The wild Boar and the Ram
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Jump to navigationJump to searchFable V
<poem> Against an elm a sheep was tied, The butcher's knife in blood was dyed: The patient flock in silent fright, From far beheld the horrid sight. A savage boar, who near them stood, Thus mocked to scorn the fleecy brood.
„All cowards should be served like you.
See, see, your murderer is in view: With purple hands and reeking knife, He strips the skin yet warm with life;
Your quartered sires, your bleeding dams, The dying bleat of harmless lambs, Call for revenge. O stupid race! The heart that wants revenge is base.“
„I grant.“ an ancient ram replies,
„We bear no terror in our eyes; Yet think us not of soul so tame, Which no repeated wrongs inflame; Insensible of every ill, Because we want thy tusks to kill.
The Fables, Volume 1 (1727)
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