The Eagle 
fortunes that may befall even the king of 
birds leads to the reflection : 
Often, to our comfort, shall we find 
The sharded beetle in a safer hold 
Than is the full-wing’d eagle.! 
The last line of this quotation recalls 
another passage in which, as if the writer 
had watched the bird on the wing, the 
majestic sweep of its flight is pictured : 
The course I hold 
Flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, 
Leaving no tract behind.? 
The eagle has been credited with a nobility 
of nature in keeping with his regal rank : 
The eagle suffers little birds to sing, 
And is not careful what they mean thereby, 
Knowing that with the shadow of his wings 
He can at pleasure stint their melody.® 
Shakespeare may have seen an eagle in 
confinement, for his description of its 
manner of feeding seems as if drawn from 
actual observation : 
1 Cymbeline, 111. ill. 19. 2 Timon of Athens, 1.1. 51. 
3 Titus Andronicus, iv. iv. 83. 
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