History, Religion and Language: "Cooking their goose"

     I unwisely asked about the origin of the expression "I'll cook his goose!". Fresh back from European wanderings, Les Robinson replies:
    "There seems to be some confusion about "cooking their goose." The expression was apparently first heard in English in 1851 in a London street ballad: "If they (the Pope and Cardinal Wiseman) come here we'll cook their goose," the goose being a symbol of stupidity and futility. Perhaps this goes back to a legend about a besieged town in the Middle Ages that taunted its attackers by hanging a goose from a tower. This so infuriated the enemy forces that they burned the whole town, including the goose."
    This challenge forced me to waste some of my invaluable time consulting the invaluable eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, where I always find proof of my ignorance. Cardinal Wiseman rates three columns of small type. He was born in Seville of Irish parents and made a career for himself in the Vatican as a great scholar, being curator of the Arabic mss. The Pope sent him to England with the mission of propagating the faith. He linked up with Cardinal Newman, who had converted to the Catholicism; the Oxford Movement strove to push the Anglican Church toward Rome. In 1850 he went to Rome, where the Pope appointed him Cardinal and Archbishop of Westminister (WAISer tourists may have visited Westminster Cathedral, his brainchild, not to be confused with Westminster Abbey). He represented the Church Militant, and "the whole country was ablaze with indignation at this 'papal aggression' ". As a recent posting said, let the sleeping dogs of religious hatred lie. Cardinal Wiseman was not a wise man.
    Nor am I. Having raised one question, I cannot suppress another. This goosephobia is unjustified; research has shown that geese are not as stupid as other birds. Les' story is dubious. Geese were the defenders of cities.
    Oh dear! "Go.." brings up also the article about the Goliath Frog,a giant frog a foot long found only in Central Africa. WAISer Bob Drewes is the world authority on African frogs. Bob, do you have a Goliath Frog in the California Academy of Sciences?

Ronald Hilton - 09/26/99