Birds of a Feather
What comes to mind first? The proverb “Birds of a feather flock together” or all the beautiful arts, crafts and vintage items with birds as a theme. Rosemary Manor will be catering to everyone’s taste this Friday!
We will be flocking together with all the wonderful like minded people who regularly join us at the market. There will be beautiful theme specific products and the tea garden will cater for more than birdfeed (pardon the pun!).
Getting back to the more academic side of things. This proverb has been in use since at least the mid 16th century. In 1540, the version of it in his papist satire The Rescuing of Romish Fox: “Byrdes of on kynde and color flok and flye allwayes together.”
The phrase also appears in Benjamin Jowett’s 1856 translation of Plato that were present in the original Greek text then, at around 380BC, Plato’s shows earlier reference to it. What appears in Jowett’s version is: “Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather.”
Plato’s text can be translated in other ways and it is safe to say it was just around 380BC, that considered the phrase to be old. The lack of citation in the 16th Century does tend to suggest that its literal translation wasn’t a text that was widely read by English scholars of the classics well before.
In nature, birds of a single species do in fact frequently form flocks. Ornithologists explain this behaviour as a “safety in numbers” tactic to reduce their risk of predation. In language terms, it was previously more common to refer to birds flying together than flocking together and many early citations use that form, for example Philemon Holland’s translation of Livy’s Romane historie, 1600: “As commonly birds of a feather will flye together.”
We are looking forward to spending a glorious day under the yellowing leaves of autumn with you. Sure to be accompanied by our feathered friends over head in the treetops.Join us for the fun and fellowship associated with Rosemary Manor and the rest of the people of the (Lynn)wood.
