life of Æsop, Anno Domini 1632. The later investigations of a host of
English and German scholars have added very little to the facts given by
M. Mezeriac. The substantial truth of his statements has been confirmed
by later criticism and inquiry.

It remains to state, that prior to this publication of M. Mezeriac, the
life of Æsop was from the pen of Maximus Planudes, a monk of
Constantinople, who was sent on an embassy to Venice by the Byzantine
Emperor Andronicus the elder, and who wrote in the early part of the
fourteenth century. His life was prefixed to all the early editions of
these fables, and was republished as late as 1727 by Archdeacon Croxall
as the introduction to his edition of Æsop. This life by Planudes
contains, however, so small an amount of truth, and is so full of absurd
pictures of the grotesque deformity of Æsop, of wondrous apocryphal
stories, of lying legends, and gross anachronisms, that it is now
universally condemned as false, puerile, and unauthentic. It is given up
in the present day, by general consent, as unworthy of the slightest
credit.

[Illustration]




ÆSOP'S FABLES.

[Illustration]

The Wolf Turned Shepherd.