Tabarts History(1767-1833)

• London bookseller and proprietor of the Juvenile Library. In 1607 he began a series of sixpenny books containing fairytales and other popular stories. ( Zipes 2000: 510).
• They did not contain new stories but retellings of indigenous British stories which were often advertised as being inspired by theatrical productions. (Grenby 2006: 1).

Tabart claims to be the first person to put Jack and the Beanstalk into print,
 as is boasted on the title page of the original manuscript.

Jack escaping from the giant. The History of Jack and the Bean-stalk (1807)
Source: The Hockliffe Project: http://www.cts.dmu.ac.uk/AnaServer?hockliffe+2290+hoccview.anv

Synopsis

The Beginning

• 'In the days of King Alfred...'
• Widow indulged only son Jack to a fault.
• Jacks follies don't owe to his bad disposition but that his mother had never checked him.
• One day Jacks mother has no money to purchase food for another day, and must sell her cow. In distress she reproached Jack for the first time 'you have brought me beggary and ruin'.

The Beans

• On the way to sell the cow Jack meets a butcher, who has coloured beans in his hat. A bargain is struck instantly, 'the cow exchanged for a few poultry beans'.
• Jacks mother kicks the beans is a passion and some land out the window.
• Both go to bed supperless.
• Jack wakes early to find some of the beans have grown and are entwined to form a ladder nearly like a chain in appearance.
• Jack resolves to climb the ladder to seek his fortune but first he communicates his intention to his mother. Jacks mother declared he should not go.

Up the Beanstalk

• Jack finds a strange country which appears to be desert.
• Jack sees an infirm woman, old and in tattered garments. She asks if he remembers his father and Jack does not and adds there must be some secret about him because his mother carefully avoids talking about him. Jack is told by the women she is a fairy and that if Jack does not do exactly as she desires his mother and himself will be destroyed. She tells Jack about his father. His father was as rich as a prince and deserved all he possessed as he lived to do good. He was killed by a giant, who tricked his father into believing he was a gentleman who had lost all he owned in an earth quake. Jack was only three months old and he and his mother survived because the giant felt a moment of remorse and allows them to live as long as Jacks mother never speaks of Jacks father. The giant steals all the treasures, burns the house down and is gone before the servants return. The fairy was Jacks fathers guardian but had her powers suspended which is why she couldn't help his father. She tells Jack she got them back the day she appeared as a butcher and gave him the beans and that he is appointed to punish the giant. He must never tell his mother before the giant is killed as the thought of it would kill her.
• After sunset Jack finds a mansion with a plain woman standing at the door. She is surprised as it is well known that a giant lives there and often spends the day hunting human flesh. The women had a compassionate disposition so Jack persuades her to let him stay one night only, and hide him in the oven.
• Jack was half dead with fear because he was worried about what the giants wife was going to do with him and would have given anything to be with his mother again. He soon forgot his fear until the giant arrives.
• The giant says

'Wife, I smell fresh meat'

• Jack steals the hen that lays the golden egg when he sees the giant fall asleep.
• Returns home to find his mother crying bitterly, and lamenting his fate, for she concluded he had come to some shocking end through his rashness.
• Jack hopes he can make amends for is idleness, extravagance and folly through the hen which produces them as many eggs as they desire which they sold and became rich in a little time.
• Jack is desirous of travelling ( as he fears that the fairy will put her threats into action). Jack can't determine how to tell his mother and when he does he finds his arguments useless so he pretended to give up the point.
• Jack disguised himself in a dress, changed his completion and climbed the beanstalk.
• Jack finds everything as before. This time the women is reluctant to let him in because her husband has been worse then ever before, since another boy had (also Jack) had stolen a treasure.
• The women at last consented to let him in and hid him in the lumber closet.
• This time the giant is ill tempered and impatient with his wife.
• Jack heartily wishes to have the giant's bags of gold and silver but feared the giant might feign sleep. When he is satisfied the giant is asleep and lays his hand upon the treasure a little dog he hadn't noticed begins to bark but the giant doesn't wake up so the dog grows tired of barking. Jack throws it a piece of meat and is able to steal the bags of gold and silver.
• Jack returns home to find the cottage deserted. An old woman tells him she is at a neighbour's ill of a fever. Jack could hardly bare his reflection knowing himself to be the cause but his mother revived by degrees hearing of his return.
• Jack hears no more of the beanstalk for 3 years but could not forget it (or the fairies threats).
• The inclination for another journey grows too powerful so Jack makes secret preparations and climbs the beanstalk.
• Jack disguised himself again and found it even more difficult to gain admittance. This time he is hidden in the copper.
• This time the giant searches all the room. Jack is ready to die with fear and wishes himself home a thousand times but the giant didn't search the copper.
• As Jack takes the harp it cries out 'master! master! master!' as it is a fairy and the giant wakes up and tries to pursue Jack but the giant had so much to drink that it could not stand. It recovered enough to walk but was still slow.
• Jack uses a hatchet to cut the beanstalk down and the giant falls into the garden. The fall kills him.

The ending

• The fairy arrives and explains to Jacks mother and charges Jack to be dutiful and affectionate to his mother, and to follow his fathers good example. Jack promises and 'He proved as good as his word, and it was a pattern of affectionate behaviour and attention to parents'.
• Jack and his mother lived together for a great many years and continued to be very happy.

Source of full text:

Opie, Iona and Peter (1974) The Classic Fairy Tales. London: Oxford University Press.

You can download pages from an original book at:
De Montfort University (n.d). The Hockliffe Project: The history of Jack and the Beanstalk. [online]. Available: http://www.cts.dmu.ac.uk/AnaServer?hockliffe+2290+hoccview.anv [Accessed 15 September 2006].

Jack climbing the beanstalk.
The History of Jack and the Bean-stalk (1807)
Source: The Hockliffe Project:
http://www.cts.dmu.ac.uk/AnaServer?
hockliffe+2290+hoccview.anv

The giant & Jack in the oven .
The History of Jack and the Bean-stalk (1807)
Source: The Hockliffe Project:
http://www.cts.dmu.ac.uk/AnaServer?
hockliffe+2290+hoccview.anv

Modifications

• Being the first known printed version of Jack and the Beanstalk an obvious modification is the adaptation of oral tradition to print form. Therefore it is the first consistent version of the tale.
• Along with putting Jack and the Beanstalk into print appeared illustrations for the tale. The illustrations present in Tabart's original version are copper plate engravings, as are depicted on this page.
• This tale was written from oral tradition. It is difficult to know how much of it is Tabarts influence because it is the first to be recorded.
• Today the Oral versions of the tale remain close to both the 1809 chapbook and Jacobs’s text. However they are usually shorter and they rarely add extra material. (Goldberg 2001: 13).
• The major alteration Tabart made to the fairy tale was to add a fairy. Tabart lived at a time known for didactic books and moral tales such as A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744) written by John Newberry written to 'infallibly make Tommy a good boy and Polly a good girl' ( Sutherland1977: 43). Tabart has been called benevolent because it is said 'he sought to free the imagination and liberate children from the shackles of the over- earnest moral tale.' (Grenby 2006: 1). Even though the fairy was created for the purpose of providing a moral justification for Jacks actions so that he was just avenging his father rather then being a thief (Goldberg 2001: 20) Tabarts version of Jack and the Beanstalk is less moralistic then other books of the time. He has been called 'courageous' for presenting books without clear moral messages to children (Grenby 2006: 1). The moral tone is explicit at times in Jack as at the conclusion the fairy charges Jack to be dutiful and affectionate to his mother, and to follow his fathers good example'. Ultimately this Jack is a 'good boy', Jack himself states 'I fear nothing when I am doing right' and when he climbs the beanstalk the final time he is sorrowful on his disobedience of his mother even though he is following the fairies orders.
• Chap books were popular but didn't contain the best literature' so the appearance of fairies in 'tawdry chapbooks' seemed to confirm that fairytales had a 'below stairs identity. Publishers like Tabart was prepared to clean up the tales making them more morally acceptable such as he did by adding the fairy (Grenby 2006: 8-10).

Strength and Weakness

• While Jacobs would later disagree with the moralistic undertones these are sometimes sensible things that are not particularly didactic. For instance Jack consults his mother before ascending the beanstalk on the first two occasions ( he had to go against her will the last time as the fairy had warned him not to tell her). That is a reasonable thing to expect whereas in Jacobs version Jack just takes off up the beanstalk with out telling anyone where he has gone. In regard to the fairy I think it is worthwhile as it's not just about morals it also explains Jacks history and adds more magic. However fairy tales are usually quite simple so it is over complicating the theme of the story and making it longer by including the fairy.
• On the second theft the presence of the dog whose barks threatening to expose Jack doesn't seem to belong. Dog is supposed to be mans best friend yet this one was out a giant's side but it didn't show loyalty to the giant either as one expects from a dog in a story.
• The order in which the objects are stolen are illogical and if Jack wasn't following orders he would appear very greedy. Jack first steals (or rather retrieves because they were his fathers) the hen that lays the golden egg but then on his next trip instead of trying to kill the giant he takes bags of gold and silver even though he can get as much gold as he desires from the hen.
• The method of illustration, copper plate engraving allows for relatively fine details. One interesting thing about these illustrations is the way the beanstalk has been printed. The thin stalks clearly show that a beanstalk should not be able to support weight. Another is the way the giant is portrayed he looks more like a man then a giant and he doesn't look vicious. The illustrations hardly seem to match the giant's ugly character but then he did pass him self off to Jacks father as a gentleman and also for a short time the giant in this version was struck with remorse so he may not be as evil as Jacobs ogre. The details of the illustrations actually match this story well for instance the beanstalk does look like a chain which is how it was described.
• The well known Fee fi fo fum lines are absent which is disappointing. There replacement is lifeless just the one line 'wife I smell fresh meat' .

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