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Introduction
In his landmark 1481 translation of political satire ‘Reynard the Fox’, William Caxton told how the animals gathered at Stade near Hamburg to charge Reynard with a catalogue of shocking crimes, and how the wily Fox emerged without a stain on his character. The allegation underpinning the whole story was that Reynard had tried to force his attentions on Erswynd, wife of Isegrim the Wolf.
MY lord I pray you to take heed, this treacherous thief betrayed my wife once, in a manner both foul and dishonest.
One winter’s day, they went together through a great water. He gave my wife his hand on it that he would teach her to catch fish with her tail, and that should she hang it in the water a good while, so many fish would cleave to it that not even four could eat them.
My fool of a wife supposed that he spoke true, and went up to her middle in the mire even before she got to the water. When she reached it, he bade her hold her tail in the deepest part until the fish came. She held her tail so long that it hardened in the ice and she could not pluck it out; and when he saw that, he sprang on her. Alas, there he ravished her, and forced my wife so knavishly that I am ashamed to tell it. This he cannot deny, for as I went along the banks above I saw him beneath upon my wife.* Oh what pain I suffered in my heart!
* When dragged before the Lion-King’s court, Reynard explained more in sorrow than in anger that he was simply trying to dislodge poor Erswynd from the ice. Moreover, he had not duped her into fishing with her tail; she had bounded into the water despite his clear warnings.
Précis
The fable of Reynard the Fox reaches a climax with the testimony of Isegrim the Wolf. He tells the court how one winter’s day Reynard duped Isegrim’s wife Erswind into trying to catch fish with her tail, guessing that Erswynd would get her tail stuck in the freezing water. When she did, he forced himself on her before Isegrim’s eyes. (60 / 60 words)
The fable of Reynard the Fox reaches a climax with the testimony of Isegrim the Wolf. He tells the court how one winter’s day Reynard duped Isegrim’s wife Erswind into trying to catch fish with her tail, guessing that Erswynd would get her tail stuck in the freezing water. When she did, he forced himself on her before Isegrim’s eyes.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, despite, if, may, or, until, whether.
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