2 8                                  William Nelson

tary schools by "The Little Engine that Could," and it is only
because expressions like "sour grapes" and "blowing hot and cold"
have passed into the language that future generations are likely
to remember the ancient tradition. The history of the origin and
development of the fables (for they were constantly being altered
and added to) is an extremely complicated one. Our manuscript
version is by no means their first appearance in English. Chaucer's
tale of Chanticleer and Reynard the Fox is one bit of evidence
among many that the stories were well known in England during
the Middle Ages. In 1484, just a few years after the introduction
of printing into England, \^'illiam Caxton translated and pub¬
lished them. It was one of his most successful ventures, if the num¬
ber of editions be taken as a guide. In Golding's own time the
fables were even subjected to publication in "reformed" spelling
by one Bullokar under the title Aesopz Fablz in tru Ortography
(1585). Since then there have been innumerable translations in
prose and verse, with illustrations and without, moralized by
W'higs and moralized by Tories.

The fables in the manuscript are not simple translations of the
traditional stories. Although some are fairly close to the originals,
others are largely rewritten, and still others appear to be the
author's own. The moral interpretations are longer and weightier
than usual, and to each is appended a more or less appropriate
biblical quotation. In improving on the bluntness of Caxton's ver¬
sion, the author loses some of the simplicity which is essential to
the charm of the fables: he is fond of long words like "substantial-
ness," "preposterous," and "opprobrium," and not infrequently
cites Cicero, Aristotle, and other learned authorities. Perhaps he
did not mean his book for children at all, for at least one of his
readers was a scholar who made erudite comments in the margins
in Latin and Italian. But the verve of the Elizabethan vocabulary
remains (I have modernized the spelling):

As a Wolf and a Lamb were drinking by chance both at one brook,
the Wolf on the upper part of the stream and the Lamb on the nether