Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
4.17. Of the Ant and of the sygale
(Perry 373)
It is good to purueye hym self in the somer season of suche thynges /
wherof he shalle myster and haue nede in wynter season / As thow mayst
see by this present fable / Of the sygalle / whiche in the wynter tyme
went and demaunded of the ant somme of her Corne for to ete / And thenne
the Ant sayd to the sygall / what hast thow done al the somer last passed
/ And the sygalle ansuerd / I haue songe / And after sayd the ante to
her / Of my corne shalt not thou none haue / And yf thow hast songe alle
the somer / daunse now in wynter /
And therfore there is one tyme for to doo some labour and werk / And
one tyme for to haue rest / For he that werketh not ne doth no good /
shal haue ofte at his teeth grete cold and lacke at his nede /
 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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