<< Home Page | Caxton Index

Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)

5.11. Of the enuyous dogge
(Perry 702)

None ought not to haue enuye of the good of other / As it appiereth by this fable / Of a dogge whiche was enuyous / and that somtyme was within a stable of oxen / the whiche was ful of heye / This dogge kept the oxen that they shold not entre in to theyr stable / and that they shold not ete of the sayd hey / And thenne the oxen sayd to hym / Thow arte wel peruers and euylle to haue enuye of the good / the whiche is to vs nedefull and prouffitable / And thow hast of hit nought to doo / for thy kynde is not to ete no hey / And thus he dyd of a grete bone / the whiche he held at his mouthe / and wold not leue hit by cause and for enuye of another dogge / whiche was therby /
And therfore kepe the wel fro the company or felauship of an enuyous body / For to haue to doo with hym hit is moche peryllous and dyffycyle / As to vs is wel shewen by Lucyfer

 


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.