The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Poge/Fable 5
¶ The v fable is of the recytacion of somme monstres
Oge of Florence recyteth how in his
tyme one named Hugh prynce
of the medycyns / sawe a catte
whiche had two hedes and a
calf whiche also had two hedes
And his legges bothe before and behynde were
double / as they had be Joyned al to gyder /
as many folke sawe / Jtem about the marches
of ytalye withynne a medowe was somtyme a
Cowe / the whiche Cowe maade and delyuerd
her of a serpent of wonder and Ryght merueyllous
grettenesse / Ryghte hydous and ferdful /
¶ For fyrste he hadde the heede gretter than the
hede of a calf / ¶ Secondly / he had a necke of
the lengthe of an Asse / And his body made after
the lykenesse of a dogge / and his taylle was
wonder grete / thycke and longe withoute comparyson
to ony other.
¶ And whanne the Cowe sawe that she hadde maade suche a byrthe / And that within her bely she had borne soo ryght horryble a beeste / she was al ferdful / and lyfte her self up / and supposed to haue fledde aweye / but the Serpent with his wonder longe taylle enlaced her two hynder legges / And the Serpent thenne beganne to souke the Cow / And in dede soo moche / and soo longe he sbuked tylle that he sond somme mylke / ¶ And whanne the Cowe myght escape fro hym / she fledde vnto the other kyne / ¶ And Incontynent her pappes and her behynder legges and all that the Serpent touched was all black a grete space of tyme ¶ And soone after the sayd Cowe maade a fayre calf / The whiche merueylle was announced or sayd to the sayd Pope he beynge atte Ferrare /
¶ And yet ageyne soone after that / ther was fond within a grete Ryuer a monstre maryn / or of the see of the forme or lyknesse whiche foloweth /
¶ Fyrste he hadde from the nauylle vpward the symplytude or lykenesse of a man / And fro the nauylle dounward / he had the fourme or makynge of a Fysshe / the whiche parte was iumelle that is to wete double / ¶ Secondly he hadde a grete berd / and he hadde two wonder grete hornys aboue his eres / ¶ Also he hadde grete pappes / and a wonder grete and horryble mouthe / and his handes retched unto his entraylles or bowellys / And at the bothe his elbowes he hadde wynges lyght brode and grete of fysses mayles / wherwith he swymmed / and only he hadde but the hede oute of the water / ¶ It happed thenne as many wymmen bouked and wesshed at the porte or hauen of the sayd Ryuer / that thys horryble and ferdfull beeste was / for lacke and defaulte of mete cam & swymmyng toward the sayd wymen / Of the which he toke one by the hand / and supposed to haue drawe her in to the water / but she was stronge / and wel auysed and resysted agevnste the sayd monstre / And as she deffended her self / she beganne to crye with a hyhe voys / help help / to the whiche came rennynge fyue wymmen / whiche by hurlynge and drawynge of stones kyld and slewe the sayd monstre / For he was come to ferre within the sonde / wherfore he myght not retorne in the depe water / And after whanne he rendryd his spyryte / he made a ryght lytyl crye / sayenge wo that he was so desormed and soo moche cruel / For he was of grete corpulence more than ony man's body/ And yet sayth Poge in this manere / that he beyng at Ferrare he sawe the sayd monstre / And saith yet / that the yonge children were customed for to go bathe and wasshe them within the sayd Ryuer / but they came not all ageyne / wherfore the wymen wesshed ne bouked nomore theyr clothes at the said porte / For the folke presumed and supposed that the monstre kyld the yonge children / whiche were drowned / ¶ Jtem also within a lytyl whyle after hit befelle aboute the marches of ytaly that a child of fourme humayne whiche hadde two hedes and two vysages or faces beholdynge one vpon the other / & the armes of eche other embraced the body / the whiche body fro the nauyl vpward was Joyned sauf the two hedes / and from the nauyll dounward the lymmes were all separed one fro other in suche wyse that the lymmes of generacion were shewed manyfestly / Of the whiche child the tydynges came vnto the persone of the pope of Rome