Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 16. Of the fyssher and of the lytyl fysshe
(Perry 18)
Men ought not to leue that thynge whiche is sure & certayne / for hope
to haue the vncertayn / as to vs reherceth this fable of a fyssher whiche
with his lyne toke a lytyll fysshe whiche sayd to hym / My frend I pray
the / doo to me none euylle / ne putte me not to dethe / For now I am
nought / for to be eten / but whanne I shalle be grete / yf thow come
ageyne hyther / of me shalt thow mowe haue grete auaylle / For thenne
I shalle goo with the a good whyle / And the Fyssher sayd to the fysshe
Syn I hold the now / thou shalt not scape fro me / For grete foly hit
were to me for to seke the here another tyme /
For men ought not to lete goo that / of what they be sure of / hopynge
to haue afterward that that they haue not and whiche is vncertayne
 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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