May is the time for a green or grass-fed goose, while the
stubble-goose comes in at Michaelmas. King, in his “Art of Cookery,” has—
“So stubble-geese at Michaelmas are seen
Upon the spit; next May produces green.”
In the old “Household Books,” it is not unusual to find such entries as the following:—
| “Itm̃, the xxvij daye to a s’vñt of maister Becks in rewarde for bringing a present of Grene Gees | iiijs. | viijd. |
A “green goose” is mentioned again in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act iv. Sc. 3.
Launce, enumerating the various occasions on which he had befriended his dog, says,—
“I have stood on the pillory for geese he hath killed, otherwise he had suffered for’t.”—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iv. Sc. 4.
“Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,