Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
4.11. Of the hawke and of other byrdes /
(Perry 577)
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 celebred
and holden a natall or a grete feste / the whiche fest 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 Incontynent 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
ypocrytes and deceptours of god and of the world /
 Caxton
published his edition of Aesop's fables in 1484. There are modern reprints by
Joseph Jacobs (D. Nutt: London, 1889) and more recently by Robert Lenaghan (Harvard
University Press: Cambridge, 1967). Lenaghan's edition is available at amazon.com.
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