REYNARD THE FOX 



681 



the story are true and realistic ; and the story is told 

 without any other obvious purpose beyond that of 

 affording honest amusement. These features do 

 not, however, characterise all the versions : some 

 have been clearly written for a satirical purpose, 

 some are loosely -con nee ted strings of ill-told adven- 

 tures, others drag out a long and weary length 

 through innumerable indifferent verses, whilst in 

 others still the characters are simply men disguised 

 as animals. The earliest versions were in Latin ; 

 but they seem to have been soon supplanted by 

 French in the 12th century, and in their new dress 

 the stories attained a much wider popularity. 

 Since the beginning of the 16th century nearly all 

 the editions printed can be traced back to one of 

 two sources, a Flemish or a Low German, both of 

 which, however, are based upon French forms of the 

 epic. The task of tracing the connections between 

 the numerous versions that exist in the different 

 tongues is one of great complexity and difficulty. 

 It will suffice in this place to enumerate the more 

 important, with mention of one or more trust- 

 worthy recent editions. The best Latin version, 

 Iiengrimits (ed. by Mone as Reinardus Vulpes, 

 Stuttgart, 1832 ; and by Voigt, Halle, 1884), which 

 possesses considerable literary merit, was written 

 in Flanders about 1 146-48 by an unknown author. 

 The Isengrimits printed in J. Grimm's Beinhart 

 Fuchs ( Berlin, 1834 ) is not an older, but a later and 

 abbreviated, form of the same poem. The best 

 French versions that survive were edited by Meon 

 (4 v-ols. Paris, 1826), with a supplement by Cha- 

 baille (1835), and by Martin (4 vols. Strasburg, 

 1882-88). They were written between the middle 

 of the 13th and the middle of the 14th centurv, and 

 run to enormous length, the separate cycles or 

 groupings of the episodes being called ' branches. ' 

 Meon's work includes three cycles : ( 1 ) Roman du 

 Renart, apparently the work of three if not more 

 authors, Pierre de St Cloud, a priest of Lacroix in 

 Brie, and a Norman priest Robert de Lison ; (2) 

 Le Oouronnement de Renart, attributed to Marie 

 de France; and (3) Renart le A'ovvel, by Jacque- 

 mars Gielee of Lille, about 1290. The last two 

 are transparent satires upon certain of the monastic 

 orders. There is a fourth cycle, a voluminous 

 compilation or imitation by a priest of the neigh- 

 bourhood of Troyes, made near the middle of the 

 14th century, and entitled Le Renart Contrefait 

 (ed. F. Wolf, Vienna, 1861). The oldest extant 

 High German version, Reinhart Vuhs or Fuchs 

 (ed. Reissenberger, Halle, 1886), more usually 

 called Reineke Fuchs, was adapted by some one 

 unknown, early in the 13th century, from a 

 still older version, Isengrimes N6t, itself a trans- 

 lation made from old French sources about 1180 

 by an Alsatian, Heinrich der Glichesaere. The 

 Flemish version which has been the basis of most 

 of the translations, continuations, and editions 

 that have been made since the invention of print- 

 ing U entitled Reinaert de Vos ( ed. Martin, Pader- 

 born, 1874). It was written by one William, but 

 whether William de Matoc, William Utenhove, or 

 more probably an unknown William, is uncertain, 

 and dates apparently from the middle of the 13th 

 century. The source upon which it is built is the 

 nineteenth ' branch ' in the Roman de Renart ( last 

 in vol. i. of Meon). The text that has been almost 

 exclusively used in the later translations, &c., is 

 that of a second edition, deviating in some respects 

 from William's own, notably in the infusion of a 

 didactic, satirical tendency ; the author of this 

 second edition is not known. It was from a prose 

 version of this second edition, published at Gouda 

 in 1479, that Caxton made his translation of The 

 History of Reynard the Fox ( 1481 ; reprinted Edin. 

 1884). Upon this same edition was based the Low 

 German version, Reinke de Vos (ed. Prien, Halle, 



1887), which has been more often translated 

 perhaps than any other version. W r ho the Low 

 German translator was is not known, in spite of 

 the question having greatly exercised many special- 

 ists. The editio princeps of Reinke is that of 

 Liibeck ( 1498 ), and next to it stands that of 

 Rostock (1517). There are Danish (by A. H. 

 Weigere, Liibeck, 1555), Swedish (Stockholm, 

 1621), and several other High and Low German 

 editions, for which, however, see the bibliography 

 prefixed to Prien's Reinke. Nevertheless special 

 mention must be made of Gottsched's High German 

 prose version (1752) and Goethe's well-known 

 High German poem, with Kaulbach's scarcely less 

 known illustrations to the same. Popular High 

 German translations are contained in Simrock's 

 Deutsche Volksbiicher (vol. i. 1845) and Marbach's 

 Volksbucher ( vols. xv.-xvii. ). 



The outline of the story, according to the Flem- 

 ish Reinaert, is as follows : Nobel the Lion, king 

 of animals, was holding court one Easter-tide. All 

 the animals, great and small, came and paid 

 homage to him except Reynard the Fox. Several 

 amongst them complained of the knaveries of Rey- 

 nard, the loudest being Isengrim the Wolf, Rey- 

 nard's old comrade and enemy. He was followed 

 by Tilrt the Cat and Pancer the Horse ; but Grim- 

 bart the Badger spoke up for his uncle Reynard. 

 Then came Chanticleer the Cock, bringing his dead 

 daughter slain by Reynard. For this and his 

 other misdeeds the Fox shall, it is resolved, be 

 cited to appear l>efore the Lion and be tried. 

 Bruin the Bear is sent to summon him. Reynard 

 received him with soft words, told him of some 

 honey hidden in a split tree, and contrived to get 

 Bruin caught fast in the cleft of the tree ; there 

 the peasants found him and nearly beat him to 

 death, but at last he got away and went back to 

 court. The next messenger sent was Tibert the 

 Cat. Him, however, Reyiiard persuaded to catch 

 mice in a place where a noose hung, in which the 

 Cat got caught ; and he too was terribly beaten 

 before he got away. At last Grimbart the Badger 

 offered to undertake the office of messenger ; and 

 he persuaded Reynard to go with him to court. 

 On the way the Fox makes a sort of private confes- 

 sion of his rascalities and misdeeds to his relative 

 the Badger, especially of the tricks he has played 

 off upon the Wolf. The animals again came forward 

 with their accusations. Reynard defended himself, 

 but was condemned to death. As he was about to 

 be hanged on the gallows, he begged leave to make 

 a public confession of his evil deeds. In the course 

 or his speech he dropped a hint that he knew 

 where an immense treasure was hidden, and then, 

 at the Lion's request, tells all about it. His father, 

 old Reynard, and Isengrim the Wolf, and Bruin 

 the Bear had conspired together to slay the Lion 

 and make Bruin king in his stead ; but he ( Reynard ) 

 had stolen their treasure, with which they thought 

 to hire soldiers, and had gone and hidden it. He 

 could not suffer the noble Lion to be slain and the 

 wicked Bear to be made king in his place. The 

 Lion thereupon pardoned him, and caused Bruin 

 and Isengrim to be seized and evilly entreated. 

 But when he asked Reynard to go and show him 

 where the treasure was, Reynard excused himself, 

 saying he was under an oath to make a pilgrimage 

 to Rome. The Lion then let him go ; and Reynard, 

 taking with him Cuwaert the Hare and Belin the 

 Ram, set out on his pilgrimage. On the way he 

 passed his own home, and induced Cuwaert to go into 

 the house with him, and there killed him. And he 

 put his head in a satchel (made from the skin of 

 the Bear) and g^ave it to Belin, and bade him carry 

 it back to the Lion, telling him it contained valuable 

 letters. When the Lion saw Cuwaert's head he 

 was exceeding wroth, and bade them let the Wolf 



