Willis P. Hazard

In 1851 a book entitled The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg: Including the Story of Reynard the Fox was published in London. It contained six short stories featuring animal characters, and was inspired by a display of stuffed animals made by the German taxidermist Herrmann Ploucquet for the 1851 London Great Exhibition. The sixth and final story in this collection was, as the title makes plain, a retelling of Reynard. This story was subsequently published on its own, both in England and America. In England it was published in 1861 by the Dalziel brothers, who had worked on the engravings used in The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg. In America it was published by Willis P. Hazard, in Philadelphia, in 1852. This 1852 Hazard edition was simply a reprinting of the Reynard story from the year before, but in 1861 Hazard revised the story, publishing it with the New York-based firm, Leavitt & Allen. This edition that I am reviewing is the Leavitt & Allen one from 1861. Readers interested in the version upon which it is based should seek out The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg (with the caveat that some editions were published without the Reynard story), or, if they want to read the Hazard edition from 1852, they can find it HERE, at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature.

I enjoyed this slim, 31-page retelling, and found that I preferred the simplified (possibly Americanized?) language here more than I did the language of the version upon which it based, in The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg. This was, in fact, the first American-published title that I considered for my masters dissertation, which I did on three centuries of Reynard retellings for children in the Anglophone world. To give a sense of the differences in language and tone, I'll quote the opening passage of each.

The Comical Creatures from Wurtemberg (as well as the Hazard edition of 1852) reads:

"About the feast of Whitsuntide, when the woods were in their lustyhood and gallantry, when every tree was clothed in the green and white livery of glorious leaves and sweet-smelling blossoms, when the earth was covered in her fairest mantle of flowers, and the sweet birds entertained the groves with the delight of their harmonious songs, the Lion, the Royal King of Beasts, made solemn proclamation that all quadrupeds whatsoever should attend his court, and celebrate this great festival."

The Story of Reynard, from 1862, reads:

"Once, when the woods were green, and the earth was covered with her fairest mantle of flowers, and the sweet birds entertained with the delight of their songs, the Lion, the Royal King of Beasts, made solemn proclamation that all quadrupeds whatsoever should attend his court, and celebrate a great festival."

Comparing the two, I found myself wondering if Hazard omitted the reference to Whitsuntide because Americans generally do not use the term, when referring to Pentecost. The second is clearly based upon the first, but is less effusive in its descriptions. Whichever one the reader prefers, they are both available online, and are recommended to fans of the Reynard story, and to those who enjoy 19th-century etching and/or engraving illustration.… (meer)