"As the ox hath his bow,* sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires."-As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 3.

So in Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 1—

"Nor he that loves him best,

The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,

Dares stir a wing, if Warwick shake his bells."

Again

"Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells

With trembling fear, as fowl hears falcon's bells."

The "hood," too, was a necessary appendage to the

trained falcon. This was

a cap or cover for the head,

which was not removed until the "quarry" was started, in

order to prevent the hawk from flying too soon.

* His "bow," that is, his "yoke." Some editions read "low;" an evident mistake.

The Constable of France, speaking of the valour of the

Dauphin, says :

"'Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears it will bate." Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 7.

The allusion is to the ordinary action of a hawk, which, when unhooded, bates, or flutters. But a quibble may be here intended between "bate," the hawking technical, and "bate," to dwindle or abate. The word occurs again in Romeo and Juliet (Act iii. Sc. 2)—

"Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks."

And to those not conversant with the terms employed in falconry, this line would be unintelligible. An "unmanned" hawk was one not sufficiently reclaimed to be familiar with her keeper, and such birds generally "bated," that is, fluttered or beat their wings violently in their efforts to escape.

Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, gives us a lesson in reclaiming a hawk when speaking thus of Catherine:

"My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty,
And, till she stoop, she must not be full-gorg'd,
For then she never looks upon her lure.
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come, and know her keeper's call,
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites

THE CADGE.

That bate, and beat, and will not be obedient.
She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat;

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Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not."
Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 1.

The word "stoop," sometimes written "stoup" (Spenser's
"Faerie Queene," Book I. Canto XI. 18), and "swoop'
(Macbeth, "at one fell swoop"), signifies a rapid descent
on the "
quarry." It occurs again in Henry V. Act iv.
Sc. I :-

"And though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing."

The hawks, when carried to the field, were borne on "the cadge," as shown in the engraving; the person

carrying it being called "the cadger." The modern word "cad," now generally used in an opprobrious sense, is in all probability an abbreviation of "cadger," and therefore synonymous with "servant" or common fellow. Florizel, addressing Perdita, in the Winter's Tale (Act iv. Sc. 3), says,—

"I bless the time

When my good falcon made her flight across
Thy father's ground;"

for this was the occasion of his first meeting her.

In the following passage from Measure for Measure, (Act iii. Sc. 1), there occurs a word in connection with falconry, which requires some explanation,

"This outward-sainted deputy,

Whose settled visage and deliberate word

Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth enmew

As falcon doth the fowl."

The verb "to mew," or "enmew," signifies to enclose or

shut up, owing its origin to the word "mews," the place where the hawks were confined :

:

"To-night she's mew'd up."

Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. Sc. 4.

Gremio, speaking of Bianca to Signor Baptista, says,—

Why, will you mew her?"

Taming of the Shrew, Act i. Sc. 1.

A question presently solved by Tranio, who says:-

"And therefore has he closely mew'd her up,

Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors."

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The word " mew," derived from the old French " mue," signifies a change, or moult, when birds and other animals cast their feathers, hair, or horns. Hence Latham observes that "the mew is that place, whether it be abroad or in the house, where you set down your hawk during the time she raiseth or reproduceth her feathers."

It was necessary to take great care of a hawk in her mewing time. In "The Gentleman's Academie,” edited by Gervase Markham, 1595, there are several sections on the mewing of hawks, from one of which it may be learnt that the best time to commence is in the beginning of Lent; and if well kept, the bird will be mewed, that is, moulted, by the beginning of August.

"Forthcoming from her darksome mew."

Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto v. 20.

The Royal hawks were kept at the mews at Charing Cross during many reigns (according to Stowe, from the time of Richard II., in 1377), but they were removed by Henry VIII., who converted the place into stables. The name, however, confirmed by the usage of so long a period, remained to the building, although, after the hawks were

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