Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
4.1. Of the foxe and of the raysyns
(Perry 15)
He is not wyse / that desyreth to haue a thynge whiche he may not haue
/ As reciteth this fable Of a foxe / whiche loked and beheld the raysyns
that grewe vpon an hyghe vyne / the whiche raysyns he moche desyred for
to ete them / And whanne he sawe that none he myght gete / he torned his
sorowe in to Ioye / and sayd these raysyns ben sowre / and yf I had some
I wold not ete them /
And therfore this fable sheweth that he is wyse / whiche fayneth not
to desyre that thynge the whiche he may not haue /
 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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