196 ÆSOP IN ENGLAND.
every natural gift to make ^sop live again in line, tone, and colour, it was Randolph Calde- cott ; who that remembers his dog in TJie House that Jack Built, will deny the assertion ? Yet he denied it himself practically in his own attempt, which can scarcely be pronounced a success; perhaps he was too much taken up with his maladroit plan of accompanying each fable with a modern instance.* Mr. Walter Crane has succeeded better in his Bahi/s Own jEsop, and has given us 65 admirable decorative designs taken from -(Esop. But he suffers from the malady of us all — over- seriousness, and has left out of his ingredients that pinch of humour that has savoured the fabulist and kept the ^sopic jests of the ancients sweet throughout the ages.t
Their vitality and power in England have been shown in various ways. They have re- ceived the flattery of imitation from many
- The plan may have been suggested by a similar col-
lection done by Mr. Charles Bennet somewhere in the "sixties." Prof. Rankine performed a curious tour de force by inventing fables to correspond to well-known iun- signs, e.g., Pig and Whistle, Goat and Compasses, &c.
f I have collated all the English editions here mentioned for the parallels : they will serve at least to show the relative popularity of each fable.
