his wing,
He can at pleasure stint their melody."

[210] Harting's "Ornithology of Shakespeare," p. 33.

_Goose._ This bird was the subject[211] of many quaint proverbial
phrases often used in the old popular writers. Thus, a _tailor's goose_
was a jocular name for his pressing-iron, probably from its being often
roasting before the fire, an allusion to which occurs in "Macbeth" (ii.
3): "come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose." The "wild-goose
chase," which is mentioned in "Romeo and Juliet" (ii. 4)--"Nay, if thy
wits run the wild-goose chase, I have done"--was a kind of horse-race,
which resembled the flight of wild geese. Two horses were started
together, and whichever rider could get the lead, the other was obliged
to follow him over whatever ground the foremost jockey chose to go. That
horse which could distance the other won the race. This reckless sport
is mentioned by Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," as a recreation
much in vogue in his time among gentlemen. The term "Winchester goose"
was a cant phrase for a certain venereal disease, because the stews in
Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester, to
whom Gloster tauntingly applies the term in the following passage ("1
Henry VI.," i. 3):

"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."

Ben Jonson[212] calls it:

"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:

"_Lady P._ I will not sing.

_Hotsp._ 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red-breast teacher."

[214] See "Archaeologia," vol. iii. p. 33.

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