|
The Adventures of Humpty Dumpty
This first Humpty Dumpty was a nickname for a gigantic wooden battering ram built for Chuck's army during England's Civil War. "He" was designed to roll across the River Severn and up against the walls of Gloucester, which was being held in the control of Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads. Unfortunately for Humpty, he was no match for Cromwell and crew - and ended up being wrecked in the Severn, drowning hundreds of soldiers to the helpless dismay of "all the King's horses and all the King's men". Over the years, the story of Humpty Dumpty was told and retold with varying degrees of accuracy. Some accounts featured Humpty as the King of England himself, while still others, including the popular Nursery Rhyme, featured him as an egg. And yet another take on Humpty's tale, which we'd like to focus on this week, comes in this 1877 "chapbook" for "Gantz' Sea Foam". Back in the 19th century, peddlers called "chapmen" would go around town selling wares - and they would often present books, or "chapbooks" to customers as an attempt to promote various products. The word "chap" came from an Old World word for cheap, and indeed, these books were either given away for free or were sold for a very cheap price. In this particular example featuring The Adventures of Humpty Dumpty, we have a classic example of a Victorian Age chapbook. In fact, this could possibly be the first appearance of a costumed comic character. And this Humpty is certainly an interesting sight to behold, with his huge, craggy (almost egg-like) white head, rather shrunken body clad in courtly garb, and twisted, red-lipped grin. The chapbook adventure begins with Mr. Dumpty noticing a can of Gantz' Sea Foam in "yonder first class grocery". It is exactly what he wants, for the merits of the economical and healthful baking powder are not lost on him. Humpty immediately decides he must have the "perfectly pure" baking powder - after all, "it makes the lightest pies and bread" and, Humpty even thinks "t'would almost raise the dead"! So, away Humpty goes with his trusty can of Sea Foam to embark on a baking brouhaha. But before he does, we are given two pages devoted to describing the Sea Foam powder as "the best in the world" that saves money, promotes good health and is double the strength of other baking powder. Then we return to Humpty, who, upon getting the Sea Foam home, gets himself into a sticky situation. Dear Humpty, feeling very enthusiastic, puts a smidge too much Sea Foam in his bread recipe - and thus, his dough begins to rise uncontrollably. In a last ditch effort to stop the wayward dough, Humpty jumps on top of it...to no avail. The dough keeps rising, with Humpty in tow, until it finally launches into space - only dropping Humpty upon reaching the moon. Humpty tumbles back to Earth, unscathed, mind you, and the tale ends with him "quite safe at home, lauding the merits of Sea Foam". Of course, chapbooks such as this one were wildly popular in the late 19th century, but were soon replaced by comics in the newspaper strips and magazines. And with the new comics came new characters...and despite the attempts of all the King's Horses and all the King's men, Humpty wasn't heard from in comics again.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
