A Life of Fine Details, Thomas Bewick (1753-1828): Artist, Engraver, Tutor

Bewick the Fabulist

Fables have been used as a method of imparting morals and principles for over two thousand years. The central purpose of a fable is to instruct the reader by employing a short fictitious narrative that ultimately conveys a moral or a lesson.

[Ęsop and the impertinent fellow]

Æsop & the impertinent fellow
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Using elaborate characters, typically birds or animals, the true aim or purpose of the fable may be concealed until the very end. Traditionally, fables have been employed to educate and entertain children, but frequently the morals of these stories have a much wider social or religious application.

In the first century, the Roman poet Phaedrus translated a number of the fables into Latin and ever since Aesop's fables have been a popular form of instruction and guidance.

Thomas Bewick was well aware of the fabulists, and in particular, the work of the British fabulist Samuel Croxall. As Bewick notes in his memoir:

"I could not…help regretting that I had not published a Book similar to “Croxall's Æsop's Fables”, as I had always intended to do. I was extremely fond of that Book, &, as it had afforded me much pleasure, I thought with better executed designs, it would impart the same kind of delight to others, that I had experienced from attentively reading it - I was also of the opinion, that it had in the same way, while admiring the cuts, led hundreds of young men into the paths of wisdom & rectitude, & perhaps in that way had done more good than the pulpit.”


Initially, Thomas, with his brother John, designed and cut engravings for an edition of Select Fables in 1784. The illustrations for this volume were based on designs from Samuel Croxall's version of Æsop's Fables that had been published in 1722. Croxall's text was later republished in 1821.

The fable of “The Sensible Ass” is interesting on a number of levels, not least because we can feel the desperation of the old man, frantically trying to move the stubborn Ass from danger. The natural setting is typically Bewick and as we might expect, the characterisations of the Ass and the old man are expertly crafted. But if we look to the right of these two characters we may see, in minute detail, a line of men on horseback with weapons raised aloft, moving toward a hamlet nestling in the foot of the hills.

According to Bewick, the moral of the fable “shews us how much in the wrong the poorer sort of people most commonly are, when they are under any concern about the revolutions of a government.” Clearly, Bewick's fables can be seen as political as well as “moral.”

In the Preface to the 1786 edition of Select Fables of Æsop and Others Bewick suggests that his sole intention for producing the volume is social utility, and:

“he is not altogether without hope, that in attempting to embellish and perpetuate a fabric, which has its foundations laid in religion and morality, his efforts may not be wholly ineffectual to induce the young to keep steadily in view those great truths, which form the sure land-mark to the haven, where only they can attain peace and happiness.”


[The Sensible Ass from Selected fables in three parts]

The Sensible Ass
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Bewick's Fables was immediately popular and ran into many editions and has become one of his most famous productions. Bewick clearly had in mind the morals and virtues that he wished to promote and he carefully selected the fables that were finally included his volume and wrote the accompanying text. As a result, we can consider Bewick to be a fabulist in his own right, though he might have preferred the term “teacher” or moral guardian.