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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.

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 Joan42 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.”

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.”

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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. 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.

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.

View larger image.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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 off51 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 place52 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.”

IMPING.

In the days of falconry53 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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.’ ”

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 Sr 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 amots 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.
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.
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 comandet		xx s̃.
Itm̃ the xxviij daye paid to Willm Tyldesley, grome of the Chambre, for lying oute to take hawkes by the kings comandet		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.”