4°Euro – The Lady, or the Tiger?
Worksheet 3
Read from ‘This semi-barbaric king had a daughter…’ to ‘had brought the secret to the princess.’
Keywords: blooming, soul, among, courtiers, station, maidens, handsome, until, premises, youth, trial,
as well as, dared, commonplace, enough, fiercest, throughout, fitting, bride, fate, deed, charged,
turned out, disposed of, gathered, crowds, (royal) party, custom, bow, event, skins, noise, within, raise,
latch, (a woman’s) will
1. ‘This semi-barbaric king had a daughter…’ – Can you write the portrait of the daughter with your
own words? Do insist on the connection with her father’s character.
2. ‘… was a young man…’ – Can you write the portrait of the young man with your own words? Why
should it be so important that he is described as ‘fair’ or even ‘grand’ for instance?
3. ‘The youth was immediately cast into prison...’ – So there we are. The king has a subject who is
‘accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest (him.)’ Can you retrace the reasons why this
young man goes to prison and is promised the king’s arena? What do you make of them?
4. ‘Of course, everybody knew that the deed with which the accused was charged had been done.’ –
This is interesting. Stockton has spent quite some time explaining his readers that the king’s arena was
to determine whether an accused person was guilty or not, and now that the story begins, the case is
different: the young man is guilty in the eyes of the king. Can you then explain how the trial of the
arena is justified?
5. ‘… an occasion in which she was so terribly interested.’ – If you have written your portrait well in
question 1, you should now be able to explain the true, profound, reasons that brings the princess to
be ‘so terribly interested’ in this particular trial.
6. ‘… she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors.’ to ‘… had brought the secret to the princess.’
– This reinforces the portrait of the princess indeed. What a strong, powerful, wilful woman. Do you
understand, or imagine, why she would work so hard to know the secret of the doors? And can you
imagine what she will make of that particular power?