Brooke Boothby (1)

Sir Brooke Boothby (more info at Wikipedia) wrote one of the most comprehensive collections of Aesop's fables in English verse, which he published in two volumes: Fables and Satires. His Aesop project deserves to be better known, so I am excited to include here in my own Aesop project!

Here are five of his fable-poems:

The Fox and the Hedgehog

A wounded Fox disabled lay;

To drive tormenting flies away

A Hedgehog offered him his aid:

"No, Sir, I thank you," Reynard said;

"Already I have borne the ill;

These of my blood have suck'd their fill;

And should we now these robbers chase,

A hungry swarm would take their place."

illustration in Croxall's Aesop

The Gnat and the Ox

Cries to an Ox a little Gnat,

As perch'd upon his horn she sat,

"My weight fatigues you, Sir, I fear;"

Says Ox, ''I knew not thou wert there.''

illustration by Rackham

The Sleep of the Wicked

Beneath a bower's protecting shade,

A wicked Minister was laid.

A gentle rivulet, winding round.

Murmuring, but made his sleep more sound.

"Should such a man have peaceful rest?"

Said one who long had known the pest:

"Yes," says his friend," while thus he lies,

"The world a short repose enjoys."

The Dog and the Quaker

Quakers forbidd'n are by their teachers,

To lift their hand against God's creatures.

But, injur'd, their revenge to take,

Their instruments of others make.

A Dog had stol'n from one of these.

His evening mess of bread and cheese.

He struck him not; but calling out

"Mad dog! Mad dog!" the rabble rout

Seizing on bludgeons, bricks, and stones,

Pursu'd the Dog, and broke his bones.

The Housewife and her Hen

A Housewife once a Hen possessed,

That every morning in her nest

Left a fine egg. Twice in the day

The Beldame wanted her to lay:

And so her nourishment increas'd.

Grown fat, to lay at all she ceas'd.

17th-century illustration