"When you want to marry a prince...."

[Baker, John]

        It would be remarkable if this were the case.  The saying is
obviously derived from the fairy-tale The Frog Prince, and the version
of this in Grimm does not include a kiss.  The online annotation at
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/frogking/notes.html#EIGHT says that
the kissing element of the story was introduced in English translations.

        The earliest example of the saying I see is in the Boston Globe
for 7/26/1981 (via Westlaw):  "just a badge with a picture of Lady Diana
and the caption, "I had to kiss a lot of frogs.""


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 8:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "When you want to marry a prince...."

"When you want to marry a Prince, you will have to kiss a lot of frogs."

  I first encountered this now-popular saying on a Valentine's Day card
between 20 and 25 years ago. The wording, as I recall, was slightly
different, something like, "Before you find your Prince, you have to
kiss a lot of frogs."  The girl I gave it to disagreed.

  According to Franchesca Ho Sang's _The Wisdom of Frogs_ (Irvington,
N.Y.: Hylas, 2006), certainly the definitive brief treatment of its
declared subject, the saying is in reality a "Dutch Proverb."

  Should I believe this?

  JL

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