PEACOCK

17th January 2024

Photo Credit: chadsmith110 (Getty Images), CANVA

Dismay not, princes, at this accident,

Nor grieve that Roan is so recovered.

Care is no cure but rather corrosive

For things that are not to be remedied.

Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while,

and like a peacock sweep along his tail;

We’ll pull his plumes and take away his train,

If dauphin and the rest will be but ruled.

PUCELLE: Henry VI, Part 1, Act 3, Scene 3

PEACOCK (Indian Peafowl: Pavo cristatus)

Peacocks are male Peafowl, although sometimes the term is used for Peafowl generally. Shakespeare carries on a long tradition of association the Peacock and its magnificent tail with arrogance and vanity. Talbot in Henry VI, Ajax in Troilus and Cressida, and King Claudius in Hamlet are all compared with Peacocks or Pajocks.

Peacocks are the national bird of India, their native home, and are found in a wide variety of literature, myth and decorative arts throughout the world. In Greek Mythology, Hera placed the 100 eyes of the giant Argus in the Peacock’s tail. The Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, tells us that ‘the orator Hortensius was the first Roman who had the peacock killed for table…M. Aufidius Lurco was the first who taught the art of fattening them…From this source of profit he acquired an income of sixty thousand sesterces.’ Chaucer described the miller in Reeves Tale, ‘as any peacock he was proud and gay.’ Peacocks appear in the Bible, e.g. I Kings 10:22 ‘once in three years came the navy of Tarshish, and brought gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.’ Peacocks were also eaten in Shakespeare’s world and in the 1594 A Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin states that ‘Peacocks be ever in season, but when they be young and of a good stature, they be as good as Feasants’.

Indian Peafowl are native to India but have been traded and kept as high status birds in many countries for millennia. Peacocks have a reputation as noisy residents and despite their beauty they are sometimes the cause of community discord.

More Information

Chaucer Canterbury Tales: Harvard Geoffrey Chaucer Website

Folger Shakespeare Library: Search Shakespeare’s Works

Foods of England: A Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin

Geneva Bible 1599 edition: accessed via Bible Gateway

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): Pavo cristatus

Toby Keel, 2023, Countrylife: Peacocks

Perseus Digital Library: Peacock

Pliny the Elder, Natural History (translated by Rackham, H. 1938: accessed via Archive.org)