ABSTRACT
Date and publication. Fables Ancient and Modern was published in 1700. The volume was in the press by 14 December 1699, and D. expected its publication by the end of the year (see Letters 130, 132). But in the event it did not appear until well into 1700. It was advertised in The Flying Post on 5–7 March, but D. did not receive his copy until 12 March (see Letters 134). Fables contained 19 translations (from Chaucer, Ovid, Homer, and Boccaccio), two new original poems (‘To the Duchess of Ormonde’ and ‘To John Driden of Chesterton’), two poems that had appeared previously (‘Alexander’s Feast’, and ‘The Monument of a Fair Maiden Lady’), and the originals of the Chaucerian poems translated by D., printed (for the first time) in Roman typeface. (For a full list of the volume’s contents and ordering, see Appendix A.) The title page contains an epigraph from Virgil, Aen. v 55–7: nunc ultro ad cineres ipsius et ossa parentis / (haud equidem sine mente, reor, sine numine divum) / adsumus (‘But now we stand by the ashes and bones of my father himself, not, I think, without the purpose and holy guidance of the gods’; D.’s own translation runs: ‘But since this happy Storm our Fleet has driv’n, / (Not, as I deem, without the Will of Heav’n,) / Upon these friendly Shores, and flow’ry Plains, / Which hide Anchises, and his blest Remains’ (‘The Fifth Book of the Aeneis’ ll. 69–72). A second edition appeared after D.’s death, in 1713. The present text follows that of 1700, with additional paragraphing supplied in the Preface at ll. 46, 90, 220, 288, 313, 416, 436, 496, 604, 650, 680, 852.
