Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
1.9. Of the two bytches
(Perry 480)
It is not good to byleue what flaterers and euyll men saye / for by theyr
swete wordes / they deceyue the good folke / wherof Esope reherceth suche
a fable / Ther was a bytche whiche wold lyttre and be delyuerd of her
lytyl dogges / and came to the hows of another bytche / & prayd her by
swete and fayre wordes that she wold lene to her a place for to lyttre
her lytyll dogges / And this other lend to her / her bed and her hows
wenynge to doo wel / And whan the bytche had lyttred her lytel dogges
/ the good bytche sayd to the other / that it was tyme that she shold
goo and departe oute of her / And thenne the bytche and her yonge dogges
ranne vpon the other / and boot and casted her oute of her owne hows /
And thus for to haue doo well / grete dommage cometh ofte therfore /
And ofte the good men lese theyr goodes by the decepcion and flaterye
of the peruers and euylle folke
 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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