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221

Biography

Biography is the history of the life of an individual. It includes three essentials: facts, a

concept that the facts relate to, and an attitude toward the subject and the readeL First of all,
the tacts are expected to be accurate, up-to-date, and authentic as they depict the subiect.and
the period in which the subject lived. The objective biographer must include or onrit events
and details as they suit the interests and age level of the-readers for whom the biography is
intehded. As for concept, we assume that the subject of the biography is worth reading about,

just as it is worth the writer's time in research and writing- A subject for biography has done
something :r been something, discovered or demonstrated something that makes her or his
life significant and interestine. fhe attitrrde of the writer reflects interest and enthusiasm,
even delight in the person. The skillful biographer uses words imaginatively, even in the

simplest biographies for younger readers.
Autobiography, written by its subject, cannot be totally objective because the narrated

events are filtered throu€h fug writer's 6s7n csnsciousness. A particularly moving series of
personal accounts can be found in Julius Lester's collected slave narratives, Io Be a Slave.
No mere researehbr, or even obsefver, could have written with such insight.

Biography often gives a picture quite different lrorn traditional stereotypes. The cruel
emperor and successful conqueror Genghis Khan might seem a,strange frgure for a biography
for the picture-book crowd, but writer-illustrafor Demi.seems to have been tempted by the

story's colorful and unusual opportunities for illustration. Each page of the brief text is

accompanied by. an elaborately detailed picture of the action. The account does not glorify
cruelty, bur.instead rewards loyalty and military skill.

We often turn to the lives of significant people because we wish to discover more

about what it w.as like to be alive and aware in a period of history we have just discovered Or

we may become curious about the 'khat if' of being a frontier hero. "What if I had been

one?"----or a winning athlete,. or a worker in the slumv We may be wondering how pebple
become writels or architects,.,Or we may have discovered that once people didn't know about
bacteria, and we wish to know about that discovery and its relationship to disease. Curiositv-
wonder, the possibility of discovery, or increased appreciation-a number of relatecl motives
may lead us to read about the lives of individuals.

Abe Lincoln Grorvs Up 240

Carl Sandburg

"Peculiarsome, Abe

The farm boys in their evenings at .[ones's store in Gentryville talked about how Abe Lincoln

was always readtng, digging into books, stretching out flat on his stomach in front of the
fireplace, studying till midnight and past midnight, picking a piece of charcoal to write on the
fire shovel shaving off what he tt'rote,, and then rvriting rnore-till midnight and past
midnight' The next thing Abe would be reading books between the plow handles, it seemed
to them' And once trying to speak a last word, Dennis Hanks said, ..There,s suthin,

peculiarsome about.Abe-"

He wanted to learn, to knorv, to live, to reach out, he wanted to satisly hungers and
thirsts he couldn't tell about, this big boy of the backwoods. And some of rvhat he wantecl so
muc\ so deep down, seemed to be in the bqoks. Maybe in books he would find the answers
to dark questions pushing around in the pools of hrs thoughts and the drifts of lris mi.d. He
told Dennis and other people, "The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the
man who'll g-it me a book I ain'|. read." And sometimes friends ans,uvered, ,.Well. books ain,t
as plenty as wildcats in these parts o, [ndianny.,,

This was one thing meant by Dennis when he said there was "suthin' peculiarsome,,
about Abe' It seemed that Abe made the books tell him more than they tolcl orher people. All
the other farm boys had gone to school and read The Kentuclqt preceptor, butAbe picke6 out
questions frqm it, such as "Who has the most right to complain, the Indian or the Negro?,,
and Abe would talk about it up one way and down the other, while they were in the cornfield
pulling fodder for the winter. when Abe got hold of a story-book and read about a boat.that
came near a magnetic rock, and how the magnets in the rock pulled all the nails out of the
boat so it went to pieces and the people in the boat found themselves floundering in water,
Abe thought it was fuilrry and told it to other people. After Abe read poetry, especially Bobby
Bums's poems, Abe began writing rhymes himself. When Abe sat with a girl, with their bare
feet in the creek water, and she spoke of the moon rising, he explained to her that it was the
earth moving and not the moon-the moon only seemed to rise.

241

John Hanks, who u,orked in the helds barefooted ',vith Abe, grubbing stumps,

plowing, mowing, said: "When Abe and I came back to the house from lvork, he used to go
to the cupboard, snatch a piece of com bread, sit dorvn,take a book, cock his legs up nigh as
his head, and read. Whenever Abe had a chance.in the.field while at work, or at the house, he
would stop and read." He liked to explain to other people what he was gett-ing trom books;
explaining an idea to someone else made it clearer to him The habit was growing on him of

reading out [oud; words came more real if picked lrom the silent page of the book and
pronounced on the tongue; herv balances and values of words stood out if spoken aloud.

When writing letters for his father or the neighbors, he read the words out loud as they got
written. Before writing a letter he asked questions such as: "What do you want to say in the
letter? How do you want to say in the letter? How do you want to say it? Are you sure that's
the best way to say it? Or do you think we can fix up a better way to say it?"

As he studied his books his lower lip stuek out; Josiah Crawford noticed it r,vas a habit
and joked Abe about the "stuck-out lip." This habit too stayed with him.

He wrote rn his Sum Book or arithmetic that Compound pivision was "When several

numhers of Divers Denominations are given to be divided by I common devisor," and

worked on the exercise in multiplication. "[f 1 loot contains l2 inches I demand how, many

there are in 126 feet." Thus the schoolboy.
What he got in the schools didn't satisfy him. He went to three different schools in

Indiana, besides trvo in Kentucky--altogether about four mouths of school. I{e learned his A
B C, how to soell read, write. And he had been rvith the other barefoot boys in butternut
jeans learning "manners" under the school teacher, Andrew Crawford, who had them open a

door, walk in, and say, "Horvdy do?" Yet wha[ he tasted of books in school was only a
beginning, only made him hungry and thirstv, shook him with a wanting and a wanting of

more and more of what was hidden between the covers of books.
He kept on saying, "The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man

who'll git me a book I ain't read." He said that to Prtrher, the lawyer over at Rockport, nearly
twenty miles away, one fall afternoon, when he walk from Pigeon Creek to Rockport and
borrowed a book from Pitcher. Then when fodder-pulling time came a few days later, he

shucked com from early daylight till sundown along with his fattier and Dennis Hanlp and
John Hanks, but after supper he read the book till midnight, and at noon he hardly knew the
taste of his coro br.ead because he had the book in front of him. It was a hundred little thin$

like these which made Dennis Hanks say there was "suthin' peculiarsome" about Abe.

242

Besides reading the family Bible and figuring his way all through the old aritlirnetic
they had at home, he got hold of Aesop's Fables, Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson ()rusoe. and

Weems's The Ltfe of Eruncis Lltrion. The book of tatrles. written o"r collected thousands of

years ago by the Greek slave, known as Aesop. sank deep in his mind. As he read through the

book a second and third time, he had a feeling there were -fablqs all around him, that
everything he touched and handled, everything he saw and learned had a fable wrapped in it

somewhere One fable was about a bundle of sticks and a farmer whose sons were quarreling
and fighting.

There was a fable in two sentences which read, ..1A. coachman, hearing one of fhe
wheels of his coach make a great noise, and perceiving that it wtrs the worst one of the four,
asked how it came to take such a liberty. The wheel answered that from the beginning of
time, creaking had always been the privilege of the weak." And there were bhrewd, briet'
incidents of foolery such as this: A waggish, idle fellow ur a country town, being desirous of
playing a trick on the simplicity ot his neighbors and at the same time putting a little money
in his pocket at tbeir costj advertised that he would on a certain day show a wheel carriage
that should be so contriveo as to go'without horses. By silly curiositv.fhe rustics were taken

in, and each succeeding group who came out from the show were ashamed to confess to their
neighbors that they had seen nothing but a wheel-barrow.,'

The style of the,Bible" of Aesop's Fables, the hearts and minds back of those books,
were much in his thouglrts. i-Iis favorite pages in them hs read pver and over. Behind such

proverbs as,"Muzzfe not the ox that treadeth out the corn," and "He that ruletli his orvn spirit

is greater than he that taketh a cityr" there was a music of simple wisdom. and a mystery of

common everydav life that touched deeo spots in him, while out of the fables of the ancient
Greek slave he came to see that cats, rats, dogs., horses. plows, hammers., fingers. toes.
people, all had fables connected with their lives. characters, places. There was, perhaps, an
outside for each thing as it stood alone, while inside of it was its fable.

One book came, titled, The Life of George, lI/ashington. with Curious Anecdotes,
Equally Honorable to Himself and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen. Embelhshed with
Six Steel pnuravings by M. L. Weems. formerly Rector of Mount Vernon Parish. It pictured

men of passion and proud ignorance in the goverrrment of England driving their country into
war on the American colonies. It quoted the far-visioned warning of Chatham to the British

parliament, "For God's sake, then, my lords, let the way be instantly opened fbr

reconciliation- I say instantly; or it will be too late forever."

243

The book told of war, as at Saratoga. "Hoarse as a mastiff of true British breed, Lord
Balcarras was heard from rank to rank, loud-animating his troops; while on the other hand,
fierce as a hungry Bengal tiger, the impetuous Arnold precipitated heroes on the stubborn;foe.
Shrill and terrible, from rank to rank, resounds the clash of bayonots--frequent and sad the

groans of the dying. Pairs on pairs, Britons and Americans, with each his bayonet at his
brother's breast, fall forward together faint-shrieking in death, and mingle their smoking

blood." Washington. the man, stood out, as when he wrote, "These things so harassed my

heart with grief, that I solernnly declared to God, if I know myself, I would gladly offer
myself a sacrifice to the butchering enemy, if I could thereby insure the safety of these my

poor distressed countr5rmen. "

The Weems book reached some deep Spots in the boy. He asked himself what it meant

that men should march, hght, bleed, go cold and hungry fbr the sake of what they called

"freedom."
"Few great men are great in evervthin$." said the book. And there was a cool sap in

the passage: "His delight was in that of the manliest sort, which, by stringing the limbs and
srvelling the muscles, promotes the kindlies norv of blood and spirits. At jumping with a

long pole, or heaving heavy weights, for his years he hardly had an equal."
Such book talk was a comfort against the 52rns thing over again, day after day, so

many mornings the same kind of water from the same spring. the same fried pork and

cornmeal to eat, the same drizzles of rain, spring plowing, summer rveeds, fall fodder-pulling,
each coming every year, with the same tired feeling at the end of the day, so many days alone
in the woods or the fields or else the same people to talk with, people from whom he had
learned all they could teach him. Yet there ran through his head the stories and sayings of
otherpeople, the stories and sayings of books, the leaming his eyes had caught from bobks;
they were a comfort' they were good to have because they were good by themselves; and they
were sill better to have because they broke the chill of the lonesome feeling.

He was thankful to the writer of Aesop's Fablx because that writer stood by him and
walked with him, and iuvisible companiqd wheh'he pulled fodder or chopped wood. Books
liglrted [a$ps in the dark rooms of his gloomy hours. . . . Well-he would live on; maybe the
time would come when he would be free from work for a few weeks, or a few months, with

books, and then he would read. . . . God, then he would read. . . . Then he would go and g€t at

the proud secret s ofhis books.
l{is father-;woulrl he be like his father when he grew up? He hoped not. Why should

his father knock him off a fence rail when he was asking a neighbor, passing by, a questionl

244

Even if it was a smart question, too pert and too quick, .it was no way to handle a boy in front
of a neighbor. No, he rvas going to be a man different from his father. The books-his father
hated the books. His father talked about "too much eddication" after readin' writin',
'rithmetic, .that was enough, his father said. He, Abe Lincoln, the boy,.lvanted to know more
than the father. Tom Lincoln, wanted to know. Already Abe knew more than his father; he
was writing letters for the neighbor-s; they hunted out the Lincoln farm to get young Ab.e to
find his bottle of ink rvith blackberry brier root and copperas in it, and his pen made from a
turkey buzzard feather, and write letters. Abe had a suspicion sometimes his father was a
little proud to have a ho,v that could write letters, and tell about things inSookg and outrun
and outwrestle and rough-and-tumble any boy or man in Spencer County. Yes, he would be

different from his father; he was already so; it couldn't be helped.
In growing up from boyhood to young manhood, he had survived against lonesome,

gnawing monotony and against floods, forest and prairie fireg snake-bites, horse-kicks, ague,
chills, fever, malaria, "milk-sick."

A comic outline against the sky he was, hiking along the roads of Spencer and other
counties in southern [ndiana in those years when he read all the books within a frfty-rrile
circuit of his home. Stretching up on the long legs that ran from his moccasins to the body
frame with its long, gangling arms, covered with linsey-u,oolsey, then the lean neck that

carried the head vn'ith its surmounting coonskin cap or straw hat-it was, again, a comic

outline-yet with a portent in its shadow. His laughing "Howdy," his yarns and drollery,

I opened the doors of mgn s hearts.

Starting along in his eleventh year came spells of abstraction. When he was spoken to,

no answer came from him "He might be a thousand miles away." The roaming fathoming,

searching questioning operations of the minds and hearts of poets, inventors, beginners who
take facts stark, these were at work in him. This was one sort of abstraction he knew; there

was another: the blues took him; coils of multiplied melancholies wrapped their blue

frustrations inside hirn, all that Hamlet, Koheleth, Schopenhauer have uttered, in a mesh of
foiteo hopes. "There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for educatioqr" he wrote later
of that Indiana region. Against these "blues." he found the best warfare was to find people
and trade with them his yarns and drolleries, John Baldwin, the blacksmith, with many stories
and odd talk and eye-slants, was a help and a light.

Days came when he sank deep in the stream of human life and felt himself kin of all
that swam in it, whether the waters were crystal,or mud

I

)

a 245

)

IE He learned how suddenly life can spring a surprise. One day in the woods, as he was
shamening a wedge on along, the axe glanced, nearly took his thumb off, and left a white scar

D

t after healing.

) "You never cuss a good axe," was a saying in those timbers'
)

I

It Journey Toward Freedom: The Story of Soiourner Truth

I Jacqueline Bernard
I

tt A Slaveholder's Promise

I
I Freedom Day in New York State was only two years away when Dumont sold Belle?s son

t Peter. That is, he did not exactly sell Peter, stnce the bov, by law, had been born free. Buf
I Dumont, as the owner of the boy's mother, could sell his right to Peter's services until the

E boy should reach age twenty-eight. The boy was four at the time'

it For the first time in her life, Belle openly opposed her master. Eyes wide with fear-
i she had planted herself squarely tn ftqnt of Dumont.
I "Master, don'r send my boy away. What'll happen to him? Maybe they'll beat hini,

? and him such a little boy. Maybe they'll send him south and then he never be free. Please,
e please, don't sell my boy "
3
9 Dumont stared at her. "Belle, whatever has corire over you? Solomort Gedney r'vould

! never sell Peter south. You should know that. The law of this state forbids such a thing, and

in any case, I would not permit it. Mr. Gedney is very taken with your boy. He wants Peter

!0 for himself. I should think you would be pleased to have him go into a nice home where he

0 can be trained to work for a gentleman." He frowned at her, "Just stop worrving. Peter will be

U very happy with the Gedneys."

c Belle stood silently as he walked away. She had never before challenged her master-

0 Now she did nOt know what more to do. But she had not given up. As Freedom day
0 approached Dumont's obedient slave was rdpidlv changing. A new Belle was taking- shape,
U
and that Belle knew with certainty she would get Peter back some day. ftow? She did not
0

e knorv. But she would get him back.

I Shortly afterward, Dumont made Belle a promise. She had been shucking peas in the

e kitchen when he walked in and stood watching. her for a while. "Be11e," he hnally said.
e

D

D

D

?

Folk lalss 83

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

Once unon a time when pigs spoke rhyme
And monkeys chewed ss$nrco,
And hens took snu/f to make them tough,
And ducks went quack. quack, quack, O!

There \ /as an old sow rvith three little pigs, and as she had not enough to keep them,
she sent them out to seek their fortune. The first that rvent off met a man with a bundle of
s_traw, and said to him,

"Please, man, give me that straw to build me a house."
Which the man did, and the little pig built a house with it. Presently came atong a
wolf, and knocked at the door, and said,
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."
The wolf then answered to that,

"Then I'11huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."

So he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew his house in, and ate up the little pig.
The se"ond little pig met a man with a bundle of furze and said,
"Please, man, give me that furze to build a house-"
Which the man did, and the pig built his house. Then along came the wolf, and said,
"Little pig, little pig, let me come in."
"No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin."

"Then I'll puff, and I'll huff, and I'll blow your house in."

So he huffed, and he puffed, and he puffed and he huffed, and at last he blew the
house down, and he ate up the little pig.

The third little pig met a man with a load of bricks, and said,
"Please, man, give me those bricks to build a house with."
So the man gave him the bricks, and he built his house with them. So the wolf came,
as he did to the other little pigs, and said,
"Little pig, littie pig, let me come in."
"No, no, by the hair on my chiny chin chin."
"Then I'11huffed, and I'11 puff, and I'11blow your house in."

84

Well, he huff, and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he puffed and huffed;
but could not get the house dou,n. When he found that he could not, with all his huffing and
puffing, blow the house down, he said,

"Little pig, I know where there is a nice field of tumips."
"'Where?" said the little pig.
"Oh, in Mr. Smith's home-field, and if you wiil be ready tomorrow moming I will call
for you, and we will go together, and get some for dinner."

- "Very well," said the little pig, "I will be ready- What time do you mean to go?"

"Oh, at six o'clock."
Well, the little pig got up at five and sot the furnips hefore the wolf qame (whicli he
did about six), who said,
"Little pig, are you ready?"
The little pig said, "Ready! I have been and come back again and got a nice potful for
dinner."

The wolf felt very angry at this, but thought that he rvould be up to the little pig

somehow or other, so he said,
"Little pig, I know where there is a nice apole-tree.''
"W'here?" said the pig.

"Down at Merry-Garden," replied the wolf, "and if you u'ill not deceive me, I r,vill

come for you at hve o'clock tomorrow and get some apples."

Well, the little pig bustled up the next morning at four o'clock, and went off for the
apples, hoping to get back before the wolf came; but he had farther to go and had to climb the
tree, so that just as he was coming down from it, he saw the rvolf coming, which, as you may

suppose, frightened him very much. When the wolf came up he said:
"Little pig, what! Are you here before me? Are they nice apples?"

"Yes, very," said the little pit. "I will throw you down one."
And he threw it so far, that while the wolf was gone to pick it up, the little pig jumped
down and ran home. The next day the wolf came again and said to the little pig,
"Little pig, there is a fair at Shanklin this aftemoon; will you go?"
"Oh, yes," said the pig, "I will go; what time shall you be ready?"
"At three," said the wolf. So the little pig went off before the time as usual and got to
the fair and bought a butter-ihurn, which he was going home with, wherl he saw the wolf
coming. Then he could not tell what to do. So he got into the churn to hide, and by so doing
turned it round, and it rolled down the hill with the pig in it, which frightened the wolf so

85

much, that he ran home without going to the fair. He r.vent to the little pig's house and told
him how frightened he had been by a great round thing r,vhich came dorvn the hill past him.
Then the little pig said,

"Hah, I frightened you then. I had becn to the fair and bought a butter-chum; and

when I saw you, I got into it, and rolled down the hill."
The wolf was very angry indeed and declared he would eat up the little pig, and that

he would get down the chimney after him. When the little pig saw what he was about, he
hung on the pot full of water and made up a blazing fire and, just as the wolf was coming
down, took off the cover and in fell the wolf; so the little pig put on the cover again in an
instant, boiled him up, and ate him for supper and lived happy ever aftenvards.

Molly Whuppie

Once upon a time there was a Inan and a wife had too manlz children, and they could not get
meat for them, so they took the three vouneest bnd left them in a wood. They traveled and
traveled and could see never a house. It began to be dark, and they were hungry. At last they

saw a light and made for it; it turned out to be a house. They knocked at the door, and a
woman came to it, who said: "What do you r,vant?" They said: "Please let us in and give us
something to eat." The woman said: "I can't do that, as mv man is a giant, and he would kill
you if he comes home." They begged hard. "Let us stop for a little while," said they, "and we
will go away before he comes." So she took them in, and set them down before the fire, and

gave them milk and bread; but just as they had begun to eat, a great knock came to the door,
and a dreadful voice said:

"Fee, fi.e, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of some earthly one.
Who have you there, wife?" "Eh;" said the wife, "it's three poor lassies could and hungry,
and they will go away. Ye won't touch 'em, man." He said nothing, but ate up a big supper,
and ordered them to stay all night. Now he had three lassies of his own, and they were to
sleep in the same bed with the three strangers. The younuest of the three stranse lassies-was
callediMoily Whuooie and she was very clever. She noticed that before they went to bed the

giant put straw ropes round her neck and his sisters'. and round his own lassies"l Lectrs he"Str

gold chains. So Molly took care and did not fall asleep, but waited till she was sure every one

CHARLES PERRAULT

1628-1703

Though Charles Perrault wrote what became the first classic literary fairy tales for
children in the eighteenth century, he never infended them for young readers. In fact, given
their subtle themes and ironic style, he would have been surprised by their transformation
through chapbooks and picture books into canonical stories for children. Pertault was bom in
Paris into a highly distinguished bourgeois family; his father was a lawyer and member of
parliament, and his four older brothers all won renown in such fields as architecture and law.
He himself practiced law for three years before becoming secretary to his brother Pierre, who
was the tax receiver of Paris, in 1654: around the same'time, he began drawing attention as a
poet. In 1663 Perrault was appointed secretary to Jean Baptiste Colbert, controller general of
finances and perhaps the most influential minister in Louis XIV's government. For the next
twenty years, Perrault used that position to accomplish a great deal in the arts and sciences,

and he also established a reputation as a gifted poet and essavist.

In 1671 he was elected to the French Academy and was placed in charge of the royal
buildings; he continued to write poetry and to play an important role in the cultural affairs of
the court. When Colbert died in 1683, Perrault was dismissed from government service with a

pension that enabled him to supporl his family while concentrating more on literary affairs. In

1687 he helped inaugurate the farreaching "Ouarrel df the Ancients and the Moderns"

("Querelle des anciens et des modemes") by reading his poem "Le sidcle de Louise le Grand"

("The Century of Louise the Great"). Perrault defended the moderns, believing that France

and Christianity could progress only by incorporating pagan beliefs and folklore and

developing a culture of entightenment. On the other side, the literary critic Nicolas Boileau
and the dramatist Jean Racine argued that France had to imitate the great empires of Greece
and Rome in the arts and maintain skingent classical rules. This cultural quarrel lasted until

1697, when Louis XIV made it known that he favored Boileau and Racine. Nevertheless,

Perrault kept trying to incorporate his ideas into his poetry and prose, and hi$ fairy tales are
closely related to his desire to imbue French popular culture with deener meaninq..

Perrault'had always frequented women's literary salons, including those of his niece

Marie-Jeanne Lh6ritier and of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy, and he had been annoyed by

sg

Boileau's satirical attaiks on women. Thus, he wrote three verse tales "Grilseldis" (1691),

"Les souhaits ridicules" ("The Foolish Wishes," 1693), and "Peau d'ane" (("Donkey Skin,"
1694)-along with a long peem, "Apologie des femmes" (1694), in rvomen's defense. Today
these works might not be considered pro-women, for despite extolling the intelligence.and

capabilities ol women, Perrault maintained that their talents .l-lprrld he put to use ini the

domestic and social realm (a perspective seen in most of his fairy tales). However, his poems

and tales use both a highly sonhisticated stvle and folk motifs to stress the necessity of

assuming an enlightened moral attitude toward women.

In 1696 Perrault embarked on an ambitious project: subtty translorming several

popular lolk stories, with all their superstitious beliefs and magic, into moralistic tales that

would demonstrate a modern approach to literature and convey his views on the development
of French civility. He, like most writers of fairy tales of the time, was writing for his peers in

the literary salons and not (as many critics claim) directly for children; indeed, children's
literature per se did not vet exist. Perrault's prose version of "sleeping Beauty-' (La belle au
bois dormant") was printed in the journal Mercure gallant in 1696, and in 1697 he publiEhed
Histoires ou contes du temps passd (Stories or Tales of Tir.nes Past), wl-rich consisted of a neu'
version of "Sleeping beauty'' together with "Le petit chaperon rouge" ("Little Red Riding
Hood"), "Barbe bleue" ("Bluebeard"), "Cendrillon" ("Cinderella"), "Le petit poucet" ("Little

Thumbling"), "Riquet i Ia houppe" ("Riquet r.vith the Tuft"), "Le chat bott6" ("Puss in
Boots"), and "Les f6es" ("The Fairies"). It appeared under the name of Pierre Perrault

Darmancour, Perrault's son, but the evidence strongly suggests Perrault lvas sole author. He
was simply masking his own identity so that he would not be blamed for reigniting the
Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.

During fhe eighteerith century, most of Perault's tales were published as chapbcg(s or
in inexpensive editiolq, often abridged or adapted for a mass reading public that included

children. They were also translated into many different languages. In this way, his tales

gradually became part of the literary canon of fairy tales. "Puss in Boots" is one of the most
popular tales in the world, and Perrault may have been influenced by the earlier Italian

versions of Giovan Francesco Straparola (1553) and Giambattista Basile (1634). In some

variants, cats are not the magic helpers: foxes, jackals, fairies, dead people, and trees may aid
a common man to rise in society to become a rich nobleman, or a peasant maiden to become

a princess. The theme "clothes make the Derson" is very important!.and the helper is

sometimes depicted as the main character's alter ego. Perrault was the first writer to depict
the cat as male, not female (as in the ltalian tales). lndeed, this master cat is clearly the

100

protagonist, using his wits not only to help his master and to survive but also to climb the
social ladder. In this regard, Puss takes his place in a long line of ambitious tricksters, found
inmost cultures throughout the world, who will not stop at killing to succeed in life. Perrault's
version profoundly influenced most cf the literary and oral versions that have circulated from
the eighteenth century up to the present.

Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper

Charles Perrault

Once upon a time there was a gentleman who married, for his second wife, the proudest and

most haughty woman that ever was seen. She had two daughters of her own, rvho were,
indeed, exactly like her in all things. The gentlemen had also a young daughter, of rare
goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her mother, who was the best

creature in the world.
The wedding was scarcely over, when the stepmother's bad temper began to shor.r'

itself. She could not bear the goodness of this young girl, because it made her own daughters
appear the more odious. The stepmother gave her the meanest work in the house to do;ishe
had to scour the dishes, tables, etc., and to scrub the floors and clean out the bedrooms. The
poor girl had to sleep in the garret, upon a wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in hne
rooms with inlaid floors, upon beds of tl're very newest fashion, and where they had looking-

glasses so large that they might see themselves at their full length. The poor girl bore all
patiently, and dared not complain to her father, who would have scolded her if she had done

so, for his wife gov-crned him entirely.
When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimnq5'corner, and sit down

among the cinders, hence she was called Cindenverich. -the younger sister of the two, who
was not so rude and uncivil as the elder, called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, in spite

of her mean apparel, was a hundred times more handsome than her sisters., though they were

always richly dressed.

It happened that the King's son gave a ball. and invited to it all persons of fashion.

Our young misses were also invited, for they cut a very grand figure among the people of the

country-side. They were highly delighted with the invitation, and wonderfully busy in

choosing the gowns, petticoats, and headdresses which might best become them. This made

101

Cinderella's lot still harder, for it was she u,ho ironed her sisters' linen and plaited their

ruffles. They talked all day of nothing but hon, they should be dressed.

"For my pofi," said the elder, "[ will wear my red velvet suit with French trimmings."
"And I," said the younger, "shall wear my usual skirt; but then, to make amends for'
that I will put on my gold-flowered mantle, and my diamond stomacher, which is far from

being the most ordinary one in the world." They sent for the best hairdressers they could get

to make up their hair in fashionable styles, and bought patches for their cheeks. Cinderella

was consulted in all these matters, for she had good tastp. She advised them always for the

best, and even offered her services to dress their hair, which they were very wilting she

should do.

As she was doing this, they said to her:-

"Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball?"

"Young ladies," she said, "you only jeer at me; it is not for such as I am to go there."

"You are right," they replied; "people would laugh to see a Cinderwench at a ball.'l

Any one but Cinderella would have dressed their hair awry, but she was good-

natured, and amanged it perfectly well. They were almost two days without eating, so much
were they transported with joy. They broke above a dozen laces in trying to lace themselves

tight, that they might have a fine, slender shape, and they were continually at their looking

glass.

At last the happv day came; they went to Couft, and Cinderella followed them with

her eyesas long as she could, and when she had lost sight of them, she fell a-crying.

Her godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked her what was the matter.

"I wish I could- I wish I could-" but she could not f,rnish her sobbing.

Her godmother, who was a fairy, said to her, "You wish you could go to the ball; is it

not so?" i

"Alas, yes," said Cinderella, sighing.

'Well," said her godmother, "be but a good girl, and I will see that you go." Then she

took her into her chamber, and said to heq "Run into the garden, and bring me a Dumpkin."

Cinderella went at once to gather the finest she could get, and brought it to her

godmother, not being able to imagine how this pumpkin could help her to go to the ball. Her

godmother scooped out all the inside of it, leaving nothing but the rind. Then she struck it

with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly tumed into a fine gilded coach.r

She then went to look into the mouse-trap. where she found six mice. all alive. She
ordered Cinderella to lift the trap-door, when, giving each mouse, as it went out, a little tap

t02

with her wand, it was that moment turned into a fine horse, and the six mice made a fine set
of six horses of a beautiful mouse-colored, dapple erav"

Being at a loss for a coachman, Cinderella said, "I r,vill go and see if there is not a rat

in the rat-trap-we may make a coachman of him."
"You are right," replied her godmother; "go and look."

Cinderella brought the rat{rap to her, and in it there were three huge rats. The fairy

chose the one which had the largest beard, and, having touched him with her wand, heiwas
turned into a fat coachman with the finest mustache and rvhiskers ever seen.

After that, she said to her:

"Go into the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the water-pot; bring them to

me."

She had no sooner done so than her godmother turned them into six footmen, who
skipped up immediately behind the coach, with their liveries all trimmed with gold and silver,
and theyheld on as if they had done nothing else their whole lives.

The fairy then said to Cinderella, "Well, you see here a carriage ht to go to the ball in;
are you not pleased with it?"

"Oh, yes!" she cried; "but must I go as I am in these rags?"
,

Her godmother simply touched her r,vith her wand, and, at the same moment, her
clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all decked with jewels. This done, she gave
her a pair of the prettiest glass slippers in the whole world. Being thus attired, she got into the
carrlage, her godmother commanding her, above all things, not to stay till after midnight, and

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 her clothes
would become just as they were before-

She promised her godmother she would not fail to leave the ball before midnight. She
drove away, scarce able to contain herself for joy. The King's son, who was told that a great
princess, whom nobody knew, was come, ran out to receive her. He gave her his hand'as she
alighted from the coach, and led her into the hall where the company were assembled. There
was at once a profound silence; every one left off dancing, and the violins ceased to play, so

attracted was every one by the singrlar" beauties of the unknown newcomer. Nothing was

then heard but a confused sound of voices saying:-

"Ha! How beautiful she is! Ha! How beautiful she is!"

,103

The King himself, old as he rvas, could not keep his eyes off her, and he told the
Queen under his breath that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely a

creature.

All the ladies were busy studying her clothes and head-dress, so that they might have
theirs made next day after the same pattern, provided they could meet with such fine

materials and able hands to make them.

The King's son conducted her to the seat of honor, and afterwards took her out to
dance with him. She danced so very gracefully that they all admired her more and more. A
fine collation was served, but the young Prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he occupied
with her.

She went and sat down beside her sisters, showing them a thousand civilities, and
giving them among other things part of the oranges and citrons with which the Prince had
regaled her. This very much surprised them, for they had not been presented to her.

Cinderella heard the clock strike a quarter to twelve. She at once made her adieus to
the company and hastened away as fast as she could.

As soon as she got home, she ran to find her godmother, and, after having thanked
her, she said she much wished she rnight go to the ball the next day; because the King's son

had asked her to do so. As she was eagerly telling her godmother all that happened at the ball,
her two sisters knocked at the door; Cinderella opened it. "How long you have stayed!" said

she, yawning, rubbing her eyes, and stretching herself as if she had treen just awakened. She

had not, however, had any desire to sleep since they went from home.

"If you had been at the ball," said one of her sisters, "you would not have been tired
with it. There came thither the finest princess, the most beautiful ever was seen with mortal

eyes. She showed us a thousand civilities, and gave us oranges and citrons."
Cinderella did not show any pleasure at this. Indeed, she asked them the name of the

princess; but they told her they did not know it, and that the King's son was very much
concerned, and would give all the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella, smiling,
replied:-

"'Was she then so very beautiful? How fortunate you have been! Could I not see her?
Ah! dear Miss Charlotte, do lend me your yellow suit of clothes which you wear every dav "

"Ah, to be sure!" cried Miss Charlotte; "lend my clothes to such a dirty Cinderwdnch
as thou art! [ should be out of my mind to do so."

Cinderella, indeed, expected such an answer and was very glad of the refusal; for she

would have been sadly troubled if her sister had lent her what she jestingly asked for. The

104

next day the two sisters went to the ball, and so did Cinderella, but dressed more

magnificently than before. The King's son was always by her side, and his pretty speeches to
her never ceased. These by no means annoyed the young lady. Indeed, she quite forgot her
godmother's orders to hor, so that she heard the clock begin to strike twelve when she
thought it could not be more than eleven. She then rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The
Prince followed, but could not oveftake her. She teft behind one of her glass 'slipoers, which
the Prince took up most carefully. She got home, but quite out of breath, without her carriage,
and in her old clothes, having nothing left her of all her finery but one of the little slippers,

fellow to the one she had dropped. The guards at the palace gate rvere asked if they had not

seen a princess go out, and they replied they had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very
meanly dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country girl than of a young lady.

When the two sisters returned fiom the ball, Cinderella asked them if they had had a
pleasant time, and if the fine lady had been there. They told her, yes; but that she hurried

away the moment 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 taken up. They said.
fufther, that he had done nothing but look at her all the time, and that most certair{y he was
very much in love with the beautiful owner of the glass slipper.

What they said was true; for a few days after the King's son caused it to be

proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry her whose foot this slipper would fit
exactly. They began to try it on the princesses, then on the duchesses, and then on all the
ladies of the Court; but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters, r,vho did all they possibly
could to thrust a foot into the slipper, but they could not succeed. Cinderella, who saw this,
and knew her slipper, said to them laughing:-

"Let me see if it will not fit me."

Her sisters burst out a-laughing, and began to banter her. The gentleman who was sent

to try the slipper looked earnestly at Cinderellq and, finding her very handsome, said it was
but just that she should try, and that he had orders to let every lady try it on.

He obliged Cinderella to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her little foot, he found it
went on very easily, and fitted her as if it had been made of wax. The a^stonishment of her two
sisters was great, but it was still greater when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other

slipper and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came her godmother, who, having touched

Cinderella's clothes with her wand, made them more magnificen! than those she had worn

before.

105

And now her sisters found her to be that beautiful lady they had seen at the ball. They

threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all their ill treatment of her. Cinderella took
them up, and, as she embraced them, said that she forgave them u,ith all her heart, and

begged them to love her always.

She was conducted to the young Prince, dressed as she was. He thought her more
charming than ever, and, a few days after, married her. Cinderella, who was as good as she
was beautiful, gave her two sisters a home in the palace, and that every same day married

them to two great lords of the Court.

Little Red Riding-Hood

Charles Perrault

Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl, the prettiest
creature that ever was seen. Her mother was very fond of her, and her grandmother loved her
still more. This good woman made for her a little red riding-hood. which became the girl so

well that everybody called her Little Red Riding-hood.

One day her mother, having made some custards, said to her:-
"Go, my dear, and see hor,v your grandmother does, for I hear she has been very ill;

carry her a custard and this little pot of butter."
Little Red Riding-hood set out immediately to go to her grandmother's, who lived in

another village.

As she was going through the wood, she met Gaffe-rl Wol! who had a very great

mind to eat her up; but he dared not, because of some fagotmakerr2 hprd !y in the forest. He

asked her whither she was going. The poor child, who did not know that it was dangerous to
'j

stay and hear a wolf talk, said to him:-

"I am going to see my grandmother, and carry her a custard and a little pot of butter

from my mamma."
"Does she live far off?" said the Wolf.

I
Gaffer godfather, "old man."

2
F ago tma kers wood cutters.

170

Fables

..When the animal tales is told with'an acknowledged moral purpose, it becomes a fable."6

Thus does Stith Thompson, the great scholar of folklore, define the genre that is familiar to us
all. So universal is the krpwledge of such stories as The Dog in the Manger: The Lion and the
Mouse, and The Boy Who Criecl Wolf thatwe seem to have been born knowing them'

Children, and other readers of folklore, are quite accustomed to a world in which

beasts and men speak a common language,-change worlds and shapes on occasion, render

hglp to one another, or wage wars of wit and cunning, The anthropomorphic treatment of
anima-ls is a source of entertainment even in the sophistication of our own day. Witness the

popularity of the animated cartoon-
No doubt the fable is derived from the habit of the primitive mind that considered

animals as our equals or possessed of magical powers beyond us. "What is characteristic of
primitive mentality is not its logic but its general'sentiment of life," writes Ernst Cassirer.

..primitive man by no means lacks the ability to grasp the empirical differences of things. But
in his conception of nature and life all these differences are obliterated by a stronger feeling;

the deep conviction of a fundamental and indelible solidarity of lfe that bridges over the

multiplicity and variety of its single from-"

. When the farniliar alimals of tblklore r.vere made to bear upon their backs the burden

of a,fnoral , the fable was bom, marking the development of a degree of sophisticatiop in

human.development. The fables as we know them owe their wide disseminatiou, not to the

oral tradition of folklore, but to two great written, or literary, sources, one in [ndiarand the
other in Greecd. "Of the five or six hundred fables belonging to the two literary traditiqns of
lndia and Greece," says Stith Thompson, "fewer than fifty seem to have been recorded from

oral 8 The Greek cycle of fables is ascribed to the authorship of one Aesop,

storytellers."o

about wtrgse origing, fatg and writing there are as many legends as those surrounding Uo'me..

He was a Greek slave at Samos, livrng some time in the sixth century B-C-, says one account,

a swarthy man ("Aesop" means btack) and deformed, with a sham wit that enabled him to
say through the medium of the ftble what he dared not say directly, in criticism of his time-

6- StithThompson"The Folktale (Dryden, l9a6), p- 10.

7' Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (Doubleday Anchor Books), p' 109

8

Stith Thompsot, The Folktale, p. 218.

tlt

The English scholar Joseph Jacobs has proved that the fables of Aesop came mainly from a

collection made in 300 B.C. by Demetrius Phalerus, lounder of the Alexandrian Library;
therefore, he says, "The answer to the question 'rvho rvrote Aesop?' is simple: 'Demetrius of

;

Phaleron."'9

Whatever their origin, they early became the heritage of the English tongue, since
Aesop's fables were translated from the French and published by England's first printer,
William Caxton, in 1484. Sir Roger L'Estrange , in 1692, made the best and largest collection
of fables in English, especially designed for the reading of children, inculuding some not
attributed to Aesop. The Croxall edition of lTlZwas also addressed to children- This edition,
together with that of Thomas James in 1848, formed the basis for the most distinguished
collection of Aesop's fables published in America, the one edited and illustrated by Boris

Artzybasheff.lo

A second cycle of fables has its origins in tndia, the great Hindu collection known as

the panchatantra,or the Five Bool<s. This was in existence as early as 200 B.C. These fables
are characterized by an intricate interweaving of story within story, a scheme that is common
to the Orient, as the Arabian Nights exemplifies. The animals of these fables, unlike those of
the simpler tales of Aeso;r, do not act in accordance with thetr hasiq animal character- They

are, rather, human beings wearing animal masks, giving voice to wir and wisdom in

epigrammatic verse quoted from sacred writings. "[t is as if the animals in some English beast

fable were to justify their actions by quotations from Shakespeare and the Bible."l t Th'

fables of Aesop, taken as a whole, afford shrewd observations on the behavior of humanitv'
but those of the Panchatantra corfle closer to forming a philosophy of life'

Not rank, but character, is birth; :

It is not eYes, but wits that see;

True wisdom 'tis to cease from wrong;

Contentment is ProsPe ritY.12

9 Jacobs, Aesop's Fables(fust editiorq 1864; latest, 1926); inEoduction. Quoted in Percy Muir, Englrs&
Jor"ph

Children's B oo ks (Batsford, London, 19 54), p - 24

'o ,uor,ro"o by ttre viking Press, 1933.

t Onn* W. Ryder, tr., Gold's Gloom; Tales from the Panchatan lra (University of Chicago Press, 1925), p' 2'
'

t2
Ibid.,p.17

177

These same fables, in their Arabic version, are known as The Fables of Bidpai. A second
ancient source of fable, originating in the East, are the Jataka tales. They are stories clustered
about the central theme of the myriad births of the Buddha rvho, in accordance u'ith the
Buddhistic belief in the transmigation of the sou[, suffered himself to be born in many
shapes of the animal world and the world of nature. The earliest version of the well-loved

Henny Penny and the Tar Baby story can be traced to this source.
l
Marie Shedlock, that noted English storyteller, made a distinguished collection of the

Jatakatales (Easrern Stories and Legends), directly relating them to children in her versions
to be told or read aloud. In addition to the typical moral purpose of the fable, these stories

have about them an aura of compassiop. They seem remarkably contemporary in the light of

Albert Schweitzer's statement of belief: "a reverence for [ife."
Of all the tellers of fables, only one has been called Le Fablier, the Fabler, and that

one is Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695). Using the fables of Aesop as a basis, drawing upon

other fables of the medieval world, and inventing some of his own, he made the telling of

them an art, and himself the master storyteller. He gave verse form to the tales, relating them
to his own time and country, painting them, as it were, in a French landscape, and satirizing,
with gentle humor, his contemporaries. He endowed the tales, as he himself stated, with "a
certain piquancy . . . originality and humor. When I say humor I do not mean jocosity, but an
alluring, irresistible something that can be imparted to any subject hou'ever ,".iour."13 Th"
fables of La Fontaine are one of the pillars of French literature, and the children of France
know them by heart.

Some educators question the suitability of fables for children, forgetting perhaps that

while children shun moralizing they are drawn to morality. The drama of the fable, the
animal characters, and the quick flash of its single illustration of a truth--these hold the

attention of children.
The selection of fables for this textbook has been made as broad as possible, including

examples of folk fables from different nations as well as many derived from literary sou(ces.
Many of the best-known fables have been omitted, because the primary emphasis has been

put on those that have the greatest appeal for children.

1^3" From [.a Fontaine's preface, given in The Fables of La Fonntne, tr. By Marianne Moord (Wiking Press,

1954), p. 7.

:173

Fables of Aesop

The Wind and the sun

Once upon a time when everything could talk, the Wind and the Sun fell into an argument as
to which was the stronger. Finally they decided to put the matter to a test; they would see
which one could make a certain man, rvho was walking along the road, throw off his cape.
The Wind tried first. He blew and he blew and he blew. The harder and colddr he blew, the
tighter the traveler wrapped his cape about him. The Wind finally gave up and told the Sun to
try. The Sun began to smile and as it grew warrner and warmer, the traveler was comfortable
once more. But the Sun shone brighter and brighter until the man grew so hot, the sweat
poured out on his face, he became weary, and seating himself on a stone, he quickly threw his
cape to the ground. You see, gentlerres-s had accomplished what forqe could not.

A Wotf in Sheep's Clothing

A certain Wolf, being very hungry, disguised himself in a Sheep's skin and joined a flock of
sheep. Thus, for many days he could kill and eat sheep whenever he r,vas hungry, for even the

shepherd did not find him out. One night after the shepherd had put all liis sheep in the fold,
he decided to kill one of his own flock for food; and without realizing what he was doing, he
took out the wolf and killed him on the spot. It really does not pay to pretend to be what you

are not.

A Lion and a Mouse

A Mouse one day happened to run across the paws of a sleeping Lion and wakened him. The
Lion, angry at being disturbed, grabbed the Mouse, and was about to swallow him, when the

Mouse cried out, "Please, kind Sir, I didn't mean it; if you will let me go, I shall always be

grateful; and, perhaps, I can help you some day." The idea that such a little thing as a MQuse
could help him so amused the Lion that he let the Mouse go. A week later the Mouse heird a
Lion roaring loudly. He went closer to see what t[e trouble was and found his Lion caught in
a hunter's net. Remembering his promise, the Mouse began to gnaw the ropes of the net and

n4

kept it up until the Lion could get free. The Lion then acknowledged that little friends mieht

prove great friends.

The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf

A rnischievous Shepherd's Boy used to amuse himself by calling, "Wolf, Wolfl" just to see
the viltagers run with their clubs and pitchforks to help him. After he had called this more
than once for a joke and had laughed at them each'time, they grew angry. One day a Wolf
really did get among the sheep, and the Shepherd Boy called "Wolf, Wolfl" in vain. The
villagers went on with their work, the Wolf killed what he wanted of the sheep, and the
Shepherd Boy learned that liars are not believed, even when they do tell fhe truth.

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

A Country Mouse was very happy that his city cousin, the Town Mouse, had accepted his

invitation to dinner. He gave his city cousin all the best food he had, such as dried beans,

peas, and crusts of bread. The Town Mouse tried not to show how he distiked the food and

picked a little here and tasted a little there to be polite. After dinner, how'ever, he said, "How

can you stand such food all the time? Still I suppose here in the country you don't know

about any better. Why don't you go home with me? When you have once tasted the delicious

things I eat, you will never want to come back here." The Country Mouse uot only kjndly

forgave the Town Mouse for not liking his dinner, but even consented to go that very evehing

to the city with his cousin. They arrived late at night; and the City Mouse, as host, took his

Country Cousin at once to a room where there had been a big dinner. "You are tired," he said.

"Rest here, and I'll bring you some real food." And he brought the Country Mouse such

things as nuts, dates, cake, and fruit. The Country Mouse thought it was all so good, he would

like to stay there. But before he had a chance to say so, he heard a terrible roar, and looking

up, he saw a huge creature dash into the room. Frightened half out of his wits, the Country

Mouse ran from the table, and round and round the room, tryrng to find a hiding place. At last

he found a place of safety. While he stood there trembling he rnade up his mind to go home

as soon as he could get safely away; for, to himself, he said, "I'd rather have common food in

safety than dates and nuts in the midst of danger." i

192

Gemini, the Twins

Much of the knowledge of early astronomers was told not in the language of science but in
the language of mythology. In the olden days, myths were apart of people's faith and were
thought to alfect their destinies. Today we think of stars in scientific terms, but with the
current interest in the conquest of space, lve find ourselves tuming back to m}'thology- What
is tlre signiflrcance of naming the program that took men to the moott Projecl Apollo? Why
the Mercur-), program? Why was the space capsule that carried a crew of ttl'o, to test the
feasibility of linking units together in orbit, named Gemini? Mythology takes on a timely
significance in the Space Age, but the true charm of the my'ths lies in themselves. [From Peter

Lum, The Stars in our Heaven (Pantheon, 1948)-]

Two bright stars lie side by side in the constellation of Gemini. These are easily
recognized, for there is no other pair of stars of equal brilliance so close together in the

Northem Hemisphere, and they have always been thought to belong together- Most of the old
stories and folklore, common to all mythologies, that tell of the adventures nf fwin heroes,
have at some time or another woven themselves around the figure of these t{vin stars- They
were the Dioscurilof the Greeks, the l'rvin Brethreniof the Romans, the Du Paikar or Two
Figures of the Persians. the E.qyptians knew them as Horu$ the Elder and Horus the Younger'

the phoenicians as Trvo Kids or Trvo Gazelles, and all these trvins doubtless traced their

ongtn back to qfill earlier p-air5-
In classical legend the tlvo stars were, Castorl and Pollux. the famous twin heroes of

Greece and Rome by whoge names they are still known to us. They were the sons of [upite'

and Leda wife of Tyndarus, King of Sparta, whom the ruler of the gods came courtinain the
lorm of a swan. and were therefore sometimes called the Ledean or the Soa(nn stars: they

were brothers of the beautifirl Helen for whom the Troian war was fought. They were

educated by the greatest teachers of their day and were renowned for their immense strength

and daring lc*to, being especially skilled at ridine anq'Polluxrin boxing and the arts of war.
The twins were among rhe Algo-narrfs who set sail with Jason in his quest for the

Golden Fitiece. It was. an incident during this voyage that supposedly gave them their

reputation as the patron sarnts of sailors and all who lead adventurous lives-although, in
fact, they had been invoked as guardians and protectors of seamen in other lands long before

the Argo sarled on her first expedition. (Moreover, on this occasion it was Orpheus who

seems to have done the work, while Castor and Pollux simp!-y took the credit-)

193

A sudden storm had come up while the Argo was at sea and the great ship tossed and
groaned in the grip of the grle. Well-built though she was, the crew feared for their shiB, and

their own lives, for the fierceness of the storm was such that they had never seen its,like

before. But while the fury of the seas was at its height, Orpheus took up his harp and began to

play the stirringmelodies which he alone of gods or men could chann forth from the heart of
that instrumeht. As he played, he called upon the gods to save them. Then the storm died
away as suddenly as it had come and the seas grew clam, while at the same time twin stars

appeared shining oyer the heads of the twins Castor andlPollux. Thereafter the strange lights

which, in certain electric conditions of the atmosphere and especially in southem latitudes
during thunderstorms, play like a star of light on the masts of ships, on treel0ps.and on the
wrngtrp$ot arrplanes, and which we commonly know as St. Elmo's Fire, were called by the

names of Castor and Pollux And thereafter it was customary ftr men to pra)' ic thg tsds

whenever they were in great peril-,
i
Eastor land Pollux were quick to come to the aid of those who fou-eht bravelv.

Macaulay's "Battle of Lake Regillus" retells an old legend of how, on one occasion, when the
Roman army was hard pressed by their Etruscan foes, their leader suddenly

".. .was aware of a statelY Pair,
That rode by his right hand-

So like were they no man
Might one from other know.

.White as snow their armour was,
Their steeds were white as snow-"

The Etruscans, overwhelmed by the sight of immortal as well as mortal oppo-nglts,
hesitated, broke their ranks, and rvere lost. While the victorious Romans were busy pursuing

the disorganized armies of their foe across the plain, the two white-clad horsemen rode
silently back to Rome, silently washed their horses in the well and riding to the door of

Vgsta's templg, disappeared. Att who saw them bowed their heads in awe, realizing that these
were no mortal horsemen and that the gods had fought that day with Rome- A temple was
buitt to the twin heroes on the very soot where they had bathed their horses,.and they became
the patron deities of Rome. Their likenesses appeared on the earliest silver coins of that city,
and statues showing them on horseback with a star shining above the head of each are still to

t94

be seen there. July l5th, the day of the great battle at Lake Regillus, r.vas kept sacred in their

name.

It \r,as supposed that Pollux was origlnallv immortal and his brother Castor u'as
mortal. The twins fell in love with two beautiful sisters, who were unfortunately already

betrothed to two other suitors. Castorand Pollux thereupon challenged their rivals to do battle

for the hands of the fair maidens and in the ensuing fight, although they slew both their

opponents, LLstor qlso was mortally wounded. Pollux was so overcome with grief at the loss
of his twin, who was indeed half of his own being, that he attempted to kill himself and rejoin
his brother in the shadorvs of Hades. This, being immortal,. he could not do. Then he entreated
Jupiter to help him, either to let him die with his brother or to restore Castor to life and let

them by united again on earth.
flupiter compromise(. He ordarned that the pair should spend half of each day together

in the undenvorld, and half together in the light of day, a solution which probably reflects the
original characrer of the twin heroes; the coqtrast between day and night and other apparently
contradictory natural phenomena. At the same time Jupiter was so touched by the devotion of
Pollux to his brother that he determined to reward him by making the twins an everlasJing
symbol of brotherly love, and so placed the immortal souls of both heroes in the sky as tu,o
stars of equal brilliance, close together in eternity as they had been in mortal life.

The Judgment of Midas

Midas was the name of several Phrygian kings. Ovid (Metamorphoses, xi, 85-145) tells how
our legendary Midas came into contact with Dionysus (god of the vine), who, as a reward for
he$ing him, granted Midas' request to have everything he touched turn into gold. When
Midas realized he rvould starve to death, he successfully begged to be freed from this power.

6till Midas did not learn his lc-sson. He became a follower of Pary tde woodland god of

hunters, fishermeq, and shepherds, who plaved the reed oipes so heautifully that all living
things mourned or rejoiced according to his tune. This power so went to Pan's head that he
challenged Apollo to a contest of ability. .Apollo saw fit to punish not Pan but his faithful
follower Midas, who remained loyal to Pan. [From Josephine Preston Peabody, Old Greek
Folk Stories Told Anew (Houghton Mifflin, 1897)1.

251

bought her. Therefore, she belonged to them. Buf in her heart Belle knew it made no

difference. Through her own struggle, she had won her freedom.

Nursery Rhymes and Poetry

Nursery Rhymes

Few narratives in literature for child or adult are told with the joyfui economy of the nursery
rhyme. Many of them, likel"Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?i'.are the most tightly
constructed stories. "Sing a song of sixpence, a'pocketful of ryp': tells a completq tale in three
short verses. "Three wise men of Gotham" could hardly be more ccrndensed:

Tluee wise men of Gotham
Went to sea in a bowl.

If the bowl had been stronger,
My story had been longer.

Small children-whose attention spans are limited-are introduced to brief f,rction

tales in rollickihg.rhythms and rhyming forms. While the rhymes are 4ot poetry, they are the
most natural introduction to poetry.

Literary Elements

Many of the Mother Goose orr nursery rlymes are thg simplest and brigfest of stories. The
charactgrs are the Queen of Hearts who made some tarts, the old woman tossed up in a
basket, and Old Mother Hubbard whose cupboard in bare. Setting, too, is ouickly sketched in
some rhymes. Amazingly, the Old Woman lives in a shoe, and Peter Pumpkin Eater's wife
lives in a pumpkin shetl. The brief narratives have simple plols. The crook-ed man uses his
crooked sixpence to buy a cfooked cat that "caught a crooked mouse/And they all lived
together in a little crooked house" for a happy closed ending. Action in these stones varies
from the simplest of tumbles taken by Humpty Dumpty to the more complex involvements of
'The House That Jack Built" and "Who Killed Cock Robin?"

252

ldeas also occur in Mother Goose rh;rmes, ideas a small child can grasp. Some of the
simple rhymes are surprisingly clear in their insights, and oftentimes the short verse-stories
have slight themes. Life is a fleetrng thing, we discover from "solomon Grundy":

Solomon Grundy
Born on Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday
That's the end
Of Solomon Grundy.

Because of Dapple Gray, we know that "a pet is worth more than money"

' i hud a little pony; his name was Dapple Gray

I lent him to a lady to ride a mile away
She whipped him, she slashed him,

She rode him through the rnire-

I would not lend my pony now
For atl that lady's hir.6.'

A child's understanding is increased in other ways. Curiosity about the environment is
roused when the commonplace is made exciting. The trip to the grocery store is no longer
ordinary: "To market, to market, to buy a fatpig." And a walk beside the flower beds is timg
for "Mistress Mary's garden" with "silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in h
row ,,

Style

In a pleasant, regular beat of rhymes there is rhythm that may correspond to walking

breathing and the heartbeat within us; rhythm is a way into poetry:
Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.

253

The clock struck one,
And down he run,
Hickory, dickory, dock

The quick rh/thmic movement makes a child jump to a beat
Jack be nimble Jack be quick.
Jack jump overthe candlestickt

Children clap hands to "The Farmer in the Dell," and swing their arms to "London
Bridge." Rhythm, which is determined by patterns of accented and unaccenled syllahles and
by long or short vowels, moves the lines quickly and happily.

The variety of sound effects ip nursery rhymes, although simple, acquaints children

with poetic devices and gives pleasure. "A tisket, a tasket," "H"y, diddle, diddle," "Hickety,

prckety2_" or "Rub-a-dub-dub" use internal rhymes, assonance" and consonance

Alliteration occurs in "Daffy-down-dilly" or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers";
consonant and vowel repetitions exist in "Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks went lvalking
out one morning." There is onomatopoeia in "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark!" and "Bow-

wow-wow, whose dog art thou?" Then enjoyable sounds of tongue-twisters are endless

challenges. And of course the usual end rhyme is pleasing:
' Little Boy blue, come blow your hom!
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the com.
Where's the boy who looks after the sheep?
Under the haystack fast asleep!

Figurative langU4ge is another stylistic trait of Mother Goose rhymes. Dishes and
spoons: ravens and daffodils, cats and mice, and ladybugs are excitingly personified "Frogs
and snails and puppy dogs' tails' contrast to "sugar and spice and everything nice,"
metaphors.for "bad" and "goodi'qualitres in little boys and girls. Jack Sprat and his wife
figurative.---or literally if we prefer-"lick the platter clean", in simile form, a snail is "like a
little Kyloe cow."

As for tone, humor with delight is more prbvalent than any other. There is laughter in:

Barber, barber, shave a pig.

How many hairs will make a wig?

Four and twenty, that's enough.

254

Give the barber a pinch of snuff.

And there is eeriousnesslin:
Ding Dong Dell, Pussy's in the well!
Who put her in? Little Johnny Green.
Who pulled her out? Little Johny Stout.
What a naughty boy was that
To try to drown poor pussy cat
Who never did him any harm
But killed the mice in his father's bam.

Verbal irony is found in:
A diller, a dollar,
A ten o"clock scholar,
What makes you come so soon?
You used to come at ten o'clock
And now you come at noon.

. Wonder at romance and possible adventure is awakened in the melodious "Bobby
Shafto's gone to sea," or in "[ saw a ship a-sailing."

Fmotional intensity may be more commonly thought of as a quality of fine lyric
poetry, but there is also intensity and exciteorcnt in children's ptay and the rhymes that

accompany this play. Children chant a teasing rhyme, "Tattle-tale, tattle-tale, hanging on a
dog's tail!" Carried along by rhythms and sounds, children sing out variations on names:

Sally-bum-balley, tee-alley- go-falley,

Tee-legged, tie-ligged, toe-legged Sally

Or in the universal taunts of childhood, children adapt verses to their play-mate5' names:

Janie's mad and I'm glad,

And I know how to please her.

A bottle of wind to make her shine,

A bottle of ink to make her stink ,
.
And all the boys to tease her-

255

Caught up in what Robert Frost calls the catchiness of rhythm and rh)ane, children recite and

improvise.

In the nursery or folk rhymes, children also find the intrigue of riddles. They ask each
other rhythmic or rhr,rming questions:

' What can go up the chimney down,

But can't go down the chimney up?

They are surprised that "umbrella" is the answer And children don't forget this involved

question:
As I was going to St. lves,

I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks;
In each sack were seven cats;

Each cat had seven kits.
Kits, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to St. lves?

In addition to the rh)rmes rve commonly call Mother Goose, children are made readv

for poetry by many other lolk rhymes that may have general similarities and local

geographical variations. Children from many parts of the country know the ball-bouncing

rhymg 'When Buster Brown was one/He leamed to suck his thumb." Some children, perhaps
from a particular section of a particular state, seem to share common variations of similar

rhymes, like the jump-roDe yerses with the refrain:

Here comes the doctor, ,

Here comes the nurse,

Here comes the lady

With the alligator purse.
Other rhymes seem to appear by some magic, known at first only to an inside group

on a particular playground. If the rhymes are catchy enouglr, they are soon carried across the

country by a child who moves away, or by a visitor who returns to a hometown. It seems

unlikely that those who have jumped rope to this rhyme will for$et it:

Fudge, fudge, I

Call the judge.

Mama's got a baby

26E

The Queen of Hearts and

the Stolen Tarrs

The Queen of Hearts she made some tartsr
All on a st,nrmer's day;

The Knave oi flearts he stole drose tarts,
And took them quite away

The Queen of Hearts had made those tarrs
To Gast a chosen fer,r.;

And on the shelf put them her"elf
Saying 'They'll sulely do.'

For she'd sent out her cards about

To every Kingand Qucen

Who in the pack, n red and black

Are always to be seen.

Each noble prir in state came t[ere
The royal board was spread;

The King with verve began to serve,
The Qrreen she cut the bread.

The soup and fuh. and many a dish,
They ate with laughter gay,

And now the olrrm-pudding was come,

fu though'twere Christmas day.

t

269

The Queerr calls for the tarts

The Queen called then her serving meti;
fJnconscious of disaster ;

. 'Removc,' said shc, 'this dish from me'

And put it to Your trraster''
All wondered what else she had got'

When to their joY she bade
The I(navc of.Flearts to bring dre tarts

Which she hcrself had made'

T'he Knave he went as l'e'd been sent
returned to saY,
But soon

'Some malcontent on thieving bent

Has stole rhe tarts awev"

Oh then each gucst did trY his best

A cheerful look to wear,

As if to say, 'Don't mind it, PraY'

We re.ily do not care''

I

270

fl0m

0

{

L

,td

Tbe l(navc blarnes the cat

Thcn spoke the Knavc ln accents qtavc'

'Your Majesry,' said he ,

'l think I know who is the foc

Your tom iat it must be;

He looked at me quice guiltilY,
And ran away full sPeed,

l7hicir surely shows hc full wcll ktror'vs

'Twas he who did thc deed.'
Then fron: his seat in angcr great,

Up rosc tlrc King of Hearts:
'Oh, Knave, for shame!' hc did exclaim,

'Do cats eat damson tarts ?
It's my belief thou art dre thiel

But that I soon will see;

So go and call my servants all,
And bid chem come to me''

!

271

The uraids and serv-iug rrren assemble

Up birstlecl then the serving mbn,
Up busded all the nlaids;

And there they stand a goodly band'
According to thcir grades-

The Knave,'tis said, was at their head,

For ire was reckoned clief:
'Now by this ring,' cxclaimed tFre King,

'I'll soon fuid out the thief,'

The rnardens then, anC scrving nlen.
Stared at tlre Kurg of l{earts:

'I see,' said he, right solemnlY,

'W'ho stole the darnson t2-rts:
His lips retatn the purPle sain

Ofjuice upon them Yet;
To hide his sin, hrs mouth ar^.d chin

To wipe, he did forget.'

t

272

The Knavc's guilt is cstablished

All looked to see who it could be,
Except the Knavc, I wot,

\Mho did begin to wipc his chln,
Thouglr it no stain had got-

Oh then up starts uhe King of Hearts,
'Deceitfirl Knave!' cried he,

'Now straight conGss your widkedness,
Upon your bended knee.'

Up^'OrohseStihree!'Osuheie..ni3lvdi,th'dbiditteI r mien,
Prepare a treat for Knaves to eat?

He surely ought to die.'

The King looked grave at Queen and Knave,
Quoth he, 'The tarts are eaten;

But merry still shall be my wil[,
So let the thief be beaten.'


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