For to assay theyr hande,

There was no shote these yemen shot,
That any prycke myght them stand.
Then spake wyllyam of Cloudesle:
By god that for me dyed,

I hold hym neuer no good archar,
That shuteth at buttes so wyde.

Wher at? then sayd our kyng,
pray thee tell me.

I

At suche a but, syr, he sayd,
As men vse in my countree.
Wyllyam went into a fyeld,
And his to brothren with him,

There they set vp to hasell roddes,
Twenty score paces betwene.

I hold him an archar, said Cloudesle,
That yonder wande cleueth in two.
Here is none suche, sayd the kyng,
Nor none that can so do.1

I shall assaye, syr, sayd Cloudesle,
Or that I farther go.

Cloudesly with a bearyng arow

Claue the wand in to.

2

Thou art ye best archer, the said yo kig,

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590

600

This passage reads like an imitation of a passage in the Kyng & the Hermyt (vol. i. p. 31). Of the latter, however, no early printed edition is known.

2 So in Robin Hood and Queen Katherine :

"Robin Hood hee led about;

Hee shot it underhand;

And Clifton with a bearing arrow
Hee clave the willow wand."

Forsothe that euer I se.

And yet for your loue, sayd wylliam,
I wyll do more maystry.

I haue a sonne is seuen yere olde;
He is to me full deare;

I wyll hym tye to a stake,
All shall se, that be here,

And lay an apele vpon hys head,
And go syxe score paces hym fro,
And I
my selfe with a brode arow
Shall cleue the apple in two..
Now haste the, then sayd the kyng,
By hym that dyed on a tre,

But yf thou do not as y" hest sayde,
Hanged shalt thou be.

And thou touche his head or gowne.

In syght that men may se,

By al the sayntes that be in heavē,
I shall hange you all thre.
That I haue promised, said william,
I wyl it neuer forsake;

And there euen, before the kynge,
In the earth he droue a stake,
And bound therto his eldest sonne,
And bad hym stande still therat,
And turned the childes face fro him,
Because he shuld not sterte.

An apple vpon his head he set,

And then his bowe he bent,

Syxe score paces they were out met,

And thether Cloudesle went;

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620

620

There he drew out a fayr brode arrowe;
Hys bowe was great and longe ;

He set that arrowe in his bowe,
That was both styffe and stronge;
He prayed the people that was there,
That they would styll stande :

For he that shooteth for such a wager,
Behoueth a stedfast hand.

Muche people prayed for Cloudesle,
That hys lyfe saued myght be,

And whan he made hym redy to shote,
There was many a weping eye.
Thus Cloudesle clefte the apple in two,
That many a man myght se;1
Ouer gods forbode, sayde the kinge,
That thou shote at me;

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And I geve the xvii. pence a day, said yo quene,
By god and by my fay,

Come feche thy payment, when thou wylt,

No man shall say the nay.

Wyllyam, I make the a gentelman

Of clothyng and of fe,

And thi two breth[r]en yemen of my chambre :

660

This portion of the story follows very closely the romantic legend of William Tell; but the incident of the child and the apple is older even than Tell's time.

For they are so semely to se;

Your sonne, for he is tendre of age,

Of my wyne seller shal he be,

And whan he commeth to mannes estate,

Better auaunced shall he be.

And, wylliam, bring me your wife, said ye quene,

Me longeth her sore to se,

She shall be my chefe gentlewoman,

To gouerne my nursery.

The yemen thanketh them full curteously,

And sayde: to some bysshop wyl we wend,
Of all the synnes that we have done

To be assoyld at his hand.

So forth be gone these good yemen,

As fast as they myght hye,

And after came and dwelled wyth the kynge,1

And dyed good men all thre.

Thus endeth the liues of these good yemen,
God send them eternall blysse.

And all that with hande bowe shoteth,

That of heauen [they] may neuer mysse.

Finis.

¶ Emprinted at London, in Lothburye,
by Wyllyam Copland.

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680

The extension of the royal pardon to the offending outlaw, or outlaws, is a customary feature in this class of piece. It occurs in King Henry II. and the Miller of Mansfield, in the Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, Robin Hood and Queen Catherine, &c.

2 This, with the remainder of the colophon, was omitted by Ritson. On the title there is no imprint whatever.

TOM

Tom Thumbe.

OM THUMBE, his Life and Death: Wherein is declared many Maruailous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: Which little Knight liued in King Arthurs time, and [was] famous in the Court of Great Brittaine. London printed for John Wright. 1630." Sm. 8vo, black letter, 12 leaves, with cuts; and on the title-page a woodcut of the hero on the King's horse. On the back of the title is a representation of some figures in ecclesiastical garb, with the heads of animals.

"Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death, wherein is declared many marvelous acts of manhood, full of wonder and strange merriment, which little Knight lived in King Arthur's time, in the Court of Great Britain." London, Printed for F. Coles, n. d. sm. 8vo, with cuts.

Another edition appeared-" London, Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright." n. d. sm. 8vo, with cuts.

There is also an impression, Edinburgh, 1682, 18mo. See Bibl. Heber. part iv. Noes, 1739, 1743.

The "Life and Death of Tom Thumb" was probably in existence before 1584; for Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, printed in that year, enumerates our hero among the spirits and goblins, "who made people afraid of their own shadows;" and Nash, a few years later only (1592), in his Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Deuill, complains that if "euerie grosse brainde idiot. . . . set foorth a pamphlet of the praise of pudding pricks, or write a Treatise of Tom Thumme, or the exployts of Vntrusse, it is bought vp thicke and threefolde, when better things lye dead." The edition of 1630, however, now reprinted, is the earliest at present known to exist; and even of it the copy bequeathed by the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy