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Passage Illustrated

Jack waited for two or three hours, until the Giant had evidently drunk himself stupid, and then his great head rolled about, and at last he fell back in his chair in a sound sleep, snoring at such a rate that it quite shook the ground where Jack was standing. Now is the moment, thought he; and stepping boldly forward, he mounted upon a stool that stood by the table, when he saw the Golden Hen sitting in the basket upon her eggs. At the sight of Jack she began to "cluck" loudly; but Jack quickly cried "Adza Padza!" [as instructed by the Fairy earlier] and the Hen started up and ran to him, fluttered her wings, and jumped upon his hand. He then descended from the stool, and making for the hall door, when he heard a shrill harsh voice cry out, "Master! master! thieves! thieves!" Jack stopped, perfectly astounded, for he thought the Giant was alone, his wife having gone up into the tower to bed in the early part of the evening, which she did whenever she saw her husband getting tipsy, as he always ill-used and beat her when he was intoxicated; and, looking round to see who it could be, he discovered a wee little Dwarf, who grinned at him good-humouredly, and motioned him to go on, whilst he kept on crying "Master! master!" — "Jack and the Bean-stalk," p. 19-20.

The Context in the Perrault Original

First, they entered a fine large hall, magnificently furnished; they then passed through several spacious rooms, all in the same style of grandeur; but they appeared to be quite forsaken and desolate. A long gallery was next; it was very dark — just light enough to show that, instead of a wall on one side, there was a grating of iron, which parted off a dismal dungeon, from whence issued the groans of those poor victims whom the cruel giant reserved in confinement for his own voracious appetite. Poor Jack was half dead with fear, and would have given the world to have been with his mother again, for he now began to fear that he should never see her more, and gave himself up for lost; he even mistrusted the good woman, and thought she had let him into the house for no other purpose than to lock him up among the unfortunate people in the dungeon. At the farther end of the gallery there was a spacious kitchen, and a very excellent fire was burning in the grate. The good woman bid Jack sit down, and gave him plenty to eat and drink. Jack, not seeing any thing here to make him uncomfortable, soon forgot his fear, and was just beginning to enjoy himself, when he was aroused by a loud knocking at the street-door, which made the whole house shake: the giant’s wife ran to secure him in the oven, and then went to let her husband in. Jack heard him accost her in a voice like thunder, saying: "Wife, I smell fresh meat." "Oh! my dear," replied she, "it is nothing but the people in the dungeon." The giant appeared to believe her, and walked into the very kitchen where poor Jack was concealed, who shook, trembled, and was more terrified than he had yet been. At last, the monster seated himself quietly by the fire-side, whilst his wife prepared supper. By degrees Jack recovered himself sufficiently to look at the giant through a small crevice. He was quite astonished to see what an amazing quantity he devoured, and thought he never would have done eating and drinking. When supper was ended, the giant desired his wife to bring him his hen. A very beautiful hen was then brought, and placed on the table before him. Jack’s curiosity was very great to see what would happen: he observed that every time the giant said "Lay!" the hen laid an egg of solid gold. The giant amused himself a long time with his hen; meanwhile his wife went to bed. At length the giant fell asleep by the fire-side, and snored like the roaring of a cannon.

At daybreak, Jack, finding the giant still asleep, and not likely to awaken soon, crept softly out of his hiding-place, seized the hen, and ran off with her. He met with some difficulty in finding his way out of the house, but at last he reached the road with safety. He easily found the way to the bean-stalk, and descended it better and quicker than he expected. — http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/68/fairy-tales-and-other-traditional-stories/5089/jack-and-the-bean-stalk/

Commentary

Cruikshank was already a distinguished caricaturist and illustrator of books for children and adults when he produced this work. His illustrations for the first English translation of Grimm's Fairy Tales were praised widely, but his own rewriting of fairytales was criticised, most prominently by Charles Dickens. This was not due to the quality of the illustrations, but because, in line with his temperance beliefs, Cruikshank rewrote aspects of the fairytales to warn the reader against the evils of alcohol. Thus, for instance, . . . in "Jack and the Beanstalk", the giant is an alcoholic. Dickens, a friend of Cruikshank, was outraged at what he considered to be a betrayal of the essence of fairytales and, in protest he published an essay in his weekly magazine Household Words entitled "Frauds on the Fairies" in protest (1853). — The British Library, Romantics and Victorians. See more at https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/george-cruikshanks-fairy-library#sthash.u2f5mNF3.dpuf

​After the preparatory triptych involving the fairy and the magic bean and the original​frontispiece fuses the key elements of the story: the hero's quest, supernatural challenges, and the natural world in which the hero and his family toil at the opening of the story, Cruikshank depicts Jack's adversary. The realia in the background suggest a strong correspondence between Cruikshank's text and the image of the drunken Giant, Swillenbutz (a pseudo-Scandinavian name suggesting that he is an inebriate who makes an ass of himself when in his cups) fast asleep. The "large can" (pewter tankard of gigantic proportions), the "great lamp," and flat basket containing small, golden eggs are mentioned on the page facing the illustration, but the giant's wholly believable club is not — although it will become a significant prop later in the story. The door of the oven in which Jack has been hiding all the while is not depicted as it is in the kitchen, on the other side of the courtyard. Nevertheless, the castle's great hall as Cruikshank has described it several pages earlier closely corresponds to the details in the third illustration for the story:

[The kindly giantess] took [Jack] across the court-yard into the castle, past a large hall, upon the walls of which hung shields, and spears, and helmets, bows and arrows, battle-axes, surmounted with boars' and stags' heads; from the roof hung an immense iron lamp by a chain, and there was a table as high as a four-post bedstead, and an immense arm-chair to match: this was the Giant's table and chair. [17]

The addition of the turncoat dwarf who pays mere lip-service to his master by alerting the besotted giant of an intruder without actually awakening him is an interesting touch since it generates suspense, and anticipates Jack's getting down from the stool to make his getaway. The focal point of the illustration remains the bearded, long-haired Danish giant, and his enormous club which Cruikshank describes later in the tale as "the trunk of a good-sized tree" (23).

The only major difference between the Tabart [1807: "Benjamin Tabart, At the Juvenile and School Library, No.157, New Bond-Street"] text and most modern day re-tellings is that Jack is carefully exonerated in advance from his depredations from the giant. Before he even approaches the giant's castle, from which he will steal the hen that lays the golden egg, the giant's money bags and his magic harp, Jack has met a fairy who explains that all these things rightfully belonged to Jack's father, whom the giant has killed. Jack becomes therefore an avenger of his father's death and an instrument of the fate which always ensures that natural justice prevails, rather than the indolent, happy-go-lucky adventurer which he seems to be at the beginning of the tale and which he probably was while the tale remained in the oral tradition. — "Introductory Essay," CTS: The Hockliffe Project. http://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0019.html

The boorish, gangly Giant may even be a reflection of a more recent Danish visitor to England, the children's writer Hans Christian Andersen, "The Danish man of letters, a tall, gaunt and rather ungainly character" (Alberge), whom Dickens's daughter Georgina nicknamed the "bony bore who stayed on and on" after he had been Dickens's guest at Gad's Hill in the summer of 1857. The novelist had met the Dane on his first English visit in June 1847, when he stayed briefly with the Dickens family at the seaside resort of Broadstairs on 13 August. After his extended and not wholly welcome stay ten years later at Dickens's Kentish estate of five weeks, the family commemorated the visit that was supposed to last a mere two weeks in a parodic manner of ". . . Figure of Historical Im,portance Slept Here":

Dickens dropped polite hints that he should leave. After he finally left, Dickens wrote on the mirror in the guestroom: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks — which seemed to the family ages!" — Alberge, and Slaster, 429.

Since Cruikshank and Dickens, although estranged, travelled in the same publishing circles, Cruikshank is sure to have heard of Dickens's frustration with his Danish visitor. Although the visitor had a long nose and bony face, he was clean-shaven and tidy in his appearance, unlike the shag-haired, villainous bully Swillenbutz, and certainly not given to the excessive consumption of English wheat-beer, a habit which literally proves the giant's downfall.

Other Scenes involving the formidable Danish Giant, Swillenbutz

Left: George Cruikshank's second realisation of the giant as he hurls a boulder at Jack as he absconds with the magic harp (facing p. 24), Jack and the Fairy Harp, escaping from the Giant (1854). Centre: Cruikshank's more gripping scene of the giant's descending the bean-stalk to take vengeance on Jack, The Fairies tie the Giant up in the Bean Stalk (facing p. 26). Right: Cruikshank's depiction of the captive giant taken before King Alfred and his soldiers at Sir Ethelbert's keep after the defeat of the invading Danes, Jack brings the Giant prisoner to King Alfred (facing p. 30). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]

Bibliography

Alberge, Dalya. "Hans Christian Andersen's visit no fairytale for Charles Dickens." The Australian. 27 May 2008. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/andersen-visit-no-dickens-fairytale/news-story/f7a048fbe9a22add095299aaa9762e0b

Bentley, Nicolas; Michael Slater and Nina Burgis. The Dickens Index. Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1990.

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. The History of Jack & the Bean-Stalk. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. George Cruikshank's Fairy Library. London: David Bogue, 1854. (Price one shilling) 8 etchings on 6 tipped-in pages, including frontispiece.

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

Davis, Paul. Charles Dickens A to Z. The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Checkmark and Facts On File, 1998.

Dickens, Charles. A Child's History of England. Illustrated by F. W. Topham and Marcus Stone. Holiday Romance and Other Writings for Children. Ed. Gillian Avery. London: Everyman & J. M. Dent, 1995. Pp. 2-395.

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/

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

"Introductory Essay." Fables and Fairy Tales. 0019: Anon., "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk." CTS: The Hockliffe Project. http://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0019.html

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

Perrault, Charles. "Jack and the Beanstalk." Fairy Tales and Other Traditional Stories. Lit2Go. http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/68/fairy-tales-and-other-traditional-stories/5089/jack-and-the-bean-stalk/

Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing. New Haven and London: Yale U. P., 2009.

Vogler, Richard, The Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. New York: Dover, 1979.

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Last modified 26 June 2017