The Princess and the Pea

The story was made famous by Hans Christian Andersen, although it does not come from Danish tradition:

He may as a child have heard a Swedish version, "Princess Who Lay on Seven Peas", which tells of an orphan child who established her identity after a sympathetic helper (a cat or a dog) informed her that an object (a bean, a pea, or a straw) had been placed under her mattress.

I hadn't realized until researching this post that her speech the morning after the ordeal is "colored with double entendres" because "she endured a sleepless night, kept awake by something hard in the bed."

Posted because I like the art work of Edmund Dulac, a selection of which have been posted at Titam et le Sirop d'Érable.