Editing Cinderella (section)

====''Le Fresne''====
[[File:Marie de France 1.tif|thumb|upright=1|Illustration of [[Marie de France]], the author of {{lang|fr|Le Fresne}}, from a medieval [[illuminated manuscript]]]]
The twelfth-century {{lang|fr|[[Lai (poetic form)|lai]]}} of {{lang|fr|[[Le Fresne (lai)|Le Fresne]]}} ("The Ash-Tree Girl"), retold by [[Marie de France]], is a variant of the "Cinderella" story<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} in which a wealthy noblewoman abandons her infant daughter at the base of an [[ash tree]] outside a nunnery with a ring and [[brocade]] as tokens of her identity<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} because she is one of twin sisters<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}}—the mother fears that she will be accused of infidelity<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} (according to popular belief, twins were evidence of two different fathers).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/manykids.html|title=Multiple Births in Legend and Folklore|website=University of Pittsburgh|access-date=15 January 2018}}</ref> The infant is discovered by the porter, who names her {{lang|fr|Fresne}}, meaning "Ash Tree",<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} and she is raised by the nuns.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} After she has attained maturity, a young nobleman sees her and becomes her lover.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} The nobleman, however, is forced to marry a woman of noble birth.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} Fresne accepts that she will never marry her beloved<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} but waits in the wedding chamber as a handmaiden.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} She covers the bed with her own brocade<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} but, unknown to her, her beloved's bride is actually her twin sister,<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} and her mother recognizes the brocade as the same one she had given to the daughter she had abandoned so many years before.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} Fresne's true parentage is revealed<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} and, as a result of her noble birth, she is allowed to marry her beloved,<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}} while her twin sister is married to a different nobleman.<ref name=Anderson2000/>{{rp|41}}