Meaning of 'With empty hand men may no hawkes lure' in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

The phrase 'With empty hand men may no hawkes lure' is from the Prologue to The Wife of Bath's tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. You can read the prologue to her tale in full here.

The context is as follows:

I would no longer in the bed abide,
If that I felt his arm over my side,
Till he had made his ransom unto me,
Then would I suffer him do his nicety.
And therefore every man this tale I tell,
Win whoso may, for all is for to sell;
With empty hand men may no hawkes lure;
For winning would I all his will endure,
And make me a feigned appetite,

It's one of the more delicate phrases to explain, but essentially the wider context is that The Wife of Bath is describing how she uses her body for pleasure and power and to become one her many husbands it requires wealth.

The simple analogy is how a hawk can be lured back to one's hand with some food, so she can be attracted with material things. Some read it more crudely that she accepts money for sex, but equally it can be read as a more nuanced statement of the balance between the sexes in relationships in Chaucer's times.