The Old Hag in a Red Cloak

The Old Hag in a Red Cloak, A Romance

Inscribed to the Author of The Grim White Woman. 1801

[This document was prepared by Prof. Douglass H. Thomson and appears on LitGothic by permission.]

By George Watson-Taylor

These lines were written long before the work upon which they are founded was presented to the Public, and were circulated with it, in manuscript, among the very few friends for whose amusement they were originally composed. They were never designed for publication; but a copy of them having appeared in a collection of poems, called The School for Satire, with the many errors incidental to productions that pass through the hands of various transcribers, the Author feels it but justice to them, such as they are, to have a few copies printed in a corrected form, for the use of those friends who may think them worth preserving.

As they have acquired this degree of publicity, he thinks it also right to state, that no personal motives whatever dictated their composition. They were directed against the new creation of poetical romances in general; and the Author of the Grim White Woman having taken the lead in that department, he consequently became the chief object of criticism. A lively imagination, and an easy and elegant flow of versification, are worthy of higher subjects, and of nobler exertions, than those of vitiating the taste of the Public, or of supplying it, if already vitiated, with a species of composition, which has its principal, and, perhaps, only merit, in creating wonder, and which, by repetition, ceases even to be wonderful.

Mat Lewis was little, Mat Lewis was young, [1]
A spyglass adown his breast dangling hung;
A spyglass he used, for he could not well see;
A spyglass he used, for shortsighted was he.

A phantom pursuing, in Parliament Street,
He chanced an Old Hag in a Red Cloak to meet;
When the Hag in a Red Cloak thus awfully said,
"Pray give me a sixpence to buy me some bread!"

"I'll give thee no sixpence to buy thee thy bread,"
To the Hag in a Red Cloak Mat cruelly said;
Then down to the House in a huff strutted he,
(Sure all the world knows little Mat's an M. P.) [i]

But ever, as onwards he furiously flew,

Did the Hag in a Red Cloak with curses pursue; [2]

She cursed him the faster the faster he went,
And mutter'd these words of mysterious intent: [3]

"Though cold be thy heart, and thy feelings as cold,
Though bold now thy mien, and thy language as bold,
When the clock at St. Giles's is heard to strike 'One,' [4]
A deed to confound thee—a deed shall be done."

She spoke; and then vanish'd at once from his sight, [5]
In a cellar as dark as the darkness of night;
Whilst every five minutes this horrible strain
Rush'd in fearful recurrence o'er Mat's tortur'd brain.

From the House about 'Twelve,' to his home he repairs, [6]

To creek seem'd the doors, and to crack seem'd the stairs. [7]

He put out the candle, his clothes off he threw,
When St. Giles's struck “One”—and the door open flew.

    The Hag in a Red Cloak of Parliament Street, [8]
    The Hag in a Red Cloak whom Mat chanced to meet,
    The Hag in a Red Cloak, who to him once said,
    "Pray give me a sixpence to buy me some bread,"

By a sort of a blue and a glimmering light, [9]
Rode quite round his bedstead, and full in his sight;
She rode on a carriage that's hight a birch broom,
And her breath spread the whiffings of gin through the room. [10]

"I ask'd thee," she cried, in a hoarse hollow voice,

"For sixpence: thou gavest not: accursed in thy choice!

For now should'st thou feel, thy remorse is too late;

Thy doom is decided: prepare for thy fate.

"Know that I, who indignantly bore thy abuse,

Am—thy mother, oh shame! and my name Mother Goose; [ii]

To a German Romancer thee, dreaming, I bore [11]

And we both dipp'd thee deep in the tale-telling lore.

"Too soon thou outdid'st all my wonders of old,

And instead of my tales, thy romances were told;

With nurses and children I lost my true place,

And from Newbury's shop [iii] I was turn'd in disgrace. [12]

            "But vain are thy arts to supplant me on earth,
             For know that immortal I am in my birth,
             Can break all thy charms by a mightier spell,
             And all thy productions in vapour dispel.

"Ye ghosts, and hobgoblins, and horrible shapes, [13]

Ye lions and griffins, ye dragons and apes,

Ye strange jumbled figures from river or den,
Ye fire-born monsters, and fishified men; [iv]

"Ye raw-head and bloody bones, spectres, and shades,

            Ye water-sprite swains, and transmogrified maids,
            As your grandmother's curses on each of you fall,
            To hell and the devil fly one and fly all!"

            Then the ghosts and hobgoblins, and horrible shapes,
            The lions and griffins, the dragons and apes,
            The strange-jumbled figures from river or den,
            The fire-born monsters, and fishified men,

            The raw-head and bloody-bones, spectres, and shades,
            The water-sprite swains, and transmogrified maids,
            When they heard the known curse upon each of them fall

To hell and the devil fled one and fled all;

Fled in fire, in water, in smoke, and in hail,

Some green, and some black, some red, and some pale, [14]

Fled with accents of horror, of sport, or of wit,
Trallira! trallara! or Fal de ral tit. [15]

Whilst, in state that appall'd him, uprose to his view

Mother Goose's own Band, and around him they flew,

And with laughter sarcastic, shrieks mingled with fun, [16]

Quizz'd, taunted, tormented the reprobate son. [17]

A Knight led them on, who was first to assail,

And was arm'd cap-a-pie in a clear coat of mail, [v]

Sir Horn-book hight he; [vi] at the very first glance

Mat saw he was Lord o'er the fields of Romance. [18]

When Blue Beard for blood loudly howl'd o'er,

And sister Anne pleaded so well for her life;
The Spectre, Mat's glory,[19] loud shriek'd with affright, [20]

And plunged from his breast in the shadows of night. [vii]

When Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf howl'd amain, [viii]

            Fear shook all his limbs, and unsettled his brain;
            But the pangs that he suffer'd can ne'er be surpass'd,
            As Little Cock Robin's sad Funeral pass'd! [ix]

Mat Lewis, while horror still bristled his hair,
To his spirits appeal'd, but no spirits were there!
And lo! in their place, his dismay to complete,
Mother Goose, all triumphant, still stood at his feet. [21]

When exhausted, he falter’d,—“Oh mother, I own

O’er the realms of romance that thou rulest alone;

Yet spare me, since thus I acknowledge my crime,

The Epilogue, Sonnet, and Lady-like rhime."

Mother Goose, thus confirm'd in the rights of her throne,

            Kindly spared to her son what was justly his own,
            And left him in future to trifle his time
            In Epilogues, Sonnets, and Lady-like rhime. [22]

But now the gray cock told the coming of day !
Mother Goose from her victim straight vanish'd away,

Mat Lewis, recalling the deeds of the night,
Remember'd his vows, and resolved so to write.

If you wish me the moral, dear Mat, to rehearse, [23]

'Tis, that nonsense is nonsense, in prose or in verse;

That all, who to talents make any pretence,

Should write not at all, or should write Common SENSE.

Note on the Text: (Notes in blue direct the reader to Watson-Taylor's original commentary on the poem; notes in red, to the present editor's.)

As Watson-Taylor notes in his preface to the poem, this parody of Lewis's Tales of Wonder appeared in The School for Satire: or, A Collection of Modern Satirical Pieces Written During the Present Reign (London: Jaques and Co., 1802). There also exists an earlier "private printing" as The Old Hag in a Red Cloak. A Romance (London: S. Gosnell, 1801). Neither of these editions contains the footnotes that closely track Watson-Taylor's parody of individual ballads from Tales of Wonder; these appear in the text of the poem found in his Pieces of Poetry, with Two Dramas (Chiswick: C. Whittingham, College House, 1830), the copy-text for this on-line edition.

George Watson-Taylor (1770-1841) served as a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies in England (Newport, Hampshire 1816-1818, Seaford 1818-1820, East Looe 1820-1826 and Devizes 1826-1832). Born into a West Indian plantation family, George Watson married Anna Susanna Taylor, daughter of one of the wealthiest land owning families in Jamaica, and took on his wife’s surname. His great wealth allowed him to be one of the greatest connoisseur-collectors of the early 19th Century (go here to visit an auction of his book collection). Watson-Taylor’s remark that this poem was composed “long before” the publication of Tales of Wonder in 1801 and “circulated” with the collection in manuscript clearly implies he had some dealings with Lewis, but I have not uncovered any information on his relationship with his fellow M.P. and West Indies property owner.

Walter Scott, a contributor to Tales of Wonder, owned a manuscript copy of this poem, as noted by J.G. Cochrane's Catalog of the Library at Abbotsford (Edinburgh, 1838), and he most likely refers to "The Old Hag in a Red Cloak" in his “Essay on Imitations of the Ancient Ballad”: "A very clever parody was made on the style and the person of the author [meaning Lewis], and the world laughed as willingly as if it had never applauded" (see the first stanza of the poem for reference to the "person of the author").

Watson-Taylor's Notes to "The Old Hag in the Red Cloak"

1. “Lord Ronald was handsome, Lord Ronald was young, / The Greenwood he travers'd, and gaily he sung, &c.” “The Grim White Woman”

2. “And ever, as onwards the foaming steed flew, / Did Janet, with curses, the false one pursue.” “The Grim White Woman”

3. “She mutter'd strange words of mysterious intent.” “The Grim White Woman”

4. “When the clock in St. Christopher's church struck ‘One’." “The Grim White Woman”

“When the bell of the Castle toll'd ‘One.’” “Alonzo and Imogine”

5. " * * * * * * * * * * * * * Knight / And Courser vanish'd from her sight." "The Water King"

6. "Then frantic with love and remorse home she sped, / Lock'd the door of her chamber! and sunk on her bed." "The Grim White Woman."

7. "And swift up the crackling old staircase proceeds." "Osric the Lion."

8. "The Grim White Woman, who haunts yon wood, / The Grim White Woman, who feasts on blood, &c."

9. "When lo! near the hearth, by a caldron's blue light" "The Grim White Woman"

"The lights in the chamber burnt blue." “Alonzo and Imogine”

10. "And her breath spread the chillness of death through the room." "The Grim White Woman"

11. From such a connexion it, is not surprising that there should have proceeded so motley a generation. The horrible of the German blood, blended with the wonderful of that of the Goose's, is finely exemplified in the works of their descendant.

12. Who is so old as to forget that Mr. Newbury, the Bookseller, in St. Paul's Churchyard, is the High Priest of the venerable personage whom we are now celebrating? How inferior are all the hot-pressed, wire-woven works, the vignettes, and the head and tail-pieces, of the present day, to Mr. Newbury's golden decorations and splendid embellishments, the delight and the wonder of our infantine imaginations!

13. Ample descriptions of the various beings enumerated in this incantation, and of the modes of their subsequent flight, may be found in the popular romances of the day, where flit the " pale spectres," and " ghosts all in white;" where " guilty ghosts shriek;" " loud shrieks reveal the pangs of spectres, and clouds conceal their forms;" " crowned with reeds from out the brook lovely women rise;" " wild bears are held in magical fetters, and red dragons are charmed;" " giants of flame descend on dragons;" " crowns of lightning confine fair locks;" " brands are wafted on the lightning's red wing;" " steeds are made of water clear, whose housings are of sand;" " boons are given of shirts bleached in the beams of the moon;" " skeletons' heads are exposed, where the worms they crept in and the worms they crept out;" " demons feed on entrails;" " demons yell, cloud-fashioned halls dissolve, thunders bellow, rains beat," &c. &c. &c.; but wherein especially is conveyed an awful warning against fair damsels submitting to the addresses of these supernatural personages,

"For she, who at night weds an Element King,
Next morning must serve for his brother's repast!!!" "The Cloud King"

14. See the preceding note.

15. “Trallira! trallara!” “The Grim White Woman.”

“Ding-a-ding, ding-a-ding, &c.” “The Grim White Woman.”

16. "Shrieks mingled with laughter." "Osric the Lion"

17. "She said, and the demons their prey flock'd around,

They dashed him, with horrible yell on the ground. "Osric the Lion"

18. The custom cannot yet be forgotten (although now as obsolete as knight errantry itself) of making our first addresses to literature through the medium of a transparent coat of horn.

19. The glories of the Castle Spectre were only eclipsed by those of Blue Beard, on the boards of Drury Lane Theatre.

20. "Loud shrieks the Spectre's pangs reveal'd." "Sir Hengist"

21. Lord Ronald, while horror still bristled his hair,

To Ellen now turn'd;—but no Ellen was there!

And lo! in her place, his surprise to complete,

Lay Janet, all covered with blood, at his feet. “The Grim White Woman.”

22. But now the gray cock told the coming of day !

The fiends with their victim straight vanish'd away:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

With terror recalling the deeds of the night. "Sir Osric the Lion."

23. If you bid me, fair damsels, my moral rehearse,

It is, that young ladies ought never to curse;

For no one will think her well bred, or polite,

Who devotes little babes to Grim Women in White. “The Grim White Woman.”

Notes

i. In their attacks on Lewis’s Gothic writing, critics repeatedly call attention to the fact that Lewis served as a Member of Parliament. See, for example, Coleridge’s Review of The Monk: “Yes! the author of the Monk signs himself a LEGISLATOR! We stare and tremble.”

ii. John Ruff conjectures that "it is quite possible that the mention of Mother Goose in this poem inspired the author of Tales of Terror (1801) to put a copy of Mother Goose on the decorated title-page of his book" (99). See below.

Title Page of Tales of Terror (1801)

iii. John Newbery (1713-1767), noted bookseller of children's literature, published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (London, 1760). A.H. Bullen's 1904 facsimile of Newbery's 1791 edition of Mother Goose's Melody is available on-line.

iv. In his derisive catalog of over worn Gothic conventions, Watson-Taylor refers to at least two specific ballads from Tales of Wonder: "The Fire-King" ("fire-born monsters") and "The Fisherman" ("fishified men").

v. "cap a pie": from head to foot

vi. A hornbook is a book that serves as primer for study. To help students learn to write and form characters, these books provided pages containing the alphabet and study texts covered with a sheet of transparent horn and fixed in a frame with a handle. See Watson-Taylor's note 18.

vii. Lewis's play The Castle Spectre The Castle Spectre (1797) was performed forty-seven times at Drury Lane and earned its author the unheard of sum of over fifteen thousand pounds. Watson-Taylor contends that George Colman the Younger's Blue Beard; or, Female Curiosity (1798) surpassed The Castle Spectre in popularity (see his note 19).

viii. Tales of Terror contains an especially gruesome rendering of this, entitled "The Wolf-King, or Little Red-riding-hood."

From Tales of Terror

ix. "Who Killed Cock Robin?" is a favorite nursery rhyme, an apt choice for Mother Goose's tales.