32 
eagle’s eggs. 
Sometimes the word was written “accloy;” as, for in¬ 
stance, in Spenser’s “ Faerie Queene ” (ii. 7)— 
“ And with uncomely weeds the gentle wave accloyes 
And in the same author’s “ Shepheard’s Calendar ” (Feb¬ 
ruary,” 135)— 
“ The mouldie mosse which thee accloyeth 
It is clear, therefore, that the word occurring in the 
fourth scene of the fifth act of Cymbeline , should be written 
cleys , and not cloys. 
But to return from this digression ; there is a passage in 
the first act of Henry V. Sc. 2, which seems to deserve 
some notice while on the subject of eagles, i. e .:— 
“ For once the eagle England being in prey, 
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs.” 
That the weasel sucks eggs, and is partial to such fare, 
is very generally admitted. Shakespeare alludes to the 
fact again in As You Like It (Act ii. Sc. 5), where 
Jaques says:—“I can suck melancholy out of a song, as 
a weasel sucks eggs.” But whether the weasel has ever 
been found in the same situation or at such an altitude as 
the eagle, is not so certain. A near relative of the weasel, 
however, namely, a marten-cat, was once found in an 
eagle’s nest. “ The forester, having reason to think that 
the bird was sitting hard, peeped over the cliff into the 
