Fairy Tales by the Countess d'Aulnoy/Introduction
INTRODUCTION.
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, says the author of "A Discourse on the Origin of Fairy Tales," had frozen every pen. No one dared to write anything for fear of displeasing the king, who had appointed royal censors of the press as substitutes for the Doctors of the Sorbonne, who had themselves superseded the Inquisitors of the Holy Office. But this congelation was merely temporary. Since Madame de Maintenon had arisen from the rank of governess to the children of Madame de Montespan to that of the wife, though not the queen, of Louis XIV., the Court had adopted a tone which had been properly assumed by a pious woman surrounded by legitimate princes still young, and to whom good examples were indispensable. Age, public misfortunes, and the character of his connexion with Madame de Maintenon, had brought Louis himself back to the steps of the altar and the calm of private society. Amongst the tutors selected for the princes of the blood were Bossuet and Fenelon. The talent of these justly celebrated men popularized the purest morals, by covering them with flowers, and dressing them in the most pleasing forms. Books for the instruction of princes were eagerly multiplied, a select library was printed of them; it seemed as if the whole nation had determined to purify its gallantry in the crucible of a wise yet infantile morality. At this period there lived a number of women who cultivated letters successfully; others, who esteemed them, wrote and made for themselves a greater or lesser reputation. Amongst this latter class were many of high rank and considerable fortune, great personal beauty, and general amiability. The doors of their magnificent hotels were thrown open to the Muses.
The Romances of Mademoiselle de Scuderi were found to be too long, the character of them too sententious. The Allegorical Romances, the "Argenis" of Barclay, the Cleopatras and Cassandras which the "Polexandre" of Gomberville had introduced, were no longer to be endured. There was a demand for what the Spaniards called an Entreteniamento, a narrative occupying not more than ten or a dozen pages instead of as many volumes. Fashion is always running into extremes. The extent of a Fairy Tale satisfied this new caprice. Though principally designed for the amusement of children, the style was so improved, so much more plot was introduced, so much wit and grace imparted to them by successive writers, that they speedily assumed an interest for maturer readers, for the man of the world and the man of imagination. Their freedom from all licentiousness had placed them from their first appearance in the hands of children and of young females, and they were shortly to be found everywhere—on the table of the village pastor and of the sovereign. They were read of an evening by the cottage fireside and in the Chateau de Versailles. Hostile criticism was not, however, wanting. The Abbé de Villiers undertook to satirize the Fairy Tale; but criticism failed, and the Fairy Tale increased its circulation. The simpler Stories of Perrault were succeeded by the more elaborate compositions of the Countesses de Murat, d'Aulnoy, d'Auneuil, and Mademoiselle de la Force. Enjoyed by Madame de Maintenon, they were not disdained by the young courtiers, the Chevaliers de la Terrasse, who followed Louis XV.: but the Regent was not the man to protect the Fairies, and the Duchesse du Maine, and the roués of the Temple, had no feeling for these "elegant trifles." Had they been only elegant trifles they might not have survived the neglect of fashion, or even the satire of the Abbé de Villiers: but the sterling gold that was in them was indestructible, and imparted to them "a charmed life." To quote the words of one of the most popular writers of the present day, "It would be hard to estimate the amount of gentleness and mercy that has made its way among us through these slight channels. Forbearance, courtesy, consideration for the poor and aged, kind treatment of animals, the love of nature, abhorrence of tyranny and brute force,—many such good things have been nourished in the child's heart by this powerful aid. It has greatly helped to keep us ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children, sharing their delights."[1]
Of the four above-mentioned ladies who most successfully followed the lead of Perrault, the Countess d'Aulnoy was the most prolific, and has achieved the greatest popularity. Marie Catherine, daughter of Monsieur le Jumel de Barneville, was born in 1649, and died at Paris in January, 1705. Her father was connected with some of the first families in Normandy.[2] She married François de la Mothe, Comte d'Aulnoy, who was accused of treason by three Normans, imprisoned, and would have lost his head, had not one of his accusers, struck with remorse of conscience, declared the whole charge to be groundless. The Countess herself was at another period compromised through her intimacy with the beautiful Madame Tiquet, who was beheaded on the Place de Grêve, for the murder of her husband. To considerable personal attractions, Madame d'Aulnoy joined much wit and great facility of expression. She was universally popular in society, and possessed to a remarkable extent the talent of combining instruction with amusement in her most ordinary conversation. She had read much, travelled a little, and was gifted with an excellent memory. Whatever might be the subject under discussion, she is said to have always had some information to impart upon it. Nobody could relate an anecdote better or more seasonably, and her facility in composition equalled that evinced in her conversation. She left four daughters, the eldest of whom became Madame de Héere, to whom Monsieur le Président de Vertron addressed the following lines:—
"Dans la prose et les vers de l'aimable de Héere,
Je le dis comme je le croi,
La fille est semblable à la mère,
On y voit tout l'esprit de l'aimable d'Aulnoy."
The second married Monsieur de Preaux Dantigny, a gentleman of Berry.
The list of her works varies in every account I have seen of them; but in her preface to her "Mémoires de la Cour de France," or, as it is more generally called, "Memoires Historiques de ce qui s'est passé en Europe depuis 1672 jusqu'en 1679," Madame d'Aulnoy has given us one of her own, with this observation: "I profit by this opportunity to declare to the public, that they have printed in Holland some books in my name which are not mine, I having never written any others than these following:—
Hipolite Comte de Duglas.
Les Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne.
La Relation du Voyage en Espagne.
Jean de Bourbon, Prince de Carency.
Les Nouvelles Espagnoles.
Une Paraphrase sur le 'Miserere.'
Une Paraphrase sur le Pseaume, 'Benedic, anima mea, Domino.'
To which, of course, we must add the work in which this preface appears, "Mémoires Historiques," or "de la Cour de France," and her "Contes des Fées," and "Fées à la Mode." Other lists contain, in addition to the above, "Mémoires de la Cour d'Angleterre," and "Mémoires du Comte de Warwick," said to have been the last of her compositions, printed in 1703. But of these I cannot find any trace, beyond the mention of them with commendation in the Mercure Gallant for January 1705, which contains an obituary notice of Madame d'Aulnoy. There is also a work in two volumes attributed to her, entitled, "Histoire Chronologique d'Espagne tirée de Mariana, &c." 12mo. Rotterdam, 1694; but this may be one of the publications she complains of. All her works, with the exception of the Fairy Tales, are now excessively rare, both in France and England, though a translation of "Hipolite" was published in 1741, and of the "Voyage en Espagne," under the title of "Ingenious and diverting Letters of a Lady's Travels into Spain," which had reached its eighth edition in 1717, and was reprinted in two volumes, with corrections (much needed), in 1803.
The publishers of "The Travels" also published a book entitled, "The Diverting Works of the Countess d'Anois, author of the Lady's Travels into Spain," containing "The Memoirs of her own Life," an absurd fabrication; her Spanish Novels, and the Tales of the Fairies, in three parts, which consist only of "Les Contes des Fées," and a series entitled, "Les Illustres Fées," a collection of very short and inferior tales, which I have not found any authority for attributing to her pen.
Her Fairy Tales consist of two distinct portions, the first, entitled, "Les Contes des Fees," contains—
Gracieuse et Percinet.
La Belle aux Cheveux d'Or.
L'Oiseau Bleu.
Le Prince Lutin.
La Princesse Printaniere.
La Princesse Rosette.
Le Rameau d'Or.
L'Oranger et l'Abeille.
La Bonne Petite Souris.
The second series, entitled, "Les Fées a la Mode," contains—
Le Mouton.
Finette Cendron.
Fortunée.
Babiole.
Le Nain Jaine.
Serpentin Vert.
La Princesse Carpillon.
La Grenouille Bienfaisante.
La Biche au Bois.
La Chatte Blanche.
Belle-Belle, ou le Chevalier Fortuné.
Le Pigeon et la Colombe.
La Princesse Belle-Etoile et le Prince Cheri.
Le Prince Marcassin.
Le Dauphin.
These stories were intermixed with three novels,—"Don Gabriel Ponce de Leon," "Don Ferdinand de Toledo," and "Le Nouveau Gentilhomme Bourgeois,"—the personages in which were supposed to relate the Fairy Tales for the amusement of each other, as I have previously mentioned. We have no data by which to arrive at any knowledge of the exact chronological order in which these Fairy Tales were written; but I venture to think that, by preserving that in which they are printed in the "Cabinet des Fées," I have not greatly departed from it.