probable that it may have been so
grown in Shakespeare's time. Gerard attempted to grow it, but he
naturally failed, by trying to grow it in the open ground as a hardy
plant; yet "it sprouted and budded forth greene leaves in my garden in
the heate of somer;" and he tells us that plants were sent him by "an
honest and expert apothecarie, William Dries, of Antwerp," and "that the
same had budded and grown in the said Dries' garden."

GOOSEBERRIES.

_Falstaff._

All the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this
age shapes them, are not worth a Gooseberry.

_2nd Henry IV_, act i, sc. 2 (194).

The Gooseberry is probably a native of the North of England, but Turner
said (s.v. _uva crispa_) "it groweth onely that I have sene in England,
in gardines, but I have sene it in Germany abrode in the fieldes amonge
other busshes."

The name has nothing to do with the goose. Dr. Prior has satisfactorily
shown that the word is a corruption of "Crossberry." By the writers of
Shakespeare's time, and even later, it was called Feaberry (Gerard,
Lawson, and others), and in one of the many books on the Plague
published in the sixteenth century, the patient is recommended to eat
"thepes, or goseberries" ("A Counsell against the Sweate," fol. 23).

GORSE OR GOSS.

_Ariel._

Tooth'd Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns.

_Tempest_, act iv, sc. 1 (180).

In speaking of the Furze (which see), I said that in Shakespeare's time
the Furze and Gorse were probably distinguished, though now the two
names are applied to the same plant. "In the 15th Henry VI. (1436),
license was given to Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, to inclose 200 acres
of land--pasture, wode, hethe, vrises,[106:1] and gorste (_bruere, et
jampnorum_), and to form thereof a Park at Greenwich."--_Rot. Parl._ iv.
498.[106:2] This proves that the "Gorst" was different from the "Vrise,"
and it may very likely have been the Petty Whin. "Pricking Goss,"
however, may be only a generic term, like Bramble and Brier, for any
wild prickly plant.

FOOTNOTES:

[106:1] There is a hill near Lansdown (Bath) now called Frizen or
Freezing Hill. Within memory of man it was covered with Gorse. This was
probably the origin of the name, "Vrisen Hill."

[106:2] "Promptorium Parvulorum," p. 162, note.

GOURD.

_Pistol._

For Gourd and fullam