Read "The Showman's Monkey and his Master" by Tomás de Iriarte online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
That authentic author, Father Valdecebro, -- / In his veracious Natural History, / Who exercised his warm imagination, / By spots and marks, each beast minutely painting, / And told, in style so fanciful and turgid, / About the Unicorn astounding marvels, / And to the fabulous Phoenix gave full credence, -- / In his eighth book, or ninth, -- which I've forgotten, -- / Relates the story of a famous Monkey.
The story ran: That it was a Monkey skilful / In thousand tricks, who served a puppet showman: / That thought one day, in absence of his master, / To ask some beasts -- his own especial cronies -- / To witness all his entertaining juggles.