This rich survey of children's literature from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century features a remarkable variety of literary forms, including fairy tales, fables, letters, and poems. Drawing on an ever-growing body of scholarship, this anthology places each selection in the context of
its era and helps students develop an appreciation of early children's literature.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part One: Early Lessons at Home and School
AELFRIC
From The Colloquy (c. 1000)
BARTHOLOMEW THE ENGLISHMAN
From On the Properties of Things (c. 1200)
ANONYMOUS
The ABC of Aristotle (c. 1430)
FRANCIS
SEAGER
From The Schoole of Vertue and Booke of Good Nurture (1557)
HUGH RHODES
From The Boke of Nurture, or Schoole of Good Manners (1577)
HUGH PLAT
From A Jewell House of Art and Nature (1594)
The Hornbook
The Battledore
Domestic Writing: Juvenilia and Mothers'
Advice
WILLIAM PAGET
'A new yeres gift' (1581)
GEORGE BERKELEY
'George Bercklay to his grandfather' (1610) and 'George to Mrs Cave his mothers wayting woman' (c. 1613)
MARY DOWNING
A Letter to her Father: Mary Downing to Emmanuel Downing (1635)
ELIZABETH
GRYMESTON
From Miscelanea, Meditations, Memoratives (1604)
ELIZABETH JOSCELIN
From The Mothers Legacie to her Unborne Childe (1624)
Writing of Clergymen and Schoolmasters
EDWARD TOPSELL
From The Historie of Four-Footed Beastes (1607)
JOHAN AMOS COMENIUS
From Orbis
Sensualium Pictus (1659)
Part Two: Puritan 'Hell-Fire': Warnings and Warmth
JOHN COTTON
From Milk for Babes (1646)
ANNE BRADSTREET
'Upon my Son Samuel' (1657) and 'In reference to her Children' (1659)
JAMES JANEWAY
From A Token for Children (1672)
BENJAMIN
KEACH
From War with the Devil (1673)
From The New England Primer (1683-1830)
JOHN BUNYAN
From A Book for Boys and Girls (1686)
Part Three: Lyrical Instruction: Christian Songs and Secular Fables
Holy Commotions in the Soul
ISAAC WATTS
From Divine Songs (1715)
and Moral Songs (1740)
Witty Instructions in the World
ROGER L'ESTRANGE NEW
'A Lyon and a Mouse,' From Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, with Morals and Reflexions (1692, 1694, 1720)
SAMUEL CROXALL
'The Shepherd's Boy,' NEW 'The Fox and the Goat,' From The Fables of
Aesop and Others (1722)
JOHN GAY
From Fables (1727)
MARY BARBER
From Poems on Several Occasions (1734)
Part Four: Mother Goose and Chapbooks
Fairy Tales in English
CHARLES PERRAULT NEW
'Cinderilla' and 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,' From Histories or Tales
of Past Times with Morals, translated by Robert Samber (1729)
Ballads and Folklore
An Elegy on the Death and Burial of Cock Robin (1744)
The Interesting Story of the Children in the Wood (1595)
From The Life and Death of Tom Thumb (c.1703)
The Friar and Boy; or EW The Young
Piper's Pleasant Pastime (1760)
From The Riddle Book; or, Fireside Amusements (late eighteenth century)
Part Five: Boreman, Cooper, and Newbery: 'Instruction with Delight'
THOMAS BOREMAN
From The Gigantick History (1741)
JOHN NEWBERY
From A Little Pretty Pocket-Book
(1744)
From Nurse Truelove's New Year's Gift (1755)
From The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765)
Part Six: Rational Moralists
Tutors' Lessons by Example: Dramatic, Useful Knowledge
SARAH FIELDING
From The Governess (1749)
DANIEL FENNING NEW
'A Set of
Alphabetical Copies,' From The Universal Spelling-Book (1755)
MARY ANN KILNER
From The Adventures of a Pincushion (c. 1780)
JANE CAVE
From Poems on Various Subjects (1783)
ANNE 'NANCY' SHIPPEN LIVINGSTON
From Nancy Shippen: Her Journal Book (1783)
THOMAS DAY
From The
History of Sandford and Merton (1783)
LADY ELLENOR FENN
From Cobwebs to Catch Flies (c. 1783)
DOROTHY KILNER NEW
'A Conversation between Master Tommy and Miss Jenny on Reading,' From Poems on Various Subjects for the Amusement of Youth (1785)
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT
From Original
Stories from Real Life (1788)
PRISCILLA WAKEFIELD
From Mental Improvement (1794)
MARIA EDGEWORTH
'The Purple Jar,' From Early Lessons (1801)
The Perennial Fable
LADY ELLENOR FENN NEW
'The Fox and the Crow,' From Fables in Monosyllables by Mrs Teachwell (1783)
ROBERT
DODSLEY
'The Tortoise and the Two Ducks,' From Dodsley in Miniature; or, The Polite Fabulist (1803)
EDWARD BALDWIN (WILLIAM GODWIN) NEW
'The Dog in the Manger,' From Fables Ancient and Modern (1805)
Children Giving and Receiving Instruction
CATHARINE PARR TRAILL
From The
Young Emigrants (1826)
HENRY SHARPE HORSLEY
From The Affectionate Parent's Gift (1828)
JANE MARCET
From Mary's Grammar (1835)
JACOB ABBOTT
'The Reason Why' From Rollo at School (1839)
BARBARA HOFLAND
'Janetta and her Jujubes', From Farewell Tales Founded on Facts
(1840)
Part Seven: Sunday School Moralists
Children Learning Eagerly
GEORGE BURDER
From Early Piety (1777)
ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD
From Hymns in Prose for Children (1781) and Lessons for Children: Part Four (1788)
SARAH TRIMMER
From Fabulous Histories (1786) and
The Charity School Spelling Book (c. 1798)
ROWLAND HILL
From Divine Hymns (1790) and Instructions for Children (1794)
Lessons from Life
HANNAH MORE
'Black Giles, the Poacher: Part II' From Cheap Repository Tracts (1796)
MARY MARTHA SHERWOOD
From The History of the
Fairchild Family (1818)
FAVELL LEE MORTIMER
From The Peep of Day (1833)
MRS DALBY
From Dutch Tiles (1842)
Part Eight: Harbingers of the Golden Age
Poetry for All Ages
CHRISTOPHER SMART
From Hymns for the Amusement of Children (1772) and 'My Cat Jeoffry', From
Jubilate Agno
WILLIAM BLAKE
From Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794)
Playful Instruction
LADY ELLENOR FENN NEW
The Grammar Box (1790)
'Education,' From Hieroglyphic Amusement (1791)
JOHN MARSHALL
From The Infant's Library (c. 1800)
Ivory Paddles (c. 1800)
NEW
The Infant's Cabinet of Various Objects (1801) NEW
The Book Case of Instruction (1812-1813) NEW
L'Alphabet Moral (1820) NEW
From First Book for Children (1823) NEW
From Nouvel Alphabet pour les Commençans (1830) NEW
The Royal ABC (c. 1844) NEW
The Earth and Its
Inhabitants (1850) NEW
Versified Delights and Re-tellings
ANN TAYLOR GILBERT and JANE TAYLOR
From Original Poems for Infant Minds (1804-1805) and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806)
ELIZABETH TURNER
From The Daisy (1807)
WILLIAM ROSCOE
The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's
Feast (1807)
FELICIA DOROTHEA BROWNE
From Poems (1808)
RICHARD SCRAFTON SHARPE
The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots (1808)
CHARLES LAMB
Beauty and the Beast (1811)
From Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation (1813)
CLEMENT CLARKE
MOORE
'A Visit from Saint Nicholas' (1823)
SARAH JOSEPHA HALE
From Poems for Our Children (1830)
ELEANOR MURE
The Story of the Three Bears (1831)
MARY BOTHAM HOWITT
From Sketches of Natural History (1834)
The Charm of Narrative
CATHERINE SINCLAIR
From Holiday
House: A Series of Tales (1839)
ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
From New Nursery Songs for All Good Children (1843)
EDWARD LEAR
From The Book of Nonsense (1846)
HEINRICH HOFFMANN
From The English Struwwelpeter (1848)
JANE COTTON BOUCHER de MONTIZAMBERT
The Sad Tale of Mrs Mole and
Mrs Mouse (c. 1849)
JAKOB and WILHELM GRIMM NEW
'Hansel and Grethel,' From Household Stories (1853)
Bibliography
Index
Instructor's Manual:
List of web resources
Image Bank
Patricia Demers, Professor of English at the University of Alberta, has written extensively about children's literature. Her publications include Garland from the Golden Age, Women's Writing in English: Early Modern England, and an edition of Hannah More's Coelebs in Search of a Wife. She has
published articles in Mosaic, English Studies in Canada, Semeia, Sixteenth Century Journal, Huntington Library Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation, Bunyan Studies, Literature and Theology, and Topia, among others. She also teaches in the areas of early modern women's writing, Elizabethan and
Jacobean drama, 17th-century poetry, biblical literature, children's literature, and contemporary women's writing.
Crosscurrents of Children's Literature - Edited by J. D. Stahl, Tina L. Hanlon and Elizabeth Lennox Keyser
