"Hop'O my Thumb leads his Brothers out of the Wood." "Hop'O my Thumb puts on the Seven League Boots. . . ." "Hop'O my Thumb arrives at home before his Brothers. . . ." — third illustration "George Cruikshank's Fairy Library" (1865)

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Hop's further adventures

George Cruikshank

1853

Three etchings each 8.7 cm wide formatted as one

13.7 x 8.7 cm framed

Facing page 9 in George Cruikshank's Fairy Library (1865) with illustrations by George Cruikshank.

The story as translated by George Cruikshank was originally issued in a thirty-page, paperback format, 18 cm high by 13 cm wide, with six engravings, including a frontispiece, number nine in the series, drawn and etched by Cruikshank. It was to this paper-bound version, costing a shilling, that Charles Dickens responded in his scathing 1853 Household Words editorial "Frauds on the Fairies."

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: The Perrault Original

He went to fetch a great knife, and as he returned to the poor children, he whetted it on a long stone which he held in his left hand. He had already seized one, when his wife said to him, —

"Why do you do it at this hour of the night? Will it not be time enough tomorrow?"

"Hold thy peace," replied the ogre, "they will be all the more tender."

"But you have already so much on hand," she persisted. "Here is a calf, two sheep, and half a Pig."

"Thou art right," said the Ogre. "Give them a good supper, that they may not fall away, and put them to bed." The good woman was greatly rejoiced and brought the children plenty for supper, but they could eat nothing, so terrified were they. As for the ogre, he seated himself to drink again, much pleased to think that he had such a feast in store for his friends, and drained a dozen goblets more than usual, so that his head began to ache, and he went to bed.

A. Hop'O my Thumb leads his Brothers out of the Wood.

Little Hop-o' my-Thumb's brothers kept on dancing away until they were tired and out of breath, and then they all sat down to rest themselves. But when they looked round and could not see either their father or mother, they jumped up and ran about to look for them; but little Hop stood where he was, for he had noticed which way his parents had gone off. But, oh! when his brothers could not find their parents anywhere, they all looked at one another, and said, "Oh dear, we are lost! oh dear, where's father and mother? Whatever shall we do?" and they set up such a cry, and came back to the place where little Hop was, who told them that instead of crying they ought to try what they could do to get out of the wood; and if they would help him to do so by carrying him, he thought he could show them the road home. So they left off crying, and the biggest boy took little Hop up in his arms and carried him; and then Master Hop-o'my-Thumb directed him which way to go, for he had noticed particular trees, and had marked them with his knife. So they soon got clear of the wood; an then Hop told his brother to set him on the ground, and then the first thing that he did was to see whereabout the sun was. . . .

* This is what the Indians [i. e., North American aboriginal peoples] do, — they notch the trees, and so find their way through the largest forests. — "Hop-O' My-Thumb and The Seven-League Boots," p. 9.

B. Hop'O my Thumb puts on the Seven League Boots . . . escapes from the Giant and goes home.

Hop-o' my-Thumb looked about and luckily espied a small cave, into which he told his brothers to hide, and had just time to get in himself, when the Ogre, seeing the bank, which was over this cave, laid himself down, as we said, and went to sleep; and as soon as he began to snore, Hop said to his brothers, —

"Now's your time! run off home, and I'll follow you;" but they did not like to leave him behind. However, they trusted to his cleverness; and, as he made a sign to them to go, they did so. Hop-o' my-Thumb then got hold of one of the Boots, which he pulled off the Giant's leg without much difficulty; he then pulled off the other, and thought he would try if they would fit a little foot as well as a big one, as he read of in the story-book. To his great delight, as you may suppose, when he pulled them on they fitted him like a glove.

It was but a "hop, step, and a jump" to his father's hut, so he got there before his brothers. — "Hop-O' My-Thumb and The Seven-League Boots," p. 25-26.

C. Hop'O my Thumb arrives at home before his Brothers, shows the Seven League Boots to his Father & tells him all about the Giant Ogre.

It was but a "hop, step, and a jump" to his father's hut, so he got there before his brothers. He found that his Mother had returned home, and that she and his father were both in tears. They were both overjoyed to see him, and eagerly inquired where his brothers were, upon which he told them they would be there almost directly. His mother took him in her arms, and sobbed and cried over him, but he said, —

"Cheer up, dear father and mother, for I think I have now made all our fortunes;" and he told his father all about the Giant, and showed him the Seven-league Boots; and as he was telling this in came the other boys . . . . — "Hop-O' My-Thumb and The Seven-League Boots," p. 26.

Commentary

The original "List of Illustrations" does not accurately describe this triptych since, after the frontispiece, The Father Proposes to Lose the Children, it states that the subject of the second illustration is Hop-O'My-Thumb and His Brothers Left in the Wood; in fact, the three-panelled piece shows Hop in three central roles: a. saviour of his brothers as he leads the other five out the dense oak forest and into meadowland; b. Hop flying away in the magical Seven-League Boots; and c. Hop as story-teller, finishing his account of the Ogre and the boots as his five brothers enter his parents' cottage. In terms of juxtaposition, he is a tiny figure to the left, then flying through the air to the right, and finally holding centre-stage in the cottage. Although small, he is consistently unperturbed, optimistic, active, and self-confident as the strategist and leader. Significantly, when he finally returns home, the table is well-stocked, and the dresser features platters and a pewter mug — and the father is not drinking. The reader can assess all three panels simultaneously, and so knows in advance that the boys escape from the forbidding forest, that Hop steals the sleeping giant's magic boots, and that the parents will welcome all six children home.

Although the initial movement of the story resembles that of "Hansel and Gretel," the second movement does not involve a cannibalistic witch in a gingerbread cottage but a homicidal ogre in a castle. As the initial panel suggests, in the distance (left) Hop-o'-My-Thumb and his brothers see a light. In the original version, the boys find a cottage. Although the woman who answers their knocking seems kindly, she cautions the boys that her husband is a man-eating giant. Hop-o'-My-Thumb pleads to stay, so that the woman takes pity on them. However, after the giant has come home and eaten his dinner, he discovers the children and plans to eat them. His wife convinces him to wait until the next morning, a suggestion with which the giant agrees. However, Cruikshank has eliminated the section about Hop's tricking the giant into eating his own daughters in the middle of the night, and focuses on Hop's central role in effecting the boys' escape from the castle, and then from the pursuing Ogre. Cruikshank has the reader wait to see a portrait of the Ogre, using his gigantic ankles and feet to suggest what must lie to the left of the frame, thereby engaging the reader in the visualisation of the creature.

Bibliography

British Library. "George Cruikshank's Fairy Library." Romantics and Victorians. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-cruikshanks-fairy-library

Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.

Cruikshank, George. Hop-O'-My-Thumb and the Seven-League Boots. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library. London: David Bogue, 1853. (Price one shilling)

Cruikshank, George. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library: "Hop-O'-My-Thumb," "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," "Cinderella," "Puss in Boots". London: George Bell, 1865.

Guildhall Library blog. "A Gem from Guildhall Library's Shelves: George Cruikshank's Fairy Library by George Cruikshank published by Routledge in London (c. 1870)." 8 August 2014. https://guildhalllibrarynewsletter.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/a-gem-from-guildhall-librarys-shelves-george-cruikshanks-fairy-library-by-george-cruikshank-published-by-routledge-in-london-c1870/

The Hockliffe Project. "Fables and Fairy Tales. 0038A: George Cruikshank, Puss in Boots." http://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0038A.html

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. "George Cruikshank." http://library.tulane.edu/exhibits/exhibits/show/fairy_tales/george_cruikshank

Hubert, Judd D. "George Cruikshank's Graphic and Textual Reactions to Mother Goose." Marvels & Tales, Volume 25, Number 2, 2011 (pp. 286-297). Project Muse. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/462736/pdf

Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.

Toledo Museum. "George Cruikshank's "Hop-O'-My-thumb." Story-Telling in Miniature. http://www.toledomuseum.org/exhibitions/online-catalogues/storytelling-in-miniature/118/

Last modified 20 June 2017