Note 61 — HERO AND LEANDER.
Reading edition
"Fowl" and "fool" had the same pronunciation. Cf. 3 Henry VI. v. 6:—
"Why, what a peevish fool was he of Crete, That taught his son the office of a fowl! And yet for all his wings the fool was drowned."
The "moorish fool" is explained by the allusion to the lapwing, two lines above. (The lapwing was supposed to draw the searcher from her nest by crying in other places. "The lapwing cries most furthest from her nest."—Ray's Proverbs.)