161
Joseph Jacobs
the Germans, and similar diminutive heroes elsewhere (
cf.
Deulin,
Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, 326), but of his adventures
only that in the cow’s stomach (
cf. Cosquin, ii. 190) is com-
mon with his French and German cousins. M. Gaston Paris
has a monograph on “Tom Thumb.”
XXVI. MR. FOX.
Source.—Contributed by Blakeway to Malone’s Variorum
Shakespeare, to illustrate Benedick’s remark in
Much Ado
about Nothing (I. i. 146): “Like the old tale, my Lord, ‘It is
not so, nor ’twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should
be so;’” which clearly refers to the tale of Mr. Fox. “The
Forbidden Chamber” has been studied by Mr. Hartland,
Folk-Lore Journal, iii. 193,
seq.
Parallels.—Halliwell, p. 166, gives a similar tale of “An Ox-
ford Student,” whose sweetheart saw him digging her grave.
“Mr. Fox” is clearly a variant of the theme of “The Robber
Bridegroom” (Grimm, No. 40, Mrs. Hunt’s translation, i.
389, 395; and Cosquin, i. 180-1).
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