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 Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian Fabill 3 ("The Cock and the Fox") is the first Reynardian story in the Morall Fabillis and thus introduces the tod into the cycle. In various incarnations he is principal figure in the cycle after the wolf. Tod is a Scots word for "fox" and the poem interchangeably uses both terms. Henryson's tod is called "Schir Lowrence." The story in the fabill is an important adaptation of Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale." The successful conceit of Chaucer's poem was to create comic drama from a simple act of animal predation. Henryson's version condenses the main action, refines the psychology and introduces