French Tales

Fables Of La Fontaine

Download PDF

Children’s books – Fables Of La Fontaine – Contents
< < < The Spider And The Swallow
The Dog Whose Ears Were Cropped > > >

The Partridge And The Cocks

With a set of uncivil and turbulent cocks,
That deserved for their noise to be put in the stocks,
A partridge was placed to be rear’d.
Her sex, by politeness revered,
Made her hope, from a gentry devoted to love,
For the courtesy due to the tenderest dove;
Nay, protection chivalric from knights of the yard.
That gentry, however, with little regard
For the honours and knighthood wherewith they were deck’d,
And for the strange lady as little respect,
Her ladyship often most horribly peck’d.
At first, she was greatly afflicted therefor,
But when she had noticed these madcaps at war
With each other, and dealing far bloodier blows,
Consoling her own individual woes,–
‘Entail’d by their customs,’ said she, ‘is the shame;
Let us pity the simpletons rather than blame.
Our Maker creates not all spirits the same;
The cocks and the partridges certainly differ,
By a nature than laws of civility stiffer.
Were the choice to be mine, I would finish my life
In society freer from riot and strife.
But the lord of this soil has a different plan;
His tunnel our race to captivity brings,
He throws us with cocks, after clipping our wings.
‘Tis little we have to complain of but man.’

< < < The Spider And The Swallow
The Dog Whose Ears Were Cropped > > >

Children’s books – Fables Of La Fontaine – Contents

Copyright holders –  Public Domain Book

If you liked this site, subscribe , put likes, write comments! Share on social networks

© 2023 Akirill.com – All Rights Reserved