Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern

'One day a king in the far East was seated in the hall of justice. A thief was brought before him; he inquired into his case, and said he should receive one hundred lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails. Instantly he recollected an old Eastern saying, "What we do to others in this birth, they will do to us in the next," and said to his minister, "I have a great mind to let this thief go quietly, for he is sure to give me these one hundred lashes in the next birth." "Sire," replied the minister, "I know the saying you refer to is perfectly true, but you must understand you are simply returning to the thief in this birth what he gave you in the last." The king was perfectly pleased with this reply, says the story, and gave his minister a rich present.'

This selection of fables may be suitably concluded by two which, though not original, we have not met with in print. The first is entitled The Nightingale, the Cuckoo and the Ass:[70 - Krilof's Ass and Nightingale bears some resemblance to the fable here given; but, instead of the cuckoo, the cock is one of the competitors.]

'The nightingale and the cuckoo disputed as to which of them was the best singer, and they chose the ass to be the judge. First, the nightingale poured forth one of his most entrancing lays, followed by the cuckoo, with his two mellow notes. Being requested to deliver judgment, said the ass, "Without doubt the trill of the nightingale is worth listening to; but for a good plain song give me that of the cuckoo!"'

The moral here is obvious. Persons with a want of taste, or with a depraved taste, see no difference between things excellent and mean. Nay, they will often be found to prefer the mean, as being more in harmony with their own predilections.

The next is the shortest fable on record; its humour is as conspicuous as its brevity, and it hails from the County Palatine of Lancashire. It is named The Flea and the Elephant:

'Passing into the ark together, said the flea to its big brother: "Now, then, mister! no thrutching!"

'Moral: Insignificance has often its full share of self-importance.'

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[71 - 'The Baby's Own Æsop;' the fables condensed in rhyme by W. J. Linton. Routledge, 1887.] and Harrison Weir[72 - 'Æsop's Fables,' translated from the Greek by the Rev. George Fyler Townsend, M.A. Routledge.] 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,[73 - 'A Defence of Poesie.'] '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.'

notes

1

'Plato and Platonism,' by Walter Pater. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893, p. 225.

2

Aphthonius flourished at Antioch, at what time is uncertain. Forty of his Æsopian fables, with a Latin version by Kimedoncius, were printed from a MS. in the Palatine Library at the beginning of the seventeenth century. 'The Æsopian Fable,' by Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart. Edinburgh: Constable and Co., 1809. Preface, p. xxxi.

3

'Even trees speak, not only wild beasts.' – Phædrus, Book i., Prologue.

4

'Essay on Fable.'

5

'Fables Original and Selected,' by G. Moir Bussey. London: Willoughby and Co., 1842.

6

'The Fables of Æsop,' as first printed by William Caxton in 1484. London: David Nutt, 1889, vol. i., p. 204.

7

'The Tatler,' No. 147, vol. iii., p. 205.

8

2 Samuel xii. 1-7.

9

Quoted from James's 'Fables of Æsop.' Murray, 1848.

10

Preface, 'Fables,' 1668.

11

'History of the Æsopic Fable,' p. 148.

12

Essay: 'Of Books.'

13

Boothby's translation.

14

G. Moir Bussey: Introduction to 'Fables.'

15

'Essay on Fable.'

16

Swift: Preface to 'The Battle of the Books.'

17

'Institutes of Oratory,' book i., chap. ix.

18