Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/488

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ii28.ii.DEtM6.i9i6.

Dante here voices an ignorance common to his time which attributed this fable to But modern knowledge is divided as to its source and facts. The matter is, perhaps, of minor importance, yet is instructive as an instance, if not ot the " Quarrels of Authors," at least of their differences. Xo two (at least of those 1 quote in behoof of students whose time and libraries are limited) are agreed on either the narrative itself or its origin. To take Mr. Tozer first :

" The story of the Frog and the Mouse which is here referred to is not one of vEsop's Fables, but is found in some of the various collections of tales which passed current under that name in the Middle Ages. It appears in somewhat different* 1 fi priii-, but as the point of Dante's comparison is that a person who was conspiring against another (Alichino against Ciampolo) brought disaster upon himself, the following seems to be the nearest 01 the versions which have come down to us to that which Dante had in his mind. A mouse and a frog came together to a, river which they had to cross, and as the mouse could not swim, the frog proposed to convey her across by tying her to his leg. During their passage the frog tried to drown the mouse, but at this moment a kite swooped down and carried off the frog, setting the mouse at liberty. This is found in the collection translated by Marie de France in the twelfth century. See Toynbee, ' Diet.,' p. 219."

Scartazzini's version is a decided variant of the tale :

" La favola non e di Esopo, ma passava per tale hi quei tempi. Buti e Benv. affirmano che si leggeva ' in un libello che si legge ai fanciulli che imparano Grammatica.' Una rana promette ad un topo di passarlo di la da un fosso, se lo lega al piede con un filo, e nel fosso lo annega. Scende un nibbio, afferra il topo ed anche la rana che se lo ha legato al piede."

Bianchi's narrative is still more diver- gent :

" Raccontasi che una rana avendo in animo di annegare un topo, se lo reci) snl dorso, dicendogli di volerlo portare di 14 da un fosso ; ma mentre- andavano per 1'acqua, un nibbio calntosi ratto sopra di loro li ghermi e se gli mangi6. Dante dice questa favola di Esopo, forse perch.6 ai. suoi tempi passava per tale ; ma ell' e d'autore incerto, e trovasi riportata nella 'Mythol- .<Esopica.' "

Lombardi tells the tale similarly, but. boldly follows his master in his mediaeval simplicity as to its source : " Ei, Isopo, il quale, tra 1'altre fa vole, racconta che, &c. Even our own Gary can only remark that " it is not among those Greek fables which go under the name of /Esop " ; whilst Tom- linson says nothing thereon. Most satis- factory of all is Dean Plumptre's note :

" The fable is not found in those commonly ascribed to _32sop, but appears in the life of that writer by Maximus Planudes, a monk of Con- stantinople, in the fourteenth century (d. after 1340), and is now commonly included in the appendix to Phcedrus as Fable VI. It runs thus : ' A mouse invited a frog to supper in a rich man's larder. After the feast the frog gave a return invitation, and as the mouse couldn't swim, proposed to take him in tow, tied by a string, to his home in the water. The mouse, as- he was drowning, foretold that an avenger would appear before long. An eagle, seeing the body floating on the water, swooped down and devoured them both.' The fable had probably found its way into a Latin reading-book of the thirteenth, century."

The italics in the quotations are mine to emphasize the variant details of the fable. J. B. McGovEBN.

AN ENGLISH ARMY LIST OF 1740. (See ante, pp. 3, 43, 84, 122, 163, 204, 243, 282, 324, 364, 402, 443.)

" THE ROYAL INNISKTTJJNG FUSILIERS," as the regiment is now called, was formed in. Ireland in 1689. From 1751 to 1881 it was designated " The 27th (or Inniskilling) Regi- ment of Foot," and from 1881 has been known by its present title :

Dates of their Dates of their first

present commissions. commissions.

.. 27 Jan. 1737 Ensign, 14 Sept. 1695.

Colonel Blakeney's Regiment of Foot.

Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Major

Captains

William Blakeney (1) Francis Leighton (2) William Stamer

I Lewis Gwin Solomon Blosset (3) Robert Forster John Caulfield.. Thomas Smith Edward Todd. .

v William Rutherfoord Richard Kellet

8

July

1737

Captain,

10

June

1716.

1

Dec.

1739

Captain,

5

Mar.

1706-7..

12

July

1718

Ensign,

9

Sept.

1710.

28

Oct.

1726

Ensign,

17

Julv

1722.

3

April

1733

Ensign,

28

July

1708.

9

Jan.

1735-6

Ensign,

1705.

14

Jan.

1737-8

Ensign,

20

May

1711.

12

Jan.

1739-40

Ensign,

2

Aug.

1705.

8

Mar.

1739-40

Ensign,

10

July

1717.

8

Mar.

1739-40

Ensign,

30

Aug.

1710.

Captain Lieutenant

(1) See ' D.N.B.'

(2) Fourth son of Sir Edward Leighton, Bart., M.P. for Hereford. Colonel of the 32nd Foot, 1747-73. Died in 1773, having been promoted to the rank of General in May, 1772.

(3) Died in 1749.