Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable CXCVIII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. CXCVII.

A Woman and her Two Daughters.

A Woman that had Two Daughters, Bury’d one of them, and Mourners were Provided to Attend the Funeral. The Surviving Daughter Wonder'd to see Strangers so Much concern’d at the Loss of her Sister, and her Nearest Relations so Little. Pray Mother, says she, What’s the Reason of This? Oh, says the Mother, We that are a-Kin to her, are never the Better for Crying, but the Strangers have Money for't.

The MORAL.

Mourners are as Mercenary as Common Prostitutes; They are at His Service that bids Most for them.

REFLEXION.

FUNERAL Tears are only Civilities of Course, but there must be Wringing of Hands yet, and Ejulations, some where or Other; and where the Relations are not in humour for't, ‘tis the Fashion to Provide Mercenaries to do the Office. The Moral of This will reach to All the Pompous Solemnities of our Mourning Processions, which upon the Whole, Amount to no more then Dress and Pageantry, to make the Show look Disinal, and so many Sowre Faces that are Hir'd to Adorn the Hipocrisie. This was the Widows Case, that Cry'd her self Half Mad and Blind with a Thousand Passionate Interjections, for the Loss of her Dear Husband. [Never so Dear, so Dear a Man!] This Woman, say (when she had done All This, and Renounc’d the World, the Flesh and the Devil, with as much Solemnity as ever she did in her Baptism) was at the Long-Last prevail'd upon to hear the Will read: But when the found in the Conclusion, that the Dear Man the so often call’d upon, had left her Nothing that he could keep from her, but her Wedding-Ring and her Apron-Strings, Up the started, Wip'd her Eyes, Rais'd her Voice, [And is This all with a Pox] she cry'd; and with Those Words in her Mouth, she came to her self again. Now This Widow, in the Pure Strength of Flesh and Blood; cry’d as Arrantly for Money as the Mercenaries in the Fable.