The most Fabulous fables of the 17 th Century

FOR children who grew up in France before the Second World War, memorizing the
fables of the 17th century poet Jean de La Fontaine was a ritual as familiar
as daily snacks of bread and bitter chocolate, placing bulletins under the
tree for Santa's reading, or at the search for the little white china that
Jesus buried in our cake Epiphany on the sixth day of the new year. Had the
praise of a peer or teacher gone to our heads? The fable of the Fox and the
Raven is born: the Fox, hungry for the cheese held in the Raven's beak,
flatters the bird by trying to prove that its song is as dazzling as its
plumage (ramage), and collects the delicious prize when the crow opens its
beak to sing. Do we have too much confidence in appearances, our own and those
of others? One of La Fontaine's many antidotes to this weakness is his tale of
The Lion and the Gnat: the king of beasts arrogantly declares war on a humble
insect, and is quickly defeated and slaughtered by the pernicious stings of
the pipsqueak.