"
The Robber Bridegroom" is a German
fairy tale collected by the
Brothers Grimm, tale number 40.
Joseph Jacobs included a variant,
Mr Fox in
English Fairy Tales, but the original provenance is much older;
Shakespeare (circa 1599) alludes to the
Mr. Fox variant in
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1, Scene 1:
- Like the old tale, my lord: "it is not so, nor `t was not so; but, indeed, God forbid it should be so."