_By_ MICHAEL DRAYTON[1]
[Footnote 1: Michael Drayton was an English poet who lived from 1563 to
1631. Little is known of his life beyond the fact that he served as a
page in the household of some nobleman, and that he tried in vain to
gain the patronage of King James I. This _Ballad of Agincourt_ is
one of the finest of the English martial ballads.]
Fair stood the wind for France,[2]
When we our sails advance,
Nor now to prove our chance
Longer will tarry;
But putting to the main,
At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,
With all his martial train,
Landed King Harry.[3]
[Footnote 2: From 1337 to 1453 the French and the English were engaged
in a series of struggles to which the name of _The Hundred Years'
War_ has been given. The cause of the conflict was the attempt of the
English kings to establish their rule over France.]
[Footnote 3: This was Henry V, king of England from 1413 to 1422. He was
a general of great ability, and the battle described in this ballad was
one of his chief victories.]
And taking many a fort,
Furnished in warlike sort,
Marched towards Agincourt[4]
In happy hour,--
Skirmishing day by day.
[Footnote 4: The English army numbered but 14,000, while the French were
about 50,000 strong. Henry, to save his men, was willing to make terms
with the French, who, however, demanded unconditional surrender. The two
armies met for battle near the little village of Agincourt.]
With those that stopped his way,
Where the French general lay
With all his power,
Which in his height of pride,
King Henry to deride,
His ransom to provide
To the king sending;
Which he neglects the while,
As from a nation vile,
Yet, with an angry smile,
Their fall portending.
And turning to his men,
Quoth our brave Henry then:
"Though they to one be ten,
Be not amazed;
Yet have we well begun,--
Battles so bravely won
Have ever to the sun
By fame been raised.
"And for myself," quoth he,
"This my full rest shall be;
England ne'er mourn for me,
Nor more esteem me.
Victor I will remain,
Or on this earth lie slain;
Never shall she sustain
Loss to redeem me.
"Poitiers[5] and Cressy[6] tell,
When most their pride did swell,
Under our swords they fell;
No less our skill is
Than when our grandsire[7] great,
Claiming the regal seat,
By many a warlike feat
Lopped the French lilies." [8]
[Footnote 5: The Battle of Poitiers was fought in 1356. The English
under the Black Prince, son of Edward III of England, defeated the
French under King John, though the French outnumbered them more than
five to one.]
[Footnote 6: In the Battle of Cressy, which was fought in 1346, 35,000
English under King Edward III defeated 75,000 French under Philip VI.
About 30,000 of the French army were slain.]
[Footnote 7: The great-grandfather of Henry V was Edward III, the hero
of the early part of the Hundred Years' War.]
[Footnote 8: The lily, or fleur-de-lis, is the national flower of
France. _Lopped the French lilies_ is a poetical way of saying _defeated
the French._]
[Illustration: "VICTOR I WILL REMAIN"]
The Duke of York so dread
The eager vaward[9] led;
With the main Henry sped,
Amongst his henchmen.
Excester had the rear,--
A braver man not there:
O Lord! how hot they were
On the false Frenchmen!
[Footnote 9: _Vaward_ is an old word for _vanward_, or _advance-guard._]
They now to fight are gone;
Armor on armor shone;
Drum now to drum did groan,--
To hear was wonder;
That with the cries they make
The very earth did shake;
Trumpet to trumpet spake,
Thunder to thunder.
Well it thine age became,
O noble Erpingham!
Which did the signal aim
To our hid forces;
When, from a meadow by,
Like a storm suddenly,
The English archery
Struck the French horses,
With Spanish yew so strong,
Arrows a cloth-yard long,
That like to serpents stung,
Piercing the weather;
None from his fellow starts,
But playing manly parts,
And like true English hearts
Stuck close together.
When down their bows they threw,
And forth their bilboes[10] drew,
And on the French they flew,
Not one was tardy;
Arms were from shoulders sent;
Scalps to the teeth were rent;
Down the French peasants went;
Our men were hardy.
[Footnote 10: _Bilboes_ is a poetical word for _swords_.]
This while our noble king,
His broadsword brandishing,
Down the French host did ding,[11]
As to o'erwhelm it;
And many a deep wound lent,
His arms with blood besprent,
And many a cruel dent
Bruiséd his helmet.
[Footnote 11: To _ding_ is to _strike_.]
Glo'ster, that duke so good,
Next of the royal blood,
For famous England stood,
With his brave brother,--
Clarence, in steel so bright,
Though but a maiden knight,
Yet in that furious fight
Scarce such another.
Warwick in blood did wade;
Oxford the foe invade,
And cruel slaughter made,
Still as they ran up.
Suffolk his axe did ply;
Beaumont and Willoughby
Bare them right doughtily,
Ferrers and Fanhope.
Upon Saint Crispin's[12] day
Fought was this noble fray,
Which fame did not delay
To England to carry;
O, when shall Englishmen
With such acts fill a pen,
Or England breed again
Such a King Harry!
[Footnote 12: Crispin was a Christian saint who suffered martyrdom in
the third century. The 25th of October was made sacred to him.
It was on Saint Crispin's day, 1415, that the Battle of Agincourt
was fought.]
SOME CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF
THE PAST
_By_ GRACE E. SELLON
Probably somewhere about your home, put away so far from sight that you
never think of them any more, are some of the ABC books and the alphabet
blocks and the brightly colored story books about horses, dogs and other
familiar animals that used to amuse you when you were just learning to
say the alphabet and to spell a few three-letter words. Perhaps you can
remember how much you liked to have the stories read to you and how much
fun there was in repeating your A B C's when you could point out the
big, colored letters in your book or on your blocks. But have you ever
thought that you were any more fortunate than other children of other
ages in having these interesting things to help you? Have you ever
wondered whether, far back in history before our country was discovered
and settled by white men, boys and girls had the same kinds of picture
books and drawing-slates, alphabet games and other playthings that used
to delight you in the days when you were going to kindergarten or
learning your first simple lessons from your mother?
If you have never thought enough about this matter to ask some older
person about it, you will find the lesson books and story books used by
children of even a hundred years ago very curious. Suppose we go farther
back, to 1620, the year of the Mayflower, let us say. You could never
imagine what a child then living in England was given to learn his
letters from. As soon as he was able to remember the first little things
that children are taught, his mother would fasten to his belt a string
from which was suspended what she would call his _hornbook_. This was
not at all what we think of to-day as a book, for it was made of a piece
of cardboard covered on one side with a thin sheet of horn, and
surrounded by a frame with a handle. Through the covering of horn the
little boy could see the alphabet written on the cardboard in both large
and small letters. After these would come rows of syllables to help him
in learning to pronounce simple combinations of sounds. Probably last on
the sheet there would be the Lord's Prayer, which he must be taught to
say without a mistake. As he went about he could easily take up his
hornbook once in a while and say over to himself the letters and the
rows of syllables. Sometimes--especially if he had been obedient and had
studied well--he was given a hornbook made of gingerbread; and then, of
course, he would find that the tiresome lines of letters had all at once
become very attractive.
The hornbook must have done its work well, or at least no better way of
teaching the alphabet had been found when the Puritans came to America,
for it was not many years before little folks in the New World were
being taught from the famous _New England Primer_, which joined to what
had been in the hornbook a catechism and various moral teachings. With
its rude illustrations and its dry contents, this little book would
probably be laughed at by school-children of to-day, if they did not
stop to think how very many of the writers, statesmen and soldiers who
have made our country great learned their first lessons from its pages.
Somewhere between 1687 and 1690 it was first published, and for a
hundred years from that time it was the schoolbook found in almost every
New England home and classroom.
[Illustration: CHILDREN WITH HORNBOOKS]
Can you imagine what kind of reading lessons were in this primer? If you
think they were like the lively little stories and the pleasing verses
printed in your readers, you will he a good deal surprised to find that
they are stern and gloomy tales that were meant to frighten children
into being good, rather than to entertain them.
First of all in the little book came the alphabet and the lists of
syllables, as in the hornbook. There was this difference, however. At
the beginning of the first line of letters in the hornbooks was placed a
cross, as the symbol of Christianity, and from this fact the first line
was called the _Christ-cross_, or _criss-cross row_. But the Puritans
strictly kept the cross out of the _Primer_, for to them it stood in a
disagreeable way for the older churches from which they had separated
themselves.
Then came a series of sentences from the Bible teaching moral lessons
and illustrating the use of the letters of the alphabet, one being made
prominent in each verse. The Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed might
appear next, followed by twenty-four alphabet rhymes with accompanying
pictures. Most of these verses were upon Bible subjects, as in the case
of the letter _R_, for example, illustrated by the lines:
"Young pious Ruth
Left all for Truth."
One of the best-loved rhymes was one put into the series after the
Revolution to stir the pride of every young American by reminding him
that
"Great Washington brave
His country did save."
In the pages that followed were to be found an illustrated poem telling
of the awful fate of John Rogers, burned at the stake while his wife and
their ten children looked on, and a dialogue between Christ, a youth and
the devil, in which the youth was finally overcome by Satan's
temptations.
This story of the terrifying fate of the youth was placed after the
shorter Westminster catechism, possibly as a warning to all children who
would not obey their religious teachings. The one hundred seven
questions of the catechism must be answered correctly, even though the
five-syllable words were even harder to understand than to pronounce.
Religious songs and pictures and descriptions of good and of bad
children were also scattered through the book, and in some copies is to
be found the little prayer beginning: "Now I lay me down to sleep,"
which was probably published for the first time in the _Primer_.
As the years went on, pictures and verses and little articles about the
objects of nature and the everyday things that children are interested
in began to take the place of the Bible verses and subjects; and at
length when people saw how well children liked this new way of teaching,
better books than the _Primer_ took its place.
While the young folks in New England families were thus being warned in
story and verse against the awful temptations that lay all around them,
the children in old England were being entertained by popular
penny-books that treated of all kinds of subjects, from the _History of
Joseph and his Brother_ to _The Old Egyptian Fortune Teller's Last
Legacy_. These books were of a size scarcely larger than that of the
letter-paper made for little folks, and they contained usually from
sixteen to twenty-four pages. Illustrations that looked a good deal like
the pictures made by a small boy in his schoolbooks adorned the rough
little volumes.
In every city and town and even in the villages peddlers went along the
streets selling these chapbooks, as they were called. Imagine how the
children, and the grown people too, must have flocked around the peddler
as he began taking out one after another of his queer little books, for
he had something to please every one. The boys might choose stories like
_The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram_, _A Wonderful and Strange Relation of a
Sailor_ or _The True Tale of Robin Hood_, and we can see them almost
getting into a brawl over the possession of _The Merry Life and Mad
Exploits of Captain James Hind, the Great Robber of England_. Probably
the girls would choose _Patient Grissel_, _The History of Mother Bunch_
or _Cinderella_. For the small children there were, for example, the
_History of Two Children in the Wood_, _The Pleasant History of Jack
Horner_ and _Tom Thumb_. Most likely it was only the pennies of
much-tried mothers and fathers that were spent for _A Timely Warning to
Rash and Disobedient Children_.
The chapman or peddler we may well believe did not stand silently
looking on as he disposed of his stock. He had at the tip of his tongue
such a fair-sounding advertisement for every book that everybody, young
and old, came under the spell of his words and bought of his wares.
After he had departed with his traveling library, we can picture the
children taking themselves off to quiet places with their new chapbooks.
Perhaps you are wondering why it was that they were so eager to read
them. If so, you may like to look into a few of these rare old story
books. As you read, notice how quaint the wording seems when compared
with that of the stories of to-day.
(Extract from _The History of Tom Long the Carrier._)
As Tom Long the Carrier was travelling between Dover and Westchester, he
fortuned to pass something near a House, where was kept a great Mastiff
Dog, who, as soon as he espied Tom, came running open-mouthed at him,
and so furiously assaulted him, as if he meant to devour him at a bite.
But Tom, having in his Hand a good Pikestaff, most valiantly defended
himself like a Man, and to withstand the danger he thrust the Pike-end
of his Staff into his Throat and so killed him. Whereupon the Owner
thereof, seeing the Dog lost, comes earnestly unto Tom, and between
threatening and chiding, asking him why he struck him not with the great
End of the staff. 'Marry,' quoth he, 'because your Dog runs not at me
with his tail.'
(Extract from _The Kentish Miracle, or, A Seasonable Warning to all
Sinners_.) Shewn in the Wonderful Relation of one Mary Moore whose
Husband died some time ago, and left her with two children, and who was
reduced to great want. How she wandered about the Country asking relief
and went two Days without any Food--How the Devil appeared to her and
the many great offers he made her to deny Christ and enter into his
service, and how she confounded Satan by powerful Argument. How she came
to a well of water when she fell down on her knees to pray to God that
He would give that Vertue to the Water that it might refresh and satisfy
her Children's Hunger, with an Account how an Angel appeared to her, and
relieved her, also declared many Things that shall happen in the Month
of March next. Shewing likewise what strange and surprising Accidents
shall happen by means of the present War, and concerning a dreadful
Earthquake, etc.
(Extract from _A Timely Warning to Rash and Disobedient Children_.)
As this Child went to School one Day
Through the Churchyard she took her Way
When lo, the Devil came and said
Where are you going to, my pretty Maid
To School I am going Sir, said she
Pish, Child, don't mind the same saith he,
But haste to your Companions dear
And learn to lie and curse and swear.
They bravely spend their Time in Play
God they don't value--no, not they.
It is a Fable, Child, he cry'd
At which his cloven Foot she spy'd.
I'm sure there is a God, saith she
Who from your Power will keep me free,
And if you should this Thing deny
Your cloven Foot gives you the Lie.
Satan, avaunt, hence, out of hand,
In Name of Jesus I command.
At which the Devil instantly
In Flames of Fire away did fly.
(Extract from _Wonder of Wonders_, being a strange and wonderful
Relation of a Mermaid that was seen and spoke with by one John Robinson,
Mariner, who was tossed on the Ocean for 6 Days and Nights. All the
other Mariners perished.)
He was in great Fear and dreadful Fright in the main Ocean ...... but to
his great Amazement he espy'd a beautiful young Lady combing her Head
and toss'd on the Billows, cloathed all in green (but by chance he got
the first Word from her). Then She with a Smile came on Board and asked
how he did. The young Man, being Something Smart and a Scholar
reply'd--Madam, I am the better to see you in good Health, in great
hopes trusting you will be a Comfort and Assistance to me in this my low
Condition: and so caught hold of her Comb and Green Girdle that was
about her Waist. To which she reply'd, Sir, you ought not to rob a young
Woman of her Riches and then expect a Favour at her Hands, but if you
will give me my Comb and Girdle again, what lies in my Power, I will do
for you. She presents him with a Compass, told him to steer S.W., made
an Appointment for following Friday, and jumped in the sea. He arrives
safely home, and while musing on his promise She appeared to him with a
smiling Countenance, and (by his Misfortune) she got the first Word of
him, so that he could not speak one Word and was quite Dumb, and she
began to sing, after which she departed, taking from him the Compass.
She took a Ring from her Finger and gave him. (The young man went home,
fell ill and died 5 days after), to the wonderful Admiration of all
People who saw the young Man.
* * * * *
After the eighteenth century the chapbooks gradually went out of favor,
and since then in England, as in America, more and more careful
attention has been given to writing good stories for children and
printing these attractively. These better books could not have come,
however, had it not been that for generation after generation crude
little primers and storybooks, such as the interesting kinds that have
been described, helped to point out to people, little by little, how to
make children's reading both instructive and pleasing.