Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
4.3. Of the wulf and of the sheepherd and of the hunter
(Perry 22)
Many folke shewe them self good by theyr wordes whiche are ful of grete
fantasyes / As reherceth to vs thys fable of a wulf whiche fledde byfore
the hunter / And as he fledde he mette with a sheepherd / to whome he
said My frende I praye the that thow telle not to hym that foloweth me
which wey I am gone / & the sheepherd said to hym haue no drede ne fere
no thynge / For I shalle not accuse the / For I shalle shewe to hym another
way / And as the hunter came / he demaunded of the sheepherd yf he had
sene the wulf passe / And the sheepherd both with the heed and of the
eyen shewed to the hunter the place where the wulf was / & with the hand
and the tongue shewed alle the contrarye / And incontynent the hunter
vnderstood hym wel / But the wulf whiche perceyued wel all the fayned
maners of the sheepherd fled awey / And within a lytyll whyle after the
sheepherd encountred and mette with the wulf / to whome he sayd / paye
me of that I haue kepte the secrete / And thenne the wulf ansuerd to hym
in this manere / I thanke thyn handes and the tongue / and not thyn hede
ne thyn eyen / For by them I shold haue ben bytrayed / yf I had not fledde
aweye /
And therfore men must not truste in hym that hath two faces and two
tongues / for suche folk is lyke and semblable to the scorpion / the whiche
enoynteth with his tongue / and prycketh sore with his taylle
 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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