THE FABLE OF THE Sun and Frogs, IN ELEGANT LATIN VERSE, Applied To the present State of Affairs BETWEEN THE FRENCH and DUTCH. WITH Three several TRANSLATIONS in ENGLISH, by three several Hands.  
The first nearer the Latin; the other two allowing themselves a greater Liberty of Fancy.  
LONDON, Printed for William Gilbert Bookseller, at the half Moo●… in Paul's Churchyard 1672.   


Appendix ad Fabulas Phoedri ex Bibliotheca Leidensi.  
Servare potui, Perdere an possim, rogas?  Sen. Med. 
SOL & RANAE.  

RAnae Paludis Incolae, ambiguum Genus,  
Limoque cretum, Res in immensum suas  
Favore Solis auxerant: Etiam Boves  
Vicina circum qui tondebant Gramina,  
Ipsasque Ripis pepulerunt Metu Feras.  
Quinse profundo credere ausae Gurgiti  
Facto, Siluros atque Thynnos, Agmine  
Et provocarant saepe, & saepe Vicerant.   

Hinc Fastus illas cepit & Superbia,  
Majusque Crimen Gratiarum Oblivio.  
Patroni Solis invidere Gloriae,  
Ingrata Gens occepit; & liventibus  
Oculis tueri Mundo adoratum Jubar;  
Nec se protervis abstinent Convitiis.   

Nam sive ad Indi Littora obvertit Rotas;  
Equos Ibero sive lavit Flumine;  
Sive arduam Leonis ascendit Domum;  
Lunaeve Radiis Cornua aspersit suis;  
Ranae coaxant, & Clamore incondito  
Queruntur omnia perdere: Ultrices simul  
Minantur Iras, ni stet immotus Polo.   

Pergenti Curru flammeo non segnius  
Lustrare Terras, perfidae tentant Viam  
Obstruere: Fundo ab imo Caenosos Lacus,  
Vlvasque putres, & Solo resides Aquas  
Pedibus petulcis commovent. Coelo Vapor,  
Consurgit ater; & Diem Caligine  
Extinguit almum: Risit Astrorum Parens;  
Et ista Vestrum Tela recident in Caput,  
Procaces, inquit, Bestiae! Ergo colligit  
Radios, Viresque totas; inque Fulmina  
Vapores nubilos densamque Grandinem  
Momento vertit, & miseras tristi opprimit  
RANAS Procella. Frustra Juncis Corpora  
Certant opacis tegere: frustra sub Luto  
Defossae sperant publica Strage eripi.  
SOL Radiis haurit Cuncta; & ipsas Ignibus  
Absumit Vndas. RANAE semiustae crepant;  
Milvisque & Corvis dulce praebent Pabulum.  
Quarum una fertur caeteris Consultior  
Dixisse Moriens: Jam Poenas exsolvimus,  
Quae bene de nobis meritis reddidimus, Mala.  
At vos, Nepotes, discite Vereri DEOS.   
Juxta Exemplar Editum Amstelodami ad Insigne Josua.   

The first Translation.  
An Appendix to Phoedrus his Fables, as it was lately taken out of the Library at Leyden.  
I could preserve ye; do ye doubt  
Whether I now can root ye out?  Sen. Med. 
The SUN and FROGS.  

THe Frogs, those Fennish People, as from Earth  
And Water mixed in Mud, deriving Birth,  
So in both Elements Commerce maintain,  
From this to that, from that to this again.  
Persia's old God, and France's new Device  
The Sun, with friendly Beam these multiplies;  
Nor their Estate augments less than themselves,  
Till high and mighty grow th' amphibion Elves,  
Dreadful at Sea and Land: Here, round their Lakes,  
Fear tame Beasts wild, and wild Beasts wilder makes:  
There Tunnies they and Whales oft set upon;  
Tunnies and Whales as oft they overcome.   

Hence swelled with Pride, and a vain self-conceit,  
Their noblest Benefactors they forget:  
Yea, from- blue. Eyes dart envious looks upon  
The glittering Grandeur of their Patron SUN:  
And like base Mud, in terms of vile Disgrace,  
Throw vile Aspersions in his glorious Face.   

For whether he to the Rich Indies drive  
His flaming Chariot, or his Horses dive  
In the Iberian Flood; or else resort  
Unto the Princely Lion's Royal Court;  
Or last of all, his native Shine display  
Upon the growing Moon her borrowed Ray:  
These croaking Creatures, in their uncouth strain,  
That all before him he destroys complain.  
Bidding his Sunship threatened Vengeance fear,  
Unless with speed he stop his swift Career.  
Such threats no checks are to his Steeds, but spurs,  
To hurry on his fiery Chariot's course.   

This seen; these treacherous Vermin strive in vain,  
Themselves to give stop to his whirling Wain.  
With busy Feet their muddy Ponds they trouble,  
And make foul Water every where to bubble  
Among the putrid Reeds: straight to the Skies,  
From pudly Marshes doth a dark Fog rise  
Effacing Day. Sol, laughing at their Toil,  
These weapons, saith, shall on yourselves recoil,  
Poor peevish Animals! Then Arms he all  
His strongest Beams, which in full Bodies fall  
Among those Fogs; so in a trice transforms  
(Such power have Gods) all to impet'ous Storms  
Of sulphury Thunderbolts, and rattling Hail;  
Then doth with these the wretched Frogs assail.   

In vain they shade and shelter, at this need,  
From broken Bulrush seek, and battered Reed;  
In vain in Water dive, delve into Mud,  
Which nor such suppliants, nor themselves, long could  
Preserve from Ruin, by such raging heat  
Wherewith the incensed King of Stars than beat  
In upon both. Their own, or other men's.  
The Dutch ne'er drained, as Phoebus these Frogs Fens.  
So's the House ruin'd where the Traitor's found;  
Stormed 〈…〉 to ground.   

A Feast of Boiled, Roast, Baked, now smelled, invites  
(Lips for such Lettied) Ravenous Crows and Kites.   

When a grave Frog, much wiser than the Rout,  
Midst her expiring Kindred all about,  
Was heard to faith, This, this, just Heaven, we feel  
For so much good repaid with so much ill.   
You of our Tribe, who in remote Abodes  
Survive this Day, learn to revere the GOD'S.  
According to the Copy Printed at Amsterdam, at the Sign of the Josua.   

The second Translation.  
High and Mighty I who made ye,  
From that Height can now degrade ye.  Sen. Med. 
The SUN and FROGS.  

THe speckled Tribe, sprung from the womb of slime,  
Their Parent SUN proclaim in croaking rhyme;  
Their Birth and store own from his gentle Ray,  
And to his dance about the World they play.  
They play, and sing with golden Throats an Ode  
To the proud Persians, and their common God;  
Whose kindly influence raised their daring Heads,  
From no less mean and low, than loathsome Beds:  
Raised 'em so high, that when Alarms they sound,  
Tame and wild Beasts are scared from neighbouring Ground:  
And the Goliahs of the watery Field,  
To their puissant shoals oft forced to yield.   

Hence swelling less with Venom than with Pride,  
Their mean Original they fain would hid:  
Creatures of Sun and Slime, proudly forget  
The one, ungratefully the other treat.  
Croak in harsh numbers from their noisome Seat,  
Till hoarse with wrangling at indulgent heat;  
If unconfined to their empoisoned Streams,  
They vie not circuit with those heavenly Beams.   

Let but the SUN wheel to the Indian Brine,  
The large Iberus, or the parched Line;  
The Prince of Stars visit that Lion's Den,  
That's King of the best Beasts, and bravest Men;  
Or let him proudly drown the Turkish Moon,  
With vaster Torrents of his Lustier Noon;  
Loudly they clamour, that he doth none good,  
(Because not shining only on their Mud.)  
Nay, Tyrant like, merely to make him sport,  
That with insulting Beams he doth all hurt.   

With spiteful Taunts, revengeful Threats they mix,  
Unless in unmoved Poise his Chariot fix:  
But finding Threats provoke him, and his Speed,  
To stratagem and force they straight proceed:  
Attempt to trash his Wheels, and plunge his Steeds  
With unexpected Bogs, and heaped up Weeds.  
Mud too their Dam (unnatural Brats) provoke  
To rise 'gainst their bright Siré in slimy smoke;  
In smoke so thick and dark, they nothing doubt,  
The Day and the Day-maker 'twould blot out.   

The angry God, to punish this proud Shoal,  
Burns, where he warmed, with his Celestial Coal.  
Sulphureous Thunderbolts their Vapours prove,  
And on themselves in stony Tempests move.   

In vain they lurk in hopes the Storm would cease;  
Or in course Croaking Language sue for Peace.  
Sol deaf to all round in bright Triumphs hurled,  
Consumes their Floods, and conquers their low World.   

Frogs now and Toads like hiewed, alike both fare;  
Both Boiled, Roast, Baked in their own Mud-paste are;  
Both carbonabed, and both you might see,  
For Crows and Kites, cooked into Frigacie.   

One graced in Front with Wisdom's Jewel too,  
At last bespoke thus her expiring Crew.  
We now ungrateful find our Doom and Curse;  
A Plague to Princes, to our Selves a worse.  
Punished for Crimes great as our Patrons grown;  
Let's dread the Height and Vengeance of their Throne.    

The third Translation.  
Rise and Support to Me ye owe;  
And so shall do your Ovorthrow.  Sen. Med. 
The SUN and FROGS.  

THe Fenny Folk from noisome Slime and Dung,  
Mixed Excrements of Earth and Water, sprung,  
Through the rich Bounty of his kindly Ray,  
Who rules the spacious Empire of the Day,  
Enlarge, like hi●, the Bounds of their Command,  
Than he more dreadful grow at Sea and Land.   

At Land even Beasts, Strangers till then to fear,  
Tremble, when they their horrid croakings hear.  
Their Hunger, which they dare not satisfy,  
Forget, and from best neighbouring Pastures fly;  
Wild to their Dens, seeking Protection there,  
And finding it from Danger, not from Fear.  
Tame to their Thickets, and there trembling lay 'em,  
Fearing their trembling too, lest it betray 'em.  
At Sea their numinous Shoals more dreadful grow,  
There oft they fight, as oft there conquer too.  
Nor common Enemies alone engage;  
Tunnies and Whales too feel their Martial Rage;  
Whales that of long unquestioned Right make Claim,  
As the sole Sovereigns of the liquid Main.  
Here Erogs now Lording it, ingrate become  
To their first Parent, and best Patron Sun;  
Behold his Glory with invidious Eyes,  
And his fair Beams smut with foul Calumnies.   

If Indian Brine his Rising Forehead Laves;  
If he dive setting in Iberian Waves;  
If to the Royal Lion's Den he bring  
The choicest Tribute of his flowery Spring;  
Or if he last from his exalted Noon  
Dim the pale Visage of the Horned Moon;  
Which way so  he move, the Frogs complain;  
Croaking they fret, and fretting croak again:  
As if his fiery Beams about he hurled,  
To burn and waste, not warm and cheer the World.  
Then in full Period charge him stop his Race;  
threatening Revenge if he but change his Place.  
Hearing, not heeding Threats beneath his fear,  
On still he drives, drives on in full Career.  
Doth then the Sun our Threats thus slight, say they,  
Too high to stoop, and too proud to obey?  
In this blind Rage with restless Feet they stir  
Water and Slime, and putrid Reeds, and Mire;  
Till a thick sullen Vapour doth arise,  
And with substantial Darkness blacks the skies.  
What, ye ill Natured Vermin, what, quoth he,  
Can such poor peevish Spleen, think ye, reach me?  
Can your dark Fogs me of my Lustre spoil?  
(This speaks with half a Frown and half a Smile)  
Your selves below ye cloud●▪ I still enjoy  
Above my Native and Essential Day.  
But so with Envy hath it used to fare,  
To drink of its own Poison the best share:  
And so shall yours: The Weapons you now form  
Their fatal Points on your own Heads shall turn.   

With that, he calls home all his fiery Rays:  
And violent Cold the Ai'r's mid Region sways:  
Which o'er that new made Cloud doth strait prevail;  
Condenses first, then moulds it into Hail:  
And in a Trice a smart swift stony show▪  
Doth on those base ungrateful Vermin pour;  
Who now their Wounded Bodies hid in vain;  
In vain seek shelter from the pelting Rain,  
Whether they dive in Mud, or sculk in Weeds,  
Or crawl from Danger under batterred Reeds:  
The SUN now glowing with revengeful Ire.  
Their nasty Ponds dreigns with his fiercest Fire;  
Till boiled and roast the Vermin each where lay  
To Crows and Kites a sweet and easy Prey.   

When a grave Matron, that might well have been  
For her sage Wisdom their illustrious Queen,  
Had they not been Free States; 'midst all the Frogs,  
That now lay gasping round the parched Bogs,   

Her last breath forming in fit dying Tone,  
Was heard their so sad Fate thus to bemoan.   

How Just the Gods are! how ungrateful We!  
How well deserving such our Destiny!  
Who War would wage 'gainst such both Friends and Odds:  
Oh henceforth learn to fear, not dare, the GOD'S.    
FINIS.