Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 25. Of the ape and of his two children
(Perry 218)
He that somtyme men dispreysen / may wel helpe somme other / as hit appereth
by this Fable of an Ape / whiche had two children / of the whiche he hated
the one / & loued the other / whiche he toke in his armes / and with hym
fled before the dogges / And whanne the other sawe / that his moder lefte
hym behynde / he ranne and lepte on her back / And by cause that the lytyl
ape whiche the she ape held in her armes empeched her to flee / she lete
hit falle to the erthe / And the other whiche the moder hated held fast
and was saued / the whiche from thens fothon kyssed and embraced his moder
/ And she thenne beganne to loue hym /
wherfore many tymes it happeth / that that thynge whiche is dispreysed
/ is better than that thynge whiche is loued and preysed / For somtyme
the children whiche ben preysed and loued / done lasse good than they
whiche ben dispreysed and hated
 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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