row, but his main story is that the ass,
Brunellus, is dissatisfied, because, having long ears he thinks he ought
to have a long tail. He betakes himself to Galienus to consult him, who
endeavours to dissuade him from adopting any surgical or medical means,
and reminds him that if he has a short tail he has a very large head. He
inculcates contentment by a story of two cows, one of which, through
impatience when her tail has stuck in the mud, says it is not an
_honour_ but an _onus_, and so pulls it off, and becomes a laughing
stock to the world. The other cow waits patiently, and makes a long
speech containing references to Cato and the Trojan war.

Prescription given by Galienus to the ass Brunellus to make his tail
grow:

"Some marble's fat and seven fold furnace shade
The offspring of a male and female mule,
A little of the milk of goose and kite
A punchbowl's racing, and a wolf's alarms;
Of dogs and hares alliance take a drachm,
And kisses which the lark gives to her hawk."

The ass begs Galienus to bestow upon him his blessing, which he does
with mock gravity--

"May Jove to thee a thousand omens give,
And to thy tail ten thousand omens more;
Mayst thou drink water, and on thistles feed,
Be thy bed marble, and thy covering dew.
May hail and snow and rain be ever near,
Ice and hoar frost thy constant comfort be!"

The ass, whose extraordinary performances are narrated, is appointed the
"nuntius" of a bishop.

The man who showed at this time the greatest judgment in humour and
insight into its nature, was John of Salisbury. His Polycraticus is
worthy of a religious character; but he speaks in it of "Court Trifles"
under which he places dice, music and dreams. Many of his observations
show a taste and knowledge in advance of his time. "Our age," he says,
"has fallen back to fables," and he speaks as though the jesters of the
day indulged in very questionable jokes and performances. He notices the
force of a jest made by a man who would himself fall under it, as when a
pauper laughs at poverty. Also he refers to the effect of accusing a man
of the faults to which his virtues may lead, as of telling a liberal man
he is a spendthrift. "So Diogenes told Antisthenes, his master, that he
had made him a doctor instead of a rich man--a dweller in a tub, instead
of in a mansion." Well-timed pleasantries, he says, are of use in
oratory, but convivial jesting is dangerous, remar