Page:The Fables of Æsop (Jacobs).djvu/245

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Also in La Fontaine vi. 18, Waldis ii. 14, L'Estrange 246.

Greek Prose Æsop, 59. Lessing, ii. 16. La Fontaine, iv. 20. L'Estrange, 146.

La Fontaine, iii. 1, from Poggio's Facetiae. We get this ultimately from Conde Lucanor, a Spanish collection of tales, many of which can be traced to the East, so that this is probably of Oriental origin, and indeed it occurs as the Lady's nineteenth story in the Turkish book of the Forty Vezirs. The remarks of the passers-by in the original are more forcible than elegant.

This is the only fable which can be traced with any plausibility to Æsop himself. At any rate, it is attributed to him on the high authority of Aristotle, Rhet. II. 20. The Roman Emperors seem to have had a special liking for this fable which they were wont to use to console provincials for the rapacity of proconsuls or procurators. Occurs in Plutarch, ed. Wittemb. IV 1. 144. Prose Æsop, 36 (from Aristotle). Gesta Romanorum, 51. Waldis, iv. 52. La Fontaine, xii. 13. L'Estrange, 254.

Greek prose Æsop, 46. Probably from Babrius (see Gittlbauer's edition, no. 224). Also Waldis, iii. 41. La Fontaine, v. 5. L'Estrange, 101.