A gentle craft, that hath the art

To steal soon into a ladies heart;

Here you may see what youth and love can do:

The crown doth stoop to the maker of a shooe.

Following the title are copies of verses "to all the good Yeomen of the Gentle Craft", and "the old Shooe-maker's advice to his Son, being the Downfall of Ale-wives." On the last page is a song, "How a Shoemaker's Widow fell in love with her Man". This edition contains twenty-nine leaves, and sixteen cuts.

67. THE PRINCELY HISTORY OF CRISPIN AND CRISPANIUS, OR THE GENTLE CRAFT, shewing what renowned princes, heroes, and worthies, have been of the Shoemakers' trade, both in this and other kingdoms; likewise why it's call'd the Gentle Craft, and that they say a Shoemaker's son is a Prince born. 12mo. London, Printed by L. How in Petticoat-Lane, n. d.

An abridgment of the last, with several wood-cuts. It commences with the tale of Hugh and Winifred, daughter of Donvallo, King of Flintshire: and then follows the story of Crispin and Crispianus. Deloney's Gentle Craft was published in 1598, and Harrington has an epigram upon it. I have an edition of this chap-book printed at Newcastle about 1760, having a curious cut on the title evidently much older than the tract, and concluding with "A brief Account of the strange prodigies and other wonderful things that happened during the Mayoralty of Sir Simon Eyre, Lord Mayor of London, who was a Shoemaker."

68. THE SHOEMAKER'S GLORY, OR THE PRINCELY HISTORY OF THE GENTLE CRAFT, shewing, &c. 12mo. London, Aldermary Church-yard, n. d.

69. NO JEST like a true JEST, being a compendious record of the merry Life and mad Exploits of Capt. James Hind, the great robber of England; together with the close of all at Worcester, where he was drawn, hanged, and quartered, for High Treason against the Commonwealth, Sept. 24, 1652. 12mo. Stratford-upon-Avon, n. d. This very popular history has been reprinted up to the present time in the north of England. The fourth chapter relates "how Hind was enchanted by an old hag for the term of three years," who gave him "a little box almost like a sun-dial," saying, "when you are in distress, open this, and that way you see the star turn out, go and shall escape." you

70. THE HISTORY OF THOMAS HICKATHRIFT: Part the First.—The History of Thomas Hickathrift : Part the Second. 12mo. London, n. d.

With numerous cuts. Thomas Hickathrift belongs to the same series as Jack the Giant-killer, one of the popular corruptions of old Northern romances. It seems to allude to some of the insurrections in the Isle of Ely, such as that of Hereward, described in Wright's Essays, 1846, ii, 91. The first part contains five chapters:-1. Tom's birth and parentage. 2. How Tom Hickathrift's great strength came to be known. 3. How Tom became a brewer's servant; how he killed a giant, and came to be called Mr. Hickathrift. 4.

How Tom kept a pack of hounds, and of his being attacked by some highwaymen. 5. Tom meets with the tinker, and of the battle they fought.—The contents of the second part are as follows:-1. Tom Hickathrift and the Tinker conquer ten thousand rebels. 2. Tom Hickathrift and the Tinker are sent for to court, and of their kind entertainment. 3. Tom, after the death of his mother, goes a wooing, and of a trick he served a gallant who had affronted him. 4. How Tom served two troopers, whom his spark had hired to beset him. 5. Tom, going to be married, is set upon by one-and-twenty ruffians, and of the havock he made. 6. Tom makes a feast for all the poor widows in the adjacent towns, and how he served an old woman, who stole a silver cup. 7. Sir Thomas and his Lady are sent for up to court, and of what happened at that time. 8. Tom is made governor of East Angles, now called the Isle of Thanet, and of the wonderful atchievements he there performed. 9. The tinker, hearing of Tom's fame, he goes to his partner; and of his being unfortunately slain by a lion. The reader will observe the error respecting the East Angles, now called the Isle of Thanet, a mistake not unlikely to be made by a compiler from an older tale, who was not very minutely acquainted with geography.

71. THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF TOM THUMB, wherein is declared his marvellous Acts of Manhood, full of wonderful Merriment. Part the First. The Famous History of Tom Thumb, wherein is declared his marvellous Acts of Manhood, full of

wonderful Merriment: performed after his first return from Fairy Land. Part the Second. The History of Tom Thumb, wherein is declared his marvellous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder and merriment: performed after his second return from Fairy Land. Part the Third.

12mo. Printed and sold in London, n. d.

The first part of this history is a copy, with a few variations and eight additional stanzas, of an edition in the Bodleian Library, dated 1630, reprinted in Ritson's Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry, 1791, p. 99. The two other parts are probably more modern, not being found in the early editions. It was no doubt published at a very early period, being alluded to by Ben Jonson, and thus mentioned in some verses prefixed to Coryat's Crudities, 1611:—

Tom Thumbe is dumbe, untill the pudding creepe
In which he was intomb'd, then out doth peepe.

And again, in a very old ballad, entitled, "The Devil and the Scold":

Tom Thumb is not my subject,

Whom fairies oft did aide :

Nor that mad spirit Robin,

That plagues both wife and maid.

It was turned into prose in 1621, the editor saying, "The ancient tales of Tom Thumbe in the olde time have beene the only revivers of drouzy age at midnight: old and young have with his tales chim'd mattens till the cocks crow in the morning; batchelors and maides with his tales have compassed the Christmas fire-blocke till the curfew bell rings candle out; the

old shepheard and the young plow-boy, after their dayes labour, have carold out a Tale of Tom Thumbe to make them merry with: and who but little Tom hath made long nights seem short, and heavy toyles easie? Therefore, gentle reader, considering that old modest mirth is turn'd naked out of doors, while nimble wit in the great hall sits upon a soft cushion giving dry bobbes; for which cause I will, if I can, new cloath him in his former livery, and bring him againe into the chimney corner, where now you must imagine me to sit by a good fire, amongst a company of good fellowes, over a well spic'd wassel-bowle of Christmas ale, telling of these merry tales which hereafter follow." Tom Thumb is thus alluded to in John Taylor's Motto, 12mo. 1622 :

And many more good good bookes I have with care
Lookt on their goods, and never stole their ware,
For no booke to my hands could ever come,

If it were but the treatise of Tom Thumb,

Or Scoggins Jests, or any simple play,

Or monstrous newes came trundling in my way,
All these, and ten times more, some good, some bad,

I have from them much observation had :

And so with care and study I have writ
These bookes, the issue of a barren wit.

Tom Thumbe is also included in the list of authors prefixed to Sir Gregory Nonsense, his Newes from No Place, in Taylor's Workes, 1630. So also in the second part of the Friar and the Boy:—

The merry tales of Robin Hood,

Tom Thumb, and Little John,

Cannot compare with this little book,

Which I present to you.