The Frog that wished to be as big as the Ox
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| ←The Raven and the Fox | Fables by , translated by Elizur Wright The Frog that wished to be as big as the Ox |
| Book I, Fable III. Transleted by Elizur Wright (1804 - 1885) The story of this fable is given in Horace, Satires, II. 3, Phaedrus and Corrozet have also versions of it. Gilles Corrozet was one of the French fabulists immediately preceding La Fontaine. He was a Parisian bookseller-author who lived between 1516 and 1568. Source: Gutenberg Project. |
The tenant of a bog,
An envious little frog,
Not bigger than an egg,
A stately bullock spies,
And, smitten with his size,
Attempts to be as big.
With earnestness and pains,
She stretches, swells, and strains,
And says, 'Sis Frog, look here! see me!
Is this enough?' 'No, no.'
'Well, then, is this?' 'Poh! poh!
Enough! you don't begin to be.'
And thus the reptile sits,
Enlarging till she splits.
The world is full of folks
Of just such wisdom;--
The lordly dome provokes
The cit to build his dome;
And, really, there is no telling
How much great men set little ones a swelling.
