The old cat and the young mouse
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The old cat and the young mouse (French: Le vieux chat et la jeune souris ) is the fifth fable from the twelfth and final book of the Fables Choisies collection , Mises En Vers by Jean de La Fontaine .
The fable is preceded by the four-stanza dedication with the title A monseigneur le duc de bourgogne to the Duc of Bourgogne , who ordered the fable poet to write a fable called Le Chat et la Souris (The Cat and the Mouse). In this dedication, the poet emphasizes his subordinate position by repeatedly emphasizing the power imbalance between himself and the young prince. This can be seen as a successful attempt to at least partially preserve artistic freedom under the given power relations. La Fontaine extends the title requested by the prince and mentioned in the dedication in “Le vieux chat et la jeune souris” (The old cat and the young mouse) in order to show the contrast between old and young.
The actual fable then tells of an inexperienced mouse who asks in vain for mercy from the old cat. The moral is:
“Young people are flattered that they can do anything;
Age is always merciless. "
It is true that the poet identifies himself as the recipient of orders with the mouse, but because of his age and experience he would be entitled to the role of the cat, which pays no attention to the requests of young people.
Individual evidence
- ↑ La Fontaine, Jean de: Fables Choisies: Mises En Vers. 1786, Retrieved December 28, 2019 .
- ↑ https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/blbihd/content/pageview/5199253 pp. 306-309
- ↑ Philipp Stoellger: Languages of Power: Gestures of empowerment and disempowerment in text and interpretation . Königshausen & Neumann, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8260-3734-4 , p. 65 ff . ( google.de [accessed December 28, 2019]).