The Ass and his Masters

[5] Jean de la Fontaine also added the story to his Fables as L'ane et ses maitres (The ass and his masters, VI.11) with the even harsher comment that providence has better things to do than listen to those who are never satisfied.

[6] In Britain the fable was generally known under the title "The ass and Jupiter" and appears as such in the verse paraphrase of John Ogilby;[7] in the prose collections of Samuel Croxall[8] and Thomas Bewick;[9] and the poetical version of Brooke Boothby.

In spring there is so much work that he wishes for summer, and then for autumn, under the burdens each season brings him, and in the end 'his last Prayer is for Winter again; and that he may but take up his Rest where he began his Complaint'.

[12] Phaedrus, who was a freed slave, did not record the fable about the discontented ass, but a similar moral appears at the end of his version of The Frogs Who Desired a King.

The citizens of Athens are grumbling at their new ruler and Aesop advises them, after he has told the fable, 'hoc sustinete, maius ne veniat, malum (hang on to your present evil, lest it become worse).

Thus, fearynge leest, whan thou arte gone, a worse shuld succede and reigne ouer vs, I praye God dayly to preserue the in helthe.