prince desir and princess mignone

7/24/2019 Prince Desir and Princess Mignone

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THERE was once upon a time a King who passionately loved a Princess, but

she could not be married because she was enchanted. He went in search of a

Fairy to learn what he should do to be loved by this Princess. The Fairy said to

him, !ou "now that the Princess has a large cat, of which she is very fond.

#he is destined to marry the man who shall be su$ciently adroit to tread on

the tail of her cat. The King said to himself, That will not be very di$cult.#o he %uitted the Fairy, determined to crush the tail of the cat rather than fail

to tread on it. He ran to the palace of his mistress, where &inon came

towards him, putting up his bac", as he was accustomed to do ' the King

raised his foot, but when he thought he was certain to set it on the cat(s tail,

&inon turned round so %uic"ly that his &a)esty trod on nothing but the *oor.

He tried for eight days to step on this fatal tail, but it appeared to be full of

%uic"silver, so continually was it in motion. +t length the King had the good

fortune to surprise &inon whilst he was sleeping, and stamped upon his tail

with all his force. &inon awo"e, s%ualling horribly. Then suddenly he too" the

form of a great man, and regarding the Prince with eyes full of anger, he said

to him, Thou shalt wed the Princess, because thou hast destroyed the

enchantment which prevented thee from doing so, but will be avenged.

Thou shalt have a son who shall be always unhappy until the moment when

he shall discover that he has too long a nose, and if thou darest to divulge

the threat have uttered, thou shalt die immediately. +lthough the King was

very frightened at the sight of this great man, who was an enchanter, he

could not help laughing at this threat. f my son has too long a nose, said

he to himself, unless he be either blind or without arms, he can always see

it or feel it.

The Enchanter having disappeared, the King sought the Princess, who

consented to marry him ' but his happiness was of brief duration, for he died

at the end of eight months. + month afterwards the ueen brought into the

world a little prince, whom they named /esir. He had large blue eyes, the

most beautiful in the world, and a pretty little mouth, but his nose was so big

that it covered half his face. The ueen was inconsolable when she saw this

great nose ' but the ladies who were with her told her that the nose was not

so large as it appeared to her 0 that it was a Roman nose, and that she might

learn from history that all heroes had large noses. The ueen, who

passionately loved her son, was charmed at this discourse, and fromconstantly loo"ing at /esir his nose did not appear so large to her as at 1rst.

The Prince was brought up with care, and as soon as he could spea" they told

all sorts of shoc"ing stories before him about people with short noses. They

allowed no one to come near him but those whose noses in some degree

resembled his own, and the courtiers, to pay their court to the ueen and her

son, pulled the noses of their little children several times in the day to ma"e


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them longer ' but it was no use pulling, for they appeared snub-nosed by

the side of Prince /esir. +s soon as he could understand it they taught him

history, and when they spo"e of any great prince or beautiful princess they

always said they had long noses. +ll his apartments were full of portraits of

persons with large noses, and /esir became so accustomed to regard the

length of the nose as a beauty, that he would not for a crown have had his inthe least diminished.

2hen he was twenty years of age, and they thought of marrying him, they

presented him with the portraits of several princesses. He was enchanted

with that of &ignone. #he was the daughter of a great King, and heiress to

several "ingdoms ' but /esir thought nothing of that, so much was he

engrossed by her beauty. This Princess, whom he found so charming, had,

however, a little turned-up nose, which had the prettiest e3ect in the world

on her face, but which threw the courtiers into the utmost embarrassment.They had ac%uired the habit of ridiculing little noses, and they could not

restrain a smile at that of the Princess, but /esir would allow no raillery on

this sub)ect, and he banished from his court two courtiers who had dared to

disparage the nose of &ignone. The others, pro1ting by this e4ample,

corrected themselves, and there was one who said to the Prince, that in truth

a man could not be handsome without a large nose, but that female beauty

was altogether di3erent, and that a scholar who spo"e 5ree" had told him

that he had read, in an old 5ree" manuscript, that the beautiful 6leopatra

had the tip of her nose turned up.

The Prince made a magni1cent present to the person who told him this good

news, and he sent ambassadors to demand &ignone( s hand in marriage.

They granted his re%uest, and he went more than three leagues to meet her,

so an4ious was he to behold her ' but when he advanced to "iss her hand, the

Enchanter descended, carried o3 the Princess before his face, and left him

inconsolable. /esir resolved not to return to his "ingdom till he had recovered

&ignone. He would not allow any of his courtiers to follow him, and being

mounted on his good horse he put the bridle on his nec" and let him ta"e his

own road.

The horse entered a large plain, over which he travelled all day without

seeing a single house. The master and the horse were both dying of hunger,

when at length in the evening the Prince saw a cavern, in which was a light.

He entered, and perceived a little woman, who appeared to be more than a

hundred years old. #he put on her spectacles to loo" at the Prince, but she


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Prince was thus thin"ing, the servants laid the table, and he could not but

wonder at the Fairy, who put a thousand %uestions to them merely for the

pleasure of tal"ing ' he admired, above all, a waiting- woman, who, whatever

the Fairy said, praised her mistress for her discretion. 2ell, thought he,

whilst eating, am charmed at having come here. This e4ample ma"es me

see how wisely have acted in riot listening to *atterers. #uch people praiseus sham lessly, hide our defects from us, and change them into perfections 0

as for me, shall never be their dupe "now my faults, than" 5od. The poor

/esir believed this thoroughly, and did not feel that those who had praised

his nose moc"ed him as much as the Fairy(s waiting-woman moc"ed her 7for

the Prince saw that she turned aside from time to time to laugh8. +s for him,

he said not a word, but ate with all his might.

Prince, said the Fairy, when he began to be satis1ed, turn yourself a little,

beg ' your nose throws a shadow which prevents my seeing what is on myplate. :ow, come, let us spea" of your father 0 went to his 6ourt at the time

that he was a little boy, but it is forty years since retired to this solitude. Tell

me a little about the way they live at 6ourt at present 0 the ladies, do they

still love running from place to place ; n my time, one saw them the same

day at the assembly, at the theatres, at the promenades, at the ball How long

your nose is 9 cannot get accustomed to the sight of it 9 ndeed, replied

/esir, wish you would cease to spea" of my nose it is as it is what does it

matter to you ; am content with it, and would not have it any shorter '

every one has his nose as it pleases Providence.


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Princess, who, on her part also stretched out her hand close to the glass. He

wished to "iss this hand, but whichever way he turned he could not get his

mouth near it, because his nose prevented him. He perceived, for the 1rst

time, its e4traordinary length, and putting his hand to it to bend it on one

side, t must be confessed, said he, that my nose is too long. +t that

moment the crystal palace fell to pieces, and the old woman, who held&ignone by the hand, said to the Prince, 6onfess that you are under a great

obligation to me ' might have spo"en in vain to you of your nose, you would

never have believed in the defect had it not become an obstacle to the

attainment of your wishes. t is thus that self-love hides from us the

deformities of our soul and body. Reason in vain see"s to e4hibit them to us,

we do not admit them till the moment when this same self- love 1nds them

contrary to its interest. /esir, whose nose had now become an ordinary one,

pro1ted by this lesson ' he married &ignone, and lived happily with her for a

great number of vears.

prince desir and princess mignone

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