Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
1.7. Of the theef and of the sonne
(Perry 314)
No man is chaunged by nature but of an euyll man maye wel yssue and come
a wers than hym self / wherof Esope telleth suche a fable / A theef held
the feest of his weddynge / And his neyghbours came there as the fest
was holden and worshipped and bare honour to the theef / And as a wyse
man sawe that the neyghbours of this theef were ioyeful and glad / he
sayd to them / ye make Ioye & gladness of that / wherof ye shold wepe
/ take hede thenne to my wordes and vnderstond your Ioye / The sonne wold
ones be maryed / But alle the Nacions of the world were ageynst hym /
& prayd Iupiter that he shold kepe the sonne fro weddyng / & Iupiter demaunded
of them the cause why they wolde not haue hym to be wedded / the one of
them said / Iupiter thou knowest wel / how ther is but one sonne & yet
he brenneth vs al / & yf he be maryed & haue ony children / they shal
destroye al kynde / And this fable techeth vs that we ought not to be
reioysshed of euyll felauship /
And this fable techeth vs that we ought not to be reioysshed of euyll
felauship /
 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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