The Monkey and the Cat by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Monkey and the Cat
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

Sly Bertrand, a monkey, and Ratto, a cat, live together as mischievous servants and lodgers, blamed for every household disorder. Bertrand is thievish, while Ratto cares more for cheese than for catching mice. Seeing chestnuts roasting by the fire, they desire both to eat them and to cause harm. Bertrand persuades Ratto to pull the chestnuts from the fire, pretending that he himself lacks the proper bodily ability for the task. Ratto obediently scratches aside the ashes and draws out the chestnuts one by one, burning his paw in the process, while Bertrand quickly eats every chestnut. When a servant girl enters, their theft is interrupted, and Ratto is left dissatisfied. The fable compares Ratto to princes who, won over by flattery, risk themselves to increase the power of a greater king.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1678 · Genre: Fable, Animal Fable, Moral Literature · 443 words

First lines

Sly Bertrand and Ratto in company sat, / (The one was a monkey, the other a cat,) / Co-servants and lodgers: / More mischievous codgers / Ne'er mess'd from a platter, since platters were flat. / Was anything wrong in the house or about it, / The neighbours were blameless, -- no mortal could doubt it; / For Bertrand was thievish, and Ratto so nice, / More attentive to cheese than he was to the mice. / One day the two plunderers sat by the fire, / Where chestnuts were roasting, with looks of desire. / To steal them would be a right noble affair. / A double inducement our heroes drew there -- / 'Twould benefit them, could they swallow their fill, / And then 'twould occasion to somebody ill. / Said Bertrand to Ratto, 'My brother, to-day / Exhibit your powers in a masterly way, / And take me these chestnuts, I pray. / Which were I but otherwise fitted / (As I am ingeniously witted) / For pulling things out of the flame, / Would stand but a pitiful game. ' / ''Tis done,' replied Ratto, all prompt to obey; / And thrust out his paw in a delicate way. / First giving the ashes a scratch, / He open'd the coveted batch; / Then lightly and quickly impinging, / He drew out, in spite of the singeing, / One after another, the chestnuts at last, -- / While Bertrand contrived to devour them as fast. / A servant girl enters. Adieu to the fun. / Our Ratto was hardly contented, says one. --

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Genres

Fable — The work is a short animal tale that uses a simple plot to convey a pointed moral about manipulation, flattery, and exploitation.
Animal Fable — Its principal characters are an anthropomorphic monkey and cat whose human-like greed, cunning, and gullibility represent recognizable human behaviors.
Moral Literature — The closing comparison explicitly broadens the animals' predicament into a lesson about people who suffer or labor for the advantage of powerful figures.
Satire — La Fontaine satirizes political dependence and courtly flattery by comparing princes who serve stronger kings to the cat burning its paw while the monkey takes the reward.

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The Monkey and the Cat 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, Animal Fable, Moral Literature, Satire, Allegory
Length: 443 words
Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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