the close of the thirteenth century to our own times :-but we deny the justice of the pretension. There is a dark hiatus in the stream of light, after the middle of the sixteenth century. We allow to Italy the honourable title claimed for her by our author, of the parent of science and letters, madre delle scienze e delle lettere;'-but we deny that she has been, as he proceeds to assert, the watchful guardian of the sacred flame of knowledge. Until the eighteenth century, there is absolutely nothing to entitle her to this honour, after the revival of letters and art, which dawned upon Europe from her bright example. And the English student, who would trace the first beams and the meridian light of her glory, need not refer to the pictures of our worthy Cavaliere. We possess, in our own language, and in the work of a distinguished living writer, a full and admirable account of Italian literature and art, up to the epoch at which both were extinguished for nearly two hundred years. In the imaginary travels of Theodore Ducas, Mr. Mills has rendered full justice to these interesting subjects; and every Italian scholar acknowledges the beauties of that elegant production, which deserves to be a text-book in our language, and is only less popular, because less extensively known, than the other works of the same accomplished author. ART. IV. Fables Inédites des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe Siècles, et Fables de la Fontaine, rapprochées de celles de tous les auteurs, qui avoient, avant lui, traité les mêmes sujets, précédées d'une notice sur les Fabulistes, par A. C. M. ROBERT, Conservateur de la Bibliothèque, de Sainte Geneviève, &c. Tomes. 2. Paris. Etienne Cabin. 1825. N EXT to those of the Grecian Esop and the Latin Phædrus, the Fables of La Fontaine are held in general esteem. The French writers, in the genuine spirit of patriotic pride, exalt the success of their poet into a national triumph, and are laboriously busy to repair his celebrity, lest the common glory should be diminished. A learned lady of France, Madame Pons de St. Maurice, in the early part of the last century, formed a digest (as perfect as her opportunities enabled her to render it) of the fables which were extant antecedently to the work of La Fontaine. The labours of successive collectors enlarged the contents of this catalogue. Looking to the amount of the accumulation, they naturally concluded that they had exhausted the objects of their search. The fruits of this protracted enquiry were afterwards placed in the hands of M. ROBERT, the conservateur of the library of St. Genevieve in Paris. He was enabled, by the facilities of his office, to make some important additions to this curious enumeration. The result was, the publication of a mixed work, which combines interesting matter wholly new to the press; with an edition of a standard production, issuing under auspices which improve. its intrinsic value. The Fables of La Fontaine are printed in the usual order, and each is followed by a list of references to those performances, whether of Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Dutch, or Eastern authors, in which the same subject is treated; and for the like reason, one or more fables are subjoined to the list, which are drawn from the unpublished collection in the hands of the editor. The references do not comprehend those writers who were subsequent to the time of La Fontaine. One hundred fables are thus added to the stock of popular literature, chiefly taken from manuscripts of the date of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. The preservation of the contents of those manuscripts is now secured; for an appendix to these volumes embraces that portion of the antient fables which found no proper place in the body of the work. Fac-similes are also given of the rude designs which ornamented the manuscript folios, and as serving to mark the progress of art, merit the attention of the curious. The whole is preceded by a notice of the known writers in this department, belonging to all countries and ages, up to the age of La Fontaine. This species springs from the illustrious Esop, although some critics claim the honour for Hesiod. After Esop, Greece presents no writer who can claim the honour of having enlarged the sphere of fabular literature. We are under the necessity of waiting for a genius kindred to his, until the tardy accession of Phædrus. And again this ornament of learning becomes almost the solitary fabulist of the Roman language. Whether by unhappy accident, or fatal jealousy of contemporaries, this remarkable author obtained no reputation in his day. His name is just saved in a line of Martial. Seneca, who chronologically should have known him, has a sentence negatively contradicting the existence of such a writer. But Avienus, a writer of fables, in the time of the emperor Theodosius, bears testimony, by an enlarged reference, to the partial celebrity of Phædrus in his day. The number of fables extant in Latin prose exceeds all power of specification. They are principally the productions of periods which followed the era of the decline of learning, and were composed, perhaps, for the purposes of elementary teaching, French literature, we find, was enriched at a very early period, by a translation of that curious fabulary relic, "Reynard the Fox." M. ROBERT has A a 4 added added to the attractions of the present volumes, by copious extracts from this production, as well as from works in the. same language, to which so peculiar a model gave rise. The first attempt at a French version of the classic fables was made by a female of the thirteenth century, whose history is involved in uncertainty. Marie de France, it is said, employed her time in translating into French verse the Esopian fables, from an English version: which, according to the same authority, was executed by Henry the First of England. We look in vain throughout the literature of Europe, from Sweden to the shores of Naples, for some name that deserves to be placed in alliance with those of Esop and Phædrus. Fables derived from the common Grecian stock, appear to have been naturalized in every country: they are always paraphrased, seldom improved. The fables of Bilbai, or Pilpay, the Oriental Esop, are of great antiquity, and are believed to be original. They have been transferred into the different European languages: and, becoming incorporated with the fables of genuine Greek descent, are indiscriminately arranged amongst the generic Esopian compositions. La Fontaine, then, is the only writer who can be mentioned as the worthy companion of the Greek and the Roman fabulists. In his abstract of fabular authors, the compiler has shown very little more than erudition. A great proportion of the learned catalogue, of names is without any substantial claims to the rank in which, they appear. As to the notice of M. ROBERT on the English branch of his subject, we can only affirm that it has left ample room for the exertions of a more laborious and exact successor. He alludes only to Shakespeare, Butler, and Ogilby: the first on account of his paraphrase of the celebrated fable of" The Belly and the Members;" the author, of Hudibras, for the fable of " The Elephant in the Moon;" and the third, who obtains a more particular notice, for his version of a select number of antient fables. This editor informs us, that the work of Ogilby appeared in London in the year 1665, which being compared with the date of the first publication of La Fontaine, would leave the latter the opportunity of three years to become acquainted with the English poet, before he committed bis own work to the press. The fact, however, turns out to be, that Ogilby's Fables were published so early as the year 1651; so that instead of the limited term of three years, La Fontaine had the opportunity of full fourteen years to avail himself of all the advantages which he could derive from the English interpretation. But M. ROBERT appears to be utterly unacquainted with the existence of a work which bears much more directly on the object of his spe culations. culations. We allude to a valuable folio publication, consisting of Latin, French, and English versions of 110 of the Esopian fables. The English translation is in verse. The work bears the name of Philpot, and may be seen in the British Museum. The date of its publication is 1661, seven: years preceding that of La Fontaine. The design was par ticularly attractive for foreigners; it was adorned with illustrations, executed with a perfection of art, which might force it into notice abroad. Neither this, nor any of the English prose versions of the fabular writings of antiquity have received attention from M. ROBERT. Ogilby's is the first poetical translation of the Esopian Fables which we can boast in our language. We learn, however, that attempts were made before his time, by inferior hands, to render these productions into English rhyme. Shirley the poet, sent a complimentary address to Ogilby, on the appearance of his fables, in which the following lines occur: "Thy pen Hath raised and made him (Esop) more than live again; Such are the various sources, from which it is suggested La Fontaine might have drawn, not merely the subjects and the scheme of his fables, but also the elements of those embellishments, where alone he affects to be original. And to what purpose, after all, is this vast repository of learned materials piled up? His own admissions supersede the utility of summoning this confused assemblage of testimony against him.Fable coming naked from the hand of Esop, was arrayed by Phædrus in a simple garb: he stopped at use and propriety. From La Fontaine it borrowed the graces of various decoration, the smiles of comedy, the charm of serious emotions. In fact, it does not seem to be suspected, that until the time of the French poet, fabular compositions were numbered amongst the means of didactic instruction; and that by Aristotle and other masters of the art of rhetoric, fable was so strictly cultivated as a mode of teaching, that nobody ever thought of connecting it with poetry. The distinction between Esop and La Fontaine may be exactly indicated by stating, that whilst Plato would have made the former a citizen of his republic, he would as certainly have included the French author in his sentence of banishment, so many misdemeanours of fancy and art could be laid to the charge of the latter. In La Fontaine, then, we have a writer in whom not merely the faculty of happy execution was vested, but who had the sagacity to see that he had no chance of success, except in the attempt attempt to improve on the subjects which had been left by the famous masters of antiquity. It was only in the confidence of being able to relieve the style of those old fables, that he ventures upon the task. And does not the experience of ages, and especially the literary history of this country, afford enough of evidence to shew the penetration and prudence of La Fontaine? Gay thought that he could invent fables by the hour, but he acknowledges too late, that the difficulties of the enterprize were almost insurmountable. Swift tried his genius at the same operation, but with all his copious vocabulary and elasticity of mind, he was not able to command success, and despairingly avows his failure. This indefatigable search, with all its curious fruits, will leave La Fontaine then in his former station. Precedent after precedent may be accumulated for the adoption of some particular narratives; but where shall we find the source from which the French fabulist has stolen all the beauty of his immortal verses? As an example of the manner in which this publication has been constructed, we shall select, on account of its brevity, the well known fable of The Cock and the Precious Stone.' The following is the composition of La Fontaine : 'Le Coq et la Perle. Un jour un coq détourna Un ignorant hérita D'un manuscrit, qu'il porta Mais le moindre ducaton Seroit bien mieux mon affaire. Then follows the catalogue of references: Grecs. Es.-Camer. 188. 'Latins. Phædr. 51.; Rom. 1.; Rom. Nil. 1.; Fab. ant. Nil. I.; Galfr. 1.; Pant. Caud. 122. Français. Mar. de Fr. 1.; Ysop. i. 1.; Vinc. de Beauv. 30.; Mer. des Hist. 30.; Jul. Mach. 1.; Rabel., Prologue du 1er liv.; Guill. Haud. 112.; G. Corr. 1.; P. Despr. 14.; Bens. 1.; Le Nobl. 74. bis. 'Italiens. Acc.-Zucch. 1.; Tupp. 1.; Ces. Pav. 112.; Guicc p. 56.; Verdizz. 74. Espagnols. Ysopo. 1. 'Allemands. Minn.-Zing. 1.; H. Steinh. 1. Hollandais. Esopus, i. Orientaux. Bidpaï, t. 3. p. 187. Sub |