Arthur Quiller-Couch

Name: The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French — Blue Beard
Author: Arthur Quiller-Couch

The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

Summary

“The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French — Blue Beard”, published in 1910, is a work by Arthur Quiller-Couch. It explores elements such as Blue Beard, Fatima and key.

Quotes from The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (Arthur Quiller-Couch)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Then Blue Beard stamped his foot and roared out so terribly that he made the whole house tremble. The poor lady came down and, casting herself, all in tears and dishevelled, at his feet, clasped him by the ankles while she besought him for mercy.
'This shall not help you,' said Blue Beard. 'You must die!' Then, taking hold of her hair and twisting her head back, the better to expose her beautiful throat, he exclaimed: 'This be the lesson I read against curiosity, the peculiar vice of woman-kind, and which above all others I find detestable. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Ask yourself if it be reasonable to suppose that our eyes are playing a trick on both of us? Not,' her mother went on, 'that I, for my part, have any prejudice against blue. On the contrary, it is a beautiful colour, and considered lucky. The poets—you will have remarked—when they would figure to us the highest attainable happiness, select a blue flower or a blue bird for its emblem. Heaven itself is blue; and, at the least, a blue beard must be allowed to confer distinction.'
'A greyish-blue,' hazarded Fatima. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Its colour is changing, you say. But for what reason? Obviously because he is in love; and what love has begun, love can carry to a conclusion. Nay, but put it on the ground of pity alone. Could a feeling heart set itself any task more angelic than to rescue so worthy a gentleman from so hideous an affliction—if affliction it be, which I am far from allowing?'
Fatima reflected on her mother's advice, but thought it prudent to consult her sister Anne and her step-brothers before coming to a decision which, once taken, must be irrevocable. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Indeed, she could scarcely contain herself and listen to their chatter, so impatient she felt to go and open the closet downstairs. If only Blue Beard had not forbidden this one little thing! Or if, having reasons of his own to keep it secret, he had been content to take the key away with him, saying nothing about it! At least, if he wished to prove whether or not poor Fatima could rise above the common frailty of her sex—and he was, as we shall see, a somewhat exacting husband—he should have warned her. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ They roamed through the bedrooms and spent a long while in the two great store-chambers, where they could not sufficiently admire the number and beauty of the tapestries, beds, sofas, consoles, stands, tables, but particularly the looking-glasses, in which you could see yourself from head to foot, with their frames of glass and silver and silver-gilt, the finest and costliest ever seen. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Her good friends and neighbours scarcely waited for the young bride's invitation, so impatient were they to view all the riches of her grand house, having never dared to come while her husband was at home, because of his terrifying blue beard. They overran the house without loss of time, hunting their curiosity from room to room, along the corridors and in and out of closets and wardrobes, cabinets and presses ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Neither Anne nor Fatima was eager for the honour. They sent their suitor to and fro, and back again from one to the other: they really could not make up their minds to accept a husband with a blue beard. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ They ceased not to extol and to envy their friend's good fortune.
'If my husband could only give me such a house as this,' said one to another, 'for aught I cared he might have a beard of all the colours of the rainbow!'
Fatima meanwhile, was not in the least amused by the sight of all these riches, being consumed by a curiosity even more ardent than that of her
They overran the house without loss of time. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Arthur Quiller-Couch, The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (1910)

“ Blue Beard had no heirs, and so his wife became mistress of all his estates. She employed a part of her wealth to marry her sister Anne to a young gentleman who had loved her a long while; another part to purchase captains' commissions for her two step-brothers; and the rest to marry herself to a very worthy gentleman who made her forget the short but unhappy time she had passed with Blue Beard.
MORAL
(For Curious Wives)
Wives should have one lord only. ”

Arthur Quiller-Couch

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Quotes from The sleeping beauty and other fairy tales from the old French… (Arthur Quiller-Couch)

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