THE FABLES OF LA FONTAINE.*

IT has been a source of genuine pleasure to us to look at, nay, to study these illustrations ; they are nearly all works of art of a high order, peculiarly appropriate to the nature of the ideas to which they are intended to give precision. We do not find here one trace of that solemnity and pathos which characterize Dore's illustrations of Dante, nor of the light, airy dreaminess of his. Elaine. Everything stands out in a clear light, which faithfully, and with much humour, interprets the ways and doings of worldly- men. Neither did the artist hold himself bound to one method of interpretation more than to another ; at one time he adheres literally to the text, and represents the fox or wolf in animal form and with ani- mal propensities; at another time the ape, the ant, and the grasshop- per, nay, the identical wolf and fox, are without circumlocution represented as men, in whom, however, the simian, wolfish, and vul- pine features and characteristics are easily traced. Sometimes both methods of treatment are given to the same subject, and we have a double gratification ; see, for example, "The Vultures and the Pigeons," or "The Two Doves," where the vignette at the head of the fable keeps to the literal sense of the text, and the large car- toon gives a brilliant application of it. We have tried to make a choice of preference betwixt the two methods and have failed, both treatments being too charming to be foregone.

M. Dore excels in every direction of his art ; his animals possess an individualism not far short of Landseer's creations ; see the various attitudes of the heroes in "The Hare and the Frogs," or the expressions of the victorious horse in "The Horse and the Wolf," and many others. His landscapes and sylvan sceneries, too, are exceedingly lovely. What could be more charming, for example, than the forest scene, with the stag acting Narcissus, page 329? or the finely imagined scene in "The Torrent and the River ?" But it is in his portraiture of men that all Dore's power of imagination and humour finds full play. Take, for example, the cartoon "The Little Fish and the Fisherman," and notice the garb, attitude, features, and cynical expression on the shrewd fisherman's face. Wisely, we think, the artist has here kept his talent for landscape-painting in the background to give prominence to the man. With what part of him or his could we dispense ? With his spectacles, or with the wart on his right cheek? Or with the bait-basket at his side? They are all wanted, even to the long peak on his cap. Or look at that Eastern picture, "The Bashaw and the Merchant ;" the persuasive, sly,

• The Fables of La Fontaine. Translated into English by Walter Thornbury. With illustrations by Gustave Dort. London; Cassell, Peter, and Galpin.

calculating talk of the spokesman of the three Turks, and the appropriate scene of the Eastern bazaar in the back-ground. But we must stop, our tempting subject is well nigh inexhaustible, whilst our space is fast drawing to an end ; and yet we must say something about the letterpress, which is as objectionable as the illustrations are acceptable.

First, we are treated to a mass of useless matter, viz., an unedi- fying Life of La Fontaine, then a Life of ./Esop (why not also one of Phairus, and even Leasing, Gellert, and other fabulists?) then a dedication in prose to the Dauphin, afterwards poor Louis IV., le Bien Aime' (may history have mercy on him !) ; next, a preface ; and lastly, another address to the Dauphin in verse. Reader, take our advice, and skip all this, and give grateful pity to a poor critic who, for thy benefit, has had to wade through all this inanity. So many curtains having risen on the performance, our expectatiou was wrought up to a high pitch ; but, alas! only to be disappointed. We will give one or two instances taken at random of Mr. Thornbury's skill in translation. La Fontaine's words about a certain miser, "Et rendre as chevance It lui-meme sacree," are rendered by, "A victim to the altar ever bound."

Free translation with a vengeance !

Again, compare what the lion says in French with his English utterance :—

"On vons dome in la victoire :

Mais l'ouvrier vous a decus;

Ii avait liberte de feindre :

Avec plus de raison, nous aurions le dessus, Si mes confreres savaient peindre."

"'Yes, here, I see,' he said, the victory is man's ;

The artisan [sic] had his own plans ;

But if my brothers painted, they'd be proud

To show you man prostrate beneath our claws.'"

The chief point, that animals feel their lack of utterance, is made the climax in the original and wholly lost in the translations ; in !act, the weight of the thought is transferred to another issue. Could an ancient Carthaginian come back, the gravamen of his complaint would be, not the Carthaginian defeat, but that the Romans had all the talk to themselves.

We could multiply these instances almost indefinitely, but we must forbear, as we have even more elementary schoolboy faults to point out. The verse is doggerel, the rhyme is execrable ; for example, " able " is made to rhyme with "charitable," "fear" with "care," and "Monomthpa" with "papa" [sic], and so on. VVe are not even spared grammatical errors, for which in former school- days a child would have been birched :—" You who round your neck art wearing," "As well as her, I poison bear," and many more.

Was Dore's art not worth a better setting? We should infinitely prefer a simple but spirited prose translation to such a botch in verse, where all the sharp crystalline points of the original are clumsily worn down. Some passages, too, as the one, line 8, page xliv., in ..sop's life, or parts of the fable of "The Two Friends," and one or two other things might with more propriety have been omitted. Still, with all this drawback, we can promise our readers real and solid gratification from the work.