The Eagle 
dignity above the other birds of prey, he 
makes the birds themselves, in the arrange- 
ments for the obsequies of the Phoenix 
and Turtle, admit this supremacy. 
From this session interdict 
Every fowl of tyrant wing, 
Save the eagle, feather’d King.} 
The powerful vision which from time 
immemorial has been ascribed to the 
eagle? is often referred to by the poet, 
who makes one of his personages even 
claim that kings of men have eyes like 
the king of birds. As Richard II. stood 
on the battlements of Flint Castle the 
Duke of York pointing to him, exclaimed, 
Yet looks he like a king ; behold! his eye, 
As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth 
Controlling majesty.® 
The future King Edward IV. was taunted 
by his brother Richard thus : 
1 Phoenix and Turtle, 9. 
2Chaucer places at the head of his large company of 
feathered creatures “the royal egle that with his sharpe look 
perceth the Sonne,” Parlement of Foules, 330. 
8 Richard II, 1, iii. 68. 
Bu 
