Gooseberry

Fox Talbot says this is St. John's berry, being ripe about St. John's Day. [This must be John the Baptist, at the end of August, not John the Evangelist, at the beginning of May.] Hence, he says, it is called in Holland Jansbeeren. Jans'-beeren, he continues, has been corrupted into Gansbeeren, and Gans is the German for goose. This is very ingenious, but gorse (furze) offers a simpler derivation. Gorse-berry (the prickly berry) would be like the German stachel-beere (the “prickly berry”), and kraus— beere (the rough gooseberry), from krauen (to scratch). Krausbeere, Gorse-berry, Gooseberry. In Scotland it is called grosser. (See Bear's Garlick.)

To play gooseberry

is to go with two lovers for appearance' sake. The person “who plays propriety” is expected to hear, see, and say nothing. (See Gooseberry Picker.)

He played up old gooseberry with me.

He took great liberties with my property, and greatly abused it; in fact, he made gooseberry fool of it. (See below.)

Gooseberry Fool

A corruption of gooseberry foulé, milled, mashed, pressed. The French have foulé de pommes; foulé de raisins; foulé de groseilles, our “gooseberry fool.”

Gooseberry fool is a compound made of gooseberries scalded and pounded with cream.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Gooseberry Picker

Goose at Michaelmas