GOURD.

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Pistol. For Gourd and fullam holds.
Merry Wives, act i, sc. 3 (94).

I merely mention this to point out that "Gourd," though probably originally derived from the fruit, is not the fruit here, but is an instrument of gambling. The fruit, however, was well known in Shakespeare's time, and was used as the type of intense greenness—

"Whose coerule stream, rombling in pebble-stone,
Crept under Moss, as green as any Gourd."

Spenser, Virgil's Gnat.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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