The Monkey and the Cat is best known as a fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine under the title ''Le Singe et le Chat'' that appeared in the second collection of his ''Fables'' in 1679 (IX.17). Although there is no evidence that the story existed before the 15th century, it began to appear in collections of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to ...

from the 17th century but is not included in the

Perry Index The Perry Index is a widely used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. The index was created by Ben Edwin Perry, a professor of classics at the Un ...

. There are popular idioms derived from it in both English and French with the general meaning of being the dupe of another (e.g., a cat's-paw). Usage of these and reference to the fable have been particularly employed in (although not limited to) political contexts.

The fable and its history

In La Fontaine's telling, Bertrand the monkey persuades Raton the cat to pull chestnuts from the embers amongst which they are roasting, promising him a share. As the cat scoops them from the fire one by one, burning his paw in the process, the monkey gobbles them up. They are disturbed by a maid entering and the cat gets nothing for its pains. It is from this fable that the French get their idiom '' Tirer les marrons du feu'', meaning to act as someone's dupe or, deriving from that, to benefit from the dirty work of others. It is also the source of the English idiom 'a cat's paw', defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as 'one used by another as a tool'. There are earlier idiomatic allusions in 15th century Burgundian sources.

Jean Miélot Jean Miélot, also Jehan, (born Gueschard, Picardy, died 1472) was an author, translator, manuscript illuminator, scribe and priest, who served as secretary to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy from 1449 to Philip's death in 1467, and then to hi ...

records the saying ''c'est un bon jeu de chat et singe'' (it's a cat and monkey game) in his ''Proverbes'' (1456) and there is another apparent reference to the story in a poem in

Jean Molinet Jean Molinet (1435 – 23 August 1507) was a French poet, chronicler, and composer. He is best remembered for his prose translation of ''Roman de la rose''. Born in Desvres, which is now part of France, he studied in Paris. He entered the s ...

's ''Faictz et dictz''. In the following century,

Jean-Antoine de Baïf Jean Antoine de Baïf (; 19 February 1532 – 19 September 1589) was a French poet and member of the '' Pléiade''. Life Jean Antoine de Baïf was born in Venice, the natural son of the scholar Lazare de Baïf, who was at that time French amb ...

has the version ''faire comme le singe, tirer les marrons du feu avec la patte du chat'' in his ''Mimes, enseignements et proverbes'' (1575) and

John Florio Giovanni Florio (1552–1625), known as John Florio, was an English linguist, poet, writer, translator, lexicographer, and royal language tutor at the Court of James I. He is recognised as the most important Renaissance humanist in England. F ...

includes the saying in his collection of idioms ''Second Frutes'' (1591). However, the earliest surviving texts relating the story date from the mid-16th century and some of these have a puppy in place of a cat as the monkey's victim. Johannes Sambucus reports it as happening recently in the Dutch town of

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil ...

in his ''Emblemata'' (1564). The Latin poem there continues, 'A small monkey gave us an example noteworthy and amusing for its cunning. For, when he saw the chestnuts buried in the hearth, he began to brush the ash aside but, afraid of the burning coals, he suddenly seized the foot of a sleeping puppy and stole it out.' The fable i
Internet Archive
The same story involving a sleeping dog appeared in other

emblem book An emblem book is a book collecting emblems (allegorical illustrations) with accompanying explanatory text, typically morals or poems. This category of books was popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Emblem books are collection ...

s, including the ''Choice of Emblemes'' by the English poet

Geoffrey Whitney Geoffrey (then spelt Geffrey) Whitney (c. 1548 – c. 1601) was an English poet, now best known for the influence on Elizabethan writing of the ''Choice of Emblemes'' that he compiled. Life Geoffrey Whitney, the eldest son of a father of the sa ...

(1586), who draws a political lesson from it in common with the other emblematists: ::Which shewes, when as ambition fowle doth prick ::The hartes of kinges, then there is no remorce, ::But oftentimes, to aunswere theire desire, ::The subjectes feele both famine, sworde and fire. A version in which a cat figures is in Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder's illustrated book of fables, ''De warachtighe fabulen der dieren'' (True animal fables, Bruges, 1567), with Flemish verse provided by the foremost Netherlandic emblematist . A French version of the ''Fabulen'' was published in 1578 under the title ''Esbatement moral des animaux''. Gheeraert's figure had a number of adaptations in the following century. The Dutch poet

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still mos ...

published an emblematic collection based on his prints, ''Vorstelijke Warande der Dieren'' (Princely pleasure-ground of beasts, Amsterdam 1617), in which the poem ''Den aap en de katte'' appears. In England the scene was reused as one of twelve circular engravings, intended for trenchers, made in 1630–36. The text around the edge of the picture reads: "The Monkey seing nuts in fire Doth force the Cat to plucke them neir; Which showeth the Envious doth not care, Whose House do burne so they have share". In Germany it was incorporated into a view of the Schloss Johannisberg wine estate in 's ''Thesaurus Philopoliticus'' (later known as the ''Sciographia Cosmica'') of 1623. In this combination of the Emblem book and collection of town plans, the scene of the fable takes place on the lower right and is accompanied by verses illustrating the Latin moral, ''Alterius Damno Quaeris Lucrum'' (Another is duped to benefit the greedy). Elsewhere in Europe, the monkey and cat version appears in Simone Majoli's Latin work ''Dies caniculares'' (1588), where it is told of the antics of the pet monkey of

Pope Julius II Pope Julius II ( la, Iulius II; it, Giulio II; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope or th ...

at the start of the century; a little later the story appeared as ''Un Singe et un Chat'' in Philippe Deprez's collection of a hundred verse fables, ''Le Théâtre des animaux'' (Paris, 1595). It is from one or other of these last two that La Fontaine is said to have adapted his story. Even before he popularised it, the earlier version had been used by two artists: the Roman painter

Tommaso Salini Tommaso Salini (1575 – 13 September 1625), also known as Mao Salini, was an Italian painter of the early- Baroque period, active in Rome. He is best remembered for defending his friend, Giovanni Baglione, in his libel suit against Caravaggio a ...

and the Dutch animal painter

Abraham Hondius Abraham Danielsz. Hondius (about 1631 – 17 September 1691) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his depictions of animals. He was the son of a city stonemason, Daniel Abramsz de Hondt. Hondius was born in Rotterdam and trained under Piet ...

. Both of these illustrate the detail that La Fontaine chose to modify, in which the monkey uses the cat's paw to poke out the chestnuts against its will. A third version of the story, yet again quoted as happening recently, was contained in

Gemelli Careri Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725) was a seventeenth-century Italian adventurer and traveler. He was among the first Europeans to tour the world by securing passage on ships involved in the carrying trade; his travels, undertaken for pl ...

's ''Voyage round the world'' (1695) and related by 'the admiral of the Portuguese fleet in India' as witnessed by him. One of the channels through which the fable was taken to be Aesop's was its inclusion among the hydraulic statues in

the labyrinth of Versailles The labyrinth of Versailles was a hedge maze in the Gardens of Versailles with groups of fountains and sculptures depicting Aesop's fables André Le Nôtre initially planned a maze of unadorned paths in 1665, but in 1669, Charles Perrault advi ...

in 1669. These were accompanied by quatrains by

Isaac de Benserade Isaac de Benserade (; baptized 5 November 161310 October 1691) was a French poet. Born in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy, his family appears to have been connected with Richelieu, who bestowed on him a pension of 600 ''livres''. He began his liter ...

, which subsequently appeared in ''Les fables d'Ésope, mises en françois, avec le sens moral en quatre vers, & des figures à chaque fable'' (Aesop's fables in French, with a verse commentary and illustrations, 1709). Here the initial quatrain refers to the version where force is used ('The monkey looks sprightly/ but the cat doesn't take lightly/ having its paw acquired/ to pull chestnuts from the fire') while the prose telling which follows is of La Fontaine's version. The statue accompanied by De Benserade's verse is described in Daniel Bellamy's 18th century description of the labyrinth: 'Upon a shell composed of brass, and supported by a column erected in the antique taste with the same metal, the spectator is amused with the resemblance of a large fire, from whence issues a torrent of water. Here a monkey appears with a smiling countenance, grasping a cat's paw with his own, whilst the latter is seemingly struggling to get loose.' It was a version in which the monkey uses force that was painted by

Edwin Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

in 1824 and by his 19th century imitator (see the gallery below). When the former painting was put up for auction in January 2011, U.S. Christie's recorded that 'The subject of the present painting is taken from the ancient fable traditionally ascribed to Aesop'. While this is far from true, the fable had been appearing in collections of Aesop's Fables since the 17th century. Where the story is ascribed to Aesop, it is in the version where the monkey forcibly uses the cat's paw. La Fontaine's modified version of 1679 can only be regarded as original for the detail of persuasion rather than compulsion. It was translated by neither of La Fontaine's main 18th century English translators,

Bernard de Mandeville Bernard Mandeville, or Bernard de Mandeville (; 15 November 1670 – 21 January 1733), was an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, political economist and satirist. Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, he lived most of his life in England and used English for ...

(1704) and Charles Denis (1754), but was ascribed to him in the verse ''Flowers of Fable'' in 1832. Charles H. Bennett also included the story in his ''The Fables of Aesop and Others, translated into Human Nature'' (1857) under the title of "The Cat's Paw". Referring back to the plot of '' Oliver Twist'', Bennett's cat acts as thief's apprentice to the monkey.

Meaning and use

La Fontaine applies the fable to statecraft, :No more are the princes, by flattery paid :For furnishing help in a different trade, :And burning their fingers to bring :More power to some mightier king, and was later followed in this by political cartoonists. One English example, dating from 1766 and titled "The Cat's Paw", satirises a political alliance of the time and represents the

Earl of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart was the member of a family that ...

as a monkey, using the paw of the feline

Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Pitt, of Burto ...

to extract chestnuts from a fire. Use of the idiom at this date is one of the earliest examples in English. The satirist Peter Pindar ( John Wolcot) continued the political use of the fable by including a lengthy reference to it in his ode "To the Chancellor of the Exchequer" (1801), in the context of the argument over

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

. Soon after, the same issue was illustrated in a caricature from 1804 titled "The monkey and the cat's paw, a fable from Esop". The cat's paw title was to be used once again in a cartoon relating to the political maneuvering that preceded the passing of the English Reform Act in 1832. In this

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded hi ...

is the cat, being coaxed by the bewigged Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham, depicted as a monkey seated at his side, to pull the hot iron of reform from a blazing fire. In this case the reference is to La Fontaine's version of the story. Another contemporary source to draw a parallel between the passing of the bill and the fable was the satirical paper '' Figaro in London''. There the claim is made that the Irish members of Parliament halted agitations for wider representation while the Reform Bill was being passed and were now cheated of a similar reward. The political leader

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

is likened to the cat in the fable and the report is followed by the poem, "The grey monkey and the Irish cat", concluding with the lines "And thus 'twill always be, whoever lingers/ About the grate is sure to burn his fingers". The idiom of getting one's fingers burned alludes, according to ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', "to taking chestnuts from the fire". In France the fable was often used to satirise the ambitious sacrificing the life of others for their own ends. The cartoon ''Bertrand avec Raton s'amusent à tirer les marrons du feu'', dating from Napoleonic times, pictures a red uniformed monkey marshall guiding a blue-uniformed infantryman in the task. The theme reappeared in the broadside '' La Caricature'' with the title "The monkey and the cat: a military pastime". Another cartoon has a marquis urging a barefoot patriotic workman to take his place on a republican barricade, while chuckling to himself that soon the artistocratic exiles will return with their allies to impose a renewed feudalism. This too is titled "Bertrand et Raton". The French dramatist

Eugène Scribe Augustin Eugène Scribe (; 24 December 179120 February 1861) was a French dramatist and librettist. He is known for writing "well-made plays" ("pièces bien faites"), a mainstay of popular theatre for over 100 years, and as the librettist of ma ...

gave the same title to his social comedy of 1833. Subtitled ''l'art de conspirer'' (the art of conspiracy), it has also been translated as 'The school for politicians' and is a reworking of a play of the same name by

Louis-Benoît Picard Louis-Benoît Picard (29 July 1769 in Paris – 31 December 1828 in Paris) was a French playwright, actor, novelist, poet and music director.Jean Gourret, '' Ces hommes qui ont fait l'Opéra'', 1984, p. 106-107. Biography Son of a lawyer, ...

(1805). It is ostensibly based on an episode of Danish history and concerns a bourgeois dupe caught up in political intrigue. In reality it satirises the

July Revolution The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution (french: révolution de Juillet), Second French Revolution, or ("Three Glorious ays), was a second French Revolution after the first in 1789. It led to the overthrow of King ...

of 1830. In the Netherlands the words of Vondel's ''Den aap en de katte'' were set for a cappella male chorus by Sem Dresden to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Dutch Choir in 1953. In the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the closing moral that rulers are careless of the suffering of others in fulfilling their ambition had special resonance.

Gallery

File:Non dolo sed virtute.jpg, Joannes Sambucus, 1567: the version with a dog File:Tomasso Salini Mao Una fábula de Esopo. El gato, el mono y las castañas.jpg, Painting by

(Mao), 17th century File:Marcus Gheeraerts monkey and cat.jpg, English engraving for trencher, 1630–36, based on a Gheeraerts illustration File:The Monkey and the Cat by Abraham Hondius.jpg, ''The Monkey and the Cat'', 1670, by

File:Le singe et le chat Labyrinthe.jpg, A hydraulic statue in the Versailles labyrinth, 1675 File:Le singe et le chat.jpg,

Jean-Baptiste Oudry Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Ch ...

's illustration of La Fontaine's fable, 1729/34 File:Oudry monkey.jpg, Jean-Baptiste Oudry's painting of La Fontaine's fable, 1740s File:Edwin Henry Landseer Cat's Paw MIA 8247.jpg, ''The Cat's Paw'',

Edwin Henry Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

, c. 1824 File:Monkey business.jpg, ''Monkey Business'' by a follower of

File:Decamps singe.jpg, ,

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (March 3, 1803August 22, 1860) was a French painter noted for his Orientalist works. Life Decamps was born in Paris. In his youth he travelled in the East, and reproduced Oriental life and scenery with a bold fidelity to ...

, 1847 File:The catpaw by Charles H. Bennett.JPG, From ''The Fables of Aesop and Others, Translated into Human Nature'', Charles H. Bennett, 1857 File:Le Singe et le Chat.jpg,

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist, as a printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravin ...

's illustration of La Fontaine's fable, 1867

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey and the Cat, The La Fontaine's Fables Fictional cats Fictional monkeys Literary duos Metaphors referring to cats Metaphors referring to monkeys