Note 19 — PERRAULT'S

In the introduction to the Jouaust edition of 1876 M. Paul Lacroix has probably gone too far in attributing to Perrault's son the complete authorship of the Tales. It is true that the title of the Dutch reprint of 1697 describes the book as 'par le fils de Monsieur Perrault.' The Abbé de Villiers, however, in his Entretiens sur les Contes des Fées (à Paris chez Jacques Collombat, 1699), makes one of his persons praise the stories 'que l'on attribue au fils d'un célèbre Académicien,' for their freshness and imitation of the style of nurses. Another speaker in the dialogue, The Parisian, replies, 'quelque estime que j'aie pour le fils de l'Académicien, j'ai peine à croire que le père n'ait pas mis la main à son ouvrage,' p. 109. This opinion is probably correct. It seems that Perrault was not troubled by attacks on his Contes, and, in biographical works the tales were long attributed to his son. But M. Paul Lacroix declares that this son was nineteen years of age when the stories appeared. This looks incredible on the face of it. Mlle. L'Heritier could hardly have said about a young man of nineteen, that he 'occupe si spirituellement les amusemens de son enfance' in writing out Contes naifs. Nor would a man of that age, in a century too, when the young took on them manly duties so early, describe himself in his dedicatory letter as 'un enfant.' M. Charles Giraud gives the boy's age as ten, without citing his authority. (Lyons Edition of 1865, p. lxxiv.) Moreover the idea of educating a young man of that age by making him write out fairy tales would have seemed, and would justly have seemed, ridiculous. We must believe that P. Darmancour was a child when the stories were published, and we may agree with the Abbé Villiers that the Academician 'put a hand to them.' M. Lacroix's authority is the discovery by M. Jal of the birth of Pierre Perrault, a son of Charles, who would have been nineteen in 1697. (Jal's Dictionnaire Critique, p. 1321.) But Jal did not find the register of baptism of Mademoiselle Perrault. It follows that he may have also failed to find that of other young Perraults, including 'P. Darmancour.' Each of Perrault's first sons (May 25, 1675; Oct. 20, 1676), was called Charles, the second had a Samuel added to the name. Perrault may also have had two or more Pierres; in any case, unless P. Darmancour were an idiot, his education could not have been conducted by making him write out nursery tales at nineteen.