The Charlatan by Jean de La Fontaine

The Charlatan portrays a boastful teacher who claims he can turn even the dullest clown or ass into an eloquent lawyer. When a prince hears of this promise, he orders the man to educate an Arcadian steed—an ass—and pays him in advance. The charlatan is given ten years to prepare the animal for an examination; if it fails, he will be publicly hanged, carrying his rhetoric on his back and wearing an ass’s ears. A courtier mockingly anticipates the spectacle, imagining that the condemned rhetorician will use a grand speech to soften hearts and display his supposed eloquence. The charlatan, however, remains calm: before the ten years have passed, he says, the king, the ass, or he himself may die. His confidence rests on the uncertainty of life, since death may intervene even among those who seem healthy.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Satire, Didactic Poetry · 607 words

First lines

The world has never lack'd its charlatans, / More than themselves have lack'd their plans. / One sees them on the stage at tricks / Which mock the claims of sullen Styx. / What talents in the streets they post! / One of them used to boast / Such mastership of eloquence / That he could make the greatest dunce / Another Tully Cicero / In all the arts that lawyers know. / 'Ay, sirs, a dunce, a country clown, / The greatest blockhead of your town, -- / Nay more, an animal, an ass, -- / The stupidest that nibbles grass, -- / Needs only through my course to pass, / And he shall wear the gown / With credit, honour, and renown. ' / The prince heard of it, call'd the man, thus spake: / 'My stable holds a steed / Of the Arcadian breed,[1] / Of which an orator I wish to make. ' / 'Well, sire, you can,' / Replied our man. / At once his majesty / Paid the tuition fee. / Ten years must roll, and then the learned ass / Should his examination pass, / According to the rules / Adopted in the schools; / If not, his teacher was to tread the air, / With halter'd neck, above the public square, -- / His rhetoric bound on his back, / And on his head the ears of jack. / A courtier told the rhetorician, / With bows and terms polite, / He would not miss the sight / Of that last pendent exhibition; / For that his grace and dignity / Would well become such high degree; / And, on the point of being hung, / He would bethink him of his tongue, / And show the glory of his art, -- / The power to melt the hardest heart, -- / And wage a war with time / By periods sublime -- / A pattern speech for orators thus leaving, / Whose work is vulgarly call'd thieving. / 'Ah! ' was the charlatan's reply, / 'Ere that, the king, the ass, or I, / Shall, one or other of us, die. ' / And reason good had he; / We count on life most foolishly, / Though hale and hearty we may be. / In each ten years, death cuts down one in three.[2]

• Open reader

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Genres

• Fable — The poem is a compact moral tale featuring an exaggerated situation, a foolish boast, and an explicit concluding reflection on human mortality and misplaced confidence.
• Satire — It ridicules charlatans, rhetorical pretension, educational fraud, courtly spectatorship, and the vanity of those who claim impossible powers.
• Didactic Poetry — Its narrative is designed to teach a practical moral lesson: long-term dangers may be escaped through the unpredictability of life, but people foolishly assume continued survival.
• Verse Narrative — The work tells a complete story in rhyming verse, moving from the charlatan's public claim through the prince's test and the protagonist's cynical conclusion.

Tags

French fable · seventeenth-century literature · verse narrative · satirical poem · moral allegory · charlatanism · boastful teachers · false expertise · rhetoric · eloquence · oratory · lawyers

What this Textopian page supports

The Charlatan is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

• Work type: Fable
• Author: Jean de La Fontaine
• Date: 1668 CE
• Language: English
• Genres: Fable, Satire, Didactic Poetry, Verse Narrative, Comic Poetry
• Length: 607 words
• Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Charlatan by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
• Readability and classroom-planning context
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More by Jean de La Fontaine

• To Monseigneur the Dauphin (1668)
• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1668)
• The Raven and the Fox (1668)
• The Frog that Wished to be as Big as the Ox (1668)
• The Two Mules (1668)
• The Wolf and the Dog (1668)
• The Heifer, the Goat, and the Sheep, in Company with the Lion (1668)
• The Wallet (1668)
• All works by Jean de La Fontaine