George rises, not eagle- or "
Eyass hauke"-like, but (true to his name) with "the mounting lark"; that Spenser, beginning the canto, has promised to "let downe" the "haughtie string" of epic and resort to strains more appropriately georgic.
Undoubtedly only the wealthy could afford rare imported hawks: in Holland and West Friesland between 1586 and 1636 a haggard gyrfalcon sold for 75 guilders, or over 7 [pounds sterling].(133) It is doubtful, however, whether cost could have been a decisive factor, as a landowner could take an eyass (nestling) or trap a ramage (first summer) hawk on his own estate at minimum expense.(134) Raptors could be fed on meat unsuitable for human consumption, like hogs' hearts, and their consumption was minimal compared with dogs and horses.
Sir Henry Bellassis and Sir Thomas Fairfax entreated Richard Chomeley to desist from reclaiming a goshawk, which `brack forth of my mewe whole fethered before she was manned', because she had been seen with a tiercel in their woods and might breed; in that eventuality, he was offered half the eyasses.(142) James I instructed the widow of Sir Miles Corbet to preserve an eyrie of lanners in her woods.(143) But it was not until the late twentieth century that raptors could be bred in captivity.
(134) There was a longstanding debate over the relative virtues of eyasses, passagers and haggards: see Arcussia, Conference des fauconniers, 64; F.
