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THE WILD-GOOSE CHASE. 
. 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 reck¬ 
less 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 
choseA 
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 illustrate more appropriately what we 
shall have to say under the head of “ wild-fowl,” we 
reserve them accordingly for a future chapter. 
* See “Chambers’s Dictionary," last ed., article “Chase;" also Holt White's 
note to this passage in the “ Variorum Shakespeare.” 
