Wonder Tales

by Marina Warner

  I ordered Sinbad to go and tell him that what he wished seemed all but impossible; that none the less, in view of the promise he had given me and the oaths he had tendered, I would work diligently to help him realise his wishes; that I begged him not to come every day, lest he be finally spied by someone, and that the fairies were pitiless.

  He withdrew overcome with joy, thanks to the flattering hopes I held out to him while I found myself in the worst predicament I had ever known, when I reflected on what I had just promised. How could I leave this tower, which had no doors? and with only the help of Sinbad and Fido? And I so young, so inexperienced, so fearful? I therefore resolved not to undertake anything which had no hope of success, and I sent Sinbad to tell the king. He was ready to kill himself before Sinbad’s very eyes, but finally he ordered him to persuade me either to come and watch him die, or to comfort him. Sire, cried the winged ambassador, my mistress is sufficiently convinced, she lacks only power.

  When he came to tell me all that had happened, I was more afflicted than before. Fairy Violenta arrived; seeing how my eyes were red and swollen, she said that I had wept, and that if I didn’t tell her why she would burn me, for all her threats were always terrible. I answered, trembling, that I was tired of spinning, and that I longed to have nets to catch the little birds who came to peck at the fruits in my garden. What you desire shall cost you no more tears, my daughter; I shall bring you all the cords you need; and in fact I received them that very evening; but she cautioned me to think less of work and more about making myself beautiful, since King Migonnet would soon be arriving. I shuddered at this disturbing news, and answered nothing.

  As soon as she left I began to work on two or three bits of netting, but my real endeavour was to fashion a rope ladder which would be skilfully made, even though I had never seen one. It is true that the fairy never supplied me with as much cord as I needed, and she kept repeating: But daughter, your weaving is like Penelope’s, it never progresses, and you are continually asking me for more supplies. O! Good mother, I said, it’s easy enough for you to talk! Can’t you see that I’m inexperienced, and that I keep spoiling my work and throwing it into the fire? Are you afraid of my impoverishing you with my string? My simple airs delighted her, even though she had a most disagreeable and cruel nature.

  I dispatched Sinbad to tell the king to come one evening beneath the tower windows, that he would find a ladder there, and that he would find out the rest when he came. As a matter of fact I anchored it firmly, resolved to flee with him; but when he saw it he climbed it in haste, without waiting for me to come down, and burst into my chamber while I was preparing everything for my flight.

  The sight of him so filled me with joy that I forgot the peril both of us were in. He renewed his gallant vows, and beseeched me to delay no longer in accepting him as my husband; we enlisted Sinbad and Fido as witnesses of our marriage; never was a wedding between persons of such high rank celebrated with less noise and festivity, and never were hearts happier than ours.

  Day had not yet come when the king left me: I told him the fairies’ frightful plan of marrying me to little Migonnet; I described his face, which horrified him as much as me. Hardly had he left when the hours began to seem like days; I ran to the window and followed him with my gaze despite the darkness; but what was my amazement on seeing in the distance a chariot of fire drawn by winged salamanders, travelling with such speed that the eye could scarcely follow it! The chariot was escorted by a quantity of guards mounted on ostriches. I had barely time enough to glance at the ugly sprite who was travelling through the air in this fashion; but I concluded at once that it was a fairy or an enchanter.

  Soon after, fairy Violenta entered my chamber: I bring you good news, she said; your lover arrived a few hours ago; prepare to receive him; here are some jewels and finery. What! I cried out. And who told you I wished to be wed? It’s not my intention at all; send King Migonnet back where he came from; I won’t add so much as a pin to my dress; let him find me beautiful or ugly, it’s all the same to me. Ah, ah, replied the fairy, such a little rebel, such a hare-brain! I’m in no mood for jokes, and I’m going to … You’ll do what to me? I retorted, blushing at the names she had called me. Can one be more dismally treated than I, shut up in a tower with a parrot and a dog, having to look several times a day at the frightful face of a dragon? Ha! Ungrateful wretch, said the fairy, and what did you do to deserve so much care and trouble on the part of others? I’ve said it all too often to my sisters, that we shall have but a sad recompense. She went to find them and tell them of our quarrel, and all were equally shocked.

  Sinbad and Fido pleaded desperately with me, saying that if I continued in my refractory ways, they foresaw that harsh treatment would be visited on me. I felt so proud at possessing the heart of a great king that I scorned the fairies and the advice of my little friends. I refused to don my finery, and purposely coiffed my hair awry, so that Migonnet might find me displeasing. Our interview took place on the terrace. He arrived in his chariot of fire. Never since there were dwarfs was such a tiny one to be seen. He walked on his eagle’s claws and his knees at the same time, for there were no bones in his legs, so that he was obliged to support himself on two diamond crutches. His royal robe was only half an ell long, and a third of it trailed on the ground. His head was as big as a bushel basket, and his nose so large that a dozen birds perched on it, whose chirping delighted him; he had such an enormous beard that canaries had made their nests in it, and his ears over-topped his head by a cubit, but this was scarcely noticeable thanks to the high pointed crown that he wore so as to appear taller. The flame of his chariot roasted the fruits, withered the flowers, and dried up the fountains of my garden. He approached me with open arms to embrace me; I stood up straight, and his first equerry was obliged to lift him; but as soon as he drew near I fled into my chamber and slammed shut the door and the windows, so that Migonnet returned to the fairies’ abode extremely vexed with me.

  They asked him a thousand pardons for my brusqueness, and to calm him, for he was very powerful, they resolved to lead him into my chamber at night while I was asleep, to bind my hands and feet and put me with him in the burning chariot, so that he might carry me away. Once this plan was agreed on, they hardly even scolded me for my insolent behaviour. All they said was that I should think about making amends. Sinbad and Fido were surprised at such mildness. You know, mistress, said my dog, my heart tells me no good can come of this. My ladies the fairies are strange personages, especially Violenta. I made fun of his warnings, and awaited my beloved husband with wild impatience. He himself was too impatient to put off seeing me again; I threw down the rope ladder, fully resolved to run off with him; he climbed it nimbly and proffered me such tender words that I still dare not summon them to memory.

  While we were speaking together with the same tranquillity we would have had in his palace, the windows of my chamber were suddenly battered in. In came the fairies on their terrible dragon, followed by Migonnet in his fiery chariot and all his guards on their ostriches. The king, fearless, put his hand to his sword, thinking only of saving me from the most horrible misadventure that ever was, for, would you believe it, my lord? those barbarous creatures unleashed their dragon on him; he was eaten up before my very eyes.

  In desperation at his fate and mine, I threw myself into the jaws of that hideous monster, hoping he would swallow me, as he had just swallowed all that I loved in the world. He would have liked to, but the fairies, even more cruel than he, wouldn’t let him. She must be kept for more lingering torments, they screamed; a speedy death is too gentle for this shameless creature! They laid hands on me; at once I saw myself turn into the White Cat; they brought me to this magnificent palace of my father and metamorphosed all the lords and ladies of the kingdom into cats; they spared those whose hands alone would remain visible, and reduced me to the deplorable state in which you found me, informing me of my birth, of the death of my father and of my mother, and that I would never be
released from my feline condition, save by a prince who would perfectly resemble the husband they had torn from me. ’Tis you, my lord, who possess that resemblance, she continued: the same features, same aspect, even the same voice; I was struck by it the moment I saw you; I was informed of everything that would happen, and I know as well what will happen: my torment will end. And my own, lovely queen, said the prince, throwing himself at her feet, will it be of long duration? Already I love you more than life itself, my lord, said the queen. We must go to see your father; we shall judge of his feelings for me, and learn if he will consent to what you desire.

  She went out; the prince gave her his hand, she mounted into a chariot with him; it was far more magnificent than those he had had before. The rest of the cortège matched it to such a degree that all the horseshoes were made of emeralds, and their nails were diamonds. Perhaps it was a sight never seen before or since. I pass over the agreeable conversations that the queen and the prince were having; if she was matchless in beauty, she was not less so for her mind, and the young prince was as perfect as she, so that they thought only of charming things.

  When they were near the castle where the brothers were to meet, the queen entered a rock crystal whose facets were adorned with gold and rubies. Its interior was curtained so that none could see her, and it was borne by beautifully formed and superbly clad youths. The prince remained in the chariot, from which he saw his brothers strolling with princesses of extraordinary beauty. As soon as they recognised him they asked him if he had brought a fiancée; he told them that he had been so unlucky that throughout his travels he had encountered only ugly women, and that the only thing of rarity he could find to bring was a little White Cat. They began to laugh at his innocence. A cat, they said, are you afraid the mice will eat our palace? The prince replied that in effect it wasn’t wise to offer such a present to his father; thereupon they set out on the road to the city.

  The elder princes rode with their princesses in barouches made of gold and lapis lazuli; their horses’ heads were adorned with plumes and aigrettes; in short, nothing on earth could surpass this brilliant cavalcade. Our young prince followed behind, then came the rock crystal, which everyone stared at admiringly.

  The courtiers hastened to tell the king that the three princes were arriving: Have they brought beautiful ladies with them? he retorted. It would be impossible to find anything that could outshine them. This reply seemed to annoy him. The king greeted them cordially, and couldn’t decide on whom to bestow the prize; he looked at the youngest and said: So, this time you have come alone? Your majesty will find inside this rock crystal a little White Cat, who miaows so sweetly, and draws in her claws so nicely, that your majesty will surely approve of her. The king smiled, and was about to open the crystal himself, but no sooner had he approached it than the queen, using a spring, caused the whole thing to fall in shards, and appeared like the sun after it has been for some time veiled in clouds; her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and fell in thick ringlets down to her feet; her head was wreathed in flowers, her fragile white gauze gown was lined with pink taffeta; she arose and made a deep curtsey before the king, who, overcome with admiration, couldn’t prevent himself from crying out: Here is the incomparable one, and it is she who deserves the crown.

  Your highness, she replied, I haven’t come here to deprive you of a throne which you occupy with so much dignity; I was born with six kingdoms; allow me to offer you one of them, and one to both of your sons. All I ask for in recompense is your friendship, and this young prince for my husband. We shall still be well provided for with three kingdoms. The king and all the court uttered long shouts of joy and astonishment. The marriage was celebrated at once, and those of the two princes as well, in such wise that the whole court spent several months in pleasures and diversions. Each then left to govern his realm; the lovely White Cat was immortalised, as much for her kindness and generosity as for her rare merit and her beauty.

  This young prince was lucky indeed

  To find in a cat’s guise an august princess

  Whom he would later marry, and accede

  To three thrones and a world of tenderness.

  When two enchanting eyes are inclined

  To inspire love, they seldom find resistance,

  Especially when a wise and ardent mind

  Moves them to inspire lasting allegiance.

  I’ll speak no more of the unworthy mother

  Who caused the White Cat so many sorrows

  By coveting the accursed fruits of another,

  Thus ceding her daughter to the fairies’ powers.

  Mothers, who have children full of charm,

  Despise her conduct, and keep them from all harm.

  The Subtle Princess

  Translated by Gilbert Adair

  MARIE-JEANNE L’HÉRITIER DE VILLANDON

  IN THE TIME of the first Crusades, a certain king (as to where his kingdom lay I know no more than that it was in Europe) resolved to make war against the infidels in Palestine. Before undertaking a journey that promised to be long and perilous, he put the affairs of his kingdom in order, and appointed his ablest minister as regent, so that he might feel entirely easy on that account.

  What did concern this king, however, was the welfare of his own family. The queen had died, alas, not long before our story properly begins. She had left him no son, but three young princesses, all of marriageable age. My knowledge of the family doesn’t extend to their true names: I only know that, in those honest, uncomplicated times, it was the custom among ordinary folk to refer to eminent persons by nicknames chosen according to their good and bad qualities, a custom all the more appropriate to the princesses in that each was so very different from her two sisters it was as if the king had three only children. Thus the eldest of them they nicknamed Lackadaisy; the second, Loquatia; and the last, Finessa; all of which names served, as you’ll see, as a witty commentary on the characters of the three sisters.

  Never was anyone born who was as lazy as Lackadaisy. She would wake up every day at the same hour, one in the afternoon; would be dragged off to church in much the same condition as when she was dragged out of bed, her hair dishevelled, her gown hanging loose and unfastened, her girdle missing; and would frequently find herself wearing one slipper belonging to one pair and another to another. These lapses would usually be rectified before night, but no one could ever prevail upon her to go other than in slippers: she found the wearing of shoes unutterably fatiguing. As soon as she had dined, she would sit down at her dressing-table and might happily remain there all evening. The rest of her time, till midnight, was spent at play, and at supper. After which, it took as long to peel off her clothes as it had taken to put them on; and she could never be persuaded to go to bed until it was broad daylight outside.

  Loquatia led quite another sort of life. Unlike her sister this princess was very brisk and active, and spent next to no time fussing over her appearance. But she had such a frantic itch to talk that, from the instant she awoke till the moment she fell asleep again, her lips were never at rest. Poor Loquatia, she was a mouth without a head. She knew all about everything: what had happened once upon a time and to whom; which couples were living in connubial harmony and which were not; the intrigues and gallantries not only of the court but of the commonest of commoners. She kept a thick register of all those wives of her acquaintance who scrimped at home in order to shine abroad, and knew, down to the very last sou, what the Marquis So-and-So paid his valet and the Countess Such-and-Such her lady-in-waiting. The better, moreover, to keep abreast of such trivial news, she would shamelessly pump her nurse and her dressmaker and listen to all their scandal as solemnly as if she were listening to some ambassador just returned from the Orient; and, believing firmly that people who can’t keep their own secrets really shouldn’t expect you to keep theirs either, she would instantly repeat everything she heard to everyone she knew, from the king himself to the humblest of his footmen. For, provided she could talk, s
he little cared who it was she talked to.

  This itch of Loquatia to talk, talk, talk, all day long, ended by having a rather unfortunate effect on her reputation. Notwithstanding her high rank, her over-familiar manners emboldened a few of the court’s brighter sparks to make love to her, by word if not by act. If she listened, inattentively enough, to their fine and flowery speeches, it was – not unlike those people whose sole gratification in writing a letter is that of receiving a reply – purely to have the pleasure of answering them; for, from morning till night, at whatever cost to the chores and duties that might naturally be expected of her, she lived only to hear others tattle or to tattle away herself. Never did Loquatia, any more than her nonchalant sister, employ herself in thinking, in working or in reading. She never troubled herself with household matters or the amusements of her spindle or needle. In short, like Lackadaisy, she led a life of complete idleness, idleness of mind as well as of body.

  The youngest of these three princesses (Reader, it was ever thus) was of a wholly different character. Her thoughts and hands were never idle. She was of a surprising vivacity and she applied it only to good use. She danced, sang and played music to perfection. She would finish, with quite wonderful skill, all the finicky little tasks of the hand which are reputed to divert those of her sex; and, when she spoke, it was with the measured caution of a chess player making a move. She oversaw the king’s household; and, once and for all, by care and vigilance, put an end to the petty pilferings of his lower officers; for, even in days as halcyon as those, the cheating of princes was rife.