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DE COLUMBA ET PICA

Source: Abstemius 6 (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:

Columba interrogata a pica, quid eam induceret ut in eodem semper loco nidificaret, cum eius pulli inde semper surriperentur. Simplicitas, respondit. Haec indicat fabula facile esse viros probos saepe decipi.

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

Columba

interrogata a pica,

quid eam induceret

ut in eodem semper loco nidificaret,

cum eius pulli inde semper surriperentur.

Simplicitas, respondit.

Haec indicat fabula

facile esse

viros probos saepe decipi.

Translation: A dove was asked by a magpie what led her to always make her nest in the same place, when her chicks were always snatched away from her there. My simplicity leads me to do this, replied the dove. This fable shows that it is an easy thing for honest people to be duped.

[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 Pye was Wond'ring once to a Pigeon, why she would Breed still in the same Hole, when her Young Ones were constantly taken away from her before they were able to fly. Why That's my Simplicity, says the Pigeon. I mean no Harm, and I suspect none.

Do as you would be done by, it is a Better Rule in the Doctrine than in the Practice: For Trust as you would be Trusted, will not hold betwixt a Knave and an Honest Man. There's no Dealing with a Sharper but at his Own Play.