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It may be a question whether the tale of Tom Thumb has come down to us in its original form. Scott, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, puts him in a list of fairies and hobgoblins. His size, however, might account for this; and a fairy page, in Drayton's Nymphidia, is called Tom Thumb. Taylor, in his Certaine Sonnets in Praise of Mr. Thomas the Deceased, in his Workes, 1630, ii, 63, says:

Tom Thumb did through th' Arabian deserts wade,
Where Castor and his brother Pollux shine.

And, again, in Laugh and be Fat, p. 77:—

This author 'mongst the rest in kindnesse comes
To grace thy travels with a world of Toms;
Tom Thumbe, Tom Foole, Tom Piper, and Tom-asse,
Thou Tom of Toms dost all these Toms surpasse.

Harry White, in his Humour, 1660, "is of this opinion, that if the histories of Garrangantua and Tom Thumbe be true, by consequence Bevis of Hampton and Scoggin's Jests must needes bee authenticall.”

It seems hardly necessary to allude to the monstrous assertion made by Thomas Hearne, that Tom Thumb, "however looked upon as altogether fictitious, yet was certainly founded upon some authentic history, as being nothing else originally but a description of King Edgar's dwarf."

72. THE COMICAL AND MERRY TRICKS OF TOM THUMB THE WONDERFUL. 12mo. Paisley, n. d. This is a prose history, formed from the foregoing metrical account of Tom Thumb.

73. THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THAT NOBLE KNIGHT SIR BEVIS OF SOUTHAMPTON. 12mo. Newcastle, n. d.

A prose history, abridged from the romance. It has a cut on the title, evidently copied from that in the old black-letter edition, of Sir Bevis on horseback, attended by his squire. Allusions to Sir Bevis are of very frequent occurrence. Hooper says:-"Men knoweth not what the Gospel is: they read it as they read Bevis of Hampton, or the Gestes of Robin Hood," Early Writings, p. 77. Taylor, the water-poet, mentions him several times in his Workes, 1630, i, 65; ii, 1, 16; iii, 80; and in his Crop-eare Curried, 1644; and Gayton, in his Pleasant Notes, 1654, p. 275, says: "Men may, if they be dispos'd to be merry, seem to discredit the stories of Bevis of Southampton, John-aGreen, and Robin Hood, but that the cities wherein these men sometimes were famous in their hals and publike meeting-places in painted cloth or frames, present the lively histories still unto posterity." The statue of Bevis, mentioned by Pepys, i, 347, is still remaining on the gates of Southampton.

74. THE HISTORY OF THE NOBLE MARQUIS OF SALUS AND PATIENT GRISSEL. 12mo. London, Aldermary Church-yard, n. d.

Abridged and altered from the "Ancient, True, and Admirable History of Patient Grisel, a poore Man's daughter in France", 1619, which was reprinted by Mr. Collier for the Percy Society, 1842. It appears to have been published in this form, and under this

title, at least as early as 1703. In Harry White's Humour, printed about 1660, we read that—" Having lately read the rare history of Patient Grizell, out of it he hath drawne this phylosophicall position, that if all women were of that woman's condition, we should have no imployment for cuckin-stooles."

75. The HISTORY OF JACK OF NEWBURY, CALLED THE CLOTHIER OF ENGLAND. 12mo. London, n. d. An abridged edition, with wood-cuts. This tale appears to have been first printed in 1596, and the eighth edition was published in 1619. The eleventh edition appeared in 1630, entitled, "The Pleasant History of John Winchcomb, in his younger yeares called Jack of Newbery, the famous and worthy Clothier of England, declaring his life and love, together with his charitable deedes and great hospitality, and how he set continually five hundred poore people at worke, to the great benefite of the Commonwealth." In a MS. Diary by one Stoneley, written in 1597, is the following entry:-" To Johns the prynter for the booke of Jack of Newberye at Wynchon, iiij d." Jack of Newbury is thus alluded to in John Taylor's "Jack a Lent, his Beginning and Entertainment, with the mad Prankes of his gentleman-usher Shrove-Tuesday, that goes before him, and his footman Hunger attending," 1630:

:

Of Jack-an-Apes I list not to endite,

Nor of Jack Daw my gooses quill shall write;
Of Jacke of Newbery I will not repeate,

Nor Jacke of both sides, nor of Skip-Jacke neate.

F

76. THE PLEASANT ART OF MONEY-CATCHING, treating of the original and invention of Money; of the misery of wanting it; how persons in straits for money may supply themselves with it; how a man may always keep money in his pocket; how a man may pay debts without money; the true and only way to thrive.

Whilst arts and study's a hatching,

My study is the art of money-catching;
And I, poor I, by sad experience know
That want of money brings a deal of woe.

12mo. Glasgow, 1740.

This was a very popular chap-book, and frequently reprinted.

77. DEAD ALIVE: a True and Particular Account of a Man who came to Life again in the closet of a Surgeon, after he had been publicly executed; how he affrighted the Surgeon, who afterwards assisted him in his escape to Holland, where he became an opulent Merchant. 8vo. London, n. d. Theodore Hook probably founded his novel of Maxwell on this narrative. The scene is laid at Bury in Suffolk, and at Amsterdam.

78. THE HISTORY OF SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON, THRICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, shewing how he came up a poor boy to London, and was received as a scullion by a merchant; his sufferings and afflictions under a cruel cook-maid. How he bought a cat for a penny, and sent her a venture beyond sea, for which he got great riches in exchange. And lastly, how he married his Mas-. ter's daughter, and was made thrice Lord Mayor of London. 12mo. Newcastle, n. d.

79. Another edition. 12mo. Printed by L. How in Petticoat-lane, n. d.

On the title is a wood-cut of Whittington on horseback as Lord Mayor, attended by his mace-bearers. There are several other cuts in the Newcastle edition, very rude and curious. These are the original versions, differing very much from the recent editions. The first edition of this history is probably not in existence. It was certainly published in some shape early in the seventeenth century, the "famous fable of Whittington and his puss" being mentioned in Eastward Hoe, 1605. Stephens thus alludes to it in his Essayes and Characters, 12mo. Lond. 1615:

As if a new-found Whittington's rare cat,
Come to extoll their birth-rights above that
Which nature once intended.

There is, indeed, in existence a black-letter copy in quarto, but it is of a considerably later date. A character in the Parson's Wedding, 1664, says, "I have heard of Whittington and his cat, and others, that have made fortunes by strange means." The Spectator, No. 5, remarks, "I am credibly informed that there was once a design of casting into an opera the story of Whittington and his Cat, and that in order to it, there had been got together a great quantity of mice; but Mr. Rich, the proprietor of the play-house, very prudently considered that it would be impossible for the cat to kill them all, and that, consequently, the princes of the stage might be as much infested with mice as the prince of the island was before the cat's

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