Aesop's Phrases

THE EAGLE AND THE OWL. by Erenst Griset.

THE Eagel and the Owl, after many quarrels, swore that they would be fast friends for ever, and that they would never harm each other’s young ones. “But do you know my little ones?” said the Owl. “If you do not. I fear it will go hard with them when you find them.” “Nay, then, I do not, “ replied the Eagle. “The greater your loss,” said the Owl; “they are the sweetest, prettiest things in the world. Such dear eyes! Such charming plumage! Such winning little way! You’ll know them, now, from my description.” A short time after, the Eagle found the little ones in a hollow tree. “These hideous little staring frights, at any rate, cannot be neighbour Owl’s delicious pets,” said the Eagle; “so I may make away with them without the least misgiving.” The Owl, finding her young ones gone, loaded the Eagle with reproaches. “Nay,” answered the Eagle, “blame yourself rather than me. If you paint with such flattering colours, it is not my fault if I do not recognise your portraits.”

Verdizotti, Laf5.18, Bewick1.32. TMI T681, Type247
Cf. Odo of Cheriton21= Pe591 "Si quis amat ranam, ranam putat esse Dianam."

Jupiter and the Monkey. 72 by Townsend

JUPITER ISSUED a proclamation to all the beasts of the forest and promised a royal reward to the one whose offspring should be deemed the handsomest. The Monkey came with the rest and presented, with all a mother's tenderness, a flat-nosed, hairless, ill-featured young Monkey as a candidate for the promised reward. A general laugh saluted her on the presentation of her son. She resolutely said, "I know not whether Jupiter will allot the prize to my son, but this I do know, that he is at least in the eyes of me his mother, the dearest, handsomest, and most beautiful of all."

Babrius56=Pe364, Avi14, Cax7.11.

THE MOTHER, THE NURSE, AND THE FAIRY. by Ernest Griset.

“GIVE me a son!” The blessing sent,
Were ever parents more content?
How partial are their closing eyes;
No child is half so fair and wise.
Waked to the morning’s pleasing care,
The Mother rose, and sought her heir.
She saw the Nurse, like on possessed,
With wringing hands and sobbing breast.
“Sure some disaster has befel:
Speak, Nurse, I hope the boy is well.”
“Dear Madam, think me not to blame,
Invisible the Fairy came:
Your precious babe is hence conveyed,
And in its place a changeling laid.
Where are the father’s mouth and nose,
The mother’s eyes, as black as sloes?
See here, a shocking, awkward creature,
That speaks a fool in every feature.”
“The woman’s blind,” the Mother cries;
“I see wit sparkle in his eyes.”
“Lord, Madam, what a squinting leer!
No doubt the Fairy has been here.”
Just as she spoke, a pigmy Sprite
Pops through the keyhole, swift as light;
Perched on the cradle’s top he stands,
And thus her folly reprimands:-
“Whence sprung the vain, conceited lie,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! Give our sprightly race away,
For the dull helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we dote upon our own,
Where yet was ever found a mother,
Who’d give her baby for another?
And should we change for human breed,
Well might we pass for fools indeed.”

Pancatantra 5. (14)

quotation from "VISNU SARMA The Pancatantra" translated by Chandra Rajan, Penguin Classics.

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Folks might have a bad son, wayward,
and wilful, even ill-favoured;
an idiot may be, or even a rogue,
one addicted to vice, yet he brings
joy and delight to the hearts of his parents.

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