Domestic Poultry, in Dryden's Hind and Panther, mean the Roman Catholic clergy; so called from an establishment of priests in the private chapel of Whitehall. The nuns are termed "sister partlet with the hooded head" (1687).
Dominick, the "Spanish fryar," a kind of ecclesiastical Falstaff. A most immoral, licentious Dominican, who for money would prostitute even the Church and Holy Scriptures. Dominick helped Lorenzo in his amour with Elvi'ra the wife of Gomez.
He is a huge, fat, religious gentleman ... big
enough to be a pope. His gills are as rosy as a
turkey-cock's. His big belly walks in state before
him, like a harbinger; and his gouty legs
come limping after it. Never was such a tun
of devotion seen.—Dryden,
The Spanish Fryar
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