cesse ou Les Aventures de Finette_, which
appeared with Perrault's, but which I can hardly believe to be his. They
are about the same length, but the one is one of the best and the other
one of the worst examples of its author and of the general style. It may
be worth while to analyse both very briefly. As for Perrault's better
work, such analysis should be as unnecessary as it would be irreverent.

[Sidenote: Commented examples--_Gracieuse et Percinet_.]

That _Gracieuse et Percinet_ is of an essentially "stock" character is
not in the least against it, for so it ought to be: and the "stock"
company that plays its parts plays them well. The father is perhaps
rather excessively foolish and unnatural, but then he almost had to be.
The wicked and ugly stepmother tops, but does not overtop, _her_ part,
and her punishment is not commonplace. Gracieuse herself deserves her
name, not only "by her comely face and by her fair bodie," but by her
good but not oppressive wits, and her amiable but not faultless
disposition. She ought not to have looked into the box; but then we
should not have liked her nearly as much if she had not done so. She was
foolishly good in refusing to stay with Percinet; but we are by no means
certain that we should like her better if she had thrown herself into
his arms at the first or second time of asking. Besides, where would
have been the story? As for Percinet, he escapes in a wonderful fashion,
though partly by help of his lady's little wilfulnesses, the dangers of
the handsome, amiable, in a small way always successful, and almost
omnipotent hero. There is a sort of ironic tenderness, in his letting
Gracieuse again and again go her wilful way and show her foolish
filiality, which saves him. He is always ready, and does his spiriting
in the politest and best manner, particularly when he shepherds all
those amusing but rebellious little people into their box again--a feat
which some great novelists have achieved but awkwardly in their own
cases. There is even pathos in the apparently melancholy statement that
the fairy palace is dead, and that Gracieuse will never see it till she
is buried. I should like to have been Percinet, and I should
particularly like to have married Gracieuse.

Moreover, the thing is full of small additional seasonings of incident
and phrase to the solid feast of fairy working which it provides.
Gracieuse's "collation," with its more than twenty pots of different
jams, has