The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-08-06
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that our nursery rhymes, our legends our Old
World stories, all come as contributions from
the mysterious East, let others decide We
shall content ourselves, within the limits of
this article, In showing how six at least of the
best loved tales OF our childhood were edited,
given lasting form to, by Frenchman who
lived two centuries ago.
Charles Perrault lived under the reign Of
Louis XIV: lie mad some appointment under
Colbert, and was member of the French
Academy. The reign of the grand monarque
was a period of such artificial manners, its lit
erature was so pedantic, that the thought OF
children does not seen to belong to 1t; and yet
1t was in this reign that perhaps the most cn1lo
loving Frenchman lived and wrote. Inc
thought of the little people was apparently al
ways present to the mind of Perrault: When
the Tuileries Gardens, newly planted py Le
Notre. were about to be shut to the public, he
pleaded with characteristic urgency against
the edict. 81 think" !" he said 10 CoIoert, as
they walked down one of the alleys, kings
gardens are so beautiful and spacious only to
enable all children to play In them. Inc stern
minister smiled, and the garden was thrown
open for the children to play in. AS literary
man Perrault made noise IN MS oAy, put IL
was not by the Fairy Tales that have since
immortalized him, but by his revolt against
the dictatorship of Boileau, who would nave
all books and writing measured after the Gas
sic pattern. Out Of antiquity there was no SAL
walton for style or art, according 10 boneau
bubbling over with ideas, rebeled against this
dictum of always looking back 10 tne past
Then followed paper war between tho oppo.
nents Perrault maintaining tnat tno presene
was the true source OF insplIation, a9ainse 10
scandalized Boileau, who with his adnerenS
replied to the barbarian in incisiye epigrams.
This was the literary sensation OF the day, ana
it fixed the attention of his countrymen upon
Perrault The terrible and sarcastic bolieau
is now remembered with chilly esteem fatner
than with enthusiasm Perrault's four big
volumes, on which he layished world Oh
pains to establish his cause, are never read.
But there are five or six little tales which we
owe to him, and which will be always thumbed
so long as there are baby hngers, ana aiways
listened to with ever new enchantment 50 long
as there are small ears to hearken. Inc tales
we allude to are cred Riding Hood, sleep,
ing Beauty" "Blue Beard" cinderella"
"Petit Poncet," "Tom Thumb, "puss IN
Boots" The other two stories, "Riqnet q la
Trouppe," that is, "The Yellow Dwarf" OF
lesser popularity, and "Peau d 'Ans," untrans-
latable into English, and seeming to US un-
worthy Of having been given form to Dy FER
rault's bright and childlike mind. Nearly Two
centuries later, at the beginning OF the present,
the brothers Grimm travelled over Germany,
knocking at every castle door. entering every
remote cottage collecting the hoating poetry
the folklore of the country. THESE Dodno 10
gether in a volume have been much appreclat-
ed by the rising generation; yet even they can,
not equal the attractiveness, the delgntiul
terror and the drollery of the true tales; tales
which Perrault was the first to set down on
paper in a collected and vivid form. The
good Frenchman did not give himself
the trouble the brothers Grimm took on
themselves. Yet he, too, got the Old
World stories from oral tradition with all its
freshness and naivete; only ne did not seek
out the tales, he let them come TO him; he did
not stir step from his armchair by the fire.
side in his house in the Faubourg St. jacques.
He had settled down in that quarter to be
near the college for the sake Of his children's
education. With Perrault it was the children,
always the children. The children must
needs be amused as well as instructed, and to
this end he set about telling them on winter
evenings, and inviting his neighbors and all
the mothers and old nurses he could get hold
of, to come and tell the stories that had been
told to them in their childhood, and which
they remembered as long as they could remem-
Der anything.
We can picture to ourselves those merry
evenings by the freside of the genial elderly
man, with the children gathered round his
chair. Poor and simple came-all were well
come provided they could tell some story, or
even fragment of one, or give different ver-
sion OF one already told. AS they recounted,
Perrault listened and noted down. Those in
spired by the fairies he arranged, selected, re-
jected this version, identified this bit or portien
OF another tale. Then, like faithful aman-
uensis, he set down all, without adding any
thing of his own invention; yet he was artist
enough to know how to introduce that touch
of realism that gives an air of truth to the
most improbable story, and which children i'm
peratively demand, for instance, Cinderella's
coachman must certainly be the rat trans
formed, because, as Perrault affirms-
"He had the finest moustache ever seen,"
and there was the stamp of truth in the asser-
tion that Puss in boots could kill the ogre only
when he had prevailed on the monster to change
himself into mouse. As we have said, the
erudite discussion between Perrault and the
classic Boileau, which made such an ado DUR
ing the great period of French literature, is
now relegated to dust-covered folios. What
will, however, be always new and fresh-what
will earn for the children who do not know ev-
en- Perrault's name-a special culture in the
nursery are those tales that he preserved for
them, putting them into shape after gathering
them from the lips of the simple folk around
him, the imaiority of which could not read.