A Poetical Translation Of The Fables of Phaedrus With The Appendix of Gudius, And an accurate Edition of the Original on the opposite Page. To which is added, A Parsing Index For the Use of Learners. By Christopher Smart |
 |
|
 | 1. |
| 2. |
| 3. |
| 4. |
| 5. |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. | FABLE III. The Bald Man and the Fly. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
|
 | A Poetical Translation Of The Fables of Phaedrus |  |
FABLE III. The Bald Man and the Fly.
As on his head she chanc'd to sit,
A man's bald-pate a gad-fly bit;
He, prompt to crush the little foe,
Dealt on himself a grievous blow.
At which the fly deriding said,
You that would strike an insect dead
For one slight sting, in wrath so strict,
What punishment will you inflict
Upon yourself, who was so blunt
To do yourself this gross affront?—
O (says the party) as for me,
I with myself can soon agree.
The spirit of th'intention's all;
But thou, detested canibal,
Blood-sucker, to have thee secur'd,
More would I gladly have endur'd.
A man's bald-pate a gad-fly bit;
He, prompt to crush the little foe,
Dealt on himself a grievous blow.
At which the fly deriding said,
You that would strike an insect dead
For one slight sting, in wrath so strict,
What punishment will you inflict
Upon yourself, who was so blunt
To do yourself this gross affront?—
O (says the party) as for me,
I with myself can soon agree.
The spirit of th'intention's all;
But thou, detested canibal,
Blood-sucker, to have thee secur'd,
More would I gladly have endur'd.
193
What by this moral tale is meant
Is—those who wrong not with intent
Are venial; but to those that do
Severity, I think, is due.
Is—those who wrong not with intent
Are venial; but to those that do
Severity, I think, is due.
| A Poetical Translation Of The Fables of Phaedrus | |