The Story Of Mr Fox
: NURSEY STORIES: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales
[A simple, but very curious tale, of considerable antiquity. It is
alluded to by Shakespeare, and was contributed to the variorum edition
by Blakeway. Part of this story will recall to the reader's memory the
enchanted chamber of Britomart.]
Once upon a time there was a young lady called Lady Mary, who had two
brothers. One summer they all three went to a country seat of theirs
which they had not before v
neighbourhood who came to see them was a Mr. Fox, a bachelor, with whom
they, particularly the young lady, were much pleased. He used often to
dine with them, and frequently invited Lady Mary to come and see his
house. One day, when her brothers were absent elsewhere, and she had
nothing better to do, she determined to go thither, and accordingly set
out unattended. When she arrived at the house and knocked at the door,
no one answered. At length she opened it and went in, and over the
portal of the door was written:
Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.
She advanced, and found the same inscription over the staircase; again
at the entrance of a gallery; and lastly, at the door of a chamber, with
the addition of a line:
Be bold, be bold, but not too bold,
Lest that your heart's blood should run cold!
She opened it, and what was her terror and astonishment to find the
floor covered with bones and blood. She retreated in haste, and coming
down stairs, she saw from a window Mr. Fox advancing towards the house
with a drawn sword in one hand, while with the other he dragged along a
young lady by the hair of her head. Lady Mary had just time to slip
down, and hide herself under the stairs, before Mr. Fox and his victim
arrived at the foot of them. As he pulled the young lady upstairs, she
caught hold of one of the bannisters with her hand, on which was a rich
bracelet. Mr. Fox cut it off with his sword: the hand and bracelet fell
into Lady Mary's lap, who then contrived to escape unobserved, and got
safe home to her brothers' house.
A few days afterwards, Mr. Fox came to dine with them as usual. After
dinner, the guests began to amuse each other with extraordinary
anecdotes, and Lady Mary said she would relate to them a remarkable
dream she had lately had. I dreamt, said she, that as you, Mr. Fox, had
often invited me to your house, I would go there one morning. When I
came to the house, I knocked at the door, but no one answered. When I
opened the door, over the hall I saw written, "Be bold, be bold, but not
too bold." But, said she, turning to Mr. Fox, and smiling, "It is not
so, nor it was not so." Then she pursued the rest of the story,
concluding at every turn with, "It is not so, nor it was not so," till
she came to the discovery of the room full of bones, when Mr. Fox took
up the burden of the tale, and said:
It is not so, nor it was not so,
And God forbid it should be so!
which he continued to repeat at every subsequent turn of the dreadful
story, till she came to the circumstance of his cutting off the young
lady's hand, when, upon his saying, as usual,
It is not so, nor it was not so,
And God forbid it should be so!
Lady Mary retorts by saying,
But it is so, and it was so,
And here the hand I have to show!
at the same moment producing the hand and bracelet from her lap.
Whereupon the guests drew their swords, and instantly cut Mr. Fox into a
thousand pieces.
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