The Lion in Love by Jean de La Fontaine

In “The Lion in Love,” Jean de La Fontaine addresses Sévigné and presents Love as a strange conqueror capable of piercing even a lion’s proud heart. In an age when animals could speak, a high-born lion sees a shepherdess crossing a meadow and desires her as his bride. The girl loves the shaggy, martial-looking lion, but her father fears his teeth and claws and cannot safely refuse him outright. Pretending concern for his daughter’s delicate nature, the father tells the lion that his caresses may be too rough. He proposes that the lion have his teeth and claws filed down, so that the marriage and its endearments will be safe and pleasing. Blinded by love, the lion immediately agrees. Once deprived of every tooth and claw, he is like a fort whose cannon have been disabled. Dogs are then set upon him and kill him without danger. The fable concludes that Love makes those under its power abandon prudence.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Moral Tale, Animal Fiction · 789 words

First lines

To Mademoiselle De Sévigné.[1]

[1]: _Mademoiselle de Sévigné_. -- Francoise-Marguerite de Sévigné, afterwards Madame de Grignan, the daughter of the celebrated Madame de Sévigné. The famous Sévigné "Letters" were for the most part addressed to Madame de Grignan. For some account of Madame de Sévigné and La Fontaine, see the Translator's Preface; also note to Fable XI. Book VII.

• Open reader

Similar titles

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Genres

• Fable — The poem is a concise animal tale in which speaking animals enact a human situation and the ending delivers an explicit moral about love overcoming prudence.
• Moral Tale — Its central purpose is didactic: the lion's infatuation causes him to surrender his defenses, illustrating the dangers of abandoning judgment for passion.
• Animal Fiction — A lion, dogs, and a human shepherdess drive the action, with the lion given human speech, social ambitions, and romantic feeling.
• Verse Narrative — The work tells a complete dramatic story through rhymed poetic lines rather than prose.

Tags

French fable · verse narrative · seventeenth-century literature · talking animals · lion · shepherdess · marriage proposal · forbidden courtship · romantic love · love as conqueror · blindness of love · loss of prudence

What this Textopian page supports

The Lion in Love 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, Moral Tale, Animal Fiction, Verse Narrative, Romance
• Length: 789 words
• Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
• Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

Good citation fit

• Work identity for The Lion in Love 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
• Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph

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