--- title: How to Tell a True Princess — The Yellow Fairy Book · full text with trees description: How to Tell a True Princess, «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: There was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess, but she must be a true Princess. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/) / How to Tell a True Princess # How to Tell a True Princess How to Tell a True Princess of «The Yellow Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang: the whole text, 26 sentences and 387 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/1/) — There was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess, but she must be a true Princess. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/2/) — So he travelled through the whole world to find one, but there was always something against each. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/3/) — There were plenty of Princesses, but he could not find out if they were true Princesses. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/4/) — In every case there was some little defect, which showed the genuine article was not yet found. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/5/) — So he came home again in very low spirits, for he had wanted very much to have a true Princess. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/6/) — One night there was a dreadful storm; it thundered and lightened and the rain streamed down in torrents. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/7/) — It was fearful! - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/8/) — There was a knocking heard at the Palace gate, and the old King went to open it. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/9/) — There stood a Princess outside the gate; but oh, in what a sad plight she was from the rain and the storm! - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/10/) — The water was running down from her hair and her dress into the points of her shoes and out at the heels again. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/11/) — And yet she said she was a true Princess! - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/12/) — ‘Well, we shall soon find that!’ thought the old Queen. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/13/) — But she said nothing, and went into the sleeping-room, took off all the bed-clothes, and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/14/) — Then she put twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty eider-down quilts on the top of the mattresses. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/15/) — And this was the bed in which the Princess was to sleep. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/16/) — The next morning she was asked how she had slept. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/17/) — ‘Oh, very badly!’ said the Princess. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/18/) — ‘I scarcely closed my eyes all night! - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/19/) — I am sure I don’t know what was in the bed. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/20/) — I laid on something so hard that my whole body is black and blue. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/21/) — It is dreadful!’ - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/22/) — Now they perceived that she was a true Princess, because she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down quilts. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/23/) — No one but a true Princess could be so sensitive. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/24/) — So the Prince married her, for now he knew that at last he had got hold of a true Princess. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/25/) — And the pea was put into the Royal Museum, where it is still to be seen if no one has stolen it. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/44/26/) — Now this is a true story. - ← previous: [The Swineherd](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/43/) - next →: [The Blue Mountains](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/45/) - ↑ back to [The Yellow Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg640/)