Psalm Culture and Early Modern English Literature (review)

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of the Book of Psalms in the daily life of English Christians during the early modern period. As Hannibal Hamlin points out in this excellent monograph, the psalms were "recorded in diaries, interpreted in commentaries and sermons, alluded to in the sacred texts of the liturgy and in the secular plays of the theater alike; they were among the most familiar texts in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England." For the vast majority, those who had little Latin and no Hebrew, English versions of the Psalms were the Psalms (6). Moreover, the Book of Psalms was, for many readers, a kind of Bible-in-miniature. The purpose of Hamlin's study is "to explore how this miniature Bible was interpreted and put to various uses by its early modern readers" (256).

The focus of this work is the metrical psalm, that is, translations of psalms into metrical English poetry. Translation is, of course, a particularly problematic endeavor, both for the translator and for the scholar. What is the trade-off involved in adherence to the religious message as opposed to the literary medium, especially when the original Hebrew text is accessed via Latin and then recreated, as it were, in English? Hamlin suggests that "the work of the 'translators' in adapting the Psalms often involved creative interpretation somewhat akin to the Hebrew tradition of midrash" (11).

Chapters 1–4 are organized in two general categories: metrical psalms meant to be sung as part of church services, and metrical psalms intended to be read as lyric poetry by educated readers. In chapters 1 and 2 Hamlin discusses the Sternhold and Hopkins psalter and its rivals. These psalters contained English texts in tandem with melodies; the church congregation sang the texts to familiar tunes. For a century and a half Sternhold and Hopkins "was the most widely known volume of verse in English and made its way into the hands of English men and women of all social classes" (38, 39). George Sandys's Paraphrase upon the Psalms was published with music; it was meant, however, for use in private chapels, and thus may constitute a way-station between psalters intended for congregational singing and those meant to be read as lyric poetry. Chapter 3 is devoted to a view of psalm translations as part of the movement toward the composition of English quantitative verse; chapter 4 centers on the Sidney Psalter, the "greatest achievement in literary psalm translation in the English Renaissance" (118). With its focus on the exploration of self, the Sidney Psalter "had a profound influence on the poetic practice of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, Milton and many others" (119), although its influence on seventeenth-century church psalms was, Hamlin argues, marginal (131).

In chapters 5, 6, and 7 respectively Hamlin examines translations and paraphrases of Psalms 23, 51, and 137, all of which exert a wide-ranging influence on works of literature, art, music, and theology. Psalm 23 is discussed in terms of ways in which sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers negotiated between the psalm and the conventions of classical pastoral, with an emphasis on renderings of Edenic spaces, the relationship between shepherd and sheep, and the valley of the shadow. Psalm 51 was pivotal in early Reformation theology as a source of support for the concept of justification by faith, and was especially influential on Donne and Herbert. Hamlin's discussion of ways in which translators contended with the apparent contradiction between verses 16–17 and 18–19 is of special interest. The former verses reject burnt offerings in favor of a broken and contrite heart, while the latter indicate God's rejoicing in such offerings once the temple is rebuilt. This seeming contradiction predicts that found in Psalm 137, which Hamlin calls "the quintessential psalm of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Both of these were movements of renewal and rebirth, but they were based on the...