| Authorship Notes |
La Fontaine's well-known fable of the tortoise who as she "tired of her hole, the world would see", is not an apodemic item in the classical sense; however, it certainly reflects the apodemic tradition. The story itself featured in several earlier collections which inspired La Fontaine, such as the Indian Panchatantra. In these earlier versions, the moral of the story is about the vanity of the tortoise who falls from the branch with which the birds are carrying her, and which she holds in her mouth, because she cannot stop herself from crying out proudly, and thereby falls.
La Fontaine's version adds a new dimension to the story: that of curiosity, inspiring travelling. The tortoise is invited to travel by two ducks, who promise that "Republics, kingdoms, you will view, / And famous cities, old and new; / And get of customs, laws, a notion,-- / Of various wisdom various pieces, /As did, indeed, the sage Ulysses.' Of course, this rehearsal of apodemic clichés is ironic.
Several authors have quoted this fable as a proof of classical France's reluctant attitude towards travel - an element of the regime of 'stability' in Paul Hazard's theory ('The crisis of the European mind'). However, not all travel is criticized here, for example, Ulysses is referenced as an example of praiseworthy travel. The moral, as often with La Fontaine, is ambiguous: are all men unfit for travel, or is it only the commoners (tortoises) who should not aim to imitate the example of their betters?
This fable occurs at pp. 105-8 of the fourth book of the second collection, that is the tenth of the twelve books, published in 1679. |
