Popular Tales

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. André Lefèvre's edition of the Contes, with his bibliographical and other notes, and the 'Contes de Ma Mère 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 circumstances 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 Köhler, M. Paul Sébillot, 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 Mère L'Oye. He looked, no doubt, for no such immortality, and, if he ever thought of posthumous fame, relied on his elaborate Parallèle 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 classics, 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 nobody 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 Mémoires (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 Collége 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 gods had not made him poetical. In the class 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 Æneid, 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 éloigné, 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 étoit bien important et d'une extrême conséquence 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, chinked their money in their bags,--and passed. 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 embarrassé.' 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 fêtes 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 être bien malade, puisqu'on la mettait entre les mains des médecins.'

'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 passes. 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 Abbé, and next time, a doctor had secured it for a curé. Finally, the Academy elected Perrault, he says, without any canvass 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 spacious that all their children may walk in them.' We owe Perrault less gratitude for aiding Lulli, who obtained the monopoly of Opera, a privilege adverse to the interests of Molière. If Perrault thought at all of the interests of Molière, he probably remembered that his own brother was a physician, and that physicians were Molière's favourite butts. 'Il ne devait pas tourner en ridicule les bons Médecins, que l'Ecriture nous enjoint d'honorer,' says Perrault in his Eloges des Hommes Illustres (1696-1700). Molière'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].