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Jean de LA FONTAINE (1621-1695)
The Lion Court
His Majesty Lioness one day wanted to know
which nations Heaven had made her master.
He therefore requested by deputies
His vassals of all kinds,
Sending from all sides
a circular writing,
With his seal. The writing was that one
month during the King would hold a plenary Court, whose opening was to be
a great feast, followed by the
towers of Fagotin.
By this stroke of magnificence
The Prince to his subjects spread his power.
In his Louvre he invited them.
What a Louvre! A real mass grave, whose smell was first
brought to the people's noses. LOurs blocked his nostril: It
would have gone well to make this mine, His
face was deplorable. The irritated
Monarch Len sent Pluto to Pluto to disgust.
The Monkey strongly approved this severity,
And praised the anger
and the claw of the Prince, and the lantern, and this smell: It was not
amber, it was not flower, Which was not
garlic at the price. His foolish flattery
was a bad success, and was still punished.
This Lion
Monsignor was a relative of Caligula.
The Fox being close: Now that, said the Sire,
What do you feel? Tell me: speak without disguise.
The other immediately to sexcuse, Alleging
a big cold: he could only say Without smell
; in short, he gets away.
This is your teaching: Do not
be in court, if you want to please, Neither bland
adulterer, nor too sincere a speaker, And sometimes
try to answer in Norman.
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