Roger L'Estrange (29)

Here are some more fables from Roger L'Estrange's Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists, and you can click here for all the L'Estrange fables at this blog.

A Vulture's Invitation

The Vulture took up a Fit of a very good Humour once, and invited the whole Nation of the Birds to make merry with him, upon the Anniversary of his Birth-Day. The Company came; the Vulture shuts the Doors upon them, and Devours his Guests instead of Treating Them.

There's no Meddling with any Man that has neither Faith, Honour nor Good Nature in him.

illustration from Steinhowel

A Country-Man and an Ass

As a Country-man was Grazing his Ass in a Meadow, comes a Hot Alarm, that the Enemy was just falling into their Quarters. The poor Man calls presently to his Ass, in a terrible Fright, to scoure away as fast as he could scamper: for, says he, we shall be taken else. Well, quoth the Ass, and what if we should be Taken? I have one Pack-Saddle upon my Back already, Will they clap another a-topof that, d'ye think? I can but be a Slave where-ever I am: so that Taken or not Taken, 'tis all a Case to Me.

It's some Comfort for a Body to be so Low that he cannot fall: And in such a Condition already that he cannot well be worse. If a Man be born to be a Slave, no Matter to what Master.

illustration by Grandville

A Cuckow and Little Birds

A Cuckow was asking several Little Birds, what made them so Shy of coming into her Company. They told her, that she was so like a Hawk, they did not care to have any thing to do with her.

A Wise Man Searches into the Nature of Things, and does not Govern himself by outward Semblances and Appearances.

A Country-man and a Panther

A Panther had the Fortune to drop into a Pit-fall. The People came Flocking about him; some Pelting and Battering him with Stones and Cudgels; others Pity'd him, and threw him somewhat to Eat. Toward Night, they went All Home again, taking for granted that they should find him Dead next Morning: But in that Interim he came to Himself again, and gave 'em the Slip: And upon getting Loose, he made such Havock both with Man and Beast, that the whole Country, Friend and Foe, were all in Dread of him. The Panther finding the Fright so General, call'd out to 'em, and told them; So many of ye (says he) as were King to me in the Pit, set your Hearts at Rest, for I'll not Hurt a Creature of ye now I am at Liberty. I have not forgotten who they were that gave me Bread, and who threw Stones at me; and I'm an Enemy only to those that were Enemies to me.

There's no Creature so Wild and Savage, and but it may be wrought upon and Reclaim'd by Good Offices and Benefits; to the shame of that part of Mankind, that returns Evil for Good, and is yet to Learn Humanity from the Beasts of the Forrests.

illustration from a 17th-century Phaedrus

A Cobler turn'd Doctor

A Bungling Cobler that was ready to Starve at his own Trade, changes his Quarter, and sets up for a Doctor; and by the Force of Sour Looks, and Hard Words, Conjures himself into some sort of Reputation with the Common People. His Masterpiece was a Composition that he Bill'd about, under the Name of a Sovereign Antidote. This Physician came in time to fall Sick himself, and the Governor of the Place gave him a Visit. He calls for a Cup, and a Dose of his Antidote, puts a little Fair Water in't, under a Pretence of so much Poison; stirs it together, and gives it his Patient. This (says he) is only to try the Force of your Medicine; and if you outlive it, I'le give ye a considerable Sum of Mony for your Receit. The poor Quack had more care of his Life then of his Credit, and so for fear of being Poyson'd, told the whole Truth of the Matter, and how he came to be a Physician. The Governour upon this Discovery, call'd the People together, and bad them consider the Folly and Madness of their Confidence, that would venture the Patching up of their Carcases, upon the Skill of an Ignorant Fellow, that no body that knew him would trust so much as with the Mending of a pair of Old Shoes.

There's Quacking in all Trades: Bold Ignorance passes upon the Multitude for Science; and it is with Men as 'tis with Brutes, some are to Eat, and others to be Eaten. Confident Knaves, live upon Credulous Fools.

illustration from an early 18th-century Phaedrus

Rooster, Donkey, and Lion

Today's story is inspired by a traditional Aesop's fable, number 82 in the Perry corpus.

The Rooster, the Donkey and the Lion

The rooster and his friend the donkey went out into the field one day; the rooster perched upon the fence while the donkey was eating the grass, and there a lion saw them. The lion crept through the tall grass, stalking them, but before he could pounce, the rooster saw the lion and called out loudly to warn his friend of the danger. "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!" crowed the rooster. Now there is nothing a lion fears more than the sound of the rooster's crow, so he turned tail and ran. The foolish donkey laughed and said, "Look at that lion, scared of a rooster!" Then he decided to chase the lion, taunting him as he ran. "You big baby! You coward! Run away! Run away!" Meanwhile, the rooster kept crowing — "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!"  — but as soon as the rooster was out of earshot, the lion turned around and attacked the donkey, dragging him to the ground. "I may be afraid of the rooster crowing," he snarled, "but I am not afraid of you. Donkeys are supposed to run away from lions, not after them, you fool!" And then the lion killed the donkey and ate him.

This fable depends on an ancient Greek folk belief about the lion being afraid of the rooster's crow, a belief which also appears in the fable about the lion and the elephant (Perry 259). Especially since I just wrote about a lion who was afraid of the sound made by a frog (The Lion and the Frog), I decided to put the focus on the lion here, having him pronounce the endomythium, where the lion has the good sense to admit his own weakness, shameful though it might be, while rebuking the donkey for not having that same self-awareness of his strengths and weaknesses.

In the ancient Greek version of the story, there is no endomythium at all, and that is true for many of the English versions also, including the widely reprinted version in Croxall: An Ass and a Cock lived in a farmyard together. One day a hungry Lion passing by and seeing the Ass in good condition, resolved to make a meal of him. Now, they say that there is nothing a Lion hates so much as the crowing of a Cock; and at that moment the Cook happening to crow, the Lion straightway made off with all haste from the spot. The Ass, mightily amused to think that a Lion should be frightened at a bird, plucked up courage and galloped after him, delighted with the notion of driving the king of beasts before him. He had, however, gone no great distance, when the Lion turned sharply round upon him, and made an end of him in a trice. Presumption begins in ignorance and ends in ruin. 

In some versions, the donkey supposedly follows the lion because he thought he was the cause of the lion running away, not recognizing it was the rooster, but I liked the way Croxall put it, with the donkey laughing at a lion being afraid of a bird, so I went with that approach, and had the donkey taunt the lion as he ran. But the idea of the donkey mistakenly thinking that his own bray is powerful is a very nice approach also, and that is what makes the tiny limerick by Linton work so well:
The Ass gave a horrible bray,
Cock crowed; Lion scampered away;
Ass judged he was scared
By the bray, and so dared
To pursue; Lion ate him they say.
DON'T TAKE ALL THE CREDIT TO YOURSELF.

If I were to include this fable in a cycle about foolish donkeys I would definitely go with that version about the donkey and the power of his bray, but instead I was more interested in emphasizing the donkey's contempt for the lion's shameful fear and the lion's contempt for the donkey's reckless courage. The donkey's contempt for the lion is emphasized in the version that appears in Caldecott's Aesop:
An Ass and a Cock were in a shed. A hungry Lion caught sight of the Ass and was on the point of entering the shed to devour him. But he took fright at the sound of the Cock crowing, for people say that Lions are afraid at the voice of a Cock, and turned away and ran. The Ass, roused to a lofty contempt of him for being afraid of a Cock, went out to pursue him, but when they were some distance away, the Lion ate him up.

As an alternative to the donkey's contempt for the lion, I also like the idea of the donkey's false courage and "cowards who thus provoke their fate" in this nice verse version in an anonymous 19th-century children's Aesop:
An Ass and Cock together fed,
When, startled by a Lion's tread,
With clarion shrill, bold chanticleer
Scared him away in panic fear.
The Ass, courageous at the sight,
Pursued the Lion in his flight,
But found too far his courage bore him,
For round the monarch turned and tore him.
Cowards who thus provoke their fate,
Like the poor Ass may find, too late,
That courage false leads on to danger,
When on them turns the bold avenger.
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP.
DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF VALOR.

In the English versions I found with an endomythium, it was always pronounced by the donkey rather than the lion. For example, here is Dugard's version in verse; this endomythium gave me the idea to juxtapose wisely running away from a lion as opposed to foolishly running after him:

The Cock and Ass together feed,
Towards whom a Lyon making speed,
The Cock first sees him, and to warn
The Ass to shun ensuing Harm
He crows aloud, at whose shrill Voice
the Lion back retires (no Noise
More terrifying him than that)
Which when the Ass perceived, thereat
Insults, and thinks from him he flew,
Seeming with Fury to pursue
The Lyon. But ere far they had gone,
Beyond the Noise of Cocks, where none
Was present but the Ass, and he,
The Lyon longer scorns to flee,
But turns, and unresisted slew
The Ass that did but now pursue,
Who thus laments, "Alas, that I,
Of cowardly Parents born, must die,
Not able, in this fatal Strife,
Return a Stroke to save my Life,
Nor when in Safety feeding, fly,
But follow such an Enemy."

Ayres' prose version also features an endomythium by the donkey: The Cock and the Ass feeding together, a Lion came to seize the Ass, which the Cock perceiving, crowed aloud to give him notice of it, at which shrill noise, the Lion being affrighted ran away, for so 'tis said the Lion alwaies dreads a Cock's Voice. But the Ass thinking he had fled for fear of him, pursued the Lion, who ran very far, till looking back, and not hearing nor seeing the Cock, turned furiously upon the Ass, and devoured him. The Ass crying with a lamenta∣ble voice, as he was dying, O Fool and Unfor∣tunate! that knowing my self not to be of a Valiant and Couragious Race, should thus madly engage against so powerful an Enemy." Many men out of design, counterfeit Fear till they find an opportunity to fall upon their Ene∣mies and destroy them.

Notice that hint in Ayers' epimythium that the lion was just pretending to be afraid in order to lure the donkey into a trap! I don't think that really fits with the idea of the fable, but it just goes to show how different people can twist and turn the details of the plot in order to promote the message they want to convey.

I can also imagine a version where the rooster would fly up and pronounce an endomythium over the donkey's body. Some versions emphasize the idea of the rooster being a friend to the donkey and trying to warn him (which is something I included in my version too), so the rooster's endomythium could be along the lines of "I tried to warn you, my friend, but instead I provoked you to run to your own death" or something like that.

To be honest, when I started to work on this fable today, I wasn't sure if it would turn out to be interesting or not; I chose it because it is one of the donkey fables in the Nahuatl Aesop that Hector Tapia is working on. I was really pleased and surprised to find out how many fascinating little differences there were among the English versions that I looked at. That actually made it hard, but fun, to write my own version since I had to make my own choices out of so many good possibilities.

For an illustration, the Medici Aesop is wonderful, showing the stages of the plot from right to left: the donkey and the rooster feeding, the donkey chasing the lion, and then the lion turning on the donkey and killing him.

Click here for more illustrations and English versions of this fable, and for more "favorite fables" at this blog, see the Aesopica label. You can find out more about this retelling project, see this post: Favorite Aesop's Fables.

Clarke: English (28)

Here are some more fables from H. Clarke's Latin textbook Fabulae Aesopi selectae, or, Select fables of Aesop, and you can click here for all the fables reposted from this book at the blog.

136. Of an Ass Being Sick, and Wolves Visiting Him

An ass was sick, and report had gone out that he would die quickly; therefore, when the wolves had come to see him and asked of the son how his father did, he answered through the chink of the door, "Better than ye would have him."

Moral. This fable shows that many feign to bear the death of others with trouble, whom yet they desire to perish quickly.

illustration from Croxall's Aesop

137. Of a Nut-Tree, an Ass, and a Woman

A certain woman asked a nut-tree growing by the wayside, which was beaten with stones by the people passing by, why it was so mad that by how much it was beaten with more and greater stripes, by so much it yielded more and better fruits? To whom it said, "Art thou unmindful of the proverb saying thus: a nut-tree, an ass, and a woman are bound by a like law. These three do nothing rightly if blows cease."

Moral. This fable shows taht men often are wont to wound themselves with their own darts.

138. Of an Ass, Not Finding an End of His Labors

An ass was grieved very much in winter time that he was affected with too much cold and had hard meat of chaff, wherefore he desired the spring season and the tender grass. But when spring came and he was compelled by the master, who was a a potter, to carry clay into the yard and wood to the furnace, and thence bricks and tiles to diverse places. Tired of the spring, in which he bore so many labors, he hoped for summer, that the master, being hindered by the harvest, would suffer him to rest, but then also, when he was compelled to bear the corn into the barn, and thence the wheat home, nor was there space for rest for him. At least he hoped tha tautumn would be the end of his labors, but, when not then also he perceived an end of evils, seeing that daily wine, apples, and wood were to be carried, again he desired the snow and ice of winter, that then at least some rest might be granted to him from such great labors.

Moral. This fable shows that there are no times of the present life which are not subject to perpetual labors.

illustration by Bewick

139. Of a Mouse Who Was Willing to Contract Friendship with a Cat

Many mice dwelling in the hollow of a wall, espied a cat, who lay on the boarded floor, with her head hung down, and a sad countenance. Then one of them said, this animal seems very kind and milkd; for she shows a certain sanctity in her very countenance; I am willing to speak to her and to knit an indissoluble friendship with her; which things when he had said, and had approached nearer, he was taken and torn to pieces by the cat. Then the rest, seeing this, said wish themselves, truly we must not trust rashly to the countenance.

Moral. This fable hints that men are not to be judged by the countenance, but by actions: seeing that fierce wolves often lie hid under a sheep's skin.

illustration by Grandville

140. Of an Ass, Who Served an Ungrateful Master

An ass, who had served an ungrateful master many years with an inoffensive foot, once, as it happens while he was pressed with a heavy load, and went in an uneven way, fell under the burden. Then the implacable master compelled him to rise with many blows, calling him an idle and dull animal. But the miserable ass said with himself, among these stripes, unhappy I, who have got so ungrateful a master! For although I have served him a long time without offence, yet he does not weigh this one fault with my so many former benefits.

Moral. This fable was feigned against those who unmindful of benefits conferred on them prosecute even the least offence of their benefactor with cruel punishment.

illustration by Bewick