1833

[Simms, William Gilmore.] A Bachelor Knight. "The Forest Maiden." The Book of My Lady: A Melange. Boston, 1833. 52-59. The first of several Pocahontas representations by Simms, perhaps the foremost ante-bellum Southern writer, and perhaps most noted for The Yemassee. The rendering of the rescue here, Simms says, has additions (Powhatan's passion, the death of his son) "intended to place in a stronger light the amiable spirit of Pocahontas, and the great sacrifice, by her father, of his personal feeling and native impulse, in his compliance with her entreaties." Pocahontas's brother has died in the battle with the now captive Smith, fueling Powhatan's revenge and her sorrow, but still she "stayed the club in its descent." "How could that dark old king forbear, / Though writhing with his own despair, / To still her plaint -- to grant her pray'r! / How could he check the angel grace, / That gave such beauty to her face, -- / How stay the more than sweet control, / That, to the savage could impart, / Tho' all untaught, the Christian soul, / The woman's mood, the human heart!"
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