The rooster and the pearl
The rooster and the pearl (French Le Coq et la Perle ) is the 20th fable in the first book of the collection of fables by Jean de La Fontaine .
He uses a template from Phaedrus , in whose Latin fable a rooster tries to eat something and in the process scratches a pearl out of the dung. The rooster then says to the pearl that it is of no use to him, just as it is of no use to her. In conclusion, Phaedrus adds that this also applies to readers who do not understand him.
But La Fontaine's rooster carries the pearl straight to the jeweler and wants a millet grain for it, and acts just like a fool who inherits a valuable codex , takes it to the bookseller and is happy to get at least a small ducat for it. The real joke and the deeper irony are that the rooster and the fool reveal their inability to appreciate higher values through their comparatively clever ideas; indeed, that their stupidity only comes to light through their cleverness.
The motive of exchanging a valuable thing for an inferior one can also be found in the fairy tale of Hans im Glück .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean de La Fontaine : Fables Choisies. Livre Premier. Fable XX. Le Coq et La Perle. Landesbibliothek Oldenburg , p. 40 , accessed on July 9, 2020 (French).
- ^ Karl Vossler : La Fontaine and his fable work . Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1919, p. 107 .