HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF CHARLES HALL GRANDGENT Copyright, 1903, by KENNETH MCKENZIE Entered at Stationers' Hall, London FIFTY FABLES W. P. I PREFACE THE universal use of La Fontaine's Fables in education, both in France and elsewhere, and the frequency of references to them in French literature, render unnecessary any apology for this book. The editor has tried to supply what he has long felt to be urgently needed, — a convenient and suitable selection of the Fables, edited in a scholarly manner with English annotation. The fifty here given, including nearly all the best known ones, and a few that are less familiar, will be as many as most classes care to read. Those who wish to devote further study to the Fables should have a complete edition, such as that of Regnier or of Clément (see Introduction, p. 12). Regnier is here followed as to text and punctuation, except that the names of animals are not capitalized, and that a few words have been modernized; -oit and -oient in verb endings are changed to -ait and -aient; other changes are indicated in the notes. The editor hereby expresses his obligation to the two editions mentioned above, as well as to the other works referred to in the Introduction; Edgren and Burnet's French-English Dictionary has been useful in suggesting English renderings. The vocabulary is intended to include every word in the text (including the Appendix, and quotations in the notes). Idiomatic phrases are to be sought in the Vocabulary, and translations are avoided in the notes. Perfect consistency has sometimes been sacrificed to convenience. Such information as seems suitable in a book of this character is given, with a hint as to the source of each fable, to show at least superficially the connection between La Fontaine and other fabulists; and the brief extracts in the Appendix will be useful in connection with the Fables; but all this apparatus can safely be neglected by those to whom it may seem superfluous. K. McK. YALE UNIVERSITY. |