The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Secundus/Fable 12
¶ The xij fable is of the balled man / and of the flye
F a lytyl euylle may wel come a
gretter / Wherof Esope recyteth
suche a fable / Of a flye / whiche
pryked a man vpon his bald hede /
And whanne he wold have smyte
her / she flewgh awey / And thus he smote hym
self / wherof the fly beganne to lawhe / And the
bald man sayd to her / Ha a euylle beest thow
demaundest wel thy dethe / yf I smote my self
wherof thow lawhest and mocquest me / But yf I
had hytte the / thow haddest be therof slayne /
And therfore men sayen comynly that of the
euylle of other / men ought not to lawhe ne
scorne / But the Iniuryous mocquen and scornen
the world / and geteth many enemyes / For the
whiche cause oftyme it happeth that of a fewe
wordes euyll sette / cometh a grete noyse and
daunger