The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Primus/Fable 3

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

Fable 3: The Rat and the Frogge

Fable 4

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Numbered 384 in the Perry Index. Translated from French by William Caxton and first published in 1484. An annotated version of this text is available.

Aesop3771646The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Primus — Fable 3: The Rat and the Frogge1889William Caxton

¶ The thyrd fable is of the rat / and of the frogge /

ow it be so / that as the rat went in pylgremage / he came by a Ryuer / and demaunded helpe of a frogge tor to passe / and go over the water / And thenne the frogge bound the rats foote to her foote / and thus swymed vnto the myddes ouer the Ryuer / And as they were there the frogge stood stylle / to thende that the rat shold be drowned / And in the meane whyle came a kyte vpon them / and bothe bare them with hym / This fable made Esope for a symylytude whiche is prouffitable to many folkes / For he that thynketh evylle ageynst good / the evil whiche he thynketh shall ones falle upon hym self.