“Many falcons the falconer carries so proud Through every place he makes them pass free; And says to men sorrowing and of low degree, Noble is he, who with virtue’s endowed.” Falconers form part of the retinue of the drama (_2 Henry VI._, act ii. sc. 1, l. 1, vol. v. p. 132), and the dialogue at St. Albans even illustrates the expression, “Nobil’ è quel, ch’ è di virtù dotato,”— “_Q. Marg._ Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook, I saw not better sport these seven years’ day: Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high; And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out. _K. Henry._ But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, And what a pitch she flew above the rest! To see how God in all his creatures works! Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. _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),— “My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged; 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 That bate and beat and will not be obedient.” Touchstone, too, in _As You Like It_ (act iii. sc. 3, 1. 67, vol. ii. p. 427), hooking several comparisons together, introduces hawking among them: “As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons bill, so wedlock will be nibbling.” Also in _Macbeth_ (act ii. sc. 4, l. 10, vol. vii. p. 459), after “hours dreadful and things strange,” so “that darkness does the face of earth entomb, when living light should kiss it,” the Old Man declares,— “’Tis unnatural. Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last A falcon towering in her pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d.”