The Company

[Unknown User]

John Pendergast wrote:
> 
> 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.
pynchon is that rare breed of passionate writer/reader who seems to have
read everything, so i'm not surprised to find a crossway with chaucer.
thanks for the reference.
ray