Part 1
THE FABLES
OF
LA FONTAINE.
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE BY WALTER THORNBURY,
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
GUSTAVE DORÉ.
CASSELL, PETTER, AND GALPIN,
LONDON AND NEW YORK.
1886
CONTENTS
As Essay on the Life and Works of Jean de la Fontaine The Life of Æsop, the Phrygian Dedication to Monseigneur the Dauphin Preface To Monseigneur the Dauphin
The Grasshopper and the Ant The Raven and the Fox The Frog that Wished to make Herself as Big as the Ox The Two Mules The Wolf and the Dog The Heifer, the She-goat, and the Lamb, in Partnership with the Lion The Wallet The Swallow and the Little Birds The Town Rat and the Country Rat The Man and his Image The Dragon with many Heads, and the Dragon with many Tails The Wolf and the Lamb The Robbers and the Ass Death and the Woodcutter Simonides rescued by the Gods Death and the Unhappy Man The Wolf turned Shepherd The Child and the Schoolmaster The Pullet and the Pearl The Drones and the Bees The Oak and the Reed Against Those Who are Hard to Please The Council held by the Rats The Wolf Pleading against the Fox before the Ape The Middle-Aged Man and the Two Widows The Fox and the Stork The Lion and the Gnat The Ass Laden with Sponges, and the Ass Laden with Salt The Lion and the Rat The Dove and the Ant The Astrologer Who let Himself Fall into the Well The Hare and the Frogs The Two Bulls and the Frog The Peacock Complaining to Juno The Bat and the Two Weasels The Bird Wounded by an Arrow The Miller, his Son, and the Ass The Cock and the Fox The Frogs Who Asked for a King The Dog and Her Companion The Fox and the Grapes The Eagle and the Beetle The Raven Who Wished to Imitate the Eagle The Wolves and the Sheep The Cat Changed into a Woman Philomel and Progne The Lion and the Ass The Cat and the Old Rat A Will Interpreted by Æsop The Lion in Love The Fox and the Goat The Shepherd and the Sea The Drunkard and His Wife King Caster and the Members The Monkey and the Dolphin The Eagle, the Wild Sow, and the Cat The Miser Who Lost His Treasure The Gout and the Spider The Eye of the Master The Wolf and the Stork The Lion Defeated by Man The Swan and the Cook The Wolf, the Goat, and the Kid The Wolf, the Mother, and the Child The Lion Grown Old The Drowned Woman The Weasel in the Granary The Lark and Her Little Ones With the Owner of a Field The Fly and the Ant The Gardener and his Master The Woodman and Mercury The Ass and the Little Dog Man and the Wooden Idol The Jay Dressed in Peacock's Plumes The Little Fish and the Fisherman Battle Between the Rats and Weasles The Camel and the Drift-Wood The Frog and the Rat The Old Woman and Her Servants The Animals Sending a Tribute to Alexander The Horse Wishing to be Revenged on the Stag The Fox and the Bust The Horse and the Wolf The Saying of Socrates The Old Man and His Children The Oracle and the Impious Man The Mountain in Labour Fortune and the Little Child The Earthen Pot and the Iron Pot The Hare's Ears The Fox with His Tail Cut Off The Satyr and the Passer-By The Doctors The Labouring Man and His Children The Hen with the Golden Eggs The Ass that Carried the Relics The Serpent and the File The Hare and the Partridge The Stag and the Vine The Lion Going to War The Ass in the Lion's Skin The Eagle and the Owl The Shepherd and the Lion The Lion and the Hunter Phœbus and Boreas The Bear and the Two Friends Jupiter and the Farmer The Stag Viewing Himself in the Stream The Cockerel, the Cat, and the Little Rat The Fox, the Monkey, and the Other Animals The Mule That Boasted of His Family The Old Man and the Ass The Countryman and the Serpent The Hare and the Tortoise The Sick Lion and the Fox The Ass and His Masters The Sun and the Frogs The Carter Stuck in the Mud The Doc and the Shadow The Bird-Catcher, the Hawk, and the Skylark The Horse and the Ass The Charlatan The Young Widow Discord The Animals Sick of the Plague The Rat Who Retired From the World The Heron The Man Badly Married The Maiden The Wishes The Vultures and the Pigeons The Court of the Lion The Milk-Maid and the Milk-Pail The Curate and the Corpse The Man Who Runs After Fortune, and the Man Who Waits for Her The Two Fowls The Coach and the Fly The Ingratitude and Injustice of Men Towards Fortune An Animal in the Moon The Fortune-Teller The Cobbler and the Banker The Cat, the Weasel, and the Little Rabbit The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox The Head and the Tail of the Serpent The Dog Which Carried Round His Neck His Master's Dinner Death and the Dying Man The Power of Fables The Bear and the Amateur of Gardening The Man and the Flea The Woman and the Secret Tircis and Amaranth The Joker and the Fishes The Rat and the Oyster The Two Friends The Pig, the Goat, and the Sheep The Rat and the Elephant The Funeral or the Lioness The Bashaw and the Merchant The Horoscope The Torrent and the River The Ass and the Dog The Two Dogs and the Dead Ass The Advantage of Being Clever The Wolf and the Hunter Jupiter and the Thunderbolts The Falcon and the Capon The Two Pigeons Education The Madman Who Sold Wisdom The Cat and the Rat Democritus and the Anderanians The Oyster and Its Claimants The Fraudulent Trustee Jupiter and the Traveller The Ape and the Leopard The Acorn and the Gourd The School-Boy, the Pedant, and the Nursery Gardener The Cat and the Fox The Sculptor and the Statue of Jupiter The Mouse Metamorphosed Into a Girl The Monkey and the Cat The Wolf and the Starved Dog The Wax Candle "Not Too Much" The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg The Cormorant and the Fishes The Husband, the Wife, and the Robber The Shepherd and the King The Two Men and the Treasure The Shepherd and His Flock The Kite and the Nightingale The Fish and the Shepherd Who Played on the Clarionet The Man and the Snake The Tortoise and the Two Ducks The Two Adventurers and the Talisman The Miser and his Friend The Wolf and the Peasants The Rabbits The Swallow and the Spider The Partridge and the Fowls The Lion The Dog Whose Ears Were Cut The Two Parrots, the Monarch, and His Son The Peasant of the Danube The Lioness and She-Bear The Merchant, the Nobleman, the Shepherd, and the King's Son The Old Man and the Three Young Men The Gods as Instructors of Jupiter's Son The Owl and the Mice The Companions of Ulysses The Farmer, the Dog, and the Fox The Dream of an Inhabitant of Mogul The Two Goats The Lion, the Ape, and the Two Asses The Wolf and the Fox The Sick Stag The Cat and the Two Sparrows The Miser and the Ape To the Duke of Burgundy The Old Cat and the Young Mouse The Bat, the Bush, and the Duck The Eagle and the Magpie The Quarrel of the Dogs and the Cats; and, Also, That of the Cats and the Mice Love and Folly The Wolf and the Fox The Crab and Its Daughter The Forest and the Woodman The Fox, the Flies, and the Hedge-Hog The Hawk, the King, and the Falcon The Fox and the Turkeys The Crow, the Gazelle, the Tortoise, and the Rat The English Fox The Ape The Fox, the Wolf, and the Horse The League of the Rats A Scythian Philosopher Daphnis and Alcimadura The Elephant and Jupiter's Monkey The Madman and the Philosopher The Frogs and the Sun The Arbitrator, Almoner, and Hermit
LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Grasshopper and the Ant The Two Mules The Swallow and the Little Birds The Town Rat and the Country Rat The Wolf and the Lamb The Robbers and the Ass Death and the Woodcutter The Wolf Turned Shepherd The Oak and the Reed The Council Held by the Rats The Lion and the Gnat The Lion and the Rat The Hare and the Frogs The Peacock Complaining to Juno The Miller, His Son, and the Ass The Frogs Who Asked For a King The Fox and the Grapes The Wolves and the Sheep Philomel and Progne The Cat and the Old Rat The Lion in Love The Shepherd and the Sea The Monkey and the Dolphin The Miser Who Lost His Treasure The Eye of the Master The Wolf, the Mother, and the Child The Lark and Her Little Ones The Woodman and Mercury The Little Fish and the Fisherman The Old Woman and Her Servants The Horse and the Wolf Fortune and the Little Child The Doctors The Hen With the Golden Eggs The Stag and the Vine The Eagle and the Owl The Bear and the Two Friends The Stag Viewing Himself in the Stream The Countryman and the Serpent The Sick Lion and the Fox The Carter Stuck in the Mud The Young Widow The Animals Sick of the Plague The Maiden The Vultures and the Pigeons The Milkmaid and the Milk-Pail The Two Fowls An Animal in the Moon The Fortune-Teller (To face page) The Cobbler and the Banker The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox The Dog and His Master's Dinner The Bear and the Amateur of Gardening Tircis and Amaranth The Rat and the Elephant The Bashaw and the Merchant The Torrent and the River The Two Dogs and the Dead Ass The Wolf and the Hunter The Two Pigeons The Madman Who Sold Wisdom The Oyster and Its Claimants Jupiter and the Traveller The Cat and the Fox The Monkey and the Cat The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg The Cormorant and the Fishes The Shepherd and the King The Fish and the Shepherd Who Played on the Clarionet The Two Adventurers and the Talisman The Rabbits The Lion The Peasant of the Danube The Old Man and the Three Young Men The Owl and the Mice The Companions of Ulysses The Two Goats The Sick Stag The Eagle and the Magpie Love and Folly The Forest and the Woodman The Fox and the Turkeys The English Fox The League of the Rats Daphnis and Alcimadura The Arbitrator, Almoner, and Hermit
AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND WORKS
OF
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE.
There are some writers the facts about whom can never be entirely told, because they are inexhaustible, and speaking of whom we do not fear to be blamed for repetition, because, though well known, they furnish topics which never weary. La Fontaine is one of this class. No poet has been praised oftener, or by more able critics, and of no poet has the biography been so frequently written, and with such affectionate minuteness. Nevertheless, it is certain that there will yet arise fresh critics and new biographers, who will be as regardless as ourselves of the fact that the subject has been so frequently enlarged upon. And why, indeed, should we refuse to ourselves, or forbid to others, the pleasure of speaking of an old friend of our childhood, whose memory is always fresh and always dear?
This truly worthy man was born in Château-Thierry, a little town of Champagne, where his father, Charles de la Fontaine, was a supervisor of woods and forests. His mother, Françoise Piloux, was the daughter of a mayor of Coulommiers. An amiable but careless child, he was lazy in his studies, and certainly did not display, by the direction of his earlier inclinations, the germs of his future genius. At twenty years of age, after the perusal of some religious works, he formed the idea that his vocation was the Church, and entered the seminary of Saint Magloire, where, however, he remained only one year. His example was followed by his brother Claude, with this difference, that the latter persevered to the end. On quitting the seminary, La Fontaine, in the paternal mansion, led that life of idleness and pleasure which so frequently, especially in the provinces, enervates young men of family. To bring him back to a more orderly course of life, his father procured him a wife, and gave him the reversion of his office. He was then twenty-six years of age, and the demon of poetry had not yet taken possession of him. La Fontaine never hurried himself about anything.
The accidental recitation in his presence of an ode by Malherbe aroused in his soul, which had hitherto been devoted to pleasure and idleness, a taste for poetry. He read the whole of Malherbe's writings with enthusiasm, and endeavoured to imitate him. Malherbe alone would have spoiled La Fontaine, had not Pintrel and Maucroix, two of his friends, led him to the study of the true models. La Fontaine himself has left a confession of these first flights of his muse. Plato and Plutarch, amongst the ancients, were his favourite authors; but he could read them only by the aid of translations, as he had never studied Greek. Horace, Virgil, and Terence, whose writings he could approach in the original, also charmed him. Of modern authors his favourites were Rabelais, Marot, De Periers, Mathurin, Régnier, and D'Urfé, whose "Astræa" was his especial delight.
Marriage had not by any means fixed his inconstant tastes. Marie Héricart, whom he had been induced to marry in 1647, was endowed with beauty and intellect, but was unsupplied with those solid qualities, love of order, industry, and that firmness of character which might have exercised a wholesome discipline over her husband. Whilst she was reading romances, La Fontaine sought amusement away from home, or brooded either over his own poems or those of his favourite authors. The natural consequence was, that the affairs of the young people soon fell into disorder; in addition to this, when La Fontaine's father died, he left our poet an inheritance encumbered with mortgages, which had been the only means of paying debts, and preserving the family estate intact; these became fresh sources of embarrassment to our poet, who being, as may well be supposed, anything but a man of business, incapable of self-denial, and unassisted by his wife, soon, as he himself gaily expressed it, devoured both capital and income, and in a few years found himself without either.
La Fontaine seems to have confined his duties, as supervisor of woods and waters, to simply taking long rambles under the venerable trees of the forests submitted to his care, or to enjoying prolonged slumbers on the verdant banks of murmuring brooks. And that this was the case we may reasonably suppose, since at sixty years of age he declared that he did not know what foresters meant by round timber, ornamental timber, or bois de touche.
His soul was wrapped up in poetry. His first poems were what might be called album verses, and could scarcely have been understood beyond Château-Thierry. These verses, however, obtained so favourable a reception, that at length he ventured to attempt a comedy. But, as the faculty of construction had been denied him, he only adapted one of Terence's plays, changing the names of the characters, and taking certain liberties with the situations. The piece which he had selected, the "Eunuchus," was very unsuited to the boards of the French stage, and he never attempted to get it produced; but he published it, and it was by means of this mediocre, although neatly versified work, that his name first became known to the public, when he had already entered his thirty-third year.
It was about this period that one of his relations, J. Jannart, a counsellor of the king, presented the poet to Fouquet, for whom Jannart acted as deputy in the Parliament of Paris. The Surintendant, partial to men of letters, gave La Fontaine a cordial reception, and bestowed upon him a liberal pension. La Fontaine became, not a mere accessory, but one of the most valued elements of the royal luxury of Fouquet's house, or, rather, court; and it was through his protégé , at a later period, that Fouquet received the only consolation that soothed his disgrace. La Fontaine, established as poet-in-ordinary to Fouquet, received a pension of a thousand livres, on condition that he furnished, once in every three months, a copy of laudatory verses. He was henceforth a guest at a perpetual round of fêtes; his eyes were dazzled, his heart was moved, and his mind at last awoke. The years which he passed in the midst of this voluptuous magnificence were years of enchantment, of which he has left traces in the "Songe de Vaux," the earliest indication of a talent which was to develop into genius. The first efforts of his muse at this period were laid at the shrine of gratitude , but grief more happily inspired him, for the "Elegy to the Nymphs of Vaux," the subject matter of which was the disgrace of the Surintendant, raised him to the front rank amongst the masters of his art. Up to this time La Fontaine had been only a pleasant, lively, and ingenious versifier; but on this occasion he proved himself a true poet, and the lines which we have just named are still regarded as amongst the choicest productions of the sort in the French language. "La Fontaine did not merely bewail, in the fall of Fouquet, the loss of his own hopes and pleasures, but the misfortunes of the one friend to whom he was gratefully attached, and of whose brilliant qualities he had the highest admiration. The emotion which he expressed was no fleeting one, for, some years afterwards, when passing by Amboise, the faithful friend desired to visit the apartment in which Fouquet had endured the first period of his imprisonment. He could not enter it, but paused on the threshold, weeping bitterly; and it was only at the approach of night that he could be induced to leave the spot."
Our poet's success amongst the crowd of brilliant men and distinguished women who formed Fouquet's court, could never be understood, if we gave full credence to those stories of odd eccentricities, simplicities, and blunders of which he has so frequently been made the hero. It cannot be denied that he was frequently a dreamer, absorbed in his own thoughts, and too apt to be credulous and absent in mind; but the greeting which was accorded to him, and the eagerness with which his acquaintance was courted in such a place, are sufficient evidences that he could be a charming companion when he pleased. He could be abstracted enough when surrounded by uncongenial spirits; he opened his heart only to those who pleased him: but on his friends he lavishly bestowed his joyous but refined wit, and his delightful bonhomie. The inborn carelessness of his nature rendered him averse to everything like effort; he was dumb to those who knew not how to touch the keynote of his soul; to such he was present, indeed, in the body, but his soul was cold and inharmonious. It may even be added, that reverie with him was a species of politeness by which he was wont to conceal his weariness. On such occasions he doubtless fled to the companionship of his fabulous beasts, although he refrained from saying so. Abstraction was to La Fontaine a means of becoming independent, and it is not, therefore, very surprising that he should have allowed people to attribute to him, in an exaggerated degree, a defect which he found so useful.
Fouquet's disgrace threw La Fontaine once more into that family life for the earnest and monotonous duties of which he had now grown more than ever unfitted. A son had been born to him, and this might have been supposed to attach him to his home; but the truth is, that children, whom he has for so many generations amused, were regarded by La Fontaine as his natural enemies, and he never let slip any occasion of expressing this opinion. "The little people," as he called them, were always obnoxious to him. It must be admitted that they are importunate, noisy, ever clamorous for small attentions, and they appear tyrannical to the last degree, in the eyes, at least, of those who have no warm affection for them. And it must also be admitted that La Fontaine was frequently their rival; for he always desired to be, and was, the spoilt child of the house, the child whose caprices were ever humoured, whose tastes were ever consulted. His life was, indeed, one long period of childhood. He arrived at manhood, became grey, and grew old, without ceasing to be a child; and to understand him rightly we must remember this fact. It is the key to, and some excuse for, that neglect of all serious duties which we should have to severely blame in him, if we applied to his case the rules of rigorous morality.
Constituted as he was, La Fontaine would naturally seize every opportunity of quitting his family and that Château-Thierry which he now regarded as a species of tomb. To distract himself from his grief, whilst apparently clinging to it more closely, he followed to Limoges his relation Jannart, who had been exiled by lettre de cachet with Madame Fouquet, to whom he served as secretary and steward. Our poet has written a narrative of this journey in a series of letters to his wife, interspersed with pretty verses, and abounding in vivacity. His stay at Limoges was short, and we soon after find him dividing his time between Paris and Château-Thierry, sometimes alone, and sometimes with Madame de La Fontaine, who at first frequently accompanied him in his excursions. The expense of these frequent journeys was naturally calculated to add to the disorder of his affairs; but he troubled himself little on this score, and it was some consolation that his own property alone was melting away, and that his wife would by-and-by be able to live by herself on property devoted to her own use. Let us also remark, in passing, that he did not altogether neglect that son of his who, at a later period, he describes as a charming boy, in that short and singular interview which has been so frequently discussed, and to whose education he attended until he was relieved of that duty by the generosity of the Procureur-General, De Harlay.
To this period must be referred his intimacy with Racine, also a "Champenois," and a brother poet--an intimacy which was due to the good offices of Molière, whom La Fontaine had known, and, consequently admired and loved, when residing with Fouquet. His acquaintance with Racine led again to that with Boileau and Molière Chapelle, that incurable promoter of orgies, that wine-bibbing Anacreon, who was always at war with our four poets, especially towards the conclusion of their suppers. Boileau, the Severe, endeavoured sometimes to curb his joyous comrades, but with scant success, and it is on record that on a certain occasion Chapelle got drunk during the course of an impromptu sermon of Boileau's on the virtues of temperance. Our good friends led a joyous life, which, however, was nearly having a tragic termination, since once, after a dinner at Auteuil, over deep potations of wine, they were led to become philosophic in so melancholy a fashion, that they resolved to drown their several griefs in the Seine, and would have done so, had not Molière happily remarked that it would be more heroic to perform the deed on the morrow. This joyous fraternity soon broke up. Molière was driven away by an ill-judged action on the part of Racine. The royal favour induced Boileau and Racine to become more circumspect; Chapelle gave himself up to inordinate debauchery; and La Fontaine, whilst retaining his friendships, went to dream and amuse himself elsewhere.