356
Darwin (1809–1882) read Aesop not only as a child—given his grandfather’s wild
poetic strain and general literary character of his family—but also as an adult. It is
known, for example, that in a correspondence of January 18, 1864, he heard from
Robert Goodwin Mumbray regarding a belief, noted by Thomas Bewick, that
finches hybridize. Bewick’s book on British birds had been published in combination with his book on the fables of Aesop, as well as a general history of Quadrupeds.
Darwin would have read it.
9
He might also have read John Gay’s Fables, after Aesop. First published in 1727,
by Darwin’s middle age, nearly 50 editions of Gay had been published. Similarly,
the Fables of Gaius Julius Phaedrus (15 BC–c. 50 AD), also after Aesop, had been
a huge publishing success in Amsterdam by David van Hoogstraaten for the Prince
of Nassau; a gorgeous 1701 edition with 108 engraved emblems and other plates by
I. V. Vranen, many of animals; one of the finest illustrated books published in the
early eighteenth-century Netherlands; and first translated into English by Christopher
Smart in 1831 in London.
10
Two years later, quoting over 100 major English poets
and some naturalists, since the time of Spenser, with hand-colored portraits of birds,
“A Lady” (Mary Hannah Rathbone) published her volume The Poetry of Birds.
11
By
1836, when Darwin—already something of a scientific celebrity—had returned
from his five-year journey on the Beagle, and deeply enamored of ornithology, there
is little likelihood he would not have devoured the book, with its deeply sympathetic
interspecies broad strokes, detailing the falcon, owl, blackbird, cuckoo, bullfinch,
goldfinch, skylark, nightingale, redbreast, wren, sedge warbler, titmouse, swallow,
dove, pheasant, king-fisher, tern, stormy petrel, and swan.
Similarly, multiple editions of the Indian version of Aesop had also been published and translated into English with animal illustrations by Darwin’s time, The
Fables of Pilpay.
12
And by 1869, 13 years before Darwin’s death, even the famed
Russian writer, Ivan Andreevich Krylov, who first started writing fables after Aesop
in 1809, the La Fontaine of Russia, had also been translated into English.
13
In the
1847 three-volume Russian edition, published in Saint Petersburg 3 years after
Krylov’s death, the famed color frontispiece portrayed the aging author seated at the
9 See https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/search/?sort=&keyword=Aesop, Accessed April 7, 2020.
10 Horace [also] Phaedrus. The Phaedrus portion translated by C. Smart, A. J. Valpy, London,
1831.
11 The Poetry of Birds, Mary Hannah Rathbone, Published by Liverpool, George Smith and
Ackermann & Co, London, 1833. Rathbone, publishing anonymously her Diary of Lady
Willoughby, as relates to her Domestic History, and to the Eventful Period of the Reign of Charles
the First, had gained her great celebrity by 1844 throughout British society. Darwin would have
known of her and certainly admired her skills as a water colorist of birds; and the spirit in which
her work was assembled.
12 The Instructing and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay, An Ancient Indian Philosopher, 3rd edition,
London, 1754.
13 Krilof and his Fables, Strahan and Co., 1869. Internet Open Library, https://openlibrary.org/
publishers/Strahan_&_co. See also, Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library exhibition, “The Presidential
Library Illustrates Ivan Krylov,” 13 February 2020, https://www.prlib.ru/en/news/1289191,
Accessed August 6, 2020.
40 The Zoosemiotic Paradox of Aesop
Darwin (1809–1882) read Aesop not only as a child—given his grandfather’s wild
poetic strain and general literary character of his family—but also as an adult. It is
known, for example, that in a correspondence of January 18, 1864, he heard from
Robert Goodwin Mumbray regarding a belief, noted by Thomas Bewick, that
finches hybridize. Bewick’s book on British birds had been published in combination with his book on the fables of Aesop, as well as a general history of Quadrupeds.
Darwin would have read it.
9
He might also have read John Gay’s Fables, after Aesop. First published in 1727,
by Darwin’s middle age, nearly 50 editions of Gay had been published. Similarly,
the Fables of Gaius Julius Phaedrus (15 BC–c. 50 AD), also after Aesop, had been
a huge publishing success in Amsterdam by David van Hoogstraaten for the Prince
of Nassau; a gorgeous 1701 edition with 108 engraved emblems and other plates by
I. V. Vranen, many of animals; one of the finest illustrated books published in the
early eighteenth-century Netherlands; and first translated into English by Christopher
Smart in 1831 in London.
10
Two years later, quoting over 100 major English poets
and some naturalists, since the time of Spenser, with hand-colored portraits of birds,
“A Lady” (Mary Hannah Rathbone) published her volume The Poetry of Birds.
11
By
1836, when Darwin—already something of a scientific celebrity—had returned
from his five-year journey on the Beagle, and deeply enamored of ornithology, there
is little likelihood he would not have devoured the book, with its deeply sympathetic
interspecies broad strokes, detailing the falcon, owl, blackbird, cuckoo, bullfinch,
goldfinch, skylark, nightingale, redbreast, wren, sedge warbler, titmouse, swallow,
dove, pheasant, king-fisher, tern, stormy petrel, and swan.
Similarly, multiple editions of the Indian version of Aesop had also been published and translated into English with animal illustrations by Darwin’s time, The
Fables of Pilpay.
12
And by 1869, 13 years before Darwin’s death, even the famed
Russian writer, Ivan Andreevich Krylov, who first started writing fables after Aesop
in 1809, the La Fontaine of Russia, had also been translated into English.
13
In the
1847 three-volume Russian edition, published in Saint Petersburg 3 years after
Krylov’s death, the famed color frontispiece portrayed the aging author seated at the
9 See https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/search/?sort=&keyword=Aesop, Accessed April 7, 2020.
10 Horace [also] Phaedrus. The Phaedrus portion translated by C. Smart, A. J. Valpy, London,
1831.
11 The Poetry of Birds, Mary Hannah Rathbone, Published by Liverpool, George Smith and
Ackermann & Co, London, 1833. Rathbone, publishing anonymously her Diary of Lady
Willoughby, as relates to her Domestic History, and to the Eventful Period of the Reign of Charles
the First, had gained her great celebrity by 1844 throughout British society. Darwin would have
known of her and certainly admired her skills as a water colorist of birds; and the spirit in which
her work was assembled.
12 The Instructing and Entertaining Fables of Pilpay, An Ancient Indian Philosopher, 3rd edition,
London, 1754.
13 Krilof and his Fables, Strahan and Co., 1869. Internet Open Library, https://openlibrary.org/
publishers/Strahan_&_co. See also, Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library exhibition, “The Presidential
Library Illustrates Ivan Krylov,” 13 February 2020, https://www.prlib.ru/en/news/1289191,
Accessed August 6, 2020.
40 The Zoosemiotic Paradox of Aesop