A quick look at the Early English Books Online (EEBO), one can find there are hundreds of books associated with Aesop’s Fables. As the number is too large and I would like to focus on a specific period in history, I chose editions that were published in the 17th century. There are a few reasons why I chose this period. First of all, it was not until the 16th century that the printing technique became more mature. Before the movable printing press was widely used, “books” were written by hand. They were known as manuscripts. Manuscripts were rare, precious and the making of them was laborious. Therefore books used to be luxury items. After William Caxton introduced the movable printing technique to England, the production of books changed rapidly.
(Bl.uk, n.d.) After a century, books became cheaper and much more affordable.
Compared to woodcut printing, movable printing was quicker and more durable. Books printed or published around the 16th and 17th centuries are mostly intact. It is possible to find decent copies with fonts and illustrations that are still clear and recognizable.
The second reason is the language. The language of England used after 1470 up to 1650 is known as Early Modern English. It was the period when the transition of Middle English to Modern English took place. The Early Modern English still has usage from Middle English, yet for modern readers of English, we are generally able to understand texts written in this transitional phase. It is essential to me to understand every single
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word and sentence in the texts analyzed in this thesis. Therefore, choosing 17th century’s publications is a rather personal choice in terms of the used language. Last but not the least, as we mentioned previously, grammar schools had long existed in the Anglo-Saxon times. The subjects studied in grammar schools had remained similar throughout the medieval period. However the advent of the Renaissance brought with it new concepts which in turn changed the curriculum of grammar schools. They began to teach Latin and Greek in order to equip students with the knowledge to read ancient manuscripts. The prime time of grammar schools was around the 16th and 17th century.
As I wanted to study the grammar schools use of Aesop’s Fables, used as language learning materials, I primarily chose to study the 17th century publications.
After I made my decision regarding the time period, it was time to choose which books/copies were going to be analyzed. I had a several keywords in mind which were, of course, language, grammar schools, translation, and Aesop’s Fables. The first criteria for the selection was that it had to be a publication concerning Aesop’s Fables. The second was that it had to be a translation. The third was that it had to be in English which is my working language. Lastly, it had to be publication from the 17th century.
After defining my search terms and a thorough search on EEBO, I found more than 20 publications. Among them there were books with the same title that were reprints or modified versions which were later ruled out. In the end I selected 7 books, published respectively in 1617, 1624, 1628, 1646, 1651, 1673, and 1700. The 1624 copy was not scanned properly when it was turned into a digital facsimile. Due to this, approximately one third of the text was found not to be legible.
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The 1628 copy was written entirely in black letter13 and was blurred and stained in several places. This also made textual analysis difficult. After ruling out the 1624 and the 1628 copies, I selected the other five copies, published in 1617, 1646, 1651, 1673 and 1700, for analysis. However, there are actually six copies for my textual analysis.
The one that is not listed above is Aesop’s Fables published by Sir Rogers L’Estrange in 1692. This copy is well known by anyone who has studied Aesop’s Fables or Children’s literature. Hence, I included this edition of Aesop’s Fables as one of my research materials. The followings are a generic descriptions of my selection concerning their publication information and a table listing the contents of each copy.
Please keep in mind that all spelling and punctuation concerning the text of each copy is as given in the original manuscript14.
Copies
1. Aesop, John B., (1617). Esop Eables Tranſlated Grammatically, and alſo in propriety of our English phrase; and euery way, in ſuch ſort as may bee most profitable for the Grammar ſchoole. Printed by H. L. for Thomas Man
2. Aesop, Phaedrus, H. P., (1646). Æ sops fables, with the fables of Phaedrvs.
Moralized, TRANSLATED VERBATIM, ACCORDING to the Latine. FOR THE VSE OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLES, AND FOR CHILDREN, That with the more delight, they may learne to reade the English Tongue. Printed by I.L.
for Andrew Hebb.
13 Also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century.
14 All the manuscripts can be found on EEBO by searching the same title and publication year.
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3. Aesop, (1651). Æ SOPS FABLES, With THEIR MORALLS, IN PROSE AND VERSE. Grammatically tranſlated. Illustrated with Pictures and Emblems.
Together with the Hiſtory of his LIFE and DEATH, newly and exactly tranſlated out of the Original Greek. Printed by R.D. for Francis Eglesfield.
4. Aesop, (1673). Æ sop Improved, OR, Above three hundred and fifty FABLES, MOSTLY Æ SOP'S, With their MORALS, Paraphrased in English VERSE.
Amounting to about one hundred and fifty more than do appear to have been so rendered by any other Hand. Printed for Tho. Parkhurst.
5. Sir Roger L'Estrange, (1692). Fables OF Æ SOP And other Eminent MYTHOLOGISTS WITH morals and reflections. Printed for R. Sare, T.
Sawbridge, B. Took, M. Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchil, and J. Hindmarsh.
6. Charles H., (1700). Æ sop's FABLES English and Latin : Every one whereof is divided into its distinct periods, marked with Figures : so that little Children being uſed to write and tranſlate them, may not only more exactly underſtand all the Rules of Grammar; but alſo learn to imitate the right Compoſition of Words and the proper Forms of Speech belonging to both languages. Printed by R.E. for the Company of Stationers.
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Table 1 Basic information of editions
* This table uses V (= Yes) and X (= No) to indicate contents that copies include.
3.2 Textual analysis
After making my selection, I chose several aspects to conduct my textual analysis. In the following analysis and discussion, each copy will be referred to by its publication year. For example, the first copy named “Esop Eables Tranſlated Grammatically, and alſo in propriety of our English phrase; and euery way, in ſuch ſort as may bee most profitable for the Grammar ſchoole” by John Brinsley would be called “the 1617 copy”.
I will focus on the respective copies covers, authors, front matters, fable numbers and form to discover more about these editions15.
3.2.1 Covers
The 1617 copy was titled “Esop Eables Tranſlated Grammatically, and alſo in propriety of our English phrase; and euery way, in ſuch ſort as may bee most profitable for the Grammar ſchoole”. In this title, the s has been replaced with the ſ. This letter resembling
15 Pictures in this thesis are for references only. All the examples of editions of Aesop’s Fables were retrieved from their digital facsimile. A complete transcript of a text will not be provided if a text is legible.
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an f without the crossbar is a tall variant used at the start and in the middle of a word.
It is how the Middle English distinguishes between a hard “s” and a soft “s”. The “ſ”
represents the soft “s” which, in this cover, is used in words such as “tranſlated”, ”alſo”,
“ſuch”, and “ſort”. The word “euery” is equal to “every” for in the Middle English usage, just as Latin, both the U and V were used for both the vowel “u” and the consonant “v”.
The letter “v” appeared at the beginning of a word was served as the sound “u”. Same rules should be applied to the following copies when reading their content16.
Therefore, it is made clear the cover indicates that this book has been grammatically translated. It used proper English phrases of the time to render the translation. Readers should apply this book to their learning according to the directions in the preface. The cover also reads that “for more fully set downe in Ludus Lit, or the Grammar-ſchoole”
which refers to a book, “Ludus Lit, or the Grammar-ſchoole”*, written by the same author, John Brinsley. The lower part of the cover reads “London. Printed by H. L. for Thomas Man. 1617” and spells out the publisher and the publication year. H. L. stand for Humphrey Lownes, a bookseller and printer based in London.
16 Middle English usage is extracted from http://www.nativlang.com/middle-english/index.php
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Figure 1 The cover of the 1617 copy
The second copy, published in 1646, was titled “Æsops fables, with the fables of Phaedrvs. Moralized, TRANSLATED VERBATIM, ACCORDING to the Latine. FOR THE VSE OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLES, AND FOR CHILDREN, That with the more delight, they may learne to reade the English Tongue.” According to the title, some fables used in this book were from the Phaedrus edition. The cover also inscribed that it has moralized fables. The 1646 copy put emphasis on verbatim translation.
Nevertheless it didn’t provide readers with the original text. The copy further reads that it was designed for use in grammar schools and suitable for children. In other words, this copy aspired to delight children as they learned to read English. It also implied that the use of fables severed as an entertainment for the readers. It was published by H. P., printed by I. L. for Andrew Hebb. The title page bore the inscription, "London. At the Bell in St. Paul’s churchyard", indicating the place where the book was sold.
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Figure 2 The cover of the 1646 copy
The third copy, published in 1651, was titled “ÆSOPS FABLES, With THEIR MORALLS, IN PROSE AND VERSE. Grammatically tranſlated. Illustrated with
Pictures and Emblems. Together with the Hiſtory of his LIFE and DEATH, newly and exactly tranſlated out of the Original Greek.” The title suggests the form the fables will be pesented. All fables presented in the book were in both prose and verse with morals attached to the end of the story. This copy featured pictures and emblems with each story. Moreover, there were chapters at the end describing the life of Aesop. It was printed by Robert Dawlman, a publisher, for Francis Eglesfield, a London bookseller who owned the shop at the Marygold in St Paul’s Churchyard. (Herrick & Cain, 2013) At the bottom of the over the Roman numeral MDCLI were inscribed which correspond to the Arabic number 1651, the publication year of this copy.
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Figure 3 The cover of the 1651 copy
The copy, from 1673, reads: “Æsop Improved, OR, Above three hundred and fifty FABLES, MOSTLY Æ SOP'S, With their MORALS, Paraphrased in English VERSE.
Amounting to about one hundred and fifty more than do appear to have been so rendered by any other Hand.” The 1673 copy made much of the fact that, though lacking illustrations and emblems, it excelled at the quantity of fables offered. This copy was published in London by the bookseller Thomas Parkhurst who lived at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside.
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Figure 4 The cover of the 1673 copy
The fifth copy was published by Sir Roger L’Estrange in 1692. The cover was inscribed:
“Fables OF ÆSOP And other Eminent MYTHOLOGISTS WITH morals and reflections”. The bottom of the cover lists the names of the booksellers and the publication year. Different from the other copies, the 1692 copy has Sir Roger L’Estrange’s self-portrait adorned next to the cover page.
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Figure 5 The cover of the 1692 copy
The last copy selected is the 1700 copy with the longest title “Æsop's FABLES English and Latin: Every one whereof is divided into its distinct periods, marked with Figures:
so that little Children being uſed to write and tranſlate them, may not only more exactly underſtand all the Rules of Grammar; but alſo learn to imitate the right Compoſition of Words and the proper Forms of Speech belonging to both languages”. The title takes up all the space on the book cover and is followed by a name, Charles Hoole, the author of the copy. This copy features Latin-English parallel texts and was specifically designed for language learning. From grammar rules, words compositions to speech form, this copy provides readers with as many as 207 fables to learn how to command both the English and Latin languages. The publisher was the Stationers’ Company which used to have a nationwide monopoly on printing.
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Figure 6 The cover of the 1700 copy
These six covers are all similar in terms of font style, design and layout, which is mostly consists of titles. Some usages of the Middle English can be seen throughout various versions with some subtle variations. For example, the earliest copy contains no ‘Æ”
while the other five copies all adopted the letter. The usage of “ſ” is presented in all six covers but the interchange of “u” and “v” only appears in the first two. These six copies, from the first, published in 1617 to the last, published in 1700, almost stretch across a century. Though the information is meager, we can still observe the language changes over time. It is also safe to say that the later the version, the closer the language practice is to the Modern English.
All the covers use capital letters freely whenever there is a need for emphasis. Judging only by these covers, we can identify that these publications are used or suggested to
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be used in either grammar schools or for language learning purposes. They were not produced merely as fables to read or to entertain children with, but with the purpose of being utilized as language learning materials.
3.2.2 Authors
Half of the copies credit its author to be Aesop. The other three credit respectively John Brinsley, Sir Roger L'Estrange, and Charles Hoole. John Brinsley the Elder was an English schoolmaster and was well known for his educational works. As previously mentioned, one of his other publications, “Ludus Lit, or the Grammar-ſchoole; ſhewing how to proceede from the firſt entrance into learning to the higheſt perfection required in the Grammar ſchooles” was his best known work. He also had another edition of Aesop’s Fables published in 1624 which was specifically edited for grammar schools’
use. In addition, his translations, not only limited to Aesop’s Fables, were widely used in grammar schools. The curriculum in grammar schools generally began with two years devoted to basic principles of grammar and vocabulary in Latin and Greek. Latin was taught from a book called an “accidence” and one of the most-well known editions was “Latin Accidence” by John Brinsley. (Kenneth O. Gangel & Warren S. Benson, 2002, p.237)
Sir Roger L’Estrange was an English pamphleteer, author and journalist. He was involved in political controversy throughout his life and had a long public career.
Though he was best known for his polemical pamphlets, “Fables OF ÆSOP And other Eminent MYTHOLOGISTS WITH morals and reflections” was still his master work in later life. His edition of Aesop’s Fables published in 1692 was intended specifically for children. He also admitted that he began to amass his late 17th century collection by pilfering “the Common Schoolbook”. (Grenby, 2008) The 1692 copy of Aesop’s
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Fables amounted to almost 500 stories. He redesigned and published the fables in the hopes of meeting children’s abilities and needs.
Charles Hoole was an educational writer and one of England’s most respected schoolmasters. He was the head of the Rotherham Grammar School. He wrote and compiled materials used for teaching. His “A New Discovery of the old art of teaching school” published in 1660 contains the most complete school textbook bibliography. In this book Hoole raises the question whether Latin can be learned without grammar and his answer was negative. He recognized that the child is the real center of interest for the teacher and that Latin Grammar tailored to the child’s capacity. (Watson, 1968) What’s more, Hoole held that small children are better suited to something practical, for example, by repeating and imitating something they understand. If the students recognize their own language there is so much more they can relate to, which they can use to understand the unknown. They can cover much more ground by reading authors with a translation rather than without. (Watson, 1901) Hoole’s 1700 edition of Aesop’s Fables, in accordance with his position on children’s language learning, was written entirely in both Latin and English. The covers make clear each author’s intended purpose. These fables were composed, selected and translated for readers to learn something, either language or morals. Among these six copies, half of them were contributed to Aesop. None of these copies specifically spelled out the name of the translators. However, John Brinsley, Sir Roger L’Estrange and Charles Hoole were all deemed as authors of the books. It is intriguing that these publications served a certain purpose instead of being mere translations. Technically speaking, these so called
“authors” were just editors, compilers or translators. However, John Brinsley, Sir Roger L’Estrange and Charles Hoole saw themselves as more than that. For them, their works were not just translation but their own creations and endeavors. They also anticipated
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their works would benefit readers. We will discuss this in greater depth in the following section.
3.2.3 Front matter
1617 copy’s front matter consists of two parts. The first part is the epistle dedicatory which functions as a dedication and preface. The second part is a message written by the author, Brinsley, to those who he addressed as the “painefull schoole-master.” In the epistle dedicatory, Brinsley first dedicated the book to “The Right Worshipfull, Sir John Harper, Knight.” The term “worshipful” comes from the Middle English word
“worchyppe,” which is a title of respect. Prefaced with the sentence: “I may not bee forgetful of the loue which you haue shewed towardes the furtherance of my indeuours, for the Grammar-schoole” Brinsley expressed his gratitude towards Harper. He dedicated this epistle to him as an appreciation, a thankful acknowledgement. In the epistle, Brinsley wanted his book to be wisely used by readers, especially children. He hoped that children could learn from the stories and embrace the virtues in them.
Brinsley took the first and the second fables as examples, teaching children to discern the foolishness of men and to perceive cruel people’s traps. He also pointed out the lessons of the third fable and the forth as further examples. Lastly, Brinsley addressed the function of fables first as guidance in life for children and second as a speedy means to attain the Latin tongue. He specifically indicated that combining translation with fables provides a happy experience when learning Latin. Brinsley brought up his book
“Grammar-schoole”, indicating that it provided more details on the benefits of learning
“Grammar-schoole”, indicating that it provided more details on the benefits of learning