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Phryx Aesopus (Osius, 1574)

33. ASINUS ET EQUUS. (Perry 565)

CORPORIS eximii felix est visus Asello,
Quod parce domino non aleretur Equus.
Cum viles paleas sibi vix alimenta ministret,
Qui tamen assiduo more fatiget, herus,
At cum bella novis exorta tumultibus essent,
Ad fera ab armato est proelia ductus Equus.
Post varios pugnae qui laesus ab hoste labores,
Exition tandem flebiliore perit.
Ista videns Asinus, quam duxerat ante beatum,
Tam miserum [(printer); sic: miseram] re nunc indice sentit Equum.
Splendida saepe gravi discrimine vita laborat,
Optima sors igitur, quae mediocris, erit.

Note: Same image appears for Fable 82.

Phryx Aesopus Habitu Poetico, by Hieronymus Osius, 1574 (artist not identified). Available online at the University of Mannheim. This book clearly recycles a set of images from another book of Aesop's fables. In some cases, the illustration does not match the fable shown, and in some cases I have not been able to identify what fable a given illustration is supposed to illustrate.