Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the
rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate
her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a
number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping
Beauty", and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were
given another name, or no name at all.Often handsome and romantic,
these characters are essentially interchangeable, serving as a foil to
the heroine; in many variants, they can be viewed as a metaphor for a
reward the heroine achieves for the decisions she makes. The
prominence of the character type makes him an obvious target for
revisionist fairy tales. "Prince Charming" is also used as a term to
refer to the idealized man some people dream of as a future
spouse.Charles Perrault's version of Sleeping Beauty, published in
1697, includes the following text at the point where the princess
wakes up: "'Est-ce vous, mon prince?' lui dit-elle, 'vous vous êtes
bien fait attendre'. Le Prince charmé de ces paroles... ne savait
comment lui témoigner sa joie". ("'Are you my prince?' she said.
'You've kept me waiting a long time'. The prince charmed by her
words... did not know how to express his joy.") It has sometimes been
suggested that this passage later inspired the term, "Prince
Charming", even though it is the prince who is charmed (charmé) here,
not who is being charming (charmant).In the 17th century, Madame
d'Aulnoy wrote two fairy tales, The Story of Pretty Goldilocks, where
the hero was named Avenant ("Fine", "Beautiful", in French), and The
Blue Bird, where the hero was Le roi Charmant ("The Charming King").
When Andrew Lang retold the first (in 1889) for The Blue Fairy Book,
he rendered the hero's name as "Charming"; the second, for The Green
Fairy Book, as "King Charming". Although neither one was a prince and
the first was not royal, this may have been the original use of
"Charming". Prince Charming Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter