Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

CUCKOO. 681
mount). 1 As far back as the 10th cent, gouh has the side-mean
ing of fool (N. ps. 48, 11. 93, 8. urheizfcozi/i, war-fool, N. Bth.
175); the same everywhere in the ]3th (Walth. 22, 31. Trist.
8631. 18215), though commonly with a qualifying adj. or gen.
pi. : ich tumber gouch, MS. 1, 65 a . tumber denn ein gouch, Troj.
8126. tumber gouch, Barl. 319, 25. gouch unwise 228, 32. sin-
neloser gouch, 319, 38. der treit gouches houbet (wears a gowk s
head), MsH. 3, 468 g . rehter witze ein gouch, MS. 2, 124 b . der
maere ein goichelin (dim.), and gouchgouolt (augm.), Ben. 209.
The ON. gaukr is likewise arrogans morio. Hans Sachs occa
sionally uses Gauchberg 2 in the same sense, ii. 4, 110 d
(Kemp ten
ii. 4, 220 a
), extr. from Goz 1, 52. Yet originally in Grauchsberg
the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense
which has fallen dark to us now (see Suppl.). 3
In other ways too the cuckoo stands in ill repute, he passes
for an adulterer, who lays his eggs in other people s nests ;
hence
the Romans used cuculus in the sense of moechus (Plauti Asinaria,
twice in last scene), and our goucli, goucheUn formerly meant
bastard (Nib. 810, 1. Aw. 1, 46), as the Swiss gugsck still
means an unbidden rival suitor. He even comes out as a fiendish
being, or the fiend himself, in phrases everywhere known from of
old : cuckoo knows, cuckoo take him, cuckoo sent him here
and the like, in all of which the devil s name might be substi
tuted without change of meaning. This seems to me to point
to old heathen traditions, to which the diabolic tinge was added
only by degrees ; and among these I reckon the Low Saxon
formula the cuckoo and his clerk (or sexton) ! by which clerk is
meant the Jwopoo (Brem. wtb. 2, 858), a bird that is likewise
thought to have received his form by metamorphosis. I cannot
trace the story of the cuckoo and Jwopoo any further; does the
1 Hence we find, as substitutes for it, Afferiberc (Docen s Misc. 2, 187) ; Affenberc
and Narrental, MsH. 3, 200 b ; AJfental, ibid. 213*. Wmsbeke 45, 7. Kenner
16469 ; Apenberg and Narrenberg in the Plattd. Narragonia 77 b . 137 b ; Eselsberc,
Diut. 2, 77. Animals whose stupidity was proverbial of old, are the ox, ass, ape,
goat, goose, gowk and : jay vift osvinna apa, Sffim. 25 b . atrunnr apa 55a . Notk. ps.
57, 11 has ruoh (stultus), i.e. hruoh, AS. hroc (graculus, Gramm. 3, 361).
2 Much oftener Schalkeberg (rogue s
hill) in the phrase in den schalksperg
hawen i. (hew) 5, 524a . iii. 3, 28*. 54b . iv. 3, 20 d . 31". 40a the reason of which I
;
do not know. Schalksberg wine grows in Franconia. Henricus dictus de Scalkes-
bergh, Spilker 2, 148 (an. 1268).
3 Those who crave other explanations, will find plenty in Mone s Anz. 6, 350
seq. Gouchsberg is Caucasus, as Elberich is the spirit of Elburj, diabolus the
Persic div, and so forth.