Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 12. Of the crane and of the pecok
(Perry 294)
For what vertue that ony man hath / none oughte to preyse hym self /
As hit appiereth by this fable / Of a pecok / whiche somtyme made a dyner
to a crane / And whanne they had eten and droken ynough / they had grete
wordes to gyder / wherfore the pecok sayd to the crane / Thow hast not
so fayre a forme ne so fayre a fygure as I haue / ne also fayr fethers
/ ne soo resplendysshynge as I haue / To whome the crane ansuerd / and
sayd / It is trouthe / Neuertheles thow hast not one good / ne one so
fayre a vertue as I haue / For how be hit that I haue not so fayre fethers
as thow hast / yet can I flee better than thy self dost / For with thy
fayre fethers thou must euer abyde on the erthe / And I may flee where
someuer hit pleaseth me /
And thus euerychone ought to haue suffysaunce and to be content of
that / that he hath / without auauncynge or praysynge of hym self / and
not to dyspreyse none other
 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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