Aesop Naturaliz'd: in a collection of fables and stories from Aesop, Locman, Pilpay, and others
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Authors
Aesop
Issue Date
1743
Type
Book, Whole
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This is a standard versified Aesop from the eighteenth century featuring some one-hundred-and-eighty fables. Because it lacks all illustration, it is not in Bodemann. The naturalized of the title refers, I believe, to the rendering into English of the fables. My online dictionary offers this third meaning for to naturalize: to introduce or adopt (foreign practices, words, etc.) into a country or into general use: to naturalize a french phrase. Perhaps the most engaging part of this book for me is the preface of three pages. I find it endearing and true to the fable form. As the author has diverted himself by creating them, he intends to offer readers some little pleasure. Those who look down on these fables should try creating a fable themselves. They would find it as hard to make a good fable as most people do to practise the fable's moral! Fables form an easy and pleasant way to instruct, all the more when they are in verse. Further, fables correct people's faults without offending the guilty. A person passes sentence on his own folly before he reflects what he is doing. A final reason for a fable is that it is short and aims to teach us one point at a time. Here a picture is worth a thousand words. The author does not expect to please everyone; he is not altogether pleased with the collection himself. The worst may please some, and the best will not please all. In any case, he professes that he meant well. This printed on demand book is more carefully done than some others I have received.
Description
Citation
Publisher
D. Midwinter and A. Ward/Ecco Print Editions
ECCO Eighteenth Century Online Print Editions,
ECCO Eighteenth Century Online Print Editions,