King René’s Daughter

King René's Daughter
An 1876 Butter sculpture by Caroline S. Brooks of "The Dreaming Iolanthe", depicting the blind Iolanthe, as portrayed in King René's Daughter
Written by	Henrik Hertz
Characters	Iolanthe Tristan, Count Vaudement René of Anjou Geoffrey Almerick Ebn Jahia Bertrand Martha
Date premiered	1845
Original language	Danish
Subject	Fictionalised account of the marriage of Iolanda, daughter of René of Anjou and Frederick II, Count of Vaudémont
Genre	romance
Setting	Medieval Provence

Kong Renés Datter (King René’s Daughter) is a Danish verse drama written in 1845 by Henrik Hertz. It is a fictional account of the early life of Yolande of Lorraine, daughter of René of Anjou, in which she is depicted as a beautiful blind sixteen-year-old princess who lives in a protected garden paradise. The play was highly popular in the 19th century. It was translated into many languages, copied, parodied and adapted. The Russian adaptation by Vladimir Zotov was used as the basis for the 1892 opera Iolanta, written by Tchaikovsky, with libretto by his brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The name of the central character is given as "" in the original and in early English versions.

At the entrance to a hidden garden in a beautiful Provençal valley Bertrand explains to Almerick that no one must be allowed to enter because the king's daughter Iolanthe is living there in seclusion. The fact that she is blind has been kept secret from all but a few confidants; it has been put out that she is living in a convent. Even Iolanthe herself does not understand that she is blind because no one is allowed to speak to her of light or colour. Nor does she know she is a princess. She was blinded in an accident in infancy and has been attended ever since by the Moorish physician Ebn Jahia, who every day places her in an enchanted sleep and attends to her eyes while she is unconscious. With a combination of medication, magic and astrology, he has predicted that she will be cured when she is 16. This is also when she is due to marry Tristan, Count of Vaudémont, who is unaware of her condition. Iolanthe has just passed her 16th birthday. Martha says that Iolanthe has grown up happy, spending her time in song and poetry, and that she will not be able to understand what sight is. Almerick says that he has been sent to inform Bertrand that the king and the physician will be arriving shortly and that Count Tristan is on his way to Provence to marry Iolanthe.

King René and Ebn Jahia arrive. They discuss Iolanthe's cure. Ebn Jaha says that Iolanthe should soon be able to see, but first she must be told that she is blind and made to understand what sight is. René does not want his daughter's happiness to be broken, so is unwilling to violate Iolanthe's innocence. Ebn Jahia explains that the body and the spirit are intertwined, insisting that Iolanthe must be psychologically prepared for sight. King René agonises over his decision, while Ebn Jahia places Iolanthe in a sleep using a magical amulet. They leave.