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Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)

2.20. Of the Oxe / and of the frogge / whiche wold haue compared her to hym
(Perry 376)

The poure ought not to compare hym self to hym which is ryche and myghty / As sayth this fable of a frogge / whiche was in a medowe / where she aspyed and sawe an oxe whiche pastured / She wold make her self as grete and as myghty as the oxe / and by her grete pryde she beganne to swelle ageynste the oxe / And demaunded of his children yf she was not as grete as the oxe and as myghty / And theyr children ansuerd and sayd nay moder / For to loke and behold on the oxe / it semeth of yow to be nothynge / And thenne the frogge beganne more to swelle / And when the oxe saw her pryde / the tradde and thrested / her with his fote / and brake her bely /
Therfore hit is not good to the poure to compare hym self to the ryche / wherfore men sayn comynly / Swelle not thy self / to thende that thow breste not


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.