“Puss-in-Boots”

Puss‐in‐Boots, archetypal folk tale in which an inherited cat rescues an impoverished youngest son and civilizes him to curry royal favour, gain power, and win a princess. Nuances in early literary versions reflect societal variations on this trickster cat/fox motif.

Straparola's tale of social mobility appears in Night 11 of Le piacevoli notti (The Pleasant Nights, 1550). Constantino Fortunato is a peasant whose cat (actually a fairy in disguise), rescues him from cruel siblings. To help him gain a royal audience, she repeatedly traps prey as presents in her master's name. To make him presentable to Society, she licks away his stress‐induced acne and tricks the king into lending him fine garments. The entire court is duped by his appearance. Constantino marries the princess, receives her dowry, and lives in a castle which the cat coerces everyone to say is his. Because the former peasant eventually inherits the throne (which is passed down through his children), this tale legitimizes patriarchy through duplicitous power politics. Its rags‐to‐riches treatment would have interested élite Renaissance readers in the Venetian republic and Italian city‐states.

Some 80 years later, the Neapolitan Basile stressed ingratitude in Day 2 of the Pentamerone (1634). Emphasizing local colour and reality over fantasy, he presents a real cat—albeit a talking one, in good folklore tradition. This animal‐heroine's manners and flattering speech are much finer than her master's, whose drivel she stifles while arranging his marriage of convenience. On the advice of this ever‐loyal, hard‐working servant, he gains yet more riches after the dowry, and promises to reward her. She tests his sincerity, finds him ungrateful, and flees her non‐existent job security. Critiquing all classes of feudal society, she observes that reversals of fortune can ruin character. She may have socialized, but not civilized, her master.

The French Academician Charles Perrault modified these storylines in ‘Le Chat botté ou le Maître chat’ for Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Stories or Tales of Past Times, 1697). He upgraded the son's social rank, conferred status‐symbol boots on his (male) cat, omitted post‐marriage scenes and ‘sincerity test’, had the cat threaten peasants with death, and reinvested the tale with magic. The castle of his ‘Marquis de Carabas’ is inhabited by an ogre, whom the conniving cat has change into a mouse before eating him. Cunning, confiscation of lands, murder—all are featured in this portrait of society under Louis XIV (which, unlike Basile's, rewards the loyal servant/secretary). Two morals conclude the text. The first ironically values ingenuity and hard work (neither of which is displayed by the son) over inherited wealth as a means to attain power; the second somewhat misogynistically suggests that mere appearances and civility can seduce women and society.

Bibliography

• Seifert, Lewis, Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690–1715 (1996).
• Soriano, Marc, Les Contes de Perrault (1968).
• Zipes, Jack, “‘Of Cats and Men’”, in Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry (1997).

— Mary Louise Ennis