Chapter Good Time to Goose at Michaelmas of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

them on the abbey of St. Augustine, at Canterbury, and the abbot allowed the sea-wall to fall into a dilapidated state, so that the sea broke through in 1100 and inundated the whole. (See Tenterden Steeple.)

Goodwood Races So called from the park in which they are held. They begin the last Tuesday of July, and last four days; but the principal one is Thursday, called the "Cup Day." These races, being held in a private park, are very select, and admirably conducted. Goodwood Park, the property of the Duke of Richmond, was purchased by Charles, the first Duke, of the Compton family, then resident in East Lavant, a village two miles north of Chichester.

Goody A depreciative, meaning weakly moral and religious. In French, bon homme is used in a similar way.

"No doubt, if a Caesar or a Napoleon comes before some man of weak will ... especially if he be a goody man, [he] will quail." - J. Cook: Conscience, lecture iv. p. 49.

Goody is good-wife, Chaucer's good-lefe; as, Goody Dobson. Good-woman means the mistress of the house, contracted sometimes into gommer, as goodman is into gomman. (See Goodman.)

Goody Blake A poor old woman who was detected by Harry Gill, the farmer, picking up sticks for a wee-bit fire to warm herself by. The farmer compelled her to leave them on the field, and Goody Blake invoked on him the curse that he might never more be warm. From that moment neither blazing fire nor accumulated clothing ever made Harry Gill warm again. Do what he would, "his teeth went chatter, chatter, still." (Wordsworth: Goody Blake and Harry Gill.)

Goody Two-Shoes This tale first appeared in 1765. It was written for Newbery, as it is said, by Oliver Goldsmith.

Goody-goody Very religious or moral, but with no strength of mind or independence of spirit.

Goose A tailor's smoothing-iron; so called because its handle resembles the neck of a goose.

"Come in; tailor; here you may roast your goose." - Shakespeare: Macbeth, ii. 3.

   Ferrara geese. Celebrated for the size of their livers. The French pâte de foie gras, for which Strasbourg is so noted, is not a French invention, but a mere imitation of a well-known dish of classic times.

"I wish, gentlemen, it was one of the geese of Ferrara, so much celebrated among the ancients for the magnitude of their livers, one of which is said to have weighed upwards of two pounds. With this food, exquisite as it was, did Heliogabalus regale his hounds." - Smollett: Peregrine Pickle.

   Wayz Goose. (See Wayz.)
   I'll cook your goose for you. I'll pay you out. Eric, King of Sweden, coming to a certain town with very few soldiers, the enemy, in mockery, hung out a goose for him to shoot at. Finding, however, that the king meant business, and that it would be no laughing matter for them, they sent heralds to ask him what he wanted. "To cook your goose for you," he facetiously replied.
   He killed the goose to get the eggs. He grasped at what was more than his due, and lost an excellent customer. The Greek fable says a countryman had a goose that laid golden eggs; thinking to make himself rich, he killed the goose to get the whole stock of eggs at once but lost everything.
   He steals a goose, and gives the giblets in alms. He amasses wealth by over-reaching, and salves his conscience by giving small sums in charity.
   The older the goose the harder to pluck. Old men are unwilling to part with their money. The reference is to the custom of plucking live geese for the sake of their quills. Steel pens have put an end to this barbarous custom.
   To get the goose. To get hissed on the stage. (Theatrical.)
   What a goose you are. In the Egyptian hieroglyphics the emblem of a vain silly fellow is a goose.

Goose and Gridiron A public-house sign, properly the coat of arms of the Company of Musicians - viz. a swan with expanded wings, within a double tressure [the gridiron], counter, flory, argent. Perverted into a goose striking the bars of a gridiron with its foot, and called "The Swan and Harp," or "Goose and Gridiron."
   This famous lodge of the Freemasons, of which Wren was Master (in London House Yard), was doomed in 1894.