Translator's Note to the Fables of Félix María Samaniego

Abstract

Bequeathed from classical antiquity and of probable non-Western origin, the fable genre flourished during both the Spanish Enlightenment and Romanticism. Tomás de Iriarte (1750–1791), Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (1806–1880), Miguel Augustín Príncipe (1811–1866), and Ramón de Campoamor (1817–1901) all tried their hand at the form. Félix María Samaniego (1745–1801), Iriarte ’s arch-rival, imbued his work with the values of his day, borrowing extensively from Jean de La Fontaine, the Roman Phaedrus, and the Englishman John Gay. Contemporary readers, therefore, may find Samaniego’s fables most enjoyable for the ways in which they strive but fail to address humankind’s putatively universal experience. Read as cultural artifacts, they speak most directly to neo-classical ideals of art, government, justice, freedom, and individual perfectionism.