| | | | Madame D'Aulnoy's Fairy Tales seems | to us to be among the number of books that ought to be tabooed | from appearing in any language except that in which they were | originally written. All the grace and charm which distinguish | them evaporate in passing through the alembie of translation. So | truly French are they in subject, manner, tone of thought, and | expression, that it is a sin to compel them to wear a mask, which, | at the best, can be but a poor semblance of the features it hides. | Added to this, our English notions of fairy-land, and the fancies | that were instilled into us during our childhood, being entirely | different from anything that a French mind can conceive or | represent, it is difficult for us rightly to appreciate the species of | originality in which Madam d'Aulnoy excels, and which has | rendered her such a favourite in her own country. But if we are | right in saying that her stories are not adapted for translation, | how is it, we shall be asked, that our dramatists and playwrights | so constantly turn to them as the fertile source whence to draw | materials for extravaganzas and pantomimes? We answer, that it is | the conventional character of the stories, the dash and glitter that | surround them, and the constant action kept up through them all, | which render them peculiarly susceptible of being adapted to the | stage. But while we allow that they possess great capabilities for | presentation in a dramatic form, we must say that it shows either | a wretched poverty of invention, or a shameful indolence of the | part of those whose office it is to cater for the amusement of the | public, to plagiarize as they do ~~ and that without | acknowledgment ~~ from Madam d'Aulnoy's work. | If anyone | wishes to form an idea of the amount of talent and pains | bestowed upon the production of so-called original pantomimes, | let him turn to these tales, and compare "Prince Lutin" with the | extravaganza of the "Invisible Prince" ~~ the "Yellow Dwarf" | with the piece given at the Olympic ~~ the "Princess Printaniere" | with the "King of the Peacocks" ~~ and "Serpentin Vert" with | the extravaganza of the "Island of Jewels." He will find that | Madame d'Aulnoy's collection is little else than a repertory | whence our dramatists filch old things, and slightly altering their | accessories, present them as original creations to an innocent and | confiding audience. | But to return to the tales themselves. A fairy tale cannot, in our | opinion, be perfect, unless an appreciation of the beauty of | external nature enters very largely into its composition. This | feature is never absent from German fairy tales; and in addition | to the feeling for beauty which is one of their most marked | characteristics, we find them endowing the whole of inanimate | nature with spiritual life ~~ peopling the mountains with little | hill-men, the valleys with sprightly elves, the woods with fairies, | the mines with canny dwarfs, and the seas with mermaids and | mermen. "Midsummer Night's Dream" is as good a specimen as | we can name of the scenery in which, according to our English | notions, fairies should live, move, and have their being. The | "Tempest" presents us with another order of spiritual beings, but | they also are emanations from nature; and if Ariel and his fellows | were to be deprived of the communion which we feel, rather than | see, subsists between them and it, they would lose half their | charm and nearly all their reality. It is difficult for an imaginative | mind to contemplate the material beauty and grandeur of nature | without spiritualizing it by means of troops of fancied beings, | who form an intermediate link, as it were, between our grosser | natures and what we call Nature herself. The Greeks felt this to a | greater degree than ourselves; and hence there sprang to life | among them nymphs and naiads, gods of the woods and the | valleys, who served as incarnations of the feelings which the | beauty they saw around excited in their minds. The Hebrews, | after a different fashion, endowed all nature with life; but unlike | the Greeks, who never rose above her, they looked down upon | her as from Mount Sinai, and giving a voice to hill and valley, | earth and sea, commanded them to join with every living thing in | singing the praises of the Lord of Hosts. In later days, the | Northern nations, in their Eddas and Sagas, also endowed the | material world with spiritual being; and still we see the same | tone of mind entering the modern German tales, and giving to | them an indescribable charm. In vain we seek for these | characteristics in Madame D'Aulnoy's stories. Throughout them | all, we never forget that we are breathing the air of a court, and | that court the most conventional in Europe. All the talk we hear | is of pomps and vanitites ~~ of gold and precious stones ~~ of | forms and ceremonies ~~ of ladies dressed in splendid raiment, | inhabiting palaces of crystal and diamonds. The very shepherds | and shepherdesses have a courtly bearing about them, as though | they had never tended sheep anywhere but in the formal avenues | or on the trim lawns of Versailles; and the overstrained | politeness with which the various personages address each other | is another characteristic which removes them far out of the | domain of genuine fairy tales. Another peculiarity attaching to | them is, that the heroes and heroines are seldom, if ever, allowed | opportunities of exercising self-help, and combating unaided | with difficulties which would make one feel that the fairy | succour which is afterwards bestowed had been fairly earned. | Madame D'Aulnoy's favourites no sooner get into difficulties | than, without any effort of their own, they get out of them again. | Thus they excite no interest, and their histories inculcate no | moral lesson ~~ we despise rather than pity or admire the frail, | helpless proteges of the all-powerful | fairies. | Mr. Planche conceives that these stories are interesting on other | grounds than their originality, since they are curious reflections | of the manners prevailing at the Courts of France and Madrid | during the period in which they were written. But, with the | generality of readers, these reflections will pass unnoticed; for it | argues a more intimate acquaintance with the manners and | customs of past times to be able to discriminate between the facts | and fictions of Madame D'Aulnoy's tales, than is likely to be | found among the class who will turn to them for amusement. To | the authoress's contemporaries such allusions would doubtless be | amusing and interesting, but they can scarcely prove so to | ourselves. For the reading of children we consider them little | suited, on account of the exceedingly low and conventional | morality which is at the bottom of most of them. One specimen | will elucidate our meaning, and will show also the French tone | which, as we have already said, runs through the whole of them. | It is taken from the story of "The Blue Bird," one of the most | popular in the collection: ~~ | | This opening of the story is a story in itself; and we do not think | that, in the whole range of English or German fairy tales, we | could readily meet with its parallel. True to life as it may be, racy | and piquant, full of that graceful satire in which the French are | such proficients, it exhibits a picture hardly suited for the | contemplation of the young, and conveys a moral which is likely | to produce no other effect than that of rubbing the bloom off | their minds, and giving them the worldly wisdom which we all of | us acquire but too soon. For this reason, then in addition to the | others we have already named, we regret that Mr. Planche should | have addressed himself to a task that was uncalled for. | In conclusion, we may mention that the readers of Madame | d'Aulnoy's stories will meet in them many old acquaintances, in | situations, however, which they do not fill half so well as those | we have been accustomed to see them occupy. "Finette | Cendron," for instance, is "Cinderella," "Jack and the | Bean-stalk," "Hop-o'-my-Thumb," and several stories, jumbled | together and spoiled. Mr. Planche acknowledges these | appropriations, but deals very tenderly with them ~~ possibly | from his consciousness of having erred in like manner; and to | excuse them, he says that most likely the authors of the various | stories had a common original which has hitherto escaped notice. | Will Mr. Planche allow us to hint to him that we think his time | might be at least as advantageously employed in seeking for this | common original as in imitating Madame d'Aulnoy in her | plagiarisms and pasticcios?