Those who delight in false praise usually discount it and regret it, full of
shame.
The crow had stolen a piece of cheese from a window; perched on the top of a tree, he was ready to eat it, when the fox saw him and started and spoke to him thus: "What a brightness have your feathers, crow! How noble is your bearing and what a face! If you had a beautiful voice, no bird would be superior to you. Then that fool, while he wished to exhibit his voice, dropped from his mouth the cheese, which the cunning fox was ready to catch it with his greedy teeth. Only then did the deceived crow deplore his stupidity.
[ Qui se laudari gaudet verbis subdolis,
Fere dat poenas turpes poenitentia.
Cum de fenestra corvus raptum caseum
Comesse vellet, celsa residens arbore,
Vulpes hunc vidit, deinde sic coepit loqui:
«O qui tuarum, corve, pennarum est nitor!
Quantum decoris corpore et vultu geris!
Si vocem haberes, nulla prior ales foret».
At ille stultus, dum vult vocem ostendere,
Emisit ore caseum, quem celeriter
Dolosa vulpes avidis rapuit dentibus.
Tunc demum ingemuit corvi deceptus stupor.]
shame.
The crow had stolen a piece of cheese from a window; perched on the top of a tree, he was ready to eat it, when the fox saw him and started and spoke to him thus: "What a brightness have your feathers, crow! How noble is your bearing and what a face! If you had a beautiful voice, no bird would be superior to you. Then that fool, while he wished to exhibit his voice, dropped from his mouth the cheese, which the cunning fox was ready to catch it with his greedy teeth. Only then did the deceived crow deplore his stupidity.
[ Qui se laudari gaudet verbis subdolis,
Fere dat poenas turpes poenitentia.
Cum de fenestra corvus raptum caseum
Comesse vellet, celsa residens arbore,
Vulpes hunc vidit, deinde sic coepit loqui:
«O qui tuarum, corve, pennarum est nitor!
Quantum decoris corpore et vultu geris!
Si vocem haberes, nulla prior ales foret».
At ille stultus, dum vult vocem ostendere,
Emisit ore caseum, quem celeriter
Dolosa vulpes avidis rapuit dentibus.
Tunc demum ingemuit corvi deceptus stupor.]
