Sleeping Beauty - A Musical
Emergency
June 8, 2002
The Story of Sleeping Beauty
First, a Pre-Show Treat:
Tapeworm Of Love - Logan &
JD
. . . .
The Story of Sleeping
Beauty
...the ancient tale,
told as downloaded from elsewhere on the
Internet
Once upon a time there was a king and a queen, who were sorry that
they had no children; so sorry that it cannot be expressed. They went to
all the waters in the world; vows, pilgrimages, all ways were tried, and
all to no purpose.
Royal Lament - Wendy Betts
w/ Evan Hunt
At last, however, the Queen had a daughter.
Sleeping Beauty - Wendy
Betts
There was a very fine christening. The Princess had for her godmothers
all the fairies they could in the whole kingdom (there were seven), and
every one of them might give her a gift, as was the custom of fairies in
those days.
After the ceremonies of the christening were over, all the company
returned to the King's palace, where was prepared a great feast for the
fairies. There was placed before every one of them a magnificent cover
with a case of massive gold, wherein were a spoon, knife, and fork, all of
pure gold set with diamonds and rubies. But as they were all sitting down
at table they saw come into the hall a very old fairy, whom they had not
invited, because it was above fifty years since she had been out of a
certain tower, and she was believed to be either dead or enchanted.
The King ordered her a cover, but could not furnish her with a case of
gold as the others, because they had only seven made for the seven
fairies. The old Fairy fancied she was slighted, and muttered some threats
between her teeth. One of the young fairies who sat by her overheard how
she grumbled; and, judging that she might give the little Princess some
unlucky gift, went, as soon as they rose from table, and hid herself
behind the hangings, that she might speak last, and repair, as much as she
could, the evil which the old Fairy might intend.
In the meanwhile all the fairies began to give their gifts to the
Princess. The youngest gave her for gift that she should be the most
beautiful person in the world; the next, that she should have the wit of
an angel; the third, that she should have a wonderful grace in everything
she did; the fourth, that she should dance perfectly well; the fifth, that
she should sing like a nightingale; and the sixth, that she should play
all kinds of music to the utmost perfection.
The World Is Hard Enough -
Evan Hunt
The old Fairy's turn coming next, with a head shaking more with spite than
age, she said that the Princess should have her hand pierced with a
spindle and die of the wound. This terrible gift made the whole company
tremble, and everybody fell a-crying.
Bad
Fairy's Song - Brad Schmidt
At this very instant the young Fairy came out from behind the hangings,
and spake these words aloud:
"Assure yourselves, O King and Queen, that your daughter shall not
die of this disaster. It is true, I have no power to undo entirely what my
elder has done. The Princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a
spindle; but, instead of dying, she shall only fall into a profound sleep,
which shall last a hundred years, at the expiration of which a king's son
shall come and awake her."
Little Girl In The Spiderweb -
Martin Azevedo
The King, to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old Fairy, caused
immediately proclamation to be made, whereby everybody was forbidden, on
pain of death, to spin with a distaff and spindle, or to have so much as
any spindle in their houses.
No Wheels In My Kingdom - Jay
Kensinger
About fifteen or sixteen years after, the King and Queen being gone to one
of their houses of pleasure, the young Princess happened one day to divert
herself in running up and down the palace; when going up from one
apartment to another, she came into a little room on the top of the tower,
where a good old woman, alone, was spinning with her spindle. This good
woman had never heard of the King's proclamation against spindles.
"What are you doing there, goody?" said the Princess.
"I am spinning, my pretty child," said the old woman, who did not
know who she was.
"Ha!" said the Princess, "this is very pretty; how do you do
it? Give it to me, that I may see if I can do so."
She had no sooner taken it into her hand than, whether being very hasty at
it, somewhat unhandy, or that the decree of the Fairy had so ordained it,
it ran into her hand, and she fell down in a swoon.
The good old woman, not knowing very well what to do in this affair, cried
out for help. People came in from every quarter in great numbers; they
threw water upon the Princess's face, unlaced her, struck her on the palms
of her hands, and rubbed her temples with Hungary-water; but nothing would
bring her to herself.And now the King, who came up at the noise, bethought
himself of the prediction of the fairies, and, judging very well that this
must necessarily come to pass, since the fairies had said it, caused the
Princess to be carried into the finest apartment in his palace, and to be
laid upon a bed all embroidered with gold and silver.
One would have taken her for a little angel, she was so very
beautiful; for her swooning away had not diminished one bit of her
complexion; her cheeks were carnation, and her lips were coral; indeed,
her eyes were shut, but she was heard to breathe softly, which satisfied
those about her that she was not dead. The King commanded that they should
not disturb her, but let her sleep quietly till her hour of awaking was
come.
The good Fairy who had saved her life by condemning her to sleep a hundred
years was in the kingdom of Matakin, twelve thousand leagues off, when
this accident befell the Princess; but she was instantly informed of it by
a little dwarf, who had boots of seven leagues, that is, boots with which
he could tread over seven leagues of ground in one stride. The Fairy came
away immediately, and she arrived, about an hour after, in a fiery chariot
drawn by dragons.
The King handed her out of the chariot, and she approved
everything he had done, but as she had very great foresight, she thought
when the Princess should awake she might not know what to do with herself,
being all alone in this old palace; and this was what she did: she touched
with her wand everything in the palace (except the King and Queen) --
governesses, maids of honor, ladies of the bedchamber, gentlemen,
officers, stewards, cooks, undercooks, scullions, guards, with their
beefeaters, pages, footmen; she likewise touched all the horses which were
in the stables, pads as well as others, the great dogs in the outward
court and pretty little Mopsey too, the Princess's little spaniel, which
lay by her on the bed.
Immediately upon her touching them they all fell asleep, that they might
not awake before their mistress and that they might be ready to wait upon
her when she want asleep also. All this was done in a moment. Fairies are
not long in doing their business.
Sleep
- UNWOMAN (Erica Mulkey)
Sleep
(Studio Version) - UNWOMAN (Erica Mulkey)
And now the King and the Queen, having kissed their dear child without
waking her, went out of the palace and put forth a proclamation that
nobody should dare to come near it.
This, however, was not necessary, for in a quarter of an hour's
time there grew up all round about the park such a vast number of trees,34
great and small, bushes and brambles, twining one within another, that
neither man nor beast could pass through; so that nothing could be seen
but the very top of the towers of the palace; and that, too, not unless it
was a good way off. Nobody doubted but the Fairy gave herein a very
extraordinary sample of her art, that the Princess, while she continued
sleeping, might have nothing to fear from any curious people.
When a hundred years were gone and passed the son of the King then
reigning, and who was of another family from that of the sleeping
Princess, being gone a-hunting on that side of the country, asked:
What those towers were which he saw in the middle of a great thick
wood?
Everyone answered according as they haan his sister.
The Prince's Hunting Song -
Brad Schmidt
The Queen spoke several times to her son, to inform herself after what
manner he did pass his time, and that in this he ought in duty to satisfy
her. But he never dared to trust her with his secret; he feared her,
though he loe of an Ogress who had a strong desire to eat fresh meat),
"and will eat her with a sauce Robert."
The poor man, knowing very well that he must not play tricks with
Ogresses, took his great knife and went up into little Morning's
chamber. She was then four years old, and came up to him jumping and
laughing, to take him about the neck, and ask him for some
sugar-candy. Upon which he began to weep, the great knife fell out of his
hand, and he went into the back yard, and killed a little lamb,48 and
dressed it with such good sauce that his mistress assured him that she had
never eaten anything so good in her life. He had at the same time taken up
little Morning, and carried her to his wife, to conceal her in the lodging
he had at the bottom of the courtyard.
About eight days afterward the wicked Queen said to the clerk of
the kitchen, "I will sup on little Day."
He answered not a word, being resolved to cheat her as he had done
before. He went to find out little Day, and saw him with a little foil in
his hand, with which he was fencing with a great monkey, the child being
then only three years of age. He took him up in his arms and carried him
to his wife, that she might conceal him in her chamber along with his
sister, and in the room of little Day cooked up a young kid, very tender,
which the Ogress found to be wonderfully good.
This was hitherto all mighty well; but one evening this wicked
Queen said to her clerk of the kitchen:
"I will eat the Queen with the same sauce I had with her
children."
It was now that the poor clerk of the kitchen despaired of being
able to deceive her. The young Queen was turned of twenty, not reckoning
the hundred years she had been asleep; and how to find in the yard a beast
so firm was what puzzled him. He took then a resolution, that he might
save his own life, to cut the Queen's throat; and going up into her
chamber, with intent to do it at once, he put himself into as great fury
as he could possibly, and came into the young Queen's room with his dagger
in his hand. He would not, however, surprise her, but told her, with a
great deal of respect, the orders he had received from the Queen-mother.
"Do it; do it" (said she, stretching out her neck). "Execute your
orders, and then I shall go and see my children, my poor children, whom I
so much and so tenderly loved."
For she thought them dead ever since they had been taken away
without her knowledge.
"No, no, madam" (cried the poor clerk of the kitchen, all in
tears); "you shall not die, and yet you shall see your children again; but
then you must go home with me to my lodgings, where I have concealed them,
and I shall deceive the Queen once more, by giving her in your stead a
young hind."
Upon this he forthwith conducted her to his chamber, where,
leaving her to embrace her children, and cry along with them, he went and
dressed a young hind,50 which the Queen had for her supper, and devoured
it with the same appetite as if it had been the young Queen. Exceedingly
was she delighted with her cruelty, and she had invented a story to tell
the King, at his return, how the mad wolves had eaten up the Queen his
wife and her two children.
One evening, as she was, according to her custom, rambling round
about the courts and yards of the palace to see if she could smell any
fresh meat, she heard, in a ground room, little Day crying, for his mamma
was going to whip him, because he had been naughty; and she heard, at the
same time, little Morning begging pardon for her brother.
The Ogress presently knew the voice of the Queen and her children,
and being quite mad that she had been thus deceived, she commanded next
morning, by break of day (with a most horrible voice, which made everybody
tremble), that they should bring into the middle of the great court a
large tub, which she caused to be filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and
all sorts of serpents,51 in order to have thrown into it the Queen and her
children, the clerk of the kitchen, his wife and maid; all whom she had
given orders should be brought thither with their hands tied behind them.
They were brought out accordingly, and the executioners were just
going to throw them into the tub, when the King (who was not so soon
expected) entered the court on horseback (for he came post) and asked,
with the utmost astonishment, what was the meaning of that horrible
spectacle.
No one dared to tell him, when the Ogress, all enraged to see what
had happened, threw herself head foremost into the tub, and was instantly
devoured by the ugly creatures she had ordered to be thrown into it for
others. The King could not but be very sorry, for she was his mother; but
he soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children.
THE END
All songs and recordings for this show are copyright 2002 by their respective performers.
Except for non-profit distribution, all rights are reserved.