Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer’s voice
To lure this tassel-gentle back again!
Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud.[62]
The actual array of hawking is brought before us in the gay scene in the second part of King Henry VI. where the King and Queen, with their company and falconers halloing, appear on the stage after a morning’s sport.
Queen. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,
I saw not better sport these seven years’ day:
Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high;
And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.
King. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
To see how God in all His creatures works!
Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high.
Suffolk. No marvel, an it like your majesty,
My lord Protector’s hawks do tower so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.
Gloucester. My lord, ’tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
Cardinal. … Believe me, cousin Gloucester,
Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly
We had had more sport.[63]
Under the general designation of Hawks most of our larger birds of prey were employed for purposes of sport, and it is mainly with reference to this use of them that they are mentioned by Shakespeare. Falcon, the name most frequently used by him, may include several distinct species.[64] He evidently admired their flight. He speaks of