The Taill of Schir Chanticleir and the Foxe
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The Taill of Schir Chanticleir and the Foxe is Fabill 3 of Robert Henryson
's cycle of thirteen Morall Fabillis composed in Scotland in the later fifteenth century. It is the first of the fabillis in the poem to be based on Reynard
ian and beast epic sources rather than on any strictly Aesop
ian original, although the closest match from Aesop might be The Dog, the Cock and the Fox.
One of its most direct known sources is Geoffrey Chaucer
's Nun's Priest's Tale from the Canterbury Tales written perhaps around ninety years earlier. It might also be argued that Henryson was acquainted with the earlier extended telling of the story in the Reynard cycle. Chanticleir, for example, has three wives, as in the earlier French romance, where Chaucer gives seven to his Chauntecleer.
Henryson's version was probably composed sometime around the 1480s.
, a fox full sair hungrie, creeps one morning early into the farmyard which neighbours the thornie schaw
of grit defence which is his residence. He stalks Chanticleir, a cockerel owned by a poor wedow
highly dependant on her small flock of hens. Pretending he has come to serve Chanticleir, Lowrence uses flattery to praise the bird's voice and trick him into singing on tiptoe with his eyes closed in the manner, supposedly, of his father who he claims also to have served. So close a freind (sic
) he was to the bird's father that the tod was present at his death to hald his heid
and gif him drinkis warme ... syne [say] the dirigie quhen that he wes deid. This complex web of flattery and highly ambiguous assurance persuades Chanticleir to perform the foolish act, allowing Lowrence swiftly to hint
him be the throte and hy
with him to the wood.
Hearing the resultant commotion of the flock, the widow discovers the theft and faints. There is then a brief excursus as the three hens in Chanticleir's harem
, Pertok, Sprutok and Toppok, deliver rhetorical responses on the loss of their husband. Pertok eulogises the cock and laments his death, but Sprutok counters this with a strong critical condemnation of the cock, advising Pertok simply to forget him now that he is gone; counsel which persuades Pertok to alter her memory of Chanticleir and resolve, before the week is out, to get ane berne (man) suld better claw oure breik
(line 529). Finally Toppok, lyke ane curate, preaches a sermon full crous which pronounces the cockerel's destruction as no more than his just and inevitable reward due to his failure to repent his sexual venality.
But Chanticleir is not dead yet. The widow, recovering from her swoon, calls on her troupe of dogs to reskew my nobill cok or he be slane. Chanticleir takes the opportunity of the pursuit of the widow's kennetis (hounds) and Lowrence's physical exhaustion to persuade the fox in mynd
(line 556) to turn briefly and assure the dogs that he and the cock are friends. Taken in by this, he opens his mouth to call back enabling Chanticleir to escape into a tree. Lowrence tries a second time to persuade Chanticleir to come to him, but the cock is not fooled twice. Thus Lowrence still goes hungry, while Chanticleir
What Chanticleir's three wives make of his return is left to the reader's imagination.
The moralitas opens with an observation that the taill is overheillit wyth typis figurall (replete with symbolic meanings). It focusses, however, on one basic message, the sin of pride and the dangers of flattery, expressed in forceful alliterative verse:
(lines 593-99)
while the foxe, we are told, may weill represent flatterers
(line 602).
Despite the forceful rhethoric, the simplicity of the message is qualified and undercut by the writer's admissions that the full range of readings is more complex. In contrast to the relatively plain statement of the moral to the previous fabill (The Twa Mice) Henryson is starting to complicate his inferences. We are not to take the narrator's moralitates as a complete picture.
drama out of a simple act of animal predation and ultimately can only be comic or absurd. The first known example of this narrative idea, exploited for full ironic effect in the genre, is Chaucer's mock heroic Nun's Priest's Tale which Henryson almost certainly used as a source. Chaucer also featured in his poem a long and profoundly comic set of excursus
es on dream prediction delivered by the (well-read) victim of the farmyard crime. Henryson's version, which is shorter and more concise, sticks chiefly to the main action but still maintains the complexity of effect which Chaucer demonstrated was possible.
The Talking of the Tod opens with a short general prologue (two stanzas) which highlights the instinct-led
nature of creatures in the animal kingdom while acknowledging their enormous diversity
.
A similar set of three verse Romulus
stories can be identified in the second half of the poem occupying a position that strongly mirrors the first trio in terms of organisation, though the latter three are not manifestly linked in terms of narrative.
The action of the fabill itself can be further broken down thus:
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...
's cycle of thirteen Morall Fabillis composed in Scotland in the later fifteenth century. It is the first of the fabillis in the poem to be based on 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 and beast epic sources rather than on any strictly 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...
ian original, although the closest match from Aesop might be The Dog, the Cock and the Fox.
One of its most direct known sources is Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
's Nun's Priest's Tale from the Canterbury Tales written perhaps around ninety years earlier. It might also be argued that Henryson was acquainted with the earlier extended telling of the story in the Reynard cycle. Chanticleir, for example, has three wives, as in the earlier French romance, where Chaucer gives seven to his Chauntecleer.
Henryson's version was probably composed sometime around the 1480s.
The Fabill
Schir LowrenceLawrence
-Communities:Australia*Lawrence, New South WalesNew Zealand* Lawrence, New ZealandUnited States* Lawrence, Indiana* Lawrence, Kansas* Lawrence, Massachusetts* Lawrence, Michigan* Lawrence, Nebraska* Lawrence, New York...
, a fox full sair hungrie, creeps one morning early into the farmyard which neighbours the thornie 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...
of grit defence which is his residence. He stalks Chanticleir, a cockerel owned by a poor wedow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
highly dependant on her small flock of hens. Pretending he has come to serve Chanticleir, Lowrence uses flattery to praise the bird's voice and trick him into singing on tiptoe with his eyes closed in the manner, supposedly, of his father who he claims also to have served. So close a freind (sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
) he was to the bird's father that the tod was present at his death to hald his heid
Head
In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do....
and gif him drinkis warme ... syne [say] the dirigie quhen that he wes deid. This complex web of flattery and highly ambiguous assurance persuades Chanticleir to perform the foolish act, allowing Lowrence swiftly to hint
Seize
Seize may refer to:*Seisin, legal possession*Seizing, a class of knots used to semi-permanently bind together two ropes*Seize , a British electronic band*The jamming of machine parts against each other, usually due to insufficient lubrication...
him be the throte and hy
Running
Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...
with him to the wood.
Hearing the resultant commotion of the flock, the widow discovers the theft and faints. There is then a brief excursus as the three hens in Chanticleir's harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
, Pertok, Sprutok and Toppok, deliver rhetorical responses on the loss of their husband. Pertok eulogises the cock and laments his death, but Sprutok counters this with a strong critical condemnation of the cock, advising Pertok simply to forget him now that he is gone; counsel which persuades Pertok to alter her memory of Chanticleir and resolve, before the week is out, to get ane berne (man) suld better claw oure breik
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is the creation of a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms. There are two main processes during sexual reproduction; they are: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the...
(line 529). Finally Toppok, lyke ane curate, preaches a sermon full crous which pronounces the cockerel's destruction as no more than his just and inevitable reward due to his failure to repent his sexual venality.
But Chanticleir is not dead yet. The widow, recovering from her swoon, calls on her troupe of dogs to reskew my nobill cok or he be slane. Chanticleir takes the opportunity of the pursuit of the widow's kennetis (hounds) and Lowrence's physical exhaustion to persuade the fox in mynd
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
(line 556) to turn briefly and assure the dogs that he and the cock are friends. Taken in by this, he opens his mouth to call back enabling Chanticleir to escape into a tree. Lowrence tries a second time to persuade Chanticleir to come to him, but the cock is not fooled twice. Thus Lowrence still goes hungry, while Chanticleir
- ...over the feildis tuke his flicht
- And in at the wedowis lewerLouverA louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
couth he licht. (lines 584-5)
What Chanticleir's three wives make of his return is left to the reader's imagination.
Moralitas
- Fy, puft-up pryde ! Thow is full poysonabill !
- Quha favoris the on force man haif ane fall:
- Thy strenth is nocht, thy stule standis unstabill;
- Tak witnes of the feyndis infernall,
- Quhilk houndit doun wes fra that hevinlie hall
- To hellis hole, and to that hiddeous hous,
- Because in pryde thay wer presumpteous...
(lines 593-99)
while the foxe, we are told, may weill represent flatterers
- With fals mening and mynd maist toxicate...
(line 602).
Despite the forceful rhethoric, the simplicity of the message is qualified and undercut by the writer's admissions that the full range of readings is more complex. In contrast to the relatively plain statement of the moral to the previous fabill (The Twa Mice) Henryson is starting to complicate his inferences. We are not to take the narrator's moralitates as a complete picture.
Structure and sources
The poem makes a human and existentialExistentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
drama out of a simple act of animal predation and ultimately can only be comic or absurd. The first known example of this narrative idea, exploited for full ironic effect in the genre, is Chaucer's mock heroic Nun's Priest's Tale which Henryson almost certainly used as a source. Chaucer also featured in his poem a long and profoundly comic set of excursus
Excursus
An excursus is a short episode or anecdote in a work of literature . Often excursuses have nothing to do with the matter being discussed by the work, and are used to lighten the atmosphere in a tragic story, a similar function to that of satyr plays in Greek theatre...
es on dream prediction delivered by the (well-read) victim of the farmyard crime. Henryson's version, which is shorter and more concise, sticks chiefly to the main action but still maintains the complexity of effect which Chaucer demonstrated was possible.
The Talking of the Tod opens with a short general prologue (two stanzas) which highlights the instinct-led
Instinct
Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward a particular behavior.The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern, in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a...
nature of creatures in the animal kingdom while acknowledging their enormous diversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
.
A similar set of three 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....
stories can be identified in the second half of the poem occupying a position that strongly mirrors the first trio in terms of organisation, though the latter three are not manifestly linked in terms of narrative.
Numbers
The fabill is 27 stanzas; the moralitas is 4 stanzas:- 27 + 4 = 31
The action of the fabill itself can be further broken down thus:
- Part 1 (stalking Chanticleir) — 14 stanzas (of which Lowrence and Chanticleir's dialogue = 7 stanzas)
- Part 2 (disputation between the hens) — 7 stanzas
- Part 3 (denouement; Chanticleir's escape) — 6 stanzas