Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
1.2. Of the wulf and of the lambe
(Perry 155)
/ Of the Innocent and of the shrewe Esope reherceth to vs suche a fable
/ how it was so / that the lambe and the wulf had bothe thurst / and went
bothe to a Ryuer for to drynke / It happed that the wulf dranke aboue
& the lambe dranke bynethe / And as the wulf sawe and perceyued the lambe
/ he sayd with a hyghe voys / Ha knaue why hast thou troubled and fowled
my water / whiche I shold now drynke / Allas my lord sauf your grece /
For the water cometh fro yow toward me / Thenne sayd the wulf to the lambe
/ Hast thow no shame ne drede to curse me / And the lambe sayd My lord
with your leue / And the wulf sayd ageyne / Hit is not syxe monethes passyd
that thy fader dyd to me as moche / And the lambe ansuerd yet was I not
at that tyme born / And the wlf said ageyne to hym / Thou hast ete my
fader / And the lambe ansuerd / I haue no teeth / Thenne said the wulf
/ thou arte wel lyke thy fader / and for his synne & mysded thow shalt
deye / The wulf thenne toke the lambe and ete hym /
This fable sheweth that the euylle man retcheth not by what maner he
may robbe & destroye the good & innocent man
 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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