THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES

THE EMPEROR’S NEW

CLOTHES

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Many years ago, there was an Emperor, who was so
excessively fond of new clothes, that he spent all his
money in dress. He did not trouble himself in the least
about his soldiers; nor did he care to go either to the
theatre or the chase, except for the opportunities then
afforded him for displaying his new clothes. He had a
different suit for each hour of the day; and as of any other
king or emperor, one is accustomed to say, ‘he is sitting in
council,’ it was always said of him, ‘The Emperor is sitting
in his wardrobe.’
Time passed merrily in the large town which was his
capital; strangers arrived every day at the court. One day,
two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made their
appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave
stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns,
the clothes manufactured from which should have the
wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone
who was unfit for the office he held, or who was
extraordinarily simple in character.

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‘These must, indeed, be splendid clothes!’ thought the
Emperor. ‘Had I such a suit, I might at once find out what
men in my realms are unfit for their office, and also be
able to distinguish the wise from the foolish! This stuff
must be woven for me immediately.’ And he caused large
sums of money to be given to both the weavers in order
that they might begin their work directly.
So the two pretended weavers set up two looms, and
affected to work very busily, though in reality they did
nothing at all. They asked for the most delicate silk and
the purest gold thread; put both into their own knapsacks;
and then continued their pretended work at the empty
looms until late at night.
‘I should like to know how the weavers are getting on
with my cloth,’ said the Emperor to himself, after some
little time had elapsed; he was, however, rather
embarrassed, when he remembered that a simpleton, or
one unfit for his office, would be unable to see the
manufacture. To be sure, he thought he had nothing to
risk in his own person; but yet, he would prefer sending
somebody else, to bring him intelligence about the
weavers, and their work, before he troubled himself in the
affair. All the people throughout the city had heard of the
wonderful property the cloth was to possess; and all were
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anxious to learn how wise, or how ignorant, their
neighbors might prove to be.
‘I will send my faithful old minister to the weavers,’
said the Emperor at last, after some deliberation, ‘he will
be best able to see how the cloth looks; for he is a man of
sense, and no one can be more suitable for his office than
be is.’
So the faithful old minister went into the hall, where
the knaves were working with all their might, at their
empty looms. ‘What can be the meaning of this?’ thought
the old man, opening his eyes very wide. ‘I cannot
discover the least bit of thread on the looms.’ However,
he did not express his thoughts aloud.
The impostors requested him very courteously to be so
good as to come nearer their looms; and then asked him
whether the design pleased him, and whether the colors
were not very beautiful; at the same time pointing to the
empty frames. The poor old minister looked and looked,
he could not discover anything on the looms, for a very
good reason, viz: there was nothing there. ‘What!’ thought
he again. ‘Is it possible that I am a simpleton? I have never
thought so myself; and no one must know it now if I am
so. Can it be, that I am unfit for my office? No, that must
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not be said either. I will never confess that I could not see
the stuff.’
‘Well, Sir Minister!’ said one of the knaves, still
pretending to work. ‘You do not say whether the stuff
pleases you.’
‘Oh, it is excellent!’ replied the old minister, looking at
the loom through his spectacles. ‘This pattern, and the
colors, yes, I will tell the Emperor without delay, how
very beautiful I think them.’
‘We shall be much obliged to you,’ said the impostors,
and then they named the different colors and described the
pattern of the pretended stuff. The old minister listened
attentively to their words, in order that he might repeat
them to the Emperor; and then the knaves asked for more
silk and gold, saying that it was necessary to complete
what they had begun. However, they put all that was
given them into their knapsacks; and continued to work
with as much apparent diligence as before at their empty
looms.
The Emperor now sent another officer of his court to
see how the men were getting on, and to ascertain
whether the cloth would soon be ready. It was just the
same with this gentleman as with the minister; he surveyed
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the looms on all sides, but could see nothing at all but the
empty frames.
‘Does not the stuff appear as beautiful to you, as it did
to my lord the minister?’ asked the impostors of the
Emperor’s second ambassador; at the same time making
the same gestures as before, and talking of the design and
colors which were not there.
‘I certainly am not stupid!’ thought the messenger. ‘It
must be, that I am not fit for my good, profitable office!
That is very odd; however, no one shall know anything
about it.’ And accordingly he praised the stuff he could
not see, and declared that he was delighted with both
colors and patterns. ‘Indeed, please your Imperial Majesty,’
said he to his sovereign when he returned, ‘the cloth
which the weavers are preparing is extraordinarily
magnificent.’
The whole city was talking of the splendid cloth which
the Emperor had ordered to be woven at his own
expense.
And now the Emperor himself wished to see the costly
manufacture, while it was still in the loom. Accompanied
by a select number of officers of the court, among whom
were the two honest men who had already admired the
cloth, he went to the crafty impostors, who, as soon as
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they were aware of the Emperor’s approach, went on
working more diligently than ever; although they still did
not pass a single thread through the looms.
‘Is not the work absolutely magnificent?’ said the two
officers of the crown, already mentioned. ‘If your Majesty
will only be pleased to look at it! What a splendid design!
What glorious colors!’ and at the same time they pointed
to the empty frames; for they imagined that everyone else
could see this exquisite piece of workmanship.
‘How is this?’ said the Emperor to himself. ‘I can see
nothing! This is indeed a terrible affair! Am I a simpleton,
or am I unfit to be an Emperor? That would be the worst
thing that could happen—Oh! the cloth is charming,’ said
he, aloud. ‘It has my complete approbation.’ And he
smiled most graciously, and looked closely at the empty
looms; for on no account would he say that he could not
see what two of the officers of his court had praised so
much. All his retinue now strained their eyes, hoping to
discover something on the looms, but they could see no
more than the others; nevertheless, they all exclaimed,
‘Oh, how beautiful!’ and advised his majesty to have some
new clothes made from this splendid material, for the
approaching procession. ‘Magnificent! Charming!
Excellent!’ resounded on all sides; and everyone was
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uncommonly gay. The Emperor shared in the general
satisfaction; and presented the impostors with the riband of
an order of knighthood, to be worn in their button-holes,
and the title of ‘Gentlemen Weavers.’
The rogues sat up the whole of the night before the
day on which the procession was to take place, and had
sixteen lights burning, so that everyone might see how
anxious they were to finish the Emperor’s new suit. They
pretended to roll the cloth off the looms; cut the air with
their scissors; and sewed with needles without any thread
in them. ‘See!’ cried they, at last. ‘The Emperor’s new
clothes are ready!’
And now the Emperor, with all the grandees of his
court, came to the weavers; and the rogues raised their
arms, as if in the act of holding something up, saying,
‘Here are your Majesty’s trousers! Here is the scarf! Here is
the mantle! The whole suit is as light as a cobweb; one
might fancy one has nothing at all on, when dressed in it;
that, however, is the great virtue of this delicate cloth.’
‘Yes indeed!’ said all the courtiers, although not one of
them could see anything of this exquisite manufacture.
‘If your Imperial Majesty will be graciously pleased to
take off your clothes, we will fit on the new suit, in front
of the looking glass.’
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The Emperor was accordingly undressed, and the
rogues pretended to array him in his new suit; the
Emperor turning round, from side to side, before the
looking glass.
‘How splendid his Majesty looks in his new clothes,
and how well they fit!’ everyone cried out. ‘What a
design! What colors! These are indeed royal robes!’
‘The canopy which is to be borne over your Majesty,
in the procession, is waiting,’ announced the chief master
of the ceremonies.
‘I am quite ready,’ answered the Emperor. ‘Do my new
clothes fit well?’ asked he, turning himself round again
before the looking glass, in order that he might appear to
be examining his handsome suit.
The lords of the bedchamber, who were to carry his
Majesty’s train felt about on the ground, as if they were
lifting up the ends of the mantle; and pretended to be
carrying something; for they would by no means betray
anything like simplicity, or unfitness for their office.
So now the Emperor walked under his high canopy in
the midst of the procession, through the streets of his
capital; and all the people standing by, and those at the
windows, cried out, ‘Oh! How beautiful are our
Emperor’s new clothes! What a magnificent train there is
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to the mantle; and how gracefully the scarf hangs!’ in
short, no one would allow that he could not see these
much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would
have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit for his
office. Certainly, none of the Emperor’s various suits, had
ever made so great an impression, as these invisible ones.
‘But the Emperor has nothing at all on!’ said a little
child.
‘Listen to the voice of innocence!’ exclaimed his father;
and what the child had said was whispered from one to
another.
‘But he has nothing at all on!’ at last cried out all the
people. The Emperor was vexed, for he knew that the
people were right; but he thought the procession must go
on now! And the lords of the bedchamber took greater
pains than ever, to appear holding up a train, although, in
reality, there was no train to hold.
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THE SWINEHERD
There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom.
His kingdom was very small, but still quite large enough
to marry upon; and he wished to marry.
It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the
Emperor’s daughter, ‘Will you have me?’ But so he did;
for his name was renowned far and wide; and there were a
hundred princesses who would have answered, ‘Yes!’ and
‘Thank you kindly.’ We shall see what this princess said.
Listen!
It happened that where the Prince’s father lay buried,
there grew a rose tree—a most beautiful rose tree, which
blossomed only once in every five years, and even then
bore only one flower, but that was a rose! It smelt so sweet
that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who
inhaled its fragrance.
And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who
could sing in such a manner that it seemed as though all
sweet melodies dwelt in her little throat. So the Princess
was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and they were
accordingly put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
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The Emperor had them brought into a large hall,
where the Princess was playing at ‘Visiting,’ with the ladies
of the court; and when she saw the caskets with the
presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
‘Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!’ said she; but the
rose tree, with its beautiful rose came to view.
‘Oh, how prettily it is made!’ said all the court ladies.
‘It is more than pretty,’ said the Emperor, ‘it is
charming!’
But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to
cry.
‘Fie, papa!’ said she. ‘It is not made at all, it is natural!’
‘Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get
into a bad humor,’ said the Emperor. So the nightingale
came forth and sang so delightfully that at first no one
could say anything ill-humored of her.
‘Superbe! Charmant! exclaimed the ladies; for they all
used to chatter French, each one worse than her neighbor.
‘How much the bird reminds me of the musical box
that belonged to our blessed Empress,’ said an old knight.
‘Oh yes! These are the same tones, the same execution.’
‘Yes! yes!’ said the Emperor, and he wept like a child at
the remembrance.
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‘I will still hope that it is not a real bird,’ said the
Princess.
‘Yes, it is a real bird,’ said those who had brought it.
‘Well then let the bird fly,’ said the Princess; and she
positively refused to see the Prince.
However, he was not to be discouraged; he daubed his
face over brown and black; pulled his cap over his ears,
and knocked at the door.
‘Good day to my lord, the Emperor!’ said he. ‘Can I
have employment at the palace?’
‘Why, yes,’ said the Emperor. ‘I want some one to take
care of the pigs, for we have a great many of them.’
So the Prince was appointed ‘Imperial Swineherd.’ He
had a dirty little room close by the pigsty; and there he sat
the whole day, and worked. By the evening he had made
a pretty little kitchen-pot. Little bells were hung all round
it; and when the pot was boiling, these bells tinkled in the
most charming manner, and played the old melody,
‘Ach! du lieber Augustin, Alles ist weg, weg, weg!’*
* ‘Ah! dear Augustine! All is gone, gone, gone!’
But what was still more curious, whoever held his
finger in the smoke of the kitchen-pot, immediately smelt
all the dishes that were cooking on every hearth in the
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city—this, you see, was something quite different from the
rose.
Now the Princess happened to walk that way; and
when she heard the tune, she stood quite still, and seemed
pleased; for she could play ‘Lieber Augustine"; it was the
only piece she knew; and she played it with one finger.
‘Why there is my piece,’ said the Princess. ‘That
swineherd must certainly have been well educated! Go in
and ask him the price of the instrument.’
So one of the court-ladies must run in; however, she
drew on wooden slippers first.
‘What will you take for the kitchen-pot?’ said the lady.
‘I will have ten kisses from the Princess,’ said the
swineherd.
‘Yes, indeed!’ said the lady.
‘I cannot sell it for less,’ rejoined the swineherd.
‘He is an impudent fellow!’ said the Princess, and she
walked on; but when she had gone a little way, the bells
tinkled so prettily
‘Ach! du lieber Augustin, Alles ist weg, weg, weg!’
‘Stay,’ said the Princess. ‘Ask him if he will have ten
kisses from the ladies of my court.’
‘No, thank you!’ said the swineherd. ‘Ten kisses from
the Princess, or I keep the kitchen-pot myself.’
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‘That must not be, either!’ said the Princess. ‘But do
you all stand before me that no one may see us.’
And the court-ladies placed themselves in front of her,
and spread out their dresses—the swineherd got ten kisses,
and the Princess—the kitchen-pot.
That was delightful! The pot was boiling the whole
evening, and the whole of the following day. They knew
perfectly well what was cooking at every fire throughout
the city, from the chamberlain’s to the cobbler’s; the
court-ladies danced and clapped their hands.
‘We know who has soup, and who has pancakes for
dinner to-day, who has cutlets, and who has eggs. How
interesting!’
‘Yes, but keep my secret, for I am an Emperor’s
daughter.’
The swineherd—that is to say—the Prince, for no one
knew that he was other than an ill-favored swineherd, let
not a day pass without working at something; he at last
constructed a rattle, which, when it was swung round,
played all the waltzes and jig tunes, which have ever been
heard since the creation of the world.
‘Ah, that is superbe!’ said the Princess when she passed
by. ‘I have never heard prettier compositions! Go in and
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ask him the price of the instrument; but mind, he shall
have no more kisses!’
‘He will have a hundred kisses from the Princess!’ said
the lady who had been to ask.
‘I think he is not in his right senses!’ said the Princess,
and walked on, but when she had gone a little way, she
stopped again. ‘One must encourage art,’ said she, ‘I am
the Emperor’s daughter. Tell him he shall, as on yesterday,
have ten kisses from me, and may take the rest from the
ladies of the court.’
‘Oh—but we should not like that at all!’ said they.
‘What are you muttering?’ asked the Princess. ‘If I can kiss
him, surely you can. Remember that you owe everything
to me.’ So the ladies were obliged to go to him again.
‘A hundred kisses from the Princess,’ said he, ‘or else let
everyone keep his own!’
‘Stand round!’ said she; and all the ladies stood round
her whilst the kissing was going on.
‘What can be the reason for such a crowd close by the
pigsty?’ said the Emperor, who happened just then to step
out on the balcony; he rubbed his eyes, and put on his
spectacles. ‘They are the ladies of the court; I must go
down and see what they are about!’ So he pulled up his
slippers at the heel, for he had trodden them down.
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As soon as he had got into the court-yard, he moved
very softly, and the ladies were so much engrossed with
counting the kisses, that all might go on fairly, that they
did not perceive the Emperor. He rose on his tiptoes.
‘What is all this?’ said he, when he saw what was going
on, and he boxed the Princess’s ears with his slipper, just
as the swineherd was taking the eighty-sixth kiss.
‘March out!’ said the Emperor, for he was very angry;
and both Princess and swineherd were thrust out of the
city.
The Princess now stood and wept, the swineherd
scolded, and the rain poured down.
‘Alas! Unhappy creature that I am!’ said the Princess. ‘If
I had but married the handsome young Prince! Ah! how
unfortunate I am!’
And the swineherd went behind a tree, washed the
black and brown color from his face, threw off his dirty
clothes, and stepped forth in his princely robes; he looked
so noble that the Princess could not help bowing before
him.
‘I am come to despise thee,’ said he. ‘Thou would’st
not have an honorable Prince! Thou could’st not prize the
rose and the nightingale, but thou wast ready to kiss the
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swineherd for the sake of a trumpery plaything. Thou art
rightly served.’
He then went back to his own little kingdom, and shut
the door of his palace in her face. Now she might well
sing,
‘Ach! du lieber Augustin, Alles ist weg, weg, weg!’
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THE REAL PRINCESS
There was once a Prince who wished to marry a
Princess; but then she must be a real Princess. 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.
At last he returned to his palace quite cast down, because
he wished so much to have a real Princess for his wife.
One evening a fearful tempest arose, it thundered and
lightened, and the rain poured down from the sky in
torrents: 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 standing outside the door.
What with the rain and the wind, she was in a sad
condition; the water trickled 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 Queenmother;
however, she said not a word of what she was
going to do; but went quietly into the bedroom, took all
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the bed-clothes off the bed, and put three little peas on the
bedstead. She then laid twenty mattresses one upon
another over the three peas, and put twenty feather beds
over the mattresses.
Upon this bed the Princess was to pass the night.
The next morning she was asked how she had slept.
‘Oh, very badly indeed!’ 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. 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.
The Prince accordingly made her his wife; being now
convinced that he had found a real Princess. The three
peas were however put into the cabinet of curiosities,
where they are still to be seen, provided they are not lost.
Wasn’t this a lady of real delicacy?
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THE SHOES OF FORTUNE
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I. A Beginning
Every author has some peculiarity in his descriptions or
in his style of writing. Those who do not like him,
magnify it, shrug up their shoulders, and exclaim—there
he is again! I, for my part, know very well how I can bring
about this movement and this exclamation. It would
happen immediately if I were to begin here, as I intended
to do, with: ‘Rome has its Corso, Naples its Toledo’—
‘Ah! that Andersen; there he is again!’ they would cry; yet
I must, to please my fancy, continue quite quietly, and
add: ‘But Copenhagen has its East Street.’
Here, then, we will stay for the present. In one of the
houses not far from the new market a party was invited—a
very large party, in order, as is often the case, to get a
return invitation from the others. One half of the
company was already seated at the card-table, the other
half awaited the result of the stereotype preliminary
observation of the lady of the house:
‘Now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves.’
They had got just so far, and the conversation began to
crystallise, as it could but do with the scanty stream which
the commonplace world supplied. Amongst other things
they spoke of the middle ages: some praised that period as
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far more interesting, far more poetical than our own too
sober present; indeed Councillor Knap defended this
opinion so warmly, that the hostess declared immediately
on his side, and both exerted themselves with unwearied
eloquence. The Councillor boldly declared the time of
King Hans to be the noblest and the most happy period.*