there was once a prince who wished to marry a princess; but then she must be a real princess.1 he travelled all over the world in hopes of finding such a lady; but there was always something wrong. princesses he found in plenty; but whether they were real princesses it was impossible for him to decide, for now one thing, now another, seemed to him not quite right about the ladies.2 at last he returned to his palace quite cast down, because he wished so much to have a real princess for his wife.
one *ning a fearful tempest3 arose, it thundered and lightened, and the rain poured down from the sky in torrents1: besides, it was as dark as pitch. all at once there was heard a violent knocking at the door, and the old king, the prince's father, went out himself to open it.
it was a princess who was standing2 outside the door. what with the rain and the wind, she was in a sad condition; the water trickled3 down from her hair, and her clothes clung to her body. she said she was a real princess.
"ah! we shall soon see that!" thought the old queen-mother;4 how*r, she said not a word of what she was going to do; but went quietly into the bedroom, took all the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas5 on the bedstead. she then laid twenty mattresses6 one upon another over the three peas, and put twenty feather beds7 over the mattresses4.
upon this bed the princess was to pass the night.
the next morning she was asked how she had slept. "oh, very badly indeed!"8 she replied. "i have scarcely closed my eyes the whole night through. i do not know what was in my bed, but i had something hard under me, and am all over black and blue.9 it has hurt me so much!"
now it was plain that the lady must be a real princess, since she had been able to feel the three little peas through the twenty mattresses and twenty feather beds. none but a real princess could have had such a delicate sense of feeling.10
the prince accordingly made her his wife; being now convinced that he had found a real princess. the three peas were how*r put into the ca*net of curiosities, where they are still to be seen, provided they are not lost.11
wasn't this a lady of real delicacy6?
1. real princess: andersen implies that real princesses are different from any other person with their sheer physical sensitivity in his story. delicacy in women was assumed and appreciated in women during andersen's lifetime.
return to place in story.
2. not quite right about the ladies: as one of the shortest fairy tales, one is always left to wonder what isn't "quite right" about the other women. details are not given in the traditional tales although modern interpretations8 have given various reasons, from lack of physical beauty to lack of sensitivity.
an italian version of the tale, "the most sensitive woman," offers three highly sensitive women, but the prince chooses the one with the highest sensitivity. the first has suffered agonies from the pulling of one single hair from her head while brushing it. the second is in pain from sleeping on a wrinkle in her sheets. the third and final woman, the most sensitive, has a serious injury from a jasmine petal9 falling onto her foot.
return to place in story.