The Princeton University Library Chronicle

Abstract

McKenzie started this collection of some six hundred books and pamphlets while he was a graduate student fifty years earlier. I sense a kindred spirit! After some less-than-conclusive analysis of definitions of fable and comments on allied genres, the article runs through the history of fable collections and editions, noting along the way some of the most important works that are in this collection. There are four full plates and four smaller figures from various early works. One illustration from Sadler's 1689 edition presents a fable I had not known before, in which a huntsman throws down mirrors to distract a pursuing tigress. I found it a pleasure to find, among references to materials that are new to me, a number of references to works I have or have dealt with, including McKenzie's own book of LaFontaine translations from forty-one years earlier.