Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
3.11. Of the fader and of the euylle sone /
(Perry 540)
The good and wyse fader ought to chastyse his children in theyr yong
age / and not in theyr old age / For thenne hit is moche dyffycyle to
make them bowe As to vs reciteth this fable / Of a fader of famylle /
whiche had a sone / the whiche dyd no thynge that he oughte to haue done
but euer was goynge and playeng in the toune / And the fader for the cryme
and mysrewle of his sone brawled euer and bete his meyny / And sayd to
them suche a fable / Of a plough man or labourer / whiche bond a bole
by the hornes to an oxe The booll wold not be bound / and smote strongly
with his feet after the man / and launched his hornes at hym / And at
the last whan he was bound / the labourer sayd to them / I haue ioyned
and bound yow bothe to gyder / to thende that ye doo somme labour / But
I wyll that the lest of yow two / that is to wete the boole / be lerned
and corryged of the moste / whiche is the oxe / For I must sayd the labourer
to hym self bynde them thus to gyder / to thende that the bole / whiche
is yong fyers and malycious and strong / smyte ne hurte no body / wherof
grete dommage myght come to me / But by cause that I wote well / that
the oxe shalle teche and corryge hym wel / I haue put and bound them both
to gyder /
Thus this fable sheweth to vs / that the fader ought to teche and gyue
good ensample to his children and chastyse them whanne they be yong For
he that wel loueth / wel he chastyseth
 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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