Do you know the story of the hedgehog and the hare?

[ppfuf]

My google-fu is weak today. I cannot find a Dutch(?) folktale. One of the trencher prints refers to a fable I can't remember and can't find. The British Museum says this group is from Aesop, but I can't find it the collections I've checked (The hedgehog and the rabbit; a trencher copied from Gheeraerts's illustrations to Aesop). Can anybody give me a summary of the tale with a moral someting like: 
 
The cunny help the hedgehogs dovt | the hedgehoge keeps the cvnny out | Wher by it may be notet | Will gave som a inch theyll tak a nell

The bunny helps the hedgehogs out | The hedgehog keeps the bunny out | Where by it may be noted, | Will give some a inch, they will take a yard.

The picture is a unrealistically large hedgehog guarding the entrance of it's burrow from a crouching rabbit (or maybe a hare).

Comments

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

Well the English expression of "give him and inch and he takes an ell" is from John Heywood's proverbs of 1546. I've gone through a couple of online facsimiles of this book and while the proverb is there, there is no mention of bunny or hedgehog. Instead, it appears in a rather salacious dialogue between a man and his wife. Will Continue.

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

I think I have found the connection between the proverb and a hedgehog.

"There are few people who have not heard of the hedgehog, who, after being permitted to enter the abode of the snake for a temporary shelter, refused to quit his comfortable habitation."

This is from _The Weekly Visitor_ published in London 1833 by the Religious Tract Society. I'll next try to run this version back in time.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

The hedgehog and snake is a differnt fable altogether. The Snake allows the hedgehog in for a visit, but the hedgehog never leaves and makes like so prickly for the snake, she eventaully abandons her home. Moral was be careful of unthinking hospitality. There's a Porcupine and Snakes version here: http://www.litscape.com/author/Aesop/The_Porcupine_And_The_Snakes.html

wow, I really can't spell

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

The hedgehog and snake is a different fable altogether. The Snake allows the hedgehog in for a visit, but the hedgehog never leaves and makes life so prickly for the snake, she eventually abandons her home. Moral was "be careful before extending unthinking hospitality". There's a Porcupine and Snakes version here: http://www.litscape.com/author/Aesop/The_Porcupine_And_The_Snakes.html

Thanks for all the good ideas!

Re: wow, I really can't spell

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

Well, the trencher illustration and its accompanying poem and proverb matches the 1499 fable. The question now is when and where did the snake become a rabbit?

[tafelspitz.livejournal.com]

Hokay. I think I've got it within period. It is a 'modern' fable from a collection of similar fables written by Laurentius Abstemius (Lorenzo Bevilaqua). He was a fifteenth-century Italian scholar and was the author of various scholarly works. He is best known for his Hecatomythium Secundum, a collection of "original" Aesop's fables inspired by the classical tradition of Aesop's fables.

A hedgehog, sensing that winter was coming, nicely asked the viper if she would grant him a place in her own den against the force of the winter cold. When the viper did this, the hedgehog, as he rolled this way and that, stung the viper with the shape end of his spines and tormented her with a sharp pain. The viper, seeing that she had gotten herself into trouble when she took the hedgehog into her lodging, asked him, nicely, to leave, since the place was too narrow for the both of them. The hedgehog replied: Let the one go out who is unable to remain here. As a result the viper, realizing that there was no place for her there, yield to him as regards the lodging. This fable shows that we should not admit into our company those who are able to toss us out.

This is from Latin learning site:
http://eclassics.ning.com/profiles/blogs/727885:BlogPost:5226

There is an online facsimile of the 1499 edition of Abstemius at:
http://diglib.hab.de/wdb.php?pointer=0&dir=inkunabeln%2F171-28-quod-9&changeToXML=&changeToXSL=&end=63&imgtyp=0&distype=struc-img&size=1571&lang=en

Done.