“Old proverbe says,
That byrd ys not honest
That fyleth hys owne nest.”

—  John Skelton

Poems against Sir Christopher Garnesche, probably published c. 1523, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "It is a foule byrd that fyleth his owne nest", John Heywood, Proverbs (1546) part ii. chap. v.

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John Skelton14
English poet 1460–1529

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