Anne Bradstreet and Her Time | Page 4

his son Theophilus, so encumbered that it was well nigh worthless, a
few years of Dudley's skillful management freed it entirely, and he
became the dear and trusted friend of the entire family. His first child
had been born in 1610, a son named Samuel, and in 1612 came the
daughter whose delicate infancy and childhood gave small hint of the
endurance shown in later years. Of much the same station and training
as Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, Anne Dudley could undoubtedly have
written in the same words as that most delightful of chroniclers: "By
the time I was four years old I read English perfectly, and having a
great memory I was carried to sermons.... When I was about seven
years of age, I remember I had at one time eight tutors in several
qualities, languages, music, dancing, writing and needle work; but my
genius was quite averse from all but my book, and that I was so eager
of, that my mother thinking it prejudiced my health, would moderate

me in it; yet this rather animated me than kept me back, and every
moment I could steal from my play I would employ in any book I could
find when my own were locked up from me."
It is certain that the little Anne studied the Scriptures at six or seven,
with as painful solicitude as her elders, for she writes in the
fragmentary diary which gives almost the only clue to her real life:
"In my young years, about 6 or 7, as I take it, I began to make
conscience of my wayes, and what I knew was sinful, as lying,
disobedience to Parents, etc., I avoided it. If at any time I was
overtaken with the like evills, it was a great Trouble. I could not be at
rest 'till by prayer I had confest it unto God. I was also troubled at the
neglect of Private Duteys, tho' too often tardy that way. I also found
much comfort in reading the Scriptures, especially those places I
thought most concerned my Condition, and as I grew to have more
understanding, so the more solace I took in them.
"In a long fitt of sickness which I had on my bed, I often communed
with my heart and made my supplication to the most High, who sett me
free from that affliction."
For a childhood which at six searches the Scriptures to find verses
applicable to its condition, there cannot have been much if any natural
child life, and Mrs. Hutchinson's experience again was probably
duplicated for the delicate and serious little Anne. "Play among other
children I despised, and when I was forced to entertain such as came to
visit me, I tried them with more grave instruction than their mothers,
and plucked all their babies to pieces, and kept the children in such awe,
that they were glad when I entertained myself with elder company, to
whom I was very acceptable, and living in the house with many
persons that had a great deal of wit, and very profitable serious
discourses being frequent at my father's table and in my mother's
drawing room, I was very attentive to all, and gathered up things that I
would utter again, to great admiration of many that took my memory
and imitation for wit.... I used to exhort my mother's words much, and
to turn their idle discourses to good subjects."

Given to exhortation as some of the time may have been, and drab-
colored as most of the days certainly were, there were, bright passages
here and there, and one reminiscence was related in later years, in her
poem "In Honour of Du Bartas," the delight of Puritan maids and
mothers;
"My muse unto a Child I may compare, Who sees the riches of some
famous Fair, He feeds his eyes but understanding lacks, To
comprehend the worth of all those knacks; The glittering plate and
Jewels he admires, The Hats and Fans, the Plumes and Ladies' tires,
And thousand times his mazed mind doth wish Some part, at least, of
that brave wealth was his; But seeing empty wishes nought obtain, At
night turns to his Mother's cot again, And tells her tales (his full heart
over glad), Of all the glorious sights his eyes have had; But finds too
soon his want of Eloquence, The silly prattler speaks no word of sense;
But seeing utterance fail his great desires, Sits down in silence, deeply
he admires."
It is probably to one of the much exhorted maids that she owed this
glimpse of what was then a rallying ground for the jesters and merry
Andrews, and possibly even a troop of strolling players, frowned upon
by the Puritan as children of Satan, but still secretly enjoyed by the