A MAGICIAN ONCE MADE A MAGICAL MIRROR that made everything look better than it really was.
It would make an ugly man look handsome, and a plain woman beautiful.
‘I will bring happiness to a lot of people with this mirror,’ said the magician to himself. And he went to the main city, where he had his invention announced to the public. Naturally everybody was very curious to see themselves more handsome and more beautiful than they really were, and they queued up to see the magical improving mirror.
The magician rubbed his hands and said: ‘I will not only make people happy – I will also make my fortune!’
But before he was able to show the mirror to a single person, a most unlucky thing occurred.
It so happened that the king of that particular country had married a queen who was bad-tempered, selfish and cruel. The king put up with all her faults of character, however, because she was also very, very beautiful. She also happened to be extremely vain. So when she heard about the improving mirror, she simply couldn’t wait to get her hands on it before anyone else.
‘But, my dear,’ said the king, ‘you know you are already the most beautiful lady in the realm. And I should know – I searched the kingdom through and I found no one whose looks surpassed yours. That’s why I married you.’
But the queen replied: ‘I must see how even more beautiful I can look in this magical mirror.’ And nothing would satisfy her but to be the first to look in the improving mirror.
So the king sent for the magician with strict instructions that he was to show the mirror to nobody until he had demonstrated it to Queen Pavona.
Well, the magician entered the audience chamber with a feeling of dread.
‘Great Queen!’ he said with a low bow. ‘You are the most peerless beauty in this land. No one could be more beautiful than you are now. I beg you not to look in my magic mirror!’
But the queen could not contain her eagerness to see herself in the improving glass, and she said: ‘Show me at once! I must see myself even more beautiful than I really am!’
‘Alas!’ said the magician. ‘I made this mirror for those less fortunate in looks – to give them hope of how they might be.’
‘Show me!’ cried Queen Pavona. ‘Or I will have you executed on the spot!’
Well, the poor magician saw there was nothing for it but that he must show the queen the magic improving mirror. So he brought out the special box in which he kept it locked away, but he did so with a heavy heart.
He took the key, which he had tied around his waist, and opened up the lock. The courtiers pressed around, but the king ordered them to stand back, and the box was brought nearer the throne.
Then the magician lifted the lid, and the queen peered in. There she saw the magic mirror – lying face down.
‘Your Majesty!’ said the magician. ‘I fear only evil will come of your looking in my magic mirror.’
‘Silence!’ shouted the queen, and she seized the mirror and held it up to her face.
For some moments she did not speak, nor move, nor even breathe. She was so dazzled by the reflection before her. If her eyes had been dark and mysterious before, now they were two pools of midnight. If her cheeks had been fair and rosy before, now they were like snow touched by the dawn sun. And if her face had been well-shaped before, now it was so perfect that it would carry away the soul of anyone who gazed upon it.
For what seemed a lifetime, her eyes feasted on the image before her. And everyone in the court waited with bated breath.
Eventually the king spoke: ‘Well, my dear? What do you see?’ he asked.
Slowly the queen came to her senses. As she did so, the magician trembled in his shoes, and humbled himself on the floor before her.
‘Does it make you more beautiful?’ asked the king.
Queen Pavona suddenly hid the mirror in her sleeve, glared around the court and cried: ‘Of course not! It’s just an ordinary mirror! Have this charlatan thrown into the darkest dungeon!’
So the poor magician was carried off down to the darkest dungeon.
Meanwhile the king turned to Queen Pavona and said: ‘Perhaps it will work for me, since I am less well-favoured than you …’
‘I tell you it’s just an ordinary mirror!’ cried the queen. ‘I shall use it in my chamber.’
And with that, she went straight to her room, and hid the magic mirror in her great chest.
Now the truth of the matter is that the moment Queen Pavona had looked into the magic mirror and seen herself even more beautiful than she really was, she had been consumed with jealousy. She could not bear the thought that there was a beauty greater than hers – even though it was that of her own reflection! So she locked the mirror away, resolving that no one should ever look in it again.
None the less, she could not forget what she had seen in that looking-glass, and – despite her resolve – she found herself drawn to it, and time and again she would creep into her room and steal a look in the magic glass. Before long, she was spending many hours of the day alone in her chamber, gazing into that mirror, trying to see what made her reflection so much more beautiful than she already was.
As the weeks passed, Queen Pavona began to try and make herself more like her reflection in the magic looking-glass. But, of course, it was no use. For no matter how beautiful she made herself, her reflection became even more beautiful still.
The more she tried, the more she failed, and the more she failed to be as beautiful as her reflection in the magic mirror, the more time she spent alone in her room, gazing into it. Until eventually she hardly ever came out of her room – not even to eat or to dance or to make merry with the rest of the court.
Meanwhile the king grew more and more anxious about his wife, for she never explained to him what kept her in her room from morn till night, and whenever he entered the chamber, she always took care to hide the magic mirror.
One night, however, after Queen Pavona had been poring all day over her reflection in the fatal looking-glass, she fell asleep with it still in her hand.
It so happened that some time later the king entered her chamber to kiss her goodnight, as was his custom.
The king had, long ago, guessed that the magic mirror was the cause of his wife’s strange behaviour, and he too had long been curious to see just what was so special about it. So when he found her fast asleep on her couch, with the magic mirror still in her hand, he couldn’t resist. He lifted it slowly to her face and gazed into it. And there he saw for the first time his queen’s reflection in the magic looking-glass.
The king had believed he would never find another woman more beautiful to his sight than Queen Pavona. But now he saw in the magic mirror the reflection of someone who was three times as beautiful, and he let out a cry as if he had been stabbed to the heart.
At that, the queen woke up with a scream of rage, and she struck the king with the mirror – so hard that he fell over.
‘How dare you look in this mirror!’ she cried, her face all screwed up with anger. Well, of course, when the king looked at her now with her face distorted by rage, he thought that Queen Pavona was almost ugly compared to her reflection.
‘How dare you strike me!’ cried the king. And he strode out of the queen’s chamber, resolving that he would put up with her ill-temper no longer.
From that day on, the king scarcely spoke to his queen, or even set eyes on her. But he could not forget the vision of loveliness that he had seen in the magic glass.
Now all this while, the poor magician had been languishing in the darkest dungeon. And every day he cursed himself for making the improving mirror.
Then one day, in the midst of his misery, the door of his cell was flung open and in strode the king!
The magician fell at his feet and cried: ‘Mercy, O king! Have you come to release me? You know I’ve done nothing wrong.’
‘Well … That’s as maybe,’ replied the king. ‘But if you want to get out of this dungeon, there is something you must do for me.’
‘Anything that is within my power!’ exclaimed the magician.
‘Very well,’ said the king. ‘I want you to change the queen, my wife, for her reflection in your magic looking-glass.’
‘But Your Majesty!’ cried the magician. ‘That would be a cruel thing to do to your wife!’
‘I don’t care!’ replied the king. ‘I am sick of her evil temper, her selfishness and her cruelty. And now I have seen her reflection – which is so much more beautiful than she ever can be – I am no longer even satisfied by her looks. Can you change her for her reflection?’
‘Alas!’ cried the magician. ‘Is this the only way I can gain my freedom?’
‘If you can’t do it, then you can rot in here until you die – for all I care!’ said the king.
‘Then I shall do it,’ said the magician. ‘But we shall both suffer for it.’
And so the king released the magician from his dungeon, and the magician was led into the queen’s chamber.
The queen was standing as usual in front of the magic glass, staring at her reflection. ‘What do you want?’ she cried as the king entered.
‘You wish you were more like your reflection, my dear?’ said the king. ‘Then so do I!’
At which the magician threw a handful of magic dust into the air, and for a few moments it filled the chamber so that no one could see. Then, as the dust cleared, a most extraordinary thing happened.
There was a flash and a groan, and suddenly the mirror rose up into the air – but the queen’s reflection stayed where it was! Then the mirror turned over several times in the air, before landing over the queen herself.
And so the king had his wish.
From that time on, Queen Pavona’s beautiful reflection became his wife, and the real queen was trapped for ever in the mirror. But, just as the magician had promised, the king lived to regret the change. For even though she was now his wife, the queen’s reflection was still only a reflection, and – when the king tried to touch her beautiful skin – he found it was as cold as glass.
What’s more, he soon discovered that the queen’s reflection was not only more beautiful than the real queen, it was also more heartless, more selfish and even more ill-tempered. And many a time he longed for the magician to change them back.
But the magician had long since fled the country, and now lived in miserable exile, swearing that he would never make another magic mirror that could so inflame the vanity of those who were already vain enough.