The Original Fables of La Fontaine

For other English-language translations of this work, see Fables (La Fontaine).

CONTENTS

	PAGE
The Two Mules	13
The Hare and the Partridge	15
The Gardener and His Landlord	17
The Man and His Image	20
The Animals Sick of the Plague	22
The Unhappily Married Man	25
The Rat retired from the World	27
The Maiden	29
The Wishes	31
The Dairy-Woman and the Pail of Milk	34
The Priest and the Corpse	36
The Man Who ran after Fortune and the Man who ⁠waited for Her in His Bed	38
An Animal in the Moon	42
The Fortune-Tellers	44
The Cobbler and the Financier	47
The Power of Fable	50
The Dog Who carried His Master's Dinner	53
Thyrsis and Amaranth	54
The Rat and the Elephant	56
The Horoscope	57
Jupiter and the Thunderbolts	60
Education	63
Democritus and the People of Abdera	64
The Acorn and the Pumpkin	67
The Schoolboy, the Pedant, and the Owner of a Garden	69
The Sculptor and the Statue of Jupiter	71
The Oyster and the Pleaders	73
The Cat and the Fox	75
The Monkey and the Cat	77
The Two Rats, the Fox, and the Egg	79
The Dog with His Ears cropped	86
The Lioness and the She-Bear	88
The Rabbits	90
The Gods wishing to instruct a Son of Jupiter	93
The Lion, the Monkey, and the Two Asses	95
The Wolf and the Fox in the Well	98
The Mice and the Screech-Owl	100
The Companions of Ulysses	102
The Quarrel between the Dogs and the Cats and between the Cats and the Mice	106
The Wolf and the Fox	109
Love and Folly	111
The Forest and the Woodcutter	113
The Fox and the Young Turkeys	115
The Ape	117
The Scythian Philosopher	118
The Elephant and Jupiter's Ape	120
The League of Rats	122
The Arbiter, the Hospitaller, and the Hermit	124

The poet Jean de la Fontaine was born at ChateauThierry on July 8, 1621. He was a kindly, merry, and generous man and much beloved. His fables were written in verse and were published in three collections at different times of his life. Many were new versions of existing fables; but those of his later years were more often original inventions.

All in this book are of La Fontaine 's own invention, although several have since appeared in collections of Æsop's fables without the acknowledgment that is La Fontaine's due.

He died on April 13, 1695, at the age of seventy-three.

LETCHWORTH

THE TEMPLE PRESS

PRINTERS

This work was published before January 1, 1927, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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