Jump to content

The fables of Aesop by William Caxton (Jacobs)/Vol. II/Liber Quartus/Fable 11

Edit links
From Wikisource
←
Fable 10
The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Quartus (1484)
by William Caxton
Fable 11: The Hawk and other Byrdes
Fable 12
→

Numbered 577 in the Perry Index. Translated from French by William Caxton and first published in 1484. Click here to create an annotated version of this text.

3810141The subtyl historyes and fables of Esope, Liber Quartus — Fable 11: The Hawk and other ByrdesWilliam Caxton
​

¶ The xj fable is of the hawke and of other byrdes

THe 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 /

  1. ↑ Original: ypocytes was amended to ypoerytes: detail
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=The_fables_of_Aesop_by_William_Caxton_(Jacobs)/Vol._II/Liber_Quartus/Fable_11&oldid=12260958"