has given to Henry a name with
which authors alone were dignified.

Whether Mary followed the English version literally cannot be
ascertained, as we do not even know whether it now exists; and are
therefore under the necessity of collating her fables with those of the
middle ages: and it appears, she translated from the English 104 fables
into French verse; and of this number there are 65, the subjects of
which had already been treated of by Aesop, Phaedrus, Romulus, and the
anonymous author of the _Fabulae Antiquae_, published by Niland.

The English translation was not only compiled from these different
authors, but from many other fabulists, whose names are unknown to us;
since, out of the 104 fables of Mary, there are 39 which are neither
found in the before mentioned authors, nor in any other known to us.

The English version contained a more ample assemblage of fables than
that of Mary, since out of the 56 in the Royal MS. 15 A. VII, which made
a part of the former, it appears that she made a selection of subjects
that were pleasing to her, and rejected others. It is very singular,
that England appears to have had fabulists during the ages of ignorance,
whilst Athens and Rome possessed theirs only amidst the most refined
periods of their literature.

Some may, perhaps, be disposed to conclude that the 39 additional fables
were actually composed by Mary; but I believe, upon reflection, this
opinion must be abandoned. She terms her work a translation, glories in
the enterprize; and, if it had been only in part the labours of her
genius, would scarcely have passed over that circumstance in silence.

Monsieur Le Grand has published 43 of Mary's fables in prose. His
translation, however, is not always literal; and seems, in many places,
to have departed from the original. He has likewise published many of
the _fabliaux_, or little stories, which he has unadvisedly attributed
to the transcribers of them, and which belong indisputably to her.

I have examined La Fontaine, to ascertain whether he were acquainted
with the fables of Mary, and had actually borrowed his subjects from the
39 fables which are wanting in all the writers of this kind with whom we
are at present acquainted; and have actually discovered, that he is
indebted to them for those of the Drowning Woman, the Fox and the Cat,
and the Fox and the Pigeon. From others he has only taken the subject,
but changed the actors; and, by retouching the whole in