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DAVINCI - MONA LISA - PAGE 6
The Beanstalk was first published as The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean in 1734.
It was retold in 1890 by Joseph Jacobs in English
Fairy Tales which is still the most popular version.
The story is ancient and originated millennia ago (4500 BCE to 2500 BCE)
and has been rewritten several times and exists in many
versions.
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Jack and the Beanstalk |
Giant |
- Once upon a time in England, a poor farmer's widow lived with her
young son Jack.
- They were so poor, the only thing they had to
nourish themselves was milk from their cow Milky-White.
- Every
morning, Jack would milk the cow and after breakfast he would
take the jug of extra milk to market and sell it for a few pennies
to a cheese maker.
Jack's bluejeans |
- They were so poor their clothes were all faded and
tattered but Jack tried not to notice when he put his
bluejeans on every morning.
- He would look for work often,
but the he was a small boy and no one would hire him.
- In the winter when the land
froze, nobody worked.
The widow is hungry and worried |
- With the money he made selling the milk, Jack would buy a
bag of potatoes and some bread for dinner.
- It had been
long winter and a
dry spring, and there was not enough grass for Milky-White to eat.
- Unfortunately,
Milky went dry one morning after a few days without any grass,
she stopped producing milk.
-
Jack and his mother went hungry that day and so did
Milky-White.
Let the sky rain potatoes!
(Shakespeare, Merry Wives of
Windsor)
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Milky-White the cow |
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A few days passed and in desperation, and almost starving, the widow asked Jack to
take Milky-White to market and auction her off to the highest bidder.
- The widow
told Jack she would set up a shop to sell things with the
money he made from the cow.
- Jack took the cow's halter
and started
down the winding road to market with Milky-White.
Winding road to market |
- On
the way to market, Jack met an old man who knew his name and
said "Hello Jack."
- The old man carried three magic beans in a
green bag he hung from his belt.
- He told Jack he wouldn't
regret trading the cow for them and they were worth 1,000
times more than anyone would pay him for the cow.
- The old
man also told Jack they would make his
mother very happy and change both their lives for the better.
- Jack was so intrigued, he sold the cow to the old man he met on the road for
three 'magic beans.'
Magic beans |
-
Jack returned home with the green bag and his mother was enraged when she found
out he traded their precious cow for three beans.
- Plus, the
beans that Jack gave her, looked like regular beans.
Garden freshly plowed |
- The widow was so mad she called
Jack a fool and threw the beans out the window into the field.
- There wasn't even enough of them to cook for dinner.
- When Jack realized what he had done, he felt bad and sobbed and went to
his room.
- Jack was
so sad and there was no food in the pantry, so he
went to bed hungry that night.
And now off with you to bed. Not a sup shall you
drink, and not a bit shall you swallow this very
night.
(Joseph Jacobs, 1890)
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Bean trellis by morning |
- The next day, when Jack awoke, he noticed that his
usually sunny room was very dark.
- He looked out the window
and he discovered that a huge beanstalk had grown where his
mother threw the beans.
- It was as large as ten huge oak
trees.
- His mother was happy that at least they had
beans for breakfast.
Jack ready to climb the beanstalk |
- After breakfast, Jack climbed the beanstalk.
- It had great, leafy vines
that snaked around like ladders, making it easy for Jack to scale the skyscraper
sized stalk.
- So Jack climbed, and he climbed, and he
climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed, and
he climbed till at last he reached the sky.
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Beanstalk flowerbud in the clouds |
- Jack climbed up so high into the clouds, he could
no longer see the ground.
- After a while,
and much climbing, he reached a kingdom in the sky and he
found a long broad road going as straight as a dart.
- He
walked along, and he walked along till he came to a great big
tall house, and on the doorstep was a great big tall woman.
Jack sees the kitchen lamplight |
- He greeted the woman and they went inside the house.
- The Giant's wife
took him to the kitchen and Jack told her how
hungry he was and the kind wife gave him a hunk of bread and
jug of milk.
- While he was eating, the Giant came home and he was huge and
quite fearsome.
Jack hiding in
the pantry |
- Jack was so frightened, he ran and hid in the pantry.
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The Giant screamed "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an
Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones
to make my bread."
- The wife said, "There is no boy in
here!"
Giant's gold stash |
- The
Giant ate his dinner and then went to his room.
- He took out his
sacks of gold coins
and counted them, something he did almost every night.
- After he
was done counting the gold, he put all the sacks away and then
the
Giant went to sleep for the night.
Happy bluebird nest of gold coins
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- During the night, Jack snuck out of
his hiding place in the pantry.
- He took one box of
the Giant's gold coins and climbed down the beanstalk.
-
He hurried home where Jack happily gave the coins to his mother.
- His mother
was delighted and they lived abundantly for quite some time.
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
(Shakespeare, Timon of Athens)
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Beanstalk |
- After the bag of gold was all gone,
Jack climbed the beanstalk again and returned to the Giant's
castle.
- Once again, Jack asked the Giant's kind wife for food
and she gave him a hunk of bread and a jug of milk.
Jack hides under the bed |
- The Giant returned while he was eating and Jack quickly
hid under a bed.
- The Giant
shouted
"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he
alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread."
- The wife said,
"There is no boy in here!"
Golden egg |
- The giant ate his dinner and went to his room.
- Once there, he took out a hen and shouted, “Lay!”
- Upon command, the goose laid a golden egg.
- When the giant fell asleep, Jack took the enchanted goose and climbed down the beanstalk.
- Jack’s mother was very happy with him when she saw the
golden egg.
Truly, thou art damned like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.
(Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)
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Giant's castle |
- A few days later, Jack once again climbed the beanstalk and went to the giant’s castle.
- For the third time, Jack met the giant’s wife and asked for some food.
- Once again, the kind giant’s wife gave him a hunk
of bread and a jug of milk.
Giant looking for Jack |
- While Jack was eating his bread, the giant came home.
- “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!”
shouted the Giant.
- “Don’t be silly! There is no boy in here!” said his wife.
- Jack quickly hid under the bed again.
Giant plays his harp |
- The giant had a magical
golden harp that could play beautiful songs
by itself.
- While the Giant slept, Jack took the harp and was about to leave
when suddenly, the magic harp cried, “Help master! A boy is stealing me!”
Giant
enraged when Jack steals from him |
- The giant woke up and saw Jack with the golden harp that sang
and played by itself.
- Furious, he ran after Jack,
but Jack was too fast for him and he climbed down the beanstalk and
ran for home.
Giant wrapped
in beanstalk |
- The giant followed Jack down the
beanstalk.
- Jack, who was very nimble, quickly reached
the bottom and ran inside his house and fetched an axe.
- He
chopped down the beanstalk, and the Giant, who was only halfway
down, fell and died.
There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.
(Shakespeare, King John)
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The widow and the gold |
- Jack and his mother were now very rich and they
lived happily ever after.
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
(Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well)
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Moral of the myth!
Hopefully the Giant's kind wife has a cow now that
her husband and their gold are gone, stolen.
No wonder the Giant disliked the 'Englishmen' so
much, Jack was a naughty boy.
Don't ever call anyone a fool, especially someone
you love.
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Jack seeks Revenge |
Man eating Giant |
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In Benjamin Tabart's moralized version, a fairy explains to Jack that the
Giant had robbed and murdered his father and this justified Jack's actions
(stealing and killing) as retribution.
- Many modern versions of the story
follow Tabart's version and made the Giant into a villain.
In some versions of the tale, the giant is unnamed, but many plays based on it name him Blunderbore (one giant of that name appears in the 18th-century tale "Jack the Giant Killer"). In "The Story of Jack Spriggins" the giant is named Gogmagog.
(Wikipedia)
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Fairy talks to Jack |
- A fairy fluttered around Jack when he is on his way up the beanstalk
the first time.
- The fairy
told him that the golden egg laying hen belonged to his
father who was killed by the Giant who ate his father.
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After murdering his father, the Giant stole the enchanted goose
from Jack's family.
the 1952 film starring Abbott and Costello the giant is blamed for poverty at the foot of the beanstalk, as he has been stealing food and wealth and the hen that lays golden eggs originally belonged to Jack's family.
(Wikipedia)
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Giant that ate Jack's father |
- The fairy lets Jack know he should take the hen back
and make things right.
- She told Jack that his father had
been a very wealthy man and then the fairy vanished.
Table leg |
- The Giant lives in an opulant castle with stone lions
on either side of the huge oak front door that Jack could
sneak under.
- Once inside the kitchen, the Giant showed up
so Jack hid behind one of the table legs.
- Once the Giant
fell asleep at the table, Jack shimmied up the leg and took
the Golden Hen and escaped.
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Victim to villain |
Ogre |
- In the Joseph
Jacob's 1890 version, the Giant's kind wife let's Jack know
that her husband is an Ogre and he loved boys broiled on toast
so he better move on fast.
- Just as she told him that, there was
a huge thump! thump! thump! thump! and the whole house was
trembling.
- She hid Jack in the oven.
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
(Shakespeare)
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Kitchen window light |
- The Ogre came into the kitchen with three calves strung
up by the heels.
- He unhooked them and threw them on the table and
said, "Here wife, broil me a couple of these for breakfast.
Ah! what's this I smell?
Child Roland to the dark tower came,
His word was still,
Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.
(Shakespeare, King Lear)
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Enraged Ogre |
- The second time that Jack
climbed the beanstalk, after stealing a sack of gold on the
first visit, he stole the golden hen.
- He climbed down the
beanstalk with the Ogre in hot pursuit and showed his mother
the hen.
Enchanted goose golden egg |
- The enchanted goose laid a golden egg on demand everytime Jack
said "Lay."
Jack's new cow Cocoa Bean |
- After Jack brought the enchanted goose to his mother,
he bought a new cow so they could enjoy fresh milk every
morning.
- Even though he had the enchanted goose, Jack
still felt the need to sneak up the beanstalk to the Ogre's
house to see what was laying around.
Jack hiding in the oven |
- The third time that Jack climbed the
beanstalk, he snuck into the Ogre's house when his wife left
with a pail for water.
- "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood
of an Englishman," screamed the Ogre.
- Followed by "I
smell him, I smell him."
Breakfast cooking |
- His wife said "Do you, my
dearie? Then, if it's that little rogue that stole your gold
and the hen that laid the golden eggs he's sure to have got
into the oven."
- They both rushed to the oven.
- When
they found the oven empty, the Ogre's wife appeased him by
telling him she cooked Jack for his breakfast.
Ogre with his golden harp |
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After breakfast, the Ogre ordered the wife to bring his golden
harp to him.
- She brought it and put it on the table and
he said "Sing!" and the golden harp sang most beautifully.
- Jack stole the harp, and the Ogre chased him down the
beanstalk.
- At the bottom he yelled for his mother to
bring him the axe.
- They could see the Ogre's legs poking through the clouds.
Jack marries a princess |
- After the beanstalk was chopped in
half, the Ogre fell down and broke his crown.
- Jack and
his mother became very rich, and he married a great princess
and they lived happily ever after.
Moral of the myth!
Two wrongs never make a right.
As hard as
it may be turning the other cheek, retribution only
hurts you.
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Glass half empty |
Glass half full |
- Hopefully, always just enough.
So our virtues
Lie in the interpretation of the time.
(Shakespeare, Coriolanus)
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Mona crone |
Mona mother |
Mona naturallook |
Signed by Leonardo DaVinci |
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