The Original Fables of La Fontaine

⓮The Original Fables of La Fontaine

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by Jean de la Fontaine This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Original Fables of La Fontaine Rendered into English Prose by Fredk. Colin Tilney
Author: Jean de la Fontaine
Illustrator: Frederick Colin Tilney
Translator: Frederick Colin Tilney
Release Date: May 30, 2005 [EBook #15946]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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TALES FOR CHILDREN FROM MANY LANDS
EDITED BY F.C. TILNEY

[Illustration: The heart of Thyrsis left.]

THE ORIGINAL FABLES OF LA FONTAINE
RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE
BY
FREDK. COLIN TILNEY

WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR
LONDON: J.M. DENT & SONS LIMITED NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY

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 ?sop'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