Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 1. Of the old woman and of the wulf
(Perry 158)
Men ought not to byleue on al maner spyrytes / As reherceth this fable
of an old woman / which said to her child bicause that it wept / certeynly
if thou wepst ony more / I shal make the to be ete of the wulf / & the
wulf heryng this old woman / abode styll to fore the yate / & supposed
to haue eten the old womans child / & by cause that the wulf had soo longe
taryed there that he was hongry / he retorned and went ageyne in to the
wood / And the shewulf demaunded of hym / why hast thow not brought to
me some mete / And the wulf ansuerd / by cause / that the old woman hath
begyled me / the whiche had promysed to me to gyue to me her child for
to haue ete hym / And at the laste I hadde hit not /
And therfore men ought in no wyse to truste the woman / And he is wel
a fole that setteth his hope and truste in a woman / And therfore truste
them not / and thow shalt doo as the sage and wyse
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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