Winchester goose

Gammerstang commented on the word Winchester goose

(noun) - (1) Swelling in the groin caused by venereal disease.

--C.T. Onions' Oxford Shakespeare Glossary, 1911

(2) The French for it, according to Cotgrave, was clapoir, a botch in the groyne . . . It is thought to have originated from the circumstance of the public stews at Bankside in Southwark London, being under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester. Hence, Ben Jonson calls it, "The Wincestrian goose, bred on the Southwark Bank in time of popery, when Venus there maintain'd her mystery."

--Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859

(3) Then ther's a Goose that breeds at Winchester,

And of all Geese, my mind is least to her.

--John "The Water Poet" Taylor, c. 1630

January 21, 2018