The Man and the Adder by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Man and the Adder
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

In “The Man and the Adder,” a man finds an adder on the ground and declares that killing it will be a service to the world. He captures and bags the snake, accusing it of being the very image of ingratitude, a malicious enemy whose teeth might harm him. The adder argues that if every ingrate deserved death, few would survive, and insists that man himself is more ungrateful than any serpent. It challenges the man to look at his own conduct before judging another. Shaken but unwilling to yield, the man agrees to submit their dispute to other judges. A cow testifies that she has long supplied the man with milk and calves, only to be abandoned in old age without grass and kept tethered. She says that her master’s ingratitude is worse than an adder’s. The man dismisses her as a foolish old creature and calls an ox. The ox recounts his years of painful labour enriching the soil for men, receiving blows instead of thanks and facing slaughter when age weakens him. The man rejects this testimony too, calling the ox an accuser rather than a judge. A tree then condemns mankind as well. It has sheltered men and beasts from weather, beautified gardens, supplied fruit, flowers, shade, and firewood, yet a mercenary man cuts it down with cruel iron instead of pruning and preserving it. Scornful of being repeatedly proved wrong, the man claims that his goodness is shown by his willingness to hear such complaints. He then hurls the serpent, still in its bag, violently against a wall. The tale condemns the powerful who believe every creature exists solely for their benefit. Those who dispute such a claim are treated as stupid brutes; therefore, one should speak to such masters only from a distance, or remain silent.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Moral Tale, Allegory · 1,409 words

First lines

'You villain! ' cried a man who found / An adder coil'd upon the ground, / 'To do a very grateful deed / For all the world, I shall proceed. ' / On this the animal perverse / (I mean the snake; / Pray don't mistake / The human for the worse) / Was caught and bagg'd, and, worst of all, / His blood was by his captor to be spilt / Without regard to innocence or guilt. / Howe'er, to show the why, these words let fall / His judge and jailor, proud and tall: -- / 'Thou type of all ingratitude! / All charity to hearts like thine / Is folly, certain to be rued. / Die, then, / Thou foe of men! / Thy temper and thy teeth malign / Shall never hurt a hair of mine. ' / The muffled serpent, on his side, / The best a serpent could, replied, -- / 'If all this world's ingrates / Must meet with such a death, / Who from this worst of fates / Could save his breath? / Upon thyself thy law recoils; / I throw myself upon thy broils, / Thy graceless revelling on spoils; / If thou but homeward cast an eye, / Thy deeds all mine will justify. / But strike: my life is in thy hand; / Thy justice, all may understand, / Is but thy interest, pleasure, or caprice: -- / Pronounce my sentence on such laws as these. / But give me leave to tell thee, while I can, / The type of all ingratitude is man. ' / By such a lecture somewhat foil'd, / The other back a step recoil'd, / And finally replied, -- / 'Thy reasons are abusive, / And wholly inconclusive. / I might the case decide / Because to me such right belongs; / But let's refer the case of wrongs. ' / The snake agreed; they to a cow referr'd it. / Who, being called, came graciously and heard it. / Then, summing up, 'What need,' said she, / 'In such a case, to call on me? / The adder's right, plain truth to bellow; / For years I've nursed this haughty fellow, / Who, but for me, had long ago / Been lodging with the shades below. / For him my milk has had to flow, / My calves, at tender age, to die. / And for this best of wealth, / And often reëstablished health, / What pay, or even thanks, have I? / Here, feeble, old, and worn, alas! / I'm left without a bite of grass. / Were I but left, it might be weather'd, / But, shame to say it, I am tether'd. / And now my fate is surely sadder / Than if my master were an adder, / With brains within the latitude / Of such immense ingratitude. / This, gentles, is my honest view; / And so I bid you both adieu. ' / The man, confounded and astonish'd / To be so faithfully admonish'd, / Replied, 'What fools to listen, now, / To this old, silly, dotard cow! / Let's trust the ox. ' 'Let's trust,' replied / The crawling beast, well gratified. / So said, so done; / The ox, with tardy pace, came on / And, ruminating o'er the case, / Declared, with very serious face, / That years of his most painful toil / Had clothed with Ceres' gifts our soil -- / Her gifts to men -- but always sold / To beasts for higher cost than gold; / And that for this, for his reward, / More blows than thanks return'd his lord; / And then, when age had chill'd his blood, / And men would quell the wrath of Heaven, / Out must be pour'd the vital flood, / For others' sins, all thankless given. / So spake the ox; and then the man: -- / 'Away with such a dull declaimer! / Instead of judge, it is his plan / To play accuser and defamer. ' / A tree was next the arbitrator, / And made the wrong of man still greater. / It served as refuge from the heat, / The showers, and storms which madly beat; / It grew our gardens' greatest pride, / Its shadow spreading far and wide, / And bow'd itself with fruit beside: / But yet a mercenary clown / With cruel iron chopp'd it down. / Behold the recompense for which, / Year after year, it did enrich, / With spring's sweet flowers, and autumn's fruits, / And summer's shade, both men and brutes, / And warm'd the hearth with many a limb / Which winter from its top did trim! / Why could not man have pruned and spared, / And with itself for ages shared? -- / Much scorning thus to be convinced, / The man resolved his cause to gain. / Quoth he, 'My goodness is evinced / By hearing this, 'tis very plain; ' / Then flung the serpent bag and all, / With fatal force, against a wall.

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Genres

Fable — The poem uses a concise allegorical narrative involving a man, an adder, and speaking animals and a tree to deliver an explicit moral about human ingratitude, selfishness, and power.
Moral Tale — Its central purpose is ethical instruction: the man condemns the snake for supposed ingratitude while every witness exposes humanity's cruel exploitation of benefactors.
Allegory — The man represents domineering human power, while the snake, cow, ox, and tree embody exploited beings whose testimony reveals a broader social and moral truth.
Satire — The work sharply ridicules human hypocrisy, class arrogance, arbitrary justice, and the assumption that all creatures exist solely for human use.

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

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1678 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Moral Tale, Allegory, Satire, Didactic Poetry
Length: 1,409 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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