Deutsche Fabeln aus dem 16. und 18. Jahrhundert von Luther und Lessing

Abstract

Here is a curiosity. This book is exactly identical with another in the collection except for three differences. First, this copy has no title -- and in fact no words at all -- on its cover. Secondly, its title-page does not mention a publisher. Thirdly, the printer, Klinke, has moved from Mettlach to Saarbrücken. The volume to which it is so similar is in a series, and this book shares the characterisics of that series: a canvas binding, colored paper covers with a colored illustration at the center, and 32 pages. Here a T of C at the beginning announces fourteen fables. Each fable has a two-page spread. On the left page is a fable from either Luther or Lessing, with a separate, highlighted moral at the end. For Lessing, this highlighted moral is a part of the fable itself. On the right is a frame of black-and-white designs above and below a colored illustration of the fable. The frames here play with the story in the manner of Rabier, as they do in the La Fontaine volume. I cannot understand the application under FM (7); is one man being invited in two different directions? For LS (8), Luther uses the proverb Don't eat cherries with your masters; they throw the pits at you. The drawing underneath the picture shows the bringer of cherries being dismissed by the lord who eats them. I only now become aware of Lessing's development of the fable of the dying lion. The horse refuses to take revenge on an enemy that can no longer hurt him (12). I am also delighted with Lessing's development of the fable of the robbed miser. It is not just that he is poorer, but that someone else is that much richer (24)! The image for this fable is particularly well done.