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DE ACCIPITRE COLUMBAM INSEQUENTE

Source: Abstemius 3 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

Latin Text:

Cum Accipiter Columbam praecipiti insequeretur volatu, villam quandam ingressus, a Rustico captus est, quem blande, ut se dimitteret, obsecrabat. Non etenim te laesi, dixit. Cui Rusticus, Nec haec te laeserat. Fabula indicat merito puniri qui Innocentes laedere conantur.

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

Cum Accipiter

Columbam

praecipiti insequeretur volatu,

villam quandam ingressus,

a Rustico captus est,

quem blande,

ut se dimitteret,

obsecrabat.

Non etenim te laesi,

dixit.

Cui Rusticus,

Nec haec

te laeserat.

Fabula indicat

merito puniri

qui Innocentes laedere conantur.

Translation: A hawk was chasing a dove in headlong flight and fly into a certain farmhouse. He was captured by a country-man. With flattering words, the hawk begged the man to let him go. The hawk said, "For in fact, I did you no harm." The man said to the hawk, "And the dove had done you no harm." The fable indicates that those who try to harm the innocent are rightfully punished.

[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.]

Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. Here is L'Estrange's translation:

A Country Fellow had the Fortune to take a Hawk in the hot Pursuit of a Pigeon. The Hawk pleaded for her self, that she never did the Country-man any harm, and therefore I hope, says she, that you'll do me none. Well, says the Country-man, and pray what wrong did the Pigeon ever do you? Now by the Reason of your own Argument, you must e'en expect to be treated your self, as you your self would have treated this Pigeon.

'Tis good to think before we speak, for fear of condemning our selves out of our own Mouths.