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ON THE MIGRATION OE EABLES.
A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, on Friday,
June 3^ 1870.
OUNT not your chickens before they be hatched,” is a wellknown proverb in English, and most people, if asked what
was its origin, would probably appeal to La Fontaine’s delightful
fable, “ La Laitiere et le Lot au LaitL
~We all know Lerrette,
lightly stepping along from her'village to the town, carrying the
milk-pail on her head, and in her day-dreams selling her milk for
a good sum, then buying a hundred eggs, then selling the chickens,
then buying a pig, fattening it, selling it again, and buying a
cow with a calf. The calf frolics about, and kicks up his legs—so
does Perrette, and, alas! the pail falls down, the milk is spilt, her
riches gone, and she only hopes when she comes home that she may
escape a flogging from her husband.
Bid La Fontaine invent this fable ? or did he merely follow the
example of Sokrates, who, as we know from the Phsedon,! occupied
himself in prison, during the last days of his life, with turning into
verse some of the fables, or, as he calls them, the myths of JEsop.
* La Fontaine, Fables, livre v£., fable 10.
, t Phaadon, 61, 5. /ztnl St tov Stop, IvvoTfraQ, on rov 7roit]Ttjv S'toi, eimp ptXXot 7toi??t4c
ttvai, Troitiv pvOovg, dXX’ ov XbyovQ, koi avtog ovk f) pvOoXoyiKos, 8ia ravra Sr/ ovq
TrpoxtipovQ ti%ov Kaitf)Tw<TTap.ijp pvdovQ Toi>Q Aioukov, tovtujv eiroirjffa otg vrpwrGsg
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLER.
573
La Fontaine published the first six books of his fables in 1668,
*
and it is well known that the subjects of most of these early fables
were taken from JEsop, Phsedrus, Horace, and other classical fabulists,
if we may adopt this word “ fabulistej” which La Fontaine was the
first to introduce into French.
In 1678 a second (edition of these r§ix books was published,
enriched by five books ^>f new fables, and in 1-694 a new edition
appeared, containing one additional book,, thus completing the
collection of his charming poems.
The fable of Perrette stands in th© seventh book, and was pub
lished, therefore, for the first’time in the edition ©fj 16^8-. In the
preface to that edition La Fontaine says :.'“It is ,not necessary that
I should say where I have taken the subjects of these new fables.
I shall only say, from a sense of gratitudes. that I owe the largest
portion of them to Pilpay, the Indian sage.”
If, then, La Fontaine tells us himselfrthat’he borrowed the subjects
of most of his new fables from Pilpay, the Indian sage, we have
clearly a right to look to India, in order rtojsee whether,fan the ancient
literature of that country, any traces can be discovered of Perrette
with the milk-pail.
Sanskrit literature is very rich in fables 'and stories no other
?
*
literature can vie with it in that respect,? nay,, it is ektrcmely likely
that fables, in particular animal fables, had their principal source in
India. In the sacred literature of the Buddhists fables held a most
prominent place. The Buddhist preachers, Addressing themselves
chiefly to the people, to the untaught, the uncared for, the outcast,
spoke to them, as we still speak to children, in-fables, an proverbs
and parables. Many of these fables and parables must have existed
before the rise of the Buddhist religion; 'others, no‘ doubt, were
*
added on the spur of the moment, just as Sokrates would invent a
myth or a fable whenever that form of argument seemed to him most
likely to impress andT convince his hearers. But Buddhism gave a
new and permanent sanction to this whofe branch of moral mythology,
and in the sacred canon, as it was settled in tW third century before
Christ, many a fable received, and holds to the present day, its
recognised place. After the fall of Buddhism in India, and even
during its decline, the Brahmans claimed the inheritance of their
enemies, and used their popular fables for educational purposes.
The best known of these collections of fables in Sanskrit is the
Pan^atantra, literally the Pentateuch, or the Pentamerone. From
it and from other sources another collection was made, well known
to all Sanskrit scholars by the name of the Hitopadesa, i.e., Salu
tary Advice. Both these books have been ^published in England
* Robert, “Fables Inedites,” des XIIe, X1IT, et Xiye Socles; Paris, 1825;
vol. i. p. ccxxvii.
�574
THE CONTEMPORAR Y RE VIE W.
and Germany, and there are translations of them in English,
German, and French.
*
. The first question which we have to answer refers to the date of these
collections, and dates in the history of Sanskrit literature are always
difficult points. Fortunately, as we shall see, we can in this case fix
the date of the PanA-atantra at least, by means of a translation into
ancient Persian, which was made about 550 years after Christ, though
even then we can only prove that a collection somewhat like the Pan/ratantra must have existed at that time ; but we cannot refer the book,
in exactly that form in which we now possess it, to that distant period.
If we look for La Fontaine’s fable in the Sanskrit stories of the Pan/catantra, we do not find, indeed, the milkmaid counting her chickens
before they are hatched, but we meet with the following story :__
“ There lived in a certain place a Brahman, whose name was Svabhava
kripana, which means ‘a born miser.’ He. had collected a quantity of
rice by begging (this reminds us somewhat of the Buddhist mendicants),
and after having dined of it, he filled a pot with what was left over. He
hung the pot on a peg on the wall, placed his couch beneath, and looking
intently at it.all the night, he thought, ‘Ah, that pot is indeed brimful of
rice. Now, if there should be a famine, I should certainly make a hundred
rupees by it. With this I shall buy a couple of goats. They will have
young ones every six months, and thus I shall have a whole herd of goats.
Then, with the goats, I shall buy cows. As soon as they have calved, I
shall sell the calves. Then, with'the cows, I shall buy buffaloes; with the
buffaloes, mare’s'; When the mares have foaled, I shall have plenty of
horses; and when I sell them, plenty of gold. With that gold I shall get
a house with four wings. And then a Brahman will come to my house,
and will give me his beautiful daughter, xvith a large dowry. She will have
a son, and I shall call him Somasarihan. When he is old enough to be
danced on his father’s knee, I Khali sit with a book at the back of the stable,
and while I am readings the boy will see me, jump from his mother’s lap,
and run towards me to be danced on my knee. He will come too near the
horses, hoof, and, full of angeHl shall call to my wife, “Take the baby;
take him! ’ But she, distracted by some domestic work, does not hear
me. Then I get up, and give her such a kick with my foot.’ While he
thought this, he gave a kick with his foot, and broke the pot. All the rice
fell over him, and made him quite white. Therefore, I say, ‘ He who makes
foolish plans for the future will be white all over, like the father of Somasarman.’” f
I shall at once proceed to read you the same story, though slightly
modified, from the Hitopadesa.J The Hitopadesa professes to be
* “ Pantschatantrum sive Quinquepartitum,” edidit I. G. L. Kosegarten. Bonna>
1848.
“ Pantschatantra, Fiinf Bucher indischer Fabien, aus dem Sanskrit iibersetzt.” Von
Th. Benfey. Leipzig, 1859.
Hitopadesa, with interlinWr translation, grammatical analysis, and English trans
lation, in Max Muller s Handbooks for the study of Sanskrit. London, 1864.
Hitopadesa, eine alte indische Fabelsammlung aus dem Sanskrit zum ersten Mai in
das Deutsche iibersetzt.” Von Max Muller. Leipzig, 1844.
t PanZ-atantra, v. 10.
-+ Hitopadesa, ed. Max Muller, p. 120; German translation, p. 159. ’
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
575
taken from the Pan7i:atantra and some other books ; and in this case
it would seem as if some other authority had been followed. You
will see, at all events, how much freedom there was in telling the
old story of the man who built castles in the air.
“ In the town of Devikotta there lived a Brahman of the name of
Deva-sarman. At the feast of the gre^ equinoi he received a plate full
of rice. He took it, went into^a potted shop, which was full of crockery,
and, overcome by the heat, he^ay dow# in a
began to doze. In
order to protect his plate of rice$ he kept a stigk. in his hand, and began to
think, ‘Now, if I sell this plate of rice, I shall receive ten cowries (kaparclaka). I shall then, on'tnd’spot, buy1 plots':and”pilWes, and afier having
increased my capital again and a'gain, I shall buy aiifl sell b^te’l nuts and
dresses till I grow enormously rich. Then I shall marry four wives, and
the youngest and pretties^ of th.^^E.,1 shall make a great pet of. Then
the other wives will be so angry, and begin to quarrel. But I shall be in
a great rage, and take a^sr^ck1/and givO' them-argT6d flijf^ing? . . . While
he said this, he flung * is> Ml^k aw^y the plate of ‘ricA was Smashed to
B
pieces, and many of the pot-spin theu§hop were .broken. The pAhr, hearing
the noise, ran into the shop, and when he s^gvhis^piet^hrofcen, he gave the
Brahman a good scolding, and drove him out qi his shop. Therefore I say,
‘He who rejoices over plans for the future will ’chine Io fe-ief, like the
Brahman who broke the pots.’ ”
In spite of the change of a Brahfiumirrto a milkmaid, no one,
I suppose, will doubt that we have here in the fitorie® of the Pan/ratantra and Hitopadesa the first germs of LrffFontain ’s fable. But
e
*
how did that fable travePall the way from IiM’M; fid1 Craned r How
did it doff its Sanskrit garment and dbh the lig^ht dress of modern
French ? How was the stupid Brahman boVn Ugain as the brisk
milkmaid, “ cotillon simple et souliers plats ?”
It seems a startling case of longevityffh’sJt while languages have
changed, while works of art have perished, while empires have risen
and vanished again, this simple children’s story should have lived
on, and maintained its place of honour and its undifepu^ed sway in
every school-room of the East and every nursery4 of fihe West. And
yet it is a case of longevity’ so wellftMte^fied that even the most
sceptical would hardly venture to question it. We have the pass
port of these stories viseffl at every place tnrough which they have
passed, and, as far as I can judge, ^(Ffditement ehfyegle. The story
of the migration of these Indian fables from East to West is indeed
wonderful; more wonderful and mdre fflltfuctive khan many of
these fables themselves. Is it not wonderful that we should teach
our children the first, the most important lesson® of worldly wisdom,
nay, of a more than worldly wisdom, from bo’oks borrowed from
Buddhists and Brahmans ? from heretics and idolaters Is it not in
structive that wise words spoken a thousand, nay, two thousand years
ago, in a lonely village of India, should, like precious seed scattered
broadcast all over the world, still bear fruit a hundred and a thousand
^VOL. XIV.
QQ
�57&
THE CONTEMPORARY RE VIE W.
fold in that soil which is the most precious before God and man, in
the soul of a child ? No lawgiver, no philosopher has made his
influence felt so widely, so deeply, and so permanently as the author
of these children’s fables. But who was he ? We do not know.
His name, like the name of many a benefactor of the human race, is
forgotten. We only know he was an Indian—a nigger, as some people
would call him—and that he lived at least two thousand years ago.
No doubt, when we first hear of the Indian origin of these fables,
and of their migration from India to Europe, we wonder whether it
can be so; but the fact is, that the story of this Indo-European
migration is not a matter of theory, but of history, and that it
was never quite forgo tBn either in the East or in the West. Each
translator, as he handed on his treasure, seems to have been anxious
to show how he came by it. Huet, the learned Bishop of Avranches,
had only to examine the prefaces of the principal translations of the
Indian fables in order to track their wanderings, as he did in his
famous “ Traite de l’Origine des Romans,” published at Paris in
1670, two years after the appearance of the first collection of La
Fontaine’s fables. Since his time the evidence has become more
plentiful, and the whole subject has been more fully and more pro
foundly treated by Sylvestre de Sacy, by Loiseleur Deslongchamps,f
*
and by Professor Benfey. J But though we have a more accurate
knowledge of the stations by which the Eastern fables reached their
last home in the West, Bishop Huet knew as well as we do that they
came originally from India through Persia by way of Bagdad and
Constantinople.
In order to gain a commanding view of the countries traversed by
these fables, let us take our position at Bagdad in the middle of the
eighth century, and watch from that central point the movements of
our literary caravan in its progress from the far East to the far West.
In the middle of the eighth century, during the reign of the great
Khalif Almansur, Abdallah ibn Almolcaffa wrote his famous collection
of fables, the “Kalila and Dimna,” which we still possess. The
Arabic text of these fables has been published by Sylvestre de Sacy,
and there is an English translation of it by Mr. Knatchbull, formerly
Professor of Arabic at Oxford. Abdallah ibn Almokafia was a
Persian by birth, who after the fall of the Omeyyades became a
convert to Mohammedanism, and rose to high office at the court of
the Khalifs. Being in possession of important secrets of state, he
* “ Calilah et Dimna, ou, Fables de Bidpai en Arabe, precedees d’un memoire sur
l’origine de ce livre.” Par Silvestre de Sacy. Paris, 1816.
t Loiseleur Deslongchamps, “Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, et sur leur introduction
en Europe.” Paris, 1838.
j “ Pantschatantra, Fiinf Bucher indischer Fabeln, Marchen und Erzahlungen, mif.
Einleitung.” Von Th. Benfey. Leipzig, 1859.
�IDJV THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
577
became dangerous in the eyes of the Khalif Almansur, and was foully
*
murdered.
In the preface, Abdallah ibn Almokaffa tells us that he
translated these fables from Pehlevi, the ancient language of Persia;
and that they had been translated into Pehlevi (about two hundred
years before his time) by Barzurjeh-, the physician of Khosru
Nushirvan, the king of Persia, the contemporary of the Emperor
Justinian. The king of Persia had heard that there existed in
India a book full of wisdom, and he had commanded his Vezier,
*
Buzurjmihr, to find a man acquainted with the languages both of
Persia and India. The man chosen wais Barzuyeh. He travelled to
India, got possession of the book, translated it into Persian, and
brought it back to the Court of Khosru. Declining* all rewards
beyond a dress of honour, he omfly stipulated that an account of his
own life and opinions should be added to the book. This account,
probably written by himself, is extremely curious. It is a Religio
Medici of the sixth centuryj and shows us a soul dissatisfied with
traditions and formularies, and striving after truth; and finding rest
only where many other seekers afterbrufh have(found their only rest
before and after him, in a life devoted to alleviating the sufferings
of mankind.
There is another account of the journey of this Persian physician
to India. It has the sanction of Firdusi, in the great Persian epicr
the Shah Hameh, and it is considered by some f as more original
than the one just quoted. According to it,, the Persian physician
read in a book that there existed in India trees or herbs supplying
a medicine with which the dead could be restored to life. At the
command of the king he went to India in search of those trees and
herbs; but, after spending a year in vain researches, he consulted
some wise people on the subject. They told him that the medicine
of which he had read as having the power of restoring men to lifehad to be understood in a higher and mote spiritual sense, and that
what was really meant by it were ancient books of wisdom preserved
in India, which imparted life to those who, were dead in their folly
and sins. J Thereupon the physician translated these books, and oneof them was the collection fablessjthe Kalila and Dimnah.
^
*
It is possible that both these stories were, later inventions j: but the
fact remains that Abdallah ibn Alniokaffa, thqjauthor of the oldest
Arabic collection of our fables, translated them from Pehlevi, the
language of Persia at the time of Khosru Nushirvan, and that the
Pehlevi text which he translated was believed to be a translation of a
book brought from India in the middle of the sixth century.
* See Weil, “ Geschichte der Chalifen,” vol. ii. p. 84.
t Benfey, p. 60.
J Cf. Barlaam et Joasaph, ed. Boissonade, p. 37.
'■*
�578
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
In this Arabic translation the story of the Brahman and the pot of
rice runs as follows :—
“ A religious man was in the habit of receiving every day from the house
of a merchant a certain quantity of butter (oil) and honey, of which, having
eaten as much as he wanted, he put the rest into a jar, which he hung
on a nail in a corner of the room, hoping that the jar would in time be
filled. Now, as he was leaning back one day on his couch, with a stick in
his hand, and the jar suspended over his head? he thought of the high price
of butter and honey, ancfeaid t® himself,‘1 will sell what is in the jar, and buy
with the money which I obtain for it ten goats, which, producing each of
them a young one evgry ^rmonths, in addition to the produce of the kids
as soon as they begin Ap bear, if will not be long before there is a large
flock.’ He continued to make his calcu&tions, and found that he should at
this rate, in.th^cKWd of two years, have more than four hundred goats.
‘ At the expiratiqn. of^hjs ;term I will buy,’ said he, 1 a hundred black cattle,
in the proportion ^fj^bull or a cow for every four goats. I will then pur
chase land, and hirBworkmen to plough it with the beasts, and put it into
tillage, so that before five years are over I shall, no doubt, have realized a
great fortune by the sale of the milk which the cows will give, and of the pro
duce of my land. My next business will be to build a magnificent house, and
engage a nufflibqr^pf^e^an.ts, both male and female; and, when my esta
blishment is competed, I will marry the handsomest woman I can find, who,
in due time becoming a mother, will present me with an heir to my posses
sions, who, as he advances in age, shall receive the best masters that can
be procured; and, if the progress which he makes in learning is equal to my
reasonable expectations, I shall be amply repaid for the pains and expense
which I have bestowed upon himbut if, on the other hand, he disappoints
my hopes, the rod which I have herb shall be the instrument with which I
will make him feh the’ displeasure of a justly-offended parent.’ At these
l
*
words he suddenly raised thh handi ’which held the stick towards the jar,
and broke it, and the contents ran down upon his head and face.......... ” *
You will have observed the coincidence between the Arabic and
the Sanskrit versiorfsj'but also a considerable divergence, particularly
in the winding up of the story. The Brahman and the holy man
both build their castles in the air ; but, while the former kicks his
wife, the latter only chastises his son. How this change came to pass
we cannot tell. One might suppose that, at the time when the book
was translated from Sanskrit into Pehlevi, or from Pehlevi into
Arabic, the Sanskrit story was exactly like file Arabic story, and that
it was changed afterwards. But another explanation is equally
admissible, viz., that the Pehlevi or the Arabic translator wished to
■avoid the offensive behaviour of the husband kicking his wife, and
therefore substituted the son as a more deserving object of casti
gation.
We have thus traced our story from Sanskrit to Pehlevi, and from
Pehlevi to Arabic ; we have followed it in its migrations from the
hermitages of Indian sages to the court of the kings of Persia, and
* “ Kalila and Dimna; or, the Fables of Bidpai, translated from the Arabic.”
the Rev. Wyndham Knatchbull, A.M. Oxford, 1819.
- AJ ;
By
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
579
from thence to the residence of the powerful Khalifs at Bagdad. Let
us recollect that the Khalif Al Mansur, for whom the Arabic trans
lation was made, was the contemporary of Abderrhaman, who ruled
in Spain, and that both were but little anterior to Harun al Rashid
and Charlemagne. At that time, therefor’©,' the way was perfectly
open for these Eastern fables, after theydhad on®e reached Bagdad,
to penetrate into the seats of Western-' learning, fend to spread to
every part of the new empire @f Charlemagne. They may-have done
so, for all we know ; bnt nearly three huildredi years' p’ass1 ^before these
fables meet us again in th® literature^ of EuropeJ ThefCwlovingian
empire had fallen to pieces^ Spain ^ad^-been rescued from the
Mohammedans, William the, Qon<pteEorrhjad landed-in England, and
the Crusades had begun toAurn the' thoughts ©flMEurope towards the
East, when, about the year 1080, we hear of a Jew, p'f the name of
Symeon, the son of Seth, who translate.^, th,ese fables
Arabic
into Greek. He states in his prefaoe that the book came originally
from India, that it was brought td the King (Mosrofef of Persia, and
then translated into Arabic. His o,wn translation inipCJGreek has
been preserved, and has been published, though very; s imperfectly,
under the title of Stephanies and Ichnelates.
*
Here our fable is told
as follows (p. 337) :—
“It is said that a’beggar kept some honey an#butter In a jar close to
where he slept. One night he'thus thought Within himself:- f I shall sell this
honey and butter for however small a1 sum; wit-h it I Shall buy ten goats,
and these in five month's will produce as many again. In five years they
will become four hundred. With them I shall bfiy due huWdtfedl cows, and
with them I shall cultivate some land. And What WithHheir1 halves and
the harvests, I shall become rich in five years, and build a house with four
wings,j- ornamented with gold, and buy all kind’s of WyagK. and marry a
wife. She will give me a child, and I shall call him. Beauty. It will be
a boy, and I shall educate him properly h and if I see him lazy, I shall give
him such a flogging with this stick. • • .L With these words he took a
stick that was near him, struck the jar, and broke ^t, sq that the honey and
milk ran down on his beard.yA,
This Greek translation mighty no doubf^have reached La Fontaine ;
but as the French poet was not a great scholar, least-of all a reader
of Greek MSS., and as the fables of Sytaleon Seth werb not published
till 1697, we must look for other channels through which the old
fable was carried along from East to West.
* Specimen Sapientice Indorum Veterum, id est Liber Ethico-Politicus pervetustus,
dictus Arabice Kalilah ve Limn ah, Greece Stephanites ot Ichnclates, nunc primum
Greece ex MSS. Cod. Holsteiniano prodit cum versione Latina, opera S. G. Starkii.
Berolini, 1697.
f This expression, a four-winged house, occurs also in the PanZcatantra. As it does
not occur in the Arabic text published by De Sacy, it is clear that Symeon must have
followed another Arabic text in which this adjective, belonging to the Sanskrit, and no
doubt to the Pehlevi text also, had been preserved, j
�58o
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
There is, first of all, an Italian translation of the Stephanites and
Ichnelates, which was published at Ferrara in 1583.
*
The title
is, “ Del governo de’ regni. Sotto morali essempi di animali ragionanti tra loro. Tratti prima di lingua Indiana in Agarena da Lelo
Demno Saraceno. Et poi dall’ Agarena nella Greca da Simeone Setto,
philosopho Antiocheno.
Et hora tradotti di Greco in Italiano.”
This translation was probably the work of Giulio Nuti. There is,
besides, a Latin translation, or rather a free rendering of the Greek
translation^ by the learned Jesuit, Petrus Possinus, which was pub
lished a4 Rome in 1666,f This may have been, and, according
to some authorities, has really been one of the sources from which
#
* Pertsch; Orient und Occident, vol. ii. p. 2®. Here the story is told as follows
*“ Perche si contache un cert© pouer huomo hauea uicino a doue dormiua, un mulino
& del buturo, & una notte tra se pensando disse, io uenderd questo mulino, & questo
butturo tanto per il meno, che io comprerd diece capre. Le quali mi figliaranno in
cinque mesi altre.tante,& in cinque anni multiplicheranno fino a quattro cento; Le
quali barattero in cento buoi, & Bdn essi seminaro una capagna, & insieme da
figliuoli loro, & dal frutto della terra in altri cinque anni, sard oltre modo ricco, & faro
un palagio quadro, adorato, & comprerd schiaui una infinite, & prendero moglie, la
quale mi fara un figliuolo, & lo nominero Pancalo, & lo faro ammaestrare come bisogna.
Et se vedro che non si curi con questa bacchetta cosi il percotero. Con che prendendo
la bacchetta che gli era uieina, & feattendo di esaa il vaso doue era il buturo, e lo ruppe,
& fuse il butturo. Dopo gli partori la moglie un figliuolo, e la moglie un di gli disse,
habbi un poco cura di questo fanciullo o marito, fino che io uo e torno da un seruigio.
La quale essendo andata fu aneo il marito ohiamato dal Signore della terra, & tra tanto
-auucnne che una serpe sali sopra il fanciullo. Et vna donzella uicina, corsa la, 1’ uccise.
'Tomato il marito uide insanguito 1’ vseio, & pensando che costei 1’ hauesse ucciso,
.auanti che il uedesse, le diede ^ul->qapo, di un bastone, e 1’ uccise. Entrato poi, & sano
trouando il figliuolq, & la serpe morta, si fu grandemente pentito, & piase amaramente.
Losi adunque i frettolosi in molte cose errano.” (P. 516.)
t Georgii Pachymeris Michael Palseologus, sive Historia rerum a M.P. gestarum, ed.
Petr. Possinus. Eomse, 1666.
Appendix ad observationes Pachymerianas, Specimen Sapientiaa Indorum veterum
liber olim ex lingua Indica in Persicam a Perzoe Medico : ex Persica in Arabicam ab
Anonymo: ex Arabica
Gt-aecam a Symeone Seth, a Petro Possino Societ. Iesu,
novissime e Grseca in Latin am translatus.
“ Huie talia serio nuganti haud paulo cordatior mulier. Mihi videris, Sponse, inquit,
nostri cujusdam famuli egentissimi hominis, similis ista inani provisione nimis remotarum
et incerto eventu pendentium rerum. Is diurnis mercedibus mellis ac butyri non magna
copia collects, duobus ista vasis e terra coctili condiderat. Mox secum ita ratiocinans
nocte quadam dicebat: Mel ego istud ac butyruni quindecim minimum vendam denariis.
Ex his decern Capras emam. Has mihi quinto mense totidem alias parient. Quinque
annis gregem Caprarum facile quadringentarum confecero. Has commutare tunc placet
cum bobus centum, quibus exarabo vim terras magnam et numerum tritici maximum
congeram. Ex fructibus hisce quinquennio mftfflKplieSftlis, pecuniae scilicet tantus existet
modus, ut facile in locupletissimis numerer. Accedit dos uxoris quam istis opibus
ditissimam nansciscar. Nascetur mihi filius quern jam nunc decerno nominare Pancalum. Hunc educabo liib'eralfesime, ut nobilium nulli concedat. Qui si ubi adoleverit,
ut juventus solet, contumacem se mihi praebeffit, haud feret impune. Baculo enim hoc
ilium hoc modo feriam. Arreptum inter haec dicendum lecto vicinum baculum per
tenebras jactavit, casuque incurrens in dolia mellis et butyri juxta posita,' confregit
utrumque, ita ut in ejus etiam os barbamqfie stillae liquoris prosilirent; caetera effusa
et mixta pulveri prorsus corrumperentur; ac fundamentum spei tantae, inopem et
multum gementem momento destitueret.” (P. 602.)
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
58i
La Fontaine drew his inspirations. But though La Fontaine mayhave consulted this work for other fables, I do not think that he
took from it the fable of Perrette and the milk-pail.
The fact is, that these fables had found several other channels
through which, as early as the thirteenth century, they reached the
literary market of Europe, and became familiar as household words,
at least among the higher and educated classes. We shall follow
the course of some of these channels. First, then, a learned Jew,
whose name seems to have been Joel,translated our fables from Arabic
into Hebrew (1250?). His work has been preserved in one MS. at
Paris, but has not yet been published, except the tenth book, which
was communicated by Dr. Neubauer to a German. journal, Orient unci
Occident (vol. i. p. 658). This Hebrew translation was translated by
another Jew, Johannes of Capua, into Latin. His translation was
finished between 1263r—1278, and, under the title of Dwectorium
humance vitce, it became very seen a popular work with the select
reading public of the thirteenth century.
*
Itiwas translated into
German at the command of Eberhard, the great Duke of Wiirtemberg, and both the Latin text and the German translation occur, in
repeated editions, among the rare books printed between 1480 and
the end of the fifteenth century, f A Spanish translations, founded
both on the German and the Latin texts;, appeared at Burgos in
1493
and from these different swrees flowed in the sixteenth
* Directorium Humanae Vitae alias Parabolae Antiquorum Sapientum, fol. s. 1. e. a. k.4:
“Dicitque olim quidam fuit heremita apud quendam regem. Cui rex providerat
quolibet die pro sua vita. Scilicet provisionem de sua coquina eft vasculum de melle.
Ille vero comedebat decocta^ et reservabat mel in quodam vase suspenso super suum
caput donee esset plenum. Erat autem mel percarum in illis diebus. Quadam vero die:
dum jaceret in suo lecto elevato capite, respexit vas mellis quod super caput ei pendebai. Et recordatus quoniam mel de die in diem vendebatur pluris solito seu carius,
et dixit in corde suo. Quum fuerit hoc vas plenums vqndam ipsum uno talento auri :
*
de quo mihi emam decern oves, et successu temporis he dyes facient filiog et Alias, et
erunt viginti. Postea vero ipsis multiplicatis cum Aliis et Aliabus in quatuor annis
erunt quatuor centum. Tunc de quibuslibet quatuor. ojvibusi emam vaccam et bovem
et terram. Et vaccaa multiplicab.untur in Aliis, quorum masculos accipiam mihi in
culturam terre, praeter id quod percipiam de eis de lacte et lana, donee non’consummatis
aliis quinque annis multiplicabuntur in tantum quod habebo mihi magnas substantiae
et divitias, et ero a cunctis reputatus dives et honestus. Et ediAcabo mibi tunc grandia
et excellentia ediAcia pre omnibjus meis'vicinis et consanguindbus, Haque omnes de meis
divitiis loquantur, nonne erit mihiillud jocundum, cum omnes homines mihi reverentiam
in omnibus locis exhibeant. Accipiam postea uxorem de nobilibus terre. Cumque
earn cognovero, concipiet et pariet mihi Alium nobilcm et delectabilem cum bona
fortuna et dei boncplacito qui crescet in scientia et virtute, et relinquam mihi per ipsum
bonam memoriam post mei obitum, et castigabjq -ipsum dietim: sijmee recalcitraverit
doctrine; ac mihi in omnibus erit obediens, et si non : percutiam eum isto baclo et erecto
baculo ad percutiendum percussit vag mellis et fregit ipsum et deAuxit mel super
caput ejus.”
+ Benfey, Orient und Occident, vol. i. p. 138.
+ Benfey, Orient und Occident, vol. i. p. 501. Its title is: “Exemplario contra los
enganos y peligros del mundo,” ibid. p. 167-68.
�582
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
century the Italian renderings of Firenzuola (1548) and Doni
*
(1552).f As these Italian translations were repeated in French £
and English, before the end of the sixteenth century, they might no
doubt have supplied La Fontaine with subjects for his fables.
But, as far as we know, it was a third channel that really brought
the Indian fabtes to the immediate notice of the French poet. A
Persian poet, of the ;name of Nasr Allah, translated the work of
Abdallah ibn Almokfefla into Persian about 1150. This Persian trans
lation was enlarged mF sth e fifteenth century by another Persian poet,
Husain ben A^^alledteZ Vakz, under the title of Anvari Suhaili.§
This name will be familiar to many members of the Indian Civil
Service, as being one of the old Haileybury class-books which had to
be construed by all’who wished to gain high honours in Persian.
This work, or lat lea's! the first books ofijit, were translated into French
by David Sahid of Ispahan^ and published at Paris in 1644, under the
title of Livre desSiimi&Ies^ou^ la Condmtc des Rois, compose par le Sage
Pilpay, Indien. Thisl translation, we know, fell into the hands of
La Fontaine?; iand a number of his most charming fables were
certainly borrowed from it.
But Perrette withothe milk^pail has not yet arrived at the end of
her journey, for if we’ look a the “ Livre des Lumieres,” as pub
t
*
lished at Paras#-we find neither the milkmaid nor her prototype, the
Brahman who kicks'hishwife-, or the religious man who flogs his boy.
That story occursAn the latter chapters, which were left out in the
French translation; and. La Fontaine, therefore, must have met with
his model elsewher^;^
Kemeniber; that »/• all our wanderings we have not yet found the
milkmaid^ but only -the Brahman or the religious man. What we
want to know is who first brought about this metamorphosis.
No doubt Ld Fdntairie whs quite the man to seize on any jewel
which was contained inthe Orientalfables, to remove the cumbersome
and foreign-looking -setting, and thifo. to place the principal figure in
that pretty frame in which most of us have first become acquainted
with it. But in this case the charmer’s wand did not belong to*
§
* Discorsi degli amimali, di Messer Agnolo Firenzuola, in Prose di M. A. F.
(Fiorenza, 1548;)'
t La Moral Filosophiadel Doni, trattada gli antichi scrittori. Vinegia, 1552.
Trattati Diversi di Sendebar Indiano, filosopho morale. Vinegia, 1552.
+ Le plaisant et facetieux discours des animaux, nouvellement traduict de tuscan en
fran<jois, Lyon, 1556, par Gabriel Cottier.
Deux livres de filosofie fabuleuse, le premier pris des discours de M. Ange Firenzuola,
le second extraict des traictez de Sandebar indien, par Pierre de La Rivey. Lyon, 1579.
The second book is a translation of the second part of Doni’s “ Filosofia morale.”
§ The Anvar-i Suhaili, or the Lights of Ganophs, being the Persian version of the
Fables of Pilpay, or the Book, Kalilah and Damnah, rendered into Persian by Husain
VAiz U’l-Kashifi, literally translated by E. B. Eastwick, Hertford, 1854.
�DM THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
583
La Fontaine, but to some forgotten worthy, whose very name it will
be difficult to fix upon with certainty.
We have, as yet, traced three streams only, all starting from the
Arabic translation of Abdallah ibn Almokafia, one in the eleventh,
another in the twelfth, a third in the thirteenth century, all reaching
Europe, some touching the very steps of the throne of Louis XIV.,
yet none of them carrying the leaf which contained the story of
“ Perrette/’ or of the “ Brahman,” to the threshold of La Fontaine’s
home. We must, therefore, try again.
After the conquest of Spain by the Mohammedan^ Arabic litera
ture had found a new home in Western Wurope, and among the
numerous works translated fmm- Arawfe into Latin dr 'Spanish, we
find in the middle of thePthirteenth cehtiiry a Spanish translation
of our fables, called 11 Calila e Dymna.
*
This was translated into
Latin by Raimond de Beziers in
Lastly, we find in the same century another translation from
Arabic straight into Latin verse, by Baldo, which bdcame known
under the name of “ ffisopus alter.”-f* This translation has lately been published, by Don Pascual de G-ayangos in the
Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, Madrid, 1860, vol. li. Here the story runs as follows
(p. 57):—
“ Del religioso que vertio la miel et la manteca sobre su cabeza.
“ Dijo la mujer
‘ Dicen que un religioso habia cada dia limosna de casa de un mercader rico, pan e manteca e miel e otras cosas, et comia el pan e lo al condesaba, et ponia
la miel e la manteca en un jarra, fasta que la finchd, et tenia'la jarra colgada a la cabecera
de su cama. Et vino tiempo que encarecio la miel e la manteca, et el religioso fablo un
dia consigo mismo, estando asentado en su cama, etdijo asi: Venaere cuanto esth en esta
jarra por tantos maravedis, e comprare con ell" diez cabras, et emprenarse-han, e
pariran h cabo de cinco meses ; et fizo cuenta de esta guisa, et fallo que en cinco anos
montarian bien cuatrocientas cabras. Desi dijo : Venderlas-he todas, et con el precio
dellas comprare cien vacas, por cada cuatro cabezas una vaca, e haberd simiente e
sembrare con los bueyes, et aprovecharme-he de los becerros et de las fembras e de
la leche e manteca, e de las mieses habre grant habenyet labrare muy nobles casas, e
comprare siervos e siervas, et esto fecho casarme-he con una mujer muy rica, e fermosa,
e de grantjlogar, e emprenarla-he de fijo varon, e nacera complido de sus miembros,
et criarlo-he como a fijo de rey, e castigarlo-he con esta yara, si non quisiere ser
bueno 6 obediente.’ E el deciendo esto, alzo la vara que tenia en la mano, et ferio en
la olla que estaba colgada encima del, d quebrola, e cayole la miel e la manteca sobre
su cabeza.” &c.
t See Poesies inedites du moyen age, par M. Ednlstand Du Meril. Paris, 1854.
XVI. De viro et vase olei (p. 239):—
“ Uxor ab antiquo fuit infecunda marito.
Mesticiam (I. moestitiam) cujus cupiens lenire vix (I. vir) hujus,
His blandimentis solatur tristi[ti]a mentis :
Cur sic tristaris 1 Dolor est tuus omm's inanis r
Pulchrae prolis eris satis amodo munere felix.
Pro nihilo ducens conjunx haec verbulaprudens,
T
His verbis plane quod ait vir monstrat inane :
■ Rebus inops quidam . . . (bone vias, tibi dicam,)
: : , ' ■>
Vas oleo plenum, longum quod retro per aevum
Legerat orando, loca per diversa vagando,
Pune ligans ar(e)to, tecto[que] susjjendit.ab alto.
Sic preestolatur tempus quo pluris ematur[atur]
Qua locupletari se sperat et arte beari.
Talia dum captat, haec stultus inania jactat
�5§4
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
From these frequent translations, and translations of translations,
in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, we see quite clearly
that these Indian fables were extremely popular, and were, in fact,
more widely read in Europe than the Bible, or any other book.
They were not only read in translations, but having been introduced
into Sermons, homilies, and works on morality, they were improved
upon, acclimatized, localized, moralized, till at last it is almost im
possible to recognise their Oriental features under their homely
disguises.
I shall give you one instance only.
Rabelais, in his (l Qargantua/’ gives a long description how a man
might conquer the whole world. At the end of this dialogue, which
was meant as a satire on Charles V., we read :—
“ There was there present at that time an old gentleman well experienced
in the wars, a stern soldier, and who had been in many great hazards,
named Echephron; who, hearing this discourse, said: ‘ I do greatly doubt
that all this enterprise will be like the tale, or interlude, of the pitcher, full
of milk, wherewith a shoemaker made himself rich in conceit; but when the
pitcher was broken, he had not whereupon to dine.’ ”
This is clearly our story, only the Brahman has, as yet, been changed
into a shoemaker only, and the pot of rice or the jar of butter and
honey into a pitcher of milk. Now it is perfectly true that if a writer
of the fifteenth ce-n^iry changed the Brahman into a shoemaker, La
Fontaine might, wifth the hame right, have replaced the Brahman by
his milkmaid. Knowing that the story was current—was, in fact,
common property in the fifteenth century, nay, even at a much
earlier date, we might; really be satisfied after having brought the
germs of Perr'gwe within easy reach of La Fontaine. But, fortunately,
we can make at least one step further, a step of about two centuries.
This giant step backward brings us to the thirteenth century, and
there we find our old Indian friend again, and this time really
changed into a milkmaid. The book I refer to is written in Latin,
and called Dialogus Creaturarum opdime moralizatus; in English, the
Dialogue of Creatures moralized. It was a book intended to teach
the principles of Christian morality by examples taken from ancient
fables. It was evidently a most successful book, and was translated
into several modern languages. There is an old translation of it in
Ecce potens factus,Cuero cum talia naetus,
Vinciar uxori quantum queo nobiliori :
Tunc sobolem g-ignam, -so meque per omnia dignam,
Cujus opus morum genus omne praeibit avorum.
Cui nisi tot vitae fuerint insignia rite, • ■
Fustis hie absque mora feriet caput ejus et"[h]ora.
Quod dum nai’raret,^extramque minando levaret,
Ut percussisset puerum quasi praesto fuisset
Vas in preedictum manu's -ejus dirigit ictum
Servatumque sibi vas il[l]ico fregit olivi.”
�ON THE MIGRATION OF
585
ff)® O W
p QP'H
gp® P
® co fl> R*
pbf5 QQ M
Pip p »
® H g-B
O’ o' B' S
�586
THE CONTEMPORAR Y RE VIE W.
English, first printed by Caxton, and afterwards repeated in 1816.
I shall read you from it the fable in which, as far as I can find, the
milkmaid appears for the first time on the stage, surrounded already
by much of that scenery which, four hundred years later, received its
last touches at the hand of La Fontaine.
“ Dialogo C. (p. ccxxiii.) Foi’ as it is but madnesse to truste to mocbe in
surete, so it is but foly to hope to moche of vanyteys, for vayne be all
erthly thinges longynge to men, as sayth Davyd, Psal. xciiii: Wher of it is
tolde in fablys that a lady uppon a tyme delyvered to her mayden a gcilon of
mylke to sell at a cite,fcSd by'the way, as she sate and restid her by a dyche
side, she began to
the money of the mylke she wold bye an
henne, the which shulde brin-ge forth chbkyns, and when they were growyn
to hennys she wolde sell them and bFpiggis, and eschaunge them in to
shepe, and the shep4
in
*
to oxen, and so whan she was come to richesse she
sholde be maried right worshipfully unto some worthy man, and thus she
reioycid. And whan she ;Was thus metvelously comfortid and ravisshed
inwardly in her secrete solace, thinkynge with howe greate ioye she shuld
be ledde toward® the chirche with her husbond on horsebacke, she sayde to
her self: ‘Goo wl, goo we.’ Sodavnly® she smote the grounde with her
fote, myndynge^o spurrp
hoSI (but her fote slypped, and she fell in
the dyche, and there lay®| her mylke,.fend so she was farre from her pur
pose, and never had that she hopid- to have.” *
Here we have arrived at the find of our journey. It has been a
long journey across fifteen. o£ twenty centuries, and I am afraid our
following Perrette from country to country, and from language to
language, may have tired some of my hearers. I shall, therefore,
not attempt to fill the gap that divides the fable of the thirteenth
century from La Fontaine. Suffice it to say, that the milkmaid,
having once taken the place of the Brahman, maintained it against
all comers. We find her as Dona Truhana, in the famous Conde
Lucanor, the work of the Infante Don Juan JYanuel,^ who died in
* The Latin text is more simple :—“ Unde cum quedam domina dedisset ancille sue
lac ut venderet et lac portaret ad urbem juxta fossatum cogitare cepit quod de pcio lactis
emerit gallinam quae faceret pullos quos auctos in gallinas venderet et porcellos emeret
eos que mutaret in oves et ipsas in boves. Sic que ditata contraheret cum aliquo nobili et
sic gloriabatur. Et cum sic gloriaretur et cogitaret cum quanta gloria duceretur ad
ilium virum super equum dicendo gio gio cepit pede percutere terram quasi pungeret
equum calcaribus. Sed tunc lubricatus est pes ejus et cecidit in fossatum effundendo
lac. Sic enim non habuit quod.se adepturam sperabat.”—Dialogus Creaturarum optime
moralizatus (ascribed to Nicolaus Pergaminus, supposed to have lived in the thirteenth
century). He quotes Elynandus, in Gestis Romanorum. First edition, per Gerardum leeu
in oppido Goudensi inceptum, munere Dei finitus est, Anno Domini, 1480.
t He tells the story as follows :—“There was a woman called Dona Truhana (Ger
trude), rather poor than rich. One day she went to the market carrying a pot of honey
on her head. On her way she began to think that she would sell the pot of honey,
and buy a quantity of eggs, that from those eggs she would have chickens, that she
would sell them and buy sheep ; that the sheep would give her lambs, and thus calcu
lating all her gains, she began to think herself much richer than her neighbours. With
the riches which she imagined she possessed, she thought how she would marry her sons
and daughters, and how she would walk in the street surrounded by her sons and
daughters-in-law; and how people would consider her very happy for having amassed
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
587
1347, the grandson of St. Ferdinand, the nephew of Alfonso the Wise,
though himself not a king, yet more powerful than a king; renowned
both by’his sword and by his pen, and possibly noibignorant of Arabic,
the language of his enemies. We find her again in the Contes et
Nouvelles of Bonaventure des Periers* published in the sixteenth cen
tury, a book which we know that La Fontaine was well acquainted
with. We find her after La Fontaine in all fee languages of Europe.
You see now before your eyes thd- bridge on ‘which our fables
came to us from East to WeS$. The' same Lfiridge which brought
us Perrette brought us hundred1!. of W>lfe, all originally sprung
up in India, many of them carefully kollecwd1 by Bilclffkist priests,
and preserved in their sacred canon, afterwards handed on to
the Brahman ic writers of a' later age. Carried c ‘by Barzuyeh
from India to the edurt of Persia, then to the courts of the
Khalifs at Bagdad and Cordova, and of the1 empntors at Constanti
nople. Some of them, no doubt, peFished on ‘feeff'Journey, others
were mixed up together, others wdre changetiHill w should hardly
*
e
*
know them again. Still, if you on'de know the eventful journey of
Perrette, you know the journey ot 'all the Other tables that belong to
this Indian cycle; "'-Few of them have’g'one ferough So many changes,
few of them haw' found so many
4
*RWcts^
whether in the courts of
kings or in the huts of beggars? Few of felrn "have been to places
"
*
where Perrette has n<# also been. This is why I selected her and
her passage through the world as fee beisl^ illustration of a subject
which otherwise would require 3 a whole course of lectures to be
*
treated in its completeness?
But though our fable represents
large class Oircluster of fables,
it does not represent all. There ’were seferhl cdliec'tibns, besides the
PanZ'atantra, which found their way from India to Europe. The
so large a fortune, though, she had. been so poor. "While she was ttenkirioi over all
this, she began to laugh for joy, and struck her heard andlogead with he^hand. The
pot of honey fell down/w’as, broken, and s|l shbdhot tears because she had lost all that
she would have possessed! itf the pot of honey had’hotfeden broken.” 1
* Bonaventure des Periers, Les Contes pu' lfes N^yellgs^ Asfdsterdam, 1735;
Nouvelle XIV. (vol. i. p. 141). (First edition, Lyon, 1,55&) “ Et ne les (les
Alquemistes) SQauroit-onimieux compaW qu’a une boffne ’feWnl1 qui portoit une potee
de laict au marche, faisant son compte ainsi: qu’elle la vendroitI deux liards: de ces
deux liards elle en achepteroit une doi^ainefd’^T^Sj/leeqjUelJigliljermetfroit couver, et en
auroit une douzaine de poussins: ces poussins deyiendroient .gjjands, et les feroit
chaponner : ces chapons vaudroient 6inq so|zla piece,ce serort un escu et plu?, dont
elle achepteroit deux cochons, masle et femelle : qui deviendroient grands et en feroient
une douzaine d’autres, qu’elle vendroit vingt solz la ^pmee q apres les . avoir nourris
quelque temps, ce seroient douze francs.,; dont elle achepteroit une iumcnt, qui porteroit
un beau poulain, Iequel croistroit et deviendroit tant gentil: il sauteroit et feroit
Et en disant Sin, la bonne femme, de l’aise qu’elle avoit en son compte, se print a faire
la ruade que feroit son poulain: et en ce faisant sa potee de laict va tomber, et se
respandit toute. Et voila ses oeufs, ses poussins, ses chappons, ses [cochons, sa jument,
et son poulain, tous par terre.”
�588
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW?
most important among them is the Book of the Seven Wise Masters,
or the Book of Sindbad, the history of which has lately been written
with great learning and ingenuity by Signor Comparetti.
*
These large collections of fables and stories mark what may be
called the high roads on which the literary products of the East were
carried to the West. But there are, beside these high roads, some
smaller, less trodden paths on which single fables, sometimes mere
proverbs, similes, or metaphors, have come to us from India,
from Persepolis, from Damascus and Bagdad. I have already
alluded to the powerful influence which Arabic literature exercised on
Western Europe through Spain. Again, a most active interchange
of Eastern and Western ideas took place at a later time during the
progress of the Crusades. Even the inroads of Mongolian tribes into
Russia and the East of Europe kept up a literary bartering between
Oriental and Occidental nations.
But few would have suspected a Father of the Church as an im
porter of Eastern fables. Yet so it is.
At the court of the same Chalif Almansur, where Abdallah ibn
Almokafla translated the fables of Calila or Bimna from Persian into
Arabic, there lived a Christian of the name of Sergius, who for many
years held the high office of treasurer to the Chalif. He had a son
to whom he gave the best education that could then be given, his
chief tutor being one Cosmos, an Italian monk, who had been taken
prisoner by the Saracens, and sold as a slave at Bagdad. After the
death of Sergius, his son succeeded him for some time as chief
councillor (^7rpwToavp./3ovXos) to the Chalif Almansur. Such, however,
had been the influence of the Italian monk on his pupil’s mind, that
he suddenly resolved to retire from the world, and to devote himself to
study, meditation, and pious works. From the monastery of St. Saba,
near Jerusalem, this former minister of the Chalif issued the most
learned works on theology, particularly his Exposition of the Orthodox
Faith. He soon became the highest authority on matters of dogma
in the Eastern Church, and he still holds his place among the saints
both of the Eastern and the Western Churches. His name was Joannes,
and from being born at Damascus, the former capital of the Chalifs,
he is best known in history as Joannes Damascenus, or St. John of
Damascus. He must have known Arabic, and probably Persian;
but his mastery of Greek earned him, later in life, the name of
Chrysorrhoas.,, or Gold-flowing. He became famous as the defender
of the sacred images, and as the determined opponent of the Emperor
Leo the Isaurian, about 726. It is difficult in his life to distinguish
between legend and history, but that he had held high office at the
court of the Chalif Almansur, that he boldly opposed the iconoclastic
* Ricerche intorno al Libro diSindibad.
Milano, 1869.
�ON THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
589
policy of the Emperor Leo, and that he wrote the most learned
theological works of his time, cannot easily be questioned.
Among the works ascribed to him is a story called Barlciam and
*
Joasaph
There has been a fierce controversy as to whether he was
the author of it or not. Though for our owii immediate purposes it
would be of little consequence whether the book was written by
Joannes Damascenus or by some fess distinguished '-tecclesiastic, I
must confess that the arguments hitherto adduced against his author
ship seem to me very weak.
The Jesuits did not like the book, because it was a religious novel.
They pointed to a passage in whichJthe HolyMSrhost is represented as
proceeding from the Father “ and the Son/’ as incompatible with the
creed of an Eastern ecclesiastics' That very passage, however, has now
been proved to be spurious and it should be borne in mind, besides,
that the controversy on the procession of the Holy Ghost from the
Father and the Son, or from the Father through the Son, dates a
century later than Joannes. The fac^< again, that the author does
not mention Mohammedanism,f proves nothing against the author
ship of Joannes, because, as he places BufSam ‘ and Joasaph in the
early centuries of Christianity, he would have ruined his story by
any allusion to Mohammed’s religion, then only a hundred years
old. Besides, he had written -a separate work, in which the relative
merits of Christianity and Mohammedanism are discussed. The
prominence given to the question of the worship of images shows
that the story could not have been written much Before the time of
Joannes Damascenus, and there is nothing in the style of our author
that could be pointed out as incompatible with the style of the
great theologian. On the contrary, the author of Barlaam and
Joasaph quotes the same authors whom Joannes Damascenus
quotes most frequently—e.g., Basilius and Gregorius Nazianzenus.
And no one but Joannes could have taken long passages from his
own works without saying where he borrowed them.
* The Greek text was first published in 1832 by Boissonade, in his “Anecdota
Graeca,” vol. iv. The title as given in some MSS. is:—laropia
Ik rijp
evSorspas t&v A.i9iottuv xiopaQ, rfjp ’IvSuv XsyopivriQ, 7rpd£ rrjv ayiav ttoXiv ptTtvsxGiLaa Sia ’Iioavvov povaxov [other MSS. read, avyypai^iiaa irapd tov ayiov irarpoQ
'r]p.G>v laiavvov rov bapaaK^vov],. avSpoi; Tipiov Kai evaptrov p.ovf}g tov ayiov
kv
y o (SioQ BapXaap Kai luaaatp ro>v aotSipiov Kai paxapiaiv. Joannes Monachus occurs
as the name of the author in other works of Joannes Damascenus. See Leo Allatius,
Prolegomena, p. l., in Damasceni Opera Omnia. Ed. Lequieu5jl748. Venice.
At the end the author says : Ewj <i>oe to irlpap tov irapovTOQ Xoyov, ov Kara 5vvap.iv
spijv yeypa^Ka, KaOiog aK/jKoa irapii tujv dipevSup TrapactoaiKoruv pot Tipiiov dv5pG>v.
rsvotro Sbr/pap, tovq avaytvuoKovraQ re Kai aKovovraQ ttjv ipvxexptXij Siriyrjaiv ravrip’,
t>]£ peptSop a^ia>9ijvai t&v evapttTTTjaavaiov Tip Kvp'np evxalg Kai irpttrflsiaiQ BapXaap. Kai
lotdoatp tivv paKapiuv, Trepi o>v t) 5ir)yijaiQ. See also Wiener Jahrbucher, vol. lxiii. p.
44—83 ; vol. lxxii. p. 274—88 ; vol. lxxiii. p. 176—202.
t Littre, Journal des Savants, 1865, p. 337.
J The Martyrologium Romanum, whatever its authority may be, states distinctly
�590
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
The story of “ Barlaam and Joasaph ”—or, as he is more commonly
called, Josaphat—may be told in a few words: “ A king in India,
an enemy and persecutor of the Christians, has an only son. The
astrologers have predicted that he would embrace the new doctrine.
His father, therefore, tries by all means in his power to keep him
ignorant of the miseries of the world, and to create in him a taste fol
pleasure and enjoyment. A Christian hermit, however, gains access to
the prince, and instructs him in the doctrines of the Christian religion.
The young prince is not only baptized, but resolves to give up all
his earthly.richesf; and, after having converted his own father and
many of his subjects, he follows his [teacher into the desert.”
The real object of the book is to give a simple exposition of the
principal doctrines of the Christian religion. It also contains a first
attempt at comparative theology, for in the course of the story there is a
disputation on the merits of the principal religions of the world—the
Chaldaean, the Egyptian, the Greek, the Jewish, and the Christian.
But one of the chief attractions of thip manual of Christian theology
consisted in ^.number of fables and parables with which it is
enlivened. Most of them have been traced to an Indian source. I
shall mention one only which has found its way into almost every
literature of the world: *—
“ A man was pursued by a unicorn, and while he tried to flee from it, he
fell into a pit. In falling, he stretchfed out both his arms, and laid hold of
a small tree that was growing on one side of the pit. - Having gained a firm
footing, and holding to the tree, he fancied he was safe, when he saw two
mice, a black ana a white one, busy gnawing the root of the tree to which
he was clinging. Looking d’own into the pit, he perceived a horrid dragon
with his mouth wide aspen, ready to devour him, and when examining the
place onjjjwhi^h his^fpet rested, the heads of four serpents glared at him.
Then he looked up. and observed drops of honey falling down from the tree
to which he clung. {Suddenly the unicorn, the dragon, the mice, and the
serpents were-all forgotten, and his mind was intent only on catching the
drops ofisW^t ho®ey trickling down froniithe tree.”
An explanation is hardly required. The unicorn is Death, always
chasing man; the pit 1 is the world; the small tree is man’s life,
*
constantly gnawed by the black and the white mouse—i.e., by night
and day; the four serpents are the four elements which compose the
human body ;■ the dragon below is meant for the jaws of hell.
that the . acts of Barlaam :ahd Josaphat were written by Sanctus Joannes Damascenes.
“ Apud Indos Persia Ififaitimos sanctorum Barlaam et Josaphat, quorum actus mirandos
sanctus Joannes Damascenus conscripsit.” See Leonis Allatii Prolegomena,
Joannis
Damasceni Opera, ed. Lequien, vol. i.p. xxvi. He adds : Et Gennadius Patriarcha per
Concil. Florent., cap. 5. oi% ij/TTov be Kai 6 ’hodwijc 6 peyaQ rov SapaaKoii d<p&aXp.b$
tv
BapXaa/x Kai 'Iwcrdtpar rwv ’Ivdojv fj.aprvpei Xiyov.
* The story of the caskets, well known from the Merchant of Venice, occurs in
Barlaam and Josaphat,Though it is used there for a different purpose.
�<AV THE MIGRA TION OF FABLES.
59i
Surrounded by all these horrors, man is yet able to forget them all,
and to think only of the pleasures of life, which, like a few drops of
honey, fall into his mouth from the tree of life.
*
But what is still more curious is, that the author of Barlaam
and Josaphat has evidently taken his very hero, the Indian Prince
Josaphat, from an Indian source. In the “ Lalita Vistara”—the life,
though no doubt the legendary life, of Buddha—the father of Buddha
is a king. When his son is born, the Brahman Asita predicts that
he will rise to great glory, and become either a powerful king, or,
renouncing the throne and embracing the life of i, hermit, become a
Buddha.f The great object of his father is to prevent this. He
therefore keeps the young prince, when he grows up, in his garden
and palaces, surrounded by all pleasures which might' turn his mind
from contemplation to enjoyment. More especially he is to know
nothing of illness, old age, and death, which might open his eyes to
the misery and unreality of life. After a time, however, the prince
receives permission to drive out; and then follow the three drives,f
so famous in Buddhist history. The places where these drives took
place were commemorated by towers still standing in the time of
Fa Ilian’s visit to India, early in the fifth century after Christ, and
even in the time of Hiouen Thsang, in the seventh century. I shall
read you a short account of the three drives : §—
“ One day when the prince with a large retinue was driving through the
eastern gate of the city, on the way to one of his parks, hd.met on the road
an old man, broken and decrepit. One could; see the veins and muscles
over the whole of his body, his teeth chattered, he was covered with
wrinkles, bald, and hardly able to utter hollow and unmelodious sounds.
He was bent on his stick, and all his limbs and joints trembled. ‘Who
is that man ? ’ said the prince to his coachman. ‘ He is small and
weak, his flesh and his blood are dried up, his muscles stick to his skin, his
head is white, his teeth chatter, his body is wasted away; leaning on his
stick, he is hardly able to walk, stumbling at . every step, Is there some
thing peculiar in his family, or is this the common lot of all created beings ? ’
“ ‘Sir,’ replied the coachman, ‘that man.is sinkin^cander old age, his
senses have become obtuse, suffering has destroyed his strength, and he is
despised by his relations. He is without support, and useless ; and people
have abandoned him, like a dead tree in a forest. But this is not peculiar
to his family. In every creature youth is defeated by old age. Your father,
your mother, all your relations, all your friends, will come to the same
state ; this is the appointed end of all creatures.’
“JAlas!’ replied the prince, ‘are creatures so ignorant, so weak, and
foolish as to be proud of the youth by which they are intoxicated, not
seeing the old age which awaits them ? As for me, I go away. Coachman,*
§
* Cf. Benfey, Pantschatantra, vol. i. p. 80 ; vol. ii. p, 528'j.Les Avadanas, contos ct
apologues indiens, par Stanislas Julien, i. 132, 191 ; Gesta Romanorum, cap. 168 ;
iHomayun Nameh, cap. iv.; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 758-59,
h f Lalita Vistara, ed. Calcutt, p. 126.
I J Ibid., p. 225.
§ See Max Muller’s “ Chips from a German Workshop,” 2nd edit., vol. I., p. 211.
VOL. XIV.
R R
�592
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
turn my chariot quickly. What have I, the future prey of old age—what
have I to do with pleasure ? ’ And the young prince returned to the city
without going to the park.
.
J
“Another time the prince was driving through the southern gate to his
pleasure-garden, when he perceived on the road a man suffering from ill
ness, parched with fever, his body wasted, covered with mud, without a
friend, without a home, hardly able to breathe, and frightened at the sight
of himself and the approach of death. Having questioned his coachman,
and received from him the answer which he expected, the young prince said,
Alas !. health is but the sport of a dream, and the fear of suffering must, take
this flightful form. Where is the wise man who, after having seen what
he is, could any longer thinkcof joy and pleasure ? ’ The prince turned his
chariot, and returned to the city,
“ A third time he was driving to his pleasure-garden through the western
gate, when he saw a dead body on the road, lying on a bier, and covered
with a cloth.. The friends stood about crying, sobbing, tearing their hair,
covering their heads with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering wild
cries.. The prince, again, calling his coachman to witness this painful scene,
exclaimed, ‘ Oh, woe to youth, which must be destroyed by old age ! Woe
to health, which ifiust be destroyed by so many diseases! Woe to this life,
where a man remains so short a time ! If there were no old age, no disease’
no death, if thes® could be made captive for ever! ’ Then, betraying for
the first, time his intentions, the young prince said, ‘ Let us turn back, I
must think how to accomplish deliverance.’
A last meeting put an end to his hesitation. He was driving through
the northern gate on the way to his pleasure-gardens, when he saw a
mendicant, who appeared outwardly calm, subdued, looking downwards,
weaiing with an air of dignity his religious vestment, and carrying an almsbowl.
“ ‘ Who is that man ? ’ asked the prince.
7 1 Sir,’ replied the coachman, £ this man is one of those who are called
Bhikshus, or mendicants. He has renounced all pleasures, all desires, and
leads a life of austerity., He tries to conquer himself. He has become
a devotee. Without paskion, without envy, he walks about asking for
alms.’
“ 1 This is good and well said,’ replied the prince. £ The life of a devotee
has always been praised by the wise. It will be my refuge, and the refuge
of other creatures; it will lead us to a real life, to happiness and im
mortality.’
“ With these words the young prince turned his chariot, and returned to
the city.
If now we turn to the story of Joannes of Damascus, we find that
the early life of Josaphat is exactly the same as that of Buddha.
His father is a king, and after the birth of his son, an astrologer
predicts that he will rise to glory ; not, however, in his own kingdom,
but in a higher and better one ; in fact, that he will embrace the
new and persecuted religion of the Christians. Everything is done
to prevent tnis. He is kept in a beautiful palace, surrounded by all
that is enjoyable; and great care is taken to keep him in ignorance
of sickness, old age, and death. After a time, however, his father
gives him leave to drive out. On one of his drives he sees two men, >
one maimed, the other blind. He asks what they are, and is told
�UN THE MIGRATION OF FABLES.
593
that they are suffering from disease. He then inquires whether all
men are liable to disease, and whether it is known beforehand who
will suffer from disease and who will be free; and when he hears the
truth, he becomes sad, and returns home. Another time, when he
drives out, he meets an old man with wrinkled face and shaking
legs, bent down, with white hair, his teeth gone, and his voice
faltering. He asks again what all this means, and is told that this
is what happens to all men ; that no one can escape old age, and that
in the end all men must die. Thereupon he returns home to medi
tate on death, till at last a hermit appears, and opens before his eyes
a higher view of life, as contained in the Gospel of Christ.
No one, I believe, can read these two stories without feeling con
vinced that one was borrowed from the other ; and asFaHian, three
hundred years before John of Damascus, saw the towers which com
memorated the three drives of Buddha still standing among the
ruins of the royal city of Kapilavastu, it follows that the Greek father
^borrowed his subject from the Buddhist Scriptures. Were it neces
sary, it would be easy to point out still more minute coincidences
between the life of Josaphat and that of Buddha, the founder of the
Buddhist religion. Both in the end convert their royal fathers, both
fight manfully against the assaults of the flesh and the devil, both
are regarded as saints before they die. Possibly even a proper name
may have been transferred from the sacred canon of the Buddhists to
the pages of the Greek writer. The driver who conducts Buddha when
he flees by night from his palace where he leaves his wife, his only
son, and all his treasures, in order to devote himself to a contempla
tive life, is called Chandaka. The friend and companion of Barlaam
is called Zardan
*
How palpable these coincidences are between the two stories is best
* In. some places one might almost believe that Joannes Damascenus did not
only hear the story of Buddha, as he says, from the mouth of people who had
brought it to him from India, but that he had before him the very text of the “ LalitaVistara.” Thus in the account of the three drives we find indeed that while the Buddhist
canon represents Buddha as seeing on three successive drives, first an old, then a sick,
and at last a dying man, Joannes makes Joasaph meet two men on his first drive,
one maimed, the other blind, and an old man, who is nearly dying, on his second drive.
So far there is a difference which might best be explained by admitting the account
given by Joannes Damascenus himself, viz., that the story was brought from India,
and that it was told him by worthy and truthful men. But, if it was so, we have
here another instance of the tenacity with which oral tradition is able to preserve the
most minute points of the story. The old man is described by a long string of adjectives
both in Greek and in Sanskrit, and many of them are strangely alike. The Greek
■yspcov, old, corresponds to the Sanskrit yirwa; 7rE7raXaiw/zsyoj, aged, is Sanskrit vriddha;
■ppiKi/w/zs^oe to 7rp60-W7rov, shrivelled in his face, is balini/dtakaya, the body covered
with wrinkles; irapsipevos toq Kvripag, weak in his knees, is pravedhayamanaZi sarvangapratyangai/;-, trembling in all his limbs ; <rvyKEKv<po)Q, bent, iskubpa; ■n-eTrioXiop.svoc,
grey, is palitakesa; EffTEprifnevog tovq oSovrac, toothless, is khawrZadanta; ty/ctKopuva
XaXour, stammering, is khurakhuravasaktakawZAa.
RR2
�594
THE CONTEMPORARY RE VIE W.
shown by the fact that they were pointed out, independently of each
other, by scholars in France, Germany, and England. I place France
first, because in point of time M. Laboolaye was the first who called
attention to it in one of his charming articles in the Debats
*
A.
more detailed comparison was given by Er. Liebrecht.f And, lastly,
Mr. Beal, in his translation of the “ Travels of Fa Hian,” + called"
attention to the same fact—viz., that the story of Josaphat was
borrowed from the “Life of Buddha.” I could mention the names
of two or three schoiarJ besides who happened to read the two books,
and who could not help seeing, what was as clear as daylight, that
Joannes UawsceniBtook the principal character of his religious
novel from the “ Lalita;. Vistara,” one of the sacred books of the
Buddhists.
This fact is, no doubt, extremely curious in the history of literature;
but there is another fact connected with it which is more than curious,
and I wonder that it has never been pointed out before. It is well
known that the Rory of Barlaam |and Josaphat became a most
popular book during the Middle Ages. In the East it was trans
lated into Syriac (?), Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Hebrew ;
in the West it -exists in Latin, French, Italian, German, English,
Spanish, Boliemian, and Polish. As early as 1204 a King of
Norway translated it into Icelandic, and at a later time it was trans
lated by a Jesuit missionary into Tagala, the classical language of
the Philippine Islands. But this is not all. Barlaam and Josaphat
have actuallywrisentIto the rank of saints, both in the Eastern and
in the Western Churches. In the Eastern Church the 26th of
August is the saints’ day of Barlaam and Josaphat; in the Boman
Martyrologium, the 27th of November is assigned to them.
There have been from time to time misgivings about the historical
character of these two saints. Leo Allatius, in his Prolegomena,
ventured to ask the question, whether the story of Barlaam and
Joasaph was more real than the Cyropaedia of Xenophon, or the
Utopia of Thomas More ; but, en bon Catholique, he replied, that as
Barlaam and JosHrat were mentioned, not only in the Menaea of the
Greek, but also in the Martyrologium of the Koman Church, he could
not bring himself to believe that their history was imaginary. Billius
thought that to doubt the concluding words of the author, who says
that he received th© story of Barlaam and Josaphat from men
incapable of falsehoocwvvould be to trust more in one’s own suspicions
* Debuts, 1859, 21 Mad 26 Jnifiet.
t Bie Quellen des Barlaam und Josaphat, in Jahrbuch fiir roman, und engl. Litteratur,
vol. n. p. 314, 1860.
■
Fah-Hian an(l Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India.
/
A D’ an<^
A-D-) Translated from the Chinese by Samuel Beal. London,
Trubner & Co. 1869.
�ON THE MIGRA TION OF FABLES.
595
than in Christian charity which believeth all things. JBellarminus
thought he could prove the truth of the story by the fact that, at
the end of it, the author himself invokes the two saints Barlaam
and Josaphat! Leo Allatius admitted, indeed, that some of the
speeches and conversations occurring in the story might be the
work of Joannes Damascenus, because Josaphat, having but recently
been converted, could not have quoted so many passages from the
Bible. But he implies that even this could be explained, because
the Holy Ghost might have taught St. Josaphat what to say. At
all events, Leo has no mercy for those “ quibus omnia sub sanctorum
nomine prodita male olent, quemadmodum de sanctis Georgio, Christophoro, Hippolyto, Catarina, aliisque nusquam eos in. rerum natura
extitisse impudentissime nugantur.” The Bishop of Avranches
had likewise his doubts; but he calmed them by saying : “ Non pas
que je veuille soustenir que tout en soit suppose : il y auroit de
la temerite a desavouer qu’il y ait jamais eu de Barlaam ni de
Josaphat. Le temoignage du Martyrologe, qui les met au nombre
des Saints, et leur intercession que Saint Jean Damascene reclame a
la fin de cette histoire ne permettent pas d’en douter.”*
With us the question as to the historical or purely imaginary
character of Josaphat has assumed a new and totally different aspect.
We willingly accept the statement of Joannes Damascenus that the
story of Barlaam and Josaphat was told him by men who came from
India. We know that in India a story was current of a prince who
lived in the sixth century b.c., a prince of whom it was predicted
that he would resign the throne, and devote his life to meditation, in
order to rise to the rank of a Buddha. The story tells us that his
father did everything to prevent this ; that he kept him in a palace
secluded from the world, surrounded by all that makes life enjoyable ;
and that he tried to keep him in ignorance of sickness, old age, and
death. We know from the same story that at last the young prince
obtained permission to drive into the country, and that, by meeting
an old man, a sick man, and a corpse, his eyes were opened to the
unreality of life, and the vanity of this life’s pleasures; that he escaped
from his palace, and, after defeating the assaults of all adversaries,
became the founder of a new religion. This is the story, it may be
the legendary story, but at all events the recognised story of Gau
tama /Sakyamuni, best known to us under the name of Buddha.
If, then, Joannes Damascenus tells the same story, only putting the
name of Joasaph or Josaphat in the place of Buddha; if all that is
human and personal in the life of St. Josaphat is taken from the
Lalita Vistara ”—what follows ? It follows that, in the same sense
in which La Fontaine’s Perrette is the Brahman of the PaiiZ;atantra,
* Littre, Journal des Savants, 1865, p. 337.
J
�5g6
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.
St. Josaphat is the Buddha of the Buddhist canon. It follows that
Buddha has become a saint in the Roman Church ; it follows that,
though under a different name, the sage of Kapilavastu, the founder
of a religion which, whatever we may think of its dogma, is, in the
purity of its morals, nearer to Christianity than any other religion, and
which counts even now, after an existence of 2,400 years, 455,000,000
of believers, has received the highest honours that the Christian
Church can bestow. And whatever we may think of the sanc
tity of saints, let those who -doubt the right of Buddha to a
place among them read the story of his life as it is told in the
Buddhist canon. If he Mved the life which is there described, few
saints have a better claim to the titlefthan Buddha ;«and no one either
in the Greek or in tSa.e Roman Church need be ashamed of having paid
to his memory the honour that was intended for St. Josaphat, the
prince, the hermit, and the saint.
History, here as elsewhere, is stranger than fiction; and a kind
fairy, whom men call Chance, Bas here, as elsewhere, remedied the
ingratitude and injustice of the ’world.
Max Muller.
�
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On the migration of fables
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Muller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
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Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: [572-596] p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. A lecture delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, June 8, 1870. From Contemporary Review 14, July 1870. Includes bibliographical references. Includes references to and quotes from fables in their original languages, including Italian, Latin, Spanish, Greek and French.
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Conway Tracts
Fables-History and Criticism
Indian Literature