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Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)

Avyan 10. Of the lyon and of the boole
(Perry 217)

It is not alweye tyme to auenge hym self of his enemye / As it appiereth by this fable of a bole / whiche somtyme fledde before a lyon / And as the bole wold entre within a cauerne for to saue hym / a gote wente ageynste hym for to kepe and lette hym that he shold not entre in it / to whome the bole sayd / It is not tyme now to auenge me on the / for the lyon chaseth me / but the tyme shalle come that wel I shalle fynde the /
For men ought not to doo to hym self dommage for to be auengyd of his enemy / but oughte to loke tyme and place couenable for to doo hit


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.