introduced a few oriental Apologues among the latter half of his Fables. Some of these, e.g. "La Perrette," have been incorporated into the later Æsops.
The present collection aims at representing in selection and arrangement this history of the European Æsop.[1] Three quarters of its contents give in due order those of Stainhöwel, which have survived in the struggle for existence in the popular consciousness. As a kind of appendix the last quarter of fables in this book gives a miscellaneous set derived from various collections published since the Stainhöwel, and winning their way by force of merit into the popular Æsops. For the fables derived from the Stainhöwel-Caxton I have referred briefly to the bibliographical appendix in my edition of Caxton, pp. 225, 268, by the symbols used there, as follows:—
Ro. = Four books of Romulus, really Phædrus.
Ex. v. = Extravagantes.
Re. = Greek prose fables, latinised by Remicius.
Av. = Avian.
Po. = Poggio.
I give here a short summary of the information more fully contained in these bibliographical lists. I have gone more into detail for the last twenty fables or so which do not occur in Caxton.
I.—COCK AND PEARL (Ro. i. 1).
Phædrus, iii. 12. Cannot be traced earlier or elsewhere. It gave its title to Boner's German collection of fables. Luther, La Fontaine, Lessing, Krilof, included it in their collections. It is quoted by Rabelais, Bacon, Essays, xiii., and Mr. Stevenson, Catriona.
- ↑ Dodsley's Æsop in the last century was arranged on a somewhat similar plan, being divided into three books of Ancient, Modern, and Original Fables.
