Thomas Morton's Maypole

In the passage written by Thomas Morton, it is clearly evident that he believes that he is much smarter than the Puritans. The book states that “he had the advantages of a traditional education provided for a young man of means” (Baym 138), which means that he came from a wealthy family. He appears to have been a spoiled little brat, judging from his taunting of the Puritans and how he evaded punishment once he got back to England. However, it is through the multiple references to Greek and Roman culture that we see his pompous attitude towards the ignorance of the Puritans.

When a maypole was erected on May Day at Morton’s town, Merry Mount, the Puritans saw it as a worship of not only a Roman goddess, but a promiscuous one at that. Morton seizes this moment of ignorance on the Puritan’s part to make fun of them. Whereas the Puritans thought that the maypole represented the goddess Flora, a goddess of fertility, Morton said that it really represented Maia, a goddess of spring. It is interesting to note, though, that Flora was also a goddess of spring, as the Romans associated fertility with not only conceiving children, but with a good planting season as well. In any case, Morton makes fun of the Puritans by saying, “The Lady of Learning which they despise, vilifying the two universities with uncivil terms…not considering that learning does enable men’s minds to converse with elements of a higher nature than is to be found within the habitation of a mole” (Baym 143). The Lady of Learning that Morton speaks of is Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and the two universities that the Puritans dislike are Oxford and Cambridge. Morton sees this dislike as a sign of being uncivilized. The Puritans probably disliked learning about Greek and Roman cultures because they represented polytheistic cultures. It is also important to keep in mind that people had to be well off the go college, so there might be a bit of bitterness on the part of those who couldn’t. If the Puritans were all that well off they could have just paid the monarchy off to quit harassing them, and then they wouldn’t have had to move in the first place.

It is clear that Morton was concerned with money, since he came over from England to deal in the fur trade. This makes the passage where he talks about Diogenes’ tub even meaner than it already is, because Diogenes was a philosopher who was unconcerned with status or money (as most philosophers). This was clearly a polar opposite from Morton, who came from a rich family. In the passage, he insinuates that “Captain Shrimp” (aka Myles Standish) should want to have “crept into [Diogenes’ tub] out of sight” (Baym 145). It seems that Morton was pointing out the difference in the statuses of the two men.

I believe that the references to the Greek and Roman cultures illustrate Morton’s belief that he is better than the Puritans because the references make him look smarter. The references are a show of his knowledge of culture, and of civilizations that were dominant in learning, which he believe the Puritans know nothing about.