In category ::: 17th century, 2nd half

The Tale of the Cock and the Fox is pointedly anti-clerical. This work, which is mentioned in sources as early as 1640, has survived in prose and verse redactions, and also in mixed and folk-tale versions. The oldest is the prose redaction. It parodies the subject of the religious legend. The main features of the plot in the religious legend (the sinning, followed by the sinner’s repentance, then salvation) are distorted here and become comic. The cock turns out to be a mock sinner (he is accused of polygamy), and his “most wise wife the fox” is a mock righteous person. What awaits the repentant cock is not salvation but destruction. The confessor in the Tale is replaced by a cunning mock confessor who is literally “dying for someone to eat”.

The parodied plot is supported by a parodied theological dispute: the cock and the fox quote the Scriptures in turn, competing in witty theological casuistry.

The comic situation created by The Tale of the Cock and the Fox is characteristic not only of Old Russian, but also of European culture.⁵¹ The early Middle Ages regarded the fox as the embodiment of the Devil. The Russian Physiologos and the European bestiaries explained this symbol as follows: the hungry fox pretends to be dead, but as soon as the hens and cock get near enough he tears them to pieces. Thomas Aquinas, interpreting the Old Testament text “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” (Song of Solomon, 2, 15), wrote that the foxes are Satan and the vines are Christ’s Church. From the twelfth century, after the appearance of the French Roman de Renart, a different interpretation began to prevail: the fox was considered the living embodiment of cunning, hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness. In the ornament of Gothic churches we find a fox preaching from a pulpit to hens or geese. The fox is often wearing a monk’s dress and is sometimes in bishop’s robes. These scenes originated in the story of Renardin, the son of the hero of the Roman de Renart, who flees from a monastery and lures geese by reading them “edifying” sermons. When the trusting and inquisitive listeners are close enough, Renardin gobbles them up.

The Russian Tale of the Cock and the Fox is familiar with both of these symbolical interpretations. The first (the fox as the Devil) is of secondary importance and is reflected directly in one sentence only: “The fox ground his teeth, and, casting a harsh look at the cock, like the Devil at a Christian, remembered the cock’s sins and grew angry with it.” An echo of this interpretation can be found in the fact that the fox is called “the most wise wife”. According to the mediaeval Christian tradition, the Devil can disguise himself as a “most wise wife” or “most wise maid”. The second interpretation (the fox as the hypocrite, depraved confessor, and false prophet) becomes an element in the structure of the plot and serves to produce a comic situation.