Fables and Fabulists: Ancient and Modern

'The insolent insect settling on Chloe's lips, she fainted; and Mary, furiously seizing the bee, prepared to crush it.

'"Alas!" gently exclaimed the unfortunate insect, "forgive my error; Chloe's mouth seemed to me a rose, and as such I kissed it."

'This speech restored Chloe to her senses: "Let us forgive it," said she, "on account of its candid confession! Besides, its sting is but a trifle; since it has spoken to you, I have scarcely felt it."

'What may one not effect by a little well-timed flattery?'

The Farmer, Horseman, and Pedestrian (Nivernois)'A farmer on his ass astride,Who peacefully pursued his ride,Exclaim'd, when, on a Spanish steed,A horseman pass'd with lively speed,"Ah, charming seat! what deed of mineShould thus incense the powers divine,Who doom me ne'er to shift my place,But at an ass's tardy pace?"Thus speaking, with chagrin and spite,He reach'd a rough and rocky height,Up which a poor, o'er-labour'd drudge,On tottering feet, was forc'd to trudge;With forehead prone, and bending backPress'd by a large and heavy pack.The farmer cross'd the hill at ease;Jocosely set, with lolling knees,On his poor ass, the rugged sceneAppear'd a soft and level green,No flinty points his feet annoy'd;He pass'd the panting walker's side,Yet saw him not, so rapt his brainWith dreams of Andalusia's plain.Such is the world – our bosoms broodWith keen desire o'er others' good;On this we muse, and, musing still,We rarely dream of others' ill.A further truth the tale unfolds:Each, like the ass-born hind, beholdsThe rich around on steeds of Spain,And deems their rank exempt from pain.But still let us our notice keepOn those who clamber up the steep.'

The Land of the Halt (Gellert). – 'Many years since, in a small territory, there was not one of the inhabitants who did not stutter when he spoke, and halt in walking; both these defects, moreover, were considered accomplishments. A stranger saw the evil, and, thinking how they would admire his walking, went about without halting, after the usual manner of our race. Everyone stopped to look at him, and all those who looked, laughed, and, holding their sides to repress their merriment, shouted: "Teach the stranger how to walk properly!"

'The stranger considered it his duty to cast the reproach from himself. "You halt," he cried, "it is not I; you must accustom yourselves to leave off so awkward a habit!" This only increased the uproar, when they heard him speak; he did not even stammer; this was sufficient to disgrace him, and he was laughed at throughout the country.

'Habit will render faults, which we have been accustomed to regard from youth, beautiful; in vain will a stranger attempt to convince us that we are in error. We look upon him as a madman, solely because he is wiser than ourselves.'

The Beau and Butterfly (Francis Gentleman)'Thus speaks an adage, somewhat old,"Truth is not to be always told."What eye but, struck with outward show,Admires the pretty thing, a beau?Which both by Art and Nature made is,The sport of sense, the toy of ladies.A mortal of this tiny mould,In clothes of silk, adorned with gold,And dressed in ev'ry point of sightTo give the world of taste delight,Prepared to enter his sedan,A birthday picture of a man,Cried out in vain soliloquy:"Was ever creature formed like me?By Art or Nature's nicest careMade more complete and debonnair?I see myself, with perfect joy,Of human kind the je ne sçai quoy;In ev'rything I rival France,In fashion, wit, and sprightly dance;So charming are my shape and parts,I'm formed for captivating hearts;The proudest toast, when in the vein,I take at once by coup de main;Mort de ma vie, 'tis magic all,I look, and vanquished women fall!"One of the race of butterflies,An insect far more nice than wise,Who, from his sunny couch of glass,Had listened to the two-legged ass,With intermeddling zeal replied:"Unequalled folly! matchless pride!Shalt thou, a patchwork creature, claimMore lovely shape, or greater name,Than one of us? Assert thy right —Stand naked in my critic sight!"To parent earth at once resignThe produce of her golden mine;Give to the worm her silken store,The diamond to Golconda's shore;Nor let the many teeth you wantBe plundered from the elephant;Let native locks adorn thy head,Nor glow thy cheeks with borrowed red;Give to the ostrich back his plume,Nor rob the cat of her perfume;Here to the beaver yield at onceHis fur which crowns thy empty sconce;In short, appear through every partNo more, nor less, than what thou art;Then little better than an apeWill show thy metamorphosed shape;While butterflies to death retainThe beauties they from Nature gain."You'll say, perhaps, our sojourn hereIs less, by half, than half a year;That churlish winter surely bringsDestruction to our painted wings.I grant the truth. Now, answer me:Can beaus outlive adversity?Will milliners and tailors joinTo make a foppish beggar fine?'Tis certain, no. Of glitter made,You surely vanish in the shade.Compared, then, who will dare denyA beau is less than butterfly?"' The Nightingale and Glow-worm (Edward Moore)'The prudent nymph, whose cheeks discloseThe lily and the blushing rose,From public view her charms will screen,And rarely in the crowd be seen.This simple truth shall keep her wise:"The fairest fruits attract the flies."One night a glow-worm, proud and vain,Contemplating her glitt'ring train,Cried, "Sure there never was in NatureSo elegant, so fine a creature;All other insects that I see —The frugal ant, industrious bee,Or silk-worm – with contempt I view;With all that low, mechanic crewWho servilely their lives employIn business, enemy to joy.Mean, vulgar herd! ye are my scorn,For grandeur only I was born;Or, sure, am sprung from race divine,And placed on earth to live and shine.Those lights, that sparkle so on high,Are but the glow-worms of the sky;And kings on earth their gems admireBecause they imitate my fire."She spoke. Attentive on a spray,A nightingale forebore his lay;He saw the shining morsel near,And flew, directed by the glare;Awhile he gazed, with sober look,And thus the trembling prey bespoke:"Deluded fool, with pride elate,Know 'tis thy beauty brings thy fate;Less dazzling, long thou mightst have lain,Unheeded on the velvet plain.Pride, soon or late, degraded mourns,And beauty wrecks whom she adorns."'

It is interesting to observe how a true poet, Cowper, treats the same subject, the object or moral of the fable, however, being different:

The Nightingale and Glow-worm'A nightingale, that all day longHad cheer'd the village with his song,Nor yet at eve his note suspended,Nor yet when eventide was ended,Began to feel, as well he might,The keen demands of appetite;When, looking eagerly around,He spied far off, upon the ground,A something shining in the dark,And knew the glow-worm by his spark;So, stooping down from hawthorn top,He thought to put him in his crop.The worm, aware of his intent,Harangued him thus, right eloquent:"Did you admire my lamp," quoth he,"As much as I your minstrelsy,You would abhor to do me wrong,As much as I to spoil your song;For 'twas the selfsame Power DivineTaught you to sing and me to shine;That you with music, I with light,Might beautify and cheer the night."The songster heard his short oration,And, warbling out his approbation,Released him – as my story tells —And found a supper somewhere else.Hence jarring sectaries may learnTheir real interest to discern;That brother should not war with brother,And worry and devour each other;But sing and shine by sweet consent,Till life's poor transient night is spent,Respecting in each other's caseThe gifts of nature and of grace.Those Christians best deserve the nameWho studiously make peace their aim;Peace both the duty and the prizeOf him that creeps and him that flies.'

Other excellent fables of Cowper will occur to the reader, as, for example: The Raven, The Contest between Nose and Eyes, The Poet, the Oyster and the Sensitive Plant, and Pairing Time Anticipated.

The Boy and the Rainbow (William Wilkie, D.D.)'Declare, ye sages, if ye find'Mongst animals of every kind,Of each condition, sort, and size,From whales and elephants to flies,A creature that mistakes his plan,And errs so constantly as man.Each kind pursues his proper good,And seeks for pleasure, rest, and food,As Nature points, and never errsIn what it chooses and prefers;Man only blunders, though possestOf talents far above the rest.Descend to instances, and try:An ox will scarce attempt to fly,Or leave his pasture in the woodWith fishes to explore the flood.Man only acts, of every creature,In opposition to his nature.The happiness of humankindConsists in rectitude of mind,A will subdued to reason's sway,And passions practised to obey;An open and a gen'rous heart,Refined from selfishness and art;Patience which mocks at fortune's pow'r,And wisdom never sad nor sour:In these consist our proper bliss;Else Plato reasons much amiss.But foolish mortals still pursueFalse happiness in place of true;Ambition serves us for a guide,Or lust, or avarice, or pride;While reason no assent can gain,And revelation warns in vain.Hence, through our lives in every stage,From infancy itself to age,A happiness we toil to find,Which still avoids us like the wind;Ev'n when we think the prize our own,At once 'tis vanished, lost and gone.You'll ask me why I thus rehearseAll Epictetus in my verse,And if I fondly hope to pleaseWith dry reflections such as these,So trite, so hackneyed, and so stale?I'll take the hint, and tell a tale.One evening, as a simple swainHis flock attended on the plain,The shining bow he chanced to spy,Which warns us when a shower is nigh;With brightest rays it seemed to glow,Its distance eighty yards or so.This bumpkin had, it seems, been toldThe story of the cup of gold,Which fame reports is to be foundJust where the rainbow meets the ground.He therefore felt a sudden itchTo seize the goblet and be rich;Hoping – yet hopes are oft but vain —No more to toil through wind and rain,But sit indulging by the fire,Midst ease and plenty, like a squire.He marked the very spot of landOn which the rainbow seemed to stand,And, stepping forwards at his leisure,Expected to have found the treasure.But as he moved, the coloured rayStill changed its place and slipt away,As seeming his approach to shun.From walking he began to run,But all in vain; it still withdrewAs nimbly as he could pursue.At last, through many a bog and lake,Rough craggy road and thorny brake,It led the easy fool, till nightApproached, then vanished in his sight,And left him to compute his gains,With nought but labour for his pains.'

Professor Rankine evidently took Æsop's illustration of 'The Bow Unbent' to heart, when, relaxing his severer studies, he occupied occasional hours in composing 'Songs and Fables.' The three following pieces are examples of his work as a fabulist, and of his skill in interpreting the meaning of popular signs:

'The Magpie and Stump.– A magpie was in the habit of depositing articles which he pilfered in the hollow stump of a tree. "I grieve less," the stump was heard to say, "at the misfortune of losing my branches and leaves, than at the disgrace of being made a receptacle for stolen goods." Moral: Infamy is harder to bear than adverse fortune.'

'The Green Man.– A green man, wandering through the Highlands of Scotland, discovered, in a sequestered valley, a still, with which certain unprincipled individuals were engaged in the illicit manufacture of aqua-vitæ. Being, as we have stated, a green man, he was easily persuaded by those unprincipled individuals to expend a considerable sum in the purchase of the intoxicating produce of their still, and to drink so much of it that he speedily became insensible. On awaking next morning, with an empty purse and an aching head, he thought, with sorrow and shame, what a green man he had been. Moral: He who follows the advice of unprincipled individuals is a green man indeed.'

'The Bull and Mouth.– A native of the Sister Isle having opened his mouth during a convivial entertainment, out flew a bull, whereupon some of the company manifested alarm. "Calm your fears," said the sagacious host; "verbal bulls have no horns." Moral: Harmless blunders are subjects of amusement rather than of consternation.'

The following curious 'Birth Story,' from the collection of Indian Fables by Mr. P. V. Ramaswami Raju, is an ironical commentary on the doctrine of transmigration, in which the followers of Buddha implicitly believe:

'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

'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 Crane71 and Harrison Weir72 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 '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.'

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

'Pairing Time Anticipated.'

19

Suidas.

20

The mina was twelve ounces, or a sum estimated as equal to £3 15s. English.

21

See post, p. 76.

22

Spelt variously Locman, Lôqman, Lokman.

23

This woman is notorious in history as a courtesan who essayed to compound for her sins by votive offerings to the temple at Delphi. She is also said to have built the Lesser Pyramid out of her accumulated riches, but this is denied by Herodotus, who claims for the structure a more ancient and less discreditable foundation, being the work, as he asserts, of Mycerinus, King of Egypt (Herod., ii. 134).

24

Phædrus, Epilogue, book ii.

25

Boothby, Preface, p. xxxiv.

26

Solon.

27

Crœsus.

28

Quoted from the 'Life of Æsop' in the introduction to Dodsley's 'Select Fables.'

29

Antiquary in 'The Club.'

30

'Conviv. Sapient.'

31

Boothby's translation.

32

Priscian.

33

Ante, p. 54.

34

'Being exhorted by a dream, I composed some verses in honour of the god to whom the present festival [of the sacred embassy to Delos] belongs; 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 myself was not a mythologist, on these accounts I versified the fables of Æsop, which were at hand, and were known to me.' – Socrates in Plato's 'Phædo.'

35

Suidas.

36

Sir William Temple.

37

Goldsmith, in his 'Account of the Augustine Age of England,' remarks: 'That L'Estrange was a standard writer cannot be disowned, because a great many very eminent authors 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, ease, and perspicuity.' Notwithstanding this considerable estimate of L'Estrange, it may be said that he is now remembered chiefly by his association with the Æsopian fables.

38

'The Charioteer of Caligula,' Bücheler.

39

From the translation of the fables of Phædrus into English verse by Christopher Smart, A.M.

40

Sometimes spelt 'Gabrias.'

41

Jacobs: 'History of the Æsopic Fable,' p. 22.

42

'Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx.

43

'A variant of it, or something very like it, was discovered twelve years ago by M. Maspero in a fragmentary papyrus, which he dates about the twentieth dynasty (circa 1250 B.C.).' – Jacobs: 'History of the Æsopic Fable,' p. 82.

44

Act I., Scene i.

45

Judges ix. 8-15.

46

Aristotle in his 'Treatise on Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx. has horse-leeches as the blood-suckers.

47

Herodotus, i. 141. Cary's translation; Bohn.

48

Aristotle's 'Rhetoric,' book ii., chap. xx.

49

The episode of the eccentric and, alas! well-nigh forgotten politician, John Arthur Roebuck, in his assumption of the character of 'Tearem,' the watch-dog, will recur to readers.

50

In the whole range of literature there are no apter similes than these: the darkness and gloom of the fool's heart and the closeness of the miser's fist.

51

A nobleman of the East, famous for his hospitality.

52

'About a dozen instances or so must stand for the present as representing the contribution of the Jātakas to the question of the origin of Æsop's fables.' – Jacobs: 'History of Fable.'

53

In her 'Commonplace Book,' Longmans, 1854, pp. 142, 143.

54

In his dedication to Madame de Montespan.

55

Geruzez gives February 13 as the date of La Fontaine's death.

56

Preface, 'Fables,' 1668.

57

Byron.

58

Scott's 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.'

59

The opposite of this has been said, but without good reason. The number and variety of his productions attest his industry.

60

It has been suggested, that Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith were the 'authors,' and Goldsmith the 'learned friend.' See the preface by Edwin Pearson to the 1871 edition, of Bewick's 'Select Fables of Æsop.'