The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Annotated/Vol. II/Liber Primus/Fable 16
¶ The xvi fable is of the lyon / of the wylde bore / of the bole & of the asse
hanne a man hath lost his dignyte or offyce / he muste leue his fyrst audacyte or hardyness / to thende / that he be not iniuryed and mocqued of euery one / wherof Esope sheweth vnto suche a fable / There was a lyon whiche in his yongthe was fyers and moche outragyous / ¶ And when he was come to his old age / there came to hym a wyldbore / whiche with his teeth rent and barst a grete pyece of his body and auenged upon hym of the wrong the lyon had doo to hym before that tyme / ¶ After came to hym the boole whiche smote and hurted hym with his hornes / And an asse came there / whiche smote hym in the forhede with his feete by maner of vyndycacion / And thenne the poure Lyon beganne to wepe sayenge within hym self in this manere / When I was yonge and uertuous euery one doubted and fered me / and now that I am old and feble / and nyghe to my dethe / none is that setteth ne holdeth ought by me / but of euery one I am setten aback / I haue lost alle good and worship / and therlore this fable admonesteth many one whiche ben enhaunced in dygnyte and worship shewinge to them / how they must be meke and humble / For he that geteth and acquyreth no frendes ought to be doubtous to falle in suche caas and in suche peryl.