“Diamonds and Toads”

Charles Perrault’s “The Fairy” or “Diamonds and Toads”

Charles Perrault was a retired civil servant and member of the Academie francaise when he published “Contes de ma Mere l’Oye” (Tales of My Mother the Goose) in 1697 in Paris. Yes - the name "Mother Goose" originated with Perrault.  It was translated and adapted in England for nursery stories. The book contains some of the earliest written versions of the best known and most beloved plots in fairy tale history.  Perrault’s tales were written for a courtly audience and were shaped by his playful, ironic, and inventive voice.  They fascinated the adults of the royal court and lounges who enjoyed reliving the pleasures of their youth through tales of magic and enchantment. The book laid the groundwork for the Grimm’s, Andersen and Lang, to mention only a few. Perrault was one of many in France at that time to tell the tales and write them down but most of the other writers have faded into relative obscurity.

Charles Perrault

His version of the tale is a bit less grim than Basile’s version. It is also short - a mere 865 words filling less than two pages.  Our heroine has no name - she is merely a young girl who is gentle, sweet, and beautiful… and greatly abused by her disagreeable and arrogant stepmother and stepsister. Every day she must cook and clean and fetch water from the well.  One day, there is an old woman waiting at the well who asks for a drink.  This is in reality a fairy who wants to test the girl’s kindness.  The girl complies, and “…rinsing the pitcher, she drew some water from the cleanest part of the spring and handed it to her, lifting up the pitcher so that she might drink more easily.” The fairy then tells her that because of her politeness she will be granted a gift -“’I grant you that with every word you speak, a flower or a precious stone shall fall from your mouth.’”  When she returns home, speaking diamonds, her stepmother sends Fanchon, the stepsister, to also fetch water from the well.  She encounters an elegant lady (the fairy) and is, of course, rude and unkind.  In return, the fairy states, “…for your lack of courtesy I grant that for every word you speak a snake or a toad shall drop out of your mouth."  When Fanchon returns home spewing toads and snakes, her mother blames the younger sister.  Fearing a beating, the young girl runs crying into the woods where she encounters a prince.  He is so taken with her beauty that he asks her what is wrong.  She tells him the story, he falls in love with her and they are married.  Since she talks diamonds and pearls, she does not need a dowry.  Fanchon, on the other hand, is eventually turned out of her mother’s home and “at last she went into a corner of the woods and died.”

One unique element of Perrault’s fairy tales is that each includes at least one moral at the end of the tale.  “The Fairies” includes two.

Moral number one for “The Fairies” is

Diamonds and gold coins may Work some wonders in their way;

But a gentle word is worth More than all the gems on earth.

Another Moral: 

Though -- when otherwise inclined -- It's a trouble to be kind,

Often it will bring you good When you least believed it could.