Irenaeus Fable 76. De Mure in Cista Nato.

I've embarked on a new Latin fable project here at the Latin Via Fables blog: digitizing the 300 fables in the Mithologica sacro-profana, seu florilegium fabularum by P. Irenaeus, published in 1666, which has recently become available at GoogleBooks. For a complete index of the fables in the book, with links to the fables I've digitized so far, check out the Aesopus wiki page at Aesopus.PBwiki.com.

Today's fable is De Mure in Cista Nato, the story of a mouse who discovers the wide world beyond his little home. You can find this story in Abstemius.

To make reading the fable easier, I've provided a segmented version of the story below.

Mus in angulo armarii natus, et paucis nucibus ac castaneis, quae ibi forte aderant, bene, ut putabat, alitus, felicem se super alios reputabat, donec assere dentibus arroso, et facto sibi exitu, penetravit in penum, omnis generis ciborum ac lautitiarum refertum, quibus avide refectus, coepit dicere, O ignavum me et stolidum, qui e cavo nunquam egressus, nisi hodie, tam laute pastus sum. Certe iuvat e natali solo exire qui vult experiri meliorem fortunam et consequi felicitatem.

Mus
in angulo armarii natus,
et paucis nucibus ac castaneis,
quae ibi forte aderant,
bene, ut putabat, alitus,
felicem se
super alios reputabat,
donec assere dentibus arroso,
et facto sibi exitu,
penetravit in penum,
omnis generis
ciborum ac lautitiarum
refertum,
quibus avide refectus,
coepit dicere,
O ignavum me et stolidum,
qui e cavo nunquam egressus,
nisi hodie,
tam laute pastus sum.
Certe iuvat
e natali solo exire
qui vult experiri
meliorem fortunam
et consequi felicitatem.

Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) from Wikipedia:

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Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.