A lion, mourning, in his age, the waneOf might once dreaded through his wild domain,Was mock’d, at last, upon his throne,By subjects of his own,Strong through his weakness grown.The horse his head saluted with a kick;The wolf snapp’d at his royal hide;The ox, too, gored him in the side;The unhappy lion, sad and sick,Could hardly […]

A story-writer of our sortHistorifies, in short,Of one that may be reckon’dA Rodilard the Second,–[A]The Alexander of the cats,The Attila,[B] the scourge of rats,Whose fierce and whisker’d headAmong the latter spread,A league around, its dread;Who seem’d, indeed, determinedThe world should be unvermined.The planks with props more false than slim,The tempting heaps of poison’d meal,The traps […]

A serpent, neighbour to a smith,(A neighbour bad to meddle with,)Went through his shop, in search of food,But nothing found, ’tis understood,To eat, except a file of steel,Of which he tried to make a meal.The file, without a spark of passion,Address’d him in the following fashion:–‘Poor simpleton! you surely biteWith less of sense than appetite;For […]

I hate that saying, old and savage,“‘Tis nothing but a woman drowning.”That’s much, I say. What grief more keen should have edgeThan loss of her, of all our joys the crowning?Thus much suggests the fable I am borrowing.A woman perish’d in the water,Where, anxiously, and sorrowing,Her husband sought her,To ease the grief he could not […]

A lover of gardens, half cit and half clown,Possess’d a nice garden beside a small town;And with it a field by a live hedge inclosed,Where sorrel and lettuce, at random disposed,A little of jasmine, and much of wild thyme,Grew gaily, and all in their primeTo make up Miss Peggy’s bouquet,The grace of her bright wedding […]

A fly and ant, upon a sunny bank,Discuss’d the question of their rank.‘O Jupiter!’ the former said,‘Can love of self so turn the head,That one so mean and crawling,And of so low a calling,To boast equality shall dareWith me, the daughter of the air?In palaces I am a guest,And even at thy glorious feast.Whene’er the […]

A fable flourished with antiquityWhose meaning I could never clearly see.Kind reader, draw the moral if you’re able:I give you here the naked fable.Fame having bruited that a great commander,A son of Jove, a certain Alexander,Resolved to leave nought free on this our ball,Had to his footstool gravely summon’d allMen, quadrupeds, and nullipeds, togetherWith all […]

A peacock moulted: soon a jay was seenBedeck’d with Argus tail of gold and green,[A]High strutting, with elated crest,As much a peacock as the rest.His trick was recognized and bruited,His person jeer’d at, hiss’d, and hooted.The peacock gentry flock’d together,And pluck’d the fool of every feather.Nay more, when back he sneak’d to join his race,They […]

They to bamboozle are inclined,Saith Merlin, who bamboozled are.The word, though rather unrefined,Has yet an energy we ill can spare;So by its aid I introduce my tale.A well-fed rat, rotund and hale,Not knowing either Fast or Lent,Disporting round a frog-pond went.A frog approach’d, and, with a friendly greeting,Invited him to see her at her home,And […]

This wolf another brings to mind,Who found dame Fortune more unkind,In that the greedy, pirate sinner,Was balk’d of life as well as dinner.As saith our tale, a villagerDwelt in a by, unguarded place;There, hungry, watch’d our pillagerFor luck and chance to mend his case.For there his thievish eyes had seenAll sorts of game go out […]

A house was built by SocratesThat failed the public taste to please.Some blamed the inside; some, the out; and allAgreed that the apartments were too small.Such rooms for him, the greatest sage of Greece!‘I ask,’ said he, ‘no greater blissThan real friends to fill e’en this.’And reason had good SocratesTo think his house too large […]

The horses have not always beenThe humble slaves of men.When, in the far-off past,The fare of gentlemen was mast,And even hats were never felt,Horse, ass, and mule in forests dwelt.Nor saw one then, as in these ages,So many saddles, housings, pillions;Such splendid equipages,With golden-lace postilions;Such harnesses for cattle,To be consumed in battle;As one saw not […]

The great are like the maskers of the stage;Their show deceives the simple of the age.For all that they appear to be they pass,With only those whose type’s the ass.The fox, more wary, looks beneath the skin,And looks on every side, and, when he seesThat all their glory is a semblance thin,He turns, and saves […]

A stag took refuge from the chaseAmong the oxen of a stable,Who counsel’d him, as saith the fable,To seek at once some safer place.‘My brothers,’ said the fugitive,‘Betray me not, and, as I live,The richest pasture I will show,That e’er was grazed on, high or low;Your kindness you will not regret,For well some day I’ll […]

“Depend upon yourself alone,”Has to a common proverb grown.‘Tis thus confirm’d in Aesop’s way:–The larks to build their nests are seenAmong the wheat-crops young and green;That is to say,What time all things, dame Nature heeding,Betake themselves to love and breeding–The monstrous whales and sharks,Beneath the briny flood,The tigers in the wood,And in the fields, the […]

That man his Maker can deceive,Is monstrous folly to believe.The labyrinthine mazes of the heartAre open to His eyes in every part.Whatever one may do, or think, or feel,From Him no darkness can the thing conceal.A pagan once, of graceless heart and hollow,Whose faith in gods, I’m apprehensive,Was quite as real as expensive.Consulted, at his […]

‘Tis use that constitutes possession.I ask that sort of men, whose passionIt is to get and never spend,Of all their toil what is the end?What they enjoy of all their laboursWhich do not equally their neighbours?Throughout this upper mortal strife,The miser leads a beggar’s life.Old Aesop’s man of hidden treasureMay serve the case to demonstrate.He […]

All power is feeble with dissension:For this I quote the Phrygian slave.If aught I add to his invention,It is our manners to engrave,And not from any envious wishes;–I’m not so foolishly ambitious.Phaedrus enriches oft his story,In quest–I doubt it not–of glory:Such thoughts were idle in my breast.An aged man, near going to his rest,His gather’d […]

Beside a well, uncurb’d and deep,A schoolboy laid him down to sleep:(Such rogues can do so anywhere.)If some kind man had seen him there,He would have leap’d as if distracted;But Fortune much more wisely acted;For, passing by, she softly waked the child,Thus whispering in accents mild:‘I save your life, my little dear,And beg you not […]

Within a savage forest grotA satyr and his chipsWere taking down their porridge hot;Their cups were at their lips. You might have seen in mossy den,Himself, his wife, and brood;They had not tailor-clothes, like men,But appetites as good. In came a traveller, benighted,All hungry, cold, and wet,Who heard himself to eat invitedWith nothing like regret. […]