Part 4

The variety of Newbery’s ideas resulted in every species of book-publishing, from a children’s magazine (_The Lilliputian_), with Goldsmith as the reputed editor, to a child’s grammar. Interested one moment in a machine for the colouring of silks and cloths, at another he would be extolling the fever powders of Dr. James, a whilom schoolfellow of Johnson. He was untiring in his business activity. His firm changed name many times, but always Newbery remained the dominant figure. After his death, the business continued for some while to be identified with its founder, and for a long period his original policy was continued. Francis Newbery, the son, left an autobiography of historic value.

Newbery’s real genius consisted in his trading ability. Modern advertising is not more clever than that practised by this shrewd man of the eighteenth century. Not only was he in the habit of soliciting puffs, and of making some of the characters in his stories proclaim the excellencies of his books, but the personal note and the friendly feeling displayed in his newspaper items were uncommonly intimate. Witness the London _Chronicle_ for December 19–January 1, 1765:

“The Philosophers, Politicians, Necromancers, and the learned in every faculty are desired to observe that on the first of January, being New Year’s day (oh, that we all may lead new lives!), Mr. Newbery intends to publish the following important volumes, bound and gilt, and hereby invites all his little friends who are good to call for them at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, but those who are naughty to have none.”

Thomas in later years adopted the same method of advertising.

The most thorough piece of research work done by Mr. Charles Welsh is his “A Bookseller of the Last Century.” Had he aimed at nothing more than preserving the catalogue of Newbery’s books, he would have rendered a great service to the library student. But he has in addition written a very complete life of Newbery. When it is noted that this printer was brought into business relations with Robert Raikes, and was further connected with him by the union of Newbery’s son with Raikes’ sister, it is safe to believe that some of the piousness which crept into the publisher’s wares was encouraged by the zealous spirit of the founder of Sunday-schools. Raikes will be dealt with in his proper place.

Newbery was what may be termed an enthusiastic publisher, a careful manufacturer of books of the flower-and-gilt species. As a friend he has been pictured nothing loath to help the needy, but always with generous security and heavy interest attached; he was a business man above all else, and that betokens keenness for a bargain, a keenness akin to cleverness rather than to graciousness. In his “Life of Goldsmith,” Washington Irving is inclined to be severe in his estimate; he writes:

“The poet [Goldsmith] has celebrated him as the friend of all mankind; he certainly lost nothing by his friendship. He coined the brains of authors in the times of their exigency, and made them pay dear for the plank put out to keep them from drowning. It is not likely his death caused much lamentation among the scribbling tribe.”

One difficulty Newbery had to contend with was the piracy of his books; there was no adequate protection afforded by the copyright system, and we read of Goldsmith and Johnson bewailing the literary thievery of the day. By some it was regarded as a custom to be accepted; by others as a deplorable condition beyond control. Early American authorship suffered from the same evil, and Irving and Cooper were the two prominent victims.

The book list of Isaiah Thomas (1749–1831), the Worcester, Massachusetts printer, shows how freely he drew from the London bookseller. Called by many the Didot of America, founder of the American Antiquarian Society, author of one of the most authentic histories of early printing in this country, he is the pioneer of children’s books for America. He scattered his presses and stores over a region embracing Worcester and Boston, Mass.; Concord, N. H.; Baltimore, Md.; and Albany, N. Y. Books were kept by him, so he vouched, specially for the instruction and amusement of children, to make them safe and happy. In his “Memoirs” there is found abundant material to satisfy one as to the nature of reading for young folks in New England, previous to the Revolution.

Emerson writes in his “Spiritual Laws” regarding “theological problems”; he calls them “the soul’s mumps and measles and whooping-cough.” Already the sombre sternness of Colonial literature for children has been typified in the “New England Primer.” The benefits of divine songs and praises; the reiteration of the joy to parents, consequent upon the behaviour of godly children; the mandates, the terrible finger of retribution, the warning to all sinners lurking in the throat disease which was prevalent at one time--all these ogres rise up in the Thomas book to crush juvenile exuberance. Does it take much description to get at the miserable heart of the early piety displayed by the heroines of Cotton Mather’s volumes, those stone images of unthinkable children who passed away early, who were reclaimed from disobedience, “children in whom the fear of God was remarkably budding before they died”? Writers never fail to say, in speaking of Thomas White’s “Little Book for Children” (reprint of 1702), that its immortality, in the face of all its theology, is centred in one famous untheological line, “A was an archer who shot at a frog.”

What Thomas did, when he began taking from Newbery, was to change colloquial English terms to fit new environment; the coach no longer belongs to the Lord Mayor, but to the Governor instead.[29] The text is only slightly altered. We recognise the same little boys who would become great masters; the same ear-marks stigmatise the heroines of “The Juvenile Biographer,” insufferable apostles of surname-meaning, Mistresses Allgood, Careful, and Lovebook, together with Mr. Badenough. Oh, Betsey and Nancy and Amelia and Billy, did you know what it was to romp and play?

The evident desire on the part of Miss Hewins, in her discussion of early juvenile books, to emphasise the playful, in her quotations from Thomas’ stories, only indicates that there was little levity to deal with. Those were the days of gilded “Gifts” and “Delights”; the pleasures of childhood were strangely considered; goodness was inculcated by making the hair stand on end in fright, by picturing to the naughty boy what animal he was soon to turn into, and what foul beast’s disposition was akin to that of the fractious girl. Intentions, both of an educational and religious nature, were excellent, no doubt; but, when all is estimated, the residue presents a miserable, lifeless ash.[30]

So far no distinctive writer for children has arisen. The volumes issued by Newbery represent a conscious attempt to appeal through _form_ to the juvenile eye. If the books were addressed intentionally to children, their amusement consisted in some extraneous novelty; it was rarely contained in the story. Action rather than motive is the redeeming feature of “Goody Two Shoes.” As for religious training, it was administered to the child with no regard for his individual needs. He represented a theological stage of sin; the world was a long dark road, through the maze of which, by his birth, he was doomed to fight his little way. Life was a probationary period.

It is now necessary to leave the New England book, and to return to it through another channel. The viewpoint shifts slightly; a new element is to be added: a self-conscious recognition of education for children. The sternness of the “New England Primer” possessed strength. The didactic school, retaining the moral factor,--several points removed from theology--sentimentalised it; for many a day it was to exist in juvenile literature rampant. And, overflowing its borders, it was to influence later chap-books, and some of the later publications of Thomas and Newbery. Through Hannah More, it was to grip Peter Parley, and finally to die out on American shores. For “Queechy” and “The Wide, Wide World” represent the final flowering of this style. In order to retain a clear connection, it is necessary to watch both streams, educational and moral, one at first blending with the other, and flourishing in this country through a long list of New England authors, until, in the end, the educational, increasing in volume, conquered altogether.

=Bibliographical Note=

THE BABEES BOOK--Ed. Frederick J. Furnivall, M.A. Published for the Early English Text Society. London, Trübner, 1868.

In the foreword, note the following:

Education in early England:

1. In Nobles’ Houses; 2. At Home and at Private Tutors’; 3. At English Universities; 4. At Foreign Universities; 5. At Monastic and Cathedral Schools; 6. At Grammar Schools. _Vide_ the several other prefaces.

This collection contains:

1. The Babees Book, or a ‘Lytyl Reporte’ of How Young People Should Behave (_circa_ 1475 A.D.); 2. The A B C of Aristotle (1430 A.D.); 3. The Book of Curteisie That is Clepid Stans Puer ad Mensam (1430 A.D.); 4. The boke of Nurture, or Schoole of good maners: For Men, Servants, and children (1577); 5. The Schoole of Vertue, and booke of good Nourture for chyldren and youth to learne theyr dutie by (1557).

_Vide_ Vol. iv, Percy Society, London, 1841: 1. The Boke of Curtasye, ed. J. O. Halliwell. 2. Specimens of Old Christmas Carols, ed. T. Wright. 3. The Nursery Rhymes of England, ed. J. O. Halliwell, 1842: _a._ Historical; _b._ Tales; _c._ Jingles; _d._ Riddles; _e._ Proverbs; _f._ Lullabies; _g._ Charms; _h._ Games; _i._ Literal; _j._ Paradoxes; _k._ Scholastic; _l._ Customs; _m._ Songs; _n._ Fragments.

_Vide_ Vol. xxix, Percy Society, London, 1849. Notices of Fugitive Tracts and Chap-books printed at Aldermary Churchyard, Bow Churchyard, etc., ed. J. O. Halliwell.

* * * * *

ASHTON, JOHN--Chap-books of the 18th Century.

ASHTON, JOHN--Social Life in the Time of Queen Anne.

BERGENGREN, R.--Boswell’s Chap-books and Others. _Lamp_, 28:39–44 (Feb., 1904).

CHAMBERS, W.--Historical Sketch of Popular Literature and Its Influence on Society, 1863.

CUNNINGHAM, R. H.--Amusing Prose Chap-books. Glasgow, 1889.

FAXON, FREDERICK WINTHROP--A Bibliography of the Modern Chap-books and their Imitators (Bulletin of Bibl. Pamphl. No. 11), Boston Book Co., 1903. [A “freak” movement, beginning with the publication of _Chap-book_, at Cambridge, May 15, 1894.]

FERGUSON, CHANCELLOR--On the Chap-books in the Bibliotheca Jacksoniana in Tullie House, Carlisle. _Archaeolog. Jour._, 52:292 (1895).

FRASER, JOHN--Scottish Chap-books. (2 pts.) New York, Hinton, 1873.

GERRING, CHARLES--Notes on Printers and Booksellers, with a Chapter on Chap-books. London, 1900.

HALLIWELL, JAMES ORCHARD--A Catalogue of Chap-books, Garlands, and Popular Histories in the Possession of Halliwell. London, 1849.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY--Catalogue of English and American Chap-books and Broadside Ballads in 1905 (Bibl. contrib. No. 56).

NISARD, MARIE LÉONARD CHARLES--Histoire des Livres Populaires ou de la Littérature du Colportage, depuis l’origine de l’imprimerie jusqu’ à l’établissement de la Commission d’examen des livres du Colportage (30 Nov., 1852) [2 vols.]. Paris, Dentu, 1864.

PEARSON, EDWIN--Banbury Chap-books and Nursery Toy Book Literature of the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. London, 1890.

PYLE, HOWARD--Chap-book Heroes. _Harper’s Monthly Magazine_, 81:123 (1890).

SIEVEKING, S. GIBERNE--The Mediæval Chap-book as an Educational Factor in the Past. _The Reliquary and Illus. Archaeolog._, 9:241 (1903).

* * * * *

The student is referred to the following invaluable reference for matter relating to New England literature: Catalogue of the American Library of the Late Mr. George Brinley of Hartford, Conn. (5 pts.) Hartford: Press of the Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Co., 1878–97. Not completed. Comprising a list of Books printed at Cambridge and Boston, 1640–1709.

Pt. I.--The Bay Psalm Book, No. 847; Almanacs, 1646–1707; The Mathers, Special Chapter of References.

Pt. III.--Bibles, 146; Catechisms and Primers, New England Primer, 158; Music and Psalmody, 163; Psalms and Hymns, 172.

Pt. IV.--Continuation of Psalms and Hymns; Bibl. Ref. to Denominational Churches, Law, Government, Political Economy, Sciences, etc.; Popular Literature: Jest Books, Anecdotes, 131; Chap-books, 135; Books for Children, 139; Mother Goose, 140; Primers and Catechisms, 141; Educational, 143; Almanacs, 163; Theology, 177.

Pt. V.--Newspapers and Periodicals, 137.

FORD, PAUL LEICESTER--The New England Primer (ed.). N. Y., Dodd, Mead, 1897. (Edition limited.) [_Vide_ excellent bibliography.]

The New England Primer. _Bookman_, 4:122–131 (Oct., 1896).

JOHNSON, CLIFTON--The New England Primer. _New England Mag._, n.s. 28:323. (May, 1903.) [Some essential data, but written superficially.]

MARBLE, ANNIE RUSSELL--Early New England Almanacs. _New England Mag._, n.s. 19:548. (Jan., 1899.) [_Vide_ also Griswold’s Curiosities of American Literature; Tyler’s History of American Literature; Thomas’s History of Printing. A collection of Almanacs is owned by the Am. Antiq. Soc., Worcester, Mass.]

* * * * *

COLLIN DE PLANCY--Memories of Perrault.

DILLAYE, FRÉDÉRIC--Les Contes de Perrault (ed.). Paris, 1880.

LANG, ANDREW--Perrault’s Popular Tales; edited from the original editions, with an introduction by. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888. [A concise and agreeable introduction to the study of folk-lore in general, and of a few noted tales in particular.]

OLD-FASHIONED FAIRY TALES--Madame D’Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, etc. Little, Brown, $1.00.

OLD FRENCH FAIRY TALES--C. Perrault, Madame D’Aulnoy. Little, Brown, $1.00.

D’ANOIS, COUNTESS--Fairy Tales, Translated from the French of. (2 vols.) London, 1817.

D’AULNOY, COMTESSE--Mémoires de la. [_Vide_ Collection pour les jeunes filles.]

HALE, EDWARD EVERETT--Reprint of the Monroe and Francis Mother Goose.

GREEN, P. B.--History of Nursery Rhymes. London, 1899.

HEADLAND, J. T.--Chinese Mother Goose. Chicago, 1900.

HALLIWELL, J. O.--Nursery Rhymes of England; collected principally from oral tradition. London, 1842. [The Percy Society, Early English Poetry.]

Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales. A Sequel to Nursery Rhymes. London, 1849.

RITSON, JOSEPH--Gammer Gurton’s Garland; or, The Nursery Parnassus. London, 1810; reprint 1866.

WELSH, CHARLES--An Appeal for Nursery Rhymes and Jingles. _Dial_ (Chicago), 27:230 (1 Oct., 1899).

* * * * *

FATHER OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS--_Current Literature_, 27:110.

WELSH, CHARLES--A Bookseller of the Last Century. Griffith, Farren & Co. London.

* * * * *

BATCHELDER, F. R.--Patriot Printer. _New England Mag._, n.s. 25:284 (N. ‘01).

EVANS, CHARLES--American Bibliography. A Chronological Dictionary of all Books, Pamphlets, and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America. From the genesis of Printing in 1639 Down to and Including the Year 1820. With Bibliographical and Biographical Notes. Privately Printed for the Author by the Blakely Press, Chicago. Anno Domini MDCCCCIII. Thus far issued: Vol. I. 1639–1729; Vol. II. 1730–1750; Vol. III. 1751–1764.

* * * * *

LIVINGSTON, L. S.--American Publisher of a Hundred Years Ago. _Bookman_, 11:530 (Aug., ’00).

NICHOLS, CHARLES L.--Some Notes on Isaiah Thomas and his Worcester Imprints. _Am. Antiq. Soc._, 1899–1900, n.s., 13:429.

THOMAS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN--Memoir of Isaiah Thomas. By his Grandson. Boston, 1874.

* * * * *

HEWINS, CAROLINE M.--The History of Children’s Books. _Atlantic_, 61:112 (Jan., 1888).

WELSH, CHARLES.--The Early History of Children’s Books in New England. _New England Mag._, n.s. 20:147–60 (April, 1899).

YONGE, CHARLOTTE M.--Children’s Literature of the Last Century. _Liv. Age_, 102:373 (Aug. 7, 1869); 612 (Sept. 4, 1869); 103:96 (Oct. 9, 1869).

FOOTNOTES:

[15] In “The Child and His Book,” by Mrs. E. M. Field (London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1892), the reader is referred to chapters: Before the Norman Conquest; Books from the Conquest to Caxton; The Child in England, 1066–1640. Her researches form an invaluable contribution to the history of children’s books, furnishing sources for considerable speculation. Much is included of interest to the antiquarian only.

[16] Thomas Newbery was the author. _Vide_ Fugitive Tracts, 1875. Hazlitt and Huth.

[17] As early as 1262, the _macaronic_ style of delivering sermons was customary. The gradual substitution of the vernacular for Latin is dealt with in the introduction to the present author’s edition of “Everyman,” 1903, xxvii.

[18] CHAP = An abbreviation of Chapman, which seems to have come into vulgar use in the end of the 16th c.; but it is rare in books, even in the dramatists, before 1700. It was not recognised by Johnson. 1577 BRETON _Toyes Idle_ Head (Grosart). Those crusty chaps I cannot love. _a._ A buyer, purchaser, customer.

CHAP-BOOK = f. _chap_ in Chapman + Book. A modern name applied by book collectors and others to specimens of the popular literature which was formerly circulated by itinerant dealers or chapmen, consisting chiefly of small pamphlets of popular tales, etc. 1824 DIBDIN _Libr. Comp._ It is a chap-book, printed in rather neat black letter. 1882 J. ASHTON _Chap-books, 18th Century_ in _Athenæum_ 2 Sept. 302/1. A great mass of chap-books.

CHAPMAN = [OE. Céapmann = OHG. Choufman (OHG., MHG. Koufman), Ger. Kaufmann.] A man whose business is buying and selling; a merchant, trader, dealer. _Vide_ 890 K. ÆLFRED _Bæda_. _Vide_ further, A New English Dictionary. Murray, Oxford.

[19] “The History of Tom Hickathrift” is regarded as distinctively English; its literary qualities were likened by Thackeray to Fielding. _Vide_ _Fraser’s Magazine._

[20] The notice ran as follows: “Advertisement: There is now in the Press, and will suddenly be extant, a Second Impression of _The New England Primer_, _enlarged_, to which is added, more _Directions for Spelling_; the _Prayer of K. Edward the 6th_, and _Verses made by Mr. Rogers, the Martyr, left as a Legacy to his Children_. _Sold by Benjamin Harris_, at the _London Coffee-House_ in _Boston_.”

[21] Three typical examples of later reprints are: The N. E. Primer, Walpole, N. H., I. Thomas & Co., 1814; The N. E. Primer Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English. To which is added The Assembly of Divines and Episcopal Catechisms. N. Y., 1815; The N. E. Primer, or an Easy and Pleasant Guide to the Art of Reading, Mass. Sabbath School Soc., 1841.

[22] Another writer of _Contes des fées_ was Mme. Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711–1780), author of “Magasins des Enfans, des Adolescens et des Dames.”

[23] The Original Mother Goose’s Melody, as first issued by John Newbery, of London, about A.D. 1760. Reproduced in _facsimile_ from the edition as reprinted by Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, Mass., about A.D. 1785. With Introductory Notes by William H. Whitmore. Albany, Munsell, 1889. [_Vide_ N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Regist., 1873, pp. 144, 311; Proceed. Am. Antiq. Soc., Oct., 1888, p. 406.]

[24] Lang says the term _Mother Goose_ appears in Loret’s “La Muse Historique” (Lettre v., 11 Juin, 1650). _Vide_ also Deulin, Charles--Les Contes de Ma Mère L’Oye, avant Perrault. Paris, 1878; and Halliwell, J. O.--Percy Society.

[25] He was the author also of a “History of Animated Nature.”

[26] A list of his publications is owned by the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

[27] _Vide_ _Notes and Queries_, June, 1875, 5th series, iii, 441. Prof. Edward F. Rimbault.

[28] _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1826, Pt. ii, 467–69.

[29] Nurse Truelove’s New Year’s Gift; or, the Book of Books for Children. Adorned with Cuts; and designed for a Present to every little Boy who would become a great Man, and ride upon a fine Horse; and to every little Girl, who would become a great Woman, and ride in a Governour’s Gilt Coach.

[30] An interesting field of investigation: Early New England Printers. Mr. Welsh mentions a few in article referred to, p.60. A full list of Printers and Publishers (North and South) given in Evans’s American Bibliography.

III. THE OLD-FASHIONED LIBRARY

_A child should not need to choose between right and wrong. It should not be capable of wrong; it should not conceive of wrong. Obedient, as bark to helm, not by sudden strain or effort, but in the freedom of its bright course of constant life; true, with an undistinguished, painless, unboastful truth, in a crystalline household world of truth; gentle, through daily entreatings of gentleness, and honourable trusts, and pretty prides of child-fellowship in offices of good; strong, not in bitter and doubtful contest with temptation, but in peace of heart, and armour of habitual right, from which temptation falls like thawing hail; self-commanding, not in sick restraint of mean appetites and covetous thoughts, but in vital joy of unluxurious life, and contentment in narrow possession, wisely esteemed.--John Ruskin, in an introduction to Grimm’s_ “German Popular Tales,” _illustrated by Cruikshank_.

I. THE ROUSSEAU IMPETUS.

Mr. E. V. Lucas has compiled two volumes of old-fashioned tales for modern readers. In his introductions he analyses the qualities of his selected stories, and it is generally the case that, except for incidental detail, what is said of one of a kind might just as appropriately be meant for the other. If, at moments, the editor is prone to confuse quaintness with interest, he makes full amends by the quick humour with which he deals with the moral purpose. Perhaps it was part of the game for our great-grandfathers to expect didacticism, but simply because children were then considered “the immature young of men” is no excuse, although it may be a reason, for the artificiality which subserved play to contemplation. Wherever he can escape the bonds of primness, Mr. Lucas never fails to take advantage; the character of his selections indicates this as well as such critical remarks as the following:

“The way toward a nice appreciation of the child’s own peculiar characteristics was, however, being sought by at least two writers of the eighteenth century, each of whom was before his time: Henry Brooke, who in ‘The Fool of Quality’ first drew a small boy with a sense of fun, and William Blake, who was the first to see how exquisitely worth study a child’s mind may be.”

Mr. Lucas brings together a number of stories by different persons, treating them as a group. Should you read them you will have a fairly distinct conception of early nineteenth century writing for children. But there is yet another way of approaching the subject, and that is by tracing influence from writer to writer, from group to group; by seeking for the _impetus_ without which the story becomes even more of a husk than ever.

Let us conjure up the long row of theoretical children of a bygone age, painfully pathetic in their staidness, closely imprisoned. They began with Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), the iconoclast, who attacked civil society, the family, the state, the church, and from whose pen the school did not escape chastisement. His universal cry of “back to nature” frightened the conservative; even Voltaire could not refrain, on reading the essay dealing with the origin of inequality among men, to write him: “Never has any one employed so much genius to make us into beasts. When one reads your book he is seized at once with a desire to go down on all-fours.”

Rousseau’s “Émile, or Treatise on Education” (1762) was wholly revolutionary; it tore down ancient theories, such as those practised by Dr. Isaac Watts upon his “ideal” boy and girl; all existent educational strictures were ignored. Rousseau applied to childhood his belief in the free unfolding of man’s nature; however impracticable his methods, he loosed the chains that held fast the claims of childhood, and recognised their existence. He set the pendulum swinging in the human direction; he turned men’s minds upon the study of the child as a child, and, because of this, takes his place at the head of modern education. He opened the way for a self-conscious striving on the part of authors to meet the demands of a child’s nature, by furnishing the best literary diet--according to educational theories--for juvenile minds. Revolutionary in religious as well as in political and social ideals, Rousseau’s educational machinery was destined to be infused, by some of his zealous followers, with a piousness which he never would have sanctioned.