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(Translated by William Makepeace Thackeray.)
PERLIPAT's mother was the wife of a king--that is, a queen; and, in consequence, Perlipat, the moment she was born, was a princess by birth. The king was beside himself for joy as he saw his beautiful little daughter lying in her cradle; he danced about, and hopped on one leg, and sang out, "Was anything ever so beautiful as my Perlipatkin?" And all the ministers, presidents, generals, and staff-officers, hopped likewise on one leg, and cried out, "No, never!" However, the real fact is, that it is quite impossible, as long as the world lasts, that a princess should be born more beautiful than Perlipat. Her little face looked like a web of the most beautiful lilies and roses, her eyes were the brightest blue, and her hair was like curling threads of shining gold. Besides all this, Perlipat came into the world with two rows of pearly teeth, with which, two hours after her birth, she bit the lord chancellor's thumb so hard that he cried out, "O gemini!" Some say he cried out, "O dear!" but on this subject people's opinions are very much divided, even to the present day. In short, Perlipat bit the lord chancellor on the thumb, and all the kingdom immediately declared that she was the wittiest, sharpest, cleverest little girl, as well as the most beautiful. Now, everybody was delighted except the queen--she was anxious and dispirited, and nobody knew the reason; everybody was puzzled to know why she caused Perlipat's cradle to be so strictly guarded. Besides having guards at the door, two nurses always sat close to the cradle, and six other nurses sat every night round the room; and what was most extraordinary, each of these six nurses was obliged to sit with a great tom-cat in her lap, and keep stroking him all night, to amuse him, and keep him awake.
Now, my dear little children, it is quite impossible that you should know why Perlipat's mother took all these precautions; but I know, and will tell you all about it. It happened that, once on a time, a great many excellent kings and agreeable princesses were assembled at the court of Perlipat's father, and their arrival was celebrated by all sorts of tournaments, and plays, and balls. The king, in order to show how rich he was, determined to treat them with a feast which should astonish them. So he privately sent for the upper court cook-master, and ordered him to order the upper court astronomer to fix the time for a general pig-killing, and a universal sausage-making; then he jumped into his carriage, and called, himself, on all the kings and queens; but he only asked them to eat a bit of mutton with him, in order to enjoy their surprise at the delightful entertainment he had prepared for them. Then he went to the queen, and said, "You already know, my love, the partiality I entertain for sausages." Now the queen knew perfectly well what he was going to say, which was that she herself (as indeed she had often done before) should undertake to superintend the sausage-making. So the first lord of the treasury was obliged to hand out the golden sausage-pot and the silver saucepans; and a large fire was made of sandal-wood; the queen put on her damask kitchen-pinafore; and soon after the sausage soup was steaming and boiling in the kettle. The delicious smell penetrated as far as the privy-council-chamber; the king was seized with such extreme delight, that he could not stand it any longer. "With your leave," said he, "my lords and gentlemen"--jumped over the table, ran down into the kitchen, gave the queen a kiss, stirred about the sausage-brew with his golden sceptre, and then returned back to the privy-council-chamber in an easy and contented state of mind. The queen had now come to the point in the sausage-making, when the bacon was cut into little bits and roasted on little silver spits. The ladies of honour retired from the kitchen, for the queen, with a proper confidence in herself and consideration for her royal husband, performed alone this important operation. But just when the bacon began to roast, a little whispering voice was heard, "Sister, I am a queen as well as you, give me some roasted bacon, too"; then the queen knew it was Mrs. Mouserinks who was talking. Mrs. Mouserinks had lived a long time in the palace; she declared she was a relation of the king's, and a queen into the bargain, and she had a great number of attendants and courtiers underground. The queen was a mild, good-natured woman; and although she neither acknowledged Mrs. Mouserinks for a queen nor for a relation yet she could not on such a holiday as this, grudge her a little bit of bacon. So she said, "Come out, Mrs. Mouserinks, and eat as much as you please of my bacon." Out hops Mrs. Mouserinks, as merry as you please, jumped on the table, stretched out her pretty little paw, and ate one piece of bacon after the other until, at last, the queen got quite tired of her. But then out came all Mrs. Mouserinks' relations, and her seven sons ugly little fellows, and nibbled all over the bacon; while the poor queen was so frightened that she could not drive them away. Luckily, however, when there still remained a little bacon, the first lady of the bedchamber happened to come in; she drove all the mice away, and sent for the court mathematician, who divided the little that was left as equally as possible among all the sausages. Now sounded the drums and the trumpets; the princes and potentates who were invited rode forth in glittering garments, some under white canopies, others in magnificent coaches, to the sausage feast. The king received them with hearty friendship and elegant politeness; then, as master of the land, with sceptre and crown, sat down at the head of the table. The first course was polonies. Even then it was remarked that the king grew paler and paler; his eyes were raised to heaven, his breast heaved with sighs; in fact, he seemed to be agitated by some deep and inward sorrow. But when the blood-puddings came on, he fell back in his chair, groaning and moaning, sighing and crying. Everybody rose from table; the physicians in ordinary in vain endeavoured to feel the king's pulse: a deep and unknown grief had taken possession of him.
At last--at last, after several attempts had been made, several violent remedies applied, such as burning feathers under his nose, and the like, the king came to himself, and almost inaudibly gasped out the words, "Too little bacon!" Then the queen threw herself in despair at his feet: "Oh, my poor unlucky royal husband," said she, "what sorrows have you had to endure! but see here the guilty one at your feet; strike--strike--and spare not. Mrs. Mouserinks and her seven sons, and all her relations, ate up the bacon, and--and--" Here the queen tumbled backwards in a fainting-fit! But the king arose in a violent passion, and said he, "My lady of the bedchamber, explain this matter." The lady of the bedchamber explained as far as she knew, and the king swore vengeance on Mrs. Mouserinks and her family for having eaten up the bacon which was destined for the sausages.
The lord chancellor was called upon to institute a suit against Mrs. Mouserinks and to confiscate the whole of her property; but as the king thought that this would not prevent her from eating his bacon, the whole affair was entrusted to the court machine and watch maker. This man promised, by a peculiar and extraordinary operation, to expel Mrs. Mouserinks and her family from the palace forever. He invented curious machines, in which pieces of roasted bacon were hung on little threads, and which he set round about the dwelling of Mrs. Mouserinks. But Mrs. Mouserinks was far too cunning not to see the artifices of the court watch and machine maker; still all her warnings, all her cautions, were vain; her seven sons, and a great number of her relations, deluded by the sweet smell of the bacon, entered the watchmaker's machines, where, as soon as they bit at the bacon, a trap fell on them, and then they were quickly sent to judgment and execution in the kitchen. Mrs. Mouserinks, with the small remnants of her court, left the place of sorrow, doubt, and astonishment. The court was rejoiced; but the queen alone was sorrowful; for she knew well Mrs. Mouserinks' disposition, and that she would never allow the murder of her sons and relations to go unrevenged. It happened as she expected. One day, whilst she was cooking some tripe for the king, a dish to which he was particularly partial, appeared Mrs. Mouserinks and said, "You have murdered my sons, you have killed my cousins and relations, take good care that the mouse, queen, does not bite your little princess in two. Take care." After saying this, she disappeared; but the queen was so frightened, that she dropped the tripe into the fire, and thus for the second time Mrs. Mouserinks spoiled the dish the king liked best; and of course he was very angry. And now you know why the queen took such extraordinary care of princess Perlipatkin: was not she right to fear that Mrs. Mouserinks would fulfil her threat, come back, and bite the princess to death?
The machines of the machine-maker were not of the slightest use against the clever and cunning Mrs. Mouserinks; but the court astronomer, who was also upper-astrologer and star-gazer, discovered that only the Tom-cat family could keep Mrs. Mouserinks from the princess's cradle; for this reason each of the nurses carried one of the sons of this family on her lap, and, by continually stroking him down the back, managed to render the otherwise unpleasant court service less intolerable.
It was once at midnight, as one of the two chief nurses, who sat close by the cradle, awoke as it were from a deep sleep; everything around lay in profound repose; no purring, but the stillness of death; but how astonished was the chief nurse when she saw close before her a great ugly mouse, who stood upon his hind legs, and already had laid his hideous head on the face of the princess. With a shriek of anguish, she sprung up; everybody awoke; but Mrs. Mouserinks (for she it was who had been in Perlipat's cradle), jumped down, and ran into the corner of the room. The tom-cats went after, but too late; she had escaped through a hole in the floor. Perlipat awoke with the noise, and wept aloud. "Thank heaven," said the nurses, "she lives!" But what was their horror, when, on looking at the before beautiful child, they saw the change which had taken place in her! Instead of the lovely white and red cheeks which she had had before, and the shining golden hair, there was now a great deformed head on a little withered body; the blue eyes had changed into a pair of great green gogglers, and the mouth had stretched from ear to ear. The queen was almost mad with grief and vexation, and the walls of the king's study were obliged to be wadded, because he was always dashing his head against them for sorrow, and crying out, "O luckless monarch!" He might have seen how that it would have been better to have eaten the sausage without bacon, and to have allowed Mrs. Mouserinks quietly to stay underground. Upon this subject, however, Perlipat's royal father did not think at all, but he laid all the blame on the court watchmaker, Christian Elias Drosselmeier, of Nuremberg. He therefore issued this wise order, that Drosselmeier, should before four weeks restore the princess to her former state, or at least find out a certain and infallible means for so doing; or, in failure thereof, should suffer a shameful death under the axe of the executioner.
Drosselmeier was terribly frightened; but, trusting to his learning and good fortune, he immediately performed the first operation which seemed necessary to him. He carefully took Princess Perlipat to pieces, took off her hands and feet, and thus was able to see the inward structure; but there, alas! he found that the princess would grow uglier as she grew older, and he had no remedy for it. He put the princess neatly together again, and sunk down in despair at her cradle; which he never was permitted to leave.
The fourth week had begun,--yes, it was Wednesday! when the king, with eyes flashing with indignation, entered the room of the princess; and, waving his sceptre, he cried out, "Christian Elias Drosselmeier, cure the princess, or die!" Drosselmeier began to cry bitterly, but little Princess Perlipat went on cracking her nuts. Then first was the court watchmaker struck with the princess's extraordinary partiality for nuts, and the circumstance of her having come into the world with teeth. In fact, she had cried incessantly since her metamorphosis, until some one by chance gave her a nut; she immediately cracked it, ate the kernel, and was quiet.
From that time the nurses found nothing so effectual as to bring her nuts. "O holy instinct of natural, eternal and unchangeable sympathy of all beings; thou showest me the door to the secret. I will knock, and thou wilt open it." He then asked permission to speak to the court astronomer, and was led out to him under a strong guard. These two gentlemen embraced with many tears, for they were great friends; they then entered into a secret cabinet, where they looked over a great number of books which treated of instincts, sympathies, and antipathies, and other deep subjects. The night came; the court astronomer looked to the stars, and made the horoscope of the princess, with the assistance of Drosselmeier, who was also very clever in this science. It was a troublesome business, for the lines were always wandering this way and that; at last, however, what was their joy to find that the princess Perlipat, in order to be freed from the enchantment which made her so ugly, and to become beautiful again, had only to eat the sweet kernel of the nut Krakatuk.
Now the nut Krakatuk had such a hard shell
that an eight-and- It was a lucky thing for the anxious and
unfortunate Drosselmeier that the king had found his dinner
very good that day, and so was in a disposition to listen to
any reasonable suggestions, which the magnanimous queen, who
deplored Drosselmeier's fate, did not fail to bring forward.
Drosselmeier took courage to plead that, as he had found out
the remedy and the means whereby the princess might be
cured, he was entitled to his life. The king said this was
all stupid nonsense; but, after he had drunk a glass of
cherry-brandy, concluded that both the watchmaker and the
astronomer should immediately set off on their journey, and
never return, except with the nut Krakatuk in their pocket.
The man who was to crack the same was, at the queen's
suggestion, to be advertised for in all the newspapers, in
the country and out of it.
Drosselmeier and the court astronomer had
been fifteen years on their journey without finding any
traces of the nut Krakatuk. The countries in which they
were, and the wonderful sights they saw, would take me a
month at least to tell of. This, however, I shall not do:
all I shall say is, that at last the miserable Drosselmeier
felt an irresistible longing to see his native town
Nuremberg. This longing came upon him most particularly as
he and his friend were sitting together smoking a pipe in
the middle of a wood; in Asia. "O Nuremberg, delightful
city! Who's not seen thee, him I pity! All that beautiful
is, in London, Petersburg, or Paris are nothing when
compared to thee! Nuremberg, my own city!" As
Drosselmeier deplored his fate in this melancholy manner,
the astronomer, struck with pity for his friend, began to
howl so loudly that it was heard all over Asia. But at last
he stopped crying, wiped his eyes, and said, "Why do we
sit here and howl, my worthy colleague? Why don't we set off
at once for Nuremberg? Is it not perfectly the same where
and how we seek this horrid nut Krakatuk?" "You
are right," said Drosselmeier; so they both got up
emptied their pipes, and walked from the wood in the middle
of Asia to Nuremberg at a stretch.
As soon as they had arrived in Nuremberg,
Drosselmeier hastened to the house of a cousin of his,
called Christopher Zachariah Drosselmeier, who was a carver
and gilder, and whom he had not seen for a long, long time.
To him the watchmaker related the whole history of Princess
Perlipat of Mrs. Mouserinks, and the nut Krakatuk; so that
Christopher Zachariah clapped his hands for wonder, and said
"O, cousin, cousin, what extraordinary stories are
these!" Drosselmeier then told his cousin of the
adventures which befell him on his travels: how he had
visited the grand duke of Almonds, and the king of Walnuts;
how he had inquired of the Horticultural Society of
Acornshausen; in short, how he had sought everywhere, but in
vain, to find some traces of the nut Krakatuk. During this
recital Christopher Zachariah had been snapping his fingers,
and opening his eyes, calling out, hum! and ha! and oh! and
ah! At last, he threw his cap and wig up to the ceiling,
embraced his cousin, and said, "Cousin, I'm very much
mistaken, very much mistaken, I say, if I don't myself
possess this nut Krakatuk!" He then fetched a little
box, out of which he took a gilded nut, of a middling size.
"Now," said he, as he showed his cousin the nut,
"the history of this nut is this: Several years ago, a
man came here on Christmas Eve with a sackful of nuts, which
he offered to sell cheap. He put the sack just before my
booth, to guard it against the nut-sellers of the town, who
could not bear that a foreigner should sell nuts in their
native city. At that moment a heavy wagon passed over his
sack, and cracked every nut in it except one, which the man,
laughing in an extraordinary way, offered to sell me for a
silver half-crown of the year 1720. This seemed odd to me. I
found just such a half-crown in my pocket, bought the nut,
and gilded it, not knowing myself why I bought it so dear
and valued it so much." Every doubt with respect to its
being the nut which they sought was removed by the
astronomer, who, after removing the gilding, found written
on the shell, in Chinese characters, the word Krakatuk.
The joy of the travellers was excessive, and
Drosselmeier's cousin, the gilder, the happiest man under
the sun, on being promised a handsome pension and the
gilding of all the gold in the treasury into the bargain.
The two gentlemen, the watchmaker and the astronomer, had
put on their night caps and were going to bed, when the
latter (that is, the astronomer) said, "My worthy
friend and colleague, you know one piece of luck follows
another, and I believe that we have not only found the nut
Krakatuk, but also the young man who shall crack it, and
present the kernel of beauty to the princess; this person I
conceive to be the son of your cousin!"
"Yes," continued he, "I am determined not to
sleep until I have cast the youth's horoscope." With
these words he took his night cap from his head, and
instantly commenced his observations. In fact, the gilder's
son was a handsome well-grown lad, who had never shaved, and
never worn boots.
At Christmas he used to wear an elegant red
coat embroidered with gold; a sword, and a hat under his
arm, besides having his hair beautifully powdered and
curled. In this way he used to stand before his father's
booth, and with a gallantry which was born with him, crack
the nuts for the young ladies, who, from this peculiar
quality of his had already called him
"Nutcrackerkin."
Next morning the astronomer fell delighted on
the neck of the watchmaker, and cried, "We have
him,--he is found! but there are two things, of which, my
dear friend and colleague, we must take particular care:
first, we must strengthen the under-jaw of your excellent
nephew with a tough piece of wood, and then, on returning
home, we must carefully conceal having brought with us the
young man who IS to bite the nut; for I read by the
horoscope that the king, after several people have broken
their teeth in vainly attempting to crack the nut, will
promise to him who shall crack it, and restore the princess
to her former beauty,--will promise, I say, to this man the
princess for a wife, and his kingdom after his death."
Of course the gilder was delighted with the idea of his son
marrying the Princess Perlipat and becoming a prince and
king; and delivered him over to the two deputies. The wooden
jaw which Drosselmeier had fixed in his young and hopeful
nephew answered to admiration, so that in cracking the
hardest peach-stones he came off with distinguished success.
As soon as Drosselmeier and his comrade had
made known the discovery of the nut, the requisite
advertisements were immediately issued; and as the
travellers had returned with the means of restoring the
princess's beauty, many hundred young men, among whom
several princes might be found, trusting to the soundness of
their teeth attempted to remove the enchantment of the
princess. The ambassadors were not a little frightened when
they saw the princess again. The little body with the wee
hands and feet could scarcely support the immense deformed
head! The hideousness of the countenance was increased by a
woolly beard, which spread over mouth and chin. Everything
happened as the astronomer had foretold. One dandy in shoes
after another broke teeth and jaws upon the nut Krakatuk,
without in the slightest degree helping the princess, and as
they were carried away half-dead to the dentist (who was
always ready), groaned out--that was a hard nut!
When now the king in the anguish of his heart
had promised his daughter and kingdom to the man who would
break the enchantment, the gentle Drosselmeier made himself
known, and begged to be allowed the trial. No one had
pleased the princess so much as this young man; she laid her
little hand on her heart, and sighed inwardly, Ah! if he
were the person destined to crack Krakatuk, and be my
husband! Young Drosselmeier, approaching the queen, the
king, and the princess Perlipat in the most elegant manner,
received from the hands of the chief master of ceremonies
the nut Krakatuk, which he immediately put into his
mouth,--and crack! crack!--broke the shell in a dozen
pieces; he neatly removed the bits of shell which yet
remained on the kernel, and then with a most profound bow
presented it to the princess, shut his eyes, and proceeded
to step backwards. The princess swallowed the kernel; and
oh! wonderful wonder! her ugliness disappeared, and,
instead, was seen a form of angel beauty, with a countenance
like lilies and roses mixed, the eyes of glancing azure, and
the full locks curling like threads of gold. Drums and
trumpets mingled with the rejoicings of the people. The king
and the whole court danced upon one leg, as before, at
Perlipat's birth, and the queen was obliged to be sprinkled
all over with eau de Cologne, since she had fainted with
excessive joy. This great tumult did not a little disturb
young Drosselmeier, who had yet his seven steps to
accomplish: however, he recollected himself, and had just
put his right foot back for the seventh step, when Mrs.
Mouserinks, squeaking in a most hideous manner, raised
herself from the floor, so that Drosselmeier, as he put his
foot backwards, trod on her, and stumbled,--nay, almost fell
down. What a misfortune! The young man became at that moment
just as ugly as ever was the princess Perlipat. The body was
squeezed together, and could scarcely support the thick
deformed head, with the great goggling eyes and wide gaping
mouth. Instead of the wooden roof for his mouth, a little
wooden mantel hung out from behind his back. The watchmaker
and astronomer were beside themselves with horror and
astonishment, but they saw how Mrs. Mouserinks was creeping
along the floor all bloody. Her wickedness, however, was not
unavenged, for Drosselmeier had struck her so hard on the
neck with the sharp heel of his shoe, that she was at the
point of death; but just as she was in her last agonies, she
squeaked out in the most piteous manner, "O Krakatuk,
from thee I die! but Nutcracker dies as well as I; and thou,
my son, with the seven crowns, revenge thy mother's horrid
wounds! Kill the man who did attack her, that naughty, ugly
wicked Nutcracker!" Quick with this cry died Mrs.
Mouserinks, and was carried off by the royal housemaid.
Nobody had taken the least notice of young Drosselmeier. The
princess, however, reminded the king of his promise, and he
immediately ordered the young hero to be brought before him.
But when that unhappy young man appeared in his deformed
state, the princess put her hands before her and cried out,
"Away with that nasty Nutcracker!" So the court
marshal took him by his little shoulder and pushed him out
of the door.
The king was in a terrible fury that anybody
should ever think of making a nutcracker his son-in-law: he
laid all the blame on the watchmaker and astronomer, and
banished them both from his court and kingdom. This had not
been seen by the astronomer in casting his horoscope;
however, he found, on reading the stars a second time, that
young Drosselmeier would so well behave himself in his new
station that, in spite of his ugliness, he would become
prince and king. In the meantime, but with the fervent hope
of soon seeing the end of these things, Drosselmeier remains
as ugly as ever; so much so, that the nutcrackers in
Nuremberg have always been made after the exact model of his
countenance and figure.
(End.)