{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/the-king-and-peasant",
 "title": "The King and Peasant",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 83,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A pleasant tale we now will sing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of an old peasant and the King;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The kind Italian King, Humbert,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the gun is a great expert.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Peasant with wonder saw the King",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring down the partridges on wing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The peasant he doth sportsman praise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each shot it filled him with amaze.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The King he dearly loves to shoot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In plain garb without his suite;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He casts aside his Kingly fetters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All his escort are two setters.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To farmer he doth chat pleasant",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "About the partridge and the pheasant;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tells the King his chicken flocks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are oft invaded by the fox.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And proposal he advances",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For to give the King two francs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If he the enemy will slay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He cheerfully the sum will pay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But he must come at early morn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For then the fowls from coop are torn;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The King he came and shot reynard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And peasant then gave him reward.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And he gave the King his breakfast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His majesty enjoyed repast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And kindly chatted to the dame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgetting all his rank and fame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Next day a carriage drove to door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With gilt it was all covered o’er;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And liveried servant brought present,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Both for the wife and the peasant.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And now their thoughts do fondly cling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around their kind-hearted King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who won their hearts while in disguise:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fox he slew they greatly prize.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No more lost fowl they do bewail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But glory in the fox fine tail;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They love to view him in glass case,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So they may cunning features trace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It to them doth pleasure bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As it reminds them of their King,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who did one morn at break of day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enemy of their chickens slay.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}