Copy Book Archive

The Emperor’s New Clothes A telling satire on fashionable thinking among the elite.
1837
Music: George Frideric Handel

© Erin Clark, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

King Edward VII (r. 1901-1910).

About this picture …

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and Emperor of India, in his coronation robes.

The Emperor’s New Clothes
Why do fashionable ideas continue to circulate among the elite, long after ordinary people have realised that they are nonsense? Andersen’s folk-tale explains it brilliantly.

ONCE upon a time, some weavers arrived at court, and offered to make robes so fine that only men fit for the very highest offices could even see them.

The Emperor paid them handsomely, and they set to work.

By and by, the Emperor went with his ministers to learn how things were going. When he found only empty looms, he casually asked his ministers what they saw.

Fearing that he might think them unfit for their high offices, they described wonderful robes of many colours. ‘That’, replied the Emperor hastily, ‘is what I see too.’

Now the weavers suggested that he try the robes on. His chamberlains helped him off with every last stitch, and on with the clothes no one could see, and they walked red-faced back through the town.

Suddenly a common boy cried, ‘Look, the Emperor has no clothes on!’. But neither the Emperor nor his ministers dared admit to each other what all of them knew to be true.

Précis

Some dishonest weavers told an Emperor that they made robes so fine that only the best men in the land could see them. The Emperor and his ministers did not dare admit to each other that they couldn’t see them, so the red-faced Emperor paraded naked in his imaginary robes, even after a little boy blurted out what everyone knew. (60 / 60 words)

Source

Based on The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen.

Suggested Music

Harp Concerto in B flat Major, Op. 4/6, HWV 294

2: Larghetto - Adagio

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Performed by Ursula Holliger and The English Concert, conducted by Trevor Pinnock.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Related Posts

for The Emperor’s New Clothes

Phaedrus

The Shipwreck of Simonides

Simonides always believed that a man with a trade was wealthier than a man with a full purse.

Aesop of Samos

The Wolf and the Lamb

A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.

Myths and Legends

The Ugly Duckling

A misfit duckling grew up with rejection as a way of life.

Myths and Legends

The Princess on the Pea

A fastidious prince felt he deserved a girl of royal refinement, and he certainly found one.

Myths and Legends (122)
All Stories (1522)
Worksheets (14)
Word Games (5)