Truth in Fiction Or, Morality in Masquerade. A Collection of Two hundred twenty five Select Fables of Aesop, and other Authors. Done into English Verse. By Edmund Arwaker |
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| XXXII. | FABLE XXXII. The Nut-Tree and Lady:
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 | Truth in Fiction |  |
FABLE XXXII. The Nut-Tree and Lady:
Or, The Inquisitor silenc'd.
A glib-tong'd
Dame, who Silence never lov'd,
And very much her babling self approv'd;
In Woods and Groves was often pleas'd to walk,
Where, to the Trees, she cou'd with freedom talk:
As she her us'al Tour one Evening made,
To give her Clack a Loose to its old Trade;
She ask'd a Wall-nut-Tree that fac'd the Road,
Why there he chose to settle his Abode,
Where he with Sticks and Stones was thumpt and bruis'd,
And yet, when batter'd most, most Fruit produc'd?
The serious Tree (that rather wou'd dispense
With that Abuse, than her Impertinence)
Reply'd, Is yet the Proverb strange to you,
Which sure Experience has long since prov'd true?
And very much her babling self approv'd;
In Woods and Groves was often pleas'd to walk,
Where, to the Trees, she cou'd with freedom talk:
As she her us'al Tour one Evening made,
To give her Clack a Loose to its old Trade;
She ask'd a Wall-nut-Tree that fac'd the Road,
Why there he chose to settle his Abode,
Where he with Sticks and Stones was thumpt and bruis'd,
And yet, when batter'd most, most Fruit produc'd?
139
With that Abuse, than her Impertinence)
Reply'd, Is yet the Proverb strange to you,
Which sure Experience has long since prov'd true?
Three Things, by Drubbing, most improve,
A Nut, an Ass, a Woman:
The Cudgel from their Backs remove,
They will be good for no Man.
A Nut, an Ass, a Woman:
The Cudgel from their Backs remove,
They will be good for no Man.
At this Reply, the silenc'd Dame retir'd,
She now had found more Talk than she desir'd.
She now had found more Talk than she desir'd.
The MORAL.
‘Such Treatment often busie Medlers find,‘Who less their own, than others Bus'ness mind:
‘When grown vexatiously Inquisitive,
‘They wou'd into their Neighbours Secrets dive:
‘With some unlucky Answer they are paid,
‘That do's the Folly they betray, upbraid.
| Truth in Fiction | |