Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CXXI

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CXXI.

A Lyon in Love.

A Lyon fell in Love with a Country Lass, and desir'd her Father’s Consent to have her in Marriage. The Answer he gave was Churlish enough. He'd never Agree to't he say'd, upon any Terms, to Marry his Daughter to a Beast. The Lyon gave him a Sowr Look upon't, which brought the Bumkin, upon Second Thoughts, to strike up a Bargain with him, upon these Conditions; that his Teeth should be Drawn, and his Nailes Par'd; for Those were Things, he say'd, that the Foolish Girle was Terribly afraid of. The Lyon sends for a Surgeon immediately to do the Work; (as what will not Love make a Body do?) And so soon as ever the Operation was Over, he goes and Challenges the Father upon his Promise. The Countryman seeing the Lyon Disarmd, Pluck’d up a Good Heart, and with a Swindging Cudgel so Order'd the Matter, that he broke off the Match.

The Moral.

An Extravagant Love Consults neither Life, Fortune, nor Reputation, but Sacrifices All that can be Dear to a Man of Sense and Honor, to the Transports of an Inconsiderate Passion.

REFLEXION.

This Fable will look well enough in the Moral, how Fantaslical soever it may appear at first Blush in the Lines and Traces of it. Here's a Beast in Love with a Virgin; which is but a Reverse of the Prcposterous Passions we meet with Frequently in the World, when Reasonable Creatures of Both Sexes fall in love with Those, that in the Allusion may (allmost without a Figure) pass for Beasts. There’s Nothing so Fierce, or so Savage, but Love will Soften it; Nothing so Generous but it will Debauche it; Nothing so sharp sighted in Other Matters, but it throws a Mist before the Eyes on't. It puts the Philosopher beside his Latin; and to summ up All in a Little, where This Passion Domineers, neither Honour, nor Vir-tue, is able to stand before it. The Lyon's Parting with his Teeth, and his Clawes, in a Complement to his New Mistress, is no more then what we see Every Day Exemplify’d in the case of making over Eslates and Joyntures, with the Malice Prepense all this While, of holding their Noses to the Grindstone, and with the Girles Father here, of Jilting them at last.