“The king of beasts that doth the forest range
And at his pleasure doth his pasture change
And (like our Hydra) makes his will his laws,
Tearing his vassals with his cruel claws,
As other creatures hath his terror felt
So death will do by him as he hath dealt.”
ll. 69-94.
By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library
In ‘Of the Lyon and other beasts’, a poem from John Ogilby’s lyrical translation of Aesop’s fables (London, 1651), p. 5, the lion is depicted as a similarly tyrannical ruler to the one described by Pulter. Ogilby’s moral to the tale concludes that “When mighty power with Avarice is joyn’d, will is obey’d and Justice cast behind”. The image accompanying the poem depicts the tyrant-lion demanding a larger portion of the kill than that of the other beasts.
Rebekah King