Classic French Course in English

1-1

There is perhaps no other literary name whatever among the French, by long proof more secure, than is La Fontaine's, of universal and of immortal renown. Such a fame is, of course, not the most resplendent in the world; but to hav

t, not so much by any sterling worth of character felt in him, as by an exhaustless, easy-going good-nature, that, despite his social insipidity, made La Fontaine the most acceptable of every-day companions. It would be easy to repeat many stories illustrative of this personal quality in La Fontaine, while to tell a single story illustrative of any lofty trait in his character would he perhaps impossible. Still, La Fontaine seemed not ungrateful for the benefits he received from others; and gratitude, no commonplace virtue, let us accordingly reckon to the credit of a man in general so slenderly equipped w

he benefit of, through a reverie of his own indulged meantime on a quite different character. Catching, however, at the name, La Fontaine, as he came to himself for a moment, betrayed the secret of his absent thoughts by asking, "Do you think St. Augustine had as much wit as Rabelais?"-"Take care, Monsieur La Fontaine: you have put one of your stockings on wrong side out,"-he had actually done so,-was the only answer vouchsafed to his question. The speaker in this case was a doctor of the Sorbonne (brother to Boileau), present as guest. The story is told of La Fontaine, that egged on to groundless jealousy of his wife,-a wife

!" "I was on the way there," La Fontaine characteristically replied. At seventy, La Fontaine went through a process of "conversion," so called, in which he professed repentance of his sins. On the genuineness of this inward experience of La Fontaine, it is not for a fellow-c

Fables, for it is on these that La Fontaine's fame securely rests. The basis of story in them was not generally original with La Fontaine. He took whatever fittest came to his hand. With much modesty, he attributed all to ?sop and Ph?drus. But invention of his own is

not hesitate to affirm, that, at the epoch at which this fable appeared, there was nothing comparable to it in the French language." There are, to speak precisely, thirty-two lines in the fable. In this one case, let us try representing La Fontaine's compression by our English form. For the rest of our specimens, we shall use Elizur Wright's translation,-a meritorious one, still master of the field which, near fifty years ago, it entered as pioneer. Mr. Wright here expands La Fontaine's th

day said t

t you dame N

t would bow do

wind that c

surface o

bends lo

like Caucas

branding s

take the tem

feel, I fe

n born bene

of leafage

known your

sheltered yo

st you rea

limits of the

s, against you

" answers h

kind; but sp

you may wi

break not.

dreadful str

or tamed your

we for

had h

from the far

the children,

t till then the

s good; the r

doubled mig

works that

who nigh to h

et reached to the

he hits his mark by expressly avoiding it. "What think you I mean by my disobliging rat? A monk? No,

evantines

at that w

cares which

lland chees

de was the

rough his wo

lived on

is industr

s and tee

is novel

tore for wa

se and l

could any

at, fair,

ssings th

ho in his

is persona

ness none

by certai

rom Rat Uni

small aid

parts were

in the gr

beleague

republic dra

their scrip

hey craved, o

utmost th

s," the he

ly things

a poor

mission

n he do

ill aid it

friends, it

l have you i

saintship s

r faces shu

u, reader, is

use this n

monk? No, b

think, h

e bountiful

muse. On the whole, however, the masterpiece among the fables of La Fontaine is that of "The Animals Sick of the Plague." Such at least is the opinion of critics in general. The idea of this fable is not original with La Fontain

ill that

s lower worl

to call it b

gle day

o's ferrym

beasts, both

t all, but a

now, by for

t might so

xcited th

fox now wat

ent and t

urtle

therefore jo

ouncil hel

nds, I d

ourge for whi

r sins a

eously by

guiltiest b

ce to wra

s offering,

life and he

y we find

ave been jus

all turn e

out the h

no one spar

n conscience

etite has play

nd often u

ad e'er my

r, trul

etimes, by h

shepherd wi

self if ne

think, i

confess his

right and

est alone

d the fox,

than a king

queamish i

g stupid sh

, sire, a

was an act

honor to t

hepherds, o

our majest

se less ful

urpers o'er

ard glib

ause from lis

tiger, boar

keen inq

crimes of h

, biters, sc

mortal si

s, both grea

as far as d

onfessing

n tones of d

through a

ts owners, w

, leisure,

these the

d me the d

he bigness

must out, I

a hue and

easts were

ranguing l

he ass for

te, scabby,

plague had c

s judged a h

other's gras

rope, and d

fence were

r Grizzle fe

ourts acquit

weak, as th

ists, at bottom, between the Englishman's and the Frenchman's idea of poetry. No English-speaker, heir of Shakspeare and Milton