Folk Tale

The Stag at the Fountain

Translated From

Ceruus ad Fontem

AuthorPhaedrus
Book TitleFabulae Aesopiae
Publication Date41
LanguageLatin

Other Translations / Adaptations

Text titleLanguageAuthorPublication Date
Le Cerf près d'une fontaine. French__
AuthorC. Smart
Book TitleThe Fables of Phaedrus
Publication Date1887
LanguageEnglish
OriginItaly

FULL often what you now despise Proves better than the things you prize; Let Esop's narrative decide: A Stag beheld, with conscious pride, (As at the fountain-head he stood) His image in the silver flood, And there extols his branching horns, While his poor spindle-shanks he scorns- But, lo! he hears the hunter's cries, And, frightened, o'er the champaign flies-- His swiftness baffles the pursuit: At length a wood receives the brute, And by his horns entangled there, The pack began his flesh to tear: Then dying thus he wail'd his fate: "Unhappy me! and wise too late! How useful what I did disdain! How grievous that which made me vain!


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