The Fables of La Fontaine [Book

ftnnk >E 3^ ^ By bequest of / C? ^ William Lukens Shoemaker PART VII. i ^ POETRY—Vol. I., Part 2 ' A D I CO ) A / 3j^ \ THE FABLES OF LA FONTAINE TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY E. WRIGHT. The Dairy Woman. LONDON i INGRAM, COOKE, AND CO. 227, STRAND. 1853. \\ ^S>\\> ^^v>V Gift. W. L. Shoemaker 7 S '06 \ THE FABLES ©F LA FONTAINE TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, By ELIZUR WRIGHT, June. VOL. I. 119 INTKODTJCTION. This elegant translation of the most famous fabulist of modern times (if we may- be allowed to call tbe seventeenth century modern), is the work of an American author, who has admirably succeeded in embodying both the spirit, the grace, and the vivacity of the original in the translation. As Fables have interested and instructed mankind in every age, and as the Fables of La Fontaine may be said to be the standard collection of modern times, this translation has been considered as a most appropriate addition to the Universal Library. London, February, 1853.- 120 A PREFACE ON FABLE, THE FABULISTS, AND LA FONTAINE, BY THE TRANSLATOR. Human nature, when fresh from the hand of God, Himerians on their guard against the tyranny of was full of poetry. Its sociality could not be pent Phalaris by the fable of the Horse and the Stag. within the bounds of the actual. To the lower Cyrus, for the instruction of kings, told the story inhabitants of air, earth, and water,—and even to of the fisher obliged to use his nets to take the- those elements themselves, in all their parts and fish that turned a deaf ear to the sound of his flute. forms, —it gave speech and reason. The skies it Menenius Agrippa, wishing to bring back the mu- peopled with beings, on the noblest model of which tinous Roman people from Mount Sacer, ended his it could have any conception—to wit, its own. harangue with the fable of the Belly and the The intercourse of these beings, thus created and Members. A Ligurian, in order to dissuade King endowed,—from the deity kindled into immortality Comanus from yielding to the Phocians a portion by the imagination, to the clod personified for the of his territory as the site of Marseilles, introduced moment,—gratified one of its strongest propen- into his discourse the story of the bitch that bor- sities ; for man may well enough be defined as the rowed a kennel in which to bring forth her young, historical animal. The faculty which, in after but, when they were sufficiently grown, refused to ages, was to chronicle the realities developed by give it up. time, had at first no employment but to place on In all these instances, we see that fable was a record the productions of the imagination. Hence, mere auxiliary of discourse—an implement of the fable blossomed and ripened in the remotest an- orator. Such, probably, was the origin of the tiquity. We see it mingling itself with the primeval apologues which now form the bulk of the most history of all nations. It ia not improbable that popular collections. iEsop, -who lived about six many of the narratives which have been preserved hundred years before Christ, so far as we can for us, by the bark or parchment of the first rude reach the reality of his life, was an orator who histories, as serious matters of fact, were originally wielded the apologue with remarkable skill. From apologues, or parables, invented to give power and a servile condition, he rose, by the force of his wings to moral lessons, and afterwards modified, genius, to be the counsellor of kings and states. in their passage from mouth to mouth, by the well- His wisdom was in demand far and wide, and on known magic of credulity. The most ancient poets the most important occasions. The pithy apologues graced their productions with apologues. Hesiod's which fell from his lips, which, like the rules of fable of the Hawk and the Nightingale is an in- arithmetic, solved the difficult problems of human stance. The fable or parable was anciently, as it conduct constantly presented to him, were remem- is even now, a favourite weapon of the most suc- bered when the speeches that contained them were cessful orators. When Jotham would show the forgotten. He seems to have written nothing Shechemites the folly of their ingratitude, he ut- himself ; but it was not long before the gems which tered the fable of the Fig-Tree, the Olive, the Vine, he scattered began to be gathered up in collections, and the Bramble. When the prophet Nathan as a distinct species of literature. The great and would oblige David to pass a sentence of con- good Socrates employed himself, while in prison* demnation upon himself in the matter of Uriah, in turning the fables of iEsop into verse. Though he brought before him the apologue of the rich but a few fragments of his composition have come man who, having many sheep, took away that of down to us, he may, perhaps, be regarded as the the poor man who had but one. When Joash, the father of fable, considered as a distinct art. In- king of Israel, would rebuke the vanity of Amaziah, duced by his example, many Greek poets and phi- the king of Judah, he referred him to the fable of losophers tried their hands in it. Archilocus, the Thistle and the Cedar. Our blessed Saviour, Alcreus, Aristotle, Plato, Diodorus, Plutarch, and the best of all teachers, was remarkable for his Lucian, have left us specimens. Collections of constant use of parables, which are but fables— fables bearing the name of iEsop became current we speak it with reverence—adapted to the gravity in the Greek language. It was not, however, till of the subjects on which he discoursed. And, in the year 1447, that the large collection which now profane history, we read that Stesichorus put the bears his name was put forth in Greek prose by 121 ON FABLE, THE FABULISTS, AND LA FONTAINE. Planudes, a monk of Constantinople. This man and bear the name of a Brahmin, Vishnoo Sarmah. turned the life of iEsop itself into a fable ; and La as the author. Sir William Jones, who is inclined Fontaine did it the honour to translate it as a pre- to make this author the true iEsop of the world, face to his own collection. Though burdened with and to doubt the existence of the Phrygian, gives insufferable puerilities, it is not without the moral him the preference to all other fabulists, both in that a rude and deformed exterior may conceal regard to matter and manner. He has left a prose both wit and worth. translation of the Hitopadesa, which, though it The collection of fables in Greek verse by may not fully sustain his enthusiastic preference, Babrias was exceedingly popular among the shows it not to be entirely groundless. We give Romans. It was the favourite book of the Em- a sample of it, and select a fable which La Fon- peror Julian. Only six of these fables, and a few taine has served up as the twenty- seventh of his fragments, remain ; but they are sufficient to show eighth book. It should be understood that the that their author possessed all the graces of style fable, with the moral reflections which accompany which befit the apologue. Some critics place him it, is taken from the speech of one animal to in the Augustan age ; others make him contem- another. porary with Moschus. His work was versified in " Frugality Latin, at the instance of Seneca ; and Quinctilian should ever be practised, but not excessive par.-imony for refers to it as a reading-book for boys. Thus, at ; see bow a miser was killed by a bow drawn by himself!" all times, these playful fictions have been con- " How was that ?" said Hiranyaca. sidered fit lessons for children, as well as for men, w In the county of Calyanacataca," said Menthara, "lived who are often but grown-up children. So popular a mighty hunter, named Bhairaza, or Terrible. One day were the fables of Babrias and their Latin trans- he went, in search of game, into a forest on the mountains lation, during the Roman empire, that the work of Tindhya ; when, having slain a fawn, and taken it up, he latter Phsedrus was hardly noticed. The was a perceived a boar of tremendous size ; he therefore threw freedman of Augustus, and wrote in the reign of the fawn on the ground, and wounded the boar with an Tiberius. His verse stands almost unrivalled for arrow ; the beast, horribly roaring, rushed upon him, and wounded him desperately, so that he fell, like a tree its exquisite elegance and compactness ; and pos- stricken with an axe. terity has abundantly avenged him for the neglect of contemporaries. La Fontaine is perhaps more indebted to Phredrus than to any other of his pre- "In the meanwhile, a jackal, named Lougery, was decessors ; and, especially in the first six books, roving in search of food ; and, having perceived the fawn, his style has much of the same curious condensa- the hunter, and the boar, all three dead, he said to him- tion. When the seat of the empire Avas trans- self, ' What a noble provision is here made for me !' ferred to Byzantium, the Greek language took " As the pains of men assail them unexpectedly, so their pleasures in precedence of the Latin ; and the rhetorician come the same manner; a divine power Aphtonius wrote forty fables in Greek prose, which strongly operates in both.

Load more