“ Pretty Poll .” 
213 
“ With my hecke bent, my little wanton eye, 
My feders fresh, as is the emrawde grene, 
About my necke a circulet, lyke the rycbe rubye, 
My little legges, my fete both nete and cleane. 
***** 
For parrot is no churlish chough, nor no fleked py, 
Parrot is no pendugum, that men call a carlyng, 
Parrot is no woodcocke, nor no butterfly, 
Parrot is no stamring stare, that men call a starling. 
But parrot is mine own dere harte, and my darling.” 
The phrase “ An almond for parrot ” seems to have been 
proverbial. Shakspeare uses it, and Ben Jonson writes:— 
“ How do you, ladybird ? so hard at work still! 
What’s that you say; so you bid me walk, sweet bird, 
And tell our knight? I will. How ! Walk, knave, walk! 
I think you are angry with me, Pol. Fine Pol! 
Pol is a fine bird! 6, fine lady Pol! 
Almond for parrot. Parrot’s a brave bird.” 
{The Magnetic Lady , v. 5.) 
The phrase occurs again in Haughton:— 
“ Ah, sirrah, now we’ll brag with Mistress Moore, 
To have as fine a parrot as she hath. 
Look, sisters, what a pretty fool it is! 
What a green greasy shining coat he hath, 
An almond for parrot: a rope for parrot.” 
{English-Men for my Money: or a Woman will 
have her Will , v. 2.) 
There has been some discussion as to the meaning of 
the word Popinjay, so often used by old writers. In some 
cases a parrot is evidently intended; but Mr. Bell, in a 
note in his edition of Chaucer, points out that this name 
occurs in almost all Chaucer’s descriptions of spring. He 
considers it most unlikely that a poet so accurate in por¬ 
traying nature should introduce the parrot in pictures of 
European scenery, and that the jay is more probably the 
bird intended. In Skelton’s Philip Sparoiv, however, 
both the jay and the popinjay are included. Phineas 
