Page:The fables of Aesop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, with those of Avian, Alfonso and Poggio. Vol 2.djvu/153



Here is many folke / whiche them and aye that they ben wye and ubtyle / whiche grete fooles and knowynge no thynge / As this fable reherceth Of a foxe whiche om tyme mette with a Catte / to whome he ayd / My / god geue yow good daye / And the catte anwerd / my lord god gyue yow good lyf / And thenne the foxe demaunded of hym / My godep what cant thow doo / And the catte ayd to hym / I can lepe a lytyl / And the fox ayd to hym / Certaynly thow art not worthy to lyue / by caue that thow cant doo / And by caue that the cat was angry of foxes wordes / he aked and of the foxe / And thow godep what cant thow doo / A thouand haue I ayd the foxe / For I haue a sak ful of cyences and wyles / And I am o grete a clerke / that none maye begyle ne deceyue me / And as they were thus pekyng to gyder the cat perceyued a knyght comynge toward them / whiche had many dogges with hym / and ayd to the foxe / My godep /