The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood

Summary

The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood opens with a king and queen who long for a child and at last have a daughter. Seven fairies are invited to the christening and given golden table cases, but an old fairy, forgotten because she has not left her tower in fifty years, arrives without one and feels slighted. After six fairies give the princess beauty, wit, grace, dancing, song and music, the old fairy decrees that she will pierce her hand with a spindle and die. A young fairy who has hidden behind the hangings speaks last: she cannot undo the curse, but the princess will only sleep for a hundred years until a king's son wakes her. The king forbids all spindles, yet at fifteen or sixteen the princess finds an old woman spinning in a tower room, pricks her hand and falls into a swoon that water, slapping and Hungary-water cannot break. The good fairy arrives in a dragon chariot and puts the whole household to sleep, from governesses to the cooks, the horses and the little spaniel Mopsey, and a thick wood springs up round the palace. A hundred years later a prince of another royal family hears an old countryman's tale, and the trees part for him. He walks through courts of snoring guards to the gilded chamber; the princess wakes and greets him, they talk for four hours, sup in the hall of mirrors and are married that night. The second half is less familiar. The prince keeps the marriage secret for two years, during which two children are born, Aurora and Day, because his mother is of the race of ogres. When he becomes king and goes to war, the queen mother sends his wife and children to a country house and orders her clerk of the kitchen to serve each of them to her in turn. He hides them and serves a lamb, a kid and a hind instead. Discovering the trick, the ogress prepares a tub of vipers and toads for them all, but the king rides in unexpectedly and she throws herself into it. A verse moral closes the tale. Perrault published it in the Mercure galant in 1696 and in his Histoires ou contes du temps passé in 1697.

Plot or Argument

• The christening and the fairies' gifts

  Seven fairies bless the long-awaited princess. The uninvited old fairy, slighted by the lack of a golden case, curses her to die by a spindle, and the youngest fairy softens the curse to a hundred years' sleep ended by a king's son.

• The spindle and the sleeping palace

  Despite the king's ban, the princess finds an old woman spinning in a tower and pricks her hand. The good fairy arrives by dragon chariot and puts everyone in the palace to sleep except the king and queen, and a forest of trees and brambles closes round the park.

• The prince and the awakening

  A century later a hunting prince hears the legend from an old countryman, passes through the parting wood and the halls of sleepers, and kneels by the bed. The princess wakes, the household rises hungry, and the couple sup and are married in the castle chapel.

• The secret marriage

  The prince visits his wife secretly for two years while they have two children, Aurora and Day, and he hides them from his mother, a queen of ogre descent. On his father's death he brings his queen and children to the capital.

• The ogress queen mother and the clerk of the kitchen

  While the young king is at war with the Emperor Cantalabutte, his mother orders first Aurora, then Day, then the young queen to be cooked for her. The kind clerk of the kitchen hides them and serves a lamb, a kid and a hind instead.

• The tub of vipers and the moral

  Overhearing the children, the ogress orders all of them thrown into a tub of serpents, but the king returns in time and she throws herself in. The verse moral comments wryly that waiting for a husband may bring happiness, even if no lady now would wait a hundred years.

Characters

• The Princess, heroine

  Gifted at birth by six fairies, she sleeps for a hundred years and later faces death calmly when she believes her children lost.

• The Prince (later King), hero

  Son of a king of another family, who passes through the enchanted wood, wakes and marries the princess, and returns in time to save his family.

• The old Fairy, antagonist of the first half

  Forgotten fairy who, feeling slighted at the feast, curses the princess to die by a spindle.

• The young Fairy, protector

  Youngest fairy who hides to speak last, turns death into sleep, and later puts the household to sleep with her.

• The Queen Mother (the Ogress), antagonist of the second half

  The prince's mother, of ogre descent, who tries to eat her grandchildren and daughter-in-law.

• The clerk of the kitchen, rescuer

  Kind steward who cannot harm the children and hides them with his wife, substituting animals at each meal.

• Aurora and Day, children

  The princess's daughter and son, four and three years old when the ogress demands them.

• The old woman at the spindle, unwitting agent

  Good woman spinning alone in a tower who has never heard of the king's ban.

Lessons

• Words that soften a curse

  The young fairy cannot undo the old fairy's curse, but by speaking last she changes death into sleep. Perrault shows that even when harm cannot be prevented, a wise and kind word can limit it. Her foresight in hiding behind the hangings is part of her kindness.

  • Why does the young fairy hide behind the hangings?
  • How is the young fairy's gift different from the other gifts?
  • Can you think of a time when a kind word made a bad thing less bad?

• A slight and its consequences

  The whole story begins with a missing golden case at a feast. The king means no insult, but the old fairy feels slighted and takes revenge. The tale invites children to think both about giving honor to guests and about how wrong it is to answer a small slight with great harm.

  • Was the king to blame for not having a golden case for the old fairy?
  • Was the old fairy's punishment fair to the baby princess?
  • What could the old fairy have done instead of cursing the princess?

• A servant's quiet courage

  In the second half, the clerk of the kitchen risks his life three times to save the queen and her children. He cannot fight the ogress queen, but he can hide those she means to harm and cook an animal in their place. He is the true rescuer until the king returns.

  • What makes the clerk of the kitchen drop his knife when he sees little Aurora?
  • Why is the clerk's third task harder than the first two?
  • What does the clerk risk by deceiving the ogress queen?

Context

Perrault wrote at the court culture of Louis XIV, where fairy tales were a fashion of the Paris salons in the 1690s; writers such as Madame d'Aulnoy published tales in the same years. The sleeping-princess story had older literary forms, including the medieval French romance Perceforest and Giambattista Basile's Neapolitan tale Sun, Moon, and Talia (1634), whose second half also features a jealous queen who tries to have children cooked. Perrault's version adds the fairies at the christening, the spindle curse softened to sleep, and the courtly humor of the prince noticing the princess's old-fashioned clothes.

Composition

The tale first appeared in the Mercure galant in February 1696 and was collected the next year in Histoires ou contes du temps passé, also called the Tales of Mother Goose. Robert Samber's English translation, Histories, or Tales of Past Times, appeared in 1729; the library text uses Samber's version as revised by J. E. Mansion for the 1922 Harrap edition illustrated by Harry Clarke (Project Gutenberg #29021). The library stores only this tale, with the translator's footnotes on the words Ogre and Sauce Robert and Perrault's verse moral.

Reception

The Grimm brothers' Briar Rose (1812) tells the first half only and ends with the awakening, and most later retellings follow that shape. Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty (1890) drew on Perrault, giving the princess herself the name Aurora that Perrault gave her daughter, and the story has been retold in pantomime, illustration and film ever since.

Comparisons

• perrault-cinderella

  Its companion in Perrault's 1697 collection: in both a fairy godmother's power shapes a young woman's fate and a prince finds her, and both end with a verse moral, but Cinderella forgives her sisters while the Sleeping Beauty's enemy destroys herself.

• grimms-fairy-tales

  The Grimms' Briar Rose keeps the thirteen wise women, the spindle and the hedge of thorns but stops at the awakening, leaving out Perrault's ogress queen mother and the second half entirely.

• beaumont-beauty-and-the-beast

  Another French fairy tale of the 18th-century salons and schoolroom, in which a palace of enchantment waits for a long-delayed union and a heroine's goodness is tested.

• the-blue-fairy-book

  Andrew Lang's 1889 collection includes The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, so readers can compare a Victorian retelling with Samber's older translation.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The seven golden cases at the feast and why the old fairy has none.
• Where the young fairy hides, and why she wants to speak last.
• Everything the good fairy puts to sleep, down to the spits of partridges and the fire.
• The moment the trees open for the prince and close behind him.
• The second half, after the wedding, when the prince's mother sends the family to the country house; this part has frightening moments that end happily.

Key terms and names

Christening

The baptism and naming of the baby princess, when the seven fairies come as her godmothers to give their gifts.

Spindle

A pointed rod used for spinning thread; the king forbids them all, but the princess finds one in a tower room.

Hungary-water

A scented spirit rubbed on the temples to revive someone who had fainted; it cannot wake the princess.

Ogre and Ogress

A giant who eats people; the translator's footnote describes one, and the prince's mother comes of that race.

Clerk of the kitchen

The servant in charge of the royal kitchen, who hides the queen and her children instead of cooking them.

Moral

The short verse lesson Perrault adds at the end of the tale, here about waiting patiently for a happy marriage.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What gifts do the first six fairies give the baby princess?
2. Comprehension Why does the princess sleep for a hundred years instead of dying?
3. Comprehension How does the clerk of the kitchen save Aurora, Day and their mother?
4. Interpretation Why do you think the good fairy puts the whole palace to sleep along with the princess?
5. Interpretation Why does the prince keep his marriage a secret from his mother for so long?
6. Interpretation What does the young queen's answer to the clerk show about her love for her children?
7. Big Question Is it ever right to deceive someone in order to protect a person from harm, as the clerk of the kitchen does?

Faith Connections

• Exodus 1:15-21 (Scripture)

  The Hebrew midwives refuse Pharaoh's order to kill the baby boys and are blessed for it; the clerk of the kitchen likewise refuses an evil royal command to save children.

• Mark 5:39-42 (Scripture)

  Jesus says of Jairus's daughter that she is not dead but sleeping, and raises her by the hand; the fairy tale's sleeping girl, waiting to be wakened, gives children a picture to talk about this gospel scene.

• Esther 7:10 (Scripture)

  Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai; the ogress falls into the very tub of serpents she prepared for the queen and children.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Evil intentions, whether a slighted fairy's curse or an ogress's appetite, cannot finally overcome goodness when wise and faithful helpers act: the young fairy limits the curse, the clerk hides the innocent, and the wicked are caught in their own trap.

Rhetorical device: ironic narrator's aside. The narrator remarks that a young and amorous Prince is always valiant and that the princess's words had little eloquence but a great deal of love, smiling at the lovers even as he tells their story.

Debate: Resolved: that the clerk of the kitchen was right to deceive the queen mother.

Memory Work

little eloquence, a great deal of love.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare the two halves of the tale: who is the danger in each, who protects the princess, and how does each danger end?

Comparison with Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper: Compare the fairy who saves the Sleeping Beauty with Cinderella's fairy godmother: what can each fairy do, what can she not do, and how does the heroine's own goodness matter?

Medical Lens

The princess's collapse after the spindle prick is described with the period's first aid for a swoon: water thrown in her face, her stays unlaced, the palms of her hands slapped and her temples rubbed with Hungary-water, a rosemary-based spirit used as a restorative. Her enchanted sleep keeps her color and soft breathing, which convinces the household she is not dead. The tale is a source for later talk of prolonged or enchanted sleep, but it is a fairy enchantment, not a clinical picture.

• The spindle and the sleeping palace

  Attempts to revive the swooning princess with water, unlacing, slapping her palms and Hungary-water, then the observation that she still breathes softly.

  Sleep Insomnia Altered States

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Tell the hundred years from the point of view of the little spaniel Mopsey, asleep on the princess's bed, waking up to find everything changed.

• Classroom

  Draw the seven gifts at the christening in seven boxes, then add an eighth box showing what gift you would give a baby princess and why.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between the clerk of the kitchen and his wife on the night he brings little Aurora home to hide her.

• Essay

  Why do you think the Grimms and most later storytellers left out the second half of Perrault's tale? What is lost when it is left out?

Further Reading

• The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, Charles Perrault

  The 1922 Harrap edition with Harry Clarke's illustrations, from which the library text is drawn.

• The Blue Fairy Book, Andrew Lang (ed.)

  Contains a retelling of this tale and of Cinderella for young readers.

• The Classic Fairy Tales, Iona and Peter Opie

  Texts of the best-known tales in early English versions with introductions on their history.