HALLETUS ALBICILLA. 



Eut Shakespeare's allusions to the eagle are many and various. 

 For instance, he says in " Henry V." — 



" For once the eaf/le England being in prey, 

 To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 

 Conies sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs ; 

 Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat, 

 To tear and havoc more than she can eat — " 



an apt illustration of the reprisals of the smaller nation. And 



in " Love's Labour Lost" — 



" What peremptory eagle-sighted eye 

 Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, 

 That is not blinded by her majesty? " 



In " Eichard II."— 



" Our eyes do hate the dire aspect 

 Of civil wounds ploughed up with neighbours' swords ; 

 And, for we think the eagle-winged pride 

 Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, 

 With rival-hating envy, set you on 

 To wake our peace, which, in our country's cradle, 

 Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep." 



And as the bastard Falconbridge says in " King John" — 



" The gallant monarch is in arms, 

 And, like an eagle o'er his eyrie towers, 

 To souse annoyance that comes near his nest. 

 And you, degenerate ! you ingrate revolts ! 

 You Woody Nero's ripping up the womb 

 Of your dear mother England, — blush for shame ! 

 For your own ladies and pale visag'd maids, 

 Like Amazons, come tripping after drums ; 

 Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, — 

 Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts 

 To fierce and bloody inclination." 



Again, in "Henry VI.," — 



" Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob bee-hives ; 

 It is impossible that I should die 

 By such a lowly vassal as thyself." 



And in " Pericles" — 



' ' Thou art like the harpy, 

 Which, to betray, doth wear an eagle's form, 

 Seize with an eagle's talons." 



Also, as Posthumous says in " Cynibeline," 



" They fly chickens 

 The way which they stoop'd eagles." 



These quotations merely show the many allusions Shakespeare 

 makes to birds. But this fact of the eagle living so long 

 without food is a wise law of Nature, regulated by physical 

 construction and mode of life. The camel, for instance, can 



