The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
Encyclopedia
"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
.
phrased it, "I'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear".
The story was widespread in Classical times and there is an early Greek version by Babrius
(Fable 108). Horace
included it as part of one of his satire
s (II.6), ending on this story in a poem comparing town living unfavourably with life in the country. However, it seems to have been the 12th century Anglo-Norman writer Walter of England who contributed most to the spread of the fable over mediaeval Europe. His Latin version (or that of Odo of Cheriton) has been credited as the source of the fable that appeared in the Spanish Libro de Buen Amor of Juan Ruiz
in the first half of the 14th century. Walter was also the source for several manuscript collections of Aesop's fables in Italian and equally of the popular Esopi fabulas by Accio Zucca, the first printed collection of Aesop's fables in that language (Verona, 1479), in which the story of the town mouse and the country mouse appears as fable 12. This consists of two sonnets, the first of which tells the story and the second contains a moral reflection.
makes the two mice sisters. The one in the country envies her sister's rich living and pays her a visit, only to be chased by a cat and return home, contented with her own lot. Four final stanzas (lines 190–221) draw out the moral that it is better to limit one's ambition and one's appetites, warning those who make the belly their god that
Henryson attributes the story to Esope, myne author where Sir Thomas Wyatt
makes it a song sung by My mothers maydes when they did sowe and spynne in the second of his satires. This is more in accord with Horace's description of it as 'an old wives' tale' but Wyatt's retelling otherwise echoes Henryson's: an impoverished country mouse visits her sister in town but is caught by the cat. In the second half of the poem (lines 70–112) Wyatt addresses his interlocutor John Poynz on the vanity of human wishes. Horace, on the other hand, had discussed his own theme at great length before closing on the story.
By contrast, La Fontaine's adapted fable of Le rat de ville et le rat des champs
(Fables I.9, 1668) is simply told. There it is the town rat that invites the country rat home, only to have the meal disturbed by dogs (as in Horace); the country rat then departs, reflecting, as in Aesop, that peace is preferable to fearful plenty.
Adaptations dating from Britain's 'Augustan Age
' concentrate upon the Horatian version of the fable. The reference is direct in The hind and the panther transvers'd to the story of the country-mouse and the city mouse, written by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
and Matthew Prior
in 1687. This was a satire directed against a piece of pro-Stuart propaganda
and portrays the poet John Dryden
(under the name of Bayes) proposing to elevate Horace's 'dry naked History' into a religious allegory (page 4ff).
Part of the fun there is that in reality the Horatian retelling is far more sophisticated than the 'plain simple thing' that Bayes pretends it is, especially in its depiction of Roman town-life at the height of its power. It is this aspect of Horace's writing that is underlined by the two adaptations of his satire made by other Augustan authors. The first was a joint work by the friends Thomas Sprat
and Abraham Cowley
written in 1666. Horace has the story told by a garrulous countryman, a guise that Cowley takes on with delicate self-irony. It allows him to adapt the comforts of the imperial city described by Horace to those of Restoration London, with references to contemporary high cuisine
and luxury furnishings such as Mortlake Tapestries
. Cowley's portion appeared separately under the title of The Country Mouse in his volume of essays.
In the following century the friends Jonathan Swift
and Alexander Pope
combined in a similar imitation of Horace's Satire, with Pope playing the part of the story-teller and attributing the tale to contemporary fabulist Matthew Prior
. The point of the piece is once again to make a witty transposition of the Classical scene into present-day circumstances as an extension of the poem's anachronistic fun. On the other hand, it can be argued that emphasising the urban in this way, for all the fable's championing of country life, is fully in the spirit of the Horatian original.
In all versions of the original fable, much is made of the poor fare upon which the country mouse subsists. Dried (grey) peas and bacon are frequently mentioned and it is these two that the early 19th century author Richard Scrafton Sharpe uses in a repetitive refrain
to his lyrical treatment of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse". He was the author of Old friends in a new dress - or Familiar fables in verse, which went through different editions from 1807 onwards. The stories are told in song measures rather than narrative, and it was in a later edition that this retelling appeared.
retold the story in The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
(1918). In this she inverted the order of the visits, with the country mouse going to the city first, being frightened by a cat and disliking the food. Returning the visit later, the town mouse is frightened of the rain, the lawnmower and the danger of being stepped on by cows. The story concludes with the reflection that tastes differ. A segment from the tale was incorporated into the children's ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter, danced by the Royal Ballet with choreography by Frederick Ashton
(1971). The ballet was subsequently performed onstage in 1992 and 2007.
In 1927 the story was made into a French silent film, with puppet animation
by the director Wladyslaw Starewicz, under the title Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs. In this updated version, the urban rat drives out of Paris in his car to visit his cousin on the farm. They return to the city and visit a nightclub but their revels end in pandemonium with the arrival of a cat. Recognizing that city life is too hectic for him, the country rat prefers to dream of his urban adventure from the safety of his home. The American equivalent was the Silly Symphonies
cartoon The Country Cousin (1936), in which the country mouse hikes along the railroad track to visit his cousin in the city. The main action takes place on the supper table and is governed by the unexplained need for silence. When the reason for this is revealed as the cat, the cousin escapes into the street, only to face the worse hazards of the traffic.
In 1980, the fable was whimsically adapted by Evelyn Lambart
for the National Film Board of Canada
using paper figures and brightly colored backgrounds. Other cartoons much more loosely based on the fables have included Mouse in Manhattan
(1945) and The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (HBO 1993), which eventually led to the TV series of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures
.
In the UK, Vicky Ireland dramatised the fable for Merseyside
Young People's Theatre in 1987. The 80-minute play has since been acted in the USA, South Africa and New Zealand. It features William Boot, a country mouse bored with rural life at his grandmother's house, who is visited by his city cousin and learns that he has inherited Tallyhoe Lodge in London. They leave to run a gauntlet of adventures, from which William returns to settle gratefully in his peaceful country retreat.
Among musical interpretations, there have been the following:
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
. It is number 352 in the Perry Index
Perry Index
The Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC...
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
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
.
Story
In the original tale, a proud town mouse visits a friend (or relation) in the country. The country mouse offers the city mouse a meal of simple country foods, at which the visitor scoffs and invites the country mouse back to the city for a taste of the "fine life". But their rich city meal is interrupted by a couple of dogs which force the mice to abandon their feast and scurry to safety. After this, the country mouse decides to return home, preferring security to plenty or, as the 13th-century preacher Odo of CheritonOdo of Cheriton
Odo of Cheriton was a Roman Catholic preacher and fabulist.He visited Paris, and it was probably there that he gained the degree of Master...
phrased it, "I'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear".
The story was widespread in Classical times and there is an early Greek version by Babrius
Babrius
Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop's fables .Practically nothing is known of him...
(Fable 108). Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
included it as part of one of his satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
s (II.6), ending on this story in a poem comparing town living unfavourably with life in the country. However, it seems to have been the 12th century Anglo-Norman writer Walter of England who contributed most to the spread of the fable over mediaeval Europe. His Latin version (or that of Odo of Cheriton) has been credited as the source of the fable that appeared in the Spanish Libro de Buen Amor of Juan Ruiz
Juan Ruiz
Juan Ruiz , known as the Archpriest of Hita , was a medieval Spanish poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor .-Origins:...
in the first half of the 14th century. Walter was also the source for several manuscript collections of Aesop's fables in Italian and equally of the popular Esopi fabulas by Accio Zucca, the first printed collection of Aesop's fables in that language (Verona, 1479), in which the story of the town mouse and the country mouse appears as fable 12. This consists of two sonnets, the first of which tells the story and the second contains a moral reflection.
British variations
British poetical treatments of the story vary widely. The Scottish Henryson's The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges MousThe Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous
The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous, also known as The Twa Mice, is a Middle Scots adaptation of Aesop's Fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse by the Scottish poet Robert Henryson...
makes the two mice sisters. The one in the country envies her sister's rich living and pays her a visit, only to be chased by a cat and return home, contented with her own lot. Four final stanzas (lines 190–221) draw out the moral that it is better to limit one's ambition and one's appetites, warning those who make the belly their god that
-
- The cat cummis and to the mous hes ee.
Henryson attributes the story to Esope, myne author where Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...
makes it a song sung by My mothers maydes when they did sowe and spynne in the second of his satires. This is more in accord with Horace's description of it as 'an old wives' tale' but Wyatt's retelling otherwise echoes Henryson's: an impoverished country mouse visits her sister in town but is caught by the cat. In the second half of the poem (lines 70–112) Wyatt addresses his interlocutor John Poynz on the vanity of human wishes. Horace, on the other hand, had discussed his own theme at great length before closing on the story.
By contrast, La Fontaine's adapted fable of Le rat de ville et le rat des champs
(Fables I.9, 1668) is simply told. There it is the town rat that invites the country rat home, only to have the meal disturbed by dogs (as in Horace); the country rat then departs, reflecting, as in Aesop, that peace is preferable to fearful plenty.
Adaptations dating from Britain's 'Augustan Age
Augustan literature
Augustan literature is a style of English literature produced during the reigns of Queen Anne, King George I, and George II on the 1740s with the deaths of Pope and Swift...
' concentrate upon the Horatian version of the fable. The reference is direct in The hind and the panther transvers'd to the story of the country-mouse and the city mouse, written by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax
Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, KG, PC, FRS was an English poet and statesman.-Early life:Charles Montagu was born in Horton, Northamptonshire, the son of George Montagu, fifth son of 1st Earl of Manchester...
and Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
in 1687. This was a satire directed against a piece of pro-Stuart propaganda
The Hind and the Panther
The Hind and the Panther: A Poem, in Three Parts is an allegory in heroic couplets by John Dryden. At some 2600 lines it is much the longest of Dryden's poems, translations excepted, and perhaps the most controversial...
and portrays the poet John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
(under the name of Bayes) proposing to elevate Horace's 'dry naked History' into a religious allegory (page 4ff).
Part of the fun there is that in reality the Horatian retelling is far more sophisticated than the 'plain simple thing' that Bayes pretends it is, especially in its depiction of Roman town-life at the height of its power. It is this aspect of Horace's writing that is underlined by the two adaptations of his satire made by other Augustan authors. The first was a joint work by the friends Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat
Thomas Sprat , English divine, was born at Beaminster, Dorset, and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, where he held a fellowship from 1657 to 1670.Having taken orders he became a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1660...
and Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...
written in 1666. Horace has the story told by a garrulous countryman, a guise that Cowley takes on with delicate self-irony. It allows him to adapt the comforts of the imperial city described by Horace to those of Restoration London, with references to contemporary high cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...
and luxury furnishings such as Mortlake Tapestries
Mortlake Tapestry Works
Mortlake Tapestry Works were established alongside the River Thames at Mortlake, then outside, but near west London in 1619 by Sir Francis Crane.-Royal Patronage:...
. Cowley's portion appeared separately under the title of The Country Mouse in his volume of essays.
In the following century the friends Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
and Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
combined in a similar imitation of Horace's Satire, with Pope playing the part of the story-teller and attributing the tale to contemporary fabulist Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
. The point of the piece is once again to make a witty transposition of the Classical scene into present-day circumstances as an extension of the poem's anachronistic fun. On the other hand, it can be argued that emphasising the urban in this way, for all the fable's championing of country life, is fully in the spirit of the Horatian original.
In all versions of the original fable, much is made of the poor fare upon which the country mouse subsists. Dried (grey) peas and bacon are frequently mentioned and it is these two that the early 19th century author Richard Scrafton Sharpe uses in a repetitive refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
to his lyrical treatment of "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse". He was the author of Old friends in a new dress - or Familiar fables in verse, which went through different editions from 1807 onwards. The stories are told in song measures rather than narrative, and it was in a later edition that this retelling appeared.
Eastern analogies
A similar story appears among the fables of Bidpai as "The Lean Cat and the Fat Cat". It is related that 'There was once a poor, lean old woman, who lived in a tiny, tumbled-down house, with a cat as poor and as lean as herself. This cat had never tasted a bit of bread, and had come no nearer a mouse than to find its tracks in the dust.' A sleek, plump cat boasts to her of how it feasts at the king's table and invites her to come and join in next day. The poor woman advises her pet to be content with its lot. Unheeding, the lean cat sets off for the palace. Owing to its infestation by cats, however, the king had ordered that any caught there were to be put to death. The lean cat dies, regretting that it had not listened to the old woman's wise advice.Later adaptations
Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
retold the story in The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1918. The tale is based on the Aesop fable, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" and tells of a country mouse and a city mouse who visit each...
(1918). In this she inverted the order of the visits, with the country mouse going to the city first, being frightened by a cat and disliking the food. Returning the visit later, the town mouse is frightened of the rain, the lawnmower and the danger of being stepped on by cows. The story concludes with the reflection that tastes differ. A segment from the tale was incorporated into the children's ballet film The Tales of Beatrix Potter, danced by the Royal Ballet with choreography by Frederick Ashton
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
(1971). The ballet was subsequently performed onstage in 1992 and 2007.
In 1927 the story was made into a French silent film, with puppet animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
by the director Wladyslaw Starewicz, under the title Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs. In this updated version, the urban rat drives out of Paris in his car to visit his cousin on the farm. They return to the city and visit a nightclub but their revels end in pandemonium with the arrival of a cat. Recognizing that city life is too hectic for him, the country rat prefers to dream of his urban adventure from the safety of his home. The American equivalent was the Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies
Silly Symphonies is a series of animated short subjects, 75 in total, produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939, while the studio was still located at Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles...
cartoon The Country Cousin (1936), in which the country mouse hikes along the railroad track to visit his cousin in the city. The main action takes place on the supper table and is governed by the unexplained need for silence. When the reason for this is revealed as the cat, the cousin escapes into the street, only to face the worse hazards of the traffic.
In 1980, the fable was whimsically adapted by Evelyn Lambart
Evelyn Lambart
Evelyn Lambart was a Canadian animator and technical director with the National Film Board of Canada, known for her early collaborations with Norman McLaren as well as her later films, as sole director....
for the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
using paper figures and brightly colored backgrounds. Other cartoons much more loosely based on the fables have included Mouse in Manhattan
Mouse in Manhattan
Mouse in Manhattan is a 1945 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 19th Tom and Jerry short released in American theaters on July 7 1945. It is one of the few episodes that only one of the duo plays a major role.-Plot:...
(1945) and The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale (HBO 1993), which eventually led to the TV series of The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures
The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures
The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures is an animated TV series that aired on HBO from March 1, 1998 to early 2001. The show follows the adventures of two mice, Emily and her cousin Alexander, who go on adventures around the world in the early 20th century, usually to stop the evil rat...
.
In the UK, Vicky Ireland dramatised the fable for Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
Young People's Theatre in 1987. The 80-minute play has since been acted in the USA, South Africa and New Zealand. It features William Boot, a country mouse bored with rural life at his grandmother's house, who is visited by his city cousin and learns that he has inherited Tallyhoe Lodge in London. They leave to run a gauntlet of adventures, from which William returns to settle gratefully in his peaceful country retreat.
Among musical interpretations, there have been the following:
- Louis-Nicolas ClérambaultLouis-Nicolas ClérambaultLouis-Nicolas Clérambault was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born and died in Paris.-Biography:...
set words based on La Fontaine's fable in the 1730s - Jacques OffenbachJacques OffenbachJacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
included it in Six Fables de La Fontaine (1842) for soprano and small orchestra - Ernest ReyerErnest ReyerErnest Reyer, the adopted name of Louis Étienne Ernest Rey, was a French opera composer and music critic .- Biography :...
set La Fontaine's fable for his own performance - Debra Kaye set Richard Scrafton Sharpe's lyric version of the fable for mezzo-sopranoMezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
and piano in 1998. She describes this as 'a mini-opera' that combines the simplicity of folk music and operatic styles. - Isabelle AboulkerIsabelle AboulkerIsabelle Aboulker is a French composer, particularly known for her operas and other vocal works. In 1999 she gained a prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts and in 2000 the music prize of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques for her numerous lyric pieces.-Life and work:Isabelle...
's setting of La Fontaine's words is on her composite CD Les Fables Enchantées (2004)
External links
- Greek versions and European illustrations
- Book illustrations from the 15th to the 20th centuries online