Tom Thumb

: NURSERY GAMES
: Popular Rhymes And Nursery Tales

[Thumb stories are common in German and Danish, and the English tale

comprises much that is found in the Northern versions. A writer in the

Quarterly Review, xxi. 100, enters into some speculations respecting the

mythological origin of Tom Thumb, and records his persuasion, in which

we agree, that several of our common nursery tales are remnants of

ancient {~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER HETA~}

{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}. Sir W. Scott mentions the Danish popular

history of Svend Tomling, analysed by Nierup, "a man no bigger than a

thumb, who would be married to a woman three ells and three quarters

long." This personage is probably commemorated in the nursery rhyme,



I had a little husband

No bigger than my thumb:

I put him in a pint-pot,

And there I bid him drum.



According to popular tradition, Tom Thumb died at Lincoln, and a little

blue flagstone in the pavement of the cathedral used to be pointed out

as his monument.



"It was my good fortune," says Dr. Wagstaffe, "some time ago, to have

the library of a schoolboy committed to my charge, where, among other

undiscovered valuable authors, I pitched upon Tom Thumb and Tom

Hickathrift, authors indeed more proper to adorn the shelves of Bodley

or the Vatican, than to be confined to the retirement and obscurity of a

private study. I have perused the first of these with an infinite

pleasure, and a more than ordinary application, and have made some

observations on it, which may not, I hope, prove unacceptable to the

public, and however it may have been ridiculed and looked upon as an

entertainment only for children and those of younger years, may be found

perhaps a performance not unworthy the perusal of the judicious, and the

model superior to either of those incomparable poems of Chevy Chase or

the Children in the Wood. The design was undoubtedly to recommend

virtue, and to show that however any one may labour under the

disadvantages of stature and deformity, or the meanness of parentage,

yet if his mind and actions are above the ordinary level, those very

disadvantages that seem to depress him add a lustre to his

character."--A Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb, 1711, p. 4.]



In the merry days of good King Arthur, there lived in one of the

counties of England a ploughman and his wife. They were poor, but as the

husband was a strong workman, and his partner an able assistant in all

matters pertaining to the farmhouse, the dairy, and poultry, they

managed to make a very good living, and would have been contented and

happy, had Nature blessed them with any offspring. But although they had

been married several years, no olive branch had yet appeared, and the

worthy couple sadly lamented their hard lot.



There lived at this period, at the court of Arthur, a celebrated

conjuror and magician, whose name was Merlin, the astonishment of the

whole world, for he knew the past, present, and future, and nothing

appeared impossible to him. Persons of all classes solicited his

assistance and advice, and he was perfectly accessible to the humblest

applicant. Aware of this, the ploughman, after a long consultation with

his "better half," determined to consult him, and, for this purpose,

travelled to the court, and, with tears in his eyes, beseeched Merlin

that he might have a child, "even though it should be no bigger than his

thumb."



Now Merlin had a strange knack of taking people exactly at their words,

and without waiting for any more explicit declaration of the ploughman's

wishes, at once granted his request. What was the poor countryman's

astonishment to find, when he reached home, that his wife had given

birth to a gentleman so diminutive, that it required a strong exercise

of the vision to see him. His growth was equally wonderful, for--



In four minutes he grew so fast,

That he became as tall

As was the ploughman's thumb in length,

And so she did him call.



The christening of this little fellow was a matter of much ceremony, for

the fairy queen, attended by all her company of elves, was present at

the rite, and he formally received the name of Tom Thumb. Her majesty

and attendants attired him with their choicest weeds, and his costume is

worth a brief notice. His hat was made of a beautiful oak leaf; his

shirt was composed of a fine spider's web, and his hose and doublet of

thistle-down. His stockings were made with the rind of a delicate green

apple, and the garters were two of the finest little hairs one can

imagine, plucked from his mother's eyebrows. Shoes made of the skin of a

little mouse, "and tanned most curiously," completed his fairy-like

accoutrement.



It may easily be imagined that Tom was an object of astonishment and

ridicule amongst the other children of the village, but they soon

discovered that, notwithstanding his diminutive size, he was more than a

match for them. It was a matter of very little consequence to Tom

whether he lost or won, for if he found his stock of counters or

cherrystones run low, he soon crept into the pockets of his companions,

and replenished his store. It happened, on one occasion, that he was

detected, and the aggrieved party punished Tom by shutting him up in a

pin-box. The fairy boy was sadly annoyed at his imprisonment, but the

next day he amply revenged himself; for hanging a row of glasses on a

sunbeam, his companions thought they would follow his example, and, not

possessing Tom's fairy gifts, broke the glasses, and were severely

whipped, whilst the little imp was overjoyed at their misfortune,

standing by, and laughing till the tears run down his face.



The boys were so irritated with the trick that had been played upon

them, that Tom's mother was afraid to trust him any longer in their

company. She accordingly kept him at home, and made him assist her in

any light work suitable for so small a child. One day, while she was

making a batter-pudding, Tom stood on the edge of the bowl, with a

lighted candle in his hand, so that she might see it was properly made.

Unfortunately, however, when her back was turned, Tom accidentally fell

in the bowl, and his mother not missing him, stirred him up in the

pudding "instead of minced fat," and put the pudding in the kettle with

Tom in it. The poor woman paid dearly for her mistake, for Tom had no

sooner felt the warm water, than he danced about like mad, and the

pudding jumped about till she was nearly frightened out of her wits, and

was glad to give it to a tinker who happened to be passing that way. He

was thankful for a present so acceptable, and anticipated the pleasure

of eating a better dinner than he had enjoyed for many a long day. But

his joy was of short duration, for as he was getting over a stile, he

happened to sneeze very hard, and Tom, who had hitherto remained silent,

cried out, "Hollo, Pickens!" which so terrified the tinker, that he

threw the pudding into the field, and scampered away as fast as ever he

could go. The pudding tumbled to pieces with the fall, and Tom, creeping

out, went home to his mother, who had been in great affliction on

account of his absence.



A few days after this adventure, Tom accompanied his mother when she

went into the fields to milk the cows, and for fear he should be blown

away by the wind, she tied him to a thistle with a small piece of

thread. While in this position, a cow came by, and swallowed him up:



But, being missed, his mother went,

Calling him everywhere:

Where art thou, Tom? where art thou, Tom?

Quoth he, Here, mother, here!



Within the red cow's stomach, here

Your son is swallowed up;

All which within her fearful heart

Much woful dolour put.



The cow, however, was soon tired of her subject, for Tom kicked and

scratched till the poor animal was nearly mad, and at length tumbled him

out of her mouth, when he was caught by his mother, and carried safely

home.



A succession of untoward accidents followed. One day, Tom's father took

him to the fields a-ploughing, and gave him "a whip made of a barley

straw" to drive the oxen with, but the dwarf was soon lost in a furrow.

While he was there, a great raven came and carried him an immense

distance to the top of a giant's castle. The giant soon swallowed him

up, but he made such a disturbance when he got inside, that the monster

was soon glad to get rid of him, and threw the mischievous little imp

full three miles into the sea. But he was not drowned, for he had

scarcely reached the water before he was swallowed by a huge fish, which

was shortly after captured, and sent to King Arthur by the fisherman for

a new-year's gift. Tom was now discovered, and at once adopted by the

king as his dwarf;



Long time he liv'd in jollity,

Belov'd of the court,

And none like Tom was so esteem'd

Amongst the better sort.



The queen was delighted with the little dwarf, and made him dance a

galliard on her left hand. His performance was so satisfactory, that

King Arthur gave him a ring which he wore about his middle like a

girdle; and he literally "crept up the royal sleeve," requesting leave

to visit his parents, and take them as much money as he could carry:



And so away goes lusty Tom

With threepence at his back,

A heavy burthen, which did make

His very bones to crack.



Tom remained three days with the old couple, and feasted upon a

hazel-nut so extravagantly that he grew ill. His indisposition was not

of long continuance, and Arthur was so anxious for the return of his

dwarf, that his mother took a birding-trunk, and blew him to the court.

He was received by the king with every demonstration of affection and

delight, and tournaments were immediately proclaimed:



Thus he at tilt and tournament

Was entertained so,

That all the rest of Arthur's knights

Did him much pleasure show.



And good Sir Launcelot du Lake,

Sir Tristram and Sir Guy,

Yet none compar'd to brave Tom Thumb

In acts of chivalry.



Tom, however, paid dearly for his victories, for the exertions he made

upon this celebrated occasion threw him into an illness which ultimately

occasioned his death. But the hero was carried away by his godmother,

the fairy queen, into the land of Faerie, and after the lapse of two

centuries, he was suffered to return to earth, and again amuse men by

his comical adventures. On one occasion, after his return from

fairy-land, he jumped down a miller's throat, and played all manner of

pranks on the poor fellow, telling him of all his misdeeds, for millers

in former days were the greatest rogues, as everybody knows, that ever

lived. A short time afterwards, Tom a second time is swallowed by a

fish, which is caught, and set for sale at the town of Rye, where a

steward haggles for it,--



Amongst the rest the steward came,

Who would the salmon buy,

And other fish that he did name,

But he would not comply.



The steward said, You are so stout,

If so, I'll not buy any.

So then bespoke Tom Thumb aloud,

"Sir, give the other penny!"



At this they began to stare,

To hear this sudden joke:

Nay, some were frighted to the heart,

And thought the dead fish spoke.



So the steward made no more ado,

But bid a penny more;

Because, he said, I never heard

A fish to speak before.



The remainder of the history, which details Tom's adventures with the

queen, his coach drawn by six beautiful white mice, his escaping on the

back of a butterfly, and his death in a spider's web, is undoubtedly a

later addition to the original, and may therefore be omitted in this

analysis. It is, in fact, a very poor imitation of the first part of the

tale.