‘Riquet with the Tuft’
‘Riquet with the Tuft’ (‘Riquet à la houppe’),a variant of the ‘Cupid and Psyche’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ motif, has three French versions written for a literary salon contest. An ugly‐yet‐brilliant gnome king, prince, or devil loves a beautiful‐yet‐stupid princess on whom he bestows intelligence in exchange for marriage. Perrault's princess renders Riquet handsome: Love blinds her to his faults. Bernard's heroine takes a lover, whom Riquet transforms into his double: she ironizes that all lovers eventually become husbands. In Lhéritier's ‘Ricdin‐Ricdon’ (precursor of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’), the woman must guess the devil's name.
Mary Louise Ennis
[The entire page is 127 words long]
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