Princess Rosette (Fairy tale)

Author: Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy

Time Period: 1501 CE–1700 CE

Country or Culture: France

Genre: Fairy Tale

PLOT SUMMARY

Once upon a time, there live a king and queen who are friends with the fairies. Their first two children are boys, and the two young men live in good health, just as the fairies predicted. Later, they have another child, a daughter named Rosette. Princess Rosette is a beautiful little girl whose beauty endears her to anyone she encounters. The queen consults with the fairies as to the future of her daughter, but the fairies are unusually reluctant to give an answer. The queen presses for a response, and the chief fairy finally tells her that they believe that Rosette may one day be responsible for the deaths of both of the princes.

The queen eventually tells the king of the fairies’ unsettling report. Upon the advice of an old hermit, they lock Rosette in a tower and vow never to release her. Still, the king, queen, and princes visit their dear Rosette every day. The boys do not know why she is locked in the tower but remain loyal to their parents’ wishes. Eventually, the king and queen die, leaving the elder prince to assume the throne. He decides to free his sister and allow her to marry.

The princess loves life outside of the tower. One day, while enjoying the outdoors with her green dog, Fretillon, she comes across a peacock. Drawn to the bird’s beautiful colors, she decides that she will marry the king of the peacocks one day. Rosette has many suitors, and she treats each one with respect and kindness but remains dedicated to the idea that she will one day marry the king of the peacocks. Eventually, her brothers set out to find the Peacock King, leaving her in charge of the kingdom.

After a long journey, the king and the prince arrive at the realm of the Peacock King, whom they learn is not a bird but a handsome man clad in peacock feathers. The Peacock King meets with the two men, who show him a picture of their sister and offer her in marriage. The Peacock King agrees to the match but says that if she is not as beautiful as her portrait, the two men will be killed. Agreeing to his terms, the brothers allow themselves to be imprisoned while the Peacock King meets the princess. They send word to Princess Rosette, who boards a ship to her betrothed’s kingdom. Along the way, however, Rosette’s nurse offers the ship’s captain a great sum of money to throw Rosette overboard so that the nurse’s daughter, disguised as Rosette, can be presented to the Peacock King. The boatman agrees and throws the princess and her dog overboard. However, the princess and her pet survive, floating on her bed on the ocean.

Meanwhile, the nurse’s ugly and rude daughter is met by the Peacock King’s entourage. The Peacock King is excited to meet her, but when he sees that she is nothing like the picture he was shown, he sentences Rosette’s brothers to death. As this verdict is issued, Rosette is rescued from the sea by a kind, poor old man. She tells him her story and that she believes the Peacock King to be responsible for having her thrown into the sea. Rosette takes a basket and ties it around her dog’s neck, commanding her pet to fetch a great deal of food from the Peacock King’s pantry. The dog goes back and forth between the king’s kitchen and the man’s house, bringing more and more food to the man and Rosette while the Peacock King goes without. One day, one of the king’s advisers witnesses the dog’s theft and follows it back to the man’s hut. The adviser reports his findings to the king, who sends his guards to capture the strangers who have stolen his food and bring them back to the palace. Upon seeing Rosette and learning her name, the king realizes that she is the true princess, and he immediately frees her brothers from captivity. The scheming nurse and her accomplices are forgiven, the good man is allowed to live in the palace for the rest of his life, and the Peacock King and Princess Rosette are married.

SIGNIFICANCE

The fairy tale of Princess Rosette was composed in the late seventeenth century by French writer Marie-Catherine, baroness d’Aulnoy (often known simply as Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy). At the age of fifteen or sixteen, she was forced to marry a wealthy baron who was more than twice her age. The baron was eventually charged with treason against the king, but the men whose testimony led to his indictment later recanted; historians have since speculated that d’Aulnoy or a member of her family had convinced the men to testify against her husband, with whom she was very unhappy. She lived apart from her husband following his release, becoming a well-known author of travelogues, histories, and fairy tales.

D’Aulnoy wrote two collections of fairy tales, some of the earliest such works published in Europe. Rosette’s tale was included in the 1697 collection Les contes des fées (Fairy tales). This collection and the subsequent work, Contes nouveaux ou les fées à la mode (1698; New tales or fairies in fashion), were later translated into English many times throughout the following centuries.

The story of Princess Rosette is typical of many of d’Aulnoy’s works, which are typically fantastical and feature humorous subplots and characters—in this case, for example, a green dog and an entire kingdom of people dressed as peacocks. Such tales contributed to the increasing popularity of fairy tales during the centuries following their publication. Many playwrights and musicians of the nineteenth century in particular were heavily influenced by works such as those of d’Aulnoy and embellished upon her stories in their own productions. Even in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, fairy tales such as the story of Princess Rosette continue to influence literature, music, stage productions, and films.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Buczkowski, Paul. “The First Precise English Translation of Madame d’Aulnoy’s Fairy Tales.” Marvels and Tales 23.1 (2009): n. pag. Web. 27 June 2013.

D’Aulnoy, Marie-Catherine. The Fairy Tales of Madame d’Aulnoy, Newly Done into English. Trans. Annie MacDonell. London: Lawrence, 1892. Print.

DeGraff, Amy Vanderlyn. The Tower and the Well: A Psychological Interpretation of the Fairy Tales of Madame d’Aulnoy. Birmingham: Summa, 1984. Print.

Windling, Terri. “Les Contes des Fees: The Literary Fairy Tales of France.”Journal of Mythic Arts. Endicott Studio, 2000. Web. 27 June 2013.

Zipes, Jack. Fairy Tale as Myth, Myth as Fairy Tale. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 2002. Print.