“the Winchestrian goose,
Bred on the banke in time of Popery,
When Venus there maintain’d the mystery.”
“Plucking geese” was formerly a barbarous sport of boys (“Merry Wives of Windsor,” v. 1), which consisted in stripping a living goose of its feathers.[213]
In “Coriolanus” (i. 4), the goose is spoken of as the emblem of cowardice. Marcius says:
“You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat!”
Goldfinch. The Warwickshire name[214] for this bird is “Proud Tailor,” to which, some commentators think, the words in “1 Henry IV.” (iii. 1) refer:
“Lady P. I will not sing.
Hotsp. ’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red-breast teacher.”
It has, therefore, been suggested that the passage should be read thus: “’Tis the next way to turn tailor, or red-breast teacher,” i. e., “to turn teacher of goldfinches or redbreasts.”[215] Singer,[216] however, explains the words thus: “Tailors, like weavers, have ever been remarkable for their vocal skill. Percy is jocular in his mode of persuading his wife to sing; and this is a humorous turn which he gives to his argument, ‘Come, sing.’ ‘I will not sing.’ ‘’Tis the next [i. e., the readiest, nearest] way to turn tailor, or redbreast teacher’—the meaning being, to sing is to put yourself upon a level with tailors and teachers of birds.”
Gull. Shakespeare often uses this word as synonymous with fool. Thus in “Henry V.” (iii. 6) he says:
“Why, ’tis a gull, a fool.”