To speak, when it should silent be.
'Well,' says the Cock, 'the same with me;
I curse the eyes that go to sleep
Just when they ought sharp watch to keep
Lest evil to their lord befall.'
Thus fools contrariously do all:
They chatter when they should be dumb,
And, when they ought to speak, are mum.
Dryden's version of this Tale, entitled The Cock and the Fox, must be familiar to all readers.
In Reliquiae Antiquae, ed. Halliwell and Wright, ii. 272, a humorous fable, entitled the Vox [Fox] and the Wolf, is printed from MS. Digby, 86. The first sixty-four lines give an account of a hungry fox, who breaks into a farm-yard and has a parley with a cock who had 'flowen on hey.' The fox tries to persuade the cock to come down from his lofty position:—