“This principle is old, but true as fate,—
Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.”
Thomas Dekker The Honest Whore
The Honest Whore (1604), Part i, Act iv. Sc. 4.
Compare: "Cæsar said he loved the treason, but hated the traitor", Plutarch, Life of Romulus.
Compare: "treason is loved of many, but the Traitor hated of all", Robert Greene, Pandosto (1588).