She is a false and crafty beast, like unto the Wolf.

 

Of the Hunting of the Fox and Badger.

Now to speak of Fox Hounds and Terriers, and how you should enter them to take the Fox, the Badger, and suchlike vermin.

You must understand there are sundry sorts of Terriers, whereof we hold opinion that one sort came out of Flanders or the Low Countries, as Irtoys and thereabouts, and have crooked legs, and are short-haired most commonly. Another sort there is which are shagged and straight-legged; those with crooked legs will take earth better than the other, and are better for the Badger, because they will lie longer at a vermin, but the others with straight legs serve for two purposes, for they will hunt above the ground as well as other hounds, and enter the earth with more fury than the others, but they will not abide so long, because they are too eager in fight, and therefore are constrained to come out to take the air.

There are both good and bad of both sorts, and because it is good pastime and brave fight without great pain or travail to the Huntsman, therefore I have thought good to set down here some precepts for the entering of Terriers, and for the better fleshing and encouraging of them.

You shall begin to enter them as soon as they be eight or ten months old, for if you enter not a Terrier before he be a year old, you shall hardly ever make him take the earth. And you must take good heed you encourage them, and rebuke them not at the first, nor that the Fox or Badger hurt them within the earth, for then they will never love the earth again. Therefore, never enter a young Terrier in an earth where there is an old Fox or Badger, but first let them be well entered, and be a year old full or more.

You shall do well also to put in an old Terrier before them which may abide and endure the fury of the Fox or Badger. You may enter them and flesh them sundry ways. First, when Foxes and Badgers have young cubs, take all your old Terriers and put them into the ground; when they begin to bay - which in the earth is called yearning - you must hold your young Terriers, everyone of them, at a sundry hole of some angle or mouth of the earth, that they may harken and hear their fellows yearn. When you have taken the old Foxes or Badgers, and there is nothing left in the earth but the young cubs, take out all your old Terriers and couple them up, then put in your young Terriers and encourage them, crying, To him! To him! To him! and if they take any young cub, let them take their pleasure of him, and kill him within the ground, and beware the earth fall not down upon them and smother them.

That done, take all the rest of the cubs and Badger's pigs home with you, and fry their livers and their blood with cheese, and some of their own grease, and thereof make your Terriers a reward, showing them always the heads and skins to encourage them. When they have been rewarded, or rather before, wash them with soap and warm water to get out the clay which shall be clodded in their hair, for else they will soon become mangy, and that would be hard to be cured. 

You may enter them also thus. You must take old Foxes and Badgers alive with your old Terriers, and the help of such clamps and holdfasts as you shall see her portrayed. Take them, and cut away their nether jaw wherein their wang teeth be set, and never touch the upper jaw, but let it stand to show the fury of the beast, although it can do no hurt therewith. Then, make an earth in some of your closes, and make it large enough, because the Terriers may fight and turn therein the better, and that they may go in two together; cover the burrow or earth with boards and turfs, and put the Fox or Badger therein, then put in all your Terriers both young and old, and encourage them with words, as has been before declared, and as the art requires, and when they have yearned sufficiently, then begin to dig with spades and mattocks to encourage them against such time as you must use to dig over them. Then, take out the Fox or Badger with the clamps or pinchers, killing it before them, or let a Greyhound kill it in their sight, and make them reward thereof.

It shall be well to cast them some bread or chesse upon the vermin as soon as it is dead, for the better boldening and encouraging of them. 

If you will not cut the jaw of the Fox or Badger, break out all his teeth, that he bite not the Terriers, and it shall suffice as well. 

Of the Nature and Properties of a Fox and a Badger.

As you have two kinds or more of every other chase by diversity of names, so of these vermin there are Foxes and their cubs, and Badgers and their pigs. The female of a Fox is called a Bitch, and he himself a Dog-Fox; the female of a Badger is called a Sow, and the male a Badger or Boar-Pig of a Badger. Yet some will not allow this difference, but I can prove it by good reason and by the diversities of colour, nature and proportion; the Badger pigs, at coming out of the earth, do commonly make and cast their fyaunts, and they never do it until they have made a hole in the earth with their snout or with their foot; then, they fyaunt within it and hide it. This the Fox cubs do not. Also, the Badger makes his hole commonly in sand or light earth, which is easy to dig, and in open places to have the comfort of the Sun, for they sleep uncessantly, and are much fatter than Fox cubs be. 

As touching their hair, they have a grey coat, and are somewhat whiter than the old, waxing greyer and greyer the elder they be. Some say there are two sorts of these young Badgers - and I believe it - whereof that other sort goes further out for their prey than these do, and they cast their fyaunts longer, somewhat like a Fox, and keep commonly in strongholds or in rocks, and make their earth or their burrow deeper than these do. Yet there be not so many chambers nor nagles in their burrows as there are in these, for it were impossible for them to work so well in ricks or in hard earth as those others do in sand.

These two sundry sorts do not keep one another company; neither shall you lightly find one of them where that other is. Terriers fear the ome more than the other, because they are much curster, and they stink much worse. 

For the better understanding of the diversity, let us coin a word, and call the one Badger-Pigs, and the other Badger-Whelps, and say that the Badger-Whelps have their nose, their throat and their ears yellowish, like unto a Marten's throat, and are much blacker than the Pigs, and higher-legged. 

Both sorts live upon all flesh, and will hunt after carrion. They do great hurt in warrens and conigres, especially when they be full of little Rabbits, for they make a hole right above the nest and go straight to them, whereas the Fox follows the hole's mouth until he come at the nest. I have seen a Badger take a Sucking Pig in my presence, and carried him clean away unto his earth. It is sure they desire Hog's flesh more than any other, for if you train a piece of pork or Hog's flesh upon their burrow, they will sure come out unto it. They prey also upon all pullen as Geese, Ducks, Hens and suchlike.

I can speak by experience, for I have brought up some tame until they were four years old, and being so brought up, they are very gentle, and will play with young whelps and never hurt them, and the rest of the day they neither feed nor play, they bestow in sleeping. Thise I have brought up would come to me at a call, and follow me like whelps of hounds. They are very chill of cold, and if you let them lie in a chamber where there is any fire, they will creep so near it, they will burn their coats and their feet also many times, and then are they very hard to be healed. They will be fed with anything, bread, cheese, fruits, birds, or anything you will give them. 

When it snows or is hard weather, they come not out of their holes sometimes in two or three days together, the which I have observed at their hole's mouth; when it has snowed and lain there so thick, they could not have stirred out, but that I have perceived them, as I have seen that after three days they have come out for pure hunger, and gone to prey for meat. 

It is a pleasure to behold them when they gather stuff for their nest or for their couch, as straw, leaves, moss and other such things; and with their forefeet and their head, they will wrap up as much together as a man would carry under one arm, and will make shift to get into their holes and couches. 

This subtlety they have, that when they perceive the Terriers begin to yearn them, and to lie at them, they will stop the hole between the Terriers and them, lest the Terriers should follow them any further; and then, if the Terriers bay still, they will remove their baggage with them, and go into another chamber or angle of their burrow. 

They live long, and when they wear old, some of them fall blind, and cannot come forth from their holes. If they be Badgers, the Sows feed them, and if it be the Sow, the Badger feeds her likewise. They die also of certain worms and manges, which they have all over their skin, even as you see hounds have the mange and canker-worms sometimes. Therefore it is I counselled to wash your Terriers as soon as they came out of the earth. 

All these things I have seen by experience. They are long-lived and hard to kill, for I have seen a well-biting Greyhound take a Badger and tear his guts out of his belly, and yet the Badger has fought still, and would not yield to death. True it is, they are very tender upon the snout, and you can not give them so little a blow upon the snout with a stick, but they will die immediately. 

As touching Foxes, I account small pastime in hunting them, especially with the ground, for as soon as they perceive the Terriers, if they yearn hard and lie near unto them, they will bolt and come out straightways, unless it be when the Bitch has young cubs; then, they will not forsake their young ones to die for it. They make their earths and burrows as near as they can, in ground that is hard to dig, as in a galt, clay, and stony ground, or among the roots of trees. Their earths have commonly but one hole, the which is very straight, and goes very far in before it come at their couch.

Sometimes they take a Badger's old burrow, which has more chambers, holes and angles. When a good Terrier once reaches a Fox, they defend themselves shrewdly, yet nothing like the Badger, neither is their biting so dangerous. If you take a Bitch-Fox in the time she goes on clyketing, and cut out her gut, which holds her spreame or nature, together with the kidneys which gelders take away from a Bitch when they spay her, and then cut all into small gobbets and put them into a pot, hot as they be; then, take gum of mastic, and mingle it therewith, and cover the pot close; it will keep all the year, and will serve to make a train for a Fox, when you would, in this wise. Take a skin of bacon, and lay it on a gridiron, and when it is well broiled and hot, dip it and puddle it in this sauce that is within the pot, and make a train therewith, and you shall see that if there be a Fox near to any place where the train is drawn, he will follow it. But he who makes the train must rub the soles of his shoes with Cow's dung, lest the Fox vent his footing. Thus you may train a Fox to a standing, and kill him in an evening with a crossbow. 

It is also a thing experimented, that if you rub a Terrier with brimstone or with oil of cade, and then put the Terrier into an earth where Foxes be or Badgers, they will leave that earth, and come no more at it in two or three months at least.

Of the Nature and Properties of a Fox, out of another author.

It shall be neddless to speak of his shape or proportion, since he is so common a beast. 

His conditions are in many respects like unto the Wolf, for first the Bitch-Fox brings forth as many cubs at a litter as the She-Wolf does, sometimes more, and sometimes less, as the She-Wold does also. But indeed, she litters them deep under the ground, and so the Wolf does not. She venoms with her biting when she is sault, as the Wolf does.

The life of a Fox and of a Wolf continue both like time. 

You shall hardly take a Bitch-Fox when she is bragged and with cub, for then she lies close about her burrow, and if she hear never so little noise, she whips in quickly before the hounds or anything can come near her. 

She is a false and crafty beast, like unto the wolf. 

The hunting of the Fox is pleasant, for he makes an excellent cry, because his scent is very hot, and he never flees far before the hounds, but holds the strongest coverts, and flees from the field, as a neast which trusts not in his legs, nor yet in his strength. If the Fox stand in his defence, it is by force, and yet always he will as near as he can keep the covert, yea, though he find none other covert but a bush, yet he will flee to it. When he perceives he may no longer endure nor stand up before the hounds, then will he take the earth, and will trust to his castles there, which he knows perfectly; yet there is he taken also, but then must it be digged, and that in a soft or light ground. 

If Greyhounds course him, his last remedy - if he be in the plain - is to be-piss or to be-shite the Greyhounds, that they may give him over for the stink and filthiness thereof. Yea, Greyhounds are more afraid of a Fox than of a greater beast, for I have seen Greyhounds which would run hardly at a Hart, yea, would not refuse the Wild Boar nor the Wolf, and yet they would strain courtesy at a Fox. 

When a Bitch-Fox goes on clyketing and seeks a Dog, she cries with a hollow voice, like unto the howling of a mad dog, and likewise if she miss any of her cubs, she makes the self-same noise; but when they are killed, they will never cry, but defend themselves till the last gasp. 

A Fox will prey upon anything that he can overcome, yea, were it vermin, and will feed upon all sorts of carrion; but the meat they most delight in is poultry, as Hens, Capons, Geese, Ducks, small birds, or anything they find. In default thereof, Gentle Master Reynard will be content with butter, cheese, cream, flans and custards. They do much hurt in warrens and coney burrows, and they kill Hares also by fraud, but not by force of running. 

Some Foxes prey abroad in the woods and fields, like unto Wolves. Some there be which prey nowhere but in the villages and country towns, and therein they are so subtle and crafty that neither dog nor man can defend them. They lie lurking all day in ditches near unto houses, to see how Dame Pertlot the Husbandman's Hen does, and to see her chickens virtuously brought up. 

The skin of the Fox is a very good fur and warm, but it is not very fair, and it stinks always, unless it be very exceedingly well dressed. The grease and marrow of a Fox are very good to rub sinews that are shrunk.

Of the rest of his subtleties and properties, I will speak more at large in the hunting of him. He is taken with hounds, Greyhounds, Terriers, nets and gins. If the nets and gins be not strong, he will soon dispatch them, like a Wolf. 

Of the Nature of a Badger, out of the same author.

The Badger - says he - makes but slow speed before the hounds, and cannot long stand up, so that commonly she fights it out at the bay, or else takes the earth, and there is killed with Terriers. If you find a Badger abroad, it shall not be from her burrow lightly.

A Badger preys upon any vermin or other thing, and will feed upon any carrion or fruit like unto the Fox. 

The Badger battles much with sleep, and is a very fat beast. Once in a year they engender as the Fox, and they litter them in their holes, even as the Fox does. Their biting is venomous, as the Foxes is, but they make better defence for themselves, and fight more stoutly and are much stronger. 

The blood and grease of a Badger is medicinable as the Fox's blood is also.

Some hold a blind opinion that if a young child should wear his first shoes of a Badger's leather, he should ever afterwards heal a horse of the farcine, if he did but once get upon him. 

The flesh of a Badger is as much worth as that of a Fox, which is to reward the hounds withal, and yet that but of the grease, and certain parts of him neither, for few hounds will eat of a Fox's flesh, but a Badger's is wallowish sweet and rammish. I myself have eaten of it, and digested it well and without any manner of annoyance. The skin of a Badger, is not so good as the Foxes, for it serves for no use, unless it be to make mittens, or to dress horsecollars withal. 

The Hunting of the Badger, out of the same author.

He that would hunt a Badger must seek the earths and burrows where they lie, and on a fair moonshine night, let him go unto them upon a clear wind, and stop all the holes but one or two; and in those, let him set sacks or pokes fastened with some drawing string which may shut him in as soon as he strains the bag. Some use no more but to set a hoop in the mouth of the sack or poke, and so put it into the hole, and as the Badger is in the poke and strains it, the poke slips off the hoop and follows him into the earth, so he lies tumbling therein until he be taken. These men are of opinion that as soon as the Badger's head is once within the sack or hole, he will lie still and will not turn back again for anything.

The bags or sacks being thus set, let your Huntsman cast off his hounds, and beat all the groves, hedges and tufts within a mile, or half a mile about which are most likely; when the Badger hears any hunting, he will straightways home to his earth, and there is taken as beforesaid. 

Ever remember, he who stands to watch the pokes stands close and upon a clear wind, for else the Badger will soon find him, and then will forsake that earth to seek some other, or else escape some other way. If the hounds chance to encounter him, or to undertake the chase before he be gotten into his earth or recovered near unto it, then will he stand at bay like a Boar, and make you good pastime. 

Of the Hunting of a Fox above the ground, out of the same author.

He that would hunt a Fox above the ground shall do well to beat with his hounds in the thickest queaches and tufts, or groves near unto villages, and in thick hedgerows, and such other places. For commonly a Fox will lurk un such, to prey pr espy his advantage upon Dame Pertelot, and such other damsels that keep in those courts, and to see young pigs well ringled when they are young, for fear lest they should learn to turn up Gentlemen's pastures, and mar their meadows with rooting; for surely, M. Reynard is a very well disposed man, and would be loth to see youth fall into such folly in any commonwealth where he may strike a stroke. 

Also, in the countries where wine is made, he will lie much in the vineyards, and - as some hold opinion - will eat of the grapes. 

He lies always in covert and obscure places, like an honest plain-meaning creature which cares not greatly for to come at the court. Well, the Huntsman who would have good pastime at this vermin shall do well to stop up his earths if he can find them, and let him stop them up the night before he means to hunt, about midnight, when he may be sure the Fox is gone abroad to seek his prey. Let the earths then be stopped with boughs and earth well, and strongly rammed, that Master Teynard get not in again over hastily. Some use to set up bleinchers or sewells - which are white papers - or to lay two white sticks across before the hole, and hold opinion that when a Fox espies those sticks or sewells, he will mistrust it is some engine to take him, and will turn back again. But I think not that so sure as to stop the earths.

If the Huntsman know not where the earths be, let him seek them out two or three days before he means to hunt, and stop them. But because sometimes a Huntsman cannot find all the blind earths that are in coverts and great woods, if a Fox find out some of them, and so beguile the Huntsman he may yet get him out either quick or dead without Terriers, in this manner. 

If there be any more holes than one in the earth, let him set purse-nets or bags in one of the holes under the wind, even as he would set for a Badger, and let him stop up all the holes besides but one, and let that one be above the wind as near as he can. Let him take a piece of parchment or leather, and lay it in the hole, laying fire upon it and putting brimstone, myrrh, and such smothing grease upon the fire; there withal let him stop up the hole, and suffer the smother to go into the earth. This done, the Fox will not long abide in the earth, but will either start into the purse-net or bag, or else will sound dead the next day at some other of the hole's mounths which were stopped. 

The best hunting of the Fox above the ground is in January, February and March, yet you may hunt him from All Hallowtide until Easter. When the leaves are fallen, you shall best see your hounds hunting, and best find his earths. Also, at that time, the Fox's skin - which is the best part of him - is best in season. 

The hounds best hunt a Fox in the coldest weather, because he leaves a very strong scent after him. Always set your Greyhounds on the outside of the coverts, underneath the wind, and let them stand close. Cast off at the first but the third part of your kennel to find him; the rest, you shall cause to be led up and down the coverts, on paths and highways, to cast off unto their fellows when he is found. It is not good to cast off too many hounds at once, because woods and coverts are full of sundry chases, so you should have your kennel undertake sundry beasts, and lose your pastime. 

Let those which you cast off first be old, staunch and sure hounds, and if you hear such a hound call on merrily, you may cast off some other to him; when they run it with full cry, cast off the rest, and you shall hear good pastime. For a Fox will not willingly depart out of the covert where he has been accustomed to lie, but will wheel about in the thicks, and thereby make you much the better pastime. 

The words of comforting the hounds, the hallooing and all suchlike ceremonies, are even the same you use in hunting of other chases and vermin. 

When he is dead, you shall hang him up on the end of a strong piked staff, and halloo in all your hounds to bay him; then, make them rewards with such things as you can get, for the flesh of a Fox is not to reward them withal, for they will not eat it. 

How to dig for a Fox or a Badger, and what instruments are meet for the same.

They who will hear good pastime at a Fox or a Badger in the ground, must be furnished with such tools and appurtances as follow, and as are here before this present chapter portrayed. 

First, let there be in the company five or six strong fellows who can well endure to dig and delve. Next, you must have as many good and arrant Terriers garnished with collars full of bells to make the Fox or Badger start the sooner; also, their collars will be some defence to save them from hurting. When your Terriers are out of breath, or the bells are stopped and glutted-up with earth, or you perceive the vermin is angled - which is to say, gone to the furthest part of his chamber to stand at defence - you may take off the collars; but at the first, they serve to great purpose, to make the vermin either start or angle.

To return unto my matter, a Lord or Gentleman who will follow this pastime should have half a dozen mats to lie upon the ground, as they harken to the Terriers; some use to carry a wind-bed, which is made of leather strongly sewed on all the four sides, and having a pipe at one of the corners to blow it as you would blow a bagpipe, and when it is blown full of wind to stop it up and lie upon it on the ground. But this were too great curiosity, and yet a Lord or Gentleman cannot take too great heed of the cold and moisture of the earth, for he may thereby take sundry diseases and infirmities. 

The instruments to dig withal must be these: sharp-pointed spades, round-hollowed spades, and flat broad spades, hoes or mattocks, and pickaxes, a cole-rake and a pair of clamps or holdfasts, shovells both shod and bare, an axe and a sharp paring spade. The sharp-pointed spade serves to begin that trench first, where the ground is hardest, and broader tools would not so well enter. The round-hollowed spade serves to dig among roots, and may be so made with such sharp edges, that it will cut the roots also; the flat broad spade, to dig withal when the trench is better opened and the ground softer; the hoes, mattocks and pickaxes, to dig with in harder ground where a spade will make no riddance of the work; the cole-rake, to cleanse the hole and to keep it from stopping up; the clamps or holdfasts to take a Fox or Badger out alive, wherewith you may make pastime afterwards, or to help the Terriers when they are afraid to bite a vermin; the shovells both shod and bare serve to cast out the earth which the spades or mattocks have digged, according to the hardness or softness of the ground wherein you dig; the paring spade, to keep the trench in fashion; and the axe to cut the roots or any other thing withal. 

You shall also have a pail to set water unto your Terriers at such times as they come out to take breath. 

All these instruments I have caused to be portrayed that you may the better perceive them; and with these instruments, and suchlike necessary implements, a Lord or Gentleman may fill a pretty little cart or wagon made for that purpose with that he may cause to be carried on field with him, always provided when the said carriage is loaded, he forget not to cause his Cook and Butler to hang good store of bags and bottles about the raves and pins thereof, for it will be both comely and confortable. 

In this order of battle, a Nobleman or Gentleman may march to besiege the Fox and Badger in their strongest holes and castles, and may break their casements, platforms, parapets, and work to them with mines and countermines, until they get their skins to make furs and mittens. 

How to enter your Terriers according to the ground, and how to trench and dig.

Before you put your Terriers into the ground, you must have consideration what kind of mold it is, and mark well the situation thereof; and as near as you can, judge where abouts the chief angles or chambers should be, for else you may work clean contrary and rather hinder the Terriers than further them. If the earth or burrow be hanging on a side of a bank, you shall do best to put in your Terriers below, towards the vale, to the end you may make the vermin chamber on the top of the bank, where the earth is not deep, and where you dig to him with most ease.

If the earth be on the top of a bank, and the bank stands in a plain plot of ground, you shall do best to put in your Terriers in thise holes which are highest on the top of the bank, and strike with a staff upon the bank to make the vermin flee down into the lowest parts, and there to chamber or angle themselves. It shall not be amiss to put in a Terrier or twain at the first without any noise, to make the vermin dissever and to chamber themselves. 

Foxes and Badgers which have been beaten have this subtlety, to draw unto the largest part of the burrow, where three or four angles meet together, and there to stand at bay with Terriers, to the end they may afterwards shift and go to which chamber they list. In such a case, strike hard upon the ground right over them, and if you see they will not remove so, take your round-hollowed spade and dig in to them, right upon them. But when they are chambered, you shall not dig right upon them, but right upon the Terrier; for if you dig right upon the vermin, it might make them to bolt into some other angle, and to enforce the Terrier to give them place. Therefore, you shall dig right over the Terriers with a round-hollowed spade, the which will convey the earth with it, and is made principally for such a purpose; and when you have digged so long you be come to the angle, thrust your spade between the vermin and the Terrier, so that the vermin cannot by any means come out upon your Terrier, for in some chamber you may chance to find five or six vermin together, which might hurt your poor Terrier, and discourage him. When you have stopped them thus, work with your broad spades and other tools, and make a large trench of which you will have good sport, and put in your Terriers to the vermin, and you shall see bold fight of all fashions. 

You must take heed to the subtleties of the vermin, especially of Badgers, for sometimes they will stop up the trench between them and the Terriers, and work themselves further in, so your Terriers shall not be able to find them, nor to know what is become of them.

Sometimes, when you have found their casement and chief strength, you may take them out alive with your holdfasts or clamps, and therein use this policy and foresight: take them with your tongs or clamps by the lower chap, the one clamp in the mouth and the other under the throat, and so draw them out. For if you should take them out by the body or neck, they should have liberty to bite and snatch at the Terriers, which will be doing with them as you take them out. Being thus taken, put them into a sack or poke, to hunt with your Terriers in your gardens or close courts at your pleasure. 

He that will be present at such pastimes may do well to be booted, for I have lent a Fox or a Badger ere now a piece of my hose, and the skin and flesh for company, which he never restored again. 

Let these few precepts suffice for the hunting of Foxes and Badgers. 

Of the Fox.

Raynard the Fox am I, a crafty child well known.
Yea, better known than credited, with more than is mine own;
A bastard kind of Cur, mine ears declare the same,
And yet my wit and policy have purchased me great fame.

The Fox to the Huntsman.

If dogs had tongue at will to talk in their defence,
If brutish beast might be so bold to plead at bar for pence,
If poor Tom troth might speak of all that is amiss,
Then might would bear no right a-down, then men would pardon this,
Which I must here declare. Then quickly would be known,
That he who deals with stranger's faults, should first amend his own.
Thus much myself may say, thus much myself can prove,
Yet while I preach, beware the Geese, for so it shall behove.
I sigh - yet smile - to see that man - yes, Master Man -
Can play his part in policy, as well as Reynard can.
And yet forsooth the Fox is he that bears the blame,
But two-legged Foxes eat the Ducks, when four legs bear the name.
A wonder is to see how people shout and cry,
With halloos, whoops, and spiteful words, when I, poor Fox, go by.
Lay on him! cries the wife, Down with him! says the child,
Some strike, some chide, some throw a stone, some fall and be defiled,
As maidens, when they spurn, with both their feets atones,
Fie on the Fox that first them so such falls might bruise their bones.
But Reynard dorh such deeds, and therefore strike him down,
His case will serve to fur the cape of Master Huntsman's gown. 
His lungs full wholesome be, in powder beat fine,
For such as cough and draw their wind with pain and mickle pity.
His pizzle serves to scour the gravel of the stone, 
His grease is good for sinews shrunk, or ache that grieves the bone.
His tongue will draw a thorn, his teeth will burnish gold, 
And by his death a huntsman may have profits many fold.
The Hen shall roost at rest, which he was wont to rouse,
The Duck and Geese may bring good broods,
That Pigs may suck their Sows,
And all the Farmer's wealth may thrive and come to good,
Which crafty Reynard steals sometimes to keep his brats in sows. 
Yea, soft, but who says thus? Who did that Lion paint?
Forsooth a Man; but if a Fox might tell his tale as quaint, blood.
Then would he say again that Men as crafty be,
As ever Reynard was for theft; even Men which fleece and fee
From every Widow's flock; a Capon or a Chick,
A Pig, a Goose, a dunghill Duck, or ought that salt will lick;
Until the Widow starve, and can no longer give.
This was the Fox, fie down with him, why should such Foxes live?
Some Foxes lie in wait, and mark the Farmer's crop,
What loads of hay, what grass for beef, what store of wood for lop,
What quantity of grain, he raises on his rent,
And fake a new lease over his head, before the old be spent.
Fie on these Foxes, fie, what Farmer can do well,
Where such wild vermin lie in wait, their privy gains to smell?
Yes, some can play their part in slandering neighbour's name,
To say the Wolf did kill the Lamb, when Reynard eats the same.
These faults with many more can wicked Men commit,
And yet they say the Foxes pass for subtlety and wit. 
But shall I say my mind? I never yet saw day,
But every town had two or three which Reynard's parts could play.
So that men vaunt in vain which say they hunt the Fox,
To keep their neighbours' poultry free, and to defend their flocks, 
When they themselves can spoil more profit in an hour
Than Reynard rifles in a year, when he doth most devour.
No, no, the minds of Men, which still be vainly bent, 
Must have their change of Venery, as first the Hare in Lent,
The Hart is summer's heat, and me, poor Fox, in cold;
But whereto serve these sundry sports, these chases many fold?
Forsooth to feed their thoughts with dregs of vain delight,
Whereon most men do muse by day, whereon they dream by night.
They must have costly clothes stuffed with down, they must have all in square,
They must have new-found games to make them laught their fill,
They must have fowls, they must have beasts to bait, to hunt, to kill,
And all - when all is done - is nothing else but vain,
So So;omon the Wiseman said, and so says Reynard plain.