The Old Cat and the Young Mouse

Name: The Old Cat and the Young Mouse
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

La Fontaine, seeking a fable for a youthful prince under the title “The Cat and Mouse,” considers several possible meanings before finding his subject in the encounter between a young mouse and the veteran cat Raminagrobis, a feared destroyer of rats and household vermin. Captured by the cat, the inexperienced mouse appeals for mercy. He argues that he is too small to burden the wealthy household, requiring only a grain of wheat or a nut for food. Since he is thin, he asks to be spared until he has grown fat, when the cat’s heirs might profit from him instead. Raminagrobis rejects the plea with contempt. He says that asking an old cat to pardon a mouse is as useless as addressing the deaf or the dead. Invoking the established law by which a mouse caught by a cat must die, he tells his victim to make his appeal to the sisterhood who handle thread and shears. The fable’s moral is that youth expects to achieve its desires and assumes others share its own spirit, while old age is not inclined to mercy.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1694 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction · 669 words

First lines

To Monseigneur, The Duke De Bourgogne; Who Had Requested Of M. De La Fontaine A Fable Which Should Be Called "The Cat And The Mouse. "

To please a youthful prince, whom Fame / A temple in my writings vows, / What fable answers to the name, / "The Cat and Mouse? " / Shall I in verse the fair present, / With softest look but hard intent, / Who serves the hearts her charms entice / As does the cat its captive mice? / Or make my subject Fortune's sport? / She treats the friends that make her court, / And follow closest her advice, / As treats the cat the silly mice.

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Genres

Fable — The work is a short animal tale in which a cat and mouse enact a moral lesson, ending with an explicit statement about youthful hope and the harshness of old age.
Didactic Literature — Its central purpose is instruction: the mouse's naïve appeal for mercy and the cat's refusal teach a cautionary lesson about misplaced expectations.
Animal Fiction — Anthropomorphized animals speak, reason, plead, and represent recognizable human attitudes and social types.
Moral Allegory — The cat and mouse operate beyond their literal roles, embodying predatory power, innocence, inexperience, and the failure of appeals to entrenched cruelty.

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The Old Cat and the Young Mouse is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1694 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1694 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Animal Fiction, Moral Allegory, Narrative Poetry
Length: 669 words
Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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