FABLE [46] XLVI. The Cur, the Horse, and the Shepherd's Dog. John Gay Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T13818 Gay, John, 1685-1732. FABLES. By Mr. GAY. London Printed for J. Tonson and J. Watts, MDCCXXVII. 1727 pp. 156-158. [14],173,[1]p.: ill.; 4°.

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FABLE [ 46 ] XLVI. The Cur , the Horse , and the Shepherd's Dog . The lad , of all-sufficient merit , With modesty ne'er damps his spirit , Presuming on his own deserts , On all alike his tongue exerts ; His noisy jokes at random throws , And pertly spatters friends and foes ; In wit and war the bully race Contribute to their own disgrace : Too late the forward youth shall find That jokes are sometimes paid in kind , Or if they canker in the breast , He makes a foe who makes a jest . A village-cur , of snappish race , The pertest puppy of the place , Imagin'd that his treble throat Was blest with musick's sweetest note ; In the mid road he basking lay , The yelping nusance of the way ; For not a creature past along But had a sample of his song . Soon as the trotting steed he hears , He starts , he cocks his dapper ears , Away he scowers , assaults his hoof , Now near him snarles , now barks aloof ; With shrill impertinence attends , Nor leaves him 'till the village ends . It chanc'd , upon his evil day , A Pad came pacing down the way ; The Cur , with never-ceasing tongue , Upon the passing trav'ler sprung , The horse , from scorn provok'd to ire , Flung backward ; rolling in the mire , The puppy howl'd , and bleeding lay ; The Pad in peace pursu'd his way . A shepherd's Dog , who saw the deed , Detesting the vexatious breed , Bespoke him thus . When coxcombs prate , They kindle wrath , contempt , or hate . Thy teazing tongue had judgment ty'd , Thou hadst not , like a puppy , dy'd .