Fable I. the Weazel and Mice
A Weasel, worn with years, and lame,That could not overtake its game,Now with the nimble Mice to deal,Disguised herself with barley meal;Then negligent her limbs she spreadIn a sly nook, and lay for dead.A Mouse that thought she there might feed,Leapt up, and perish'd in the deed;A second in like manner died;A third, and sundry more beside:Then comes the brindled Mouse, a chapThat oft escaped both snare and trap,And seeing how the trick was played,Thus to his crafty foe he said:--"So may'st thou prosper day and night,As thou art not an errant bite."
Words in this poem
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- sundry a.
- Several; divers; more than one or two; various. [OE. sundry, sondry, AS. syndrig, fr. sundor asunder. See Sunder, v. t.]
- brindled a.
- Having dark streaks or spots on a gray or tawny ground; brinded. [A dim. form of brinded.]
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
- errant n.
- One who wanders about. Fuller.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fable I. the Weazel and Mice is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes, Project Gutenberg ebook #25512; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Phaedrus, Fable I. the Weazel and Mice, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/fable-i-the-weazel-and-mice.html, id L21293.
Form and metre
Fable I. the Weazel and Mice is 16 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 88% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEFF-CGG lameA · gameA · dealB · mealB · spreadC · deadC · feedD · deedD · diedE · besideE · chapF · trapF · played · saidC · nightG · biteG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A Weasel, worn with years, and lame, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That could not overtake its game, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Now with the nimble Mice to deal, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Disguised herself with barley meal; | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Then negligent her limbs she spread | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| In a sly nook, and lay for dead. | 8 | ········ |
| A Mouse that thought she there might feed, | 8 | ········ |
| Leapt up, and perish'd in the deed; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A second in like manner died; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A third, and sundry more beside: | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Then comes the brindled Mouse, a chap | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That oft escaped both snare and trap, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And seeing how the trick was played, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thus to his crafty foe he said:-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "So may'st thou prosper day and night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As thou art not an errant bite." | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.