Plot summary / Once upon a time

Once Upon a Time is based on a popular Danish nationalistic play from 1887, with a storyline that blends Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Swineherd with Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

The Prince of Denmark woos the Princess of Illyria, but is rejected. He disguises himself as a tinker, and contrives to have the Princess thrown out of her home. Living in poverty in a hut in the forest, she grows to love the tinker, even to the extent of refusing a chance to marry the Prince (not knowing the two are one and the same).