Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
1.10. Of the man and of the serpent
(Perry 176)
He that leneth and helpeth the euylle men / synneth / for after that
men haue doo to them some good / they hurte them afterward / For as men
sayen comynly / yf ye kepe a man fro the galhows / he shalle neuer loue
yow after / wherof Esope reherceth suche a fable / A man was somtyme /
whiche fond a serpent within a vyne / and for the grete wynter and frost
the serpent was hard / and almost dede for cold wherof the good man had
pyte and toke and bare her in to his hows and leyd her before the fyre
/ and so moche he dyd that she came ageyne in to her strengthe and vygour
/ She beganne thenne to crye and whystled about the hows and troubled
the good wyf / and the children / wherfor this good man wold haue her
oute of his hows / And whanne he thoughte to haue take her she sprange
after his neck for to haue strangled hym /
And thus hit is of the euyll folk whiche for the good done to them
/ they yeld ageyne euyll and deceyuen them whiche haue had pyte on them
/ And also theyre felauship is not good ne vtyle /
 Caxton
published his edition of Aesop's fables in 1484. There are modern reprints by
Joseph Jacobs (D. Nutt: London, 1889) and more recently by Robert Lenaghan (Harvard
University Press: Cambridge, 1967). Lenaghan's edition is available at amazon.com.
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