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The Worlds of Gilbert and Sullivan

The Little Match Girl

Hans Christian Anderson starts his famous tale:

'It was a late on a bitterly cold snowy, New year's Eve. A poor little girl was wandering in the dark cold streets, she was bare-headed and bare-footed . . .'

The story continues with her narrow escape from harm from two carriages, and the loss of her mother's slippers she had borrowed. - One stolen by a boy 'for a cradle when he had children of his own'! The other was completely lost in the dash for safety. She carried a quantity of matches in her apron, and held a packet of them in her hand. Nobody had bought any all day, and no-one had given her a copper. The snowflakes fell on her pretty golden curls, and she was hungry and perishing with cold.

Hans goes on to describe the scene: There were lights in house windows, and the smell of roast goose wafted across her famished taste buds. She didn't dare go home for fear of being beaten by her father for not selling any matches. She eventually found a corner between two houses which offered the most meagre of shelter against the bitter cold, and there risked terrible punishment by striking one match to warm her frozen fingers. Its light brought fancies of a warm fire, warm food, and encouraged her to continue the illusion by lighting another, and then another, encouraging ever more vivid and exotically appealing images . . .

Finally her beautiful grandmother appeared in her circle of flame. She strenuously sought to keep this image and struck a whole bundle of matches. Whereupon her grandmother lifted her up into the sky where pain and cold were no more.

The following morning she was discovered frozen to death, with rosy cheeks and a smile on her lips. it was obvious what had happened, but the visions were among her secrets which she took to her grave.

Note: Similar observations on extremely poor and unwanted children were also drawn by Charles Dickens. Click here for a sample of his work . . .

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