Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
2.16. Of the mule and of the flye
(Perry 498)
Somme maken grete menaces / whiche haue no myghte / Wherof Esope reherceth
suche a fable / Of a carter / whiche ladde a Charyot or carte / whiche
a Mule drewe forthe / And by cause the Mule wente not fast ynough / the
flye sayd to the Mule / Ha a payllart Mule / why goost thow not faster
/ I shalle soo egrely pryke the / that I shalle make the to go lyghtely
/ And the Mule answerd to the flye / god kepe and preserue the mone fro
the wolues / For I haue no grete drede ne fere of the / But I drede and
doubte sore my mayster / whiche is vpon me / whiche constrayneth me to
fulfylle his wylle / And more I oughte to drede and doubte hym more /
that the / whiche arte mought / and of no valewe ne myght /
And thus men ought not to sette by ne doubte them / whiche haue no
myght ne that ben of no valewe
 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.
|
