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Revision as of 14:43, 16 January 2011
The Bell and the Cat, The Mice, the Bell, and the Cat, or The Mice in Council is a fable often attributed to Aesop but not recorded before the Middle Ages. It has been confused with the quite different fable of Classical origin titled The Cat and the Mice. In the classificatory system established for the fables by B. E. Perry, it is numbered 613, which is reserved for Mediaeval attributions outside the Aesopic canon.
Synopsis
The Fable concerns a group of mice who debate plans to nullify the threat of a marauding cat. One of them proposes placing a bell around its neck, so that they are warned of its approach. The plan is applauded by the others, until one mouse asks who will volunteer to place the bell on the cat. All then make excuses. The story is used to teach the wisdom of evaluating a plan not only on how desirable the outcome would be, but also on how it can be executed. It provides a moral lesson about the fundamental difference between ideas and their feasibility, and how this affects the value of a given plan.
The story gives rise to the colloquialism to bell the cat, which means to attempt, or agree to perform, an impossibly difficult task and is the basis of the historical cognomen for the Scottish nobleman, Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus. In 1482, at a meeting of nobles who wanted to depose and hang James III's favourite, Robert Cochrane, Lord Gray remarked, "'Tis well said, but wha daur bell the cat?" The challenge was accepted and successfully accomplished by the Earl of Angus. In recognition of this, he was always known afterwards as Archie Bell-the-cat.
Early versions and later interpretations
One of the earliest versions of the story appears as a parable critical of the clergy in Odo of Cheriton's Parabolae. Written around 1200, it was afterwards translated into Welsh, French and Spanish. Some time later the story is found in the work now referred to as Ysopet-Avionnet, which is largely made up of Latin poems by the 12th century Walter of England, followed by a French version dating from as much as two centuries later. It also includes four poems not found in Walter's Esopus; among them is the tale of "The Council of the Mice" (De muribus consilium facientibus contra catum). The author concludes with the scornful comment that laws are of no effect without the means of adequately enforcing them and that such parliamentry assemblies as he describes are like the proverbial mountain in labour that gives birth to a mouse.
The fable also appeared as a cautionary tale in Nicole Bozon's Anglo-Norman Contes Moralisés (1320), referring to the difficulty of curbing the outrages of superior lords. It was in this context too that the story of a parliament of rats and mice was retold in William Langland's allegorical poem Piers Plowman. The episode is said to refer to the Parliament of 1376 which attempted unsuccessfully to remedy popular dissatisfaction over the exactions made by nobles acting in the royal name.
These works suggest, if not the fable's English origin, then at least its continued popularity in England. It is only later that we find the story independently current in Europe. The Italian author Laurentius Abstemius made of it a Latin poem titled De muribus tintinnabulum feli appendere volentibus (The mice who wanted to bell the cat) in the late 15th century. A more popular version in Latin verse was written by Gabriele Faerno and printed posthumously in his Fabulae centum ex antiquis auctoribus delectae (100 delightful fables from ancient authors, Rome 1564), a work that was to be many times reprinted and translated up to start of the 19th century. Titled simply "The Council of the Mice", it comes to rest on the drily stated moral that 'a risky plan can have no good result'. A century later, Jean de la Fontaine made the tale even better known by including it among his Fables (1668) under much the same title (II.2). The first English collection to attribute the fable to Aesop was Francis Barlow's of 1687; in this there is a fine woodcut, followed by an 10-line verse synopsis by Aphra Behn with the punning conclusion
- Good council's easily given, but the effect
- Oft renders it uneasy to transact.
It is clear that in mediaeval times the fable was applied to political situations and that commentaries on it were sharply critical of the limited democratic processes of the day and their ability to resolve social conflict when class interests were at stake. This applies equally to the plot against the king's favourite in 15th century Scotland and the direct means that Archibald Douglas chose to resolve the issue. While none of the authors that used the fable actually incited revolution, it will be noted that the 1376 Parliament that Langland satirised was followed by Wat Tyler's revolt five years later and that Archibald Douglas went on to lead a rebellion against King James. In the meantime, the fangs of the fable were being drawn by European authors, who restricted their criticism to pusillanimous conduct in the face of rashly proposed solutions.
There still remains the perception of a fundamental opposition between consensus and individualism. This is addressed in the lyrics of "Bell the Cat", a performance put out on DVD by the Japanese rock band LM.C in 2007. This is the monologue of a house cat that wants to walk alone since "Society is by nature evil". It therefore refuses to conform and is impatient of restriction: “your hands hold on to everything – bell the cat”. While the lyric is sung in Japanese, the final phrase is in English. This is indicative of how influential animal fables of Western origin have become in Oriental societies that still appreciate such story-telling, recognising their ancient purpose of questioning and disrupting traditional social norms.
References
- Ben Edwin Perry (1965). Babrius and Phaedrus. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 487, no. 373. ISBN 0-674-99480-9.
- "To Bell the Cat" thefreedictionary.com. Accessed November 9, 2007.
- Alexander Hislop: The proverbs of Scotland, Edinburgh 1868, p.314,available at Google Books
- http://journeytothesea.com/christianizing-aesop-odo
- Ysopet-Avionnet, the Latin and French texts, University of Illinois 1919; fable LXII, pp.190-2; this is archived online
- Les contes moralisés de Nicole BozonParis, 1889, pp.144-5; archived here
- William’s Vision of Piers Plowman by William Langland, edited by Ben Byram-Wigfield (2006), Prologue, lines 146-181; online text here
- http://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/complaintlit/parliament.html
- Elizur Wright's translation
- http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/barlow/21.htm
- http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858822749
- Available on YouTube