Fables of La Fontaine Part 25

XVIII.--THE EAGLE AND THE OWL.[21]

The eagle and the owl, resolved to cease Their war, embraced in pledge of peace.

On faith of king, on faith of owl, they swore That they would eat each other's chicks no more.

'But know you mine?' said Wisdom's bird.[22]

'Not I, indeed,' the eagle cried.

'The worse for that,' the owl replied: 'I fear your oath's a useless word; I fear that you, as king, will not Consider duly who or what: You kings and G.o.ds, of what's before ye, Are apt to make one category.

Adieu, my young, if you should meet them!'

'Describe them, then, or let me greet them, And, on my life, I will not eat them,'

The eagle said. The owl replied: 'My little ones, I say with pride, For grace of form cannot be match'd,-- The prettiest birds that e'er were hatch'd; By this you cannot fail to know them; 'Tis needless, therefore, that I show them.

Pray don't forget, but keep this mark in view, Lest fate should curse my happy nest by you.'

At length G.o.d gives the owl a set of heirs, And while at early eve abroad he fares, In quest of birds and mice for food, Our eagle haply spies the brood, As on some craggy rock they sprawl, Or nestle in some ruined wall, (But which it matters not at all,) And thinks them ugly little frights, Grim, sad, with voice like shrieking sprites.

'These chicks,' says he, 'with looks almost infernal, Can't be the darlings of our friend nocturnal.

I'll sup of them.' And so he did, not slightly:-- He never sups, if he can help it, lightly.

The owl return'd; and, sad, he found Nought left but claws upon the ground.

He pray'd the G.o.ds above and G.o.ds below To smite the brigand who had caused his woe.

Quoth one, 'On you alone the blame must fall; Or rather on the law of nature, Which wills that every earthly creature Shall think its like the loveliest of all.

You told the eagle of your young ones' graces; You gave the picture of their faces:-- Had it of likeness any traces?'

[21] Avia.n.u.s; also Verdizotti.

[22] _Wisdom's bird_.--The owl was the bird of Minerva, as the eagle was that of Jupiter.

XIX.--THE LION GOING TO WAR.[23]

The lion had an enterprise in hand; Held a war-council, sent his provost-marshal, And gave the animals a call impartial-- Each, in his way, to serve his high command.

The elephant should carry on his back The tools of war, the mighty public pack, And fight in elephantine way and form; The bear should hold himself prepared to storm; The fox all secret stratagems should fix; The monkey should amuse the foe by tricks.

'Dismiss,' said one, 'the blockhead a.s.ses, And hares, too cowardly and fleet.'

'No,' said the king; 'I use all cla.s.ses; Without their aid my force were incomplete.

The a.s.s shall be our trumpeter, to scare Our enemy. And then the nimble hare Our royal bulletins shall homeward bear.'

A monarch provident and wise Will hold his subjects all of consequence, And know in each what talent lies.

There's nothing useless to a man of sense.

[23] Abstemius.

XX.--THE BEAR AND THE TWO COMPANIONS.[24]

Two fellows, needing funds, and bold, A bearskin to a furrier sold, Of which the bear was living still, But which they presently would kill-- At least they said they would.

And, if their word was good, It was a king of bears--an Ursa Major-- The biggest bear beneath the sun.

Its skin, the chaps would wager, Was cheap at double cost; 'Twould make one laugh at frost-- And make two robes as well as one.

Old Dindenaut,[25] in sheep who dealt, Less prized his sheep, than they their pelt-- (In their account 'twas theirs, But in his own, the bears.) By bargain struck upon the skin, Two days at most must bring it in.

Forth went the two. More easy found than got, The bear came growling at them on the trot.

Behold our dealers both confounded, As if by thunderbolt astounded!

Their bargain vanish'd suddenly in air; For who could plead his interest with a bear?

One of the friends sprung up a tree; The other, cold as ice could be, Fell on his face, feign'd death, And closely held his breath,-- He having somewhere heard it said The bear ne'er preys upon the dead.

Sir Bear, sad blockhead, was deceived-- The prostrate man a corpse believed; But, half suspecting some deceit, He feels and snuffs from head to feet, And in the nostrils blows.

The body's surely dead, he thinks.

'I'll leave it,' says he, 'for it stinks;'

And off into the woods he goes.

The other dealer, from his tree Descending cautiously, to see His comrade lying in the dirt, Consoling, says, 'It is a wonder That, by the monster forced asunder, We're, after all, more scared than hurt.

But,' addeth he, 'what of the creature's skin?

He held his muzzle very near; What did he whisper in your ear?'

'He gave this caution,--"Never dare Again to sell the skin of bear Its owner has not ceased to wear."'[26]

[24] Versions will be found in Aesop, Avia.n.u.s, and Abstemius.

[25] _Old Dindenaut_.--_Vide_ Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, Book IV.

chap. viii.--Translator.

The character in Rabelais is a sheep-stealer as well as a sheep-dealer.

[26] According to Philip de Commines, the Emperor Frederic III. of Germany used a story conveying the substance of this fable, with its moral of _Never sell your bear-skin till the beast is dead_, as his sole reply to the amba.s.sadors of the French king when that monarch sent him proposals for dividing between them the provinces of the Duke of Burgundy. The meaning of which was, says de Commines, "That if the King came according to his promise, they would take the Duke, if they could; and when he was taken, they would talk of dividing his dominions."--_Vide_ Bohn's edition of the "Memoirs of De Commines," vol. i., p. 246.

XXI.--THE a.s.s DRESSED IN THE LION'S SKIN.[27]

Clad in a lion's s.h.a.ggy hide, An a.s.s spread terror far and wide, And, though himself a coward brute, Put all the world to scampering rout: But, by a piece of evil luck, A portion of an ear outstuck, Which soon reveal'd the error Of all the panic-terror.

Old Martin did his office quick.

Surprised were all who did not know the trick, To see that Martin,[28] at his will, Was driving lions to the mill!

In France, the men are not a few Of whom this fable proves too true; Whose valour chiefly doth reside In coat they wear and horse they ride.

[27] Aesop, and Avia.n.u.s.

[28] _Martin_.--Martin-baton, again as in Fable V., Book IV.

BOOK VI.

I.--THE SHEPHERD AND THE LION.[1]

Of fables judge not by their face; They give the simplest brute a teacher's place.

Bare precepts were inert and tedious things; The story gives them life and wings.

But story for the story's sake Were sorry business for the wise; As if, for pill that one should take, You gave the sugary disguise.

For reasons such as these, Full many writers great and good Have written in this frolic mood, And made their wisdom please.

But tinsel'd style they all have shunn'd with care; With them one never sees a word to spare.

Of Phaedrus some have blamed the brevity, While Aesop uses fewer words than he.

A certain Greek,[2] however, beats Them both in his larconic feats.

Each tale he locks in verses four; The well or ill I leave to critic lore.

At Aesop's side to see him let us aim, Upon a theme substantially the same.

The one selects a lover of the chase; A shepherd comes, the other's tale to grace.