XX The Bear and the Two Companions24
Two fellows, needing funds, and bold,
A bearskin to a furrier sold,
Of which the bear was living still,
But which they presently would kill—
At least they said they would.
And, if their word was good,
It was a king of bears—an Ursa Major—
The biggest bear beneath the sun.
Its skin, the chaps would wager,
Was cheap at double cost;
’Twould make one laugh at frost—
And make two robes as well as one.
Old Dindenaut,25 in sheep who dealt,
Less prized his sheep, than they their pelt—
(In their account ’twas theirs,
But in his own, the bears.)
By bargain struck upon the skin,
Two days at most must bring it in.
Forth went the two. More easy found than got,
The bear came growling at them on the trot.
Behold our dealers both confounded,
As if by thunderbolt astounded!
Their bargain vanish’d suddenly in air;
For who could plead his interest with a bear?
One of the friends sprung up a tree;
The other, cold as ice could be,
Fell on his face, feign’d death,
And closely held his breath,—
He having somewhere heard it said
The bear ne’er preys upon the dead.
Sir Bear, sad blockhead, was deceived—
The prostrate man a corpse believed;
But, half suspecting some deceit,
He feels and snuffs from head to feet,
And in the nostrils blows.
The body’s surely dead, he thinks.
‘I’ll leave it,’ says he, ‘for it stinks;’
And off into the woods he goes.
The other dealer, from his tree
Descending cautiously, to see
His comrade lying in the dirt,
Consoling, says, ‘It is a wonder
That, by the monster forced asunder,
We’re, after all, more scared than hurt.
But,’ addeth he, ‘what of the creature’s skin?
He held his muzzle very near;
What did he whisper in your ear?’
‘He gave this caution,—“Never dare
Again to sell the skin of bear
Its owner has not ceased to wear.”’26
[24] Versions will be found in Aesop, Avianus, and Abstemius. [25] Old Dindenaut.—Vide Rabelais, Pantagruel, Book IV. chap. viii.—Translator. The character in Rabelais is a sheep-stealer as well as a sheep-dealer. [26] According to Philip de Commines, the Emperor Frederic III. of Germany used a story conveying the substance of this fable, with its moral of Never sell your bear-skin till the beast is dead, as his sole reply to the ambassadors of the French king when that monarch sent him proposals for dividing between them the provinces of the Duke of Burgundy. The meaning of which was, says de Commines, “That if the King came according to his promise, they would take the Duke, if they could; and when he was taken, they would talk of dividing his dominions.”— Vide Bohn’s edition of the “Memoirs of De Commines,” vol. i., p. 246.