The New International Encyclopædia/Beauty and the Beast

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. A story, first told in Straparola's Piacevoli notti (1550), of a self-sacrificing daughter who accepts the addresses of a beast, and later falls in love with him because of his kindness. This breaks the spell, and he regains his human form. There is a French version in Mme. Villeneuve's Contes marines (1740); another by Mme. Beaumont (1757). Among numerous English adaptations may be mentioned that of Miss Thackeray. It is 'also the basis of Grétry's opera, Zémise et Azor.