Puss in Boots (fairy tale)

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"Puss in Boots" is a European fairy tale, best known in the version collected by Charles Perrault in 1697 his Contes de ma mère l'Oye (Mother Goose Tales) as "The Master Cat".^[1] The tale of a cat helping an impoverished master attain wealth through its trickery is known in hundreds of variants.^[2]

The oldest known written variant comes from Giovanni Francesco Straparola, "Costantino Fortunato" in The Facetious Nights of Straparola^[3]. Some folklorists have argued that the abundance of oral versions after this written one points to an oral source to the tale, and the cat acts as a magical helper common in folklore.^[4] Others, however, believe that Straparola himself invented the story.^[5]

Another earlier version comes from 1634, by Giambattista Basile as "Gagliuso", also translated as "Pippo".^[6] Joseph Jacobs collected a variant, "The Earl of Cattenborough", in European Folk and Fairy Tales.^[7]

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Analysis 3 Adaptations 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The division of property after a miller's death leaves his youngest son with nothing but the granary cat. Disappointed, the son contemplates eating the animal, but the cat bargains with him, promising him riches in return for a bag and a pair of boots. Though dubious, the miller's son goes along with him, and provides the items.

Puss-in-Boots takes the bag and catches a succession of items of game - rabbits, partridges, etc. - which he takes to the palace and presents to the king as presents from his master, the "Marquis de Carabas". Eventually the cat learns that the king and his beautiful daughter will be travelling by the river road. Puss-in-Boots tells the miller's son (who is ignorant of all this) to go and bathe in the river at the time that the royal party is due to pass. The boy does so, and as he bathes the cat steals his clothes, and runs to the road calling for help for his master, the Marquis de Carabas, who is drowning. The boy is "rescued" from the river, and his lack of clothes is explained as the work of robbers. He is therefore wrapped in rich robes and driven off in the king's coach.

The cat speeds ahead of the king's party to the lands of a powerful ogre. He threatens the people working in its fields that they will be chopped to bits if they don't say that the fields belong to the Marquis of Carabas. As the king's coach reach the ogre's lands, the king asks after the ownership of the fields, and is told that they belong to the Marquis de Carabas. Puss-in-Boots goes ahead of the party, and confronts the ogre. He flatters the ogre on his magical shape-changing abilities and challenges him to turn into a mouse. The moment the ogre does so, Puss-in-Boots eats him, thus claiming the palace and lands in his master's name.

Upon reaching the ogre's palace, the royal party is welcomed by Puss-in-Boots in his master's name. The king marries the princess to the miller's son.

In Straparola's version, there is no ogre; the castle belongs to a nobleman who happened to die on a journey, and as consequence, the deceit is never revealed.

In Perrault's version, "Puss became a personage of great importance, and gave up hunting mice, except for amusement".

In Basile's and Jacobs's version, the miller's son had promised the cat to give him a funeral. The cat feigned death (in Basile's), or fell ill and looked dead (in Jacobs's). The miller's son went to throw the body in the trash. Angry, the cat rebuked him. In Basile's version, the cat, despite his pleas, left him; in Jacobs's, only after the miller's son summoned a doctor for her illness and pled with her did she agree to remain.

[edit] Analysis

According to the Aarne and Thompson classification system of folktales, "Puss in Boots" is of the type 545B, The Cat as Helper.

In many other variants of this type, such as Don Joseph Pear or How the Beggar Boy turned into Count Piro, the helper is a fox. In other variants, such as Lord Peter, the cat is female, and marries the hero after being disenchanted.^[8]

Compared to the rich materials provided in "Sleeping Beauty" or "Bluebeard", "Puss in Boots" is considerably more lighthearted in tone. Perrault was certainly known for his moralist tendencies, but if there is a lesson to be learned from "Puss in Boots" it seems to be that trickery and deceit pays off more rapidly (and handsomely) than do hard work and talent.

To some readers today, an ethically discordant note is struck by the cat threatening the peasants who work for the ogre, bullying them into saying that they work for the Marquis de Carabas. In a modern version, Puss in Boots instead strikes a deal with the peasants that if they call themselves the people of the Marquis de Carabas, then Puss will free them from the tyranny of the cruel ogre.

[edit] Adaptations

See also: Puss in Boots (disambiguation)

• Gustave Doré's illustrated version (see above) is well known for capturing the gently satirical tone of the story.
• In 1797 German writer Ludwig Tieck published Der gestiefelte Kater, a dramatic satire based on the Puss in Boots tale.
• The Russian composer César Cui (of French ancestry) composed a short children's opera on this subject in 1913. Puss in Boots was first performed in Rome in 1915, and has been something of a repertory item in Germany since at least the 1970s.
• In 1922 Walt Disney created a black and white silent short of the same name.
• Hayao Miyazaki participated in the 1969 Toei Animation production of Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko (Puss in Boots), providing key animation, designs, storyboards, image boards, and story ideas. It was directed by Kimio Yabuki, with a screenplay by Hisashi Inoue, a famous Japanese playwright, and animation supervision was carried out by longtime Miyazaki collaborator and mentor Yasuji Mori. Hayao Miyazaki also wrote and drew a comic version first serialized in Chuunichi Shimbun Nichiyou Ban (Cyuunichi Newspaper Sunday Version) to promote the film. Its main character, the cat Pero, was very popular and eventually became Toei's mascot.
• The Master Cat by David Garnett is a novel first published in 1974 which gives a more detailed account of the established story from Puss getting the boots to his eating the ogre. The second part of the book tells of Puss getting caught up in palace plots and intrigues of which he ultimately becomes the victim, by his own ungrateful master no less.
• In 1985 the family television series Faerie Tale Theatre produced a live-action adaptation starring Ben Vereen as Puss and Gregory Hines as the miller's son.
• A live action direct-to-video film adaptation was made in 1988, starring Christopher Walken as Puss and Jason Connery as the miller's son.
• Plaza Entertainment released an animated direct-to-video film called Puss in Boots in 1999.
• Puss in Boots appeared as a character in the film Shrek 2 (with the voice of Antonio Banderas).
• A film called Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer is scheduled to be released in 2010.^[9]
• In the furry comic book, Xanadu, the main male hero, Tabbe Le Fauve, is a cat modeled on Puss in Boots with a strong influence of Errol Flynn's typical swashbuckler character.
• The webcomic No Rest for the Wicked features several characters adapted from this story, Perrault (Puss), The Marquis de Carabas, and his wife.
• Angela Carter offers an alternative, updated version of the tale in her collection of short stories The Bloody Chamber
• A Meowth from the Pokémon anime series dresses up like Puss In Boots.
• In Gainax's 2000 anime FLCL, the third episode is named Maru Raba (Marquis de Carabas) and deals with the young adult characters performing Puss in Boots at their school, and with one character and her interest in the idea of pretending to be something until you've become it.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Annotated Puss in Boots at surlalunefairytales.com including the tale, variants from around the world, modern interpretations and illustrations
• Gagliuso by Giambattista Basile
• "The Earl of Cattenborough"
• Puss In Boots at the Internet Movie Database
• The Miaowvellous Tale of Puss in Boots - A Pantomime/ http://www.pypscripts.co.uk PYP Scripts
• The Disney version of Puss in Boots at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
• Art marionettes Marionettes Puss in boots of Armand Langlois (Wikipedia)