Chapter VII: 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.”

[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.

“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.”