me[22]. We may measure it by the fleet of other books of fairy
tales which 'pursue the triumph and partake the gale.' The _Contes de
Fees_ of Mad. La Comtesse de M---- (Murat) were published by Barbin in
1698. How little the manner resembles Perrault's 'fairy-way of writing,'
how much it deserves the censure of the Abbe de Villiers, may be learned
from the opening sentence of _Le Parfait Amour_. 'Dans un de ces
agreables pais qui sont dependans de l'Empire des Fees, regnoit la
redoutable Danamo, elle estoit scavante dans son art, cruelle dans ses
actions, et glorieuse de l'honneur d'estre descendue de la celebre
Calipso, dont les charmes eurent la gloire et le pouvoir en arrestant le
fameux Ulisse, de triompher de la prudence des vainqueurs de Troye.'

The second story, _Anguillette_, is so far natural, that it contains a
friendly Eel (as in the Mangaian legend of the Eel-lover of Ina); but
this Eel is a fairy, condemned to wear the form of a fish, for certain
days in each month. These narratives are almost unreadable, and scarcely
keep a trace of the popular tradition. The tales of Madame d'Aulnoy, on
the other hand, introduced the _White Cat_, the _Yellow Dwarf_, _Finette
Cendron_, and _Le Mouton_ to literature and the stage, where they
survive in pantomime and _feerie_. _Beauty and the Beast_ first appears,
at the immoderate length of three hundred and sixty-two pages, in _Les
Contes Marins_ (La Haye, 1740) by Madame de Villeneuve.

Literary Fairy Tales flourished all through the eighteenth century in
the endless _Cabinet de Fees_. As for Perrault's Tales, they were
republished at the Hague, in 1742, with illustrations by Fokke. In 1745,
they appeared, with Fokke's vignettes, and with an English translation.
An English version, translated by Mr. Samber, printed for J. Pote, was
advertised, Mr. Austin Dobson tells me, in the _Monthly Chronicle_,
March 1729. There have been innumerable editions, often splendidly
equipped and illustrated, down to the present date. This little book
alone, of all Charles Perrault's labours, has won 'the land of matters
unforgot.' Odysseus, Figaro, and Othello are not more certain to be
immortal than Hop o' my Thumb, Puss in Boots, and Blue Beard, the heroes
whom Charles Nodier so pleasantly called 'the Ulysses, the Figaro, and
the Othello of children.'

[Footnote 4: Grimm, _Kinder- und Hausmaerchen_. No. 89.]

[Footnote 5: _Ballet des Arts, danse par sa Majeste; le 8 Janvier,
1663._ A