1 This tall tale against folk who are unkind (i.e., lacking in natural affection or proper thankfulness)

ABBREVIATIONS: CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; CA: Gower, Confessio Amantis; MED: Middle English Dictionary; OED: Oxford English Dictionary; Whiting: Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases.


The Tale of the Cock

2 To hem that have savour in lettrure. This line is a close translation of the first line of the Prologue of Marie de France’s Fables: “Cil ki seivent de lettruüre . . .” (“Those who know about learning . . . ,” my translation); however, the comparison of wisdom to gold is Lydgate’s own.

3 prudent philosophers. Marie de France also connects philosophy and morality in her prologue (Fables, lines 1–10).

8–11 Before Lydgate there is no precedent in extant fable literature or other Aesopic texts for identifying Aesop as poet laureate, a Roman, or a writer associated with the Senate. Both the elegiac Romulus fables and Marie de France mention Romulus as the Latin adapter or translator of the fables, and Marie is apparently familiar with the legendary biography of Aesop in which he begins his life as a slave; she states that he wrote for his “mestre” (“master”; 17, 40). Robert Henryson’s Morall Fabillis, written in the twenty-five years following Lydgate’s death, includes an appearance by Aesop to the narrator in a dream vision; the fabulist says he was born in Rome and worked there as a civil lawyer (lines 1370–74).

31–35 Compare the Franklin’s modesty in Chaucer’s CT, V(F) 719–26.

32 I was born in Lydgate. Lydgate may have been following the example of Marie de France in chosing to identify his birthplace and thereby himself, although Marie’s self-identification appears not in the prologue to her fable collection but the epilogue: “Marie ai num, si sui de France.” (“Marie is my name, I am from France,” Fables, line 4, my translation).

33 Tullius. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE–43 BCE), a Roman orator and statesman, was widely admired and studied in the Middle Ages for his superlative Latin rhetorical style, which Lydgate’s persona, in a conventional modesty topos, claims to be unable to imitate.

46–47 submit to theyr correccion. Lydgate’s modesty trope probably has its origins in Chaucer: compare CT, X(I) 56–60 and Troilus and Criseyde, 3.1332.

73 Lucyfer. In this context Lucifer, derived from the Latin “lucem ferens” (“light-bearing”), is the morning star.

76 Aurora. The Roman goddess of the dawn.

86 Phebus. Phoebus Apollo, the Roman god of the sun.

93 lyon. In The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Chaucer also compares the heroic rooster Chauntecleer to a “grym lyon” (CT, VII.3179).

100 on hys tipto. Compare CT, VII.331, where Chaunticler “stood hye upon his toos.”

101 poettis callyd Chauncecleer. Although Lydgate probably borrowed the name Chauncecleer (literally “sing clear”) from Chaucer, it had been used earlier in such beast literature as the twelfth-century Le Roman de Renart and Renart le Contrefait.

110 jacynct. Jacinth, a semiprecious gem; according to the Peterborough Lapidary, it is noted for its clarity and good for medicinal purposes (p. 95) and can withstand venoms and poisons (p. 96). But Lydate’s cock is more interested in food than wealth or health. See lines 141–203.

126 Tyburn. The place of public exection for Middlesex until 1783, situated at present day London’s Oxford Street and Bayswater Road and Edgeware Road (OED).

135 Vyces all procede of idelnesse. Proverbial. See Whiting I16 and Gower, CA 4.1083 ff.

136 theves, foundres, and patroun. See MED, foundour, n3a, which cites Lydgate, Order of Fools: Markoff is said to be “foundour, patroun, and precident.”

152 Evax. This legendary king of Arabia is credited with having written De Gemmis (“Of Gems”), a verse lapidary that describes various gems and their qualities. He describes the jacinth as follows:

 

There are ten species of jacinth recorded, and seven are recorded here, and it is known to be of many colors, and it is said to be native to parts of much of the world. The best is of green and translucent color, and it is the one that proves to have most strength. When chastely carried, it drives out both fevers and dropsy, and it helps a woman giving birth. And it is believed to be a protection to the one who carries it. . . . And as people say, [the jacinth], whose power is thought to be stronger mounted in silver, drives away noxious visions. (De Gemmis Scriptum Evacis Regis Arabum [Lubeck: H Rantzovii, 1489], my translation)

Lydgate may have seen Evax used in scholastic fable commentaries: British Library MS Add.11897, a German manuscript from the first half of the fifteenth century, uses three lines of Evax’s poem in the marginalia alongside this fable.

After 203 L’envoy. A coda for verses attached to a French balade that send it on its way.

211–17 Lydgate inverts the conventional moral of this fable, in which the cock is said to be foolish for rejecting the gem; it appears in both Marie’s and the elegiac Romulus’s fable. Henyrson spends considerable time on the lesson in his version (The Cock and the Jasp, in The Complete Works, lines 120–61).

221 suffisaunce. Lydgate’s moral praising the cock allows him to highlight the virtue of “suffisaunce,” which is an important theme of his fables. The philosophy that sufficiency (Lat. sufficientia) rather than excessive wealth brings happiness is espoused in one of the most widely read philosophical treatises during the Middle Ages, The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius (Book 3, Prose 9; pp. 256–57).

TALE OF THE WOLF AND THE LAMB

298 Naboth. This Old Testament figure was the owner of a vineyard inherited from his father. The king, Ahab, attempted to buy it from him, but Naboth refused to part with his inheritance. Ahab’s wife Jezebel then persuaded false witnesses to swear that Naboth blasphemed against God and the king, and when they had done so, Naboth was stoned to death for a crime he did not commit. Ahab then took possession of the vineyard.
The story of Naboth appears in 3 Kings 21. Marginalia in Trinity College Cambridge MS R.3.19 next to the stanza that mentions Naboth directs the reader to 3 Kings, but to chapter 8 rather than 21.

306–08 Lydgate here alludes to John 10, in which Jesus compares himself to the door of sheepfold whereby the true shepherds may enter, but those who enter another way (ascendit aliunde) are thieves and robbers. Jesus also distinguishes between these thieves and hired shepherds for whom the profession is not their true calling, clearly representing priests whose primary concern is money. Jesus calls this kind of false shepherd a “mercenarius” (John 10:12, 13), a term echoed in Lydgate’s verse. (In the General Prologue to CT, Chaucer’s narrator defends the pious Parson who is on the pilgrimage by stating, “He was a shepherde and nought a mercenarie”[I.514]).
John 10 is also appropriate to this fable because Jesus says that the mercenaries leave the sheep to the wolf, who catches them.

316–18 The ram . . . hit ys tolde. Here Lydgate revises the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece by suggesting that Jason flayed the ram in order to get it, but in the story as it is told elsewhere in the Middle Ages, it is inanimate and detached from the animal; see, for example, “The Tale of Jason and Medea” in CA, 5.3247–4242, especially lines 3731–34.

325 In this stanza and the next Lydgate seems to anticipate, somewhat inappropriately, the false witnesses that are integral to the plot of the fable of the Sheep and the Dog.

327 “Si dedero” (“If I will give”). This phrase is conventionally associated with corrupt officials who bribe others to lie on their behalf. See The Simonie, written during the reign of Edward II, which states that the voice of a penniless clerk cannot be heard in Rome; “Or (Either) he shall singe ‘si dedero,’ or al geineth him noht” (Dean, Medieval English Political Writings, The Simonie, line 24) and Knighten’s Chronicle, where “Jack Trewman” would have you know that “No man may come trewthe to, bot he syng si dedero. Speke, spend, spende and spede, quoth Jon of Banthon” (Dean, Jakke, lines 21–24). See also Mankind, line 456, where Mischief, hearing the approach of Titivillus, says to Nought and New Gyse, “When owr hedys wer togethere I speke of si dedero,” where upon they address the audience and take up a collection!

341–43 Though both die, the wolf’s carcass is despicable, while the lamb is a feast for a king or a kind of consolation, perhaps, at least within a Christian context, where virtue is valued, along with a wholehearted love of God (line 349).

TALE OF THE FROG AND THE MOUSE

360 cast hym. Literally “sets himself,” that is, “plots.”

390 Phebus. The sun. See note line 86.

420 Cresus. Croesus, a king of Lydia in the sixth century BCE, was said to have been very wealthy by such historians as Herodotus; by the Middle Ages his name was conventionally associated with wealth. See CA, 5.4730 ff., and Chaucer, The Monk’s Tale, CT VIII.2727–66.

421 Mygdas. Midas, a king in Greek mythology, turned everything he touched into gold. This ability was “medylyd with drede” because living things that he touched changed to inanimate gold, as ultimately happened to his beloved daughter.

423 The pore man slepeth fearelese, taketh noon hede. Proverbial but not cited by Whiting or Tilley. Lydgate is a master of shaping proverbs with variations, shaping sententious thought.

428 Salomon. No verse from the books of the Bible attributed to Solomon is an exact source for this translation. The verse that resembles it most closely is Proverbs 15:17: “It is better to be invited to herbs with love than to a fatted calf with hatred.”

434 good chere maketh a feste. Proverbial. Compare line 463. See Tilley, Dictionary of the Proverbs in England, G338.

437 Diogenes. The philosopher Diogenes of Sinope is perhaps best known for carrying a lamp in the daytime, saying he was looking for an honest man. He scorned wealth and power, showing his distaste for worldliness by sleeping in a large barrel. Alexander the Great, who in some versions seeks him out and in others merely happens upon him, is so impressed by his wisdom that he offers the philosopher anything he likes, to which Diogenes responds that the emperor should stop blocking his sunlight.
The story of Diogenes and Alexander, versions of which were written by such classical Latin writers as Cicero and Valerius Maximus, appeared in a number of medieval texts, including Vincent of Beauvais’s Speculum Historiale (3.68 ff.), the Latin Gesta Romanorum (chapter 183), and Walter Burley’s De Vita Philosophorum (Chapter 1). Gower writes a version of the story in CA, 3.1201–1330.

441 Priamus. The king of Troy during the Trojan War.

454 Aurora. The Roman goddess of the dawn.

467 Bacus. Bacchus, the god of wine.
Thetis. The goddess of water.

TALE OF THE HOUND AND THE SHEEP

532 boke. In line 701 Lydgate makes it clear that this book is the “Holy Book,” the Bible.

582–83 In his edition of Isopes Fabules MacCracken places the quotation marks closing the judge’s speech at the end of line 581. However, it seems likely that Lydgate meant for lines 582–83 to be a continuation of that speech, because they are more consistent with the judge’s defense of the impartiality of the law than with the narrator’s concerns about how false witnesses undermine justice. Furthermore, Lydgate undermines the judge’s observations about truth by having the lying dog respond using the words “true” and “truth” four times in only nine lines.

624 ram of Colchos. See note for lines 316–18.

659 To a false witnesse. Lydgate quotes Proverbs 25:18. A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is like a dart and a sword and a sharp arrow.

680 It is remembred by record of auctours. In Über Lydgate’s Aesopübersetzung Paul Sauerstein (p. 33) identified the source of this passage as Lectio 167 B of Robert Holkot’s Super Libros Sapientiae:

A perjurer ought to be despised for numerous reasons, but especially because of three. Truly the perjuring person is unnatural for infidelity toward God. [He is] unjust through falsity toward his neighbor and pernicious through his iniquity toward himself. It is a great betrayal if he who has custody of the seal of the king seals a letter of agreement that the king has greatly detested, and if he did this with the seal of the pope, he would be excommunicated for having done it, to be turned over to the secular arm. The name of God is a name committed to us like a certain seal for attesting to and confirming the truth (my translation).

730 Arpies. Harpies, mythological creatures generally represented as half-woman and half-bird, were often agents of vengeance who inflicted violent punishment upon their victims. Lydgate’s description of them as hounds is evidently metaphorical, because in line 731 he indicates their birdlike characteristics.

732 Carberos. Cerberus is the mythological three-headed dog who guards the gates of Hades.

733 Tantalus. The mythological Tantalus, who killed his son and fed his flesh to others, was punished in Hades by having to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree. Whenever he reached for the fruit or tried to drink the water, they would recede from his reach. Lydgate’s use of Tantalus as a figure for false witnesses is curious because the mythological character is associated with frustrated futility, whereas in the poet’s view false witnesses are all too successful in perverting justice to their own ends.

798 my fraunchyse. Fraunchyse, as the wolf uses the term, defines his “noble privilege”; the crane, by his terms, should thank him for his “genoristy” in permitting the crane to live.

HOW THE WOLF DECEIVED THE CRANE

824 blow the bokks horne. “To blow the buck’s horn” is a conventional metaphorical phrase meaning “to engage in a futile activity.” Chaucer uses the phrase in The Miller’s Tale in relation to Absolon, whose amorous pursuit of Alison is futile because of her love for the clerk Nicholas (I.3387).

847 This tall applyinge agayn folke. As in several of Lydgate’s fables, the moral lies in what does not happen with the tale. Mercy and proper payment of recompance for honest labor are virtues that tyrants (the privileged who imagine that their power gives them franchise to ignore virtue) seem by “nature” (birth privilege) unable to heed.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE SUN

848 Lydgate’s version of this fable is a departure from both the Latin original and Marie’s. In the Latin text of the story of the sun’s desire to marry, the fable is framed by the marriage of a woman to a thief, an event that causes a wise man to tell this fable as an exemplum warning against the results of the likely procreation of the couple, i.e., more thieves. A mere eight lines long, the fable mentions Jove in passing but contains no other classicizing elements. Marie abandons both the framing narrative and the classical reference, giving the allegorized figure of Destiny (Destinee) the role of judge who hears the complaints of animals who are fearful of the results of the marriage.

849 In the later Middle Ages biographies of Aesop began to circulate, some of which stated that he was from Ethiopia. For a discussion of these and their later influence, see Patterson, Fables of Power, pp. 11, 21–31.

857 Cancro. The astrological sign of Cancer, the crab.
Phebus. God of the sun.

865 Tellus. The Roman goddess of the earth. “Tellus[’s] lordship” is the earth itself.

873 Saturne. Before Jupiter (also known as Jove) became the king of the pagan gods, Saturn was their leader. Lydgate may have chosen him to oversee the case because of his conventional association with the chaos which would ensue if the sun reproduced.

874 Parchas sustren. The Parcae, three sisters who are named in lines 887–88, are the Fates, classical figures who are roughly analogous to the more generalized Destiny that Marie uses in her fable. Clotho spins out the thread of destiny, Lachesis measures the portion allotted to each person, and Atropos cuts it.

881 Theofrast. The historical figure of Theophrastus was a contemporary of Aristotle who was also a philosopher. In the Middle Ages, he was credited, almost certainly falsely, with having written The Golden Book of Marriage, an antifeminist tract often associated with Jerome’s misogynistic Letter against Jovinian. Medieval readers familiar with Theophrastus would have expected him to rule against the sun’s (or any other) marriage.

886 Cocus Marcial. Marcus Valerius Martialis, known in English as Martial, was a Roman poet and epigrammatist. For reasons that remain obscure, in the Middle Ages he was known as Cocus Martial, a variant of coquus or “cook.” See Reeve, “Martial,” pp. 239–44.

889 a diffinytif sentence. Where Atropos cuts, there is no more. Her measure is definitive.

THE TALE OF THE HOUND AND THE CHEESE

Title Fable VII: The tale of the dog and the cheese is the only fable to appear in MS Ashmole 79, which was copied by Lydgate’s champion John Shirley (see introduction). Shirley heads the fable as follows: “Here begynnethe a notable proverbe of Ysopus Ethiopym in balad by daun Iohan Liedegate made in Oxenford.”

The fables here are in the order in which they appear in H, which is the only manuscript to contain all seven. However, T is generally more reliable because the scribe generally has a better understanding of decasyllabic lines, whereas the scribe of H frequently writes lines with more than ten syllables. T has been used as the base text for all of the fables except “The Marriage of the Sun,” which is extant only in H. A contains only “The Fable of the Dog and the Cheese.”

Textual variants that potentially change the reading of a line are listed here; minor textual variations in diction, spelling, and grammar that do not influence the text’s meaning are not cited. Readers who would like to study these less-significant differences will find them in MacCracken’s edition.

ABBREVIATIONS: A: MS Ashmole 59, 24v; H: British Library, MS Harley 2251, fol. 261v; M: MacCracken’s edition, 1934; T: Trinity College Cambridge, R. 3. 19, fols. 12–16, 236–237.

Title Isopes Fabules appears only in H; the heading for the tale of the Cock and the Jewel precedes the Prologue in T and thus serves to introduce the collection as a whole.

8 Unto purpose. H: Unto my purpose.

23 charbuncles. H: rubyes.

24 downe. H: omitted.

25 groweth. H: fyndith.

33 passyd. H: entrid.

37 and. H: I wil.

40 rewe on. H: pardon.

41 compilacioun. Thus in both T and H; MacCracken misread H as translacioun.

54 lybell. H: quayer, “quire,” or a gathering of pages. This textual variant may suggest that H was copied from a text that resembled a pamphlet more than a book, which would indicate that the scribe was aware that the compilation was quite short, much shorter than its source text(s).

60 and. H: of.

64 so. H: ful.

69 justly dothe attende. H: lustly (lustily, energetically) to intende.

72 but. So M, T. H: bt.

73 Lucyfer. H: sulphur.

74 Lawgheth in. H: Lowtith to (bows down to).

78 Whos waker callyng thryes tolde. H: Voyce vigour callyng thryes (thrice).

85 joy and all. H: yowre alther.

95 morall. H: mortal.

97 as he his voyce doth reyse. H: that we oure self shuld ease.

98 Howe. H: hat.
preyse. H: please.

105 flok. H: folke. M: omitted.

110 jacynct. H: jaconet.

117 thryve. H: travaile he.

125 In vacant pepyll. H: In vagabundis peple that.

139 Thys. H: Thus.

144 as I rede. H: in dede.

145 Of whyche stone when the cok. H: As I rede of whiche stone whan he.

152 T: marginal note Evax rex Arabinu.

174 Set. H: I set.

178 Hygh. H: Like as. T: secrete. M amends secrete to secree to rhyme with deynté.

186 long. H: strong.

191 in large. H: desireth.

196 gese. H: gees ne ganders.

203 he lyt. H: abidith.

After 203 L’envoy. H: omitted.

205 consider. H: conceyve.

218 Adjacent marginalia in H: Here endith the tale of Isope how that the cok fonde a jaconet stone in the dunghill.

225 Adjacent marginalia in H: The secunde tale of Isopos.

229 pure innocence. H: providence.

238 agayn. H: of reason and ageyne.

242 few. H: for. to. H: no.

244 whyche. H: whiche twayne.

262-66 H originally lacked these lines, which were later filled in by Stow from T.

267-322 These lines are not in H because of a missing leaf that was presumably lost after Stow made his corrections above.

334 bak. T: bakis, which was amended by M (see line 252).

After 336 Conclusio. H: omitted.

339 cruell. H: and.

342 Be hit. H: But only.

347 Vertuosly. H: Vertuously liveth and.

353 was thys fable founde. H: this fable I founde.

354 Where ys. H: Whan he. Adjacent marginalia in H: Here endith the secunde tale of Isope declaryng how the wolf founde agenst the lambe in a quarel.

358 Adjacent marginalia in H: Here begynneth the third fabul of Isopos. In T the third fable is that of the frog and the mouse. Since H is the only manuscript to include all seven fables, its order is followed here.

363 dyssimelyng. H: disceyte.

368 fresshe. Omitted in H.

375 In H these two lines are transposed.

380 of frendlyhede. Amended from T, which redundantly reads or frenshyp or instead of simply of, the reading in H that gives a regular decasyllabic line.

384 felle. H: ful.

389 from. H: ferre from.

393 Lad. H: After lad.

396 Seyde. H: And sayde.

397 greynes. H: of dyvers graynes.

398 To shewe him of gentylnes. H: Thus of gentilnes the mowse shewid hym.

403-04 Thys cloos all hoole ys in my subjeccion. / Suffisaunce is my possessione. H: This is al hooly [wholly] under my possessioun. / In suffisaunce is my condicioun.

412 preves. H: brefis.

420 hys golde. H: his riche gold.

429 A lompe of brede with. H: A smal morsel of brede with joy and.

431 frownyng or. H: and froward.

433 leste. H: beste.

437 tonne. The spelling of “tun” in H as tonne is preferable to T’s towne because it differentiates Diogenes’s impoverished digs from Priam’s riche towne (town) in line 441. See explanatory note for the story of Diogenes’s tun.

440 lust and. H: a.

445 As in theyr paleyse byn prynces. H: As princis with delicatis in theyr paleys.

457 of. H: of good.

460 the. H: the straunge.

461 deyntees to a. H: metis (meats, foods) to.

462 men. H: gestis (guests).

464 of good drynke habundance. H: requirith drynk suffisaunce.

466 suffisaunce. H: haboundaunce.

468 discure. H: discord.

472 soylyd. H: wet.

489 sore be knyt. H: be knyt fast.

After 504 Conclusio. H: omitted.

506 in comparyson. H: so paralous of reason.

507 To. H: As is.

525 Adjacent marginalia in H: Here endith the fifth fable of Isopos discernyng the myschief that the frossh for his ingratitud shewed to the mowse.

After 525 Explicit. H: omitted.

535 Ryghtfull. H: Rightwis; travers and. H: transgres.

539 Of olde Isopus whylom. H: Of old date Isopos.

543 toke. H: to.

546 At the end of this line the scribe of T stopped copying. Only the previous two stanzas appear on fol. 16r; the remainder of the page is blank, as is its verso. Given the layout of the pages — two columns of five stanzas each — eighteen more stanzas could have been accommodated in the blank space on the pages, not enough to complete the fable. However, because folio 16 is at the end of a gathering, the lack of space here would not have precluded the scribe continuing in another gathering. H is the sole extant witness for lines 547–740.

747 Adjacent marginalia in H: Here endith the third fable of Isopos, what perel it is to be forsworn wetyngly (knowingly) as was the wolf and the kyte for synguler love that they hadde to the hounde, and to have the sheepe ded and slayn, as iurrours dampne the triewe and save the false.

Before 750 Title. H: omitted.

758 and a. H: royal and grete.

761 Despeyred relyvyd. H: Stondyng in dispayre rekovered.

762 knew. H: coude.

763 enteryd. H: impressed and entred.

769 perlows. H: perilous and diligent.

771 browght. H: take.

773 court. H: wolf; being in presence. H: by craf of his science.

774 Axid his reward. H: The Cranes gwerdoun axith.

775 wolffe. H: wolf ever.

789 eyen. H: hede.

791 Thy lyffe in jubardy, the truthe was. H: With thy lyf parted it is.

808 dothe. H: ever redy.

818 of very. H: and yit.

820 was chese to be a surgon. H: chase a surgeon to be.

822 mighte. H: mighe.

826 oftetyme. H: omitted.

837 fowll. H: false.

838 Thus connsellynge. H: Wherfor I counseile.

840 Remembre that with tyrauntes merci is uncothe. H: Bourd nat to large with hym that is unkouth. In T Stow reproduces this line as a variant reading in the margin next to 840, introduced by vel (Latin “or”).

846 maneshed. H: manyfold.

847 H: omits Stow’s colophon.

848 Because “The Marriage of the Sun” is missing in T, H is the only witness.

Before 848 The Marriage of the Sun. A: Here begynnethe a notable proverbe of Ysopus Ethiopym in balad by daun Iohan Liedegate made in Oxenford. H has no title.

933 grete. H and A: gredy.

937 grete hownd. A: grehounde.

941 As hym thought. H: As he dempte (deemed, judged); A: As Isopus dempte.

a chese. A: omitted.

943 in his. A: grehounde had.

944 whan he. A: the grehounde.

946 conceyve and. A: here.

947 By experience prevyd. A: Thexparyence is proeved.

948 faylyth offt. A: leseth al.

952 suffisaunce. H: litel suffisaunce.

958 hownd. A: grehounde.

959 bothe he dyd. A: therfore he dothe bothe.

After 959 Conclusion in H: Here endith the seventh fable of Isopos declaryng what damage falwith on covetise.