Esop's+Fables

//SELECT FABLES OF ESOP// [sic] //AND OTHER FABULISTS.// toc

**Robert Dodsley**: the Author
Robert Dodsley (1703/4-1764) was an author, playwright, and publisher. After beginning his working life in apprenticeship to a stocking-weaver, he absconded due to mistreatment, and entered into service as a footman. During that time, he wrote a number of works, the first of which was //Servitude, A Poem//, published in 1729, which were well received. After composing a satirical play, //The Toy-Shop//, Robert Dodsley was able to raise enough funds from the profit attained from his published works, along with a loan of £100 from [|Alexander Pope], to open a bookseller's shop in Pall Mall, London, in 1735. In the years after opening his shop, at the sign of Tully's Head, Dodsley became a prolific publisher and author.

By 1759, Robert retired from the publishing business, leaving the operation of the shop to his younger brother James, who had joined him in the field several years before, dedicating his time instead to writing, in particular to his work upon the //Fables//, which were completed and first published in 1761. On September 23rd, 1764, Robert died of gout. The works published by his shop are too numerous to be listed here.

**James Dodsley**: the Publisher
James Dodsley (1704-1797) was the younger brother of Robert Dodsley, joining with him to create the firm of R. & J. Dodsley in Pall Mall. In 1759, he succeeded his brother in taking over operation of the shop, which he inherited (along with a substantial part of his brother's estate) after Robert's demise. Afterwards, James inexplicably burnt almost all of his late brother's correspondence: the reason behind the act is unknown, but speculation ranges from envy to a desire to conceal Robert's humble beginnings.

During the time he operated the bookseller's shop, James published a large number of works, but never seemed "to have possessed all his brother's enterprise and energy". While never achieving the same level of fame as his older brother, James is notable for giving up control of the retail portion of the business to [|George Nicol], thus "being the first bookseller to end retail sales and only deal wholesale to the trade in works of his own copyright, thus becoming the first modern "publisher," as distinguished from a retail "bookseller"."

Intensely private, little is known of James' personal life, though his character was considered to be rather eccentric. Never having married, James' estate, valued at £70,000, passed to his nephews, upon his death on February 19th, 1797.

The Fables
//Aesop// (according to Rocky & Bullwinkle)

Background
The first record of Robert Dodsley's intentions to write a book of fables dates from October 10th, 1758, in a letter to his friend [|William Shenstone], in which he wrote "//I am at present, writing from Esop and others, an hundred select Fables in prose, for the use of schools; we having no book of that kind fit to put into the hands of youth, from the wretched manner in which they are written. Tell me what you think of this attempt//."

Dodsley had been interested in fables for some time, and had published the sixth edition of Nathaniel Cotton's //Visions in Verse: for the Entertainment and Instruction of younger Minds//, as well as Samuel Richardson's //Æsop's Fables,// yet felt the existing translations lacking, and saw potential in the market for a new version.

Editions
The first edition of //Fables// was published on February 23rd, 1761 by [|John Baskerville], of which he sold two thousand copies at the price of five shillings apiece. A second edition soon followed, published on April 21st of the same year, in a three-shilling format. Numerous later editions followed, including ones illustrated by [|Thomas Bewick].

Google has digitized [|a 1765 edition of the Fables].

The copy held in Goucher's Library dates from 1770.

Format
The printing format of the book is most likely quarto, as evidenced by the small size of the book and the horizontal chain lines (which also indicate that the paper is laid, not machine made).

The typesetter made use of the 'long s' ( ſ ) throughout the text, in order to save space, as well as a ligature of 'c' and 't'. While the 'long s' saves room on the page, the 'ct' ligature is probably a holdover from handwritten books.

Provenance / Readers
The provenance of the copy Dodsley's //Fables// in Goucher's library is not documented. There are embossed marks from 'The Women's College of Baltimore', as well as a hole-punched mark reading 'Goucher College Library' as well as several stamps reading the same. The book was rebound sometime after entering Goucher's collection.

Some marginalia is extant, including what appears to be an ink spill, and 'X's (in ink) next to certain fables.

Repairs are evident on a number of the illustration sheets, and the page of illustrations 'to face the first book' has been removed from its original location and placed in the //Life of Esop//, between pages xxii and xxiii.

While the Index did not originally have page numbers, they have been added in pencil.

Paratext, Navigational Tools, and Layout
Opening the book are an and a frontispiece, listing R. Dodsley as the author, with an epigram from Milton's //Paradise Lost// above an illustration, below which is the publisher's information, stating that the book was printed for J. Dodsley in Pall Mall.

Before the main text are three short writings: the //Preface//; a //New Life of Esop//, attributed to 'a learned friend'; and an //Essay on Fable,// divided into four sections, written by Dodsley but drawing mainly from Shenstone's translation of [|Antoine Houdar de la Motte]'s //Essay on Fable//.

The //Life of Esop// is extensively footnoted, with notes in English, Greek (using the Greek alphabet), and Latin. The footnotes use letters rather than numbers, and are set apart from the previous word by a space.

The main part of the text is divided into three books of fables, attributed to the, the Moderns, and Original Fables. Most of the 'Original Fables' were written by Dodsley or his close friends. On each page, the title of the book is given in capital letters, and each fable is labeled in spaced capital letters with its number, in Roman numerals. The title of each fable is printed in italics, and the initial letter and first word are set in larger capitals than the rest of the fable.



Before the first book of fables, the pagination is done with Roman, but when the fables begin, pagination is done with numbers, starting with the fourth page. All pagination is in the upper outside corner of the page.

Page signatures are extant throughout the book, starting with 'A3' in the //Preface//, eventually reaching 'N3' in the index.

Catchwords are present on every page throughout the text, with the exception of the index.

Illustrations
Initially, Shenstone had planned to have [|Edward Alcock] design the illustrations for Dodsley's //Fables//. However, when Alcock did not deliver the designs in time for publication, Dodsley turned to [|Samuel Wale] to design the illustrations, which were engraved by [|Charles Grignion], as the pair had previously worked for both Dodsley and Baskerville.

The line-engravings were printed in a monotone black, but the illustrations in Goucher's edition of the //Fables// are hand colored, with to the other side on certain pages. At the beginning and end of each book of fables, there is an illustration. At the commencement of a book, the illustration is at before the first fable; at, the illustration is below the last lines of text.

Throughout the text, illustrations are printed on pages separate from the text:, but towards the end of each book, the. At the upper corners of such illustration pages is text designating the page it is to face.

The text in some illustrations does not match the text of the book. For example, on the page of illustrations facing page forty-two, there is a vignette labeled ' which is entitled in the text.