Æsop's Fables, Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices. Read online

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  AESOP'S FABLES.

  EMBELLISHED WITH

  One Hundred and Eleven EMBLEMATICAL DEVICES.

  Man reading]

  Printed at the Chiswick Press, BY C. WHITTINGHAM;

  FOR CARPENTER AND SON, OLD BOND STREET; J. BOOKER, NEW BOND STREET; SHARPE AND HAILES, PICCADILLY; AND WHITTINGHAM AND ARLISS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

  1814.

  CONTENTS.

  _Fable_ _Page_

  1 The Cock and the Jewel 1

  2 The Wolf and the Lamb 4

  3 The Lion and the Four Bulls 7

  4 The Frog and the Fox 9

  5 The Ass eating Thistles 11

  6 The Lark and her Young Ones 13

  7 The Cock and the Fox 16

  8 The Fox in the Well 19

  9 The Wolves and the Sheep 21

  10 The Eagle and the Fox 23

  11 The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing 26

  12 The Fowler and the Ring-Dove 28

  13 The Sow and the Wolf 30

  14 The Horse and the Ass 32

  15 The Wolf, the Lamb, and the Goat 35

  16 The Kite and the Pigeons 38

  17 The Country Mouse and the City Mouse 41

  18 The Swallow and other Birds 46

  19 The Hunted Beaver 48

  20 The Cat and the Fox 50

  21 The Cat and the Mice 52

  22 The Lion and other Beasts 54

  23 The Lion and the Mouse 56

  24 The Fatal Marriage 58

  25 The Mischievous Dog 60

  26 The Ox and the Frog 62

  27 The Fox and the Lion 65

  28 The Ape and the Fox 67

  29 The Dog in the Manger 70

  30 The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat 72

  31 The Fox and the Tiger 75

  32 The Lioness and the Fox 78

  33 The Oak and the Reed 80

  34 The Wind and the Sun 82

  35 The Kite, the Frog, and the Mouse 85

  36 The Frogs desiring a King 87

  37 The Old Woman and her Maids 90

  38 The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox 92

  39 The Crow and the Pitcher 95

  40 The Porcupine and the Snakes 97

  41 The Hares and Frogs in a Storm 100

  42 The Fox and the Wolf 103

  43 The Dog and the Sheep 106

  44 The Peacock and the Crane 108

  45 The Viper and the File 110

  46 The Ass, the Lion, and the Cock 112

  47 The Jackdaw and Peacocks 114

  48 The Ant and the Fly 116

  49 The Ant and the Grasshopper 119

  50 The Countryman and the Snake 121

  51 The Fox and the Sick Lion 124

  52 The Wanton Calf 127

  53 Hercules and the Carter 130

  54 The Belly and the Members 133

  55 The Horse and the Lion 136

  56 The Husbandman and the Stork 138

  57 The Cat and the Cock 140

  58 The Leopard and the Fox 142

  59 The Shepherd's Boy 145

  60 The Fox and the Goat 147

  61 Cupid and Death 149

  62 The Old Man and his Sons 151

  63 The Stag and the Fawn 154

  64 The Old Hound 157

  65 Jupiter and the Camel 159

  66 The Fox without a Tail 161

  67 The Fox and the Crow 163

  68 The Hawk and the Farmer 166

  69 The Nurse and the Wolf 168

  70 The Hare and the Tortoise 170

  71 The Young Man and his Cat 173

  72 The Ass in the Lion's Skin 175

  73 The Mountains in Labour 177

  74 The Satyr and the Traveller 179

  75 The Sick Kite 182

  76 The Hawk and the Nightingale 184

  77 The Peacock's Complaint 186

  78 The Angler and the Little Fish 188

  79 The Geese and the Cranes 190

  80 The Dog and the Shadow 192

  81 The Ass and the Little Dog 194

  82 The Wolf and the Crane 197

  83 The Envious Man and the Covetous 199

  84 The Two Pots 201

  85 The Fox and the Stork 203

  86 The Bear and the Bee-Hives 205

  87 The Travellers and the Bear 207

  88 The Trumpeter taken Prisoner 209

  89 The Partridge and the Cocks 211

  90 The Falconer and the Partridge 214

  91 The Eagle and the Crow 216

  92 The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox 218

  93 The Fox and the Grapes 220

  94 The Horse and the Stag 222

  95 The Young Man and the Swallow 224

  96 The Man and his Goose 227

  97 The Dog and the Wolf 229

  98 The Wood and the Clown 232

  99 The Old Lion 234

  100 The Horse and the Loaded Ass 236

  101 The Old Man and Death 238

  102 The Boar and the Ass 240

  103 The Tunny and the Dolphin 242

  104 The Peacock and the Magpie 244

  105 The Forester and the Lion 246

  106 The Stag looking into the Water 248

  107 The Stag in the Ox-Stall 251

  108 The Dove and the Ant
254

  109 The Lion in Love 256

  110 The Tortoise and the Eagle 259

  PREFACE,

  _BY S. CROXALL_.

  So much has been already said concerning AEsop and his writings, both byancient and modern authors, that the subject seems to be quiteexhausted. The different conjectures, opinions, traditions, andforgeries, which from time to time we have had given to us of him, wouldfill a large volume: but they are, for the most part, so inconsistentand absurd, that it would be but a dull amusement for the reader to beled into such a maze of uncertainty: since Herodotus, the most ancientGreek historian, did not flourish till near an hundred years after AEsop.

  As for his Life, with which we are entertained in so complete a manner,before most of the editions of his Fables, it was invented by oneMaximus Planudes, a Greek Monk; and, if we may judge of him from thatcomposition, just as judicious and learned a person, as the rest of hisfraternity are at this day observed to be. Sure there never were so manyblunders and childish dreams mixed up together, as are to be met with inthe short compass of that piece. For a Monk, he might be very good andwise, but in point of history and chronology, he shows himself to bevery ignorant. He brings AEsop to Babylon, in the reign of king Lycerus,a king of his own making; for his name is not to be found in anycatalogue, from Nabonassar to Alexander the Great; Nabonadius, mostprobably, reigning in Babylon about that time. He sends him into Egyptin the days of Nectanebo, who was not in being till two hundred yearsafterwards; with some other gross mistakes of that kind, whichsufficiently show us that this Life was a work of invention, and thatthe inventor was a bungling poor creature. He never mentions AEsop'sbeing at Athens; though Phaedrus speaks of him as one that lived thegreatest part of his time there; and it appears that he had a statueerected in that city to his memory, done by the hand of the famedLysippus. He writes of him as living at Samos, and interesting himselfin a public capacity in the administration of the affairs of that place;yet, takes not the least notice of the Fable which Aristotle[1] tells ushe spoke in behalf of a famous Demagogue there, when he was impeachedfor embezzling the public money; nor does he indeed give us the leasthint of such a circumstance. An ingenious man might have laid togetherall the materials of this kind that are to be found in good old authors,and, by the help of a bright invention, connected and worked them upwith success; we might have swallowed such an imposition well enough,because we should not have known how to contradict it: but in Planudes'case, the imposture is doubly discovered; first, as he has theunquestioned authority of antiquity against him; secondly, (and if theother did not condemn him) as he has introduced the witty, discreet,judicious AEsop, quibbling in a strain of low monastic waggery, and asarchly dull as a Mountebank's Jester.

  [1] _Arist. Rhet._ Lib. ii. chap. 21.

  That there was a Life of AEsop, either written or traditionary, beforeAristotle's time, is pretty plain; and that there was something of thatkind extant in Augustus' reign, is, I think, as undoubted; since Phaedrusmentions many transactions of his, during his abode at Athens. But it isas certain, that Planudes met with nothing of this kind; or, at least,that he met not with the accounts with which they were furnished,because of the omissions before-mentioned; and consequently with none soauthentic and good. He seems to have thrown together some merry conceitswhich occurred to him in the course of his reading, such as he thoughtwere worthy of AEsop, and very confidently obtrudes them upon us for his.But, when at last he brings him to Delphos (where he was put to death bybeing thrown down from a precipice) that the Delphians might have somecolour of justice for what they intended to do, he favours them with thesame stratagem which Joseph made use of to bring back his brotherBenjamin; they clandestinely convey a cup into his baggage, overtake himupon the road, after a strict search find him guilty; upon that pretencecarry him back to the city, condemn and execute him.

  As I would neither impose upon others, nor be imposed upon, I cannot, assome have done, let such stuff as this pass for the Life of the greatAEsop. Planudes has little authority for any thing he has deliveredconcerning him; nay, as far as I can find, his whole account, from thebeginning to the end, is mere invention, excepting some fewcircumstances; such as the place of his birth, and of his death; for inrespect of the time in which he lived, he has blundered egregiously, bymentioning some incidents as contemporary with AEsop, which were farenough from being so. Xanthus, his supposed master, puts his wife into apassion, by bringing such a piece of deformity into her house, as ourAuthor is described to be. Upon this, the master reproaches the slavefor not uttering something witty, at a time that seemed to require it somuch: and then AEsop comes out, slap dash, with a satirical reflectionupon women, taken from Euripides, the famous Greek tragedian. NowEuripides happened not to be born till about fourscore years afterAEsop's death. What credit, therefore, can be given to any thing Planudessays of him?

  As to the place of his birth, I will allow, with the generality of thosewho have written about him, that it might have been some town in PhrygiaMajor: A. Gellius making mention of him, says, 'AEsopus ille, e Phrygia,Fabulator.' That he was also by condition a slave, we may conclude fromwhat Phaedrus[2] relates of him. But whether at both Samos and Athens, hedoes not particularly mention: though I am inclined to think it was atthe latter only; because he often speaks of him as living at that place,and never at any other; which looks as if Phaedrus believed that he hadnever lived any where else. Nor do I see how he could help being of thatopinion, if others of the ancients, whose credit is equally good, didnot carry him into other places. Aristotle introduces him (as Imentioned before) speaking in public to the Samians, upon the occasionof their Demagogue, or Prime Minister, being impeached for plunderingthe commonwealth.

  [2] Lib. ii. fab. 9. and Lib. iii. fab. 19.

  I cannot but think AEsop was something above the degree of a slave, whenhe made such a figure as an eminent speaker in the Samian State. Perhapshe might have been in that low condition in the former part of his life;and therefore Phaedrus, who had been of the same rank himself, might loveto enlarge upon this circumstance, since he does not choose to representhim in any higher sphere. Unless we allow him to be speaking[3] in aspublic a capacity to the Athenians, upon the occasion of Pisistratus'seizing their liberties, as we have before supposed he did to theSamians. But, however, granting that he was once a slave, we have greatauthority that he was afterwards not only free, but in high venerationand esteem with all that knew him; especially all that were eminent forwisdom and virtue. Plutarch, in his Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, amongseveral other illustrious persons, celebrated for their wit andknowledge, introduces AEsop. And, though in one place he seems to beridiculed by one of the company for being of a clumsy mongrel shape;yet, in general, he is represented as very courtly and polite in hisbehaviour. He rallies Solon, and the rest, for taking too much libertyin prescribing rules for the conduct of sovereign princes; putting themin mind, that those who aspire to be the friends and counsellors ofsuch, lose that character, and carry matters too far when they proceedto censure and find fault with them. Upon the credit of Plutarch,likewise, we fix the Life of AEsop in the time of Croesus, King of Lydia;with whom he was in such esteem, as to be deputed by him to consult theOracle at Delphos, and be sent as his envoy to Periander, King ofCorinth; which was about three hundred and twenty years after the timein which Homer lived, and five hundred and fifty before Christ.

  [3] _Phaed._ Lib. i. fab. 2.

  Now, though this imaginary banquet of Plutarch does not carry with itthe weight of a serious history, yet we may take it for granted, that heintroduced nothing in his fictitious scene, which might contradicteither the written or traditionary Life of AEsop; but rather chose tomake every thing agree with it. Be that as it will, this is the sum ofthe account which we have to give of him. Nor, indeed, is it materialfor us to know the little trifling circumstances of his Life; as whetherhe lived at Samos or Athens, whether he was a slave or a freeman,whether handso
me or ugly. He has left us a legacy in his writings thatwill preserve his memory dear and perpetual among us: what we have todo, therefore, is to show ourselves worthy of so valuable a present, andto act, in all respects, as near as we can to the will and intention ofthe donor. They who are governed by reason, need no other motive thanthe mere goodness of a thing to incite them to the practice of it. Butmen, for the most part, are so superficial in their inquiries, that theytake all upon trust; and have no taste for any thing but what issupported by the vogue of others, and which it is inconsistent with thefashion of the world not to admire.

  As an inducement, therefore, to such as these to like the person andconversation of AEsop, I must assure them that he was held in greatesteem by most of the great wits of old. There is scarce an author amongthe ancient Greeks, who mixed any thing of morality in his writings,but either quotes or mentions him.

  Whatever his person was, the beauties of his mind were very charming andengaging; that the most celebrated among the ancients were his admirers;that they speak of him with raptures, and pay as great a respect to himas to any of the other wise men who lived in the same age. Nor can Iperceive, from any author of antiquity, that he was so deformed as theMonk has represented him. If he had, he must have been so monstrous andshocking to the eye, as not only to be a very improper envoy for a greatking, but scarce fit to be admitted as a slave in any private family.Indeed, from what Plutarch hints of him, I suspect he had somethingparticular in his mien; but rather odd than ugly, and more apt to excitemirth than disgust, in those that conversed with him. Perhaps somethinghumorous displayed itself in his countenance as well as his writings;and it might be upon account of both, that he got the name ofGelotopoios, as Lucian calls him, and his works that of Geloia. However,we will go a middle way; and without insisting upon his beauty, or givinginto his deformity, allow him to have made a merry comical figure; at leastas handsome as Socrates; but at the same time conclude, that thisparticularity in the frame of his body was so far from being of anydisadvantage to him, that it gave a mirthful cast to every thing he said,and added a kind of poignancy to his conversation.