XXVIil REYNARD THE FOX

and cunning are the only two powers re-
cognised, and if the book has a moral, it is
merely the low one that cunning is more
powerful than force.

But it is scarcely the Moral, or the Allegory,
which has attracted so many to Reynard the
fox. It is the adventurous, shifty, eponymous
Hero who captures our interest. We have
all a sneaking regard for the crafty villain who
can control Circumstance, even though we salve
our conscience by the implicit thought, ‘ But
fomethe erace, of God, there oo 9) Where
is something artistic in the way the villain
moulds Circumstance to his own ends which
extorts our reluctant admiration. His career
is a long series of making fools of his enemy,
and to the primitive mind the ‘sell’ is the most
exquisite form of practical wit.

To the medieval mind the triumphs of
Reynard were even more attractive than they
can be nowadays. When brute force un-
blushingly ruled the world cunning was your
only remedy against the tyrant. Every district
in those days had its Noble, its Isengrim, and
its Bruin, and all the villagers who suffered
from their cruelty felt a sympathetic interest
in the triumphs of Reynard over them. Theo-