The Fable Child's Image in Words and Pictures

The Fable Child's Image in Words and Pictures Old when Aesop first told them, the fables today's Englishspeaking children know were first recorded as texts for young princes who needed to learn to govern—elegant predecessors to the late twentieth-century's literature-based curriculum. Many of these eastern stories found their way to western children through Aesop's fables. Originally told for both adults and children, the fables have become "children's literature." From the fifteenth century to the twentieth, major writers—Caxton, La Fontaine, Newbery, Bewick, Caldecott—presented fables for the children of their generations. Twentieth-century writers have collected fables, illustrated them, written them, rewritten them, turned them into picture books, and parodied them. They are still very much with us. With such origins and such repeated publication for children, fables might be expected to contain children as main characters and to present plots based on children's activities. They do not. Nor do they use many animal "children." "A young colt" or "nestlings" appear no more frequently than do "infants" or "a young child." Of the more than two-hundred-fifty fables in Marianne Moore's translation of La Fontaine's Aesop's Fables, only thirty involve a child. The Fable Child' s Image in Words What then is the image of this rare child in fable? The fable child is a middle-class male of indeterminate age who is teachable and sometimes smart enough to outwit his elders. For the most part, fable children belong to working-class families, frequently farmers. Interspersed with "schoolboys," "farmer's sons, " and "young maids" are only a few "princes" and an occasional "infant son of a knight." No princesses or infant daughters of knights appear in La Fontaine's collection. In that collection, "boy(s)" and "son(s)" outnumber "girl(s)" and "daughter (s) " six to one. The fable child ranges in age from infant to "marriageable age." Boys are younger than girls. When age references exist, the boys are referred to as "infant son," "little boy," "school boy," "young lad," or "young boy." The girls, on the other hand, usually appear at least old enough to work: they are "milkmaids" or "servant girls." Several are "of marriageable age, and one (metamorphosed from a mouse) is a "girl of about fifteen years." This fable child plays various roles: serving as audience, advancing the plot, illustrating a moral, learning a lesson, and outwitting adults. Only rarely does the fable child serve simply as audience for the story teller. In none of Aesop's fables are children specifically designated as audience. John Gower' s "Adrian and Bardus" is told to the speaker's son, who evidently needs to know that ingratitude is "a sin, my son, as base as the vilest" (qtd. 315 in Junior Library 205) . Vernon Lere' s story, "Prince Altheric and the Snake Lady" is specifically directed to a "young prince": "Now listen, courteous Prince, to/ What befell your ancestor." It seems that the ancestqr had kissed a hideous and frightening serpent, which had promptly turned into a beautiful lady, thus illustrating that things are not always what they seem (Aymar 28) . Next most frequently, children are used as plot devices. One fable uses an infant to teach a wolf a lesson. In both Aesop's story and Tolstoy's retelling of it, a woman threatens a small child that she will throw him to the wolf if his crying continues. The wolf finds out too late that one should not take too seriously the threats a woman makes when she is trying to calm a child (La Fontaine 91-92, Junior Library 212) . In Gotthold Lessing' s "The Boy and the Snake," a young boy plays straight man for an adult who points out the boy's erroneous thinking and states clearly that false benefactors deserve the ingratitude they get (Aymar 17) . Children are crucial to the Indian Bidpai fable, "The Flying Turtle." The turtle is able to fly by biting firmly on a stick which two birds are carrying over the water. Observing the strange sight, children tease the turtle. Replying to the children's taunts, the turtle finds out that if one wants...