ss, Mary has intitled her work, "_Cy Commence li
Aesope_;" she repeats, also, that she had turned this fabulist into
romance language. Mary, therefore, imagined that she was really
translating Aesop; but her original had the same title; and I am the
more convinced of this, because, in the Royal MS. before cited, which
contains a collection of Aesopian fables, there are but 56. According to
the introduction, they had been already translated into Latin prose, and
then into English prose; and in this MS. as well as in Mary's, there are
many fables and fabliaux ascribed to Aesop, which never could have been
composed by him.

Again, if we compare the fables which generally pass for Aesop's, with
those written by Mary, we shall perceive that the translation of the
latter could never have been regarded as a literal version of the
former. She is a great deal more particular than Aesop; her
moralizations are not the same. In a word, I think she comes nearer to
Phaedrus than to the Greek writer.

It will, no doubt be answered, that the Works of Phaedrus have only been
known since the end of the 16th century. This I admit; but am not the
less persuaded that Mary was better acquainted with Phaedrus than with
Aesop. It will, moreover, be contended, that she has herself declared,
that the English version, which served her as a model, was a translation
from the Greek. To this I reply; first, that Phaedrus's fables may very
properly be stiled _Aesopian_, as he has himself called them:

Aesopus auctor quam materiam reperit,
Hanc ego polivi versibus senariis.[21]

And, secondly, that although Mary possessed the fire, the imagination,
and the genius of a poet, she nevertheless had not the criticism, or
erudition, of a man of letters. For example; she informs us, that before
her fables were translated into English, they had already been turned
from Greek into Latin by Aesop.[22] She then gives the fable of an ox
that assisted at mass, of a wolf that keeps Lent, of a monk disputing
with a peasant, &c.

Amongst these compilers of fables, we find the names of Romulus, Accius,
Bernardus, Talon, and many others anonymous. The first is the most
celebrated; he has addressed his fables to his son Tiberius; they are
written in Latin prose, sixty in number, and many of them are founded
upon those of Aesop and Phaedrus. Rimilius published them at the end of
the 15th century, and Frederic Nilant gave an edition in 1709, at
Leyden, with