_Source._--Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes and Tales._
_Parallels._--There is a Yorkshire Lying Tale in Henderson's
_Folk-Lore_, first edition, p. 337, a Suffolk one, "Happy Borz'l," in
_Suffolk Notes and Queries_, while a similar jingle of inconsequent
absurdities, commencing "So he died, and she unluckily married the
barber, and a great bear coming up the street popped his head into the
window, saying, 'Do you sell any soap'?" is said to have been invented
by Charles James Fox to test Sheridan's memory, who repeated it after
one hearing. (Others attribute it to Foote.) Similar _Lugenmärchen_ are
given by the Grimms, and discussed by them in their Notes, Mrs. Hunt's
translation, ii., pp. 424, 435, 442, 450, 452, _cf._ Crane, _Ital. Pop.
Tales_, p. 263.
_Remarks._--The reference to venison warrants, and bows and arrows seems
to argue considerable antiquity for this piece of nonsense. The
honorific prefix "Sir" may in that case refer to clerkly qualities
rather than to knighthood.