[A poet] presented his badly composed verses to the king. [...] The king did not receive him well and asked him whose son he was. The poet said he was the nephew of [a] famous author, at which the king burst out laughing. [...] The king said, “I once read a book containing a fable, which I now see before my eyes.”
    They asked him what it was and the king said:
    “A fox found a newborn mule in a field, and, surprised, asked him: ‘Who are you?’
    “The mule said he was a creature of God.
    “The fox asked him, ‘Have you a father or a mother?’
    “The mule said, ‘My uncle is a noble horse.’
    “And just as this mule did not claim the ass as his father because it is a lazy, ugly animal, so this poet is ashamed to confess his father...”

36. Disciplina Clericalis.

The Spouter-Inn Petrus Alphonsi’s twelfth-century collection of aphorisms and (often salacious) short stories. More episodes

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Show Notes.