The courtesy title chevalier de Mailly is accorded in France to a younger brother of the marquis or the comte de Mailly in each generation. Though several have carried the designation,The chevalier de Mailly, son of the marquis, was married in July 1687 to Mlle de Sainte-Hermine, a kinswoman of Mme de Maintenon; the King gave her 100,000 livres for a dowry and a position for the chevalier in the household of Monseigneur (Mémoires du marquis de Sourches sur le règne de Louis XIV (1883) vol. II p 62). The chevalier de Mailly (died 1757) of a later generation was chef de corps of dragoons in 1740, (Dragoons ) thanks to the offices of his sister-in-law Mlle de Mailly, the second of three Nesle sisters who were successively mistresses to Louis XV. (Mémoires du duc de Luynes sur la cour de Louis XV vol. III (1860), under March 1740, pp 148ff). the celebrated Louis (or Jean), chevalier de Mailly (A date 1657 is apparently wrong.-?1724)— possibly a brother of Louis II de Mailly (1662-1699), comte de Mailly, Lords of Rubempré, seigneur de Rieux, seigneur d'Haucourt—(Genealogy of the house of Mailly ) was the author of literary fairy tales, imaginary adventures, racy novels and romances, often published anonymously by necessity, sometimes published outside France. Departing from the formulas established by Mme d'Aulnoy, he introduced magic and marvels in his fairy tales to entertain his readers and bring his gallant lovers together. His fairy tales have often been reprinted and collected.
Life and works He appears to have become embroiled in a gay scandal in 1682, in which an aristocratic underground circle practicing le vice italien was uncovered.Maurice Lever, Les bûchers de Sodome (Paris:Fayard) 1985 pp 156-67. The supposed Confrérie italienne was even ascribed a constitution with a set of rules.Roger de Rabutin, comte de Bussy's Histoire amoureuse des Gaulles in the chapter "La France devenue italienne"; letters of the Princess Palatine, the confidante of "Monsieur", Louis XIV's gay brother.
The chevalier de Mailly contributed a poem to the Mercure Galant December 1700, on the occasion of the departure for Spain of the duc d'Anjou as Felipe V.(on-line text ) He declaimed his verses in the Café Procope, with the other wits of Paris.
Still, as a result of his scurrilous and anonymous secondary literary career, he could not fail to come to the attention of the lieutenant of police, Marc-Renée de Voyer d'Argenson, whose notes asserted that, far from being a godson of Louis XIV who had been wounded more than once in the armies of the King,According to a note attached to his secret police dossier. he was actually the bastard of a maid in the hôtel de Mailly, brought up, out of charity by the marquise de Mailly. The wife of a bookseller, Auroy, who had advanced him 50 écus testified against him in 1702; it appeared to her that the manuscript, La Fille capitaine,Nothing is known of this work. Pierre Clément, La police sous Louis XIV p. 456. instead of working up the personal memoirs of a well-known Parisian woman—originally thought to be the adventuress and singer Julie d'AubignyOscar Paul Gilbert, "Mademoiselle Maupin" , but later shown to have been Geneviève Prémoy, aka chevalier BaltazarPierre Louÿs's Un livre et une héroïne retrouvés in L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux October 1904, columns 661-664. Internet Archive—which Mme Auroy had entrusted to him; produced a result instead that proved to be too scandalous to publish: it featured bedroom scenes and an escaping nun setting fire to her convent. It appears that Mailly was required to quit Paris. A follow-up report of 15 September 1711 noted that he had returned to Paris and, being apprehended, spent a month in the Châtelet, following which he retired quietly to Rouen,Paul Cottin, editor, Rapports inedits du lieutenant de police René d'Argenson, (1697-1715), 278. where he seems to have remained, for his last work was printed there.
In the deductive reasoning shown by his princes of Serendip, taken up by Voltaire in Zadig, the chevalier de Mailly is sometimes credited as the originator of the clue-driven detective novel.A. Craig Bell, "The rise and fall of the detective novel"Contemporary Review April 1998. The tale was retold in English by Horace Walpole,Walpole, The Three Princes of Serendip (1754) and the idea of serendipity passed into the English language.
Scholar Jack Zipes argues that de Mailly "display[ed] a wide knowledge of the literary sources" of 17th century French contes de fées, since at least three of his tales (namely, Blanche-Belle, Guérini and Fortunio) are reworkings of some of Straparola's tales.The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 376. Ferrer, Juan José Prat. Historia del Cuento Traditional. Urueña: Fundación Joaquín Diaz. 2013. p. 235. He also suggests that de Mailly had some knowledge of folkloric sources, as demonstrated by the aforementioned tales and the story Le Bienfaisant ou Quiribirini ("The Benefactor or Quiribirini").The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 376.
Some works All of the following, partly as listed at www.worldcatlibraries.org, were published at Paris except as noted. The chevallier de Mailly's works were quickly reprinted at Amsterdam, for the most part. (1690) La Rome galante, ou Histoire secrète sous les règnes de Jules César et d'Auguste (1695/96) The author's name is given as L.C.D.M.. (1696). It was praised in the Journal des Savants ix (1697) and reprinted in 1742, according to Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, who panned the production in his preface to his maiden production, Histoire des révolutions de Gênes: depuis son établissement jusqu' à la conclusion de la Paix de 1748, 1753."[L'oeuvre] porte tous les caracteres de la précipitation avec laquelle il fut composé. Diffus, plein de négligences, de redites, de méprises, de contradictions, il etoit peu digne des éloges qu'il reçut quand it parut & qui furent sans doute plutôt donnés à la naissance distinguées & au mérite personnel de l'auteur qu'à son Livre." (anonymously, 1698). These eleven fairy tales were often attributed to Madame d'Aulnoy. (on-line text) , a literary variant of tale type ATU 706, "The Maiden Without Hands", akin to Biancabella and the Snake.Trinquet, Charlotte. . Narr Verlag. 2012. p. 216. Fortunio, literary variant of ATU 316, The Nixie of the Mill-PondTrinquet, Charlotte. Le conte de fées français (1690-1700): Traditions italiennes et origines aristocratiques. Narr Verlag. 2012. p. 217. Le Prince Guérini, a literary variant of type ATU 502, "The Wild Man as Helper", akin to Guerrino and the Savage ManTrinquet, Charlotte. Le conte de fées français (1690-1700): Traditions italiennes et origines aristocratiques. Narr Verlag. 2012. p. 217. Incarnat, blanc et noir, a literary variant of tale type ATU 408, "The Love for Three Oranges"Barchilon, Jacques. "Souvenirs et réflexions sur le conte merveilleux". In: Littératures classiques, n°14, janvier 1991. Enfance et littérature au XVIIe siècle. pp. 243-244. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/licla.1991.1282]; www.persee.fr/doc/licla_0992-5279_1991_num_14_1_1282 La Reine de l'isle des fleurs (The Story of the Queen of the Flowery Isles), often misattributed to Madame d'AulnoyDuggan, Anne E. and Haase, Donald (eds.) with Helen J. Callow. Folktales and Fairy Tales: Traditions and Texts from around the World. 2nd edition. Volume 2. Santa Barbara, California; Denver, Colorado: ABC-CLIO/Greenwood. 2016. p. 610. Ferrer, Juan José Prat. Historia del Cuento Tradicional. Urueña: Fundación Joaquín Diaz. 2013. p. 235. (The Wizard King)The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 376. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 376. ("The Benefactor or Quiribirini")The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Edited by Jack Zipes. Oxford University Press. 2015. p. 376. (1697) and its sequel 1698. The author's name is given as L.C.D.M.. (anonymously, Amsterdam 1700) (1701)
(1701) (1702) ("1707", actually 1706) (1709) (1709) Le Voyage et les avanturesdes trois princes de Sarendip (1719), a reworking of Cristoforo Armeno, Peregrinaggio di tre giovanni figlioli del Rè di Serendippo... dalla Persiana nell'Italiana trappartato (1557).Leon Fraser, "A Study in Literary Genealogy" Modern Language Notes 21.8 (December 1906), pp. 245-247. An English translation appeared in London in 1722."The Novel in Europe, 1722" Horace Walpole's retelling introduced serendipity to the English language. (1723) (1723) (Rouen, 1723). This was his last work to appear.
Notes
References Lafond, Jean. "Le Chevalier de Mailly auteur des Maximes dites de Mère." Studi Francesi 14 (1970). Hannon, Patricia. "Feminine voice and the motivated text: Madame d'Aulnoy and the Chevalier de Mailly." Marvels & Tales 2.1 (1988) pp 13–24.
External links
"Journaux et critiques littéraires" Mailly's Entretien des caffées briefly quoted.