_FABLES AND FABULISTS._
[Device]
[Illustration: MERCURY BESTOWING ON THE YOUTHFUL ÆSOP THE INVENTION OF
THE APOLOGUE. (_See page 43._)]
FABLES AND FABULISTS:
_ANCIENT AND MODERN_.
BY
THOMAS NEWBIGGING,
_Author of
'The History of the Forest of Rossendale,' 'Old Gamul,' etc._
_CHEAP EDITION._
LONDON:
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1896.
[_All rights reserved._]
'I shall tell you
A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To stale't a little more.'
SHAKESPEARE: _Coriolanus_.
'He sat among the woods; he heard
The sylvan merriment; he saw
The pranks of butterfly and bird,
The humours of the ape, the daw.
'And in the lion or the frog--
In all the life of moor and fen,
In ass and peacock, stork and log,
He read similitudes of men.'
ANDREW LANG.
'The fables which appeal to our higher moral sympathies may
sometimes do as much for us as the truths of science.'
MRS. JAMESON.
'The years of infancy constitute, in the memory of each of us, the
fabulous season of existence; just as in the memory of nations,
the fabulous period was the period of their infancy.'--GIACOMO
LEOPARDI.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. DEFINITION OF FABLE 1
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF FABLES 7
III. THE MORAL AND APPLICATION OF FABLES 13
IV. FABULISTS AS CENSORS 19
V. LESSONS TAUGHT BY FABLES 25
VI. ÆSOP 33
VII. STORIES RELATED OF ÆSOP 42
VIII. THE ÆSOPIAN FABLES 52
IX. PHÆDRUS AND BABRIUS 63
X. THE FABLE IN HISTORY AND MYTH 68
XI. HINDOO, ARABIAN, AND PERSIAN FABLES.--PILPAY,
LOCMAN.--'THE GESTA ROMANORUM' 80
XII. MODERN FABULISTS: LA FONTAINE, GAY 96
XIII. MODERN FABULISTS: DODSLEY, NORTHCOTE 108
XIV. MODERN FABULISTS: LESSING, YRIARTE, KRILOF 115
XV. OTHER AND OCCASIONAL FABULISTS 125
XVI. CONCLUSION 143
INDEX 147
_FABLES AND FABULISTS_
CHAPTER I.
DEFINITION OF FABLE.
'Read my little fable,
He that runs may read.'
TENNYSON: _The Flower_.
'As clear as a whistle.'
BYRON: _The Astrologer_.
The term 'fable' is used in two senses, with two distinctive meanings.
First, as _fabulæ_, it is employed to denote the myths or fictions
which, by the aid of imagination and superstition, have clouded, or
have become blended with, the history of the remote past. Such are the
stories related of Scandinavian and Grecian heroes and gods; beings,
some of whom doubtless had an actual human existence, and were wise and
valiant and powerful, or the reverse, in their day, but around whose
names and persons have clustered all the marvellous legends that are to
be found in mythological lore. The better name for these is 'romance.'
Secondly, as _fabellæ_, it is used to signify a special branch of
literature, in which the imagination has full play, altogether
unassisted by superstition in any shape or form. The fabulist
confers the powers or gifts of reason and speech on the humbler
subjects over whom he exercises sway, and so has ample scope for his
imaginative faculty; but there is no attempt on his part at any serious
make-believe in his inventions. On the contrary, there is a tacit
understanding between him and his hearers and readers, that what he
narrates is only true in the sense of its application to corresponding
circumstances in human life and conduct.
It is with fable as understood in this latter sense that we propose to
deal.
The Fable or Apologue has been variously defined by different writers.
Mr. Walter Pater, paraphrasing Plato's definition, says that 'fables
are medicinable lies or fictions, with a provisional or economized
truth in them, set forth under such terms as simple souls can best
receive.'[1] The sophist Aphthonius, taking the same view, defines the
fable as 'a false discourse resembling truth.'[2] The harshness of both
these definitions is scarcely relieved by their quaintness. To assert
that the fable is a lie or a falsehood does not fairly represent the
fact. A lie is spoken with intent to deceive. A fable, in its relation,
can bear no such construction, however exaggerated in its terms or
fictitious in its characters. The meanest comprehension is capable of
grasping the humour of the situation it creates. Even the moral that
lurks in the narration is often clear to minds the most obtuse. This is
at least true of the best fables.
Dr. Johnson, in his 'Life of Gay,' remarks that 'A fable or epilogue
seems to be, in its genuine state, a narrative in which beings
irrational, and sometimes inanimate--_quod arbores loquantur, non
tantum feræ_[3]--are, for the purpose of moral instruction, feigned to
act and speak with human interests and passions.'
Dodsley says that ''tis the very essence of a fable to convey some
moral or useful truth beneath the shadow of an allegory.'[4] Boothby
defines the fable as 'a maxim for the use of common life, exemplified
in a short action, in which the inhabitants of the visible world are
made the moral agents.' G. Moir Bussey states that 'the object of the
author is to convey some moral truth to the reader or auditor, without
usurping the province of the professed lecturer or pedant. The lesson
must therefore be conveyed in an agreeable form, and so that the
moralist himself may be as little prominent as possible.'[5] Mr. Joseph
Jacobs says that 'the beast fable may be defined as a short humorous
allegorical tale, in which animals act in such a way as to illustrate a
simple moral truth or inculcate a wise maxim.'[6]
These various definitions or descriptions apply more especially to the
Æsopian fable (and it is with this that we are dealing at present),
which is _par excellence_ the model of this class of composition.
Steele declares that 'the virtue which we gather from a fable or an
allegory is like the health we get by hunting, as we are engaged in
an agreeable pursuit that draws us on with pleasure, and makes us
insensible of the fatigues that accompany it.'[7] This is applied to
the longer fable or epic, such as the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey' of Homer,
or the 'Faerie Queen' of Spenser, rather than to the fable as the term
is generally understood, otherwise the simile is somewhat inflated.
One more definition may be attempted:
The Æsopian fable or apologue is a short story, either fictitious or
true, generally fictitious, calculated to convey instruction, advice or
reproof, in an interesting form, impressing its lesson on the mind more
deeply than a mere didactic piece of counsel or admonition is capable
of doing. We say a short story, because if the narration is spun out
to a considerable length it ceases to be a true fable in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, and becomes a tale, such, for example, as a
fairy tale. Now, a fairy or other fanciful tale usually or invariably
contains some romance and much improbability; it often deals largely in
the superstitious, and it is not necessarily the vehicle for conveying
a moral. The very opposite holds good of a fable. Although animals
are usually the actors in the fable, there is an air of naturalness
in their assumed speech and actions. The story may be either highly
imaginative or baldly matter-of-fact, but it never wanders beyond the
range of intuitive (as opposed to actual or natural) experience, and
it always contains a moral. In a word, a fable is, or ought to be, the
very quintessence of common sense and wise counsel couched in brief
narrative form. It partakes somewhat of the character of a parable,
though it can hardly be described as a parable, because this is more
sedate in character, has human beings as its actors, and is usually
based on an actual occurrence.
Though parables are not fables in the strict and limited meaning of the
term, they bear a close family relationship to them. Parables may be
defined as stories in allegorical dress. The Scriptures, both old and
new, abound with them. The most beautiful example in the Old Testament
is that of Nathan and the ewe lamb,[8] in which David the King is made
his own accuser. This was a favourite mode of conveying instruction and
reproof employed by our Lord. Christ often 'spake in parables'; and
with what feelings of reverential awe must we regard the parables of
the Gospels, coming as they did from the lips of our Saviour!
FOOTNOTES:
[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.