Ivan Andreevich Krylov - a Russian poet, playwright, translator and academician - is well known throughout the world. The genre in which he was especially famous is a fable. The Rooster and the Cuckoo, the Fox and the Crow, the Dragonfly and the Ant, the Donkey and the Nightingale - these and many other images, allegorically exposing various human vices, have been familiar to us since childhood.
How Krylov became a fabulist
The poet began to compose fables almost by accident: he translated several works of the Frenchman Lafontaine, whom he loved from an early youth, the experience was successful. Krylov’s natural wit, subtle linguistic instinct, and a penchant for a well-known popular vocabulary perfectly matched his enthusiasm for this genre. The vast majority of Krylov’s more than two hundred fables are original, created on the basis of personal experience and observations and have no analogues among the works of other fabulists.
Each nation has its own more or less famous author, who enriched the national treasury with fables and parables. In Germany, these are Lessing and Sax, in Italy - Faerno and Verdicotti, in France - Odan and Lafontaine. A special role in the emergence and development of the genre is played by the ancient Greek author Aesop. Everywhere where it was necessary to gnawly and accurately ridicule phenomena that distort and distort life, a fable came to the rescue. The rooster and the Cuckoo by Aesop or another poet may appear in the guise of other animals, insects or things, but the essence of the fable will remain unchanged: it cures immorality with a satire.
Fable "Cuckoo and Rooster"
The plot is based on the dialogue of two foolishly singing birds. This is a very funny fable. Rooster and Cuckoo vying to praise each other's singing. Everyone knows that the shout of the coquet is not at all melodic, not without reason is the expression “give a cock” when it comes to a ripped off voice. The voice of a cuckoo is also hard to call harmonious. Nevertheless, the Rooster favors Kukushka with the first singer of the forest, and she says that he sings "better than a bird of paradise." A sparrow flying by indicates the sincere interlocutors that no matter how sophisticated they are in praise, the truth is that their "music is bad."
But perhaps the author laughs at them in vain, and the fable is unfair? Rooster and Cuckoo are good friends and support each other with a pleasant word - what's so bad about that? Let's look at the dynamics of the plot. At first, the Cuckoo is not far from the truth, she says that the Rooster sings loudly and importantly. He in response gives a more elaborate praise. The cuckoo favorably accepts flattering words; she is ready to listen to them for a century. The interlocutor’s praises become even more flowery and completely untrue, although the Rooster swears that Cuckoo sings "what is your nightingale." She thanks, is zealous in mutual praise, and also “in conscience” assures that everyone will confirm her words. And just at that moment Sparrow refutes the immoderate speeches of both birds. The author skillfully emphasizes that the compliments of the heroes are insincere, that in fact neither one nor the other does not experience the admiration that they are talking about. Why are they doing this? The moral of the fable “The Cuckoo and the Rooster” is obvious: only because they receive reciprocal flattery.
How did the work come about?
The fable was published in the popular collection One Hundred Russian Writers and was equipped with a caricature depicting in the form of Cuckoo and Rooster two contemporaries of Krylov - fiction writer Nikolai Grech and writer Faddey Bulgarin. This duet was known for the fact that both writers tirelessly praised each other in print. In the original version of the fable, the allusion to real events looks brighter, and in morality it sounds like the idea that no matter how many heroes censer each other, their talent will not increase. In the final version, however, the idea is beyond the scope of a particular case. Thanks to this, this fable of Krylov has become so relevant. A rooster and a Cuckoo are often seen in each of us when we hypocritically praise someone in the hope of receiving flattering words.