The Elizabethan sport of Hawking, or Falconry, was one of their favorite forms of Hunting. Queen Elizabeth herself loved to hunt and this included the sport of Hawking, or Falconry which was referred to as the sport of royalty.
It was called a royal sport primarily because the Lower Class Elizabethans could not easily afford to train the birds. Elizabethan Sports Elizabethan Era Index Falconry provided an opportunity for kings and lords to host other nobles for grand hunting parties.
Hawks were the most popular choice for hunting birds. Description of Elizabethan Hawking, or Falconry Hawking or Falconry is the ancient sport of hunting small wild game or birds with trained birds of prey. The trained birds of prey are not restricted to falcons - hawks and rarely eagles were also used. The birds were taken when young from their nests to start their training.
They were subjected to a rigorous course of training by a Falconer. The Falconer was extremely important as hunting birds require considerable human contact and attention on a daily basis, or they will quickly grow wild and therefore unreliable.
The Falconer trained the hunting bird to fly, when released, at their quarry. It was essential that the hunting bird's talons were well placed in the prey before it landed.
Falconry was expensive. The birds required special housing, which consisted of cages known as mews. The "assay," which followed next in order, is thus described in The Noble Art of Venery : "Our order is that the prince or chief if so please them do augur and take assay of the deer with a sharp knife, the which is done in this manner: The deer being laid upon his back, the prince, chief, or such as they shall appoint, comes to it; and the chief huntsman kneeling, if it be a prince , doth hold the deer by the fore foot, whiles the prince or chief cut a slit drawn alongst the brisket of the deer, somewhat lower than the brisket towards the belly.
This is done to see the goodness of the flesh, and how thick it is. Cows and sheep may be slaughtered by common butchers, but what is killed in hunting must be broke up by none under a gentleman, who shall throw down his hat, fall devoutly on his knees, and drawing out a slashing hanger for a common knife is not good enough after several ceremonies shall dissect all the parts as artificially as the best skilled anatomist, while all that stand round shall look very intently, and seem to be mightily surprised with the novelty, though they have seen the same an hundred times before, and he that can but dip his finger and taste of the blood shall think his own bettered thereby.
The custom mentioned in the last line is also referred to by Shakespeare in the following words: "And here thy hunters stand, Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe. Madden says: "Lethe is a term used by hunters to signify the blood shed by a deer at its fall, with which it is still a custom to mark those who come in at the death.
It was necessary, both for the purpose of effective hunting, and in order that the sound of the pack be harmonious at a distance, that the hounds, while running, keep close together.
A hound who was guilty of running ahead of the pack "overtopped" the rest. Though it has long been known that the prevention of this habit was performed by "trashing," the exact nature of the cure was not so plain. One way was to impede the hound by hanging "clogs," or weights, about his neck. Madden's note, however, throws much additional light on the subject. He says in substance as follows. It [trash] is used as a substantive by Gervase Markham in his Country Contentments. He mentions trashes with couples, liams, collars, etc.
Madden quotes from an earlier writer to the following effect: "A hound that runs too fast for the rest ought not to be kept. Some huntsmen load them with heavy collars; some tie a long strap round their necks; a better way would be to part with them. Madden continues in his own words: "However the trash may have been applied, it clearly appears, from Beckford's words, to have consisted of a long strap, kept by the huntsman, according to Markham, with collars, liams, and other articles of the same kind.
When the hound was running, this long strap, dragged along the ground, handicapped the overtopping hound. It is interesting to note further how the sport of hunting flavours the language of Shakespeare. To give a complete list of references would fill many pages; but the following, chosen at random, are sufficient to illustrate the point:. O world, thou wast the forest to this hart; And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, strucken by many princes, Dost thou here lie. A cry more tunable Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn.
The Horse. The country roads were then so bad as to be quite unfit for the rapid movement of any sort of wheeled vehicle. People travelled in the saddle; or on the pillion; and most of the transport of goods was done by pack-horse. The best horses of Tudor times were far different from the thoroughbred of to-day, an animal that derives his best blood from the Arabian breed, which was not seen in England before , the year of Shakespeare's death.
Though Gervase Markham asserts that "the true bred English horse, him I mean that is bred under a good clime, on firm ground, in a pure temperature, is of tall stature, and large proportions," it is true that most of the native breed had degenerated in size to such an extent that they were little better than ponies. Little, however, was accomplished towards improving the breed, either by statute or by public agitation. Madden, "to the noblemen and gentlemen of England to turn their enclosures into practical use in improving the breed of horses, and the statutes which I have quoted, lead to the conclusion that horse breeding in England was in his time generally conducted after the haphazard fashion still in use in open and unenclosed countries.
It is interesting to note that the quack physiological beliefs of the time were held to be as true of horses as of human beings. For if he hath more of the earth than of any of the rest, he is melancholy, heavy and faint-hearted, and of colour a black, a russet, or a bright or dark dun.
But if he hath more of the water then is he phlegmatic, slow, dull, and apt to lose flesh, and of colour most commonly a milk white.
If of the air, then is he sanguine, and therefore pleasant, nimble, and is of colour commonly a bay. And if of the fire, then is he choleric, and therefore light, hot, fiery, a stirrer, and seldom of any great strength, and is wont to be of colour a light sorrel.
Another detail in the selection of a horse is of interest because it affords an explanation of several passages in contemporary dramatic literature that have been occasionally misunderstood. It was considered not only an ill omen for a horse to have no white upon its body, but "it is an excellent good mark also for a horse to have a white star in his forehead.
The horse that hath no white at all upon him is furious, dogged, full of mischief and misfortune. The usual expression used to describe a horse that had no white spot in his forehead was "a horse with a cloud in his face. Of the horses exposed for sale in Smithfield Market, the place of first importance should be given to the "great horse" or "horse of service.
The High Almaine or German horse was, perhaps, the most highly prized breed for this purpose. He was strongly made, according to Blundeville, "and therefore more meet for the shock than to pass a carrierre, or to make a swift manage, because they be very gross and heavy. The mares also of Flanders be of a great stature, strong, long, large, fair, and fruitful, and beside that will endure great labour.
The horse of next importance was the roadster. The proper animal for the purpose in those days was not a trotter, but an ambler. When a horse was taught to amble his legs were geared together by means of trammels. Some horses were hard to train; others, by nature, learned the pace with great ease. Notable in this respect was the Irish hobby, which was, therefore, the most popular riding horse.
The foot-cloth horse was a staid trotting horse used for show. He was so called from the long, ornamental hanging, called a foot-cloth, that was always used as a decoration on state occasions. A dignified mount for a venerable person in civil life was a mule. It was thus Lord Burghley took his daily exercise, riding about his private grounds.
Such an animal, we learn from Shakespeare, was, upon state occasions, also dignified with the covering of a foot-cloth. Hast thou not kiss'd thy hand and held my stirrup? Bare headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule And thought thee happy when I shook my head.
The horses most frequently used in hunting and hawking were the tiny native breed. His pace was neither to trot nor amble, but a fast walk known as a foot-pace. Of races and race-horses nothing need be said beyond the fact that, though horses were often matched in speed against each other, and though there were a few great races every year, as that at the Cotswold games, there was no special breed of horses for the sport.
In fact, racing in Tudor times was so occasional as scarcely to merit consideration. The Elizabethan trained his horse, especially the horse of service, with the greatest care. First, the horse was paced, that is, taught to amble. The limit of the present work precludes a more detailed reference to the art of horsemanship and of farriery, arts, however, that were so intimately associated with the daily life of the Elizabethans that references to them are found continually in the dramatic literature of the time.
The reader who would follow the matter further will find a chapter titled "The Horse in Shakespeare" in Mr. Madden's The Diary of Master William Silence , where are gathered together all the poet's allusions to the horse.
The best source, however, is the contemporary treatises. He found it difficult to deal with Queen Elizabeth as his letters and other records show , and equally with his own wife In works included by Strype at the end of his biography, Smith uses hawk metaphors twice. Great post.
According to the Book of St. Albans, the Laws of Ownership did not restrict falconry only to the nobility.
Albans as unreliable. Hunting would certainly have been restricted by the size of the falcon allowed; female peregrines, the largest and strongest falcons and so able to capture the largest birds and animals, were reserved for male members of the upper nobility.
Whether or not a person used the bird allowed for his or her social level, the care and feeding of such birds would have restricted it to those who could afford it. In any case, the point of this essay is that Sir Thomas Smith left records showing that he enjoyed falconry; Oxford spent 8 of his growing years with Smith; Shakespeare was knowlegable about falconry; ergo to wit.
You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Skip to content Shakespeare, Smith, and hawking Shakespeare loved birds. Smith and hawking From age four to eight or nine, Edward de Vere lived with Sir Thomas Smith in his manor Ankerwycke on the bank of the Thames, across from the vast wetlands or water meadow known as Runnymede.
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