The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 12

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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage is really surprising. "An ingenious friend," says the _Athenaeum_,[55] "suggests the following explanation:--'Among the ancient aegyptians, 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 x.x.xix. 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 aegyptians 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, ill.u.s.trated 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 n.o.ble 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.

Itm~ the viij daye paied to Walshe for so moche money by him layed out for one goshawke and ij fawcons iij li.

Itm~ the xv daye paied for v fawcons and a ta.r.s.ell viij li.

Itm~ the iij daye paied in rewarde to S^r Richard Sandes s'vnt for the bringing of a saker to the king at hampton courte v s~.

Itm~ the same daye paied for fyve ffawcons vij li. vj s~. viij d.

Itm~ 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 s~. viij d.

Itm~ 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.

Itm~ to iij of maister Skevington's s'vnts in rewarde for bringing iij hobbyes to the king's grace iij li.

Itm~ the xj daye paied to a s'vnt of Maister Saint John in rewarde for bringing a caste of hawks xx s~.

Itm~ the viij daye paied to a s'vnt of the duc of Ferrers in rewarde for bringing of a caste of fawcons to the king's grace at Westm xxiij li. vj s~. viij d.

Itm~ the xix daye paid to a s'vnt of Maister Walshe's for bringing of a caste of Laneretts to the king's grace in rewarde x s~.

Itm~ the xxvij daye paied to the Abbot of Tewxbury s'vnt in rewarde for bringing a caste of Launners to the king's grace xx s~.

Itm~ 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.

Itm~ the iiij daye paied for ij dousin of hawks' hoods at iij s~. iiij d. le dousin vj s~. viij d.

Itm~ the same daye paied for iij hawks'

gloves at vj s~. viij d. le glove xx s~.

Itm~ the same day paied for vj dousin gilte bells at iij corons le dousin xliij s~.

HAWKS' MEAT.

Itm~ 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 s~.

Itm~ the xxj daye paied to James the henne taker for hawks' mete x s~.

Itm~ the xj daye paied to Hans the fawconer for hawks' mete xiiij s~. iiij d.

Itm~ to the same Hugh paied the same daye for the mete of v hawks by the same s.p.a.ce that is to saye for one quarter of a yere; e?y hawke at one penny by the daye x.x.xviij s~. vj d.

Itm~ the xvj daye to maister Hennage for the birds' mete xij d.