inger's "Notes to The Tempest," 1875, vol. i. p. 82.

[288] See _Gentleman's Magazine_, November, 1804, pp. 1083,
1084. Grimm's "Deutsche Mythologie."

[289] See Dasent's "Tales of the Norse," 1859, p. 230.

_Parrot._ The "popinjay," in "1 Henry IV." (i. 3), is another name for
the parrot--from the Spanish _papagayo_--a term which occurs in Browne's
"Pastorals" (ii. 65):

"Or like the mixture nature dothe display
Upon the quaint wings of the popinjay."

Its supposed restlessness before rain is referred to in "As You Like It"
(iv. 1): "More clamorous than a parrot against rain." It was formerly
customary to teach the parrot unlucky words, with which, when any one
was offended, it was the standing joke of the wise owner to say, "Take
heed, sir, my parrot prophesies"--an allusion to which custom we find in
"Comedy of Errors" (iv. 4), where Dromio of Ephesus says: "prophesy like
the parrot, _beware the rope's end_." To this Butler hints, where,
speaking of Ralpho's skill in augury, he says:[290]

"Could tell what subtlest parrots mean,
That speak and think contrary clean;
What member 'tis of whom they talk,
When they cry _rope_, and _walk, knave, walk_."

[290] "Hudibras," pt. i. ch. i.

The rewards given to parrots to encourage them to speak are mentioned in
"Troilus and Cressida" (v. 2):[291] "the parrot will not do more for an
almond." Hence, a proverb for the greatest temptation that could be put
before a man seems to have been "An almond for a parrot." To "talk like
a parrot" is a common proverb, a sense in which it occurs in "Othello"
(ii. 3).

[291] In "Much Ado About Nothing" (i. 1), Benedick likens
Beatrice to a "parrot-teacher," from her talkative powers.

_Peacock._ This bird was as proverbially used for a proud, vain fool as
the lapwing for a silly one. In this sense some would understand it in
the much-disputed passage in "Hamlet" (iii. 2):

"For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very--peacock."[292]

[292] This is the reading adopted by Singer.

The third and fourth folios read _pajock_,[293] the other editions have
"paiock," "paiocke," or "pajocke," and in the later quartos the word was
changed to "paicock" and "pecock," whence Pope printed peacock.

[293] "Notes to Hamlet," Clark and Wright, 1876, pp. 179, 180.

Dyce says that in Scotland the peaco