in the original version recounted by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the thief is caught when he returns to the crone’s garden a second time to obtain more “Rapunzel” for his pregnant wife.
Rapunzel is after all a love story, and here we see the couple sharing a tender moment at the beginning of their relationship.
Let us beginning at the beginning, with Rapunzel’s parents. Their story is familiar, but perhaps we might go back and look at it again.
It was never intended that Juliet and Romeo should meet, but Fate intervened to bring them together.
Not wishing to experience a repeat of the recent tragic events in Verona, their parents reluctantly allow them to be wed. And set them up in a villa on the edge of the city.
Juliet naturally becomes pregnant, almost before the ink on the marriage certificate is dry.
With impending fatherhood, Romeo is forced to go to work. Juliet obtains a bicycle, so he might return home to her more swiftly.
Confined to her home by her pregnancy, Juliet rediscovers her passion for cooking, and begins spending much of her time in the kitchen.
As her interest develops, she discovers the magnificent gardens growing right outside her window. They are the sole domain of a reclusive old woman named Simone, who is well know to both her family, and Romeo’s.
When Juliet tells her husband of her craving for the rampion growing in their neighbor’s garden, he offers to steal some. Alas he is caught, and by the look in his father’s eye, he fears his transgression is far greater than simple theft.
Though Romeo’s actual crime is never made clear, the consequences are left in no doubt. The marriage will be annulled, Romeo will be sent to France, and Juliet is again to marry the son of the Doge as was originally planned by her father.
The young couple are allowed to remain in the house only until the birth of their child. Then Romeo must hand over the child to Simone, who christens her Rapunzel, another name for rampion.
Rumors of Rapunzel’s true lineage leak out, and it feels as if the house is constantly watched by young men wishing to catch a glimpse of the young Medici who lives there.
To escape the prying eyes, an elaborate ruse is developed, and Simone and her daughter travel to France, where it is said the girl will enter a convent. Several months later they return, and secretly take up residence on a family estate just outside the city.
The property had been unused for decades and it takes Simone and Rapunzel years to re-establish the gardens and create anything like what they had left behind. They are both so busy that Rapunzel fails to notice that she has stopped playing music, the other great love in her life.
Her mother had always known that her daughter would come back to music, and had simply been waiting for Rapunzel to realize it herself. The new harpsichord she had built for her arrives on Rapunzel’s birthday. Everything is finally in place, and Simone announces that she is going to return to the city, but will visit her daily in the evenings.
Before Simone can leave, storms destroy much of what they have built. But Rapunzel’s grandfather comes to their aid again, this time he sends them to Germany, so that Rapunzel may hear her beloved Bach in person. Workman will come and rebuild the gardens while they are away.
Simone’s dream of giving her daughter her independence, while still keeping her close seems to have come true. Fate however has other ideas, and waylays a handsome young traveler who seeks assistance from Rapunzel when his carriage is overturned.
Initially somewhat overcome by her attraction to the young man, Rapunzel finally remembers to take Rafael to the farm across the road, where her friends Antonio and Marta will most certainly be able to help him. Marta cautions her against trusting too much in her new feelings, and to remember the reasons her mother initially brought her here.
Rafael and his companions stay at the farm that night, but Antonio and Marta do everything they can to keep Rapunzel and Rafael occupied and apart all evening. Still he manages to walk her home after dinner. Both are so smitten it barely matters what they say, for they both know they could never say all that they wish to.
The travelers continue on their way, and everyone agrees is is best not to mention them to Rapunzel’s mother. But Rapunzel must still explain what she did while her mother was kept away by the storm that waylaid the young men. In a panic she remembers she has learned a new piece and plays it for her mother, both women lose themselves in the sad mournful strains of Bieber’s music.
Antonio and Marta’s son builds a model of the travels’ carriage, and he and Rapunzel decide to stage a puppet show of the accident that caused it to overturn. Everyone gets involved handling Rapunzel’s marionettes to tell the story.
Their journey to deliver an elaborate clock completed, the young men take a welcome day off. Rafael finally reveals his feelings for Rapunzel. His companions tell him he must go and find her, or she will haunt him all his days.
Rafael sets up shop in the city as a clockmaker, and as soon as his finances allow, begins his search of the surrounding countryside for the large walled estate where he first met Rapunzel. No one is willing to even hint at the secret of where the Medici hid their grandchild, so he must search on his own.
Rapunzel is in the garden when she sees Rafael arrive, but it is almost the hour when her mother will arrive. She must send him away before he is discovered. In desperation she disguises herself as the maid and tells him he may return tomorrow when “Rapunzel” will see him.
Convinced that he has found his love, and that she will see him tomorrow, Rafael returns to the city in a daze. Should he have gone to the farm, what if Rapunzel no longer has feelings for him? But that is impossible. If only it were tomorrow and he were with her.
Reunited at last, Rapunzel and Rafael are both overjoyed, and faced with an incredible dilemma. For the time being her mother must not know of his existence. When he discovers that she had disguised herself to send him away, she fears her deceit will drive him away. But he cares only that he has found her, and will wait as long as needs be to be with her.
Together they make a plan, he will come each day at dawn and they will spend the morning together. Then he will return to the city to work, and she will prepare for her mother’s evening visit. The precious hours fly by each day like swallows.
Antonio had discovered Rafael’s return almost as soon as he found his way to the estate, but his wife waits a fortnight before she comes to confront Rapunzel. Marta is angry and scared. Rapunzel is playing a very dangerous game and she has turned her back on those who could help her most.
Rapunzel takes Rafael back to the farm, and together they apologize for the danger they have put Antonio and this wife in. When the farmer asks why they are willing to risk so much, Rapunzel replies with her grandfather’s catch phrase.
Attempting to conceal anything that might have been moved out of place during Rafael’s secret visits, the couple begin searching the vast house for new treasures and exchanging them with familiar items. Simone notices the changes, but never suspects the true purpose.
The storms return and the roads become muddy mires. Marta is away caring for her sister, visits from the city are infrequent, and when Rafael can come they are trapped indoors. Too comfortable in their routine, and with too little guidance from outside, the lovers have stopped taking about the dangers they face. And in that silence, their passion gets the better of them.
Finding Rapunzel asleep when she arrives, Simone decides to change the beds, and discovers the evidence of her daughter’s secret. She tries to convince herself that it cannot be true, there is no other evidence of a man, but her suspicions are raised.
Still, Rapunzel manages to allay her mother’s fears, and with the weight of restraint lifted, she actually appears calmer and more open for the first time since Rafael’s return. Simone allows herself to be convinced. Foolishly thinking they are safe, the lovers now give themselves over exploring their passion, and Rapunzel is soon pregnant.
Simone knows as soon as her daughter is pregnant, some things cannot be kept hidden. Her worst fears come true, she hardens her heart, and sees only a betrayal of her love. So rather than talk to her daughter, she quietly asks the Medici to have her be sent away from her forever. Romeo’s father is in France, and with no one else to defend her, Rupunzel is packed into a carriage, drugged, and spirited away.
As soon as Rafael is told of her abduction, he foolishly goes to the house to confront Rapunzel’s mother. Simone is still a prisoner of her furry, and barely looking at the young man, she strikes out with a poisoned broom, tearing open his skin, the venom blinding him as it seeps into his body. Somehow he reaches the farm, and Antonio and Marta manage to save his life, though not his vision.
Alone, with only her unborn children to sustain her, Rapunzel is kept prisoner in a small villa. She forces herself to live, and pray that Rafael might somehow find her. When spring comes she begs to be allowed to plant a garden, to better nourish herself and her children.
Though blind, Rafael has returned to the city and managed to discover that Rapunzel is hidden outside Padua. Meanwhile, his former companions have come back to help him. The young men search for weeks, until Rafael overhears a conversation in an inn, and realizes the woman is a nurse caring for Rapunzel. “Who are you,” demands the innkeeper. “I am her husband.”
Rafael and Rapunzel are reunited in the courtyard where she was imprisoned. Overcome, he collapses into her arms, both of them crying tears of joy. As their tears mingle, they fall into Rafael’s eyes, and through God’s mercy, restore his sight. His first vision is of his love.
A year later there is a party for the twin’s birthday. Everyone is gathered at the estate outside Firenze, and Rapunzel’s grandfather reveals that the house and gardens had been built for her mother Simone fifty years before, when her father was the Duke. “But she would not come here without her child. The baby she lost as a young woman, who was buried in the garden of the villa where Rapunzel grew up. The daughter whose grave Romeo disturbed when he took the rampion. That is why he was sent away. And that is why I was so happy to have you stay with her. I prayed that raising you would renew her. Alas, I had no idea she would be so unwilling to let you go.”