Aesop's Fables:
Caxton (1484)
4.6. Of the bochers and of the whethers
(Perry 575)
Whanne a lygnage or kynred is indyfferent or indyuysyon / not lyghtly
they shalle doo ony thynge to theyr salute / as reherceth to vs this
fable / Of a bocher whiche entryd within a stable full of whethers
/ And after as the whethers sawe hym / none of them sayd one word
/ And the bocher toke the fyrst that he fonde / Thenne the whethers
spake al to gyder and sayd / lete hym doo what he wylle / And thus
the bocher tooke hem all one after another sauf one onely / And as
he wold haue taken the last / the poure whether sayd to hym / Iustly
I am worthy to be take / by cause I haue not holpen my felawes /
For he that wylle not helpe ne comforte other / ought not
to demaunde or aske helpe ne comforte / For vertue whiche is
vyned is better than vertue separate
 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.
|
