“That would be a fine sight indeed,” said this ill-bred minx, “to see me go to draw water!”
“You will go, you stupid girl,” said the mother, “and you will go this minute.”
So away she went, but she grumbled all the way, and took with her the best silver tankard in the house.
She had no sooner reached the well than she saw a most beautifully dressed lady coming out of the woods. The lady came up to her and asked to drink. This was, you must know, the very fairy who had appeared to her sister, but had now assumed the guise and dress of a princess, to see how far this girl’s rudeness would go.
“Have I come here,” said the proud, disagreeable girl, “to serve you with water? I suppose the silver tankard was brought purely for your ladyship, was it? However, you may drink out of it, if you have a fancy.”
“You are not very well mannered,” answered the fairy, very calmly. “Well then, since you have so little breeding, and are so rude, I give to you as a gift, that at every word you speak, either a snake or a toad will come out of your mouth.”
As soon as her mother saw her favourite child coming back along the road from the well, she cried out, “Well, daughter?”
“Well, mother?” answered the girl, throwing out of her mouth two vipers and two toads.
“Oh, my goodness!” cried the mother, “What is this I see? Oh, it is that wretch your sister who has caused all this; but she will pay for it.”And immediately she ran off to beat her. The poor child ran away from her and went to the nearby forest to hide herself.
The king’s son, who was returning from a hunting expedition, encountered the girl there, and seeing that she was so very pretty, he asked her what she was doing there all alone, and why she was crying.
‘Alas, sir! My mother has thrown me out of my home,” she replied.
The king’s son, who saw five or six pearls, and as many diamonds come out of her mouth as she uttered these words, asked her to tell him how that had happened. So she told him the whole story, and the king’s son fell in love with her; and considering that the fairy’s gift to her was more than any dowry he might receive from someone else, he brought her to the palace of the king his father, and there he married her.
As for her sister, she made everyone hate her so much that her own mother turned her out; and the miserable wretch, having wandered about for a long time without finding anybody to take her in, went to a corner in the wood where she died.
“AM I COME HITHER TO SERVER YOU WITH WATER, PRAY?”
THE MORAL
Money and jewels still, we find,
Stamp strong impressions on the mind.
But sweet discourse more potent riches yields;
Of higher value is the pow’r it wields.
ANOTHER
Civil behaviour costs indeed some pains;
Requires of complaisance some little share;
But soon or late its due reward it gains,
And meets it often when we’re not aware.
BLUE BEARD
There once was a man who owned several fine houses in town and country, a great deal of silver and gold plate, embroidered furniture and coaches that were gilded all over with gold. But this man had the misfortune to have a blue beard, which made him so frightfully ugly that all the women and girls he encountered ran away from him.
One of his neighbours, a noble lady, had two daughters, each of whom was outstandingly beautiful. He asked the lady for the hand in marriage of one of her daughters, leaving her to choose which one of the two she would give to him. However, neither of the girls would have him, and each said that the other was welcome to him, both of them being unable to bear the thought of marrying a man who had a blue beard. Another thing that disgusted them and was very off-putting to them, was his having already been married to several wives; and nobody ever knew what became of them.
In an attempt to engage their affections, Blue Beard took the girls, with their mother and three or four ladies of their acquaintance, and several other young people of the neighbourhood, to one of his houses in the country, where they stayed a whole week. The entire week was spent in an endless round of parties, hunting, dancing, jollity and feasting. Nobody ever went to bed, but spent the nights playing tricks on each other. In short, everything went so well that the youngest daughter began to think that the beard of the master of the house was not so very blue, and that he was a very civil gentleman. As soon as they returned home, the marriage between Blue Beard and the youngest daughter took place.
About a month later Blue Beard told his wife that he had to go away on very important business, which would require him to be away from home for at least six weeks. He said that she should enjoy herself while he was gone, send for her friends and acquaintances and take them to the country, if she pleased, and to be happy wherever she was.
“Here,” he said, “are the keys of the two great store rooms in which I keep my best furniture; these are the keys for my silver and gold plate, which is not in everyday use; these open my safes, which hold my money, both gold and silver; these are for my caskets of jewels; and this key is the master key to every room. But this little one here is the key to the room at the end of the great gallery on the ground floor. Open them all and go into each and every one of them, except that little closet, which I forbid you to open, and forbid in such a manner that if you happen to open it, my anger and resentment will know no bounds.”
She promised to observe, very exactly, everything that he had ordered. Then, having embraced her, Blue Beard got into his coach and set off on his journey.
Her neighbours and good friends did not wait for an invitation from the newly married lady, so great was their impatience to see all the rich furniture of the house – they didn’t dare to come while her husband was there, because of his blue beard, which frightened them. They went through all the rooms, cupboards and wardrobes, which were all so rich and fine that each seemed to surpass the previous one.
After that, they went up into the two great rooms, where the best and richest furniture was kept. They were lost in admiration of the number and beauty of the tapestries, beds, couches, cabinets, stands and tables, and looking-glasses in which you could see yourself from head to toe. Some of these were framed with glass, others with silver; there were both plain and gilded ones, the finest and most magnificent that had ever been seen. The visitors were unstinting in their praise and in their envy of the happiness of their friend who, in the meantime, was not spending any time looking at all these rich things, because of her impatience to open the forbidden room on the ground floor. She was so overcome by curiosity that, without taking into account that it was very impolite to leave her visitors, she went down a little back staircase, and with such excessive haste that she almost fell and broke her neck two or three times.
When she reached the door of the room, she paused to think for some time, remembering her husband’s orders and considering what might happen to her if she were to disobey him. But the temptation was so strong that she could not overcome it. She took the little key and, trembling, opened the door. At first she could not make anything out because the windows were shuttered. However, after a few moments she began to see that the floor was covered with clotted blood, in which were reflected the bodies of several dead women who were ranged against the walls of the closet – these were all Blue Beard’s previous wives, married and murdered by him one after another. She almost died with fear, and the key, which she had pulled out of the lock, fell out of her hand.
After a little while, having recovered her senses somewhat, she picked up the key, locked the door, and went upstairs to her chamber to recover, but she was so frightened that she was unable to collect herself. Seeing that the key of the closet was stained with blood, she tried two or three times to wipe it away, but the blood would not come off. In vain did she wash it – she even rubbed it with soap and sand – but the blood still remained, for the key was enchanted, and she could never make it quite clean; when the bl
ood was gone from one side it appeared again on the other.
“THIS MAN HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO HAVE A BLUE BEARD”
Blue Beard returned from his journey that same evening; he said that while on the road he had received letters informing him that his business had been concluded to his advantage and that he was no longer needed. His wife did all she could to convince him that she was glad about his speedy return. The next morning he asked her for the keys, which she gave him, but with such a trembling hand that he easily guessed what had happened.
“What?” he asked, “Is the key of my closet not among the rest?”
“I must certainly,” she replied, “have left it upstairs on the table.”
“Then go upstairs and bring it to me at once,” said Blue Beard.
After putting him off several times, she was forced to bring him the key. Blue Beard, having examined it very carefully, said to his wife, “How did this blood come to be upon the key?”
“I do not know,” cried the poor woman, who was paler than death itself.
“You do not know,” replied Blue Beard. “I know very well that you were determined to go into the closet, were you not? Very well, Madam, you will go in, and you will take your place among the ladies you saw there.”
At this, she threw herself at her husband’s feet and begged his pardon with all the signs of true repentance for her disobedience. She was so beautiful and sorrowful that she would have melted a rock, but Blue Beard had a heart that was harder than any rock.
“You must die, Madam,” he said, “and soon.”
“Since I must die,” she answered, looking at him with eyes filled with tears, “give me a little time to say my prayers.”
“I will give you,” replied Blue Beard, “half a quarter of an hour, but not one moment more.”
When she was alone she called out to her sister, and said to her,
“Sister Anne” (for that was her name), “go up, I beg you, to the top of the tower and see if my brothers are coming. They promised me that they would come today, and if you see them, give them a sign to make haste.”
Her sister went up to the top of the tower, and the poor afflicted wife cried out from time to time, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anyone coming?”
And her sister replied, “I see nothing but the sun, which makes a haze, and the grass growing green.”
In the meantime, Blue Beard, holding a great scimitar in his hand, shouted out as loudly as he could to his wife, “Come down instantly, or I shall come up to you!”
“One moment longer, if you please,” said his wife, and then she cried out very softly, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody coming?”
“I see nothing but the sun, which makes a haze, and the grass growing green.”
“Come down quickly,” cried Blue Beard, “or I will come up to you!”
“I am coming,” his wife replied, and then she cried, “Anne, sister Anne, do you see anyone coming?”
“I see,” replied her sister, “a great cloud of dust coming this way.”
“Are they my brothers?”
“Alas! No, my dear sister, I see a flock of sheep.”
“Will you not come down?” cried Blue Beard.
“One moment longer,” said his wife, and then she cried out,
“Anne, sister Anne, do you see nobody coming?”
“I see,” replied Anne, “two horsemen coming, but they are still a long way off. God be praised,” she added, “they are my brothers. I am beckoning to them as well as I can, for them to make haste.”
Then Blue Beard bawled so loudly that he made the whole house shake. The distressed wife came down and threw herself at his feet, in tears, with her hair down around her shoulders.
“Nothing will do you any good,” said Blue Beard, “you must die.” Then, taking hold of her hair with one hand, and lifting up his scimitar with the other, he was about to take off her head.
The poor lady, turning around to face him, and looking at him with dying eyes, asked him to allow her one little moment to collect herself.
“No, no,” he said, “commend yourself to God,” and he was just ready to strike.
At that very moment there was such a loud knocking at the gate that Blue Beard suddenly stopped in mid swing. The gate was opened and two horsemen entered, who drew their swords and ran straight over to Blue Beard. He knew them to be his wife’s brothers, one a dragoon, the other a musketeer, and he ran away immediately to save himself, but the two brothers ran after him so quickly that they caught him before he could get to the steps of the porch. They ran their swords through his body and left him dead.
The poor wife was almost dead with fright, and didn’t have enough strength to rise and welcome her brothers.
Blue Beard had no heirs, so his wife became mistress of all his estate. She made use of one portion of it to marry her sister Anne to a young gentleman who had loved her for a long time; another portion to buy captains’ commissions for her two brothers; and the rest to marry herself to a worthy gentleman, who made her forget the dreadful time she had spent with Blue Beard.
THE MORAL
O curiosity, thou mortal bane!
Spite of thy charms, thou causest often pain
And sore regret, of which we daily find
A thousand instances attend mankind:
For thou – O may it not displease the fair –
A fleeting pleasure art, but lasting care.
And always proves, alas! too dear the prize,
Which, in the moment of possession, dies.
ANOTHER
A very little share of common sense,
And knowledge of the world will soon evince
That this story is of time long pass’d;
No husbands now such panic terrors cast;
Nor weakly, with a vain despotic hand,
Imperious, what’s impossible, command:
And be they discontented, or the fire
Of wicked jealousy their hearts inspire,
They softly sing; and of whatever hue
Their beards may chance to be, or black or blue,
Grizeld, or russet, it is hard to say
Which of the two, the man or wife, bears sway.
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
Once upon a time there were a king and queen who were very sad that they had no children, so sad that it cannot be expressed. They visited all the holy wells in the world; vows and pilgrimages and all other means and ways were tried, but nothing worked. At last, however, the queen became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter. There was a very fine christening, and the princess had as godmothers all the fairies they could find in the whole kingdom (they found seven), so that each one of them might give her a gift, as was the custom of fairies in those days, and that by this means the princess might have all the perfections that could be imagined.
After the christening ceremonies were over, everyone returned to the king’s palace, where a huge feast had been prepared for the fairies. At each fairy’s place at the table there was a place setting with a case of gleaming gold, which contained a spoon, knife and fork, all made of pure gold set with diamonds and rubies. Just as they were all sitting down to eat they saw coming into the hall a very old fairy who had not been invited, because it was more than 50 years since she had been seen, and she was believed to be either dead or enchanted. The king ordered a place setting for her, but he could not give her a golden case such as had been provided for the others, because only seven had been made, for each of the seven fairies. The old fairy believed that she had been slighted, and muttered a threat through her teeth. One of the young fairies sitting near her overheard her grumbling. Thinking that the old fairy might give the little princess some unlucky gift, the young fairy went and hid herself behind some hangings as soon as they rose from the table, so that she might speak last and repair, as much as possible, any evil that the old fairy might intend to do.
In the meantime, all the fairies began to give their gifts to the princess
. The gift of the youngest fairy was that she should be the most beautiful person in the world; the next fairy gave her the gift of the intelligence of an angel; the third fairy decreed that she would be wonderfully graceful in everything she did; the fourth fairy’s gift was that she should dance with perfection; the fifth fairy gave her the gift of a singing voice like a nightingale; and the sixth fairy’s gift was the ability to play all kinds of music flawlessly.
The old fairy’s turn came next, and, with a head shaking more with spite than with age, she said that the princess would cut her hand on a spindle, and would die of the wound. This terrible gift made everyone tremble, and they all began to weep.
At that very moment, the young fairy came out from her hiding place behind the hangings.
“Be reassured, Your Majesties,” she said, “Your daughter will not die of this disaster. It is true that I have no power to undo entirely what the old fairy has done. The princess will indeed cut her hand on a spindle, but instead of dying, she will fall into a deep sleep, which will last 100 years. At the end of that time a king’s son will come and awaken her.”
The king, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old fairy, immediately had proclamations made around the kingdom, forbidding everybody, on pain of death, to use a spinning wheel, or to have so much as a spindle in their homes.
About 15 or 16 years later, when the king and queen were away, the young princess was amusing herself one day by running up and down the palace. Going from one room to another, she eventually came to a little room at the top of a tower, where an old woman was spinning. This good woman had never heard of the king’s proclamation.
Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault Page 2
