The Fables of La Fontaine

There’s nothing like a secret weighs;
Too heavy ’tis for women tender;
And, for this matter, in my days,
I’ve seen some men of female gender.

To prove his wife, a husband cried,
(The night he knew the truth would hide,)
‘O Heavens! What’s this? O dear — I beg
I’m torn — O! O! I’ve laid an egg!’ …Read more »

A shepherd, neighbour to the sea,
Lived with his flock contentedly.
His fortune, though but small,
Was safe within his call.
At last some stranded kegs of gold
Him tempted, and his flock he sold,
Turn’d merchant, and the ocean’s waves …Read more »

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, 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, …Read more »

A man amass’d. The thing, we know,
Doth often to a frenzy grow.
No thought had he but of his minted gold–
Stuff void of worth when unemploy’d, I hold.
Now, that this treasure might the safer be,
Our miser’s dwelling had the sea
As guard on every side from every thief.
With pleasure, very small in my belief,
But very great in his, he there
Upon his hoard bestow’d his care.
No respite came of everlasting …Read more »

Thrysis–who for his Annette dear
Made music with his flute and voice,
Which might have roused the dead to hear,
And in their silent graves rejoice–
Sang once the livelong day,
In the flowery month of May,
Up and down a meadow brook,
While Annette fish’d with line and hook.
But ne’er a fish would bite;
So the shepherdess’s bait
Drew not a fish to its fate …Read more »

A man of middle age, whose hair
Was bordering on the grey,
Began to turn his thoughts and care
The matrimonial way.
By virtue of his ready,
A store of choices had he
Of ladies bent to suit his taste;
On which account he made no haste.
To court well was no trifling art.
Two widows chiefly gain’d his heart;
The one yet green, the other more mature …Read more »

The oak one day address’d the reed:
‘To you ungenerous indeed
Has nature been, my humble friend,
With weakness aye obliged to bend.
The smallest bird that flits in air
Is quite too much for you to bear;
The slightest wind that wreathes the lake
Your ever-trembling head doth shake.
The while, my towering form
Dares with the mountain top
The solar blaze to stop, …Read more »