Popinjay Alley

7 Annotations

First Reading

aqua  •  Link

? Where they sold parrots at one time, the sqawkers from WestIndies/South America?

TerryF  •  Link

Popinjay Alley (in parish of St. Bride Fleet Street),

From: 'Index of places and institutions', Two Tudor subsidy rolls for the city of London: 1541 and 1582 (1993), pp. 419-23. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 18 August 2006.

aqua  •  Link

Popinjay popular name in public houses some added color.
[In ME. earliest forms a. OF. (and mod.F.) papegai (12th c.), papingay (13th c. in Godef.), AF. also papeiaye (= -jaye) (1355 in Royal Wills), = Pr. papagai, Sp. papagayo, Pg. papagaio; also MHG. papagey, Ger. papagei MLG. papegoie Du. papegaai. OF. had also papegau, papegau(l)t (13th c.), mod.F. papegaut = Cat. papagall, It. pap(p)agallo, med.L. pap(p)agallus (14th c. in Du Cange), mod.Gr. . Other forms were med.Gr. , babbagh , med.L. papagen, MHG. papegân. Probably the med.Gr. and Arabic represent the earliest form, due to an imitation of the cry of the bird in some African or other non-European language. The form in -gayo, -gaio, -gai, appears to have arisen by assimilation to the name of the European chattering bird, the jay, med.L. gaius, Sp. gayo, Pr. and ONF. gai, central F. geai (= jai), whence the OF. and ME. papegai and papejai, subsequently changed (? after pape, pope)to popegay and popejay, and (like nightingale, passenger, etc.) to papengay popinjay. The forms in -gallus, -gallo, -gall, -gau, appear to have been assimilated to L. gallus cock; the OF. papegau gave the Sc. papingaw, papingo.]
1. An early name for a parrot. Obs. or arch.
(In all the early forms iay, etc. = jay.)
4 papiaye, (papeiaie, -gai), 4-5 papeiay, 5 papageye, papeiai, -ioy(e, Sc. pape-iay(e, (7 papgay).
[a1310 Papeiai: see
c1386 CHAUCER Shipman's T. 369 Hoom he gooth murie as a Papeiay [Harl. papiniay].
a1649 DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN Fam. Ep. Wks. (1711) 156 The artificial notes of the learned popingayes in the guilt cages.
2. A representation of a parrot.
a. As an ornament: chiefly in tapestry. Obs.
[1328 Inv. Bp. Stapleton (Hingeston-R.)
b. As a heraldic charge or bearing; also as the sign of an inn
3. The figure of a parrot fixed on a pole as a mark to shoot at. Obs. exc. Hist.
4 a. Formerly applied to a person in a eulogistic sense, in allusion to the beauty and rarity of the bird. Obs. rare.
b. More usually taken as a type of vanity or empty conceit, in allusion to the bird's gaudy plumage, or to its mechanical repetition of words and phrases, and thus applied contemptuously to a person: cf. PARROT 2.
1596 SHAKES. 1 Hen. IV, I. iii. 50, I then, all-smarting, with my wounds being cold, (To be so pestered with a Popingay).
a1618 RALEIGH Invent. Shipping 41 Popinjayes that value themselves by their out sides, and by their Players coats.
1678 OTWAY Friendship in F. V. i, Shall I draw my Cerebrus and cut you off, you gaudy Popinjays?
5. The prevailing colour of the green parrot; a shade of green; also attrib. or as adj., as popinjay blue, colour, green, yellow. Obs.
1622 PEACHAM Compl. Gent. 114 If more inclining to a Popingjay, adde more Pinke to your white Lead.
1688 R. HOLME Armoury III. xix. (Roxb.) 157/2 All mixt colours..as carnation, Oreng-tawny, Sky colour, Popengie, Russett, are bastard and dishonorable colours.

b. Name of a plant. Obs. rare 0 and doubtful.
1658 PHILLIPS, Popingey,..also an Herb, so called from being of the colour of that bird, being a kinde of greenish colour, this Herb is called in Latin Symphonia.
6. A local name of the green woodpecker.
[1612 PEACHAM Gentl. Exerc. 128 Terpsichore would bee expressed..vppon her head a coronet of..those greene feathers of the poppiniaie, in token of that victory, which the Muses got of..the daughters of Pierius,..who after were turned into poppiniaies or wood-peckers.]

wisteria53  •  Link

Now called Poppin's Court (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/street…) -

Reference from http://www.motco.com/Harben/4410.…
Poppin's Court.-North out of Fleet Street, at No.111, to St. Bride's Street (P.O. Directory). In Farringdon Ward Without.
First mention: O.S.1875.
Former names: "Poppings Court" (Horwood, 1799-Elmes, 1831). "Poppings Alley" (Rocque, 1746-Strype, ed. 1755). "Poppinge Alley" (O. and M. 1677). "Popinjoy Alley," "Poppinger Alley" (Strype). " Popingey Alley" (Strype, ed. 1720 I. iii. 277) "Papinger Ally" (Leake, 1666). "Popyngey Alley," 1568 (Lond. I. p.m. II. 105).
The site was formerly occupied by the hostel of the Abbot and Convent of Cicestre called "Popyngaye" (q.v.), of which the present name is a corruption, as shown in the forms set out above.
Northern end cut off 1870 in forming the new street from Holborn Circus to Ludgate Circus.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Now Poppin's Court, the first thoroughfare (under an archway) on the north side of Fleet Street from Ludgate Circus. Hatton (1708) calls it Poppin's Alley, and on Strype's map (1720) it appears as Popinjay Court.
---Wheatley, 1893.

Dodsley, 1761, mentions a Cockpit Alley leading out of it, and the turning next to it is still called Racket Court. It appears to have been a neighbourhood devoted to manly sports; but recently a restaurant called "The Popinjay" has been built at the corner of the court, and a legend inscribed on the front which asserts that on the site stood the inn of a religious fraternity whose crest was the popinjay. The north end of Poppin's Court was cut off in 1870 in forming the new street from Holborn Circus to Ludgate Circus.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

Bill  •  Link

On TerryF's map above, Popping's Alley is the second thoroughfare on the north side of Fleet Street from the Fleet Bridge.

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References

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1663