| “ | I hate you all. All you pretty ones. I wish I had you all flat on your back and under my care, like Boy Blue. He was one of the pretty, pretty ones too, and look how he ended up. | „ |
| ~ Mrs. Spratt revealing her true personality to Snow White in Fables #100 — "Single Combat" |
Nurse Spratt (also spelled Nurse Sprat), also known as Mrs. Spratt (or Mrs. Sprat) and Leigh Duglas, is a Fable who is Dr. Swineheart's assistant at Fabletown's Knights of Malta Hospital. She is first mentioned in Fables #10 — "Twilight of the Dogs: Part Five of Animal Farm," and debuts in Fables #30 — "The Cruel, Hot Summer." After the citizens of Fabletown flee to Haven in fear of Mister Dark, Spratt remains behind and joins forces with the Dark One, becoming his ally and intended bride.
History
Homelands
Not much is known about Mrs. Spratt's past in the Homelands prior to her arrival in Fabletown. She and her husband, Jack Spratt, are mentioned by Jack Horner when the latter attempts to enter the gates of Heaven. The guardian of Heaven's gates cannot find Jack's name on the list but states that he has a "Jack Sprat" and asks if Jack is him. Unable to enter Heaven, Jack walks away while muttering to himself, referring to Sprat as "that skinny guy with the heifer of a wife" and says that he hopes "the little bean-pole chokes to death!"[9]
Life in Fabletown
Mrs. Spratt is a morbidly obese woman[10] who works as a nurse in the Knights of Malta Hospital on the floor reserved exclusively for Fables. It is later revealed that even though she was married to Jack Spratt, Nurse Spratt displayed a clear interest in her colleague, Doctor Swineheart. She was willing to break her wedding vows in order to pursue a physical relationship with him. However, Swineheart did not reciprocate her feelings and rejected her advances.[10]
At first, Nurse Spratt makes a series of small appearances, such as berating Bigby Wolf for smoking in the hospital[3] or demanding better financing from Prince Charming, the Fabletown mayor at the time.[11]
Nurse Spratt's husband is one of Ghost's victims after he was born to Bigby and Snow White.[12]
The widowed Mrs. Spratt is later seen at Snow and Bigby's wedding, trying to catch the bouquet.[13]
Betrayal
When Beauty starts going into labor, Beast demands to see Doctor Swineheart, but Mrs. Spratt disregards them, saying Swineheart's medical predictions are never wrong. Beast shapeshifts into his monster form and once again demands to see Swineheart. Mrs. Spratt continues to be nasty towards those around her until Snow White scolds her for her nasty attitude. Mrs. Spratt then says she hates all the beautiful Fables like Snow and reveals she secretly wishes to have them all on their backs completely at her mercy. Mrs. Sprat morbidly recalls taking joy in watching Boy Blue die in the same manner before walking away.[7]
When the Fables flee from the Farm to Haven, only Mrs. Spratt stays behind. Mister Dark found her and asked where they had fled. While she fully intends to betray the Fables, Mrs. Spratt still has three conditions; to be beautiful, to make the beautiful Fables as ugly as her, and for a prince to love her with "true love." Agreeing to these conditions, Mister Dark enlists Mrs. Spratt into his service.[7]
Mrs. Spratt goes through a period of dieting to lose weight,[8] and while she makes progress, she is told by her new fencing instructor, Werian Holt, that exercise must accompany dieting in order to make true progress.[2] Mrs. Spratt, however, grows impatient with the long process as well as Holt's high demands, and requests Mister Dark to speed up the process. Mister Dark does so, but the spell is incredibly painful. Mrs. Spratt briefly begs him to stop the spell before it finishes, at which point she becomes skinny and beautiful.[14]
Revenge against Fabletown
After Mister Dark is killed by the North Wind,[15] both Mrs. Spratt[1][16][17][18] (who now goes by her maiden name of Leigh Duglas)[1] and Werian Holt stay at Castle Dark for some time to plot their revenge against the Fables.[1][16][17][18]
When the Fables arrive from Haven, Leigh[19] and Holt pretend to be prisoners, only recently freed from Mister Dark.[20] At this point, Holt is revealed to be Prince Brandish, the prince from Snow White's childhood,[21] while Leigh tries to seduce both Doctor Swineheart and King Cole. She is present when Doctor Swineheart is examining Prince Brandish's supposedly deceased body when they find he had his heart magically cut out from his body and hidden in a secret place. While Brandish ends up in the servitude of Rose Red as an alternative to being buried underneath cement for the rest of his immortal life, Leigh steals the last shard of the glass statue of Bigby (courtesy of Brandish) and forges it into a ring, bringing Bigby back to life and nearly completely under her control.
Leigh orders Bigby to go and kill all the Fables, and while he complies with killing most of them, he resists her influence when she demands him to go to the Farm to kill Snow and his cubs. He manages to kill Thrushbeard, Beast, and Ozma while under Leigh's control before, against her advice, King Cole namea Bigby an enemy of Fabletown. Leigh goes to return to her chambers to speed up the process of using Bigby to kill off all the Fables, only to find Rose Red waiting for her there. Rose Red knew in advance what Leigh was plotting and argues that since Bigby Wolf is family (her brother-in-law), only she can decide what to make Bigby do. Rose Red stabs Leigh through the heart with her sword, killing her instantly.[6]
Personality
Nurse Spratt is a bitter, angry, and vengeful yet also narcissistic person, jealous of the beauty of other Fables. Before her transformation, she has the misfortune of being the only unattractive Fable in town. This shaped her anger and jealousy at the other Fables and she believes that it is their fault. Mister Dark takes advantage of this and promises to make her beautiful. For this, and to get her vengeance on the scorn of the other Fables who have left her behind, she joins his side.[7]
After her transformation into a beautiful and sexy woman by Mr. Dark,[14] Spratt sheds her old identity and names herself Leigh.[1] She has become ruthless, murderous, sadistic, egotistical, arrogant, and hellbent on having her revenge against the Fables who she believes has wronged her.
Physical appearance
Mrs. Sprat is unattractive and fat, and is spiteful toward the many good-looking people in her community. She teams up with Mister Dark and promises to reveal the location of the other Fables if he will make her beautiful, make the beautiful people ugly, and for a prince to love her with true love.[7]
When Mrs. Sprat becomes impatient with exercise and diet, she asks Mister Dark to make her beautiful as fast as possible even if it is painful. He makes her beautiful and intends to make her his queen before North Wind kills him.[14]
Powers and abilities
Powers
- Immortality: As a Fable, Nurse Spratt is virtually unaging and unchanging, having maintained the same youthful appearance for hundreds of years.
- Dark magic: Since being altered and changed by Mister Dark, Nurse Spratt, now known as Leigh Duglas, has obtained the use of powerful darkness magic, apparently due to being Mr. Dark's "bride."
- Shapeshifting: Leigh Duglas has displayed the power to further alter her appearance and seemingly conjure new clothes as well,as seen where she was able to change her original thin short blond haired appearance to a more menacing form with black highlight in her hair and paler whiter skin, completed with a midnight black dress created from shadows.
- Glamours: She has also displayed the ability to create glamour charms to hide her new more menacing appearance and is powerful enough to successfully fool the members of Fabletown, including the powerful members of magic users of the 13th Floor.[6]
- Spell locks: She is also capable of creating powerful spell locks to protect her personal rooms and prevent anyone from entering without her permission.[6]
- Magical tool creation: Leigh Duglas also displays the ability to create powerful magical artifacts with the right materials, as seen when she managed to create a powerful enchanted glass ring from one of the shards of Bigby Wolf she stole to then later resurrect him in a "shattered" state and exert a powerful level of control over him despite his own powerful will resisting her control to kill his wife, his children and the other inhabitants of Fabletown.
Abilities
- Medical skills: Nurse Spratt is shown to have immense skill in various medical fields due to her centuries of working together with Doctor Swineheart and has assisted him in caring for numerous Fables who had been injured in various battles.
- Limited fencing: She was also been given limited fencing lesson by Prince Brandish and has displayed a degree of skill in sword fighting.
Appearances
|
Original source
It can be inferred based on Mister Dark's singing upon first meeting Nurse Spratt that she is based on the titular character's wife from the nursery rhyme "Jack Spratt."[7] As the poem goes, "Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean," and thus it would explain her tremendous girth. The full poem goes:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.
Etymology
According to Werian Holt, her maiden name, Leigh Duglas, means "stranger from the dark meadow," or "dark stranger from the meadow," depending on how one chooses to parse it.[1]
Trivia
Nurse Spratt's last name is spelled inconsistently throughout Fables: In Fables #30 — "The Cruel, Hot Summer," Fables #42 — "Arabian Nights (and Days), Chapter One: Broken English," Fables #79 — "Fabletown Unbound: Chapter Three of The Dark Ages" and Fables #131 — "A Heart Remote and Unyielding: Part One of Camelot," it is spelled "Sprat," with one T at the end; but in Fables #81 — "The Blue Horizon: Chapter Five of the Dark Ages," Fables #100 — "Single Combat," Fables #102 — "The Next Big Plan: Chapter One of Super Team," Fables #108 — "Hall of the Mountain King, Chapter One of Inherit the Wind," Fables #109 — "Cardinal Virtues: Chapter Two of Inherit the Wind," Fables #115 — "Teddy Bear: Chapter Two of Cubs in Toyland," Fables #117 — "Cubs in Toyland Chapter 4: Action Figures" and the Fables Encyclopedia, it says "Spratt," with a double T. Ironically, this is in keeping with the nursery rhyme, which is known as both "Jack Sprat" and "Jack Spratt."
References
See also
| Fabletown | |
|---|---|
| Governing body | King Cole • Snow White (formerly) • Prince Charming (formerly) • Beauty • Ichabod Crane (formerly) |
| Inhabitants | Beast • Bigby Wolf (formerly) • Flycatcher (formerly) • Trusty John • Grimble • Bufkin • Cinderella • Mowgli • Hobbes • Pinocchio • Briar Rose • Doctor Swineheart • Rapunzel • Kay • Edmond Dantès • Crispin Cordwainer • Thrushbeard • Fairy Witch • Frau Totenkinder • Ozma • Fairy Witch • Morgan le Fay |
| Places | Grand Green Florist Shop • Chateau d'If Fencing Academy • Edward Bear's Candies • Ford Laundry • Nod's Books • Lewis Antiques • I Am the Eggman Diner • Yellowbrick Roadhouse • Web 'n' Muffet Market • The Woodland Luxury Apartments • The Glass Slipper Shoes • Branstock Tavern |
| Unique items | Magic Mirror |