A Study of Fairy Tales

by Laura Fry Kready

Eighteenth century (early). Madame D'Aulnoy's Tales, a
translation.

1667-1745. Gulliver's Travels, by Dean Swift. (One modern edition, with introduction by W.D. Howells, and more than one hundred illustrations by Louis Rhead, is published by Harpers. Another edition, illustrated by Arthur Rackham, is published by Dutton.)

1700-1800. Chap-Books. Very many of these books, especially the best ones, were published by William and Cluer Dicey, in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane, London. Rival publishers, whose editions were rougher in engraving, type, and paper, labored in Newcastle.

The chap-books were little paper books hawked by chap-men, or traveling peddlers, who went from village to village with "Almanacks, Bookes of Newes, or other trifling wares." These little books were usually from sixteen to twenty-four pages in bulk and in size from two and one half inches by three and one half inches to five and one half inches by four and one quarter inches. They sold for a penny or six-pence and became the very popular literature of the middle and lower classes of their time. After the nineteenth century they became widely published, deteriorated, and gradually were crowded out by the Penny Magazine and Chambers's Penny Tracts and Miscellanies. For many years before the Victorian period, folk-lore was left to the peasants and kept out of reach of the children of the higher classes. This was the reign of the moral tale, of Thomas Bewick's Looking Glass of the Mind and Mrs. Sherwood's Henry and His Bearer. Among the chap-books published by William and Cluer Dicey, may be mentioned: The Pleasant and Delightful History of Jack and the Giants (part second was printed and sold by J. White); Guy, Earl of Warwick; Bevis of Hampton; The History of Reynard the Fox, dated 1780; The History of Fortunatus, condensed from an edition of 1682; The Fryer and the Boy; A True Tale of Robin Hood (Robin Hood Garland Blocks, from 1680, were used in the London Bridge Chap-Book edition); The Famous History of Thomas Thumb; The History of Sir Richard Whittington; and The Life and Death of St. George. Tom Hickathrift was printed by and for M. Angus and Son, at Newcastle-in-the-Side: Valentine and Orson was printed at Lyons, France, in 1489; and in England by Wynkyn de Worde. Among the chap-books many tales not fairy tales were included. With the popularity of Goody Two Shoes and the fifty little books issued by Newbery, the realistic tale of modern times made a sturdy beginning. Of these realistic chap-books one of the most popular was The History of Little Tom Trip, probably by Goldsmith, engraved by the famous Thomas Bewick, published by T. Saint, of Newcastle. This was reprinted by Ed. Pearson in 1867.

Of Jack the Giant-Killer, in Skinner's Folk-Lore, David Masson has said: "Our Jack the Giant-Killer is clearly the last modern transmutation of the old British legend, told in Geoffrey of Monmouth, of Corineüs the Trojan, the companion of the Trojan Brutus when he first settled in Britain; which Corineüs, being a very strong man, and particularly good-humored, is satisfied with being King of Cornwall, and killing out all the aboriginal giants there, leaving to Brutus all the rest of the island, and only stipulating that, whenever there is a peculiarly difficult giant in any part of Brutus' dominions, he shall be sent for to finish the fellow."

Tom Hickathrift, whose history is given in an old number of Fraser's Magazine, is described by Thackeray as one of the publisher Cundall's books, bound in blue and gold, illustrated by Frederick Taylor in 1847. According to Thackeray this chap-book tale was written by Fielding. Speaking of the passage, "The giant roared hideously but Tom had no more mercy on him than a bear upon a dog," he said: "No one but Fielding could have described battle so." Of the passage, "Having increased his strength by good living and improved his courage by drinking strong ale," he remarked: "No one but Fielding could have given such an expression." The quality of the English of this chap-book is apparent in the following sentence, taken from Ashton's version: "So Tom stepped to a gate and took a rail for a staff."

In regard to their literary merit the chap-books vary greatly. Some evidently are works of scholars who omitted to sign their names. In the collection by Ashton those deserving mention for their literary merit are: Patient Grissel, by Boccaccio; Fortunatus; Valentine and Orson; Joseph and His Brethren; The Friar and the Boy; Reynard the Fox, from Caxton's translation; Tom Hickathrift, probably by Fielding; and The Foreign Travels of Sir John Mandeville.

1708-90. Chap-Books. Printed by J. White, of York, established at Newcastle, 1708. These included: Tom Hickathrift; Jack the Giant-Killer; and Cock Robin.

1750. A New Collection of Fairy Tales. 2 vols.

1760. Mother Goose's Melodies. A collection of many nursery rhymes, songs, and a few old ballads and tales, published by John Newbery. The editor is unknown, but most likely was Oliver Goldsmith. The title of the collection may have been borrowed from Perrault's Contes de ma Mère l'Oye, of which an English version appeared in 1729. The title itself has an interesting history dating hundreds of years before Perrault's time. By 1777 Mother Goose's Melodies had passed the seventh edition. In 1780 they were published by Carnan, Newbery's stepson, under the title Sonnets for the Cradle. In 1810 Gammer Gurton's Garland, a collection, was edited by Joseph Ritson, an English scholar. In 1842 J.O. Halliwell issued, for the Percy Society, The Nursery Rhymes of England. The standard modern text should consist of Newbery's book with such additions from Ritson and Halliwell as bear internal evidence of antiquity and are true nursery rhymes.