The Shepherd Piping to the Fishes.
No MS; 1713 Misc, 27-9.
Rpt of 1713: 1903 Reynolds, 173-4; rpt of 1903 Reynolds: 1930 Fausset, 78-9.
La Fontaine, "Les Poissons et Le Berger qui joue de la Flute," X, 10, 286-7.
La Fontaine's verse narrative turned into a series of stanzas. La Fontaine's sly erotic pastoral becomes a "jumping off point" for a L'Estrange-like political fable (minus the sex). Finch's patterning has obscured the value of the poetic impulse towards otium and eroticism..
Page Last Updated 8 January 2003