There was once a gentleman who got married
for a second to time, and to a woman who was the haughtiest and proudest woman
you could ever imagine. She had two daughters of the same disposition, who took
after her in all things. The gentleman had a daughter of his own, but who was
very kind and good. She took after her mother, who was the best woman in the
whole world.
Hardly had the gentleman married his new
wife than she started to show her true colours. She could not bear the good
qualities of this young woman, who showed up her own daughters as being
detestable. She gave her the most vile jobs in the house. It was her who
cleaned the dished and washed the steps, who scrubbed madam’s bedchamber, and
those of her daughters. She even had to sleep right at the top of the house, in
a loft on a dirty straw bed, while her step-sisters slept in bedroom with fine
flooring, sumptuous beds, and had mirrors where they could see themselves from
head to toe.
The poor child suffered it all with
patience. She didn’t dare complain to her father, who would have scolded her,
because he was ruled entirely by his wife.
When her work was done, she sat in the
corner of the room, by the chimney, amongst the cinders. This gave rise to a
cruel name in the whole household - cinderarse. Her younger sister, who wasn’t
as cruel as the rest of them, just called her Cendrillon (cinders). However,
Cendrillon, even with her filthy habits, was a hundred times more beautiful
than her sisters, although they were always dressed in magnificent clothes.
One day, the king’s son gave a ball, and
invited all people of high quality: the two step-sisters were also invited to
it, because they were “big noises” in the country. They set about getting
ready, busying themselves with their dresses and deciding which hairstyles
would suit them best. More chores for Cendrillon, because it was she who had to
run around after them, taking up hemlines and sewing collars and cuffs. They
spoke of nothing else but how they were going to look.
“I”,
said the eldest, “shall wear my red velvet dress, done with English
trimming.
“I, “ said the youngest, “Shall only have
an plain skirt, but I shall wear my gold embroidered overcoat, and a diamond
tiara, which is bound to get noticed.”
They sent for the best hairdresser, to
arrange their hair and accessories. They called Cendrillon, and asked her what
she thought, because she had good taste. Cendrillon would offer them the best
advice in the world, and even offered her services to the hairdresser. It was
the hairdresser who asked Cendrillon, “Will you be going to the ball?”
“Ah, I think you’re making fun of me. They
don’t want the likes of me there.”
“You’re right. Everyone would laugh if they
saw a Cinder Arse at the ball.”
Someone other than Cendrillon would have
taken this as an insult. But the hairdresser was the best, and done her job
perfectly.
So filled with joy were the two
step-sisters that they didn’t eat for two days. They snapped more than 12
corset laces trying to squeeze their waists to the smallest size possible, and
they were always in front of the mirror.
Finally, the big day arrived, and the
sisters left for the ball. Cendrillon followed them with her eyes for as long
as possible. When she could no longer see them, she burst into tears. Her
godmother, who saw her tears, asked her why she was crying.
“I would have liked … I would have liked …
“ And she started crying again, so strongly that she couldn’t finish.
Her godmother, who knew a few spells, said
to her, “You’d like to go the ball, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Cendrillon, sniffing.
“Well,” said the godmother, “if you’re a
good girl, I’ll get you there.”
She led her to her room and said, “Go into
the garden and get me a pumpkin.”
Cendrillon went straight away, and picked
the best pumpkin she could find. She brought it back to her godmother, not
being able to see how this pumpkin would get her to the ball. Her godmother
hollowed it out, leaving only the peel. She tapped it with her wand, and it
changed into a beautiful golden carriage.
Next she looked into the mouse trap, where
she found six mice, all still alive. She asked Cendrillon to release the trap a
little, and when the six mice came out tapped each of them with her wand. And
they soon turned into beautiful horses, making a great team out of six
dapple-grey mice. As they were going to all this trouble, they might as well
make a coachman. “I will see,” said Cendrillon, “if we have a rat in the rat
trap. He’ll make a great coachman.”
“You’re right,” said her godmother. “Go and
see.”
Cendrillon brought back the rat trap, where
they found three big rats. Her godmother choose one of them for his superior
beard, and turned him into a fat coachman, and he had the best moustache they’d
ever seen. Then she said,
“Go into the garden. You’ll find six
lizards behind the watering can. Bring them to me.”
No sooner had she brought them back than
her godmother changed them into six lackeys, who took up position behind the
carriage in their fine clothes, and who clung to each other, never having done
anything else in their entire lives.
Her godmother said the Cendrillon, “Well,
when you go to the ball, you’ll go in style, hey?”
“Yes, but shall I go there in my filthy
clothes?”
Her godmother had only to touch her clothes
and they turned into clothes of gold and silver, shimmering with precious
stones. Next she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the prettiest in the whole
world.
When she was all ready, Cendrillon climbed
into her carriage. But her godmother ordered her to return before midnight, warning
her that if she stayed at the ball a moment longer the carriage would turn back
into a pumpkin, the horses back into mice, the coachman back into a rat, and
the lackeys back into lizards, and her new clothes would turn back into her
former rags.
Cendrillon promised her godmother that she
would be back before midnight. She left, feeling nothing but joy.
The king’s son, when someone tipped him off
that a great princess had arrived that no one knew, went out to greet her. He
took her hand as she stepped down from the carriage, and lead her into the
dance hall where the revellers gathered. A great silence descended; people
stopped dancing, and the violins stopped playing, all to witness this great
beauty who has suddenly arrived. Everybody started murmuring at once, “Ah, how
beautiful she is!”
Even the king, as old as he was, couldn’t
take his eyes off her, and whispered to the queen that it was a long time since
he’d seen such a stunner as this. All the women were studying her hair and her
clothes, so that the next day they too could look like her, provided they could
find such materials, and such skilled workers.
The prince placed her at the head of the
table, and led her onto the dance floor. She danced with such grace that they
admired her even more.
They brought in great many beautiful
snacks, which the prince couldn’t eat, so taken was he with admiring her. She
sat down next to her sisters, and bade them a thousand pardons. She gave them a
few segments of the oranges and lemons given to her by the prince. This
astonished the sisters because they didn’t know her.
While they were chatting away, Cendrillon
heard the bell chime out for 11 45. She made her excuses to the entire company
and left immediately.
As soon as she arrived back home, she found
her godmother and said that she wished she could go to the ball again tomorrow,
because the prince had begged her to. As she was telling her godmother
everything that had happened, her two sisters banged on the door.
Cendrillon opened the door for them. “You’ve
been gone a long time,” she said to them, yawning and rubbing her eyes, making
out that she had just woken up. She had had no desire to sleep, however, ever
since they’d left.
“If you’d been at the ball,” said one of
the sisters, “you wouldn’t have come back early either. A beautiful princess
came. She was the most beautiful princess anyone had ever seen. She was very
civil, and gave us some of her oranges and lemons.”
Cendrillon felt full of joy, and asked them
the name of this princess. The sisters said that nobody knew her, not even the
prince, who would give anything to know her name. Cendrillon smiled and said to
them:
“So she was quite beautiful, hey? You can’t
be happy that I’m not able to see her, surely? Mademoiselle Javotte, lend me
your yellow dress that you wear every day.”
“Well really!” said Mademoiselle Javotte.
“Lend my dress to a dirty cinder-arse like you – I’d have to be mad!”
Cendrillon wasn’t at all unhappy with this
insult, and would have been quite embarrassed if her sister had lent her the dress.
The next day, the two sisters went to the
ball. Cendrillon went too, but dressed even more nicely than the last time. The
prince never left her side, and whispering sweet nothing constantly. Cendrillon
never grew bored, and soon forgot what her godmother had told her: to return at
the first stroke of midnight. Cendrillon thought it was only 11 o’clock. She
got up and fled as nimbly as though she were a doe.
The prince followed, but wasn’t able to
catch her. In her haste, Cendrillon lost one of her glass slippers, which the
prince carefully gathered up.
Cendrillon arrived home, without her
carriage, without her servants, and in her filthy rags. Nothing remained of her
former splendour except for a single glass slipper, the partner of the one she
had lost.
The guards at the palace gates were asked
if they has seen a princess leave. They replied that they had seen no one, save
for a young, scruffy girl who was more of a peasant than a princess.
When her sisters came home, Cendrillon
asked them how the ball had been, and if the beautiful princess had been there.
They said that she had, but that she had fled at the first stroke of midnight,
so hurriedly that she had left one of her glass slippers behind, the most
beautiful they’d ever seen. They told her that the prince had claimed it, and
then searched for her for the rest of the night, and that he was surely madly
in love with the princess who had lost the glass slipper.
They’d never said a truer word, because a
few days later the prince proclaimed that he would marry the woman whose foot
fit the glass slipper. It was tried on the feet of all the princesses, then all
the duchesses, then on the whole court. But without success.
The slipper was brought to the home of the
two sisters, who did all they could to squeeze into the glass slipper. But they
couldn’t even get it past the heel.
Cendrillon, who was watching and recognise
the slipper, laughed, “It would even fit me better than that!”
Her sisters only ridiculed her. The gentleman
who was doing the fitting, looked at Cendrillon. Finding her quite beautiful,
he said it was only fair, and he had orders to let all women try the slipper
on.
He made Cendrillon sit down, and approached
with the glass slipper. It fit her quite
smoothly, and slipped on and off as though her feet were waxed.
Her sisters were quite astonished. Even
more so when Cendrillon pulled out the other glass slipper. Then her godmother
arrived. She tapped Cendrillon’s clothes with her magic wand, making her just
as beautiful as the rest of them.
Her sisters immediately recognised her as
the beautiful princess from the ball. They threw themselves at her feet, and
begged her to forgive them for all the nasty things they had done to her.
Cendrillon made them get up, and gave them
a hug. She said she forgave them, and hoped they would always be good friends.
Cendrillon was led to the prince, who found her
more beautiful then ever. A few days later, they were married. Cendrillon, who
was as good as she was beautiful, brought her sisters to live at the palace,
and they were soon married to two great lords.
