Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
3.8. Of Iuno / of Venus / and of the other wymmen
(Perry 539)
Before the goddes and the goddesses men muste euer preyse chastyte /
for it is a worshipful & an honest thyng to a woman to hold hyr contente
with a man alone / but Venus for her disporte & for to dryue aweye the
tyme / wold Interprete the sayenge of the hennes / wherfore she demaunded
a henne whiche was in her hows / but at this tyme I shal kepe my tongue
/ and no ferther I shall speke therof / For many wyse men whiche haue
sene and redde alle this book vnderstanden wel alle the nature of hit
/ And by cause it is lycyte & honest / And that we alle ben bounden to
kepe the ladyes in theyre worship and honour / also that in euery place
where hit shalle be possyble to vs we ought to preyse them / we shalle
now cesse to enquere ferther of this matere / and Historye / whiche we
shalle leue in latyn for the grete clerkes / & in especial for them that
wylle occupye theyr tyme to studye and rede the glose of the sayd Esope
 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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