Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
2.7. Of the old dogge and of his mayster
(Perry 532)
Men ought not to dysprayse the auncyent ne to putte a bak / For yf thow
be yonge / thow oughtest to desyre to come to old age or auncyente / And
also thow oughtest to loue and prayse the fayttes or dedes whiche the
haue done in theyr yongthe / wherof Esope reherceth to vs suche a fable
/ Of a lord whiche had a dogge / the whiche dogge had be in his yongthe
of good kynde / For ye wote wel / that of kynde the dogges chacen and
hunten in theyr yongthe / and haue grete luste to renne and take the wyld
beestes / whan thenne this dogge was come to old age / and that he myght
nomore renne / It happeth ones that he lete scape and go fro hym an hare
/ wherfore his mayster was sorowfull and angry / and by grete wrathe beganne
to bete hym / The dogge sayd thenne to hym / My mayster / of good seruyse
thow yeldest to me euylle gwerdone and reward / For in my yonge age I
serued the ful wel / And now that I am comen to myn old age / thow betest
and settest me a bak / haue memorye how in myn yong age / I was stronge
and lusty / And how I made grete oultrages and effors / the whiche caused
my yongthe / And now when I am bycome old and feble thow settest nought
of me /
This fable techeth that who so euer doth ony good in his yonghte /
in his auncyente and old age he shalle not contynue in the vertues whiche
he posseded in his yong age
 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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