Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXXVI

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXXVI.

A Dog in a Manger.

A Churlish Envious Curr was gotten into a Manger, and there lay Growling and Snarling to keep the Horses from their Provender. The Dog Eat None himself, and yet rather Ventur'd the Starving his Own Carcase then he would suffer any thing else to be the Better for't.

The Moral.

Envy pretends to No Other Happiness then what it derives from the Misery of Other People, and will rather Eate Nothing it selfe then not Starve Those that Would.

REFLEXION.

We have but too many Men in the World of This Dogs Humour; that will rather Punish Themselves, then not be Troublesome and Vexatious to Others. There's an Envy of Good Things too as well as of Good Men; but This Fable is so well known that it is Moralliz’d in a Common Proverb.

If some men might have their Wills the very Sun in the Firmament should withdraw his Light, and they would submit to Live in Perpetual Darkness Themselves, upon Condition that the rest of the World might do so for Company. Whatsoever their Neighbor Gets They Lose, and the very Bread that One Eats makes T'other Meager: which is the Genuine Moral of the Fable. There is in this Malevolence, somewhat of the Punithment, as well as of the Spite, of the Damn'd: They take delight in Other Peoples Miseries, and at the same Time are their Own Tormentors. This Diabolical Envy is Detestable even in Private Persons; but whenever the Governing Patt of a Nation comes to be Tainted with it, there’s Nothing so Sacred that a Corrupt Supercilious Ill Natur'd Minister will not sacrifice to This Execrable Passion. No Man should Eat, Live, or Breath Common Air if He could Hinder it. ‘Tis the Bus'ness of his Life, and the Delight of his Soul, to Blast all sorts of Honest Men, and not only to Lessen their Characters, and their Services, but to Range them in the Number of Publique Enemics: And he had Twenty times rather see the Government Sink, then have it thought that any hand but his Own should have a Part of the Honour of Saving it. Now He that Betrays his Master for Envy, will never fail of doing it for Mony: For the Gratifying of This Canker’d Malignity is but Another way of selling him; Only the Spite is Antecedent and Subservient to the Corruption: But This Court-Envy is not Altogether the Envy of the Dog in the Fable. For there’s a Mixture of Avarice and Interest in the Former, whereas the Other is a Spitefull Malignity purely for Mischief sike. The Dog will rather Starve himself then the Oxe shall Eat; but the Courtier will be sure to Look to One whoever else goes to the Devil.