Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
2.4. Of the sowe and of the wulf
(Perry 547)
It is not good to byleue all suche thynges as men may here / wherof Esope
sayth suche a fable / Of a wulf whiche came toward a sowe / whiche wepte
and made sorowe for the grete payne that she felte / by cause she wold
make her yong pygges / And the wulf came to her sayeng / My suster make
thy yong pygges surely / for ioyously and with good wylle / I shalle helpe
& serue the / And the sowe sayd thenne to hym / go forth on thy waye /
for I haue no nede ne myster of suche a seruaunt / For as long as thow
shalt stonde here I shal not delyuere me of my charge / For other thyng
thow desyrest not / than to haue and ete them / The wulf thenne wente
/ and the sowe was anone delyuerd of her pygges / For yf she had byleuyd
hym she had done a sorowful byrthe /
And thus he that folysshly byleueth / folysshly it happeth to hym
 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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