"Winchester goose! I cry--a rope! a rope!"
[211] Nares's "Glossary," vol. i. p. 378.
In "Troilus and Cressida" (v. 10) there is a further allusion:
"Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss."
"the Winchestrian goose, Bred on the banke in time of Popery, When Venus there maintain'd the mystery."
[212] "Execration against Vulcan," 1640, p. 37.
"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]
[213] Singer's "Notes," 1875, vol. i. p. 283.
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:
_Hotsp._ 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red-breast teacher."
[214] See "Archæologia," vol. iii. p. 33.
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."
[215] Nares's "Glossary," vol. ii. p. 693. Some think that the bullfinch is meant.
[216] Singer's "Notes," 1875, vol. v. p. 82; see Dyce's "Glossary," p. 433.
_Gull._ Shakespeare often uses this word as synonymous with fool. Thus in "Henry V." (iii. 6) he says:
The same play upon the word occurs in "Othello" (v. 2), and in "Timon of Athens" (ii. 1). In "Twelfth Night" (v. 1) Malvolio asks:
"Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, And made the most notorious geck and gull That e'er invention played on? tell me why."