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The preface printed in the book stated Sternhold's wish and intention that the verses should be sung by Englishmen, not only in church, but "moreover in private houses for their godly solace and comfort; laying apart all ungodly Songs & Ballads which tend only to the nourishment of vice & corrupting of youth."
Our Pilgrim Fathers accepted these absurd, tautological verses gladly, and sang them gratefully; but we know the spirit of poesy could never have existed in them, else they would have fought hard against abandoning such majestic psalms as Sternhold's "The Lord descended from above and bow'd the heavens hye And underneath his feete he cast the darkness of the skye.
"As for what you have added, that the people are not generally inclined to like this way: if it were true, it would be no wonder but betwixt the shaking off of an old habit, and the introducing of a new, there should be difficulty. Do we not see them stick to HOPKINS and STERNHOLD's Psalms; and forsake those of DAVID, I mean SANDYS his Translation of them?
In doing this they had to abandon, however, such spirited lines as Sternhold's "The earth did shake, for feare did quake the hills their bases shook. Removed they were, in place most fayre at God's right fearfull looks. "He rode on hye, and did soe flye Upon the cherubins He came in sight and made his flight Upon the winges of windes." They sung instead,
Sternhold's verses compare quite favorably, when looked at either as a whole or with regard to individual lines, with those of other poets of his day, for Chaucer was the only great poet who preceded him.
"Singing with woful noise Like a crack'd saints bell jarring in the steeple, Tom Sternhold's wretched prick-song for the people." Another poet, a courtier, wrote: "Sternhold and Hopkins had great qualms When they translated David's psalms." But I see no signs of qualmishness; they show to me rather a healthy sturdiness as one of their strongest characteristics. Pope at a later day wrote:
In matters of the sacred muse, lengthily as others have I trespassed heretofore; the most protracted fytte, however, made a respectable inroad on a new metrical version of the 'Psalms, attempting at any rate closer accuracy from the Hebrew than Brady's, and juster rhymes than Sternhold's: but this has since been better done by another bard.
"Tom Sternhold's" songs were entitled to be called prick-songs because they had notes of music printed with them. Hence they were irreverently called "Genevan Jiggs," and "Beza's Ballets." There is much difference shown in the wording of these various editions of Sternhold and Hopkins' Psalms.
In matters of the sacred muse, lengthily as others have I trespassed heretofore; the most protracted fytte, however, made a respectable inroad on a new metrical version of the 'Psalms, attempting at any rate closer accuracy from the Hebrew than Brady's, and juster rhymes than Sternhold's: but this has since been better done by another bard.
The full reason for Sternhold's pious work is thus given by an old English author, Wood: "Being a most zealous reformer and a very strict liver he became so scandalyzed at the loose amorous songs used in the court that he forsooth turned into English metre fifty-one of Davids Psalms, and caused musical notes to be set to them, thinking thereby that the courtiers would sing them instead of their sonnets; but they did not, only some few excepted."
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