The Fables of Phaedrus Part 21

They try to make escape in vain, Nor, dumb through fear, can they complain.

By stealth they Mercury depute, That Jove would once more hear their suit, And send their sinking state to save; But he in wrath this answer gave: "You scorn'd the good king that you had, And therefore you shall bear the bad."

Ye likewise, O Athenian friends, Convinced to what impatience tends, Though slavery be no common curse, Be still, for fear of worse and worse.

III. THE VAIN JACKDAW.

Lest any one himself should plume, And on his neighbour's worth presume; But still let Nature's garb prevail-- Esop has left this little tale: A Daw, ambitious and absurd, Pick'd up the quills of Juno's bird; And, with the gorgeous spoil adorn'd, All his own sable brethren scorn'd, And join'd the peac.o.c.ks--who in scoff Stripp'd the bold thief, and drove him off.

The Daw, thus roughly handled, went To his own kind in discontent: But they in turn contemn the spark, And brand with many a shameful mark.

Then one he formerly disdain'd, "Had you," said he, "at home remain'd-- Content with Nature's ways and will, You had not felt the peac.o.c.k's bill; Nor 'mongst the birds of your own dress Had been deserted in distress."

IV. THE DOG IN THE RIVER.

The churl that wants another's fare Deserves at least to lose his share.

As through the stream a Dog convey'd A piece of meat, he spied his shade In the clear mirror of the flood, And thinking it was flesh and blood, Snapp'd to deprive him of the treat:-- But mark the glutton's self-defeat, Miss'd both another's and his own, Both shade and substance, beef and bone.

V. THE HEIFER, GOAT, SHEEP, AND LION.

A partnership with men in power We cannot build upon an hour.

This Fable proves the fact too true: An Heifer, Goat, and harmless Ewe, Were with the Lion as allies, To raise in desert woods supplies.

There, when they jointly had the luck To take a most enormous buck, The Lion first the parts disposed, And then his royal will disclosed.

"The first, as Lion hight, I crave; The next you yield to me, as brave; The third is my peculiar due, As being stronger far than you; The fourth you likewise will renounce, For him that touches, I shall trounce."

Thus rank unrighteousness and force Seized all the prey without remorse.

VI. THE FROGS AND SUN.

When Esop saw, with inward grief, The nuptials of a neighb'ring thief, He thus his narrative begun: Of old 'twas rumor'd that the Sun Would take a wife: with hideous cries The quer'lous Frogs alarm'd the skies.

Moved at their murmurs, Jove inquired What was the thing that they desired?

When thus a tenant of the lake, In terror, for his brethren spake: "Ev'n now one Sun too much is found, And dries up all the pools around, Till we thy creatures perish here; But oh, how dreadfully severe, Should he at length be made a sire, And propagate a race of fire!"

VII. THE FOX AND THE TRAGIC MASK.

A Fox beheld a Mask-- "O rare The headpiece, if but brains were there!"

This holds--whene'er the Fates dispense Pomp, pow'r, and everything but sense.

VIII. THE WOLF AND CRANE.

Who for his merit seeks a price From men of violence and vice, Is twice a fool--first so declared, As for the worthless he has cared; Then after all, his honest aim Must end in punishment and shame.

A bone the Wolf devour'd in haste, Stuck in his greedy throat so fast, That, tortured with the pain, he roar'd, And ev'ry beast around implored, That who a remedy could find Should have a premium to his mind.

A Crane was wrought upon to trust His oath at length--and down she thrust Her neck into his throat impure, And so perform'd a desp'rate cure.

At which, when she desired her fee, "You base, ungrateful minx," says he, "Whom I so kind forbore to kill, And now, forsooth, you'd bring your bill!"

IX. THE HARE AND THE SPARROW.

Still to give cautions, as a friend, And not one's own affairs attend, Is but impertinent and vain, As these few verses will explain.

A Sparrow taunted at a Hare Caught by an eagle high in air, And screaming loud-- "Where now," says she, "Is your renown'd velocity?

Why loiter'd your much boasted speed?"

Just as she spake, an hungry glede Did on th' injurious railer fall, Nor could her cries avail at all.

The Hare, with its expiring breath, Thus said: "See comfort ev'n in death!

She that derided my distress Must now deplore her own no less."

X. THE WOLF AND FOX, WITH THE APE FOR JUDGE.

Whoe'er by practice indiscreet Has pa.s.s'd for a notorious cheat, Will shortly find his credit fail, Though he speak truth, says Esop's tale.

The Wolf the Fox for theft arraign'd; The Fox her innocence maintain'd: The Ape, as umpire, takes his seat; Each pleads his cause with skill and heat.

Then thus the Ape, with aspect grave, The sentence from the hustings gave: "For you, Sir Wolf, I do descry That all your losses are a lie-- And you, with negatives so stout, O Fox! have stolen the goods no doubt."

XI. THE a.s.s AND THE LION HUNTING.

A coward, full of pompous speech, The ignorant may overreach; But is the laughing-stock of those Who know how far his valor goes.

Once on a time it came to pa.s.s, The Lion hunted with the a.s.s, Whom hiding in the thickest shade He there proposed should lend him aid, By trumpeting so strange a bray, That all the beasts he should dismay, And drive them o'er the desert heath Into the lurking Lion's teeth.

Proud of the task, the long-ear'd loon Struck up such an outrageous tune, That 'twas a miracle to hear-- The beasts forsake their haunts with fear, And in the Lion's fangs expired: Who, being now with slaughter tired, Call'd out the a.s.s, whose noise he stops.

The a.s.s, parading from the copse, Cried out with most conceited scoff, "How did my music-piece go off?"

"So well--were not thy courage known, Their terror had been all my own!"

XII. THE STAG AT THE FOUNTAIN.

Full often what you now despise Proves better than the things you prize; Let Esop's narrative decide: A Stag beheld, with conscious pride, (As at the fountain-head he stood) His image in the silver flood, And there extols his branching horns, While his poor spindle-shanks he scorns-- But, lo! he hears the hunter's cries, And, frighten'd, o'er the champaign flies-- His swiftness baffles the pursuit: At length a wood receives the brute, And by his horns entangled there, The pack began his flesh to tear: Then dying thus he wail'd his fate: "Unhappy me! and wise too late!

How useful what I did disdain!

How grievous that which made me vain."

XIII. THE FOX AND THE CROW.

His folly in repentance ends, Who, to a flatt'ring knave attends.

A Crow, her hunger to appease, Had from a window stolen some cheese, And sitting on a lofty pine In state, was just about to dine.

This, when a Fox observed below, He thus harangued the foolish Crow: "Lady, how beauteous to the view Those glossy plumes of sable hue!

Thy features how divinely fair!

With what a shape, and what an air!

Could you but frame your voice to sing, You'd have no rival on the wing."

But she, now willing to display Her talents in the vocal way, Let go the cheese of luscious taste, Which Renard seized with greedy haste.

The grudging dupe now sees at last That for her folly she must fast.

XIV. THE COBBLER TURNED DOCTOR.

A bankrupt Cobbler, poor and lean, (No bungler e'er was half so mean) Went to a foreign place, and there Began his med'cines to prepare: But one of more especial note He call'd his sovereign antidote; And by his technical bombast Contrived to raise a name at last.

It happen'd that the king was sick, Who, willing to detect the trick, Call'd for some water in an ewer, Poison in which he feign'd to pour The antidote was likewise mix'd; He then upon th' empiric fix'd To take the medicated cup, And, for a premium, drink it up The quack, through dread of death, confess'd That he was of no skill possess'd; But all this great and glorious job Was made of nonsense and the mob.

Then did the king his peers convoke, And thus unto th' a.s.sembly spoke: "My lords and gentlemen, I rate Your folly as inordinate, Who trust your heads into his hand, Where no one had his heels j.a.pann'd."-- This story their attention craves Whose weakness is the prey of knaves.