The Cock, the Dog and the Fox

A painting of the fable in a Greek manuscript, c.1470

The Cock, the Dog and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 252 in the Perry Index. Although it has similarities with other fables where a predator flatters a bird, such as The Fox and the Crow and Chanticleer and the Fox, in this one the cock is the victor rather than victim. There are also Eastern variants of this story.

Versions of the fable

In the Greek story, a cock and a dog go on a journey together. At night, the cock roosts in a tree while the dog curls up at its roots. When the cock crowed in the morning, it attracted a fox that made friendly overtures and tried to lure the bird down. The cock agrees, telling it to ask the porter to open the door so that it can come out. The fox stumbles on the sleeping dog and is killed.^[1]

An ancient Indian variant of the fable appears in the Buddhist scriptures as the Kukuta-Jataka.^[2] Here a predatory cat, having killed all the other fowls, tries to woo the cock down with a promise of marriage, but it is not to be deceived and denounces the cat for its former slaughter. In its journey westwards, the tale was eventually included in The Thousand and One Nights and was translated by Richard F. Burton as The Pleasant History of the Cock and the Fox.^[3] This version, enlarged by the fox's many flights of rhetoric, recounts how the beast tries to lure the cock down from a wall with the news that universal friendship has been declared between the hunters and the hunted. The cock refuses even to acknowledge the fox's fine words but finally announces that he is convinced for he can see greyhounds running towards them who must be messengers from the King of the Beasts. When the agitated fox starts to leave, the cock asks him the reason; the fox replies that he fears the dogs were not present when the peace was announced.

This version of the story was an influence on the fable's retelling in Europe. It is to be found early among the humorous stories of Poggio Bracciolini's Facetiae (1450), where the fleeing fox explains only that the dogs have not yet heard that peace has been declared.^[4] In Francis Barlow's illustrated edition of the fables (1687), Aphra Behn's verse summary tells the Eastern tale with this same conclusion, while the Latin prose summary follows Aesop's account.^[5] At a slightly earlier date, Jean de la Fontaine had versified the Oriental story in his Fables (II.15, Le coq et le renard),^[6] but Behn was not following La Fontaine in this instance. His fox only explains that it is in a hurry to spread the good news as the reason for its departure.

In Pierre Perret's updated version of La Fontaine for the television series Les Fables Géometriques (1990), the cock is a jazz club performer and the protective dog is its bouncer.^[7]

Artistic interpretations

The Jataka story of the cock and the cat from the Bharhut stupa, 150 BCE

There is a carving of "The Cock and the Cat" from the Bharhut stupa, dating from 150 BCE, which is now displayed in the Indian Museum in Calcutta. Aesop's fable can be found on household china in Europe, but it is not always clear whether the story of "Chanticleer and the Fox" is meant instead without the appearance of the dog as well. The dog occupies the foreground on an 18th Century ornamental dessert dish from the Chelsea porcelain factory,^[8] while in Marc Chagall's 1952 series of etchings, which are of La Fontaine's fables, the dog is shown running in from the distance.^[9]

La Fontaine's version of the fable has also been set by several composers:

Louis Lacombe, as the third in his Fables de La Fontaine (Op. 72 1875)
Jean Françaix for solo or chorus and piano (1963)
Guy Reibel for wind instrument and three equal voices (1996)
Lucian Cristofor Tugui in 2006

References

↑ "149. THE FOX, THE ROOSTER AND THE DOG (Laura Gibbs, translator)". Mythfolklore.net. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
↑ The Jataka or stories of the Buddha's former births, ed. E.B. Cowell, Cambridge University Press, 1895, pp. 168-9 available online
↑ Available on Wikisource
↑ The Facetiae, a new translation by Bernhardt J.Hurwood, London 1968, Tale 78, pp.78-9)
↑ "7. De vulpe, cane et gallo (1687), illustrated by Francis Barlow". Mythfolklore.net. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
↑ An English translation online
↑ View on YouTube
↑ Victoria & Albert Museum site online
↑ Plate 22 available online

External links

15th-20th century illustrations from books on Flickr.com

Aesop

Aesop's Fables	The Ant and the Grasshopper The Ass and his Masters The Ass and the Pig The Ass Carrying an Image The Ass in the Lion's Skin The Astrologer who Fell into a Well The Bear and the Travelers The Belly and the Members The Bird-catcher and the Blackbird The Bird in Borrowed Feathers The Boy Who Cried Wolf The Cat and the Mice The Cock and the Jewel The Cock, the Dog and the Fox The Crow and the Pitcher The Crow and the Snake The Deer without a Heart The Dog and Its Reflection The Dog and the Wolf The Dove and the Ant The Farmer and the Stork The Farmer and the Viper The Fir and the Bramble The Fisherman and the Little Fish The Fowler and the Snake The Fox and the Crow The Fox and the Grapes The Fox and the Mask The Fox and the Sick Lion The Fox and the Stork The Fox and the Weasel The Fox and the Woodman The Frog and the Ox The Frogs Who Desired a King The Goat and the Vine The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs The Honest Woodcutter The Horse and the Donkey The Lion and the Fox The Lion and the Mouse The Lion, the Bear and the Fox The Man with two Mistresses The Mischievous Dog The Miser and his Gold The Mountain in Labour The Mouse and the Oyster The North Wind and the Sun The Oak and the Reed The Old Man and Death The Old Woman and the Doctor The Rose and the Amaranth The Satyr and the Traveller The Sick Kite The Snake and the Crab The Snake in the Thorn Bush The Tortoise and the Hare Town Mouse and Country Mouse The Travellers and the Plane Tree The Trees and the Bramble The Two Pots The Walnut Tree Washing the Ethiopian white The Wolf and the Crane The Wolf and the Lamb The Woodcutter and the Trees The Young Man and the Swallow

Apocryphal	An ass eating thistles The Bear and the Gardener Belling the cat (also known as The Mice in Council) The Blindman and the Lame The Boy and the Filberts Chanticleer and the Fox The Dog in the Manger The drowned woman and her husband The Elm and the Vine The Fox and the Cat The Gourd and the Palm-tree The Hawk and the Nightingale Jumping from the frying pan into the fire The milkmaid and her pail The miller, his son and the donkey The Monkey and the Cat The Priest and the Wolf The Scorpion and the Frog The Shepherd and the Lion Still waters run deep The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Related	Perry Index The labyrinth of Versailles The Lion's Share

Screen adaptations	Aesop's Film Fables The Grasshopper and the Ants

Print adaptations	Ysopet The Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian "The Taill of the Cok and the Jasp" "The Taill of how this forsaid Tod maid his Confessioun to Freir Wolf Waitskaith" "The Taill of Schir Chanticleir and the Foxe" "The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous" La Fontaine's Fables

Translators	Demetrius of Phalerum Phaedrus Babrius Avianus Dositheus Magister Alexander Neckam Adémar de Chabannes Odo of Cheriton John Lydgate Kawanabe Kyōsai Laurentius Abstemius Roger L'Estrange Gabriele Faerno Hieronymus Osius Marie de France Robert Henryson Jean de La Fontaine Ivan Krylov Nicolas Trigault Zhang Geng Robert Thom Zhou Zuoren

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