which
contains some stories analogous to those which Scott mentions. There can
be no doubt, however, that France, not Italy, can claim the shapes of
_Blue Beard_, _The Sleeping Beauty_, _Puss in Boots_, and the other
'Tales of Mother Goose,' which are known best in England. Other forms of
these nursery traditions exist, indeed, not only in Italian, but in most
European and some Asiatic and African languages. But their classical
shape in literature is that which Charles Perrault gave them, in his
_Contes de ma Mere l'Oie_, of 1697. Among the 'early French editions'
which Sir Walter knew, probably none were older than Dr. Douce's copy of
1707, now in the Bodleian. The British Museum has no early copy. There
was an example of the First Edition sold in the Hamilton sale: another,
or the same, in blue morocco, belonged to Charles Nodier, and is
described in his _Melanges_. The only specimen in the Public Libraries
of Paris is in the Bibliotheque Victor Cousin. It is probable that the
'dumpy duodecimo' in the Neapolitan dialect, seen by Scott, was a
translation of Perrault's famous little work. The stories in it, which
are not in the early French editions, may be _L'Adroite Princesse_, by a
lady friend of Perrault's, and _Peau d'Ane_ in prose, a tale which
Perrault told only in verse. These found their way into French and
Flemish editions after 1707. Our earliest English translation seems to
be that of 1729, and the name of 'Mother Goose' does not appear to occur
in English literature before that date. It is probably a translation of
'Ma Mere l'Oie,' who gave her name to such old wives' fables in France
long before Perrault's time, as the spider, Ananzi, gives his name to
the 'Nancy Stories' of the negroes in the West Indies. Among Scott's
Century of Inventions, unfulfilled projects for literary work, few are
more to be regretted than his intended study of the origin of Popular
Tales, a topic no longer thought 'obnoxious to ridicule.'"--A.L.

No. VI.

DESCENDANTS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.

SIR WALTER SCOTT, == CHARLOTTE CARPENTER,
d. Sept. 21, 1832. d. May 14, 1826.
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SOPHIA, == JOHN G