a century. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate by a stylistic analysis how this change occurred in the New England Mind. In William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, one may find frequent use of doublet, parallelism and antithesis. He consciously imitates the style of the Geneva version of the Bible. His whole syntactical structure, -the well-balanced and rather slowing-down effect of doublets and parallelisms, -is certainly an indication of his firm condefince, all the way through his history, in the final triumph of God's Will in His Promised Land, New England. God's ways are slow but steady. Thus, Bradford's Style is not something merely external to meaning. His manipulation of all these stylistic devices clearly indicates his own concept of history as a disclosure of Divine Will. On the other hand, Cotton Mather's style is complex and heavy. As has already been pointed out by several critics like Austin Warren, Mather's style in "General Introduction" to Magnalia Christi Americana is a specimen of belated Baroque prose in Colonial New England. Mather's style, however, is often accused of being prolix, with pedantic quotations, and fantastic in its conceits. But a careful analysis of the "General Introduction" well indicates that these traits are not necessarily to be considered as faults, but rather the reflections of the mode of Mather's thinking, and his attitude towards history. Like Bradford, Mather also believes that history is a revelation of God's Will and a historian not only records what has happened, but must interpret its meaning, which is His epiphany to man. But when compared with Bradford's, Mather's history is not steady. His abundant quotations in the "General Introduction" are nothing but his unconscious attempt to justify his history. In quotations he seeks the historical sanction, a feeling of security. As in the case of Bradford, if he were confident enough in God's blessing on New England, he would not have to seek the security, protecting himself by quotations. These curious traits are the expressions of his mixed feeling of self-glorification and self-chastisement, humility and arrogance, justification and apology, confidence and sceptisicm-characteristics of Baroque style. New England for Bradford was a geographical reality, but for Cotton Mather, New England began shifting its existence from the geographical to the psychographical. For Mather, to use Austin Warren's phrase, "New England is a state of mind like Heaven and Hell."