Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine

In Short

Across three playful and sharp narratives, ordinary domestic life transforms into a theatrical playground of wit and deception. A clever muleteer mimics a king to visit a queen, a husband masterminds a clever alibi to protect a servant girl from a prying neighbor, and three gossips engage in an elaborate wager to outwit their husbands through staged trysts and enchanted trees. These lighthearted tales explore human folly, the art of disguise, and the perpetual game of wits between spouses, enduring through their lively storytelling and timeless exploration of marital cunning.

The Story

The collection opens with the tale of King Agiluf of Lombardy and his exceptionally beautiful queen, Teudelingua. A handsome, witty muleteer falls hopelessly in love with the queen and resolves to risk everything for her. Knowing the king's discreet nighttime routine—slipping into the queen's room wearing a single night-gown while attendants sleep—the muleteer adopts the exact disguise and successfully gains entry to the royal bedchamber. Leaving before dawn, he narrowly misses King Agiluf, who visits shortly after and notices the queen's exhaustion from royal intimacy. Suspicious, the king sneaks into the stables to find the culprit by his racing pulse. Finding the nervous muleteer, the king snips a lock of hair from his forehead as a mark. The quick-witted muleteer immediately retaliates by cutting the front hair of all fifteen stablemates. When morning arrives, a bewildered King Agiluf finds every muleteer equally shorn and leaves the mystery unsolved, concluding fifteen men must have satisfied his queen.

The narrative shifts to a country estate where a master flirts with his lively servant girl in the garden. Observed by a notoriously prying, envious neighbor from a window, the quick-thinking master rushes inside to wake his wife, dragging her to the garden to reenact the exact same playful romps. Later, when the neighbor visits the wife to indignantly expose the servant's supposed immorality, the wife calmly insists that it was she herself playing those games with her husband. Trapped by the detailed descriptions of flannel petticoats and garden positions, the frustrated neighbor finally concedes defeat, leaving the innocent servant girl fully justified and securely employed.

Finally, three gossips meet over wine to wager on who can best deceive their husbands. The first disguises her young lover as a new maid. When the husband tries to share a bed with the "maid," the wife intervenes, feigns righteous fury, and takes the servant into her own room to protect the secret while they continue their romance at night. The second gossip enlists a strong butler stationed up a pear tree. The butler pretends to witness the master and mistress embracing on the lawn. When the bewildered husband climbs the tree to verify the view, the butler immediately embraces the wife below, convincing the husband that the tree itself is magically enchanted. They promptly chop down the tree to end the curse. The third gossip ties a pack-thread from her toe to the street door, letting her lover in while her husband spends the night guarding the entrance. Eventually, a servant pulls the string to trigger a chaotic confrontation, exposing a harmless indoor romance and resulting in a happy marriage for the maid and valet. The three gossips present their cases to a judge named Macae, who finds the decision too difficult, leaving the ultimate verdict hanging.

How It Unfolds

The royal imitation A dashing, good-humored muleteer falls deeply in love with the Lombard queen and decides to mimic the king's nocturnal habits to gain secret access to her chamber. He slips into the palace undetected, enjoying a wonderful night of passion while the weary king rests elsewhere. This bold endeavor sets the tone for a series of clever domestic deceptions.

The clipped token Suspecting foul play, King Agiluf creeps into the dark stables at night and snips a lock of hair from the nervous muleteer's head to identify him. The clever youth thwarts this plan by cutting the front hair of every other muleteer, leaving the king utterly baffled when he sees fifteen shorn men the next morning.

The garden alibi A wealthy master flirts with his buxom servant girl in the garden under the watchful eye of a curious neighbor. To save the innocent girl from public scandal, the master quickly recreates the entire scene with his wife, enabling her to insist the neighbor simply mistook the wife for the servant during their morning stroll.

The wager among friends Three cheerful gossips gather over wine and agree to a lighthearted contest to see who can successfully outwit their respective husbands. They hatch elaborate, daring schemes involving disguised lovers, seemingly enchanted pear trees, and ingenious pack-threads tied directly to bedroom doors to manipulate their partners.

The enchanted tree One witty gossip uses a strong butler to trick her trusting husband into believing a garden pear tree causes optical illusions of romantic trysts. The husband climbs the tree, watches the butler embrace his wife from above, and readily orders the tree chopped down to stop the supposed magic.

The hanging judgment After staging elaborate nighttime intrusions and clever pack-thread alarms, the three gossips present their secret exploits to an impartial judge named Macae. The judge finds the intricate web of domestic trickery far too complex to untangle, leaving the famous wager permanently unresolved and hanging in suspense without a definitive victor.

The People

King Agiluf wants to maintain royal dignity and uncover the mysterious interloper who invaded his bedchamber, but his sophisticated traps are repeatedly outsmarted by a nameless muleteer who simply wants to satisfy his audacious romantic desires despite his humble birth. The muleteer navigates these dangerous waters through quick thinking, ending up safely anonymous among a sea of shorn stablemates.

The master and his servant girl want to enjoy lighthearted romantic games without interference, but a prying, envious neighbor stands in their way by threatening public scandal. With the help of the master's clever wife—who wants to protect her household's peace—they successfully outmaneuver the neighbor, leaving the servant girl fully justified, vindicated, and securely keeping her position.

Among the three gossips, each woman wants to prove her superiority in outwitting her husband. The first gossip wants clandestine romance and achieves it by disguising her lover as a maid, aided by her compliant husband who ultimately remains blissfully clueless. The second gossip wants freedom from suspicion and uses her butler to trick her gullible husband into believing a pear tree is magically enchanted, resulting in the tree being chopped down. The third gossip uses a clever pack-thread scheme to slip away, while her husband fruitlessly guards the door all night. Together, these women present their cases to the arbiter Macae, though they ultimately end up in a perpetual stalemate as the judge leaves the wager permanently undecided.

In Its Own Voice

Reflecting on the irresistible power of passion and how easily ordinary people master romantic wiles, the narrator notes the limitations of formal education compared to desire.

Whate'er stupidity we may discern, / His pupils more within a day can learn, / Than MASTERS knowledge in the schools can gain, / Though they in study should ten years remain;

Describing a moment of sudden panic when an envious neighbor spots a playful garden tryst from a nearby window, the master immediately recognizes the danger.

Said he, by heav'ns! our frolicking is seen, / By that old haggard, envious, prying quean; / But do not heed it; instantly he chose / To run and wake his wife, who quickly rose;--

When the gullible husband climbs a pear tree to investigate an apparent romantic sighting below, the crafty butler seizes the moment to embrace the lady.

At sight of this the husband gave a yell: / Made haste to reach the ground, and nearly fell; / Such liberties he wish'd at once to stop, / Since what he'd seen had nearly made him drop.

What It's Really About

Beneath its lighthearted surface, the collection explores the eternal battle of wits between husbands and wives, questioning traditional hierarchies of power and intelligence within marriage. The text argues that social rank and formal status grant no immunity to human foolishness, contrasting the genuine cleverness of humble servants and wives against the blind gullibility of powerful monarchs and husbands. It probes the nature of perception versus reality—how easily human senses can be manipulated by suggestion, desire, or fear, whether through a shorn lock of hair, an alleged enchanted tree, or a pack-thread tied to a door. Ultimately, it questions who truly holds the upper hand in domestic affairs when cunning and adaptability override formal authority.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate classic satire, playful irony, and briskly paced narrative verse will find much to love in these witty adaptations. Reading it feels like listening to an engaging, mischievous storyteller recount scandalous neighborhood gossip with a knowing smirk and elegant rhythm. What stays with you is the sheer audacity of the characters and the delightful subversion of pompous authority. However, modern readers should approach with realistic expectations regarding its period style. The excerpts reflect eighteenth-century English rhyming couplets that can occasionally feel formal or stilted, alongside antiquated period attitudes toward gender, fidelity, and class where women are often cast as clever manipulators and men as gullible dupes. Furthermore, some modern audiences might find the repetitive focus on marital deception and light erotic intrigue somewhat narrow in scope. Yet, for those willing to engage with its classical verse translations and lighthearted cynicism, the book offers a sparkling, sharply observant window into human nature that remains surprisingly fresh and entertaining centuries later.