A Study of Fairy Tales Part 23

_The Three Bears_ ill.u.s.trates the third cla.s.s of repet.i.tive story, where there is repet.i.tion and variation. Here the iteration and parallelism have interest like the refrain of a song, and the technique of the story is like that of _The Merchant of Venice_. This is the ideal fairy story for the little child. It is unique in that it is the only instance in which a tale written by an author has become a folk-tale. It was written by Southey, and appeared in _The Doctor_, in London, in 1837. Southey may have used as his source, _Sc.r.a.pefoot_, which Joseph Jacobs has discovered for us, or he may have used _Snow White_, which contains the episode of the chairs. Southey has given to the world a nursery cla.s.sic which should be retained in its purity of form. The manner of the Folk, in subst.i.tuting for the little old woman of Southey's tale, Goldilocks, and the difference that it effects in the tale, proves the greater interest children naturally feel in the tale with a child. Similarly, in telling _The Story of Midas_ to an audience of eager little people, one naturally takes the fine old myth from Ovid as Bulfinch gives it, and puts into it the Marigold of Hawthorne's creation. And after knowing Marigold, no child likes the story without her. Silver hair is another subst.i.tute for the little Old Woman in _The Three Bears_. The very little child's reception to _Three Bears_ will depend largely on the previous experience with bears and on the att.i.tude of the person telling the story. A little girl who was listening to _The Three Bears_ for the first time, as she heard how the Three Bears stood looking out of their upstairs window after Goldilocks running across the wood, said, "Why didn't Goldilocks lie down beside the Baby Bear?" To her the Bear was a.s.sociated with the friendly Teddy Bear she took with her to bed at night, and the story had absolutely no thrill of fear because it had been told with an emphasis on the comical rather than on the fearful. Similar in structure to _The Three Bears_ is the Norse _Three Billy-Goats_, which belongs to the same cla.s.s of delightful repet.i.tive tales and in which the sequence of the tale is in the same three distinct steps.

II. The Animal Tale

The animal tale includes many of the most pleasing children's tales.

Indeed some authorities would go so far as to trace all fairy tales back to some ancestor of an animal tale; and in many cases this certainly can be done just as we trace _Three Bears_ back to _Sc.r.a.pefoot_. The animal tale is either an old beast tale, such as _Sc.r.a.pefoot_ or _Old Sultan_; or a fairy tale which is an elaborated development of a fable, such as _The Country Mouse and the City Mouse_ or the tales of _Reynard the Fox_ or Grimm's _The King of the Birds_, and _The Sparrow and His Four Children_; or it is a purely imaginary creation, such as Kipling's _The Elephant's Child_ or Andersen's _The Bronze Pig_.

The beast tale is a very old form which was a story of some successful primitive hunt or of some primitive man's experience with animals in which he looked up to the beast as a brother superior to himself in strength, courage, endurance, swiftness, keen scent, vision, or cunning. Later, in more civilized society, when men became interested in problems of conduct, animals were introduced to point the moral of the tale, and we have the fable. The fable resulted when a truth was stated in concrete story form. When this truth was in gnomic form, stated in general terms, it became compressed into the proverb. The fable was brief, intense, and concerned with the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics of the animal characters, who were endowed with human traits. Such were the _Fables of aesop_. Then followed the beast epic, such as _Reynard the Fox_, in which the personality of the animals became less prominent and the animal characters became types of humanity. Later, the beast tale took the form of narratives of hunters, where the interest centered in the excitement of the hunt and in the victory of the hunter. With the thirst for universal knowledge in the days following Bacon there gradually grew a desire to learn also about animals. Then followed animal anecdotes, the result of observation and imagination, often regarding the mental processes of animals. With the growth of the scientific spirit the interest in natural history developed. The modern animal story since 1850 has a basis of natural science, but it also seeks to search the motive back of the action, it is a psychological romance. The early modern animal tales such as _Black Beauty_ show sympathy with animals, but their psychology is human. In Seton Thompson's _Krag_, which is a masterpiece, the interest centers about the personality and the mentality of the animal and his purely physical characteristics.

Perhaps it is true that these physical characteristics are somewhat imaginary and over-drawn and that overmuch freedom has been used in interpreting these physical signs. In Kipling's tales we have a later evolution of the animal tale. His animals possess personality in emotion and thought. In the forest-friends of Mowgli we have humanized animals possessing human power of thinking and of expressing. In real life animal motives seem simple, one dominant motive crowds out all others. But Kipling's animals show very complex motives, they reason and judge more than our knowledge of animal life justifies. In the _Just-So Stories_ Kipling has given us the animal _pourquois_ tale with a basis of scientific truth. Of these delightful fairy tales, _The Elephant's Child_ and _How the Camel Got His Hump_ may be used in the kindergarten. Perhaps the latest evolution of the animal tale is by Charles G.D. Roberts. The animal characters in his _Kindred of the Wild_ are given animal characteristics. They have become interesting as exhibiting these traits and not as typifying human motives; they show an animal psychology. The tales have a scientific basis, and the interest is centered in this and not in an exaggeration of it.

Having viewed the animal tale as a growth let us look now at a few individual tales:--

One of the most pleasing animal tales is _Henny_ _Penny_, or _Chicken Lichen_, as it is sometimes called, told by Jacobs in _English Fairy Tales_. Here the enterprising little hen, new to the ways of the world, ventures to take a walk. Because a grain of corn falls on her top-knot, she believes the sky is falling, her walk takes direction, and thereafter she proceeds to tell the king. She takes with her all she meets, who, like her, are credulous,--c.o.c.ky Locky, Ducky Daddies, Goosey Poosey, and Turky Lurky,--until they meet Foxy Woxy, who leads them into his cave, never to come out again. This is similar to the delightful Jataka tale of _The Foolish Timid Rabbit_, which before has been outlined for telling, which has been re-told by Ellen C. Babbit.

In this tale a Rabbit, asleep under a palm tree, heard a noise, and thought "the earth was all breaking up." So he ran until he met another Rabbit, and then a hundred other Rabbits, a Deer, a Fox, an Elephant, and at last a Lion. All the animals except the Lion accepted the Rabbit's news and followed. But the Lion made a stand and asked for facts. He ran to the hill in front of the animals and roared three times. He traced the tale back to the first Rabbit, and taking him on his back, ran with him to the foot of the hill where the palm tree grew. There, under the tree, lay a cocoanut. The Lion explained the sound the Rabbit had heard, then ran back and told the other animals, and they all stopped running. _Brother Rabbit Takes Some Exercise_, a tale from _Nights with Uncle Remus_ is very similar to _Henny_ _Penny_ and could be used at the same time. It is also similar to Grimm's _Wolf and Seven Kids_, the English _Story of Three Pigs_, the Irish _The End of the World_, and an Italian popular tale.

_The Sheep and the Pig_, adapted from the Scandinavian by Miss Bailey in _For the Children's Hour_, given also in Dasent's _Tales from the Field_, is a delightfully vivacious and humorous tale which reminds one of _Henny Penny_. A Sheep and Pig started out to find a home, to live together. They traveled until they met a Rabbit and then followed this dialogue:

_R_. "Where are you going?"

_S. and P_. "We are going to build us a house."

_R_. "May I live with you?"

_S. and P_. "What can you do to help?"

The Rabbit scratched his leg with his left hind foot for a minute and said, "I can gnaw pegs with my sharp teeth and I can put them in with my paws." "Good," said the Sheep and the Pig, "you may come with us!"

Then they met a gray Goose who could pull moss and stuff it in cracks, and a c.o.c.k who could crow early and waken all. So they all found a house and lived in it happily.

The Spanish _Media Pollito_, or _Little Half-Chick_, is another acc.u.mulative animal tale similar to _Henny Penny_, and one which is worthy of university study. The disobedient but energetic hero who went off to Madrid is very appealing and constantly amusing, and the tale possesses unusual beauty. The interest centers in the character.

The beauty lies in the setting of the adventures, as Medio Pollito came to a stream, to a large chestnut tree, to the wind, to the soldiers outside the city gates, to the King's Palace at Madrid, and to the King's cook, until in the end he reached the high point of immortalization as the weather-vane of a church steeple.

_The Story of Three Pigs_ could contend with _The Three Bears_ for the position of ideal story for little people. It suits them even better than _The Three Bears_, perhaps because they can identify themselves more easily with the hero, who is a most winning, clever individual, though a Pig. The children know nothing of the standards of the Greek drama, but they recognize a good thing; and when the actors in their story are great in interest and in liveliness, they respond with a corresponding appreciation. The dramatic element in _The Three Pigs_ is strong and all children love to dramatize it. The story is the Italian _Three Goslings_, the Negro _Tiny Pig_, the Indian _Lambikin_, and the German _The Wolf and Seven Kids_. This tale is given by Andrew Lang in his _Green Fairy Book_. The most satisfactory presentation of the story is given by Leslie Brooke in his _Golden Goose Book_. The German version occurred in an old poem, _Reinhart Fuchs_, in which the Kid sees the Wolf through a c.h.i.n.k. Originally the characters must have been Kids, for little pigs do not have hair on their "chinny chin chins."

One of the earliest modern animal tales is _The Good-Natured Bear_,[9]

by Richard Hengist Horne, the English critic. This tale was written in 1846, just when men were beginning to gain a greater knowledge of animal life. It is both psychological and imaginative. It was brought to the attention of the English public in a criticism, _On Some Ill.u.s.trated Christmas Books_,[10] by Thackeray, who considered it one of the "wittiest, pleasantest, and kindest of books, and an admirable story." It is now out of print, but it seems to be worthy of being preserved and reprinted. The story is the autobiography of a Bear, who first tells about his interesting experiences as a Baby Bear. He first gives to Gretchen and the children gathered about him an account of his experience when his Mother first taught him to walk alone.

III. The Humorous Tale

The humorous tale is one of the most pleasing to the little child. It pleases everybody, but it suits him especially because the essence of humor is a mixture of love and surprise, and both appeal to the child completely. Humor brings joy into the world, so does the little child, their very existence is a harmony. Humor sees contrasts, shows good sense, and feels compa.s.sion. It stimulates curiosity. Its laughter is impersonal and has a social and spiritual effect. It acts like fresh air, it clarifies the atmosphere of the mind and it enables one to see things in a sharply defined light. It reveals character; it breaks up a situation, reconstructs it, and so views life, interprets it. It plays with life, it frees the spirit, and it invigorates the soul.

Speaking of humor, Thackeray, in "A Grumble About Christmas Books,"

1847, considered that the motto for humor should be the same as the talisman worn by the Prioress in Chaucer:--

About hire arm a broche of gold ful shene, On which was first ywritten a crowned _A_, And after, _Amor vincit omnia_.

He continued: "The works of the real humorist always have this sacred press-mark, I think. Try Shakespeare, first of all, Cervantes, Addison, poor d.i.c.k Steele, and dear Harry Fielding, the tender and delightful Jean Paul, Sterne, and Scott,--and Love is the humorist's best characteristic and gives that charming ring to their laughter in which all the good-natured world joins in chorus."

The humorous element for children appears in the repet.i.tion of phrases such as we find in _Three Bears_, _Three Pigs_, and _Three Billy-Goats_; in the contrast in the change of voice so noticeable also in these three tales; in the contrast of ideas so conspicuous in Kipling's _Elephant's Child_; and in the element of surprise so evident when Johnny Cake is eaten by the Fox, or when Little Hen eats the bread, or when Little Pig outwits the Wolf. The humorous element for children also lies in the incongruous, the exaggerated, or in the grotesque, so well displayed in Lear's _Nonsense Rhymes_, and much of the charm of _Alice in Wonderland_. The humorous element must change accordingly for older children, who become surprised less easily, and whose tales therefore, in order to surprise, must have more clever ideas and more subtle fancy.

_The Musicians of Bremen_ is a good type of humorous tale. It shows all the elements of true humor. Its philosophy is healthy; it views life as a whole and escapes tragedy by seeing the comic situation in the midst of trouble. It is full of the social good-comrades.h.i.+p which is a condition of humor. It possesses a suspense that is unusual, and is a series of surprises with one grand surprise to the robbers at their feast as its climax. The Donkey is a n.o.ble hero who breathes a spirit of courage like that of the fine Homeric heroes. His achievement of a home is a mastery that pleases children. And the message of the tale, which after all, is its chief worth--that there ought to be room in the world for the aged and the worn out, and that "The guilty flee when no man pursueth"--appeals to their compa.s.sion and their good sense. The variety of noises furnished by the different characters is a pleasing repet.i.tion with variation that is a special element of humor; and the grand chorus of music leaves no doubt as to the climax. We must view life with these four who are up against the facts of life, and whose lot presents a variety of contrast. The Donkey, incapacitated because of old age, had the courage to set out on a quest. He met the Dog who could hunt no longer, stopping in the middle of the road, panting for breath; the Cat who had only stumps for teeth, sitting in the middle of the road, wearing an unhappy heart behind a face dismal as three rainy Sundays; and the Rooster who just overheard the cook say he was to be made into soup next Sunday, sitting on the top of the gate crowing his last as loud as he could crow. The Donkey, to these musicians he collected, spoke as a leader and as a true humorist.

In a simple tale like _The Bremen Town Musicians_ it is surprising how much of interest can develop: the adventure in the wood; the motif of some one going to a tree-top and seeing from there a light afar off, which appears in _Hop-o'-my-Thumb_ and in many other tales; the example of cooperation, where all had a unity of purpose; an example of a good complete short-story form which ill.u.s.trates introduction, setting, characters and dialogue--all these proclaim this one of the fine old stories. In its most dramatic form, and to Jacobs its most impressive one, it appears in the Celtic tales as _Jack and His Comrades_. It may have been derived from _Old Sultan_, a Grimm tale which is somewhat similar to _The Wolf and the Hungry Dog_, in Steinhowel, 1487. _How Jack Sought His Fortune_ is an English tale of cooperation which is similar but not nearly so pleasing. A Danish tale of cooperation, _Pleiades_, is found in Lansing's _Fairy Tales_. _How Six Traveled Through the World_ is a Grimm tale which, though suited to older children, contains the same general theme.

Very many of the tales suited to kindergarten children which have been mentioned in various chapters, contain a large element of humor. The nonsense drolls are a type distinct from the humorous tale proper, yet distinctly humorous. Such are the realistic _Lazy Jack_, _Henny Penny_, and _Billy Bobtail_. Then since repet.i.tion is an element of humor, many acc.u.mulative tales rank as humorous: such as _Lambikin_, _The Old Woman and Her Pig_, _Medio Pollito_, _The Straw Ox_, _Johnny Cake_, and _Three Billy-Goats_. Among the humorous tales proper are Andersen's _Snow Man_; _The Cat and the Mouse in Partners.h.i.+p_; _The Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings_; _The Elephant's Child_; and very many of the Uncle Remus Tales, such as _Why the Hawk Catches Chickens_, _Brother Rabbit and Brother Tiger_, and _Heyo, House_! all in _Uncle Remus and the Little Boy_. _The Story of Little Black Mingo_ in _Tales of Laughter_, is a very attractive humorous tale, but it is more suited to the child of the second grade.

_Drakesbill_ is a French humorous acc.u.mulative tale with a plot constructed similarly to that of the Cossack _Straw Ox_. Drakesbill, who was so tiny they called him Bill Drake, was a great worker and soon saved a hundred dollars in gold which he lent to the King. But as the King never offered to pay, one morning Drakesbill set out, singing as he went, "Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?" To all the objects he met and to their questions he replied, "I am going to the King to ask him to pay me what he owes me." When they begged, "Take me with you!" he was willing, but he said, "You must make yourself small, get into my mouth, and creep under my tongue!" He arrived at the palace with his companions concealed in his mouth: a Fox, a Ladder, Laughing River, and Wasp-Nest. On asking to see the King, he was not escorted with dignity but sent to the poultry-yard, to the turkeys and chickens who fought him. Then he surprised them by calling forth the Fox who killed the fowls. When he was thrown into a well, he called out the Ladder to help him. When about to be thrown into the fire, he called out the River who overwhelmed the rest and left him serenely swimming. When surrounded by the King's men and their swords he called out the Wasp-Nest who drove away all but Drakesbill, leaving him free to look for his money. But he found none as the King had spent all. So he seated himself upon the throne and became King. The element of humor here, as has been mentioned previously, is that Drakesbill, after every rebuff of fortune maintained his happy, fresh vivacity, and triumphantly repeated his one cry, "Quack, quack, quack, when shall I get my money back?" There is humor, too, in the repet.i.tion of dialogue, as on his way to the King he met the various characters and talked to them. Humor lies also in the real lively surprises which Drakesbill so effectively gave during his visit to the King. One can see how this tale might have been a satire reflecting upon a spendthrift King.

IV. The Realistic Tale

The realistic fairy tale has a great sympathy with humble life and desires to reproduce faithfully all life worth while. The spirit of it has been expressed by Kipling--

each in his separate star, Shall draw the Thing as he sees It, for the G.o.d of Things as They are.

Sometimes the realistic story has a scientific spirit and interest. A realistic tale that is good will present not only what is true but what is possible, probable, or inevitable, making its truth impressive. Very often it does not reach this ideal. A transcript of actual life may be selected, but that is a photograph and not a picture with a strong purpose to make one point, and with artistic design. The characters, though true to life, may be lifeless and colorless, and their doings and what happens to them uninteresting.

For this reason, many modern writers of tales for children, respecting the worth of the realistic, neglect to comply with what the realistic demands, and produce insipid, unconvincing tales. The realistic tale should deal with the simple and the ordinary rather than with the exceptional; and the test is not how much, but how little, credulity it arouses.

Grimm's _Hans in Luck_ is a perfect realistic tale, as are Grimm's _Clever Elsa_ and the Norse _Three Sillies_, although these tales are suited to slightly older children. The drolls often appear among the realistic tales, as if genuine humor were more fresh when related to the things of actual life. The English _Lazy Jack_ is a delightful realistic droll which contains motifs that appear frequently among the tales. The Touchstone motif of a humble individual causing n.o.bility to laugh appears in Grimm's _Dummling and His Golden Goose_. It appears also in _Zerbino the Savage_, a most elaborated Neapolitan tale retold by Laboulaye in his _Last Fairy Tales_; a tale full of humor, wit, and satire that would delight the cultured man of the world.

In _Lazy Jack_ the setting is in humble life. A poor mother lived on the common with her indolent son and managed to earn a livelihood by spinning. One day the mother lost patience and threatened to send from home this idle son if he did not get work. So he set out. Each day he returned to his mother with his day's earnings. The humor lies in what he brought, in how he brought it, and in what happened to it; in the admonition of his mother, "You should have done so and so," and Jack's one reply, "I'll do so another time"; in Jack's literal use of his mother's admonition, and the catastrophe it brought him on the following day, and on each successive day, as he brought home a piece of money, a jar of milk, a cream cheese, a tom-cat, a shoulder of mutton, and at last a donkey. The humor lies in the contrast between what Jack did and what anybody "with sense" knows he ought to have done, until when royalty beheld him carrying the donkey on his shoulders, with legs sticking up in the air, it could bear no more, and burst into laughter. This is a good realistic droll to use because it impresses the truth, that even a little child must reason and judge and use his own common sense.

_The Story of the Little Red Hen_ is a realistic tale which presents a simple picture of humble thrift. Andersen's _Tin Soldier_ is a realistic tale which gives an adventure that might happen to a real tin soldier. _The Old Woman and her Pig_, whose history has been given under _The Acc.u.mulative Tale_, is realistic. Its theme is the simple experience of an aged peasant who swept her house, who had the unusual much-coveted pleasure of finding a dime, who went to market and bought a Pig for so small a sum. But on the way home, as the Pig became contrary when reaching a stile, and refused to go, the Old Woman had to seek aid. So she asked the Dog, the Stick, the Fire, etc. She asked aid first from the nearest at hand; and each object asked, in its turn sought help from the next higher power. One great source of pleasure in this tale is that each object whose aid is sought is asked to do the thing its nature would compel it to do--the Dog to bite, the Stick to beat, etc.; and each successive object chosen is the one which, by the law of its nature, is a master to the preceding one. The Dog, by virtue of ability to bite, has power over the Pig; the Stick has ability to master the Dog; and Water in its power to quench is master over Fire. Because of this intimate connection of cause and effect, this tale contributes in an unusual degree to the development of the child's reason and memory. He may remember the sequence of the plot or remake the tale if he forgets, by reasoning out the a.s.sociation between the successive objects from whom aid was asked. It is through this a.s.sociation that the memory is exercised.

_How Two Beetles Took Lodgings_, in _Tales of Laughter_, is a realistic story which has a scientific spirit and interest. Its basis of truth belongs to the realm of nature study. Its narration of how two Beetles set up housekeeping by visiting an ant-hill and helping themselves to the home and furnis.h.i.+ngs of the Ants, would be very well suited either to precede or to follow the actual study of an ant-hill by the children. The story gives a good glimpse of the home of the Ants, of their manner of living, and of the characteristics of the Ants and Beetles. It is not science mollified, but a good story full of life and humor, with a basis of scientific truth.

Many tales not realistic contain a large realistic element. The fine old romantic tales, such as _Cinderella_, _Sleeping Beauty_, and _Bremen Town Musicians_, have a large realistic element. In _The Little Elves_ we have the realistic picture of a simple German home.

In _Beauty and the Beast_ we have a realistic glimpse of the three various ways the wealthy merchant's daughters accommodated themselves to their father's loss of fortune, which reminds us of a parallel theme in Shakespeare's _King Lear_. In _Red Riding Hood_ we have the realistic starting out of a little girl to visit her grandmother. This realistic element appeals to the child because, as we have noted, it accords with his experience, and it therefore seems less strange.

In _t.i.tty Mouse and Tatty Mouse_ the setting is realistic but becomes transformed into the romantic when natural doings of everyday life take on meaning from the unusual happening in the tale. It is realistic for t.i.tty Mouse and Tatty Mouse to live in a little house, to get some corn, to make a pudding, and to put it on to boil. But when the pot tumbled over and scalded t.i.tty, the romantic began. The stool which was real and common and stood by the door became transformed with animation, it talked: "t.i.tty's dead, and so I weep"; and it hopped! Then a broom caught the same animation from the same theme, and swept; a door jarred; a window creaked; an old form ran round the house; a walnut tree shed its leaves; a little bird moulted his pretty feathers; a little girl spilled her milk; a man tumbled off his ladder; and the walnut tree fell with a crash, upsetting everything and burying t.i.tty in the ruins. They all learned to convey the same message. The common and customary became uncommon and unusual with extraordinary life, feeling, and lively movement.

Other romantic tales with a large realistic element are _The Three Bears_, _The Three Pigs_, and _The Three Billy-Goats_, animal tales which of necessity must be largely realistic, for their foundation is in the facts of the nature, habits, and traits of the animal characters they portray.

V. The Romantic Tale

The romantic tale reflects emotion and it contains adventure and the picturesque; it deals with dreams, distant places, the sea, the sky, and objects of wonder touched with beauty and strangeness. The purpose of the romantic is to arouse emotion, pity, or the sense of the heroic; and it often exaggerates character and incidents beyond the normal. The test of the romantic tale as well as of the realistic tale is in the reality it possesses. This reality it will possess, not only because it is true, but because it is also true to life. And it is to be remembered that because of the unusual setting in a romantic tale the truth it presents stands out very clearly with much impressiveness. _Red Riding Hood_ is a more impressive tale than _The Three Bears_.

_Cinderella_ is a good type of the old romantic tale. It has a never-ending attraction for children just as it has had for all peoples of the world; for this tale has as many as three hundred and forty-five variants, which have been examined by Miss c.o.x. In these variants there are many common incidents, such as the hearth abode, the helpful animal, the heroine disguise, the ill-treated heroine, the lost shoe, the love-sick prince, magic dresses, the magic tree, the threefold flight, the false bride, and many others. But the one incident which claims the tale as a Cinderella tale proper, is the recognition of the heroine by means of her shoe. In the Greek _Rhodope_, the slipper is carried off by an eagle and dropped into the lap of the King of Egypt, who seeks and marries the owner. In the Hindu tale the Rajah's daughter loses her slipper in the forest where it is found by the Prince. The interpretation of _Cinderella_ is that the Maiden, the Dawn, is dull and gray away from the brightness of the sun. The Sisters are the Clouds that shadow the Dawn, and the Stepmother is Night. The Dawn hurries away from the pursuing Prince, the Sun, who, after a long search, overtakes her in her glorious robes of sunset.

This tale is the Hindu _Sodewa Bai_, the Zuni _Poor Turkey Girl_, and the English _Rushen Coatie, Cap-o'-Rushes_, and _Catskin_. _Catskin_, which Mr. Burch.e.l.l told to the children of the Vicar of Wakefield, is considered by Newell as the oldest of the Cinderella types, appearing in Straparola in 1550, while _Cinderella_ appeared first in Basile in 1637. _Catskin_, in ballad form as given by Halliwell, was printed in Aldermary Churchyard, England, in 1720; and the form as given by Jacobs well ill.u.s.trates how the prose tale developed from the old ballad. The two most common forms of _Cinderella_ are Perrault's and Grimm's, either of which is suited to the very little child.

Perrault's _Cinderella_ shows about twenty distinct differences from the Grimm tale:--

(1) It omits the Mother's death-bed injunction to Cinderella.

(2) It omits the wooden shoes and the cloak.

(3) The Stepmother a.s.signs more modern tasks. It omits the pease-and-beans task.