Puss In Boots Le Chat Botte
Is from the "Eleventh Night" of Straparola's Italian fairy tales, where
Constantine's cat procures his master a fine castle and the king's
heiress, first translated into French in 1585. Our version is taken from
that of Charles Perrault. There is a similar one in the Scandinavian
nursery tales. This clever cat secures a fortune and a royal partner for
his master, who passes off as the Marquis of Carabas, but is in reality
a young miller, without a penny in the world.
The above is from Dr. Brewer's "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," and
goes far to prove the antiquity of what is generally believed to be a
modern story, many believing it to be one of the numberless pleasant,
amusing, and in a sense instructive nursery or children's stories of the
present time.