_La Belle et la Bête._--Thousands of English readers have no doubt been
all their lives under the impression that they knew nearly by heart
the story of _Beauty and the Beast_; and though few, alas! may have
taken the trouble to inquire who was the author of it, those who have,
imagine themselves indebted for it to Madame Leprince de Beaumont. Nay,
there are many, no doubt, in France who are under the same belief, for
"_La Belle et la Bête_, par Madame Leprince de Beaumont," is, without
a word of explanation, at this moment circulating as a portion of the
French Railway Library, and was published, with various other stories,
in a small edition of _Contes des Fées_ only last year, under her name,
by a bookseller on the Quai des Augustins, Paris. It is only those
who have read the original story by Madame de Villeneuve, either in
the _Contes Marins_,[59] or in the _Cabinet des Fées_, who will not
be surprised to find that Madame de Beaumont has merely the merit of
having cut this admirable work down to the smallest comprehensible
dimensions, and made a pretty little nursery tale of one of the most
ingeniously constructed stories in the whole catalogue of fairy
chronicles.
The story of the Beast is but alluded to in a few words, and that of
the real parents of Beauty altogether omitted. It is no answer to say
that the version by Madame de Beaumont is an agreeable story, that
the moral is preserved, and that there are portions of the original
tale which required alteration or omission. In justice to Madame de
Villeneuve, it ought never to be printed without the acknowledgment
that it is simply an abridgment of her composition, adapted to the
use of juvenile readers, by Madame de Beaumont. I have omitted a
dozen lines, and softened one objectionable expression; but, with the
exception of this very slight and indispensable alteration, Madame
de Villeneuve's story is now placed before the English public in its
entirety.
It was published in 1740, and Mr. Dunlop remarks that "it surpasses all
that has been produced by the lively and fertile imaginations of France
or Arabia;" but in his notice of the tales of Perrault, he says that
it is an expansion of and adoption from _Riquet à la Houpe_. I think
this is one of those hasty conclusions of which we are all occasionally
guilty. I cannot, for my part, see any resemblance between the two
stories. In _Riquet_, an ugly and deformed prince wins the hand of a
lovely princess--the usual triumph of mind over matter; but in _Beauty
and the Beast_, the suitor is not merely a repulsive man, but a monster
of the most horrible and tremendous description, and who is specially
prohibited from availing himself of those mental powers which might
in the slightest degree affect the judgment of the lady. Pity and
gratitude are the motives which influence Beauty to sacrifice her own
happiness to ensure that of the Beast. In the other case, admiration
of the talent of Riquet renders the Princess gradually blind to the
defects of his person. _Le Mouton_ of Madame d'Aulnoy offers infinitely
more points of resemblance. The transformation of the King into a ram
by a jealous and vindictive fairy, and the permission given by him to
Merveilleuse to visit her family, on her solemnly promising to return
by a stated period, are features too obvious to be overlooked. The
despair of the Ram in consequence of her not fulfilling her promise on
the last occasion, is also like that of the Monster; but Madame de
Villeneuve has avoided the tragical catastrophe; and notwithstanding
the similarity I have pointed out, _Beauty and the Beast_, taken as a
whole, deserves all the praise that those who are best acquainted with
it have unanimously accorded to it.
It is a curious circumstance that the _Gatta Cennerentola_ of Basile,
and the German version of _Cinderella_, both commence with the
departure of the father on a journey, and the requests of his daughters
corresponding exactly in their general character with those in _Beauty
and the Beast_, while we find nothing of the sort in Perrault's
_Cendrillon_. I infer from this that the Italian and German writers
have mixed two old stories together, and that Madame de Villeneuve's is
founded on one of them.