Of this lady we have but very meagre information. She was born about
the year 1710, and is said by some writers to have been the daughter
of a President; and by others, of a "Trésorier de Marine." She appears
to have led a studious and retired life, her love of literature
indisposing her to marriage. Her _Contes des Fées_ were commenced about
1740; and several have been attributed to her pen which she disavowed.
Those she acknowledged were:--_Terserion_, _La Princesse Lionette et le
Prince Coquerico_, _Le Prince Glacé et la Princesse Etincelante_,_ La
Princesse Couleur de Rose et le Prince Celadon_, _La Princesse Camion_,
and _La Nouvelle Léonille_. She was also the author of a translation
of _Amadis des Gaules_, _Les Hauts Faits d'Esplandian_, and _Anecdotes
Africaines_, published in 1752. Voltaire and Fontenelle called her
"Muse et grace." She was living in 1772, and died before 1779. She had
disappeared from society for some time previously, and was presumed
to be still living at that date; but a letter written by some one who
knew of her decease, inserted in the _Journal de Paris_ of that year
(No. 69), addressed to the author of _L'Almanach des Dames Illustres_,
by "l'Ombre de Mademoiselle de Lubert," and dated from the "Mille et
unième Bosquet des Champs Elisées," seems to have been considered
sufficient authority; though as no precise time or place is mentioned,
the letter might have been written by the lady herself had she wished
to deceive the public. She had, however, reached a very respectable
age, and it is probable that she was dead at that period.
"Her _Contes des Fées_," remarks one of her critics, "are not nearly
equal to those of Mademoiselle de Murat and other ladies who have
written in that style. They have less of moral purpose and allegorical
allusion." This is quite true; and my object in publishing the two
I have selected is to illustrate, as I have mentioned in my preface,
the decline of the Fairy tale. Mademoiselle de Lubert is one of
the latest of her class. Her stories are only designed to amuse.
The publication of _The Thousand and One Nights_, by Galland, and
the immense popularity that work immediately obtained, evidently
affected the composition of fairy tales. Wild, extravagant adventures,
unconnected incidents, transformations without point or object, a
straining after the merely marvellous, and a total abandonment of the
laughing philosophy and the unaffected morality which distinguish
and immortalize the stories of Perrault and d'Aulnoy, were the first
effects of the circulation of the _Arabian Nights Entertainments_. The
next was the Orientalizing of every tale of enchantment. Dull Caliphs
and Sultans deposed the merry old Kings who "once upon a time" ruled in
Fairyland. The amours of the seraglio and the harem were substituted
for the innocent courtships of princes or shepherds. The manners and
dresses of the time, those delicious anachronisms which impart so much
pleasantry--ay, and instruction--to the fairy tale, were carefully
avoided; and the characters, arrayed in what the writers flattered
themselves were Eastern costumes, were seriously placed in situations
compared to which that of Molière's _Monsieur Jourdain_ as _Mamamonchi_
was a nearer approach to reality. Even those that had some claim to
Oriental origin were so altered and "manufactured for the European
market" that they were said to appear--
--en sortant de chez Barbin[60]
Plus Arabe qu'en Arabie.
_Le Mercure Galant_ was flooded with these productions. _Almanzor et
Zehra, Conte Arabe_; _Almerine et Zelima, Conte Oriental_; _Balky,
Conte Oriental_; _Zaman, Histoire Oriental_, _&c._ Then we have _Contes
Mogol_, _Contes Turcs_, _Contes Chinois_, _Contes Tartares_, _Contes
Persans_, _&c._; but we are forgetting Mademoiselle de Lubert and her