Page:The fables of Aesop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, with those of Avian, Alfonso and Poggio. Vol 1.djvu/224

 196 ÆSOP IN ENGLAND.

every natural gift to make ^sop live again in line, tone, and colour, it was Randolph Calde- cott ; who that remembers his dog in TJie House that Jack Built, will deny the assertion ? Yet he denied it himself practically in his own attempt, which can scarcely be pronounced a success; perhaps he was too much taken up with his maladroit plan of accompanying each fable with a modern instance.* Mr. Walter Crane has succeeded better in his Bahi/s Own jEsop, and has given us 65 admirable decorative designs taken from -(Esop. But he suffers from the malady of us all — over- seriousness, and has left out of his ingredients that pinch of humour that has savoured the fabulist and kept the ^sopic jests of the ancients sweet throughout the ages.t

Their vitality and power in England have been shown in various ways. They have re- ceived the flattery of imitation from many

lection done by Mr. Charles Bennet somewhere in the "sixties." Prof. Rankine performed a curious tour de force by inventing fables to correspond to well-known iun- signs, e.g., Pig and Whistle, Goat and Compasses, &c.
 * The plan may have been suggested by a similar col-

f I have collated all the English editions here mentioned for the parallels : they will serve at least to show the relative popularity of each fable.