Beauty (of the Beast)

## Story

The "beauty" was the daughter of merchant, who once lost his fortune, and she had to live in the country with her three brothers and two sisters. The sisters were lazy and mistreated her, but she did her house chores without complaining, before entertaining herself by reading. Once, the merchant learned that part of his fortune lost at sea was found back. Two of his daughters asked for expensive gifts, and to not embarrass her father, the beauty simply asked for a rose.

The merchant headed for the port, but got lost, and took refuge in a castle that seemed empty. Still, a dinner waited for him on a table, and he found a bed ready. In the morning, the merchant crossed the garden, saw roses, and took one for his daughter. An horrible beast showed up, and was very angry the merchant tried to steal a flower, while the latter was well received the last night.

The merchant could go home, under the condition his daughter would sacrifice herself. Beauty rushed to the castle after she learned the truth, thinking the Beast would eat her. He did not, and let her doing what she wanted every day, and every night he joined her for dinner. The Beast asked for his hand, and would ask again every night, but the beauty always said no. She only felt friendship for him, as he was nice, but without intelligence or beauty.

She soon missed her family, but the Beast asked her to promise to come back before a week. When she arrived at home, the two sisters, seeing her dressed as a queen, became jealous; even more so that one married an handsome but vain man, and a second an intelligent but preachy man.

They decided to not let their sister coming back to her benefactor, and pretend to be heartbroken by the beauty 's loss, so she stayed longer than a week. But Beauty once had a nightmare where she saw the Beast dying. She rushed back to the castle and saw the agonizing Beast in the garden.

She apologized and said she accepted to marry him, realizing she genuinely loved the Beast and his good heart. Suddenly, the Beast came back to life, under the form of an handsome prince. He explained that an offended fairy once turned him into a Beast and took his intelligence away. He could only turn back to human, if a beautiful lady accepted his demand in marriage. The Beauty and the prince got married and lived happily ever after.

## Trivia

-Her kingdom is unknown. It's the fairy kingdom in Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve's version.

-The ancestor of the Beauty is Psyche, the wife of the God Cupid. She too had jealous sisters, and believed her husband was a monster as she was at first not allowed to see him.

-She is very often named Belle, the signification of beauty in french.

-She is named Meldine in the tale of *The Pig King* by Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Marthesie in *Prince Marcassin* by Mme d'Aulnoy. In those versions, the prince was born a monster, and could only become human if he married thrice (he was the widow of Meldine and Marthesie 's older sisters).

-In the version by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Belle turn out to have been kidnapped at birth, and is not the merchant's real daughter, but the queen of fairies is her real mother, making her a princess by birth (like Psyche). Also, the prince Beast is her cousin. Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont removed those elements in her version.