The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Annotated/Vol. II/Liber Secundus/Fable 16

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The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Secundus (1889)
by Aesop, translated by William Caxton, edited by Joseph Jacobs

Fable 16: The Mule and the Flye

Fable 17

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related portals: Aesop's Fables.

Translated from French by William Caxton and first published in 1484. Perry Index 498. This is a version of The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Secundus/Fable 16 that has been annotated by the Wikisource community.

Aesop3801072The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Secundus — Fable 16: The Mule and the Flye1889William Caxton

¶ The xvj fable is of the mule and of the flye.

Omme maken grete menaces / whiche haue no myghte / ¶ Wherof Esope reherceth suche a fable / ¶ Of a carter / whiche ladde a Charyot or carte / whiche a Mule drewe forthe / And by cause the Mule wente not fast ynough / the flye sayd to the Mule / Ha a payllart Mule / why goost thow not faster / I shalle soo egrely pryke the / that I shalle make the go lyghtely / ¶ And the Mule answered to the flye / God kepe and preserue the mone for the wolues^[1] / For I haue ne grete drede ne fere of the / But I drede and doubte sore my mayster / whiche is vpon me / whiche constrayneth me to fulfylle his wylle / ¶ And more I oughte to drede and doubte hym more / than the / whiche arte nought / and of no valewe ne myght / ¶ And thus men ought not to gette by ne doubte them / whiche haue no myght ne that ben of no valewe.

↑ From the French phrase "Dieu garde la lune des loups", used as an ironical answer to an exaggerated boast or threat. (Wikisource contributor note)

[1] From the French phrase "Dieu garde la lune des loups", used as an ironical answer to an exaggerated boast or threat. (Wikisource contributor note)

[1]