The Jay in the Feathers of the Peacock

A jay adorns himself with feathers shed by a peacock and struts proudly as though he truly belonged among the peacocks. His deception is discovered, and the peacocks mock him, strip away every borrowed feather, and reject him when he tries to return to his own kind. The fable then compares him to another kind of jay: the plagiarist, who displays borrowed literary plumage, though the speaker declines to reform that tribe.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Tale · 294 words

First lines

A peacock moulted: soon a jay was seen / Bedeck'd with Argus tail of gold and green,[1] / High strutting, with elated crest, / As much a peacock as the rest. / His trick was recognized and bruited, / His person jeer'd at, hiss'd, and hooted. / The peacock gentry flock'd together, / And pluck'd the fool of every feather. / Nay more, when back he sneak'd to join his race, / They shut their portals in his face.

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Similar titles

• The Raven And The Fox by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Peacock Complaining To Juno by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Two Mules by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Bitch And Her Friend by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Grasshopper And The Ant by Jean De La Fontaine
• The Two Bulls And The Frog by Jean De La Fontaine

Genres

• Fable — The poem uses talking or personified animals in a brief narrative to convey a moral lesson about vanity, imitation, and pretending to be what one is not.
• Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is instructive: the jay's humiliation warns against borrowing others' status, appearance, or achievements.
• Animal Tale — Bird characters—the jay and peacocks—enact a human social conflict through animal imagery and behavior.
• Allegory — The jay represents social pretenders and plagiarists, while the borrowed peacock feathers symbolize falsely assumed distinction or originality.

Tags

fable · verse narrative · French literature · seventeenth century · animal allegory · jay · peacock · borrowed feathers · disguise · pretension · vanity · pride

What this Textopian page supports

The Jay in the Feathers of the Peacock 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, Didactic Literature, Animal Tale, Allegory, Satire
• Length: 294 words
• Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Jay in the Feathers of the Peacock 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