The Tiny Play Reader Adapted from Aesop's Fables

Abstract

Twenty-four one-page fables are presented in dramatic form, with polysyllabic words hyphenated. Some versions become unusual, perhaps under the pressure to keep them short and to express them in dialogue form. Thus the milkmaid dreams only of eggs, chickens, and then what she can buy with the profits from them (5). The old woman starts waking up the maids one line after they have killed the cock (18). Similarly the fox at the finish-line speaks one line after the tortoise says he must pass the fox quietly (22). The Leopard and the Fox has four characters speak once each (23); if I were a child hearing the story for the first time, I think I would be confused. The same pattern appears in DLS (29). The brevity may help the telling of a fable like The Crow and the Doves, especially when the whitewashed crow is rejected when he returns to the crows (21). There are six full-page black-and-white illustrations.