The verse Morals to the tales in prose call for separate consideration. They are mostly short, usually only a few lines, which increases the difficulty for the translator. Nor do I think it is unfair to Perrault to say that they are not among his own highest achievements; the best writing is also easier to translate. (It was only after I had decided that they could be rendered more or less satisfactorily into English that I felt justified in trying the longer poems.) With the Morals, the translator’s ambition must be limited to giving an adequate rather than a good rendering. It was useful to be able to resort to the dactylic rhythm at times: it gives a few more syllables to play with. Although I hope not to have altered the sense in any significant respect, I should say, seeing that the Morals are so often the object of criticism, that only the French originals ought to be taken as the basis for comment on what Perrault might have intended.
There are a few important passages in which Perrault wrote what might be called, anachronistically, prose poetry. The main examples are the almost ritual formulas, printed in italics in the French editions, when Bluebeard’s wife is calling to her sister and Puss addresses the country labourers. From the evidence of similar passages in other folk-tales, these appear to be traditional elements in the stories, religiously preserved by tellers (like the Old French employed by the grandmother in Little Red Riding-Hood), but there is no means of knowing. Wherever they came from, the language is poetic rather than prosaic, even if Puss’s orders are rather fierce, and it seemed right to look for rhythmic and alliterative effects in English. Here, I fear, the wish may have to make do for the deed; it proved extremely hard to find anything that matched the flow of the words in French. Fortunately the other ritual formulas, the traditional opening ‘Il était une fois’ and others such as ‘je vous donne pour don’ (‘I give you as gift’; copied from Samber), or Red Riding-Hood’s exclamations in bed, are not as difficult because the English equivalents have been settled long ago and it is simply a matter of occasional fine tuning.
Briefly on the illustrations: the tales have been illustrated many times, but never more sympathetically or spectacularly than by Gustave Doré (1832–83), who illustrated many literary texts including Dante’s Inferno, in 1861. He produced forty-one engravings for Hetzel’s edition, Les Contes de Perrault (1867), from which the selection in this edition is taken. The Opies (The Classic Fairy Tales, 134) note that the ‘masterly but horrific’ plate of the Ogre in Hop o’my Thumb, when about to cut his daughters’ throats, was omitted from the English edition.
There remains the pleasant duty of acknowledging the personal help I have had. My editor Judith Luna has been extraordinarily attentive to a whole series of matters (including the illustrations) which together add up to a very large contribution indeed. There have been times when I have wondered if it would have been better if she had undertaken the translation. She has made the volume as a whole better than it would otherwise have been, and has saved me from many slips and blunders; for those that remain the responsibility is mine. The reading-room staff of the Taylorian and Bodleian Libraries have on all occasions been courteously helpful and efficient in procuring the books I needed there. To my family, most of them happily unaware of Perrault except through the good offices of Walt Disney, I am grateful for giving me much to think about as regards children and parents. A good deal of the introduction derives ultimately from that source. To my sister Veronica I am grateful, among other things, for some precious insights into modern professional storytelling. To friends I am indebted for various things: for showing how it might be done, to Geoffrey Strachan; for help on spinning, to Janet Biggs; on Bettelheim, to Anne Hackmann; on medieval texts, to Linda Paterson; on door-latches, to Dave Roberts. To my wife Ann this book owes more than it would be possible to say. To her, after so many years, it is dedicated; without her it would not have been published.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMONG the items listed below, I have relied most heavily on the editions by Collinet and Rouger, on the catalogue of French tales by Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Tenèze, and on the works by the Opies and Marina Warner, which together would form the best introduction currently available to fairy-tale in general.
Works by Perrault and his contemporaries
Perrault’s Tales of Mother Goose, ed. Jacques Barchilon, 2 vols. (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1956); i. edited text of the manuscript, with introduction on the tales, ii. facsimile of the 1695 manuscript of the first five prose tales.
Contes de Perrault, facsimilé de l’édition originale de 1695–97, photographic reprint with Preface by Jacques Barchilon (Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1980); contains the verse tales in the 1695 edition by J.-B. Coignard and the prose tales in the 1697 edition by Claude Barbin.
Contes (and other works), ed. Pierre Collinet (Paris: Gallimard, 1981).
Contes, ed. Gilbert Rouger (Paris: Garnier, 1967); includes Mlle Lhéritier, Les Enchantements de l’éloquence, and Mlle Bernard, Riquet à la houppe.
Contes (and other works), ed. Marc Soriano (Paris: Flammarion, 1989).
Charles Perrault, L’Apologie des femmes (Paris, 1694).
——Mémoires de ma vie (Paris: Macula, 1993); photographic reprint of 1909 edition by Paul Bonnefon.
——Œuvres complètes, ed. Marc Soriano (Paris: Flammarion, 1969—70).
Madame d’Aulnoy, Contes des fées, ed. Nadine Jasmin (Paris: Champion, 2004).
Mademoiselle Lhéritier, Mademoiselle Bernard, and others, Contes, ed. Raymonde Robert (Paris: Champion, 2005).
Reference Works
Delarue, Paul, and Marie-Louise Tenèze, Le Conte populaire français, catalogue raisonné..., 5 vols. (Paris: various publishers, 1957—2004).
Thompson, Stith, Motif-Index of Folk Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements, rev. ed., 6 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1955—8).
Uther, Hans-Jôrg, The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, 3 vols. (Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004); supersedes Aarne—Thompson, The Types of the Folktale.
Zipes, Jack, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (Oxford, 2000).
Works concerning Perrault and fairy-tale
Barchilon, Jacques, Le Conte merveilleux français de 1690 à 1790 (Paris: Champion, 1975).
—— and Peter Flinders, Charles Perrault (Boston: Twayne, 1981); in English.
Bettelheim, Bruno, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Knopf, 1976).
Cox, Marian Roalfe, Cinderella: 345 Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap o’ Rushes, abstracted and tabulated (London: Folklore Society, 1893).
Dundes, Alan, Cinderella: A Folklore Casebook, 2nd edn. (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1988).
—— Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1989).
Gélinas, Gérard, Enquête sur les Contes de Perrault (Paris: Imago, 2004).
Lüthi, Max, Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970).
Marin, Louis, trans. Mette Hjort, Food for Thought (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
Opie, Iona and Peter, The Classic Fairy Tales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974).
Philip, Neil, The Cinderella Story. The Origins and Variations of the Story known as ‘Cinderella’ (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1989).
Robert, Raymonde, Le Conte de fées littéraire en France de la fin du XVIIème à la fin du XVIIIème (Nancy: Presses universitaires, 1981).
Seifert, Lewis C., Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690—1715: Nostalgic Utopias (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Soriano, Marc, Le Dossier Perrault (Paris: Flammarion, 1972).
—— Les Contes de Perrault, culture savante et traditions populaires, rev. ed. (Paris: Gallimard, 1977).
Tatar, Maria, Secrets Beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2004).
—— (ed.), The Classic Fairy Tales, Texts, Criticism (New York: Norton, 1999).
Thompson, Stith, The Folktale (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977; first published 1946).
Warner, Marina, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994).
—— (ed.), Wonder Tales (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994) (translated tales by Mme d’Aulnoy, Mlle Lheritier, and others).
Zipes, Jack, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (London: Heinemann, 1983).
—— The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, 2nd rev. edn. (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Websites
A CHRONOLOGY OF CHARLES PERRAULT
1628
12 January: Charles Perrault born in Paris, son of Pierre Perrault and Pâquette Leclerc. He is one of twin boys; the other survives only a few months. The elder brother Pierre acts as godfather.
c.1643
Abandons school and with a friend, Beaurain, continues his education separately.
Death of Louis XIII; the 4-year-old Louis XIV succeeds him, with his mother Anne of Austria as Regent. The Chief Minister is Mazarin.
1648–53
The Fronde, the name given to prolonged civil conflicts between the royal or Court party, led by Anne of Austria and Mazarin, and the party of the Parlements (the highest law-courts, with important political rights) and some elements of the nobility. It ends in victory for the Court.
1651
Perrault gains the legal qualifications required to plead in a court of law, but does so only twice.
1652
His father dies.
1653
First published work, written in conjunction with his brothers and Beaurain.
1654
His brother Pierre buys a position as tax official, and employs him as clerk.
1657
His mother dies.
1659
Treaty of Pyrenees puts an end, for the time being, to war between France and Spain. A result is the marriage in 1660 of Louis XIV to Maria Theresa of Spain; Perrault writes an ode on the subject which finds favour with Mazarin.
1661
Death of Mazarin. Louis takes power personally, replacing Fouquet, the Minister of Finance, later convicted on corruption charges, with Colbert.
1663
Perrault is asked to write a poem on the sale of Dunkirk to France by Charles II, in 1662, as evidence of his ability to be a member of a committee, the ‘petite académie’, which is to advise Colbert on aspects of the cultural policy of glorifying the achievements of Louis XIV’s reign; he is successful and becomes secretary of the committee.
1665
He is appointed First Commissioner of Royal Buildings; in 1667 he becomes secretary of a committee, also including his architect brother Claude, advising on the design of the Louvre.
1666
Louvois becomes minister of war.
1671
Perrault becomes a member of the French Academy, having recently published a poem on the ‘Carrousel de 1662’, a spectacular royal equestrian show.
1672
1 May: he marries Marie Guichon.
He is elected Chancellor of the Academy (and re-elected next year, a special distinction), and begins a programme of reforms of Academy procedures, some designed to hasten work on its long-delayed Dictionary.
He is appointed General Controller of Buildings, a position created for him by Colbert.
France in alliance with England declares war on Holland.
1675
He publishes a Recueil de divers ouvrages (‘Collected works of various kinds’), many written in honour of Louis XIV and his achievements.
25 May: his first son is baptized. (This normally occurred within a day or two of birth.)
1676
20 October: a second son is baptized.
1678
21 March: a third son, Pierre, later known as Pierre Darmancour, is baptized.
October: Marie Guichon dies.
Treaty of Nijmegen ends war against Holland.
1680
Perrault’s duties as first commissioner are taken over by Colbert’s son.
1681
He ceases almost completely to work for Colbert, and becomes Director of the French Academy.
Beginning of ‘dragonnades’, persecution of Huguenots when soldiers are billeted on them by Louvois.
1683
Perrault signs last documents as controller of buildings. Colbert dies, and Louvois takes over his ministerial duties; Perrault is excluded from his position.
Death of Maria Theresa. Probable date of morganatic marriage of Louis to Mme de Maintenon.
1685
Revocation of Edict of Nantes, which in 1598 had ensured Huguenots’ religious and civil rights; they leave France in large numbers. Enforced conversion of others to Catholicism; Perrault publishes an ode to the new converts.
1686
He publishes his poem Saint Paulin, dedicated to the leading churchman of the time, Bossuet, and much derided later by Boileau.
1687
His poem Le Siècle de Louis le Grand (‘The Century of Louis the Great’) is read at the Academy, which marks a new beginning for the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.
1688
He publishes the first volume of his Parallèle des anciens et des modernes, comparing ancient and modern achievements in numerous fields; three further volumes will appear, in 1690, 1696, and 1697.
War of League of Augsburg begins, France against Spain and northern powers; in 1689 England and Holland join the League to form the Grand Alliance, intended to prevent further French expansion.
1691
Griselda (‘La Marquise de Salusses ou La Patience de Griselidis’) is read at the Academy; it appears in the Proceedings of the Academy for the year, and is also published separately.
1693
Controversy with Boileau over the Ancients and the Moderns continues with hostile publications on both sides.
November: Three Silly Wishes (‘Les Souhaits ridicules’) appears in the Mercure galant.
1694
The three verse tales, Griselidis, Peau d’Ane, and Les Souhaits ridicules, are published together.
Perrault publishes his Apologie des femmes (‘A Defence of Women’) in response to Boileau’s tenth Satire, an attack on women and marriage.
A serious famine occurs, followed by drought; Perrault publishes an ode to St Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, believed to have brought relief to the city.
1695
Publication of an edition of the tales in verse containing the Preface for the first time.
Presentation manuscript, written by a scribe, of five prose tales (Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding-Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, The Fairies), dedicated to ‘Mademoiselle’, Elisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans, the King’s niece. The dedicatory epistle is signed ‘P.P.’ (Pierre Perrault).
October: Perrault’s relative Mlle Lhéritier publishes her Œuvres mêlées (‘Miscellaneous Works’), including Marmoisan, which she dedicates to Perrault d’Armancour’s sister (the only known reference to her existence), and Les Enchantements de l’Eloquence, a tale very similar to Perrault’s The Fairies.
1696
Sleeping Beauty is published separately in the Mercure galant.
May: Catherine Bernard publishes her novel Inès de Cordoue, which contains her own story of Riquet à la houppe.
October: privilège (licence to publish) a volume entitled Récits ou Contes du temps passé (‘Stories or Tales of Bygone Times’), originally granted to the ‘sieur P. Darmancour’, Charles’s son Pierre, is ceded to the publisher Barbin.
1696
or early 1697 Mme d’Aulnoy publishes her first three volumes of Contes des fées.
1697
Perrault’s eight prose tales are published by Barbin under the definitive title Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. Avec des moralités (‘Stories or Tales of Bygone Times, with Morals’), and with a frontispiece showing an old woman telling tales to children, under a scroll with the words ‘Contes de ma mère l’oye’ (‘Tales of Mother Goose’).
April: a younger neighbour of Pierre Perrault’s dies, having been wounded by him in a sword-fight. Charles, legally responsible while his son is a minor, is sentenced to pay damages to the neighbour’s mother, and again in April 1698.
Treaty of Ryswick ends War of League of Augsburg with losses of territory gained by France since 1688.
1699
Perrault publishes a translation of fables by Gabriele Faerno.
1700
March: death of Pierre, by now a soldier in one of the royal regiments.
1703
May: death of Charles.
TALES IN VERSE
Preface
THE manner in which the public has received the pieces in this collection when each has been published separately* has given me a degree of confidence that they will not fail to please when appearing together. It is true that certain people who affect an air of gravity, and have enough understanding to see that these tales are intended for entertainment and contain nothing of high importance, have looked upon them with contempt; but it has been satisfactory to see that people of taste have not been of the same opinion. They have observed with pleasure that these tales, trifles though they are, are not only that, but carry a useful message; the diverting narrative is but an outer covering, chosen merely in order that they should be grasped more easily by the mind, and thus be agreeable and instructive at the same time.
Complete Fairy Tales Page 5
