Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 27. Of the wulf and of the lambe
(Perry 261)
Of two euyls men ought euer to eschewe and flee the worst of bothe /
yf ony of them may be eschewed / as hit appiereth by this fable / of a
wulf / whiche ranne after a lambe / the whiche lambe fled vnto the hows
where as gotes were / And whan the wulf sawe that he myght in no wyse
take the lambe / he sayd to hym by swete wordes / Leue thy felauship /
and come with me in to the feldes / for yf thow come not / thow shalt
be take by them / and shalt be sacryfyed to theyre goddes / And the lambe
ansuerd to the wulf / I haue leuer to shede al my blood for the loue of
the goddes / and to be sacryfyed / than to be eten and deuoured of the
/
And therfore he is ful of wysedome and of prudence / who of two grete
euyls may and can escape the grettest of bothe /
 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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