Aesop's Fables: Caxton
(1484)
5.5. Of the foxe and of the catte
(Perry 605)
There is many folke / whiche auauncen them and saye that they ben
wyse and subtyle / whiche ben grete fooles and knowynge no thynge
/ As this fable reherceth / Of a foxe whiche somtyme mette with a
Catte / to whome he sayd / My godsep / god yeue yow good daye / And
the catte ansuerd / My lord god gyue yow good lyf / And thenne the
foxe demaunded of hym / My godsep what canst thow doo / And the catte
sayd to hym / I can lepe a lytyl / And the fox sayd to hym / Certaynly
thow arte not worthy to lyue / by cause that thow canst nought doo
/ And by cause that the cat was angry of the foxes wordes / he asked
and demaunded of the foxe / And thow godsep what canst tow doo /
A thousand wyles haue I sayd the foxe / For I haue a sak ful of scyences
and wyles / And I am so grete a clerke / that none may begyle ne
deceyue me / And as they were thus spekyng to gyder the cat perceyued
a knyght comynge toward them / whiche had many dogges with hym /
and sayd to the foxe / My godsep / certaynly I see a knyght / comynge
hytherward / whiche ledeth with hym many dogges / the whiche as ye
wel knowe ben our enemyes / The foxe thenne ansuerd to the cat /
My godsep / thou spekest lyke a coward / and as he that is aferd
/ lete them come and care not thow / And Incontynently as the dogges
perceyued and sawe the foxe and the catte / they beganne to renne
vpon them / And whanne the foxe sawe them come / he sayd to the kat
/ Flee we my broder / flee we / To whome the kat ansuerd / Certaynly
godsep / therof is none nede / Neuertheles the foxe byleued not the
cat / but fledde / and ranne as fast as he myght for to saue hym
/ And the catte lepte vpon a tree and saued hym self / sayenge /
Now shalle we see / who shalle playe best for to preserue and saue
hym self / And whanne the catte was vpon a tree / he loked aboute
hym / and sawe how the dogges held the foxe with theyr teethe / to
whome he cryed and seyd / O godsep and subtyle foxe / of thy thowsand
wyles that syth late thow coudest doo / lete me now see / and shewe
to me one of them / the foxe ansuerd not / but was killed of the
dogges and the catte was saued /
And therfore the wyse ought not to disprayse the symple /
For suche supposeth to be moche wyse / whiche is a kynd and a
very foole /
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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