Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern

is the so

peare:

ght them at home, with the mixture of fables and ornaments of fancy'[29]-that the ideas first propounded in India and Arabia were thus carried westward; that ?sop appropriated them and gave them forth in a modified form and in a new dress. Scholars and investigators differ in their views regarding the truth, or the extent of the truth, of these allegations, and display much erudition in their attempts to settle the question. It would appear that ?sop has indubitably the credit of certain fables of which he was not the inventor, as they were in vogue at a period anterior to the era in which he flourished. It is equally pr

The Wolf and the Crane, The Ass in the Lion's Skin, The Lion and Mouse, and The Countryman, his Son and the Snake. And Plutarch[30] asserts that the language of Hesiod's nigh

mel, one lu

hungry f

fe," she said

something cho

quoth he. "A

s as Apol

light all na

belly ha

hawk, "I fir

he little

th and reso

graces nough

d those given in Holy Scripture. But, without question, ?sop was a true inventor of fables, for it is not to be believe

e general designation of '?sopian,' by virtue of their resembling in t

us Phalereus, the Tyrant of Athens (318 B.C.), under the title of 'The Assemblies of ?sopian Fables,' long after the sage's death. This collection was made use of both by the Greek freedman Ph?drus, during the reig

ther-wit and natural humour. A score of examples exhibiting these

herds were regaling themselves with a joint of mutton-"Lord," said he, "what a

and the obvious moral is: 'That men are apt to condemn

sters of that river, he would not stop to satiate his drought, but lapped as he ran. A crocodile, raising his head above the surface of the water, asked him why he was in such a hurry. He had often, he s

to be very annoying to his companion, upon which the snake desired he would provide himself another lodging, as she found, upon trial, the apartment was not large enough to accommodate both. "Nay," s

ecorded that the great novelist (in a conversation with Mr. Burne-Jones) recalled her passionate delight and total absorption in ?sop's fables, the possession of which, when a

arious statues, he demanded the price of two figures of Jupiter and Juno. When the sum at which they were valued was named, he pointed to a figure of himself, saying to the sculptor: "You will certainl

d to show that the least considerable of m

d with much ceremony begged the bull's pardon for the liberty he had taken, assuring him that he would immediately remove if he pressed too hard upon him. "Give yourself no

ut, indeed, that is a characteristic of

Wolf and the Lamb, and it is also one of the very best. In this there is a touch of genuine pathos, unique in its characte

in the humblest-for the nature in both is human, after all-gives them peculiar value. This, and their epigrammatical cha

d themselves in translating and transcribing them. Socrates relieved his prison hours in turning some of th

n a century before. Another edition of the same was published by Aldus in 1505. The edition of Robert Stephens, published in Paris in 1546, followed; then came the enlarged collection by Neveletus, from the Heidelberg Library, in 1610. Later, Gabriele Faerno's 'O

he greatest Master in his kind, and all others of tha

orm any conception in these days of cheap literature in such variety and excellence. Along with the Bible and 'T

printing downwards have been: Caxton's collection (1484); the one by Leonard Willans (1650); that by John Ogilby (1651); Sir Roger

f time, and it will be seen that the men are remembered chiefly or only (most of them) by reason of their association with the ?sopian fables: Demetrius Phalereus, Ph?drus, Babrius, Avienus, Planudes, Bonus

a life of ?sop (1632); Boissonade, Robert, Edelestand du Meril (1854); Hervieux and Gaston Paris. Of German writers there are Lessing, Fausboll, Hermann Oesterley, Mueller, Wagener, Heydenreich, Otto Crusius (1879), Benfey, Mall, Knoell, Gitlbauer; Niccolo, Perotti, Archbishop of Siponto (1430-80), a

TNO

quary in

onviv.

hby's tra

Pri

Ante,

gs; but after the god, considering it necessary that he who designs to be a poet should make fables and not discourses, and knowing that I mysel

Sui

William

hors formed their style by his. But his standard was far from being a just one; though, when party considerations are set aside, he certainly was possessed of elegance, ea