Narrator and Reader: CKeys to Irony in La Fon-taine ROSEANN RUNTE" Une ample comedie a cent actes divers", La Fontaine thus character-iZOd hlis collection of fables.'Critics hiave not been remiss in exploring the dramatic qualities of these" scenes parfaites pour les caractcres et le dialogue 9.2 Dialogue has been examined primarily on the level of the plot line and in terms of the clharacters created by the fabulist:" Le Fabuliste fait de ses animaux ce qu'un Dramatique habile fait de ses Acteurs". 3 However, a second level of exchange exists in the fables. This is the dialogue wlich thle narrator maintains witlh his reader. Tlle presence of a narrative persona hias been noted since the eighteentlh century'OLa Harpe, for example, stated that La Fontaine" a tellement imprimc son caractcre 4 Ses ecrits, et ce caractere est si aimable, qu'il s' est fait des amis de tous Ses lecteurs". 4 Marmontel suggested that the fabulist had designed a role for hlimself, that of a simple and credulous man, to create an illusion by Willch to seduce the reader. La Fontaine was not a conteur, declared Marmontel, but" un temoin present'a l'action et qui veut vous y rendre present vous-mcme". 5 Clhamfort went a step furtlher and exclaimed," Que dirai. je de cet art clharmant de s' entretenir avec son lecteur j...]?" 0 It is this art which we shall attempt to define. La Fontaine created a self-conscious narrator who fulfils several roles and functions. He is a heterodiegetic narrator who recounts a story in Wllich hie does not participate. He is also a homodiegetic narrator who Jean de La Fontaine, fEuvres conipIces, Paris, Gallimard, 1954, vol. I, p. 115. Vurther refcrences to this volume appear in the text. When appropriatc, spelling has been modernized. Sce also Picrre Caron de Beauimarchais,(IEuvres comple'tes, Paris, L6opold Collin, 1809, vol. 11, pp. 5-6:" La Fable est tine com6die l6g6rc, ct tODUti com6die n'cst qu'un long apologue: Icur diff6rence est, que dans notro eCodi les hommes sont souvent des bctes, ct qui pis cst, des b6tes mcichantes." Jean-Frangois de La Harpc," Eloge de La Fontaine", Recieil (le l'Acaddfnie des BClies. Lettres, Scienlces et Arts, Marseille, 1774, p. 16. La liarpc," Eloge", p. 17. sLa larpc, Lyce oii cours de litturatiire, Paris, H. Agassc, 1798, vol. VI, p. 325. Jean. Franqois Marmontel," Fable", Enicyclopedie olt dictionntiaire raison, ztd des SCk? fices, des arts et des meticers,[reprint of Paris edition] Stuttgart, Friedlrich l rommann, 1966, vol. VI [1756], p. 346. S6basticn-Roch-Nicolas Chamfort," Eloge de La Fontaine", Les Trois Fabulistes: tsope, Phlcdre et La Fontaine, Paris, 1776, vol. III, p. 186. 389 IROSEANN RUNTE relates a tale which he has witnessed or observed either in real life or in literature. La Fontaine assigns equal authority to real and fictional events and characters. In hiis text histoire becomes history. 7 The homodiegetic narrator fulfils four functions: organization (remark-ing on the composition of the text), communication (establislhing contact with the person (s) for whom the text is destined), testimonial (orienting the narrative to the narrator himself), and ideological (intervening, justi-fying, commenting). 8 La Fontaine's particular art lies in the interrelation between the hetero-diegetic and the homodiegetic narrators. The ideological and testimonial functions of the latter are used to underline the fact that the first is uniquely a translator of materials already presented by otlher fabulists. The heterodiegetic narrator is established as a non-creative entity. As such, he in turn sets the stage for the homodiegetic narrator to comment on and react to both fable and moral discourse. This narrator fulfils the testimo-nial function by making personal application of the moral …