Arthur Golding’s 'A Moral Fabletalk' and Other Renaissance Fable Translations

This volume assembles five distinct English translations of Aesopian fables, charting the evolution of the form from William Caxton's early printed work to later Renaissance interpretations. At its core is the first modern edition of Arthur Golding’s complete manuscript, A Morall Fabletalke, a significant but previously inaccessible text from the 1580s. The collection is rounded out by Richard Smith’s version of Robert Henryson’s Middle-Scots fables and John Brinsley’s grammatical translations, providing a comprehensive survey of how fable translation and moral literature developed throughout the period.

What makes this compilation particularly valuable is its direct presentation of these primary texts, allowing readers to trace linguistic shifts and changing pedagogical aims across a century of literary history. Students and scholars of Renaissance literature, translation studies, and the history of the book will find an indispensable resource here, as the volume illuminates the practical mechanics and cultural work of early modern translation. By giving Golding’s manuscript a permanent home in print, this edition not only recovers a lost text but fundamentally enriches our understanding of the Renaissance fable tradition.