Chapter I: Front Matter

_FABLES AND FABULISTS._

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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_