Play and the Victorian Child (Group 1)

Various editions of The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak feature an image of Prince Dolor on his cloak, sometimes wearing his spectacles, reaching out to “snatch at the topmost twig of the tallest tree” (Craik 24). Several critics, such as Philipose, suggest that the prince's cloak can be equated with the imagination, allowing him to overcome his physical limitations. On… more

The topics of play and childhood rapidly received attention in the Victorian period, with Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses providing an example of a new way to conceptualize childhood. The ‘garden’ might be understood as the transitional space between childhood and adulthood. Webb discusses the significance of Stevenson’s title: 

The… more

For Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), play represented the “independent outward expression of inward action and life” (29). In Maria Dinah Craik’s The Little Lame Prince and His Traveling Cloak (1874), play and toys are consistently used to contextualize Prince Dolor’s maturation, while also… more