When blackletter font was used in the original book, the corresponding text hasbeen marked as bold.
Some corrections have been made to the printed text. Theseare listed in a second transcriber’s note at the end of the text.
The Nightingale
Note
In this Merrymount Edition of Hans Andersen’sstory, the translation of H. W. Dulcken is followed.The illustrations are by Mary J. Newill ofBirmingham.
The Nightingale
BEING A STORY FOR CHILDREN AND A PARABLE FOR MEN AND WOMEN.
In China, you must know, the Emperor is aChinaman, and all whom he has about him areChinamen too. It happened a good many yearsago, but that’s just why it’s worth while to hearthe story before it’s forgotten! The Emperor’s Palacewas the most splendid in the World; it was made entirelyof porcelain, very costly, but so delicate and brittlethat one had to take care how one touched it. In theGarden were to be seen the most wonderful flowers, andto the costliest of them silver bells were tied, whichsounded, so that nobody should pass by without noticingthe flowers. Yes, every thing in the Emperor’s Gardenwas admirably arranged. And it extended so far, that theGardener himself did not know where the end was. If aman went on and on, he came into a glorious forest withhigh trees and deep lakes. The wood extended straightdown to the sea, which was blue and deep; great vesselscould sail beneath the branches of the trees, and in thetrees lived a Nightingale, which sang so splendidly thateven the poor Fisherman, who had many other thingsto do, stopped still and listened, when he had gone outat night to throw out his nets, and heard the Nightingale.“How beautiful that is!” he said; but he wasobliged to attend to his property and thus forgot thebird. But when in the next night, the bird sang againand the Fisherman heard it, he exclaimed again, “Howbeautiful that is!”
2From all the countries of the World, Travellers cameto the City of the Emperor and admired it, and the Palaceand the Garden, but when they heard the song ofthe Nightingale, they said: “That is the best of all!”And the Travellers told of it when they came home; andthe learned men wrote many books about the Town,the Palace, and the Garden. But they did not forget theNightingale; that was placed highest of all; and thosewho were Poets wrote most magnificent poems aboutthe Nightingale in the wood, by the deep lake. Thebooks went through all the World; and a few of themonce came to the Emperor. He sat in his golden chair,and read, and read; every moment he nodded his head,for it pleased him to peruse the masterly descriptions ofthe City, the Palace, and the Garden. “But the Nightingaleis the best of all!” it stood written there. “What’sthat? exclaimed the E