e English language. She, who
in her lays had painted the manners of her age with so much nature and
fidelity, would find no difficulty in succeeding in this kind of
apologue. Both require that penetrating glance which can distinguish
the different passions of mankind; can seize upon the varied forms which
they assume; and marking the objects of their attention, discover, at
the same moment, the means they employ to attain them. For this reason,
her fables are written with all that acuteness of mind, that penetrates
into the very inmost recesses of the human heart; and, at the same time,
with that beautiful simplicity so peculiar to the ancient romance
language, and which causes me to doubt whether La Fontaine has not
rather imitated our author, than the fabulists either of Rome, or of
Athens. It most, at all events, be admitted that he could not find, in
the two latter, the advantages which the former offered him. Mary wrote
in French, and at a time when that language, yet in its infancy, could
boast of nothing but simple expressions, artless and agreeable turns,
and, on all occasions, a natural and unpremeditated phraseology.

On the contrary, Aesop and Phaedrus, writing in Latin, could not supply
the French fabulist with any thing more than subject matter and ideas;
whilst Mary, at the same time that she furnished him with both, might
besides have hinted expression, manner, and even rhyme. Let me add, that
through the works of La Fontaine will be found scattered an infinite
number of words in our ancient language, which are at this day
unintelligible without a commentary.

There are, in the British Museum, three MS. copies of Mary's fables.
The first is in the Cotton library, Vesp. b. xiv. the second in the
Harleian, No. 4333; and the third in the same collection, No. 978. In
the first, part of Mary's prologue is wanting, and the transcriber has
entirely suppressed the conclusion of her work. This MS. contains only
sixty-one fables. The second has all the prologue, and the conclusion.
It has 83 fables. The third is the completest of all, and contains 104
fables. M. le Grand says that he has seen four MSS. of these fables in
the libraries of Paris, but all different as to the number. He cites one
in the library of St. Germain des Pres, as containing 66 fables; and
another in the Royal Library, No. 7615, with 102.[19] As he has said
nothing about the other MSS. it is to be supposed that he has purposely
mentioned that