“The Foxe, that longe for grapes did leape in vayne, With wearie limmes, at lengthe did sad departe: And to him selfe quoth hee, I doe disdayne These grapes I see, bicause their taste is tarte: So thou, that hunt’st for that thou longe hast mist, Still makes thy boast, thou maist if that thou list.” Plantin, the famed printer of Antwerp, had, in 1583, put forth an edition of Faerni’s fables,[144] and thus undoubtedly it was that Whitney became acquainted with them; and from the intercourse then existing between Antwerp and London it would be strange if a copy had not fallen into Shakespeare’s hands. Owing to some malady, the King of France, in _All’s Well that Ends Well_ (act ii. sc. 1, l. 59, vol. iii. p. 133), is unable to go forth to the Florentine war with those whom he charges to be “the sons of worthy Frenchmen.” Lafeu, an old lord, has learned from Helena some method of cure, and brings the tidings to the king, and kneeling before him is bidden to rise,— “_King._ I’ll fee thee to stand up. _Laf._ Then here’s a man stands, that has brought his pardon. I would you had kneel’d, my lord, to ask me mercy; And that at my bidding you could so stand up. _King._ I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, And ask’d thee mercy for’t. _Laf._ Good faith, across: but, my good lord, ’tis thus; Will you be cured of your infirmity? _King._ No. _Laf._ O, will you eat no grapes, my royal fox? Yes, but you will my noble grapes, an if My royal fox could reach them: I have seen a medicine That’s able to breathe life into a stone, Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary With spritely fire and motion.” The fox, indeed, has always been a popular animal, and is the subject of many fables which are glanced at by Shakespeare;—as in the _Two Gentlemen of Verona_ (act iv. sc. 4, l. 87, vol. i. p. 143), when Julia exclaims,— “Alas, poor Proteus! thou hast entertained A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs.” Or in _2 Henry VI._ (act iii. sc. 1, l. 55, vol. v. p. 153), where Suffolk warns the king of “the bedlam brain-sick duchess” of Gloucester,— “Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep.” “The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb.” And again, in _3 Henry VI._ (act iv. sc. 7, l. 24, vol. v. p. 312), the cunning creature is praised by Gloucester in an “_aside_,”— “But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He’ll soon find means to make the body follow.” The bird in borrowed plumes, or the Jackdaw dressed out in Peacock’s feathers, was presented, in 1596, on a simple device, not necessary to be produced, with the motto, “QVOD SIS ESSE VELIS,”—_Be willing to be what thou art._ “_Mutatis de te narratur fabula verbis, Qui ferre alterius parta labore ſtudes._” [Sidenote: _i.e._]