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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431360" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Devil Of Pope-Fig Island</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">BY master Francis clearly 'tis expressed:<br>The folks of Papimania are blessed;<br>True sleep for them alone it seems was made<br>With US the copy only has been laid;<br>And by Saint John, if Heav'n my life will spare,<br>I'll see this place where sleeping 's free from care.<br>E'en better still I find, for naught they do:<br>'Tis that employment always I pursue.<br>Just add thereto a little honest love,<br>And I shall be as easy as a glove.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ON t'other hand an island may be seen,<br>Where all are hated, cursed, and full of spleen.<br>We know them by the thinness of their face<br>Long sleep is quite excluded from their race.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">SHOULD you, good reader, any person meet,<br>With rosy, smiling looks, and cheeks replete,<br>The form not clumsy, you may safely say,<br>A Papimanian doubtless I survey.<br>But if, on t'other side, you chance to view,<br>A meagre figure, void of blooming hue,<br>With stupid, heavy eye, and gloomy mien<br>Conclude at once a Pope-figer, you've seen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">POPE-FIG 'S the name upon an isle bestowed,<br>Where once a fig the silly people showed,<br>As like the pope, and due devotion paid:--<br>By folly, blocks have often gods been made!<br>These islanders were punished for their crime;<br>Naught prospers, Francis tells us, in their clime;<br>To Lucifer was giv'n the hateful spot,<br>And there his country house he now has got.<br>His underlings appear throughout the isle,<br>Rude, wretched, poor, mean, sordid, base, and vile;<br>With tales, and horns, and claws, if we believe,<br>What many say who ought not to deceive.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ONE day it happened that a cunning clown<br>Was by an imp observed, without the town,<br>To turn the earth, which seemed to be accurst,<br>Since ev'ry trench was painful as the first.<br>This youthful devil was a titled lord;<br>In manners simple:--naught to be abhorred;<br>He might, so ignorant, be duped at ease;<br>As yet he'd scarcely ventured to displease:<br>Said he, I'd have thee know, I was not born,<br>Like clods to labour, dig nor sow the corn;<br>A devil thou in me beholdest here,<br>Of noble race: to toil I ne'er appear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THOU know'st full well, these fields to us belong:<br>The islanders, it seems, had acted wrong;<br>And, for their crimes, the pope withdrew his cares;<br>Our subjects now you live, the law declares;<br>And therefore, fellow, I've undoubted right,<br>To take the produce of this field, at sight;<br>But I am kind, and clearly will decide<br>The year concluded, we'll the fruits divided.<br>What crop, pray tell me, dost thou mean to sow?<br>The clod replied, my lord, what best will grow<br>I think is Tousell; grain of hardy fame;<br>The imp rejoined, I never heard its name;<br>What is it. Tousell, say'st thou?--I agree,<br>If good return, 'twill be the same to me;<br>Work fellow, work; make haste, the ground prepare;<br>To dig and delve should be the rabble's care;<br>Don't think that I will ever lend a hand,<br>Or give the slightest aid to till the land;<br>I've told thee I'm a gentleman by birth,<br>Designed for ease: not doomed to turn the earth.<br>Howe'er I'll now the diff'rent parts allot,<br>And thus divide the produce of the plot:--<br>What shall above the heritage arise,<br>I'll leave to thee; 'twill very well suffice;<br>But what is in the soil shall be my share;<br>To this attend, see ev'ry thing is fair.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THIS beardless corn when ripe, with joy was reaped,<br>And then the stubble by the roots was heaped,<br>To satisfy the lordly devil's claim,<br>Who thought the seed and root were just the same,<br>And that the ear and stalk were useless parts,<br>Which nothing made if carried to the marts:<br>The labourer his produce housed with care;<br>The other to the market brought his ware,<br>Where ridicule and laughter he received;<br>'Twas nothing worth, which much his bosom grieved.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">QUITE mortified, the devil quickly went;<br>To seek our clod, and mark his discontent:<br>The fellow had discreetly sold the corn,<br>In straw, unthrashed, and off the money borne,<br>Which he, with ev'ry wily care, concealed;<br>The imp was duped, and nothing was revealed.<br>Said he, thou rascal?--pretty tricks thou'st played;<br>It seems that cheating is thy daily trade;<br>But I'm a noble devil of the court,<br>Who tricking never knew, save by report.<br>What grain dost mean to sow th' ensuing year?<br>The labourer replied, I think it clear,<br>Instead of grain, 'twill better be to chop,<br>And take a carrot, or a turnip crop;<br>You then, my lord, will surely plenty find;<br>And radishes, if you are so inclined.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THESE carrots, radishes, and turnips too,<br>Said t'other, I am led to think will do;<br>My part shall be what 'bove the soil is found:<br>Thine, fellow, what remains within the ground;<br>No war with thee I'll have, unless constrained,<br>And thou hast never yet of me complained.<br>I now shall go and try to tempt a nun,<br>For I'm disposed to have a little fun.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE time arrived again to house the store;<br>The labourer collected as before;<br>Leaves solely to his lordship were assigned,<br>Who sought for those a ready sale to find,<br>But through the market ridicule was heard,<br>And ev'ry one around his jest preferred:--<br>Pray, Mister Devil, where d'ye grow these greens?<br>How treasure up returns from your demesnes?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">ENRAGED at what was said, he hurried back,<br>And, on the clown, proposed to make attack,<br>Who, full of joy, was laughing with his wife,<br>And tasting pleasantly the sweets of life.<br>By all the pow'rs of Hell, the demon cried,<br>He shall the forfeit pay, I now decide;<br>A pretty rascal truly, master Phil:<br>Here, pleasures you expect at will,<br>Well, well, proceed; gallant it while allowed;<br>For present I'll remit what I had vowed;<br>A charming lady I'm engaged to meet;<br>She's sometimes willing: then again discreet;<br>But soon as I, in cuckold's row, have placed<br>Her ninny husband, I'll return in haste,<br>And then so thoroughly I'll trim you o'er,<br>Such wily tricks you'll never practise more;<br>We'll see who best can use his claws and nails,<br>And from the fields obtain the richest sales.<br>Corn, carrots, radishes, or what you will:--<br>Crop as you like, and show your utmost skill<br>No stratagems howe'er with culture blend;<br>I'll take my portion from the better end;<br>Within a week, remember, I'll be here,<br>And recollect:--you've every thing to fear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">AMAZED at what the lordly devil said,<br>The clod could naught reply, so great his dread;<br>But at the gasconade Perretta smiled,<br>Who kept his house and weary hours beguiled,<br>A sprightly clever lass, with prying eye,<br>Who, when a shepherdess, could more descry,<br>Than sheep or lambs she watched upon the plain,<br>If other views or points she sought to gain.<br>Said she, weep not, I'll undertake at ease,<br>To gull this novice-devil as I please;<br>He's young and ignorant; has nothing seen;<br>Thee; from his rage, I thoroughly will skreen;<br>My little finger, if I like can show<br>More malice than his head and body know.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THE day arrived, our labourer, not brave,<br>Concealed himself, but not in vault nor cave;<br>He plunged within a vase extremely large,<br>Where holy-water always was in charge;<br>No demon would have thought to find him there,<br>So well the clod had chosen his repair;<br>In sacred stoles he muffled up his skin,<br>And, 'bove the water, only kept his chin;<br>There we will leave him, while the priests profound<br>Repeated Vade retro round and round.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">PERRETTA at the house remained to greet<br>The lordly devil whom she hoped to cheat.<br>He soon appeared; when with dishevelled hair,<br>And flowing tears, as if o'erwhelmed with care,<br>She sallied forth, and bitterly complained,<br>How oft by Phil she had been scratched and caned;<br>Said she, the wretch has used me very ill;<br>Of cruelty he has obtained his fill;<br>For God's sake try, my lord, to get away:<br>Just now I heard the savage fellow say,<br>He'd with his claws your lordship tear and slash:<br>See, only see, my lord, he made this gash;<br>On which she showed:--what you will guess, no doubt,<br>And put the demon presently to rout,<br>Who crossed himself and trembled with affright:<br>He'd never seen nor heard of such a sight,<br>Where scratch from claws or nails had so appeared;<br>His fears prevailed, and off he quickly steered;<br>Perretta left, who, by her friends around,<br>Was complimented on her sense profound,<br>That could so well the demon's snares defeat;<br>The clergy too pronounced her plan discrete.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=La+Fontaine">La Fontaine</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=431360" data-title="The Devil Of Pope-Fig Island de La Fontaine" data-description="BY master Francis clearly 'tis expressed:
The folks of Papimania are blessed;
True sleep for them alone it seems was made
With US the copy only has been laid;
And by Saint John, if Heav'n my life will spare,
I'll see this place where sleeping 's f..."></div>
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