FABLE (Lat./au-la) is a word of twofold signification. First, it is employed by' some writers in a general sense to denote any fictitious narrative, as, for example, the incidents in an epic or dramatic poem. At one time also, when the myths of the Greeks and Romans were thought to be satisfactorily accounted for by regarding them as con scious inventions of the ancient poets and priests, it was customary to speak of them as fables, but this application of the term is now abandoned by scholars. See MvTii. According to the second and more frequent signification of the word, it denotes a special kind of literary composition, either prose or verse, in which a story ofsome kind is made the vehicle for conveying a universal truth. It differs from a parable in this. respect, that while the latter never transcends in conception the bounds of the probable or the possible, the former always and of necessity does. The story of the "Good Samaritan" imagined by the Savior, is a parable; if it was not true, it might have been for it contains nothing either improbable or impossible; but when Jotham went. up to the top of ItIii:"Gerizim; and spoke to the men of Sheehan about -the trees going forth to anoint a king over them, he made use of the F. proper. The peculiarity, therefore, of the structure of the F. consists in the transference to inanimate objects, or, more frequently, to the lower animals, of the qualities of rational beings. By the very novelty and utter impossibility of the representation, the interest of the hearer or reader is excited, and thus its symbolic meaning and moral became transparent to him, at least if the F. is well contrived. The ancient fabulists were simple, clear, and earnest in their representations. They seem to have sprung up in the east. Among the more .celebrated are Bidpai (q.v.), or Pilpai, and the Arabian Lokman, who is said to have lived in the time of king David. Among the Greeks, the greatest name is that of .-sop
(q.v.), whose fables, at a much later period—the precise time is not exactly known, were versified by a certain Babrius (q.v.). Among the Romans, Phmdrus cleverly imi tated /Esop, but with considerable modifications, thus giving a certain amount of inde pendent value to his work. It is perhaps worth mentioning here, that the well-known F. of the Town _Arouse and Country Mouse, told by Horace, is of purely Roman origin, and is probably the only one in existence of which that can be affirmed. Leaving the classical period, and before entering on the dark ages, we encounter the name of Aph thonius, who flourished in the early part of the 4th c., and who wrote indifferent fables in Greek prose; and still later, the name of Flavius Avianus, who composed forty-two, no better, in Latin elegiacs. During the dark ages, the F. in various forms appears to have been cultivated in the monasteries, although nothing Meritorous has survived; but in the middle ages, it acquired fresh life and vigor. An edition of the fables current in Germany in the time of the Minnesingers has been published by Bodmer. The oldest known German fabulist is Stricker, who lived about the middle of the 13th c. ; but the famous medieval F. of Reinke Fuchs, or the History of Reynard the Fox (q.v.), stretches in some of its numerous primitive forms much further back. In later times, most nations have cultivated the F. with more or less success. We may mention among the Eng lish, Gay; among the Germans, Hagedorn and Gellert, and Lessing; among the Italians, Pignotti; among the Russians, Krylov; and above all, among the French, La Fontaine, whose, fables are remarkable for their arch and lively humor, their delicate sarcasm, their sagacity, and felicity of expression. Now, however, the F. has gone entirely out ()f fashion.