Children's Literature Part 132

The king he laugh'd, and swore by St. Bittel, "I did not think I had been worth so littel!

--Now secondly, tell me, without any doubt, How soone I may ride this whole world about."

"You must rise with the sun, and ride with the same, Until the next morning he riseth againe; And then your grace need not make any doubt, But in twenty-four hours you'll ride it about."

The king he laugh'd, and swore by St. Jone, "I did not think it could be done so soone!

--Now from the third question you must not shrinke, But tell me here truly what I do thinke."

"Yes, that shall I do and make your grace merry: You thinke I'm the Abbot of Canterburye; But I'm his poor shephard, as plain you may see, That am come to beg pardon for him and for mee."

The king he laughed, and swore by the ma.s.se, "I'll make thee lord abbot this day in his place!"

"Now nay, my liege, be not in such speede, For alacke I can neither write, ne reade."

"Four n.o.bles a weeke, then, I will give thee, For this merry jest thou hast showne unto me; And tell the old abbot, when thou comest home, Thou hast brought him a pardon from good King John."

SECTION VIII

REALISTIC STORIES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY AS A BASIS FOR TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE REALISTIC STORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Most of the authors in the following list wrote other books of a realistic nature, in some cases greater books than the one mentioned. The book named is usually the first important one in this field by its author and has, therefore, unusual historical value.

1765. Goldsmith, Oliver, _The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes_.

1783-1789. Day, Thomas, _The History of Sandford and Merton_.

1792-1796. Aikin, Dr. John, and Barbauld, Mrs. L. E., _Evenings at Home_.

[?]-1795. More, Hannah, _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_.

1796-1800. Edgeworth, Maria, _The Parent's a.s.sistant, or Stories for Children_.

1808. Lamb, Mary and Charles, _Mrs. Leicester's School_.

1818. Sherwood, Mrs. M. M., _The History of the Fairchild Family_.

1840. Dana, Richard Henry, _Two Years Before the Mast_.

1841. Martineau, Harriet, _The Crofton Boys_.

1856. Yonge, Charlotte M., _The Daisy Chain_.

1857. Hughes, Thomas, _Tom Brown's School Days_.

1863. Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T., _Faith Gartney's Girlhood_.

1864. Trowbridge, J. T., _Cudjo's Cave_.

1865. Dodge, Mary Mapes, _Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates_.

1867. Kaler, James Otis, _Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus_.

1868. Alcott, Louisa May, _Little Women_.

1868. Hale, Edward Everett, _The Man without a Country_.

1871. Eggleston, Edward, _The Hoosier Schoolmaster_.

1876. Twain, Mark, _Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.

1878. Jackson, Helen Hunt, _Nelly's Silver Mine_.

1879. Ewing, Juliana Horatia, _Jackanapes_.

1882. Hale, Lucretia P., _Peterkin Papers_.

1883. Stevenson, Robert Louis, _Treasure Island_.

1887. Wiggin, Kate Douglas, _The Birds' Christmas Carol_.

1890. Jewett, Sarah Orne, _Betty Leicester_.

1895. Bennett, John, _Master Skylark_.

1897. Kipling, Rudyard, _Captains Courageous_.

1899. Garland, Hamlin, _Boy Life on the Prairie_.

1906. Stein, Evaleen, _Gabriel and the Hour-Book_.

1908. Montgomery, L. M., _Anne of Green Gables_.

1912. Masefield, John, _Jim Davis_.

1917. Crownfield, Gertrude, _The Little Taylor of the Winding Way_.

1920. Latham, Harold S., _Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy_.

SECTION VIII. REALISTIC STORIES

INTRODUCTORY

_Origin._ The history of realistic stories for children may well begin with the interest in juvenile education awakened by the great French teacher and author Rousseau (1712-1778). He taught that formal methods should be discarded in juvenile education and that children should be taught to know the things about them. The new method of education is ill.u.s.trated, probably unintentionally, in _The Renowned History of Little Goody Two-Shoes_, the first selection in this section. Rousseau directly influenced the thought of such writers as Thomas Day, Maria Edgeworth, Dr. Aiken, and Mrs. Barbauld. The stories produced by these authors in the last quarter of the eighteenth century are among the first written primarily for the purpose of entertaining children. To these writers we are indebted for the creation of types of children's literature that modern authors have developed into the fascinating stories of child life, the thrilling stories of adventure, and the interesting accounts of nature that now abound in libraries and book stores.

_The didactic period._ When we read these first stories written for the entertainment of children, we can hardly fail to observe that each one presents a lesson, either moral or practical. The didactic purpose is so prominent that the term "Didactic Period" may be applied to the period from 1765 (the publication of _Goody Two-Shoes_) to 1825, or even later.

The small amount of writing for children before this period was practically all for the purpose of moral or religious instruction; hence it was but natural for these first writers of juvenile entertainment stories to feel it their duty to present moral and practical lessons. It would be a mistake, however, to a.s.sume that these quaint old stories would not be interesting to children today, for they deal with fundamental truths, which are new and interesting to children of all ages.

In addition to the writers already mentioned, and represented by selections in the following pages, there were several others whose books are yet accessible and now and then read for their historical interest if not for any intrinsic literary value they may possess. One of these was Mrs. Sarah K. Trimmer (1741-1810), who, a.s.sociated with the early days of the Sunday-school movement, wrote many books full of the overwrought piety which was supposed to be necessary for children of that earlier time. One of her books, _The History of the Robins_, stands out from the ma.s.s for its strong appeal of simple incident, and is still widely popular with very young readers. Hannah More (1745-1833) occupied a prominent place in the thought of her day as a teacher of religious and social ideas among the poorer cla.s.ses. Her _Repository Tracts_, many of them in the form of stories, were devoted to making the poor contented with their lot through the consolations of a pious life. "The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" was the most famous of these story-tracts, and there are still many people living whose childhood was fed upon this and like stories. Mrs. Sherwood's _History of the Fairchild Family_ has never been out of print since the date of its first publication (1818), and in recent years has had two or three sumptuous revivals at the hands of editors and publishers. The almost innumerable books of Jacob Abbott and S. G. Goodrich ("Peter Parley") in America belong to this didactic movement. They were, however, more devoted to the process of instilling a knowledge of all the wonders of this great world round about us, and were considerably less pietistic than their English neighbors. _The Rollo Books_ (24 vols.) are typical of this school.

_The modern period._ Charles Lamb apparently was one of the first to get the modern thought that literature for children should be just as artistic, just as dignified in its presentation of truth, and just as worthy of literary recognition, as literature for adults. In the hundred years since Lamb advanced his theory, students have gradually come to recognize the fact that good literature for children is also good literature for adults because art is art, whatever its form. In this connection, Lamb's feeling about the necessity for making children's books more vital found expression in a famous and much-quoted pa.s.sage in a letter to Coleridge:

"_Goody Two-Shoes_ is almost out of print. Mrs.

Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old cla.s.sics of the nursery; and the shopman at Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. B.'s and Mrs. Trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge insignificant and vapid as Mrs. Barbauld's books convey, it seems must come to a child in the _shape of knowledge_, and his empty noodle must be turned with conceit of his own powers when he has learnt that a horse is an animal, and Billy is better than a horse, and such like; instead of that beautiful interest in wild tales, which made the child a man, while all the while he suspected himself to be no bigger than a child.

Science has succeeded to poetry no less in the little walks of children than with men. Is there no possibility of averting this sore evil? Think what you would have been now, if, instead of being fed with tales and old wives'

fables in childhood, you had been crammed with geography and natural history!"

The danger Lamb saw was averted. The bibliography on a preceding page indicates that about the middle of the nineteenth century many writers of first-rate literary ability began to write for young people. Among the number were Harriet Martineau, Captain Marryat, Charlotte M. Yonge, Thomas Hughes, and others. As we pa.s.s toward the end of that century and the beginning of the twentieth, the great names a.s.sociated with juvenile cla.s.sics are very noticeable, and with Miss Alcott, Mrs. Ewing, "Mark Twain," Stevenson, Kipling, Masefield, and a kindred host, childhood has come into its own.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

For tracing the stages in the development of writing for children consult the books named in the General Bibliography (p. 17, II, "Historical Development.")

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Among those authors of the past whom the present still regards affectionately, Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) holds a high place. At least five of his works--a novel, a poem, a play, a book of essays, a nursery story--rank as cla.s.sics. He had many faults; he was vain, improvident almost beyond belief, certainly dissipated throughout a part of his life. But with all these faults he had the saving grace of humor, a kind heart that led him to share even his last penny with one in need, a genius for friends.h.i.+ps that united him with such men as Burke and Johnson and Reynolds. Always "hard up," he wrote much as a publisher's "hack" in order merely to live. It was in this capacity that he probably wrote the famous story that follows--a story that stands at the beginning of the long and constantly broadening current of modern literature for children. While it has generally been attributed to Goldsmith, no positive evidence of his authors.h.i.+p has been discovered. It was published at a time when he was in the employ of John Newbery, the London publisher, who issued many books for children.