The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Tertius/Fable 11

The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Tertius (1889)
by Aesop, translated by William Caxton, edited by Joseph Jacobs
Fable 11: The Fader and the euylle Sonne
Aesop3789207The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Tertius — Fable 11: The Fader and the euylle Sonne1889William Caxton

¶ The xj fable is of the fader and of the euylle sone

THe good and wyse fader ought to chastyse his children in theyr yong age / and not in theyr old age / For thenne hit is moche dyffycyle to make them bowe  As to us reciteth this fable / Of a fader of famylle / whiche had a sone / the whiche dyd no thynge that he oughte to haue done / but euer was goynge and playeng in the toune / And the fader for the cryme and mysrewle of his sone brawled euer and bete his meyny / And sayd to them suche a fable / Of a ploughman or labourer / whiche bond a bole by the homes to an oxe  The booll wold not be bound / and smote strongly whith his feet after the man / and launched his homes at hym /  ¶ And at the last whan he was bound / the labourer sayd to them I haue ioyned and bound you bothe to gyder / to thende that ye doo somme labour / But I wyll that the left of yow two / that is to wete the boole / be lerned and corryged of the moste / whiche is the oxe / For I must sayd the labourer to hym self bynde them thus to gyder / to thende that the bole / whiche is yong fyen and malycious and strong / smyte ne hurte nobody / wherof grete dommage myght come to me / But by cause that I bote well / that the oxe shalle teche and corryge hym wel / I haue put and bound them bothe to gyder /  ¶ Thus this fable sheweth to vs / that the fader ought to teche and gyue good ensample to his children and chastyse them whanne they be yong  For he that well loueth / wel he chastyseth