HABITS AND ATTITUDES. 
31 
Prunes the immortal wing, and cloys his beak, 
As when his god is pleas’d.’’ 
“ Prune ” signifies to clean and adjust the feathers, and 
is synonymous with plume. A word more generally used, 
perhaps,' than either, is preen. 
Cloys is, doubtless, a misprint for cleys, that is, claws. 
Those who have kept hawks must often have observed 
the habit which they have of raising one foot, and 
whetting the beak against it. This is the action to 
which Shakespeare refers. The same word occurs in 
Ben Jonson’s “ Underwoods,” (vii. 29) thus :— 
“To save her from the seize 
Of vulture death, and those relentless cleysP 
The verb “ to cloy ” has a very different signification, 
namely, “to satiate,” “choke,” or “clog up.” Shakespeare 
makes frequent use of it. 
In “ Lucrece ” it occurs :— 
“ But poorly rich, so wanteth in his store, 
That, cloy'd with much, he pineth still for mor^.” 
And again, in Richard II. (Act i. Sc. 3) 
“ O, who can hold a fire in his hand, 
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ? 
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, 
By bare imagination of a feast ?” 
See also Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2. 
