adhered less strictly to tradition than Perrault, and
handled her material freely, making additions,
amplifications, and moral reflections, to the original tale.
Her weaving together of incidents is artistic and her style
graceful and not unpleasing. It is marked by ornamentation,
sumptuousness, and French sentimentality. It shows a lack of
naivete resulting from the palace setting given to her
tales, making them adapted only to children of high rank.
Often her tale is founded on a beautiful tradition. _The
Blue-Bird_, one of the finest of her tales, was found in the
poems of Marie de France, in the thirteenth century. Three
of her tales were borrowed from Straparola. Among her tales
the most important are:--

_Graciosa and Percinet_. (Basile.)

_The Blue-Bird_. (Contains a motif similar to one
in _The Singing, Soaring Lark_.)

_The White Cat_. (Similar to _Three Feathers_ and
_The Miller's Boy and the Cat_.)

_The Hind in the Wood_. (Similar to _Rumpelstiltskin_.)

_The Good Little Mouse_. (Basile.)

_The Fair One with the Golden Locks. (Ferdinand
the Faithful.)_

_The Yellow Dwarf_.

_Princess Belle Etoile_. (Straparola.)

The careful translation of Madame D'Aulnoy's tales by Mr.
Planche faithfully preserves the spirit of the original.

There were many imitators of Countess D'Aulnoy, in France,
in the eighteenth century. Their work was on a much lower
level and became published in the _Cabinet des Fees_, a
collection of stories including in its forty volumes the
work of many authors, of which the greater part is of little
value. Of those following D'Aulnoy three deserve mention:--

1711-1780. _Moral Tales_, by Madame de Beaumont.
These were collected while the author was in
England. Of these we use _Prince Cherry_. Madame
de Beaumont wrote a children's book in which is
found a tale similar to _The Singing, Soaring
Lark_, entitled _The Maiden and the Beast_. She
also wrote 69 volumes of romance.

1765. _Tales_, by Madame Villeneuve. Of these we
use _Beauty and the Beast_.

1692-1765. _Tales_, by Comte de Caylus. The author
was an antiquarian and scholar. Of his tales we