Source: Steinhowel's Aesop (1477).
Parallels: For parallel versions, see Perry 562.
Latin Text:
Vulpis aliquando sustinens famem ivit ad villam quandam, et veniens ante gallum dicebat ei: O domine meus galle, quam pulchram vocem habebat dominus meus pater tuus. Nam ego cupiens audire vocem tuam veni huc, unde rogo te, ut canas alta voce, ut audiam, utrum tu an pater tuus pulchriorem habeas vocem. Tunc gallus cum clamore clausis oculis coepit canere. At vulpis insiliens in eum, cepit eum et portavit in silvam. Tunc homines villae illius insequentes eum dicebant quia vulpis portat gallum nostrum. Audiens autem gallus dixit vulpi: Audis, domina, quid dicunt villani turpes? dic ergo illis quia meum gallum, non vestrum porto. Tunc vulpes dimittens gallum ex ore dicebatquia meum, non vestrum porto, gallus autem evolans in arborem dicebat: Mentiris, domina mea, mentiris, ipsis sum, non tuus! Vulpis autem percutiens buccam suam cum palma sua dicebat: O bucca, quanta dicis, quanta loqueris. Certe, si modo locuta non fuisses, praedam tuam non ammisisses. Sic et multi homines cum multa loquuntur damnum non effugiunt.
Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:
Vulpis aliquando
sustinens famem
ivit ad villam quandam,
et veniens ante gallum
dicebat ei:
O domine meus galle,
quam pulchram vocem habebat
dominus meus pater tuus.
Nam ego
cupiens audire vocem tuam
veni huc,
unde rogo te,
ut canas alta voce,
ut audiam,
utrum tu
an pater tuus
pulchriorem habeas vocem.
Tunc gallus
cum clamore
clausis oculis
coepit canere.
At vulpis
insiliens in eum,
cepit eum
et portavit in silvam.
Tunc homines villae illius
insequentes eum
dicebant
quia vulpis
portat gallum nostrum.
Audiens autem gallus
dixit vulpi:
Audis, domina,
quid dicunt villani turpes?
dic ergo illis
quia
meum gallum, non vestrum
porto.
Tunc vulpes
dimittens gallum
ex ore dicebat
quia
meum, non vestrum porto,
gallus autem
evolans in arborem
dicebat:
Mentiris, domina mea, mentiris,
ipsis sum,
non tuus!
Vulpis autem
percutiens buccam suam
cum palma sua
dicebat:
O bucca, quanta dicis,
quanta loqueris.
Certe,
si modo locuta non fuisses,
praedam tuam
non ammisisses.
Sic et multi homines
cum multa loquuntur
damnum non effugiunt.
Translation:
Once upon a time a fox, who was suffering from hunger, went to a certain farmhouse and going up to the rooster she said to him, "O Mister Rooster, what a beautiful voice your father, Mister Rooster, had! Wanting to hear your voice I have come here; so, I ask you to sing out loud so that I can hear whether you or your father has the more beautiful voice. Then the rooster with a squawk closed his eyes and began to sing. Then the fox leaped on the rooster, grabbed him, and carried him off toward the forest. Then the people of the farmhouse chased them saying: The fox has got our rooster! Then the rooster heard them and said to the fox: Do you hear, Madame, what the nasty farmhands are saying? You should say to them, "I am carrying MY rooster, not yours!' So the fox let go of the rooster as she opened her mouth to say: I am carrying mine, not yours! But the rooster flew away up into a tree and said: You are wrong, Madame, you are wrong! I am theirs, not yours! The fox, however, grabbed her mouth with her paw and said: "O mouth! You talk too much, you say too much! If, in fact, you had just stayed quiet, you would have not lost your prize! Soit is that many people, when they talk too much, cannot escape harm.
[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]
This edition of Aesop's fables provided the basis for the first printed Aesop's fables in English, published by William Caxton in 1484. Here is Caxton's version:
/ Of a foxe / whiche came toward a Cocke / And sayd to hym / I wold fayne wete / yf thow canst as wel synge as thy fader dyde / And thenne the Cock shette his eyen / and beganne to crye and synge / And thenne the Foxe toke and bare hym awey / And the peple of the towne cryed / the foxe bereth awey the cok / And thenne the Cocke sayd thus to the Foxe / My lord vnderstandest thow not / what the peple sayth / that thow berest awey theyr cock / telle to them / that it is thyn / and not theyrs / And as the foxe sayd / hit is not yours / but it is myn / the cok scaped fro the foxe mouthe / and flough vpon a tree / And thenne the Cok sayd to the fox thow lyest / For I am theyrs and not thyn / And thenne the foxe beganne to hytte the erthe bothe with his mouthe & heed sayenge / Mouthe / thow hast spoken to moche / thow sholdest haue eten the Cok / had not be thyn ouer many wordes /
Illustration:
Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view.
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