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CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Lecture Two: The Influence of Locke: Sarah Fielding, The Governess (1749)

NB The best modern edition of The Governess is the Broadview edition, but it is also available from various sources on the internet, including Project Gutenberg.

1. John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693): begins with formation of body (e.g., 'Playing in the open Air') and character, not school curriculum: 'A Sound Mind in a Sound Body' (ed John W. and Jean S. Yolton (OUP, 2000), pp.89, 83).

1.1 'of all the Men we meet with, Nine Parts of Ten are what they are, Good or Evil, useful or not, by their Education. ... The little, and almost insensible Impressions on our tender Infancies, have very important and lasting Consequences' (p.83).

1.2 'The great Thing to be minded in Education is, what Habits you settle' (p.95); 'A Compliance, and Suppleness of their Wills, being by a steady Hand introduced by Parents, before Children have Memories to retain the Beginnings of it, will seem natural to them, and work afterwards in them, as if it were so. ... ''tis by it, mixed with as much Indulgence as they make not an ill Use of, and not by Beating, Chiding, or other Servile Punishments, they are for the future to be governed, as they grow up to more Understanding' (p.111).

1.3 'he that has found a way, how to keep up a Child's Spirit, easy, active and free; and yet, at the same time, to restrain him from many things he has a Mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to him ... has, in my Opinion, got the true Secret of Education' (p.112).

1.4 'I grant, that Good and Evil, Reward and Punishment, are the only Motives to a rational Creature; ... and therefore they are to be made use of to Children too. For I advise their Parents and Governors always to carry this in their Minds, that Children are to be treated as rational Creatures' (p.115); 'It will perhaps be wondered that I mention Reasoning with Children: And yet I cannot but think that the true Way of Dealing with them. ... But when I talk of Reasoning, I do not intend any other, but such as is suited to the Child's Capacity and Apprehension' (p.142).

1.5 'Esteem and Disgrace are, of all others, the most powerful incentives to the Mind, when once it is brought to relish them. If you can once get into Children a love of Credit, and an apprehension of Shame and Disgrace, you have put them into the true Principle' (p.116).

1.6 'Children are not to be taught by Rules ... What you think necessary for them to do, settle in them by an indispensible practice' (p.121); 'But of all the Ways whereby Children are to be instructed, and their manners formed, the plainest, easiest and most efficacious, is, to set before their Eyes the Examples of those Things you would have them do or avoid' (p.143).

1.7 'We must not hope wholly to change their Original Tempers, nor make the Gay Pensive and Grave, nor the Melancholy Sportive, without spoiling them. God has stampt certain Characters upon Mens Minds, which, like their Shapes, may perhaps be a little mended; but can hardly be totally alter'd, and transformed into the contrary' (p.122).

1.8 'Begin therefore betimes nicely to observe your Son's Temper; and that, when he is under least restraint, in his Play, and as he thinks out of your sight. See what are his predominant Passions, and prevailing Inclinations ... For as these are different in him, so are your Methods to be different' (p.163); (e.g.) 'if they incline to ... Cruelty [to animals], they should be taught the contrary Usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing of Beasts will, by degrees, harden their Minds even towards Men' (p.180).

1.9 Locke's 'Second Treatise of Government' (1690): in chapter 6, on 'Paternal Power,' Locke suggests that children ought to be subject to parental power, but only until they develop their own rationality and hence demonstrate their right to liberty. Claiming that the whole of humankind, after Adam, is subject to the law of reason, and that it is reason alone that makes us free agents, Locke suggests that children cannot be free until they have developed their capacity for reason. Until then, but only until then, they ought to be subject to parental power.

2. Children's books in first half of C18 (plus nursery rhymes, fairy tales, chapbook stories).

2.1 'In the period from 1700 to 1740, the production of adult works of fiction in England averaged only about seven a year; while for children works of fiction were practically non-existent, apart from the chap-books sold by the "Running Stationers". The few outstanding books written for children during this period were Puritan and therefore had limited appeal' (Jill E. Grey, Introduction to OUP edition of The Governess, p.57).

2.2 Isaac Watts, Divine Songs, Attempted in Easie Language for the Use of Children (1715): 'part of English-speaking childhood for nearly two centuries' (Children's Literature, ed Peter Hunt (OUP, 1995), pp.27-8):

Against Idleness and Mischief

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

2.3 Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719).

2.4 Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726; first abridged for children in 1727).

2.5 John Newbery, A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744); 'one of the best loved of the early children’s books' (Children's Literature, p.36); influential writer/publisher of children's books in C18 – made children's books 'part of the mainstream of literary output for the first time in publishing history' (p.37); collection of rhymes and pictures influenced by Locke, 'Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy, and Pretty Miss Polly, with Two Letters from Jack the Giant-Killer; as also A Ball and Pincushion; the Use of which will infallibly make Tommy a good Boy, and Polly a good Girl'; begins with eight pages of advice to parents: 'The grand Design in the Nurture of Children, is to make them Strong, Hardy, Healthy, Virtuous, Wise, and Happy' (p.5); first page entitled 'The great A Play' (then 'The little a Play', etc); woodcut illustration of boys playing 'Chuck-Farthing' followed by:

As you value your Pence,
At the Hole take your Aim;
Chuck all safely in,
And you'll win the Game.

MORAL

Chuck-Farthing, like Trade,
Requires great Care;
The more you observe,
The better you'll fare.

See John Rowe Townsend, ed, John Newbery and His Books: Trade and Plumb-cake for Ever, Huzza! (Scarecrow Press, 1994).

2.6 (Newbery?), The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (Newbery, 1765): 'most famous of all the early children’s books describing village education' (Children's Literature, p.31).

2.7 Christopher Smart, Hymns for the Amusement of Children (Newbery, c.1770).

2.8 See Elspeth Jajdelska, 'Income, Ideology and Childhood Reading in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries', History of Education (2004), 33, 1, 55-73.

3. Sarah Fielding (1710-1768); sister of Henry Fielding; author of several novels for adults, including The Adventures of David Simple (1744).

3.1 The Governess; or, The Little Female Academy (1749); best modern edition ed. Candace Ward (Broadview, 2005); 'the first novel in children's literature' (Grey, p.79).

3.2 'first author to apply child psychology in a book for children' (Grey, p.80); 'children were for the first time offered realistic characters placed in a recognisable setting, children with whom readers could identify' (Children's Literature, p.34).

3.3 Structure, with interpolated stories, influenced by French and Spanish romances (e.g., Cervantes, Don Quixote) (Grey, p.41); 'inclusion of fairy-stories and oriental tales (though vehicles to convey her moral purpose) was a novelty to children starved of imaginative stories' (Grey, p.81).

3.4 Aadapted Locke's theories 'in order to teach the daughters of gentlemen how to behave [and to supply] up-and-coming middle-class parents with a model for the upbringing of their daughters'; 'In applying Locke's maxims (created for one boy) to the nine pupils of her Little Female Academy, [Fielding] stresses the importance of self control, obedience, honesty, and moderation' (Grey, p.44).

3.5 Also influenced by Fénelon, Instructions for the Education of a Daughter (Paris, 1687; tr. 1707) (Grey, p.47).

3.6 'The idea of pupils following the example of another pupil formed the basis of the monitorial system, as explained by Joseph Lancaster in Improvements in Education, 1806' (Grey, p.55).

3.7 Influence on children's literature (see Grey, pp.64-77): History of Little Goody Two-Shoes 'also the "history of" a schoolmistress, a rural school dame called Margery Meanwell' (Grey, p.66); 'Wollstonecraft's Original Stories from Real Life (1788) ... copied Sarah Fielding's idea of several pupils and their governess, but her Mrs Mason was a stern, humourless character, and the author did not include any relief in the form of fairy stories' (Grey, p.71).

3.8 Founding text of school story genre (compare Tom Brown's School Days, Malory Towers, Harry Potter, et al) (see Watson, ed., Children's Books in English, pp.630-33).

4.The Governess: treatise on education and lesson in reading: not salvation but happiness (p.48); happiness-virtue-beauty (see Robert E. Norton, The Beautiful Soul: Aesthetic Morality in the Eighteenth Century (Cornell, 1995).

4.1 Stories of education and miseducation, and how to read them; formation of character; reason vs passion (cf Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)) .

4.2 Title page: 'For the Entertainment and Instruction of Young Ladies in their Education' (p.43).

4.3 Dedication 'To the Honourable Mrs Poyntz': 'The Design of the following Sheets ...' (p.45).

4.4 Preface to 'My young Readers' consists of a lesson in reading (p.46); moral then illustrated by fable and story.

4.5 Mistress Teachum's story comes first: 'her principal Aim ...' (p.49); 'she was resolved to take no more Scholars than she could have an Eye to herself' (p.50).

4.6 NB Locke's stress on setting good examples and managing children by esteem and disgrace: 'Her Temper was so extremely calm and good ...' (p.50).

5. Lessons in reading: interlacing of 'true' life stories/autobiographies/confessions and fictional stories of many genres: oriental story, fairy story, fable, play, etc; all genres can be read if morally sound and read for their morals.

5.1 Supervised reading out loud in groups, followed by guided interpretation.

5.2 'The Story of the cruel Giant Barbarico, the good Giant Benefico, and the little pretty dwarf Mignon' (pp.69-87): intratextual moral pointers; extratextual moral interpretation and warning; disruption of narrative involvement; foregrounding of fictionality analogous to Brecht's 'alienation effect'?

5.3 Formation of C18 middle class gender identity.

6. For discussion of impact of Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education on C18 novels, see Jay Fliegelman, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution Against Patriarchal Authority, 1750-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

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