The royal bird for fear of mine, For fear of royal claws the swine. All died, at length, with hunger, The older and the younger; There staid, of eagle race or boar, Not one this side of death's dread door;-- A sad misfortune, which The wicked cats made rich. O, what is there of hellish plot The treacherous tongue dares not! Of all the ills Pandora's box[13] outpour'd, Deceit, I think, is most to be abhorr'd. [12] Phaedrus, II. 4. [13] _Pandora's box._--Pandora, the Eve of the Grecian mythology, was sent to earth with all the human ills and Hope in a box, whence all but Hope escaped.--_Vide_ Elton's Hesiod, _Works and Days_, I. 114, Bohn's edition, &c. VII.--THE DRUNKARD AND HIS WIFE.[14] Each has his fault, to which he clings In spite of shame or fear. This apophthegm a story brings, To make its truth more clear. A sot had lost health, mind, and purse; And, truly, for that matter, Sots mostly lose the latter Ere running half their course. When wine, one day, of wit had fill'd the room, His wife inclosed him in a spacious tomb. There did the fumes evaporate At leisure from his drowsy pate. When he awoke, he found His body wrapp'd around With grave-clothes, chill and damp, Beneath a dim sepulchral lamp. 'How's this? My wife a widow sad?' He cried, 'and I a ghost? Dead? dead?' Thereat his spouse, with snaky hair, And robes like those the Furies wear, With voice to fit the realms below, Brought boiling caudle to his bier-- For Lucifer the proper cheer; By which her husband came to know-- For he had heard of those three ladies-- Himself a citizen of Hades. 'What may your office be?' The phantom question'd he. 'I'm server up of Pluto's meat, And bring his guests the same to eat.' 'Well,' says the sot, not taking time to think, 'And don't you bring us anything to drink?' [14] Aesop. VIII.--THE GOUT AND THE SPIDER.[15]