Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1885 — THE ORIGINAL BLUE-BEARD. [ARTICLE]

THE ORIGINAL BLUE-BEARD.

The Historical Origin of the Old Nursery Tale. , [Amelia E. Barr, in New York Independent.! In the days of the grand monarque there were two brothers called Claude and Charles Perrault. The first designed the famous colonnade of the Louvre; the latter wrote some very ambitions poems and disputations, of which he was very proud, and some exquisite fairy tales, of which he thought very little. Nobody now cares anything about his poems; but every one is familiar with his “Hop-o’-My-Thumb,” “Riquet with the Tuft,” and his still more famous “Blue-beard.” Many of Perrault’s fairy tales are purely imaginative, others are based upon legends or historic - facts, which were already well known; and among the latter class is “Blue-beard.” The home of the true Blue-beard was Brittany. Take a map and look for the river Blavet. At the point where it changes its course from east to west there is a desolate/ rocky promontory, and on its summit the remains of stone fortifications. It is still called Castle Finans, and, beyond all reasonable doubt, it was the stronghold of Bluebeard, whose real name was Comorre, the cursed. He lived about 1,300 years ago; in order to begin the story at the beginning, we must go still further back, to the time when Grallon the Great, a British prince, emigrated to Breton, and build the famous city of Is, whence, some scholars say, the city of Par-is derived its name. This was long before King Arthur and his famous knight fought dragons and redressed wrongs in Grallon’s native isle. Grallon had a daughter, a beautiful and wicked princess, called Abes, and she gave her name to the quaint old city of Carhaix —Ker-Ahes, which still stands, full of high-peaked, queer-gabled houses, between Lori Ont and Roscoff. Well, in A. D. 520, Carhaix was taken from Grallon’s descendant by a notorious- bandit called Finans, or Comorre. This was when Prince Arthur reigned in Britain; but it was an age of great and general misrule and oppression; an age which allowed many bad, brave men to carve out kingdoms for themselves, and Comorre was only following the prevalent law, That they should take who have the power. And they should keep who can. Comorre was a brutal tyrant, worse even than the traditional Blue-beard; for he killed his sons as well as his wives, although one of them was such a holy man that he was cannonized after his death. The incidents of his life adorn the church door at Carhaix; and in one of the groups he is represented as holding his head on his hands; so we may presume that he was beheaded by his father’s order. While ruling at Carhaix, Comorre married four wives, all of whom mysteriously disappeared. Then he fell in love with Triphyne, the daughter of Count Vannes. " But he was so universally abhorred for his unnatural cruelty that he did not care to ask her hand, himself. So he sent for Sir Gildas, whose fame for sanctity was all over Brittapy. He built the abbey which bears h’s name, overlooking the Bay of Quiberon, and of which, 600 years later, the renowned Abelard was abbot. St. Gildas answered readily the call of Comorre. He desired to convert him, and when requested to go and ask for the hand of Triphyne, he did his best to forward the marriage. He hoped to prevent war and bloodshed, and to bind Comorre to a better life through the influence of a wife whom he loved. Triphyne was not willing to go to Castle Finans; but she consented finally on condition that, the very hour Comorre tired of her, she should be allowed to return in honor and safety to her father’s court. Comorre promised all that was required, and the marriage was splendidly solemnized at Vannes. So far the monkish chronicles gathered by Albert La Grand agree with the more important evidence of the frescoes discovered a few years ago near Napoleonville; but as the monks were writing to glorify St. Gildas, they tell the story to suit that aim. According to them, very soon after Triphyne arrived,at Castle Finans she saw a change in her husband’s manner. His brow was ever black with anger, his words few and rough. She became terrified, and one morning, in a sudden panic, mounted her palfrey and fled. Her flight was immediately discovered. She was pursued by Comorre, dragged from the thicket in which she had hid to the high road, and beheaded. Then Comorre left the body and returned to the castle; but a servant who had accompanied her reached Vannes, and told what had been done to her mistress. The poor lady’s remains were recovered by her father, and St. Gildas was sent for to see the result of his advice. The saint was terribly angry and much troubled; and, according to the monks, by a wonderful prayer, full of sublime faith, he restored Triphyne to life. Then he went to Castle'Finans, but Comorre refused to admit him. So the holy man tHfew a handful of dust against the walls, and they instantly crumbled away. Comorre was not killed; he escaped to another castle which he possessed, and continued his course of sin and cruelty, until a convocation of bishops met upon his case and solemnly cursed him. He was immediately seized with some awful malady, and his soul was borne to hell on a stream of blood. t ,

In Bavaria there is a town called Mittenwald, shut in by snow-clad peaks and dense forests, in which every yard is crossed by a labyrinth of ropes and poles, on which hundreds of violins, are hung up to dry. For a couple of centuries the entire industry of the town has been violin-making, for which the surrounding forests produce the best of material. Men, women and children, all have their allotted share of the work, and violins, ’cellos, bass viols, zithers and all string instrumenta, from a copy of some old and priceless Stradivarius, perfect in form, color and tone, down to the cheap banjo, are exported in great quantities, all handmade, to every quarter of the globe.