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Lecture
II. Tales Told Around the Fire--The Oral Folk Tradition
Another Cinderella
Story--"Tattercoat"
Illustration for Tattercoat - The
king and his Granddaughter
IN a great palace by the sea there once dwelt a very rich old
lord, who had neither wife nor children living, only one little
granddaughter, whose face he had never seen in all her life. He hated her bitterly,
because at her birth his favorite daughter died;
and when the old nurse brought him the baby, he swore, that it might live or die as it
liked, but he would never look on its face as long as it lived.
So he turned his back, and sat by his window looking out over the sea, and weeping great
tears for his lost daughter, till his white hair
and beard grew down over his shoulders and twined round his chair and crept into the
chinks of the floor, and his tears, dropping on
to the window-ledge, wore a channel through the stone, and ran away in a little river to
the great sea. And, meanwhile, his
granddaughter grew up with no one to care for her, or clothe her; only the old nurse, when
no one was by, would sometimes give her a
dish of scraps from the kitchen, or a torn petticoat from the rag-bag; while the other
servants of the palace would drive her from the
house with blows and mocking words, calling her Tattercoats, and pointing at
her bare feet and shoulders, till she ran away crying, to hide among the bushes.
And so she grew up, with little to eat or wear, spending her days in the fields and lanes,
with only the gooseherd for a companion,
who would play to her so merrily on his little pipe, when she was hungry, or cold, or
tired, that she forgot all her troubles, and fell to dancing, with his flock of noisy
geese for partners.
But, one day, people told each other that the king was traveling through the land, and in
the town near by was to give a great ball, to
all the lords and ladies of the country, when the prince, his only son, was to choose a
wife.
One of the royal invitations was brought to the palace by the sea, and the servants
carried it up to the old lord, who still sat by his
window, wrapped in his long white hair and weeping into the little river that was fed by
his tears.
But when he heard the kings command, he dried his eyes and bade them bring shears to
cut him loose, for his hair had bound him a
fast prisoner and he could not move. And then he sent them for rich clothes, and jewels,
which he put on; and he ordered them to saddle the white horse, with gold and silk, that
he might ride to meet the king.
Meanwhile Tattercoats had heard of the great doings in the town, and she sat by the
kitchen door weeping because she could not go
to see them. And when the old nurse heard her crying she went to the lord of the palace,
and begged him to take his granddaughter with him to the kings ball.
But he only frowned and told her to be silent, while the servants laughed and said:
Tattercoats is happy in her rags, playing with the gooseherd, let her be it
is all she is fit for.
A second, and then a third time, the old nurse begged him to let the girl go with him, but
she was answered only by black looks and fierce words, till she was driven from the room
by the jeering servants, with blows and mocking words. Weeping over her ill success, the old nurse went to look for Tattercoats; but the girl had
been turned from the door by the cook, and
had run away to tell her friend the gooseherd how unhappy she was because she could not go
to the kings ball.
But when the gooseherd had listened to her story, he bade her cheer up, and proposed that
they should go together into the town to see the king, and all the fine things; and when
she looked sorrowfully down at her rags and bare feet, he played a note or two upon his
pipe, so gay and merry that she forgot all about her tears and her troubles, and before
she well knew, the herdboy had taken her by
the hand, and she, and he, and the geese before them, were dancing down the road towards
the town.
Before they had gone very far, a handsome young man, splendidly dressed, rode up and
stopped to ask the way to the castle where
the king was staying; and when he found that they, too, were going thither, he got off his
horse and walked beside them along the road.
The herdboy pulled out his pipe and played a low sweet tune, and the stranger looked again
and again at Tattercoatss lovely face till he fell deeply in love with her, and
begged her to marry him. But she only laughed, and shook her golden head.
You would be finely put to shame if you had a goosegirl for your wife! said
she; go and ask one of the great ladies you will see tonight at the kings
ball, and do not flout poor Tattercoats.
But the more she refused him the sweeter the pipe played, and the deeper the young man
fell in love; till at last he begged her, as a
proof of his sincerity, to come that night at twelve to the kings ball, just as she
was, with the herdboy and his geese, and in her torn
petticoat and bare feet, and he would dance with her before the king and the lords and
ladies, and present her to them all, as his dear and honoured bride.
So when night came, and the hall in the castle was full of light and music, and the lords
and ladies were dancing before the king, just
as the clock struck twelve, Tattercoats and the herdboy, followed by his flock of noisy
geese, entered at the great doors, and walked
straight up the ballroom, while on either side the ladies whispered, the lords laughed,
and the king seated at the far end stared in amazement.
But as they came in front of the throne, Tattercoatss lover rose from beside the
king, and came to meet her. Taking her by the hand, he kissed her thrice before them all,
and turned to the king.
Father! he said, for it was the prince himself, I have made my choice,
and here is my bride, the loveliest girl in all the land, and the sweetest as well!
Before he had finished speaking, the herdboy put his pipe to his lips and played a few low
notes that sounded like a bird singing far
off in the woods; and as he played, Tattercoatss rags were changed to shining robes
sewn with glittering jewels, a golden crown lay
upon her golden hair, and the flock of geese behind her became a crowd of dainty pages,
bearing her long train.
And as the king rose to greet her as his daughter, the trumpets sounded loudly in honour
of the new princess, and the people outside in the street said to each other:
Ah! now the prince has chosen for his wife the loveliest girl in all the land!
But the gooseherd was never seen again, and no one knew what became of him; while the old
lord went home once more to his palace by the sea, for he could not stay at court, when he
had sworn never to look on his granddaughters face. So there he still sits by his window, if you could only see him, as you some day may,
weeping more bitterly than ever, as he looks out over the sea.
[If you are reading this lecture, you will want to compare this tale
with Rashin-Coatie,
a Scotch Variation]
continue
with Lecture II.
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