A Nursery Legend

Fun, 1 (1865: May 20) p. 10

 

OH, listen, little children, to a proper little song,

Of a naught little urchin who was always doing wrong;

He disobeyed his mammy, and he disobeyed his dad,

And he disobeyed his uncle, which was very near as bad.

He wouldn’t learn to cipher, and he wouldn’t learn to write,

And he would tear up his copy-books to fabricate a kite;

And he used his slate and pencil in so barbarous a way,

That the grinders of his governess got looser every day.

 

At last he grew so obstinate that no one could contrive

To cure him of the theory that “two and two is five;”

And when they taught him how to spell, he showed his wicked whims

By mutilating PINNOCK¹and mislaying WATTS’S² hymns.

Instead of all such pretty books (which must improve the mind)

He cultivated reading of a most improper kind:

Directories and Almanacks he studied on the sly,

And gloated over BRADSHAW’s Guide³ when nobody was by.

 

With such a course of reading you can easily divine

The condition of his morals at the age of eight or nine;

His tone of conversation kept becoming worse and worse,

Till it scandalized his governess and horrified his nurse.

He quoted bits of BRADSHAW that were quite unfit to hear,

And recited scraps of almanack , no matter who was near;

He spoke of Reigate Junction⁴, and of trains both up and down,

And referred to men who called themselves JONES, ROBINSON, and BROWN⁵!

 

But when this wicked boy grew up, he found the proverb true,

That Fate some day makes people pay for all the harm they do.

He was cheated out of money by a man whose name was BROWN,

And got crippled in a railway smash, while riding up to town.

No, little boys and little girls, take warning while you can,

And profit by the misery of this unhappy man.

Read DOCTOR WATTS and PINNOCK, dears; and when you learn to spell

Fight shy of guides, directories, and almanacks as well.

 

Notes on the Text

 

1. William PINNOCK: (1782-1843) was an English bookseller and educator who specialized in the publication of history and educational texts for English schoolchildren. He also regularly published catechisms, question and answer texts meant to teach biblical material (Issitt).

 

2. Isaac WATTS: (1674-1748) was an English hymn writer. Watts also contributed to the realm of logic by writing numerous introductory texts on the subject (Palmer).

 

3. George BRADSHAW of “BRADSHAW’S GUIDE”: George Bradshaw created a compendium of timetables for United Kingdom railways in 1839.  This compendium, known as “Bradshaw’s Guide,” met with great success and led Bradshaw to create an increasing number of travel guides.  He published guides on air traffic, sea traffic, hotels and restaurants.  He is most well remembered for his highest selling volumes, the original collections of British railway timetables (“Bradshaw” 373).

 

4. REIGATE JUNCTION: Reigate is a small county located in the city of Surrey. Its location is southeastern, and the local authority being Reigate and Banstead ("Reigate"). 

 

5. JONES, ROBINSON, and BROWN: Three years before the publication of “A Nursery Legend,” Anthony Trollope published an experimental novel entitled The Struggles of Brown, Jones & Robinson (1862).  In this book, Trollope addresses the pervasive deceitfulness found in merchandising, specifically in the lower middle-classes.  Through the development of the story, three central characters, George Robinson, Mr. Brown and Mr. Jones, attempt to open a haberdashery, or clothing shop.  Due to a lack of funds the three men are driven to participate in dishonest businesses, and ultimately end up bankrupt.  The book was not well received by critics who found it to be coarse (“Brown”). 

 

  

Fun and Punch, a Brief History of Two Satirical Magazines in Victorian England

 

Fun and Punch magazines represent the forbearers to modern comedy magazines both in the United States and in England. In the examination of the Victorian times that these magazines present, a satirical outlook developed that both entertained and provided insight into the mindset of Victorian England.

 

Punchwas founded by Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells in 1841 (Price, 2). The magazine continued regular publication for the next 150 years, surviving numerous competitors, such as the other magazine for which this article is about, and remaining financially viable (5). The magazine focused on satire and humor, often times lampooning the Victorian society. Twenty years after the foundation of Punch a competitor, Fun, appeared on the scene. The magazine was founded by Henry James Byron, an English theatre figure that had relatively no experience in the world of publishing, in 1861 (Thomson, 23). Focusing on much of the same material as Punch, but with more of an emphasis on the events of the theatre world, the magazine continued to be published until 1901 (Lauterbach, 3). Regular contributors included W. S. Gilbert, half of the famous composition team Gilbert and Sullivan, and the American satirist Ambrose Bierce (5-6).

 

Together, the magazines lampooned Victorian society through examining the events and culture in which the magazines were immersed. As shown in the poem that accompanies this article, originally appearing in the May 25th, 1965 edition of Fun, an issue such as the education of children could easily become the object of parody and ridicule in either of the magazines. The poem is at one time a quaint warning to a young English boy; it warns children to pay attention and do well in their education. At the same time, the poem lauds praise and dishes criticism to education texts and writers of the day. In this humorous way, the education system of Victorian England is lampooned by the magazine.

 

Though Punch lasted much longer and is much more well known than Fun, at one time the lesser magazine was called "Funch" by William Thackeray (Sullivan, 135), both magazines provide insight into the humor of the Victorian period and the way in which satire was used and ran concurrently to the social changes that were accomplished in that era.

 

Victorian Satire and Didacticism in “A Nursery Legend”

 

“A Nursery Legend” is an excellent example of satire and didacticism in Victorian England.  These are competing elements, and this poem aligns itself with satire over proselytizing.

As May Arbuthnot discusses in Children and Books, “Day and night these ardent authors stalked their children, allowing them never a moment for play or fancy but instructing and improving on every page” (42).  This poem employs the same, familiar mode, but is disingenuous in its presentation.  It is not, after all, a didactic piece – but rather, a coy social critique and satire.

Much of the poem is written in a fashion to remind the reader of moralistic pieces, but the sincerity of the piece comes in to question early in the second verse.  This poem is a very self-conscious construct; forever aware of its own wink and nod.

Arburnot writes of the Victorian experience, “If a poor child picked strawberries, the experience was turned into an arithmetic lesson…  Here was a revival of didacticism with a vengeance – not the terrifying theological didacticism of the Puritans but the intellectual and moralistic variety” (42).  “A Nursery Legend” is aware of this dynamic, and manipulates it brilliantly.  Written in the prevailing mode of didactic communication, this poem employs known tools in an effort to subvert rather than convert.

 

 

Victorian Education for the Upper-class Male

 

The humor in A Nursery Legend relies on an understanding of the predominant educational philosophy of upper-class Victorian England.     

In general, a standardized educational system was not a national priority in England until the late 19^th Century.  As voting rights expanded for men (especially the reform bills of 1867 and 1884) authorities came to agree that voters should have basic reading and mathematical abilities. This led to a stronger push to reform the educational system and promote literacy for children (Frost 37).  It was not until 1870 that any sort of national school system developed, and mandatory school attendance was not required until 1880.  By 1891, free schooling was provided (Frost 34).  While these laws applied to all classes, the Victorian education of the upper-class males stood apart in many ways.

 

Education for Victorian upper-class children began early and in the home.  Somewhere around three years of age, children began to receive lessons in areas like reading and sewing.  There was a common belief among parents and educators that three years was an appropriate age to begin benefiting from educational training (Flanders 84).  Boys and girls were treated relatively the same until age four or five, when the boys were “breeched,” or started wearing pants.  While “breeching” became less important later in the nineteenth century, the transition into masculinity and school-age remained significant.  Whether with a tutor or at a boarding school, most boys moved into the realm of a masculine dominated education around the age of seven (Frost 28).  Most girls remained at home for the entirety of their education, which focused mostly on areas of domesticity.  One of the reasons for the singular male education derived from the fact that the male succeeded his father as head of the family.  Sons of wealthier homes were responsible for improving, or at the very least maintaining, the family’s high social and economic position (Nelson 73). 

 

The purpose of a young, upper-class male’s education veered from intellectualism and instead sought to produce a gentleman and a Christian (Nelson 74).  Instead of focusing solely on subjects like science, higher mathematics, history or even basic, practical skills, educational institutions emphasized moral growth and character building.  As Victorian literature and cultural specialist Claudia Nelson explains, “These educational institutions were designed not merely to instill knowledge – indeed, the latter was often a relatively low priority – but also, and primarily, to forge character in a way that families presumably could not,” (77).  In fact, some of the major public boys’ schools, like Eton and Harrow, enticed prospective students by marketing themselves as institutions that build “leaders of men” (Nelson 113).  Much like the fictional character Gradgrind, Dickens’ Fact driven instructor from Hard Times, the Victorian educational philosophy depended on the absorption of “chunks of information” (Flanders 87).  The concept of retention and understanding remained largely ignored. Motivated by a belief that painful lessons built strong character, much of the Victorian curriculum was dull.  The lessons relied heavily on rote memorization of anything from times tables and English grammar rules to entire sections of history books as well as texts in Latin and Greek (Frost 46).  Submission to this type of instruction was expected to strengthen character and create moral gentlemen.    In this way, a failure to do well in school could imply a lack of morality or strength of character. A Nursery Legend illustrates the Victorian connection between education and morality, perhaps exaggerating the dominant philosophy in order to satirize orthodox upper-class education.

    

Works Cited

 

Arbuthnot, May Hill. Children and Books. 3rd ed. Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1964.

 

“Bradshaw, George.”  Encyclopedia Britannica.  Volume 104, Page 373. 1911.

 

“Brown Jones & Robinson: An Introduction.” Victorian Web. 2000.Web. 7 October 2010. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/trollope/tsociety/brown.html>

 

Flanders, Judith. Inside the Victorian Home. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004. Print.

 

Frost, Ginger. Victorian Childhoods. Connecticut: Praeger, 2009. Print.

 

Issitt, John. "Pinnock, William." Oxford Dictionary of  National Biography. (2004). Print

 

Palmer, Frederic. "Isaac Watts." Harvard Theological Review. 12.4 (1919): 371- 403. Print

 

Lauterbach, Edward. "Fun and Its Contributors: The Literary History of a Victorian Humor Magazine." Dissertations Abstract. (1961): Print.

 

Nelson, Claudia. Family Ties in Victorian England. Connecticut: Praeger, 2007. Print.

 

Price, Richard Geoffrey George. A History of Punch. London: Collins, 1957. Print.

 

"Reigate and Banstead." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 18 Oct. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/496485/Reigate-and-Banstead>

 

Sullivan, Alvin. British Literary Magazines. 3. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983. Print.

 

Thomson, Peter. "Bryon, Henry James (1834-1884)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. (2004): Print.