Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."
Updated 12-21-08
Marie Catherine le Jumelle de
Barneville, Baronne d'Aulnoy (1650/51-1705)
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"THOUGH I BELIEVED NOT A WORD... YET I WAS PLEASED IN THE
RECITAL OF THIS STORY."
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Marie Catherine le Jumelle de Barneville was born in Normandy, to a family of minor nobility. In 1666, she was married to the newly ennobled but wealthy Parisian Francois de la Motte, Baron d'Aulnoy, 30 years older and known as a gambler and a libertine. Three years (and three children) later, Baron d'Aulnoy was accused of treason. Investigation showed the accusation to have been fabricated; Marie Catherine's mother was implicated in making the false accusation and fled France (two men implicated with her were executed).
Nothing certain is known of Marie Catherine's involvement in the accusation against her husband, nor what her later relations with him were. She would have three more children, one of whom was born in Paris in 1676. What we do know is that she disappeared from the Parisian social scene for almost twenty years. She later said that she had spent much of the time traveling --- to Spain (for which there is documentary evidence), to England (for which there is not) --- and wrote her most popular works based on these trips.
By 1690, Madame d'Aulnoy was back in Paris permanently. Any questions there may have been about her past seem to have been ignored: until her death, her salon was among the city's most popular, frequented by princes and leading aristocrats. One reason for this may be that her two religious tracts (Sentiments d'une Ame penitente and Le Retour d'une Ame a Dieu) circulated in manuscript and were given royal permission to be published in 1691 and 1692 (although they were not printed until 1698). In Sentiments, Aulnoy said that she repented "an immoral affair"; during the 1690s, repentance was in vogue both at Louis XIV's court and in society.
From 1690 to 1703, Aulnoy published twelve books: three historical novels: Histoire d'Hippolyte, comte de Duglas, (which would include "L'Ile de la felicite," her first "fairy tale"); Histoire de Jean de Bourbon, Prince de Carency; and Le Comte de Warwick; as well as three pseudo-memoirs, a collection of short adventure tales, a history of Louis XIV's Dutch wars, and two collection of contes (fairy tales). Most of her books were immediately popular (so popular that other people's works were attributed to her), and she was praised by reviewers. She was seen as a historian and as a recorder of the exotic (i.e., non-French); when she was elected a member of the Paduan Accademia dei Ricovvati, she was given the name Clio, the muse of history.
This identification as a historian would get Aulnoy into trouble 150 years later, when the definition of "history" had become much stricter. From 1850 to very near the present, she has been presented as a fraud, because she incorporated into Memoires de la cour d'Espagne, Relation du voyage d'Espagne, and Memoires de la cour d'Angleterre, stories she had read or had been told by others. However, most of her contemporaries in France and in England (where her works were soon translated) did not go to Aulnoy for accuracy but for pleasure. The French press praised these works as "enjoyable" and as "curious & pleasing." The English subtitle of a 1692 translation of Relation du voyage d'Espagne saw that work describing a "Great Variety of Modern Adventures, and Surprising Accidents." The one work in which Aulnoy did try to be historically accurate, the report on Louis' Dutch wars, was her least popular.
The works for which Aulnoy is best known today, Les Contes des Fees (Tales of fairies) and Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fees a la Mode (New tales, or fairies in fashion), were first published in 1697 and 1698. The two contain 24 fairy tales and three adventure stories. Unlike the 1695 and 1697 folk-based fairy tales of Charles Perrault, who frequented the same salon gatherings, Aulnoy's contes were "a la mode," reflecting court and salon conversation. As a result, they have had to be considerably revised to make them suitable for children, and some versions available in English bear little resemblance to the originals.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from translation in print:
Histoire d'Hippolyte, comte de Douglas
Relation du voyage d'Espagne
Histoire de Jean de Bourbon, Prince de Carency
Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre
Les Contes des Fees
Contes Nouveaux ou les Fees a la ModeInformation about secondary sources.
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1. Complete works in English:
(a) The Ingenious and Diverting Letters of the Lady's Travels into Spain, a 1708 English translation of the 1691 Relation du voyage d'Espagne. You can link to the first page of Letter 1, to Letter 5 ("Part II"), and to Letter 10 ("The last part") and then go to the following pages; you can also download the whole as a PDF file.
(b) A link to the text of Memoirs of the Court of England in 1675, a 1913 translation by Lucretia Arthur of the 1695 Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre; unlike the original, the translation is divided into 48 chapters. You can also download the whole as a PDF file. (For information on the translation's introduction by George David Gilbert, see below, under "In print.")
2. Complete works in French:
(a) A link to the text of the 1690 Memoires de la cour d'Espagne; you can also download the work as a PDF file.
(b) Links to the fifteen letters of the 1691 Relation du voyage d'Espagne, from a 1926 edition by R. Foulché-Delbosc.
3. A detailed 1874 Atlantic Monthly review of a French edition of Relation du voyage d'Espagne that had been published in the same year. You may link to individual pages or to the whole text.
4. Aulnoy's contes in English:
(a) At "Aulnoy" in this alphabetical list, you may link to translations of four contes (but without Aulnoy's frequently sardonic verse morals): "The Good Little Mouse " ("La bonne petite souris"); The "Yellow Dwarf" ("Le nain jaune"); "The White Cat" ("La chatte blanche"); and "Princess Goldie" ("La princesse Rosette"). With the first two, the French is given; the French of the last is found at the top of the list. (You can also link to the French of nine other Aulnoy contes; some of these include the verse moral.)
(b) "The Ram," a c.1854 translation of "Le Mouton," which includes the verse moral (for examples of other of Aulnoy's concluding verse morals, see "In print").
(c) At the Wikipedia entry on Aulnoy, links to plot summaries of 23 contes.
5. Adaptations
of Aulnoy's contes for children: First, links to 24
tales (14 translated by Annie Macdonell, 10 by a "Miss Lee")
in an 1892 edition; here you can also link to that edition's
introduction by Anne Thackeray Ritchie, which has several errors
(e.g., the 1707 "memoir" is apparently not by Aulnoy)
but which also includes substantial passages from Relation
du voyage d'Espagne. Then, under the links to the 24 are
links to 13 tales (translated by Minnie Wright) edited by Andrew
Lang from 1889 to 1906; in the introduction to one of his volumes
of "fairy books," Lang described Aulnoy as "a
wandering lady of more wit than reputation." Near the bottom
of the page is a bibliographic essay by Heidi Anne Heiner.
6. The contes in French:
(a) Links to 18 of the original 24 tales of Contes des Fees and Contes Nouveaux: At Contes, Tome I, 13 tales ("La belle aux cheveux d'or," "L'Oiseau bleu," "Gracieuse et Percinet," "La Biche au bois," "Babiole," "Finette Cendron," "Fortunee," "La bonne petite souris," "La Princesse Rosette," "Le Mouton," "Le Nain jaune," "Le prince lutin," and "La grenouille bienfaisante"). At Contes, Tome II, 5 tales ("La chatte blanche," "Le rameau d'or," "Le pigeon et la colombe," "Le prince Marcassin," and "La princesse Belle-Etoile").
(b) If you prefer to go directly to an individual tale, click on "Contes de Madame d'Aulnoy" for links to twelve: ("Babiole," "Finette Cendron," "Fortunee," "Le Prince lutin," "La belle aux cheveux d'or," "La bonne petite souris," "Le Mouton," "La princesse Rosette," "Le rameau d'or," "La grenouille bienfaisante," "Le Nain jaune," and "L'oiseau bleu").
7. After a French-languge biography by Anne Defrance, a bibliography of Aulnoy's works (and of works that were attributed to her). And at another site, editions published 1990-2008.
8. The title page of the original 1698 Contes Nouveaux ou Les Fees a la Mode.
9. Essays, etc.:
(a) The introduction to Elizabeth Wanning Harries' 2001 study, Twice upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale (for a review of the study, see # 10 below).
(b) A 1996 article by Harries, "Simulating Oralities: French Fairy Tales of the 1690s," which describes the contes as growing out of & representing the conversation of salon culture.
(c) "Pig or Prince? Monstrous Masculinity in Le Prince Marcassin" (2003), an interpretation by Lewis C. Seifert of one of Aulnoy's most puzzling contes.
(d) "Fairy Tales in Translation" (2005), by Paul J. Buczkowski, on the translation of Aulnoy's contes into English by John Robinson Planche in 1853-54.
(e) The opening of Allison Stedman's 2005 article, D'Aulnoy's Histoire d'Hypolite, comte de Duglas (1690): A Fairy-tale Manifesto (for information on the full article, see "Secondary sources").
(f) The opening of a 2003 article by Christine Jones, "The Poetics of Enchantment (1690-1715)" (for information on the full article, see "Secondary sources").
(g) "The 'Diverting Works' of Madame D'Aulnoy Charm the British" is a brief 2003 report by Jones of her on-going research, but it suggests the treatment of the contes by English translators in the early 1700s.
10. Reviews (for information on the books' treatment of Aulnoy, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Katherine Crawford on Anne E. Duggan's 2005 study, Salonnieres, Furies, and Fairies: The Politics of Gender and Cultural Change in Absolutist France.
(b) Leslie Tuttle on Holly Tucker's 2003 study, Pregnant Fictions: Childbirth and the Fairy Tale in Early-modern France; elsewhere, another review, this by Chantal Clarke.
(c) Martha Hixon on Harries' 2001 study, Twice Upon a Time; and another review, by Vicki Mistacco
(d) Ruth Glass on Seifert's 1996 study, Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690-1715: Nostalgic Utopias.
11. A portrait
of Aulnoy, engraved in the later 1700s but based on a drawing
made by the Parisian artist-writer Elisabeth Cheron (1648-1711).
12. For historical background, "Les
Contes de Fees: The Literary Fairy Tales of France"
(2000), by Terri Windling, which describes the roles of Aulnoy
and her fellow writers of contes.
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Histoire d'Hippolyte, comte de Douglas
[A reprint of a 1708 book that includes a translation of the 1690 Histoire d'Hippolyte. Printed with Hippolyte is a brief anonymous English utopian tale, The Island of Content. Josephine Grieder's 1973 introduction discusses the two works:]
Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine). Hypolitus Earl of Douglas.
The island of content. Anonymous. With a new introd. for the
Garland ed. by Josephine Grieder (Foundations of the novel).
New York, Garland Pub., 1973 (15, 256, 32 p.)
LC#: PZ3.A924 Hy2; ISBN: 0824005244
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"You fancy the true felicity of life to consist in loving."
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[Set in England in the 1500s, the novel tells the story of
Hypolitus, the son of the Earl of Douglas, and Julia, an orphan
raised by Douglas. The two young people fall in love, but believe
they are siblings. By the time they find out the truth, both
are destined to other marriages. After his parents separate him
from Julia, the young Hypolitus tells his friend, the Earl of
Sussex, that he has lost all ambition; Sussex offers a different
view of love:]
"My dear Hypolitus," said the Earl, interrupting him, "you fancy the true felicity of life to consist in loving beyond all measure, but I am of a quite contrary sentiment: I would have a man appear gallant among the ladies, I would have him also make his addresses to them, in order to merit some of their favors; but I would not have engaged so far as to disturb his own tranquility, or to make him neglect either his duty or his fortune." [p.53]
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"Because we are not sensible of the danger...."
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[The novel includes many adventures for both: for Hypolitus, duels and disguises; for Julia, kidnappings, incarceration in a convent, cross-dressing. At one point, when Hypolitus has learned that Julia is to be married to another, the narrator describes his"disease":]
'Tis scarce to be imagined. what a strange alteration this fatal news had made in Hypolitus, and that in a few hours; it was such, that anyone that had seen him then, would have sworn he had lately had some violent and long disease; and truly can there be a more violent one than love? Or can there be a more dangerous one?
Because we are not sensible of the danger at the beginning of a tender passion, every thing appears pleasing; every thing seems engaging; the poison slips insensibly into our heart, and it is the more dangerous because we take it with delight; all our senses conspire against us, and are as it were our murderers. [p.111]
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"Man frames to himself a thousand new desires."
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[When Julia is being kept in a convent on the continent, Hypolitus goes there in disguise and tells a bored abbess "a certain story not unlike one of the old Tales of the Faeries." In the story,"The Island of Felicity," a prince finds the perfect woman, Felicity, on an island but eventually leaves her to gain honor and reputation. He soon dies, and his body is returned to Felicity's island. She has these words inscribed on his tomb:]
Time is the master of every thing; Time brings every thing to pass; Beauty passes away without time. Man frames to himself a thousand new desires; and his mind is discomposed even in the midst of his enjoyments.
If he thinks his pains rewarded; if he appear contented for some time, and values himself upon the conquest he has made, he will soon be convinced by some unfortunate turn of affairs, that there is no love that lasts for ever, nor any perfect felicity. [p.195]
[And the end of the tale:]
The whole World is sufficiently convinced of this Truth, by woeful Experience, and since this deplorable Adventure, it has been a constant Saying: That Time brings every thing to pass, and that there is no Felicity in its full Perfection. [p.196]
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"...as if they had spent it in the Palace of Felicity."
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[When at the isolated convent, Hypolitus and Julia are able to spend some time together, the narrator comments:]
...[T]hey passed away their time in this delightful desert with more pleasure than if they had lived in the most splendid Court of Europe, and had enjoyed all the favours of the greatest Monarch on Earth....
Hypolitus related to her every thing that had befallen him during her absence; as she, on the other hand, told him all that had happened to her. They would sometimes recall to their minds the first beginning of their passion...; sometimes they would frame projects for the time to come, and endeavor to concert measures about future things, which depended on many uncertainties. So that six months passed away thus insensibly, they thinking all this time short, as if they had spent it in the Palace of Felicity. [p.203]
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"what they had purchased at the expence of so much care."
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[As the end of the last passage suggests, both Hypolitus and Julia still had more adventures to undergo, but eventually all the troublesome people died and they were able to marry and return to England. This is the only one of Aulnoy's three novels in which the heroine survives. These words end the tale:]
...[N]ever did two lovers relish with more satisfaction and union what they had purchased at the expence of so much care, and of so many sighs and tears; and upon their return to England, never was there a more general rejoicing seen among all that knew them....
Hypolitus took the title of Earl of Douglas, by which he has rendered himself famous to posterity, and obtained the reputation of the most polite and most courageous of all the greatest men of his age. [p.256]
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Relation du voyage d'Espagne
[Editors E. Denison Ross and Eileen Powers have reprinted "with modernized spelling and a few slight alterations," a 1692 translation of the 1691 Relation du voyage d'Espagne. The 1926 introduction and notes are by the French editor Raymond Foulche Delbosc; their purpose is to show what Foulche Delbosc saw as Aulnoy's plagiarism and factual errors:]
Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine). Travels into Spain, being
The ingenious and diverting letters of the Lady ---- travels
into Spain. Translated in the year of its publication from Relation
du voyage d'Espagne (1691) and now published with an introduction
and notes by R. Foulche Delbosc (The Broadway travellers). London,
G. Routledge & sons, ltd. [1930]. (5 p.1., lxxxv, 447 p.
incl. facsim. front., ports.)
LC#: DP34 .A92 1930
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"...what I have seen, or heard from persons of unquestionable
credit."
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[Relation du voyage is made up of 15 letters ostensibly written to a cousin in France during 1679 and 1680. Before the first letter, in "To the reader," Aulnoy replies to those who had criticized inaccuracies in her Memoires de la cour d'Espagne, published in the preceding year:]
I have no doubt that there will be some who will accuse me of hyperbolizing, and composing romances....
I write nothing but what I have seen, or heard from persons of unquestionable credit: and therefore shall conclude with assuring you that you have here no novel, or story, devised at pleasure, but an exact and most true account of what I met with in my travels. [p.5]
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"The stranger's ignorance makes the Spaniard's profit."
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[Whether or not Aulnoy's report in "exact and most true," it reveals her perceptions of "abroad." On crossing the border into Spain:]
Although I had a passport from the King of Spain, the best specified and most general as is possible, yet I was obliged to take a billet from the toll-house, for without this precaution all my clothes had been confiscated.
"To what purpose then is my passport?" said I to them.
"To none at all," replied they. The surveyors and officers of the customs would not so much as cast their eyes on it; they told me the King must come and assure them that this order was from him. It is no purpose for anyone to allege his being a stranger and ignorant of the usages of the country, for they drily answer that the stranger's ignorance makes the Spaniard's profit. [p.52]
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"I thought I should be more content... having those partridges."
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[On hearing the tale of a cruel Spanish princess, Mira, who had died for love:]
And though I believed not a word of whatever was told me... in relation to Mira and Nios, yet I was pleased in the recital of this story....
My waiting-woman was so affected... that she was for having us return back again, to set at the mouth of the cave some red partridges which my people had bought. She imagined the Princess's ghost would be mightily comforted in receiving this testimony of our good will, but for my part I thought I should be more content than her in having those partridges for my supper. [pp.53-54]
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"...a husband whom they could not endure."
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[On the heavy, all-covering travel clothes of some Spanish women:]
This is the habit of the widows and duennas, a dress which is insupportable to my sight.... They never leave it unless they marry; and they are obliged to bewail the death of a husband whom they could not endure when living. [pp.87-88]
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" They read little and write not much; but yet...."
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[And on the women of the court at Madrid:]
Their conversation is free and pleasant, and it must needs be confessed that they have a certain quickness of wit which we cannot come up to. They are very kind and friendly; they love to praise, and do it after a gentle way, very ingeniously and with great judgment. I am amazed to find such strength of memory joined with so great a degree of wit and understanding....
They read little and write not much; but yet by that little which they do read, they improve much, and that little they write is both exact and concise. [p.207]
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"What they call novels...."
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[On the salons of Madrid and on the new style of novel --- plausible and plain-spoken. The last sentence may refer to Aulnoy's collection of Spanish adventure stories, which would be published the following year:]
Here is in this city several houses which are a sort of academies, where people meet, some to play and others for conversation....
As to the conversation in these academies, there's of it that is very ingenious, and very knowing persons that frequent them; for in a word, they are here just as in other places, and there are some that write very fine things.
What they call novels seem to me to be of a style and to have an air that charms. They never advance anything but what's probable, and the subjects they take are so well managed and their narration so concise and plain, neither mean or lofty, that one must needs grant they have a genius which surpasses all others in these sort of pieces. I will endeavor to get some of this kind, and will translate and send them to you, so that you may judge of them yourself. [pp.317-18]
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"There was never any life more melancholy than hers."
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[And yet, Aulnoy preferred France; and she pitied the court women of Madrid, especially the young Queen Marie-Louise, who had arrived from France in 1680, and who was dead (perhaps by poison) the year before this work's publication:]
Here are none of those solemn and pleasant festivals which are at Versailles when the ladies have the honor to eat with theirs Majesties. All is very reserved in this Court, and in my opinion nothing but a general and constant habit could prove abundance of things from being extremely tedious to them.
Those ladies which do not actually dwell at Court never come to it but when the Queen [Marie-Louise] sends for them, and she is not allowed to send for them often neither. She lives for the most part without any other company than her women. There was never any life more melancholy than hers. [p.398]
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Histoire de Jean de Bourbon, Prince
de Carency
[A reprint of a 1719 translation of the 1692 Histoire de Jean de Bourbon, Prince de Carency. For the English reader, the novel's ending had been changed from that of the original in order to make the hero and heroine live happily ever after. The 1719 preface, written in London, says, "As to the last Incident, which is the Murder of Leonida, succeeded by the Marriage of the Prince of Carency to another Lady,... it seems unreasonable that Leonida... shou'd die a tragick Death; and that the Prince of Carency... shou'd... conceive tender Sentiments for any other lady, a Character not becoming a Hero." Historically, it was Aulnoy's version that was accurate: the real Leonida died and Carency soon married. Josephine Grieder's 1973 introduction includes a description of the original ending:]
Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine). The Prince of Carency.
With a new introd. for the Garland ed. by Josephine Grieder (Foundations
of the novel). New York, Garland Pub., 1973. (11, 382 p.)
LC#: PQ1711.A92 H51 1973; ISBN: 0824005422
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"Love, without consulting duty, takes possession of our
inclinations."
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[Set at the opening of the 1400s, the novel concerns the plan for a political marriage between the French Jean de Bourbon, Prince of Carency, and the Spanish Leonida, daughter of a grandee. The two had never met and would not meet until the end of the novel. At the opening, Carency had already fallen in love twice, with one woman he has never seen and with another who was now dead. A friend, Senator Grimaldi, tried to remind him of his duty:]
The Prince spoke but little on the way, and what he said, only related to the unhappiness of his destiny....
...[T]he Senator took that opportunity to speak to him: "Could you follow my advice, my Lord," said he,"you would endeavor to conquer two passions which torment you at once; for you love a lady at Nicopolis, whom it is likely you will never see; Olympia you have seen, and loved her at first sight, she is now no more.
"I must own that all the circumstances of your adventures are fatal; but if you call reason to your assistance, it will tell you that your love is only due to Leonida; she is destined for you, and I am informed, she is a perfection of virtue and beauty. Why then, my Lord, should an unknown, or a person that is no more, deprive her of the right she has to your heart?"
"Why," replied the Prince, "alas, is in in my power to love whom I please, and forget two objects that so entirely possess my soul? Love, without consulting duty, takes possession of our inclinations; he promises a thousand pleasures, and will sometimes grant small favours. But, oh, what bitterness has bee mixed with those he has hitherto bestowed on me?"
The Senator perceived by the warmth of his discourse, that his advice, though very reasonable, was ill-timed, therefore chose rather to pity the Prince than condemn those sentiments which were too passionate and confused to be easily conquered. [pp.37-38]
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"Were I mistress of my destiny...."
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[Leonida, on the other hand, was determined to obey her father, despite having been told lies about Carency by a villainous brother and sister, Benavidez & Casilda (who wanted the hero and heroine for themselves). Leonida told Casilda:]
"Were I mistress of my destiny, I could make a choice different from that which is allotted me; I wish my father would consult my sentiments on that subject, and not so entirely follow his own.
But let what will happen, I am resolved to obey him, and will not even endeavor to make him change his resolution. If I am unhappy in a person I do not like, it shall only affect myself, being determined never to give him any reason to complain of my conduct." [pp.47-48]
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"...the arms of a despairing Prince."
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After many adventures (shipwrecks, slavery, etc.), Leonida and Carency finally recognized each other and "came to a right understanding, which created unspeakable transports in these two lovers" (p.360). Almost immediately, Casilda (disguised as a man), stabbed Leonida. These lines appear to be the last of Aulnoy's original (in which Leonida died and Carency soon abandoned his despair), before the English translation's happy ending:]
How shall I here paint the disconsolate state of our unhappy Prince? He was resolved not to survive so great a misfortune, and had already turned the point of his sword to his breast, when the Queen [of Fez]... interposed and prevented him from acting his own death.
[Soon]... the wood was full of people, who were in a strange consternation; Leonida wounded (lying in the arms of a despairing Prince who was near losing his mistress) moved all hearts with compassion. [pp.364-65]
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Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre
[A 1913 translation by Lucretia Arthur of the 1695 Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre (also available online). George David Gilbert's introduction says that "...it is quite possible the main text is absolute fact" (p.viii), and so he tries to identify unnamed characters. His notes and index provide useful historical background. The translation divides the work into chapters; the original was one continuous narrative:]
Memoirs of the court of England in 1675, by Marie Catherine
Baronne d'Aulnoy; translated from the French by Mrs. William
Henry Arthur; edited and revised with notes by George David Gilbert;
with 16 plates (Broadway translations). London, G. Routledge
& Sons Ltd.; New York, E.P. Dutton & Co. [1927]. (xxx
p., 1 l., 445 p. front., ports.)
LC#:DA440 .A8 1927
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"...the secret and interesting history of the Court of England."
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[Memoires, set in Charles II's court, focuses on a young Duke of Monmouth and an older Duke of Buckingham. Aulnoy narrates a series of farcial episodes: lovers disguised, hidden in closets, let down from windows in baskets; women throwing bottles of ink at rivals and attacking one another physically. The whole book is one long letter addressed to a cousin. The opening:]
It is true, my dear cousin, that the sojourn that I made in London, and the friendship that was was extended to me there... enabled me to know... the secret and interesting history of the Court of England.
...[T]he intimacy that I had with so many people of birth and merit gave me an opportunity to hear a thousand interesting things of which I made note, and, as you ask me, I now put them in order. [pp.1-2]
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"The laws that govern woman and that govern us are equal."
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[At one point, Buckingham and Monmouth discuss men's love affairs and women's reactions to them:]
"And yet," dissented Buckingham, "it often happens that, during the actual course of a long and a great passion, one would escape for the moment and take advantage of a favourable opportunity in another direction. But it is an assured fact that these little infidelities are rarely followed up; for one returns with renewed ardour to the real object of one's affections, as if to one's only good. It is for this reason that no sensible woman takes offence----"
"I find," said the Duke of Monmouth, "that the laws that govern woman and that govern us are equal, and that in assuming we possess the privilege of temporarily attaching ourselves to some chance mistress from time to time, reserving the right to return to the old one, when and as we will, we are the victims of a totally erroneous conceit." [p.29]
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"We do not desire that all the Court shall be informed."
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[Later, a Portuguese woman, an attendant to the queen, is approached by Buckingham. He wished an affair that his wife would know nothing of; she points out that in Portugal things were done differently. Buckingham narreates the story to his friends:]
"I do not know," said she, "if the custom may be established in this country, but in mine the ladies of the palace are allowed declared lovers even if these last be married, and the former are only spinsters. They do not neglect to pay them the thousand attentions, and this passes in the sight of all the Court.... In case this be the mode here I voluntarily accept you...."
"I must tell you, Madam," said I, "that we are more delicate here than you are in Portugal and secretly confiding a passion is a pleasure that suffices. Provided our mistress knows of our sentiments we do not desire that all the Court shall be informed of it." [pp.251-52]
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"So little truth enters into your fiction."
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[When young Monmouth tries to win another of the queen's attendants, Filadelphe, she resists him (and will resist him to the end):]
"Am I not," he demanded, "the most unhappy of lovers? I care but for you, Filadelphe, but you will not believe me...."
"You play your role very naturally," she replied, "though so little truth enters into your fiction. It is easy to believe that you may have some inclination for me; for though you do not make much fuss about any one affair your love is so ephemeral that you desire to have several intrigues at once...."
"You are right, Mistress," he interrupted hastily. "These are reproaches I fully deserve. But I intend to break all other ties...."
"No, my lord, no; do not do this thing you threaten." cried Filadelphe. "I am quite content. All I desire is to make up my mind to take care of my good name---nothing else in the world is so sacred to me; and I declare that it is dearer to me---if the only thing dearer---than yourself." [pp.297-98]
-------------------------------------------------------------
" I cannot make up my mind to continue until...."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[At the end, all the men either have won the love they want or at least have been reconciled to loss. Aulnoy ends the memoir:]
Permit me, my dear Cousin, to leave off at this point. Do you find my Memoirs of interest I will inform you further as to the termination of adventures of which you have now read the commencement. My future recital will be more serious than the previous one; it will deal with scenes that are as affecting as they are tragic. But I cannot make up my mind to continue until I hear from you what you think of this. [pp.341-42]
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Les Contes des Fees; Contes Nouveaux
ou les Fees a al Mode
[Jack Zipes' collection appears to provide the largest number of accurate English translations of Aulnoy's contes: eleven from Contes des Fees (1697-98), and three from Contes Nouveaux (1698). For these, the translations are "based on" those of John Robinson Planche. Zipes also gives his own translation of "L'ile de la Felicite," from Hypolite (1690). Zipes' introduction discusses the several kinds of fairy tales written in the 1600s and 1700s. (See the book's table of contents online, half-way down the page.):]
Beauty and the Beast and other classic French fairy tales
/ translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes. New York,
N.Y.: Penguin Group, 1997, c1989. (viii, 598 p.: ill.)
LC#: PQ1278 .B39 1991; ISBN: 0452010799; 0451526481
[First publ: Beauties, beasts, and enchantment: classic French
fairy tales / translated and with an introduction by Jack Zipes.
New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Meridian, c1989; ISBN: 0453006930]
-----------------------------------------------------
"Too many matches of this sort I've seen."
-----------------------------------------------------
[From the verse moral of "L'oiseau bleu" (The Blue Bird), on arranged marriages:]
Better to be a bird of any hue---
A raven, crow, an owl---I do protest,
Than stick for life to a partner like glue
Who scorns you, or whom you detest.
Too many matches of this sort I've seen,
And wish now that there were some king magician
To stop these ill-matched souls at once and lean
On them with force to keep his prohibition.
He must be vigilant and forbid the banns,
Whenever true affection might be slighted.
And Hymen must be prevented from joining hands,
Whenever hearts have not been first united. [p.349]
-----------------------------------------
"There is no greater vengeance."
-----------------------------------------
[From the moral of "Finette Cendron," (literally, "Cunning Cinders"), a version of the tale we know as "Cinderella." In the conte Finette has returned all of her sisters' cruelties with kindness:]
If it's revenge on the ungrateful you want to see,
Then follow Finette's wise policy.
Do favors of the undeserving until they weep.
Each benefit inflicts a wound most deep,
Cutting the haughty sisters to the core....
From her example, then, this lesson learn.
And give good for evil in your turn
No matter what wrong may awake your wrath,
There is no greater vengeance than this kind path. [p.416]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Alas, for human common sense, no tale, no caution, schools!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[And the whole moral of "Serpentin vert" (The Green Serpent); Laidronette is the heroine, whose curiosity, like that of Eve, Pandora, and Psyche, causes suffering for her husband and herself:]
Too oft is curiosity
The cause of fatal woe.
A secret that may harmful be,
Why should we seek to know?
It is a weakness of womankind,
For witness the first created,
From whom Pandora was designed,
And Psyche imitated.
Each one, despite a warning, on the same
Forbidden quest intent,
Did bring about her misery and become
Its fatal instrument.
Psyche's example failed to save
Poor Laidronette from erring.
Like warning she was led to brave.
Like punishment incurring.
Alas, for human common sense,
No tale, no caution, schools!
The proverb says, Experience
Can make men wise, and change dumb fools.
But when we're told, yet fail to listen
To the lessons of the past,
I fear the proverb lies quite often,
Despite the shadows forward cast. [p.500]
=========================================================================
[This 1977 reprint of part of a 1715 anthology of works attributed to Aulnoy contains ten tales from Contes des Fees. Four are not in Zipes: "Gracieuse et Percinet," "Le Prince Lutin" (The hobgoblin prince), "La Princesse Printaniere" (Princess Verenata), and ""Fortunee" (Fortunio). The book also gives ten other tales that had been attributed to Aulnoy. (In early 1700s England almost any conte not assigned to Perrault was attributed to Aulnoy.) Michael Patrick Hearn's brief introduction describes the differences between Aulnoy's tales and those of Charles Perrault and earlier tale collections:]
Aulnoy, Madame d' (Marie-Catherine). The tales of the fairies
in three parts, compleat: extracted from the second edition in
English of the Diverting works of the Countess d'Anois, London,
1715 / by Marie Catherine, Comtesse d'Aulnoy; with a pref. for
the Garland ed. by Michael Patrick Hearn (Classics of children's
literature, 1621-1932). New York: Garland Pub., 1977. (xiv p.,
p. 369-648, [6] leaves of plates: ill.)
LC#:PQ1711.A85 C613; ISBN: 0824022548
=========================================================================
[Two chapters of Anne E. Duggan's study deal with Aulnoy.
"The Tyranny of Patriarchs in L'Histoire d'Hypolite,
Comte de Duglas" discusses Aulnoy's use of history in
her first novel to comment on contemporary abuses of power by
the state and by families. Duggan also comments on some of the
later as-yet-untranslated shorter fiction. The following chapter,
"Fairy Tales and Mondanite," compares Aulnoy's
contes with the tales of Perrault (who is treated in detail
in an earlier chapter) and describes the contes' relation
to contemporary opera and court spectacle. Throughout, Duggan
gives the original and her translation of all passages quoted.
(See
the book's table of contents online.)]
Duggan, Anne E. Salonnieres, furies, and fairies: the politics
of gender and cultural change in absolutist France. Newark: University
of Delaware Press; Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses,
c2005. (288 p.: ill., facsims.)
LC#: PQ245 .D84 2005; ISBN: 0874138973
Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-279) and index
--------------------
[Allison Stedman's article focuses on the relationship between the conte "L'ile de la felicite" and the novel in which it is found. Stedman describes parallels between the characters and structure of the two stories and sees the conte's presence as addressed to Aulnoy's salon readers, urging them to write and to challenge their social and political world. Stedman gives the original and her own translation of all passages discussed. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Stedman, Allison. D'Aulnoy's Histoire d'Hypolite, comte
de Duglas (1690): A fairy-tale manifesto. Marvels &
Tales, 19:1 (2005), 32-53.
LC#: GR72 .M47: ISSN: 0898-154X
--------------------
[The first two chapters of Elizabeth Wanning Harries' study
discuss the writers of contes in the 1690s, showing how
the works of Aulnoy and the other women writers differed in purpose
and structure from those of Charles Perrault and the men who
collected tales in the next centuries. Harries' notes and bibliography
will lead you to earlier studies. (See
the book's table of contents online.):]
Harries, Elizabeth Wanning. Twice upon a time: women writers
and the history of the fairy tale. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, c2001. (xiv, 216 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN3437 .H37 2001; ISBN: 0691074445, 0691074453
-----------------------
[Christine Jones' article develops Harries' view of the women's contes, and uses Aulnoy as an example, focusing first on the illustrations used as frontispieces to editions of her collections and then on an analysis of one of the tales, "Les contes des fees," originally published in 1598 and used as a preface in a later edition. Quoted passages from the tale are not translated, but are generally made clear in the discussion. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]
Jones, Christine The Poetics of enchantment (1690-1715). Marvels
& Tales, 17:1, (2003), 55-74.
LC#: GR72 .M47; ISSN: 1521-4281
----------------------
[In Holly Tucker's study of the treatment of pregnancy and birth by conte writers of the 1600s and 1700s, Aulnoy's tales are the most frequently cited (see the index). Nineteen of Aulnoy's contes are spoken of, some briefly, some in more detail. Tucker sees Aulnoy as presenting a new view of the traditional social and political attitudes toward women and toward the preference for male births:]
Tucker, Holly. Pregnant fictions: childbirth and the fairy
tale in early-modern France. Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, c2003. (xv, 213 p.: ill.)
LC#: GR161 .T83 2003: ISBN: 0814330428
Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-199) and index
-----------------------
[Patricia Hannon's study discusses 14 of Aulnoy's 24 contes
of 1697-98, including several not yet fully translated into English.
Quoted passages are not translated, but their meaning is generally
made clear in the discussion. The whole book is useful in situating
Aulnoy among the period's writers:]
Hannon, Patricia. Fabulous identities: women's fairy tales
in seventeenth-century France (Faux titre; no. 151) . Amsterdam;
Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1998. (226 p.)
LC#: PQ637 .F27 H366 1998; ISBN: 904200522X
Includes bibliographical references (p.[218]-226)
-----------------------
[This collection includes Gabrelle Verdier's essay "Memoirs, Publishing, Scandal: The Case of Mme. D*** [D'Aulnoy]," which discusses four works attributed to Aulnoy but not acknowledged by her. Verdier describes the publication history of the attributed works and compares their content to that of some of the acknowledged works, suggesting that the more scandalous tales and memoirs may have been written by Aulnoy but disowned by her in the newly moral world of Louis XIV's 1690s. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Women writers in pre-revolutionary France: strategies of emancipation
/ edited by Colette H. Winn, Donna Kuizenga (Garland reference
library of the humanities; v.1990. Women writers of the world;
v.2). New York: Garland Pub., 1997. (xxx, 454 p.)
LC#: PQ149 .W64 1997; ISBN: 0815323670
Includes bibliographical references (p. 415-441) and index
----------------------
[In Lewis C. Seifert's study of the 114 contes de fees (74 of which were by women) that were published in France between 1690 and 1715, Aulnoy's stories are treated in some detail (see the index for specific references). During his discussion, Seifert summarizes several of Aulnoy's contes that have not yet been fully translated into English. (See the book's table of contents online.):]
Seifert, Lewis Carl. Fairy tales, sexuality, and gender in
France, 1690-1715: nostalgic utopias ( Cambridge studies in French;
55). Cambridge [England]; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University
Press, 1996. (xii, 276 p.)
LC#: PQ637.F27 S45 1996; ISBN: 052155005X
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-270) and index
----------------------
[Seifert's 10- page article on Aulnoy in this reference work
discusses her use of the themes of love and sexual roles and
summarizes the earlier history of critical reaction to her work.
(See the
book's table of contents online.) :]
French women writers: a bio-bibliographical source book /
edited by Eva Martin Sartori and Dorothy Wynne Zimmerman. New
York: Greenwood Press, 1991. (xxiii, 632 p.)
LC#: PQ149 .F73 1991; ISBN: 0313265488
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
----------------------
[Melvin D. Palmer's article discusses Memoires de la cour d'Espagne and Relation du voyage d'Espagne as works of fiction, not as the historical frauds that earlier critics had seen. Palmer sees the two works as early examples of the autobiographical and epistolary styles of fiction that would become so popular in the 1700s:]
Palmer, Melvin D. "Madame d'Aulnoy's pseudo-autobiographical
works on Spain." Romanische Forschungen, 83 (1971),
220-29.
LC#: PC3 .R7; ISSN: 0035-8126
---------------------
[This later article by Palmer focuses on the reception
given Aulnoy's works in England, but in the process he summarizes
all of the works except the contes, including those not
yet available in translation:]
Palmer, Melvin D. "Madame d'Aulnoy in England." Comparative
Literature, 27 (1975), 237-53.
LC#: PN851 .C6; ISSN: 0010-4124
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Updated 12-21-08