161 
SHAKESPEARE ON.THE NOBLE ART OF HAWKING. 
BY 
Lr.-Cou. C. E. Luarp. 
The Hawker’s sporting toast : “‘ A health to all that shot and missed ”’. 
Two classes of hawks are used for hunting, the true falcon or long-winged 
hawk and the short-winged hawk : the peregrine par excellence representing the 
former and the goshawk the latter. Shakespeare is always most careful never 
to confound these two and everywhere his terms show a genuine and absolutely 
accurate knowledge of the sport. Such accuracy disappeared when hawking 
went out as a general sport, and only Chaucer, Spenser and lastly Dryden show 
that they also knew well what they were writing about. The females among 
hawks are usually the larger, and hence the males were called “tassels” or 
*tiercels,” being about one-third less than the size of the female. The male 
peregrine was called the “ tiercel-gentle ”, a compliment to his noble character, 
which explains Juliet’s use of the term of her lover (R. & J. :II-ii-159). Shakes- 
peare names the falcon, tercel-gentle, the estridge or goshawk, and her tercel, 
and the musket. The big gerfalcon did not do well in the damp of England 
and was little used. The ‘‘ musket ” was the male sparrow-hawk, and had the 
least repute, especially as an “‘eyass’’* (M. W. W.: IIT-iii-22). Ignorant commen- 
tators changed “‘estridge”’ into “ ostrich ’’, and made nonsense of the line ‘‘ the 
dove will peck the estridge” (A. & C. ITT-ii-195) so tooin Henry IV we should 
follow the folio reading 
all furnished, all in arms 
All plumed like estridges, that with the wind 
Bated, like eagles having lately bathed 
The reading ‘‘ baited’? makes nonsense; ‘‘ bated’? means 
wings, fluttering. 
Hawks were kept in the ‘‘ mews To ‘* mew” is to moult, (Fr. muer, 
Lat. mutare). The Royal Stables in St. Martin’s Lane were built on the old 
‘* Mews ” site and after them, all London stables have been called mews. Hence 
the use of the word to mean shut up (T. S. I-i-87; MND: I-i-71 ; KJ: IV-ii-57 ; 
R. III, 1-i-38, 131 ; R. & J: I[l-iv-11). The hawks each had a perch on a pole 
where they stood “‘ weathering’. They were attached by thongs which were 
fastened to flat silver rings called ‘‘ varvels ’ which were fastened to soft leather 
bands on the feet called “‘ jesses ” (R. & J. : IIT-iii-261) ; when out of doors the 
thong was held by the falconer. 
A “falconer”’ is a man who deals with the long-winged hawk or falcon, of 
which the peregrine was the finest. The man in charge of the short-winged 
hawk, favoured in France, was called an “‘ astringer ” or “‘ ostringer ”’, from the 
estridge or goshawk which he chiefly used (Fr. austour, autour; Lat. astur). 
Thus all falcons are hawks, but not all hawks are falcons. The methods of attack 
of the two birds, as Shakespeare well knew. are totally different. The falcon 
attacks from high up, is used in open country and ‘‘ towering in her pride of place” 
(Mae.: II-iv-12 ; Luc.: 506) “ stoops” or ‘‘ swoops’ upon her quarry, while 
the short-winged hawk being used in woodlands flies after the bird, threading its 
way among trees and bushes. The falcon is recovered by the lure, the goshawk 
returns to his master’s wrist just as in nature he would to his perch on a bush. 
The peregrine was held the hawk of an earl, the goshawk of a yeoman, and 
French falconers even now distinguish the two arts as “ fauconnerie ” and 
‘* autouserie ”’. The French were expert at the use of the small hawk, and were 
rather looked down on by English professors (Ham: IT-iii-58), for flying at every 
thing, but Tubervile, the old writer on hawking, always quotes them in reference 
to short-winged hawks. Hence the appropriateness of introducing ‘“‘ a gentle 
astringer ”’ into the French court (Alls Well : V-i-7) changed by some commenta- 
tors into ‘‘ a gentle stranger ” ; in this case he is a man of gentle blood and as 
such a favourite at court. 
21 
beating their 
. 99 
. 
dawk clasee * 
Tiercels. 
Note.—The Ox- 
ford Diction- 
ary has gone 
wrong here 
calling t he 
young and 
female of a 
goshawk a 
‘faicon gen- 
tel.” 
Eyass. 
Bate. 
Mews. 
Weather) 
Varvels. 
Jesses, 
Falconer” 
Astringer. 
Tower 
of place. 
Lure. 
Classes 
hawks. 
Astringer. 
hiais, a 
nestling-fool- 
ish young thing 
pride 
using 
