Before revision: "Aesop fable 350 [= Babrius 32] When the fable was related by Hieronymus Osius in a Neo-Latin poem, nearly half of it was taken up by a consideration of basic unchangeability, the sense being echoed by internal rhyme and assonance: "Difficult to elicit, illicit,/ change where nature’s innate".Hinc animadversum naturae ponere mores difficile, hoc nulla scilicet arte licet, Fable 52 During the troubled political situation at the time the edition of Aesop's fables illustrated by Francis Barlow was published, Aphra Behn gave a sly Royalist tilt to her summing up of the tale’s meaning: "Ill principles no mercy can reclaime,/ And once a Rebell still will be the same".Fable 71 In both these versions a young man besotted with his pet cat prays to the goddess to make the change so that they can marry.
After revision: upright=1.1|Cat becomes a woman by Wenceslas Hollar, 1668"Aesop fable 350 [= Babrius 32] When the fable was related by Hieronymus Osius in a Neo-Latin poem, nearly half of it was taken up by a consideration of basic unchangeability, the sense being echoed by internal rhyme and assonance: "Difficult to elicit, illicit,/ change where nature’s innate".Hinc animadversum naturae ponere mores difficile, hoc nulla scilicet arte licet, Fable 52 During the troubled political situation at the time the edition of Aesop's fables illustrated by Francis Barlow was published, Aphra Behn gave a sly Royalist tilt to her summing up of the tale’s meaning: "Ill principles no mercy can reclaime,/ And once a Rebell still will be the same".Fable 71 In both these versions a young man besotted with his pet cat prays to the goddess to make the change so that they can marry.