The Sparrow-Hawk 
Malvolio. ‘M.O.A.I. doth sway my life.” Nay but 
first, let me see, let me see, let me see. 
Fabian. With what dish o’ poison has she dressed 
him ! 
Sir Toby. And with what wing the staniel checks 
abit! * 
The spaARRow-HAWK (Musket) is only 
once alluded to in the Plays, and then as a 
kind of pet name applied by Mrs, Ford to 
little Robin, the page : 
How now, my eyas-musket! what news with you ?? 
Py. vy. 102. 
2 Merry Wives of Windsor, 11. iii, 18. Musket or Musquet- 
hawk was an old name for the cock Sparrow-hawk, and 
‘eyas’ meant a fledgling. 
Before passing from the subject of hawks and hawking, I 
should state that the sport is not yet wholly extinct in this 
country, and that we have at least two extant memorials of 
the time when it was a favourite pastime here. There is 
still among our King’s Court officials a Hereditary Grand 
Falconer, the office being held in the family of the Duke of 
St. Albans. In old times, and for many generations, the 
royal stud of hawks was kept at Charing Cross in buildings 
that were known as The Mews. In the reign of Henry 
VIII. these mews were turned into stables for horses, but 
the time-honoured name still clung to them. It became 
“customary to call by this name lanes flanked with stables, and 
this practice has continued down to our own day. When 
we speak of “ mews,” however, it is always horses and never 
hawks that come into our minds. 
F 41 
