Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Fourteen

Commentary to come: a work in progress

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Thirteen

Commentary to come: a work in progress

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Twelve

Commentary to come: a work in progress

Aesop Channel'd 'n Chopp'd: Array Eleven

Commentary to come: a work in progress

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Ten

Commentary

Critics have suggested that "condoled" or "consoled" be substituted for the fable's "cajol'd," but no mss have been found to support such readings. In any case, the moral, that the gold is useless if never used, remains the same. 

Cott is an abbreviation for Cotta who, as the second frame's footnote states,  is the archetypal miser appearing in a satirical epistle by 18th-century poet Alexander Pope.

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Nine

Commentary

Perry Index number for this fable is #140.

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Eight

Commentary

The J fable's Perry Index number is #364.

The K fable's Perry Index number is #44. The specifics of the fable are from a later revised version of that number's text.

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Seven

Commentary

The Perry Index number for this fable is #285. 

The text for the second panel in this array has puzzled many a critic. Why "Shan't be troll'd"? What sort of diety would it be who would consider prayer addressed to it as trolling? Alternate texts are found in various earlier mss of the whole composition -- "Uncajoled," "Remains cold," and "You're on hold" being but a few of the less outre. In any case, on what basis the selection extant was ultimately made remains something of a mystery.  

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Six

Commentary 

The Perry Index number for this fable is #226. 

That there appears to be no data provided in any of the several available vitae of Justice Fortas suggesting or even implying that the caveat "Never sleep!" was or should have been applied to the Justice  tends to suggest that the original line for the fourth panel of this array, "Not before rigor mortis," is to be preferred as the wrap-up text for the array. However, there remain extant no mss featuring that line. Thus the editors felt compelled to instruct the illustrator to provide a visual reflecting the text ending with Homer's query concerning the scandal-plagued jurist.

Colloquialisms Gone Awry: a New Poetic Form (and an Aside)

This historical archetype, composed by an anonymous six-year-old at some point during the 50s, has been referred to in certain quarters as a "knock-sequitur." It may also in time become recognized as one pre-Oulipian example of anticipatory plagiarism.

Knock, knock! Who's there?

Chair. Chair who?

Chair table.

(To meander from the subject at hand for a brief moment: one is left wondering what young Anon, had he or she been old enough or savvy enough to grasp how knock-knock jokes work, might have originally had in mind.

Chair-...dar Cheese? 
Chair-...choslovakia? 
Chair-...ries Jubilee? 
Chair-...istiction? 
Chair-...assic Park? 
Chair-...on Osbourne?
Chair-...man Mao?
Chair-...(and Sonny)? 
Chair-...okee? 
Chair-...ismatic?
Chair-...ibdis (and Scylla)? 
Chair-...red Kushner?
Chair-...nobyl? 
Chair-...ry Lee Lewis? 
Chair-...ity stripe? 
Chair-...'n' chair alike? 
Chair-...ubim and Seraphim? 
Chair-...iff of Nottingham? 
Chair-...che la femme? 
Chair-...ley's Aunt?

But I digress.)

Recent examples:

Workin' hard? Or barely workin'?

Hey! This isn't rocket surgery.

Aesop Channel'd 'n' Chopp'd: Array Five

Commentary

This F fable's Perry Index number is
#351.

The G fable's Perry Index number is #137.