Birds

Is it just us, or were there a lot of bird references throughout the play? Let's review:

• "like an empty eagle / tire on the flesh of me and my son." (1.1.276-277)
• "We budged again, as I have seen a swan" (1.4.19)
• "My ashes, as the Phoenix', may bring forth / A bird that will revenge upon you all" (1.4.35-36)
• "So cowards fight when they can fly no further; / so doves peck the falcon's piercing talons" (1.4.40-41)
• "Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird" (2.1.92) 
• "Doves will peck in safeguard of their brood" (2.2.18)

Not just us, then? Phew.

For the most part, Shakespeare uses birds of prey to describe the characters in this play. Birds of prey are hunters, and they're tough, so they make a fitting metaphor for the hard-hitting guys and gals who are at war with one another here.

We'd also like to point out that both sides (Lancasters and Yorks) are described as birds. We think this is important, because both sides just want the crown for themselves. There's no larger motive or just cause going on behind the scenes. The characters hunt one another because it's simply their nature. It also reminds us that the Lancasters and Yorks are really just two houses of the Royal House of Plantagenet—in a way, they're all birds of a feather in one big, unhappy family.

It's just as Margaret says: "For both of you are birds of selfsame feather" (3.3.169). She's talking to King Lewis and Warwick while they're all hanging out in France, and she's pointing out that even though these men are from different places and have different agendas, they are pretty much the same. In her view, they're just out for themselves.

Yeah. She's one to talk.