'The Lion's Kingdom', an illustration by John Vernon Lord
in Aesop's Fables, Jonathan Cape, 1989, page 67.
The action here takes place in a field next to our house.
The text:
The Lion’s Reign as King of the Beasts
THE beasts of the field and forest
had a Lion as their king. He was neither
wrathful, cruel, nor tyrannical, but just and gentle as a king could be. He made during his reign a royal proclamation
for a general assembly of all the birds and beasts, and drew up conditions for
a universal league, in which the Wolf and the Lamb, the Panther and the Kid,
the Tiger and the Stag, the Dog and the Hare, should live together in perfect
peace and amity. The Hare said, “Oh, how
I have longed to see this day, in which the weak shall take their place with
impunity by the side of the strong.”
Moral: When justice prevails, all
may live in friendship and peace.
Text: George Fyler Townsend (p8, 1868).
Selected parallels: Babrius 102. L’Estrange 1/399. Chambry 195. Perry 334.
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