peacock’s feathers worn by the jay
peacock who complained to Juno
pearl and the cock
peasant: from the Danube; and the snake, (VI, 13); stuck in the mud; ugliness of, (XI, 7)
pedant and the schoolboy and the garden owner
Pegasus and Bellerophon, (VIII, 10)
Peleus and Thetis, (VI, 20)
Periander of Corinth, (VIII, 2)
personification of the stomach, (III, 2)
Les Petites-Maisons, (V, 4)
Phaedo (Plato)
Phaedrus, (IV, 18); “Cervus et Boves,” (IV, 21)
Philemon and Baucis
Philip IV, king of Spain, (VIII, 4)
Philip of Macedon, (VIII, 4), (VIII, 4)
Philomela and Procne, (III, 15)
philosopher, Scythian
Philostratus
Phoebus, (XII, 28); and Boreas, (VI, 3)
Phrygia, (II, 20)
Picrochole and Gargantua, (VII, 9)
Pierrot, (IV, 2)
pigeons
Pilpay, (IX, 7), (XII, 12)
Piramus and Thisbe
Pittacos of Mitylene, (VIII, 2)
plagiarism, (XII, 19)
plague and the animals
Plato; Phaedo
Pliny the Elder: Historia naturalis, (IV, 7)
ploughman and his sons
Plutarch
poison of passion, (XII, 1)
political tales, (XII, 13)
Pollux and Castor, (I, 14)
Polyphemus, (II, 16), (XII, 4)
Pomona and Flora, (VIII, 10)
pope who used to be a cabbage planter, (VII, 11)
Port-Royal Solitaires, (VII, 3)
power of fables
pregnant mountain
prince and the merchant, the aristocrat, and the shepherd
Prior, Matthew
Procne and Philomela, (III, 15)
Procris and Cephalus
Prometheus, (VII, 7), (XII, 25)
prose vs. rhyme and meter
proverbs, (V, 3), (V, 21), (V, 20), (VIII, 9), (VIII, 14), (IX, 16), (IX, 18), (X, 8), (XII, 17)
Provincia, (IV, 4)
Psicarpax and Meridarpax, (IV, 6)
Psyché (La Fontaine), (VI)
pumpkin and the acorn
puns, (X, 10), (XII, 4), (XII, 18)
pup(s): and the ass; and the shepherd
Pygmalion’s statue, (IX, 6)
quarrel of dogs and cats and of cats and mice
Queen Turtle and the two ducks
Quimpercorentin, (VI, 18)
rabbit(s): and the cat and the weasel, (VII, 15); vs. hare, (V, 19); shooting of, (X, 14)
Raminagrobis, (XII, 5)
rat(s): and the cat; city rat and the country rat; in council assembled; and the crow, the gazelle, and the tortoise; and the elephant; and the fox and the egg; and the frog; league of; and the lion; and the oyster; who withdrew from the world, (VII, 3)
Rat le Bel, (IV, 6)
Ratter
Regnier, Henri, (I, 15–16)
Les Regrets (Du Bellay), (IX, 1)
reincarnation, (XII, 12)
religious wars, (II, 5)
renard. See fox
Rhetoric (Aristotle), (XII, 13)
Rhineland, conquering of, (XII, 1)
rhinoceros and elephant’s fight
rhyme and meter vs. prose
rhyming liberties, (VI, 11), (XII, 9)
rivulet and the torrent
Rochechouart de Mortemart, François, marquise de Montespan de, (VII, 3)
Roderigo and Signora Honesta
Rodilard, (II, 2)
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, (I, 3)
Rumor
Rustaut, (V, 17)
Sage, (VII)
Sages of Greece, (VIII, 2)
Sainte Ligue, (II, 5)
Salomon, Jean, (VIII, 12)
Satan
Satire (Horace), (VII, 4)
satyr: definition of, (V, 7); and the passerby
Scamander, (VII, 12)
schoolboy and the pedant and the garden owner
schoolmaster and the child
screech owl: and the eagle; and the mice
sculptor and Jupiter’s statue
Scythian philosopher
sea and the shepherd
secrets of women, (VIII, 6)
servants and the old woman
Seven Sages of Greece, (VIII, 2)
Sévigne, de, (IV, 1), (VII, 10)
Shakespeare, William
shall vs. will, (VII, 11)
Shapiro, Norman, translations by
she-bear and the lioness
sheep: and the hog and the goat; of Panurge, (II, 10)
she-goat: Amaltheia, (XII, 4); and kid and the wolf
Shepard, Ernest H.
shepherd: and his flock; and his king; and his shepherdess; and the lion; and the merchant, the aristocrat, and the prince; and the pups; and the sea; who plays the flute and the fishes
shooting rabbits, (X, 14)
shrew, (V, 18); and the man who married her
sick lion and the fox
sick stag
Sidney, Sir Philip
Signora Honesta and Roderigo
Sillery, Gabrielle-Françoise de, (VIII, 13)
Simonides saved by the gods, (I, 14)
Sixtus V, pope, (X, 13)
snake: and the file, (V, 16); head and tail of; and the man; and the peasant, (VI, 13)
Sobieski, Jan, king of Poland, (IX, 20)
Socrates, (XI, 7)
Solitaires of Port-Royal, (VII, 3)
Solon of Athens, (VIII, 2)
song of Nicolas and Jeanne, (III, 1)
son of Japhet, (XII, 25)
son of Jupiter, and the gods who wished to instruct him
sons: and the old man; of the ploughman
Sotenville, de, (XII, 26)
Soufi, shah of Persia, (VII, 9)
sparrows and the cat
Spenser, Edmund
spider: and the gout; and the
swallow
spinster, (V, 6)
stag: and the cows; and the horse who sought revenge; who sees himself in the water; who was sick
sticks and the camel
stomach: and the limbs; personification of, (III, 2)
stork: and the fox; and the wolf
Styx vs. Acheron, (VI, 19)
Sultan Leopard and Grand Vizier Fox
sun: and the frogs; and the north wind; and the wind
Surat, India, (VII, 11)
swallow: and the little birds; and the nightingale, (III, 15); and the spider
swan and the cook
Tabarin, (VIII, 12)
tail and head of the snake
tanner vs. currier, (VI, 11)
taper candle
Tartuffe (Molière), (IX, 14)
Telamon and Cloris
Tenniel, John
Tereus, king of Thrace, (III, 15)
Tethys, (V, 6)
Thales of Miletos, (VIII, 2)
Themis, (II, 3)
Theon
The Thesmophoriazusae (Aristophanes), (I, 21)
Thetis and Peleus, (VI, 20)
thief and the husband and his wife
thieves and the ass
Thirty Years’ War, (VIII, 4)
Thisbe and Piramus
three Fates, (V, 6)
three young men and the old man
thunderbolts and Jupiter
Tircis, (X, 10); and Amaranth; and Corydon, (IV, 2)
torrent and the rivulet
tortoise: and the crow, the gazelle, and the rat; and the hare
tragedy, muse of, (I, 14)
traveler and Jupiter
treasure and the two men
treasure-hoarder and the ape
Treaties of Nijmegen, (XI)
tribute by the animals to Alexander
Trojan Horse, (II, 1)
true story, (III, 7), (VII, 10)
trustee without faith
tu
rkey cocks: in Europe, (XII, 18); and the fox; stupidity of, (XII, 18)
Turkish justice, (I, 21)
turtle and the two ducks
two adventurers and the wondrous writ
two asses and the lion and the ape
two bulls and a frog
two cocks
two companions and the bear
two dogs and the dead ass
two ducks and the turtle
two friends
two goats
two men and the treasure
two mistresses and the middle-aged man
two mules
two parrots and the king and his son
two pigeons
two rats and the fox and the egg
two servants and the old woman
two sparrows and the cat
Ukraine, (IX, 20)
Ulysses: and Ajax, (XI, 3), (XII, 24); and Circe
Valéry, Paul
value of knowledge
Vaugirard, (IV, 7)
Vendôme, duc de, (XII, 25)
Venus’s sacred dove, (VII, 7)
Versailles labyrinth
vine and the deer
Virgil: Aeneid; Georgics, (XII, 20)
voice of God, (VIII, 26)
Vulteius Mena, (XII, 11)
vultures and the pigeons
wagoner stuck in the mud
war(s): goddess of, (XII, 10); and the lion; between rats and weasels, (IV, 6); of religion, (II, 5)
weasel: and the cat and the little rabbit, (VII, 15); in the larder
widow; of Constantinople, (XII, 23)
wife: and her husband and the thief; who drowned
wild sow and the eagle and the cat
will explained by Aesop
will vs. shall, (VII, 11)
wind and the sun
wisdom sold by the madman
wise man and the fool
wishes
woe, (XII, 25)
wolf: and the ewes; and the fox; and the fox and the horse; and the horse; and the hound; and the hunter; and the lamb; and the lion and the fox; and the mother and the child; pleading against the fox before the ape; and the scrawny dog; and the she-goat and the kid; and the shepherds; and the stork; turned shepherd
woman/women:, (VIII, 6), and secrets; metamorphosed from a cat; and the two servants
wondrous writ and the two adventurers
wooden idol
woodsman: and death; and the
forest; and mercury
word gender, (XII, 1)
wordplay, (X, 13)
wretched man and death
Xanthos, (VII, 12)
young men and the old man
young mouse and the old cat
young turkey cocks and the fox
young widow
Zeuxis and Apelles, (XII, 25)
JEAN DE LA FONTAINE (1621–95) was a famous and much-loved French poet whose animal fables, at once light-hearted and profound, reveal his knowledge of animals and, especially, of Man’s animal behavior. In a sequence of twelve books, he not only reinterpreted the classical fables of Aesop and others, but also composed many of his own. His sly foxes and scheming cats, his vain birds and greedy wolves, along with variously foibled human characters, were dressed in an elegant French verse that paints with characteristic charm and wit the fauna of the French society of his time and of humanity in general. His fables were so popular that there was constant demand for more, and La Fontaine obliged, dramatizing the beasts among us in a collection of some 250 in all. In 1683 he was elected to the Académie Française.
NORMAN R. SHAPIRO, honored as one of the leading contemporary translators of French, holds the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University and, as Fulbright scholar, the Diplôme de Langue et Lettres Françaises from the Université d’Aix-Marseille. He is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Wesleyan University, where he teaches courses in French theater, poetry, Black Francophone literature, and literary translation. His many published volumes span the centuries, medieval to modern, and the genres: poetry, novel, and theater. Among them are Four Farces by Georges Feydeau; The Comedy of Eros: Medieval French Guides to the Art of Love; Selected Poems from Baudelaire’s ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’; One Hundred and One Poems of Paul Verlaine, recipient of the MLA Scaglione Award; Kamouraska, by Quebec novelist Anne Hébert; Jean Raspail’s controversial novel The Camp of the Saints; Négritude: Black Poetry from Africa and the Caribbean; Creole Echoes: The Francophone Poetry of 19th-Century Louisiana; and two plays by New Orleans author Victor Séjour, the verse drama The Jew of Seville and The Fortune-teller. A specialist in French fable literature, he has published Fables from Old French: Aesop’s Beasts and Bumpkins and The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries. His previous translations of La Fontaine are included in Fifty Fables of La Fontaine, Fifty More Fables of La Fontaine, and Once Again, La Fontaine, as well as in La Fontaine’s Bawdy: Of Libertines, Louts, and Lechers, a collection of the poet’s ribald verse. Shapiro is a member of the Academy of American Poets.
DAVID SCHORR is a printmaker, painter, illustrator, and book designer. He is Professor of Art at Wesleyan University and is represented by Mary Ryan Gallery, New York City. His portraits of writers have appeared for years in The New Republic, and among the books he has illustrated are several of Norman Shapiro’s translations. His work can be seen at davidschorr.com.
JOHN HOLLANDER is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University and Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut. His widely acclaimed body of work includes twenty-two books of poetry, several works of criticism, anthologies, books for children, and operatic and lyric works. His most recent volume of poetry is Picture Window (2003). He is also the editor of Poems Bewitched and Haunted (2005).
The University of Illinois Press is a founding member of the Association of American University Presses.
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The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine Page 45