Part 15 (1/2)
Falconry, after having been in much esteem for centuries, at last became amenable to the same law which affects all great inst.i.tutions, and, having reached the height of its glory, it was destined to decay. Although the art disappeared completely under Louis the Great, who only liked stag-kunting, and who, by drawing all the n.o.bility to court, disorganized country life, no greater adept had ever been known than King Louis XIII.
His first favourite and Grand Falconer was Albert de Luynes, whom he made prime minister and constable. Even in the Tuileries gardens, on his way to ma.s.s at the convent of the Feuillants, this prince amused himself by catching linnets and wrens with noisy magpies trained to pursue small birds.
It was during this reign that some ingenious person discovered that the words LOUIS TREIZIeME, ROY DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, exactly gave this anagram, ROY TReS-RARE, ESTIMe DIEU DE LA FAUCONNERIE. It was also at this time that Charles d'Arcussia, the last author who wrote a technical work on falconry, after praising his majesty for devoting himself so thoroughly to the divine sport, compared the King's birds to domestic angels, and the carnivorous birds which they destroyed he likened to the devil. From this he argued that the sport was like the angel Gabriel destroying the demon Asmodeus. He also added, in his dedication to the King, ”As the nature of angels is above that of men, so is that of these birds above all other animals.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 156.--Dress of the Falconer (Thirteenth Century).--Sculpture of the Cathedral of Rouen.]
At that time certain religious or rather superst.i.tious ceremonies were in use for blessing the water with which the falcons were sprinkled before hunting, and supplications were addressed to the eagles that they might not molest them. The following words were used: ”I adjure you, O eagles!
by the true G.o.d, by the holy G.o.d, by the most blessed Virgin Mary, by the nine orders of angels, by the holy prophets, by the twelve apostles, &c.... to leave the field clear to our birds, and not to molest them: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” It was at this time that, in order to recover a lost bird, the Sire de la Brizardiere, a professional necromancer, proposed beating the owner of the bird with birch-rods until he bled, and of making a charm with the blood, which was reckoned infallible.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 157.--Diseases of Dogs and their Cure.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of Phoebus (Fourteenth Century).]
Elzear Blaze expressed his astonishment that the ladies should not have used their influence to prevent falconry from falling into disuse. The chase, he considered, gave them an active part in an interesting and animated scene, which only required easy and graceful movements on their part, and to which no danger was attached. ”The ladies knowing,” he says, ”how to fly a bird, how to call him back, and how to encourage him with their voice, being familiar with him from having continually carried him on their wrist, and often even from having broken him in themselves, the honour of hunting belongs to them by right. Besides, it brings out to advantage their grace and dexterity as they gallop amongst the sportsmen, followed by their pages and varlets and a whole herd of horses and dogs.”
The question of precedence and of superiority had, at every period, been pretty evenly balanced between venery and falconry, each having its own staunch supporters. Thus, in the ”Livre du Roy Modus,” two ladies contend in verse (for the subject was considered too exalted to be treated of in simple prose), the one for the superiority of the birds, the other for the superiority of dogs. Their controversy is at length terminated by a celebrated huntsman and falconer, who decides in favour of venery, for the somewhat remarkable reason that those who pursue it enjoy oral and ocular pleasure at the same time. In an ancient Treatise by Gace de la Vigne, in which the same question occupies no fewer than ten thousand verses, the King (unnamed) ends the dispute by ordering that in future they shall be termed pleasures of dogs and pleasures of birds, so that there may be no superiority on one side or the other (Fig. 160). The court-poet, William Cretin, who was in great renown during the reigns of Louis XII. and Francis I., having asked two ladies to discuss the same subject in verse, does not hesitate, on the contrary, to place falconry above venery.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 158.--German Falconer, designed and engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]
It may fairly be a.s.serted that venery and falconry have taken a position of some importance in history; and in support of this theory it will suffice to mention a few facts borrowed from the annals of the chase.
The King of Navarre, Charles the Bad, had sworn to be faithful to the alliance made between himself and King Edward III. of England; but the English troops having been beaten by Du Guesclin, Charles saw that it was to his advantage to turn to the side of the King of France. In order not to appear to break his oath, he managed to be taken prisoner by the French whilst out hunting, and thus he sacrificed his honour to his personal interests. It was also due to a hunting party that Henry III., another King of Navarre, who was afterwards Henry IV., escaped from Paris, on the 3rd February, 1576, and fled to Senlis, where his friends of the Reformed religion came to join him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 159.--Heron-hawking.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]
Hunting formed a princ.i.p.al entertainment when public festivals were celebrated, and it was frequently accompanied with great magnificence. At the entry of Isabel of Bavaria into Paris, a sort of stag hunt was performed, when ”the streets,” according to a popular story of the time, ”were full to profusion of hares, rabbits, and goslings.” Again, at the solemn entry of Louis XI. into Paris, a representation of a doe hunt took place near the fountain St. Innocent; ”after which the queen received a present of a magnificent stag, made of confectionery, and having the royal arms hung round its neck.” At the memorable festival given at Lille, in 1453, by the Duke of Burgundy, a very curious performance took place. ”At one end of the table,” says the historian Mathieu de Coucy, ”a heron was started, which was hunted as if by falconers and sportsmen; and presently from the other end of the table a falcon was slipped, which hovered over the heron. In a few minutes another falcon was started from the other side of the table, which attacked the heron so fiercely that he brought him down in the middle of the hall. After the performance was over and the heron was killed, it was served up at the dinner-table.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 160.--Sport with Dogs.--”How the Wild Boar is hunted by means of Dogs.”--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]
We shall conclude this chapter with a few words on bird-fowling, a kind of sport which was almost disdained in the Middle Ages. The anonymous author of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” called it, in the fourteenth century, the pastime of the poor, ”because the poor, who can neither keep hounds nor falcons to hunt or to fly, take much pleasure in it, particularly as it serves at the same time as a means of subsistence to many of them.”
In this book, which was for a long time the authority in matters of sport generally, we find that nearly all the methods and contrivances now employed for bird-fowling were known and in use in the Middle Ages, in addition to some which have since fallen into disuse. We accordingly read in the ”Roy Modus” a description of the drag-net, the mirror, the screech-owl, the bird-pipe (Fig. 161), the traps, the springs, &c., the use of all of which is now well understood. At that time, when falcons were so much required, it was necessary that people should be employed to catch them when young; and the author of this book speaks of nets of various sorts, and the p.r.o.nged piece of wood in the middle of which a screech-owl or some other bird was placed in order to attract the falcons (Fig. 162).
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 161.--Bird-piping.--”The Manner of Catching Birds by piping.”--Fac-simile of Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]
Two methods were in use in those days for catching the woodcook and pheasant, which deserve to be mentioned. ”The pheasants,” says ”King Modus,” ”are of such a nature that the male bird cannot bear the company of another.” Taking advantage of this weakness, the plan of placing a mirror, which balanced a sort of wicker cage or coop, was adopted. The pheasant, thinking he saw his fellow, attacked him, struck against the gla.s.s and brought down the coop, in which he had leisure to reflect on his jealousy (Fig. 163).
Woodc.o.c.ks, which are, says the author, ”the most silly birds,” were caught in this way. The bird-fowler was covered from head to foot with clothes of the colour of dead leaves, only having two little holes for his eyes. When he saw one he knelt down noiselessly, and supported his arms on two sticks, so as to keep perfectly still. When the bird was not looking towards him he cautiously approached it on his knees, holding in his hands two little dry sticks covered with red cloth, which he gently waved so as to divert the bird's attention from himself. In this way he gradually got near enough to pa.s.s a noose, which he kept ready at the end of a stick, round the bird's neck (Fig. 164).
However ingenious these tricks may appear, they are eclipsed by one we find recorded in the ”Ixeuticon,” a very elegant Latin poem, by Angelis de Barga, written two centuries later. In order to catch a large number of starlings, this author a.s.sures us, it is only necessary to have two or three in a cage, and, when a flight of these birds is seen pa.s.sing, to liberate them with a very long twine attached to their claws. The twine must be covered with bird-lime, and, as the released birds instantly join their friends, all those they come near get glued to the twine and fall together to the ground.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 162.--Bird-catching with a Machine like a Long Arm.--Fac-simile of Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]
As at the present time, the object of bird-fowling was twofold, namely, to procure game for food and to capture birds to be kept either for their voice or for fancy as pets. The trade in the latter was so important, at least in Paris, that the bird-catchers formed a numerous corporation having its statutes and privileges.
The Pont au Change (then covered on each side with houses and shops occupied by goldsmiths and money-changers) was the place where these people carried on their trade; and they had the privilege of hanging their cages against the houses, even without the sanction of the proprietors. This curious right was granted to them by Charles VI. in 1402, in return for which they were bound to ”provide four hundred birds”
whenever a king was crowned, ”and an equal number when the queen made her first entry into her good town of Paris.” The goldsmiths and money-changers, however, finding that this became a nuisance, and that it injured their trade, tried to get it abolished. They applied to the authorities to protect their rights, urging that the approaches to their shops, the rents of which they paid regularly, were continually obstructed by a crowd of purchasers and dealers in birds. The case was brought several times before parliament, which only confirmed the orders of the kings of France and the ancient privileges of the bird-catchers. At the end of the sixteenth century the quarrel became so bitter that the goldsmiths and changers took to ”throwing down the cages and birds and trampling them under foot,” and even a.s.saulted and openly ill-treated the poor bird-dealers. But a degree of parliament again justified the sale of birds on the Pont an Change, by condemning the ring-leader,
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 163.--Pheasant Fowling.--”Showing how to catch Pheasants.”--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Ma.n.u.script of the ”Livre du Roy Modus” (Fourteenth Century).]