Princess Rosette (french: La Princesse Rosette) is a French literary

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

written by

Madame d'Aulnoy Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (1650/1651 – 14 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French author known for her literary fairy tales. When she termed her works ''contes de fées'' (fairy tales), sh ...

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...

included it in ''

The Red Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...

''.

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

included an orally collected tale, ''The King of the Peacocks'', in his ''

Italian Folktales ''Italian Folktales'' (''Fiabe italiane'') is a collection of 200 Italian folktales published in 1956 by Italo Calvino. Calvino began the project in 1954, influenced by Vladimir Propp's '' Morphology of the Folktale''; his intention was to emula ...

'', but observed in the notes that it was clearly a variant on ''Princess Rosette''.

Synopsis

Madame d'Aulnoy - John Gilbert - Princess Rosette

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

, who had two sons, had a daughter as well. All the fairies came to the christening. When the queen pressed them to

predict A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecast, is a statement about a future event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There is no universal agreement about the exact ...

Rosette's future, they said that she might cause great misfortune to her brothers, and even their deaths. The king and queen consulted with a hermit, who advised them to lock Rosette in a tower. They did so, but one day they died, and their sons instantly freed her from it. She marveled at everything, but in particular, at a peacock. When she heard that people sometimes ate them, she declared that she would never marry anyone except the King of the Peacocks, and then she would protect her subjects. Her brothers, the new king and the prince, set out to find the King of the Peacocks, and at last were directed there by the King of the Mayflies. There, they showed the king Rosette's portrait. He said he would marry her if she was as beautiful, but kill them both if she was not. When the news came, Princess Rosette set out with her nurse. The nurse bribed the boatman to throw the princess, bed and all, with her little dog, into the sea in the middle of the night. The bed was made of

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

feathers and floated, but the nurse put her own

daughter A daughter is a female offspring; a girl or a woman in relation to her parents. Daughterhood is the state of being someone's daughter. The male counterpart is a son. Analogously the name is used in several areas to show relations between group ...

in the princess's place. The outraged king was about to execute her brothers, who persuaded him to give them seven days to prove their innocence. The Red Fairy Book-094

When the princess woke, she was convinced that the king had decided not to marry her after all, and so had her thrown into the sea. An old man saw her on the shore and brought her to shelter, but saw by her possessions that she was a great lady, and he could only give her meager fare. The princess sent her dog to the best kitchen in town, and the dog stole all the food being cooked for the King of the Peacocks. This happened for several days, until the Prime Minister spied on the kitchen, saw the dog, and followed it. He told the king, and they went to the hut and seized Rosette and the old man. The old man begged for mercy and told the story, and the king realized that this was his bride. He freed her brothers and married her.

Legacy

A late

18th century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trad ...

translation of the tale titles it ''The Princess Rosetta''. A later publication by illustrator Katherine Pyle kept the name as ''Princess Rosetta''. The tale was one of many from d'Aulnoy's pen to be adapted to the stage by

James Planché James Robinson Planché (27 February 1796 – 30 May 1880) was a British dramatist, antiquary and officer of arms. Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including ...

, as part of his ''Fairy Extravaganza''. He used the tale as basis for his play ''The King of the Peacocks''. It was translated into German by

Johann August Apel Johann August Apel (17 September 1771 – 9 August 1816) was a German writer and jurist. Apel was born and died in Leipzig. Influence ''Die Jägerbraut'' was his version of "Der Freischütz", and it was published as the first story of the f ...

as "" and included in the first volume of the ''

Gespensterbuch The (literally 'Ghost Book' or 'Book of Spectres') is a collection of German ghost stories written by August Apel and Friedrich Laun and published in five volumes between 1810–1815. The fifth volume was also published as the first volume of A ...

'' (1810). The tale was also translated into

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

, as '. The tale was adapted and retold by William Trowbridge Larned as ''The King of the Peacocks''.

Analysis

''Princess Rosette'' is classified as

Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index) is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies. The ATU Index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: originally composed in German by ...

ATU 403, "The Black and the White Bride", tales where the female protagonist is substituted by a

false hero The false hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is usually of the same sex as the hero or heroine. The false hero presen ...

ine as the love interest.Trinquet, Charlotte. ''Le conte de fées français (1690-1700): Traditions italiennes et origines aristocratiques''. Narr Verlag. 2012. p. 218.

References

Works by Madame d'Aulnoy Rosette Rosette Italian fairy tales French fairy tales Stories within Italian Folktales ATU 400-459

Synopsis

Legacy

Analysis

See also

References