1.16. de leone, apro, tauro et asino
Caxton: Of the lyon / of the wyld bore / of the bole & of the asse
Whanne a man hath lost his dignyte or offyce / he muste leue his fyrst audacyte or hardyness / to thende / that he be not iniuryed and mocqued of euery one / wherof Esope sheweth vnto vs suche a fable / There was a lyon whiche in his yongthe was fyers and moche outragyous / And when he was come to his old age / there came to hym a wyldbore / whiche with his teeth rent and barst a grete pyece of his body and auenged vpon hym of the wrong that the lyon had doo to hym before that tyme / After came to hym the boole whiche smote and hurted hym with his hornes / And an asse came there / whiche smote hym in the forhede with his feete by maner of vyndycacion / And thenne the poure Lyon beganne to wepe sayenge within hym self in this manere / whan I was yonge and vertuous euery one doubted and fered me / And now that I am old and feble / and nyghe to my dethe / none is that setteth ne holdeth ought by me / but of euery one I am setten a back / And by cause that now I haue lost bothe vertue and strengthe / I haue lost alle good and worship /
And therefore this fable admonesteth many one whiche ben enhaunced in dygnyte and worship shewynge to them / how they must be meke and humble / For he that geteth and acquyreth no frendes ought to be doubtous to falle in suche caas and in suche peryls
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