SOURCE: "Un de 'ces grands hommes'—Phaedrus, a Precursor of La Fontaine," in Papers on French Seventeenth Century, Vol. XXIII, No. 44, 1996, pp. 115-22.

In the following excerpt, Becher analyzes Phaedrus's influence on de La Fontaine, a seventeenth-century French fabulist who particularly admired Phaedrus's ironic criticisms of social injustice.

La Fontaine numbers Phaedrus among the great men whose magnificent simplicity he so much admires. In the preface to the 1668 Fables he acknowledges that it is nearly impossible for him, writing in the French language, to imitate the elegance and extreme economy of Phaedrus' style, although he hopes to be able to compensate somewhat by giving his own fables a certain lightness and charm. Furthermore, it is not Phaedrus' style alone that La Fontaine admires, but also his dramatic and philosophical spirit. He claims that if the fables of Phaedrus are read with care, one should be able to discern...