PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
109 
(Gooseberries* 
All the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes 
them, are not worth a Gooseberry.—2 nd Henry IV, i. 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 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 “ Cross¬ 
berry.” 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,” fob 23), 
Gorse ov Goss, 
Tooth’d Briers, sharp Furzes, pricking Goss, and Thorns. 
Tempest, iv. 1, 180. 
In speaking of the Furze 
(which see), I said that in 
Shakespeare’s time the Furze 
and Gorse were probably dis¬ 
tinguished, 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, 1 and gorste ( brnere , et 
jampnorum ), and to form 
thereof a Park at Greenwich.” 
— Rot. Pari . iv. 498. 2 This 
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 pro¬ 
bably the origin of the name, “ Vrisen Hill.” 
2 “ Promptorium Parvulorum,” p. 162, note. 
