Popular Tales Part 1

Popular Tales.

by Charles Perrault.

PREFACE.

_This edition of the stories of_ Perrault _is intended partly as an introduction to the study of Popular Tales in general. The text of the prose has been collated by_ M. Alfred Bauer _with that of the first edition (Paris, 1697), a book which probably cannot be found in England.

I have to thank_ M. Bauer _for the kind and minute care he has bestowed on his task. We have tried to restore the original text of 1697, with its spelling, punctuation, use of capital letters, and so forth. One might have compared the text of_ Perrault's _prose tales, as published in a book in 1697, with their original form in_ Moetjens's _Recueil or Magazine. Unluckily the British Museum only possesses the earlier volumes of the Recueil, in which the less important stories, those in verse, were first published. The Text of the tales in Verse has been collated, by myself and_ Mrs. Ogilby, _with that of the Recueil. The Paris editions of 1694 and 1695 I have never seen. In his 'Contes en Prose de Charles Perrault'_ (Jouaust, _Paris_, 1876), M. Paul Lacroix _published the more important readings in which the Recueil differed from the ultimate text. The changes shew good taste on the part of_ Perrault: _one or two tedious gallantries, out of keeping with the stories, were removed by him._

_Two of the most useful books that have been read by me in preparing this edition are_ M. Andre Lefevre's _edition of the Contes, with his bibliographical and other notes, and the 'Contes de Ma Mere L'Oye avant Charles Perrault,' by the late_ M. Charles Deulin. _I have also read, I think, most of the modern editions of the Contes which offer any fresh criticism or information, and acknowledgments will be found in the proper place._

_The Introduction contains a brief sketch of_ Perrault, _and of the circ.u.mstances in which his tales were composed and published. Each prose story has also been made the subject of a special comparative research; its wanderings and changes of form have been observed, and it is hoped that this part of the work may be serviceable to students of Folklore and Mythology._

_In this little book, as in all researches into tradition, I have received much aid from the writings and from the kind suggestions of_ M.

Henri Gaidoz, _and from the knowledge and experience of_ Mr. Alfred Nutt. _It is almost superfluous to add that without the industry of such students as_ Herr Reinhold Kohler, M. Paul Sebillot, Mr. Ralston, M.

Cosquin, _and very many others, these studies of story could never have been produced_.

A. L.

_INTRODUCTION._

CHARLES PERRAULT.

In Eisen's portrait of Charles Perrault, the medallion which holds the good-natured face under the large _perruque_ is being wreathed with flowers by children. Though they do not, for the most part, know the name of their benefactor, it is children who keep green the memory of Perrault, of the author of _Puss in Boots_ and _Bluebeard_. He flies for ever _vivu' per ora virum_, borne on the wings of the fabulous Goose, _notre Mere L'Oye_. He looked, no doubt, for no such immortality, and, if he ever thought of posthumous fame, relied on his elaborate _Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes_ (4 vols. Paris, 1688-96). But fate decided differently, and he who kept open the Tuileries gardens in the interests of children for ever, owes the best of his renown to a book in the composition of which he was aided by a child.

Though a man of unimpeached respectability of conduct, Charles Perrault was a born Irregular. He was a truant from school, a deserter of the Bar, an architect without professional training, a man of letters by inclination, a rebel against the tyranny of the cla.s.sics, and immortal by a kind of accident.

He did many things well, above all the things that he had not been taught to do, and he did best of all the thing which n.o.body expected him to have done. A vivid, genial and indomitable character and humour made him one of the best-liked men of his age, and better remembered than people with far higher contemporary reputation than his own.

Charles Perrault, as he tells us in his _Memoires_ (1769, Patte, Paris; 1 vol. in 12), was born at Paris, on January 12, 1628. At the age of nine he was sent to the College de Beauvais, and was aided in his studies by his father, at home. He was always at the head of his form, after leaving the Sixth (the lowest) which he entered before he had quite learned to read. He was not a prodigy of precocious instruction, happily for himself. He preferred exercises in verse, and excelled in these, though the G.o.ds had not made him poetical. In the cla.s.s of Philosophy he was deeply interested, wrangling with his teacher, and maintaining, characteristically, that his arguments were better than the stock themes, 'because they were new.' Thus the rebel against the Ancients raised his banner at school, where one recruit flocked to it, a boy called Beaurin. Young Perrault and his friend took a formal farewell of their master, and solemnly seceded to the garden of the Luxembourg, where they contrived a plan of study for themselves. For three or four years they read together as chance or taste directed: this course had not in it the making of a scholar.

Perrault's first literary effort was a burlesque of the Sixth book of the aeneid, a thing rather too sacred for parody in Scarron's manner. His brother the doctor took a hand in this labour, and Perrault says 'the MS. is on the shelf where there are no books but those written by members of the Family.' The funniest thing was held to be the couplet on the charioteer Tydacus, in the shades,

Qui, tenant l'ombre d'une brosse, Nettoyait l'ombre d'un carrosse.

Perrault, as a young man, was moderately interested in the fashionable controversy about Grace, _pouvoir prochain et pouvoir eloigne_, and the jargon of the quarrel between Port Royal and the Jesuits. His brother, a doctor of the Sorbonne, explained the question, 'and we saw there was nothing in it to justify the noise it made.' He persuaded himself, however, that this little conference was the occasion of the _Lettres Provinciales_. The new Editor will doubtless deal with this pretension when he comes to publish Pascal's Life in the series of _Grands Ecrivains de la France_. Unlike Perrault, Pascal thought 'que le sujet des disputes de Sorbonne etoit bien important et d'une extreme consequence pour la religion.'

The first of the Provincial Letters is dated January 23, 1656. Charles Perrault was now twenty-eight. In 1651 he had taken his _licences_ at Orleans, where degrees were granted with scandalous readiness. Perrault and his friends wakened the learned doctors in the night, returned ridiculous answers to their questions, c.h.i.n.ked their money in their bags,--and pa.s.sed. The same month they were all admitted to the Bar. His legal reading was speculative, and he proposed the idea of codifying the various customs; but the task waited for Napoleon. Wearying of the Bar he accepted a place under his brother, Receiver-General of Paris. In this occupation he remained from 1654 to 1664. He had plenty of leisure for study, his brother had bought an excellent library, and Perrault speaks of 'le plaisir que j'eus de me voir au milieu de tant de bons livres.' He made verses, which were handed about and attributed to Quinault. That poet, getting a copy from Perrault, permitted a young lady whom he was courting to think they were his own. Perrault claimed them, and 'M. Quinault se trouvait un peu embarra.s.se.' However, when Quinault said that a lady was in the case, the plagiary was forgiven.

Perrault afterwards wrote a defence of his _Alceste_. A trifling piece which Perrault composed on this little affair pleased Fouquet, who had it copied on vellum, with miniatures and gilt capitals.

In 1657 Perrault directed the construction of a house for his brother.

The skill and taste he shewed induced Colbert to make him his subaltern in the superintendence of the Royal buildings, in 1663. A vision of a completed Louvre, and of 'obelisks, pyramids, triumphal arches, and mausoleums,' floated before the mind of Colbert. Then there would be _fetes_ and masquerades to describe, and as Chapelain recommended Perrault, who was already the author of some loyal odes, (such as the wise write about Jubilee times,) he finally received an elegant appointment, with 500, later 1000 _livres_ a year. This he enjoyed till 1683. A little Academy of Medals and Inscriptions grew into existence: Perrault edited panegyrics on the king, and made designs for Gobelin tapestries.

Perrault's next feat was the suggestion of the peristyle of the Louvre, introduced into the design of his brother Claude, the architect. After the Chevalier Bernini had been summoned from Rome to finish the Louvre, and had been treated with sumptuous hospitality, a variety of disputes and difficulties arose, and, by merit or favour, the plan of Perrault's brother, Claude, by profession a physician, was chosen and executed.

People said 'que l'architecture devoit etre bien malade, puisqu'on la mettait entre les mains des medecins.'

'M. Colbert asked me for news of the Academy, supposing that I was a member. I told him that I could not satisfy him, as I had not the honour of belonging to that company. He seemed surprised, and said I ought to be admitted. "'Tis a set of men for whom the king has a great regard, and as business prevents me from often attending their councils, I should be glad to hear from you what pa.s.ses. You should stand at the next vacancy."' So writes Perrault, and he did become a candidate for Immortality. But a lady had begged the next place for an Abbe, and next time, a doctor had secured it for a _cure_. Finally, the Academy elected Perrault, he says, without any canva.s.s on his part. Perrault introduced election for the Academy by ballot, and he himself invented and provided a little balloting machine, which he does not describe. One day when the King was being publicly rubbed down after a game at tennis, an Academician prayed that the Academy might be allowed to read addresses to his Majesty. The King, who had probably given some courtier the side walls and a beating, graciously permitted the Academy to add its voice to the chorus of flattery. Perrault now disported himself among harangues, the new Versailles fountains, grottoes, arches of triumph, and royal devices, his brother executing his designs. They were sunny years, and Le Roi Soleil beamed upon the house of Perrault. But a dispute between his brother, the receiver of taxes, and Colbert caused a coolness between Charles Perrault and the Minister. M. Perrault also married a young lady to please himself, not to please Colbert. But, before leaving the service of the Minister, the good Perrault had succeeded in saving the Tuileries gardens for the people of Paris, and for the children, when it was proposed to reserve them to the Royal use.

'I am persuaded,' he said, 'that the gardens of Kings are made so great and s.p.a.cious that all their children may walk in them.' We owe Perrault less grat.i.tude for aiding Lulli, who obtained the monopoly of Opera, a privilege adverse to the interests of Moliere. If Perrault thought at all of the interests of Moliere, he probably remembered that his own brother was a physician, and that physicians were Moliere's favourite b.u.t.ts. 'Il ne devait pas tourner en ridicule les bons Medecins, que l'Ecriture nous enjoint d'honorer,' says Perrault in his _Eloges des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres_ (1696-1700). Moliere's own influence with the king corrected the influence of Lulli, and he obtained the right to give musical pieces, in spite of Lulli's privilege, but he did not live long to enjoy it[1].

Ten years afterwards Colbert became _si difficile et si chagrin_, that Perrault withdrew quietly from his service. He had been employed in public functions for twenty years (1663-1683), he was over fifty, and he needed rest. Louvois excluded him on the death of Colbert from the _pet.i.te Academie_. He devoted himself to the education of his children, who were 'day-boarders' at the colleges, and returned at night to the paternal house in the Faubourg St. Jacques. 'Les moeurs ne sont pas en si grande surete' at a public school, Perrault thought. In 1686 he published his 'Saint Paulin Evesque de Nole, avec une Epistre Chrestienne sur la Penitence, et une Ode aux Nouveaux Convertis.'

(Paris, J. R. Coignard.) It is dedicated to Bossuet, in a letter, and Perrault trusts that great poets will follow his example, and write on sacred subjects. Happily his example was not followed, _la raillerie et l'amour_ possessing stronger attractions for minstrels, as Perrault complains. He throws his stone at Comedy, which Bossuet notably disliked and condemned. But this did not prevent Perrault, seven years later, from writing little comedies of his own. _Saint Paulin_ is prettily ill.u.s.trated with vignettes on copper after Sebastien le Clerc, vignettes much better than those which hardly decorate _Histoires ou Contes du Tems pa.s.se_. An angel appearing to Saint Paulin in gardens exactly like the parterres of Versailles is particularly splendid and distinguished.

As for the poem, 'qui eut a.s.sez de succes malgre les critiques de quelques personnes d'esprit,' the story is not badly told, for the legend of the Bishop has a good deal of the air of a _conte_, reclaimed for sacred purposes. The _Ode aux Nouveaux Convertis_ is not a success.

Perrault comparing Reason to Faith, says that Reason makes the glories beheld by Faith disappear, as the Sun scatters the stars. This was an injudicious admission. The _Saint Paulin_ may be bought for two or three francs, while the _Histoires ou Contes_, when last sold by public auction in the original edition (Nodier's copy, at the Hamilton Sale, May 1884), fetched 85. It is a commercial but not inaccurate test of merit.

Perrault's _Memoires_ end just where they begin to be interesting. He tells us how he read his poem _Le Siecle de Louis XIV_, to the Academy, how angrily Boileau declared that the poem was an insult to the great men of times past, how Huet took Perrault's side, how Boileau wrote epigrams against him, how Racine pretended not to think him in earnest, and how he defended himself in _Le Parallele des Anciens et des Modernes_. Here close the Memoirs, and the hero of the great Battle of the Books leaves its tale untold.

The quarrel is too old and too futile to require a long history.

Perrault's remarks on Homer, the cause of the war, merely show that Perrault was quite out of sympathy with the heroic age and with heroic song. He avers that, if a favourable Heaven had permitted Homer to be born under Louis XIV, Homer would have been a much better poet.

'Cent defauts qu'on impute au siecle ou tu naquis Ne profaneroient pas tes ouvrages exquis[2].'

Men of letters who were men of sense would have smiled and let Perrault perorate. But men of letters are rarely men of sense, and dearly love a brawl. M. E. de Goncourt once complained that M. Paul de St. Victor looked at him 'like a stuffed bird,' because M. de Goncourt declared that Providence had created antiquity to prevent pedagogues from starving. Boileau was not less indignant with Perrault, who, by the way, in his poem had d.a.m.ned Moliere with faint praise, and had not praised La Fontaine, Racine, and Boileau at all. The quarrel 'thundered in and out the shadowy skirts' of Literature for ten years. Boileau turned and rent the architect-physician Claude Perrault in his _Art Poetique_. But Boileau, stimulated by Conti, who wrote on his _fauteuil_, '_tu dors, Brutus,_' chiefly thundered in his _Reflexions Critiques_ on Longinus (1694). 'He makes four errors, out of ignorance of Greek, and a fifth out of ignorance of Latin,' is an example of Boileau's amenities. Why Boileau should have written at such length and so angrily on _un livre que personne ne lit_, he does not explain. Perrault kept his temper, Boileau displayed his learning. Arnauld had the credit of making a personal peace between the foes. Boileau suppressed some of his satirical lines (Satire X. line 459), and we now read them only in the foot-notes. Boileau's letter to Arnauld, in which he expresses his willingness even to read _Saint Paulin_ for the sake of a peaceful life, is not unamusing. 'Faut-il lire tout _Saint Paulin_? Vous n'avez qu'a dire: rien ne me sera difficile' (June 1694). Meanwhile Perrault, in his comedy _L'Oublieux_, was mocking people who think it a fine thing 'to publish old books with a great many notes[3].' But Perrault himself was about to win his own fame by publishing versions of old traditional Fairy Tales.

The following essay traces the history and bibliography of these Tales.

Perrault's last years were occupied with his large ill.u.s.trated book, _Eloges des Hommes Ill.u.s.tres du Siecle de Louis XIV_ (2 vols. in folio.

102 portraits.) He died on May 16, 1703. His fair enemy in the bookish battle, Madame Dacier, says '_il etoit plein de piete, de probite, de vertu, poli, modeste, officieux, fidele a tous les devoirs qu'exigent les liaisons naturelles et acquises; et, dans un poste considerable aupres d'un des plus grands ministres que la France ait eus et qui l'honoroit de sa confiance, il ne s'est jamais servi de sa faveur pour sa fortune particuliere, et il l'a toujours employee pour ses amis_.'

Charles Perrault was a good man, a good father, a good Christian, and a good fellow. He was astonishingly clever and versatile in little things, honest, courteous, and witty, and an undaunted amateur. The little thing in which he excelled most was telling fairy tales. Every generation listens in its turn to this old family friend of all the world. No nation owes him so much as we of England, who, south of the Scottish, and east of the Welsh marches, have scarce any popular tales of our own save Jack the Giant Killer, and who have given the full fairy citizenship to Perrault's _Pet.i.t Poucet_ and _La Barbe Bleue_.

[Footnote 1: _Registre de La Grange_, p. 11.]

[Footnote 2: 'Exquis' is good.]

[Footnote 3: _L'Oublieux_ was written in 1691. It was printed from the MS. by M. Hippolyte Lucas. _Academie des Bibliophiles_, Paris, 1868.]

PERRAULT'S POPULAR TALES.

'Madame Coulanges, who is with me till to-morrow, was good enough to tell us some of the stories that they amuse the ladies with at Versailles. They call this _mitonner_, so she _mitonned_ us, and spoke to us about a Green Island, where a Princess was brought up, as bright as the day! The Fairies were her companions, and the Prince of Pleasure was her lover, and they both came to the King's court, one day, in a ball of gla.s.s. The story lasted a good hour, and I spare you much of it, the rather as this Green Isle is in the midst of Ocean, not in the Mediterranean, where M. de Grignan might be pleased to hear of its discovery.'

So Madame de Sevigne writes to her daughter, on the 6th of August, 1676.

The letter proves that fairy tales or _contes_ had come to Court, and were in fashion, twenty years before Charles Perrault published his _Contes de Ma Mere l'Oye_, our 'Mother Goose's Tales.' The apparition of the simple traditional stories at Versailles must have resembled the arrival of the Goose Girl, in her shabby raiment, at the King's Palace[4]. The stories came in their rustic weeds, they wandered out of the cabins of the charcoal burners, out of the farmers' cottages, and, after many adventures, reached that enchanted castle of Versailles.

There the courtiers welcomed them gladly, recognised the truant girls and boys of the Fairy world as princes and princesses, and arrayed them in the splendour of Cinderella's sisters, 'mon habit de velours rouge, et ma garniture d'Angleterre; mon manteau a fleurs d'or et ma barriere de diamans qui n'est pas des plus indifferentes.' The legends of the country folk, which had been as simple and rude as _Peau d'Ane_ in her scullion's disguise, shone forth like _Peau d'Ane_ herself, when she wore her fairy garments, embroidered with the sun and moon in thread of gold and silver. We can see, from Madame de Sevigne's letter, that the _Marchen_ had been decked out in Court dress, in train and feathers, as early as 1676. When the Princess of the Green Isle, and the Prince of Pleasures alighted from their flying ball of crystal, in Madame Coulanges' tale, every one cried, 'Cybele is descending among us!'

Cybele is remote enough from the world of fairy, and the whole story, like the stories afterwards published by Madame d'Aulnoy, must have been a highly decorated and scarcely recognisable variant of some old tradition.

How did the fairy tales get presented at Court, and thence win their way, thanks to Perrault, into the cla.s.sical literature of France?

Probably they were welcomed partly in that spirit of sham simplicity, which moved Louis XIV and his n.o.bles and ladies to appear in Ballets as shepherds and shepherdesses[5]. In later days the witty maidens of Saint Cyr became aweary of sermons on _la simplicite_. They used to say, by way of raillery, 'par simplicite je prends la meilleure place,' 'par simplicite je vais me louer,' 'par simplicite je veux ce qu'il y a de plus loin de moi sur une table.' This, as Madame de Maintenon remarked, was 'laughing at serious things,' at sweet simplicity, which first brought Fairy Tales to the OEil de Boeuf[6]. Mlle. L'Heritier in _Bigarrures Ingenieuses_ (p. 237) expressly says, 'Les Romances modernes tachent d'imiter la simplicite des Romances antiques.' It is curious that Madame de Maintenon did not find this simplicity simple enough for her pupils at St. Cyr. On the 4th of March, 1700, when the fashion for fairy tales was at its height, she wrote to the Comte d'Ayen on the subject of harmless literature for _demoiselles_, and asked him to procure something, 'mais non des contes de fees ou de _Peau d'Ane_, car je n'en veux point[7].'

Indeed it is very probable that weariness of the long novels and pompous plays of the age of Louis XIV made people find a real charm in the stories of _Cendrillon_, and _La Belle au Bois Dormant_. For some reason, however, the stories (as current in France) existed only by word of mouth, and in oral narrative, till near the end of the century. In 1691 Charles Perrault, now withdrawn from public life, and busy fighting the Battle of the Books with Boileau, published anonymously his earliest attempt at story telling, unless we reckon _L'Esprit Fort_, a tale of light and frivolous character. The new story was _La Marquise de Salusses, ou la Patience de Griselidis, nouvelle_[8]. _Griselidis_ is not precisely a popular tale, as Perrault openly borrowed his matter from Boccaccio, and his manner (as far as in him lay) from La Fontaine.

He has greatly softened the brutality of the narrative as Boccaccio tells it, and there is much beauty in his description of the young Prince lost in the forest, after one of those Royal hunts in Rambouillet or Marly whose echoes now scarce reach us, faint and fabulous as the horns of Roland or of Arthur[9]. Nay, there is a certain simple poetry and sentiment of Nature, in _Griselidis_, which comes strangely from a man of the Town and the Court. The place where the wandering Prince encounters first his shepherdess