Chaucer wrote a 700-line poem called The Parlement of Foules about an assembly of birds. Is there any evidence that this is the origin of the usage "parliament of owls" as a collective noun, possibly through mis-hearing the original?
Asked
Active
Viewed 1,690 times
11
-
2The terms for a lot of animal collective nouns originated in The Book of Saint Albans. – KillingTime Dec 08 '22 at 16:42
-
3Just to point out that such collective nouns for groups of animals, such as "pride of lions" or "school of fish" are sometimes known as "terms of venery". – printf Dec 09 '22 at 01:35
-
1@KillingTime did the terms originate there or is it just their first recorded usage? I'm not sure there's an answer to that – MD-Tech Dec 09 '22 at 13:50
-
@MD-Tech Quite possibly a little of both. Although, it might be safer to assume "first recorded". – KillingTime Dec 09 '22 at 14:28
-
2@KillingTime, the Book of Saint Albans doesn't appear to mention owls, parliamentary or otherwise. – Mark Dec 10 '22 at 01:53
3 Answers
16
Although "parliament of owls" does appear in C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (1953), that is by no means the earliest instance of the phrase in print. A Google Books search turns up three earlier matches, from 1871, 1886, and 1922.
From "The Fashionable World," in The Milliner and Dressmaker and Warehouseman's Gazette (September 1871):
Here he [the Prince de Galantine] takes a pinch of snuff out of a box which was at the Congress of Vienna, and then a chorus of old women of both sexes breaks out about the Eastern Question—the "sick man," Bucharest, and the Danubian provinces. "Look at that parliament of owls," says Madame de ———. "Yes, without even their look of wisdom."
From "Chicago a Thousand Years Hence," in The Current: Politics, Literature, Science and Art (June 12, 1886):
Not far remote, where yonder ivy wreathes / The crumbling pillars, and the nightshade drinks / The dew-damps in the dusk of ruined shrines, / There loomed a large cathedral, ages past, / Pushing its hundred crosses to the sun, / And bathing in the clouds its pleading spires. / Look on it now! the stately edifice, / That once was palpitant with prayer and praise, / Re-echoes to a parliament of owls, / That perch, by night, upon the shattered stones.
And from James Agate, Alarums and Excursions (1922):
There were little value to the present day, and none at all to posterity, in an enumeration of recalls and a vague deposition as to power and pathos. The critic must give images of that power, and clues to the particular quality of pathos. He will endeavour to "hit off" Mr Nigel Playfair's round-eyed, solemn personages by some such imaginative turn as "A Parliament of Owls in Conclave," to bring back Miss Fay Compton's Mary Rose by some such phrase as "her simplicity shone as the sun and was transfigured before us."
Whether "parliament of owls" arose organically in each case or was suggested to one or more of its early users by "parliament of fowls" or "parliament of fools" (or both) is unclear to me. In any event, the latter two phrases are quite old. From the printer Robert Coplande's preface to a 1530 edition of Chaucer's "The Assemble of Foules":
Newes / newes / newes / have ye ony newes / Myneeres ake / to here you call and crye / Ben bokes made with whystelynge and whewes / Ben there not yet ynow to your fantasye / In fayth nay I trow and yet haue ye dayly / Of maters sadde / and eke of apes and oules / But yet for your pleasure / thusmoche do wyll I / As to lette you here the parlament of foules.
Chaucer is deed the whiche this pamphlete wrate / So ben his heyres in all suche besynesse / And gone is also the famous clerke Lydgate / And so is yonge Hawes / god theyr soules adresse / Many were the volumes ye they made more & lesse / Theyr bokes ye lay vp / tyll that the lether moules / But yet for your myndes this boke I wyll impresse / That is in tytule the parlyament of foules.
So many lerned at leest they say they be / Was neuer sene / doynge so fewe good werkes / Where is the tyme that they do spende trowe ye / In prayers? ye / where? in feldes and parkes / Ye but where be bycomen all the clerkes? / In slouthe and ydlenesse theyr tyme defoules / For lacke of wrytynge / conteynynge morall sperkes / I must imprynt the parlament of foules.
Dytees / and letters them can I make my selfe / Of suche ynowe ben dayly to me brought / Olde morall bokes stonde styll vpon the shelfe / I am in fere they wyll neuer be bought / Tryfles and toyes they ben the thynges so sought / Theyr wyttes tryndle lyke these flemysshe boules / yet gentyll clerkes folowe hym yeought / That dyd endyte the parlyament of foules.
And from William Oldsworth, A Dialogue Between Timothy and Philatheus, volume 2 (1710):
T[imothy]. This is to satisfie you, Sir, that I understand no such thing ; There have been Scandalous Synods, and Turbulent Councils, and Factious Convocations : but may we not have those that are not so? Has there not been as our Chronicles tell us, a Mad Parliament, a Wicked Parliament, and a Parliament of Fools? Shall this be a Reason for Dissolving the two Houses, and putting an End to the Constitution?
Oldsworth's dialogue was published eighteen years before Henry Fielding's Love in Several Masques (1728), which—as Greybeard's answer notes—features this exchange between Vermilia and Lady Matchless:
Verm[ilia]. You have Opportunities enough of Revenge, and Objects enough to execute it upon ; for, I think, you have as many Slaves in your Assemblies, as the French King in his Galleys.
La[dy] Match[ls]. Why, really, I sometimes look on my Drawing-Room as a little Parliament of Fools, to which every different Body sends its Representatives. Beaus of all sorts.
Sven Yargs
- 163,267
7
The Guardian claims that the collective noun is a play on the original by C S Lewis:
This group name [parliament of owls] has its origins in the 1950s children's classic The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis and is a reference to Chaucer's allegorical poem 'The Parliament of Fowls', in which all the birds of the Earth gather together to find a mate. Lewis adapts the title of Chaucer's poem to describe a council of owls who meet at night to discuss the affairs of Narnia.
The huge international success of Lewis's books – they've sold more 100m copies in 47 languages – means that the term has become far more widely known than most of the traditional collective nouns and is now recognised by [many; EA] dictionary [compilers] as the 'correct' term for a group of owls.
Edwin Ashworth
- 83,272
4
Does the collective noun "parliament of owls" originate in "parliament of fowls"?
No. Parliament, being of Norman French origin (see parler to talk/speak in Modern French) originates from the Norman Conquest.
(OED: Etymology: < Anglo-Norman parlement, parliment, parliament and Old French, Middle French parlement (French parlement ) discussion, conversation, meeting, negotiation (c1100),)
Parliament is not a true collective noun in that it has no great history or tradition (as in a "murder of crows")1. A parliament of fowls/Owls is a simple collocation:
OED parliament
III. Extended uses.
7. gen. A gathering, meeting; a conference or convocation; a legislative body suggestive of a parliament; a multitude.
Often used of a noisy gathering of birds, esp. rooks, probably after Chaucer (see quot. a1400).
a1400 G. Chaucer Canterbury Tales Retraction 1086 The book of Seint Valentynes day of the parlement [v.r. parliment] of briddes.
1728 H. Fielding Love in Several Masques ii. i. 15 I sometimes look on my Drawing-Room as a little Parliament of Fools, to which every different Body sends its Representatives.
1849 H. Melville Redburn xxxiii. 209 In the collective spars and timbers of these ships, all the forests of the globe are represented, as in a grand parliament of masts.
1 it is perhaps worth noting that many of these "collective nouns" are probably little more than inventions by authors in the 14th century or earlier.
Greybeard
- 41,737
-
So are they 'true'? There seem to be far fewer incredulity of cuckolds's than parliament of owls's [Google ngrams] (and, in recent years, parliament of owls seems to outnumber exaltation of larks about 2:1). – Edwin Ashworth Dec 08 '22 at 16:53
-
1@EdwinAshworth I'm not sure what you mean by "true". You and others might want to fight through https://7esl.com/collective-nouns-for-animals/, which gives 250 "collective nouns", and ask if these are real - if you're unsure, look for another list, which will almost certainly have different collective nouns for the species. (Dear me! I see they have "a leap of leopards" and yet leopards are solitary... - a "leap" cannot exist.) If you're interested, I suggest you look for "a flange of baboons" ;) – Greybeard Dec 08 '22 at 17:09
-
-
But you introduced the word; I'm echoing your usage: 'Parliament is not a true collective noun'. I'd argue it is, unless you decide on some stipulative definition for 'true' that will exclude it. But in that case, the definition needs adding.. 'A parliament of owls' is a pretty well known fixed phrase with a pretty well known meaning. Like 'an exaltation of larks' (though perhaps not 'a gang of elks'). – Edwin Ashworth Dec 08 '22 at 19:26
-
1I rather hoped that my answer gave the impression that the rarer forms (which are probably the majority) of so-called collective nouns are (a) inventions, and (b) the use of the word "parliament" is the general use in the same context and not specific to fowls or owls. If it isn't specific then it is no more than "a crowd/group". Rare (i.e. the majority of) collective nouns are unreliable trivia, and students of English should see them as such. – Greybeard Dec 08 '22 at 19:35
-
The answer literally defines what it means by true in the first sentence. I know a lot of the appeal of this site is arguing about minutiae but really! – Stuart F Dec 09 '22 at 10:01
-
1@Stuart F Would you be consistent and argue that 'selfie' is not a true noun in that it has no great history or tradition? And, from Sven Yargs' answer, I'd dispute the 'Parliament is not a true collective noun in that it has no great history or tradition' statement. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 09 '22 at 15:07