The Mules and Robbers
Two laden Mules were on the road--A charge of money was bestowedUpon the one, the other boreSome sacks of barley. He before.Proud of his freight, begun to swell,Stretch'd out his neck, and shook his bell.The poor one, with an easy pace,Came on behind a little space,When on a sudden, from the woodA gang of thieves before them stood;And, while the muleteers engage,Wound the poor creature in their rageEager they seize the golden prize,But the vile barley-bags despise.The plunder'd mule was all forlorn,The other thank'd them for their scorn:"'Tis now my turn the head to toss,Sustaining neither wound nor loss."The low estate's from peril clear,But wealthy men have much to fear.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Mules and Robbers 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, The Mules and Robbers, in The Fables of Phaedrus (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #25512, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/phaedrus-fables/the-mules-and-robbers.html, id L21270.
Form and metre
The Mules and Robbers is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ roadA · bestowedA · boreB · beforeB · swellC · bellC · paceD · spaceD · woodE · stoodE · engageF · rageF · prizeG · despiseG · forlornH · scornH · tossI · lossI · clearJ · fearJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two laden Mules were on the road-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A charge of money was bestowed | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Upon the one, the other bore | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some sacks of barley. He before. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Proud of his freight, begun to swell, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Stretch'd out his neck, and shook his bell. | 8 | ········ |
| The poor one, with an easy pace, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Came on behind a little space, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When on a sudden, from the wood | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A gang of thieves before them stood; | 8 | ········ |
| And, while the muleteers engage, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Wound the poor creature in their rage | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Eager they seize the golden prize, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| But the vile barley-bags despise. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The plunder'd mule was all forlorn, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The other thank'd them for their scorn: | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| "'Tis now my turn the head to toss, | 8 | ········ |
| Sustaining neither wound nor loss." | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| The low estate's from peril clear, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| But wealthy men have much to fear. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
Notes from the edition 3
Henry T. Riley's notes to his prose translation of the Fables of Phaedrus (George Bell & Sons, 1887; Project Gutenberg #25512), aligned fable-by-fable, per book, against Christopher Smart's verse translation of the same fables, which is what the site carries.
- Carrying baskets)--Ver. 2. "Fisci" were baskets made of twigs, or panniers, in which the Romans kept and carried about sums of money. Being used especially in the Roman treasury, the word in time came to signify the money itself. Hence our word "fiscal."
- Clear-toned bell)--Ver. 5. Scheffer and Gronovius think that the bell was used, as in some countries at the present day, for the purpose of warning those who came in an opposite direction to make room where the path was narrow.
- Amid the slaughter)--Ver. 8. He alludes no doubt to the murder of the men conducting the mules by the Robbers.
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.