FAIRY-TALES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5802, 20 January 1906, Page 15

FAIRY-TALES.

Tim child's fairy-tale is, we think, safe for the present. During the past week its existence lias been gravely imperilled. It appeal’s that at a Wiltshire village with the attractive name of Maiden U rad ley (surely there, if anywhere, little girls ought to wear the bluest of .stockings) the children in the school have been reading, among other fairy-tales, “The Sleeping Beauty.” In a luckless hour, they were discovered at this occupation by tbo Du chess of Somerset. Tho accounts of the affair do not state whether a bonfire was made on tho spot, ami all the pernicious literature of CJrimm and 1 Lins Andersen consigned to tbo flames amid wailings; but at all events, the Duchess lost no time in bringing the momentous question twTore tiic next meeting ob tbo Mere ilouixi of Guardians, am!, according to the reports, protested, in the name of education, against the notion of children's minds Iteing filled witli -ueb nonsense. Instead, she pointed out, they ought to have read to them tales about Julius Caesar and other great men. Tito Mere Board of Guardians tray or may not have agreed with the Duchess: but if the criticisms of tbo papers suggest any conclusion, it is that adult public opinion in not yet sttlliciently ripo for a change in tho traditional literature of tho nursery. For some time to come, therefore, it may bo expected that tho intellect of childhood will continue, in the infants’ schools of the County Connells, to be satisfied with ‘‘Cinderella” as a substitute for Caesar; possibly oven in Maiden Bradley itself it may'bo permissible for practical little people to I. el love that there once was a palace overgrown with thorns in which everylmdy had gone to sleep, and that a wonderful Prince actually did wake , up the beautiful Princess, and that the cook boxed tho scullion's ears, and tho spits began to turn, and tbo flies wont on crawling along the walls, all in tho old-fashioned style, and with all the proller details. Until tho old story censes to excilc any interest, Julius Claesar may well wait on the bookshelf. Wo think wo can understand, for all that, the point of view of those who do not consider tho fairy-tales that belonged j 0 our grandmothers’ nurseries the best collection |xissihle for the children of to-day. We should no more think of substituting for them the history of Julius Caesar than of dressing a child in arms in a frock coat and tall hat : hut it would be at least logical to contend Shat the real story of some cf the fairy-tales does not belong to tho child’s world of thought at all. It may lie an excellent thing, for instance, that a child should lie impressed at an early period of Its life with the idea that in the world there are certain cupboards which must not lie opened ; but the lesson could surely be better enforced than hv obtruding on a wondering mind the notion of “Bluebeard's” wives’ heads hanging round a horrible wall. Probably for most children who hear that grisly tale there comes to exist in the tangible furniture of everyday life some cupboard tenanted, like “Bluebeard's” with body- i less living things: it stands in a recess j on the stairs, perhaps, and has to be i passed after dark with averted face and at a run. Or take, again. “Tom Thumb" in the ogre's palace, and all the business ! a’ti:-nt the cooking of the supper, and i the ogre’s children deeping in bed. There : s no need to explain to a chi'd ! what an ogre is. .of course; the name ! itself suggests the notion, and the child , understands at once. l : ke tin' sador who. landed on tho coast of Madagascar for j the first time and saw a large bird and i knew it must be a dodo. But when you i come to tho “Tc-I'i-Fo-Fnm” part , how are you to explain to it child exactly |

what it means whan tho ogro ‘’smells i the Mood of an Englishman'' ? Or road over oim more one of tho most delightful of Grimm's tales, of the Princess who vent to tier work in the fields every day. and every morning called “Talada, Falada, there thou art hanging f’ to the head of lier favourite boric, nailed up at tho gale of the town. There id no ■ ■■.■ prettier in all the fairy-tales than the barefooted goose-girl singing to the wind to "Blow Curdken’s hat away*, bet him chase o’er field and wold," so that she cm l>*t down her shining hair and corah it in the sun. Tbit ho'.v does the end of the fairy-tale fit into a child's world of thought? The pretty gvurowgir! comes into her own again, or course, :;ik! the horse ‘’comes; alive," whifh is all very proper ami right: but the ’’false bride" ban a really dreadful r-ime. being condemned to be "put stark naked into a barrel lined with sharp nails, which should be dragged by two white horses up and down tho street until she is dead.” Very likely that does not mean anything in narticular to a child, since noVxiy ever sees a barrel lined with ‘harp nails, and in any cane Hi.; id.-a that the puniH’ment took place with the aid of two white horses would probably smooth over most of tho awful part; but then, if it is not intend**! to impress with horror, why drag it into the fairy-tale? ft is perhaps on some such lino of .argument that wo are asked whether, since tin. fairy-tales contain so much 1 that is nonsensical and a sood deal that is ugly, it would not lie best frankly to drop them and take to something really sound mid solid.—the ‘Lives” of ■ c od men, great conquerors, and so on. Th’ii is treating tho whole business very seriously, ami if a serious answer is insisted upon, it is that to a child the •■uggosted '’Tires" can moan, and do mean, almost nothing, and are therefore not. worth wasting time upon. Grant fr.r the sake of argument that “Tho Sleeping Beauty’’ is all nonsense, arid take ns tho strongest ”!>• bVre possible a good solid life of one of tho greatest ivmis (tnd greatest men of all time. Explain ’o tire tdiild how Caesar rose from post to post until, though onb of tho youngest great leaders in tho world, lui was able to break up Sulla’s constitution ; how he dared to crons the Rubicon and with his fow devoted legions pit himself against tho opposing horde® of Pompey’s neat to rod armies; how ho was badly beaten at IHrrachium, hut ;.m::jve”! id* huge enemy at Pharsalia : how bis victories were celebrated with four great 'riumphs What doe--, it all mean to the child? How can it wan anything, unless you have previously explained the terms and tho name® vou are using? Ami how can you do that, unless you first set up for him some standard of comparison? What is ho lit understand, with his accustomed nursery life going on round him, of the idea of going out alone lido the great world to ti : mb Idgher and higher a wav from Hie ground trodden by ordinary quiet, easy-going little men. up toward’ *a»e PlrtaLs of some wonderful kingdom hardly concerned, hardly comparable . with the_small business of every day, ®e wide >1 its! groat are its imagined glories, and floating in so sunlit and clear an air of dream and hope? Aon have not taught him “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Vou are asking him to way to himself that "Tiiis is wonderful," or “That i® amazing." or “What an extraordinary achievement for a single man,” before yon have attached any significance to the words “wonderful," “amazing," or “extraordinary." Or what notion would bo i*>uveved to a rb’b l by Hie mere narration of the story of Cae.-ar conquering in the end tho rich Croesus and Hi powerful Pompey; both his rivals’ careers ended by death, so that ho, wise, groat, and victorious, succeeds where looser men fail because of their lack of courage, or love of case, or laziness, or weakness, or folly, or crime? Ho can see none of tho greater sins of frailt ieof men in his nursery; the triumph of tho conquering soldier is nothing to him but the breaking of impalatahle. thwarting things for which he has only the labels larked on by the story-teller. Above all things, tho death of an enemy. Iho great incident of incidents in all victorious careers.—what can it convey to a wondering mind unused to tho cosily understood conquests of tailors over giants, of good Princes over bad Princes, ami ail the rest of the rough-and-ready dealing, in understandable ways and hv methods comparable with childish dealings with toys and dolls and tin soldiers, with the great facts of the life that is going mi outside tho nursery? Xo one need he accused of treating the subject of fairy-tales with too great gnmly'who should ask the utilitarian, unable to perceive any benefit in theo mere tolling of. and listening to, stories of Princesses in dresser; of gold as bright as the sun, and Princes condemned to bvc es cats and birds and boars, a quite serious question. It would he whether, siuco there arc a great many terrible and sometimes ugly things that a child avowing up into the life and surroundings of the cider must some day soo and hear, it is not boat that there should bo a gradual introduction to all the unhappinesses, in tho bright and happy atmosphere of stories told by the one teller who is infallible in everything ®h" does and says and orders and forbids. If. for the older child. Pompey has some day got to bo murdered in Egypt, or Afarat stubbed by ("harlotbe Corday. is there any better way of coming to the knowledge of three dismal businesses than hy tho easy, glowed-over porishings of wicked uncles and cruel Kings? Tf there were, be sure that it would have been discovered in the nursery before now by the children themselves. For it-is they, after all. in the kingdom which only they ran enter and know, who bare thought out and approved for all time the greet fairy-tales Those rcpnvont their outlook on life, with a 1! Hi» gilt and gold, sham and true, kindness and emeUv. life arid death, painted in the distincteot. strongest colours. They have been oflcnxl ether introducI Inn®, shown other doors, into the garden of life. Put they have preferred one wide, bright door; .and however many other doom he opened, equally attractive to grown-up persons walking in ’■ohnaT hoots over practical cement and sanitarv gravel, the track of all heir light little shoes goes to the brave gate of their own choosing.—“ Spectator.”