Introduction
The following two tales are given to us as eyewitness accounts of the astonishing resourcefulness of the fox, using careful planning and employing tools to get what he wants. Author Sir Nicholas L’Estrange found such tales of foxy ingenuity difficult to believe, but King James I (r. 1603-1625) was altogether less suspicious.
TO prove that the creature hath a kind of reasoning with itself, Sir Henry Wotton told this story to King James (who was credulous enough in that point).* A fox had killed a little pig, and was to pass a river to his den; by the waterside alders had been newly stubbed,* and there lay chips of all sizes; the fox before he would venture himself and his prey into the stream, weighs the danger, weighs his pig, and weighs diverse chips after it: at last he takes up into his mouth one of the heaviest, passeth the river with it, and arriving safely, comes back and fetches over his pig.
* Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) was an Ambassador to Venice for the Court of King James I (r. 1603-1625), who also sat in the House of Commons in 1614 and 1625. A keen angler, Wotton was often to found in company with Izaak Walton at a bend in the Thames called Black Potts, near Eton College. Wotton was installed as Provost of Eton in 1624.
* ‘Stub (up)’ means uproot a tree or hedge, or else cut it down to very near the ground; the word comes from Old English stub(b) ‘stump of a tree’.
Précis
Sir Henry Wotton entranced King James I with a tale about a resourceful fox. Unsure whether he could get a stolen piglet over a stream, this fox had selected a log of comparable size and weight and swum across with it. Thus satisfied, he returned and brought his prize safely over — all in front of Sir Henry’s astonished eyes. (59 / 60 words)
Sir Henry Wotton entranced King James I with a tale about a resourceful fox. Unsure whether he could get a stolen piglet over a stream, this fox had selected a log of comparable size and weight and swum across with it. Thus satisfied, he returned and brought his prize safely over — all in front of Sir Henry’s astonished 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: because, if, may, otherwise, ought, unless, until, who.
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