BLUEBEARD, a famous hero of legend and folklore, familiarized to English readers in the 18th century through a translation from the French of Charles Perrault, 1697. Accord ing to the story, the Chevalier Raoul, whose surname is due to the color of his beard, had married seven wives, six of whom had disap peared mysteriously. The seventh is put to a strange test of obedience. Having to go away, Raoul gives her the castle keys, and grants her free access to all parts of the castle except one chamber. She disobeys and on opening the forbidden chamber is horrified by seeing the bones of her predecessors. Raoul discovers her disobedience and is about to put her to death when she is rescued by her kinsmen, who slay Bluebeard. This tale of Bluebeard has been regarded by some as partly historic, of which the original was Gilles de Laval, Baron de Retz, who was burned at Nantes in 1440 for his cruelty to children, whom he is supposed to have enticed into his castle, where he sacri ficed them to the devil. It is, however, really a marchen, and the leading idea of curiosity punished is world-wide. The forbidden cham ber is a counterpart of the treasure-house of Ixion, on entering which the intruder was de stroyed, or betrayed by the gold or blood that clung to him; also of Pandora's box, as well as Proserpine's pyx that Psyche opened in spite of the prohibition. There are several parallels among the German fairy-tales col lected by Grimm; and one feature at least is found in the Kaffir tale of the Ox (Callaway's 'Nursery Tales of the Zulus'). Variants are
found in Russia, and among Gaelic popular tales; and in the Sanskrit collection 'Katha Sarit Sagara' the hero Saktideva breaks the taboo, and, like Bluebeard's wife, is confronted with the horrible sight of dead women. Possi bly in the punishment following the breaking of the taboo may be a survival of some ancient religious prohibition; among the Australians, Greeks and Labrador Indians, such an error was regarded as the means by which death came into the world. Frescoes of the 13th cen tury have been found in Morbihan, Brittany, representing scenes from the similar legend of Saint Trophime. Tales similar to that related by Perrault are found in Straparola's 'Piacevoli Notti' (1569), and in Abbatutis"Il Pentame rone,) while a not very dissimilar tale is that of the Third Calendar in the 'Arabian Nights En tertainment.' Operas founded upon it are Gretry's 'Raoul Barbe-Bleue, (1789); Offen bach's (Barbe-Bleue) (1866). The younger Coleman brought out (Bluebeard; or, Female Curiosity' (1798). Consult Abbe Bossard, 'Gilles de Rais dit Barbe-Bleue' (Paris 1886); Hartland, "The Forbidden Chamber," in Folk lore Journal (London 1885); Perrault, 'Contes de ma mere l' e' (Paris 1875) ; Wilson, A Contribution to History and Folklore' (New York 1899).