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.
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