The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 6

This pa.s.sage has been differently rendered, by removing the punctuation between "aiery" and "towers," and reading the former "airey" or "airy,"

and making "towers" a substantive. But the meaning of the pa.s.sage, as it stands above, seems to us sufficiently clear.

"Aiery" is equivalent to "eyrie," the nesting-place. The word occurs again in _Richard III._ (Act i. Sc. 3):--

"Our _aiery_ buildeth in the cedar's top;"

and,

"Your _aiery_ buildeth in our _aiery's_ nest."

The verb "to tower," in the language of falconry, signifies "to rise spirally to a height." Compare the French "_tour_." As a further argument, too, for reading "towers" as a verb, and not as a substantive, compare the following pa.s.sage from _Macbeth_, which plainly shows that Shakespeare was not unacquainted with this word as a hawking term:--

"A falcon _towering_ in her pride of place."

_Macbeth_, Act ii. Sc. 4.

[Sidenote: THE FATAL SWOOP.]

The word "souse," above quoted, is likewise borrowed from the language of falconry, and, as a substantive, is equivalent to "swoop." It would seem to be derived from the German "sausen," which signifies to rush with a whistling sound like the wind; and this is certainly expressive of the "whish" made by the wings of a falcon when swooping on her prey.

There is a good ill.u.s.tration of this pa.s.sage in Drayton's "Polyolbion,"

Song xx., where a description of hawking at wild-fowl is given. After the falconers have put up the fowl from the sedge, the hawk, in the words of the author, having previously "towered," "gives it a souse."

Beaumont and Fletcher also make use of this word as a hawking term in _The Chances_, iv. 1; and it occurs in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," Book iv. Canto v. 30.

A notice of the various hawks made use of by falconers, and mentioned by Shakespeare, might be here properly introduced, but it will be more convenient to reserve this notice for a separate chapter, and confine our attention for the present to the larger diurnal birds of prey which, like the eagles, are seldom, if ever, reclaimed by man.

Of these, excluding the eagle, Shakespeare makes mention of four--the Vulture, the Osprey, the Kite, and the Buzzard.

[Sidenote: THE VULTURE:]

Those who are acquainted with the repulsive habits of the Vulture, led as he is by instinct to gorge on carrion, will best understand the allusions to this bird which are to be met with in the works of Shakespeare.

What more forcible expression can be found to indicate a guilty conscience than "the gnawing vulture of the mind"? (_t.i.tus Andronicus_, Act v. Sc. 2.)

"There cannot be That vulture in you, to devour so many."

_Macbeth_, Act iv. Sc. 3.

When King Lear would denounce the unkindness of a daughter, which he could never forget, laying his hand upon his heart, he exclaims:--

"O Regan, she hath tied Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here."

_King Lear_, Act ii. Sc. 4.

[Sidenote: ITS REPULSIVE HABITS.]

One of the worst wishes to which Falstaff could give vent when in a bad humour, was:--

"Let vultures gripe thy guts!"

_Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act i. Sc. 3.

And the same idea is expressed in _Henry IV._ (Part II. Act v. Sc. 4):--

"Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!"

Occasionally we find the word "vulture" employed as an adjective:--

"Her sad behaviour feeds her vulture folly."

_Lucrece._

And--

"Whose vulture thought doth pitch the price so high."

_Venus and Adonis._

[Sidenote: THE OSPREY:]

The structure of the Osprey is wonderfully adapted to his habits, and an examination of the feet of this bird will prove how admirably contrived they are for grasping and holding a slippery fish. Mr. St. John, who had excellent opportunities of studying the Osprey in his native haunts, says:[39]--"I generally saw the osprey fis.h.i.+ng about the lower pools of the rivers near their mouths; and a beautiful sight it is. The long-winged bird hovers (as a kestrel does over a mouse), at a considerable distance above the water, sometimes on perfectly motionless wing, and sometimes, wheeling slowly in circles, turning his head and looking eagerly down at the water. He sees a trout when at a great height, and suddenly closing his wings, drops like a shot bird into the water, often plunging completely under, and at other times appearing scarcely to touch the water, but seldom failing to rise again with a good-sized fish in his talons. Sometimes, in the midst of his swoop, the osprey stops himself suddenly in the most abrupt manner, probably because the fish, having changed its position, is no longer within range. He then hovers, again stationary, in the air, anxiously looking below for the re-appearance of the prey. Having well examined one pool, he suddenly turns off, and with rapid flight takes himself to an adjoining part of the stream, where he again begins to hover and circle in the air. On making a pounce into the water, the osprey dashes up the spray far and wide, so as to be seen for a considerable distance."

After this description, it is easy to understand the allusion of Aufidius, who says:--

"I think he'll be to Rome, As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it By sovereignty of nature."

_Coriola.n.u.s_, Act iv. Sc. 7.

[Sidenote: ITS POWER OVER FISH.]

Mr. Staunton thinks that the image is founded on the fabulous power attributed to the osprey of fascinating the fish on which he preys. In Peele's play of _The Battle of Alcazar_, 1594 (Act i. Sc. 1), we read:--

"I will provide thee of a princely osprey, That, as he flieth over fish in pools, The fish shall turn their glistering bellies up, And thou shalt take thy liberal choice of all."

[Sidenote: THE KITE,]

Another of the birds of prey mentioned by Shakespeare is "the lazar Kite" (_Henry V._ Act ii. Sc. 1). Although a large bird, and called by some the royal Kite (_Milvus regalis_), it has not the bold dash of many of our smaller hawks in seizing live and strong prey, but glides about ign.o.bly, looking for a sickly or wounded victim, or for offal of any sort.

"And kites Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey."

_Julius Caesar_, Act v. Sc. 1.

"Ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal."

_Hamlet_, Act ii. Sc. 2.

"A prey for carrion kites."

_Henry VI._ Part II. Act v. Sc. 2.