_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.'