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Perry's Index to the Aesopica

Fables exist in many versions; here is one version in English:

THE CITY MOUSE AND THE COUNTRY MOUSE

A city mouse once happened to pay a visit to the house of a country mouse where he was served a humble meal of acorns. The city mouse finished his business in the country and by means of insistent invitations he persuaded the country mouse to come pay him a visit. The city mouse then brought the country mouse into a room that was overflowing with food. As they were feasting on various delicacies, a butler opened the door. The city mouse quickly concealed himself in a familiar mouse hole, but the poor country mouse was not acquainted with the house and frantically scurried around the floorboards, frightened out of his wits. When the butler had taken what he needed, he closed the door behind him. The city mouse then urged the country mouse to sit back down to dinner. The country mouse refused and said, 'How could I possibly do that? Oh, how scared I am! Do you think that the man is going to come back?' This was all that the terrified mouse was able to say. The city mouse insisted, 'My dear fellow, you could never find such delicious food as this anywhere else in the world.' 'Acorns are enough for me,' the country mouse maintained, 'so long as I am secure in my freedom!'
It is better to live in self-sufficient poverty than to be tormented by the worries of wealth.

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 352: Caxton 1.12 [English]
Perry 352: Gibbs (Oxford) 408 [English]
Perry 352: Jacobs 7 [English]
Perry 352: L'Estrange 10 [English]
Perry 352: Townsend 216 [English]
Perry 352: Steinhowel 1.12 [Latin, illustrated] Mannheim University Library
Perry 352: Aphthonius 26 [Greek]
Perry 352: Babrius 108 [Greek]
Perry 352: Chambry 243 [Greek]
Perry 352: Ademar 13 [Latin]
Perry 352: Odo 16 [Latin]
Perry 352: Rom. Anglicus 11 [Latin]
Perry 352: Rom. Nil. (metrica) 9 [Latin]
Perry 352: Rom. Nil. (rhythmica) 1.11 [Latin]
Perry 352: Walter of England 12 [Latin]


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.