MR. CALDECOTT'S ]SOP.*
THERE are occasions when a critic's duty becomes as simple as it is pleasant, and the present is a case in point. This book is indeed a delightful one, and this assertion can be made without hesitancy or limitation ; nor does this refer alone to the illus- trations with which Mr. Caldecott has enriched the volume. The paper, the printing, the binding, the reproduction of the drawings are all alike simple and efficient, pretty and appro- priate. In fact, the whole get-up of the book is exactly what it should be for its subject, and a special word of praise is due to Mr. J. D. Cooper, who has engraved the artist's drawings with wonderful spirit, and apparently perfect fidelity. Says the translator, who is a brother of the artist, "The translations aim at replacing the florid style of our older English versions, and the stilted harshness of more modern ones, by a plainness and terseness more nearly like the character of the original," and in this we think he has certainly succeeded. Compare, for instance, the two versions of the fable, " The Fox and the Crow," the first from Bewick's tEsop, the second from Mr.
Caldecott's :-
" A Crow, having taken a piece of cheese out of a cottage window, flew up into a high tree with it, in order to eat it ; which a Fox observing, came and sat underneath, and began to compliment the Crow upon the subject of her beauty. ' I protest,' says he, I never observed it before, but your feathers are of a more delicate white than any that I ever saw in my life ! Ah, what a fine shape and graceful turn of body is there ; and I make no question but you have a tolerable voice ! If it is but as fine as your complexion, I do not know a bird that can pretend to stand in competition with you.' The Crow, tickled with this very civil language, nestled and wriggled about, and hardly knew where she was ; but thinking the Fox a little dubious as to the particular of her voice, and having a mind to set him right in that matter, began to sing, and in the same instant let the cheese drop out of her month. This being what the Fox wanted, he chopped it up in a moment and trotted away, laughing to himself at the easy credulity of the Crow."
And this :— " A Crow stole a piece of cheese, and alighted with it on a tree. A Fox watched her, and wishing to get hold of the cheese, stood underneath and began to make compliments upon her size and beauty ; he went so far as to say that she bad the best of claims to be made Queen of the Birds, and doubtless it would have been done, if she had only a voice. The Crow, anxious to prove to him that she did possess a voice, began to caw vigorously, of course dropping the cheese. The fox pounced upon it and carried it off, remarking, as he went away, My good friend Crow. you have every good quality ; now try to get some common-sense.' " • Some of Esop's Fables. By Randolph Caldocott. London: Macmillan and Co.
We have selected this instance, simply as the first that came to hand; but it we think justifies Mr. Caldecott's claim to superior terseness and vigour.
The chief point, however, of this new version of the Fables, consists of the modern instances which the artist has appended to the text. These are given without a word of explanation, and translate into terms of human life, tht story which has been told by beast or bird. Thus in regard to the fable of "The Fox and Crow," we have after the first design representing the actual fable, two illustrations showing us its modern application. The
first of these depicts a drawing-room, in which a stout, good- natured mother is keeping watch over a pretty daughter, who sits by her side on the sofa. Eagerly bending forward to speak to these, is a young man, dressed in the height of fashion, who is evidently persuading the mother to exercise what musical talent she possesses. In the next drawing, we see the elderly lady screaming her hardest at the piano, whilst the young man
is kissing the daughter as hard as he can. This modern in- stance is simple and banal enough in the description, but the
little brown-ink outlines in which it is shown, are full of real wit and originality ; and those who care to notice what a really fine, expressional artist Mr. Caldecott is, should look carefully at the drawing of the young man's hand in the first of these two sketches. The left hand helps to explain the complimentary speech with regard to the mother's music, and the right says as plainly as can be, " Well, there is the piano quite ready, won't you give us one song ?"
All, of course. are not equally good, but all are excessively funny, and it is no mere figure of speech to say, that as much genuine drollery has hardly ever been compressed into so few lines of illustration. Mr. Caldecott's essential strength is the evidence of his sympathy, which not only embraces and under- stands the brute creation, but also has a strong hold on the characteristics of mankind. It is very rare in any form of literature or art, to find a man who is capable of seeing the funny side, at the same time that he perceives the qualities of beauty ; and it is the possession of this faculty which makes our artist's work so especially delightful. The drawings in this book are as graceful as those of Mr. Walter Crane, and infinitely better drawn; whilst the fun, though it borders upon the satirical, rather than the purely humorous, is as true as one of Hood's poems. Take as a last illustration, the fable of " The Man and his Two Wives," which we shall be, perhaps, excused for quoting in its entirety
A man whose hair was turning gray had two wives, one young and the other old. The elderly woman felt ashamed at being married to a man younger than herself, and made it a practice when- ever he was with her to pick out all his black hairs; while the younger, anxious to conceal the fact that she had an elderly husband, used similarly to pull out the gray ones. So, between them, it ended in the man being completely plucked, and becoming bald."
The first illustration to this fable shows us the unfortunate husband sadly contemplating the bald pate to which his wives have reduced him ; and the modern instance depicts an unfortunate artist, who has fallen flat on the floor of his studio between a classic statue, labelled " The Ideal," and one of a modern young lady in tennis costume, labelled " The Real;" whilst in front of him is a smudged canvas, described as "The Namby-pamby."
It is useless to multiply descriptions of these drawings, and we can only conclude by reiterating our statement, that this is emphatically a good book.
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