The Wolf and the Lamb is a well known fable of Aesop and is numbered 155 in the Perry Index.[1] There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.
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A wolf comes upon a lamb and, in order to justify taking its life, accuses it of various misdemeanours, all of which the lamb proves to be impossible. Losing patience, it says the offences must have been committed by someone else in the family and that it does not propose to delay its meal by enquiring any further about the matter. The morals drawn are that the tyrant can always find an excuse for his tyranny and that the unjust will not listen to the reasoning of the innocent.[2]
A variant story attributed to Aesop also exists in Greek sources. This is the fable of the cock and the cat, which is separately numbered 16 in the Perry Index.[3] Seeking a reasonable pretext to kill the cock, the cat accuses it of waking people early in the morning and then of incest with its sisters and daughters. In both cases the cock answers that humanity benefits by its activities. But the cat ends the argument by remarking that it is now her breakfast time and 'Cats don't live upon Dialogues'.[4] Underlying both these fables there is the Latin proverb, variously expressed[5], that 'an empty belly has no ears' or, as the Spanish equivalent has it, Lobo hambriento no tiene asiento (a hungry wolf doesn't hang about).[6]
The fable also has Eastern analogues. One of these is the Buddhist Dipi Jataka in which the protagonists are a panther and a goat. The goat has strayed into the presence of a panther and tries to avert its fate by greeting the predator politely. It is accused of treading on his tail and then of scaring off his prey, for which crime it is made to substitute.[7] A similar story involving birds is found among Bidpai's Persian fables as "The Partridge and the Hawk".[8] The unjust accusation there is that the partridge is taking up all the shade, leaving the hawk out in the hot sun. When the partridge points out that it is midnight, it is killed by the hawk for contradicting.
Down the centuries the various interpreters of the fable have applied it to the injustices of their time. In the extended treatment by the 15th century Scottish poet Robert Henryson in his Moral Fables a picture of widespread social breakdown is depicted. The Lamb appeals to natural law, to scripture, and to statutory law, and is answered with perversions of all these by the Wolf. Then Henryson enters in his own person and comments that there are three kinds of contemporary wolf who oppress the poor. The first are dishonest lawyers, the second are landowners intent on extending their estates, and the third are aristocrats who exploit their tenants.[9]
A political application of the fable to international relations is the 1893 Punch cartoon published at the time Britain and France were both considering extending their colonial influence into Thailand and looking for excuses. A wolf dressed in the uniform of the French army is shown eyeing the Thai lamb across the Mekong river. More recently the fable has been applied to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.[10] The presence of this fable in the borders of the Bayeux Tapestry has suggested that a similar political comment is being made through it by the English embroiderers to express their dissent and horror at the Norman invasion of Britain.[11]
French settings of Jean de la Fontaine's version of the fable include Charles Lecocq's in Six Fables de Jean de la Fontaine for voice and piano[12] and André Caplet's in Trois Fables de Jean de la Fontaine, again for voice and piano.[13] Translated into Catalan, it is part of Xavier Benguerel i Godó’s Siete Fabulas de La Fontaine for recitation with orchestral accompaniment.[14]
The fable has also figured on two French stamps. First was a 1938 portrait of La Fontaine with the tale illustrated in a panel below it.[15] There was also a six-stamp strip issued in 1995 to commemorate the third centenary of La Fontaine's death; here the lamb is shown as startled by the wolf's reflection in the water.[16] In 1977 Burundi issued a four-stamp block of fables where the designs are based on Gustave Doré's illustrations, of which this fable is one.[17]