_Of_ Æsop_’s Country, Condition, and Person_.
_Æsop_ (according to _Planudes_, _Camerarius_ and Others) was by birth,
of _Ammorius_, a Town in the _Greater Phrygia_; (though some will have
him to be a _Thracian_, others a _Samian_) of a mean Condition, and in
his person deformed, to the highest degree: Flat-Nos’d, Hunch-Back’d,
Blabber-Lipp’d; a Long Mishapen Head; His Body Crooked all over,
Big-Belly’d, Baker-Legg’d, and his Complexion so swarthy, that he took
his very Name from’t; for _Æsop_ is the same with _Æthiop_. And he was
not only Unhappy in the most scandalous Figure of a Man, that ever was
heard of; but he was in a manner Tongue-Ty’d too, by such an Impediment
in his speech, that People could very hardly understand what he said.
This Imperfection is said, to have been the most sensible part of his
Misfortune; for the Excellency of his Mind might otherwise have Atton’d
in some Measure, for the Uncouth Appearance of his Person (at least if
That Part of History may pass for Current.) There goes a Tradition,
that he had the good Hap to Relieve certain Priests that were Hungry,
and out of their way, and to set them Right again; and that for that
good Office, he was upon their Prayers, brought to the Use of his
Tongue: But _Camerarius_, whom I shall Principally follow, has no Faith
in the Miracle, And so He begins his History with the tracing of him
to _Samos_, and from thence Prosecutes it through the most Remarkable
Passages of his Life, to the Last Barbarous Violence upon him at
_Delphos_. As to his Impediment in his speech, whether there were any
such thing or Not, or how he came to be cur’d of it, the Reader is at
Liberty what to Believe and what Not. And so likewise for Twenty Other
Passages up and down this History; Some of them too Trivial, and others
too Gross to be taken Notice of, Upon this Argument and Occasion: Let it
suffice, that (according to the Common Tradition) he had been Already
Twice Bought and Sold; and so we shall Date the Story of his Adventures;
from his Entrance into the Service of at least a Third Master.
As to the Age he liv’d in, it is Agreed upon among the Antients, that it
was when _Crœsus_ Govern’d _Lydia_; as also that _Xanthus_, a _Samian_,
was his Master. _Herodotus_ will have it to be one _Jadmon_ a _Samian_
too; but still according to the Current of most Writers, _Xanthus_ was
the Man.