Note 302 — SCENE VI.

"To impe," says Blount, "is a term most usual among falconers, and is when a feather in a hawkes wing is broken, and another piece imped or graffed on the stump of the old." "Himp or imp, in the British language, is surculus a young graffe or twig; thence impio, the verb to innoculate or graff. Hence the word to imp is borrowed by the English; first, surely, to graff trees, and thence translated to imping feathers." See also Mr Steevens's note on "King Richard II.," act ii. sc. 1.