「かわいそうなあしながおじさん」 "Poor Daddy Long-Legs" (1885) [Daddy-Long-Legs]
“POOR DADDY LONG-LEGS” By L. [E.] C.
1885年にアイルランドのダブリンで刊行された短篇小説集の表題作で冒頭の作品。
でも表紙とタイトルページ以外は、目次でも本文でも "Daddy Long-Legs" なのでした。
本文第1ページ (p. 3)
タイトルページ
本のタイトルは、 "Poor Daddy Long-Legs and Other Stories" です。
表紙
表紙には、さらに副題として "OR A PEEP INTO FAIRYLAND" と右下に書かれています。 「妖精の国管見」みたいな意味。これが"Poor Daddy Long-Legs" に関わることは確かで、「あしながおじさん」と村の子供たちにあだ名されているおじさんが妖精の国に行って、気づくと自分の部屋に戻ってくるのですが、誰も信じてくれず、雪の中、証拠を探しに出かけて・・・・・・という話なのです。さらに、表紙には L. C. ではなくて L. E. C. とミドルネームのイニシャルE も入っていたりします。本は娘ふたりにdedicate されているのですけど、この L. C. さんが誰なのかは不詳です。
Internet Archive に入っています（ただし、Read Online だと挿絵も表紙もないです――ハックルベリー・フィンと同じGoogle Books の特徴？）―― <http://www.archive.org/stream/poordaddylongle00longgoog>
冒頭で、この男がなぜ "Daddy Long-Legs" と呼ばれたかが説明されています。――
Once upon a time (all good stories you know begin in this way, and as this is going to be a good story it must begin in the proper way) — well, once upon a time, a great many years ago, before you or I were born, there lived in a certain village a very tall man, who was called by all the little people round him Daddy Long-Legs, and by-and-by the neighbours became so accustomed to hearing the children call him this, that they forgot he ever had any other name, and so, as he was always called Daddy Long-Legs by every one, we may as well call him so too. He was seven feet high, and quite thin; his legs were so long, and his arms were so long, and his body was so lank, that he really looked like the insect whose name he bore, especially as, when he walked about, he used to twist and twirl his arms in all directions; indeed I believe he occasionally imagined that they were wings, and that he was flying! — for this long man was not quite as wise as most of the world, not even as wise as the little folk in the village where he lived.
むかしむかし（良い物語はすべてこういうふうに始まるもので、この話もよい話になるので正しい始まりかたをしなければなりません）――そう、むかしむかし、あなたやわたしが生まれる何年も何年も前のこと、ある村にとても背の高い男が住んでいました。まわりの子供たちみんなからダディー・ロングレッグズと呼ばれましたが、やがて近隣の人々は子供たちが彼をこのように呼ぶのに聞きなれて、彼に別の名前があるということを忘れてしまい、いつも、誰からもダディー・ロングレッグズと呼ばれるようになりました。それでわたしたちも彼をそう呼んでよいでしょう。彼は7フィートの背で、とても痩せていました。脚はとても長くて、腕もとても長くて、体はひょろっとしていたので、まさしくその名の昆虫のように見えました。とりわけ、彼が歩き回るとき、両腕をいろんな方向に曲げたりねじったりするときはそっくりでした。彼はときおり自分の両腕が羽で、自分が飛んでいると想像したのではないかと思います――というのも、このひょろひょろの男は世間のたいていのひとほど賢くはなく、彼が住んでいた村の子供たちほどにも賢くはなかったのです。
この記述と、表紙の、羽の生えたムシの絵は、アイルランドの "daddy long-legs" が、イギリスと同じく、昆虫のカガンボ（ガガンボ）であったことを物語っています。 エドワード・リアのノンセンス詩について1年前に書いた「アシナガオジサンとハエ The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly」と同じです。
Poor Daddy Long-Legs[: or A Peep into the Fairy Land] and Other Stories by L. C. (Dubllin: Hodges, Figgis, & Co., 1885] 79pp. 3-17]
Poor Daddy Long-Legs
ONCE upon a time (all good stories you know begin in this way, and as this is going to be a good story it must begin in the proper way) — well, once upon a time, a great many years ago, before you or I were born, there lived in a certain village a very tall man, who was called by all the little people round him Daddy Long-Legs, and by-and-by the neighbours became so accustomed to hearing the children call him this, that they forgot he ever had any other name, and so, as he was always called Daddy Long-Legs by every one, we may as well call him so too. He was seven feet high, and quite thin; his legs were so long, and his arms were so long, and his body was so lank, that he really looked like the insect whose name he bore, especially as, when he walked about, he used to twist and twirl his arms in all directions; indeed I believe he occasionally imagined that they were wings, and that he was flying I— for this long man was not quite as wise as most of the world, not even as wise as the little folk in the village where he lived. Some people thought his body had grown so much when he was a lad that his wits had had no time to grow; I don’t know whether this was the case or not; and anyhow it does not make much difference now, does it? Well! — one cold night in winter, when all the children were snugly tucked up in their warm beds (and very glad to be there, for the snow was lying thickly on the ground, and every now and then more flakes dropped down silently and softly from the dark sky), Daddy Long-Legs sat dozing over a bright wood fire in his little cottage. The door was shut and locked, the one little window was closed and the shutter fastened, and poor Daddy was taking a little sleep over the cheery fire before going to his bed in the corner of the room. Suddenly he started with a shiver and a feeling of a biting cold blast in the room; he opened his eyes, and there, opposite him, sitting on a three-legged wooden stool, was a little old man; very old, very ugly, and covered with snow, which the fire was gradually melting, causing him to look even wetter and drearier than before. Daddy stared at him; then he rubbed his eyes and stared harder; finally he said, in rather a shaky voice — for it must be confessed he was just a little frightened — “Who are you?”
The old man nodded and nodded, but said never a word.
“Where did you come from?” whispered Daddy.
“Fairy-Land,” squeaked the little man, in a strange high voice.
“Where?”
“Fairy-Land,” he repeated, rather pettishly this time, for he did not like having to say the same thing twice.
“I don’t believe you,” said Daddy; “there’s no such place.”
“You are very rude — you know nothing about it — you know nothing about anything,” squeaked the little man, frowning violently.
“You shouldn’t tell fibs, I know that,” snapped Daddy; “and besides, fairies are supposed to be pretty, and you.”
“Hold your tongue, you great lumbering lout,” shouted the little man very angrily, rising as he spoke, and shaking off the last few snow-flakes as he did so, for they had nearly all melted with the heat of the fire. “Unbeliever that you are, you shall see; come along, come along.”
And in some odd, unaccountable way, Daddy felt obliged to get up and follow. He did not want to leave his nice bright fire and his comfortable bed, but he could not help himself. He had to go, just as he was, without even a hat on his poor bare head, out into the cold night; and it seemed to him singular — to say the least of it — that the door opened of itself, and shut behind them quite silently.
Down through the empty street the pair went, and very odd they looked — one so tall, the other so small; but there was no one there to see them, so it didn’t much signify how they looked, and moreover they went so quickly, it was more like a gust of wind passing by than two men. Out of the village, across the deserted snow-covered fields, on they went; on to the foot of a high hill, up which Daddy had gone many a time, little thinking that he should one day, or rather one night, go inside it. But go inside it he did; for the old man walked through the side as though it were an open door, and Daddy followed him.
It was very dark outside in the night, but it was quite light inside the hill, as bright as if a thousand lamps were lighted; but there was not one to be seen, no, nor even a candle. Daddy thought it was all very wonderful; and though he felt frightened enough, yet he was obliged to do exactly as his little guide wished, for the very good reason that he could not help himself. He had lost all power of will; and though he could not help thinking he ought to be able to crush that little man, in point of fact he wasn’t able so much as to put out a hand to stop him.
On they went, down ever so many flights of steps and along numberless passages, all equally lighted, the little old man never even turning his head to look after Daddy, but gliding on without pause or falter until he arrived at a glass door. Against this he tapped twice, and immediately it flew open, and he and Daddy passed through into a most wonderful hall. The floor was all shining as if it were made of chased silver; the walls were of crystal, cut like the drops of a glass chandelier, so that they showed every hue, and flashed light and colour in all directions.
The ceiling looked as if it were made of the sky — dark, blue, fathomless; and thickly strewn over it were diamond stars, so bright, so luminous, that they served to render the whole hall as brilliant as though the sun, moon, and stars were all shining and sparkling together in it. And it was the largest room Daddy had ever seen; or any one else, as far as that goes. There were fountains of coloured gems tossing jets of melted rainbow; there were trees and flowers more lovely than could be imagined; pictures, gleaming statues, vases of most exquisite beauty, chairs and couches of gold and ivory draped in lustrous silks and richest velvets. Down the centre was a long table covered with the daintiest dishes, splendid fruit, and the most perfect glass and china. All that a much more enlarged mind than poor Daddy possessed could conceive was there, and more than that.
Perfect beauty reigned everywhere, but perfect silence as well. There was not a soul to be seen.
Certainly this is Fairy-Land, thought Daddy, as he looked over the whole scene; and even as the thought entered his mind, the old man turned for the first time and said triumphantly, “Now I.”
Daddy blushed; he knew quite well what the other meant, and immediately began to apologise. “I beg your pardon. Sir, I am sure”
“There I there, that will do, don’t bother; you are only a man!”
The tone of this last sentence somehow made Daddy feel very hot and angry; for after all he was young, and though he had not much brains he had plenty of feeling, and it annoyed him to be made so little of. However, he thought it best to say nothing, and the other went on, “This is a part of my Palace. I am King Irascible, and the reason I have brought you here is this — I and my two brothers, Kings Sobersides and Flatterer, are all in love with the same lady, the Princess Honoria, daughter of a neighbouring king, and she has sworn to give her hand to whichever of us shall show her the tallest man. Why she hit upon such an idea I can’t say, the whims of females are not to be accounted for; however, at twelve o’clock to-night we are all to meet here with our findings, and the hand of the Princess is to reward the winner. I flatter myself I have succeeded pretty well.” With that he contemplated the tall proportions of the man beside him, and nodded his head several times in a satisfied way. With the last nod an invisible clock began to strike XII, and at the same moment various crystal doors opened, and processions of diminutive people, gorgeously dressed, walked in and up to the upper end of the hall, where, on a raised daïs, was a golden chair inlaid with rare jewels and cushioned with sapphire velvet.”
”Make way for the Princess,” was heard on all sides, and little men with white wands kept running about pushing the people into their places. Presently all were settled, and then there sounded a blast of trumpets — another — and another; then faint cheers, growing louder and nearer each moment; finally a great hush.
Up through the long room came a lady, taller than any one else excepting Daddy (who was hiding nervously behind a crystal pillar). She was robed in silvered satin encrusted with rubies; a train of turquoise blue, embroidered with seed pearls, was fastened to the shoulders with large single diamonds; diamonds and rubies sparkled on head, neck, and arms; and yet, with all this magnificence. Daddy’s eyes, after the first quick glance, went up to her face, and rested there.
Of all the wonderful and beautiful things around, this face was the most wonderful and the most beautiful, and he did not feel surprised the three kings were all in love with her.
She walked composedly to the gold chair and took her seat, her train-bearers, six lovely girls, standing on either side of her, and then she spoke.
“Have their Majesties arrived?”
Out stepped King Irascible, followed by Daddy Long-Legs, and both bowed to the ground.
“Ahem! a tall man, certainly a very tall man! I admire you immensely,” she continued, turning to Daddy with a beautiful smile; and the poor foolish fellow yielded up his heart to her at once.
“O, madam,” he said, “you are too good.”
“You see, Sir,” she replied, “I have had the great misfortune: to be born taller than any one else in these lands, and I get so tired of looking down upon everyone, that I determined I would see some one I could look up to before settling myself for life; and so, as these three beings were all fighting for my favour, I let it be understood that I would marry whichever of them should bring me the tallest man to be my slave and train-bearer — perhaps even my friend,” she said in a lower, softer key, glancing again at Daddy.
“When I’m your husband, I’ll take care you don’t look down on me,” snapped King Irascible.
“Why I do you intend to go on stilts?” said she.
“Yes, if I like, and make you feel them too,” he growled.
“First catch your bird,” said the Princess calmly.
At this moment a door opened, and another little old man, not unlike King Irascible, but something taller, and with a smoother and more bland countenance, entered, made his way up to the Princess, and bowed low.
“Most lovely and gracious lady, your servant has found a man taller than all others, and craves permission to present him to you.”
“Produce him, King Flatterer. We have already a tall and proper man before us. I scarce think you will show me a taller.”
King Flatterer turned and beckoned, and up through the hall strode a tall, bulky personage. Large-headed, large bodied, large limbed, he was as fat as Daddy was thin, and rejoiced in the nickname of “Bolster.”
“A very fine man indeed,” said the Princess, “but hardly taller than the other, I fancy; let them be measured.” Measured they accordingly were, and both were precisely seven feet high, neither more nor less.
“Most Divine Princess” began King Flatterer.
“Fiddlesticks I” interrupted the Princess.
“There’s some mistake,” snarled King Irascible. “Measure them again; I’m sure it will turn out that I have won.”
“I’ll turn you out if you interfere,” retorted the Princess.
“Ugh!” growled King Irascible; but he didn’t venture to say any more, for he knew the Princess was, comparatively, strong-bodied as well as strong-minded.
“We must wait for King Sobersides,” observed Her Royal Highness, “and here he comes.”
Up walked another little old man, exceedingly like the other two kings, but with a long-drawn face, and a slow, melancholy gait. He gave Daddy the impression of having been nursed on very flat beer instead of wholesome sweet milk. Immediately behind him came a man, tall, broad, red-nosed, red-haired, decidedly ugly; and, being given to drink more punch than he ought, he was generally called “Toddy.”
King Sobersides bowed sadly. “Royal lady, I have sought to do your bidding in procuring for your august inspection the most — h’m — elevated mortal that is to be found. Here is the individual. I opine he can scarcely be matched.”
“Measure him,” said the Princess curtly. She didn’t like the look of Toddy, and also King Sobersides’ face made her feel dull.
They measured him; they measured the others again. They were all seven feet high, neither more nor less.
King Sobersides sighed profoundly several times in succession, which made the Princess feel angry; she therefore rose up and lifted her hand, and instantly there was a perfect silence.
“Kings, Lords, and Ladies, I promised my hand to that Sovereign who should be able to show me the tallest man. There is no tallest man here. They are all three equal; therefore my promise is null and void. I now solemnly declare, in the presence of you all, that I will give my hand to whichever of these six persons before me, the three kings and their three tall men shall pay me the greatest compliment, giving five minutes for consideration. Do I say well?” A murmur of applause ran through the assembly, and the Princess resumed her seat.
For three hundred seconds a profound silence reigned, even King Sobersides suppressed his sighs and King Irascible his growls, and then the latter came forward and said —
“It is not in my nature to make pretty speeches and pay empty compliments, and I feel sure, Madam, you are above listening to them.”
“Ha! ha!” laughed she, “there’s a good deal in that; nevertheless I am not above listening to them, and liking them too.”
Then King Flatterer advanced and spoke. “Bestow upon me the light of your countenance, sweetest lady, and all other lights will become dark; only smile upon me once, and my whole life will be flooded with sunshine.”
“Shut your eyes,” said the Princess.
He did so, and she smiled graciously upon him, but he didn’t see it.
“Do you feel happy?” said she, as he opened them.
“Not yet, Divine Princess.”
“Then I’m afraid you tell fibs;” and she beckoned King Sobersidesr forward.
He bowed, he sighed. “My life is wasting away in sighs for your sweet sake.” (“Small size,” muttered the Princess.) “Neither Fairy-Land nor any other land can produce for me a second Honoria.”
“Stuff,” said the Princess, and gave herself a shake, for she felt gloomy.
Then Bolster turned to her and said, “You are the very fairest and daintiest lady I ever set eyes on, but I doubt you’d always be as soft as my feather bed;” and he shook his fat head slowly and sadly, as he thought of his comfortable couch so far away.
“I’ll drink your health as soon as I get something to drink it in, and I’ll go on drinking it as long as you like; I couldn’t say more than that, I’m sure,” said Toddy.
Then Daddy advanced shyly, and, hesitating for a moment, took the Princess’s hand, and bowed over it till his lips touched the soft, white, jewelled fingers. “Madam, I love you,” he said simply.
The Princess smiled, and, placing her other hand in his, said —
“Sir, I thank you; you have paid me the greatest — the only great — compliment worth having, and I bestow on you my hand and all my possessions. Let us adjourn to the banquet, and celebrate our wedding with merriment and festivity.
Down the room they went, he in his every-day working clothes, she in her glistening satin and jewels; down towards the seats of honour at the richly-spread table; but, alas! Daddy in his great elation forgot to look at anything but his bride, and suddenly he struck sharply against a crystal pillar and fell heavily to the ground.
Rising hastily and looking round, he saw before him a little old-fashioned grate with a few grey ashes lying in it, a dark, dingy room with a gleam of daylight creeping through a crevice in a wooden shutter, and a three-legged stool lying on the floor. He stared amazed, he rubbed his eyes, he pinched himself — it was his own ugly little cottage he saw. His bride, the banquet, the wonderful hall, the kings, the company, were gone — vanished — and he was alone in his dingy home, cold and comfortless.
While he was still staring round him, the door was shaken sharply; he opened it mechanically, to find a neighbour’s wife with a fresh egg in her hand, a little present for Daddy’s breakfast. He looked at the woman blankly, saying in a kind of unconscious voice,
“Where is the banquet? where is the Princess?”
“What is it you say?” asked Mrs. Grey.
“Where is my bride, the Princess?”
The woman felt frightened, and hurried away to tell the neighbours that poor Daddy had gone quite crazed, and was talking utter nonsense.
Soon the little boys and girls came crowding round the cottage to look at “Mad Daddy,” and they all began to talk at once and ask him all sorts of questions, till at last he felt so worried, he said if they would but be silent he would tell them of all the wonders he had seen and heard during the night; and this he accordingly did, as accurately as he could. But they only laughed and jeered the more, and called him “King Daddy,” and asked him where his crown was, and when he was going again to his Palace and his Princess. Poor Daddy got more and more angry; all he could say they would not believe him, till at last he hunted them out of the house, saying he would go that very night to the mountain and would mark the way, and then, when he was quite sure of it, he would lead them all to this Fairy-Land and show them its glories.
Late that night, in the bitter cold, with the snow falling thicker and faster each minute, Daddy slipped out through the silent, sleeping town, over the snow-clad deserted fields, on, on, up to the high hill; and the snow fell faster and faster, and the wind began to howl in a horrible, weird way, and every few minutes blew with doubled force, and with each gust thick masses of snow drifted and lay together.
In the morning, when the village children looked out of their windows and doors, they saw that there had been a great snow-storm, and in the grey, leaden-hued sky there was every sign of more snow, and even as they looked it began to fall again, and no one could go outside his house neither that day nor the next. Then there came a change, and a cold, pale sun stole out and tried to look a little bright and cheerful, but it was very hard work, and in spite of its efforts it was a very melancholy-faced sun that glanced down on the white world, and slowly, slowly melted the snow into tears for very sorrow. By-and-by people began to venture out of their houses and look about them, and some of the bigger children contrived to get over to Daddy’s cottage to ask him if he had seen any more of his beautiful Princess. But Daddy wasn’t there. The cottage was empty, the hearth desolate. He never was there again; and though he was sought for in all directions, no one could find any trace of him; and the little folks began to think that perhaps there really was a Fairy-Land after all, and that Daddy had gone back to it and to all the beauties he had described to them. But some of the older children were frightened when they remembered how they had jeered the poor half-witted fellow, and how he had declared he would go out that night and mark the way; and they knew if he had wandered on to the hill in that terrible snow-storm, it was little marvel his cottage was empty for ever after.
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In the bright, glad spring-time, when many a pretty blossom was pushing its fair little head up through the ground and lifting its delicate face to the tender blue sky, a great many of the village children went out for a day’s pleasuring on to the hill. There, in a deep hollow, they came upon a tall skeleton form lying with a few rotten rags about its bleaching bones — just enough to show that it was the remains of the poor lost Daddy they had found.
It was a very sad pleasure-party that returned that day to the village to tell what they had discovered, and I think none of them ever again mocked and jeered any poor soul who was more foolish than they were; and I know when they grew up and had little children of their own, they told them the story of poor Daddy Long-Legs — how he must have dreamed about the beautiful Fairy Hall, and how they, in the plenitude of their sense, as they thought it, had scorned and mocked the poor silly fellow, and so had driven him out in that terrible night to his death in the cruel snow.
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"Poor Daddy Longlegs and Other Stories - L. C. - Google ブックス" <http://books.google.co.jp/books/about/Poor_Daddy_Longlegs_and_Other_Stories.html?id=p56tYgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y> 〔2009年から2010年にかけて、なぜかリプリント版（といっても例の電子テキスト利用版が大半ではないかと思われますが）が4種は出ていました〕
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