Chanticleer and the Fox the question of its origin. It has also been asserted that the tale has developed out of the basic situation in Aesop's fable of The Fox and the Crow. Early examples of the story are pithily fabular but towards the middle of the 12th century it appears as an extended episode of the "Reynard cycle" under the title "How Renart captured Chanticleer the cock" ("Si comme Renart prist Chanticler le Coq"). The work of which it was part was immensely popular and spread widely in translation. The basic situation concerns the cock Chanticleer, who lives with his three wives in
The Cock, the Dog and the Fox There the fable is told at length and it is explained that the suspicious cock has invented his report of the approaching hounds because he distrusts the fox. The telling is prefaced with the summary of the fable’s meaning: “To the trickster comes a trickster and a half” ("A trompeur, trompeur et demi"). When Jean de la Fontaine retold the story as "Le coq et le renard" (II.15), he underlined his use of Geroult by concluding with a moral that echoed his source: “Pleasure is doubled in tricking the trickster” ("c’est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur"). The Greek and