A country rat, of little brains, Grown weary of inglorious rest, Left home with all its straws and grains, Resolved to know beyond his nest. When peeping through the nearest fence,...
The sage Levantines have a tale About a rat that weary grew Of all the cares which life assail, And to a Holland cheese withdrew. His solitude was there profound, Extending through his world so round....
The ancients had a legend which told of a certain rat who, weary of the anxieties of this world, retired to a cheese, therein to live in peace. Profound solitude reigned around the hermit. He worked so hard with his feet and hi...
Mr. Raven was perched upon a limb, And Reynard the Fox looked up at him; For the Raven held in his great big beak A morsel the Fox would go far to seek.
A temple I reserved you in my rhyme: It might not be completed but with time. Already its endurance I had grounded Upon this charming art, divinely founded;...
An Eagle swooped from out the sky, And carried off a sheep. A Raven seeing him, said: "I Could do that too if I should try. His meal comes mighty cheap."
The bird of Jove bore off a mutton, A raven being witness. That weaker bird, but equal glutton, Not doubting of his fitness To do the same with ease, And bent his taste to please,...
NO city I to Rheims would e'er prefer: Of France the pride and honour I aver; The Holy Ampoule * and delicious wine, Which ev'ry one regards as most divine, We'll set apart, and other objects take:...
I'M now disposed to give a pretty tale; Love laughs at what I've sworn and will prevail; Men, gods, and all, his mighty influence know, And full obedience to the urchin show....
A boy who savour'd of his school, - A double rogue and double fool, - By youth and by the privilege Which pedants have, by ancient right, To alter reason, and abridge, -...
A youngster, who was doubly foolish and doubly a rogue - in which perhaps he savoured of the school he went to - was given, they say, to robbing a neighbour's garden of its fruit and flowers. This may have been because he was t...
Once a sculptor who saw for sale a block of marble was so struck with its beauty that he could not resist the temptation to buy it. When it was in his studio he thought to himself, "Now what shall my chisel make of it? Shall it...
A Scythian philosopher austere, Resolved his rigid life somewhat to cheer, Perform'd the tour of Greece, saw many things, But, best, a sage, - one such as Virgil sings, -...
A certain austere philosopher of Scythia, wishing to follow a pleasant life, travelled through the land of the Greeks, and there he found in a quiet spot a sage, one such as Virgil has written of; a man the equal of kings, the ...
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,...
BOCCACE alone is not my only source; T'another shop I now shall have recourse; Though, certainly, this famed Italian wit Has many stories for my purpose fit. But since of diff'rent dishes we should taste;...
A shepherd, with a single dog, Was ask'd the reason why He kept a dog, whose least supply Amounted to a loaf of bread For every day. The people said He'd better give the animal...
'What! shall I lose them one by one, This stupid coward throng? And never shall the wolf have done? They were at least a thousand strong, But still they've let poor Robin[2] fall a prey!...