The origin of this nursery tale is sufficiently curious. About the year
1730, a French actor of equal talent and wealth, named Thevenard, in
passing through the streets of Paris, observed upon a cobbler's stall,
the shoe of a female, which struck him by the remarkable smallness of
its size. After admiring it for some time, he returned to his house;
but his thoughts reverted to the shoe with such intensity, that he
reappeared at the stall the next day; but the cobbler could give him no
other clue to the owner, than that it had been left in his absence, for
the purpose of being repaired. Day after day did Thevenard return to his
post to watch the re-integration of the slipper, which proceeded slowly;
nor did the proprietor appear to claim it. Although he had completed
the sixtieth year of his age, so extravagant became his passion for the
unknown fair one, that he became (were it possible for a Frenchman of
that day to be so) melancholy and miserable. His pain was, however,
somewhat appeased by the avatar of the little foot itself, appertaining
to a pretty and youthful girl in the very humblest class of life. All
distinctions were levelled at once by love: the actor sought the parents
of the female, procured their consent to the match, and actually made
her his wife.
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