The Fables of La Fontaine | Page 7

country,
in the sixth century of the Christian era, sending an embassy into
Hindostan expressly for that purpose. Of the Persian book a translation
was made in the time of the Calif Mansour, in the eighth century, into
Arabic. This Arabic translation it is which became famous under the

title of "The Book of Calila and Dimna, or the Fables of Bidpaï."[3]
[3] An English translation from the Arabic appeared in 1819, done by
the
Rev. Wyndham Knatchbull. Sir William Jones says that the word
Bidpaii signifies beloved, or favourite, physician. And he adds that the
word Pilpay, which has taken the place of Bidpaii in some editions of
these fables, is the result simply of a blunder in copying the word
Bidpaii from the original. La Fontaine himself uses the word Pilpay
twice in his Fables, viz., in Fables XII. and XV., Book XII.--Ed.
Calila and Dimna are the names of two jackals that figure in the history,
and Bidpaï is one of the principal human interlocutors, who came to be
mistaken for the author. This remarkable book was turned into verse by
several of the Arabic poets, was translated into Greek, Hebrew, Latin,
modern Persian, and, in the course of a few centuries, either directly or
indirectly, into most of the languages of modern Europe.
Forty-one of the unadorned and disconnected fables of Aesop were also
translated into Arabic at a period somewhat more recent than the
Hegira, and passed by the name of the "Fables of Lokman." Their want
of poetical ornament prevented them from acquiring much popularity
with the Arabians; but they became well known in Europe, as
furnishing a convenient text-book in the study of Arabic.
The Hitopadesa, the fountain of poetic fables, with its
innumerable
translations and modifications, seems to have had the greatest charms
for the Orientals. As it passed down the stream of time, version after
version, the ornament and machinery outgrew the moral instruction, till
it gave birth, at last, to such works of mere amusement as the
"Thousand and One Nights."
Fable slept, with other things, in the dark ages of Europe. Abridgments
took the place of the large collections, and probably occasioned the
entire loss of some of them. As literature revived, fable was
resuscitated. The crusades had brought European mind in contact with
the Indian works which we have already described, in their Arabic

dress. Translations and imitations in the European tongues were
speedily multiplied. The "Romance of the Fox," the work of Perrot de
Saint Cloud, one of the most successful of these imitations, dates back
to the thirteenth century. It found its way into most of the northern
languages, and became a household book. It undoubtedly had great
influence over the taste of succeeding ages, shedding upon the severe
and satirical wit of the Greek and Roman literature the rich, mellow
light of Asiatic poetry. The poets of that age were not confined,
however, to fables from the Hindoo source. Marie de France, also, in
the thirteenth century, versified one hundred of the fables of Aesop,
translating from an English collection, which does not now appear to be
extant. Her work is entitled the Ysopet, or "Little Aesop." Other
versions, with the same title, were subsequently written. It was in 1447
that Planudes, already referred to, wrote in Greek prose a collection of
fables, prefacing it with a life of Aesop, which, for a long time, passed
for the veritable work of that ancient. In the next century, Abstemius
wrote two hundred fables in Latin prose, partly of modern, but chiefly
of ancient invention. At this time, the vulgar languages had undergone
so great changes, that works in them of two or three centuries old could
not be understood, and, consequently, the Latin became the favourite
language of authors. Many collections of fables were written in it, both
in prose and verse. By the art of printing these works were greatly
multiplied; and again the poets undertook the task of translating them
into the language of the people. The French led the way in this species
of literature, their language seeming to present some great advantages
for it. One hundred years before La Fontaine, Corrozet, Guillaume
Gueroult, and Philibert Hegemon, had written beautiful fables in verse,
which it is supposed La Fontaine must have read and profited by,
although they had become nearly obsolete in his time. It is a
remarkable fact, that these poetical fables should so soon have been
forgotten. It was soon after their appearance that the languages of
Europe attained their full development; and, at this epoch, prose seems
to have been universally preferred to poetry. So strong was this
preference, that Ogilby, the Scotch fabulist, who had written a
collection of fables in English verse, reduced them to prose on the
occasion of publishing