Editing Miser (section)

===Fables===
There were two famous references to misers in ancient Greek sources. One was [[Aesop's Fables|Aesop's fable]] of "[[The Miser and his Gold]]" which he had buried and came back to view every day. When his treasure was eventually stolen and he was lamenting his loss, he was consoled by a neighbour that he might as well bury a stone (or return to look at the hole) and it would serve the same purpose.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/perry/225.htm|title=THE MAN AND HIS GOLD|work=mythfolklore.net}}</ref> The other was a two-line epigram in the [[Greek Anthology]], once ascribed to [[Plato]]. In this a man, intending to hang himself, discovered hidden gold and left the rope behind him; on returning, the man who had hidden the gold hanged himself with the noose he found in its place.<ref>''The Greek Anthology'' III, London 1917, [https://archive.org/stream/greekanthology03newyuoft#page/24/mode/2up pp.25-6]</ref> Both these stories were alluded to or retold in the following centuries, the most famous versions appearing in [[La Fontaine's Fables]] as ''L'avare qui a perdu son trésor'' (IV.20)<ref>''The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine'', translated by Norman Shapiro, University of Illinois 2007, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xWnR0pCxH9UC&dq=the+miser+who+lost+his+treasure++norman+shapiro&pg=PA101 p.101]</ref> and ''Le trésor et les deux hommes'' (IX.15)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.readbookonline.org/readOnLine/20012 |title=Jean de La Fontaine's Fable Poem: The Treasure And The Two Men |work=readbookonline.org }}</ref> respectively. Yet another of La Fontaine's fables was the late addition, ""The miser and the monkey" (XII.3),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oaks.nvg.org/fonta12.html#damismonkey|title=Jean de La Fontaine Fables|work=nvg.org}}</ref> used as a cautionary tale for financiers. Here a man keeps his hoard in a sea-encircled tower until a pet monkey amuses itself one day in throwing the coins out of the window.

In Asia, misers were the butt of humorous folklore. One very early cautionary tale is the ''Illisa Jataka'' from the Buddhist scriptures. This includes two stories, in the first of which a rich miser is miraculously converted to generosity by a disciple of the Buddha; following this, the Buddha tells another story of a miser whose wealth is given away when the king of the gods impersonates him, and when he tries to intervene is threatened with what will happen if he does not change his ways.<ref>Tale 78, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/j1/j1081.htm Sacred texts online]</ref> Two 16th century stories concerning misers are included among the witticisms attributed to [[Birbal]] during Mughal times. In one he extracts from a casuistical miser a fee for a poem written in his praise.<ref>Anindya Roy, ''Akbar-Birbal Jokes'', New Delhi 2005 [https://books.google.com/books?id=gc1UP05XUKYC&dq=Miser+poem&pg=PA125 "The Miser's Misery", pp. 125–6]</ref> In the other the miser is forced to reward a merchant who rescued his hoard from a fire with the whole of it.<ref>Clifford Sawhney, ''50 Wittiest Tales Of Birbal'', Bangalore 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HJX694hcntAC "A question of 'like'", pp. 47–9]</ref> Arabs similarly made extensive use of misers in their literature. The most famous being the 600 page collection of anecdotes called ''Kitab Al Bukhala'' or Book of Misers by [[Al-Jahiz|Al-Jāḥiẓ]]. He lived in 800 CE during the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] in [[Basra]], making this the earliest and largest known work on the subject in [[Arabic literature]].

When there was renewed European interest in Aesop during the early [[Renaissance]], the [[Neo-Latin]] poet [[Laurentius Abstemius]] wrote two collections of original fables, among which appeared ''Avarus et poma marcescentia'' (The miser and the rotten apples, fable 179), published in 1499. This was eventually translated into English by [[Roger L'Estrange]] and published in his fable collection of 1692.<ref>''Fable'' 458, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OE5AAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22There+was+a+Stingy%2C+Narrow-hearted%22&pg=PA430 p. 430]</ref> It concerns a miser who cannot bring himself to eat the apples in his orchard until they start to go rotten. His son invites in his playmates to pick the fruit but asks them not to eat the rotten ones since his father prefers those. The 18th century French fabulist [[Claris de Florian]] was to adapt the story in his "L'avare et son fils" (The miser and his son, IV.9). In this version the miserly father hoards his apples and only eats those going rotten. His son, upon being caught raiding them, excuses himself on the grounds that he was confining himself to eating just the sound ones.<ref>''Fables de Florian'', Paris 1846, [https://books.google.com/books?id=yg8tAAAAYAAJ&q=L%27Avare+et+son+fils&pg=PA109 p. 109]</ref>
 
[[File:Blake Miser&Plutus.jpg|thumb|A print of John Gay's "The Miser and Plutus" by [[William Blake]], 1793]]
In 18th century Britain, when there was a vogue for creating original fables in verse, a number featured misers. [[Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea|Anne Finch]]'s "Tale of the Miser and the Poet" was included among others in her 1713 Miscellany.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/women/finch/1713/mp-miser.html|title=A Tale of the Miser and the Poet|work=upenn.edu}}</ref> There an unsuccessful poet meets [[Mammon]] in the guise of a miser digging up his buried gold and debates with him whether the life of wit and learning is a better calling than the pursuit of wealth. Eventually the poet is convinced that keeping his talent hidden until it is better regarded is the more prudent course. It was followed by [[John Gay]]'s "The Miser and Plutus", published in his collection of fables in 1737.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://immortalpoetry.com/The_Miser_and_Plutus|title=The Miser and Plutus|work=Immortal Poetry}}</ref> A miser frightened for the security of his hoard denounces gold as the corruptor of virtue and is visited by the angry god of wealth, who asserts that not gold but the attitude towards it is what damages the personality.

While these are more or less original interpretations of the theme, French fabulist [[Antoine Houdar de la Motte]] harks back to the light-hearted approach of the Greek Anthology in "The Miser and Minos", first published in his fables of 1719.<ref>Fable XIX, [https://books.google.com/books?id=a4hdAAAAcAAJ&dq=de+la+motte++%22L%27avare+et+minos%22&pg=PA97 Internet Archive]</ref> Descending to the Classical underworld at his death, the miser is brought before the judge of the dead and is given the extreme punishment of returning to earth to witness how his wealth is now being spent. The Scottish poet [[Allan Ramsay (poet)|Allan Ramsay]] adapted this into dialect two years later,<ref>''Poems'' vol. 2 (1761) [https://archive.org/details/poems01ramsgoog/page/n46  <!-- quote=Miser poem. --> pp. 37–9]</ref> and Charles Denis provided a version in standard English in his ''Select Fables'' (1754), reversing the title to "Minos and the Miser".<ref>Fable XC [https://books.google.com/books?id=JW5bAAAAQAAJ&q=Minos&pg=PR2 p. 326]</ref>