Fables from the German of Mr Lessing

Abstract

This print-on-demand book is the happy exception to my general loathing for such books. In this case it confirms all the information I earlier guessed about a copy of the original 1773 book that I have. While this book is 7½ by 9¾, that book is about 4 x 6¼. This book confirms that that book is indeed the book published in 1773 by C. Etherington in York, and was translated by J. Richardson. That book is missing the thirteen pre-pages, including the title-page; pages 3-6; and the final pages, namely 161-8. The present book confirms all those guesses and completes the third book of thirty fables each. I read earlier the third through the seventh fables in the first book and found them faithful translations of Lessing. Thus this book helps establish that I found a great and valuable little treasure. Richardson's introduction is fascinating. Lessing for him gets us back to unadorned Aesop. Aesop's great original stories had suffered at the hands of Phaedrus and poets like La Fontaine. For Richardson, one reading La Fontaine does not know if he is reading a fable or a poem. Richardson drops Lessing's dissertation; he commetns that few would agree with it. He praises a recent English fabulist who outdoes La Fontaine. Might that be John Gay?