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Belling the Cat A council of mice comes up with a plan to outsmart the Cat, but volunteers are a bit thin on the ground. Music: Sir Arthur Sullivan

© Juanedc, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

A cat named Pablita.

About this picture …

Meet Pablita, a cat who looks as though she doesn’t mean to let that bell stop her. Whether such remedies really work on cats or over-mighty governors is open to debate. See also The Dog and the Bell, in which someone does tie a bell on an annoying dog but he’s so tone deaf that it just makes him think he’s important.

Belling the Cat
This tale dates back no earlier than the thirteenth century, though it takes the form of one of Aesop’s Fables from ancient Greece. The author was Odo, a clergyman from Cheriton in Kent, who spent several years on the Continent before coming home in 1233 and settling down to his family estates. His fable reflects, he tells us, his experience of monks chafing under corrupt abbots.

LONG ago, the Mice gathered in anxious council to debate how they could best defend themselves against their great enemy, the Cat.

After a great deal of excited squeaking, one Mouse addressed the assembly with statesmanlike gravity.

“My fellow Mice” said he, “the solution must be this. Let a bell be fastened around the cat’s neck. Then we shall be able to hear him on the prowl, and take evasive action against his assaults.”

This ingenious plan pleased the council very much.

However, amid all the back-slapping and hubbub of congratulation a voice rose to ask, “Who will fasten the bell on the cat’s neck?”, and a rather awkward silence followed.

“Not me, that’s for sure” said someone. “Nor me” piped another, “I wouldn’t so much as go near him, not for all the tea in China.”

And that is why we let the rich and powerful go on lording it over us.*

Odo tells his tale to illustrate the dilemma facing monks living under the rule of a wicked abbot or bishop, and this is the moral he draws.

Précis

Some mice got together to discuss the recurrent problem of a prowling cat. One had the bright idea of fastening a bell onto him, so they would know when he was coming, but understandably no one wanted the job of attaching it. That is why powerful people so often get away with their injustices. (54 / 60 words)

Source

Based on ‘Aesop’s Fables and Other Parables: Odo of Cheriton’.

Suggested Music

The Pirates of Penzance

Overture

Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

Performed by the Orchestra of The D’Oyly Carte Company under John Pryce Jones.

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