Chapter IX: Part THE FIRST

PRINTED AND SOLD IN ALDERMARY CHURCH YARD, LONDON.

"In Arthur's court Tom Thumb did live
A man of mickle might,
Who was the best of the table round,
And eke a worthy Knight.

"In stature but an inch in height,
Or quarter of a span,
How think you that this valiant knight
Was proved a valiant man.

"His father was a ploughman plain,
His mother milked the Cow,
And yet the way to get a son
This couple knew not how.--

"Until the time the good old man
To learned Merlin goes,
And there to him in deep distress,
In secret manner shews,

"How in his heart he'd wish to have
A child in time to come,
To be his heir, though it might be
No bigger than his Thumb.

"Of this old Merlin then foretold,
How he his wish should have;
And so a son of stature small
This charmer to him gave."

It is needless to say that this marvellous being was under special fairy protection.

"Tom Thumb, the which the Fairy Queen
Did give him to his name,
Who with her train of goblins grim
Unto the Christening came."

Of his childhood nothing very particular is told until

"Whereas about Christmas time,
His mother a hog had kill'd,
And Tom would see the pudding made,
For fear it should be spoil'd.

"He sat the candle for to light
Upon the pudding bowl,
Of which there is unto this day,
A pretty Story told.

"For Tom fell in and could not be
For some time after found,
For in the blood and batter he
Was lost and almost drown'd."

In cooking, the pudding behaved so curiously--

"As if the devil had been boil'd
Such was the mother's fear,"

that she at once gave it to a passing tinker, who put it in his "budget;" but hearing Tom cry out, threw both bag and pudding away; and Tom, by some unexplained means having got out, returned home, where his mother, when she went milking, tied him to a thistle to keep him safe. Whilst she was busy milking, the cow eat the thistle, and Tom with it; but his mother missed him, and calling for him was answered by Tom from the cow's interior. Naturally unaccustomed to such internal commotion, the cow took the earliest opportunity of getting rid of Tom by natural means, and

"Now all besmeared as he was
His mother took him up
And home to bear him hence, poor Lad,
She in her apron put."

]

But Tom from his size was a prey to accidents from which ordinary mortals were exempt, for we find--

"Now by a raven of great strength,
Away poor Tom was borne,
And carried in the Carrion's beak,
Just like a grain of corn.

"Unto a Giant's castle top
Whereon he let him fall
And soon the Giant swallowed up
His body, cloaths and all."

But Tom, like most small men, was rather self-assertive.

"But in his belly did Tom Thumb
So great a rumbling make
That neither night nor day he could
The smallest quiet take.

"Until the Giant him had spew'd
Full three miles in the sea;
There a large fish took him up,
And bore him hence away."

The fish was sent to King Arthur; Tom was discovered, and taken into high favour at Court.

"Among the deeds of courtship done,
His Highness did command
That he should dance a galliard brave
Upon the Queen's left hand.

"All which he did, and for the same
Our king his signet gave,
Which Tom about his middle wore
Long time a girdle brave."

The king used to take him out hunting, and Tom was made proficient in martial exercises--so much so that at one tourney we read:

"And good Sir Lancelot du Lake
Sir Tristram and Sir Guy,
Yet none compar'd to brave Tom Thumb
In acts of Cavalry."

Nay, his prowess was such that he beat all comers, "Sir Khion and the rest;" even the invincible Lancelot had his horse clean run through.

Indeed, it was through his exertions in this manner that he fell sick and finally died, and was buried with great pomp. His death is forcibly and graphically told.

"He being both slender and tall,
The cunning Doctors took
A fine perspective glass thro' which
They took a careful look,

"Into his sickly body down,
And therein saw that death
Stood ready in his wasted guts
To take away his breath."

But to a being so wonderful, ordinary death was a mere nothing.

"The Fairy Queen she lov'd him so
As you shall understand,
That once again she let him go
Down to the Fairy Land.

"The very time that he return'd
Unto the Court again,
It was, as we are well inform'd,
In good King Arthur's reign.

"When in the presence of the King,
He many wonders wrought,
Recited in the Second Part,
Which now is to be bought

"In Bow Church Yard, where is sold
Diverting Histories many;
And pleasant tales as e'er was told
For purchase of One Penny."

[Footnote 9: This illustration is from another edition.]

* * * * *

The Second Part commences with Tom's return to earth from Fairy Land, but his _début_ was neither agreeable nor romantic. The Fairy Queen had determined

"To send him to the lower World,
In triumph once again;
So with a puff or blast him hurl'd
Down with a mighty pain:
With mighty force it happened,
Did fall, as some report,
Into a pan of firmity,
In good King Arthur's[10] Court.

The Cook that bore it then along
Was struck with a surprise,
For with the fall the firmity
Flew up into his eyes."

The cook let the dish fall, and Tom was extricated; but the Court, disappointed of dinner, looked very evilly on him.

"Some said he was a fairy elf
And did deserve to die."

To escape this fate, Tom, unperceived, jumped down a miller's throat, but evidently behaved ungratefully in his asylum of safety:

"Tom often pinched him by the tripes,
And made the Miller roar,
Alas! Alas! ten thousand stripes
Could not have vexed him more."

At length the Miller got rid of him, and Tom was turned into a river, and swallowed by a salmon. The same thing occurred to him as before. The fish was caught, sent to the king, and Tom found by his old enemy the cook, who had not forgiven the loss of the firmity.

"He stared strait, and said, Alas!
How comes this fellow here?
Strange things I find have come to pass,
He shall not now get clear.
Because he vow'd to go thro' stitch,
And him to Justice bring,
He stuck a fork into his breech
And bore him to the King."

The king, however, was busy, and ordered Tom to be brought before him another time; so the cook kept him in custody in a mouse-trap.

The king, on hearing Tom's story, pardoned him "for good King Arthur's sake," took him into favour, and allowed him to go hunting with him, mounted on a mouse.

This, however, was the cause of his second death.

"For coming near a Farmer's house,
Close by a Forest side,
A Cat jump'd out and caught the mouse
Whereon Tom Thumb did ride.
She took him up between her Jaws,
And scower'd up a tree,
And as she scratch'd him with her claws,
He cry'd out, Woe is me!
He laid his hand upon his sword,
And ran her thro' and thro';
And he for fear of falling roar'd,
Puss likewise cry'd out Mew.
It was a sad and bloody fight
Between the Cat and he;
Puss valu'd not this worthy Knight,
But scratch'd him bitterly."

He was taken home; but his wounds were too bad, and he died, and was taken again to Fairy Land, and did not reappear on earth till Thunston's (?) reign.

[Footnote 10: The chronology is somewhat involved. The king
could not have been King Arthur, for Tom was not remembered by
him, and at the end of the book it says--

"And to his memory they built
A monument of gold
Upon King Edgars dagger hilt
Most glorious to behold."
]

* * * * *

The Third Part opens with the Fairy Queen again despatching
Tom to earth, and also, as before, his advent is unpropitious.

"Where he descended thro the Air,
This poor unhappy man,
By sad mishap as you shall hear
Fell in a close stool pan."

He was rescued, but narrowly escaped death, and was brought before King Thunston.

"In shameful sort Tom Thumb appear'd
Before his Majesty,
But grown so weak could not be heard,
Which caused his malady."

He recovered and was taken into high favour by the king, who

"For lodgings--Now the King resolv'd
A palace should be fram'd
The walls of this most stately place
Were lovely to behold.
For workmanship none can take place
It look'd like beaten gold
The height thereof was but a span,
And doors but one inch wide.
The inward parts were all Japan,
Which was in him great pride."

And not only was he lodged so magnificently, but the king did all in his power to make him happy.

"All recreation thought could have
Or life could e'er afford,
All earthly Joys that he would crave,
At his desire or word.

* * * * *

"Of smallest mice that could be found,
For to draw his coach appears
Such stately steeds his wish to crown
Long tails with cropped ears."

But the morals of this ungrateful little wretch had evidently grown lax during his stay in Fairy Land, and he forgot all his obligations to his benefactor.

"For his desires were lustful grown
Against her Majesty,
Finding of her one day alone,
Which proved his tragedy."

The queen was naturally furious.

"That nothing would her wrath appease
To free her from all strife,
Or set her mind at perfect ease,
Until she had his life."

Tom hid himself, and tried to escape on the back of a butterfly; but the insect flew into the palace, and Tom was captured. He was duly tried, and found guilty.

"So the King his sentence declar'd,
How hanged he should be,
And that a gibbet should be rear'd,
And none should set him free.
After his sentence thus was past,
Unto a prison he was led.
For in a Mousetrap he was fast,
He had no other bed.

* * * * *

"At last by chance the cat him spy'd,
And for a mouse did take,
She him attacked on each side,
And did his prison break.
The Cat perceiving her mistake,
Away she fled with speed,
Which made poor Tom to flight betake,
Being thus from prison freed.
Resolving there no more to dwell
But break the Kings decree,
Into a spider's web he fell,
And could not hence get free.
The spider watching for his prey
Took Tom to be a fly,
And seized him without delay,
Regarding not his cry.
The blood out of his body drains,
He yielded up his breath;
Thus he was freed from all his pains,
By his unlook'd for death."

Thus sadly ended the favourite of immortals and of kings; but, from the fact that we hear no more of his going to Fairy Land, it is probable that his immoral conduct could not be condoned by the "good people."

=The Shoemaker's Glory=

OR THE

_PRINCELY HISTORY_

OF THE

GENTLE CRAFT

SHEWING

What renowned Princes, Heroes, and Worthies have been of the Shoemakers Trade, both in this and in other Kingdoms. Likewise why it is called the _Gentle Craft_; and that they say a Shoemaker's son is a Prince born &c.

NEWCASTLE: PRINTED AT THE PRINTING OFFICE IN PILGRIM STREET.

THE

SHOEMAKER'S GLORY.

_Or, The Princely History of 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 is called the Gentle Craft; and that they say, A Shoemakers Son is a Prince born.

PRINTED AND SOLD IN ALDERMARY CHURCH YARD. BOW LANE LONDON.

This book is in reality two: one, the history of Sir Hugh, and the other, of Crispin and Crispianus. Sir Hugh seems to have been the son of Arviragus, King of Powisland in Britain, and Genevra, daughter of a king in North Wales. He went abroad for his education, and there distinguished himself by slaying monsters and giants, and by fighting against the Saracens--so much so, that he was knighted by the Roman Emperor, and promised one of his daughters as a wife; but this he would not have, although the princess loved him dearly.

He returned home, and whilst visiting Donvallo, King of Flintshire, fell in love with his daughter Winnifred. Finding her one day reading in her bower in the garden, he declared his love, but was courteously, though firmly, declined by the princess. Grieved at this disappointment, Sir Hugh went again abroad, was shipwrecked, and finally returned to Harwich in a destitute condition. Here he fell in with some shoemakers, and tarried with them a whole year, learning their trade.

In Chap-books one does not look for extreme historical accuracy, so we are not surprised that Diocletian came over to England, and sent Winnifred to prison for refusing to worship idols. Sir Hugh heard of this, and in order to join her, spoke loudly in favour of the Christian religion, and soon had his wish gratified. In prison, journeymen shoemakers brought him relief, and were so kind to him, that he styled them all gentlemen of the "gentle craft;" but the tale winds up informing us that "Sir Hugh and Winnifred remained a long time in prison, and were at last, for their steadfastness to the Christian religion, put to death by order of this cruel tyrant."

Crispin and Crispianus seem to have lived in Britain in the reign of Maximinius, and were the sons of King Logrid. Maximinius sent for them in order to slay them, but their mother, Queen Esteda, disguised them, and caused them to flee. They wandered to Faversham, where, tired out, they knocked at the door of a shoemaker, who took them in, and finally apprenticed them to himself. Crispianus, however, could not "stick to his last," so he went to assist the King of France against the Persians; whilst Crispin, whose master was the Court shoemaker, being a handsome young man, used to be sent there with shoes, and the Princess Ursula fell violently in love with him, declared her passion for him, and they were privately married under an oak tree in the park.

Crispianus, meanwhile, had been performing prodigies of valour, and at length returned to Maximinius with letters of commendation from the French king; whilst the Princess Ursula, whose confinement drew nigh, did not know how to screen herself. Love, however, is proverbially sharp-witted; so a false rumour of an enemy having landed being spread by means "_of firing a gun_," she escaped in the confusion, and took refuge in the shoemaker's house, where a son was born, whence the saying, "A shoemaker's son is a prince born." Maximinius received Crispianus with effusion, sent for his mother, acknowledged his birth, and would have given him his daughter in marriage could she have been found. At this juncture the young couple turned up, were forgiven, "and they lived very happy all their lives afterwards."

The original of this book seems to have been written by Thomas Deloney; an edition of it was printed in 1598, and it was entered on the Stationers' Books on October 19, 1597, as "a booke called the gentle Crafte, intreatinge of Shoomakers."

The Famous History of the Valiant

LONDON PRENTICE

NEWCASTLE: PRINTED IN THIS PRESENT YEAR.

A youth named Aurelius was the son of wealthy parents in the county of Chester, and, being of singular beauty, caused a flutter in all the feminine hearts in his neighbourhood; one young lady, named Dorinda, even going so far as to write him a most unmaidenlike love letter, which, being dropped by accident, was found by one of the young lady's lovers, who, taking counsel with three others, set upon Aurelius as he was going through a wood. It is needless to say that he speedily overcame them; but his parents, fearing revenge, and wishing to remove him from the wiles of Dorinda, sent him to London, and bound him apprentice to a Turkey merchant on London Bridge. Here the young gentleman, after some time, must needs fall in love with his master's daughter; but, unlike the usual course of events in such cases, his passion was not reciprocated, so in dudgeon he applied for, and obtained, the merchant's leave for him to go to Turkey as his factor.

He set out with a gallant equipage, and was well received by the English merchants in Turkey. Merchants at that time do not seem to have been of the same prosaic class as they are now; for, on the occasion of a tournament held in honour of a marriage, Aurelius must go fully armed, in order to take part in the joust. His blood boiled to see the knights of other nations overthrown by the Turkish champions; so he joined in the fray, soon disposed of the Turkish chivalry, and killed Grodam, the son-in-law of the Great Turk, who, in his rage, ordered "the English boy" to be sent to prison, and afterwards to be cast alive to two lions, who were kept fasting many days.

"The day of his death, as appointed being come, and the King, his nobles, and all his ladies seated to behold the execution, the brave Aurelius was immediately brought forth in his shirt of Cambric, and the drawers of white Satin, embroidered with gold and a crimson cap on his head, but had scarce time to bow respectfully to the ladies, who greatly praised his manly beauty, and began highly to pity his misfortunes ere the lions were let loose, who at the sight of their prey, casting their eyes upon him, began to roar horridly, insomuch that the spectators trembled and beheld Aurelius whom death could not daunt, laying aside all fear, as they came fiercely to him, with open mouths, he thrust his hands into their throats and ere they had power to get from his strong Arms, he forced out their hearts, and laid them dead at his feet, demanding of the King what other dangerous enterprises they had to put on him, as he would gladly do it for the Queen and his country's sake; when immediately the Emperor descended from his throne, tenderly embracing him, swearing he was some Angel withal pardoning him, and gave him the beautiful Teoraza his daughter in marriage, with great riches, who for his sake became a Christian; and after spending some time in that place, they both returned to England with great joy, where they lived many years very loving and happy."

THE

LOVER'S QUARREL

OR

CUPID'S TRIUMPH

_Being the Pleasant and Delightful_

HISTORY

OF

FAIR ROSAMOND

WHO WAS BORN IN

_SCOTLAND_.

NEWCASTLE: PRINTED IN THIS YEAR.

This metrical romance is more commonly known by the name of "Tommy Potts," and somewhat extravagantly recounts the love between him and fair Rosamond, daughter of the Earl of Arundel, who, being wooed by Lord Ph[oe]nix, confessed her passion to him, to his natural and great disgust; but their marriage being settled by their friends, as a last resource she sent her little foot page to Tommy Potts, telling him of her dilemma, and begging him to meet her on Guildford Green. Tommy, whose position was only that of a servant at Strawberry Hall, sent back word by her messenger that he would be there, and went and asked his master for leave, which his master not only readily granted, but offered to enrich him so that their fortunes might be equalized; also, he wished to furnish him with an armed force--both of which offers Tommy declined. He met Rosamond and Lord Ph[oe]nix at Guildford Green, was taunted by the latter with his menial position, and challenged him to a course of spears, at a future day, on that very spot. His master behaved very kindly to him, and reiterated his offers, which were again refused, Potts only accepting the loan of an old white horse and a suit of armour. The combatants duly met, and Tom Potts was run through the thick of the thigh. He bound up his wound with his handkerchief, and continued the combat, this time running Lord Ph[oe]nix through the right arm. He doctored Lord Ph[oe]nix, and offered to resume the fight, which his lordship refused, and they agreed to refer their claims to the lady herself. She, of course, chose Tommy; but to prove her still more, Lord Ph[oe]nix pretended to fight with Tommy behind a wall, and reported to her that he had slain him. The lady declared she would spend all her fortune rather than Lord Ph[oe]nix should not be hanged, and then swooned. From this time everything prospered with the lovers. Lord Arundel joyfully gave his consent to their marriage, and made Tommy his heir.

There is a Second Part, but it lacks the interest of the first.

I cannot trace any connection between the Chap-book and the frontispiece; but it is evidently the proper thing, as it occurs in the same place in the black-letter edition of 1675, which is the earliest I can find. It is entitled, "The Lovers Quarrel, or _Cupid's Triumph_ being The Pleasant History of fair Rosamond of Scotland. Being Daughter to the Lord _Arundel_ whose Love was obtained by the Valour of _Tommy Pots_: who conquered the Lord _Phenix_, and wounded him, and after obtained her to be his wife. Being very delightful to read. London. Printed by A. P. for F. Coles, T. Vere and J. Wright."

THE

_HISTORY_

OF THE

KING and the COBLER