246 
WILD-GEESE. 
ened varlets who fled at the sight of Bottom with the 
ass’s head to “ wild-geese that the creeping fowler eye.”— 
Midsummer Night's Dream , Act iii. Sc. 2. 
“They flock together in consent, like so many wild- 
geese.”— Henry IV. Part II. Act v. Sc. 1. 
And Marcius, addressing the retreating Romans before 
Corioli, reproaches them as having no more courage than 
geese:— 
“You souls of geese, 
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run 
From slaves that apes would beat!” 
Coriolanus , Act i. Sc. 4. 
The Fool in King Lear reminds us of the old proverb— 
“ Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild-geese fly that way.” 
King Lear } Act ii. Sc. 4. 
It is not surprising that, to so common a bird, nume¬ 
rous allusions should be made in the Plays of Shake¬ 
speare, and, in addition to the passages quoted in Chapter 
VII.A many others might here be mentioned, were it not 
that the repetition might prove tedious. 
It was anciently believed that the Bernacle Goose 
(A riser bernicla) was generated from the Bernacle or 
Barnacle ( Lepas anatiferci). Shakespeare has alluded to 
the metamorphosis in the following line:— 
“ And all be turned to barnacles.” 
Tempest , Act iv. Sc. 1. 
* See.ante, p. 197. 
