MATHER. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
This monologue features Cotton Mather, who finds himself lost in the woods, convinced that witches and the Devil are guiding him off course.
The poem
Methinks that I have come by paths unknown Into the land and atmosphere of Witches; For, meditating as I journeyed on, Lo! I have lost my way! If I remember Rightly, it is Scribonius the learned That tells the story of a man who, praying For one that was possessed by Evil Spirits, Was struck by Evil Spirits in the face; I, journeying to circumvent the Witches, Surely by Witches have been led astray. I am persuaded there are few affairs In which the Devil doth not interfere. We cannot undertake a journey even, But Satan will be there to meddle with it By hindering or by furthering. He hath led me Into this thicket, struck me in the face With branches of the trees, and so entangled The fetlocks of my horse with vines and brambles, That I must needs dismount, and search on foot For the lost pathway leading to the village. Re-enter TITUBA. What shape is this? What monstrous apparition, Exceeding fierce, that none may pass that way? Tell me, good woman, if you are a woman--
This monologue features Cotton Mather, who finds himself lost in the woods, convinced that witches and the Devil are guiding him off course. He attributes every snarl of vines and wrong turn to Satan's influence. Suddenly, he encounters Tituba, the enslaved woman at the heart of the Salem witch trials. This moment is taken from Longfellow's verse drama *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms*, illustrating how a man's fixation on evil can lead him to perceive the Devil in every thorny path.
Line-by-line
Methinks that I have come by paths unknown / Into the land and atmosphere of Witches;
For, meditating as I journeyed on, / Lo! I have lost my way!
If I remember / Rightly, it is Scribonius the learned / That tells the story of a man who, praying
For one that was possessed by Evil Spirits, / Was struck by Evil Spirits in the face;
I, journeying to circumvent the Witches, / Surely by Witches have been led astray.
I am persuaded there are few affairs / In which the Devil doth not interfere.
We cannot undertake a journey even, / But Satan will be there to meddle with it
By hindering or by furthering. He hath led me / Into this thicket, struck me in the face
With branches of the trees, and so entangled / The fetlocks of my horse with vines and brambles,
That I must needs dismount, and search on foot / For the lost pathway leading to the village.
What shape is this? What monstrous apparition, / Exceeding fierce, that none may pass that way?
Tell me, good woman, if you are a woman--
Tone & mood
The tone is dramatic and self-important from Mather, while Longfellow maintains a cool, ironic distance. There's a dark humor in seeing a powerful man blaming Satan for his horse getting caught in brambles. By the end, when Mather faces Tituba, the tone shifts to something more unsettling — the comedy turns into dread, as we realize what this man's fear of a woman in the dark will ultimately cost her.
Symbols & metaphors
- The lost path — The most straightforward symbol in the poem. Mather has lost his way in the woods, but Longfellow uses this to illustrate that he has also lost his moral and rational compass. A man who attributes his misstep in the forest to the Devil isn't someone you can rely on to navigate the courtroom correctly.
- Vines and brambles — The natural undergrowth that tangles the horse's legs symbolizes the ordinary, physical world that Mather rejects. He can't see a bramble for what it is — it has to be a tool of Satan. This refusal to accept the natural world as it is is precisely what makes him dangerous.
- Tituba as apparition — When Mather sees Tituba, he doesn’t perceive her as a person — instead, he views her as a "monstrous apparition." She represents how his fixation on witchcraft warps actual human beings into monsters. This moment captures the essence of the Salem tragedy: innocent people viewed through the twisted lens of fear and superstition.
- The face being struck — Both in the Scribonius story and in Mather's personal experience, being hit in the face signifies a demonic attack. The face represents identity and dignity. Mather’s interpretation of a branch striking his face as a spiritual assault reveals how closely his ego is tied to his theology — any physical humiliation must carry cosmic weight.
- The horse — The horse, its fetlocks tangled in vines, represents the harshness of earthly reality. It can't be elevated to a spiritual level — it's simply an animal trapped in the underbrush. Mather must dismount and walk, a small yet sharp blow to his grand self-image as a crusader against evil.
Historical context
This passage is from Longfellow's verse drama *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms* (1868), the third play in his *New England Tragedies*. Written after the Civil War, Longfellow grapples with the themes of collective guilt and the misuse of institutional power, using Salem as a poignant example. Cotton Mather (1663–1728), the actual Boston Puritan minister, was a key figure in supporting the Salem witch trials of 1692, during which nineteen people were executed. Tituba, an enslaved woman from Barbados owned by Reverend Samuel Parris, confessed under duress, which fueled the ensuing panic. Longfellow depicts Mather not as a one-dimensional villain but as a sincere believer whose deep faith in the Devil's presence blinds him to the humanity of those around him. The scene in the woods captures this blindness with a quiet but powerful irony.
FAQ
Cotton Mather was a well-known Puritan minister from Boston and a key supporter of the Salem witch trials. In Longfellow's play, he rides toward the village of Salem but ends up lost in the woods.
Tituba was a real person—an enslaved woman from Barbados who belonged to Reverend Samuel Parris in Salem. When the witch hysteria kicked off in 1692, she became one of the first three individuals accused. Faced with intense pressure, she confessed and detailed encounters with the Devil, which further ignited the trials. In this scene, Mather meets her in the dark and instantly perceives a monster instead of a human being.
Wilhelm Adolf Scribonius was a genuine 16th-century German scholar known for his writings on witchcraft and demonology. Mather references him to lend his supernatural beliefs an appearance of scholarly credibility. This practice aligns with Mather's actual habits—he often filled his writings on witchcraft with citations from European authorities to present superstition as if it were legitimate scholarship.
It’s a scene from a verse drama—a play crafted in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). Longfellow released *Giles Corey of the Salem Farms* in 1868 as part of his *New England Tragedies*. The passage feels like a dramatic monologue since Mather is pretty much alone on stage, conversing with himself and his horse, until Tituba shows up.
Longfellow isn't sympathetic, but he also avoids being overly dramatic. He allows Mather's own words to reveal his character. The irony is subtle: a man who blames Satan for his confusion in the woods isn't exactly trustworthy in his judgments. By the time Mather refers to Tituba as a "monstrous apparition," we've already witnessed the chilling way his mind operates.
Fetlocks are the joints located just above a horse's hooves, similar to a human ankle. Mather's horse has gotten its legs caught in vines and brambles — a common woodland hazard that Mather, naturally, blames on Satan.
The dash indicates that Mather can't complete his own thought. He begins to call Tituba "good woman" but hesitates — "if you are a woman." He truly doubts whether she is human. The incomplete sentence reflects his dehumanization of her in the moment, and Longfellow wisely allows it to remain unresolved without further comment.
The Civil War had just concluded, and America was grappling with the reality of collective moral failure—how communities can engage in horrific injustices while perceiving themselves as righteous. Salem provided a fitting historical analogy. Longfellow used it to explore how otherwise good, educated, and devout individuals justify cruelty as a sense of duty.