“What is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?”
#Bardspotting
PETRUCCIO
The Taming Of The Shrew; Act IV, Scene 3
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#Bardspotting
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“O peace. Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him. How he jets under his advanced plumes.”
#Bardspotting
FABIAN
Twelfth Night; Act II, Scene 5
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“Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell and there they perched
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers’ hands”
#Bardspotting
CASSIUS
Julius Caesar, Act V, Scene 1
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“A dear happiness to women - they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that:
I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”
#Bardspotting
BEATRICE
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1, Scene I
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“O, let no noble eye profane a tear
For me, if I be gored with Mowbray’s spear.
As confident as is the falcon’s flight
Against a bird do I with Mowbray fight.”
#Bardspotting
BOLINGBROKE
King Richard II, Act 1, Scene III
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“We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learned, played, ate together,
And whereso’er we went, like Juno’s swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.”
#Bardspotting
CELIA
As You Like It, Act 1, Scene III
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“That pure congealed white, high Taurus’ snow,
Fanned with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
When thou hold’st up thy hand.”
#Bardspotting
DEMETRIUS
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene II
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“Nay, if thou be that princely eagle’s bird,
Show thy descent by gazing ‘gainst the sun;”
#Bardspotting
RICHARD III
King Henry VI, Part Three, Act 2, Scene I
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“I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow upon your worship, and my suit is —“
#Bardspotting
OLD GOBBO
The Merchant Of Venice, Act 2, Scene II
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“How agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last for a cup of madeira and a cold capon’s leg?”
#Bardspotting
POINS
King Henry IV Part One, Act 1, Scene II
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“Advocate’s the court word for a pheasant. Say you have none.”
“None, sir. I have no pheasant, cock nor hen.”
#Bardspotting
CLOWN & SHEPHERD
The Winter’s Tale, Act 4, Scene IV
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“If one be,
So are they all, for every grece of fortune
Is smoothed by that below. The learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool.”
#Bardspotting
TIMON
Timon Of Athens, Act 4, Scene III
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“The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;”
#Bardspotting
KING HENRY
King Henry VI, Act 5, Scene VI
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“When shepherds pipe on oaten straws
And merry larks are ploughman’s clocks,
When turtles tread and rooks and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,”
#Bardspotting
HOLOFERNES & NATHANIEL (VER)
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act 5, Scene II
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“‘As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As Sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to th’centre’ -“
#Bardspotting
TROILUS
Troilus And Cressida, Act 3, Scene II
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“The crow, the sland’rous cuckoo, nor
The boding raven, nor chough hoar,
Not chatt’ring pie,
May on our bride-house perch or sing,
Or with them any discord bring,
But from it fly.”
#Bardspotting
BOY [SINGS]
The Two Noble Kinsmen, Act 1, Scene I
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“With him the Earl of Surrey, bearing the rod of silver with the dove, crowned with an earl’s coronet.
Collars of esses.”
#Bardspotting
SECOND GENTLEMAN
Henry VIII, Act 4, Scene I
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“Lawn as white as driven snow,
Cypress black as e’er was crow,
Gloves as sweet as damask roses,
Masks for faces and for noses;”
#Bardspotting
AUTOLYCUS
The Winter’s Tale, Act 4, Scene IV
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“Philip! Sparrow. James,
There’s toys abroad, anon I’ll tell thee more.”
#Bardspotting
PHILIP THE BASTARD
King John, Act 1, Scene I
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“Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain.
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain.”
#Bardspotting
IRIS
The Tempest, Act 4, Scene I
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“O, spite of spites,
We talk with goblins, owls and sprites!”
#Bardspotting
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
The Comedy Of Errors, Act 2, Scene II
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Thank you! And I try to do #Bardspotting every day. Up to now, I’ve found just shy of 600 mentions so I’m trying to balance out the different birds across the different plays as fairly as I can.
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“I am Revenge;
Sent from the infernal kingdom to ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind.”
#Bardspotting
TAMORA
Titus Andronicus, Act 5, Scene II
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Book 13 in March is a serious pace — and the #Tsundoku tag alongside that makes it feel very relatable. Hunting bird-names across Shakespeare is a wonderfully specific project; is #Bardspotting a recurring thing you do?
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“Yes;
As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
If I say sooth, I must report they were as cannons overcharg’d with double cracks;”
#Bardspotting
(A bleeding CAPTAIN)
Macbeth, Act 1, Scene II
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Book #13 of 2026 finished.
Double Falsehood by @shakespeare.lol (edited by Brean Hammond).
Okay. Technically this wasn’t on my #TBR pile but I was looking for a particular quote for #Bardspotting and realised I’d not yet scoured DF for potential bird-names.
Now rectified.
#Booksky #Tsundoku
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“He that trusts you, where he should find you lions, finds you hares; where foxes, geese; you are no surer, no, than is the coal of fire upon the ice, or hailstone in the sun”
#Bardspotting
MARTIUS
Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene I
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“Go to, then. We’ll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross pumpion; we’ll teach him to know turtles from jays.”
#Bardspotting
MISTRESS FORD.
Merry Wives Of Windsor, Act 3, Scene III
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“The grisly north disgorges such a tempest forth that, as a duck for life that dives, so up and down the poor ship drives”
#Bardspotting
GOWER.
Pericles, Act 3, Chorus.
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“‘Tis true, the raven doth not hatch a lark.”
#Bardspotting
LAVINIA
Titus Andronicus; Act 2 Scene II
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