There was no reason for disturbing the etymology of this word given by Dr. Warburton, by substituting that of Dame Juliana Bernes, which for ingenuity and veracity may be well classed with many of those in _Isidore of Seville_, or _The golden legend_. Take an example from the latter. "Felix is sayd of _fero fers_, that is to saye, to bere, and of this word _lis_, _litis_, whiche is as moche to say as stryfe, for he bare stryfe for the fayth of our lorde." Turberville tells us that "the first name and terme that they bestowe on a falcon is an _eyesse_, and this name doth laste as long as she is in the eyrie and for that she is taken from the _eyrie_." This is almost as bad as the lady abbess's account. _Eyrie_ is simply the nest or _eggery_, and has no connexion with the name of the bird. _Eyas_ or _nias_, is a term borrowed from the French _niais_, which means any young bird in the nest, _avis in nido_. It is the first of five several names by which a falcon is called during its first year. The best account of this bird is in _La fauconnerie de Charles d'Arcussa de Capre, seigneur d'Esparron_, 1643, 4to. A _musket_ is a sparrow-hawk, and is derived from the French _mouchet_, and the latter probably from _musca_, on account of its diminutive form. The humour therefore lies in comparing the page to a young male sparrow-hawk, an emblem of his tender years and activity. ACT IV. SCENE 2. Page 448. MRS. FORD. ... and her _muffler_ too. It would oppress the reader by citing authorities to prove that the muffler was a contrivance of various kinds to conceal a part of the face, and that even a _mask_ was occasionally so denominated. From an examination of several ancient prints and paintings, it appears that when the muffler was made of linen, it only covered the lower part of the face; such it was in the present instance, for the old woman of Brentford would not want to conceal her eyes. It is otherwise in _King Henry V._ Act III. Scene 1, where Fortune's _blindness_ is described, and there a linen bandage would be meant, but perhaps not very correctly called a muffler. The term is connected with the old French _musser_ or _muçer_, to hide, or with _amuseler_, to cover the _museau_ or _mufle_, a word which has been indiscriminately used for the mouth, nose, and even the whole of the face; hence our _muzzle_. It was enacted by a Scotish statute in 1457, that "na woman cum to kirk, nor mercat, with her face _mussaled_ or covered that scho may not be kend." Notwithstanding this interposition of the legislature, says Mr. Warton, the ladies of Scotland continued _muzzled_ during three reigns; and he cites Sir David Lyndsay's poem _In contemptioun of syde taillis_, in which the author advises the king to issue a proclamation that the women should show their faces as they did in France. _Hist. of Eng. poetry_, ii. 324.