The Two Mules by Jean de La Fontaine

Name: The Two Mules
Author: Jean de La Fontaine

Two mules travel together, one carrying oats and the other carrying silver from a tax. The mule burdened with silver takes pride in his valuable load and walks proudly, pleased by the sound of his bell. In a wild wood, robbers attack them and seize the silver-bearing mule. As he struggles, he is stabbed and falls dying. He laments that his humble companion has escaped danger while he dies in blood. The mule carrying oats answers that it is unwise to have too exalted a task: had the proud mule been an ordinary miller’s drudge like him, he would not have died.

By Jean de La Fontaine · First published 1668 · Genre: Fable, Didactic Literature, Moral Tale · 303 words

First lines

Two mules were bearing on their backs, / One, oats; the other, silver of the tax.[1] / The latter glorying in his load, / March'd proudly forward on the road; / And, from the jingle of his bell, / 'Twas plain he liked his burden well. / But in a wild-wood glen / A band of robber men / Rush'd forth upon the twain. / Well with the silver pleased, / They by the bridle seized / The treasure-mule so vain. / Poor mule! in struggling to repel / His ruthless foes, he fell / Stabb'd through; and with a bitter sighing, / He cried, 'Is this the lot they promised me? / My humble friend from danger free, / While, weltering in my gore, I'm dying? ' / 'My friend,' his fellow-mule replied, / 'It is not well to have one's work too high. / If thou hadst been a miller's drudge, as I, / Thou wouldst not thus have died.'

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The Two Mules is listed on Textopian as a fable by Jean de La Fontaine, dated 1668 CE.

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Work type: Fable
Author: Jean de La Fontaine
Date: 1668 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fable, Didactic Literature, Moral Tale, Animal Tale, Narrative Poetry
Length: 303 words
Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)

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Genres

Fable — The poem uses talking animals, a brief illustrative plot, and an explicit moral lesson about the dangers attached to high status and conspicuous wealth.
Didactic Literature — Its primary purpose is instructional: the surviving mule directly explains that a humbler occupation would have spared the other mule's fatal danger.
Moral Tale — The narrative dramatizes a moral contrast between vanity in privileged labor and the relative safety of modest work.
Animal Tale — Mules are the central characters and are endowed with speech, judgment, pride, suffering, and the ability to convey human social behavior.