The Famous History of TOM THUMB Wherein is declared, His Marvellous Acts of Manhood Full of Wonder and Merriment
Reading edition
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."
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,
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.
"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."