Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
33. A DAW AND BORROW’D FEATHERS (Perry
472)
A Daw that had a mind to be sparkish, trick’d himself up with all the
gay Feathers he could muster together: And upon the credit of these stoll’n
or borrow’d Ornaments, he valu’d himself above all the Birds in the Air
beside. The Pride of this Vanity got him the Envy of all his Companions,
who, upon a Discovery of the Truth of the Case, fell to pluming of him
by Consent; and when every Bird had taken his own Feather, the silly Daw
had nothing left him to cover his Nakedness.
THE MORAL. We steal from one another in all manner of Ways, and to
all manner of Purposes; Wit, as well as Feathers; but where Pride and
Beggary meet, People are sure to be made Ridiculous in the Conclusion.
 L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a
very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir
Roger L'Estrange. Aesop
- Fables which is available at amazon.com.
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