That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.[53]
And Hastings in the same Play remarks
More pity that the eagle should be mew’d
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.[54]
Among Shakespeare’s political allusions in which the eagle appears there is one of some interest as a reminiscence of a far-off unhappy time in our history when the southern half of the island could be likened to the king of birds, while the northern portion was compared to a destructive kind of vermin.
Once the eagle, England, being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs,
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
To tear and havoc more than she can eat.[55]