The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Quintus/Fable 5

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Numbered 605 in the Perry Index. Translated from French by William Caxton and first published in 1484. Click here to create an annotated version of this text.

3810178The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Quintus — Fable 5: The Foxe and the CatteWilliam Caxton

¶ The v fable is of the foxe and of the catte /

THere is many folke / whiche auauncen them and saye that they ben wyse and subtyle / whiche ben grete fooles and knowynge no thynge / As this fable reherceth  Of a foxe whiche som tyme mette with a Catte / to whome he sayd / My godsep / god geue yow good daye / And the catte answerd / my lord god gyue yow good lyf / And thenne the foxe demaunded of hym / My godsep what canst thow doo / And the catte sayd to hym / I can lepe a lytyl / And the fox sayd to hym / Certaynly thow art not worthy to lyue / by cause that thow canst nought doo / And by cause that the cat was angry of foxes wordes / he asked and demaunded of the foxe / And thow godsep what canst thow doo / A thousand wyles haue I sayd the foxe / For I haue a sak ful of scyences and wyles / And I am so grete a clerke / that none maye begyle ne deceyue me / And as they were thus spekyng to gyder the cat perceyued a knyght comynge toward them / whiche had many dogges with hym / and sayd to the foxe / My godsep / certaynly I see a knyght[errata 1] comynge hyther ward / whiche ledeth with hym many dogges / the whiche as ye wel knowe ben our enemyes / The foxe thenne ansuerd to the cat / My godsep / thou spekest lyke a coward / and as he that is aferd / lete them come and care not thow / And Incontynently as the dogges perceyued and sawe the foxe and the catte / they beganne to renne vpon them / And whanne the foxe sawe them come / he sayd to the kat / Flee we my broder / flee we / To whome the kat ansuerd / Certaynly godsep / therof is none nede / neuer the les the foxe bylued not the cat / but fledde / and ranne as fast as he myght for to saue hym / And the catte lepte vpon a tree and saued hym self / sayenge / Now shalle we see / who shalle playe best for to preserue and saue hym self / And whanne the catte was vpon a tree / he loked aboute hym / and sawe how the dogges held the foxe with theyr teethe / to whome he cryed and seyd / O godsep and subtyle foxe / of thy thowsand wyles that syth late thow coudest doo / lete me now see / and shewe to me one of them / the foxe ansuerd not/ but was killed of the dogges and[errata 2] the catte was saued / ¶ And therfore the wyse ought not to desprayse the symple / For suche suppofeth to be moche wyse whiche is a kynd and a very foole /

  1. Original: knygtt was amended to knyght: detail
  2. Original: fend was amended to and: detail