An' ring the bell mysell." * * * * * TOM THUMBE. In Arthurs court Tom Thumbe did live, A man of mickle might, The best of all the table round, And eke a doughty knight: His stature but an inch in height, Or quarter of a span; Then thinke you not this little knight, Was prov'd a valiant man? His father was a plow-man plaine, His mother milkt the cow, But yet the way to get a sonne This couple knew not how, Untill such time this good old man To learned Merlin goes, And there to him his deepe desires In secret manner showes, How in his heart he wisht to have A childe, in time to come, To be his heire, though it might be No bigger than his Thumbe. Of which old Merlin thus foretold, That he his wish should have, And so this sonne of stature small The charmer to him gave. No blood nor bones in him should be, In shape and being such, That men should heare him speake, but not His wandring shadow touch: But all unseene to goe or come Whereas it pleasd him still; And thus King Arthurs Dwarfe was born, To fit his fathers will: And in foure minutes grew so fast, That he became so tall As was the plowmans thumbe in height, And so they did him call