The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Quartus/Fable 11
¶ The xj fable is of the hawke and of other byrdes
He ypocrytes maken to god a berd
of strawe / As recyteth to vs this
fable / Of a hawke / whiche somtyme
fayned / that he wold haue
celebrated and holden a natall or
a grete feste / the whiche feste shold be celebred
within a Temple / And to this feste and solempnyte
he Inuyted and somoned alle the smal
byrdes / to the whiche they came / And Inkontynent
as they were all come in to the temple /
the hauk shette the gate and put them alle to
dethe / one after an other / ¶ And therfore this
fable sheweth to vs / how we must kepe our self
fro all them / whiche vnder fayre semynge haue
a fals herte / and that ben ypoerytes[errata 1] and deceptours of god and of the world /