Be wise therefore; is it more safe to move
A Lyons anger, or confirm his love?
For if you shew the least unwillingness,
I’ll make you know the Senior of your Mess.
This said, the Hunters were amaz’d thereat;
They knew their distance, and they durst not prate,
But hung their tails betwixt their legs for shame,
And went away more hungry then they came.
This, said I, was the Fable, which though it had already admitted of many Paraphrases and Morals, yet was never yet in my opinion so fit and aptly moralized, as in what I shall here recite, which I did thus:
But take away the Brutes, and clear the Stage;