The Ornithology of Shakespeare Part 31

[Sidenote: THE GOOSE.]

A much more notable bird for the table is the Goose.

"Item, it is thoughte goode to by GEYSSE so that they be good and for iijd. or iiijd. at the moste seynge that iij or iiij Meas may be served thereof."

This bird is mentioned in _As You Like It_, Act iii. Sc. 4; _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act iii. Sc. 1, and Act iv. Sc. 3; _Midsummer Night's Dream_, Act v. Sc. 1; _Tempest_, Act ii. Sc. 2; _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act v. Sc. 1; _Romeo and Juliet_, Act ii. Sc. 4; _Coriola.n.u.s_, Act i. Sc. 4; and _Merchant of Venice_, Act v. Sc. 1.

Shakespeare draws a distinction between a gra.s.s-fed and a stubble-fed goose:--

"The spring is near, when _green geese_ are a-breeding."

_Love's Labour's Lost_, Act i. Sc. 1.

[Sidenote: GREEN GEESE AND STUBBLE GEESE.]

May is the time for a green or gra.s.s-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:--

"Itm~, the xxvij daye to a s'vnt 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, I'd drive you cackling home to Camelot."

_King Lear_, Act ii. Sc. 2.

There appears to be some difference of opinion as to what place is meant by the ancient name _Camelot_. Selden, in his notes to Drayton's "Polyolbion," says:--"By _South Cadbury_ is that Camelot; a hill of a mile compa.s.s at the top; four trenches encircling it, and betwixt every of them an earthen wall; the contents of it within about twenty acres full of ruins and relics of old buildings."

In the "History of King Arthur" (Chap. 26), Camelot is located in the west of England, _Somersetshire_; while in Chapter 44, it is related that Sir Balen's sword "swam down the stream to the citie of Camelot, that is, in English, _Winchester_." When Caxton finished the printing of the "Mort d'Arthur,"[113] he says of the hero:--"He is more spoken of beyond the sea, ... and yet of record remain witness of him in _Wales_, in the town of Camelot, the great stones and marvelous works," &c.

Tennyson, in his "Mort d'Arthur," twice mentions Camelot, and in his "Lady of Shalott" frequently alludes to "many-tower'd Camelot," but in neither poem is any clue to its precise situation given.

[Sidenote: THE WILD-GOOSE CHASE.]

"_Mercutio._ Nay, if our wits run the _wild-goose chase_, I am done; for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits, than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?

_Romeo._ Thou wast never with me for anything, when thou wast not there for the goose.

_Mer._ I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

_Rom._ Nay, good goose, bite not.

_Mer._ Thy wit is very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.

_Rom._ And is it not well served in to a sweet goose?

_Mer._ O, here's a wit of cheverel, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!

_Rom._ I stretch it out for that word--broad: which, added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose."

_Romeo and Juliet_, Act ii. Sc. 4.

The "wild-goose chase" above alluded to was a reckless sort of horserace, in which two horses were started together, and the rider who first got the lead, compelled the other to follow him over whatever ground he chose.[114]

Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," 1660, gives us a general view of the sports most prevalent in the seventeenth century, and after naming the "common recreations of country folks," he alludes to "riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, and _wild-goose chases_, which are disports of greater men and good in themselves, though many gentlemen by such means gallop quite out of their fortunes."

Shakespeare has many observations relating to Ducks, but as his remarks ill.u.s.trate more appropriately what we shall have to say under the head of "wild-fowl," we reserve them accordingly for a future chapter.

[Sidenote: THE SWAN.]

The Swan (_Cygnus olor_), being identified with Orpheus, and called also the bird of Apollo, the G.o.d of music, powers of song have been often attributed to it, and as often denied:--

"I will play the swan, and die in music."

_Oth.e.l.lo_, Act v. Sc. 2.

"A swan-like end, fading in music."

_Merchant of Venice_, Act iii. Sc. 2.

Prince Henry, at his father's death-bed, exclaims,--

"'Tis strange that death should sing!

I am the cygnet to this pale, faint swan, Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death; And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, sings His soul and body to their lasting rest."

_King John_, Act v. Sc. 7.

Again, in _Lucrece_, we read--

"And now this pale swan in her watery nest, Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending."

But although the swan has no "song," properly so called, it has a soft and rather plaintive note, monotonous, but not disagreeable. I have often heard it in the spring, when swimming about with its young.

[Sidenote: SONG OF THE SWAN.]

Colonel Hawker, in his "Instructions to Young Sportsmen" (11th ed. p.

269), says:--"The only note which I ever heard the wild swan, in winter, utter, is his well-known 'whoop.' But one summer evening I was amused with watching and listening to a domesticated one, as he swam up and down the water in the Regent's Park. He turned up a sort of melody, made with two notes, C and the minor third, E flat, and kept working his head as if delighted with his own performance.

"The melody, taken down on the spot by a first-rate musician, Auguste Bertini, was as follows:--

[Music]