The nuttes schell, thocht it be hard and teuch, Haldis the kirnill, and is delectabill. Sa lyis thair ane doctrine wyse aneuch, And full of fruit, un… - Robert Henryson

In breif Sermone ane pregnant sentence wryte.

For to be yong I wald not, for my wis
Off all this warld to mak me lord et king:
The more of age the nerar hevynnis blis.

Of Henryson as of Chaucer it can be said that the picturesque detail owes its effectiveness to the solidity and seriousness of what it grows from. Henryson's Fables (like La Fontaine’s – they deserve the comparison) do more than present types of human beings in animal guises and animals comically behaving like human beings; they build up a total and consistent society, both rendered and criticized.