France (Charles Perrault)
Once there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest
and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had, by a former husband,
two daughters of her own, who were, indeed, exactly like her in all
things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but of
unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her
mother, who was the best creature in the world.
No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over but the stepmother
began to show herself in her true colors. She could not bear the good
qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her own
daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of
the house. She scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and cleaned madam's
chamber, and those of misses, her daughters. She slept in a sorry garret,
on a wretched straw bed, while her sisters slept in fine rooms, with
floors all inlaid, on beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had
looking glasses so large that they could see themselves at their full
length from head to foot.
The poor girl bore it all patiently, and dared not tell her father, who
would have scolded her; for his wife governed him entirely. When she had
done her work, she used to go to the chimney corner, and sit down there in
the cinders and ashes, which caused her to be called Cinderwench. Only the
younger sister, who was not so rude and uncivil as the older one, called
her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her coarse apparel,
was a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters, although they were
always dressed very richly.
It happened that the king's son gave a ball, and invited all persons of
fashion to it. Our young misses were also invited, for they cut a very
grand figure among those of quality. They were mightily delighted at this
invitation, and wonderfully busy in selecting the gowns, petticoats, and
hair dressing that would best become them. This was a new difficulty for
Cinderella; for it was she who ironed her sister's linen and pleated their
ruffles. They talked all day long of nothing but how they should be
dressed.
"For my part," said the eldest, "I will wear my red velvet suit with
French trimming."
"And I," said the youngest, "shall have my usual petticoat; but then,
to make amends for that, I will put on my gold-flowered cloak, and my
diamond stomacher, which is far from being the most ordinary one in the
world."
They sent for the best hairdresser they could get to make up their
headpieces and adjust their hairdos, and they had their red brushes and
patches from Mademoiselle de la Poche.
They also consulted Cinderella in all these matters, for she had
excellent ideas, and her advice was always good. Indeed, she even offered
her services to fix their hair, which they very willingly accepted. As she
was doing this, they said to her, "Cinderella, would you not like to go to
the ball?"
"Alas!" said she, "you only jeer me; it is not for such as I am to go
to such a place."
"You are quite right," they replied. "It would make the people laugh to
see a Cinderwench at a ball."
Anyone but Cinderella would have fixed their hair awry, but she was
very good, and dressed them perfectly well. They were so excited that they
hadn't eaten a thing for almost two days. Then they broke more than a
dozen laces trying to have themselves laced up tightly enough to give them
a fine slender shape. They were continually in front of their looking
glass. At last the happy day came. They went to court, and Cinderella
followed them with her eyes as long as she could. When she lost sight of
them, she started to cry.
Her godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked her what was the matter.
"I wish I could. I wish I could." She was not able to speak the rest,
being interrupted by her tears and sobbing.
This godmother of hers, who was a fairy, said to her, "You wish that
you could go to the ball; is it not so?"
"Yes," cried Cinderella, with a great sigh.
"Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will contrive
that you shall go." Then she took her into her chamber, and said to her,
"Run into the garden, and bring me a pumpkin."
Cinderella went immediately to gather the finest she could get, and
brought it to her godmother, not being able to imagine how this pumpkin
could help her go to the ball. Her godmother scooped out all the inside of
it, leaving nothing but the rind. Having done this, she struck the pumpkin
with her wand, and it was instantly turned into a fine coach, gilded all
over with gold.
She then went to look into her mousetrap, where she found six mice, all
alive, and ordered Cinderella to lift up a little the trapdoor. She gave
each mouse, as it went out, a little tap with her wand, and the mouse was
that moment turned into a fine horse, which altogether made a very fine
set of six horses of a beautiful mouse colored dapple gray.
Being at a loss for a coachman, Cinderella said, "I will go and see if
there is not a rat in the rat trap that we can turn into a coachman."
"You are right," replied her godmother, "Go and look."
Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there were three huge
rats. The fairy chose the one which had the largest beard, touched him
with her wand, and turned him into a fat, jolly coachman, who had the
smartest whiskers that eyes ever beheld.
After that, she said to her, "Go again into the garden, and you will
find six lizards behind the watering pot. Bring them to me."
She had no sooner done so but her godmother turned them into six
footmen, who skipped up immediately behind the coach, with their liveries
all bedaubed with gold and silver, and clung as close behind each other as
if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The fairy then said to
Cinderella, "Well, you see here an equipage fit to go to the ball with;
are you not pleased with it?"
"Oh, yes," she cried; "but must I go in these nasty rags?"
Her godmother then touched her with her wand, and, at the same instant,
her clothes turned into cloth of gold and silver, all beset with jewels.
This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the
whole world. Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her
godmother, above all things, commanded her not to stay past midnight,
telling her, at the same time, that if she stayed one moment longer, the
coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her
footmen lizards, and that her clothes would become just as they were
before.
She promised her godmother to leave the ball before midnight; and then
drove away, scarcely able to contain herself for joy. The king's son, who
was told that a great princess, whom nobody knew, had arrived, ran out to
receive her. He gave her his hand as she alighted from the coach, and led
her into the hall, among all the company. There was immediately a profound
silence. Everyone stopped dancing, and the violins ceased to play, so
entranced was everyone with the singular beauties of the unknown newcomer.
Nothing was then heard but a confused noise of, "How beautiful she is!
How beautiful she is!"
The king himself, old as he was, could not help watching her, and
telling the queen softly that it was a long time since he had seen so
beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies were busied in considering her clothes and headdress,
hoping to have some made next day after the same pattern, provided they
could find such fine materials and as able hands to make them.
The king's son led her to the most honorable seat, and afterwards took
her out to dance with him. She danced so very gracefully that they all
more and more admired her. A fine meal was served up, but the young prince
ate not a morsel, so intently was he busied in gazing on her.
She went and sat down by her sisters, showing them a thousand
civilities, giving them part of the oranges and citrons which the prince
had presented her with, which very much surprised them, for they did not
know her. While Cinderella was thus amusing her sisters, she heard the
clock strike eleven and three-quarters, whereupon she immediately made a
courtesy to the company and hurried away as fast as she could.
Arriving home, she ran to seek out her godmother, and, after having
thanked her, she said she could not but heartily wish she might go to the
ball the next day as well, because the king's son had invited her.
As she was eagerly telling her godmother everything that had happened
at the ball, her two sisters knocked at the door, which Cinderella ran and
opened.
"You stayed such a long time!" she cried, gaping, rubbing her eyes and
stretching herself as if she had been sleeping; she had not, however, had
any manner of inclination to sleep while they were away from home.
"If you had been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "you would not
have been tired with it. The finest princess was there, the most beautiful
that mortal eyes have ever seen. She showed us a thousand civilities, and
gave us oranges and citrons."
Cinderella seemed very indifferent in the matter. Indeed, she asked
them the name of that princess; but they told her they did not know it,
and that the king's son was very uneasy on her account and would give all
the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella, smiling, replied, "She
must, then, be very beautiful indeed; how happy you have been! Could not I
see her? Ah, dear Charlotte, do lend me your yellow dress which you wear
every day."
"Yes, to be sure!" cried Charlotte; "lend my clothes to such a dirty
Cinderwench as you are! I should be such a fool."
Cinderella, indeed, well expected such an answer, and was very glad of
the refusal; for she would have been sadly put to it, if her sister had
lent her what she asked for jestingly.
The next day the two sisters were at the ball, and so was Cinderella,
but dressed even more magnificently than before. The king's son was always
by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind speeches to her. All
this was so far from being tiresome to her, and, indeed, she quite forgot
what her godmother had told her. She thought that it was no later than
eleven when she counted the clock striking twelve. She jumped up and fled,
as nimble as a deer. The prince followed, but could not overtake her. She
left behind one of her glass slippers, which the prince picked up most
carefully. She reached home, but quite out of breath, and in her nasty old
clothes, having nothing left of all her finery but one of the little
slippers, the mate to the one that she had dropped.
The guards at the palace gate were asked if they had not seen a
princess go out. They replied that they had seen nobody leave but a young
girl, very shabbily dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country
wench than a gentlewoman.
When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked them if
they had been well entertained, and if the fine lady had been there.
They told her, yes, but that she hurried away immediately when it
struck twelve, and with so much haste that she dropped one of her little
glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the king's son had
picked up; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time at the
ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful
person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very true; for a few days later, the king's son had
it proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot
this slipper would just fit. They began to try it on the princesses, then
the duchesses and all the court, but in vain; it was brought to the two
sisters, who did all they possibly could to force their foot into the
slipper, but they did not succeed.
Cinderella, who saw all this, and knew that it was her slipper, said to
them, laughing, "Let me see if it will not fit me."
Her sisters burst out laughing, and began to banter with her. The
gentleman who was sent to try the slipper looked earnestly at Cinderella,
and, finding her very handsome, said that it was only just that she should
try as well, and that he had orders to let everyone try.
He had Cinderella sit down, and, putting the slipper to her foot, he
found that it went on very easily, fitting her as if it had been made of
wax. Her two sisters were greatly astonished, but then even more so, when
Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper, and put it on her
other foot. Then in came her godmother and touched her wand to
Cinderella's clothes, making them richer and more magnificent than any of
those she had worn before.
And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom
they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon
for all the ill treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella took them
up, and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them with all her
heart, and wanted them always to love her.
She was taken to the young prince, dressed as she was. He thought she
was more charming than before, and, a few days after, married her.
Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters
lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two great
lords of the court.
Moral: Beauty in a woman is a rare treasure that will always
be admired. Graciousness, however, is priceless and of even greater value.
This is what Cinderella's godmother gave to her when she taught her to
behave like a queen. Young women, in the winning of a heart, graciousness
is more important than a beautiful hairdo. It is a true gift of the
fairies. Without it nothing is possible; with it, one can do
anything.
Another moral: Without doubt it is a great advantage to have
intelligence, courage, good breeding, and common sense. These, and similar
talents come only from heaven, and it is good to have them. However, even
these may fail to bring you success, without the blessing of a godfather
or a godmother.
- Source: Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book (London: Longmans,
Green, and Co., ca. 1889), pp. 64-71.
- Lang's source: Charles Perrault, Histoires ou contes du temps
passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère
l'Oye (Paris, 1697).