# Cinderella and Mary's song of reversal

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH04.P008](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH04.P008/#char=513,549): "the Magnificat--_exaltavit humiles._"

The Latin is an exact fragment of Luke 1:52: ‘and he has exalted the humble.’ The Magnificat is Mary's song in Luke 1:46–55, named from its opening Latin verb, *magnificat*. Its immediate context sharpens Chesterton's comparison: God scatters the proud, removes the powerful, raises the lowly and feeds the hungry. [Luke 1:46–55](https://vulgate.org/nt/gospel/luke_1.htm). In the Perrault-derived ‘Cinderella’ printed in Andrew Lang's *The Blue Fairy Book* (1889; inspected in Gutenberg's electronic transcription), the despised household servant marries the prince and forgives her sisters. [Story's conclusion](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/503/pg503-images.html). Chesterton identifies a shared reversal of rank and pride; he is making an interpretive comparison, not claiming that Luke supplied the tale's historical source.

## Sources

- [Latin Vulgate, Luke 1, with Douay-Rheims English](https://vulgate.org/nt/gospel/luke_1.htm), Luke 1:46–55, especially 51–53; online Latin witness, printed recension unspecified
- [Andrew Lang, editor, The Blue Fairy Book](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/503/pg503-images.html), ‘Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper,’ final paragraphs and attribution ‘Charles Perrault’; collection first published 1889; Project Gutenberg #503 electronic transcription

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