Even though I had been trying to go chronologically, in
the last few weeks I have found a few more antiquarian ones that were
interesting to explore so this week again is slightly out of time order.
Today we look at a tale entitled The Vain Queen
from the 1882 book Portuguese Folk Tales collected by Zófimo
Consiglieri Pedroso who was a Portuguese historian, writer, teacher, ethnographer, essayist and
folklorist.
According to Wikipedia:
Pedroso was a collector of a large body of folklore, which
became popular. His Portuguese Folk-Tales were issued in England
before their native publication. He was
devoted to the study of ethnography and was one of the introducers of anthropology in
Portugal, studying myths, popular traditions and superstitions, activities that
demonstrate that he was a scholar of high level from the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, deeply imbued with humanist values and
revealing himself brilliant essayist. Some of his other works include A Cry Against
the Death Penalty in 1874 and The Universal Suffrage or the Intervention of the
Working Classes in Government of the Country in 1876. But his most famous work
was the Portuguese Folk Tales from 1882.
I will be the first to admit this is only a tenuous link
to Snow White. It certainly begins like a Snow White but then it morphs into more
of a Cinderella tale. As we have also talked about Cinderella tales on Fairy Tale
Friday then I thought it was worth discussing.
This tale begins with a vain queen who asks everyone she knows if anyone has a face more beautiful than hers. She asks her maids of honour,
she asks the servants and she asks the chamberlain. The first two are all
undoubtedly all women and can see that she is a vain woman fishing for
compliments and therefore indulge her to keep out of trouble and avoid her
wrath. The chamberlain, however, is a man and does not lie when he says that
her daughter is more fair of face. This prompts the queen to pack her daughter
into a carriage and send her to the country to be executed.
As in other tales a helper brings our heroine to a
faraway place and abandons her rather than kill her and kills an animal in her
place as a token to bring back a body part to the queen. Many tales mention her
beauty several times as if this is her only value. They say that she was not
killed because she was so young and beautiful or the
dwarfs/dragons/ghouls/whoever took pity on her as she was so beautiful. In this
tale neither the servants who abandon her nor the farmer in the rude hut who
finds her in his house mentions her beauty.
The farmer who finds her coaxes her from her hiding place
and sups with her and then before bed asks if she would rather be treated as
his wife or his daughter. When she replies she wants to be treated as a
daughter he dutifully gives her the one bed and makes a bed for himself in
another part of the hut.
Here is where the story moves into more Cinderella territory.
I would really have liked to have seen more of the vain queen who we saw in the
beginning. It would have been nice to have seen her trying to make some other
attempts on the girl’s life or to have our heroine be dead for a bit.
In this tale, our farmer insists that the princess (who
does not have a name—but then again, no one does, so it is not quite so bad) go
for a walk where she just so happens to see a gentleman who is a prince. She
meets him several time and he falls in love with her at first sight while she
continually runs away. See, I told you we were in Cinderella territory. When
finally he takes to his sickbed and cannot go on without her, a proclamation is
issued that whoever that country girl is who has been enticing him, she better
show up at the palace straightaway. Our heroine is now terrified to leave the house for
fear of running into the prince so doesn’t hear the proclamation. This makes me
ask some serious questions such as why was she afraid to keep seeing him? Was
it fear of a relationship? Fear that he might recognise her as a princess and
report back to her mother that she was still alive and her mother might come
and try to kill her? (See, I am trying to bring us back round to Snow White
again.) But also why did her farmer father figure keep INSISTING she go out for
a walk in country woman’s clothes (that he just *happened* to have) at a
certain time? Was he trying to set her up for a royal marriage?
We have our answer at the end of the story. When the
prince’s mother come storming over to the humble hut to say “Who do you think
you are Missy, not turning up to the palace when you are called? Don’t you know
that poor people should say ‘how high’ when rich people say ‘jump’?” Suddenly,
as if by magic, the poor farmer is turned into an emperor, his hut to a grand
palace and the pigs into dukes. Then the queen (who is also a bit of a vain
queen but in a classist way) is falling all over herself to apologise. It ends,
like last week, with a bit of women’s choice thrown in. It is not assumed that
our heroine will automatically marry a prince because he is a prince. Here the
phrase used is if such was pleasing to her when asked if our princess
would marry the prince. It is pleasing to her as she seems to have gotten over
her fear of intimacy she suffered earlier, and we have a happy ending.
Now my question is: Who was the farmer? Is he a
magical helper like a fairy godmother? Does he know the prince’s schedule so he
could push her out of doors at the right time? Did he somehow cast a cloaking
device over her to keep her mother from finding out she was still alive. (Okay,
I am still trying to make this a Snow White story.) But more than anything, if
he is a magical helper then what would have happened if she had said she wanted
to be more like a wife? Surely that would be conflict of interest?
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| source |
The
Vain Queen source
The maiden departed and went on walking through several lonely wild places until she descried at a distance a small farm-house, and on approaching it she found nothing whatsoever inside the hut but the trail of some pigs. She walked on, and, on entering the first room she came to, she found a very old chest made of pinewood; in the second room she found a bed with a, very old straw mattress upon it; and in the third room a fire-place and a table. She went to the table, drew open the drawer, and found some food, which she put on the fire to cook. She laid the cloth, and when she was beginning to eat she heard a man coming in. The maiden, who was very much frightened, hid herself under-the table, but the man, who had seen her hiding away, called her to him. He told her not to be ashamed; and they both afterwards dined at the table, and at night they also supped together. At the end of supper the man asked the princess which she would prefer, to remain as his wife or as his daughter. The princess replied that she should like to remain as his daughter. The man then arranged a separate bed for himself and they each retired to rest. They lived in this way very happily.
One day the man told the maiden to go and take a walk to amuse herself. The maiden replied that the dress she wore was too old to go out in, but the man opening a cupboard showed her a complete suit of a country- woman's clothes. The maiden dressed herself in them and went out. When she was out walking she saw a gentleman coming towards her. The maiden immediately turned back very much alarmed and hid herself at home. At night when the man returned home, he asked her if she had enjoyed her walk, to which she replied that she had, but this she said in a timid tone of voice. The next day the man again sent her out to take a walk. The maiden did so and again saw the same gentleman coming towards her, and as before she fled home in great fright to hide herself. When the man saw her in the evening and asked her whether she had enjoyed her walk the maiden replied that she had not, because she had seen a man approach as though he wished to speak to her, and therefore she did not wish ever to go out again. To this the man made no reply. The gentleman was a prince, who, on returning twice to the same place, and failing to meet the maiden love-sick. The wisest physicians attended him; and they gave an account of the illness the prince was suffering from. The queen immediately commanded a proclamation to be issued to the effect that the country lass who had seen the prince should at once proceed to the palace, for which she would be recompensed and marry the prince. But as the maiden now never left her home, she knew nothing of the proclamation.
The queen, seeing that no one presented herself at
the palace, sent a guard to search the place. The guard went and knocked at the
door and told the maiden that her majesty sent for her to the palace, and that
she would be well rewarded if she came. The maiden told the guard to return
next day for her answer. When she saw the man again in the evening she related
to him all that had passed. He told her that when the guard should return for
the answer she was to tell him that the queen must come to her as she would not
go to the queen. When the guard returned next day for the answer, the girl told
him that she did not dare inform him of her decision. The guard told her to say
whatever she liked, that he would repeat it to the queen. The girl then told
him what the man had advised her to say. When the guard arrived at the palace
he also feared to give the girl's answer; but the queen obliged him to do so.
The guard then recounted all that the girl had said. The queen was very angry,
but as at that very moment the prince was attacked with a severe fit of
convulsions, and the queen feared he might die of it, she resolved to go. She
ordered a carriage to be brought and she went to see the maiden; but as she was
approaching the house it was transformed into a palace, the man who had
sheltered the girl was turned into a powerful emperor, the pigs into dukes, the
maiden into a beautiful princess, and all the rest into wealth and riches. When
the queen saw all this she was very much astonished, and made many apologies
for having summoned the girl to the palace. She told the maiden that seeing
that her son the prince was so greatly in love with her she begged of her, if
such was pleasing to her, to consent to marry the prince, as otherwise he would
most certainly die. The maiden was willing and acceded to the request of the
queen, and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and they all lived very
happily.
That’s all for this week. Stay tuned as we move into
more modern retellings.
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