Chapter I: Preface

If deep wisdom, gentle satire, polite cynicism, and, above all, irresistible humour are qualities which make a book attractive then La Fontaine's _Fables_ should be in the hands of all. Their charm is two-fold; for whilst they induce pleasurable reflection in the reader they delight him by the gaiety of their subject matter.

Notwithstanding the fact that the spell of La Fontaine's verse necessarily disappears when another tongue is employed, his English translators, both Elizur Wright and Walter Thornbury, have courageously attempted to do him justice in prosody. In this little book no such effort has been made, chiefly for the reason that, for any but the unusually gifted, to snatch at rhythm and rhyme is often to let drop the apt and ready word as Æsop's mastiff dropped his dinner. But there is a further excuse for the present writer. Verse has little attraction for children unless it jingles merrily, and that is a thing as impossible as it is undesirable where the claims of a philosophic original make restrictions. Since the spirit is more likely to survive if the letter is not exacting, it is difficult to see why custom looks askance upon prose versions of poetry. But this little book may escape such censure on the ground of its being but a selection from the complete _Fables_ of La Fontaine. It presents only those of which the great fabulist was himself the originator. A selection of some sort being imperative there seemed to be a simple and easy choice in the condition of absolute originality; particularly as the older fables are given in another volume of this series.

This translation (in which I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of my friend Mrs. A.H. Beddoe) is neither "free" nor literal. It sometimes amplifies a thought, much as a musician might amplify the harmonies upon a master's figured bass. But even this is rarely done, and then only with a view to the youthful reader's pleasure and profit. With that view, further, the social and political introductions to the fables have been omitted, as well as the scientific discourses and the allusions to the unfortunate wars of Louis XIV. and other historical matters, all of which would have neither meaning nor interest but for "grown-ups" of a certain class.

F.C. TILNEY.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE TWO MULES 13

THE HARE AND THE PARTRIDGE 15

THE GARDENER AND HIS LANDLORD 17

THE MAN AND HIS IMAGE 20

THE ANIMALS SICK OF THE PLAGUE 22

THE UNHAPPILY MARRIED MAN 25

THE RAT RETIRED FROM THE WORLD 27

THE MAIDEN 29

THE WISHES 31

THE DAIRY-WOMAN AND THE PAIL OF MILK 34

THE PRIEST AND THE CORPSE 36

THE MAN WHO RAN AFTER FORTUNE AND THE MAN WHO WAITED FOR HER IN HIS BED 38

AN ANIMAL IN THE MOON 42

THE FORTUNE-TELLERS 44

THE COBBLER AND THE FINANCIER 47

THE POWER OF FABLE 50

THE DOG WHO CARRIED HIS MASTER'S DINNER 52

THYRSIS AND AMARANTH 54

THE RAT AND THE ELEPHANT 56

THE HOROSCOPE 57

JUPITER AND THE THUNDERBOLTS 60

EDUCATION 62

DEMOCRITUS AND THE PEOPLE OF ABDERA 64

THE ACORN AND THE PUMPKIN 67

THE SCHOOLBOY, THE PEDANT, AND THE OWNER OF A GARDEN 69

THE SCULPTOR AND THE STATUE OF JUPITER 71

THE OYSTER AND THE PLEADERS 73

THE CAT AND THE FOX 75

THE MONKEY AND THE CAT 77

THE TWO RATS, THE FOX, AND THE EGG 79

THE DOG WITH HIS EARS CROPPED 86

THE LIONESS AND THE SHE-BEAR 88

THE RABBITS 90

THE GODS WISHING TO INSTRUCT A SON OF JUPITER 93

THE LION, THE MONKEY, AND THE TWO ASSES 95

THE WOLF AND THE FOX IN THE WELL 98

THE MICE AND THE SCREECH-OWL 100

THE COMPANIONS OF ULYSSES 102

THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE DOGS AND THE CATS AND BETWEEN THE CATS AND THE MICE 106

THE WOLF AND THE FOX 109

LOVE AND FOLLY 111

THE FOREST AND THE WOODCUTTER 113

THE FOX AND THE YOUNG TURKEYS 115

THE APE 117

THE SCYTHIAN PHILOSOPHER 118

THE ELEPHANT AND JUPITER'S APE 120

THE LEAGUE OF RATS 122

THE ARBITER, THE HOSPITALLER, AND THE HERMIT 124

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE HEART OF THYRSIS LEAPT Frontispiece

"YOU BOASTED OF BEING SO SWIFT" Facing page 14

OVER TOPPLED THE MILK " 35

THE GARRET WAS STILL A SIBYL'S DEN " 46

DELIBERATELY SWALLOWED THE OYSTER " 74

"WHY CANNOT YOU BE SILENT ALSO?" " 88

DESCENDED BY HIS GREATER WEIGHT " 98

A GUIDE FOR THE FOOTSTEPS OF LOVE " 111

The poet Jean de la Fontaine was born at Château-Thierry on July 8, 1621. He was a kindly, merry, and generous man and much beloved. His fables were written in verse and were published in three collections at different times of his life. Many were new versions of existing fables; but those of his later years were more often original inventions.

All in this book are of La Fontaine's own invention, although several have since appeared in collections of Æsop's fables without the acknowledgment that is La Fontaine's due.

He died on April 13, 1695, at the age of seventy-three.