"Beauty and the Beast", a classic love story that has been passed down for hundreds of years, has evolved from the original French novel in 1740 through the infiltrated text, evolved into multiple versions, and even the work of live-action films, which proves the charm of this novel and the place of beautiful love in people's hearts.
Just as many works are inspired by life, over the years, many scholars have tried to dig out the truth behind this beautiful story. It just so happens that there are really similar things in real life, and many foreign scholars have always regarded them as the inspiration for "Beauty and the Beast", but the ending of this story is sad.
In Spain in 1537, on a place called Tenerife, a little boy was born into a slave family. However, his appearance is not simple, because he is covered with hair all over his body, which makes him destined for a different life as soon as he was born.
Despite his special appearance, the parents did not abandon their children, but when he was 10 years old, the child was forcibly caught by the Venetian ambassador to Spain, locked in a cage, labeled "wildman", and shipped to France. And the sad life of this "beast" little boy began.
(Description of the Savage at the time)
The social definition of savages at the time was a mixture of half-human, half-animal, who were often depicted as furry in appearance and were thought to become ferocious at night, although not many people actually witnessed such a picture with their own eyes.
The little boy, as a precious commodity, was given as a gift to the king on the night of the coronation of King Henry II of France. This news immediately aroused the excitement of the whole castle, and everyone wanted to see the appearance of this "savage".
As a result, the little boy was imprisoned in the basement of the castle to be studied by doctors and scholars, who found that apart from the hair that covered his whole body, the other characteristics of the little boy were no different from those of a normal child.
(King Henry II of France)
Since there have been only more than 50 such records since the Middle Ages to the present, let alone the age of the time, not only the king, but even the whole town was eager to see him and communicate with him.
At that time, having something like the "Savage" was a symbol of the rich, so Henry II regarded the little boy as a precious possession and gave it a name: Pedro.
Henry II was particularly interested in Pedro, so instead of locking him in a cage, he intended to do an experiment: to see if he could become a "man". So Henry II arranged for him the education of the nobility, from war tactics to movement, from language to etiquette, everything that the nobles needed to learn, Pedro would be exposed to.
(Portrait of Pedro)
Henry II found Pedro so clever that he was able to learn three languages in a short time, and other knowledge was mastered so quickly that he had more aristocratic "talent" than many nobles. Later, under the arrangement of Henry II, he held a position in the court.
In 1559, King Henry II died unexpectedly, and his wife, Medici, became regent. Medici decided to continue her husband's experiment and continue his study of Pedro. At that time, Pedro was in his 20s, and Medici decided to see if he could give birth to more "wildlings".
(Henry II's wife)
So Medici arranged for the daughter of a servant in the courthouse, Catherine, to marry Pedro. Because of the age, the power of marriage was beyond the control of women, and because of the interference of the nobility, Catherine could only obey. At the same time, after special arrangements, until the moment of the wedding, Catherine did not see the true face of her husband.
(Pedro and Catherine)
Medici even arranged for doctors and scholars to watch Pedro and Catherine in the shadows to see if Pedro would transform into a beast, and if he did, then Katherine would survive.
But many people were disappointed that night, and it was hard to believe that Catherine did not contradict Pedro for the rest of her life. Is it because Pedro exudes the temperament of an aristocratic gentleman? Or is it because of his good character? No one knows the answer.
The two are like a loving couple, supporting each other, talking and laughing, if Pedro is not covered with thick hair, this couple is so plain but happy in the eyes of ordinary people.
Pedro and Catherine first had two children after they were together, but neither of them had the hair that covered their bodies like fathers, which made Medici feel very disappointed, but the child was normal, and no one still felt that Pedro was normal, and people expected the couple to give birth to a "savage".
By the time of the third and fourth children, the two babies were hairy at birth, much to the delight of everyone, especially Medici.
(Enrico, male, one of the children)
In 1581, Pedro and Catherine were placed on a tour throughout Europe, where they were viewed as exhibits in several nobles, becoming an entertainment among the nobility.
At each new nobleman's place, they would arrange for the doctor to examine the two, trying to figure out the real cause of the "beast". And their portraits even became precious gifts from the nobles to each other.
(Magdalina, female, one of the children)
In 1589, after a war between the nobles, the Medici nobles were outlawed, and just when Pedro and Catherine's family did not know what to do, they entered the eyes of the Duke of Parma. The Duke decided to admit them to his castle in Italy.
Before long, the nobles were not satisfied with having only a portrait of the Pedro family, so a pair of black hands began to reach out to the otherwise happy family.
The hairy children like themselves were given to different nobles by the Duke as objects, and even though thousands of reluctant but without any means of resistance, Pedro and Catherine could only pray that their children would meet a good family!
The most famous of the several children is the youngest daughter, Tognina. She was given to her mistress by the Duke as a witness to love. But at the same time, her appearance attracted the attention of the local public.
In 1594, the famous scientist and physician of the time, Ulysses, was visiting a friend in Bologna, where he met Tognina and was fascinated from the first sight of Tognina.
in Ulysses
Because Tognina was raised as an aristocrat at that time, her speech and demeanor were different from those of commoners, and her wealth of knowledge gave her an intellectual temperament.
At that time, Ulysses was writing a book about various "strange" people, so after studying Tognina in detail, she recorded her situation.
Tognina, dressed in aristocratic clothes and holding a letter, can be seen from the portrait in the hands of the painter that she is very spiritual.
(Portrait of Tognina)
Over the next two decades, Pedro and Catherine eventually spent the rest of their lives with the other three normal children in a small village in Capodimonte, Italy, without meeting the rest of the children.
Unlike previous well-known presences among the nobility, there is no documentation of their deaths, not even the location of their graves. The existence of this family is drowned in the long river of history, leaving only paintings circulating in the nobility as a testimony to their existence in this world.
Some of these paintings are lost, while others were preserved in his castle in Ambras by Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, who at the time liked to collect various "anomalous" human beings. The castle is today a museum, and the preservation of these portraits adds to the blank record of the Pedro family.
in Ambraz Castle
Having spent a great deal of time studying Pedro and writing the author of Pedro's biography, Robert recounts the life of Pedro's family: "The Pedro family's situation is unique, because they are neither imprisoned, nor free."
(Robert)
Many scholars speculate that the reason why the Pedro family was not recorded is because even though the Pedro family had always lived in aristocratic circles, until the moment of their death, they were not regarded as a person, but as a conspicuous object, or even a "monster".
Perhaps, as many people say that fairy tales are beautified, in "Beauty and the Beast" the beast eventually becomes a handsome prince under the influence of the power of love.
In the real-life version, Pedro and Catherine's family, like caged birds, can not escape the spell of "beast" imposed on them until death, and get a life of lamentation.
(A portrait preserved in the castle of Ambras)