RHYMES IN TOY-BOOKS
Many of our longer nursery pieces first appeared in print in the
diminutive toy-books already described, which represent so curious a
development in the literature of the eighteenth century. These books
were sometimes hawked about in one or more sheets, which were afterwards
folded so as to form a booklet of sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four
pages. Others were issued sewn and bound in brilliant covers, at a cost
of as much as a shilling or eighteen pence. Usually each page contained
one verse which was illustrated by an appropriate cut. In the toy-books
which tell a consecutive story, the number of verses of the several
pieces seem to have been curtailed or enlarged in order to fit the
required size of the book.
It is in these toy-books that we first come across famous nursery
pieces such as the _Alphabet_ which begins:--
A was an Archer, who shot at a frog,
B was a blind man, and led by a dog ... etc.
This first appeared in _A Little Book for Little Children_ by T. W.,
sold at the Ring in Little Britain. It contains a portrait of Queen
Anne, and probably goes back to the early part of the eighteenth
century.
_The Topbook of all_, already mentioned, which is of about 1760,
contains the oldest version that I have come across of the words used in
playing _The Gaping, Wide-mouthed, Waddling Frog_, each verse of which
is illustrated by a rough cut. Again, _The Tragic Death of A, Apple
Pie_, which, as mentioned above, was cited as far back as 1671, forms
the contents of a toy-book issued by J. Evans about the year 1791 at the
price of a farthing. _The Death and Burial of Cock Robin_ fills a
toy-book which was published by J. Marshall, London, and again by Rusher
at Banbury; both editions are undated. Again _The Courtship, Marriage,
and Picnic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren_ form the contents of a
toy-book dated 1810 and published by Harris, and _The Life and Death of
Jenny Wren_ appeared in a toy-book dated 1813, issued by J. Evans.
Another famous toy-book contained _The Comic Adventures of Old Mother
Hubbard and her Dog_. This story was first issued in toy-book form by J.
Harris, "successor to E. Newbery at the corner of St. Paul's
Churchyard," probably at the beginning of 1806, at the cost of eighteen
pence. A copy of the second edition, which mentions the date 1 May,
1806, is at the British Museum. It contains the words "to T. B. Esquire,
M.P. county of XX, at whose suggestion and at whose house these notable
sketches were first designed, this volume is with all suitable deference
dedicated by his humble servant S. C. M." The coffin which is
represented in one of the cuts in the book bears the initials S. C. M.,
and the date 1804. This inscribing of the author's initials on a coffin
is quite in keeping with the tone of toy-book literature.
In October, 1805, J. Harris had published _Whimsical Incidents, or the
Power of Music, a poetic tale by a near relation of Old Mother
Hubbard_, which has little to recommend it, and contains nothing on the
dog. On its first page stands a verse which figures independently as a
nursery rhyme in some later collections:--
The cat was asleep by the side of the fire,
Her mistress snor'd loud as a pig,
When Jack took the fiddle by Jenny's desire,
And struck up a bit of a jig. (1810, p. 33.)
J. Harris also published in March, 1806, _Pug's Visit, or the Disasters
of Mr. Punch_, a sequel to the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and
her Dog_. This has a dedication framed in the same style, "To P. A.
Esquire ... by his humble servant W. F."
The success of the _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard and her Dog_ was
instantaneous and lasting. In _The Courtship of Jenny Wren_, which is
dated 1810, while its cuts bear the date 1806, Parson Rook is
represented carrying "Mother Hubbard's book," and a foot-note is added
to the effect that "upwards of ten thousand copies of this celebrated
work have been distributed in various parts of the country in a few
months." The _Comic Adventures_ were read all over London and in the
provinces, both in the original and in pirated editions, of which I have
seen copies issued by J. Evans of Long Lane, West Smithfield; by W. S.
Johnson of 60 St. Martin's Lane; by J. Marshall of Aldermary Churchyard;
and by others. A very diminutive toy-book containing verses of the tale
of Mother Hubbard, illustrated with rough cuts, is on view at South
Kensington Museum among the exhibits of A. Pearson. I do not know its
publisher.
The _Comic Adventures of Mother Hubbard_ are usually told in fourteen
verses, which refer to the dame's going to the cupboard, to her going
for bread, for a coffin, for tripe, beer, wine, fruit, a coat, a hat, a
wig, shoes, hose, and linen. The story ends:--
The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow,
The dame said, "Your servant," the dog said "Bow-wow."
But some editions have an additional rhyme on the dame's going for fish;
and the edition at South Kensington has the verse:--
Old Mother Hubbard sat down in a chair,
And danced her dog to a delicate air;
She went to the garden to buy him a pippin,
When she came back the dog was skipping.
In the edition of Rusher, instead of "the dog made a bow," we read "Prin
and Puss made a bow."
In Halliwell's estimation the tale of Mother Hubbard and her dog is of
some antiquity, "were we merely to judge," he says, "of the rhyme of
laughing to coffin in the third verse."
She went to the undertaker's to buy him a coffin,
When she came back the poor dog was laughing.
But it seems possible also that the author of the poem had running in
his mind a verse containing this rhyme, which occurs already in the
_Infant Institutes_ of 1797, where it stands as follows:--
There was a little old woman and she liv'd in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She crumm'd 'em some porridge without any bread
And she borrow'd a beetle, and she knock'd 'em all o' th' head.
Then out went the old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin
And when she came back she found 'em all a-loffing.
This piece contains curious mythological allusions, as we shall see
later.
It may be added that the nursery collection of 1810 (p. 37) contains the
first verse only of Mother Hubbard, which favours the view expressed by
Halliwell, that the compiler of the famous book did not invent the
subject nor the metre of his piece, but wrote additional verses to an
older story.
The association of Mother Hubbard and the dog may be relatively new, but
the name Mother Hubbard itself has some claim to antiquity. For a
political satire by Edmund Spenser was called _Prosopopeia or Mother
Hubberd's Tale_. It was a youthful effort of the poet, and was soon
forgotten. In this piece "the good old woman was height Mother Hubberd
who did far surpass the rest in honest mirth," and who related the fable
of the fox and the ape. Also Thomas Middleton in 1604 published _Father
Hubburd's Tale, or the Ant and the Nightingale_, in the introduction to
which he addressed the reader as follows:--"Why I call these Father
Hubburd's tales, is not to have them called in again as the Tale of
Mother Hubburd. The world would shew little judgment in that i' faith;
and I should say then _plena stultorum omnia_; for I entreat (_i.e._
treat) here neither of rugged (_i.e._ ragged) bears or apes, no, nor the
lamentable downfall of the old wife's platters--I deal with no such
metal ... etc."
We do not know that Spenser's tale was "called in again," nor does it
mention ragged bears and platters. Middleton must therefore be referring
to a different production to which obstruction was offered by the public
authorities. In any case the name of Mother Hubburd, or Hubbard, was
familiar long before the publication of the story of the dame and her
dog.
Father Hubberd, who is mentioned by Middleton, figures in nursery lore
also. A rhyme is cited which mentions him in connection with the
traditional cupboard:--
What's in the cupboard? says Mr Hubbard;
A knuckle of veal, says Mr Beal;
Is that all? says Mr Ball;
And enough too, says Mr Glue;
And away they all flew. (_N. & Q._, 7, IV, 166.)
Were they figured as cats?
The form of verse of this piece on Father Hubbard reproduces the chiming
of bells. The same form of verse is used also in the following:--
"Fire! Fire!" says the town-crier;
"Where, where?" says Goody Blair;
"Down the town," said Goody Brown;
"I'll go and see't," said Goody Fleet,
"So will I," said Goody Fry. (1890, p. 315.)
The old play of _Ralph Roister Doister_, written about the year 1550,
ends with a "peele of bells rung by the parish clerk," which is in the
same form of verse:--
First bell: When dyed he, when dyed he?
Second bell: We have him! We have him!
Third bell: Roister doister, Roister doister.
Fourth bell: He cometh, he cometh.
Great bell: Our owne, our owne.