After escaping from his master's hand, the falcon flies loose and free into the wind--symbolizing freedom from slavery. Peacham's illustration depicts a gloved hand, bodiless, on the right and the escaped falcon in the center left. Only the vague outline of a town shadows the background. Attached to the falcon's talon is its "leash," a symbol of its domestication and captivity, which now hangs loose in the air binding the falcon to nothing but itself. The falcon is inherently a metaphor for free spirit and wilderness. Able to break its prey's back with the force of its grasp, it is no wonder that the mere physical qualities of this bird create its image of prowess and independence. And yet it has long been domesticated for the sport of falconry.

During the Medieval Ages and the Renaissance, falconry was popular among royalty and nobility--often the falcon, depending on the species, would reveal the rank of its master, one could differentiate between prince and duke simply by recognizing the rank of their birds. Naturally, Medieval society gave the falcon some sort of mythological characteristic, which then linked it into religious myth. According to the description of the hawk in the Aberdeen Bestiary, the falcon would molt in the breeze of a south wind. Since the south wind was a "good" and warm wind, the falcon's limbs were warmed and in turn the bird molted. Facing the sunbeams and beating their wings so that "the pores of their body open, either their old plumage falls out, or new feathers grow in," the falcon could also create its own breeze in which to molt.

The myth connected the falcon with saints who had been touched with the Holy Spirit, as they had been touched by the warm, south wind. And like the saint, the falcon casts aside his old way of life and takes on the form of a new bird (man.) In Peacham's emblem, the falcon escapes from his master to adapt to a new life of freedom. Escaping from his master and molting can both be interpreted to symbolize the initiation to a new lifestyle.

However, the myth carries much religious weight in its comparison to the lives of saints, whereas, Peacham's falcon can be interpreted in secular light--one should be a free man, "the virtuous mind, and truly noble spright, / Can seldome brooke, in bondage bare to serve." The falcon described in the Aberdeen Bestiary is a metaphor for the manner in which man must throw off the weight of sin (feathers) and confess. Only remorse can refresh and invigorate the mind, allowing it to grow into a better, sinless person. Peacham calls for self-respect, the kind of self-respect that would make a man choose, "by himself to starve, / Then eate some caterpillar's envied bread, / Or at another's courtesy be fed." According to him, one should value the freedom of thought and body, and should not live at the mercy of another.

In Peacham's emblem one is confronted with surprising controversy. The bodiless hand is normally a symbol of God or divinity, in this emblem; however, the hand seems to play the role of the antagonist. It is clearly the master's hand, which symbolizes the servitude of the falcon--it is the symbol of the life that the falcon should and does escape. Whether the hand is a representation of God or King is unclear as it would have been improbable for Peacham to create an emblem that preached against the authority of either of these figures. This emblem is merely a subtle reminder of the importance of freedom and independence in life.

- Naomi Cookson