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Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics
(_italics_).


  AESOP'S FABLES.

  EMBELLISHED WITH

  One Hundred and Eleven
  EMBLEMATICAL DEVICES.

  [Illustration: Man reading]

  Printed at the Chiswick Press,
  BY C. WHITTINGHAM;

  FOR CARPENTER AND SON, OLD BOND STREET;
  J. BOOKER, NEW BOND STREET; SHARPE AND
  HAILES, PICCADILLY; AND WHITTINGHAM
  AND ARLISS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

  1814.




CONTENTS.


  _Fable_                                       _Page_

  1 The Cock and the Jewel                        1

  2 The Wolf and the Lamb                         4

  3 The Lion and the Four Bulls                   7

  4 The Frog and the Fox                          9

  5 The Ass eating Thistles                      11

  6 The Lark and her Young Ones                  13

  7 The Cock and the Fox                         16

  8 The Fox in the Well                          19

  9 The Wolves and the Sheep                     21

  10 The Eagle and the Fox                       23

  11 The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing                26

  12 The Fowler and the Ring-Dove                28

  13 The Sow and the Wolf                        30

  14 The Horse and the Ass                       32

  15 The Wolf, the Lamb, and the Goat            35

  16 The Kite and the Pigeons                    38

  17 The Country Mouse and the City Mouse        41

  18 The Swallow and other Birds                 46

  19 The Hunted Beaver                           48

  20 The Cat and the Fox                         50

  21 The Cat and the Mice                        52

  22 The Lion and other Beasts                   54

  23 The Lion and the Mouse                      56

  24 The Fatal Marriage                          58

  25 The Mischievous Dog                         60

  26 The Ox and the Frog                         62

  27 The Fox and the Lion                        65

  28 The Ape and the Fox                         67

  29 The Dog in the Manger                       70

  30 The Birds, the Beasts, and the Bat          72

  31 The Fox and the Tiger                       75

  32 The Lioness and the Fox                     78

  33 The Oak and the Reed                        80

  34 The Wind and the Sun                        82

  35 The Kite, the Frog, and the Mouse           85

  36 The Frogs desiring a King                   87

  37 The Old Woman and her Maids                 90

  38 The Lion, the Bear, and the Fox             92

  39 The Crow and the Pitcher                    95

  40 The Porcupine and the Snakes                97

  41 The Hares and Frogs in a Storm             100

  42 The Fox and the Wolf                       103

  43 The Dog and the Sheep                      106

  44 The Peacock and the Crane                  108

  45 The Viper and the File                     110

  46 The Ass, the Lion, and the Cock            112

  47 The Jackdaw and Peacocks                   114

  48 The Ant and the Fly                        116

  49 The Ant and the Grasshopper                119

  50 The Countryman and the Snake               121

  51 The Fox and the Sick Lion                  124

  52 The Wanton Calf                            127

  53 Hercules and the Carter                    130

  54 The Belly and the Members                  133

  55 The Horse and the Lion                     136

  56 The Husbandman and the Stork               138

  57 The Cat and the Cock                       140

  58 The Leopard and the Fox                    142

  59 The Shepherd's Boy                         145

  60 The Fox and the Goat                       147

  61 Cupid and Death                            149

  62 The Old Man and his Sons                   151

  63 The Stag and the Fawn                      154

  64 The Old Hound                              157

  65 Jupiter and the Camel                      159

  66 The Fox without a Tail                     161

  67 The Fox and the Crow                       163

  68 The Hawk and the Farmer                    166

  69 The Nurse and the Wolf                     168

  70 The Hare and the Tortoise                  170

  71 The Young Man and his Cat                  173

  72 The Ass in the Lion's Skin                 175

  73 The Mountains in Labour                    177

  74 The Satyr and the Traveller                179

  75 The Sick Kite                              182

  76 The Hawk and the Nightingale               184

  77 The Peacock's Complaint                    186

  78 The Angler and the Little Fish             188

  79 The Geese and the Cranes                   190

  80 The Dog and the Shadow                     192

  81 The Ass and the Little Dog                 194

  82 The Wolf and the Crane                     197

  83 The Envious Man and the Covetous           199

  84 The Two Pots                               201

  85 The Fox and the Stork                      203

  86 The Bear and the Bee-Hives                 205

  87 The Travellers and the Bear                207

  88 The Trumpeter taken Prisoner               209

  89 The Partridge and the Cocks                211

  90 The Falconer and the Partridge             214

  91 The Eagle and the Crow                     216

  92 The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox             218

  93 The Fox and the Grapes                     220

  94 The Horse and the Stag                     222

  95 The Young Man and the Swallow              224

  96 The Man and his Goose                      227

  97 The Dog and the Wolf                       229

  98 The Wood and the Clown                     232

  99 The Old Lion                               234

  100 The Horse and the Loaded Ass              236

  101 The Old Man and Death                     238

  102 The Boar and the Ass                      240

  103 The Tunny and the Dolphin                 242

  104 The Peacock and the Magpie                244

  105 The Forester and the Lion                 246

  106 The Stag looking into the Water           248

  107 The Stag in the Ox-Stall                  251

  108 The Dove and the Ant                      254

  109 The Lion in Love                          256

  110 The Tortoise and the Eagle                259




PREFACE,

_BY S. CROXALL_.


So much has been already said concerning AEsop and his writings, both by
ancient and modern authors, that the subject seems to be quite
exhausted. The different conjectures, opinions, traditions, and
forgeries, which from time to time we have had given to us of him, would
fill a large volume: but they are, for the most part, so inconsistent
and absurd, that it would be but a dull amusement for the reader to be
led into such a maze of uncertainty: since Herodotus, the most ancient
Greek historian, did not flourish till near an hundred years after AEsop.

As for his Life, with which we are entertained in so complete a manner,
before most of the editions of his Fables, it was invented by one
Maximus Planudes, a Greek Monk; and, if we may judge of him from that
composition, just as judicious and learned a person, as the rest of his
fraternity are at this day observed to be. Sure there never were so many
blunders and childish dreams mixed up together, as are to be met with in
the short compass of that piece. For a Monk, he might be very good and
wise, but in point of history and chronology, he shows himself to be
very ignorant. He brings AEsop to Babylon, in the reign of king Lycerus,
a king of his own making; for his name is not to be found in any
catalogue, from Nabonassar to Alexander the Great; Nabonadius, most
probably, reigning in Babylon about that time. He sends him into Egypt
in the days of Nectanebo, who was not in being till two hundred years
afterwards; with some other gross mistakes of that kind, which
sufficiently show us that this Life was a work of invention, and that
the inventor was a bungling poor creature. He never mentions AEsop's
being at Athens; though Phaedrus speaks of him as one that lived the
greatest part of his time there; and it appears that he had a statue
erected in that city to his memory, done by the hand of the famed
Lysippus. He writes of him as living at Samos, and interesting himself
in a public capacity in the administration of the affairs of that place;
yet, takes not the least notice of the Fable which Aristotle[1] tells us
he spoke in behalf of a famous Demagogue there, when he was impeached
for embezzling the public money; nor does he indeed give us the least
hint of such a circumstance. An ingenious man might have laid together
all the materials of this kind that are to be found in good old authors,
and, by the help of a bright invention, connected and worked them up
with success; we might have swallowed such an imposition well enough,
because we should not have known how to contradict it: but in Planudes'
case, the imposture is doubly discovered; first, as he has the
unquestioned authority of antiquity against him; secondly, (and if the
other did not condemn him) as he has introduced the witty, discreet,
judicious AEsop, quibbling in a strain of low monastic waggery, and as
archly dull as a Mountebank's Jester.

  [1] _Arist. Rhet._ Lib. ii. chap. 21.

That there was a Life of AEsop, either written or traditionary, before
Aristotle's time, is pretty plain; and that there was something of that
kind extant in Augustus' reign, is, I think, as undoubted; since Phaedrus
mentions many transactions of his, during his abode at Athens. But it is
as certain, that Planudes met with nothing of this kind; or, at least,
that he met not with the accounts with which they were furnished,
because of the omissions before-mentioned; and consequently with none so
authentic and good. He seems to have thrown together some merry conceits
which occurred to him in the course of his reading, such as he thought
were worthy of AEsop, and very confidently obtrudes them upon us for his.
But, when at last he brings him to Delphos (where he was put to death by
being thrown down from a precipice) that the Delphians might have some
colour of justice for what they intended to do, he favours them with the
same stratagem which Joseph made use of to bring back his brother
Benjamin; they clandestinely convey a cup into his baggage, overtake him
upon the road, after a strict search find him guilty; upon that pretence
carry him back to the city, condemn and execute him.

As I would neither impose upon others, nor be imposed upon, I cannot, as
some have done, let such stuff as this pass for the Life of the great
AEsop. Planudes has little authority for any thing he has delivered
concerning him; nay, as far as I can find, his whole account, from the
beginning to the end, is mere invention, excepting some few
circumstances; such as the place of his birth, and of his death; for in
respect of the time in which he lived, he has blundered egregiously, by
mentioning some incidents as contemporary with AEsop, which were far
enough from being so. Xanthus, his supposed master, puts his wife into a
passion, by bringing such a piece of deformity into her house, as our
Author is described to be. Upon this, the master reproaches the slave
for not uttering something witty, at a time that seemed to require it so
much: and then AEsop comes out, slap dash, with a satirical reflection
upon women, taken from Euripides, the famous Greek tragedian. Now
Euripides happened not to be born till about fourscore years after
AEsop's death. What credit, therefore, can be given to any thing Planudes
says of him?

As to the place of his birth, I will allow, with the generality of those