English Fairy Tales

English Fairy Tales

XLI. THE WELL OF THE WORLD’S END.

Source.—Leyden’s edition of The Complaynt of Scotland, p.
234 seq., with additional touches from Halliwell, 162-3, who
makes up a slightly different version from the rhymes. The
opening formula I have taken from Mayhew, London Labour,
iii. 390, who gives it as the usual one when tramps tell folk-
tales. I also added it to No. xvii.

Parallels.—Sir W. Scott remembered a similar story; see Taylor’s
Gammer Grethel, ad fin. In Scotland it is Chambers’s tale of The
Paddo, p. 87; Leyden supposes it is referred to in the Complaynt,
(c. 1548), as “The Wolf of the Warldis End.” The well of this
name occurs also in the Scotch version of the “Three Heads of
the Well,” (No. xliii.). Abroad it is the Grimms’ first tale, while
frogs who would a-wooing go are discussed by Prof. Köhler,
Occ. u. Orient ii. 330; by Prof. Child, i. 298; and by Messrs.
Jones and Kropf, l.c., p. 404. The sieve-bucket task is wide-
spread from the Danaids of the Greeks to the leverets of Uncle
Remus, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme: “Fill it wid
moss en dob it wid clay.” Cf., too, No. xxiii.

XLII. MASTER OF ALL MASTERS.

Source.—I have taken what suited me from a number of

sources, which shows how wide-spread this quaint droll is in

England: (i) In Mayhew, London Poor, iii. 391, told by a lad

in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7 Notes and Queries,

iii. 35, 87, 159, 398.

Parallels.—Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the

title “The Clever Apprentice,” in Folk-Lore Journal, vii. 166.

Mr. Hartland, in Notes and Queries, l.c., 87, refers to Pitré’s

Fiabi sicil., iii. 120, for a variant.

Remarks.—According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed

as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola

(sixteenth century). In passionate Sicily a wife disgusted with

her husband’s pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs

her husband of the fact in this unintelligible gibberish; he,

not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames,

and she marries the servant who had taken the message.