FOOTNOTES:
[1] Legende of Goode Women, Prologue, 30.
Again he declares:
[2] Prologue, 9.
[3] Parlement of Foules, 190.
[4] The Flower and the Leaf, 34. Even if this poem be held not to have come from the pen of Chaucer, it shows that he was not alone at an early time in his enthusiasm for birds and their song.
[5] Much Ado about Nothing, II. i. 197.
[6] 3 Henry VI. II. ii. 26.
[7] Titus Andronicus, II. i. 93.
[8] Macbeth, IV. ii. 34.
[9] 2 Henry VI. I. iii. 86.
[10] Hamlet, III. iii. 67.
[11] 3 Henry VI. V. vi. 13.
[12] Lucrece, 87.
[13] Venus and Adonis, 601, 604.
[14] Ib. 67.
[15] Lucrece, 457.
[16] 3 Henry VI. IV. vi. 10.
[17] King Lear, V. iii. 8.
[18] II. i. 31.
[19] IV. iii. 103.
[20] II. v. 1.
[21] V. iii. 17.
[22] II. i. 15.
[23] II. i. 22.
[24] II. i. 46. The dramatist may perhaps have been thinking of this scene when he afterwards put into Hamlet’s mouth a reiteration of the same view of the indifference of the crowd:
[25] Venus and Adonis, 680.
[26] Ib. 697.
[27] III. i. 80.
[28] King Lear, IV. i. 37.
[29] Titus Andronicus, V. i. 141.
[30] Venus and Adonis, 316.
[31] Titus Andronicus, III. ii. 52.
[32] 2 Henry IV. IV. iv. 91.
[33] Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 12.
[34] Passionate Pilgrim, xxi.
[35] Ibid. xx.
[36] Sonnet, lxxiii.
[37] Love’s Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 908.
[38] Titus Andronicus, V. iii. 68.
[39] Venus and Adonis, 431.
[40] Lucrece, 869.
[41] Henry V. I. i. 60.
[42] Passionate Pilgrim, xxi.
[43] Lucrece, 1107-1125.
[44] Phoenix and Turtle, 9.
[45] Chaucer places at the head of his large company of feathered creatures “the royal egle that with his sharpe look perceth the Sonne,” Parlement of Foules, 330.
[46] Richard II. III. iii. 68.
[47] 3 Henry VI. II. i. 91.
[48] IV. iii. 327.
[49] IV. iii. 222.
[50] Timon of Athens, IV. iii. 222.
[51] Coriolanus, III. i. 136.
[52] Troilus and Cressida, I. ii. 235.
[53] Richard III. I. iii. 70.
[54] Ib. I. i. 132.
[55] Henry V. I. ii. 169.
[56] Cymbeline, III. iii. 19.
[57] Timon of Athens, I. i. 51.
[58] Titus Andronicus, IV. iv. 83.
[59] Venus and Adonis, 55.
[60] 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 320.
[61] Taming of the Shrew, IV. i. 172.
[62] Romeo and Juliet, II. ii. 158. The tassel-gentle or tercel-gentle was the male gos-hawk, much used in falconry.
[63] 2 Henry VI. II. i. 1-46.
[64] Chaucer alludes to
[65] Macbeth, II. iv. 12.
[66] Richard II. I. iii. 61.
[67] Lucrece, 506.
[68] II. v. 102.
[69] Merry Wives of Windsor, III. iii. 18. Musket or Musquet-hawk was an old name for the cock Sparrow-hawk, and ‘eyas’ meant a fledgling.
Before passing from the subject of hawks and hawking, I should state that the sport is not yet wholly extinct in this country, and that we have at least two extant memorials of the time when it was a favourite pastime here. There is still among our King’s Court officials a Hereditary Grand Falconer, the office being held in the family of the Duke of St. Albans. In old times, and for many generations, the royal stud of hawks was kept at Charing Cross in buildings that were known as The Mews. In the reign of Henry VIII. these mews were turned into stables for horses, but the time-honoured name still clung to them. It became customary to call by this name lanes flanked with stables, and this practice has continued down to our own day. When we speak of “mews,” however, it is always horses and never hawks that come into our minds.
[70] Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 206.
[71] Dictionary of Birds, p. 67.
[72] 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 191. Chaucer refers to “the coward Kyte.”
[73] III. i. 248.
[74] II. iii. 184.
[75] Julius Caesar, V. i. 84.
[76] 2 Henry VI. V. ii. 9.
[77] Winter’s Tale, IV. iii. 23.
[78] Lear I. iv. 262.
[79] Coriolanus, IV. vii. 33.
[80] Macbeth, IV. iii. 73.
[81] Venus and Adonis, 551; Lucrece, 556.
[82] 1 Henry VI. IV. iii. 47.
[83] Lear, II. iv. 132.
[84] 2 Henry IV. II. iv. 249.
[85] As You Like It, IV. i. 134.
[86] Merchant of Venice, I. i. 52.
[87] Othello, II. iii. 270.
[88] 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 95.
[89] 1 Henry IV. I. iii. 33-52.
[90] 1 Henry IV. IV. i. 97.
[91] 2 Henry VI. IV. x. 27.
[92] Richard II. II. i. 38. Love’s Labour’s Lost, I. i. 4. Coriolanus, I. i. 119. Troilus and Cressida, II. ii. 6.
[93] Hamlet, IV. v. 142.
[94] Lear, III. iv. 71.
[95] Macbeth, V. iii. 11.
[96] IV. vi. 17.
[97] II. iii. 82.
[98] Thus in the song of the “Ewie wi’ the crooked horn” the knave that did the mischief is thus maledicted:
[99] Hamlet, IV. v. 40.
[100] Venus and Adonis, 529.
[101] 2 Henry VI. I. iv. 16.
[102] Love’s Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 899.
[103] 3 Henry VI. II. i. 130.
[104] Macbeth, II. iv. 13.
[105] Macbeth, II. ii. 2-4.
[106] Ibid. II. iii. 57.
[107] Julius Caesar, I. iii. 26.
[108] Richard II. III. iii. 182.
[109] Midsummer Night’s Dream, V. i. 364. Chaucer refers to “The oule that of dethe the bode bringeth.” Parlement, 343.
[110] Henry VI. V. vi. 44.
[111] Macbeth, IV. i. 17.
[112] Tempest, V. i. 88.
[113] Midsummer Night’s Dream, II. ii. 5.
[114] II. ii. 188.
[115] V. ii. 881.
[116] Merchant of Venice, V. i. 110.
[117] 1 Henry IV. III. ii. 75.
[118] Anthony and Cleopatra, II. vi. 28.
[119] Lucrece, 848.
[120] 1 Henry IV. II. iv. 343.
[121] 3 Henry VI. I. iv. 61.
[122] Hamlet, I. iii. 115.
[123] Twelfth Night, II. v. 77.
[124] Winter’s Tale, IV. iv. 727.
[125] Much Ado about Nothing, II. i. 128.
[126] Othello, I. iii. 379. In Shakespeare’s time the bird was also called snite, under which form it is referred to by his contemporary poet, Drayton, who speaks of
The use of the word “snipe” as a disparaging epithet for an individual is not yet extinct in the north.
[127] Antony and Cleopatra, II. iii. 34.
[128] Troilus and Cressida, V. i. 48.
[129] Comedy of Errors, IV. ii. 27. It was this instinct of deception that Chaucer had in mind when he wrote of “the false lapwing ful of trecherye.” Parlement, 347.
[130] Much Ado about Nothing, III. i. 23.
[131] Measure for Measure, I. iv. 31.
[132] 1 Henry IV. II. ii. 95.
[133] Antony and Cleopatra, III. x. 19.
[134] Venus and Adonis, 85.
[135] Sonnets, CXXVII.
[136] Romeo and Juliet, III. ii. 17.
[137] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, II. ii. 113.
[138] King John, IV. iii. 152.
[139] Twelfth Night, V. i. 125.
[140] Romeo and Juliet, III. ii. 75.
[141] Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 153.
[142] As You Like It, II. iii. 43.
[143] Othello, IV. i. 20.
[144] Macbeth, I. v. 35.
[145] Macbeth, III. ii. 50.
[146] Sonnet, lxx.
[147] Romeo and Juliet, I. v. 45.
[148] Lucrece, 1009.
[149] Romeo and Juliet, I. ii. 86.
[150] King Lear, IV. vi. 11.
[151] Ibid. 58.
[152] Hamlet, V. ii. 85.
[153] Tempest, II. i. 254. Chaucer’s epithet for the Chough was “the theef.”
[154] All’s Well that Ends Well, IV. i. 19.
[155] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, III. ii. 19. The chough, by association with man, may become a companionable creature. At Ardkinglas, Loch Fyne, Lady Noble has kept for some years a couple of choughs, brought from Ireland, which are at liberty to fly about the woods and hills, but come back to the mansion house for food and attend their mistress or her guests along the pathways. They even come into the house and perch on the hand of any one who has the courage to invite them.
[156] Macbeth, III. iv. 123.
[157] 1 Henry IV. I. iii. 221.
[158] 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 16.
[159] 3 Henry VI. V. vi. 46. Chaucer’s epithet for this bird was “the jangling pye.”
[160] Tempest, II. ii. 158.
[161] Merry Wives, III. iii. 34.
[162] Cymbeline, III. iv. 47.
[163] Taming of the Shrew, IV. iii. 165.
[164] 1 Henry IV. II. i. 15. Chaucer’s reference to the bird is “The cok, that orloge is of thorpes lyte.” Parlement, 350.
[165] Romeo and Juliet, IV. iv. 3.
[166] Tempest, I. ii. 384.
[167] Hamlet, I. i. 147-164.
[168] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, III. ii. 20.
[169] King Lear, II. iv. 45.
[170] As You Like It, II. vii. 86.
[171] Romeo and Juliet, II. iv. 69.
[172] Cymbeline, III. iv. 138.
[173] 1 Henry IV. V. iii. 56.
[174] Titus Andronicus, IV. ii. 101.
[175] Antony and Cleopatra, III. ii. 48.
[176] 3 Henry VI. I. iv. 19.
[177] Lucrece, 1611. Chaucer had already chronicled “the jalous swan, ayens his deth that singeth.” Parlement of Foules, 342.
[178] King John, V. vii. 20.
[179] Othello, V. ii. 249.
[180] Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 43.
[181] V. i. 14.
[182] Twelfth Night, II. v. 28.
[183] 1 Henry IV. II. i. 25.
[184] 1 Henry VI. III. iii. 5. Chaucer refers to
[185] Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 244.
[186] King Henry V. IV. i. 195.
[187] Comedy of Errors, IV. iii. 74.
[188] Venus and Adonis, 1190.
[189] Merchant of Venice, II. vi. 5.
[190] 2 Henry IV. V. i. 25.
[191] Merchant of Venice, II. ii. 123.
[192] 3 Henry VI. II. ii. 17.
[193] Antony and Cleopatra, III. xiii. 196.
[194] 3 Henry VI. I. iv. 40.
[195] Chaucer’s phrase is:
The wedded turtel, with hir herte trewe. Parlement, 355.
It was the moaning croon of the bird from the high elms that dwelt in Virgil’s memory.
[196] 1 Henry VI. II. ii. 30.
[197] IV. iv. 154.
[198] Love’s Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 315.
[199] Hamlet, II. ii. 572.
[200] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, III. i. 114.
[201] Venus and Adonis, 853.
[202] Troilus and Cressida, IV. ii. 8.
[203] II. iii. 19.
[204] Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 1-32.
[205] 2 Henry IV. III. ii. 7. I have heard in East Lothian a remarkably dark-complexioned child called “a blacket ouzel.”
[206] Winter’s Tale, IV. iii. 9.
[207] Macbeth, IV. ii. 8.
[208] Cymbeline, IV. ii. 304.
[209] Merchant of Venice, V. i. 104.
[210] 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 42.
[211] King Lear, II. ii. 59.
[212] II. v. 5.
[213] Cymbeline, IV. ii. 219. Chaucer speaks of “the tame ruddock.”
[214] Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. i. 16.
[215] 1 Henry IV. III. i. 260.
[216] King Lear, I. iv. 214.
[217] Troilus and Cressida, V. i. 34.
[218] Hamlet, V. ii. 212.
[219] As You Like It, II. iii. 44.
[220] Tempest, IV. i. 99.
[221] Troilus and Cressida, II. i. 67.
[222] Chaucer regarded this bird from another point of view:—
[223] Richard III. V. ii. 23.
[224] Titus Andronicus, II. ii. 23.
[225] 2 Henry IV. IV. iii. 31.
[226] Winter’s Tale, IV. iv. 118.
[227] Timon of Athens, III. vi. 29.
[228] Merchant of Venice, II. ix. 28.
[229] Macbeth, I. vi. 3.
[230] Passionate Pilgrim, xxi.
[231] Lucrece, 1079.
[232] Sonnet, cii.
[233] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, II. ii. 13.
[234] Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. i. 178, V. iv. 1.
[235] Taming of the Shrew, Induction, Scene ii. 33.
[236] Midsummer-Night’s Dream, I. ii. 72.
[237] Merchant of Venice, V. i. 102.