Character Index | Proverb Index
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| Character Index | Proverb Index |
Townsend version
A lion and a Bear seized a Kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely for its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other and were faint from the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue. A Fox, who had gone round them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched on the ground with the Kid lying untouched in the middle. He ran in between them, and seizing the Kid scampered off as fast as he could. The Lion and the Bear saw him, but not being able to get up, said, "Woe be to us, that we should have fought and belabored ourselves only to serve the turn of a Fox."
Moral
It sometimes happens that one man has all the toil, and another all the profit.
L'Estrange version
There was a lion and a bear had gotten a fawn betwixt them, and there were they at it tooth and nail, which of the two should carry't off. They fought it out, till they were e'en glad to lie down, and take breath. In which instant, a fox passing that way, and finding how the case stood with the two combatants, seiz'd upon the fawn for his own use, and so very fairly scamper'd away with him. The lion and the bear saw the whole action, but not being in condition to rise and hinder it, they pass'd this reflexion upon the whole matter; here have we been worrying one another, who should have the booty, 'till this cursed fox has bobb'd us both on't.
Moral
'Tis the fate of all Gotham-quarrels, when fools go together by the ears, to have knaves run away with the stakes.
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Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved