Old Time Stories, illustrated by William Heath Robinson
Old Time Stories - A Collection of Classic Fairy Tales
This book brings many memories to older generation and still offers a great opportunity to present a few pieces of not so old history to younger generations. It is a collection of eleven fairy tales. Some of them are classic works, representatives of the genre, well-know all over the world, others are forgotten, but still worth you attention. Aall this years after their first publishing they still poses a very specific charm. You ar einvited to be a part of it.
First eight fairy tales are written by Charles Perrault. You'll probably know most of them. You probably need to live on other planet if you don't want to hear about The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella or Puss in Boots. Perrault wrote only eleven fairy tales in his lifetime yet majority still circulates around. They are actually amog the most popular stories in the world.
While the cover and inside title don't give credit to other two authors, it's only fair to expose them too. The first one is Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, who wrote the most known (not the first) version of The Beauty and The Beast, another all time classic.
The second author (third altogether) is Catherine d'Aulnoy, who is represented with two less known fairy tales, but is officially credited as a mother of the genre. She coined the fraise conte de fee, what means fairy tale.
We'll explore all eleven fairy tales with a help of superb illustrations signed by William Heath Robinson (1872-1944). We have already seen a few examples - pen and ink vignettes (black and white pictures are in majority) and one of a few color pictures (this one, a so-called frontispiece, represnets a scene from the story Little Tom Thumb.
After the list of fairy tales and the list of illustrations the book begins with a short reface. Then fairy tales follow one by one. We'll present them in exactly the same order.
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Perrault's version of this fairy tale begins similarly to mre known variation popularized by Grimm brothers. The king and the queen can't have children. When they succeed, they throw a huge party. Unfortunately, they forgot to invite one of the fairies who curses the baby. She will die of the spindle. This curse is later softend to the long sleep, but can't be annulled.
The king tries to forbid the spindles in the whole kingdom.
When an inevitable happens, a dwarf inform the good fairy who comes to the castle with a sleeping beauty and put everybody else to sleep too. Thick forest protects everybody inside from the inside world.
One hundred years later a prince comes and, hearing about the rumors about the sleeping beauty decides to go through the forest. The trees retract from him and he enters without a problem.
The guards were sleeping.
Everybody was sleeping.
The prince finally found the sleeping princess. When he approached to her, she wokes up. Everybody else wokes up too.
But this is not he end of the story as Perrault wrote it.
The happy couple marries and have two kids, but the prince doesn't want to introduce his wife to his parents. His mother is an ogress who likes to eat people. But after a while she founds his secret and tries to eat his wife and kids. At the end the son confronts his mother. She dies and he lives with his new family hapilly ever after.
Puss in Boots
This story starts with a death of the miller who had a mill, a donkey and a cat. Each one of his three sons got one of these. Yu can imagine the youngest, who got a cat, wasn't very happy.
Yet this was not an ordinary cat.
He built a false identity for his master by flattery, cheating, lying and threatening.
When the identity of so-called Marquiz de Carabas ned a hard evidence in form of real estate, the cat even challenged an ogre and managed to steal his posesions.
It was obvious this cat was worth much more than a mill.
So the millers son became a king and the cat his most valuable member of the court.
This fun and still very popular story raises some questions. Isn't the moral of Puss in Boots at least a bit questionable? In-debth article about this fairy tale deals exactly with this kind of questions:
Little Tom Thumb
This fairy tale is less well-known outside of France. It's actually a French version of Hansel and Gretel with elements of Jack and the Beanstalk. Little Tom Thumb is the youngest of seven boys, all children of poor woodcutter who decides to leave them in the woods because they gonna die of hunger anyway.
Thanks to Tom and white pebbles they safely return home but the second trip didn't pan out so well. Tom got bread crumbs instead of pebbles and boys couldn't find their way home anymore.
After long wondering through the forest they came to the house where a man-eating ogre lived. He wasn't at home, his daughter were already sleeping (with little crowns on their heads), but his wife was there and opened the door just to warn them not to come in.
They persuded her to take them in because they would die in the forest just before the ogre returned. He found them and decided to fatten them a bit before eating them.
Little tom Thumb noticed they were all put into the same bed and this bed was in the same room as the bed of seven ogre's daughters. So he waited to the dark and change the caps of the boys with the crowns of the girls what proved a life-saving trick for him and his brothers.
The ogre, who was pretty tipsy, came to the bedroom in the night, and without proper orientation decided to slaughter the kids without crowns - his own daughters.
Tom woke up the boys and they ran out of the house while the ogre and his wife slept. In the morning ogre noticed his mistake and started a pursuit with seven-league boots.
When he almost caught the boys, they hid under the rock and the ogre sat on the same rock to catch some breath. He fell asleep, so boys got a chance to escape to their home, but Tom had another idea.
He stole ogre's boots, returned to his house, persuaded his wife to give him all the tresures from the house (he told her the ogre was kidnapped by robbers) and made himself and his family very rich.
Tom later used seven-league boots many times. They earned him good money and a lot of favor among nobility.
The Fairies
This fairy tale is in English speaking world more known under Diamonds and toads title. It tells a story about two girls, sisters with different characters.
The nice sister is awarded for her kindness, the rude one is punished. Gues which one got a prince for husband!
Ricky of the Tuft
In my opinion this story is the most boring and predictable of all in this collection.
There was a queen who got a son who was extremely ugly, but very smart. He also had a gift to make other people smarter if he wanted. And there was another queen who had two daughter. The older was the prettiest and dummest girl in the kingdom. Her younger sister, on the other hand, was very ugly but clever and sensitive.
Both sisters attracted men. When the beauty of the first one can't prevail her stupidity anymore, everybody turned to her sister, who was a brilliant speaker.
After a while, Ricky fell in love in the picture of the beautiful sister and when he met her, he promised her to make her smarter if she promises to marry him. There was a catch. When she really became smarter, he forgot about her decision from the time of stupidity. She wanted to marry a handsome princess instead of Ricky.
Then Ricky told her he would become handsome too, if she only use her special power to make somebody beautiful if she loves him, she did exactly that. So two beautiful and smart people marry each other. The only unhappy person in this story was the ugly sister.
Cinderella
By far the most popular fairy tale in the world is best known in Perrault's version - with a fairy godmother, carriage made of pumpkin and glass slippers.
Cinderella's mother dies, her father remarries, so she got a step-mother and two step-sisters. Very soon Cinderella felt to the level of the lowest servant.
She was forced to sleep in the kitchen. After a while a prince decided to find a wife. so he trwos a great party and invites all the girls. Cinderella's sisters are going too. But Cinderella is not allowed. She doesn't have a proper dress anyway.
Then her fairy godmother appears and does all the best tricks.
Cinderella did everything to hide her identity.
Somehow she lost a slipper. The prince decided to find a lady who's foot will fit this slipper. She will be his wife.
He finds the next queen in Cinderella. Perrault's version is different from Grimm's in many ways. If we focus only on the ending, we find out cinderella is very forgiving. She even arranges to find two noble men for her step-sisters.
Little Red Riding Hood
The grandmother is sick and Red Riding Hood neds to bring her some food and wine.
She was told not to talk to strangers.
When she met the wolf, she forgot about the warnings.
While she was picking flowers, the wolf ran to her granny's house and ate her. Then he got in her bed, waiting for some fresh flesh.
After the most famous dialogue in fairy tale literature the wolf eats the girl.
There is no hunter or other rescuer in Perrault's Red Riding Hood!
Blue Beard
A very rich man with bad reputation marries a young beautiful girl.
He is very mysterious.
One day he has to leave the castle. He give his wife the keys.
Among these keys there is one she must not use.
Believing he will never find out, she takes the key and opens the forbidden room.
Blue beard returns home, discovers he lack of loyalty and decides to kill her. But her brothers came to the castle soon enough to kill him and save her.
Beauty and the Beast
There was a rich merchant with three daughters. He lost almost all his money, so they had to move out of the city. They started living a very frugal life. The youngest daughter adapted.
Her elder sisters didn't.
Then a merchang got a good news. One of his ship was found and he went on another trip, promising to bring his daughters luxurious gifts. But the youngest didn't ant anything. Finally she said she would like to have a rose, because in the environment she is missing the roses most of all.
Merchant's trip was successful. On the way back a storm caught him. And he still didn't have a rose. He spent the night in a strange empty castle, where she found a rose in the garden.
Then a monster attacked him. The merchant could save his life only if one of his daughter si willing to live with the Beast in his castle.
The youngest daughter moved to the Beast's castle. At first she was afraid but slowly got affected by his kindness. They decided to marry. He changed his look into a handsome prince by nights and after a while she visited her old home to comfort her father. Her sisters were jealous for her happiness so they tried to destroy the bond between the Belle and the Beast.
They didn't. Their wickedness was punished. They became statues made of stone and the Beast was changed into a handsome prince for the rest of his life.
Friendly Frog
The king and the queen were very much in love with each other. Then he got involved in a war and had to leave her. She was already pregnant but none of them didn't know that. Soon she was lost in the forest and found herself in a strange land where everything was controled by a witch.
By coincidence she saved a life of a frog.
This frog was a fairy frog. It had magic powers. Limited, yet still with ability to help the queen.
And the princess, when she was born.
After a long and dangerous trip the magic frog found the king who still loved his lost queen and infomed him about the kid. The happy end follows.
Princess Rosette
The kind and the queen got two sons and a baby sister Rosette. At her birth the fairies told the queeen she might cause the death of her brothers, so Rosette's parents decided to lock her in a tower.
Years have passed, brothers still loved their baby sister and the king and the queen died. When the brothers became the ruler of the country immediately decided to free their sister.
Rosette was delighted with a view, especially when she saw a peacock. She declared she will marry a peacock king and nobody else.
Not knowing if such person even exists the brothers decided to find him and left Rosette in the castle. They really found the peacock king, showed him Rosette's portrait and he was immediately in love with her.
But they had to promise she is really as beautiful as her picture. Otherwise they shall die. They accepted the challenge and sent a letter to Rosette. She had to travel to the land of the peacock king.
Among her companions was a nurse who had her own plans. She arranged Rosette and her dog were thrown in the ocean while sleeping and dressed her own daughter in Rosetttte's gowns.
The imposter was still ugly and peacock king was very dissatisfied with his bride-to-be. 
Fortunately, before his men killed the Rosette's brothers, the sea brought her to the beach.
An old man helped her to get to the castle in time.
The peacock king was delighted when he found out how beautiful is rosette in reality.
They all lived happily ever after.
The book Old Time Stories with the pictures by William Hearth Robinson is finished. Have a great time.
Hansel and Gretel as an opera by Engelbert Humperdinck with libretto by Adelheid Wette
Hansel and Gretel is a widely popular fairy tale about two kids, their incompetent parents and a witch in the woods. It inspired numerous artistic works and Engelbert Humperdinck's opera is just one of them. The libretto of the opera was written by Adelheid Wette. The opera was popular enough to be published with libretto and musical notes in different languages on several occasions. This post deals with a book for kids where libretto is rewritten in prose and richly illustrated with pictures signed by Maria Louise Kirk.
Maria Louise Kirk (1860-1938) was a very prolific illustrator who is almost forgotten now. Yet she illustrated numerous classics like Pinocchio, Heidi, The Story of Hiawatha, At the Back of the North Wind, ... While she was never particularly favored by the critics, the audience always well accepted her works. It's only fair to present her pictures through blogs and other similar media, so we'll never forget such a talented artist.
The Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel roughly follows the basic plot of this classic fairy tale, but it's also adapted to the media, where music and movement play so important role. There are also several not so radical, yet still important changes in the story, which will be discussed a bit later. For now, let's summarize the Hansel and Gretel as Adelheid Wette presented it and accompany it with lovely pictures by M. L. Kirk:
Act I
Hansel and Gretel were home alone. Hansel had to make brooms and Gretel knit stockings. After a while, Hansel proposed to dance rather than work.
When their mother returned home she was very disappointed and angry. She accidentally overturns the container with milk. It looks they lost everything they had for dinner! so she sends the kids in the wood to berry some strawberries.
When the children left the house their father returns. He was very happy. He sold all the brooms and got good money for them. Then he asks where are the children and is horrified when his wife told him they left to the part of the forest where the witches had been seen.
Act II
Hansel and Gretel were still carefree. He is picking the berries, she is making a wreath of flowers. They are hungry and eat a few berries. One by one they ate them all. They remember they should return home with a full basket but it's getting dark.
They become frightened. Hansel tries to console his sister but soon he becomes afraid of the shadows as well.
When the night falls, they fall to sleep hugging each other. Angels pass by sleeping children and nothing bad happens.
Act III
Hansel and Gretel woke up in the morning. A fairy sprinkled them with dew. They are still sleepy. They are hungry too. There is a house nearby. It looks it's made of gingerbread.
Kids eat some ginger cake and the witch invites them to eat some more. When the mood of the kids improves, the witch comes out of the house. She grabs Hansel and with a help of the spell take both as prisoners. Then she prepares an oven and orders Gretel to look in. The kids push the witch in the oven.
Kids celebrate their freedom, the oven explodes and more kids appear around Hansel and Gretel. They were all changed into gingerbread figures. When all the kids dance happily the father and mother of Hansel and Gretel appear. Everybody is happy.
What are the main differences between 'classic' (written by Grimm brothers) and 'opera' (written by Adelheid Wette) Hansel and Gretel? If you want a detailed analysis of the story with summary, interpretations, symbolism and historical development, it's probably best to start here:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/hansel_and_gretel
But we'll try to expose only the crucial points:
- Characters are different. Parents love their kids and are very worried when they don't return from the wood. We are dealing with a mother, not step-mother in this case and she is alive at the end of the story. Hansel and Gretel are careless and pretty happy for the most of the time. There are additional characters (angels, children, transformed into a ginger cake, ...) too. The only constant is the witch.
- Family situation is different. While they are obviously confronted with poverty in opera, they are not really pushed to the edge when some family members start weighing their own survival at the expense of the others. Kids are not left in the woods but are sent to get some strawberries. They stay there for their own irresponsibility, not thanks to the conspiracy of their parents.
- The relationship between brother and sister is much more balanced. In Grimms' version Hansel takes all the responsibility at first and Gretel becomes the strong link after the encounter with the witch, but here both work more as a team, sometimes one and sometimes the other taking the lead.
- Religious references are different. Instead of the birds in Hansel and Gretel by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, we meet angels in the version written by Adelheid Wette and Engelbert Humperdinck. Angles serve as their protectors through the night but have less of an impact than the birds in the Grimms' story.
- The happy ending of the story is not connected with financial consequences. The family is obviously happy but we don't give any clue about treasures which were found in the classic fairy tale.
We could go on and on with the minor differences but the main ones are probably here. If you think there is anything more to add, please write a comment!
A frog he would a wooing go by Henry Louis Stephens
A frog he would a wooing go / Frog Went A-courting
This old folk song is telling a simple and playful story with a tragic end. There's a frog who wants to marry a mouse. Together with a rat, his friend, they visit Miss Mousey. Everything looks good until cat with her kittens arrive ...
Illustrators loved this song for centuries and there are numerous versions available on-line, with Randolph Caldecott's A Frog He Would-A-wooing Go probably being the most well-known of all. We'll look at another successful vintage artist this time: Henry Louis Stephenson.
Here is the story about the frog who tried to marry a mouse in pictures:
A frog decided to go courting. He wants to marry a mouse. His mother is not happy about this decision yet is determined.
He put on his best suit and his best hat.
His friend, a rat, went with him.
They knock at the Mousey's door.
She was at home, spinning.
She served them some beer - for good cheer.
They played a song - but not too long.
The frog complaint about the cold.
Mousey sat at the piano and sang him a song.
Then the cat and the kitten entered.
Then the cat and the kitten entered.
The cat got the rat.
The kitten got the mouse.
The frog jumped out of the window...
...just to be eaten by a white duck!
This was the end of the rat, the mouse and the frog.
This book was first published in New York in 1865 in unknown number of copies. If we speculate by comparison with other books of the same illustrator in the same era, the number could be only about one hundred copies.
Originals of this illustrations are at Harvard University.
Maybe just a few more words about the technique. As we can see, Mr. Stephens decided to use several tricks to create the feeling of space with simple line drawing. He was definitely one of the best artists of his time, yet very poorly treated for at least two reasons:
illustration was not considered a 'real' art and it was absolutely inferior to paintings in oils or aquarels;
despite the superb technique of illustration the technology of printing didn't allow to execute many details from originals, so the printed results were very bad copies of originals.
With this post we try to pay at least some tribute to H. L. Stephens (1824-1882), one of the best illustrators of his time, who should be treated similar to his temporaries J. J. Grandville or John Tenniel, both, just like him, masters of anthropomorhised animal characters.
