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 the Oriental versions of the fable were soon to be confounded together. In Francis Barlow's illustrated edition of the fables (1687), Aphra Behn's English verse summary tells the Eastern tale with the cock concluding that “I’le not my strength forgoe, If true today, tomorrow ‘twill be so.” The accompanying Latin prose summary, on the other hand, follows Aesop's account but concludes that treachery is to be met with treachery. In France much later, Pierre Perret updated La Fontaine’s stories for the television series "Les Fables Géometriques" (1990). In his reinterpretation, however, he favoured the Greek version of this fable, making