Falconry Falconry Author Camryn Watts Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globalink Research Internship Utah Valley University

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Camryn Watts, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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History of the Sport of Falconry

Hawking and falconry date to around 2,000 BC in the ancient Near East. Hittites and Egyptians used birds of prey to hunt food in places or seasons when food was more difficult to obtain. Hawks and falcons catch prey faster and at a farther distance than a person can by using an arrow or spear. Many cultures developed a tradition of falconry, which requires intensive training of the animal by a skilled falconer and is thus often associated with higher-status individuals. Falcons and hawks were used widely in Europe from the early Middle Ages onward, with the sport eventually falling under the Laws of Ownership that regulated the kinds of birds that could be flown by people according to their rank. In early modern England, falconry books relied on this sport’s long history of association with elite classes while using strongly gendered language to enforce hierarchy.

A title page reading: The book of falconry or hawking. Below the title is an image depicting three men standing in a slightly wooded area. The central man holds a bird of prey in a falconry hood on his arm. Three dogs sniff at their feet. George Turberville’s 1575 book shows the popularity of falconry in early modern England. Courtesty of Folger Shakespeare Library. Public Domain.
Shakespeare’s Inclusion of Birds

Falconry occurs in many of Shakespeare’s plays, which may be due to his family’s connections to birds. His father, John Shakespeare, had applied for a coat of arms in the 1570s, which was finally approved in 1596. In the grant document submitted by John Shakespeare. the family’s crest is described as having a falcon his wings displayed argent silver, standing on a wreath of his colours supporting a spear. Falconry was an elite sport practiced by the nobility, so it was a stretch for the Shakespeares, who were firmly in the middle ranks of English society, to employ this animal on their coat of arms. Falcons appear more often than other birds in Shakespeare’s writing and they are mentioned with more accuracy and variety. Shakespeare also grew up in a mostly rural environment in central England, far from the nation’s capital of London. He may have witnessed elite families from the area’s manors and estates practicing hawking and falconry as a sport.

Shakespeare’s Use of Falconry and Hawking
The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew uses some notorious falconry images as it explores how Petruchio can tame Katerina. Shakespeare uses the language of masculine dominance to show how a man might train and subdue a woman the same way a falconer trains a bird. Petruchio speaks of his wife as under his possession, which legally she was according to English law. He asserts she is metaphorically a falcon and that she belongs to him like a sporting bird belongs to its owner. Petruchio says he can use hunger to control her: My falcon now is sharp and passing empty, And till she stoop fly to the lure, she must not be full-gorg’d, For then she never looks upon her lure. Another way I have to man manage my haggard a wild-born hawk, To make her come, and know her keeper’s call.(4.1.190–94)

But Petruchio’s debatable success in teaching Katerina how to behave contrasts with Hortensio’s failure to teach her sister Bianca similarly acceptable feminine behaviors. He calls Bianca this proud disdainful haggard (4.2.39); haggard was another term for falcon.

In the 1611 sequel to Shakespeare’s play, John Fletcher’s comedy, The Woman’s Prize, or The Tamer Tamed, the newly married Maria proclaims herself a free haggard to Petruchio (1.2.150), reinforcing the dominance motif.

Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet, both the title characters use a falconry metaphor. Reversing the gender dynamic found in The Taming of the Shrew, Juliet wishes she could call Romeo to her like a falconer calls their bird. She proclaims, O for a falconer’s voice / To lure this tassel-gentle back again (2.2.158–59). Yet Juliet also compares herself to an untamed hawk, waiting for Romeo to man manage her, using the hood of night: Hood cover my unmanned blood, bating beating like wings in my cheeks, With thy night’s black mantle, till strange love grow bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. (3.2.14–16)

Later, Romeo casts himself as a bird fleeing: Flies may do this touch Juliet’s lips but I from this must fly (3.3.41).

Shakespeare may have incorporated falconry and hawking into his plays to provide another metaphor of sexual conquest to audiences, conveying clear messages about the gendery dynamics of dominance and submission that would have been familiar to many of the period.

Key Print Sources Benson, Sean. <quote>If I Do Prove Her Haggard</quote>: Shakespeare’s Application of Hawking Tropes to Marriage. Studies in Philology, vol. 103, no. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 186–207. Brown, Carolyn E. Juliet’s Taming of Romeo. Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900, vol. 36, no. 2, Mar. 1996, p. 333. Canby, Jeanny Vorys. Falconry (Hawking) in Hittite Lands. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 61, no. 3, Jul. 2002, p. 161.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Falconry and hawking. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/society/husbandry/hawking.html. Accessed 6 Nov. 2023. Raptor Force. Nature. PBS.org, 4 Jun. 2008. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/raptor-force-history-of-falconry/1108/. Shakespeare Coat of Arms. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/william-shakespeare/shakespeare-coat-arms/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2023. Turberville, George. The Book of Falconry and Hawking. London, 1611. Boston Public Library, https://archive.org/details/bookeoffalconrie00turb/page/n7/mode/2up.
Image Sources Turberville, George. Title page from The book of falconry or hawking. Christopher Barker, 1575. Folger Shakespeare Library. https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/img17929.