Perry's Index to the Aesopica
Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:
THE FOX AND THE BRAMBLE
A fox climbing up over a fence was about to slip and fall, so she reached out
and grabbed hold of a bramble bush but the brambles scratched the soft padding
of the fox's paws. Stung by the sharp pain, the fox asked the bramble bush why
she had acted so cruelly, when the fox had simply grabbed onto her for help.
The bramble replied, 'My dear, you must be out of your mind to grab hold of
someone like me, since I am the one who always grabs everyone else!'
The same is true about people: it is foolish to expect help from someone
who is naturally unkind. |
 Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
Perry 19: Caxton 6.5 [English]
Perry 19: Gibbs (Oxford) 306 [English]
Perry 19: L'Estrange 101 [English]
Perry 19: Townsend 285 [English]
Perry 19: Steinhowel 6.5 [Latin, illustrated]
Mannheim
University Library
Perry 19: Chambry 31 [Greek]
You can find a compilation of Perry's index to the Aesopica in the gigantic appendix to his
edition of Babrius and Phaedrus for the Loeb Classical Library
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 1965). This book is an absolute must for anyone interested
in the Aesopic fable tradition. Invaluable.
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