CHAPTER XVI.

CONCLUSION.

'Out, out, brief candle.'

SHAKESPEARE: _Macbeth_.

Pictures illustrating fables are a feature that tends to enhance their attractiveness and value, and the ablest artists have employed their pencils in the work. It is sufficient to mention Bewick and his pupils, whose illustrations are greatly prized. S. Howitt's etchings of animals in illustration of the fabulists (1811). Northcote's original volumes (1828-33) are illustrated with 560 charming engravings from the author's designs. Robert Cruikshank illustrated the 'Fables for Mankind,' by Charles Westmacott (1823). Blake, Stothard, Harvey, and Sir John Tenniel, the distinguished _Punch_ artist, have gained applause in the same field. The latter illustrated a small volume of Æsop published by Murray in 1848. This is 'A New Version of the Old Fables, chiefly from Original Sources,' by the Rev. Thomas James, M.A., and contains an introduction which is worthy of perusal by those interested in the subject. The first edition of the work is a rarity sought for by collectors. Randolph Caldecott illustrated some of Æsop's fables in his own inimitable style. Walter Crane[72] and Harrison Weir[73] have exercised their talents in the same direction, and Mrs. Hugh Blackburn has supplied clever illustrations to Rankine's fables. The pictures in the collection of fables made by G. Moir Bussey (1842) are from designs by J. J. Grandville, and are full of originality and humour. The same volume also contains an excellent 'Dissertation on the History of Fable.' The spirited and masterly designs of Oudry in illustration of La Fontaine are justly prized and highly valued. Gustave Doré also employed his facile pencil in illustrating the same author.

There are books bearing the title of 'Fables' the contents of which are not fables in the restricted sense. Of these are Dryden's so-called fables, which are really metrical romances. A competent critic has pronounced them to be the 'noblest specimens of versification to be found in any modern language,' but we need not speak further of them in this connection. Again, there is Bernard Mandeville's eccentric work, entitled 'The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices Public Benefits.' This is an apologue in rhyme, with a moral in addition, and followed by a voluminous prose disquisition on questions of morality, partaking of all the audacious paradoxical elements which characterized its ingenious author. Thomas Moore, the distinguished Irish poet, wrote a series of eight political fables, which were originally published by him under the pseudonym of 'Thomas Brown.' Neither these nor that of Mandeville, however, are fables from our point of view. The same remark applies to Lowell's well-known 'Fable for Critics,' and Lord Lytton's 'Fables in Song,' on which it is unnecessary to dwell.

And so, having taken our survey of the fabulist and his work, we conclude, as we rightly may, that he is both philosopher and poet, but more poet than philosopher, inasmuch as the imaginative faculty is greatly at his command. Further, as saith Sir Philip Sidney,[74] 'The philosopher teacheth, but he teacheth obscurely, so as the learned only can understand him; that is to say, he teacheth them that are already taught. But the poet is the food for the tenderest stomachs; the poet is, indeed, the right popular philosopher. Whereof Æsop's tales give good proof; whose pretty allegories, stealing under the formal tales of beasts, make many, more beastly than beasts, begin to hear the sound of virtue from these dumb speakers.'

FOOTNOTES:

[72] 'The Baby's Own Æsop;' the fables condensed in rhyme by W. J. Linton. Routledge, 1887.

[73] 'Æsop's Fables,' translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend, M.A. Routledge.

[74] 'A Defence of Poesie.'

INDEX.

Æsop: his era, 33; birthplace, 33; his masters when a slave, 33; his mission to Delphi, 34; his death, 35; disparagement of his personal appearance, 36; due to Planudes, 37; his mate or wife, Rhodope, 38; Lysippus' statue of Æsop, 39; stories related of, 42; Æsop and the figs, 44; the pannier of bread, 45; bought by Zanthus, 45; Zanthus' foolish wager, 46; Zanthus' wife restored, 46; Æsop and the mean fellow, 47; at play, 48; and the author, 48; sayings of, 49; at the Court of Crœsus, 49; as a fabulist, 97

_Æsop and the Ass_, 115

'Æsop, G. Washington,' parody on Æsop's fables, 127

Æsopian fable or apologue defined, 5; opinions regarding the, 52; characteristics of the, 55

Ademar, 128

Agathia's epigram on Lysippus' statue of Æsop, 39

Aitken, Dr., fables by, 127

Aldus' edition of the fables, 59

Alfonso, 128

Aphthonius, definition of fable by, 2

Apologue or fable, definition of the, 1

Applicability of fables to every-day life, 58

Application of fables, 13

Arabian fables, 80

Archilochus, a writer of fables, 54

Aristotle on fables, 68

_Arrogant Mule mortified, The_, 75

Arwaker, Edmund, 'Truth in Fiction; or, Morality in Masquerade,' fables by, 126

_Ass's Shadow, The_, 79

'Assemblies of Æsopian Fables,' 55

Avienus, 55, 61

Babrius, 55, 61, 65

Bayle on Babrius, 66

_Beau and the Butterfly, The_, 133

_Bee and the Coquette, The_, 130

_Bee and the Spider, The_, 111

_Belly and the Members, The_, 54, 68; the oldest known fable, 69

Bentley, Dr., ridicules the account of Æsop's deformity, 40; on Babrius, 66

Berington on 'The Arabian or Saracenic Learning,' 85

Bias, 34

Bitteux, 60

Bonus Accursius, his collection of fables, 59

'Book of Kalilah and Dimnah,' The, 80

Boothby, Sir Brooke, definition of fable by, 3

_Boy and the Rainbow, The_, 137

Brettinger, 60

Brown, Walter, fables by, 127

_Bull and the Gnat, The_, 57

_Bull and Mouth, The_, 141

Bussey, G. Moir, definition of fable by, 4; collection of fables, 130, 144

Caxton's collection of fables, 60

Characteristics of fables, 7

Chilo, 34

Cleobulus, 34

Colling, Mary Maria, fables by, 128

_Confession_, from the 'Gesta Romanorum,' 93

Cotiæum in Phrygia, the supposed birthplace of Æsop, 33

Cowper, William, combats Rousseau's views on fables, 27; his fables, 96, 127; _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 136

Crœsus, King of Lydia, 34

Croxall, Dr. Samuel, 16, 59, 60, 61

Davies, M.A., Rev. James, translator of Babrius, 67

Definition of fable, 1

Delphi, Æsop's mission to, 34; character of the Delphians, 34; their punishment for the murder of Æsop, 36; their expiation to a descendant of Idmon, 36

Demarchus, Æsop's first master, 33

Demetrius Phalereus, Æsop's fables collected by, 55, 61

Diagoras, Æsop's fables collected by, 55

Dodsley, Robert, definition of fable by, 3; on the morals and applications of fables, 17; reason why fables esteemed in all ages, 21; collection of fables, 60, 97, 108

_Dog and the Crocodile, The_, 56

Dryden's fables, 144

_Eagle and the Beetle, The_, 35, 76

Ebn Arabscah's collection of Arabian fables, 85

_Elephant and the Fox, The_, 29

Emblematical fables, 11

English writers on fables, 62; English fabulists, 129

Epigram, Agathia's, on Lysippus' statue of Æsop, 39

Epigrammatical character of Æsop's fables, 58

Escurial Library, the, 85

Eusebius, 35

Fable, definition of, 1; in history and myth, 68

Fable, writers on: Alsop, 62; Bayle, 66; Benfey, 61; Bentley, 62; Boissonade, 61; Boyle, 62; Crusius, 61; Davies, 67; Du Meril, 61; Ellis, 62; Fausboll, 61; Gaston Paris, 61; Gitlbauer, 61; Hervieux, 61; Jacobs, 62; James, 62; Jannelli, 61; Landsberger, 62; Lewis, 67; Mall, 61; Menas, 66; Meziriac, 61; Mueller, 61; Neveletus, 66; Oesterley, 61; Perotti, 61; Pithou, 61; Robert, 61; Rhys-Davids, 62; Rutherford, 62; Townsend, 62; Tyrwhitt, 62; Vavassor, 66; Wase, 62

Fables, characteristics of, 7; morals of, 7; rational, emblematical, and mixed, 11; La Fontaine on, 13; Montaigne on Æsop's, 14; Rousseau on, 25, 27; Cowper on, 27; Plato advises the use of, 26; Aristotle on, 68; in Holy Scripture, 54

Fables, collections of Æsopian: Accursius, 59; Aldus, 59; Avienus, 55; Babrius, 55; Caxton, 60; Croxall, 59; Diagoras, 55; Dodsley, 60; Faerno, 59; James, 60; L'Estrange, 59; Neveletus, 59; Ogilby, 60; Phædrus, 55; Phalereus, 55; Planudes, 37; Stephens, 59; Willans, 60

Fables quoted-- _Æsop and the Ass_, 115 _The Arrogant Mule mortified_, 75 _The Ass's Shadow_, 79 _The Beau and Butterfly_, 133 _The Bee and the Coquette_, 130 _The Bee and the Spider_, 111 _The Belly and the Members_, 69 _The Boy and the Rainbow_, 137 _The Bull and Mouth_, 141 _The Bull and the Gnat_, 57 _Confession_, 93 _The Dog and the Crocodile_, 56 _The Eagle and the Beetle_, 35, 76 _The Elephant and the Fox_, 29 _The Farmer, Horseman and Pedestrian_, 131 _The Flea and the Elephant_, 142 _The Fox and the Crow_, 31 _The Fox and the Hedgehog_, 73 _The Fox and the Stork_, 99 _The Frogs and Jupiter_, 74 _The Geese_, 121 _The Greedy and Ambitious Cat_, 81 _The Green Man_, 140 _The Horse and the Stag_, 77 _Indian Birth Story_, 141 _The Land of the Halt_, 132 _The Leaves and the Roots_, 120 _The Magpie and Stump_, 140 _The Man and his Goose_, 10 _The Man and the Lion_, 9 _The Mastiff and his Puppy_, 126 _Mercury and the Sculptor_, 57 _The Miser and Plutus_, 106 _The Miser and the Magpie_, 109 _The Nightingale, the Cuckoo, and the Ass_, 142 _The Nightingale and the Hawk_, 54, 58 _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 135, 136 _The Old Woodcutter and Death_, 58 _Of Perfect Life_, 90 _The Piper turned Fisherman_, 76 _The Shepherd and the Nightingale_, 116 _The Snake and the Hedgehog_, 56 _Solomon's Ghost_, 116 _The Toad and the Ephemeron_, 110 _The Trees in Search of a King_, 71 _The Trooper and his Armour_, 113 _The Two Thrushes_, 118 _The Viper and the File_, 102 _The Wolf and the Shepherds_, 55 _The Wolves and the Sheep_, 78

Fables, writers of: Addison, 129; Ademar, 128; Aitken, 127; Alfonso, 128; Armoult, 129; Arwaker, 126; Avian, 128; Babrius, 65; Bertola, 129; Boisard, 129; Bondi, 129; Brown, 127; Chemnitzer, 129; Clasio, 129; Colling, 128; Coyne, 130; Crudeli, 129; Dmitriev, 129; Dodsley, 108; Dryden, 144; Faerno, 59; Fénelon, 128; Florian, 129; Maria de France, 127; Gaspey, 127; Gay, 103; Gellert, 129; Gentleman, 127; Ginguene, 129; Glinka, 129; Godolphin, 128; Goldsmith, 129; Goncharov, 129; Grillo, 129; Hagedorn, 129; Hall-Stevenson, 126; Henryson, 130; Jauffret, 129; Krilof, 120; La Fontaine, 97; Lessing, 115; Le Grand, 129; Lichtner, 129; Lomonosov, 129; Moore, 126; Nicolai, 129; Nivernois, 128; Northcote, 112; Passeroni, 129; Perego, 129; Percival, 130; Pfeffel, 129; Phædrus, 63; Pignotti, 129; Pilpay, 80; Planudes, 37; Poggio, 128; Polidori, 129; Prior, 129; Prosser, 128; Ramsay, 126; Rankine, 130; Roberti, 129; Romulus, 128; Rossi, 129; Rowe, 127; Rufus, 128; Samaniego, 129; Staite, 127; Steele, 126; Sumarakov, 129; Trimmer, 128; Vanbrugh, 129; Westmacott, 127; Wilkie, 127; Wilson, 127; Winter, 130; Yriarte, 117

Fabulists as censors, 19

Faerno's, Gabriele, one hundred fables, 59

_Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian, The_, 131

Feast of the Sages, The, 75

Fénelon, the Abbé, 128

Figs, Æsop and the stolen, 44

_Flea and the Elephant, The_, 142

Florian, 129; _The Bee and the Coquette_, 130

_Fox and the Crow, The_, 31

_Fox and the Hedgehog, The_, 73

_Fox and the Stork, The_, 99

France, Maria de, 127

French fabulists, 128

French writers on fable, 61

_Frogs and Jupiter, The_, 74

Furia, Francisco de, on Babrius, 66

Gaspey's fables, 127

Gāthas, or moral verses, 14

Gay, John, 17; his fables, 96; sketch of, 103; lines of Gay which have become widely popular, 104; Pope's epitaph on, 105

_Geese, The_, 121

Gellert, 129; _The Land of the Halt_, 132

Gentleman's, Francis, royal fables, 127; _The Beau and Butterfly_, 133

German fabulists, 129; writers on fable, 61

'Gesta Romanorum,' 89; a rich storehouse for the poets, 95

Godolphin, Mary, her fables, 128

Goldsmith on L'Estrange as a writer, 61

Grecian heroes and gods, 1

_Greedy and Ambitious Cat, The_, 81

_Green Man, The_, 140

Hall-Stevenson's, John, 'Fables for Grown Gentlemen,' 126

Harrison's, J. Henry, translation of Krilof's fables, 119; _The Man with Three Wives_, 123

Heidelberg Library, collection of fables in the, 59

Herodotus on the building of the Lesser Pyramid, 38

Hesiod and Homer, the mythical stories of, 26; _The Nightingale and the Hawk_, 54, 58

Hindoo fables, 80

_Horse and the Stag, The_, 77

Humour of fables, 22, 58

Hyampia, the rock whence Æsop was precipitated, 35

Idmon, or Jadmon, Æsop's third master, 34; his grandson claims reparation for Æsop's death, 36

Indian birth story, 141

Indian fables, 130

Ineradicable impression produced by certain fables, 32

Iriarte, or Yriarte, Don Tomas de, Spanish fabulist, 117

Italian fabulists, 129; writers on fable, 61

Jacobs, Joseph, definition of fable by, 4; on the added morals to fables, 13; 'History of the Æsopic Fable,' 62; Maria de France, 128

James's, Rev. Thomas, fables of Æsop, 9, 60, 143

Jameson, Mrs., relates a tradition of our Lord, 87

Jātakas, 14, 53, 87

Jewish writers on fables, 61

Johnson, Dr., definition of fable by, 3

Krilof, or Krilov, Ivan Andreivitch, Russian fabulist, 19, 96, 97; characteristics of his fables, 119; sketch of his life, 120; Ralston's translation, 119; Harrison's translation, 119; _The Leaves and the Roots_, 120; _The Geese_, 121; _The Man with Three Wives_, 123

Lady fabulists, 127

La Fontaine, Jean de, on fables, 13, 17; the morals of his fables, 27; his fable of _The Old Woodcutter and Death_, 58; his fables, 96, 144; sketch of, 97; Matthews' translation, 99

La Motte, 17, 60

_Land of the Halt, The_, 132

_Leaves and the Roots, The_, 120

Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim: his fables, 96, 97; sketch of, 115; his fables of _Æsop and the Ass_, 115; _The Shepherd and the Nightingale_, 116; _Solomon's Ghost_, 116

Lessons taught by fables, 25

L'Estrange, Sir Roger, 16, 59, 60; as a writer, 61; his version of Æsop, 125

Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, edited first English edition of Babrius in the original Greek text, 67

Locman, the Oriental fabulist, 37, 80, 85, 86

Lowell's 'Fable for Critics,' 145

Lysippus' statue of Æsop, 39

Lytton's, Lord, 'Fables in Song,' 145

_Magpie and Stump, The_, 140

_Man and his Goose, The_, 10

_Man and the Lion, The_, 9

Mandeville's 'Fable of the Bees,' 144

_Mastiff and his Puppy, The_, 126

Men loath to apply the moral of a fable to their own case, 22

Menas, M. Minoides, discovers a copy of Babrius, 66

Menenius recites the fable of _The Belly and the Members_, 69

_Mercury and the Sculptor_, 57

Mercury bestows the invention of the apologue on Æsop, 43

_Miser and the Magpie, The_, 109

_Miser and Plutus, The_, 106

Mixed fables, 11

Modern fabulists, 96, 108, 115, 125

Montaigne on Æsop's fables, 14

Moore's, Edward, 'Fables for the Fair Sex,' 126; _The Nightingale and the Glow-worm_, 135

Moore's, Thomas, 'Political Fables,' 145

Moral and application of fables, 13; whether the moral should be placed at the beginning or end of a fable, 16

Neveletus' collection of fables, 59; on Babrius, 66

_Nightingale and the Glow-worm, The_, 135, 136

_Nightingale and the Hawk, The_, 54, 58

_Nightingale, Cuckoo, and Ass, The_, 142

Nivernois, 128; _The Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian_, 131

Northcote, R.A., James: his fables of _The Elephant and the Fox_, 29; _The Trooper and his Armour_, 113; his fables, 96, 97, 112; sketch of his life, 112

_Of Perfect Life_, from 'The Gesta Romanorum,' 90

_Old Woodcutter and Death, The_, 58

Parables, 5, 6; Nathan and the ewe lamb, 6; of the Gospels, 6

Parodies on Æsop's fables, 127

Pater, Walter, definition of fable by, 2

Pathos in fables, 58

_Perfect Life, Of_, from 'The Gesta Romanorum,' 90

Periander, 34

Persian fables, 80

Phædrus, 3, 17, 55; his view of the origin and purpose of fables, 20, 26; on Æsop's statue, 39; sketch of his life, 63; prologue to his third book, 64

Philostratus on a picture of Æsop and the geniuses of fable, 40; mythical account of the youthful Æsop, 43

Pictures illustrating fables, 143

Pilpay's fables, 80

_Piper turned Fisherman, The_, 76

Pittacus, 34

Planudes confounds Locman with Æsop, 37; his stories of Æsop, 42

Plato advises the use of fables, 26; citation from the 'Phædo' of, 59

Plutarch on Æsop at the Court of Crœsus, 49; on Hesiod's fable of the nightingale, 54

Poggio, 128

Pope's epitaph on Gay, 105

Prosser's, Mrs., fables, 128

Quintilian recommends the learning of fables, 26

Ralston's, W. R. S., translation of Krilof's fables, 119; _The Geese_, 121

Ramsay's, Allan, fables, 126

Rankine's, Professor W. J. Macquorn, fables on well-known signboards, 130; _The Magpie and Stump_, 140; _The Green Man_, 140; _The Bull and Mouth_, 141

Rational fables, 11

Reflection, the, appended to fables, 15

Remark, the, appended to fables, 15

Rhodope, the reputed wife of Æsop, 38; said to have built the Lesser Pyramid, 38

Richer, 60

Romulus, 128

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, on fables, 25, 27

Rowe, Rev. Henry: his fables, 127

Rufus, 128

Russian fabulists, 129

Scandinavian heroes and gods, 1

Seven sages of Greece, the, 34

Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus,' fable of _The Belly and the Members_ from, 69

_Shepherd and the Nightingale, The_, 116

Sidney, Sir Philip, on Æsop's fables, 145

Smart's, Christopher, translation of Phædrus, 64

_Snake and the Hedgehog, The_, 56

Socrates and Æsop's fables, 59

_Solomon's Ghost_, 116

Solon, 34; at the Court of Crœsus, 49

Spanish fabulists, 129

Staite's, W. E., fables, 127

Steele's definition of fable, 4; fable of _The Mastiff and his Puppy_, 126

Stephens', Robert, edition of the fables, 59

Stories related of Æsop, 43

Successful villain, the, in the fable, 28

Suidas quoted, 59

Swift quoted, 23

'Tatler,' the, quoted, 4

Temple, Sir William, on Æsop, 60

Thales, 34

_Toad and the Ephemeron, The_, 110

_Trees in Search of a King, The_, the oldest fable in Holy Scripture, 71

Trimmer's, Mrs., fables of Æsop, 128

_Trooper and his Armour, The_, 113

_Two Thrushes, The_, 118

Tyrwhitt on Babrius, 66

Universality of the effect of fables, 28

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 129

Vavassor on Babrius, 66

_Viper and the File, The_, 102

Westmacott's, Charles, 'Fables for Mankind,' 127, 143

Wilkie, D.D., William: his fables, 127; _The Boy and the Rainbow_, 127, 137

Willans', Leonard, collection of fables, 60

Wilson, Sheridan, 'The Bath Fables,' 127

_Wolf and the Lamb, The_, 58

_Wolf and the Shepherds, The_, 55

_Wolves and the Sheep, The_, 78

Xanthus, or Zanthus, Æsop's second master, 33; his foolish wager, 46; his wife restored, 46

Yriarte, or Iriarte, Don Tomas de, Spanish fabulist, 117; characteristics of his fables, 117; _The Two Thrushes_, 118

[Device]

_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London, E.C._

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Archaic and variant spellings have been retained.