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Poetry, Verse and Rhymes; Games. 0808: Anon., Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid

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Introductory essay

Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid tells of the courtship, marriage, financial difficulties and eventual marital felicity of its two protagonists. The verse is lively and deceptively simple. For the most part it employs a rather complicated a, a, b, c, d, d, b, c rhyming structure, but always retains the feel of a simple, jolly country song. Though the subject of the poem is the ardent love of a man for a woman, their happiness during their honeymoon ('They passed their days and nights/In pleasure and delights...': p.6), and then their subsequent disappointment with one another ('No more a flaming lover,/The little man repents': p.7), Tabart apparently had no qualms about its suitability for a children's market. In his defence, it might be argued that the moral of the tale was in keeping with one of the central themes of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century children's literature, namely the importance of hard work. How different, after all, was the lesson learned by the Little Man and Little Maid that assiduous fiddle-playing and diligent needlework, rather than pleasure-seeking, were the secrets of domestic felicity to the didacticism of Goody Two-Shoes or any number of moral tales?

The Hockliffe copy of Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid is missing page 11 of the text and print XI. The missing stanza describes the birth of a child to the couple:
To the little man's great joy,
He soon had a little boy,
Which made his little heart
Quite, glad, glad, glad.
'Twas the little mother's pleasure
To nurse her little treasure,
Which rapture did impart To his dad, dad, dad.

The publication history of Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid is highly complex, and is the subject of a densely-written three-and-a-half page analysis by Brian Alderson in Marjorie Moon's bibliography of Benjamin Tabart's books for children (Moon 1990: 168-71 and see 85-86). Alderson does not seem to have taken the Hockliffe edition into consideration in his account, or rather, he has taken at face value Moon's assertion that the Hockliffe copy has plates dated 'May 1807' and has plate 'VI' misnumbered 'IV'. Neither of these things are, in fact, the case (Moon 1990: 85). The plates in the Hockliffe copy are dated 'March 1 1807', as is just readable beneath plate IV.

The problem for the book historian is that Tabart published a number of slightly different editions of Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid, at least two of which were dated 1807. What Moon takes to have been the first edition has plates dated 'May 1807' (and has plate 'VI' misnumbered 'IV'). These plates were used again in another edition dated 1807 on its title-page, but which interspersed them with pages of musical notation (as promised in the publisher's note proceeding the text in the Hockliffe edition, and attributed to Dr. Calcott by Moon 1990: 83). The text itself, however, appears to have been reused from one edition to the next, the tell-tale 'foot-prints' (i.e. the publisher's marks at the foot of certain pages) demonstrating that the type was probably not re-set for the new edition. This is the version is to be found in the British Library (which Moon does not list). Moon then lists several later versions: one from 1816 and another from 1818, but most intriguingly, a 'new edition' of 1808, some of which used the 'May 1807' prints, and some of which used the 'March 1 1807' plates which, mysteriously, are also to be found in the Hockliffe copy.

Curiously, although the May 1807 engravings are of a higher artistic standard than their March 1807 equivalents, the earlier set are more elaborate than latter, depicting the two central characters against a backdrop of an elegantly furnished room. (An example of each set can be compared in Moon 1990: fig.17.) Alderson suggests that the earlier plates were based on watercolour drawings which were produced for a provisional edition and that the background details were added in by the engraver, free-hand. It seems likely that, for some reason, these images were not felt to be of a sufficient quality for a new, prestige picture-book (although it is also possible that the earlier plates, depicting a couple in fairly affluent surroundings, were thought out of keeping with the subject of the text - a poor couple trying hard to make ends meet). Certainly, a new set of plates was commissioned later in 1807, and it is these that were used from what Moon considers to be the first edition. The March 1807 prints only made their appearance, according to Moon and Alderson, for the 'new edition' of 1808, perhaps, Alderson speculates, as an emergency measure, the later engravings having worn badly, or because of surprisingly heavy demand.

Yet here, in the Hockliffe copy, we have the March 1807 plates in use, in 1807, and without the sheets of music which were added to the text in the 1807 edition. It seems most likely, then, that the edition in the Hockliffe Collection pre-dates the version (with the May 1807 plates) which Moon thinks of as the first edition. What appears to have happened is that Tabart published the text and plates of Memoirs of the Little Man and the Little Maid in March 1807, without the music and with the more hastily-engraved plates. The Hockliffe Collection copy comes from this printing. He then may have decided to publish a higher-quality edition, still without the music, but using the reworked, plainer plates, which Moon lists as the first edition. Later still, but still dated 1807 on its title-page, Tabart seems to have published an edition including the musical notation, which he interspersed with the plates after the text - and this is to be found in the British Library. In 1808, a new edition was forthcoming, at part of which featured the older March 1807 plates, which were meant to be discarded, but were re-used in order to get the book onto the market as soon as possible. All this is very speculative however, and Alderson's caution should always be remembered: 'The publishers of these little picture books were inconsistent in their designation of editions and were liable to mislead in their dating and re-dating of plates. A book, with all the appearance of being 'early', may be later than we think' (Moon 1990: 171).