I crave Your kind permission to depart;
And to my Wife and Children home return,
Who still with anxious tears my absence
mourn."
"Depart in peace!" replied the mighty King;
"And fear not any man or any thing."
So Reynard left with all his Kin; two score There were who with him journeyed, if not
All full of triumph and of joy they are,
And in their Kinsman's glory hope to share.
While he himself his transports noway veils;
But stalks as proud as though he had two tails;
To think he'd won such honor by sheer wit,
And how the bravest use to make of it.
"This realm henceforth (thus to himself
thought he),
On true Fox principles shall governed be,
By members only of my Family.
A certain truth the world may thus behold, How much more wisdom is of worth than gold."
By what good chance he 'scaped his threatened fate.
Reynard replied; "It was not chance, dear Wife,
But skill and cunning that have saved my life.
Again with Noble reconciled am I;
Ne'er in his favor have I stood so high.
He's called me to his Council, as of yore,
And in full Court has named me Chancellor ;
Has given into my keeping the Great Seal;
So henceforth I shall rule the Commonweal.
The Wolf have I in battel overcome;
In future are his lips for ever dumb;
Wounded he lies, disabled and disgraced;
My marks of vengeance on him have I placed.
Her streams of sorrow may his Wife unsluice:
Henceforth her Husband is of little use.
But nothing shall I grieve on that account;
Vanquished is he, and I, Lord Paramount.
Be of good cheer then, Love; for happy
hours
The future has in store for us and ours." Great was the Vixen's gladness; while her Boys
In rueful council o'er him sat; And bore him from the lists away, Upon a litter stuffed with hay.
Their Sire half deadened with their frantic How learned leeches dressed each wound,
They frisked and sprang about on ev'ry side; "Oh, happy day! oh, joyful hour!" they cried;
"Who upon earth so fortunate as we?
For honored through our Father shall we be.
Our Enemies we now may set at nought,
And have it our own way, as Foxes ought."
Now Reynard lives in honor and in state;
Then let us all his wisdom imitate;
Eschew the Evil and select the Good:
This moral points our tale, when understood.
The truth with fables hath the Poet mixed,
That Virtue in your hearts may be infixed;
And you who purchase and peruse this poem
May see the ways o' th' world, and learn to
know 'em;
As it has been, is now, and aye will be.
Here then ends Reynard's life and history;
And with a bow we here lay down our pen.
The Lord preserve us evermore. Amen!
The scribe who erst this tale did write, Now wends him to the Wolf's sad plight; Tells how his friends, the Bear and Cat,
Assembled we have for a laudable end, Associates! Ergo bibamus!
Stern fate has decreed, and I have to obey, To part from you. Ergo bibamus!
Whilst raising the glasses, your chatting sus- No load shall I carry unless you will say
Remember the "Ergo bibamus!"
No older, no truer a word do I know,
No better from neighbor to neighbor to go,
At banquets in value and volume to grow,
Than glorious "Ergo bibamus!"
But shortly ago when my darling I spied,
I thought of the "Ergo bibamus!"
Approached her and smiled; on her turning
aside,
I quickly repeated: Bibamus!
And when reconciled, she will pet me and kiss,
Or when I her tenderness painfully miss,
For want of a better I cherish the bliss
Of comforting "Ergo bibamus!"
Repeatedly: "Ergo bibamus!"
Unlike to the miser's emaciate frame,
The joyous will fatten, and thrive all the same,
His comrades will duly acknowledge his
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