The Cat and the Old Rat

The Cat and the Old Rat by Jean de La Fontaine

A story-writer recounts the exploits of a formidable cat, compared to Rodilard the Second, Alexander, and Attila for the terror he spreads among rats and mice. So feared is he that they no longer dare leave their hiding places, making ordinary traps and poisoned meal seem harmless by comparison. To lure them out, the crafty cat hangs himself by his hind claws beside a wall, appearing dead. Believing he has been punished for his crimes, the rats cautiously emerge and eventually return to stealing from the larder. The cat suddenly drops down and seizes one of the last to come out, boasting that his experience has taught him many ways to draw them from their holes. He then disguises himself in meal, squatting silently in an open tub with a mealy covering, and the rats come out only to be killed. One old, grey rat, however, who has lost his tail in battle, refuses to approach the meal. From a safe distance, he tells General Cat that a rat familiar with traps will not trust such a suspicious heap, and that even if the cat became a sack of meal, he would stay home. His caution is praised, since distrust is the parent of security.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Animal Tale, Didactic Literature · 758 words

First lines

A story-writer of our sort / Historifies, in short, / Of one that may be reckon'd / A Rodilard the Second, -- [1] / The Alexander of the cats, / The Attila,[2] the scourge of rats, / Whose fierce and whisker'd head / Among the latter spread, / A league around, its dread; / Who seem'd, indeed, determined / The world should be unvermined. / The planks with props more false than slim, / The tempting heaps of poison'd meal, / The traps of wire and traps of steel, / Were only play compared with him. / At length, so sadly were they scared. / The rats and mice no longer dared / To show their thievish faces / Outside their hiding-places, / Thus shunning all pursuit; whereat / Our crafty General Cat / Contrived to hang himself, as dead, / Beside the wall with downward head, / Resisting gravitation's laws / By clinging with his hinder claws / To some small bit of string. / The rats esteem'd the thing / A judgment for some naughty deed, / Some thievish snatch, / Or ugly scratch; / And thought their foe had got his meed / By being hung indeed. / With hope elated all / Of laughing at his funeral, / They thrust their noses out in air; / And now to show their heads they dare; / Now dodging back, now venturing more; / At last upon the larder's store / They fall to filching, as of yore. / A scanty feast enjoy'd these shallows; / Down dropp'd the hung one from his gallows, / And of the hindmost caught. / 'Some other tricks to me are known,' / Said he, while tearing bone from bone, / 'By long experience taught; / The point is settled, free from doubt, / That from your holes you shall come out. ' / His threat as good as prophecy / Was proved by Mr. Mildandsly; / For, putting on a mealy robe, / He squatted in an open tub, / And held his purring and his breath; -- / Out came the vermin to their death. / On this occasion, one old stager, / A rat as grey as any badger, / Who had in battle lost his tail, / Abstained from smelling at the meal; / And cried, far off, 'Ah! General Cat, / I much suspect a heap like that; / Your meal is not the thing, perhaps, / For one who knows somewhat of traps; / Should you a sack of meal become, / I'd let you be, and stay at home.'

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The Cat and the Old Rat is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1678 CE.

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French fable · verse narrative · seventeenth-century literature · animal allegory · moral tale · cats and rats · predator and prey · cunning · deception · disguise · trickery · vigilance

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