The Maid by Jean de La Fontaine

A proud and beautiful maid seeks a husband who is young, well formed, genteel, neither cold nor jealous, and endowed with rank, wealth, wit, and every other desirable quality. Though notable men court her, she scorns them all, finding faults in their looks, manners, or accomplishments. She rejects even lesser suitors with greater contempt, congratulating herself on her independence and claiming she will not regret remaining unmarried. As years pass, however, age alters her beauty. Her charms fade despite cosmetics and artifices, and her mirror urges her to marry quickly. Her former fastidiousness gives way to a secret desire to escape solitude, and she finally calms her regrets by marrying a cripple.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1666 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Poetry, Satire · 669 words

First lines

A certain maid, as proud as fair, / A husband thought to find / Exactly to her mind -- / Well-form'd and young, genteel in air, / Not cold nor jealous; -- mark this well. / Whoe'er would wed this dainty belle / Must have, besides rank, wealth, and wit, / And all good qualities to fit -- / A man 'twere difficult to get. / Kind Fate, however, took great care / To grant, if possible, her prayer. / There came a-wooing men of note; / The maiden thought them all, / By half, too mean and small. / 'They marry me! the creatures dote: -- / Alas! poor souls! their case I pity. ' / (Here mark the bearing of the beauty.) / Some were less delicate than witty; / Some had the nose too short or long; / In others something else was wrong; / Which made each in the maiden's eyes / An altogether worthless prize. / Profound contempt is aye the vice / Which springs from being over-nice, / Thus were the great dismiss'd; and then / Came offers from inferior men. / The maid, more scornful than before, / Took credit to her tender heart / For giving then an open door. / 'They think me much in haste to part / With independence! God be thank'd / My lonely nights bring no regret; / Nor shall I pine, or greatly fret, / Should I with ancient maids be rank'd. ' / Such were the thoughts that pleased the fair: / Age made them only thoughts that were. / Adieu to lovers: -- passing years / Awaken doubts and chilling fears. / Regret, at last, brings up the train. / Day after day she sees, with pain, / Some smile or charm take final flight, / And leave the features of a 'fright. ' / Then came a hundred sorts of paint: / But still no trick, nor ruse, nor feint, / Avail'd to hide the cause of grief, / Or bar out Time, that graceless thief. / A house, when gone to wreck and ruin, / May be repair'd and made a new one. / Alas! for ruins of the face / No such rebuilding e'er takes place. / Her daintiness now changed its tune; / Her mirror told her, 'Marry soon! ' / So did a certain wish within, / With more of secrecy than sin, -- / A wish that dwells with even prudes, / Annihilating solitudes. / This maiden's choice was past belief, / She soothing down her restless grief, / And smoothing it of every ripple, / By marrying a cripple.[1]

• Open reader

Similar titles

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Genres

• Fable — The poem presents a brief illustrative narrative whose central purpose is moral instruction: excessive pride, contempt, and impossible standards bring regret.
• Didactic Poetry — Its verse narrative explicitly comments on the maiden's behavior and uses her fate to teach a social and ethical lesson.
• Satire — La Fontaine mocks the heroine's vanity, social pretensions, relentless fault-finding, and eventual desperation through irony and comic reversal.
• Moral Tale — The work follows a cautionary plot in which the protagonist's flawed character produces an unhappy and humiliating outcome.

Tags

French fable · verse narrative · seventeenth-century France · courtship · marriage · spinsterhood · female beauty · aging · vanity · pride · fastidiousness · romantic ideals

What this Textopian page supports

The Maid is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1666 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1666 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Didactic Poetry, Satire, Moral Tale, Narrative Poetry
• Length: 669 words
• Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Maid by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine