Double Trouble With Samuel Ward
Samuel Ward was a Puritan.
Samuel Ward was a Puritan.
Samuel Ward was a preacher.
Samuel Ward was a preacher.
Samuel Ward was an author.
Samuel Ward was an author.
Samuel Ward was a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Samuel Ward was a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Samuel Ward lived during the later part of the 16th Century and the early years of the 17th Century.
Samuel Ward lived during the later part of the 16th Century and the early years of the 17th Century.
The first time I ever heard of Samuel Ward was last December. ...
The first time I ever heard of Samuel Ward was yesterday.
Yes, as I proofread my sample copy of A Zealous Heart: The Diary of Samuel Ward — you know, the book I wrote about editing on Wednesday — the same book I have written about in 31 blog postings since last December — the same book I struggled with over all those Greek quotations…
Yeah, that book.
As I used my magnifying glass to check out a footnote reference I read this phrase: “by his namesake of Ipswich”.
Samuel Ward lived between 1577 and 1639 — Samuel Ward lived between 1572 and 1643.
You got it!
There were two contemporary Puritan preachers — each named Samuel Ward!
And I did not realize that until yesterday.
Since last December I have worked preparing the diary of one of them, the one from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, (Yeah, him) and writing a biography of the man (men) to accompany the 16th Century text of his diary.
In ignorance I combined the two men and incidents from their lives into one fictional Samuel Ward. I did not realize I was dealing with material from two separate lives.
Oh, there was one subtle hint when there in 1621, when Samuel Ward was in trouble with both the Royalists and with the Roundheads and I wondered why each of the opposing parties had it in for him. Well, turns out one Samuel Ward favored the Royalists; the other favored the Roundheads.
I just missed that hint, and blithely went on my way combining quotes and character traits and incidents from the lives of the two men and presenting them as one person.
What to do? What to do?
I mean, I’d scheduled this book to go to press this coming weekend. I sank seven months of long days and eye-strain nights into preparing it. The book cover is resized and ready. The promo material written. PDF files converted.
Change a comma here and there and the book is read to sell.
Right? Right?
Wrong! Wrong!
Discovering there were two Wards, stunned me.
All that time, all that research, all that anguish over Greek phrases, all that eye-strain, all that work — all for nothing. Wasted. Pissing against the wind.
Then came the insidious thought: Who’ll know the difference? How many people in the world will realize that I’ve combined two men into one. I mean, there is not Samuel Ward fan club out there. His is not a household name. Hardly anyone will know the difference if I let it slide. Publish the book and move on. Why not?
Integrity.
How can I claim to be a Christian wanting to be (at times) 100% at the disposal of Jesus Christ if I knowingly publish a book which I know is factually wrong?
Ridicule.
If I publish this amalgamation then I’d be the laughingstock of the whole world, of everyone who knows the truth about Samuel Ward (all six or eight of them). Everything I write from here on would be suspect for these people; they’d know I’m a buffoon faking it.
Honesty.
Do I write for my own amusement? For readers? As a humble witness to my Savior?
The real question for me is not about Samuel Ward, but about Jesus Christ.
Is Christ just prominent in my life or is He preeminent?
In my upset, I questioned why God would let me bark up the wrong tree for months only to reveal that I goofed at the last minute? Why would He let me waste all that time? Why let me make such a mistake and persist in it for months.
Well, my times are in His hands.
My time is His to waste.
My friend Barbara said, “John, I believe that God will let us make a mistake and keep on making it, but He will also turn it to good to honor His name”.
So, where do I go from here?
I have not fully decided yet.
There seems to be two options: I can trash the whole project and move on from here; or I can go back, do more research and try to unravel the correct information and present the book as it should be.
As I glanced over the so-closed-to-finished pages last night, I see that over 80 pages and many impressive graphics would need to be culled out altogether. But this incorrect stuff is interwoven in the correct.
To straightened this book out would be like trying to unscramble breakfast eggs.
I don’t know if I can face that.
And Bambi is only a click away.
If it ain’t one temptation, it’s another!
I do know that I’m not going to carry Samuel Ward’s portrait on my match case any more! Sorry, low-down, two-faced, ruffle-wearing, Puritan-preaching, 16th Century, SOB!
Anybody got a chocolate donut?
Please, visit my website for more www.cowart.info and feel free to look over and buy one of my books www.bluefishbooks.info
posted by John Cowart @ 5:56 AM
3 Comments:
Oh. My. GOsh. I am getting an ulcer FOR you.
But I think, (don't hit me) that you should go back and unravel it. Perhaps God has some life-altering revelation in the parsing out of the two lives....perhaps you'll find something you never knew before...like a treasure hunt. Or a really bad knot. Or....you get my drift.
OH NO. John, that is awful. Insanely frustrating. Hideous.
There WILL be some good come of it, I'm sure - but that may not be clear for awhile.
In the meantime, I think you most definitely deserve a chocolate donut.
I was at one point assigned the task of compiling a primary bibliography for Thomas of Ercildoune. It was my own fault. When our little editorial department was told -- two-thirds of the way through researching, compiling, and editing a 37-volume series of literary criticism reprints -- that we were going to have to go back to the beginning of the series and compile primary bibliographies for every one of the authors listed, the first words out of my mouth were "I'm not doing Thomas of Ercildoune." After he'd had a look at that author's biography, the head of our project told me I clearly had the best grasp of the problems involved -- and assigned me that bibliography.
Thomas of Ercildoune (there are about twenty different spellings of his name) is also known as Thomas the Rhymer, and is said to have been a prophet and poet. There are no extant texts of his original poetry. What we have are multiple variant versions of a single poem of his, a memorable ditty about running into the Queen of Elfland and getting carried off to serve her for seven years. It got turned into a folksong, which is why there are so many different versions of it.
There were two men, father and son, named Thomas of Ercildoune. No one's sure which was the prophet and poet. In fact, there's no contemporary documentation that says that the poet and the prophet were the same person. Dating the two Thomases is a vexed problem. One of them signed a document that was also signed by a guy named Petrus de Haga de Bemersyde. You'd think that would help nail it down, but it doesn't; there were three different men named Petrus de Haga de Bemersyde.
Then there are the attributed works of prophecy. For centuries, people with political axes to grind would write books of newly-found ancient prophecies that predicted the triumph of their particular faction. They'd start off by prophesying a bunch of stuff that had already happened, just to make the book look good, then back-date the whole thing and attribute it to Thomas of Ercildoune.
I'm telling you all this in an attempt to convey the magnitude of my sympathy and understanding. Two simultaneous Puritan divines with identical names, operating in the same area? Man, I feel for you. I truly do.
TNH
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