The English fable: Aesop and literary culture, 1651-1740

Abstract

Acknowledgments Introduction: The English fable 1. Aesopiean examples: the English fable collection and its authors, 1651-1740 2. 'The first pieces of wit': Augustan fable theory and the birth of the book 3. Common and uncommon characters: the lives of Aesop 4. Brutal transactions, 'mysterious writ': Aesop's fables and Dryden's later poetry 5. In her 'transparent Laberynth': obstructions of poetic justice in Anne Finch's fables 6. Risking contradiction: John Gay's Fables and the matter of reading 7. The moral Notes Bibliography Index.