Perry 60: Old Man and Death

As one of the tasks preparing for my new book, Aesop’s Fables in Latin: Ancient Wit and Wisdom from the Animal Kingdom (coming soon from Bolchazy-Carducci!), I'm reviewing the different Perry numbers that will be included in that book. For each of the fables, I'm posting here a Latin version of the fable along with an illustration that can be compared/contrasted with the version in Barlow's book.

Today's fable is Perry #60, the story of the old man who thought he was so tired of life that he wanted to die... until Death showed up in order to take him away! At the Aesopus wiki, you can see a complete list of the versions of this fable that I have collected. Although this fable is not part of the ancient Latin tradition, it begins to appear in Latin during the Renaissance and shows up in some of the standard English translations of Aesop, such as L'Estrange and Townsend. Here, for example, is L'Estrange's version:

An old man that had travell’d a great way under a huge Burden of Sticks found himself so weary that he cast it down, and call’d upon Death to deliver him from a more miserable Life. Death came presently at his call, and asked him his business. Pray, good Sir, says he, Do me but the Favour to help me up with my burden again.
THE MORAL. Men call upon Death, as they do upon the Devil; when he comes they’re afraid of him.

For a Latin example, here is a simple prose version from the Jacobs & Doering Latin reader:

Senex in silva ligna ceciderat, iisque sublatis domum redire coepit. Cum aliquantum viae progressus esset, onere et via defatigatus, fascem deposuit, et secum aetatis et inopiae mala contemplatus, Mortem clara voce invocat quae ipsum ab omnibus his malis liberet. Tum Mors, senis precibus auditis, subito adstitit, et quid vellet percunctatur. At Senex, quem iam votorum suorum paenitebat, Nihil, inquit, sed requiro, qui onus paululum allevet, dum ego rursus subeo.

Here it is written out in segmented style to make it easier to follow, respecting the Latin word order:

Senex in silva ligna ceciderat,
iisque sublatis
domum redire coepit.
Cum aliquantum viae progressus esset,
onere et via defatigatus,
fascem deposuit,
et secum aetatis et inopiae mala contemplatus,
Mortem clara voce invocat
quae
ipsum ab omnibus his malis liberet.
Tum Mors,
senis precibus auditis,
subito adstitit,
et quid vellet percunctatur.
At Senex,
quem
iam votorum suorum paenitebat,
Nihil, inquit,
sed requiro,
qui onus paululum allevet,
dum ego rursus subeo.

For an illustration, here is an image by the Renaissance artist Bernard Solomon:

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