The Fairy Queen, she lov'd him so As you shall understand, That once again she let him go Down to the Fairy Land.
The very time that he return'd Unto the court again, It was as we are well inform'd In good King Arthur's reign.
When in the presence of the King, He many wonders wrought, Recited in the Second Part Which now is to be bought
In Bow Church Yard, where is sold Diverting Histories many; And pleasant tales as e'er was told For purchase of One Penny.
The second part opens with Tom's return to Fairy Land. His second death is caused by a combat with a cat. Again he is taken to Fairy Land. In the third part the Fairy Queen sends Tom to earth in King Thunston's reign. His final death occurred from the bite of a spider.
_The Life and Adventures of Tom Thumb_ appeared in the _Tabart Collection of Fairy Tales_, noted before, and a version entirely in verse was included in _Halliwell_. A monograph on _Tom Thumb_ was written by M. Gaston Paris. _Little Thumb_ as it appeared in _Perrault_ and in _Basile_, was a tale similar to the German _Hansel and Grethel_. _Thumbling_, and _Thumbling as Journeyman_ are German variants. Andersen's _Thumbelina_ is a feminine counterpart to _Tom Thumb_, and in Laboulaye's _Poucinet_ we have a tale of the successful younger brother, similarly diminutive.
There were current many old stories of characters similar to Tom Thumb. A certain man was so thin that he could jump through the eye of a needle. Another crept nimbly to a spider's web which was hanging in the air, and danced skillfully upon it until a spider came, which spun a thread round his neck and throttled him. A third was able to pierce a sunmote with his head and pass his whole body through it. A fourth was in the habit of riding an ant, but the ant threw him off and trampled him. In a work written in 1601, referred to in Grimm's _Household Tales_ a spider relates:--
Once did I catch a tailor proud Heavy he was as elder wood, From Heaven above he'd run a race, With an old straw hat to this place, In Heaven he might have stayed no doubt, For no one wished to turn him out. He fell in my web, hung in a knot, Could not get out, I liked it not, That e'en the straw hat, safe and sound, Nine days ere him came to the ground.