must be allowed me that to be too
scrupulous would spoil all. He who would wish to reduce Boccaccio to
the same modesty as Virgil, would assuredly produce nothing worth
having, and would sin against the laws of propriety by setting himself
the task to observe them. For in order that one may not make a mistake
in matters of verse and prose, extreme modesty and propriety are two
very different things. Cicero makes the latter consist in saying what
is appropriate one should say, considering the place, the time, and the
persons to whom one is speaking. This principle once admitted, it is
not a fault of judgment to entertain the people of to-day with Tales
which are a little broad.

TALES AND NOVELS

OF

J. DE LA FONTAINE

.......

THE SERVANT GIRL JUSTIFIED

BOCCACE alone is not my only source;

T'another shop I now shall have recourse;

Though, certainly, this famed Italian wit

Has many stories for my purpose fit.

But since of diff'rent dishes we should taste;

Upon an ancient work my hands I've placed;

Where full a hundred narratives are told,

And various characters we may behold;

From life, Navarre's fair queen the fact relates;

My story int'rest in her page creates;

Beyond dispute from her we always find,

Simplicity with striking art combin'd.

Yet, whether 'tis the queen who writes, or not;

I shall, as usual, here and there allot

Whate'er additions requisite appear;

Without such license I'd not persevere,

But quit, at once, narrations of the sort;

Some may be long, though others are too short.

LET us proceed, howe'er (our plan explained:)

A pretty servant-girl a man retain'd.

She pleas'd his eye, and presently he thought,

With ease she might to am'rous sports be brought;

He prov'd not wrong; the wench was blithe and gay,

A buxom lass, most able ev'ry way.

AT dawn, one summer's morn, the spark was led

To rise, and leave his wife asleep in bed;

He sought at once the garden, where he found

The servant-girl collecting flow'rs around,

To make a nosegay for his better half,

Whose birth-day 'twas:--he soon began to laugh,

And while the ranging of the flow'rs he prais'd,

The servant's neckerchief he slyly rais'd.

Who, suddenly, on feeling of the hand,

Resistance feign'd, and seem'd to make a stand;

But since these liberties were nothing new,

They other fun and frolicks would pursue;

The nosegay at