In Amicos falsos

TWO frendes there were that did their Iourney take,
And by the way, they made a vow to either,
What ere befell, they never would forsake,
But as sworne brethren, liue and die togeither:
Thus wandring thorough desrts, here and there,
By chance they met, a great and vgly Beare.

At whome, amazed with a deadly feare,
One leaues his frend, and climbeth vp a tree:
The other, falles downe flat before the Beare,
And keepes his breath, that seeming dead to be,
The Beare forsooke him, (for his nature's such,
A breathles bodie never once to touch.)

The beast departing, and the daunger past,
The dead arose, and kept along his waie:
His fellow laping from the tree at last,
Askt what the Beare, in's care did whispring say,
Quoth he, he bad me, evermore take heede,
Of such as thou, that failst in time of neede.