The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs
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Avianus and Caxton tell different stories of a goose that lays a golden egg, where other versions have a hen, as in Townsend: “A cottager and his wife had a Hen that laid a golden egg every day. They supposed that the Hen must contain a great lump of gold in its inside, and in order to get the gold they killed it. Having done so, they found to their surprise that the Hen differed in no respect from their other hens. The foolish pair, thus hoping to become rich all at once, deprived themselves of the gain of which they were assured day by day.
In early tellings, there is sometimes a commentary warning against greed rather than a pithy moral. This is so in Jean de La Fontaines fable of La Poule aux oeufs dor (Fables V.13), which begins with the sentiment that Greed loses all by striving all to gain and comments at the end that the story can be applied to those who become poor by trying to outreach themselves. It is only later that the morals most often quoted today began to appear. These are Greed oft oer reaches itself (Joseph Jacobs, 1894) and Much wants more and loses all (Samuel Croxall, 1722). It is notable also that these are stories told of a goose rather than a hen.
The English idiom, sometimes shortened to “Killing the golden goose”, derives from this fable. It is generally used of a short-sighted action that destroys the profitability of an asset. Caxtons version of the story has the gooses owner demand that it lay two eggs a day; when it replied that it could not, the owner killed it. The same lesson is taught by Ignacy Krasickis fable of “The Farmer”:
A farmer, bent on doubling the profits from his land,
Proceeded to set his soil a two-harvest demand.
Too intent thus on profit, harm himself he must needs:
Instead of corn, he now reaps corn-cockle and weeds.
There is another variant on the story, recorded by Syntipas ([[Perry Index 58) and appearing in Roger LEstranges 1692 telling as “A Woman and a Fat Hen” (Fable 87): A good Woman had a Hen that laid her every day an Egg. Now she fansyd to her self, that upon a larger Allowance of Corn, this Hen might be brought in time to lay twice a day. She tryd the Experiment; but the Hen grew fat upont, and gave quite over laying. His comment on this is that we should set Bounds to our Desires, and content our selves when we are well, for fear of losing what we had. Another of Aesops fables with the moral of wanting more and losing everything is The Dog and the Bone.
The majority of illustrations of “The Goose that laid the Golden Eggs” picture the farmer despairing after discovering that he has killed the goose to no purpose. This was one of several fables