Title:  The Tales and Novels, v9:  Belphegor and Others

Author:  Jean de La Fontaine

Release Date:  March, 2004 [EBook #5283] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 14, 2002]

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg Ebook tales and novels of Fontaine, V9 ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger widger@cecomet.net

[Note:  There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the file for those who may wish to sample the author’s ideas before making an entire meal of them.  D.W.]

The tales and novels
of
J. De La Fontaine

Volume 9.

Contains: 
Belphegor
The Little Bell
The Glutton]

Belphegor
addressed to Miss de CHAMMELAY

Your name with ev’ry pleasure here I place,
The last effusions of my muse to grace. 
O charming Phillis! may the same extend
Through time’s dark night:  our praise together blend;
To this we surely may pretend to aim
Your acting and my rhymes attention claim. 
Long, long in mem’ry’s page your fame shall live;
You, who such ecstacy so often give;
O’er minds, o’er hearts triumphantly you reign: 
In Berenice, in Phaedra, and Chimene,
Your tears and plaintive accents all engage: 
Beyond compare in proud Camilla’s rage;
Your voice and manner auditors delight;
Who strong emotions can so well excite? 
No fine eulogium from my pen expect: 
With you each air and grace appear correct
My first of Phillis’s you ought to be;
My sole affection had been placed on thee;
Long since, had I presumed the truth to tell;
But he who loves would fain be loved as well.

          Nohope of gaining such a charming fair,
          Too soon, perhaps, I ceded to despair;
          Your friend, was all I ventured to be thought,
          Though in your net I more than half was caught. 
          Most willingly your lover I’d have been;
          But time it is our story should be seen.

          One, day, old Satan, sov’reign dread of hell;
          Reviewed his subjects, as our hist’ries tell;
          The diff’rent ranks, confounded as they stood,
          Kings, nobles, females, and plebeian blood,
          Such grief expressed, and made such horrid cries,
          As almost stunned, and filled him with surprise. 
          The monarch, as he passed, desired to know
          The cause that sent each shade to realms below. 
          Some said—­my husband; others wife replied;
          The same was echoed loud from ev’ry side.