<< Home Page | Caxton Index

Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)

2.6. Of the wulf and of the lambe
(Perry 506)

The byrth causeth not so moche to gete some frendes / as doth the goodness / wherof Esope reherceth to vs suche a fable / Of a wulf whiche sawe a lambe among a grete herd of gootes / the whiche lambe sowked a gote / And the wulf wente and sayd to hym / this gote is not thy moder / goo and seke her at the Montayn / for she shalle nourysshe the more swetely and more tendyrly than this gote shalle / And the lambe ansuerd to hym / This goote nouryssheth me in stede of my moder / for she leneth to me her pappes soner than to ony of her own children / And yet more / hit is better for me to be here with these gootes than to departe fro hens / and to falle in to thy throte for to be deuoured /
And therfore he is a foole whiche leueth fredom or surete / for to put hym self in grete perylle and daunger of dethe / For better is to lyue surely and rudely in sewrte than swetely in peryll & 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.