Admitting a Fault: ‘Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess’

Andrew Lang’s fairy tale involves a prince learning a truth about himself.

The sorcerer seizes the princess, as Prince Hyacinth watches. An illustration by Henry Justice Ford for Andrew Lang's 1889 book “The Blue Fairy Book.”

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish scholar who collected and wrote fairy tales, as well as translated texts, such as Homer’s works. In 1889, Lang published “The Blue Fairy Book,” which became the first book of his 12-volume fairy tale collection.

“Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess“ is the second fairy tale in Lang’s ”The Blue Fairy Book.“ And, at the end of the tale, Lang references ”Le Prince Desir et la Princesse Mignonne“ by Madame Leprince de Beaumont as the source for ”Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess.”

Prince Hyacinth

The widowed queen gives birth to Prince Hyacinth who, though he has beautiful eyes and a wonderful mouth, is cursed with an extremely large nose. However, wishing to please the queen, the courtiers flatter Prince Hyacinth, saying that he has a wonderful nose, a “Roman nose.”

As Prince Hyacinth grows, the courtiers tell him awful stories of people with short noses and, when teaching him history, they claim that all great princes and beautiful princesses had long noses. They even fill his room with pictures of people with long noses only. Thus, flattery blinds Prince Hyacinth to reality so that he grows up thinking that his nose is normal and quite handsome.

The Dear Little Princess

Once the prince turns 20, his mother decides that he should wed, and she procures pictures of several nearby princesses. Looking at the pictures, Prince Hyacinth immediately falls in love with the Dear Little Princess and sends ambassadors to the king, her father.

Prince Hyacinth is so overjoyed when the king agrees to give him the Dear Little Princess in marriage that he journeys three leagues to meet her. But, alas, just as he is about to kiss her hand, an enchanter appears and snatches her away.

Inconsolable, the prince sets off to find her. Along the way he meets an old woman, who is really a fairy and who offers to feed him and his horse.

However, upon setting eyes upon the prince, the fairy cannot help but laugh, for his nose is so big. Her laughter and comments about his large nose unnerve him until he finally can’t stand it anymore and leaves.

As he journeys throughout the lands, more and more people comment on and laugh at his nose. Yet, because he has been flattered all of his life, he cannot understand their reactions.

Seeing his predicament, the fairy wishes to help him. She takes the Dear Little Princess and places her in a crystal prison, so that the prince can easily find her. And, when he does find her, Prince Hyacinth attempts to free her, but without luck.

He wishes to kiss her hand. But his nose is so long that he cannot reach it. Suddenly, he realizes the truth: “Well, it must be admitted that my nose is too long!”

At these words, the crystal prison shatters to pieces, freeing the Dear Little Princess and breaking the spell that made Prince Hyacinth’s nose long. Through this ordeal, Prince Hyacinth learns a valuable lesson, gains a normal nose, and wins the Dear Little Princess as his wife.

Through this story, children can learn that kind words are sweet, but flattery, though charming in the moment, deceives the receiver. Moreover, they can learn, as the fairy says, that “self-love keeps us from knowing our own defects of mind and body. ... We refuse to see them till we find them in the way of our interests.”

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