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Mr. Cooke's Original Poems

with Imitations and Translations of Several Select Passages of the Antients, In Four Parts: To which are added Proposals For perfecting the English Language

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FABLE the Second. The Ass.
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136

FABLE the Second. The Ass.

One Holyday, as Æsop says,
For Asses have their Holydays,
A worthless Creature of his Kind,
With all the Vices of the Mind,
A peevish, kicking, idle, Elf,
That hated all above himself,
Who by his Master well was fed,
Yet grudg'd his fellow Slaves their Bread,
Was saunt'ring by the woodland Side,
And found by Chance a Lion's Hyde:
The Shadow of the kingly Beast
Renew'd the Envy of his Breast;
And, when from Head to Tail survey'd,
Thus, pricking up his Ears, he say'd,
For once, it ne'er may be again,
An Ass shall lord it o'er the Plain.
Then soon, elate with aukward Pride,
He cas'd him in the shaggy Hyde.

137

A-while he round the Forest stray'd,
And there a-while the Tyrant play'd.
The humble Wretches of his Reign
All saw, and trembled at, his Mane.
The Fox, allow'd a subtle Creature,
Well view'd him o'er in ev'ry Feature.
Suspecting, as he prov'd indeed,
He was not of the royal Breed;
Where'er he goes he closely steals,
A dang'rous Spy, behind his Heels.
Once on a Day, a luckless Day,
As on the Watch sly Reynard lay,
His Majesty himself betray'd,
Who striv'd to roar, and only bray'd:
Ha! ha! quoth he, my Liege, thus low
I pay the Homage that I owe;
Your Subjects all shall do the same.
At this Alarm of Reynard came,
Some Foes before, united there,
The Bull, the Tyger, and the Bear;
The Prince, once Object of their Dread,
They make their Jest from Tail to Head.
They seiz'd him by his Ass's Ears,
And rid the Nation of their Fears,
Shamefully driv'd him from the Plain,
And ended thus his Assship's Reign.