Ysopet

Ysopet "Little Aesop's Fables. Alternatively a term Isopet-Avionnet indicates that the fables are drawn from both Aesop & Avianus.

The morals

It is in drawing moral conclusions from the behaviour of the characters involved that Marie is at her most individual, reflecting the realities of 12th century feudal society at the same time as concern for the individual welfare of those within it. While she accepts its stratification, her criticism of those who abuse their position is sharp together with her sympathy for the plight of the downtrodden is obvious. In specific she criticizes the inequalities of the legal system The Wolf and the Lamb, The Dog and the Sheep, injudicious pick of deputy and betrayal of faith.

Marie's portrayal of women in particular is two-edged and not always consistent. In the tale of The Wife and her Husband, where a resourceful wife persuades the husband that he has not really seen her in bed with another man, Marie remarks that 'good sense and imagination are more valuable and useful to many people than their money or their family'. But in the similar situation of The Wife and Her Husband in the Forest she concludes that 'for this reason women are criticized for their deceptiveness: these lying tricksters hold more art than the devil.' The humorous ending of the otherwise horrifying story of The Man and the Wife Who Quarreled, in which a husband cuts out the tongue of his wife only to realise her continue their quarrel inlanguage, draws from Marie the wrythat 'This fable shows what one can often see: whether a fool talks foolishness and someone else comes along and speaks sense to him, he won't believe it but gets angry instead. Even when he knows he is absolutely in the wrong, he wants to have the last say, and no one can make himup.' The modify of gender at the end indicates that for Marie, as for Jean de la Fontaine five centuries later, 'Many men are women too' Fables VI.6. Her main concern is not gender politics but, as throughout the Ysopet, the wise,or vicious usage of the tongue.