The Oxen and the Creaking Cart is a situational fable ascribed to

Aesop Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...

and is numbered 45 in the

Perry Index The Perry Index is a widely used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. The index was created by Ben Edwin Perry, a professor of classics at the Un ...

. Originally directed against complainers, it was later linked with the proverb ‘the worst wheel always creaks most’ and aimed emblematically at babblers of all sorts.

The fable

The Greek fabulist

Babrius Babrius ( grc-gre, Βάβριος, ''Bábrios''; century),"Babrius" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 21. also known as Babrias () or Gabrias (), was the author of a collection of Greek fables, many of which ...

collected two variant fables that told of oxen straining to pull a laden wagon with creaking wheels. In one the oxen reprove the cart for complaining when it is they who have the heaviest work to do. In the other, it is the angry waggoner who points this out. When the situation began to be related in English collections, however, there were significant changes. In

Roger L'Estrange Sir Roger L'Estrange (17 December 1616 – 11 December 1704) was an English pamphleteer, author, courtier, and press censor. Throughout his life L'Estrange was frequently mired in controversy and acted as a staunch ideological defender of Kin ...

’s version (1692), titled simply “A Creaking Wheel”, it is “the worst wheel of the four” that justifies the noise it makes by pointing out that “They that are Sickly are ever the most Piping and Troublesome”. In

Samuel Croxall Samuel Croxall (c. 1690 – 1752) was an Anglican churchman, writer and translator, particularly noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables. Early career Samuel Croxall was born in Walton on Thames, where his father (also called Samuel) was vicar. ...

’s collection of 1722, the worst wheel of a coach remarks that “it was natural for people who laboured under any affliction or infirmity to complain”. It was not until

George Fyler Townsend George Fyler Townsend (1814–1900) was the British translator of the standard English edition of ''Aesop's Fables''. He was the son of George Townsend and was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge -DCL 1876. He was Vicar ...

’s new translation of 1867 that the original Greek fable was returned to under the title “The Oxen and the Axle-Trees”. What had intervened was a Latin fable in the ''Hecatomythium'' (1495) of

Laurentius Abstemius Laurentius Abstemius (c. 1440–1508) was an Italian writer and professor of philology, born at Macerata in Ancona. His learned name plays on his family name of Bevilaqua (Drinkwater), and he was also known by the Italian name Lorenzo Astemio. A ...

with this worst wheel variation. Abstemius often concocted such fables to fit current proverbs and the one he had in mind in this case was recorded a century before him in France as ''Toujours crie la pire roue du char'' (It's always the cart's worst wheel that complains). The proverb persisted into the Renaissance and beyond in various European languages. It also reappeared at the end of a poem by

Gilles Corrozet Gilles Corrozet (1510 - 1568, Paris) was a French writer and printer-bookseller. Life and works Corrozet’s printer’s mark was a rose enclosed in a heart, punning on his name (''Coeur rosier''), and accompanied by the Biblical motto ''In corde ...

that accompanied an emblem criticising babblers.''Emblemes in Cebes'' (1643)
Emblem 65
/ref> The fables of Abstemius were often reprinted and began to be added to general collections of fables translated into Latin, of which the bulk were by Aesop. In this way his work was later ascribed to Aesop himself and the creaking wheel version was mistaken for an additional variant of those recorded by Babrius fifteen centuries previously.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxen and the Creaking Cart, The Aesop's Fables Fables by Laurentius Abstemius Proverbs