The Members and the Belly by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Members and the Belly
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine’s fable compares Boss Belly to royalty and depicts the body’s members rebelling against him. Believing that the belly is a lazy glutton who benefits from their labour while doing nothing itself, the hands, arms, and all the other members stop working and decide to let him live on air. Their revolt quickly harms them all: the heart no longer renews the blood, strength wastes away, and they suffer the pain of poverty and weakness. They finally understand that the apparently idle belly contributes to the common good more than they had recognised. The fable then applies this lesson to royalty, portrayed as a power that both receives and gives, sustaining labour and ensuring that workers, merchants, diggers, soldiers, magistrates, and those supported by sovereign grace receive what they need. Menenius uses the same story when the commons of Rome separate from the senate, complaining that honours, wealth, power, and dignity belong only to the senators while the people receive taxes, tribute, and the hardships of war. By means of the fable, Menenius persuades the hungry people to return to their duty and to Rome.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Allegory, Didactic Literature · 808 words

First lines

Perhaps, had I but shown due loyalty, / This book would have begun with royalty, / Of which, in certain points of view, / Boss[1] Belly is the image true, / In whose bereavements all the members share: / Of whom the latter once so weary were, / As all due service to forbear, / On what they called his idle plan, / Resolved to play the gentleman, / And let his lordship live on air. / 'Like burden-beasts,' said they, / 'We sweat from day to day; / And all for whom, and what? / Ourselves we profit not. / Our labour has no object but one, / That is, to feed this lazy glutton. / We'll learn the resting trade / By his example's aid. ' / So said, so done; all labour ceased; / The hands refused to grasp, the arms to strike; / All other members did the like. / Their boss might labour if he pleased! / It was an error which they soon repented, / With pain of languid poverty acquainted. / The heart no more the blood renew'd, / And hence repair no more accrued / To ever-wasting strength; / Whereby the mutineers, at length, / Saw that the idle belly, in its way, / Did more for common benefit than they.

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Genres

Fable — The work uses personified body parts in a brief moral narrative to demonstrate that every part of a community has an interdependent function.
Allegory — The belly and bodily members represent political and social groups, especially rulers and subjects or employers and workers.
Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is to teach a practical moral lesson about cooperation, mutual obligation, and the consequences of refusing necessary roles.
Political Satire — The fable comments on government, social hierarchy, taxation, labor, and the relationship between rulers and the governed through ironic comparison.

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The Members and the Belly 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, Allegory, Didactic Literature, Political Satire, Verse Narrative
Length: 808 words
Structure: 1 section, 7 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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