BORCH'S FALCONRY - english
"THE instruction which may be drawn from Shakespeare is equal to the entertainment which his writings afford. We cannot peruse his works without having our understandins considerably enlarged. To promote, therefore, the knowledge of him is to contribute to general improvement." 1)
If Shakespeare is worth reading, moreover, he is worth explaining, and without a complete inquiry into his allusions the spirit of his writings can never be fully understood or appreciated. Pennant, in his 'British Zoology,' remarks that it is incumbent on every lover of Science to attempt placing the labours of ancient authors in a just light; to mark those errors that owe their origin to the darkness of the times; and to evince that many of their allusions are strictly true, many founded on truth, while many others contain a mixture of fable and reality which certainly merit the trouble of separation.
It is plain that Shakespeare had much reading at least, if they will not call it learning. Whatever object of Nature or branch of Science he either speaks of or describes, it is always with competent if not exclusive knowledge; his descriptions are still exact; all his metaphors appropriate, and remarkably drawn from the true nature and inherent qualities of each subject . 2) Indeed, it was the opinion of Dr. Johnson that Shakespeare commonly derived his knowledge of Nature from his own observation, and no one can fail to be delighted with the variety and richness of the images which he has derived from Natural History.
Having, from a mere love of the subject and admiration for the poet, carefully perused his plays, to ascertain what knowledge he possessed respecting birds, our inquiry has resulted in the following notes, which, it is conceived, will be found of sufficient interest to entertain all lovers of birds.
We have extracted every sentence of note in which there is any allusion to birds, explaining where explanation seemed necessary, and occasionally illustration from other authors. It may with truth be said that there are many passages in Shakespeare's plays which, to one unacquainted with the habits of birds or ignorant of the terms employed in falconry, would be wholly unitelligible, but which, being interpreted, are found to contain the most beautiful and forcible metaphors. 3) Take, for example, the passage which occurs in 'Othello' (Act iii, Sc. 3), where the Moor compares his suspected wife to a "haggard falcon" 4)
From the following list it will be seen that no less than forty-three species of birds are mentioned or alluded to by Shakespeare. In some instances the references are very numerous, and although it has been our endeavour as much as possible to connect them, and so make our notes less disjointed, it has been found oftentimes impracticable from their nature to accomplish this.
Eagle
Osprey
Falcon
Hawk
Kite
Buzzard
"Wer't not all one, as empty eagle were set
To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,
As place Duke Humphrey for the King's protector?"
Henry IV. Part II, Act iii. Scene 1* * * "That hateful Duke,
Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire,
Will cost my crown, and like an empty eagle,
Tire on the flesh of me and of my son."
Id. Part III, Act i. Scene 1.Tire is a term in falconry. When a hawk was i training it was frequently necessary to prolong its meal as much as possible, to prevent it from gorging: this was effected by giving it a tough or bony bit to tire on , that is, to tear or peck at. Steevens quotes an example of the word used in this scene from Decker's "Match Me in London," 1631.
* * * "The vulture tires
Upon the eagle's heart."And Mr. Collier quotes another from 'Histriomatrix,' 1610, sig. F. 3.
"O how this vulture, vile ambition,
Tires on the heart of greatness and devours."So, in 'Timon of Athens' (Act iii. Scene 6) one of the lords says,
"Upon that were my thoughts tiring when we encounter'd."And in Ben Jonson's Catiline' (Act iii. Scene 3) we read,
* * * "And let
His own gaunt eagle fly at him and tire."
The eagle has always been considered the emblem of majesty, and has been variously styled as "the king of birds," "the royal bird," "the princely eagle," and "Jove's bird." The power of vision in this bird is so extraordinary that to have an "eagle eye" has become proverbial.
"Behold his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty."
Richard II. Act ii. Scene 3."Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird,
Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun."
Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Scene 1The opinion that the eagle possessed the power of gazing undazzled at the sun is of grreat antiquity. Pliny relates that it exposes its brood to this test as soon as hatched, to prove if they be genuine or not. Chaucer refers to the belief in the 'Assemblie of Foules,' -
"There mighten men the royal egal find,
That with his sharp look persith the sonne."So also Spenser, in his 'Hymn of Heavenly Beauty,' -
"And, like the native brood of eagle's kind,
On that bright sun of glory fix their eyes."And in 'Romeo and Juliet' (Act iii. Scene 5) we read,
"An eagle, madam
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye,
As Paris hath."There is a slight mistake, however, in supposing the eye of the eagle green. In the golden eagle the irides are hazel, and in the whitetailed eagle yellow.
The power of flight in this bird is no less wonderful than that of vision, and ealges have been killed measuring seven and eight feet from tip to tip of wing, and strong enough to carry off hares, lambs, and even young children. Shakespeare was no doubt aware of this when he wrote,
"This was but as a fly by an eagle."
Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Scene 2.And
"An eagle flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no track behind."
Timon of Athens, Act i, Scene 1.Nevertheless we are reminded that the eagle, notwithstanding his great powers of flight, is not always secure, -
"And often to our comfort shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-wing'd eagle. "
Cymbeline, Act iii. Scene 3.In India, Tartary, China, Persia and other parts of the East, the eagle was formerly, and is still to a certain extent, used for hunting down the larger birds and beasts. (See Sir J. Malcolm's 'Sketches of Persia,' and Johnston's 'Sketches of Indian Field Sports.') We read that in the thirteeenth century the Khan of Tartary "kept upwards of two hundred hawks and eagles, some of which had been trained to catch wolves; and such was the boldness and power of these birds that none, however large, could escape from their talons." Burton, in his 'Anatomy of Melancholy' (Lond. 1676, fol., Part 2, p. 169), quoting from Sir Anthony Shirley's 'Travels,' says, "The Muscovian Emperours reclaim eagles to let fly at hindes, foxes, &c, and such a one was sent for a present to Queen Elizabeth."
Owing, no doubt, not only to the greater difficulty in training them, but also to the difficulty of obtaining them, eagles are rarely trained to the chase in England. Captain Green, of Buckden, in Huntingdonshire, had a very finde golden eagle which he had taught to take hares and rabbits: and this species has been found to be more tractable than either the spotted or the whitetailed eagle.
Judging from one or two allusions in his plays, Shakespeare appears to have been aware of the eagle's use in falconry. In the following passage two hawking terms are used in connexion with this bird: -
"Know the gallant monarch is in arms,
And, like an eagle o'er his aiery, towers
To souse annoyance that comes near his nest."
King John, Act v. Scene 2.This passage has been differently rendered, by removing the punctuation between "aiery" and "towers," and reading the former "airey" or "airy," and making "towers" a substantive. But I think the meaning of the passage, as it stands above, is sufficiently clear.
"Aiery" is equivalent to "eyrie," the nesting-place; and the verb "to tower" is a common expression in falconry, signifying "to rise spirally to a height." Compare the French word "tour." As a further argument, too for reading "towers" as a verb and not as a substantive, compare the following passages from the same play and from 'Macbeth,' which plainly show that Shakespeare was not unacquainted with this word as a hawking term: -
"Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers. "
King John, Act ii. Scene 2."A falcon towering in her price of place."
Macbeth, Act ii. Scene 4.The ony word, then, which remains to be explained is "souse." This also is a term borrowed from the language of falconry, and is equivalent to "swoop." It would seem to be derived from the German "Sausen," which signifies to rush with a whistling sound like the blustering of the wind, and this is certainly expressive of ther "Whirr" made by the wings of a falcon when swooping on her prey.
There is a good illustration of this passage in Drayton's 'Polyolbion,' Song xx, where a description of hawking at wild-fowl is given. After the falconers have put up the fowl from the sedge, the hawk, in the words of the author, having previously "towered," "gives it a souce."
Beaumont and Fletcher also make use of this word as a hawking phrase in 'The Chances," iv. 1; and it occurs in Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Book iv. C. 5, st. 30.
To "souse" is still used in the meaning of plunging and throwing provisions into salt and water, from the Latin "salsum," which sense agrees with the precipitate plunge of a falcon on a water-fowl. (See note to Staunton's Shakespeare, i. 469).
Eagles, like many others of the hawk kind, are very fond of bathing, and it has been found essential to supply them with baths when in confinement, in order to keep them in good health. In Henry IV. (Part I. Act iv. Scene1) we read,
HOTSPUR: "Where is his son,
The nimble -footed madeap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades?" &c.
VERNON: "All furnish'd, all in arms,
All plum'd like estridges, that with the wind
Bated, like eagles having lately bath'd."Bate is another hawking term, meaning to flutter, and occurs frequently throughout the plays, as will be seen hereafter.
"The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch."
Richard III. Act i. Scene 3."More pity that the eagle should be mew'd."
"While kites and buzzards prey at liberty."
Richard III, Act i. Scene 1.The word "mew," derived from the old French word "mué," signifies a change, or the period when birds and other animals moult, or cast their feathers, hair or horns: hence Latham observes that the "Mew is that place, whether it be abroad or in the house, where you set down your hawk during the time she raiseth (or reproduces) her feathers."
It was necessary to take great care of a hawk in her mewing time, and in 'The Gentleman's Academie' (London, 1595, edited by Gervase Markham) there are several sections on the mewing of hawks, from one of which it may be learned that the best time to commence is in the beginning of Lent, and, if well kept, the bird will be mewed (that is, moulted) by the beginning of August. The verb "so mew," or "enmew," subsequently possessed the secondary meaning, as in the last quotation, of "to enclose," "shut up," or "confine." Thus, also,
* * "To-night she's mew'd up."
Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Scene 4.* * "Forth comming from her darksome mew."
Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto v. 20.And
"Captiv'd eternally in yron mewes."
Id. Book II. Canto v. 27.The Royal hawks were kept at the mews at Charing Cross during many reigns (according t oStowe from the time of Richard II in 1377), but they were removed by Henry VIII., who converted the place into stables. The neme, however, confirmed by the usage of so long a period, remained to the building, although after the hawks were withdrawn it became inapplicable. But, what is more curious still, in more modern times, when the people of London began to build ranges of stabling at the back of their streets and houses, they christened those places "mews," after the old stabling at Charing Cross.
The eagle has always been considered so far superior to all other birds as to merit the title of king of birds. We find many comparisons illustration this throughout the plays.
In the first act of 'Troilus and Cressida' (Scene 2), when he forces are passing in review, so soon as the gererals have passed, Pandarus, who with Cressida, is looking on says,
"Ne'er look, ne'er look, the eagles are gone;
Crows and daws, crows and daws!"And in 'Corolanus' (Act iii. Scene 1),
* * "Which will in time break open
The locks o' the senate, and bring in the crows
To peck the eagles. ""Dismayed not this our captains?
Yes, as sparrows, eagles."
Macbeth, Act i. Scene 2.The conscious superiority of the eagle is thus depicted: -
"The eagle suffers little birds to sing.
And is not careful what they mean thereby.
Knowing that with the shadow of his wing
He can at pleasure stint their melody."
Titus Andronicus, Act iv. Scene 4."Thou art like the harpy,
Which to betray doth wear an angel's face,
Seize with an eagle's talons."
Pericles, Act iv. Scene 4.The word harpy appears to be derived from the Latin "harpago," to grapple or plunder; or perhaps from the Greek alpha-p-pi-n, a hook or sickle.
The mention of the word "talons" recals to mind the boast of Sir John Falstaff,
"When I was about thy years, Hal,
I was not an eagle's talon in the waist."
Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Scene 4.How he altered in appearance as he grew older we all well know.
"Drones suck not eagle's blood, but rob bee-hives."
Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Scene 1."Was Mahomet inspired with a dove ?
Thou with an eagle art inspired then."
Henry VI. Part I. Act iv. Scene 1.It is related that Mahomet had a dove which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear, which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet's shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast, Mahomet persuading the rude and simplc Arabians that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice. (See Sir Walter Raleigh's 'History of the World,' Book 1. Part i. c. 6).
"For once the eagle , England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs."
Henry V. Act i. Scene 2.In comparing England to an eagle and the cunning Scot to a weasel, the poet elicits our admiration at the simile. But the inquiring naturalist, forgetful of the poet's license, will ask whether the simile is a natural one; in other words, whether the weasel is ever found in the same situation or at such an altitude as the eagle. This appears questionable, as also does the assumption that a weasel would or could suck an eagle's egg. A near relative of the weasel, however, viz. a marten, was once found in an eagle's nest, "The forester having reason to think that the bird was sitting hard, peeped over the cliff into the eyrie. To his amazement, a marten was suckling her kittens, in comfortable enjoyment." (Colquhoun-s 'Moor and Loch,' p 330).
By the allusion above made to the "princely eggs" we are reminded of the princely bird that laid them, and few who have read the Plays of Shakespeare can fail to remember that beautifull simile uttered on the fall of Warvick, and which commences:
"Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge
Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle."
Henry VI. Part III Act v. Scene 2.With the Romans the eagle was a bird of good omen; Josephus, the Jewish Historian, says the eagle was selected for the Roman legionary standard because he is the king of all birds, and the most powerful of them all, whence he has become the emblem of empire and the omen of victory. (Josephus, de Bello Judico, iii. 5). Accordingly we read in ' Julius Cæsar,' Act v. Scene 3-
"Coming from Sardis on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands."
"When they raised their campe, tbere came two eagles that flying with a marvellous force, lighted upon two of the foremost ensigns, ald alwaies followed thee souldiers, which gave them meate and fed them, untill they came neare to the citie of Phillipes; and there one day onely before the battell, they both flew away." - NORTH'S Plutarch.
The ensign of the eagle was not peculiar, however, to the Romans. The golden eagle with extended wings was borne by the Persian monarchs (Xenophon, Cyroyardia, vii), and it is not improbable that from them the Romans adopted it; while the Persians themselves may have borrowed the symbol from the ancient Assyrians, on whose banners it waved till Babylon was conquered by Cyrus.
As before observed the eagle was a bird of good omen, and hence we read:
"I chose an eagle and did avoid a puttock."The name "puttock" was sometimes applied to the kite, and sometimes to the common buzzard. They were both, however, considered birds of ill omen.
Again, in Act iv. Scene 2, of the same play, we read:
"I saw Jove's bird. the Roman eagle , wing'd From the spungy south to this part of the west, There vanish'd in the sunbeams."This was said to portend success to the Roman host. In Izaak Walton's 'Compleat Angler,' the falconer in discoursing on the merits of his recreation says: "ln the air my troops of havks soar upon high, and when they are lost in the sight of men, then they attend upon and converse with the gods; therefore I think my eagle is so justly styled Jove's servant in ordinary."
Mr. Hogg, in a paper "On the Roman Imperial and Crested Eagles" (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. June, 1864), says: "The Roman eagle, which is generally termed the Imperial eagle, is represented with its head plain , that is to say not crested ; it is in appearance the same as the attendant bird of the "King of gods and men," and is generally represented as standing at the foot of his throne, or sometimes as the bearer of his thunder and lightning. Indeed he also often appears perched on the top of his sceptre. He is always considered as the attribute or emblem of "father Jove '."
A good copy of this bird of Jupiter, called by Virgil and Ovid 'Jovis armiger,' from an antique group, representing the eagle and Ganymedes, may be seen in Bell's 'Pantheon,' Vol. i. Also "a small bronze eagle, the ensign of a Roman legion," is given in Duppa's Travels in Sicily &c. (2nd ed. 1829, tab. iv.) That traveller states that the original bronze figure is preserved in the Museum of the Convent of St. Nicholas (d'Arcun) at Catania. This convent is now called Convento di S. Benedetto, according to Mr. G. Dennis, in his Handbook of Sicily, published by Murray: at p. 349, he thus mentions this ensign as "a Roman legionary eagle in excellent preservation."
From the second century before Christ the eagle is said to have become the sole military ensign, and it was mostly small in size, because Florus (lib. 4, cap. 12) relates that an ensign-bearer in the wars of Julius Cesar, in order to prevent the enemy from taking it, pulled off the eagle from the top of the gilt pole, and hid it by placing it under cover of his belt.
In later times the eagle was borne with the legion, which indeed occasionally took its name 'aquila'.
This eagle which was also adopted by the Roman Emperors, for their imperial symbol, is considered to be the Aquila Heliaca of Savigny, which greatly resembles our golden eagle (Aquila chrysaëtos), in plumage, though of a darker brown. It inhabits North Africa and Palestine, and is but rarely found in Europe. A living specimen may now be seen in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park.
In Act v. Scene 4, of the last mentioned Play, Sicilius, speaking of the apparition and descent of Jupiter, who was seated on an eagle, says:
" * * * the holy eagle
Stoop'd as to foot us; his ascension is
More sweet than our bless'd fields: his royal hird
Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak
As when his god is pleas'd."Prune signifies to clean and adjust the feathers, and is synonymous with plume. The word more generally used, howevel, is preen .
Cloys , that is, "chokes" or "clogs up." Formerly it was often written "accloyes," e. g. ,
"And with uncomely weedes the gentle wave accloyes."
SPENSER'S Faerie Queene, Book ii. Canto 7.And
"The mouldie mosse which thee accloyeth."
SPENSER'S Shepheard's Calendar, February,The great age of the eagle is beautifully alluded lo in the Psalms, where it is said of the righteous man that "his youth shall be renewed like the eagle's." "Eagles" says Pennant, "are remarkable for their longevity. A golden eagle which had been nine years in the possession of Mr. Owen Hollalld, of Conway, lived thirty-two years with the gentleman who made him a present of it: but what its age was when the latter received it from Ireland is unknown."
Another that died at Vienna was stated to have lived in confinement one hundred and four years. But even the eagle may be "outlived." Our poet says:
"Will these moss'd trees
That have outliv'd the eagle , page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'st out."
Timon of Athens, Act ii. Scene 3.The old text has "moyst" trees. The emendation, however, which was made by Hanmer, is strengthened by the line in 'As you like it,' Act iv. Scenc 3.
"Under an oak whose boughs were moss'd with age."
The osprey feeds almost exclusively on fish , and it is marvellous to see the easy and graceful way in which it capturcs this slippery prey.
"When they see a fish, they illlmediately settle in the air-lower their flight, and settle again-then strike down like a dart. They always seize their prey with their claws, the outer toes of which turn round a considerable way, which gives them a larger and firmer grasp." 5) The structure of the osprey is thus wonderfully adapted to its habits; and we read
"I think he'll be to Rome
As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
By sovereignty of nature."
Coriolanus, Act iv. Scene 7.
Throughout the whole of Shakespeare's Plays we find frequent allusions to Falconry, which in his time was much in vogue; and to judge from the accuracy and aptness with which he has employed terms used exclusively in hawking parlance, our poet must have possessed no mean knowledge of the noble art.
In the second part of Henry VI, Act ii, we find a scene laid at St. Alban's, and the King, Queen, Gloster, Cardinal and Suffolk appearing with falconers halloating. I shall quote that portion of the scene which refers more particularly to the sport.
"Queen.: Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook
I saw not better sport these seven years' day,
Yet by your leave, the wind was very high;
And ten to one old Joan 6) had not gone out.
King.: But what a point my lord your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest !
To see how God in all his creatures works,
Yea, man and birds are faiu of climbing high.
Suf.: No marvel, an it lilke your majesty,
My lords protector's hawks do tower so well,
They know their master loves to be aloft
And bear his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.
Glo.: My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
Carc.: I thought as much, he'd be above the clouds.
* * * * * *
Believe me, cousin Gloster,
Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly
We had had more sport."
"Flying at the brook" meant "hawking for waterfowl":
"Ryding on hawking by the river
With grey goshawk in hand."
Chaucer.Point. The fluttering or hovering over the spot where the "quarry" had been "put in."
Pitch. The height to which a hawk rises before swooping.
Tower. To rise spirally - see under head of " Eagle," (S. S. p 357) The word "tower" occurs again in Macbeth, Act ii. Scene 4, with reference to a fact that we might well be excused for doubting, did we not know that it was related as an unusual circumstance. We are told that
"On Tuesday last
A falcon towering in her pride of place
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.""Towering" or "touring" in her pride of place is here understood to mean circling at her highest point of elevation. So in Massinger's play of "The Guardian."
"Then for an evening flight
A tiercel gentle which I call, my masters,
As he were sent a messenger to the moon
In such a place , flies, as he seems to say
See me or see me not."
Act i. Scene 2.By the falcon is always understood the female, as distinguished from the tercel or male of the peregrine or goshawk. The latter was probably called the tercel or tiercel from being about a third smaller than the falcon. Some authorities, however, state that of the three young birds always found in the nest of a falcon, two of them are females and the third a male; hence the name of tercel. Sometimes we find the word written tassel , as in " Romeo and Juliet."
"O ! for a falconer's voice
To lure this tassel gentle back again."
Act ii. Scene 2.Professor Schneider, in a Latin volume published at Leipsic, in 1788 (which contains the work of the Emperor Frederic II., 'De arte venandi cum avibus;' Albertus Magnus, 'De Falconibus;' as also a digest of Hubner's work, 'Sur le vol des oiseaux de proie,' and of several ancient and rare works on falconry), enumerates the qualities of a good falconer, and tells us: "Sit mediocris staturę; sit perfecti ingenii; bonaememorię; levis auditu; acuti visus; homo magnę vocis ; sit agilis et promptus; sciat natare; sit audax - non somnolentus;" &c., &c.
To lure was to entice back the hawk by waving "the lure," which was a forked piece of iron or wood covered with leather and having the wings or feathers of a bird attached, and which was thrown up to entice the falcon back to the fist, after the quarry had been killed.
To this passage Mr. Staunton has the following note. "Tassel gentle .-The tassel, or more correctly the tiercel, is the male of the goshawk, and had the epithet gentle annexed to it from its docility and attachment to man." According to some authorities the tiercel derives its name from being a tierce or third less than the female; but Tardif, in his 'Treatise on Falconry,' says it is so called from being one of three birds generally found in the eyrie of a falcon, two of which are females and the third a male: hence called tiercelet or the third. This species of hawk was in high esteem, for the old books on the sport, which show that certain hawks were appropriated to certain ranks of society, tell us that the falcon gentle and tercel are for a prince.
There appears to be a great deal of confusion in the nomenclature of the hawks used in Falconry. The same name has been applied to two distinct species; and one species, in different states of plumage, has received two or more names. With regard to the word tassel gentle , it has occurred to me that the tercel must be the male goshawk and the tercel gentle the male peregrine; the latter, a long winged hawk, being the more noble of the two, and the word gentle , or gentil as it is sometimes spelt, being used with that signification. In this view I am supported to some extent, I believe, by quaint old Izaak Walton. In his 'Compleat Angler,' there is an interesting conversation between an angler, a hunter and a falconer, each of whom, in turn, commends his own recreation. The falconer gives a list of his hawks, and divides them into two classes, viz.: the long-winged and short-winged hawks.
In enumerating each species in pairs, he gives first the name of the female and then that of the male. Among the first class we find:
The Gerfalcon and Jerkin,
The Falcon and Tercel gentle , &c.In the second class we have:
The Eagle and Iron,
The Goshawk and Tercel , &c.It would appear, therefore, from this, that the name tercel gentle was applied to the male peregrine, a long-winged hawk, to distinguish it from the tercel or male goshawk , a short-winged hawk.
The following lines bearing upon this point are extracted from Mudie's 'Feathered Tribes of the British Islands,' vol. i. p. 86. "The falcon always means the female , and the male is called the tercel.
"When one year old, and before the plumage acquires the grey that characterizes the mature bird, the female is called a red falcon and the male a red tiercel.
"When fully fledged and trained (and she has not her full superiority over the male till in her mature plumage), the female is the gentil or gentil falcon , so called partly from her docility, and partly because she never turns down the wind , or stoops to ignoble game, as some of the other hawks, and even the tiercel peregrine, are apt to do. The name gentil, which is ther opposite of low or vulgar , was however applied to all good hawks, even to some of the short-winged ones, such as the goshawk."
Belany in his 'Treatise upon Falconry,' says (p. 129),- "The derivation of falcon gentle , or slight falcon, as it is likewise called, does not appear very clear or accountable, as the bird is not only the strongest and largest, but the fiercest falcon that inhabits this island.
"It may not improbably have received the name of gentle from the Latin gentiles , a term applied by the ancient Romans to all strangers, or foreigners not subject to the Roman Emlpire, to distinguish them from the provinciales , or inhabitants of the province. Under this supposition then, the bird, being there considered a stranger or foreigner, may have in like manner received the name of gentile , which has probably been corrupted into gentle . The word gentilis as every linguist knows, is likewise used in an almost contrary sense, importing peculiar or proper to a nation, but in this light it is quite inadmissible, as the bird is not peculiar to this country.
"According to some authors the term has been given because this bird was the favourite hawk amongst the gentlemen of old. This opinion, however, carries but little weight with it, for originally the hawk was excluded from the use of those popularly styled gentlemen unless ennobled. According to the restricted forms of hawking, the faleon gentle and tercel gentle were the 'hawks appointed for a prince,' and tolerated only amongst those individuals distinguished by the epithet noble. On this ground then the word nobilis , instead of gentilis would doubtless and more appropriately have been the term given to it. The term has been by some supposed to have been derived from the French gentil , meaning neat or handsome, because of the beauty of its form."
Whatever may have been the derivation of the word gentle , it appears to have been most usually applied to the female falcon, which was always considered superior to the male: stronger in flight,-
"As confident as is the falcon's flight
Against a bird."
Richard II. , Act i. Scene 3.and possessing more powerful talons,-
"So doves do peck the falcons piercing talons."
Henry VI., Part 3. Act i. Scene 4.besides being more easily trained, and capable of being flown at larger game. Shakespeare appears to have been of this opinion when he says,
"The falcon as the tercel for all the ducks i' the river."
Troilus and Cressida , Act iii. Scene 2.The game flown at was called in hawking parlance the "quarry," and we find this word occuring several times throughout the Plays.
"This quarry cries on havoc."
Hamlet , Act v. Scene 2.To "cry havoc" appears to have been a signal for indiscriminate slaughter. The expression occurs again in 'King John.'
"Cry havoc kings."
King John, Act ii. Scene 2.And
"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."
Julius Cæsar , Act iii. Scene 1.The word "quarry" also, in the language of the forest, meant a pile of slaughtered game. So in 'Coriolanus' Caius Marcius says:
"And let me use my sword I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves."
Coriolanus, Act iii. Scene 1.The beauty of the following passage, from its being clothed in technicalities, will be likely to cscape thc notice of such as are not conversant with hawking phraseology, but an acquaintance with the terms employed will elicit admiration at the force and beauty of the metaphor. Othello, with forcible expression, compares his young wife Desdemona to a hawk, and, doubtful of her constancy aud affection towards him, exclaims,
"If I do prove her haggard ,
Tho' that her jesses were my dear heart strings, I'd whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune."
Othello, Act iii. Scene 3.By "haggard" is meant a wild caught and unreclaimed mature hawk, as distinguished from an "eyess" or nestling, which is a young hawk taken from the "eyrie" or nest.
"There is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases that cry out."
Hamlet , Act ii. Scene 2.By some falconers "haggards" were also called "passage hasvks," from being always caught when in that state at the time of their periodical passage or migration. And as will be seen hereafter, the word "haggard" occurs several times throughout various Plays.
The "jesses" are the leatherstraps fastened to the legs of the hawk to strengthen them in holding the "quarry" when struck, especially on the ground. They are consequently not removed when tbe bird is flown, as is the hood and other trappings.
Othello says:
"I'd whistle her down the wind.""The falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her she seldom returns. If therefore a hawk was, for any reason, to be dismissed, she was let down the wind , and from that time shifted for herself, and preyed at fortune ." (Johnson).
As before observed, we find the word "haggard" occuring throughout many of Shakespeare's plays.
"She is too disdainful,
I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock."
Much Ado about Nothing , Act iii. Scene 1."And like the haggard check at every feather."
Twelft Night, Act iii. Scene 1.To "check" is a term used in Falconry signifying "to fly at"; it also means to forsake the proper quarry and take after another bird. The word occurs again in the same play, Act ii. Sc. 4.
Besides the "jesses," the "bells" were an indispensable part of a hawk's trappings. These were of circular form, and from a quarter to a ful inlch in diameter, and made of brass or silver, and were attached one to each leg of the bird by means of small slips of leather called "bewits." The use of bells was to lead the falconer by their sound to the hawk when in a wood, or out of sight.
"As the ox hath his low, Sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells , so man hath his desires." - As You Like It , Act iii. Scene 3.The "hood" also was a most necessary appendage. This was a cap or cover for the head of the hawk, which was not removed until the "quarry" was started, in order to prevent the hawk from flying before the proper time had arrived.
The constable of France, speaking of the valour of the Dauphin says:
"'Tis a hooded valour and when it appears it will bate."
Henry V. , Act iii. Scene 7.The allusion is to the ordinary action of a hawk, which when unhooded bates, or flutters. But a quibble may be here intended between "bate," the hawking technical, and "bate" to dwindle or abate.
We read also in 'Romeo and Juliet,'
"Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks."
Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Scene 2.And to any one not conversant with the terms used in Falconry, this line would be perfectly unitelligible. An "unmanned" hawk was one not sufficiently reclaimed to be familiar with her keeper; and such birds generally "bated," that is fluttered or beat their wings violently in their efforts to escape.
Petruchio, in 'Taming of the Shrew,' gives us a lesson in reclaiming a hawk: when speaking of Catharine he says: -
"My falcon now is sharp and passing empty,
And till she stoop she must not be full-gorg'd,
For then she never looks upon her lure .
Another way I have to man my haggard ,
To make her come and know her keeper's call,
That is to watch her, as we watch these kites,
That bate and beat, and will not be obedient.
She ate no meat to-day, nor none shall eat;
Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not."
Taming of the Shrew , Act iv. Scene 1."Stoop," sometimes written "stoup" (Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Book I. Canto xi. 18), and "swoop" (as in 'Macbeth,' "at one fell swoop"), signifies a rapid descent on the "quarry."
"I bless the time
When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father's orchard."
Winter's Tale, Act iv. Scene 3"This outward sainted deputy,
Whose settled visage and deliberate word
Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth enmew
As falcon doth the fowl."
Measure for Measure, Act iii. Scene 1."Enmew," in its primary sense signifies "to enclose," "shut up." Hence the word "mews," that is, the place where the hawks were confined.
* * * "To-night she's mew'd up."
Romeo and Juliet , Act iii. Scene 4.And Gremio, speaking to Signior Baptista of Bianca, says,
"Why will you mew her ?"
Taming of the Shrew , Act i. Scene 1.A question presently solved by Tranio who says,
"And therefore has he closely mew'd her up ,
Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors."In the line above quoted, however, from 'Measure for Measure,' the word "enmew" would seem rather to signify to"seize upon" or to "disable." This word is sometimes written "enewe." In Thomas Nash's 'Quaternio, or a Fourefold Way to a Happie Life,' published in 1633, it occurs in a spirited description of hawking at water-fowl:-
"And to hear an accipitary relate againe how he went forth in a cleare calme and sunshine evening, about an houre before the sunne did usually maske himselfe, unto the river, where, finding of a mallard, he whistled off his faulcon, and how shee flew from him as if shee would never have turned head againe, yet presently upon a shoote came in; how then by degrees, by little and little, by flying about and about, shee mounted so high, until shee had lessened herselfe to the view of the beholder to the shape of a pigeon or partridge, and had made the height of the moone the place of her flight; how presently, upon the landing of the fowle, shee came downe like a stone and ewewed it, and suddenly got up againe, and suddenly upon a second landing came downe againe, and missing of it, in the downe course recovered it beyond expectation, to the admiration of the beholder at a long flight."
In the days of Falconry a peculiar method,of repairing a broken wing-feather was known to falconers by the term "imping."
The verb " to imp" appears to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon "impan" signifying to graft or inoculate, and the mode of operation is thus described in a rare pamphlet by Sir John Sebright, entitled 'Observations on Halvking':-
"When any of the flight or tail-feathers of a hawk are accidentally broken, the speed of the bird is so injured that the falconer finds it necessary to repair them by an expedient called 'imping.'
"This curious process consists in attaching to the part that remains an exact substitute for the piece lost. For this purpose the falconer is always provided willl pinions (right and left) and with tail-feathers of hawks, or with the feathers separated from the pinion, carefully preserved and numbered, so as to prevent mistake in taking a true match for the injuled feather. He then with a sharp knife gently parts the web of the feather to be repaired, at its thickest part, and cuts the shaft obliquely forward, so as not to damage the web on the opposite edge. He next cuts the substitute feather as exactly as possible at the corresponding point, and with the same degree of slope.
"For the purpose of uniting them he is provided with an iron needle, with broad angular points at both ends; and after wetting the needle with salt and water, he thrusts it into the centre of the pith of each part, as truly straight and as nearly to the same length in each as may be. When this operation has been skilfully performed, the junction is so neat that an inexperienced eye would hardly discern the point of union; and as the iron rusts from having been wetted with brine, there is little or no danger of separation."
After this exlpanation the meaning of the following passage is clear:-
"If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
Imp out our drooping country's broken wing."
Richard II. , Act ii. Scene 1.Besides "imping," there was another practice in use, now happily obsolete, termed "seeling," to which we find several allusions in the Plays. It consisted in sewing a thread through the upper and under eye-lids of a newly caught hawk, to obscure the sight-for a time and to accustom it to the hood.
In 'Antony and Cleopatra' (Act iii. Scene 13) we read,
"The wise goods seel our eyes."And in the same play (Act v. Scene 2) Seleucus says,
* * * "Madam,
I'd rather seel my lips than to my peril
Speak that which is not."
In his beautiful soliloquy on sleep King Henry IV. says,
"Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seel up the ship-boy's eyes?"
Henry IV., Part II. Act iii. Scene 1."Come, seeling night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day."
Macbeth, Act iii. Scene 2.And
"She that so young could give out such a seeming,
To seel her father's eye up close as oak."
Othello , Act iii. Scene 3.It is more probable, considering the use of the technical term "seel," above explained, that the poet wrote "close as hawk's."
The "quarry" usually flown at differed according to the hawk that was used. The gerfalcon and peregrine were flown at herons, ducks, pigeons, rooks and magpies. The goshawk was used for hares and partridges, while the smaller kinds, such as the merlin and hobby, were trained to take blackbirds, larks and snipe.
The French falconers, however, do not appear to have been so particular.
"We'll e'en to it like French falconers,
Fly at anything we see."
Hamlet, Act ii. Scene 2.
Hobby (Falco subbuteo ).
Merlin (F. columbarius ).
Kestrel (F. tinnunculus ).
Sparrowhawk (A. nisus ).
Although allusions to a hawk are so frequent throughout the Plays, yet there is only one passage in which any particular species is mentioned. However, as the four species above named were all employed in Falconry, I have thought it advisable to mention them.
The line above referred to, which is the only one in which a particular species of hawk is intended, occurs in 'Twelfth Night,' where we read,
"And with what wing the stannyel checks at it.""Stannyel" is a corruption of standgale, which is synonymous with windhover, a name for the kestrel hawk.
Twelft Night. Act ii. Scene 4.
The meaning of the word kestrel is somewhat uncertain. By some it is derived from "coystril," which meant a knave or inferior person.
"Dost thou love hawking ?
Thou hast hawks will soar above the morning lark."
Taming of the Shrew , Induction, Scene 2.In 'Henry V.' the Dauphin, when speaking in praise of his horse, says,
"When I bestride him I soar, I am a hawk. "
Henry V., Act iii. Scene 7.And in Part 1. of 'Henry VI.' the Earl of Warwick boasts that
"Between two hawks which flies the higher pitch.
* * * * *
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment."
Henry VI. , Part I. Act ii. Scene 4.The "pitch" is the extreme height to which a long-winged hawk rises before the game is sprung.
The hawking scene in Part II. of the same play has been already given under the head of "Falcon."
Hawking was sometimes called "birding." In the 'Merry Wives of Windsor' (Act iii. Scene 3), Master Ford says,
"I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house, to breakfast; after, we'll a-birding together. I have a fine hawk for the bush."This was probably a goshawk, for, being a short-winged hawk, this species was considered the best for a woody country, or, as Shakespeare terms it, "the bush," and was thought too slow for the open country.
Again, in the same play (Act iii. Scene 5), Mrs. Ford says,
"My husband goes this morning a-birding ."But it would seem that "birding" did not always refer to hawking, for later on in the same play we read as follows:-
FALSTAFF: "What shall I do ? I'll creep up into the chimney."
MRS. FORD: "There they always used to discharge their birding-pieces."Besides hawking and shooting, there is another way of taking birds, termed "batfowling" or "batfolding," and that this method is of some antiquity we may gather from the following line in the 'Tempest' (Act ii. Scene 1),
"He would so, and then go a-batfowling."The following instructions for batfowling, in Markham's 'Hunger's Prevention,' &c., 1600, afford an accurate description of the way in which this sport was pursued in former times:-
"For the manner of batfowling, it may be used either with nettes or without nettes.
"If you vse it without nettes (which indeede is the most common of the two) you shall then proceede in this manner. First there shall be one to carry the cresset of fire (as was showed for the Lowbell ), then a certaine number, as two, three or foure (according to the greatnesse of your company), and these shall have poales bound with dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else bound with pieces of linkes or hurdes dipt in pitch, rosen, grease, or any such like matter that will blaze. Then another company shall be armed with long poales, very rough and bushy at the vpper endes, of which the willow, byrche, or long hazell are best, but indeede according as the counlly will afford, so you must be content to take.
"Thus being prepared, and comming into the bushy or rough ground, where the haunts of birds are, you shall then first kindle some of lyour fiers, as halfe, or a third part, according as your prouision is, and then with your ogher bushy and rough poales you shall beat the bushes, trees, and haunts of the birds, to enforce them to rise, which done you shall see the bires which are raysed, to flye and playe about the lights and flames of the fier, for it is their nature through their amazednesse, and affright at the strangeness of the light as it werw almost to scorch their wings in the same: so that those which haue the rough bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat them down with the same and so take them. Thus you may spend as much of the night as in darke, for longer is not conuenient, and doubtless you shall find much pastime, and take great store of birds, and in this you shall obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in the Lowbell ; especially that of silence, until your lights be kindled, but then you may use your pleasure, for the noyse and the light when they are heard and seene afarre of, they make the birds sit the faster and surer.
"The byrdes which are commonly taken by thil labour or exercise are, for the most part, the rookes, ring-doues, blackbirdes, throstles, feldyfares, linnets, bulfinches, and all other byrdes whatsoeuer that pearch or sit vpon small boughes, or bushes."
The hawk is mentioned in 'Much Ado About Nothing' (Act iii. Scene 3), and
"His hawking eye"occurs in 'All's Well that Ends Well' (Act i. Scene 1).
"Twenty crowns! I'll venture so much on my hawk or hounds, but twenty times so much upon my wife." - Taming of the Shrew , Act v. Scene 2.
* * "The lazar kite." - Henry V.Act ii. Scene 1.Although a large bird, and called by some the royal kite (Milvus regalis ), it has not the bold dash of many of our smaller hawks in seizing live and strong prey, but glides about ignobly, looking for a sickly or wounded victim, or for offal of any sort. Our poet, therefore, has not inaptly called it "the lazar kite," and, allucing to its habits, in 'Julius Cęsar' (Act v. Scene 3) he says,
* * * "And kites
Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us
As we were sickly prey."Again, in Part II. of 'Henry VI. (act v. Scene 2).
* * "A prey for carrion kites."In consequence of the ignoble habits of this bird, the word "kite" was often used as a term of reproach. For example,
"You kite !" - Antony and Cleopatra , Act iii. Scene 2.And
"Detested kite !" - King Lear , Act i. Scene 4.When pressed by hunger, however, the kite becomes bold, and will enter a farm-yard and carry off young ducks and chickens.
"Were't not all one, an empty eagle were set
To guard the chicken from a hungry kite ,
As place Duke Humphrey for the king's protector."
Henry VI., Part II. Act iii. Scene 2.The synonym "puttock" is sometimes applied to the kite, sometimes to the common buzzard. In the following quotation (a beautiful simile, referring to the supposed murder of Gloster by Suffolk) it evidently has reference to the former bird: -
"Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest,
But may imagine how the bird was dead,
Altho' the kite soar with unblooded beak."
Henry VI. , Part II. Act iii. Scene 2.It would seem that with the ancients the kite was a bird of ill omen, for in 'Cymbeline' (Act i. Scene 2) we find,
* * * "I chose an eagle,
And did avoid a puttock."And, alluding again to the superiority of the eagle, Hastings says,
"More pity that the eagle should be mewed,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty."
Richard III. , Act i. Scene 1.The intractable disposition of the kite is thus noticed,
* * "Watch her as we watch these kites ,
That bate and beat, and will not be obedient."
Taming of the Shrew , Act iv. Scene 1.And it would seem that our poet was not unaxquainted with the habit which the kite has, in common with other hawks, or rejecting or disgorging the undigested portions of its food in the form of pellets; for he says,
"If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites."
Macbeth , Act iii. Scene 4.Another curious fact in the natural history of the kite is adverted to in the 'Winters Tale' (Act iv. Scene 2): it is there said,
"When the kite builds, look to lesser linen.."This line may perhaps be best illustrated by a description of a kite's nest, which we have seen, that was taken in Huntingdonshere, and which is still in the possession of a friend at Newcastle. The outside of the nest was composed of strong sticks; the lining consisted of small pieces of linen , part of a saddle-girth, a bit of a harvest glove , part of a straw bonnet , pieces of paper , and a worsted garter ; and in the midst of this singular collection of materials were deposited two eggs. The kite is now almost extinct in England, and a kite's nest of course a great rarity. The Rev. H. B. Tristram, speaking 7) of the habits of the Egyptian kite (Milvus &Aelig;gyptius ), says: - "Its nest, the marine-store shop of the desert, is decorated with whatever scraps of bournouses and coloured rags can be collected; and to these are added, on every surrounding branch, the cast-off coats of serpents, large scraps of thin bark, and perhaps a bustard's wing."
"3rd Servant. : Where dwellest thou ?
Cor. : Under the canopy.
* * *
3rd Servant.: Where's that ?
Cor.: I' the city of kites and crows."
Coriolanus , Act iv. Scene 5.Query, whether "muses" should not be "nurses"?
"More pity that the eagle should be mewed,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty."
Richard III., Act i. Scene 1."To what form * * * should wit larded with malice * * * lead him to? To be an owl, a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would not care." - Troilus and Cressida , Act v. Scene 1.
"O, slow-wing'd turtle, shall a buzzard take thee?
Ay, for a turtle as he takes a buzzard ."
Taming of the Shrew , Act i. Scene 1.Staunton suggests that there is a play upon the words here, and that "buzzard" in the second line means a beetle , so called on account of its buzzing noise.
J. E. HARTING.
BORCH'S FALCONRY - english