other gross mistakes of that kind, which sufficiently show us that this Life was a work of invention, and that the inventor was a bungling poor creature. He never mentions Æsop's being at Athens; though Phædrus speaks of him as one that lived the greatest part of his time there; and it appears that he had a statue erected in that city to his memory, done by the hand of the famed Lysippus. He writes of him as living at Samos and interesting himself in a public capacity in the administration of the affairs of that place; yet takes not the least notice of the Fable which Aristotle* tells us he spoke in behalf of a famous demagogue there, when he was impeached for embezzling the public money; nor does he indeed give us the least hint of such a circumstance. An ingenious man might have laid together all the materials of this kind that are to be found in good old authors, and, by the help of a bright invention, connected and worked them up with success; we might have swallowed such an imposition well enough, because we should not have known how to contradict it: but in Planudes' case, the imposture is doubly discovered; first, as he has the unquestioned authority of antiquity against him; secondly (and if the other did not condemn him), as he has introduced the witty, discreet, judicious Esop, quibbling in a strain of low monastic waggery, and as archly dull as a mountebank's jester. That there was a Life of Esop, either written or traditionary, before Aristotle's time, is pretty plain: and that there was something of that kind extant in Augustus' reign, is, I think, as undoubted; since Phædrus mentions many transactions of his, during his abode at Athens. But it is as certain that Planudes met with nothing of this kind: or, at least, that he met not with the accounts with which they were furnished, because of the omissions before * Arist. Rhet, Lib. 11. chap. 21. mentioned; and consequently with none so authentic and good. He seems to have thrown together some merry conceits which occurred to him in the course of his reading, such as he thought were worthy of Æsop, and very confidently obtrudes them upon us for his. But, when at last he brings him to Delphos (where he was put to death by being thrown down from a precipice), that the Delphians might have some colour of justice for what they intended to do, he favours them with the same stratagem which Joseph made use of to bring back his brother Benjamin; they clandestinely convey a cup into his baggage, overtake him upon the road, after a strict search find him guilty; upon that pretence carry him back to the city, condemn and execute him. As I would neither impose upon others, nor be imposed upon, I cannot, as some have done, let such stuff as this pass for the Life of the great Æsop. Planudes has little authority for any thing he has delivered concerning him; nay, as far as I can find, his whole account, from the beginning to the end, is mere invention, excepting some few circumstances; such as the place of his birth, and of his death; for in respect of the time in which he lived, he has blundered egregiously, by mentioning some incidents as contemporary with Æsop, which were far enough from being so. Xanthus, his supposed master, puts his wife into a passion, by bringing such a piece of deformity into her house, as our Author is described to be. Upon this the master reproaches the slave for not uttering something witty, at a time that seemed to require it so much: and then Æsop comes out, slap dash, with a satirical reflection upon women, taken from Euripides, the famous Greek tragedian. Now Euripides happened not to be born till about fourscore years after Æsop's death. What credit, therefore, can be given to any thing Planudes says of him? As to the place of his birth, I will allow, with 30 15 The Wolf, the Lamb, and the Goat 16 The Kite and the Pigeons 17 The Country Mouse and the City Mouse 18 The Swallow and other Birds 19 The Hunted Beaver 32 34 38 40 61 Cupid and Death 62 The Old Man and his Sons. 63 The Stag and the Fawn 64 The Old Hound 65 Jupiter and the Camel 75 The Sick Kite.. 76 The Hawk and the Nightingale 77 The Peacock's Complaint 78 The Angler and the Little Fish 123 125 127 129 181 183 135 137 139 141 143 145 147 149 151 153 155 157 159 161 |