A bungling Cobbler, broken down by want, having begun to practise physic in a strange place, and selling his antidote[I.15] under a feigned name, gained some reputation for himself by his delusive speeches.
Upon this, the King of the city, who lay ill, being afflicted with a severe malady, asked for a cup, for the purpose of trying him; and then pouring water into it, and pretending that he was mixing poison with the fellow’s antidote, ordered him to drink it off, in consideration of a stated reward. Through fear of death, the cobbler then confessed that not by any skill in the medical art, but through the stupidity of the public, he had gained his reputation. The King, having summoned a council, thus remarked: “What think you of the extent of your madness, when you do not hesitate to trust your lives[I.16] to one to whom no one would trust his feet to be fitted with shoes?”
This, I should say with good reason, is aimed at those through whose folly impudence makes a profit.
[ Fable XV.]
THE ASS AND THE OLD SHEPHERD.
In a change of government, the poor change nothing beyond the name of their master. That this is the fact this little Fable shows.
A timorous Old Man was feeding an Ass in a meadow. Frightened by a sudden alarm of the enemy, he tried to persuade the Ass to fly, lest they should be taken prisoners. But he leisurely replied: “Pray, do you suppose that the conqueror will place double panniers upon me?” The Old Man said, “No.” “Then what matters it to me, so long as I have to carry my panniers, whom I serve?”
[ Fable XVI.]
THE STAG, THE SHEEP, AND THE WOLF.
When a rogue offers his name as surety in a doubtful case, he has no design to act straight-forwardly, but is looking to mischief.
A Stag asked a Sheep for a measure[I.17] of wheat, a Wolf being his surety. The other, however, suspecting fraud, replied: “The Wolf has always been in the habit of plundering and absconding; you, of rushing out of sight with rapid flight: where am I to look for you both when the day comes?”[I.18]