Page:Archaeologia Volume 13.djvu/75

Rh ready been turned from Greek into Latin by Æsop. This instance will suffice to prove that me had not even the skill of her profession. She then gives the fables of an ox who assisted at mass, of a wolf that keeps lent, of a monk disputing with a peasant, &c. Now, is it possible, even with the most ordinary learning, that she should be ignorant that Æsop could know nothing of lent, monks, or masses? What, then, it will be asked, was this English version that Mary translated into French? I am very far from pretending to give a decisive answer to a question so embarrassing; but I believe that a few remarks may be made which will, at least, tend to throw some light upon it.

The character which Æsop left behind him had become so renowned, that many authors, during the middle ages, published collections of fables under his name; and in order that these might the more easily be considered as belonging to him, they took care to insert a greater or less number of what he had composed.

Amongst these compilers we find the names of Romulus, Accius, Bernardus, Salon, and many others anonymous. The first is the most celebrated; he has addressed his fables to his son Tiberinus; they are written in Latin prose, sixty in number, and many of them are founded upon those of Æsop and Phædrus. Rimicius published them at the end of the 15th century, and Frederic Nilant gave an edition in 1709 at Leyden, with some curious and interesting notes. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Latina, says, that these sixty fables are more than 500 years old. I have already mentioned that there is a MS. of them in the Royal library in the British Museum, 15 A. VII. which was written in the 13th century, and contains only 56 fables. They are said, in the preface, to have been translated out of Greek into Latin by the emperor Romulus. Mary likewise mentions