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The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Auian/Fable 9

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Numbered 378 in the Perry Index. Click here to create an annotated version of this text.

3929916The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs), The Fables of Avian — Fable 9: The two PottesAvianus

¶ The ix fable maketh mencion of the two pottes

THe poure ought not to take the Ryche as his felawe as it appiereth by this fable of two pottes / of the whiche the one was coper / and the other of erthe / the whiche pottes dyd mete to gyder within a Ryuer /  ¶ & by cause that the erthen pot wente swyfter than dyd the coper potte / the pot of coper sayd to the pot of erthe / I praye the that we may goo to gyder / And the erthen potte ansuerd and sayd to the coper pot / I wylle not go with the / For it shold happe to me as it happed to the glas and of the morter  For yf thow sholdest mete with me / thow sholdest breke and putte me in to pyeces /  ¶ And therfore the poure is a fole that compareth and lykeneth hym self to the ryche and myghty / For better is to lyue in pouerte than to deye vylaynously and oppressyd of the ryche