In this next stage of the fairy tale we are introduced to the wife of the Man with the Lamp. She is a "Woman with a Basket." This character is worth a study all of her own. What she finds herself doing, why and who for contain riddles of life. Many may identify with her. So, following the story where we are now in the cottage where they live, explore what Goethe has given to readers to stimulate imagination in both the period when the fairy tale was written as well as the present period of upheaval in European societies.
Here is Goethe's direct text for this part of the story.
He found his wife in extreme distress. She was weeping and refused to be consoled.
The old Woman, cried: "How unhappy am I! Did I not entreat thee not to go away tonight?"
Her husband, the old Man: inquired, quite composed: "What is the matter, then?"
His wife said, sobbing, "Scarcely wert thou gone when there came two noisy Travellers to the door.
Unthinkingly, I let them in; they seemed to be a couple of genteel, very honourable people; they were dressed in flames, you would have taken them for Will-o-wisps. But no sooner were they in the house, than they began, like imprudent varlets, to compliment me and grew so forward that I feel ashamed to think of it."
Her husband said: with a smile, "No doubt, the gentlemen were jesting: considering thy age, they might have held by general politeness."
His wife cried: "Age! What age? Wilt thou always be talking of my age? How old am I, then? General politeness! But I know what I know. Look round there what a face the walls have; look at the old stones, which I have not seen these hundred years; every film of gold have they licked away, thou couldst not think how fast and still they kept assuring me that it tasted far beyond common gold.
Once they had swept the walls, the fellows seemed to be in high spirits and truly in that little while they had grown much broader and brighter. They now began to be impertinent again, they patted me and called me their queen, they shook themselves and a shower of gold-pieces sprang from them; see how they are shining there under the bench! But, ah, what misery! Poor Mops ate a coin or two and look, he is lying in the chimney, dead. Poor Pug, O well-a-day! I did not see it till they were gone; else I had never promised to pay the Ferryman the debt they owe him."
Her husband said: "What do they owe him?"
His wife replied: "Three Cabbages, three Artichokes and three Onions: I engaged to go when it was day and take them to the River."
Her husband said: "Thou mayest do them that civility. They may chance to be of use to us again."
His wife replied: "Whether they will be of use to us I know not; but they promised and vowed that they would."
Meanwhile the fire on the hearth had burnt low; the old Man covered up the embers with a heap of ashes and put the glittering gold pieces aside; so that his little lamp now gleamed alone, in the fairest brightness. The walls again coated themselves with gold and Mops changed into the prettiest onyx that could be imagined. The alternation of the brown and black in this precious stone made it the most curious piece of workmanship.
"Take thy Basket," said the Man, "and put the onyx into it, then take the three Cabbages, the three Artichokes and the three Onions; place them round little Mops and carry them to the River. At Noon the Snake will take thee over; visit the fair Lily, give her the onyx, she will make it alive by her touch, as by her touch she kills what whatever is alive already.
She will have a true companion in the little dog. Tell her, not to mourn; her deliverance is near; the greatest misfortune she may look upon as the greatest happiness, for the time is at hand."
The old Woman filled her basket and set out as soon as it was day.
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Some of the Questions Goethe's imaginative text raises include:
The actual effect of the light gleaming from the Man with the Lamp's, lamp.
Any significance of the nature of the debt by the Will-o-wisps to the Ferryman of three cabbages, three artichokes and three onions.
Following advising his wife what to do - why the Man with the Lamp spoke for the second time in the story the phrase "The time is at hand."
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Considering these, other questions, and what are felt as riddles is often best explored through conversation.
An audio recording of this part of the story is available on www.tgsatbl.blogspot.com as Episode 5.
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