Ruth Bottigheimer

BEFORE CONTES DU TEMPS PASSÉ (1697): ’S “GRISÉLIDIS” (1691), “SOUHAITS RIDICULES” (1693), AND “PEAU D’ASNE” (1694)

espite a widespread assumption that Charles Perrault (1628–1703) found Dpopular material among France’s folk, that was certainly not the case with his three verse tales. For “Grisélidis,” “Les souhaits ridicules,” and “Peau d’Asne,” Perrault turned to published texts as his model, although each was written under and was conditioned by differing sets of circumstances and infuences. Perrault’s frst piece in a popular vein drew upon the ubiquitous chapbook Griselidis, published for mass consumption throughout France. In composing his own version, Perrault had no greater ambition than to produce a modern novella (Perrault 1695; rpt. 1980 aiiv, 5), that is, a narrative of unusual events that could conceivably have taken place in the real world. The “Griselda” plot ft that requirement: it described a union between a wealthy noble, named only “le Prince,” and Grisélidis, a pretty and penniless peasant girl. The mar- riage turned savage when the husband began testing his wife’s obedience with increasingly pitiless trials. In Perrault’s version the prince tore their daughter from his wife’s breast and removed her to a convent, rudely asserting that a peasant-born mother couldn’t adequately rear a noble daughter. Fifteen years later he cast Grisélidis off, and she—asking pardon for having displeased him and expressing her “regret sincère” and “humble respect” (49)—returned home to her father without a murmur. In a fnal trial, her husband, pretend- ing to remarry, required her to prepare both his intended “bride” and the bridal bedchamber for his nuptials. In a single departure from her unabating patient acceptance of unremitting affiction, Grisélidis requested him to treat his new wife with gentleness, because—she said—a tenderly-reared young princess couldn’t survive torments that her own obscure birth had enabled her to accept (55). When the “bride” was revealed to be their daughter and the wedding the daughter’s to a nobleman, the prince reinstated Grisélidis. The novella ended with praise for wifely patience, for which Grisélidis provided “un si parfait modelle” (62).

The Romanic Review Volume 99 Numbers 3–4 © The Trustees of Columbia University 176 Ruth Bottigheimer

Perrault did his homework before he began his version of this painful story. He ascertained that Giovanni Boccaccio (1313?–1375) had composed it as the hundredth, and fnal, story of his Decameron (1353), and he learned that Francesco Petrarch (1304–1374) had subsequently translated it into Latin, although Perrault evidently did not realize that Petrarch had increased the tale’s misogyny and that Petrarch’s, and not Boccaccio’s, version underlay the “Grisélidis” story of the French bibliothèque bleue (Leclerc 1991 2). Perrault knew the bibliothèque bleue version in “son papier bleu où il est depuis tant d’années” (its blue paper where it has been for so many years, Perrault 1695; rpt. 1980 63), and he had seen such little books in the printshop at the sign of the Golden Capon in Troyes (Bonnefon 39).1 It fell to later researchers to establish a textual genealogy and to identify the most likely edition that Per- rault had himself used. The language of the Troyes source was simple, rough, and charmless, edited for a dual audience of literate readers and unlettered listeners. In writing Grisélidis Perrault shifted to complex rhyming patterns and a rich vocabu- lary within a simple sentence structure. Also unlike adventure stories that were meant to amuse, rather than to instruct, his chief characters—the prince and Grisélidis—represented an ideal: the prince was a generous father to his people, accomplished in war and in the arts (Perrault 1695; rpt. 1980 5); Gri- sélidis was a modest, sage, and industrious young shepherdess (15–18). Later in the narrative Perrault individualised Grisélidis in telling detail: not wishing to be but half a mother, not wishing to be exempt from the service that her baby’s cries demanded, she wanted to nurse the child in whom she reposed all her tenderness (33, 38). Christianity and Christian sentiments were elemental components of Per- rault’s “Grisélidis.”2 This perception accords well with Yvan Loskoutoff’s understanding of the relationship between devotion to the Infant Jesus and the emergence of a fashion for tales of the marvellous during the reign of Louis XIV (145 ff.).3 In his 1695 letter to “Monsieur” following the Grisélidis narrative,

1. “imprimés à Troyes au Chapon d’Or” from Apologie des Femmes (1694) n.p. Per- rault mentioned this Troyes bookseller again in his response to Boileau’s attack on his Saint-Paulin. 2. The Pensées chretiennes de Charles Perrault demonstrate the centrality of Christian thought in the years 1694–1703, the years of its composition. See especially Velay-Vallantin’s introductory discussion about “Perrault et le merveilleux ‘surnaturel’” 19–25. 3. Louskotoff also wrote, however: “Probablement ni Mme d’Aulnoy, ni Mlle. de La Force, ni même Perrault n’avaient conscience de faire œuvre pieuse en rédigeant leurs enfantillages. Quoi qu’ils en aient pu penser, néanmoins, leur œuvre en tant qu’œuvre Perrault’s Sources 177

Perrault affrmed that his heroine’s Christian refections were both inten- tional and absolutely necessary: only understanding Grisélidis’s unendingly patient acceptance of her husband’s ill treatment as coming from the hand of God renders her behavior credible (67). If Grisélidis hadn’t believed that God himself had directed her torments in order to achieve some divinely inscrutable purpose, then her willing acceptance of her husband’s injustices would, Perrault noted, have marked her as “la plus stupide de toutes les femmes . . .” (the stupidest of all women, 67). There is in Perrault’s for- mulation a strong suggestion that he believed the social validity of a tale’s moralité must rest squarely on a religious foundation. Perrault had long admired the fables of his slightly older fellow Academi- cian Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695), some of which Perrault had adapted in 1675.4 His choice of La Fontaine’s “Les Souhaits Ridicules” (The Ridiculous Wishes) as his second popular piece let him shift from the refnement and idealization of the unhappily joined couple of Grisélidis to the broad comedy allowed by a pair of coarse peasants. La Fontaine’s fable told of a laborer to whom Jupiter had granted the wish of being able to choose between having beautiful or bad weather. Preferring exclusively calm sunny weather, La Fon- taine’s peasant saw his crops languish in the absence of life-giving wind, frosts, and snow, all necessary to the annual agricultural cycle. Perrault asserted that his fable was “the same genre as the story of the ridiculous wishes, with the sole difference that one is serious and the other comic. But both make the point that people don’t know what’s best for them and are much happier for being guided by Providence than if all things happened as they wished.”5 Perrault wanted his fable to be funny, not at all “galante”; he wanted it to be

littéraire devait se situer par rapport au domaine religieux et, plus particulièrement, par rapport à la dévotion enfantine” (197–198). 4. After publishing the Histoires, ou contes du temps passé in 1697, he returned to fables by translating Faerne’s in 1699. 5. “La Fable du Laboureur qui obtint de Jupiter le pouvoir de faire comme il luy plairoit la pluye & le beau temps, & qui en usa de telle sorte, qu’il ne recueillit que de la paille sans aucuns grains, parce qu’il n’avoit jamais demandé ny vent, ny froid, ny neige, ny aucun temps semblable; chose necessaire cependant pour faire fructifer les plantes: cette Fable, dis-je, est de même genre que le Conte des Souhaits Ridicules, si ce n’est que l’un est serieux & l’autre comique; mais tous les deux vont à dire que les hommes ne connoissent pas ce qu’il leur convient, & sont plus heureux d’estre conduits, par la Providence, que si toutes choses leur succedoient selon qu’ils le desirent.” Griselidis Nouvelle avec Le Conte de Peau d’Asne et celuy Des Souhaits ridicules. Quatrieme edition (Paris: Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1695) “Preface” n.p. 178 Ruth Bottigheimer something that a “Precieuse” would fnd a perfect “horreur,” because it dealt with mishaps in the life of of a miserable woodcutter and not with affairs of the heart, as Catherine Bernard required in Inès de Cordoue.6 In Perrault’s telling, Jupiter sympathized with the peasant’s plight and granted him three wishes. The woodcutter’s wife, learning of their impend- ing good fortune, hatched “mille vaste projets” (6). Meanwhile, her husband idly wished for a great sausage. She berated him roundly for having foolishly squandered an opportunity to wish for gold, pearls, rubies, diamonds, and rich vestments. Her charge annoyed him so much that he wished the sausage onto the end of her nose. Then the poor man had to use his third wish to remove the fateful sausage. Perrault’s morale opined that few people are capable of making good use of the gifts that Heaven bestows on them (12). Sausages lent themselves to bawdy treatment, and they were indeed a staple of coarse literature (Leclerc 1998 73n7). Perhaps for that reason Perrault did not carry this little tale into the Académie française for a public reading, as he had “Grisélidis.” Instead it frst saw the light of day in November 1693 in the Mercure galant, a journal of the beau monde. In terms of style, Perrault used popular language as it might have been heard in conversations between a country husband and wife He also treated the sausage as a matter of course, not as an off-color joke; neither did he seem to expect it to be understood as a double entendre, as Giovanni Francesco Straparola routinely had done in the enigmas that concluded each of the stories of Les facétieuses nuits. Perrault’s third tale was “Peau d’Asne. Conte. A Madame La Marquise de L . . .” (Donkeyskin. Tale. Dedicated to the Marquise of L.). It has been asserted that “Marquise de L . . .” stood for Mme de Lambert (1647–1733), a spirited woman who in the 1690s was fghting courageously and boldly for her rightful patrimony against avaricious relatives who were trying to strip it from her (Rouger 293n1). That attribution would have ft well with the tale’s content, for Perrault’s “Peau d’Asne” tells the story of a princess who had to fee a rich heritage but was eventually restored to her rightful station and accustomed wealth.

There was once a mighty prince for whom a marvelous donkey provided unending wealth by excreting gold. When his charming and beautiful wife fell ill, she made him promise that after her death he would only marry someone wiser and more beautiful than

6. “Que les avantures fussent toçjours contre la vray-semblance, & les sentimens toçjours naturels; on jugea que l’agrément de ces contes ne consistoit qu’à faire voir ce qui se passe dans le coeur, & que du reste il y avoit une sorte de merite dans le merveilleux des imaginations qui n’estoient point retenues parles apparences de la verité.” From Inès de Cordoue (Paris: Martin Jouvenel and George Jouvenel, 1696) 7–8. Perrault’s Sources 179

she. After months of searching, the king fell violently in love with his wise and beautiful daughter. The princess sought help and advice from her godmother (Marraine), a fairy, who advised her to put her father off with impossible requirements: a dress the color of heaven, one the color of the moon, one the color of the sun, and fnally the skin of the gold-producing donkey. When her father acquiesced to every demand, she had to fee. Disguised, she made her way to a farm and took work in the kitchen. Sundays, however, she locked herself in her room and dressed in her exquisite gowns. One day the princely owner of the farm came to admire the animals in his menagerie. Without knowing who he was, Princess Donkeyskin saw him from afar and developed tender feelings for him. Later, he caught sight of her in her extraordinary dress and concluded that she was a goddess. The lovesick prince stopped eating, declaring that he would only eat cake made by the girl he’d been told was named Donkeyskin. The disguised princess prepared a gateau, but dropped her ring into the dough. When the prince found it and declared he would marry whomever the ring ft, girls all over the kingdom, from Duchesses to servingmaids, pared (or puffed) their fngers. In the end only the lowly Donkeyskin’s fnger ft. To the wedding came all manner of guests, including Donkey- skin’s own father, whom the passage of time had purifed of cri- minal passion. Donkeyskin’s husband was delighted to learn that his bride came from an illustrious line, which was affrmed by the arrival of the and her telling of the entire story.

In telling this tale, the classically-educated Perrault must have known that the Western world’s frst references to an ass-skin-clad girl had been in Apuleius’s frametale for “Cupid and Psyche.” There bandits deliberating the fate of the young bride they had abducted, decided to kill the ass into which the story’s narrator had been enchanted, skin him, sew her into the skin with her head poking out its behind, and then abandon her on an exposed rock to rot and die (Apuleius 149–150).7 Perrault put none of this crude material into his tale. Instead, unlike the two fairy-less tales “Grisélidis” and “Les Souhaits ridicules,” he provided the young princess of “Peau d’Asne” with a godmother who was “une admirable Fée” (10).

7. The Latin text is available in the Loeb Classical Library edition of Apuleius, Books VI, X. I cite here from the Graves translation. 180 Ruth Bottigheimer

Setting the pattern for all later fairy godmothers, she provided good if some- times unfortunate advice, and helped the suffering princess to a rich and royal marriage. Perrault made a joke of sorts in explaining to the Marquise de L. that he was going to tell her the history of Peau d’Asne “tout au long” (in full, 4). After all, “Peau d’Asne” was a term then in circulation that designated any short and hardly-to-be-believed story. For just such a magic tale that Perrault was going to present, it was the term of choice, having been used in the seventeenth- century alone by Louis XIV’s valet in his memoires,8 by Scarron in his 1651 Roman comique,9 by La Fontaine in his Fables,10 and by Perrault himself in the second volume of his Parallèle.11 “Peau d’Asne’s” origins have led scholars a merry chase through the literature of the Middle Ages and the early modern period and have engendered often contradictory speculations about what stories simple folk were telling.12 As though to confuse the issue of the origins of Perrault’s tale, a story about a girl wearing a donkeyskin had appeared in the fourth and subsequent editions of Bonaventure des Périers’s (?1500–1544) Nouvelles récreations et Joyeux devis (1558 et seq.) as “Nouvelle CXXIX: L’aventure de Pernette” (Novella 129: Pernette’s Adventure). In des Périers’s tale, Pernette’s father refused to dress her in anything except the skin of an ass in order to repel her lover and to reduce her to despair. Another tale with the title “D’une jeune flle surnommée Peau d’Asne et comment elle fut mariée par le moyen que lui donnèrent les petits

8. La Porte, Mémoires de M. de La Porte, premier valet de chambre de Louis XIV (1655) says that Louis XIV, when removed from the care of women at the age of 7 in 1645, he lamented no longer being read to sleep by “des contes de Peau d’Ane” (cited from Deulin 10, Rouger xxii), and so La Porte read him L’histoire de Mézeray “d’un ton de conte” (Rouger xxii). 9. Scarron (1633–1703), in his Roman comique (Paris 1651, p. 78) spoke of a specifc tale named “Peau d’Ane” (Deulin 10 and Grimm 3:300). 10. In his famous Fable VIII statement, La Fontaine wrote “Si Peau d’Ane m’était conté, J’y prendrais un plaisir extrême.” 11. Perrault, in vol 2 of Parallèls: Les fables milésiennes sont si puériles que c’est leur faire assez d’honneur que de leur opposer nos contes de Peau d’Ane et de la Mère l’Oye.” (cited from Deulin 10) Perrault spoke not of his “conte de Peau d’Ane” but of his “contes de Peau d’Ane.” Since he had only one conte entitled “Peau d’Asne,” he was using the term in the same way that La Fontaine had done when he referred to taking pleasure in being told Peau d’Ane (Fable VIII, “Le Pouvoir des Fables”). 12. Popular narratives circulating in the Bibliothèque bleue that contain episodes that also turn up in “Peau d’Asne” include Le Roman de la Belle Helaine, which Nicolas Oudot had published in the mid-seventeenth century and L’histoire d’Yde et Olive from an episode in the Second livre d’Huon de Bordeaux, another popular chapbook still in circulation in the seventeenth century. Perrault’s Sources 181 formiz” (About a young girl nicknamed Donkeyskin and how she got married by taking little ants’ advice) had reached its 17th edition just as Perrault began versifying his own “Peau d’Asne,” according to Charles Deulin (88).13 At the present time we don’t know which of these tales Perrault took as his model, but since he often worked from an existing text, it is safe to assume that he did so here as well. As far as Perrault’s source is concerned, nearly every hypothesis to date assumes that he took his stories from a nameless “nourrice” (nursemaid). This assumption effectively excludes serious consideration of the role played by Perrault’s personality and experience in the composition of his tales. As far as “Peau d’Asne” was concerned, he welcomed the assessment provided by “a young lady” of his acquaintance (whom he identifed in a marginal note as “Mademoiselle Lhéritiere” [sic]): in a madrigal she wrote at the end of the copy of “Peau d’Asne” that Perrault had sent her, she spoke of its “naiveté . . . quelques traits de Satire . . . sa simple douceur” (innocence . . . some few satirical traits . . . its simple sweetness, Preface). Above all, she wrote, it was diverting and made you laugh without leading your mother, your husband, or your confessor to fnd anything wrong with it (preface). Perrault may have treated an existing theme of paternal incest with a simple sweetness, but it is inconceivable that he would have introduced incest into a story if it had not already been there. A paramount consideration for Per- rault was always “pudeur” (seemliness and modesty). In general terms it was a quality that imbued all of his writing and his Histoires, ou contes du temps passé in particular. One of Perrault’s two sources for his tale was Basile’s Lo Cunto de li Cunti (The Tale of the Tales, 1632–1634), available at that time only in Italian, either in old copies published in Neapolitan or in a newer one published in Bologna in northern Italian dialect. The “Peau d’Asne” tale as told by Basile (day 2, story 6) concerned the King of Rocc’Aspra and his daughter. There was a second and even more accessible source for a story about a father who wanted to marry his daughter: Les Facétieuses Nuits de Seigneur François Straparole had been printed in French in central and northern France (including at least eight Paris editions) sixteen or more times (Bottigheimer 2005). With Basile and Straparola in mind, let us examine the plot of Perrault’s “Peau d’Asne” with particular reference to Basile’s and Straparola’s versions of this tale.

13. This tale’s ants may represent another example of the infuence of Apuleius, who introduced ants into his tale about Cupid and Psyche. Basile also introduced ants into “Lo Turzo d’Oro” (Day 5, Story 4 (Deulin 89), but Basile’s ants are less likely than Apuleius’s to have provided the later image of ants. 182 Ruth Bottigheimer

Basile: Cunto de Straparola: Nuits li Cunti Facétieuses Day 2, Story 6 Day 1, Story 4 Perrault: Peau d’Asne «L’Orsa» «Tebaldo» virtuous king King of Rocc’Aspra Tebaldo, Prince of Salerno dying wife dying wife dying wife «prudenta e accorta» requires king to marry requires king to marry requires king to marry only someone «plus only someone «bella only someone whose belle» «plus sage» come sono14» finger fits her ring in entire kingdom, no lady’s finger fits ring king: «won’t remarry» king: «won’t remarry» ————— king mourns king mourns ————— Perrault moved this motif to the recognition episode ————— ————— Doralice tries on ring and it fits Perrault moved this king institutes beauty motif to the recognition competition ————— episode incestuous love chooses his daughter «strano e diabolico Preziosa pensiero» to marry his daughter donkey / gold from Straparola 5,2: ————— «Adamantina»: doll poops gold fairy godmother an old woman who old nurse (la sua balia)16 brought her cosmetics15 author: father’s old woman: father’s the father’s wicked affliction is madness an ass who wants to spirit play the stallion

14. «bella comme so’» in Basile’s Neapolitan. See Rak 358. 15. “na vecchia che . . . la servire d’argentata” (Rak 362). 16. Pirovano 1:64. Perrault’s Sources 183

Basile: Cunto de Straparola: Nuits li Cunti Facétieuses Day 2, Story 6 Day 1, Story 4 Perrault: Peau d’Asne «L’Orsa» «Tebaldo» advises princess to old woman gives demand magically Preziosa wood colored dresses shaving to turn herself ————— couleur de Temps into female bear couleur de la Lune couleur du Soleil demands donkey’s skin ————— ————— trunk for clothing ————— nurse removes clothing puts Doralice into chest gives her sleeping potion trunk travels merchant buys trunk underground guided by ————— takes it aboard ship wand sails to Britain wedding festivities for wedding festivities for ————— «la conjugale Loye» «i conti dell’amore»17 Perrault omitted princess turns into transformation of bear father hides ————— princess in favor her flight princess flees disguised princess flees disguised in donkey skin with as bear ————— filth-covered face to a farm into the woods ————— Sundays she dresses up ————— ————— in her room king’s menagerie at ————— ————— farm18 prince, out hunting, prince, out hunting King Genese, out visits farm ————— hunting

17. “li cunte amoruse” (Rak 362). 18. Note that Perrault introduces this motif with “Oh, I forgot to say that the king maintained a managerie on this farm . . .” (L’oubliois à dire en passant/ Qu’en cette grande Metairie/ D’un Roi magnifique & puissant/ Se faisoit la Menagerie. . .) 184 Ruth Bottigheimer

Basile: Cunto de Straparola: Nuits li Cunti Facétieuses Day 2, Story 6 Day 1, Story 4 Perrault: Peau d’Asne «L’Orsa» «Tebaldo» secretly sees princess in captures princess/bear buys chest her finery ————— and makes a pet of her ————— ————— secretly sees princess see below in her finery ————— princess turns into ————— bear prince languishes loses prince languishes appetite inquires about ————— “Nymphe admirable” prince’s mother believes bear has made ————— ————— him ill and wants to kill her prince springs to her ————— ————— defense learns it’s Peau d’Asne knows that bear is the see below beautiful girl he saw prince’s mother enters prince’s mother enters ————— prince refuses to eat prince refuses to eat except what Peau except what bear ————— d’Asne prepares prepares bear must make his ————— ————— bed queen agrees queen agrees ————— Peau d’Asne prepares Preziosa prepares galette; an emerald ring “pastete,” grills ————— falls into it chicken Prince devours galette; prince devours finds ring; notes its «pastete» ————— (small) size Perrault’s Sources 185

Basile: Cunto de Straparola: Nuits li Cunti Facétieuses Day 2, Story 6 Day 1, Story 4 Perrault: Peau d’Asne «L’Orsa» «Tebaldo» Preziosa makes bed Doralice makes gathers roses and Genese’s bed roses, ————— lemon blossoms violets, other flowers, Cyprian spices Genese asks mother ————— ————— who makes his bed ————— ————— hides, sees Doralice ————— ————— Genese captures her ————— ————— Doralice tells her story declares he’ll marry the ————— ————— ring’s owner women throughout kingdom adjust size of ————— ————— their fingers Peau d’Asne tries it on prince and Preziosa ————— kiss changes into her finery shaving falls from ————— Preziosa’s mouth Peau d’Asne is Preziosa is recognized recognized as as marriageable ————— marriageable brilliant wedding Genese marries her ————— follows her father arrives “purified of all criminal ————— ————— desire” fairy godmother tells Preziosa tells the see above the whole “histoire” whole “storia”19 brilliant wedding ————— ————— follows

19. “. . . essa contaie pe lo filo tutta la storia de la desgrazie soie” (Rak 368). 186 Ruth Bottigheimer

Basile: Cunto de Straparola: Nuits li Cunti Facétieuses Day 2, Story 6 Day 1, Story 4 Perrault: Peau d’Asne «L’Orsa» «Tebaldo» virtue is always Whoever does good crowned with victory20 deeds can expect ————— goodness in return21 ————— ————— A tale extension follows, in which Tebaldo murders Doralice’s children and falsely accuses her of murder. After she is vindicated, Genese mounts an expedition to Salerno and executes him.

Perrault’s authorial method for “Peau d’Asne” emerges from the use he made of the two parallel texts. He chose a steady procession of motifs, now from Basile and now from Straparola, from the beginning of his “Peau d’Asne” to its conclusion. Overall, he restructured the tale by ignoring Straparola’s lengthy coda and by excising Basile’s and Straparola’s overarching frame tales. Perrault literally assembled, that is, he composed (composer) his “Peau d’Asne” from elements from Basile’s and Straparola’s tales. The remarkable adherence of Perrault’s tale to the Basile and Straparola outlines conjures up a vivid image of Perrault sitting at the gilt ebony desk mentioned in the inventory of his possessions at the time of his marriage, with two books open before him. He studies frst one and then the other; then he dips his quill into an inkwell and begins another paragraph of the tale he would later hand to Mlle Lhéritier for comments. Perhaps Perrault actually sat not at his ebony gilt desk, but somewhere else. That cannot be known, but his indebtedness to two identifable precursor texts in unmistakable. Over a century ago Charles Deulin recognized close kinships between many of Perrault’s and Basile’s tales, but he explained them away by asserting that both authors had drawn from the same generalized folk source.

20. Que la Vertu peut estre infortunée, Mais qu’elle est toûjours couronnée” (35). 21. “chi fa bene sempre bene aspetta” (Rak 368). Perrault’s Sources 187

For Deulin as for so many other folk narrativists, “the folk” and its tales did not resolve into southern Italian and northern French, but represented a com- mon memory reservoir, unchanged by time’s passage, linguistic shift, literary development, or political events. In this assumption, Deulin took his cue from nineteenth-century middle-class nation-building orthodoxies about the folk and its anonymous composition of folk and fairy tales. When Perrault needed to expand his narrative, he relied on précieux sensibili- ties and enlarged those parts of the story that privileged romantic attachments. He relied on his imagination for enchanting details like the three dresses of the “couleur du Temps, de la Lune et du Soleil,” and on his memory of another Straparola story (Day 5, story 2), whose heroine Adamantina had a dolly whose gold-flled diapers lifted her and her sister out of crushing poverty. One wonders why Perrault changed directions so suddenly between writing the fable-like “Souhaits ridicules” for adults and composing the magical “Peau d’Asne” with children in mind. The solution to that puzzling shift may lie in the world in which he lived. For some years Mme de Maintenon, Louis XIV’s morganatic wife, had commissioned Biblical plays for the little girls under her tutelage at the Convent of St. Cyr. In another direction, François Fénelon, pre- ceptor to France’s heir to the throne, had been composing tales about fairies in the early 1690s and had been received into membership in the Académie fran- çaise on 31 March 1693. Writing for children was not only in the air; it had been dignifed by intimate associations with Louis XIV’s court. The exalted and still honored Archbishop François Fénelon had the ear of France’s future king. (He had not yet been exiled to Cambrai in disgrace.) The fnal four lines of Perrault’s “Peau d’Asne” show that he had embarked on the same project that Fénelon and Mme de Maintenon had undertaken. He meant to write this, his third, tale for children:

Le Conte de Peau d’Asne est diffcile à croire, Mais tant que dans le Monde on aura des Enfans, Des Meres & des Meres-grands, On en gardera la memoire. (36)

(The story of Donkeyskin is hard to believe,/ But as long as the world has children, Mothers, and Grandmothers,/ People will remember it.) Perrault published these three tales, “Grisélidis,” “Les Souhaits ridicules,” and “Peau d’Asne” together in a little volume in 1694. In 1695 he added a preface and published the three narratives again. None of the three was reworked into prose until late in the eighteenth century. As a consequence, they exerted little infuence on child readers or adult writers for nearly a cen- tury. Only when Grimm took a German reworking of “Peau d’Asne” into his 188 Ruth Bottigheimer

Kinder und Hausmärchen as “” (KHM No. 65) did Perrault’s tale reenter a broad public arena. The fact that Perrault was a widower with three teenaged sons and (possi- bly) a daughter had little signifcance when he reworked Grisélidis in 1691— his sons were then 13, 15, and 16—or even when he turned to “Les Souhaits Ridicules.” By the time he composed “Peau d’Asne,” however, children’s read- ing had clearly become important and it would become central in the sec- ond phase of his tale composition, which culminated in the 1695 manuscript dedicated to the nineteen-year old “Mademoiselle,” the niece of Louis XIV, Élisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans. The ages of his children in 1694—16, 18, and 19—together with the age of the dedicatee of the 1695 manuscript suggest that it was not these individuals whose childness he addressed, but that he drew on the idea of an association between children and brief narrative that was in circulation at the time. That, however, is related to a subsequent phase in his personal and literary life represented by the composition of the fve tales of the 1695 manuscript, a subject to be addressed in another place.

State University of New York at Stony Brook

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Leclerc, Marie-Dominique. “Perrault. Imitateur ou inspirateur de la Bibliothè- que bleue?” Mémoires de la Societé Académique de l’Aube 115 (1991): 1–8. ———. “La Fortune des contes en vers dans la Bibliothèque bleue.” 55–73 in Jean Perrot, ed. Tricentenaire de Charles Perrault: Les grandes contes du XVIIe siècle et leur fortune littéraire. Paris: In Press Éditions, 1998. Loskoutoff, Yvan. La Sainte et la fée. Dévotion à l’enfant Jésus et mode des contes merveilleux à la fin du règne de Louis XIV. Geneva / Paris: Droz, 1987. Perrault, Charles. Contes de Perrault. Ed. Jacques Barchilon. Geneva: Slatkine, 1980. ———. Contes de Perrault. Ed. Gilbert Rouger. Paris: Garnier, 1987. ———. Pensées chretiennes de Charles Perrault. Eds. Jacques Barchilon and Catherine Velay-Vallantin. Paris: Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, 1987 (= Biblio 17). Périers, Bonaventure des. Nouvelles récréations et joyeux devis. Lyon: R. Granjon, 1558. Pirovano, Donato. See Straparola. Rak, Michele. See Basile. Rouger. See Perrault. Straparola, Giovan Francesco. Le Piacevoli Notti. Ed. Donato Pirovano. Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2000.