Charles Perrault

“ Then a fairy rose in her place and said—
“I will begin. My gift to the Princess Briar-Rose is the gift of Beauty. She shall have eyes like stars, and hair as bright as the sunshine of the spring day on which she was born, and cheeks as fresh and fair as the petals of the flower from which she takes her name. None shall surpass her in loveliness.” ”

“ So all the fairies in turn named the gift which they had brought for Briar-Rose. The fourth said that whatever the Princess put her hand to, she should do with the most exquisite grace; the fifth, that she should sing like a nightingale; the sixth that she should dance as lightly as a
fairy, and so on until she had nearly all the virtues and accomplishments which even a King might desire for his daughter. ”

“ No mortal may strike at a fairy and go unpunished. And, for the rest, take comfort, for your daughter shall not die!”
Then the twelfth fairy stepped out from behind the arras where she had been hidden. “My gift is still to come,” she continued. “As far as I can, I will undo the mischief which my sister has done, It is true that I have not the power to prevent altogether what she has decreed, The Princess shall, indeed, prick her finger with the spindle of the spinning-wheel on the day when she attains her fifteenth year; but instead of dying she shall fall into a deep sleep ”