Graciosa and Percinet

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Gracieuse and Percinet, illustration by John Gilbert (1856)

Graciosa and Percinet is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.

Synopsis[]

A king and queen had a beautiful daughter, Graciosa, and an ugly duchess hated her. One day, the queen died. The king grieved so much that his doctors ordered him to hunt. Weary, he stopped at the duchess's castle and discovered how rich she was. He agreed to marry her even though she demanded control of her stepdaughter.

The princess was reasoned into behaving well by her nurse. A handsome young page, Percinet, appeared. He was a rich young prince with a fairy gift, and he was in her service. He gave her a horse to ride to greet the duchess. It made the duchess's look ugly, and she demanded it, and that Percinet led it as he led it for Graciosa. Nevertheless, the horse ran away, and her disarray made her look even uglier. The duchess had Graciosa beaten with rods, except that the rods were turned into peacock feathers, and she suffered no harm.

The wedding went on, and the king arranged a tournament to flatter the queen. The king's knights overthrew all the challengers, for all the ugliness of the queen, until a young challenger overthrew them and showed the portrait of the princess as the most beautiful woman in the world. The queen had her abandoned in the woods. Percinet rescued her, but she wished to return to her father, and when Percinet showed her how the queen had claimed her dead and buried a log of wood in her place, she insisted. He told her that she would never see his castle again until she was buried.

The opened casket releases the small creatures. Illustration by John Batten for Joseph Jacobs's Europa's Fairy Book (1916).

The king was glad to see her, but when the queen returned and insisted, he seemed convinced that Graciosa was an imposter. The queen imprisoned her, and with the aid of a wicked fairy, set her to disentangle a skein, on pain of her life. Graciosa thought Percinet would not aid her, but finally in despair called on him, and he disentangled it. The outraged queen set her to sort a room filled with feathers, and Percinet did that as well. Then the queen set her to bring a box to her own castle, and forbade her to open it. Curiosity got the better of her, and Graciosa freed a swarm of little men and women whom she could not get back in. Percinet helped her. The servants would not admit Graciosa, but gave her a letter telling they would not let her in.

The queen suggested that they lift a stone in the garden, which covered a well, on the grounds she had heard it covered a treasure. When it was up, she pushed Graciosa in, and dropped the stone. Percinet and his mother rescued her, and this time, Graciosa agreed to marry him.

Excerpt[]

"Once upon a time there was a king and a queen who had an only daughter. Her beauty, her sweet temper, and her wit, which were incomparable, caused them to name her Gracieuse. She was the sole joy of her mother, who sent her every day a beautiful new dress, either of gold brocade, or of velvet, or of satin. She was always magnificently attired, without being in the least proud, or vain of her fine clothes. She passed the morning in the company of learned persons, who taught her all sorts of sciences, and in the afternoon she worked beside the queen. At luncheon time they served up to her basins full of sugar-plums, and more than twenty pots of preserves; so that she was universally considered the happiest princess in the world!"

Legacy[]

The tale was one of many from d'Aulnoy's pen to be adapted to the stage by James Planché, as part of his Fairy Extravaganza.[1][2][3]

Analysis[]

Tale type[]

This literary tale can be classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband".[4][5] Scholar Jacques Barchilon stated that the tale was one of the occurrences of the Animal as Bridegroom cycle of stories (types ATU 425, ATU 425A, ATU 425B and ATU 425C) in d'Aulnoy's works.[6]

French scholars Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Thèneze, establishers of the French folktale catalogue, follow Jan-Öjvind Swahn's classification: French type 425A follows Cupid and Psyche with the tasks; type 425B is the one with the gifts and the three nights.[7]

Motifs[]

The tasks of princess Graciosa have been compared to those of princess Psyche, the heroine of the Cupid and Psyche myth.[8]

Variants[]

In a variant from Lorraine collected by comparativist Emmanuel Cosquin with the title Firosette, the titular Firosette loves a human girl named Julie, but his mother, a fairy, wants to marry him to another woman. Firosette's mother tells Julie she will go to church and orders her to empty a well using a sieve. Firosette appears to help her and uses his magic wand to accomplish the task. The next day, Firosette's mother orders her to take a letter to her sister, who lives in Effincourt. Firosette advises Julie that his aunt will offer her a box of laces and ribbons, and she will get the finest one; Julie will choose one, but not wear it; instead, she will tie it around a bush. Julie does that and the bush burns up. Lastly, Firosette's fairy mother marries him to another bride, and forces Julie to hold ten candles between her toes, while in the couple's bedroom. Firosette convinces his bride to change places with Julie. After it happens, Firosette's mother asks from afar if she is ready; her son answers yes, and his mother curses the person who is holding the candles to become food so she can eat it. Firosette's mother realizes her mistake and drops dead.[9] Cosquin noted the partial resemblance of the Lorraine tale to the myth of Cupid and Psyche.[10]

In a tale from Lower Brittany collected by François-Marie Luzel with the title Les Morgans de l’île d’Ouessant ("The Morgens of Ouessant Island"), a human girl named Mona Kerbili is so beautiful she is compared sometimes to a Morgan. Because of this, when she is asked about who she wants to marry, Mona says she won't marry a simple fisherman, but a prince, or even a Morgan himself. An old Morgan - the king - hears her wish and takes her to his underwater palace, intenting on marrying her. However, the son of the Morgan king falls in love with the human girl and wants to marry her, but his father denies him, and tells his son can choose any Morganezed girl in their underwater realm. The Morgan prince is forced to marry a Morganezed girl, while the human girl, Mona, is forced to stay in the palace and prepare the meal for their return from the church. As the retinue march to church, the Morgan prince feigns he forgot his wedding ring back at the palace, and goes back there. He helps Mona with the chores and returns to his marriage ceremony. That same night, after the wedding, the Morgan king forces Mona to hold a candle in her hands until it melts away completely, after which she is to die. After some time, the Morgan prince asks his bride to replace the human girl holding the candle. He hears his father's voice asking is the candle has already melted. He answers yes: his father enters the room and decapitates the Morganezed bride. The next morning, the Morgan prince tells his father he has sadly become a widow overnight and asks for his permission to marry the human girl, the "daughter of the land". Admitting defeat, the Morgan king lets his son marry the human girl. The tale then continues by delving into their married life, until the human girl longs for her land home and decides to visit her human family.[11]

In a Franco-German variant titled Figeois, the titular Figeois lives with three fairies, from whom he learns all magic secrets. The fairies like the human youth, but he only has eyes for a human girl. The fairies get jealous and feign friendship to draw the human to the castle, where they trap the girl. The fairies impose all kinds of work on her, which she accomplishes with Figeois's help. On Sunday, the fairies tell the girl (whom they derisively call Plus-belle-que-Merde) that she is to prepare their food for their return from the Sunday mass, and give her a pot full of mixed up seeds. Figeois gives the girl a magic cane to fulfill the task in no time. That night, the fairies undress the girl and force her to hold a candle until it melts. Seein the poor girl's suffering, Figeois suggests that the elder fairy replaces her for a short while. Outside the room, the other two fairies command the person holding the candle to perish as soon as the candle is put out. So it happens, and the elder fairy dies. Seeing their mistake the next morning, the remaining fairies die. Figeois gets to keep the castle and live with his human bride.[12]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Feipel, Louis N. "Dramatizations of Popular Tales." The English Journal 7, no. 7 (1918): p. 444. Accessed June 25, 2020. doi:10.2307/801356.
  2. ^ Buczkowski, Paul. "J. R. Planché, Frederick Robson, and the Fairy Extravaganza." Marvels & Tales 15, no. 1 (2001): 42-65. Accessed June 25, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41388579.
  3. ^ MacMillan, Dougald. "Planché's Fairy Extravaganzas." Studies in Philology 28, no. 4 (1931): 790-98. Accessed June 25, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172137.
  4. ^ Trinquet, Charlotte. Le conte de fées français (1690-1700): Traditions italiennes et origines aristocratiques. Narr Verlag. 2012. pp. 218-219. ISBN 978-3-8233-6692-8.
  5. ^ Aulnoy, Madame d', Marie-Catherine; Jasmin, Nadine; Robert, Raymonde. Contes des fées: suivis des Contes nouveaux, ou, Les fées à la mode. Champion, 2004. pp. 1083, 1111. ISBN 9782745310651.
  6. ^ Barchilon, Jacques. “Adaptations of Folktales and Motifs in Madame d’Aulnoy’s ‘Contes’: A Brief Survey of Influence and Diffusion”. In: Marvels & Tales 23, no. 2 (2009): 354. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41388930.
  7. ^ Delarue, Paul. Le conte populaire français: catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outre-mer: Canada, Louisiane, îlots français des États-Unis, Antilles françaises, Haïti, Ile Maurice, La Réunion. Érasme, 1957. pp. 113, 114.
  8. ^ Dunlop, Colin John. History of Prose Fiction. Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons. 1896. pp. 110-112
  9. ^ Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome II. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. pp. 234-236.
  10. ^ Cosquin, Emmanuel. Contes populaires de Lorraine comparés avec les contes des autres provinces de France et des pays étrangers, et précedés d'un essai sur l'origine et la propagation des contes populaires européens. Tome II. Paris: Vieweg. 1887. p. 236.
  11. ^ Luzel, François-Marie. Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne. Tome II. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1887. pp. 257-268.
  12. ^ Begegnung der Völker im Märchen: Frankreich-Deutschland. Zusammenstellung und Bearbeitung von Marie-Louise Tenèze und Georg Hüllen. Gesellschaft zur Pflege des Märchengutes der Europäischen Völker. Aschendorff, 1961. pp. 28-30.

Further reading[]

  • Trost, Caroline. ""Gracieuse Et Percinet": A Tale of Mme D'Aulnoy in a New Translation by Caroline Trost". In: Merveilles & Contes 6, no. 1 (1992): 117-39. Accessed June 25, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/41390339.

External links[]

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