Aesop Dress'd or A Collection of Fables Writ in Familiar Verse. By B. Mandeville |
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The Bat and the two Weasels.
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 | Aesop Dress'd |  |
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The Bat and the two Weasels.
A purblind Bat a heedless Beast
Ran headlong into a Weasel's Nest,
Who big with Child, and Passionate,
Had long since bore a mortal hate
To Mice; she rises, takes a Knife,
Runs to 'm resolv'd to have his Life,
And says: What Rascal in my House!
O impudence! a'nt you a Mouse?
Confess: Yes, I am sure you are,
Or I'm no Weasel: Have a Care,
No Names, good Lady, says the Bat,
No more a Mouse, than you a Rat.
What, I a Mouse? I scorn the Word;
And thank the Gods that made m' a Bird;
Witness my Wings, they're proof enough;
Long live the Birds, and so came off.
Some two Days after giddy brain
By a mischance, intrudes again
T'another Weasel's, who hates Birds,
She lets him enter, made no Words;
But fairly caught him by his Crupper,
And went to cranch him for her Supper.
In quality of Bird, says he,
Madam, this is an Injury,
Damn all the Birds, I do Protest
You wrong me: Sure y'are but in jest,
What reason I should pass for one?
All Birds have Feathers, I have none.
I am a Mouse long live the Rats,
And Jupiter confound the Cats.
Ran headlong into a Weasel's Nest,
Who big with Child, and Passionate,
Had long since bore a mortal hate
To Mice; she rises, takes a Knife,
Runs to 'm resolv'd to have his Life,
And says: What Rascal in my House!
O impudence! a'nt you a Mouse?
Confess: Yes, I am sure you are,
Or I'm no Weasel: Have a Care,
No Names, good Lady, says the Bat,
No more a Mouse, than you a Rat.
What, I a Mouse? I scorn the Word;
And thank the Gods that made m' a Bird;
Witness my Wings, they're proof enough;
Long live the Birds, and so came off.
Some two Days after giddy brain
By a mischance, intrudes again
T'another Weasel's, who hates Birds,
She lets him enter, made no Words;
But fairly caught him by his Crupper,
And went to cranch him for her Supper.
In quality of Bird, says he,
Madam, this is an Injury,
Damn all the Birds, I do Protest
You wrong me: Sure y'are but in jest,
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All Birds have Feathers, I have none.
I am a Mouse long live the Rats,
And Jupiter confound the Cats.
The Moral.
The Trimmer that will side with none,Is forc'd to side with ev'ry one;
And with his Comp'ny change his story,
Long live the Whig, long live the Tory.
| Aesop Dress'd | |