Le Gallienne, Richard, 1866-1947 / 2008-06-05 00:00:00
EBOOK THE HISTORY OF SIR RICHARD ***
Produced by Julie Barkley, Janet Blenkinship and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
_Chap-Books_
_and_
_Folk-Lore Tracts._
_Edited by_
_G.L. Gomme, F.S.A._
_and_
_H.B. Wheatley, F.S.A._
_First Series._
~V.~
THE HISTORY
OF
SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON.
BY T. H.
EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE VILLON SOCIETY.
1885.
~Introduction.~
The popular story of Whittington and his Cat is one in which a version
of a wide-spread folk-tale has been grafted upon the history of the life
of an historical character, and in the later versions the historical
incidents have been more and more eliminated. The three chief points in
the chap-book story are, 1, the poor parentage of the hero; 2, his
change of mind at Highgate Hill by reason of hearing Bow Bells; and, 3,
his good fortune arising from the sale of his cat. Now these are all
equally untrue as referring to the historical Whittington, and the
second is apparently an invention of the eighteenth century. When the
Rev. Canon Lysons wrote his interesting and valuable work entitled _The
Model Merchant_ he showed the incorrectness of the first point by
tracing out Whittington's distinguished pedigree, but he was loath to
dispute the other two.
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