Some of her feathers; but she brake away."[270:A]
To hawking and the language of falconry, Shakspeare, as we have previously observed, has frequently had recourse, and he has selected the terms with his wonted propriety and effect; of this five or six instances will be adequate proof. Othello, in allusion to Desdemona, exclaims:
————— "If I do prove her haggard,
Though that jesses were my dear heart-strings,
I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind,
To prey at fortune."[270:B]
A haggard is a species of hawk wild and difficult to be reclaimed, and which, if not well trained, flies indiscriminately at every bird; a fault to which Shakspeare again refers in his Twelfth Night, where Viola tells the Clown that
"He must observe their mood on whom he jests—
And, like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye."[270:C]