Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book III - V. Aesopus et Petulans (Perry
497)
Successus ad perniciem multos deuocat.
Aesopo quidam petulans lapidem impegerat.
"Tanto" inquit "melior!" Assem deinde illi dedit
sic prosecutus: "Plus non habeo mehercule,
sed unde accipere possis monstrabo tibi.
Venit ecce diues et potens; huic similiter
impinge lapidem, et dignum accipies praemium."
Persuasus ille fecit quod monitus fuit,
sed spes fefellit impudentem audaciam;
comprensus namque poenas persoluit cruce.
Esop and the Insolent Fellow (trans. C. Smart)
Fools from success perdition meet.
An idle wretch about the street
At Esop threw a stone in rage.
" So much the better," quoth the sage,
And gives three farthings for the job;
" I've no more money in my fob;
But if you 'll follow my advice,
More shall be levied in a trice."
It happen'd that the selfsame hour
Came by a man of wealth and pow'r.
" There, throw your pellet at my lord,
And you shall have a sure reward!"
The fellow did as he was told;
But mark the downfall of the bold;
His hopes are baulk'd, and, lo! he gains
A rope and gibbet for his pains.'
Latin text from Phaedrus at The
Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The
Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart
(London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb),
contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along
with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or
in Latin. Invaluable.
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