The Lion’s Share
Following a succesful hunting partnership, the Lion explains how the spoils are to be divided.
1669
King Charles II 1649-1685
Following a succesful hunting partnership, the Lion explains how the spoils are to be divided.
1669
King Charles II 1649-1685
Aesop’s Fable of the Lion and the Wild Ass is the origin of the phrase ‘the lion’s share’, meaning the largest portion by far. The version below comes from Sir Roger L’Estrange’s ground-breaking collection of 1669, just as he wrote it. “People should have a care” he advised “how they Engage themselves in Partnerships with Men that are too Mighty for them, whether it be in Mony, Pleasure, or Bus’ness.”
original spelling
A LION, an Ass, and some other of their Fellow-Forresters, went a Hunting one day; and everyone to go share and share-like in what they took. They pluck’d down a Stag, and cut him up into so many Parts; but as they were entering upon the Dividend, Hands off says the Lion: This Part is mine by the Privilege of my Quality: This, because I’ll have it in spite of your Teeth:* This again, because I took most Pains for ’t; and if you Dispute the Fourth, we must e’en Pluck a Crow* about it. So the Confederates Mouths were all stopt, and they went away as mute as Fishes.
original spelling
* The Lion implies that he is bravely standing up for his rights, when he is merely bullying an Ass.
* ‘Pluck a crow’ means ‘Hold a debate’. As Phaedrus, a contemporary of St Paul, told the tale, the Lion’s final threat was violence: as Sir Roger told it, the final threat was a committee.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.