Jesop (6th Century, B.C.?)
Jesop was “not a poet,” says Gilbert Murray, “but the legendary author of a particular type of story.” This type is known as the Beast Fable, a brief incident related in order to point a simple moral. According to tradition Jesop was a foreign slave of the Sixth Century B.C. Whether the fables of ancient India, such as those in the Hitopadesa. He influenced the ancient Greeks and Romans is a question still debated by scholars. At any rate there is a striking similarity; both in treatment and subject-matter, between the Fables of Jesop, Phaedrus and Avianus, and those which delighted the Indians.
The present translation was made by James and published first in 1848.
The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse
Once upon a time a Country Mouse who had a friend in town invited him, for old acquaintance’ sake. To pay him a visit in the country. The invitation being accepted in due form; the Country Mouse; though plain and rough and somewhat frugal in his nature opened his heart and store, in honor of hospitality and an old friend.
There was not a carefully stored-up morsel that he did not bring forth out of his larder, peas and barley; cheese-parings and nuts, hoping by quantity to make up what he feared was wanting in quality, to suit the palate of his dainty guest.
The Town Mouse, condescending to pick a bit here and a bit there, while the host sat nibbling a blade of barley- straw; at length exclaimed “How is it, my good friend, that you can endure the dullness of this unpolished life?
You are living like a toad in a hole. You can’t really prefer these solitary rocks and woods to streets teeming with carriages and men. On my honor, you are wasting your time miserably here. We must make the most of life while it lasts.
A mouse, you know, does not live forever. So come with me and I’ll show you life and the town.” Overpowered with such fine words and so polished a manner, the Country Mouse assented; and they set out together on their journey to town. It was late in the evening when they crept stealthily into the city, and midnight ere they reached the great house, where the Town Mouse took up his quarters. Here were couches of crimson velvet, carvings in ivory, everything in short that denoted wealth and luxury.
