'The Lion and the Frog'

'The Lion and the Frog', an illustration by John Vernon Lord 

in Aesop's Fables, Jonathan Cape, 1989, page 55.

The text:

The Lion and the Frog

The Lion, hearing an odd kind of a hollow Voice, and seeing no body, started up; he listen’d again, and perceiving the Voice to continue, even trembled and quak’d for Fear. At last, seeing a Frog crawl out of the Lake, and finding that the Noise he had heard, was nothing but the croaking of that little Creature; he went up to it, and partly out of Anger, partly Contempt, spurn’d it to Pieces with his feet.

Moral:  Those who talk to much without any substance are liable to be silenced.

Text: Samuel Croxall (82, 1722).

Selected Parallels: Babrius 103. L’Estrange 1/202. Chambry 201. Perry 141. Daly 141. TMI U113.