Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables

The Gods (Davies)- This fable plays on the word "herm" in Greek. Herms were statues of Hermes (called Mercury by the Romans) which served various purposes, honoring the dead sometimes, and sometimes in honor of the god Mercury himself. In this fable, the god Mercury contemplates his fate in the form of a statue!
More Gods (Smart)- This is an allegory that explains why we are so quick to see the faults of others and so slow to see our own!
Fables about People (Boothby)- A Housewife once a Hen possessed That every morning in her nest
Left a fine egg. Twice in the day the beldame wanted her to lay, And so her nourishment increas'd. Grown fat, to lay at all she ceas'd.
More Fables about People (L'Estrange)- There was a Stingy Narrow-Hearted Fellow, that had a Great deal of Choice Fruit in his Ground, but had not the Heart to touch any of it 'till it began to be Rotten.
Apes (L'Estrange)- Governours should be Men of Business, rather than Pleasure. There’s one great Folly in making an ill Choice of a Ruler, and another in the Acceptance of it; for it exposes Authority to Scorn.
Foxes (Smart)- "Ev'n so the fates decree." — "Then, sir, Have patience, whilst I do aver That he who like affections knows Is born with all the gods his foes. Since to that place you needs must speed,
Where all your ancestors precede, Why in the blindness of your heart Do you torment your noble part?"
More Foxes (L'Estrange)- The Fox finding 'twas all but Banter: "Well," says he, "'tis no Great Matter then; for the more Physicians, the more Danger, they say."
Lions (Boothby)- But weary, nature to restrain, Yet show of justice to maintain, He with this plot his courtiers snar'd: That he was sick, the King declar'd, That sleep and appetite he wanted, And he believ'd his breath was tainted.
A Lion and a Man (L'Estrange)- The Lion presently put his Claws into the Gaping of the Wood, and with one Lusty Pluck, made it give way, and out drops the Wedge, the Wood immediately Closing upon't; and there was the Lion caught by the Toes. The Woodman presently upon this, Raises the Country; and the Lion finding what a Streight he was in, gave one Hearty Twitch, and got his Feet out of the Trap, but left his Claws Behind him.
Lions and Asses (Smart)- Once on a time it came to pass, The Lion hunted with the Ass, Whom hiding in the thickest shade He there proposed should lend him aid, By trumpeting so strange a bray,
That all the beasts he should dismay And drive them o'er the desert heath Into the lurking Lion's teeth.
Asses (Boothby)- An Ass with envying eye surveyed A Courser in his war-parade, Curvetting to the trumpet's sound, With steps that scarcely touch'd the ground.
More Asses (L'Estrange)- While they were Jogging on thus upon the Way, out comes a Band of Highway-Men from the next Wood, and falls upon the Ass that carried the Treasure. They Beat, Wound and Rifle him, and so leave him, without so much as taking the least Notice of his Fellow.

Illustration by Billinghurst.