Parrots and Popinjays 
Eastcheap who had only two words of 
reply to any call, and of whom the merry 
Prince remarked, with a sly hit at the fair 
sex: “That ever this fellow should have 
fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son 
of a woman!”* The parrot was also 
known by the name of popinjay, a word 
sometimes applied to a foppish dandy. 
It is used in this sense by Hotspur with 
reference to 
A certain lord, neat and trimly dress’d 
Fresh as a bridegroom ; and his chin new-reap’d 
Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home. 
I then, all sraaeae ich my wounds Site Oe 
To be so pester’d with a popinjay, 
Answer’d neglectingly I know not what.” 
The same word was used of the stuffed 
bird or other mark set up to be shot at in 
a competition of marksmanship. This 
kind of sport in archery continues to be 
kept up in Scotland, or was only recently 
abandoned. It has been described by 
1 Henry IV. i. iv. 95. 21 Henry IV. 1. ii. 33-52. 
G 49 
