Tom Thumb was starting to take over the timeline, so I moved it to its own section. This provides an overview of Tom Thumb's appearances in literature before the first known print version, and how the tale developed from a satire with adult themes into a children's story and moral tale.
​ 1579: William Fulke mentions "a little child like Tom Thumb" in anti-Catholic Heskins Parleament Repealed

1584: Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft has a long list of witches, fairies, and other bogeymen, in which he includes "Tom Thombe."

1592: Nashe’s satirical Pierce Penilesse His Supplication to the Divell.
“… that every grosse braind Idiot is suffered to come into print, who if hee set foorth a Pamphlet of the praise of Pudding-pricks, or write a Treatise of Tom Thumme . . ."

1611: James Field’s Coryat’s Crudities. "Tom Thumbe is dumbe, untill the pudding creepe, in which he was intomb'd, then out doth peepe."

1611: Laugh and be Fat, or a Commentary upon the Oldcombian Banket
“This Author ’mongst the rest in kindnesse comes
To grace thy Travels with a world of Toms.
Tom Thumbe, Tom Foole, Tom Piper, and Tom-asse.
PictureFrontispiece, 1621
1621: “The History of Tom Thumbe, the Little, for his small stature surnamed, King Arthur's Dwarfe: whose Life and adventures containe many strange and wonderfull accidents, published for the delight of merry Time-spenders.” [The prose version.]
(A) Merlin gives son to plowman. Tom Thumb reaches adulthood in four minutes, never grows after that.
(B) "thither came the Queene of Fayres to bee her Midwife"
(C) Oak-leaf hat and miniature wardrobe
(D) Cherrystone incident. Revenge via pots hung on sunbeams.
(E) Tom falls into pudding – “the first originall of those puddings now called Tom Thumbs.” It was a batter-pudding, more like a cake or Scottish clout/clootie. Hence he has to break out.
(F) Eaten and pooped out by cow
(G) Carried away by crow,
(H) Made to serve giant, eventually eaten by giant, makes giant vomit
(I) Eaten by a fish which is taken to King Arthur’s table
(J) Tom is honored at court. Tom dances a galliard. Very popular.
(K) Takes a coin home
(L) Fairy queen gives him gifts – shape-changing belt, etc.
(M) Tom falls ill when a woman sneezes on him. He is cured by the personal physician to king Twaddell or Twadle of the Pygmies.
(N) Tom rides out, wins contest with the giant Garagantua. He returns to Arthur to recount the story.
(P) Tom mentions battling King Twadle/Twaddell of the Pygmies in a duel and winning, and going on other adventures.
  • Original publishing date is unknown and authorship is uncertain; earliest surviving text is a booklet printed in 1621. The foreword makes it clear that Tom Thumb is already a well-known tale. 
  • This is the first fairy tale printed in English. 
  • The author is identified only as R. I.; this may be Richard Johnson.
  • The ending promises a second part with tales of more marvel. If this second part exists, we don’t know about it. Not till Thomas Redivivus 70 years later, anyway.
  • Lots of pop culture references and satire, which are quickly forgotten. The metrical version in 1630 is much more long-lasting.
  • Tom Thumb is shapeless, untouchable shadow with no bones - similar to Reginald Scot's Tom Thombe?
 
1621: John Taylor the Water Poet's Motto
“For no booke to my hands could ever come,
If it were but the treatise of Tom Thumb…”

1622: John Taylor quotes Tom Thumb as an authority in Sir Gregor Nonsense, his Newes from No Place

1625: Ben Jonson’s masque, The Fortunate Isles, mentions "Thomas Thumb in a pudding fat, with Doctor Rat." The part of Tom Thumb was acted by Jeffrey Hudson, the court dwarf of Queen Henrietta Maria.​

1627: Michael Drayton's "Nymphidia" mentions "Tom Thum" as a fairy page.

1628: A ballad of Robin Goodfellow mentions Tom Thumb as the gatekeeper and bagpipe-player of Fairyland.
Tom Thumb declares, "My actions all in volumes two are wrote, The least of which will never be forgot." Is this a reference to Richard Johnson's two-part prose work?
c.1626-1628. Randolph's Plutophthalmia. Penia-Penniless compares her followers to tiny Tom Thumb.

1630: Tom Thumbe, His Life and Death: Wherein is declared many Maruailous Acts of Manhood, full of wonder, and strange merriments: Which little Knight liued in King Arthurs time, and famous in the Court of Great Brittaine.
[the verse or metrical version]
(A) Merlin. Tom born and grown in less than an hour.
(B) Fairy queen godmother
(C) Oak-leaf hat, thistledown hose and doublet, spiderweb shirt, apple green stockings
(D) Cherry-bag prank. Gets back at the others by hanging pots and pans on a sunbeam.
(E) Falls into pudding.
(F) Eaten and pooped out by a cow
(G) Raven takes him to giant’s house
(H) Made to serve giant, eventually eaten by giant, makes giant vomit
(I) Eaten by a fish which is taken to King Arthur’s table
(K) Takes a coin home
(J) Honored at court. Becomes great jouster.
(M) Tom falls ill from exertion. King Arthur's personal physician attends on him but can't save him, and the body is taken away by the Queen of the Fairies. 
(R) Arthur builds a tomb.
  • Author unknown. May have been in print before 1630.

1630 (June): Stationers' Registry shows an entry for a blackletter broadside ballad beginning "A Pleasant new Ballad you here may behold, How the Devill, though subtle, was gull'd by a Scold."
“Tom Thumb is not my subject,
Whom fairies oft did aide:
Nor that mad spirit Robin,
That plagues both wife and maid.”

1632. The Pinder of Wakefield. The sorcerer Merlin presents "revels" of the fairies.
King Oberon King of the Fairies in rich apparell with a Scepter in his hand, a Crowne on his head, also King Twuddle King of the Pigmies, and a Fairy Qeene, Robin Good-fellow, Tom Thumbe with all the Fairies in a ring, dancing such braue dances with such braue Musicke, that it was delightfull to all the beholders. Tom Thumbe he playd on the Taber and Pipe, Robin Good- jellow with a Broome on his/necke dancing in the middle of the ring.
  • Once again Tom Thumb acts as a musician.
  • The presence of Merlin is a given.
  • King Twuddle or Twaddell hearkens to the 1621 prose version.

1635. Wit’s Triumvirate, or the Philosopher. "They had made little David no bigger than Tom Thumb."

1635. “The Hollander” by Henry Glapthorne. “What does this Tom Thumbe meane troe?”
(“Pigwiggin” and “dandiprat,” also names for something incredibly small, are used as well.)

1638. Glapthorne’s Wit in a Constable. A man is told mockingly that all his learning is fit only to wear a strip of lining proper only for Tom Thumb.

1640. Harry White His Humor by Martin Parker – “if the histories of Garraguntua and Tom Thumb be true”

1653: Poems, and fancies written by the Right Honourable, the Lady Margaret Newcastle. "The Pastimes of the Fairy Queen" has Tom Thumb "who doth like peice of fat in pudding lye" as the page boy of Queen Mab and companion and pranking partner of Hob (Hobgoblin).

1657: The English Parnassus, 1657, by Josua Poole. Reference guide to poetry. "Tom Thum" is mentioned as a courtier under Oberon the emperor and Mab the empress, alongside Puck, Tomalin, Nimphidia, and others. Clearly drawn from Michael Drayton.

1662: A New Kickshaw for the queasie Stomack of Sathan and all those that fight under his Banner. “Let no Dames of the Dunghill sing Ditties about St. George and the Dragon, and little Tom Thumb.”

1691. Reasons of Mr. Haines, the Player's Conversion and Reconversion. “…to swallow the legend of Garagantua and boggle at poor Tom Thumb.”

1704: Tom Thumb is mentioned in Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift; the narrator claims "This dark treatise contains the whole scheme of the metempsychosis, deducing the progress of the soul through all her stages."

c.1700?: The Metrical History of Tom Thumb the Little ("Thomas Redivivus")
This is a reprint of the old metrical version, in which Tom dies at the end, but adds two more parts, explaining Tom's return from Fairyland. A few advertisements called it "Thomas Redivivus," a title I use to avoid confusion with the other versions, as I have no date or author for it.
After the events of the previously known metrical version:
(S) Arriving in Fairyland as a ghost, Tom reigns as king of the fairies for two hundred years.
(T) The fairy queen returns him to Earth at King Edgar’s court, where he falls into firmity (porridge)
(U) He is hunted and swallowed by a miller
(I, repeated) Eaten by a fish which is taken to the king's table
(V) shirt made from butterfly’s wings
(W) Rides a mouse to go hunting
(X) Badly wounded by a cat, taken away by Fairy Queen
(Y) Returns to Earth at Thunston’s court, falls into chamber pot
(Z) Mice draw his coach
(a) Tom hides in snailshell, attempts to assault queen
(b) Queen demands his death
(c) He flies away on butterfly, freed from a mousetrap by a cat
(d) Dies by spider
  • In summary, a complete reprint of the metrical version – but adds two sections that are largely just repeats. 
  • Exact date unknown. James Orchard Halliwell places it about 1700. It was in print before Wagstaffe’s Comment in 1711.
  • Halliwell mentioned this addition in Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales (1849) and said it was "undoubtedly a later addition to the original... It is, in fact, a very poor imitation of the first part of the tale." However, Halliwell did helpfully preserve the three-part work by reprinting it in 1860.
  • Second part is now to be bought “in Irongate, in Derby Town” - suggests this version was a copy by London printers
  • Although it was considered  low-quality and unoriginal by authors such as Halliwell, many elements from this one stick around, particularly the death by spider.

​1711: in William Wagstaffe’s parodic Comment upon the History of Tom Thumb, he reviews the metrical version. He mentions “That there has been publish'd Two Poems lately, Entitled, The Second and Third Parts of this Author, which treat of our little Hero's rising from the Dead in the Days of King Edgar.” This is Thomas Redivivus.
Picture
Frontispiece: The Tragedy of Tragedies
​1730: Tom Thumb: A Tragedy, play by Henry Fielding. Tom is in a love dodecahedron with King Arthur’s wife and daughter plus a giantess. 

​1733: Opera of Operas, Tom Thumb play adaptation

1744: Tommy Thumb's Song Book by Nurse Lovechild (Mary Cooper), is the first-ever book of English nursery rhymes and still exists in reprints. Its sequel, Tommy Thumb’s Pretty Songbook (same year) features versions of many familiar rhymes, like London Bridge is Falling Down, but also some that might not be so familiar. Like one about bedwetting.
Tom Thumb appears briefly "with his pipe and drum."

1746: The Travels of Tom Thumb over England and Wales by Dodsley. This story has nothing to do with Tom Thumb; the name is just used as a pseudonym. However, this was the first travel book for children, and described many different locations. 

1749: The History of England, by Thomas Thumb, Esq.: another pseudonymous work.

1754: The Monsters of Monster: a true and faithful Narrative of a most remarkable Phenomenon lately seen in this Metropolis; to the great Surprize and Terror of His Majesties good Subjects; Humbly dedicated to all the Virtuosi of New England. By Thomas Thumb, Esq.

1760: "The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-book: Containing His Life and Surprising Adventures. To which are Added, Tommy Thumb's Fables, with Morals, and at the End, Pretty Stories, that May be Either Sung Or Told. Adorned with Many Curious Pictures"

1764: Tom Thumb’s Playbook was a primer for children, including alphabet rhymes and prayers.

1765: Tom Thumb's Alphabet, by an unknown author, first appeared in print in America in 1765 in the primer Tom Thumb's Play-Book: to teach Children their letters as soon as they can speak. ("A was an archer, who shot at a frog.")  
I don't know when it was first ascribed the title Tom Thumb. The rhyme, simply under the name "The Alphabet," first appeared around 1702 in A Little Book for Little Children. 
​
c.1773. The Lilliputian Magazine; or, Children's Repository recounts several moral tales including that of King Tom Thumb, monarch of Lilliputia, as he fights wars and marries a princess named Smilinda. His educational side is emphasized and his army includes regiments like the "Alphabetical Infantry" and the "Intrepid Sons of Syntax."
PictureTom Thumb's Folio
1779: Tom Thumb's Folio, or a New Penny Plaything for Little Giants contains a fairly different version of Tom Thumb's life, and then some lessons on letters, vowels, syllables, and religious and moral lessons. One of the plot points is Tom teaching reading and writing to the inhabitants of a kingdom. A departure from the fairytale; Tom marries a giantess and rules the kingdom of giants.
This one is also printed as The Life and Death of Tom Thumb, the Little Giant, and included Tom Thumb's Alphabet.

1787: Tom Thumb's Exhibition produced by Isaiah Thomas. Here, Tom Thumb introduces and narrates lessons on geography, animals and morals.

C.1820: The pretty and entertaining history of Tom Thumb 

1810. Popular tales. Consisting of Jack the Giant-Killer, Whittington and His Cat, Tom Thumb, Robin Hood, and Beauty and the Beast 
  • Instead of escaping the cow's belly with a laxative, Tom uses "comical tricks" of unknown nature - toning things down and removing the scatological elements from previous versions. There is also an added moral: Tom has a troublesome life and dies young because his parents should have accepted God's will and been content instead of asking Merlin for a son.

1815: In The New Tom Thumb ... by Margery Meanwell, written by William Mackenzie, Tom Thumb (a descendant of the famous fairytale Tom Thumb) hurts animals and immediately gets what basically amounts to karma.

1820? The entertaining story of Little Red Riding Hood ; and Tom Thumb's toy : adorned with cuts  (1820?) features a version of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" fable with a bull playing the role of the wolf. The title is somewhat baffling, as neither Tom Thumb nor toys make an appearance.

1820: The history of Tom Thumb

1820s: The history of little Goody Two-Shoes : to which is added, The rhyming alphabet, or, Tom Thumb's delight (1820's). "A was an angler, and he caught a fish."

1825: Hodgson's Tom Thumb

ca. 1835, “The Diverting History of Tom Thumb.” Printed by Thomas Richardson in Derby.
(A) Merlin gives baby to ploughman’s family. In 1621 and 1630, the focus was on Tom's father wanting an heir. Here, the mother is the one who asks for a child.
(B) Fairy queen is godmother
(C) Oak-leaf hat, thistledown jacket, spiderweb shirt
(D – truncated) Cherry-bag prank. Instead of getting revenge on the other boys, he learns a moral lesson. 
(E) Falls into pudding
(F – truncated) Held briefly in cow’s mouth, not swallowed
(G) Carried away by raven
(H) eaten by giant, makes giant vomit
(I) Eaten by a fish which is taken to King Arthur’s table
(K) Tom takes a coin home
(V) Butterfly-wing shirts
(X) Badly wounded by a cat, taken away by Fairy Queen
(Y) Returns to Earth at Thunston’s court. King Edgar is left out.
(Z) Mice draw his coach
(b) The queen is jealous of the attention and gifts the king gives Tom, demands Tom's death
(c) He hides in a snailshell, flees on a butterfly, escapes from a mouse trap. Finally pardoned.
(d) killed by a spider.
(R) The king builds a tomb.
  • Includes the clothing rhyme, the "My name is Tom Thumb, From the Fairies I come" rhyme and the final poetic verse with "Alas! Tom Thumb is dead!"
  • With its simplification of the original plot, this is now the definitive version of the modern Tom Thumb. Later versions are clearly based on this one.

1836 Park's Tom Thumb 

1838. The Novel Adventures of Tom Thumb the Great, Showing how He Visited the Insect World, and Learned Much Wisdom, Etc, by Louisa Mary Barwell. Not a retelling. A storybook with lots of morals and lessons on insects.

c.1840. Reading made quite easy and diverting: Containing symbolical cuts for the alphabet, tables of words of one, two, three and four syllables, with easy lessons from the Scriptures listed Tom Thumb as author, but otherwise did not mention him. 

1849. Halliwell's Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales. 
  • Tom does make it to the cow’s stomach.
  • Includes modernized excerpts from the metrical version.
  • Halliwell was also the person who reprinted Thomas Redivivus.

​Between 1846 and 1859: The Denham Tracts (specifically an article titled "Ghosts Never Appear on Christmas Eve!") mention "Tom-thumbs" with other bogies. Based on Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft.
1851: Wood's amusing history of Tom Thumb

1855 The History of Sir Thomas Thumb, by Charlotte Mary Yonge.
  • This version seems to get the blame for toning the tale down and making it moralizing, but it’s my favorite version, and it’s way later than the first moralizing versions. It summarizes part 2 and 3 of Thomas Redivivus.

c.1850: Tom Thumb's Picture Alphabet in Rhyme - "A is an angler, young but expert. B is a butcher who wears a red shirt."

1863: Dinah Maria Craik Mulock’s Fairy Book
  • Nearly the same as The Diverting History of Tom Thumb.
​
1876. Extraordinary Nursery Rhymes and Tales: New Yet Old retells story differently; the focus is on Tom growing up, ending has him find a wife and have children. 
1880s. “Story of Tom Thumb” (published by McCoughlin Bros.) Queen as villain again. 

1890. Joseph Jacobs’ English Fairy Tales: “The History of Tom Thumb" is near-identical to The Diverting History ​and Mulock's version, but a little further simplified, so that Tom never goes to fairyland, and Thunston and his wife are replaced by Arthur and Guinevere.

UNKNOWN DATE