'The Snake and File'

'The Snake and File', an illustration by John Vernon Lord in Aesop's Fables; 1989, page 46.

The Text: 

The Viper and the File

A VIPER chanced his head to pop

Into a fam’d watchmaker’s shop;

Long near the place had he been lurking,

And staid till past the hours of working.

As with keen eyes he glanced  around

In search of food, a file he found:

Of meats he saw no single item,

Which tempted hungry jaws to bite ’em;

So with his fangs the eager fool

Attacked the rough impassive tool;

And whilst his wounded palate bled,

Fancied on foreign gore he fed.

When thus the file retorted coolly : -

“Viper! this work’s ingenious, truly!

No more those idle efforts try;

Proof ’gainst assaults like yours am I.

On me you’d fracture ev’ry bone,

I feel the teeth of Time alone,”

Moral: We ultimately upset ourselves if we persist in arguing with those who have no feelings

Text: Mr Matthews (La Fontaine 5/16, 1820).

Selected Parallels: Phaedrus 4/8. Caxton, Romulus 3/12. L’Estrange 44. Chambry 116. Perry 93 (cf 59). TMI J552.3.

  

Title of book for text: Fables, Original and Selected, G. Moir Bussey, London, Charles Tilt, 1839. (page 65).

Bussey writes in his introduction (pxxvii) that ‘The excellent versions of La Fontaine’s Fables, are chiefly derived from a volume published anonymously by Mr Murray, in 1820, and are believed to be the production of Mr. Matthews’.