John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous

John Cheap, the Chapman's Library. Vol. 1: Comic and Humorous - The Scottish Chap Literature of Last Century, Classified

A name is very often only a definition of a thing in one of its aspectsgenerally the most obvious to ordinary observation, though not always the most comprehensive or characteristic. The name Chap-book is an example of names of this class, and owes its origin to the fact that the tracts which we now recognise by it were firstand, indeed, during the whole time of their circulation as popular literaturesold by chapmen, or pedlars. With the extinction of these itinerants, the popular circulation of chap-books has ceased; and it seemed as iffrom the flimsy nature of their get-upthis form of literature was about to vanish, like the compositions of our earliest minstrels, when a taste for collecting specimens sprung up among the curious in literature. To meet the demand for collections which the spread of this taste originated, the present issue has been projected. What purpose, it may be asked, does their preservation serve? Of no class might this be more properly inquired than of the Religious, which may be supposed to admit of less scope for originality of treatment than any other; yet an examination of a few of the tracts under this head soon shows us the popular creed in forms of thought and illustration quite unexpected, and with a definiteness and force the originality of which cannot be mistaken. The[ii] same character, of course, applies in a more marked degree to classes where the composer was less influenced by prepossessed ideas, and where his only boundaries were the limits of his own imagination, and the deference which he was careful to pay to the prejudices of his readers. That these carelessly got-up publications constituted the popular literature of the peasantry and a large part of the urban population of Scotland for about half a century, is a fact which no student of our recent history will wisely ignore. They possess one advantage over the sensational reading of the present day penny journals, in that they represent the opinions and manners of those who read them, and, consequently, have a truthfulness and reality of which their London-manufactured substitutes are entirely destitute. The Chap-book is a mirror of rural opinions and manners; the Penny Sensational is only evidence of a vitiated popular taste. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 62080
Author: Graham, Dougal
Release Date: May 10, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English