Reflecting, however, that Goneril left with Albany may be present at the Council of War and perhaps gain a tactical advantage over her in winning some precious moments with Edmund, she halts, looks back sweetly over her shoulder, and invites her sister to go with them. Goneril, glowering at Regan's present point of vantage, snaps out a curt "no"; she does not propose to be made to play gooseberry,"-rather stay with her husband! But partly in jealous anxiety, partly in malicious enjoyment, Regan persists: ""Tis most convenient," that is, plausibly suggests that during the Council of War about to meet, Goneril will have more of feminine privacy in Regan's quarters. Then it rushes over Goneril's mind not only that her sister is jealous, but that complying with her invitation she will have a chance on her own part of watching Regan and of poisoning her in her tent: such seems the meaning of "I know the riddle," spoken venomously, perhaps aside as Capell proposed. Accordingly, she moves off with Regan and Edmund, covering the latter with a conquering glance. At the same time Albany and his men move in another direction, towards his tent. But just then Edgar enters, and stopping to hear him Albany says to his followers that he will overtake them.

What Edmund does at Regan's quarters is suggested in lines 51 ff. He gets a paper, which he brings to Albany, showing the reports of his scouts. He has also perhaps had Goneril put her signature to a warrant for the execution of Lear and Cordelia: cf. 1. 67, "they within our power, &c" and V, iii, 254. The time for these proceedings between 37 and 51 may seem a little short, but time is the most elastic thing in Shakespeare. Returning towards Albany's tent and overtaking him delayed by Edgar, the arch-villain delivers his paper and announces also that there is now no time for a council-of-war, apparently anxious not to have the subject of Lear and Cordelia discussed, and eager to be in the fight which may bring him a throne.

Western University,

London, Canada.

W. F. TAMBLYN.

THE MARE AND THE WOLF

"As the mare said to the wolf: The most learned are not the wisest men.'" Thus Chaucer's Miller (CT. A 4055). The fable implied here has of course long been identified; but inasmuch as it is really the result of a combination of two separate fables and the references one finds to its appearance in this or that collection overlook or obscure the distinctions, it is perhaps worth while to trace briefly the early history of the two motifs and their union.

The central motif, that of the kick, appears by itself in the fable of the Lion and the Horse. A Lion, claiming to be a doctor, approaches a horse; the horse however is suspicious, pretends to welcome him on account of a sore foot, and, when the Lion is examining the afflicted member, knocks him over. This occurs in the early Latin collection which goes under the name of Romulus and in most of its derivates, e. g., the eleventh-century Vienna Romulus, the so-called Romulus of Nilant (both the prose and the verse redactions), the Anonymus Neveleti often assigned to Gualterius Anglicus, the Novus Esopus of Alexander Neckam (d. 1217), and others.1 The same story, moreover, having a wolf for the Lion and an Ass for the Horse occurs in the Greek Aesop and its descendants.2

1 Romulus, Book III, fable 2: Hervieux, Les Fabulistes Latins, 2nd edition, Paris, 1893, 1, 307, 332, 1, 214; Vienna Romulus, Hervieux 1, 697, II, 435, 470; Romulus of Nilant, in prose, Hervieux, 1, 709, 11, 532, in verse, 1, 802, 810, 11, 682, 735; Gualt. Angl., Hervieux 1, 496, II, 336, 360; Neckam, Hervieux 1, 673, п, 405. See also Hervieux 1, 776; II, 173, 256, 493, 583. For a Catalan version see Histories d'altre Temps IV, ed. R. Miquel y Planas, Barcelona, 1908, p. 106 f. The Ysopet versions are printed by A. C. M. Robert, Fables Inédites, 1, 319 ff. Fuller bibliographical details, especially for later forms of the fables, and accounts of the interrelations of the various groups may be found in Robert's Introduction, in vol. I of J. Jacob's edition of Caxton's Esope, in Hervieux, and in H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, II, 272 ff.

2

Aesop, ed. Halm, no. 334; ed. Furia, Florence, 1809, no. 134 (cf. also the same fable in different words, Furia, no. 140); Aphthonias, no. 9 and Gabrias, no. 38 (in Nivelet, Mythologia Esopica, London, 1682); Roman de Renart 11. 7521 ff. (ed. Méon, Paris, 1826, p. 281 ff.). For further references see DuMéril, Poésies Inédites du Moyen âge, Paris, 1854, p. 195;

An entirely different fable, found in the Disciplina Clericalis of Petrus Alphonsi, tells of a Mule who when asked about his origin proudly declares himself 'one of God's creatures'; when pressed further, boasts of his grandfather (or uncle or mother); but refuses to admit his father was an Ass.3

Then these two fables are united, as in Jacques de Vitry (d. 1244) and Etienne de Bourbon (d. ca. 1261). A Fox asks a Mule what sort of animal he is. 'What is that to you?' replies the Mule; 'I am one of God's creatures.' The Fox asks again, and the Mule says he is a grandson of one of the King of Spain's steeds. But who were your father and your mother?' persists the Fox. Exasperated, the Mule answers, 'You will find my whole genealogy written on my hoof'; and kills him with a violent kick.*

The fable De Vulpe et Mulo seems to be an slightly elaborated version of this. A Fox comes upon a Mule feeding and says, 'Who are you?' The Mule replies, 'Bestia sum.' 'I didn't mean that. Who was your father?' 'I am descended from a horse,' says the Mule. 'Yes, but what is your name?' That I don't know,' answers the Mule; 'I was only a little fellow when my father died. But it is written on my left hind foot.' At this the Fox scents danger and retires to the woods; where he meets a Wolf, who was his enemy, lying in the shade nearly overcome with

Robert, Fables Inédites 1, p. 319 ff. (La Fontaine, v, 8); and Guillon's edition of La Fontaine 1, p. 279; and Ysengrimus, ed. E. Voigt, Halle, 1884, p. lxxxiii.

Disciplina Clericalis, ed. F. W. V. Schmidt, p. 42 (notes, p. 103); ed. Hilka-Söderhjelm, Helsingfors, 1911, 1, Latin text, p. 9, II, French prose text, p. 7; French verse redaction, Castoiement, ed. Soc. des Bibliophiles Fr., Paris, 1824, p. 32 ff., 11. 76 ff.; Juan Manuel, El Libro de los Enxiemplos, ed. Gayangos, Bibl. de Autores Españoles, LI, p. 478, no. 128. For later versions (including Abraham a Sancta Clara's Judas der Ertzschelm) see Schmidt's notes; Oesterley's notes in his edition of Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst, Stuttgart, 1866, p. 493; and Robert, Fables Inédites II, p. 16 (La Fontaine, vi, 7). Guillon, in his edition of La Fontaine, cites also Plutarch, Banquet of the Seven Sages [150], but the resemblance is slight. Remote also is the fable of the Crocodile and the Wolf, Halm, no. 38, sometimes mentioned in this connection.

'A. Leroy de la Marche, L'Esprit de nos Aieux, Paris [1888], p. 85; T. F. Crane, Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, London, 1890, pp. 13, 147. Professor Crane recognized that the fable is composed of two parts; I had finished the above note, however, before I saw his work.

hunger, and with taunts and exhortations persuades him to approach the Mule. The Wolf then asks the Mule the same questions, receives the same answers, unsuspectingly looks at the hoof, and gets his head broken."

6

Practically the same story, but better told, appears in the Cento Novelle Antiche (compiled near the end of the thirteenth century), no. 94, with the moral-as in Chaucer- not all who can read are wise.' Since no other version has just this moral appended, one might suppose Chaucer was recalling this form of the fable. But the same story occurs in the Reynard poems with a similar though not so explicit tag and with a Mare in place of the Mule. This is quite decisive. Here Reynard and Isegrym meet a red mare with a black colt. At the bidding of Isegrym, who is very hungry, Reynard asks the mare if she will sell her daughter. Certainly,' says the Mare, it is quite the fashion to do so.' But when she tells him the price is written on her hind foot Reynard grows suspicious and calls the Wolf, flattering him on his knowledge of the languages.

7

Hervieux, II, 272, from a fifteenth-century мs.; cf. 1, 465; not in the usual Romulus, but no. 1 of the Fabulae Extravagantes (for a shorter version see Hervieux, 1, 469, 11, 304); Steinhöwel, Äsop, ed. Oesterley, Stuttgart, 1873, p. 192; Hans Sachs, ed. von Keller, Stuttgart, 1875, IX, p. 140 ff.; and in Catalan in Histories d'altre Temps vi, Faules Isopiques. 6 Ed. A. Marenduzzo, Milano, 1906, p. 95. This is sometimes referred to as no. 91 (as in the Borghini text). For additional references on this fable in oral tradition see D'Ancona, Studj di Critica e Storia Letteraria, Bologna, 1912, 11, p. 140 f. Other similar versions are noted in Robert, Fables Inédites II, p. 365 (La Fontaine, XII, 17) and Guillon's edition of La Fontaine, п, р. 398. To which add Kirchhof's Wendunmuth IV, 138, an amusing version (ed. Oesterley, I, p. 128 f.; further references, VI, p. 113; and apparently also Luigi-Cinzio de' Fabrizzi, Libro della Origine delle volgari Proverbj, Venice, 1526, (N. v.); cf. Jahrb. für rom. Lit. I (1859), 311, 433.

'Willem's Reinaert (ca. 1250), II, 3994 ff. (ed. Martin, Paderborn, 1874, p. 215 ff.); the prose Hystorie (printed 1479), ch. XXVII (ed. Muller en Logeman, Zwolle, 1892, p. 80 f.); Caxton, ch. XXVII (ed. Arber, London, 1878, p. 62 f.; Renart le Contrefait (finished ca. 1342), ed. Raynaud et Lemaitre, Paris, 1914, II, p. 241 ff. This version was incorporated by Caxton in his Esope v, 10 (ed. J. Jacobs, I, p. 254, 255, 11, p. 157, 179. Cf. also the Greek poem described by Gidel, Etude sur la Littérature Grecque Moderne, Paris, 1886, p. 331 ff. esp. p. 341 ff.

Thus the story seems to have grown. To the simple motif of the Horse or Ass outwitting the Lion or Wolf was added that of the boasting Mule and the Fox. Then the boasting motif was dropped and the Wolf reintroduced in order that the Fox might not be humiliated by a Mule (or Mare).

Harvard University.

PAULL FRANKLIN BAUM.

A SOURCE FOR GULLIVER'S FIRST VOYAGE

In Modern Language Notes, November, 1921, I noted several points of the influence of Lucian upon Gulliver's Travels, and more especially the influence of D'Ablancourt's sequel to Lucian's True History. From an entry in the Journal to Stella I was able to establish Swift's purchase of this French translation. Lucian's influence, however, was not confined to the True History. It is evident in at least two other satires, both of which are included in D'Ablancourt's translation.

One aspect of the satiric method in Gulliver, which hitherto has been regarded as original with Swift, is the satire of position which runs through the first two voyages, though it is carried through consistently only in the voyage to Lilliput. Briefly stated, the device is to reduce the scale of human life, and correspondingly to elevate the point of view, so as to render ridiculous all that is essentially petty. The machinery used is that of a giant among pygmies. This particular situation is original with Swift, though as I pointed out in the previous article the pygmy commonwealth was suggested by D'Ablancourt. The satiric idea, however, had been employed by Lucian in Icaromenippus, or A Voyage to Heaven. Menippus, describing his voyage to heaven, is asked by his friend to describe the appearance of the world from that altitude, and replies, in part, as follows:

"Fancy you see a small spot, not by so much as big as the moon, so that ... one would wonder where were all those mighty mountains, those vast seas. . . But more intently directing my eyes, I could discern all the transactions of human life, some sailing, some fighting, some plowing, some quarrelling. . . . To behold the actions of private persons is very odd and ridiculous . . . not to