23G 



ments was concerned. So early as the year 1718, we find -the Abbe de 

 Yayrac, in his "Etat Present de I'Espagne," disposing of the lady's pre- 

 tensions to veracity in a very summary manner, and even charging her 

 with a deliberate attempt to hring the Spanish nation into contempt. 

 In the " Disconrs Preliminaire/' (p. 7), prefixed to that work, the Abbe 

 has the following remarks upon the lively authoress of ''L'oiseau bleu" 

 and ''La Biche au bois," which in our nursery days we would have 

 thought rather severe. 



M. de Yayrac, after referring with some degree of approval to a co- 

 temporary traveller, thus continues: — "Mais si j'aicette complaisance 

 pour lui, je ne sgaurois me resoudre a 1' avoir pour Madame L. C. D., . . . 

 puisque de propos delibere, et centre ses propres lumieres, elle a com- 

 pose deux ouvrages, dont I'un a pour titre Memoires, et 1' autre Voyage 

 de la Cour d'' Espagne'^ dans lesquels on ne voit depuis le commence- 

 ment jusqu'a la fin qu' un enchainement de contes fabuleux, ou de 

 railleries picquantes pour tourner les Espagnols en ridicules. Mais 

 parce que je me suis propos6 de ne rien dire qui ne soit absolument ne- 

 cessaire pour donner au Lecteur une idee juste des moeurs, des coutumes 

 et du gouvernment de ces peuples, je me contenterai d'en citer quelques 

 endroits qui luy feront voir jusques ou elle a porte les traits de sa Satyre, 

 et qui le determineront a n'aj outer pas plus de foy a ce qu'elle a dit, 

 qu' aux ingenieux Contes des FSes, dont elle a regale le public, pour 

 faire perdre agreeablement le tems a ceux qui n'avoient rien de mieux 

 a fair qa' a les lire." — Discours Preliminaire, pp. 7, 8. 



The example which the Abbe de Yayrac quotes of Madame d'Aulnoy's 

 want of truth is the account which she gives of the entry of Anne of 

 Austria into a town of Catalonia, when she was going to be married to 

 Philip I Y. This town was famous for its manufacture of silk stockings, 

 and the good people thought they could not present their future Queen 

 with anything more acceptable than some of the useful articles in which 

 they excelled. Put her Mayor dome mayor the Duke of Medina Sido- 

 nia rejected the olferings with indignation, telling them that it should 

 be understood that the Queens of Spain had no legs. " Ave'is de saher,'''' 

 said he, que las Reynas de Espana no tienen piernasy^ This anecdote 

 is taken from the '' Cour d'Espagne," that from the " Yoyage" is about 

 Madame d'Aulnoy's own reception by the ladies of Paj^onne. J 



* The Abbe is evidently too angry to give the titles of these detestable books correctly. 

 The same may be said of the initials of the author's name, which should be " M. C." 

 (Maine Catherine), and not " L. C," as he gives them. 



+ See " Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne," premiere partie, p 3. The sequel may be 

 given in the translation of Tom Brown : — " However it w^as, the young Queen, who was 

 not as yet acquainted with the niceties of the Spanish language, took it in the literal sense, 

 and began to weep, saying ' that, she was fully determined to go back to Vienna; and if 

 she had known before her departure from thence that they had designed to cut off her 

 legs, she would rather have died than stirred a foot.' " — Page 4. 



+ " Some who came to see me brought little sucking-pigs under their arms, as we do 

 little dogs ; it is true they were very spruce, and several of them had collars of ribbons of 



