Puss in Boots (fairy tale)

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Gustave Doré's 19th century engraving of le chat botté
Gustave Doré's 19th century engraving of le chat botté

"Puss in Boots" ( Italian: Il Gatto con gli Stivali; French : Le Chat botté; Spanish : El Gato con Botas; German : Der gestiefelte Kater; Russian: Кот в сапогах, Kot v sapogakh; Greek: Ο παππουτσωμένος Γάτος, O papputsomenos gatos; Finnish : Saapasjalkakissa; all literally meaning "the cat with boots" or "the booted cat") 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 "Cagliuso"[6], also translated as "Pippo".[7] Joseph Jacobs collected a variant, "The Earl of Cattenborough", in European Folk and Fairy Tales.[8]

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[edit] Synopsis

Puss in Boots consoles her master, illustrated in a 1927 story anthology
Puss in Boots consoles her master, illustrated in a 1927 story anthology

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 reaches 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.

c.f. 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 the pleas of the miller's son, 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 having the enchantment removed.[9]

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 doesn't learn until he meets the Peasants of the cruel ogre's tyranny, and 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.

In some modern versions ogre is substituted by evil wizard, and the episode with peasants is omitted (king goes straight to the castle).

[edit] Adaptations

See also: Puss in Boots (disambiguation)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charles Perrault,"The Master Cat"
  2. ^ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 390, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  3. ^ Giovanni Francesco Straparola, "Costantino Fortunato", The Facetious Nights of Straparola
  4. ^ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 390, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  5. ^ W. G. Waters, "The Mysterious Giovan Francesco Straparola", Jack Zipes, ed., The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 877, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  6. ^ Giambattista Basile - LO CUNTO DE LI CUNTI OVERO LO TRATTENEMIENTO DE PECCERILLE
  7. ^ Giambattista Basile, "Gagliuso", The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.
  8. ^ Joseph Jacobs , "The Earl of Cattenborough", European Folk and Fairy Tales
  9. ^ Maria Tatar, p 234, The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ISBN 0-393-05163-3
  10. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448694/ iMDB profile

[edit] External links

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