Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess

Andrew Lang gave as reference, at the end of the story, the tale of Le Prince Desir et la Princesse Mignonne, by Madame Leprince de Beaumont.

[1] An English language translation, by Laura Valentine, named it Prince Desire and Princess Mignonnetta, in The Old, Old Fairy Tales.

[2] Author and dramatist James Planché translated the tale as The Prince Désir and the Princess Mignone.

Prince Hyacinth's father, the King, had sought the help of the Fairy to win the Princess when his courtship failed.

"You will have a son who will be horribly unhappy", the enchanter taunted, "a Prince made miserable because he will not know of the enormity of his own nose".

She agrees, promising that she will not only stop talking about it, she will even try to believe he has an ordinary nose, though clearly it could make three reasonable sized ones.

Everywhere he goes, searching for the Dear Little Princess, he meets people who claim that his nose is abnormally large.

With that realization, the crystal palace shattered into splinters and the old Fairy presented the Dear Little Princess to him with the admonition, "You see how self-love keeps us from knowing our own defects.

Prince Hyacinth's nose shrinks down to a usual size and he marries the Dear Little Princess.