Page:English Fairy Tales.djvu/280

 254 XVIII. THE THREE BEARS

Source.—Verbatim et literatim, from Southey, The Doctor, &c., quarto edition, p. 327.

Parallels.—None in full, though not invented by Southey. There is an Italian translation, I tre Orsi, Turin, 1868, and it would be curious to see if the tale ever acclimatises itself in Italy. But the incident of sitting in the chairs, etc., is in the Grimms' Schneewitchen.

Remarks.—The Three Bears is the only example I know of where a tale that can be definitely traced to a specific author has become a folk-tale. Not alone is this so, but the folk has developed the tale in a curious and instructive way, by substituting a pretty little girl with golden locks for the naughty old woman. In Southey's version there is nothing of little Silverhair as the heroine: she seems to have been introduced in a metrical version by G. N., much bepraised by Southey. Silverhair seems to have become a favourite, and in Mrs. Valentine's version of "The Three Bears" in The Old, Old Fairy Tales, the visit to the bear-house is only the preliminary to a long succession of adventures of the pretty little girl, of which there is no trace in the original (and this in The Old, Old Fairy Tales. Oh! Mrs Valentine!). I have, though somewhat reluctantly, cast back to the original form. After all, as Professor Dowden remarks, Southey's memory is kept alive more by "The Three Bears" than anything else, and the text of such a nursery classic should be retained in all its purity.

Since the first publication of this book, I have come across what appears to be the source from which Southey got the story of "The Three Bears," though it still remains true that the popularity of the story among English children is due to Southey. I have published this interesting version in More English Fairy Tales, under the title of "Scrapefoot," in which the old woman appears as a fox, so that the story is entirely a beast tale. Now there is found to exist among all countries