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 SWELtUAND 
 
 KANE 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 PRESENTED BY THE 
 
 WILLIAM A. WHITAKER 
 
 FOUNDATION 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/awfulhistoryofblOOthac 
 
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THE AWFUL HISTORY 
 OF BLUEBEARD 
 
 ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY 
 
 W. M. THACKERAY 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 TEMPLE SCOTT 
 
 j? A NOTE ON THE LEGEND BY 
 
 CHARLES VALE 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 FOR JEROME KERN 
 
Printed by Douglas C. McMurtrie, ?{ew York 
 
THE INTRODUCTION 
 
 THESE delightful drawings by Thackeray, 
 entitled by him, "The Awful History of 
 Bluebeard," were found preserved in a 
 little scrap-album which was presented to Mary 
 Augusta Thackeray by her mother, on the child's 
 eleventh birthday, March 26, 1841. They have 
 never before been published, and they are repro- 
 duced now to engage the interest and arouse the 
 amused appreciation of the many lovers of the 
 great English novelist and humane humorist. 
 
 I have had no little difficulty in identifying the 
 Mary Augusta of the album, but I have arrived 
 at the definite conclusion that she was Thackeray's 
 cousin, the daughter of Francis Thackeray, curate 
 of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and brother of 
 Richmond Thackeray, the father of the novelist. 
 While it is true that the records of the Thackeray 
 family make no mention of a Mary Augusta, they 
 do give a Mary, who was the daughter of Francis 
 Thackeray. In his "Fragments of the Past," 
 privately printed in 1907 by St. John Thackeray, 
 a son of Francis Thackeray and a master at Eton, 
 reference is made by the author to his sister 
 Mary as being two years his senior. He does not 
 call her Mary Augusta, but simply Mary. That 
 
this Mary is the Mary Augusta of the album is 
 evident from the following facts: 
 
 In the tiny scrap'album presented to Mary 
 Augusta in 1836 as "the reward of good conduct," 
 and now in the possession of Mr. Jerome Kern, 
 are two entries — one in a child's handwriting, and 
 the other in a mature hand. The former was evi' 
 dently written by the child herself and is ad' 
 dressed "To St. John." It consists of six rhymed 
 
 lines : 
 
 "Little boy 
 always try 
 To be your parent's joy, 
 
 never cry 
 But with me, ever prove 
 As gentle as a dove." 
 
 The "St. John 11 is, of course, Mary Augusta's 
 brother, who was a boy of four years of age at the 
 time. The second entry is a rhymed quatrain and 
 is signed "F. T." and "M. A. T. 11 
 
 "Be good and kind my little Mary, 
 And never let your temper vary. 
 Remember how this gift you gain, 
 And every peevish word restrain." 
 
 The initials "F. T. 11 are, no doubt, those of the 
 child's father, Francis Thackeray, the uncle of 
 William Makepeace, and the initials "M. A. T." 
 are those of the child's mother, Mary Ann 
 Thackeray, nee Mary Ann Shakespear. 
 
In the morocco bound solander case containing 
 these two albums is a water-color drawing of 
 Mary Augusta, a portrait of a ten months old 
 baby, as the inscription on the back of the draw 
 ing informs us. At the time this drawing was 
 made Thackeray was a young man of twenty, 
 and had just left Trinity College, Cambridge, to 
 travel in Germany and France, and to exercise 
 himself enthusiastically with art studies. It will 
 be remembered that Thackeray early nursed am- 
 bitions to become an artist, and his first writings 
 which were illustrated by himself were published 
 over the nom de plume, Michael Angelo Tit- 
 marsh.* Even as a boy at the Charterhouse School 
 he was much addicted to drawing, and many of 
 his school books have come down to us decorated 
 with his efforts in this direction. His mother and 
 stepfather urged him to enter the profession of 
 the bar, but although he became a student of the 
 Middle Temple and read law with a "pleader," 
 his distaste for the legal profession was so strong 
 that he discarded all pretence for its study when 
 he attained his majority in 1832 and went to 
 Paris to study art. His sojourn in the French capi- 
 tal, however, was short and mainly taken up with 
 enjoying its pleasures. In December, 1832, he 
 
 * Is it only coincidence that the initials M. A. T. of Mary Ann 
 Thackeray, Mary Augusta Thackeray and Michael Angelo Titmarsh 
 are the same? 
 
was back in London seeking channels in which he 
 could find the work meet for his hands to do and 
 fulfil himself. Art, somehow, offered no field in 
 which he could acquit himself with any sense of 
 fulfilment, and finding that his stepfather was 
 connected with a weekly, the "National Stand' 
 ard," he took up journalism. But he never relin- 
 quished the hold art had on him. 
 
 While yet a youth Thackeray had evinced an 
 unusual gift for burlesque, and several amusing 
 parodies in verse have come down to us from this 
 period of his life which testify to this gift. It was 
 rather a satiric burlesque, which later burgeoned 
 in his social studies and novels of contemporary 
 life and manners. But the first expression of this 
 satiric side of his nature found an art form for 
 itself. There is no doubt he had a genuine flair 
 for caricature, indulging his fancy in a frolicsome 
 spirit only whenever occasion offered, yet unable 
 to resist imparting to it a rather biting humor. 
 When he came to publish his writings he took 
 upon himself the task of interpreting them pic- 
 torially, and these illustrations form no small 
 commentary on his judgments of the individuals 
 he wrote about and satirised with his engaging 
 humor. All his early works, and most of his im- 
 portant novels, with the exception of "Barry 
 Lyndon" and "Henry Esmond," were thus illus- 
 trated by himself. Thackeray had an unbounded 
 
admiration for the genius of George Cruikshank. 
 He wrote an excellent essay on the man and his 
 work. There is evident in Thackeray's drawings 
 that spirit of caricature in both conception and 
 treatment which is so characteristic of the great 
 caricature artist of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The story has been told that when Mrs. Ritchie, 
 the aunt with whom Thackeray lived when a 
 child, found that her husband's hat fitted the 
 little boy, she carried him in alarm to the popular 
 physician, Sir Charles Clark. "Don't be afraid," 
 Sir Charles told her, "he has a large head, but 
 there's a good deal in it." There was so much in 
 it, indeed, that it took thirty-eight years before 
 it began to empty itself; and its owner was dead 
 at fifty-two. What was Thackeray doing up to 
 the age of thirty-eight? Idling, we are told — 
 idling in travels, idling in pleasures at the French 
 capital, idling in amusing himself with dabbling 
 in art, idling in journalism, and idling in spending 
 the five hundred pounds a year he had inherited. 
 There must have been some virtue in this idling, 
 for in the fourteen years of industry which fol- 
 lowed Thackeray wrote himself into the glorious 
 rolls of England's literature. Would that we had 
 more idlers like the author of "The Newcomes" 
 and "Vanity Fair." The truth is that a man of 
 Thackeray's nature, keen in insight and loving in 
 heart, must ripen slowly in beneficent sunlight, 
 
that the acrid odors of the blossoming soul shall 
 become transmuted into the vivifying perfumes of 
 the flowering heart. It was thus that Thackeray 
 ripened. 
 
 Even his drawings evince this process of bur" 
 geoning. These of Bluebeard's story which are 
 dated "London, 1833," while they are, of course, 
 the work of idle moments, are yet so fulfilled of 
 Thackeray's humorous imagination and so indica- 
 tive of his gift of caricature that they deserve a 
 special place in the esteem of those who love the 
 man and all the ways in which he expressed him' 
 self. Certainly they reveal that insight and 
 knowledge of human nature which were later so 
 richly embodied in his writings. It may seem 
 absurd to cite these slight and fanciful delinea- 
 tions of a fable presented to a child for her amuse- 
 ment, as suggestive of the mentality of the author 
 of "Vanity Fair"; but slight and fanciful as these 
 drawings may be, they yet impart the same 
 burlesque humor of reality tinged with a melan- 
 choly sarcasm which is so characteristic of Thack- 
 eray, the observer of human blindness to its own 
 futilitarianisms. They give, even at the early 
 date of their execution, the direction of the mental 
 outlook of the man who was later made sad by 
 affliction, but who recovered himself by a humor 
 at once searching and kindly. 
 
 It was, however, in a frolicsome and humorous 
 
mood that Thackeray executed these seven draw 
 ings to illustrate the story of Bluebeard. The 
 story and its moral must have touched his risibili- 
 ties to a jocular resentment, for they are really 
 very funny, and form an extravagant burlesque in 
 sufficient detail to enable any one to follow the 
 tale from its improbable beginning to its artificial 
 conclusion. Although drawn with a pen in the 
 sketchiest manner, every picture moves one to 
 laughter, so happily and so amusingly is the 
 burlesque realized. The faces and their expres- 
 sions, especially those of Bluebeard and Fatima, 
 are pictured in all the serio-comic possibilities of 
 the situations in which the story places them. 
 Thackeray, the young idler of twenty-two, must 
 have enjoyed himself hugely both in making these 
 drawings and in anticipating the pleasure they 
 would give to the little girl to whom he sent them. 
 It is very interesting to note that the little 
 album in which these drawings were pasted, 
 seems to be the only evidence so far brought to 
 light of Thackeray's relations with his uncle and 
 his uncle's family. That Thackeray should have 
 made the portrait of the child, Mary Augusta, 
 and also sent her these Bluebeard drawings when 
 the child had attained the age of eleven, would 
 indicate that he had an affection for the girl and a 
 strong attachment for his relatives in the Brox- 
 bourne vicarage. Apart, therefore, from the in- 
 
trinsic merits of the drawings, they have the 
 added interest of being a record of the great 
 novelist's abiding and happy friendships with his 
 relatives. They have a sentimental association 
 which brings the man Thackeray very close to 
 our hearts. 
 
 Temple Scott 
 
THE AWWVL 
 
 @s 
 
 
 <C<rn4&m. ^ 
 
 /M 
 
BLUEBEARD TEMPTS FATIMA BY GIVING HER 
 
 THE KEY OF THE LOCKED ROOM, INTO WHICH 
 
 SHE MUST NOT GO 
 
FATIMA'S DISCOVERY OF THE CONTENTS OF 
 BLUEBEARD'S LOCKED ROOM 
 
^za 
 
BLUEBEARD, HAVING FOUND THAT FATIMA 
 
 HAS ENTERED THE SACRED CHAMBER, IS ABOUT 
 
 TO DEAL WITH HER AS HE DID WITH HIS OTHER 
 
 WIVES 
 
"*&/ 
 
FATIMA'S SISTER, ANNE, ANXIOUSLY 
 
 LOOKING FROM THE TOWER FOR THE 
 
 RESCUERS 
 
"^^ 
 
 fzAJ 
 
SISTER ANNE SIGNALLING THE RESCUERS 
 
h-^- 
 
 VY r T^N^\r- 
 
THE RIDE TO THE RESCUE OF FATIMA 
 
THE DEATH OF BLUEBEARD 
 
THE BLUEBEARD LEGEND 
 
 "This door you might not open, and you did" 
 
 EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY "BLUEBEARD" (SONNET) 
 
 THE familiar story of Bluebeard found its way 
 into English from the French of Charles 
 Perrault's "Barbe Bleue," first printed in his 
 "Histoires et Contes du Terns Passe" (1697). The 
 Chevalier Raoul, whose imperishable sobriquet, 
 of course, was due to the peculiar color of his 
 beard, married successively six wives, who all 
 mysteriously disappeared. Fatima, the undis- 
 couraged seventh, was subjected to a singular test 
 of obedience. Her husband, setting out on a jour- 
 ney, placed in her hands the keys of the castle, 
 with full permission to wander where she pleased 
 in the corridors and chambers, with the exception 
 of one room, which must on no account be entered. 
 Fatima, her loneliness nourishing her curiosity, 
 naturally found the forbidden door irresistible : she 
 unlocked it, and discovered the charnel chamber 
 of her predecessors. In her terror she dropped the 
 key, and was unable to obliterate from it the stain 
 of blood. Her lord, returning, detected her dis- 
 obedience (which he had anticipated) through the 
 stain, and commanded her to prepare for death in 
 five minutes. Her sister Anne, however, scanning 
 
the horizon for possible succor, perceived horse' 
 men in the distance. She signalled to them and 
 they galloped to the rescue, arriving just in time 
 to rescue their sister — for they proved to be 
 Fatima's brothers — by slaying the implacable 
 and sanguinary Bluebeard. 
 
 The role of the fictitious Chevalier Raoul has 
 been assigned to various historic characters. The 
 English Henry VIII has been suggested as the 
 possible prototype: maritally and temperament 
 tally, he seems qualified. In France the Bluebeard 
 legend is especially associated with Brittany; but 
 whether the traditions identifying the monster 
 with Gilles de Rais, or with Comorre the Cursed, 
 a Breton chieftain of the sixth century, were 
 anterior to Perrault's time, cannot be satisfactorily 
 determined. The claims of Gilles de Rais to the 
 unpleasant distinction are still accepted locally 
 in the neighborhood of the baron's numerous 
 castles, particularly at Machecoul and Tiffauges, 
 the chief scenes of his infamous crimes. De Rais, 
 or de Retz;, Marshal of France, fought stoutly 
 against the English, and was Joan of Arc's special 
 protector. One of the richest men in the realm, 
 he kept open house, was a munificent patron of 
 literature and music, and was himself a skilled 
 illuminator and binder. He also indulged a pas' 
 sion for the stage, and the original draft of the 
 Mystery of Orleans was probably written under 
 
his dictation. His prodigality dissipated his 
 wealth. He hoped to redeem his fortunes or mis- 
 fortunes by alchemy, and also consulted necro- 
 mancers, who promised to raise the devil for him. 
 But he raised the devil himself, committing in' 
 credible atrocities. His servants kidnapped chil- 
 dren, generally boys, on his behalf; and these he 
 tortured and murdered. The number of his vic- 
 tims was alleged at his trial to have been 140, and 
 even larger figures are quoted. He was eventually 
 hanged (not burned alive, as is sometimes stated). 
 The less widespread identification of Bluebeard 
 with Comorre the Cursed is supported by a series 
 of frescoes dating from only a few years after the 
 publication of Perrault's story. They were dis- 
 covered in 1850, M. Hippolyte Violeau assures 
 us in his "Pelerinages de Bretagne," during repairs 
 to the chapel at St. Nicolas de Bieusy dedicated to 
 St. Tryphine, who in history was the wife of 
 Comorre or Conomor: in legend she was decapi- 
 tated, and miraculously restored to life by St. 
 Gildas. The frescoes depict the Bluebeard story 
 in five thrills — (1) The marriage; (2) the husband 
 taking leave of his young wife and entrusting the 
 key to her; (3) the forbidden door opened, and the 
 corpses of the murdered wives hanging within; 
 (4) the husband threatening his wife, while an- 
 other female (sister Anne) is looking anxiously 
 out of a window above; (5) the wife at the mercy 
 
of her husband, with a halter round her neck; but 
 the rescuers, accompanied by St. Gildas, Abbot of 
 Rhuys in Brittany, arrive just in time to save the 
 future saint. 
 
 Besides the French version of Perrault, there 
 are tales of a similar kind in Straparola's "Piace- 
 voli Notti" (1569) and in the "Pen tamer one" of 
 Gian Alesio Abbatutio. In his "Phantasus," 
 Tieck developed the theme into a clever drama; 
 Getry, in his "Raoul Barbe-Bleue" (1789), gave it 
 the setting of comic opera; the younger Coleman 
 brought out "Bluebeard; or, Female Curiosity" in 
 1798; and Offenbach produced his opera bouffe, 
 "Barbe'Bleue," in 1866. The essentials of the 
 story are found in various folklore tales, none of 
 which, however, has attained the fame of Blue- 
 beard. A close parallel exists in an Esthonian 
 legend of a husband who had already disposed of 
 eleven wives, and was prevented from killing 
 the twelfth, who had opened a secret room, 
 by a gooseherd, the friend of her childhood. The 
 story of The Third Calender in the "Arabian 
 Nights" will readily present itself. The forty 
 princesses were absent for forty days, but gave 
 King Agib the keys of the palace before their 
 departure. He had permission to enter every 
 room except one. His curiosity (like Fatima's) led 
 him to open the forbidden door, and mount the 
 horse which he found in the chamber. The flying 
 
steed carried him through the air far from the 
 palace, and with a whisk of its tail knocked out his 
 right eye. A similar misfortune — so precise was 
 the horse's judgment of distance, and so powerful 
 its retributive tail — had previously befallen ten 
 other princes, who had warned Agib of the danger 
 before he started. 
 
 The Bluebeard legend belongs to the common 
 stock of folklore, and has even been ingeniously 
 provided with a mythical interpretation. Its real 
 significance obviously lies in its discouragement 
 of intrusive curiosity; and its moral is priceless 
 and timeless. Let no modern Fatimas or Agibs 
 peer inquisitively into the secret chambers of the 
 past: they may discover too much. Dead loves — 
 murdered loves — may be multiple: but why dis' 
 turb the skeletons? Sufficient unto the day — or 
 the honeymoon — is its own tragedy, or its own 
 comedy. 
 
 Charles Vale 
 
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