The Tales of Mother Goose

by Charles Perrault

"She met with Gaffer Wolf."

HEATH SUPPLEMENTARY READERS

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THE TALES OF

MOTHER GOOSE

AS FIRST COLLECTED BY
CHARLES PERRAULT IN 1696

A NEW TRANSLATION BY CHARLES WELSH

Introduction by
M. V. O'Shea

Illustrated By D. J. Munro
AFTER DRAWINGS BY GUSTAVE DORÉ

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D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY

Copyright 1901,
By D. C. Heath & Co.
Printed in U.S.A.
4e5

CONTENTS

	PAGE
Introduction by Professor M. V. O'Shea	vii
List of Illustrations	ix
Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper	1
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood	13
Little Thumb	29
The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots	45
Riquet of the Tuft	54
Blue Beard	66
The Fairy	75
Little Red Riding-Hood	80
Note	85

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"She met with Gaffer Wolf"	Frontispiece
	PAGE
"It went on very easily"	11
"Let me see if I can do it"	15
"Slipped in under his father's seat"	30
"The Marquis of Carabas is drowning!"	48
"I am exact in keeping my word"	63
"If you open it, there's nothing you may not expect from my anger"	67
"With all my heart, Goody"	75
"He fell upon the good woman"	83

INTRODUCTION

What virtues do these stories possess that have kept them alive for so long a time? They have to some degree stimulated and nourished qualities of supreme worth in individual and social life. With the young the struggle against greed and falsehood and pride and cowardice is a very real one, and situations in which these homely, fundamental traits are involved are full of interest and seriousness. Again, to mature people the reward of well-doing and the punishment of evil conduct portrayed in these stories are apt to seem too realistic, too much also on the cut-and-dried pattern; but it is far different with children. They have a very concrete sense of right and wrong, and they demand a clear, explicit, tangible outcome for every sort of action. They must have concrete, living examples, with the appropriate outcome of each, set before them.

A modest, faithful child will be strengthened in his good qualities; while one lacking these will have them aroused, to some extent at any rate, by following Cinderella in her career. Arrogance and selfishness come to unhappy straits in this fancy world, and they are likely to fare the same in the real world; so it would be better to part company with them, and take up with gentleness and kindliness and faithfulness instead. And every one may be of some help to others if he be only of the right mind. The brother who thought himself faring badly with only a cat for a legacy learns betimes that even so small and apparently helpless a creature may be of much service when he is rightly disposed. A person might think little Thumb could accomplish nothing of value to any one, but he again teaches the child that all depends on the willingness to be of assistance, the good-heartedness, the fellow-feeling which one has for others.

In making this version anew the translator has endeavored to retain the characteristics of the style of the early chap-book versions, while evading the pompous, stilted language and Johnsonian phraseology so fashionable when they were first translated.

M. V. O'SHEA

University of Wisconsin