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_ PART I. THE PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE
GOOSEBERRIES, GORSE OR GOSS, GOURD, GRASSES
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 holds.
--- Merry Wives, act i, sc. 3 (94).
I merely mention this to point out that "Gourd," though probably originally derived from the fruit, is not the fruit here, but is an instrument of gambling. The fruit, however, was well known in Shakespeare's time, and was used as the type of intense greenness--
"Whose coerule stream, rombling in pebble-stone,
Crept under Moss, as green as any Gourd."
--- SPENSER, Virgil's Gnat.
GRACE, see RUE.
GRAPES, see VINES.
GRASSES.
(1) Gonzalo. How lush and lusty the Grass looks! how green!
--- Tempest, act ii, sc. 1 (52).
(2) Iris.
Here, on this Grass-plot, in this very place
To come and sport.
--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 1 (73).
(3) Ceres.
Why hath thy Queen
Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green?
--- Ibid. (82).
(4) Lysander.
When Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watery glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed Grass.
--- Midsummer Night's Dream, act i, sc. 1 (209).
(5) King.
Say to her, we have measured many miles
To tread a measure with her on this Grass.
Boyet.
They say, that they have measured many miles
To tread a measure with her on the Grass.
--- Love's Labour's Lost, act v, sc. 2 (184).
(6) Clown.
I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir, I have not much skill in Grass.
--- All's Well that Ends Well, act iv, sc. 5 (21).
(7) Luciana.
If thou art changed to aught, 'tis to an ass.
Dromio of Syracuse.
'Tis true; she rides me, and I long for Grass.
--- Comedy of Errors, act ii, sc. 2 (201).
(8) Bolingbroke.
Here we march
Upon the Grassy carpet of the plain.
--- Richard II, act iii, sc. 3 (49).
(9) King Richard.
And bedew
Her pasture's Grass with faithful English blood.
--- Ibid. (100).
(10) Ely.
Grew like the summer Grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
--- Henry V, act i, sc. 1 (65).
(11) King Henry.
Mowing like Grass
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
--- Ibid., act iii, sc. 3 (13).
(12) Grandpre.
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit
Lies foul with chew'd Grass, still and motionless.
--- Henry V, act iv, sc. 2 (49).
(13) Suffolk.
Though standing naked on a mountain top
Where biting cold would never let Grass grow.
--- 2nd Henry VI, act iii, sc. 2 (336).
(14) Cade.
All the realm shall be in common; and in Cheapside shall my
palfrey go to Grass.
--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 2 (74).
(15) Cade.
Wherefore on a brick wall have I climbed into this garden, to
see if I can eat Grass or pick a Sallet another while, which
is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather.
--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 10 (7).
(16) Cade.
If I do not leave you all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I
may never eat Grass more.
--- Ibid. (42).
(17) 1st Bandit.
We cannot live on Grass, on berries, water,
As beasts and birds and fishes.
--- Timon of Athens, act iv, sc. 3 (425).
(18) Saturninus.
These tidings nip me, and I hang the head
As Flowers with frost or Grass beat down with storms.
--- Titus Andronicus, act iv, sc. 4 (70).
(19) Hamlet.
Ay but, sir, "while the Grass grows"--the proverb is something musty.
--- Hamlet, act iii, sc. 2 (358).
(20) Ophelia.
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a Grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
--- Ibid., act iv, sc. 5 (29).
(21) Salarino.
I should be still
Plucking the Grass to know where sits the wind.
---Merchant of Venice, act i, sc. 1 (17).
In and before Shakespeare's time Grass was used as a general term for all plants. Thus Chaucer--
"And every grass that groweth upon roote
Sche schal eek know, to whom it will do boote
Al be his woundes never so deep and wyde."
--- The Squyeres Tale.
It is used in the same general way in the Bible, "the Grass of the field."
In the whole range of botanical studies the accurate study of the Grasses is, perhaps, the most difficult as the genus is the most extensive, for Grasses are said to "constitute, perhaps, a twelfth part of the described species of flowering plants, and at least nine-tenths of the number of individuals comprising the vegetation of the world" (Lindley), so that a full study of the Grasses may almost be said to be the work of a lifetime. But Shakespeare was certainly no such student of Grasses: in all these passages Grass is only mentioned in a generic manner, without any reference to any particular Grass. The passages in which hay is mentioned, I have not thought necessary to quote. _
Read next: Part 1. The Plant-Lore Of Shakespeare: Harebell, Harlocks, Hawthorns
Read previous: Part 1. The Plant-Lore Of Shakespeare: Fumiter, Fumitory, Furze, Garlick, Ginger
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