Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 9. Of the two pottes
(Perry 378)
The poure ought not to take the Ryche as his felawe As it appiereth by
this fable of the two pottes / of the whiche the one was coper / and the
other of erthe / the whiche pottes dyd mete to gyder within a Ryuer /
& by cause that the erthen pot wente swyfter than dyd the coper potte
/ the pot of coper sayd to the pot of erthe / I praye the that we may
goo to gyder / And the erthen potte ansuerd and sayd to the coper pot
/ I wylle not go with the / For it shold happe to me as it happed to the
glas and of the morter For yf thow sholdest mete with me / thow sholdest
breke and putte me in to pyeces / And therfore the poure is a fole that
compareth and lykeneth hym slef to the ryche and myghty / For better is
to lyue in pouerte than to deye vylansly and be oppressyd of the ryche
And therfore the poure is a fole that compareth and lykeneth hym slef
to the ryche and myghty / For better is to lyue in pouerte than to deye
vylansly and be oppressyd of the ryche
 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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