The Birds of Shakespeare 
same kind of similitude is applied to the 
political condition of England. The future 
Richard III. asserts : 
I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad 
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.} 
And Hastings in the same Play remarks 
More pity that the eagle should be mew’d 
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty? 
Among Shakespeare’s political allusions in 
which the eagle appears there is one of 
some interest as a reminiscence of a far-off 
unhappy time in our history when the 
southern half of the island could be likened 
to the king of birds, while the northern 
portion was compared to a destructive 
kind of vermin. 
Once the eagle, England, being in prey, 
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs, 
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat, 
To tear and havoc more than she can eat.® 
The contemplation of the various mis- 
1 Richard III. 1. iii. 70. 276.1. i. 132. 
3 Henry V.1. il. 169. 
34 
