Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Craik, ed. English Prose. 1916.
Vol. I. Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century

The Ape and the Dolphin

Sir Roger L’Estrange (1616–1704)

PEOPLE were used in the days of old to carry gamesome puppies and apes with them to sea, to pass away the time withal. Now there was one of these apes, it seems, aboard a vessel that was cast away in a very great storm. As the men were paddling for their lives, and the ape for company, a certain dolphin, that took him for a man, got him upon his back, and was making towards land with him. He had him in a safe road called the Piræus, and took occasion to ask the ape, whether he was an Athenian or not? He told him, yes, and of a very ancient family there. Why then (says the dolphin) you know Piræus: Oh! exceedingly well, says t’other (taking it for the name of a man) why Piræus is my particular good friend. The dolphin, upon this, had such an indignation for the impudence of this Buffon-ape, that he gave him the slip from between his legs, and there was an end of my very good friend, the Athenian.

Bragging, lying, and pretending, has cost many a man his life and estate.