7.9 La Belle au bois dormant — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the opening of Perrault's La Belle au bois dormant , very nearly in his own words, from the christening of the princess to the moment she falls asleep. Read the literary past, passé simple , in a continuous narrative, alongside the imperfect. Recognise the imperfect subjunctive, which classic texts use where modern French uses the present subjunctive: eût , pleurât , arrivât . Understand the negation ne … point and other features of classical French that are still printed in every edition of the tales. Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the French aloud; all of them come back below. French English on donna pour marraine à la petite princesse toutes les fées qu’on put trouver dans le pays they gave the little princess as godmothers all the fairies they could find in the land Ce terrible don fit frémir toute la compagnie This terrible gift made the whole company shudder où il y avait un grand festin pour les fées where there was a great feast for the fairies La vieille crut qu’on la méprisait, et grommela quelques menaces entre ses dents. The old woman thought she was being slighted, and muttered some threats under her breath. il défendait à toutes personnes de filer au fuseau he forbade everyone to spin with a spindle la princesse se percera la main d’un fuseau the princess will pierce her hand with a spindle Prerequisites : 7.8 — you have read Perrault's Le Chat botté retold in 7.8 Reading . You need the literary past of 3.15 Conjugation and the subjunctive of 4.18 Grammar and 4.19 Grammar . About this text La Belle au bois dormant , The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood , is the first tale of Perrault's collection of 1697, which you met in 7.8 Reading . The story was older: an Italian version had been printed in the 1630s. Perrault's version became the standard one, and the Brothers Grimm later published a shorter German version, known in English as Little Briar Rose , which ends with the wedding. Perrault's tale goes on: its second half, about the prince's mother, an ogress who wants to eat her grandchildren, is less well known and is not part of this excerpt. The text here is the first 840 words or so of the tale, from the opening to the moment when the princess, having pricked her hand on a spindle, lies asleep in the palace. It is taken from a school edition of Perrault's tales published at Tournai in 1902, edited by Canon Féron , as transcribed in French Wikisource. That edition modernises Perrault's spelling: the first edition of 1697 writes estoit for était , for example. It also changes a few words. Where Perrault tells how the king and queen went on pilgrimages until the queen at last became pregnant, this school edition says only Enfin, pourtant il leur naquit une fille ; it calls the princess radieuse where Perrault wrote belle ; and in two places it prints ne … point where Perrault wrote ne … pas . Apart from such details, the grammar and the tenses are Perrault's. The text is harder than the retelling of 7.8 Reading , but not much. Its sentences are long, joined by semicolons, and its narrative tense is the literary past. Most of its vocabulary is that of any fairy tale: a king and a queen, seven fairies, an old fairy who was not invited, a curse and a correction of the curse. Grammar in the text The literary past and the imperfect. The events are in the literary past: il leur naquit une fille , on fit un beau baptême , on vit entrer une vieille fée , elle s'en perça la main et tomba évanouie . The background is in the imperfect: comme c'était la coutume des fées en ce temps-là , une bonne vieille était seule à filer sa quenouille . The pairing is exactly the one of the perfect and the imperfect in 4.14 Grammar , in a different register. The imperfect subjunctive. After a verb in the past, classical French puts the subjunctive in a past form of its own: afin que … la princesse eût toutes les perfections imaginables , il n'y eut personne qui ne pleurât , il fallait que cela arrivât . Modern French uses the present subjunctive in all these places: qu'elle ait , qui ne pleure , que cela arrive . You need only recognise the form: -ât , -ît , -ût with a circumflex in the third person singular. The conditional of the future in the past. The fairies' gifts are reported in the conditional, the future seen from the past of 4.15 Grammar : qu'elle serait la plus belle personne du monde , qu'elle danserait parfaitement bien , qu'elle en mourrait . The good fairy then speaks in the future, because she is speaking directly: elle tombera seulement dans un profond sommeil . Ne … point . Where modern French says ne … pas , Perrault often says ne … point , slightly stronger: de n'avoir point d'enfants , qu'on n'avait point priée . It is still used in writing. Reading it a second time, paragraph by paragraph Paragraph 1. The royal couple's grief, the birth, the christening, and the seven fairies as godmothers. Si fâchés qu'on ne saurait dire , so grieved that one could not say , uses the conditional of savoir in the sense of could . Paragraphs 2 and 3. The feast, the gold cutlery, and the old fairy who was not invited. Qu'on n'avait point priée : prier here means to invite , an old sense. The young fairy hides behind the tapestry to speak last. Paragraph 4. The six gifts, then the curse. Le rang de la vieille fée étant venu , the old fairy's turn having come , is the compound participle of 4.22 Grammar . Paragraphs 5 and 6. The correction of the curse, and the king's decree forbidding spindles sur peine de vie , on pain of death . Paragraphs 7 to 9. Fifteen or sixteen years later, the princess finds an old woman spinning, pricks her hand and faints. Notice the present in paragraph 8, crie au secours , on jette de l'eau : a sudden switch to the narrative present to make the scene vivid. The king remembers the prophecy and lays her on a bed of gold and silver embroidery. Full translation An English translation of the whole text, made for this course and