Version of Benjamin Tabart (1807)
Tabarts History(1767-1833)
London bookseller and proprietor of the Juvenile Library. In 1607 he began a series of sixpenny books containing fairytales and other popular stories. ( Zipes 2000: 510).
They did not contain new stories but retellings of indigenous British stories which were often advertised as being inspired by theatrical productions. (Grenby 2006: 1).
The Beginning
• 'In the days of King Alfred...'
• Widow indulged only son Jack to a fault.
• Jacks follies don't owe to his bad disposition but that his mother had never checked him.
• One day Jacks mother has no money to purchase food for another day, and must sell her cow. In distress she reproached Jack for the first time 'you have brought me beggary and ruin'.
The Beans
• On the way to sell the cow Jack meets a butcher, who has coloured beans in his hat. A bargain is struck instantly, 'the cow exchanged for a few poultry beans'.