Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
Avyan 17. Of Phebus / of the Auarycious / and of the enuyous
(Perry 580)
None oughte to doo harme or dommage to somme other for to receyue or
doo his owne dommage / As hit appereth by this fable / Of Iupiter whiche
sent phebus in to therthe for to haue al the knowledge of the thought
of men This phebus thenne mette with two men / of whiche the one was moche
enuyous / And the other ryght couetous / Phebus demaunded of them what
theyr thought was / we thynke said they to demaund and aske of the grete
yeftes / To the which Phebus ansuerd / Now demaunde what ye wylle / For
al that that ye shalle demaunde of me / I shalle graunte hit / And of
that / that the fyrst of yow shalle aske / the second shal haue the dowble
parte / or as moche more ageyne / And thenne the auarycious sayd / I wyl
that my felawe aske what he wyll fyrst wherof the enuyous was wel content
/ whiche sayd to Phebus Fayre syre I praye the that I maye lese one of
myn eyen / to thende that my felawe may lese al bothe his eyen / wherfor
phebus beganne to lawhe whiche departed and wente ageyne vnto Iupiter
/ and told hym the grete malyce of the enuyous / whiche was Ioyeful and
glad of the harme and dommage of an other / & how he was wel content to
suffre payne for to haue addomaged somme other
 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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