Introducing the Medieval Cock

Scruffy and scrappy, regal and stately, the cock has long spurred the imagination of its human companions. The Middle Ages witnessed an effusive enthusiasm for the majestic chanticleer as the literary, historical and artistic record attests in a range of media. The medieval cock strutted into the evolving English language in dozens of words and phrases that persist to the present. Medieval people, from peasants to nobility, lived in close proximity to cocks, which provided sustenance, medicine and a range of other practical sundries. The cock also represented various aspects of the Christian faith, from Jesus himself to the priesthood, as well as many less savoury connotations. This bird also doubled as the human penis, resulting in a literary record bedecked with its multifarious, contradictory and amusingly erotic connotations.