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Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog and his friend Trippetta have been captured by one of the king's generals and brought back to the King as servants. Hop-Frog serves as jester to the king and Trippetta helps to plan and decorate for social events. She is also forced to dance for the king and his court. Both Hop-Frog and Trippetta are dwarves. The King and his ministers enjoy laughing at and abusing Hop-Frog. Even his name is the result of their making fun of the way he walks. When the abuse becomes unbearable, Hop-Frog devises and carries out an ingenious but horrific plan of revenge upon the King and his ministers.
13 pages, ebook
First published March 17, 1849
17 people are currently reading
971 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,795 books28.7k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 391 reviews
July 30, 2021
Estupendo relato. En pocas páginas, Poe realiza una auténtica metáfora del poder ejercido por los poderosos sobre los débiles y de la venganza.
Poe tiene la capacidad de con muy poco decir mucho.
Great story. In a few pages, Poe realizes a true metaphor of the power exercised by the powerful over the weak and of revenge.
Poe has the ability to with very little say a lot.
Poe tiene la capacidad de con muy poco decir mucho.
Great story. In a few pages, Poe realizes a true metaphor of the power exercised by the powerful over the weak and of revenge.
Poe has the ability to with very little say a lot.
April 3, 2018
This tale of revenge is less gothic than many of Poe's other tales, yet it still packs an allegorical punch. Here we have a story of a dwarf who's a court jester to a king who just loves a good joke, often at the dwarf's expense. But the king goes too far when one day he throws wine in the face of the dwarf's friend, "a young girl very little less dwarfish then himself." The revenge involves getting the king and his ministers to dress as "Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs" at a masquerade and then.... No, I won't spoil the end. Instead, I'll take up a couple of other points of interest.
First, the narrator. He's never named and it's never clear what exactly his relation is to the events he relates. I find this interesting because Poe always took great care with his narrators, often making them unreliable in the most fascinating ways. We know that this narrator was a subject of the king (he repeatedly calls him "our king"), but that's it. Part of me wondered, as I read, whether the narrator was actually the dwarf himself, because the narrator is quite biting and sarcastic toward the king, calling him a "tyrant" and a "monster" and (repeatedly) "fat." As for the ministers, they "all took after the king...in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as inimitable jokers."
But the better explanation, I think, is that the narrator isn't the dwarf himself, but rather is relating this tale as a form of allegory. Indeed, there's some indication that this is being told some time after the events described, as the narrator goes out of his way to explain that "[a]t the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at court" and that "[d]warfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools." Later, the narrator makes clear that "orang-outangs... had, at the epoch of my story, very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized world." At the "epoch of my story"? Hmm. That seems like long ago. Yet at the very beginning of the tale, the narrator suggests he personally knew the king: "I never knew any one so keenly alive to a joke as the king was." So perhaps we have an old man telling a story of his youth, a cautionary tale that has, given the passage of time, slipped the moors of realism and resides now in the realm of allegory.
This brings me to my second point of interest, namely the allegorical nature of this tale. You can read into it any number of things: a criticism of slavery, alcoholism, or monarchy itself, all of which were very much live issues in Poe's day. But for me it seemed almost like a fairy tale, divorced from worldly concerns--the kind of thing you'd read in the Brothers Grimm. It had a fairy tale's lightness about it, a jauntiness that belied the rather horrible things described. And the end is pure fairy tale magic itself.
First, the narrator. He's never named and it's never clear what exactly his relation is to the events he relates. I find this interesting because Poe always took great care with his narrators, often making them unreliable in the most fascinating ways. We know that this narrator was a subject of the king (he repeatedly calls him "our king"), but that's it. Part of me wondered, as I read, whether the narrator was actually the dwarf himself, because the narrator is quite biting and sarcastic toward the king, calling him a "tyrant" and a "monster" and (repeatedly) "fat." As for the ministers, they "all took after the king...in being large, corpulent, oily men, as well as inimitable jokers."
But the better explanation, I think, is that the narrator isn't the dwarf himself, but rather is relating this tale as a form of allegory. Indeed, there's some indication that this is being told some time after the events described, as the narrator goes out of his way to explain that "[a]t the date of my narrative, professing jesters had not altogether gone out of fashion at court" and that "[d]warfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools." Later, the narrator makes clear that "orang-outangs... had, at the epoch of my story, very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized world." At the "epoch of my story"? Hmm. That seems like long ago. Yet at the very beginning of the tale, the narrator suggests he personally knew the king: "I never knew any one so keenly alive to a joke as the king was." So perhaps we have an old man telling a story of his youth, a cautionary tale that has, given the passage of time, slipped the moors of realism and resides now in the realm of allegory.
This brings me to my second point of interest, namely the allegorical nature of this tale. You can read into it any number of things: a criticism of slavery, alcoholism, or monarchy itself, all of which were very much live issues in Poe's day. But for me it seemed almost like a fairy tale, divorced from worldly concerns--the kind of thing you'd read in the Brothers Grimm. It had a fairy tale's lightness about it, a jauntiness that belied the rather horrible things described. And the end is pure fairy tale magic itself.
May 7, 2017
Love and Revenge – among the most intense, powerful, all-consuming passions in the entire range of human experience. I just did finish Jo Nesbø's The Son, a novel fueled by high octane love and revenge, enough revenge that when a reader turns the book’s last page, the tally of corpses for the morgue runs in double digits. Curiously enough, Nesbø’s novel reminded me of another tale of love and revenge, a classic, one penned by the inventor of the modern revenge tale, Edgar Allan Poe, a tale about a dwarf in the court of a medieval king, a tale with the title Hop-Frog.
The narrator begins by saying he never knew anybody who appreciated a joke as much as the king, a fat, jolly king who’s central reason for living was joking, so much so he surrounded himself with seven equally fat ministers who were accomplished jokers. And, as to the variety of jokes the king most enjoyed, well, the coarser the better, more specifically, coarse jokes that made fun, nay, humiliated and degraded others, and, to add more spice to his fun, if such humiliation and degradation mixed with a good dose of sadism, well, now that would really and truly be funny.
So, recognizing his taste for coarse, sadistic humor, this oh so jolly king had a special variety of jester at his court – a three-in-one object of ridicule, since his jester was not only a funny fatso but also, as the narrator describes, a dwarf and a cripple, a jester by the name of Hop-Frog, so named since Hop-Frog didn’t walk, rather this pint-sized fatso could only move by awkward, jerking jumps. And, for even greater kicks and jollies, the king also kept a second dwarf, a graceful young girl by the name of Trippetta. What fun! And, not surprisingly, emotionally bonded in their common plight, Trippetta and Hop-Frog became fast friends.
Let’s pause to reflect on a few similarities between Poe’s tale and Nesbø’s novel. Both feature a protagonist not only violated but, even more extreme, dehumanized; both tale and novel feature a sadistic villain; and, lastly, both feature a protagonist’s love for another. And these three common themes appear in abundance in Dark Arrows: Great Stories of Revenge anthologized by Alberto Manguel, featuring such tales as The Squaw by Bram Stoker, Emma Zunz by Jorge Luis Borges and A Bear Hunt by William Faulkner. The reason I reference these tales is to underscore the power such a narrative line has for readers – via the magic of literature, we live through the emotions of the violated extracting their revenge and rescuing the love of their life – a deeply moving experience.
Back on Poe’s tale. The king hosts a masquerade ball but is in a quandary: what should he himself do to be original? Events transpire leading Hop-Frog to offer a suggestion: a party of eight can enter the masquerade as escaped wild orangutans. The king jumps at the suggestion – he and his seven ministers will do it!
Such costumed extravaganzas are part of the historic record – case in point: in France during the 14th century, a young French king and his five nobleman buddies covered themselves with tar, flax and animal hair and, taking the role of wood savages, entered a room of masqueraders. The wood savages hooted and howled to everyone’s delight but disaster of disasters: a masquerader's torch came too close – several wood savages caught fire and burned alive. Will a similar fate befall the king and his seven ministers? Read this Poe tale (link below) to find out. And please let this review serve as a double recommendation – one recommendation for Poe’s tale and one for Jo Nesbø’s novel. Revenge doesn’t get any sweeter.
http://poestories.com/read/hop-frog
January 7, 2021
I didn't like this story as much as Poe's others. As a reader, it's hard to know whether you are supposed to sympathise with Hop-Frog or not. The king is certainly the main villain of the story -- he is described as a "tyrant" and a "monster", and is perfectly cruel. However, Hop-Frog is not described favourably either. For one, Poe others him and doesn't really let the reader see him as human. We are only ever told the nickname (Hop-Frog) which he was given by the court and, when he leaves, the narrator says he escaped to "his own land". There isn't a clean cut sense of right and wrong (which isn't unusual for Poe).
It's also worth saying that the language is is outdated and often uncomfortable to read -- the jester Hop-Frog is disabled and described as a historicised "cripple".
It's also worth saying that the language is is outdated and often uncomfortable to read -- the jester Hop-Frog is disabled and described as a historicised "cripple".
January 18, 2021
"En los tiempos de mi relato los bufones gozaban todavía del favor de las cortes. Varias «potencias» continentales conservaban aún sus «locos» profesionales, que vestían traje abigarrado y gorro de cascabeles, y que, a cambio de las migajas de la mesa real, debían mantenerse alerta para prodigar su agudo ingenio"
los reyes solian tener un Bufon en su corte, los cuales eran el instrumento de su mórbida diversión.
El Bufón de este Rey en cuestión, ademas era enano y cojo, de ahí derivaba su apodo, porque se movía como una rana. A Causa de todo esto,dentro de su mente retorcida, el Rey se sentía muy afortunado, porque lo consideraba un premio mayor para el y sus ministros.
Pero el Rey no saldrá indemne ...porque el Bufón, harto de las humillaciones y tratos hacia el y su compañera, diseñara un ingenioso plan .
¿Venganza o justicia? puede ser un asunto de apreciación . Lo que es seguro es que tendrá un muy buen sabor para el Bufón y para el lector.¡y en este caso el plato se sirve bien cocido!
los reyes solian tener un Bufon en su corte, los cuales eran el instrumento de su mórbida diversión.
El Bufón de este Rey en cuestión, ademas era enano y cojo, de ahí derivaba su apodo, porque se movía como una rana. A Causa de todo esto,dentro de su mente retorcida, el Rey se sentía muy afortunado, porque lo consideraba un premio mayor para el y sus ministros.
Pero el Rey no saldrá indemne ...porque el Bufón, harto de las humillaciones y tratos hacia el y su compañera, diseñara un ingenioso plan .
¿Venganza o justicia? puede ser un asunto de apreciación . Lo que es seguro es que tendrá un muy buen sabor para el Bufón y para el lector.¡y en este caso el plato se sirve bien cocido!
December 6, 2021
A gruesome tale of trickery and revenge in a king’s court. Always be nice to everyone, including those in lower positions than you!
July 3, 2023
- قصة قصيرة قد تكون مبنية على حدث حقيقي حصل في فرنسا بنهاية القرن الثالث عشر ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_d...)
- القصة مبنية على ثيمة الإنتقام بدافع الحب فحينما أهينت صديقة "هوب-فروغ" أطلق العنان لخياله ونسج خدعة ماكرة أدّت الى مقتل الملك ووزرائه.
- السخرية في هذه القصة انها فكاهية، وما يعزي الملك انه مات وهو يضحك :)
- القصة مبنية على ثيمة الإنتقام بدافع الحب فحينما أهينت صديقة "هوب-فروغ" أطلق العنان لخياله ونسج خدعة ماكرة أدّت الى مقتل الملك ووزرائه.
- السخرية في هذه القصة انها فكاهية، وما يعزي الملك انه مات وهو يضحك :)
October 9, 2020
Amo este cuento de Poe. Es genial, impecable y sólido y me encantan sus cuentos sobre venganzas y Poe tiene varios: este, "El Tonel de Amontillado" y uno realmente muy bueno pero desconocido: "Tú eres el hombre". Quien tenga la posibilidad de leerlo, considérele unos minutos.
"Hop-Frog" encierra la venganza en su más pura forma y al igual que con "El tonel de amontillado", el lector, sin quererlo, termina de leer el cuento con una sonrisa cómplice.
"Hop-Frog" encierra la venganza en su más pura forma y al igual que con "El tonel de amontillado", el lector, sin quererlo, termina de leer el cuento con una sonrisa cómplice.
December 7, 2017
Un buen relato pero muy muy corto 😊
December 12, 2017
Un relato sobre venganza... Impactante.
El que sea corta no le quita lo macabro a la historia.
El que sea corta no le quita lo macabro a la historia.
May 8, 2019
Wow !! What a great story from Poe about revenge. A king calls Hop Frog, a jester, and his female friend, Trippetta, in to perform and entertain. He is a cruel and bored and plays upon Hop Frog's deformities for his own amusement. His advisers are no better. After insulting Hop Frog and Trippetta, Hop Frog devises a wonderful form of revenge for the king and his counselors.
After all ,This one was a surprise for me. Not exactly one of his creepiest stories, but it really made you agree that the bad guys, the king & his ministers' council totally deserved what they got.
After all ,This one was a surprise for me. Not exactly one of his creepiest stories, but it really made you agree that the bad guys, the king & his ministers' council totally deserved what they got.
March 1, 2024
One of my favorite stories by EAP. You should always consider who you insult; sometimes you may think that the person you insult will have no way of getting back at you - but this tale will make you think about how strong hate can sometimes make you. Would love to see this adapted into a very graphic animated film!
December 28, 2025
After reading this, I went down the Elizabeth F. Ellet rabbit hole, and oh boy...it gives the whole story new meaning. Revenge trope, both in fiction and in real life (kinda). I like how dark it got, but it's not my fav Poe work.
August 30, 2017
This is one of Poe's more twisted creepers.
October 29, 2020
Revenge, retribution, and blackly comic, Hop Frog is one of Poe's lesser known quirky and colourful gems. Don't read this if you are an orangutan.
September 1, 2025
Ladies, if your man wouldn’t trick the dude who humiliated you into dressing up as an orangutan and then light him on fire, throw him away and get a new one.
Read
May 8, 2017A brief diversion. To be enjoyed by one and all. Thanks Brian -
http://poestories.com/read/hop-frog
http://poestories.com/read/hop-frog
August 8, 2020
Deliciously Dark and Deadly!
HOP-FROG is described as a dwarf and cripple by the "big fat" nasty King and his "corpulent" ministers who all live for the purpose of joking.
HOP-FROG is also a professional jester who, upon this occasion, is called to the King, forced to drink multiple goblets of wine to make a fool of himself and required to whip up costumes and folly for he and his seven council members (as it turns out) for the upcoming masquerade.
And he does.....
"The beauty of the game, continued HOP-FROG lies in the fright it occasions on the women."
"Capital! roared in chorus the monarch and his ministry."
And oh how they were befitted....making the crowd laugh....and then SCREAM!
(Another new favorite from my Big Book of POE)
March 21, 2017
I arranged my thoughts into a haiku:
"Big men with power
Aren't as immune as they think,
To those underfoot."
"Big men with power
Aren't as immune as they think,
To those underfoot."
September 15, 2022
نثر آلن پو بسیار زیباست، هر روز یک داستان کوتاه از ایشون میخونم و واقعاً لذت میبرم.
December 12, 2017
Divertido y amargo relato de Poe, con un punto de La Parada de los monstruos, aunque el relato es anterior pero en mi caso he invertido el orden.
August 24, 2020
Divertido y cruel.
Una fábula de venganza y justicia en la línea de Poe y con detalles divertidos
Una fábula de venganza y justicia en la línea de Poe y con detalles divertidos
August 6, 2023
Poe penned this nasty bit of silliness to pay the bills, and it was one of the last stories to be published in his lifetime.
It does not hold up well in light of modern sensibilities, and as a story, with a plot, it is ridiculous — fanciful and desperately contrived. It is obvious that Poe did not labour over this piece, but tossed it off, destined (in Poe's words) for a "not a very respectable journal" but one that paid well.
Rounded up to three stars, because every writer should be able to pay the bills, and because my natural generosity is limitless.
It does not hold up well in light of modern sensibilities, and as a story, with a plot, it is ridiculous — fanciful and desperately contrived. It is obvious that Poe did not labour over this piece, but tossed it off, destined (in Poe's words) for a "not a very respectable journal" but one that paid well.
Rounded up to three stars, because every writer should be able to pay the bills, and because my natural generosity is limitless.
December 15, 2017
Brillante, narración del magnífico Poe, breve pero intensa.
May 3, 2025
It's a grim tale that's predictable but satisfying. The predictability is why I gave it 4 stars, otherwise -- for Poe -- it was a nice change of scenery. Leave revenge to the fools; they know what tools to use, and what intellect to deceive.
December 21, 2015
O scriere etică, cu un caracter de basm (din care lipseşte însă intervenţia supranaturalului), a cărei morală este aceea că n-are nicio relevanţă dacă eşti rege sau "ultimul om de pe pământ". Cu toţii, de la împărat până la plebeu, trebuie să respectăm anumite norme de conduită, norme care ne-au făcut din animale oameni şi, dacă le neglijăm, tindem să regresăm.
Bineînţeles că binele triumfă...
Bineînţeles că binele triumfă...
February 10, 2015
و انزلى بتتر ..
و لا بد من يوم معلوم
تترد فيه المظالم
ابيض على كل مظلوم
و اسود على كل ظــــــالم
و ايـــه
:))))
و لا بد من يوم معلوم
تترد فيه المظالم
ابيض على كل مظلوم
و اسود على كل ظــــــالم
و ايـــه
:))))
May 27, 2018
A short story à la Game of Thrones, with for once, a happy ending (although not for everyone). It is however difficult to believe the King and his entourage could fall in such a predictable trap.
January 7, 2020
Whoah! Not what I was expecting! Witty and fairytale-like to start, but ending in the murders of a king and his 7 ministers. With a victorious escape in the end! Beautifully moving imagery.
Now wondering why The Raven gets more street cred ?
.
Now wondering why The Raven gets more street cred ?
.
November 19, 2013
Hop-Frog remains my favorite Edgar Allan Poe story to this day, at least so far. His other, more famous ones are indeed creepy and, of course, Poe-like, but this one stuck with me because it seemed almost more realistic, and, therefore, terrifying.
Hop-Frog is driven by revenge. That's it. He's tired of being just the joke at the king's court, just a dwarfed, crippled jester who people laugh at for their own fun. It's hard to argue against him standing up for himself in the end, even if it a bit extreme.
Poe is wonderful at building up action in his short stories. You have an inkling of the direction in which the story is going to go, but the ending still comes as a surprise. And all the way through, he drops hints.
With Hop-Frog, it's no different. But Poe's story here is more personal, or at least realistic, because I bet most people who read this story will have experienced humiliation at the hands of some superior. And while I wouldn't condone taking Hop-Frog's actions, the story is a dark but somewhat funny reminder that sometimes people just snap.
Hop-Frog is driven by revenge. That's it. He's tired of being just the joke at the king's court, just a dwarfed, crippled jester who people laugh at for their own fun. It's hard to argue against him standing up for himself in the end, even if it a bit extreme.
Poe is wonderful at building up action in his short stories. You have an inkling of the direction in which the story is going to go, but the ending still comes as a surprise. And all the way through, he drops hints.
With Hop-Frog, it's no different. But Poe's story here is more personal, or at least realistic, because I bet most people who read this story will have experienced humiliation at the hands of some superior. And while I wouldn't condone taking Hop-Frog's actions, the story is a dark but somewhat funny reminder that sometimes people just snap.
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