PHEASANT:

Pheasant Phasianus colchicus, Faisan de Colchide.

2 occurrences

• WT 4 4 743 p Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant:

• WT 4 4 745 p None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.

The Pheasant was kept by the Romans and some may have been brought to Britain as captive birds, but its introduction in the country would most likely have been during or slightly before Norman times. It does not seem to have had the importance attached to it later: wild-boar and deer were the socially prestigious preys.

In Jacobean times, pheasant held the first place among birds at the table, and therefore were a choice bribe for the court. To bribe local justices seems to have been the custom, especially by giving poultry: OED cites the term "capon-justices" as being common:

OLD SHEPHERD

My business, sir, is to the King.

AUTOLYCUS

What advocate hast thou to him?

OLD SHEPHERD

I know not, an't like you.

CLOWN

Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant: say you

have none.

OLD SHEPHERD

None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.

AUTOLYCUS

How blessed are we that are not simple men!

Yet nature might have made me as these are,

Therefore I will not disdain.

(WT 4 4 740-8)