The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/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[errata 1]
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