The Morall Fabillis of Esope The Phrygian - Place of Aesop in The Fable Sequence

Place of Aesop in The Fable Sequence

The figure of Aesop is consistently cited throughout the poem as "my author" (my authority) by the narrator in those stories which are directly based on Aesopian sources. This usually occurs in the opening lines. However, one particularly distinctive feature of the poem is an appearance in person by Aesop himself. This occurs at the heart of the cycle within the prolog to Fabill 7. This presents the master fabulist meeting and conversing with the narrator (Henryson) in a dream vision. Aesop is also portrayed here as (by request of the narrator) directly telling the seventh fabill (The Taill of the Lyoun and the Mous) within this dream vision.

In contrast to more traditional portraits of Aesop as hunchbacked, this dream-vision version presents him as able-bodied. He is first met emerging "sturdily" from out of a schaw and immediately described as one of the "fairest" men the narrator has "ever" seen. A two-stanza portrait gives a detailed description of his appearance:

His gowne wes of ane claith als quhyte as milk,
His chymmeris wes of chambelate purpour broun,
His hude of scarlet, bordowrit weill with silk,
On heikillit wyis until his girdill doun,
His bonat round and of the auld fassoun,
His beird wes quhyte, his ene wes grit and gray,
With lokker hair quhilk over his schulderis lay.

Ane roll of paper in his hand he bair,
Ane swannis pen stikand under his eir,
Ane inkhorne with ane prettie gilt pennair,
Ane bag *of silk, all at his belt can beir: (*made from)
Thus wes he gudelie graithit in his geir,
Of stature large and with ane feirfull face.
Even quhair I lay he come ane sturdie pace,

And said, 'God speid, my sone...

(Robert Henryson, Morall Fabillis, lines 1347-63)

Other Henrysonian variations from the traditional portrait include identifying Aesop as Roman rather than Greek, and as Christianised rather than pagan. It seems unlikely that these "innovations" were not consciously decided, although critics do not agree on how they are to be best interpreted.

There is no evidence that the portrait stood for Henryson himself, although the suggestion has sometimes been made. Henryson and Aesop remain quite distinct in the dialogue of the prologue. Moreover, Fabill 8 goes on to repeat the prologue device of Fabill 7, only this time to show the narrator himself (Henryson) telling the fable — one which has some less ideal and more "realistic" parallels — awake and in real time.