Suf. No marvel, an it like your majesty,
My lord protector’s hawks do tower so well;
They know their master likes to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon’s pitch.
Glo. My lord, ’tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.”
On many other occasions Shakespeare shows his familiarity with the whole art and mysteries of hawking. Thus Christophero Sly is asked (Taming of the Shrew, Introduction, sc. 2, l. 41, vol. iii. p. 10),—
“Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark.”
And Petruchio, after the supper scene, when he had thrown about the meat and beaten the servants, quietly congratulates himself on having “politicly began his reign” (act iv. sc. 1, l. 174, vol. iii. p. 67),—