The Ass

Kriloff’s Original Fables
A peasant had an Ass,
And, as it seemed, for quiet he did pass, At any rate from day to day
His master on him- praise did lay;
But on his neck at last the peasant hung a bell, To find him in the wood, where he oft liked to dwell. This puffed our Ass up ; he began to shew his pride
(Of ” orders ” J he of course had heard),
And think himself a person aye to rank allied
;
But dignity turned out, unlucky Ass, instead
—
(A lesson not for Asses alone, be it inferred)
A thing thou’lt hear, read on of course implied.
Our Ass’s honour was not much
To boast of, but, before he got his bell His happiness was such,
That he in field of corn or oats, or garden feasted well, And then, when full stole off all unobserved. Where’er our stately Personage now deigns to poke his nose, Ring ! ring ! upon his neck the sign of new’ rank goes. They hear, they look : the master takes his club, Drives him from out the corn, the beds; and down his
sides doth rub
The neighbour’s stick, who hears the bell about
His oats, from which he turns him out. Well, thus ’twas with our poor Grandee : Until the autumn fretted he,
And then of him remained but this—an Ass’s bones and
skin.
And many, that to rank slip in Though rogues, the same fate meet : while still his rank
Is low, a rogue obscurity may thank
For all that he can shameless win
;
But high rank on a rogue is like a bell
:
The ring of it is loud, and far it sounds of him to tell.