In Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" from the 1934 musical of the same name, the first verse goes like this:
Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock
If today
Any shock they should try to stem
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock would land on them
This got me wondering, what was the historical understanding of the Puritans in the early 1930s, when this work was written? What shocking circumstance or event would have shocked "Puritans" on their arrival at Plymouth in 1620? What did Cole Porter mean? Finally, how have historical perspectives on the Pilgrims changed since the 1930s?
While we await a historian versed in pilgrim historiography, let me clear up a few points.
First, no Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock. The Puritan movement in England aimed to "purify" the Church of England away from what they believed to be Catholic corruption and towards a more "pure" Reformed Protestantism. The Puritans that migrated to North America did so to provide a model for England of what a proper, Protestant society should be. (Recall John Winthrop's phrase "city upon a hill" in his 1630 sermon "A Model of Christian Charity"). These Puritans primarily landed at Massachusetts Bay, near what would become Boston, well north of Plymouth.
The term Porter should have used was, of course, "Pilgrims," or better "Separatists." This was a much smaller group of English Protestants who believed the Church of England, and England itself, was beyond saving. So they separated themselves from both church and country, moving first to the Netherlands, and then sailing for North America. But...
Second, no Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. There are no mentions of the rock in the pilgrim's writings. In fact, the first reference to the rock comes over century after their landing in 1620.
I suspect Cole Porter's lyrics are due less to any historical reference and more to the appealing wordplay.