Explore "The Eye of the Master" by Jean de La Fontaine on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A stag took refuge from the chase / Among the oxen of a stable, / Who counsel'd him, as saith the fable, / To seek at once some safer place. / 'My brothers,' said the fugitive, / 'Betray me not, and, as I live, / The richest pasture I will show, / That e'er was grazed on, high or low; / Your kindness you will not regret, / For well some day I'll pay the debt. ' / The oxen promised secrecy. / Down crouch'd the stag, and breathed more free. / At eventide they brought fresh hay, / As was their custom day by day; / And often came the servants near, / As did indeed the overseer, / But with so little thought or care, / That neither horns, nor hide, nor hair / Reveal'd to them the stag was there. / Already thank'd the wild-wood stranger / The oxen for their treatment kind, / And there to wait made up his mind, / Till he might issue free from danger. / Replied an ox that chew'd the cud, / 'Your case looks fairly in the bud; / But then I fear the reason why / Is, that the man of sharpest eye / Hath not yet come his look to take. / I dread his coming, for your sake; / Your boasting may be premature: / Till then, poor stag, you're not secure. ' / 'Twas but a little while before / The careful master oped the door. / 'How's this, my boys? ' said he; / 'These empty racks will never do. / Go, change this dirty litter too. / More care than this I want to see / Of oxen that belong to me. / Well, Jim, my boy, you're young and stout; / What would it cost to clear these cobwebs out? / And put these yokes, and hames, and traces, / All as they should be, in their places? ' / Thus looking round, he came to see / One head he did not usually. / The stag is found; his foes / Deal heavily their blows. / Down sinks he in the strife; / No tears can save his life. / They slay, and dress, and salt the beast, / And cook his flesh in many a feast, / And many a neighbour gets a taste. / As Phaedrus says it, pithily, / The master's is the eye to see: -- / I add the lover's, as for me.[1]
[1]: Phaedrus, II. 8 (The Stag and the Oxen); and others.