Caxton's translation (1484)
Of the theef and of the sonne
No man is chaunged by nature but of an euyll man maye wel yssue and come a wers than hym self / wherof Esope telleth suche a fable / A theef held the feest of his weddynge / And his neyghbours came there as the fest was holden and worshipped and bare honour to the theef / And as a wyse man sawe that the neyghbours of this theef were ioyeful and glad / he sayd to them / ye make Ioye & gladness of that / wherof ye shold wepe / take hede thenne to my wordes and vnderstond your Ioye / The sonne wold ones be maryed / But alle the Nacions of the world were ageynst hym / & prayd Iupiter that he shold kepe the sonne fro weddyng / & Iupiter demaunded of them the cause why they wolde not haue hym to be wedded / the one of them said / Iupiter thou knowest wel / how ther is but one sonne & yet he brenneth vs al / & yf he be maryed & haue ony children / they shal destroye al kynde / And this fable techeth vs that we ought not to be reioysshed of euyll felauship /
And this fable techeth vs that we ought not to be reioysshed of euyll felauship /
Townsend's translation (1887)
The Frog's Complaint Against the Sun
Once upon a time, when the Sun announced his intention to take a wife, the Frogs lifted up their voices in clamor to the sky. Jupiter, disturbed by the noise of their croaking, inquired the cause of their complaint. One of them said, "The Sun, now while he is single, parches up the marsh, and compels us to die miserably in our arid homes. What will be our future condition if he should beget other suns?"
