The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #135870   Message #3100551
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
22-Feb-11 - 03:29 PM
Thread Name: Why 'in a pear-tree?'
Subject: RE: Why 'in a pear-tree?'
Monique (in a hurry to a meeting)- pm'd me that Perrault wrote verre (glass) in 1697, and Balzac was the one who changed it to vair (fur) thinking verre was a mistake.

Charles Perrault, Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre; Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des moralités: Contes de ma mère l'Oye; Paris, 1697.

Reverse that mondegreen, Cool Beans! Similar stories in Catalan, etc., also refer to glass.