HAWKS AND HAWKING.
To those who have ever taken part in a hawking excursion, it must be a
matter of some surprise that so delightful a pastime has ceased to be
popular. Yet, at the present day, perhaps not one person in five hundred
has ever seen a trained hawk flown. In Shakespeare’s time things were
very different. Every one who could afford it kept a hawk, and the rank
of the owner was indicated by the species of bird which he carried. To a
king belonged the gerfalcon; to a prince, the falcon gentle; to an earl,
the peregrine; to a lady, the merlin; to a young squire, the hobby;
while a yeoman carried a goshawk; a priest, a sparrowhawk; and a knave,
or servant, a kestrel. But the sport was attended with great expense,
and much time and attention were required of the falconer before his
birds were perfectly trained, and he himself a proficient.
This, combined with the increased enclosure and cultivation of waste
lands, has probably contributed as much as anything to the decline of
falconry in England.
[Sidenote: THE AGE OF HAWKING.]
During the age in which Shakespeare lived, the sport was at its height,
and it is, therefore, not surprising that he has taken much notice of it
in his works, and has displayed a considerable knowledge on the subject.
In the second part of _King Henry VI._ Act 2, we find a scene laid at
St. Alban’s, and the King, Queen, Gloster, Cardinal, and Suffolk
appearing, with falconers halloaing. We 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[42] 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 fain of climbing high.
_Suff._ No marvel, an it like your majesty,
My lord protector’s hawks do _tower_ so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears 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_.
_Card._ 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.”
[Sidenote: HAWKING TERMS.]
“Flying at the brook” is synonymous with “hawking by the river,” and
shows us that the party were in pursuit of water-fowl. Chaucer speaks of
“Ryding on, hawking by the river,
With grey goshawk in hand.”
“_Point._”--The fluttering or hovering over the spot where the “quarry”
has been “put in.”
“_Pitch._”--The height to which a hawk rises before swooping.
“How high a _pitch_ his resolution soars!”
_Richard II._ Act i. Sc. 1.
“_Tower._”--A common expression in falconry, signifying to rise spirally
to a height. Compare the French “_tour_.” The word occurs again in
_Macbeth_, Act ii. Sc. 4, with reference to a fact which we might well
be excused for doubting, did we not know that it was related as an
unusual circumstance:--
“On Tuesday last,
A falcon, _tow’ring_ in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.”
[Sidenote: THE FALCON AND TERCEL.]
Many of the incidents connected with Duncan’s death are not to be found
in the narrative of that event, but are taken from the chronicler’s
account of King Duffe’s murder. Among the prodigies there mentioned is
the one referred to by Shakespeare. “Monstrous sightes also, that were
seene without the Scottishe kingdome that year, were these.... There was
a sparhauke also strangled by an owle.” We have known a Tawny Owl to
kill and devour a Kestrel which had been kept in the same aviary with
it.
By “tow’ring 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_, Act i. Sc. 2:--
“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.”
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 usually found in the nest of a falcon, two of them are females and
_the third_ a male; hence the name of tercel.[43]
[Sidenote: THE TERCEL-GENTLE.]
By others, again, the term is supposed to have been derived from the
French _gentil_, meaning neat or handsome, because of the beauty of its
form.
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 the same species, in different states of plumage, has
received two or more names. With regard to the “tercel,” as
distinguished from the “tercel-gentle,” it would appear that the former
name was given to the male goshawk, and the latter to the male
peregrine; for the peregrine being a long-winged hawk, and the more
_noble_ of the two, the word “gentle,” or “gentil,” was applied to it
with that signification.
In this view we are supported to some extent by quaint old Izaak Walton.
In his “Compleat Angler,” there is an animated 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,[44]
The goshawk and tercel, &c.
From this we may conclude 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.
[Sidenote: DOCILITY OF THE FALCON.]
The female falcon, from her greater size and strength, 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. Sc. 3.
And possessing more powerful talons:--
“So doves do peck the falcon’s piercing talons.”
_Henry VI._ Part III. Act i. Sc. 4.
She was more easily trained, and capable of being flown at larger game.
Hence Shakespeare asserts--
“The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i’ the river.”
_Troilus and Cressida_, Act iii. Sc. 2.
Sometimes we find the word “tercel” written “tassel,” as in _Romeo and
Juliet_ (Act ii. Sc. 2):--
“O, for a falconer’s voice,
To lure this _tassel-gentle_ back again!”
Spenser almost invariably spells the word in this way.[45] To understand
the allusion to the falconer’s voice, it should be observed that after a
hawk had been flown, and had either struck or missed the object of her
pursuit, the “lure” (which we shall presently describe) was thrown up to
entice her back, and at the same time the falconer shouted to attract
her attention.
[Sidenote: QUALITIES OF A GOOD FALCONER.]
Professor Schneider, in a Latin volume published at Leipsic, in
1788,[46] thus enumerates the qualities of a good falconer: “Sit
mediocris staturæ; sit perfecti ingenii; bonæ memoriæ; levis auditu;
acuti visûs; _homo magnæ vocis_; sit agilis et promptus; sciat natare,”
&c. &c.
Each falconer had his own particular call, but it was generally somewhat
like--
“Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come!”
_Hamlet_, Act i. Sc. 5.
[Sidenote: THE LURE AND ITS USE.]
The “lure” was of various shapes, and consisted merely of a piece of
iron or wood, generally in the shape of a heart or horseshoe, to which
were attached the wings of some bird, with a piece of raw meat fixed
between them. A strong leathern strap, about three feet long, fastened
to it with a swivel, enabled the falconer to swing it round his head, or
throw it to a distance. With high-flying hawks, however, it was often
found necessary to use a live pigeon, secured to a string by soft
leather jesses, in order to recall them.[47]
The long-winged hawks were always brought to the lure, the short-winged
ones to the hand:--
“As falcon to the lure, away she flies.”
_Venus and Adonis._
The game flown at was called in hawking parlance the “quarry,” and
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 ’t like French falconers, fly at anything
we see.”--_Hamlet_, Act ii. Sc. 2.
[Sidenote: THE QUARRY.]
The word “quarry” occurs in many of the Plays.
“This ‘quarry’ cries on havoc.”[48]
_Hamlet_, Act v. Sc. 2.
In the language of the forest, “quarry” also meant a heap of slaughtered
game. So, in _Coriolanus_ (Act iii. Sc. 1), Caius Marcius says:--
“And let me use my sword, I’d make a ‘quarry’
With thousands of these quarter’d slaves.”
The beauty of the following passage, from its being clothed in
technicalities, will be likely to escape the notice of those who 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, mistrusting the constancy of Desdemona towards him, and
comparing her to a hawk, exclaims:--
“If I do prove her _haggard_,
Though 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. Sc. 3.
By “haggard” is meant a wild-caught and unreclaimed mature hawk, as
distinguished from an “eyess,” or nestling; that
“There is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out.”
_Hamlet_, Act ii. Sc. 2.
By some falconers “haggards” were also called “passage hawks,” from
being always caught when in that state, at the time of their periodical
passage or migration. As will be seen hereafter, the word “haggard”
occurs frequently throughout the Plays.
[Sidenote: HAWK’S TRAPPINGS.]
The “jesses” were two narrow strips of leather, fastened one to each
leg, the other ends being attached to a swivel, from which depended the
“leash.” When the hawk was flown, the swivel and leash were taken off,
the jesses and bells remaining on the bird.
[Illustration]
Some of the old falconers’ directions on these points are very quaint.
Turbervile, in his “Book of Falconrie,” 1575, speaking of the trappings
of a hawk, says:--“Shee must haue jesses of leather, the which must haue
knottes at the ende, and they should be halfe a foote long, or there
about; at the least a shaftmeete betweene the hoose of the jesse, and
the knotte at the ende, whereby you tye the hauke.”
[Sidenote: THE JESSES.]
In the modern “jesse,” however, there are no knots. It is fastened in
this wise. The leg of the hawk is placed against the “jesse,” between
the slits A and B. The end A is then passed through the slit B, and the
end C in turn through the slit A. The swivel, with its dependent leash,
is then attached to slit C; and the same with the other leg.
Othello says:--
“I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune.”
Falconers always flew their hawk _against_ the wind. If flown _down_ the
wind, she seldom returned. When, therefore, a useless bird was to be
dismissed, her owner flew her “down the wind;” and thenceforth she
shifted for herself, and was said “to prey at fortune.”
The word “haggard,” as before observed, is of frequent occurrence
throughout the Plays of Shakespeare. In the _Taming of the Shrew_ (Act
iv. Sc. 2), Hortensio speaks of Bianca as “this proud disdainful
_haggard_.” In _Much Ado about Nothing_ (Act iii. Sc. 1), Hero, alluding
to Beatrice, says--
“I know, her spirits are as coy and wild
As _haggards_ of the rock.”
In _Twelfth Night_ (Act iii. Sc. 1), Viola says of the Clown:--
“This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool;
And to do that well craves a kind of wit:
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of persons, and the time;
And, _like the haggard_, check at every feather
That comes before his eye.”
To “check” is a term used in falconry, signifying to “fly at,” although
it sometimes meant to “change the bird in pursuit.”[49] The word occurs
again in the same play (Act ii. Sc. 4), and in _Hamlet_, Act iv. Sc. 7.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: THE BELLS.]
Besides the “jesses,” the “bells” formed an indispensable part of a
hawk’s trappings. These were of circular form, from a quarter to a full
inch 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 bow,[50] sir, the horse his curb, and the _falcon
her bells_, so man hath his desires.”--_As You Like It_, Act iii. Sc. 3.
So in _Henry VI._ Part III. Act i. Sc. 1--
“Nor he that loves him best,
The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,
Dares stir a wing, if Warwick _shake his bells_.”
Again--
“Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells
With trembling fear, _as fowl hears falcon’s bells_.”
_Lucrece._
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: THE HOOD.]
The “hood,” too, was a necessary appendage to the trained falcon. This
was a cap or cover for the head, which was not removed until the
“quarry” was started, in order to prevent the hawk from flying too soon.
[Sidenote: AN “UNMANN’D” HAWK.]
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. Sc. 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. The word occurs
again in _Romeo and Juliet_ (Act iii. Sc. 2)--
“_Hood_ my unmann’d blood, _bating_ in my cheeks.”
And to those not conversant with the terms employed in falconry, this
line would be unintelligible. 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 _The Taming of the Shrew_, gives us a lesson in reclaiming
a hawk when speaking thus of Catherine:--
“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 eat 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. Sc. 1.
The word “stoop,” sometimes written “stoup” (Spenser’s “Faerie Queene,”
Book I. Canto XI. 18), and “swoop” (_Macbeth_, “at one fell swoop”),
signifies a rapid descent on the “quarry.” It occurs again in _Henry V._
Act iv. Sc. 1:--
“And though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they
_stoop_, they _stoop_ with the like wing.”
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: THE CADGE.]
The hawks, when carried to the field, were borne on “the cadge,” as
shown in the engraving; the person carrying it being called “the
cadger.” The modern word “cad,” now generally used in an opprobrious
sense, is in all probability an abbreviation of “cadger,” and therefore
synonymous with “servant” or common fellow.
Florizel, addressing Perdita, in the _Winter’s Tale_ (Act iv. Sc. 3),
says,--
“I bless the time
When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father’s ground;”
for this was the occasion of his first meeting her.
[Sidenote: THE HAWK’S “MEW.”]
In the following passage from _Measure for Measure_, (Act iii. Sc. 1),
there occurs a word in connection with falconry, which requires some
explanation,--
“This outward-sainted deputy,
Whose settled visage and deliberate word
Nips youth i’ th’ head, and follies doth _enmew_
As falcon doth the fowl.”
The verb “to mew,” or “enmew,” signifies to enclose or shut up, owing
its origin to the word “mews,” the place where the hawks were
confined:--
“To-night she’s _mew’d_ up.”
_Romeo and Juliet_, Act iii. Sc. 4.
Gremio, speaking of Bianca to Signor Baptista, says,--
“Why, will you _mew_ her?”
_Taming of the Shrew_, Act i. Sc. 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.”
[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF THE WORD “MEW.”]
The word “mew,” derived from the old French “_mue_,” signifies a change,
or moult, when birds and other animals 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 reproduceth her feathers.”
It was necessary to take great care of a hawk in her mewing time. In
“The Gentleman’s Academie,” edited by Gervase Markham, 1595, there are
several sections on the mewing of hawks, from one of which it may be
learnt 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.
“Forthcoming from her darksome _mew_.”
_Faerie Queene_, Book I. Canto v. 20.
[Sidenote: THE ROYAL MEWS.]
The Royal hawks were kept at the mews at Charing Cross during many
reigns (according to Stowe, from the time of Richard II., in 1377), but
they were removed by Henry VIII., who converted the place into stables.
The name, 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 later 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.
[Sidenote: THE FOWL ENMEWED.]
The word “enmew,” quoted above in the passage from _Measure for
Measure_, would seem rather to signify here, “to seize upon,” or “to
disable.” It is sometimes written “enewe.” In 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[51] his falcon, 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 moon the place[52] of her flight; how presently, upon the landing
of the fowle, shee came downe like a stone and _enewed_ it, and suddenly
got up againe, and suddenly upon a second landing came down againe, and
missing of it, in the downe course recovered it beyond expectation, to
the admiration of the beholder at a long flight.”
Another method of spelling the same word may be instanced by the
following quotation from Turbervile’s “Book of Falconrie,” 1575:--
“And if shee misse, to mark her how shee then gets up amaine,
For best advantage, to _eneaw_ the springing fowle againe.”
[Sidenote: IMPING.]
In the days of falconry[53] 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
scarce pamphlet by Sir John Sebright, entitled “Observations on
Hawking”:--
“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 with 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 injured 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.
[Illustration]
“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 explanation, the meaning of the following lines is clear:--
“If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,
_Imp_ out our drooping country’s _broken wing_.”
_Richard II._ Act ii. Sc. 1.
Passages such as this are likely enough to be overlooked by the majority
of readers, but it is in such chiefly that the ornithologist sees a
proof that Shakespeare, for the age in which he lived, possessed a
surprising knowledge of ornithology.
[Sidenote: SEELING.]
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
eyelids of a newly-caught hawk, to obscure the sight for a time, and
accustom her to the hood.
[Sidenote: HOW TO SEEL A HAWK.]
Turbervile, in his “Book of Falconrie,” 1575, gives the following quaint
directions “how to seele a hawke”:--“Take a needle threeded with
untwisted thread, and (casting your Hawke) take her by the beake, and
put the needle through her eye-lidde, not right against the sight of the
eye, but somewhat nearer to the beake, because she may see backwards.
And you must take good heede that you hurt not the webbe, which is under
the eye-lidde, or on the inside thereof. Then put your needle also
through that other eye-lidde, drawing the endes of the thread together,
tye them over the beake, not with a straight knotte, but cut off the
threedes endes neare to the knotte, and twist them together in such
sorte, that the eye-liddes may be raysed so upwards, that the Hawke may
not see at all, and when the threed shall ware loose or untyed, then the
Hawke may see somewhat backwardes, which is the cause that the threed is
put nearer to the beake. For a Sparrow-hawke should see somewhat
backwardes, and a Falcon forwardes. The reasõ is that if the
Sparrow-hawke should see forwardes, shee would beate off her feathers,
or break them when she bateth upon the fist, and seeing the companie of
men, or such like, she would bate too much.”
In _Antony and Cleopatra_ (Act iii. Sc. 13) we read--
“The wise gods _seel_ our eyes.”
And in the same play (Act v. Sc. 2) Seleucus says:--
“Madam,
I had rather _seel_ my lips, than, to my peril,
Speak that which is not.”
In his beautiful soliloquy on sleep, Henry IV., addressing the fickle
goddess, exclaims,--
“Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
_Seel_ up the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge?”
_Henry IV._ Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1.
The word occurs again in _Othello_ (Act i. Sc. 3)--
“When light-wing’d toys
Of feather’d Cupid _seel_ with wanton dulness,” &c.
And in the same play (Act iii. Sc. 3)--
“She that, so young, could give out such a seeming,
To _seel_ her father’s eyes up close as oak.”
In the last line it is more probable, considering the use of the
technical term “seel,” above explained, that Shakespeare wrote “close as
hawk’s.”
Sir Emerson Tennant, in his “Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon,”
speaking of the goshawk (p. 246), says:--“In the district of
Anarajapoora, where it is trained for hawking, it is usual, in lieu of a
hood, to darken its eyes by means of a silken thread passed through
holes in the eyelids.” This practice of “seeling” appears to be of some
antiquity, but has happily given way, to a great extent, to the more
merciful use of the hood.
[Sidenote: QUAINT RECIPES.]
The old treatises on falconry contain numerous quaint recipes for the
various ailments to which hawks are subject. From one of these we learn
that petroleum is nothing new, as some people now-a-days would have us
believe. Turbervile, writing in 1575, says, in his “Booke of
Falconrie”:--“An other approued medecine is to annoint the swelling of
your hawkes foot with _Oleum petrœlium_ (which is the oyle of a rocke)
and with oyle of white Lillies, taking of each of these like quantity,
the blood of a pigeon, and the tallow of a candle, heating all these
together a little at the fire. This unguent wil throughly resolue the
mischief.”--P. 258.
[Sidenote: GOING A-BIRDING.]
Hawking was sometimes called “birding.” In the _Merry Wives of Windsor_
(Act iii. Sc. 3), Master Page 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 and of
slower flight, this species was considered the best for a woody
district, or, as Shakespeare terms it, “the bush.”
In the same play (Act iii. Sc. 5) Dame Quickly, referring to Mistress
Ford, says,--“Her husband goes this morning _a-birding_;” and Mistress
Ford, herself, says (Act iv. Sc. 2),--“He’s _a-birding_, sweet Sir
John.”
But it seems that birding was not always synonymous with hawking, for,
later on in the last-mentioned scene, we read as follows:--
“_Falstaff._ What shall I do? I’ll creep up into the
chimney.
_Mrs. Ford._ There they always use to discharge their
_birding-pieces_.”
The word “hawk,” as in the case of the eagle, is almost invariably
employed by Shakespeare in its generic sense:--
“Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark.”
_Taming of the Shrew_, Induction, Sc. 2.
In _Henry V._ (Act iii. Sc. 7), the Dauphin, when speaking in praise of
his horse, says,--
“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk.”
And in the first part of _Henry VI._ (Act ii. Sc. 4), the Earl of
Warwick boasts that
“Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
* * * * *
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment.”
Again,--
“Twenty crowns!
I’ll venture so much of my hawk or hound,
But twenty times so much upon my wife.”
_Taming of the Shrew_, Act v. Sc. 2.
[Sidenote: THE KESTREL.]
In two instances only does Shakespeare allude to a particular species of
hawk. These are the Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.
When Malvolio, in _Twelfth Night_ (Act ii. Sc. 5), finds the letter
which Maria has purposely dropt in his path, Sir Toby Belch, looking on
from ambush, exclaims, in sporting terms:--
“And with what wing the _stanniel_ checks at it!”
Here _stanniel_ is a corruption of _standgale_, a name for the kestrel
hawk, and Malvolio is said to “check at” the letter, just as a kestrel
hovers over a mouse or other object which has suddenly attracted its
attention.
It is true that the reading of the folios here is _stallion_; but the
word _wing_, and the falconers’ term _checks_, abundantly prove that a
bird must be meant. Sir Thomas Hanmer, therefore, proposed this
correction, which all subsequent editors have received as justifiable.
The origin of the word “kestrel” is somewhat uncertain. By some it is
derived from “coystril,” a knave or peasant, from being the hawk
formerly used by persons of inferior rank, as we learn from Dame Juliana
Berners, in her “Boke of St. Albans.” This opinion is strengthened by
the reading “coystril,” in _Twelfth Night_ (Act i. Sc. 3), and
“coistrel,” in _Pericles_ (Act iv. Sc. 6). A different spelling again
occurs in “The Gentleman’s Recreation,” by Ric. Blome (folio, London,
1686), where the word is written “castrell.”
[Sidenote: THE SPARROWHAWK.]
The sparrowhawk is only mentioned once by Shakespeare, and the passage
is one which might be very easily overlooked by any one not conversant
with the language of falconry. In the _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Mrs.
Ford addresses Falstaff’s page with--
“How now, my _eyas-musket_?”
“Musket”[54] was the name given by the falconers of old to the male
sparrowhawk; “eyas” or “eyess,” as before explained, signifying a
nestling, or young bird from the eyrie or nest. In the above speech,
Mrs. Ford probably intended to imply no more than we should now-a-days
mean by the expression “a perky little fellow.”
[Sidenote: HAWK AND HERNSHAW.]
The words of Hamlet with reference to a hawk must be familiar to all
readers of Shakespeare, the more so, possibly, because the passage in
question appears to have puzzled many commentators:--
“I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
southerly, I know a _hawk_ from a _handsaw_.”
_Hamlet_, Act ii. Sc. 2.
The explanation is simple enough. The last word should be “hernshaw,”
the old name for the heron. It is not every one who knows a hawk from a
heron when he sees it, although it is scarcely possible to conceive two
birds more unlike in appearance. Hamlet’s statement, then, is simply to
the effect that he only feigned madness when it suited his purpose; at
other times he could even outwit the many, and see a distinction where
they, from ignorance, would fail.
The ingenuity which has been exercised in a laudable endeavour to
interpret this passage is really surprising. “An ingenious friend,” says
the _Athenæum_,[55] “suggests the following explanation:--‘Among the
ancient Ægyptians, the hawk signified the Etesian, or northerly wind
(which, in the beginning of summer, drives the vapour towards the south,
and which, covering Ethiopia with dense clouds, there resolves them into
rains, causing the Nile to swell), because that bird follows the
direction of that wind (Job xxxix. 26). The heron, hern, or hernshaw
signified the southerly wind, because it takes its flight from Ethiopia
into Upper Egypt, following the course of the Nile as it retires within
its banks, and living on the small worms hatched in the mud of the
river. Hence the heads of these two birds may be seen surmounting the
_canopi_ used by the ancient Ægyptians to indicate the rising and
falling of the Nile respectively. Now Hamlet, though feigning madness,
yet claims sufficient sanity to distinguish a hawk from a hernshaw when
the wind is southerly; that is, in the time of the migration of the
latter to the north, and when the former is not to be seen. Shakespeare
may have become acquainted with the habits of these migrating birds of
Egypt through a translation of Plutarch, who gives a particular account
of them, published in the middle of the sixteenth century by Thomas
North.’”
[Sidenote: VALUE OF HAWKS.]
The present chapter, embodying, as it does, a treatise on hawking,
illustrated by quotations from Shakespeare, would scarcely be complete
without some reference to the prices paid for hawks, and to the expenses
of keeping them, at the period at which Shakespeare lived. These
particulars may be gleaned from scattered entries in certain “Household
Books” and “Privy Purse Accounts” of noble owners, which the invaluable
labours of antiquaries have placed within reach of the curious.
We have been at some pains to collect and arrange the following entries,
believing that the information which they supply will be far more
interesting to the reader if allowed to remain in the form in which we
have found it:--
PRICES OF HAWKS.
Itm̃ the viij daye paied to Walshe for
so moche money by him layed out
for one goshawke and ij fawcons iij li.
Itm̃ the xv daye paied for v fawcons
and a tarsell viij li.
Itm̃ the iij daye paied in rewarde to
S^r Richard Sandes s’vñt for the
bringing of a saker to the king at
hampton courte v s̃.
Itm̃ the same daye paied for fyve ffawcons vij li. vj s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the iij daye paied to a stranger
called Jasper, fawconer, for vj sakers
and v sakeretts at viij corons a pece
which amot^s to xx/iiij viij corons xx li. x s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the viij daye paied to maister
Walshe for so much money by him
paied for goshawks the which the
king’s grace bought upon the cage iij li.
Itm̃ to iij of maister Skevington’s s’vñts
in rewarde for bringing iij hobbyes
to the king’s grace iij li.
Itm̃ the xj daye paied to a s’vñt of
Maister Saint John in rewarde for
bringing a caste of hawks xx s̃.
Itm̃ the viij daye paied to a s’vñt of
the duc of Ferrers in rewarde for
bringing of a caste of fawcons to
the king’s grace at Westm xxiij li. vj s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the xix daye paid to a s’vñt of
Maister Walshe’s for bringing of a
caste of Laneretts to the king’s
grace in rewarde x s̃.
Itm̃ the xxvij daye paied to the Abbot
of Tewxbury s’vñt in rewarde for
bringing a caste of Launners to the
king’s grace xx s̃.
Itm̃ the xvj daye paied to Augustyne
the fawconer for viij hawks at vj
Angells a pece, whiche amounteth to xviij li.
[Sidenote: KEEP OF HAWKS.]
HAWKS’ FURNITURE.
Itm̃ the iiij daye paied for ij dousin of
hawks’ hoods at iij s̃. iiij d. le dousin vj s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the same daye paied for iij hawks’
gloves at vj s̃. viij d. le glove xx s̃.
Itm̃ the same day paied for vj dousin
gilte bells at iij corons le dousin xliij s̃.
HAWKS’ MEAT.
Itm̃ the xx daye paied to Philip Clampe
for the mete of ij hawks after the
rate of ij d. by the daye from the
xx daye of Aprill unto the xviij
day of Novembre xxv s̃.
Itm̃ the xxj daye paied to James the
henne taker for hawks’ mete x s̃.
Itm̃ the xj daye paied to Hans the
fawconer for hawks’ mete xiiij s̃. iiij d.
Itm̃ to the same Hugh paied the same
daye for the mete of v hawks by
the same space that is to saye for
one quarter of a yere; eṽy hawke
at one penny by the daye xxxviij s̃. vj d.
Itm̃ the xvj daye to maister Hennage
for the birds’ mete xij d.
Itm̃ the v day to Nicholas Clampe for
the mete of iiij hawks fro the x
daye of Maye unto the xxiij daye
of June after one peny a daye for
a hawke xv s̃.
Itm̃ to the same John Evans for the
mete of iiij hawks by the space of
lxxxxvij dayes for eṽy hawke one
penny by the daye xxxij s̃. iiij d.
FALCONERS’ WAGES.
Itm̃ the vij daye paied to John Evans
for his bourde wages for one quarter
due at our Lady daye laste paste xxx s̃. v d.
Itm̃ the ix daye paied to the same John
Evans for his bourde wages fro
Mydsom tyll Michelmas after iiij d.
by the daye xxx s̃. v d.
Itm̃ the xxvj daye paied to Nicholas
Clampe one of the fawconers for
his wages due for one quarter ended
at Easter laste paste l s̃.
Itm̃ the same daye paied to the same
Clampe for his bourde wages from
the xxv daye of Decembre unto
the laste daye of this monethe the
which amounts to cxxvij dayes, at
iiij d. by the daye xlij s̃. iiij d.
[Sidenote: SUNDRIES.]
SUNDRIES.
Itm̃ the vth daye paied to old Hugh in
rewarde when his hawks went to
the mewe xl s̃.
Itm̃ the xxv daye paied to Walter in
rewarde for a Jerfawcon that dyed xl s̃.
Itm̃ the same daye paied to one that
toke up a Lanner that had been
lacking a hole yere x s̃.
Itm̃ the laste daye paied unto Nicholas
Clampe for keeping of a lanneret
called ‘Cutte’ for one hole yere at
j d. a daye xxx s̃. v d.
Itm̃ the xxvij daye paied to a s’vñt of
my lorde Brayes in rewarde for
taking up of a fawcon of the kings
in Bedfordshire vj s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the xvij daye paied to one Richard
Mason for taking up of a fawcon of
the kings besides Hartford vj s̃. viij d.
Itm̃ the xiij daye paied to a s’vñt of
my lorde Darcys in rewarde for
taking up of a hawke of the kings
and bringing hir to Yorke place vij s̃. vi d.
Itm̃ the xiij daye paied to Iohn Weste
of the garde to ryde into the
contry for an hawke by the kings
comande^t xx s̃.
Itm̃ the xxviij daye paid to Willm
Tyldesley, grome of the Chambre,
for lying oute to take hawkes by
the kings comande^t x s̃.
Itm̃ the xiiij paied to a s’vñt of maister
Skevingtons in rewarde for bringing
hawkes out of Irlande xl s̃.
Itm̃ the x daye paied to Garard the
fawconer in rewarde for taking of a
fawcon and a tarsell lvj s̃.
Itm̃ the xj daye of Marche paied to
Garrat and Richard the fawconers
in rewarde for finding the Herons x s̃.
The interest which attaches to these curious extracts must excuse us
with the reader for their length.
We cannot peruse them without being carried back, in spirit, to an age
in which, for all that concerns sport, we would fain have lived to bear
a part. Alas! that so delightful a pastime as hawking should have
declined, and that we should live to see our noble falcons gibbeted,
like thieves, upon “the keeper’s tree.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]