Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
6.10. Of the child / whiche kepte the sheep
(Perry 210)
He whiche is acustommed to make lesynges / how be it that he saye trouhte
/ yet men byleue hym not / As reherceth this fable / Of a child whiche
somtyme kepte sheep / the whiche cryed ofte withoute cause / sayenge
/ Allas for goddes loue socoure yow me / For the wulf wylle ete my sheep
/ And whanne the labourers that cultyued and ered the erthe aboute hym
/ herd his crye / they came to help hym / the whiche came so many tymes
/ and fond nothyng / And as they sawe that there were no wulues / they
retorned to theyr labourage / And the child dyd so many tymes for to
playe hym / It happed on a day that the wulf came / and the child cryed
as he was acustommed to doo / And by cause that the labourers supposed
/ that hit had not ben trouthe / abode stylle at theyr laboure / wherfore
the wulf dyd ete the sheep /
For men bileue not lyghtly hym / whiche is knowen for a lyer
 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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