The Tales and Fables of the late Archbishop and Duke of Cambray, Author of Telemachus, in French and English
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Authors
Bickham, George
Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-
Gifford, Nathaniel
Ramsay
Issue Date
1736
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Book, Whole
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Abstract
The title continues: Written originally for the Instruction of a Young PRINCE, And now publish'd for the Use of SCHOOLS. To which is prefix'd, An Account of the Author's LIFE, extracted from the Memoir's of the Chevalier Ramsay, Author of the Travels of Cyrus. With a particular and curious Relation of the Method observed in training up the young Prince, even from his Infancy, to Virtue and Learning. Twenty-eight stories in French and English facing. Of the stories here, I count perhaps sixteen fables, namely #10 through #25 of the twenty-eight. Shapiro (xvi) speaks well of the rather turgid moralizings of Fénelon's seventeenth-century fables written for the edification of the young duc de Bourgogne. These are prose fables, and for that reason Shapiro does not include them in his anthology. I found it rather difficult to get through these belabored texts. Among the best is The Two Foxes. Two foxes slaughter a cock and many hens and chickens. The older one wants to eat only some now and return tomorrow and succeeding days for others. The younger one wants to gorge himself on what they have slaughtered. Both do as they please. The younger scarcely makes it back to his home before he dies. The older returns the next day and is killed by the farmer. Each age has its own vices. In the following fable, the wolf talks the lamb into jumping over the fence to enjoy some good grass. That is of course the end of the lamb. Among the best illustrations are those for The Dragon and the Two Foxes, The Wolf and the Lamb, and The Owl that long'd to be married. Not in Bodemann or Snodgrass. I am very happy at last to have Fénelon in English. Apparently the first publication of the fables by Fénelon was about 1718 or 1719, and the first English translation was in 1729, published in London by J. Wilcox. F-0186 for my favorite private collector.
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And sold by John Osborn at the Golden-Ball, in Paternoster-Row,
Printed for John Hawkins, and Sold by John Osborn
Printed for John Hawkins, and Sold by John Osborn
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Identifier
5080 (Access ID)