The Fox with his Tail Cut Off

A cunning old fox, notorious for stealing fowls and catching rabbits, is trapped but escapes at the cost of his tail. Ashamed of his bob-tail, he tries to persuade the other foxes to cut off theirs, claiming that tails are useless burdens that drag in the dirt. During a council meeting, another fox asks him to turn around before judging the proposal. The assembly sees his missing tail and bursts into laughter, leaving him unable to defend his supposed reform. The foxes retain their long tails.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Didactic Literature · 286 words

First lines

A cunning old fox, of plundering habits, / Great crauncher of fowls, great catcher of rabbits, / Whom none of his sort had caught in a nap, / Was finally caught in somebody's trap. / By luck he escaped, not wholly and hale, / For the price of his luck was the loss of his tail. / Escaped in this way, to save his disgrace, / He thought to get others in similar case. / One day that the foxes in council were met, / 'Why wear we,' said he, 'this cumbering weight, / Which sweeps in the dirt wherever it goes? / Pray tell me its use, if any one knows. / If the council will take my advice, / We shall dock off our tails in a trice. ' / 'Your advice may be good,' said one on the ground; / 'But, ere I reply, pray turn yourself round. ' / Whereat such a shout from the council was heard, / Poor bob-tail, confounded, could say not a word. / To urge the reform would have wasted his breath. / Long tails were the mode till the day of his death.[1]

• Open reader

Similar titles

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Genres

• Fable — The work uses talking animals, a brief allegorical plot, and a clear moral lesson about self-interested advice and hypocrisy.
• Animal Fable — Foxes act as human-like social and political figures, with the tailless fox attempting to persuade others to share his loss.
• Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is instructive: readers are warned to distrust reforms proposed by people seeking to conceal their own disadvantage or shame.
• Moral Tale — The narrative concludes with an implicit moral judgment, exposing the fox's attempt to turn personal misfortune into a general rule.

Tags

fable · verse narrative · animal allegory · foxes · cunning · trickery · traps · escape · lost tail · shame · vanity · self-interest

What this Textopian page supports

The Fox with his Tail Cut Off 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, Animal Fable, Didactic Literature, Moral Tale, Satire
• Length: 286 words
• Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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• Work identity for The Fox with his Tail Cut Off by Jean de La Fontaine
• Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
• Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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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