The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian
Encyclopedia
The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian is a cycle of connected poems by the Scottish
makar
Robert Henryson
. In the accepted text it consists of thirteen versions of fables, seven modelled on stories from "Aesop
" expanded from the Latin elegaic Romulus
manuscripts, one of the standard fable texts in medieval Europe. The remaining six follow the more general beast epic tradition. Five of this second group feature Henryson's version of the Reynard
ian trickster figure, the fox, who he calls Lowrence. The core of the poems in the beast epic group explore a relationship between Lowrence and the figure of the wolf, who similarly appears in five of the six. The wolf then "overlaps" the beast epic poems of the cycle to make a sixth and most brutal appearance in the final verse Romulus section.
The subtle and ambiguous way in which Henryson adapted and juxtaposed material from a diversity of sources in the tradition and exploited anthropomorphic conventions to blend human characteristics with animal observation both worked within, and pushed the bounds of, standard practice in the common medieval art of fable re-telling. Henryson fully exploited the fluid aspects of the tradition to produce an unusually sophisticated moral narrative, unique of its kind, making high art of an otherwise conventional genre.
Internal evidence suggests that the work was composed in or around the 1480s.
. It has three parts: a prologue, the tale itself, and a moral
.
Fable translation was a standard classroom exercise in medieval Europe and the principal source for this was the Latin verse Romulus
. Henryson's opening argument is, indeed, an expanded and re-orchestrated "translation" of the argument in the opening prologue of the Romulus text, but even from the start the poet far exceeds his commonplace "commission". He expands the unremarkable classroom material with an unusual degree of refinement, invention and cognisance, establishes a mature and personalised relationship with the reader, highlights Aesop's uncomfortably human context and hints at ambiguities. The prolog immediately foreshadows methods that the rest of the cycle will further develop.
(The Cock and the Jewel), depicts a cockerel who rejects a valuable gemstone in preference for more precious grain
. The Morall Fabillis opens with the same example. Although the fabill has no substantial story as such, Henryson's version quietly keeps the narrative promises made in the prolog by re-imagining the material as a strongly realised vignette
, giving it a specific setting and hinting at a fully characterised cockerel. His artfulness subtly foreshadows the more fully fleshed stories yet to come (deferred tactics) but the adaption remains broadly conservative and the moralitas (moral; plural moralitates) comes down unreservedly against the cockerel on the grounds that the jewel represents wisdom rather than wealth. In the Romulus this judgement occurs in only two lines; Henryson, making the same case, states it with an almost unexpected force, taking five stanzas.
Despite providing the standard "medieval" closure
on Aesop's "riddle", most modern critics note the way Henryson nevertheless seems to contrive an effect of dissonance
between the fabill and the moralitas. Longer acquaintance may modify this view, but the impression remains of an opening poem that wants to establish layered modes of narration, introduce complexity and contrive to play with readers' expectations.
. Its purpose is to recommend and praise simple living
. Henryson expands upon common versions of the story to create a succinct, fully fleshed narrative rich in incident and characterisation which fairly transcends its known sources
while remaining faithful to the story's original elements. It is possibly one of the best known and most anthologised of his poems.
In context, Fabill 2 sets a standard for free narrative improvisation
, coupled with close control and subtlety of inference, that will be sustained for the remainder of the larger cycle. At this point the adaptation is conservative, but other tales (e.g. Fabill 6) will make far less straightforward use of Aesop.
ian story in the Morall Fabillis and thus introduces the tod
into the cycle. In various incarnations he is principal figure in the cycle after the wolf. Tod is a Scots word for fox and the poem interchangeably uses both terms. Henryson's tod is called Schir
Lowrence.
The story in the fabill is an important adaptation of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale. The successful conceit of Chaucer's poem was to create comic drama from a simple act of animal predation. Henryson's version condenses the main action, refines the psychology and introduces many variations, such as for instance its feature of three hens, Pertok, Sprutok and Toppok, each with distinctly contrasted characters.
Fabill 3 is the first in a sequence of three taillis (3, 4 and 5) which form a continuous narrative within the larger whole, the only section of the cycle to do this.
Lowrence, having been tricked into releasing Chanticleir while fleeing the pack of dogs sent in his pursuit, skulks off at the beginning of Fabill 4, exhausted and still hungry, with his confidence shaken, to hide until nightfall. When darkness comes he climbs a hill, reads his fate in the stars and decides to repent of his crimes.
Lowrence's confessour arrives in the figure of the wolf, Freir
Wolf Waitskaith, who, after hearing the confession
and allowing him to haggle over the terms of his penance
, grants the tod remission
. Lowrence, struggling to uphold even this reduced penance, makes an ingenious effort to get around it and pays a sore price.
In Henryson's day, the wolf was still a native creature to Scotland.
son who relishes the opportunity to ring
and raxe
intill his (faitheris) steid
.
The young tod's hopes are checked by the arrival of the Royal Court of the Lion
and the command that all the animals must appear at a regal tribunal
l. After trying to "hide at the back", Lowrence is called forward and sent, along with a rather incompetent wolf, to serve a summons on a mare
who has failed to appear before the lion. There is much brutal action in the subsequent "comic" story. Despite efforts to avoid justice, Lowrence ultimately does not escape standing trial and being sentenced for his crimes.
At fifty stanzas, The Trial of the Tod is the longest poem in the cycle.
ian tales in the Morall Fabillis. Of the thirteen poems in the cycle, it is one of the most starkly written and the adaptation of its source (Aesop's The Sheep and the Dog) is not at all straightforward. Henryson's version portrays the relationship between the two figures in the in terms of a trial
in which the sheep is required to submit to a long, complex, unethically convened judicial process in order that the dog may procure recompense for "stolen" bread. The sheep loses the case, is stripped of his fleece and left to face the winter elements unprotected. The action of the fabill carries over into the moralitas when the sheep questions whether God's justice is detectable on earth.
Although Henryson's sixth fabill is not linked to the previous one in direct narrative terms, it is notable that both involve a trial and feature what seem to be, on the surface, contrasted visions of human justice
.
in which the lion who reprieves the mouse he has captured is, in return, rescued by the mouse after himself becoming ensnared. Some commentators have noted that the section which describes the imprisonment of the lion is described in terms which plausibly evokes identifiable political events during the reign of James III
.
As the central poem in the accepted text of the cycle overall, it has a number of unusual features. Firstly, there is a long prolog which introduces both the narrator and Esope as protagonists directly into the poem as part of the framing action for the fabill. Secondly, the taill is told directly by Esope within the narrator's dream (the narrator meets Esope as part of a dream vision
). The moralitas is also delivered by Esope. Thirdly, it is the only fabill in the cycle to have an unambiguously ideal outcome in which all parties have gained.
The plea that the mouse makes for the lion to temper mercy with justice is a long one (10 stanzas) and invokes important civil, legal and spiritual concepts.
Fabill 8 (The Preaching of the Swallow) is widely regarded as being one of Henryson's finest poems. Like Fabill 7 it has a prolog which introduces the narrator directly into the poem, but this time he remains awake and witnesses the story himself (also reporting it himself) as real-time action in the world. The source for the story he "witnesses" is Esope's The Owl and the Birds, a parable
in which the wisest of the birds (the owl) counsels all the rest to remove or avoid features in the world which are mortal to their kind. Henryson changes the protagonist to a swallow and the avian danger he selects is flax
production, identified for its role in making fowler
s' nets.
ian taillis in the poem. It presents the wolf for the first time in his true fabill colours as a ruthless and lordly predator demanding obeisance. The tod similarly manifests as a wily trickster who (in contrast to the first half of the cycle) completely succeeds in outwitting his victims. The business also involves a human character as a full protagonist.
At the beginning of the taill, the wolf recruits Lowrence into his service. The fox either is, or pretends to be, reluctant but appears to have no choice. While in service, Lowrence opportunistically plants in his master a desire for the largest and most valuable fish (the mysterious "nekhering") from the cart of a passing fish merchant (the cadger
) and uses his "demonstration" of how it can be stolen as a single ploy to outwit both the wolf and the man.
The plot of this and the next fabill, which have many parallels and ring many changes, both exlpore the complex relationship between the wolf, the fox and a man.
This time the interest which the fox purports to defend is the wolf's claim on the husbandman's
cattle. The case is presented to the man (who is both surprised and fearful at the development) suddenly while on the road at dusk and he has considerable difficulty in countering the wolf's claim. The tod plays the part of lawyer for both the defence and the prosecution
, contriving that the man, in effect, keeps his cattle for a bribe. The wolf is then bought off with a trick similar to Fabill 9, only this time, the planted desire is for a non-existent kebbuck
and the wolf ends up stranded at the bottom of a well at midnight.
, although the outcome is essentially the same. Because it is the well-meaning sheep that is destroyed at the end of the fabill (rather than the wolf, as happens in the source) the moralitas, which is short and focusses all the condemnation on the sheep, does not feel like a fair or complete account of the action. The surface message is a profoundly conservative warning to stick to one's station in life.
, one of Esope's bleakest "stories". As in Fabill 11, the wolf pitilessly kills his victim. This time, however, the narrator's response in the moralitas (10 stanzas — the longest in the cycle) — is, or seems to be, completely different in terms of sympathies and more impassioned on the theme of social, political and legal injustice.
The fabill is a straightforward an rich expansion of Esope's The Mouse, the Frog and the Hawk.
which Henryson almost certainly employed in his poetry has been increasingly understood in recent years, the counting of stanza
s and positions for line
s in Henryson's works cannot be assumed to be arbitrary. Use of numbers as a stylistic device was commonly found in medieval poetics.
Many commentators observe the central position of the taill in fabill 7 which, in terms of overall stanza count, divides the poem in two equal halves. Thus, in numbers of stanzas:
The central taill is therefore the precise structural centre of the accepted text:
form, instead of the seven-line rhyme royal
in which the rest of the cycle is written (without further exception). This means, in effect, the poem has an "extra" seven lines (or the equivalent of one more "hidden" rhyme royal stanza) distributed across its two halves — 4 lines in the first, 3 lines in the second. The line count for the three principal divisions of the structure therefore comes out as:
Making a total of 2795 lines.
The figure of Aesop is consistently cited throughout the poem as "my author" (my authority
) by the narrator in those stories which are directly based on Aesopian sources. This usually occurs in the opening lines. However, one particularly distinctive feature of the poem is an appearance in person by Aesop himself. This occurs at the heart of the cycle within the prolog to Fabill 7. This presents the master fabulist meeting and conversing with the narrator (Henryson) in a dream vision
. Aesop is also portrayed here as (by request of the narrator) directly telling the seventh fabill (The Taill of the Lyoun and the Mous) within this dream vision.
In contrast to more traditional portraits of Aesop as hunchback
ed, this dream-vision version presents him as able-bodied. He is first met emerging "sturdily" from out of a schaw
and immediately described as one of the "fairest" men the narrator has "ever" seen. A two-stanza portrait gives a detailed description of his appearance:
(Robert Henryson, Morall Fabillis, lines 1347-63)
Other Henrysonian variations from the traditional portrait include identifying Aesop as Roman
rather than Greek
, and as Christianised rather than pagan. It seems unlikely that these "innovations" were not consciously decided, although critics do not agree on how they are to be best interpreted.
There is no evidence that the portrait stood for Henryson himself, although the suggestion has sometimes been made. Henryson and Aesop remain quite distinct in the dialogue of the prologue. Moreover, Fabill 8 goes on to repeat the prologue device of Fabill 7, only this time to show the narrator himself (Henryson) telling the fable — one which has some less ideal and more "realistic" parallels — awake and in real time.
in medieval and renaissance literature. They were told with the didactic intent of drawing moral lessons which could be either secular
or spiritual
. Many different versions of the stories were created but writers frequently followed understood conventions. One such convention was the inclusion of the didactic moral lesson in a moral
itas (plural moralitates) inserted after the fable. Henryson follows and develops this convention.
By today's standards most surviving fable literature is gey dreich, partly because fable writing was a common classroom exercise. Students might be asked to learn fable plots in order to retell them in contracted or expanded form — modo brevitur and modo latius respectively — then give moral conclusions that could be judged or debated either on secular grounds (ethics
, character
, etc.) or by following more "spiritual" scholastic
principles to do with homily
and allegory
. In this light, the Morall Fabillis can be viewed technically as a work of maximal modo latius.
Readers who were familiar with the genre
may have found the tone, range and complexity of Henryson's attractive, variegated and interlinked fable elaboration unexpected, but the method was not without precedent. A similar "trick" with the genre is found in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, which is retold by Henryson as Fabill 3 in his sequence and is one of the poem's most directly identifiable sources
. However, Henryson's sustained blending and blurring of the secular and the spiritual
strands of the genre goes much further than Chaucer's largely secular example.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
makar
Makar
A makar is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as royal court poet, although the term can be more generally applied. The word functions in a manner similar to the Greek term which means both maker and poet...
Robert Henryson
Robert Henryson
Robert Henryson was a poet who flourished in Scotland in the period c. 1460–1500. Counted among the Scots makars, he lived in the royal burgh of Dunfermline and is a distinctive voice in the Northern Renaissance at a time when the culture was on a cusp between medieval and renaissance sensibilities...
. In the accepted text it consists of thirteen versions of fables, seven modelled on stories from "Aesop
Aesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
" expanded from the Latin elegaic Romulus
Romulus (fabulist)
Romulus is the author, now considered a legendary figure, of versions of Aesop's Fables in Latin. These were passed down in Western Europe, and became important school texts, for early education. Romulus is supposed to have lived in the 5th century....
manuscripts, one of the standard fable texts in medieval Europe. The remaining six follow the more general beast epic tradition. Five of this second group feature Henryson's version of the Reynard
Reynard
Reynard is the subject of a literary cycle of allegorical French, Dutch, English, and German fables largely concerned with Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure.-Etymology of the name:Theories about the origin of the name Reynard are:...
ian trickster figure, the fox, who he calls Lowrence. The core of the poems in the beast epic group explore a relationship between Lowrence and the figure of the wolf, who similarly appears in five of the six. The wolf then "overlaps" the beast epic poems of the cycle to make a sixth and most brutal appearance in the final verse Romulus section.
The subtle and ambiguous way in which Henryson adapted and juxtaposed material from a diversity of sources in the tradition and exploited anthropomorphic conventions to blend human characteristics with animal observation both worked within, and pushed the bounds of, standard practice in the common medieval art of fable re-telling. Henryson fully exploited the fluid aspects of the tradition to produce an unusually sophisticated moral narrative, unique of its kind, making high art of an otherwise conventional genre.
Internal evidence suggests that the work was composed in or around the 1480s.
The Thirteen Fabillis
Prolog and Fabill 1
The poem which opens the Morall Fabillis is The Taill of the Cok and the JaspThe Taill of the Cok and the Jasp
The Taill of the Cok and the Jasp is a Middle Scots version of Aesop's Fable The Cock and the Jewel by the 15th-century Scottish poet Robert Henryson. It is the first in Henryson's collection known as the Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian...
. It has three parts: a prologue, the tale itself, and a moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
.
Prolog
The Prolog introduces the whole cycle in principle, not merely the first fabill. It begins with a defence of the art of storytelling, argues that humour is a necessary part of life and tells the reader that the intention is to make a translation of Aesop from Latin.Fable translation was a standard classroom exercise in medieval Europe and the principal source for this was the Latin verse Romulus
Romulus (fabulist)
Romulus is the author, now considered a legendary figure, of versions of Aesop's Fables in Latin. These were passed down in Western Europe, and became important school texts, for early education. Romulus is supposed to have lived in the 5th century....
. Henryson's opening argument is, indeed, an expanded and re-orchestrated "translation" of the argument in the opening prologue of the Romulus text, but even from the start the poet far exceeds his commonplace "commission". He expands the unremarkable classroom material with an unusual degree of refinement, invention and cognisance, establishes a mature and personalised relationship with the reader, highlights Aesop's uncomfortably human context and hints at ambiguities. The prolog immediately foreshadows methods that the rest of the cycle will further develop.
Taill and moralitas
The first fabill in the Romulus text, De Gallo et JaspideThe Cock and the Jewel
The Cock and the Jewel is a fable attributed to Aesop. It is one of a number that feature only a single animal. As a trope in literature, the fable is reminiscent of stories used in zen such as the kōan...
(The Cock and the Jewel), depicts a cockerel who rejects a valuable gemstone in preference for more precious grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
. The Morall Fabillis opens with the same example. Although the fabill has no substantial story as such, Henryson's version quietly keeps the narrative promises made in the prolog by re-imagining the material as a strongly realised vignette
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
, giving it a specific setting and hinting at a fully characterised cockerel. His artfulness subtly foreshadows the more fully fleshed stories yet to come (deferred tactics) but the adaption remains broadly conservative and the moralitas (moral; plural moralitates) comes down unreservedly against the cockerel on the grounds that the jewel represents wisdom rather than wealth. In the Romulus this judgement occurs in only two lines; Henryson, making the same case, states it with an almost unexpected force, taking five stanzas.
Despite providing the standard "medieval" closure
Poetic closure
Poetic closure is the sense of conclusion given at the end of a poem. Barbara Herrnstein Smith's detailed study—Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End—explores various techniques for achieving closure. One of the most common techniques is setting up a regular pattern and then breaking it to mark...
on Aesop's "riddle", most modern critics note the way Henryson nevertheless seems to contrive an effect of dissonance
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying,...
between the fabill and the moralitas. Longer acquaintance may modify this view, but the impression remains of an opening poem that wants to establish layered modes of narration, introduce complexity and contrive to play with readers' expectations.
Fabill 2
Fabill 2 (The Twa Mice) is a retelling of Aesop's Town Mouse and Country MouseThe Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
"The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" is one of Aesop's Fables. It is number 352 in the Perry Index and type 112 in Aarne-Thompson's folk tale index. Like several other elements in Aesop's fables, 'town mouse and country mouse' has become an English idiom....
. Its purpose is to recommend and praise simple living
Simple living
Simple living encompasses a number of different voluntary practices to simplify one's lifestyle. These may include reducing one's possessions or increasing self-sufficiency, for example. Simple living may be characterized by individuals being satisfied with what they need rather than want...
. Henryson expands upon common versions of the story to create a succinct, fully fleshed narrative rich in incident and characterisation which fairly transcends its known sources
Source text
A source text is a text from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.-Description:...
while remaining faithful to the story's original elements. It is possibly one of the best known and most anthologised of his poems.
In context, Fabill 2 sets a standard for free narrative improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
, coupled with close control and subtlety of inference, that will be sustained for the remainder of the larger cycle. At this point the adaptation is conservative, but other tales (e.g. Fabill 6) will make far less straightforward use of Aesop.
Fabill 3
Fabill 3 (The Cock and the Fox) is the first ReynardReynard
Reynard is the subject of a literary cycle of allegorical French, Dutch, English, and German fables largely concerned with Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure.-Etymology of the name:Theories about the origin of the name Reynard are:...
ian story in the Morall Fabillis and thus introduces the tod
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
into the cycle. In various incarnations he is principal figure in the cycle after the wolf. Tod is a Scots word for fox and the poem interchangeably uses both terms. Henryson's tod is called Schir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Lowrence.
The story in the fabill is an important adaptation of Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale. The successful conceit of Chaucer's poem was to create comic drama from a simple act of animal predation. Henryson's version condenses the main action, refines the psychology and introduces many variations, such as for instance its feature of three hens, Pertok, Sprutok and Toppok, each with distinctly contrasted characters.
Fabill 3 is the first in a sequence of three taillis (3, 4 and 5) which form a continuous narrative within the larger whole, the only section of the cycle to do this.
Fabill 4
Fabill 4 (The Confession of the Tod) continues the story from the previous fabill and follows the fatal aventure and destinie of the tod after losing his prey. It is also the taill in which the wolf, the major figure of the cycle (in terms of number of times featured) first enters as a protagonist.Lowrence, having been tricked into releasing Chanticleir while fleeing the pack of dogs sent in his pursuit, skulks off at the beginning of Fabill 4, exhausted and still hungry, with his confidence shaken, to hide until nightfall. When darkness comes he climbs a hill, reads his fate in the stars and decides to repent of his crimes.
Lowrence's confessour arrives in the figure of the wolf, Freir
Friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...
Wolf Waitskaith, who, after hearing the confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
and allowing him to haggle over the terms of his penance
Penance
Penance is repentance of sins as well as the proper name of the Roman Catholic, Orthodox Christian, and Anglican Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation/Confession. It also plays a part in non-sacramental confession among Lutherans and other Protestants...
, grants the tod remission
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as 'to grant free pardon and to give up all...
. Lowrence, struggling to uphold even this reduced penance, makes an ingenious effort to get around it and pays a sore price.
In Henryson's day, the wolf was still a native creature to Scotland.
Fabill 5
Fabill 5 (The Trial of the Tod) is the third Reynardian tale in the Morall Fabillis. Schir Lowrence is dead and his carcase disposed of without ceremony in a bog (a peat pot) by his bastardLegitimacy (law)
At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...
son who relishes the opportunity to ring
Reign
A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation or of a people . In most hereditary monarchies and some elective monarchies A reign is the term used to describe the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office...
and raxe
Dominance (ecology)
Ecological dominance is the degree to which a species is more numerous than its competitors in an ecological community, or makes up more of the biomass...
intill his (faitheris) steid
Political division
A political division is a term of art of geography defining the concept of a geographic region accepted to be in the jurisdiction of a particular government entity...
.
The young tod's hopes are checked by the arrival of the Royal Court of the Lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
and the command that all the animals must appear at a regal tribunal
Tribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
l. After trying to "hide at the back", Lowrence is called forward and sent, along with a rather incompetent wolf, to serve a summons on a mare
Mare
Female horses are called mares.Mare is the Latin word for "sea".The word may also refer to:-People:* Ahmed Marzooq, also known as Mare, a footballer and Secretary General of Maldives Olympic Committee* Mare Winningham, American actress and singer...
who has failed to appear before the lion. There is much brutal action in the subsequent "comic" story. Despite efforts to avoid justice, Lowrence ultimately does not escape standing trial and being sentenced for his crimes.
At fifty stanzas, The Trial of the Tod is the longest poem in the cycle.
Fabill 6
Fabill 6 (The Sheep and the Dog) is the third of the AesopAesop
Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...
ian tales in the Morall Fabillis. Of the thirteen poems in the cycle, it is one of the most starkly written and the adaptation of its source (Aesop's The Sheep and the Dog) is not at all straightforward. Henryson's version portrays the relationship between the two figures in the in terms of a trial
Trial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
in which the sheep is required to submit to a long, complex, unethically convened judicial process in order that the dog may procure recompense for "stolen" bread. The sheep loses the case, is stripped of his fleece and left to face the winter elements unprotected. The action of the fabill carries over into the moralitas when the sheep questions whether God's justice is detectable on earth.
Although Henryson's sixth fabill is not linked to the previous one in direct narrative terms, it is notable that both involve a trial and feature what seem to be, on the surface, contrasted visions of human justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
.
Core prolog and Fabill 7
Fabill 7 (The Lion and the Mouse) is a straightforward but rich expansion of Esope's well-known The Lion and the MouseThe Lion and the Mouse
The lion and the mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 146 in the Perry Index. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.-The fable in literature:...
in which the lion who reprieves the mouse he has captured is, in return, rescued by the mouse after himself becoming ensnared. Some commentators have noted that the section which describes the imprisonment of the lion is described in terms which plausibly evokes identifiable political events during the reign of James III
James III of Scotland
James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...
.
As the central poem in the accepted text of the cycle overall, it has a number of unusual features. Firstly, there is a long prolog which introduces both the narrator and Esope as protagonists directly into the poem as part of the framing action for the fabill. Secondly, the taill is told directly by Esope within the narrator's dream (the narrator meets Esope as part of a dream vision
Dream vision
A dream vision is a literary device in which a dream is recounted for a specific purpose. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, the dream vision emerged as a poetic genre in its own right, and was particularly popular in the Middle Ages. This genre typically follows a...
). The moralitas is also delivered by Esope. Thirdly, it is the only fabill in the cycle to have an unambiguously ideal outcome in which all parties have gained.
The plea that the mouse makes for the lion to temper mercy with justice is a long one (10 stanzas) and invokes important civil, legal and spiritual concepts.
Fabill 8
Parable
A parable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, which illustrates one or more instructive principles, or lessons, or a normative principle. It differs from a fable in that fables use animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as characters, while parables generally feature human...
in which the wisest of the birds (the owl) counsels all the rest to remove or avoid features in the world which are mortal to their kind. Henryson changes the protagonist to a swallow and the avian danger he selects is flax
Flax
Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
production, identified for its role in making fowler
Fowler
Fowler can refer to:* A hunter of wildfowl* Fowler's solution* A Fowler flap* Fowler's Modern English Usage, an English language style guide originally by Henry Watson Fowler* John Fowler & Co...
s' nets.
Fabill 9
Fabill 9 (The Fox, the Wolf and the Cadger) is the first of the second set of three ReynardReynard
Reynard is the subject of a literary cycle of allegorical French, Dutch, English, and German fables largely concerned with Reynard, an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster figure.-Etymology of the name:Theories about the origin of the name Reynard are:...
ian taillis in the poem. It presents the wolf for the first time in his true fabill colours as a ruthless and lordly predator demanding obeisance. The tod similarly manifests as a wily trickster who (in contrast to the first half of the cycle) completely succeeds in outwitting his victims. The business also involves a human character as a full protagonist.
At the beginning of the taill, the wolf recruits Lowrence into his service. The fox either is, or pretends to be, reluctant but appears to have no choice. While in service, Lowrence opportunistically plants in his master a desire for the largest and most valuable fish (the mysterious "nekhering") from the cart of a passing fish merchant (the cadger
Fishmonger
A fishmonger is someone who sells fish and seafood...
) and uses his "demonstration" of how it can be stolen as a single ploy to outwit both the wolf and the man.
The plot of this and the next fabill, which have many parallels and ring many changes, both exlpore the complex relationship between the wolf, the fox and a man.
Fabill 10
Fabill 10 (The Fox, the Wolf and the Husbandman), like the fabill before, is the story of a fox who pretends to serve the best interests of a wolf. Again it fully involves a human character in its action and this time even opens with the man as a protagonist.This time the interest which the fox purports to defend is the wolf's claim on the husbandman's
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
cattle. The case is presented to the man (who is both surprised and fearful at the development) suddenly while on the road at dusk and he has considerable difficulty in countering the wolf's claim. The tod plays the part of lawyer for both the defence and the prosecution
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
, contriving that the man, in effect, keeps his cattle for a bribe. The wolf is then bought off with a trick similar to Fabill 9, only this time, the planted desire is for a non-existent kebbuck
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
and the wolf ends up stranded at the bottom of a well at midnight.
Fabill 11
Fabill 11 (The Wolf and the Wether) opens, like Fabill 10, with a human protagonist (the shepherd) but its principal action involves a sheep in a dog skin who believes he is able to guard the rest of the flock from the wolf. The story, in terms of the protagonists, is a complete reversal of Esope's fable The Wolf in Sheep's ClothingThe Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is an idiom of Biblical origin. It is used of those playing a role contrary to their real character, with whom contact is dangerous. As a fable it has been falsely credited to Aesop and the theme is now numbered 451 in the Perry Index...
, although the outcome is essentially the same. Because it is the well-meaning sheep that is destroyed at the end of the fabill (rather than the wolf, as happens in the source) the moralitas, which is short and focusses all the condemnation on the sheep, does not feel like a fair or complete account of the action. The surface message is a profoundly conservative warning to stick to one's station in life.
Fabill 12
Fabill 12 (The Wolf and the Lamb) similarly involves the characters of the wolf and a sheep, but this time it is a more straightforward expansion of The Wolf and the LambThe Wolf and the Lamb
The Wolf and the Lamb is a well known fable of Aesop and is numbered 155 in the Perry Index. There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.-The fable and its variants:...
, one of Esope's bleakest "stories". As in Fabill 11, the wolf pitilessly kills his victim. This time, however, the narrator's response in the moralitas (10 stanzas — the longest in the cycle) — is, or seems to be, completely different in terms of sympathies and more impassioned on the theme of social, political and legal injustice.
Fabill 13 and Conclusion
Fabill 13 (The Paddock and the Mouse) is the final poem in the Morall Fabillis. It closes the cycle with a reintroduction of the figure of the mouse which also featured close to the beginning (in Fabill 2) and in the central poem (Fabill 7). The final stanzas of the moralitas also act as a conclusion to the cycle.The fabill is a straightforward an rich expansion of Esope's The Mouse, the Frog and the Hawk.
Numbers and structure
Since the numerologyNumerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
which Henryson almost certainly employed in his poetry has been increasingly understood in recent years, the counting of stanza
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse"...
s and positions for line
Line (poetry)
A line is a unit of language into which a poem or play is divided, which operates on principles which are distinct from and not necessarily coincident with grammatical structures, such as the sentence or clauses in sentences...
s in Henryson's works cannot be assumed to be arbitrary. Use of numbers as a stylistic device was commonly found in medieval poetics.
Distribution
The Morall Fabillis consists of 424 stanzas making up a cycle of thirteen fabill poems. The number of stanzas for each of the fabillis in the accepted text is shown in the following table. The darker colours indicate the sections of the cycle based on Esopean sources, while the six Reynardian stories are indicated by the paler colour:| Prolog | Taill | Moralitas | Totals | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fabill 1 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 23 | ||
| Fabill 2 | - | 29 | 4 | 33 | ||
| Fabill 3 | 2 | 25 | 4 | 31 | ||
| Fabill 4 | - | 23 | 3 | 26 | ||
| Fabill 5 | - | 43 | 7 | 50 | ||
| Fabill 6 | - | 16 | 9 | 25 | ||
| Fabill 7 | 12 | 24 | 7 | 43 | ||
| Fabill 8 | 13 | 25 | 9 | 47 | ||
| Fabill 9 | - | 36 | 4 | 40 | ||
| Fabill 10 | - | 28 | 4 | 32 | ||
| Fabill 11 | - | 19 | 4 | 23 | ||
| Fabill 12 | - | 13 | 10 | 23 | ||
| Fabill 13 | - | 19 | 9 | 28 |
Many commentators observe the central position of the taill in fabill 7 which, in terms of overall stanza count, divides the poem in two equal halves. Thus, in numbers of stanzas:
- first half of the cycle: first six fabillis (188) + prolog for fabill seven (12) = 200
- central taill (which occurs in fabill seven) told by Esope = 24
- second half of the cycle: moralitas for fabill seven (7) + remaining six fabillis (193) = 200
The central taill is therefore the precise structural centre of the accepted text:
- 200 + 24 + 200
The seven ballade stanzas
In addition, 4 stanzas near the beginning of the first half (#53-#56) and 3 stanzas towards the end of the second half (#417-#419) are composed in the eight-line balladeBallade
The ballade is a form of French poetry. It was one of the three formes fixes and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the late 13th and the 15th centuries....
form, instead of the seven-line rhyme royal
Rhyme royal
Rhyme royal is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.-Form:The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a terza rima and two couplets...
in which the rest of the cycle is written (without further exception). This means, in effect, the poem has an "extra" seven lines (or the equivalent of one more "hidden" rhyme royal stanza) distributed across its two halves — 4 lines in the first, 3 lines in the second. The line count for the three principal divisions of the structure therefore comes out as:
- First half: 1404
- Central taill: 168
- Second half: 1403
Making a total of 2795 lines.
Question of symmetry
Various literary scholars have noted the apparent symmetry in the architecture, citing it as evidence of an organising principle Henryson employed to "lock" the structure of the poem, aesthetically beautiful in its own right and holding important clues for interpreting his larger meaning or purpose. Others have preferred to defend individual readings of various fabillis viewed as self-sufficient entities which they argue question the coherence or completeness of that scheme. Finally John MacQueen cites fragmentation in surviving textual witnesses for the poem before 1570 as grounds for caution in asserting with certainty that the overall structure represents Henryson's intention. Nevertheless, the above outline describes the structure as received from sixteenth century prints and manuscripts which give what the literary scholar Matthew McDiarmid calls the "accepted text".Place of Aesop in the fable sequence
Authority (textual criticism)
The authority of a text is its reliability as a witness to the author's intentions. These intentions could be initial, medial or final, but intentionalist editors generally attempt to retrieve final authorial intentions...
) by the narrator in those stories which are directly based on Aesopian sources. This usually occurs in the opening lines. However, one particularly distinctive feature of the poem is an appearance in person by Aesop himself. This occurs at the heart of the cycle within the prolog to Fabill 7. This presents the master fabulist meeting and conversing with the narrator (Henryson) in a dream vision
Dream vision
A dream vision is a literary device in which a dream is recounted for a specific purpose. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, the dream vision emerged as a poetic genre in its own right, and was particularly popular in the Middle Ages. This genre typically follows a...
. Aesop is also portrayed here as (by request of the narrator) directly telling the seventh fabill (The Taill of the Lyoun and the Mous) within this dream vision.
In contrast to more traditional portraits of Aesop as hunchback
Kyphosis
Kyphosis , also called roundback or Kelso's hunchback, is a condition of over-curvature of the thoracic vertebrae...
ed, this dream-vision version presents him as able-bodied. He is first met emerging "sturdily" from out of a schaw
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
and immediately described as one of the "fairest" men the narrator has "ever" seen. A two-stanza portrait gives a detailed description of his appearance:
His gowne wes of ane claith als quhyteWhiteWhite is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
as milk,
His chymmerisRobeA robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. A robe is distinguished from a cape or cloak by the fact that it usually has sleeves. The English word robe derives from Middle English robe , borrowed from Old French robe , itself taken from the Frankish word *rouba , and is related to the word rob...
wes of chambelateWoolWool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
purpour broun,
His hudeHood (headgear)A hood is a kind of headgear that covers most of the head and neck and sometimes the face. They may be worn for protection from the environment, for fashion, as a form of traditional dress or uniform, to prevent the wearer from seeing or to prevent the wearer from being identified.-History and...
of scarlet, bordowritFringe (trim)Fringe is an ornamental textile trim applied to an edge of an item, such as drapery, a flag, epaulettes, or decorative tassel.Fringe originates in the ends of the warp, projecting beyond the woven fabric...
weill with silk,
On heikillitHackle (disambiguation)Hackle may refer to one of the following.*Hackle, a feather plume attached to a headdress*Hackle , erectile plumage or hair in the neck area*Hackle , a metal plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair...
wyis until his girdillWaistline (clothing)The waistline is the line of demarcation between the upper and lower portions of a garment, which notionally corresponds to the natural waist but may vary with fashion from just below the bust to below the hips. The waistline of a garment is often used to accentuate different features...
doun,
His bonatTudor bonnetA Tudor bonnet is a traditional soft round cap, with a tassel hanging from a cord encircling the puggaree of the hat...
round and of the auld fassounFashionFashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
,
His beird wes quhyte, his eneHuman eyeThe human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
wes grit and gray,
With lokker hair quhilk over his schulderisShoulderThe human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle , the scapula , and the humerus as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder make up the shoulder joints. The major joint of the shoulder is the glenohumeral joint, which...
lay.
Ane roll of paperScrollA scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
in his hand he bair,
Ane swanSwanSwans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
nis penQuillA quill pen is a writing implement made from a flight feather of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, metal-nibbed pens, the fountain pen, and, eventually, the ballpoint pen...
stikand under his eirEarThe ear is the organ that detects sound. It not only receives sound, but also aids in balance and body position. The ear is part of the auditory system....
,
Ane inkhorneInkwellAn inkwell is a small jar or container, often made of glass, porcelain, silver, brass, or pewter, used for holding ink in a place convenient for the person who is writing...
with ane prettie gilt pennairPenholderPenholder may refer to:* Penholder , a table tennis grip* "Penholder" , an alternative rock song* The Penholder, a novel by Elin Wägner...
,
Ane bag *of silk, all at his belt can beir: (*made from)
Thus wes he gudelie graithitEquipThe word equip can refer to:* Equipment * EQUIP, an international ministry.* Equipe, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer....
in his geirPropertyProperty is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
,
Of stature large and with ane feirfullRespectRespect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
face.
Even quhair I lay he come ane sturdie pace,
And said, 'God speid, my sone...
(Robert Henryson, Morall Fabillis, lines 1347-63)
Other Henrysonian variations from the traditional portrait include identifying Aesop as Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
rather than Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, and as Christianised rather than pagan. It seems unlikely that these "innovations" were not consciously decided, although critics do not agree on how they are to be best interpreted.
There is no evidence that the portrait stood for Henryson himself, although the suggestion has sometimes been made. Henryson and Aesop remain quite distinct in the dialogue of the prologue. Moreover, Fabill 8 goes on to repeat the prologue device of Fabill 7, only this time to show the narrator himself (Henryson) telling the fable — one which has some less ideal and more "realistic" parallels — awake and in real time.
Context
Fable stories were a common tropeTrope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
in medieval and renaissance literature. They were told with the didactic intent of drawing moral lessons which could be either secular
Secularity (disambiguation)
Secular is separate from religion.Secular may also refer to:*Secular basis, a long-term financial basis*Secular equilibrium, a situation in which the quantity of a radioactive isotope remains constant...
or spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
. Many different versions of the stories were created but writers frequently followed understood conventions. One such convention was the inclusion of the didactic moral lesson in a moral
Moral
A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim...
itas (plural moralitates) inserted after the fable. Henryson follows and develops this convention.
By today's standards most surviving fable literature is gey dreich, partly because fable writing was a common classroom exercise. Students might be asked to learn fable plots in order to retell them in contracted or expanded form — modo brevitur and modo latius respectively — then give moral conclusions that could be judged or debated either on secular grounds (ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, character
Human Behaviour
"Human Behaviour" is Icelandic singer Björk's first solo single, taken from the album Debut. It contains a sample of "Go Down Dying" by Antonio Carlos Jobim. The lyrics reflect on human nature and emotion from a non-human animal's point of view. The song is the first part of a series of songs that...
, etc.) or by following more "spiritual" scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
principles to do with homily
Homily
A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a homily is usually given during Mass at the end of the Liturgy of the Word...
and allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
. In this light, the Morall Fabillis can be viewed technically as a work of maximal modo latius.
Readers who were familiar with the genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
may have found the tone, range and complexity of Henryson's attractive, variegated and interlinked fable elaboration unexpected, but the method was not without precedent. A similar "trick" with the genre is found in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, which is retold by Henryson as Fabill 3 in his sequence and is one of the poem's most directly identifiable sources
Source text
A source text is a text from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language.-Description:...
. However, Henryson's sustained blending and blurring of the secular and the spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
strands of the genre goes much further than Chaucer's largely secular example.
Question of purpose
Henryson's contribution to the fable tradition is such a uniquely developed, subtly crafted and ambiguous example of a commonplace genre that it presents questions as to the poet's ultimate purpose in composition.External links
- University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center:
- University of Glasgow STELLA project:
- University of Rochester TEAMS project: