Several Nice Little Histories: A Short History of the Cautionary Tale

Due to the advent of the printing press (invented some time in the 14th century), a large section of the 17th century population began to learn to read. Despite there being not a set genre of children's literature, moral instructions via cautionary tales were among some of the first books to directly appeal or be read to children. 

"Vice in Its Proper Shape", published around 1789, in reflected this growing market. A simple set of stories about naughty children being turned into animals that reflect their misdeeds, Vice... codifies several tropes seen in this genre:

• A protagonist or protagonists which are deliberately vile in character (so the audience cheers when they are given their comeuppance) or protagonists whose behaviour is over exaggerated for black, comic humour.

• Long suffering parental/family figures or parental figures who deliberately ignore the protagonist's behaviour or actively encourage.

• Supernatural intervention or metamorphosis by entity or person symbolising morality. This is when the protagonist gets their "comeuppance"

In the Victorian era when middle class families could read, small chapbooks were often given at Sunday School as a narrative to encourage conduct which conformed to Christian theology. 

As chapbooks are extremely religious, the supernatural intervention at the end of the cautionary tale is changed to a tragic event or loss which makes the protagonist reform. Also notable is a lack of dark humour. In "the Old Man's Story", John narrates a tragic story of messing around with fireworks, which leads him to become more pious towards his family and adopts a surrogate brother position to his dead friend's sister.

Many works for children at this time were pious and cloying, or overly harsh. A landscape of reading for fun or pleasure was not well established.

It is these chapbooks which are the "nice little histories" Carroll's Alice recalls reading in Alice's adventures in Wonderland. Both Alice tales as well as George Macdonald's fairy tales helped change this landscape.

As a result Hilaire Belloc's early Edwardian verses "Cautionary Tales for Children" are cautionary yet darkly humorous.

Now just imagine how it feels
When first your toes and then your heels,
And then by gradual degrees,
Your shins and ankles, calves and knees,
Are slowly eaten, bit by bit.
No wonder Jim detested it!

 Mocking its genre as well as being a strangely robust entry in it.

Even "Slovenly Peter", an infamous collection of German Victorian cautionary tales, has a extremely dark humorous side. This was brought out further in a 1998 musical adaptation which overemphasised the ridiculousness of Peter's tales as well as adding on a chilling framework story about parenthood gone wrong.

Cautionary tales have not died out even today, as Jamie Rix's thoroughly British 1990s published collections of "Grizzly Tales..." can show us. Rix takes the supernatural endings of the traditional cautionary tale and makes this a overall threat to his protagonists whilst utilising Slovenly peter style humour for a modern audience (I myself grew up on Rix's tales)

This being the month of October I will be celebrating cautionary tales with an essay every week. I do hope you'll enjoy.

References:

Dean & Son, 11, Ludgate Hill. (1857). The old mans story. London.

Graham, R. (2011, October 28). "Master Anthony Greedyguts" Becomes a Pig: A Slide Show of Cautionary Tales for Children. Retrieved October 1, 2019, from http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/10/halloween_slide_show_a_short_history_of_cautionary_tales_for_chi.html?via=gdpr-consent.

Hoffmann, H., Vendetta, S., Zipes, J., & Spence, R. (1999). Struwwelpeter: fearful stories and vile pictures to instruct good little folks. Venice, CA: Feral House.

Issiah Thomas. (1789). Vice in its proper shape. Worcester, MA.

Rix, J. Grizzly Tales for Guesome Kids, 1st ed. Vol. 1. London, 1990: Andre Deutsche Limited, n.d.

Tomkins, C. (2019, May 13). The Inexplicably Enduring Appeal of Hilaire Belloc's "Cautionary Tales". Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-inexplicably-enduring-appeal-of-hilaire-bellocs-cautionary-tales.