... Un soir il [le loup] aperçut La lune au fond d'un puits: l'orbiculaire image Lui parut un ample fromage. Deux seaux alternativement Puisoient le liquide élément: Notre Renard, pressé par une faim canine, S'accommode en celui qu'au haut de la machine L'autre seau tenoit suspendu. Voilà l'animal descendu, Tiré d'erreur, mais fort en peine, Et voyant sa perte prochaine.... Dennis had inserted these lines in the pseudo-erudite Butlerian manner: The two large Buckets which were there, Like _Pollux_ and like _Castor_ were. How so pray? For 'tis devilish odd, To liken a Bucket to a God; When one came up from towards the Center, That in our upper world strait went there. These drew up turns the liquid Element, Into one got _Renard_, and towards Hell he went.[9] Nearly all Mandeville's translations are, like "The Fox and Wolf," longer than their originals. The added length is partly explained by meter: Mandeville's octosyllabic line is less capacious, as a rule, than La Fontaine's flexible one. Thus, even though "The Wolf and the Lamb" moves with a speed comparable to "Le Loup et l'Agneau," Mandeville takes 34 lines to La Fontaine's 29.[10] More often, Mandeville's translations are longer than their originals because Mandeville is not able to match La Fontaine's wit and point. "La Lice et sa Compagne," an exercise in light-footed elegance, begins this way: Une Lice étant sur son terme, Et ne sachant où mettre un fardeau si pressant, Fait si bien qu'à la fin sa Compagne consent De lui prêter sa hutte, où la Lice s'enferme. In translating, Mandeville expands these four lines to ten without special gain: A Bitch, who hardly had a day To reckon, knew not where to lay Her Burthen down: She had no Bed; Nor any Roof to hide her Head; Desires a Bitch of the same Pack, To let her have, For Heaven's sake, Her House against her Lying-in. Th' other, who thought it was a Sin, To baulk a Wretch so near her Labour Says, Yes, 'tis at your Service, Neighbor.[11] Perhaps it is Mandeville's plainspokenness, his determination to say all that must be said, which causes him to state explicitly things that La Fontaine left implicit. "La Cigale et la Fourmi," contrasting an irresponsible grasshopper and a provident ant, implies but subdues a contrast between art and life. Mandeville makes the contrast explicit: And now the hungry Songster's driv'n To such a state, no Man can know it, But a Musician or a Poet....[12]