Obs. Forms: α. 5 spervyr, spervier, speruer, 5–7 (9) sperver, 6 spurver. β. 5–7 (9) sparver, 5 Sc. sparwort, 6 sparuiour, sparuer, sparvill, 6–7 sparvar. [ad. OF. espervier (esprevier) ‘l’ensemble des pièces qui composent le coucher’ (1380 in Godefroy), = obs. It. sparviere, -eri, -ero. The forms are those of the OF. and It. names for the sparrow-hawk (see SPERVER), but the connection is not obvious.] A canopy for a bed (or cradle).
α. 1440–1. Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 627. Et solut. pro j. sperver empt. apud London pro d’no Priore.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 129. Sperver of rede damask with curtyns of sarsynett.
1501. Bury Wills (Camden), 91. It[em] a sperver of sylke.
1519. N. Cy. Wills (Surtees, 1908), 106. A sperver of whyte with a coverlete.
β. 1444. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), II. 112. A sparver wt coueryn of lynnyn clothe.
1473–4. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 41. For iiij1/2 elne of tartar for a sparwort abone his creddil.
1494. in Lett. Rich. III. & Hen. VII. (Rolls), I. 390. The parlement chambre, where wer … beddes wiche hadden sparvers.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 167 b. Some haue curteynes: some sparuers aboute the bedde to kepe awey gnattis.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., V. 39. A happie woman … hath as quiet sleeps … in a bed of cloth as vnder a sparuer of tissue. Ibid. (a. 1612), Epigr. (1633), IV. vi. At home in silken sparvers, beds of down, We scant can rest.
1641. Invent., in Burlington Mag. (1911), Nov., 100/1. A greate Sparver round about over the Bed.
b. fig. and transf.
c. 1640. A. Townshend, Poems & Masks (1912), 24. Thy sparver, a well tufted tree, Ore heaven itselfe, thy canopy.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 449/2. The several names given to these Moveing Houses…. A Tent, or a Sperver. A Hutt. A Booth [etc.].
c. attrib., as sparver bed, curtain, tester. Also Comb., as sparver-wise adv.
1475. Bury Wills (Camden), 251. A white bedde made sparverwyse. Ibid. (1501), 135. vj payre shetes wyth the sparver curtanys of dornykes.
1596. Unton Invent. (1841), 4. j sparvill tester of silk.
1610. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), App. p. ii. One half hed bedsted for a sparvar bed.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Parement, Lict de parement,… a bed of State, or, a great Sparuer bed.
