Nursery Comedies

Scene II. The Same

P. – I had better go to bed, I suppose – there is nothing else for me to do. Well, I do think it is a shame to leave me here alone, while they are enjoying themselves at the ball! I should so like to have a smart gown that laced behind – it would make one feel so grand to have a gown one couldn't fasten one's self. But, alas! that is a pleasure I shall never know. (Hides her face in her hands.)

Godmother. – Why Peggy, you little Cinderella! What's the matter now?

P. – Oh!

G. – Do you know who I am?

P. – I am sorry to say I don't.

G. – Well, I'll tell you presently who I am. In the meantime, you tell me why you are sitting all by yourself in this way, looking into the fire in that dismal manner.

P. – I am unhappy because I am not at the ball. I should like to have a fine dress, and drive off in a coach with the others.

G. – Nothing is easier. I'll manage that for you in five minutes.

P. – You! Oh, how delightful! Is it possible?

G. – Certainly. I am your fairy godmother, so I can give you anything you wish for.

P. – Oh, how enchanting! Then, the first thing I wish for is a beautiful dress.

G. – You shall have it. Go inside that dark cupboard, close your eyes, then turn round three times, while I repeat a spell – and come out and see what has happened.

P. – Well, this is exciting! (Goes into cupboard.)

P. – Oh, am I not like a princess?

G. – You are indeed! Now, what next?

P. – Next, I must have a coach to go to the ball in.

G. – Of course. Look out of the window, and tell me what you see, and if there is anything we can make a coach of.

P. – I'm afraid not. I can only see a pumpkin lying on the ground, and two large brown rats behind it, and six little mice darting in and out.

G. – The very thing! That will do perfectly. Now, I am going to repeat another spell, and while I wave my wand, you look out of the window and tell me what happens.

(Repeats last two lines of spell and waves wand.)

P. – Oh, Godmother! Quick! The pumpkin has turned into a beautiful, glass coach!

G. – I thought it would! (Waves wand again.) Anything else?

P. – Yes! Yes! The two brown rats have changed into a coachman and footman.

G. – (Waves wand.) Anything else?

P. – Yes! Yes! The little mice have turned into six beautiful horses with long tails and harness shining with silver.

G. – Well, will that do to drive you to the ball, do you think?

P. – Oh, Godmother, how delightful! Let me get into it and drive off!

G. – One moment, Cinderella! I must make a condition before you start. You must promise not to remain at the ball after midnight. If you are there after the last stroke of twelve, your beautiful silver clothes will disappear, and you will have on your rags again.

P. – Oh, I promise, dear Godmother. Of course I will leave before twelve.

G. – Then come, Princess Cinderella! your glass coach stops the way.

Scene III

A ball-room. People walking about. Lucy and Mabel, in ball-dresses, sitting one on each side of their mother.

L. – How very odd it is that nobody comes and asks us to dance!

Mab. – I can't understand it at all.

L. – It isn't as if we were not beautiful.

Mab. – It seems so strange we are not singled out.

M. – My dear girls, the fact is, you are so beautiful, and so well dressed, that people don't dare to ask you. I am sure that is what it is.

L. – I saw the prince looking longingly at me a little while ago, but just as he was going to invite me to dance, he was called away to meet a foreign princess.

Mab. – Of course, if she were a princess, he couldn't help going to meet her. I wonder who she was? She had on the most beautiful silver shoes.

M. – Here is the Court herald, passing through the hall, ask him her name. Oh, sir! I beg your pardon! —

(Herald stops.)

Can you tell me who the lady in silver was, who was dancing with the prince just now?

Herald. – She was announced as the Princess of the Silver Mountain.

M. – The Princess of the Silver Mountain! Indeed!

L. – She looked like it, I am sure.

M. – The reason why I ask is, the prince had been going to dance with my daughter, and he was obliged to leave her for this lady.

H. – Oh, indeed!

L. – So, you see, I have no partner in consequence.

H. – What a pity!

M. – My girls are both passionately fond of dancing.

H. – Indeed! that is a charming taste.

Mab. – It is not surprising we should like it, we dance very beautifully.

H. – I congratulate you. I hope I shall have an opportunity of seeing your performance.

(Bows and passes on.)

L. – Oh, what a very rude man!

Mab. – I can't understand it at all. I quite thought we should have been the belles of the ball.

M. – Then suppose, my children, we go to the refreshment-room and have some ices? Perhaps we may find some partners there. (Gets up.)

L. – Come, then.

M. – Oh, here comes the princess, leaning on the prince's arm.

(Enter the Prince and Cinderella. Lucy, Mabel, and the Mother make sweeping curtseys.)

Cinderella. – What strange-looking ladies!

Prince. – They are, indeed! But let us talk of yourself, princess. (They go on speaking in low voices.)

Mab. – Did you hear her, Mother? Did you hear those insulting words?

M. – Never mind, it's no good quarrelling with princes. Come and have some strawberry ice.

P. – Now, tell me about this wonderful place where you live, for I have not heard of it before. The Silver Mountain! What an enchanting spot it sounds! It must be Fairy-land!

C. – It is, indeed, in Fairy-land!

P. – I was sure of it – a fit abode for so ethereal a being as yourself. You were nourished, I feel sure, on no mortal food – your dainty, beautiful clothes were woven by no mortal hands – they were spun by elves and fairies in some enchanted, far-away spot.

C. – Indeed, I believe they were.

P. – Adorable creature! Come, tell me where this Silver Mountain is, that I may find my way to it over every obstacle.

C. – But there is the music beginning again! We should be dancing, your highness.

P. – What delicious simplicity! Are you then so fond of dancing?

C. – I love it, but I so seldom get a chance.

P. – Of course, yes, you are hedged in, I daresay, by the etiquette of your court.

C. – Precisely.

(Dancers waltz in.)

P. – Come, then, let us join the dance too.

(They dance. The Mother, Lucy, and Mabel look enviously at the dancers. They curtsey as the Prince passes them. The clock begins to strike twelve. Cinderella starts.)

P. – What, tired already!

C. – No, no, but I must go at once! instantly!

(She rushes out, leaving a slipper behind her.)

P. – What! she has gone! and in such haste, that she has left one of her dainty slippers behind her. I must fly to restore it to her. Princess! Adored one! come back! (Rushes out.)

Scene IV

Mab. – (Yawning.) Oh dear, I am so tired!

L. – I do wish you would leave off saying that. That is the ninth time you have yawned during the last five minutes.

M. – My dears, going to a ball doesn't seem to have improved your temper.

Mab. – I don't quite see why it should.

C. – I suppose it was dancing so much that tired you?

L. – Of course it was – we had to dance the whole time, from the moment we entered the room.

Mab. – There were many people we were obliged to refuse, and they were heart-broken.

L. – But, of course, when the prince asked us, we were obliged to throw over the others.

C. – (Smiling aside.) And the prince danced with you a great deal, then?

L. – Indeed, he did, nearly all the time, till a strange princess came, then he was obliged to leave us.

C. – A strange princess! What was she like?

M. – Now I think of it, she was something like you – was she not, girls?

Mab. – (Laughing.) Ha! ha! so she was!

L. – Only she was beautiful, and you are very ugly.

Mab. – And she had beautiful silver clothes.

C. – I should like to wear silver clothes.

M. – Peggy, do not let me hear you say such foolish things again. It's all very well for your step-sisters to wear such clothes, but for you!!

Mab. – Why, what can that be?

(Mother and daughters rush to back to look out of window.)

C. – (Aside.) Oh, if it were the prince!

M. – It is a magnificent herald – the herald we saw last night! He is reading a proclamation to the people, and the prince is behind him!

C. – The Prince!! (Waves to Prince, unseen by the others.)

(The Herald stops outside the window.)

H. – (In a loud voice.) "Be it known to all the loyal subjects of Prince Charming, our lord and master, that yesterday evening, at the ball, an embroidered silver slipper was picked up. The prince has commanded that the said slipper shall be carried through the length and breadth of his dominions, until he finds the owner of it. When the owner of it is discovered, that said owner shall become the Princess Charming, and shall share our lord and master's throne."

M. – My dear girls, what a chance for you! If you can put on the shoe, you will become the princess.

Mab. – The herald is stopping before this door. Quick! quick! Let us sit in pretty attitudes.

(Lucy and Mabel group themselves picturesquely.)

L. – But Peggy must not be here, Mother! Go away, Peggy, quick!

M. – Rush, child, rush! Don't let any one see you.

C. – May I not stay to see the silver shoe?

M. – You! Of course not! Why the very look of you would spoil all our chances. (Pushing her.) Quick! quick! they are just coming in.

(Bundles Peggy out of door l. just as the Herald comes in r. He blows trumpet.)

H. – His Royal Highness, Prince Charming.

(Enter Prince. Mother, Lucy, and Mabel curtsey.)

M. – Oh, your highness, this is too kind, pray sit down.

(She advances a chair. The other two curtsey, one on each side of him.)

H. – We wish to know if any lady in this house lost a shoe at the ball last night? For, if so, her shoe has been found.

M. – (Eagerly.) What a singular thing! Now you mention it, one of my daughters lost a shoe – indeed, they both did.

H. – Indeed! Is it anything like this? (Produces shoe.)

L. – Why, that looks to me like the very one.

P. – Try it on, please, madam.

L. – (Holding out her foot, making faces while the Herald puts it on.) Why, of course, that is mine, it fits me exactly.

M. – It fits the darling girl as if it had been made for her. Walk round the room in it, my love.

(Lucy hobbles round the room, limping violently.)

M. – Oh, there is no doubt, your highness, that that is hers.

P. – Didn't I notice a slight limp as she walked?

M. – Oh dear no, your highness, I don't think so.

P. – All the same, I think she had better take it off.

M. – And you, Mabel, didn't you say you had lost one of your shoes?

Mab. – Yes! I remember when I undressed noticing that I had lost it.

M. – Then, of course, it must be yours.

(The Herald kneels beside her, tries to force on the shoe, while Mabel makes faces of agony.)

Mab. – Oh, not a doubt, that is mine. (Stands up.)

H. – Your heel is quite out of it still.

Mab. – That is how I always wear my shoes.

M. – That is what gives her such a springy, graceful walk.

(Mabel tries to walk round the room, clattering the shoe behind her.)

P. – No, I am afraid that won't do at all.

Mab. – (Shaking it off.) It's very hard not being allowed to have my own shoe back again.

P. – (To the Mother.) Are there no more young girls in this house, whom the shoe would be likely to fit?

M. – Alas, these two fair ones are my only joys.

P. – Yet, I thought, as I passed the window, I saw another.

M. – Oh, your highness, I beg your pardon – that was only our scullion, looking out to see you. Naughty thing!

P. – I wish to see her.

L. – Oh, really, your highness!

Mab. – She is a most unprepossessing girl!

P. – Send for her instantly, or I will have you all beheaded.

M. – (Quickly.) Anything, anything, to oblige your highness.

(Cinderella appears in the doorway, with her eyes cast down. Prince jumps up and bows very low. Lucy, Mabel, and Mother, turn away their eyes in disgust.)

H. – Sit down here, fair maiden, and try on this silver shoe.

P. – Nay, no one shall kneel here but me. (Kneels in front of Cinderella, who puts on the shoe without difficulty.) There, I think, is the foot it fits, there is no doubt about that.

M. – I fear your highness is being imposed upon – that shoe could never have belonged to that ragged Cinderella.

C. – Indeed it did – I have the fellow to it.

(Pulls the other out of her pocket. Gets up and dances round in it.)

P. – There is no doubt to whom the slipper belongs. Come, Princess Charming, let me lead you to your palace!

M. – One moment, if you please, your royal highness! the girl is a scullion!

L. – You have only to look at her clothes!

Mab. – Mine would be far fitter to adorn a throne!

G. – The clothes are my business – I will see that Princess Charming is not dressed like a scullion.

C. – My fairy godmother!

All. – Her fairy godmother!

G. – The same. So, Cinderella, if you will step into that dark cupboard while I recite a magic spell, you shall be changed into a beautiful princess.

(Cinderella enters the cupboard. The Fairy Godmother recites spell, waves wand. Cinderella comes out dressed as she was at the ball. Mother and daughters start.)

G. – Now, my child, no one can say you look like a scullion.

L. and M. – The Princess of the Silver Mountain!

G. – The same, whom you left sitting in the ashes, but who went to the ball after all —

P. – And was the most beautiful princess there.

M. – I wish, my darlings, I had chosen a fairy for your godmother, instead of those silly aunts of yours.

L. – I must say, it is very hard on us that a chit like that should have the best of everything.

G. – Come, if you say one word more, I will repeat my spell backwards over you, and then all your clothes will change to rags.

M. – Come, then, my pretty poppets, come away with me, you are not appreciated here as you deserve.

L. – No, we are not admired as we ought to be.

P. – Pray, madam, do not let us turn you out, as we are going ourselves. Come, my princess.

H. – (Loudly.) Bring forward the princess's golden coach!

G. – (Waving wand.) Be happy, my Cinderella!