Babrius  

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 +'''Babrius''' was the author of a collection of [[fable]]s written in [[Greek language|Greek]]. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as [[Aesop's fables]].
-The '''''Fables''''' of [[Jean de La Fontaine]] were issued in several volumes from 1668 to 1694. They are classics of [[French literature]].+Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Hellenized Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in [[Syria]], where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD have been assigned to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been [[Alexander Severus]] (AD 222–235), who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus is a purely fictitious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century AD. As appears from surviving papyrus fragments, his work is to be dated before c. 200 AD (and probably not much earlier, for his language and style seem to show that he belonged to that period).
-==Composition history==+The first critic who made Babrius more than a mere name was [[Richard Bentley]], in his ''Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop''. In a careful examination of these prose [[Aesop]]ian fables, which had been handed down in various collections from the time of [[Maximus Planudes]], Bentley discovered traces of versification, and was able to extract a number of verses which he assigned to Babrius. [[Thomas Tyrwhitt|Tyrwhitt]] (''De Babrio'', 1776) followed up the researches of Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards reconstructing the metrical original of the prose fables.
-Divided into 12 books, there are 239 of the ''Fables'', varying in length from a few lines to some hundred, those written later being as a rule longer than the earlier.+
-The first collection of ''Fables Choisies'' had appeared March 31, 1668, dividing 124 fables into six books over its two volumes. They were dedicated to ''"Monseigneur"'' [[Louis, Dauphin of France (1661–1711)|Louis, ''le Grand Dauphin'']], the six-year-old son of [[Louis XIV of France]] and his [[Queen consort]] [[Maria Theresa of Spain]]. By this time, La Fontaine was 47 and known to readers chiefly as the author of ''Contes'', lively stories in verse, grazing and sometimes transgressing the bounds of contemporary moral standards. The ''Fables'', in contrast, were completely in compliance with these standards. +In 1842 the Greek Minoides Mynas came upon a manuscript of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on [[Mount Athos]], now in the [[British Museum]]. This manuscript contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number, 160. They are arranged alphabetically, but break off at the letter O. The fables are written in [[choliamb]]ic, that is, limping or imperfect [[Iamb (foot)|iambic]] verse, having a [[spondee]] as the last foot, a metre originally appropriated to scurrilous verse. The style is extremely good, the expression being terse and pointed, the versification correct and elegant, and the construction of the stories is fully equal to that in the prose versions. The genuineness of this collection of the fables was generally admitted by scholars. In 1857 Minas professed to have discovered at Mount Athos another manuscript containing 94 fables and a preface. As the monks refused to sell this manuscript, he made a copy of it, which was sold to the British Museum, and was published in 1859 by [[George Cornewall Lewis|Sir G Cornewall Lewis]]. This, however, was soon proved to be a forgery. Six more fables were brought to light by P Knoll from a Vatican manuscript (edited by A Eberhard, ''Analecta Babriana'', 1879).
-Eight new fables published in 1671 would eventually take their place in books 7–9 of the second collection. Books 7 and 8 appeared in 1678, while 9-11 appeared in 1679, the whole 87 fables being dedicated to the king's mistress, [[Madame de Montespan]]. Between 1682 and 1685 a few fables were published dealing with people in antiquity, such as "The Matron of Ephesus" and "Philemon and Baucis". Then book 12 appeared as a separate volume in 1694, containing 29 fables dedicated to the king's 12-year-old grand-child, [[Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy|Louis, Duke of Burgundy]].+==Editions==
 +[[File:PAmherst II 26.jpg|thumb|right|A third- or fourth-century [[papyrus]] containing a text of Babrius accompanied by Latin translation (P.Amherst II 26, column ii)]]
 +* [[Jean François Boissonade de Fontarabie|Boissonade]] (1844)
 +* [[Karl Konrad Friedrich Wilhelm Lachmann|Lachmann]] (1845)
 +* Schneider (1853)
 +* Johann Adam Hartung (1858, edition and German translation)
 +* Eberhard (1876)
 +* Gitlbauer (1882)
 +* [[William Gunion Rutherford|Rutherford]] (1883)
 +* Knoll, ''Fabularum Babrianarum Paraphrasis Bodleiana'' (1877)
 +* Feuillet (1890)
 +* Desrousseaux (1890)
 +* Passerat (1892)
 +* Croiset (1892)
 +* [[Christian August Crusius|Crusius]] (1897).
 +* Mantels, ''Über die Fabeln des B.'' (1840)
 +* Crusius, ''De Babrii Aetate'' (1879)
 +* Ficus, ''De Babrii Vita'' (1889)
 +* J Weiner, ''Quaestiones Babrianae'' (1891)
 +* [[John Conington|Conington]], ''Miscellaneous Writings'', ii. 460-491
 +* Marchiano, ''Babrio'' (1899)
 +* Fusci, ''Babrio'' (1901)
 +* Christoffersson, ''Studia de Fabvlis Babrianis'' (1901).
-==Plot sources==+Early translations in English were made by Davies (1860) and in French by Levêque (1890), and in many other languages. More contemporary translations are by Denison B. Hull (University of Chicago Press) and Ben E. Perry (Harvard University Press).
-[[File:Aubusson - Fables de La Fontaine 1.JPG|thumb|left|270px|An Aubusson tapestry from the 18th century illustrating one of the fables]]+
-The first six books, collected in 1668, were in the main adapted from the classical fabulists [[Aesop]], [[Babrius]] and [[Phaedrus (fabulist)|Phaedrus]]. In these, La Fontaine adhered to the path of his predecessors with some closeness; but in the later collections he allowed himself far more liberty and in the later books there is a wider range of sources. +
-In the later books, the so-called [[India]]n [[Bidpai]] is drawn upon for oriental fables that had come to the French through translations from Persian. The most likely source for La Fontaine was the pseudonymous version by Gilbert Gaulmin (1585–1665) under the title ''The book of Enlightenment or the Conduct of Kings'' ({{lang-fr|Le Livre des lumières ou la Conduite des Roys, composée par le sage Pilpay Indien, traduite en français par David Sahid, d’Ispahan, ville capitale de Perse}}; 1644). Another translation by Father [[Pierre Poussines]] appeared in 1666 with the Latin title ''Specimen sapientiae Indorum veterum'' (''A sample of ancient Indian wisdom''). With a genealogy going back to the Indian [[Panchatantra]], they were then attributed to Bidpai (Pilpay), who is given more than his fair due by La Fontaine in the preface to his second collection of ''Fables'': "I must acknowledge that I owe the greatest part to Pilpay, the Indian sage." ({{lang-fr|Je dirai par reconnaissance que j’en dois la plus grande partie à Pilpay sage indien.}}) His sources are in fact much more diverse and by no means mainly oriental; of 89 fables, no more than twenty are found in Bidpai's collection.+In 1941, Heritage Press produced a "fine book" edition of Aesop, translated and adapted by Munro Leaf as juvenalia and lavishly illustrated by Robert Lawson.
-[[Avienus]] and [[Horace]] are also drawn upon in the later books along with the earlier French writers, [[Rabelais]], [[Clément Marot]], [[Mathurin Régnier]] and [[Bonaventure des Périers]]. [[Boccaccio]], [[Ariosto]], [[Torquato Tasso|Tasso]] and [[Machiavelli]]'s comedies were also sources. Contemporary happenings, too, were occasionally turned to account, as for instance an accident at the funeral of M. de Boufflers (vii, II). No fable, so far as appears, is of La Fontaine's invention, and La Fontaine had many predecessors in the fable, especially in the beast [[fable]].+In 1998, Penguin Classics released a new translation by Olivia and Robert Temple entitled, ''Aesop: The Complete Fables'' in reference to the fact that some previous translations were partial. Working from the Chambry text published in 1927, the Temple translation includes 358 fables; Robert Temple acknowledges on page xxiv that scholars will in all likelihood challenge the "Aesopian" origin of some of them.
-==Content== 
-The subject of each of the ''Fables'' is often common property of many ages and races. What gives La Fontaine's ''Fables'' their rare distinction is the freshness in narration, the deftness of touch, the unconstrained suppleness of metrical structure, the unfailing humor of the pointed the consummate art of their apparent artlessness. Keen insight into the foibles of human nature is found throughout, but in the later books ingenuity is employed to make the fable cover, yet convey, social doctrines and sympathies more democratic than the age would have tolerated in unmasked expression. Almost from the start, the ''Fables'' entered French literary consciousness to a greater degree than any other classic of its literature. For generations many of these little apologues have been read, committed to memory, recited, paraphrased, by every French school child. Countless phrases from them are current idioms, and familiarity with them is assumed. 
-[[Image:Lafontaine manuscr 02.jpg|thumb|left|260px|Facsimile of the manuscript of "The Sculptor and the Statue of Jupiter"]] 
-“La Fontaine's Fables,” wrote [[Madame de Sévigné]], “are like a basket of strawberries. You begin by selecting the largest and best, but, little by little, you eat first one, then another, till at last the basket is empty". [[Silvestre de Sacy]] has commented that they supply delights to three different ages: the child rejoices in the freshness and vividness of the story, the eager student of literature in the consummate art with which it is told, the experienced man of the world in the subtle reflections on character and life which it conveys. Nor has any one, with the exception of a few paradoxers like [[Rousseau]] and a few sentimentalists like [[Lamartine]], denied that the moral tone of the whole is as fresh and healthy as its literary interest is vivid. The book has therefore naturally become a standard French reader both at home and abroad.  
- 
-Lamartine, who preferred classic regularity in verse, could find in the ''Fables'' only “limping, disjointed, unequal verses, without symmetry either to the ear or on the page.” But the poets of the [[Romanticism|Romantic School]], [[Victor Hugo|Hugo]], [[Musset]], [[Théophile Gautier|Gautier]] and their fellows, found in the popular favor these verses had attained an incentive to undertake an emancipation of French prosody which they in large measure achieved. 
- 
-==Reaching children== 
-When he first wrote his ''Fables'', La Fontaine had a sophisticated audience in mind. Nevertheless, the ''Fables'' were regarded as providing an excellent education in morals for children, and the first edition was dedicated to the six-year old [[Dauphin of France|Dauphin]]. Following La Fontaine's example, his translator Charles Denis dedicated his ''Select Fables'' (1754) to the sixteen-year-old heir to the English throne. The 18th century was particularly distinguished for the number of fabulists in all languages and for the special cultivation of young people as a target audience. In the 1730s eight volumes of ''Nouvelles Poésies Spirituelles et Morales sur les plus beaux airs'' were published, the first six of which incorporated a section of fables aimed at children. These contained fables of La Fontaine rewritten to fit popular airs of the day and arranged for simple performance. The preface to this work announces that its aim is specifically to 'give them an attraction to useful lessons which are suited to their age [and] an aversion to the profane songs which are often put into their mouths and which only serve to corrupt their innocence.' 
- 
-This was in the context of getting the young people of the family to perform at social gatherings. Eventually the fables were learned by heart for such entertainments and afterwards they were adopted by the education system, not least as linguistic models as well. Reinforcing the work were illustrated editions, trade cards issued with chocolate and meat extract products, postcards with the picture on one side and the poem on the other, and illustrated chinaware. There have also been television series based on the fables. In Canada there was the 1958 [[Fables of La Fontaine (TV series)|Fables of La Fontaine]] series and in France ''[[:fr:Les Fables géométriques|Les Fables géométriques]]'' between 1989–91. 
- 
-In England the bulk of children's writing concentrated on Aesop's fables rather than La Fontaine's adaptations. The boundary lines began to be blurred in compilations that mixed Aesop's fables with those from other sources. The middle section of "Modern Fables" in Robert Dodsley's ''Select Fables of Esop and other fabulists'' (1764) contains many from La Fontaine. These are in prose but Charles Denis' earlier collection was in verse and several authors writing poems specifically for children in the early 19th century also included versions of La Fontaine. Although there had been earlier complete translations in verse at the start of that century, the most popular was [[Elizur Wright]]'s ''The Fables of La Fontaine'', first published in Boston in 1841 with prints by [[Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard|Grandville]]. This went through several editions, both in the USA and in Britain. Other children's editions, in both prose and verse, were published in the 20th century. 
- 
-==Individual fables== 
-The following fables have individual articles devoted to them: 
- 
-*''[[The Ant and the Grasshopper]]'' (''La cigale et la fourmi'', I.1) 
-*''[[The Ass and his Masters]]'' (''L'âne et ses maitres'', VI.11) 
-*''[[The Ass Carrying an Image|The Ass Carrying Relics]]'' (''L'âne portant des reliques'', V.14) 
-*''[[The Ass in the Lion's Skin]]'' (''L’âne vêtu de la peau du lion'', V.21) 
-*''[[The Astrologer who Fell into a Well]]'' (''L'astrologue qui se laisse tomber dans un puits'', II.13) 
-*''[[The Bear and the Gardener]]'' (''L'ours et l'amateur des jardins'', VIII.10) 
-*''[[The Bear and the Travelers]]'' (''L’ours et les deux compagnons'', V.20) 
-*''[[The Belly and the Members]]'' (''Les membres et l'estomac'', III.2) 
-*''[[The Cat and the Mice|The cat and an old rat]]'' (''Le chat et un vieux rat'', III.18) 
-*''[[The Mouse Turned into a Maid|The cat turned into a woman]]'' (''La chatte métamorphosée en femme'', II.18) 
-*''[[The Cobbler and the Financier]]'' (''Le savetier et le financier'', VIII.2) 
-*''[[The Cock, the Dog and the Fox|The cock and the fox]]'' (''Le coq et le renard'', II.15) 
-*''[[The Cock and the Jewel|The cock and the pearl]]'' (''Le coq et la perle'', I.20) 
-*''[[Circe#From the middle ages to modern literature|The companions of Ulysses]]'' (''Les compagnons d'Ulysse'', XII.1) 
-*''[[The Old Man and Death|Death and the woodman]]'' (''La Mort et le bûcheron'', I.16) 
-*''[[The Dog and its Reflection]]'' (''Le chien qui lâche sa proie pour un ombre'', VI.17) 
-*''[[The Dog and the Wolf]]'' (''Le loup et le chien'', I.5) 
-*''[[The Dove and the Ant]]'' (''La colombe et la fourmi'', II.12) 
-*''[[The drowned woman and her husband]]'' (''La femme noyée'', III.16) 
-*''[[The Two Pots|The earthen pot and the iron pot]]'' (''Le pot de terre et le pot de fer'', V.2) 
-*''[[The Farmer and the Viper]]'' (''Le villageois et le serpent'', VI.13) 
-*''[[The fisherman and the little fish]]'' (''Le petit poisson et le pêcheur'', V.3) 
-*''[[The Woodcutter and the Trees|The Forest and the Woodcutter]]'' (''La forêt et le bûcheron'', X11.16) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Mask|The fox and the bust]]'' (''Le renard et le buste'', IV.14) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Crow (Aesop)|The fox and the crow]]'' (''Le corbeau et le renard'', I.2) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Grapes]]'' (''Le renard et les raisins'', III.11) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Sick Lion]]'' (''Le lion malade et le renard'', VI.14) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Stork]]'' (''Le renard et la cigogne'', I.18) 
-*''[[The Frog and the Ox]]'' (''La grenouille qui veut se faire aussi grosse que le boeuf'', I.3) 
-*''[[The Frogs Who Desired a King]]'' (''Les grenouilles qui demandent un roi'', III.4) 
-*''[[The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs]]'' (''La Poule aux oeufs d'or'', V.13) 
-*''The [[Lion's Share|heifer, the goat and the sheep in company with the lion]]'' (''La génisse, la chèvre et le brebis en société avec le lion'', I.6) 
-*''[[The Horse and the Donkey]]'' (''Le cheval et l'âne'', VI.16) 
-*''[[The Bird in Borrowed Feathers|The jay dressed in peacock feather]]'' (''Le geai paré des plumes du paon'', IV.9) 
-*''[[The Hawk and the Nightingale|The kite and the nightingale]]'' (''Le milan et le rossignol'', IX.17) 
-*''[[The Lion and the Mouse]]'' (''Le lion et le rat'', II.11) 
-*''[[The Man with two Mistresses]]'' (''L'homme entre deux ages et deux maîtresses'', I.17) 
-*''[[Belling the cat|The Mice in Council]]'' (''Conseil tenu par les rats'', II.2) 
-*''[[The Milkmaid and Her Pail]]'' (''La laitière et le pot au lait'', VII.10) 
-*''[[The miller, his son and the donkey]]'' (''Le meunier, son fils, et l’âne'', III.1) 
-*''[[The Miser and his Gold|The miser who lost his treasure]]'' (''L'avare qui a perdu son trésor'', IV.20) 
-*''[[The Monkey and the Cat]]'' (''Le singe et le chat'', IX.17) 
-*''[[The Mountain in Labour]]'' (''La montagne qui accouche'', V.10) 
-*''[[The Mouse and the Oyster]]'' (''Le rat et le huitre'', VIII.9) 
-*''[[The Mouse Turned into a Maid]]'' (''La souris métamorphosée en fille'', IX.7) 
-*''[[The Oak and the Reed]]'' (''Le chêne et le roseau'', I.22) 
-*''[[The Old Cat and the Young Mouse]]'' (''Le vieux chat et la jeune souris'', XII.5) 
-*''[[The North Wind and the Sun|Phoebus and Boreas]]'' (''Phébus et Borée'', VI.3) 
-*''[[The Lion, the Bear and the Fox|The thieves and the ass]]'' (''Les voleurs et l’âne'', I.13) 
-*''[[Still Waters Run Deep (fable)|The torrent and the river]]'' (''Le torrent et la rivière, VIII.23) 
-*''[[The Tortoise and the Birds]]'' (''La tortue et les deux canards'', X.3) 
-*''[[The Tortoise and the Hare]]'' (''Le lièvre et la tortue'', VI.10) 
-*''[[The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse]]'' (''Le rat de ville et le rat des champs'', I.9) 
-*''[[The Miser and his Gold|The treasure and the two men]] (Le trésor et les deux hommes, IX.15) 
-*''[[The Two Pigeons]]'' (''Les deux pigeons'', IX.2) 
-*''[[The Fox and the Weasel|The weasel in a granary]]'' (''La belette entrée dans un grenier'', III.17) 
-*''[[The Wolf and the Crane]]'' (''Le loup et la cigogne'', III.9) 
-*''[[The Wolf and the Lamb]]'' (''Le loup et l’agneau'', I.10) 
-*''[[The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing|The wolf who played shepherd]]'' (''Le loup devenu berger'', III.3) 
-*''[[The Honest Woodcutter|The woodcutter and Mercury]]'' (''Le bûcheron et Mercure'', V.1) 
-*''[[The Young Widow]]'' (''La jeune veuve'', VI.21) 
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Babrius was the author of a collection of fables written in Greek. He collected many of the fables that are known to us today simply as Aesop's fables.

Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Hellenized Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in Syria, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD have been assigned to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been Alexander Severus (AD 222–235), who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus is a purely fictitious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century AD. As appears from surviving papyrus fragments, his work is to be dated before c. 200 AD (and probably not much earlier, for his language and style seem to show that he belonged to that period).

The first critic who made Babrius more than a mere name was Richard Bentley, in his Dissertation on the Fables of Aesop. In a careful examination of these prose Aesopian fables, which had been handed down in various collections from the time of Maximus Planudes, Bentley discovered traces of versification, and was able to extract a number of verses which he assigned to Babrius. Tyrwhitt (De Babrio, 1776) followed up the researches of Bentley, and for some time the efforts of scholars were directed towards reconstructing the metrical original of the prose fables.

In 1842 the Greek Minoides Mynas came upon a manuscript of Babrius in the convent of St Laura on Mount Athos, now in the British Museum. This manuscript contained 123 fables out of the supposed original number, 160. They are arranged alphabetically, but break off at the letter O. The fables are written in choliambic, that is, limping or imperfect iambic verse, having a spondee as the last foot, a metre originally appropriated to scurrilous verse. The style is extremely good, the expression being terse and pointed, the versification correct and elegant, and the construction of the stories is fully equal to that in the prose versions. The genuineness of this collection of the fables was generally admitted by scholars. In 1857 Minas professed to have discovered at Mount Athos another manuscript containing 94 fables and a preface. As the monks refused to sell this manuscript, he made a copy of it, which was sold to the British Museum, and was published in 1859 by Sir G Cornewall Lewis. This, however, was soon proved to be a forgery. Six more fables were brought to light by P Knoll from a Vatican manuscript (edited by A Eberhard, Analecta Babriana, 1879).

Editions

[[File:PAmherst II 26.jpg|thumb|right|A third- or fourth-century papyrus containing a text of Babrius accompanied by Latin translation (P.Amherst II 26, column ii)]]

  • Boissonade (1844)
  • Lachmann (1845)
  • Schneider (1853)
  • Johann Adam Hartung (1858, edition and German translation)
  • Eberhard (1876)
  • Gitlbauer (1882)
  • Rutherford (1883)
  • Knoll, Fabularum Babrianarum Paraphrasis Bodleiana (1877)
  • Feuillet (1890)
  • Desrousseaux (1890)
  • Passerat (1892)
  • Croiset (1892)
  • Crusius (1897).
  • Mantels, Über die Fabeln des B. (1840)
  • Crusius, De Babrii Aetate (1879)
  • Ficus, De Babrii Vita (1889)
  • J Weiner, Quaestiones Babrianae (1891)
  • Conington, Miscellaneous Writings, ii. 460-491
  • Marchiano, Babrio (1899)
  • Fusci, Babrio (1901)
  • Christoffersson, Studia de Fabvlis Babrianis (1901).

Early translations in English were made by Davies (1860) and in French by Levêque (1890), and in many other languages. More contemporary translations are by Denison B. Hull (University of Chicago Press) and Ben E. Perry (Harvard University Press).

In 1941, Heritage Press produced a "fine book" edition of Aesop, translated and adapted by Munro Leaf as juvenalia and lavishly illustrated by Robert Lawson.

In 1998, Penguin Classics released a new translation by Olivia and Robert Temple entitled, Aesop: The Complete Fables in reference to the fact that some previous translations were partial. Working from the Chambry text published in 1927, the Temple translation includes 358 fables; Robert Temple acknowledges on page xxiv that scholars will in all likelihood challenge the "Aesopian" origin of some of them.





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Babrius" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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