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.