The Abraham Cowley Text and Image Archive

Ancient Britaines Depicted. From John Speed, Historie of Great Britain (London, 1611; repr. 1632), p. 180. Speed's discussion insists that the naked and barbarous Picts of the North broadly typified all the early Celtic inhabitants of Britain before their submission to Rome; his alignment of primitive Britons, "wild Irish," and native Americans resonates in other seventeenth-century writings from Purchas to Locke ("Thus in the beginning, all the world was America, and more so than that is now . . ."), and does much to account for the parallel thematics of Cowley's own Books V and VI. Reproduced from the original in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
Related Links:
Wilderness Last Stand / Ancient Briton as Mexican Soldier / Pictish Headhunter & Woman Warrior / Out-Bruting the Brutes
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