The name of the bird is used as an uncomplimentary epithet for some women, as where Mrs. Ford, in reference to Falstaff’s addresses, declares “we’ll teach him to know turtles from jays,”[161] and where Imogen affirmed, “Some jay of Italy hath betrayed him.”[162] But perhaps the most interesting appearance of the bird in the Plays occurs in the scene of the _Taming of the Shrew_, where after the tailor has been sent about his business, taking with him the cap and gown which had been ordered for Katharine, and with which she was well pleased, her husband addresses her thus: Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father’s Even in these honest mean habiliments: Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So honour peereth in the meanest habit. What is the jay more precious than the lark Because his feathers are more beautiful? Or is the adder better than the eel, Because his painted skin contents the eye?[163] [Sidenote: _Birds of the Farm-yard_] The various BIRDS OF THE FARM-YARD have received due attention from the great dramatist. Chief among them, the cock is frequently cited, especially as a recognised chronometer of the morning hours, for in Elizabethan days this mode of indicating time had not gone out of popular use. We all remember the unhappy experience of the carrier in the inn at Rochester “since the first cock.”[164] We also recall how Capulet, bustling among his household, gave them a three-fold indication of the time: Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow’d, The curfew-bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock.[165] Shakespeare brings the cock’s shrill clarion even into his fairyland, for Ariel’s song breaks off at this signal: Hark, hark! I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.[166] But the most detailed and impressive reference to this familiar bird occurs in the memorable scene on the platform before the Castle of Elsinore. The ghost had just appeared to Hamlet’s friends and [Sidenote: _The Cock and Goose_] Was about to speak when the cock crew. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day, and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object made probation: It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; So hallowed and so gracious is the time.[167]