Phryx Aesopus (Osius, 1574)
45. VULPES ET MUSTELA. (Perry
24)
FRumenti cameram ieiuno corpore Vulpem
Irrepsisse, viam rima dat arcta, ferunt.
Forte suos cui longa fames tenuaverat artus,
Insigni macie conspicienda fuit.
At cum sese istinc repleta reducere vellet,
Corpore distentam non via stricta capit.
Quam Mustela videns nequaquam exire parantem
Non bene tentari sic monet inde fugam.
Huic quia ni [(printer); sic: ne] priscam maciem ieiunia reddant
Non evadendi copia (dixit) erit.
Munera quem faciunt ditescere cumque potentum,
Desinit esse sui iuris, ut ante fuit.
Cogitur interea captivus adusque teneri,
Dum, quas dante tulit divite, servat opes.
*** The drawing does not fit the fable. ***
The same drawing also appears at Fable 123 and Fable 166, but does not fit. It looks like an illustration of Perry 226, the fox as judge of the race between the tortoise and the hare.
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. |
