tes to Macbeth." Clark and Wright,
p. 77. It denotes the square-headed bolt of a cross-bow; see
Douce's "Illustrations," 1839, p. 227; Nares's "Glossary," vol.
ii. p. 206.

Another term in falconry is "stoop," or "swoop," denoting the hawk's
violent descent from a height upon its prey. In "Taming of the Shrew"
(iv. 1) the expression occurs, "till she stoop, she must not be
full-gorged." In "Henry V." (iv. 1), King Henry, speaking of the king,
says, "though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when
they stoop, they stoop with the like wing." In "Macbeth" (iv. 3), too,
Macduff, referring to the cruel murder of his children, exclaims, "What!
... at one fell swoop?"[232] Webster, in the "White Devil,"[233] says:

"If she [_i. e._, Fortune] give aught, she deals it in small parcels,
That she may take away all at one swoop."

[232] See Spenser's "Fairy Queen," book i. canto xi. l. 18:

"Low stooping with unwieldy sway."

[233] Ed. Dyce, 1857, p. 5.

Shakespeare gives many incidental allusions to the hawk's trappings.
Thus, in "Lucrece" he says:

"Harmless Lucretia, marking what he tells
With trembling fear, as fowl hear falcon's bells."

And in "As You Like It" (iii. 3),[234] Touchstone says, "As the ox hath
his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and the falcon her bells, so man hath
his desires." The object of these bells was to lead the falconer to the
hawk when in a wood or out of sight. In Heywood's play entitled "A Woman
Killed with Kindness," 1617, is a hawking scene, containing a striking
allusion to the hawk's bells. The dress of the hawk consisted of a
close-fitting hood of leather or velvet, enriched with needlework, and
surmounted with a tuft of colored feathers, for use as well as ornament,
inasmuch as they assisted the hand in removing the hood when the birds
for the hawk's attack came in sight. Thus in "Henry V." (iii. 7), the
Constable of France, referring to the valor of the Dauphin, says, "'Tis
a hooded valour; and when it appears, it will bate."[235] And again, in
"Romeo and Juliet" (iii. 2), Juliet says:

"Hood my unmann'd[236] blood, bating in my cheeks."

[234] See "3 Henry VI." i. 1.

[235] A quibble is perhaps intended between bate, the term of
falconry, and abate, _i. e._, fall off, dwindle. "Bate is a
term in falconry, to flutter the wings as preparing for flight,
particularly at the sight of prey." In '1 Henry IV