A PARROT-TEACHER. 273 
heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love 
now. 
Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else 
have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank 
God, and my cold blood, I am of your humour for 
that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a 
man swear he loves me. 
Bened. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so 
some gentleman or other shall ’scape a predestinate 
scratched face. 
Beat. Scratching could not make it worse, an ’twere 
such a face as yours were. 
Bened. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.* 
Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of 
yours. 
Bened. T would my horse had the speed of your 
tongue, and so good a continuer: but keep your way, 
o’ God's name! I have done. 
Beat. You always end with a jade’s trick: I know you 
of old.” 
[Whereupon Don Pedro steps in and puts an end to this 
bantering. ] 
Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. Sc. 1. 
The “Popinjay” (Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3) 
apparently is only another name for parrot. 
In the Glossary to Chaucer’s Works we find the word 
* Compare ‘' Redbreast-teacher,” Henry 7 V. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1. 
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