Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 5. Of the frogge and of the Foxe
(Perry 289)
None ought to auaunce hym self to doo that whiche he can not doo / As
hit appiereth of a frogge / whiche somtyme yssued or came oute of a dyche
/ the whiche presumed to haue lepte vpon a hyghe montayne / And whanne
she was vpon the montayne / she sayd to other beestes / I am a maystresse
in medecyn / and canne gyue remedy to al manere of sekenes by myn arte
/ and subtylyte / and shalle rendre and brynge yow vp ageyne in good helthe
/ wherof somme byleued her / And thenne the Foxe whiche perceyued the
folysshe byleue of the beestes / beganne to lawhe / and sayd to them /
poure beestes / how may this fowle and venemous beest whiche is seke and
pale of colour rendre and gyue to yow helthe /
For the leche whiche wylle hele somme other / ought fyrste to hele
hym self / For many one counterfayteth the leche / whiche can not a word
of the scyence of medecyne / from the whiche god preserue and kepe us
 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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