Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
279. The King's Son and the Painted Lion (Perry
363)
A KING, whose only son was fond of martial exercises, had a dream in
which he was warned that his son would be killed by a lion. Afraid the
dream should prove true, he built for his son a pleasant palace and adorned
its walls for his amusement with all kinds of life-sized animals, among
which was the picture of a lion. When the young Prince saw this, his grief
at being thus confined burst out afresh, and, standing near the lion,
he said: 'O you most detestable of animals! through a lying dream of my
father's, which he saw in his sleep, I am shut up on your account in this
palace as if I had been a girl: what shall I now do to you?' With these
words he stretched out his hands toward a thorn-tree, meaning to cut a
stick from its branches so that he might beat the lion. But one of the
tree's prickles pierced his finger and caused great pain and inflammation,
so that the young Prince fell down in a fainting fit. A violent fever
suddenly set in, from which he died not many days later
We had better bear our troubles bravely than try to escape them.
George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books. |