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Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)5.6. Of the hegoote and of the wulf The feble ought not to arme hym ageynst the stronge / As recyteth
this present fable of a wulf / which somtyme ranne after a hegoot
/ and the hegoot for to saue hym lept vpon a roche / and the wulf
besyeged hym / And after whan they had duellid there two or three
dayes / the wulf beganne to wexe hongry / and the hegoote to haue
thurst / And thus the wulf went for to ete / and the hegoot went
for to drynke / And as the hegoot dranke he sawe his shadowe in the
water / and speculynge and beholdynge his shadowe profered and sayd
suche wordes within hym self / Thou hast so fayre legges / so fayr
a berd / and so fayre hornes / and hast fere of the wulf / yf hit
happed that he come ageyne / I shall corryge hym wel / and shalle
kepe hym wel / that he shalle haue no myght ouer me / And the wulf
whiche held hys peas / and herkened what he sayd / toke hym by the
one legge thus sayenge / what wordes ben these whiche thow proferest & sayst
broder Hegoote / And whanne the hegote sawe that he was taken / he
beganne to saye to the wulf / Ha my lord / I saye no thynge / and
haue pyte of me / I knowe wel / that it is my coulpe / And the wulf
toke hym by the neck and strangled hym /
 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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