On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    $9 g The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [O...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    The Fables Of Babriits.* It Has Boon Sai...

    who all pass under the name of . gnomic poets : —the German cyclopedist proceeds to give an account of a more advanced form of didiietie poetry ; viz ., the Fable , or Apologue ( u- ( o \ oyvc iind \ uyos ) - '' The most ancient and Greek fables , "ha ' . says , " are two or three ascribed to Arehiloehus and Stesichorus , and one found in Hesiod . The most celebrated fables , " he adds , '• ' are those of JEsop , who lived in the ag-e of Solon . They were probably composed in prose . Socrates translated some of them into verse . They were . collected in a body by Demetrius Phalarcns , and a translation of them is said to have " been made about the same time into elegiac verse . In the age of Aug-ustus they were translated into the verse called choliairibies , by Babrius . This metrical version is supposed to have been the basis of the modern copies which are in prose , and belongperhaps , more properly to the subject of philosophy . "

    , Speaking of the didactic poets of the-Alexandrine age , the same learned writer remarks , that there were , after the capture of Corinth , B . C . 116 , several writers belonging * to the didactic class , " ' but none of them of much celebrity . Among the principal were Babrius , or Babrias , and Oppian . The former has been already mentioned as author of a . metrical version of the ' Apologues' of IE sop ; the latter wrote on . fishing and liuntiny . " Oi ^ Esop himself he tells us , that he was a Phrygian , generally supposed to have lived , at least 600 b . c . ; that he was born a slave , and served different masters ; the last of whom . Jadman of Sainos ,

    a philosopher , gave him his freedom . The other circumstances of his life are but imperfectly known , -although they are detailed with considerable fullness in the biography " of him ascribed to Maximus Planudes , a monk of Constantinople in the 11 th century ; upon which , however , little reliance can be placed . The sanie Planndes also collected and enlarged the fables of IE sop , never , probably , committed to writing by . himself . They had been put into choliambic verse by Babrius ( improperly called Babrias , and Gabrias ) , who lived in the time of Aug'ustus . From this metre they were gradually reduced again to prose , and received their present form from Planudes .

    Horace treated the fable as a form of poetry . " After him ., says Scholl , another German scholar , " Roman literature presents us with no fables until the reign of Tiberius . " In his reign flourished PhiedruSj who [ received his . freedom from Augustus . He was the principal author of fables atnong the Romans . "He had the merit of first making known to the llomans the fables of JEsop ; not that alibis fables are translations of those of the Phrygian philosopher ; but those which seem to be properly Ms own , or of which , at least , we do not know the G-reek originals , are in the manner of iEsop . He is as original as La Fontaine , who , like Plidrus , borrowed the subject in a great number of his fables ! " " The next author of fables in Latin verse , " adds Eschenburg ' , "is Flavius Avituius , who employed the elegiac metre instead of the . iambic . Julius Titianus , who lived under Oaraealla , wrote fables in prose , or rather translated into Latin prose the fables of Babrius .

    Such , is , in the niost eoriciso form , what maj- be regarded as the orthodox belief on this subject previous to the treatment of it by ? Sir Or . C . Lewis . Man } -, of course , will , as he anticipates , be dissatisfied with his attempt to fix the date of Uabrius . But to such , he says , that they will find no traces of his fables earlier than the Emperor Julian , a century-or more later ; who , in . his Epistle LIX ., quotes a vei-se of the 32 nd Fable , v . 1 ., without the author ' s narae . Tzetzos and 3 iudas , alone , tho latest of the grammarians , quote muoli from Babrius , previous to tho findingof the present MSS . ; aud all that we can arrive at , with any approximation to eertaiuty , is , that Babrius lived between the close of the first century after Christ and tho age of Julian . A manuscript o Babrius was discovered in 1844 , by M . Minoides Menas , a loarned Greek , who was commissioned by 31 . Villemain , . Minister Publio Instruction xmder Louis Philippe ; it was found , amongst othor literary treasures , in the convent of fc > t . Laura , on Mount Athos . Tble copy was much damaged , and the monies asked eo high a price for it , that Menas declined to buy it , and could only convey a transcript of it to Paria whioh M . Villeinain plaoed in the hands of M . Boissonado ( soo Class . Mus ,, II ., 418 ) , by . whom it was published in Ootobor , 1844 . Tho date of the MS . was supposed to bo of tho tenth century . Several other Continental editions followed on the Parisian . Sir G . C . Lowis put forth his own-r-tho iivst edition of Babrius in England —in 1840 . _ l ? oi' the fable itself Babrius traoos its origiix to a romoto antiquity—to a highly poetio age j in whioh men coinmnuod with Nature as a kindred intelligence , and attributed speech to plants and animals , not meroly in . literary flotioxi but in religious boliof . Hoar luua—Babrius we mean—on this point ;—It wtxs tho Q-old ^ n Ago , when every bvuto Hud voice articulate , in spoooh was skilled , And tho mid-foresta with its synods flllocl . Tho tongues of rooks and pino-loaf then wore froe j To ship and Bailor then would speak tho soa j Sparrows with farmers would shrewd talk zmuutainj Earth gftvp all fruits , nor asked for toil again . Mortals and gods woro wont to mix as frionde . Tho birthplaoe of fablo was then Paradise ; and , perhaps , wo might even road Adam for iEsop . Sir Or . C . Lowis dovotos sonio space in his loomed preface to an analysis of tho JEsopiaxi fablo . His objeot is tp ostablish tho indigenous GtgqIc origin or this class of compositions from a consideration of its natural history . . Babrius occasionally mentions animals of forolgu extraction , and lenowa only to tho later GtoqIss ; but ahiolly introduces thoso only as ohurciotors whioh aro rooognisocl by tlio oarliost traditions

    of the JEsopian Fables . It Ayas not . until after the revival of letters that the opinion obtained any credence that the prose , Esopian Fables wore really . those of JvJ-sop . jN " othhi £ , aver .- , . Mr . Da / vies , could bo more manifestly unsound ; -and he maintains tho European origin of this class of iietion . O £ this gentleman's version it'is " . but fair that wo now proceed to give specimens or examples . In doing this wo-shall subserve also a ijioral ¦ purpose . All , for instance , are not -merely dry practical maxims , but thore arc some that aim at sentiment and beauty . Take , a > j an example , the fable of " The Female Slave and Venus . " A man , enamour'd of 1 iIs ugly slave , An arrant slut , to her , for asking , garc Whate ' er she would . lichee , as niore gauds slio wins , And trails ilno purulc o ' er hei * slattern shins , At wife and mistress sho defiance flings ; But Venus , as tho cause of those good things , With lamps she fain would honour , and each day Make offering , supplicate , pay vows , and pray ; Till to her camo the goddess , in her sloop , And , while the house was hush'd in slumber deep , Said , " Thank me not , as though I'd made thec fair ; To him that thinks tboc so , a hate I bear . Whoso in what is foul can beauty find , Is surely Gocl-ab . hoi r'd , and halt in mind . " The fabulist is not always . mindful , of tradition ,-or changes it t ) suit his own convenience—as in tho following' : — JOVE ' S CASK . Jove in a cask all blessings pack'd and hid , A cliarge . foi" man .: bub first secm'Ctl the lid . Unbridled uian , agog to scan tho gift And its contents , essay ' tl tho-top to lift . Released , each blessing mounted to the sky And would not bide below , when free to ily . Hope only tarried . -Her the lid secured , . When closed at last . And thus bath Hope endured ¦ In human homes . In her sole form we sec Earnest of all the goods , that then did flee . Hesiod ' s account of the matter is very different .. ^ IIis was probably an older version of the same story , aeeordin » - to which Pandora ' s box was full of ills ; but in both versions Hope is left at the bottom . The change , however , of evils into blessing's , in the more recent versions , illustrates the gradual amelioration of thecommon creed . ¦ Here is a curious fable , as'reein ^ with ^ Hornet ' , however , in particulars , on Prometheus creating human beings—PROMETHEUS AND ZtfAlS'KIiS'D . Prometheus erst , when Jove the order spake , Proceeded men and brutes , 'tis said , to make . But when Jove saw that beasts outnumbered men , Ho bade him mix sonao of the brutes again , And fashion them into the human mould . The brutes into a lump Prometheus rolled . And forin'd men of it , o ' on as Jovo desired . But , as for those so moulded , it transpired That in the change thoy gained a human shape , Yet did not from their earlier mind escape : But kopt that to the end , which thoy began . By sharing with the bmtea aud not with man . The next fable is well known , ami contains a hit at Hint su ^ lM ' - stition which in all times aud places is only too common : — THE HUSBANDMAN WHO HAD LOST HIS MATTOCK . Trenching bis vinoyard onoo a husbandman His mattock lost ; and to inquire bogan , If it had gone by any workman ' s theft , But oaoh denied . Whon no rosouroo was loft , To put thorn on their oaths , ho took them all Up to the city , 'Tie our wont to call Tho country gods poor folks : but those who dwell In walls , wo doom , aro true , and order well . K " ow in a fountain in the forogato skreot Tlio party stay'd to rest , and waah'd tlioir foot . Just then tho erior rich rewards was tolling To him whp'd show who robb'd tho sacred chyolling . The farmer hoard , and said , "My journey ' s vain ! " If tho god knows not , who has robbed Jus fano , And but from moil , for bribes , tho mows roooivos , How can ho know , or find out , othor thi . ovo . af " Othorri aro moi * o imaginative , andmalco u poetical u . ^ o of leH'cmluv . y thumoa : — THE NiaHINGALE AND THE SWALLOW . Far from inon ' a flolda tho swallow forth hud / low » i Whon sho espied amid tho woodlands lono Tho nightingale , swoot songatroes . Hor lamont Was Itys to his doom untimely eont , Each know tho othor through tho mournful strain , ITlow to ombraoo , and in ewoofc talk romain . Than said tho swallow " Poarost , Hv ' st thou still P ISTo ' or havo I s , oon thoo ainoo thyThmuhm ill . Somo orijol Pato hath over oomo bolwoon ; Our virgin Jjvos till now apart havo boon . Oomo to tho fields ; revisit homos of nion i Oomo dwell with mo , a oomvaclo cloni , ngniu , Whorothou slialfc oharm tho swaius , no auvugo brood : Dwoll near inon ' s haunts , and quit tlio opon Wood i Ono roof , ono oJiambor , swro , aim houso tho two , Ox dost profor tlio nightlv frozon clow ,

    $9 G The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [O...

    $ 9 g The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Oct . 27 , 18 G 0

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27101860/page/10/