Montreal on my Mind

28 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Quebec

Tags

Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, Jeanne Mance, Marguerite Bourgeoys, Montreal, New France, Notre-Dame, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Quebec, Riot 1968, Saint-Jean-Baptiste riot

Letter from Louis XIV to Montrealers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During the weekend, I attended a dinner in Montreal. The men wore tuxedos and the ladies, one of the fine gowns Donkeyskin asked her father to give her. I was surrounded by multilingual and multicultural individuals of every race. The men wore tuxedos and the ladies, one of the fine gowns Donkeyskin asked her father to give her. I was surrounded by multilingual and multicultural individuals of every race. Everyone was on an equal footing. So this was the Montreal I like.

I remarked to the gentleman sitting across from me, a lawyer, that it had saddened me to learn that investors had taken 50% of their money out of Quebec after the election of Madame Pauline Marois to the Premiership of Province of Quebec. This lawyer is a bilingual Québécois. He told me there was more and then mentioned 1977, the year after Parti Québécois leader, charismatic René Lévesque, was elected into office. After his election, on 15 November 1976, there was an exodus. We then moved on to another subject.

Rue Saint-Dominique, 1866 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

However, after I returned home, I remembered Saint Francis Xavier University (StFX) once again. This time, I was not thinking about Dr Cecil MacLean. In my thoughts were the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (the CNDs) who owned a convent and a residence for female students on the campus of StFX. I had just been in Montreal where Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700) founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. In this respect, you may remember that many of the filles du roy were taught to cook and to sew by members of the fledgling Congrégation. Several filles du roy had not been taught skills that would be required of the young women who would marry settlers to New France and raise large families.

Losses

Losing their residence for women must have been devastating to my colleagues who were members of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, but imagine their also losing their convent. Who would help them? The order had suffered losses during the Quiet Revolution, or Révolution tranquille, so to what extent could they be helped by their weakened Quebec motherhouse. Until the 1960s, convents run by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (CND) and other religious orders had flourished in Quebec, but during the Révolution tranquille, the Quebec government laicized education and healthcare, which dealt a blow to Catholic institutions.

(Please click on the image to enlarge it. Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hochelaga, between 1556 and 1606

Historical Montreal

When Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve (15 February 1612 – 9 September 1676), a French soldier born in Champagne, founded Montreal (Hochelaga), on 17 May 1642, he did so on behalf of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal, an organization founded in Paris by Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, a Jesuit.

In 1608, Samuel de Champlain had founded Quebec-city (Stadacona) as both a mission and a fur-trading post. Montreal, however, was founded as a mission, Ville-Marie, and in 1663 the whole island was conceded as a seigniory to the Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice FR,[i] a society of Catholic priests founded in Paris in 1639. Montreal did become a fur-trading post, but it was first and foremost a mission and, inextricably associated to its founding, are Jeanne Mance (12 November 1606 – 18 June 1673) and Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 1620 – 12 January 1700). Jeanne Mance was Nouvelle-France’s first nurse. She established l’Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal in 1645. Marguerite Bourgeoys, canonized by John Paul II on 17 October 1982, was Montreal’s first teacher and, as noted above, she founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame in 1658.

The Quiet Revolution

A separation of Church and State was inevitable, but the work of the Dames de la Congrégation was linked with the founding of Montreal, not to mention both the preservation and growth of the French language in Quebec and the rest of Canada. Quebec may have been a “priest-ridden” province, but without its various religious orders and, among them, the Dames de la Congrégation, one wonders whether or not there would have been a Quebec to “reform.” As indicated in the Canadian Encyclopedia, “[u]nder Jean Lesage the Québec Liberal Party had developed a coherent, wide-ranging reform platform. The main issue of the election was indicated by the Liberal slogan, “It’s time for a change.” I wonder, however, whether Premier Jean Lesage (10 June 1912 – 12 December 1980) realized that, in the case of Quebec, the line between Church and State was so very blurred that his “coherent, wide-ranging reform platform” could broaden to include an ideology that rivalled religion: sovereignty or separatism, as it was then called.

The Church in Quebec

As I wrote above although the separation of Church and State was unavoidable, Quebec’s ancien régime, metaphorically speaking, had been the Seigneurial system which was replaced by what could be called the Parochial system (my term). Quebec had parishes and, when cities started to sprout, they were a collection of parishes each of which had its schools, one for girls and one for boys, etc. Therefore, how would religious orders be replaced? There was too profound a gap to fill.

I am told that the formerly “priest-ridden” province is now a union-ridden province, which could be the case. I should think, however, that the dream of a sovereign province may also have helped replace the Parochial system. History has yet to render its verdict, but the Révolution tranquille may well have supplied ample room to French-speaking Quebecers who had wanted an independent Quebec since the Act of Union was promulgated, in 1841. That year the patriotes lost their Lower Canada which they believed was truly theirs. At any rate, the changes were more extensive than Premier Lesage had foreseen. There had long been nationalists among Québécois but, as of the 1960s, these nationalists were active separatists and among them there were terrorists. Therefore, it may be that sovereignty or separatism filled the profound gap I mentioned.

24 June 1968

The gentleman I escorted to Saturday’s elegant dinner told me that, on 24 June 1968, he was standing a few feet away from Pierre Bourgault (23 January 1934 – 16 June 2003), a leading séparatiste. June 24th is Quebec’s national holiday: the Saint-Jean-Baptiste. When the yearly parade reached parc La Fontaine, in Montreal, my friend personally saw a group of hooligans join Pierre Bourgault who started the riot by screaming “le Québec aux Québécois,” “le Québec aux Québécois,” (Quebec for Quebecers). The hooligans, he said, first lifted a police car and put it on its head. There were 292 arrests and 123 persons were injured, 43 of whom were members of the police force. Some of the police horses were also injured. Pierre Elliott Trudeau (18 October 1919 – 28 September 2000), the Prime Minister of Canada, was in attendance and refused to be taken away to safety.

It’s been 45 years. Although Pierre Bourgault later revealed his role in the riot, he was never charged for the criminal behaviour I just described. Rioters may have been targeting Pierre Trudeau, but the 1968 riot was, so to speak, self-inflicted terrorism, which is puzzling. Moreover, when bombs were placed in mailboxes, these could cause injury to anyone, including Québécois and, perhaps, separatists. I then remembered the 1970 October Crisis. On 5 October 1970, Quebec terrorists abducted James Cross, CMG, but the person they assassinated was Pierre Laporte (25 February 1921 – 17 October 1970), Quebec’s very own Labour Minister. Given the above, it could well be that separatism, later called souveraineté-association and souveraineté, did replace the Church, not altogether, but to a greater or lesser extent. Only crusaders are capable of such intensity and somewhat incomprehensible behaviour.

Let’s say that matters got “curiouser and curiouser” (Alice in Wonderland).

(Please click on the photographs to enlarge them.)

Parc La Fontaine

Rue du Parc-La-Fontaine

Google Images

Conclusion

And now, Quebec is losing investors. Matters were worse in 1977, just after René Lévesque (24 August 1922 – 1 November 1987), was elected to the Premiership of Quebec. But, financially, Quebecers are nevertheless suffering, which they may not realize. Yet, Canada is an officially bilingual country where the rights of French-speaking Canadians are respected.

As for my colleagues who were losing their residence and convent, that loss reflects, first and foremost, the needs of a new generation of students. More modern residences had been built. However, I believe my colleague’s losses are also linked to the weakening of religious orders in Quebec. The Congrégation de Notre-Dame is a Montreal religious order. Quebec remembers its founders, but the Church is no longer the powerful institution it had been since the seventeenth century.

_________________________

[i] Society of Saint-Sulpice

I am providing links to French-language videos showing the 24 June 1968 Saint-Jean-Baptiste day riot. It seems these cannot be embedded. But I am also inserting a little video showing patriotes being taken to the gallows. The music is “À la claire fontaine,” perhaps the most Québécois of Québécois songs: an unofficial anthem.

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/prime-ministers/pierre-elliott-trudeau-philosopher-and-prime-minister/the-pm-wont-let-em-rain-on-his-parade.html

Émeute lors de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste à… par CioranQc

Patriotes à Beauharnois en novembre 1838 par Katherine Jane Ellice (aquarelle) (Archives nationales du Canada)

28 May 2013

WordPress

Donkey-Skin: a Tale Labelled “Unnatural Love”

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fairy Tales, Literature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Abraham Bosse, Adrienne Ségur, AT type 50, AT type 510, Charles Perrault, Donkey-Skin, fairy tale, l'honnête homme, Nadezhda Illarionova, Peau d'Âne, Philippe Lallemand, Salons

Nadezhda Illarionova (Photo credit: Google Images)

Donkey-Skin

Donkey-Skin (Peau d’Âne) was written by Charles Perrault, in 1694. But it is also dated 1697 as Histoires ou contes du temps passé, (Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals or Mother Goose Tales). So doubt lingers as to the year it was written. I will date it c. 1695. Moreover, “unnatural love” seems a type rather than a motif. Type is the broader classification.

Summary of the Plot

A dying queen asks her husband to seek another spouse as beautiful as she is. The widowed king falls in love with his daughter who is as beautiful as her mother, hence the fairy tale‘s classification as “unnatural love.” However, Donkey-Skin seeks supernatural help provided by a fairy godmother. The princess is told that she must ask her father to provide her with lavish gowns, three as it turns out, and to kill his gold-defecating donkey. The father obliges and Donkey-Skin flees covered in the skin of the dead donkey.

After she escapes, Donkey-Skin starts working as a peasant. But a prince sees her through a key-hole when she is trying on one the lavish gowns her father has given her. This is an example of kairos, which means that the prince sees Donkey-Skin at the opportune moment. He falls in love to the point of being sick. In literature, French 17th-century literature in particular, writers have often depicted love as an illness.

The remedy that will heal the prince is not the skin of a wolf Isengrin’s age, but a cake Donkey-Skin has baked. She therefore bakes the cake and inserts her ring into the batter. So we now remember the foot-that-fits-the-shoe motif, Cinderella’s foot. The prince goes in search of the woman whose finger fits the ring and finds her. Donkey-Skin is returned to her regal self.

Réunion de dames by Abraham Bosse 17th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Salons and Préciosité

At the time Perrault wrote his Tales of Mother Goose (Contes de ma mère l’Oye), children’s literature was in its infancy. Charles Perrault was an habitué (a regular) of Salons and fairy tales are associated with Préciosité‘s main objectives: the refinement of language and manners, and the “Querelle des Femmes,”the 17th-century debate about women. Woman considered themselves as “précieuses.” At first sight, it therefore seems puzzling that the story of a princess resisting the incestuous advances of her father should be accepted in literature befitting fine gathering places. But such is not the case.

The Debate about women and Perrault’s Style

According to the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Donkey-Skin is, indeed, part of the “Querelle des femmes,” the debate about women. Donkey-Skin exposes an abuse against women, which may explain its acceptability. Salonniers and salonnières also enjoyed the suspense. Finally, the tale might owe its acceptability to the rules governing fairy tales. Fairy tales have a happy ending so readers know that Donkey-Skin’s plight will end. However, I should think that the manner in which the tale is told is its subject matter. Peau d’Âne is an exquisite versified tale. It is Salon literature.

On Charles Perrault, honnête homme and a “Moderne”

In other words, although Donkey-Skin is pursued by an incestuous father, the tale is told by an excellent writer. Perrault (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was born to a wealthy bourgeois family and elected to the Académie française, in 1671. For two decades, he worked at court as Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s secretary. He mingled in Salons with other honnêtes hommes,[i] gentlemen who, by and large, were as they seem[ii], quite an achievement in 17th-century France. Finally, at the close of the 17th century, Perrault would lead the Modernes in the famous Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes.[iii]

Donkey-Skin by Adrienne Ségur

Unnatural Love

Yet, in the Aarne-Thompson-Üther classification system, Donkey-Skin is listed as type AT 510B, [iv] i.e. unnatural love, rather than a type that could be called the flayed animal, such as The Lion, the Fox and the Wolf (AT type 50). The incestuous love of a father for his daughter does not seem appropriate entertainment for small children or the audience of Salons. We have seen, however, that it is acceptable. Moreover, it mirrors other motifs and types style redeems it.

The Flayed Wolf

Let’s recall Reynard the Fox, rooted in the Sick Lion tale or The Lion, the Fox and the Wolf (AT type 50). Reynard has overheard Ysengrin the wolf tell the king that Reynard has failed to join other courtiers who are at their sick king’s, the Lion, bedside. Reynard visits the king later and tells Noble that he has travelled everywhere in search of a cure. To be cured the king must wrap himself into the skin of a wolf, the age of Ysengrin.

It would therefore seems reasonable to link tales where a character is covered in the skin of another animal with the tale Aarne-Thompson have listed as AT type 50: curing a sick lion. Tales intersect and may border on other types. Although the Aarne-Thompson index classifies Donkey-Skin under its unnatural love category, Peau d’Âne does mirror the flayed-animal type, under any name. In fact Peau d’Âne also mirrors Goose who laid golden eggs (Æsop’ Fables, Perry Index 87) and Jean de La Fontaine‘s “La Poule aux œufs d’or” (V.13). Like the goose, the king’s donkey is aurifère, an endless source of gold.

Traditions populaires

Also at play is tradition. Perrault’s Donkey-Skin is perhaps ageless. It was probably transmitted through an oral tradition and too widely known to be left aside. Before Peau d’Âne entered a learned tradition, i.e. a written form, a fairy tale was sometimes referred to as a “Peau d’Âne.”[v] Moreover, Jean de La Fontaine expressed his love of Peau d’Âne (VIII. 4) in his second recueil or collection of fables:

Si Peau d’Âne m’était conté,

J’y prendrais un plaisir extrême.

Le Pouvoir des Fables (VIII. 4)

If one should tell that tale so queer
Ycleped, I think, “The Ass’s Skin,”
I should not mind my work a pin.
The world is old, they say; I don’t deny it;
But, infant still
In taste and will,
Whoever would teach, must gratify it.

The Power of Fables (VIII.4)

According to Marc Soriano,[vi] Perrault used many sources before writing his Peau d’Âne in perfect verse. The tale is not altogether a rewriting of Giambattista Basile‘s (c. 1575 – 23 February 1632) l‘Orsa IT (The Bear), (Il cunto de li cunti overo le trattemiento de peccerille [The Tale of Tales or Entertaiment for Little Ones]) or Pentamerone. Nor is it a polished version of a tale by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (c. 1575 – 23 February 1632), the author of the Facetious Nights or Piacevoli Notti. It is Perrault‘s Donkey-Skin and one of the first fairy tales belonging to children’s literature. Perrault’s tales has set the tone. He has become the model.

Conclusion

So, eloquence and tradition have redeemed unnatural love. That would be my first conclusion. As suggested above, folktales enjoy a degree of immunity, not only as fiction but as part of a cultural heritage that has profound roots and crosses borders. Peau d’Âne is not altogether cleansed: the donkey is still “aurifère,” i.e. it defecates gold, and Peau d’Âne‘s father’s love remains a transgression. However, even in the most refined social circles, one does indulge, occasionally, i.e. a tad, in scatological humour, told correctly. Moreover, by the time Perrault wrote his fairy tales, Préciosité was no longer the ridiculous fashion depicted in Molière‘s Les Précieuses ridicules (1659). Finally, not only does Perrault’s Donkey-Skin mirror many texts, but it is pared down and presented in verses, not the easier prose. Style transcends “unnatural love.”

However, I will end this post by introducing a new element. Let me quote Donkey-Skin’s fairy godmother who suggests that Donkey-Skin not contradict her father while nevertheless refusing his advances: “Mais sans le contredire on peut le refuser,” (“[b]ut you can avoir the necessity without displeasing him”) which is what Donkey-Skin does, thereby displaying that, with a little advice, the worldly wisdom of fables, she can negotiate her way out of her father’s incestuous requests. Her fairy godmother tells Peau d’Âne that incest, without naming it, is a “great sin,” (une faute bien grande), but her entire statement reads as follows:

Écouter sa folle demande

Serait une faute bien grande,

Mais sans le contredire on peut le refuser.
Peau d’Âne

“For, my dear child,” she said to her, “it would be a great sin to submit to your father’s wishes, but you can avoid the necessity without displeasing him.”
(Gutenberg [29021])

One is therefore reminded of Puss in Boots, a fairy tale in which a very clever cat takes his master from rags to riches using his savoir-faire, a more natural recourse than magic. Donkey-Skin will oppose her father “sans le contredire,” (without contradicting him), which is also savoir-faire, not to mention empowerment.

Sources and Resources

Neuf Contes de Perrault, PDF FR
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (Gutenberg [29021]) EN

_________________________

[i] The term sprezzatura used by Baldassare Castiglione in the Cortegiano (c. 1528) conveys behaviour that does not necessarily go beyond mere appearances. It suggests nonchalance.

“Partly because of the influence of the salons and partly as a result of disillusionment at the failure of the Fronde, the heroic ideal was gradually replaced in the 1650s by the concept of honnêteté. The word does not connote “honesty” in its modern sense but refers rather to an ideal aristocratic moral and social mode of behaviour, a sincere refinement of tastes and manners.” (honnête homme, Britannica)

[ii] “honnête homme”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 23 May. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/271056/honnete-homme>.
[iii] According to the Modernes, the literature of France had reached an apex and could now serve as a model. The Anciens, led by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, who, with François de Malherbe, shaped French classicism, versification in particular, did not share this view.[iv] Christine Goldberg, “The Donkey-Skin Folktale Cycle (AT 510B),” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 110, No. 435 (Winter, 1997), pp. 28-46.
[v] See G. Rouger, ed. Contes de Perrault (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1967), p. 153.
[vi] Marc Soriano, Les Contes de Perrault, culture savante et traditions populaires (Paris : Gallimard, coll. ‘Tel’, 1977 [1968]), 113-124.

composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau (25 September 1683 – 12 September 1764)

piece: Tambourins and Chaconne from “Dardanus” (1739)

performers: Musica Pacifica, at the Berkeley Early Music Festival main stage, June 2012.

Portrait (detail) by Philippe Lallemand, 1672

The Duc d’Enghien: a Murdered Duke

20 Monday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in 19th-Century France, History, Literature

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

Alexandre Dumas, Émigrés, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc d'Enghien, French Revolution, Honoré de Balzac, Leo Tolstoy, Les Chouans, Napoleon, Quibéron

Un Épisode de l’affaire de Quibéron, 1795 by Paul-Émile Boutigny (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On 21 March 1804, aged 31, His Serene Highness, the Duke of Enghien, born on 2 August 1772, was executed by single firearm. He was an émigré, but dragoons captured him and brought him to Strasbourg on 15 March 1804. He was the grand-son of Louis XIV, by Madame de Montespan, and the son of Louise Marie Thérèse Bathilde d’Orléans, the Duke of Orléans’ sister. Philippe duc d’Orléans, or Philippe Égalité, the duc d’Enghien’s uncle, voted in favour of his brother’s, Louis XVI, execution, by guillotine.

A Portrait of the Three Consuls, from left to right, Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Duc d’Enghien was a prince of the blood (Prince du Sang) and, therefore, a possible heir to the throne of France. He was accused of participating in a Royalist plot (Cadoudal -Pichegru) to defeat the Consulate (18 Brumaire [9 November] 1799 –1804), part of the Napoleonic era (c. 1795 – 1815 [Congress of Vienna]). He was tried for the sake of appearances, Napoleon having decided he had to be eliminated. D’Enghien had been the commander of a corps of émigrés during the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), but he had not played a role in the above-mentioned 1804 conspiracy. By the time the duke was captured, he had married Charlotte de Rohan (25 October 1767 – 1 May 1841), privately and in near secrecy, and the couple lived in Ettenheim, in Baden, on the Rhine. (See Duc d’Enghien, Wikipedia.)

Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d’Enghien (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There were of course many Royalists among the French during the French Revolution (1789-1794). Particularly noteworthy is a failed invasion of France called l’affaire Quibéron portrayed above by artist Paul-Émile Boutigny (1853 -1929). On 23 June 1795, émigrés landed at Quibéron to lend support to the Vendéens, who had long fought Revolutionary forces, and the chouannerie, royalist uprisings. The émigrés hoped they could raise support in western France, end the French Revolution and re-establish the monarchy. By 21 July 1795, they had been routed.

As for the duke, nothing could be done to save him. If Joséphine de Beauharnais,[i] Napoléon I‘s first wife, could not dissuade her husband, born Napoleone Buonaparte, no one could. Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d’Otrante (known as the Duke of Otranto), Napoleon’s chief of police, said of the execution that “it was worse than a crime, it was a mistake:” “C’est pire qu’un crime, c’est une faute.“ The crime, for it was a crime, was imputed, probably wrongly, to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, one of history’s foremost survivors. However, if the murder of the young duc d’Enghien is remembered to this day, it is as an obvious injustice, one that lingered in the mind of great writers.

The “Chouans” and the Duke in literature: Balzac, Dumas and Leo Tolstoy

In Les Chouans, a 1829 novel, French writer Honoré de Balzac (20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) immortalized the royalist chouannerie, uprisings in western France and, by the same token, the royalist Vendéan insurrection. For his part, the duc d’Enghien was bestowed life eternal by Leo Tolstoy (9 September 1828 – 20 November 1910), Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. In the first book of War and Peace, Tolstoy has the vicomte de Mortemart, a French émigré, say that:

“‘[a]fter the murder of the duc, even the most partial ceased to regard [Buonaparte] as a hero. If to some people he ever was a hero, after the murder of the duc there was one martyr more in heaven and one hero less on earth.’ The vicomte said that the duc d’Enghien had perished by his own magnanimity, and that there were particular reasons for Buonaparte’s hatred of him.”

There is an anecdote according to which, during one of his fainting spells,[ii] Napoléon was at the mercy of the duke of Enghien who spared him. The execusion of the duc d’Enghien who spared him. The execusion of the duc d’Enghien might well have been Napolèons’ brief put personal French Revolution. He needed to kill an aristocrat. Alexandre Dumas, père (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870) featured the duc d’Enghien in his The Last Cavalier (Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine), unfinished at the time of Dumas’ death, but now published and translated into English:

“[T]he dominant sentiment in Bonaparte’s mind at that moment was neither fear nor vengeance, but rather the desire for all of France to realise that Bourbon blood, so sacred to Royalist partisans, was no more sacred to him than the blood of any other citizen in the Republic.

‘Well, then’, asked Cambacérès,[iii] ‘what have you decided?’

‘It’s simple’, said Napoleon, ‘We shall kidnap the Duc d’Enghien and be done with it.'”[iv]

Let these words be the conclusion of this post. The duc d’Enghien was a scapegoat.

Henri de La Rochejacquelein at the Battle of Cholet in 1793 by Paul-Émile Boutigny (10 March 1853 – 27 June 1929), Musée d’art et d’histoire de Cholet.

_________________________

[i] Napoleon divorced Joséphine in 1810 so he could marry Marie Louise d’Autriche, the future Duchess of Parma, who gave him a son. Napoléon wanted un ventre, a fertile woman.

[ii] Napoleon had epileptic seizures. One of Talleyrand’s duties was to remove Napoléon from public sight when seizures occurred.

[iii] Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, 1st Duke of Parma, is the author of the Napoleonic Code, a fine document still in use in Quebec.

[iv] See Duc d’Enghien, Wikipedia.

Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869)

Grande Messe des Morts

: Crop of a carte de visite photo of Hector Berlioz by Franck, Paris, c. 1855 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

20 May 2013

WordPress

Les Tendres Souhaits (Tender Wishes)

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Claire Lefilliâtre, English translation, French song, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, John William Godward, Le Poème harmonique, Pastoral, Vincent Dumestre

: The Favourite, by John William Godward, 1901

John William Godward (9 August 1861 – 13 December 1922)

Photo credit: Wikipaintings

Here is a lovely little song. The music is by Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (4 January 1710 – 16 March 1736). My translation is mostly literal. So, please do not expect a beautiful poem. I wanted to translate the words. This song is a very simple pastoral.

Que ne suis-je la fougère
Où, sur la fin d’un beau jour,
Se repose ma bergère
Sous la garde de l’amour ? Under the watch of
Que ne suis-je le zéphyr
Qui rafraîchit ses appas,
L’air que sa bouche respire,
La fleur qui naît sous ses pas ?

Why am I not the fern/ Where, towards the end of a beautiful day,/ My shepherdess rests/ And love watches over her?/ Why am I not the gentle breeze,/ That refreshes her charms,/ The air her mouth breathes,/ The flower born under her steps.

Que ne suis-je l’onde pure
Qui la reçoit dans son sein ?
Que ne suis-je la parure
Qui la couvre après le bain ?
Que ne suis-je cette glace,
Où son minois répété
Offre à nos yeux une grâce
Qui sourit à la beauté ?

Why am I not the pure mist/ That receives her into its bosom/ Why am I not the ornament/ That covers her after her bath?/ Why am I not that mirror,/ Where her sweet little face repeats itself/ Offering to our gaze a grace/ That smiles at beauty?

Que ne puis-je, par un songe,
Tenir son cœur enchanté ?
Que ne puis-je du mensonge
Passer à la vérité ?
Les dieux qui m’ont donné l’être
M’ont fait trop ambitieux,
Car enfin je voudrais être
Tout ce qui plaît à ses yeux !

Why am I not, as in a dream,/ Holding her heart bewitched?/ And why can I not from a lie/ Go on to the truth?/ The gods who gave me life/ Made me too ambitious,/ For I would like to be/ All that pleases her eyes!

Le Poème harmonique

Vincent Dumestre

Claire Lefilliâtre

art:

Autumn, by John William Godward, 1900 (video)

Nerissa, by John William Godward, 1906 (below video)

May 18, 2013

WordPress

Obama Confounds The Opposition!

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Obama Confounds The Opposition!

On Ferdinand Hodler

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in the Nineteenth Century

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Alphonse Mucha, Art Nouveau, Ferdinand Hodler, Leysin, Milo Winter, Switzerland, The miller his son and the donkey, World Esperanto Association

Portrait of Berthe Jacques, wife of the artist (1994)

Portrait of Berthe Jacques, wife of the artist (1894)

Portrait of Berthe Jacques, wife of the artist by Ferdinand Hodler (1894)

I am published, once again, my earlier post on The Miller, His Son and the Donkey and one on Ferdinand Hodler.

You can’t please everyone: Aesop retold (michelinewalker.com)

My purpose is to show images. Two are by Milo Winter (The Æsop for Children, eBook #19994) and one is the work of Ferdinand Hodler, perhaps the finest Swiss artist of the 19th century. I would like to show you more of his work.

Ferdinand Hodler (14 March 1853 – 19 May 1918) was born in Berne, Switzerland. He was soon the only surviving member of his family. All died of tuberculosis. This experience coloured his life. For instance, Hodler painted several portraits of his mistress and former model Valentine Godé-Darel during the years she was dying of cancer. The video I am inserting in this post documents her “disintegration.” Interestingly, Hodler also painted some 20 portraits of himself. These may be a chronicle of the gradual metamorphosis that characterizes human life.

After Ferdinand Hodler’s father died, his mother married a decorative artist. This may explain Hodler’s career as illustrator. He apprenticed at Thun and then moved to Geneva. He is associated with many movements: from realism to expressionism, including symbolism and Art Nouveau (see “Adoration III” at the bottom of this post). We have seen the work of Alphonse Mucha (24 July 1860 – Prague, 14 July 1939) who was a Czech Art Nouveau artist.

In order to improve his skills, Hodler travelled so he could study the work of other artists. He was particularly interested in the art of Hans Holbein.

Hodler painted several landscapes and portraits. Favourite subjects were women and people going about their daily activities, genre painting. However he was also an illustrator.

Ferdinand Hodler married twice and his son by one of his models, Augustine Dupin (1852–1909), Hector Hodler (1 October 1887, in Geneva – 31 March 1920, in Leysin , Switzerland) founded the World Esperanto Association.

During the last year of his life, he had suicidal thoughts. Hodler died at the age of 65 and is now considered a Swiss legend.

Portraits of Giulia Leonardi, 1910

Herbstabend (Autumn Evening), 1892

Adoration III (below video) no date

Ferdinand Hodler – Valentine Godé- Darel

“Berliner Messe: Kyrie”

Arvo Pärt

17 May 2013

WordPress

The Miller, his Son and the Donkey: quite a Tale

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fables

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Æsop, Gabriele Faerno, Giovanni Maria Verdizotti, La Fontaine, Nazreddine et son fils, Perry Index, Tales of Count Lucanor

Walter Crane‘s composite illustration of all the events in the tale for the limerick retelling of the fables, Baby’s Own Æsop.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Le Meunier, son fils et l’âne FR
The Miller, his Son and the Ass EN

I have revised a post published in 2012. The pictures are now clearer. To view the post, simply click on the following link (the first link):

You can’t please everyone, Æsop retold (michelinewalker.com)[i]
The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey (classification)
The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey (text)

In the Aarne-Thompson classification index, The Miller, his Son and the Donkey is motif 1215 and bears many names. For the time being, we will call it The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey.[ii] By clicking on this title, we will see tales related to AT 1215.

I used La Fontaine’s version of this fable, entitled Le Meunier, son fils, et l’âne FR, but it is also an Æsopic fable The Miller, his Son and the Donkey, Perry Index 721, AT 1205 (English). Given that Greek playwright Aristophane‘s (450 BC) alluded to our story in The Frogs; given, moreover, that it also belongs to the Æsopic corpus, The Miller, his Son and the Donkey is a very old fable. However, it would appear La Fontaine used as immediate model, a Racan retelling and the last fable in a collection of fables by Gabriele Faerno (1510 [Cremona], 17 November 1561 [Rome]), entitled Centum fabulae (A Hundred Fables). The moral of Faërne’s (FR) fable is that, if one tries to please everyone, one pleases very few individuals, or none at all.

Wikipedia’s The Miller, his Son and the Donkey

Nasreddin and other retellers

According to Wikipedia, La Fontaine was also influenced by Poggio Bracciolini,[iii] called Poggio (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), who included the story in his Facetiæ (1450). It is the opening poem of Giovanni Maria Verdizotti‘s Cento favole morali (1570) (One Hundred Moral Tales). However, “[t]he oldest documented occurrence of the actual story is in the work of the historian, geographer and poet Ibn Said (1213-1286), born and educated in Al-Andalus[,]” in Islamic Iberia, now Spain and Portugal. The story is also told in the Forty Vezirs, translated from Arabic into Turkish by Sheykh Zada. It is one of the stories told in the Arab world’s Goha.

The story was also written in the 17th century by Ottoman Turkish Nasreddin, who, according to Wikipedia, “dealt in concepts that have a certain timelessness” (Wikipedia). His advice to his son (son fils) is:

“If you ever should come into the possession of a donkey, never trim its tail in the presence of other people. Some will say that you have cut off too much, and others that you have cut off too little. If you want to please everyone, in the end your donkey will have no tail at all.” (Nasreddin Hodja)

Nasreddine et son fils

Photo credit: Google Images

In the 13th century, Jacques de Vitry translated the tale and inserted it in his Tabula exemplorum.[iv] It was also translated by Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (5 May 1282 – 13 June 1348). The story, entitled “What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,” is included in the Tales of Count Lucanor (1335). It can be found in Shakespeare’s Jest Book (c. 1530), in German meistersinger Hans Sachs, who created it as a broadsheet, in 1531. It is also part of German author Joachim Camerarius‘ Asinus Vulgi. This version was used by the Dane Niels Heldvad (1563-1634) in his translation of the fable. It was then told by French seventeenth-century Racan, a disciple of French poet Malherbe, who is largely responsible for the development of the poetic rules of French “Classicism.”

We therefore see it in Greece (Aristophanes and Æsop), in the Arab World, in the Ottoman Empire, in Italian city-states, in Spain and Portugal, in England, in Germany and in France.

A 17th-century miniature of Nasreddin, currently in the Topkapi Palace* Museum Library. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

*Topkapi Palace (Istanbul, Turkey) was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years (1465-1856) of their 624-year reign. (See Topkapi Palace, Wikipedia and Nasreddin, Wikipedia.)[v]

Conclusion

The miller, his son and the donkey is an old story. In all likelihood, it dates back to Æsop, if there ever lived a Æsop. If so he was a reteller. In the case of La Fontaine’s Le Meunier, son fils et l’âne, we know his immediate sources: Racan and Gabriele Faerno.

In my earlier post, I point to a moral underlying the moral. The people who give advice to the miller and his son are judgmental. But the fable could also be linked to analysis paralysis. We often need to seek advice, professional advice in particularly, but we can’t let others stifle our inner voices. I believe that instinct is often one’s best guide. When in doubt, abstain! (Dans le doute, abstiens-toi.)

I will close by noting, first, that The miller, his son and the donkey is an example of shared wisdom: the Greeks, Islamic Iberia, the Arab world, Ottoman Turks and various European cultures. Second, tales we call “folktales” have a wide range of listeners, readers and writers. Not only are stories delightful, but they also override rank and constitute a testimonial to pluralism.

______________________________

[i] https://michelinewalker.com/2012/03/21/you-cant-please-everyone-aesop-retold/

[ii] Poggio discovered the only manuscript of Lucretius‘s De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things).

[iii] http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1215.html (classification)

[iv] See Exemplum, Wikipedia

[v] “Ottoman Empire”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 May. 2013

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/434996/Ottoman-Empire/44376/Restoration-of-the-Ottoman-Empire-1402-81>.

Ottoman Turkish Music from 17th century

Nikriz Peşrev by Ali Ufki Bey

16 May 2013

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Nasreddin

The Two Rats, Fox and Egg: The Soul of Animals

15 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fables, Jean de La Fontaine

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Ancients and Moderns, Blaise Pascal, Granville, Jean de La Fontaine, Querelles, Reason & Instinct, René Descartes, The Soul of Animals

Image publicitaire, Ets Bourcheix & fils, nouveautés, draperie, à
Clermont-Ferrand (Photo credit: lafontaine.château-thierry.net)

The illustration I used at the top of my post on ‟The Cat and the Fox” (10 May 2013) is by Granville,[i] sometimes spelled Grandville. I have inserted the image of ‟Le Chat et le Renard” at the bottom of this post. I love it. However, I am particularly fond of the illustration below ‟Les Deux Rats, le Renard, et l’Œuf,” (The Two Rats, Fox and Egg), a fable associated with La Querelle de l’âme des bêtes FR (The Quarrel about the Soul of Animals). In 17th-century France, there were literary and philosophical quarrels, called querelles, the most famous of which is the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes (The Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns).[ii] It took place beginning in the last decade of ‟The Splendid Century,” the title of a superb account, by W. H. Lewis, of the age of Louis XIV.

Les Deux Rats, le Renard, et l’Œuf, by Granville (Photo credit: lafontaine.net)

The Quarrel about the Soul of Animals: Descartes

The Quarrel about the Soul of Animals, may not have been of great interest to writers, but it was important to philosophers and it has endured. The deeper quarrel concerned ‟reason” versus ‟instinct.” According to René Descartes, (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650), the author of the Discours sur la méthode (The Discourse on Method), published in 1637, reason was the way to knowledge (epistemology).

Darwinism, the transmutation of species or evolution, can also be associated with the ‟quarrel about the soul of animals,” but from a different point of view. Darwinism gives the human race animal ancestry, as does totemism.

According to Descartes, animals do not think. They are machines, or ‟un ressort,” a clock one winds up. La Fontaine writes that Descartes ‟goes further and claims that beasts do not think at all: ‛nullement’ ‟ (‟Descartes va plus loin, et soutient nettement// Qu’elle [la bête] ne pense nullement. (IX.20)” An English translation of the entire fable can be accessed by clicking on the following link: Discours à Madame de la Sablière. La Fontaine was Madame de la Sablière’s house guest from 1673 until 1693. He called her Iris.

La Fontaine would not and did not state that animals had a soul. However, his position was that necessity (the mother of invention) had given animals all the wit they needed to survive. According to Jean de La Fontaine, animals haven’t the soul humans have, but they are not mere machines. He therefore closes his Discours à [Address to] Madame de la Sablière, by telling the story of two smart rats, a fox and an egg.

Les Deux Rats, le Renard, et l’Œuf

In Les Deux Rats, le Renard, et l’Œuf (FR) or The Two Rats, Fox and Egg (EN), La Fontaine uses a cast of three and an egg. The fox is not very near the rats, but they know of his presence and cannot sit and eat the egg they have found without moving the egg away from the snooper (l’écornifleur). They think and think. Should they package the egg and carry it with their front paws? Should they roll it or drag it? It was impossible and very dangerous: chose hasardeuse.

The rats having pondered the problem, one of the two turns upside down and puts the egg between his four paws, while the other rat pulls him by the tail. Necessity, or the instinct of self-preservation, has rescued our likeable little fellows. Instinct is something we share with animals. Yet, there does not seem to be a quarrel about this bond between humans and animals.

Souls: Middle-Souls

Therefore, La Fontaine thinks in terms of middle-souls: L’un [trésor] cette âme pareille en tous tant que nous sommes, //Sages, fous, enfants, idiots, //Hôtes (guests) de l’univers sous le nom d’animaux; //L’autre encore une autre âme, entre nous et les anges.

One we share with all things alive: /the wise, madmen, children, idiots //The universe’s guests under the name of animals; //And still another shared between us and angels.

Conclusion

The key-word is indeed nécessité: ‟Nécessité l’ingénieuse /Leur fournit une invention.” (Ingenuous necessity /Provided them with an invention.) Moreover, La Fontaine’s idea could be compared to a vertical line. He is thinking of gradation. It could be that Darwinism would give us a horizontal line, but a line that would no doubt have branches. As for classification according to motifs, it would appear this fable has escaped that particular exercise. It seems part of the ‟querelle” about the soul of beasts.

However, it did elicit comments in the classroom. My students always had dozens of stories demonstrating how intelligent their dog was. I would tell them that it could be dogs dit not know they would die, but that I had met Einsteins among dogs, not to mention very clever cats galore. As Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) wrote, “The more I see of Mankind, the more I prefer my dog.” In Beast literature, animals are considered superior to humans.

Sources:

French text: ‟Les Deux Rats, le Renard et l’Œuf.”

French text: ‟Discours à Madame de la Sablière”

English text: The Two Rats, Fox and Egg (Robert Thomson) http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/nine_ad_tworats.htm

English text: Address to Madame de la Sablière (Robert Thomson) http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/nine_ad_tworats.htm

Photo credit: (Please click on the smaller images to enlarge them.)

Grandville: http://www.lafontaine.net/illustrations/illustrateurs.php?id=77

Poster: http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/nine_ad_tworats.htm

______________________________

[i] See LaFontaine.net. Granville, pseudonym for Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard (1603 – 1647)

[ii] Officially, the quarrel opposed authors and literati (persons interested in literature) who believed literature in French had come of age and those who felt the Græco-Latin models had not been surpassed. Charles Perrault led one camp, supporters of the Moderns. Boileau championed the Ancients, as did his friend La Fontaine.

Lubka Kolessa plays Hummel‘s Rondo in E flat major, Op. 11

Le Chat et le Renard

14 May 2013

WordPress

The Cat and the Fox Revisited (michelinewalker.com)
The Cat’s Only Trick (michelinewalker.com)

The Cat and the Fox Revisited

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fables

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Aesop's Fables, Château Thierry, intertextualité, Jean de La Fontaine, John Fyler Townsend, John Rae, Milo Winter, Robert Thomson, The Cat and the Fox, W. T. Larned

: The Cat and the Fox, by John Ray

Gutenberg’s Æsop: EBook #19994

The translation I used for Jean de La Fontaine‘s (8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695) ‟The Cat and the Fox,” is Gutenberg’s EBook #19994 entitled The Æsop for Children and illustrated by Milo Winter (7 August 1888 – 1956). I made a mistake. I scrolled down to page 88 and found a fable entitled ‟The Cat and the Fox.” Usually, Æsop’s cat and fox fable is entitled ‟The Fox and the Cat.” I have not found the name of the translator of Gutenberg’s The Æsop for Children, but the correct illustration is the following by Milo Winter. In order to read Gutenberg’s translation of Æsop, click on ‟The Cat and the Fox.”

Le Chat et le Renard, by Milo Winter

Gutenberg’s Jean de La Fontaine: EBook #24108

The Gutenberg project is preparing an EBook edition of Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables in French: EBook #17941. However, its current translation of fables by La Fontaine is Gutenberg EBook #24108, translated by William Trowbridge Larned and its illustrator is John Ray‘s. EBook #24108 is entitled Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks, from the French of La Fontaine and it is a selection of La Fontaine’s fables. One can read W. T. Larned’s translation of Le Chat et le Renard (IX, 14, 1678) by clicking on The Cat and the Fox.

I have corrected the blog I posted on 10 May 2013, but have posted the semicircular picture again, at the top of this post, giving credit to its illustrator: John Ray. However, there are three more illustrations by John Ray, the last of which is Reynard the Fox‘s tombstone.

La Fontaine translated by Robert Thomson

William Trowbridge Larned translated Gutenberg’s EBook #24108, a selection of Jean de La Fontaine’s fables and this selection includes the ‟The Cat and the Fox,” by La Fontaine. However, there are several translations on La Fontaine’s fables one of which is by Robert Thomson (19th century). One can access Thomson’s translation of 10 of La Fontaine 12 books of fables by using the Château Thierry site, named after La Fontaine’s house: http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/fablanglais.htm and the lafontaine.net: http://www.lafontaine.net/index.php are excellent sources of information on La Fontaine: the fables, the illustrators, the translators, etc.

Retellings and Translations of La Fontaine

Retelling and translating La Fontaine is a major endeavour. According to Wikipedia, with respect to mastery of the French language, Jean de La Fontaine has only been surpassed by Victor Hugo, but barely. There may be simplified and more modern retellings of La Fontaine’s fables, but I know of none. I would have to access a catalogue of current children’s literature rooted in La Fontaine. But I will not investigate the matter.

As for translating La Fontaine, it is also very difficult. A literal translation is almost impossible. One has to rewrite La Fontaine. Moreover, one is faced with instances of intertextualité. These are difficulties Robert Thomson encountered when he translated The Cat and the Fox.

An Instance of Intertextuality (EN)

The term may seem daunting, but intertextualité (FR) occurs when a text refers to another text. For instance, La Fontaine calls both the cat and the fox ‟Tartufs” and ‟archipatelins.” The name ‟archipatelins” is a reference to the anonymous Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin. Maître Pierre Pathelin is a lawyer. La Fontaine was not very kind to lawyers.

As for Tartuffe, shortened in La Fontaine so a syllable could be removed[i], it is the title of a play by Molière (baptised January 15, 1622 – February 17, 1673), first performed in 1664. After Tartuffe premiered, further performances were cancelled by Louis XIV, a supporter and friend of Molière. In all likelihood, Louis was following the advice of the Archbishop of Paris, Paul Philippe Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe. It was written and performed in 1667, but the dévots, probably members of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement, remained hostile. There was a third and final revision of Tartuffe, performed in 1669. The full title of the play is Tartuffe ou l’Imposteur: the Impostor.

The world has many impostors, but Tartuffe, the eponymous main character of the play, uses false devotion to defraud a tyrannical pater familias. This is the mask, the faux-dévot, Renart uses to escape a death sentence. In William Trowbridge Larned‘s translation, Gutenberg’s EBook #24108, the fox is called Reynard. It is also called Reynard in Robert Thomson’s translation. As for La Fontaine, his fox is ‟le renard” spelled with a ‘d’ rather than a ‘t,’ as in the Roman de Renart, but his cat and fox are like ‟nice little saints,” going on a ‟pilgrimage.” (‟Comme beaux petits saints, S’en allaient en pèlerinage”.) The translators give us an indication of the popularity of Reynard the Fox. But there is filiation between Renart, who pretends he is leaving for the Crusades, and our cat and fox, ‟nice little saints” off on a ‟pilgrimage.”

So our Gutenberg’s EBook #24108, is a translation and adaptation, by W. T. Larned, of a selection of fables written by La Fontaine and illustrated by John Ray. To read the text, click on The Cat and the Fox.

As for our EBook #19994, it seems an anonymous translation and adaptation of fables by Æsop. However the translator could be G. F. Townsend. There is or will be a Gutenberg publication of Æsop by Townsend, but it isn’t EBook #19994. My own Æsop is a translation and adaptation by G. F. Townsend.

Fortunately, the mistake I made did not affect my brief interpretation of the fable about the cat and the fox. However, it had to be corrected and my readers had to know the post was as accurate as it could be.

______________________________

[i] (C’é/ taient/ deux/ vrais/ Tar/ tufs,// deux/ ar/ chi/ pa/ te/ lins.) = 12 feet (pieds). We have an alexandrin with a césure // after 6 pieds. Alexandrine verses have twelve pieds.

EBook #19994 Æsop The Cat and the Fox (EN)

EBook #24108 La Fontaine The Cat and the Fox (EN)

http://www.la-fontaine-ch-thierry.net/fablanglais.htm Robert Thomson (EN)

http://www.lafontaine.net/index.php La Fontaine (FR)

http://www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/ is my main Æsopica site

The image below is by Milo Winter

May 12, 2013

WordPress

Beethoven

Für Elise

Ivo Pogorelić (piano)

The Cat’s Only Trick (michelinewalker.com)

The Cat’s Only Trick

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fables

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Analysis Paralysis, ATU 105, Le Chat et le Renard, Milo Winter, Panchatantra, Perry Index 605, Rob Clarke, The Fox and the Cat

Le Chat et le Renard by Granville (Photo credit: LaFontaine.net)

The Fox and the Cat is classified as AT 105 in the Aarne-Thompson classification systems.[i] In the Perry Index, it is Æsopic fable number 605. Le Chat et le Renard (Château-Thierry)

This motif goes back to the Panchatantra and does not always feature the same cast, i.e. a Cat and a Fox. In Æsop, the Cat’s only trick is usually entitled The Fox and the Cat, but in La Fontaine the title is The Cat and the Fox, Le Chat et le Renard. We therefore have a reverse image, which is appropriate since the Cat, not the Fox, manages to get out of harm’s way.

The Cat and the Fox, by John Ray (Photo credit: Gutenberg eBook #24108)

Æsop’s The Fox and the Cat

A Fox was boasting to a Cat of its clever devices for escaping its enemies. “I have a whole bag of tricks,” he said, “which contains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies.” “I have only one,” said the Cat; “but I can generally manage with that.” Just at that moment they heard the cry of a pack of hounds coming towards them, and the Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid herself in the boughs. “This is my plan,” said the Cat. “What are you going to do?” The Fox thought first of one way, then of another, and while he was debating the hounds came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds and soon killed by the huntsmen. Miss Puss, who had been looking on, said: “Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon.” (translated by G. F. Townsend)

Gutenberg’s The Æsop for Children: The Cat and the Fox

Once a Cat and a Fox were traveling together. As they went along, picking up provisions on the way—a stray mouse here, a fat chicken there—they began an argument to while away the time between bites. And, as usually happens when comrades argue, the talk began to get personal.

“You think you are extremely clever, don’t you?” said the Fox. “Do you pretend to know more than I? Why, I know a whole sackful of tricks!”

“Well,” retorted the Cat, “I admit I know one trick only, but that one, let me tell you, is worth a thousand of yours!”

Just then, close by, they heard a hunter’s horn and the yelping of a pack of hounds. In an instant the Cat was up a tree, hiding among the leaves.

“This is my trick,” he called to the Fox. “Now let me see what yours are worth.”

But the Fox had so many plans for escape he could not decide which one to try first. He dodged here and there with the hounds at his heels. He doubled on his tracks, he ran at top speed, he entered a dozen burrows,—but all in vain. The hounds caught him, and soon put an end to the boaster and all his tricks.

Common sense is always worth more than cunning. (Gutenberg’s The Cat and the Fox)

La Fontaine’s The Cat and the Fox or Le Chat et le Renard

For a selection of Jean de La Fontaine (8 July 1621 – 13 April 1695) fables, including The Cat and the Fox, click on Gutenberg’s EBook #24108. If you are looking for La Fontaine’s Le Chat et le Renard, in French, click on the title.

Townsend’s and Gutenberg’s Æsop’s fables are slightly different from one another. G. F. Townsend’s Æsopic cat is a female. As for Gutenberg and La Fontaine’s cat, it is a male and, although the fox is trapped by the dogs, in Gutenberg’s The Cat and the Fox and in La Fontaine’s Le Chat et le Renard, the fox is not killed by huntsmen. There are no hunters in and La Fontaine’s “The Cat and the Fox.” In La Fontaine, the dogs strangle their prey.

However banal this fable may seem, it has been considered an instance of analysis paralysis (see the Blue Inkwell, “Are you the Fox or the Cat?” and The Fox and the Cat, Analysis Paralysis, Rob Clarke‘s post). However, in my earlier readings of this fable, it did not occur to me that the Fox was paralysed by his own potential for survival. I simply reflected that cats were fortunate to have claws that allowed them to climb trees and that our Fox had done the best he could without claws.

In Wikipedia’s entry on The Cat and the Fox, I read that there is a proverb attributed to ancient Greek poet Archilochus according to which “the fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing,” which presupposes that our cat may have been a hedgehog. I also read that the Panchatantra (Book 5) illustrates the dangers of being too clever. Two clever fish, Satabuddhi (hundred-wit) and Sahasrabuddhi (thousand-wit), are told by a frog, named Ekabuddhi (single-wit), not to worry if the fishermen who have visited and plan to return do come back. He, Ekabuddhi (single-wit), will protect them. But Ekabuddhi escapes as quickly as he can, and when the fishermen return, the clever fish are caught. (See The Fish That Were Too Clever.)

Kalila wa Dimna has a related story. Three fish, wise, clever and stupid, hear fishermen. The wise fish flees. The clever fish “plays dead” (AT 56) and the stupid fish is caught by the fishermen. Writing in the thirteenth century, Persian writer Rūmī used this story in Book IV of his Masnavi. In Rūmī’s opinion, one who does not have “perfect wisdom” had better play dead.

In the much earlier Sanskrit Mahabharata or Mahābhārata, a swan rescues a crow who knows a hundred and one ways of getting himself out of trouble. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana are the two Sanskrit epics (Indian and Nepalese). The Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata. (See The Crow and the Swan.)

Three Fish, Kalila wa Dimna

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wikipedia’s entry goes on to list the various animals who, in Eastern and Western Europe, have the “cat’s only trick” that makes them defeat a boastful fox or other animal. According to the author of the Wikipedia entry, La Fontaine finishes his fable with a practical moral. “Too many expedients may spoil the business.” (« Le trop d’expédients peut gâter une affaire. »)

Conclusion

It is true that having too many options may slow a person down; making a decision is difficult.

However, it would seem that we do not have a level playing field. The Cat has claws, and claws are what an animal needs to climb a tree. As for the Fox, however clever he may be, he does not have claws. There is not much the Fox can do except enter a foxhole. We can compare three fish, but a cat is a cat and a fox is a fox. We are dealing with different animals and different abilities.

So The Cat and the Fox is probably, first and foremost, about limitations. Both the Cat and the Fox have limitations, but it so happens that, in this particular fable, claws are needed. Therefore circumstances favor the Cat rather than the Fox.

Moreover, the Fox makes a terrible mistake. He boasts about his cunning tricks. Fables are comic texts where the deceiver is deceived. Had the Fox not boasted, he and the cat may not have been attacked by a pack of dogs.

_________________________

[i] See The Fox and the Cat (Wikipedia). Click on The Fox and the Cat (AT 105) for stories based on the “Cat’s only trick.”

[ii] Nº 88 (Gutenberg EBook #19994, pictures by Milo Winter).