A Lion was asleep when a Mouse ran over his mane waking him. He searched for the Mouse not out of fear but because of his familiarity and ill-breeding.
Small liberties can be large offenses.
A Lion was asleep in his den. A Mouse ran over his mane and woke him. He rose up and searched his den for the Mouse. A Fox, seeing this, chided the Lion about fearing a little Mouse. “It’s not the Mouse I fear,” said the Lion, “it’s his familiarity and ill-breeding.”
Townsend version
A Lion, fatigued by the heat of a summer’s day, fell fast asleep in his den. A Mouse ran over his mane and ears and woke him from his slumbers. He rose up and shook himself in great wrath, and searched every corner of his den to find the Mouse. A Fox seeing him said: “A fine Lion you are, to be frightened of a Mouse.” “Tis not the Mouse I fear, “said the Lion; “I resent his familiarity and ill-breeding.”
Moral
Little liberties are great offenses.
Babrius Translation (The Lion and The Fox)
A mouse ran o’er a sleeping lion’s mane,
And the roused brute his wrath could not restrain:
So bristling up, he leapt from out his lair.
A neighbour-fox derision did not spare,
That on a mouse the king of brutes should spend
His ire. Said he, “I fear not, cunning friend,
“Lest mice my skin should nettle, and escape:
“But roads o’er me take an ill-habit’s shape.”
The boldness of the impudent repress,
Small though it be, before it can progress!
Nor let it by the mean be lightly dreamt,
That thou wilt be a butt for their contempt.
Leo, Mus, et Vulpes
Leo cum olim dormiret, per os eius mus forte discurrit. Tum ille, consurgens, quaquaversum circumagebatur, eum quaeritans qui inde transierat. At vulpes, eum conspicata, graviter obiurgabat quod leo nimirum cum esset, murem pertimuisset. Cui ille “Ego vero,” respondit, “de eius voluntate tantummodo irascor.”
Moral
Haec profecto docent quod prudentes homines ne parva quidem negligere debeant.
Perry #146