THE TURKEY.
Shakespeare has committed a curious anachronism in introducing the domestic Turkey in the play of Henry IV., the species being unknown in England until the later reign of Henry VIII. The passage referred to runs thus:—
First Carrier. “’Odsbody! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved. What, ostler!”—Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 1.
ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND.
The turkey was imported into Spain by the Spanish discoverers in the New World, early in the sixteenth century, its wild prototype being the Gallipavo Mexicana of Gould, and from Spain it was introduced into England in 1524. In 1525 a rhyme was composed, celebrating the introduction of this bird, as well as other good things, into this country:—
“Turkies, carps, hoppes, piccarell, and beere,
Came into England all in one yeare.”[99]
A writer in the “Encyclopædia Britannica” says:—
“This fowl was first seen in France in the reign of Francis I., and in England in that of Henry VIII. By
the date of the reigns of these monarchs, the first turkies must have been brought from Mexico, the conquest of which was completed A.D. 1521.”[100]