The Company

[John Pendergast]

Recently while doing research at the Folger library in Washington D.C. ,
I came across the following quote from Patrick Copland, minister, from a
sermon preached at Cheapside, 1622, entitled "Virginia's God be Thanked,
or a Sermond of Thanksgiving for the happie Successes of the Affayres in
Virginia the last yeare":

"Japan lyeeth on the same latitude that Virginia doth." Thus, the
opulence and wealth of that isle are surely to be found in Virgina
(sorry, I don't have the exact quote for this final idea. 

Copland's point is that Virginia is worth continuing to poor resources
into because of the promises of weatlh, but Copland goes on to state
that the presence of Jesuits and Easterners (and, in a Pynchonian touch,
the particularly damaging combination of the two) endangers England's
status in the world.

THis emphasis on Latitudes as conducive of similarities and syncronicity
is very Pynchon-esque, and is found throughout late 16th and 17th
century writings about the "New World".

Finally, the Virginia Company of the 16th/17th century was, like the
East Indies company, refereed to as "the Companyy" almost exclusively.

It is rare when my two literary loves, Pynchon and Edmund Spenser, come
together, but yet again they do.

John S. Pendergast
Virginia Commonwealth University.