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"If I do prove her haggard": Shakespeare's Application of Hawking Tropes to Marriage

"If I do prove her haggard": Shakespeare's Application of Hawking Tropes to Marriage by Sean Benson ITH the publication of Every Man in His Humor in 1598, Ben Jonson took aim at what was for him a risible displacement of classical philology by the newfangled lexicons of sport. Mr. Stephen, Jonson's ``country gull,'' insists that a gentleman must be able to speak the ``hawking language'':1 ``an' a man have not skill in the hawking- and hunting-languages nowadays, I'll not give a rush for him. They are more studied than the Greek or the Latin. He is for no gallants' company without 'em. . . . 'Slid, a gentleman mun show himself like a gentleman.'' 2 As fashionable as such language was at the turn of the century, Constance Hieatt has demonstrated that falconry terms have traditionally constituted a word-stock for analogies between birds and humans.3 Typical is Spenser's description of Maleger, who in battle ``lightly leapt areare: / Eft fierce returning, as a Faulcon faire / . . . . Remounts againe into the open aire.'' 4 While Maurice Pope situates Shakespeare firmly within this analogic tradition, he also points to Shakespeare's uniqueness: none of Shakespeare's contemporaries refers to hawks as frequently or as unerringly as he does, suggesting to Pope, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Studies in Philology University of North Carolina Press

"If I do prove her haggard": Shakespeare's Application of Hawking Tropes to Marriage

Benson, Sean
Studies in Philology , Volume 103 (2) – Jun 4, 2006
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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by The University of North Carolina Press.
ISSN
1543-0383
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Abstract

by Sean Benson ITH the publication of Every Man in His Humor in 1598, Ben Jonson took aim at what was for him a risible displacement of classical philology by the newfangled lexicons of sport. Mr. Stephen, Jonson's ``country gull,'' insists that a gentleman must be able to speak the ``hawking language'':1 ``an' a man have not skill in the hawking- and hunting-languages nowadays, I'll not give a rush for him. They are more studied than the Greek or the Latin. He is for no gallants' company without 'em. . . . 'Slid, a gentleman mun show himself like a gentleman.'' 2 As fashionable as such language was at the turn of the century, Constance Hieatt has demonstrated that falconry terms have traditionally constituted a word-stock for analogies between birds and humans.3 Typical is Spenser's description of Maleger, who in battle ``lightly leapt areare: / Eft fierce returning, as a Faulcon faire / . . . . Remounts againe into the open aire.'' 4 While Maurice Pope situates Shakespeare firmly within this analogic tradition, he also points to Shakespeare's uniqueness: none of Shakespeare's contemporaries refers to hawks as frequently or as unerringly as he does, suggesting to Pope,

Journal

Studies in Philology – University of North Carolina Press

Published: Jun 4, 2006

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