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Title: The Lion's Court
Author: Jean de La Fontaine [
More Titles by La Fontaine]
His lion majesty would know, one day,
What bestial tribes were subject to his sway.
He therefore gave his vassals all,
By deputies a call,
Despatching everywhere
A written circular,
Which bore his seal, and did import
His majesty would hold his court
A month most splendidly;--
A feast would open his levee,
Which done, Sir Jocko's sleight
Would give the court delight.
By such sublime magnificence
The king would show his power immense.
Now were they gather'd all
Within the royal hall.--
And such a hall! The charnel scent
Would make the strongest nerves relent.
The bear put up his paw to close
The double access of his nose.
The act had better been omitted;
His throne at once the monarch quitted,
And sent to Pluto's court the bear,
To show his delicacy there.
The ape approved the cruel deed,
A thorough flatterer by breed.
He praised the prince's wrath and claws,
He praised the odour and its cause.
Judged by the fragrance of that cave,
The amber of the Baltic wave,
The rose, the pink, the hawthorn bank,
Might with the vulgar garlic rank.
The mark his flattery overshot,
And made him share poor Bruin's lot;
This lion playing in his way,
The part of Don Caligula.
The fox approach'd. 'Now,' said the king,
'Apply your nostrils to this thing,
And let me hear, without disguise,
The judgment of a beast so wise.'
The fox replied, 'Your Majesty will please
Excuse'--and here he took good care to sneeze;--
'Afflicted with a dreadful cold,
Your majesty need not be told:
My sense of smell is mostly gone.'
From danger thus withdrawn,
He teaches us the while,
That one, to gain the smile
Of kings, must hold the middle place
'Twixt blunt rebuke and fulsome praise;
And sometimes use with easy grace,
The language of the Norman race.
[The end]
Jean de La Fontaine's poem: Lion's Court
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