The beauty of the following passage, from its being clothed in technicalities, will be likely to escape the notice of those who are not conversant with hawking phraseology; but an acquaintance with the terms employed will elicit admiration at the force and beauty of the metaphor.
Othello, mistrusting the constancy of Desdemona towards him, and comparing her to a hawk, exclaims:—
“If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I’d whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune.”
Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3.
By “haggard” is meant a wild-caught and unreclaimed mature hawk, as distinguished from an “eyess,” or nestling; that is, a young hawk taken from the “eyrie” or nest.
“There is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out.”
Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2.