_Source_.--_Verbatim et literatim_ from Southey, _The Doctor, &c._,
quarto edition, p. 327.
_Parallels_.--None, as the story was 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.
_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 be-praised 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 Prof. 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.