Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
2.12. Of the balled man / and of the flye /
(Perry 525)
Of a lytel euylle may wel come a gretter / Wherof Esope recyteth suche
a fable / Of a flye / whiche pryked a man vpon his bald hede / And whanne
he wold haue smyte her / she flewgh awey / and thus he smote hym self
/ wherof the flye beganne to lawhe / And the bald man sayd to her / Ha
a euylle beest thow demaundest wel thy dethe / yf I smote my self wherof
thow lawhest and mocquest me / but yf I had hytte the / thow haddest be
thefor slayne /
And therfore men sayen comynly that of the euylle of other / men ought
not to lawhe ne scorne / But the Iniuryous mocquen and scornen the world
/ and geteth many enemyes / For the whiche cause oftyme it happeth that
of a fewe wordes euyll sette / cometh a grete noyse and daunger
 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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