III.
“According to Act of Parliament (neatly bound and gilt) a little Pretty Pocket Book, intended for the Instruction and Amusement of little Master Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with an agreeable Letter to read from Jack the Giant-Killer, and also a Ball and Pincushion, the Use of which will infallibly make Tommy a good Boy and Polly a good Girl”, etc.
The Philosophy of Tops and Balls is explained as “The Newtonian System of Philosophy adapted to the Capacities of Young Gentlemen and Ladies, and made entertaining by Objects with which they are intimately acquainted”.
The Lilliputian Magazine; or, the Young Gentleman and Lady’s Golden Library.
From the preface:—“the Authors concerned in this little Book have planned out a Method of Education very different from what has hitherto been offered to the Public: and more agreeable and better adapted to the tender Capacities of Children”.
In Mr. John Newbery’s list for 1762, A Pretty Book of Pictures for little Masters and Misses has the alternative title of “Tommy Trip’s History of Beasts and Birds, with a familiar Description of each in Verse and Prose”.
To this was added “The History of little Tom Trip himself, his Dog Jowler, and of Woglog the Great Giant”.
This was the earliest edition known to Mr. Welsh; but an edition of 1752 was afterwards discovered and noted in The Times Literary Supplement, Dec. 18, 1919, under “Notes on Sales”. This seems to be the first edition of Tommy Trip’s History; but an earlier account of him is given in The Lilliputian Magazine, first advertised in 1751. Goldsmith came to London after his travels on the Continent, in 1756, so that he could not have written Tommy Trip, although the rhyme of “Three Children”, as Mr. Welsh observed, is remarkably like the “Elegy on a Mad Dog”.
Note on Novels and Plays abridged or adapted for children:—
Among these were Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, with a prefatory address “To the Parents, Guardians and Governesses of Great Britain and Ireland”. (E. Newbury’s list, 1789); and Tom Jones, the Foundling (the story of his childhood only), published about 1814 by Pitts of Seven Dials, with a foreword to the “little Friends” for whom it was designed.
Plays were also fashioned into children’s books. Garrick’s Masque from Dryden’s King Arthur (1770) produced a “Lilliputian” romance closely modelled on Dryden: The Eventful History of King Arthur; or, the British Worthy. London, printed for H. Roberts & W. Nicholl. Price 6d., in Dutch paper boards. (A.S. Kensington copy is dated 1782.)
Early in the 19th century, the story of Cymbeline was published as The Entertaining History of Palidore and Fidele, in flowered covers, for the “amusement and instruction of youth”.
(a) Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Song Book. Vol. II. “Sold by M. Cooper, according to Act of Parliament”.
The frontispiece shows a boy playing a flute and two girls seated with a book of songs. At the foot of each page is a musical direction: “Recitatio”, “Toccato”, “Vere Subito”, etc. At the end are two cuts, one a portrait of the writer “Nurse Lovechild”, the other advertising The Child’s Plaything, with the date 1744, and the following rhyme:—
“The Child’s Plaything
I recommend for cheating
Children into Learning
Without any Beating.”
(b) The author of The Little Master’s Miscellany (1743) condemns the popular song-books, and instead of these, provides children with moral dialogues, “On Lying”, “On Fishing”, “On Death”, “On Detraction”, “On the Tulip”, etc.
(c) John Marchant in his Puerilia; or, Amusements for the Young (1753) offers a better substitute for the “Ribaldry” which he complains that children are “instructed to con and get by Heart” as soon as they can read,—“to trill it with their little Voices in every Company where they are introduced”.
See above.—[Chapter IX.]
Mother Goose’s Melody; or, Sonnets for the Cradle, in Two Parts. “Part I.—The most celebrated Songs and Lullabies of the old British Nurses, calculated to amuse the Children and excite them to sleep; Part II.—Those of that sweet Songster and Muse of Art and Humours, Master William Shakespeare. Adorned with Cuts and illustrated with Notes and Maxims, historical, philosophical and critical.”
The addition, in Part II, of Shakespeare’s songs makes a fitting sequel for older children.
A facsimile of the New England edition of 1785 was printed in 1892, with the following description:—
“The original Mother Goose’s Melody, as issued by John Newbery of London, circa 1760; Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, Mass., circa 1785, and Munro and Francis of Boston, circa 1825. Reproduced in facsimile from the first Worcester edition, with introduction and notes by William H. Whitmore. To which are added the Fairy Tales of Mother Goose, first collected by Perrault in 1696, reprinted from the original translation into English by R. Samber in 1729. Boston and London,—Griffith, Farran & Co., 1892.”
(b) Another early book of rhymes is The Top Book of all for little Masters and Misses, “Containing the choicest Stories, prettiest Poems and most diverting Riddles, all wrote by Nurse Lovechild, Mother Goose, Jacky Nory, Tommy Thumb and other eminent Authors ... also enriched with curious and lovely Pictures, done by the top Hands, and is sold only at R. Baldwin’s and S. Crowder’s, Booksellers in Pater Noster Row, London, and at Benjamin Collins’s in Salisbury for 2d. (Date, on woodcut of a shilling, 1760).”
(c) A later Miscellany, Mirth without Mischief c. 1790, has similar rhymes.
A third edition of Goody Two-Shoes appeared in 1766, in Dutch flowered boards, “printed for J. Newbery at the Bible and Sun in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Price 6d.” This was reproduced in facsimile with an introduction by Charles Welsh, by Griffith and Farran, successors to Newbery and Harris, in 1881.
Later editions: 1770.—T. Carnan & F. Newbery, Jun.; 1783.—T. Carnan; 1786—Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, Mass. (First Worcester ed.); 1793.—Darton & Harvey, Gracechurch St.; 1796 (with MS. note by Mr. J. Winter Jones), 32 mo.
Penny chap-book edition (c. 1815).—J. Pitts, Seven Dials: “The Toy and Marble Warehouse”. Many “modernised” editions were printed during the 19th century; the last recorded, in 1884; and G.T.S. was included in Charlotte Yonge’s Storehouse of Stories (1870).
(a) From Carnan’s list, 1787.—“The Valentine’s Gift; or, the whole History of Valentine’s Day, containing the Way to preserve Truth, Honour and Integrity unshaken. Very necessary in a trading Nation. Price sixpence, bound.”
A later edition (Kendrew, Glasgow, c. 1814) in the S. Kensington collection, has significant additions:—
“The Valentine Gift; or, a Plan to enable children of all Denominations to behave with Honour, Integrity and Humanity. To which is added some Account of old Zigzag, and of the Horn which he used to understand the Language of Birds, Beasts, Fishes and Insects. The Lord who made thee made the Creatures also; thou shalt be merciful and kind unto them, for they are thy fellow Tenants of the Globe.—Zoroaster.”
(b) The Twelfth Day Gift (advertised April 18, 1767). The title-page of the 1783 edition is as follows:—
“The Twelfth Day Gift; or, the Grand Exhibition, containing a curious Collection of Pieces in Prose and Verse (many of them Originals) which were delivered to a numerous and polite Audience on the important Subjects of Religion, Morality, History, Philosophy, Polity, Prudence and Economy, at the most noble the Marquis of Setstar’s by a Society of young Gentlemen and Ladies, and registered at their request by their old Friend Mr. Newbery. With which are intermixed some occasional Reflections and a Narrative containing the Characters and Behaviour of the several Persons concerned.
Example draws where Precept fails
And Sermons are less read than Tales.
London: Printed for T. Carnan, Successor to Mr. J. Newbery in St. Paul’s Church Yard. Price one shilling.”
In an enveloping cautionary story, there is some account of a gigantic Twelfth Day Cake; but the book consists chiefly of “Pieces”, which include the story of “Inkle and Yarico”, taken by Addison from Ligon’s Account of Barbados (Spectator, No. 11), “versified by a Lady”, Addison’s hymns; Pope’s Universal Prayer; “The Progress of Life”, an Eastern story from the Rambler; Parnell’s “Hermit”; the character of Antiope from Fénélon’s Telemachus, translated in 1742, and the King’s speech to Westmoreland (Henry V. iv. 3), a sign of the revived interest in Shakespeare.
This is almost a perfect specimen of the Lilliputian Miscellany.
From Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes (1812-16):—“It is not perhaps generally known that to Mr. Griffith Jones, and a brother of his, Mr. Giles Jones, in conjunction with Mr. John Newbery, the public are indebted for the origin of those numerous and popular little books for the amusement and instruction of children which have been ever since received with universal approbation. The Lilliputian histories of Goody Two-Shoes, Giles Ginger-bread, Tommy Trip, etc., etc., are remarkable proofs of the benevolent minds of the projectors of this plan of instruction, and respectable instances of the accommodation of superior talents to the feeble intellects of infantine felicity.”
Examples of grammatical faults in Goody Two-Shoes:—
Ch. vi.—“She was in Hopes he would have went to the Clerk.”
Ch. viii.—“Therefore she laid very still.”
Part II. Ch. iii.—“Does not the Horse and the Ass carry you and your Burthens; don’t the Ox plough your Ground?”
John Newbery’s private memoranda show mistakes of the same kind.
(a) John Newbery died in 1767, when the business was divided into two branches, one under his son Francis, in partnership with T. Carnan, the other under Francis Newbery the nephew, whose widow Elizabeth succeeded him in 1780. T. Carnan afterwards set up on his own account.
(b) In the curious “appendix” to Goody Two-Shoes, there is “an Anecdote respecting Tom Two-Shoes, communicated by a Gentleman who is now writing the History of his Life”. This is the chief incident in Tommy Two-Shoes, published at the close of the century by Wilson and Spence of York.
Imitations only mark the distinction of the Newbery books. Many were published by John Marshall (c. 1780). These include The Orphan; or, the Entertaining History of Little Goody Goosecap; and The Renowned History of Primrose Prettyface, “who, by her Sweetness of Temper and Love of Learning, was raised from being the Daughter of a poor Cottager, to great Riches and the Dignity of Lady of the Manor.... London, printed in the Year when all little Boys and Girls should be good”, etc.
One copy is inscribed “Thos. Preston, March 22nd, 1788”. If this be the date of purchase, the book may be earlier; but it may be the date of the child’s birth.
“The Lilliputian Masquerade: recommended to the Perusal of those Sons and Daughters of Folly, the Frequenters of the Pantheon, Almack’s and Cornelly’s. Embellished with Cuts, for the Instruction and Amusement of the rising Generation. Price of a Subscription Ticket, not Two Guineas, but Two Pence”.—Carnan’s List for 1787.
The Masquerade was “occasioned by the Conclusion of Peace between those potent Nations the Lilliputians and Tommy-thumbians”, after a quarrel “concerning an Affair of no less Importance than whether, when a Cat wagged her Tail, it was a Sign of fair or foul Weather”; and the Peace had been made by “an old Lady whose Name was Reason”.
A later edition in Dutch paper covers (probably after 1800) published by P. Norbury at Brentford, has no reference to the Pantheon, etc., but is recommended by the couplet:
“Behind a Mask you’ll something find
To please and to improve the mind.”
First Worcester edition: The Juvenile Biographer, “containing the Lives of little Masters and Misses. Including a Variety of Good and Bad Characters. By a little Biographer.... Worcester, Mass. Printed by Isaiah Thomas and sold at his Book Store. Sold also by E. Battelle, Boston, 1787.”
Juvenile Correspondence; “or, Letters designed as Examples of Epistolary Style, for Children of both Sexes”. By Lucy Aikin. 2nd Edition. London, for Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, Paternoster Row, and R. Hunter, St. Paul’s Churchyard, 1816.
Miss Aikin’s aim was to supply children with “juvenile equivalents of Gray, Cowper and Lady Mary Wortley Montague”; but the influence of Mrs. Barbauld adds natural touches not found in “Lilliputian” books.
A Father’s Memoirs of his Child, by Benjamin Heath Malkin (1806), contains letters written by a child from his third to his seventh year (1798-1802).
The little boy, Thomas Williams Malkin, born in October, 1795, died when he was seven. His father, beginning the Memoirs, says: “It is not intended to run a parallel of his infancy with that of Addison in his assumed character of Spectator, who ‘threw away his rattle before he was two months old, and would not make use of his coral until they had taken away the bells from it’”; but the disclaimer proves that he was conscious of the parallel.
On his own showing, he had made the child into a “little Philosopher” who never had so much as a rattle to throw away, whose first toy was a box of letters. The boy’s letters show a pathetic struggle between natural simplicity and the artificial system on which he was being trained. Some are more precocious and pedantic than any in Juvenile Correspondence.
The tendency of parents to encourage stilted “epistolary patterns” was shown earlier in the childish letters of Mrs. Trimmer (See The Life and Writings of Mrs. T.)
Canning deals with the Newbery books much as Addison does with the ballads, though Canning’s classical parallels are not serious. He begins by recommending to novel-readers, instead of “the studies which usually engross their attention”, the “instructive and entertaining Histories of Mr. Thomas Thumb, Mr. John Hickathrift and sundry other celebrated Worthies; a true and faithful account of whose adventures and atchievements may be had by the Curious and the Public in general, price two-pence gilt, at Mr. Newbery’s, St. Paul’s Churchyard, and at some other Gentleman’s whose name I do not now recollect, the Bouncing B., Shoe-Lane”. (This refers to John Marshall’s sign of the “Great A and Bouncing B”.)
He identifies “Tom Thumb” with Perrault’s “Little Thumb”, and draws a parallel between that hero and Ulysses; and between the Ogre and Polyphemus, comparing the incidents in a mock-heroic vein. There is no trace of the “Lilliputian” Hickathrift which he mentions.
“Jemmy” Catnach, and “Johnny” Pitts of the “Toy and Marble Warehouse”, were rival printers of ballads and chap-books in Seven Dials.
Catnach’s nursery books include rhymed versions of Perrault’s Tales, The Butterfly’s Ball, The Tragical Death of an Apple Pie (a very old alphabet rhyme) and various “gifts”. (See Charles Hindley’s History of the Catnach Press, 1886.)
Pitts printed a penny edition of Goody Two-Shoes (c. 1815). His farthing books include Simple Simon and other nursery rhymes.
John Evans, another Seven Dials printer, also published a farthing series including Dick Whittington, Cock Robin and Mother Hubbard. (See Edwin Pearson’s Banbury Chap-books, etc., 1890.)