f the long suspected
and wished-for choliambic version of Babrias. This MS. was found to be
divided into two books, the one containing a hundred and twenty-five,
and the other ninety-five fables. This discovery attracted very general
attention, not only as confirming, in a singular manner, the conjectures
so boldly made by a long chain of critics, but as bringing to light
valuable literary treasures tending to establish the reputation, and
to confirm the antiquity and authenticity of the great mass of Aesopian
Fable. The Fables thus recovered were soon published. They found a most
worthy editor in the late distinguished Sir George Cornewall Lewis,
and a translator equally qualified for his task, in the Reverend James
Davies, M.A., sometime a scholar of Lincoln College, Oxford, and himself
a relation of their English editor. Thus, after an eclipse of many
centuries, Babrias shines out as the earliest, and most reliable
collector of veritable Aesopian Fables.

The following are the sources from which the present translation has
been prepared:

Babrii Fabulae Aesopeae. George Cornewall Lewis. Oxford, 1846.

Babrii Fabulae Aesopeae. E codice manuscripto partem secundam edidit.
George Cornewall Lewis. London: Parker, 1857.

Mythologica Aesopica. Opera et studia Isaaci Nicholai Neveleti.
Frankfort, 1610.

Fabulae Aesopiacae, quales ante Planudem ferebantur cura et studio
Francisci de Furia. Lipsiae, 1810.

------. Ex recognitione Caroli Halmii. Lipsiae, Phaedri Fabulae Esopiae.
Delphin Classics. 1822.

GEORGE FYLER TOWNSEND

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 101: M. Bayle thus characterises this Life of Aesop by
Planudes, "Tous les habiles gens conviennent que c'est un roman, et que
les absurdites grossieres qui l'on y trouve le rendent indigne de
toute." Dictionnaire Historique. Art. Esope.]

[Footnote 1: A History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, by K. O.
Mueller. Vol. i, p. 191. London, Parker, 1858.]

[Footnote 2: Select Fables of Aesop, and other Fabulists. In three
books, translated by Robert Dodsley, accompanied with a selection of
notes, and an Essay on Fable. Birmingham, 1864. P. 60.]

[Footnote 3: Some of these fables had, no doubt, in the first instance,
a primary and private interpretation. On the first occasion of their
being composed they were intended to refer to some passing event, or to
some individual acts of wrong-doing. Thus, the fables of the "Eagle and
the Fox" a