ONCE there was a gentleman who married, for his
second wife, the proudest and most haughty woman that was ever seen. She had,
by a former husband, two daughters of her own humor, who were, indeed, exactly
like her in all things. He had likewise, by another wife, a young daughter, but
of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper, which she took from her
mother, who was the best creature in the world.
No sooner were the ceremonies of the wedding over
but the mother-in-law began to show herself in her true colors. She could not
bear the good qualities of this pretty girl, and the less because they made her
own daughters appear the more odious. She employed her in the meanest work of
the house: she scoured the dishes, tables, etc., and scrubbed madam’s chamber,
and those of misses, her daughters; she lay up in a sorry garret, upon a
wretched straw bed, while her sisters lay in fine rooms, with floors all
inlaid, upon beds of the very newest fashion, and where they had
looking-glasses so large that they might see themselves at their full length
from head to foot.
The poor girl bore all patiently, and dared not
tell her father, who would have rattled her off; for his wife governed him
entirely. When she had done her work, she used to go into the chimney-corner,
and sit down among cinders and ashes, which made her commonly be called
Cinderwench; but the youngest, who was not so rude and uncivil as the eldest,
called her Cinderella. However, Cinderella, notwithstanding her mean apparel,
was a hundred times handsomer than her sisters, though they were always dressed
very richly.
It happened that the King’s son gave a ball, and
invited all persons of fashion to it. Our young misses were also invited, for
they cut a very grand figure among the quality. They were mightily delighted at
this invitation, and wonderfully busy in choosing out such gowns, petticoats,
and head-clothes as might become them. This was a new trouble to Cinderella;
for it was she who ironed her sisters’ linen, and plaited their ruffles; they
talked all day long of nothing but how they should be dressed.
“For my part,” said the eldest, “I will wear my
red velvet suit with French trimming.”
“And I,” said the youngest, “shall have my usual
petticoat; but then, to make amends for that, I will put on my gold-flowered
manteau, and my diamond stomacher, which is far from being the most ordinary
one in the world.”
They sent for the best tire-woman they could get to make up their head-dresses
and adjust their double pinners, and they had their red brushes and patches
from Mademoiselle de la Poche.
Cinderella was likewise called up to them to be
consulted in all these matters, for she had excellent notions, and advised them
always for the best, nay, and offered her services to dress their heads, which
they were very willing she should do. As she was doing this, they said to her:
“Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the
ball?”
“Alas!” said she, “you only jeer me; it is not for
such as I am to go thither.”
“Thou art in the right of it,” replied they; “it would make the people laugh to
see a Cinderwench at a ball.”
Anyone but Cinderella would have dressed their
heads awry, but she was very good, and dressed them 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 be laced up close, that they might have
a fine slender shape, and they were continually at their looking-glass. At last
the happy day came; they went to Court, and Cinderella followed them with her
eyes as 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–”; she was not able to speak the rest, being
interrupted by her tears and sobbing.
This godmother of hers, who was a fairy, said to
her, “Thou wishest thou couldst go to the ball; is it not so?”
“Y–es,” cried Cinderella, with a great sigh.
“Well,” said her godmother, “be but a good girl,
and I will contrive that thou shalt go.”
Then she took her into her chamber,
and said to her, “Run into the garden, and bring me a pumpkin.”
Cinderella went immediately to gather the finest
she could get, and brought it to her godmother, not being able to imagine how
this pumpkin could make her go to the ball. Her godmother scooped out all the
inside of it, having left nothing but the rind; which done, she struck it with
her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into a fine coach, gilded all
over with gold.
She then went to look into her mouse-trap, where
she found six mice, all alive, and ordered Cinderella to lift up a little the
trapdoor, when, giving each mouse, as it went out, a little tap with her wand,
the mouse was that moment turned into a fine horse, which altogether made a
very fine set of six horses of a beautiful mouse-colored dapple-gray. Being at
a loss for a coachman,
“I will go and see,” says Cinderella, “if there is
never a rat in the rat-trap–we may make a coachman of him.”
“Thou art in the right,” replied her godmother;
“go and look.”
Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it
there were three huge rats. The fairy made choice of one of the three which had
the largest beard, and, having touched him with her wand, he was turned into a
fat, jolly coach- man, who had the smartest whiskers eyes ever beheld. After
that, she said to her:
“Go again into the garden, and you will find six
lizards behind the watering-pot, bring them to me.”
She had no sooner done so but her godmother turned
them into six footmen, who skipped up immediately behind the coach, with their
liveries all bedaubed with gold and silver, and clung as close behind each
other as if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The Fairy then said
to Cinderella: “Well, you see here an equipage fit to go to the ball with; are
you not pleased with it?”
“Oh! yes,” cried she; “but must I go thither as I
am, in these nasty rags?”
Her godmother only just touched her with her wand,
and, at the same instant, her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and
silver, all beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass
slippers, the prettiest in the whole world. Being thus decked out, she got up
into her coach; but her godmother, above all things, commanded her not to stay
till after midnight, 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 become just as they were
before.
She promised her godmother she would not fail of
leaving the ball before midnight; and then away she drives, 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 out of the coach, and led her into the ball, among all the company.
There was immediately a profound silence, they left off dancing, and the
violins ceased to play, so attentive was everyone to contemplate the singular
beauties of the unknown new-comer. Nothing was then heard but a confused noise
of:
“Ha! how handsome she is! Ha! how handsome she
is!”
The King himself, old as he was, could not help
watching her, and telling the Queen softly that it was a long time since he had
seen so beautiful and lovely a creature.
All the ladies were busied in considering her
clothes and headdress, that they might have some made next day after the same
pattern, provided they could meet with such fine material and as able hands to
make them.
The King’s son conducted her to the most honorable
seat, and afterward took her out to dance with him; she danced so very
gracefully that they all more and more admired her. A fine collation was served
up, whereof the young prince ate not a morsel, so intently was he busied in
gazing on her.
She went and sat down by her sisters, showing them
a thousand civilities, giving them part of the oranges and citrons which the
Prince had presented her with, which very much surprised them, for they did not
know her. While Cinderella was thus amusing her sisters, she heard the clock
strike eleven and three-quarters, whereupon she immediately made a courtesy to
the company and hasted away as fast as she could.
When she got home she ran to seek out her
godmother, and, after having thanked her, she said she could not but heartily
wish she might go next day to the ball, because the King’s son had desired her.
As she was eagerly telling her godmother whatever
had passed at the ball, her two sisters knocked at the door, which Cinderella
ran and opened.
“How long you have stayed!” cried she, gaping,
rubbing her eyes and stretching herself as if she had been just waked out of
her sleep; she had not, however, any manner of inclination to sleep since they
went from home.
“If thou hadst been at the ball,” said one of her
sisters, “thou wouldst 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 seemed very indifferent in the matter;
indeed, she asked them the name of that princess; but they told her they did
not know it, and that the King’s son was very uneasy on her account and would
give all the world to know who she was. At this Cinderella, smiling, replied:
“She must, then, be very beautiful indeed; how
happy you have been! Could not I see her? Ah! dear Miss Charlotte, do lend me
your yellow suit of clothes which you wear every day.”
“Ay, to be sure!” cried Miss Charlotte; “lend my
clothes to such a dirty Cinderwench as thou art! I should be a fool.”
Cinderella, indeed, expected well such answer, and
was very glad of the refusal; for she would have been sadly put to it if her
sister had lent her what she asked for jestingly.
The next day the two sisters were at the ball, and
so was Cinderella, but dressed more magnificently than before. The King’s son
was always by her, and never ceased his compliments and kind speeches to her;
to whom all this was so far from being tiresome that she quite forgot what her
godmother had recommended to her; so that she, at last, counted the clock
striking twelve when she took it to be no more than eleven; she then rose up
and fled, as nimble as a deer. The Prince followed, but could not overtake her.
She left behind one of her glass slippers, which the Prince took up most
carefully. She got home but quite out of breath, and in her nasty old clothes,
having nothing left her of all her finery but one of the little slippers,
fellow to that she dropped. The guards at the palace gate were asked:
If they had not seen a princess go out.
Who said: They had seen nobody go out but a young
girl, very meanly dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country wench
than a gentlewoman.
When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella
asked them: If they had been well diverted, and if the fine lady had been
there.
They told her: Yes, but that she hurried away
immediately when 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; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time at the
ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the beautiful
person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very 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 the slipper would just fit. They whom he employed began to
try it upon the princesses, then the duchesses and all the Court, but in vain;
it was brought to the two sisters, who did all they possibly could to thrust
their foot into the slipper, but they could not effect it. Cinderella, who saw
all 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
Cinderella, and, finding her very handsome, said:
It was but just that she should try, and that he
had orders to let everyone make trial.
He obliged Cinderella to sit down, and, putting
the slipper to her foot, he found it went on very easily, and fitted her as if
it had been made of wax. The astonishment her two sisters were in was
excessively great, but still abundantly 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 with her wand Cinderella’s clothes, made them
richer and more magnificent than any of those she had before.
And now her two sisters found her to be that fine,
beautiful lady whom they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her
feet to beg pardon for all the ill- treatment they had made her undergo.
Cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried:
That she forgave them with all her heart, and
desired them always to love her.
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 no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters
lodgings in the palace.
Demikian akhir dari cerita cinderella bahasa
inggris yang penuh dengan harapan kebahagian setiap manusia.
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