1619 to 1623

Literature

Fuenteovejuna. Lope de Vega. Spanish. 1619. Play. Lascivious officer violates a peasant girl. The town rises up to kill him. It is asserted that the town, not individuals, killed him.

Society

1620. The Mayflower Compact, drawn up by the Pilgrims, establishes a form of government based on the will of the colonists rather than on that of the Crown.

1620. The 180-ton vessel Mayflower out of Southampton arrives off Cape Cod, November 11, with 100 Pilgrims plus two more born at sea during the 66-day voyage. The Pilgrims are English separatists who have emigrated from Scrooby to Amsterdam and thence to Leyden but who decided 3 years ago to seek a new home in order to preserve their English identity.

1620. Novum Organum by Sir Francis Bacon proposes an inductive method of interpreting nature as opposed to the the deductive logic of Aristotle. Bacon insists on observation and experience as the sole source of knowledge.

1620. Pilgrims from the Mayflower receive help from the Pemaquid, Samoset, and the Wampanoags, Hobomah and Massasoit, who have learned some English from earlier visitors and share tribal stores of maize with the new colonists to get them through the winter. But roughly half will die within 3 months, of starvation, scurvy and disease.

Literature

Novum Organu. Francis Bacon. British. 1620. Nonfiction. In Latin. Statement of the inductive method. Results of experience studied. General conclusion reached. Different from the syllogistic method.

El mejor alcalde el rey (The King, the Greatest Alcalde). Lope de Vega. Spanish. 1620/23. Play. Feudal lord steals the loved one of a peasant. The king supports the peasant and the lord is executed.

Society

1621. New England's Pilgrims celebrate their first Thanksgiving Day. They entertain 92 Indian guests, including Chief Massasoit, at a Thanksgiving dinner-breakfast. The meal includes wild turkeys shot by the colonists and popcorn which is introduced to the Pilgrims by the chief's brother.

Literature

The Anatomy of Melancholy. Robert Burton. British. 1621. Nonfiction. Organized as a medical treatise. Morbid mental states. Notable utterances on the human condition. Melancholy - raving lunacy to philosophical, occasional pessimism. From Milton onward, pillaged by authors.

The Wild Goose Chase. John Fletcher. British. 1621. Play. Beautiful woman resorts to several ruses in order to gain the love of the rakish Mirabel.

Society

1622. Indian attacks, March 22, destroy a number of Virginia settlements within a few hours, killing 347 colonists.

Literature

Mourt's Relation. (Mourt was author of the preface.) American. 1622. Narrative. Earliest narrative of the Plymouth Pilgrims. Letters from the colonists. William Bradford's journal.

Society

1623. The Dutch make New Netherlands a formally organized province and some 30 Dutch families land on Manhattan Island.