For to this she is specially invited in the verses at the end of the prose story of L'Adroite Princesse, which is dedicated to her, and attributed to Perrault. It has been shown, however, that if that version of L'Adroite Princesse were really written by him, it was not published till 1742, thirty-nine years after the death of the reputed author, and twenty-six after the death of the lady to whom it is dedicated.
PERFECT LOVE.
Le Parfait Amour is a story exhibiting considerable talent, although deficient in those lively sallies, those amusing whimsicalities and allusions to the manners and dresses of the period which give so much piquancy to the Fairy Tales of Perrault, and the more elaborate compositions of Madame d'Aulnoy. The interest is entirely of a serious character; but the magic ring, with its power over the four elements—the value of which is destroyed by the too hasty wish of the lover—is an ingenious and dramatic idea, and the fatal lamps a truly affecting situation. This is the first Fairy Tale that gives us a picture of the Gnomes, and their subterraneous magnificence—a superstition existing all over Europe; the Trolls, or underground men of the North; the little people and ground mannikins of Germany; and the Korr or Korred of Brittany.
"The wise
And prudent little people, who keep warm By their fine fires, many a fathom down Within the inmost rocks. Pure native gold, And the rock crystals, shaped like towers, clear, Transparent, gleam with colours thousand-fold Through the fair palace; and the little folks, So happy and so gay, amuse themselves Sometimes with singing."[57]
And accordingly we find them singing the charms of Irolite, and entertaining the lovers with "une musique fort harmonieuse, mais un peu barbare."
FOOTNOTES:
[56] Her Histoires Sublimes et Allegoriques has been attributed by the Abbé Langlet du Fresnoy to the Countess d'Aulnoy.
[57] Idyllen &c., von J. R. Wyss, translated by Mr. Keightley (Fairy Mythology.)