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140 Rostand
of soul, she flits from one social function to an
other, taking up every fad, clinging to the coat-
tails of every newcomer, provided he represent
station and prestige. She is the slave of fashion,
the imitator of ideas, the silly hunter after effect
in short, the parasite upon the labor and efforts
of others.
The night birds are the ignorant, stupid main-
tainers of the old. They detest the light because
it exposes their mediocrity and stagnation. They
hate Chantecler because, as the old owl remarks,
"
Simple torture it is to hear a brazen throat for
ever reminding you of what you know to be only
too true !
"
This is a crime mediocrity never for
gives, and it conspires to kill Chantecler.
The woodpecker is our very learned college
professor. Dignified and important, he loudly
proclaims the predigested food of his college as
the sole source of all wisdom.
The toads represent the cringing, slimy hangers-
on, the flunkies and lickspittles who toady for the
sake of personal gain.
"
Chantecler," then, is a scathing arraignment
of the emptiness of our so-called wise and cultured,
of the meanness of our conventional lies, the petty
jealousies of the human breed in relation to each
other. At the same time
"
Chantecler
"
character
izes the lack of understanding for, and apprecia
tion of, the ideal and the idealists the mob
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