The Cautionary Quiz on Belloc's Hilarious Tales

Answer: His father's elder sister

It was his aunt, his father's elder sister, who
"Confided to Her Husband, 'Drat!
The Miserable Peevish brat!
Why don't they drown the Little Beast?'"

Hilaire Belloc delighted in putting the upper classes and aristocracy into his comic verse. He even published a volume entitled "More Peers" featuring such characters as Lord Uncle Tom, Lord Hippo and Lord Epsom.

Belloc was half-French and half-English. He was born in France but educated in England, and his wonderful facility with the English language and familiarity with its idioms are demonstrated to perfection in the "Cautionary Verses".

Answer: Read or write

Sarah was unable to read a sign that warned: "BEWARE THE VERY FURIOUS BULL". She climbed into the field where the bull was kept.

Luckily the bull was in a playful mood and merely tossed her into a hedge. Sarah was not encouraged to learn her letters by this mishap, however. She was confirmed in her opinion that any writing meant trouble and afterwards kept away from any printed signs whatever they might say.

Answer: Ponto

The honest keeper ran to help Jim when the lion attacked him.

"Ponto," he ordered as he came
(For Ponto was the Lion's name),
"Ponto!" he cried, with angry Frown.
"let go, Sir! Down, Sir! Put it down!"

The grisly fate of Jim is typical of the 'awful warning' stories popular in the early nineteenth century. A child invariably comes to a horrible and violent end, which seems excessive as a punishment for some quite natural fault (in Jim's case it was simply that he slipped his hand from his nanny's and ran off). This had been a tradition in children's literature for centuries, even in fairy tales. It was not until the middle to late nineteenth century that children's books began to be written with the sole aim of entertaining.
Belloc's works "The Bad Children's Book of Beasts", "Cautionary Tales for Children", and the "New Cautionary Tales" were suited to the new satirical and more sophisticated mood of the time and were instantly popular.

Answer: The Second Mrs Tanqueray

"She had refused to take her Niece
To hear this Entertaining Piece:
A Deprivation Just and Wise
To Punish her for Telling Lies."

Sir Arthur Pinero's 'realistic' play of 1893 was considered rather daring, so it might have been unsuitable for Matilda in any case.

Matilda, like the shepherd boy in the fable, told such dreadful lies that no one believed her when she told the truth.

Answer: Because he was blind

It was Maria's own fault she was so hideous: she had spent all her childhood pulling horrible faces at people.

"One morning she was struck like that! -
Her features took their final mould
In shapes that made your blood run cold."

Answer: Peter Goole

"Yes! All day long from 10 till 4!
For half the year or even more;
With but an hour or two to spend
At luncheon with a city friend."

Peter Goole was born into privileged circumstances but he ruined his parents with extravagance. As a last resort they were forced to prise open his money box, but there was nothing in it but two buttons and a pin.

Answer: He became a boot-black

Godolphin was so conscious of his high birth that he refused to shake hands with anyone, even at the age of six. A golden opportunity arose: the court was looking for a page. But when the Lord High Chamberlain proposed the name of Godolphin Horne to the other peers, nobody wanted him.

"No! He wouldn't do at all,
He'd make us feel a lot too small."

Answer: They shoved him into politics

Lord Lundy didn't get on very well in the Cabinet. His habit of bursting into tears for the slightest reason got on the nerves of his colleagues to such an extent that instead of rising in his profession, he sank to the lowliest post.

"Go out and govern New South Wales!"

Answer: Bayswater

"She would deliberately go
And slam the door like Billy-Ho!"

They lived in Palace Green, Bayswater.

There are some wonderful illustrations of Rebecca and her relations in this tale.
The "Cautionary Tales for Children", published in 1906, were illustrated by Basil Blackwood. He had also illustrated Belloc's earlier work, "The Bad Child's Book of Beasts". The poet and the writer made an ideal comic team, but Blackwood was killed in the first years of the First World War.
In 1930 the "New Cautionary Tales" were illustrated by Nicolas Bentley who went on to become a highly successful artist.

Answer: It struck his uncle, who struck him out of his will

Uncle Bill crossed out John's name and substituted that of Miss Charming, his nurse. There are some especially good illustrations to this tale.

Hilaire Belloc is best remembered for these humourous verses, and other much-loved poems such as the lively and stirring "Tarantella" ("Do you remember an inn, Miranda? Do you remember an inn?"), but he was also a hugely prolific writer of serious prose. He was a devout Catholic, as was his contemporary and friend the equally versatile G.K. Chesterton. Belloc's best known work of prose is probably "The Path to Rome", a religious apologetic, but most of his essays have not stood the test of time .