Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
6.16. Of the husbond and of his two wyues
(Perry 30)
Noo thynge is werse to the man than the woman / As it appereth by this
fable / of a man of a meane age / whiche tooke two wyues / that is to
wete an old / & one yong / whiche were both dwellyng in his hows / & by
cause that the old desyred to haue his loue / she plucked the blak herys
fro his hede and his berde / by cause he shold the more be lyke to her
/ And the yonge woman at the other syde plucked and drewe oute alle the
whyte herys / to the ende / that he shold seme the yonger / more gay
and fayrer in her syghte / And thus the good man abode withoute ony here
on his hede
And therfore hit is grete folye to the auncyent to wedde them
self ageyne / For them is better to be vnwedded / than to be
euer in trouble with an euyl wyf / for the tyme in whiche they
shold reste them / they put it to payne and to grete labour
 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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