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Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)

Avyan 22. Of the viator or palmer and of the Satyre
(Perry 35)

Men ought to beware & kepe hym self from hym whiche bereth both fyre & water / as rehercerth to vs this Fable Of a pylgrym / whiche somtyme walked in the wynter / and wente thurgh a grete forest / And by cause that the snowe had couerd al the wayes / he wist ne knewe not whyther he wente / ageynste the whiche came a wodewose named Satyre by cause he sawe hym a cold / whiche approched to the pylgrym and brought hym in to his pytte / And whan the pylgrym sawe hym / he hadde grete drede by cause that a wodewose is a monstre lyke to the man / as hit appiereth by his fygure / And as the wodewose or Satyre ledde the pylgrym in to his pytte / the pylgrym dyd blowe within his handes for to chauffe them / For he was sore acold / And thenne the wodewose gaf to hym hote water to drynke / And whan the pylgrym wold haue dronken hit / he beganne to blowe in hit / And the wodewose demaunded of hym / why he dyd blowe hit / And the pylgrym sayd to hym / I blowe in hit for to haue it somwhat more cold than hit is / The wodewose thenne sayd to hym / Thy felauship is not good to me / by cause that thow berest bothe the fyre and the water in thy mouthe / therfore go hens fro my pyt and neuer retorne ageyne /
For the felauship of the man whiche hath two tongues is nought / And the man whiche is wyse ought to flee the felauship of flaterers / For by flateryng & adulacion many haue ben begyled and deceyued


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.