The Taill of The Cok and The Jasp - Moralitas

Moralitas

The poet immediately follows the taill with a moralitas. This was a common device in medieval and renaissance fable literature, and its use here establishes the convention that Henryson will employ consistently through all thirteen of the Morall Fabillis.

In this case, however, before the Moralitas properly begins, stanza 18 (the ninth stanza of the fabill) as a footnote to the taill, intercedes with a compressed account of the qualities of the jasp, including its protective properties, which almost instantly casts doubt on the wisdom of the cock's decision. For example, lines 125-6:

Quha hes this stane sall have gude hap to speid,

Of fyre nor water him neidis not to dreid.

In a sense, stanza 18 presents a new riddle and, to be answered, requires the cock's argument to be turned.

The Moralitas proper is usually given to begin after stanza 18 in most textual witnesses except Bannatyne. Its five stanzas come down explicitly against the cock and so, by implication, present a conceit of closure on Aesop's more open and enigmatic original. The narrator minces no words in expressing how serious the cockerel's error has been in rejecting the stone because, he says, the jasp represents science, in the sense of wisdom, which he defines in terms that bring it close in meaning to concepts like dharma. In the final stanza he laments mankind's general failure to respect and comprehend these values:

Bot now, allace, this jasp is tynt and hid;

We seik it nocht, nor preis it for to find…

He closes, with pretended indifference, by advising the reader, if he so wishes, to go seek the jasp where it lies.