Well anyway, one
year, as every year, all the beasts of the valley were invited up to the
sanctuary on the top of the mountain for the blessing of the animals. The lion
chose the donkey as his travelling companion, because he thought: "This
journey is going to be long and wearisome, and when the going starts to get
steep I can get up on the donkey's back. He can carry me. And then, if I happen
to get hungry, I can eat him too!" So he suggests to the donkey that they
travel together, and the donkey agrees. But the donkey proposes a deal:
"We'll take turns in carrying each other. Alright? Two miles each."
So off they go. When the road starts to get steeper, up speaks the lion:
"Time for me to get up on your back!" "Alright, up you
go...?" And with a leap the lion is up there on the donkey's back.
"Hey, go easy with those claws sticking into my ribs," says the
donkey. "You scratch me like that and I bleed to death!" "I
can't help it. I have to hold on as best I can! Giddy-up! Giddy-up! Away you
go!" So the donkey reaches the top of the mountain, and by this time he's
got blood pouring down from his scratches. "Well," he says, "now
at least for the journey down it's my turn to ride on your back!"
"True enough, fair's fair," says the lion. "You did the work on
the way up, I do it on the way down. Away you go!" And the donkey jumps up
onto the lion's back... But he has a terrible time keeping his balance. He
slithers here and there, because he's got hooves, you see, and he can't get a
proper grip. Then all of a sudden our donkey jockey has an idea – a thrust of
his loins, stiff as a ramrod, and straight up the lion’s backside. Held in
place. Good and solid. "Hey, ho, ouch!" shouts the lion. "What
is that blooming great truncheon that you've stuck up my rear?" Forgive
me, your majesty...” says the donkey. “I can’t help it – each of us has to hold
on as best he can! Giddy-up! Giddy-up! Away you go!"
In this fable, taken from Scene 13 in The Devil In Drag, the lion symbolises the rich people and the donkey symbolises the poor people; in the fable, the donkey (the poor people) support the lion (the rich people) but the lion doesn't support the donkey so in the end the donkey decides to try and force the lion to support the donkey by doing something that the lion doesn't appreciate: 'Then all of a sudden our donkey jockey has an idea – a thrust of
his loins, stiff as a ramrod, and straight up the lion’s backside. Held in
place. Good and solid. "Hey, ho, ouch!" shouts the lion. "What
is that blooming great truncheon that you've stuck up my rear?"'.
This symbolises the rich people expect poor people to support them and do thingsa for them but they don't so the same in return, so the poor people fight back in the end.
The lion is called 'your majesty...', to show his importance, and he says "He can carry me. And then, if I happen
to get hungry, I can eat him too!" which shows how rich people use poor people to benefit the rich but they don't really care about them.
This fits into the play well because the play is about people with different statuses, and the people with the higher statuses are using the people of a lower status for their benefit. So the people of a lower status always come back to "bite them in the arse".
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