The Birds of Shakespeare 
birds that helpless berries saw.’* There 
is a graphic force in the exclamation 
Look how a bird lies tangl’d in a net,? 
and in the simile applied to Lucrece, 
Like a new-kill’d bird she trembling lies. 
But it is from the sport of falconry that 
Shakespeare draws most frequently his 
allusions to bird-capture. Some of these 
I shall quote in connection with his 
references to hawks and hawking. The 
poet does not confine his similes to birds 
in the wild state, but draws them also with 
effect from birds in confinement, as where 
he represents King Henry VI. thanking 
the Lieutenant of the Tower for courtesy 
shown to him during his imprisonment : 
I'll well requite thy kindness, 
For that it made my imprisonment a pleasure ; 
Ay, such a pleasure as incaged birds 
Conceive, when after many moody thoughts, 
At last, by notes of household harmony, 
They quite forget their loss of liberty. 
1 Venus and Adonis, 601, 604. 21%; 67. 
3 Lucrece, 457. 43 Beary V1, W. vi 12. 
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