DYCE
GLOSSARY
TO
SHAKESPEARE
PR
2892
D99
1902
cop. 2

(IVERSITY OF MIC
NIVERSITY
OF MIC
MICHIGAN
Ed
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THE
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:
GLOSSARY TO THE WORKS OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
7
A GLOSSARY
ΤΟ
THE WORKS OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
BY
THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
THE REFERENCES MADE APPLICABLE TO ANY EDITION OF
SHAKESPEARE, THE EXPLANATIONS REVISED AND
NEW NOTES ADDED
BY
HAROLD LITTLEDALE, M.A.
Professor of the English Language and Literature, University
College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, in the
University of Wales.

ZARDVA QVÆ▪FVECRA
LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1902
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PR
2892
bbc
1902
cop.2
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PREFACE
THE present volume contains a great variety of illus-
tration, being a Glossary of uncommon words, of less
uncommon words
words in their different significations, of
passages which convey an obscure or doubtful sense, of
proverbial expressions, of cant phrases, of manners and
customs, of games and sports, of dresses and weapons, &c.,
and of numerous allusions with which only archæologists
and antiquaries are supposed to be familiar.
Among the difficulties incident to a glossarist not the
least is that of determining the nicer shades of meaning
in which many words are used; and very probably some
philologers may think that I have occasionally made
distinctions where none in fact exist, and sometimes
confounded what ought to have been kept distinct. Nor
do I feel sure that sundry other things will not be
objected to, and perhaps with justice, in such a mass
of omnigenous matter as the following pages comprise.
In availing myself of the comments of my prede-
cessors from Theobald downwards, I have throughout
acknowledged my obligations whenever they were at all
important; which I the rather mention because of late
it has been too much the fashion to borrow largely and
verbatim from the notes of the Variorum Shakespeare,
and yet to conceal the debt.
A. D.
383049
REVISER'S PREFACE
ALTHOUGH more than thirty years have passed since
the death of the Rev. Alexander Dyce, on the 15th of
May, 1869, his Glossary is still a standard manual for
the elucidation of Shakespeare's text.
During this interval, two indexes of special value to
students of Shakespeare have been published: Schmidt's
Lexicon, and Bartlett's Concordance.
It is no detraction from the value of Schmidt's monu-
mental work to say that it gives sometimes too much
and sometimes too little. Its very fulness of reference
in the case of words and phrases that need no commen-
tary is not seldom a positive hindrance to the seeker
for light, and on the other hand the comprehensiveness
of Schmidt's plan does not admit of the adequate
presentation of opposite points of view or detailed
illustration of specially difficult or interesting matters.
Bartlett's Concordance, for fulness and precision of refer-
ence, leaves nothing to be desired, and often it happens
that one needs no better gloss on Shakespeare's usage
and meaning than is to be found in other passages
from the poet himself; but of course it is only a
concordance, not a lexicon. The present edition of
Dyce's Glossary aims at occupying an eclectic position
between these two standard works of reference.
viii
REVISER'S PREFACE
It is hoped that in particular one improvement on
the preceding editions will help towards the attainment
of this aim: the change, namely, that has been made in
the references appended to the ten or twelve thousand
passages from the plays and poems that are quoted or
referred to. In former editions the student was merely
given as his guide to the location of a passage the
number of the volume and page of its occurrence in
Dyce's own large edition of Shakespeare. No method
could well have been less illuminative. Instead of show-
ing at a glance the exact position of the quotation in
the series of Shakespeare's works, the figures gave only
an indication of the place where, after a troublesome.
search, that information might at last be found. It is
a testimony to the intrinsic merit of the Glossary that,
despite this drawback, it has been constantly used by
students of the poet who do not possess Dyce's edition
of the plays.
The Reviser's first task was to alter every one of these
references, and then to examine the footnotes in the
nine volumes of Dyce's text, so as to incorporate material
of glossarial value. All the quotations were made to
conform to the Globe text, to which the act, scene and
line numbering-following Schmidt and Bartlett in this
-also refer. Now that each new edition of Shakespeare
seems to number the lines of prose and verse at its own
sweet will, a chaos of line-numberings will be upon us
unless some agreement is arrived at before long. At
any rate the works of reference-The New English,
REVISER'S PREFACE
ix
Skeat, Schmidt, Bartlett, and now Dyce-are unanimous,
and it seems a pity that such excellent editions of the
plays as the Cambridge, Globe, Furness, Eversley, Oxford,
Temple, Methuen's, &c. should have each a different line-
numbering for the prose of similar texts, merely because
the types happen to vary in size or the lines in length.
The other duties implied in the word Revision have been
performed to the best of the reviser's ability. He has
carefully weighed the explanations and illustrations, has
cut out a few things, compressed some diffuse utterances,
and tried to bring the book up to date generally. He
has also inserted a number of new short articles, and
offered his own interpretations occasionally. Such matter
is for the most part indicated by [brackets].
It may be thought that the lapse of thirty years must
have rendered a great deal of Dyce's work obsolete, but
this is not the case. Shakespearian scholarship in this
generation has been concerned more with questions of
authorship, chronological order, and psychological ex-
position, than with textual exegesis, much of which was
settled once for all by the men of Malone's and Dyce's
times. It is chiefly in the department of etymology that
their speculations have been superseded, and a little
pruning has been necessary from this branch. Mr. Col-
lier's débâcle had taken place during Dyce's lifetime, and
his notes that survive have done so on their own merits
and not as a tribute to his authority. It has been found
impossible to do justice to the many excellent editions
of Shakespeare that have appeared of late years, but
X
REVISER'S PREFACE
the reviser has carefully studied Prof. Herford's edition
as representing the latest views, and has tried to maintain
Dyce's extreme accuracy of quotation and conscientious-
ness of acknowledgment. Lastly, it is hoped that Dyce's
work has been reverently dealt with. The reviser would
rather be found fault with for having added too little than
for having altered too much. Such as the book now is,
it is offered as a tribute to the memory of Alexander Dyce.
ABBREVIATIONS
Tp.
2G.
M.W.
M.M.
Err.
Ado
The Tempest.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Measure for Measure.
Comedy of Errors.
= Much Ado about Nothing.
L.L.L. = Love's Labour's Lost.
M.N.D.
M.V.
A.Y.L.
Shr.
A.W.
12N.
W.T.
K.J.
R2.
A Midsummer-Night's Dream.
The Merchant of Venice.
As You Like It.
The Taming of the Shrew.
All's Well that Ends Well.
=Twelfth Night; or, What You Will.
The Winter's Tale.
The Life and Death of King John.
The Tragedy of King Richard II.
The First Part of King Henry IV.
The Second Part of King Henry IV.
= The Life of King Henry V.
The First Part of King Henry VI.
The Second Part of King Henry VI.
The Third Part of King Henry VI.
The Tragedy of King Richard III.
= The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII.
Troilus and Cressida.
Coriolanus.
IH4.
2H4.
H5.
1H6.
2H6.
3H6.
R3.
H8.
Troil.
Cor.
Tit.
- Titus Andronicus.
Rom.
= Romeo and Juliet.
Tim.
J.C.
Mcb.
= Macbeth.
Hml.
Lr.
Oth.
Ant.
Timon of Athens.
Julius Cæsar.
= Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
King Lear.
Othello, the Moor of Venice.
Antony and Cleopatra.
Cymb. = Cymbeline.
Per.
2N.K.
Ven.
Lucr.
Sonn.
Compl.
P. Pilg.
Sundry
Phoen.
Globe
= Pericles.
The Two Noble Kinsmen.
=Venus and Adonis.
= The Rape of Lucrece.
Sonnets.
A Lover's Complaint.
The Passionate Pilgrim.
Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music.
The Phoenix and the Turtle.
= The Globe Edition of Shakespeare's Works.
A
GLOSSARY TO SHAKESPEARE.
A.
a, frequently omitted in exclamations: What fool is she, that
knows, &c.! 2G. i. 2. 53; What dish o' poison has she
dressed him! 12N. ii. 5. 123; Cassius, what night is this!
J.C. i. 3. 42; what thing is it that I never Did see man
die! Cymb. iv. 4. 36.
abate, to lower, to depress, to cast down in spirit: as most
Abated captives, Cor. iii. 3. 132. (Walker conj. abased.)
abate, to contract, to cut short: Abate thy hours, M.N.D. iii.
2. 432.
abate, to blunt (equivalent to rebate): Abate the edge of traitors,
R3. v. 5. 35. (Compare Browne's Britannia's Pastorals,
(C
With plaints which might abate a Tyrant's knife."
Book 1, Song 4, p. 87, ed. 1625;
Milton's Paradise Regained,
"To slacken virtue, and abate her edge."
Which once in him abated. 2H4. i. I. 117.
Book ii. 455);
abate, to take away, to except: Abate throw at novum (“Ex-
cept or put the chance of the dice out of the question,"
MALONE; and see novum). L.L.L. v. 2. 547.
abate, to deprive, Lr. ii. 4. 161.
Abcee-book-An, an A-B-C-book, a primer, which sometimes
included a catechism. K.J. i. 1. 196; 2G. ii. 1. 23.
("To learne the Horne-booke and the Abcee through."
Wither's Abuses Stript and Whipt,—Inconstancy, sig. P 2, ed. 1613.)
abhominable, L.L.L. v. 1. 26: The old mode of spelling
abominable: ("quasi inhuman" Schmidt): it appears to have
been going out of use in the time of Shakespeare, who
here ridicules it.
abhor, yea, from my soul Refuse you for my judge-I utterly,
H8. ii. 4. 81. "These are not mere words of passion,
but technical terms in the canon law. Detestor and Recuso.
The former, in the language of canonists, signifies no more
I
2
ABIDE-ABUSE.
than-I protest against" (BLACKSTONE): "The words are
Holinshed's; and therefore openly protested that she
did utterly abhor, refuse, and forsake such a judge'"
(MALONE).
abide, to sojourn, to tarry awhile: and yet it will no more but
abide, W.T. iv. 3. 99; abide within, Mcb. iii. 1. 140.
abide, to answer for, to be accountable for, to stand the
consequences of: let no man abide this deed, But we the
doers, J.C. iii. 1. 94; some will dear abide it, iii. 2.
abjects, The queen's, "means "the most servile of her sub-
jects'" (MASON), R3. i. 1. 106.
119.
able, "to qualify or uphold" (WARBURTON), "to warrant or
answer for" (Nares's Gloss.): I'll able 'em, Lr. iv. 6. 172.
abode, to forebode, to portend: aboded, H8. i. 1. 93; aboding,
3H6. v. 6. 45.
abodements, forebodements, evil omens, 3H6. iv. 7. 13.
abortive pride, "pride that has had birth too soon, pride
issuing before its time" (JOHNSON), 2H6. iv. 1. 60.
abram, auburn, Cor. ii. 3. 21, and see Adam Cupid.
abridgment have you for this evening?-What, [short entertain-
ment, pastime] M.N.D. v. 1. 39; look, where my abridg
ment comes, Hml. ii. 2. 439: In the first of these passages
abridgment means a dramatic performance, and in the
second it is applied to the players, as being, I presume,
the persons who represent an abridgment: "By abridgment
our author may mean a dramatic performance, which crowds
the events of years into a few hours..... It may be worth
while, however, to observe, that in the North the word
abatement had the same meaning as diversion or amusement.
So, in the Prologue to the 5th Book of G. Douglas's
version of the Eneid,
<
Ful mony mery abaitmentis followis here'" (STEEVENS).
abrook, to brook, to endure, 2H6. ii. 4. 10.
absent time-To take advantage of the, To take advantage of
the time of the king's absence, R2. ii. 3. 79; cf. Oth. iii. 4. 174.
Absey, see Abcee.
absolute, highly accomplished, perfect: contends in skill With
absolute Marina, Per. iv. Gow. 31.
absolute, determined: Be absolute for death, M.M. iii. 1. 5.
absolute, positive, certain: I'm absolute 'twas very Cloten,
Cymb. iv. 2. 106.
I. 205;
abuse, deception: This is a strange abuse, M.M. v.
My strange and self-abuse. Mcb. iii. 4. 142.
abuse, to deceive, to impose upon: I'm mightily abus'd (“I am
strangely imposed on by appearances, I am in a strange
mist of uncertainty," JOHNSON), Lr. iv. 7. 53; The Moor's
abus'd by some most villanous knave, Oth. iv. 2. 139; You
•
:
ABY-ACHERON.
3
are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion, Cymb. i. 4.
124; Abuses me to damn me, Hml. ii. 2. 632.
aby, the same as to abide, q.v. [pay for, atone for,] M.N.D.
iii. 2. 175, 335.
abysm, abyss, Tp. i. 2. 50; Ant. iii. 13. 147; Sonn. 112.
accept and peremptory answer-Pass our, H5. v. 2. 82: "Deliver
our acceptation of these articles,-the opinion which we
shall form upon them, and our peremptory answer to each
particular” (MALONE): "Pass our acceptance of what we
approve, and pass a peremptory answer to the rest"
(TOLLET): "give the answer upon which we definitely and
finally agree" (HERFORD). accept = accepted.
accite, to call, to cite, to summon: we will accite....all our
state, 2H4. v. 2. 141; He by the senate is accited home, Tit.
i. 1. 27; what accites (moves, impels) your most worshipful
thought to think so? 2H4. ii. 2. 64.
accommodated-Better, 2H4. iii. 2. 72; Accommodated!-it comes
of accommodo, 2H4. iii. 2. 77, 84; Accommodated; that is....
accommodated.... thought to be accommodated. Accommodate,
which Bardolph so ludicrously attempts to define, was a
fashionable word in Shakespeare's days, and often in-
troduced with great impropriety: Jonson, as well as our
poet, ridicules the use of it.
accomplish'd with the number of thy hours, "when he was
of thy age" (MALONE), R2. ii. 1. 177.
accordingly valiant, conformably, proportionably, valiant, A.W.
ii. 5. 9.
account, accounted: account no sin, Per. i. Gow. 30.
"}
accuse, an accusation: false accuse, 2H6. iii. 1. 160.
Acheron, M.N.D. iii. 2. 357; Tim. iv. 3. 44; Mcb. iii 5. 15:
"The infernal river, supposed by Sh. to be a burning
lake (SCHMIDT): Fairfax, in his translation of the Gerusa-
lemme (published before Macbeth was produced), has made
Ismeno frequent "the shores of Acheron," without any
warrant from Tasso;
<<
'A Christian once, Macon he now adores,
Nor could he quite his wonted faith forsake,
But in his wicked arts both oft implores
Helpe from the Lord and aide from Pluto blake;
He, from deepe caues by Acherons darke shores
(Where circles vaine and spels he vs'd to make),
T'aduise his king in these extremes is come;
Achitophell so counsell'd Absalome."
The original has merely
Ed or dalle spelonche, ove lontano
Dal volgo esercitar suol l'arti ignote,
Vien," &c.
B. ii, st. 2.
4
ACHES-ACQUITTANCE.
For instances how loosely the name Acheron is used by
our early poets, see, in Sylvester's Du Bartas, ed. 1641,
The Second Day of the First Week, p. 15, The Vocation,
pp. 149, 155, and The Fathers, p. 162; also Hubert's
Edward the Second, p. 161, ed. 1629.
aches, make thee roar-Fill all thy bones with, Tp. i. 2. 370;
Aches contract and starve your supple joints. Tim. 1. 1. 257;
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, v. 1. 202:
In the above lines aches is a dissyllable, [pronounced
aitches] according to the usage of the poets of Shake-
speare's days and of those of a much later period (Boswell
adduces an instance from Swift; and here is one from
Blackmore,
'Cripples, with aches, and with age opprest,
Crawl on their crutches to the grave for rest."
Eliza, 1705, Book ix. p. 249.)
Achilles's spear, Is able with the change to kill and cure,-Like
to, 2H6. v. I. 100: Telephus having been wounded by
Achilles, could be cured only by the rust scraped from the
spear which had caused the wound: the particulars of his
story (related with some variations) may be found in the
mythological writers. [The Elizabethan sonneteers freq.
allude to this spear: see Watson, Hecatompathia, Ixviii.]
("Cosi od' io che soleva la lancia
D' Achille, e del suo padre, esser cagione
Prima di trista, e poi di buona mancia."
Dante, Inferno, C. xxxi 4..
And fell in speche of Telephus the king,
And of Achilles for his queinte spere,
For he coude with it bothe hele and dere," &c.
Tasso has
<<
Chaucer, The Squieres Tale, v. 10552, ed. Tyrwhitt.
Ahi crudo Amor! ch' egualmente n' ancide
L'assenzio e 'l mel che tu fra noi dispensi;
E d'ogni tempo egualmente mortali
Vengon da te le medicine e i mali.”
which Fairfax chooses to render thus,
CC
Gerus, C. iv, 92;
Cupids deepe riuers haue their shallow fordes;
His griefes bring ioyes, his losses recompences;
He breedes the sore, and cures vs of the paine:
Achilles' lance that wounds and heales againe.”)
acknown on't—Be not you, Do not you confess to any know-
ledge of the matter, be not acquainted with it, Oth. iii. 3. 319.
aconitum, aconite, monkshood or wolf's-bane, 2H4. iv. 4. 48.
acquittance, to acquit: Your mere enforcement shall acquittance
me, R3. iii. 7. 233.
ACROSS-ADDRESS.
across-Good faith. See break cross.
5
นก
action-taking....rogue, “A fellow who, if you beat him, would
bring an action for the assault, instead of resenting it like
a man of courage" (MASON), Lr. ii. 2. 18.
activity, virility: Troil. iii. 2. 60; H5. iii. 7. 107; Tim. iv. 3. 163.
acture, explained by Malone as "synonymous with action,"
[performance,] Compl. 183.
Adam-And called, Ado, i. 1. 261. An allusion to one of the
three noted outlaws, famous for their skill in archery, who
figure in the spirited and picturesque ballad entitled Adam
Bel, Clym of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle: see
it in Ritson's collection, Anc. Pop. Poetry, and in Percy's Rel.
Adam Cupid, Rom. ii. 1. 13. Qq. Ff. have Abraham Cupid,
possibly with allusion to the naked Abraham or
"Abram
=
men"; or to Abram auburn. Upton's conjecture Adam
(with a reference to Adam Bell the famous archer, cf. Ado
i. 1. 260) is generally accepted.
Adam was a gardener, 2H6. iv. 2. 142: An allusion most
probably to the old rhyme, "When Adam delv'd, and Eve
span," &c.
Adam... in the calf's skin, Err. iv. 3. 18. Sergeants wore buff:
see Overbury's Characters, p. 163.
adamant, the magnet, the loadstone: hard-hearted adamant,
M.N.D. ii. 1. 195; As iron to adamant, Troil. iii. 2. 186.
addiction, inclination: to what sport and revels his addiction
leads him, Oth. ii. 2. 7. [O. Edd. addition.]
addiction, the being addicted or given to: Since his addiction
was to courses vain, H5. i. 1. 54.
addition, title, mark of distinction: Bull-bearing Milo his addi
tion yield, Troil. ii. 3. 258; his addition shall be humble, iii.
2. 102; A great addition earned in thy death, iv. 5. 141;
Bear The addition nobly ever, Cor. i. 9. 66; In which addi-
tion, hail, Mcb. 1. 3. 106; whereby he does receive Particular
addition, iii. 1. 100; with swinish phrase Soil our addition
("disparage us by using, as characteristic of us, terms that
imply or impute swinish properties, that fix a swinish addi-
tion or title to our names," (CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 4. 20;
the least syllable of thy addition, Lr. ii. 2. 26; no addition,
nor my wish, Oth. iii. 4, 194; the addition Whose want even
kills me, iv. I. 105; they are devils' additions, M.W. ii. 2.
312; Where great additions swell's, A.W. ii. 3. 134; hath
robbed many beasts of their particular additions (“their pecu-
liar and characteristic qualities or denominations," MALONE),
Troil. i. 2. 20; all th' additions to a king, Lr. i. 1. 138.
addition, exaggeration: Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition,
Hml. iv. 4. 17.
address, to prepare, to make ready: address me to my appointment,
M.W. iii. 5. 135; he does address himself unto, A.W. iii. 6. 103;
6
ADMIRAL-ADVERTISEMENT.
address yourself to entertain them, W.T. iv. 4. 53; address thee
instantly, 2H6. v. 2. 27; Let us address to tend on Hector's
heels, Troil. iv. 4. 148; address Itself to motion, Hml. 1. 2. 216;
Were all address'd to meet you, L.L.L. ii. 1. 83: the Prologue
is address'd, M.N.D. v. 1. 106; have I address'd me, M.V.
ii. 9. 19; Address'd a mighty power, A.Y.L. v. 4. 162; Our
navy is address'd, 2H4. iv. 4. 5; for the march are we addrest,
H5. iii. 3. 58: He is address'd, J.C. iii. 1. 29; address'd them
Again to sleep, Mcb. ii. 2. 25; Even in your armours, as you
are address'd, Per. ii. 3. 94; address'd to answer his desire,
Lucr. 1606.
admiral, the chief ship of a fleet (if not that which carried the
admiral): thou art our admiral, 1H4. iii. 3. 28. (where Schm.
explains "commander of a fleet"); Th' Antoniad, the
Egyptian admiral, Ant. iii. 10. 2.
admittance, fashion: of great admittance (admitted into the
best company,-of high fashion), M.W, ii. 2. 235; of Venetian
admittance, iii. 6. 61.
Adonis' gardens, That one day bloom'd and fruitful were the
next, 1H6. i. 6. 6: “The proverb alluded to seems always to
have been used in a bad sense, for things which make a
fair show for a few days, and then wither away: but the
[unknown] author of this play, desirous of making a show
of his learning, without considering its propriety, has made
the Dauphin apply it as an encomium. There is a very
good account of it in Erasmus's Adagia" (Blakeway).
adoptious christendoms, affected poetical epithets that he
will apply to his mistresses, Cupid being sponsor to such
christenings: A.W. i. 1. 188. Helena enumerates a number
of stock-phrases from love-sonnetry. L. Given, by adoption,
not real. Craig.
advance this jewel, “prefer it, raise it to honour by wearing
it" (JOHNSON), Tim. i. 2. 176.
advancement-His own disorders Deserv'd much less, Lr. ii. 4.
203: "Certainly means, that Kent's disorders had entitled him
even to a post of less honour than the stocks" (STEEVENS).
adversaries do in law-As, Shr. i. 2. 278: Here by adver-
saries we are to understand the counsel of adversaries.
adversity! Well said, Troil. V. I.
I. 14: "Contrariety"
(STEEVENS); Collier conjec. "perversity." "Abstr. pro
concr." (SCHMIDT).
advértise-To one that can my part in him, M.M. i. 1. 42. “To
one who is himself already sufficiently conversant with the
nature and duties of my office" (MALONE); "who is able
to instruct me about the part I have to bear to him; or
what I have to say to him." (SCHMIDT). ·
advertisement, admonition, moral instruction: my griefs cry
louder than advertisement, Ado, v. 1. 32.
ADVERTISING—AERÝ.
7
advertising and holy to your business, "attentive and faithful
to," &c. (JOHNSON), M.M. v. 1. 388.
advice, consideration: with more advice,
•
without advice,
2G. ii. 4. 208; after more advice, M.M. v. 1. 469; upon more
advice, M.V. iv. 2. 6; upon advice, Shr. i. 1. 117; Tit. i.
1. 379; lack advice, A.W. iii. 4. 19; upon good advice, R2.
i. 3. 233; on his more advice, H5. ii. 2. 43; with advice and
silent secrecy, 2H6. ii. 2. 68; Out of your best advice, Cymb.
i. 1. 156.
advise, equivalent to persuade: Signor Leonato, let the friar
advise you, Ado, iv. 1. 246.
advise, followed by you, thee, &c., to consider: Advise you
what you say, 12N. iv. 2. 102; bid thy master well advise
himself; H5. iii. 6. 168; Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be
done, Tit. iv. 2. 129; Advise yourself, Lr. ii. 1. 29.
advised, deliberate, advisèd watch, M.V. i. 1. 142; advis'd
respect, K.J. iv. 2. 214; advised purpose, R2. i. 3. 188.
advised, aware. cautious, circumspect, considerate: mad or well-
advis'd (in possession of reflection and reason), Err. ii. 2.
215; I am advised what I say (“I am not going to speak
precipitately or rashly, but on reflection and consideration,
STEEVENS), Err. v. 1. 214: And were you well advis'd ("acting
with sufficient deliberation," STEEVENS)? L.L.L. v. 2. 434;
therefore be advis'd, M.V. ii. 1. 42; Be well advis'd, K.J.
iii. 1. 5; You were advis'd his flesh was capable, &c., 2H4.
i. 1. 172; Th' advised head, H5. i. 2. 179; Are ye advis'd?
2H6. ii. 1. 48; bid me be advised how I tread, 2H6. ii. 4. 36;
livery of advisèd age, 2H6. v. 2. 47; being well advis'd, R3.
i. 3. 318; bade me be advis'd, R3 ii. 1. 107; any well-advisèd
friend, R3. iv. 4. 517; general, be advis'd, Oth. i. 2. 55; 0,
be advised, Ven. 615.
advisedly, deliberately, M.V. v. 1. 253; 1H4. v. 1. 114; Lucr.
180, 1527.
aery, the nest, also the young brood in the nest, of an eagle,
hawk, or other bird of prey, K.J. v. 2. 149; R3. 1. 3. 264, 270.
aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question
—An, Hml. ii. 2. 354: "Shakespeare here alludes to the
encouragement at that time given to some 'eyry' or nest
of children, or 'eyases' (young hawks) [see eyases], who
spoke in a high tone of voice. There were several com-
panies of young performers about this date engaged in
acting, but chiefly the Children of Paul's and the Children
of the Revels, who, it seems, were highly applauded, to the
injury of the companies of adult performers. From an,
early date the choir-boys of St. Paul's, Westminster, Windsor,
and the Chapel Royal, had been occasionally so employed,
and performed at Court" (COLLIER), [see Ward, sec. ed.
Eng. Dram. Lit. i. 452, 469.]
8
ESOP-AFTER-SUPPER.
Esop fable, &c.-Let, 3H6. v. 5. 25: "The Prince calls Richard,
for his crookedness, Æsop," &c. (JOHNSON).
afar off, indirectly, remotely, M.W. i. 1. 216; W.T. ii. 1. 104.
affect, to love ("To affect (love). Diligo." Coles's Lat. & Engl.
Dict.): a lady. . . whom 1 affect, 2G. iii. 1. 82; Dost thou
affect her? Ado, i. 1. 298; I do affect the very ground, L.L.L.
i. 2. 172; If you affect him, Shr. ii. 1. 14; she did affect me,
12N. ii. 5. 28; Sir John affects thy wife, M.W. ii. 1. 115;
since he affects her most, 1H6. v. 5. 59; And may, for aught
thou know'st, affected be, Tit. ii. 1. 28.
affect, inclination, L.L.L. i. 1. 150.
affect the letter, affect, practise alliteration L.L.L. iv. 2. 56.
affectation, see affection, 3.
affection, imagination, or "the disposition of the mind when
strongly affected or possessed by a particular idea" (MALONE)
Affection! thy intention stabs the centre, W.T. i. 2. 138.
affection, sympathy: affection, Mistress of passion, M.V. iv. 1. 50.
affection, affectation: witty without affection, L.L.L. v. 1. 4:
indict (convict) the author of affection, (Globe: affectation)
Hml. ii. 2. 464.
affectioned, affected, 12N. ii. 3. 160.
affects, affections. shifts to strange affects, (Gl. effects) M.M.
iii. 1. 24; every man with his affects is born, L.L.L. i. 1. 152;
to banish their affects with him, R2. i. 4. 30; the young
affects In me defunct, (Gl. effects) Oth. 1. 3. 265.
affeer'd, (a law-term) confirmed, established, Mcb. iv. 3. 34.
affin'd, joined by affinity, Troil. i. 3. 25: Whether I in any
just term am affin'd To love the Moor (“Do I stand within
any such terms of propinquity or relation to the Moor, as
that it is my duty to love him?" JOHNSON), Oth. i. 1. 39;
If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office (Here affin'd "means
related by nearness of office,'" STEEVENS), Oth. ii. 3. 218.
affront, a meeting face to face, a hostile encounter: That gave
th' affront with them, Cymb. v. 3. 87.
affront, to meet, to encounter: Affront his eye, W.T. v. 1. 75;
Affront Ophelia, Hml. iii. 1. 31; Your preparation can affront
no less Than what you hear of (“Your forces are able to
face such an army as we hear the enemy will bring against
us." JOHNSON), Cymb. iv. 3. 29; That my integrity and truth
to you Might be affronted with the match and weight Of
such a winnow'd purity in love ("I wish my integrity might
be met and matched with such equality and force of pure
unmingled love," JOHNSON), Troil. iii. 2. 173.
affy, to betroth: For daring to affy a mighty lord, 2H6. iv. I.
80; We be affied, Shr. iv. 4. 49.
affy, to trust, to confide: so I do affy In thy uprightness, Tit. i. 1.47.
afore me, equivalent to God afore me, Per. ii. 1. 84.
after-supper, rere-supper, M.N.D. v. 1. 34.
AGATE-AIM.
9
agate very vilely cut-If low, an, Ado iii. 1. 65; I was never
manned with an agate (“had an agate for my man," JOHN-
SON; was waited on by an agate) till now, 2H4. i. 2. 19:
Allusions to the small figures cut in agate for rings, for
ornaments to be worn in the hat, &c.
agaz'd, struck with amazement, aghast, 1H6. i. 1. 126.
age with this indignity-Nor wrong mine, Tit. i. 1. 8: Here age
means "my seniority in point of age. Tamora, in a sub-
sequent passage, speaks of him as a very young man
(BOSWELL).
Agenor-The daughter of, Shr. i. 1. 173: "Europa, for whose
sake Jupiter transformed himself into a bull" (Steevens).
aggravate his style, add to his titles, M.W. ii. 2. 296.
aglet-baby—An, Shr. i. 2. 79: “A small image or head cut
on the tag of a point or lace. That such figures were some-
times appended to them, Dr. Warburton has proved by a
passage in Mezeray, the French historian :-'portant même
sur les aiguillettes [points] des petites têtes de mort'" (MALONE).
See the next article.
aglets, 2N.K. iii. 4. 2: "Were worn," says Sir F. Madden, "by
both sexes; by the men chiefly as tags to their laces or
points (aiguillettes), which were made either square or pointed,
plain or in the form of acorns, or with small heads cut at
the end, or topped with a diamond or ruby... They were
worn also by ladies, as pendants or ornaments in their
head-dress." Note on Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess
Mary, p. 205. Coles gives both "An Aglet (tag of point),
Æramentum ligula," and "An Aglet (a little plate of metal),
Bractea, Bracteola." (Spenser, describing Belphoebe, tells
us that she
<<
was yclad, for heat of scorching aire,
All in a silken camus lilly whight,
Purfled upon with many a folded plight,
Which all above besprinckled was throughout
With golden aygulets, that glistred bright,
Like twinckling starres." Faerie Queene, B. ii. C. iii. st. 26.)
agnize, to acknowledge, to avow, Oth. i. 3. 232.
a-good, in good earnest, heartily, 2G. iv. 4. 170.
a-hold, a-hold-Lay her, Tp. i. 1. 52; To lay a ship a-hold is
explained, to bring her to lie as near the wind as possible,
-to make her hold to the wind, and keep clear of land.
aiery, see aery.
aim, guess, conjecture: my jealous aim, 2G. iii. 1. 28: What
you would work me to, I have some aim, J.C. i. 2. 163; where
the aim reports, Oth. i. 3. 6.
aim, to guess, to conjecture: they aim at it, Hml. iv. 5. 9; my
ΙΟ
AIM-AJAX.
discovery be not aimèd at, 2G. iii. 1. 45; I aim'd so near,
Rom. i. 1. 211.
aim, to aim at: I aim thee, (so Milton, "missing what I aim'd,"
Paradise Regained, B. iv. 208). (Globe am.) Err. iii. 2. 66.
aim-Cry, an expression borrowed from archery: All my neigh-
bours shall cry aim, M.W. iii. 2. 45; to cry aim To these ill-
tuned repetitions, K.J. ii. 1. 196; Cried I aim? M.W. ii. 3.
92: “To cry aim!... was to encourage, to give aim was to
direct; and in these distinct and appropriate senses the
words perpetually occur. There was no such officer as
aim-cryer . . . the business of encouragement being abandon-
ed to such of the spectators as chose to interfere; to that
of direction, indeed, there was a special person appointed.
Those who cried aim! stood by the archers; he who gavė
it, was stationed near the butts, and pointed out, after every
discharge, how wide, or how short, the arrow fell of the
mark." Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. ii. p. 28,
ed. 1813. [To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, obedience,
H5. i. 2. 186: shows that aim practically means target, and
cry "aim," = target! well hit! Literally. the thing aimed at;
or the act, or the effect, of aiming. L.]
aim-Give, an expression borrowed from archery; see the pre-
ceding article: gentle people, give me aim awhile, Tit. v. 3.
149. (Grant White conj. air; Dyce would conj. ear if Qo
and Fol. had not ayme.) Behold her that gave aim to all
thy oaths, 2G. v. 4. 101.
Aio te, Æacida, Romanos vincere posse. The ambiguous
oracle which Ennius (in his Annales) feigns to have been
given by the Pythian Apollo to Pyrrhus. See Cic. De Divin,
lib. ii. 56.—2H6. i. 4. 65.
airy devil hovers in the sky-Some, K.J. iii. 2. 2: Here, in defence
of the epithet airy, the commentators cite from Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy, "Aerial spirits or devils are such
as keep quarter most part in the aire, cause many tempests,
thunder and lightnings, tear oakes, fire steeples, houses,
strike men and beasts, make it rain stones," &c. Part i.
sect. 2, p. 46, ed. 1600; and from Nash's Pierce Pennilesse
his Supplication to the Diuell, "The spirits of the aire wil
mix themselues with thunder and lightning, and so infect
the clime where they raise any tempest, that suddenly great
mortalitie shall ensue of the inhabitants." &c. Sig. H 3, ed.
1595. Theobald reads fiery.
Ajax is half made of Hector's blood-This, Troil. iv. 5. 83;
"Ajax and Hector were cousin-germans" (MALONE): see
mongrel beef-witted, &c.
Ajax is their fool, Lr. ii. 2. 132: “i.e. a fool to them. These
rogues and cowards talk in such a boasting strain, that if
we were to credit their account of themselves, Ajax would
AJAX-ALEPPO.
I I
appear a person of no prowess when compared with them
(MALONE).
Ajax, That slew himself, &c.-The Greeks upon advice did bury,
Tit. i. 1. 379. “This passage alone would sufficiently con-
vince me that the play before us was the work of one who
was conversant with the Greek tragedies in their original
language. We have here a plain allusion to the Ajax of
Sophocles, of which no translation was extant in the time
of Shakespeare. In that piece Agamemnon consents at
last to allow Ajax the rites of sepulture, and Ulysses is the
pleader whose arguments prevail in favour of his remains
(STEEVENS).
Ajax-Your lion, that holds his pole-axe sitting on a close-stool,
will be given to, L.L.L. v. 2. 581. “This alludes to the
arms given, in the old history of The Nine Worthies, to
'Alexander, the which did beare geules, a lion or seiante
in a chayer, holding a battle-ax argent.' Leigh's Accidence
of Armory, 1597, p. 23" (TOLLET): Here, of course, is a
quibble, Ajax (a jakes).
Albion,— Then shall the realm of, Lr. iii. 2. 91. These lines,
entitled Chaucer's Prophecy, are found in Mss. with great
variations. Steevens quotes a version from Puttenham's
Art of English Poetry, 1589:
When faith fails in priestes sawes.
And lord hests are holden for laws,
And robbery is tane for purchase,
And letchery for solace,
Then shall the realm of Albion
Be brought to great confusion.
Al'ce, a provincial abbreviation of Alice, Shr. Ind. 2. 112 ("So
'Alice' is pronounced in many places of Beaumont and
Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, as is evident from the metre,"
WALKER).
alder-liefest, dearest of all, 2H6. i. 1. 28. “Alder is a corrupted,
or at least modified, form of the original English genitive
plural aller or allre; it is that strengthened by the inter-
position of a supporting d (a common expedient),” CRAIK;
liefest is the superlative of lief, which means "dear:" The
A. S. form for this would be ealra leofost(a).
ale, alehouse: go to the ale with a Christian, 2G. ii. 5. 61. (Here
ale has been explained to mean the rural festival so named,
though the words in the preceding speech of the present
speaker, go with me to the ale-house, distinctly prove that
explanation to be wrong.)
Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger-Her husband's to, Mcb. i. 3. 7:
Sir W. C. Trevelyan observed to Mr. Collier that "in
Hakluyt's Voyages,' 1589 and 1599, are printed several
•
12
ALEVEN—ALLOW.
letters and journals of a voyage to Aleppo in the ship
Tiger of London: it took place in 1583."
aleven, a vulgarism and archaism for 'eleven,'-formerly not
uncommon (Globe, eleven), M.V. ii. 2. 171.
("The Lorde hath suffered vs full longe,
And spared hath his rodde,-
What peace hath bene vs now among
Aleuen yeares, praysed be God!"
A new Ballad, intituled Agaynst Rebellions and false rumours,—
Seventy-nine Black-letter Ballads, &c., 1867, p. 242.)
a-life, as my life, excessively, (Globe, o' life), W.T. iv. 4. 263.
alive-Well, to our work, J.C. iv. 3. 196. "This must mean,
apparently, let us proceed to our living business, to that
which concerns the living, not the dead" (CRAIK): the
context proves that it can have no other meaning.
all, applied to two persons: good morrow to you all, my lords,
2H4. iii. 1. 35; as all you know, 2H6. ii. 2. 26.
all amort, dejected, dispirited (Fr. à la mort), Shr. iv. 3. 36;
1H6. iii. 2. 124.
all at once-And, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 36; H5. i. 1. 36; 3H6. iv. 8. 31.
all hid, all hid, an old infant play, L.L.L. iv. 3. 78: I think it
plain that Biron means the game well known as hide-and-
seek, though the following article in Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict. has been adduced to show that he possibly means
blind-man's-buff; "Clignemasset. The childish play called
Hodman blind [i.e. blind-man's-buff], Harrie-racket, or are
you all hid."
all to, all good wishes to; All to you, Tim. i. 2. 234; And all
to all, Mcb. iii. 4. 92.
all to-naught, all to-topple. See to. Per. iii. 2. 17.
allay, mitigation, W.T. iv. 2. 9.
All-hallown summer. 1H4. i. 2. 178: “¿.e. late summer; All-
hallows meaning All-Saints, which festival is the first of
November." Nares's Gloss.: "Shakespeare's allusion is
designed to ridicule an old man with youthful passions"
(STEEVENS). [The day following is All Souls' day; R3. v. 1. 10.]
alliance!— Good Lord, for, “Good Lord, how many alliances
are forming! Every one is likely to be married but me"
(BOSWELL), Ado, ii. 1. 330.
allicholy, a blunder for melancholy, 2G. iv. 2. 27; M.W. i. 4. 164.
alligant, a blunder of Mrs. Quickly for elegant, M.W. ii. 2. 69.
all-obeying breath-His, His "breath which all obey; obeying
for obeyed" (MALONE), Ant. iii. 13. 77.
allow, to approve: That will allow me very worth his service,
12N. i. 2. 59; Of this allow, W.T. iv. 1. 29; I for aye allow,
R2. v. 2. 40; do allow them well, 2H4. iv. 2. 54; allow us
as we prove, Troil. iii. 2. 98; if your sweet sway Allow
obedience, Lr. ii. 4. 194; did his words allow, Lucr. 1845; my
ALLOW-AMAIMON.
13
good allow, Sonn. 112; generally allow'd, M.W. ii. 2. 236;
Not ours, or not allow'd, H8. i. 2. 83; her allowing husband,
W.T. i. 2. 185.
allow, to license, to privilege: go, you are allow'd (you are “a
privileged scoffer," JOHNSON; "you are a licensed fool, a
common jester," WARBURTON). L.L.L. v. 2. 478; there is no
slander in an allowed fool, 12N. i. 5. 101; Allow'd (“con-
firmed," SINGER) with absolute power, Tim. v. 1. 165.
allow the wind, "stand to the leeward of me" (STEEVENS),
A.W. v. 2. 10.
allowance, approbation: Give him allowance for the better
man, Troil. i. 3. 377; A stirring dwarf we do allowance give,
ii. 3. 146; the censure of the which one must, in your allow-
ance, o'erweigh, &c., Hml. iii. 2. 31; put it on By your
allowance, Lr. i. 4. 228; If this be known to you, and your
allowance ("done with your approbation," MALONE), Oth.
i. I. 128.
allowance of very expert and approv'd, Oth. ii. 1. 49: "Expert
and approv'd allowance is put for allow'd and approv'd ex
pertness" (STEEVENS).
all-thing, every way: And all-thing unbecoming, Mcb. iii. 1. 13.
alms-drink-They have made him drink, Ant. ii. 7. 5: “A
phrase, amongst good fellows, to signify that liquor of
another's share which his companion drinks to ease him"
(WARBURTON).
along by him-Go, Go along "by his house, make that your
way home" (Malone), J.C. ii. 1. 218: The enemy, marching
along by them, "through the country of the people between
this and Philippi" (CRAIK), iv. 3. 207.
Althæa dreamed, &c., 2H4. ii. 2. 93, 96: "Shakespeare has con-
founded Althea's firebrand with Hecuba's. The firebrand
of Althea was real; but Hecuba, when she was big with
Paris, dreamed that she was delivered of a firebrand that
consumed the kingdom" (JOHNSON). [See next art., and
N. S. S. Tr. 1875, p. 303.]
Althæa burn'd Unto the prince's heart of Calydon-As did the
fatal brand, 2H6. i. 1. 234: the prince of Calydon is Meleager:
"According to the fable, Meleager's life was to continue
only so long as a certain firebrand should last. His mother
Althea having thrown it into the fire, he expired in great
torments" (Malone).
Amaimon, M.W. ii. 2. 311; 1H4. ii. 4. 370: The name of a
demon: "Randle Holme, in his Academy of Armory and
Blazon. B. ii. ch. 1, informs us that 'Amaymon is the chief
whose dominion is on the north part of the infernal gulph'"
(STEEVENS): Amaimon, King of the East, was one of the
principal devils who might be bound or restrained from
doing hurt from the third hour till noon, and from the ninth
14
AMAZE-ANDREN.
hour till evening. See Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, B.
xv. ch. 3 [p. 393, ed. 1584]" (DOUCE).
amaze, to confound, to perplex: You do amaze her, M.W. v.
5. 233; You amaze me, ladies, A.Y.L. i. 2. 115; Lest your
retirement do amaze your friends, 1H4. v. 4. 6; It would
amaze the proudest of you all, 1H6, iv. 7. 84; I am amaz'd,
and know not what to say, M.N.D. iii. 2. 344; I was amaz'd
Under the tide, K.J. iv. 2. 137; I am amaz'd, methinks, iv. 3.
140; thou art amaz'd, R2. v, 2. 85; Stand not amaz'd, Rom,
iii. 1. 139; I am amaz'd with matter (variety of business),
Cymb. iv. 3. 28; amazing thunder, R2. i. 3. 81.
Amen!-Come, Tp. ii. 2.98: "Compare Captain Smith's Accidence,
or the Path-way to Experience, 4to, Lond. 1626, p. 30, 'Who
saies Amen, one and all, for a dram of the bottle
(HALLIWELL).
ames-ace, both aces,-the lowest throw upon the dice, A.W.
ii. 3. 85 [see Skeat's Chaucer, vol. v. p. 143].
amiable siege-An, “A siege of love" (MALONE), M.W. ii. 2. 243.
amiss, misfortune, "evil impending or catastrophe" (CALDE-
COTT): prologue to some great amiss, Hml. iv. 5. 18.
amiss, fault: salving thy amiss, Sonn. 35; urge not my amiss, 151.
amort. See all amort.
ample, well; A.W. iii. 5. 46.
anatomy, a skeleton: A mere anatomy, Err. v. 1. 238; that fell
anatomy, K.J. iii. 4. 40; this anatomy, 2N.K. v. 1. 115.
anatomy, a body: I'll eat the rest of the anatomy, 12N. iii. 2. 67;
In what vile part of this anatomy, Rom. iii. 3. 106.
anchor, an anchorite, Hml. iii. 2. 229, (where Dowden explains
cheer to mean chair).
ancient, a standard-bearer, an ensign-bearer, (now called an
ensign): Ancient Pistol, 2H4. ii. 4. 74; 89; 164; 186; good
ancient, 2H4. ii. 4. 164; Oth. i. 2. 49; his Moorship's ancient,
i. 1, 33; Ancient, conduct them, i. 3. 121; to be saved before
the ancient, ii. 3. 114; Othello's ancient, v. 1. 51; consists of
ancients, 1H4. iv. 2. 26.
ancient, a standard: an old faced ancient ("an old standard
mended with a different colour," STEEVENS), IH4. iv. 2. 34:
and see face.
and, used redundantly, as it occasionally is in old ballads:
When that I was and a little tiny boy, 12N. iii. 1. 98; He
that has and a little tiny wit, Lr. iii. 2. 74.
andirons, Cymb. ii. 4. 88: "The andirons were the ornamental
irons on each side of the hearth in old houses, which were
accompanied with small rests for the logs. The latter [rests]
were sometimes called dogs, but the term andirons frequently
included both," &c. (HALLIWELL).
Andren, The vale of, H8. i. 1. 7. The second Fo. reads "Arde”,
but Sh. gave the word as he found it in Holinshed's Chron.
ANDREW-ANSWER
15
vol. iii. p. 649, ed. 1808; again, “in the vallie of Anderne,”
p. 654; etc.
Andrew-My wealthy, M.V. i. 1. 27: the name of a ship:
the conjecture that it was derived from the naval hero
Andrea Doria is not a probable one. ["famous Andrew
D'Orie, That to pyrats so much terror breeds," Ariosto
(xv. 23, Harington) praises for profiting his country and
not himself.]
angel-An ancient, Shr. iv. 2. 61: Was altered by Theobald
to "an ancient engle": but the original text is quite right.
Cotgrave has "Angelot à la grosse escaille. An old Angell;
and by metaphor, a fellow of the old, sound, honest, and
worthie stamp"………. Singer observes that the ancient angel"
of our text is the "good soul" of Gascoigne's Supposes, from
which this part of the Taming of the Shrew is taken.,..
(Dyce iii. 164).
((
angel of the air, bird of the air, 2N.K. i. 1. 116 (Angel in this
sense is a Grecism,-yysλos, i.e. messenger, being applied
to birds of augury: our early writers frequently use the
word as equivalent to "bird;" so in Massinger and Dekker's
Virgin-Martyr the Roman eagle is called "the Roman
angel," Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 36, ed. Gifford, 1813).
angel, a gold coin, which at its highest value was worth ten
shillings: not I for an angel, Ado, ii. 3. 35; This bottle makes
an angel, 1H4. iv. 2. 6; your ill angel is light ["The Lord
Chief Justice calls Falstaff the Prince's ill angel or genius:
which Falstaff turns off by saying, an ill angel (meaning
the coin called an angel) is light," THEOBALD], 2H4. i. 2.
187; he hath a legion of angels (with a quibble), M.W. i. 3.
60; twenty angels, ii. 2. 73; the angels that you sent for,
Err. iv. 3. 41; his fair angels, K.J. ii. 1. 590; Imprison'd
angels, K.J. iii. 3. 8: and see stamp about their necks, &c.
angels' faces-Ye've, H8. iii. 1. 145: An allusion to the saying
attributed to Pope Gregory the Great, "Non Angli, sed
Angeli."
angle, a corner: In an odd angle of the isle, Tp. i. 2. 223.
anheires, M.W. ii. 1. 228; probably the Host's or the printer's
corruption of mynheers.
a-night, in the night, by night, A.Y.L. ii. 4. 48.
annexion, addition, Compl. 208.
anon, anon, equivalent to the modern "coming," 1H4. ii. 4.
36, 72, 109, &c.
answer in the effect of your reputation, "answer in a manner
suitable to your character" (JOHNSON), 2H4. ii. 1. 142.
answer must be made-My, "I shall be called to account, and
must answer as for seditious words" (JOHNSON), J.C. i. 3. 114.
answer, retaliation: whose answer would be death, Cymb. iv.
4. 13; great the answer be Britons must take, v. 3. 79.
16
ANSWERABLE—APPEAL.
answerable, corresponding, Oth. i. 3. 351.
Antenor, Troil. i. 2. 206; iii. 3. 18; 22; iv. 1. 38; iv. 2. 77;
96; iv. 4. 112: “Very few particulars respecting this Trojan
are preserved by Homer. But, as Professor Heyne, in his
Seventh Excursus to the First Æneid, observes;‘Fuit Antenor
inter eos, in quorum rebus ornandis ii maxime scriptores
laborarunt, qui narrationes Homericas novis commentis de
suo onerarunt; non aliter ac si delectatio a mere fabulosis
et temere effusis figmentis proficisceretur'" (Steevens).
anthropophaginian, a cannibal, M.W. iv. 5. 10.
antick, the buffoon of the old morality plays, R2. iii. 2. 162.
Antoniad-The, the name of Cleopatra's ship. Ant. iii. 10. 2.
antres, caves, caverns, Oth. i. 3. 140.
ape-The famous. See unpeg the basket, &c.
ape, in the corner of his jaw, &c.—Like an, Hml. iv. 2. 19. Qos.
1604, read "apple". Qo. 1603 and Fr: "ape."
apes in hell. See Lead.
apoplex, apoplexy, 2H4. iv. 4. 130, Dyce's reading; O. Edd.
apoplexi and apoplexie. [Prob. we should read apoplexy
'll surely. L.]
appaid, satisfied, contented, Lucr. 914.
apparent, heir-apparent, next claimant: he's apparent to my
heart, W.T. i. 2. 177; as apparent to the crown, 3H6. ii. 2. 64.
apparent, plain, evident: apparent foul-play, K.J. iv. 2. 93;
apparent prodigies, J.C. ii. 1. 198.
apparition of an armed Head rises-An, Mcb. iv. I dir.; An
apparition of a bloody Child rises, ibid; An apparition of
a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand, rises, ibid.: “The
armed head represents symbolically Macbeth's head cut off
and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is
Macduff untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The
child with a crown on his head, and a bough in his hand,
is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew
them down [each] a bough and bear it before them to
Dunsinane" (UPTON,-whose explanation is at least very
ingenious): I may add here a remark of the truly learned
Lobeck; "Mortuorum capita fatidica jam multo ante Bafo-
metum et illud galeatum phantasma, quod in fabula Shak-
speariana introducitur, memorat Phlegon, Mirab. iii. 50, &c "
Aglaophamus, p. 236 (note).
appeach, to impeach, to accuse, to inform against, R2. v. 2.
79. 102; appeach'd, A.W. i. 3. 197.
appeal the duke, R2. i. 1. 9; appeal each other of high treason,
i. i. 27; appeals me, i. 3. 21; “ Appeal, v.a. This word appears
to have been formerly used with much latitude; and
sometimes in such a way that it is not easy to find out
what those who used it precisely meant by it. But according
to its most ancient signification, it implies a reference by
APPELLANT-APPLY.
17
name to a charge or accusation, and an offer, or challenge,
to support such charge by the ordeal of single combat.
And something of this, its primary sense, may still be
descried in all its various applications. Thus, an appeal
from one person to another. to judge and decide; or from
an inferior to a superior, court, is to transfer the challenge
from such as are deemed incompetent to accept it, to those
who may be competent: and, as 'a summons to answer a
charge,' it is nearly equivalent to an actual challenge. 'And
likewise there were many Southland men that appelled others
in Barrace to fight before the King to the dead, for certain
crimes of lese majesty.' Pitscottie, p. 234. Here the word
clearly means challenge; as in the preceding page the
laird of Drumlanerick and the laird of Barrice are said to
have provoked (which also means challenge[d]) others in
Barrace to fight to death, ..but being appealed (chal-
lenged) by the Lord Clifford, an Englishman, to fight with
him in singular combat. Hist. of Scotland, f. 365.
C
hast thou sounded him,
If he appeal (charge or accuse, and challenge) the duke on ancient
malice?'
Richard II. i. 1.
'Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me.'
Id. i. 3.
Boucher's Glossary of Arch. and Prov. Words."
appellant, challenger, R2. i. 1. 34; i. 3. 4, 52; 2H6. ii. 3. 49,
57; appellants, R2. iv. 1. 104. See appeal, &c.
apperil, peril, Tim. i. 2. 32.
apple-John, a sort of apple, called in French deux-années or
deux-ans, because it will keep two years, and considered
to be in perfection when shrivelled and withered, 1H4. iii.
3. 5; 2H4. ii. 4. 2; apple Johns, 2H4. ii. 4. 5. (“ Apple-John,
John-Apple. We retain the name, but whether we mean
the same variety of fruit which was so called in Shake-
speare's time, it is not possible to ascertain. Probably we
do not. In 2d pt. Hen. IV. Prince Hal certainly meant a
large round apple, apt to shrivel and wither by long keeping,
like his fat companion. This is not particularly character-
istic of our John-apple." Forby's Vocab. of East Anglia.)
[Apple-John was used, as in E. Man out of his Humour,
iv. 6, in the sense of apple-squire, i.e. "what is in modern
slang called a flash man" (Singer, Hall's Satires, p. 8).
Shift says: "for as I am Apple-John, I am to go before the
cockatrice you saw this morning." This may explain Falstaff's
objection to the symbolical fruit, although in 1H4. iii. 3. 5,
he compares himself to one, with reference to its shrivelling. L.]
appliance, treatment, A.W. ii. 1. 116.
apply, to apply oneself to, or rather, to ply: Virtue, and that
part of philosophy Will I apply, Shr. i. 1. 19.
2
18
APPOINTED-APPROVE.
appointed, accoutred, equipped: To have you royally appointed,
W.T. iv. 4. 603; You may be armed and appointed well,
Tit. iv. 2. 16; like knights appointed, 2N.K. iii. 6. 134; With
well-appointed powers, 2H4. i. 1. 190; What well-appointed
leader, iv. i. 25; The well-appointed king, H5. iii. Prol. 4;
the Dauphin, well-appointed, 1H6. iv. 2. 21; very well appointed,
3H6. ii. 1. 113.
appointment, accoutrement, equipment: your best appointment
make with speed, M.M. iii. 1. 60; in appointment fresh and
fair, Troil. iv. 5. 1; a pirate of very warlike appointment,
Hml. iv. 6. 16; Men of great quality. by their appoint-
ment, 2N.K. i. 4. 15; these hands Void of appointment, iii.
1. 140; Our fair appointments, R2. iii. 3. 53.
apprehension, faculty for sarcastic sayings, sarcasm: how long
have you professed apprehension? Ado, iii. 4. 68; To scourge
you for this apprehension, 1H6. ii. 4. 102.
apprehensive, possessed of the power of apprehension or
intelligence: whose apprehensive senses, A.W. i. 2. 60; makes
it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, 2H4. iv. 3. 107; men are
flesh and blood, and apprehensive, J.C. iii. 1. 67.
approbation, proof: naught for approbation But only seeing,
W.T. ii. 1. 177; drop their blood in approbation, H5. i. 2. 19;
on the approbation of what I have spoke, Cymb. i. 4. 134.
approbation, probation, novitiate: receive (enter on) her appro-
bation, M.M. i. 2. 183.
approof, approbation: Either of condemnation or approof, M.M.
ii. 4. 174.
approof, proof: in approof lives not his epitaph As in your royal
speech ("The truth of his epitaph is in no way so fully
proved as by your royal speech," MASON.-where others
understand proof as equivalent to "approbation"), A.W.
i. 2. 50; of very valiant approof, ii. 5. 3; as my furthest
band Shall pass on thy approof (“As I will venture the
greatest pledge of security on the trial of thy conduct,"
JOHNSON; "such as I will pledge my utmost bond that thou
wilt prove," Nares's Gloss. in “Band”), Ant. iii. 2. 27.
approve, to prove: On whose eyes I might approve This flower's
force, M.N.D. ii. 2. 68; to approve Henry of Hereford . . .
disloyal, R2. i. 3. 112; approve me, lord, 1H4. iv. 1. 9; To
approve my youth further, 2H4. i. 2. 214; that my sword
upon thee shall approve, Tit. ii. 1. 35; does approve, By his
lov'd mansionry, that, &c.. Mcb. i. 6. 4; Thou dost approve
thyself the very same, Cymb. iv. 2. 380; 'tis the curse in love, and
still approv'd (experienced), 2G. v. 4. 43; of approved valour,
Ado, ii. 1. 394; an approved wanton, iv. 1. 45; approved in
the height a villain, iv. 1. 303; approv'd in practice culpable,
2H6. iii. 2. 22; Approved warriors, Tit. v. I. I; approv'd
good masters, Oth. i: 3. 77; approv'd ("convicted by proof
APPROVE-ARGO.
19.
of having been engaged," JOHNSON) in this offence, ii. 3. 211;
I have well approv'd (experienced) it, 317; which well ap-
proves You're great in fortune, A.W. iii. 7. 13; Approves her
fit for none but for a king, 1H6, v. 5. 69; which approves
him an intelligent party, Lr. iii. 5. 12.
approve, to ratify, to confirm: approve it with a text, M.V. iii.
2. 79; ť' approve the fair conceit The king hath of you (“to
strengthen, by my commendation, the [good] opinion which
the king has formed [of you]," JOHNSON), H8. ii. 3. 74;
Your favour is well approved by your tongue, Cor. iv. 3. 9;
He may approve ("make good the testimony of,” Malone)
our eyes, Hml. i. 1. 29; approve the common saw (“exem-
plify the common proverb," JOHNSON), Lr. ii. 2. 167; he
approves the common liar (fame), Ant. i. 1. 60.
approve, to recommend to approbation: if you did, it would
not much approve me ("if you knew I was not ignorant,
your esteem [judgment, CALDECOTT] would not much ad-
vance my reputation," JOHNSON), Hml. v. 2. 141.
approvers-To their, "To those who try them" (WARBURTON),
Cymb. ii. 4. 25.
apricock, an apricot (the tree), 2N.K. ii. 2. 238; apricocks, (the
fruit), M.N.D. iii. 1. 169; R2. iii. 4. 29.
apron-man, a mechanic, Cor. iv. 6. 97. (CRAIG.)
aqua vitæ, a term for ardent spirits in general, M.W. ii. 2.
318; Err. iv. 1. 89; 12N. ii. 5. 216; W.T. iv. 4. 816; Rom.
iii. 2. 88; iv. 5. 16.
Aquilon, the North-wind, Troil iv. 5. 9.
Arabian bird. the phoenix, Ant. iii. 2. 12; Cymb. i. 6. 17. See
Sole.
araise, to raise up, A.W. ii. 1. 79.
arch, a chief: My worthy arch and patron, Lr. ii. 1. 61.
Arden-The forest of, A.Y.L. i. 1. 121; i. 3. 109; ii. 4. 15:
46
Ardenne is a forest of considerable extent in French
Flanders, lying near the Meuse, and between Charlemont
and Rocroy. It is mentioned by Spenser in his Colin
Clout's come home again. 1595. ... But our author was
furnished with the scene of his play by Lodge's novel"
(MALONE): see Hazl. Sh. Lib. Pt. 1, Vol. ii. pp. 25, 54, 57,
58, 67, 86. Ward, Eng. Dr. Lit. ii. 131, sec. ed. is mistaken
in saying that "Lodge's romance is not similarly localised."
argal, a vulgar corruption of the Latin word ergo, Hml. v. 1.
13, 21, 55.
argentine, silver-hued, "of the silver moon" (STEEVENS), Per.
V. I. 251.
Argier, the old name for Algiers, Tp. i. 2. 261-5. (It was not
obsolete even in the time of Dryden: "you privateer of
love, you Argier's man." Limberham, act iii. sc. i.)
argo, a vulgar corruption of the Latin word ergo, 2H6. iv. 2.31.
20
ARGOSY-AROINT.
argosy, a ship of great bulk and burden, fit either for merchan-
dise or war [so named from Ital. una nave Ragusea, a
Ragusan vessel.] Shr. ii. 1. 376-8; M.V. i. 3. 18; iii. 1. 105;
3H6. ii. 6. 36; argosies, M.V. i. 1. 9; v. i. 276; Shr. ii. 1. 380.
argument, conversation, discourse: For shape, for bearing,
argument, and valour, Ado, iii. 1. 96.
argument, subject, matter: thou wilt prove a notable argument
("subject for satire," JOHNSON), Ado, i. 1. 258; You woula
not make me such an argument ("subject of light merriment,"
JOHNSON), M.N.D. iii. 2. 242; an absent argument Of my
revenge, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 3; th' argument of Time, W.T. iv. 1.
29; argument (subject of conversation) for a week, 1H4. ii.
2. 100; the argument shall be thy running away, ii. 4. 310;
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument, H5. iii. 1.
21; the argument of hearts (“of what men's hearts are com-
posed," MALONE), Tim. ii. 2. 187; an argument of laughter,
iii. 3. 20; the argument of the play. Hml. iii. 2. 149; Have
you heard the argument? iii. 2. 242; the argument of your
praise, Lr. i. 1. 218.
Ariachne, Troil. v. 2. 152. So the Folio. Qo has 'Ariachna's'
and in some copies 'Ariathna's'.-There seems to be little
doubt that Sh. wrote the name incorrectly. Dyce, vi. 111.
[In the Span. Trag. Dodsl. p. 101: "Of these thy tresses,
Ariadne's twines," the like quadrisyllabic writing occurs,
no doubt confusing Arachne's web, [Ovid, Met. vi.] and
Ariadne's "filum labyrinthi."]
Aristotle, see young men.
arm, to take in one's arms: come, arm him, Cymb. iv. 2. 400;
Arm your prize, 2N.K. v. 3. 135; (where Mason explains
arm "take by the arm").
arm-gaunt, Ant. i. 5. 48. [Query, arrogant; but cf. Chaucer's
arm-greet, as thick as one's arm, Kn. T. A. 2145.] Here
arm-gaunt has been explained to mean 'lean and thin by
much service in war'-'made gaunt (or thin) by long use
of arms,'-'thin-shouldered '-and' slender as one's arm.'
Hanmer prints 'an arm-girt steed'. . . . Mason proposes
(very badly) 'a termagant steed'; and so Walker (Crit.
Exam. 111. 297). Lettsom (note in Walker): rampaunt,
i. e. prancing. (Dyce, viii. 271.) Schmidt says it may mean
completely armed, harnessed, or rather: lusty in arms, full
of life and spirits even under the weight of arms. New
Eng. Dict. "?With gaunt limbs.”
aroint thee, witch! Mcb. i. 3. 6; aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
66
Lr. iii. 4. 129. That Aroint thee is equivalent to Away!"
"Begone!" seems to be agreed, though its etymology is
quity uncertain: "Rynt ye; By your leave, stand hand-
somely. As, Rynt you, Witch, quoth Besse Locket to her
mother. Proverb, Cheshire." Ray's North Country Words,
A-ROW-ARTIST.
21
p. 52, ed. 1768: "The word [aroint] is still in common use
in Cheshire; and what is remarkable is, that, according to
Ray, it is still coupled with a witch, as 'rynt you, witch,
quoth Besse Locket to her mother,' which is given as a
Cheshire proverb; but which, as the term sounded in my
ears when I once heard it pronounced, I should not have
hesitated to spell aroint. I have also seen it spelled, and
by a Cheshire man of good information, runt: nor is it at
all unlikely that it is the same exclamation which in Lan-
cashire is pronounced and spelled areawt, as equivalent to
get out or away with thee. But it is most common in the
middle parts of Cheshire; and there used, chiefly by milk-
maids when milking. When a cow happens to stand impro-
perly, in a dirty place, or with one of her sides so near a
wall, a fence, a tree, or another cow, that the milker cannot
readily come at the udder, or to her neck, to tie her up
in her boose, or stall,-in such cases, the milkmaid, whilst
she pushes the animal to a more convenient place, seldom
fails to exclaim, 'Aroint thee, lovey (or bonny), aroint
thee' using a coarser and harsher epithet, should the cow
not move at the first bidding". . . . In Hearne's Ectypa
Varia, &c., 1737, is a print representing the Saviour harrow-
ing hell, in which Satan is blowing a horn, with the words
"Out, out, arongt" over his head, perhaps to express the
sounds of the horn.
a-row, successively, one after another, Err. v. I. 170.
arras-counterpoints, counterpanes of arras, of tapestry, Shr.
ii. 1. 353.
arrose, to water, to sprinkle (Fr. arroser), 2N.K. v. 4. 104
(Qo. Arowze).
art as you—I have as much of this in, J.C. iv. 3. 194.
"In art
Malone interprets to mean 'in theory.' It rather signifies
by acquired knowledge, or learning, as distinguished from
natural disposition" (CRAIK).
Arthur's show: see Dagonet, &c.
article—A soul of great, Hml. v. 2. 122: Here Johnson would
understand of great article to mean "of large comprehen-
sion, of many contents;" while Caldecott explains it "of
great account or value;" Dowden: "of great moment or
importance."
articulate, to enter into articles: with whom we may articulate,
Cor. i. 9. 77.
articulate, to exhibit in articles; These things, indeed, you have
articulate, 1H4. v. I. 72.
artificial, ingenious, artful: like two artificial gods, M.N.D. iii.
2. 203.
artist, learned man: Troil. i. 3. 24; specialist, eminent physi
cians: to be relinquished of the artists. A.W. ii. 3. 10.
·
22
ASCANIUS— ASSUM’D.
Ascanius, did, &c.—As, 2H6 iii. 2. 116: The allusion is to the
first bk. of Virg. Aen; but it was Cupid, in the semblance
of Ascanius, who sat in Dido's lap, and was fondled by
her; and it was not Cupid who related to her the process
of Troy's destruction, but Aeneas himself. (Theobald, in
Dyce, v. 165).
Asher-house, my Lord of Winchester's, H8. iii. 2. 231: “Shake-
speare forgot that Wolsey was himself Bishop of Winchester,
unless he meant to say, you must confine yourself to that
house which you possess as Bishop of Winchester. Asher
[the old form of Esher], near Hampton-Court, was one of
the houses belonging to that bishoprick" (Malone): “Fox,
Bishop of Winchester, died Sept. 14, 1528, and Wolsey held
this see in commendam. Esher therefore was his own house"
(REED).
askance their eyes, turn aside their eyes, Lucr. 637.
aspersion, a sprinkling, Tp. iv. 1. 18.
aspire, to aspire to, to mount to: That gallant spirit hath aspir'd
the clouds, Rom. iii. 1. 122.
a-squint-That eye that told you so look'd but, Lr. v. 3. 72:
Ray gives "Love being jealous makes a good eye look
asquint." Proverbs, p. 13, ed. 1768.
"as's" of great charge, Hml. v. 2. 43: Here, as Johnson was
the first to observe, "a quibble is intended between as the
conditional particle, and ass the beast of burden;" "charge
being used in the double sense of material burden and
moral weight." (DOWDEN).
ass on thy back o'er the dirt-Thou borest thine, Lr. i. 4. 177:
An allusion to Æsop's celebrated fable of the Old Man
and his Ass.
assay of arms-To give th' "to attempt or assay anything in
arms or by force" (SINGER), Hml. ii. 2. 71.
assemblance, semblance, external aspect, 2H4. iii. 2. 277.
assinico, a silly, a stupid fellow ("Asnico. A little ass." Con-
nelly's Span. and Engl. Dict., Madrid, 4to), Troil ii. 1. 49.
(This word is usually spelt by our early writers assinego,
and so I spelt it in my former editions; but since the old
eds. of Shakespeare's play have "asinico," I have now
printed 'assinico," as a form nearer to the Spanish word.)
assistance, "assessors". (JOHNSON): affecting one sole throne,
Without assistance, Cor. iv. 6. 33.
associate me-One of our order. to, Rom. v. 2. 6: “Each friar
has always a companion assigned him by the superior when
he asks leave to go out; and thus, says Baretti, they are a
check upon each other" (Steevens).
assubjugate, degrade, Troil. ii. 3. 202.
assum'd this age- He it is that hath, Cymb. v. 5. 319: assum'd
"I believe is the same as reached or attained” (ȘTEEVENS);
ASSURANCE-ATOMIES.
}
23
'Assum'd this age' has a reference to the different appear-
ance which Belarius now makes in comparison with that
when Cymbeline last saw him" (HENLEY).
assurance of a dower in marriage—To pass, Shr. iv. 2. 117:
"To pass assurance means to make a conveyance or deed.
Deeds are by law-writers called 'The common assurances
of the realm,' because thereby each man's property is
assured to him. So, in a subsequent scene of this act,
'they are busied about a counterfeit assurance'" [iv. 4. 92],
(MALONE).
.
assurance in that—Seek out, Hml. v. 1. 126: “A quibble is
intended. Deeds, which are usually written on parchment,
are called the common assurances of the Kingdom" (MALONE).
assured, affianced, Err. iii. 2. 145; K.J. ii. 1. 534.
Astringer,- Enter a gentle, A.W. v. i. Dir. in F1: "a gentleman
falconer" (STEEVENS). The New Eng. Dict. gives austringer,
ostringer, a keeper of goshawks. His speeches are simply
marked gent. May not gentle have the sense of tassel-gentle ?
Atalanta's better part, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 155: Here the meaning of
better part (a common enough expression, and used by
Shakespeare in two other places-"my better part of man,'
Macbeth, act v. sc. 8-"My spirit is thine, the better part of
me," Sonnet LXXIV.) has been much disputed: "Cannot
Atalanta's better part mean her virtue or virgin chastity? . . .
Pliny's Natural History, b. xxxv. c. iii. mentions the por-
traits of Atalanta and Helen, utraque excellentissima forma,
sed altera ut virgo; that is 'both of them for beauty in-
comparable, and yet a man may discerne the one [Atalanta]
of them to be a maiden, for her modest and chaste counten-
ance,' as Dr. P. Holland translated the passage" (TOLLET):
“I suppose Atalanta's better part is her wit, i.e. the swiftness
of her mind” (FARMER): “After all, I believe that 'Atalanta's
better part' means only the best part about her, such as was
most commended" (STEEVENS): "Atalanta's better part was
not her modesty, nor her heels, nor her wit, as critics have
variously conjectured, but simply her spiritual part" (STAUN-
TON-in a note on Macbeth, act v. sc. 8). [Better part is
regularly used in Eliz. English = the soul or spirit, as
opposed to the body, e.g. in Davies' Orchestra, st. 60:
"For when pale Death your vital twist shall sever,
Your better parts must dance, with them for ever."
Compare stanza 103; and A.Y.L. i. 2. 261 (= my spirits
are dashed); compare too Par. Reg. ii. 476-7; Overbury,
Ovid's Remedy: "thy minde
thy minde... Thy better halfe which
did from heaven descend." Suckling, The Goblins, ii. 1. 6.]
at hand, quoth pickpurse, 1H4. ii. 1. 53: a proverbial expression.
atomies, atoms, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 245; iii. 5. 13; Rom. i. 4. 57
24
ATOMY-ATTRIBUTE.
(where the word is used to describe the very diminutive
steeds that draw Queen Mab's chariot).
atomy (a corruption of anatomy), a skeleton, 2H4. v. 4. 33. (So
ottamy." Craven Dialect.)
(C
atone, to reconcile: Since we cannot atone you, R2. i. 1. 202;
to atone your fears With my more noble meaning, Tim. v. 4.
58; I would do much Tatone them, Oth. iv. 1. 244; the
present need Speaks to atone you, Ant. ii. 2. 102; I did atone
my countryman and you, Cymb. i. 4. 42.
atone, to agree, to unite: When earthly things made even atone
together, A.Y.L. v. 4. 116; He and Aufidius can no more
atone, Cor. iv. 6. 72.
atonement, reconciliation, 2H4. iv. I. 221; R3. i. 3. 36;
atonements, M.W. i. 1. 33 [Compare, in our authorised ver-
sion of Scripture, "By whom we have now received the
atonement (τày xaraλλayýv),” Romans v. 11].
attach, to lay hold of, to arrest, to seize: attach you by this
officer, Err. iv. 1. 73; attach the hand of his fair mistress,
L.L.L. iv. 3. 375; desires you to attach his son, W.T. v. 1. 182:
of capital treason I attach you both, 2H4. iv. 2. 109; attach
Lord Montacute, H8. i. 1. 217; Attach thee as a traitorous
innovator, Cor. iii. 1. 175; attach'd with weariness, Tp. iii.
3. 5; weariness durst not have attached one, &c., 2H4. ii. 2. 3;
My father was attached, 1H6. ii. 4. 96; hath attach'd Our
merchants' goods, H&. i. 1. 95; He is attach'd, i. 2. 210;
Troilus be but half attach'd, &c., Troil. v. 2. 161.
attachment, an arrest, a seizure, Troil. iv. 2. 5.
attaint, taint, stain: brags of his own attaint, Err. iii. 2. 16;
over-bears attaint, H5. iv. Prol. 39; nor any man an attaint,
Troil. i. 2. 26; poison thee with my attaint, Lucr. 1072.
attaint, attainted: attaint with faults (a passage rejected from
the text in Dyce's ed.), L.L.L. v. 2. 829; My tender youth
was never yet attaint, &c., 1H6. v. 5. 81.
attask'd, taxed, blamed, Lr. i. v. 366.
attend, to wait for: who attended him In secret ambush, 3H6.
iv. 6. 82; I am attended at the cypress grove, Cor. i. 10.
30: thy intercepter . . . attends thee at the orchard-end, 12N.
iii. 4. 243.
attent, attentive, Hml. i. 2. 193; Per. iii. Gow. II.
attorney, an advocate, a pleader: the heart's attorney (the
tongue), Ven. 335.
attorney, a substitute, a deputy: die by attorney, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 94;
I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother, R3. v. 3. 83.
attorneyed, &c.-Royally, "Nobly supplied by substitution of
embassies, &c." (JOHNSON), W.T. i. 1. 30.
attribute, essential quality, M.V. iv. 1. 191; epithets applied,
Troil. iii. 1. 38; reputation, ii. 3. 125; Hml. i. 4. 22; Per.
iv. 3. 18.
AUDACIOUS-AWLESS.
25
audacious, "spirited, animated, confident" (JOHNSON): auda-
cious without impudency, L.L.L. v. 1. 5.
audaciously, with proper spirit: speak audaciously, L.L.L. v. 2. 104.
Audrey, "a corruption of Etheldreda" (STEEVENS), A.Y.L.
iii. 3. 1, &c.
augmentation of the Indies, 12N. iii. 2. 85. [Refers to the Dutch
in Java. See Trans. N.S.S. 1877-9, p. 95; and see Map.]
augur, augury, Mcb. iii. 4. 124 (Craig).
auncient, H5. iii. 2. 83: iv. 1. 67: Fluellen's Welsh pronunciation
of ancient (Globe: aunchient).
aunt, a good old dame: The wisest aunt, M.N.D. ii. 1. 51.
aunt, a cant term for a loose woman: summer songs for me and
my aunts, W.T. iv. 3. 11.
aunt whom the Greeks held captive-An old, "Priam's sister,
Hesione, whom Hercules, being enraged at Priam's breach
of faith, gave to Telamon, who by her had Ajax" (MALONE),
Troil. ii. 2. 77.
aunt-My sacred: see sacred aunt―My.
author to dishonour you, Tit. i. 1. 435. "The Latin use of
auctor" (Walker).
Autolycus-My father named me, W.T. iv. 3. 24: Shakespeare
took this name from Golding's translation of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses, Book xi;
<<
Now when she [i.e. Chione] full her time had gon, she bare by Mercurye
A sonne that hight Awtolychus, who proude a wily pye,
And such a fellow as in theft and filching had no peere:
He was his fathers owne sonne right; he could mens eyes so bleare,
As for to make the blacke things white, and white things blacke appeare."
Fol. 135, ed. 1603.
(J. F. Gronovius, in his Lect. Plautina, p. 161, ed. 1740,
after citing Martial, viii. 59, observes, "Celebratur autem
in fabulis Autolycus maximus furum.")
avaunt-To give her the, To give her the dismissal, "To send
her away contemptuously" (JOHNSON), H8. ii. 3.10.
avised, for advised (see second sense of that word), M.W. i. 1.
169; i. 4. 106; M.M. ii. 2. 132.
away with, to endure, to bear with: She never could away with
me, 2H4. iii. 2. 213.
awful banks, "the proper limits of reverence" (JOHNSON),
2H4. iv. 1. 176.
awful men, men who reverence the laws and usages of society,
2G. iv. 1. 46.
awkward, distorted: no sinister nor no awkward claim, H5. ii. 4. 85.
awkward, adverse: awkward wind, 2H6. iii. 2. 83; awkward
casualties, Per. v. 1. 94.
awless lion-The, The lion standing in awe of nothing, K.J. i. 1. 266.
awless throne-The, The throne not regarded with awe, not
reverenced, R3. ii. 4. 52.
26
AY-BAJAZET'S.
ay me, ah me, alas: This interjection, which occurs many times
in Shakespeare, and which his editors generally alter to ah
me, is the Italian aimè (e.g. Dante has "Aimè, che piaghe
vidi," &c. Inferno, C. xvi. 10).
aye-remaining lamps, Per. iii. 1. 63: (instead of a monument
and) lamps ever-burning in a tomb in memory of you: cf.
Tit. ii. 3. 228.
B.
babes hath judgment shown-So holy writ in, A.W. ii. 1. 141:
"The allusion is to St. Matthew's Gospel, xi. 25: 'I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. See also 1 Cor. i. 27" (MALONE).
baby, a doll: The baby of a girl, Mcb. iii. 4. 106; [a babe of
clouts, K.J. iii. 4. 58, a rag doll; see inhabit].
baccare, Shr. ii. 1. 73: A cant exclamation of doubtful etym-
ology, signifying "Go back." (Compare, among numerous
passages that might be cited, one of John Heywood's three
epigrams upon it;
CC
'Backare, quoth Mortimer to his sow:
Went that sow backe at that bidding, trow you?
Workes, sig. P. 2, ed. 1598.)
backsword man, 2H4. iii. 2. 71: a single-stick player (CRAIG).
back-trick, 12N. i. 3. 133: a caper backward in dancing (CRAIG).
back'd-Upon his eagle, Seated upon the back of his eagle,
Cymb. v. 5. 427.
badge of fame to slander's livery-A, Lucr. 1054: "In our author's
time the servants of the nobility all wore silver badges on
their liveries, on which the arms of their masters were
engraved" (MALONE).
baffle, to treat ignominiously, to use contemptuously ("Baffle
... was originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on
recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up
by the heels. In French baffouer or baffoler." Nares's
Gloss.): I will baffle Sir Toby, 12N. ii. 5. 176; baffle me,
1H4. i. 2. 113; how have they baffled thee! 12N. v. 1. 377;
baffled here, R2. i. 1. 170; shall good news be baffled? 2H4.
V. 3. 109.
bagpipe sings i' the nose, cannot contain, &c. M.V. iv. 1. 49.
Compare Every Man in his Humour, Iv. i: "a rhyme to
him is worse than cheese, or a bagpipe."
Bajazet's mute, A.W. iv. 1. 46: The allusion in this passage
(where the original reads "mule") has not yet been ex-
plained. [The particular used for the general. It seems to
need no explanation beyond a reference to H5. i. 2. 232:
BAKER'S-BAN-DOGS.
27
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth. As an
opposite example of the general for the particular, cf. Mcb.
v. 8. 1: The Roman fool.]
baker's daughter-They say the owl was a: see owl, &c.
baldrick, a belt, Ado. i. 1. 244; 2N.K. iv. 2. 86.
bale, sorrow, evil, Cor. i. 1. 167.
balk logic, (according to some) chop logic, wrangle logically,
(according to others) give the go-by to logic, Shr. i. 1. 34.
["But when the sun began this earth to balk,
And passe into the other hemisphere."
Harington, Oil. Fur. xxxiv. 68.]
balk'd in their own blood, 1H4. i. 1. 69: Here balk'd is explained
"piled up in balks or ridges;" but that reading not appear-
ing satisfactory to Grey and Steevens, they proposed bak'd
in its stead. [See Palladius On Husbandrie, E. E. T. S. ed.,
P. 44, Il. 15—21.]
ballad us, make ballads on us, Ant. v. 2. 216.
ballast, the contracted form of ballased or ballaced=ballasted,
Err. iii. 2. 141. (So in Wilkins's Miseries of Inforst Marriage,
“What riches I am ballast with are yours." Sig. H 2, ed. 1629.)
ballow, a pole, a stick, a cudgel, Lr. iv. 6. 247.
balm, the oil of consecration: wash the balm from an anointed
king, R2. iii. 2. 55; I wash away my balm, iv. 1. 207; Be
drops of balm to sanctify thy head, 2H4. iv. 5. 115; 'Tis not
the balm, H5. iv. 1. 277; Thy balm wash'd off, 3H6. iii. 1. 17.
ban, a curse, Hml. iii. 2. 269; bans, Tim. iv. 1. 34; Lr. ii. 3. 19.
ban, to curse, 2H6. ii. 4. 25; iii. 2. 319, 333; Lucr. 1460; P. Pilg.
318; banning, 1H6. v. 3. 42; Ven. 326.
Banbury cheese-You, M.W. i. 1. 130: An allusion to the thin-
ness of Slender,-Banbury cheese being a cream cheese,
which was proverbially thin ("The same thought occurs in
Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601: 'Put off your cloathes,
and you are like a Banbury cheese,-nothing but paring,'
STEEVENS).
band, a bond: arrested on a band, Err. iv. 2. 49 (in what
immediately follows these words Dromio quibbles on band
in the sense of "bond," and band “a band for the neck ");
that breaks his band, iv. 3. 30; thy oath and band, R2. i. 1. 2;
as my furthest band Shall pass, Ant. iii. 2. 26; cancels all
bands, 1H4. iii. 2. 157; die in bands, 3H6. i. 1. 186; with all
bands of law, Hml. i. 2. 24 (Globe: bonds).
ban-dogs, properly band-dogs. so called because on account
of their fierceness they required to be bound or chained,
and used more particularly for baiting bears; considered
by Pennant as mastiffs, and by Gifford as "large dogs of
the mastiff kind”), 2H6. i. 4. 21.
28
BANK'D-BARBASON.
bank'd their towns, K.J. v. 2. 104: Means most probably “sailed
past their towns on the banks of the river," rather than
thrown up entrenchments before their towns;" compare
the old play, The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn, &c. (see iv. 3);
"Your city, Rochester, with great applause,
By some diuine instinct laid armes aside;
And from the hollow holes of Thamesis
Eccho apace repli'd, Viue le Roy:
From thence along the wanton rowling glade
To Troynouant, your faire metropolis,
With lucke came Lewis," &c.
Sec. Part, sig. I 4 verso, ed. 1622:-
But Mr. Staunton sees here an allusion to card-playing,
and (from the context) would understand bank'd their towns
to mean "won their towns, put them in bank or rest.'
["Probably the French aborder; as I landed on the banks
of their towns.' - SCHMIDT.]
banquet, what we now call a dessert,-a slight refection, con-
sisting of cakes, sweetmeats, and fruit, and generally served
in a room to which the guests removed after dinner: My
banquet is to close our stomachs up, After our great gooa
cheer, Shr. v. 2. 9; Servants with a banquet, Ant. ii. 7. dir.
banquet, ere they rested-Should find a running, H8. i. 4. 12;
besides the running banquet of two beadles, v. 4. 69: On the
first of these passages Steevens observes; "A running banquet,
literally speaking, is a hasty refreshment, as set in opposition
to a regular and protracted meal. The former is the object
of this rakish peer; the latter perhaps he would have
relinquished to those of more permanent desires:" and
Malone; "A running banquet seems to have meant a hasty
banquet 'Queen Margaret and Prince Edward (says Hab-
ington in his History of King Edward IV.), though by the
Earle recalled, found their fate and the winds so adverse
that they could not land in England to taste this running
banquet to which fortune had invited them.' The hasty
banquet, that was in Lord Sands's thoughts, is too obvious
to require explanation:" on the second passage Steevens.
remarks; "A banquet, in ancient language, did not [generally]
signify either dinner or supper, but the dessert after each
of them. . . . To the confinement therefore of these rioters
a whipping was to be the dessert."
bar and royal interview-Unto this, “To this barrier, to this
place of congress, &c." (JOHNSON), H5. v. 2. 27.
Barbason, M.W. ii. 2. 311; H5. ii. 1. 57: The name of a
demon: he would seem to be the same as "Marbas, alias
Barbas," who, as Scot informs us, "is a great president,
and appeareth in the forme of a mightie lion; but at the
commandement of a coniuror commeth vp in the likenes
BARBED—BARLEY-BREAK.
29
of a man, and answereth fullie as touching anie thing which
is hidden or secret." &c. The Discouerie of Witchcraft, &c.,
p. 378, ed. 1584.
barbed steeds, steeds equipped with military trappings and
ornaments, R2. iii. 3. 117; R3. i. 1. 10: (Cotgrave has "Bardé:
Barbed or trapped as a great horse. Fr. and Engl. Dict.:
Barbed is said to be a corruption of barded).
barbermonger, "a fop who deals much with barbers, to adjust
his hair and beard" (MASON), Lr. ii. 2. 36.
barber's chair, that fits all buttocks—Like a, a proverbial simile,
A.W. ii. 2. 17: Ray gives "Like a barber's chair, fit for
every buttock." Proverbs, p. 51, ed. 1768.
bare Christian-Which is much in a, 2G. iii. 1. 272: "Launce
is quibbling on. Bare has two senses; mere and naked.
Launce uses it in both, and opposes the naked female to
the water-spaniel covered with hairs of remarkable thickness”
(STEEVENS).
barful strife-A, "A contest full of impediments" (STEEVENS),
12N. i. 4. 41.
barge stays-My, H8. i. 3. 63: "The speaker is now in the
king's palace at Bridewell, from which he is proceeding
[about to proceed] by water to York-place (Cardinal
Wolsey's house), now Whitehall" (MALONE).
Bargulus, 2H6. iv. 1. 108: Hanmer printed "Than Bardylis
the strong, &c." Here Bargulus is a corruption derived
from the faulty reading in Cicero. De Off. ii. 11;"Bargulus
Illyrius latro, de quo est apud Theopompum', &c. ... The true
name is Bardylis (Bάpduas). This personage (who, we are told,
was originally a collier, and next the leader of a band of
freebooters) ultimately raised himself to the throne of Illyria.
baring of my beard-The, The shaving of my beard, A.W. iv. 1. 54.
barley-break, 2NK. iv. 3. 25: "It was played by six people
(three of each sex), who were coupled by lot. A piece of
ground was then chosen, and divided into three compart-
ments, of which the middle one was called hell. It was
the object of the couple condemned to this division, to
catch the others, who advanced from the two extremi-
ties; in which case a change of situation took place,
and hell was filled by the couple who were excluded
by preoccupation from the other places: in this 'catching,'
however, there was some difficulty, as, by the regulations
of the game, the middle couple were not to separate
before they had succeeded, while the others might break
hands whenever they found themselves hard pressed. When
all had been taken in turn, the last couple was said to
be in hell, and the game ended:" Such is Gifford's des-
cription of the old English manner of playing the game,
note on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 104, ed 1813; on
30
BARM-BASE.
the Scottish mode of playing it (which is very different),
see Jamieson's Etymol. Dict. of the Scot. Lang. in "Barla-
breikis, Barley-bracks."
barm, yeast, M.N.D. ii. 1. 38.
barn, or barne, a child: Mercy on's, a barn; a very pretty barn!
W.T. iii. 3. 70; he shall lack no barns (with a quibble), Ado,
iii. 4. 49; barns are blessings, A.W. i. 3. 28.
barnacles, Tp. iv. 1. 249: "Caliban's barnacle is the clakis or
tree-goose" (DOUCE): "Barnacle. A multivalve shell-fish
[lepas anatifera, Linn.] growing on a flexible stem, and
adhering to loose timber, bottoms of ships, &c.; anciently
supposed to turn into a Solan goose; possibly because the
name was the same. . . . Sometimes the barnacles were
supposed to grow on trees, and thence to drop into the
sea, and become geese; as in Drayton's account of Fur-
ness, Polyolb. Song 27, p. 1190 [p. 136, ed. 1622]. From
this fable Linnæus has formed his trivial name anatifera,
Goose or Duckling-bearing. See Donovan's British Shells, Plate
7, where is a good description of the real animal, and an
excellent specimen of the fabulous account from Gerard's
Herbal." Nares's Gloss. [See Max Müller, Sc. Lang. ii. 582;
Walton, Complete Angler, p. 103.]
Barrabas, M.V. iv. 1. 296: This name was, I believe, invariably
made short in the second syllable by the poetical writers
of Shakespeare's days. (In Marlowe's Jew of Malta, “Bar-
răbas" occurs many times: and compare Taylor;
These are the brood of Barrabas, and these
Can rob, and be let loose againe at ease."
and Fennor;
A Thiefe, p. 120,- Workes, 1630:
"Thou Barrabas of all humanitie,
Base slanderer of Christianitie," Defence, &c., p. 153,—id.)
Barson, a corruption of "Barston, a village in Warwickshire,
lying between Coventry and Solyhull" (PERCY), 2H4. v. 3. 94.
Bartholomew boar-pig, 2H4. ii. 4. 250: "The practice of
roasting pigs [for sale] at Bartholomew Fair continued until
the beginning of the last century, if not later," &c. (REED).
Basan-The hill of, Ant. iii. 13. 127: From Psalm lxviii. 15.
base,-prison-base, or prison-bars,-a rustic game: I bid the base
for Proteus (with a quibble-"I challenge an encounter on
behalf of Proteus"), 2G. i. 2. 97; lads more like to run The
country base, Cymb. v. 3. 20; To bid the wind a base he now
prepares, Ven. 303. See Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 71,
sec. ed.
base is the slave that pays, H5. ii. 1. 100: This appears to have
been a proverbial expression (Compare, in Heywood's Fair
Maid of the West, "My motto shall be, Base is the man that
paies." Second Part, sig. L 2, ed. 1631).
BASE-BASILISK.
31
base court, basse-cour, Fr., R2. iii. 3. 180, 182.
baseness-Forced, W.T. ii. 3. 78: “Leontes had ordered Anti-
gonus to take up the bastard; Paulina forbids him to touch
the Princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered
with violence to truth" (JOHNSON),--a passage, in which
Walker would make what appears to me an improper
alteration.
bases-A pair of, Per. ii. 1. 167: “Bases, plural noun. A kind
of embroidered mantle, which hung down from the middle
to about the knees, or lower, worn by knights on horse-
back." Nares's Gloss. (where the word is illustrated by
various quotations): In the list of apparel of the Lord
Admiral's players, taken 1598, we find, "Item, ij payer of
basses, j white, j blewe, of sasnet [sic]." Malone's Shakespeare
(by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 316.
Basilisco-like-Knight, knight, good mother, K.J. i. 1. 244:
"Falconbridge's words here carry a concealed piece of
satire on [rather, allude to] a stupid drama of that age,
printed in 1599, and called Soliman and Perseda. In this
piece there is the character of a bragging cowardly knight,
called Basilisco. His pretension to valour is so blown and
seen through, that Piston, a buffoon-servant in the play,
jumps upon his back, and will not disengage him till he
makes Basilisco swear upon his dudgeon dagger to the
contents, and in the terms, he dictates to him; as, for
instance;
<
Bas. O, I swear, I swear.
Pist. By the contents of this blade,—
Bas. By the contents of this blade,-
Pist. I, the aforesaid Basilisco,—
Bas. I, the aforesaid Basilisco,-knight, good fellow, knight, knight,—
Pist. Knave, good fellow, knave, knave,—’
So that, 'tis clear, our poet is sneering at this play [?]; and
makes Philip, when his mother calls him knave, throw off
that reproach by humorously laying claim to his new dignity
of knighthood, as Basilisco arrogantly insists on his title of
knight in the passage above quoted" (THEOBALD): The
Tragedie of Soliman and Perseda. Wherein is laide open,
Loues constancie, Fortunes inconstancie, and Deaths Triumphs,
1599, though a wretched production, was once very popular:
it has been attributed to Kyd. [Hazl. Dodsl. vol. v.]
basilisk, an imaginary creature (called also cockatrice), supposed
to kill by its very look: sighted like the basilisk, W.T. i. 2.
388; come, basilisk, And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight,
2H6. iii. 2. 52; I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk, 3H6.
iii. 2. 187; It is a basilisk unto mine eye, Cymb. ii. 4. 107;
Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks, 2H6. iii. 2. 324;
Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead! R3. 1. 2. 151.
32
BASILISK—BAT-FOWLING.
basilisk, a huge piece of ordnance, carrying a ball of very
great weight: Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, 1H4. ii. 3. 56;
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks, H5. v. 2. 17; but
in the second of these passages there is a double allusion-
to pieces of ordnance, and to the fabulous creatures named
basilisks; see the preceding article.
bass my trespass-Did, "told it me in a rough bass sound"
(JOHNSON), "served as the bass in a concert, to proclaim
my trespass in the loudest and fullest tone" (HEATH), Tp.
iii. 3. 99.
basta, enough (Italian and Spanish), Shr. i. 1. 203.
bastard, whom the oracle Hath doubtfully pronounc'd &c.-A,
Tim. iv. 3. 120. Alluding to the story of Edipus.
bastard-Drink brown and white, M.M. iii. 2. 4; Score a pint
of bastard, 1H4. ii. 4. 30; your brown bastard is your only
drink, ii. 4. 82: Bastard was a sweetish wine (approaching
to the muscadel wine in flavour, and perhaps made from
a bastard species of muscadine grape), which was brought
from some of the countries bordering the Mediterranean.
There were two sorts, white and brown: see Henderson's
History of Ancient and Modern Wines, pp. 290—1.
bat, a large stick, a cudgel, Compl. 64; bats, Cor. i. 1. 57, 165.
bat-fowling, Tp. ii. 1. 185: Is described as follows in Markham's
Hunger's Preuention: or, The whole Arte of Fowling by
Water and Land, &c. "Next to the Tramell, I thinke
meete to proceed to Batte-fowling, which is likewise a
nighty [sic] taking of all sorts of great and small Birdes
which rest not on the earth, but on Shrubbes, tal Bushes,
Hathorne trees, and other trees, and may fitly and most
conueniently be vsed in all woody, rough, and bushy
countries, but not in the champaine. For the manner of
bat-fowling, it may be vsed either with nettes or without
nettes. If you vse it without nettes (which indeede is the
most common of the two), you shall then proceede in this
manner. First, there shall be one to carry the cresset of
fire (as was shewed for the Lowbell), then a certaine
number, as two, three, or foure (according to the greatnesse
of your company); and these shall haue poales bound with
dry round wispes of hay, straw, or such like stuffe, or else
bound with pieces of linkes or hurdes dipt in pitch, rosen,
grease, or any such like matter that will blaze. Then another
company shall be armed with long poales, very rough and
bushy at the vpper endes, of which the willow, byrche, or
long hazell are best; but indeed according as the country
will afford, so you must be content to take. Thus being
prepared, and comming into the bushy or rough ground
where the haunts of birds are, you shall then first kindle
some of your fiers, as halfe or a third part, according as
BATE.
33
your prouision is, and then with your other bushy and
rough poales you shall beat the bushes, trees, and haunts
of the birds, to enforce them to rise; which done, you
shall see the birds, which are raysed, to flye and play
about the lights and flames of the fier; for it is their
nature, through their amazednesse and affright at the
strangenes of the lightt and the extreame darknesse round
about it, not to depart from it, but, as it were, almost to
scorch their wings in the same; so that those which haue
the rough bushye poales may (at their pleasures) beat
them down with the same, and so take them. Thus you
may spend as much of the night as is darke, for longer is
not conuenient; and doubtlesse you shall finde much
pastime and take great store of birds; and in this you
shall obserue all the obseruations formerly treated of in
the Lowbell; especially that of silence, vntill your lights
be kindled, but then you may vse your pleasure, for the
noyse and the light when they are heard and seene afarre
of, they make the birds sit the faster and surer. The
byrdes which are commonly taken by this labour or
exercise are, for the most part, the rookes, ringdoues,
blackebirdes, throstles, feldy fares, linnets, bulfinches, and
all other byrdes whatsoeuer that pearch or sit vpon small
boughes or bushes. This exercise, as it may be vsed in
these rough, woody, and bushie places, so it may also be
vsed alongst quickset hedges or any other hedges or places
where there is any shelter for byrdes to pearch in." p. 98
ed. 1621. A simpler mode of bat-fowling, by means of a
large clap-net and a lantern, and called bird-batting, is
noticed in Fielding's Joseph Andrews, B. ii. ch. 10. [See
Macpherson's Hist. of Fowling.]
bate, strife, contention: breeds no bate with telling of discreet
stories ("if it be recollected with what sort of companions
he [Pointz] was likely to associate, Falstaff's meaning will
appear to be, that he excites no censure for telling them
modest stories, or, in plain English, that he tells them
nothing but immodest ones," DOUCE), 2H4. ii. 4. 271.
bate, to flutter, to flap the wings (a term in falconry: “Bate,
Bateing or Bateth, is when the Hawk fluttereth with her
Wings either from Pearch or Fist, as it were striving to
get away; also it is taken for her striving with her Prey,
and not forsaking it till it be overcome." R. Holme's
Academy of Armory and Blazon (Terms of Art used in Falconry,
&c.), B. ii. c. xi. p. 238. ["even as Hawkes are carried hooded
very quietly, which if their sight were free, would never
leave bating till they had broken their lines, or utterly
tyred themselves." Sir John Harington: A brief allegorie
of Orlando Furioso, p. 407.]: these kites That bate, Shr. iv.
3
34
BATE-BAVIAN.
1. 199; 'tis a hooded valour; and when it appears it wil
bate (in which passage is a quibble between bate, the term
of falconry, and bate, i.e. abate, fall off, dwindle), H5. iii.
7. 122; Bated (used, it would seem, for Bating) like eagles,
1H4. iv. 1. 99 (Globe Baited); Hood my unmann'd blood,
bating in my cheeks, Rom. iii. 2. 14 (see hood, &c). [In 1H4.
iv. 1. 99, retaining the old reading with for Rowe's wings,
may we not interpret simply: plumed like ostriches; that
(rel. pron. which plumes) fluttered with the wind like
eagles after bathing?]
bate, to abate, to diminish, to lessen: To bate me a full year,
Tp. i. 2. 250; bate one breath of her accustomed crossness,
Ado, ii. 3. 183; the main flood bate his usual height, M.V. iv.
1. 72; I will not bate thee a scruple, A.W. ii. 3. 234; bate
me some, 2H4 Epil. 15; bate thy rage, H5. iii. 2. 26; you
bate too much of your own merits, Tim. i. 2. 212; Who bates
mine honour, iii. 3. 26; With bated breath, M.V. i. 3. 125;
like a bated and retired flood, K.J. v. 4. 53; no leisure bated
("without any abatement or intermission of time," MALONE),
Hml. v. 2. 23.
bate, to grow less: do I not bate? 1H4. iii. 3. 2.
bate, to except: Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido, Tp. ii 1. 100;
Those bated that inherit but the fall, &c., A.W. ii. 1. 13.
bate, to blunt: which shall bate his scythe's keen edge, L.L.L. i. 1. 6
(see the third sense of abate).
bate-breeding, apt to cause strife or contention, Ven. 655.
batlet, a bat for beating clothes in washing, A.Y.L. ii. 4. 49.
Craig reads batler, as F1.
batten, “To batten (grow fat), pinguesco" (Coles's Lat. and Engl.
Dict.), Cor. iv. 5. 35; Hml. iii. 4. 67 [to feed coarsely. CRAIG].
bauble, the licensed Fool's or Jester's "official sceptre or
bauble, which was a short stick ornamented at the end
with a figure of a fool's head, or sometimes with that of
a doll or puppet" (DOUCE): gives his wife my bauble, A.W.
iv. 5. 32; An idiot holds his bauble for a god, Tit. v. 1. 79
("There cannot be a doubt that Aaron refers to that sort
of bauble or sceptre which was usually carried in the hand
by natural idiots and allowed jesters, and by which, it may be
supposed, they would sometimes swear. The resemblance
which it bore to an image or idol suggested the poet's
comparison," DOUCE); hide his bauble in a hole, Rom. ii. 4. 97.
Bavian-The, The Baboon (the word is also written Babian and
Babion), 2N.K. iii. 5. dir.; 33; 163; dir. [Qo. Baum]: Here
[in the third of the above passages] are not [as Steevens
supposed] two fools described. The construction is, ‘next
comes the fool, i.e. the Bavian fool, &c.'... The tricks of
the Bavian, his tumbling and barking like a dog... were
peculiar to the morris-dance described in the Two Noble
BAVIN-BAY-WINDOWS.
35
Kinsmen, which has some other characters that seem to
have been introduced for stage-effect, and not to have
belonged to the genuine morris" (DOUCE).
bavin wits, flashing wits, 1H4. iii. 2. 61 (Bavin is "a faggot of
brushwood;" but the word, as here, is sometimes used
adjectively;
"I onely burne the bauen heath of youth."
Jacke Drums Entertainement, sig. A3 verso, ed. 1616).
[“Oh mans life is like lightning that is but a flash, and the
longest date of his yeares but as a bavens blaze." Lodge,
Euphues' Golden Legacie, p. 17. Sh. Lib. Cf Lyly, M.
Bombie, iv. 1.]
bawbling, trifling, insignificant, contemptible, 12N. v. 1. 57.
bawcock, a burlesque term of endearment, said to be derived
from the French beau coq, 12N. iii. 4. 125; W.T. i. 2. 121;
H5. iii. 2. 26; iv. 1. 44.
bay-After three-pence a, M.M. ii. 1. 255: “Bay, a principal
compartment or division in the architectural arrangement
of a building, marked either by the buttresses or pilasters
on the walls, by the disposition of the main ribs of the
vaulting of the interior, by the main arches and pillars, the
principals of the roof, or by any other leading features that
separate it into corresponding portions." Parker's Concise
Glossary of Architecture.
bay curtal: see curtal—Bay.
Baynard's Castle, R3. iii. 5. 98, 105. (twice): Baynard's Castle,
on the banks of the Thames, immediately below St. Paul's,
was originally a fortress built by "Baynard. a nobleman
that came in with the Conqueror. . I find that, in the
year 1428, the 7th of Henry VI., a great fire was at Baynard's-
Castle, and that Humphrey Duke of Gloucester built it new.
By his death and attainder in the year 1446 it came to the
hands of Henry VI., and from him to Richard Duke of
York, of whom we read, that in the year 1457 he lodged
there as in his own house." Stowe's Survey, vol. i. pp. 64,
66, ed. 1754: Baynard's Castle was destroyed in the Great
Fire, 1666. It still gives a name to a ward-Castle Bay-
nard Ward.
bay-trees in our country are all wither'd- The, R2. ii.
8.
This (which Shakespeare found in Holinshed) was reckoned
a prognostic of evil both in ancient and in more modern
times.
bay-windows, 12N. iv. 2. 40: "Bay-window, a window form-
ing a bay or recess in a room, and projecting outwards
from the wall either in a rectangular, polygonal, or semi-
circular form, often called a bow-window," &c. Parker's
Concise Glossary of Architecture.
36
BEADSMAN—BEAT.
beadsman, one who prays for the welfare of another, a prayer-
man, 2G. i. I. 18; beadsmen, R2. iii. 2. 116. (“Bead, says
Tooke, is the A.S. Beade, [gebed] oratio, something prayed
-because one was dropped down a string every time a
prayer was said, and thereby marked upon the string the
number of times prayed." Richardson Dict.) [In K.J. ii. 1.
171, beads is used for tears, with a side-reference to these
praying beads, prayers.]
beak-Now on the, Tp. i. 2. 196: "The beak was a strong
pointed body at the head of the ancient galleys: it is used
here for the forecastle or the boltsprit" (JOHNSON).
bear, to carry, to gain, to win: It must not bear my daughter,
Tim. i. 1. 131; with more facile question bear it, Oth. i. 3. 23.
bear a brain, "have a perfect remembrance or recollection
(REED), Rom. i. 3. 29.
bear hard, "to have an unfavourable opinion of" (STEEVENS),
"to bear a grudge" (CRAIK); Cæsar doth bear me hard,
J. C. i. 2. 317; Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard, ii. 1.
215; if you bear me hard, iii. 1. 157.
•
會
​bear in hand, to keep in expectation, to flatter one's hopes, to
amuse with false pretences: bear her in hand, Ado, iv. 1.
305; she bears me fair in hand, Shr. iv. 2. 3; bear a gentle-
leman in hand, 2H4. i. 2. 42; Bore many gentlemen . in
hand, M.M. i. 4. 51; Your daughter whom she bore in hand
to love (whom she insidiously led to believe that she loved),
Cymb. v. 5. 43; How you were borne in hand, Mcb. iii. 1.
81; Was falsely borne in hand, Hml. ii. 2. 67.
bearded like the pard, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 150: having fierce mous-
taches, like the pard's whiskers.
bear-herd, the keeper of a bear. Shr. Ind. 2. 21; 2H4. i. 2. 192.
bearing-cloth, the cloth or mantle which usually covered the
child when it was carried to the font, W.T. iii. 3. 119;
1H6, i. 3. 42.
bears-Call hither to the stake my two brave, 2H6. v. I. 144,
148, 153, 203, 208: "The Nevils, Earls of Warwick, had a
bear and ragged staff for their cognizance" (SIR J. HAWKINS):
see, a little farther on, the speech of Warwick, "Now, by
my father's badge," &c.
bears [betray'd] with glasses, J.C. ii. 1. 205: "Bears are reported
to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they
would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of
taking the surer aim" (STEEVENS).
bear-ward, the keeper of a bear, Ado, ii. 1. 43: 2H6. v. 1.
149, 210.
bear-whelp-Unlick'd: see unlick'd, &c.
beat on, to be busy on, to hammer on: Do not infest
your mind with beating on The strangeness, Tp. v. 1. 246;
thine eyes and thoughts Beat on a crown, 2H6. ii. 1. 20;
BEAUTIFIED-BEG.
37
Whereon his brains still beating, Hml. iii. 1. 182; this her
mind beats upon, 2N.K. iv. 3. 68.
beautified Ophelia--The most, Hml. ii. 2. 110: "beautified" is
a vile phrase, ibid.: By beautified (which, however "vile a
phrase," is common enough in our early writers) I believe
that Hamlet means "beautiful," and not "accomplished,"
as it is explained by Caldecott.
beauty-Be called thieves of the day's, 1H4. i. 2. 28: "There is,
I have no doubt, a pun on the word beauty, which in the
western counties is pronounced nearly in the same manner
as booty. See King Henry VI. Part. iii. [act i. sc. 4. 1. 63];
'So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd booty'" (MALONE).
beaver on-With his, 1H4. iv. 1. 104; through a rusty beaver
peeps, H5. iv. 2. 44; I cleft his beaver, 3H6. i. 1. 12; is my
beaver easier, R3. v. 3. 50; in a gold beaver, Troil. i. 3. 296;
his beaver up, Hml. i. 2. 230; their beavers down, 2H4. iv.
1. 120; "The beaver of a helmet is frequently used by
writers, improperly enough, to express the helmet itself. It
is in reality the lower part of it, adapted to the purpose
of giving the wearer [by raising it up] an opportunity of
taking breath when oppressed with heat, or, without, putting
off the helmet, of taking his repast" (DOUCE).
becks, bows, Tim. i. 2. 237.
become, to adorn, to set-off, to grace: become disloyalty, Err.
iii, 2. 11; become the field, K.J. v. 1. 55; become hard-favour'd
death, 1H6. iv. 7. 23; vilest things become themselves in her,
Ant. ii. 2. 244; becomes the ground, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 256; Whe-
ther the horse by him became his deed, L. Compl. 111.
become you well to worship shadows-Since your falsehood shall,
2G. iv. 2. 130: "It is simply 'since your falsehood shall
adopt or render you fit to worship shadows.' Become here
answers to the Latin convenire, and is used according to
its genuine Saxon meaning” (DOUCE).
becomed, for becoming: what becomèd love I might, Rom. iv. 2. 26.
becoming, an adorning, the power of setting-off: Whence hast
thou this becoming of things ill, Sonn. 150.
becoming-So fill'd and so, W.T. iii. 3. 22. [Schmidt expl.
'decent, graceful', and compares Rom. iv. 2. 26: gave him
what becomed love I might.]
becomings--My, What becomes me. Ant. i. 3. 96.
bedfellow-The man that was his, H5. ii. 2. 8: "This unseemly
custom [of men sleeping together] continued common till
the middle of the last century, if not later" (Malone). [cf.
Peele, Alcazar, ii. 4; p. 430. ed. Dyce.]
Bedlam-Tom o'; the Bedlam: Bedlam beggars: see Tom o'
Bedlam, &c.
beg us—You cannot. L.L.L. v. 2. 490: Costard means, “We are
not fools:" "To beg a person for a fool; to apply to be
38
BEGGAR-BEING.
his guardian. In the old common law was a writ de
idiota inquirendo, under which, if a man was legally proved
an idiot, the profits of his lands and the custody of his
person might be granted by the king to any subject. See
Blackstone, B. i. ch. 8. § 18. Such a person, when this
grant was asked, was said to be begged for a fool; which
that learned judge regarded as being still a common ex-
pression. See his note. loc. cit." Nares's Gloss.: "Frequent
allusions to this practice occur in the old comedies. In
illustration of it Mr. Ritson has given a curious story, which
as it is mutilated in the authority which he has used [Cabi-
net of Mirth, 1674], is here subjoined from a more original
source, a collection of tales, &c., compiled about the time
of Charles the First, preserved among the Harleian Mss. in
the British Museum, No. 6395. 'The Lord North begg'd
old Bladwell for a foole (though he could never prove him
so), and having him in his custodie as a lunaticke, he
carried him to a gentleman's house, one day, that was his
neighbour. The L. North and the gentleman retir'd awhile
to private discourse, and left Bladwell in the dining roome,
which was hung with a faire hanging. Bladwell walking up
and downe, and viewing the imagerie, spyed a foole at last
in the hanging, and without delay drawes his knife, flyes
at the foole, cutts him cleane out, and layes him on the
floore. My L. and the gentl. coming in againe, and finding
the tapestrie thus defac'd, he ask'd Bladwell what he meant
by such a rude uncivill act: he answered, Sr., be content,
I have rather done you a courtesie than a wrong, for if
ever my L. N. had seene the foole there, he would have
begg'd him, and so you might have lost your whole suite.'
The same story, but without the parties' names, is related
in Fuller's Holy State, p. 182" (Douce). [Compare Donne,
Sat. vi. 32: "she may beg thee"; and the Dedic. Sonnet to
Sir J. Davies' Gulling Sonnets: "Use your own grace, and
beg him for a foole.”]
"Beggar and the King-The," R2. v. 3. 80: see Cophetua-
King.
beggar of fifty, any fifty-year-old beggar-woman, M.M. iii.
2. 133.
beguil'd with outward honesty, covered with the mask of honesty,
Lucr. 1544,
behave, to govern, to manage: He did behave his anger, Tim.
iii. 5. 22.
behest, a command, Cymb. v. 4. 122.
beholding, beholden, 2G. iv. 4. 178; M.W. i. 1. 283; M.M. iv.
3. 166; M.V. i. 3. 106; A.Y.L. iv. 1. 60; Shr. i. 2. 274; ii.
1. 78; K.J. i. 1. 239; R2. iv. 1. 160; 1H4. ii. 1. 98, etc.
Being, adverbially used, when. Ado, v. i. 61.
BELDAM-BENDS.
39
beldam, a grandmother: the old beldam earth, 1H4. iii. 1. 32
(where, in the next line but one, is Our grandam earth, as
synonymous); To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,
K.J. iv. 2. 185; Old men and beldams (old women), Lucr. 953.
beldam, used as a term of contempt,-a hag: Beldam, I think,
we watch'd you, 2H6, i. 4. 45; beldams as you are, Mcb.
iii. 5. 2.
be-lee'd and calm'd, Oth. i. 1. 30: "I have been informed
that one vessel is said to be in the lee of another
when it is so placed that the wind is intercepted from it.
Iago's meaning therefore is, that Cassio had got the wind
of him, and be-calm'd him from going on. To be-calm (as
I learn from Falconer's Marine Dictionary) is likewise to
obstruct the current of the wind in its passage to a ship,
by any contiguous object" (Steevens).
Bell, book, and candle shall not drive me back, K.J. iii. 3. 12:
"In the solemn form of excommunication used in the Romish
Church, the bell was tolled, the book of offices for the
purpose used, and three candles extinguished with certain
ceremonies." Nares's Gloss. (So Dekker;
Bell, booke, or candle cannot curse me out."
If it be not good, the Deuil is in it, 1612, sig B.)
Bellona's bridegroom, Mcb. i. 2. 54: Means Macbeth.
Bells-If Warwick shake his: 3H6. i. 1. 47: An allusion to the
bells with which falcons were furnished.
bells in your parlours, &c.-You are pictures out of doors, Oth.
ii. 1. 111. Compare Wilkins, Miseries of Enforced Marriage,
Hazl. Dodsl. ix. 475: "Women are the purgatory of men's
purses, the paradise of their bodies, and the hell of their
minds; marry none of them. Women are in churches saints
abroad angels, at home devils."
be-mete, to be-measure. Shr. iv. 3. 113.
bemoiled, bemired, Shr. iv. 1. 77.
benches-Sleeping upon, 1H4. i. 2. 4; i.e. sleeping upon ale-
house benches.—a habit of idle sots: see Gifford's note on
Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 103.
bench-holes, holes of privies, Ant. iv. 7. 9.
bending author-Our, H5. Epil. 2: "By bending our author
meant unequal to the weight of his subject, and bending
beneath it; or he may mean, as in Hamlet, 'Here stooping
to your clemency'" (STEEVENS),
beneath-world-This, Tim. i. 1. 44: compare th' under gen-
eration, M.M. iv. 3. 93.
benefit proceeding from our king-Of, 1H6. v. 4 152: "Benefit
is here a term of law. Be content to live as the benificiary
of our king" (JOHNSON).
bends (glances; their eyes turned towards her and by their
bright glances adorned her); Ant. ii. 2. 213.
40
BENISON—BESONIAN.
benison, blessing, Mcb. ii. 4. 40; Lr. i. 1. 268; iv. 6. 229;
Per. ii. Gow. 10.
bent-Her affections have their full, Ado. ii. 3. 232; the very
bent of honour, iv. 1. 188; thy affection cannot hold the bent,
12N. ii. 4. 38; in the full bent, Hml. ii. 2. 30; fool me to the
top of my bent, iii. 2. 401; “Bent is used by our author for
the utmost degree of any passion or mental quality. The
expression is derived from archery; the bow has its bent
when it is drawn as far as it can be" (JONHSON).
Bergomask dance-A;...your Bergomask, M.N.D. v. 1. 360, 368:
"A dance after the manner of the peasants of Bergomasco,
a county in Italy belonging to the Venetians. All the
buffoons in Italy affect to imitate the ridiculous jargon of
that people, and from thence it became a custom to mimic
also their manner of dancing” (HANMER).
Bermoothes-The, The Bermudas, Tp. i. 2. 229.
beshrew, to curse,—but a mild form of imprecation,="a mis-
chief on," Err. ii. 1. 49; L.L.L. v. 2. 46; W.T. ii. 2. 30;
etc. Beshrew me, 2G. i. 1; ii. 4; M.V. ii. 6; etc. Beshrew
thy (your) heart, 2H4. ii. 3; v. 3; Troil. iv. 2; Rom. ii. 5.
besmirch, to be-smut, Hml. i. 3. 15; besmirch'd, H5. iv. 3. 110:
see smirch.
besonian, 2H4. v. 3. 119; besonians, 2H6. iv. i. 134: The Italian
origin of the word besonian (see post) shows that it properly
means “a needy fellow, a beggar:" but it was also used
in the sense of "a raw or needy soldier;" and eventually
it became a term of reproach,-"a knave, a scoundrel"
("Bisogno, need, want. Also a fresh needy soldier.
Bisognoso, needy, necessitous." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.:
"Bisongne. a filthie knaue, or clowne; a raskall, bisonian,
base humored scoundrell." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
For the following illustrations of the word I am indebted
to Mr. Bolton Corney; "Their order is [in Spain], where
the warres are present, to supplie their regiments, being in
action, with the garrisons out of all his dominions and
prouinces before they dislodge, besonios supply[ing] their
places, raw men, as wee tearme them. By these meanes
hee traines his besonios, and furnisheth his armie with
trained souldiers." A brief discourse of Warre, by Sir Roger
Williams, 1590, 4to, p. 11: "Bisognio or Bisonnio, a Spanish
or Italian word, and is, as we terme it, a raw souldier, un-
expert in his weapon, and other military points." The theorike
and practike of moderne warres, by Robert Barret, 1598, folio,
sig. y 4: "Bisoños, Voyez Visoños.. Visoño, nouueau
soldat, apprenty." Tesoro de las dos lengvas Francesa y Espa-
nola, por Cesar Ovdin, 1607, 4to: "Bisoño, el soldado nueuo
en la milicia, es nobre casual y moderno," &c. Tesoro de
la lengua Castellana, o Española, por D. Sebastian de Co-
BESORT-BETTERING.
4I
barruuias, 1611, sig. s 2 verso: Cobarruuis or Covarruvias
gives us twenty-five lines on this word: he states that some
Spanish soldiers in Italy learned the word Visoño, and were
accustomed to ask alms, saying Visoño pan, Visoño carne,
&c., and were thence called Visoños; which circumstance
is alluded to by one of their dramatists, Torres Naharro).
[Chapman, dedication of Odysseys, "we have every besogne
and every fool a leader."]
besort, attendance, train: With such accommodation and besort,
Oth. i. 3. 239.
besort, to suit, to befit, to become: such men as may besort
your age, Lr. i. 4. 272.
best-Send us to Rome The, Cor. i. 9. 77: Here the best means
'the chief persons of Corioli."
best men-Men of few words are the, H5. iii. 2. 39: “best men,
that is, bravest; so, in the next lines, good deeds are brave
actions" (JOHNSON).
Best-That did betray the, W.T. i. 2. 419: An allusion to Judas
Iscariot.
best-condition'd, endowed with the best disposition, M.V. iii.
2. 295: see condition.
best-indu'd, "gifted or endowed in the most extraordinary
manner” (STEEVENS), L.L.L. v. 2. 646.
bested-Worse, "In a worse plight" (JOHNSON), 2H6. ii. 3. 56.
bestow, to stow, to lodge, to place: bestow your luggage, Tp.
v. i. 299; bestow these papers, J.C. i. 3. 151; bestow ourselves,
Hml. iii. 1. 33, 44; I will bestow him, iii. 4. 176; you have
bestow'd my money, Err. i. 2. 78; our bloody cousins are
bestow'd In England, Mcb. iii. 1. 30; will you see the players
well bestowed? Hml. ii. 2. 547; Where the dead body is
bestow'd, iv. 3. 12; the old man and his people Cannot be well
bestow'd, Lr. ii. 4. 292; Where he bestows himself, Mcb. iii. 6. 24.
bestow, to carry, to show: see Falstaff bestow himself to-night
in his true colours, 2H4. ii. 2. 186; bestows himself Like a
ripe sister, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 87.
bestowed her on her own lamentation, "gave her up to her
sorrows" (STEEVENS), M.M. iii. 1. 237.
bestraught, distraught, mad, Shr. Ind. 2. 26.
beteem, to give in streaming abundance: which I could wen
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes, M.N.D. i. 1. 131.
beteem, to suffer, "deign to allow" (CALDECOTT): That he
might not beteem the winds of heaven, &c, Hml. i. 2. 141.
better, and worse-Still, “Better in regard to the wit of your
double entendre, but worse in respect to the grossness of
your meaning" (STEEVENS), Hml. iii. 2. 261.
better part, see Atalanta's.
bettering thy loss makes the bad-causer worse, R3. iv. 4. 122:
Bettering is amplifying, magnifying thy loss. Shakespeare
42
BEVEL-BIGGEN.
employed this word for the sake of an antithesis, in which
he delighted, between better and loss" (MAlone).
bevel, crooked, Sonn. 121.
Bevis was believ'd-That, That the incredible incidents in the
famous romance of Bevis of Southampton were now believed,
H8. i. 1. 38.
bewray, to discover, 3H6 i. 1. 211; iii. 3. 97; Cor. v. 3. 95;
Tit. ii. 4. 3; v. 1. 28; Lr. ii. 1. 109; iii. 6. 118; bewray'd,
1H6. iv. 1. 107; Lucr. 1698; P. Pilgr. 352.
Bezonian, see Besonian.
bias, swelled, out of shape ("as the bowl on the biassed side,"
Johnson's Dict.): thy sphered bias cheek, Troil. iv. 5. 8.
bid, to invite: I will bid the duke to the nuptial, A.Y.L. v. 2. 47;
bid your friends, 79; he hath bid me to a calf's-head and a
capon, Ado, v. 1. 55; I am bid forth to supper, M.V. ii. 5. 11;
I am not bid to wait upon this bride, Tit. i. 1. 338; bid me
to 'em, Tim i. 2. 85.
bid, endured: for whom you bid like sorrow, R3. iv. 4. 304.
bid the base, and run the base: see base,-prison-base, &c.
Biddy, come with me, 12N. iii. 4. 128.
bide upon't-To, equivalent to "My abiding opinion is," W.T.
i. 2. 242.
("Captain, thou art a valiant gentleman;
To abide upon't, a very valiant man.”
Beaumont and Fletcher's King and No King,
act iv. sc. 3.
"The wife of the said Peter then said, to abide upon it, I
thinke that my husband will neuer mend," &c. Potts's Dis-
coverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, 1613, sig. T 4)
bigamy - Loath'd, R3. iii. 7. 189: “Bigamy, by a canon of the
council of Lyons, A D. 1274 (adopted in England by a statute
in 4 Edw. I.), was made unlawful and infamous. It differed
from polygamy or having two wives at once; as it consisted
in either marrying two virgins successively, or once marry-
ing a widow" (BLACKSTONE). (Fielding, in his Amelia'
applies the term bigamy to marrying two wives successively;
vol. ii. p 240, vol. iii. p. 19, ed. 1752.)
biggen, 2H4. iv. 5. 27: “A cap, quoif, or dress for the head,
formerly worn by men, but now limited, I believe, almost
entirely to some particular cap or bonnet for young
children. Caps or coifs were probably first called be-
guins or biggins, from their resemblance to the caps or
head-dress worn by those Societies of young women who
were called Beguines in France, and who led a middle kind
of life between the secular and religious, made no vows,
but maintained themselves by the work of their own hands.”
Boucher's Glossary of Arch. and Prov. Words.
BILBERRY—BILL.
bilberry, wortleberry, M.W. v. 5. 49.
43
bilbo, a sword (so called from Bilboa in Spain, which was
famous for its manufacture of sword-blades), M.W. i. 1. 165;
iii. 5. 112.
bilboes-The, Hml. v. 2. 6: "The bilboes is a bar of iron with
fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly
sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived
from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel
were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand
Shakespeare's allusion completely, it should be known that,
as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close
together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those
of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that
would not let him sleep. Every motion of one must disturb
his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in
the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish
Armada" (STEEVENS).
bill, a sort of pike or halbert, or rather a kind of battle-axe
affixed to a long staff, formerly carried by the English
infantry, and afterwards the usual weapon of watchmen
("Bills - these long-popular weapons of the foot-soldier
were constructed to thrust at mounted men, or cut and
damage their horse-furniture; sometimes they were provided
with a side-hook to seize a bridle." FAIRHOLT): take thou
the bill (with a quibble), give me thy mete-yard, Shr. iv. 3. 153;
my brain-pan had been cleft with a brown bill, 2H6. iv. 10. 13;
have a care that your bills be not stolen, Ado, iii. 3. 44; a
goodly commodity, being taken up of these men's bills (with a
quibble both on taken up,-see take up, and on bills), 191;
manage rusty bills, R2. iii. 2. 118; take up commodities upon
our bills (with a quibble), 2H6. iv. 7. 135; our bills, Tim.
Knock me down with 'em (with a quibble): cleave me to the
girdle, Tim. iii. 4. 90; Bring up the brown bills, Lr. iv. 6. 92.
bill, a forest-bill, an implement carried by foresters: with bills
on their necks (with a quibble on the sense of 'notice'), A.Y.L.
i. 2. 131. In the Folio the words “ With bills on their necks”
are the commencement of Rosalind's speech. Farmer (who
showed that Shakespeare might have found this very ex-
pression in Lodge's Rosalynd, the novel which furnished
the plot of the play:-"Rosader came pacing towardes them
with his forrest bill on his neck,” p. 84 of repr. in Shak.
Library) assigned them to Le Beau; and no doubt rightly;
for, if they are spoken by Rosalind, the whole humour of
the passage evaporates. By 'bills' Le Beau means the
weapons carried by foresters: Rosalind chooses to under-
stand that he means scrolls, advertising bills.
bill, a placard posted by public challengers: He set up his bills
here in Messina, Ado, i. 1. 39.
44
BILL—BLACK-MONDAY.
bill, a billet, a note: give these bills Unto the legions on the other
side, J.C. v. 2. I.
bin, been, Lucr. 210 (Globe, been. Qo. beene).
bird-bolt, a short thick arrow with a blunted extremity, for
killing birds without piercing them, Ado, i. 1. 42; L.L.L.
iv. 3. 25; bird-bolts, 12N. i. 5. 100.
birds, deceiv'd with painted grapes, Ven. 601: "Our author
alludes to the celebrated picture of Zeuxis, mentioned by
Pliny, in which some grapes were so well represented that
birds lighted on them to peck at them" (Malone).
Birthchild, Per. iv. 4. 41: "a child adopted on account of
being born in a certain place” (CRAIG).
birthdom, birthright, Mcb, iv. 3. 4.
bisson, blind: your bisson conspectuities, Cor. ii. 1. 70; this bisson
multitude, iii. 1. 131. Fol. has bosome-multiplied.
bisson, blinding: bisson rheum, Hml. ii. 2. 529.
bite my thumb at them-I will, Rom. i. 1. 48, 51: Do you bite
your thumb at us, sir? &c., ibid.: "This mode of insult, in
order to begin a quarrel, seems to have been common in
Shakespeare's time. Decker, in his Dead Term, 1608,
describing the various groups that daily frequented St. Paul's
Church, says, 'What swearing is there, what shouldering,
what justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs, to beget
quarrels!' [a passage originally cited by Malone]. ... The
mode in which this contemptuous action was performed is
thus described by Cotgrave [sub Nique], in a passage which
has escaped the industry of all the commentators; 'Faire
la nique: to mocke by nodding or lifting up of the chinne;
or more properly, to threaten or defie by putting the thumbe
naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the upper
teeth) make it to knacke"" (SINGER).
bite thee by the ear-I will, Rom. ii. 4. 81: "This odd mode
of expressing pleasure, which seems to be taken from the
practice of animals, who, in a playful mood, bite each
other's ears, &c., is very common in our old dramatists."
Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 184.
bitter sweeting-A very, Rom. ii. 4. 83: sweeting means a kind
of sweet apple; bitter-sweet or bitter-sweeting, an apple which
has a compound taste of sweet and bitter ("A bitter-sweet
[Apple], Amarimellum." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.).
black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes, 2G. v. 2. 12: Ray
gives "A black man's a jewel in a fair woman's eye."
Proverbs, p. 47, ed. 1768. See Pearl.
Black-Monday, M. v. ii. 5. 25: “Black Monday (as Mr. Peck
observes, Explanatory and Critical Notes upon Shakespeare's
Plays) is a moveable day, it is Easter-Monday, and was
so called on this occasion. In the 34th of Edward III.
[1360], the 14th of April, and the morrow after Easter-day,
BLACKS-BLINDWORM.
45
King Edward with his host lay before the city of Paris;
which day was full dark of mist and hail, and so bitter
cold, that many men died on their horses backs with the
cold. Wherefore unto this day it hath been call'd the
Blacke-Monday.' Stow, p. 264 b." (GREY.)
blacks-O'er-dy'd, W.T. i. 2. 132: Blacks, i.e. mourning habili-
ments: by o'er-dy'd blacks "Sir Thomas Hanmer understands
blacks dyed too much, and therefore rotten" (JOHNSON).
["Black things painted with another colour, through which
the ground will soon appear; cf. Tit. iv. 2. 100". SCHMIDT.]
bladed corn, Mcb. iv. 1. 55; grass, M.N.D. i. 1. 211.
blank, the white in the centre of the butts (see clout), also the
mark or aim in gunnery: the blank And level (the mark
and range or line of aim) of my brain, W.T. ii. 3. 5; As
level as the cannon to his blank, Hml. iv. 1. 42; The true
blank of thine eye, Lr. i. 1. 161; within the blank (" shot,"
JOHNSON) of his displeasure, Oth. iii. 4. 128.
blanks, benevolences and I wot not what—As, R2. ii. 1. 250:
Blanks. A mode of extortion, by which blank papers were
given to the agents of the crown, which they were to fill
up as they pleased, to authorize the demands they chose
to make." Nares's Gloss: "Stow records, that Richard II,
'compelled all the Religious, Gentlemen, and Commons,
to set their seales to blankes, to the end he might, if it
pleased him, oppresse them severally, or all at once: some
of the Commons paid 1000 markes, some 1000 pounds,'
&c. Chronicle, p. 319. fol. 1639" (HOLT WHite).
blanks― Commit to these waste, Sonn. 77: "Probably this Sonnet
was designed to accompany a present of a book consisting
of blank paper. Lord Orrery sent a birth-day gift of the
same kind to Swift, together with a copy of verses of the
same tendency" (Steevens).
blast in proof, burst in the trial (a metaphor, as Steevens
observes, from the proving of fire-arms or cannon), Hml.
iv. 7. 155.
bleared thine eyne, imposed upon you, deceived you, Shr. v. 1.
120 (The expression is in Chaucer).
blench, to start off, to fly off, to swerve, to shrink, to flinch, M.M.
iv. 5. 5; W.T. i. 2. 333 (where Steevens explains Could man so
blench? by "Could any man so start or fly off from propriety
of behaviour?"); Troil i. 1. 28; ii. 2. 68; Hml. ii. 2. 626.
blenches, "starts, or aberrations from rectitude" (MALONE),
Sonn. IIO.
blend, blended, blent: blend with objects manifold, Compl. 215.
blent, blended: being blent together, M.V. iii. 2. 183; beauty
truly blent, 12N. i. 5. 257.
blindworm, a slow-worm, Mcb. iv. 1. 16; blind-worms, M.N.D.
ii. 2. II.
46
BLISTER'D-BLOOD-BOLTERED.
blister'd breeches, "breeches puffed, swelled out like blisters"
(STEEVENS), breeches "gathered into close rolls or blisters
(FAIRHOLT), H8. i. 3. 31.
bloat, bloated, swollen with intemperance, Hml. iii. 4. 182.
block, the shape or fashion of a hat,-properly the mould on
which felt hats were formed: changes with the next block,
Ado, i. I. 77 (Dekker uses the word metaphorically: "But,
sirra Ningle, of what fashion is this knights wit, of what
blocke?" Satiro-mastix, 1602, sig. c 2). [See Hazl. Dodsley,
xi. 268].
block, the hat itself: This' a good block, Lr. iv. 6. 187.
blood, disposition, inclination, temperament, impulse: Blood,
thou [still] art blood, M.M. ii. 4. 15; faith melteth into blood
("as wax, when opposed to the fire kindled by a witch, no
longer preserves the figure of the person whom it was
designed to represent, but flows into a shapeless lump; so
fidelity, when confronted with beauty, dissolves into our
ruling passion, and is lost there like a drop of water in the
sea," STEEVENS), Ado, ii. 1. 187; wisdom and blood combating,
ii. 3. 170; his important blood, A.W. iii. 7. 21; Let thy blood
be thy direction till thy death! Troil. ii. 3. 33; Strange, unusuai
blood, Tim. iv. 2. 38; To let these hands obey my blood, Lr.
iv. 2. 64; our bloods No more obey the heavens, &c.,
Cymb. i. 1. 1.
blood-To be in, (a term of the chase,) to be in good condition,
to be vigorous: The deer was as you know, sanguis,-in
blood, L.L.L. iv. 2. 4; If we be English deer, be, then, in blood
("of true mettle," JOHNSON), 1H6. iv. 2. 48; Thou rascal
that art worst in blood to run, Cor. i. 1. 163 [in worst con-
dition for running. Vide Rascal]; his crest up again, and the
man in blood, iv. 5. 225.
blood will I draw on thee,-thou art a witch, 1H6. i. 5. 6: “The
superstition of those times taught that he that could draw
the witch's blood was free from her power" (JOHNSON).
blood-boltered, Mcb. iv. 1. 123: "It [blood-boltered] is a provin-
cial term, well known in Warwickshire, and probably in some
other counties. When a horse, sheep, or other animal,
perspires much, and any of the hair or wool, in conse-
quence of such perspiration, or any redundant humour,
becomes matted in tufts with grime and sweat, he is said.
to be boltered; and whenever the blood issues out, and
coagulates, forming the locks into hard clotted bunches,
the beast is said to be blood-boltered" (MALONE): “To bolter,
in Warwickshire, signifies to daub, dirty, or begrime. 'I ordered
(says my informant) a harness-collar to be made with a
linen lining, but blacked, to give it the appearance of
leather. The sadler made the lining as he was directed,
but did not black it, saying, it would bolter the horse.
BLOODY-BLUE.
47
Being asked what he meant by bolter, he replied, dirty,
besmear; and that it was a common word in his country.
This conversation passed within eight miles of Stratford-
on-Avon.' In the same neighbourhood, when a boy has a
broken head, so that his hair is matted together with blood,
his head is said to be boltered (pronounced baltered). So, in
Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History,
1601, Book xii. ch. xvii. p. 370: 'they doe drop and distill
the said moisture, which the shrewd and unhappie beast
catcheth among the shag long haires of his beard. Now
by reason of dust getting among it, it baltereth and cluttereth
into knots,' &c." (STEEVENS): "Boltered. Having the hair
clotted or matted together." Supplement to Richardson's
Dict.: "According to Sharp's Ms. Warwickshire Glossary,
snow is said to balter together; and Batchelor says, 'hasty
pudding is said to be boltered when much of the flour
remains in lumps.' Orthoepical Analysis, 1809, p. 126"
(HALLIWELL): "I believe the Warwickshire word [balter]
to have originated in ball, and to have meant balled, clogged,
or matted." Latham's Johnson's Dict. sub "Bolter."
bloody, in or of the blood: Lust is but a bloody fire, M.W. v. 5. 99.
blow, to blow upon: Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow, L.LL.
iv. 3. 109; And the very ports they blow, Mcb. i. 3. 15.
blow, to swell: blown Jack, 1H4. iv. 2. 53; the blown tide
(wrongly explained "the tide driven by the wind"), Cor.
v. 4. 50; blown ambition, Lr. iv. 4. 27; a vent of blood, and
something blown, Ant. v. 2. 352; our blown sails, Per. v. I.
256; how imagination blows him, 12N. ii. 5. 48; This blows
my heart, Ant. iv. 6. 34.
11
blow my mouth—The flesh-fly, Tp. iii. 1. 63: Here, according
to Malone, blow means "swell and inflame: but, says
Steevens, "to blow, as it stand in the text, means 'the act
of a fly by which she lodges eggs in flesh."" Cf. Ant. v. 2. 60.
blow us, blow us up, H8. v. 4. 48.
blubber'd queens, 2N.K. i. 1. 180; Blubbering and weeping,
weeping and blubbering, Rom. iii. 3. 87 : it must be remembered
that the verb to blubber did not formerly convey the some-
what ludicrous idea which it does at present. [Cf. Basse's
Poems, p. 94. 2H4. ii. 4. 421.]
blue-bottle rogue, an allusion to the dress of the beadle, which
in Shakespeare's days was blue, 2H4. v. 4. 22.
blue-caps, “a name of ridicule given to the Scots, from their
blue bonnets" (JOHNSON), 1H4. ii. 4. 392.
blue coats, the common dress of serving-men in Shakespeare's
time and long before, Shr. iv. 1. 93; 1H6. i. 3. 47.
blue eye-A, “A blueness about the eyes" (STEEVENS): a blue
eye and sunken, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 393, [blue-eyed hag was hither
brought with child, Tp. i. 2. 269; dark circles round the eyes
48
BLUNT-BOLINGBROKE.
are symptomatic of pregnancy. On this pass. see Charles
Lamb's 'on a passage in The Tempest," Wks., p. 362, (HOTTEN).
A blue eye seems also to have denoted what we call a black
eye-see An Honest Man's Fortune, v. iii: "Or bring in
rotten pippens, to cure blue eyes, and swear they come
from China."]
blunt, dull, stupid, insensible: That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt,
unnatural, 3H6. v. 1. 86.
blurted at, pished at, held in contempt, Per. iv. 3. 34. [Blurt
was used as an interjection of contempt, see Lyly, Midas,
ii. 1. Cf. Hazl. Dodsl. viii. 490.]
blush.... like a black dog, as the saying is, Tit. v. 1. 122:
Ray gives, "To blush like a black dog," Proverbs, p. 218,
ed. 1768: and Walker cites, from Withals's Adagia, p. 557,
"Faciem perfricuit. Hee blusheth like a blacke dogge, he
hath a brazen face."
boar of Thessaly-The, "The boar killed by Meleagar"
(STEEVENS), Ant. iv. 13. 2.
board, to accost, to address: board her, Shr. i. 2. 95; 12N. i.
3. 60; board him, Hml. ii. 2. 170; boarded me, M.W. ii. 1.
92; Ado, ii. 1. 149; boarded her, A.W. v. 3. 211; boarding,
M.W. ii. 1. 93 (with a quibble).
bob, a taunt, a scoff ("A bob, sanna." Coles's Lat. and Engl.
Dict.): senseless of the bob, A.Y L. ii. 7. 55.
bob, to cheat: You shall not bob us out of our melody, Troil.
iii. 1. 75; gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him ("fool'd
him out of," MALONE), Oth. v. 1. 16.
bodg'd, 3H6. i. 4. 19; [seems a variant of budg'd, gave ground].
bodkin, a small dagger: his quietus make With a bare bodkin,
Hml. iii. 1. 76.
boggler, Ant. iii. 13. 110: Means here "a vicious woman, one
who starts from the right path. Johnson in his Dict. explains.
it a doubter, a timorous man: but it is evidently addressed,
not to Thyreus, but Cleopatra." Nares's Gloss. [New Eng. D.
"one who boggles or hesitates; a stickler," with reference
here.]
Bohemian-Tartar, "A wild appellation, to insinuate that Simple
makes a strange appearance" (JOHNSON), M.W. iv. 5. 21.
boil'd stuff, saturated with disease, Cymb. i. 6. 125: probably
an allusion to the sweating treatment.
bold, confident: Bold of your worthiness, L.L.L. ii. 1. 28.
bolds, emboldens, Lr. v. 1. 26.
Bolingbroke about his marriage-The prevention of poor, R2.
ii. 1. 167. “When the Duke of Hereford, after his ban-
ishment, went into France, he was honourably entertained
at that court, and would have obtained in marriage the
only daughter of the Duke of Berry, uncle to the French
king, had not Richard prevented the match" (STEEVENS).
BOLINS-BONNETED.
49
bolins, Per. iii. 1. 43: “Bowlines are ropes by which the sails of
a ship are governed when the wind is unfavourable. They are
slackened when it is high. This term occurs again in The
Two Noble Kinsmen [iv. I. 146]:
C
the wind is fair:
Top the bowling.
They who wish for more particular information concerning
bolings, may find it in Smith's Sea Grammar, 4t0, 1627,
p. 23" (STEEVENS).
bollen, swollen, for the Fo woollen, M.V. iv. 1. 57; Lucr. 1417.
[HERFORD says: "'woollen' may refer to the covering of
the bagpipe. In any case a neutral epithet suggesting
that the bagpipe, like the cat, is 'harmless and necessary',
is more likely to be right than 'wawling' or 'swollen',
which would directly suggest its strident effects: for Shylock's
point is that for these antipathies there is 'no firm reason'
to be given." In Elizabethan handwriting blowen would
easily be read as wollen.]
bolt, is described by R. Holme as being properly "an arrow
with a round or half-round bobb at the end of it, with a
sharp-pointed arrow-head proceeding therefrom" (Nares's
Gloss.,-where see more concerning it); but it is used to
signify an arrow in general: where the bolt of Cupid fell,
M.N.D. ii. 1. 165; fool's bolt, A.Y.L. v. 4. 67; H5. iii. 7. 132;
a bolt of nothing, Cymb. iv. 2. 300.
bolt is soon shot-A fool's: see fool's bolt is soon shot-A.
bolt on't—Make a shaft or a: see make a shaft, &c.
bolted, sifted, H5. ii 2. 137; W.T. iv. 3. 375; Cor. iii. 1. 322.
bolters, sieves, 1H4. iii. 3. 81.
bolting-hutch, "the wooden receptacle into which the meal is
bolted" (STEEVENS), 1H4. ii. 4. 495.
bombard, a large leathern vessel for distributing liquor, Tp.
ii. 2. 21; 1H4. ii. 4. 497; baiting of bombards (“tippling,"
JOHNSON) [crowding round and hustling for, as dogs at a
bear?], H8. v. 4. 85.
bombast, material for stuffing out dresses (originally cotton):
As bombast, and as lining to the time, L.L.L. v. 2. 791;
my sweet creature of bombast, 1H4. ii. 4. 359.
bona-roba, a courtesan ("Buonarobba, as we say good stuffe, that
is, a good wholesome plum-cheeked [plump--cheeked] wench."
Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.), 2H4. iii. 2. 26. 217.
bond—I know it for my, I know it "to be my bounden duty"
(MASON), Ant. i. 4. 84.
bonneted, Cor. ii. 2. 30: This is generally explained “took
off their bonnets" (and Cotgrave has "Bonneter. To put of
his cap vnto." Fr. and Engl. Dict.); but the passage is very
awkward and obscure. [SCHMIDT says: “Who obtained the
4
50
BOOK.
good opinion of the people by taking off their caps, by
mere courtesies, without any other merit to gain it (them,
sc. their estimation and support)."]
book, one's studies, learning: The tenour of my book, Ado, iv.
1. 169; my book preferr'd me to the king, 2H6. iv. 7. 77;
A beggar's book, H8. i. 1. 122 (Compare unbookish).
book, a writing, a paper: By that time will our book (articles,
paper of conditions), I think, be drawn, 1H4. iii. 1. 224;
By this, our book's drawn, 270; A book? O rare one!
Cymb. v. 4. 133.
book,- We quarrel in print, by the, A.Y.L. v. 4. 95: "The
particular book here alluded to is a very ridiculous treatise
of one Vincentio Saviolo, entitled Of Honor and Honorable
Quarrels, in quarto, printed by Wolf, 1594, forming the
Second Book of Vincentio Saviolo his Practise. This Second
Book he describes as 'A Discourse most necessarie for all
Gentlemen that haue in regarde their honors, touching the
giuing and receiuing of the Lie, wherevpon the Duello and
the Combats in diuers sortes doth insue, and many other
inconueniences for lack only of the true knowledge of honor,
and the contrarie, and the right vnderstanding of wordes,
which heere is plainly set downe.' The contents of the
several chapters are as follow: 1. 'A Rvle and Order
concerning the Challenger and Defender.' 2. 'What the
reason is, that the partie vnto whom the Lie is giuen
ought to become Challenger, and of the nature of Lies.'
3. 'Of the manner and diuersitie of Lies.' 4. 'Of Lies
certaine.' 5. 'Of conditionall Lyes.' 6. 'Of the Lye in
generall.' 7. 'Of the Lye in particular.' 8. 'Of foolish
Lyes.' 9. 'A conclusion touching the Challenger and the
Defender, and of the wresting and returning back of the
Lye or Dementie.' In the chapter 'Of Conditional Lies,'
speaking of the particle if, he says, 'Conditionall Lyes be
such as are giuen conditionally; as if a man should saie
or write these woordes,-If thou hast saide that I haue
offered my Lord abuse, thou lyest; or if thou saiest so
heerafter, thou shalt lye; and as often as thou hast or
shalt so say, so oft do I and will I say that thou doest
lye. Of these kinde of Lyes giuen in this manner often
arise much contention in words, and diuers intricate worthy
[wordy] battailes, multiplying wordes vpon wordes, whereof
no sure conclusion can arise.' By which he means, they
cannot proceed to cut one another's throats while there.
is an if between. Which is the reason of Shakespeare
making the Clown say, 'I knew when seven justices,' &c.
Caranza was another of these authentic authors upon the
Duello. Fletcher, in his last act of Love's Pilgrimage,
ridicules him with much humour" (WARBURTON,-whose
BOOK-BOOTS.
51
note I have greatly altered and corrected by means of the
old ed. of the transl. of Saviolo's work).
Book of Riddles-The, M.W. i. 1. 209: Was, in all probability,
what is called in the edition of 1629, The Booke of Meery
Riddles, &c., a copy of which is preserved at Bridgewater
House. No earlier edition is known; but earlier editions
must have once existed, as the work is mentioned by
Laneham in his Letter from Kenilworth, 1575.
Book of Songs and Sonnets, M.W. i. 1. 206: Most probably
the Songes and Sonnettes by Lord Surrey, Sir Thomas
Wyatt, and others, printed in 1557, and very popular
during the time of Queen Elizabeth.
book our dead,—To, H5. iv. 7. 76: Fol. reading; make a list
of. Dyce reads look, which see.
books for good manners, A.Y.L. v. 4. 95: There were several
books of this kind, the earliest of which was probably
The boke named and intytled Good Maners, printed by De
Worde in 1507.
boot, profit, gain, something added: with boot, M.M. ii. 4. II:
Lr. v. 3. 301; it is no boot (it is of no avail), Shr. v. 2. 176;
1H6. iv. 6. 52; Grace to boot (over and above, in addition),
W.T. i. 2. 80; there's some boot ("something over and above,"
JOHNSON), iv. 4. 651; without boot! what a boot is here, &c.,
iv. 4. 690; there is no boot (“no advantage, no use, in delay
or refusal," JOHNSON), R2. i. 1. 164; make boot of this, 2H6.
iv. 1. 13; Young York he is but boot (“that which is thrown
in," JOHNSON, a make-weight), R3. iv. 4. 65; Saint George
to boot (over and above, in addition), v. 3. 301; Make boot
of his distraction, Ant. iv. 1. 9. (In the passages, Grace to
boot and Saint George to boot, Malone explains to boot by
"to help.")
boot, booty: Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds; Which
pillage, &c., H5. 1. 2. 194; boot and glory, 2N.K. 1. 2. 70
[= booty].
boot, to benefit, to enrich: I will boot thee with what gift
beside Thy modesty can beg, Ant. ii. 5. 71.
boot, to put on boots: Boot, boot, Master Shallow, 2H4. v. 3. 141.
boots--Give me not the, 2Ġ. i. 1. 27: “ A proverbial expression,
though now disused, signifying, don't make a laughing-stock
of me; don't play upon me. The French have a phrase,
Bailler foin en corne; which Cotgrave thus interprets, To give
one the boots; to sell him a bargain" (THEOBALD,-whose
explanation of the text I believe to be right): "An allusion,
as it is supposed, to the diabolical torture of the boot. Not
a great while before this play was written it had been in-
flicted in the presence of King James on one Dr. Fian, a
supposed wizard, who was charged with raising the storms
that the king encountered in his return from Denmark.
52
BORE-BOTTLED.
[James m. Anne of Denm. 21 Apl. 1590.] The unfortunate
man was afterwards burned" (DOUCE): This torture con-
sisted in the leg and knee of the criminal being enclosed
within a tight iron boot or case, wedges of iron being
then driven in with a mallet between the knee and the
iron boot: but probably most readers will recollect the
description of Macbriar undergoing this punishment in
Scott's Old Mortality.
bore in hand: see bear in hand.
bore of the matter-Much too light for the, Hml. iv. 6. 26:
"The bore is the caliber of a gun, or the capacity of the
barrel. 'The matter (says Hamlet) would carry heavier
words'" (JOHNSON).
bores me with some trick-He, "He stabs or wounds me by
some artifice or fiction" (JOHNSON), "He undermines me
with some device" (STAUNTON), H8. i. 1. 128.
borne in hand: see bear in hand.
borrows money in God's name, Ado, v. 1. 319: “i.e. is a com-
mon beggar. This alludes to the 17th verse of the 19th
chapter of Proverbs; 'He that giveth to the poor lendeth
unto the Lord" (STEEVENS).
bosky, woody, Tp. iv. 1. 81 (where, according to Steevens,
bosky acres “are fields divided from each other by hedge-
rows"); 1H4. v. 1. 2. [see Busky.]
bosom, wish, desire: And you shall have your bosom on this
wretch, M.M. iv. 3. 139.
bosom of thy love-Even in the milk-white, 2G. iii. 1. 250: “In
her excellent-white bosom, these," Hml. ii. 2. 113: "Women
anciently had a pocket in the fore part of their stays, in
which they not only carried love-letters and love-tokens,
but even their money and materials for needle-work'
(STEEVENS).
""
boss'd, embossed, studded, Shr. ii. 1. 355.
botcher, a mender of old clothes, A.W. iv. 3. 211; 12N. i. 5.
51; Cor. ii. 1. 98.
bots, worms that breed in the entrails of horses, Shr. iii. 2. 56;
1H4. ii. 1. 11; bots on't (a comic execration), Per. ii. 1. 124.
bottle of hay-A, a bunch, a bundle, a truss of hay, M.N.D.
iv. I. 37.
bottled spider, "a large, bloated, glossy spider, supposed to
contain venom proportionate to its size" (RITSon), R3. i.
3. 242; iv. 4. 81.
"This explanation [Ritson's] misses the peculiar force of
the epithet bottled, which is exactly equivalent to bunch-
backed, and like it emphasizes Richard's deformity. "That
bottled spider,' therefore, literally means that humped or
hunched venomous creature. The term bottled is still
provincially applied to the big, large-bodied, round-backed
BOTTLES-BRACE.
53
spider, that in the summer and autumn spreads its web
across open spaces in the hedges, 'obvious to vagrant
flies.' What, also, has escaped the commentators, the
word bottle was used with this precise signification for a
hunch or hump in Shakspeare's own day. In a popular
work published a few years before he came to London,
and with which he was familiar, we find 'bottles of flesh'
given as a synonym for great wens in the throat-the
Italian word gozzuti being glossed in the margin as follows:
'men in the mountaynes with great bottels of flesh under
their chin through the drinking of snow water.' We still
retain this meaning of the word in a number of phrases
and epithets, such as bottlenose, a big or bunchy nose
[Marlowe, Jew of M. iii. 1]; bottlehead, provincial for
great, thick, or blockhead; and, not to multiply examples,
in the bluebottle fly, which is literally the bunchy or un-
wieldy blue fly." The Edinburgh Review. July 1868, p. 66.
bottles, bottles of hay: Some two hundred bottles, 2N.K. v. 2. 64.
bottom, a low ground, a valley: the neighbour bottom, A.Y.L.
iv. 3. 79; so rich a bottom, 1H4. iii. 1. 105.
bottom, a ball of thread: a bottom of brown thread, Shr. iv. 3. 138.
bottom it on me, wind it on me, make me the bottom or centre
on which it is wound, 2G. iii. 2. 53.
bought and sold: see buy and sell.
bourn, a limit, a boundary: Bourn, bound of land, Tp. ii. 1.
152; No bourn, 'twixt his and mine, W.T. i. 2. 134; a bourn,
a pale, a shore, Troil. ii. 3. 260; from whose bourn No
traveller returns, Hml. iii. 1. 79; this chalky bourn (“this
chalky boundary of England, towards France," STEEVENS),
Lr. iv. 6. 57; I'll set a bourn, Ant. i. 1. 16; From bourn to
bourn, Per. iv. 4. 4.)
bourn, a brook, a rivulet: Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me,
Lr. iii. 6. 27.
bow, a yoke: As the ox hath his bow, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 80.
bow, &c.—If I, bend, give way, 1H6. iv. 5. 29. Text doubtful.
bowling - Top the, 2N.K. iv. 1. 146: see bolins.
boy my greatness-Some squeaking Cleopatra, Ant. v. 2. 220:
An allusion to female characters being acted by boys in
Shakespeare's time (at least on the English stage).
boy-queller, boy-killer, Troil. v. 5. 45.
brabble, a squabble, a quarrel, 12N. v. 1. 68; Tit. ii. 1. 62.
brabbler, a clamorous quarrelsome person, a wrangler, K.J.
V. 2. 162.
Brabbler, the name of a hound, Troil. v. 1. 99.
brace, “armour for the arm" (Steevens): and pointed to this
brace, Per. ii. 1. 133.
brace, state of defence: it stands not in such warlike brace,
Oth. i. 3. 24.
54
BRACH-BRAKES.
brach-The deep-mouth'd, Shr. Ind. 1. 18; Lady, my brach, 1H4.
iii. 1. 240; Achilles' brach, Troil. ii. 1. 126. [brach, Rowe's
correction. The old eds, have 'brooch.' "Brach certainly
means here a bitch, and not a dog, which renders the
expression more abusive and offensive. Thersites calls
Patroclus 'Achilles' brach' for the same reason that he
afterwards calls him his male harlot and his masculine
whore." (MASON). The old text has 'male varlet' in v. 1. 14,
but it seems to have meant much the same. See long note
in Dyce. VI. 102]; Lady the brach, Lr. i. 4. 125; spaniel,
brach, or lym, iii. 6. 72: “Brach. From the French brac or
braque, or the German bract, a scenting dog: a lurcher,
or beagle; or any fine-nosed hound. Spelman's Glossary.
Used also, by corruption, for a bitch, probably from simi-
larity of sound; and because, on certain occasions, it was
convenient to have a term less coarse in common estimation
than the plain one. See Du Cange in Bracco. The following
account shows the last-mentioned corruption: "There are
in England and Scotland two kinds of hunting-dogs, and
no where else in the world: the first kind is called ane
rache (Scotch), and this is a foot-scenting creature, both of
wild beasts, birds, and fishes also, which lie hid among
the rocks: the female thereof in England is called a brache.
A brach is a mannerly name for all hound-bitches.' Gentle-
man's Recreation, p. 27, 8vo." Nares's Gloss.: "“Brach. The
kennel term for a bitch-hound." Gifford's note on Ford's
Works, vol. i. p. 22. [In Basse's Hunter's song, Wks., p. 130:
"and Black-Lady makes it good" qy. read 'Brach Lady'.]
See Trash.
braid-Since Frenchmen are so, A.W. iv. 2. 73: Here Steevens
understands braid to mean "crafty or deceitful;" while
Richardson (in his Dict.) would refer it to "the sudden-
ness and violence" of Bertram's wooing. [New Eng. Dict.
"Deceitful?"].
braid, to upbraid, to reproach: 'Twould braid yourself too near,
Per. i. 1. 93.
brain, to beat out the brains, Tp. iii. 2. 96; That brain'd
(defeated) my purpose, M.M. v. I. 401.
brain, to comprehend, to understand: such stuff as madmen
Tongue, and brain not, Cymb v. 4. 147
brainish apprehension, "distempered, brain-sick mood, or
conceit" (CALDECOTT), Hml. iv. 1. 11.
brain-pan, the skull, 2H6. iv. 10. 13.
brakes of vice, and answer none-Some run from, M.M.
ii. 1. 39 (Ff. ice; emend. Rowe): Here the meaning of
brakes (a word which was used in sundry significations)
has been much disputed: the context, I think, shows
that we ought to understand it in the sense of
BRANCH-BREACH.
55
"engines of torture." [thickets, dense entanglements of
vice?]
branch of victory, laurel wreath, with a referencc also to the
branching antlers of the stag, A.Y.L. iv. 2. 5.
brands-Nicely Depending on their, Cymb. ii. 4. 91: Here
brands "are likely to have been the inverted torches
mentioned by Mr. Steevens" (DOUCE).
brass of this day's work-Shall witness live in, H5. iv. 3. 97:
"in brass, i.e. in brazen plates anciently let into tomb-
stones" (STEEVENS).
brave, a boast, a vaunt, a defiance: There end thy brave,
K.J. v. 2. 159; This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy
head, Troil. iv. 4. 139; to bear me down with braves, Tit.
ii. I. 30.
brave, to make fine or splendid: thou hast braved many men;
brave not me (with a quibble), Shr. iv. 3. 126; He should
have brav'd the east an hour ago, R3. v. 3. 279.
brave, to defy, to bluster: Enter Demetrius and Chiron, braving,
Tit. ii. 1. dir.; A.W. i. 2. 3.
bravery, finery, sumptuous apparel, magnificence: witless
bravery, M.M. i. 3. 10; his bravery is not on my cost, A.Y.L.
ii. 7. 80; double change of bravery. Shr. iv. 3. 57; There
shall want no bravery, 2N.K. iv. 2. 154.
bravery, bravado: the bravery of his grief, Hml. v. 2. 79;
malicious bravery, Oth. i. 1. 100.
brawl-A French, L.L.L. iii. 1. 9: "The word brawl in its
signification of a dance is from the French branle, indicating
a shaking or swinging motion. The following accounts
[account] of this dance may be found more intelligible
than that cited from Marston [in his Malcontent, act iv. sc. 2.]
It was performed by several persons uniting hands in a
circle and giving each other continual shakes, the steps
changing with the tune. It usually consisted of three pas
and a piedjoint, to the time of four strokes of the bow;
which being repeated was termed a double brawl. With
this dance balls were usually opened" (DOUCE). But there
was a great variety of brawls.
brazen tombs—Live register'd upon our, L.L.L. i. 1. 2: The
allusion, as was first remarked by Douce, is "to the
ornamenting the tombs of eminent persons with figures and
inscriptions on plates of brass."
brazen canstick turn'd, the jarring noise made by the
candlestick-maker when turning it on a lathe, 1H4. iii. 1. 131.
breach than the observance-More honour'd in the, Hml. 1. 4. 16:
Samuel Rogers used to maintain that this line, though it has
passed into a sort of proverbial expression, is essentially
nonsense: "how," he would ask, "can a custom be honour'd
in the breach Compare the following line of a play which
56
BREACH-BREATH.
has been printed as a joint production of Jonson, Fletcher,
and Middleton;
He keeps his promise best that breaks with hell." The Widow,
act iii. sc. 2.
breach of the sea, breaking of the sea, [surf], 12N. ii. 1. 23
(“the boat... would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the
breach of the sea." Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, vol. i. p. 43,
ed. 1755: “the wind... made a great breach of the sea
upon the point." Id. vol. i. p. 132; "a breach of the sea
upon some rocks." Id. vol. i. p. 134).
break cross or across, a metaphor from tilting, at which it was
reckoned disgraceful for the tilter to break his spear across
the body of his opponent, instead of breaking it in a direct.
line: this last [staff] was broke cross, Ado, v. 1. 189; breaks
them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover,
A.Y.L. iii. 4. 45; so I had broke thy pate... Good faith,
across, A.W. ii. 1. 68.
break up, to break open: Break up the gates, 1H6. i. 3. 13.
break up, to carve,-used metaphorically of opening a letter:
Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon, L.L.L. iv. 1. 56;
An it shall please you, to break up this, M.V. ii. 4. 10: On
the first of these passages Theobald observes; “Our poet
uses this metaphor as the French do their poulet; which
signifies both a young fowl and a love-letter. Poulet,
amatoriæ literæ, says Richelet; and quotes from Voiture,
Repondre au plus obligeant poulet du monde, To reply to
the most obliging letter in the world. The Italians use the
same manner of expression, when they call a love-epistle
una pollicetta [polizzetta] amorosa. I ow'd the hint of this
equivocal use of the word to my ingenious friend, Mr.
Bishop:" Farmer adds; "Henry IV., consulting with Sully
about his marriage, says, 'My niece of Guise would please
me best, notwithstanding the malicious reports that she
loves poulets in paper better than in a fricassee. A mes-
sage is called a cold pigeon in the letter [by Laneham]
concerning the entertainments at Killingworth Castle."
break with, to open a subject to: now will we break with him,
2G. i. 3. 44; to break with thee of some affairs, iii. 1. 59;
I will break with her and with her father, Ado, i. 1. 311;
Then after to her father will I break, 328; let us not
break with him, J.C. ii. 1. 150; Have broken with the
king, H8. v. I. 47.
break with, to break an engagement with: I would not break
with her for more money than I'll speak of, M.W. iii. 2. 57.
breaking, the army, disbanding, A.W. iv. 4. II.
breast, a voice: the fool has an excellent breast, 12N. ii. 3. 20.
breath, a breathing, an exercise: An after-dinner's breath,
BREATHE-BRENTFORD.
57
Troil. ii. 3. 121; either to the uttermost, Or else a breath
("a slight exercise of arms," Steevens), iv. 5. 92.
breathe, to utter, to speak: The worst that man can breathe,
Tim. iii. 5. 32; You breathe in vain, iii. 5. 59; The youth
you breathe of, Hml. ii. 1. 44; to breathe What thou hast
said to me, iii. 4. 198.
breathe, to take exercise: thou wast created for men to breathe
themselves upon thee, A.W. ii. 3. 271; as swift As breathed
(well exercised, kept in breath) stags, Shr. Ind. 2. 50;
breath'd ("inured by constant practice," JOHNSON)... To
an untirable and continuate goodness, Tim. i. 1. 10.
breathe in your watering, stop and take breath while you are
drinking, 1H4. ii. 4. 17. (Compare a passage in the old play
Timon, edited by me for the Shakespeare Society, from a
Ms. in my possession;
"wee also doe enacte
That all holde vp their heades, and laughe aloude,
Drinke much at one draughte, breathe not in their drinke, &c. p. 37 ;
which lines, before the play was printed, were cited by
Steevens, to support an erroneous interpretation of the
passage of Shakespeare).
breathing, exercise, action: who are sick For breathing and
exploit, A.W. i. 2. 17; Here is a lady that wants breathing
too, Per. ii. 3. 101.
breathing time, time for exercise: 'tis the breathing time of
day with me, Hml. v. 2. 181.
breathing-while, time sufficient for drawing breath, R3. i. 3.
60; Ven. 1142.
Brecknock, while my fearful head is on-To, R3. iv. 2. 126:
Meaning "to the Castle of Brecknock in Wales, where the
Duke of Buckingham's estate lay" (MALONE).
bred out, exhausted: H5. iii. 5. 29.
breech'd with gore-Their daggers Unmannerly, Mcb. ii. 3. 122:
Here breech'd has drawn forth a variety of explanations
from the commentators; and Dr. Latham in his recent
edition of Johnson's Dict. queries if it means "sheath'd:"
after all, probably Douce is right when he suggests "that
the expression, though in itself something unmannerly,
simply means covered as with breeches."
breeching scholar, a scholar liable to be breeched, flogged,
Shr. iii. 1. 18.
breed-bate, a causer of strife or contention, M.W. 1. 4. 12; see bate.
breese, the gad-fly. Troil. i. 3. 48; Ant. iii. 10. 14.
Brentford-The fat woman of, M.W. iv. 2. 78; the witch of
Brentford, 100: In the corresponding scene of the quarto
she is called "Gillian of Brainford;" who appears to have
been a real personage, and whose name was well known
1
58
BRIBED-BRING.
+
in our author's time. A black-letter tract, entitled Tyl of
breyntford's testament. Newly compiled, n. d. 4to, was written
by Robert, and printed by William, Copland: the "Iyl"
who figures in that coarse tract "kept an inne of ryght good
lodgyng;" but no mention is made of her having dealt in
witchcraft. Yet one of the characters in Dekker and
Webster's Westward Ho says, "I doubt that old hag,
Gillian of Brainford, has bewitched me." Webster's Works,
p. 238, ed. Dyce, 1857.
bribed buck, M.W. v. 5. 27, “made a bribe." (SCHMIDT.) "pur-
loined, and so cut up for facility in carrying off." (HERFORD.)
[which is confirmed by Awdeley, Fraternity of Vacabondes,
p. 13: "and brybe his meat" (= cut bits off); cf. Harman,
p. 34;] on the other hand, the following passage from Sir
John Harington's Epigrams seems to support Schmidt's
explanation:-
"When Peleus is brought up to London streets
By Processe first to answer waighty sutes,
O then how kind he is to all he meets!
How friendly by their name to them salutes !
Then one shall have a colt of his best race;
Another gets a warrant for a buck;
Some deeper brib'd, according to their place," &c.
and cf. The Malcontent, v. ii: "as knights send venison to
the city, either to take up more money, or to procure
longer forbearance." Harman, in his Caveat, seems to use
bribery theft, so perhaps it may mean poached.]
brief, a short writing, an abstract: There is a brief how many
sports are ripe, M.N.D. v. 1. 42; Shall draw this brief into
as huge a volume, K.J. ii. 1. 103.
brief, a contract of espousals, a license of marriage: Shall seem
expedient on the new-born brief, A.W. ii. 3. 186.
brief, a letter; this sealed brief, 1H4. iv. 4. I.
brief, in brief: Brief, I am To those that prate, and have done,
no companion, 2N.K. v. 1. 118.
brief, rife, common, prevalent (a provincialism): A thousand
businesses are brief in hand, K.J. iv. 3. 158.
briefly, quickly: Go put on thy defences. Eros. Briefly, sir,
Ant. iv. 4. 10.
bring me out-You, "You put me out, draw or divert me from
my point" (CALDECOTT), A.Y.L. iii. 2. 265.
bring-To be with a person to, a cant expression, which
was formerly common enough, though, it occurs only
once in our author's plays,-Cres. To bring, uncle? Pan.
Ay, a token from Troilus, Troil. i. 2. 305. Of the
various explanations which this phrase has called forth
none appears to me satisfactory. [SCHMIDT notes: "to be
with a person to bring to give him a sound lesson, to
BRING.
59
bring him to reason, to overcome him; with a lascivious
sense, when spoken to women. To be with a p., without
that apposition, is an ambiguous expression, as it may mean
'to join' in a friendly sense, as well as to fight, to combat
(cf. With). The addition of to bring gives it expressly the
latter signification. HERFORD: "I'll be with you.
bring meant I will pay you out, be even with you," hence
Cressid's quibble.] (Compare the following passages;
"And I'll close with Bryan till I have gotten the thing
<<
r
to
That he hath promis'd me, and then I'll be with him to bring:
Well, such shifting knaves as I am, the ambodexter must blay,
And for commodity serve every man, whatsoever the world say."
Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes-Peele's Works,
p. 503, ed. Dyce, 1861.
And heere Ile haue a fling at him, that's flat;
And, Balthazar, Ile be with thee to bring ·
And thee, Lorenzo," &c. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, sig. G 3 verso, ed. 1618.
Orlando shakes himselfe, and with a spring
Ten paces off the English duke he cast;
4
But Brandimart from him he could not fling,
That was behind him, and did hold him fast:
But yet with Oliver he was to bring;
For with his fist he smote him as he past,
That downe he fell, and hardly scaped killing,
From mouth, nose, eyes, the blood apace distilling."
Harington's Orlando Furioso, B. xxxix. 48, p. 329
ed. 1634.
"Clem. And Ile go furnish myself with some better accoutriments,
and Ile be with you to bring presently."
Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, Sec. Part.
sig. L 2 verso, ed. 1631.
Lip. Now, Mistress Maria, ward yourself: if my strong hope
fail not, I shall be with you to bring.
Shr. To bring what, sir? some more o' your kind?'
The Family of Love,-Middleton's Works, vol. ii.
p. 147, ed. Dyce.
"If he prove not yet
The cunning'st, rankest rogue that ever canted,
I'll never see man again; I know him to bring
And can interpret every new face he makes.
CC
Cupid's Revenge,-Beaumont and Fletcher's Works,
vol. ii. p. 419, ed. Dyce.
E. Love. I would have watch'd you, sir, by your good patience,
For ferreting in my ground.
Lady. You have been with my sister?
Wel. Yes; to bring.
E. Love. An heir into the world, he means."
The Scornful Lady,-Beaumont and Fletcher's Works,
vol. iii. p. 107, ed. Dyce.
60
<<
BROACH-BROOCH.
Why did not I strike her? but I will do something,
And be with you to bring before you think on't."
The Ball,- Shirley's Works, vol. iii. p. 36,
ed. Gifford and Dyce.
[cf. Harman, Caveat, p. 71.]
broach, to spit, to transfix, Tit. iv. 2. 85; broach'd, M.N.D. v. 1.
148; rebellion broached on his sword, H5. Prol. 32 [seems
to echo Peele, David and Bethsabe, p. 485: "Joab brings
conquest pierced on his spear."]
brock, a badger, 12N. ii. 5. 114.
brogues-Clouted, nailed coarse shoes, Cymb. iv. 2. 214.
broke cross: see break cross.
broken mouth, a mouth which has lost some of its teeth: My
mouth no more were broken than these boys', A.W. ii. 3. 66.
broken music, A.Y.L. i. 2. 150; H5. v. 2. 263; Trol. iii. 1. 52:
"Broken music' means what we now term 'a string band.'
Shakespeare plays with the term twice [thrice]: firstly in
Troilus and Cressida, act iii. sc. 1, proving that the musi-
cians then on the stage were performing on stringed instru-
ments; and secondly in Henry V., act v. sc. 2, where he
says to the French Princess Katherine, 'Come, your answer
in broken music; for thy voice is music and thy English
broken.' [Again in As you like it, act i. sc. 2: 'But is there
any else longs to feel this broken music in his sides?']
The term originated probably from harps, lutes, and such
other stringed instruments as were played without a bow,
not having the capability to sustain a long note to its full
duration of time." Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden
Time, &c., vol. i. p. 246, sec. ed.
broken pawn, R2. ii. 1. 292: "pawn in the hands of brokers,
or base agents" (HERFORD).
broken with: see first break with.
broker, a pander, a procuress, a go-between: a goodly broker,
2G. 1. 2. 41; This bawd, this broker, K.J. ii. 1. 582; To play
the broker (match-maker) in mine own behalf, 3H6. iv. 1. 63;
Hence, broker-lackey, Troil. v. 10. 33; all brokers-between, iii.
2. 211; they are brokers, Hml. i. 3. 127; brokers to defiling,
Compl. 173.
broker-A crafty knave does need no, 2H6. i. 2. 100: A proverb-
ial sentence: Ray has "Two cunning knaves need no broker;
or, a cunning knave, &c." Proverbs, p. 127, ed. 1768.
brokes, deals as a pander, A.W. iii. 5. 74.
brooch, in this all-hating world-A strange, R2. v. 5. 66, "i.e. is
as strange and uncommon as a brooch which is now no longer
worn" (MALONE): I doubt if there is any allusion here to
brooches being out of fashion. The word "sign" in the
preceding line probably suggested the expression "a strange
brooch:” “It is a sign of love; and love to Richard is, amid
BROOCH'D-BROOM-GROVES.
61
so much hatred, a strange feeling for any one to display-
as he would a brooch or ornament." ("Brooch”—about the
precise meaning of which Malone squabbled with Mason-
was not unfrequently used metaphorically for ornament: he
is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation, Hml. iv. 7. 94.
"These sonnes of Mars, who in their times were the glorious
Brooches of our nation, and admirable terrour to our ene-
mies." The World runnes on Wheeles, p. 237,-Taylor's
Workes, 1630;
cc
Next dy'd old Charles, true honor'd Nottingham,
The Brooch and honor of his house and name."
Upon the Death of King James, p. 324,-id.)
brooch'd, adorned, Ant. iv. 15. 25.
brooded, K.J. iii. 3. 52: Schmidt explains: "furnished with
brood, having a brood to guard; the day is on its guard
like a hen attending her chickens."
brook-Flying at the, Hawking at water-fowl, 2H6. ii. 1. I.
broom-groves, Tp. iv. 1. 66: "The reading of the elder editions
is 'broom groves,' which for what reason it is altered [to
'brown groves'] I cannot conceive. Ceres was certainly not
the goddess of the woods; and those very broom groves
seem to be expressly hinted at, in the very words of Ceres
which follow a little below, 'my bosky acres;' which very
properly express a broom-brake, as it is called, at least in
the western part of the island" (HEATH): "Broom in this
place signifies the Spartium scoparium, of which brooms are
frequently made. Near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire it
grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pass
through it; and in places where it is cultivated, still higher:
a circumstance that had escaped my notice, till I was told
of it by Professor Martyn" (STEEVENS): "In the old Scotch
song of 'My daddy is a canker'd carle,' the songstress
places her lover in a broom-grove;
'But let them say, or let them do,
'Tis a' ane to me;
For he's low down, he's in the broom,
Is waiting for me'" (MASON):
"Nares observes that as the broom, or genista, is a low
shrub, which gives no shade, it has been doubted what is
the exact meaning of broom-groves; but there are two kinds
of broom, as mentioned in Lyte's edition of Dodoens, 1578,
p. 663, 'the one high and tawle, the other lowe and small,'
the first of which is stated to grow 'commonly to the length
of a long or tawle man,' and Parkinson enumerates several
other varieties. The Spartium scoparium, which grows to a
great height, is probably the species alluded to by Shakes-
peare. There is a notice in the ancient romance of Guy of
62
BROTHER-BUCKLE.
Warwick, preserved in the Auchinleck Ms. at Edinburgh, of
three hundred Sarazens being concealed 'in a brom field.'
See the Abbotsford Club edition, p. 292" (HALLIWELL).
brother, fellow man, M.M. ii. 2. 126.
brown bill: see first bill.
Brownist, 12N. iii. 2. 34: "The Brownists were so called from
Mr. Robert Browne, a noted separatist in Queen Elizabeth's
reign. See Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, vol. iii. pp.
15, 16, &c. In his Life of Whitgift, p. 323, he informs us,
that Browne, in the year 1582, 'went off from the separation,
and came into the communion of the church'" (GREY).
Browne died in 1630.
bruising irons of wrath-Thy, R3. v. 3. 110: “The allusion to
to the ancient mace" (HENLEY), which was "formerly used
by our English cavalry. see Grose on Ancient Armour,
p. 53" (STEEVENS).
bruit, a loud report, 3H6. iv. 7. 64; Troil. v. 9. 4; Tim. v. 1. 196.
bruit, to report loudly, Hml. 1. 2. 127; bruited, 2H4. i. 1. 114;
1H6. ii. 3. 68; Mcb. v. 7. 22.
Brutus once-There was a, J.C. i. 2. 159; old Brutus' statue,
i. 3. 146: Lucius Junius Brutus.
Brutus' bastard hand, 2H6. iv. 1. 136: “Brutus was the son of
Servilia, a Roman lady, who had been concubine to Julius
Cæsar" (STEEVENS).
bubukles, H5. iii. 6. 108: According to Johnson (Dict.), bubukle
is a red pimple;" according to Nares (Gloss.), “a corrupt
word, for carbuncle, or something like it;" according to
Halliwell (Dict of Arch. and Prov. Words), “a botch or
imposthume." [New. Eng. Dict. "a confusion of Bubo and
carbuncle."]
buck of the first head, a buck of fifth year, L.L.L. iv. 2. 10.
buck-basket, a basket in which linen was carried to be
bucked, M.W. iii. 2. 2; iii. 5. 88. 145; v. 5. 117: see the
next article.
•
bucking, M.W. iii. 3. 140: To buck clothes means properly, I
believe, to wash them in lie, and beat them, while wet, with
a sort of flattened pole on a table or block ("Bucata.
lye to wash a buck." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.; “To
Buck Cloaths, lintea lixivio incoquere et rudibus cædere."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.); but we may gather from the
present scene that the dirty linen of the Ford family was
to be bucked in the river, and perhaps to be beaten on a
stone without the use of lie.
bucks, quantities of linen bucked at once (see above): she washes
bucks here at home, 2H6. iv. 2. 51; cf. M.W. iii. 3. 167.
buck-washing, M.W. iii. 3. 166.
buckle, to join in close fight, to engage with, to encounter:
buckle with me, 1H6. i. 2. 95; too strong for me to buckle
BUCKLE-BULLY-ROOK.
63
with, v. 3. 28: buckle with thee blows (deal blows with thee
in close fight), 3H6. i. 4. 50; Be buckled with, 1H6 iv. 4. 5.
buckle, to bend, to bow: buckle under life, 2H4. i. 1. 141.
buckler, to defend: I'll buckler thee against a million, Shr. iii.
2. 241; the guilt of murder bucklers thee, 2H6. iii. 2. 216;
buckler falsehood with a pedigree, 3H6. iii. 3. 99.
bucklers-I give thee the, I yield thee the victory, I lay aside
all thoughts of defence ("Je te le donne gaigné. I grant it,
I yeeld it thee; I confesse thy action; I give thee the bucklers."
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict. sub "Gaigné”), Ado, v. 2. 17.
Bucklersbury in simple-time-Smell like, M.W. iii. 3. 79: Buck-
lersbury was formerly inhabited chiefly by druggists, [flower
and fruit-sellers?] who sold all sorts of herbs (simples), both
green and dry.
buff-A fellow all in, Err. iv. 2. 36; in a suit of buff, 45; And
is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? 1H4. 1.
2. 48; Buff was formerly worn by serjeants and catch-
poles: see durance, &c.
bug, a bugbear, Shr. i. 2. 211; W.T. iii. 2. 93; 3H6. v. 2. 2;
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life (With "such
multiplied causes of alarm, if I were suffered to live,"
CALDECOTT), Hml. v. 2. 22; Cymb. v. 3. 51.
bugle eyeballs, black-beaded eyes: A.Y.L. iii. 5. 47.
building, fixture: This jewel holds his building on my arm, Per.
ii. 1. 162. [If building be corrupt-which is doubtful—I would
add binding to the conjectures gilding and biding. L.]
bulk, trunk, breast ("Pettorata, a shocke against the breast or
bulke.' Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.; "The Bulke of the
bodie. Tronc, buste." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.): my
panting bulk, R3. i. 4. 40; to shatter all his bulk, Hml. ii.
1. 95; Beating her bulk, Lucr. 467.
bulk, a kind of stall, board, or ledge outside a house, on which
articles were set for sale ("Balcone... a bulke or stall of a
shop." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.; "A Bulk [before a
Shop], Appendix." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): stand behind
this bulk, Oth. v. i. 1; stalls, bulks, windows, Cor. ii. 1. 226.
Bullen! No, we'll no Bullens... This candle burns not clear,
H8. iii. 2. 87: "There may be a play intended on the word
Bullen, which is said to have been an ancient provincial
name for a candle" (STAUNTON). [A bullen was a flare up
of peeled hemp stalks. See Dialect Dict.]
bully-rook, M.W. i. 3. 2; ii. 1. 200; 207; 213: "Messrs. Steevens
and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one)
derives its origin from the rook in the game of chess; but
it is very improbable that that noble game, never the
amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on
this occasion. It means a hectoring, cheating sharper, as
appears from A new dictionary of the terms of the canting
64
BUM-BURDOCKS.
crew, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to The
compleat gamester, 1680, 12m0, in both which places it is
spelt bully-rock. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating
that rock and not rook is the true name of the chess-piece,
if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin rupes” (Douce):
But in the above passages the Host uses bully-rook jocularly,
certainly not as a term of reproach; and Coles has “A Bully
J Rock,
Vir fortis et animosus." Lat. and Engl. Dict.
(I may observe that "Bully-rock" occurs over and over
again in Shadwell's Sullen Lovers: see his Works, vol. i.
pp. 26, 37, 45, 46, 62, 69, 74, 83, 84, 101, 102, 108.)
bum is the greatest thing about you-Your, M.M. ii. 1. 228:
An allusion to Pompey's large trunk-hose, round swelling
breeches.
{
}
Bunch of Grapes,-sitting in the, name of a chamber in the
inn; M.M. ii. 1. 133; cf. Dolphin chamber, 2H4. ii. 1. 94.
So in Wilkins's Miseries of Enforced Marr. p. 517 (iii. 2):
"Look down into the Dolphin there,” name of a room in
the Mitre in Bread St.
bung, a sharper, a pickpocket, 2H4. ii. 4. 138.
bunting—I took this lark for a, A.W. ii. 5. 7: the Common
Bunting, Emberiza miliaria: "The general resemblance of
this Bunting to the Sky Lark in the colour of its plumage
has given origin to another provincial name by which it
is known, that of the Bunting Lark." Yarrell's Hist. of
Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 481, sec. ed.
burden bear-Sweet sprites, the, Tp. i. 2. 381; belike it hath
some burden, then? 2G. i. 2. 85; that goes without a burden,
Ado, iii. 4. 45; sing my song without a burden, A.Y.L. iii.
2. 261; burden of my wooing dance, Shr. 1. 2. 68; such
delicate burdens of "dildos," &c., W.T. iv. 4. 195: "The
burden of a song, in the old acceptation of the word,
was the base, foot, or under-song. It was sung throughout,
and not merely at the end of the verse. Burden is derived
from bourdoun, a drone base (French bourdon)." Chappell's
Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. i. p. 222, sec. ed.
burdocks, a plant too well known to have been noticed here,
had not Mr. Beisly, in his Shakspere's Garden, &c., pp. 142
-3, quite mis-represented the reading of the old eds. in the
following line, With burdocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Lr. iv. 4. 4, where burdocks is Hanmer's highly-probable
correction for "hoar-docks" and "hordocks" of the quartos,
and "Hardokes" and "Hardocks" of the folios: Mr. Beisly,
however, erroneously supposes that the early copies agree in
having "harlocks" (which, in fact, is Farmer's conjecture),
and says, “This I consider should be charlock[s] or carlock[s],
the ancient name of wild mustard, &c.
BURGONET—BUTTERY-BAR.
65
burgonet, or burganet, a close-fitting helmet, so called because
invented by the Burgundians, 2H6. v. 1. 200, 204, 208;
Ant. i. 5. 24.
burn daylight, a proverbial expression derived from the lighting
of candles or lamps by day, and applied to wasting time in
superfluous acts, M.W. ii. 1. 54; Rom. i. 4. 43.
burning devil take them!-A, Troil. v. 2. 196: “Alluding to the
venereal disease, formerly called the brenning or burning"
(MASON).
burst, broke, broken: he burst his head, 2H4. iii. 2. 347; the
glasses you have burst, Shr. Ind. 1. 8; hath been often burst,
iii. 2. 60; how her bridle was burst, iv. 1. 83; Your heart
is burst, Oth. i. 1. 87.
Burton-heath, Shr. Ind. 2. 19: [See Lee, Life of Sh. p. 164]:
Means, no doubt, Burton-on-the-heath, "a small village on
the borders of Warwickshire and Oxfordshire" (KNIGHT).
bush-Good wine needs no," A.Y.L. Epil. 4: “It appears
formerly to have been the custom to hang a tuft of ivy
at the door of a vintner. I suppose ivy was rather chosen
that any other plant, as it has relation to Bacchus" (Steevens):
The custom was of great antiquity: "The practice is still
observed in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, at
statute-hirings, wakes, &c., by people who sell ale at no other
time. And hence, I suppose [doubtless], the Bush tavern at
Bristol and other places" (RITSON).
busiless, Tp. iii. 1. 15. passage corrupt.
Busky, 1H4. V. I. 2 [reading of O. Edd. and Globe bosky;
Globe glossary expl. 'bushy'; CRAIG: 'woody'].
buss, to kiss, K.J. iii. 4. 35; Troil. iv. 5. 220; Cor. iii. 2. 75.
but, unless, except: To think but nobly of my grandmother,
Tp. i. 2. 119; but I be deceiv'd, Shr. iii. 1. 62; iv. 4. 2;
But on this day let seamen fear no wreck, K.J. iii. 1. 92;
but goodman Puff, 2H4. v. 3. 94; but Your comfort makes
the rescue, Ant. iii. 11. 48; But being charg'd, we will be
still by land, Ant. iv. 11. 1.
but I shall lose the grounds I work upon, without losing the
grounds, &c., A.W. iii. 7. 3.
butcher's cur-This, H8. i.
-This, H8. i. 1. 120: “Wolsey is said to have
been the son of a butcher" (JOHNSON).
butt-You ruinous, Troil. v. 1. 32: "Patroclus reproaches
Thersites with deformity, with having one part crowded
into another" (JOHNSON).
butt-shaft, "a kind of arrow, used for shooting at butts; formed
without a barb, so as to stick into the butts, and yet be
easily extracted" (Nares's Gloss), L.L.L. i. 2. 181; Rom.
ii. 4. 16.
buttery-bar, and let it drink-Bring your hand to the, 12N. i.
3. 74: The buttery-bar means the place in palaces and in
5
66
BUTTONS—BY.
great houses whence provisions were dispensed; and it is
still to be seen in most of our old colleges: I do not
answer for the correctness of the following explanation;
"The bringing the hand to the buttery-bar, and letting it
drink, is a proverbial phrase among forward Abigails, to
ask at once for a kiss and a present. Sir Andrew's slow-
ness of comprehension in this particular gave her a just
suspicion, at once, of his frigidity and avarice. She there-
fore calls his hand dry; the moistness of the hand being
a sign of liberality, as well in matters of love as money"
(KENRICK).
buttons be disclos'd-Before their, Before their buds be opened,
Hml. i. 3. 40.
buttons-'Tis in his, M.W. iii. 2. 71: "All that the Host means
is, that Fenton has it in him to succeed: it is, as it were,
buttoned up within his dress. There is no sort of allusion
to bachelors' buttons," &c. (COLLIER).
buxom, lively, spritely, H5. iii. 6. 28; Per. i. Gow. 23.
buy and sell, to dispose of utterly, to over-reach, to betray:
Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases, H8. i. 1. 192;
bought and sold, Err. iii. 1. 72; K.J. v. 4. 10; 1H6. iv. 4. 13;
R3. v. 3. 305; Troil. ii. 1. 51: "To be bought and sold in
a company." Ray's Proverbs, p. 179, ed. 1768. (So Harman,
in his Caueat or Warening for Common Cursetors, &c.,
1573, "the leud lousey language wherewith they bye
and sell the common people as they passe through the
country." p. 64, reprint 1814; and Skelton, in his Magnyfycence,
•
•
"Why, was not for money Troy bothe bought and solde?”
Works, vol. i. p. 277, ed. Dyce.)
buzzard, a common and inferior kind of hawk (Buteo vulgaris,
-see Yarrell's Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 82, sec. ed.):
O slow-wing'd turtle! shall a buzzard take thee? Shr. ii. 1.
208; kites and buzzards, R3. i. 1. 133.
buzzard, a beetle (so named from its buzzing): Ay, for a turtle,
-as he takes a buzzard, Shr. ii. 1. 208. [a buzzing insect
of any sort, a wasp, as P. takes it.]
'by, an abbreviation of aby (which see): Thou shalt by this
dear, M.N.D. iii. 2. 426 (Globe, buy).
by and by, immediately: That shall be by and by, Tp. iii. 2. 156;
I'll be with her by and by, M.W. iv. 1. 7; Now fetch me a
stool hither by and by, 2H6. ii. 1. 142.
by the fool multitude-Meant, Meant of the fool multitude,
M.V. ii. 9. 26. "The plain fact is (for it needs not many
words) that the prepositions by and of are synonymous,
and that our ancestors used them indifferently, as they were
well justified in doing." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works.
vol. i. p. 140.
BY-DRINKINGS—CAIN-COLOURED.
67
by-drinkings, drinkings between meals, 1H4. iii. 3. 84.
by'r lady, by our Lady, M.W. i. 1. 28; Ado. iii. 3. 82. 89; iii. 4.
82; 1H4. ii. 4. 50, 329, 467: iii. 1. 235; 2H4. v. 3. 93; R3.
ii. 3. 4; H8. i. 3. 46; Tit. iv. 4. 48; Rom. i. 5. 35; Hml. ii.
2. 445; iii 2. 141.
by'r lakin, by our Ladykin, by our little Lady, Tp. iii. 3. 1;
M.N.D. iii. i. 14.
C.
cacodemon, devil. R3. i. 3. 144.
caddis-garter, 1H4: ii. 4. 79; caddisses, W.T. iv. 4. 208: Caddis
was worsted riband or galloon. ("Cruel, caddas, or worsted
ribbon." The Rates of the Custome hovse, &c., 1582, sig. B v.
"Caddas or Cruell riband." The Rates of Marchandizes, &c.,
n. d. sig. c 5.)
cade of herrings, 2H6. iv. 2. 33: "That is, a barrel of herrings"
(JOHNSON): “A cade is less than a barrel. The quantity it
should contain is ascertained by the accounts of the Celaress
of the Abbey of Berking. 'Memorandum that a barrel of
herryng shold contene a thousand herryngs, and a cade of
herryng six hundreth, six score to the hundreth.' Mon. Ang.
i. 83" (MALONE).
cadent, falling, Lr. i. 4. 307.
Cadwallader, surnamed Bhendiged or the Blessed, the last
king of Britain of the British race (see transl. of Caradoc's
Hist. of Wales by Powell and Wynne, pp. 8-11, ed. 1774),
H5. v. 1. 29.
Cæsar and his fortune bare at once-That proud-insulting
ship Which, 1H6. i. 2. 139: “This alludes to a passage in
Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæsar, thus translated by Sir
Thomas North: 'Cæsar hearing that, straight, discovered
himselfe unto the maister of the pynnace, who at the first
was amazed when he saw him; but Cæsar, &c., said unto
him, Good fellow, be of good cheere, &c., and fear not,
for thou hast Cæsar and his fortune with thee" (STEEVENS).
Cæsar to you,-prove a shrewd, M.M. iii. 1. 263. Probably
Escalus pronounces the word seizure.
Cæsarion, the son of Cleopatra by Julius Cæsar, Ant. iii. 6. 6;
iii. 13. 162.
cage-His father had never a house but the, 2H6. iv. 2. 56:
'A cage was formerly a term for a prison. See Minsheu in v.
We yet talk of jail-birds" (MALONE): "There is scarce a
village in England which has not a temporary place of
confinement still called The Cage" (STEEVENS).
Cain-coloured beard-A, a beard resembling in colour (sandy-
red) that with which Cain was commonly represented in tapes-
tries and pictures, M.W. i. 4. 23: compare Judas's [hair}, &c.
68
CAKE'S-CALL.
cake's dough-Our, Shr. i. 1. 110; My cake is dough, v. 1. 145:
A proverbial saying, to express that one's hopes are frustrat-
ed; a cake which comes out of the oven in that state
being considered as spoiled.
Calchas, Troil. iii. 3. 31; iv. 1. 37; iv. 5. 13; 278; v. I. 92;
105; V. 2. 3; She [Cressida]'s a fool to stay behind her father,
i. 1. 83: "Calchas, according to Shakespeare's authority,
The Destruction of Troy [see vi. 2], was 'a great learned
bishop of Troy,' who was sent by Priam to consult the
oracle of Delphi concerning the event of the war which
was threatened by Agamemnon. As soon as he had made
'his oblations and demaunds for them of Troy, Apollo
(says the book) aunswered unto him, saying; Calchas, Cal-
chas, beware that thou returne not back again to Troy;
but goe thou with Achylles unto the Greekes, and depart
never from them, for the Greekes shall have victorie of
the Troyans by the agreement of the gods.' Hist. of the
Destruction of Troy, translated by Caxton, 5th edit. 4to,
1617. This prudent bishop followed the advice of the oracle,
and immediately joined the Greeks (MALONE).
calf's-skin on those recreant limbs--And hang a, K.J. iii. 1. 129;
131; 133; And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs, 199:
Nares, following a note of Sir John Hawkins, says; “Fools
kept for diversion in great families were often distinguished
by coats of calf-skin, with buttons down the back. There-
fore Constance and Falconbridge mean to call Austria a
fool, in that sarcastic line so often repeated." Gloss. in
"Calf's-skin:" But, as Ritson remarks, "it does not appear
that Constance means to call Austria a fool, as Sir John
Hawkins would have it; but she certainly means to call
him coward, and to tell him that a calf's-kin would suit his
recreant limbs better than a lion's. [Query this; see l. 121.]
Caliban, Tp. i. 2. 284, &c.: "The metathesis in Caliban from
Cannibal is evident" (FARMER).
Calipolis, 2H4. ii. 4. 193. From Peele's Battle of Alcazar;
"Feed then, and faint not, fair Calipolis;
Feed and be fat," &c.
Peele's Wks, ed.. Dyce, pp. 428-9. 1861. [Compare Poet-
aster, iii. 1; Marston's What you will, v. i.]
caliver, a hand-gun (less and lighter than a musket, and fired
without a rest), 1H4. iv. 2. 21; 2H4. iii. 2. 289, 292.
calkins, the parts of a horse-shoe which are turned up and
pointed to prevent the horse from slipping, 2N.K. v. 2. 55.
call-Be as a, &c., K.J. iii. 4. 174: A metaphor derived from
bird-catching,-one bird being placed (in a cage, or fastened
by a string) to allure others to the net by his call.
call on him for't, Ant. i. 4. 28. [Visit, in a moral sense. Schmidt.]
CALL-CAMOMILE.
69
call to, call on: I'll call to you, [for aid], Tim. i. 2. 223.
callet, or callat, a trull, a drab, a jade (“Goguenelle, A fained
title, or tearme, for a wench; like our Gixie, Callet, Minx,
&c." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.). W.T. ii. 3. 90; 2H6.
i. 3. 86; 3H6. ii. 2. 145; Oth. iv. 2. 121. [Harington, in a
marginal note to Orl. Fur. xx. 97: "Callet is a nick-name
that they use to a woman, it signifies in Irish a Witch.”
However, see New Eng. Dict.]
calling, appellation, name: would not change that calling,
A.Y.L. i. 2. 246.
Callino, castore me! H5. iv. 4 4: Fol. has: Qualtitie calmie
custure me. In Playford's Musical Companion, 1673, is an old
Irish song, callino castore me, meaning “Little girl of my
heart for ever and ever." (Boswell, see Dyce's note 131, iv.
492): I may add here that Chappell gives, from the Ms.
known as Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book, three of the
earliest Irish airs extant, one of which is Callino casturame,
-Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. ii. p. 793,
sec. ed.; and that in Dekker's Satiro-mastix, 1602, I find
Tucca saying, "Nay, your oohs, nor your Callin-oes cannot
serue your turne." Sig. L. 4. [Irish: Colleen oge asthore, my
lass, my treasure.] Dr. Nicholson, Tr. N.S.S. 1880, p. 206,
has a good note on the passage.
calm, the Hostess's blunder for qualm, 2H4. ii. 4. 40. [Fuller.
worthies, i. 163, ed. 1811, puns on calme = qualm.]
Cambyses' vein-In King, 1H4. ii. 4. 425: An allusion to the
play entitled A lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant
mirth, containing the life of Cambises king of Percia, from
the beginning of his kingdome vnto his death, his owne good
deed of execution, after that many wicked deedes and tyran-
nous murders, committed [sic] by and through him, and last
of all, his odious death by Gods Iustice appointed. Done in
such order as followeth. By Thomas Preston, n. d. 4to. [in
Hazl. Dodsl.]
Camelot-Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain, I'd drive ye
cackling home to Camelot, Lr. ii. 2. 90: Camelot “was the
place where the romances say King Arthur kept his court
in the West" (WARBURTON): "In the parts of Somerset-
shire near Camelot there are many large moors, upon which
great numbers of geese are bred, so that many other places
in England are from thence supplied with quills and
feathers" (HANMER): Here, therefore, there is perhaps a
double allusion,-to Camelot as famous for its geese, and
to those knights who were vanquished by the Knights of
the Round Table being sent to Camelot to yield them-
selves vassals to King Arthur.
camomile, the more it is trodden on, &c.-Though the, 1H4. ii.
4. 441: "The style immediately ridiculed is that of Lyly in
70
CAN-CANDLE-WASTERS.
his Euphues: 'Though the camomile the more it is trodden
and pressed downe, the more is spreadeth; yet the violet
the oftener it is handled and touched, the sooner it withered
and decayeth,' &c." (FARMER): "Again, in Philomela, the
Lady Fitzwater's Nightingale, by Robert Greene, bl. 1. 1595,
sign. I 4; The palme tree, the more it is prest downe,
the more it sprowteth up; the camomill, the more it is troden,
the sweeter smell it yeldeth' (REED): Greene, in another
work, his Carde of Fancie, has; "The Camomill increaseth
most beeing troden on." Sig. Q 2 verso, ed. 1608.
can, to know, to be skilled in: That defunctive music can,
Phoen. 14.
can passage find, L.L.L. iv. 3. 106. (P. Pilgr. 232 gan); with
claps can sound, Per. iii, Prol. 36: old spelling of gan.
can well on horseback-They, They are skilful horsemen, Hml.
iv. 7. 85.
canary, a wine so called (see sack, &c.): drink canary. M.W.
iii. 2. 89: a cup of canary, 12N. i. 3. 85; canary put me down
88; drunk too much canaries, 2H4. ii. 4. 29.
canary, a blunder of Mrs. Quickly for quandary ["but this
word is unknown to Sh." Schmidt]: such a canary, M.W. ii.
2, 61; such a canaries, 64.
canary, a quick and lively dance, said to have originated in
the Canary Islands,-an opinion which has been disputed:
make you dance canary, A.W. ii. 1. 77. (“The Canaries
(which seems always to have had the same tune) is
called 'The Canaries, or The Hay,' in Musick's Handmaid,
1678." Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c.,
vol. i. p. 368, sec. ed.)
canary, to dance (properly, to dance a canary): canary to it
with your feet, L.L.L. iii. 1. 12.
candied, sugared, flattering, glozing: the candied tongue, Hml.
iii. 2. 65.
candied, congealed: candied be they, and melt, Tp. ii. 1. 279;
candied with ice, Tim. iv. 3. 226. Cf. discandy.
candle-Seek him with, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 6: “Alluding probably to
St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xv. v. 8: 'If she lose one piece, doth
[she] not light a candle, and seek diligently till she find
it?': (Steevens.)
candle-mine, "inexhaustible magazine of tallow" (JOHNSON),
2H4. ii. 4. 326.
candlesticks, With torch-staves in their hand-The horsemen
sit like fixèd, H5. iv. 2. 45: "Grandpré alludes to the form
of ancient candlesticks, which frequently represented human
figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended
hands" (STEEVENS).
candle wasters, revellers, who, sitting up all night, waste many
candles, Ado, v. i. 18 [Schmidt: "probably not a reveller,
CANDLES'-CANVAS-CLIMBER.
71
but a nocturnal student . . . i.e. drown grief with the wise
saws of pedants and bookworms." Ben Jonson calls a
book-worm a candlewaster." KNIGHT.]
candles' ends for flap-dragons-Drinks off: see flap-dragon-A.
candy deal of courtesy-What a, "What a deal of candy
courtesy" (MALONE), 1H4. i. 3. 251.
canker, the dog-rose: I had rather be a canker in a hedge than
a rose in his grace, Ado, i. 3. 28; this canker, Bolingbroke,
1H4. i. 3. 176; The canker-blooms, Sonn. 54 (Mr. Beisly in
his Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 49, informs us that in the
first and third of the above passages our poet refers to the
rose-sponge or excrescence that grows on the branches of
the dog-rose: but I believe him to be as much mistaken
about the first passage as he evidently is with respect to
the third one,—
"The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumèd tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their maskèd buds discloses,"-
where canker-blooms can only mean the blossoms of the
dog-rose).
canker, a caterpillar (“The larva I allude to (Lozotania Rosana)
lives among the blossoms [of the rose], and prevents
the possibility of their further development," &c. Patterson's
Letters on the Nat. Hist. of the Insects mentioned in Shaks-
peare's Plays, p. 34): in the sweetest bud The eating canker
dwells, 2G. i. 1. 43; Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset ?
1H6. ii. 4. 68, 71; the canker death eats up that plant, Rom.
ii. 3. 30; The canker galls the infants of the spring, Hml.
i. 3. 39; This canker that eats up Love's tender spring, Ven.
656; And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud, Sonn. 35;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love, 70; like a canker
in the fragrant rose, 95; A vengeful canker eat him up to
death, 99; to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, M.N.D. ii.
2. 3; cankers of a calm world, 1H4. iv. 2. 32.
canker-blossom! You thief of love!-You, M.N.D. iii. 2. 282:
“The canker-blossom is not in this place the blossom of the
canker or wildrose . . . but a worm," &c. (STEEVENS): see
the preceding article.
Cannibals, Pistol's blunder for Hannibals, 2H4. ii. 4. 180. Cf.
M.M. ii. 1. 183.
canopy, the canopy of heaven: Under the canopy, Cor. iv. 5. 41.
canstick, a candlestick, 1H4. iii. 1. 131.
cantle, a corner, an angle, a piece, a portion, a parcel, 1H4.
iii. 1. 100; Ant. iii. 10. 6.
cantons, cantos, [love poems?] 12N. i. 5. 289.
canvas climber, "One who climbs the mast, to furl, or unfurl,
the canvas or sails" (STEEVENS), Per. iv. 1. 62.
72
CANVASS-CAPRICIOUS.
canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat-I'll, 1H6. i. 3. 36:
} } }
"This means, I believe, 'I'll tumble thee into thy great hat,
and shake thee, as bran and meal are shaken in a sieve
(STEEVENS): here Mr. Staunton explains canvass by “toss,
as in a blanket;" 2H4. ii. 4. 243.
capable, intelligent, able to understand, quick of apprehension:
if their daughters be capable (with a quibble), L.L.L. iv. 2.
82; capable of things serious, W.T. iv. 4. 791; ingenious, for-
ward, capable, R3. iii. 1. 155; the more capable creature, Troil.
iii. 3. 310; are capable of nothing (“have a capacity for
nothing," MALONE) but inexplicable dumb-shows, Hml. iii. 2.
13; preaching to stones, Would make them capable, iii. 4. 127.
capable, susceptible, impressible, sensible: capable of all ill,
Tp. i. 2. 353; capable impressure ("hollow mark," JOHNSON,
"perceptible," MALONE, " sensible," STAUNTON, "receivable,"
GRANT WHITE), A.Y.L. iii. 5. 23; heart too capable Of every
line, A.W. i. 1. 106; capable of this ambition, K.J. ii. 1. 476;
capable of fears, iii. 1. 12; capable Of wounds and scars,
2H4. i. 1. 172; capable Of our flesh, H8. v. 3. 11 [ subject to].
capable, qualified as heir, capable of inheriting: of my land...
To make thee capable, Lr. ii. 1. 87.
capable, capacious, comprehensive: a capable and wide revenge,
Oth. iii. 3. 459.
capitulate against us, draw up heads or articles, combine,
confederate, against us, 1H4. iii. 2. 120.
capocchio, Troil. iv. 2. 33. [O. Edd. chipochia. Capocchia, 'the
feminine form of capocchio, which signifies a fool; coaxingly
applied by Pandarus to Cressida' (NARES q: Schm.) Dyce,
vi. 81, says: Several editors print capocchia, but wrongly,
if the term is to be considered as Italian, and as meaning
simpleton; though an ed. of Baretti's Ital. Dict. is now before
me, in which capocchio is given as an adjective. The word
capocchia signifies the knob of a stick, and something else."]
capon-Break up this: see first break up.
capp'd, took off the cap in salutation, Oth. i. 1. 10: so Dyce,
following the Quartos; Globe following Folio: Off-capt.
capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths-As the
most, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 8: "Caper, capri, caperitious, capricious,
fantastical, capering, goatish; and by a similar sort of process
are we to smooth Goths into goats" (CALDECOTT): "No
doubt there is an allusion to caper here: but there seems
to be also one to capere; at least the word capricious may
be used in the sense of "taking." Compare [Brewer's?]
Lingua, ii. 2, Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. v. 132, last ed.;
'Carry the conceit I told you this morning to the party you
wot of. In my imagination 'tis capricious. 'twill take, I
warrant thee'" (W. N. LETTSOM): The old spelling of "the
Goths" was "the Gotes." [So in Basse's Urania, p. 282, Wks.]
CAPTAIN-CARDUUS.
73
captain, (as an adjective) chief: the ass more captain than the
lion, Tim. iii. 5. 49; captain jewels in the carcanet, Sonn. 52.
captious and intenible sieve, A.W. i 3. 208: "By captious I
believe Shakespeare only meant recipient, capable of receiving
what is put into it; and by intenible, incapable of holding
or retaining it" (MALONE).
captivate, to make prisoner, to reduce to bondage: captivate
(the participle), 1H6. ii. 3. 42; v. 3. 107; captivated, L.L.L.
iii. 1. 126; captivates, 3H6. i. 4. 115.
carack, a galleon, a large ship of burden, 2N.K. iii. 4. 14;
a land carack, Oth. i. 2. 50; caracks, Err. iii. 2. 140.
caraways, comfits or confections made with caraway-seeds,
2H4. v. 3. 3. (In Shadwell's Woman-Captain, caraway-
comfits are mentioned as no longer fit to appear at fashionable
tables; "The fruit, crab-apples, sweetings, and horse-plumbs;
and for confections, a few carraways in a small sawcer, as
if his worship's house had been a lousie inn." Works, vol.
iii. p. 350).
carbonado, a piece of meat cut cross-wise for broiling, 1H4.
v. 3. 61; Cor. iv. 5. 199. .
carbonado, to cut cross-wise for broiling: Lr. ii. 2. 41; car-
bonadoed, A.W. iv. 5. 107; W.T. iv. 4. 268.
carcanet, a necklace (Fr. carcan), Err. iii. 1. 4 (subsequently in
the same play called a chain); captain (superior) jewels in
the carcanet, Sonn. 52.
card-The shipman's, Mcb. i. 3. 17: "The mariner's compass.
Properly, the paper on which the points of the wind are
marked." Nares's Gloss.: "Not the card of the mariner's
compass, but what we now call a chart." Hunter's New
Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 167 (where Hackluyt's Vir-
ginia Richly Valued, 1609, and Sir H. Mainwaring's Seaman's
Dictionary, 1670, are quoted): “A Sea-card, charta Marina.”
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict. (I find in Sylvester's Du Bartas,
'Sure, if my Card and Compasse doe not fail,
Ware neer the Port." The Triumph of Faith, p. 256, ed. 1641,
where the original has "mon Quadrant et ma Carte marine.")
card—We must speak by the, "We must speak with the same
precision and accuracy as is observed in marking the true
distances of coasts, the heights, courses, &c., in a sea-chart"
(MALONE), Hml. v. 1. 149.
card of ten: see fac'd it with a card of ten.
cardecu, properly quart d'écu, "the fourth part of the gold
[French] crown, and worth fifteen sols" (Douce), A.W. iv.
3. 311; V. 2. 35.
carded his state, 1H4. iii. 2. 62. mixed; debased by mixing.
carduus benedictus, Ado, iii. 4. 73: “Carduus Benedictus, or
blessed thistle (says Cogan, in his Haven of Health, 1595
74
CARE-CARRY.
•
•
•
[but printed earlier], so worthily named for the singular
virtues that it hath. This herbe may worthily be called
Benedictus or Omnimorbia, that is, a salve for every sore,
not knowen to physitians of old time, but lately revealed
by the speciall providence of Almighty God" (STEEVENS).
care killed a cat - What though, Ado, v. i. 133: A proverbial
expression: Ray gives "Care will kill a cat." Proverbs, p.
84, ed. 1768.
careers-Passed the: see passed the careers, &c.
careful hours, hours of care, of distress, Err. v. 298.
careful man-A, 12N. iv. 2. 11: “I believe, means a man who
has such a regard for his character, as to entitle him to
ordination" (STEEVENS). [Schmidt: "i.e. a great scholar, but
oppress'd with want and lean with fasting."]
cares it be not done, "makes provision that it may not be done"
(MALONE), Per. i. 2. 15.
carl, a churl, a rustic, a peasant, a boor, Cymb. v. 2. 4.
carlot, the same in signification as carl, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 108.
carnations: see gillyvors, &c.
carpet consideration-Knight dubbed on, 12N. iii. 4. 258: Carpet
knights were knights dubbed at court by mere favour,—
not on the field of battle for their military exploits: our
early writers constantly speak of them with great contempt;
and carpet-knight became a term for an effeminate person.
carpet-mongers, equivalent to carpet-knights, effeminate per-
sons (see preceding article), Ado, v. 2. 32.
carpets, table-covers of ornamental tapestry: the carpets laid,
Shr. iv. 1. 52.
carrion, a drab. See kissing carrion.
carry coals, to put up with insults, to submit to any degradation.
("Il a du feu en la teste. Hee is very chollericke, furious,
or couragious; he will carrie no coales." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict. sub "Teste"): the men would carry coals, H5.
iii. 2. 50; we'll not carry coals, Rom. i. 1. 2: "From the mean
nature of this occupation, it seems to have been somewhat
hastily concluded, that a man who would carry coals would
submit to any indignity. Hence, to carry coals, in the sense,
of tamely putting up with an affront, occurs perpetually in
our old writers, both serious and comic."... "In all great
houses, but particularly in the royal residences, there were
a number of mean and dirty dependents, whose office it
was to attend the woodyard, sculleries, &c. Of these (for
in the lowest deep there was a lower still) the most forlorn
wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the
kitchens, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended.
the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and
kettles, which, with every other article of furniture, were
then moved from palace to palace, the people, in derision,
CARRY-CARVE.
75
gave the name of black guards, a term since become suffi-
ciently familiar, and never properly explained." Gifford's
notes on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. pp. 169, 179. (In Lyly's
Midas mention is made of "one of the Cole house," sig
F 4, ed. 1592, i.e. one of the drudges about the palace of
King Midas.)
carry out my side-Hardly shall I, Lr. v. I. 61: "The bastard
means, 'I shall scarcely be able to make out my game.'
The allusion is to a party at cards, and he is afraid that
he shall not be able to make his side successful" (MASON):
In the phraseology of the card-table to set up a side was
to become partners in a game; to pull or pluck down a
side was to occasion its loss by ignorance or treachery;
and to carry out a side was to carry out the game with
success: see Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. i.
p. 150, ed. 1813; and note in my ed. of Beaumont and
Fletcher's Works, vol. i. p. 343.
cart, a car, a chariot: Phæbus' cart, Hml. iii. 2. 165.
carve too, and lisp-He can, L.L.L. v. 2. 323; she discourses,
she carves, M.W. i. 3. 49; carve her, drink to her, 2N.K, iv.
3. 76: That carve, is here used to describe some particular
form of action,- some sign of intelligence and favour,--
was first shown by the late Joseph Hunter (New Illust. of
Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 215), who observed that the word
occurs in a very rare poetic tract, entitled A Prophecie
of Cadwallader last King of the Brittanies, by William
Herbert, 4to, 1604, which opens with a description of For-
tune, and of some who had sought to gain her favour;
((
C
Then did this Queene her wandering coach ascend,
Whose wheels were more inconstant than the wind:
A mighty troop this empress did attend;
There might you Caius Marius carving find,
And martial Sylla courting Venus kind:""
To these lines adduced by Mr. Hunter I afterwards (in my
Few Notes, &c., p. 20) added the following passages; "Her
amorous glances are her accusers; her very lookes write
sonnets in thy commendations; she carues thee at boord,
and cannot sleepe for dreaming on thee in bedde." Day's
Ile of Gulls, 1606, sig. D.
*
And if thy rival be in presence too,
Seem not to mark, but do as others do;
Salute him friendly, give him gentle words,
Return all courtesies that he affords;
Drink to him, carve him, give him compliment;
This shall thy mistress more than thee torment."
Beaumont's Remedy of Love,-B. and Fletcher's Works,
vol. xi. p. 483, ed. Dyce.
76
CARVE-CASHIERED.
(Beaumont's Remedy of Love is a very free imitation of
Ovid's Remedia Amoris; and, as far as I can discover, the
only part of the original which answers to the preceding
passages is,
"Hunc quoque, quo quondam nimium rivale dolebas,
Vellem desineres hostis habere loco
At certe, quamvis odio remanente, saluta." v. 791):
More recently Mr. Grant White has still further illustrated
the word carve. "Thus," he says, "in A very Woman,
among the Characters published with Sir Thomas Over-
bury's Wife; 'Her lightnesse gets her to swim at the top
of the table, where her wrie little finger bewraies carving;
her neighbours at the latter end know they are welcome,
and for that purpose she quencheth her thirst.' Sig. E 3,
ed. 1632. See also Littleton's Latin-English Lexicon, 1675;
'A Carver:-chironomus.' 'Chironomus:-One that useth
apish motions with his hands.' 'Chironomia:-A kind of
gesture with the hands, either in dancing, carving of meat,
or pleading,' &c. &c."
carve for his own rage-To, "To supply food or gratification
for his own anger" (STEEVENS), Oth. ii. 3. 173.
case, skin: a grizzle on thy case, 12N. v. 168; though my case
be a pitiful one, &c. (with a quibble), W.T. iv. 4. 844.
case, to skin (a hunting term): ere we case him, A.W. iii. 6. 111.
case, a pair, a couple: I have not a case of lives, H5. iii. 2. 5.
(Compare "this case of rapiers." Marlowe's Faustus,- Works,
p. 89, ed, Dyce, 1858; "two case of jewels." Webster's
White Devil,-Works, p. 46, ed. Dyce, 1857; "a case of
pistols." Middleton and W. Rowley's Spanish Gipsy,-
Middleton's Works, vol. iv. p. 177, ed. Dyce). [Schmidt
adds: “but there may be meant a cover, a strong box, to
secure life from hurt;" and Prof. Herford: "Nym's further
allusion to 'plainsong' makes it likely that the allusion is
to the 'case' of four musical instruments making up the
'consort' of four parts, not to the case of (two) pistols."]
case of eyes?-- What with the, Lr. iv. 6. 147; cf. 150: “The
case of eyes," says Steevens, "is the socket of either eye;
and, to confirm his explanation, he cites, "to tear the cases
of their eyes," W.T. v. 2. 14: but perhaps Rowe was right
when he substituted What, with this case of eyes? i.e. with
such a pair of no-eyes as this? See the preceding article.
[Per. iii. 2. 99: "her eyelids, cases to those heavenly jewels,"
confirms Steevens.]
case me in leather, Cor. ii. 1. 85: Dromio means, as a foot-
ball is cased or covered.
cashiered— Was, as they say, M.W. i. 1. 184: Here cashiered
CASK-CASTILIANO.
77
has been explained "carried out of the room,”—“turned
out of company," and "cleaned out:" eligat lector.
cask, a casket, 2H6. iii. 2. 409.
Cassado, O. Edd. [as in the Chronicles] for Cassalis.
Cassalis - Gregory de, H8. iii. 2. 321: “Was the King's Orator,
as he was called in Rome, and, according to the household-
books of Henry VIII., was in the receipt of a large annual
salary for his services in various parts of Italy" (COLLIER).
Cassius-Your brother, J.C. ii. 1. 70; my brother Cassius, iv. 3.
248, 307; "Cassius married Junia, Brutus's sister" (STEEVENS).
cassocks, loose outward military coats, A.W. iv. 3. 192.
cast, to dismiss: the state. . . . Cannot with safety cast him,
Oth. i. 1. 150; Our general cast us thus early, ii. 3. 14;
cast in his mood (anger), 273; That I was cast, v. 2. 327.
cast, used with a quibble between its two senses, "to throw'
and "to vomit:" though he (drink) took up my legs sometime,
yet I made a shift to cast him, Mcb. ii. 3. 46; What a
drunken knave was the sea to cast thee in our way!
Per. ii. 1. 62.
cast, to empty out; or to purge: His filth within being cast,
M.M. iii. 1. 93 [The metaphor has reference to a hawk
when first taken out of the mew, and to the result which
gross feeding combined with long confinement and inact-
ivity produces. The hawk was subjected to some scouring
diet, technically callen casting, and as the result was said
to be enseamed, the whole process of purging being called
enseaming. The Lincolnshire word for lard is seam, and
as lard was used originally as purging for hawks, the term
came from this, the purging being intended to make the
hawk thin. Thence enseaming came to mean the stirring
up and casting forth of filthy matters. In this sense Hamlet
(iii. 4. 92) applies it to the moral pollution of his mother's
incestuous marriage, the bridal bed being itself polluted
from the union.-Condensed from the admirable paper in
Edin. Rev. No. 278, Oct. 1872, several times quoted from.]
cast, to cast up, to compute: Let it be cast, and paid, 2H4.
V. I. 21.
cast-lips of Diana, lips left off by Diana, A.Y.L. iii. 4. 16.
cast water, to find out diseases by inspecting the urine: cast
The water of my land, Mcb. v. 3. 50.
Castilian, a cant term, about the origin of which the com-
mentators have uselessly puzzled themselves, M.W. ii. 3. 34.
Castiliano volto, 12N. i. 3. 45: Equivalent to "put on your
Castilian countenance, that is, your grave solemn looks
(WVRBURTON). [Globe, vulgo. Hall, Satires, iv. ii:
rr
There soon as he can kiss his hand in gree,
And with good grace bow it below the knee.
Or make a Spanish face with fawning cheer," &c.
78
CASTLE-CAT.
i.e. the castiliano volto, as Singer points out in his ed. of Hall.
castle-I'll to my, 3H6. i. 1. 206: "Sandal Castle, near Wake-
field in Yorkshire" (MALONE).
Castle in Saint Alban's-The, 2H6. v. 2. 68: From the corre-
sponding passage in the original play Malone conjectured
that, after Lie thou there, a line has been omitted in the
Folio, to the following effect:
"Behold, the prophecy is come to pass;
For underneath" &c.
"The death of Somerset here accomplishes that equivocal
prediction given [by the spirit raised by] Jourdain, the witch,
&c. concerning this duke; which we meet with at the close
of 2H4. i. 4. 70:
Let him shun Castles;
Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains
Than where castles mounted stand,——
i.e. the representation of a castle mounted for a sign."
[THEOBALD].
castle on thy head!-Wear a, Troil. v. 2. 187: “A close helmet,
which covered the whole head, was called a castle" (WAR-
BURTON): "Troilus doth not advise Diomed to wear a
helmet on his head; that would be poor indeed, for he
always wore one in battle; but to guard his head with
the most impenetrable armour, to shut it up even in a
castle, if it were possible, or else his sword should reach
it" (HEATH).
castle- Writing destruction on the enemy's, Tit. iii. 1. 170.
Reading doubtful.
castles mounted stand-Where, 2H6. i. 4. 70: see note above.
cat, and shoot at me-Hang me in a bottle like a, Ado, i. i. 259:
It appears that formerly cats (occasionally factitious ones)
were hung up in baskets and shot at with arrows; also that,
in some counties of England, they were enclosed, with a
quantity of soot, in wooden bottles suspended on a line,
and that he who could beat out the bottom of the bottle
as he ran under it, and yet escape its contents, was "the
hero" of the sport; see Steevens's note ad l.: “It is still
a diversion in Scotland to hang up a cat in a small cask
or firkin, half filled with soot; and then a parcel of clowns
on horseback try to beat out the ends of it, in order to
show their dexterity in escaping before the contents fall
upon them." Percy's Rel. of A. E. Poetry, vol. i. p. 155,
ed. 1794.
"
cat-Here is that which will give language to you, Tp. ii. 2. 86:
Alluding to an old proverb, that good liquor will make a
cat speak" (STeevens).
CAT-CENSER.
79
cat i' th' adage-Like the poor, Mcb. i. 7. 45. "The adage alluded
to is, 'The cat loves fish, but dares not wet her feet;'
<
<
Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas'” (JOHNSON):
"It is among Heywood's Proverbs, ed. 1598, Q 2;
The cat would eate fish, but she will not wette her feete'" (BOSWELL).
cat-o'-mountain, a wild-cat, Tp. iv. 1. 262; cat-o'-mountain looks,
M.W. ii. 2. 27: "A term borrowed from the Spaniards,
who call the wild-cat gatomontes” (DOUCE).
Cataian-A, M.W. ii. 1. 148; 12N. ii. 3. 80: Meaning properly
a native of Cataia or Cathay, i.e. China, is supposed to have
become a cant term for a thief or sharper, because the
Chinese were notorious for their skilful thieving; but in
the second of the above passages it is certainly used play-
fully by Sir Toby as a term of reproach or contempt.
catlings, lute-strings or violin-strings, made of cat-gut, Troil.
iii. 3. 306; hence the name of a musician, Simon Catling,
Rom. iv. 5. 132.
cats-Prince of, Rom. ii. 4. 19; Good king of cats, iii. 1. 80:
see Tybalt, &c.
cause, cause, of quarrel, a fashionable term in the science
of duelling: The first and second cause will not serve my
turn, L.L.L. i. 2. 184; found the quarrel was upon the seventh
cause, A.Y.L. v. 4. 52; a gentleman . . . . of the first and
second cause ("one who quarrels by the book," WARBURTON;
and see book-We quarrel in print, by the), Rom. ii. 4. 26.
cautel, craft, deceit ("Cautelle: A wile, cautell, sleight; a craftie
reach, or fetch, guilefull deuise or endeuor; also, craft, subtiltie,
trumperie, deceit, cousenage." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.),
Hml. i. 3. 15; Applied to cautels ("Applied to insidious pur-
poses, with subtelty and cunning," MALONE), Compl. 303.
cautelous, insidious: cautelous baits, Cor. iv. 1. 33.
cautelous- Cowards, and men, J.C. ii. 1. 129: Here “cautelous is
cautious and wary at least to the point of cowardice, if not
to that of insidiousness and trickery," CRAIK.
caviare to the general, Hml. ii. 2. 457: (O. Edd. caviary)
Caviare is the roe of a kind of sturgeon, and, of other
fish, pickled, salted, and dried, which came, and still comes,
from Russia: Hamlet means that the play in question was
of too high a relish for the palates of the multitude.
cease, to cause to cease, to stop: Particularities and petty sounds
To cease, 2H6. v. 2. 45; would cease The present power of
life, Cymb. v. 5. 255; be not ceas'd With slight denial, Tim.
ii. 1. 16.
I.
cease, to decease, to die: both shall cease, without your remedy,
A.W. v. 3. 164; Fall, and cease, Lr. v. 3. 264.
censer in a barber's shop-Like to a, Shr. iv. 3. 91: The censers
80
CENSER-'CERNS.
formerly used in barbers' shop, to sweeten them with cheap
perfumes, had, of course, their covers perforated.
censer-You thin man in a, 2H4. v. 4. 21: It has been sup-
posed that the allusion is to one of the thin embossed
figures [of saints] in the middle of the pierced convex lid
of a censer or fire-pan, in which coarse perfumes were
burned to sweeten the atmosphere of the musty rooms in
our author's days: but Mr. Grant White understands censer
to mean some kind of cap.
censure, judgment, opinion: my just censure, W.T. ii. 1. 37; To
give their censure, 1H6. ii. 3. 10; To give his censure, 2H6.
i. 3. 120; Durst wag his tongue in censure (in giving an
opinion which of the two made the more splendid appear-
ance), H8. i. I. 33; Take each man's censure, Hml. i. 3. 69;
in the general censure, i. 4. 35; the censure of the which one,
iii. 2. 30; In censure of his seeming, iii. 2. 92; mouths of
wisest censure, Oth. ii. 3. 193; I may not breathe my censure,
iv. 1. 281; the strongest in our censure, Per. ii. 4. 34;
To give your censures, R3. ii. 1. 144; our just censures,
Mcb. v. 4. 14.
censure, judicial sentence: Your heaviest censure, Cor. v. 6. 143;
the censure of this hellish villain, Oth. v. 2. 368.
censure, to pass judgment or opinion on: Should censure this
on lovely gentlemen, 2G. i. 2. 19; censure me by what you
were, 1H6. v. 5. 97; censure well the deed (“approve the
deed, judge the deed good," JOHNSON), 2H6. iii. 1. 275;
censure me in your wisdom, J.C. iii. 2. 16; By our best eyes
cannot be censured ("estimated," MALONE), K.J. ii. 1. 328;
how you are censured here, Cor. ii. 1. 25; how are we censured?
275; How, my lord, I may be censured, Lr. iii. 5. 3; That
censures (“estimates," MALONE) falsely, Sonn. 148.
censure, to pass sentence judicially; That are to censure them,
Lr. v. 3. 3: Has censur'd him already, M.M. i. 4. 72.
centaur's feast, Tit. v. 2. 204: the fight at the marriage feast
of Perithous between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ.
century, a hundred; said a century of prayers, Cymb. iv. 2. 391.
century, a company of a hundred men: A century send forth,
Lr. iv. 4. 6; dispatch Those centuries to our aid, Cor. i. 7. 3.
ceremonies, "honorary ornaments, tokens of respect" (MALONE):
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies, J.C. i. 1. 70; “By
ceremonies must here be meant what are in the next speech
of Flavius called 'Cæsar's trophies,' and are described in
the next scene as 'scarfs' which were hung on Cæsar's
images" (CRAIK).
ceremonies, omens or signs deduced from sacrifices or other
ceremonial rites" (MALONE): Of fantasy, of dreams, and
ceremonies, J.C. ii. 1. 197; I never stood on ceremonies, ii. 2. 13.
'cerns, concerns, Shr. v. 1. 77.
((
CERTAINTY-CHANCE.
81
certainty of this hard life-The, "The certain consequence of
this hard life" (MALONE), Cymb. iv. 4. 27.
certes, certainly, Tp. iii. 3. 30; Err. iv. 4. 78; L.L.L. iv. 2. 169;
H8. i. 1. 48; Oth. i. 1. 16.
cess-Out of all, Out of all measure, 1H4. ii. 1. 8 (A phrase
of doubtful origin: Cotgrave gives "Sans cesse. Vncessantly
also, excessively, immoderately, out of all cesse and crie."
Fr. and Engl. Dict.)
cesse, to cease, A.W. v. 3. 72 (Mr. Knight, who rightly, on
account of the rhyme, retains this archaism, quotes an
instance of it from Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida: but
Shakespeare must have met with it in various books that
were to him of recent date: eg. in Phaer and Twyne's
Eneidos;
"This spoken, with a thought he makes the swelling seas to cesse,
And sunne to shine, and clouds to flee, that did the skies oppresse."
B. i. sig. в iii. ed. 1584.)
cestron, a cistern, 2N.K. v. 1. 46.
chaces, see chases.
chafe, fret, passion, Ant. i. 3. 85, see Herculanean.
chain with crumbs-Go, sir, rub your, 12N. ii. 3. 129: Gold
chains were formerly worn by persons of rank and dignity,
and by rich merchants,—a fashion which descended to
upper servants in great houses, and to stewards as badges
of office; and these chains were usually cleaned by being
rubbed with crumbs.
chairs of order look you scour With juice of balm, &c.—The
several, M.W. v. 5. 65: "it was an article of our ancient
luxury to rub tables, &c., with aromatic herbs" (Steevens).
chalic'd, having cups ("It may be noted that the cup of a
flower is called calix, whence chalice," JOHNSON), Cymb. ii. 3. 25.
challenge, You shall not be my judge-Make my, H8. ii. 4. 77:
"Challenge is here a verbum juris, a law-term. The criminal,
when he refuses a juryman, says 'I challenge him"" (JOHNSON).
chamber- Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your, R3. iii. 1. I:
"London was anciently called Camera Regis" (POPE): “This
title it began to have immediately after the Norman con-
quest. See Coke's 4 Inst. 243; Camden's Britannia, 374;
Ben Jonson's Account of King James's Entertainment in
passing to his Coronation, &c. [Jonson's Works, vol. vi.
p. 428, ed. Gifford]" (REED).
chamberers, men of intrigue, Oth. iii. 3. 265.
chambers, small pieces of ordnance: charged chambers (with a
quibble), 2H4. ii. 4. 57; chambers go off, H5. ii., Chor. dir.;
iii. 1. dir.; chambers discharged, H8. i. 4. dir.
champain, open country, 12N. ii. 5. 174; champains, Lr. i. 1. 65.
chance,—In the reproof of (the resisting of mischance): Troil.
i. 3. 33.
6
82
CHANGE-CHARACTS.
change, see charge, 1.
changeful potency,-Presuming on their, Trusting to their strength
to resist, frail and variable though they be: Troil. iv 4. 99.
changeling, M.N.D. ii. 1. 23, 120; iv. I. 64: Changeling is
commonly used for the child supposed to be left by the
fairies, but here for a child taken away" (JOHNSON): “It is
here properly used, and in its common acceptation; that is,
for a child got in exchange. A fairy is now speaking" (RITSON).
channel, a kennel: throw the quean in the channel, 2H4. ii. 1.
52; As if a channel should be call'd the sea, 3H6. ii. 2. 141;
Here friend by friend in bloody channel lies, Lucr. 1487.
chanson-The first row of the pious, Hml. ii. 2. 438: This is
explained by the reading of 4to 1603, "the first verse of
the godly ballet."
chape, A.W. iv. 3. 164: “The chape was the metal part at the
end of a scabbard, the portion of the scabbard which protect-
ed the sharp end of the dagger or similar weapon. . . . it
is sometimes used for the hook or loop at the top of a
scabbard" (HALLIWELL): "A Chape (the Iron point of the
Scabbard), Vagina ferramentum, rostrum, lorica, mucro."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.
chapeless, without a chape (see chape), Shr. iii. 2. 48.
chapmen, sellers: by base sale of chapmen's tongues, L.L.L. ii. 1. 16.
chapmen, buyers: you do as chapmen do, Troil. iv. 1.75.
chaps, jaws: open your chaps again, Tp. ii. 2. 89; his dead chaps,
K.J. ii. 1. 352; your mouldy chaps, 2H4. ii. 4. 139; Before
his chaps be stain'd, 2H6. iii. 1. 259; a pair of chaps, Ant.
iii. 5. 14.
chaps, clefts, breaks in the continuity of the skin, [deep furrows]:
my frosty signs and chaps of age, Tit. v. 3. 77; Her cheeks
with chaps and wrinkles were disguis'd, Lucr. 1452.
character, handwriting, writing: 'Tis Hamlet's character, Hml.
iv. 7. 52; though thou didst produce My very character, Lr.
ii. 1. 74; Since mind at first in character was done (“Since
thought was first expressed in writing," STAUNTON), Sonn. 59.
character-Thy, "Thy description, i.e. the writing afterwards
discovered with Perdita" (STEEVENS), W.T. iii. 3. 47.
character, to inscribe, to infix strongly: in their barks my thoughts
I'll charácter, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 6; these few precepts in thy memory
See thou charácter, Hml. i. 3. 59; character'd and engrav'd,
2G. ii. 7. 4; character'd on thy skin, 2H6. iii. 1. 300; Full
character'd, Sonn. 122.
charactery, what is charactered or written: Fairies use flowers
for their charactery ("the matter with which they make
letters," JOHNSON), M.W. v. 5. 77; All the charáctery of ("all
that is charactered on," STEEVENS) my sad brows, J.C.
ii. 1. 308.
characts, characters, marks, M.M, v. 1. 56.
CHARBON-CHARLES'.
charbon . . . Poysam.
83
A.W. i. 3. 55. A gentleman who
signs himself Benj. Easy, in N. & Q. for Aug. 8, 1863, p.
106, writes: "The characters being French, it was long ago
acutely surmised by Malone that 'Poysam' was a misprint
for 'Poisson' (i and long s having been taken for y); but
unfortunately his further supposition, that Charbon was meant
to indicate the fiery zeal of the Puritans, was unsatisfac-
tory, As, however, Poisson is significant of the fasting
and self-denying Papist, so I think charbon, chairbon, or
chairbonne, was given authentically to the fast-denying or
sleek Puritan as derivable from chair bonne or bonne chair...
Shakespeare has clearly appropriated to his own purposes.
the old French proverb, 'Jeune chair et viel poisson'-
'young flesh and old fish (are the daintiest).' Hence, also,
the full meaning intended to be conveyed is not that some,
but that the best men, whatever their age or whatever may
be their own or their wives' religious opinions, all share
the common fate."
chare, or char, a turn or bout of work, a job or task-work,—
drudgery, Ant. iv. 15. 75; v. 2. 231.
char'd,—All's, All is done, dispatched, 2NK. iii. 2. 21.
charge, a weight, a burden: this charge of thoughts, Per. i. 2. 1.
(Globe: change); Patience, good sir, Even for this charge,
iii. 1. 27.
charge,—Answering us With our own, "Rewarding us with our
own expenses, making the cost of war its recompense
(JOHNSON) Cor. v. 6. 68.
I.
11
charge- Give them their, Ado, iii. 3. 7: “To charge his fellows
seems to have been a regular part of the duty of the con-
stable of the watch" (MALONE)
charge you-Not to, "Not with a purpose of putting you to
expense or being burdensome" (JOHNSON), M.W. ii. 2. 171.
charge-house, L.L L. v. 1. 87: Steevens supposes this to mean
a free-school; but it would rather seem to mean a common
school in distinction from a free one.
chariest, most cautious, most scrupulous, Hml. i. 3. 36.
chariness of our honesty-The, "The caution which ought to
attend on it [on our chastity]" (STEEVENS), M.W. ii. 1. 102.
Charity- By Saint, Hml. iv. 5. 59: "We read in the martyro-
logy on the first of August, -'Romæ passio sanctarum vir-
ginum, Fidei, Spei, et Charitatis, quæ sub Hadriano principe
martyriæ coronam adeptæ sunt.' Douglas's Criterion, p. 68.
cited by Ritson. (So, in The Faire Maide of Bristowe, 1605;
"Now by Saint Charity, if I were iudge,
A halter were the least should hamper him." Sig. D 3 verso.)
Charles' wain, 1H4. ii. 1. 2: The constellation Ursa Major;-
according to some, a corruption of Chorles or Churl's [i.e.
1
84
CHARM-CHASES.
rustic's] wain; according to others, the constellation was so
named in honour of Charlemagne.
charm her chattering tongue, Shr. iv. 2. 58; charm thy riotous
tongue, 2H6. iv. 1. 64; charm your tongue, 3H6. v. 5. 31;
Oth. v. 2. 183; charm my tongue, ib.: In this expression, as
Malone observes, charm means "compel to be silent, as if
by the power of enchantment."
charm'd-1, in mine own woe, Cymb. v. 3. 68:
"
'Alluding to
the common superstition of charms being powerful enough
to keep men unhurt in battle" (WARBURTON).
charmer, one who works by charms or spells: She was a charmer
(an enchantress), Oth. iii. 4. 57; heavenly charmers ("en-
chanters, ruling us at their will," SEWARD,-the gods), 2N.K.
V. 4. 131.
charming, having the power of fascination: And faster bound
to Aaron's charming eyes, Tit. ii. 1. 16; more charming With
their own nobleness, Cymb. v. 3. 32.
charming words-Betwixt two, Cymb. i. 3. 35: "Here more
recently charming has been explained "magical, enchant-
ing:" but qy.? [Schmidt here expl. working with magic
power].
charms, love-charms: I think you have charms, M.W. ii. 2 107.
charneco, 2H6. ii. 3. 63: "Shakespeare and other dramatic
writers mention a wine called Charneco, which, in a pam-
phlet quoted by Warburton, is enumerated along with Sherry-
sack and Malaga (The Discovery of a London Monster, called
the Black Dog of Newgate, 1612). According to Mr. Steevens,
the appellation is derived from a village near Lisbon. There
are, in fact, two villages in that neighbourhood, which take
the name of Charneca; the one situated about a league and
a half above the town of Lisbon, the other near the coast,
between Collares and Carcavellos. We shall therefore,
probably not err much, if we refer the wine in question to
the last-mentioned territory." Henderson's History of An-
cient and Modern Wines, p. 306.
charract, the folio spelling (common in Eliz. writers) of carat,
2H4. iv. 5. 162.
chase, an object of chase: This is the chase ("the animal
pursued," JOHNSON), W.T. iii. 3. 57; seek thee out some other
chase, 2H6. v. 2. 14; single out some other chase, 3H6. ii. 4. 12.
chase-By this kind of, "By this way of following the argu-
ment" (JOHNSON), A.Y.L. i. 3. 33.
chases-That all the courts of France will be disturb'd With,
H5. i. 2. 266: We find in the Promptorium Parvulorum
"Chace of tenys pley, or othyr lyke. Sistencia, obstaculum,
obiculum (fuga, P.)," p. 68, ed. Way: Mr. Halliwell cites
the following dialogue of players at tennis from The Marrow
of the French Tongue, 1625; "Play then, and give me a
CHASES.
85
good ball.-Sir, doth it please you that this be play?-As
it shall please you, I doe not care.-Goe to; play, sir--A
losse; I haue fifteene.-Patience; play.-Say, boy, marke
that chase. - Sir, behold it marked, and it is a great one.
Sir, you will lose it.-Demand it of the standers by.-
Fifteenes all. I have thirty, and a chase.-My masters, is
the ball above or under the roape?-Sir, methinkes it is
under more then a spanne.-I have thirty for fifteene.—
And I, I have two chases.-Sir, the last is no chase, but a
losse.-Sir, how is it a losse?-Because you did strike it at
the second bound." p. 192: R. Holme gives, among the
"terms" at tennis; "Chase, is to miss the second striking
of the Ball back;" and, among the "laws
and, among the "laws" of the game,
he informs us, "6. You must observe that there is no
changing sides without two Chases or Forty one Chase, and
then they may change sides, and the other serves upon the
Pent-house beyond the Blew, and then the other is bound
to play the Ball over the Line, between the Chase and the
end Wall; and if the other side misses to return the Ball,
he loses 15." Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. iii. p. 265;
In Dict. de la Lang. Fr. par Laveaux is Chasse. Au jeu
de paume, se dit de la distance qu'il y a entre le mur de
côté où l'on sert, et l'endroit où tombe la balle du second
bond. Cette distance se mesure par les carreaux. Quand
la chasse est petite, on dit, une chasse a deux, à trois car-
reaux et demi. Marquer les chasses. Grande chasse. Il y a
chasse. Gagner la chasse. Chasse au pied de la muraille,
ou simplement, chasse au pied, chasse morte.' According to
Douce, "A chace at tennis is that spot where a ball falls,
beyond which the adversary must strike his ball to gain a
point or chace. At long tennis it is the spot where the
ball leaves off rolling. We see therefore why the king has
called himself a wrangler" (DOUCE): On the passage in
Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, C. xix. st. 84,
((
'Quanto nel giuoco de le caccie un muro
Si muova a colpi de la palle grosse,"
Mr. Panizzi merely quotes the observation of Molini, “ Caccia
è termine del giuoco della palla, del pallone, del calcio,
&c.;" and Rose on his translation of the passage only
remarks, "Chaces is in tennis somewhat of an equivalent
to hazards at billiards." An anonymous dramatist writes;
"Ric. Reueng'd! and why, good childe?
Olde Faukenbridge hath had a worser basting.
Fa. I, they haue banded [me] from chase to chase;
I have been their tennis ball since I did coort."
A Pleasant Commodie called Looke about you, 1600, sig. K 2 verso
86
CHATHAM—CHEER.
Chatham-The clerk of, 2H6. iv. 2. 92: “A nonentity in history"
(DOUCE).
chats him-While she, While she keeps talking of him (?),
Cor. ii. 1. 224.
chaudron, part of the entrails of an animal (“a word formerly
in common use in the books of cookery," STEEVENS; “A
Calves chauldron, Echinus vituli." Coles's Lat. and Engl.
Dict.), Mcb. iv. 1. 33.
che vor ye, “I warn you" (JOHNSON), Lr. iv. 6. 246 (Somerset-
shire dialect).
cheap-Good: see good cheap.
cheater-A tame, 2H4. ii. 4. 106: The context, I think, shows
that when Falstaff applies to Pistol these words (cheater
properly signifying "one who plays with false dice"), he
means no more than "a poor spiritless or harmless rascal."
(Here Steevens quotes the following passage from Mihil
Mumchance, &c. (a tract which has been inconsiderately
attributed to Greene); "They [those who played with false
dice] call their art by a new-found name, as cheating, them-
selves cheators, and the dice cheters, borrowing the term
from among our lawyers, with whom all such casuals as
fall to the lord at the holding of his leets, as waifes, straies,
and such like, be called chetes, and are accustomably said
to be escheted to the lord's use: Steevens also cites from
Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn, act iv. sc. 2,
"and will be drawn into the net by this decoy-duck, this
tame cheater,"-where tame cheater is evidently a cant
phrase).
cheater, an escheator ("an officer appointed by the Lord
Treasurer, who observed the Escheats due to the King in
the County whereof he was Escheator, and certified them
unto the Chancery or Exchequer," üc. Cowell's Law Dict.
ed. 1727): I will be cheater to them both (with a quibble),
M.W. i. 3. 77; I will bar no honest man my house, nor no
cheater (where the Hostess misunderstands cheater as used
by Falstaff), 2H4. ii. 4. III.
check, a term in falconry, applied to a hawk when she forsakes
her proper game, and follows some other of inferior kind
that crosses her in her flight: check at every feather, 12N.
iii. 1. 71; the staniel checks at it, ii. 5. 125.
check, a reproof, a rebuke: nobler than attending for a check,
Cymb. iii. 3. 22.
checks,—to devote to Aristotle's, Shr. i. 1. 32. So Fol. and Globe;
in the sense of "moral discipline." Dyce reads ethics, old
spelling ethicks, probably enough.
cheer, countenance, aspect: pale of cheer, M.N.D. iii. 2. 96;
that look'd with cheer, v. i. 299; show a merry cheer, M.V.
iii. 2. 314; your cheer appall'd, 1H6. i. 2. 48; this change of
CHERRY-PIT— CHILD.
87
cheer, Tit. i. 1. 264; she smiled with so sweet a cheer, Lucr.
264; heavy cheers, 2N.K. i. 5. 4. See Anchor.
cherry-pit, a game, the pitching of cherry-stones into a small
hole, 12N. iii. 4. 129.
cherubin, a cherub (Fr. and Span. eherubin), Tp. i. 2. 152;
Tim. iv. 3. 63; Oth. iv. 2. 63; cherubins, M.V. v. 1. 62; H8.
i. 1. 23; Troil. iii. 2. 74; Cymb. ii. 4. 88. (This form,
common enough in our early writers, is used even by
Dryden.) [Plural cherubim, Mcb. i. 7. 22.]
cheveril, kid-leather, soft, and easily stretched ("Cheuerell
lether. Cuir de chevreul." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.):
a cheveril glove, 12N. iii. 1. 13; cheveril conscience, H8. ii. 3.
32; a wit of cheveril, Rom. ii. 4. 87.
chew upon this, "consider this at leisure, ruminate on this"
(JOHNSON), J.C. i. 2. 171.
chewet, 1H4. v. 1. 29: “A chewet or chuet is a noisy chatter-
ing bird, a pie. This carries a proper reproach to Falstaff
for his meddling and impertinent jest " (THEOBALD): “Chou-
ëtte: An Owlet; or, the little Horne-Owle (a theeuish night-
bird); also, a Chough, Cadesse, Daw, Iack-Daw." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.,-the latter part of which article makes
it very probable that Shakespeare used the word in the
sense of "chough" or "jack-daw," though modern French
Dictionaries do not, I believe, assign any such meaning to
chouette (see, for instance, Laveaux's Dict.): according to
other critics, chewet signifies here a sort of small pie or
pudding, made of minced meat, and fried in oil: "Gou-
belet . a kind of little round pie resembling our Chuet."
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict. ["Choughs language, gabble
enough, and good enough," A.W. iv. I 22, confirms the
first explanation somewhat.]
chide, to sound, to resound, to echo: Shall chide your trespass
(chide being used here partly in the sense of "rebuke"),
H5. ii. 4. 125; the chiding flood, H8. iii. 2. 197; Retorts to
chiding, ("noisy, clamorous," STEEVENS) fortune, Troil. i. 3.
54; The chiding billow, Oth .ii. 1. 6 [Fol. and Globe chidden];
as chiding a nativity (ie. "as noisy a one," STEEVENS),
Per. iii. 1. 32.
chide with, to quarrel: And he does chide with you, Oth. iv. 2.
167; do you with Fortune chide, Sonn. III.
chiding, noise, sound (cry of hounds): Such gallant chiding,
M.N.D. iv. I. 120.
child-A boy or a, W.T. iii. 3. 71: Mr. Grant White substitutes
"god" for "boy"; but "child" here means a female infant.
child o' the time-Be a, “do as others do" (STAUNTON), Ant ii. 7.
106 (= “accommodate yourself to circumstances.” SCHMIDT).
child Rowland, Lr. iii. 4. 187: "This term [child] in O.E.,
denoted a youth, especially one of high birth, before he
88
CHILD'S FATHER-CHOPINE.
11
was advanced to the honour of knighthood." Jamieson's
Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language: In romances and
ballads it frequently is equivalent to "knight."
child's father,-For my, A.Y.L. i. 3. II; so the Folio. Dyce
following Rowe, (sec. ed.), Coleridge and others, reads for
my father's child; i.e. for herself; but child's father probably
means the father or begetter of my careful thought."
Dreams are "the children of an idle brain," Rom. i. 4. 97.
These burs are in my heart, Rosalind says.
child-changed father-This, Lr. iv. 7. 17: "That is, changed
"
""
by his children; a father, whose jarring senses have been
untuned by the monstrous ingratitude of his daughters'
(MALONE): "i.e. changed to a child by his years and wrongs;
or perhaps reduced to this condition by his children"
(STEEVENS).
childing autumn, teeming, fruitful autumn, M.N.D. ii. 1. 112.
children shall have no names-My. My children will be ille-
gitimate, Ant. i. 2. 35.
chill, I will (Somersetshire dialect): chill be plain with you,
Lr. iv. 6. 248; 250.
choice breeds a native slip to us from foreign seeds, A.W. i. 3.
151. Looking to the general sense of the passage, and the
fact that n was often merely indicated by a stroke above
a vowel, I conjecture that possibly Shakespeare wrote
chace here, i.e. chance, which the printer misread choice. The
a and oi were almost indistinguishable as usually written.
It is well known to gardeners that chance plants of other
species often come up among seeds, and that occasionally
very fine specimens of plants are thus accidentally obtained.
This obviates the tautology in the passage as it stands. L.
choler-It [i.e. the meat "burnt and dried away"] engenders,
Shr. iv. 1. 175: Lest it make you choleric, Err. ii. 2. 63:
Our ancestors fancied that overroasted or dried-up meat
induced choler.
choler, my lord. if rightly taken. . . . No, if rightly taken, halter,
1H4. ii. 4. 356: "The reader who would enter into the
spirit of this repartee, must recollect the similarity of sound
between collar and choler" (Steevens). Rom. i. 1. 4.
chopine, Hml. ii. 2. 447: An enormously high clog, which
was worn by the ladies of Spain, Italy, &c. (In Connelly's
Span. and Engl. Dict. Madrid, 4to, I find "Chapin..
A sort of patten with a cork sole," &c.; but none of the
Italian Dictionaries in my possession contain the word
"cioppino," which, according to Boswell, is in Veneroni's
Dict.). The following account of chopines, or, as he calls
them, chapineys, is given by Coryat: "There is one thing
used of the Venetian women, and some others dwelling in the
cities and towns subject to the Signiory of Venice, that is not
CHOPPING-CHOUGH.
89
to be obserued (I thinke) amongst any other women in
Christendome: which is so common in Venice, that no
woman whatsoeuer goeth without it, either in her house or
abroad; a thing made of wood, and couered with leather
of sundry colors, some with white, some redde, some yellow.
It is called a Chapiney, which they weare vnder their shoes.
Many of them are curiously painted; some also I haue
seene fairely gilt: so vncomely a thing (in my opinion)
that it is pitty this foolish custom is not cleane banished
and exterminated out of the citie. There are many of the
Chapineys of a great heigth, euen half a yard high, which
maketh many of their women that are very short seeme
much taller than the tallest women we haue in England. Also
I haue heard that this is obserued amongst them, that by
how much the nobler a woman is, by so much the higher
are her Chapineys. All their gentlewomen, and most of
their wiues and widowes that are of any wealth, are assisted
and supported eyther by men or women when they walke
abroad, to the end they may not fall. They are borne vp
most commenly by the left arme, otherwise they might
quickly take a fall. For I saw a woman fall a very
dangerous fall, as she was going down the staires of one
of the little stony bridges with her high Chapineys alone by
herselfe: but I did nothing pitty her, because shee wore
such friuolous and (as I may truely terme them) ridiculous
instruments, which were the occasion of her fall. For both
I myselfe, and many other strangers (as I haue obserued
in Venice) haue often laughed at them for their vaine
Chapineys." Crudities, &c. (reprinted from ed. 1611), vol.
ii. p. 36: "The choppine or some kind of high shoe was
occasionally used in England. Bulwer in his Artificial
Changeling, p. 550, complains of this fashion as a monstrous
affectation, and says that his countrywomen therein imitated
the Venetian and Persian ladies," &c. (Douce).
chopping French-The R2. v. 3. 124: Chopping means chang-
ing; . . . in this sense the Duchess of York may apply the
word to the French expression of Pardonnez moi, which
gives a directly opposite meaning to the English word
pardon, in the way she wishes the king to speak it” (PvE):
"The Duchess calls the language 'the chopping French' on
account of the convertibility of such terms as pardonnez moi,
which, apparently consenting, mean the very reverse
(COLLIER).
("
choris, chorus (for the sake of a rhyme), 2N.K. iii. 5. 107.
chough, Tp. ii. 1. 266; Hml. v. 2. 89; choughs, M.N.D. iii. 2. 21;
A.W. iv. i. 22; W.T. iv. 4. 630; Mcb. iii. 4. 125; Lr. iv. 6. 13.
Yarrell, Brit. Birds, ii. 253. 3rd. ed. notes: "The word
Chough was doubtless to some extent interchangeable with
90
CHRISTENDOM-CHUCK.
Daw in Shakespear's time. as it is at this day, even in
Cornwall, according to information received by the Editor
[Prof. A. Newton] from Mr. D. Stephens, of Trevornan.
But that the poet was acquainted with the present species
[Fregilus graculus] is proved by the epithet "russet-pated"
applied to it by him in another place (Mids. Night's Dream,
Act. iii. Sc. 2). The meaning of this epithet has given rise
to much ingenious discussion, but the late Mr. E. T. Bennett,
in 1835, doubtless supplied its true explanation, when he
suggested (Zool. Journ. v. p. 456) that the correct reading is
russet-patted," i.e. "red-footed" (patte being a known
equivalent of foot), and this view has been adopted by
Mr. Aldis Wright in his recent edition of the play (Clar.
Press Ser. pp. 30. 112." [Mr. Verity, however, n. on L'allegro
71, points out the russet must have freq. meant gray [colour
of home-spun]; and therefore 'russet-pated choughs' may
mean gray-headed jackdaws. Certainly the Cornish chough's
feet are not russet colour, but a bright red, and russet
undoubtedly means gray in many passages.]
((
christendom, christianity: By my christendom, K.J. iv. 1. 16.
christendoms, That blinking Cupid gossips--A world Of pretty,
fond-adoptious, "A number of pretty, fond, adopted appel-
lations, or Christian names, to which blind Cupid stands
godfather" (Nares's Gloss.), A.W. i. 1. 188.
christom child, H5. ii. 3. 12: the Hostess means chrisom child:
On the line in The Doubtful Heir,
"You shall be as secure as chrisom children,"
Gifford remarks, "Johnson says chrisom children are those
that die within the month. It may be so; but our old
writers apply the expression to a child just cristened."
Shirley's Works. vol. iv. p. 298: Nares (in his Gloss.) quotes
what follows from Blount's Glossography: "Chrisome (a xpíw
[to anoint-with the holy oil formerly used in baptism])
signifies properly the white cloth which is set by the minister
of baptism upon the head of a child newly anointed with
chrism after his baptism: now it is vulgarly taken for the
white cloth put about or upon a child newly chistened, in
token of his baptism; wherewith the women use to shroud
the child, if dying within the month; otherwise it is usually
brought to church at the day of purification. Chrisoms, in
the bills of mortality, are such children as die within the
month of birth, because during that time they use to wear the
chrisom-cloth." (In the first edition of Blount's work, 1656,
I do not find the concluding sentence of the above quotation.)
chuck, a chicken,-a term of endearment. L.L.L. V. I. 117;
v. 2. 667; 12N. iii. 4. 126; H5. iii. 2. 26; Mcb. iii. 2. 45;
Oth. iii. 4. 49; iv. 2. 24; Ant. iv. 4. 2.
CHUFFS-CIRCUIT.
91
chuffs-Fat, 1H4. ii. 2.
sense, and means a
(6
94: Chuff is always used in a bad
coarse unmannered clown, at once
sordid and wealthy." Gifford's note on Massinger's Works,
vol. i. p. 281, ed. 1813. (In A Gorgious Gallery of Gallant
Inventions. &c., 1578, we have
"The wealthy chuffe, for all his wealth,
Cannot redeeme therby his health," &c. p. 150, reprint.
and in Marlowe's Ovid's Elegies,
<<
Book iii. 7.
Chuff-like, had I not gold, and could not use it?"
(where the original has "dives avarus"),—Works, p. 443,
ed. Dyce, 1858).
churchway paths, M.N.D. v. 1. 389: said by Prof. Hales
(Longer English Poems, p. 333) to be equivalent to church-
hay, or church-enclosure, churchyard. Elegy, 1. 114: "slow
thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.” [Doubtful.]
cicatrice, a mark: The cicatrice and capable impressure,
A.Y.L. iii. 5. 23.
Cicester, Cirencester, R2. v. 6. 3.
cide, to decide, Sonn. 46.
cinders of the element-The. 2H4. iv. 3. 58: "A ludicrous term
for the stars” (Steevens).
cinque pace, a dance, the steps of which were regulated by
the number five, Ado, ii. 1. 77; 12N. i. 3. 139 [Globe: sink-
a-pace]: Nares in his Gloss. confounds it with the galliard.
Circe's cup-I think you all have drunk of, Err. v. 1. 270:" The Duke
means to say, I think you all are out of your senses; so below,
'I think you are all mated or stark mad.'
Circe's potion, however, though it transformed the com-
panions of Ulysses into swine, and deprived them of speech,
did not, it should seem, deprive them of their reason; for
Homer tells us that they lamented their transformation.
However, the Duke's words are sufficiently intelligible, if
we consider them as meaning-Methinks you all are become
as irrational as beasts" (MALONE): But Malone forgets Virgil;
who evidently meant us to understand that those whom
Circe had transformed were "deprived of reason;
"Hinc exaudiri gemitus iræque leonum,
Vincla recusantum, et sera sub nocte rudentum;
Setigerique sues, atque in præsepibus ursi
Sævire, ac formæ magnorum ululare luporum." Æn. vii. 15.
Compare also Greene's Neuer too late; "Resembling those
Grecians, that, with Vlysses, drinking of Circes drugges,
lost both forme and memorie.” Sig. G 4 verso, ed. 1611.
circle, a diadem: The circle of my glory, K.J. v. 1. 2; The circle
of the Ptolemies, Ant. iii. 12. 18.
circuit, a circle, a diadem: the golden circuit on my head, 2H6.
iii. 1. 352.
92
CIRCUMMUR'D-CLAMOUR.
circummur'd, walled round, M.M. iv. 1. 28.
circumstance, detail: it must, with circumstance (“with the
addition of such incidental particulars as may induce be-
lief,” JOHNSON) be spoken, 2G. iii. 2. 36; With circumstance
and oaths, Err. v. 1. 16; To wind about my love with cir-
cumstance, M.V. i. 1. 154; Cuts off more circumstance, K.J.
ii. 1. 77 By circumstance, but to acquit myself, R3. i. 2. 77,
80; who, in his circumstance ("in the detail or circumduction
of his argument," JOHNSON), Troil. iii. 3. 114; without more
circumstance at all, Hml. i. 5. 127; a bombast circumstance,
Oth. i. 1. 13; not essentially, but by circumstance, 2H6. v. 2.
39: (accident).
circumstance, I fear you'll prove-So, by your, 2G. i. 1. 36:
Circumstance is used equivocally. It here means conduct;
in the preceding line circumstantial deduction" (MALONE).
circumstanc'd—I must be, I must submit to circumstance,
Oth. iii. 4. 201.
cital, a recital, an account, 1H4. v. 2. 62 (explained by Pope
"taxation;" Schmidt, "mention ").
cite, to incite, to urge: I need not cite him to it, 2G. ii. 4. 85;
cited so by them, 2H6. iii. 2. 281; it cites us, brother, to the
field, 3H6. ii. 1. 34.
citizen-How Edward put to death a, R3. iii. v. 76: “The
person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer
at the Crown in Cheapside. Echard's History of England,
vol. i. p. 519" (GREY).
citizen, “having the qualities of a citizen" (Johnson's Dict.),
"townbred, delicate" (Nares's Gloss.): But not so citizen a
wanton, Cymb. iv. 2. 8.
cittern-head—A, L.L.L. v. 2. 614: An allusion to the grotesque
carved heads with which citterns were usually ornamented.
civil, sober, grave, decent, solemn: sad and civil, 12N. iii. 4. 5
(where civil has been explained "tart, sour, bitter,"-very
erroneously); by a civil peace maintain'd, 2H4. iv. 1. 42;
civil citizens, H5. i. 2. 199; civil night, Rom. iii. 2. 10; Mon-
tano, you were wont be civil, Oth. ii. 3. 190; my sober guards
and civil fears, Compl. 298.
civil, count,- civil as an orange, Ado, ii. 1. 304: A "civil (not a
Seville) orange" was the usual orthography of the time:
“Aigre-douce, A ciuile Orange." "A ciuill Orange .
Aigre-douce." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
civil and uncivil arms, R2. iii. 3. 102: intestinal and turbulent
attack.
clack-dish, M.M. iii. 2. 135: or clap-dish, a wooden dish, or
box, carried by beggars: it had a movable cover, which
they clacked to attract notice; and in it they received the
alms. [Equivocally spoken.]
clamour your tongues, W.T. iv. 4. 250. The attempts to explain
CLAP-CLEAR.
93
this by referring it to bell-ringing (vide notes in the Var.
Shakespeare and Nares's Gloss. in v.) ought, I think, to
have ceased long ago. Gifford, and some editors, call this
"an evident misprint" for Charm [i.e. silence] your tongues.
But Mr. Hunter (New Illust. Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 424)
observes that the same phrase occurs in Taylor the Water-
poet's Sir Gregory Nonsense:
"He thus began; Cease friendly cutting throats,
Clamour the promulgation of your tongues." &c.
""
And Mr. Arrowsmith (Notes and Queries, vol. vii. p. 567.
First Series) explains "clamour" to mean curb, restrain,"
considering it as equivalent to "chaumbre or chammer” (Fr.
chommer), and cites the following passages from Udall's
translation of the Apophthegmis of Erasmus, 1542; "For
Critias menaced and threatened him, that one lesse he
chaumbreed his tongue in season" &c.
" &c. The First Booke,
p. 10.
"From no sorte of menne in the worlde did he
refrain or chaumbre the tauntynge of his tongue.". Id. p. 76.
Dyce, iii. 470. [Schmidt adds: "it ought after all to be
taken into account that it is the clown who speaks. If not
a misprint . . . it may be a misapplication of the word for
'charm.'" The New English Dictionary sv. clamour gives
"to stop from noise, to silence" and quotes Warburton,
"when bells are at the height, in order to cease them, the
repetition of the strokes becomes much quicker than be-
fore; this is called clamouring them," which "is immediately
followed by silence."]
clap thyself my love, W.T. i. 2. 104: "She opened her hand,
to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they
confirm a bargain" (STEEVENS): It was common to plight
mutual troth by clapping the hands together: see close your
hands, &c.
clapped i the clout, 2H4. iii. 2. 51: see clout.
claw, to flatter: claw no man in his humour, Ado, i. 3. 18; claws
him with a talent, L.L.L. iv. 2. 65. [Compare Doni's Morall
Philos. by North, 1601, p. 276: "There are such like masters
that claw thee with one hand, that is, they give thee fayre
words," which illustr. 2H4. ii. 4. 282 also.]
clean, quite, entirely: clean through the bounds of Asia, Err. i.
I. 1. 34; disfigured clean, R2. iii. 1. 10; clean past your youth,
2H4. i. 2. 110; renouncing clean the faith, H8. i. 3. 29; This
is clean kam (see kam), Cor. iii. 1. 304; Clean from the pur-
pose of the things themselves, J.C. i. 3. 35; clean starvèd, Sonn. 75-
cleanly, dexterously, cleverly: And borne her cleanly by the
keeper's nose, Tit. ii. 1. 94; cleanly-coin'd excuses, Lucr. 1073.
clear, pure, innocent, free from evil: a clear life ensuing, Tp.
iii. 3. 82; you clear heavens (“may mean either ye cloudless
94
CLEAR-STORIES—CLIP.
skies or ye deities exempt from guilt," STEEVENS), Tim. iv. 3.
27; in that clear way thou goest, Per. iv. 6. 113; for the sake
of clear virginity, 2N.K. i. 1. 31; In his clear bed might have
reposed still, Lucr. 382; the clearest gods, Lr. iv. 6. 73.
clear-stories, 12N. iv. 2. 41 [conjectural for Fol., cleer stores,
Globe clearstores]: A clear-story is a term in Gothic archi-
tecture, for an upper story or row of windows in a church,
hall, &c., and rising clear above the adjoining parts of the
building: "This term seems to have been used in a variety
of ways for any method of admitting light into the upper
parts of a building. It appears from Holme that clearstory
windows are those which have 'no transum or cross piece
in the middle of them, to break the same into two lights,'
the meaning employed by Shakespeare," &c. (HALLIWELL.)
clearness-Always thought That I require a, “¿.e. you must
manage matters so, that throughout the whole transaction I
may stand clear of suspicion" (STEEVENS), Mcb. iii. 1. 133.
cleave to, to unite with closely: Thy thoughts I cleave to, Tp.
iv. 1. 165; cleave to no revenge but Lucius, Tit. v. 2. 136; cleave
not to their mould, Mcb. i. 3. 145; If you shall cleave to my
consent, Mcb. ii. 1. 25 (a very obscure passage).
cleft, the root, cleft the root of her heart (an allusion to cleaving
the pin,-see pin and clout.-the metaphor from archery with
which the speech begins being continued here), 2G. v. 4. 103.
clepe, to call, Hml. i. 4. 19; clepes, Ven. 995; clepeth, L.L.L. v.
1. 24; clept, Mcb. iii. 1. 94.
clerkly, scholar-like, 2H6. iii. 1. 179; M.W. iv. 5. 58 (learned);
2G. ii. 1. 114 (with fine penmanship).
cliff, a key in music (used equivocally): if he can take her cliff,
Troil. v. 2. II.
climatures, fellow-countrymen: Hml. i. 1. 125. (CRAIG.)
cling thee-Till famine, Mcb. v. 5. 40: Here cling is generally
explained "shrink or shrivel:" but it means,
but it means, I suspect,
"make the entrails stick together;" compare Donne,
<
As to a stomack sterv'd, whose insides meete," &c.
The Storme,-Poems, p. 57, ed. 1633.
[cf. Sir Ferumbras, 82/2524, E.E.T.S.]
clinquant, glittering, shining, H8. i. 1. 19.
clip, to embrace: Clip dead men's graves, 2H6. iv. 1. 6; let me
clip ye In arms, Cor. i. 6. 29; here I clip The anvil of my
sword, iv. 5. 115; You elements that clip us round about, Oth.
iii. 3. 464; clip your wives, Ant. iv. 8. 8; No grave upon the
earth shall clip in it, v. 2. 362; To clip Elysium, Ven. 600;
clip me, P. Pilg. 156; clipp'd in with the sea, 1H4. iii. 1.
44; clipp'd his body, Cymb. ii. 3. 139; clipp'd about, v. 5. 451;
she clipp'd Adonis, P. Pilg. 148; clippeth thee about, K.J. v.
2. 34; clipping her, W.T. v. 2. 59.
CLOISTER-CLOUT.
95
cloister, --He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister, A.W. iv.
3. 280. No doubt, (as Prof. Dowden suggests in epist.), we
should read clyster for cloister.
cloister'd, flight, Mcb. iii. 2. 41: "The bats wheeling round the
dim cloisters of Queen's College, Cambridge, have frequently
impressed on me the singular propriety of this original
epithet" (STEEVENS).
close, secret: a close exploit (act) of death, R3. iv. 2. 35; close
delations, Oth. iii. 3. 123.
close, secretly, by stealth: Being close convey'd, Shr. Ind. 1. 127.
close as oak: see oak, &c.
close your hands-Young princes, K.J. ii. 1. 533: see clap thyself
my love.
close with, and close in with, "to come to an agreement with,
to comply with, to unite with" (Johnson's Dict.), to fall in
with: make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close
with us? 2H4. ii. 4. 354; to close In terms of friendship with
thine enemies, J.C. iii. 1. 202; He closes with you in this
consequence, Hml. ii. 1. 45; He closes thus, 55; This closing
with him fits his lunacy, Tit. v. 2. 70.
closely, secretly, privately: go closely in with me, K.J. iv. 1. 133;
to keep her closely at my cell, Rom. v. 3. 255; we have closely
sent for Hamlet hither, Hml. iii. 1. 29.
closeness, recluseness, privacy, Tp. i. 2. 90.
closure an enclosure: the guilty closure of thy walls, R3. iii.
II
3. 11; the quiet closure of my breast. Ven. 782; the gentle
closure of my breast, Sonn. 48.
closure, a conclusion, and end: a mutual closure of our house,
Tit. v. 3. 134.
clothier's yard, an arrow the length of a clothier's yard, Lr.
iv. 6. 88. (Arrows "a cloth-yard long" are frequently mention-
ed in our early writers).
cloud in's face-He has a, Ant. iii. 2. 51: Said of a horse “when
he has a black or dark-coloured spot in his forehead between
his eyes. This gives him a sour look, and being supposed
to indicate an ill-temper is, of course, regarded as a great
blemish" (STeevens).
clouded, stained, defamed: My sovereign mistress clouded so,
W.T. i. 2. 280.
clout, the nail or pin of the target: he'll ne'er hit the clout, L.L.L.
iv. 1. 136; 'a would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score
(he would have hit the clout at twelve score yards), 2H4.
iii. 2. 51; i' the clout, 'i the clout, Lr. iv. 6. 92: “ Clout," says
Gifford, "is merely the French clou, the wooden pin by
which the target is fastened to the butt. As the head of
this pin was commonly painted white, to hit the white, and
hit the clout, were, of course, synonymous: both phrases
expressed perfection in art, or success of any kind." Note
96
CLOUTED—COCK.
on Jonson's Works, vol. v. p. 309: It is not safe to differ
from Gifford, who may have had some authority for the
above statement concerning the clout or pin: from the pas-
sages, however, which I happen to recollect in our early
writers I should say, that the clout or pin stood in the centre
of the inner circle of the butts,-which circle, being painted
white, was called the white" was a considerable feat, but
that to "hit or cleave the clout or pin" was a much greater
one, though, no doubt, the two expressions were occasio-
nally used to signify the same thing, viz. to "hit the mark."
clouted: see brogues &c.
cloy, to claw, to stroke with a claw: cloys his beak, Cymb. v. 4. 118.
clubs cannot part them, A.Y.L. v. 2. 44; I'll call for clubs, if
you will not away, 1H6. i. 3. 84; Clubs, clubs! these lovers
will not keep the peace, Tit. ii. 1. 37; I missed the meteor once, and
hit that woman, who cried out “Clubs!" when I might see
from far some forty truncheoners draw to her succour, which
were the hope o' the Strand, where she was quartered, &c.,
H8. v. 4. 53; Clubs, bills, and partisans! Rom. i. 1. 80: “It
appears, from many of our old dramas, that, in our author's
time, it was a common custom, on the breaking out of a
fṛay, to call out 'Clubs-clubs,' to part the combatants"
(MALONE): "Clubs" was originally the popular cry to call
forth the London apprentices, who employed their clubs
for the preservation of the public peace: sometimes, however,
they used those weapons to raise a disturbance, as they are
described doing in the last but one of the passages above
cited.
clutch, to contract, to clasp close: to clutch my hand, K.J. ii.
1. 589; extracting it clutched, M.M. iii. 2. 49.
coach-fellow, a horse that draws in the same carriage with
another,— an associate, M.W. ii. 2. 7.
coals-Carry: see carry coals.
coasteth to the cry - She, She advanceth to the cry, Ven. 870.
Coasting, Err. i. 1. 135; Troil. iv. 5. 59 (¿.e. those who make
the first step to meet the hesitating approach of a suitor.
Schmidt) [Globe: accosting].
•
coasts and hedges his own way, cautiously feels his way and
safeguards himself, H8. iii. 2. 38.
coat, a coat of arms: an eye-sore in my golden coat, Lucr. 205;
spirits of richest coat, Compl. 236. See luces.
coat is of proof-His: see second proof.
cobloaf, Troil. ii. 1. 41: a crusty uneven loaf, with a round
top to it [A disputed passage. See Dyce, vi. 35].
cock, a weather-cock: drown'd the cocks! Lr. iii. 2. 3.
cock, a cock-boat: Diminish'd to her cock, her cock, a buoy,
Lr. iv. 6. 19.
:
cock, a corruption of, or euphemism for God: Cocks passion,
COCK-COCKLE.
97
Shr. iv. 1. 120; By cock, Hml. iv. 5. 62. (This irreverent
alteration of the sacred name was formerly very common:
it occurs at least a dozen times in Heywood's Edward the
Fourth, where one passage is
"Herald. Sweare on this booke, King Lewis, so help you God,
You meane no otherwise then you haue said.
King Lewis. So helpe me Cock as I dissemble not."
Part ii. sig. N, ed. 1619.)
cock-A wasteful, Tim. ii. 2. 171; [“The eyes shedding tears
being themselves the wasteful cock." SCHMIDT.]
cock and pie-By, M.W. i. 1. 316; 2H4. v. i. 1: A not un-
common oath, of uncertain derivation: cock has been
understood to be the corruption of God (see above), and
pie to mean the service-book [pica] of the Romish Church;
which seems much more probable than Douce's supposi-
tion that this oath was connected with the making of solemn
vows by knights in the days of chivalry during entertain-
ments at which a roasted peacock was served up.
cock-a-hoop!— You will set, Rom. i. 5. 83: Ray gives "To set
cock on hoop," and remarks, "This is spoken of a Prodigal,
one that takes out the spigget, and lays it upon the top
[or hoop] of the barrel, drawing out the whole vessel with-
out any intermission." Proverbs, p. 183, ed. 1768: Gifford
(Note on Jonson's Works, vol. vi. p. 226) describes it as
"a phrase denoting the excess of mirth and jollity;" and
suspects that it had a more dignified origin" than that
just quoted from Ray: But it also was applied, as in our
text, to insolence of language or bearing; and accordingly
Coles (who seems to refer it to the bird cock) has "To be
Cock-a-hoop, Ampullari insolesco, cristas erigere." Lat. and
Engl. Dict.
cockatrice, an imaginary creature (called also basilisk), sup
posed to kill by its very look, 12N. iii. 4. 215; R3. iv. 1.
55; Rom. iii. 2. 47; Lucr. 540.
cockerel, a young cock, Tp. ii. 1. 31; Rom. i. 3. 53.
cockle-Sow'd, L.L.L. iv. 3. 383: The cockle of rebellion, Cor.
iii. 1. 70: Nares says that Shakespeare means "the Agros-
temma githago of Linnæus, a weed often troublesome in
corn-fields" (Gloss.); Mr. Beisly that he means "the Lolium
temulentum, in his time called darnel, as well as cockle and
cockle-weed" (Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 130).
cockle hat, Hml. iv. 5. 25: The cockle-shell worn usually in the
front of the hat was the badge of a pilgrim: "for the chief
places of devotion being beyond sea, or on the coasts, the
pilgrims were accustomed to put cockle-shells upon their
hats, to denote the intention or performance of their
devotion" (WARBURTON).
7
98
COCKLED-CODLING.
cockled, inshelled, enclosed in a shell, L.L.L. iv. 3. 338.
cockles, cockle-shells, Per. iv. 4. 2.
cock light, twilight, 2N.K. iv. 1. 112: see cock-shut time.
cockney-This great lubber, the world, will prove a, 12N. iv.
1. 15; as the cockney did to the eels, Lr. ii. 4. 123: “There
is hardly a doubt that it [the term cockney] originates in an
Utopian region of indolence and luxury, formerly denomi-
nated the country of cocaigne. . . With us the lines cited
by Camden in his Britannia, vol. i. col. 451,
Were I in my castle of Bungey
Upon the river of Waveney,
I would ne care for the king of Cockeney','
whencesoever they come, indicate that London was formerly
known by this satirical name; and hence a Londoner came
to be called a cockney" (DOUCE): The term cocknay appears
in the Promptorium to imply simply a child spoiled by too
much indulgence. . . . There can be little doubt that the
word is to be traced to the imaginary region ‘ihote Cok-
agyne,' described in the curious poem given by Hickes,
Gramm. A. Sax. p. 231, and apparently translated from the
French. Compare 'le Fabliaus de Coquaigne,' Fabl. Bar-
bazan et Méon, iv. 175. Palsgrave gives the verb 'To bring
up lyke a cocknaye,' mignotter; and Elyot renders 'delicias
facere, to play the cockney.' 'Dodeliner, to bring vp wan-
tonly, as a cockney.' Hollyband's Treasurie. See also Baret's
Alvearie." [Skeat derives cockney from M. E. cokenay, a
foolish person, Ch. C. T. 4206. Lit. cock's (ie. yolkless)
egg. Cf. M.E. ey, A.S. æg, egg.]
cockpit, H5. Prol. 11. Properly, a small arena where cock-
fighting took place: thence applied to the Globe theatre.
cock-shut time, R3. v. 3. 70: An expression signifying "twilight,"
because the net in which cocks, i.e. wood-cocks, were caught
or shut in during the twilight, was termed a cock-shut; it
being a large net, which, suspended between two long poles,
and stretched across a glade or riding, was easily drawn
together (“Twilight or Cock-shut time, either in the morn-
ing or the evening." Minsheu's Guide into Tongues, ed. 1617).
cod's head for the salmon's tail—To change the, Oth. ii. 1. 156:
"i.e. to exchange a delicacy for coarser fare. See Queen
Elizabeth's Household Book for the 43d year of her reign:
'Item, the Master Cookes have to fee all the salmon's tailes,'
&c. p. 296" (STEEVENS).
codding spirit-That, "That love of bed-sports. Cod is a word
still used in Yorkshire for a pillow” (STEEVENS), Tit. v. 1. 99.
codling, 12N. i. 5. 167: “(A mere diminutive of cod)
means an involucrum or kell, and was used by our old
writers for that early state of vegetation, when the fruit,
COD-PIECE-COISTREL.
99
after shaking off the blossom, began to assume a globular
and determinate form." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works,
vol. iv. p. 24.
cod-piece, an ostentatiously indelicate part of the male dress,
which was put to several uses, to stick pins in, to carry
the purse in, &c., 2G. ii. 7. 53; 56; M.M. iii. 2. 122; Ado,
iii. 3. 146; L.L.L. iii. 1. 186; W.T. iv. 4. 623; Lr. iii. 2. 27;
40: (on the last of which passages, Marry here's grace and
a cod-piece; that's a wise man and a fool, Douce observes,
Shakespeare has with some humour applied the above
name [cod-piece] to the Fool, who, for obvious reason, was
usually provided with this unseemly part of dress in a more
remarkable manner than other persons").
"
coffin, the raised crust of a pie: of the paste a coffin I will rear,
Tit. v. 2. 189; compare custard-coffin.
cog, to cheat, to wheedle, to lie, to load a die ("To cogge.
Gaber, flater, afflater, sadayer.... mensonger, et mentir,....
To cogge a Die. Casser la noisille." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.), M.W. iii. 3. 50; 76; Ado, v. 1. 95; L.L.L. v.
2. 235; R3. i. 3. 48; Cor. iii. 2. 133; Tim. v. 1. 98; cogging,
M.W. iii. 1. 123; Come both you cogging Greeks, Troil. v. 6. 11:
(Steevens remarks, in opposition to Johnson, that here the
epithet cogging "had propriety, in respect of Diomedes at
least, who had defrauded him of his mistress. Troilus bestows
it on both, unius ob culpam"); Oth. iv. 2. 132.
cognizance, a badge, 1H6. ii. 4. 108; J.C. ii. 2. 89; Cymb. ii. 4. 127.
coign, a corner-stone at the exterior angle of a building (old
Fr. coing), Cor. v. 4. 1; coign of vantage ("convenient corner,'
JOHNSON), Mcb. i. 6. 7; the four opposing coigns (here "the
author seems to have considered the world as a stupendous
edifice, artificially constructed," MALONE), Per. iii. Gow. 17.
(The editors are at a loss for an example of coign in any
other writer than Shakespeare. But compare
CC
'And Cape of Hope, last coign of Africa."
Sylvester's Du Bartas-The Colonies, p. 129, ed. 1641,
where the original has "angle dernier d'Afrique.")
coil, bustle, stir, tumult, turmoil, Tp. i. 2. 207; 2G. i. 2. 99:
Err. iii. 1. 48; Ado, iii. 3. 100; v. 2. 98; M.N.D. iii. 2. 339;
A.W. ii. 1. 27; K.J. ii. 1. 165; Tit. iii. 1. 225; Rom. ii. 5. 67;
Tim. i. 2. 236; When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
(“coil is here used in each of its senses, that of turmoil or
bustle, and that which entwines or wraps round," CALDECOTT),
Hml. iii. 1. 67; 2N.K. ii. 4. 18.
coistrel, Per. iv. 6. 176; 12N. i. 3. 43: “A coystril is a paltry
groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them.
So, in Holinshed's [Harrison's) Description of England,
vol. i. p. 162: 'Costerels, or bearers of the armes of barons
100
COLBRAND-COLME'S-INCH.
or knights,' &c. (TOLLET): Coistrel is often used as a
general term of reproach; and I believe, in spite of Gifford's
note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 109, that it is a distinct
word from kestrel (“Coustrell that wayteth on a speare,
cousteillier." Palsgrave's Lesclar. de la Lang Fr. 1530, fol.
xxvii. (Table of Subst.):
"A carter a courtyer, it is a worthy warke,
That with his whyp his mares wonte to yarke;
A custrell to dryue the deuyll out of the derke," &c.
Skelton's Magnyfycence,— Works, vol. i. p. 241, ed. Dyce).
[In Overbury's Characters, a 'Distaster of the Time': "like
a coistrell, he strives to fill himself with wind, and flies against
it," clearly alludes to the name "windsucker"=Kestrel.]
Colbrand the giant, K.J. i. 1. 225; nor Colbrand, H8. v. 4. 22:
"A Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick discomfited in
the presence of King Athelstan. The combat is very pomp-
ously described by Drayton in his Polyolbion [Song the
Twelfth}" (JOHNSON).
cold for action, cold for want of action, H5. i. 2. 114.
collect, to gather by observation: Made me collect these dangers
in the duke, 2H6. iii. 1. 35.
collection, a conclusion, a consequence drawn, a deduction:
move The hearers to collection, Hml. iv. 5. 9; Make no col-
lection of it, Cymb. v. 5. 432.
collied, smutted, blackened, darkened: the collied night, M.N.D.
i. 1. 145; passion, having my best judgment collied, Oth. ii. 3. 206.
collier!-Satan: hang him, foul, 12N. iii. 4. 130: Here Steevens
remarks that collier was, in Shakespeare's time, a term of
the highest reproach, in consequence of the imposition
practised by the vendors of coals (and see Gifford's note
on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 169): which is, no doubt,
true; but in the present passage it is evident that only the
blackness of the collier is alluded to: "Like will to like
(as the Devil said to the Collier)." Ray's Proverbs, p. 130,
ed. 1768.
collop, used metaphorically by a father to his child, as being
a portion of his flesh, W.T. 1. 2. 137; 1H6. v. 4. 18.
Colme-kill, Mcb. ii. 4. 33: "The famous Iona, one of the
Western Isles. Holinshed scarcely mentions the death
of any of the ancient kings of Scotland, without taking
notice of their being buried with their predecessors in
Colme-kill" (STEEVENS): "It is now called Icolmkill”
(MALONE): "Kil is a cell. See Jamieson's Dictionary in
voce. Colme-kill is the cell or chapel of St. Columba"
(BOSWELL).
Colme's-inch-Saint, Mcb. i. 2. 61: "Now called Inchcomb [or
Inchcolm], is a small island lying in the Firth of Edinburgh
[of Forth], with [considerable remains of] an abbey upon
COLOQUINTIDA-COME.
•
ΙΟΙ
it, dedicated to St. Columb: called by Camden Inch Colm
or The Isle of Columba
Inch or Inshe, in the
Irish and Erse languages, signifies an island [generally a
small one]. See Lhuyd's Archæologia" (STEEVENS).
coloquintida, Oth. i. 3. 355: "Is the Cucumus Colocynthis, the
colocynth gourd or bitter cucumber. From the fruit of this
plant is obtained the well-known bitter and purgative drug,
colocynth," &c. Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 164.
colour?-Sport! of what, A.Y.L. i. 2. 107; "nature, kind. In
Lear, i 2. 145, 'This is a fellow of the self-same colour.
Our sister speaks of'; the Quartos have nature." (HERFORD).
Collier suggested that Le Beau pronounced the word spot,
and that Celia joked on it.
colours, specious appearances, deceits: I do fear colourable
colours, L.L.L. iv. 2. 156; I love no colours (with a quibble),
1H6. ii. 4. 34.
colours-Fear no, 12N. i. 5. 10; 2H4. v. 5. 91: "Probably at
first a military expression, to fear no enemy. So Shakespeare
derives it, and though the passage [2.e. the first of these
passages] is comic, it is likely to be right." Nares's Gloss.
colt, "a witless, heady, gay youngster" (JOHNSON), but used
with a quibble: that's a colt indeed, M.V. i. 2. 44.
colt, to fool, to trick, to gull: What a plague mean ye to colt
me thus? 1H4. ii. 2. 39 (where the quibbling in the Prince's
reply refers, of course, to Falstaff's having lost his horse).
colt, to horse: She hath been colted by him, Cymb. ii. 4. 133.
columbines: see fennel for you, &c.
co-mart, Dyce's Reading from Qo. 1604 for Fol. Cou'nant, (Globe
Covenant Hml. i. 1. 93. Malone expl. “a joint bargain."
comb on-You crow, cock, with your, Cymb. ii. 1. 26: "The
allusion is to a [domestic] fool's cap, which hath a comb
like a cock's" (JOHNSON): "The intention of the speaker
is to call Cloten a coxcomb [a simpleton?]" (MASON).
combinate husband, contracted husband, M.M. iii. 1. 231: The
late W. S. Rose, after giving some instances of the "close
and whimsical relation there often is between English and
Italian idiom," concludes with this remark; "Thus every
Italian scholar understands 'her combinate husband' to mean
her husband elect; and at this hour there is nothing more
commonly in an Italian's mouth than 'Se si può combinarla'
(if we can bring it to bear), when speaking with reference
to any future arrangement." Note on his translation of
Orlando Furioso, vol. iv. p. 47.
combined, bound: I am combined by a sacred vow, M.M. iv. 3. 149.
come, bird, come, Hml. i. 5. 116: "The call which falconers use
to their hawk in the air, when they would have him come
down to them" (HANMER).
come cut and long-tail: see cut and long-tail, &c.
102
COME-COMMODITY.
come off, to come down, to pay: they must come off, M.W.
iv. 3. 13.
comes sooner by white hairs, sooner acquires white hairs, M.V.
I. 2. 9.
comfortable, susceptible of comfort, cheerful: For my sake be
comfortable, A.Y.L. ii. 6. 9; his comfortable temper, Tim.
iii. 4. 71.
comfortable, ready to give comfort, comforting: Be comfortable
to my mother, A.W. i. 1. 86; Who I am sure, is kind and
comfortable, Lr. i. 4. 328.
comforting your evils, encouraging, abetting your wicked courses,
W.T. ii. 3. 56.
comma 'tween their amities-Stand a, Hml. v. 2. 42: "that which
separates or keeps asunder . . . keep their amities from
falling together by the ears." SCHMIDT.
..
commences it, and sets it in act and use-Till sack, 2H4. iv.
3. 125: "It seems probable to me, that Shakespeare, in these
words, alludes to the Cambridge Commencement; and in
what follows to the Oxford Act: for by those different names
our two universities have long distinguished the season at
which each of them gives to her respective students a com-
plete authority to use those hoards of learning which have
entitled them to their several degrees in arts, law, physic,
and divinity" (TYRWHITT).
commend, to commit, to offer: Commend the paper to his gracious
hand, A.W. v. I. 31; commend it strangely to some place,
W.T. ii. 3. 182; His glittering arms he will commend to rust,
R2. iii. 3. 116; I do commend you to their backs, Mcb. iii.
I. 39; Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand, Ant. iv. 8.
23; Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice, Mcb.
1. 7. 11; His eye commends the leading to his heart, Lucr. 436.
commission, authority: the commission of thy years and art,
Rom. iv. 1. 64.
commit, a word, as Malone observes, applied particularly to
unlawful acts of love: commit not with man's sworn spouse,
Lr. iii. 4. 83; What committed! Committed! Oth. iv. 2. 72;
What committed, 76.
commodity, profit, advantage: To me can life be no commodity,
W.T. iii. 2. 94; tickling commodity, K.J. ii. 1. 573; turn diseases
to commodity, 2H4. i. 2. 278; Prove our commodities, Lr.
iv. 1. 23.
commodity of brown paper and old ginger-A, M.M. iv. 3. 5:
In Shakespeare's days it was very common for money-lenders
to force prodigals, like young Master Rash, to take a portion
of the sum they wanted to borrow in goods (commodities)
of various kinds,-sometimes the veriest trumpery, brown
paper, lute-strings, &c.,-of which goods the said prodigals
were to make what they could. Passages illustrative of this
COMONTY-COMPACT.
103
custom abound in our early writers; and several of them
have been cited; but the following lines, I believe, are now
for the first time adduced;
"You [i.e. usurers] dampne yourselues, and sweare that money's scant,
But ritch commodities he [i.e. the young gentleman] shall no want,
That certaine money presently will yeeld,
If he be skilfull to marshall the field;
Silks, and veluets, at intollerable price,
Embroydered hangars, pepper, and rice,
Browne paper, lute-strings, buckles for a saddle,
Perwigs, tiffany, paramours to waddle,
Great bars of yron, and Spanish tucks," &c.
Baxter's Sir Philip Sydney's Ourania, &c., 1606, sig. 1. 4.
[Hall, Sat. iv. v.: "Or mould brown paper, that could nought
avail, .. . . May pleasure Fridoline for treble price."]
comonty, Sly's blunder for comedy, Shr. Ind. 2. 140.
commonwealth I would by contraries, &c.—l' the, Tp. ii. 1.
147: In this and in the next two speeches of Gonzalo,
Shakespeare is deeply indebted to portions of a chapter
of Montaigne's Essayes, as translated by Florio, 1603: there
Montaigne, speaking of a newly-discovered country which he
calls Antartick France, has the following sentences, but not
in the following order;
"It is a nation, would I answere Plato, that hath no kinde
of traffike, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of num-
bers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie;
no use of service, of riches, or of poverty; no contracts,
no successions, no dividences; no occupation but idle; no
respect of kindred but common, no apparrell but naturall,
no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corne, or mettle.
The very words that import lying, falshood, treason, dis-
simulation, couvetousness, envie, detraction, and pardon,
were never heard of amongst them."
"And if, notwithstanding, in divers fruites of those countries.
they were never tilled, we shall finde that, in respect of
ours, they are most excellent, and as delicate unto our taste,
there is no reason arte should gaine the point of honour
of our great and puissant mother Nature."
"Meseemeth that what in those nations wee see by ex-
perience, doth not onlie exceede all the pictures wherewith
licentious poesie hath prowdly imbellished the golden age,
and al hir quaint inventions to faine a happy condition of
man, but also the conception and desire of philosophie."
Book I. chap. xxx. Of the Caniballes.
communication of A most poor issue—But minister, H8. i. 1.
86: support a conference that led to nothing.
compact, compacted, composed: compact of credit, Err. iii. 2.
22; of imagination all compact, M.N.D. v. 1. 8; compact of
!
104
COMPACT-COMPLAIN.
jars, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 5; compact of flint, Tit. v. 3. 88; compact
of fire, Ven. 149.
compact, confederated, leagued: Compact with her that's gone,
M.M. v. i. 242.
companion, a term of contempt, equivalent to "fellow:"
cogging companion, M.W. iii. 1. 123; this companion with the
saffron face, Err. iv. 4. 64; an equivocal companion, A.W. v.
3. 250; scurvy companion, 2H4. ii. 4. 132: rude companion,
2H6. iv. 10. 33; Now, you companion, Cor. v. 2. 65; Com-
panion, hence! J.C. iv. 3. 138; your lordship should undertake
every companion, Cymb. ii. 1. 29; swaggering companions,
2H4. ii. 4. 102; gives entrance to such companions, Cor. iv.
5. 14; that such companions thou' dst unfold, Oth. iv. 2. 141.
company, a companion: see his company (sc. Parolles) anatom-
ized, A.W. iv. 3. 37; stranger companies, M.N.D. i. 1. 219;
His companies unletter'd, H5. i. 1. 55.
comparative-Every beardless vain, 1H4. iii. 2. 67; Comparative,
I.
I believe, is equal or rival in any thing; and may therefore
signify in this place-every one who thought himself on a
level with the Prince [King]" (STEEVENS): “I believe com-
parative means here, one who affects wit, a dealer in com-
parisons" (MALONE, followed by SCHMIDT).
(C
comparative, rascalliest,-sweet young prince-The most, 1H4.
i. 2. 90:
Comparative here means quick at comparisons, or
fruitful in similes" (JOHNSON).
comparisons apart, And answer me declin'd-To lay his gay,
Ant. iii. 13. 26: "His gay comparisons may mean 'those
circumstances of splendour and power [and youth], in
which he, when compared with me, so much exceeds
me [in my declined state]" (MALONE). Pope substituted
caparisons.
compassed cape, a round cape, Shr. iv. 3. 140.
compass'd crest, an arched crest, Ven. 272.
compassed window, a bow-window, Troil. i. 2. 120.
compassion, to pity: or not compassion him, Tit. iv. 1. 124.
compassionate, lamenting, complaining, [impassionate:] R2.
i. 3. 174.
competitor, a coadjutor, a partner, a confederate: in counsel
his competitor, 2G. ii. 6. 35; Our great competitor, Ant. i. 4.
3; my competitor, v. 1. 42; his competitors in oath, L.L.L ii.
1. 82; The competitors enter, 12N. iv. 2. 12; more competitors,
R3. iv. 4. 506; these competitors, Ant. ii. 7. 76.
complain, used as a verb active: Where, then, alas, may I
complain myself ("as Mr. M. Mason observes, is a literal
translation of the French phrase, me plaindre," STEEVENS),
R2. i. 2. 42; And what I want, it boots not to complain, iii. 4. 18
complain of good breeding, complain of the want of good
breeding, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 31.
COMPLEMENT-COMPTROLLERS.
105
complement, and ceremony of it-In all the accoutrement, M.W.
iv. 2. 5; deck'd in modest complement, H5. ii. 2. 134; A man
of complements, L.L.L. i. 1. 169; in all complements of devoted,
L.L.L. i. 1. 280; These are complements, iii. 1. 23; the cou-
rageous captain of complements, Rom. ii. 4. 20; "Compliment
[Complement], in Shakespeare's time did not signify, at least
did not only signify, verbal civility or phrases of courtesy,
but, according to its original meaning, the trappings or orna-
mental appendages of a character; in the same manner,
and on the same principles of speech, with accomplishment.
Complement is, as Armado well expresses it, the varnish
of a complete man" (JOHNSON).
complices, accomplices, confederates, R2. ii. 3. 165; iii. 1. 43;
2H4. i. 1. 163; 2H6. v. 1. 212; 3H6. iv. 3. 41.
comply, to compliment: Let me comply with you in this garb
("compliantly assume this dress and fashion of behaviour,"
CALDECOTT). Hml. ii. 2. 390; He did comply with (“was
complaisant with, treated with apish ceremony," CALDE-
COTT) his dug, before he sucked it, v. 2. 195: Compare
"Flatterie hath taken such habit in man's affections, that it is
in moste men altera natura: yea, the very sucking babes hath
a kind of adulation towards their nurses for the dugge."
Ulpian Fulwel's Arte of Flatterie,-Preface to the Reader,
-1579, 4to (Mr. Singer asserts that in both the above
passages of Shakespeare comply with means "embrace,"
and he compares, in Herrick,
"Witty Ovid, by
Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply,
With iv'ry wrists, his laureat head," &c.).
compose, to agree: If we compose well here ("If we come to
a lucky composition, agreement," STEEVENS), Ant. ii. 2. 15.
composition, a compact, an agreement: I crave our composi-
tion ("the terms on which our differences are settled,"
STEEVENS) may be written, Ant. ii. 6. 59.
composition, consistency: There is no composition in these news
Oth. i. 3. I.
composture, a compost, Tim. iv. 3. 444.
composure, a combination, Troil. ii. 3. 109.
compromis'd, mutually agreed, M.V. i. 3. 79.
compt, an account, a reckoning, A.W. v. 3. 57; have the dates
in compt (“take good notice of the dates, for the better
computation of the interest due upon them," THEOBALD),
Tim. ii. 1. 35; and what is theirs, in compt (“subject to
account," STEEvens), Mcb. i. 6. 26; when we shall meet at
compt (reckoning at the judgment-day), Oth. v. 2. 273.
comptible, impressible, susceptible, sensitive, 12N. i. 5. 187.
comptrollers, masters of the ceremonies, H8. i. 3. 67.
106
CON-CONCLUDES.
con him no thanks for't-I, A.W. iv. 3. 174; thanks I must you
con, Tim. iv. 3. 428: "To con thanks exactly answers the
French sçavoir gré. To con is to know" (Steevens).
conceal, a blunder of Simple for reveal: I may not conceal
them, sir, M.W. iv. 5. 45.
conceit, conception, thought, imagination, fancy: the good con-
ceit (opinion) I hold of thee, 2G. iii. 2. 17; his conceit is
false, Ado, ii. 1. 309; conceit's expositor, L.L.L. ii. 1. 72:
profound conceit, M.V. i. 1. 92; a gentleman of good conceit,
A.Y.L. v. 2. 59; using conceit alone, K.J. iii. 3. 50; 'Tis
nothing but conceit (“fanciful conception," Malone), R2. ii.
2. 33; no more conceit in him than is in a mallet, 2H4. ii. 4.
263; dull conceit, 1H6. v. 5. 15; some conceit or other, R3. iii.
4. 51; She would applaud Andronicus' conceit, Tit. iv. 2. 30;
Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, Rom. ii. 6. 30;
The horrible conceit of death and night, iv. 3. 37; When thy
first griefs were but a mere conceit, Tim. v. 4. 14; rich con-
ceit, v. 4. 77; force his soul so to his own conceit, Hml. ii. 2.
579; Conceit in weakest bodies, iii. 4. 114; Conceit upon her
father, iv. 5. 45; of very liberal conceit, v. 2. 160; Who, if it
had conceit, would die, Per. iii. 1. 16; bottomless conceit, Lucr.
701; Conceit and grief, 1298; Conceit deceitful, 1423; deep
conceit, P. Pilg. 109; passing all conceit, ibid.; Dangerous
conceits, Oth. iii. 3. 326.
conceit, a fanciful gewgaw: rings, gauds, conceits, M.N.D. i. 1. 33.
conceit, to conceive, to imagine: one of two bad ways you must
conceit me, J.C. iii. 1. 192; Well conceited (wittily and pleasantly
conceived), Davy, 2H4. v. 1. 39; You hav right well con-
ceited, J.C. i. 3. 162; one that so imperfectly conceits, Oth. iii.
3. 149.
conceited, fanciful, imaginative: is not the humour conceited?
M.W. i. 3. 26; an admirable-conceited fellow (a fellow full of
admirable conceits, pleasant fancies), W.T. iv. 4. 204; the
conceited painter, Lucr. 1371; conceited characters (images),
Compl. 16.
conceited, possessed with an idea: He is as horribly conceited
of him, 12N. iii. 4. 322.
conceiv'd to scope, "properly imagined, appositely, to the pur-
pose" (JOHNSON), Tim. i. 1. 72.
concent, consonance of harmony, accord, union, 2H4. v. 1. 78;
H5. i. 2. 181; 206; ii. 2. 22 (Globe, consent).
concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more
rawer breath?-1 he, "The tendency of all this blazon of
character? Why do we clothe this gentleman's perfections
in our humble and imperfect language? make him the
subject of our rude discussion?" (Caldecott), Hml. v. 2. 128.
concludes―This, "This is a decisive argument" (JOHNSON),
K.J. i. 1. 127.
CONCLUSION-CONDITION.
107
conclusion, an experiment: a foregone conclusion, Oth. iii. 3.
428; That mother tries a merciless conclusion, Lucr. 1160;
To try conclusions, Hml. iii. 4. 195; She hath pursu'd con-
clusions infinite, Ant. v. 2. 358; amplify my judgment in Other
conclusions, Cymb. i. 5. 18.
conclusion, shall acquire no honour Demuring upon me-Your
wife Octavia, with her modest eyes, And still, Ant. iv. 15. 28:
Here still conclusion is explained by Johnson "sedate deter-
mination, silent coolness of resolution;" by Singer "moral
judgment conveyed, not in words, but by mute demure
expression of countenance" (Shakespeare Vindicated, &c.,
p. 296); and an anonymous critic glosses the whole passage
as follows; "That lady of yours, looking demurely upon
me with her modest eyes, and drawing her quiet inferences,
shall acquire no honour from the contrast between my fate
with her own." Blackwood's Magazine for Oct. 1853, p. 468.
Concolinel, L.L.L. iii. 1. 3: Perhaps the (corrupted) title or
beginning or burden of some Italian song.
concupy, concupiscence, Troil. v. 2. 177.
condemned seconds--You have sham'd me In your, Cor. i. 8. 15:
Explained by Steevens, "You have, to my shame, sent me
help, which I must condemn as intrusive, instead of
applauding it as necessary."
condition, on condition: Condition, I had gone barefoot to India,
Troil. i. 2. 80.
condition, disposition, temper, quality: the condition of a saint,
M.V. i. 2. 143; the duke's condition, A.Y.L. i. 2. 276; Demand
of him my condition, A.W. iv. 3. 196; I will from henceforth
rather be myself, Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition
("I will from henceforth rather put on the character that
becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king,
than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my
natural disposition," WARBURTON), 1H4. i. 3. 6; a good
English condition, H5. v. 1. 83; my condition is not smooth,
v. 2. 314; a touch of your condition, R3. iv. 4. 157; the con-
dition of a man, Cor. v. 4. 10; it hath much prevail'd on
your condition, J.C. ii. 1. 254; long-engraffed condition, Lr. i.
1. 301; full of most blessed condition, Oth. ii. 1. 255; of so
gentle a condition! iv. 1. 204; the cate-log of her conditions,
2G. iii. 1. 273; his ill conditions, Ado, iii. 2. 68; our soft
conditions, Shr. v. 2. 167; all his senses have but human con-
ditions, (“qualities," JOHNSON), H5. iv. 1. 108; It is the stars
govern our conditions, Lr. iv. 3. 35; our conditions So
differing in their acts, Ant. ii. 2. 115; Quiet and gentle thy
conditions, Per. iii. 1. 29.
condition, an art, a profession: would be well express'd In our
condition, Tim. i. 1. 77.
condition, shall better speak of you, &c.—I, in my, 2H4. iv. 3.
108
CONDITIONS—CONFOUNDS.
90: Here in my condition seems to be rightly explained by
Steevens "in my place as commanding officer.'
conditions-To make: see make conditions.
condolement-Obstinate, "ceaseless and unremitted expression.
of grief" (CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 2. 93.
condolements, certain vails-Certain, Per. ii. 1. 156; Does
condolements mean "gratifications"? [prob. for consolements,
solatia; or doles.]
conduce a fight-Within my soul there doth, Troil. v. 2. 147.
(Rowe, commence). Schmidt: “a fight of this nature (reason
combating itself) brings me there (to that state or ex-
tremity) to see two quite different things in one."
conduct, a conductor: more than nature was ever conduct of,
Tp. v. 244; desire some conduct of the lady, 12N. iii. 4. 265;
I will be his conduct, R2. iv. 1. 157; conduct of my shame,
2H6. ii. 4. 101; fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now! Rom. iii.
I. 129; Come, bitter conduct, v. 3. 116; Extinguishing his
conduct, Lucr. 313 (the torch).
confect,― Count: see count confect.
confess, and be hanged, a proverbial expression, Oth. iv. 1. 38:
it is alluded to in the following passage; Ho, ho, confess'd
it! hang'd it, have you not? Tim. i. 2. 22.
confess thyself—If thou answerest me not to the purpose, Hml.
V. I. 44: And be hanged, the clown, I suppose, would have
said, if he had not been interrupted. . . . He might, how-
ever, have intended to say, confess thyself an ass" (MALONE).
confidence, a blunder of Mrs. Quickly and of the Nurse for
conference: the next time we have confidence, M.W. i. 4. 72;
I would have some confidence with you, Ado, iii. 5. 3; I
desire some confidence with you, Rom. ii. 4. 133.
confineless, boundless, unlimited, Mcb. iv. 3. 55.
confiners, borderers, Cymb. iv. 2. 337.
confirm'd,— Thy age, R3. iv. 4. 171: mature years.
confound, to consume (applied to the spending of time: He
did confound the best part of an hour, 1H4. i. 3. 100; How
couldst thou in a mile confound an hour, Cor. i. 6. 17; Let's
not confound the time, Ant. i. 1. 45; to confound such time,
i. 4. 28.
confound, to destroy: What willingly he did confound he wail'd,
Ant. iii. 2. 58; My shame be his that did my fame confound,
Lucr. 1202; doth now his gift confound, Sonn. 60; When he
himself himself confounds, Lucr. 160; And one man's lust
these many lives confounds, 1489; his confounded (“worn or
wasted." JOHNSON) base, H5. iii. 1. 13; have confounded one
the other, Cymb. i. 4. 54; Decline to your confounding con-
traries (“contrarieties whose nature it is to waste or destroy
each other," STEEVENS), Tim. iv. 1. 20.
confounds, Not that it wounds, &c.—The shaft, Troil. iii. 1.
CONFUSIONS—CONSORT.
109
128: “Pandarus means to say, that 'the shaft confounds,'
not because the wounds it gives are severe, but because
'it tickles still the sore.' To confound does not signify here
to destroy, but to annoy or perplex" (MASON).
confusions with him—I will try, M.V. ii. 2. 39: Here, of course,
Launcelot makes a joke,—parodying the common expres-
sion "try conclusions," i.e. experiments.
conger and fennel-Eats, 2H4. ii. 4. 266: "Conger with fennel
was formerly regarded as a provocative" (STEEVENS):
Fennel was generally considered as an inflammatory herb;
and therefore, to eat conger and fennel was to eat two high
and hot things together, which was esteemed an act of
libertinism." Nares's Gloss. in "Fennel:" "It [fennel] was
used as a sauce with fish hard of digestion, being aromatic,
and, as the old writers term it, hot in the third degree.”
Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 158.
congest, to heap together, Compl. 258.
congreeted, "saluted reciprocally" (Johnson's Dict.), H5.
v. 2. 31.
congreeing, agreeing together. H5. i. 2. 182.
conjecture, suspicion: on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
Ado, iv. 1. 107.
conjurations—I do defy thy, Rom. v. 3. 68; “I refuse to do
as thou conjurest me to do, i.e. to depart," MALONE.
conscience, consciousness; As strongly as the conscience does
within, Cymb. ii. 2. 36; conscience wide as hell, as uncon-
trolled as hell, H5. iii. 3. 13.
consent, "a conspiracy" (STEEVENS): here was a consent,
L.L.L. v. 2. 460.
consent, to agree: all your writers do consent that ipse is he,
A.Y.L. v. 1. 48; consent with both, that we may enjoy each
other, v. 2. 10; Consent upon a sure foundation, 2H4. i. 3. 52.
consent, unison: 2H4. v. 1. 78. See Concent.
consider, to requite: I will consider your music the better, Cymb.
ii. 3. 32; being something gently considered (having received
a gentleman-like consideration-bribe), W.T. iv. 4. 825.
consign, to seal: Consign to thee ("seal the same contract with
thee, ¿e. add their names to thine upon the register of
death," STEEVENS), and come to dust, Cymb. iv. 2. 275;
With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them, Troil. iv. 4. 47.
consist-If he on peace, "If he stands on peace. A Latin sense
(MALONE), Per. i. 4. 83.
consolate, to console, to comfort, A.W. iii. 2. 131.
consort, a company, a band of musicians,--a concert: With
some sweet consort, 2G. iii. 2. 84; to make the consort full,
2H6. iii. 2. 237 (Globe, concert).
consort, a fellowship, a fraternity: wilt thou be of our consórt?
2G. iv. 1. 64; he was of that consort, Lr. ii. 1. 99.
IIO
CONSORT—CONTRACT.
i
consort! what, dost thou make us minstrels? Rom. iii. 1. 49:
see above, the first consort.
consort, to accompany: afterwards consort you, Err. i. 2. 28;
consort your grace, L.L.L. ii. 1. 178.
conspectuities, sights,-eyes, Cor. ii. 1. 70.
constancy, consistency: something of great constancy, M.N.D.
V. I. 26.
constantly, certainly, firmly: I do constantly believe you, M.M.
iv. 1. 21; I constantly do think, Troil. iv. I. 40.
consul, a Venetian senator, Oth. i. 1. 25. CRAIG.
contagious treason, H5. iv. 8. 22: Fluellen probably means
outrageous, as Prof. Herford notes.
contain, to retain: contain their urine, M.V. iv. 1. 50; contain
the ring, v. I. 201.
contain, to restrain: we can contain ourselves, Shr. Ind. 1. 100;
O, contain yourself, Troil. v. 2. 180; Contain thyself, good
friend, Tim. ii. 2. 26.
contemptible spirit, a contemptuous spirit, Ado, ii. 3. 187.
content, "acquiescence" (MALONE): Forc'd to content, but never
to obey, Ven. 61. (But qy. is content here a verb, "to con-
tent himself," "to be contented?")
content-Cassius, be, "That is, be continent; contain, or restrain,
yourself" (CRAIK), J.C. iv. 2. 41.
continent, that which contains any thing: Which is not tomb
enough and continent, Hml. iv. 4. 64; you shall find in him
the continent of what part a gentleman would see (“you shall
find him containing and comprising every quality which a
gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation,"
JOHNSON), v. 2. 115: be stronger than thy continent, Ant. iv.
14. 40; overborne their continents, M N.D. ii. 1.92; Rive your
concealing continents, Lr. iii. 2. 58.
continent, that which is contained in any thing: thou globe of
sinful continents (contents), 2H4. ii. 4. 309.
continuance, continuity: fierce extremes In their continuance,
K.J. v. 7. 14.
continuate, uninterrupted, Tim. i. 1. 11; Oth. iii. 4. 178.
continuer,—so good a, such staying power, Ado, i. 1. 143.
contract and eternal bond of love, Confirm'd by mutual joinder
of your hands-A, &c., 12N. v. 1. 159: Douce, after com-
paring this passage with one at the end of the fourth act
of the same play,
"Now go with me and with this holy man," &c.,
observes; "Now the whole has been hitherto regarded as
relating to an actual marriage that had been solemnized
between the parties; whereas it is manifest that nothing
more is meant than a betrothing, affiancing, promise of future
marriage, anciently distinguished by the name of espousals,
CONTRACTION—CONVINCE.
III
a term which was for a long time confounded with matri-
mony, and at length came exclusively to denote it."
contraction plucks The very soul-From the body of, "annihi-
lates the very principle of contracts" (CALDECOTT), Hml.
iii. 4. 46.
contrary, to oppose, to thwart, Rom. i. 5. 87.
contrive, to wear out, to pass away, to spend (Lat. contero,
contrivi) [or to plan, devise, as Schmidt prefers]: we may
contrive this afternoon, Shr. i. 2. 276.
contriving friends in Rome--Of many our, Ant. i. 2. 189:
According to Walker, “contriving here is not managing or
plotting, but sojourning; conterentes tempus [see the preceding
article]:" but qy.? [Schmidt as above.]
control, constraint, compulsion: The proud control of fierce and
bloody war, K.J. i. 1. 17.
control, to "confute, unanswerably contradict" (JOHNSON): the
Duke of Milan And his more braver daughter could control
thee, Tp. i. 2. 439.
convent, to summon, to cite: all our surgeons Convent in their
behoof, 2N.K. i. 4. 31; We convent naught else but woes, i. 5.
9; 10; Whensoever he's convented, M.M. v. I. I. 58; to the
council-board He be convented, H8. v. 1. 52; We are convented,
Cor. ii. 2. 58.
convent, to assemble, to collect: convented sail, K.J. iii. 4. 2.
[Mason's reading. Fol. and Globe, convicted.
convent, “to serve, agree, be convenient" (DOUCE): golden
time convents, 12N. v. 1. 391 (“or = invites?" SCHMIDT).
conversation, behaviour, conduct: of a holy, cold, and still
conversation, Ant. ii. 6. 131; The good in conversation, Per.
ii. Gow. 9.
convertite, a convert, K.J. v. 1. 19; Lucr. 743; convertites,
A.Y.L. v. 4. 190.
convey, to steal: "Convey" the wise it call, M.W. i. 3. 32; That
a king's children should be so convey'd! Cymb. i. 1. 63.
convey, to manage secretly and artfully: Convey your pleasures
in a spacious plenty, Mcb. iv. 3. 71; convey the business as I
shall find means, Lr. i. 2. 109; How I convey my shame out
of thine eyes ("How I pass by sleight my shame out of thy
sight," STAUNTON), Ant. iii. 11. 52; Convey'd himself as heir
to the Lady Lingare, H5. i. 2. 74.
conveyance, dexterity (conveyance meaning formerly "sleight
of hand"): with such impossible (inconceivable) conveyance,
Ado, ii. 1. 253.
conveyance, juggling artifice, secret management: I fear, there
is conveyance, 1H6. i. 3. 2; The sly conveyance, 3H6. iii. 3. 160.
conveyers, jugglers, tricksters, defrauders, R2 iv. 1. 317.
convicted, defeated, overpowered. See Convent, K.J. iii. 4. 2.
convince, to conquer, to overcome: The holy suit which fain
I 12
CONVINCE- COPE.
it would convince (prevail in), L.L.L. v. 2. 756; Will I with
wine and wassail so convince, Mcb. i. 7. 64; to convince the
honour of my mistress, Cymb. i. 4. 104; this truth shall ne'er
convince, Per. i. 2. 123; Convinced or supplied them, Oth. iv. 1. 28;
their malady convinces The great assay of art, Mcb. iv. 3. 142.
convince, to convict: convince of levity As well my undertakings,
&c., Troil. ii. 2. 130.
convive, to feast together, Troil. iv. 5. 272.
cony-catch, to deceive, to cheat, to impose upon, to sharp (the
cony or rabbit being regarded as a very simple animal),
M.W. i. 3. 36; cony-catched, Shr. v. I. 102; cony-catching,
M.W. i. 1. 128.
cony-catching, a jocular deceiving: you are so full of cony-
catching, Shr. iv. 1. 45.
cooling-card, 1H6. v. 3. 83: "A phrase probably borrowed
from primero, or some other game in which money was
staked upon a card. A card so decisive as to cool the
courage of the adversary. Met. Something to damp or
overwhelm the hopes of an expectant." Nares's Gloss.:
Gifford objects to this explanation of Nares, which he
charges him with borrowing from Weber; and says, "(what-
ever be the metaphorical sense), a cooling-card is literally a
bolus." Introd. to Ford's Works, p. clxi.: Gifford may, no
doubt, be right; but compare, in The True Tragedie of
Richard the Third, 1594,
"My lord, lay down a cooling card, this game is gone too far."
p. 23, ed. Shakespeare Soc.
copatain hat, a hat rising to a cop, top, or head, a hat with a
high crown ("either cylindrical and rounded at the top, or
cylindrical and flat at the top," HALLIWELL), Shr. v. 1. 69.
cope, the canopy of heaven: in the cheapest country under the
cope, Per. iv. 6. 132.
cope, to pay, to reward, requite: We freely cope your courteous
pains withal, M.V. iv. 1. 412.
cope, to encounter: to cope him in these sullen fits, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 67;
I'll cope with thee, 2H6. iii. 2. 230; Clifford cope with him,
3H6. i. 3. 24; whom you are to cope withal, R3. v. 3. 315;
To cope malicious censurers, H8. i. 2. 78; Ajax shall cope
the best, Troil. ii. 3. 275; the adversary I come to cope, Lr. v.
3. 124; To cope (= embrace) your wife, Oth. iv. 1. 87;
Or futurely can cope, 2N.K. i. 1. 174; who shall cope him
first, Ven. 888; We should have cop'd withal, 2H4. iv. 2. 95 ;
he yesterday coped Hector in the battle, Troil. i. 2. 34; As
e'er my conversation cop'd withal, Hml. iii. 2. 60; The royal
fool thou cop'st (="interchangest kindness or sentiments,"
Johnson's Dict.) with, W.T. iv. 4. 435; That cop'st with
death himself, Rom. iv. 1. 75.
COPESMATE-CORPORAL.
copesmate, a companion, Lucr. 925.
113
Cophetua-King, L.L.L. iv. 1. 66; 2H4. v. 3. 106; Rom. ii. 1.
14; the King and the Beggar, L.L.L. i. 2. 115; “ The Beggar
and the King," R2. v. 3. 80; See the ballad of King Cophetua
and the Beggar-maid in Percy's Rel. of Anc. Engl. Poetry,
vol. i. p. 198, ed. 1794.
copp'd hills, hills rising to a cop, top, or head, Per. i. 1. 101.
copy, a main subject, a theme: the copy of our conference,
Err. v. 1. 62.
copy's not eterne—In them nature's, Mcb. iii. 2. 38: Explained
by Johnson, "The copy, the lease, by which they hold their
lives from nature, has its time of termination limited;" and
Ritson adds that "the allusion is to an estate for lives held
by copy of court-roll."
coragio, an exclamation of encouragement (from the Ital.),
Tp. v. 1. 258; A.W. ii. 5. 97.
coranto, a very lively and rapid dance, A.W. ii. 3. 49; 12N.
i. 3. 137; corantos, H5. iii. 33.
cord, sir—His neck will come to your waist-a, M.M. iii. 2. 42:
An allusion to the hempen girdle worn by the Duke as friar.
core-A botchy, Troil. ii. I. 7; v. I. 4: an ulcer or boil. In both
passages quibbling with 'heart'. (SCHMIDT.)
Corinth!-- Would we could see you at, Tim. ii. 2. 73: Here,
says Warburton, Corinth is "a cant name for a bawdy-house,
I suppose, from the dissoluteness of that ancient Greek city."
[but the similar use of Ephesian suggests a biblical reference
-anti-Puritan?]
Corinthian, a wencher (see the preceding article), 1H4. ii. 4. 13.
corky, dry, withered, Lr. iii. 7. 29.
corollary, a surplus, Tp. iv. I. 57.
corporal, corporeal: corporal sufferance, M.M. iii. 1. 80; she is
not, corporal, L.L.L. iv. 3. 86; corporal soundness, A.W. i. 2.
24; corporal toil, H5. i. 1. 16; corporal motion, J.C. iv. 1. 33;
what seem'd corporal, Mcb. i. 3. 81; Each corporal agent,
i. 7. 80; some corporal sign, Cymb. ii. 4. 119.
corporal of his field-A, L.L.L. iii. 1. 189: "Dr. Farmer's
quotation of the line from Ben Jonson [New Inn, act ii. sc. 2],
'As corporal of the field, maestro del campo,' has the
appearance, without perhaps the intention, of suggesting
that these officers were the same: this, however, was not
the fact. In Styward's Pathway to Martiall Discipline,
1581, 4to, there is a chapter on the office of maister of
the campe, and another on the electing and office of the
foure corporalls of the fields; from which it appears that
'two of the latter were appointed for placing and ordering
of shot, and the other two for embattailing of the pikes
and billes, who according to their worthinesse, if death
happeth, are to succeede the great sergeant or sergeant
8
114
CORPSE-COSTARD.
major" (DOUCE): "Corporals of the Field. This office
is a place of good reputation, though of great paines, labour,
and industry. There are commonly four of them, of which
two are alwayes attending on the marshall or generall, as
their right hands, discharging by their endurances the go-
vernours of the campe of many travailes, cares, and watch-
ings. They ought either to be ancient captaines, casheer'd
as we say in the altering and changings the list of the army;
or experienced souldiers that know how to bestowe the
companies, and where to order the regements and ambus-
cadoes; but in no case they must be chosen either for favour
or affection, because their service consists in knowledge
and understanding the secrets of the warre, as having the
overlooking of the colonels and captaines companies, that
they march in order; the informing of the quarter-masters
what squadrons shall goe to the watch, or other imployments;
the giving the alarums to the campe, as taking notice of
the scowt-master's direction; the acquainting the colonell
of the regiment volantem with any danger or busines; the
overseeing of skirmishes, and so to certifie the marshall and
sergeant-major where is any defect or neede of supply;
and a continuall attending both night and day, as never
out of imployment, when the enemy lodgeth neare, or any
towne or place is besieged." The Military Art of Trayning,
1622 (cited by Mr. Halliwell).
corpse, apparently used as a plural, 1H4. i. 1, 43; 2H4. i. I. 192.
corrigible, corrective, having the power to correct: corrigible
authority, Oth. i. 3. 329.
corrigible neck—His, Ant. iv. 14. 74: Here Steevens says that
corrigible is for "corrected:" but is it not rather for "subject
to correction"?
corrival, a competitor, a rival, 1H4. i. 3. 207 ; corrivals, iv. 4. 31.
corroborate, H5. ii. 1. 130: Here Pistol's magniloquence is
beyond my comprehension.
((
corrosive, though parting be a fretful, 2H6. iii. 2. 403: a me-
dicament giving pain" (SCHMIDT). Spelt corsive, e.g. "every
cordial that my thoughts apply, turns to a corsive and doth
eat it further." Every Man out of his Humour, i. 1. 7 and
coresey, e.g. "being a coresey to their hearts to abide it,"
Doni's Morall Philosophie, p. 54 a. 1601. Schmidt's definition
does not bring out the full force of the word, as something
that eats away, corrodes: "eating cares," as Milton has it.
corruptibly, corruptively, K.J. v. 7. 2.
cosiers, cobblers, botchers, 12N. ii. 3. 97. (Globe, coziers).
cost my crown-Will, 3H6. i. 1. 268: various emend.: Hanmer,
truss; Warburton, coast; Dyce qy? Souse. [Cost seems to
mean: compel the forfeiture of the crown.]
costard, a head, M.W. iii. 1. 14; L.L.L. iii. 1. 71; 107, 117;
COSTERMONGER-COUNSEL.
115
R3. i. 4. 159; Lr. iv. 6. 247; (with a quibble on the proper
name Costard. According to Gifford, costard means properly
a large kind of apple; see his note on Jonson's Works,
121.)
vol. iv. p. 121
costermonger times—In these, “In these times when the preva-
lence of trade has produced that meanness that rates the
merit of every thing by money" (JOHNSON), 2H4. i. 2. 191.
coted them on the way-We, Hml. ii. 2. 330: To cote is explained
by Tollet "to overtake," and by Nares (in Gloss.) “to pass
by, to pass the side of another: "Caldecott cites from
Golding's transl. of Ovid's Metamorphoses, “With that Hippo-
menes coted her" (where the original has "Præterit Hip-
pomenes"), B. x. sig. R 8 verso, ed. 1603: With the present
passage of Shakespeare compare what the same speaker
afterwards says of the same persons, it so fell out, that certain
players We o'er-raught (overtook, overpassed) on the way.
iii. 1. 17.
cot-quean, a man who busies himself too much in female
affairs, Rom. iv. 4. 6. (The late Joseph Hunter, in his New
Illustr. of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 138, confounded, as others
have done, this word with cuc-quean.-In Fletcher's Love's
Cure, act ii. sc. 2, Bobadilla says to Lucio, who has been
brought up as a girl, "Diablo! what should you do in the
kitchen? cannot the cooks lick their fingers, without your
overseeing? nor the maids make pottage, except your dog's
head be in the pot? Don Lucio? Don Quot-quean, Don
Spinster! wear a petticoat still, and put on your smock
a'Monday; I will have a baby o' clouts made for it, like a
great girl;" where “Quot-quean" is a corrupt form of "Cot-
quean:" Even in Addison's days the word cot-quean was
still used to signify one who is too busy in meddling with
women's matters: see the letter of an imaginary lady in
The Spectator, No. 482.) [In The Poetaster, iv. 3, cot-quean
is several times applied to Juno by Jupiter].
Cotsol', Cotswold Downs in Gloucestershire, celebrated for
rural sports of all kinds: I heard say he was outrun on Cotsol'
("This might refer to common coursing, and therefore does
not at all affect the date of the play, which Warton endea-
voured to fix from the establishment of Dover's Games
on Cotswold. They were not founded till the reign of
James I." Nares's Gloss.), M.W. i. 1. 92; a Cotsol' man,
2H4. iii. 2.
coucheth the fowl, making the fowl to couch, Lucr. 507.
couchings, crouchings, bowings, J.C. iii. 1. 36.
counsel, secrecy: Myself in counsel, his competitor, 2G. ii. 6. 35;
'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel (with a
quibble), M.W. i. 1. 122; to your sworn counsel, A.W. iii.
7. 9: Two may keep counsel, &c. (a proverb), Tit. iv. 2. 144;
116
COUNSELS—COUNTERFEIT.
Rom. ii. 4. 209; How hard it is for women to keep counsel!
J.C. ii. 4. 9; the players cannot keep counsel, Hml. iii. 2. 152;
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel (secrets) sweet, M.N.D.
i. 1. 216.
counsels-Are enter'd in our, Are initiated in our secrets, or
acquainted with our purposes, Cor. i. 2. 2.
count Comfect, "A nobleman made out of sugar" (STEEVENS).
"My Lord Lollipop" (STAUNTON), Ado, iv. 1. 318.
countenance, specious appearance, hypocrisy: wrapt up in coun-
tenance, M.M. v. 1. 118 [official support? "Authority; the
authoritative protection extended to Angelo." HERFORD.]
countenance, entertainment, treatment: the something that
nature gave me his countenance ("the mode of his carriage
towards me," Caldecott) seems to take from me, A.Y.L. i. 1. 19.
countenance, patronage: He wag'd me with his countenance,
Cor. v. 6. 40.
countenance, to receive, to entertain: to countenance my mistress,
Shr. iv. I. IOI.
counter, a piece of false coin used to cast accounts with:
What, for a counter (trifle), would I do but good? A.Y.L. ii.
7. 63; I cannot do't without counters, W.T. iv. 3. 38; will
you with counters sum, &c., Troil. ii. 2. 28; such rascal
counters (where counters is used as a term of contempt for
money), J.C. iv. 3. 80; your neck, sir, is pen, book, and
counters, Cymb. v. 4. 174.
counter-caster, Oth. i. 1. 31: see the preceding article.
counter, and yet draws dry-foot well-A hound that runs, Err.
iv. 2. 39: To run counter is to mistake the course of the
game, or to turn and pursue the backward trail; to draw
dry-foot, is to track by the scent of the foot: "To run
counter and draw dry-foot well are therefore inconsistent.
The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter, which
means the wrong way in the chace and a prison in London.
The officer that arrested him was a sergeant of the counter'
(JOHNSON): You hunt counter: hence! avaunt! 2H4. i. 2. 102;
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! Hml. iv. 5. 110.
counterfeit, a portrait, a likeness, a picture: Fair Portia's
counterfeit, M.V. iii. 2. 116; Thou draw'st a counterfeit Best in
all Athens, Tim. v. 1. 83; the poor counterfeit of her com-
plaining ("her maid, whose countenance exhibited an image
of her mistress's grief," MALONE), Lucr. 1269; your painted
counterfeit, Sonn. 16; the counterfeit Is poorly imitated, 53.
counterfeit, synonymous with slip, a piece of false money:
hence the quibbling, If I could have remembered a gilt
counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my contem-
plation, Troil. ii. 3. 28; and hence the metaphor, some coiner
with his tools Made me a counterfeit, Cymb. ii. 5. 6; and
see slip.
COUNTERFEIT-COURTESY.
117
counterfeit presentment, mimic representation, Hml. iii. 4. 54.
Counter-gate-The, The gate of the Counter-prison in [the
Poultry] London (not, as Nares in his Gloss. supposes, a
place in Windsor), M.W. iii. 3. 85.
counterpoints: see arras-counterpoints.
county, a count, a nobleman in general, Ado, ii. 1. 195; 370;
iv. 1. 317; M.V. i. 2. 49; A.W. iii. 7. 22; 12N. i. 5. 320;
Rom. i. 2. 69; i. 3. 105; iii. 5. 115; 219; iv. 1. 71; iv. 2. 23;
29; iv. 4. 21; iv. 5. 6; 10; v. 3. 174.
couplement, a union, L.L.L. v. 2. 535; Sonn. 21.
courage-Soft, 3H6. ii. 2. 57; Nor check my courage, Cor. iii.
3. 92: soft courage soft spirit, soft-heartedness; (as Dyce
shows, v. 255); courage = heart, spirit. Carriage has been
been proposed for courage in both these passages.
course-bear-like I must fight the, Mcb. v. 7. 2; I must stand
the course, Lr. iii. 7. 54: Phrases "taken from bear-baiting.
So in The Antipodes by Brome, 1638, 'Also you shall see
two ten-dog courses at the great bear"" (STEEVENS).
course-So fierce a, K.J. iii. 4. 12; Hanmer's emend. Fol. cause.
course or two—Up with a, 2N. K. iii. 4. 10; set her two courses!
Tp. i. 1. 53: on the second of these passages Holt observes;
"The courses meant in this place are two of the three
lowest and largest sails of a ship, which are so called,
because, as largest, they contribute most to give her way
through the water, and consequently enable her to feel her
helm, and steer her course better, than when they are not
set or spread to the wind." Holt's Attempte to rescue that
aunciente English Poet and Play-wrighte, &c.
courser's hair, hath yet but life, And not a serpent's poison—
Which, like the, Ant. i. 2. 200:
200: "Alludes to an old idle
notion that the hair of a horse dropt into corrupted water
will turn to an animal" (POPE): The fact is, the said hair
moves like a living thing because a number of animalculæ
cling to it.
court-cupboard, a sort of movable sideboard, without doors
or drawers, on which was displayed the plate of an estabish-
ment, the flagons, beakers, cups, &c., Rom. i. 5. 8.
court-of-guard, the place where the guard musters, 1H6. ii.
1. 4; Oth. ii. 1. 220; Ant. iv. 9. 2; 32.
courtesy from heaven-I stole all, 1H4. iii. 2. 50: On the
words "Stole courtesy from heaven" in Massinger's Great
Duke of Florence, act. ii, sc. 3, Gifford remarks: "This is
from Shakespeare, and the plain meaning of the phrase is,
that the affability and sweetness of Giovanni were of a
heavenly kind, i.e. more perfect than was usually found
among men; resembling that divine condescension which
excludes none from its regard, and therefore immediately
derived or stolen from heaven, from whence all good proceeds.
118
COURT-COWL-STAFF.
In this there is no impropriety: common usage warrants
the application of the term to a variety of actions which
imply nothing of turpitude, but rather the contrary: affec-
tions are stolen-in a word, to steal, here, and in many
other places, means little else than to win by imperceptible
progression, by gentle violence, &c." Note on Massinger's
Works, vol. ii. p. 466, ed. 1813.
court holy-water, flattery, fine speeches without deeds, Lr. iii.
2. 10 (Mantellizzare . . . . to flatter or fawne vpon, to court
one with faire words or giue court-holy-water." Florio's Ital.
and Engl. Dict.: "Eau beniste de Cour. Court holy water;
complements, faire words, flattering speeches, glosing, soothing,
palpable cogging." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.: "Court
holy-water, Promissa rei expertia, fumus aulicus." Coles's
Lat. and Engl. Dict.).
courtship, courtly breeding, elegance of behaviour: courage,
courtship, and proportion, 2H6.. i. 3. 57.
court'sied when you have and kiss'd, Tp. i. 2. 3. 78: The Folio
punctuation affords the meaning: "when you have courtsied,
and kissed the wild waves to silence," but Dyce agrees with
Steevens in believing the second line to be parenthetical,-
"The wild waves being whist:" the poet having an eye to
the ceremonies (the courtseying and kissing) which were
formerly observed at the commencement of certain dances..
cousin, “a common expression from one kinsman to another,
out of the degree of parent and child, brother and sister"
(RITSON), and "seems to have been used instead of our
kinsman and kinswoman, and to have supplied the place
of both" (MALONE), Ado, i. 2. 25. (= nephew): i. 2. 2; K.J.
iii. 3. 71; 1H4. i. 3. 187; v. 1. 105; R3. iii. 1. 2; iv. 4. 221;
v. 3. 151; Hml. i. 2. 64; 117. (= niece): A.Y.L. i. 2. 164;
i. 3. 44; 12N. i. 3. 5 etc. (= uncle): 12N. i. 5. 131; v. 1. 313.
(= brother-in-law): 1H4. iii. 1. 51. (= grandchild): K J. iii.
3. 17; R3. ii. 2. 8; ii. 4. 9; Oth. i. 1. 113.
covent, a convent, M.M. iv. 3. 133; H8. iv. 2. 19.
cover, to prepare the table: Sirs, cover the while, A.Y.L. ii. 5. 32.
covetousness, "eager emulation, intense desire of excelling"
(THEOBALD): They do confound their skill in covetousness.
K.J. iv. 2. 29.
cow, God save her!—And that I would not for a, H8. v. 4. 27 ;
a proverbial expression.
cowl-staff, M.W. iii. 3. 156: “A staff [or pole], used for carry-
ing a large tub or basket, with two handles [held on the
shoulders of two persons]. In Essex the word cowl is yet
used for a tub" (MALONE): “Courge . . . a Stang, Pale-
staffe, or Colestaffe, carried on the shoulder, and notched for
the hanging of a Pale, &c.) at both ends." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.: and see Way's note on the Prompt. Parv. p. 97,
COXCOMB-CRARE.
119
coxcomb-Here's my, Lr. i. 4. 105; take my coxcomb, 109; 114;
wear my coxcomb, 117; two coxcombs, 118; my coxcombs, 121:
"It was a fashion certainly as old as the middle of the four-
teenth century, to decorate the head of the domestic fool
with a comb, like that of a cock; but frequently the apex
of the hood took the form of the neck and the head of a
cock," &c. (FAIRHOLT)
coxcomb of frize?-Shall I have a, Shall I have a fool's-cap
of frize (shall I be made a fool of by a Welshman?-Wales
being celebrated for this kind of cloth), M.W. v. 5. 146.
coy, to stroke, to caress, to fondle: While I thy amiable cheeks
do coy, M.N.D. iv. 1. 2.
coy, to make difficulty, to condescend unwillingly: if he coy'd
To hear Cominius speak, Cor. v. 1. 6.
cozen-germans. See Garmombles.
crab, a wild-apple: a roasted crab, M.N.D. ii. 1. 48; when I see
a crab, Shr. ii. 1. 230; where crabs grow, Tp. ii. 2. 171;
roasted crabs, L.L.L. v. 2. 935.
crack, a boy-usually an arch, lively boy: when 'a was a crack,
2H4. iii. 2. 34; A crack, madam, Cor. i. 3. 74.
crack, to brag, to boast: Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack,
L.L.L. iv. 3. 268; our brags Were crack'd of kitchen-trulls,
Cymb. v. 5. 177. [Harington, in his interpretation of the
Orlando Furioso (p. 413, Fol. 1591) says that Ferraw was
"stout, but too full of cracking."]
cracked within the ring, Hml. ii. 2. 448: "The gold coin of
our ancestors was very thin, and therefore liable to crack.
It still, however, continued passable until the crack ex-
tended beyond the ring, i.c. beyond the inmost round which
circumscribed the inscription; when it became uncurrent,
and might be legally refused." Gifford's note on Jonson's
Works, vol. vi. p. 76: Hamlet alludes to the voice of the
boy, who played female characters, becoming "cracked,"
or too manly for those characters.
cracker, a braggart, a talker, K.J. ii. 1. 147.
crack-hemp, a crack-rope, a gallows-bird, a fellow likely to be
hanged, Shr. v. 1. 46.
crafts, craftsmen, mechanics: You and your crafts! Cor. iv. 6. 118.
crank, to wind: He cranks and crosses, Ven. 682; this river
comes me cranking in, 1H4. iii. 1. 98.
cranks, windings, Cor. i. 1. 141; 2N.K i. 2. 28.
crants, a crown, a chaplet, a garland (" Crance . . . . Teut.
krants, corona, corolla, sertum, strophium, Kilian. Germ.
kranz," &c. Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language),
Hml. v. 1. 255. "Young unmarried Danish ladies wear, or
wore, a chaplet of pearl" (PRIOR).
crare, a small vessel (described both as a vessel of war and
as a vessel of burden), Cymb. iv. 2. 205.
I 20
CRAVENS—CRISPIAN.
cravens, makes cowardly, Cymb. iii. 4. 80.
create, created, compounded: hearts create of duty and of zeal,
H5. ii. 2. 31.
credent, "inforcing credit" (JOHNSON): my authority bears so
credent bulk, M.M. iv. 4. 29.
credent, credible: 'tis very credent, W.T. i. 2. 142.
credent, easy of belief: with too credent ear, Hml. i. 3. 30.
credit-I found this, 12N. iv. 3. 6.
crescent note, rising reputation, Cymb. i. 4. 2.
1
crescive in his faculty, "increasing in its proper power"
(JOHNSON), H5. i. 1. 66.
cressets, 1H4. iii. 1. 15: “A cresset light was the same as a
beacon light, but occasionally portable. It consisted of a
wreathed rope smeared with pitch and placed in a cage of
iron like a trivet, which was suspended on pivots in a kind
of fork. The light sometimes issued from a hollow pan
filled with combustibles" (DoOUCE).
Cressida was a beggar, 12N. iii. 1. 62: “The circumstance of
making Cressid a beggar is from Henryson; who, in his
Testament of Creseyde, make Saturn, at the instance of
Cupid, conclude a sentence pronounc'd on her in those words,
'great penurye
Thou suffre shalt, and as a beggar dye'
(CAPELL).
Cressid's kind-The lazar kite of, H5. ii. 1. 80: Steevens re-
marks that this expression is found in Gascoigne's Dan
Bartholomew of Bathe, 1587 [p. 67],
"Nor seldom seene in kites of Cressid's kinde;"
and in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1601 [sig. м verso, ed. 1608];
"What courtesy is [there] to be found in such kites of
Cressid's kind? This alludes to the punishment of Cressida
for her falsehood to Troilus. She was afflicted with the
leprosy, 'like a Lazarous,' and sent to the 'spittel hous.'
See Henryson's Testament of Creseide.
Cressid's uncle, Pandarus, A.W. ii. 1. 100.
crested the world-His rear'd arm, Ant. v. 2. 83: "Alluding to
some of the old crests in heraldry, where a raised arm on
a wreath was mounted on the helmet" (Percy).
cried in the top of mine: see cry out on the top, &c.
crisp, curled, Tp. iv. 1. 130; (where crisp channels means, not
"winding channels," but "channels with a curl on the
surface of the water:" compare in Browne's Britannia's
Pastorals, B. i. Song 5, p. 133, ed. 1625,
"C
He long stands viewing of the curled streame”);
1H4. i. 3. 106; Tim. iv. 3. 183 (where crisp heaven means
"heaven with its curled clouds").
Crispian-This day is call'd the feast of, H5. iv. 3. 40: "The
CRITIC CROSS-GARTERED.
121
battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October
[1415], St. Crispin's day" (GREY).
critic, a cynic, L.L.L. iii. 1. 178; iv. 3. 170 (where it may be
considered as an adjective); Sonn. 112; critics, Troil. v. 2. 131.
critical, cynical, censorious, M.N.D. v. 1. 54; Oth. ii. 1. 120.
Cromer-Sir James, 2H6. iv. 7. 118: "It was William Crowmer,
sheriff of Kent, whom Cade put to death," &c. (RITSON).
crone, an old worn-out woman, W.T. ii. 3. 76.
crop, to yield harvest, to bring forth: He plough'd her, and she
cropp'd, Ant. ii. 2. 233.
Crosby.place, R3. i. 2. 213; i. 3. 345; iii. 1. 190: In Bishops-
gate Street; "This magnificent house was built in the year
1466 by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman. [At least,
he obtained a lease of the ground in 1466]. He died in
1475. The ancient hall of this fabric is still remaining,
though divided by an additional floor, and incumbered by
modern galleries, having been converted into a place of
worship for Antinomians, &c. The upper part of it is now
the warehouse of an eminent packer. Sir J. Crosby's tomb
is in the neighbouring church of St. Helen the Great"
(STEEVENS): “Crosby Hall was restored a few years ago.
It is an elegant Gothic edifice, sufficient to tell the magnifi-
cence of the original Crosby Place" (HALLIWELL).
cross, where prayers, obstruct, interpose obstacles to, tempt-
ation, M.M. ii. 2. 159. (Angelo takes honour in a different
sense from that in which Isabella uses the word).
cross, if I did bear you-Yet I should bear no, A.Y L. ii. 4..12;
crosses love not him, L.L.L. i. 2. 36; you are too impatient to
bear crosses, 2H4. i. 2. 253: "The ancient penny, according
to Stow, had a double cross with a crest stamped on it, so
that it might easily be broken in the midst, or in the four
quarters. Hence it became a common phrase when a per-
son had no money about him, to say, he had not a single
cross. As this was certainly an unfortunate circumstance,
there is no end to the quibbling upon this poor word."
Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 134.
[E.g. "As for the young man (subject unto sinne)
No marvell though the Divell doe distresse him;
To tempt mans frailtie, which doth never linne,
Who many times, hath not a crosse to blesse him:
But how can hee incurre the Heavens Curse,
That hath so many crosses in his purse?"
Barnfield, Lady Pecunia, p. 87.]
cross'd-He'd be, He would be furnished with crosses or money
(a quibble), Tim. i. 2. 168: see the preceding article.
cross-gartered, 12N. ii. 5. 167: "The garters were worn above
and below the knee, crossing behind. This was a new
fashion; it was later characteristic of Puritan dress." HERFORD.
122
CROSS-ROW-CRY.
cross-row-The, R3. i. 1. 55: An abbreviation of The Christ-
cross-row, i.e. the alphabet, which, we are told, was so called,
either because a cross was placed at the beginning of it,
or because it was written in the form of a cross, as a charm.
("La croix de par Dieu. The Christs-crosse-row, or the
hornebooke wherein a child learnes it." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Eng. Dict.)
crow, see Crying.
crow-keeper, a person (a boy generally) employed to scare
the crows from the corn-fields, &c., and armed with a bow
and arrows, Rom. i. 4. 6; Lr. iv. 6. 88: and see Forby's
Vocab. of East Anglia.
crown-imperial-The, W.T. iv. 4. 126: “The Crown Imperial
(Corona Imperialis), Parkinson says, 'For his stately beautiful-
ness deserveth the first place in this our garden of delight,
to be entreated of before all other lilies, well known to most
persons, being everywhere common. Beisly's Shakspere's
Garden, &c., p. 84.
crowner, a coroner, 12N. i. 5. 142; Hml. v. 1. 4; crowner's
quest-law, 24. (see quest).
crownet, the diminutive of crown, a coronet: Whose bosom was
my crownet (“last purpose, probably from finis coronat opus,"
JOHNSON), my chief end, Ant. iv. 12. 27; crownets, Troil. Pr. 6;
Ant. v. 2. 91.
crudy vapours, 2H4. iv. 3. 106. So Qo. Fol. cruddie. Meaning
curdy, thick?
cruel garters, Lr. ii. 4. 7: A quibble on cruel and crewel, i.e.
worsted: see caddis-garter.
cruels else subscrib'd-All: see subscribe.
crusadoes, Oth. iii. 4. 26: "The cruzado [a Portuguese coin]
was not current, as it should seem, at Venice, though it
certainly was in England in the time of Shakespeare.
•
It was of gold, and weighed two pennyweights six grains,
or nine shillings English" (Douce).
crush a cup of wine, a cant expression formerly common enough,
and resembling the modern one, crack a bottle, Rom. i. 2. 86.
crush'd, see Curst.
cry aim: see aim, &c.
cry, a pack (properly "the giving mouth of hounds"): You
common cry of curs! Cor. iii. 3. 120; You and your cry!
iv. 6. 148; one that fills up the cry, Oth. ii. 3. 370; a deep
cry of dogs, 2N.K. ii. 5. 12.
("A crie of Hounds have here a Deer in Chase."
Sylvester's Du Bartas,-The Magnificence,
p. 213, ed. 1641).
[In Sh.'s time the greatest attention was paid to the musical
quality of the cry. See Edin. Rev. no. 278, Oct. 1872,
p. 350, on the hounds of Theseus in M.N.D. iv. i.]
CRY-CUISSES.
123
cry, a company, a troop: a cry of players, Hml. iii. 2. 289.
cry on, to vociferate, to exclaim: Came to my tent, and cried on
victory, R3. v. 3. 231; This quarry cries on havoc, Hml. v.
2. 375; whose noise is this that cries on murder? Oth. v. 1. 48.
cry, out on the top of question (recite at the very highest pitch
of their voice,-see question), Hml. ii. 2. 355; whose judg
ments in such matters cried in the top of mine (were delivered
more clamorously and authoritatively than mine), Hml.
ii. 2. 459.
crying of your nation's crow-At the, K.J. v. 2. 144. Malone
refers this to the caw of the French Crow"; Douce to "the
crowing of a cock,-gallus meaning both a cock and a
Frenchman." Dyce prefers Malone's expl.
crystals-Clear thy, Dry thine eyes, H5. ii. 3. 56 (Crystals in
the sense of "eyes" is not peculiar to Pistol; e.g.
rr
"outblush damask roses,
And dim the breaking east with her bright crystals."
Beaumont and Fletcher's Custom of the Country,
act. i. sc. 2.)
cub drawn bear-The, “The bear whose dugs are drawn dry
by its young" (WARBURTON), Lr. iii. 1. 12.
cubiculo, a chamber, a lodging (an odd term of Sir Toby's,
from the Lat.), 12N. iii. 2. 56.
cuckoo builds not for himself, &c.—But, since the, “Since, like
the cuckoo, that seizes the nests of other birds, you have
invaded a house which you could not build, keep it while
you can (JOHNSON), Ant. ii. 6. 28.
cuckoo-buds, L.L.L. v. 2. 906: "Although Mr. Miller, in his
'Gardener's Dictionary,' says that the flower here alluded
to is the Ranunculus bulbosus, I think Shakspere particularly
referred to the Ranunculus Ficaria (lesser celandine), or
pilewort, as this flower appears earlier in spring, and is in
bloom at the same time as the other flowers named in the
song" Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 42.
cuckoo-flowers, Lr. iv. 4. 4: Cuckoo flowers (Lychnis Flos-
cuculi), ragged robin, a well-known meadow and marsh
plant, with rose-coloured flowers and deeply-cut narrow
segments; it blossoms at the time the cuckoo comes, hence
one of its names." Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c. p. 143.
cuckoo's bird-The: see gull, &c.
cue, properly a theatrical term, meaning the last word or words
of a speech, the signal for the next actor to begin; and
hence a hint, an intimation, a part to play in one's turn,
M.W. iii. 2. 46; iii. 3. 39; Ado, ii. 1. 316; M.N.D. iii. 1.
78; 102; iv. 1. 205; v. 1. 186; H5. iii. 6. 130; R3. iii. 4. 24
Hml. ii. 2. 587; Lr. i. 2. 147; Oth. i. 2. 83.
cuisses, armour for the thighs, 1H4. iv. 1. 105.
I24
CULLION—CURIOUS-KNOTTED.
cullion, a despicable fellow, a lout, Shr. iv. 2. 20; cullions, H5.
iii. 2. 22; 2H6. i. 3. 43.
cullionly, despicable, base, Lr. ii. 2. 36: see the preceding article.
cunning, knowledge, skill: the boldness of my cunning (“confi-
dence of my sagacity," STEEVENS), M.M. iv. 2. 165; Wherein
your cunning can assist me much, Shr. Ind. i. 92; Is this thy
cunning, 1H6. ii. 1. 50; of thy cunning had no diffidence, iii.
3. 10; in very spite of cunning, Troil. v. 5. 41; Shame, that
they wanted cunning, in excess Hath broke their hearts (Excess
of shame that they were not knowing or wise enough to
banish you, &c.), Tim v. 4. 28; with as much modesty (pro-
priety) as cunning, Hml. ii. 2. 461; errs in ignorance, and not
in cunning (knowingly), Oth. iii. 3. 49; Virtue and cunning,
Per. iii. 2. 27; a solemn wager on your cunnings, Hml.
iv. 7. 156.
cunning, knowing, skilful: cunning men, Shr. i. 1. 97; cunning
schoolmasters, 192; Cunning in music, ii. 1. 56; cunning in
Greek, 81; Nature's own sweet and cunning hand, 12N. i. 5.
258; cunning in fence, iii. 4. 312; wherein cunning, but in
craft? 1H4. ii. 4. 503; Margery Fourdain, the cunning witch,
2H6. i. 2. 75; A cunning man (a wizard, an astrologer) did
calculate my birth, iv. 1. 34; cunning cooks, Rom. iv. 2. 2.
Cupid is a good hare-finder and Vulcan a rare carpenter—To tell
us, “Do you scoff and mock in telling us that Cupid, who
is blind, is a good hare-finder, which requires a quick
eyesight, and that Vulcan, a blacksmith, is a rare carpenter?"
(TOLLET), Ado, i. 1. 186: Perhaps.
curb, to bend, to cringe (Fr. courber): Yea, curb and woo, Hml.
iii. 4. 155.
curiosity, “in the time of Shakespeare, was a word that signifi-
ed an over-nice scrupulousness in manners, dress. &c." (STEE-
VENS): they mocked thee for too much curiosity ("finical delicacy,"
WARBURTON), Tim. iv. 3. 303; curiosity (“exactest scrutiny,”
WARBURTON) in neither can make choice of either's moiety,
Lr. i. 1. 6; The curiosity of nations, i. 2. 4; mine own jealous
curiosity (“a punctilious jealousy, resulting from a scrupulous
watchfulness of his own dignity," STEEVENS), i. 4. 75.
curious, scrupulous, over-punctilious: curious I cannot be with you,
Shr. iv. 4. 36; Though you be therein curious, Ant. iii. 2. 35;·
This is too curious-good, Lucr. 1300.
curious-knotted garden, L.L.L. i. 1. 249: "Ancient gardens
abounded with figures, of which the lines intersected each
other in many directions. Thus, in King Richard II.
C
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots disorder'd, &c.'""
(STEEVENS): "The beds, or plots, disposed in mathematical
symmetry, were the knots" (KNIGHT).
'CURRENTS—CUSTARD.
125
'currents of a heady fight-All the, 1H4. ii. 3. 58. (Globe,
currents). "the 'currents,' i.e. the occurrences." (MALONE).
If the reading currents be retained it may mean courses, as
Prof. Herford explains it.
cursed, "under the influence of a malediction, such as mischiev-
ous beings have been supposed to pronounce upon those
who had offended them" (STEEVENS): unless a man were
cursed, Troil. v. 3. 106.
cursorary, cursory, H5. v. 2. 77.
curst, shrewish, cross-grained, ill-tempered, fierce, irascible, angry,
She is curst, 2G. iii. 1. 347; she's too curst, Ado, ii. 1. 22;
curst wives, L.L.L. iv. 1. 36; I was never curst, M.N.D. iii.
2. 300; she is intolerable curst, Shr. i. 2. 89: Katharina the
curst, 129; a curst shrew, v. 2. 188; be curșt and brief,
(“alludes to the proverb, ‘A curst cur must be tied short,'
DOUCE), 12N. iii. 2. 46; they (bears) are never curst, but when
they are hungry, W.T. iii. 3. 135; be not so curst, R3. i. 2. 49;
with curst ("severe, harsh, vehemently angry," JOHNSON)
speech, Lr. ii. 1. 67; Finding their enemy to be so curst, Ven. 887.
curst, froward, perverse: a curst necessity, H5. i. 2. 175 (Globe,
crush'd, which Schmidt explains, 'forced, strained'; and
Herford, 'one that is overborne, annihilated, by contrary
reasons.')
curstness, grow to the matter-Nor, "Let not ill-humour be
added to the real subject of our difference" (JOHNSON),
Ant. ii. 2. 25.
curtains-Their ragged, Their tattered colours, H5. iv. 2. 41.
curtal dog, M.W. ii. 1. 114; Err. iii. 2. 151; P. Pilg. 273:
"Originally the dog of an unqualified person, which by the
forest laws must have its tail cut short, partly as a mark,
and partly from a notion that the tail of a dog is necessary
to him in running. In later usage, curtail-dog means either
a common dog, not meant for sport, or a dog that missed
his game. It has the latter sense in this passage [i.e. in
the first of the above passages,-Hope is a curtal dog]."
Nares's Gloss.
curtal-Bay', a docked bay horse ("a proper name for a horse,
as well as an appellation for a docked one," DOUCE)
A.W. ii. 3. 65.
curtle-axe, a cutlass, A.Y.L. i. 3. 119; H5. iv. 2. 21.
cust-alorum, M.W. i. 1. 7. [Shallow muddles up the phrase
Custos rotulorum, and the last two syllables recall to Slender's
mind rotulorum, or ratalorum as he thinks it to be.]
custard-Like him that leaped into the, A.W. ii. 5. 41: “It was
a foolery practised at city entertainments, whilst the jester
or zany was in vogue, for him to jump into a large deep
custard, set for the purpose, 'to set on a quantity of barren
spectators to laugh,'" as our poet says in his Hamlet”
126
CUSTARD-COFFIN-CYPRESS.
(THEOBALD): and see The Devil is an Ass,—Fonson`s`
Works, vol. v. p. 14, ed. Gifford: In the passage of our
text there certainly seems to be an allusion to some parti-
cular occurrence of the time.
custard-coffin, the raised crust of a custard, Shr. iv. 3. 62:
compare coffin.
customer, a cant term for a loose woman: I think thee now
some common customer, A.W. v. 3. 287; I marry her!—what,
a customer! Oth. iv. 1. 122.
customer, an accustomed visitor: You minion, you, are these
your customers? Err. iv. 4. 63 (“Aventore, a customer, a
`commer or a frequentor to a place." Florio's Ital, and Engl.
Dict.: Malone's explanation of customers in this passage is
strangely wrong).
cut, a familiar name for a common horse (either from its being
docked or gelded), and sometimes applied to a man as a
term of reproach: call me cut, 12N. ii. 3. 203; beat Cut's
saddle, 1H4 ii. 1. 6; a white cut, forth for to ride, 2N.K. iii. 4. 22.
cut and long-tail-under the degree of a squire-Come, M.W. iii.
4. 47; come cut and long-tail to him, 2N.K. v. 2. 49: In the
first of these passages Slender means to say, “Come what
persons will, under the degree of a squire;" and though,
in the second passage, the Gaoler's daughter is speaking
of the unrivalled accomplishments of the horse which she
imagines Palamon has given to her, it seems to be agreed
that the expression Come cut and long-tail was originally
derived from dogs, and equivalent to "Come dogs of all
sorts." [Possibly cut and long-tail here may = gelding and
stallion.]
cutler's poetry upon a knife, M.V. v. 1. 149: "Knives, as Sir J.
Hawkins observes, were formerly inscribed, by means of
aquafortis, with short sentences in distich" (REED).
cutter, carver, Cymb. ii. 4. 83.
cuttle, 2H4. ii. 4. 139: We are informed by Greene that “The
knife [for cutting a purse is called] the Cuttle boung."
Notable Discovery of Coosenage, &c., 1592, sig. c 2; and so
too by Dekker (who has "Cuttle-bung") in his Belman of
London. &c., sig. H verso, ed. 1608; and here perhaps cuttle
may be explained "cutpurse:" but the context would rather
show that (as Nares in Gloss. suggests) it is equivalent to
"cutter, swaggerer, bully."
cypress let me be laid-In sad, Let me be laid in a coffin
made of sad cypress-wood, 12N. ii. 4. 53: Here some prefer
understanding cypress to mean "a shroud of cypress or
cyprus" (see the next article): but it is at least certain that
formerly coffins were frequently made of cypress-wood
["then in a Cypres coffin she doth close it," i.e. Zerbino's
body: Harington's Orl. Fur. xxiv. 74]; and Douce
!
CYPRUS-DAGONET.
127
remarks thas "the expression laid seems more applicable
to a coffin than to a shroud, and also that the shroud is
afterwards expressly mentioned by itself." (According to
Fortiguerra, when Astolfo died;
"non fu posto in una buca,
Ma con incenso, mirra, ed elisire
Fu imbalsamato, acciò si riconduca
Intero in Francia, e di nero cipresso
Fero une cassa, e sel portaro appresso."
Ricciardetto, c. xix. st. 82.)
cyprus, cipres, or cypress, a fine transparent stuff, similar to
crape, either white or black, but more commonly the latter,
12N. iii. 1. 132; W.T. iv. 4. 221. (It appears by a letter of
H. Walpole to Sir H. Mann, dated April 25th, 1743, that
even at that period cypress was synonymous with crape:
"If one did lose a husband or a lover, there are those be-
coming comforts, weeds and cypresses, jointures and weeping
Cupids." Letters, vol. i. p. 240, ed. Cunningham).
D.
daff, to doff, to do off, to put off, Ado, v. 1. 78; Ant. iv. 4.
13; Ado, ii. 3. 176; 1H4. iv. 1. 96; Oth. iv. 2. 176.
dagger hath mista'en,-for, lo, his house Is empty on the back
of Montague-This, Rom. v. 3. 203: His dagger having
been worn, as daggers often were, behind his back.
dagger—Laying down her, Rom. iv. 3. dir.: see Knife I'll help, &c.
dagger of lath, the wooden instrument which was sometimes.
carried by the Vice in the old Moralities, and with which
he used to belabour the Devil (see Vice, &c.), 12N. iv. 2.
136: 1H4. ii. 4. 151 (cf. 2H6. iv. 2. 2; Tit. ii. 1. 41).
Dagonet, in Arthur's show-I was then Sir, 2H4. iii. 2. 300:
"The question whether Shallow represented Sir Dagonet
at Mile-end-green or Clement's inn, although it has been
maintained on either side with great plausibility, must ever
remain undecided; but Mr. Malone's acute and ingenious
conjecture, that Arthur's show was an exhibition of archery,
and not an interlude, will no longer admit of any doubt.
The truth of both these positions will appear from the
following circumstances. In 1682 there was published ‘A
remembrance of the worthy show and shooting by the Duke
of Shoreditch and his associates the worshipful citizens of
London upon Tuesday the 17th of September 1583, set
forth according to the truth thereof to the everlasting
honour of the game of shooting in the long bow. By W. M.,
in p. 40 of which book is this passage: "The prince of
famous memory, King Henry the Eighth, having red in the
128
DAGONET.
chronicles of England, and seen in his own time how
armies mixed with good archers have evermore so galled
the enemy, that it hath been great cause of the victory,
he being one day at Mile-end when prince Arthur and his
knights were there shooting did greatly commend the game,
and allowed thereof, lauding them to their encouragement.'
One should be very much inclined to suppose this decisive
of the first question, and that these shows were usually
held at Mile-end; but this is by no means the case. The
work proceeds to state that King Henry the Eighth, keeping,
at one time a princely court at Windsor, caused sundry
matches to be made concerning shooting with the long
bow; at which one Barlo, who belonged to his majesty's
guard, remaining to shoot, the king said to him, 'Win thou
all, and thou shalt be duke over all archers.' Barlo drew
his bow and won the match; whereat the king being pleased,
commended him for his good archery; and the man dwell-
ing in Shoreditch, the king named him Duke of Shoreditch.
One of the successors to this duke appointed a show on
the 17th of September 1583, to be held in Smithfield and
other parts of the city, which is here very circumstantially
described; and among many other curious particulars it is
mentioned that the citizens and inhabitants of Fleetbridge,
&c., followed with a show worth beholding of seemly
archers; 'then the odd devise of Saint Clements parish,
which but ten days before had made the same show in
their own parish, in setting up the queen's majesties stake
in Holborn fields, which stakemaster Knevit, one of the
gentlemen of her majesties chamber, gave unto them at
his cost and charges; and a gunn worth three pound, made
of gold, to be given unto him that best deserved it by
shooting in a peece at the mark which was set up on pur-
pose at Saint James' wall.' This, however, was not solely
a shooting with fire-arms, but also with bows; for in the
account of the show itself, which immediately follows, men
bearing 'shields and shafts' are mentioned, and a worthy
show of archers following. In the continuation of the de-
scription of the Smithfield show mention is made of 'the
baron Stirrop, whose costly stake will be in memorys after
he is dead, now standing at Mile-cnd;' and again, ‘And
this one thing is worthy of memory, that upon the day of
Prince Arthur's shooting, which was five weeks before this
show, the duke, willing to beautifie the same in some
seemly sort, sent a buck of that season by the marquess
Barlo (the name of this person was kept up long after his
decease), accompanied with many goldsmiths, who coming
in satten dublets and chains of gold about their bodies,
with horns at their backs, did all the way wind their horns,
DAGONET.
129
and presented the same to prince Arthur, who was at his
tent, which was at Mile-cnd green.' We see therefore that
Shakespeare having both these shows in his recollection,
has made Shallow, a talkative simpleton, refer to them
indistinctly, and that probably by design, and with a due
attention to the nature of his character. What Shallow
afterwards says about the management of the little quiver
fellow's piece, or caliver, will not weigh in either scale;
because in all these shows there were musketeers. In that
at Smithfield the feryers marched, consisting of 'one hundred
handsome fellowes with calivers on their necks, all trimly
decked with white feathers, in their hats.' Maister Thomas
Smith, who in Mr. Malone's note is said to have personated
Prince Arthur, was 'chiefe customer to her majesty in the
port of London;' and to him Richard Robinson, a trans-
lator of several books in the reign of Elizabeth, dedicated
his Auncient order, societie and unitie laudable of Prince
Arthure and his knightly armory of the round table, with a
threefold assertion frendly in favour and furtherance of
English archery at this day, 1583, 4to. Such part of this
work as regards Prince Arthur is chiefly a translation from
the French, being a description of the arms of the knights
of the round table; the rest is a panegyric in verse by
Robinson himself in praise of archery. It appears from
the dedication that King Henry VIII. confirmed by charter
to the citizens of London, the 'famous order of knightes
of prince Arthur's round table or society: like as in his
life time when he sawe a good archer in deede, he chose
him and ordained such a one for a knight of the same
order.'. . . . Whatever part Sir Dagonet took in this show
would doubtless be borrowed from Mallory's romance of
the Mort Arture, which had been compiled in the reign of
Henry VII. What there occurs relating to Sir Dagonet was
extracted from the excellent and ancient story of Tristan
de Leonnois, in which Dagonet is represented as the fool
of king Arthur. He is sometimes dressed up in armour
and set on to attack the knights of Cornwall, who are
uniformly described as cowards. It once happened that a
certain knight who for a particular reason had been called
Sir Cotte mal tallée by Sir Kay, King Arthur's seneschal,
was, at the instance of Sir Kay, attacked by poor Dagonet;
but the latter was very soon made to repent of his rashness
and thrown over his horse's crupper. On another occasion
Tristan himself, in the disguise of a fool, handles Sir
Dagonet very roughly; but he, regardless of these tricks.
of fortune, is afterwards persuaded to attack Mark the
king of Cornwall, who is in reality a coward of the first
magnitude. Mark, supposing him to be Lancelot of the
9
130
DAINTRY-DANGER.
lake, runs away, and is pursued by the other; but the
persons who had set on Sir Dagonet, becoming appre-
hensive for the consequences, follow them, as 'they would
not,' says the romance, 'for no good, that Sir Dagonet
were hurt; for king Arthur loved him passing well, and
made him knight with his owne hands." King Mark at
length meets with another knight, who, perceiving his
cowardice, attacks Dagonet and tumbles him from his horse.
In the romance of Sir Perceval li Gallois, Kay, the seneschal
of Arthur, being offended with Dagonet for insinuating that
he was not the most valorous of knights, kicks him into
the fire. So much for the hero personed by Master Justice
Shallow" (Douce).
Daintry, Daventry, 3H6. v. 1. 6.
dainty-Make: see make dainty.
daisy-There's a, Hml. iv. 5. 184: Does Ophelia mean that the
daisy is for herself? "Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart
Courtier, has explained the significance of this flower:
-Next them grew the dissembling daisie, to warne such
light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that
such amorous bachelors make then' [Sig. B 2 verso, ed.
1620]” (HENLey).
Damascus, be thou cursed Cain-This be, 1H6. i. 3. 39: Ritson
quotes: "Damascus is as moche to saye as shedynge of
blood. For there Chaym slowe Abell, and hidde hym in
the sonde." Polychronicon, fo. xii.
damn, to condemn: with a spot I damn him, J.C. iv. 1. 6; or
else we damn thee, Ant. i. I. 24.
damn'd in a fair wife, Oth. i. 1. 21.
Damon dear, Hml. iii. 2. 292: The ballad (for it would seem
to have been a ballad) which furnished this quotation was
most probably on the story of Damon and Pythias.
Dan Cupid, L.L.L. 1. 182: Dan-lord, sir, master-is the cor-
ruption of Dan, for Dominus; originally a title applied to
monks, which at last, when it became rather obsolete, was
used sportively, as in the present passage.
dance, to make to dance: more dances my rapt heart, Cor. iv. 5. 122.
dancing horse-The: see horse, &c.
dancing-rapier-A, Tit. ii. 1. 39: Compare no sword worn But
one to dance with! A.W. ii. 1. 33, and he at Philippi kept
His sword e'en like a dancer, Ant. iii. 11. 36.
danger—Within one's, Meant properly "within one's power or
control, liable to a penalty which he might impose;" but
it was often, as in the first of the following passages,
equivalent to "in debt to one:" You stand within his danger,
do you not? M.V. iv. 1. 180; Come not within his danger by
thy will, Ven. 639 (With the first of these passages compare
the xxviiith of A Hundred Mery Talys, 1526, in which tale
DANK-DARNEL.
131
a woman, having vainly tried to borrow "a cuckold's hat”
from her female married acquaintance, declares to them at
last, "yf I lyue another yere I wyll haue one of myn own
and be out of my neyghbours daunger (i.e. be not under
the necessity of standing indebted to my neighbours, p. 53,
ed. 1866).
dank here as a dog— As: damp, wet. Compare sweat like a dog,
etc. [in Faustus, Qo 1616, p. 117, ed. Dyce,-"I am as dry
as a dog, thirsty'].
Danskers, Danes, Hml. ii. 1. 7.
dare, a defiance, a challenge: Sextus Pompeius Hath given the
dare to Cæsar, Ant. i. 2. 191.
B
dare, to terrify: dare the field, H5. iv. 2. 36; dare us with his
cap like larks, H8. iii. 2. 282,-on which passage Steevens
observes; "It is well known that the hat of a cardinal is
scarlet; and that one of the methods of daring larks was
by small mirrors fastened on scarlet cloth, which engaged
the attention of these birds while the fowler drew his net
over them." (They set out their faces as Fowlers do their
daring glasses, that the Larkes that soare highest may stoope
soonest." Greene's Neuer to late, First Part, sig. в 3 verso,
ed. 1611) [See Macpherson's Hist. of Fowling, Chap. vii.]
Darius-The rich-jewell'd coffer of, 1H6. i. 6. 25: "When
Alexander the Great took the city Gaza, the metropolis of
Syria, amidst the other spoils and wealth of Darius trea-
sured up there, he found an exceeding rich and beautiful
little chest or casket. Having surveyed the singular rarity
of it, and asked those about him what they thought fittest
to be laid up in it: when they had severally delivered
their opinions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy
to be preserved in it as Homer's Iliads. Vide Plutarchum
in Vita Alexand. Magni” (THEOBALD): "The very words
of the text are found in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie,
1589; 'In what price the noble poemes of Homer were
holden with Alexander the Great, insomuch as every night
they were layd under his pillow, and by day were carried
in the rich iewell cofer of Darius, lately before vanquished
by him in battaile' [p. 12]" (MALONE).
darkling, in darkness, M.N.D. ii. 2. 86; Lr. i. 4. 237 ; Ant. iv. 15. 10.
darnel, H5. v. 2. 45; 1H6. iii. 2. 44; Lr. iv. 4. 5: This weed
“darnell (lolium temulentum), annual darnel or ray grass,
grows in fields, has a tall stout stem with rough leav
flowers in July or August," &c. Beisly's Shakspere's Gar
&c., p. 113: On the second of the passages referred
this article Steevens has the following note; "Darne
Gerard) hurteth the eyes, and maketh them dim, if it
either in corne for breade, or drinke.' Hence
proverb-Lolio victitare, applied to such as w

132
DARRAIGN-DEAL.
sighted. . . . Pucelle means to intimate, that the corn she
carried with her, had produced the same effect on the
guards of Rouen; otherwise they would have seen through
her disguise, and defeated her stratagem."
•
darraign your battle, 3H6. ii. 2. 72: Johnson explains this,
"Range your host, put your host in order:" Steevens
observes, “The quartos read 'Prepare your battle: ' Nares,
in his Gloss., gives “To Darraign. To arrange an army,
or set it in order of battle. Of uncertain derivation.
Often for to fight a battle, and even when between two
combatants." ("Dare, Audere. . . . Hinc etiam daren, dar-
raine, darreigne battle frequenter occurrunt apud Chaucerum.
Nisi putes hæc à causis forensibus ad armorum certamina.
fuisse translata: ut sint à Normannico, desrener, quod idem
cum Dirationare vel Disrationare." Junii Etymol. Angl.:
'Desrener. To dereine; to justifie, or make good, the denyall
of an act or fact. Norm." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.:
'Darreine. Fr. Desrener. Lat. Derationare. To contest."
Tyrwhitt's Gloss. to Chaucer.)
dash the herald will contrive-Some loathsome, Lucr. 206; W.T.
V. 2. 122: "In the books of heraldry a particular mark of
disgrace is mentioned, by which the escutcheons of those
persons were anciently distinguished, who 'discourteously
used a widow, maid, or wife, against her will," &c. (MALONE).
date, a fruit which was formerly used in various kinds of pastry
and other dishes, and which frequently gave rise to quibbles,
as in the following passages: Your date is better in your
pie and your porridge than in your check, A.W. i. 1. 172;
and then to be baked with no date in the pie, &c., Troil.
i. 2. 280.
daub, to disguise: I cannot daub it further, Lr. iv. 1. 54; he
daub'd his vice, R3. iii. 5. 29.
daubery, imposture, gullery, juggling, M.W. iv. 2. 186.
Davy Gam: see Gam-Davy.
day-bed, a couch, a sofa, 12N. ii. 5. 54; R3. iii. 7. 72.
day woman, a dairy-woman, L.L.L. i. 2. 136.
dead elm, 2H4. ii. 4. 358. References to the vine clinging to
the elm constantly recur in Eliz. poetry. Here the allusion
is to Falstaff's relations to Miss Tearsheet.
deadly-standing, fixed with deadly purpose, Tit. ii. 3. 32.
deal, a part, a portion: My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal
(“in no degree, more or less," (STEEVENS), P. Pilgr. 271.
l in her command, without her power, Tp. v. 1. 271: “Shakes-
peare, I conceive, had here in his thoughts vicarious and
elegated authorities. He who 'deals in the command,'
in other words, executes the office of another, is termed
lieutenant or vicegerent; and is usually authorized and
missioned to act by his superior. Prospero therefore,

DEALT-DEAR.
133
I think, means to say, that Sycorax could control the
moon, and act as her vicegerent, without being commis-
sioned, authorized, or empowered by her so to do" MALONE):
"[We have here] the original and etymological sense of
power or pouvoir; potestas, not vis; what we now call
authority or legal power" (WALKER): In this passage without
her power has been explained “beyond her power,”—quite
erroneously, I believe.
dealt on lieutenantry, "fought by proxy, made war by his
lieutenants, or on the strength of his lieutenants” (STEEVENS),
Ant. iii. II. 39.
.
dear loss-The, Tp. v. 1. 146; Full of dear guiltiness, L.L.L.
v. 2. 801; the clamours of their own dear groans, 874; it is
a dear expense, M.N.D. i. 1. 249; dear perfection, A.W. v. 3.
18; Rom. ii. 2. 46; in terms so bloody and so dear, 12N.
V. I. 74; my dear offence, K.J. i. 1. 257; a dear account,
Ado, iv. 1. 337; they dear exile, R2. i. 3. 151; so dear a
show of zeal, 1H4. v. 4. 95; this dear and deep rebuke, 2H4.
iv. 5. 141; your dear offences, H5. ii. 2. 181; in such dear
degree, R3. i. 4. 215; so dear a loss, R3. ii. 2. 77; dear peti-
tion, Troil. v. 3. 9; this dear sight, Tit. iii. 1. 257; O dear
account! Rom. i. 5. 120; full of charge Of dear import, v. 2.
19; In dear employment, v. 3. 32; dear divorce 'Twixt natural
son and sire! Tim. iv. 3. 382; our dear peril, v. 1. 231;
some dear cause, Lr. iv. 3. 53; their dear loss, Cymb. v. 5.
345; many dearer ("of greater value," JOHNSON) in this
bloody fray, 1H4. v. 4. 108; dearest spirits, L.L.L. ii. 1. 1;
dearest groans, A.W. iv. 5. 11; dearest enemy, 1H5. iii. 2.
123; dearest speed, v. 5. 36; dearest need, R3. v. 2. 21
dearest foe, Hml. i. 2. 182; dearest action, Oth. i. 3. 85;
dearest spite, Sonn. 37: "Throughout Shakespeare and all
the poets of his and a much later day, we find this epithet
[dearest] applied to that person or thing, which, for or against
us, excites the liveliest and strongest interest. It is used
variously, indefinitely and metaphorically, to express the
warmest feelings of the soul; its nearest, most intimate,
home and heartfelt emotions: and here ['my dearest foe,'
Hamlet, act i. sc. 2], no doubt, though, as every where else,
more directly interpreted, signifying 'veriest, extremest,
must by consequence and figuratively import 'bitterest,
deadliest, most mortal.' As extremes are said in a certain
sense to approximate, and are in many respects alike or
the same, so this word is made in a certain sense to carry
with it an union of the fiercest opposites: it is made to
signify the extremes of love and hatred. It may be said
to be equivalent generally to very; and to import 'the
excess, the utmost, the superlative' of that, whatever it may
be, to which it is applied (RICHARDSON).
134
DEAR'D-DEBATE.
dear'd, endeared, Ant. i. 4. 44.
dearly-Hated his father, A.Y.L. i. 3. 35; how dearly ever parted
("however excellently endowed," JOHNSON), Troil. iii. 3. 96;
we dearly grieve, Hml. iv. 3. 43: see dear, &c.
dearth and rareness—And his infusion of such, Hml. v. 2. 123:
"Dearth is dearness, value, price: 'and his internal qualities
of such value and rarity [excellence]"" (JOHNSON).
Death his court; and there the antic sits, &c.—Keeps, R2. iii.
2. 162: "Some part of this fine description might have been
suggested from the seventh print in the Imagines Mortis,
a celebrated series of wooden cuts which have been im-
properly attributed to Holbein. It is probable that Shakes-
peare might have seen some spurious edition of this work;
for the great scarcity of the original in this country in
former times is apparent, when Hollar could not procure
the use of it for his copy of the Dance of Death”
(DOUCE).
death, which laugh'st us here to scorn-Thou antic, 1H6. iv.
7. 18: Perhaps in this passage, too, the idea was suggested
by the work mentioned in the preceding article.
death-That whoso draws a sword, 'tis present, That whoso
draws a sword within the precincts of the court is liable
to be punished [immediately] with death, 1H6. iii. 4. 39
death-Took it, on his, K.J. i. 1. 110: This is explained by
Steevens, "Entertained it as his fixed opinion, when he
was dying": but I believe that here upon his death is merely
an asseveration, or sort of oath, as it is in King Henry IV.,
Part First, act v. sc. 4 [l. 154], where Falstaff says, “Ill take
it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh."
Compare, too;
Gripe. But I am sure she loues not him.
Will. Nay, I dare take it on my death she loues him.'
>>
Wily Begvilde, sig. C verso, ed. 1606.
death-To please the fool and: see fool and death, &c.
death's fool - Merely, thou art: see fool-Merely, &c.
death's-man, an executioner, 2H6. iii. 2. 217; Lr. iv. 6. 263;
Lucr. 1001; deaths-men, 3H6. v. 5. 67.
death-practis'd duke―The, The duke whose death is planned
by stratagem or treachery (see practice), Lr. iv. 6. 284.
death tokens of't-The, "Alluding to the decisive spots appear-
ing on those infected by the plague" (STEEVENS), Troil. ii.
3. 187: compare Lord's tokens-The, and token'd pesti-
lence-The.
debate, contention, fighting: lost in the world's debate, L.L.L.
i. 1. 174; this debate that bleedeth at our doors, 2H4. iv. 4. 2
(“God make you a fortunate knight, and give you good
successe in all your debates." Shelton's translation of
DEBITOR-DEFEATURE.
135
Don Quixote, Part First, p. 22, ed. 1612: Dryden uses the
word in the same sense;
"Till in some living stream I cleanse the guilt
Of dire debate and blood in battle spilt."
Eneid, B. ii. v. 978).
debitor and creditor, Oth. i. 1. 31; Cymb. v. 4. 171: That is,
says Johnson, "an accounting-book" (Compare the title-
page of a very early work on book-keeping; "A Profitable
Treatyce called the Instrument or Boke to learne to knowe
the good order of the kepyng of the famouse reconynge,
called in Latyn, Dare and Habere, and in Englyshe, Debitor
and Creditor," &c., 1543, 4to).
deceivable, deceptious, 12N. iv. 3. 21; R2. ii. 3. 84.
deceive the time,—with best advantage will, R3. v. 3. 92: “I will
use opportunity as advantageously as I can, in order to
slip out of the difficulties of my position, and help you."
(PAYNE SMITH).
deck, a pack of cards: The king was slily finger'd from the deck,
3H6. v. I. 44.
deck'd the sea with drops full salt, Tp. i. 2. 155: Here deck'd
would seem to be a form, if be not a corruption, of the
provincialism degg'd, i.e. "sprinkled." ("DEG, To sprinkle."
Craven Dialect.)
decline, to lean, to incline: far more to you do I decline, Err.
iii. 2. 44; declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of
Spain, 138.
decline, to "run through from first to last-a phrase the poet
borrowed from his grammar" (MALONE): Decline all this,
R3. iv. 4. 97; I'll decline the whole question (“deduce the
question from the first case to the last," JOHNSON), Troil.
ii. 3. 55.
decrees, "resolutions" (WALKER): That so my sad decrees may
fly away, Tit. v. 2. 11.
deed of saying-The, "The doing of that which we have said
we would do, the accomplishment and performance of our
promise" (MALONE), Tim. v. 1. 28.
deem, a judgment, an opinion, a notion: what wicked deem is
this? Troil. iv. 4. 61.
deep-fet, deep-fetched, 2H6. ii. 4. 33.
deer, animals in general: such small deer, Lr. iii. 4. 144.
default-In the, “At a need" (JONHSON), A.W. ii. 3. 242.
defeat, an undoing, a destruction: A damn'd defeat was made,
Hml. ii. 2. 598; their defeat Doth by their own insinuation
grow, v. 2. 58.
defeat, to undo, to alter, to disguise: defeat thy favour (counte-
nance) with an usurped beard, Oth. i. 3. 346.
defeature, alteration of features, deformity, disfigurement, Ven.
736; defeatures, Err. ii. 1. 98; v. 1. 299.
136
DEFENCE—DEMURING.
defence, the science of defence, of sword-play: For art and
exercise in your defence, Hml. iv. 7. 98.
defend-God: see God defend.
defend-Heaven: see heaven defend.
defensible - Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
Did seem, 2H4. ii. 3. 38: "Defensible does not in this place
mean capable of defence, but bearing strength, furnishing
the means of defence; the passive for the active participle
[sic]" (MALONE).
defiance, a refusal: Take my defiance, M.M. iii. 1. 143.
deformed hand-Time's, Time's deforming hand, Err. v. 1. 298
(the passive participle for the active).
deftly, dexterously, adroitly, Mcb. iv. 1. 68.
defunctive, music can, Phoen. 14: that understands funereal
musick. (Malone).
defuse, see diffuse.
defy, to refuse, to reject, to renounce: I defy all angels, M.W.
ii. 2. 74; I defy all counsel, K.J. iii. 4. 23; All studies here
I solemnly defy, 1H4. i. 3. 228; I defy the tongues of soothers,
iv. 1. 6; I do defy thy conjurations, Rom. v. 3. 68; Age, I
do defy thee, P. Pilg. 167: breaths that I defied not, A.Y.L.
Epil. 21.
degrees, steps: the base ("low," (JOHNSON, lower) degrees By
which he did ascend, J.C. ii. 1. 26.
delations, accusations, informations, Oth. iii. 3. 123.
Delated, see Dilated.
delighted spirit - The, "The spirit accustomed here to ease
and delights" (WARBURTON), “The spirit engaged in earthly
delights, enjoying the pleasures of this world" (WALKER),
M.M. iii. 1. 121.
delighted beauty lack, &c.—If virtue no, Oth. i. 3. 290:
"The meaning, I believe, is, if virtue comprehends every
thing in itself, then your virtuous son-in-law of course is
beautiful: he has that beauty which delights every one.
Delighted for delighting; Shakespeare often uses the active
and passive participles indiscriminately" (STEEVENS): Here
Walker explains delighted "endowed with delights, deliciis
exornata."
delighted-The more delay'd, The more delighting or delightful
for being delayed, Cymb. v. 4. 102.
deliverly, nimbly, actively, 2N.K. iii. 5. 29.
demerits, synonymous with merits: Of his demerits rob Comi-
nius, Cor. i. 1. 276; my demerits May speak, unbonneted, &c.,
Oth. i. 2. 22.
demise, to transfer, to convey, R3. iv. 4. 247.
demurely wake the sleepers, Ant. iv. 9. 31: soberly, gravely
(SCHMIDT). Hanmer reads: drums' din early wakes.
demuring, looking demurely, Ant. iv. 15. 29.
DEN-DEPRIVE.
den: see god-den and good den.
137
denay, a denial, 12N. ii. 4. 127 (“Of milde denaies, of tender
scornes," &c. Fairfax's translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme,
B. xvi. st. 25).
denay'd, denied, 2H6. i. 3. 107.
denier, “the twelfth part of a French sous" (STEEVENS), used to
signify a very trifling sum, Shr. Ind. 1. 9; 1H4. iii. 3. 91;
R3. i. 2. 252.
denunciation, M.M. i. 2. 152: formal declaration.
deny, to refuse, to reject, to renounce: Do all they deny her?
A.W. ii. 3. 92; deny his offer'd homage (refuse to receive
the homage he offers), R2. ii. 1. 204; With mine own ton-
gue deny my sacred state, iv. 1. 209; He does deny him, Tim.
iii. 2. 81; And he that's once denied will hardly speed, Tim.
iii. 2. 69.
depart, a departure: At my depart I gave this unto Julia, 2G.
v. 4. 96; at my depart for France, 2H6. i. 1. 2; your loss
and his depart, 3H6. ii. 1. 110; At my depart, iv. 1. 92.
depart, to separate: Ere we depart, we'll share a bounteous
time, Tim. i. 1. 263.
depart with, to part with: Which we much rather had depart
withal, L.L.L. ii. 1. 147; I may depart with little, 2N.K. ii.
1. 1; Hath willingly departed with a part, K.J. ii. 1. 563.
departing-Like life and death's, 2H6. ii. 6. 43: "Departing
for separation" (MALONE).
depend, to be in service: the remainder that shall depend, Lr.
i. 4. 271: So stinkingly depending, M.M. iii. 2. 28.
depend― Our jealousy Does yet, Cymb. iv. 3. 23: "My suspicion
is yet undetermined; if I do not condemn you, I likewise
have not acquitted you. We now say, the cause is depend-
ing (JOHNSON).
depose, to cause to make solemn deposition, "to examine on
oath" (Johnson's Dict.): Depose him in the justice of his
cause, R2. i. 3. 30.
depose, to give witness, to attest, to declare upon oath: seeing
'twas he that made you to depose, 3H6. i. 2. 26.
deprave, to vilify, to traduce: flout, deprave, and slander, Ado,
v. i. 95.
deprive, to take away: Which might deprive your sovereignty
of reason, Hml. i. 4. 73; 'Tis honour to deprive dishonour'd
life, Lucr. 1186; That life was mine which thou hast here
depriv'd, 1752. (There is no doubt that Gifford misunder-
stood the first of these passages, in which he supposed
"sovereignty" to be "a title of respect:" The meaning is
"Which might take away the sovereignty of your reason,"
or, as Steevens explains it, “take away from you the com-
mand of reason, by which man is governed:" Compare
"The seuenth [commandment is] to stele nor depryue no
138
DEPRIVE-DESERVED.
mannes goodes by thefte," &c. A Hundred Mery Talys,
1526. p. 102, ed. 1866:
(C
And now, this hand, that, with vngentle force
Depryu'd his life, shall with repentant seruice
Make treble satisfaction to his soule."
The Tryall of Cheualry, 1605, sig F 3:
"For pitty, do not my heart blood deprive,
Make me not childless," &c.
Sylvester's Du Bartas,-The Magnificence.
p. 210, ed. 1641;
where the original has "Ne me priue de sang," &c.:
But yet the sharp disease (which doth his health deprive)
With-holdeth in some sort his senses and his wit," &c.
A Paradox against Libertie, from the French of
Odet de la Nove; id. p. 313:
"In short, this day our scepter had depriv'd,
Had I not," &c.
The History of Judith, translated by Hudson;
id. p. 377.)
deprive, to disinherit: permit The curiosity of nations to deprive
me, Lr. i. 2. 4.
deputation, delegated authority, Troil. i. 3. 152.
deracinate, to force up by the roots, to root up, H5. v. 2. 47;
Troil. i. 3. 99.
dern, lonely, dreary, secret ("Dern [lonely], Solitarius, moestus."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), Per. iii. Gow. 15..
derogate, degraded: her derogate body, Lr. i. 4. 302.
derogate, to degrade one's self: cannot derogate, Cymb. ii.
I. 48; do not derogate, 51.
derogately, with derogation, Ant. ii. 2. 34.
descant-Too harsh a, 2G. i. 2. 94; on that ground I'll make
a holy descant (used metaphorically), R3. iii. 7. 49: "The
name of Descant is vsurped [¿.e. used] of the musitions in
diuers significations: sometime they take it for the whole
harmony of many voyces; others sometime, for one of the
voyces or partes; and that is, when the whole song is not
passing three voyces. Last of all, they take it for singing
a part extempore vpon a playnesong, in which sence we
commonly vse it: so that when a man talketh of a Descanter,
it must be vnderstood of one that can extempore sing a
part vpon a playne song." Morley's Plaine and Easie
Introduction to Practicall Musicke, &c., 1597, folio, p. 70:
"Descant signified formerly what we now denominate varia-
tions" (MALONE).
descry Stands on the hourly thought-The main," The main body is
expected to be descried every hour" (JOHNSON), Lr. iv. 6. 217.
deserved, used for deserving: Towards her deserved children,
Cor. iii. 1. 292.
DESIGN-DEVOTED.
139
design, to mark out, to show: Justice design the victor's chivalry,
R2. i. 1. 203.
desire you of more acquaintance—I shall, I shall desire more
acquaintance of you, M.N.D. iii. 1. 185; I desire you of the
like, I desire the like of you, A.Y.L. v. 4. 56.
despair, unless I be relied by prayer-And my ending is, Tp.
Epil. 15: "This alludes to the old stories told of the despair
of necromancers in their last moments, and of the efficacy
of the prayers of their friends for them" (WARBURTON).
desperate, bold, venturous, confident: I will make a desperate
tender Of my child's love, Rom. iii. 4. 12.
detect, to display, to discover: To let thy tongue detect thy
base-born heart, 3H6. ii. 2. 143.
detected for women, M.M. iii. 2. 130: Has been explained,
“suspected, accused, charged, in the matter of women:"
but does it not merely mean discovered," &c.?
detected with a jealous rotten bell-wether-An intolerable fright,
to be, M.W. iii. 5. 111: Here detected with is equivalent to
detected of or by; "I was in an intolerable fright lest I
should be discovered by," &c.
determinate, “determined, ended, out of date. The term is
used in legal conveyances" (MALONE): My bonds in thee
are all determinate, Sonn. 87.
determinate, to end, to bring to a conclusion: The fly-slow
hours shall not determinate, &c., R2. i. 3. 150.
determination, an end: Find no determination, Sonn. 13.
determine, to put an end to: Till his friend sickness hath
determin'd me, 2H4. iv. 5. 82.
determine, to end, to conclude: Must all determine here? Cor.
iii. 3. 43; till These wars determine, V. 3. 120; To my deter-
min'd time thou gav'st new date, 1H6. iv. 6. 9; as it determines
("as the hail-stone dissolves," MASON), Ant. iii. 13. 161.
detest, a blunder for protest: I detest, an honest maid, M.W.
i. 4. 160; I detest before heaven, M.M. ii. 1. 69.
devesting them, undressing themselves, Oth. ii. 3. 181.
devil drives-He must needs go that the, A proverbial expression,
A.W. i. 3. 32 see it in Ray's Proverbs, p. 97, ed. 1768.
devil i̇ the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a
wooden dagger-This roaring, H5. iv. 4. 75: An allusion to
the Devil in the old Moralities, who was frequently belabour-
ed with the wooden dagger of the Vice: see Vice, &c.
devil rides upon a fiddle-stick-The, 1H4. ii. 4. 534: A proverbial
expression (Steevens cites from Fletcher's Humorous Lieu-
tenant,
The fiend rides on a fiddle-stick." Act iv. sc. 4).
devote, devoted: devote to Aristotle's ethics, Shr. i. 1. 32. See
Checks.
devoted, consecrated: devoted charitable deeds, R3. i. 2. 35.
140
DEWBERRIES-DIE.
dewberries, M.N.D. iii. 1. 169: "Dew-berries, Baccæ rubi re-
pentis." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.: “Dewberry (Rubus
cæsius). This plant grows on the borders of fields and on
the banks of hedges and ditches. The fruit is very pleasant
to the taste, and consists of a few drupes half enclosed in
the calyx and covered with a grey bloom. It generally
grows close to the ground, and the fruit is ripe in Septem-
ber." Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 51.
diablo, the devil,—an exclamation (Span.), Oth. ii. 3. 161.
dialogue between the fool and the soldier, A.W. iv. 3. 112:
"Some popular production of this kind probably then exist
ed. It is a species of performance of which John Heywood
seem to have been the inventor in the reign of Henry VIII."
(COLLIER).
Diana in the fountain, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 154: [Stow describes a
fountain erected in Cheapside in 1596, “and in the same
an alabaster image of Diana, and water conveyed from the
Thames prilling from her naked breast." In the 1603 ed.
of the Chronicle, Stow tells us that the water did not flow
any longer, and that the figure was gone to ruin. Thus
we have an indication limiting the date of the play. Possibly
the reference may be to another fountain thus described
by Drayton, etc. England's Heroicall Epistles (Rosamond):—
Heere in the garden wrought by curious hands,
Naked Diana in the fountain stands,
With all her Nimphes got round about to hide her,
As when Acteon had by chance espide her;
This sacred Image I no sooner view'd,
But as that metamorphosde man pursu'd
By his own hounds; so by my thoughts am I,
Which chase me still, which way so ere I flie."
1605 ed. (Sp. Soc. p. 174.)
Compare the Madrigal in Arber's Garner iii. 350.]
Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower, M.N.D. iv. i. 78: "Dian's bud
is the bud of the Agnus Castus or Chaste Tree. Cupid's
flower is the Viola tricolor or Love-in-idleness [or pansy or
heart's-ease]." STEEVENS.
dich, Tim. i. 2. 73. Apparently a corruption of do it (ye).
Dickon, a familiar and vulgar alteration of Richard, R3. v. 3. 305.
Dictynna, L.L.L. iv. 2. 37; 38: "Shakespeare might have found
this uncommon title for Diana in the Second Book of
Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis" (STEEVENS):
Δίκτυνα Οι Δίκτυνια (from δίκτυον, a hunting-net).
Dido and her Eneas shall want troops, Ant. iv. 14. 53: Here
Eneas must be an oversight of the poet for "Sychæus."
die and drab I purchased this caparison-With, "With gaming
and whoring I brought myself to this shabby dress" (PERCY),
W.T. iv. 3. 27.
DIET-DIRECTITUDE.
141
diet, the regimen prescribed for those suffering from the lues
venerea: like one that takes diet, 2G. ii. 1. 25; unless they
kept very good diet, M.M. ii. 1. 116; The tub-fast and the
diet, Tim. iv. 3 87.
diet me-May justly, "May justly constrain me to fast, by
depriving me of the dues of a wife" (HEATH), A.W. v. 3.
221; dieted (restricted), iv. 3. 35.
difference, an heraldic term: let him bear it for a difference
(distinction), Ado, i. 1. 69; wear your rue with a difference,
Hml. iv. 5. 183.
differing multitudes, "unsteady multitudes, who are continually
changing their opinions, and condemn to-day what they
yesterday applauded" (MASON), Cymb. iii. 6. 86.
diffidence, distrust, K.J. i. 1. 65; 1H6. iii. 3. 10; diffidences,
Lr. i. 2. 161.
diffuse, to disorder: That can my speech diffuse (That can so
disorder my speech that it may be as much disguised as
my person), Lr. 1. 4. 2. (Globe defuse)
diffused, wild, irregular, extravagant: some diffusèd song, M.W.
iv. 4. 54; diffus'd attire, H5. 5. 2. 61. (Gl. defused); diffus'd
infection of a man ("I believe diffus'd in this place signifies.
irregular, uncouth," JOHNSON; "diffus'd infection of a man
may mean, 'thou that art as dangerous as a pestilence that
infects the air by its diffusion," STEEVENS), R3. i. 2. 78.
(Gl. defused.) ("He that marketh our follies in being
passing humorous for the choyse of apparell, shall finde
Ouids confused chaos to affoord a multitude of defused inuen-
tions." Greene's Farewell to Follie, sig. c 2 verso, ed. 1617.)
diggt. Fluellen's Welsh pronunciation of digged, H5. iii. 2. 67.
(Globe, digt.)
digression, a deviation from virtue: example my digression by
some mighty precedent, L.L.L. i. 2. 121; my digression is so
vile, Lucr. 202.
dilated articles allow-The scope Of these, "The tenor of these
articles, set out at large, authorizes" (CALDECOTT), Hml. 1.
2. 38. (Globe, delated.)
dild you-God: see God dild you.
diluculo surgere [saluberrimum est], to rise at dawn is most
healthy: 12N. ii. 3. 2.
diminutives, very small pieces of money: poor'st diminutives,
Ant. iv. 12. 37.
dinner's done, we'll forth again-So soon as, Tim. ii. 2. 14:
“i.e. to hunting, from which diversion, we find by Flavius's
speech, he was just returned. It may be here observed,
that in our authors's time it was the custom to hunt as well
after dinner as before." (REED.)
directitude, Cor. iv. 5. 222. [A servant's blunder for discreditude
probably].
142
DISABLE-DISCOURSE.
disable, to detract from, to disparage, to undervalue: disable
all the benefits of your own country, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 34;
disable not thyself, 1H6. v. 3. 67; he disabled my judgment,
A.Y.L. v. 4. 80.
disable, to impair: I have disabled mine estate, M.V. i. 1. 123.
disabling, a disparaging, an undervaluing, M.V. ii. 7. 30.
disappointed, unfurnished, unprepared. See unanel'd.
disbench'd you, drove you from your seat, Cor. ii. 2. 75.
discandy, "to melt away from the state of being candied, like
sugar, or any thing of that kind" (Nares's Gloss.), Ant. iv.
12. 22; discandying iii. 13. 165. (The second passage is
very obscure: according to Nares, ubi supra, "The idea is,
that as the stones of the hail melted, or discandied, a person
should die for each.")
discharge-In yours and my, "depends on what you and I
are to perform" (STEEVENS), Tp. ii. 1. 254.
disclaims in thee, equivalent to disclaims thee, Lr. ii. 2. 59.
disclose, the peeping of young birds through the shell (a tech-
nical term) the hatch and the disclose, Hml. iii. 1. 174; see
the next article.
} } }
disclose, to hatch: When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
Hml. v.
1. 310 ("Disclose is when the young just peeps
through the shell. It is also taken for laying, hatching, or
bringing forth young; as 'She disclosed three birds.'
R. Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon (Terms of Art
used in Falconry, &c.), B. ii. c. xi. p. 238).
disclose, to open: before their buttons (buds) be disclos'd,
Hml. i. 3. 40.
discomfit, discomfiture, 2H6. v. 2. 86.
discontenting father-Your, Your discontented father, W.T.
iv. 4. 543 (the active participle for the passive).
discontents, malcontents: fickle changelings and poor discontents,
1H4. v. 1. 76; The discontents repair, Ant. i. 4. 39.
discourse-So far exceed all instance, all, 12N. iv. 3. 12; discourse
of reason, Troil. ii. 2. 116; Hml. i. 2. 150; O madness of
discourse, Troil. v. 2. 142; such large discourse, Hml. iv. 4. 36;
discourse of thought, Oth iv. 2. 153: “Discourse. The act
of the understanding, by which it passes from premises to
consequences." Johnson's Dict.: "It is very difficult to
determine the precise meaning which our ancestors gave
to discourse; or to distinguish the line which separated it
from reason. Perhaps it indicated a more rapid deduction
of consequences from premises than was supposed to be
effected by reason:-but I speak with hesitation." Gifford's
note on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 148, ed. 1813 (Gifford,
ubi supra, maintains that in the passage of Hamlet, i. 2. 150,
we ought to read "discourse and reason," forgetting the
passage of Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 161: and, among sundry
DISCOVERIES – DISPOSE.
143
other passages that might be quoted from various authors,
compare "There was no discourse of reason strong enough
to diuert him from thinking that he was betrayed," A
Tragi-comical History of our Times vnder the borrowed
names of Lisander and Calista (from the French), p. 34,
1627 folio).
discoveries!-Such preposterous, Troil. v. 1. 28. [perhaps an
indecent quibble between perception or sight and uncover-
ing. SCHMIDT. "Thersites probably means the rank abuses
which disclosed themselves to his censorious eye in the
Greeks at large." HERFORD.]
disdained contempt, disdainful contempt, 1H4. i. 3. 183.
disease, uneasiness, trouble: I'll tell thee my disease, 1H6. ii.
5. 44; diseases of the world, Lr. i. 1. 177.
diseas'd perfumes-Their, "Their diseased perfumed mistresses"
(MALONE), Tim. iv. 3. 207.
dised'gd-Be, Have the edge of appetite taken off, Cymb. iii. 4. 96.
disgracious, unpleasing, R3. iii. 7. 112; iv. 4. 177.
dishabited, dislodged, K.J. ii. 1. 220.
dishonesty, unchastity: suspect me in any dishonesty, M.W. iv.
2. 140; From all dishonesty he can, W.T. ii. 3. 47. [Cf. H5.
i. 2. 49.]
dislike, to express dislike of a thing: I never heard any soldier
dislike it, M.M. i. 2. 18; I did dislike the cut of a certain
courtier's beard, A.Y.L. v. 4. 73.
dis'ike, to displease: Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike,
Rom. ii. 2. 61: I'll do't; but it dislikes me, Oth. ii. 3. 49.
dislimns, unpaints, obliterates what was before limned, Ant.
iv. 14. 10.
dismes, tens (properly, tenths), Troil. ii. 2. 19.
dismount thy tuck, draw thy rapier, 12N. iii. 4. 244.
disnatur'd, devoid of natural affection, Lr. i. 4. 305.
disorb'd, shot from its sphere like a meteor. Troil. ii. 2. 46.
dispark'd my parks, R2. iii. 1. 23: "To dispark is a legal
term, and signifies to divest a park, constituted by royal
grant or prescription, of its name and character, by des-
troying the enclosures of such a park, and also the vert
(or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood or under-
wood), and the beasts of chase therein, and laying it open"
(MALONE).
dispatch'd, suddenly bereaved: Of life, of crown, of queen, at
once dispatch'd, Hml. i. 5. 75-
disponge, to discharge, Ant. iv. 9. 13.
dispose, disposition: He hath a person, and a smooth dispose,
Oth. i. 3. 402.
dispose, disposal: All that is mine I leave at thy dispose, 2G.
ii. 7. 86; Which, with ourselves, shall rest at thy dispose,
iv. 1. 76; His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose, Err.
144
DISPOSE-DISTEMPERATURE.
i. 1. 21; Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose,
K.J. i. 1. 263.
dispose-The stream of his, Troil. ii. 3. 174: Here, in Johnson's
Dict., dispose is explained, "disposition, cast of mind, in-
clination;" in Nares's Gloss. "arrangement;" qy. "purpose?"
dispos'd-Boyet is, L.L.L. ii. 1. 249: inclined to somewhat
loose mirth, somewhat wantonly merry. Boyet chooses to
understand the word simply in the sense of 'inclined.'
dispos'd with Cæsar, "made terms, settled matters" (STEEVENS),
Ant. iv. 14. 123.
disposer-My, Troil. iii. 1. 95; In my note I have explained
this, "she who disposes or inclines me to mirth by her
pleasant (and rather free) talk;" but perhaps the more
proper explanation of disposer is "she who is disposed or
inclined to pleasant (and rather free) talk,-my merry, free-
spoken damsel." Cf. first dispos'd.
disputable, inclined to dispute, disputatious, A.Y.L. ii. 5. 36.
dispute, to reason upon: dispute his own estate (state, affairs),
W.T. iv. 4. 411; Let me dispute with thee of thy estate,
Rom. iii. 2. 63.
dis-seat, to unseat, to dethrone, Mcb. v. 3. 21.
dissemble, to conceal: Dissemble all your griefs and discontents,
Tit. i. 1. 443; Dissemble not your hatred (“Do not gloss it
over," STEEVENS; "Do not merely conceal and cover over
your secret ill-will to each other by a show of love," MALONE),
R3. ii. 1. 8.
dissemble-Think you my uncle did, Think you my uncle was
acting deceitfully, was feigning, R3. ii. 2. 31.
dissemble myself in't—I will, I will disguise myself in't, 12N.
iv. 2. 5.
dissembling nature-Cheated of feature by, R3. i. 1. 19: "The
poet by this expression seems to mean no more than that
nature had made for Richard features unlike those of other
men. To dissemble, both here and in the passage quoted
[by Malone] from [the old play of] King John, signifies
the reverse of to resemble, in its active sense, and is not
used as dissimulare in Latin" (DOUCE): see feature.
dissembly, Dogberry's blunder for assembly, Ado, iv. 2. 1.
distain, to sully by contrast, to throw into shade: She did dis-
tain my child, Per. iv. 3. 31.
distance, the space between two antagonists (a fencing term):
thy reverse, thy distance, M.W. ii. 1. 233.
distemper-Proceeding on, H5. ii. 2. 54: Here distemper is ex-
plained by Johnson "predominance of passion;" while
Steevens thinks that it may mean "intoxication" (see before,
"It was excess of wine that set him on ").
distemperature we see The seasons alter-And thorough this,
M.N.D ii. 1. 106: Here distemperature is explained by Stee-
DISTILL’D-DO.
145
vens "perturbation of the elements," by Malone "the per-
turbed state in which the king and queen had lived for
some time past."
distill'd Almost to jelly, Hml. iv. i. 2. 204: melted, dissolved.
Fol. bestil'd.
distinctly, separately: would I flame distinctly, Tp. i. 2. 200.
distractions, detachments: His power went out in such dis-
tractions, Ant. iii. 7. 77.
distrain, to seize (with no reference to rent or debt): distrain
the one, distain the other, R3. v. 3. 322 (O. Edd. and Globe,
restrain); My father's goods are all distrain'd, R2. ii. 3. 131;
Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use, 1H6. i. 3. 61.
distraught, distracted, R3. iii. 5. 4; Rom. iv. 3. 49.
diverted blood, blood turned out of its natural course, A.Y.L.
ii. 3. 37.
dividable, divided, distant from each other, Troil. i. 3. 105.
dividant, "divisible" (CAPELL), "different, separate" (Johnson's
Dict.), “divided" (WALKER), Tim. iv. 3. 5.
divided councils, R3. iii. 1. 179: "That is, a private consultation,
separate from the known and public council. So, in the
next scene, Hastings says, 'Bid him not fear the separated
councils (JOHNSON): “Mr. Reed has shown from Hall's
Chronicle that this circumstance is founded on historical
fact. But Holinshed, Hall's copyist, was our author's author-
ity" (MALONE).
division, variations in music: Sung... With ravishing division,
to her lute, 1H4. iii. 1. 211; the lark makes sweet division,
Rom. iii. 5. 29. (“To divide. To make divisions in music,
which is, the running a simple strain into a great variety
of shorter notes to the same modulation." Nares's Gloss.)
Dizzy, Fol. has Dizie, perhaps corrupted from Dicey, one
addicted to dice, Steevens conjectured, M.M. iv. 3. 13.
do him dead, kill him, 3H6. i. 4. 108.
do me right, do me justice, Ado, v. 1. 149 (as a challenge to
fight); 2H4. v. 3. 76 (as a challenge to drink a bumper).
["Do me right, and dub me Knight, Balurdo." Antonio
and Mellida, v.]
do you justice, "drink as much as you do" (STEEVENS), Oth. ii.
3. 90: compare the preceding article.
do withal-I could not, I could not help it, M.V. iii. 4. 72. (“I
can nat do withall, a thyng lyeth nat in me, or I am nat
in faulte that a thyng is done." Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement
de la Lang. Fr., 1530, fol. clxxx. verso (Table of Verbes):
"Char. Such was the rigour of your desteny.
C. Such was my errour and obstinacie.
Ch. But since Gods would not, could you do withall?”
The Tragedie of Antonie. Doone into English [from the French
of Garnier] by the Countesse of Pembroke, 1595, sig. B 8:
ΙΟ
146
DOCTRINE—DONE.
But I intreat them, since it must befall,
They would be patient; who can doe withall ?'
Wither's Abuses Stript and Whipt,-Sorrow, sig. K, ed. 1613:
"Why, if you do not understand (said Sancho), I cannot
do withall." Shelton's transl. of Don Quixote, Part Second,
p. 40, ed. 1620: The following passage of Mabbe's trans-
lation of Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache has just been
pointed out to me by Mr. Bolton Corney; "I pray bee not
angry that I came no sooner, I was very busie, I could not
doe withall, I came as soone as I could." Part First, p. 18,
ed. 1623.)
doctrine, instruction, Rom. i. 1. 244.
doff, to do off, to put off, Shr. iii. 2. 102; K.J. iii. 1. 128; 1H4.
V. I. 12; Troil. v. 3. 31; Rom. ii. 2. 47; Mcb. iv. 3. 188.
dog-As dank here as a, 1H4. ii. 1. 10. See Dank.
dog at a catch,-I am, 12N. ii. 3. 63: good at, skilful at.
dog-apes, dog-faced baboons, A.Y.L. ii. 5. 27.
"
dogs of war-The, J.C. iii. 1. 273: Mean, it would certainly
Famine, Sword, and Fire:" compare, in King
Henry V. Chorus to act i.
seem,
"at his heels,
Leash'd-in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment:
""
and, in the First Part of King Henry VI. act. iv. sc. 2,
"You tempt the fury of my three attendants,
Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire."
dole, dolour, grief: dreadful dole, M.N.D. v. 1. 283; pitiful dole,
A.Y.L. i. 2. 139; delight and dole, Hml. i. 2. 13; dole and
woe, Per. iii. Gow. 42; Our dole, 2N.K. i. 5. 3.
dole, a dealing, an allotment, distribution: dole of honour,
A.W. ii. 3. 176; dole of blows, 2H4. i. 1. 169; and see Happy
man be his dole.
dolour and dollar, quibbled on: Dolour comes to him, indeed,
Tp. ii. 1. 19; To three thousand dolours a year, M.M. i. 2.
50; as many dolours for thy daughters, Lr. ii. 4. 54.
dolphin or dog-fish, 1H6. i. 4. 107: "It should be remembered,
that, in Shakespeare's time, the word dauphin was always
written dolphin" (STEEVENS). See Bunch.
don, to do on, to put on, Tit. i. 1. 189: donn'd, Hml. iv. 5. 52;.
Ant. ii. I. 33.
done, destroyed, consumed: they meet where both their lives
are done, 1H6. iv. 3. 38; The life thou gav'st me first was
lost and done, 1H6. iv. 6. 7; wasted, thaw'd, and done, Ven.
749; as soon decay'd and done, Lucr. 23; spent and done,
L. Compl. 11.
done to death, put to death, killed, Ado, v. 3. 3; 2H6. iii. 2.
244; 3H6. ii. 1. 103; iii. 3. 103.
DOTANT-DOWLE.
147
dotant, a dotard, Cor. v. 2. 47.
double, deceitful (with a quibble): Swear by your double self,
M.V. v. I. 245.
double-fatal yew-Bows Of, R2. iii. 2. 117: "Called double-
fatal, because the leaves of the yew are poison, and the
wood is employed for instruments of death" (WARBURTON).
double man-I am not a, "I am not Falstaff and Percy to-
gether, though having Percy on my back, I seem double
(JOHNSON), 1H4. v. 4. 141.
double vouchers, his recoveries-His, Hml. v. 1. 114: “A recovery
with double voucher is the one usually suffered, and is so
denominated from two persons (the latter of whom is always
the common cryer, or some such inferior person) being
successively voucher, or called upon, to warrant the tenant's
title. Both fines and recoveries are fictions of law, used to
convert an estate tail into a fee-simple" (Ritson).
double-henned sparrow, Troil. v. 7. 11: sparrow whose hen
belongs to two cocks? or else double-wived, Helen and
Enone?
doubt, fear: and depos'd 'Tis doubt he will be, R2. iii. 4. 69.
doubt, to fear: That love the fundamental part of state More
than you doubt the change on't, Cor. iii. 1. 152; "The
meaning is, 'You whose zeal predominates over your ter-
rors; you who do not so much fear the danger of violent
measures, as wish the good to which they are necessary,
the preservation of the original constitution of our govern-
ment (JOHNSON).
doucets, the testes of a deer, 2N.K. iii. 5. 157 (Qo. dowsets).
dout, to do out, to put out, to extinguish: dout them with
superfluous courage, H5. iv. 2. 11: this folly douts it, Hml.
iv. 7. 192.
Dowland, P. Pilg. 107: John Dowland, the famous lutenist,
was born in 1562. Being of a rambling disposition, he lived
much abroad, and so, it seems, lost many opportunities of
advancing his fortunes. He was, for a time, lutenist to the
King of Denmark, who had begged him of King James.
It appears that he died, in England, in 1615. See Hawkins'
Hist. of Music, vol. iii. pp. 323-6, where will be found an
account of his publications, [also Arber's Garner, and
Dict. Nat. Biog.]
("For as an old, rude, rotten, tune-lesse Kit,
If famous Dowland daign to finger it,
Makes sweeter Musick than the choicest Lute
In the grosse handling of a clownish Brute," &c.
Sylvester's Du Bartas,-The Imposture, p. 91, ed. 1641.)
Dowlas, coarse linen, 1H4. iii. 3. 79.
dowle that's in my plume-One, Tp. iii. 3. 65: That here dowle
means "feather" or "particle of down in a feather," is
148
DOWN-GYVED-DRIBBLING.
surely plain enough; and the word occurs in early writers
applied to other similar substances: but Horne Tooke
maintains, against the commentators on Shakespeare, that
dowle (or doule, dole, deal, dell) means merely a part, piece,
or portion; and such perhaps may have been the original
meaning of the word. (I find the rare verb bedowl in An
Eclogue by Davies, appended to Browne's Shepheards Pipe:
"What though time yet hannot bedowld thy chin?"
rr
SIG. M 2, ed, 1620.)
[In. 2H4. iv. 5. 32, mod. Edd. read downy, where Qo has
dowlny, and F. dowlney, and in 1. 33. both dowlne.]
down-gyved, "hanging down like the loose cincture which con-
fines the fetters round the ancles" (STEEVENS), Hml. ii. 1. 80.
drabbing, following loose women, Hml. ii. 1. 26.
draff, the refuse of any sort of food, (in the north of England
and in Scotland) brewer's grains, M.W. iv. 2. 109; 1H4. iv. 2.38.
draught, a jakes: Sweet draught, Troil. v. 1. 82; drown them
in a draught, Tim. v. 1. 105.
draw, to draw open, to undraw; draw the curtain straight,
M.V. ii. 9.1; draws a curtain, 1H4. iv. 1. 73.
draw, as we do the minstrels—I will bid thee, Ado, v. 1. 128;
According to Malone, the allusion is to the minstrels
drawing the bows of their fiddles; according to Mr. Collier,
to their drawing their instruments out of the cases.
draw thy action, withdraw thy action, 2H4. ii. 1. 162.
drawn, having one's sword drawn: Why are you drawn? Tp.
ii. 1. 308; if he be not drawn! H5. ii. 1. 39; art thou drawn
among these heartless hinds? Rom. i. 1. 73; (whether who
having drawn to do it, Per. v. 1. 175, means "who having
drawn his sword to do it," or "whom she having persuad-
ed to do it," has been disputed: I think, the former).
drawn fox-No more truth in thee than in a, 1H4. iii. 3. 129:
An allusion to the subtlety of the fox, which when drawn,
i.e. traced out by the scent and driven from cover, hunted,
was supposed to have recourse to all sorts of artifices in
order to escape from his pursuers.
drawn of heaviness-The purse too light being, Cymb. v. 4. 168;
"Drawn is embowelled, exenterated. So in common language
a fowl is said to be drawn when its intestines are taken
out" (STEEVENS).
draws dry-foot: see counter, and yet, &c.
dreadfully, with dread: apprehends death no more dreadfully
but as a drunken sleep, M.M. iv. 2. 150.
dress, to prepare, to make ready: dress us fairly for our end,
H5. iv. 1. 10; being drest to some oration, Troil. i. 3. 166.
dribbling dart of love-The, M.M. i. 3. 2: "A dribber, in archery,
was a term of contempt which perhaps cannot be satis-
factorily explained. Ascham, in his Toxophilus, edit. 1589,
DRINK-DUB.
149
p. 32, observes: if he give it over, and not use to shoote
truly, &c., he shall become of a fayre archer a starke
squirter and dribber'" (STEEVENS): according to Mr. Collier,
dribbed is the contrary of point-blank."
66
drink the air, Tp. v. I. 102: "An expression of swiftness, of
the same kind as 'to devour the way' in [2H4. i. 1. 47.]”
(JOHNSON).
drink the free air-Through him, "catch his breath in affected
fondness" (JOHNSON), "breathe freely at his will only"
(WAKEFIELD), Tim. i. 1. 83.
drollery, a puppet-show: A living drollery (a puppet-show
represented by living persons), Tp. iii. 3. 21.
drollery, a picture or sketch of some scene of low humour:
a pretty slight drollery, 2H4. ii. 1. 156.
drugs, drudges: the passive drugs of it, Tim. iv. 3. 254. Todd
(Johnson's Dict) cites Huloet, “Drudge, or drugge, a servant
which doth all the vile service"; and from Barret, "Drudge,
a drug, or Kitchen-slave."
drum so lost!—A, A.W. iii. 6. 51: “We shall not fully under-
stand Parolles' simulated distress at the loss of the drum,
without we remember that the drums of the regiment of
his day were decorated with the colours of the battalion. It
was therefore equivalent to the loss of the flag of the regi-
ment,—a disgrace all good soldiers deeply feel” (FAIRHOLT).
drum before the English tragedians-The, A.W. iv. 3. 298: By
which they used to give notice of their arrival in any town
where they intended to perform.
Drum's entertainment—John. A.W. iii. 6 41; Good Tom Drum,
V. 3. 322: “Tom or John Drum's entertainment. A kind of
proverbial expression for ill-treatment, probably alluding
originally to some particular anecdote. Most of the allusions
seem to point to the dismissing of some unwelcome guest,
with more or less of ignominy and insult." Nares's Gloss.
[Perhaps a military phrase, alluding to the practice of
drumming a man out of the army]. A once-popular play,
entitled Jack Drum's Entertainment, &c., was first printed
in 1601. [See Simpson's School of Shak. vol. ii. p. 125.]
drumble, to be slow and sluggish, to go lazily or awkwardly
about a thing, M.W. iii. 3. 156.
dry he was for sway-So, So thirsty he was for sway, Tp. i. 2. 112.
dry, sir-It's, 12N. i. 3. 77: "Maria intends to insinuate, that it
is not a lover's hand, a moist hand being vulgarly accounted a
sign of an amorous constitution " (JOHNSON): cf. buttery-bar, &c.
dub me knight, 2H4. v. 3. 78: This refers to the custom of
persons drinking, on their knees, a large draught of wine.
or other liquor, in consequence of which they were said
to be dubbed knights, and retained the title for the evening.
See Do me right.
150
=
DUCDAME-DUKE.
ducdame. A.Y.L. ii. 5. 56, 60: The attempts made to explain
this "burden" are, I think, alike unsatisfactory. [Chaucer's
cum ba me (see Skeat's note, v. 109) suggests that Sh. may
have written or had in mind duck ba me (= kiss me, my
duck! or it may be a disguised execration on the banished
Duke Duc damné.]
dudgeon gouts of blood-On thy blade and, Mcb. ii. 1. 46: Here
dudgeon means simply "haft or handle:" Gifford, speaking
of the variety in the hafts of daggers, observes; "The
homeliest was that à roïlles, a plain piece of wood with an
orbicular rim of iron for a guard: the next, in degree, was
the dudgeon, in which the wood was googed out in crooked
channels, like what is now, and perhaps was then, called
snail-creeping." Note on Jonson's Works, vol. v. p. 221:
In the same note dudgeon is explained "wooden;" and
(not to quote writers who are less explicit on this point)
Bishop Wilkins in the Alphabetical Dictionary appended to
his Essay towards a Real Character, &c., 1668, gives
"Dudgeon.
[Indignation]
[Root of Box.]
-dagger, [Short Sword whose
handle is of the root of Box]:"
Richardson, however, denies that dudgeon means either
“wooden" or "root of box,” though the word may be
applied as an epithet to the box or any other wood, to
express some particular quality," &c. Dict. in v.
due, to endue: That I, thy enemy, due thee withal, 1H6. iv. 2. 34.
dug, &c.—Never palates more the, Ant. v. 2. 7. So Warburton;
the folio has dung. The sense is: and never more palates
that dug which affords nourishment as well to the beggar
as to Cæsar.
duke, a leader, a general, a commander (Lat. dux): the duke's
(king's) own person, L.L.L. i. 1. 182; to study three years
with the duke (king), i. 2. 38; the duke's (king's) pleasure,
132; this virtuous duke (king), ii. 1. 38; Theseus, our renowned
duke, M.N.D. i. 1. 20; gracious duke, i. 1. 26; 38; before the duke,
i. 2. 6; iii. 1. 6; iv. 1. 224; make the duke say, i. 2.74; At the duke's
oak, 113; The duke was here, iv. 1. 200; the duke is coming,
iv. 2. 15; an the duke had not given him sixpence, 21; the
duke hath din'd, 35; Be merciful, great duke great
duke, H5. iii. 2. 23; 25; Gonzago is the duke's name, Hml.
iii. 2. 249 (But we learn from the quarto of Hamlet, 1603,
that in this scene of the play within a play, the two princi-
pal characters were originally called Duke and Duchess;
and there can be little doubt that when their titles were
altered to King and Queen, the word duke's in the present
DUKE-DUN'S.
151
passage was left unaltered by an oversight). [In 2N.K. the
title is regularly used for Theseus: i. 1. 47; 139; ii. 1. 45;
ii. 2. 223; 229; etc.]
duke de Jamany —A, M.W. iv. 5. 88: Mr. Knight was the first
to start the idea that here we have an allusion to a real
German duke who, with his suite, visited Windsor in 1592,
-viz. the Duke of Würtemberg, of whose journey an
account, written by his secretary, was printed at Tubingen
in 1602. "He was honored," writes Mr. Halliwell, “with
the use of one of the Queen's coaches, attended by a page
of honor, and 'travelled from London in this coach, and
several post-horses [sic], towards the royal residence.' On
such an occasion the post-horses would have to be furnished
by the various inn-keepers free of expense;-'cozenage!
mere cozenage,' as Master Bardolph says. The scene is,
in all probability, an exaggerated satire on the visit of the
Duke to Windsor; an allusion that would have been well
understood by the Court within a year or two after its
occurrence," &c. [See Daniel's pref. to Qo facsimile, p. xii;
W. B. Rye's England as seen by foreigners, p. 182, 1865.]
See Garmombles.
(6
dull and favourable hand-Some, 2H4. iv. 5. 2: Here dull
signifies melancholy, gentle, soothing" (JOHNSON): "I believe
it rather means producing dullness, or heaviness, and conse-
quently sleep" (MALONE): “Dull here appears to signify
quiet, soft" (STAUNTON).
dullard in this act?—A, Cymb. v. 6. 265: Dullard “in this place
means a person stupidly unconcerned" (Steevens).
dumb'd by him—Was beastly, rendered inaudible, Ant. i. 5. 50.
dump, "Formerly the received term for a melancholy strain
in music, vocal or instrumental . . . . A dump appears to
have been also a kind of dance." Nares's Gloss.: On the
first of the following passages Mr. Chappell remarks; "A
dump was a slow dance. Queen Mary's Dump is one of
the tunes in William Ballet's Lute Book, and My Lady
Carey's Dompe is printed in Stafford Smith's Musica Antiqua,
ii. 470, from manuscript in the British Museum, temp.
Henry VIII." Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c.. vol. i.
p. 210, sec. ed.: Tune a deploring dump, 2G. iii. 2. 85; play
me some merry dump, Rom. iv. 5. 108: dumps so dull and
heavy, Ado ii. 3. 73; Distress likes dumps, Lucr. 1127.
dumps, (generally in the plural when signifying) low spirits,
melancholy in your dumps, Shr. ii. 1. 286; to step out of
these dreary dumps, Tit. i. 1. 391; doleful dumps the mind
oppress, Rom. iv. 5. 129: (“Morne. Sad, heaure
melancholie mood, all in dumps." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.)
dun's the mouse, the constable's own word, Rom. i. 4. 40: Of this
proverbial saying, which is far from uncommon in our early
•
in a
152
DUN-DURANCE.
writers, no satisfactory explanation has yet been given: it
would seem, as Nares observes, to have been “frequently
employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on
the word done." Gloss.: Ray, among his "Proverbial Simi-
lies," has "As dun as a mouse." Proverbs, p. 221, ed. 1768.
dun, we'll draw thee from the mire-If thou art, Rom. i. 4. 41:
An allusion to a Christmas sport, called Dun is in the mire!
which Gifford describes as follows: "A log of wood is
brought into the midst of the room: this is Dun (the cart-
horse), and a cry is raised that he is stuck in the mire. Two
of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to
draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find them-
selves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The
game continues till all the company take part in it, when
Dun is extricated of course; and the merriment arises from
the awkward and affected efforts of the rustics to lift the
log, and from sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of
it fall on one another's toes." Note on Jonson's Works,
vol. vii. p. 283.
dup, to do up, to open: dupp'd the chamber-door, Hml. iv. 5. 53.
(In Harman's Caueat or Warening for Common Cursetors,
&c., 1573, among the cant terms is "To dup ye gyger,
which is explained "to open the dore." p. 66, reprint 1814.)
durance-Suits of, Err. iv. 3. 27; And is not a buff jerkin a
most sweet robe of durance? 1H4. i. 2. 49: Malone observes
that on a comparison of the second of these passages with
the passage,—
"A devil in an everlasting garment hath him;
•
a fellow all in buff,"-Err. iv. 2. 33.
"it should seem that the sergeant's buff jerkin was called
a robe of durance with allusion to his occupation of arrest-
ing men and putting them in durance or prison; and that
durance being a kind of stuff sometimes called everiasting,
the buff jerkin was hence called an 'everlasting garment':
According to Nares, "It appears that the leathern dresses
worn by some of the lower orders of people [by sergeants
and catchpoles among others] were first called of durance
or everlasting from their great durability. . . . Hence a
stuff of the colour of buff, made in imitation of it, and very
strong, was called durance." Gloss. in Durance: The sort
of stuff known by the name of durance continued long in
use: On the second passage in this article Mr. Staunton
remarks that a "robe of durance was a cant term, implying
imprisonment: and the Prince, after dilating on purse-
stealing, humorously calls attention to its probable conse-
quences by his query about the buff jerkin. See Middleton's
'Blurt, Master Constable,' act iii. sc. 2; 'Tell my lady, that
DUSTY-ECSTASY
153
I go in a suit of durance." [Jonson, Cy. Reveis, iii. 2: “a
piece of serge or perpetuana.”]
dusty death, Mcb. v. 5. 23: When, in my Few Notes, &c.. 1853,
p. 133, I observed that this very striking expression—which
Shakespeare's commentators evidently supposed was found
for the first time in Macbeth-occurs in a poem published
more than a dozen years before the appearance of that
tragedy,
Time and thy graue did first salute thy nature,
Euen in her infancie and cradle-rightes,
Inuiting it to dustie deaths defeature," &c.
A Fig for Fortune, 1596, by Anthony Copley, p. 57 [49],
I was not aware that Mr. Collier had already made the
same quotation in the first edition of his Shakespeare.
Duties, dues, 1H4. v. 2. 56.
E.
each-Ten masts at, Lr. iv. 6. 53: joined each to the other.
eager, sour, sharp, keen: eager words, ("words of asperity,"
JOHNSON), 3H6. ii. 6. 68; an eager air, Hml. i. 4. 2; eager
droppings, i. 5. 69; eager compounds, Sonn. 118.
eaning time, time of bringing forth young (particularly applied
to ewes), M.V. i. 3. 88; Per. iii. 4. 6.
eanlings, young lambs just dropped, M.V. i. 3. 80.
ear, to plough, to till: ear the iand, R2. iii. 2. 212; ear and wound
With keels, Ant. i. 4. 49; ear so barren a land, Ven. Dedic. 8;
ears my land, A.W. i. 3. 47.
earing, a ploughing, Ant. i. 2. 115.
ears- You may prove it by my long, Err. iv. 4. 31: "He means,
that his master had lengthened his ears by frequently pull-
ing them" (STEEVENS).
earth and water wrought-So much of, "Being so thoroughly
compounded of these two ponderous elements" (STEEVENS),
Sonn. 44.
earth-The hopeful lady of my, Rom. i. 2. 15: “a Gallicism:
Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress" (STEEVENS).
"Earth in other old plays is likewise put for lands, i.e.
landed estate" (SINGER).
•
easy, slight, inconsiderable: these faults are easy, quickly answer'd,
2H6. iii. 1. 133; the easy groans of old women, Cor. v. 2. 45.
easy?-Was this, 2H4. v. 2. 71: "That is, was this not grievous?"
(JOHNSON): "May mean – was this a slight offence?” (Steevens).
eche, to eke out, to lengthen out, Per. iii. Gow. 13.
ecstasy, alienation of mind, Tp. iii. 3. 108; Err. iv. 4. 54; Ado,
ii. 3. 157; M.V. iii. 2. 112; Tit. iv. 1. 125; iv. 4. 21; Mcb.
iii. 2. 22; iv. 3. 170; Hml. ii. 1. 102; iii. 1. 168; iii. 4. 74;
154
EDWARD-EGYPTIAN.
138; 139; Oth. iv. 1. 80; Ven. 895; Lucr. 69. (“ Ecstasy....
In the usage of Shakespeare and some others, it stands for
every species of alienation of mind, whether temporary or
permanent, proceeding from joy, sorrow, wonder, or any
other exciting cause: and this certainly suits with the
etymology, éxoTaric." Nares's Gloss.)
Edward shovel-boards, the broad shillings of Edward VI., used
for playing at the game of shovel-board, M.W. i. 1. 159:
and see shove-groat shiling: "At shuffle-board the shilling is
placed on the extreme edge of the table, and propelled
towards the mark by a smart stroke with the palm of the
hand." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 86.
eels-Thunder shall not so awake the beds of, Per. iv. 2. 155:
"Thunder is not supposed to have an effect on fish in
general, but on eels only, which are roused by it from the
mud, and are therefore more easily taken. So, in Marston's
Scourge of Villainie;
C
They are nought but eeles, that never will appeare
Till that tempestuous winds or thunder teare
Their slimy beds.'
(WHALLEY).
L. ii. Sat. vii. p. 204 [ed. 1764]."
effects, intended deeds: convert My stern effects, Hml. iii. 4. 129.
effuse, effusion, 3H6. ii. 6. 28.
eftest, quickest, readiest, Ado, iv. 2. 38.
egal, equal, Tit. iv. 4. 4; M.V. iii. 4. 13 (Fol. egal; Globe, equal).
egally, equally, R3. iii. 7. 213.
eggs and butter, The usual breakfast, more particularly during
Lent, 1H4. ii. 1. 65.
eggs for money?-Will you take, W.T. i. 2. 161: This prover-
bial expression seems to be rightly explained "Will you
suffer yourself to be bullied or imposed upon?"
eglantine, the sweet briar, M.N.D. ii. 1. 252; Cymb. iv. 2. 223.
egma, Costard's blunder for enigma, L.L.L. iii. 1. 73.
Egypt-The first-born of, “A proverbial expression for high-
born persons" (JOHNSON), A.Y.L. ii. 5. 63.
Egyptian thief at point of death - Like to th', 12N. v. 1. 121:
"In this simile a particular story is presupposed: which
ought to be known to show the justness and propriety of
the comparison. It is taken from Heliodorus's Æthiopics,
to which our author was indebted for the allusion. This
Egyptian thief was Thyamis, who was a native of Memphis,
and at the head of a band of robbers. Theagenes and
Chariclea falling into their hands, Thyamis fell desperately
in love with the lady, and would have married her. Soon
after, a stronger body of robbers coming down upon Thy-
amis's party, he was in such fears for his mistress that he
had her shut into a cave with his treasure. It was custom-
ary with those barbarians, when they despaired of their
EIGHT-ELEMENTS.
155
own safety, first to make away with those whom they held
dear, and desired for companions in the next life. Thyamis,
therefore, benetted round with his enemies, raging with
love, jealousy, and anger, went to his cave; and calling
aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he heard himself
answered towards the cave's mouth by a Grecian, making
to the person by the direction of her voice, he caught her
by the hair with his left hand, and (supposing her to be
Chariclea) with his right hand plunged his sword into her
breast" (THEOBALD): "There was a translation of Heliodorus
by Thomas Underdowne, of which the second edition
appeared in 1587" (MALONE). [In Tudor Transl. series.]
eight and six-Written in, Written in lines alternately of eight
and six syllables (in fourteen-syllable measure), M.N.D.
iii. 1. 25.
eisel, vinegar, Hml. v. 1. 299; Sonn. III,-on which latter
passage Malone observes that "vinegar was esteemed very
efficacious in preventing the communication of the plague
and other contagious distempers." The Hamlet passage
Dowden paraphrases: "Would you artificially heighten your
sorrow by a bitter potion of eisel? Would you allay your
anger?" H. is challenging Laertes to extravagant contests.
eke, also, M.W. i. 3. 105; ii. 3. 77; M.N.D. iii. 1. 97.
eld, old age, M.W. iv. 4. 36; M.M. iii. 1. 36; Troil. ii. 2. 104.
elder, grief, untwine His perishing root with the increasing vine!
-Let the stinking, "Let grief, the elder, cease to entwine
its root with patience, the vine" (Nares's Gloss. sub “Elder"),
Cymb. iv. 2. 60.
element, initiation, rudimentary knowledge: no element In such
a business, H8. i. 1. 48.
element, the heaven, the sky: The element itself, 12N.i. 1. 26;
I might say element, iii. 1. 65; the cinders of the element,
2H4. iv. 3. 58; the complexion of the eiement, J.C. i. 3. 128.
elements?-Does not our life consist of the four, 12N. ii. 3. 10;
the elements So mix'd in him, J.C. v. 5. 73; my other elements
I give to baser life, Ant. v. 2. 292: "Man was supposed to
be composed of the four elements, the due proportion and
commixture of which, in his composition, was what pro-
duced in him every kind of perfection, mental and bodily."
Nares's Gloss. sub "Elements."
elements be kind to thee-The, Ant. iii. 2. 40: "Seems to mean,
'May the different elements of the body, or principles of
life, maintain such proportion and harmony as may keep
you cheerful"" (JOHNSON): "The elements be kind to thee,
(ie. the elements of air and water). Surely this expression
means no more than 'I wish you a good voyage!' Octavia
was going to sail with Antony from Rome to Athens"
(HOLT WHITE).
156
ELEPHANTS-ELVES.
elephants [betray'd] with holes, J.C. ii. 1. 205: "Elephants
were seduced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and
turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was exposed.
See Pliny's Natural History, B. viii." (STEEVENS). [The
elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy, Troil. ii. 3. 113.
"In kneeling down an elephant first bends the hind legs
one after the other, then the forelegs, which are stretched
out in front" (Blanford, Mammalia of India, p. 465): pre-
cisely as Thersites says.]
elf, to entangle, to mat together, as if the work of elves or fairies
(see the next article): elf all my hair in knots, Lr. ii. 3. 10.
elf-locks, in foul sluttish hairs-Bakes the, Rom. i. 4. 90; Locks
so clotted together were supposed to be the operation of
fairies; a superstition which, as Warburton suggests, may
have had its rise from the disease called Plica Polonica.
Elfe-skin, the reading of the first folio, 1H4. ii. 4. 270; QT,
elsskin, which the editors have misread elfskin, but it is
clearly a long s and short s combined (the final form of ss),
as we have in the word crossings in Q1, iii. 1. 36. elsskin
being the quarto reading confirms Hanmer's eel-skin. So in
2H4. iii. 2. 351, Qo has: for you might have thrust him and all
his aparell into an eele-shin. Cf. "You may thrust your hand
into him like an eele-skin, and strip him, his inside out-
wards." Sir T. Overbury, A Drunken Dutchman. The
reading elf-skin is meaningless.
elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves-Ye, Tp. v. 1.
33: In this speech Shakespeare had an eye to that of Medea
in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book vii.;
Ye ayres and windes, ye elues of hills, of brookes, of woods alone,
Of standing lakes, and of the night, approache ye everychone.
Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the thing)
I haue compelled streames to run cleane backward to their spring:
By charmes I make the calme seas rough, and make the rough seas playne,
And couer all the skie with clouds, and chase them thence againe:
By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the vipers iaw,
And from the bowels of the earth both stones and trees do draw,
Whole woods and forrests I remoone, I make the mountaines shake,
And euen the earth itselfe to grone and fearefully to quake.
I call up dead men from their graues, and thee, O lightsome moone,
I darken oft, through [though] beaten brasse abate thy perill soone.
Our sorcerie dimmes the morning faire, and darkes the sun at noone.
The flaming breath of fierie bulles ye quenched for my sake,
And caused their vnwieldy neckes the bended yoke to take,
Among the earth-bred brothers you a mortall warre did set,
And brought asleepe the dragon fell, whose eyes were neuer shet."
Fol. 81, ed. 1603.
To the preceding quotation in the Var. Shakespeare Boswell
appends the remark, "It would be an injustice to our great
poet, if the reader were not to take notice that Ovid has
ELVISH-MARK'D-EMMEW.
157
not supplied him with anything resembling the exquisite
fairy imagery with which he has enriched this speech."
elvish-mark'd, marked by the elves or fairies, R3. i. 3. 228.
emballing, the carrying the ball at a coronation, H8. ii. 3. 47.
embarquements, embargoes, impediments ("Embarquement......
an inbarguing." Cotgrave's Fr. and Eng. Dict.), Cor. i. 10. 22.
[The Spanish embargamiento, a hindrance, obstruction, was
surely in Sh.'s mind here. Probably we should read embar-
gaments, or embarguements.]
embassade, an embassy, 3H6. iv. 3. 32.
embossed, a hunting term, properly applied to a deer [or dog,
see Lyly's Midas, iv. 3.] when foaming at the mouth from
fatigue: the poor cur is emboss'd, Shr. Ind. 1. 17; the boar
of Thessaly Was never so emboss'd (foaming from rage),
Ant. iv. 13. 3; we have almost embossed him (made him
foam at the mouth, hunted him to his fall), A.W. iii. 6. 107.
embossed, swollen, protuberant: embossèd scores, A.Y.L. ii. 7.
67; embossed rascal, 1H4. iii. 3. 177; embossèd froth, Tim.
V. I. 220; embossèd carbuncle, Lr. ii. 4. 227.
embowel, to draw out the bowels, to eviscerate: if thou embowel
[=embalm] me to-day, 1H4. V. 4. 111; the schools, embowell'd
of their doctrine, (“exhausted of their skill," STEEVENS), A.W.
i. 3. 247; Embowell'd [=Embalmed] will I see thee by and
by, 1H4. v. 4. 109; In your embowell'd bosoms, R3. v. 2. 10.
embrasures, embraces, Troil. iv. 4. 39.
embrewed, drenched in blood, Tit. ii. 3. 222.
Emmanuel, 2H6. iv. 2. 106: Formerly prefixed (from feelings
of piety, it would seem) to letters and deeds: "We can
refer to one Ms. alone in the British Museum (Add. Mss.
19,400) which contains no less than fourteen private epistles
headed 'Emanewell or 'Jesus Immanuuel" (STAUNTON).
[Mahomedans still write Bismillah. in the name of Allah,
and Hindus write Shri, at the top of all documents.]
emmew-Follies doth, Doth mew up follies (a term in falconry:
see mew),="Forces follies to lie in cover, without daring to
show themselves" (JOHNSON), M.M. iii. 1. 91. [Emmew
means mewed up, as was done to hawks while moulting,
but this hardly seems to suit the context. Keightley guesses
enew, but without further explanation than that the word
enewed occurs in Nash's Quaternio. (See Harting,
Ornith. Sh. pp. 64-66). The late Prof. Baynes, in an
admirable article that first appeared in Edin. Rev. for Oct.
1872, conjectures enew, and explains: Enew means that when
a hawk is pursuing a water-fowl, (and only a water-fowl)
she has to drive it from the water to the land before she
can stoop to strike. If the bird pursued gets over the water
again, the hawk is said to enew it. This elucidates the
etymology. The fowl dives, or is enewed; the hawk enews
158
EMPALE-ENACTURES.
it. In Kelham's Norman Dict., Enewance de draps
watering
of cloth; Cotgrave gives Eneauer to turn into water, and
eneaué watered, turned into water, Enew then = en eau.
So in Polyolbion, Drayton has:
'Then making to the flood, to cause the fowls to rise,
The fierce and eager hawks, down thrilling from the skies,
Make sundry canceleers e'er they the fowl can reach,
Which then to save their lives, their wings do lively stretch,
But when the whizzing bells the silent air do cleave,
And that their greatest speed, them vainly do deceive,
And the sharp cruel hawks, they at their backs do view,
Themselves for very fear they instantly ineawe,' XX. 227-234.
Drayton notes on ineawe: Lay the fowls again into the water.
Henryson, Creseide, st. 16: To quhich Creseide with bale
enewed in brest," &c.]
(MALONE).
empale, to encircle (the same as impale). Troil. v. 7. 5.
emperial, the Clown's blunder for emperor, Tit. iv. 3. 94; iv. 4. 40.
emperor coming in behalf of France-The, H5. v. Prol. 38:
"The emperor Sigismond, who was married to Henry's
second cousin
empery, sovereign command, dominion: large and ample empery,
H5. i. 2. 226; your empery, your own, R3. iii. 7. 136; rule and
empery, Tit. i. 1. 19; the Roman empery, 22; ask the empery, 201.
empery, a kingdom: fasten'd to an empery, Cymb. i. 6. 120.
empiricutic, empirical, quackish, Cor. ii. 1. 128. Fol. emperick-
qutique, which in F3 was altered to empericktique. Pope
printed emperic.
emulation, malicious rivalry or contention: worthless emulation,
1H6. iv. 4. 21; emulation now, who shail be nearest, R3. ii.
3. 25; pale and bloodless emulation, Troil. i. 3. 134; Whilst
emulation in the army crept, ii. 2. 212; A gory emulation, iv.
5. 123; Out of the teeth of emulation, J.C. ii. 3. 14; Such
factious emulations, 1H6. iv. I. 114.
•
emulous, maliciously rival or contending: emulous factions,
Troil. ii. 3. 39; He is not emulous, 242; Made emulous
missions 'mongst the gods themselves, And drave great Mars
to faction ("Mission means the descent of deities to combat
on either side; an idea which Shakspeare very probably
adopted from Chapman's translation of Homer. In the
Fifth Book Diomed wounds Mars, who on his return to
heaven is rated by Jupiter for having interfered in the battle.
This disobedience is the faction which, I suppose, Ulysses
would describe." STEEVENS), iii. 3. 189; iv. 1. 28. [In con-
nection with the relation of Troil. to the 'War of the
Theatres,' it may be noted that emulous does not occur
elsewhere in Shakspere, and may (or may not) refer to
Emulo, in Patient Grissel.] See mastic.
enactures, actions, effects, Hml. iii. 2. 207.
ENCAVE-ENGINES.
encave, to hide, as in a cave, Oth. iv. 1. 82.
159
enchantingly beloved, beloved to a degree that looks like the
consequence of enchantment, A.Y.L. i. 1. 174.
encounter so uncurrent I have strain'd, t' appear thus-With
what, W.T. iii. 2. 50: This would seem to mean With what
unwarrantable familiarity of intercourse I have so far exceed-
ed bounds, or gone astray, that I should be forced to appear
thus in a public court as a criminal.”
encounters mounted are, L.L.L. v. 2. 82: for encounterers,
abstr. for concrete.
end-And there an, And there's the end of the matter, 2G. ii.
1. 168; Mcb. iii. 4. 80.
end all his-Which he did, Cor. v. 6. 37. [Schmidt says: “I
helped to gather the harvest which he consummated as
his alone. Perhaps a technical phrase of harvest work."
Milton seems to use the word in the sense of thrash out
and gather the grain in a heap, L'Allegro, 109: His
shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn, That ten day-labour-
ers could not end.]
endear'd to it than now - When you were more, 2H4. ii. 3. 11:
Here endear'd is equivalent to "engag'd, bound." (The
word is used much in the same sense by Day;
СС
You did indeare him to society
Of carelesse wantons," &c. Law-Trickes, &c,, 1608, sig. H 2.)
enemy, the Devil: O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, &c.,
M.M. ii. 2. 180.
enfeoff'd, granted out as a feoff or estate, gave up, 1H4. iii. 2. 69.
enforce, to press, to urge strongly enforce them against him,
M.M. v. 1. 267; enforce his pride, Cor. ii. 3. 227; Enforce
the present execution, iii. 3. 21; nor his offences enforced,
J.C. iii. 2. 43.
enforce with, to press with a charge. Enforce him with his
envy to the people, Cor. iii. 3. 3.
engag'd, in Wales-To be, 1H4. iv. 3. 95; Westmoreland, that
was engag'd, did bear it, v. 2. 44: delivered (or detained) as
a pledge, hostage.
engendering of toads, Troil. ii. 3. 170: the race of toads.
engine, an instrument of torture, the rack: like an engine,
wrench'd my frame of nature, Lr. 1. 4. 290.
engine, a military implement, an engine of war: Sword, pike,
knife, gun, or need of any engine, Tp. ii. 1. 161; he moves
like an engine, Cor. v. 4. 19; his eye is like an engine bent,
2NK. v. 3. 42.
enginer, an engineer, Troil. ii. 3. 8; Hml. iii. 4. 206.
engines for my life-Devise, Oth. iv. 2. 221: “Seems to mean,
contrive racks, tortures, &c." (RITSON): Does it not rather
signify "Contrive artful means to destroy my life”? (“An
160
ENGINES-ENTERTAIN.
Engine [device], Artificium, Ingenium." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.)
engines with advice-And she shall file our, Tit. ii. 1. 123: “¿.e.
remove all impediments from our designs by advice. The
allusion is to the operation of the file, which, by conferring
smoothness, facilitates the motion of the wheels which com-
pose an engine or piece of machinery" (STEEVENS): "Here
file our engines is equivalent to 'sharpen our wits (BOLTON
CORNEY): The latter explanation is, I believe, the true one,-
engine being formerly common enough in the sense of
"genius, wit, contrivance." ("Very homely poets, such also
as made most of their workes by translation out of the
Latine and French toung, and few or none of their owne
engine, as may easely be knowen to them that list to looke
vpon the poemes of both languages." Puttenham's Arte of
English Poesie, 1589, p. 68.)
engross, to make gross, to fatten: engross his idle body, R3.
iii. 7. 76.
engross, to gather together, to heap up, to amass: Percy is
but my factor
T'engross up glorious deeds on my
behalf, 1H4. iii. 2. 148; they have engrossèd and pil'd up The
canker'd heaps, &c., 2H4. iv. 5. 71.
engrossments, accumulations, 2H4. iv. 5. 80.
enkindle, to incite, to stimulate: enkindle you unto the crown,
Mcb. i. 3. 121.
ensconce, to protect or cover as with a sconce or fort: ensconce
under the shelter of your honour, M.W. ii.
your rags
2. 27; I must get a sconce for my head and insconce it too,
Err. ii. 2. 38; Against that time do I ensconce me here,
Sonn. 49; ensconcing ourselves into (in) seeming knowledge,
A.W. ii. 3. 4.
ensconce, to hide: I will ensconce me behind the arras, M.W.
iii. 3. 96; And therein so ensconc'd his secret evil, Lucr. 1515.
enseamed, defiled, filthy, Hml. iii. 4. 92: see seam; and third Cast.
ensear, or ensere, to dry up, to make sterile (according to
Johnson, in his Dict., "to cauterise, to stanch or stop with
fire"), Tim. iv. 3. 187.
enshield, enshielded, M.M. ii. 4. 80.
ensign here of mine was turning back—This, J.C. v. 3. 3: “Here
the term ensign may almost be said to be used with the
double meaning of both the standard and the standard-
bearer" (CRAIK): compare ancient.
entame, to tame, to subjugate, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 48.
entertain, entertainment, your entertain shall be, Per. i. 1. 119;
to make his entertain more sweet, (Globe, entrance), ii. 3. 64.
entertain, to receive into service: entertain him to be my fellow-
servant, 2G. ii. 4. 104; entertain him for your servant, 110;
ENTERTAINMENT-ENVIOUS.
161
for this I entertain thee, iv. 4. 75; I will entertain Bardolph,
M.W. i. 3. 10; As many devils entertain ("Do you retain in
your service as many devils as she has angels," MALONE),
i. 3. 61; I will entertain them, J.C. v. 5. 60; So please you
entertain me, Cymb. iv. 2. 394; I have entertained thee,
2G. iv. 4. 68.
entertainment, the state of being in military pay: i' the adver-
sary's entertainment, A.W. iv. 1. 17; already in the entertain-
ment, Cor. iv. 3. 49; strain his entertainment ("press hard his
re-admission to his pay and office," JOHNSON), Oth. iii. 3. 250.
entitled in thy parts do crownèd sit, Sonn. 37: “Entitled means,
I think, ennobled" (MALONE): Perhaps. [Globe follows Qo:
in their parts. Schmidt: "or more excellencies having a
just claim to the first place as their due. Blundering M. Edd.
e. in thy parts.” Dowden reads thy and notes: "Perhaps it means
'having a title in, having a claim upon,' as in Lucr. 57."]
entrails were hairs-He bounds from the earth, as if his, H5.
iii. 7. 14: "Alluding to the bounding of tennis-balls, which
were stuffed with hairs, as appears from Much Ado about
Nothing, 'And the old ornament of his cheek hath already
stuffed tennis-balls"" (WARBURTON).
entrance of this soil, &c.--The thirsty, 1H4. i. 1. 5: "The
thirsty entrance of the soil is nothing more or less than the
face of the earth parched and cracked as it always appears
in a dry summer; and Mr. Steevens came nearer the mark
than he was aware of when he mentioned the porous sur-
face of the ground. As to its being personified, it is cer-
tainly no such unusual practice with Shakspeare. Every
one talks familiarly of Mother Earth; and they who live
upon her face may without much impropriety be called
her children. Our author only confines the image to his
own country. The allusion is to the Barons' Wars" (RITSON).
entreat, to treat: Entreat her not the worse, 2H6. ii. 4. 81;
Entreat her fair, Troil. iv. 4. 115; fairly let her be entreated,
R2. iii. I. 37.
entreat, to entertain: severally entreat him, Troil. iv. 5. 274.
entreatments, entertainments, parleyings, conversation, “oppor-
tunities of entreating or parley" (CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 3. 122.
entreats, entreaties: Yield at entreats, Tit. i. 1. 449; at my
lovely Tamora's entreats, 483.
envied against the people, Cor. iii. 3 95: shown ill-will to.
envious, malicious: envious carping tongue, 1H6. iv. I. 90;
envious looks, 2H6. ii. 4. 12; the envious people, 35; The
envious load that lies upon his heart, iii. 1. 157; The envious
slanders of her false accusers, R3. i. 3. 26; a deep envious one,
H8. ii. 1. 45; An envious thrust, Rom. iii. 1. 173; Can
heaven be so envious? iii. 2. 40; necessary, and not envious,
J.C. ii. 1. 178; what envious flint, 2N.K. v. 4. 61.
I I
162
ENVIOUSLY-ESCOTED.
enviously, maliciously, pettishly, Hml. iv. 5. 6.
envy, malice, hatred, ill-will: Out of his envy's reach, M.V. iv.
1. 10; thy sharp envy, iv. 1. 126; Either envy, therefore, or
misprision, 1H4. i. 3. 27; envy breeds unkind division, 1H6.
iv. 1. 193; Exempt from envy, 3H6. iii. 3. 127; no black
envy, H8. ii. 1. 85; what envy reach you, ii. 2. 89; Envy and
base opinion, iii. 1. 36; You turn the good we offer into envy,
113; what envy can say worst, Troil. iii. 2. 104; his envy to
the people, Cor. iii. 3. 3; The cruelty and envy of the people,
iv. 5. 80; and envy afterwards, J.C. ii. 1. 164; Addition of
his envy, Ant. v. 2. 163; Cleon's wife, with envy rare, Per.
iv. Gow. 37; There is but envy in that light, 2N.K. v. 3. 21.
envy, to bear malice, hatred, or ill-will to: Owns a serpent I
abhor More than thy fame and [Dyce I] envy, Cor. i. 8. 4;
Rather than envy (“import ill-will to," MALONE) you iii. 3. 57.
enwheel, to encompass, to encircle, Oth. ii. 1. 87.
Ephesian, a cant term, which seems to have been equivalent
to "toper, jolly companion:" thine Ephesian, M.W. iv. 5.
19; Ephesians, my lord,-of the old church (of the old sort),
2H4. ii. 2. 164. See Corinthian.
epileptic visage, Lr. ii. 2. 87: Johnson's explanation is, "the
frighted countenance of a man ready to fall in a fit:" but
the context shows that it means "visage distorted by grinning."
equal, to match with: If this foul deed were by to equal it,
3H6. v. 5. 55.
equal, just, impartial: The gods have been most equal, 2N.K. iv.
4. 215.
equivocator.
who committed treason enough for God's sake
-An, Mcb. ii. 3. 11: "Meaning a Jesuit; an order so
troublesome to the state in Queen Elizabeth's and King
James the First's time. The inventors of the execrable
doctrine of equivocation" (WARBURTON]: "This allusion to
the times is certainly unlike Shakespeare. It strengthens
Coleridge's hypothesis of the spuriousness of part of this
soliloquy" (WALKER).
Ercles, Hercules, M.N.D. i. 2. 31, 42.
eringoes, M.W. v. 5. 23: sea-holly; like potatoes, formerly supposed
to be strong provocatives. [See Fuller, Worthies, i. 337, ed.
1811, cf. Marston, Sc. of Villainie, 1. iii.]
erring, wandering: erring pilgrimage, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 138; erring
spirit, Hml. i. 1. 154; erring barbarian, Oth. i. 3. 362.
erst, formerly, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 95; H5. v. 2. 48; 2H6. ii. 4. 13;
Tit. iv. 1. 63; v. 3. 80; Per. i. 1. 49.
escape, an act of lewdness: Rome will despise her for this foul
escape, Tit. iv. 2. 113: compare second scape.
escapen, escape, Per. ii. Gow. 36.
escoted, paid ("Escot. A shot . . . Escotter. Euery one to pay
his shot," &c. Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), Hml. ii. 2. 362.
ESPERANCE-EUPHRATES.
163
esperance, hope, 1H4. ii. 3. 74; v. 2. 97; Troil. v. 2. 121; Lr.
iv. i. 4: In the first and second of the passages above
referred to, esperance (as French) is the motto of the Percy
family (So, in the concluding stanza of the Legend of Henry
Percy Earl of Northumberland, Hotspur's father, in A
Mirrour for Magistrates, &c., the Earl mentions "esperance
my word" (i.e. my motto), p. 307, ed. 1610).
espials, spies, 1H6. i. 4. 8; iv. 3. 6; Hml. iii. 1. 32.
estate-'Twas of some, Hml. v. 1. 244: Here, with the present
reading, "estate" means "high rank" (not, as Johnson
explains it, "person of high rank," though that meaning
would suit the reading of the folio, "Twas some
estate").
98;
estate, to settle as a possession, Tp. iv. 1. 85; M.N.D. i. 1.
A.Y.L. v. 2. 13.
esteem Was made much poorer by it-Our, A.W. v. 3. I:
“Esteem is here reckoning or estimate. Since the loss of
Helen, with her virtues and qualifications, our account is
sunk; what we have to reckon ourselves king of, is much
poorer than before" (JOHNSON): "Meaning that his esteem
was lessened in its value by Bertram's misconduct; since
a person who was honoured with it could be so ill treated
as Helena had been, and that with impunity" (MASON):
"Johnson's explanation is the true one" (WALKER).
estimable wonder, 12N. ii. 1. 28: Has been explained as equi-
valent to "esteeming wonder." Herford says, "admiring."
estimate-My dear wife's, "Beyond the rate at which I value
my dear wife" (JOHNSON), Cor. iii. 3. 114.
estimation, supposition, conjecture: I speak not this in estima-
tion, 1H4. i. 3. 272.
estridge, an ostrich, Ant. iii. 13. 197; estridges, 1H4. iv. 1. 98.
Et tu, Brute? J.C. iii. 1. 77. After quoting Suetonius in Holland's
version, and Plutarch in North's translation, Malone observes;
"neither of these writers, therefore, we see, furnished
Sh. with this exclamation. His authority appears to have
been a line in the old play entitled The True Tragedie of
Richarde Duke of Yorke, &c. printed in [1595], on which
he formed his [3H6.]: 'Et tu, Brute? wilt thou stab Cæsar
too?' [p. 176, Shake. Soc. reprint]. This line Sh. rejected
when he wrote [3H6]; but it appears it had made an
impression on his memory." MALONE also refers to
S. Nicholson's Acolastus his afterwitte, 1600, and Cæsar's
Legend, Mirror for Magistrates, and notes that the words
probably came from the old play [by Dr. Eedes, 1582].
eterne, eternal, Mcb. iii. 2. 38; Hml. ii. 2. 512.
Euphrates, Ant. i. 2. 105: Our early poets, with very few
exceptions, make the penult of Euphrates short: e.g. in
The Warres of Cyrus, King of Persia, &c., 1594;
Diary of
Sience
p155 footnote.
164
<<
EVEN-EVILS.
And brought me to the bankes of Euphrates,
the ratling harmonie
Which Euphrates his gliding streams did keepe." Sig. E 3:
and in Fairfax's translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme;
"To Euphrates we come, that sacred flood."
"Whence Euphrates, whence Tygresse spring, they vew."
B. viii. st. 69.
B. xiv. st. 38.
"And thence with Euphrates' ritch flood embrast." B. xvii. st. 5.
even Christian, fellow Christian, Hml. v. 1. 32.
even, to equal, to make equal, to make even: we'll even All that
good time will give us (“we'll make our work even with our
time, we'll do what time will allow," JOHNSON), Cymb. iii.
4. 184; Till I am even'd with him, Oth. ii. 1. 308.
even o'er the time he has lost-'Tis danger To make him, Lr. iv.
7. 80: “ie. To reconcile it to his apprehension" (WAR-
BURTON): "I believe Dr. Warburton's explanation is just....
The speaker's meaning therefore I conceive to be-it is
dangerous to render all that passed during the interval of
his insanity even (i.e. plain or level) to his understanding, while
it continues in its present state of uncertainty" (STEEVENS).
even your content-To, A.W. i. 3. 3. Dyce conjectures earn.
even-pleach'd, &c.-Her hedges, H5. v. 2. 42: "The construc-
tion is, 'Her even-pleached hedges [hedges evenly inter-
twined, so woven together as to have an even surface] put.
forth disordered twigs, resembling persons in prison, whose
faces are from neglect overgrown with hair'" (MALONE):
see pleached.
ever-Not: see not ever, &c.
ever-among, ever amidst, ever at intervals (an expression
common in our earliest poetry), 2H4. v. 3. 23.
everlasting garment - An, Err. iv. 2. 33: see durance, &c.
evil-The, Mcb. iv. 3. 146: Perhaps it is unnecessary to notice
that this means the scrofulous disease known by the name
of the King's Evil, because the sovereigns af England were
supposed to possess the power of curing it "without other
medicine, save only by handling and prayer" (as Laneham
says, quoted here by Reed); and probably many readers
will recollect that Dr. Johnson, when a child, was carried
by his mother to London to be "touched" by Queen Anne.
[If the allusion here was intended to compliment James, it
should be noted that he always felt a scruple about touching,
as savouring of superstition.]
evil-ey'd, having a malignant look, malicious, Cymb. i. 1. 72.
evils there-Pitch our, M.M. ii. 2. 172; build their evils on the
graves of great men, H8. ii. 1. 67: On the first of these
passages Steevens observes, "Evils, in the present instance
[as Dr. Grey has remarked], undoubtedly stands for forica;"
EXAMIN'D-EXHAUST.
165
and Henley, "The desecration of edifices devoted to religion,
by converting them to the most abject purposes of nature,
was an eastern method of expressing contempt. See 2
Kings, x. 27."
examin'd, questioned, doubted: that I have not heard examin'd,
A.W. iii. 5. 66.
examples of every minute's instance, “Are, I believe, examples
which every minute supplies, which every minute presses
on our notice” (STEEVENS), 2H4. iv. 1. 82.
exasperate, exasperated, Troil. v. 1. 34.
except before excepted-Let her, 12N. i. 3. 7: "This, says Dr.
Farmer, should probably be 'as before excepted,'— a ludi-
crous use of the formal law-phrase. But the ingenious critic
might have spared his remark, the formal law-phrase being
more usually as in the text” (Ritson).
(RITSON).
excrement, hair, beard: so plentiful an excrement, Err. ii. 2. 79;
dally with my excrement, L.L.L. v. 1. 109: valour's excrement,
M.V. iii. 2. 87; my pedler's excrement, W.T. iv. 4. 734; Your
bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts up (“The hairs
are excrementitious, that is, without life or sensation; yet
those very hairs, as if they had life, start up, &c." POPE),
Hml. iii. 4. 121 (“And albeit hayre were of it selfe the
most abiect excrement that were, yet should Poppæas hayre
be reputed honourable. I am not ignorant that hayre is
noted by many as an excrement, a fleeting commodity ....
An excrement it is, I deny not," &c. Chapman's Justification
of a strange action of Nero, &c., 1629. sig. B 2). [cf. Heywood,
Hierarchie, p. 238, ed. 1634].
executors, executioners: Delivering o'er to executors pale,
H5. i. 2. 203.
exempt, "separated, parted" (JOHNSON), "taken away" (Boswell,
Add. to Malone's Shakespeare: you are from me exempt,
Err. ii. 2. 173.
exercise, a religious lecture, a sermon: I'm in your debt for
your last exercise, R3. iii. 2. 112 ("The puritans," observes
Nares, "had weekday sermons, which they made a great
point of frequenting, and termed exercises." Gloss.: but
here the context, "the next Sabbath," seems to show that
Hastings is not alluding to a week-day sermon).
exhale, to draw out: Therefore exhale (out with your sword),
H5. ii. 1. 66 (where exhale is most erroneously explained
by Steevens "breathe your last, or die"); exhale, R3. i. 2.
166; exhal'd, 1H4. v. 1. 19; exhales, R3. i. 2. 58; Rom. iii.
5. 13; Exhal'st, L.L.L. iv. 3. 70. ["Do not exhale me thus,"
Crispinus says to the Officers who have arrested him,
Poetaster, iii. 1.]
exhaust, to draw forth: Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust
their mercy, Tim. iv. 3. 119.
166
EXHIBITION-EXSUFFLICATE.
exhibition, an allowance, a pension: Like exhibition thou shalt
have, 2G. i. 3. 69; Confiy'd to exhibition! Lr. i. 2. 25; Due
reference of place and exhibition, Oth. i. 3. 238; any petty
exhibition, iv. 3. 75; hir'd with that self exhibition (that very
allowance or pension), Cymb. i. 6. 122.
exhibition to examine, Ado, iv. 2. 5: "Blunder for examination
to exhibit. See iii. 5. 51, 'Take their examination yourself,
and bring it me' (STEEVENS). [Query exhibition = author-
ity; as opposite of inhibition.]
exigent, an exigence: Why do you cross me in this exigent?
J.C. v. 1. 19; when the exigent should come, Ant. iv. 14. 63.
exigent, an extremity, an end: drawing to their exigent, 1H6. ii. 5. 9.
exion, the Hostess's blunder for action, 2H4. ii. 1. 32.
exorciser, a person who can raise spirits (not one who can
lay them), Cymb. iv. 2. 276.
exorcisms, conjurations for raising spirits (not for laying
them), 2H6. i. 4. 5.
exorcist, a person who can raise spirits (not one who can
lay them), A.W. v. 3. 305; J.C. ii. 1. 323.
expect, expectation, Troil. i. 3. 70. [Agamemnon's meaning
seems plain enough, though obscurely expressed: we expect
as little to hear worthless matter from you as we expect to
hear sense from Thersites.]
expedience, expedition, haste, dispatch: with all due expedience,
R2. ii. 1. 287; with all expedience, H5. iv. 3. 70; The cause
of our expedience, Ant. i. 2. 185.
expedience, an expedition, an enterprise, an undertaking: In
forwarding this dear expedience, 1H4. i. 1. 33.
expedient, expeditious, immediate: His marches are expedient,
K.J. ii. 1. 60; with much expedient march, 223; Expedient
manage, R2. i. 4. 39; with all expedient duty, R3. i. 2. 217; a
quick-expedient stop, 2H6. iii. 1. 288.
expediently, expeditiously, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 18.
expense, spending, expenditure: To have th' expense and waste
of his revenues, Lr. ii. 1. 102.
expiate, R3. iii. 3. 23; Sonn. 22: "fully completed and ended'
(MALONE).
""
expire, to bring to an end, to conclude: expire the term Of a
despised life, Rom. i. 4. 109.
expostulate, to discuss: The time now serves not to expostulate,
2G. iii. 1. 251; to expostulate ("to show by discussion, to
put the pros and cons, to answer demands upon the ques-
tion," CALDECOTT) What majesty should be, Hml. ii. 2. 86.
expuls'd, expelled, 1H6. iii. 3. 25.
exsufflicate, swollen, puffed out, [or perhaps contemptible
(CRAIG)] Oth. iii. 3. 182 (For my own part, I can see no
reason to doubt that such was Shakespeare's word, and
such the meaning he intended it to convey).
EXTEND-EYRIE.
167
extend, to extend the praise of a person: I do extend him,
sir, within himself (short of his merit), Cymb. i. 1. 25;
the approbation of those... are wonderfully to extend him,
i. 4. 21.
extend, to seize (a law-term): Extended Asia from Euphrates,
Ant. i. 2. 105: see the next article.
extent upon his house and lands—Make an, Make a seizure
upon, &c. (“To make an extent of lands' is a legal phrase,
from the words of a writ-extendi facias-whereby the sheriff
is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their
full extended value, before he delivers them to the person
entitled under a recognizance, &c., in order that it may
be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid,"
MALONE, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 17; extent against thy peace, violent
attack (as in serving an extent) on thy peace, 12N.
iv. 1. 57.
extern, external, outward, Oth. i. 1. 63.
extirp, to extirpate, to root out, M.M. iii. 2. 110; extirped, 1H6.
iii. 3. 24.
extracting frenzy-A most, 12N. v. 1. 288: absorbing.
extraught, extracted, derived, 3H6. ii. 2. 142.
extravagant, straying beyond bounds, vagrant, roving about:
Th' extravagant and erring spirit, Hml. i. 1. 154; an extra-
vagant and wheeling stranger, Oth. i. 1. 137; L.L.L. iv. 2. 68.
extremity, the utmost of calamity: And top extremity, Lr. v.
3. 207; and smiling extremity out of act, Per. v. 1. 140.
eyases, young hawks just taken from the nest ("Niais: A
neastling, a young bird taken out of a neast; hence a young-
ling, nouice," &c. Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), Hml.
ii. 2. 355.
eyas-musket, a young male sparrow-hawk (Fr. mouchet), M.W.
iii. 3. 22: see the preceding article.
eye of death-An, "An eye menacing death" (JOHNSON and
STEEVENS), "an eye expressing deadly fear" (MASON), 1H4.
i. 3. 143.
eye of green-An, A slight tint of green, Tp. ii. 1. 55; Hml.
i. 3. 128.
eye, presence: We shall express our duty in his eye, Hml.
iv. 4. 6.
eye, the outward, K.J. ii. 1. 583: the hollow on the side of a
bowl in which the leaden plug was fixed that imparted the
bias. Here 'commodity' (q.v.) is the bias.
eyes their carriage ride-Her leveli'd, L. Compl. 22: "The
allusion is to a piece of ordnance" (MALONE).
eyne, eyes, L.L.L. v. 2. 206; M.N.D. i. 1. 242; ii. 2. 99; iii. 2.
138; v. 1. 178; A.Y.L. iv. 3. 50; Shr. v. 1. 120; Ant. ii. 7.
121; Per. iii. Gow. 5; Ven. 633; Lucr. 643; 1229; L. Compl. 15.
Eyrie, see aery.
168
FACE-FACTIOUS,
F.
face?- With that, L.L.L. i. 2. 145: A cant bantering phrase,
which, I understand, is hardly obsolete now-a-days: Fielding
(as Steevens remarks) has put it into the mouth of Beau
Didapper; see Joseph Andrews, B. iv. ch. 9.
face, "to carry a false appearance, to play the hypocrite"
(JOHNSON): That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign,
1H6. v. 3. 142.
face, to oppose with impudence, to bully: Face not me,
Shr. iv. 3. 125.
face, to turn up with facings: face the garment of rebellion,
1H4. v. I. 74; Thou hast faced many things, Shr. iv. 3. 123.
face, to patch, to "mend with a different colour" (STEEVENS):
an old faced ancient, 1H4. iv. 2. 34.
face-royal-He may keep it still as a, 2H4. i. 2. 28: “That is,
a face exempt from the touch of vulgar hands" (JOHNSON):
"Perhaps this quibbling allusion is to the English real,
rial, or royal. The poet seems to mean that a barber can
no more earn sixpence by his face-royal, than by the face
stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as
little shaving as the other" (STEEVENS): "If nothing be taken
out of a royal it will remain a remain a royal as it was. This
appears to me to be Falstaff's conceit. A royal was a piece
of coin of the value of ten shillings" (MASON): see´ royal.
fac'd it with a card of ten, Shr. ii. 1. 407: "A common phrase,
which we may suppose to have been derived from some
game (possibly primero), wherein the standing boldly upon
a ten was often successful. A card of ten meant a tenth
card, a ten. . . . . I conceive the force of the phrase to
have expressed, originally, the confidence or impudence of
one who with a ten, as at brag, faced or outfaced one who
had really a faced card against him. To face meant, as it
still does, to bully, to attack by impudence of face." Nares's
Gloss. [To bluff.] (Compare Skelton's Bowge of Courte;
"And soo outface hym with a carde of ten."
Works, vol. i. p. 42, ed. Dyce.)
facinerious, wicked, A.W. ii. 3. 35. (Dyce facinorous).
fact, a deed, a doing, an evil doing: his fact, till now,
came not to an undoubtful proof, M.M. iv. 2. 141; Those of
your fact, W.T. iii. 2. 86; a fouler fact, 2H6. i. 3. 176; damnèd
fact, Mcb. iii. 6. 10; Becoming well thy fact, Per. iv. 3. 12;
The powers to whom I pray abhor this fact, Lucr. 349; 239.
factionary, one of a faction, an adherent, Cor. v. 2. 30.
factious for redress of all these griefs-Be, J.C. i. 3. 118:
"Factious seems here to mean active [or urgent]" (JOHNSON).
FACULTIES-FALCONBRIDGE.
169
faculties inclusive were, &c.-Notes whose: see notes, whose
faculties, &c.
fade, &c.-Nothing of him that doth, Tp. i. 2. 399: “The
meaning is Every thing about him, that is liable to alteration,
is changed" (STEEVENS).
fadge, to suit, to fit, to agree, L.L.L. v. 1. 154; 12N. ii. 2. 34.
fadings, W.T. iv. 4. 195: "This word [fading], which was the
burden of a popular Irish song, gave name to a dance,
frequently noticed by our old dramatists. Both the song
and the dance appear to have been of a licentious kind.”
Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. vii. p. 240: “The
Fading is the name of an Irish dance, but With a fading
(or fadding) seems to be used as a nonsense-burden, like
Derry down, Hey nonny, nonny no, &c." Chappell's Popular
Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. i. p. 235, sec. ed.
fail, a failure: the fail Of any point in't, W.T. ii. 3. 170; sense
withal Of its own fail, Tim. v. 1. 151; From thy great fail,
Cymb. iii. 4. 66.
•
fair, fairness, beauty: My decayèd fair, Err. ii. 1. 98; heresy in
fair, L.L.L. iv. 1. 22; Demetrius loves your fair, M.N.D. i.
1. 181; That fair for which love groan'd for, Rom. ii. Prol. 3;
Having no fair to lose to rob him of his fair, Ven.
1086; Neither in inward worth, nor outward fair, Sonn. 16;
that fair thou owest, Sonn. 18; these bastard signs of fair,
Sonn. 68; to your fair no painting set, Sonn. 83.
fair-betrothed, "fairly contracted, honourably affianced"
(STEEVENS), Per. v. 3. 71.
fairies' midwife-The, Rom. i. 4. 55: "Does not mean the
midwife to the fairies, but that she was the person among
the fairies, whose department it was to deliver the fancies
of sleeping men of their dreams, those children of an idle
brain" (STEEVENS): "Shakespeare, by employing her [Mab]
here, alludes at large to her midnight pranks performed on
sleepers; but denominates her from the most notorious one,
of her personating the drowsy midwife, who was insensibly
carried away into some distant water, and substituting a
new birth in the bed or cradle" (T. WARTON). See Child's
father.
fairing, making fair, Sonn. 127.
fairy, an enchantress: this great fairy, Ant. iv. 8. 12.
faith'd, possessed of credibility, credited, Lr. ii. 1. 72.
faitors, vagabonds, idle livers, (as a general term of reproach)
rascals ("Vagabond. A vagabond, roamer, faitour," &c.
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), 2H4. ii. 4. 173. [Probably
Audrey mistakes features for this, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 3.]
falcon as the tercel, for ail the ducks i' the river-The: see tercel, &c.
Falconbridge commands the narrow seas-Stern, 3H6. i. 1. 239:
"The person here meant was Thomas Nevil, bastard son
170
FALL-FALSING.
to the Lord Faulconbridge; 'a man,' says Hall, 'of no less
corage then audacitie, who, for his euel condicions was
such an apte person, that a more meter could not be
chosen to set all the worlde in a broyle, and to put the
estate of the realme on an yl hazard.' He had been appointed
by Warwick vice-admiral of the sea, and had in charge so
to keep the passage between Dover and Calais, that none
which either favoured King Henry or his friends should
escape untaken or undrowned: such at least were his in-
structions with respect to the friends and favourers of King
Edward after the rupture between him and Warwick. On
Warwick's death, he fell into poverty, and robbed, both by
sea and land, as well friends as enemies. He once brought
his ships up the Thames, and with a considerable body of
the men of Kent and Essex, made a spirited assault on
the city, with a view to plunder and pillage, which was not
repelled but after a sharp conflict and the loss of many
lives; and, had it happened at a more critical period,
might have been attended with fatal consequences to Edward.
After roving on the sea some little time longer, he ventured
to land at Southampton, where he was taken and beheaded.
See Hall and Holinshed" (RITSON).
fall, to let fall: To fall it on Gonzalo, Tp. ii. 1. 296; Than fall,
and bruise to death, M.M. ii. 1. 6; as easy mayst thou fall
A drop of water, Err. ii. 2. 127; her mantle she did fall,
M.N.D. v. 1. 143; Fall parti-colour'd lambs, M.V. i. 3. 89;
Here did she fall a tear, R2. iii. 4. 104; make him fall His
crest, Troil. i. 3. 379; They fall their crests, J C. iv. 2. 26;
Fall not a tear, Ant. iii. 11. 69; Her twinning cherries shall
their sweetness fall, 2N.K. i. 1. 178: falling a lip of much
contempt, W.T. i. 2. 372; Falls not the axe, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 5;
Each drop she falls, Oth. iv. 1. 257; For every tear he falls,
Lucr. 1551, (Yet Mr. Craik, in a note on They fall their
crests-Fulius Cæsar, iv. 2. 26-most unaccountably says
"This use of fall, as an active [sic] verb, is not common
in Shakespeare ").
fall, to fall away, to shrink: A good leg will fall, H5. v. 2. 167.
fall-At, At an ebb, Tim. ii 2. 214.
fall, cadence, 12N. i. 1. 4.
fallow, light brown, with a yellow or reddish tinge: your fallow
greyhound, M.W. i. 1. 91.
false, to falsify, to "violate by failure of veracity" (Johnson's
Dict.): Makes Diana's rangers false themselves, Cymb. ii. 3. 74.
false fire,- What, frighted with, Hml. iii. 2. 277: a flash in
the pan; cf. Defoe, Captain Singleton, ch. viii. p. 104 (Bohn):
we made false fire with any gun that was uncharged and
they would walk off as soon as they saw the flash."
falsing, Err. ii. 2. 95: "apt to be falsified?" (SCHMIDT).
FAMILIAR-FANCY-SICK.
171
familiar, a demon attendant on a witch or conjuror: Love is a
familiar, L.L.L. i. 2. 177; I think her old familiar is asleep, 1H6.
iii. 2. 122; he has a familiar under his tongue, 2H6. iv. 7. 114.
fan-When Miss Bridget lost the handle of her, M.W. ii. 2. 12;
brain him with his lady's fan, 1H4. ii. 3. 25: The fans used
by ladies in Shakespeare's time consisted generally of ostrich
or other feathers stuck into handles, which were sometimes
very costly, being made of silver, gold, or ivory inlaid:
"In the Sidney Papers, published by Collins, a fan is
presented to Queen Elizabeth for a new-year's gift, the
handle of which was studded with diamonds" (T. WARTON).
[Rom. ii. 4. 112: to hide her face, suggests the note that fans
were used as sunshades in Elizabeth's time. Compare
Astrophel and Stella, xxii: “each prepar'd with fan's well-
shading grace," and Fletcher's Lucia, xiv. and xxiii.]
Fancies or his Goodnights-Sung those tunes. . . . that he heard
the carmen whistle, and sware they were his, 2H4. iii. 2. 342:
Fancies and Goodnights were the titles of little poems.
One of Gascoigne's Goodnights is published among his
Flowers" (STEEVENS): "The Carmen of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries appear to have been singularly famous
for their musical abilities; but especially for whistling their
tunes. Falstaff's description of Justice Shallow is, that 'he
came ever in the rear-ward of the fashion,' and 'sang the
the tunes he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they
were his Fancies or his Goodnights.' Note. Goodnights
are 'Last dying speeches,' made into ballads. See Essex's
last Goodnight." Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Time,
&c., vol. i. p. 138, sec. ed. (where may be found a good
deal more concerning the musical performances of the
carmen).
fancy, love: no appearance of fancy in him, Ado, iii. 2. 31;
fancy's followers, M.N.D. i. 1. 155; where is fancy bred, M.V.
iii. 2. 63; fancy dies, 68; fancy's knell, 68; in fancy following
me, M.N.D. iv. 1. 168; the power of fancy, iii. 5. 29; sweet
and bitter fancy, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 102; As all impediments in
fancy's course Are motives of more fancy, A.W. v. 3. 214;
and by my fancy, W.T. iv. 4. 493; my fancy may be satisfied,
1H6. v. 3. 91; What a mere child is fancy, 2N.K. iv. 2. 52;
soft fancy's slave, Lucr. 200; this afflicted fancy (love-sick
fair one), L. Compl. 61; fancy partial, P. Pilg. 302; wounded
fancies, L. Compl. 197.
fancy, to love: never did young man fancy With so eternal and
so fix'd a soul, Troil. v. 2. 165.
fancy-free, love-free, exempt from the power of love, M.N.D.
ii. 1. 164.
fancy-monger, love-monger, A.Y L. iii. 2. 382.
fancy-sick, love-sick, M.N.D. iii. 2. 96.
172
FANG-FAST.
fang, to gripe, to seize, Tim. iv. 3. 23.
fangled world-Our, Cymb. v. 4. 134: Hère fangled is, I ap-
prehend, the same, or nearly the same, in meaning as new-
fangled; but Malone (referring to Johnson's Dict.) explains
it "gaudy, vainly decorated," and Nares (in his Gloss.)
'trifling." ["fond of finery," Craig].
(6
fantastical, belonging to fantasy, imaginary: Are ye fantastical
("creatures of fantasy or imagination," JOHNSON), Mcb. i. 3.
53; whose murder yet is but fantastical, 139.
("Che quella grotta e qual gran precipizio
Non era cosa vera, ma apparente
Ma le donzelle e il fortunato ospizio
Fantastico non era certamente."
Fortiguerra's Ricciardetto, c. xxi. st, 76.)
fantasticoes, fantastic, coxcomical persons, Rom. ii. 4. 30.
fap, fuddled, drunk, M.W. i. 1. 183.
far', farther: Far than Deucalion off, W.T. iv. 4. 442; stand
far off, J.C. iii. 2. 171; fly far' off, v. 3. II; From the far
shore, 2N.K. iv. 1. 54.
far-You speak him, "You praise him extensively" (STEEVENS),
Cymb. i. 1. 24.
farce, to stuff: The farced (=tumid, pompous) title, H5. iv. 1.
280; that she farces every business withal, 2N.K. iv. 3. 7.
fardel, a burden, a bundle, a pack: W.T. iv. 4. 728; 739; 781;
783; v. 2. 4; 125; fardels, Hml. iii. 1. 76.
Farewell, dear heart, 12N. ii. 3. 109; this line, and the snatches
which follow, are quotations (a good deal altered, to suit
the purposes of the singers) from a ballad in The Golden
Garland of Princely Delights, and in Percy's Reliques, i. 221,
ed. 1794.
far-fet, far-fetched, 2H6. iii. 1. 293. [Cf. fet, H5. iii. 1. 18].
farrow, a litter of pigs, Mcb. iv. 1. 65.
fartuous, Mrs. Quickly's blunder for virtuous, M.W. ii. 2. 100.
fashions—The, The farcy (Ital. farcina, Fr. farcin), a disease,
in horses, of the absorbents of the skin, closely connected
with glanders, Shr. iii. 2. 53.
fast, fasted: I fast and prayed, Cymb. iv. 2. 347.
fast, settled, fixed: 'tis our fast intent, Lr. i. I. 39.
fast and loose, L.L.L. i. 2. 162; iii. i. 104; K.J. iii. 1. 242; Ant.
iv. 12. 28: "A term to signify a cheating game, of which
the following is a description. A leathern belt is made up
into a number of intricate folds, and placed edgewise upon
a table. One of the folds is made to resemble the middle
of the girdle, so that whoever should thrust a skewer into
it would think he held it fast to the table; whereas, when
he has so done, the person with whom he plays may take
hold of both ends, and draw it away. This trick is now
FAST-FAVOUR.
173
known to the common people by the name of pricking at
the belt or girdle, and perhaps was practised by the gypsies
in the time of Shakespeare" (SIR J. HAWKINS). [cf. Suckling,
upon Lord Brohall's wedding ].
fast bind, fast find, M.V. ii. 5. 54: “Bon guet chasse malaven-
ture: Pro. Good watch preuents misfortune; (fast bind, fast
find, say we)." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.:
"Time is tickle: and out of sight out of minde,
Than catch and hold while I may, fast binde, fast finde."
Heywood's Dialogue on Prouerbs, Part First,- Workes,
sig. A 3 verso, ed. 1598.
fat and fulsome, 12N. v. 1. 112: dull, o'er-cloying.
fat and scant of breath-He's, Hml. v. 2. 298: It seems highly
probable that this description was intended to apply to
Burbadge, the original representative of Hamlet.
fat paunches have lean pates, L.L.L. i. 1. 26: This (with the
variation of "make" for have) is given by Ray, who adds,
Pinguis venter non gignit sensum tenuem. This Hierom
mentions in one of his Epistles as a Greek proverb. The
Greek is more elegant,-Παχεῖα γαστὴρ λεπτὸν οὐ τίκτει νόον.”
Proverbs, p. 144, ed. 1768.
fat room, ‘beer-reeking,' quasi 'vat-room,' bar: 1H4. ii. 4. 1.
fatal and neglected English, H5. ii. 4. 13: despised, to our loss.
fatigate, made weary, exhausted with labour, Cor. ii. 2. 121.
fault, misfortune: 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault, M.W. i. 1. 95;
'Tis my fault, Master Page, iii. 3. 233; The more my fault to
scape his hands, Per. iv. 2. 79.
23.
Faustuses-Three Doctor, M.W. iv. 5. 71: Faustus was well
known to the audiences of our poet's days, from the popular
(fabulous) History of Doctor Faustus, and more especially
from Marlowe's drama, founded on that history.
favour, countenance, aspect, appearance: a good favour you have,
M.M. iv. 2. 33; discover the favour, 185; When I like your
favour, Ado, ii. 1. 97; for your favour, sir, iii. 3. 13; Her
favour turns the fashion of the days, L.L.L. iv. 3. 262; My
favour were as great (with a quibble), v. 2. 33; O, were
favour so, M.N.D. i. 1. 186; Of female favour, A.Y.L. iv.
3. 87; my daughter's favour, v. 4. 27; Carries no favour in't,
A.W. i. 1. 94; his sweet favour, 107; some favour that it loves,
12N. ii. 4. 25; I know your favour, 12N. iii. 4. 363; Troil.
iv. 5.213; In favour was my brother, 12N. iii. 4. 416; known by
garment, not by favour, W.T. v. 2. 53; the favour and the
form Of this most fair occasion, K.J. v. 4. 50; stain my
favours in a bloody mask, 1H4. iii. 2. 136; our former favour,
H5. v. 2. 63; your favour is well approved by your tongue,
Cor. iv. 3. 9; your outward favour, J.C. i. 2. 91; In favour's
like the work, i. 3. 129; any mark of favour, ii. 1. 76; To
alter favour, Mcb. i. 5. 73; to this favour she must come,.
174
FAVOUR-FEAR.
Hml. v. 1. 214; defeat thy favour, Oth. i. 3. 346; in favour
as in humour alter'd, iii. 4. 125; so tart a favour, Ant. ii.
5. 38; His favour is familiar to me, Cymb. v. 5. 93; favour,
savour, hue, and qualities, Ven. 747; The most sweet favour,
Sonn. 113; The favours of these men, R2. iv. 1. 168.
favour, generally meant "a love-token" (“A favour worn,
munusculum amoris indicium." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.),
consisting of a glove to be worn in the hat, a scarf, &c.:
but, as Steevens remarks, “it was anciently the custom to
wear gloves in the hat on three distinct occasions, viz. as
the favour of a mistress, the memorial of a friend, and as
a mark to be challenged by an enemy:" Rosaline, you have
a favour too, L.L.L. v. 2. 30; this favour thou shalt wear,
130; he wears next his heart for a favour, 722; give a favour
from you, A.W. v. 3. 74; wear it as a favour, R2. v. 3. 18;
Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me (the glove which
Henry pretended he had plucked from the helmet of Alençon),
H5. iv. 7. 160; given him for a favour, 180; the favour of
his lady, 2N.K. iv. 2. 138; By favours several, L.L.L. v. 2. 125;
change your favours too, 134; the favours most in sight, 136;
Therefore change favours, 292; The ladies did change favours,
468; Your favours, the ambassadors of love, 788; fairy
favours, M.N.D. ii. 1. 12; Seeking sweet favours, iv. 1. 54;
let my favours hide thy mangled face, 1H4. v. 4. 96; the
painted favours of their ladies, 2N.K. ii. 2. 11; A thousand
favours from a maund she drew, L. Compl. 36 (where Steevens
strangely failed to see that the words, Of amber, crystal,
and of beaded jet, describe the favours, and not, as he suppos-
ed, the maund or basket).
fay-By my, By my faith, Shr. Ind. 2. 83; Rom. i. 5. 128;
Hml. ii. 2. 271.
fear, personified; O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all Cupid's
pageant there is presented no monster, Troil. iii. 2. 80; thy
angel Becomes a fear, Ant. ii. 3. 22; indent with fears,
1H4. I. 3. 87; all these bold fears, 2H4. iv. 5. 196. See
indent.
fear, cause of, or reason for, fear: There is no fear in hım,
J.C. ii. 1. 190.
fear, to fear for: I promise you, I fear you, M.V. iii. 5. 3; his
physicians fear him mightily, R3. i. 1. 137; Fear not thy sons,
Tit. ii. 3. 305; much fear'd by his physicians, 1H4. iv. 1. 24.
fear, to terrify, to frighten: to fear the birds of prey, M.M. ii.
1. 2; fear boys with bugs, Shr. i. 2. 211; The people fear me,
2H4. iv. 4. 121; go fear thy king withal, 3H6. iii. 3. 226;
to fear, not to delight, Oth. i. 2. 71; Thou canst not fear us,
Pompey, with thy sails, Ant. ii. 6. 24; because he would not
fear him, Ven. 1094; Hath fear'd the valiant, M.V. ii. 1. 9;
more fear'd than harm'd, H5. i. 2. 155; a bug that fear'd us
FEAR-FEATHER.
175
all, 3H6. v. 2. 2; something fears me to think of, Lr. iii. 5. 4;
only this fears me, 2NK. iii. 6. 129.
fear no colours: see colours-Fear no.
fearful, timid: Pursue these fearful creatures, Ven. 677.
fearful-He's gentle, and not, Tp. i. 2. 468: "fearful, i.e. terrible,
producing fear. In our author's age to fear signified to
terrify (see Minsheu in verb. [and fourth fear preceding]),
and fearful was much more frequently used in the sense
of formidable than that of timourous" (MALONE): “He
is mild and harmless, and not in the least terrible or danger-
ous" (RITSON). [Dyce's note is probably right, but I may
add the following from Smollett's Expedition of Humphrey
Ciinker, Works, VI. 222, ed. 1806: "For instance,' said he,
'how have your commentators been puzzled by the follow-
ing expression in the Tempest-He's gentle, and not fearful:
as if it was a paralogism to say, that, being gentle, he must
of course be courageous; but the truth is, one of the original
meanings, if not the sole meaning, of that word was, noble,
high-minded; and to his day, a Scotswoman, in the situation
of the young lady in the Tempest, would express herself
nearly in the same terms-Don't provoke him; for being
gentle, that is, high-spirited, he wont tamely bear an insult.
Spenser, in the very first stanza of his Faery Queen, says,
'A gentle knight was pricking on the plain;
which knight, far from being tame and fearful, was so stout, that
'Nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.'”"]
fearful bravery-With: "With a gallant show of courage, carry-
ing with it terror and dismay" (MALONE): With "bravery
in show or appearance, which yet is full of real fear or
apprehension" (CRAIK), J.C. v. I. 10.
(C
fears his widow-Hortensio, Shr. v. 2. 16: Here Petruchio means
Hortensio is afraid of his widow;" but the Widow under-
stands him to mean "Hortensio frightens his widow."
fears his fellowship to die with us, H5. iv. 3. 39; expression
somewhat obscure: who fears companionship in death with us.
feast-finding minstrels, Lucr. 817: “Our ancient minstrels were
the constant attendants on feasts" (STEEVENs).
feat, dexterous, ready, neat, trim: So feat, so nurse-like, Cymb.
v. 5. 88; Much feater than before, Tp. ii. 1. 273.
feated, formed, fashioned, moulded (with a reference perhaps
both to appearance and manners), Cymb. i. 1. 49. “I am
well feted or shapen of my lymmes, Je suis bien aligné."
Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de la Lang. Fr., 1530, fol. cxlviii.
(Table of Verbes).
feather, that they got in France-Those remnants Of fool and,
H8. i. 3. 25: This passage, as Mr. Fairholt remarks, “alludes
to the extravagant follies of the French fashions exhibited
8
176
FEATLY—FEE-SIMPLE.
at the Field of the Cloth of Gold:" among the bas-reliefs
of the Hotel Bourgtheroulde is a figure of one on the
English side, which has "a close skull-cap of velvet worn
upon the head, and the bonnet or hat slung at the back
of it, with an enormous radiation of feathers set around it."
featly, dexterously, neatly, Tp. i. 2. 380; W.T. iv. 4. 176; (The
expression "foot it featly," which is now so familiar to us
from the former of these passages, was not a usual one in
the days of Shakespeare, who probably caught it from a
line in Lodge's Glaucus and Scilla, 1589;
Footing it featlie on the grassie ground." Sig. A 2 verso).
feature, form, person in general: He is complete in feature,
2G. ii. 4. 73; Cheated of feature, R3. i. 1. 19; complete in
mind and feature, H8. iii. 2. 50; the feature of Octavia,
Ant. ii. 5. 112; for feature ("grace and dignity of form,"
STAUNTON) laming The shrine of Venus, &c., Cymb. v. 5. 163.
fedary, M.M. ii. 4. 122; Cymb. iii. 2. 21; W.T. ii. 1. 90; “Fedary
[Globe, feodary] and federary in Shakespeare are the same.
word differently written (having no connection whatever with
feud or feudatory), and signify a colleague, associate, or
confederate." Richardson's Dict. in v.: But Richardson
ought to have said that the form federary, which the folio
[also Globe] gives only in one passage (W.T. ii. 1. 90), is
undoubtedly an error of the scribe or printer.
federary, see last article.
fee-At a pin's, At the value of a pin, Hml. 1. 4. 65.
fee-Three thousand crowns in annual, “a feud or fee (in land)
of that yearly value” (RITSON), Hml. ii. 2. 73.
feeder, a servant, a menial: your very faithful feeder, A.Y.L.
ii. 4. 99 ("shepherd," CRAIG); riotous feeders, Tim. ii.
2. 168; By one that looks on feeders (By one, i.e. Cleopatra,
who condescends to look with unbecoming kindness on
servants), Ant. iii. 13. 109.
feeding-A worthy, W.T. iv. 4. 169: pasturage.
fee-farm! A kiss in, "Is a kiss of a duration that has no
bounds; a fee-farm being a grant of lands in fee, that is,
for ever, reserving a certain rent" (MALONE), Troil. iii. 2. 53.
fee-grief, "a peculiar sorrow, a grief that hath a single owner"
(JOHNSON), Mcb. iv. 3. 196.
fee-simple, with fine and recovery-In, M.W. iv. 2. 225: "Fee-
simple, feodum simplex, is that of which we are seised in
these general words, To us and our heirs for ever" (Cowell's
Law-Dict., sub "Fee," ed. 1727); fine and recovery is "the
strongest assurance known to English law" (RITSON); fee-
simple, A.W. iv. 3. 312; 2H6. iv. 10. 27; Troil. v. 1. 26;
Rom. iii. 1. 35; And was my own fee-simple ("Had an absolute
power over myself, as large as a tenant in fee has over his
estate," MALONE), L. Compl. 144.
FEET-FERE.
177
feet, but that's a fable-I look down towards his, Oth. v. 2. 286:
"To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be
cloven" (JOHNSON).
fell, skin, Lr. v. 3. 24; fells, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 55.
fell of hair, skin covered with hair, hairy scalp, Mcb. v. 5. II.
fellow, a companion: to be your fellow You may deny me,
Tp. iii. 1. 84; fellow! not Malvolio, 12N. iii. 4. 85 (where
Malvolio chooses to understand fellow in the sense of
“companion”).
fellow, and equal: my brother's servants Were then my fellows,
Tp. ii. 1. 274; princely fellows, Cymb. iii. 4. 93.
fellow of this walk-My shoulders for the, M.W. v. 5. 29: The
forester, or park-keeper, used to receive, as his perquisite,
one or both of the shoulders of the buck.
fellow with the great belly, &c.-The, 2H4. i. 2. 165: An allusion
to some individual well-known at that time,-some fat blind
beggar who was led about by his dog.
fellowly, sympathetic, Tp. v. I. 64.
female fairies will his tomb be haunted-With, Cymb. iv. 2. 217:
“¿.e. harmless and protecting spirits, not fairies of a mischiev-
ous nature" (Douce).
fencing, swearing-Drinking, Hml. ii. 1. 25: "Fencing, I suppose,
means piquing himself on his skill in the use of the sword,
and quarrelling and brawling in consequence of that skill
(MALONE).
fennel for you, and columbines, Hml. iv. 5. 180: Fennel was an
emblem of flattery ("Dare finocchio, to flatter or giue Fennell."
Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.), [cf. Lyly, Sapho, ii. 4], and
was also considered as a provocative (see conger, &c.); and
in the present passage, where Ophelia seems to address
the King, we may certainly suppose that she offers him
"flattery," though we do not agree with Mr. Staunton in
supposing that here fennel signifies "lust" also (fennel,
moreover, was thought to have the property of clearing the
sight; but there appears to be no allusion to that property
here, though Mr. Beisly, in his Shakspere's Garden, &c.,
p. 158, positively states that there is): columbines, having no
particular virtues or properties ascribed to them, perhaps
are emblematical of ingratitude: Chapman, in his All Fools,
1605, calls columbine "a thankless flower." (Holt White
quotes Browne's Britannia's Pastorals to show that "colum-
bine was emblematical of forsaken lovers: " but here Ophelia
is not assigning the columbines to herself, and except her-
self, there is no "love-lorn" person present).
feodary, see fedary.
fere, a companion, a mate (husband or wife), Tit. iv. 1. 89
(husband); Per. i. Gow. 21 (wife); 2N.K. v. 1. 116; and
Playfere, iv. 3. 79 (wife).
12
178
FERN-SEED-FIERCE.
fern-seed-The receipt of, 1H4. ii. 1. 96; 98: "The ancients,
who often paid more attention to received opinions than
to the evidence of their senses, believed that fern bore no
seed. Our ancestors imagined that this plant produced seed
which was invisible. Hence, from an extraordinary mode
of reasoning, founded on the fantastic doctrine of signatures,
they concluded that they who possessed the secret of wear-
ing this seed about them would become invisible" (HOLT
WHITE).
D
ferret, to worry, H5. iv. 4. 30. (Craig).
fescue, "A small wire, [stick, straw, &c.] by which those who
teach to read point out the letters" (Johnson's Dict.),
2N.K. ii. 3. 34; (Peele, in his Honour of the Garter, describ-
ing the Englishmen of former days, says,
"They went to school to put together towns,
And spell in France with fescues made of pikes.”
Works, p. 586, ed. Dyce, 1861).
festinate, speedy, quick, Lr. iii. 7. 10.
festinately, speedily, quickly, L.L.L. iii. 1. 6.
festival terms, holiday language, fine phraseology, Ado, v. 2. 41.
fet, fetched, H5. iii. 1. 18. See Far-fet.
fetch of warrant-A, A warranted, sanctioned, or approved
artifice or device, (so Ff. and Dyce) Hml. ii. 1. 38, (Globe,
fetch of wit).
fettle, to prepare, to put in order, to get ready ("To fettle, to
set or go about any thing, to dress or prepare. A word
much used." Ray's North Country Words, p. 29, ed. 1768),
Rom. iii. 5. 154.
few-In, In few words, Tp. i. 2. 144; M.M. iii. 1. 237; 2H4. i.
1. 112; Hml. i. 3. 126.
few-In a, In a few words, Shr. i. 2. 52.
"
fewness and truth, In few words and those true, M.M. i. 4. 39.
fico for the phrase-A, M.W. i. 3. 33; fico for thy friendship,
H5. iii. 6. 60 (Globe, figs): In these passages, where fico,
of course, means fig," there does not seem to be any
allusion either to the gesticulation mentioned in the article
fig me, &c., or to the poisoning noticed in the article fig of
Spain!-The.
field is honourable-The, 2H6. iv. 2. 54: "Perhaps [Certainly] a
quibble between field, in its heraldic, and in its common
acceptation, was designed" (STEEVENS).
field-In her fair face's, Lucr. 72: "Field is here equivocally
used. The war of lilies and roses requires a field of battle;
the heraldry in the preceding stanza demands another field,
i.e. the ground or surface of a shield or escutcheon" (STEEVENS).
fielded friends, friends who are in the battle-field, Cor. i. 4. 12.
fierce, vehement, precipitate, excessive, violent: With all the
fierce endeavour of your wit, L.L.L. v. 2. 863; fierce extremes,
FIFTEENS—FIG.
179
K.J. v. 7. 13; fierce vanities, H8, i. 1.54; fierce wretchedness, Tim.
iv. 2. 30; fierce(" terrible," WARBURTON, “extreme, excessive=
terrible, bloody," CALDECOTT) events, Hml. i. 1. 121; This fierce
("vehement, rapid," JONHSON) abridgment, Cymb. v. 5. 382.
fifteens-He that made us pay one-and-twenty, 2H6. iv. 7. 24:
"A fifteen was the fifteenth part of all the movables or
personal property of each subject" (MALONE).
fig me, like The bragging Spaniard, 2H4. v. 3. 124: “The practice
of thrusting out the thumb between the first and second
fingers, to express the feelings of insult and contempt, has
prevailed very generally among the nations of Europe, and for
many ages been denominated making the fig, or described
at least by some equivalent expression. There is good
reason for believing that it was known to the ancient
Romans," &c. (Douce): Gifford notices the gesticulation in
question as "forming a coarse representation of a disease
to which the name of ficus has always been given. This is
the true import of the act," &c. Note on Jonson's Works,
vol. i. p. 52. ("FICHA. Ficham facere, Ital. Fare le fiche,
Hispan. Hacer la higa, nostris Faire la figue, Medium
unguem ostendere, signum derisionis et contemtus."
Du Cange's Gloss.: from which a person unacquainted
with Spanish would naturally conclude that higa meant
"a fig;" but the name of that fruit in Spanish is higo:
Connelly's Span. and Engl. Dict., Madrid, 4to, furnishes
what fellows: "Higa. La accion que se hace con la mano,
cerrado el puño, sacando el dedo pulgar por entre el indice
y el de en medio. The act of thrusting out the thumb between
the fore and middle fingers that are clenched.
Dar higas.
Hacer desprecio de una persona ó cosa. To despise a
person or thing. . . . Higo. La fruta que da la higuera. Fig,
the fruit of a fig-tree. . . Higo. Cierta especie de almor-
ranas.
•
•
A certain species of piles.")
fig of Spain!-The, H5. iii. 6. 62: Here "Pistol, after spurting
out his 'figo, [fico] for thy friendship' [see fico, &c.]; as if
he were not satisfied with the measure of the contempt ex-
pressed, more emphatically adds, 'the fig of Spain. This
undoubtedly alludes to the poisoned figs mentioned in Mr.
Steeven's note, because [as Steevens observes] the quartos
read 'the fig of Spain within thy jaw,' and 'the fig within
thy bowels and thy dirty maw.' Or, as in many other in-
stances, the allusion may be twofold: for the Spanish fig,
as a term of contempt only [see the preceding article],
must have been very familiar in England in Shakspeare's
time" (DOUCE): In the note to which Douce refers above,
Steevens, to illustrate "the custom of giving poisoned figs
to those who where the objects either of Spanish or Italian
revenge," cites, among other passages,
י
180
FIGS-FINE.
"I do look now for a Spanish fig, or an Italian salad, daily."
Webster's White Devil,- Works, p. 30,
ed. Dyce, 1857:
t t
"I must poison him;
One fig sends him to Erebus."
Shirley's Brothers,- Works, vol. i. p. 231,
ed. Gifford and Dyce.
figs-I love long life better than, Ant. i. 2. 32: A. proverbial
expression.
fight the course-Bear-like, I must: see course-bear-like. &c.
fights-Up with your, M.W. ii. 2. 142: Phillips thus explains
fights; "(In sea-affairs) the waste-cloaths that hang round.
about the ship in a fight, to hinder the men from being
seen by the enemy: also any place wherein men may
cover themselves, and yet use their fire-arms." The New
World of Words, ed. 1706.
figures, "pictures created by imagination or apprehension"
(CRAIK): to scrape the figures out of your husband's brains,
M.W. iv. 2. 231; He apprehends a world of figures here, 1H4.
i. 3. 209; Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, J.C. ii. 1. 231.
file, a number, a list: the greater file of the subject, M.M. iii.
2. 144; the valu'd file (the list in which is set down the
value of each), Mcb. iii. 1. 95; a file of all the gentry, v. 2. 8.
file, to polish: his tongue filed, L.L.L. V. I. 12: when your
countenance fll'd up his line, Sonn. 85 (O. Edd. fild); filed
talk, P. Pilgr. 306.
file, to defile: have I fil'd my mind, Mcb. iii. 1. 65.
file, to keep equal pace: Yet fil'd with my abilities, H8. iii. 2. 171.
file our engines with advice-And she shall: see engines with
advice, &c.
fill-horse, (phill-horse or thill-horse) shaft-horse, M.V. ii. 2. 100.
fills, shafts of a cart or waggon: put you i' the fills, Troil. iii. 2. 48.
Filth, used as a term of reproach and contempt: Filth as thou
"(
art, Tp. i. 2. 346; Filth, thou liest! Oth. v. 2. 231; to general
filths Convert o' th' instant, green virginity, Tim. iv. 1. 6;
Filths savour but themselves, Lr. iv. 2. 39: in the third of
these passages Steevens explains general filths by "common
sewers;" but surely the meaning is common whores:"
and so in the second passage "Filth" seems from Iago's
preceding speech to be equivalent to "whore." (Compare
Greene's Notable Discouery of Coosnage, &c., 1592; "To
him will some common filth (that neuer knew loue) faine
an ardent and honest affection," &c. Sig. C 4.)
find forth, to find out: falling there to find his fellow forth, Err.
i. 2. 37; To find the other forth, M.V. i. 1. 143.
find him not - If she, If she do not make him out, Hml. iii. 1. 193.
fine, a conclusion, an end: and the fine is, Ado, i. 1. 247; the
fine's the crown, A.W. iv. 4. 35.
FINE-FIRE.
181
fine, to end: Time's office is to fine the hate of foes, Lucr. 936.
fine and recovery, M.W. iv. 2. 225; Err. ii. 2. 75: see fee-simple, &c.
fine his title with some show of truth-To, H5. i. 2. 72 (Gl.
find): Here fine has been explained "refine," "embellish,"
&c. [To fine is the Qo. reading. Fol. has: "To find his
title," which may mean to “furnish, provide," (HERFORD),
or "trace out" (STONE), who adds: "Hugh Capet's pretend-
ed succession to (Charlemaine's [Charles the Bald's] daughter,
and her real descent from Charles the Great, are the
'shewes of truth' in the title: truth and falsity blended to-
gether.") If fine be read, it may mean (as the use of pure in the
next line suggests) refine, improve the quality of; or it may
mean define in the sense of bound, encircle.]
fine in thy evidence, full of finesse, artful, in thy evidence, A.W.
v. 3. 270.
fine issues-To, "To great consequences, for high purposes"
(JOHNSON), M.M. i. 1. 37.
fined these bones of mine for ransom, fixed as the ransom to
be paid by me, H5. iv. 7. 72.
fineless, endless, Oth. iii. 3. 173.
Finsbury As if thou ne'er walk'dst further than, 1H4. iii. 1.
257: "In 1498, all the gardens which had continued time
out of mind without Moorgate, to wit, about and beyond
the lordship of Finsbury, were destroyed, and of them was
made a plain field to shoot in. It was called Finsbury
field, in which there were three windmills, and here they
usually shoot at twelve score: Stow, 1633, p. 913. In Jonson's
time, this was the usual resort of the plainer citizens.
People of fashion, or who aspired to be thought so, prob-
ably mixed but little in those parties; and hence we may
account for the indignation of Master Stephen at being
suspected of such vulgarity [see Jonson's Every man in his
Humour, act i. sc. 11. An idea of a similar kind occurs in
Shakespeare, ‘As if thou ne'er walk'dst,' &c." Gifford's note
on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 10.
firago—I have not seen such a, 12N. iii. 4. 302: "firago .
a
corruption for virago, like fagaries for vagaries" (MALONE):
Sir Toby means, "I never saw one that had so much the
look of woman with the prowess of man" (JOHNSON):
"The word virago is certainly inapplicable to a man, a
blustering hectoring fellow, as Sir Toby means to represent
Viola; for he cannot possibly entertain any suspicion of
her sex: but it is no otherwise so than Rounceval is to a
woman, meaning a terrible fighting blade; from Ronceval
or Roncesvalles, the famous scene of that fabulous combat
with the Saracens, 'When Charlemagne and all his peerage
fell, By Fontarabia"" (RITSON).
fire is in mine ears?-What, Ado, iii. 1. 107: "Alluding to a
182
FIRE-FITS.
proverbial saying of the common people, that their ears
burn when others are talking of them" (WARBURTON).
fire, fire; cast on no water, Shr. iv. 1. 20: "There is an old
popular catch of three parts in these words;
'Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.
Fire, fire-Fire, fire;
Cast on some more water.'
(BLACKSTONE).
firebrand brother-Our, Troil. ii. 2. 110: “Hecuba, when preg-
nant with Paris, dreamed she should be delivered of a
burning torch" (STEEVENS).
fire-drake-That, H8. v. 4. 45: The word fire-drake had several
meanings - viz. a fiery dragon, a meteor, and a sort of fire-
work: that here it is used to describe a person with a red
nose is proved by what immediately precedes.
fire-new, (newly come from the fire) bran-new, L.L.L. i. 1. 179;
12N. iii. 2. 23; R3. i. 3. 256; Lr. v. 3. 132.
firk, H5. iv. 4. 29; 33: Seems to mean "beat:" "The word
firk is so variously used by the old writers, that it is almost
impossible to ascertain its precise meaning" (STEEVENS).
"How she [fortune] was to this lord diverse,
The which upon the sea she ferketh."
Gower, Conf. (Apollon. Hazl. Sh. Lib. iv. I. p. 190.)
first son-My, Cor. iv. 1. 33: Here first is explained by War-
burton "noblest and most eminent of men."
first sight?-who ever lov'd that loved not at, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 82.
A line from Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander, First
Sestiad, Works, p. 281, ed. Dyce, 1858
fish lives in the sea-The, Rom. i. 3. 89. [“The sense appar-
ently required is, that the fish is hidden within the sea, as
a thing of beauty within a beautiful thing." HUDSON].
fish-Here's another ballad, Of a, &c., W.T. iv. 4. 279: Mr.
Collier is, I believe, right when, in opposition to Malone,
he denies that here we have an allusion to a particular
publication: Shakespeare, he thinks, does not refer to any
one of the many productions of this kind, but to the
whole class.
fishmonger-You are a, Hml. ii. 2. 174: "Perhaps a joke was
here intended. Fishmonger was a cant term for a wencher"
(MALONE).
fisnomy, see phisnomy.
fit or two o' the face-A, A grimace or two, H8. i. 3. 7.
fitchew, a polecat, Troil. v. 1. 67; Lr. iv. 6. 124; (as a cant
term for a strumpet), Oth. iv. 1. 150.
fitly, exactly: even so most fitly As you malign our senators,
Cor. i. 1. 116.
fits--Well you say so in, Troil. iii. 1. 62: “A quibble is intended.
FIVE-FINGER-TIED—FLAWS.
183
A fit was a part or division of a song [or ballad] or tune.
The equivoque lies between fits, starts or sudden impulses,
and fits in its musical acceptation" (SINGER).
five-finger-tied-Knot, "A knot tied by giving her hand to
Diomed" (JOHNSON), Troil. v. 2. 157.
five wits: see wits, &c.
fives-The, An inflammation of the parotid glands in horses
(Fr. avives), Shr. iii. 2. 54.
fixure, fixture, fixedness, W.T. v. 3. 67; Troil. i. 3. 101.
flap-dragon, L.L.L. v. 1. 45; 2H4. ii. 4. 267 (cf. W.T. iii. 3. 100):
A flap-dragon is some small combustible body, fired at one
end, and put afloat in a glass of liquor. It is an act of a
toper's dexterity to toss off the glass in such a manner as
to prevent the flap-dragon from doing mischief” (JOHNSON):
In former days gallants used to vie with each other in
drinking off flap-dragons to the health of their mistresses,
-which flap-dragons were generally raisins, and sometimes
even candles' ends, swimming in brandy or other strong
spirits, whence, when on fire, they were snatched by the
mouth and swallowed.
flap-dragoned it, swallowed it as gallants in their revels swallow
a flap-dragon, W.T. iii. 3. 100.
flap-jacks, pancakes, Per. ii. 1. 87.
flask, a soldier's powder-horn: The carved-bone face on a flask,
L.L L. v. 2. 619.
flat transgression, foolish misdeed, Ado, ii. 1. 229.
flaunts, fineries, showy attire: in these my borrow'd flaunts,
W.T. iv. 4. 23.
flaw, a sudden and violent blast of wind ("A flaw (or gust)
of wind. Tourbillon de vent." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict.: “A flaw of wind is a gust, which is very violent
upon a sudden, but quickly endeth." Smith's Sea Grammar,
1627, p. 46): standing every flaw, Cor. v. 3. 74; the winter's
flaw, Hml. v. 1. 239; I do not fear the flaw, Per. iii. 1. 39;
foul flaws, Ven. 456.
flaw, a tempestuous uproar, a stormy tumult: this mad-bred
flaw, 2H6. iii. 1. 354.
flaw, a sudden commotion of mind: O, these flaws and starts,
Mcb. iii. 4. 63.
flaw-How Antony becomes his, "How Antony conforms
himself to this breach of his fortune" (JOHNSON), Ant.
iii. 12. 34.
flaws, congealed in the spring of day, 2H4. iv. 4. 35: Here Ed-
wards rightly explains flaws to mean "small blades of ice;"
I have myself heard the word used to signify both "thin
cakes of ice" and "the bursting of those cakes."
flaws of her own youth, hath blistered her report,-falling in the,
M.M. ii. 3. 11. Fol. flawes. Davenant, in his Law against
II.
184
FLECKED-FLUXIVE.
Lovers, (a drama formed out of M. M. and Ado) reads
flames, which Dyce adopts.
flecked, spotted, dappled, Rom. ii. 3. 3.
fleet, to float: Have knit again, and fleet, Ant. iii. 13. 171.
fleet, to make to pass: fleet the time, A.Y.L. i. 1. 124.
fleeting, inconstant: false, fleeting ("changing sides," JOHNSON),
perjur'd Clarence, R3. i. 4. 55; the fleeting moon, Ant. v. 2. 240
(The word fleeting applied to a person, as in the first of
the above passages, is of very rare occurrence: I therefore
notice that Sir John Harington, in his Orlando Furioso, has
rr
But Griffin (though he came not for this end,
For praise and bravery at tilt to run,
But came to find his fleeting female friend)," &c. B. xvii. st. 18.
fleshed, infuriated by the sight of blood, H5. iii. 3. 11.
fleshment, "pride, encouraged by a successful attempt; being
fleshed with, or having tasted success" (Nares's Gloss.),
Lr. i. 2. 130.
flew'd, having large hanging flews or chaps, M.N.D. iv. 1. 125
[cf. Lyly, Midas, iv. 3].
Flibbertigibbet, Lr. iii. 4. 120; iv. 1. 64; This fiend is called
Fliberdigibbet and Fliberdigibet in Harsnet's Declaration of
egregious Popish Impostures, 1603, pp. 49, 119; which book
Shakespeare is supposed to have used for the names of
several fiends in King Lear.
flight-At the, At the shooting with flights, long and light-
feathered arrows that went straight to the mark, Ado, i. 1. 40.
flirt-gills, flirting gills, wenches of light behaviour, Rom. ii. 4. 162.
Florentius' love-Be she as foul as was, Be she as ugly as
was, &c., Shr. i. 2. 69: “The allusion is to a story told by
Gower in the First Book De Confessione Amantis. Florent
is the name of a knight who had bound himself to marry
a deformed hag, provided she taught him the solution of
a riddle on which his life depended" (STEEVENS): The
story is of great antiquity.
flote, flood, wave, sea, Tp. i. 2. 234.
flourish the deceit, colour, so justify, the imposture, M.M. iv. 1.75.
flower-de-luce being one!-Lilies of all kinds, The, W.T. iv. 4.
127: "I think the flower meant by the poet is the white
lily (Lilium Album)." Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c. p. 84.
[= Fr. fleur de lis, H5. v. 2. 224; 1H6. i. 1. 80; i. 2. 99; 2H6.
V. I. II. Lis = Lat. lilius; but there seems to have been
some confusion with luce as if from lux. Ben Jonson calls
the lily 'the plant and flower of light."]
Fluellen, H5. iii. 2. 58, &c.: "This is only the Welsh pronun-
ciation of Lluellyn. Thus also Floyd instead of Lloyd"
(STEEVENS).
fluxive, flowing with tears, L. Compl. 50.
FLYING-FOOL.
185
flying at the brook: see brook, &c.
foedary, see fedary.
foin, to push, to thrust, in fencing ("Estoquer. To thrust, or
foyne at." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), M.W. ii. 3. 24;
2H4. ii. 1. 17; foining, Ado, v. 1. 84: 2H4. ii. 4. 252.
foins, pushes, thrusts: no matter vor your foins, Lr. iv. 6. 251.
foison, plenty, store, Tp. ii. 1. 163; iv. 1. 110; M.M. i. 4. 43;
Mcb. iv. 3. 88; Ant. ii. 7. 23; Sonn. 53.
fold up Parca's fatal web, "put thee to death" (JOHNSON),
H5. v. 1. 21.
folly, depravity, wantonness: She turn'd to folly, Oth. v. 2. 132;
feeds his vulture folly, Lucr. 556; tyrant folly lurk in gentle
(well-born) breasts, 85.
fond, to dote: I . . . . fond as much on him, 12N. ii. 2. 35.
fond, foolish, simple, silly: this fond Love, 2G. iv. 4. 201; fond
(foolishly valued) shekels, M.M. ii. 2. 149; fond wretch,
V. I. 105; how fond I am, M.N.D. iii. 2. 317; thou art so
fond, M.V. iii. 3. 9; so fond to overcome, A.Y.L. ii. 3. 7;
Fond done (=foolishly done,-but the line seems to be
corrupted), A.W. i. 3. 76; fond mad woman, R2. v. 2. 95;
fond woman, 101; Tit. ii. 3. 172; thou fond many, 2H4. i. 3. 91 ;
see your ladyship so fond, 1H6. ii. 3. 45; If it be fond,
2H6. iii. 1. 36; this fond affiance, iii. 1. 74; I wonder he's
so fond, R3. iii. 2. 26; I, too fond, iii. 4. 83; this fond exploit,
v. 3. 330; 'Tis fond to wail, Cor. iv. 1. 26; fond mad man,
Rom. iii. 3. 52; prove so fond, Tim. i. 2. 65; fond men, iii.
5. 42; Be not fond, J.C. iii. 1. 39; an idle and fond bondage,
Lr. i. 2. 52; fond paradoxes, Oth. ii. 1. 139; peevish-fond,
R3. iv. 4. 417 (perversely foolish); fonder than ignorance,
Troil. i. 1. 10.
fondly, foolishly; how fondly dost thou reason! Err. iv. 2. 57;
fondly pass our proffer'd offer, K.J. ii. 1. 258; speak fondly,
R2. iii. 3. 185; fondly dost thou spur, iv. 1. 72; Fondly
brought here, 2H4. iv. 2. 119; fondly gave away, 3H6. ii. 2.
38; fondly you would here impose, R3. iii. 7. 147.
fool and death-To please the, Per. iii. 2. 42: "I have seen.
an old Flemish print in which Death is exhibited in the
act of plundering a miser of his bags, and the Fool (dis-
crimininated by his bauble, &c.) is standing behind, and
grinning at the process" (STEEVENS): "Cerimon in most
express terms declares that he feels more real satisfaction
in his liberal employment as a physician, than he should
in the uncertain pursuit of honour, or in the mere accu-
mulation of wealth; which would assimilate him to a miser,
the result of whose labour is merely to entertain the fool and
death. ... The allusion therefore is to some such print as
Mr. Steevens happily remembered to have seen, in which
death plunders the miser of his money-bags, whilst the fool
186
FOOL.
is grinning at the process. It may be presumed that these
subjects were common in Shakespeare's time. They might
have ornamented the poor man's cottage in the shape of
rude prints, or have been introduced into halfpenny ballads
long since consigned to oblivion. The miser is at all times
fair game; and to prove that this is not a chimerical opinion,
and at the same time to show the extensive range of this
popular subject a few prints of the kind shall be mentioned.
1. Death and the two misers, by Michael Pregel. 2. An
old couple counting their money, death and two devils
attending, a mezzotint by Vander Bruggen. 3. A similar
mezzotint by Meheux without the devils. 4. An old print
on a single sheet of a dance of death, on which both the
miser and the fool are exhibited in the clutches of the grim
monarch. The rear may be closed with the same subject
as represented in the various dances of death that still remain.
Nor should it be concluded that because these prints exhibit
no fool to grin at the impending scene, others might not
have done so. The satirical introduction of this character
on many occasions supports the probability that they did.
Thus in a painting of the school of Holbein, an old man
makes love to a girl, attended by a fool and death, to show,
in the first instance, the folly of the thing, and, in the next,
its consequences. It is unnecessary to pursue the argument,
as every print of the above kind that may in future occur
will itself speak much more forcibly than any thing which
can here be added" (DOUCE).
fool-Merely thou art death's, M.M. iii. 1. 11: The allusion in
this passage is to a struggle between Death and the Fool;
and would certainly seem to have no connection with the
allusion in the passage of Pericles,-"To please the fool
and death:" "Bishop Warburton and Mr. Malone have
referred to old Moralities, in which the fool escaping from
the pursuit of Death is introduced. Ritson has denied the
existence of any such farces, and he is perhaps right with
respect to printed ones; but vestiges of such a drama were
observed several years ago at the fair of Bristol by the
present writer [See what follows]" (DoucE): "Mr. Douce,
to whom our readers are indebted for several happy illu-
strations of Shakespeare, assures me that some years ago,
at a fair in a large market-town, he observed a solitary
figure sitting in a booth, and apparently exhausted with
fatigue. This person was habited in a close black vest
painted over with bones in imitation of a skeleton. But my
informant being then very young, and wholly uninitiated in
theatrical antiquities, made no inquiry concerning so whims-
ical a phenomenon. [Douce observes that the following
additional circumstances communicated by him to Steevens
FOOL.
187
had probably escaped his recollection,-"that his informant
concerning the skeleton character at the fair remembered
also to have seen another personage in the habit of a fool;
and that arriving when the performances at the booth were
finished for the evening, he could not succeed in procuring
a repetition of the piece, losing thereby the means of all
further information on the subject."] Indeed, but for what
follows, I might have been induced to suppose that the
object he saw was nothing more or less than the hero of a
well-known pantomime, entitled Harlequin Skeleton. This
circumstance, however, having accidentally reached the ears
of a venerable clergyman who is now more than eighty
years of age, he told me that he very well remembered
to have met with such another figure, above fifty years ago,
at Salisbury. Being there during the time of some public
meeting, he happened to call on a surgeon at the very
instant when the representative of Death was brought in to
be let blood on account of a tumble he had on the stage,
while in pursuit of his antagonist, a Merry Andrew, who
very anxiously attended him (dressed also in character) to
the phlebotomist's house. The same gentleman's curiosity,
a few days afterwards, prevailed on him to be spectator of
the dance in which our emblem of mortality was a performer.
This dance, he says, entirely consisted of Death's con-
trivances to surprise the Merry Andrew, and of the Merry
Andrew's efforts to elude the stratagems of Death, by whom
at last he was overpowered; his finale being attended with
such circumstances as mark the exit of the Dragon of
Wantley. . . . It should seem that the general idea of this
serio-comic pas-de-deux had been borrowed from the ancient
Dance of Machabre, commonly called The Dance of Death,
a grotesque ornament of cloisters, both here and in foreign
parts. The aforesaid combination of figures, though errone-
ously ascribed to Hans Holbein, was certainly of an origin
more remote than the times in which that eminent painter
is known to have flourished" (STEEVENS): "The letter
[representing a struggle between Death and the Fool] that
occurs in Stowe's Survey of London, edit. 1618, 4to, is only
an enlarged but imperfect copy from another belonging
to a regular Dance of Death used as initials by some of
the Basil printers in the sixteenth century, and which, from
the extraordinary skill that accompanies their execution,
will ever rank amongst the finest efforts in the art of engrav-
ing on blocks of wood or metal. Most of the subjects in
this Dance of Death have undoubtedly been supplied by
that curious pageant of mortality which, during the middle
ages, was so great a favourite as to be perpetually exhibited
to the people either in the sculpture and painting of
188
FOOL-FOOL-BEGG'D.
ecclesiastical buildings, or in the books adapted to the
service of the church: yet some of them but ill accord
with those serious ideas which the nature of the subject is
calculated to inspire. In these the artist has indulged a
vein of broad and satirical humour which was not wholly
reserved for the caricatures of modern times; and in one
or two instances he has even overleaped the bounds of
decency. The letter in Stowe's Survey is the only one
that appears to have been imitated from the above alpha-
bet... It is to be remembered that in most of the old
dances of death the subject of the fool is introduced; and
it is, on the whole, extremely probable that some such
representation might have suggested the image before us
[in the letter copied from Stowe's Survey]" (DOUCE).
fool-Poor, a sort of term of endearment: I thank it, poor fool,
Ado, ii. 1. 326; Alas, poor fool, 12N. v. 1. 377; my poor fool
(i.e. Cordelia) is hang'd! Lr. v. 3. 305; poor venomous fool,
Ant. v. 2. 308; The poor fool, Ven. 578; the poor dappled
fools, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 22; the poor fools, 3H6. ii. 5. 36. (With
poor dappled fools compare "Then he stroking once or
twice his prettie goate (which hee yet held fast by the
hornes) said thus, Lie downe, pide foole, by me, for we
shall haue time enough to returne home againe." Shelton's
transl. of Don Quixote, Part First, p. 556, ed. 1612.)
fool-Pretty, a sort of term of endearment, like that of the
preceding article, Rom. i. 3. 31; 48; Shr. iii. 2. 159.
fool go with thy soul, whither it goes-A, A kind of proverbial
imprecation, 1H4. v. 3. 22.
fool-The shrieve's, The sheriff's fool, A.W. iv. 3. 213: "Female
idiots were retained in families for diversion as well as
male, though not so commonly; and there would be as
much reason to expect one of the former in the sheriff's
household as in that of any other person" (DOUCE-in
opposition to a note of RITSON).
fool till heaven hath sent me fortune-Cail me not, A.Y.L. ii. 7.
19: “Alluding to the common saying [which may be traced
up to classical antiquity], that fools are Fortune's favourites"
(MALONE). [See Erasmus, Praise of Folly, p. 165, ed. 1876.]
fool, &c.- What is he for a: see What is he for a fool, &c.
fool's bolt is soon shot-A, H5. iii. 7. 132; According to the
fool's bolt, A.Y.L. v. 4. 67: Ray gives "A fool's bolt is soon
shot. De fol juge brieve sentence. Gall. A foolish judge
passes a quick sentence." Proverbs, p. 108, ed. 1768: and
see bolt.
fools' zanies-The: see zany.
fool-begg'd patience, Err. ii. 1. 41: “She seems to mean, by
'fool-begg'd patience,' that patience which is so near to idiotical
simplicity, that your next relation [or any one who chose
FOOT-FOR.
189
to do so] would take advantage from it to represent you
as a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune"
(JOHNSON): see beg us - You cannot.
w
foot, to seize with the foot [talon]: Stoop'd, as to foot us, Cymb.
V. 4. 116.
foot, to strike with the foot, to kick, to spurn: foot me as you
spurn a stranger cur, M.V. i. 3. 119; foot her home again,
Cymb. iii. 5. 148.
foot, to tread, to walk: S. Withold footed thrice the old, Lr.
iii. 4. 125.
foot, to move with measured steps, to dance: Foot it featly,
Tp. i. 2. 380; foot it, girls, Rom. i. 5. 28.
foot, to fix or set foot in, or to set foot on: he is footed in this
land already, H5. ii. 4. 143; there is part of a power already
footed, Lr. iii. 3. 14; the traitors Late footed in the kingdom,
iii. 7. 45.
foot-cloth, a housing of cloth, hanging down on both sides of
a horse, 2H6. iv. 7. 51.
foot-cloth mule, 2H6. iv. 1. 54; foot-cloth horse, R3. iii. 4. 86:
animals ornamented with a foot-cloth.
foot-land-rakers, 1H4. ii. 1. 81, tramps. See Land-rakers.
for, for that, because: for they are sent by me, 2G. iii. 1. 148;
For I have had such faults, M.M. ii. 1. 28; But for my
hand, as unattempted yet, &c., K.J. ii. 1. 591; And, for my
heart disdained, &c., R2. i. 4. 12; And, for our coffers, with
too great a court, &c., 43; For it requires the royal debt it
lent you, R3. ii. 2. 95; For she is with me, Oth. i. 3. 269;
for I am black, iii. 3. 263; For we do fear the law, Cymb.
iv. 2. 129.
for, because of: Leave nothing out for length, Cor. ii. 2. 53;
For certain friends that are both his and mine, Mcb. iii. 1. 121.
for catching cold, 2G. i. 2. 136; For swallowing the treasure of
the realm, 2H6. iv. 1. 74; For going on death's net, Per. i. 1.
40; For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure, Sonn. 52:
In these passages for has generally been glossed "for fear
of, in prevention of:" but Horne Tooke maintains that for
is properly a noun, and has always one and the same
meaning, viz. "cause;" so that, according to his explanation
of the word, the cause of Lucetta's taking up the papers
was that they might not catch cold; the cause of the Captain's
damming-up Pole's mouth was that it might not swallow
the treasure of the realm; the cause of Pericles's being
advised to desist was that he might not go on death's net;
and the cause of the rich man not every hour surveying
his treasure is that he may not blunt the fine point of seldom
pleasure.
for and, equivalent to and also, Hml. v. 1. 103.
for me, for, or on, my part: Faith, none for me, R2. i. 4. 6.
190
FOR—FOREHAND.
for thy hand-The lily I condemned, "I condemned the lily for
presuming to emulate the whiteness of thy hand” (MALONE),
Sonn. 99.
for why, because, for this reason that, 2G. iii. 1. 99; Shr. iii.
2. 169; R2. v. 1. 46; Tit. iii. 1. 231.
for us, favourable to our union, M.M. i. 2. 157.
forage, and run, K.J. v. 1. 59: pounce upon your prey (SCHMIDT).
forbid, under a curse, forspoken, bewitched: He shall live a
man forbid, Mcb. i. 3. 21.
force-Of, Of necessity, necessarily: We must of force dispense,
L.L.L. i. 1. 148; of force she must, M.N.D. iii. 2. 40; of force
must yield, M.V. iv. 1. 56; of force I must, 421: of force,
must know, W.T. iv. 4. 434; It must of force, 1H4. ii. 3.
120; must, of force, give place to better, J.C. iv. 3. 203.
force, to regard, to care for, to heed: you force not to forswear,
L.L.L. v. 2. 440; I force not argument a straw, Lucr. 1021.
force, to enforce, to urge: When he would force it, M.M. iii. 1.
110; force them with a constancy, H8. iii. 2. 2; Why force
you this? Cor. iii. 2. 51.
force, to stuff: force him with praises, Troil. ii. 3. 232; malice
forced with wit, v. 1. 64.
force, to strengthen: Were they not forc'd with those that should
be ours, Mcb. v. 5. 5.
force perforce, "Force, forcée. Of force, of necessitie, will he
nill he, in spite of his teeth" (Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.),
K.J. iii. 1. 142; 2H4. iv. 1. 116; iv. 4. 46; 2H6. i. 1. 258:
compare first force and perforce.
Force a play, H5. ii. Prol. 32. "compel the reluctant material
to assume dramatic form" (HERFORD). Pope read well in-
stead of we'll, and inserted while we before force. So
Johnson, Steevens, Malone, Dyce. Warburton prop. distance,
while we farce. Stone cf. Troil. ii. 3. 232, and v. 1. 64
Camb. Edd. mark line corrupt in Globe. "Assuming their·
genuineness and purity, these lines evidently form an
apology to the spectator for the violation of the unity of
place. He is asked to 'digest,' that is, take in good part,
'th' abuse of distance,' for, it is admitted, 'force' must
be applied to the play, or rather, to his sense of the fitness
of things." (STONE). Perhaps forced in a play, rendered
inevitable in a play, though not a harmonious reading,
gives the sense.
fordo, to undo, to destroy, Hml. v. 1. 244; fordoes, ii. 1. 103;
Oth. v. 1. 129; fordid, Lr. v. 3. 255; fordone, (overcome),
M.N.D. v. 1. 381; Lr. v. 3. 291.
fore end of my time - The, The fore part, the early part of
my time, Cymb. iii. 3. 73.
foregoers, progenitors, ancestors, A.W. ii. 3. 144.
forehand sin-The, The previous sin, Ado, iv. 1. 51.
FOREHAND-SHAFT-FORFEITS.
191
forehand shaft, 2H4. iii. 2. 52: “An arrow particularly formed
for shooting [point-blank (CRAIG)] straight forward; con-
cerning which Ascham [in his Toxophilus] says, that it
should be big-breasted. His account is, however, rather
obscure," &c. Nares's Gloss.
forehead As low as she would wish it-Her, Ant. iii. 3. 36: a
high forehead was considered beautiful, cf. Tp. iv. 1. 249.
forehorse to a smock-The, A.W. ii. 1. 30: "The forehorse of
a team was gaily ornamented with tufts and ribbons and
bells. Bertram complains that, bedizened like one of these
animals, he will have to squire ladies at the court, instead
of achieving honour in the wars" (STAUNTON).
foreign man still-Kept him a, "Kept him out of the king's
presence, employed in foreign embassies" (JOHNSON), H8.
ii. 2. 129.
forestall'd remission-A ragged and, 2H4. v. 2. 38: Johnson
thinks that "perhaps by forestall'd remission he [the author]
may mean a pardon begged by a voluntary confession of
offence and anticipation of the charge: "according to Mason,
both here and in Massinger (The Duke of Milan, act iii.
sc 1, and The Bondman, act iii. sc. 3,-Works, vol. i. p. 282,
vol. ii. p. 69, ed. Gifford, 1813) "a forestall'd remission
seems to mean, a remission that it is predetermined shall
not be granted, or will be rendered nugatory:" Malone
believes that here "forestall'd only means asked before it
is granted:" Mr. Knight explains a forestall'd remission by
"a pardon supplicated, not offered freely:" see ragged.
forfeit, to transgress, to offend: still forfeit in the same kind,
M.M. iii. 2. 206.
forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life—The, R3. ii. 1. 99: “He
means the remission of the forfeit" (JOHNSON).
forfeits, penalties, punishment: Remit thy other forfeits, M.M.
V. I. 526.
forfeits in a barber's shop-Like the, M.M. v. 1. 323: "[Bar-
bers'] shops were places of great resort, for passing away
time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind
of regularity, and, perhaps, at least as much to promote
drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the trans-
gression of which was to be punished by specific forfeitures.
It is not to be wondered, that laws of that nature were as
often laughed at as obeyed." Nares's Gloss. in "Forfeits,"
&c.: Steevens pronounced the metrical list of forfeits
published by Kenrick to be a forgery: but it would seem
that they are not wholly so. "Upwards of forty years ago,”
says Moor, "I saw a string of such rules at the tonsor's
of Alderton, near the sea. I well recollect the following
lines to have been among them: as they are also in those
of Nares [ie. those cited from Kenrick by Nares in his
192
FORFEND—FORKS.
Gloss.], said to have been copied in Northallerton in
Yorkshire;
C
First come, first serve-then come not late,'" &c.
Suffolk Words, &c., 1823, p. 133.
forfend, to forbid, to prohibit, to avert, W.T. iv. 4. 541; R2.
iv. 1. 129; 1H6. v. 4. 65; 2H6. iii. 2. 30; 3H6. ii. 1. 191; Tit.
i. 1. 434; Oth. v. 2. 32; 186; forfended, Lr. v. I. II.
forgetive, inventive, 2H4. iv. 3. 107.
forgot?-How comes it, Michael, you are thus, How comes it,
Michael, that you have thus forgot yourself? Oth. ii. 3. 188.
fork, a barbed arrow-head,-a barbed arrow (see forked heads):
though the fork invade The region of my heart, Lr. i. 1. 146.
fork, a forked tongue: the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm,
M.M. iii. 1. 16; Adder's fork, Mcb. iv. 1. 16.
forked, horned: o'er head and ears a fork'd one (a cuckold),
W.T. i. 2. 186; this forkèd plague (cuckold's horns), Oth.
iii. 3. 276.
forked heads, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 24: "The barbed or forked head
of an arrow. Fer de flesche à oreilles." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict. [In Athenæum, May 27, 1899, Mr. C. J. Wilding
argues that 'forked heads' means antiers, and describes a
habit that deer have of driving from their company any
animal that they know is being hunted. But Ascham, Tox.
p. 135 (Arber), is quite clear: "yawxis, having ii. points
stretching forward, and this English men doe call a forke-
head." Ascham also calls them "forked heads": pp. 135, 136.]
forks presages snow— -Whose face between her, Lr. iv. 6. 121:
"Whose face between her forks, i.e. her hand held before
her face, in sign of modesty, with the fingers spread out,
forky" (WARBURTON): "The construction is not 'Whose
face between her forks,' &c., but 'Whose face presages
snow,' &c. The following expression, I believe, everybody
but Mr. Warburton understands; and he might, if he had
read a little farther; which would have saved him this
ingenious note. See in Timon, act iv. sc. 3;
'Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap””
(EDWARDS): "To preserve the modesty of Mr. Edwards's
happy explanation, I can only hint a reference to the word
fourcheure in Cotgrave's Dictionary" (STEEVENS): Warbur-
ton's interpretation of this passage has more recently been
adopted by a gentleman (Mr. W. C. Jourdain-in Trans-
actions of the Philological Society, 1857, p. 134), who maintains.
that the lady in our text is looking through her fingers just
as a woman is represented doing at the drunken and naked
Noah in a picture by Gozzoli in the Campo Santo, and as
maids are said to do at a certain object in Jonson's Sad
+
FORM-FORTHRIGHT.
193
Shepherd: but qy. if Whose face between her forks—i.e.
"Whose face half concealed by her fingers"-presages
snow reads as a complete sentence? and if it be considered
as such, can presages snow mean anything else than "pre-
sages a fall of snow"? Besides, does not Whose face presages
snow between her forks, i.e. “Whose face presages that snow
lies inter femora," agree better than the other construction
and explanation of the passage with what presently follows,
-Down from the waist, &c.?
form that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench-Who stand
so much on the new, A quibble on the double meaning of
form, Rom. ii. 4. 36.
formal, "retaining the proper and essential characteristic"
(Johnson's Dict.), rational, sane: To make of him a formal
man again (“to bring him back to his senses, and the forms
of sober behaviour. So, in Measure for Measure, 'informal
women,' for just the contrary," STEEVENS), Err. v. 1. 105;
any formal capacity (“any one in his senses, any one whose
capacity is not disarranged, or out of form," STEEVENS), 12N.
ii. 5. 128; the formal Vice (the Vice who "puts on a formal
demeanour," THEOBALD: "perhaps means the shrewd, the
sensible Vice," MALONE; "the regular Vice, according to
the form of the old dramas," Nares's Gloss., sub "Iniquity;"
"the Vice who conducts himself according to a set form,”
KNIGHT), R3. iii. 1. 82 (see Vice-Like to the old, &c.);
Not like a formal man (a “decent, regular" man, JOHNSON;
a man in his senses," STEEVENS; a man in form, i.e.
shape," MALONE; a man "in a right form, an usual shape,"
Nares's Gloss.), Ant. ii. 5. 41.
former ensign, J.C. v. 1. 80: our fore ensign.
former fortune--A, Cor. v. 3. 202: "my former credit and
power." (JOHNSON).
forslow, to delay, to loiter; [to defer]; 3H6. ii. 3. 56.
forspent, exhausted, 2H4. i. 1. 37; 3H6. ii. 3. 1.
forspoke, spoke against, gainsaid, Ant. iii. 7. 3.
forted, fortified, M.M. v. 1. 12.
forthcoming, in custody: Your lady is forthcoming, 2H6. ii. 1.
179. [Said Elizabeth to Leicester: "my Lord, I have wisht
you well, but my favour is not so lockt up for you, that
others shall not partake thereof; . . . . and if you think to
rule here, I will take a course to see you forth-coming; I
will have here but one Mistress, and no Master, and look
that no ill happen to him, lest it be severely required at
your hands." Naunton, Frag. Regal. p. 17.]
forthright, a straight path: Or hedge aside from the direct forth-
right, Troil. iii. 3. 158; Through forth-rights and meanders
("The passage is explained by the fact of the allusion
being to an artificial maze, sometimes constructed of straight
13
194
FORTY-FOUND.
lines (forth-rights), sometimes of circles (meanders)," KNIGHT)
Tp. iii. 3. 3.
forty, used as "the familiar number on many occasions, where
no very exact reckoning was necessary" (STEEVENS); “An-
ciently adopted to express a great many" (STAUNTON):
forty shillings, M.W. i. 1. 205; 12N. ii. 3. 20; The Humour
of Forty Fancies, Shr. iii. 2. 70; (see Humour, &c.); forty
pound, 12N. v. 1. 180; these forty years, R2. i. 3. 159; forty
moys, H5. iv. 4. 14; forty year, 1H6. i. 3. 91; these forty
hours, H8. iii. 2. 253; some forty truncheoners, v. 4. 54;
forty of them, Cor. iii. 1. 243; forty paces, Ant. iii. 2. 234.
forty pence, no, I will bet forty pence that it does not, H8.
ii. 3. 89: "Forty-pence was, in those days, the proverbial
expression of a small wager, or a small sum. Money was
then reckoned by pounds, marks, and nobles. Forty-pence
is half a noble, or the sixth part of a pound. Forty pence,
or three and four pence, still remains, in many offices, the
legal and established fee" (Steevens).
forwearied, worn out, K.J. ii. 1. 233.
fosset-seller, one who sells fossets or faucets (Fr. faussets), the
pipes inserted into a vessel to give vent to the liquor, and
stopped up by a peg or spigot ("A fosset, dolii sipho."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), Cor. ii. 1. 79.
fought at head-As true a dog as ever, Tit. v. 1. 102: “An
allusion to bulldogs, whose generosity and courage are
always shown by meeting the bull in front, and seizing his
nose" (JOHNSON): Steevens adds, from Sir J. Davies and
Marlowe's Epigrams,
Amongst the bears and dogs he goes;
Where, whilst he skipping cries, 'To head, to head,' &c.
Marlowe's Works, p. 363, ed. Dyce, 1858.
foul, plain, homely, ugly: Her amber hairs for foul have amber
quoted, L.L.L. iv. 3. 87 (see quote); a foul slut, A.Y.L. iii.
3. 36; I am foul, 39; Foul is most foul, being foul, iii. 5. 62;
as foul as was Florentius' love, Shr. i. 2. 69; (see Floren-
tius); Were I hard-favour'd, foul, Ven. 133; all they foul,
Sonn. 132.
foulness, plainness, homeliness, ugliness: praised be the gods
for thy foulness, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 40; in love with your foulness,
iii. 5. 66.
found his state in safety-No reason Can, Tim. iii. 1. 13. Fol.
sound. Johnson: "i.e. Reason cannot find his fortune to
have any safe or solid foundation." [By no argument can
his position be shown to be founded in safety, secure. Cf.
1. 3: It cannot hold; it will not.]
found-Well, "Of known, acknowledged excellence" (STEE-
FOUNDATION—FRANCE.
195
VENS), "well furnished" (GRANT WHITE-Wrongly), A.W.
ii. 1. 105.
foundation—God save the, Ado, v. I. 327; "Such was the
customary phrase employed by those who received alms
at the gates of religious houses. Dogberry, however, in the
present instance, might have designed to say 'God save
the founder!'" (STEEVENS.)
four hours-Any time these, W.T. v. 2. 148; I will peat his pate
four days, H5. v. 1. 43; four hours together, Hml. ii. 2. 160;
Four feasts are toward, Ant. ii. 6. 75; fast from all four
days, ii. 7. 108. A common phrase.
foutra for the world-A, 2H4. 5. 3. 103; A foutra for thine
office, 121. Globe, foutre.
fox-Thou diest on point of, H5. iv. 4. 9: “This [fox] was a
familiar and favourite expression for the old English weapon,
the broad-sword of Jonson's days, as distinguished from the
small (foreign) sword." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works,
vol. iv. p. 429: So in Websters's White Devil;
"O, what blade is't?
A Toledo, or an English fox ♪ "
Works, p. 50, ed. Dyce, 1857:
"The name [fox] was given from the circumstance that
Andrea Ferrara, and, since his time, other foreign sword-
cutlers, adopted a fox as the blade-mark of their weapons.
Swords, with a running-fox rudely engraved on the blades,
are still occasionally to be met with in the old-curiosity
shops of London” (STAUNTON).
foxship, cunning, Cor. iv. 2. 18.
fracted, broken, H5. ii. 1. 130; Tim. ii. 1. 22.
fractions-These hard, Tim. ii. 2. 220: "Flavius, by fractions,
means broken hints, interrupted sentences, abrupt remarks"
(JOHNSON).
frame, order, disposition: frugal nature's frame, Ado, iv. i. 130.
frampal, frampold (different forms of the same word): to be
frampal, to be peevish, froward, 2N.K. iii. 5. 57; a very
frampold life, a very uneasy, vexatious, turbulent life, M.W.
ii. 2. 94.
France? Mess. From France to England-How goes all in,
K.J. iv. 2. 109: "The King asks how all goes in France; the
Messenger catches the word goes, and answers that whatever
is in France goes now into England" (JOHNSON).
France? ... In her forehead, &c.-Where, Err. iii. 2. 125.
"I have no doubt that an equivoque [first pointed out by
Theobald, ad l.] was here intended, and that beside the
obvious sense, an allusion was intended to King Henry IV,
the heir of France, concerning whose succession to the
throne there was a civil war in that country, from August 1589,
when his father was assassinated, for several years. Henry
196
FRANCE-FRATERETTO.
after struggling long against the power and force of the
League, extricated himself from all his difficulties by embrac-
ing the Roman Catholic religion at St. Denis, on Sunday
the 25th of July, 1593, and was crowned King of France in
Feb. 1594; I therefore imagine this play was written before
that period [written in 1592]. In 1591 Lord Essex was sent
with 4000 troops to the French King's assistance, and his
brother Walter was killed before Rouen in Normandy."
(MALONE).
France, Young gentlemen would be as sad as night, Only for
wantonness—When I was in, K.J. iv. 1. 14: “I doubt whether
our author had any authority for attributing this species of
affectation to the French. He generally ascribes the manners
of England to all other countries" (MALONE): The French
may or may not have been the inventors of this singular
mark of gentility, which, it is well known, was once highly
fashionable in England. But Nash, in one of his tracts,
expressly mentions an assumed melancholy as among the
follies which "idle travellers" brought home from France.
The passage is very curious; "What is there in Fraunce
to be learnd more than in England, but falshood in fellow-
ship, perfect slouenrie, to loue no man but for my pleasure,
to sweare Ah par la mort Dieu when a mans hammes are
scabd? For the idle traueller (I meane not for the souldiour),
I haue knowen some that haue continued there by the space
of halfe a dozen yeare, and when they come [came] home,
they haue hyd a little weerish leane face vnder a broad
French hat, kept a terrible coyle with the dust in the streete
in their long cloakes of gray paper, and spoke English
strangely. Nought else haue they profited by their trauell
saue learnt to distinguish of the true Burdeaux grape, and
knowe a cup of neate Gascoygne wine from wine of
Orleance; yea, and peraduenture this also, to esteeme of
the poxe as a pimple, to weare a veluet patch on their face,
and walke melancholy with their armes folded." The Vnfor-
tunate Traveller, Or, The Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594, sig. L 4.
Francisco–My, M.W. ii. 3. 28: "He means 'My Frenchman'"
(MALONE).
frank, a small enclosure in which animals, generally boars,
were fattened, a sty (“Franc. A franke or stie, to feed and
fatten hogs in." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.): in the old
frank, 2H4. ii. 2. 160.
frank'd up, styed up, R3. i. 3. 314; iv. 5. 3.
franklin, a freeholder, W.T. v. 2. 173; 1H4. ii. 1. 60; Cymb.
iii. 2. 79.
Frateretto, Lr. iii. 6. 7: A fiend, with whom, it would seem,
Shakespeare became acquainted from Harsnet's Declaration
of egregious Popish Impostures, 1603; see p. 49 of that work.
FRAUGHTING—FROM.
197
fraughting souls-The, The souls who compose the fraught or
freight, Tp. i. 2. 13.
frayed with a sprite, frightened by a ghost: Troil. iii. 2. 34.
free, liberal: Being free itself, it thinks all others so, Tim. ii. 2. 242.
free dependent, M.M. iv. 3. 95. I unreservedly depend on
you.
free, free from vicious taint, guiltless: More free than he is
jealous, W.T. ii. 3. 30; Make mad the guilty, and appal the
free, Hml. ii. 2. 590.
free things, “states clear from distress" (JOHNSON), Lr. iii. 6. 112.
Free-town, Rom. i. 1. 109. The residence of the Capulets, in
the original and in Painter, is called Villa Franca; in Arthur
Brooke's Romeus and Juliet it is called Freetown, as in the
play. This is one of the bits of evidence that Shakespeare
followed Brooke's poem. See Dyce, vi. 377.
French crown more—A, M.M. i. 2. 52: Some of your French
crowns have no hair at all, M.N.D. i. 2. 99; the French may
lay twenty French crowns to one, they will beat us; for they
bear them on their shoulders, H5. iv. 1. 243: quibbling al-
lusions to the baldness produced by the French (venereal)
disease,--which baldness was known by the name of French
crown.
fret me, you cannot play upon me―Though you can, Hml. iii.
2. 388: "Here is a play on words, and a double meaning.
Hamlet says, though you can vex me, you cannot impose on
me; though you can stop the instrument, you cannot play on it”
(DOUCE): see the next article.
frets, the stops of instruments of the lute or guitar kind, "small
lengths of wire on which the fingers press the strings in
playing the guitar" (Busby's Dict. of Musical Terms, third
ed.), Shr. ii. 1. 150; 153.
friend, a lover-a term applied to both sexes: hath got his
friend with child, M.M. i. 4. 29; walk about with your friend,
Ado, ii. 1. 90; come in visard to my friend, L.L.I. v. 2. 404.
friend—At, On terms of friendship: all greetings, that a king,
at friend, Can send his brother, W.T. v. 1. 140.
friend-To, “Is equivalent to 'for friend.' So we say To take
to wife. The German form of to (zu) is used in a some-
what similar manner," &c. (CRAIK): we shall have him well
to friend, J.C. iii. 1. 143; As I shall find the time to friend,
Mcb. iv. 3. 10; opportunity to friend, Cymb. i. 4. 116.
friends to meet; but mountains may be removed, &c.— It is a
hard matter for, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 195: “Alluding ironically to
the proverb, 'Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.'
See Ray's Collection [p. 110, ed: 1768]" (STeevens).
frippery, a shop for the sale of second-hand apparel (Fr.
fripperie), Tp. iv. 1. 226.
from, away from, departing from: this is from my commission,
198
FROM-FROTH.
12N. i. 5. 201; any thing so overdone is from the purpose of
playing, Hml. iii. 2. 22; from the sense of all civility, Oth. i. 1. 132.
from my house (if I had it) Ado, i. 1. 285: So, I commend me
from our house in grief, Lucr. 1308: The usual formula at
the conclusion of letters in Shakespeare's time was from
the house of the writer: as to the words, if I had it, in the
first of these passages,-the same sort of joke is found in
the translation of the Menæchmi, 1595, by W. W. [William
Warner?];
k
Men. What, mine owne Peniculus?
Pen. Yours (ifaith) bodie and goods, if I had any." Sig. B.
front, a beginning: in April's front, W.T. iv. 4. 3; in summer's
front, Sonn. 102.
front, to oppose: you four shall front them, 1H4. ii. 2. 62; to
front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, Cor.
v. 2. 44; Which fronted mine own peace, Ant. ii. 2. 61.
front but in that file Where others tell steps with me, H8. i. 2. 42:
Explained by Johnson, "I am but primus inter pares; I am
but first in the row of counsellors; on which explanation
Mason remarks, "This was the very idea that Wolsey
wished to disclaim. It was not his intention to acknow-
ledge that he was the first in the row of counsellors, but
that he was merely on a level with the rest, and stept in
the same line with them.”
frontier, an outwork in fortification: The moody frontier of a
servant brow (the word used metaphorically), 1H4. i. 3. 19;
Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, ii. 3. 55.
frontlet on? What makes that, Lr. i. 4. 208: A frontlet was a
forehead-cloth, worn formerly by ladies at night to give
smoothness to their foreheads: here, of course, the word is
equivalent to "angry, scowling look."
froth and lime, M.W. i. 3. 15. Steevens states that "frothing beer
and liming were tricks practised in the time of Shakespeare.
The first was done by putting soap into the bottom of the
tankard when they drew the beer: the other by mixing
lime with the sack (i.e. sherry) to make it sparkle in the
glass," but I question if Shakespeare alludes to frothing
beer by means of soap (Compare “You, Tom Tapster, that
tap your small cans of beere to the poore, and yet fill
them halfe full of froth," &c. Greene's Quip for an Vpstart
Courtier, sig. F 2 verso, ed. 1621:
rr
"Whose horses may be cosen'd, or what jugs
Fill'd up with froth?" Jonson's New Inn, act. ii. sc. 2:
"I fill my pots most duly
Without deceit or froth, sir."
The Folly Tradesman,—Durfey's Pills to purge
Melancholy, vol. vi. p. 91).
See Sack.
FRUITFUL-GAD.
199
fruitful As the free elements-As, "Liberal, bountiful, as the
elements, out of which all things are produced" (JOHNSON),
Oth. ii. 3. 347.
fruitful meal-One, One copious meal, M.M. iv. 3. 161.
fruitfully, fully: you understand me?-Most fruitfully, A.W.
ii. 3. 73.
fruitfully, abundantly: time and place will be fruitfully offered,
Lr. iv. 6. 270.
6. 29.
frush, to bruise, to break to pieces, Troil. v.
frustrate, frustrated: Our frustrate search, Tp. iii. 3. 10; Being
so frustrate, Ant. v. 1. 2.
fry, lechery, fry, burn (constantly opposed to freeze in Eliz.
poetry): Troil. v. 2. 57.
full, complete: as full, as fortunate a bed, Ado, iii. 1. 45; What
a full fortune, Oth. i. 1. 66; a full soldier, ii. 1. 36; his full
fortune, Cymb. v. 4. 110; full of face ("completely, exuber-
antly beautiful," MALONE), Per. 1. Gow. 23; the fullest man,
Ant. iii. 13. 87.
full-fortun'd, Ant. iv. 15. 24: compare the preceding article.
fullam: see gourd and fullam.
fulfil, to fill completely: that they are so fulfilled With men's
abuses, Lucr. 1258; fulfilling bolts (bolts that quite fill the
staples), Troil. Prol. 18.
fulsome, lustful: the fulsome ewes, M.V. i. 3. 87 (The meaning
of fulsome in this line is determined by what precedes,
the ewes, being rank").
fulsome wine, R3. v. 3. 132: "unctuous" (MALONE).
fumiter or fumitory, the fumaria officinalis, a weed common
in cornfields, Lr. iv. 4. 3; H5. v. 2. 45.
funerals, Tit. i. 1. 381; J.C. v. 3. 105; obsequies.
furnaces, throws out as from a furnace, Cymb. i. 6. 66.
furnishings, Lr. iii. 1. 29: Explained by Steevens "samples."
furred pack, "a wallet or knapsack of skin with the hair
outward" (JOHNSON), 2H6. iv. 2. 51.
fust, to grow fusty or mouldy, Hml. iv. 4. 39.
fustilarian, a low term of abuse,-formed from fusty (surely
not, as Steevens conjectures, from fustis), 2H4. ii. 1. 66.
G.
gaberdine, a coarse loose outer garment, a frock or mantle
(Span. gavardina: “Gaban. A cloake of Felt for rainie
weather; a Gabardine." Cotgrave's Fr. and Eng. Dict.),
Tp. ii. 2. 40; 115; M.V. i. 3. 113.
gad of steel-A, A pointed instrument of steel, a steel point,
Tit. iv. 1. 103.
gad-Done Upon the, "Done suddenly, while the iron (the
T
200
GAGE-GAM.
gad-the iron bar) is hot" (RITSON); "on the spur of the
moment" (CRAIG), Lr. i. 2. 26.
gage, a pledge, R2. i. 1. 69; 146; 161; 174; 176; 186; iv. 1. 25,
etc. 1H4. i. 3. 173; H5. iv. 1. 223; iv. 7. 127: “Gage. A
pledge, French. Hence the glove or gauntlet thrown down
in challenges was called a gage, because, by throwing it,
the challenger pledged himself to meet the person who
should take it up." Nares's Gloss.
gage, to pledge: gage them both in an unjust behalf, 1H4. i. 3.
173; Hath left me gag'd, M.V. i. 1. 130; Was gagèd by our
king, Hml. i. 1. 91.
gage-Lay to, to leave in pawn: Pawn'd honest looks, but laid
no words to gage, Lucr. 1351.
gain-giving, misgiving, Hml. v. 2. 226.
gait, way: take his gait (“take his way, or direct his steps,"
STEEVENS), M.N.D. v. 1. 423; go your gait, Lr. iv. 6. 242.
gait, proceeding: to suppress His further gait herein, Hml. i. 2. 31.
Galathe, the name of Hector's horse, according to the modern
additions to the tale of Troy, Troil. v. 5. 20.
gallant-springing, “blooming, in the spring of life" (JOHNSON),
R3. i. 4. 227.
Gallian, Gallic, French, 1H6. v. 4. 139; Cymb. i. 6. 66.
galliard, a quick and lively dance, "With lofty turnes and
capriols in the ayre" (Sir John Davies's Orchestra, &c.,
st. 68), 12N. i. 3. 127; 137; 142; H5. i. 2. 252.
galliasses, Shr. ii. 1. 380: "Galliass, or Galleasse. A large
galley; a vessel of the same construction as a galley, but
larger and heavier. Galeazza, Italian; galeasse, French.
According to the explanation given in Dr. Johnson's
Dictionary, the masts of a galleasse were three, which could
not be lowered like those in a galley; and the number of
seats for rowers was thirty-two." Nares's Gloss.
gallimaufry, a strange medley, a confused jumble, a hotch-
potch (Fr. gallimafree), M.W. ii. 1. 119; W.T. iv. 4. 335.
gallow, to scare, to frighten, Lr. iii. 2. 44.
Galloway nags, "common hackneys" (JOHNSON), 2H4. ii. 4. 205.
gallowglasses, heavy-armed foot soldiers of Ireland and of
the Western Isles, 2H6 iv. 9. 26; Mcb. i. 2. 13. (And see
Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language, sub "Gal-
loglach:" the etymon of the term in doubtful.)
gallows, a rogue (one deserving the gallows), L L.L. v. 2. 12.
Gam-Davy, H5. iv. 8. 109: "This gentleman being sent by
Henry, before the battle, to reconnoitre the enemy, and
to find out their strength, made this report: 'May it please
you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, enough to be
taken prisoners, and enough to run away.' He saved the
king's life in the field. Had our poet been apprized of
this circumstance, this brave Welshman would probably
GAMESTER—GEAR.
201
have been more particularly noticed, and not have been
merely registered in a muster-roll of names" (Malone).
gamester, a frolicksome, adventurous person: Now will I stir
this gamester, A.Y.L. i. 1. 170; Sirrah young gamester,
Shr. ii. 1. 402.
gamester, a facetious fellow, a wag: You're a merry gamester,
my Lord Sands, H8. i. 4. 45
gamester, a prostitute: a common gamester to the camp, A.W.
v. 3. 188; a gamester at five or at seven, Per iv. 6. 81.
gap of breath-This, This mouth, K.J. iii. 4. 32.
gaping, shouting, roaring ("Littleton in his Dictionary has 'To
gape or bawl, vociferor,'" REED): leave your gaping, H8. v. 4. 3.
garboils, tumults, uproars, commotions (Fr. garbouille). Ant. i.
3. 61; ii. 2. 67. [Marlowe, First Bk. of Lucan,—“I purpose
to unfold of these garboils."]
garden of the world-best, France, H5. v. 2. 36.
garden-house, a summer-house (formerly often used for pur-
poses of intrigue), M.M. v. 1. 212; 229; 2N.K. iv. 3. 48.
gardon, Costard's blunder for guerdon, L.L.L. iii. 1. 171.
Gargantua's mouth, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 238: An allusion to the giant
Gargantua in the immortal satire of Rabelais. "Rabelais
was not yet translated, but there was a popular chapbook,
The History of Gargantua (1594).” HERFORD.
garish, splendid, shining, showy, gaudy, R3. iv. 4. 89; Rom.
iii. 2. 25.
Garmombles, In M.W. iv. 5. 79, the Folio has: there is three
Cozen-Iermans, that has cozend, etc., Qo. 1602 there is three
sorts of cosen garmombles, Is cosen, etc. There is little doubt
that garmombles is a thin disguise for Mömpelgard, the count
of Mömpelgard having. visited Windsor in 1592. He
became Duke of Wurtemberg (Duke of Famany, v. 90, for
which QI. has a Garmaine Duke) in 1593." (HERFORD).
See duke de Famany.
gaskins, loose hose or breeches, 12N. i. 5. 27.
gasted, frightened, Lr. ii 1. 57.
gastness, ghastliness, Oth. v. 1. 106.
gaud, a bawble, a trinket, a piece of finery, a showy ornament,
M.N.D. i. 1. 33; iv. 1. 172; Shr. ii. 1. 3; K.J. iii. 3. 36;
Troil. iii. 3. 176. (Globe, gawd.)
gaudy-night, night of festivity and rejoicing, Ant. iii. 13. 183.
Gaultree Forest, 2H4. iv. 1. 2: A large forest anciently, to the
north of York. The name must have had an ominous sound
to Elizabethan ears, as Gallow-tree was often so pronounced.
At the present day, one of the main thoroughfares of
Leicester, though spelt Gallowtree Gate, is locally called
Galltree Gate.
gear, dress: shapeless gear, L.L.L. v. 2. 303.
gear, matter in hand, business: I'll grow a taiker for this gear,
202
GEAR-GENERATIVE.
M.V. i. I. 110; a good wench for this gear, ii. 2. 176; To
this gear, 2H6. i. 4. 17; Tit. iv. 3. 52; I will remedy this
gear, 2H6. iii. 1. 91; Will this gear ne'er be mended? Troil. i. 1. 6.
gear, stuff: provide this gear, Troil. iii. 2. 220; goodly gear,
Rom. ii. 4. 107; soon-speeding gear, Rom. v. 1. 60.
geck, a fool, a bubble: made the most notorious geck and gull,
12N. v. I. 351.
geck, a subject of ridicule, a jest: to become the geck and scorn,
Cymb. v. 4. 67.
geese Since I plucked, M.W. v. I. 27: "The allusion is to the
schoolboys' custom of plucking quills out of the wings of
geese, not only on the commons where they graze, but in
the markets, as they hang by the neck, from the hands of
the farmers who are selling them." Sherwen Mss.,-apud
Halliwell.
geminy, a pair, M.W. ii. 2. 8.
general-The, The people, the multitude: The general, subject
to a well-wish'd king, M.M. ii. 4. 27; good or bad unto the
general, Troil. i. 3. 342; caviare to the general, Hml. ii. 2. 457.
general is not like the hive-When that the, Troil. i. 3. 81.
"When the general is not to the army like the hive to the
bees, the repository of the stock of every individual, that
to which each particular resorts with whatever he has collect-
ed for the good of the whole, what honey is expected? what
hope of advantage? The sense is clear, the expression is
confused" (JOHNSON).—Warburton reads not likes: Heath
proposes: general's not the life of; Capell prints: not liked
o' th' hive.
general of our gracious empress, &c.-Were now the, H5. v.
Prol. 30: "The allusion is to the Earl of Essex, who in
April, 1599, went to Ireland, as Governour, to quell the
rebellion of Tyrone. On his departure a throng of all
ranks and conditions pressed round him, cheering and bless-
ing him. His return, in September of the same year, far
from being what the poet here reasonably predicted, was
secret and solitary, for it had been preceded by disaster"
(GRANT WHITE).
general gender-The, "The common race of the people"
(JOHNSON), Hml. iv. 7. 18.
general louts-Our, "Our common clowns" (JOHNSON), Cor.
iii. 2. 66.
generation, children, offspring: that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, Lr. i. 1. 119.
generative,-A motion, M.M. iii. 2. 119. Dyce adopts Theobald's
reading, ungenerative; the Camb. Edd., Herford, Schmidt,
retain the Folio reading: He is a motion generative, in the
passive sense of adjectives in-ive, (see Walker's Crit. Exam.
i. 179). This would mean: engendered; begotten by, and
GENEROSITY-GENTLES.
203
born of, motions, or puppets; thence, without animal pas-
sions; but Lucio has already said that two stockfishes
engendered Angelo, which is a sufficiently unemotional
parentage. Looking to the sense of the whole passage, it
seems likely that Sh. wrote: He's no (=He has no) motion
generative; that's infallible! Lucio calls him "this ungenitur-
ed agent" in 1. 184.
generosity, high birth: To break the heart, of generosity ("To
give the final blow to the nobles," JOHNSON), Cor. i. 1. 215.
generous, noble: The generous and gravest citizens, M.M. iv.
6. 13; the generous islanders, Oth. iii. 3. 280.
Genius and the mortal instruments-The, J.C. ii. 1. 66: "Ap-
parently, by the genius we are to understand the contriving
and immortal mind, and most probably the mortal instru-
ments are the earthly passions" (CRAIK). Troil. iv. 4. 52;
Mcb. iii. 1. 56; Err. v. 1. 332; Tp. iv. 1. 27. [The Genius
is the attendant spirit or damon, good or evil, that was
supposed to overlook and influence each man's actions.]
gennets, horses,-properly, Spanish horses, of the race of the
Barbs, Oth. i. 1. 113.
Gentile, and no Few-A, M.V. ii. 6. 51: "A jest arising from
the ambiguity of Gentile, which signifies both a heathen,
and one well born" (JOHNSON).
gentle, of liberal rank: In whose success (succession) we are
gentle, W.T. i. 2. 394; He said he was gentle, but unfortunate,
Cymb. iv. 2. 39: no gentler than my dog, H5. iv. 5. 15.
gentle, and not fearful-He's: see fearful-He's &c.
gentle his condition, "advance him to the rank of a gentleman
(JOHNSON), H5. iv. 3. 63.
gentleman of the very first house-A, Rom. ii. 4. 25: Accord-
ing to Steevens, "a gentleman of the first rank, of the first
eminence among these duellists:" according to Mr. Staunton,
"a gentleman-scholar of the very first school of fencing:"
while Mr. Halliwell and Mr. Grant White adopt the perhaps
doubtful explanation which I gave long ago, viz. "a gentle-
man of the very first rank, alias an upstart fellow, a nobody;'
an explanation to which I was led by finding in Fletcher's
Woman's Prize, act iv. sc. I,
<<
... but to be made a whim-wham,
A jib-crack, and a gentleman o' the first house,
For all my kindness to her;"
also in Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict. "Gentilhomme de
ville. A Gentleman of the first head, an vpstart Gentleman;"
and in Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict. "An upstart Gentleman,
a Gentleman of the first head, homo novus, a se ortus."
gentles, gentlefolks: Will you go, gentles? M.W. iii. 2. 92; but,
gentles, agree, L.L.L. ii. 1. 225; the gentles are at their game,
iv. 2. 172; Gentles, methinks you frown, Shr. iii. 2. 95; But
204
GENTRY-GEST.
pardon, gentles all, H5. Prol. 8; the scene Is now transported,
gentles, H5. ii. Prol. 35.
gentry, complaisance, courtesy: To show us so much gentry,
Hml. ii. 2. 22.
gentry, "rank derived from inheritance" (Johnson's Dict.),
rank as gentlefolks: the article of thy gentry, M.W. ii. 1. 53;
which no less adorns Our gentry, &c., W.T. i. 2. 393; gentry,
title, wisdom, Cor. iii. 1. 144.
George, the figure of Saint George on horseback worn by
Knights of the Garter, R3. iv. 4. 366; 369. [Boutell and
Aveling, Heraldry, p. 377, state that "the Collar and the
George were added to the insignia by Henry VII."]
german, a "brother, one approaching to a brother in proximity
of blood" (Johnson's Dict.): german to the lion, Tim. iv.
3. 344; gennets for germans (relations), Oth. i. I. 114.
German clock, still a-repairing-Like a, L.L.L. iii. 1. 192: So in
Jonson's Silent Woman, Otter says, "She takes herself a-
sunder still when she goes to bed, into some twenty boxes;
and about next day noon is put together again, like a great
German clock;" on which passage Gifford remarks, "These
and similar allusions to the cumbrous and complicated
machinery of the first clocks (which we received from
Germany) are very frequent in our old dramatists." Jonson's
Works, vol. iii. p. 432.
German Hunting in water-work-The, 2H4. ii. 1. 157: The
representation of a German boar-hunt, perhaps, of some
particular boar-hunt (with no reference, surely, to the legend
of the Wild Huntsman), executed in water-colour (or dis-
temper?) on cloth.
germane, or german, related, akin: those that are germane to
him, W.T. iv. 4. 802; more german to the matter, Hml. v. 2. 165.
Germans desire to have three of your horses: the duke himself
will be, &c.—The, M.W. iv. 3. 1; there is three cozen-germans
that has cozened, iv. 5. 79: see duke de Jarmany-A. and
Garmombles.
Germany, can dearly witness-The upper, H8. v. 3. 30: “Allud-
ing to the heresy of Thomas Muntzer, which sprung up
in Saxony in the years 1521 and 1522. See an account of
his tenets in Alexander Ross's View of all Religions in the
World, 6th edit. p. 388, &c." (Grey).
germens, germs, seeds, Mcb. iv. 1. 59; Lr. iii. 2. 8.
gest prefix'd for's parting-To let him there a month behind the,
To detain him there a month beyond the time prescribed.
for his departure, W.T. i. 2. 41: In a royal "progress"
the lodgings and stages for rest were called gests (from
the Fr. giste); and, as Nares (in Gloss.) remarks, the table
of the gests limited not only the places, but the time of
staying at each.
GESTS-GIGLETS.
gests, exploits, Ant. iv. 8. 2.
205
get within him, get within his guard, close with him, Err. v. 1. 34.
ghost, a dead body: see timely-parted ghost.
ghosted, haunted as a ghost, Ant. ii. 6. 13.
giant-Some mollification for your, 12N. i. 5. 218: “Ladies, in
romance, are guarded by giants, who repell all improper
or troublesome advances. Viola, seeing the waiting-maid
so eager to oppose her message, entreats Olivia to pacify
her giant" (JOHNSON); "Viola likewise alludes to the diminu-
tive size of Maria" (STEEVENS).
gib-A, Hml. iii. 4. 190; as melancholy as a gib-cat, 1H4. i. 2.
83: A gib or a gibcat is an old male cat,—ğib being the
contraction of Gilbert (“A gibbe (or old male cat). Macou.”
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.: “A Gib-cat, Catus felis
mas." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): Ray gives "As me-
lancholy as a gibb'd [a corruption of gib] cat." Proverbs,
p. 224, ed. 1768.
gibbets on the brewer's bucket-He that, 2H4. iii. 2. 282: “This
alludes to the manner of carrying a barrel, by putting it
on a sling, which is thus described by R. Holme: 'The
slings are a strong, thick, yet short pole, not above a yard
and an half long: to the middle is fixed a strong plate
with a hole, in which is put a hook . . on this hook is
[are] fastened two other short chains, with broad-pointed
hooks, with them clasping the ends of the barrels above
the heads, the barrel is lifted up, and borne by two men
to any place, as is shewed Chap. V. No. 146. Acad. of
Armory, B. iii. chap. vii. § 121. Most people who live in
London have seen the operation, in taking a barrel from
the dray, which is exactly represented by Holme's figure.
It is evident, that to hang or gibbet a barrel on the pole,
in this manner, must be done by a quick movement, so
as to attach both hooks at once." Nares's Gloss. [The New
Engl. Dict. explains bucket as "a beam or yoke on which
anything, may be hung or carried" and cites this passage
with others.]
gig, a kind of top (“Moscolo
a top, or gigge or twirl that
children play with." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.: "Toupie.
A gig, or casting-top." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.),
L.L.L iv. 3. 167; v. 1. 70; 73.
giglet (Globe, giglot), wanton, giddy: a giglet wench, 1H6. iv.
7. 41; O giglet Fortune, Cymb. iii. 1. 31.
giglets (Gl., giglots), wantons, jades: Away with those giglets,
M.M. v. 1. 352 ("A Giggle, or Gigglet. Gadrouillette."
(6
'Gadrouillette: A minx, gigle, flirt, callet, Gixie; (a fained
word, applyable to any such cattell)." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.: "A Giglet, fæmina petulans." Coles's Lat, and
Engl. Dict.).
206
GILD-GILLYVORS.
11
gild the faces of the grooms withal; For it must seem their guilt
-I'll (with a quibble on gild and guilt), Mcb. ii. 2. 56;
gilt with Frenchmen's blood, K.J. ii. 1. 316: “To gild any
thing with blood is a very common phrase in the old plays
(STEEVENS): "At this we shall not be surprised, if we
recollect that gold was popularly and very generally styled
red." Nares's Gloss.: and see golden blood, &c.
gilded 'em-This grand liquor that hath, Tp. v. 1. 280: Gilded
is a cant expression for "drunk;" and in grand liquor there
is an allusion to the grand elixir of the alchemists:
compare medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee-That
great.
gilded puddle, Ant. i. 4. 62: "On all puddles where there is
much mixture of urine, as in stable-yards, &c. there is
formed a film, which reflects all the prismatic colours, and
very principally yellow, and other tinges of a golden hue."
Nares's Gloss.
gillyvors-Carnations and streak'd, W.T. iv. 4. 82; gillyvors,
98; "Gillofer or Gelofer. The old name for the whole class
of carnations, pinks, and sweet-williams; from the French
girofle, which is itself corrupted from the Latin cariophyllum.
See an ample account of them in Lyte's Dodoens, pp.
172-175. In Langham's Garden of Health they are called
galofers. See p. 281. Our modern word gillyflower is corrupt-
ed from this. See Stocke Gillofer in Lyte's Dodoens, p. 168.
They were called stock from being kept both summer and
winter." Nares's Gloss.: Carnations and Gillovors, or
gilloflowers, belong to the genus Dianthus, and were well
known in the time of Shakspere. Parkinson, in his ‘Garden
of all sorts of pleasant Flowers,' dedicated to the Queen
of Charles I., and published in 1629, says that 'carnations
and gilloflowers be the chiefest flowers of account in all our
English gardens;' and he calls them the pride of our English
gardens, and the queen of delight and of flowers, and adds:
They flower not until the heat of the year, which is in
July, and continue flowering until the colds of the autumn
check them, or until they have wholly outspent themselves;
and these fair flowers are usually increased by slips.' He
also distinguishes them from the gilloflower called stock
gillovor. Gerarde, in his 'Herball,' describing the carnation-
gillofloure, says: 'On the top of the stalks do grow very
fair flowers, of an excellent sweet smell, and pleasant
carnation colour, whereof it took his name.' Tusser, in
'Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry,' notices gillo-
flowers red, white, and carnation, as distinct from wall
gilloflowers and stock gilloflowers, and adds;
'The gilloflower also, the skilful doe know
Doth look to be covered in frost and in snow.'
GILT—GING.
207
Spenser, in 'Hobbinol's Dittie' [The Shepheards Calender,
April] has the following;
C
Bring hither the pink and purple cullumbine,
With gillyflowers;
Bring sweet carnations [Bring coronations], and sops in wine,
Worn of paramours.'
Sir W. J. Hooker's 'British Flora,' vol. i. p. 177, under
Dianthus Caryophyllus (clove-pink carnation, or clove gilly-
flower), says; 'Few persons, on seeing this plant, as it
grows on old walls, would suppose it was the origin of one
of the 'fairest flowers of the season,'
'The curious choice clove July flower,'
or carnation of our gardens, with its endless diversity of
colour and form; yet such it is always considered to be.'
The streaked gillovors, noticed by Perdita, are produced
by the flowers of one kind being impregnated by the pollen
of another kind, and this art (or law) in nature Shakspere
alludes to in the delicate language used by Perdita, as well
as to the practice of increasing the plants by slips." Beisly's
Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 82.
gilt, gilding, golden show, display of gold: the double gilt of
this opportunity, 12N. iii. 2. 26; Our gayness and our gilt,
H5. iv. 3. 110; Than gilt his trophy, Cor. i. 3. 43; Iron of
Naples hid with English gilt, 3H6. ii. 2. 139; when thou
wast in thy gilt, Tim. iv. 3. 302.
gilt, money: for the gilt of France-O guilt indeed! (with a
quibble on gilt and guilt), H5. ii. Prol. 26.
gimmal-bit, H5. iv. 2. 49: This was a sort of double bit, in
which the parts were united as in a gimmal-ring (derived
by most from the Latin gemellus): "There came into fash-
ion, towards the sixteenth century, a class of rings which
were called gimmal rings or gimmals, and which, as the
name implies, consisted at first of two rings united in one,
but which were afterwards formed of three, and sometimes
even of four separate rings. When the rings were closed
together, the place at which they fastened was covered
externally with the representation of two hands clasped,
and hence the term gimmal is often applied to a single
ring when it bears this particular device" (WRIGHT): Com-
pare joint-ring.
gimmors, a gimcrack, a quaint contrivance (akin to, if not a
corruption of, gimmal: see the preceding article), 1H6. i. 2. 41.
gin, to begin, Tp. iii. 3. 106; Mcb. i. 2. 25; v. 5. 49; Hml. i. 5.
90; Cymb. ii. 3. 23; Per. iii. 9. 95.
ging, a gang, M.W. iv. 2. 23.
("And joyne with you a ginge of lusty ladds.
208
GINGERLY—GIVE.
In all our ginge wee are but sixty five."
Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, Part First, 1631,
pp. 40, 48.
'Who still led the Rusticke Ging."
Drayton's Shepheards Sirena, p. 146; appended to
The Battaile of Agincourt, &c., 1627:
But the word is of great antiquity.)
gingerly, nicely, carefully, 2G. i. 2. 70.
gipsy's lust-To cool a, Ant. i. 1. 10; Like a right gipsy, hath,
at fast and loose, &c., iv. 12. 28: In the first of these passages
"gipsy is used both in the original meaning for an Egyp
tian, and in its accidental sense for a bad woman” (JOHNSON):
in the second passage "There is a kind of pun arising
from the corruption of the word Egyptian into gipsy.
The old law-books term such persons as ramble about
the country, and pretend skill in palmistry and fortune-
telling, Egyptians" (SIR J. HAWKINS); and see fast and
loose.
gird, a sarcasm, a gibe, Shr. v. 2. 58; 1H6. iii. 1. 131 (see kindly).
gird, to gibe, to taunt, 2H4. i. 2. 7; Cor. i. 1. 260.
girdle break-I pray God my, 1H4. iii. 3. 171: "Alluding to
the old adage, 'ungirt, unblest'" (STEEVENS).
girdle-He knows how to turn his, Ado, v. 1. 143: "Large belts
were worn with the buckle before; but for wrestling the
buckle was turned behind, to give the adversary a fairer
grasp at the girdle. To turn the buckle behind, therefore,
was a challenge" (HOLT WHITE): "A proverbial phrase,
given in this form by Ray-'If you be angry, you may
turn the buckle of your girdle behind you,' ed. 1678, p. 226
[p. 175, ed. 1768]; in other words, you may change your
temper or humour, alter it to the opposite side. It seems
to have no connexion with either challenging or wrestling,
as some have supposed; and it not unfrequently occurs in
the form-‘you may turn your buckle,' without any mention
of the girdle" (HALLIWELL).
Gis, a corruption of Jesus, Hml. iv. 5. 59.
Giulio Romano, W.T. v. 2. 106: “Giulio Romano, with his super-
ficiality, could not possibly have aroused [Shakespeare's]
admiration had he known his work. That he did not know
it is sufficiently evident from the fact that he has made him
a sculptor," etc. Brandes, Sh. i. 139 (tr. Archer). Globe, Julio.
give, to give, to show, as armorial bearings: give sheep in lions'
stead, 1H6. i. 5. 29; the hearts of old gave hands; But our
new heraldry is hands, not hearts (with a quibble on the
word gave, and certainly without any allusion, as Warburton
supposed, to the new order of baronets created by King
James), Oth. iii. 4. 47.
GIVE– GLEEK.
("An Eagle argent in a field of blew
Rogero gave, whilom the crest of Troy," &c.
209
Sir J. Harington's Orlando Furioso,
B. xxvi. st. 69:
"It spites him that Rogero dare aspire
To give his coat, being a berdlesse boy,"
Id. B. xxx, st. 17:
"Rose of the Queene of Loue belou'd;
Englands great kings, diuinely mou'd,
Gaue roses in their banner," &c.
Sir J. Davies's Seventh Hymn of Astraa; appended
to Nosce Teipsum, &c., ed. 1622.—
With the second of the above passages of Shakespeare may
be compared
"My hand shall neur giue my heart, my heart shall giue
my hand."
Warner's Albions England, p. 282, ed. 1596.)
give aim: see aim-Give.
give me your hands, give me your applause, clap your hands,
M.N.D. v. I. 444.
give thee the bucklers—I: see bucklers, &c.
given out these arms, resigned these arms, 2H6. iv. 8. 27.
glad-To give him, Per. ii. Gow. 38: Here glad would seem
to be a substantive,-gladness.
glassy essence, brittle and flashy and imitative nature: M.M.
ii. 2. 120.
gleek, a joke, a jeer, a scoff: First Mus. What will you give
us? Pet. No money, on my faith; but the gleek,—1 will give
you the minstrel, Rom. iv. 5. 115; gleeks, 1H6. iii. 2. 123:
"In some of the notes on this word it has been supposed
to be connected with the card-game of gleek; but it was
not recollected that the Saxon language supplied the term
Glig, ludibrium, and doubtless a corresponding verb. Thus
glee signifies mirth and jocularity; and gleeman or gligman,
a minstrel or joculator. Gleek was therefore used to express
a stronger sort of joke, a scoffing. It does not appear that
that the phrase to give the gleek was ever introduced in
the above game, which was borrowed by us from the French,
and derived from an original of very different import
from the word in question. . . . To give the minstrel is no
more than a punning phrase for giving the gleek. Minstrels
and jesters were anciently called gleekmen or gligmen"
(DOUCE): “To give the gleek meant to pass a jest upon, to
make a person appear ridiculous. To give the minstrel,
which follows, has no such meaning. Peter only means,
'I will call you minstrel, and so treat you;' to which the
musician replies, "Then I will give you the serving creature,'
as a personal retort in kind." Nares's Gloss. in "A Gleek."
14
210
GLEEK-GO.
gleek, to joke, to jeer, to scoff, M.N.D. iii. 1. 150; gleeking,
H5. v. 1. 78.
Glendower is dead-A certain instance that, 2H4. iii. 1. 103:
Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shake-
speare was led into this error by Holinshed, who places
Owen Glendower's death in the tenth year of Henry's
reign" (MALONE).
glib, to geld, W.T. ii. 1. 149.
glimpse of newness,--The fault and, the insufficiency and the
limited view of inexperience, M.M. i. 2. 162. "The illusion
of 'newness' is conceived as a kind of half-light, cf. Hml.
i. 4. 53." (HERFORD).
globe-This distracted, "This head confused with thought"
(STEEVENS), Hml. i. 5. 97.
glory, vaunting: how high thy glory towers, K.J. ii. 1. 350.
Gloster with these letters-Go you before to, Lr. i. 5. 1: Here
Gloster "is to be understood of the town of that name,
as is evident from the 'there' at the end of this speech:
it is made the residence of Regan and Cornwall, to give
likelihood to an ensuing scene's action,-their late quitting
it, and evening visit to Gloster in a castle of his residence,
which we may suppose in its neighbourhood: earls, in old
time, had some dominion in the counties that gave them
their titles, and resided there usually" (CAPELL).
Gloster's dukedom is too ominous, 3H6. ii. 6. 103: “Alluding
perhaps to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock, and Hum-
phrey, dukes of Gloster" (STEEVENS).
glove to Death himself, &c.-I will throw my, "I will challenge
Death himself in defence of thy fidelity" (JOHNSON),
Troil. iv. 4. 65.
gloves in my cap-Wore, Lr. iii. 4. 88: see second favour.
glow, to make to glow: To glow the delicate cheeks, Ant. ii. 2. 209.
gloze, to expound, to comment: the French unjustly gloze, &c.,.
H5. i. 2. 40; Have gloz'd-but superficially, Troil. ii. 2. 165.
gloze, to flatter, to wheedle, to cajole: the villain would gloze
now, M.M. v. 1. 346 [Globe, close]; youth and ease have
taught to gloze, R2. ii. 1. 10; Tamora to gloze with all, Tit.
iv. 4. 35; I will gloze with him, Per. i. 1. IIO.
glozes, interpretations: lay these glozes by, L.L.L. iv. 3. 370.
glut him, swallow him, Tp. i. 1. 63.
glutton-Let him be damned, like the, 2H4. i. 2. 39: An allusion
to the rich man in Scripture.
gnarled, knotty, M.M. ii. 2. 116.
gnarling, snarling, R2. i. 3. 292; 2H6. iii. 1. 192.
go in the song-To, "To join with you in your song" (STEEVENS),
Ado, i. 1. 188.
go to the world-To: see world-To go to the.
go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. Shr. Ind. 1. 10; Lr. iii. 4. 48.
GO-GONE.
211
go, frequently used in the sense of to walk: e.g. M.M. iii. 2. 278:
grace to stand, and virtue go; to go, to walk virtuously.
goal for goal of youth—Get, Ant. iv. 8. 22: “At all plays of
barriers the boundary is called a goal; to win a goal is to
be a superior in a contest of activity" (JOHNSON).
God before, God going before, God assisting, i. 2. 307;
H5. iii. 6. 165.
God bless, and God save, the mark: see mark. &c.
God defend, God forbid, Ado, ii. 1. 97; iv. 2. 21; R2. i. 3. 18;
1H4. iv. 3. 38; R3. iii. 7. 173.
God dild you, a variation of God ild you (see next article),
Hml. iv. 5. 41.
God ild you, a corruption of God yield (requite) you, A.Y.L.
iii. 3. 76; v. 4. 56; Mcb. i. 6. 13.
godded me, deified me, Cor. v. 3. 11.
god-den, good e'en. H5. iii. 2. 89; Cor. iv. 6. 20; God dig-
you-den (God give you good e'en), L.L.L. iv. 1. 42; God gi'
god-den, Rom. i. 2. 57; God ye (give ye) god-den, iii. 5. 173: “This
salutation was used by our ancestors as soon as noon was past,
after which time 'good morrow' or 'good day' was esteemed
improper." Nares's Gloss., in "Den:" and see good den.
God's a good man: see man.
God's sonties-By, M.V. ii. 2. 47: Is this a corruption of By
God's saints or of By God's sanctity? or By God's santé
(i.e. health)?
godfathers: Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten
more, &c.—In christening shalt thou have two, M.V. iv. 1. 398:
“ten more, i.e. a jury of twelve men, to condemn thee to
be hanged" (THEOBALD): This, as Malone observes, appears
to have been an old joke.
God of Love, The, Ado, v. 2. 26: The beginning of an old
song by W. E. (William Elderton.) (RITSON.)
Goffe, see Gough.
gold kept by a devil-A mere hoard of, 2H4. iv. 3. 125: "It was
anciently supposed that all the mines of gold, &c., were
guarded by evil spirits" (STEEVENS).
gold-He does sit in, "He is enthroned in all the pomp and
pride of imperial splendour" (JOHNSON), Cor. v. 1. 63.
golden blood-His silver skin lac'd with his, Mcb. ii. 3. 118:
"The allusion is to the decoration of the richest habits
worn in the age of Shakespeare, when it was usual to lace
cloth-of-silver with gold, and cloth-of-gold with silver. The
second of these fashions is mentioned in Much Ado about
Nothing, act iii. sc. 4, 'Cloth-o'-gold. . . laced with silver'
(STEEVENS): and see gild the faces, &c.
gone through for this piece-I have, "I have bid a high price
for her, gone far in my attempt to purchase her" (STEEVENS),
Per. iv. 2. 47.
212
GOOD.
good, good friend, good fellow: Good, speak to the mariners,
Tp. i. 1. 3; Nay, good, be patient, 16; Good, yet remember,
20; now, good, now, W.T. v. 1. 19; Sit down; and good,
now, 2N.K. iii. 3. 9.
good, of substance, rich: Antonio is a good man, M.V. i. 3. 12;
We are accounted poor citizens; the patricians, good, Cor. i. 1. 16;
(“A good man i' th' Citty is not call'd after his good deeds,
but the knowne weight of his purse." Brome's Northern
Lasse, sig. D 2, ed. 1632: "What judgments the good people
in the city (I mean the good in their own style—monied)
will construe upon White's," &c. H. Walpole's Letters, vol.
ii. p. 467, ed. Cunningham).
good cheap- Would have bought me lights as, 1H4. iii. 3. 51:
"Cheap is market, and good cheap therefore is à bon marché"
(JOHNSON).
good den, good e'en, Ado, iii. 2. 83; v. 1. 46; K.J. i. 1. 185;
Tit. iv. 4. 43; Rom. iii. 1. 41; God ye (give ye) good den,
Rom. ii. 4. 116: and see god-den.
good deed, in very deed, truly: yet, good deed, Leontes, I love
thee, W.T. i. 2. 42.
good even and twenty, twenty times good even, M.W. ii. 1. 202.
good fortune come to thee! For thou wast got i the way of
honesty, K.J. i. 1. 180: “Alluding to the proverb, ‘Bastards
are born lucky.' Philip wishes his brother good fortune,
because Robert was not a bastard" (COLLIER).
good goose, bite not. a jocular proverbial expression, Rom ii. 4.
82: Ray gives "Good goose, do not bite." Proverbs, p. 56,
ed. 1768.
good leave, ready assent: he gives them good leave to wander,
A.Y.L. i. I. 109; Good leave, good Philip, K.J. i. 1. 231,
[cf. Ast. & Stella,] xxxiii; You have good leave to leave
us, 1H4. i. 3. 20; Ay, good leave have you, 3H6. iii. 2. 34.
good life, And observation strange-With, Tp. iii. 3. 86: " With
good life may mean 'with exact presentation of their several
characters,' with observation strange 'of their particular and
distinct parts.' So we say, 'he acted to the life'" (JOHNSON).
[with great alacrity, and singular observance of my demands
on their services.]
good life-A song of, 12N. ii. 3. 37: Here I believe with Malone,
that a song of good life means “a song of a moral turn;'
but Steevens thinks that, though Sir Andrew accepts it in
that signification, the Clown means a song “of harmless
mirth and jollity."
good lord, a patron, a friend: he is my good lord, A.W. ii. 3. 261;
Stand my good lord, 2H4. iv. 3. 89.
good man: see second good.
good masters, patrons: we'll be thy goo. masters, W.T. v. 2. 188.
good my complexion! A.Y.L. iii. 2. 20,: "Is a little unmeaning
GOOD-GOTH.
213
exclamatory address to her beauty, in the nature of a
small oath" (RITSON).
good that did it—The, H8. iv. 2. 60: Here the good is generally
explained "the goodness"; but qy. does it mean "the
good man"?
good time-In, 2G. i. 3. 44; M.M. iii. 1. 183; v. 1. 286; R3. ii.
1. 45; iii. 1. 24; Rom. i. 2 45: “A la bonne heure. Happily,
luckily, fortunately, in good time, in a good houre." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.
good-jer, a corruption of goujeer (which see), M.W. i. 4. 129.
Good-nights: see Fancies, &c.
good-year, a corruption of goujeer (which see): What the
good-year! Ado, i. 3. 1; 2H4. ii. 4. 64; 191; Lr. v. 3. 24.
(It is spelt variously; "What a gudyere aile you, mother?"
Day's Ile of Guls, ed. 1606, sig. H 2 verso.
gorbellied, swag-bellied, paunchy, 1H4. ii. 2. 93. [Basse has
'Gorrel-belly'd,' Wks. p. 137].
gore-blood, clotted blood, Rom. iii. 2. 56.
gorge, throat, swallow, stomach (Fr. gorge), W.T. ii. 1. 44; Tim.
iv. 3. 40; Oth. ii. 1. 236; H5. ii. 1. 75; iv. 4. 38.
gospell'd, &c.-So, "Of that degree of precise virtue," &c.
(JOHNSON), SO "kept in obedience of that precept of the
gospel, which teaches us 'to pray for those that despitefully
use us (STEEVENS), Mcb. iii. 1. 88.
goss-Sharp furzes, pricking, Tp. iv. 1. 180: "I know not how
Shakespeare distinguished goss from furze; for what he
calls furze is called goss or gorse in the midland counties
(STEEVENS): "By the latter, Shakespeare means the low
sort of gorse that only grows upon wet ground, and which
is well described by the name of whins in Markham's
Farewell to Husbandry. It has prickles like those of a rose-
tree or a gooseberry. Furze and whins occur together in
Dr. Farmer's quotation from Holinshed" (TOLLET): "Mins-
heu, in his Dictionary, at the word gorse, refers the reader
to whinns." Nares's Gloss. sub Gorse."
"
gossamer, “the long white filament which flies in the air in
summer" (STEEVENS), Rom. ii. 6. 18; Lr. iv. 6. 49: (where
Nares in Gloss. takes it to mean cotton wool").
((
"
gossips-Yet 'tis not a maid, for she hath had, 2G. iii. 1. 269:
Gossips not only signify those who answer for a child in
baptism, but the tattling women who attend lyings-in. The
quibble between these is evident" (STEEVENS).
got that which we have-We have not, “We have not secured,
we are not sure of retaining, that which we have acquired"
(Malone), 2H6. v. 3. 20.
got.den, Fluellen's corruption of god den, good e'en, H5. iii. 2.
89 (Globe, God-den).
Goth, Tit. ii. 3. 110. With a quibble on goat, as in A.Y.L. iii.
214
GOUGH-GRACE.
3. 9. Probably as in mote, moth, the th was pronounced t.
(HERFORD). See Capricious.
Gough-Matthew, 2H6. iv. 5. II (Globe, Goffe): "A man of
great wit [ze. wisdom] and much experience in feats of
chivalrie, the which in continuall warres had spent his time
in serving [service] of the king and his father.' Holinshed,
p. 635" (STEEVENS).
goujeer or goujeers, the venereal disease (from “Gouge a
Souldiors Pug or Punke; a Whore that followes the Camp"
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.); Lr. v. 3. 24 (Globe:
goodyears).
•
gourd and fullam hold, And high and low beguile the rich and
poor, M.W. i. 3. 94; The odds for high and low's alike,
(with a quibble), W.T. v. 1. 207: Gourds, it would seem,
were false dice, which had a secret cavity (scooped out
like a gourd?); fullams, false dice, which, on the contrary,
were loaded with metal on one side, so as either to produce
high throws, or to turn up low numbers, as was required,
and were hence named high men or low men, also high
fullams and low fullams: "Whalley says that false dice
were called fullams, either because Fulham was the resort
of sharpers, or because they were chiefly manufactured
there. The last supposition is not improbable." Gifford's
note on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 111: ["he keeps high
men and low men, he! he has a fair living at Fullam." E.
Man out, iii. 1. cf. Hudibras, vol. i. p. 190, ed. Bell.] Douce
also states that fullams were so called, being chiefly made
at Fulham: but Nares (Gloss. in v.) thinks it unlikely.
gouts, drops (Fr. gouttes), Mcb. ii. 1. 46.
government, regularity and decency of behaviour, forbearance,
self-control: men of good government (with a quibble), 1H4.
i. 2. 31; Defect of manners, want of government, iii. 1. 184;
'Tis government that makes them seem divine, 3H6. i. 4. 132;
wife-like government, H8. ii. 4. 138; smiling government
("complacency arising from the passions being under the
command of reason," MALONE), Lucr. 1400.
grace, physical virtue: mickle is the powerful grace that lies In
herbs, Rom. ii. 3. 15.
grace, at meat, was sometimes said in metre in our poet's
time: What, in metre? M.M. i. 2. 20: and see Apemantus'
grace, Tim. i. 2. dir.
grace of God, sir, and he hath enough-You have the, M.V. ii.
2. 160: "The proverb referred to is [?] 'The grace of God
is better than riches,' or, in the Scots form of it, 'God's
grace is gear enough'" (STAUNTON).
grace, to favour, to honour, to bless: To grace us with your
royal company, Mcb. iii. 4. 45; That ever grac'd me in thy
company (“To grace seems here to mean the same as to
GRACIOUS-GRANGE.
215
bless, to make happy. So, gracious is kind, and graces are
favours," JOHNSON) R3. iv. 4. 174; the grac'd person of our
Banquo, Mcb. iii. 4. 41.
gracious, lovely, attractive, graceful, beautiful: makes the faults
gracious, 2G. iii, 1. 378: never shall it more be gracious, Ado,
iv. 1. 109; make it the more gracious, M.N.D. iv. 1. 224; one
shamed that was never gracious, (" acceptable," CALDECOTT),
A.Y.L. i. 2. 200; a gracious creature, K.J. iii. 4. 81; his
gracious parts, 96; To make it gracious, Troil. ii. 2. 125; My
gracious silence, Cor. ii. 1. 192; no face so gracious is as
mine, Sonn. 62.
grained, ingrained: grainèd ("dyed in grain," JOHNSON,-an
interpretation which, Malone observes, is confirmed by the
words spots and tinct) spots, Hml. iii. 4. 90.
grained, furrowed, rough: this grainèd ("furrowed like the
grain of wood," STEEVENS) face of mine, Err. v. 1. 311; My
grained ash (ashen spear), Cor. iv. 5. 114; his grainèd bat (where,
as in the preceding passage, Steevens explains grainèd “on
which the grain of the wood was visible"), L. Compl. 64.
gramercy, great thanks (Fr. grand merci), M.V. ii. 2. 128; R3.
iii. 2. 108; Tit. i. 1. 495; iv. 2. 7; gramercies, Shr. i. 1. 41;
168; Tim. ii. 2. 69; 74.
grand-guard, 2N.K. iii. 6. 58: Meyrick, describing a suit of
armour at Goodrich Court, tells us that "It has, over the
breast, for the purpose of justing, what was called the grand
garde, which is screwed on by three nuts, and protects the left
side, the edge of the breast, and the left shoulder." Critical
Inquiry into Ancient Armour, &c., vol. ii. p. 164, ed. 1842.
grand liquor: see gilded'em, &c.
grange-At the moated, M.M. iii. 1. 277: the grange or mill,
W.T. iv. 4. 309; this is Venice; My house is not a grange,
Oth. i. I.
"(
106: Granges were the chief farm-houses of
wealthy proprietors. The religious houses had granges on
most of their estates. The officer who resided in them was
called the Grangiarius. He superintended the farm, and at
the grange the produce was laid up. The grange in Shake-
speare [see the first of the above passages] was moated,
therefore of some importance. This was occasionally done
for defence. They were well-built stone houses, often of
considerable extent and height, and, being placed in a
central position to a large estate, they must often have been
as Shakespeare's grange, solitary, while the windows being
small (as they were in all the edifices of that age), they
would be gloomy also: fit scene for the moaning Mariana."
Hunter's New lilust. of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 345: On the
third of the above passages T. Warton remarks; “That is,
'you are in a populous city, not in [beside] a lone house,
where a robbery might easily be committed.
In
216
GRANT-GREECE.
Lincolnshire, and in other northern counties, they call every
lone house, or farm which stands solitary, a grange."
grant is the necessity - The fairest, Ado, i. 1. 319:
"Grant' is
-cause of granting: The fairest argument you can urge to
prevail on me to be your advocate, is the necessity you
stand in of one to do you that service" (Capell).
grants scarce distinction-That Without the which a soldier, and
his sword, Ant. iii. 1. 29. The meaning seems to be, as
Warburton was the first to show,-Thou hast that (wisdom,
or prudence), wanting which, a soldier shows himself hardly
better than his senseless sword. (STAUNTON).
grate, the iron-barred window of a prison: you had looked
through the grate, M.W. ii. 2. 8.
grate, "to rub hard, -to offend, as by oppression or import-
unity" (Johnson's Dict). to disturb, to vex: What peer hath
been suborn'd to grate on you, 2H4. iv, 1. 90; 1 have grated
upon my good friends, M.W. ii. 2. 6; Grates me ("offends
me, is grating to me," KNIGHT), Ant. i. 1. 18: Grating so
harshly all his days of quiet, Hml. iii. 1. 3.
gratulate, to congratulate, R3. iv. 1. 10;
Tit. i. 1. 221;
Tim. i. 2. 131.
gratulate, to be rejoiced at, worthy of gratulation: that is more
gratulate, M.M. v. 1. 535.
grave, to bury: ditches grave you all! Tim. iv. 3. 166; envy of
ill men Grave our acquaintance, 2N.K. ii. 2. 91, (Qo. Crave);
grav'd in the hollow ground, R2. iii. 2. 140.
grave, to engrave, to make an impression on: soft sighs can
never grave it, Ven. 376.
grave charm-This, Ant. iv. 12. 25: deadly?
grave Give way to what's seen now!-Thy, W.T. v. 1. 97. "Grave
for epitaph" (WARBURTON). " Thy grave, means-thy beau-
ties, which are buried in the grave: the continent for the
contents" (EDWARDS). Hanmer reads graces.
Graymalkin, a familiar spirit in the shape of a cat, Mcb. i. 1. 8.
graze, see Relapse of mortality.
greasily, grossly: you talk greasily, L.L.L. iv. 1. 139.
great morning, broad day, "Grand jour, a Gallicism" (STEE-
VENS), Troil. iv. 3. 1; Cymb. iv. 2. 61.
greaves, armour for the legs, (Steevens and Dyce), 2H4. iv. 1.
50 (O. Edd. Globe, graves).
gree, to agree, M.V. ii. 2. 108; greed, 2G. ii. 4. 183; M.M. iv.
i. 42; Shr. ii. 1. 272; 299; Ant. ii. 6. 37: greeing, Sonn. 114.
Greece upon thee-The plague of, Troil. ii. 1. 13: "Alluding
perhaps to the plague sent by Apollo on the Grecian army"
(JOHNSON): Malone supposes that Shakespeare was thinking
here of Lydgate's Auncient Historie of the Warres between
the Trojans and the Grecians (see vi. 2); Steevens, that he
had an eye to Hall's or Chapman's Iliad.
GREECE GREEN.
217
Greece-old John Naps of, Shr. Ind. 2. 95, “is an obvious
misreading of Greet, a hamlet by Winchmere in Gloucester-
shire, not far removed from Shakespeare's native town."
Lee, Life of Sh. p. 167.
66
Greek-A merry, Troil. i. 2. 118; the merry Greeks, iv. 4. 58:
Græcari among the Romans signified to play the reveller
(STEEVENS): Hence our proverbial expression, "As merry
as a Greek."
Greek-Foolish, 12N. iv. 1. 19: "Means certainly nothing more
than 'foolish jester:' pergræcor, is translated by Coles 'to
revel, to play the merry Greek or boon companion.
(MALONE): see the preceding article.
•
green, so quick, so far an eye-So, Rom. iii. 5. 222; thy rare
green eye, 2N.K. v. 1. 144; His eyes were green as leeks (“as
green as a leek" being a not uncommon expression), M.N.D.
V. I. 342: "Green eyes were considered as peculiarly beau-
tiful.
The Spanish writers are peculiarly enthusiastic
in the praise of green eyes. So Cervantes, in his novel El
Zeloso Estremeño: 'Ay que ojos tan grandes y tan rasgados!
y por el siglo de mi madre, que son verdes, que no paracen
sino que son de esmeraldas (WEBER): Gifford, after ob-
serving that he has "seen many Norwegian seamen with
eyes of this hue, which were invariably quick, keen, and
glancing," and that the expression "green eyes" is common
in our early poets, cites the following sonnet by Drummond
of Hawthornden;
"C
When Nature now had wonderfully wrought
All Auristella's parts, except her eyes,
To make those twins two lamps in beauty's skies
She counsel of the starry synod [v. 1. "her starry senate"] sought.
Mars and Apollo first did her advise
To wrap in colours black those comets bright,
That Love him so might soberly disguise,
And, unperceived, wound at every sight:
Chaste Phoebe spake for purest azure dyes:
But Jove and Venus green about the light,
To frame thought best, as bringing most delight,
That to pin'd hearts hope might for aye arise.
Nature, all said, a paradise of green
There plac'd, to make all love which have them seen."
Note on translation of Juvenal, Sạt. xiii. 223.
green, indeed, is the colour of lovers, L.L.L. i. 2. 90: Here the
commentators variously explain the allusion,-to green eyes
(as reckoned beautiful), to jealousy, to the willow worn by
unsuccessful lovers, and to their melancholy: but qy. if all
these explanations be not equally wrong? Compare Brownc's
Shepheards Pipe;
218
GREEN-GRIEVANCES.
33
"Greene well befits a louers HEATE,
But blacke beseemes a mourner.'
Fourth Eglogue, sig. 15, ed. 1620.
["As for those hidden mysteries of colours, with their
applications, of blue to constancie, tawnie forsaken, white
to virginitie, and the rest, they are very well knowne to
our gallant gentlemen, who often have more cost in their
clothes, and wit in their colours, then coine in their coffers,
or learning in their heads." Harington, Orl. Fur. xxxii,
p. 266. Cf. Cynthia's Revels, v. 2:
green your mistress
wears is her rejoicing or exultation in his service; the
yellow, suspicion of his truth" etc.; and v. 3.]
"C
green, unripe, inexperienced: How green you are, K.J. iii. 4.
145; green virginity, Tim. iv. 1. 7; green in judgment, Ant.
i. 5. 74; folly and green minds, Oth. ii. 1. 251; his greener
days, H5. ii. 4. 136.
green, new, fresh: whiles your boots are green, Shr. iii. 2. 213;
since griefs are green, 2H4. iv. 5. 204; Tybalt, yet but green
in earth, Rom. iv. 3. 42; The memory be green, Hml. i. 2. 2.
green, sickly: to look so green and pale, Mcb. i. 7. 37.
greenly, novice-like, awkwardly, foolishly, H5. v. 2. 149; Hml.
iv. 5. 83.
Gregory de Cassalis: see Cassalis, &c.
Gregory-Turk: see Turk Gregory.
grey-the morn is bright and, Tit. ii. 2. 1, blue, azure. Cf. Peele,
Old Wives Tale,
The day is clear, the welkin bright and grey," etc.
Works, p. 449, ed. Dyce, 1861.
grey, blue, azure: Her eyes are grey as glass, 2G. iv. 4. 197;
two grey eyes, 12N. i. 5. 266; the grey vault of heaven, 2H4.
ii. 3. 19: the morn is bright and grey, Tit. ii. 2. 1; a grey
eye or so, Rom. ii. 4. 45: Mine eyes are grey, Ven. 140;
the grey cheeks of the east, Sonn. 132; grey-ey'd, Rom. ii. 3.
1; 2N.K. iv. 2. 131.
grief, pain: Out of my grief, 1H4. i. 3. 51; the grief of a wound,
V. I. 134; Weaken'd with grief, 2H4. i. 1. 144.
grief, grievance: To build a grief on, 2H4. iv. I. 110: particulars
of our grief, iv. 2. 36; I here forget all former griefs, 2G. v.
4. 142; The nature of your griefs, 1H4. iv. 3. 42; our griefs
heavier than our offences, 2H4. iv. 1. 69; To know your griefs,
142; these griefs shall be with speed redress'd, iv. 2. 59; since
griefs are green, iv. 5. 204; redress of all these griefs, J.C.
i. 3. 118: Speak your griefs softly, iv. 2. 42; The griefs be-
tween ye, Ant. ii. 2. 100.
grievances-I pity much your, 2G. iv. 3. 37: Here grievances
is explained by Johnson to mean sorrows, sorrowful
affections."
GRIME-GUARDS.
grime, dirt, sullying blackness, Err. iii. 2. 106.
grime, to dirt, to sully deeply, Lr. ii. 3. 9.
219
gripe, a griffin (vpú↓), Lucr. 543 (This word frequently means
“a vulture;” but such does not seem to be its signification
in the present passage).
grise, a step, 12N. iii. 1. 135; Tim. iv. 3. 16; Oth. i. 3. 200;
2N.K. ii. 1. 127 (Qo. greise).
She gan anone by greces to assende,
Of a Touret in to an hye pynacle."
Lydgate's Warres of Troy, B. i. sig. E I verso, ed. 1555.)
Grissel-For patience she will prove a second, Shr. ii. 1. 297:
The allusion is to Chaucer's Griselda in The Clerk of Oxen-
fords Tale. Chaucer took the story from Boccaccio; but
it is much older than Boccaccio's time.
groat-A half-fac'd, K.J. i. 1. 94: A sneer (as Theobald
observes) at the meagre visage of the elder brother, who
is compared to a silver groat that bore the king's face in
profile: but there is an anachronism here; for in the time
of King John there were no groats; and groats with a half-
face, or profile, were first issued by King Henry VII.
gross, palpable: to all sense 'tis gross You love my son, A.W. i.
3. 178; 'tis not gross in sense, Oth. i. 2. 72.
grossly, palpably: Working so grossly in a natural cause, H5.
ii. 2. 107; with what poor judgment he hath now cast her off
appears too grossly, Lr. i. 1. 295.
ground, a musical term,-the subject or air on which variations
or descants were to be raised: on that ground I'll make a
holy descant, R3. iii. 7. 49.
groundlings—The, The spectators who stood on the ground
in that part of the theatre which answered to the pit in a
modern playhouse, Hml. iii. 2. 12.
grow, to accrue: knowing how the debt grows, Err. iv. 4. 124;
the sum that I do owe to you Is growing to me, iv. 1. 8.
grow to a point, proceed to a conclusion, to business, M.N.D.
i. 2. 10.
grow to, M.V. ii. 2. 18: said of milk, when burnt in boiling,
sticking to the side of the saucepan; so, to stick to things,
in the sense of unlawfully annexing them perhaps. Donne,
in his Elegies, xiv., has:
"First let our eyes be rivited quite thro'
Our turning brains, and both our lips grow to:
Let our arms clasp like ivy," &c.
guard, to face, to trim, to ornament: To guard a title, K.J. iv.
2. 10; guarded with fragments, Ado, i. 1. 288; a livery more
guarded than his fellows', M.V. ii. 2. 164; guarded with rags,
2H4. iv. 1. 34; guarded with yellow, H8. Prol. 16.
guards, facings, trimmings: prenzie guards, M.M. iii. 1. 97; the
220
GUARDS-GUN-STONES.
guards are but slightly basted on neither, Ado, i. 1. 289;
guards on wanton Cupid's hose, L.L.L. iv. 3. 58.
guards of th' ever-fixèd pole-The, Oth. ii. 1. 15: "Alluding to
the star Arctophylax" (JOHNSON): "I wonder that none of
the advocates for Shakspeare's learning has observed that
Arctophylax literally signifies the guard of the bear" (STEEVENS).
guerdon, a reward, a recompense, Ado, v. 3. 5; L.L.L. iii. 1. 170.
guerdon'd, rewarded, recompensed, 2H6. i. 4. 49; 3H6. iii. 3. 191.
guidon, H5. iv. 2. 60 (Fol. Guard; on): "standard, ensign,
banner.. also he that beares it." Cotgrave. The passage
in Holinshed ("as amongst other the Duke of Brabant,
when his standard was not come, caused a baner to be taken
from a trumpet and fastened to a speare") confirms the
emendation. See Dyce's note in loc. but also N.S.S. Trans.
1880, p. 203. (The word was not unfamiliar to our early
dramatists; e.g.
"Cæsar o nullo written in my guydon,
When with my troopes victoriously I ride on."
Barnes's Divils Charter, 1607, sig, G 4 verso.)
guiled shore, M.V. iii. 2. 97: treacherous shore (STEEVENS).
[Full of delusive appearance.]
guiltless blood-shedding-These hands are free from, 2H6. iv. 7.
108: "Guiltless is not an epithet to blood-shedding, but to
blood. These hands are free from shedding guiltless or
innocent blood” (Malone).
guinea-hen, a cant term for a prostitute, Oth. i. 3. 317.
Guinover-Queen, "King Arthur's queen, not over famous for
fidelity to her husband," &c. (STEEVENS), L.L.L. iv. 1. 125.
gules, the heraldic term for "red," Tim. iv. 3. 59; Hml. ii. 2. 479.
gulf, swallow, gullet: gulf Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, Mcb. iv. 1. 23.
gull-A naked, Tim. ii. 1. 31: Wilbraham, in his Attempt at a
Glossary of some Words used in Cheshire, gives "Gull, s.
A naked gull; so are called all nestling birds in quite an
unfledged state:" Here is a play on the word gull, meaning
both "a bird" and "a dupe."
gull, the cuckoo's bird-That ungentle, 1H4. v. 1. 60: That cruel
nestling, the cuckoo's chicken.
gull, a trick, an imposition: I should think this a gull,
Ado, ii. 3. 123.
4
·
gummed velvet-He frets like a, 1H4. ii. 2. 2: Velvet, when
stiffened with gum to make it sit well, was very apt
to fret.
gun-stones, H5. i. 2. 282: "When ordnance was first used,
they discharged balls, not of iron, but of stone" (JOHNSON):
Even after the introduction of iron shot for heavy artillery,
the term gun-stone was retained in the sense of "bullet:
Gonne-stone-plombee, boulet, bovle de fonte." Palsgrave's
"
GURNET-HAIR.
221
Lesclarcissment de la Lang. Fr., 1530, fol. xxxvii. (Table of
Subst.).
gurnet-A soused, A pickled gurnet,—a not uncommon term
of reproach (perhaps because it was reckoned a coarse and
vulgar sort of food), 1H4. iv. 2. 13.
gust, to taste, to perceive, W.T. i. 2. 219.
Guy-Sir, Guy of Warwick, a well-known hero of romance,
H8. v. 4. 22.
H.
H-For the letter that begins them all, Ado, iii. 4. 56: “Margaret
asks Beatrice for what she cries heigh-ho; Beatrice answers,
for an H, that is, for an ache or pain [the word ache being
formerly pronounced like the letter H]" (JOHNSON).
habit, "conduct, behaviour" (CAPELL): If I do not put on a
sober habit, M.V. ii. 2. 199.
habit--You know me by my, H5. iii. 6. 121: "That is, by his
herald's coat. The person of a herald being inviolable,
was distinguished in these times of formality by a peculiar
dress, which is likewise yet worn on particular occasions"
(JOHNSON): see herald's coat, &c.
hack-To hick and to, M.W. iv. 1. 68: Here, according to
Steevens, Mrs. Quickly uses hack in the sense of "do
mischief."
hack-These knights will, M.W. ii. 1. 52: A very obscure
passage, about the meaning of which sundry conjectures
have been offered; the most probable one perhaps being
that there is an allusion to the extravagant number of
knights created by King James, and that hack is equivalent
to "become cheap or vulgar."
haggard, a wild, untrained hawk ("Faulcon hagard. A Hagard;
a Faulcon that preyed for herselfe long before she was taken."
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict. sub "Hagard:" and see
Latham's Faulconry, &c., 1658, concerning the Haggard
Faulcon, the Haggard Goshawk, the Haggard Lanner, and
-in his First Book, chap. iii.-"the manner of reclaiming
your Haggard"), Shr. iv. 1. 196; iv. 2. 39; 12N. iii. 1. 71;
haggards, Ado, iii. 1. 36.
haggard, wild, wanton, libertine (see the preceding article):
If I do prove her a haggard, Oth. iii. 3. 260.
haggish, deformed, or deforming. A.W. i. 2. 29.
hag-seed, offspring of a hag or witch, Tp. i. 2. 365.
hair, grain, texture, character: against the hair of your profes-
sions, M.W. ii. 3. 41; The quality and hair of our attempt,
1H4. iv. 1. 61; merry against the hair, Troil. i. 2. 28; to stop
in my tale against the hair, Rom. ii. 4. 100. (“Against the
222
HAIR-HALF-PENCE.
hair, Invitâ Minervâ, aversante naturâ. Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.)
hair on's head but 'tis a Valentine-There's not a, 2G. iii. 1. 192:
"Launce is still quibbling. He is now running down the
hare that he started when he entered" (Malone).
hair than wit-She hath more, 2G. iii. 1. 361: A proverbial
expression, founded on the notion that much hair indicated
a lack of brains: Ray gives "Bush natural, more hair than
wit." Proverbs, p. 180, ed. 1768.
hair to stare-That mak’st my blood cold, and my, J.C. iv. 3. 280;
With hair up-staring, Tp. i. 2. 213: Formerly this expression
not only found a place in the most serious poetry, but
belonged to the phraseology of daily life: "Les cheveux
luy dressent. His haire stares, or stands annend." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Eng. Dict. sub "Dresser;" and compare Florio's
Ital. and Engl. Dict. sub "Arricciare."
hair, &c.-The courser's: see courser's hair, &c.
halcyon beaks with every gale-Turn their, Lr. ii. 2. 84: "The
halcyon is the bird otherwise called the king-fisher. The
vulgar opinion was, that [the dead body of] this bird, if
hung up, would vary with the wind [turn its breast to the
wind], and by that means show from what point it blew"
(STEEVENS,—who compares passages from Marlowe's Jew
of Malta, Storer's Life and Death of Wolsey, and Lupton's
Notable Things): see also Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book iii.
Chap. x., "That a King-fisher, hanged by the bill, sheweth
where the wind lay." (That very pleasing writer, Charlotte
Smith-though herself a poetess and well acquainted with
English poetry-appears not to have remembered the present
line of Shakespeare when she concluded her account of
the halcyon as follows: "I have once or twice seen a stuffed
bird of this species hung up to the beam of a cottage
ceiling. I imagined that the beauty of the feathers had
recommended it to this sad preëminence, till on inquiry
I was assured that it served the purpose of a weather-
vane; and though sheltered from the immediate influence
of the wind, never failed to show every change by turning
its beak from [to] the quarter whence the wind blew. So
that some superstition as to the connexion between the wind
and the Halcyon seems, like many other relics of almost
forgotten prejudices, to linger still in our cottages." A Natural
History of Birds, &c., p. 88, ed. 1807.)
half-caps, caps half-taken-off,-slight salutations, Tim. ii. 2. 221.
half-fac'd groat-A: see groat, &c.
half-fac'd sun—Our: see sun-Our half-fac'd.
half-kirtles: see kirtle.
half-pence-She tore the letter into a thousand, Ado, ii. 3. 147:
Here half-pence means minute pieces: "the half-pence of
HALIDOM-HANDS.
(C
223
Elizabeth," as Douce remarks, were of silver, and about
the size of a modern silver penny."
halidom, holiness, faith, sanctity, 2G. iv. 2. 136; Holidame,
Shr. v. 2. 99; H8. v. 1. 116; Rom. i. 3. 43: “Halidome or
Holidame, an old word, vsed by old countrey-women, by
manner of swearing: by my halidome, of the Saxon word
Haligdome, ex halg, i. sanctum, et dome, i. dominium aut.
indicium." Minsheu's Guide into Tongues, ed. 1617. [A.S.
haligdom].
hall, a hall!-A, An exclamation formerly common, to make a
clear space in a crowd, Rom. i. 5. 28.
hallowing and singing of anthems, 2H4. i. 2. 213: [By hallow-
ing (the folio reading) does Falstaff mean, singing hallelujah?
Hallelu-ing, in fact. In the translation of Erasmus 's Praise
of Folly published by Reeves and Turner, 1876 (with no
indication as to name or date of translator) I find on p. 139:
"another shall whisper softly, and tell the judge he has
lost his voice by a continual singing of holy hymns and
anthems."]
Hallowmas-To speak puling, like a beggar at, 2G. ii. 1. 27;
at Hallowmas, M.M. ii. 1. 128; like Hallowmas, R2. v. 1. 80:
Hallowmas is the mass or feast-day of All-Hallows or All-
Saints: "It is worth remarking, that on All-Saints-Day the
poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country
places, go from parish to parish a souling, as they call it,
i.e. begging and puing (or singing small, as Bailey's Dict.
explains puling) for a sort of cakes called] soul-cakes, or
any good thing to make them merry. This custom is mention-
ed by Peck, and seems a remnant of Popish superstition
to pray for departed souls, particularly those of friends.
The souler's song in Staffordshire is different from that
which Mr. Peck mentions, and is by no means worthy
publication" (TOLLET): "Several of these terms clearly point
out the condition of this benevolence, which was, that the
beggars should pray for the souls of the giver's departed
friends on the ensuing day, Nov. 2, which was the feast of
All Souls." Nares's Gloss.
Hames Castle, 3H6. v. 5. 2: "A castle in Picardy, where Oxford
was confined for many years" (MALONE).
hand-At any, and in any hand, At any rate, in any case,
Shr. i. 2. 147; A.W. iii. 6. 45.
hand, quoth pickpurse-At, 1H4. ii. 1. 53: A proverbial expression
of frequent occurrence in our early writers.
hands—As tall a man of his, M.W. i. 4. 27; thou art a tall
fellow of thy hands, W.T. v. 2. 181; a proper fellow of my
hands, 2H4. ii. 2. 72: 'Of his hands was a phrase equivalent
to 'of his inches' or 'of his size,' a hand being the measure
of four inches. 'As tall a man of his hands' [= as bold or
224
HANDS-HANGERS.
able a man of his hands], &c., was a phrase used, most
likely, for the sake of a jocular equivocation in the word
tall, which meant either bold or high." Nares's Gloss. in
v. "Hand," &c.: "A man of his hands, Homo strenuus,
impiger, manu promptus." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.
[tall bold: e.g. Ev. Man in his H. iv. 6. sp. 2].
hands-Of all, On all hands, L.L.L. iv. 3. 219.
hands-With the help of your good, "By your applause, by
clapping hands" (JOHNSON), Tp. Epil. 10.
handsaw-I know a hawk from a, Hml. ii. 2. 397: A very old
proverbial expression, in which it would certainly seem that
handsaw is a corruption of hernshaw (i.e. heron): Ray gives
"He knows not a hawk from a hand-saw." Froverbs, p. 196,
ed. 1768.
hand fast, a contract, a betrothal, a marriage-engagement: to
hold The hand-fast to her lord, Cymb. i. 5. 78.
hand-fast-In, In custody (properly-in mainprise, in the custody
of a friend on security given for appearance): If that shepherd
be not in hand-fast, W.T. iv. 4. 795.
handy-dandy, Lr. iv. 6. 157: A very old game among children:
Florio has "Bazzichiare, to shake betweene two hands, to play
at handie dandie." Ital. and Engl. Dict.: As it is now played
-a child hides something in his hand, and makes his play-
fellow guess in which hand it is: if the latter guesses rightly,
he wins the article, if wrongly, he loses an equivalent:
Sometimes," says Mr. Halliwell, "the game is played by
a sort of sleight of hand, changing the article rapidly from
one hand into the other, so that the looker-on is often
deceived, and induced to name the hand into which it is
apparently thrown. This is what Shakespeare alludes to
by changing places."
((
hang it first, and draw it afterwards-You must, Ado, iii. 2. 23:
"Alluding probably to the method sometimes practised of
drawing teeth by means of a waxed string” (TALBOT).
hanged an hour-Be, M.M. v. 1. 360: A petty imprecation, in
which the words " an hour" are little more than expletive.
hanged himself on the expectation of plenty, Mcb. ii. 3. 5:
a
commonplace in Elizabethan literature," says R. A. Small,
The Stage-quarrel, p. 54 (Breslau, 1899). Cf. E. Man out,
iii. 2; Rowlands, Looke to it, p. 26; Hall's Sat. iv. 6; Peacham's
The Truth of our times. Small finds a reference to the
story among the Exempla of Jacobus Vitriacensis, 13th
century—and no doubt (as Hunter says) such stories are of
all ages.
hangers, Hml. v. 2. 157; 164: "i.e. the fringed loops appended
to the girdle, in which the dagger or small sword usually
hung." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 154:
"Under this term were comprehended four graduated straps,
'HANG-HOG'-HANGS.
225
&c., that hung down in a belt on each side of its receptacle
for the sword. I write this with a most gorgeous belt, at
least as ancient as the time of James I., before me. It is
of crimson velvet embroidered with gold, and had belonged
to the Somerset family" (CALDECOTT).
'Hang-hog' is Latin for Bacon, M.W. iv. 2. 50: supposed allu-
sion to the anecdote of Sir Nicholas Bacon's reply to a
malefactor named Hog, who claimed kindred with him
because of the similarity of names,—“you and I cannot be
kindred unless you be hanged; for Hog is not Bacon till
it be well hanged." (from Herford's note.)
hangman, an executioner: the hangman's axe, M.V. iv. 1. 125
(So in Fletcher's Prophetess, act iii. sc. i, Dioclesian, who
had stabbed Aper, is called "the hangman of Volusius
Aper;" and in Facke Drum's Entertainment, Brabant Junior,
being prevented by Sir Edward from stabbing himself,
declares that he is too wicked to live;
"And therefore, gentle knight, let mine owne hand
Be mine own hangman.”
Sig. H 3 verso, ed. 1616:
compare, too, a play of a much later date, the Duke of
Buckingham's Rehearsal, where Bayes says; “I come out
in a long black veil, and a great huge hangman behind me,
with a furr'd cap, and his sword drawn; and there tell 'em
plainly, that if, out of good nature, they will not like my
play, I'gad, I'll e'en kneel down, and he shall cut my head
off." Buckingham's Works, vol. i. p. 21, ed. 1775).
hangman-The little, Ado, iii. 2. 11: Farmer says that this
character of Cupid is from Sidney's Arcadia (B. ii. p. 156,
ed. 1598), where we are told that Jove appointed Cupid.
"In this our world a hangman for to be
Of all those fooles, that will haue all they see."
Perhaps so; and see the preceding article: But qy. does
Shakespeare use hangman here as equivalent to "rascal,
rogue"? (In Johnson's Dict. sub "Hangman," the present
passage is cited to exemplify the word employed as a term
of reproach): it is at least certain that "hangman" having
come to signify "an executioner in general," [it is used
poisoner, in Harington's Orl. Fur. xxxvii. 60: "and I too
noble hangman am I trow, A hangman ought with halter
stop thy breath;"] was afterwards used as a general term
of reproach. (So in Guy Earl of Warwick, a Tragedy,
printed in 1661, but acted much earlier; "Faith, I doubt
you are some lying hangman” (i.e. rascal), sig. E 3
verso.)
hangman, rascally (see the preceding article): the hangman
boys in the market-place, 2G. iv. 4. 60.
hangs the lip, is 'down in the mouth': Troil. iii. 1. 152.
15
226
HANNIBAL-HARE.
Hannibal-wicked, Elbow's blunder for wicked Cannibal, M.M.
ii. 1. 183; 187.
Hannibal, &c.—A witch by fear, not force, like, 1H6. i. 5. 21:
"See Hannibal's stratagem to escape by fixing bundles of
lighted twigs on the horns of oxen, recorded in Livy, lib.
xxii. c. 16" (HOLT WHITE).
happiest hearers of the town-The first and, H8. Prol. 24:
“happy appears in the present instance to have been used
with one of its Roman significations, i.e. propitious or
favourable" (Steevens).
happily, haply: Happily you something know, M.M. iv. 2. 98;
happily we might be interrupted, Shr. iv. 4. 54; a gentleman
that happily knows more, W.T. v. 2. 22 (Globe, haply);
Might happily have prov'd, 2H6. iii. 1. 306; happily, For my
example. H8. iv. 2. 10; Happily you may catch her, Tit. iv.
3. 8; Which, happily, fore-knowing may avoid, Hml. i. 1. 134;
Happily, he's the second time come to them, ii. 2. 402; And
happily repent, Oth. iii. 2. 238; who may happily be a little
angry, Cymb. iv. 1. 21 (Gl. haply); Though happily her care-
less wear, 2N.K. i. 2. 51.
happiness, good fortune: happiness prefer me to a place, 2N.K.
ii. 3. 13; 82.
happy, accomplished: tell him Wherein you're happy, Cymb.
iii. 4. 177.
happy man be his dole! M.W. iii. 4. 68; Shr. i. 1. 144; W.T.
i. 2. 163; 1H4. ii. 2. 80: Means properly, "Let his share
or lot be the title 'happy man,' or prove happiness:" "It
was, however, used as a general wish for good success in
a manner which makes it difficult to give it any literal
construction; particularly as an exclamation before a doubt-
ful contest, where it seems equivalent to 'Happy be he
who succeeds best.'" Nares's Gloss. sub. “doie:" Ray gives
"Happy man happy dole, or Happy man by his dole."
Proverbs, p. 116, ed. 1768.
hard, unpleasant: Fearing some hard news from the warlike
band, Lucr. 255.
hard-favoured, harsh-featured, ugly, 2G. ii. 1. 53; A.Y.L. iii.
3. 29; R2. v. 1. 14; H5. iii. 1. 8; 1H6. iv. 7. 23; 3H6. v. 5.
78; Ven. 133; 931; Lucr. 1632.
hardiment, hardiness, bravery, deeds of bravery, 1H4. i. 3.
IOI: Troil. iv. 5. 28; Cymb. v. 4. 75.
bare? What sayest thou to [the melancholy of] a, 1H4. i. 2. 87:
"The following extract from Turberville's Book on Hunting
and Falconry is a better explanation of this passage than
any given by the commentators; 'The Hare first taught us
the use of the hearbe called Wyld Succory, which is very
excellent for those which are disposed to be melancholicke:
shee herselfe is one of the most melancholicke beasts that is,
HARE-HATCH'D.
227
and to heale her own infirmitie she goeth commonly to sit
under that hearbe'" (STAUNTON).
hare of whom the proverb goes-The, &c., K.J. ii. 1. 137: "The
proverb alluded to is 'Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant.'
Erasmi Adag." (MALONE): There Erasmus cites a Greek
epigram—“cujus argumentum sumptum est ex Homericæ
Iliad. x, ubi Hectorem ab Achille jam interfectum circum-
sistunt Græci, mortuo insultantes," &c.:
Βάλλετε νῦν μετὰ πότμον ἐμὸν δέμας, ὅττι καὶ αὐτοὶ
Νεκροῦ σῶμα λέοντος ἐφυβρίζουσι λαγωοί.
Strike ye my body, now that life is fled:
So hares insult the lion when he's dead.
["So hares may pull dead lions by the beard," Spanish
Tragedy, p. 19, Hazl. Dodsl.]
harlot, base, depraved: the harlot king, W.T. ii. 3. 4. [a variant
of Carlot, used of either sex].
harlots, base, depraved persons: While she with harlots feasted
in my house, Err. v. 1. 205.
harlotry, a term of reproach for a woman,—slut: a peevish
selfwill'd harlotry, 1H4. iii. 1. 199; Rom. iv. 2. 14; He sups
to-night with a harlotry, Oth, iv. 2. 239.
har.otry, as an adjective: harlotry (ribald) players, 1H4.
ii. 4. 437.
harness, armour, 1H4. iii. 2. 101; Troil. v. 3. 31; Tim. i. 2.
53; Mcb. v. 5. 52; Ant. iv. 8. 15.
harnessed, armed, K.J. v. 2. 132; Troil. 1. 2. 8.
harp-The miraculous, The harp of Amphion, to the sound of
which the walls of Thebes arose, Tp. ii. 1. 87.
harried, used roughly, ill-treated, Ant. iii. 3. 43.
Harry ten shillings, 2H4. iii. 2. 236: "This is an anachronism;
there were no coins of ten shillings value in the reign of
Henry the Fourth. Shakespeare's Harry ten shillings were
those of Henry the Seventh or Eighth; but he thought
these might do for any other Harry" (Douce).
"haste-At Ardea to my lord with more than," Lucr. 1332:
According to the formula on old English letters, which (as
Steevens observes) were superscribed-" With post post
haste."
hatch-O'er the, K.J. i. 1. 171: A proverbial expression applied
to illegitimate children (Compare window—In at the).
hatch- Take the, Leap the hatch (or half-door), K.J. v. 2. 138.
hatch'd in silver-Venerable Nestor, Troil. i. 3. 65: a passage,
says Gifford, "on which the commentators have wasted so
many words. Literally, to hatch is to inlay; metaphorically,
it is to adorn, to beautify, with silver, gold, &c." Note on
Shirley's Works, vol. ii. p. 301. Prof. Herford notes: hatch'd
in silver, silver-haired, from the analogy of the fine parallel
228
HATCHED-HAY.
lines hatched, as a ground or ornament in metal engraving.
But the phrase also conveys the suggestion that Nestor's
speech like Agamemnon's is worthy to be engraved and
'held up high' in the silver appropriate to his white
hairs."
hatched-To keep our door, Per. iv. 2. 37: It appears that a
hatch (or half-door) with spikes upon it was a distinguishing
mark of a brothel.
hatchet, The help of, 2H6. iv. 7. 96.
hateful, full of hate, malignant: The hateful commons, Rz.
ii 2. 138.
haught, haughty, R2. iv. 1. 254; 3H6. ii. 1. 169; R3 ii. 3. 28.
haughty, high, elevated, high-spirited: this haughty great
attempt, 1H6. ii. 5. 79; these haughty words of hers, iii. 3. 78;
full of haughty courage, iv. 1. 35.
haunt - Out of, "Out of company" (STEEVENS), Hml. iv. 1. 18.
haunted us in our familiar paths,-That bloody strain that,
H5. ii. 4. 53: [The metaphor in 11. 50-53 is from hounds.
To flesh, like to blood, meant to give a hound its first taste
of the flesh or blood of the animal it is being trained to
hunt. Strain breed. Haunted practically means tracked,
pursued. I remember an old Irish game-keeper who always.
talked of the hant (scent) of the birds.]
have, to conceive, to understand: You have me, have you not?
Hml. ii. 1. 68.
having, possessions, estate, fortune: The gentleman is of no
having, M.W. iii. 2. 73; your having in beard, A.Y.L. iii. 2.
396; my having is not much, 12N. iii. 4. 379; of what
having, W.T. iv. 4. 740; our best having, H8. ii. 3. 23; great
prediction Of noble having, Mcb. i. 3. 56; Or scant our
former having ("our former allowance of expense," JOHNSON),
Oth. iv. 3. 92; my present havings, H8. iii. 2. 159; Whose
rarest havings made the blossoms dote (but explained by
Malone, "Whose accomplishments were so extraordinary
that the flower of the young nobility were passionately
enamoured of her"), L. Compl. 235.
haviour, behaviour, M.W. i. 3. 86; 12N. iii. 4. 226; R2. i. 3. 77 ;.
Rom. ii. 2. 99; Hml. i. 2. 81; ii. 2. 12; Cymb. iii. 4. 9.
havock-Cry, the signal for indiscriminate slaughter, no quarter
being given, K.J. ii. 1. 357; Cor. iii. 1. 275; J.C. iii. 1. 273;
Hml. v. 2. 375 (Cries on h.)
hawking, hawk-like, A.W. i. 1. 105 (CRAIG).
hay, the Italian hai, "thou hast it,”—an exclamation in fencing
when a thrust or hit is received by the antagonist: the
punto reverso! the hay! Rom. ii. 4. 27 (Globe, hai).
hay-Let them dance the, L.L.L. v. 1. 161: "This dance was.
borrowed by us from the French. It is classed among the
brawls in Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie [1588]” (Douce):
HAZARD-HEAVEN'S.
229
"To dance the hay, ad figuram sepis choreas ducere." Coles's
Lat. and Engl. Dict. (Sir John Davies writes
"Thus when at first Loue had them marshalled,
As earst he did the shapelesse masse of things,
He taught them rounds and winding Heyes to tread,
And about trees to cast themselues in rings," &c.
Orchestra, &c., st. 64.)
hazard, a recess in the wall of a tennis-court; here used in a
double sense; H5. ii. 2. 263.
فر
he as he, this one (Menelaus) as that one (Paris): Troil.
iv. 1. 66.
headsman, an executioner, A.W. iv. 3. 342.
health, "welfare, or safety generally" (CRAIK): Have mind
upon your health, J.C. iv. 3. 36.
heap, a mass, a body: thy whole heap, Per. i. 1. 33.
heart of mine in thee-He started one poor, 12N. iv. 1. 63: Here
is a manifest quibble between heart and hart. [Cf. Watson,
Tears of Fancie, 49; A.Y.L. iii. 2. 260.]
hearted throne, "the heart on which thou wast enthroned"
(JOHNSON), Oth. iii. 3. 448.
heart's all-The, "The intention with which the entertainment
is given" (JOHNSON) is all, 2H4. v. 3. 32.
heat-If you take not the, 2H4. ii. 4. 325; We must do something,
and i' the heat, Lr. i. 1. 312: “Alluding, I suppose, to the
proverb, 'Strike while the iron is hot'" (STEEVENS).
heat, to run a heat or course, as in a race: With spur we
heat an acre. But to the goal, W.T. i. 2. 96; on which line
Capell remarks, "The expressions [sic], 'But, to the goal,
answer to these at present in use with us-But, to come
to the point: . . . . her phrase immediately before it, 'heat
an acre,' has not been trac'd any where; yet is it not
therefore false, and an object for alterers, implying clearly—
o'er-run it."
heat, heated: though heat red-hot, K.J. iv. 1. 61.
heaven defend, heaven forbid, Oth. i. 3. 267.
heaven to earth, 1H4. v. 2. 100: i.e. one might wager heaven
against earth.
heaven, the words of, M.M. i. 2. 126: referring to Romans,
ix. 15, 18.
heaven, shield my mother played my father fair, heaven forfend
that you were begotten by my father, M.M. iii. 1. 141.
heavenly jewel,-Have I caught thee, my, M.W. iii. 3. 45:
slightly mis-quoting the first line of the Second Song in
Sidney's Astrophel and Stella,
CC
Have I caught my heavenly jewel,
Teaching sleep most fair to be?" &c.
heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun!-Thou out of,
230
HEAVENS-HEBENON.
Lr. ii. 2. 168. This proverbial expression, meaning to quit
a better for a worse situation, is found in various authors
from Heywood down to Swift: the former has
"In your running from him to me, yee runne
Out of Gods blessing into the warme sunne.”
Dialogue on Prouerbs, P. 2,-Workes, sig. G 2 ver. ed. 1598;
and the latter,
“Lord Sparkish. They say, marriages are made in heaven; but I
doubt, when she was married, she had no friend there.
Neverout. Well, she's got out of God's blessing into the warm sun.”
Polite Conversation, Dialogue 1,-Works, vol. ix.
p. 423, Scott's sec. ed:
Ray gives "Out of God's blessing into the warm sun. Ab
equis ad asinos.” Proverbs, p. 192, ed. 1768: We must sup-
pose that Kent alludes to Lear's being worse treated by
Regan than he had been by Goneril. [Also occurs in
Harington's Epigrams, ii. 56.]
heavens-For the, A petty oath, equivalent to "By heavens,"
Ado, ii. 1. 47.
""
heavy, thick, cloudy, dark: the heavy middle of the night, M.M.
iv. 1. 35; it is a heavy night, Oth. v. 1. 42; sorrowful,
gloomy, Troil. v. 5. 95.
hebenon-juice of cursed, Hml. i. 5. 62. So FI; QI, and (Qo
1604) read Hebona. Grey conj. henebon, quasi henbane,
and quotes Pliny, Nat. H. xxv. 4, to show that the oil of
seeds of henbane dropped into the ears will injure the
understanding; Steevens shows from Marlowe, Jew of M.
(p. 164, ed. Dyce, 1858) that
"the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane,
The juice of hebon, and Cocytus' breath,"
were alike notable poisons; Douce notes that Hebon =
Ebony [cf. Ven. 937], and is not surprised "that the
dropping into the ears should occur, because Sh. was per-
fectly well acquainted with the supposed properties of
henbane, as recorded in Holland's tr. of Pliny, and else-
where, and might apply this mode of use to any other
poison." Beisly suggested enoron,nightshade: "a villainous
conjecture" (Dyce). Dr. Nicholson (in New Sh. Soc. Trans.
1880-2, pp. 21-31), shows that Hebenon denotes the yew
-to which the term Ebenus was at times applied. Marlowe
(Jew, iii: 'juice of hebon'), Spenser (F. Q. Introd. 'thy
deadly Hebon bow' [cf. Chauc. Rom. Rose, 1. 926]; IV. vii.
52; II. viii. 17), and Raynolds, use it. Anciently and
mediævally the yew was considered the most deadly poison
known. In the epithets 'cursed' and 'at enmity with blood
of man,' Sh. has copied phrases contemporaneously used
of the yew. The effects of Hebenon do not at all tally with
HEDGE-HERCULEAN.
231
the effects of any known or supposed poison, but to the
yew some of the effects, notably that of causing a skin-
disease, tetter, were attributed.
hedge, "to creep along by the hedge; not to take the direct
and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolu-
tions" (JOHNSON); "Hedging is by land what coasting is by
sea" (MASON): am fain to shuffle, to hedge (creep slyly,
shift, skulk), and to lurch, M.W. ii. 2. 26; Or hedge (sheer
off, swerve) aside from the direct forthright, Troil. iii. 3. 158;
how he coasts And hedges his own way, H8. iii. 2. 39.
hedge, and hedge in, to shut in: And hedg'd ("confined,"
JOHNSON) me by his will, M.V. ii. 1. 18; you forget yourself,
To hedge me in ("to limit my authority by your direction
or censure," JOHNSON), J.C. iv. 3. 30.
hedge out, to shut out: Nay, this shall not hedge us out (put
us off), Troil. iii. 1. 65.
hedge-pig, a (young?) hedge-hog, Mcb. iv. 1. 2.
heels-I scorn that with my, Ado, iii. 4. 51; scorn running with
thy heels, M.V. ii. 2. 10: A not uncommon proverbial
expression; which is manifestly alluded to in the line,
Beating his kind embracements with her heels, Ven. 312.
[Marston, Ant. and Mellida, iv. 3: "I scorn 't with my heele.”]
hefts, heavings, retchings, W.T. ii. 1. 45. See Gorge.
hell-One that, before the judgment, carries poor souls to, One
that, on mesne process, carries poor souls to prison (hell
being a cant term for the worst dungeon in the prisons of
our poet's time), Err. iv. 2. 40.
helmed-The business he hath, The business he hath steered
through, M.M. iii. 2. 151.
help of hatchet-The: see hatchet, &c.
helpless, affording no help: helpless patience, Err. ii. 1. 39; the
helpless balm of my poor eyes, R3. i. 2. 13; helpless berries,
Ven. 604 [Zeuxis]; helpless smoke of words, Lucr. 1027.
hence, henceforward: Make less thy body, hence, and more thy
grace, 2H4. v. 5. 56.
henchman, a page, M.N.D. ii. 1. 121.
hent, a hold, an opportunity to be seized, Hml. iii. 3. 88.
hent, to seize, to take possession of, to take hold of, [reach],
W.T. iv. 3. 133; M.M. iv. 6. 14 (the participle).
heraldry, see Give.
herald's coat without sleeves-A, The coat or vest called a
tabard, 1H4. iv. 2. 48.
herb-grace, Hml. iv. 5. 182: see rue, &c.
Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chafe - How
this, Ant. i. 3. 84: "Antony traced his descent from Anton,
a son of Hercules" (STEEVENS). [Staunton conj. chief (i.e.
Hercules) for chafe, but Dyce (1) thinks it "utterly improb-
able" that Shakespeare would have used chief in this Highland
232
HERCULES-HEROD.
sense without qualifying words, (2) “Cleopatra is here jeering
at A. for putting himself in such a passion," and Hercules was
not so free from fits of passion as to suggest a contrast.]
Hercules and his load too, Hml. ii. 2. 378: "The allusion may be
to the Globe playhouse on the Bankside, the sign of which
was Hercules carrying the Globe" (STEEVENS): "I suppose
Shakespeare meant that the boys drew greater audiences
than the elder players of the Globe theatre" (MALONE).
Hercules-The shaven, "Hercules when shaved to make him
look like a woman, while he remained in the service of
Omphale, his Lydian mistress" (STEEVENS), Ado, iii. 3. 145.
hereby That's, That's as it may happen, L.L.L. i. 2. 141.
hermits, beadsmen, persons bound to pray for you: We rest
your hermits, Mcb. i. 6. 20.
Herne the hunter, M.W. iv. 4. 28; 38; v. 5. 31; 108; Herne's
oak, iv. 4. 40; iv. 6. 19; v. 1. 12; V. 3. 15: The legend of
Herne the hunter would seem to have been anciently cur-
rent at Windsor; and his "oak" has caused not a little
controversy; but I believe my venerable friend Mr. Jesse
is the only one who now maintains that the withered trunk
in the Home Park, which was blown down a few years
ago, was the identical tree always known as Herne's oak,
and immortalized by Shakespeare: "The general opinion
is that it was accidentally destroyed in the year 1796,
through an order of George III. to the bailiff Robinson
that all the unsightly trees in the vicinity of the Castle
should be removed; an opinion confirmed by a well-estab-
lished fact that a person named Grantham, who contracted
with the bailiff for the removal of the trees, fell into dis-
grace with the King for having included the oak in his
gatherings," &c. (HALLIWELL). (Herne's Oak, so long an
object of much curiosity and enthusiasm, is now no more.
The old tree was blown down, August 31st, 1863; and a
young oak was planted by her Majesty, September 12th,
1863; to mark the spot where Herne's Oak stood." Windsor
Guide, p. 5.)
Herod-It out-herods, Hml. iii. 2. 16: Herod was a favourite
character in our early Miracle-plays: Chaucer, speaking of
the parish-clerk Absolon, says,
CC
'He plaieth Herode on a skaffold hie." The Milleres Tale, v. 3384, ed. Tyr.
(If the reader wishes to know what a swaggering uproarious
tyrant Herod was represented to be in those old dramatic
performances, let him turn to "Magnus Herodes" in The
Towneley Mysteries, p. 140, ed. Surtees Soc., to "King
Herod" in The Coventry Mysteries, p. 288, ed. Shake. Soc.,
and to "The Slaughter of the Innocents" in The Chester
Plays, vol. i. p. 172, ed. Shake. Soc.)
HESPERIDES-HIDE.
233
Hesperides-In the, L.L.L. iv. 3. 341; this fair Hesperides,
Per. i. 1. 27: In these passages Hesperides is used to signify
the garden wherein the golden apples were kept (Greene,
who was a tolerably good scholar, has
“——the garden call'd Hesperides."
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay,-Works, p. 167, ed. Dyce, 1861:
and Baxter writes
"Loues mountaines, apples of Hisperida."
Sir P. Sydney's Ourania, 1606, sig. M 2 verso).
hest, a command, Tp, iii. 1. 37; iv. 1. 65; 1H4. ii. 3. 65: hests,
Tp. i. 2. 274; L.L.L. v. 2. 65.
Hey Nonino. Burden of a song, A.Y.L. v. 3. 18; Ado, ii.
ii. 3. 71; Hml. iv. 5. 165. The late John O'Neill, in The
Academy, Jan. 16, 1895, showed that there is an old French
refrain, Nollet Nau, forms of noël in the Berry patois.
Lucas le Moigne, a sixteenth century bard of Poitou, had
this refrain to one of his noëls:
'Mès ou s'en est allé?
(Nau, nau, et nollet nau!)
Viendrait-il point ceste année ?
(Nau, Nau!)'
Hey Robin, 12N. iv. 2. 78. This song is given in Percy's
Reliques, i. 194, ed. 1794, where the opening stands thus:
<<
A Robyn
Jolly Robyn,
Tell me how thy leman doeth,
And thou shalt knowe of myn.
'My lady is unkynde perde'.
Alacke! why is she so?
'She loveth an other better than me;
And yet she will say no."
hic ibat Simois, Shr. iii. 1. 28: Ovid, Epist. Her., Penelope
Ulyssi, 33.
hic jacet-Or, “Or die in the attempt" (MALONE), A.W. iii. 6. 66.
hid, &c.-All: see all hid, all hid, &c.
hide and you alone-An 'a may catch your, K.J. ii. 1. 136:
"The ground of the quarrel of the Bastard to Austria is no
where specified in the present play [though it is in the
older play-The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn, &c.,—see Dyce's
vol. iv. 3.] But the story is, that Austria, who killed King
Richard Coeur-de-lion, wore, as the spoil of that prince, a
lion's hide, which had belonged to him" (POPE): “Shake-
speare having familiarised the story to his own imagination,
forgot that it was obscure to his audience; or, what is
equally probable, the story was then so popular, that a
hint was sufficient, at that time, to bring it to mind"
234
HIDE-HIMSELF.
(JOHNSON): see, in this Glossary, the article Richard..
By this brave duke came early to his grave.
hide fox and all after, Hml. iv. 2. 32: "Said by Sir Thomas
Hanmer to be the name of a sport among children, which
must doubtless be the same as hide and seek, whoop and
hide, &c." Nares's Gloss.: compare all hid, all hid, &c.
high and low, two kinds of false dice, properly high-men and
low-men: see gourd and fullam hold, &c.
high-day wit, holiday terms, M.V. ii. 9. 98.
high-repented blames, "faults repented of to the height, to
the utmost" (STEEVENS), A.W. v. 3. 36.
high-stomach'd, haughty, R2. i. 1. 18.
high-vic'd, "enormously wicked" (Johnson's Dict.), Tim.
iv. 3. 109.
hight, called, named, L.L.L. i. 1. 171; 258; M.N.D. v. 1. 140;
Per. iv. Gow. 18.
hild, a form of held, used for the sake of the rhyme, Lucr. 1257.
("But now (made free from them) next her, before,
Peacefull and young, Herculean silence hore
His craggie club; which vp aloft hee hild;
With which and his forefingers charme he stild
All sounds in ayre," &c.
Chapman's Euthymia Raptus, or the Teares of Peace, &c.,
1609, sig. E 4 verso.
"and towres and temples byld.
And now welneare our ships vp set, drie lond our nauy hyld."
Phaer's Virgil's Æneidos, Book iii. sig. E, ed., 1584.
"And in the black and gloomy arts so skild,
That he euen Hell in his subiection hild."
Drayton's Moone-Calfe, p. 174, ed. 1627.
But we not unfrequently find "hild" employed when no
rhyme is in question;
tr
"I hild such valiantnes but vaine.
""
Warner's Albions England, p. 83, ed. 1596.
Some hild with Phoebus, some with her," &c. Id. p. 151.)
hilding, a low, degenerate wretch (a term applied to both
sexes, and sometimes used adjectively), Shr. ii. 1. 26; A.W.
iii. 6. 4; 2H4. i. 1. 57; H5. iv. 2. 29; Rom. iii. 5. 169; Cymb.
ii. 3. 128; hildings, Rom. ii. 4. 44.
hilts, applied (as it often was formerly) to a single weapon,
1H4. ii. 4. 229; H5. ii. Prol. 9; ii. 1. 68: R3. i. 4. 160; J.C.
v. 3. 43; Hml. v. 2. 159; sword hilts, J.C. v. 5. 28.
him, himself. To one that can my part in him advertise, M.M.
i. 1. 42; Who for this seven years hath esteemed him, Shr.
Ind. 1. 122.
himself To die by, To die by his own hands, Cor. v. 2. 11I.
HINCKLEY-HIREN.
235
Hinckley fair, 2H4. v. 1. 26: Hinckley is a parish and market-
town in Leicestershire.
hint, suggestion: it is a hint That wrings mine eyes to't, Tp. i.
2. 134; Our hint of woe Is common, ii. 1. 3 (where Johnson
remarks, “Hint is that which recals to the memory. The
cause that fills our minds with grief is common"); Upon
this hint I spake, Oth. i. 3. 166.
hip-Catch upon the, or Have on the hip, to have the complete
advantage, the upper hand of one (a phrase derived from
wrestling), M.V. i. 3. 47; Oth. ii. 1. 314.
("And Michaels Terme, lawes haruest, now begins,
Where many losers are, and few that wins;
For law may well be cal'd contentions whip,
When for a scratch, a cuffe, for pointes or pins,
Will Witlesse gets his neighbour on the hip."
Anagrams and Sonnets, p. 256-Taylor's Workes, 1630,
"I haue her a' th' hip for some causes."
Dekker's Satiromastix, 1602, sig. F verso.
"He had got me o' the hip once; it shall go hard, friends,
But he shall find his own coin."
Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca, act v. sc. 2.)
hipped, Shr. iii. 2. 49: The context seems to show that here
hipped means "lamed or hurt in the hips:" "Hipped,
Delumbatus." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict. (though, from
the words which immediately follow it, we might suppose
it to mean "covered on the hips "). [The word hipped is
still used of a horse that has dislocated his hip. The horse
is able to go quite fast. There should be a comma after hipped.]
Hiren here, have we not, 2H4. ii. 4. 173; 189: [Pistol con-
nected the ideas of iron and Hiren.] These words, quoted
also in some other old plays, are most probably from
a lost drama by Peele, entitled The Turkish Mahomet
and Hiren (i.e. Irene) the Fair Greek. See Account of
Peele and his writings, p. 341, prefixed to his Works, ed.
Dyce, 1861. "The word 'Hiren' was purposely designed.
by the author to be ambiguous, though used by Pistol with
reference only to his sword. When the hostess replies,
'There's none such here . . . do you think I would deny
her?' she evidently conceives that he is calling for some
wench. Pistol, not regarding her blunder, continues to
handle his sword, and in his next speech reads [at least,
repeats] the motto on it-'Si Fortuna me tormenta, sperato
me contenta. It is to be observed that most of the ancient
swords had inscriptions on them, and there is no doubt
that if diligent search were made, the one before us, in a
less corrupted state, would be found. On an old French
rapier in the author's possession, these lines are engraved:
'Si Fortune me tourmente, l'esperance me contente-In further
236
HIT-HOBBY-HORSE.
illustration, the following story [first quoted by Farmer]
from Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614, 4to, is added. 'Hannib-
all Gonsaga being in the Low Countries overthrowne from
his horse by an English captaine, and commanded to yield
himselfe prisoner, kist his sword, and gave it to the English-
man, saying, 'Si fortuna me tormenta, il speranza me con-
tenta "" DOUCE. [See J. Jacobs' ed. of Painter's Palace of
Pl. p. lxxvi. vol. i, on the Hiren story.]
hit, to agree: let us hit together, Lr. i. 1. 308.
hitherto, to this spot: from Trent and Severn hitherto, 1H4.
iii. 1. 74 (Here Mortimer is pointing to the map).
ho, stop, hold, desist: 'Ware pencils, ho! L.L.L v. 2. 43; Ho,
there, doctor! 2N.K. v. 2. 18; and Steevens supposes (wrongly,
I apprehend) that such is the meaning of the exclamation
in Ho, ho, ho! Now the witch take me, &c., Ant. iv. 2. 36.
hoar, to make white, to infect with leprosy: hoar the flamen,
Tim. iv. 3. 155.
hoar, to become mouldy: When it hoars ere it be spent, Rom.
ii. 4. 141 [with a pun on hare and hair probably].
Hobbididance, Lr. iv. 1. 62: A slight variation of Hoberdidance,
a fiend mentioned in Harsnet's Declaration of egregious
Popish Impostures, 1603, p. 49; a work which seems to have
been consulted by Shakespeare for several names of fiends
in King Lear.
hobby-horse is forgot-The, L.L.L. iii. 1. 30; the hobby-horse,
whose epitaph is, “For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot,"
Hml. iii. 2. 143; that will founder the best hobby-horse, 2N.K.
v. 2. 52: “Hobby-horse. . . . A personage belonging to the
ancient morris-dance, when complete, and made, as Mr.
Bayes's troops are on the stage, by the figure of a horse
fastened round the waist of a man, his own legs going
through the body of the horse, and enabling him to walk,
but concealed by a long foot-cloth; while false legs ap-
peared where those of the man should be, at the sides of
the horse. . . . Latterly the hobby-horse was frequently
omitted, which appears to have occasioned a popular ballad,
in which was this line or burden,
'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot."
Nares's Gloss.: Many readers will probably recollect the
spirited description of the Hobby-horse in Sir W. Scott's
Monastery: but since Mr. Bayes's troops have been long
banished from the stage, it may be necessary to mention
here that they are part of the dramatis personæ in the Duke
of Buckingham's once-celebrated satirical play called The
Rehearsal. [For some of the humours of the hobby-horse,
see Every Man out of his H. ii. 1.]
hobby-horse, a silly fellow: which these hobby-horses must not
hear, Ado, iii. 2. 75.
HOBBY-HORSE--HOLLOW.
237
hobby-horse, a loose woman: My wife's a hobby-horse, W.T.
i. 2. 276; give it your hobby-horse, Oth. iv. 1. 160.
hob-nob, 12N. iii. 4. 262: Explained by some “Hob, nob, or
hab, nab, that is, habbe or nabbe, have or have not, hit or
miss;" by others (less probably), "hap ne hap, happen or
not happen.”
hodge-pudding, M.W. v. 5. 159: Does this mean something
akin to haggis? ["Probably something similar to a hodge-
podge, a pudding made of a medley of ingredients." Schmidt.]
hoist with his own petar, Hml. iii. 4. 207: Here hoist is for
hoised or hoisted; blown up. [Marston, Sc. of Villainy, II.
viii, has: "should hoyse the soul from such base slavery,"
which shows how hoist came to be the participle.]
hold hook and line, a sort of cant proverbial expression which
sometimes occurs in our early writers, 2H4. ii. 4. 171.
hold in-Such as can, 1H4. ii. 1. 85: “May mean such as can
curb old father antick the law, or such as will not blab”
(STEEVENS): "May mean, such companions as will hold in,
or keep and stick close to one another, and such as are
men of deeds, and not of words" (TOLLET): “To hold in,
I believe, meant to 'keep their fellows' counsel and their
own;' not to discover their rogueries by talking about them"
(MALONE).
hold taking, bear handling, Tim. i. 2. 159.
hold, or hold thee, take thou, have thou, receive thou (a common
formula): Hold, therefore, Angelo, M.M. i. 1. 43; hold thee,
there's some boot, W.T. iv. 4. 651; Hold, my hand, J.C. i. 3.
117; But, hold thee, v. 3. 85; Hold, sir, Lr. v. 3. 155.
hold, or cut bow-strings, M.N.D. i. 2. 114: A proverbial phrase:
"When a party was made at butts, assurance of meeting
was given in the words of that phrase; the sense of the
person using them being, that he would 'hold' or keep
promise, or they might cut his bow-strings,' demolish him
for an archer" (CAPELL): Whether or not this be the true
explanation of the phrase, I am unable to determine.
hold-fast is the only dog, H5. ii. 3. 54: "Alluding to the pro-
verbial saying, 'Brag is a good dog, but hold-fast is a
better'" (DOUCE).
holding, the burden of a song: The holding every man shall
bear, Ant. ii. 7. 117.
holding, consistency, fitness: this has no holding, A.W. iv. 2. 27.
holland of eight shillings an ell, 1H4. iii. 3. 82: Shakespeare,
of course, was thinking of the price of shirts in his own
time: according to Stubbes, in the second edition of his
Anatomy of Abuses, 1583, some shirts cost five pounds, or
even ten pounds each.
hollow pampered jades of Asia, &c. 2H4. ii. 4. 178. Pistol is
misquoting Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Pt. ii.:
238
HOLP-HONESTY.
"Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia!
What, can ye draw but twenty miles a-day," &c.
Marlowe's Wks. p. 64, ed. Dyce, 1858.
holp, the old past tense and participle of help, Tp. i. 2. 63;
Err. iv. 1. 22; Ado, i. 1. 51; iii. 2. 102; K.J. i. 1. 240; R2.
v. 5. 62; 1H4. i. 3. 13; 2H6. v. 3. 8; R3. i. 2. 107; Cor. iii.
1. 277; iv. 6. 81; v. 3. 63; v. 6. 36; Rom. i. 2. 48; Mcb. i.
6. 23; Lr. iii. 7. 62; Cymb. v. 5. 422.
holy, pure, just, righteous: Holy Gonzalo, Tp. v. 1. 62; Holy,
fair, and wise is she, 2G. iv. 2. 41; You have a holy father,
W.T. v. I. 170.
holy-ales, rural festivals, Per. 1. Gow. 6.
Holy-rood day, 1H4. i. 1. 52: Sept. 14.
home, to the utmost: I will pay thy graces Home, Tp. v. I. 71;
Accuse him home and home, M.M. iv. 3. 148; the sense to
know Her estimation home, A.W. v. 3. 4; I cannot speak
him home, Cor. ii. 2. 107; That, trusted home, Mcb. i. 3. 120;
he charges home My unprovided body, Lr. ii. 1. 53; will be
revenged home, iii. 3. 13; satisfy me home, Cymb. iii. 5. 92;
That confirms it home, Cymb. iv. 2. 328.
honest, chaste: she is pretty, and honest, M.W. i. 4. 149; If I
find her honest, 11. 1. 247; though she appear honest, ii. 2. 230;
Wives may be merry, and yet honest too, iv. 2. 107; honest
woman, M.W. iii. 3. 238; iv. 2. 136; M.M. ii. 1. 73; M.V.
ii. 2. 17; iii. 1. 7; iii. 5. 46; 1H4. iii. 3. 176; 2H4. ii. 4. 99;
Ant. v. 2. 252; Per. iv. 2. 90; iv. 6. 205; she scarce makes
honest, A.Y.L. i. 2. 41; you say she's honest, A.W. iii. 6. 119;
are you honest? Hml. iii. 1. 103; if you be honest, 107; I do
not think but Desdemona's honest, Oth. iii. 3. 225; I think
my wife be honest, 384; She may be honest yet, 433; wager
she is honest, iv. 2. 12; if she be not honest, 17; Swear thou
art honest, 38; esteems me honest, 65; of life as honest, v. 1. 122;
if she'll be honest, 2N.K. v. 2. 22; do you think she is not
honest, sir? 30.
honest as the skin between his brows, a not uncommon proverbial
expression, Ado, iii. 5. 13.
honesty, chastity: out of honesty, M.W. i. 3. 55; wrangle with
mine own honesty, ii. 1. 88; the chariness of our honesty,
ii. 1. 103; the honesty of this Ford's wife, ii. 2. 244; honesty
coupled to beauty, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 30; to cast away honesty upon
a foul slut, 35; think my honesty ranker than my wit, iv. 1. 85;
no legacy is so rich as honesty, A.W. iii. 5. 14; your honesty
should admit no discourse to your beauty, Hml. iii. 1. 108;
better commerce than with honesty, 110; transform honesty, 112;
the force of honesty, 113; I' the way of honesty, 2N.K. v. 2. 19;
70; Ne'er cast your child away for honesty, 22; her honesty! ibid.
honesty, decency: You have as little honesty as honour, H8.
iii. 2. 271.
HONESTY—HORN.
239
honesty, liberality, generosity: Every man has his fault, and
honesty is his, Tim. iii. 1. 29.
honey-seed, the Hostess's blunder for homicide, 2H4. ii. 1. 58;
honey-seed (homicidal) rogue, 57.
honey stalks, according to Johnson, "clover flowers, which
contain a sweet juice," Tit. iv. 4. 91.
honey-suckle villain, the Hostess's blunder for homicidal villain,
2H4. ii. 1. 56.
honorificabilitudinitatibus, L.L.L. v. I. 44: "Is of some
antiquity. I have seen it on an Exchequer record, appa-
rently in a hand of the reign of Henry the Sixth; and it
may be seen, with some additional syllables, scribbled on
one of the leaves of a manuscript in the Harleian Library,
No. 6, 113." Hunter's New. Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 264.
hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks, Rom. iii. 2. 14:
Metaphors derived from falconry: the hawk was hooded
till let fly at the game; an unmanned hawk was one not yet
made tame and tractable (see man my haggard—To); and
bating means fluttering with the wings (see bate).
hoodman-blind, the game which we now call blind-man's-buff,
Hml. iii. 4. 77.
hoodman comes, A.W. iv. 3. 136: An allusion to the game
mentioned in the preceding article.
hoods make not monks – All, H8. iii. 1. 23: "Cucullus non facit
monachum" (STEEVENS).
hoop, see whoop.
hooping, see whooping.
hoops-The three-hooped pot shall have ten, 2H6. iv. 2. 72:
"The old drinking-pots, being of wood, were bound together,
as barrels are, with hoops; whence they were called hoops.
Cade promises that every can which now had three hoops
shall be increased in size so as to require ten." (DOUCE).
Hopdance, Lr. iii. 6. 32: Perhaps a variation of Hobbidi-
dance, q. v.
hope, to expect: Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope,
H5. iii. 7. 77; I hope he is much grown, R3. ii. 4. 5; I
cannot hope Cæsar and Antony shall well greet together,
Ant. ii. 1. 39.
hope-I died for, R3. v. 3. 173: "lit. in regard to hope. I was
cut off by death from the hope (of helping you). The
phrase is nearly equivalent to 'I died in (not of) despair.”
(HERFORD). Dyce compares Greene's James IV. Wks. p. 217,
ed. 1861.
hopes, expectations: shall I falsify men's hopes, 1H4. 1. 2. 235.
horn is a foot-Thy, An allusion to Curtis being a cuckold,
Shr. iv. I 29.
horn is dry-Poor Tom, thy, Lr. iii. 6. 78: see the quotation
from Aubrey under Tom o' Bedlam, &c.
240
HORN-HOUSEHOLD.
horn-No staff more reverend than one tipped with: see staff
more reverend, &c.
horologe, a clock (Lat. horologium), Oth. ii. 3. 135.
horse-The dancing, L.L.L. i. 2. 57: An allusion to a horse
mentioned by numerous contemporary writers, and even
noticed by Sir Walter Raleigh in The History of the World
(B. i. ch. 2). This celebrated animal was called Marocco,
and belonged to a Scotchman named Bankes, who, it appears,
taught him to perform such feats as neither Astley nor
Ducrow in our own time has been able to teach his horses:
-the most remarkable exploit of Marocco was his ascending
to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1600. Bankes exhibited
his wonderful horse in various parts of Europe; and we
are told that at last they were both brought to the stake
at Rome as magicians (according to Ben Jonson in his
cxxxiiid Epigram, they were "beyond sea, burned for one
witch;" and according to a note in the mock-romance
Don Zara del Fogo, "they were both burned by the com-
mandment of the Pope". But, in opposition to all this.
Mr. Halliwell has adduced an extract from one of the
Ashmolean Mss. to show that Bankes was alive in 1637.
[See Mr. Lee's account of Banks and his curtal in Dict.
Nat. Biog.]
hose, breeches, or stockings, or both in one: 2G. ii. 1. 85;
ii. 7. 55; iii. 1. 47; iii. 3. 35; Ado, v. 1. 203; L.L.L. iv. 3. 58;
M.V. i. 2. 80; A.Y.L. ii. 4. 7; ii. 7. 160; iii. 2. 206; 232;
397; iv. 1. 206; Shr. v. 1. 69; A.W. ii. 2. 266; 1H4. ii. 4;
185; 239; H5. iii. 7. 57; 2H6. iv. 7. 56; Mcb. ii. 3. 16;
Cymb. iii. 4. 172: and see round hose.
host, to lodge: to the Centaur, where we host, Err. 1. 2. 9;
Where you shall host, A.W. iii. 5. 97.
hot livers and cold purses,, 1H4, ii. 4. 355: “That is, drunkenness
and poverty. To drink was, in the language of those times
to heat the liver (JOHNSON).
hot-house, a bagnio (which was often a brothel), M.M. ii. 1. 66.
house-Do you but mark how this becomes the, Lr. ii. 4. 155:
"Fathers are not the heads only of a house or a family,
but its representatives: they are the house, what affects them
affects the rest of its body: Regan therefore is call'd upon
to observe an action in which she is concern'd, and then
say her opinion of it; and she does accordingly shew
herself hurt by it, and declares it ‘unsightly,' unbecoming,
her and her father, i.e. the house" (CAPELL): I suspect that
Lear is now thinking much more of himself as head of
the house than of Regan as a member of it; and that,
though she chides him for such "unsightly tricks," she is
not of a nature to be "hurt" by them.
household cruelty, 2H4. iv. 1. 95: the archbishop says he
HOUSEWIFE-HUMOUR.
241
is moved both by the wrongs done to his 'general brother,'
the nation generally, and household or private severity, in
the execution of Lord Scrope his brother. The text is no
doubt defective. Dyce refers to N. & Q. July, 1866.
housewife or huswife (a term of reproach), a hussy, a wanton,
a minx, a strumpet: Doth Fortune play the huswife (“jilt,”
JOHNSON; but compare Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune!
Hml. ii. 2. 515) with me now? H5. v. 1. 85; A housewife
that, by selling her desires, &c. Oth. iv. I. 95; the false
housewife Fortune, Ant. iv. 15. 44; the overscutched huswives,
2H4. iii. 2. 341 (see overscutched, &c.); housewives in your
beds, Oth. ii. 1. 113.
how, for what price may be had? How a good yoke of bullocks
at Stamford fair? 2H4. iii. 2. 43; How a score of ewes
now? 54; How a dozen of virginities? Per. iv. 6. 22.
how and which way,-how or which way, pleonastic expressions
not uncommon in our early writers: I'll take the sacrament
on't, how and which way you will, A.W. iv. 3. 156; If I
Know how or which way t' order these affairs, R2. ii. 2. 109;
Then how or which way should they first break in? 1H6.
ii. 1. 71; How or which way, 73.
however, any way: However, but a folly bought with wit,
2G. i. I. 34.
hoxes, houghs, ham-strings, W.T. i. 2. 244.
hugger-mugger-In, Secretly ("In Hugger-mugger, Clanculum."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), Hml. iv. 5. 84.
hulk, a ship, generally a heavy or large ship (“A Hulk, great
ship. Corbita." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): Provokes the
mightiest hulk against the tide, 1H6. v. 5. 6; though greater
hulks draw deep, Troil. ii. 3. 277.
hull, to float, to swim, as borne along or driven by wind or
water: 12N. i. 5. 217; R2. iv. 4. 438; hulling, H8. ii. 4. 199.
human as she is, and without any danger, “i.e. not a phantom,
but the real Rosalind, without any of the danger generally
conceived to attend the rites of incantation" (JOHNSON),
A.Y.L. v. 2. 74.
humane, the spelling of human usually in O. Edd.
humorous, perverse, capricious: The duke is humorous, A.Y.L.
i. 2. 278; the humorous duke, ii. 3. 8; her humorous ladyship,
K.J. iii. 1. 119; As humorous as winter, 2H4. iv. 4. 34; a
vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, H5. ii. 4. 28.
humorous, humid, damp: the humorous night, Rom. ii. 1. 31.
humour-That's my, M.W. i. 1. 135; the nuthook's humour, 171:
is not the humour conceited? i. 3. 26; The good humour is,
&c., 30; will that humour pass? 56; The humour rises, 63;
I thank thee for that humour, 71; I will run no base
humour, 85; take the humour-letter, 85; the humour of this
love, 104; My humour shall not cool, 109; that is my true
16
242
HUMOUR-HUMPHREY.
humour, 112; I like not the humour of lying, ii. 1. 133; the
humour of bread and cheese, 140; there's the humour of it,
141; a fellow frights humour out of his wits, 142; I have a
humour to knock you, H5. ii. 1. 58; that's the humour of it,
ii. 1. 74; 101; 121; ii. 3. 63; the humour of it is too hot,
iii. 2. 5 pass good humours, M.W. i. 1. 169; humours of
revenge, i. 3. 98; With both the humours, 100; He hath
wronged me in some humours, ii. 1. 133; The king hath run
bad humours on the knight, H5. ii. 1. 127; he passes some
humours, 132; humours do abound, iii. 2. 5; These be good
humours! - your honour wins bad humours, 27; On a pas-
sage of Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour Whalley
remarks; "What was usually called the manners in a play
or poem, began now to be called the humours. The word
was new; the use, or rather abuse, of it, was excessive. It
was applied upon all occasions, with as little judgment as
wit. Every coxcomb had it always in his mouth; and every
particularity he affected was denominated by the name
of humour," &c.: Gifford adds; "The abuse of this word
is well ridiculed by Shakespeare, in that amusing crea-
ture of whimsey, Nym. Merry Wives of Windsor [and
King Henry V.]." Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 16, ed. Gif-
ford. [See Spingarn's Literary Criticism in the Renais-
sance, (Macmillan 1899), p. 88; Moulton's Sh. as a Dramatic
Artist, p. 303; opening scene of Every Man out of his
Humour.]
Humour of Forty Fancies-The, Shr. iii. 2. 70: Is generally
understood to mean some collection of the short poems.
called Fancies, which Petruchio had stuck into his lackey's
hat; see Fancies, &c.: but, according to Mr. Halliwell, the
allusion is to a bunch of ribbons, which appear to have
been occasionally called fancies.
Humphrey Hour, R3. iv. 4. 173: No satisfactory explanation,
as far as I am aware, has yet been given of these words.
In old St. Paul's was a monument wrongly supposed to be
that of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (who really was
buried at St. Alban's), from which a part of the church
was known by the name of Duke Humphrey's Walk; and
there, as St. Paul's was a place of public resort, those who
were unable to procure a dinner used to saunter, perhaps
in the hope of receiving an invitation from some of their
acquaintances. This was the origin of the expression dining
with Duke Humphrey; and Steevens conjectures that “Shake-
speare might by this strange phrase, Humphrey Hour, have
designed to mark the hour at which the good Duchess was
as hungry as the followers of Duke Humphrey: “Humphrey
Hour is merely used in ludicrous language for hour, like
Tom Troth for truth, and twenty more such terms. So,
HUNDRED-HURTLED.
1 11
243
in Gabriel Harvey's Letter to Spenser, 1580; ‘Tell me in
Tom Trothe's earnest.'
Hundred Merry Tales-The, Ado, ii. 1. 135: see Tales-The
Hundred Merry.
hundred-pound, filthy, &c., Lr. ii. 2. 17: The epithet hundred-
pound is occasionally found as a term of reproach in our
early writers.
Hungarian wight, M.W. i. 3. 23: Hungarian is a cant term of
doubtful origin; perhaps from hungry, perhaps from the
free-booters of Hungary, or perhaps it is equivalent to
gipsy, for "the parts of Europe in which it is supposed
that the gipsies originally appeared were Hungary and
Bohemia" (DoUCE). [“So sharp and meagre that who should
them see Would swear they lately came from Hungary,"
Hall, Sat. v. ii, illustrates the probable reference to hunger.]
hungry beach-The, Cor. v. 3. 58. Malone conj. 'angry.'
hungry prey-Their, 1H6. i. 2. 28: " Appears to signify 'the
prey for which they are hungry'" (STEEVENS).
hunt counter-You, 2H4. i. 2. 102: You are on the wrong track.
("Hunt Counter, when Hounds hunt it by the Heel." R.
Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. iii. ch. iii. p. 76).
huntsmen—Like a jolly troop of, &c., K.J. ii. 1. 321; here thy
hunters stand, &c. J C. iii. 1. 205: "It was, I think [it cer-
tainly was], one of the savage practices of the chase, for
all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer as a trophy"
(JOHNSON).
hunt's-up, Rom. iii. 5. 34: "Any song intended to arouse in
the morning-even a love-song-was formerly called a
hunt's-up . . . and the name was of course derived from a
tune or song employed by early hunters. Butler, in his
Principles of Musik, 1636, defines a hunt's-up, as 'morning
music;' and Cotgrave's defines 'Resveil' as a hunts-
up, or Morning Song for a new-married wife." Chappell's
Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. i. p. 61, sec. ed.
hurly, an uproar, a tumult, Shr. iv. 1. 206; K.J. iii. 4. 169;
2H4. iii. 1. 25.
hurlyburly, meaning the same as hurly, ("A hurly-burly,
Turbæ, Tumultus." Coles's Dict.) 1H6. i. 3. (in the stage-
direction); Mcb. i. 1. 3; 1H4. v. 1. 78 (as an adjective=
tumultuous).
hurricano, a water-spout, Troil. v. 2. 172; hurricanoes, Lr.
iii. 2.
2. [Fuller, Worthies, freq. uses the form Hericano,
= cyclone.]
hurt-Thou hast not half that power to do me harm As I have
to be, Oth. v. 2. 163: "She means to say,-I have in this
cause power to endure more than thou hast power to
inflict" (JOHNSON).
hurtled, clashed, made a sound like clashing, J.C. ii. 2. 22.
244
HURTLING-IDLE.
hurtling, a clashing together,-a violent conflict, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 132.
husband, a husbandman: your serving-man and your husband,
2H4. v. 3. 12.
husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house- You will turn
good, M.M. iii. 2. 73: “Alluding to the etymology of the
word husband" (MALONE): and there is an obvious quibble,
keep the house.
husbandry, economical government, thrift, economical pru-
dence: The husbandry and manage of my house, M.V. iii.
4. 25; healthful and good husbandry. H5. iv. 1. 7; like as
there were husbandry in war ("alludes to Hector's early
rising," MALONE), Troil. i. 2. 7; If you suspect my husbandry,
Tim. ii. 2. 164: there's husbandry in heaven, Mcb. ii. 1. 4;
borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry, Hml. i. 3. 77; Which
husbandry in honour might uphold, Sonn. 13.
huswife: see housewife.
hyen, a hyena, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 156: [" as the Hiena when she mourns
is then most guileful." Lodge, Euph. Golden Legacie. p. 19.]
Hyperion, Apollo, Hml. i. 2. 140; iii. 4. 56.
Hyrcan, Hyrcanian, Mcb. iii. 4. 101.
I.
I, the old spelling of the affirmative adverb ay, was frequently
used with a quibble, as in the following passage; say thou
but "I" And that bare vowel "I" shall poison more Than
the death-darting eye of cockatrice: I am not I, if there be
such an "I," &c., Rom. iii. 2. 45.
ice-brook, a cold or icy brook: It is a sword of Spain, the
ice-brook's temper, Oth. v. 2. 253: "Steel is hardened by
being put red-hot into very cold water" (JOHNSON): Accord-
ing to Steevens, who cites Martial and Justin, the ice-brook
of our text is "undoubtedly the brook or rivulet called
Salo (now Xalon), near Bilbilis in Celtiberia.”
Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland! H5. ii. 1. 44:
A sort of shaggy, white, sharp-eared dog from Iceland, a
great pet with ladies ("We have sholts or curs dailie
brought out of Iseland, and much made of among vs, bicause
of their sawcinesse and quarrelling." Harrison's Description
of England, prefixed to Holinshed, vol. i. p. 389, reprint).
icicle on a Dutchman's beard, 12N. iii. 2. 29: “very possibly
an allusion to the actual experiences of two Dutchmen,
Heemskirk and Barends, who in 1596 sailed to the Arctic
Ocean in order to find a northern passage to India. They
passed the winter in Nova Zembla" (HERFord).
idle, trifling: an idle banquet, Tim. i. 2. 160.
IDLE-IMAGINED.
245
idle, vain, weak: on idle and fond (" weak and foolish," JOHNSON)
bondage, Lr. i. 2. 51.
idle, useless, infertile, unfruitful, barren: idle moss, Err. ii. 2. 180;
idle weeds, R3. iii. 1. 103; deserts idle, Oth. i. 3. 140; idle
pebbles, Lr. iv. 6. 21: With respect to the second of these
passages, You said that idle weeds are fast in growth, Douce
observes, "it is clear that infertility is out of the question;
but useless and unprofitable will denote the poet's meaning,
or rather that of the inventor of the proverb, which was
afterwards corrupted into 'ill weeds,' &c.:" The line just
cited is sufficient to show that Mr. Beisly is mistaken when,
in his Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 35, he explains idle moss
by moss stationary and slow in growth."
"(
i'fecks, a corruption of in faith, W.T. i. 2. 120. [cf. Irish faix].
ignomy, ignominy, 1H4. v. 4. 100; M.M. ii. 4. 111; Troil. v.
10. 33; Tit. iv. 2. 115. [Corrupted by elision. Guest, Hist.
Eng. Rhythms, p. 51.]
ignorant in what I am commanded—I'm, “I am unpractised
in the arts of murder" (STEEVENS), Cymb. iii. 2. 23.
ignorant fumes-The, "The fumes of ignorance" (HEATH),
Tp. v. 1. 67.
ild: see God ild you.
Ilion: see the next article.
Ilium and where she resides—Between our, Troil. i. 1. 104; When
were you at Ilium? i. 2. 46; ere ye came to Ilium, 50; as
they pass toward Ilium, 194; nor goodly Ilion stand, ii. 2. 109;
As Priam is in Ilion, iv. 4. 118; in great Ilion, iv. 5. 112;
yourself and Diomed In Ilion, 216; So, Ilion, fall thou next!
v. 8. II: "Ilium or Ilion (for it is spelt both ways) was,
according to Lydgate, and the author of The Destruction
of Troy [see vi. 2], the name of Priam's palace, which is
said by these writers to have been built upon a high rock”
(MALONE). [See notes in Skeat's Chaucer, 3. 1248; H.F. 158].
ill-erected tower—To Julius Cæsar's, R2. v. 1. 2: "By ill-erected,
I suppose, is meant erected for bad purposes" (STEEVENS),
See Julius.
ill-favoured, ill-looking, 2G. ii. 7. 54; M.W. i. 1. 311; iii. 4. 32;
A.Y.L. iii. 5. 53; v. 4. 6o; Shr. i. 2. 60; Tit. iii. 2. 66.
ill-favouredly, in an ugly or bad way, M.W. iii. 5. 68; A.Y.L.
i. 2. 42; iii. 2. 279; H5. iv. 2. 40.
ill-inhabited, ill-lodged, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 10.
ill-nurtur'd, ill-brought-up, 2H6. i. 2. 42; Ven. 134. Cf. Nurture.
illustrate, illustrious, L.L.L. iv. 1. 65; v. I. 128.
illustrous, lustreless, Cymb. i. 6. 109.
imaginary forces, "imaginative forces, powers of fancy"
(JOHNSON), H5. Prol. 18.
imagined, belonging to imagination: with imagin'd speed, M.V.
iii. 4. 52: with imagin'd wing, H5. iii. Prol. 1.
246
IMBAR-IMP.
imbar, H5. i. 2. 94. Ff. 1, 2, imbarre; Ff. 3, 4, imbar. imbace .
causes, Q1, 2; embrace, Q3. Pope read: openly imbrace.
Theobald's reading, imbare, was suggested by Warburton.
Many editors adopt imbare, among them, Dyce; and there
is a good case to be made out for the word. But the Folio
reading (retained by the Camb. Edd.) is very ingeniously
defended by Mr. Stone, in his excellent edition of Henry V.
(for the New Shakspere Soc. 1880, p. 114). He says: "Im-
barre cannot, as Knight supposed, mean har in, secure,
because Chicheley insists upon the fact that, in default of a
valid proof of their titles, the French kings were obliged
to rely on a fictitious defence which did not bear examina-
tion. But imbarre bar, obstruct, is, I think, in harmony
with the context. Chicheley had shown that the French
kings had, on three several occasions, deduced their titles
through female links, although it was asserted that, in
consequence of the Salic law, a woman could not transmit
a title to the throne. Nevertheless, they chose to 'hide
them in a Net,' that is, to resort to this transparent shelter,
the Salic law, rather than 'amply to imbarre their crooked
titles,' by admitting its baselessness. For, granting the
suppositious character of the Salic law, a direct descent
from Isabella, daughter of Philip IV., elder son of Philip III.,
gave Henry a better title to the throne than the French
kings could derive from Charles de Valois, the younger
son.' Compare ii. 4. 78. Prof. Herford supports Knight's
explanation: "the French prefer to shelter themselves under
a delusive appeal to the Salic law, which excludes their
claim as well as others, instead of directly and unreservedly
defending their title as nevertheless the better."
immanity, savageness, barbarity, 1H6. v. 1. 13,
["Which to denie were too too much immanitie,”
Harington, Orl. Fur. xx. 31.]
immediacy, "immediate representation, the deriving a character
directly from another, so as to stand exactly in his place"
(Nares's Gloss.), Lr. v. 3. 65.
immoment, of no moment, unimportant, Ant. v. 2. 166.
immures, wall-enclosures, fortifications, Troil. Prol. 8.
imp, a shoot, a graft, an offspring, [youngling: used only by
Armado, Holofernes and Pistol]: L.L.L. i. 2. 5; v. 2. 592;
2H4. v. 5. 46; H5. iv. 1. 45.
imp out our drooping country's broken wing, R2. ii. 1. 292; imp
a body with a dangerous physic, Cor. iii. 1. 154 [So Dyce;
Globe, jump, q.v.]: An expression borrowed from falconry:
"when the wing-feathers [or tail-feathers] of a hawk were
dropped, or forced out [or broken], by any accident, it was
usual to supply [or repair] as many as were deficient [or da-
maged]. This operation was called to imp a hawk” (Steevens).
IMPALE-IMPETICOS.
247
impale, to encircle, 3H6. iii. 3. 189: impaled, iii. 2. 171.
impare thought (O. Edd. impaire), Troil. iv. 5. 103. “The best
commentary is Polonius's charge to Laertes: 'give thy
thoughts no tongue, nor any unproportioned thought his
act (HERFORD).
impartial, neutral: In this I'll be impartial, M.M. v. 1. 166.
impartment, a communication, Hml. i. 4. 59.
impasted, formed into a paste, Hml. ii. 2. 481.
impawn, to pawn, to pledge: impawn our person ("To impawn
seems here to have the same meaning as the French phrase
se commettre," MALONE), H5. i. 2. 21.
impeach, an impeachment, an accusation: an intricate impeach,
Err. v. 1. 269; impeach of valour, 3H6. i. 4. 60.
impeach, to bring into question, to call in question: impeach
your modesty, M.N.D. ii. 1. 214; impeach my height (= noble-
ness), R2. i. 1. 189.
impeachment, an imputation, a reproach: great impeachment
to his age, 2G. i. 3. 15.
impeachment, an obstruction, a hindrance: to march on to
Calais Without impeachment, H5. iii. 6. 151.
imperceiverant, Cymb. iv. 1. 15. Fol. has imperseuerant (u = v),
and Schmidt explains: "giddy-headed, flighty, thoughtless,
adding that it is "needlessly corrupted by M. Edd. into
imperceverant or ill-perseverant. Dyce shows that the right
reading (according to modern spelling) is imperceiverant,
i.e. "undiscerning: this thing without the power of perceiv
ing my superiority to Posthumus." He quotes: "had he
but the perseverance of a cocksparrow, that will come at
Philip" (The Widow, iii. 2, in Middleton's Wks); and refers
to N. & Q. vii. 400.
imperious, imperial: Those high-imperious thoughts, 2G. ii. 4.
130; most imperious Agamemnon, Troil. iv. 5. 172; be thy
thoughts imperious, Tit. iv. 4. 81; Imperious Cæsar, Hml. v.
1. 236; th' imperious show Of the full-fortun'd Cæsar, Ant.
iv. 15. 23; Imperious supreme of all mortal things, Ven. 996.
(In Hml. v. 1. Qos: Imperious, F1, Imperial. Though Shake-
speare and sundry of his contemporaries make no distinc-
tion between "imperious" and "imperial," yet, as Mr.
Singer has observed, “Bullokar carefully distinguishes them :
'Imperial, royal or chief, emperor-like: imperious, that com-
mandeth with authority, lordlike, stately.'")
impeticos thy gratility, 12N. ii. 3. 27 [no doubt a mock-
Italianate word]: This jargon, according to Hanmer, means
"impocket thy gratuity:" Johnson proposed to read “im-
peticoat thy gratuity," observing that "fools were kept in
long coats, to which the allusion is made;" and hence the
remark of Douce (in opposition to Ritson) that the allowed
fool was occasionally (like the idiot fool) dressed in peticoats.
248
IMPLEACH'D—IMPUTATION.
(When a boy at Aberdeen, I remember seeing a full-grown
man, an idiot, who wore a long petticoat, and was led
about the streets, as an object of charity, by his mother):
I quite agree with Malone that here "the reading of the
old copy should not be disturbed."
impleach'd, interwoven, intertwined, L. Compl. 205: see pleached.
imponed, Hml. v. 2. 155, 171: This would seem to be Osrick's
affected pronunciation of impawned.
importance, importunity; at Sir Toby's great importance, 12N.
V. I. 371; At our importance, K.J. ii. 1. 7; upon importance
of so slight and trivial a nature, Cymb. i. 4. 45 (where
Johnson, in his Dict., explains importance "matter, subject").
importance, the thing imported or implied,—the import: if
the importance were joy or sorrow ("if their [before-mention-
ed] passion were of joyful or sorrowful import," GRANT
WHITE), W.T. v. 2. 20.
important, importunate: At your important letters, Err. v. 1.
138; if the prince be too important, Ado, ii. 1. 74; his im-
portant blood, A.W. iii. 7. 21; My mourning and important
tears, Lr. iv. 4. 26.
importless, unimportant, Troil. i. 3. 71.
importment's bastard, 2N.K. i. 3. 80: the 'impotent conclusion'
of a story told with an air of great importance.
impose, to enjoin, to command: Impose me to what penance,
Ado, v. 1. 283.
impose, an imposition, an injunction: your ladyship's impose,
2G. iv. 3. 8.
imposition clear'd Hereditary ours-Th', "i.e. setting aside
original sin; bating the imposition from the offence of our
first parents" (WARBURTON), W.T. i. 2. 74.
impossible, inconceivable, incredible: impossible places, M.W.
iii. 5. 151; impossible slanders, Ado, ii. 1. 143; impossible
conveyance, 252; impossible passages of grossness, 12N. iii. 2.
76; things impossible, J.C. ii. 1. 325.
imprese-Raz'd out my, R2. iii. 1. 25: “An Impress (as the
Italians call it) is a device in Picture with his Motto or
Word, born by Noble and Learned Parsonages, to notifie
some particular conceit of their own," &c. Camden's
Remains concerning Britain, &c., p. 447, ed. 1674. [See
Grosart's Daniel, v. 297.]
impress the forest-Who can, "Who can command the forest
to serve him like a soldier impressed" (JOHNSON), Mcb.
iv. 1. 95.
improve, to turn to account, J.C. ii. 1. 159.
impudence, immodesty, Per. ii. 3. 69.
imputation, imputed, attributed excellence, reputation: Our
imputation shall be oddly pois'd, Troil. i. 3. 339; the imputa-
tion laid on him, Hml. v. 2. 149.
IN-INCISION.
249
in, used for on: in the beachèd margent of the sea, M.N.D. ii. 1.
85; in heaven or in earth, 3H6. ii. 3. 43; in thy shoulder do
I build my seat, 3H6. ii. 6. 100; knock'd i' th' head, Troil.
iv. 2. 35; Gold strew'd i' the floor, Cymb. iii. 6. 50.
in, used for into: falling in the flaws, M.M. ii. 3. 11; smiles his
cheek in years, L.L.L. v. 2. 465; weeping in the needless
stream, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 46; I'll turn yon fellow in his grave,
R3. i. 2. 261; to draw me in these vile suspects, R3. i. 3. 89;
Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf, Cor. iii. 2. 91; turn our
swords In our own proper entrails, J.C. v. 3. 96; equivocates
him in a sleep, Mcb. ii. 3. 39; Looks fearfully in the confined
deep, Lr. iv. 1. 77; Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave,
Oth. v. 2. 292; I'm fallen in this offence, Cymb. iii. 6. 64;
Which one by one she in a river threw, L. Compl. 38.
in good time: see good time—In.
in time the savage bull doth bear the yoke, Ado, i. 1. 263. In the
Spanish Tragedy, ii. 1. 3: “In time the savage bull sustains
the yoke": Kyd quotes (four lines in all) from Watson's
Hecatompathia, xlvii: "In time the bull is brought to weare
the yoke."
inaccessible, difficult of access: this desert inaccessible, A.Y.L.
ii. 7. 110.
incapable, unintelligent, unable to comprehend: Incapable and
shallow innocents, R3. ii. 2. 18: As one incapable of her own
distress, Hml. iv. 7. 179.
incardinate, Sir Andrew's blunder for incarnate, 12N. v. 1. 185;
compare next word.
incarnal, M.V. ii. 2. 291.
incarnadine, to stain red, Mcb. ii. 2. 62.
incense, to incite, to instigate, to set on; but according to
Nares, in the last three of the following passages it means
simply "to instruct," "a provincial expression still quite
current in Staffordshire," &c. Gloss.: I will incense Page,
M.W. i. 3. 109; would incense me to murder, W.T. v. 1. 61;
what they may incense him to, Lr. ii. 4. 309; your brother
incensed me, Ado, v. 1. 242; incensed by his subtle mother,
R3. iii. 1. 152; I have incens'd the lords of the council,
H8. v. I. 43.
incense, to kindle; an incensed fire of injuries, 2H4. i. 3. 14.
inch: see Colme's-inch – Saint.
inch-meal-By, By portions of an inch long at a time, Tp. ii.
2. 3. (So piece-meal, drop-meal, limb-meal).
incision in thee! thou art raw-God make, AY.L. iii. 2. 75:
"I apprehend the meaning is, God give thee a better under-
standing, thou art very raw and simple as yet. The ex-
pression probably alludes to the common proverbial saying
concerning a very silly fellow, that he ought to be cut for
simples" (HEATH).
250
INCISION-INDIAN.
incision Would let her out in saucers—A fever in your blood!
why, then, L.L.L. iv. 3. 97: This has been erroneously ex-
plained as containing an allusion to the mad fashion of
lovers stabbing themselves and drinking their blood in
honour of their mistresses: it merely means, "If your mis-
tress reigns a fever in your blood, get yourself blooded,
and so let her out in saucers."
inclining-You of my, You of my side, of my party, Oth. i. 2. 82.
inclips, embraces, encircles, Ant. ii. 7. 74.
include all jars, close, conclude, 2G. v. 4. 160.
incontinent, immediately, which they will climb incontinent,
A.Y.L. v. 2. 42; put on sullen black incontinent; R2. v. 6. 48;
he will return incontinent, Oth. iv. 3. 12.
incontinently, immediately, Oth. i. 3. 106.
incony, fine, delicate, pretty, L.L.L. iii. 1. 136; iv. 1. 144.
[Marlowe, J. of Malta, iv.]
incorps'd, incorporated, made one body, Hml. iv. 7. 88.
incorrect, "contumacious" (CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 2. 95.
increase, produce: Earth's increase, and foison plenty, Tp. iv.
I. 110; swallow her own increase, Tit. v. 2. 192; big with
rich increase, Sonn. 97.
incredulous, incredible: no incredulous or unsafe circumstance,
12N. iii. 4. 86.
indent, an indentation, a bending inwards: wind with such a
deep indent, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 113.
indent, See Fear.
indent with fears, 1H4. i. 3. 87: bargain, contract, compound
with objects of fear. Collier conjectured foes. [The fears.
are: first, Glendower, the dreaded magician; see 1. 82; and
secondly, Mortimer, 'proclaimed by Richard, that dead is,
the next of blood' l. 146. See 1. 142: 'his cheek looked
pale,' and 1. 158.]
index, a prelude, anything preparatory to another-the index
(ie. table of contents) being generally in Shakespeare's days
prefixed to the book, R3. ii. 2. 149; Hml. iii. 4. 52; Oth.
ii. 1. 263; indexes, Troil. i. 3. 343.
index of a direful pageant-The flattering, R3. iv. 4. 85: see
the preceding article: "Pageants," Steevens observes, “are
dumb shows, and the poet meant to allude to one of these,
the index of which promised a happier conclusion. The pag-
eants then displayed on public occasions were generally
preceded by a brief account of the order in which the
characters were to walk. These indexes were distributed
among the spectators, that they might understand the mean-
ing of such allegorical stuff as was usually exhibited."
Indian-Like the base, Oth. v. 2. 347; Fol. Indean, which Malone
adopts: but the reference is probably to the bartering of
worthless things for gems and gold with the American
INDIAN—INDUCTION.
25I
tribesmen, as Boswell showed, with examples, to which Dyce
adds: "The wretched Indian spurns the Golden ore;" from
Drayton's Legend of Matilda.
Indian, Tp. ii. 2. 34: H8. v. 4. 34. Five American Indians were
brought to London in 1611.
indifferency, impartiality: Makes it take head from all indiffer-
ency, K.J. ii. I. 579.
indifferency, moderation, ordinary size: a belly of any indiffer-
ency, 2H4. iv. 3. 23.
indifferent, impartial: Look on my wrongs with an indifferent
eye, R2. ii. 3. 116; No judge indifferent, H8. ii. 4. 17.
indifferent, ordinary: garters of an indifferent knit ("The words
‘of an indifferent knit' simply mean, that the garters should
be tolerably well knit, neither very fine nor very coarse."
The Dialect of Craven, sub "Indifferent"), Shr. iv. 1. 94;
the indifferent children of the earth, Hml. ii. 2. 231.
indifferent, indifferently, tolerably: indifferent good, Shr. i. 2.
181; indifferent well, 12N. i. 3. 143; H5. iv. 7. 34: Troil. i.
2. 242; indifferent red, 12N. i. 5. 265; indifferent honest, Hml.
iii. 1. 123; indifferent cold, v. 2. 100.
indifferently, impartially: hear me speak indifferently for all,
Tit. i. I. 430.
indifferently, in a reasonable degree, tolerably: to knock you
indifferently well, H5. ii. 1. 58; we have reformed that indiffe-
rently, Hml. iii. 2. 41.
indigest, (used as a substantive) a thing indigested, an unform-
ed mass: To set a form upon that indigest, K.J. v. 7. 26
("rudis indigestaque moles." Ovid, Metam. 1. 7).
indigest, indigested, unformed. shapeless: monsters and things
indigest, Sonn. 114.
indign, unworthy, disgraceful, Oth. i. 3 274.
indirection, crooked conduct, dishonest practice: indirection
thereby grows direct, K.J. iii. 1. 276; wring From the hard
hands of peasants their vile trash By any indirection, J.C. iv. 3. 75.
indirection, oblique means: By indirections find directions out,
Hml. ii. 1. 66.
indirectly, unfairly, wrongfully: That hot rash haste so indirectly
shed, K.J. ii. I. 49; [without direction, unadvisedly].
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held, H5. ii. 4. 94.
indistinguishable cur, "cur of an undeterminate shape
(STEEVENS), deformed, Troil. v. i. 33.
>>
indite him to some supper, Rom. ii. 4. 135; (where probably
indite is used in jest for invite,) he is indited to dinner, 2H4.
ii. 1. 30 (where indited is the Hostess's blunder for invited).
induction, a beginning: And our induction full of prosperous
hope, 1H4. iii. 1. 2; A dire induction am I witness to, R3. iv.
4. 5; inductions dangerous ("preparations for mischief,"
JOHNSON), i. 1. 32.
252
INDUCTION-INGENER.
induction, Introduction (to The Taming of the Shrew, and to
The Second Part of King Henry IV.)
indu'd Unto that element, "endowed or furnished with properties
suited to the element of water" (MALONE), Hml. iv. 7. 180.
indues Our other healthful members even to that sense of pain
-It, "This sensation so gets possession of, and is so
infused into the other members, as to make them all
participate of the same pain" (MALONE,-rightly perhaps),
Oth. iii. 4. 146.
indurance, H8. v. 1. 121: "¿e. confinement. Dr. Johnson,
however, in his Dictionary, says that this word (which
Shakespeare borrowed from Fox's narrative) means—delay,
procrastination" (STEEVENS). Schmidt says: "without further
suffering."
inequality, (seeming) inconsistency, M.M. v. I. 65.
infamonize, to make infamous, to disgrace, L.L.L. v. 2. 684.
infect, infected: many are infect, Troil. i. 3. 187.
infection from the dangerous year-Their verdure still endure,
To drive, Ven. 508: "The poet evidently alludes to a
practice of his own age, when it was customary, in time
of the plague, to strew the rooms of every house with rue
and other strong-smelling herbs, to prevent infection"
(MALONE). [See Trans. New Sh. Soc. 1875, p. 150.]
infer, to bring in, to introduce: Infer the bastardy of Edward's
children, R3. iii. 5. 75: I did infer your lineaments, iii. 7. 12;
Infer fair England's peace, iv. 4. 343; thus hath the duke
inferr'd, iii. 7. 32; more than I have inferr'd, v. 3. 314; 'tis
inferr'd to us, Tim. iii. 5. 73; inferreth arguments, 3H6. iii.
I. 49; Inferring arguments, ii. 2. 44.
an
informal, deranged, insane, M.M. v. 1. 236: see formal.
infusion of such dearth and rareness—And his: see dearth and
rareness, &c.
ingener, an ingenious person, a deviser, an artist, á painter,
Oth. ii. 1. 65: but the reading is questionable; The quarto
of 1622 has “Does beare all excellency"; Qo. 1630,
excellency." Folio "Do's tyre the Ingeniuer." a misprint
perhaps for "ingener," as Steevens suggested. [Why not
suppose that Contriuer was written, and Ingen written above,
with Contr. struck out unstead of Contriu: the reading
intended being Ingener? Or Inginer? or the printer repeated
the syll. turning the n? Smith in his Chloris has: "You whose
deep wits, ingine, and industry, The everlasting palm of
praise have won."] Mr. S. Jervis conjectures: "Does
tire th'imaginer;" comparing "And still he did it, by first
telling the imaginer, and after bidding the actor think"
(Bacon, Nat. Hist. Cent. x. p. 205). [But as the passage from
Chloris shows, Imaginer is practically the meaning of Inginer
here. Schmidt gives “Enginer: contriver, inventor."]
INGENIOUS-INIQUITY.
253
ingenious, intelligent, acute, lively: thy most ingenious sense,
Hml. v. 1. 271; ingenious feeling Of my huge sorrows, Lr. iv.
6. 287 (According to Warburton, "Ingenious feeling signifies
a feeling from an understanding not disturbed or disordered,
but which, representing things as they are, makes the sense
of pain the more exquisite").
ingenious, ingenuous: ingenious studies, Shr. i. 1. 9 (So in a
comparatively recent author; "But 'tis contrary to an
ingenious spirit to delight in such service," &c. Defoe's.
Colonel Jack, p. 141, ed. 1838).
ingeniously, ingenuously, Tim. ii. 2. 230.
inhabit then, protest me The baby of a girl,-If trembling I,
Mcb. iii. 4. 105: If in that case I habit myself in trembling,
put on the garb or habit of fear, you may proclaim me to
be [a girl's doll; or possibly, the puny child of an immature
mother; or, a babyish girl merely]. Dyce follows Steevens
and Malone in reading "If trembling I inhibit thee," but
the Folio reading is quite sound.
inhabitable, uninhabitable, R2. i. 1. 65.
inherit, to possess, to obtain possession of: Yea, all which it
inherit, Tp. iv. 1. 154; This, or else nothing, will inherit her,
2G. iii. 2. 87; inherit us So much as of a thought of ill in
him, R2. i. 1. 85; never after to inherit it, Tit ii. 3. 3; shall
you this night inherit at my house, Rom. i. 2. 30; But to
the girdle do the gods inherit, Lr. iv. 6. 128.
inhibited, prohibited, forbidden, A.W. i. 1. 157; Oth. i. 2. 79.
See Inhabit.
inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation—Their,
Hml. ii. 2. 346: "This passage probably refers to the
limiting of public theatrical performances to the two theatres,
the Globe on [the] Bank-side, and the Fortune in Golden
Lane, in 1600 and 1601. The players, by a 'late innovation,'
were 'inhibited,' or forbidden, to act in or near 'the city,'
and therefore 'travelled,' or strolled into the country. See
'History of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,' vol. i. p. 311,
&c." (COLLIER).
inhoop'd, at odds-His quails ever Beat minc, Ant. ii. 3. 38:
"The ancients used to match quails as we match cocks
(JOHNSON): "Inhoop'd. Inclosed in a hoop.... It appears.
now to be made out, that cocks or quails were sometimes
made to fight within a broad hoop, to keep them from
quitting each other. Mr. Douce has actually found a Chinese
print [miniature painting] in which two birds are so represented.
See his Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 86. . . . The substance of this
[passage] is from North's Plutarch, as well as much more
of the same drama; but the inhooped is the addition of
our poet." Nares's Gloss.
Iniquity-Justice or, M.M. ii. 1. 181; that gray iniquity, 1H4.
254
INJOINTED-INSCULP'D.
ii. 4. 500: the formal Vice, Iniquity, R3. iii. 1. 82: see Vice
-like the old, &c.
injointed, jointed, united, Oth. i. 3. 35.
inkhorn mate, a bookish man, or a bookman, 1H6. iii. 1. 99:
"It was a term of reproach towards men of learning or
men affecting to be learned" (Reed).
inkle, a kind of inferior tape, L.L.L. iii. 1. 140; Per. v. Gow. 8;
inkles, W.T. iv. 4. 208.
inland bred, bred, brought up among civilised persons (inland
being used by our old writers in opposition to upland),
[cf. outland, outlandish], A Y.L. ii. 7. 96; an inland man,
iii. 2. 363.
inly, inward: the inly touch of love, 2G. ii. 7. 18; inly sorrow,
3H6. i. 4. 171.
inly, inwardly: I've inly wept, Tp. v. 1. 200; inly ruminate, H5.
iv. Prol. 24.
"C
inn-Thou most beauteous, R2. v. 1. 13; shall I not take mine
ease in mine inn? 1H4. iii. 3. 93: In the first of these pas-
sages inn, according to Steevens, means "a dignified habita-
tion;" according to Mason, a house of entertainment, and
is opposed to alehouse in [the next line but one];" and
according to Mr. Staunton merely "abode:" on the second
passage Percy observes, "To 'take mine ease in mine inne '
was an ancient proverb, not very different in its application
from that maxim, 'Every man's house is his castle;' for
inne originally signified a house or habitation [Sax. inn,
domus, domicilium]. When the word inn began to change
its meaning, and to be used to signify a house of entertain-
ment, the proverb, still continuing in force, was applied in
the latter sense, as it is here used by Shakespeare."
innocent, an idiot, a natural fool, a simpleton: a dumb innocent,
A.W. iv. 3. 213; Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend,
Lr. iii. 6. 8; the pious innocent, Per. iv. 3. 17; An innocent,
2N.K. iv. 1. 41.
(C
inquire, an inquiry: the most strange inquire, Per. iii. Gow. 23.
inquisition, an inquiry, Tp. i. 2. 35; A.Y.L. ii. 2. 20.
insane root-The, The root which causes insanity, Mcb. i. 3.
84: Perhaps hemlock; or more probably henbane, as would
appear from the following passage, cited by Douce;
Henbane.. is called Insana, mad, for the use thereof
is perillous; for if it be eate or dronke, it breedeth mad-
nesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb
is called commonly Mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and
reason." Batman Uppon Bartholome de propriet. rerum, lib.
xvii. ch. 87.
insculp'd upon-The figure of an angel Stamped in gold, but
that's, M.V. ii. 7. 57: Here insculp'd upon means
"carved
in relief, embossed on the coin."
INSINUATE-INTER'GATORY.
255
insinuate, to soothe, to wheedle: Basely insinuate, and send us
gifts, Tit. iv. 2. 38; With Death she humbly doth insinuate,
Ven. 1012.
insinuation - By their own, "By their having insinuated or
thrust themselves into the employment" (MALONE), Hml.
v. 2. 59.
insisture, fixedness, stability ("constancy or regularity," John-
son's Dict.; "regularity, or perhaps station," Nares's Gloss.),
Troil. i. 3. 87.
instance, a word used by Shakespeare with various shades of
meaning which it is not always easy to distinguish,—
"motive, inducement, cause, ground; symptom, prognostic;
information, assurance; proof, example, indication:" my
desires had instance and argument, M.W. ii. 2. 256; Gives
me this instance, M.M. iv. 3. 134; Gave any tragic instance
of our harm, Err. i. 1. 65; what's the instance? A.W. iv. 1.
44; A certain instance that Glendower is dead, 2H4. iii. 1. 103;
his fears are shallow, wanting instance, R3. iii. 2, 25, In-
stance, O instance, Troil. v. 2. 153; no guilty instance gave, Lucr.
1511; But not with such familiar instances, J.C. iv. 2. 16;
(where Mr. Craik chooses to explain instances by "assiduit-
ies"); The instances that second marriage move, Hml. iii. 2. 192.
instrument this lower world – That hath to, “That makes use
of this world, and every thing in it, as its instruments to
bring about its ends" (STEEVENS), Tp. iii. 3. 54.
insuppressive, insuppressible, J.C. ii. 1. 134.
intend, to pretend: intend a kind of zeal, Ado, ii. 2. 35; I
intend that all is done, Shr. iv. 1. 206; Intend some fear,
R3. iii. 7. 45; Intending deep suspicion, R3. iii. 5. 8; intending
other serious matters, Tim. ii. 2. 219; Intending weariness,
Lucr. 121.
intend, to set forth, to make to appear (like the Latin intendo,
-“intendere eruditionem"): if thou dost intend never so little
show of love to her, M.N.D. iii. 2. 333.
intended in the general's name, “understood, meant without
expressing," &c. (STEEVENS), 2H4. iv. 1. 166.
intendment, intention, A.Y.L. i. 1. 140; main intendment (which
Steevens explains "exertion in a body"), H5. i. 2. 144;
Oth. iv. 2. 206; intendments, Ven. 222.
intenible: see captious and intenible sieve.
intention, eagerness of attention or of desire: with such a
greedy intention, M.W. i. 3. 73; my intention, hearing not
my tongue, M.M. ii. 4. 3 [Globe, invention]; thy intention
stabs the centre, W.T. i. 2. 138.
intentively, attentively, Oth. i. 3. 155.
interess'd, interested, Lr. i. 1. 87.
inter'gatory, interrogatory, M.V. v. 1. 300; inter'gatories, 298;
A.W. iv. 3. 207; Cymb. v. 3. 392.
256
INTERMISSION-ISLE.
intermission, a pause, M.V. iii. 2. 201; A.Y.L. ii. 7. 32; Mcb.
iv. 3. 232; Lr. ii. 4. 33.
intermissive miseries-Their, "Their miseries, which have had
only a short intermission from Henry the Fifth's death to
my coming amongst them" (WARBURTON), 1H6. i. 1. 88.
interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets
dallying-I could, Hml. iii. 2. 256: An allusion to the inter-
preter, who at all motions or puppet-shows interpreted to
the audience: see motion.
into used for unto: into thy attempt, A.W. i. 3. 260; into the
drowsy ear of night, K.J. iii. 3. 39 (Globe, race of night);
his whole kingdom into desolation, H5. ii. 2. 173.
into truth by telling of it, Tp. i. 2. 100.
intrenchant, "which cannot be cut" (JOHNSON), "not perma-
nently divisible, not retaining any mark of division" (Nares's
Gloss), Mcb. v. 8. 9.
intrinse, intricate, Lr. ii. 2. 81.
intrinsicate, intricate, Ant. v. 2. 307.
invectively, abusively, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 58.
investments, vestures, dress, garb, 2H4. iv. 1. 45; Hml. i. 3. 128.
invincible-That his dimensions to any thick sight were, 2H4.
iii. 2. 337: “not to be evinced; not to be made out, in-
determinable." (Schmidt).
invis'd, invisible, unseen, L. Compl. 212.
inward, an intimate, a familiar friend: 7 was an inward of
his, M.M. iii. 2. 138.
inward, intimate, confidential: for what is inward between us,
L.L.L. v. 1. 102; Who is most inward with the noble duke?
R3. iii. 4. 8.
inwardness, intimacy, Ado, iv. 1. 247.
in youth when I did love, did love, Hml. v. 1. 69. This
stanza and the other two stanzas sung by the First Clown
are from a poem by Lord Vaux in Tottell's Miscellany,
1557; One copy of the song, with music, is in Sloane Ms.
No. 4900, and another, without the music, in Harl. Ms.
No. 1703.
Irish rat—I was never so be-rhymed since Pythagoras' time, that
I was an, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 188: “She alludes to the Pythagorean
doctrine, which teaches that souls transmigrate from one
animal to another, and relates that in his time she was an
Irish rat, and by some metrical charm was rhymed to death.
The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne men-
tions in his Satires, and Temple in his Treatises," &c.
(JOHNSON). ["Rhime them to death, as they do Irish rats,
In drumming tunes." Poetaster, Apol. Dialogue.]
irregulous, disorderly, lawless, Cymb. iv. 2. 315.
isle-Fertile the, W.T. iii. 1. 2. Greene makes Delphos an Isle
also; hence Shakespeare's error.
ISSU'D—JACK.
257
issu'd-No worse, No worse descended. Tp. i. 2. 59.
iterance, Oth. v. 2. 150: iteration, (as Globe reads).
iteration, repetition, 1H4. i. 2. 101; Troil. iii. 2. 183. [thou
hast damnable iteration, 1H4 you are able to cite scripture
to your purpose as the Devil can.]
its, according to Bartlett's Concordance, occurs: Tp. i. 2. 95;
393; M.M. i. 2. 4; W.T. i. 2. 151; 157; 266; iii. 3. 46; 2H6.
iii. 2. 393; H8. i. 1. 18; Rom. 1. 3. 52.
I wis, M.V. ii. 9. 68; Shr. i. 1. 62; R3. i. 3. 102; Per. ii. Gow.
2: That in our early literature I wis is one word (i-wis),
the Saxon gewiss, used adverbially, and meaning "truly,
certainly," admits of no dispute: see Sir F. Madden's Gloss.
to Syr Gawayne, where he remarks that “although satisfied
about the origin of i-wis, he still has his doubts whether it
was not regarded as a pronoun and verb by the writers of
the fifteenth century:" For my own part, I cannot help
believing that the writers of Elizabeth's time and later,
ignorant of the original meaning of I wis, employed it as
equivalent to "I ween:" and see, under occupy, the quotation
from Wits, Fits, and Fancies, where we have the spelling
"I wisse." [See Emerson, Eng. Lang. § 452.]
J.
jack, the small bowl (sometimes called also the mistress) aimed
at in the game of bowling: when I kissed the jack, Cymb.
ii. 1. 2: "To kiss the jack' is a state of great advantage"
(JOHNSON).
Jack, a common term of contempt and reproach (fellow, knave,
rogue): you are Jack Rugby, M.W. i. 4. 61; Jack priest, i.
4. 123; ii. 3. 32; play the flouting Jack, Ado, i. 1. 186;
tivangling Jack, Shr. ii. 1. 159; a swearing Fack, ii. 1. 290;
the prince is a Jack, 1H4. iii. 3. 99; then am I a Jack, v.
4. 143; Since every Jack became a gentleman, R3. i. 3. 72;
thou art as hot a Jack (where Jack is merely equivalent
to "fellow," and used jocularly), Rom. iii. 1. 12: Hang him,
Fack! iv. 5. 149; this Jack, Ant. iii. 13. 93; 103; brag-
garts, Facks, milksops, Ado, v. 1. 91; bragging Jacks, M.V.
iii. 4. 77; insinuating Facks, R3. i. 3. 53; twenty such Facks,
Rom. ii. 4. 160.
Jack, the Jack-o'-lantern or Will-o'-the wisp: your fairy.
has done little better than played the Jack with us, Tp.
iv. 1. 198.
Jack, an automaton that in public clocks struck the bell on
the outside: Jack o' the clock, R2. v. 6. 60; like a Jack, thou
keep'st the stroke, [keepest on striking] R3. iv. 2. 117; minute-
17
258
JACK JAUNCING.
jacks, Tim. iii 6. 107 (where Nares thinks that minute-jacks
mean "fellows who watch the proper minutes to offer their
adulation." Gloss. in v.).
Jack guardant, a Jack-in-offi ce, Cor. v. 2. 67.
Jack shall have fill, M.N.D. iii. 2. 461; Fack hath not Fill,
L.L.L. v. 2. 885: A well-known proverbial expression: Ray
gives, "Every Jack must have his Gill." Proverbs, p. 124,
ed. 1768.
Jack-a-Lent, a puppet thrown at during Lent, as cocks were
thrown at on Shrove-Tuesday. M.W. iii. 3. 27; v. 5. 134.
[Cf. Hazl. Dodsl. xi. 262].
jack-an-apes, an ape, H5. v. 2. 148.
Jack boy! ho boy! Shr. iv. 1. 43. “Is the beginning of an
old round in three parts" (HAWKINS). Extant in Ravens-
croft's Pammelia, 1609.
Jack-sauce, a saucy Jack, H5. iv. 7. 148.
jacks, the keys of the virginals or virginal: those jacks that
nimble leap, Sonn. 128: “The virginal jack was a small flat
piece of wood, furnished on the upper part with a quill,
affixed to it by springs of bristle. These jacks were directed.
by the finger-key to the string which was struck by the
quill, then forced past the string by the elastic spring,
giving it liberty to sound as long as the finger rested on
the key. When the finger was removed, the quill returned
to its place, and a small piece of cloth, fixed on the top
of the jack, resting on the string, stopped its vibration'
(FAIRHOLT), and see virginals-The.
jacks fair within, the jills fair without-Be the, Shr. iv. 1. 51: “A
play upon the words jack and jill, which signify two drinking
measures, as well as men and maid-servants" (STEEVENS).
jade, to ride, to over-sway, to over-master: to let imagination
jade me, 12N. ii. 5. 179; To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet,
H8. iii. 2. 28ɔ.
jade, to drive harassed and dispirited: The ne'er-yet-beaten horse.
of Parthia We have jaded out o' the field, Ant. iii. 1. 34.
jade, to subject to harassing and mean offices: such a jaded
groom, 2H6. iv. 1. 52.
jadery, the properties of a viciou s horse, jadish tricks, (Qo. jadrie)
2N.K. v. 4. 72.
jane judgments, (Qɔ. jave), 2N .K. iii. 5. 8. Jean, a kind of
fustian, coarse cloth.
jape, a jest, Dyce (from Collier's) for Fol. gap, W.T. iv. 4. 198.
jar o' the clock, tick of the clock, W.T. 1. 2. 43.
jar Their watches on unto mine eyes, &c., to tick, R2. v. 5. 51
(F2. has watches to mine).
Jarmany A duke de: see duke de Farmany-A.
jauncing, jaunting, hard-riding ("Iancer vn cheval. To stirre a
horse in the stable till hee sweat withall; or (as our) to jaunt;
FAW-FIGGING.
259
an old word)." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), R2. v. 5. 94.
[Cf. Rom. ii. 5. 26; 53.]
•
jaw, to devour: the wolves would jaw me, 2N.K. iii. 2. 7.
jay, a loose woman (“Putta, a wench, a guirle . a whore,
a trull ... a Iay, a Piot, a Magot-apy." Florio's Ital.
and Engl. Dict.): Some jay of Italy, Cymb. iii. 4. 51; to know
turtles from jays, M.W. iii. 3. 44.
jealous-hood, jealousy, Rom. iv. 4. 13.
jerkin under the line: now, jerkin, you are like to lose your hair,
&c., Tp. iv. 1. 236: A quibbling allusion to the loss of
hair which is frequently suffered by persons who pass the
line, and to the horse-hair line from which Stephano now
takes down the jerkin: see line-Come hang, &c.
Jeronimy-Go by, Shr. Ind. i. 10; alluding to Kyd's Spanish
Tragedy; where Hieronymo uses these words.
jesses, "the short straps of leather, but sometimes of silk, which
went round the legs of a hawk, in which were fixed the
varvels, or little rings of silver, and to these the leash, or
long strap which the falconer twisted round his hand”
(Nares's Gloss.), Oth. iii. 3. 261.
jest-As jocund as to, As jocund as to play a part in a masque
or interlude, R2. i. 3. 95.
jet, to strut: giants may jet through, Cymb. iii. 3. 5; how he jets,
12N. ii. 5. 36; men and dames so jetted, Per. i. 4. 26.
jet upon, to encroach upon: Your sauciness will jet upon my love,
Err. ii. 2. 28 (Globe, jest); to jet Upon the innocent and awless
throne, R3. ii. 4. 51; to jet upon a prince's right, Tit. ii. 1. 64.
Jewess' eye-Worth a, M.V. ii. 5. 43: A slight alteration, for
the nonce, of the proverbial expression, "Worth a Few's eye."
jig, He's for a, Hml. ii. 2. 522: Though formerly, besides mean-
ing a merry dance a jig meant a facetious metrical com-
position, and frequently was synonymous with ballad ("So
in Florio's Italian Dict., 1591, Frottola, a countrie jigg, or
round, or countrie song, or wanton verses,'" MALONE), there
can be no doubt that in the present passage Shakespeare
alludes to a theatrical jig, which was the technical term for
a coarse sort of comic entertainment usually performed
after the play, and occasionally, it would appear, lasting for
an hour: "it seems," says Mr. Collier, "to have been a
ludicrous composition in rhyme, sung, or said, by the clown,
and accompanied by dancing and playing upon the pipe
and tabor." Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 380;
[cf. Ward, i. 476, sec. ed.] ("Farce: A (fond and dissolute)
Play, Comedie, or Enterlude; also, the Iyg at the end of an
Enterlude, wherein some prettie knauerie is acted." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.)
jigging fools, “silly poets" (MALONE), rhyming fools, J.C. iv. 3. 137:
see jig.
260
FIG-MAKER—JUDAS.
jig-maker, a writer of jigs, Hml. iii. 2. 132: see jig.
Joan had not gone out-Old, 2H6. ii. 1. 4: "i.e. the wind was
so high it was ten to one that old Joan would not have
taken her flight at the game" (PERCY).
John-a-dreams, i.e. John of dreams, Dreaming John,—a nick-
name for a dreamy, lumpish, stupid fellow, Hml. ii. 2. 595.
joint-ring, Oth. iv. 3. 73: "Such a ring, of the Elizabethan era,"
writes Mr. Fairholt, "is shewn in the accompanying woodcut
[apud Halliwell's Shakespeare]. It was a split ring, the halves
made to fit in each other very closely when united, and the
joined hands to lock it tight. Such rings were extensively
used, as love-tokens, in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies:" Compare gimmal-bit.
joint-stool-A, Shr. ii. 1. 199 (Globe, join'd stool): An allusion
to the proverbial expression, Cry you mercy, I took you for
a joint-stool, Lr. iii. 6. 54: it is given by Ray, Proverbs,
p. 202, ed. 1768.
Jourdain-Margery, 2H6. i. 2. 75; i. 4. 13: "It appears from
Rymer's Fadera, vol. x. p. 505, that in the tenth year of
King Henry the Sixth, Margery Fourdemayn, John Virley
clerk, and friar John Ashwell were, on the ninth of May 1433,
brought from Windsor by the constable of the castle, to
which they had been committed for sorcery, before the
Council at Westminster, and afterwards, by an order of
Council, delivered into the custody of the Lord Chancellor.
The same day it was ordered by the Lords of Council
that, whenever the said Virley and Ashwell should find
security for their good behaviour, they should be set at
liberty, and in like manner that Jourdemayn should be
discharged on her husband's finding security. This woman
was afterwards burned in Smithfield, as stated in the play
and also in the chronicles" (Douce).
journal, daily, M.M. iv. 3. 92; Cymb. iv. 2. 10.
Jove in a thatched house, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 11: The thatched house
is, of course, the dwelling of Baucis and Philemon: see
Ado, ii. 1. 99. Ovid, Met. viii. 630; "The roofe thereof
was thatched all with straw and fennish reede." (Golding, 1587).
Jove's accord, Troil. i. 3. 238: assent.
Jove's tree, the oak: A.Y.L. iii. 2. 249.
Jovial face-His, His face like that of Jove, Cymb. iv. 2. 311.
joy, to enjoy hope to joy, R2. ii. 3. 15; joy thy life, v. 6. 26;
joy her raven-colour'd love, Tit. ii. 3. 83; joy'd an earthly
throne, 2H6. iv. 9. 1.
Judas was hanged on an elder, L.L.L. v. 2. 610: Such was the
common legend; in accordance to which, Sir John Mandevile
tells us that, in his time, the very tree was to be seen;
And faste by, is zit the Tree of Eldre, that Judas henge
him self upon, for despeyt that he hadde, whan he solde
JUDAS'S—FUTTY.
261
and betrayed oure Lorde." Voiage and Travaile, &c., p. 112,
ed. 1725 (But we find in Pulci,
Era di sopra a la fonte un carrubbio,
L'arbor, si dice, ove s'impiccò Giuda," &c.
Morgante Mag. C. xxv. st. 77:
The Arbor Juda (Cercis siliquastrum), writes Gerarde, "is
thought to be that whereon Iudas did hang himselfe, and
not vpon the Elder tree, as it is vulgarly said." Herbal,
p. 1428, ed. 1633). [Ben Jonson, E.M. in, iv. 4: "He shall
be your Judas, and you shall be his elder-tree to hang on”;
and Langland, Vision of Piers Plowman, i. 67: “Judas he
japed with juwen silver and sithen on an eller honged hym
after."]
Judas's [hair-Something browner than, A.Y.L. iii. 4. 9: Judas
was usually represented, in tapestries, and pictures, with
red hair and beard: Compare Cain-coloured beard.
judicious, judicial: Shall have judicious hearing, Cor. v. 6. 128.
Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower, R2. v. I. 2: "The Tower of
London is traditionally said to have been the work of Julius
Cæsar" (JOHNSON). See Ill-erected.
jump, a hazard, a chance: our fortune lies Upon this jump,
Ant. iii. 8. 6.
jump, to agree: jump with common spirits, M.V. ii. 9. 32; meet
and jump in one, Shr. i. 1. 195; cohere and jump, 12N. v. I.
259; jump not on a just account, Oth. i. 3. 5; jumps with my
humour, 1H4. i. 2. 78; jumpeth with the heart, R3. iii. 1. 11.
jump, to risk, to hazard: jump the life to come, Mcb. i. 7. 7;
jump the after-inquiry, Cymb. v. 4. 188; to jump [Fol.
iumpe] a body with a dangerous physic, Cor. iii. 1. 154. Dyce
considers this a 'rank corruption'; and first read vamp
(after Pope); in later edd. imp as Singer suggested. See Imp.
jump, exactly, coincident with: jump at this dead hour, Hml.
i. 1. 65; jump upon this bloody question, v. 2. 386; jump where
he may Cassio find, Oth. ii. 3. 392; jump as they are here,
2N.K. i. 2. 40.
junkets sweetmeats, dainties (Ital. giuncata), Shr. iii. 2. 250.
Juno-I, his despiteful, &c., A.W. iii. 4. 13: "Alluding to the
story of Hercules" (JOHNSON); "Æn. i. 7-10, especially
tot adire labores" (WALKER).
Jupiter, see pulpiter.
Justice or Iniquity? see Iniquity, &c.
justicer, a justice ("The most ancient law-books have justicers
of the peace as frequently as justices of the peace," REED),
Lr. iii. 6. 23; 59; Cymb. v. 5. 214; justicers, Lr. iv. 2. 79.
jutty, “or jetty . . . that part of a building which shoot foward
beyond the rest. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598:
Barbacane. An outnooke or corner standing out of a house;
a jettie," &c. (MALONE): no jutty, frieze, Mcb. i. 6. 6.
262
JUTTY-KEEP.
jutty, to jut out beyond: jutty his confounded base, H5. iii. 1. 13.
juvenal, a youth, L.L.L. i. 2. 8; iii. 1. 67; M.N.D. iii. 1. 97;
2H4. i. 2. 22.
K
kam, crooked: clean kam, quite crooked, quite wrong (or, as
Brutus subjoins, "Merely awry"), Cor. iii. 1. 304: compare
clean.
Kate!-How now, 1H4. ii. 3. 39: "Shakespeare either mistook
the name of Hotspur's wife (which was not Katharine, but
Elizabeth), or else designedly changed it, out of the remark-
able fondness he seems to have had for the familiar appel-
lation of Kate, which he is never weary of repeating, when
he has once introduced it; as in this scene, the scene of
Katharine and Petruchio, and the courtship between King
Henry V. and the French Princess. The wife of Hotspur
was the Lady Elizabeth Mortimer," &c. (STEEVENS): "Shak-
speare calls this lady [Lady Percy] Kate; Hall and Holin-
shed call her Elinor, and mention that she was aunt to the
Earl of March, on which account Shakspeare, apparently
forgetting that he had correctly styled Lady Percy Mortimer's
sister [see Mortimer. Wor. I cannot blame him, &c.], in
another place (Act. iii. Sc. 1) makes Mortimer speak of
her as his aunt. There is throughout a confusion between
uncle and nephew." Courtenay's Comment. on the Hist.
Plays of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 93 (note).
kecksies, dry hollow stalks of hemlock or similar plants,
H5. v. 2. 52.
Keech-Goodwife, 2H4. ii. 1. 101: such a keech, H8. i. 1. 55.
A keech of tallow is the fat of an ox or cow, rolled up by
the butcher in a round lump, in order to be carried to the
chandler (PERCY). [Here alluding to Wolsey's being the
son of a butcher.]
keel, to cool, L.L.L. v. 2. 939. [Keel seems to mean: to check
a pot from boiling over, by moving it off the fire. Marston,
What you will, Ind.:-"thy braine boiles; keele it, keele it,
or all the fat's i' the fire!"]
keep, care: in Baptista's keep my treasure is, Shr. i. 2. 118.
keep, to live, to dwell: In what place of the field doth Calchas
keep? Troil. iv. 5. 278; where they keep, Hml. ii. 1. 8; where
earth-delving conies keep, Ven. 687: Where youth, and cost,
and witless bravery keeps, M.M. i. 3. 10; as an outlaw in a
castle keeps, 1H6. iii. 1. 47; Where, they say, he keeps, Tit.
v. 2. 5; the habitation, where thou keep'st, M.M. iii. 1. 10;
That ever kept with men, M.V. iii. 3. 19; where the mad-cap
duke his uncle kept, 1H4. 1. 3. 244.
1
KEEP-KEN.
263
keep, to restrain: when a cur cannot keep himself in all com-
panies, 2G. iv. 4. 11.
keep his house-Who cannot keep his wealth must, Who cannot
keep his wealth must "keep within doors for fear of duns"
(JOHNSON), Tim. iii. 3. 42.
keep my stables where I lodge my wife-I'il, W.T. ii. 1. 134:
"What he [Antigonus] means—and the excessive grossness
of the idea can hardly be excused-is, unquestionably, that
if Hermione be proved in continent, he should believe every
woman is unchaste; his own wife as licentious as Semiramis
('Equum adamatum a Semiramide,' &c. Pliny, 1. viii. c. 42),
and where he lodged her he would 'keep,' that is, guard,
or fasten the entry of his stables. This sense of the word
'keep' is so common, even in Shakespeare, that it is amaz-
ing no one should have seen its application here. For
example; 'Dromio, keep the gate.' Comedy of Errors, act.
ii. sc. 2. Keep the door close, sirrah.' Henry VIII. act. v.
sc. I. 'I thank you: keep the door.' Hamlet, act. iv. sc. 5.
Gratiano, keep the house,' &c. Othello, act v. sc. 2 (STAUN-
TON); As to the words 'keep my stables,' compare also the
following passage in Greene's James the Fourth; “A young
stripling... that can wait in a gentleman's chamber when
his master is a mile off, keep his stable when 'tis empty,
and his purse when 'tis full," &c. Works, p. 193, ed. Dyce,
1861: According to Mr. Grant White, Antigonus plainly
means, "I will degrade my wife's chamber into a stable
or dog-kennel.”
•
"}
keep her still, and men in awe- — To, “To keep her still to him-
self, and to deter others from demanding her in marriage"
(MALONE), Per. i. Gow. 36.
keep touch: see the last touch.
keeps his regiment- The Earl of Pembroke, R3. v. 3. 29: “i.e.
remains with it. Thus we say of a person confined by
illness, he keeps his chamber or his bed" (STEEVENS): In
a note on Antony and Cleopatra, act iii, sc. 6, Mr. Collier
observes; "When, in 'Richard III.,' Richmond says, 'The
Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment,' he means his com-
mand generally, and not that the Earl was the colonel of
certain number of men, now called 'a regiment.' The same
remark will apply to Richmond's direction, 'Good lords,
conduct him to his regiment,' speaking of Lord Stanley:'
But compare King John, act ii. sc. 1,
"Up higher to the plain; where we'll set forth
In best appointment all our regiments.”
Keisar, an emperor, M.W. i. 3: 9. [cf. B.J., Tale of a Tub, ii. 1.]
ken, to know: I ken the wight, M.W. i. 3. 40; I ken the manner
of his gait, Troil. iv. 5. 14; Had I kenn'd all that were,
2N.K. v. 1. 100.
264
KEN-KIBE.
ken, to descry: As far as I could ken the chalky cliffs, 2H6.
iii. 2. IOI.
ken, a view, a reach of sight: within a ken, 2H4. iv. 1. 151;
Cymb. iii. 6. 6; losing ken of Albion's wished coast, 2H6.
iii. 2. 113.
Kendal green, 1H4. ii. 4. 246; 257: Kendal in Westmoreland
was celebrated for its manufacture of green cloth.
Kent, in the Commentaries Cæsar writ, Is term'd the civill'st place
of all this isle, 2H6. iv. 7. 65: “So, in Cæsar's Comment.
B. v. [14]; ‘Ex his omnibus [longe] sunt humanissimi qui
Cantium incolunt.' The passage is thus translated by Arthur
Golding, 1590 [1565]: 'Of all the inhabitants of this isle,
the civilest are the Kentishfolke'" (STEEVENS). [See Fuller,
Worthies, i. 485, ed. 1811].
kerchief, a coif, ("A Kerchief, rica, calantica." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.), M.W. iii. 3. 62; iv. 2. 74; J.C. ii. 1. 315 (per-
haps, however, in the second of the passages now referred
to, it may mean "a covering for the breast").
kern, a light-armed foot-soldier of Ireland and of the Western
Isles (the Irish kern, at least, being generally described as
very poor and wild), H5. iii. 7. 56; 2H6. iii. 1. 367; kerns,
R2. ii. 1. 156; 2H6. iii. 1. 310; 361; iv. 9. 26; Mcb. i. 2.
13; 30; V. 7. 17. (Jamieson, in his Etym. Dict. of the Scottish
Language, gives "Kerne. A foot soldier, armed with a dart
or a skean.
'Then ne'er let the gentle Norman blude
Grow cald for highland Kerne.'
[Scott's] Antiquary, iii. 224,
It is used in a similar sense by [English] writers in reference
to the Irish:" again (sub "Galloglach") he has “Kerns is
merely another form of Cateranes:" Perhaps in the last of
the passages of Shakespeare above referred to,
"I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves,"
kerns is equivalent to "boors;" compare
"And these rude Germaine kernes not yet subdued.”
The Tragedy of Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607, sig. c 3 verso).
kettle. a kettle-drum, Hml. v. 2. 286.
key of officer and office-The, Tp. i. 2. 83: Here key is used in
the sense of a tuning key.
key-cold, as cold as a key, R3. i. 2. 5; Lucr. 1774 (“A key,
on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is
composed, was anciently employed to stop any slight bleeding.
The epithet [key-cold] is common to many old writers,"
STEEVENS).
kibe, a chap in the heel, an ulcerated chilblain, Tp. ii. 1. 276;
M.W. i. 3. 35; Hml. v. 1. 153; Lr. 1. 5. 9.
KICKY-WICKY-KINDLY.
265
kicky-wicky, A.W. ii. 3. 297: Whatever may have been the
original meaning of this ludicrous word, it is plainly used
here to signify a wife or mistress. [F2, 3, 4, kicksy-wicksy.]
kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him! Cor. v. 6. 132; Then, kill, kill, kill,
kill, kill, kill! Lr. iv. 6. 191; doth cry “Kill, kill!” Ven. 652:
This was the ancient cry of the English troops when they
charged the enemy.
Killingworth, the old name for Kenilworth, 2H6. iv. 4. 39, 44.
kin, and less than kind-A little more than, Hml. i. 2. 65 [cf. ii.
2. 609]: This may be illustrated by a passage in W. Rowley's
Search for Money, 1609; “I would he were not so neere to
us in kindred, then sure he would be neerer in kindnesse,"
p. 5, ed. Percy Soc. [Less than kind, kindless (q.v.), unnatural ;
cf. Peele, David and Bethsabe, of Amnon's rape of his
sister Thamar: "Amnon's lusty arms sinew'd with vigour
of his kindless love," page 466. So in Gower's Apollonius
(Conf. Am.) “Antiochus with all his pride Which set his
love unkindely.” (= incestuously). Hamlet has this sense of
the relationship in his mind. The King calls him “son,
having married "our sometime sister, now our queen”—a
kindless, incestuous marriage. No doubt the other sense of
kind is also intended.]
kind, nature: the deed of kind, M.V. i. 3. 86; the cat will after
kind, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 109; thy youth and kind, iv. 3. 59; Your
cuckoo sings by kind, A.W. i. 3. 67: in their kind they speak
it, 85; Fitted by kind for rape and villany, Tit. ii. 1. 116;
fell curs of bloody kind, ii. 3. 281; from quality and kind,
J.C. i. 3. 64; the worm will do his kind ("the serpent will
act according to his nature," JOHNSON), Ant. v. 2. 264; to
change their kinds, Lucr. 1147.
kind, natural: Conceit deccitful, so compact, so kind, Lucr. 1423.
kind, possessed of natural affection: O, do not slander him, for
he is kind, R3. i. 4. 247.
kindle, to incite: that I kindle the boy thither, A.Y.L. i. 1. 179.
kindle, to bring forth: dwell where she is kindled, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 358.
kindless, unnatural, without natural affection, [incestuous: note
the climax; cf. kin above] Hml. ii. 2. 609.
kindly, natural: that fatherly and kindly power, Ado, iv. 1. 75;
Frosty, but kindly (suited to the season), A.Y.L. ii. 3. 53;
the bishop hath a kindly gird ("a gird akin to, in keeping
with, fitting, proper to the cardinal's calling," Arrowsmith,
Notes and Queries First Series, vol. vii. p. 543), 1H6. iii. 1. 131.
kindly, naturally, in a natural manner: This do, and do it
kindly, gentle sirs, Shr. Ind. i. 66.
kindly, aptly, pertinently: Thou hast most kindly hit it, Rom. ii. 4. 59.
kindly-Thy other daughter will use thee, Lr. i. 5. 15: "The
Fool uses the word kindly here in two senses; it means
affectionately, and like the rest of her kind" (MASON).
266
KING-KISSING.
King and the Beggar-Ballad of the: see Cophetua-King.
king'd, ruled: King'd of our fears, K.J. ii. 1. 371; she is so idly
king'd ("supplied with a king," JOHNSON in his Dict.),
H5. ii. 4. 26.
king'd, raised to royalty, made a king: Then am I king'd again,
R2. v. 5. 36.
kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages, Troil. ii. 3. 185: Here
kingdom'd has been explained "possessing kingly power,"
"having or seeming to have a kingdom;" Malone refers to
Julius Cæsar, ii. 1. 68, and Schmidt says “like a Kingdom."
kingly poor flout, "a very poor retort for a king" (KNIGHT),
"poor mockery of a King" (SCHMIDT). L.L.L. v. 2. 269.
King Stephen was a worthy peer, Oth. ii. 3. 92, cf. Tp.
iv. I. 221. See Percy, Rel. i. 204, ed. 1794.
kirtle, 2H4. ii. 4. 297; half-kirtles, v. 4. 24: "Few words have
occasioned such controversy among the commentators on
our old plays as this [kirtle]; and all for want of knowing
that it is used in a twofold sense, sometimes for the jacket
merely, and sometimes for the train or upper-petticoat
attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat,
a half-kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the
one or the other: but our ancestors, who wrote when this
article of dress was every where in use, and when there
was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly
contented themselves with the simple term (kirtie), leaving
the sense to be gathered from the context." Gifford's note
on Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 260.
kiss in fee-farm!-A: see fee-farm, &c.
kiss you-To take you out, And not to, H8. i. 4. 96: “A kiss was
anciently the established fee of a lady's partner" (STEEVENS).
kiss thee; then the rot returns To thine own lips again—I will not,
Tim. iv. 3. 64: "This alludes to an opinion in former times,
generally prevalent, that the venereal infection transmitted
to another left the infecter free. I will not, says Timon,
take the rot from thy lips by kissing thee" (JOHNSON).
kissed your keeper's daughter-But not, M.W. i. 1. 116: "This
has the appearance of a fragment of some old ballad" (DOUCE).
kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmitives, &c.-
So that, conclusions to be as, 12N. v. 1. 23: In Lust's Dominion
the Queen says to the Moor;
C
Come, let's kisse.
Moor. Away,' away.
Queen. No, no, sayes I, and twice away, sayes stay.'
Sir Philip Sidney has enlarged upon this thought in the
sixty-third stanza of his Astrophel and Stella (FARMER).
kissing carrion,-a good, "i.e. a carrion good in point of kiss-
ing, worth kissing; cf. too hard a keeping oath, L.L.L. i. 1. 65"
KISSING-COMFITS-KNIVES.
267
(SCHMIDT), Hml. ii. 2. 182. Warburton's god kissing carrion,
if accepted, needs no explanation.
kissing-comfits, sugar-plums perfumed, to sweeten the breath,
M.W. v. 5. 22.
knack, a bauble, a pretty trifle, Shr. iv. 3. 67; W.T. iv. 4. 439;
knacks, M.N.D. i. 1. 34; W.T. iv. 4. 360.
knapped, snapped, broke off short: as lying a gossip in that
as ever knapped ginger, M.V. iii. 1. 10.
knapped, rapped, struck: she knapped 'em o' the coxcombs,
Lr. ii. 4. 125.
knave, a lad, a servant: my good knave, Costard! L.L.L. iii. 1.
144; good, my knave, 153; O, my knave, A.W. ii. 4. 19;
Poor knave, J.C. iv. 3. 241; Gentle knave, 269; Where's my
knave? Lr. i. 4. 46; my friendly knave, 103; my pretty knave,
107; My good knave Eros . my knave, Ant. iv. 14. 12;
he's but Fortune's knave, v. 2. 3; a couple of Ford's knaves,
M.W. iii. 5. 99; All I kept were knaves, to serve-in meat to
villains (“knave is here in the compound sense of a servant
and a rascal," JOHNSON), Tim. iv. 3. 485; Whip me such
honest knaves ("knave is here for servant, but with a sly
mixture of contempt," JOHNSON), Oth. i. 1. 49.
kneel down before you;-but, indeed, to pray for the queen-And
so, 2H4. Epil. 35: "The Morals written and exhibited sub-
sequent to the Reformation almost invariably closed with
an 'epilogue,' in which prayers were offered up by the
actors (usually kneeling) for the King, Queen, nobility,
clergy, and sometimes for the commons. This practice
continued in the beginning of the 17th century, and the
most recent instance that I am aware of is the epilogue to
[Chapman's] Two Wise Men and all the rest Fools, 1619,"
&c. Collier's Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. iii. p. 445:
This practice might be illustrated by quotations from the
conclusions of several early dramas. [Compare 'God save
the King' on play-bills.]
knife I'll help it presently--With this, Rom. iv. 1. 54; this
bloody knife, 62; Laying down her dagger, Rom. iv. 3. dir.:
Daggers, or, as they were more commonly called, knives,
were worn at all times, by every woman in England-
whether they were so in Italy, Shakespeare, I believe, never
inquired, and I cannot tell." Gifford's note on Jonson's
Works, vol. v. p. 221.
knight, votaress of Diana: A.W. i. 3. 120; virgin knight, Ado,
v. 3. 13; thy female knights, 2N.K. v. 1. 140.
knighted in the field, K.J. i. 1. 54: see carpet consideration, &c.
knives—invite them without, Tim. i. 2. 45: "It was the custom
in our author's time for every guest to bring his own knife,"
&c. (RITSON).
knives under his pillow-Hath laid, Lr. iii. 4. 54: "Shakspeare
268
KNOT-GRASS-LADE.
found this charge against the fiend, with many others of
the same nature, in Harsnet's Declaration [of Popish Impos-
tures, 1603], and has used the very words of it" (STEEVENS):
Certainly not "the very words of it."
knot-grass-Hindering, M.N.D. iii. 2. 329: Knot-grass(polyganum
aviculare) was supposed, when taken in an infusion, to have
the power of hindering the growth of any child or animal
(Mr. Beisly is mistaken in saying that "the allusion here
made is to the character of the plant as hindering the growth
of useful plants, as it spreads in thick masses, and is very
tough and deep-rooted." Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 53).
knots disorder'd-Her, R2. iii. 4. 46: see curious-knotted garden.
knowing, information, accomplishment, Cymb. i. 4. 30.
knowledge-Alack for lesser, "O, that my knowledge were
less!" (JOHNSON), W.T. ii. 1. 38.
known, been acquainted: You and I have known, sir, Ant. ii.
6. 86; Sir, we have known together in Orleans, Cymb. i. 4. 36.
L.
label to another deed – The, Rom. iv. 1. 57: "The seals of deeds
in our author's time were not impressed on the parchment
itself on which the deed was written, but were appended
on distinct slips or labels affixed to the deed” (MALONE).
labras, lips, (Span.). M.W. i. 1. 166.
lace, to embellish: streaks Do lace the severing clouds, Rom.
iii. 5. 8; His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood, Mcb.
ii. 3. 118 (see golden blood, &c.); lace itself with his society,
Sonn. 67.
laced mutton-A, 2G. i. I. 102: In this very common cant
expression for a courtesan (see mutton) the meaning of
laced has been a good deal disputed. Perhaps the mutton
was called laced with a quibble,-courtesans being notoriously
fond of finery, and also frequently subjected to the whip:
Du Bartas tells us that St. Louis put down the stews,
"C
Lacing with lashes their unpitied skin,
Whom lust or lucre had bestowed therein."
Works, by Sylvester,-St. Louis the King, p. 539, ed. 1641 :
But in the present passage is laced mutton to be regarded as
synonymous with courtesan? When Speed applies that term
to Julia, does he not use it in the much less offensive sense
of a richly-attired piece of woman's flesh?
lackeying the varying tide, "floating backwards and forwards
with the variation of the tide, like a page or lackey at his
master's heels" (THEOBALD), Ant. i. 4. 46.
lade it dry-He'll, He'll drain it dry, 3H6. iii. 2. 139: On this
LADY-BIRD—LANCASTER.
269
passage in the Cambridge Shakespeare is a note, "lade] lay
or ladle Keightley conj.;" and yet lade is a not uncommon
verb: "To lade (or draine) a riuer with pailes, &c., Bacqueter,
baqueter vne riviere." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.: "To
Lade a river, Decopulo. You may as well bid me Lade
the Sea with a Nut-shel, &c. Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.
lady-bird! - God forbid!—where's this girl?—What, Rom. 1. 3. 3:
'An exquisite touch of nature," writes Mr. Staunton. "The
old nurse in her fond garrulity uses 'lady-bird' as a term
of endearment; but recollecting its application to a female
of loose manners, checks herself:-'God forbid!' her darling
should prove such a one:" In the preceding explanation
I believe that Mr. Staunton is altogether mistaken. The
Nurse says that she has already "bid Juliet come;" she
then calls out, What, lamb! what, lady-bird!" and Juliet
not yet making her appearance, she exclaims, "God for-
bid!-where's this girl?"-the words "God forbid“ being
properly an ellipsis of "God forbid that any accident should
keep her away," but used here merely as an expression of
impatience.
lady of my earth, Rom. i. 2. 15: a gallicism: Fille de terre is
the French phrase for an heiress (STEEVENS).
lady-smocks, "originally called our Lady smocks (Cardamine
pratensis). A common meadow-plant, with blushing white
flowers, appearing early in spring" (Beisly's Shakspere's
Garden, &c., p. 42), L.L.L. v. 2. 905.
lag, the last or lowest part or class: the common lag of people,
Tim. iii. 6. 90. O. Edd. legge.
lag, late, tardy, coming short of: That came too lag to see him
buried, R3. ii. 1. 90; some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag
of a brother, Lr. i. 2. 6; [that in lag hours attend for gray
approachers, 2N.K. v. 4. 8 (= late old age). Cf. "in the lag
of which troup" (= bringing up the rear), Heywood,
Hierarchie, p. 254, ed. 1635].
lag-end, the latter end, 1H4. v. 1. 24; H8. i. 3. 35.
laid: see the second lay.
lakin: see by'r lakin.
laming The shrine of Venus, outgoing, surpassing the shrine,
&c., Cymb. v. 5. 163.
lampass-The, Shr. iii. 2. 52: "The bars [of the palate]
occasionally swell, and rise to a level with, and even beyond
the edge of, the teeth. They are very sore, and the horse
feels badly on account of the pain he suffers from the
pressure of the food on them. This is called the Lampas."
The Horse, by Youatt, p. 192, ed. 1848.
Lancaster-The Duke of, 2H4. i. 3. 82; 'twere better than your
dukedom, 2H4. iv. 3. 93: “This is an anachronism. Prince
John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second
270
LANCES-LAPWING.
year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V." (MALONE):
Douce observes that "Malone ought to have added, ‘and
then not Duke of Lancaster but of Bedford.' Mr. Ritson
seems to have traced the source of Shakspeare's error in
calling Prince John of Lancaster Duke of Lancaster, in
Stowe's Annales; but he has omitted to remark that even
then Shakspeare had forgotten that Prince John was not
the second son of Henry the Fourth. The blunder of the
industrious historian is unaccountable. See the seal of
Henry the Fifth as Prince of Wales and Duke of Lan-
caster in Sandford's Genealogical History."
lances, lance-men: Mars, of lances the almighty, L.L.L. v. 2.
657; our impress'd lances, Lr. v. 3. 50.
land-damn, W.T. ii. 1. 143. "When any slanderer was detected, or
any parties discovered in adultery, it was usual to landan them.
This was done by the rustics traversing from house to house
along the 'country side,' blowing trumpets or beating drums
or kettles. When an audience was assembled, the delinquents'
names were proclaimed; and they were thus land-damned."
See N. S. S. Trans. 1874, p. 511; and N. & Q. 1875.
land-rakers-No foot, "No padders, no wanderers on foot"
(JOHNSON), 1H4. ii. 1. 81 (Globe, Foot-land rakers).
languish, languishment, the state of pining, suffering: cures
with another's languish, Rom. i. 2. 49; rids our dogs of
languish, Ant. v. 2. 42.
lantern, slaughter'd youth-O, no, a, Rom. v. 3. 84: “A lantern
may not, in this instance, signify an enclosure for a lighted
candle, but a louvre, or what in ancient records is styled
lanternium, i.e. a spacious round or octagonal turret full of
windows, by means of which cathedrals, and sometimes
halls, are illuminated. See the beautiful lantern at Ely
Minster" (STEEVENS).
lapp'd, wrapped up, Cymb. v. 5. 360; Mcb. i. 2. 54.
lapp'd in lead, P. Pilg. 396. [Cf. "we will put cunningly a sheete
of lead, and in the same we will inclose the tender corps
&c. L. Twine, Patterne of Paineful Adventures, chap. viii.]
lapsed in this place—If I be, 12N. iii. 3. 36: Here lapsèd seems
to mean caught or found off my guard.
Far from her nest
This lapwing runs
laps'd in time and passion, "having suffered time to slip and
passion to cool" (JOHNSON), Hml. iii. 4. 107.
lapwing-To seem the, &c., M.M. i. 4. 32;
the lapwing cries away, Err. iv. 2. 27;
away with the shell on his head, Hml. v. 2. 193: Allusions
to the lapwing (or peewit) endeavouring to mislead those
who would plunder her nest are very common in our early
writers; aud Ray gives "The lapwing cries most farthest
from her nest." Proverbs, p. 199, ed. 1768: it was also
generally said that the young lapwings ran out of the shell
LARDED-LATTEN.
271
with a portion of it sticking on their heads. (Yarrell, in
his account of the lapwing, quotes Selby for what follows:
"the female birds invariably, upon being disturbed, run
from the eggs, and then fly near to the ground for a short
distance, without uttering any alarm cry. The males, on
the contrary, are very clamorous, and fly round the intruder,
endeavouring, by various instinctive arts, to divert his
attention." Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 482, sec. ed.)
[With the first passage compare:—
These be the lapwing-faces that still cry
"Here 't is!" when that they vow is nothing nigh;
Base fools! when every moorish fowl can teach
That which men think the height of human speech."
Chapman, Hero and Leander, iii. Also see George Gascoigne's
Complaint of Philomene, pp. 109, 118, ed. Arber.]
larded with sweet flowers, garnished, strewed with, sweet flowers,
Hml. iv. 5. 37.
large, free, coarse, licentious ['broad,' HERFORD]: large jests,
Ado, ii. 3. 206; word too large, iv. 1. 53.
lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes, &c.-Some say the, Rom. iii.
5. 31: "The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very
ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying amongst
the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes” (WAR-
BURTON).
lash'd with woe, Err. ii. 1. 15: In this passage does lash'd mean
"punished," or is it to be understood as leash'd or lac'd?
lass-lorn, forsaken by his mistress, Tp. iv. 1. 68.
latch, to lay hold of, to catch: Where hearing should not latch
them, Mcb. iv. 3. 195; which it doth latch, Sonn. 113.
latch, to lick over, to anoint: latch'd the Athenian's eyes, M.N.D.
iii. 2. 36 (Fr. lecher): so, at least, Hanmer explains latch'd
in this passage: and his explanation is adopted as the true
one in Richardson's Dict.
late, recent, new: As great to me as late, Tp. v. 1. 145; the late
(lately appointed) commissioners, H5. ii. 2. 61.
late, lately, recently: The mercy that was quick in us but late,
H5. ii. 2. 79; late-despised Richard, 1H6. ii. 5. 36; bereft thee
of thy life too late, 3H6. ii. 5. 93; late entering at his heedful
ears, iii. 3. 63; Too late he died that might have kept that
title. R3. iii. i. 99: It pleas'd the king his master very late,
Lr. ii. 3. 123; that life Which she too early and too late hath
spill'd, Lucr. 1801.
lated, belated, benighted, Mcb. iii. 3. 6; Ant. iii. 11. 3.
lath, a contemptuous term for a sword: have your lath glu'd
within your sheath, Tit. ii. 1. 41.
lath-Dagger of: see Dagger, &c.
latten, a sort of mixed metal, resembling brass in its nature
and colour; but sometimes white ("Buttons of steel, copper,
272
LAUGH-AND-LIE-DOWN—LAY.
tin, or latton, for Jerkins." The Rates of the Custome house,
&c. 1582, sig. a vii. verso): this latten bilbo (= this sword
without edge and temper), M.W. i. 1. 165: see bilbo: “The
sarcasm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor
strength" (HEATH).
laugh-and-lie-down (more properly Laugh-and-lay-down) was
a game at cards, to which there is an allusion in what
follows:
"I could laugh now.
Wait.-w. I could lie down, I'm sure:'
2N.K. ii. 2. 152.
-
laughing as, Ha, ha, he!-Some be of, Ado, iv. 1. 23: "A quota-
tion from the Accidence" (Johnson).
laund, a lawn, 3H6. iii. 1. 2; 2N.K. iii. 1. 2 (Qo. land).
laundering, washing, L. Compl. 17.
laundry-His, M.W. i. 2. 5: "Sir Hugh means to say his
launder" (STEEVENS).
lavish, uncontrolled, licentious, 2H4. iv. 4. 64; Mcb, i. 2. 67.
lavolt, Troil. iv. 4. 88; lavoltas, H5. iii. 5. 33: The lavolt or
lavolta was a dance for two persons, consisting much in
high bounds and whirls (Sir John Davies thus prettily
describes it;
<<
Yet is there one the most delightfull kind,
A loftie iumping, or a leaping round,
Where arme in arme two dauncers are entwind,
And whirle themselues, with strict embracements bound;
And still their feet an anapest do sound;
An anapest is all their musicks song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."
Orchestra, &c., st. 70),
law of writ and the liberty-For the, Hml. ii. 2. 421. Rowe
altered writ to wit. [The preceding words seems to indicate
the meaning the law of writ-the strict Senecan style of
writing, and the liberty,-the Plautian. "Probably, however,
the reference is to written plays and extemporised parts"
(DowDEN)].
lay, a wager: A dreadful lay, 2H6. v. 2. 27; my fortunes against
any lay worth naming, Oth. ii. 3. 330; I will have it no lay,
Cymb. i. 4. 159.
lay, to waylay: all the country is laid for me, [beset], 2H6. iv. 10. 4.
"lay by," and spent with crying "bring in"-Got with swearing,
1H4. i. 2. 40: “Lay by" (properly a nautical phrase, mean-
ing "become stationary by slackening sail") is supposed to
be used here for the "Stand!" of highwaymen; "bring in
is, of course, “bring in more wine."
"
lay for, to lay out for, to strive to win: lay for hearts, Tim.
iii. 5. 115.
LAZAR-LEASING.
273
lazar, a person beggarly and leper-like: H5. i. 1. 15; Troil. ii.
3. 36; v. I. 72; lazar-like, Hml. i. 5. 72. Literally, like the
beggar Lazarus.
lead his [the bear-ward's] apes into hell Ado, ii. 1. 43; lead apes
in hell, Shr. ii. 1. 34: "To lead apes' was in our author's
time, as at present, one of the employments of a bear-
ward, who often carries about one of those animals along
with his bear: but I know not how this phrase came to
be applied to old maids" (MALONE): "That women who
refused to bear children should, after death, be condemned
to the care of apes in leading-strings, might have been con-
sidered as an act of posthumous retribution" (STEEVENS).
leaguer, A.W. iii. 6. 27: "Is the Dutch, or rather Flemish,
word for a camp; and was one of the new-fangled terms
introduced from the Low-Countries." Gifford's note, on
Massinger's Works, vol. iii. p. 121, ed. 1813: It is generally
used to signify the camp of the assailants in a siege.
Leander cross'd the Hellespont-How young, 2G. i. 1. 22: to
scale another Hero's tower, &c., iii. 1. 120: Perhaps allusions
to Marlowe's poem Hero and Leander, which, though not
printed till 1598, might have been read by Shakespeare
before it reached the press, for there is no doubt that in
those days poems were much handed about in manuscript:
Shakespeare has quoted a line from it in A.Y.L. iii. 5. 83.
learn, teach, Tit. ii. 3. 143.
lease-That they are out by, 2G. v. 2. 29: "By Thurio's posses-
sions, he himself understands his lands and estate. But
Proteus chooses to take the word likewise in a figurative
sense, as signifying his mental endowments; and when he
says they are out by lease, he means they are no longer
enjoyed by their master (who is a fool), but are leased out
to another" (LORD HAILEs).
leash of drawers-A, A tierce of drawers (viz. Tom, Dick, and
Francis, who are immediately mentioned), 1H4. ii. 4. 7:
Leash is properly a string or thong by which a dog is led;
and it came to signify a tierce" or "three," because
usually three dogs were [leashed] together: “A Leace of
Greyhounds is three." R. Holme's Academy of Armory and
Blazon, B. iii. ch. iii. p. 76: “A leash of hounds, canum
ternio." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict. (In Sylvester's Du
Bartas I find
"As Citizens
•
by leashes [the original “trois à trois] and by payrs,
Crowned with Garlands, go to take the ayrs," &c.
See trash.
Fifth Day of tho First Week, p. 40, ed. 1641).
leasing, lying, 12N. i. 5. 105; Cor. v. 2. 22: The former passage
18
274
LEATHER-COATS-LENTEN.
has been explained "May Mercury teach thee to lie, since
thou liest in favour of fools" (JOHNSON).
leather-coats, the apples generally known as golden russetings,
2H4. v. 3. 44.
leave, licentiousness: love, whose leave exceeds commission,
Ven. 568.
leave, to part with: to leave her token, 2G. iv. 4. 79; he would
not leave it, M.V. v. 1. 172; I may not leave it so (“I may
not so resign my office,' which you offer to take on you
at your peril," JOHNSON), R3. iv. 1. 27; As will not leave
their tinct, Hml. iii. 4. 91.
leave, to leave off, to desist: I cannot leave to love, 2G. ii. 6. 18;
You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave? 2H6. iii. 2. 333-
leave-Good: see good leave, &c.
leech, a physician, Tim. v. 4. 84.
leer, complexion, colour: a Rosalind of a better leer, A.Y.L. iv.
1. 67; fram'd of another leer, Tit. iv. 2. 119.
leese, to lose, Sonn. 5.
leet, Shr. Ind. 2. 89; leets, Oth. iii. 3. 140: “Leet. A manor
court, or private jurisdiction for petty offences; also a day
on which such court is held." Nares's Gloss.
leg, the sign of the, the sign of a neatly-booted leg, hung out-
side bootmakers' shops, 2H4. ii. 4. 271.
leg, a bow, an obeisance: Make a leg, A.W. ii. 2. 10; R2. iii. 3. 175;
here is my leg, 1H4. ii. 4. 427; I doubt whether their legs
be worth the sums, Tim. i. 2. 238.
legerity, lightness, nimbleness, H5. iv. 1. 23.
'leges, alleges, Shr. i. 2. 28; Tyrwhitt would read: be leges in
Latin, if &c. very ingeniously; but I believe that the old
text is right, that Shakespeare here makes Grumio, though
an Italian, mistake his native language for Latin.
leiger: see lieger.
leisure and the fearful time-The, R3. v. 3. 97; The leisure and
enforcement of the time, 238; spiritual leisure, H8. iii. 2. 140:
On the first of these passages Johnson observes, “We have
still a phrase equivalent to this, however harsh it may seem,
'I would do this, if leisure would permit,' where leisure,
as in this passage, stands for want of leisure. So again [in
the second passage]:" According to Nares, "It stands simply
for time or space allowed." Gloss. in v. See trust.
leman, a paramour, a lover: his wife's leman, M.W. iv. 2. 172.
leman, a mistress, a sweetheart: sixpence for thy leman, 12N. ii.
3. 26; drink unto the leman mine, 2H4. v. 3. 49.
length, delay, stay: All length is torture, Ant. iv. 14. 46.
lent him visitation, paid him a visit, M.M. iii. 2. 255.
lenten, spare (like the fare in Lent): A good lenten (short,
laconic) answer, 12N. i. 5. 9; what lenten (sparing, slight)
entertainment the players shall receive from you, Hml. ii. 2. 329;
"
L'ENVOY-LEVY.
275
a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, Rom. ii. 4. 139: used in lent
(quibbling).
l'envoy, A technical term (old French) to signify a sort of
postscript-a farewell or moral at the end of a poem, and
sometimes of a prose piece, L.L.L. iii. 1. 73; 75; 80; 105; 110.
leopards tame-Lions make, R2. i. 1. 174: An allusion to the
Norfolk crest, which was a golden leopard.
lesser linen-When the kite builds, look to, W.T. iv. 3. 24:
"When the good women, in solitary cottages near the woods
where kites build, miss any of their lesser linen, as it hangs
to dry on the hedge in spring, they conclude that the kite
has been marauding for a lining to her nest; and there
adventurous boys often find it employed for that purpose"
(HOLT WHITE).
let, a hindrance: That I may know the let, H5. v. 2. 65; thy
kinsmen are no let to me, Rom. ii. 2. 69; but swells the
higher by this let, Lucr. 646; kill him without lets, 2N.K. iii.
5. 156; these lets attend the time, Lucr. 330.
let, to hinder: That kings should let their ears hear their faults
chid, Per. i. 2. 62; Who with a lingering stay his course
doth let, Lucr. 328; What lets but one may enter, 2G. iii. 1. 113;
what lets it but he would be here, Err. ii. 1. 105; If nothing
lets to make us happy both, 12N. v. 1. 256; I'll make a ghost
of him that lets me, Hml. i. 4. 85.
let, to detain: To let him there a month, W.T. i. 2. 41.
let, to forbear: did not let To praise, Lucr. 10.
let him be a noble, even though he be a nobleman, H8. iv. 2. 146.
lethe-Crimson'd in thy, J.C.iii. 1. 206: Folio Lethee. Capell, Gloss.
sub Lethe says that here it is "a term used by hunters, to
signify-the blood shed by a deer at its fall, with which
it is still a custom to mark those who come in at the death.”
Usually explained Death. [Cf. Gorboduc, iv. i: "Of their
entrails to stain thy deadly hands With blood deserved,
and drink thereof thy fill."]
letter, "recommendation from powerful friends" (JOHNSON):
Preferment goes by letter, Oth. i. 1. 36.
letters-patents, R2. ii. 1. 202; ii. 3. 130; H8. iii. 2. 250: So
Shakespeare and his contemporaries wrote,-not "letters-
patent." (Nay, even Pope, writing to Craggs in 1712, uses
the expression. "Letters Patents." Works, vol. viii. p. 233, ed.
Roscoe).
level, a range, a line of aim; out of the blank and level of my
brain, W.T. ii. 3. 6; My life stands in the level of your
dreams, iii. 2. 82; i' the level of a full-charg'd confederacy,
HS. i. 2. 2; within the level of your frown, Sonn. 117; not
a heart which in his level came, L. Compl. 309.
levy-As far as to the sepulchre of Christ .
Forthwith a
power of English shall we, 1H4. i. 1. 22. Gifford (Jonson's
276
LEWD-LICENSE.
Wks., v. 138) compares: "Scipio, before he levied his forces
to the walls of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the
citie in a cake to be devoured." Gosson, School of Abuse,
1587, E. 4.
lewd, wicked, base, vile: this lewd fellow, MM. v. 1. 515; 'tis
lewd and filthy, Shr. iv. 3. 65; detained for lewd employments,
R2. i. 1. 90; such lewd, such mean attempts, 1H4. iii. 2. 13;
trouble him with lewd complaints, R3. i. 3. 61 (where Steevens
understands lewd to mean, "rude, ignorant"); thy lewd-
tongu'd wife, W.T. ii. 3. 172.
lewdly, wickedly: lewdly given, 1H4. ii. 4. 469; lewdly bent, 2H6.
ii. 1. 167; I have lied so lewdly, 2N.K. iv. 2. 35.
lewdsters, lewd persons, libertines, M.W. v. 3. 23.
libbard's head on knee—With, L.L.L. v. 2. 551: The knee-caps
in old dresses and in plate-armour frequently represented
a libbard's (i.e. a leopard's) head.
liberal, libertine, licentious, frank beyond decency, free-spoken,
free to excess: She is too liberal ("licentious and gross in
language," JOHNSON), 2G. iii. 1. 355; a liberal villain, Ado,
iv. I. 93; The liberal opposition of our spirits, L.L.L. v. 2. 743;
Something too liberal, M.V. ii. 2. 194; a liberal tongue, R2.
ii. 1. 229; liberal shepherds, Hml. iv. 7. 171; liberal counsellor,
Oth. ii. 1. 165; speak as liberal (“free, under no control,'
STEEVENS) as the north, v. 2. 220; liberal wits, 2N.K. v. 1. 102.
liberty, libertinism, licentiousness: lust and liberty, Tim. iv. 1. 25;
liberties of sin ("licensed offenders," STEEVENS; “sinful
liberties," MALONE), Err. i. 2. 102.
..
license to kill for a hundred lacking one a week—A, 2H6. iv. 3. 8.
Malone was the first who introduced the words "a week'
from the corresponding passage in the First Part of the
Contention, &c. which is "Thou shalt have licence to kill
for fourscore and one a week. Shakespeare changed the
number to ninety-nine, perhaps from that number being
familiar to him... in leases. But the words “a week"...
must have been accidentally omitted in the transcript or
at the press . . . In the reign of Elizabeth butchers were
strictly enjoined not to sell flesh meat in Lent, not with a
religious view, but for the double purpose of diminishing
the consumption of flesh meat during that period, and
so making it more plentiful during the rest of the year,
and of encouraging the fisheries and augmenting the number
of seamen. Butchers who had interest at court frequently
obtained a dispensation from this injunction, and procured a
license to kill a certain limited number of beasts a week,
during Lent; of which indulgence the wants of invalids,
who could not subsist without animal food, was generally
made the pretence. See the Proclamations in the Library
of the Society of Antiquaries." MALONE.
4
LICHAS-LIFE.
277
Lichas, M.V. ii. 1. 32; Ant. iv. 12. 45: The attendant on Hercules,
by whom he was thrown into the sea for having brought
to him the poisoned garment from Deianeira.
lie, to reside, to sojourn: Does he lie at the Garter? M.W. ii.
1. 187; She must lie here on mere necessity, L.L.L. i. 1. 149;
her poor castle where she lies, 1H6. ii. 2. 41; or else lie for
you (or else reside in prison in your stead). R3. i. 1. 115;
Lies now even in the centre of this isle, v. 2. 11; when the
court lay at Windsor, M.W. ii. 2. 63.
Lie there, my art, Tp. i. 2. 25: "Sir Will. Cecil, Lord Burleigh,
Lord High Treasurer, &c., in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
when he put off his gown at night, used to say, Lie there,
Lord Treasurer. Fuller's Holy State, p. 257” (Steevens):
So in A Pleasant Commodie called Looke about you, which
was printed in 1600 (and therefore preceded The Tempest),
Skinke puts off his hermit's robes with a similar expression;
"Rob. Adew, good father.-Holla there, my horse!
Skin. Vp-spur the kicking iade, while I make speede
To conjure Skinke out of his hermits weede.
Lye there religion."
Sig. A 2 verso:
[Exit.
in Chettle's Tragedy of Hoffman, 1631 (which was also an
earlier play than The Tempest, see Henslowe's Diary, p.
229, ed. Shake. Soc.), Lorrique, throwing off the disguise
of a French doctor, says,
Sig. G:
"Doctor lie there. Lorrique, like thyselfe appeare."
and in Ford's Lover's Melancholy Corax exclaims, "I'll stay
in spite of thy teeth. There lies my gravity [Throws off
his gown." Works, vol. i. p. 23, ed. Gifford: I may add,
that in Shadwell's Virtuoso, Sir Samuel Harty lays aside
his female dress with the words, "So, tyrewoman, lie thou
there." Act iv. p. 388, Works, ed. 1720.
lief—As, As willingly, as soon: M.W. iii. 1. 63; iv. 2. 117; M.M.
i 2. 34; Ado, ii. 3. 84; A.Y.L. iv. 1. 52; etc.
liefest, dearest, 2H6. ii. 1. 164.
lieger, or leiger, a resident ambassador at a foreign court,
M.M. iii. 1. 59; liegers, Cymb. i. 5. 80.
lien, lain, K.J. iv. 1. 50; Per. iii. 2. 85.
lieu-In, In consideration of, in return for: in lieu o' the premises,
Tp. i. 2. 123; in lieu thereof, 2G. ii. 7. 88; in lieu whereof,
M.V. iv. 1. 410; K.J. v. 4. 44; In lieu of this, H5. i. 2. 255;
L.L.L. iii. 1. 130; In lieu of all thy pains, A.Y.L. ii. 3. 65.
lieutenantry-Dealt on: see dealt on, &c.
life-She that dwells Ten leagues beyond man's, “at a greater
distance than the life of man is long enough to reach'
(STEEVENS), Tp. ii. 1. 247.
life, and observation strange-With good: see good life, And
observation, &c.
278
LIFTER-LIMB-MEAL.
lifter, a thief, Troil. i. 2. 129 (with a quibble).
light, lighted, fallen: You are light into my hands, Per. iv. 2. 77.
light of ear, "credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious
reports" (JOHNSON), Lr. iii. 4. 95.
lighten thee-The Lord, The Lord enlighten thee (with a
quibble-make thee lighter), 2H4. ii. 1. 208.
lightly, easily, readily: will not lightly trust the messenger, Err.
iv. 4. 5; Believe 't not lightly, Cor. iv. 1. 29.
lightly, commonly, usually: Short summers lightly have a for-
ward spring, R3. iii. 1. 94.
lightly, were it heavier-I weigh it, "I should still esteem it
but a trifling gift, were it heavier" (WARBURTON), R3. iii. 1. 121.
lightning before death--A, Rom. v. 3. 90: “A proverbial phrase
partly deduced from observation of some extraordinary
effort of nature, often made in sick persons just before
death; and partly from a superstitious notion of an ominous
and preternatural mirth, supposed to come on at that period,
without any ostensible reason." Nares's Gloss.
like, likely: as like as it is true, M.M. v. 1. 104.
like, to make like, to liken: like me to the peasant boys of
France, 1H6. iv. 6. 48; liking his father to a singing-man
of Windsor, 2H4. ii. 1. 97.
like, to please: an it like your majesty, 1H4. ii. 4. 462; complex-
ions that liked me, A.Y.L. Epil. 20; the music likes you not,
2G. iv. 2. 56; It likes me well, Shr. iv. 4. 62; The offer likes
not, H5. iii. Prol. 32; this lodging likes me better, H5. iv. 1.
16; some conceit or other likes him well, R3. iii. 4. 51; that
that likes not you, Troil. v. 2. 102; It likes us well, Hml.
ii. 2. 80; This likes me well, v. 2. 276; His countenance likes
me not, Lr. ii. 2. 96.
like well--You, You are in good case, good condition of body,
2H4. iii. 2. 92: see liking.
likelihood, "similitude" (WARBURTON): by a lower but loving
likelihood, H5. v. Prol. 29.
likelihood, "semblance, appearance" (JOHNSON); By any like-
lihood be showed to-day, R3. iii. 4. 57.
liking, condition of body: to make difference of men's liking,
M.W. ii. 1. 57; while I am in some liking ("while I have
some flesh, some substance," MALONE), 1H4. iii. 3. 6. (Com-
pare Greene's Neuer too late, Part First; "Here is weather
that makes grasse plentie and sheepe fatte; ... and
yet I haue one sheepe in my fold thats quite out of liking."
Sig. o verso. ed. 1611).
Limander . . . Helen, blunders for Leander and Hero, M.N.D.
V. I. 198.
limbeck, an alembic, Mcb. 1. 7. 67.
limb-meal, limb by limb, (Compare inch-meal-By). Cymb.
ii. 4. 147.
LIMBO-LIMOGES.
279
Limbo, hell (properly, the borders of hell): of Satan, and of
Limbo, A.W. v. 3. 261; As far from help as Limbo is from
bliss, Tit. iii. 1. 149.
Limbo, a cant term for "a prison, confinement:
Tartar Limbo, worse than hell, Err. iv. 2. 32.
he's in
Limbo Patrum—In, A cant expression for "in prison, in con-
finement," H8. v. 4. 67: According to the schoolmen, Lim-
bus Patrum was the place, bordering on hell, where the
souls of the patriarchs and saints of the Old Testament
remained till the death of our Saviour, who, in descending
into hell, set them free.
Limbs of Limehouse-The: see Tribulation of Tower-Hill, &c.
lime, bird-lime: put some lime upon your fingers, Tp. iv. 1. 246;
lay lime to tangle her desires, 2G. iii. 2. 68.
lime in this sack—Here's: see sack, &c.
lime-Froth and: see froth and lime.
limekilns, chalkstones, Troil. v. 1. 25.
limit of your lives-The, The limited time of your lives, R3. iii 3.8.
limit-Strength of:-see strength of limit.
limit, to appoint: Limit each leader to his several charge, R3.
v. 3. 25; For 'tis my limited service, Mcb. ii. 3. 57.
limited professions, Tim. iv. 3. 431: Here limited is explained
by Warburton "legal," by Malone "regular, orderly," by
Steevens "to which people are regularly and legally ap-
pointed," by Mr. Knight "legalised," by Mr. Collier
"restricted."
limits of the charge set down—And many, 1H4. i. 1. 35: Here
limits is explained by Warburton estimates," by Heath
"outlines, rough sketches, or calculations," by Malone "the
regulated and appointed times for the conduct of the busi-
ness in hand," by Mr. Collier "bounds of the expense,
[by Schmidt "amount"].
Limoges! O Austria!-0, K.J. iii. 1. 114: "Shakespeare has,
on this occasion, followed the old play [The Troublesome
Raigne of Iohn, &c.], which at once furnished him with
the character of Falconbridge, and ascribed the death of
Richard I. to the duke of Austria. In the person of
Austria he has conjoined the two well-known enemies
of Coeur-de-lion [following the old play, where Austria is
called Lymoges. the Austrich Duke]. Leopold, Duke of
Austria, threw him into prison, in a former expedition [in
1193]: but the castle of Chaluz, before which he fell [in
1199], belonged to Vidomar, Viscount of Limoges; and the
archer who pierced his shoulder with an arrow (of which
wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. The editors
seem hitherto to have understood Lymoges as being an
appendage to the title of Austria, and therefore inquired
no further about it" (BLAKE).
280
LINCOLNSHIRE-LING.
Lincolnshire bagpipe-The drone of a, 1H4. i. 2. 85: "Lincoln-
shire bagpipes' is a proverbial saying. Fuller has not
attempted to explain it; and Ray only conjectures that the
Lincolnshire people may be fonder of this instrument than
others" (Douce).
line-This most memorable, H5. ii. 4. 88: Here line means
"genealogy, deduction of his lineage" (JOHNSON).
line of life, one of the lines in the palm of the hand, accord-
ing to the language of palmistry, M.V. ii. 2. 169.
line-Come, hang them on this, Tp. iv. 1. 193: The late Joseph
Hunter, in his Essay on the Tempest, maintains that here
"line" means a linden or lime-tree. But though, a little
after in this play, mention is made of "the line-grove,”
it is evident that here a rope, and not a tree, is spoken
of. If no other objection could be urged against Mr.
Hunter's acceptation of the word line, we surely have a
decisive one in the joke of Stephano, "Now, jerkin, you
are like to lose your hair" (see jerkin under the line, &c.);
a joke to which it is impossible to attach any meaning,
unless we suppose that the line was a hair-line. Mr. Knight
observes; “In a woodcut of twelve distinct figures of trades
and callings of the time of James I. (see Smith's 'Cries of
London,' p. 15), and of which there is a copy in the British
Museum, we have the cry of 'Buy a hairline!'" And in
Lyly's Midas, a barber's apprentice facetiously says, "All
my mistres' lynes that she dryes her cloathes on, are made
only of Mustachio stuffe [i.e. of the cuttings of moustachios]."
Sig. G 2 verso, ed. 1592. [“Stephano plays upon two current
senses of the phrase: (1) staked (at tennis), and so waiting
to be claimed, the wager being deposited 'under the line';
(2) on the equator, where fevers might be contracted resulting
in loss of hair. Hence . . . 'bald jerkin' . . . also . .
'like to lose' the horsehair line on which it hung." HERFORD.]
line, to strengthen: To line his enterprise, 1H4. ii. 3. 86; did
line the rebel, Mcb. i. 3. 112.
line, to delineate: All the pictures fairest lin'd, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 97.
line-grove, a grove of linden or lime-trees, Tp. v. 1. 10.
ling, heath, broom, furze, Tp. i. 1. 70: Feeling convinced that
this reading is sufficiently established by what has been
said of it in note 4, i. 198, I should have made no allusion
to it here, had I not found that Mr. Beisly defends the
old lection, “long heath and brown furze, because ling and
heath or heth are names for one and the same plant, and
Shakspere would not have called this plant by two different
common names." Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 12: But Farmer
has shown (vide the note just referred to) that Harrison,
in his description of Britain prefixed to Holinshed, speaks
of heath and ling as different plants; and I have little
LINK-LITTLE.
281
doubt there are other old writers who have made the same
distinction. (Mr. Beisly, in his "Introduction," declares
most extravagantly that Shakespeare's "knowledge of Botany
was not less than that of any other branch of natural history
he investigated and described," p. xviii.) [In 5 & 6 Ed. VI.,
cap. 5: "stubbed or wonne from Wood, Bushes, Broome,
or Firres."]
link, to colour Peter's hat-There was no, Shr. iv. 1. 137: “A
link is a torch of pitch. Greene, in his Mihil Mumchance,
says; 'This cozenage is used likewise in selling old hats
found upon dung-hills, instead of newe, blackt over with
the smoake of an old linke (STEEVENS): The tract just
quoted is wrongly attributed to Greene.
linsey-woolsey, meaningless jargon, A.W. iv. 1. 13.
linstock, the stick which holds the gunner's match, H5. iii.
Prol. 33.
written 'like a lion
lions-Like one of the, 2G. ii. 1. 29: "If Shakespeare had not
been thinking of the lions in the Tower, he would have
(RITSON); a note carped at by Mr.
Knight, who seems to have forgotten that a caged lion
paces up and down his prison very majestically.
lip, to kiss, Oth. iv. 1. 72; lipp'd, Ant. ii. 5. 30.
Lipsbury pinfold, Lr. ii. 2..9: A pinfold is a pound; but what
the commentators have written about the name Lipsbury
is too unsatisfactory to be cited: [Nares thinks that a pun
on lips is intended, and that the phrase = teeth.]
liquor, to rub with oil or grease, in order to keep out the
water: liquor fishermen's boots with me, M.W. iv. 5. 100;
justice hath liquored her, 1H4. ii. 1. 94.
list, desire, inclination: when I have list to sleep, Oth. ii. 1. 105.
list, a limit, a boundary: the list of my voyage, 12N. iii. 1. 86;
The very list, 1H4. iv. 1. 51; within the weak list of a
country's fashion, H5. v. 2. 295; The ocean, overpeering of
his list, Hml. iv. 5. 99; Confine yourself but in a patient list,
Oth. iv. 1. 76.
list, to like, to please, to choose: let them take it as they list,
Rom. i. 1. 47; “If we list to speak," Hml. i. 5. 177; do what
she list, Oth. ii. 3. 352.
lither sky-The, 1H6. iv. 7. 21: "[Here] lither is flexible or
yielding" (JOHNSON); and see Richardson's Dict. in “Lithe,”
&c. (With lither sky-which has been explained quite
erroneously, "lazy sky"-compare the "agitabilis aër” of
Ovid,
"Terra feras cepit; volucres agitabilis aër." Met. i. 75.)
little-In, In miniature: Heaven would in little show, A.Y.L.
iii. 2. 148; his picture in little, Hml. ii. 2. 384. (The ex-
pression in little is found occasionally in writers long after
282
LITTLE ENGLAND-LOACH.
the time of Shakespeare: so in Pepys's Diary, &c., "Cooper,
the great limner in little," vol. i. p. 309, ed. 1848; and in
Shadwell's Sullen Lovers, "I will paint with Lilly [Lely],
and draw in little with Cooper for 5000l." Works, vol. i. p. 27.)
little England, H8. ii. 3. 46: "probably a covert allusion to
Pembrokeshire, which was known as little England beyond
Wales" (HERFORD.)
little pot, and soon hot-A, Shr. iv. 1. 6: A proverbial expression.
live i̇' the sun-To, “Is to labour and 'sweat in the eye of
Phœbus,' or vitam agere sub dio" (TOLLET), “To make his
pleasures consist in the enjoyment of the sunshine, and
simple blessing of the elements" (CALDECOTT), A.Y.L. ii. 5. 41.
livelihood, liveliness, appearance of life, animation, A.W. i. 1. 58.
lively, living: thy lively body, Tit. iii. 1. 105.
liver, anciently supposed to be the inspirer of amorous passion
and the seat of love: the ardour of my liver, Tp. iv. 1. 56;
With liver burning hot, M.W. ii. 1. 121; If ever love had
interest in his liver, Ado. iv. 1. 233; wash your liver as clean,
&c., A.Y.L. iii. 2. 443; when liver, brain and heart, &c.,
12N. i. 1. 37; motion of the liver, ii. 4. 101; liver and all,
ii. 5. 106; were my wife's liver infected, &c., W.T. i. 2. 304;
I had rather heat my liver with drinking (than have it
heated with love), Ant. i. 2. 23; the coal which in his liver
glows, Lucr. 47; Hot livers, 1H4. ii. 4. 355; heat of our
livers, 2H4. i. 2. 198.
liver-vein-The, L.L.L. iv. 3. 74: see the preceding article.
livery-Sue His, R2. ii. 1. 204; 1H4. iv. 3. 62; sue my livery,
R2. ii. 3. 129: "On the death of every person who held
by knight's service, the escheator of the court in which he
died summoned a jury, who enquired what estate he died
seized of, and of what age his next heir was. If he was
under age, he became a ward of the king's; but if he was
found to be of full age, he then had a right to sue out a
writ of ouster le main, that is, his livery, that the king's
hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him"
(MALONE). [Compare: "Our little Cupid hath sued livery,
And is no more in his minority." Donne, Eclogue, 89].
living, fortune, possessions: life, living, all is Death's, Rom. iv.
5. 40 (a passage which has been misunderstood); If I gave
them all my living, Lr. i. 4. 120; in virtues, beauties, livings,
friends, M.V. iii. 2. 158.
lizards' stings, 2H6. iii. 2. 325; lizards' dreadful stings. 3H6. ii.
2. 138; Lizard's leg, and Howlet's wing, Mcb. iv. 1. 17: It
was commonly believed in Shakespeare's day that the poor
harmless lizard had a sting and was a venomous reptile.
loach-Your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a, 1H4. ii. 1. 23.....
"When the obtuse Carrier tells us that his horse-provender
is as dank as a dog-that chamber-lie breeds fleas like a
LOB-LONDON-BRIDGE.
283
loach, and that he himself is stung like a tench and as well
bitten as a king, he means no more, than that the peas and
beans are very damp, that chamber-lie breeds many fleas,
and that he is severely stung," &c. (STAUNTON).
lob of spirits-Thou, Thou lubber of spirits, M.N.D. ii. 1. 16:
Mr. Grant White is probably right in saying that here lob
"is descriptive of the contrast between Puck's squat figure
and the airy shapes of the other fays:" As Puck could
fly “swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow,” and “could
put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes," the
Fairy can hardly mean, as Mr. Collier supposes, “to
reproach Puck with heaviness.”
lob down their heads, hang down, droop, their heads, H5. iv. 2. 47.
lock, a love-lock, a long lock of hair, often tied and plaited
with riband, worn on the left side, and hanging down by
the shoulder: 'a wears a lock, Ado, iii. 3. 183; they say he
wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it, v. 1. 318.
(Dogberry, as Malone remarks, supposing that the lock
must have a key to it).
lockram, a sort of cheap linen. made of different degrees of
fineness ("Locram, Linteamen crassius." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.), Cor. ii. 1. 225.
locusts-Luscious as, Oth. i. 3. 354: It seems doubtful whether
locusts is to be understood here to mean insects or the fruit
of a certain tree,—both being eaten: "It appears from the
books I have referred to, that the locusts above named
are the fruit of the Carob tree (Siliqua dulcis)," &c. Beisly's
Shakespere's Garden, &c., p. 163.
lode.stars, M.N.D. i. 1. 183: "The lode-star is the leading or
guiding star, that is, the pole-star" (JOHNSON).
lodge, to beat down, to lay flat: lodge the summer corn, R2. iii.
3. 162; the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd, 2H6. iii. 2. 176;
Though bladed corn be lodged, Mcb. iv. 1. 55.
loff, laugh, (so Dyce; Globe, laugh): M.N.D. ii. 1. 55.
loggats, Hml. v. 1. 100: The commentators are not quite
agreed about loggats (which word, of course, is the diminu-
tive of logs); but the following description of it by Steevens
is most probably correct; "This is a game played in several
parts of England even at this time. A stake is fixed into
the ground; those who play, throw loggats at it, and he
that is nearest the stake wins.
It is one of the
unlawful games enumerated in the statute of 33 Henry VIII."
[cap. ix]
London-bridge on fire—Set, 2H6. iv. 6. 16: " At that time London
bridge was made of wood. 'After that,' says Hall, 'he
entered London and cut the ropes of the draw-bridge.'
The houses on London-bridge were in this rebellion burnt,
and many of the inhabitants perished" (Malone).
•
284
LONG-LOOSE.
long, to belong: No ceremony that to great ones longs, M.M. ii.
2. 59; To his surname Coriolanus longs more pride, Cor. v.
3. 170; It is an honour longing to our house, A.W. iv. 2. 42;
The many to them longing, H8. i. 2. 32.
long live the king! Hml. i. 1. 3: “This sentence appears to
have been the watch-word" (MALONE): "Not exactly so.
The common challenge in France used to be Qui vive?
and the answer Vive le Roi; just like the common challenge
in the Park, Who goes there? A friend" (PvE).
longing journey-My, 2G. ii. 7. 85: "Dr. Grey observes, that
longing is a participle active with a passive signification;
for longed, wished or desired" (STEEVENS): "I believe that
by her longing journey Julia means a journey which she
shall pass in longing" (MASON).
longly, longingly, Shr. i. 1. 170.
long-staff, sixpenny strikers—-No: see strikers-No, &c.
loof'd, brought close to the wind (a sea-term), Ant. iii. 10. 18.
look, to look for, to look out: look some linen, M.W. iv. 2. 83;
to look you, A.Y.L. ii. 5. 34; look my twigs, A.W. iii. 6. 115;
To look our dead, H5. iv. 7. 76. (Fol. booke; not in Qq.).
See Book.
look upon, to look on, to be a looker-on; Strike all that look
upon with marvel. W.T. v. 3. 100; Nay, all of you that
stand and look upon, R2. iv. 1. 237; And look upon, as if
the tragedy, &c., 3H6. ii. 3. 27; I will not look upon, Troil.
v. 6. 10.
loon or lown, a term of reproach,—a stupid rascal, a sorry
fellow, &c., except in the third of the following passages,
where it means simply "a clown:" thou cream-fac'd loon!
Mcb. v. 3. 11; he call'd the tailor lown, Oth. ii. 3. 95; both
lord and lown, Per. iv. 6. 19.
loop'd, full of small apertures, like the loops in old castles
and towers, Lr. iii. 4. 31.
loose-At his very, L.L.L. v. 2. 752; A metaphor derived from
archery,-loose being the technical term for the discharging
of an arrow ("th' Archers terme, who is not said to finish
the feate of his shot before he giue the loose, and deliuer
his arrow from his bow." Puttenham's Arte of English
Poesie, 1589, p. 145:
cr
Twice (as you see) this sad distressed man,
The only marke whereat foule Murther shot,
Just in the loose of enuious eager death,
By accidents strange and miraculous,
Escap't the arrow aymed at his hart,"
A Warning for Faire Women, 1599, sig. E 3:
Try but one hour first, and as you like
The loose of that, draw home and prove the other.'
Jonson's New Inn, act ii. sc. 2).
LOOSE SHOT-LOTS.
285
loose shot, promiscuous sharpshooters, H8. v. 4. 59.
loose, too free, too unrestrained: Be sure you be not loose, H8.
ii. 1. 127.
loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, discharged his love-
shaft, &c., M.N.D. ii. 1. 159; see first loose (and compare,
in the excellent old ballad of Adam Bel, Clym of the
Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudesle,
"They lowsed their arrows both at once," &c.
Ritson's Anc. Pop. Poetry, p. 17, ed. 1833).
lop, a cutting, faggot-wood: From every tree lop, bark, and part
o' the timber, HS. i. 2. 96.
Lord, sir!-0, "A ridicule on that foolish expletive of speech
then in vogue at court [and elsewhere, and long after]
(WARBURTON), A.W. ii. 2. 43, 47, 50, etc. [cf. Orange, in
E. Man out, iii. 1].
"Lord have mercy on us," The inscription which used to be
placed on the doors of houses visited by the plague, to
warn persons not to approach them, L.L.L. v. 2. 419.
lord of thy presence: see first presence.
lordings, little lords: You were pretty lordings then W.T. i. 2. 62.
lordings, sirs, masters (an ancient form of address): Lordings,
farewell, 2H6. i. 1. 145.
"Lord's sake-For the," The supplication of imprisoned deb-
tors to the passers-by, M.M. iv. 3. 21. [See a note in Stone's
ed. of H5 for New Sh. Soc., p. lxxxvii., on Elizabethan
prisons.]
Lord's tokens-The, L.L.L. v. 2. 422: A quibble: tokens or
God's tokens was the term for those spots on the body,
which denoted the infection of the plague: compare death-
tokens and token'd pestilence-The.
losel, (Globe, lozel) a worthless fellow, a scoundrel, W.T. ii. 3. 109.
loss, exposure, desertion: Poor thing, condemned to loss, W.T.
ii. 3. 192.
lots to blanks My name hath touch'd your cars-It is, Cor. v.
2. 10: "Menenius, I imagine, only means to say, that it is
more than an equal chance that his name has touched
their ears. Lots were the term in our author's time for
the total number of tickets in a lottery, which took its
name from thence. So in the Continuation of Stowe's
Chronicle, 1615, p. 1002; 'Out of which lottery, for want
of filling, by the number of lots, there were then taken
out and thrown away threescore thousand blanks, without
abating of any one prize.' The lots were, of course, more
numerous than the blanks. If lot signified prize, as Dr.
Johnson supposed, there being in every lottery many more
blanks than prizes, Menenius must be supposed to say,
that the chance of his name having reached their ears was
286
LOTTERY-LOVER.
very small; which certainly is not his meaning" (MALONE):
Lots to blanks is a phrase equivalent to another in King
Richard III., 'All the world to nothing'" (STEEVENS):
'Lots are the whole number of tickets in a lottery; blanks
a proportion of the whole number" (KNIght).
lottery, an allottery, an allotment: Octavia is A blessed lottery
to him, Ant. ii. 2. 248.
Louis the Tenth-King, (Globe, Lewis) H5. i. 2. 76: Here Tenth
should be Ninth: Shakespeare caught the error from Holin-
shed.
louted by a traitor villain—I am, I am mocked, contemned
by, &c., 1H6. iv. 3. 13; where louted has usually been
wrongly explained (Compare
ઃઃ
he is louted and laughed to scorne
For the veriest dolte that ever was borne," &c.
Ralph Roister Doister, p. 40, reprint, 1818:
"Ah woe was me, for from that houre to this,
She bides with him, where me they lout and scorn," &c.
Sir J. Harington's Orlando Furioso, B. xliii. st. 45).
louts Our general: see general louts—Our.
love Will creep in service where it cannot go,
2G. iv. 2. 19:
"Kindness will creep where it cannot gang' is to be found
in Kelly's Collection of Scottish Proverbs, p. 226" (REED).
Love, the Queen of Love, Venus: Let Love, being light, be
drowned if she sink, Err. iii. 2. 52; Forerun fair Love,
strewing her way with flowers, L.L.L. iv. 3. 380; the love
of Love, Ant. i. 1. 44; Love's master, Ven. 585; She's Love,
610; Love lack'd a dwelling, L. Comp. 82. Elsewhere, Cupid.
love-day, a day of love, of reconciliation, a day for settling
differences, Tit. i. 1. 491.
love-in-idleness, one of the several names of the viola tricolor,
more commonly called pansy, or heart's-ease, M.N.D. ii. 1.
168; cf. Shr. i. 1. 156.
lovely berries-Two, M.N.D. iii. 2. 211; a lovely kiss, Shr. iii.
2. 125: In these passages lovely seems to be equivalent to
loving.
lover, a mistress: Your brother and his lover, M.M. i. 4. 40.
athwart the heart of his lover, A.Y.L. iii. 4. 46.
lover, a male friend: the bosom lover of my lord, M.V. iii. 4. 17;
Whether Bassanio had not once a lover, iv. 1. 277 (Globe,
a love); I as your lover speak, Troil. iii. 3. 214; Thy general
is my lover, Cor. v. 2. 14; Thy lover, Artemidorus, J.C. ii.
3. 9: as I slew my best lover, iii. 2. 49; thy deceased lover,
Sonn. 32; through my lover's life, Sonn. 63; the drops of
thy lovers (persons who love thee), 2H4. iv. 3.14; countrymen,
and lovers! J.C. iii. 2. 13; Knights, kinsmen, lovers, 2N.K.
V. I. 34; call your lovers, v. 4. 123. (Compare Peele's Edward I.;
LOVE'S-LUCES.
Edward, my king, my lord, and lover dear,
Full little dost thou wot how this retreat,
As with a sword, hath slain poor Mortimer,"
287
Works, p. 390, ed. Dyce,)
Love's golden arrow at him should have fled, And not Death's
ebon dart, Ven. 947: “Our poet had probably in his thoughts
the well-known fiction of Love and Death sojourning to-
gether in an inn, and, on going away in the morning,
changing their arrows by mistake. See Whitney's Emblems,
page. 132" (MALONE): "Massinger, in his Virgin Martyr
[act iv. sc. 3], alludes to the same fable;
'Strange affection!
Cupid once more hath chang'd his shafts with Death,
And kills, instead of giving life.'
Mr. Gifford has illustrated this passage by quoting one of
the Elegies of Joannes Secundus. The fiction is probably
of Italian origin. Sandford, in his Garden of Pleasure,
1576, has ascribed it to Alciato, and has given that poet's
verses, to which he has added a metrical translation of his
own. Shirley has formed a masque upon this story, Cupid
and Death, 1650 [see Shirley's Works, vol. vi. ed. Gifford
and Dyce]" (Boswell).
loves-Of all, For all loves, for love's sake, by all means,
M.N.D. ii. 2. 154; Oth. iii. 1. 12.
Love's Tyburn-The shape of, L.L.L. iv. 3. 54: “An allusion
to the gallows of the time, which was usually triangular"
(DOUCE).
love-springs, love-shoots, Err. iii. 2. 3: see first spring.
low-crooked, J.C. iii. 1. 43: low-bowed.
lower chair, M.M. ii. 1. 132: "Every house had formerly
among its other furniture, what was called a low chair,
designed for the ease of sick people, and, occasionally,
occupied by lazy ones" (STEEVENS).
lower world-This, Tp. iii. 3. 54: this earth.
lown: see loon.
loyal, faithful in love: loyal cantons of contemned love, 12 N.
i. 5. 289; your true And loyal wife, Oth. iv. 2. 35; loyal to
his vow, Cymb. iii. 2. 47; the loyal Leonatus, iii. 4. 83; The
loyal'st husband, i. 1. 96.
loyalty, fidelity in love: true loyalty to her, 2G. iv. 2. 7; when
I end loyalty! M.N.D. ii. 2. 63; Upon her nuptial vow, her
loyalty, Tit. ii. 3. 125; would force the feeler's soul To th' oath
of loyalty, Cymb. i. 6. 102.
Lubber's-head, the Hostess's blunder for, or a vulgar corrup-
tion of, Libbard's (i.e. Leopard's) head, 2H4. ii. 1. 30.
luces in their coat-They may give the dozen white, MW. i. 1. 16:
The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat, 22;
288
LUD'S-TOWN-LUPERCAL.
) 17
Luce is a pike-fish; and there can be no doubt that we
have here an allusion to the armorial bearings of Shakes-
peare's old enemy Sir Thomas Lucy: "In Ferne's Blazon
of Gentry, 1586, quarto, the arms of the Lucy family are
represented as an instance that 'signs of the coat should
something agree with the name. It is the coat of Geffray
Lord Lucy. He did bear gules, three lucies hariant, argent
(STEEVENS): "A quartering of the Lucy arms, exhibiting
the 'dozen white luces,' is given in Dugdale's Warwickshire,
r656, p. 348, annexed to a representation of an early monu-
ment to the memory of Thomas, son of Sir William Lucy,"
&c. (HALLIWELL): But what is the meaning of the second
of the above speeches? Farmer attempts to explain it
thus; "Slender has observed, that the family might give a
dozen white luces in their coat; to which the Justice adds,
'It is an old one.' This produces the Parson's blunder, and
Shallow's correction. The luce is not the louse but the pike,
the fresh fish of that name. Indeed our coat is old, as I
said, and the fish cannot be fresh; and therefore we bear
the white, i.e. the pickled or salt fish."" [Shallow's remark
to Evans, The salt fish is an old coat, seems to lose some
of the mystery that commentators have attached to it, if
we remember that Evans pronounced Good, Goot; and
God, Got; and therefore, in saying coat, seemed to the
sapient Shallow to mean to say Cod. Hence Shallow's
explanation: “The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is
an old coat" (i.e. cod; but pronounced coat by Shallow to be
intelligible to the Parson)].
Lud's-town, Cymb. iii. 1. 32; iv. 2. 99; 123; v. 5. 48г: “Tri-
novantum, called Caer Lud, and by corruption of the word
Cacr London, and in process of time London, was rebuilt
by Lud, Cassibelan's elder brother" (GREY).
lugged bear, a bear pulled, seized, by the ears, 1H4. i. 2. 83
[Query, lugged along by the bearward; cf. Lr. iv. 2. 42].
lullaby to your bounty, 12N. v. 1. 48: That lullaby is unusual
as a verb has been remarked by Mr. Halliwell, who cites
an example of it: I subjoin another;
"Sweet sound that all mens sences lullabieth."
Copley's Fig for Fortune, 1586, p. 59.
lunes, fits of lunacy, mad freaks (Fr.), M.W. iv. 2. 22; W.T.
ii. 2. 30; Troil. ii. 3. 139.
Lupercal-The feast of, J.C. i. 1. 72; on the Lupercal, iii. 2.
100: "The Roman festival of the Lupercalia (-ium or -iorum),
whatever may be the etymology of the name, was in honour
of the god Pan. It was celebrated annually on the Ides
(or 13th) of February, in a place called the Lupercal, at
the foot of Mount Aventine. A third company of Luperci,
LURCH-LYM.
289
or priests of Pan, with Anthony for its chief, was instituted
in honour of Julius Cæsar" (CRAIK).
lurch- To shuffle, to hedge, and to, M.W. ii. 2. 26: Here lurch
has been interpreted "to shift, to play tricks," "to act
covertly, to resort to shifts;" but qy. is it not equivalent
to lurk, and means "to lie in ambush, to lie close, to
lie in concealment?" [SCHMIDT: to lurk; CRAIG: to skulk.]
lurch'd all swords of the garland-He, Cor. ii. 2. 105: “Here
Malone, after observing that "To lurch is properly to pur-
loin ["Fortraire. To lurch, purloyne," Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Duct.: "To lurch, Subduco, surripio." Coles's Lat.
and Engl. Dict.]," concludes thus; "To lurch in Shakespeare's
time signified to win a maiden set at cards, &c. See Florio's
Italian Dict., 1598: 'Gioco marzo. A maiden set, or lurch,
at any game.' See also Coles's Lat. Dict. 1679: 'A lurch,
Duplex palma, facilis victoria. To lurch all swords of the
garland,' therefore, was to gain from all other warriors the
wreath of victory, with ease, and incontestable superiority."
lush, juicy, succulent,-luxuriant, Tp. ii. 1. 52.
lust, pleasure, inclination, liking: I'll answer to [according to]
my lust, Troil. iv. 4. 134; Gazing upon the Greeks with little
lust, Lucr. 1384.
lustig, as the Dutchman says, (Dyce lustic), A.W. ii. 3. 47:
Lustigh is the Dutch for "lusty, healthy, cheerful" ("An
old play, that has a great deal of merit, call'd The Weakest
goeth to the Wall (printed in 1600; but how much earlier
written, or by whom written, we are no where inform'd) has
in it a Dutchman call'd Jacob Van Smelt, who speaks a
jargon of Dutch and our language, and upon several occa-
sions uses this very word, which in English is-lusty" (Ca-
PELL): The word lustig occurs frequently in our old plays
as well as in other early compositions: I cannot forbear
remarking that in a recent edition of Webster's works,
The Weakest goeth to the Wall (of which assuredly he
never wrote a syllable) is most absurdly and ignorantly
included).
lustihood, vigour, energy. Ado, v. 1. 76; Troil. ii. 2. 50.
luxurious, lascivious (its only sense in Shakespeare), Ado. iv.
1. 42; H.5. iv. 4. 20: Tit. v. 1. 88; Troil. v. 4. 9; Mcb. iv. 3. 58.
luxuriously, lasciviously, Ant. iii. 13. 120.
luxury, lasciviousness (its only sense in Shakespeare), M.W.
v. 5. 98; M.M. v. 1. 506; H5. iii. 5. 6; R3. iii. 5. 80; Troil. v.
2. 55; Hml. i. 5. 83; Lr. iv. 6. 119; L. Compl. 314.
lym, a lime-hound, a sporting dog led by the thong called a
lyme (according to Minsheu, as cited by Malone, "a blood-
hound:" but qy.?), Lr. iii. 6. 72. [There are two passages
in Harington's Ariosto that seem to throw light on the
Lym. Bk. xli. st. 30:
19
290
LYMOGES-MAHOMET.
"His cosin had a Lyme hound argent bright,
His Lyme laid on his back, he couching down,
The word or mot was this, Until he commeth,”
On which Harington notes, p. 349: "Olivero whose device
is the spaniell, or lyam hound, couching, with the word
fin che vegna, doth with great modestie shew therby, that
the spaniel or hound that is at commandement, waiteth,
till the fowle, or deare be stricken, and then boldly leapeth
into the water, or draweth after it by land: . . . My selfe
have chosen this of Olivero for mine owne, partly liking the
modestie therof, partly (for I am not ashamed to confesse
it) because I fancie the spaniell so much, whose picture
is in the device, &c."]
Lymoges, see Limoges.
M.
mace, a sceptre: The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
H5. iv. 1. 278.
mace, a club of metal: Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my
boy, J.C. iv. 3. 268, (where Steevens explains mace to mean
sceptre "-wrongly, as is shown by the epithet "murder-
ous in the preceding line).
((
Machiavel, M.W. iii. 1. 104; 1H6. v. 4. 74; 3H6. iii. 2. 193.
See Ward's Eng. Dram. Lit. (2nd ed.) i. 339, note, on the
interest taken in M. by English writers, and compare
Courthope's Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. ii. chap. 1.
maculate, stained, impure, L.L.L. 1. 2. 97; 2N.K. v. 1. 145.
maculation, a stain, impurity, Troil. iv. 4. 66.
mad as a buck, a proverbial expression, Err. iii. 1. 72.
made, having one's fortune made, fortunate: see first make.
made, fastened, barred: see second make.
made, did: see third make.
made, made up, raised as profit: see fourth make.
made, formed: my made intent, Lr. iv. 7. 9. ("So we say in
common language to make a design and to make a resolu-
tion," JOHNSON).
made means to come by what he hath -One that, R3. v. 3. 248:
“To make means was, in Shakespeare's time, often used in
an unfavourable sense, and signified 'to come at anything
by indirect practices'" (STEEvens).
made-up villain—A, A complete, a perfect villain, Tim. v. 1. 101.
magnifico, a title given to the grandees of Venice, Oth. 1. 2. 12;
magnificoes, M.V. iii. 2. 282.
magot-pies, magpies, Mcb. iii. 4. 125.
Mahomet inspirèd with a dove?-Was, 1H6. 1. 2. 140:.“Maho-
met had a dove 'which he used to feed with wheat out of
MAHU MAJOR.
291
his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Ma-
homet's shoulder, and thrust its bill in to find its breakfast;
Mahomet persuading the rude and simple Arabians that it
was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice.' See Sir Walter
Raleigh's History of the World, Book i. Part 1. ch. vi; Life
of Mahomet by Dr. Prideaux” (GREY).
Mahu, Lr. iii. 4. 149; iv. I. 63: In the first passage of our text,
according to what seems to be a quotation, Mahu is another
name for the prince of darkness;" in the second he is
described as the fiend "of stealing;" and, according to
Harsnet's Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, 1603,
a work from which our poet appears to have derived the
names of several fiends in King Lear, "Maho [sic] was
generall dictator of hell; & yet, for good manners sake, he
was contented of his good nature to make shew, that him-
selfe was under the check of Modu, the grand deuil in
Ma[ister] Maynie." p. 50; again," Maho the chiefe deuill....
had two thousand deuils at his commaundement." p. 201.
[cf. Suckling, Goblins, p. 26, ed. 1648].
mail'd up in shame, wrapped up in shame (as a hawk is in a
cloth), 2H6. ii. 4. 31 (“Mail a hawk is to wrap her up in a
handkerchief or other cloath, that she may not be able to
stir her wings or to struggle." R. Holme's Academy of
Armory and Blazon (Terms of Art used in Falconry, &c.),
B. ii. c. xi. p. 239: A hawk was sometimes mailed by
pinioning her with a girth or band; see Beaumont and
Fletcher's Philaster, act v. sc. 4: Drayton makes the speaker
of our text say of herself;
How could it be, those that were wont to stand
To see my pompe, so goddesse-like to land,
Should after see me, may'ld up in a sheet,
Doe shamefull penance three times in the street?
Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey; England's
Her. Epistles, p. 174, ed. folio).
main-The, the mainland: the main of Poland, Hml. iv. 4. 15;
swell the curled waters 'bove the main, Lr. iii. 1. 6.
main-course-Bring her to try with, Tp. i. 1. 38: "This phrase
occurs in Smith's Sea-Grammar, 1627, 4to, under the article
'How to handle a Ship in a Storme:' 'Let us lie as [at]
Trie with our maine course; that is, to hale the tacke
aboord, the sheet close aft, the boling set up, and the
helme tied close aboord.' p. 40" (Steevens).
mained, lamed, 2H6. iv. 2. 172.
major: if you will deny the sheriff, so-1 deny your, 1H4. ii. 4.
544: “Falstaff clearly intends a quibble between the prin-
cipal officer of a corporation, now called a mayor, to whom
the sheriff is generally next in rank, and one of the parts
of a logical proposition" (RITSON).
292
MAKE-MALE.
make, to make the fortune of: there would this monster make
a man, Tp. ii. 3. 31; That either makes me or fordoes me
quite, Oth. v. I. 129; we had all been made men, M.N.D. iv.
2. 18; thinks himself made in the unchaste composition, A.W.
iv. 3. 21; thou art made, 12N. ii. 5. 168; iii. 4. 57; You're
a made old man, W.T. iii. 3. 124; we're made again, 2N.K.
iii. 5. 74; we are made, boys, 76; we're all made, 158.
make, to fasten, to bar: make the doors upon a woman's wit,
A.Y.L. iv. 1. 162; the doors are made against you, Err. iii. 1. 93.
make, to do: what make you here? M.W. iv. 2. 55; A.Y.L. i.
1. 31; what dost thou make here? R2. v. 3. 89; what make
we Abroad? Tim. iii. 5. 47; what make you from Witten-
berg? Hml. i. 2. 164; what make you at Elsinore? ii. 2. 277;
What makes treason here? L.L.L. iv. 3. 190; What makes
he here? A.Y.L. iii. 2. 234; what makes he upon the seas?
R3. iv. 4. 474; what mak'st thou in my sight? R3. i. 3. 164;
what they made there, I know not, M.W. ii. 1. 244; what
made your master in this place? Rom. v. 3. 280.
make, to make up, to raise as profit: Will the faithful offer
take Of me, and all that I can make, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 61; of
which he made five marks, ready money, M.M. iv. 3. 7.
make a shaft or a bolt on't—I'll, M.W. iii. 4. 24: Ray gives
"To make a bolt or a shaft of a thing." Proverbs, p. 179,
ed. 1768: "Equivalent to -I will either make a good or a
bad thing of it, I will take the risk. The shaft was the
regular war-arrow, sharp-pointed; while the bolt was a blunt-
headed arrow, or, sometimes, one having, as Holme describes
it, ‘a round or half-round bobb at the end of it, with a sharp-
pointed arrow-head proceeding therefrom'" (HALLIWELL).
make all split, M.N.D. i. 2. 32: A phrase which occurs fre-
quently in our early dramas, expressing great violence of
action. (It is properly a sailor's phrase: "He set downe
this period with such a sign, that, as the marriners say, a
man would haue thought al would haue split againe."
Greene's Neuer too late, Part First, sig. G 3, ed. 1611.)
make conditions, "to arrange the terms on which offices should
be conferred" (CRAIK), J.C. iv. 3. 32.
make dainty, “to hold out, or refuse, affecting to be delicate or
dainty" (Nares's Gloss.): she that makes dainty, Rom. i. 5. 21.
make forth, to go forth? to advance? J.C. v. 1. 25 (where the
words are rather obscurely used).
make my match to live, stake my life: Troil. iv. 5 37.
make nice, to be scrupulous: Makes nice of no vile hold, K.J. iii. 4. 138.
make strange, to affect coyness, coldness, indifference: She
makes it strange, 2G. i. 2. 102.
makeless, mateless, Sonn. 9.
male, a male parent: the hapless male to one sweet bird, 3H6.
v. 6. 15 (“The word male is here used in a very uncommon
MALL'S.
293
sense, not for the male of the female, but for the male
parent: the sweet bird is evidently his son Prince Edward,”
MASON). [bird chick, nestling.]
Mall's picture—Like Mistress, 12N. i. 3. 135: “The real name
of the woman whom I suppose to have been meant by
Sir Toby, was Mary Frith. The appellation by which she
was generally known was Mall Cutpurse. She was at once
an hermaphrodite, a prostitute, a bawd, a bully, a thief, a
receiver of stolen goods, &c. On the books of the
Stationer's Company, August 1610, is entered—'A Booke
called the Madde Prancks of Merry Mall of the Bankside,
with her Walks in Man's Apparel, and to what Purpose.
Written by John Day.' Middleton and Decker wrote a
comedy, of which she is the heroine. In this they have
given a very flattering representation of her, as they observe
in their preface, that 'it is the excellency of a writer, to
leave things better than he finds them.' The title of this piece
is The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-Purse. As it hath lately
beene acted on the Fortune-stage by the Prince his Players,
1611. The frontispiece to it contains a full length of her
in man's clothes, smoking tobacco. Nathaniel Field, in
his Amends for Ladies, another comedy, 1618, gives the
following character of her;
C
Hence, lewd impudent!
I know not what to term thee, man or woman;
For nature, shaming to acknowledge thee
For either, hath produc'd thee to the world
Without a sex: some say thou art a woman;
Others, a man; and many, thou art both
Woman and man; but I think rather, neither;
Or man and horse, as th' old Centaúrs were feign'd'
[a passage very inaccurately cited in Steevens's note apud
the Var. Shakespeare]. A life of this woman was likewise
published, 12mo, in 1662, with her portrait before it in a
male habit; an ape, a lion, and an eagle by her [The Life
and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith. Commonly called Mall
Cutpurse. Exactly collected and now published for the delight
and recreation of all merry disposed persons. London, 1662,
12m0]” (STEEVENS): “Mary Frith was born in 1584, and
died in 1659. [According to the author of her Life, she
was born in 1589. A Ms. in the Brit. Museum, quoted in
a note on Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 398, ed. 1780,
states that she died at her house in Fleet Street, July 26,
1659, and was buried in the church of Saint Bridget's;
which date, however, seems inconsistent with the statement
of Mr. Cunningham that she was buried August 10, 1659.
Granger says that her death took place in her 75th year.]
In a Ms. letter in the British Museum, from John Cham-
294
MALL'S.
berlain to Mr. [Sir Dudley] Carleton, dated Feb. 11 [12]
1611-12, the following account is given of this woman's
doing penance: 'This last Sunday Moll Cutpurse, a notorious
baggage, that used to go in man's apparel, and challenged
the field of diverse gallants, was brought to the same place
[St. Paul's Cross], where she wept bitterly, and seemed
very penitent; but it is since doubted she was maudlin
drunk, being discovered to have tippel'd of [off] three
quarts of sack before she came to her penance. She had
the daintiest preacher or ghostly father that ever I saw in
the pulpit, one Radcliffe of Brazen-Nose College [“College"
not in orig.] in Oxford, a likelier man to have led the
revels in some inn-of-court than to be where he was. But
the best is, he did extreme badly, and so wearied the
audience, that the best part went away, and the rest tarried
rather to hear Moll Cutpurse than him.'" MALONE; who
correctly observes that in our author's time curtains were
frequently hung before pictures of any value: See much
more about Moll Cutpurse in my edition of Middleton's
Works, vol. ii. p. 427 sqq., where The Roaring Girl is
reprinted, with an excellent fac-simile (by Mr. Fairholt) of
the woodcut portrait of the heroine: After all, can it be
that “
Mistress Mall's picture" means merely a lady's picture?
So we still say "Master Tom" or "Master Jack" to desig-
nate no particular individual, but of young gentlemen
generally. [As in Ado, ii. 1. 10: my lady's eldest son. Dr. Ward,
Eng. Dram. Lit. ii. 145 takes "Mistress Mall" as referring
to Mary Frith, but the Dictionary of Nat. Biog. says of
Mary Frith: "it is very doubtful whether Sir Toby refers
to her when he speaks of 'Mistress Moll's picture' . . .
for she was too young to have come into notoriety when
Shakspere's play was written." The D. N. B. dates her
birth 1584?, and refers to Dyce's Sh. Glossary among the
authorities for her life, so I have given the above account
unabridged. Twelfth Night is probably dated 1601, when
Mistress Moll Cutpurse would have been seventeen (?).
She is possibly alluded to in Marston's Satire II. (1598), as
'Loose-legged Lais, that same common drab
For whom good Tubrio tooke the mortall stab'.
(Tubrio, some say, denotes Ben Jonson! He might he
Gabriel Spencer; certainly not Marlowe! See Penniman's
War of the Theatres, p. 12, Philadelphia, 1897). It is by
no means certain when Moll Cutpurse was born. Nor·
does it seem at all clear that "Mistress Moll's picture'
was her picture. Still, as 12N. was not printed till 1623,
the extant text is probably later than the original date of
the play.]
MALKIN—MAN.
295
malkin, the diminutive of Mal (Mary), a contemptuous term
for a coarse wench: the kitchen maikin, Cor. ii. 1. 224; held
a malkin, Not worth the time of day (“not worth a good day
or good morrow, undeserving the most common and usual
salutation," STEEVENS), Per. iv. 3. 34. [cf. Piers Plowman,
i. 182 (B): “Than Malkyn of hire maydenhode that no man
desireth," where Mr. Skeat notes that Malkin is the diminu-
tive of Matilda, not of Mary.]
malmsey-nose knave, red-nosed knave (as if in consequence
of drinking malmsey wine), 2H4. ii. 1. 42.
malt-horse, a dull heavy horse, like a brewer's horse,—a term
of reproach, Err. iii. 1. 32; Shr. iv. 1. 132 (used adjectively).
malt-worms, tipplers of ale, 1H4. ii. 1. 83; 2H4. ii. 4. 361.
mammering, hesitating, Oth. iii. 3. 70.
mammet—A whining, Rom. iii. 5. 186; To play with mammets,
1H4. ii. 3. 95: That in the first of these passages mammet
means puppet" (used as a term of reproach) is certain;
but in the second passage mammets perhaps means (as
Gifford first suggested) "breasts" (from mamma).
mammocked, mangled, tore in pieces, Cor. i. 3. 71.
man: This word, formerly used with great latitude, was applied,
in the sense of being, to the devil, and even to the deity:
No man means evil but the devil, M.W. v. 2. 15; God's a
good man, Ado, iii. 5. 40. ("Again, in Jeronimo or the First
Part of the Spanish Tragedy [by Thomas Kyd], 1605,
<
C
•
You're the last man I thought on, save the devil.
So, in the old Morality or Interlude of Lusty Juventus
He wyl say, that God is a good man,
He can make him no better, and say the best he can.
Again, in A Mery Geste of Robin Hoode, bl. 1. no date,
C
For God is hold a righteous man,
And so is his dame,' &c.
Again, in Burton's Anatomie of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p.
670, 'God is a good man, and will doe no harme,' &c."
(STEEVENS): To the passages just cited I may add the
following: "-in the dole tyme there came one which sayde
yt god was a good man. Anone came another & said
ye deuyll was a good man." A Hundred Mery Talys, 1526,
p. 140, ed. 1866:
•
•
C
Pray'd you, quoth I, when al the time you span?
What matters that? quoth she; God's a good man,
And knowes what I speak in the Latin tongue,
Either at Matins or at Even-song."
A Pedlar and a Romish Priest, &c., by Taylor, 1641, p. 21).
man my haggard-To, To tame, to make tractable, my wild
unreclaimed hawk, Shr. iv. 1. 196: see first haggard.
296
MAN-MANDRAKE.
man of salt-A: see salt-A man of.
man of wax-A: see wax-A man of.
manage, management, administration, conduct: The manage of
my state, Tp. i. 2. 70; manage of my house, M.V. iii. 4. 25 ;
the manage of two kingdoms, K.J. i. 1. 37; Expedient manage
must be made, R2. i. 4. 39; manage of this fatal brawl,
Rom. iii. 1. 148.
manage, a course, a running in the lists: Hath this brave
manage, this career, been run, L.L.L. v. 2. 482.
66
manage, the training of a horse how to obey the hand and
voice: they are taught their manage, A.Y.L. i. 1. 13.
manage, the management or government of a horse: Wanting
(not possessing, not skilled in) the manage of unruly jades,
R2. iii. 3. 179; Speak terms of manage to thy bounding
steed, 1H4. ii. 3. 52; Till they obey the manage, H8. v. 3. 24.
mandragora (avdpayopas, Lat. mandragoras, bot. name Atropa
mandragora), or mandrake (see the next article), often
mentioned as a powerful soporific, Oth. iii. 3. 330; Ant. i. 5. 4.
mandrake, 2H4. i. 2. 17; iii. 2. 339; 2H6. iii. 2. 310; mandrakes,
Rom. iv. 3. 47: Mandrake. The English name of the
above-mentioned plant, mandragoras, concerning which some
very superstitious notions prevailed. An inferior degree of
animal life was attributed to it; and it was commonly
supposed that, when torn from the ground, it uttered
groans of so pernicious a nature, that the person who
committed the violence went mad or died. To escape that
danger, it was recommended to tie one end of a string to
the plant and the other to a dog, upon whom the fatal
groan would then discharge its whole malignity. See Bul-
leine's Bulwarks of Defence against Sicknesse, p. 41. These
strange notions arose, probably, from the little less fanciful
comparison of the root to the human figure, strengthened,
doubtless, in England by the accidental circumstance of
man being the first syllable of the word. The ancients,
however, made the same comparison of its form;
Quamvis semihominis, vesano gramine fœta,
Mandragoræ pariat flores. Columella, de l. [Cult.] Hort. v. 19.
The white mandrake, which they called the male, was that
whose root bore this resemblance. Lyte says of it, 'The
roote is great and white, not muche unlyke a radishe roote,
divided into two or three partes, and sometimes growing
one upon another, almost lyke the thighes and legges of
a man.' Transl. of Dodoens, p. 437. Here it is supposed
to cause death; [2H6. iii. 2. 310]; here only madness:
[Rom iv. 3. 47]; A very diminutive or grotesque figure was
often compared to a mandrake, that is, to the root, as
above described; [2H4. i. 2. 17. It was sometimes con-
MANGLING-MAP
297
sidered as an emblem of incontinence; probably because
it resembled only the lower parts of a man: [2H4. iii. 2.
339] Nares's Gloss.
mangling by starts the full course of their glory, mangling "by
touching only on select parts," &c. (JOHNSON), H5. Epil. 4.
mankind, masculine, violent, termagant: A mankind witch,
W.T. ii. 3. 67; Are you mankind? Cor. iv. 2. 16: On the
second of these passages Johnson remarks, “Sicinius asks
Volumnia, if she be mankind. She takes mankind for a
human creature, and accordingly cries out,
C
Note but this fool.-
Was not a man my father:
(The epithet mankind was applied even to beasts in the
sense of "ferocious," &c.; "Manticore. A rauenous and
mankind Indian beast." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
“Thoë. A kind of strong, swift, and short-legd Wolfe……... a
great friend vnto men, whom he defends, and fights for,
against other mankind wild beasts." Id.)
manned with an agate: see agate, &c.
manner-Taken with the, Taken in the fact (a law-term), L.L.L.
i. 1. 204; W.T. iv. 4. 752; 1H4. ii. 4. 347.
Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly-That roasted,
1H4. ii. 4. 498: "Manningtree, in Essex, formerly enjoyed
the privilege of fairs, by the tenure of exhibiting a certain
number of stage-plays yearly. It appears also, from other
intimations, that there were great festivities there, and much
good eating, at Whitsun ales and other times; we may
therefore conclude safely that roasting an ox whole, a very
old and established piece of British magnificence, was not
uncommon on those occasions.... We may further remark
that Manningtree oxen were doubtless at all times famous
for their size. Such are the cattle throughout the country,
and the pastures of Manningtree are said by Mr. Steevens,
an Essex man, to be remarkable." Nares's Gloss. (from
the notes in the Var. Shakespeare).
manors on them.-Have broke their backs by laying, H8. i. 1.
84. Southey, in his C. P. Book, i. 485, notes from Martin
Du Bellay (Coll. Mem. 17. 87): "plusieurs y porterent leurs
moulins, leurs forests, et leurs prez sur leurs espaules."
man-queller, and a woman-queller-A, A man-slayer, and a
woman-slayer, 2H4. ii. 1 58.
many, a multitude: 0 thou fond many (populace, mob)! 2H4.
i. 3. 91; The many to them longing, H8. i. 2. 32; the mutable,
rank-scented many (populace, mob), Cor. iii. 1. 66.
map, with the augmentation of the Indies—The new, 12N. iii. 2. 85:
‘A clear allusion to a map engraved for Linschoten's Voyages,
an English translation of which was published in 1598. This
298
MAPPERY—MARISH.
map is multilineal in the extreme, and is the first in which
the Eastern Islands are included" (STEEVENS): But is it
certain that Maria is here speaking of a map belonging
to a book? [In Trans. New. Sh. Soc. 1877-9, pt. i. p. 88,
Mr. C. H. Coote gives a 'new map' that answers all the
requirements of the case. It was made by Emmeric Molli-
neux, has 16 sets of rhumb-lines against 12 sets in Lin-
schoten's map, was published about 1599, and does give
the whole of the East Indies and Japan, which the map
of Linschoten did not. A facs. of part is given.]
mappery, bookish theoric, study of maps, Troil. 1. 3. 205.
marches, "the borders of a country, or rather a space on
each side the borders of two contiguous countries. Marche,
French" (Nares's Gloss.): They of those marches, H5. i. 2.
140: in the marches here, 3H6. ii. 1. 140.
march-pane, a sort of sweet biscuit, which constantly formed
part of the desserts of Shakespeare's time, Rom. i. 5. 9:
"Marchpanes were composed of filberts, almonds, pista-
choes, pine-kernels, and sugar of roses, with a small pro-
portion of flour," says Steevens (following, I believe, Mark-
ham's Countrey Farme); but the old cookery-books show
that there were many varieties of this favourite composition.
mare-To ride the, 2H4. ii. 1. 83: "The Hostess had threaten-
ed to ride Falstaff like the Incubus or Night-mare; but his
allusion (if it be not a wanton one) is to the Gallows, which
is ludicrously called the Timber or Two-legged Mare"
(STEEVENS).
mare-Rides the wild, Plays at see-saw, 2H4. ii. 4. 268.
Margarelon-properly Margaryton, Margareton, or Marga-
riton—see, for instance, Lydgate's Warres of Troy, sig. s. 1
verso, ed. 1555—a son of Priam, according to the legends
engrafted on the Trojan story, Troil. v. 5. 7.
margent did quote such amazes-His face's own, L.L.L. ii. 1.
245; Find written in the margent of his eyes, Rom. i. 3. 86;
you must be edified by the margent, Hml. v. 2. 162; Writ in
the glassy margents of such books, Lucr. 102: “In our author's
time, notes, quotations, &c., were usually printed in the
exterior margin of books" (MALONE): “Dr. Warburton
very properly observes, that in the old books the gloss or
comment was usually printed on the margent of the leaf”
(STEEVENS).
Marian-Maid, 1H4. iii. 3. 129: The well-known mistress of
Robin Hood: but in later days she figured as one of the
characters in the morris-dance, when she was represented
generally by a man dressed in woman's clothes, and some-
times by a strumpet.
marish, a marsh, 1H6. i. 1. 50 (so Dyce following Pope: O.
ed. and Globe, a nourish).
MARK!-MASS.
299
mark!-Bless the, 2G. iv. 4. 20; God bless the mark! M.V. ii.
2. 25; Oth. i. 1. 33; God save the mark! 1H4. i. 3. 56;
Rom. iii. 2. 53: "Kelly, in his comments on Scots pro-
verbs, observes, that the Scots, when they compare person
to person, use this exclamation" (STEEVENS): but the ori-
gin and the meaning of the exclamation are alike obscure.
market-And he ended the, L.L.L. iii. 1. 111: An allusion to
the proverb, "Three women and a goose make a market.
Tre donne et un occa fan un mercato." Ray's Proverbs,
p. 46, ed. 1768.
marmoset, a kind of monkey, Tp. ii. 2. 174.
marry trap, M.W. i. 1. 170: "Apparently a kind of proverbial
exclamation, as much as to say, 'By Mary,' you are caught "[?].
Nares's Gloss. [Prof. Herford says: "I will say, 'Look out
for yourself' (or 'Catch me if you can') if you play the
constable with me."]
mart, to traffic: To sell and mart, J.C. iv. 3. 11; nothing mar-
ted with him, W.T. iv. 4. 363.
Martial thigh-His, His thigh like that of Mars, Cymb. iv. 2. 310.
Martin's summer - Expect Saint, “Expect prosperity after mis-
fortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has
begun" (JOHNSON), 1H6. i. 2. 131. (“It was one of those
rare but lovely exceptions to a cold season, called in the
Mediterranean 'St. Martin's summer.' Correspondent in
The Times (newspaper) for Oct. 6, 1864.)
martlemas-The, 2H4. ii. 2. 110: "That is, the autumn, or
rather, the latter spring. The old fellow with juvenile pas-
sions" (JOHNSON): "In the First Part of King Henry IV.
the Prince calls Falstaff 'the [thou] latter spring, - All-hol-
lown summer (MALONE): Martlemas is a corruption of
Martinmas.
mary, (Globe, marry): H5. iii. 1. 111; 127: Captain Jamy's
Scotticism for marry.
Mary-buds, marigold-buds, Cymb. ii. 3. 26.
mask'd Neptune, Per. iii. 3. 36. [now calm: visored with tran-
quillity.]
marvel, Lr. i. 4. 99, seems to have been sometimes pronounced
marle, as it is written in Every man in his Humour, and
others of Jonson's plays.
mass-Evening, Rom. iv. 1. 38: "Juliet means vespers. There
is no such thing as evening mass" (RITSON). [See a paper
by Mr. R. Simpson on Evening Mass, in Trans. N.S.S.
1875, p. 148. Briefly summarised: Evening afternoon.
Mass on vigils after Nones (3 p.m.), also in Lent, Ad-
vent, and Ember Weeks. Requiem Mass on All Souls'
Day after Nones. Votive Masses after Nones. Pius V.
forbade afternoon and evening masses (1566–1572). This
law very slow in coming into effect: at Verona (accg. to
300
MASTER-MAY.
Fr. Brenner, 1824), evening mass lingered till the nineteenth
century.]
master of fence-A, M.W. i. 1. 295: "Does not simply mean a
professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had
taken his master's degree in it" (STEEVENS): see play'd
your prize, &c. and Prizer.
=
masters though ye be-Weak: see weak masters, &c.
mastic jaws, Troil. 1. 3. 73 (some edd. mastiff). Gum mastic was
used for stopping decayed teeth, so decayed, rotten jaws;
with perhaps allusion to the various Histrio-Satiro-Therio-
mastix names adopted by Marston &c. or figuring in the
war of the theatres."
match, compact: 'tis our match, Cymb. iii. 6. 30; [assignation,
M.M. v. 1. 211].
match-Set a: see set a match.
mate, to confound, to bewilder: Not mad, but mated, Err. iii.
2. 54; I think you are all mated or stark mad, v. 1. 281;
My mind she has mated, Mcb. v. 1. 86; Her more than
haste is mated with delays, Ven. 909; Which mates him first
(where perhaps there is an allusion to the check-mate in
the game of chess), 2H6. iii. 1. 265.
mate, to match, to equal: Dare mate a sounder man than
Surrey can be, H8. iii. 2. 274.
mate, to marry: The hind that would be mated by the lion,
A.W. i. 1. 102. If she be mated with an equal husband, Tim. i.
I. 140.
material fool-A, “A fool with matter in him - a fool stocked
with notions" (JOHNSON), A.Y.L. iii. 3. 32.
mattress-A certain queen to Cæsar in a, Ant. ii. 6. 71: The
anecdote of Cleopatra being so conveyed to Julius Cæsar
must be familiar to most readers.
maugre, in spite of (Fr. malgré), 12N. iii. 1. 163; Tit. iv. 2. 110;
Lr. v. 3. 131.
maund, a basket, L. Compl. 36.
may, you may-You, equivalent to "You may divert yourself,
as you please, at my expense" (STEEVENS), Troil. iii. 1. 118;
Cor. ii. 3. 39.
May-To do observance to a morn of, M.N.D. i. 1. 67; For now
our observation is perform'd, iv. 1. 109; they rose up early to
observe The rite of May, 137; to make 'em sleep On May-
day morning, H8. v. 4. 15: "It was anciently the custom
for all ranks of people to go out a maying on the first of
May. It is on record that King Henry VIII. and Queen
Katharine partook of this diversion" (STEEVENS): “Stowe
says, that, 'in the month of May, namely, on May-day in
the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk
into the sweet meadows and green woods; there to rejoice
their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers,
MAZARD– MEASURE.
301
and with the noise [i.e. music] of birds, praising God in
their kind.' See also Brand's Observations on Popular
Antiquities, 8vo, 1777, p. 255' (REED). [Shakspere had
probably Chaucer's words in his thought; see The
Knightes Tale, ll. 1034–1044.]
mazard, the head, Hml. v. 1. 97; Oth. ii. 3. 155.
mazes in the wanton green- The quaint, M.N.D. ii. 1. 99: "Several
mazes of the kind here alluded to are still preserved, having
been kept up from time immemorial. On the top of Cathe-
rine-Hill, Winchester, the usual play-place of the school,
observes Percy, was a very perplexed and winding path
running in a very small space over a great deal of ground,
called a Miz-Maze. The senior boys obliged the juniors
to tread it, to prevent the figure from being lost, and I
believe it is still retained" (HALLIWELL).
meacock wretch-A, A spiritless, dastardly wretch, Shr. ii. 1. 315
("Coque-fredouille. A meacocke, milkesop, sneaksbie, worth.
lesse fellow." Cotgrave's Fr. and Eng. Dict.: "A Meacock,
Pusillanimus, effœminatus; uxorius, uxori nimium deditus et
obnoxius." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.: "You, maister
meacoke, that stand vpon the beauty of your churnmilke
face," &c. Greene's Neuer too late, Part Second, sig. o 2
verso, ed. 1611).
meal'd, mingled, compounded, M.M. iv. 2. 86. [Schmidt gives:
sprinkled, tainted”].
((
means, thus she,-videlicet: M.N.D. v. 1. 330; moans, utters her
lament.
mean is drown'd with your unruly base-The, 2G. i. 2. 95; he
can sing a mean most meanly', L.L.L. v. 2. 328; most of them
means and bases, W.T. iv. 3. 46: "The mean in music was
the intermediate part between the tenor and treble; not
the tenor itself, as explained by Steevens." Chappell's
Popular Music of the Oiden Time, &c., vol. i. p. 223, sec. ed.
measles, lepers, scurvy fellows "Mesel, as Meseau. A messelled,
scuruie, leaporous, lazarous person." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict.), Cor. iii. 1. 78.
measure, properly a stately dance with slow measured steps,
though the word is sometimes used to express a dance in
general: a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace, Ado, ii.
1. 77; tread a measure, L.L.L. v. 2. 187; trod a measure,
A.Y.L. v. 4. 45; though the devil lead the measure, A.W. ii.
1. 58; a delightful measure, R2. i. 3. 291; no strength in
measure (= dancing), H5. v. 2. 141; a measure To lead'em
once again, H8. i. 4. 106; We'll measure them a measure,
Rom. i. 4. 9; The measure done, i. 5. 52; to the measures
fall, A.Y.L. v. 4. 185; delightful measures, R3. i. 1. 8; to
tread the measures, Ven. 1148. ("The measures were dances
solemn and slow. They were performed at court, and at
302
MEASURE-MEDICINE.
public entertainments of the societies of law and equity,
at their halls, on particular occasions. It was formerly not
deemed inconsistent with propriety even for the gravest
persons to join in them; and accordingly at the revels which
were celebrated at the inns of court, it has not been unusual
for the first characters in the law to become performers in
treading the measures. See Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales.
Sir John Davies, in his poem called Orchestra, 1622, de-
scribes them in this manner;
'But after these, as men more civil grew,
He [i.c. Love] did more grave and solemn measures frame;
With such fair order and proportion true,
And correspondence every way the same,
That no fault-finding eye did ever blame,
For every eye was moved at the sight,
With sober wond'ring and with sweet delight.
Not those young students of the heavenly book,
Atlas the great, Prometheus the wise,
Which on the stars did all their life-time look,
Could ever find such measure in the skies,
So full of change and rare varieties;
Yet all the feet whereon these measures go,
Are only spondees, solemn, grave, and slow' [Stanzas 65, 66]" (REED).
measure in every thing-Tell him there is, Ado, ii. 1. 74: A
quibble on the word measure, which means both "mode-
ration" and "a dance" (see the preceding article).
meddle with my thoughts, mingle, mix with my thoughts,
Tp. i. 2. 22.
Medea young Absyrtus did—As wild, 2H6. v. 2. 59: "When
Medea fled with Jason from Colchos, she murdered her
brother Absyrtus, and cut his body into several pieces,
that her father might be prevented for some time from
pursuing her. See Ovid, Trist. Lib. iii. El. 9," &c. (Malone).
medicine, a physician: a medicine That's able to breathe life
into a stone, A.W. ii. 1. 75; The medicine of our house, W.T.
iv. 4. 598; the medicine of the sickly weal, Mcb. v. 2. 27.
medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee-That great, Ant. i. 5. 36.
"Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch,
converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the
matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmuta-
tion, a medicine" (JOHNSON): Walker thinks that here medicine
means "physician," but compare gilded 'em-This grand
liquor that hath.
medicine potable-Preserving life in, 2H4. iv. 5. 163: An allusion
to the "opinion that a solution of gold has great medicinal
virtues, and that the incorruptibility of gold might be
communicated to the body impregnated with it" (JOHNSON).
MEED-MERE.
303
meed, merit, desert: my meed hath got me fame, 3H6. iv. 8. 38;
no meed but he repays Sevenfold above itself, Tim. i. 1. 288;
in his meed (in this his particular excellence) he's unfellowed,
Hml. v. 2. 149; Each one already blazing by our meeds, 3H6.
ii. 1. 36.
meek, tame, humbled: To one so meek, that mine own servant
should, &c., Ant. v. 2. 162 (Pope, weak); all recreant, poor,
and meek, Lucr. 710.
meet with, to counteract: to meet with Caliban, Tp. iv. 1. 166.
meet with- To be, To be even with: he'll be meet with you,
Ado, i. 1. 47.
meiny, household attendants, retinue, Lr. ii. 4. 35.
mell with, meddle with (in an indelicate sense), A.W. iv. 3. 257.
memorize, to make memorable, Mcb. i. 2. 40; memoriz'd,
H8. iii. 2. 52.
memory, a memorial: you memory of old Sir Roland, A.Y.L. ii.
3. 3: a good memory, And witness &c., Cor. iv. 5. 77; a
noble memory! Cor. v. 1. 17; v. 6. 155; beg a hair of him
for memory, J.C. iii. 2. 139; memories of those worser hours,
Lr. iv. 7. 7.
men of mould: see mould--Men of.
mends in her own hands-She has the, She must make the best
of it, Troil. i. 1. 68.
Mephostophilus, the evil spirit in the popular History of
Faustus, and in Marlowe's play of the same name, M.W. i.
1. 132. [Cf. Jonson, The Case is altered, ii. 4: "thou art not
lunatic, art thou? An thou be'st, avoid, Mephostophilus!"].
mercatante, a merchant, Shr. iv. 2. 63. Ital. (“Nè mercatante
in terra di Soldano." Dante, Inferno, C. xxvii. 90).
merchant, a familiar and contemptuous term, equivalent to
"chap, fellow:" a riddling merchant, 1H6. ii. 3. 57; what
saucy merchant was this, Rom. ii. 4. 153 (Compare, in The
Faire Maide of Bristow, 1605, “What [s]ausie merchant haue
you got there?" Sig в ii.).
merchant-Royal: see royal merchant.
merchant, a merchantman, a ship of trade: The master's of
some merchant, Tp. ii. 1. 5 [ie. the master's wife of some
merchantman].
Mercurial-His foot, His foot like that of Mercury, Cymb. iv.
2. 310.
mercy-By, "By your leave, venia vestra dictum sit” (WALKER),
Tim. iii. 5. 55.
mere, absolute, entire: Upon his mere request, M.M. v. 1. 152;
his mere enemy, M.V. iii. 2. 265; mere oblivion, A.Y.L. ii. 7.
165; mere the truth (the absolute truth), A.W. iii. 5. 58;
Your mere enforcement, R3. iii. 7. 233; to the mere undoing
Of all the kingdom, H8. iii. 2. 329; In mere oppugnancy,
Troil. i. 3. 111; Of your mere own, Mcb. iv. 3. 89; This
304
MERE-MESS.
is mere madness, Hml. v. 1. 307; the mere perdition of the
Turkish fleet, Oth. ii. 2. 3; Our faith mere folly, Ant. iii.
13. 43; to thy mere confusion, Cymb. iv. 2. 92; that opinion
a mere profit, Per. iv. 2. 132: two mere blessings, 2N.K. ii. 2. 58.
mere offence, &c.- Your pleasure was my, "My crime, my punish-
ment, and all the treason that I committed, originated in
and were founded on your caprice only" (MALONE), Cymb.
v. 5. 334.
mered question-The, Ant. iii. 13. 10 (Globe, meered): Johnson
suggests that this may mean "the disputed boundary;
Mason that it may mean "the only cause of the dispute,
the only subject of the quarrel." For merèd Johnson con-
jectures "mooted."
merely, absolutely, entirely, purely; merely cheated of our lives,
Tp. i. 1. 59; merely, thou art death's fool, M.M. iii. 1. 11:
merely a dumb-show, Ado, ii. 3. 226; merely players, A.Y.L.
ii. 7. 140; Love is merely a madness, iii. 2. 420; to live in a
nook merely monastic, 441; Merely our own traitors, A.W. iv.
3. 25; Merely awry, Cor. iii. 1. 305; Be merely poison, Tim. iv.
I. 32; That which I show is merely love, iv. 3. 522;
•
•
Merely upon myself, J.C. i. 2. 39; Possess it merely, Hml. i.
2. 137; The horse were merely lost, Ant. iii. 7. 9.
merit, a reward, a guerdon: A dearer merit, R2. i. 3. 156: Mason
observes; "As Shakespeare uses merit in this place in the
sense of reward, he frequently uses the word meed, which
properly signifies reward, to express merit” (see meed): and
I may add, that Johnson in his Dict., under “merit” in the
sense of "reward deserved," cites from Prior,
Those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth,
Which thou from Mahomet didst greatly gain,
While, bold assertor of resistless truth,
Thy sword did godlike liberty maintain, &c.
[Ode, inscribed to Queen Anne.]”
merits, deserts; IVe answer others' merits in our name, Ant. v.
2. 178.
mermaid, a siren, Err. iii. 2. 45; 169; M.N.D. ii. 2. 150; 3H6.
iii. 2. 186; Ant. ii. 2. 212; 214; Hml. iv. 7. 177.
Merops' son-Why, Phaethon,-for thou art, "Thou art Phaë-
thon in thy rashness, but without his pretensions; thou art
not the son of a divinity, but a terræ filius, a low-born
wretch; Merops is thy true father, with whom Phaethon was
falsely reproached" (JOHNSON), 2G. iii. 1. 153.
mess, Scottice for mass: By the mess, H5. iii. 2. 122.
mess, a small portion: a mess of vinegar, 2H4. ii. 1. 103 (“A mess
seems to have been the common term for a small proportion
of any thing belonging to the kitchen," STEEVENS: "Ye,
mary, sometyme in a messe of vergesse." Skelton's Magny-
fycence, Works, vol. i. p. 283, ed. Dyce).
MESS-MICHER.
305
mess, a party of four ("A messe. (Vulgairement) le nombre de
quatre." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.): you three foois
lack'd me fool to make up the mess, L.L.L. iv. 3. 207; A mess
of Russians, v. 2. 361; your mess of sons, 3H6. i. 4. 73:
Mess came to signify a set of four, because at great dinners
the company was usually arranged into fours, which were
called messes. ["I'll furnish our feast with one gull more
towards the mess. He writes to me of a brace, and here's
one, that's three; oh, for a fourth," &c. E.M. in his Humour,
I. ii; cf. Lyly, M. Bombie, ii. 1: “Foure makes a messe.”]
mess-At my worship's, "At that part of the table where I, as
a knight, shall be placed" (MALONE), that is, above the
salt, at the higher end of the table (see salt and the preced-
ing article), K.J. i. 1. 190.
messes-Lower, persons of inferior rank,-properly, those who
sat at meals below the salt,— at the lower end of the table
(see salt and the preceding article but one), W.T. i. 2. 227:
"Leontes comprehends inferiority of understanding in the
idea of inferiority of rank" (Steevens).
metaphysical, supernatural, Mcb. i. 5. 30.
mete, to measure with the eye: Let the mark have a prick in't,
to mete at, if it may be, L.L.L. iv. 1. 134.
mete-yard, a measuring-yard, Shr. iv. 3. 153.
metheglin, L.L.L. v. 2. 233; metheglins, M.W. v. 5. 167: This
beverage is generally considered to be the same as mead;
but let us hear Taylor; "Metheglin and Meade, in regard
of the coherence of their conditions, I may very well handle
them together, without any disparagement to either; how
ever there bee some proportion in their severall composi-
tions, yet the maine Ingredient being Honey stands allow-
able to both.... Meade or Meath.... in regard of the
cheapnesse it is now growne contemptible, being altogether
ecclipsed by the vertue of Metheglin." Drinke and welcome,
&c., 1637, sig. A 3: Metheglin was formerly made of various
ingredients.
methinks't, A. W. ii. 3. 269: Fol. methink'st, 't for it. (Globe omits 't).
mew, and mew up, to confine, to shut up (properly a term in
falconry: "Mew is the place, whether it be abroad or in
the house, in which the Hawk is put during the time she
casts, or doth change her Feathers." R. Holme's Academy
of Armory and Blazon (Terms of Art used in Falconry, &c.),
B. ii. c. xi. p. 241), Shr. i. 1. 87; K.J. iv. 2. 57; mew'd,
M.N.D. i. 1. 71; R3. i. 1. 132; mew'd up, Shr. i. 1. 188:
R3. i. 1. 38; i. 3. 139; Rom. iii. 4. 11.
"}
micher, and eat blackberries-Prove a, 1H4. ii. 4. 450; Micher
is a "truant: "Moocher. A truant; 'a blackberry moucher'
-a boy who plays truant to pick blackberries." Akerman's
Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in use in Wiltshire.
20
306
MICHING—MILLINER.
miching mallecho, Hml. iii. 2. 147: “A secret and wicked
contrivance, a concealed wickedness. To mich is a pro-
vincial word, and was probably [certainly] once general;
signifying to lie hid, or play the truant. In Norfolk michers
signify pilferers. The signification of miching in the present
passage may be ascertained by a passage in Decker's
Wonderful Yeare, 4to, 1603; 'Those that could shift for
a time-went most bitterly miching and muffled, up and
downe, with rue and wormwood stuft into their ears and
nostrills.' See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v.
Acciapinare; 'To miche, to shrug or sneak in some corner!'
Where our poet met with the word mallecho, which in
Minsheu's Spanish Dictionary, 1617, is defined malefactum,
I am unable to ascertain. In the folio the word is spelt
malicho. Mallico [in the quartos] is printed in a distinct
character as a proper name" (MALONE; whose name has
dropped out from the end of this note in Boswell's ed. of
Shakespeare): “Malhecho.... An evil action, an indecent and
indecorous behaviour; malefaction." Connelly's Span. and
Engl. Dict., Madrid, 4to. (Compare
CC
Tho. Be humble,
Thou man of mallecho, or thou diest."
Shirley's Gentleman of Venice; Works, vol. v. p. 52:
Maginn's alteration of our text to "mucho malhecho," i.e."much
mischief," is doubtless wrong). [See Skeat's Chaucer, V. 453].
mickle, much, great, Err. iii. 1. 45; H5. ii. 1. 70; 1H6. iv. 6.
35; 2H6. v. I. 174; Rom. ii. 3. 15; P. Pilgr. 219.
middle-earth, our earth or world,-the middle habitation be-
tween heaven and hell, M.W. v. 5. 84 (The word is common
in our earliest poetry, variously spelt.-medilerthe, myddel-
erde, &c.).
middle summer's spring-The, The beginning of midsummer,
M.N.D. ii. 1. 82: see second spring.
milch the burning eyes of heaven-Would have made, Hml. ii.
2. 540: “¿.e. would have drawn tears from them. Milche-
hearted, in Huloet's Abecedarium, 1552, is rendered lemosus;
and in Bibliotheca Eliota, 1545, we find "lemosi, they that
wepe lyghtly' [i.e. easily]. The word is from the Saxon
melc, milky" (Douce).
mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother-Like a, Hml.
iii. 4. 64: "This alludes to Pharaoh's dream, in the 41st
chapter of Genesis" (STEEVENS).
Mile-end, A.W. iv. 3. 302; Mile-end-Green, 2H4. iii. 2. 298:
The usual place of rendezvous for the London train-bands,
&c.: see Dagonet, &c.
milliner, a man who deals in fancy articles, W.T. iv. 4. 192;
1H4. i. 3. 36.
MILL-SIXPENCES-MINIMUS.
307
mill-sixpences, M.W. i. 1. 158: "These sixpences were coined
in 1561, and are the first milled money used in this king-
dom" (DOUCE).
mill-stones-Your eyes drop, R3. 1. 3. 354; Ay, mill-stones; as
he lesson'd us to weep, i. 4. 246; her eyes ran o'er,--Cres.
With mill-stones, Troil. i. 2. 158: To weep mill-stones was a
proverbial expression applied to persons not addicted to
weeping: but the third of the above passages refers to tears
of laughter.
mimic, an actor (meaning Bottom as Pyramus), M.N.D. iii. 2. 19.
mince, to walk in an affected manner, mincing, or making
small, the steps: hold up your head, and mince, M.W. v. 1. 9;
two mincing steps, M.V. iii. 4. 67.
minces virtue-That, "That puts on an outward affected seem-
ing of virtue" (SINGER), "That affects the coy timidity of
virtue" (STAUNTON), Lr. iv. 6. 122.
mind of love-Your, Your loving mind (as Steevens explains
it, and I believe rightly), M.V. ii. 8. 42.
mind-Wretched for his, Wretched "for nobleness of soul"
(JOHNSON), Tim. i. 2. 170.
mind, to intend, to be disposed: I mind to tell him plainly,
3H6. iv. 1. 8; I shortly mind to leave you, iv. 1. 64; if you
mind to hold your true obedience, 140; How you stand minded,
H8. iii. 1. 58; she minds to play the Amazon, 3H6. iv. 1. 106.
mind, to remind: I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, H5. iv.
3. 13; mind Thy followers of repentance, 84; have minded
you of what you should forget, W.T. iii. 2. 226; I minded
him how royal 'twas to pardon, Cor. v. 1. 18.
mind, to call to remembrance; Minding true things by what
their mockeries be, H5. iv. Prol. 53.
mine, see revolt.
mineral of metals base—A, Hml. iv. 1. 26: “Minerais are mines
(STEEVENS): “A mineral is here used for a mass or com-
pound mine of metals" (CALDECOTT); for “a metallic vein
in a mine" (STAUNTON).
mingled damask,-"red and white mingled, like the changing
flush of damask silk” (HERFORD): A.Y.L. iii. 5. 123.
minikin, small, delicate, pretty, Lr. iii. 6. 45.
minim, "was anciently, as the term imports, the shortest note
in music. Its measure was afterwards, as it is now, as
long as while two may be moderately counted" (SIR J.
HAWKINS): steal at a minim's rest, M.W. i. 3. 30. (O. Edd.,
Globe, a minute's rest); rests me his minim rest, Rom. ii. 4. 22.
minimus, "a being of the least size" (Johnson's Dict.), M.N.D.
iii. 2. 329: "The word is Latin, but came into use prob-
ably from the musical term minim, which, in the very old
notation, was the shortest note, though now one of the
longest," &c. Nares's Gloss.
308
MINSTRELSY-MISTRESS.
minstrelsy-Use him for my, Use him as a minstrel, to relate
fabulous stories, L.L.L. i. 1. 177.
minute-jacks: see fourth Jack.
mirable, admirable, Troil. iv. 5. 142.
misconceived! 1H6. v. 4. 49; misjudging one!
miser, a miserable creature, a wretch: Decrepit miser, 1H6. v. 4. 7.
misery, avarice: he covets less Than misery itself would give,
Cor. ii. 2. 131.
misprise, to undervalue: I am altogether misprised, A.Y.L. i.
1. 177; your reputation shall not therefore be misprised, i. 2.
192; Misprising what they look on, Ado, iii. 1. 52; mispris-
ing of a maid, A.W. iii. 2. 33: great deal misprising, Troil.
iv. 5. 74.
misprise, to mistake: You spend your passion on a mispris'd
mood, M.N.D. iii. 2. 74.
misprision, an undervaluing, scorn: That dost in vile mis-
prision shackle up, A W. ii. 3. 159.
misprision, a mistake: some strange misprision, Ado, iv. 1. 187;
Of thy misprision must perforce ensue, M.N.D. iii. 2. 90;
Misprision in the highest degree, 12N. i. 5. 61; Either envy,
therefore, or misprision, 1H4. i. 3. 27.
misproud, viciously, unjustifiably proud, 3H6. ii. 6. 7.
miss, misbehaviour: blames her miss, Ven. 53 (Qo. misse;
Globe 'miss).
miss, loss, want: a heavy miss of thee, 1H4. v. 4. 105.
miss, to do without, to dispense with: We cannot miss him,
Tp. i. 2. 311.
missingly, intermittently: W.T. iv. 2. 35.
missive, a messenger, Ant. ii. 2. 74; missives, Mcb. i. 5. 7.
mistaken in't-He were something, “That he were something
different from what he is taken or supposed by you to be
(MALONE), H8. i. 1. 195.
mistempered, ill-tempered, wrathful, K.J. v. 1. 12; Rom. i. 1. 94.
misthink, to have wrong thoughts of, to think ill of, to mis-
deem, 3H6. ii. 5. 108; misthought, Ant. v. 2. 176.
mistook him-Had he, Tim. iii. 2. 25; Explained by Heath,
"Had he by mistake thought him under less obligations
than me;" by others, "Had he mistaken himself.”
mistress, the small ball (or Jack,-see first jack) in the game
of bowls, at which the players aim: rub on, and kiss the
mistress, Troil. iii. 2. 52: see rub on, &c.
mistress mine,—O, 12N. iii. 3. 40. "This tune is contained
in both the editions of Morley's Consort Lessons, 1599 and
1601. It is also in Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book. ar-
ranged by Byrd. As it is to be found in print in 1599, it
proves either that [12N.] was written in or before that
year, or that... [it] was an old song, introduced into the
play." Chappell, Pop. Music of the Olden Time, i. 209,.
MISTRESS—MODO.
309
sec. ed. The latter supposition is doubtless the true one.
Mistress Moll's picture; see Mall.
Mistress Silvia, 2G. iv. 4. 8; Mistress Anne Page, M.W. i. 1.
58: Even in the beginning of the eighteenth century it was
customary to style an unmarried lady Mistress.
mistrustful wood-Some, Some wood to be regarded with mis-
trust, Ven. 826.
moe, more, Tp. ii. 1. 133; M.V. i. 1. 108; etc.
mobled, muffled or covered up about the head, Hml. ii. 2. 525.
model, an image, a representation: bring forth this counterfeit
model ("representation of a soldier," MALONE), A.W. iv. 3.
114, (Globe, module); model of confounded royalty, K.J. v.
7. 58 (Do); the model of thy father's life, R2. i. 2. 28; Ah,
thou, the model where old Troy did stand ("Thou ruined
majesty, that resemblest the desolated waste where Troy
once stood," MALONE), R2. v. I. 11; The model of our chaste
loves, H8. iv. 2. 132. [O England! model to thy inward
greatness, H5. ii. Prol. 16: in the modern sense of a small-
scale type or example.]
model of the barren earth Which serves as paste and cover to
our bones - That small, R2. iii. 2. 153: According to Malone,
"The King means to say, that the earth placed upon the
body assumes its form;" according to Douce, model “seems
to mean in this place a measure portion, or quantity."
modern, trite, ordinary, common: modern instances, A.Y.L. ii.
7. 156; modern censure, iv. 1. 7; modern and familiar, A.W.
ii. 3. 2; modern grace, v. 3. 216; modern invocation, K.J. iii.
4. 42; modern lamentation, Rom. iii. 2. 120; modern ecstasy,
Mcb. iv. 3. 170; poor likelihoods Of modern seeming (“weak
show of slight appearance," JOHNSON), Oth. i. 3. 109; modern
friends, Ant. v. 2. 167; a modern quill, Sonn. 83.
("Per modo tutto fuor del modern' uso.” Dante, Purg. xvi. 42;
where Biagioli remarks, "Moderno, s' usa quì in senso di
ordinario.")
modest in exception - How, “How diffident and decent in
making objections" (JOHNSON), H5. ii. 4. 34.
modesty, moderation: If it be husbanded with modesty, Shr.
Ind. 1. 68; Win straying souls with modesty again, H8. v.
3. 64; I am doubtful of your modesties, Shr. Ind. 1. 94.
Modo, Lr. iii. 4. 149; iv. 1. 63: In the first passage of our text,
according to what seems to be a quotation, Modo is another
name for “the prince of darkness;" in the second he is
described as the fiend "of murder;" and in Harsnet's
Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, 1603, a book
which Shakespeare appears to have used for the names
of several fiends in King Lear, we find "Modu, Ma[ister]
Maynies deuill, was a graund Commaunder, Muster-maister
310
แ
MOIETY-MONARCHO.
ouer the Captaines of the seuen deadly sinnes," p. 48;
Modu the General of Styx," p. 54, &c.
moiety, a portion, a share: my moiety, north from Burton here,
1H4. iii. 1. 96; a moiety competent, Hml. i. 1. 90; neither can
make choice of either's moiety, Lr. i. 1. 7; a superfluous moiety,
Lucr. Dedic.; The clear eye's moiety, Sonn. 46.
moist star-The, The moon, Hml. i. 1. 118.
moldwarp and the ant, &c.-Of the, 1H4. iii. 1. 149; Moldwarp
is "mole:"
"So Holinshed, for he was Shakespeare's
authority; ‘This [the division of the realm between Mortimer,
Glendower, and Percy] was done (as some have sayde)
through a foolish credite given to a vaine prophecie, as
though King Henry was the molde-warpe, cursed of God's
owne mouth, and they three were the dragon, the lion, and
the wolfe, which should divide this realm between them"
(MALONE): And see the legend of Glendour, st. 23, vol. ii.
p. 71, of the Mirror for Magistrates, ed. Haslewood.
Moll, see Mall.
mollification for your giant-Some: see giant-Some, &c.
mome, a blockhead, Err. iii. 1. 32.
momentany, lasting for a moment, momentary, M.N.D.
i. L. 143.
Monarcho, L.L.L. iv. 1. 1or: The nick-name of an Italian (not,
I believe, of an Englishman, as Nares states in his Gloss.,
misled by an error of Steevens to be noticed presently),
who attracted a great deal of attention, and is very fre-
quently mentioned by English writers of the time. This
crack-brained personage, it appears, lived about the court,
asserted that he was the sovereign of the world, and (like
Thrasylaus-or Trasyllus-see Athenæus, B. xii. sect. 81)
fancied that all the ships which came into port belonged
to him. That he was dead in 1580 is shown by the follow-
ing lines in Churchyard's Chance, which was published
during that year;
"The Phantasticall Monarckes Epitaphe.
Though Dant be dedde, and Marrot lies in graue,
And Petrarks sprite bee mounted past our vewe,
Yet some doe liue (that poets humours haue)
To keepe old course with vains of verses newe;
Whose penns are prest to paint out people plaine,
That els a sleepe in silence should remaine :
Come, poore old man, that boare the Monarks name,
Thyne epitaphe shall here set forthe thy fame.
Thy climyng mynde aspierd beyonde the starrs,
Thy loftie stile no yearthly titell bore;
Thy witts would seem to see through peace and warrs,
Thy tauntyng tong was pleasant, sharpe, and sore;
MONARCHO.
And though thy pride and pompe was somewhat vaine,
The Monarcke had a deepe discoursyng braine;
Alone with freend he could of wonders treate,
In publicke place pronounce a sentence greate;
No matche for fooles, if wisemen were in place;
No mate at meale to sit with common sort;
Both graue of looks and fatherlike of face,
Of judgment quicke, of comely forme and port;
Most bent to words on hye and solempne daies;
Of diet fine and dainte diuerse waies;
And well disposde, if prince did pleasure take
At any mirthe that he, poore man, could make.
On gallant robes his greatest glorie stood,
Yet garments bare could never daunt his minde;
He feard no state, nor caerd for wordly good,
Held eche thyng light as fethers in the winde;
And still he saied, the strong thrusts weake to wall,
When sword bore swaie, the Monarke should have all;
The man of might at length shall Monarke bee,
And greatest strength shall make the feeble flee.
When straungers came in presence any wheare,
Straunge was the talke the Monarke uttred than;
He had a voice could thonder through the eare,
And speake mutche like a merry Christmas man:
But sure small mirthe his matter harped on.
His forme of life who lists to look upon,
Did shewe some witte, though follie fedde his will:
The man is dedde, yet Monarks liueth still." p. 7.
311.
I will now point out the mistake of Steevens, which I have
above referred to. He says; "In Nash's Have with you to
Saffron-Walden, &c., 1595[6], I meet with the same allusion
[i.e. an allusion to Monarcho]: but now he was an insult-
ing monarch, above Monarcho the Italian, who ware
crownes in his shoes, and quite renounced his natural
English accents and gestures, and wrested himself wholly
to the Italian punctilios,' &c." But the complete passage
of Nash's very powerful and most amusing attack on
Gabriel Harvey runs thus: "-it pleased her Highnes
[Queen Elizabeth] to say (as in my former Booke I haue
cyted) that he [Gabriel Harvey] lookt something like an
Italian. No other incitement he needed to rouze his
plumes, pricke vp his eares, and run away with the bridle
betwixt his teeth, and take it vpon him; (of his owne
originall ingrafted disposition theretoo he wanting no aptnes)
but now he was an insulting Monarch aboue Monarcha the
Italian, that ware crownes on his shooes; and quite renounst
his naturall English accents & gestures, and wrested him-
selfe wholy to the Italian puntilios, speaking our homely.
312
MONGREL-MONSTER.
Iland tongue strangely." &c. Sig. м 2, ed. 1596. Surely, it
is manifest that the latter part of the preceding quotation,
“and quite renounst his naturall English," &c., refers to
Gabriel Harvey, and not, as Steevens supposed, to
Monarcho.
Those commentators are quite mistaken who fancy that
there is an allusion to the person just described when, in
All's well that ends well, i. 1. 118, Helen says, “And you,
monarch!"—which is merely a sportive rejoinder to the
salutation of Parolles, "Save you, fair queen!" See ten groats.
mongrel beef-witted lord!—Thou, Troil. ii. 1. 14: "He calls Ajax
mongrel on account of his father's being a Grecian and his
mother a Trojan. See Hector's speech to Ajax in act iv.
sc. 5, 'Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son,' &c."
(MALONE).
monk-The king, I fear, is poison'd by a, K.J. v. 6. 23: This
circumstance Shakespeare found in the old play, The
Troublesome Raigne of Iohn, &c. (see vol. iv. 3): “Not one
of the historians who wrote within sixty years after the
death of King John mentions this very improbable story.
The tale is, that a monk, to revenge himself on the king
for a saying at which he took offence, poisoned a cup of
ale, and having brought it to his majesty, drank some of it
himself, to induce the king to taste it, and soon afterwards
expired. Thomas Wykes is the first who relates it in his
Chronicle as a report. According to the best accounts,
John died at Newark, of a fever" (MALONE): "The incident
answered the Protestant purpose of Bishop Bale too well
for him not to employ it in his Kynge Johan, where the
monk approaches the king with the poison under the
allegorical character of Dissimulation. See the Camden
Society's edit. 1838, p. 80" (Collier).
Monmouth caps, H5. iv. 7. 104: Malone observes that Monmouth
caps were formerly much worn, and particularly by soldiers;
and he cites from Fuller (Worthies of Wales, p. 50), “The
best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where the
Cappers' chapel doth still remain."
monopoly out, they would have part on't-If I had a, Lr. i.
4. 167: “A satire on the gross abuses of monopolies at that
time; and the corruption and avarice of the courtiers, who
commonly went shares with the patentee" (WARBURTON):
"But the real meaning appears to be, that 'lords and great
men,' 'and ladies too,' were all so determinately bent on
playing the fool, that, although the jester might have a
monopoly for folly out, that is, in force and extant,—yet
they would insist upon participating in the exercise of his
privilege" (STAUNTON).
monster, to make monstrous, "to put out of the common order
MONTANT—MONTH.
313
of things" (Johnson's Dict.): monster'd, Cor. ii. 2. 81; monsters,
Lr. i. 1. 223.
montant, the abbreviation of montanto, a fencing-term ("Mon-
an upright blow or thrust." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.), M.W. ii. 3. 27.
tant
·
•
Montanto-Signior, a name given in jest by Beatrice to Benedick,
and implying that he was a great fencer, Ado, i. 1. 30: see
preceding article. [Globe, Mountanto.]
month's mind to them-I see you have a, 2G. i. 2. 137: Ray gives,
"To have a month's mind to a thing," and adds, “In ancient
wills we find often mention of a month's mind, and also of a
year's mind, and a week's mind: they were lesser funeral so-
solemnities appointed by the deceased at those times, for the
remembrance of him." Proverbs, p. 202, ed. 1768: “It alludes
to the mind or remembrance days of our Popish ancestors.
Persons in their wills often directed that in a month, or
any other specific time from the day of their decease, some
solemn office for the repose of their souls, as a mass or
dirge, should be performed in the parish church, with a
suitable charity or benevolence on the occasion" (DOUCE):
But month's-mind is much more commonly used [as in
the present passage of Shakespeare], and is not yet quite
disused, in the sense of 'an eager desire, or longing'
Some other explanation of the phrase, in the latter sense,
must therefore be required; and it seems to have been well
supplied by the ingenious conjecture of a gentleman, who
published a few detached remarks on Shakespeare, John
Croft, Esq., of York. He explains it to allude to ‘a woman's
longing; which,' he says, 'usually takes place (or com-
mences, at least) in the first month of pregnancy.' Rem. p. 2.
Unfortunately he gives no authority for it, and I have endeav-
oured in vain to find it, in that mode of application. Yet
it accords so perfectly with this second sense, that I have
no doubt of its being the true explanation" [?]. Nares's Gloss.
[There is a Marprelate pamphlet ascribed to Nash (?):
Martin's months minde, that is, a certaine Report and true
description of Death and Funeralls of old Martin Marre-
Prelate, and great makebate of England and Father of the
Factious, containing the cause of his death, the manner of
his buriall, and the right copies both of his will and such
epitaphes" &c. This title illustrates the sense given by Douce;
and the second, more usual, meaning is seen in the following,
from the Isle of Gulls, by John Day, iii. 2: “Madam Mopsa, I
perceive my servant Darus bears a month's mind to you; be not
so strait-laced to him." Cf. Toft's Alba; Hall's Satires, IV. iv.]
month to bleed-No, R2. i. 1. 157: "Richard alludes to the
almanacs of the time, where particular seasons were pointed
out as the most proper time for being bled" (MALONE).
<
314
MONUMENTAL-MOP.
monumental ring, ancestral, hereditary memorial, heirloom
ring, A.W. iv. 3. 20.
mood, anger: Who, in my mood, I stabb'd, 2G. iv. 1. 51.
moody, melancholy: music, moody food, Ant. ii. 5. 1.
moon-calf, a false conception, or a fœtus imperfectly formed,
in consequence, as was supposed, of the influence of the
moon, -a monster, Tp. ii. 2. III; 115; 139; iii. 2. 25:
"The best account of this fabulous substance may be
found in Drayton's poem with that title" (Douce).
moonish, variable, inconstant, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 430.
moon's men-The, 1H4. i. 2. 35. [cf. “By the moon, patroness
of all pursetakers," Wilkins, M. of Enf. marriage, Hazl.
Dodsl. ix. 528]: "Moones men. Brigands." Cotgrave's Fr.
and Engl. Dict.
moonshine, A sop o' the: see sop o' the, &c.
Moonshine, M.N.D. iii. 1. 62. Henryson (Test. of faire Creseide)
thus describes Lady Cynthia:-“And on her breist ane
carle paintit ful even, Bering a bush of thornis on his bak,
Quhich for his theft micht clim no ner the heven.”
Moorditch—The melancholy of, 1H4. i. 2. 88: On the word
((
Moorditch," in his reprint of Dekker's Gull's Hornbook,
Nott writes as follows; "The ground that has of late years
been called Moorfields, together with the adjoining manor
of Finsbury or Fensbury, extending as far as Hoxton, was
in the fourteenth century one continued marsh, passable
only by rude causeways here and there raised upon it. Moor-
fields, in the time of Edward II. let but for four marks per
annum, a sum then equal in value to six pounds sterling.
In 1414, a postern gate, called Moorgate, was opened in
London Wall, by Sir Thomas Fauconer, mayor, affording
freer access to the city for such as crossed the Moor; and
water-courses from it were begun. In 1511, regular dikes,
and bridges of communication over them, were made for
more effectually draining this fenny tract, during the
mayoralty of Robert Atchely; which draining was gradually
proceeded upon for about a century, till, in Decker's day,
it would appear that the waters were collected in one great
ditch. In 1614, it was to a certain degree levelled, and laid
out into walks. In 1732, or between that and 1740, its level
was perfected, and the walks planted with elms. After this,
the spot was for years neglected, and Moorfields became
an assemblage of petty shops, particularly booksellers',
and of ironmongers' stalls; till, in the year 1790, the
handsome square of Finsbury compleated arose upon upon
its site." p. 48.
Moorfields to muster in?-Is this, H8. v. 4. 33: "The train-
bands of the city were exercised in Moorfields" (JOHNSON).
mop, a grimace: with mop and mow, Tp. iv. I. 47 (The word
MOPING-MORTAL.
315
mop is often found in conjunction with mow, q. v.: so in
Copley's Fig for Fortune, 1596:
"And when he can no more, with mops and mowes
He floutes both them, and Death, and Destinie." p. 13).
moping (F1 moaping), in a dazed condition, Tp. v. 1. 240. Cf.
H5. iii. 7. 143; Hml. iii. 4. 81; 2N.K. iii. 2. 25, and the note
there, New Sh. Soc. Edition.
mopping, grimacing, Lr. iv. 1. 64.
moral, a latent meaning: you have some moral in this Benedictus,
Ado, iii. 4. 78; the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens,
Shr. iv. 4. 79; This moral ties me over to time ("the applica-
tion of this fable ties me," &c., JOHNSON), H5. v. 2. 339;
the moral of my wit, Troil. iv. 4. 109.
moral philosophy, see young men.
moralize: I pray thee, moralize (expound, interpret the latent
meaning of) them, Shr. iv. 4. 81; I moralize two meanings
in one word (“signifies either 'extract the double and latent
meaning of one word or sentence,' or 'couch two meanings.
under one word or sentence.'.... The word which Richard
uses in a double sense is live, which in his former speech
he had used literally, and in the present is used metaphoric-
cally," MALONE), R3. iii. 1. 83; thou hear'st me moralize
("comment," MALONE), Ven. 712; Nor could she moralize
his wanton sight ("interpret, investigate the latent meaning
of his wanton looks," MALONE), Lucr. 104.
Mordake the earl of Fife and eldest son To beaten Douglas,
1H4. i. 1. 71: Murdach Stewart, eldest son of the Duke of
Albany (not Douglas).
more, greater; a more requital, K.J. ii. 1. 34; To be more prince,
iv. 1. 10; a more rejoicing, Lucr. 332.
more and less, great and small: The more and less came in,
1H4. iv. 3. 68; more and less do flock, 2H4. i. 1. 209; more
and less have given him the revolt, Mcb. v. 4. 12; are lov'd
of more and less, Sonn. 96.
more sacks to the mill, a proverbial expression, L.L.L. iv. 3. 81.
Morisco, a morris-dancer, 2H6. iii. 1. 365.
Morning's love-The, M.N.D. iii. 2. 389: Most probably Cephalus
is meant.
morris-pike, a Moorish pike ("which was very common in
the 16th century. See Grose's History of the English Army,
vol. i. p. 135," Douce), Err. iv. 3. 28.
mort o' the deer-The, The death of the deer,-the notes on
the horn which were usually blown at the death of the deer,
W.T. i. 2. 118.
mortal, deadly, murderous; This news is mortal to the queen,
W.T. iii. 2. 149; The mortal worm, 2H6. iii. 2. 263; the
mortal fortune of the field, 3H6. ii. 2. 83; The mortal gate
316
MORTAL-MORTIMER.
("The gate that was made the scene of death," JOHNSON)
of the city, Cor. ii. 2. 115; you spirits That tend on mortal
thoughts, Mcb. 1. 5. 42; mortal murders, iii. 4. 81; the
mortai sword, Troil. iv. 5. 134; Mcb. iv. 3. 3; Their mortal
natures, Oth. ii. 1. 72; you mortal engines, iii. 3. 355;
Would be even mortal to me, Cymb. iii. 4. 18; The mortal
bugs, v. 3. 51; a mortal butcher, Ven. 618; thy mortal
vigour, 953. [desperately mortal, hopelessly in mortal sin-
irredeemably guilty of deadly sins, M.M. iv. 2. 152.
"Doomed to death without hope of salvation," says Her-
ford, who remarks that "both the context and the duke's
comment support the theological interpretation."]
mortal, "exceeding, very" (Craven Dialect): as all is mortal
in nature, so is all nature in love mortal in folly (“abound-
ing in folly," JOHNSON, "extremely foolish, CALDECOTT),
A.Y.L. ii. 4. 56.
mortal instruments-The: see Genius &c.
mortal-staring war. R3. v. 3. 90. Capell printed 'mortal-
fearing war'; Malone conjectures 'mortal-scaring war' and
Mr. Staunton (not happily) 'mortal-stabbing war'-But may
not the original reading mean 'mortally (= deadly)-staring
war,' or as Steevens explains it, 'war that looks big, or
stares fatally on its victims?'
mortified, dead to the world, ascetic: Dumain is mortified,
L.L.L. i. 1. 28; the mortified man, Mcb. v. 2. 5.
Mortimer, brought-in in a chair by two keepers—Enter, 1H6. ii. 5.
Dir.: "It is objected that Shakespeare [the unknown author
of the present play] has varied from the truth of history,
to introduce this scene between Mortimer and Richard
Plantagenet; as the former served under Henry V. in 1422,
and died unconfined in Ireland, in 1424. In the third year
of Henry the Sixth, 1425, and during the time that Peter
Duke of Coimbra was entertained in London, ‘Edmonde
Mortimer (says Hall) the last erle of Marche of that name
(which long tyme had bene restrayned from hys liberty, and
fynally waxed lame) disceased without yssue, whose inheri-
tance descended to lord Richard Plantagenet,' &c. Holinshed
has the same words; and these authorities, though the fact
be otherwise, are sufficient to prove that Shakespeare, or
whoever was the author of the play, did not intentionally vary
from the truth of history to introduce the present scene. The
historian does not, indeed, expressly say that the Earl of
March died in the Tower; but one cannot reasonably sup-
pose that he meant to relate an event which he knew had
happened to a free man in Ireland, as happening to a
prisoner during the time that a particular person was in
London. But, wherever he meant to lay the scene of
Mortimer's death. it is clear that the author of this play
MORTIMER.
317
understood him as representing it to have happened in a
London prison; an idea, if indeed his words will bear any
other construction, a preceding passage may serve to corro-
borate: 'The erle of March (he has observed) was ever
kepte in the courte under such a keper that he could neither
doo or attempte any thyng agaynste the kyng wythout his
knowledge, and dyed without issue'" (RITSON): “The error
concerning Edmund Mortimer, brother-in-law to Richard
Earl of Cambridge, having been 'kept in captivity untill
he died,' seems to have arisen from the Legend of Richard
Plantagenet, Duke of Yorke, in The Mirrour for Magi-
strates, 1575, where the following lines are found;
His cursed son ensued his cruel path,
And kept my guiltless cousin strait in lurance,'" &c.
•
(C
(MALONE): “It is presumed that the person intended is
Edmund, last Earl of March, and Shakspeare [the unknown
author of the present play] was led by Holinshed into the
mistake of making him a prisoner. He had, on the con-
trary, been favoured by Henry the Fifth, and, though he
was so far implicated in the treason of Cambridge, Scrope,
and Grey, as to have received a pardon from the
king, he was summoned as one of the judges to whom the
cases of Cambridge and Scrope (being peers) were referred;
and there is no notice of his being again under suspicion,
or out of favour, in the last reign or in the present. He
died in the year 1424 or 1425, not in the Tower, but in
Ireland [He died of the plague in his castle at Trim in
January 1424-5," MALONE]: There is another mistake in
making him an old man; he died at the age of twenty-four,
or thereabouts." Courtenay's Comment. on the Hist. Plays
of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 246; from which work other instances
of the violation of history in this play might be cited.
Mortimer of Scotland-Lord, 1H4. iii. 2. 164: A mistake; Shake-
speare meant Lord March of Scotland (George Dunbar,
tenth Earl of Dunbar and March): "Our author had a
recollection that there was in these wars a Scottish lord on
the king's side, who bore the same title with the English
family on the rebel side (one being the Earl of March in
England, the other, Earl of March in Scotland), but his
memory deceived him as to the particular name which was
common to both. He took it to be Mortimer instead of
March" (STEEVENS).
Mortimer. Wor. I cannot blame him: was he not proclaim'd
By Richard that is dead the next of blood?-Trembling even
at the name of, 1H4. i. 3. 144: “Shakespeare owes to Holinshed
his mistake [Note. Malone and others have fallen into the
same error] in supposing that the Edmund Mortimer, who
318
MORTISE—MOTION.
was prisoner and afterwards son-in law to Glendower, was
Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, whom King Richard
had proclaimed heir to the crown, and who was, according
to hereditary right, now entitled to it. The Earl of March
was at this time a child: it was his uncle, Sir Edward
Mortimer (second son of the first Earl of March) whose
adventures Shakespeare relates and misapplies.
<
‹ Hotspur. . . . . Did King Richard, then,
Proclaim my brother, Edmund Mortimer,
Heir to the crown?
North.
He did.'
Hotspur calls Mortimer his brother, because he married
his sister Elizabeth [A little before he calls him 'my wife's
brother']." Courtenay's Comment. on the Hist. Plays of
Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 92: And see Kate, &c.
mortise, a hole cut in one piece of wood fitted to receive the
tenon or correspondent portion of another piece, Oth. ii. 1. 9.
mortis'd, joined with a mortise, Hml. iii. 3. 20.
mose in the chine-Like to, Shr. iii. 2. 51: “Mose. To mose in
the chine, a disorder in horses, by some called mourning
in the chine." Nares's Gloss.: "Les oreillons. The Mumpes,
or mourning of the Chine." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
most, greatest: resolute in most extremes, 1H6. iv. 1. 38; With
most gladness, Ant. ii. 2. 169.
mot, a motto, a word, a sentence: Lucr. 830.
mother was her painting - Whose, "The creature, not of nature,
but of painting" (JOHNSON), Cymb. iii. 4. 52.
mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio—O, how this,
Lr. ii. 4. 56 [Drayton, Polyolbion, vii. 20]: Percy remarks
that the disease called the mother, or hysterica passio, in
Shakespeare's time, was not thought peculiar to women
only; and that probably our poet derived those terms from
Harsnet's Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, 1603;
which, it would appear, furnished him with the names of
certain supposed fiends mentioned in the present tragedy.
motion, a puppet-show: [Cf. 'wax-works']: O excellent motion!
O exceeding puppet! Now will he interpret to her ("Speed
means to say, What a fine puppet-show shall we have now!
Here is the principal puppet, to whom my master will be
the interpreter. The master of the puppet-show, or the
person appointed by him to speak for his mock actors, was
in Shakespeare's time, frequently denominated the inter-
preter to the puppets"-MALONE), 2G. ii. I. 100; a motion
of the Prodigal Son, W.T. iv. 3. 103. (Fielding, in his Jona-
than Wild, says that the master of a puppet-show "wisely
keeps out of sight; for should he once appear, the whole
motion would be at an end." Book iii. ch. xi.).
MOTION-MOUSE.
319
motion, a puppet: a motion generative, M.M. iii. 2. 119 [where
Dyce follows Theobald's reading, ungenerative]. See Gene-
rative. (So in Swift's Ode to Sir William Temple,
*
As in a theatre the ignorant fry,
Because the cords escape their eye,
Wonder to see the motions fly.")
motion--I see it in my, divinitory agitation (WARB.): Ant. ii. 3. 14.
motion—Unshak'd of, "Unshaked by suit or solicitation, of
which the object is to move the person addressed" (MALONE:
rightly, it would seem), J.C. iii. 1. 70.
motion!- Well; speak on, Per. v. 1. 156. The exclamation of
Pericles, after he has felt Marina's pulse, and has ascer-
tained by its beating that she is really a creature of flesh
and blood.
motions-Sincere, "honest indignation" (JOHNSON), "genuine
impulse of the mind" (DOUCE), H8. i. 1. 153.
motive, a mover, an agent: my motive and helper to a husband,
A.W. iv. 4. 20; The slavish motive of recanting fear; R2. i.
1. 193: every joint and motive ("part that contributes to mo-
tion," JOHNSON) of her body, Troil. iv. 5. 57; motives of
more fancy, A.W. v. 3. 215; the motives that you first went
out (that you were banished), Tim. v. 4. 27.
motley, the particoloured dress worn by domestic fools or
jesters; Motley's the only wear, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 34; a motley
coat, 43; H8. Prol. 16; Invest me in my motley, A.Y.L. ii.
7. 58; I wear not motley in my brain, 12N. i. 5. 63; The one
in motley, Lr. i. 4. 160.
motley, a domestic fool or jester (see the preceding article):
Will you be married, motley? A.Y.L. iii. 3. 79; made myself
a motley to the view, Sonn. 110.
motley fool, a fool wearing motley, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 13; 17.
motley-minded, foolish, A.Y.L. v. 4. 41.
mought, might, 3H6. v. 2. 45.
mould-Men of, "Men of earth, poor mortal men" (JOHNSON),
H5. iii. 2. 23: The expression is common in our early
(Compare True Thomas, and the Queen of
poetry.
"Man of Molde, thu wilt me marre."
Elfland,
and a comparatively modern poem,
Jamieson's Popular Ballads, &c., vol. ii. p. 16.
"Opra questa non è da un uom di terra."
Fortiguerra's Ricciardetto, C. ii. st. 18.
Mount-The, Mount Misenum, Ant. ii. 4. 6.
mountant, mounting, rising on high (Fr. montant, an heraldic
term): Hold up, you sluts, Your aprons mountant, Tim. iv.
3. 135.
mouse, formerly a common term of endearment: What's your
320
MOUSE-MOY.
dark meaning, mouse, of this light word? L.L.L. v. 2. 19;
my mouse of virtue, 12 N. i. 5. 69; call you his mouse, Hml.
iii. 4. 183.
mouse, to tear in pieces, to devour (as a cat does a mouse):
Well moused, lion, M.N.D. v. 1. 274; mousing the flesh of
men, K.J. ii. 1. 354.
"(
mouse, to hunt for mice: a mousing owl, Mcb. ii. 4. 13.
mouse hunt in your time- You have been a, Rom. iv. 4. II:
"Mouse-hunt. A hunter of mice; but evidently said by
Lady Capulet with allusion to a different object of pursuit;
such as is called mouse [see first mouse] only in playful
endearment. . . . The commentators say that in some coun-
ties a weasel is called a mouse-hunt. It may be so; but it
is little to the purpose of that passage." Nares's Gloss.:
'Mouse-hunt, the stoat; the smallest animal of the weasel
tribe, and pursuing the smallest prey. This explains a pas-
sage in SH. Romeo and Juliet, in which Lady Capulet calls
her husband a 'mouse-hunt,' and he exclaims, a 'jealous
hood!' It is the same sense in which Cassio, in Othello,
calls Bianca a 'fitchew,' that is a polecat. All animals of
that genus are said to have the same propensity, on which
it is not necessary to be more particular." Forby's Vocab.
of East Anglia: “Mouse-Hunt. A sort of weasel or pole-cat.
It is found in corn-stacks and stack-yards, and is less angrily
looked on than others of that tribe, as the farmers think
its chief food and game are mice (or meece as we call them),
and not poultry. It is a small species, brown on the back,
the belly white," &c. Moor's Suffolk Words, &c. (Milton,
too, uses the word metaphorically; " Although I know many
of those that pretend to be great Rabbies in these studies,
have scarce saluted them from the strings and the title-page,
or, to give 'em more, have bin but the Ferrets and Mous-
hunts of an Index," &c. Of Reformation in England, &c.,
B. i. Prose Works, vol. i. p. 261, ed. Amst. 1698, folio.).
moved, be moved-Be, "Have compassion on me, though your
mistress has none on you" (MALONE), 2G. ii. 1. 181.
mow, a wry mouth, a distorted face, Tp. iv. i. 47; mows, Hml.
i. 2. 381; Cymb. i. 6. 41.
mow, to make mouths, Tp. ii. 2. 9; mowing, Lr. iv. 1. 64.
moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys, H5. iv. 4. 14; is
that a ton of moys? 23: “Dr. Johnson says that ‘[here] moy
is a piece of money, whence moi-d'or or moi of gold." But
where had the doctor made this discovery? His etymology
of moidor is certainly incorrect. Moidore is an English
corruption of the Portuguese moeda d'ouro i.e. money of
gold; but there were no moidores in the time of Shakes-
peare. We are therefore still to seek for Pistol's moy. Now
a moyos or moy was a measure of corn; in French muy or
MUCH-MUSCADEL.
321
muid, Lat. modius, a bushel. It appears that 27 moys were
equal to a last or two tons. To understand this more fully
the curious reader may consult Malyne's Lex Mercatoria,
1622, p. 45, and Roberts's Marchant's Map of Commerce,
1638, chap. 272” (Douce).
much, an ironical expression of contempt and denial: with
two points on your shoulder? much! 2H4. ii. 4. 143; you
mov'd me much. Apem. Much! Tim. i. 2. 118.
much, the same expression used adjectively: much Orlando! (no
Orlando at all!) A.Y.L. iv. 3. 2 (cf. “Yes, much reskewe, much
helpe, much Dametas." Day's Ile of Guls, sig. c. 3. ed. 1606).
muffler, a sort of wrapper, worn by women, which generally
covered the mouth and chin, but sometimes almost the
whole face, M.W. iv. 2. 73; 81; 205; H5. iii. 6. 33.
muleters, muleteers, 1H6. iii. 2. 68; Ant. iii. 7. 36.
"
mulled, Cor. iv. 5. 239: softened and dispirited, as wine is
when burnt and sweetened. Lat. mollitus" (HANMER).
Walker conj. mute.
mum...budget, M.W. v. 2. 6; 10; 209: Mumbudget was a cant term
implying silence and secrecy: "To play at mumbudget. De-
meurer court, ne sonner mot." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
mummy, a preparation, for magical purposes, made from dead
bodies: Witches' mummy, Mcb. iv. 1 23; mummy which the
skilful Conserv'd of maidens' hearts, Oth. iii. 4. 74.
mural, a wall (“ properly an adjective,” HALIWELL), M.N.D. v. 1. 208.
murdering-piece, Hml. iv. 5. 95: "A murdering piece or mur-
derer was
a small piece of artillery; in Fr. meurtrière. It
took its name from the loopholes and embrasures in towers
and fortifications, which were so called. The portholes in
the forecastle of a ship were also thus denominated. 'Meur-
triere, c'est un petit canonniere, comme celles des tours et
murailles, ainsi appelé, parceque tirant par icelle a desceu,
ceux ausquels on tire sont facilement meurtri.' Nicot. Visiere
meurtriere, a port-hole for a murthering-piece in the forecastle
of a ship.' Cotgrave. Case-shot, filled with small bullets,
nails, old iron, &c., was often used in these murderers. This
accounts for the raking fire attributed to them in the text”
(SINGER): Cotgrave has also "Meurtrieres. Holes (in that
part of a rampire that hangs ouer the gate) whereat the
assailed let fall stones on the heads of theer too neere ap-
proaching aduersarie:" Murdering-pieces, if we may trust
Coles, were not always "small;" for he gives "A Murder-
ing-piece, Tormentum murale,” and afterwards “Tormentum
murale, a great gun.” Lat. and Engl. Dict.
mure, a wall, 2H4. iv. 4. 119.
murk, darkness, gloom, A.W. ii. 1. 166.
muscadel, or muscadine, Shr. iii. 2. 174: "Vinum muscatum
quod moschi odorem referat, propter dulcedinem, for the sweet-
21
322
MUSE-NAME.
nesse and smell, it resembles muske," &c. Minsheu's Guide
into Tongues, ed. 1617.
muse, to wonder, to wonder at: I cannot too much muse such
shapes, Tp. iii. 3. 36; And rather muse than ask, A.W. ii.
5. 70; I muse your majesty doth seem so cold, K.J. iii. 1. 317;
I muse you make so slight a question, 2H4. iv. 1. 167; I
muse we met not with the Dauphin's grace, 1H6. ii. 2. 19;
I muse my Lord of Gloster is not come, 2H6. iii. 1. 1; you
muse what chat we two have had, 3H6. iii. 2. 109; I muse
my mother Does not approve me further, Cor. iii. 2. 7; Do
not muse at me, Mcb. iii. 4. 85: Musing the morning is so
much o'erworn, Ven. 866.
muset (written also muse and musit), 2N.K. iii. 1. 97 (Qo.
musicke); musets, Ven. 683: "A muse (of a hare), Arctus
leporis per sepes transitus, leporis lacuna." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.: The opening in a fence or thicket, through
which a hare, or other beast of sport, is accustomed to
pass." Nares's Gloss.
music, "musical, mellifluous" (CALDECOTT): the honey of his
music vows, Hml. iii. 1. 164.
muss, a scramble (Fr. mousche), Ant. iii. 13. 91.
mussel-shell, M.W. iv. 5. 29: “He calls poor Simple mussel-
shell, because he stands with his mouth open" (JOHNSON)..
mutine, to mutiny, Hml. iii. 4. 83.
mutiners, mutineers, Cor. i. 1. 254.
mutines, mutineers; like the mutines of Jerusalem, K.J. ii. 1. 378
(where the allusion is to the factions in Jerusalem combin-
ing their strength against the Roman besiegers); Hml. v. 2. 6.
mutton, a cant term for a courtesan: The duke, I say to thee
again, would eat mutton on Fridays (where, of course, the
allusion is partly to breaking the fast), M.M. iii. 2. 192: and
see laced mutton.
my wrongs-Thou pardon me, Thou pardon me the wrongs done
by me to thee, Tp. v. 1. 119.
myrmidons, 12N. ii. 3. 29: here subordinate servants of
the household.
mystery, an art, a calling [ministerium]: discredit our mystery,
M.M. iv, 2. 30; thrive in our mystery, Tim. iv. 3. 458; such
strange mysteries (“artificial fashions," Douce), H8. i. 3. 2;.
manners, mysteries, and trades, Tim. iv. 1. 18; your mystery
(skill) in stratagem, A.W. iii. 6. 68.
naked gull-A: see gull, &c.
N.
name, for a, either 'pro forma', 'for the name of the thing',
or, 'to make himself notable,' M.M. i. 2. 173; 175.
NAPKIN-NEELD.
323
napkin, a handkerchief: A.Y.L. iv. 3. 94; 155; Shr. Ind. 1. 127;
3H6. i. 4. 79; 159; ii. 1. 62; Tit. iii. 1. 146; J.C. iii. 2. 138;
Mcb. ii. 3. 6; Hml. v. 2. 299; Oth. iii. 3. 287; 290; 321.
Naples, that they speak i' the nose thus?-Have your instruments
been in, Oth. iii. 1. 4: "The venereal disease first appeared
at the siege of Naples" (JOHNSON).
native she doth owe-Which, Which she naturally possesses,
L.L.L. i. 2. III: see owe.
natural, an idiot: that a monster should be such a natural, Tp.
iii. 2. 37; hath sent this natural, A.Y.L. i. 2. 55 (where, as
Douce observes, "Touchstone is called a natural merely
for the sake of alliteration and a punning jingle of words;
for he is undoubtedly an artificial fool "); like a great natural,
Rom. ii. 4. 96. [No doubt Touchstone glances at this sense
of the word when he calls Corin a natural philosopher,
A.Y.L. iii. 2. 33.]
natural-All most, most like a natural fool: 12N. i. 3. 30 (O. Edd.
Globe, almost).
naught awhile—Be, A plague, or a mischief on you (a petty
malediction), A.Y.L. i. 1. 39.
naughty, wicked, bad, worthless, M.M. ii. 1. 77; Ado, iv. 2. 74 ;
v. 1. 306; M.V. iii. 2. 18; iii. 3. 9; v. 1. 91; A.W. v. 3. 254;
1H4. ii. 4. 474; 2H6. ii. 1. 167; H8. v. 1. 138; Troil. iv. 2. 26;
34; J.C. i. 1. 16; Lr. iii. 4. 116; iii. 7. 37.
nave-The, The navel: from the nave to the chaps, Mcb. i. 2. 22.
nave of a wheel-This, 2H4. ii. 4. 278: This wheel-like (rotund)
knave, with a play on nave, knave.
nayward, tendency to denial, W.T. ii. 1. 64.
nay-word, a watch-word: have a nay-word, that you may know
one another's mind, M.W. ii. 2. 131; we have a nay-word
how to know one another, v. 2. 5.
nay-word, a by-word, a laughing-stock (see Forby's Vocab. of
East Anglia): gull him into a nay-word, 12N. ii. 3. 146.
near, admitted to one's confidence: you are very near my
brother in his love, Ado, ii. 1. 169; the imputation of being
near their master, 2H4. v. 1. 81.
near-legg’d, see ne'er-legg’d.
neat slave-You, "You finical rascal, you [who] are an assem-
blage of foppery and poverty" (STEEVENS), Lr. ii. 2. 45.
neb, a beak, a bill, a nose (see Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the
Scottish Language): W.T. i. 2. 183 (afterwards in this scene
Leontes speaks of their "meeting noses").
needless stream-The,The stream that needed it not,A.Y.L. ii. 1.46.
needly, needfully, necessarily, Rom. iii. 2. 117.
neeld, a needle, Per. v. Gow. 5 [and so pronounced, though
printed needle, M.N.D. iii. 2. 204; K.J. v. 2. 157 ; R2. v. 5. 17;
Cymb. i. 1. 168; Per. iv. Gow. 23.] (This contracted form
is common enough in our early poets; e.g.
324
NE'ER-NEWGATE-FASHION.
"for thee fit weapons weare (i.e. were)
Thy neeld and spindle, not a sword and speare."
Fairfax's Tasso's Gerusalemme, B. xx. 95).
We also find "nylde;"
"Without sweard and buckler, without speare or shylde,
With an houndred poundes, as safe as with a nylde.”
O maruelous tydynges, &c.-Seventy-nine Black-letter
Ballads, &c., 1867, p. 211.
ne'er the near, never the nigher, R2. v. 1. 88 (Compare Porter's
Two Angrie Women of Abington, 1599,
Shall I stand gaping here all night till day?
And then be nere the neere," &c.
Sig. H 4).
ne'er-legged, Shr. iii. 2. 57: The spelling in the Folio is “neere
leg'd before"-ie. "foundered in his forefeet; having, as
the jockeys term it, never a foreleg to stand on. The
subsequent words, 'which, being restrained to keep him
from stumbling', seem to countenance this interpretation.
The modern editors read 'near-legged before;' but to go
near before is not reckoned a defect, but a perfection, in
a horse." MALONE. Mr. Grant White prints near-legged
before; which he understands to mean knock-kneed; [and
Prof. Herford explains "with weak forefeet."]
neeze, to sneeze, M.N.D. ii. 1. 56.
neglection, neglect, 1H6. iv. 3. 49; 3. 127; Per. iii. 3. 20.
neif, a fist, (Globe, neaf): M.N.D. iv. 1. 20; 2H4. ii. 4. 200.
Neoptolemus, Troil. iv. 5. 142: Was expanded into "Neopto-
1. 1.
lemus' sire" by Warburton. But most probably, as Johnson
observes, "the author, remembering that the son was Pyrrhus
Neoptolemus, considered Neoptolemus as the nomen genti-
litium, and thought the father was likewise Achilles Neop-
tolemus." Steevens shows that in a poem by Wilfred Holme,
The Fall and evill success of Rebellion, &c., 1572, the same
mistake occurs.
nephew, a word which, like cousin, was formerly used with
great laxity; Henry the Fourth... Depos'd his nephew
Richard, 1H6. ii. 5. 64 (where nephew ought to mean "cousin");
you'll have your nephews (grandsons) neigh to you, Oth. i. 1. 112.
Nessus, A.W. iv. 3. 281: the centaur, ravisher of Deianeira.
nether-stocks, lower stocks, stockings, 1H4. ii. 4. 130; Lr. ii. 4. 11
(The breeches were the upper-stocks).
Nevil-You, cousin, 2H4. iii. 1. 66: "Shakespeare has mistaken
the name of the present nobleman. The earldom of War-
wick was, at that time, in the family of Beauchamp, and
did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after," &c.
(STEEVENS).
Newgate-fashion-Two and two, "As prisoners are conveyed
NEXT-NICHOLAS.
325
to Newgate, fastened two and two together" (JOHNSON),
1H4. iii. 3. 104.
next way, nearest way, A.W. i. 3. 63; W.T. iii. 3. 131; 132;
1H4. iii. 1. 264; 2N.K. iii. 2. 33.
nice, scrupulous, precise, squeamish: but she is nice and coy,
2G. iii. 1. 82; betray nice wenches, L.L.L. iii. 1. 24; By nice
direction of a maiden's eyes, M.V. ii. 1. 14; nor the lady's,
which is nice ("silly, trifling," STEEVENS, "affected, over-
curious in trifles," CALDECOTT), A.Y.L. iv. 1. 14; they're
nice and foolish, 2N.K. v. 2. 79: and see make nice.
nice, trifling, unimportant, petty: nice ("effeminate," STAUNTON)
crutch, 2H4. i. 1. 145; nice, and wanton reason, iv. 1. 191;
the respects thereof are nice and trivial, R3. iii. 7. 175; How
nice the quarrel was, Rom. iii. 1. 159; The letter was not
nice, v. 2. 18; every nice offence, J.C. iv. 3. 8; mine hours
Were nice ("delicate, courtly, flowing in peace," WARBURTON,
"trifling, toying, wanton," Todd's Johnson's Dict.), Ant.
iii. 13. 180.
nice, particular (?): O, relation Too nice, and yet too true! Mcb.
iv. 3. 174.
nicely I might well delay-What safe and, Lr. v. 3. 144:
"Nicely is punctiliously; if I stood on minute forms" (MALONE).
niceness, scrupulousness, preciseness, Cymb. iii. 4. 158; 2N.K.
v. 2. 20 (= fastidious scruple).
nicety, the same as niceness, M.M. ii. 4. 162.
Nicholas be thy speed!-Saint, 2G. iii. 1. 300: "The true reason
why this Saint was chosen to be the patron of Scholars
may be gathered from the following story in his Life com-
posed in French verse by Maitre Wace, chaplain to Henry
the Second, remaining in manuscript but never printed....
Treis clers aloent a escole,
Nen frai mie longe parole,' &c. &c.
That is 'Three scholars were on their way to school (I
shall not make a long story of it), their host murdered them
in the night, and hid their bodies; their [a word defaced
in the manuscript] he reserved. Saint Nicholas was informed
of it by God Almighty, and according to his pleasure went
to the place. He demanded the scholars of the host, who
was not able to conceal them, and therefore showed them
to him. Saint Nicholas by his prayers restored the souls
to their bodies. Because he conferred such honour on
scholars, they at this day celebrate a festival.' It is remark-
able that although the above story explains the common
representation of the saint with three children in a tub, it
is not to be found in that grand repertory of Monkish lies,
The golden legend. It occurs, however, in an Italian Life
of Saint Nicholas printed in 1645, whence it is extracted
into the Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, p. 158" (DOUCE).
326
NICHOLAS'-NIGHT-RAVEN.
Nicholas' clerks-Saint, 1H4. ii. 1. 68: A cant term for high-
waymen and robbers; but, though the expression is very
common, its origin is still very uncertain.
nick-Out of all, Beyond all reckoning (in reference to the
ancient tallies), 2G. iv. 2. 76 (Perhaps it may be necessary
to add here Johnson's definition of a tally, viz. “A stick
notched or cut in conformity to another stick, and used
to keep accounts by ").
nick, to cut in nicks or notches: nicks him like a fool, cuts his
hair in nicks or notches, as was formerly done to fools
(who "were shaved and nicked in a particular manner in
our author's time," MALONE), Err. v. 1. 175; nicked his
captainship ("set the mark of folly on it," STEEVENS; cited
in Johnson's Dict. under "Nick" in the sense of "Defeat,
cozen," &c.), Ant. iii. 13. 8.
niece, a grand-daughter: my niece Plantagenet, R3. iv. 1. 1
("The old Duchess of York calls Clarence's daughter niece,
i.e. grand-daughter; as grand-children are frequently called
nephews," THEOBALD). "He might present unto good king
Altistrates a neece [ grand-daughter] insteade of a daughter."
L. Twine, Patt. of Painful Adventures, chap. viii.
niece? Did I let pass th' abuse done to my, 3H6. iii. 3. 188:
"Thus Holinshed, p. 668; 'King Edward did attempt a
thing once in the earles house, which was much against
the earles honestie (whether he would have defloured his
daughter or his niece, the certaintie was not for both their
honours revealed), for surely such a thing was attempted
by king Edward'" (STEEVENS).
niggard, "to stint, to supply sparingly" (Johnson's Dict.), J.C.
iv. 3. 228; 2N.K. i. 4. 32.
night-crow-The, 3H6. v. 6. 45: see the next article.
nighted, dark as night, Hml. i. 2. 68; Lr. iv. 5. 13.
night-raven-The, Ado, ii. 3. 84: "ie." says Steevens, "the
vuntinópaž;"
owl, vuxτixóρağ;" which assertion, as far as "owl" is con-
cerned, is at variance with sundry passages in our early
writers, who make a distinction between it and the night-
raven; e.g.
"And after him owles and night-ravens flew."
Spenser's Faerie Queene, B. ii. C. vii. st. 23:
"The dismall cry of night-ravens.... and the fearefull sound
of schrich-owles." Johnson's Seven Champions of Christendom,
Part First, Sig. D, ed. 4to, n. d. [Marston, Jack Drum, iv.
290: "Out, Syren! Peace, scritch-owle! Hence, chattering
Pie! The black-beakt night-crow, or the howling dog," &c.]
Cotgrave regards the "night-crow" and the "night-raven"
as synonymous; "A night-crow. Corbeau de nuict." "The
night-rauen. Corbeau du nuict." Fr. and Engl. Dict.: so
C
NIGHT-RULE-NINE-MEN'S-MORRIS. 327
did that eminent naturalist the late Mr. Yarrell, who con-
sidered them as only different names for the night-heron,
nycticorax, and who, in consequence of some talk which I
had with him on the subject wrote to me as follows, Sept.
21, 1854; "The older authors called it [the night-heron] a
raven, in reference probably to the word corax; and by
Shakespeare it was called a crow, because corax is a corvus."
[The note of the night-heron, says Yarrell, “is a mournful
qua-a, seldom uttered except as a call-note in the dusk, or
when its breeding-colonies are disturbed." Brit. Birds, IV.
198, 4th ed. Mr. Harting, Ornith of Sh. pp. 101-2, says:—
"Willughby [1678] thought that the so-called 'night-raven'
was the bittern. Speaking of the curious noise produced
by the latter bird, he says:-' This, I suppose, is the bird
which the vulgar call the night-raven, and have a great
dread of.' The bittern was one of the very few birds
which Goldsmith, in his Animated Nature, described from
personal observation, and he too, calls it the 'night-raven.'
Its hollow boom, he says, caused it to be held in detesta-
tion by the vulgar.... Sometimes it was called the night-crow.”
Probably any croaking night-bird would be supposed to be
a night-raven or night-crow by persons who were inclined
to superstitious terrors, and no doubt the epithet applied
more to the croaking cry than to the appearance of the
bird. Many birds when disturbed cry at irregular times
during the night. See note on 2N.K. i. 1. 20. N.S.S. ed.]
night-rule, night-revel, night-sport, M.N.D. iii. 2. 5.
nill, will not, Shr. ii. 1. 273; Hml. v. 1. 19; Per. iii. Gow. 55.
nine sibyls of old Rome-The, 1H6. i. 2. 56: "There were no
nine sibyls of Rome; but he confounds things, and mistakes
this for the nine books of Sibylline oracles, brought to one
of the Tarquins" (WARBURTON).
nine-fold, Lr. iii. 4. 126: This, according to Tyrwhitt, is put
for the rhyme, instead of nine foals; according to Malone,
it means "nine familiars."
nine-men's-morris is fill'd up with mud- The, M.N.D. ii 1. 98:
"This game was sometimes called the nine mens merrils, from
merelles or mereaux, an ancient French word for the jettons
or counters with which it was played. The other term morris
is probably a corruption suggested by the sort of dance which
in the progress of the game the counters performed. In the
French merelles each party had three counters only, which
were to be placed in a line in order to win the game. It
appears to have been the Tremerel mentioned in an old
fabliau. See Le Grand, Fabliaux et contes, tom. ii. p. 208.
Dr. Hyde thinks the morris or merrils was known during
the time that the Normans continued in possession of
England, and that the name was afterwards corrupted into
328
NINE-MEN'S-MORRIS.
three mens morals, or nine mens morals. If this be true, the
conversion of morals into morris, a term so very familiar
to the country people, was extremely natural. The doctor
adds, that it was likewise called nine-penny, or nine-pin
miracle, three-penny morris, five-penny morris, nine-penny morris,
or three-pin, five-pin, and nine-pin morris, all corruptions of
three-pin &c. merels. Hyde, Hist. Nerdiludii, p. 202" (Douce):
"Merelles, or, as it was formerly called in England, nine-
mens morris, and also fivepenny morris, is a game of some
antiquity. Cotgrave describes it as a boyish game, and
says it was played here commonly with stones, but in France
with pawns, or men, made on purpose, and they were
termed merelles; hence the pastime itself received that
denomination. It was certainly much used by the shepherds
formerly, and continues to be used by them and other
rustics to the present hour. But it is very far from being
confined to the practice of boys and girls. The form of
the merelle-table, and the lines upon it, as it appeared in
the fourteenth century, is given upon the thirtieth plate;
and these lines have not been varied. The black spots at
every angle and intersection of the lines are the places for
the men to be laid upon; and the manner of playing is
briefly this: two persons, having each of them nine pieces,
or men [Note. Which are different in form or colour for
distinction sake; and from the moving these men backwards
or forwards, as though they were dancing a morris, I suppose
the pastime received the appellation of Nine Men's Morris.
But why it should have been called five-penny morris, I do
not know], lay them down alternately, one by one, upon
the spots; and the business of either party is to prevent
his antagonist from placing three of his pieces so as to form
a row of three, without the intervention of an opponent
piece. If a row be formed, he that made it is at liberty to
take up one of his competitor's pieces from any part he
thinks most to his own advantage. [Note. Excepting he
has made a row, which must not be touched if he have
another piece upon the board that is not a component part
of that row.] When all the pieces are laid down, they are
played backwards and forwards, in any direction that the
lines run, but can only move from one spot to another at
one time: he that takes off all his antagonist's pieces is
the conqueror. The rustics, when they have not materials
at hand to make a table, cut the lines in the same form
upon the ground, and make a small hole for every dot.
They then collect, as above mentioned, stones of different
forms or colours for the pieces, and play the game by
depositing them in the holes in the same manner that they
are set over the dots upon the table. Hence Shakespeare,
NO.
329
describing the effects of a wet and stormy season [in the
present passage]," &c. Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, p 279,
sec. ed.: “In that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare
was educated, and the neighbouring parts of Northampton-
shire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with
their knives to represent a sort of imperfect chess-board.
It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot diameter,
sometimes three or four yards. Within this is another
square, every side of which is parallel to the external
square; and these squares are joined by lines drawn from
each corner of both squares, and the middle of each line.
One party, or player, has wooden pegs, the other stones,
which they move in such a manner as to take up each
other's men, as they are called, and the area of the inner
square is called the pound, in which the men taken up
are impounded. These figures are by the country people
called Nine Men's Morris or Merrils; and are so called
because each party has nine men. These figures are always
cut upon the green turf, or leys as they are called, or upon
the grass at the end of ploughed lands, and in rainy seasons
never fail to be choked [fill'd] up with mud" (JAMES): “Nine
men's morris is a game still played by the shepherds, cow-
keepers, &c., in the midland counties, as follows: a figure
is made on the ground (like this which I have drawn) by
cutting out the turf; and two persons take each nine stones,
which they place by turns in the angles, and afterwards
move alternately, as at chess or draughts. He who can
place three in a straight line may then take off any one
of his adversary's, where he pleases, till one, having lost
all his men, loses the game" (ALCHORNE).
no: “In Our author's time the negative, in
in common
speech, was used to design, ironically, the excess of a
thing" (WARBURTON): Here's no knavery! Shr. i. 2. 138;
here's no vanity! 1H4. v. 3. 33; Here's no sound jest!
Tit. iv. 2. 26.
no dame, hereafter living, By my excuse shall claim excuse's giving,
Lucr. 1714: Not borrowed from Livy, i. 58 (of which no
translation had appeared when Lucrece was published); but,
as Malone observes, "Painter's novel furnished our author
with this sentiment. 'As for my part, though I cleare my
selfe of the offence, my body shall feel the punishment, for
no unchaste or ill woman shall hereafter impute no dishonest
act to Lucrece.' Palace of Pleasure, 1567, vol. i. f. 7."
no had, K.J. iv. 2. 207. Dyce, iv. 68, gives examples of this
construction.
no point, a quibble on the French negation non point: No point,
with my knife, L.L.L. ii. 1. 190; "No point," quoth I, v. 2. 277.
(We occasionally meet with it in passages of our old plays
330
NO-NOBODY.
where no quibble is intended: so in Jack Drums Entertain-
ment,
"I will helpe you to a wench, Mounsieur.
Moun. No point, a burne childe feere de fire."
Sig. c verso, ed. 1616;
in The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600, "Vat, you go
leaue a de bride? tis no point good fashion." Sig D 2 verso;
in Dekker's Shoomakers Holy-day, &c.,
"tell me where he is.
Firke. No point, shall I betray my brother?'
Sig, G verso, ed. 1624;
and in S. Rowley's Noble Spanish Souldier, 1634;
Quee. Art thou not yet converted?
Bal. No point."
Sig. E 4.)
no, seems to be used substantively, equivalent to gain-saying,
in yet reason dares her no, challenges or defies her contra-
diction, M.M. iv. 4. 28.
Nob-Sir, (used in contempt for) Sir Robert, K.J. i. 1. 147.
noble-Let him be a: see let him be a noble.
noble, a gold coin (see the next article): A noble shalt thou
have, H5. ii. 1. 112; I shall have my noble? 119; I gave a
noble to the priest, 1H6. v. 4. 23; worth a noble, R3. i. 3. 82;
receiv'd eight thousand nobles, R2. i. 1. 88; let it be but twenty
nobles, 2H4. ii. 1. 167.
nobleman.
Give him as much as will make him a royal
man, 1H4. ii. 4. 317: "The royal went for 10s.; the noble
only for 6s. and 8d." (TYRWHITT): "This seems to allude
to a jest of Queen Elizabeth. Mr. John Blower in a sermon
before her majesty, first said, 'My royal queen,' and a
little after, 'My noble queen.' Upon which says the queen,
'What, am I ten groats worse than I was?' This is to be
found in Hearne's Discourse of some Antiquities between
Windsor and Oxford; and it confirms the remark of the
very learned and ingenious Mr. Tyrwhitt" (Tollet).
noblesse, nobleness, R2. iv. I. 119.
Nobody Played by the picture of, Tp. iii. 2. 136: "The allusion
is here to the print of Nobody, as-prefixed to the anony-
mous comedy of No-Body and Some-Body, without date,
but printed before the year 1600." (REED) [given in Simp-
son's School of Shak.]: "If any particular representation be
alluded to, which would almost appear to be intended by
the introduction of the word picture, the passage is more
likely to refer to the very singular engraving on the old
and popular ballad of The Wellspoken Nobody" (Halliwell;
who has given a fac-simile of that engraving from the
unique copy of the said ballad in the Miller Library at
Britwell House).
NOD-NON-PAYMENT.
331
nod? Pan. You shall see. Cres. If he do, the rich shall have
more-Will he give you the, Troil. i. 2. 211: "To give the
nod was a term in the game at cards called Noddy. The
word also signifies a silly fellow. Cressid means to call
Pandarus a noddy, and says he shall by more nods be
made more significantly a fool" (SINGER).
noddy, a simpleton, a fool: that's noddy.... that set together
is-noddy .... the word "noddy," 2G. i. 1. 119; 122; 131,—
in which quibbling dialogue the true text is doubtful; see
note in loc.
noise, music: Why sinks that caldron? and what noise is this?
[Hautboys, Mcb. iv. 1. 106.
noise--Sneak's, 2H4. ii. 4. 13: "This term [noise], which occurs
perpetually in our old dramatists, means a company or
concert. In Jonson's days they sedulously attended taverns,
ordinaries, &c, and seem to have been very importunate
for admission to the guests. They usually consisted of
three, and took their name from the leader of their little
band. Thus we hear of 'Mr. Sneak's noise,' 'Mr. Creak's
noise,' and, in Cartwright, of 'Mr. Spindle's noise.' These
names are probably the invention of Shakespeare and the
rest; but they prove the existence of the custom. When
this term went out of use, I cannot tell; but it was familiar
in Dryden's time, who has it in his Wild Gallant and
elsewhere; 'I hear him coming, and a whole noise of
fiddlers at his heels.' Maiden Queen." Gifford's note on
Jonson's Works, vol. iii. p. 402 (Compare, too, Dekker's
If it be not good, the Diuel is in it, 1612; "Theres seuen
score Noise at least of english fidlers." Sig. D 3 verso; and
Chapman's All Fooles, 1605;
<<
And, Drawer, you must get vs musique too,
Call's in a cleanly noyse, the slaues grow lowzy."
Sig. H 4 verso:
I may also notice that Wycherley uses the word in the
sense of "a company" without any reference to music; "I
could as soon suffer a whole noise of flatterers at a great
man's levee in a morning." The Plain Dealer, act. i. sc. 1).
nonce - For the, For the once, for the occasion, 1H4. i. 2. 201;
1H6. ii. 3. 57; Hml. iv. 7. 161: The original form was
for than anes.
noncome, Ado, iii. 5. 67: Dogberry's confusion of “
поп сот-
pos mentis" with non-plus.
none so poor to do him reverence, "the meanest man is now too
high to do reverence to Cæsar" (JOHNSON), J.C. iii. 2. 125.
non-payment that the debt should double-For, Ven. 521: "The
poet was thinking of a conditional bond's becoming for-
feited for non-payment; in which case the entire penalty
332
NOOK-SHOTTEN-NOVICE.
(usually the double of the principal sum lent by the obligee)
was formerly recoverable at law" (MALONE).
nook-shotten isle of Albion, H5. iii. 5. 14: "Shotten signifies
anything projected: so nook-shotten isle is an isle that shoots
out into capes, promontories, and necks of land, the very
figure of Great Britain" (WARBURTON).
north-The lordly monarch of the, 1H6. v. 3. 6: "The north
was always supposed to be the particular habitation of bad
spirits. Milton, therefore, assembles the rebel angels in the
north" (JOHNSON): "The boast of Lucifer in the xivth
chapter of Isaiah is said to be, that he 'will sit upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north""
(STEEVENS): "The monarch of the north was Zimimar, one
of the four principal devils invoked by witches. The others
were, Amaimon king of the East, Gorson king of the
South, and Goap king of the West. Under these devil
kings were devil marquesses, dukes, prelates, knights, presi-
dents and earls. They are all enumerated, from Wier De
præstigiis dæmonum, in Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft,
Book xv. c. 2 and 3” (DOUCE).
(Douce).
northern man, a clown, L.L.L. v. 2. 701.
nose fell a-bleeding-It was not for nothing that my, M.V. ii.
5. 24: Bleeding at the nose was formerly reckoned ominous.
[cf. Antonio and Mellida, Pt. ii. i. 3.]
not, not only: and that not in the presence Of dreaded justice,
but, &c., Cor. iii. 3. 98.
not ever The justice and the truth, &c., H8. v. 1. 130: “Not
ever is an uncommon expression, and does not mean never,
but not always" (MASON).
note o' the king-Even to the, "I will so distinguish myself, the
king shall remark my valour" (JOHNSON), Cymb. iv. 3. 44.
note - Upon the warrant of my, Upon the warrant of "my
observation of your character" (JOHNSON), Lr. iii. 1. 18.
note—Take this, Mark what I say, Lr. iv. 5. 29.
notes, whose faculties inclusive were, More than they were in
note, "receipts in which greater virtues were inclosed than
appeared to observation" (JOHNSON), “More than they were
in note, i.e. more than was written down of them" (GRANT
WHITE), A.W. i. 3. 233.
nothing!-Notes, notes, forsooth, and, Ado, ii. 3. 59; admiring
the nothing of it, W.T. iv. 4. 626: In these passages there
is, according to some critics, a quibble-noting.
nott-pated, having the hair cut short round and round, 1H4.
ii. 4. 78; 251 (where O. Edd. read knotty-pated).
nourish, see marish.
nousle, to nurse, Per. i. 4. 42.
novice - That princely, That princely "youth, one yet new to
the world" (JOHNSON), R3. i. 4. 228.
NOVUM-OAK.
333
novum-Abate throw at, L.L.L. v. 2. 547: Novum (or Novem)
was a game at dice, played by five or six persons. Its
proper name was Novem quinque, from the two principal
throws being five and nine: see fourth abate.
nowl, the head, M.N.D. iii. 2. 17 (Globe nole).
number'd beach-The, Cymb. i. 6. 36.
numbers-Such fiery, L.L.L. iv. 3. 322: "Numbers are, in this
passage, nothing more than poetical measures" (JOHNSON).
nuncle, a contraction of mine uncle (and the usual address, it
appears, of the domestic fool to his superiors), Lr. i. 4.
117; 130; 144; 170; 187; 195; 204; 234; 338; i. 5. 45; ii. 4.
123; iii. 2. 10; 12; iii. 4. 39; iii. 6. 10.
nurture, education, breeding, Tp. iv. 1. 189; A.Y.L. ii. 7. 97.
nut-hook (properly, a hook for pulling down the branches of nut-
trees), a cant term for a catchpole, M.W. i. 1. 171; 2H4. v. 4. S.
nutmeg-A gilt, L.L.L. v. 2. 652: This was formerly a common
gift at Christmas and on other occasions of festivity (So in
Barnfield's Affectionate Shepheard, 1594;
"Against my birth-day thou shalt be my guest:
Weele haue greene-cheeses. and fine silly-bubs ;
And thou shalt be the chiefe of all my feast:
And I will giue thee two fine pretie cubs,
With two yong whelps, to make thee sport withall,
A golden racket, and a tennis-ball,
A guilded nutmeg, and a race of ginger,
A silken girdle, and a drawn-worke band," &c. Sig. c 2).
nuzzling, nestling ("as a child with its nose [or nozzle] nestles
into the breast of its nurse, &c. Richardson's Dict. in
"Nousle," which is only another form of the word), Ven. 1115.
Nym, theft, literally, I'll live by Nym, H5. ii. 1. 115.
O.
◇ without a figure-An, "A mere cypher, which has no arith-
metical value, unless preceded or followed by some figure"
(MALONE), Lr. i. 4. 212.
O, any thing circular: this wooden O (the Globe Theatre on
the Bankside, which "was circular within," (COllier), H5.
Prol. 13; The little O, the earth, Ant. v. 2. 81; so full of
O's (marks of the small-pox), L.L.L. v. 2. 45; fiery O's
(orbs, stars), M.N.D. iii. 2. 188. [And O shall end, I hope,
12N. ii. 5. 143; i.e. a halter. HERFORD.]
((
oak-Close as, Close as the grain of oak" (STEEVENS),
Oth. iii. 2. 210.
oak-His brows bound with, Cor. i. 3. 16; ii. 2. 102: “The
crown given by the Romans to the man that saved the life
of a citizen, which was accounted more honourable than
any other" (JOHNSON).
334
OATHABLE-OCCULTED.
oathable, "capable of having an oath administred" (Johnson's
Dict.), Tim. iv. 3. 135.
oats have eaten the horses-The, Shr. iii. 2. 207: "There is still
a ludicrous expression used when horses have stayed so long
in a place as to have eaten more than they are worth, viz.
that their heads are too big for the stable-door. I suppose
Grumio has some such meaning" (STEEVENS): Mr. Staunton
compares a saying common in the stable now, The horses
have eaten their heads off: Mr. Halliwell sees nothing here
but a kind of blunder which "was a favourite one with the
early English dramatists."
ob, the abbreviation of obolum,- a halfpenny, 1H4. ii. 4. 590.
Obidicut, Lr. iv. 1. 62: A variation of the name of the fiend
called Hoberdicut and Haberdicut in Harsnet's Declaration
of egregious Popish Impostures, 1603, pp. 119, 181; from
which work Shakespeare seems to have borrowed the names
of several of the fiends in King Lear.
objects-Subscribes To tender, Troil. iv. 5. 106; swear against
objects, Tim. iv. 3. 122; (ie. objects of charity and com-
passion. MASON).
obligation, a bond: quittance, or obligation, M.W. i. 1. 11; he
can make obligations, 2H6. iv. 2. 100.
obsequious, “careful of obsequies or of funeral rites" (JOHNSON),
"absorbed in funeral grief" (Nares's Gloss.): so obsequious
will thy father be, 3H6. ii. 5. 118.
obsequious, belonging to obsequies, funereal: obsequious tears,
Tit. v. 3. 152; obsequious sorrow, Hml. 1. 2. 92; obsequious
tear, Sonn. 31.
obsequiously lament, funereally, as at obsequies, lament, R3.i.2.3.
observance, observation: By what observance, I pray you?
A.W. iii. 2. 5; I have no observance, Ant. iii. 3. 25.
observants, obsequious attendants, Lr. ii. 2. 109.
observation, observance (rites due to the morning of May): For
now our observation is perform'd, M.N.D. iv. 1. 109: see May,&c.
observe, to show respectful attention: I shall observe him,
2H4. iv. 4. 49; You should observe her every way, 2N.K. v.
2. 14; underwrite in an observing kind, &c., Troil. ii. 3. 137
(see underwrite, &c.); if he be observ'd, 2H4. iv. 4. 30.
observe and answer The vantage of his anger, "Mark, catch,
and improve the opportunity which his hasty anger will
afford us" (JOHNSON), Cor. ii. 3. 267.
obstacle, a rustic corruption of obstinate, 1H6. v. 4. 17 (Walker
is doubtless mistaken in supposing this to be a printer's
error for "obstinate:" see his Crit. Exam., &c., vol. iii. p. 154).
occasion,-make her fault her husband's, make out that her
husband is to blame for her misdeeds: A.Y.L. iv. 1. 178.
occident, the west, R2. iii. 3. 67; Cymb. iv. 2. 372.
occulted, secret, Hml. iii. 2. 85.
OCCUPATION—ŒILLIADS.
335
occupation, mechanics: the voice of occupation and The breath
of garlic-eaters, Cor. iv. 6. 97.
occupation-A man of any, a mechanic, J.C. i. 2. 269. (So
Johnson explains the words: but Mr. Craik suspects that
they mean more than that-he does not add what [see
occupy]; and Mr. Grant White queries if they signify "a
man of action, a busy man").
"
occupy;" which was an excellent good word before it was ill
sorted-As odious as the word, 2H4. ii. 4. 161: In illustra-
tion of this passage Ritson cites the following "jest" from
Wits, Fits, and Fancies, ed. 1614; "One threw stones at an
yll-fauor'd old womans owle, and the olde woman said:
Faith (sir knaue) you are well occupy'd, to throw stones at
my poore owle, that doth you no harme. Yea marie (an-
swered the wag), so would you be better occupy'd too (I
wisse) if you were younge againe, and had a better face:"
Here ill sorted means "ill associated." (Compare the 6th
stanza of "As I was ridinge by the way," p. 29 of Loose
and humorous Songs, printed from Percy's folio Ms. by the
Early English Text Society: see too A Satyr on Ri. Fletcher,
Bp. of London, in which his second wife, the widow of Sir
Richard Baker, is termed, with a quibble, "a common
occupier, p. xi. of the Memoir of Beaumont and Fletcher,
prefixed to my ed. of their works). [Cf. Scourge of Villainy,
ii. 7: "He, with his occupant, are clinged so close," etc., and
Sir J. Harington's Epigr. i. 8: Of Lesbia, a great Ladie :-
"Lesbia doth laugh to hear sellers and buyers Cald by this
name, substantial occupyers; Lesbia, the word was good
while good folk used it, You mar'd it that with Chawcers
jest abus'd it; But good or bad, howe'er the word be made,
Lesbia is loth, perhaps, to leave the trade."]
occurrents, occurrences, incidents, Hml. v. 2. 368. [Jonson,
The case is altered, iv. v., uses the word.]
odd with him-To be, To be at odds, to contend, with him,
Troil. iv. 5. 265.
odd-even and dull watch o' the night-At this, Oth. i. 1. 124:
“This odd-even is simply the interval between twelve at
night and one in the morning" (HENLEY; whose explana-
tion is perhaps the right one).
oddly, unequally: oddly poised, Troil. i. 3. 339.
odds- I shall win at the, "I shall succeed with the advantage
that I am allowed" (MALONE), Hml. v. 2. 222.
'ods pittikins! Cymb. iv. 2. 293: "Steevens's derivation from
God's my pity is not quite correct. It is rather from God's
pity, diminutively used by the addition of kin. In this
manner we have 'od's bodikins” (Douce).
œilliads, amorous glances, ogles (Fr. æillade). M.W. i. 3. 68;
Lr. iv. 5. 25.
336
O'ER-COUNT-OFFERING.
o'er-count me of my father's house-Thou dost, Ant. ii. 6. 26;
O Antony, You have my father's house, ii. 7. 135:
"O'er-
count seems to be used equivocally, and Pompey perhaps
meant to insinuate that Antony not only out-numbered, but
had over-reached him. The circumstance here alluded to
our author found in the old translation of Plutarch [by
North]; 'Afterwards, when Pompey's house was put to open
sale, Antonius bought it; but when they asked him money
for it, he made it very straunge, and was offended with
them ""
(MALONE).
o'er-crows, crows over, triumphs over, overpowers, Hml. v. 2.364.
o'ergrown-So, Cymb. iv. 4. 33: altered in appearance by
the growth of hair on your face.
o'erlooked, bewitched: o'erlook'd even in thy birth, M.W. v. 5.
87; They have o'erlook'd me, M.V. iii. 2. 15.
o'er-parted, having too considerable a part or character assign-
ed to him, L L.L. v. 2. 588.
o'er-perch, to mount over, to fly over, (as a bird to its perch),
Rom. ii. 2. 66.
o'er-posting, getting quickly over, 2H4. i. 2. 171.
o'er-raught, over-reached, cheated: o'er-raught of all my money,
Err. i. 2. 96.
o'er-raught, overtook, overpassed: certain players We o'er-raught
on the way, Hml. iii. 1. 17.
o'er-sized, smeared, daubed over, "covered as with glutinous
matter" (CALDECOTT), Hml. ii. 2. 484; [cf. the blood-siz'd
field, 2N.K. i. 1. 100.].
o'er-straw'd, over-strewed, Ven. 1143.
o'er-watch'd, worn out with watching, J.C. iv. 3. 241: Lr. ii. 2. 177.
o'er-wrested, over-wound, over-strained (see wrest), Troil. i.
3. 157.
of, on: of sleep (on sleep a-sleep: among other instances of
on sleep" cited by Malone ad l. is one from Gascoigne's
Supposes, “I think they be on sleep"), Tp. v. 1. 230: of
one horse, Shr. iv. 1. 71;.of my hawk or hound, v. 2. 72;
bestow some precepts of this virgin, A.W. iii. 5. 103; bestow
of him, 12N. iii. 4. 2; the box of the ear, 2H4. i. 2. 218 (and
5 other passages); A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox,
2H4. i. 2. 273; revenged of her, ii. 4. 167; God's blessing of
your good heart, 329: Of him that did not ask, but mock,
bestow, Cor. ii. 3. 215; take vengeance of such kind of men,
Tit. v. 2. 63; I have an eye of you, Hml. ii. 2. 301; And
of all Christian souls, iv. 5. 200.
of all loves: see loves-Of all.
offer'd mercy, Cymb. i. 3. 4: "probably mercy offered when
it is too late 'the remorseful pardon slowly carried' of
A.W. v. 3. 58.” (Herford.)
offering side-We of the, 1H4. iv. 1. 69: assailing.
OFFICERS—OLD.
337
officers of sorts, officers of different degrees, H5. i. 2. 190.
offices, "room or places at which refreshments are prepared
or served out" (STEEVENS): When all our offices have been
oppress'd, Tim. ii. 2. 167; All offices are open, Oth. ii. 2. 9.
officious, ready with their service: be every one officious To
make this banquet, Tit. v. 2. 202.
O ho, O ho! Tp. i. 2. 350. “This savage exclamation was ori-
ginally and constantly appropriated by the writers of our
ancient Mysteries and Moralities to the Devil; and has, in this
instance, been transferred to his descendant Caliban" (STee-
VENS): "But Shakespeare was led to put this ejaculation.
in the mouth of his savage by the following passage: 'They
[the savages] seemed all very civil and very merry, show-
ing tokens of much thankfulnes for those things we gave
them, which they expresse in their language by these words-
oh, oh! often repeated.' Abstract of Fames Rosier's Account
of Captain Weymouth's Voyage. Purchas, iv. 1661” (Malone).
old, used as an augmentative in colloquial language,—meaning
"plentiful, abundant, great:" old cramps, Tp. i. 2. 369; an
old abusing of God's patience and the king's English, M.W.
i. 4. 5; old coil, Ado, v. 2. 98; old swearing, M.V. iv. 2. 15;
old utis, 2H4. ii. 4. 21; old turning the key, Mcb. ii. 3. 2
("Faire le Diable de vauuert. To play reaks, to keep an
old coile, or horrible stirre, to make a hurlyburly." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.: I believe I was the first to remark that
the Italians use (or at least formerly used) "vecchio," in
the same sense;
"Perchè Corante abbandonava il freno,
E dette un vecchio colpo in sul terreno,"
Pulci, Morg. Mag. C. xv. st. 54;
"E so ch' egli ebbe di vecchie paure,"
Id. C. xix. st. 30:
It is rather remarkable that Florio, in his Dict. has not
given this meaning of "vecchio.")
old, = wold, a plain open country, downs: S. Withold (St. With-
old) footed thrice the old, Lr. iii. 4. 125.
old ends, a term used to signify "old quotations, old saws," &c.,
which it does in the second of the following passages; but
in the first of them the context proves that it refers to the
formal conclusion of letters common in Shakespeare's time:
ere you flout old ends any further, Ado, i. 1. 290; With old
odd ends stol'n out of holy writ, R3. i. 3. 337.
old lad of the castle, 1H4. i. 2. 47. In both parts of H4. Falstaff
was originally named Sir John Oldcastle. Traces of this
remain here; in 2H4. iii. 2. 28 (page to Thomas Mowbray,
which Oldcastle had been); in Qo. 1600 of Part 2, i. 2.
where the speech of Falstaff, very well, my lord, very well,
22
338
OLD-ONION-EY'D.
has Old. prefixed to it; and in the epilogue to Part 2, where
the identification with Oldcastle is disclaimed. Shakespeare
changed the name because, some of the Oldcastle (Lord
Cobham) family still remaining, "the queen was pleased
to command him to alter it."
old tale, my lord-Like the: see tale, my lord-Like the old.
Oliver,-Ō sweet, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 101. Fragments (perhaps some-
what altered) of a ballad now lost. "In the books of the
Stationers' Company, Aug. 6, 1584, was entered by Richard
Jones, the ballad of ‘O swete Olyver, Leave me not behind
thee.' Again [on the 20th of the same month], 'The ans-
weare of O sweete Olyver.' Again [on the 1st of August]
in 1586, 'O swete Olyver, altered to [by] the Scriptures.""
STEEVENS.
Olivers and Rowlands, 1H6. i. 2. 30: “These were two of the
most famous in the list of Charlemagne's Twelve Peers,'
&c. (WARBURTON): Rowland Orlando.
O Lord, sir! see Lord, sir!—O.
omen, a portentous event; prologue to the omen coming on,
Hml. i. 1. 123.
on, of: If on the first, R2. v. 3. 34; The master-cord on's heart,
H8. iii. 2. 106; to make catlings on, Troil. iii. 3. 306: out on's
own eyes, Troil. v. 2. 136; One on's father's moods, Cor. i.
3. 72; at very root on's heart, ii. 1. 202: Worth six on him,
iv. 5. 174; i' the very throat on me, Mcb. ii. 3. 43; come out
on's grave, v. I. 71; i' the middle on's face, Lr. i. 5. 20; three
on's, iii. 4. 110; the rest on's body, 118; i' the breech on us,
2N.K. ii. 3. 47; fond on praise, Sonn. 84.
on, frequent old spelling of one, as probably in K.J. iii. 3. 39:
sound one into the drowsy ear of night, Theobald's correction
of Folio: sound on. race of night; and 2N.K. i. 3. 75.
See one.
once, sometime, at one time or other: once to-night, M.W. iii.
4. 103; once weak ones, H8. i. 2. 82; that she must die once,
J.C. iv. 3. 190.
•
once, once for all: Once this, Err. iii. 1. 89; 'tis once, thou
lovest, Ado, i. 1. 320; Once, if he do require our voices, Cor.
ii. 3. I.
one, formerly, it would seem, pronounced like on [and some-
times so spelt]; and hence the quibble in the following
passage; my gloves are one. Why, then, this may be
yours, for this is but one, 2G. ii. 1. 1. See on.
oneyers-Great, 1H4. ii. 1. 85: [oneyers-the suffix yer as in
lawyer-still at cricket we hit wunners, sixers, &c. and still
colloquially say, "he's a regular wunner," a first-class fellow.]
Perhaps persons that converse with great ones." (Schmidt).
onion-ey'd-Am, "I have my eyes as full of tears as if they
had been fretted by onions" (JOHNSON), Ant. iv. 2. 35.
OPAL-ORPHAN.
339
opal, "a gem which varies its appearance [colours] as it is
viewed in different lights" (STEEVENS), 12N. ii. 4. 77; L.
Compl. 215.
open-In, "A Latinism [in aperto]," (STEEVENS), H8. iii. 2. 404.
operant, operative, active, Tim. iv. 3. 25; Hml. iii. 2. 184.
opinion, credit, reputation: redeem'd thy lost opinion, 1H4. v. 4.
48; then we did our main opinion crush, Troil. i. 3. 373;
Yet go we under our opinion still, 383; purchase us a good
opinion, J.C. ii. 1. 145; spend (squander] your rich opinion,
Oth. ii. 3. 195; my name's opinion, 2N.K. iii. 6. 240 [where
it may mean disrepute].
opinion, self-opinion, conceit: learned without opinion, L.L.L.
v. 1. 6; haughtiness, opinion, and disdain, 1H4. iii. 1. 185.
opposite, an adversary: too unhurtful an opposite, M.M. iii. 2.
175; his opposite, the youth, 12N. iii. 2. 68; your opposite hath
in him, &c., iii. 4. 253; bloody and fatal opposite, 293; weigh
against his opposite, 2H4. i. 3. 55; meeting of their opposite,
iv. 1. 16; Daring an opposite to every danger, R3. v. 4. 3
[adventurously opposing himself to]; discover him their op
posite, Cor. ii. 2. 23; An unknown opposite, Lr. v. 3. 153;
opposites of such repairing nature (see repair), 2H6. v. 3. 22.
opposite, adverse, hostile: Be opposite with a kinsman, 12N. ii.
5. 162; iii. 4. 76.
opposition, a combat, an encounter: In single opposition, 1H4.
i. 3. 99; in single oppositions, Cymb. iv. 1. 14.
oppress, to suppress: The mutiny he there hastes toppress,
Per. iii. Gow. 29.
orb, the orbit, the path of a planet: move in that obedient orb
again, 1H4. v. 1. 17.
orb, the circle in a field, known by the name of fairy-ring: To
dew her orbs upon the green, M.N.D: ii. 1. 9.
orchard, generally synonymous with garden, Ado, i. 2. 10; ii.
3. 4; iii. 1. 5; A.Y.L. i. 1. 44; etc.; orchard-end, 12N. iii. 4.
244; orchard walls, Rom. ii. 2. 63; orchards, L. Compl. 171.
order- Take: see take order.
ordinance, "rank" (JOHNSON): one but of my ordinance,
Cor. iii. 2. 12.
ordinance-That slaves your: see slaves your, &c.
ordinant, ordaining, decreeing, swaying, Hml. v. 2. 48.
ordinary, a public dining-table where each person pays
his share: for his ordinary pays his heart, Ant. ii. 2. 230;
I did think thee, for two ordinaries ("while I sat twice
with thee at table," JOHNSON), to be a pretty wise fellow,
A.W. ii. 3. 211.
orgulous, proud, haughty, Troil. Prol. 2.
orphan heirs of fixed destiny, orphan is equivalent to
superhuman (cf. 2H4. iv. 4. 122, unfathered='supernaturally
begotten'); heirs of fixed destiny, says Herford, probably
340
ORT_OUTLOOK.
=
refers to the fairies' immortality. They are eternal children:
M.W. v. 5. 43. Warburton conjectured ouphen, elfin.
See ouphs.
ort, a scrap, a leaving, Tim. iv. 3. 400; orts, Troil. v. 2. 158;
J.C. iv. 1. 37; Lucr. 985 (The word is seldom found in the
singular: "Orts, Fragmenta, Mensæ reliquiæ." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.: "Orts, The refuse of hay left in the stall by
cattle.” Craven Dialect).
orthography, set speeches, Ado, ii. 3. 21.
osprey, "The Osprey or Fishing-Hawk, Pandion haliaeetus"
(see Yarrell's Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 25, sec. ed.),
which was supposed to have the power of fascinating the
fish it preyed on, Cor. iv. 7. 34; ospreys, 2N.K. i. 1. 138
[Qo. Asprayes. Cf. Peele, Alcazar, ii. 3, p. 428, ed. Dyce].
ostent, a show, a display: M.V. ii. 2. 205; H5. v. Prol. 21;
Per. i. 2. 25; ostents, M.V. ii. 8. 44.
ostentation, a show, a display: a mourning ostentation, Ado,
iv. 1. 207; some delightful ostentation, L.L.L. v. 1. 118;
ostentation of despised arms, R2. ii. 3. 95 (explained by
Mason "a boastful display of arms which we despise");
all ostentation of sorrow, 2H4. ii. 2. 54; Make good this
ostentation, Cor. i. 6. 86; formal ostentation, Hml. iv. 5. 215;
Th' ostentation of our love, Ant. iii. 6. 52.
othergates, in another manner, 12N. v. 1. 198.
ouches, golden ornaments in the shape of a boss, but a term
used to signify various ornaments,-jewels, 2H4. ii. 4. 53.
ought him a thousand pound, owed him, &c., 1H4. iii. 3. 152.
ouphs, elves, goblins, M.W. iv. 4. 49; v. 5. 61: “Ouph, or
Elf." Richardson's Dict.: "In a note on the former of these
passages Steevens boldly tells us that ' Ouphe is the Teutonic
word for a fairy or goblin.' It may be; but Grimm quotes
no other authority for the word than Shakespeare. He
sees in it only another form of the cognate Elf; and speaks
of a corresponding form in the middle High German Ulf,
in the plural Ulve-'von den ulven entbunden werden'
and proves the identity of this Ulp with Alp, and conse-
quently with our English Elf, from a Swedish song published
by Arwiddson, in his collection of Swedish ballads, in one
version of which the elfin king is called "Herr Elfer,' and
in the second, 'Herr Ulfver.'" Thoms's Three Notelets on
Shakespeare, p. 76.
ousel, the blackbird (old Fr. oisel), 2H4. iii. 2. 9; ousel-cock,
M.N.D. iii. 1. 128: In a note on the name “The Ring
Ouzel. Turdus torquatus," Yarrell observes, "The Blackbird
is also sometimes called Ouzel and Ousel. Thus Shake-
speare," &c. Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 218, sec. ed.
out-breasted, out-voiced, out-sung, 2N.K. v. 3. 127: see breast.
outlook, to face down, K.J. v. 2. 115.
OUTRAGE-OWE.
341
outrage-clamorous, 1H6. iv. I. 126; the mouth of outrage,
Rom. v. 3. 216: outrageous noise.
outvied, Shr. ii. 1. 387: see vie.
outward man—An, “One not in the secret of affairs" (War-
BURTON), A.W. iii. 1. 11.
oven that is stopp'd, or river stay'd, Burneth &c.—An, Ven. 331;
Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, Doth burn the heart
to cinders where it is, Tit. ii. 4. 36. Cf. Willobie's Avisa:
The smother'd flame, too closely pent,
Burnes more extreme for want of vent;
So sorrowes shrynde in secret brest,
Attainte the hart with hotter rage,
Those griefs that are to friends exprest,
Whose comfort may some part assuage, etc.
and Ph. Desportes, Diverses amours, p. 380:-
"Le feu couvert a plus de violance,
Que n'a celuy qui ses flammes élance;
L'eau qu'on arreste en est plus irritée;
Et bruit plus fort plus elle est arrestée.'
It might be traced much farther back-to Petrarch and Ovid.
overhold, to keep up, to over-estimate, Troil. ii. 3. 142.
over-lusty, over-saucy, H5. iv. Prol. 18.
overpass'd thy days, passed away, spent, thy days, 1H6. ii. 5. 117.
over-red, to cover over with red, Mcb. v. 3. 14.
overscutched huswives, over-whipped strumpets, 2H4. iii. 2.
340 (Cotgrave has "A scutcher, Verge, houssiue." Fr. and
Engl. Dict.; and Ray gives "An overswitcht house-wife, i.e.
a whore." North Country Words, p. 47, ed. 1768): but Malone
inclining to believe that overscutched “is used in a wanton
sense," quotes from Maroccus Extaticus, 1595, “his private
scutcherie hurts [wounds] not the commonwealth farther than
that his whore shall have a house rent-free." p. 15, ed. Percy
Soc. [Mistress Overdone, a bawd, figures among the dram.
pers. of M.M.]
oversee this will-Thou, Collatine, shalt, Lucr. 1205: "Overseers
were frequently added in Wills from the superabundant
caution of our ancestors; but our law acknowledges no
such persons, nor are they (as contra-distinguished from
executors) invested with any legal rights whatsoever. In
some old Wills the term overseer, is used instead of executor,"
&c. (MALONE).
over-swear, to swear over again, 12N. v. 1. 276.
overture, an opening, a discovery, a disclosure: You had only
in your silent judgment tried it, Without more overture, W.T.
ii. 1. 172; the overture of thy treasons, Lr. iii. 7. 89.
owe, to own, to have, to possess: That such an ass should owe
them, 2G. v. 2. 28; As they themselves would owe them, M.M.
342
OWL-OWLS.
i. 4. 83; Owe and succeed thy weakness, ii. 4. 123; the house
I owe, Err. iii. 1. 42; Which native she doth owe, L.L.L. i.
2. 111; all perfections that a man may owe, ii. 1. 6; All the
power this charm doth owe, M.N.D. ii. 2. 79; the wealth I
owe, A.W. ii. 5. 84; ourselves we do not owe (“we are not
our own masters," STEEVENS), 12N. i. 5. 329; which owe a
moiety of the throne, W.T. iii. 2. 39; England did never owe
so sweet a hope, 1H4. v. 2. 68; But owe thy pride thyself,
Cor. iii. 2. 130; the disposition that I owe, Mcb. iii. 4. 113;
targets like the men that owe them, Ant. iv. 8. 31; which you
make more rich to owe, Per. v. 1. 118; that praise which
Collatine doth owe, Lucr. 82; the noblest grace she ow'd, Tp.
iii. 1. 45; That blood which ow'd the breadth of all this isle,
K.J. iv. 2. 99; the party that owed it, 2H4. i. 2. 5; the prince
that ow'd that crown, R3. iv. 4. 142; seeming ow'd (his own),
L. Compl. 327; Which thou ow'dst yesterday, Oth. iii. 3. 333;
no sound that the earth owes, Tp. i. 2. 407; the jeweller that
owes the ring, A.W. v. 3. 297; which you truly owe To him
that owes it, K.J. ii. 1. 247; all the treasure that thine uncle
owes, iv. 1. 123; That owes two buckets, R2. iv. 1. 185;
that dear perfection which he owes, Rom. ii. 2. 46; those
infirmities she owes, Lr. i. 1. 205; The name thou ow'st not,
Tp. i. 2. 454; Lend less than thou owest, Lr. i. 4. 133; who
ow'st his strength, 2N.K. i. 1. 88; that fair thou owest, Sonn.
18; owing not a hair-worth of white, 2N.K. v. 4. 50.
owl was a baker's daughter-They say the, Hml. iv. 5. 41:
"This is a common story among the vulgar in Gloucester-
shire, and is thus related; 'Our Saviour went into a baker's
shop where they were baking, and asked for some bread
to eat. The mistress of the shop immediately put a piece
of dough into the oven to bake for him: but was repri-
manded by her daughter, who insisting that the piece of
dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size. The
dough, however, immediately afterwards began to swell,
and presently became of a most enormous size. Whereupon
the baker's daughter cried out 'Heugh, heugh, heugh;'
which owl-like noise probably induced our Saviour for her
wickedness to transform her into that bird.' This story is
often related to children, in order to deter them from such
illiberal behaviour to poor people (DOUCE): On legends, simi-
lar to this, see Thoms's Three Notelets on Shakespeare, p. 110.
owls, and sprites-But goblins. Err. ii. 1. 192: Here Steevens
cites from Breton's Cornucopiæ, Pasquil's Night-cap, &c.,
1612, p. 38,
“No oules, hobgoblins, ghosts, nor water-spright:
and Malone, from Copley's Fig for Fortune, 1596, p. 63,
"No bug, no bale, nor horrid owlerie."
OWN-PAINTED.
343
own-when no man was his, When no man was in his senses,
Tp. v. 1. 213.
oxlips, M.N.D. ii. 1. 250; W.T. iv. 4. 125: “Oxlip (Primula
elatior) grows in woods and pastures, and blooms in April
and May. It is a handsome plant like the cowslip, but
larger." Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 46: For bold
oxlips, Hanmer substituted gold, but the old reading, Steevens
says, is certainly the true one. The oxlip has not a weak
flexible stalk like the cowslip, but erects itself boldly in the
face of the sun.
oyes (oyez, hear ye, Fr.), the usual introduction to a proclama-
tion or advertisement of the public crier, M.W. v. 5. 45;
Troil. iv. 5 143.
Р.
pace goes backward, with a purpose It hath to climb―That by
a, “That goes backward step by step, with a design in each
to aggrandise himself, by slighting his immediate
superior" (JOHNSON), Troil. i. 3. 128.
paced yet-She's not, "She has not yet learned her paces”
(MALONE), Per. iv. 6. 68.
pack, "to practice unlawful confederacy or collusion" (JOHNSON),
Go pack ("contrive insidiously," STEEVENS) with him, Tit.
iv. 2. 155; were he not pack'd (confederate) with her, Err. v.
1. 219; pack'd (confederate) in all this wrong, Ado, v. 1. 308.
pack cards, to sort or shuffle the cards unfairly: Pack'd cards
with Casar, Ant. iv. 14. 19.
packing, iniquitous collusion, underhand contrivance: Here's
packing, with a witness, Shr. v. 1. 121.
Pacorus, Orodes-Thy, Ant. iii. 1. 4: “Pacorus was the son of
Orodes, king of Parthia" (Steevens).
paction, a compact, a contract, an alliance, H5. v. 2. 393.
paddock, a toad, Hml. iii. 4. 190.
Paddock, a familiar spirit, in the shape of a toad, Mcb. i. 1. 9.
pagan "seems to have been a cant term, implying irregularity
either of birth or manners" (STEEVENS): What a pagan
rascal is this! 1H4. ii. 3. 31; What pagan (prostitute) may
that be? 2H4. ii. 2. 168; Bond slaves and pagans, Oth. i. 2. 99.
page, to follow as a page: page thy heels, Tim. iv. 3. 224.
paid, beaten see first pay.
paid, punished, dispatched, &c.: see second pay.
pain, a penalty, a punishment: Accountant to the law upon that
pain, M.M. ii. 4. 86.
painted cloth-You will be scraped out of the, L.L.L. v. 2. 579;
I answer you right painted cloth, from whence you have
studied your questions, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 290; Lazarus in the
344
PAINTED.
painted cloth, 1H4. iv. 2. 28; by a painted cloth be kept in
awe, Lucr. 245; set this in your painted cloths, Troil. v. 10.
46; Painted cloth, used as hangings for rooms, was cloth
or canvas, painted in oil, representing various subjects,
with devices and mottoes or proverbial sayings interspersed :
it has been erroneously explained to mean "tapestry." The
following homely story is related by the honest water poet;
"There's an old speech, a Tayler is a Thiefe,
And an old speech he hath for his reliefe,
I'll not equiuocate, I'll giue him's due,—
He (truly) steales not, or he steales not, true.
Those that report so, mighty wrong doe doe him?
For how can he steale that, that's brought vnto him?
And it may be they were false idle speeches,
That one brought cotton once, to line his breeches,
And that the Tayler laid the cotton by,
And with old painted cloth the roome supply,
Which as the owner (for his vse) did weare,
A nayle or sceg by chance his breech did teare,
At which he saw the linings, and was wroth
For Diues and Lazarus on the painted cloth,
The Glutton's dogs, and hels fire hotly burning,
With fiends and fleshhookes, whence ther's no returning,
He rip'd the other breech, and there he spide
The pamper'd Prodigall on cockhorse ride;
There was his fare, his fidlers, and his whores,
His being poore, and beaten out of doores,
His keeping hogs, his eating huskes for meat,
His lamentation, and his home retreat,
His welcome to his father, and the feast,
The fat calfe kill'd, all these things were exprest.
These transformations fild the man with feare,
That he hell-fire within his breech should beare;
He mus'd what strange inchantments he had bin in,
That turn'd his linings into painted linen.
His feare was great, but at the last to rid it,
A wizard told him, 'twas the Tayler did it."
A Thiefe, p. 119, Taylor's Workes, 1630:
I add a specimen of painted-cloth poetry, which has been
preserved by the same writer, who copied it from the walls
of a room at the Star in Rye in the year 1653;
CC
And as upon a bed I musing lay,
The chamber hang'd with painted cloth, I found
My selfe with sentences beleaguerd round:
There was Philosophy and History,
Poetry, Ænigmatick mystery.
I know not what the town in wealth may be,
But sure I on that chamber walls did see
More wit than al the town had, and more worth
PAINTED-PALATES.
Then my unlearned Muse can well set forth.
I will not hold my reader in dilemma,
This truly, lying, I transcribed them a.
No flower so fresh, but frost may it deface,
None sits so fast, but hee may lose his place.
'Tis con.ord keeps a realme in stable stay,
But discord brings all kingdomes to decay.
No subject ought (for any kinde of cause)
Resist his prince, but yeeld him to the lawes.
Sure God is just, whose stroake delayed long
Doth light at last with paine more sharpe and strong.
Time never was, nor n'ere I thinke shall bè,
That truth (unshent) might speake, in all things free,
This is the sum, the marrow, and the pith,
My lying chamber was adorned with:
And 't is supposed, those lines written there
Have in that roome bin more then 40 yeare."
345
The Certain Travailes of an uncertain Journey,
1653, p. 19.]
painted one way like a Gorgon, The other way's a Mars-
Though he be, Ant. ii. 5. 116: "An allusion to the 'double'
pictures in vogue formerly, of which Burton says,-'Like
those double or turning pictures; stand before which you
see a fair maid, on the one side an ape, on the other an
owl.' And Chapman, in 'All Fools,' act i. sc. 1,
'But like a couzening picture, which one way
Shows like a crow, another like a swan,' (STAUNTON).
painted upon a pole, "that is, on cloth suspended on a pole"
(MALONE), Mcb. v. 8. 26.
pajock, Hml. iii. 2. 295: Here pajock certainly means "pea-
cock: I have often heard the lower classes in the north
of Scotland call the peacock “pea-jock; and their almost
invariable name for the turkey-cock is "bubbly-jock." [Pro-
bably Hml. uses pajock (= peacock) with a glance at
patchock (fool). In The Cherrie and the Slae (Ramsay's
Evergreen, ii. 99): "The painted pawn with Argus eyes,
Can on his Mayock call." Mayock, like the pawn, paon,
pavan, pajock, pea-are probably onomatopoetic names;
patchock is dimin. of patch, a fool.]
palabras, Ado, iii. 5. 18; paucas pallabris, Shr. Ind. 1. 5: The
former is equivalent to, and the latter is a corruption of,
the Spanish pocas palabras, i.e. "few words;"
few words;" a phrase
which, as it would seem from various passages of our early
writers, was formerly current even among the vulgar in
England.
palates theirs-You are plebeians . . . the great'st taste Most,
Cor. iii. 1. 104: "The plain meaning is, 'that senators and
plebeians are equal, when the highest taste is best pleased
346
PALE-PANTALOON.
with that which pleases the lowest,' &c." (STEEVENS): “I
think the meaning is, the plebeians are no less than senators,
when, the voices of the senate and the people being blended
together, the predominant taste of the compound smacks
more of the populace than the senate" (Malone).
pale, paleness: a sudden pale, Ven. 589.
pale, to make pale: to pale his uneffectual fire, Hml. i. 5. 90.
pale, to enclose as with a pale, to encompass, to encircle: pale
your head in Henry's glory, 3H6. i. 4. 103; paled in with
rocks, Cymb. iii. 1. 19; pales in the flood with men, H5. v.
Prol. 10; Whate'er the ocean pales, Ant. ii. 7. 74.
pale-The red blood reigns in the winter's, W.T. iv. 3. 4: "The
meaning is, 'the red, the spring blood now reigns o'er the
parts lately under the dominion of winter.' The English
pale, the Irish pale, were frequent expressions in Shakes-
peare's time; and the words red and pale were chosen for
the sake of the antithesis" (FARMER): Qy. is any thing
more meant than that "the red blood reigns in the place
of the pale blood of winter" [or pale paleness].
pale-Then, if you can, Be, Cymb. ii. 4. 96: A passage which
has been both mispointed and misinterpreted: it really
means "Then, if you can (i.e. if anything has power to
make you change colour), be pale (become pale at the sight
of this)."
pall, to cloak, to wrap: pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
Mcb. i. 5. 52.
palled fortunes, decayed, waned, impaired fortunes, Ant. ii. 7. 88.
palliament, a robe, Tit. i. 1. 182.
palm in Athens again, and flourish-A, Tim. v. 1. 12: "The
>>
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." Psalm xcii. 12.
stale his palm, Troil. ii. 3. 201, "the victor's emblem
(HERFORD), cf. iii. 1. 170.
palter, "to shuffle, to equivocate, to act or speak unsteadily
or dubiously with the intention to deceive" (CRAIK), Troil.
ii. 3. 244; v. 2. 48; J.C. ii. 1. 126; Mcb. v. 8. 20; Ant.
iii. 11. 63.
pang, to give violent pain to, to torture: how thy memory Will
then be pang'd by me, Cymb. iii. 4. 98; a sufferance panging
As soul and body's severing, H8. ii. 3. 15.
pansies, that's for thoughts, Hml. iv. 5. 176 (where Ophelia
seems to be addressing Laertes): The pansy is the viola
tricolor, called also heart's-ease, love-in-idleness, &c.: it "is
for thoughts," on account of its name,-from the Fr. pensée.
pantaloon, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 158; Shr. iii. 1. 37: Il Pantalone means
properly one of the regular characters in the old Italian
comedy: "There are four standing characters that enter
into every piece that comes on the stage, the Doctor, Harle-
quin, Pantalone, and Coviello. . . . Pantalone is generally
PANTLER-PARISH-GARDEN.
347
an old cully." Addison's Remarks on Several Parts of Italy,
&c., pp. 101-2, ed. 1705.
pantler, the servant who took care of the pantry or of the
bread, W.T. iv. 4. 56; 2H4. ii. 4. 258; 342; Cymb. ii. 3. 129.
paper- Give away thyself in, Tim. i. 2. 248: Here paper is ex-
plained "securities:
"securities:" Warburton proposed to read 'in
proper,' i.e. in person, thy proper self.
papers-He, He registers, sets down in writing, H8. i. 1. 180
(Mr. Grant White, in his Supplementary Notes, cites from
Warner,
Set is the soueraigne sonne did shine when paperd last our penne."
Cont. of Albions England, chap. 80, ed. 1606).
[Ellipsis of relative. Without consulting the council, his
order must include whomsoever he enrols, puts down in
the file.]
parallel course-To counsel Cassio to this, "[To this] course
level, and even with his design" (JOHNSON), Oth. ii. 3. 355.
parcel, a part: the lips is parcel of the mouth, M.W. i. 1. 237;
a branch and parcel of mine oath, Err. v. 1. 106; his eloquence
the parcel (item) of a reckoning, 1H4. ii. 4. 113; no parcel of
my fear, 3H6. v. 6. 38; men's judgments are A parcel of their
fortunes (“i.e., as we should say at present, ‘are of a piece
with them,'" STEEVENS), Ant. iii. 13. 32; Though parcel of
myself, 2N.K. v. 1. 24; mark'd him In parcels, A.Y.L. iii. 5.
125; The parcels and particulars of our grief, 2H4. iv. 2. 36;
Whereof by parcels she had something heard, Oth. i. 3. 154.
parcel the sum of my disgraces by Addition of his envy!-That
mine own servant should, "The meaning, I think, either is,
"That this fellow should add one more parcel or item to
the sum of my disgraces, namely, his own malice,' or 'that
this fellow should lot up the sum of my disgraces, and add
his own malice to the account'" (MALONE), Ant. v. 2. 163.
parcel-bawd, part bawd, half bawd, M.M. ii. 1. 63.
parcel-gilt goblet, 2H4. ii. 1. 94: “Parcel-gilt means what is now
called by artists partly-gilt; that is, where part of the work
is gilt, and part left plain or ungilded" (MALONE). [Fungoso
swears "By this cup, which is silver," in E. M. out of his
Humour, v. 4.]
pardonnez moi-Say, R2. v. 3. 119 (Globe, pardonne moi):
"That is, excuse me, a phrase used when anything is civilly
denied" (JOHNSON). [The folio has Pardon'ne moy, as if
the writer intended a punning Pardon, not me to be made
out of Pardonnez moi.]
Parish-garden, a vulgarism for Paris-garden, the famous bear-
garden in Southwark, H8. v. 4. 2 (Globe, Paris-garden):
Paris-Garden is the place on the Thames bankside at
London, where the bears are kept and baited; and was
348
PARISH-TOP—PART.
anciently so called from Robert de Paris, who had a house
and garden there in Richard the Second's time," &c.
Blount's Glossographia, 1681, p. 473.
parish-top, 12N. i. 3. 44: A large top was formerly kept in
every village, to be whipped in frosty weather, that the
peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mis-
chief, while they could not work" (STEEVENS).
'paritors, L.LL. iii. 1. 188: "An apparitor, or 'paritor, is an
officer of the Bishop's Court, who carries out citations: as
citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the
'paritor is put under Cupid's government" (JOHNSON).
parle, a parley, 2G. i. 2. 5; Shr. i 1. 117; K.J. ii. 1. 205; 226;
R2. i. 1. 192; H5. iii. 3. 2; 3H6. v. 1. 16; Rome's emperor,
and nephew, break the parle ("Dr. Johnson makes the sense
'begin the parley.' Is it not rather 'break off this sort of
discourse'? for Lucius and Saturninus had already begun
the parley by sparring language: to prevent the continuance
of it Marcus interferes, by declaring that their quarrels
must be adjusted by gentle words," DOUCE), Tit. v. 3. 19
[Probably we should put a ! after parle, and explain: what,
are you going to break the truce by quarrelling?]
parle, to parley: to parle, to court, and dance, L.L.L. V. 2. 122;
their parling looks, Lucr. 100.
parlous, a corruption of perilous-alarming, amazing, keen,
shrewd: M.N.D. iii. 1. 14; A.Y.L. iii. 2. 45; R3. ii. 4. 35;
iii. 1. 154; Rom. i. 3. 54.
parlously, perilously-amazingly, 2N.K. ii. 2. 53.
parmaceti, a corrupt form of spermaceti, 1H4. i. 3. 58.
parrot, "Beware the rope's end"-prophecy like the, Err. iv. 4.
46; I cry, a rope! a rope! 1H6. i. 3. 53: On the first of
these passages Warburton observes; "This alludes to people's
teaching that bird unlucky words; with which, when any
passenger was offended, it was the standing joke of the
wise owner to say, "Take heed, sir, my parrot prophesies,'
To this Butler hints, where, speaking of Ralpho's skill in
augury, he says [Hudibras, P. i. C. i.],
<
Could tell what subtlest parrots mean,
That speak, and think contrary clean;
What member 'tis of whom they talk,
When they cry rope, and walk, knave, walk.''
parson, see person.
part, partly: And, part, being prompted by your present trouble,
12N. iii. 4. 377: Doth part his function ("Partly performs his
office," MALONE), and is partly blind, Sonn. 113.
part, a party: the frozen bosoms of our part, 2H6. v. 2. 35; all
our present parts, 87; to show a noble grace to both parts, Cor.
V. 3. 121; Praying for both parts, Ant. iii, 4. 14.
PART-PASH.
349
part, to depart: we shall part with neither, Err. iii. 1. 67: An
thou let her part so, 12 N. i. 3. 65; An you part so, ibid.;
part Into this sea of air, Tim. iv. 2. 21; France in choler
parted, Lr. i. 2. 23; When we with tears parted Pentapolis,
Per. v. 3. 38.
partake, to extend participation of: your exultation Partake
to every one, W.T. v. 3. 132; our mind partakes her private
actions to your secrecy, Per. i. 1. 152.
partake, to take part: When, I against myself, with thee par-
take, Sonn. 149.
partaker, a partner, a confederate: your partaker Pole, 1H6.
ii. 4. 100.
parted so much honesty among 'em-They had, "They had
shared, &c. i.e. had so much honesty among them" (STEL-
VENS), H8. v. 2. 28.
parted, How dearly ever, "However excellently endowed, with
whatever dear or precious parts enriched or adorned”
(JOHNSON). Troil. iii. 3. 96.
partial slander-A, "The reproach of partiality" (JOHNSON),
R2. i. 3. 241.
partialize, to make partial. R2. i. 1. 120.
participate, participant, participating: mutually participate,
Cor. i. I. 106.
particularly—My free drift Halts not, "My design does not
stop at any single character" (JOHNSON), Tim. i. 1. 46.
partisan, a kind of pike or halberd, Hml. i. 1. 140; Ant. ii.
7. 14; partisans, Rom. i. 1. 80; 101; Cymb. iv. 2. 399.
("The partizan may be described as a sharp two-edged
sword placed on the summit of a staff for the defence of
foot-soldiers against cavalry," FAIRHOLT.)
Partlet here-Thy Dame, W. T. ii. 3. 75; Dame Partlet the hen,
1H4. iii. 3. 60: “Dame Partlet is the name of the hen in
the old story-book of Reynard the Fox; and in Chau-
cer's tale of The Cock and the Fox the favourite hen is
called dame Pertelote (STEEVENS): So named from partlet,
a woman's ruff or band, because a hen has frequently a
kind of ruff or ring of feathers on her neck.
party, a part: Which on thy royal party granted once, R2. iii.
3. 115.
party-verdict gave--Whereto thy tongue a, R2. i. 3. 234: “i.e.
you had yourself a part or share in the verdict that I
pronounced" (MALONE).
pash, "to strike a thing with such force as to crush it to
pieces" (Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 38,
ed. 1813), Troil ii. 3. 213; pashed, v. 5. 10.
pash, and the shoots that I have, &c.—Thou want'st a rough,
W.T. i. 2. 128: "In connection with the context, signifies
-'to make thee a calf thou must have the tuft on thy
'
350
PASS-PASSAGE.
17
forehead and the young horns that shoot up in it, as I have'
(HENLEY): “You tell me (says Leontes to his son) that you
are like me; that you are my calf. I am the horned bull:
thou wantest the rough head and the horns of that animal
completely to resemble your father" (MALONE): “A mad
Pash, a Mad-brain. Chesh." Ray's North Country Words,
p. 48, ed. 1768: "Pash. The head, rather a ludicrous term.
Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scot. Language.
pass, to surpass, to exceed limits, to pass belief: so cried and
shrieked at it, that it passed, M.W. i. 1. 310; so laughed, that
it passed, Troil. i. 2. 182; Why, this passes! M.W. iv. 2. 127;
He passes, Tim. i. 1. 12; a passing shame, 2G. i. 2. 17; her
passing deformity, iii. 1. 81; O passing traitor, 3H6. v. 1. 106.
pass, to die: let him pass peaceably, 2H6. iii. 3. 25; Thus might
he pass indeed, Lr. iv. 6. 47; O, let him pass! v. 3. 313.
pass, to pass sentence: That thieves do pass on thieves, M.M.
ii. 1. 23; we may not pass upon his life, Lr. iii. 7. 24;
passing on the prisoner's life, M.M. ii. 1. 19.
pass, to care for, to regard: As for these silken-coated slaves,
I pass not, 2H6. iv. 2. 136 ("I passe not for it. Il ne m'en
chaut, ie ne m'en soucie point." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
["pass for a pudding," Peele, Old W. Ta. p. 449].
pass, to assure, to convey: And pass my daughter a sufficient
dower, Shr. iv. 4. 45.
pass, "receive sanction of the legislature," (SCHMIDT), H8. v. 3. 59.
[? prevail, have your will.]
passable, that may be passed through: a passable carcass,
Cymb. i. 2. 10.
passable, sufficient to procure a pass or admission: the virtue
of your name Is not here passable, Cor. v. 2. 13.
passado, a pass or motion forwards (a fencing term), L.L.L.
i. 2. 184; Rom. ii. 4. 26; iii. 1. 88: What follows is quoted
by Capell from the translation of Vincentio Saviolo's
Practise of the Duello, 1595; "If your enemy be first to
strike at you, and if at that instant you would make him
a passata or remove, it behoveth you to be very ready with
your feet and hand, and being to passe or enter, you must
take heede, &c. H 3
or in both these false thrusts,
when he beateth them by with his rapier, you may with
much sodainnesse make a passata with your lefte foote,
and your dagger commaunding his rapier, you maie give
him a punta, either dritta or riversa. K 2." The School of
Shakespeare, p. 229.
•
passage-For his, "As to order taken for the ceremony of
conveying him" (CALDECOTT), Hml. v. 2. 409.
passage, the moving to and fro, the crossing, of passengers: in the
stirring passage of the day, Err. iii. 1. 99; no watch? no passage?
("no passengers? nobody going by?" (JOHNSON), Oth. v. 1. 37.
PASSAGE-PASSY-MEASURES.
351
passage, a passing away: Might but redeem the passage of
your age! 1H6. ii. 5. 108.
passed the careires-And so conclusions, M.W. i. 1. 184; he
passes some humours and careers, H5. ii. 1. 132: “[In the
first of these passages] Bardolph means to say, 'and so in
the end he reeled about . . . like a horse passing a carier.
To pass a carier was a technical term" (MALONE): “It was
the same as running a career, or gallopping a horse violently
backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end
of the career" (DOUCE).
passes-Hath look'd upon my, M.M. v. 1. 375: Here passes has
been explained "artful devices, deceitful contrivances,"
and "
courses.'
19
passing (used adverbially), exceedingly: passing fair, 2G. iv. 4.
153; L.L.L. iv. 3. 103; Rom. i. 1. 240; passing fell, M.N.D.
ii. 1. 20; passing short, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 138; passing excellent,
Shr. Ind. 1. 67; a passing merry one, W.T. iv. 4. 294; pass-
ing light in spirit, 2H4. iv. 2. 85; passing cowardly, Cor. i. 1. 207.
passion, sorrow, emotion: I must speak in passion, 1H4. ii. 4.
425; A mother's tears in passion for her son, Tit. i. 1. 106;
the tender boy, in passion mov'd, iii. 2. 48; I feel my master's
passion ("suffering," STEEVENS), Tim. iii. 1. 59; I have much
mistook your passion (“the nature of the feelings from which
you are now suffering," STEEVENS), J.C. i. 2. 48; You shall
offend him, and extend (prolong) his passion, Mcb. iii. 4. 57;
passion in the gods, Hml. ii. 2. 541; well-painted passion, Oth.
iv. 1. 268; This borrow'd passion, Per. iv. 2. 24; his passion
moves me, 3H6. i. 4. 150 (F1, Dyce, passions move).
passion, to express sorrow or emotion: Ariadne, passioning
For Theseus' perjury, 2G. iv. 4. 172; Dumbly she passions,
Ven. 1059.
passionate, sorrowful: She's sad and passionate ("a prey to
mournful sensations," STEEVENS) at your highness' tent,
K.J. ii. 1. 544.
passionate, to express passionately: And cannot passionate our
tenfold grief, Tit. iii. 2. 6.
passy-measures pavin-A, 12N. v. 1. 206: The folio has: and
a passy measures panyn: I hate, &c. F2 has: after a passy
measures Pavin: I hate, &c. Passy-measure, passa-measure,
and passing-measure, are corruptions of the Italian passa-
mezzo (a slow dance, says Sir J. Hawkins, differing little
from the action of walking); the pavin (or pavan) was a
grave and stately dance, often mentioned by our early writers
(according to Sir J. Hawkins, from pavo, a peacock; accor-
ding to Italian authors, from Paduana). Sir Toby, it would
seem, "means only by this quaint expression, that the
surgeon is a rogue and a grave solemn coxcomb." MALONE.
The Globe edition gives panyn.
352
PAST-PROPORTION-PATRONAGE.
past-proportion-The, Troil ii. 2. 29: the degree beyond measure.
pastry, a room where pastry is made (“A Pastery, pistrina,
placentiaria." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), Rom. iv. 4. 2.
patch, properly a domestic fool, and used also as a term of
contempt from his wearing a patched or parti-coloured
coat: compare patched fool): Thou scurvy patch, Tp. iii. 2.
71; idiot, patch! Err. iii. 1. 32; What patch is made our
porter? 36; were there a patch set on learning, L.L.L. iv. 2.
32; The patch is kind enough, M.V. ii. 5. 46; What soldiers,
patch? Mcb. v. 3. 15; A crew of patches, M.N.D. iii. 2. 9.
patched-Any thing that's mended is but, 12N. i. 5. 52: "Allud-
ing to the patched or parti-coloured garment of the [domestic]
fool" (MALONE).
patched fool, a fool in a parti-coloured dress, M.N.D. iv. 1. 215:
compare motley and motley-fool—A.
patchery, roguery, Troil ii. 3. 77; Tim. v. 1. 99.
pathetical, affectedly and fantastically serious [?]: a most pathet-
ıcal nit! L.L.L. iv. 1. 150; the most pathetical [tragical, mon-
strous] break-promise, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 196. [This would seem
to have been a 'new-minted' word, as Harington (Orl.
Fur. xxiii. morall) says: "setting it out very pathetically,
or (to speake English) passionatly."]
patience is for poltroons, 3H6. i. 1. 62: So the Italian proverb,
Pazienza è pasto di poltroni.
patience perforce, patience of necessity: Patience perforce with
wilful choler meeting, Rom. i. 5. 91: Meantime, have patience.
Clar. I must perforce, R3. i. 1. 116: In these passages is an
allusion to the proverbial saying, "Patience perforce is a
medicine for a mad dog." Ray's Proverbs, p. 145, ed. 1768.
patient, or patience, to make patient, to tranquillise: Patient
yourself, madam, Tit. i. 1. 121 (Compare, in The Famous
Historye of Captain Thomas Stukeley, 1605,
"Sir Thomas, patience but yourselfe awhile." Sig. A 2 verso).
patines, M.V. v. 1. 59: “A Patine is [properly] the small flat
dish or plate [for holding the bread] used with the chalice,
in the administration of the eucharist. In the time of popery,
and probably in the following age, it was commonly made.
of gold" (MALONE). Heyes's Qo and FI read pattens;
Roberts Q1 pattents; F2 patterns. The poet means that the
floor of heaven is thickly inlaid with plates or circular orna-
ments of gold.
patron of virtue, Tit. i. 1. 65. Query, does patron represent
pattern, here: pattern of valour? The words were pro-
nounced alike (as in Ireland at the present time the country
people call their patron saint's festival the pattern).
patronage, to patronise, to support, to defend, 1H6. iii. 1. 48;
iii. 4. 32.
PATTERN-PAY.
353
pattern, an instance, an example: this pattern of thy butcheries,
R3. i. 2. 54; Thou cunning'st pattern of exceiling nature,
Oth. v. 2. 11; this pattern of the worn-out age, Lucr. 1350;
the patterns of his foul beguiling, L. Compl. 170.
pauca (a cant expression), the abbreviation of pauca verba
(M.W. i. 1. 123); M.W. i. 1. 134; H5. ii. 1. 83.
paucas pallabris: see palabras.
Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get
me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and
wived-I bought him in, 2H4. i. 2. 58; That it may be to-
day read o'er in Paul's, R3. iii. 6. 3: “In The Choice of
Change [by N. Breton], 1598, 4to, it is said ‘a man must
not make choyce of three things in three places—of a wife
in Westminster, of a servant in Paules, or of a horse in
Smithfield; lest he chuse a queane, a knave, or a jade'
(REED); "The body of old St. Paul's church in London
was a constant place of resort for business and amusement.
Advertisements were fixed up there, bargains made, servants
hired, politics discussed, &c. &c." Nares's Gloss. in v.
Paul's, St."
paved fountain, a fountain with a pebbly bottom, M.N.D. ii. 1. 84.
pavin, 12N. v. I. 207. See passy measures.
pax, H5. iii. 6. 42; 47: This was a small plate of metal-either
of precious or of coarser metal-which, during a certain
part of the mass, was tendered to the laity to be kissed:
it was also named osculatorium: on its surface was engraved
or embossed some religious subject, generally the Crucifixion.
(Benvenuto Cellini, in his Vita, mentions the paci made by
Ambrogio Foppa, called Caradosso; and Molini, in a note
on the passage, remarks; "Paci si chiamano quelle tavolette
con immagini sacre che si porgono a baciare nelle chiese.
Nel Vocab, manca l' esempio al § 10 della voce pace in
questo significato." See pp. 50 and 499 of the (best) ed. of
that most interesting biography, printed at Firenze, 1830,
12mo.) [Holinshed: “a souldier tooke a pix out of a church:'
prob. a slip of Sh.'s pen in pax. Pyx casket in which the
consecrated wafer was kept].
pay, to beat ("To Pay (beat), Codo, Percutio." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.): Here's that, I warrant you, will pay them all
(with a quibble), Err. iv. 4. 10: I paid nothing for it neither,
but was paid for my learning (with a quibble), M.W. iv. 5. 62.
pay, to punish, to dispatch, (in slang phraseology) to settle:
'Mass, you'll pay him then! ("To pay, in old language,
meant to thrash or beat; and here signifies to bring to ac-
count, to punish," MALONE), H5. iv. 1. 209; two I am sure
I have paid, 1H4. ii. 4. 213; seven of the eleven I paid, 242;
I have paid Percy, v. 3. 48; He was paid for that, Cymb.
iv. 2. 246; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that
23
354
PAY—PEASCOD.
you are paid (a quibble-"overcome by the drink") too
much, v. 4. 165.
pay, to requite, "to hit" (MALONE): on the answer, he pays you
""
as surely as your feet hit the ground they step on, 12N. iii. 4. 305.
pay down for our offence by weight, "pay the full penalty
(WARBURTON), M.M. i. 2. 125.
payment, a punishment: If he come to-morrow, I'll give him
his payment, A.Y.L. i. 1. 166.
peach, to impeach, to accuse, to inform against, 1H4. ii. 2. 47;
peaches, M.M. iv. 3. 12.
peak, to become emaciated: Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine,
Mcb. i. 3. 23.
peak, to mope, to be spiritless: peak, Like John-a-dreams,
Hml. ii. 2. 594; the peaking (sneaking, pitiful) cornuto her
husband, M.W. iii. 5. 71.
pearl that pleas'd your empress' eye—The, Tit. v. 1. 42: Alluding
to the proverb "Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies'
eyes:" see Black men, &c. 2G. v. 2. II [where there is an
allusion to the sense of pearl, a white spot on the eye: cf.
Doni's Morall Philosophie, 1601: "him, which having a perle
in his eye, found fault with the element that it was always
cloudy, not considering the blemish of his eye."]
peascod instead of her; from whom I took two cods, and, giving
her them again, said, &c.-I remember the wooing of a,
A.Y.L. ii. 4. 52: Here peascod means "a peascod-branch,"
and cods signify "pods," as in the following passage of
Camden's Remains concerning Britain, &c.; "King Richard
the Second ... also used a pescod branch with the cods
open, but the pease out, as it is upon his robe in his
monument at Westminster." p. 453 (Impresses), ed. 1674;
and so Coles, "A Cod (husk), Siliqua, Folliculus." Lat. and
Engl. Dict.: To explain Touchstone's words more fully,-
"I remember the wooing of a peascod-branch instead of
Jane Smile; from which peascod branch I took two pods,
and giving them again to the peascod-branch, who represent-
ed my mistress Jane Smile, I said," &c.: “Our ancestors,”
observes Mr. Halliwell, "were frequently accustomed in
their love-affairs to employ the divination of a peascod,"
&c.; and something of the same kind appears to have been
practised by rustic lovers at a comparatively recent period,
if Gay has faithfully described the manners of his time;
for in his Fourth Pastoral I find Hobnelia says,
rr
As peascods once I pluck'd, I chanc'd to see
One that was closely fill'd with three times three,
Which when I cropp'd I safely home convey'd,
And o'er my door the spell in secret laid," &c.:
In the two following passages of Shakespeare peascod bears
PEAT-PEG-A-RAMSEY.
355
""
its usual signification, "the husk that contains the peas;
As a squash is before 'tis a peascod, 12N. i. 5. 167; a shealed
peascod, Lr. i. 4. 219.
peat, a pet, a fondling, a darling, Shr. i. 1. 78.
peck you o'er the pales, pitch you over the paling, H8. v. 4. 94.
pedant, a teacher of languages, a schoolmaster, L.L.L. iii. 1.
179; V. 2. 545; Shr. iii. 1. 4; 48; 87; iv. 2. 63; 12N.
iii. 2. 80.
pedascule, Shr. iii. 1. 50: "He should have said Didascale;
but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedas-
cule, in imitation of it, from pedant" (WARBURTON): "I
believe it is no coinage of Shakspeare's; it is more probable
that it lay in his way, and he found it" (Steevens).
peel'd, having a shaven crown, tonsured: Peel'd priest, 1H6.
i. 3. 30.
peer out, peer out! "appear horns!" (JOHNSON), M.W. iv. 2. 26.
peevish appears to have generally signified, during Shakes-
peare's days, "silly, foolish, trifling," &c.; and such would
seem to be its import in the greater number of the follow-
ing passages, though, no doubt, the word was formerly
used to signify, as now, "pettish, perverse," &c.: peevish
girl, 2G. v. 2. 49; he is something peevish (foolish) that way,
M.W. i. 4. 14; (where Malone thinks that peevish is Mrs
Quickly's blunder for precise-wrongly; see Gifford's note
on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 71, ed. 1813); peevish sheep,
Err. iv. 1. 93; peevish officer, iv. 4. 117; peevish boy, A.Y.L.
iii. 5. 110; 1H6. ii. 4. 76; R3. iv. 2. 100; peevish messenger,
12N. i. 5. 319; peevish self-will'd harlotry, 1H4. iii. 1. 198;
Rom. iv. 2. 14; peevish fellow, H5. iii. 7. 142; peevish broil,
1H6. iii. 1. 92; peevish tokens, v. 3. 186; peevish fool, 3H6.
v. 6. 18; peevish brat, R3. i. 3. 194; peevish course, iii. 1. 31;
peevish-fond, iv. 4. 417; peevish vows, Troil. v. 3. 16; peevish
schoolboy, J.C. v. 1. 61; this peevish odds, Oth. ii. 3. 185;
peevish jealousies, iv. 3. 90; he Is strange and peevish, Cymb.
i. 6. 54.
Peg-a-Ramsey, 12N. ii. 3. 81. "There are two tunes under
the name of Peg-a-Ramsey, and both as old as Shakespeare's
time. The first is called Peg-a-Ramsey in William Ballet's
Lute-book, and is given by Sir John Hawkins as the tune
quoted in Twelfth Night. He says Peggy Ramsey is the
name of some old song; but, as usual, does not cite his
authority. It is mentioned as a dance-tune by Nashe...
'Little Pegge of Ramsie' is one of the tunes in a MS. by
Dr. Bull, which formed part . . . of Dr. Kitchener's Library.
Ramsey, in Huntingdonshire, was formerly an important
town, and called 'Ramsey the rich', before the destruction
of its abbey." Chappell's Pop. Music of the Olden Time.
&c. i. 218, sec. ed.
356
PEISE-PENTHESILEA.
peise, to weigh down, to oppress: Lest leaden slumber peise me
down to-morrow, R3. v. 3. 105.
peise, to poise, to balance: The world, who of itself is peisèd
well, K.J. ii. 1. 575.
pelican daughters, Lr. iii. 4. 77: "The young pelican is fabled
to suck the mother's blood" (JOHNSON).
pelleted, formed into small balls (globules, drops): That season'd
woe had pelleted in tears, L. Compl. 18.
pelleted, consisting of small balls (hail-stones): By the discan-
dying of this pelleted storm, Ant. iii. 13. 165.
pelt, to rage clamorously; Another, smother'd, seems to pelt and
swear, Lucr. 1418.
pelting, paltry, contemptible: pelting, petty officer, M.M. ii. 2. 112;
pelting river, M.N.D. ii. 1. 91; pelting farm, R2. ii. 1. 60;
pelting wars, Troil. iv. 5. 267; pelting villages, Lr. ii. 3. 18;
pelting scurvy news, 2N.K. ii. 2. 268.
pencils, ho, &c.—Ware: see ware pencils, ho, &c.
Pendragon, in his litter, sick, &c., 1H6. iii. 2. 95: "This hero
was Uther Pendragon, brother to Aurelius, and father to King
Arthur. Shakespeare [the unknown author of this play] has
imputed to Pendragon an exploit of Aurelius, who, says
Holinshed, 'even sicke of a flixe as he was, caused himselfe
to be carried forth in a litter: with whose presence his
people were so incouraged, that encountering with the Saxons
they wan the victorie.' Hist. of Scotland, p. 99” (Steevens):
"Hardyng (Chronicle, chap. 72, 8vo [p. 120, ed. Ellis, 1812,
4to]) gives the following account of Uter Pendragon;
'For whiche the kyng ordeyned a horse litter
To beare hym so then vnto the Verolame,
Wher Occa laye, and Oysa also in feer,
That Saynt Albones nowe hight of noble fame,
Bet downe the walles; but to hym forth they came,
Wher in battayl Occa and Oysa were slayne.
The felde he had, and therof was full fayne.'
penetrative, penetrating, Ant. iv. 14. 75.
(GREY.)
penitent, used with a quibble, "sorry" and "doing penance:"
Are penitent for your default to-day, Er:. i. 2. 52.
Penker-To Friar: see Shaw-To Doctor, &c.
penner, a case for holding pens, 2NK. iii. 5. 124.
penny of observation-By my, L.L.L. iii. 1. 28: The allusion
probably is to a celebrated tract, often reprinted, entitled
A Pennyworth of Wit.
pensioners, gentlemen of the band of Pensioners, who wore
a splendid uniform, M.W. ii. 2. 79; M.N.D. ii. 1. 10.
Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, 12N. ii. 3. 123: It must
be remembered that Maria, to whom Sir Toby facetiously
applies this name, is described as of diminutive size (Here
f
PERCH-PERIOD.
357
Mr. Grant White refers the reader for an account of her
exploits and death to a juvenile publication of mine-
Select Translations from the Greek of Quintus Smyrnæus).
perch-By many a dern and painful, Per. iii. Gow. 15: “A
perch is a measure of five yards and a half," says Stee-
vens, and truly enough; but the unknown author of this
portion of Pericles (using here the word for the sake of a
rhyme) thought no more about the exact measure of a
perch than Milton did about that of a rood, when he tells
us that Satan “lay floating many a rood.”
perdu, a soldier sent on a forlorn hope (Fr. enfant perdu), Lr.
iv. 7.35.
perdurable, lasting, H5. iv. 5. 7; Oth. i. 3. 343.
perdurably, lastingly, M.M. iii. 1. 115.
perdy, verily (par dieu), 12N. iv. 2. 81; H5. ii. 1. 52; Hml. iii
2. 305; Lr. ii. 4. 86.
peregrinate, "of a foreign or outlandish cast" (CAPELL), L.L.L.
V. I. 15.
perfect, to instruct fully: Her cause and yours I'll perfect him
withal, M.M. iv. 3. 146; Being once perfected how to grant
suits, Tp. i. 2. 79.
perfect, certain, well assured, well informed: Thou'rt perfect,
then, our ship, &c., W.T. iii. 3. 1; Thou hast a perfect thought,
K.J. v. 6. 6; in your state of honour I am perfect (“I am
perfectly acquainted with your rank of honour," STEEVENS),
Mcb. iv. 2. 66; I am perfect That the Pannonians, &c., Cymb.
iii. 1. 73; I'm perfect what, Cymb. iv. 2. 118.
perforce, by violence: took perforce My ring away, Err. iv.
3. 95: take perforce my husband from the abbess, v. 1. 117;
she perforce withholds the lovèd boy, M.N.D. ii. 1. 26; what
he hath taken away from thy father perforce, A.Y.L. i. 2. 21;
He that perforce robs lions of their hearts, K.J. i. 1. 268; &c.
perforce, of necessity: which perforce, I know, Thou must
restore, Tp. v. 1. 133; perforce I must confess, M.N.D. ii.
2. 131; must perforce decay, 2H4. i. 1. 165; Perforce must
move, iv. 5. 34; I must perforce, R3. i. 1. 116; must perforce
prey on itself, Lr. iv. 2. 49; perforce must suffer, Oth. v. 2.
256; perforce he could not But pay me, &c. Ant. iii. 4. 6.
perfumes-Their diseas'd: see diseas'd perfumes—Their.
periapts," amulets; charms worn as preservatives against diseases.
or mischief" (HANMER) 1H6. v. 3. 2 (πEpíaπтα, Amuleta, Plato,
Rep. p. 426 B, ed. Steph.: "Periapte. A medicine hanged about
any part of the bodie." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.).
period, an end, a conclusion: the period (utmost limit) of my
ambition, M.W. iii. 3. 47: no period ("seems to mean no
proper catastrophe," STEEVENS) to the jest, iv. 2. 237; My
worldly business makes a period, 2H4. iv. 5. 231; The period
of thy tyranny, 1H6. iv. 2. 17; the period of their tyranny,
358
PERIOD-PERSEUS.
2H6. iii. 1. 149; a period of tumultuous broils, 3H6. v. 5. 1;
the period to my curse, R3. i. 3. 238; the perfect period of
this peace, ii. 1. 44; There's his period, To sheathe his knife
in us, H8. i. 2. 209; My point and period, Lr. iv. 7. 97; This
would have seem'd a period, &c., v. 3. 204; O blvody period!
Oth. v. 2. 357; the period of your duty, Ant. iv. 2. 25; time
is at his period, iv. 14. 107.
period, to put an end to: Periods his comfort, Tim. i. 1. 99.
perish, to cause to perish, to destroy: Might in thy palace
perish Margaret, 2H6. iii. 2. 100.
perishen, perish, Per. ii. Gow. 35.
perjure, wearing papers-Like a, L.L.L. iv. 3. 48: perjure, i.e.
perjurer: formerly convicted perjurers, while undergoing
punishment, wore a paper expressing their offence.
perjure, to taint with perjury, to corrupt: want will perjure
The ne'er-touch'd vestal, Ant. iii. 12. 30.
perpend, to weigh, to consider attentively, M.W. ii. 1. 119;
A.Y.L. iii. 2. 69; 12N. v. 1. 307: H5. iv. 4. 8; Hml. ii. 2. 105.
perplex'd, bewildered, distracted: Perplex'd in the extreme, Oth.
v. 2. 346; a thing perplex'd Beyond self-explication, Cymb. iii.
4. 7; Leaving his spoil perplex'd in greater pain, Lucr. 733.
persever, to persevere, Err. ii. 2. 217; M.N.D. iii. 2. 237;
A.Y.L. v. 2. 4; A.W. iii. 7. 37; iv. 2. 37: K.J. ii. 1. 421;
Hml. i. 2. 92; Lr. iii. 5. 23; Per. iv. 6. 113; persévers,
2G. iii. 2. 28.
Perseus' horse, Troil. i. 3. 42: Here "our poet followed the
author of The Destruction of Troy [see vi. 2], a book which
furnished him with some other circumstances of this play.
Of the horse alluded to in the text he found in that book
the following account: 'Of the blood that issued out [from
Medusa's head] there engendered Pegasus, or the flying
horse. By the flying horse that was engendered of the blood
issued from her head, is understood, that of her riches
issuing of that realme he [Perseus] founded and made a
ship named Pegase, and this ship was likened unto an horse
flying,' &c. Again, 'By this fashion Perseus conquered the
head of Medusa, and did make Pegase, the most swift ship
that was in all the world.' In another place the same writer
assures us, that this ship, which he always calls Perseus'
flying horse, 'flew on the sea like unto a bird.' Dest. of
Troy, 4to, 1617, pp. 155-164" (MALONE): But though classic
authority be wanting that Perseus nade use of a horse,
Boccaccio in his Genealogia Deorum, lib. xii. c. 25, has
quoted Lactantius as saying, that when Perseus undertook
his expedition against Gorgon, at the instance of king
Polydectus, he was accompanied by the winged horse
Pegasus, but not that he used him in delivering Andromeda.
Boccaccio adds, that others were of opinion that he had a
1
PERSON-PERSPECTIVE.
359
ship called Pegasus. The liberties which the old French
translators of Ovid's Metamorphoses have taken, and their
interpolations, are unaccountable. Some have caused Perseus
at the instant of his birth to bestride Pegasus, and travel
away to Helicon. In the cuts to many of the early editions
of Ovid, the designers have not only placed him on Pegasus
in the adventure with Andromeda, but even in his attack
upon Atlas" (DOUCE): Here Steevens remarks that " our
author perhaps would not have contented himself with
merely comparing one ship to another;" and on a later
line, in act iv. sc. 5, [l. 186],
"As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed,"
he observes, "As the equestrian fame of Perseus, on the
present occasion, must be alluded to, this simile will serve
to countenance my opinion, that in a former instance his
horse was meant for a real one, and not, allegorically, for
a ship." [Cf. H5. iii. 7. 22.]
person, a parson (person being indeed the original and correct
form of the word,-persona ecclesia): Master parson, (Dyce,
person) L.L.L. iv. 2. 85; Our parson misdoubts it, iv. 3. 194.
personating of himself—It must be a, Tim. v. 1. 35: “Personat-
ing for representing simply" (WARBURTON).
perspective did lend me-Contempt his scornful, A.W. v. 3. 48;
A natural perspective, 12N. v. 1. 224; Like pérspectives, which
rightly gaz'd upon, &c., R2. ii. 2. 18: "The several kinds of
perspective glasses that were used in Shakespeare's time
may be found collected together in Scot's Discoverie of
Witchcraft, 1584, 4to, Book xiii. ch. 19. They cannot be
exceeded in number by any modern optician's shop in
England. Among these, that alluded to by the Duke [in
the second of the above passages] is thus described: "There
be glasses also wherein one man may see another man's
image, and not his own" (DoUCE): “This [Like pérspectives,
which rightly gaz'd upon, &c.] is a fine similitude, and the
thing meant is this: amongst mathematical recreations, there
is one in optics, in which a figure is drawn, wherein all the
rules of perspective are inverted: so that, if held in the same
position with those pictures which are drawn according to
the rules of perspective, it can present nothing but confu-
sion: and to be seen in form, and under a regular appear-
ance, it must be looked upon from a contrary station; or
as Shakespeare says, 'ey'd awry" (WARBURTON): “Dr.
Plot's History of Staffordshire, p. 391, explains this per-
spective, or odd kind of 'pictures upon an indented board,
which, if beheld directly, you only perceive a confused
piece of work; but, if obliquely, you see the intended
person's picture;' which, he was told, was made thus: The
360
PERSPECTIVELY-PEW-FELLOW.
board being indented [or furrowed with a plough-plane],
the print or painting was cut into parallel pieces equal to
the depth and number of the indentures on the board, and
they were pasted on the flats that strike the eye holding it
obliquely, so that the edges of the parallel pieces of the
print or painting exactly joining on the edges of the in-
dentures, the work was done"" (TOLLET): "Perspective.
Apparently used for a kind of optical deception, showing
different objects through or in the glass from what appeared
without it; like the anamorphosis." Nares's Gloss. (Compare
Baxter's Sir P. Sydneys Ourania, 1606;
"Glasses perspectiue,
Composed by Arte Geometricall,
Whereby beene wrought thinges Supernaturall;
Men with halfe bodies, men going in th' Ayre,
Men all deformed, men as angels fayre,
Besides other thinges of great admiration,
Wrought by this Glasses Fabrication."
Sig. L 3 verso).
perspectively, as in a perspective, H5. v. 2. 347: see the
preceding article.
persuade, “to treat by persuasion" (Johnson's Dict.): have all
persuaded with him, M.V. iii. 2. 283.
pertly, alertly, quickly: appear, and pertly! Tp. iv. 1. 58.
pertly, saucily: that pertly front your town, Troil. iv. 5. 219.
pervert, to turn away or aside; pervert the present wrath He
hath against himself, Cymb. ii. 4. 151.
pestering, crowding, thronging, Cor. iv. 6. 7 (So in Alarum
for London, 1602,
"It is impossible to passe the streetes,
They are so pesterd with this brainsicke crew."
Sig. E).
petar, or petard, an engine, charged with powder, used to
blow up gates, &c., Hml. iii. 4. 207.
Peter of Pomfret, K.J. iv. 2: “This man was a hermit in great
repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event
is said to have fallen out as he had prophesied, the poor
fellow was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the
streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who appears
to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged
afterwards upon a gibbet. See Holinshed's Chronicle, under
the year 1213" (DOUCE): "In the old 'King John' [The
Troublesome Raigne of Iohn, &c., see vol. iv. 3] there is a
scene between the prophet and the people, but otherwise
altogether undeserving of notice" (COLLIER).
pew-fellow, one who sits in the same pewa companion, a
partner, R3. iv. 4. 58 (“Faith, certaine pu-fellowes of mine,
that haue bin mued vp," &c. Wilson's Coblers Prophesie,
· 1594, sig. F 4: “Loose not a minute, pue-fellow, leaue him
PEWTER-PICK.
361
not yet," &c. Dekker's If it be not good, the Diuel is in it,
1612, sig. G 4 verso).
pewter and brass, and all things that belong To house or house-
keeping, Shr. ii. 1. 357: Pewter, as Steevens observes, would
seem to have been too costly to be used in common even
in the reign of Elizabeth. From the Household Book of
the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, begun in 1512, it appears.
that vessels of pewter were hired by the year.
Pheezar, a made word from pheeze" (MALONE), M.W. i. 3. 10:
see the next article.
pheeze you-I'll, Shr. Ind. 1. 1; I'll pheeze his pride, Troil. ii.
3. 215: To pheeze, says Gifford (note on Jonson's Works,
vol. iv. p. 189), is "to beat, to chastise, to humble, &c., in
which sense it may be heard every day [in the west of
England]:" according to Mr. Staunton, I'll pheeze you “was
equivalent exactly to I'll tickle you."
Philemon, see Fove.
Philip and Jacob-Come, "On the arrival of the feast of Philip
and James, Apostles, May 1st" (HALLIWELL), M.M. iii. 2. 214.
Philip?-sparrow! K.J. i. 1. 231: Philip was, and still is, a name
for the common sparrow, perhaps from its note, phip, phip:
the speaker, now Sir Richard, disdains his old name Philip.
(See the not-undeservedly celebrated poem entitled Phyllyp
Sparowe, in my edition of Skelton's Works, vol. i. p. 51.)
Philippan-His sword, Ant. ii. 5. 23: Cleopatra applies this
epithet to Antony's sword in allusion to his valour at the
battle of Philippi: "used in the battle of Philippi" (SCHMIDT).
Philip's daughters-Saint, 1H6. i. 2. 143: "Meaning the four
daughters of Philip mentioned in the 21st chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles" (HANMER).
philosopher's two stones-A 2H4. iii. 2. 355: Johnson, I believe,
is right in explaining this, "more than the philosopher's
stone," or twice the value of the philosopher's stone; though,
as Farmer observes, "Gower has a chapter in his Confessio
Amantis, 'Of the three stones that philosophers made,'" &c.
phisnomy, physiognomy, A.W. iv. 5. 42 (Globe, fisnomy) (This
contraction was formerly common, and not regarded as a
vulgarism: "Phisnomie or phisiognomie of mans face.
Metascopie, mine, le traict du visage." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.).
phoenix down, L. Compl. 93: "I suppose she means matchless,
rare, down" (Malone).
phraseless, beyond the power of language to describe justly,
L. Compl. 225.
pia mater, "the membrane that immediately covers the sub-
stance of the brain" (STEEVENS), used in the sense of the
brain itself, L.L.L. iv. 2. 71; 12N. i. 5. 123; Troil. ii. 1. 77-
pick, to pitch: I'll pick you o'er the pales else, H8. v. 4. 94
362
PICKAXES-PIG-NUTS.
(Globe, peck); as high As I could pick my lance, Cor.
i. I. 204.
pickaxes-These poor, Cymb. iv. 2. 389: "Meaning her fingers"
(JOHNSON).
picked, scrupulously nice, foppish, coxcombical, fastidious: He
is too picked, L.L.L. v. I. 14; My picked man of countries,
K.J. i. 1. 193; the age is grown so picked, Hml. v. 1. 151.
pickers and stealers-By these, By these hands, Hml. iii. 2. 348:
“The phrase is taken from our church catechism, where
the catechumen, in his duty to his neighbour, is taught to
keep his hands from picking and stealing" (Whalley). [cf.
picking a kernel, A.W. ii. 3. 276, = stealing].
picking, insignificant: such picking grievances, 2H4. iv. 1. 198.
[Query, capricious, fastidious; cf. my picked man of countries].
pick-purse-At hand, quoth: see At hand, &c.
pick-thanks, fawning parasites, 1H4. iii. 2. 25; "A pick-thank
is one who gathers or collects favour, thanks, or applause,
by means of flattery" (DOUCE).
Pickt-hatch, M.W. ii. 2. 19: In spite of all that has been
written about this celebrated retreat of prostitutes and
thieves, from the earliest notes on Shakespeare down to
Mr. P. Cunningham's Hand-book for London,—it would seem
that the exact position of Pickt-hatch remains to be deter-
mined: "In Shakespeare's time, that portion of London
which is now bounded on the North by Old Street, on the
East by Golding Lane, on the South by Barbican, and on
the West by Goswell Street and the Charter-house, consisted
for the most part of scattered collections of small tenements,
generally with gardens attached to them, and a few alleys
or courts. Somewhere in this small portion of the metro-
polis was situated the notorious resort of bad characters,
which was known as the Pickt-hatch; that name, it is con-
jectured, being derived from the iron spikes placed over
the half-door, or hatch, one of the characteristics of a house
of ill-fame," &c. &c. (HALLIWELL).
picture in little: see little-In.
picture of We Three-The: see Three-The picture of We.
pied, parti-coloured: pied minny, fool (court-jester) in his parti-
coloured dress, Tp. iii. 2. 71; daisies pied, L.L.L. v. 2. 904;
streak'd and pied, M.V. i. 3. 80; proud-pied April, Sonn. 98.
piedness, variegation, diversity of colour, W.T. iv. 4. 87.
pierced through the ear-That the bruis'd heart was, Oth. i. 3.
219: penetrated to, thoroughly reached or affected. Warb.
conj. pieced.
pight, pitched: tents, Thus proudly pight, upon our Phrygian
plains, Troil. v. 10. 24.
pight, fixed, settled: And found him pight to do it, Lr. ii. 1.
pig-nuts, earth-nuts, Tp. ii. 2. 172.
67.
PIKES-PINCH'D.
363
pikes with a vice-You must put in the, Ado, v. 2. 21: "The
circular 'bucklers' of the sixteenth century, now called more
commonly targets, had frequently a central spike, or 'pike,'
usually affixed by a screw. It was probably found con-
venient to detach this spike occasionally; for instance, in
cleaning the buckler, or in case of that piece of defensive
armour being carried about on any occasion when not
actually in use. A sharp projecting spike, four or five
inches long, would obviously be inconvenient. .. 'Vice'
is the French vis, a screw, a word still in common use, the
female screw being called écrou." Note (communicated by
Mr. Albert Way) in Thoms's Three Notelets on Shakespeare,
p. 128. See tice.
pilcher, a scabbard, a sheath, Rom. iii. 1. 84.
pilchers, pilchards, 12N. iii. 1. 39 (Globe, pilchards).
pil'd upon his faith-The fabric of his folly, whose foundation Is,
"This folly which is erected on the foundation of settled
belief" (STEEVENS), W.T. i. 2. 430.
piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet, M.M. i. 2. 35: a
quibble between piled=peeled, "stripped of hair, bald"
(from the French disease), and piled as applied to velvet,
three-piled velvet meaning "the finest and costliest kind of
velvet."
pill, to pillage, to spoil, to rob, Tim. iv. 1. 12; pill'd, R2. ii. 1.
246; R3. i. 3. 159.
Pillicock, Lr. iii. 4. 78: This word was frequently used as a
term of endearment: "Pinchino, a prime-cocke, a pillicocke, a
darlin, a beloved lad." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.: “Ture-
lureau. Mon. tur. My pillicocke, my prettie knaue." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict: But pillicock had another meaning; see
Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict. in "Piuiolo," "Puga,” and
"Robinetto."
•
·
pin, the wooden nail of the target: cleaving the pin, L.L.L. iv.
1. 138; the very pin of his heart cleft, Rom. ii. 4. 15: see clout.
pin and web-The, W.T. i. 2. 291; the web and the pin, Lr. iii.
4. 122: "Cataratta
a dimnesse of sight occasioned by
humores hardned in the eies called a Cataract, or pin and a
web." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.: "Taye. Any filme, or
thinne skinne, &c.; and hence, a pin or web in th' eye, a
white filme overgrowing the eye." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict.: “A webbe in the eye. Maille en l'œil, onglée en l'œil,
taye en l'œil.” Id. (sub "To weaue"): "A Pin in the Eye,
Cataracta, suffusio." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.
pin-buttock, a sharp, pointed buttock, A.W. ii. 2. 18.
pinch'd thing-A, W.T. ii. 1. 51: "The sense, I think, is, ....
a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet
for them to move and actuate as they please” (HEATH):
Perhaps so. [Made ridiculous, tricked. (SCHMIDT)].
364
PINK-PITCH.
pink eyne, small, winking, half-shut eyes ("Oeil de rat. A small
eye, pink-eye, little sight." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.),
Ant. ii. 7. 121. [Skeat derives through Dutch (O. Du. pincken,
also pinck-oogen) from a Celtic source, from Latin.]
pinked, worked in eyelet-holes, H8. v. 4. 50.
pioned and twilled brims, Tp. iv. 1. 64: pioned, channelled
by rains, as though dug; or peonied, overgrown with the
marsh-marigold, still called the peony in the neighbourhood
of Stratford (according to the Edin. Rev. Oct. 1872.) “The
wild marsh-marigold shines like fire in swamps and hollows
gray," says Tennyson; it haunts the watery margins as the
constant associate of reeds and rushes (=twills); blooms
in "spongy April"; and in common with other water-flowers,
is twined with sedge, “to make cold nymphs chaste crowns."
Twilled, reedy.
pioner, a pioneer, H5. ii. 2. 92; Hml. i. 5. 163; Oth. iii. 3. 346;
Lucr. 1380: Pioneers were generally soldiers who, on account
of misconduct, had been degraded to the office of pioneer.
(As to the old form of the word, Milton writes "pioners"
in Paradise Lost, B. i. 676, and in Paradise Regained, B.
iii. 330; see the first eds. of those poems; but in the eds.
of Todd, Keightley, &c.' we find "pioneers.")
pip out?-A: see two-and-thirty, &c.
pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance-I think I shall
drink in, M.W. iii. 2. 90: "Canary is the name of a dance,
as well as of a wine. Ford lays hold of both senses
(TYRWHITT): “Ford terms canary pipe-wine, because the
canary dance is performed to a tabor and pipe" (Douce):
here drink in is merely the old phraseology for "drink."
piping time of peace,-In this weak, R3. i. 1. 24: Schmidt
says: "when the pipe is sounding instead of the fife; or,
perhaps, when no manly martial voice is heard, but only
that of women and children." Lines 7-13 favour the
former explanation. Query, weak-piping?
pissing-conduit-The, 2H6. iv. 6. 3: Near the Royal Exchange:
it was set up by John Wels, grocer, mayor in 1430.
pissing while—A, A short time, 2G. iv. 4. 21: The phrase was
formerly common enough.
pitch: "A Pitch (measure), modus. They flie a very high Pitch,
Admodum excelse volitant. I would have you tell me what
Pitch he was of, Velim mihi dicas quâ staturâ fuerit.”
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.: "Pitch. The height to which
a falcon soared, before she stooped upon her prey. . .
It was used also, and still is, for height, in general; but
this perhaps was the origin of that use." Nares's Gloss.: Of
what validity and pitch soe'er, 12N. i. 1. 12; How high a pitch
·his resolution soars! R2. i. 1. 109; were the whole frame
here, It is of such a spacious lofty pitch (stature), &c. 1H6.
:
366
PLACE-PLASHY.
place-In, Present ("en place, a Gallicism," STEEVENS), that
she was there in place, 3H6. iv. 1. 103; when Clarence is in
place, iv. 6. 31.
place, precedence: That they take place, when virtue's steely
bones, &c.. A.W. i. 1. 114; Due reference of place and exhibi-
tion, Oth. 1. 3. 238.
place, an office of honour, preferment: thy places shall Still
neighbour mine, W.T. i. 2. 448.
•
placket, W.T. iv. 4. 622; Troil. ii. 3. 22; plackets, L.L.L. iii.
1. 186; W.T. iv. 4. 245; Lr. iii. 4. 100
very variously
explained—a petticoat, under-petticoat, a pocket attached to
a petticoat, the slit or opening in a petticoat, and a sto-
macher; and it certainly was occasionally used to signify
a female, as petticoat is now . . . .
plague, a punishment: made her sin and her the plague, K.J. ii. 1. 185.
plague, to punish: Make instruments to plague us, Lr. v. 3. 171;
plagued for her sin... plagu'd for her, And with her plagu'd
K.J. ii. 1. 184; hath plagu'à thy bloody deed, R3. i. 3. 181.
plain fish-Is a, Is plainly a fish, Tp. v. 1. 266.
plain, to complain: The king hath cause to plain, Lr. iii. 1. 39.
plain, to make plain: I'll plain with speech, Per. iii. Gow. 14.
plaining, a complaint, R2. i. 3. 175; plainings, Err. i. 1. 73.
plainly, openly: how plainly I have borne this business, Cor. v. 3. 3.
plain song, "by which expression the uniform modulation or
simplicity of the chaunt was anciently distinguished, in op-
position to prick-song or variegated music sung by note
(T. WARTON), H5. iii. 2. 6; H8. i. 3. 45 (metaphorically);
The plain-song cuckoo, M.N.D. iii. 1. 134.
plaited, see plighted.
planched, planked, made of boards, M.M. iv. 1. 30.
plantage to the moon-As, Troil. iii. 2. 184; plantage, i.e. plants,
vegetation; "Alluding to the common opinion of the in-
fluence the moon has over what is planted or sown, which
was therefore done in the increase " (WARBURTON).
plantain, a plain plantain, L.L.L. iii. 1. 74; no salve, sir, but
a plantain, ibid.; Your plantain-leaf is excellent for that,
Rom. i. 2. 52; Need not a plantain, 2N.K. i. 2. 61: The
leaves of the plantain (the herb so called-plantago major,
-not the tree) were supposed to have great efficacy in
healing wounds, stanching blood, &c. [See a list of such
remedies in Basse's Works, p. 222.]
plantation, colonising, Tp. ii. 1. 143.
plants, the soles of the feet, feet: Some o' their plants (with a
quibble) are ill-rooted already, Ant. ii. 7. 2.
plash, a pool, Shr. i. 1. 23: [cf. Harington, Orl. Fur. xxxiv. 481.
Plashy, R2. i. 2. 66; ii. 2. 90; 120:
2. 66; ii. 2. 90; 120: “The lordship of Plashy
was a town of the Duchess of Gloster's in Essex. See Hall's
Chronicle, p. 13" (THEOBALD).
PITCH-PLACE.
365
ii. 3. 55; which flies the higher pitch, ii. 4. 11; what a pitch
she flew, 2H6. ii. 1. 6; above his falcon's pitch, 12; Into what
pitch he please, H8. ii. 2. 50; mount her pitch, Tit. ii. 1. 14;
bound a pitch above dull woe, Rom. i. 4. 21; fly an ordinary
pitch, J C. i. 1. 78.
pitch a field, 1H6. iii. 1. 103; pitch our battle, 3H6. v. 4. 66;
pitched battle, Shr. i. 2. 206; pitch'd battle, 3H6. iv. 4. 4: "To
understand this allusion ['pitch a field, 1H6. iii. 1. 103], it
must be remembered that before beginning a battle it was
customary for the archers and other footmen to encompas
themselves with sharp stakes firmly pitched in the ground,
to prevent their being overpowered by the cavalry. Thus,
in a previous speech, act i. sc. 1, [l. 118],
C
No leisure had he to enrank his men;
He wanted pikes to set before his archers;
Instead whereof, sharp stakes, pluck'd out of hedges,
They pitched in the ground confusedly,
333
To keep the horsemen off from breaking in.' (STAUNTON).
"pitch and pay," H5. ii. 3. 51: A proverbial expression equiva-
lent to "Pay down at once," "Pay on delivery" (“One of
the old laws of Blackwell-hall was, that 'a penny be paid
by the owner of every bale of cloth for pitching." FARMER;
who, as Nares in Gloss. observes, seems to suggest that the
expression originated from pitching goods in a market, and
paying immediately for their standing).
pitchers have ears, Shr. iv. 4. 52; R3. ii. 4. 37: A proverbial
saying: "It appears from A Dialogue both Pleasaunt and
Pietifull, by William Bulleyn, 1564, that the old proverb is
this, 'Small pitchers have great ears'" (MALONE).
piteously perform'd, Tit. v. 1. 66: “in a manner exciting pity.”
(STEEVENS).
pittikins: see 'Ods pittikins.
pittie-ward, M.W. iii. 1. 5: "perhaps towards the Little Park
(Petty?)" (HERFORD).
pitying, "remitting his ransom" (JOHNSON): Ransoming him, or
pitying, Cor. i. 6. 36.
place, a seat, a mansion, a residence: This is no place; this
house is but a butchery (where Steevens and Malone under-
stand place to signify "a mansion-house," while according
to Mason, "Adam merely means to say-This is no place
for you"), A.Y.L. ii. 3. 27: the heart and place Of general
wonder, Per. iv. Gow. 10; Love lack'd a dwelling, and made
him her place, L. Compl. 82.
place, a term in falconry, meaning "the greatest elevation which
a bird of prey attains in its flight" (Gifford's note on Mas-
singer's Works, vol. iv. p. 141, ed. 1813) A falcon, towering
in her pride of place, Mcb. ii. 4. 12: and see tower.
PLATES-PLEASE.
367
plates, pieces of silver money: As plates dropp'd from his pocket,
Ant. v. 2. 92.
platforms, plans, schemes, 1H6. ii. 1. 77.
plats the manes of horses in the night-That very Mab That,
Rom. i. 4. 89: According to Douce, this "alludes to a very
singular superstition not yet forgotten in some parts of the
country. It was believed that certain malignant spirits,
whose delight was to wander in groves and pleasant places,
assumed occasionally the likenesses of women clothed in
white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables
in the night-time, carrying in their hands tapers of wax,
which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting
them in inextricable knots, to the great annoyance of the
poor animals and vexation of their masters. These hags
are mentioned in the works of William of Auvergne, bishop
of Paris in the 13th century," &c.
plausibly, by acclamation, Lucr. 1854.
plausive, pleasing, taking: his plausive words, A.W. i. 2. 53;
plausive manners, Hm. i. 4. 30.
plausive, specious, plausible: It must be a very plausive invention,
A.W. iv. 1. 29.
play at dice-Do the low-rated English, Do play at dice for
the low-rated English, H5. iv. Prol. 19.
play the men, play the part of men, behave with courage, Tp.
i. 1. 11; play'd the men, 1H6. i. 6. 16.
play'd your prize-You have, Tit. i. 1. 399: A metaphor borrow-
ed from the fencing-school, prizes being played for certain
degrees in the schools where the Art of Defence was
taught,—degrees, it appears, of Master, Provost, and Scholar
("To see in that place such a strange headlesse Courtier
ietting vp and downe like the Vsher of a Fence-schoole
about to play his prize." Greene's Quip for an Vpstart
Courtier, sig. B 3, ed. 1620.
But while Argantes thus his prises plaid," &c.
Fairfax's transl. of Tasso's Gerusalemme, B. vii. st. 109).
[Cf. Miseries of Enforced Marriage, Hazl. Dodsl. ix. 531,
Cynthia's Revels, v. 2; and see Prizer.]
play-feres, play-fellows, 2N.K. iv. 3. 79: see fere.
pleached, interwoven, intertwined, Ado, iii. 1. 7; pleach'd arms
("arms folded in each other," JOHNSON), Ant. iv. 14. 73:
and see even-pleached, &c., and thick-pleached. [Now, as
formerly, spelt plashed also.]
Fleasance, pleasure, delight, Oth. ii. 3. 293; P. Pilg. 158.
please-man, an officious parasite, L.L.L. v. 2. 463.
"Please one, and please all”—As the very true sonnet is, 12N.
ii. 4. 24: An allusion to
368
(
PLIGHTED-POINT.
A prettie newe Ballad, intytuled :
The Crowe sits upon the wall,
Please one and please all;"
which consists of seventeen seven-line stanzas, and is signed
R. T. It was entered in the Stationers' Books, 18th Jan.
1591-2 but if the initials R. T. stand for Richard Tarleton
the actor (as they most probably do), the ballad must have
been current before that period, since Tarleton was dead
in 1588. [The initials fit Robert Toft also.]
plighted, "complicated, involved" (JOHNSON): plighted cunning,
Lr..i. 1. 283 (Globe, plaited).
plot-In this private, In this "sequestered spot of ground"
(MALONE), 2H6. ii. 2. 60.
plot, Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, &c.—A, “A
spot, a space whereon the numerous force collected, &c."
(CALDECOTT), Hml. iv. 4. 62.
plot to lose - Were there but this single, "plot, i.e. piece, portion;
applied to a piece of earth, and here elegantly transferred
to the body, carcass" (WARBURTON), Cor. iii. 2. 102.
plow, Fluellen's Welsh pronunciation of blow, H5. iii. 2. 68;
iv. 8. 15.
pluck off a little, "let us still further divest preferment of its
glare, let us descend yet lower, and more upon a level with
your own quality" (STEEVENS), H8. ii. 3. 40.
plucking the grass, to know where sits the wind, M.V. i. 1. 18:
"By holding up the grass, or any light body that will bend
by a gentle blast, the direction of the wind is found"
(JOHNSON).
plume up, to prank up, to gratify, Oth. i. 3. 399.
plummet, a plumb-line, for sounding the depth of the water,
Tp. iii. 3. 101; v. 1. 56; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er
me, M.W. v. 5. 173; a passage which has been variously
explained; by Tyrwhitt, "ignorance itself is not so low as
I am, by the length of a plummet line;" by Mr. Grant
White, "[ignorance itself] 'points out my deviations from
rectitude;' in allusion to the censures of him 'who makes
fritters of English."" ["Perhaps: ignorance itself searches
my depth and sounds my bottom" (SCHMIDT).]
plumpy, plump, fat, Ant. ii. 7. 121.
plurisy, a plethora, a superabundance, Hml. iv. 7. 118; 2N.K.
V. I. 66.
poach, poche, or potch (Globe), to thrust: I'll poach at him some
way, Cor. i. 10. 15.
pocas palabras: see palabras.
point, a tagged lace, common in ancient dress,-points being
generally used to fasten the hose or breeches to the doublet,
but sometimes serving merely for ornament: a silken point,
H
POINT-POMANDER.
369
2H4. i. 1. 53; if one [point] break, the other will hold (with
a quibble), 12N. i. 5. 25; two broken points, Shr. iii. 2. 49;
points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly
handle (with a quibble), W.T. iv. 4. 206; Their points being
broken,—Poin. Down fell their hose (with a quibble,-Pointz
choosing to take points in the sense of "tagged laces")
1H4. ii. 4. 238; with two points on your shoulder? ("as a
mark of his commission," JOHNSON), 2H4. ii. 4. 142; With
one that ties his points, Ant. iii. 13. 157.
point-Already at a, Mcb. iv. 3. 135: "Let vs be at a poynt
what is best to be done. Constituamus quid factu sit opti-
mum." Hormanni Vulgaria, sig. [second] m ij, ed. 1530.
"To be at point to be at a stay, or stop, i.e. settled,
determined, nothing farther being to be said or done
(ARROWSMITH, who gives various examples of this phrase
in Notes and Queries for May 28, 1853, vol. vii. p. 521):
In the present passage Mr. Halliwell explains at a point
"prepared."
point of war, a strain of military music, 2H4. iv. 1. 52. "A
signal given by the blast of a trumpet." Schmidt.
point-To, exactly: Hast thou, spirit, perform'd to point the
tempest that I bade thee? Tp. i. 2. 194.
point, what a, 2H6. ii. 1. 5. Harting, Ornith. Shak, p. 51: "Point:
The fluttering or hovering over the spot where the quarry
has been 'put in,'" or made to take refuge.
'point, to appoint: 'pointed times, Shr. iii. 1. 19: the 'pointed day,
iii. 2. 1; 'Pointing to each his thunder, Sonn. 14.
point-devise, finically-exact, minutely-exact; point-devise com-
panions, L.L.L. v. 1. 21; point-devise in your accoutrements.
A.Y.L. iii. 2. 401; I will be point-devise the very man, I2N.
ii. 5. 177.
poise, weight, moment, importance: of some poise, Lr. ii. 1. 122;
full of poise, Oth. iii. 3. 82.
poking-sticks of steel, instruments for setting the plaits of ruffs,
and made of steel, that they might be used hot. W.T. iv. 4. 228.
Polack, a Pole, an inhabitant of Poland, Hml. ii. 2. 63; 75;
iv. 4. 23; v. 2. 387 (as an adjective); Polacks, Hml. i. 1. 63.
pole-The soldier's, Ant. iv. 15. 65: "He at whom the soldiers
pointed as at a pageant held high for observation” (JOHN-
SON); "The pole, I apprehend, is the standard" (BOSWELL).
pole-clipt vineyard, a vineyard in which the poles are clipt (em-
braced) by the vines, Tp. iv. 1. 68: see clip.
polled, shorn, bald-headed: the polled bachelor, 2N.K. v. 1. 85.
Qo. pould, which represents the pronunciation probably.
polled, bared, cleared: leave his passage polled, Cor. iv. 5. 215.
pomander, either a composition of various perfumes, wrought
into the shape of a ball or other form, and worn in the
pocket or about the neck; or a case, sometimes of gold or
24
370
POME-WATER-PORT.
silver, for containing such a mixture of perfumes (Fr. pomme
d'ambre), W.T. iv. 4. 609;—where, whether the word means
the perfume-ball or the case, the article in question, was,
of course, of very inferior kind.
pome-water, a species of apple ("A pomewater-tree, malus
carbonaria." ¡Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), L.L.L. iv. 2. 4.
Pompey the Great-Savage islanders [stabb'd] 2H6. iv. 1. 138:
"The poet seems to have confounded the story of Pompey
with some other" (JOHNSON): "Pompey being killed by
Achillas and Septimius at the moment that the Egyptian
fishing-boat, in which they were, reached the coast, and
his head being thrown into the sea (a circumstance which
Shakespeare found in North's translation of Plutarch), his
mistake does not appear more extraordinary than some
others which have been pointed out in his works. It is
remarkable that the introduction of Pompey was among
Shakespeare's additions to the old play." &c. (MALONE).
pooped him, overwhelmed. A heavy sea breaking in the stern
or quarter of a sailing-ship, such as in old times had a high
poop, was said to poop the vessel. Per. iv. 2. 25.
poor fool: see fool-Poor.
poorer moment-Upon far, "For less reason, upon meaner
motives" (JOHNSON), Ant. i. 2. 146.
Poor-John, hake salted and dried, Tp. ii. 2. 28; Rom. i. I. 37.
poperin pear: Rom. ii. 1. 38: “Poperingue is a town in French
Flanders, two leagues distant from Ypres. From hence the
Poperin pear was brought into England.".... (Malone).
popinjay, a parrot, 1H4. i. 3. 50.
popular, of the people: base, common, and popular, H5. iv. 1. 38.
popularity—From open haunts and, H5. i. 1. 59: “popularity,
i.e. plebeian intercourse; an unusual sense of the word; though
perhaps the same idea was meant to be communicated by
it in King Henry IV. Part I. [iii. 2. 69], where King
Richard II. is represented as having 'Enfeoff'd himself to
popularity"" (Steevens).
poring dark, blind, moping darkness, H5. iv. Prol. 2.
porpentine, a porcupine, Err. iii. 1. 116; iii. 2. 172; iv. 1. 49;
V. I. 222: 275; 2H6. iii. 1. 363; Troil. ii. 1. 27; Hml. i. 5. 20.
[See Trench, Eng. Past and Pres. p. 246.]
porringer-Her pinked, "Her pinked [worked in eyelet-holes]
cap, which looked as if it had been moulded on a porringer"
(MALONE), H8. v. 4. 50; Shr. iv. 3. 64.
port, external pomp of appearance, state: showing a more
swelling port, M.V. i. 1. 124, magnificoes of greatest port,
iii. 2. 283; Keep house, and port, and servants, Shr. i. 1.
208; the name and port of gentlemen, 2H6. iv. 1. 19.
port, a gate: beside the port, A.W. iii. 5. 39; At the port, lord, I'll
give her, Troil. iv. 4. 113; Come, to the port, Troil. iv. 4. 138;
PORT-POSTERS.
371
to the port of Rome, Ant. i. 3. 46; thine ear . . into whose
port, 2N.K. v. 1. 147; the ports of slumber, 2H4. iv. 5. 24; let the
ports be guarded, Cor. i. 7. 1; The city ports, v. 6. 6; open your
uncharged ports, Tim. v. 4. 55; All ports I'll bar, Lr. ii. 1. 82.
port, to bring into port: The sails, that must these vessels port,
2N.K. v. 1. 29.
portable, sufferable, bearable: all these are portable, Mcb. iv. 3.
89; How light and portable, Lr. iii. 6. 115.
portage, an outlet, -port-holes: the portage of the head, H5. iii.
I. IO.
portage, "safe arrival at the port of life" (STEEVENS). [CRAIG: "port-
dues", which is probably right; with a glance at supportage
also]: Thy loss is more than can thy portage quit, Per. iii. 1. 35.
portance, bearing, carriage, deportment, behaviour: Cor. ii. 3.
232; Oth. i. 3. 139.
possess, to inform precisely: Possess the people, Ado, v. I. 290;
Possess us, possess us, 12N. ii. 3. 149; possess thee what she
is, Troil. iv. 4. 114; I have possess'd him my most stay Can
be but brief, M.M. iv. 1. 44; Is he yet possess'd How much
we would? M.V. i. 3. 65; I have possess'd your grace, iv. 1.
35; I have possess'd you with, K.J. iv. 2. 41; Is the senate
possessed of this? Cor. ii. 1. 145.
possess, "to have power over, as an unclean spirit" (Johnson's
Dict.), to render insane: both man and master is possess'd,
Err. iv. 4. 95; I was possess'd, v. 1. 245; He is, sure, pos-
sessed, 12N. iii. 4. 9; Legion himself possessed him, iii. 4. 95 ;
possess'd now to depose thyself, R2. ii. 1. 108; who since pos-
sesses chambermaids and waiting-women, Lr. iv. 1. 65 (In this
passage Shakespeare appears to have had an eye to the
pretended possessions of certain chambermaids and waiting-
women recorded in Harsnet's Declaration of egregious Popish
Impostures, 1603).
possession, insanity, frenzy (see the preceding article): How
long hath this possession held the man? Err. v. 1. 44.
posset, M.W. i. 4.8; v. 5. 180; possets, Mcb. ii. 2.6: It was the custom
formerly to take a posset just before going to bed: "Posset,
says Randle Holme in his Academy of Armoury, B. iii. p. 84,
is 'hot milk poured on ale or sack, having sugar, grated
biskit, [and] eggs, with other ingredients boilied in it, which
goes all to a curd'" (MALONE): But there were various
receipts for making a posset.
posset, a verb formed from the preceding word: it doth posset
And curd, &c., Hml. i. 5. 68.
post indeed, For she will score your fault upon my pate—I shall
be, Err. i. 2. 63: An allusion to keeping the score by chalk
or notches on a post; a custom not yet wholly obsolete.
post-Like a sheriff's: see sheriff's post, &c.
posters, swift travellers, Mcb. i. 3. 33.
+
372
POSY-POX.
posy, a motto, M.V. v. 1. 148; 151; Hml. iii. 2. 162.
pot-To the, To destruction, Cor. i. 4. 47. Dyce (vi. 151) cites
examples from Peele's Edward I., p. 389, ed. Dyce; Web-
ster's White Devil, p. 37, ed. Dyce; New Custome, ii. 1.
["We may assure ourselves if any more.
We take the field, our side goes to the pot."
Harington, Orl. Fur. xxxviii. 60.]
potable-Preserving life in medicine: see medicine potable, &c.
potato, formerly regarded as a strong provocative: Let the sky
rain potatoes, M.W. v. 5. 21; potato-finger, Troil. v. 2. 56.
potch, see poach.
potting, drinking, Oth. ii. 3. 79.
pottle, a measure of two quarts (“A Pottle, Quatuor libræ
liquidorum, congii Anglicani dimidium." Coles's Lat. and Engl.
Dict.), but frequently meaning a drinking-vessel without refer-
ence to the measure, M.W. ii, 1. 223; iii. 5. 30; Oth. ii. 3. 87.
pottle-deep, Oth. ii. 3. 56: see above.
pottle-pot, 2H4. ii. 2. 83; v. 3. 68: see above.
poulter, a poulterer, 1H4. ii. 4. 480.
pouncet-box, a box for holding perfumes, with a perforated
lid, 1H4. i. 3. 38.
powder, to salt: I'll give you leave to powder me, 1H4. v. 4. 112.
powdered bawd, M.M. iii. 2. 61: Here powdered means sub-
jected, for the cure of the venereal disease, to the process
of sweating in a heated tub,-see tub, &c.: "as beef was
also usually salted down, or powdered, in a tub, the one
process was, by comic or satiric writers, jocularly compared
to the other." Nares's Gloss. sub "Tub."
powdering-tub of infamy-The, H5. ii. 1. 79; see the preceding
article, and tub, &c. [and Scald.]
powers are crescent, and my auguring hope Says it will come to
the full-My, Ant. ii. 1. 10: This reading is perhaps defen-
sible on the ground that our early writers appear sometimes.
to have applied it to a preceding plural substantive. Theobald
printed: "My power's a crescent," &c., observing: "It is evident.
beyond a doubt that the poet's allusion is to the moon; and
that Pompey would say, He is yet but a half-moon or cres-
cent; but his hopes tell him that crescent will come to a full orb."
pox of that jest!-A, L.L.L. v. 2. 46: It may be well to observe
that here by "pox" Katharine means the smallpox. (Compare,
in a much later work;
CC
And with great care gives warrant by and by
Unto his bailiffs, Fever, Pox, and Gout.
But Pox was nimblest; she got to her face,
And plow'd it up."
A Buckler agaynst the feare of Death, &c., by Benlowes,
1640, sig. B 4, verso.)
PRACTIC-PRAY.
373
practic, practical, H5. 1. 1. 51.
practice, contrivance, artifice, stratagem, treachery, conspiracy:
Fated to the practice, Tp. i. 2. 129 (so Dyce; F1. Globe,
purpose); hateful practice, M.M. v. 1. 107; This needs must
be practice, 123; To find this practice out, 239; The practice
and the purpose of the king, K.J. iv. 3. 63; The practice of
it lives in John the bastard, Ado, iv. 1. 190; device and
practice, H8. i. 1. 204; some cunning practice, Tit. v. 2. 77;
the foul practice, Hml. v. 2. 328; damnèd practice, Lr. ii. 1. 75;
bewray his practice, 109; Is practice only, ii. 4. 116; This is
practice, v. 3. 151; unhatch'd practice, Oth. iii. 4. 141; the
practice of a damned slave, Oth. v. 2. 292; I overheard him
and his practices, A.Y.L. ii. 3. 26; the practices of France,
H5. ii. 2. 90; God acquit them of their practices! 144; her
devilish practices, 2H6. iii. 1. 46.
practice-A pass of, Hml. iv. 7. 139: According to Mason,
this means "a favourite pass, one that Laertes was well
practised in the treachery on this occasion was his using
a sword unbated and envenomed:" Caldecott also explains
it "a favourite pass," adding, however, that "fraud or arti-
fice [see the preceding article] can hardly be supposed here
to be excluded; for such was the use of an unfair weapon."
practisants, confederates in stratagem, 1H6. iii. 2. 20.
practise, to use arts or stratagems, to plot: I, with your two
heips, will so practise on Benedick, &c., Ado, ii. 1. 398; he
will practise against thee by poison, A.Y.L. i. 1. 156; if you
there Did practise on my state, Ant. ii. 2. 39; Wouldst thou
have practis'd on me for thy use, H5. ii. 2. 99; My uncle
practises more harm to me, K.J. iv. 1. 20: and see death-
practis'd duke-- The.
Prague - The old hermit of, 12N. iv. 2. 15: “Not the celebrated
heresiarch Jerome of Prague, but another of that name
born likewise at Prague, and called the hermit of Camaldoli
in Tuscany" (DOUCE) [doubtful if the clown was so erudite].
praise, an object of praise: that praise which Collatine doth
owe, Lucr. 82.
praise her liquor-She will often, "[She will] show how well
she likes it by drinking often" (JOHNSON), 2G. iii. 1. 350.
Praise in departing, Tp. iii. 3. 39: “¿.e. Do not praise your
entertainment too soon, lest you should have reason to
retract your commendation. It is a proverbial saying [which
occurs frequently in our early writers]" (STEEVENS).
'praise, to appraise: Were you sent hither to 'praise me? 12N.
i. 5. 268 (Globe, praise).
prank, to deck out, to dress up, to adorn, Cor. iii. 1. 23;
pranks, 12N. ii. 4. 89; pranked, W.T. iv. 4. 10.
pray for the queen-To, 2H4. Epil. 36: see kneel down before
you, &c.
374
PRAY-PREGNANT.
pray in aid for kindness, Ant. v. 2. 27: "Praying in aid is a
law term used for a petition made in a court of justice for
the calling in of help from another that hath an interest
in the cause in question" (HAnmer).
preaches, Fluellen's Welsh pronunciation of breaches, H5. iii.
2. 21 (Globe, breach).
precedence, what has preceded: Some obscure precedence,
L.L.L. iii. 1. 83; The good precedence, Ant. ii. 5. 51.
precedent, the original draft of a writing: Return the precedent
to these lords again, K.J. v. 2. 3; The precedent was full as
long a-doing, R3. iii. 6. 7; a precedent of this commission,
H8. i. 2. 91.
precedent, a prognostic, an indication: The precedent of pith
and livelihood, Ven. 26.
preceptial, "consisting of precepts" (JOHNSON'S Dict.),
Ado, v. I. 24.
precepts, warrants: those precepts cannot be served, 2H4. v. 1. 14;
send precepts to the leviathan, H5. iii. 3. 26.
precipitance, the act of precipitating one's self down a steep
place, 2N.K. i. 1. 142.
predict, a prediction, Sonn 14.
preeches-You must be, M W. iv. 1. 81: Here preeches is Sir
Hugh's Welsh pronunciation of breeched, flogged.
(6
prefer my sons—I will, I will advance my sons, Cymb. v. 5. 326.
preferred - Our play is, M.N.D. iv, 2. 39: Here, as Steevens
observes, preferred does not mean chosen in preference
to the others," but "given in among others for the
Duke's option."
pregnancy, readiness of wit, 2H4. i. 2. 192.
pregnant, "ready and knowing" (JOHNSON), "stored with
information" (Nares's Gloss.): the terms For common justice,
you're as pregnant in, &c., M.M. i. 1. 12.
pregnant, "apprehensive, ready to understand" (Nares's Gloss.):
your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear, 12N. iii. 1. 100.
pregnant, "full of force or conviction, or full of proof in itself"
(Nares's Gloss.), plain, evident; 'Tis very pregnant, M.M.
ii. 1. 23; a most pregnant and unforced position, Oth. ii. 1.
239; 'Twere pregnant they should square, Ant. ii. 1. 45; O,
'tis pregnant, pregnant! Cymb. iv. 2. 325.
pregnant, dexterous, ready: the pregnant ("ingenious, full of
art or intelligence." Nares's Gloss.) enemy (the devil), 12N.
ii. 2. 29: How pregnant ("big with meaning." CALDECOTT)
sometimes his replies are! Hml. ii. 2. 212; The pregnant
("prepared, instructed," STEEVENS) instrument of wrath,
Per. iv. Gow. 44; the pregnant (“quick, ready prompt,'
JOHNSON) hinges of the knee, Hml. iii. 2. 66 (where Nares
understands pregnant to mean "artful, designing, full of
deceit," and Caldecott is pleased to say that "pregnant is
""
PREJUDICIAL-PRESENTLY.
375
bowed, swelled out, presenting themselves, as the form of
pregnant animals”).
prejudicial to his crown, “prejudicial to the prerogative of the
crown" (STEEVENS), 3H6. i. I. 144 ("An exposition in which
he [Steevens] is certainly right, if by prerogative of the
crown he mean its indefeasible hereditary descent," RITSON).
premised flames, flames pre-sent, sent before their time,
2H6. v. 2. 41.
prenominate, to foretell, to forename, Troil. iv. 5. 250; Hml.
ii. 1. 43 (part adj. forenamed).
prenzie, (Dyce, priestly). “Prenzie or prenzy, probably = too
nice, precise, demure, prim: the prenzie Angelo, M.M. iii.
1. 94; the damned'st body to invest and cover in prenzie
guards, 97. Cf. Burns' Halloween: poor Willie, wi' his bowkail
runt, was brunt wi' primsie Mallie. cf. also the modern prim,
and the ancient Scotch prunse" (SCHMIDT).
prepare, a preparation: make prepare for war, 3H6. iv. 1. 131.
preposterous estate, W.T. v. 2. 159: Here preposterous is the
Clown's blunder for prosperous.
prescript, an order, a direction; The prescript of this scroll,
Ant. iii. 8. 5.
prescript, prescriptive: the prescript praise, H5. iii. 7. 49.
presence, person: With no less presence (dignity of mien, high
bearing), but with much more love, M.V. iii. 2. 54; Lord of
thy presence, K.J. i. 1. 137; Lord of our presence, ii. 1. 367;
Is't not a goodly presence? Per. v. 1. 66; Your royal presences,
K.J. ii. 1. 377.
presence, the presence-chamber in a palace: the presence strew'd
(with rushes), R2. i. 3. 289; Wait in the presence, H8. iii. 1. 17;
a feasting presence, Rom. v. 3. 86 (where, according to Nares.
in his Gloss., presence does not mean "the presence-
chamber," but "any grand state-room:" it appears, how-
ever, that the presence-chamber was sometimes used as a
dining-room; for Hunter-New Illust. of Shakespeare, vol.
ii. p. 140-cites a letter of Sir Dudley Carleton, in which
he writes that "Yesterday he [King James] dined in the
Presence;" and I find that Evelyn in his Diary, under 1668,
speaks of himself as "Standing by his Maty [Charles II.]
at dinner in the Presence").
present, present time: work the peace of the present, Tp. i. 1. 25;
even at this present, W.T. i. 2. 192; This ignorant present,
Mcb. i. 5. 58.
present-From the, "Foreign to the object of our present
discussion" (STEEVENS), Ant. ii. 6. 30.
presently, immediately: Presently? Pros. Ay, with a twink,
Tp. iv. 1. 42; That will I show you presently, 1H6. ii. 3. 60;
Then send for one presently, 2H6. ii. 1. 139; Presently He did
unseal them, H8. iii. 2. 78; the king Shall understand it
376
PRESERVED-PRESTER.
presently, v. 2. 10; I shall be with you presently, v. 4. 29;
bring his answer presently, Troil. ii. 3. 148; Thy temples
should be planted presently, Tit. ii. 3. 62; send the midwife
presently to me, iv. 2. 166; hang him presently, iv. 4. 45;
hanging presently, v. 1. 146; I'll help it presently, Rom. iv.
1. 54; presently, through all thy veins, 95; presently took post,
V. I. 21; executed presently, Tim. iii. 5. 103; presently go sit
in council, J.C. iv. 1. 45; board him presently, Hml. ii. 2. 170;
presently They have proclaim'd their malefactions, 620; and
that presently, iii. 2. 53; I will seek him, sir, presently,
Lr. i. 2. 109; Now, presently, ii. 4. 118; presently provide him
necessaries, 2N.K. ii. 6. 31; told her presently, v. 2. 6; The
moon being clouded presently is miss'd, Lucr. 1007.
·
preserved souls, M.M. ii. 2. 153: Mr. P. A. Daniel conjectured
that we should read reserved.
press, an impress, a commission to force persons into military
service; I have misused the king's press damnably, 1H4. iv. 2. 13.
press, a crowd, a throng: would shake the press, H8. iv. 1. 78;
break among the press, v. 4. 88; Who is it in the press that
calls on me? J.C. i. 2. 15.
press me to death with wit, Ado, iii. 1. 76; I am press'd to death,
R2. iii. 4. 72; pressing to death, M.M. v. 1. 528; "The
allusion is to an ancient punishment of our law, called
peine fort et dure, which was formerly inflicted on those
persons, who, being indicted, refused to plead. In con-
sequence of their silence, they were pressed to death by
an heavy weight laid upon their stomach" (Malone).
press -- What he puts into the, M.W. ii. 1. 80: "Press is used
ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press to squeeze"
(JOHNSON).
pressed, impressed, forced into military service: For every man
that Bolingbroke hath press'd, R2. iii. 2. 58; I pressed me
none but good householders, 1H4. iv. 2. 22; pressed the dead
bodies, 40; by the king was I press'd forth, 3H6. ii. 5. 64;
press'd by his master, 66; They have press'd a power, Cor.
i. 2. 9; being press'd to the war, iii. 1. 122.
press-money, "the money which was paid to soldiers when
they were retained in the king's service" (DOUCE), Lr. iv. 6. 87.
pressures, impressions: all pressures past, Hml. i. 5. 100.
prest, ready (old Fr. prest): prest unto it, M.V. i. 1. 160; Prest
for this blow, Rom. i. 1. 193.
Prester John's foot, Ado, ii. 1. 276: A fabulous Christian king
of India, or of Abyssinia, or of some terra incognita, to
whom our early writers often allude. His title of Prester
John originated, according to that veracious traveller Sir
John Mandevile, in the following circumstance: the said
king, having gone with a Christian knight into a church
in Egypt, was so pleased with the service, that he deter-
PRETENCE-PRIAM'S.
377
mined no longer to be called king or emperor but priest,
'and that he wolde have the name of the first preest that
wente out of the chirche: and his name was John." The
Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, &c., p. 363,
ed. 1725. [See a long description of him in Ariosto, Ori.
Fur. xxxiii.
This Prince Senapo their is cal'd of many,
We call him Prester John or Preter Jany."
Harington, st. 97.
Ariosto makes him "Of Ethiop the chief", and attributes his
power to his having control of the sources of the Nile.]
pretence, an intention, a design: publisher of this pretence,
2G. iii. 1. 47; the pretence whereof being by circumstances
partly laid open, W.T. iii. 2. 18; the undivulg'd pretence,
Mcb. ii. 3. 137; pretence of danger, Lr. i. 2. 95; pretence and
purpose of unkindness, i. 4: 75; To keep your great pretences
veil'd, Cor. i. 2. 20.
pretend, to intend, to design: pretend Malicious practices against
his state, 1H6. iv. 1. 6; What good could they pretend?
("propose to themselves," JOHNSON), Mcb. ii. 4. 24; pretended
flight, 2G. ii. 6. 37; the pretended celebration, 2N.K. i. 1. 210;
such black payment as thou hast pretended ("proposed to
thyself," STEEVENS), Lucr. 576.
pretend, to hold out? to portend? Pretend some alteration in
good will, 1H6. iv. 1. 54.
pretty, petty: A pretty while, Lucr. 1233; those pretty wrongs,
Sonn. 41.
prevail, to avail: If wishes would prevail with me, H5. iii. 2. 16.
It helps not, it prevails not, Rom. iii. 3. 60 (So in A Mirour
for Magistrates;
"Then wist I flight could nothing me preuaile.”
Lady Sabrine, p. 39, ed. 1610;
and in The Debate betweene Follie and Loue, appended to
Greene's Carde of Fancie; "Alasse, my deere daughter,
what doe these teares preuaile?" Sig. s 3. ed. 1608): and
compare unprevailing.
prevent, to anticipate: prevent my curses, 2H4. i. 2. 259; to
prevent The time of life, J.C. v. 1. 105 (see time); we are
prevented, 12N. iii. 1. 94; but that I'm prevented, 1H6. iv. 1. 71;
prevents the slander of his wife, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 61; So thou
prevent'st his scythe and crooked knife ("So by anticipation
thou hinderest the destructive effects of his weapons,"
STEEVENS), Sonn. 100.
preyful, pursuing prey or game, L.L.L. iv. 2. 58: (F2. praiseful).
Priam's daughters-That you are in love With one of, "Polyxena,
in the act of marrying whom, he [Achilles] was [according
378
PRIBBLES-PRIME.
to the later Grecian legend] afterwards killed by Paris
(STEEVENS), Troil. iii. 3. 194.
pribbles, M.W. i. 1. 56; v. 5. 168: [Schmidt calls pribbles and
prabbles a word of Evans's making, but I find in the Hundred
Merry Tales, No. xxxix: "by which subtle answer, he confuted
the breble brable of the foolish fellow." (p. 144, Routledge,
1845). There are several indications in Evans's speeches
of his familiarity with this book.]
prick, a point on a dial: noon-tide prick (point of noon), 3H6.
i. 4. 34; Lucr. 781; prick of noon (point of noon), Rom. ii. 4. 119.
prick, the point in the centre of the butts (see clout): Let the
mark have a prick in't, L.L.L. iv. 1. 134.
prick, a prickle: mount Their pricks at my footfall, Tp. ii. 2. 12.
prick, a skewer: wooden pricks, Lr. ii. 3. 16.
prick, to nominate by a puncture or mark: Prick him, 2H4. iii,
2. 121; 153; 156; 186; prick the woman's tailor, 171; Prick
him down, J.C. iv. 1. 3; hath pricked down Bardolph, 2H4.
ii. 4. 359; have pricked me, 2H4. iii. 2. 125; prick'd in number
of our friends, J.C. iii. 1. 216; their names are prick'd, iv. 1. 1;
prick'd to die, 16; prick'd thee out, Sonn. 20.
prick in, to stick in: prick'd in't for a feather, Shr. iii. 2. 70.
prick song, "harmony written or pricked down, in opposition
to plain-song, where the descant rested with the will of the
singer" (Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c.,
vol. i. p. 51, note, sec. ed.), Rom. ii. 4. 21.
pricket, a buck of the second year, L.L.L. iv. 2. 12; 53; 58; 61.
pride of France-The full, H5. i. 2. 112; the pride of France,
1H6. iii. 2. 40; the pride of Gallia, iv. 6. 15: In these pas-
sages Warburton rightly explains pride to mean “haughty
power."
pridge—I must speak with him from the, H5. iii. 6. 91 (cf. 11.
67, 96, 98): pridge, Fluellen's Welsh pronunciation of bridge:
According to Theobald, "Fluellen, who comes from the
bridge, wants to acquaint the king with the transactions that
had happened there. This he calls speaking to the king
from the bridge:" but the present passage is not in the
quartos; and Malone suspects that the words "from the
bridge [pridge]" were caught by the compositor from King
Henry's first speech on his entrance.
prig, a thief, a pick-pocket, W.T. iv. 3. 108.
prime, first, principal: my prime request, Tp. i. 2. 425 ; no primer
business ("no matter of state that more earnestly presses a
despatch," WARBURTON), H8. i. 2. 67; [primest, H8. ii. 4.
229; 2N.K. i. 1. 161; iii. 1. 19; v. 3. 70.]
prime, eager ("Prim, Prime, forward," &c. Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.): as prime as goats, Oth. iii. 3. 403.
prime, the spring: love is crowned with the prime, A.Y.L. v. 3. 33;
That happiness and prime (= the happy spring of life) can
PRIMERO-PRINCE.
379
happy call, A.W. ii. 1. 185; To add a more rejoicing to the
prime, Lucr. 332; the wanton burden of the prime, Sonn. 97.
primero, M.W. iv. 5. 104; H8. v. 1. 7: A game at cards, which
was very fashionable in Shakespeare's time, and which
seems to have been (as Gifford observes, note on Jonson's
Works, vol. ii. p. 31) "a very complicated amusement."
I originally had cited here from Sir John Harington's
Epigrams what he calls "The story of Marcus' life at
Primero," consisting of forty-two lines: but it is such an
obscure detail that I have substituted for it the following
portion of Minsheu's Pleasant and Delightfull Dialogues in
Spanish and English, &c., 1599, from which I leave the
reader to gather what he can concerning the game (The
speakers are "fiue gentlemen friendes, called Gusman,
Rodricke, Sir Lorenço, Mendoça, Osorio a gentleman-vsher,
and a Page [two Pages]"):
"O. Now to take away all occasion of strife, I will giue
a meane, and let it be Primera. M. You haue saide very
well, for it is a meane betweene extremes. L. I take it
that it is called Primera because it hath the first place
at the play at cardes. R. Let vs. goe: what is the
summe that we play for? M. Two shillings stake,
and eight shillings rest. L. Then shuffle the cardes
well. O. I lift to see who shall deale: it must be a
coate carde; I would not be a coat with neuer a blanke
in my purse. R. I did lift an ace.
R. I did lift an ace. L. I a fower. M. I a
sixe, whereby I am the eldest hand. O. Let the cardes
come to me, for I deale them; one, two, three, fower, one,
two, three, fower. M. Passe. R. Passe. L. Passe. O. I set
so much. M. I will none. R. Ile none. L. I must of force
see it; deale the cards. M. Giue me fower cards; Ile see
as much as he sets. R. See heere my rest; let euery one
be in. M. I am come to passe againe. R. And I too.
L. I do the selfe same. O. It set my rest. M. Ile see it.
R. I also. L. I cannot giue it ouer. M. I was a small
prime. L. I am flush. M. I would you were not. L. Is
this good neighbourhood? M. Charitie well placed doth
first beginne with ones selfe. O. I made fiue and fiftie,
with which I win his prime. L. I flush, whereby I draw.
R. I play no more at this play. M. Neither I at any other,
for I must goe about a busines that concernes me. L. Pages,
take euerie one two shillings a peece of the winnings.
P. I pray God you may receiue it a hundred fold. P. In
heauen I pray God you may finde it hanged on a hooke."
pp. 26, 27.
primy, "early, belonging to the spring" (Nares's Gloss.),
Hml. i. 3. 7.
prince, to play the prince: to prince it much, Cymb. iii. 3. 85.
380
PRINCESS'—PROCEEDED.
princess', a contraction of princesses: Than other princess' can,
Tp. i. 2. 173 (Globe, princesses).
principality, an angel of a high order: Yet let her be a prin-
cipality, 2G. ii. 4. 152.
principals did seem to rend-The very, Per. iii. 2. 16: "The
principals are the strongest rafters in the roof of a building"
(MALONE): “The corner-posts of a house, tenoned into the
ground plates below, and into the beams of the roof."
Halliwell's Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words.
princox, a pert youth, a forward young coxcomb, Rom. i. 5. 88.
print-In, With great exactness, with precision, 2G. ii. 1. 175;
L.L.L. iii. 1. 173. (This phrase was not obsolete even in
the time of Locke: he,thus introduces it in Some Thoughts
concerning Education; "who is not designed to lie always
in my young master's bed at home, and to have his maid lay
all things in print, and tuck him in warm.” p. 32, ed. 1705.)
printed in her blood-The story that is, "The story which her
blushes discover to be true" (JOHNSON), "The indelible
pollution with which she is stained" (SEYMOUR), Ado, iv. 1. 124.
Priscian a little scratched, L.L.L. v. 1. 31: "Alluding to the
common phrase-Diminuis Prisciani caput, applied to such
as speak false Latin" (THEOBALD).
private, privacy: let me enjoy my private, 12N. iii. 4. 100.
private, private and confidential intelligence: Whose private
with me of the Dauphin's love, K.J. iv. 3. 16.
private plot—In this: see plot-In this private.
prize, a privilege: It is war's prize to take all vantages, 3H6.
i. 4. 59; 'tis prize enough to be his son, ii. 1. 20.
prize—play'd your: see play'd your prize-You have.
prized by their masters-Are, "Are rated according to the
esteem in which their possessor is held" (JOHNSON),
Tim. i. 1. 171.
prizer, a prize-fighter, A.Y.L. ii. 3.8 (Globe, priser): (contender
for a prize, as in Cynthia's Revels, v. 2; not necessarily a
boxer; a fencer, wrestler, &c. as well). See play'd.
probable need, “a specious appearance of necessity" (JOHNSON),
A.W. ii. 4. 52.
probal, probable, [clearly a corruption of probable, Guest,
Rhythms, p. 53,] Oth. ii. 3. 344.
probation, proof, evidence, act of proving: all probation, M.M.
v. 1. 157; pass'd in probation with you, Mcb. iii. 1. 80; made
probation, Hml. i. 1. 156; That the probation bear no hinge,
Oth. iii. 3. 365; for more probation, Cymb. v. 5. 362.
proceeded The sweet degrees, &c.—Hadst thou.. Hadst thou
proceeded through the sweet degrees, &c., Tim. iv. 3. 252.
proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding, L.L.L. i. 1. 95.
"To proceed is an academical term, meaning to take a
degree" (JOHNSON).
PROCESS-PROLOGUE.
381
process, a summons, a citation: Where's Fulvia's process?
Ant. i. I. 28.
proclamation, a report, a character: give him a better proclama-
tion, M.M. iii. 2. 152.
prodigious, portentous, unnatural, monstrous: M.N.D. v. I.
419; K.J. iii. 1. 46; R3. i. 2. 22; Troil. v. I. 100; Rom. i.
5. 142; J.C. i. 3. 77.
prodigious son, Launce's blunder for prodigal son, 2G. ii. 3. 4.
prodigiously be cross'd, “be disappointed by the production
of a prodigy, a monster" (JOHNSON), K.J. iii. 1. 91.
proditor, a betrayer, a traitor, 1H6. i. 3. 31.
proface, 2H4. v. 3. 30: This expression is equivalent to "Much
good may it do you:" "Prouface, prounface: Souhait qui
veut dire, bien vous fasse: proficiat." Roquefort's Gloss.
de la Langue Romaine: "Buon pro ui faccia, much good
may it doe you." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.
profane, gross of language: so old, and so profane, 2H4. v. 5.
54; What profane wretch art thou? Oth. i. 1. 115; a most
profane and liberal counsellor, ii. 1. 165; Profane fellow!
Cymb. ii. 3. 129.
profanely, grossly: not to speak it profanely, Hml. iii. 2. 34.
professed, used for professing: your professèd bosoms, Lr. i. 1. 275.
prognostication proclaims-The hottest day, "The hottest day
foretold in the almanac" (JOHNSON), W.T. iv. 4. 817:
Almanacs were in Shakespeare's time published under
this title, 'An Almanack and Prognostication made for the
year of our Lord God 1595.' See Herbert's Typograph.
Antiq. ii. 1029" (MALONE).
progress, the travelling of a sovereign and his court to visit
different parts of his dominions: The king is now in progress
towards Saint Alban's, 2H6. i. 4. 76; a king may go a progress
through the guts of a beggar, Hml. iv. 3. 33.
proin, to prune, 2N.K. iii. 6. 242.
project mine own cause so well, Ant. v. 2. 121: Here Malone explains
project by "shape or form:" qy. "set forth," "put forward"?
prolixious, prolix, causing delay, M.M. ii. 4. 162.
prologue arm'd-A, Troil. Prol. 23: The prologue-speakers
customarily wore black cloaks. There are other instances
in which they are directed to appear in armour. One of
these is afforded by Ben Jonson's Poetaster, the first part
of the Prologue to which is spoken by Envy, who 'des-
cends slowly:' then, after 'the third sounding,' 'as she
disappears, enter Prologue hastily in armour.' Jonson's.
Prologue was armed as if to defend the poet against his
detractors: Shakespeare's, only to suit the martial action
of the play which he introduced” (GRANT WHITE). [This
involves too intricate a discussion to be entered upon in
a Glossary. See writers on the 'War of the Theatres.']
382
PROLONG'D-PROPAGATION.
prolong'd, deferred, put off: this wedding-day Perhaps is but
prolong'd, Ado, iv. 1. 256; As else I would be, were the day
prolong'd, R3. iii. 4. 47.
Promethean heat, Oth. v. 2. 12. Cf. L.L.L. iv. 3. 304; 351;
Sir J. Davies, Nosce Teipsum, ed. Grosart, i. 45:
"This true Prometheus first made man of earth,
And shed in him a beame of heavenly fire."
promis'd end?-Is this the, Seems to mean "Is this the end
of all things, the end of the world?" Lr. v. 3. 263.
promised forth-I am, "I have an engagement" (CRAIK),
J.C. i. 2. 293.
prompture, suggestion, instigation, M.M. ii. 4. 178.
prone, "prompt, ready" (Nares's Gloss.), "prompt, significant,
expressive" (MALONE); "language of mute and eager entrea-
ty. Prone is used with a suggestion of its Latin sense, to
convey not only the ardour, but the eager bending-forward
of an earnest suppliant." (HERFORD): a prone and speechless
dialect, M.M. i. 2. 188.
prone, forward, headstrong: I never saw one so prone, Cymb.
v. 4. 208; prone lust, Lucr. 684.
proof, armour of proof,
armour hardened till it will abide a
certain trial" (JOHNSON): Armed in proof, R3. v. 3. 219;
in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, Rom. i. 1. 216; lapp'd
in proof, Mcb. i. 2. 54.
proof, firm temper, impenetrability: Add proof unto mine armour,
R2. i. 3. 73: come to any proof (to "any confirmed state of
manhood. The allusion is to armour hardened till it abides
a certain trial," STEEVENS), 2H4. iv. 3. 98; his coat is of
proof ("A quibble between two senses of the word [proof];
one as being able to resist, the other as being well-worn,
that is, long worn," HANMER), 2H6. iv. 2. 65; proof eterne,
Hml. ii. 2. 512; With hearts more proof (used adjectively,
"of proof") than shields, Cor. i. 4. 25; proof of harness
armour of proof), Ant. iv. 8. 15; targes of proof, Cymb.
v. 5. 5.
proof—A common, “A matter proved by common experience”
(MASON), J.C. ii. 1. 21.
proof- Blast in: see biast, &c.
proof-Passages of, "Transactions of daily experience" (JOHN-
SON), Hml. iv. 7. 113.
proof-Sorted to no: see sorted to no proof, &c.
propagation of a dower, M.M. i. 2. 154: For “propagation"
(which has been explained as equivalent to payment; also
supposed to refer to the increase of money by interest)
Malone proposed "prorogation"; Jackson "procuration
Staunton "propugnation"; Grant White, "preservation."
[Prof. Herford remarks: "propagation, increase by remain-
ing at interest. It is probably meant that Julietta's relatives
PROPEND-PROPOSE.
383
chose to postpone her marriage in order to continue to
receive the interest of her dower." Schmidt explains:
augmentation, increase.]
propend, incline: Troil. ii. 2. 109; cf. propension, 133.
proper, one's own, what belongs to an individual: men hang
and drown Their proper selves, Tp. iii. 3. 60; Are not thine
own so proper, M M. i. 1. 31; their proper bane, i. 2. 133;
his proper tongue, v. 1. 413; these my proper hands, W.T. ii.
3. 139; my proper son, 2H4. V. 2. 109; our own proper en-
trails, J.C. v. 3. 96; my proper life, Hml. v. 2. 66; Proper
deformity seems not in the fiend So horrid as in woman
("Diabolic qualities appear not so horrid in the devil, to
whom they belong, as in woman, who unnaturally assumes
them," WARBURTON), Lr. iv. 2. 60; our proper son, Oth. i.
3. 69; proper satisfaction, 265.
proper, well-looking, handsome: proper man (or men), 2G. iv.
1. 10; Ado, ii. 3. 189; M.N.D. i. 2. 88; M.V. i. 2. 77; A.Y.L.
iii. 5. 115; 12N. iii. 1. 144; K.J. i. 1. 250; 1H6. v. 3. 37;
2H6. iv. 2. 102; R3. i. 2. 255; Troil. i. 2. 209; J.C. i. 1. 28;
Oth. i. 2. 398; iv. 3. 35; Ant. iii. 3. 41; Cymb. iii. 4. 64;
proper young men, A.Y.L. i. 2. 129; herself more proper, iii.
5. 55; the issue of it being so proper, Lr. i. 1. 18; properer man,
A.Y.L. iii. 5. 51; Rom. ii. 4. 217; properest man, Ado, v. 1. 174.
proper-false-The, The well-looking false, the handsome and
deceitful, 12N. ii. 2. 30.
properly, my remission lies In Volscian breasts-Though I owe
My revenge, "Though I have a peculiar right in revenge,
in the power of forgiveness the Volscians are conjoined'
(JOHNSON), Cor. v. 2. 90.
properties, a term still in use at our theatres, and meaning
the various articles required for the performance of a play,
dresses and scenes excepted: Go get us properties, And
tricking for our fairies, M.W. iv. 4. 78; I will draw a bill
of properties, M.N.D. i. 2. 108.
property, "a thing quite at our disposal, and to be treated as
we please" (STEEVENS): do not talk of him But as a property,
J.C. iv. 1. 40.
property, to appropriate, to make a property of: They have
here propertied me, (“taken possession of me, as of a man
unable to look to himself" (JOHNSON), 12N. iv. 2. 99; I
am too high-born to be propertied, K.J. v. 2. 79; Subdues and
properties to his love, Tim. i. 1. 57.
property, to endow with properties or qualities: his voice was
propertied As all the tuned spheres, Ant. v. 2. 83.
property was thus appalled, Phoen. 37, Schmidt explains:
particularity, individuality.
propose, conversation: To listen our propose, Ado, iii. 1. 12
(Globe, purpose).
·
384
PROPOSE-PROUD.
propose, to discourse, to hold forth: Wherein the togèd consuls
can propose, Oth. i. 1. 25.
propose, to converse; Proposing with the prince and Claudio,
Ado, iii. 1. 3.
propose, to image to oneself; Be now the father, and propose
a son ("image to yourself a son, contrive for a moment to
think you have one," STEEVENS), 2H4. v. 2. 92; a thousand
deaths Would I propose t'achieve her whom I love, Tit. ii. 1.
80 (but the meaning of propose in this passage seems to
be doubtful: qy. "venture, run the risk of"?) [To look
forward to, to be ready to meet: SCHMIDT].
propriety, proper state or condition: That makes thee strangle
(suppress, drown) thy propriety ("property," MALONE, "in-
dividuality, identity," HALLIWELL), 12N. v. 1. 150; it frights
the isle From her propriety, Oth. ii. 3. 176.
propugnation, defence, Troil. ii. 2. 136.
prorogue, to lengthen out, to prolong: But to prorogue his
grief, Per. v. I. 26.
prorogue, to put off, to delay: nothing may prorogue it, Rom.
iv. 1. 48; prorogue his honour Even till a Lethe'd dulness
("delay his sense of honour from exerting itself till he is
become habitually sluggish," STEEVENS), Ant. ii. 1. 26: Than
death prorogued ("deferred to a more distant period," MA-
LONE), Rom. ii. 2. 78.
prosperous-artificial feat, Per. v. 1. 72. O. Edd. prosperous
and artificiall fate (Globe, feat); Percy suggested feat;
Steevens, the compound epithet.
protest-I will tell her, sir, that you do, Rom. ii. 4. 189: On
the following passage of Jonson's Every Man in his Humour,
-"Do you think I would leave you? I protest—E. Know.
No, no, you shall not protest, coz,"-Whalley remarks,
"There appears to have been something affected or ridi-
culous, at this time, in using the word protest." Jonson's Works,
vol. i. p. 24, ed. Gifford (Compare Donne's Fourth Satire:
"he enters, and a lady which owes
Him not so much as good will, he arrests,
And unto her protests, protests, protests,
So much as at Rome would serve to have throwne
Ten cardinalls into the Inquisition."
Poems, p. 344, ed. 1633;
[Perhaps this explains "thy Protestant to be."] See too
Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, Beaumont and Fletcher's
Works, vol. v. p. 412, ed. Dyce).
proud to be so valiant-He is grown Too, Cor. i. 1. 263: Ex-
plained by Steevens, "His pride is such as not to deserve
the accompaniment of so much valour;" by Malone, "He
is grown too proud of being so valiant, to be endured."
PROUDER-PUCK.
385
prouder foe-Yet, I know, Our party may well meet a, K.J. v-
1. 79: "Mr. Steevens has noticed Dr. Johnson's miscon.
ception of this passage; yet it may be doubted whether
he has sufficiently simplified the meaning, which is, 'yet
I know that our party is fully competent to engage a more
valiant foe.' Prouder has in this place the signification of
the old French word preux" (Douce).
provand, provender, food, Cor. ii. 1. 267.
provincial-Nor here, Nor subject to the ecclesiastical author-
ities of this province, M.M. v. 1. 318.
-
Provincial roses on my razed shoes -Two, Hml. iii. 2. 288:
Here Provincial roses, as Douce observes, mean the kind
of roses for the growth of which Provins in La Basse Brie,
about forty miles from Paris, was formerly very celebrated
[or else Provençal]; but Hamlet, of course, is speaking
of the ornamental shoe-ties called roses, consisting of ribands
gathered into large knots. See razed shoes.
""
provokes the mightiest hulk against the tide, urges on, impels
the mightiest, &c., 1H6. v. 5. 6.
provoking merit-A, Lr. iii. 5. 8: " Cornwall, I suppose, means
the merit of Edmund, which, being noticed by Gloster, provok-
ed or instigated Edgar to seek his father's death" (MALONE):
Provoking here means stimulating; a merit he felt in himself,
which irritated him against a father that had none” (MASON).
prune himself, 1H4. i. 1. 98; Prunes the immortal wing, Cymb. v. 4.
118; pruning me, LL.L. iv. 3. 183: To prune is a term of
falconry, applied to other birds besides hawks, and metaphor-
ically to a human being: a hawk prunes when she picks out
damaged feathers, and arranges her plumage with her bill.
prune-A stewed, 1H4. iii. 3. 128; stewed prunes, M.W. i. 1.
296; M.M. ii. 1. 93: This was formerly a favourite dish,
and it appears to have been very common in brothels;
when, in the second of the passages above referred to, Doll
Tearsheet says that Pistol lives upon mouldy stewed prunes
and dried cakes, she means, observes Steevens, "he lives
on the refuse provisions of bawdy-houses and pastry-cooks'
shops." (In Maroccus Extaticus, &c., 1595, we find; "Roger
and his Bettrice set up [a brothel] forsooth, with their
pamphlet pots, and stewed prunes, nine for a tester, in a
sinfull saucer," &c. p. 16. Percy Soc. reprint.)
Publius shall not live, Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony,
J.C. iv. 1. 4: A mistake of the poet, as Upton has shown:
the person meant, Lucius Cæsar, was uncle by the mother's
side to Mark Antony.
Puck-As I'm an honest, M.N.D. v. 1. 438: Here the speaker gives
himself the epithet honest, because-as Tyrwhitt observes
on the expression sweet Puck, earlier in this play-the
word Puck alone "signified nothing better than fiend or devil."
25
386
PUDENCY-PURPLES.
pudency, modesty, Cymb. ii. 5. 11.
pugging, prigging, thieving, W.T. iv. 3. 7.
puke-stocking, 1H4. ii. 4. 78: Here puke most probably
means "dark-coloured" (perhaps equivalent to puce): that it
describes the material of the stocking (or hose) is less likely.
pulpiter, Spedding's emendation for the Folio reading, Jupiter,
A.Y.L. iii. 2. 163: preacher.
pulsidge, the Hostess's corruption of pulse, 2H4. ii. 4. 25.
pump well-flowered-Then is my, Rom. ii. 4. 64: "The fund-
amental idea is, that Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is,
punched with holes in figures" (JOHNSON); to which note
Steevens adds, "See the shoes of the morris-dancers in the
plate [from Tollet's painted window, where the figures
marked 4 and 10 have pinked shoes] at the conclusion of
The First Part of King Henry IV. [Malone's Shakespeare
by Boswell, vol. xvi.];" and he then observes, "It was the
custom to wear ribbons in the shoes formed into the shape
of roses, or of any other flowers.”
pun, to pound, to beat, Troil. ii. 1. 42.
punto (Ital. punta), a thrust, a stroke (a fencing-term), M.W. ii. 3. 26.
punto reverso (Ital. punta riversa). a back-handed thrust or
stroke (a fencing-term), Rom. ii. 4. 27.
purchase, gain, profit, advantage: The purchase is to make men
glorious, Per. i. Gow. 9.
purchase, a cant term for stolen goods, booty: thou shalt have
a share in our purchase, 1H4. ii. 1. 101; They will steal any
thing, and call it purchase, H5. iii. 2. 45: Made prize and
purchase (booty) of his wanton [Globe, lustful] eye, R3.
iii. 7. 187.
purchase-After fourteen years', 12N. iv. 1. 24: The meaning
must be-After the rate of fourteen years' purchase-at an
excessive price. Perhaps in Shakespeare's time the current
value of land was fourteen years' purchase.
purchas'd, obtained by unfair means: for what in me was
purchas'd, Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort, 2H4. iv. 5.
200; see the preceding article but one.
purchas'd-Hereditary Rather than, Hereditary, rather than "pro-
cured by his own fault or endeavour" (JOHNSON), Ant. i. 4. 14.
puritan amongst them and he sings psalms to hornpipes-But
one, W.T. iv. 3. 46: “An allusion to a practice, common
at this time among the puritans, of burlesquing the plein
chant of the papists, by adapting vulgar and ludicrous music
to psalms and pious compositions" (DOUCE). [See Cromek's
Scottish Songs, ed. 1810, i. 8. n.]
purples-Long, Hml. iv. 7. 170: "This is the early purple orchis
(Orchis mascula), which blossoms in April and May; it
grows in meadows and pastures, and
pastures, and is about ten inches
high; the flowers are purp le, numerous, and in long spikes.
PURSUIVANTS—PUTTER-OUT.
387
The poet refers to another name by which this flower was
called by liberal shepherds, and says that
Cold maids did [do] dead men's fingers call them,'
From this I consider that the cold maids mistook one of
the other orchids, having palmated roots, for long purples.
The Orchis mascula has two bulbs, and is in many parts
of England called by a name that liberal shepherds used,
and which is found in the herbals of Shakspere's time.
The spotted palmate orchis (Orchis maculata) and the marsh
orchis (Orchis latifolia) have palmated roots, and are called
'dead men's fingers,' which they somewhat resemble."
Beisly's Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 160.
pursuivants of death-The, "The heralds that, forerunning
death, proclaim its approach" (JOHNSON), 1H6. ii. 5. 5.
purveyor, Mcb. i. 6. 22: "The duty of the purveyor, an officer
belonging to the court, was to make a general provision
for the royal household. It was the office also of this person
to travel before the king whenever he made his progresses
to different parts of the realm, and to see that every thing
was duly provided” (Douce).
push, an exclamation: equivalent to pish: And made a push at
chance and sufferance, Ado, v. 1. 38; Push! did you see my
cap? Tim. iii. 6. 119 (Compare "Push, meet me. The
Tryall of Cheualry, 1605, sig. c 4 verso: "Push, ile bee all
obseruatiue." Euerie Woman in her Humor, 1609, sig. E 2
verso: "Vncle, you that make a pish at the black art," &c.
Day's Law Trickes, 1608, sig. 1 2 verso).
""
put on, to instigate: the powers above Put on their instruments,
Mcb. iv. 3. 239; We'll put on those shall praise your ex-
cellence, Hml. iv. 7. 132; deaths put on (" instigated, produced,"
MALONE) by cunning, v. 2. 394; had he been put on (put
forward, put to the trial), 408; put it on By your allowance,
Lr. i. 4. 227; 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death,
ii. 1. 101; I never Had liv'd to put on this, Cymb. v. 1. 9;
put on the vouch of very malice itself, Oth. ii. 1. 147; this
unwonted putting on, M.M. iv. 2. 120; but by our putting
on, Cor. ii. 3. 260; stand the putting on, Oth. ii. 1. 313.
puts back leave-taking, hinders 1., Troil. iv. 4. 36.
putter-on, an instigator, W.T. ii. 1. 141; H8. i. 2. 24.
putter-out of five for one-Each, Tp. iii. 3. 48: putter-out was
a term for a person who, when going abroad was much
in fashion, put out a sum of money on condition of receiv-
ing great interest for it at his return home; if he never
returned, the deposit was forfeited: "So, in The Scourge of
Folly, by J. Davies of Hereford, printed about the year 1611,
Sir Solus straight will travel, as they say,
C
And gives out one for three, when home comes he.'
388
PUTTOCK-QUAILS.
It appears from Moryson's Itinerary, 1617, Part I, p. 198,
that 'this custom of giving out money upon these adven-
tures was first used in court and among noblemen;' and
that some years before his book was published, ‘bankerouts,
stage-players, and men of base condition had drawn it into
contempt' by undertaking journeys merely for gain upon
their return" (MALONE): “In the present passage, Mr. Staun-
ton defends the reading of the folio, 'Each putter out of
five for one,' by a quotation from the opening of Cart-
wright's Ordinary. 'I'd put out moneys of being Mayor,'
'of being commonly used by Shakespeare and his contempo-
raries for on.' But, granting this, what does the quotation
prove? Why, that it is good Elizabethan English to talk of
putting out moneys of or on the chance of an event taking
place. This does not warrant such a phrase as putting out
moneys on five for one, or on one for five. We might as
well maintain that because we talk of betting on a horse,
we may properly talk of betting on five to one; and even
because we talk of lending money, we might talk of lending
interest" (W. N. LETTSOM). Dyce reads one for five. [“I am
determined to put forth some five thousand pound, to be
paid me five for one, upon the return of myself, my wife,
and my dog from the Turk's court in Constantinople."
Every Man out of his Humour, ii. 1. and see act iv. sc. 4.
Of seems to mean on the terms of, and if so, the folio
reading is right. I take the words to mean: investor on the
terms of receiving five for one.]
puttock, a kite, 2H6. iii. 2. 191; Troil. v. 1. 68; Cymb. i. 1. 140.
puzzel, a foul drab ("From puzza, i.e. malus fœtor, says Mins-
heu," TOLLET), 1H6. i. 4. 107.
py'r lady, Sir Hugh's pronunciation of by'r lady (quod vide),
M.W. i. 1. 28.
pyramides, pyramids, Ant. v. 2. 61.
pyramis, a pyramid, 1H6. i. 6. 21; pyramises, Ant. ii. 7. 40.
Q.
quail, to overpower: Quail, crush, conclude, and quell, M.N.D.
V. I. 292; to quail and shake the orb, Ant. v. 2. 85.
quail, to faint, to sink into dejection: my false spirits Quail,
Cymb. v. 5. 149; their quailing breasts, 3H6. ii. 3. 54.
quail, to slacken, to relax: And let not search and inquisition
quail, A.Y.L. ii. 2. 20.
quailing, a sinking into dejection, a failing in resolution; there
is no quailing now, 1H4. iv. 1. 39.
quails ever Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds-His: see inhoop'd, at
odds, &c.
QUAILS-QUARTER.
389
quails, a cant term for prostitutes: one that loves quails, Troil. v. 1. 57.
quaint, ingenious, clever, artful: My quaint Ariel, Tp. i. 2. 317;
quaint lies, M.V. iii. 4. 69; quaint musician, Shr. iii. 2. 149;
forged quaint conceit, 1H6. iv. 1. 102; how quaint an orator
you are, 2H6. iii. 2. 274.
quaint, neat, elegant, well-fancied: quaint in green, M.W. iv. 6.
41; fine, quaint, graceful, Ado, iii. 4. 22; More quaint, more
pleasing, Shr. iv. 3. 102.
quaintly, ingeniously, cleverly, artfully, 2G. ii. 1. 128; iii. 1. 117;
M.V. ii. 4. 6; 3H6. ii. 5. 24; Hml. ii. 1. 31; Per. iii. Gow. 13.
quak'd-gladly, "thrown into grateful trepidation" (STEEVENS),
Cor. i. 9. 6.
qualification shall come into no true taste again-Whose, "Whose
resentment shall not be so qualified or tempered, as to be well
tasted, as not to retain some bitterness" (JOHNSON), Oth.ii. 1.282.
qualify, to soften, to moderate, to abate, to weaken: qualify
the laws, M.M. i. 1. 66; To qualify in others, iv. 2. 86; But
qualify the fire's extreme rage, 2G. ii. 7. 22; this amazement
can I qualify, Ado, v. 4. 67; to qualify his rigorous course,
M.V. iv. 1. 7; craftily qualified (“slily mixed with water,'
JOHNSON), Oth. ii. 3. 41; by gazing qualified, Lucr. 424.
quality, (used technically to signify) the profession of an actor:
Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing?
Hml. ii. 2. 363; give us a taste of your quality, 452.
quality, a profession, a calling, an occupation: Ariel and ail
his quality (all those occupied in similar services, all his
fellows), Tp. i. 2. 193; we do in our quality much want,
2G. iv. 1. 58; Attend your office and your quality, M.W. v. 5. 44
you are not of our quality, 1H4. iv. 3. 36; the very quality
of my lord, Oth. i. 3. 252.
quarrel, fortune-That, (quarreller, JOHNSON), H8. ii. 3. 14.
(Warburton says arrow, which Dyce thinks may be right).
quarry, "Any thing hunted by dogs, hawks, or otherwise; the
game or prey sought (or killed]." Nares's Gloss. [(F.-L.)
M.E. querre—O.F. curee, cuiree, intestines of a slain animal,
the part given to hounds; so called because wrapped in the
skin;-F. cuir, a skin, hide;—L. corium, hide. SKEAT.] In
the following passages quarry is equivalent to "heap of
dead;" I'd make a quarry With thousands of these quarter'd
slaves, Cor. i. 1. 202; the quarry of these murder'd deer, Mcb.
iv. 3. 206; This quarry cries on havock, Hml. v. 2. 375. [Quarrie
(says Harington in a marginal note to Orl. Fur. xxiii. 30)
"is a word properly signifying the foule that the halke hath
kild, and sometimes by metaphor is used for a dead body.”]
quart d'écu, see Cardecue.
quarter, an allotted post or station: keep good quarter, K.J. v.
5. 20; not a man Shall pass his quarter, Tim. v. 4. 60; In
quarter ("on our station," MALONE), Oth. ii. 3. 180.
390
QUARTER'D—QUESTION.
quarter'd fires-Their, The fires in the different quarters of
their army, Cymb. iv. 4. 18.
quat, a pimple: I've rubbed this young quat almost to the sense
("Roderigo is called a quat by the same mode of speech
as a low fellow is now termed in low language a scab. To
rub to the sense is to rub to the quick," JOHNSON), Oth. v. I. II.
quatch-buttock, a squat, a flat buttock, A.W. ii, 2. 18.
queasiness, "sickness of a nauseated stomach" (JOHNSON'S
Dict.), distaste, disgust, 2H4. i. 1. 196.
queasy, squeamish, fastidious: his queasy stomach, Ado, ii. 1. 399.
queasy, "delicate, unsettled, what requires to be handled
nicely" (STEEVENS): a queasy question, Lr. ii. 1. 19.
queasy, nauseated, disgusted: queasy with his insolence, Ant.
iii. 6. 20.
queen-To pray for the: see kneel down before you, &c.
quell, murder, assassination: the guilt Of our great quell, Mcb. i. 7.72.
quell, to kill: Quail, crush, conclude, and quell, M.N.D. v. 1. 292.
quench, to grow cool: She will not quench, Cymb. i. 5. 47.
quern, M.N.D. ii. 1. 36: A hand-mill for grinding corn, made
of two corresponding stones.
quest, a search, an inquiry: quest of love (love-suit, "is
amorous expedition. The term originated from romance.
A quest was the expedition in which a knight was engaged,"
STEEVENS: "The knight that finding the first encounter
combersom, giueth ouer the quest, is counted but a coward."
Greene's Carde of Fancie, sig. E 3 verso, ed. 1608), Lr. i. 1.
196; Can stead the quest, Per iii. Gow. 21; three several
quests, Oth. i. 2. 46.
quest, an inquest, an impannelled jury: What lawful quest
have given their verdict up, R3. i. 4. 189; A quest of thoughts,
Sonn. 46; crowner's quest law, Hml. v. 1. 24 (see crowner).
quest, an inquisition; these false and most contrarious quests,
M.M. iv. 1. 62.
•
questant, an aspirant, a candidate, a competitor, A. W. ii. 1. 16;
Dyce conj. for question, 2N.K. v. 3. 17.
question, conversation: As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question, M.M. ii. 4. 90 ["in idle supposi-
tion, or conversation that tends to nothing," STEEVENS;
"in the embarrassment of discussion; simply as a means
of making my point clear," (HERFORD); hypothetically, in
the absence of an actual case of the sort.]; see first sub-
scribe. I will not stay thy questions, M.N.D. ii. 1. 235; and
had much question with him, A.Y.L. iii. 4. 39; in any constant
question ("settled, determinate, regular question," JOHNSON,
regular conversation," MALONE), 12N. iv. 2. 53; have some
question with the shepherd, W.T. iv. 2. 55; Has these poor men
in question, v. 1. 198; During all question of the gentle truce
("conversation while the gentle truce lasts," MALONE), Troil.
QUESTION-QUICKEN.
391
iv. 1. 11; To call hers, exquisite, in question more ("to make
her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and
conversation," MALONE), Rom. i. 1. 235; cry out on the top
of question (recite at the very highest pitch of their voice),
Hml. ii. 2. 356 ["clamour forth the height of controversy;
utter shrilly the extreme matter of debate" (Dowden)].
question, a point, a topic: some necessary question of the play,
Hml. iii. 2. 47.
question-A commodity in, “A commodity subject to judicial
trial or examination" (STEEVENS); Ado, iii. 3. 192.
question-First in, "First called for, first appointed” (JOHNSON);
"consideration" (HERFORD): M.M. i. 1. 47.
question bear it—With more facile, Oth. i. 3. 23; “Question is
for the act of seeking. With more easy endeavour" (JOHN-
SON); "May carry it with less dispute, with less opposition"
(MASON).
question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol-The, J.C. iii.
2. 41; "The word question is here used in a somewhat
peculiar sense. It seems to mean the statement of the
reasons" (CRaik).
question :—why, an hour in clamour, &c. Ado, v. 2. 84: Here
question is equivalent to "you ask a question," or "that is
the question."
question, to converse: think you question ("converse," STEE-
VENS, “debate, argue, hold controversy," CRAIK) with the
Few, M.V. iv. I. 70; long he questioned With modest Lucrece,
Lucr. 122.
questionable, "provoking question " (HANMER), "propitious to
conversation, easy and willing to be conversed with"
(STEEVENS), "capable of being conversed with" (MALONE),
Hml. i. 4. 43 compare first question and unquestionable.
questrists, persons who go in quest or search of another,
pursuers, Lr. iii. 7. 17.
quick, living, alive: set quick i' th' earth, M.W. iii. 4. 90; one
that's dead is quick, A.W. v. 3. 304; but quick, and in mine
arms, W.T. iv. 4. 132; The mercy that was quick in us, H5.
ii. 2. 79; earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick, R3. i. 2.
65; Thou'rt quick ("Thou hast life and motion in thee,"
JOHNSON), Tim. iv. 3. 44; Be buried quick with her, Hml.
V. L. 302.
quick, lively: But is there no quick recreation granted? L.L.L. i.
1. 162; quick and merry words, R3. i. 3. 5.
quick, inventive, quick-witted: the quick comedians, Ant. v. 2. 216.
quick, pregnant; she's quick, L.L.L. v. 2. 682; Faquenetta that
is quick by him, 687.
quick-expedient: see expedient.
quicken with kissing, “Revive by my kiss [kisses]" (JOHNSON),
Ant. iv. 15. 39.
392
QUIDDITS-QUINTAIN.
quiddits, and quiddities, legal quibblings, subtilties, equivoca-
tions, Hml. v. 1. 107; 1H4. i. 2. 51.
quietus, Hml. iii. 1. 75; Sonn. 126: "This is an Exchequer
It is the word which denotes that an accomp-
term
•
tant is quit." Hunter's New Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. ii.
p. 241: “Chiefly used by authors in metaphorical senses."
Nares's Gloss.
quill-Deliver our supplications in the, 2H6. i. 3. 4. [Halliwell
(q. Dyce, in a long note of various explanations) says: In
the quill, that is, all together. The first Petit. tells his com-
panions to keep together, so that when the lord protector
comes, their supplications may be all delivered at once.
This cant expression occurs in a ballad in the Roxburgh
collection, ii. 137; 'Thus those females were all in a quill,
and following on their pastime still.'" Mr. Gollancz says
a quill may be a corruption of Fr. accueil, a gathering to-
gether. Prof. Herford adds that the word quill itself, in
the sense 'pleat, gather,' points to the same origin.]
quillets, sly turns in argument, nice and frivolous distinctions,
chicanery, L.L.L. iv. 3. 288; 1H6. ii. 4. 17; 2H6. iii. 1. 261;
Tim. iv. 3. 155: Hml. v. 1. 108; Oth. iii. 1. 25.
quilt, a flock-bed: how now, quilt! 1H4. iv. 2. 54.
quintain, A.Y.L. i. 2. 263: “Tilting or combating at the quin-
tain is certainly a military exercise of high antiquity, and
antecedent, I doubt not, to the justs and tournaments. The
quintain originally was nothing more than the trunk of a
tree or post set up for the practice of the tyros in chivalry.
Afterwards a staff or spear was fixed in the earth, and a
shield, being hung upon it, was the mark to strike at: the
dexterity of the performer consisted in smiting the shield
in such a manner as to break the ligatures and bear it to
the ground. In process of time this diversion was improved,
and instead of the staff and the shield, the resemblance of
a human figure carved in wood was introduced. To render
the appearance of this figure more formidable, it was
generally made in the likeness of a Turk or a Saracen
armed at all points, bearing a shield upon his left arm,
and brandishing a club or a sabre with his right. The
quintain thus fashioned was placed upon a pivot, and so
contrived as to move round with facility. In running at
this figure it was necessary for the horseman to direct his
lance with great adroitness, and make his stroke upon the
forehead between the eyes or upon the nose; for if he
struck wide of those parts, especially upon the shield, the
quintain turned about with much velocity, and, in case he
was not exceedingly careful, would give him a severe blow
upon the back with the wooden sabre held in the right
hand, which was considered as highly disgraceful to the
QUIP-QUITTANCE.
393
performer, while it excited the laughter and ridicule of the
spectators." Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, &c., p. 104, sec.
ed.: There were other sorts of quintains; but the words of
Orlando, "a quintain, a mere lifeless block," seem to show
that Shakespeare alludes to the kind above described.
quip, a sharp retort, a taunt, a repartee, A.Y.L. v. 4. 79; 97;
quips, 2G. iv. 2. 12; M.W. i. 3. 45; Ado, ii. 3. 249; 1H4.
i. 2. 51.
quire, a company, an assembly: the whole quire hold their hips
and laugh, M.N.D. ii. 1. 55-
quire, to sing in concert: Which quired with my drum, Cor.
iii. 2. 113; Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins, M.V. v. 1. 62.
quit, to acquit: But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all,
M.M. v. 1. 488; Till thou canst quit thee, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 1I;
Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him, A.W. v. 3.
300; God quit you in his mercy! H5. ii. 2. 166.
quit, to requite, to retaliate, to avenge: to quit their griefs (“to
retaliate their mournful stories," JOHNSON). R2. v. 1. 43;
(6
I sall quit you with gude leve ("I shall, with your permis-
sion, requite you, that is, answer you, or interpose with my
arguments," JOHNSON), H5. iii. 2. 110; Unless the Lady Bona
quit his pain, 3H6. iii. 3. 128; children's children quit it in your
age, R3. v. 3. 262; To be full quit of those my banishers,
Cor. iv. 5. 89; To quit her bloody wrongs upon her foes,
Tit. i. 1. 141; To quit him with this arm, Hml. v. 2. 68;
Or quit in answer of the third exchange, 280; To quit this
horrid act, Lr. iii. 7. 87; God quit you, Ant. iii. 13. 124; As
he shall like, to quit me (“to repay me this insult," JOHNSON),
151; Then I shall quit you, 2N.K. iii. 6. 24; Than I can
quit or speak of, v. 4. 35 (Qo. quight=requite); your evil
quits you well, M.M. v. 1. 501.
quit, to set free, to release; God safely quit her of her burden,
H8. v. I. 70.
quit, quitted: the very rats Instinctively had quit it, Tp. i. 2. 148;
and quit the vessel, 211; took such sorrow, That he quit being,
Cymb. i. 1. 38.
quittance, an acquittance, a release, a discharge: bill, warrant,
quittance, or obligation, M.W. i. 1. 10; omittance is no quit-
tance, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 133.
quittance, a requital: Rendering faint quittance(“ return of blows,"
STEEVENS), 2H4. i. 1. 108; quittance of desert and merit,
H5. ii. 2. 34; All use of quittance (“All the customary
returns made in discharge of obligations," WARBURTON),
Tim. i. 1. 291.
quittance, to requite: As fitting best to quittance their deceit,
1H6. ii. 1. 14 (“Oh, quoth hee, shall I be so ingrate as to
quittance affection with fraude?" Greene's Neuer too late,
First Part. sig н 2, ed. 1611).
394
QUIVER-RACE.
quiver, nimble, agile, active: there was a little quiver fellow,
2H4. iii. 2. 301.
quoif, a cap, 2H4. i. 1. 147; quoifs, W.T. iv. 4. 226.
quote, to note, to mark,-formerly pronounced, and often
written, cote; hence the quibble (quote = coat) in the first of
the following passages: And how quote you my folly? Val.
I quote it in your jerkin, 2G. ii. 4. 18; His face's own margent
did quote such amazes, L.L.L. ii. 1. 245; We did not quote
them so, v. 2. 796; What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Rom. i. 4. 31; Will quote my loathsome trespass in my looks,
Lucr. 812; Her amber hairs for foul have amber quoted
(Her amber hairs have noted or marked amber for ugly),
L.L.L. iv. 3. 87; He's quoted for a most perfidious slave,
A.W. v. 3. 205; Quoted, and signed, to do a deed of shame,
K.J. iv. 2. 222; And quoted joint by joint, Troil. iv. 5. 233;
I had not quoted him, Hml. ii. 1. 112; how she quotes the
leaves, Tit. iv. 1. 50.
R.
R is for the dog, Rom. ii. 4. 222: Even in the days of the
Romans, R was called the dog's letter from its resemblance
in sound to the snarling of a dog: Lucilius alludes to it in
a fragment, which is quoted with various corruptions by
Nonius Marcellus, Charisius, and Donatus on Terence, and
which Joseph Scaliger amended thus,
Irritata canes quod, homo quàm, planiu' dicit"
("canes" being the nom. sing. fem.); and Persius has
Litera."
Sonat hic de nare canina
Sat. i. 109:
Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar, says that R "Is the
dog's letter, and hurreth in the sound; the tongue striking
the inner palate, with a trembling about the teeth.” Works,
vol. ix. p. 281, ed. Gifford: and various passages to the
same effect might be cited from our early authors.
rabato, a kind of ruff or band (Fr. rabbat), Ado, iii. 4. 6:
“Menage saith it comes from rabbattre, to put back, because
it was at first nothing but the collar of the shirt or shift
turned back toward the shoulders" (T. HAWKINS).
rabbit-sucker, a sucking rabbit, 1H4. ii. 4. 480.
rabble, a band of inferior spirits: Go bring the rabble, Tp. iv. 1. 37
(Compare Ford: "the duke's grace, and the duchess' grace,
and my Lord Fernando's grace, with all the rabble of
courtiers," &c. Love's Sacrifice, act ii. sc. 1).
rable, rabble (so written for the rhyme), 2N.K. iii. 5. 106.
race, inborn quality, disposition, nature: thy vile race, Tp. i. 2.
358; my sensual race, M.M. ii. 4. 160 [might mean course].
:
RACE-RAMPALLIAN.
395
race of heaven-None our parts so poor But was a, Ant. i. 3. 37 :
Here Warburton (with the approbation of Johnson) inter-
prets was a race of heaven by "had a smack or flavour of
heaven;" while Malone is "not sure that the poet did not
mean was of heavenly origin.'
(6
race or two of ginger—A, W.T. iv. 3. 50; two races of ginger,
1H4. ii. 1. 27 (Globe razes); Raze of ginger; Theobald
pretends that this differs from race of ginger, which means
only a root, whereas this means a bale or package . . .
I cannot believe that the words are really different. Both
must be derived from the Spanish rayz, meaning a root,
and might be applied indifferently to small pieces or large
packages." Nares's Gloss. [A man who talks of dank dogs,
loach-bred fleas, and speckled tench, is hardly an authority
on the correct use of race here.]
race of night, K.J. iii. 3. 39: The Folio (and Globe) reading.
Dyce follows Theobald's reading ear. See on.
rack, a mass of vapoury clouds: the rack stand still, Hml. ii. 2.
506; That
the rack dislimns, Ant. iv. 14. 10; With
ugly rack on his celestial face, Sonn. 33. "The winds in the
upper region, which move the clouds above (which we call
the rack)," &c. Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum, or A Naturall
Historie, § 115, p. 32, ed. 1751: see note 106 on The
Tempest, iv. 1. 156 [where Mr. Dyce defends his reading
wreck, against the Folio, and generally accepted, rack.]
rack, to move like vapour (see the preceding article): the
racking clouds, 3H6. ii. 1. 27.
rack, to exaggerate: then we rack the value, Ado, iv. 1. 222.
rag, a term of contempt,—a ragamuffin: Away, thou rag, Shr.
iv. 3. 112; Thou rag of honour, R3. i. 3. 233; that poor rag,
Tim. iv. 3. 271; rags of France, R3. v. 3. 328.
Raged do rage the more,-For young hot colts being, R2. ii. 1. 69:
See The Diary of Master William Silence, pp. 265, n.; 281,
on the significance of raged here.
ragged, broken, unequal,—rough: My voice is ragged, A.Y.L.
ii. 5. 15; winter's ragged hand, Sonn. 6: The ragged'st
(roughest) hour, 2H4. i. 1. 151.
ragged, beggarly, base, ignominious: A raggèd and forestall'd
remission, 2H4. v. 2. 38 (see forestall'd, &c.): a ragged name,
Lucr. 892.
raging-wood, raging-mad, 1H6. iv. 7. 35: see wood.
=
Ragozine, name in M.M. iv. 3. 75; 80; v. 539; derivatively —
Ragusan probably.
rake, to cover: Here, in the sands, Thee I'llrake up, Lr. iv. 6. 281.
rakes-Ere we become, Cor. i. 1. 24: Here, of course, the quib-
bling Citizen alludes to the proverb, "As lean as a rake.”
rampallian, 2H4. ii. 1. 65: This term of low abuse may mean,
according to Steevens, "a ramping riotous strumpet," ac-
396
RANG'D-RASCAL.
"(
cording to Nares (in Gloss.) one who associates with
rampes or prostitutes."
rang'd empire-The wide arch of The, Ant. i. 1. 34: What in
ancient masons' or bricklayers' work was denominated a
range is now called a course" (STEEVENS): "rang'd, meaning
-orderly rang'd; whose parts are now entire and distinct,
like a number of well-built edifices" (CApell).
rank, a row: The rank of osiers, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 80.
rank to market-It is the right butter-women's, A.Y.L. iii. 2.
103: Prof. Herford notes: “rank, row, i.e. the jogtrot pace
of a row of butter-women riding to market. A plausible,
but not necessary, substitute is 'rack,' i.e. amble.”
rank, exuberant, grown to great height: what, so rank? ("what,
was he advanced to this pitch?" JOHNSON), H8. i. 2. 186:
rank Achilles, Troil. i. 3. 318; who else is rank? (“who else
may be supposed to have overtopped his equals, and grown
too high for the public safety," JOHNSON; but here Malone,
wrongly, I believe, would understand rank as “replete
with blood"), J.C. iii. 1. 152; Rain added to a river that is
rank (brimful), Ven. 71; A ranker rate, Hml. iv. 4. 22. [As
an adverb, immoderately: Troil. i. 3. 196.]
rank, gross; in the rank garb, Oth. ii. 1. 315: speeches rank,
L. Compl. 307.
rank on foot-While other jests are something, "While they are
hotly pursuing other merriment of their own" (STEEVENS),
M.W. iv. 6. 22.
rank'd with all deserts, "covered with ranks of all kinds of
men" [with all degrees of merit or demerit] (JOHNSON),
Tim. i. 1. 65.
rankness, exuberance: I will physic your rankness (high and
insolent bearing), A.Y.L. i. 1. 91; like a bated and rètirèd
flood, Leaving our rankness and irregular course ("Rank, as
applied to water, here signifies exuberant, ready to overflow;
as applied to the actions of the speaker and his party, it
signifies inordinate," MALONE), K.J. v. 4. 54 [cf. Ven. 71];
With the mere rankness of their joy, H8. iv. 1. 59.
Rapine, Rape, Tit. v. 2. 59; 62; 83; 103.
rapture, a violent seizure: spite of all the rapture of the sea,
Per. ii. 1. 161.
rapture, a fit: Into a rapture lets her baby cry, Cor. ii. 1. 223.
rarely, nicely, happily: How rarely does it meet with this time's
guise, Tim. iv. 3. 472.
rarely base, "base in an uncommon degree” (STEEVENS),
Ant. v. 2. 158.
rascal, a deer lean and out of season: the noblest deer hath
them as huge as the rascal, A.Y.L. iii. 3. 58; Come, you thin
thing; come, you rascal, 2H4. v. 4. 34; Not rascal-like, 1H6.
iv. 2. 49; Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, Cor.
RASH-RAYED.
397
i. 1. 163; vide Blood; You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll,
2H4. ii. 4. 45. [See Diary of Master Wm. Silence, pp. 60, 237].
rash, quick, hasty, sudden, violent: no rash potion, W.T. i. 2.
319; His rash fierce blaze of riot, R2. ii. 1. 33; rash gun-
powder, 2H4. iv. 4. 48; My matter is so rash, Troil. iv. 2. 62;
too rash, too unadvis'd, Rom. ii. 2. 118; so startingly and
rash, Oth. iii. 4. 79.
rat, Irish: see Irish rat, &c.
rat without a tail-A, Mcb. i. 3. 9: "It should be remembered
(for it was the belief of the times) that though a witch
could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail
would still be wanting. The reason given by some of the
old writers for such a deficiency is, that though the hands
and feet, by an easy change, might be converted into the
four paws of a beast, there was still no part about a woman
which corresponded with the length of tail common to
almost all our four-footed creatures" (Steevens).
rated from the heart-Affection is not, Affection is not driven
out of the heart by chiding, Shr. i. 1. 165.
rated sinew--A, "A strength on which we reckoned, a help
of which we made account" (JOHNSON), 1H4. iv. 4. 17.
rated treachery-Paying the fine of, &c., "The Dauphin has
rated your treachery, and set upon it a fine which your
lives must pay" (JOHNSON), K.J. v. 4. 37.
raught, reached: raught not to five weeks, L.L.L. iv. 2. 41;
raught me his hand, H5. iv. 6. 21; That raught at mountains
with outstretchèd arms, 3H6. i. 4. 68.
raught, snatched away: This staff of honour raught, 2H6. ii.
3. 43; The hand of death hath raught him, Ant. iv. 9. 30.
ravel out, to unravel, to unweave-to unfold, to disclose: must
I ravel out my wear'd-up folly? R2. iv. 1. 228; Make you
to ravel all this matter out, Hml. iii. 4. 186.
ravell❜d sleeve of care-The: see sleave, &c.
ravin, to devour eagerly: that ravin down, M.M. i. 2. 133; will
ravin up, Mcb. ii. 4. 28.
ravin, ravening, devouring: the ravin lion, A.W. iii. 2. 120.
ravin'd, (in the phraseology of Shakespeare) equivalent to
ravening, ravenous: the ravin'd salt-sea shark, Mcb. iv. 1. 24
(where Steevens explains ravin'd "glutted with ravin or
prey").
rawly left, "[left] without preparation, hastily, suddenly" (JOHN-
SON), "left young and helpless" (RITSON). H5. iv. 1. 147.
rawness-In that, "Without previous provision, without due
preparation" (JOHNSON), "In that hasty manner" (John-
son's Dict.), Mcb. iv. 3. 26.
rayed, berayed, befouled: was ever man so rayed? Shr. iv. 1. 3.
rayed with the yellows, Shr. iii. 2. 54: Here rayed has been
explained "streaked" and "defiled:" but qy. if it does not
398
RAZE-REASONS.
mean "in evil condition, afflicted"? Vide my note on
Skelton's Works, vol. ii. p. 197, where, among other pas-
sages from early writers, is quoted, "He was sore arayed
with sycknesse. Morbo atrociter conflictus est." Hormanni
Vulgaria, sig. I ii. ed. 1530: and see yellows-The.
raze his helm,-the boar did, R3. iii. 4. 84: "strike on the
surface" (SCHMIDT).
razed shoes, slashed, pinked, Hml. iii. 2. 288.
read (or rede), counsel, advice: recks not his own read, Hml. i. 3. 51.
ready, dressed: half ready and half unready, 1H6. ii. 1. 39 and
Dir.; Is she ready? Cymb. ii. 3. 86 (in the answer to which
question the Lady chooses to understand ready in another
sense).
rearly, early, 2N.K. iv. 1. 110.
rearward, the rear, Ado, iv. 1, 128; 2H4. iii. 2. 339; 1H6. iii.
3. 33; Rom. iii. 2. 121. Sonn. 90.
K.J.
reason, to converse, to talk: how fondly dost thou reason! Err.
iv. 2. 57; Our griefs, and not our manners, reason now,
iv. 3. 29; reason with him, R3. i. 4. 165; You cannot reason
almost with a man, ii. 3. 39; while we reason here, iv. 4.
537; reason safely with you, Cor. i. 9. 58; reason with the
fellow, iv. 6. 51; I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday,
M.V.ii.8.27; what are your reasoning with yourself, 2G. ii. 1. 147.
reason our petition—Does, "Does argue for us and our peti-
tion" (JOHNSON), Cor. v. 3. 176.
reason to my love is liable-And, J.C. ii. 2. 104: And reason,
or propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to
my love" (JOHNSON): "As if he had said, ‘And, if I have
acted wrong in telling you, my excuse is, that my reason
where you are concerned is subject to and is overborne
by my affection'" (CRAIK).
reasonable swiftness, such speed as is consistent with due
deliberation, H5. i. 2. 306.
reasons, discourse, conversation: your reasons at dinner, L.L.L.
V. I. 2.
reasons in her balance-She shall ne'er weigh more, Ado, v. 1.
211; No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons, Troil.
ii. 2. 33; [if reasons (pron. raisins) were as plentiful as
blackberries, 1H4. ii. 4. 265]: This quibble between reasons
and raisins (which probably were pronounced alike) is as
old as the time of Skelton, who says in his Speke, Parrot,
Grete reysons with resons be now reprobitante,
For reysons ar no resons, but resons currant."
Works, vol. ii, p. 22, ed, Dyce (where these lines
were for the first time printed):
compare too Dekker: "Raisons will be much askt for, es-
pecially in an action of iniury," &c. The Owles Almanacke
(under "Grocers"), 1618, p. 36.
REBATE-RECOURSE.
399
rebate, to make obtuse, to dull, M.M. i. 4. 60. [Cf. “Of that
new sword likewise he (for her sake) Rebates the edge."
Harington, Orl. Fur. xlv. 55.]
Rebeck-Hugh, Rom. iv. 5. 135: So named from the rebeck,
a three-stringed (originally two-stringed) fiddle.
rebused, Shr. i. 2. 7: "Quasi abused" (WALKER).
receipt, a receptacle: the receipt of reason, Mcb. i. 7. 66; such
receipt of learning, reception of such 1. H8. ii. 2. 139.
receive it so, "understand it so" (STEEVENS), 12N. ii. 2. 12.
receiving, “ready apprehension" (WARBURTON): To one of
your receiving, 12N. iii. 1. 131.
recheat, a hunting-term for certain notes sounded on the horn,
properly and more usually employed to recall the dogs
from a wrong scent, Ado, i. 1. 242.
reck, to care, Troil. v. 6. 26; Cymb. iv. 2. 154; recks, A.Y.L.
ii. 4. 81; Hml. i. 3. 51 (heeds); Recking, 2G. iv. 3. 40.
recognizance, a badge, a token, Oth. v. 2. 214.
recognizances: see statutes, &c. Hml. v. I. 113.
recomforted, comforted again comforted, Cor. v. 4. 51.
recomforture, comforting again comforting, comfort, R3.
iv. 4. 425.
1
record, to sing: record my woes, 2G. v. 4. 6; records with moan,
Per. iv. Gow. 27 (This word, it appears, is properly applied
to the chattering of birds before they have learned to sing;
"I recorde as yonge byrdes do, le patelle. This byrde
recordeth allredy; she wyll synge within a whyle: Cest oyselet
patelle desja, il chantera auant quil soyt long temps." Pals-
grave's Lesclarcissement de la Langue Françoyse. &c., 1530,
The Table of Verbes, fol. cccxxxiiii, verso: But Cotgrave
understands it differently; "Regazouiller. To report, or to
record, as birds, one anothers warbling." Fr. and Engl. Dict.:
and so does Coles; "To record as birds, Certatim modu-
lari, alternis canere." Lat. and Engl. Dict.: "The early
note of song-birds was termed recording, probably, as
Barrington suggests, from the instrument formerly called
recorder." Way's note on the Prompt. Parv. p. 426). See
Tailor, and Redbreast teacher.
recorder, a sort of flute or flageolet: like a child on a recorder,
M.N.D. v. 1. 123; the recorders, Hml. iii. 2. 303; 360: “The
musical instrument called a recorder appears to be the kind
of flute of which a description and representation are given
by Mersennus, designated as the 'fluste d'Angletere, que l'on
appelle douee, et à neuf trous! Harmonie Univ. i. p. 237.”
Way's note on the Prompt. Parv. p. 425.
records, recorders (see the preceding article): Still music of
records, 2N.K. v. 1. 136—Dir.
recourse, a repeated coursing or flowing: Their eyes o'er-galled
with recourse of tears, Troil. v. 3. 55.
400
RECOVER-REECHY
recover the wind of me, Hml. iii. 2. 361: A term “borrowed
from hunting, and means, to get the animal pursued to run
with the wind, that it may not scent the toil or its pursuers"
(SINGER, who cites The Gentleman's Recreation).
recoveries: see double vouchers, &c.
recure, to cure again=cure, R3. iii. 7. 130; recur'd, Sonn. 45;
recures, Ven. 465.
red lattice-A, The lattice of an alehouse (a red lattice being
formerly the usual distinction of an alehouse), 2H4. ii. 2. 86;
red-lattice phrases, alehouse phrases, M.W. ii. 2. 28. (The
Green Lattice is mentioned in Jonson's Every Man in his
Humour, where Gifford observes; "In our author's time
the windows of alehouses were furnished with lattices of
various colours (glass, probably, was too costly, and too
brittle for the kind of guests which frequented them); thus
we hear of the red, the blue, and, as in this place, of the
Green Lattice. There is a lane in the city yet called Green-
lettuce (lattice) Lane, from an alehouse which once stood
in it; and Serjeant Hall, in the Tatler, directs a letter to
his brother, 'at the Red Lettace (lattice) in Butcher Row.""
Note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 96.) [Marston, Antonio
and Mellida, "I am not as well knowne by my wit as an
alehouse by a red lattice." Act. v.]
red pestilence-The, Another name for the red plague, Cor. iv. 1. 13:
see the next article.
red plague-The, Tp. i. 2. 364: "In the General Practise of
Physicke, 1605, p. 675, three different kinds of the plague-
sore are mentioned,―'sometimes it is red, otherwhiles
yellow, and sometimes blacke, which is the very worst and
most venimous'" (HALLIWELL).
red-breast teacher, 1H4. iii. 1. 265; to relish a love-song like
a robin-redbreast, 2G. ii. 1. 21. "Possibly the allusion [in
the former of these passages] may be to the Recorder, [see
Record], by which instrument birds were taught to sing.
Hotspur pays a high compliment to the vocal powers of
Lady Percy by insinuating that her voice would excel the
recorder; and as the bird most frequently taught to pipe is
the bullfinch, it is not improbable that this was the bird
intended under the title of redbreast, [?] and not the robin."
Harting, Ornithol. of Sh. p. 142. Ruddock (used by Chaucer)
is Shakspere's name for the Robin in Cymb. iv. 2. 224.
re-deliver, to deliver back,-to report: Shall I re-deliver you
e'en so? Hml. v. 2. 186.
reduce, to bring back, H5. v. 2. 63; R3. ii. 2. 68; v. 5. 36;
2N.K. iv. 3. 83.
reechy painting-The, Ado, iii. 3. 143; her reechy neck, Cor.
ii. 1. 225; reechy kisses, Hml. iii. 4. 184: In the first of these
passages reechy seems to signify "smoky, discoloured by
REELS-RELAPSE.
401
smoke;" in the other two, "sweaty, greasy, filthy" ("Reechy
is greasy, sweaty .... Laneham [in his Letter, &c], speaking
of 'three pretty puzels' in a morris-dance, says they were
'az bright az a breast of bacon,' that is, bacon hung in the
chimney: and hence reechy, which in its primitive significa-
tion is smoky, came to imply greasy." RITSON).
reels-Increase the, Ant. ii. 7. 100: "motions like those of drunken
men: used in this sense for the rhyme's sake" (SCHMIDT).
Singer explains: "increase its [the world's] giddy course.
refelled, refuted, M.M. v. 1. 94. [Foiled my entreaties.]
refer yourself to this advantage, "have recourse to, betake your-
self to, this advantage" (STEEVENS), M.M. iii. 1. 255.
reflex, to reflect, 1H6. v. 4. 87.
reflex, a reflection, Rom. iii. 5. 20.
refuge, to shelter, to palliate: Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge
their shame, R2. v. 5. 26.
refuse, to reject, to renounce, to disown: Refuse me, hate me,
Ado, iv. 1. 186; Deny thy father, and refuse thy name, Rom.
ii. 2. 34.
regard, respect, consideration: Our reasons are so full of good
regard, J.C. iii. 1. 224; With this regard, their currents turn
awry, Hml. iii. 1. 87; Sad pause and deep regard beseem the
sage, Lucr. 277; Which drives the creeping thief to some regard,
305; Show'd deep regard, 1400; On such regards of safety
and allowance, &c., Hml. ii. 2. 79; When it is mingled with
regards, &c., Lr. i. 1. 242.
regard, a look: Vail your regard Upon a wrong'd, &c. (explained
by Johnson, "Withdraw your thoughts from higher things,
let your notice descend upon a wronged woman"), M.M. v.
1. 20; a demure travel of regard, 12N. ii. 5. 59; an austere
regard of control, 73; You throw a strange regard upon me,
V. 1. 219; bites his lip with a politic (sly) regard, Troil.
iii. 3. 255.
regard, a view, a prospect: Even till we make the main and
th' aerial blue An indistinct regard, Oth. ii. 1. 40.
regard should be-So your, So "your care of your own safety"
should be (JOHNSON), 1H6. iv. 5. 22.
regiment, government, sway, rule: his potent regiment, Ant.
iii. 6. 95; law and regiment, 2N.K. iv. 3. 84.
regreet, an exchange of salutation, (and simply) a salutation,
K.J. iii. 1. 241; regreets, M.V. ii. 9. 89.
regreet, to re-salute, (and simply) to salute, R2. i. 3. 67; 142; 186.
reguerdon-In, In recompense, in return, 1H6. iii. 1. 170.
reguerdon'd, recompensed, rewarded, 1H6. iii. 4. 23.
rejoindure, reunion, meeting again (in kisses), Troil. iv. 4. 38.
rejourn, to adjourn, Cor. ii. 1. 79.
relapse of mortality-Killing in, H5. iv. 3. 107: [Ll. 105-7 are
virtually a paraphrase of the preceding 98-104, with the
26
402
RELENT-REMORSE.
simile of the bullet's grazing added to exemplify the
secondary fatal effects of the putrefying corpses. A bullet
does not kill by shock alone. Long after the ball has spent
its force, the wound, though a mere graze perhaps, may
fester and prove ultimately fatal. Similarly, our men will
still cause destruction, by breeding a pestilence among you
while their bodies are lapsing into corruption.]
relent-I do, soften, yield, M.W. ii. 2. 31.
relume, to light again, Oth. v. 2. 13.
remain, to dwell: if you remain upon this island, Tp. i. 2. 423.
remediate, able to give remedy, restorative, Lr. iv. 4. 17.
remember, to remind: Let me remember thee what thou hast
promis'd, Tp. i. 2. 243; I'll not remember you of my own
lord, W.T. iii. 2. 231; Will but remember me what a deal
of world, &c., R2. i. 3. 269; our night of woe might have
remember'd My deepest sense, &c.. Sonn. 120; Remembers me
of all his gracious parts, K.J. iii. 4. 96; Thou but remem-
berest me of mine own conception, Lr. i. 4. 72.
remember, to mention: As I before remember'd, 2H4. v. 2. 142.
remember--Briefly thyself, “Quickly recollect the past offences
of thy life, and recommend thyself to heaven" (WARBURTON),
Lr. iv. 6. 233.
remembered To be, To have one's memory recalled, to
recollect: if you be remembered, M.M. ii. 1. 110; 114; Shr.
iv. 3. 96; now I am remember'd, scorn'd at me, A.Y.L. iii. 5.
131; if your majesties is remembered of it, H5. iv. 7. 102; if
I had been remember'd, R3. ii. 4. 23; Be you remember'd,
Tit. iv. 3. 5.
remembrance-This lord of weak, "This lord of weak memory,"
Tp. ii. 1. 232.
remembrance with mine eyes, &c.— To rain upon, 2H4. ii. 3. 59:
An allusion to the herb rosemary: see rosemary.
remonstrance, a demonstration, a manifestation, a discovery,
M.M. v. 1. 397.
remorse, compassion, tenderness of heart: Expell'd remorse
and nature, Tp. v. 1. 76; touch'd with that remorse, M.M, ii.
2. 54; My sisterly remorse, v. I. 100; Thou'lt show thy
mercy and remorse, M.V. iv. I. 20; your pleasure and your
own remorse, A.Y.L. i. 3. 72; Of soft petitions, pity, and
remorse, K.J. ii. 1. 478; the tears of soft remorse, iv. 3. 50;
rivers of remorse, 110; Mov'd with remorse, 1H6. v. 4. 97;
I feel remorse in myself, 2H6. iv. 7. 111; tainted with remorse,
3H6. iii. 1. 40; stirr'd up remorse, v. 5. 64; kind, effeminate
remorse, R3. iii. 7. 211; mince it sans remorse, Tim. iv. 3. 122;
disjoins Remorse from power, J.C. ii. 1. 19; passage to remorse,
Mcb. i. 5. 45; With less remorse, Hml. ii. 2. 513; thrill'd
with remorse, Lr. iv. 2. 73; abandon all remorse ("tenderness
of nature," MALONE), Oth. iii. 3. 369; to obey shall be in me
REMORSEFUL-REPAST.
403
"}
remorse, What bloody business ever ("in me it shall be an
act, not of cruelty, but of tenderness, to obey him, not of
malice to others, but of tenderness for him," JOHNSON;
"--an act of pity and compassion for wronged Othello,'
Tollet), 468; some favour, some remorse, Ven. 257.
remorseful, compassionate, full of pity, 2G. iv. 3. 13; A.W. v. 3.
58; 2H6. iv. I. 1; R3. i. 2. 156.
remorseless, pitiless, relentless, 2H6. iii. 1. 213; 3H6. i. 4. 142;
Hml. ii. 2. 609.
remotion, a removal, Tim. iv. 3. 346; Lr. ii. 4. 115.
removed, remote, secluded, sequestered: the life remov'd ("a
life of retirement," STEEVENS), M.M. i. 3. 8; so removed a
dwelling, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 360; that removed house, W.T. v. 2.
116: On any soul remov'd (“ On any less near to himself, on
any whose interest is remote." JOHNSON), 1H4. iv. 1. 35; a
more removed ground, Hml. i. 4. 61; this time remov'd (“this
time in which I was remote or absent from thee,” MALONE),
Sonn. 97.
removes, "journeys or post-stages" (JOHNSON): Who hath
for four or five removes come short To tender it herself,
A.W. v. 3. 131.
render, an account, an avowal, a confession: to make their
sorrow'd render, Tim. v. 1. 152; drive us to a render Where
we have liv'd, Cymb. iv. 4. II.
render, to describe, to represent, to give an account, to state:
he did render him the most unnatural, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 123; this
gentleman may render Of whom he had this ring, Cymb. v.5.135.
renege, to deny: Renege, affirm, Lr. ii. 2. 84.
renege, to renounce: reneges all temper, Ant. i. 1. 8 (in this
passage reneges must be pronounced as a dissyllable—
reneagues, reneegs, Compare,
CC
All Europe nigh (all sorts of Rights reneg'd)
Against the Truth and Thee, unholy leagu'd."
The Battail of Jury,-Sylvester's Du Bartas,
P. 551, ed. 1641).
rent, to rend: And will you rent our ancient love asunder, M.N.D.
iii. 2. 215; Rent off thy silver hair, Tit. iii. 1. 261 (Globe,
rend); groans, and shrieks that rent the air, Are made, Mcb.
iv. 3. 168 (Gl. rend); That rents the thorns, 3H6. iii. 2. 175
(Gl. rends).
renying, forswearing (Fr. renier), P. Pilgr. 251.
repair, to renovate: That shouldst repair my youth, Cymb. i. 1.
132; here he does but repair it, Per. iv. 2. 120; It much
repairs me To talk of your good father, A.W. i. 2. 30; Being
opposites of such repairing nature ("Being enemies that are
likely so soon to rally and recover themselves from this
defeat," MALONE,- and see opposite), 2H6. v. 3. 22.
repast, to feed, Hml. iv. 5. 147.
404
REPASTURE-REQUICKEN’D.
repasture, provision, L.L.L. iv. 1. 95.
repeal, to recall: repeal thee home again, 2G. v. 4. 143; I will
repeal thee, 2H6. iii. 2. 349; Repeal him with the welcome of
his mother, Cor. v. 5. 5; Bolingbroke repeals himself, R2. ii.
2. 49; repeals and reconciles thee, Lr. iii. 6. 120; she repeals
him for her body's lust, Oth. ii. 3. 363; whose banish'd sense
Thou hast repeal'd, A.W. ii. 3. 55; Till Norfolk be repeal'd:
repeal'd he shall be, R2. iv. 1. 87.
repeal, a recall: she for thy repeal was suppliant, 2G. iii. 1.
234; A cause for thy repeal, Cor. iv. 1. 41; their people Will
be as rash in the repeal, iv. 7. 32; an immediate freedom of
repeal, J.C. iii. 1. 54; I sue for exil'd majesty's repeal,
Lucr. 640.
repealing-The, The recall, J.C. iii. 1. 51.
repine, a repining: his brow's repine, Ven. 490.
replenished, consummate, complete: The most replenish'd villain
in the world, W.T. ii. 1. 79; The most replenished sweet work
of nature, R3. iv. 3. 18.
replication, a repercussion, a reverberation: the replication of
your sounds, J.C. i. 1. 51.
replication, a reply: what replication should be made by the son
of a king? Hml. iv. 2. 13.
report themselves-Never saw I figures So likely to, Cymb. ii.
4. 83: "So near to speech. The Italians call a portrait,
when the likeness is remarkable, a speaking picture” (JOHN-
SON): So "expressive of the passions intended; so much
so as not to need an interpreter, the figures speaking them--
selves" (CAPEll).
reports-And have my
Ant. ii. 2. 47.
learning from some true, reporters,
reprehend, his own person —I myself, Dull's blunder for represent,
L.L.L i. 1. 184.
reprobance, reprobation, Oth. v. 2. 209 (Globe, reprobation).
reproof, a disproof, a confutation: in the reproof of this lies
the jest, 1H4. i. 2. 213; in reproof of many tales devis'd,
iii. 2. 23; In the reproof of chance, Troil. i. 3. 33.
reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness-Your, Ant. ii. 2. 123:
"i.e. you might be reproved for your rashness, and would.
well deserve it. Your reproof' means the reproof you
would undergo" (MASO N).
reprove, to disprove, to confute: 'tis so, I cannot reprove it,.
Ado, ii. 3. 241; Reprove my allegation, 2H6. iii. 1. 40.
repugn, to resist, 1H5. iv. I. 94.
repurei: see thrice repured.
reputing of his high descent, "valuing himself upon it" (STEE-
VENS): "Reputing-pre suming, boasting: see Florio's 'World.
of Words,' 1611, in voce Riputatione" (STAUNTON), 2H6. iii. 1. 48.
requicken'd, reanimated, revived, Cor. ii. 2. 121.
REQUIT—RESPECT.
405
requit, requited: Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Tp. iii. 3. 71.
rere-mice, bats, M.N.D. ii. 2. 4.
reserve, to guard, to preserve carefully: reserve that excellent
complexion, Per. iv. 1. 40: Reserve them for my love, Sonn.
32; Reserve their character with golden quill, 85.
resolutes, determined, desperate persons, Hml. i. 1. 98.
resolution, conviction, assurance: I would unstate myself, to
be in a due resolution (I would give all I possess both of
rank and fortune-to arrive at certainty, freedom from
doubt, in this matter), Lr. i. 2. 108.
resolve, to satisfy, to inform, to remove perplexity or uncertainty,
to convince, to solve: single I'll resolve you, Tp. v. 1. 248;
I am now going to resolve him, M.M. iii. 1. 194; this shall
absolutely resolve you, iv. 2. 225; suddenly resolve me in my
suit, L.L.L. ii. 1. 110; to resolve (answer) the propositions
of a lover, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 245; first resolve me that, Shr. iv.
2. 7; May't please your highness to resolve me now, 3H6. iii.
2. 19; Resolve my doubt, iv. 1. 135; I will resolve your grace,
R3. iv. 2. 26; resolve me whether you will or no, 120; These
letters will resolve him of my mind, iv. 5. 19; resolve me this,
Tit. v. 3. 35; Resolve me, with all modest haste, Lr. ii. 4. 25;
As you will live, resolve it (the riddle) you, Per. i. 1.
Resolve your angry father, ii. 5. 68; he can resolve you, v. i.
1; that can From first to last resolve you, v. 3. 61; we would
be resoiv'd, H5. i. 2. 4; we were resolved of your truth, 1H6.
iii. 4. 20; until I be resolv'd Where our right valiant father
is become, 3H6. ii. 1. 9; I am resolv'd That Clifford's manhood
lies upon his tongue, ii. 2. 124; and be resolv'd How Casar
hath deserv'd to lie in death, J.C. iii. 1. 131; to be resolv'd
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd or no, iii. 2. 183; How he
receiv'd you, let me be resolv'd, iv. 2. 14; to be once in doubt
Is once to be resolv'd, Oth. iii. 3. 180; And be resolv'd he
lives to govern us, Per. ii. 4. 31.
resolve, to make up one's mind fully: or resolve you For more
amazement, W.T. v. 3. 86; Resolve on this, (Assure thyself),
-thou shalt be fortunate, 1H6. i. 2. 91; Resolve thee, Richard,
3H6. i. 1. 49; Resolve yourselves apart, Mcb. iii. 1. 138.
resolve, to dissolve: resolve itself into a dew, Hml. i. 2. 130;
resolv'd my reason into tears, L. Compl. 296; whose liquid
surge resolves The moon into salt tears, Tim. iv. 3. 442; as
a form of wax Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire,
K.J. v. 4. 25.
•
resolvedly express, show certainly, clearly, A.W. v. 3. 332.
respect, regard, consideration: Nothing is good, I see, without
respect (without consideration of, or regard to, circumstances),
M.V. v. 1. 99; advis'à respect, K.J. iv. 2. 214; reason and
respect Make livers pale, Troil. ii. 2. 49; have respect to
406
RESPECT-REST.
("that is merely, look to, not look up to," Craik) mine
honour, J.C. iii. 2. 15; there's the respect That makes calamity
of so long life, Hml. iii. 1. 68; Respect and reason, wait on
wrinkled age! Lucr. 275; daffed all other respects, Ado, ii.
3. 176; more devout than this in our respects, L.L.L. v. 2. 792;
When such profound respects do pull you on, K.J. iii. 1. 318;
respects of fortune, Lr. i. 1. 251; Full of respects, yet naught
at all respecting, Ven. 911.
respect-Let me not shame, Let me not disgrace the respect
I owe you, by acting in opposition to your commands"
(STEEVENS), Troil. v. 3. 73.
((
respect, to regard: six or seven winters more respect Than a
perpetual honour, M.M. iii. 1. 76; Hear, and respect me,
2N.K. i. 1. 26; 28.
respect in Rome-Many of the best, J.C. i. 2. 59: “A lost phrase,
no longer permissible even in poetry, although our only
modern equivalent is the utterly unpoetical 'many persons
of the highest respectability.' So, again, in the present
play [act v. sc. 5] we have 'Thou art a fellow of a good
respect' (CRAIK): In Johnson's Dict. the first of these
passages is cited under “respect" in the sense of ‘reverend
character."
)9
respected, Elbow's blunder for suspected, M.M. ii. 1. 169-184.
respective, "respectful, formal" (STEEVENS), "mindful, consi-
derate"
(STAUNTON): 'Tis too respective and too sociable
For your conversion (for a person who has lately been
changed from a private gentleman to a knight), K.J. i.
1. 188 (where conversion is explained by Mr. Halliwell
"conversation").
respective, worthy of regard or respect, respectable: But I
can make respective in myself, 2G. iv. 4. 200.
respective, regardful, considerate: You should have been re-
spective, M.V. v. 1. 156; respective lenity ("cool, considerate
gentleness," MALONE), Rom. iii. 1. 128.
respectively, respectfully, Tim. iii. 1. 7 (Not obsolete in this
sense during the 18th century;
"She bow'd to me very
respectively." Defoe's Colonel Jack, p. 241, ed. 1738).
respite of my wrongs-The determin'd, R3. v. I. 19: "That is,
the time to which the punishment for his wrongs was
respited" (HANMER): “Wrongs in this line means wrongs
done or injurious practices" (JOHNSON).
rest-To set up one's, meaning that the speaker is perfectly
determined on a thing, is
a thing, is “a metaphor taken from play,
where the highest stake the parties were disposed to venture
was called the rest. To appropriate this term to any par-
ticular game, as is sometimes done, is extremely incorrect.'
Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. ii. p. 21, ed. 1813:
I have set up my rest to run away, M.V. ii. 2. 110; Since
""
RE-STEM-REVERSE.
407
you set up your rest 'gainst remedy, A.W. ii. 1. 138; The
County Paris hath set up his rest, Rom. iv. 5. 6; Will I
set up my everlasting rest, v. 3. 110; he that sets up his rest
(with a quibble on the word rest arrest), Err. iv. 3. 27:
that is my rest, H5. ii. 1. 17. (And see the quotation from
Minsheu's Dialogues, under primero.)
re-stem, “to stem or steer the stem back again (sc.) against
tide or current" (Richardson's Dict.), Oth. i. 3. 37.
restful, quiet, peaceful, R2. iv. 1. 12 (Nares, in his Gloss., calls
this an uncommon word:" but I find it in Coles's Lat.
(6
and Engl. Dict.; "Restful, Otiosus, quietus").
resty, torpid, idle ("Resty, piger, lentus." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.), Cymb. iii. 6. 34 (where, according to some
critics, it means "uneasy"); Sonn. 100. [from having had
much rest, a horse being resty, becomes restive].
retail, "to recount" (MALONE): “I will retail my conquest won,
R3. iv. 4. 335; retail'd to all posterity, iii. 1. 77.
retention could not so much hold―That poor, Sonn. 122:
"That
poor retention is the table-book given to him by his friend,
incapable of retaining, or rather of containing, so much
as the tablet of the brain" (MALONE); [they lack retention
(capacity), 12N. ii. 4. 99].
:
retire, a retreat: make their retire, L.L.L. ii. 1. 234; a blessed
and unvex d retire, K.J. ii. 1. 253; retire of both your armies,
326; a sweet retire, H5. iv. 3. 86; his scandal of retire, 3H6.
ii. 1. 150; Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire, Troil.
v. 3. 53; Thou dost miscall retire, v. 4. 21; a retire upon our
Grecian part, v. 8. 15; Of sallies and retires, 1H4. ii. 3. 54.
retire, to withdraw, to draw back: And thence retire me to my
Milan, Tp. v. I. 310; you must retire yourself Into some
covert, W.T. iv. 4. 663; The French fight coldly and retire
themselves, K.J. v. 3. 13; give me leave to retire myself, Cor.
i. 3. 30; Retire thee, Oth. ii. 3. 386; That he, our hope, might
have retir'd his power, R2. ii. 2. 46; retired himself to Italy,
iv. 1. 96; I have retir'd me to a wastful cock, Tim. ii. 2. 171;
Each one by him enforc'd, retires his ward, Lucr. 303.
retiring minute in an age-One poor, Lucr. 962: According to
Malone, “retiring here signifies returning, coming back again."
return, to return notice to, to make known to: While we return
these dukes what we decree, R2. i. 3. 122; Return them, we
are ready, Per. ii. 2. 4.
return so much - You have bid me, Tim. ii. 2. 146: Here, by
so much “he does not mean so great a sum, but a certain
sum, as it might happen to be" (MALONE).
reverberate, reverberating, 12N. i. 5. 291.
reverbs, reverberates, Lr. i. 1. 156.
reverse, a fencing term: thy reverse, M.W. ii. 3. 27; see punto
reverso, &c.
408
REVIVES-RHODOPE'S.
revives us-Time, A.W. iv. 4. 34: Here Steevens explains
revives by "rouses." Hanmer reads reviles: Warburton conj.
revies; Johnson and Heath: invites; Lettsom believes revives
is right, but time corrupt, from the third line above. [Revives
seems to have a future signification. The thought in the
passage is continuous from 1. 27: you yet must suffer &c.
Diana: I am yours to suffer. Helen. Yet (Still there is some-
thing that) I pray you to suffer for my sake; but, as time
revives nature and covers briars with leaves and fragrance,
so, in the word—“so quickly that it may even be considered
done while I speak" (Dyce)-time will restore my happiness.]
revolt, if you, 2H6. iv. 2. 133: go back, retire (HERFORD).
revolts, revolters, rebels, K.J. v. 2. 151; v. 4. 7; Cymb. iv. 4. 6.
revolt of mine is dangerous, M.W. i. 3. III: mine (sc.
humour)? or, the explosion of a mine? or revolt of mien,
disposition? But Nym's bombast is not profoundly significant.
re-word, to repeat in the same words: I the matter will re-word,
Hml. iii. 4. 143.
re-word, to re-echo: whose concave womb re-worded A plaintful
story, L. Compl. 1.
rheumatic, splenetic, humorsome, peevish: as rheumatic as
two dry toasts ("which cannot meet but they grate one
another," JOHNSON), 2H4. ii. 4. 62; then he was rheumatic,
H5. ii. 3. 40 (where Malone suggests that the Hostess may
mean "then he was lunatic").
Rhodope's of Memphis-Than, 1H6. i. 6. 22. This is Capell's
reading, which Dyce adopts. The folio has Then Rhodophe's
or Memphis, which is perfect nonsense. "Rhodope [properly
Rhodopis (Podaric), the rosy-cheeked] was a famous strumpet,
who acquired great riches by her trade. The least but
most finished of the Egyptian pyramids (says Pliny, in the
36th book of his Natural History, ch. xii.) was built by
her. She is said afterwards to have married Psammitichus,
King of Egypt." (STEEVENS). "The brother of Sappho
[Charaxus] was in love with Rhodope, and purchased her
freedom (for she was a slave in the same house with Æsop
the fabulist) at a great price. Rhodope was of Thrace, not
of Memphis" (MALONE). "The emendation proposed by
(Capell) must be adopted. The meaning is-not that Rhodope
herself was of Memphis, but-that her pyramid was there.
I will rear to her, says the Dauphin, a pyramid more stately
than that of Memphis, which was called Rhodope's. Pliny
says the pyramids were six miles from that city; and that
the fairest and most commended for workmanship was
built at the cost and charges of one Rhodope, a verie
strumpet." (RITSON.) Herodotus (ii. 134 sqq.) takes pains
to show the absurdity of the story of her having built the
pyramid; which is certainly a fable. But it would seem
1
RIALTO-RIBAUDRED.
409
that, in consequence of her name (The rosy-cheeked) she
was confounded with Nitokris, the beautiful Egyptian queen.
[Globe: Rhodope's or Memphis' ever was.]
Rialto-The, M.V. i. 3. 20; 39; 108; iii. 1. 1; 48: The Rialto—
said to be so named from riva alta-is one of the largest
of the islands on which Venice is built, and the first where
the foundations of the city were laid: but Shakespeare
alludes to the Exchange in the Rialto, described as follows
by Coryat; "The Rialto, which is at the farther side of the
bridge as you come from St. Marks, is a most stately
building, being the Exchange of Venice, where the Vene-
tian gentlemen and the merchants doe meete twice a day,
betwixt eleuen and twelue of the clocke in the morning,
and betwixt fiue and sixe of the clocke in the afternoone.
This Rialto is of a goodly height, built all with bricke as
the palaces are, adorned with many faire walkes or open
galleries that I haue before mentioned, and hath a prety
quadrangular court adioyning to it. But it is inferiour to
our Exchange in London, though indeede there is a farre
greater quantity of building in this then in ours." Coryat's
Crudities, &c. (reprinted from ed. 1611), vol. i. p. 211:
"Rialto is the name, not of the bridge, but of the island
from which it is called; and the Venetians say il ponte di
Rialto, as we say Westminster-bridge. In that island is the
exchange; and I have often walked there as on classic
ground. In the days of Antonio and Bassanio it was second
to none. 'I sottoportichi,' says Sansovino, writing in 1580,
'sono ogni giorno frequentati da i mercatanti Fiorentini,
Genovesi, Milanesi, Spagnuoli, Turchi, e d'altre nationi
diverse del mondo, i quali vi concorrono in tanta copia,
che questa piazza è annoverata fra le prime dell' universo.'
It was there that the Christian held discourse with the Jew;
and Shylock refers to it, when he says,
·
'Signor Antonio, many a time and oft,
In the Rialto, you have rated me;'
'Andiamo a Rialto'-'L' ora di Rialto'-were on every
tongue; and continue so to the present day, as we learn
from the comedies of Goldoni, and particularly from his
Mercanti." Note on Rogers's-Italy, p. 254, ed. 1830.
rib, to "enclose, as the ribs enclose the viscera" (STEEVENS):
To rib her cerecloth, M.V. ii. 7. 51; ribbed and paled in,
Cymb. iii. 1. 19.
ribaudred nag, lewd strumpet, Ant. iii. 10. 10. Here ribaudred
has been altered to ribald and ribald-rid. Tyrwhitt suggest-
ed hag for nag, but since she has been previously called
a trull, nag seems an allowable epithet, hackney, jade;
as Pistol exclaims, alluding to Doll Tearsheet, "know we
not galloway nags," 2H4. ii. 4. 205.
410
RICHARD--RIGGISH.
Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart, K.J. ii. 1. 3; Nor
keep his princely heart from Richard's hand, i. 1. 267:
Shakespeare here alludes to the old metrical romance of
Richard Caur-de-lion, wherein this once celebrated monarch
is related to have acquired his distinguishing appellation
by having plucked out a lion's heart, to whose fury he
was exposed by the Duke of Austria, for having slain his
son with a blow of his fist. From this ancient romance the
story has crept into some of our old chronicles: but the
original passage may be seen at large in the Introduction
to the Third Volume of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry"
(PERCY): "Rastell, in his Chronicle, makes mention of this
memorable action in the following words; 'It is sayd that
a lyon was put to Kynge Rycharde, beynge in prison, to
have devoured hym, and when the lyon was gapynge, he
put his arme in his mouthe, and pulled the lyon by the
harte so harde, that he slewe the lyon; and therfore some
say he is called Rycharde Cure de Lyon; but some say he
is called Cure de Lyon because of his boldenesse and hardy
stomake'" [Sig. в ii verso] (Grey).
Richard . . . . By this brave duke came early to his grave, K.J.
1
ii. 1. 5: "The old play [The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn,
&c., see Dyce's vol. iv. 3] led Shakespeare into this error
of ascribing to the Duke of Austria the death of Richard,
who lost his life at the siege of Chaluz, long after he had
been ransomed out of Austria's power" (STEEVENS): “The
producing Austria on the scene is also contrary to the
truth of history, into which anachronism our author was led
by the old play. Leopold, Duke of Austria, by whom
Richard I. had been thrown into prison in 1193, died, in
consequence of a fall from his horse, in 1195, some years
before the commencement of the present play" (MALONE):
and see Limoges! &c.
rich'd, enriched, Lr. i. 1. 65.
rid, to dispatch, to get rid of: willingness rids way, 3H6. v. 3. 21.
("Con quanta furia spacciava il cammino.".
Pulci, Morgante Mag. C, vi. 42).
rid, to destroy: The red plague rid you, Tp. i. 2. 364; will rid his foe,
R2. v. 4. 11; you have rid this sweet young prince, 3H6. v. 5. 67.
("The Day-reducing chariot of the Sun
Stops instantly, and gives the Hebrews space
To rid the Pagans that they have in chase."
Sylvester's Du Bartas, The Captaines, p. 184, ed. 1641;
where the original has "exterminer”).
ride the mare-To: see mare-To ride the.
riggish, wanton, Ant. ii. 2. 245.
RIGHT-RIVE.
4IL
right in thine eye, direct, immediate, in thine eye, K.J. v. 4. 60.
right- Your nose says, no, you are not; for it stands tov, L.L.L.
v. 2. 568: “It should be remembered, that the head of
Alexander was obliquely placed on his shoulders" (STEEVENS).
right-Do me: see do me right.
right for right, R3. iv. 4. 15: just retribution, 'measure for
measure' (Herford).
•
right now, “just now, even now" (JOHNSON), 2H6. iii. 2. 40.
right-drawn sword, sword drawn in a just cause, R2. i. 1. 46.
rightly gaz'd upon, directly gazed upon, R2. ii. 2. 18.
rights of memory in this kingdom-I have some, I have some
rights "borne in memory, not forgotten [in this kingdom], and
thence to have effect given them" (CALDECOTT), Hml. v. 2. 4c0:
rigol, a circle, a round (Ital. rigolo), 2H4. iv. 5. 36; Lucr. 1745.
rim out at thy throat-I will fetch thy, H5. iv. 4. 15: Malone
refers to Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict., which gives "The
inner rim of the belly, Peritonæum;" and Steevens cites.
Philemon Holland and Chapman for "rim" in the same
sense. Pistol, however, evidently uses the term as equivalent
to entrails. [O. Edd. rymme].
ring—He that runs fastest gets the, Shr. i. 1. 145: “An allusion
to the sport of running at the ring" (DouCE): "Rather, to
the sport of running for the ring. A ring was one of the
prizes formerly given in wrestling and running matches".
(STAUNTON).
ring-time, time for marriage, [love-making, exchanging rings],
A.Y.L. v. 3. 20.
Ringwood, a common name for a dog, M.W. ii. 1. 122 [cf. Basse,
Works, p. 137].
ripe, to ripen: ripe not to reason, M.N.D. ii. 2. 117; we ripe and
ripe, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 26; no sun to ripe The bloom, K.J. ii. 1. 472.
ripe wants, wants come to the height, wants that can have no
longer delay" (JOHNSON), M.V. i. 3. 64.
(
ripeness is all, "to be ready, prepared, is all" (STEEVENS; who
compares Hml. v. 2. 234); Lr. v. 2. 11.
riping of the time-The very, The very ripeness, maturity of
the time, M.V. ii. 8. 40.
rivage, a bank, a shore, H5. iii. Prol. 14..
rivality, participation, equality, of rank, Ant. iii. 5. 8.
rivall'd for our daughter-Hath, Hath been competitor for our
daughter, Lr. i. 1. 194.
rivals, partners, associates: The rivals of my watch, Hml. i. 1. 13.
rive their dangerous artillery-To, 1H6. iv. 2. 29: “To rive their
artillery means only to fire their artillery. To rive is to
burst; and a cannon, when fired, has so much the appear-
ance of bursting, that, in the language of poetry, it may
be well said to burst. We say, a cloud bursts, when it
thunders" (MASON).
412
RIVETS-ROAD.
rivets up-Closing,-H5. iv. Prol. 13: "This does not solely
refer to the business of rivetting the plate armour before
it was put on, but as to part, when it was on. Thus the
top of the cuirass had a little projecting bit of iron, that
passed through a hole pierced through the bottom of the
casque. When both were put on, the smith or armourer
presented himself, with his rivetting hammer, to close the
rivet up; so that the party's head should remain steady
notwithstanding the force of any blow that might be given
on the cuirass or helmet. This custom more particularly
prevailed in tournaments: see Variétés Historiques, 1752,
12mo, tom. ii. p. 73" (Douce).
""
"rivo," says the drunkard, 1H4. ii. 4. 125: This Bacchanalian
exclamation is not uncommon in our old writers; but its
origin is quite uncertain: Gifford suggests (not very probably)
that it is "corrupted perhaps from the Spanish rio, which
is figuratively used for a large quantity of liquor." Note
on Massinger's Works, vol. ii. p. 167, ed. 1813 (In Marlowe's
Few of Malta we find "Hey, Rivo Castiliano!" Works,
p. 172, ed. Dyce, 1858; and in Day's Law-Trickes, 1608;
Riuo, Ile bee singuler; my royall expence shall run such
a circular course," &c. Sig. F 3). [“Rivo, drinke deepe, give care
the mate," Marston, What you will, ii. 1. ed. Halliwell, i. 244].
road, a roadstead, a haven: my father at the road Expects my
coming, 2G. i. 1.53; I must unto the road, ii. 4. 187: post to the road,
Err. iii. 2. 152; my ships Are safely come to road, M.V. v. 1. 288;
Marseilles' road, Shr. ii. 1. 377; piers, and roads, M.V. i. 1. 19.
road, a journey, with easy roads ("by short stages," STEEVENS)
he came to Leicester, H8. iv. 2. 17.
road, an inroad: make road upon us, H5. i. 2. 138; make road
Upon's again, Cor. iii. 1. 5.
road—This Doll Tearsheet should be some, 2H4. ii. 2. 183: Here
road is evidently the cant term for a prostitute; but the
word, I believe, is not found elsewhere in this sense.
(Compare, however, the following passage;
Sister. Alas,
What course is left for vs to liue by, then?
Thomas. In troth, sister, we two to beg in the fields,
And you to betake yourselfe to the old trade,
Filling of small cannes in the suburbes.
Sister. Shal I be left, then, like a common road,
That euery beast that can but pay his tole
May trauell ouer, and, like to cammomile,
Flourish the better being trodden on?"
Wilkins's Miseries of Inforst Marriage, [Hazl. Dodsl.
ix. 522] sig. E 4 verso, ed. 1629.)
[Cf. Piers Plowman, A-text, iii. 127: “As comuyn as the cart-
wei to knaves and to alle," describing a vicious woman.]
ROBIN-ROOF.
413
Robin Hood's fat friar, Friar Tuck, who is so celebrated in
the old Robin Hood ballads (to say nothing of Sir Walter
Scott's Ivanhoe), 2G. iv. 1. 36.
Robin ostler, Robin the ostler, 1H4. ii. 1. 12: Compare William
cook.
rogues, wandering beggars, vagrants: rogues forlorn, Lr. iv. 7. 39.
roisting, bullying, defying, Troil. ii. 2. 208.
romage, "tumultuous hurry" (JOHNSON), Hml. i. 1. 107: "Romage.
Only another way of writing rummage, which is still common
as a verb, though not perhaps as a substantive; tumultuous
movement." Nares's Gloss. in v.
Roman fool-The, perhaps Cato Uticensis, Mcb. v. 8. 1.
Roman sworder and banditto slave-A, “Herennius, a centurion,
and Popillius Lænas, tribune of the soldiers" (STEEVENS),
2H6. iv. 1. 135.
Rome, pronounced Room: That I have room with Rome to curse
awhile! K.J. iii. 1. 180; Now is it Rome indeed, and room
enough, J.C. i. 2. 156 (Compare
"To whome though Rome for harbour be deny'd,
Yet hath he roome in all the world beside."
The Tragedie of Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607, sig F verso:
Mausolus' stately Tomb,
The Walls and Courts of Babylon and Rome.”
Sylvester's Du Bartas, The Colonies, p. 130, ed. 1641:
"We must haue roome, more then the whole City of Rome."
Hawkins's Apollo Shroving, acted at Hadleigh School in
1626-7, p. 88: The different pronunciation in This Rome
shall remedy. War. Roam thither, then, 1H6. iii. 1. 51, may
perhaps be considered as one of the proofs that Shakespeare
was not the author of that play).
Romish, Roman, Cymb. i. 6. 152.
rondure, a round, a belt, a circle (Fr. rondeur), K.J. ii. 1. 259
(Globe, roundure); Sonn. 21.
ronyon, a mangy, scabby creature (Fr. rogneux), M.W. iv. 2.
195; Mcb. i. 3. 6.
rood-The, The cross, the crucifix, 2H4. iii. 2. 3; R3. iii. 2.
77; Rom. i. 3. 36; Hml. iii. 4. 14. (It would appear that, at
least in earlier times, the rood signified not merely the
cross, but the image of Christ on the cross.)
roof, house within this roof The enemy of all your graces lives,
A.Y.L. ii. 3. 17. (Compare
'He answer'd him; Ile tell all strictly true,
If time, and foode, and wine enough accrue
Within your roofe to us,' &c.
Chapman's Odyssey, B. xiv. p. 216, ed. folio.
'Minerua, who in Joues high roofe, that beares the rough shield,' &c.
Chapman's Iliad, B. i. p.
p. 6).
414
ROOK'D ROSE.
rook'd, squatted down, lodged, roosted, 3H6. v. 6. 47.
rooky wood, Mcb. iii. 2. 51: Various explanations have been
given of rooky: misty, reeky, murky, dusky, full of rooks.
Dyce accepts Mitford's interpretation: "the rook hastens its
flight to the wood where its fellows are already assembled."
"It is generally dusk," says Yarrell, "before all have found
a place, while after nightfall, especially when the moon is
shining, belated foraging parties come trooping in, and their
arrival always produces a certain amount of disturbance."
ii. 298, 4th. ed. Crow and Rook, says Prof. Newton (Y. ii.
293) are in common speech even now interchangeable,
witness Mr. Tennyson's "many-wintered crow that leads
the clanging rookery home."
room enough,-Blow till thou burst thy wind if, Tp. i. 1. 9:
explained by this passage from Harington's Ariosto, xix. 38:
"The mariners feare nought but want of roome, Sea-roome
they wish, then care they for no mo," and Harington, xli.
17 has: "to steer out roomer." Cf. Per. iii. 1. 45: sea-room.
rope! a rope!—I cry, a: see, parrot, “Beware," &c.
ropery, roguery, Rom. ii. 4. 154: see rope-tricks.
ropes in such a scarre that we forsake ourselves,—Men make,
A.W. iv. 2. 38. [A "dark passage," concerning which Prof.
Dowden writes:-An "ingenious gentleman" (residing in
a crazy corner of my brain) explains this by a reference
to Isaiah, v. 18: "Woe unto them that draw iniquity with
cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope." He
thinks one letter s got misplaced, and reads: "I see that
men make sins rope such a carre that we'll forsake our-
selves." Bertram will tear her away in this car, roped by
sins, from her truer self. "Rope's in such a s carre =
rope sins. A jumble of words and letters-but the printer
had all the letters rightly picked out of the case. Fi reads:
I see that men make rope's in such a scarre. That wee'l
forsake ourselves.]
rope-tricks—He'll rail in his, Shr. i. 2. 112: Rope-tricks, such
as deserve the rope, the same as ropery,-roguery: "Ropery
or rope-tricks originally signified abusive language, without
any determinate idea; such language as parrots are taught
to speak" (MALONE): Some critics suppose that here Grumio
either confounds rope-tricks with rhetoric, or plays on the
semblance of the words.
"}
rose-That in mine ear I durst not stick a, K.J. i. 1. 142: see
three-farthings goes, &c.
Rose, within the parish Saint Lawrence Poultney-The, H8. i.
2. 152: The Rose, is ""The Manor of the Rose,' of which
a crypt remains between Duck's-foot-lane and Merchant
Tailors' School," &c. Cunningham's Handbook for London,
sub "Lawrence (St.) Poultney.
.
ROSEMARY-ROUND.
415
rosemary
remembrance, W.T. iv. 4. 74; Doth not rosemary
and Romeo begin both with a letter? Rom. ii. 4. 219; she hath
the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, 226; stick
your rosemary On this fair corse, iv. 5. 79: There's rosemary,
that's for remembrance, Hml. iv. 5. 175 (where Ophelia seems
to be addressing Laertes): Rosemary was formerly supposed
to strengthen the memory; hence it was regarded as a
symbol of remembrance-
He from his lasse him lauander hath sent,
Shewing her loue, and doth requitall craue;
Him rosemary his sweet-heart, whose intent
Is that he her should in remembrance haue,"
Drayton's Ninth Eglogue-
and it was used both at weddings and at funerals.
rosemary and bays!—My dish of chastity with, Per. iv. 6. 160:
Anciently many dishes were served up with this garniture,
during the season of Christmas. The Bawd means to call
her a piece of ostentatious virtue" (STEEVENS).
roses on my razed shoes-Two Provincial: see Provincial roses, &c.
rother, a horned beast, Tim. iv. 3. 12 (“Rother-Beasts (N.C.),
horned Beasts; as Cows, Oxen, &c.". Rother soil or Rosoch,
the Soil or Dung of such Cattel." Kersey's Dict. sec. ed.).
Rouge-mont, R3. iv. 2. 108: "Hooker, who wrote in Queen
Elizabeth's time, in his description of Exeter mentions this
as a 'very old and ancient castle, named Rugemont; that
is to say, the Red Hill, taking that name of the red soil or
earth whereupon it is situated'" (REED).
round, a dance in a circle with joined hands: dance in our
round, M.N.D. ii. 1. 140; your antic round, Mcb. iv. I. 130.
round, a diadem: the golden round, Mcb. i. 5. 29; the round
And top of sovereignty, iv. 1. 88.
round, plain-spoken, unceremonious: Am I so round with you
as you with me (with a quibble,-spherical, Err. ii. 1. 82;
I must be round with you, 12N. ii. 3. 102; Your reproof is
something too round, H5. iv. 1. 216; I must be round with
him, Tim. ii. 2. 8; let her be round with him, Hml. iii. 1.
191; Pray you, be round with him, iii. 4. 5.
round, roundly, unceremoniously, without reserve: I went round
to work, Hml. ii. 2. 139.
round, to surround: that must round my brow, R3. iv. 1. 60;
rounds thine eye, A.W. i. 3. 158; That rounds the mortal
temples of a king, R2. iii. 2. 161.
round, to grow round: your mother rounds apace, W.T. ii. 1. 16.
round, to whisper: rounded in the ear, K.J. ii. 1. 566; whisper-
ing, rounding, W.T. i. 2. 217: (“To round one in the eare.
S'acouter à l'oreille, s'acouter." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict.: Other poets, besides Shakespeare, use in the same
416
ROUND-ROYAL.
sentence whisper and round,-see my note on Skelton's
Works, vol. ii. p. 120; but, I apprehend, it would not be
easy to show wherein the difference of the meaning of the
two words consists: in the following couple of stage-direc-
tions they were manifestly intended to be synonymous;
"He rowndeth with Frescobaldi". . . . "He whispereth with
Cæsar." Barnes's Divils Charter, 1607, sig. E 4).
round hose, round swelling breeches, trunk hose, 2G. ii. 7.55;
M.V. i. 2. 80.
roundel, a dance (the same as round,—see first round), M.N.D.
ii. 2. 1. (It also meant a song; but the context shows that
here it is used to signify a dance.)
rouse, a large draught, a bumper, a carouse: the king's rouse,
Hml. i. 2. 127; takes his rouse, i. 4. 8: o'ertook in's rouse, ii.
1. 58; given me a rouse, Oth. ii. 3. 66 (According to Gifford,
"A rouse was a large glass ('not past a pint,' as Iago says)
in which a health was given, the drinking of which by the
rest of the company formed a carouse.
•
In process of
time both these words were used in a laxer sense." Note
on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 240, ed. 1813: Compare
"Where slightly passing by the Thespian spring,
Many long after did but onely sup;
Nature, then fruitful, forth these men did bring,
To fetch deepe rowses from Joues plentious cup."
Drayton's Verses prefixed to Chapman's Hesiod, 1618).
rout, a company, a multitude, a tumultuous crowd, a rabble:
the common rout, Err. iii. 1. 101; the rout is coming, Shr. iii.
2. 183; a rout of rebels, 2H4. iv. 2. 9; traitorous rout, 1H6.
iv. 1. 173; all this rout, 2H6. ii. 1. 170; 2N.K. iii. 5. 147;
the rout of nations, Tim. iv. 3. 43; all the rout, J.C. i. 2. 78;
sleep yslaked hath the rout, Per. iii. G. 1; a merry rout, 2N.K.
iii. 5. 106; abject routs, 2H4. iv. 1. 33.
rout, a tumult, a brawl: How this foul rout began, who set it
on, Oth. ii. 3. 210.
Rowlands: see Olivers, &c.
royal, a gold coin, “a Roiall in money. Vi. Riall . . . . . a Riall,
Give
or 10 shillings" (Minsheu's Guide into Tongues, ed. 1617): thou
camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for
ten shillings, 1H4. i. 2. 157; there is a nobleman
him as much as will make him a royal man, ii. 4. 321: The
second of these quibbling passages has been already noticed
under nobleman, &c.: and see face-royal and ten groats, &c.
royal faiths-Our, 2H4. iv. 1. 193; My royal choice, H8. i. 4.
86; their royal minds, (well-affected to the king) iv. i. 8:
royal, due to a king: but on the third of these passages
Steevens observes, "Royal, I believe, in the present instance,
only signifies noble."
ROYAL-RUE.
417
royal merchant, M.V. iii. 242; iv. 1. 29: " According to War-
burton, this term was properly applied to merchants of the
highest rank, such as the Sanudos, the Giustiniani, the
Grimaldi, the Summaripos, and others, who, by virtue of
a license from the republic of Venice, "erected principa-
lities in several places of the Archipelago (which their
descendants enjoyed for many generations), and thereby
became truly and properly royal merchants,"-an explana-
tion which is approvingly quoted by Gifford, note on Mas-
singer's Works, vol. ii. p. 156, ed. 1813: but, according to
Hunter, "A royal merchant, in the middle ages, was a
merchant who transacted business for a sovereign of the
time. Thus, King John calls Brand de Doway 'homo noster
et dominicus mercator noster.' See a protection granted
to him, Rotuli Selecti, &c., 8vo, 1834, p. 23." New Illustr.
of Shakespeare.
roynish, mangy, scabby (Fr. rogneux) = scurvy, paltry, A.Y.L.
ii. 2. 8.
66
rub on, and kiss the mistress, Troil. iii. 2. 52; I fear too much
rubbing, L.L.L. iv. 1. 141; On the first of these passages
Malone observes, "The allusion
The allusion is to bowling. What we
now call the jack seems, in Shakespeare's time, to have
been [was certainly] termed the mistress [see mistress]. A
bowl that kisses the jack or mistress is in the most advanta-
geous situation. Rub on is a term at the same game" (“To
rub at bowles. Saulter.” 'A rubbe at bowles. Saut." Cot-
grave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.: "To rub at Bowls, Imppingo,"
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.: "Rub . . . . at the game of
bowls, it means to incline inwards towards the jack." Dyche's
Dict.: "I doe not know any thing fitter to bee compared.
to bowling then wooing or louers, for if they doe not see
one another in two dayes, they will say, Good Lord, it is
seven yeeres since we saw each other; for louers doe thinke
that in absence time sleepeth, and in their presence that
hee is in a wild gallop: So a bowler, although the allye or
marke bee but thirty or forty paces, yet sometimes I haue
heard the bowler cıy rub, rub, rub, and sweare and lye
that hee was gone an hundred miles, when the bowle hath
beene short of the blocke two yards, or that hee was too
short a thousand foot, when hee is vpon the head of the
iacke, or ten or twelue foot beyond." Taylor's Wit and
Mirth, p. 193, Workes, 1630.)
rubious, red, ruddy, 12N. i. 4. 32.
ruddock, the robin redbreast, Cymb. iv. 2. 224.
rudesby, a rude fellow, a blusterer, Shr. iii. 2. 10; 12N. iv. 1. 55.
rue . Grace, &c., W.T. iv. 4. 74; rue, sour herb of grace,
R2. iii. 4. 105; there's rue for you; and here's some for me:—
we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your
27
418
(
RUFF-RUFFLE.
B
rue with a difference (see difference), Hml. iv. 5. 181 (in which
passage Ophelia is addressing the Queen): Florio, in his
Ital. and Engl. Dict., has " Ruta, the hearbe of Grace or
Rue;" and Cotgrave, in his Fr. and Engl. Dict., "Rue:
Rue, Hearbe Grace:" The origin of the name herb grace
or herb of grace is uncertain: "There is no ground," observes
Malone, "for supposing, with Dr. Warburton, that rue was
called herb of grace from its being used in exorcisms perform-
ed in churches on Sundays; but Warburton was only
repeating what he had read in the works of a great divine,—
Jeremy Taylor, who says (referring to the Flagellum:
Dæmonum), "First, They [the Romish exorcisers] are to try
the devil by holy water, incense, sulphur, rue, which from
thence. as we suppose, came to be called 'herb of grace,
&c. A Dissuasive from Popery, Part i. ch. ii. sect. ix., Works,
vol. x. p. 233, ed. 1839: According to Henley, "The follow-
ing passage from Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier
will furnish the best reason for calling rue herb of grace
o' Sundays; -some of them smil'd and said, Rue was
called Herbegrace, which tho ugh they scorned in their youth,
they might wear in their age, and [that] it was never too
late to say miserere'" [sig. в verso, ed. 1620]: In the last
two of the above passages of Shakespeare there is a quibble—
rue=ruth, i.e. sorrow (Alleyn the actor, in a letter to his
wife, makes a distinction between rue and herb of grace;
for he bids her, on account of the plague which was then
raging, "haue in yor windowes good store of rwe ond herbe
of grace;" and from a letter purporting to be the joint-
composition of Henslowe, Mrs. Henslowe, and Mrs. Alleyn,.
in which they thank Alleyn for his "good counsell" about.
taking precautions against the plague, it appears that they
understood "herbe of grace" to mean "wormwode:" see
Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. xxi. p. 390, and Collier's.
Memoirs of Edward Alleyn, &c., pp. 26, 30, ed. Shake. Soc.).
["Contemned wormwood from infection shields; and Rue
makes wasting liver longer dure." W. Basse, Ecl. ix. p. 252].
ruff— Mend the, A.W. iii. 2. 7: "The fashion of wearing ruffs round
the top of the boot originated in France, and first appeared
toward the end of the sixteenth century," &c. (FAIRHOLT).
ruffle, to be turbulent and boisterous, to swagger: To ruffle in
the commonwealth of Rome, Tit. i. 1. 313; the bleak winds
Do sorely ruffle, Lr. ii. 4. 304; To deck thy body with his
ruffling (playing with loose motion, fluttering) treasure, Shr.
iv. 3. 60: "A ruffler in our author's time signified a noisy
and turbulent swaggerer; and the word ruffling is here
applied in a kindred sense to dress." (MALONE). [See
Awdeley's Fraternitie of Vacabondes, p. 3 (New Sh. Soc.):
“A Ruffeler goeth wyth a weapon to seeke seruice, saying
RUINATE-RUSH'D.
419.
he hath bene a Seruitor in the wars, and beggeth for his
reliefe. But his cheefest trade is to robbe poore wayfaring
men and market women." And see Harman, Caveat, p. 29]
ruinate, to bring to ruin, 3H6. v. 1. 83.
"
rule-This uncivil, 12N. ii. 3. 132:"Rule. Apparently put for
behaviour or conduct; with some allusion perhaps to the
frolics called mis-rule." Nares's Gloss.: I believe it is equi-
valent to "revel, noisy sport:" Coles has "Rule (stir),
Tumultus.” Lat. and Engl. Dict.: and compare night-rule.
rumour, a loud murmur, a stir: the noise and rumour of the
field, K.J. v. 4. 45; a bustling rumour, J.C. ii. 4. 18.
rump-fed, Mcb. i. 3. 6: That is, according to Colepeper and
Steevens, "fed on offals," rumps having been formerly among
the low perquisites of the kitchen, which were sold or given.
away to the poor: Nares (in his Gloss.) would understand
it to mean 'fat-bottomed, fed or fattened on the rump
(Long ago, a friend of mine, who was never at a loss for
an explanation, queried-"Can rump-fed mean 'nut-fed'?
The sailor's wife was eating chestnuts. In Kilian's Dict.
is 'Rompe. Nux myristica vilior, cassa, inanis '").
running banquet-A: see banquet ere they rested, &c.
rush for Tom's forefinger-As Tib's, A.W. ii. 2. 24: "The
allusion is to an ancient practice of marrying with a rush
ring, as well in other countries as in England. Breval [Du
Breul], in his Antiquities of Paris, mentions it as a kind of
espousal used in France by such persons as meant to live
together in a state of concubinage: but in England it was
scarce ever practised except by designing men, for the
purpose of corrupting those young women to whom they
pretended love," &c. &c. (SIR J. HAWKINS.): “These passages,
cited by Sir John Hawkins, are proofs enough of the
existence of the practice, whether in jest or earnest; but
that it was the former, is proved by the passage from Du
Cange [sub "Annulus"]." Nares's Gloss.: “A rush ring
seems to have been often a rural gift without any reference
either to a marriage or a marriage contract. So in Spenser's
Pastorals, November, line 116" (BOSWELL.)
rushes strewed, Shr. iv. 1. 48: the wanton rushes, 1H4. iii. 1. 214;
the senseless rushes, Rom. i. 4. 36; press the rushes, Cymb.
ii. 2. 13; He takes it from the rushes where it lies, Lucr. 318:
In Shakespeare's time, before the introduction of carpets,
all apartments, usually inhabited, were strewed with rushes
and in the above passages that custom is alluded to: but
More rushes, more rushes, 2H4. v. 5. 1, is a cry for rushes
to be scattered on a pavement or a platform when a
procession is approaching.
rush'd aside the law-Hath, Hath pushed, thrust, aside the
law, Rom. iii. 3. 26.
420
SABA-SACK.
S.
Saba, The Queen of Sheba, H8. v. 5. 24. The form used in
the Vulgate.
sable gender mak'st with the breath: Phoen. 18. "It is
a 'Vulgar Error' still, that the 'crow' can change its
'gender' at will. My friend Mr. E. W. Gosse puts it—
'thou crow that makest [change in] thy sable gender, with
the mere exhalation and inhalation of thy breath.'” GROSART,
note to Chester's Love's Martyr, p. 242. N.S.S. ed.
sables-Let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of, Hml.
iii. 2. 138: This passage has not a little troubled the com-
mentators: Malone paraphrases it thus: "If my father be
so long dead as you say, let the Devil wear black; as for
me, so far from wearing a mourning dress, I'll wear the
most costly and magnificent suit that can be procured, a
suit trimmed with sables" (Capell had already remarked
that "Hamlet's saying he would have a suit of sables,
amounts to a declaration-that he would leave off his
blacks since his father was so long dead"): According to
Farmer, "Here again is an equivoque. In Massinger's
[Middleton's and W. Rowley's] Old Law [act ii. sc. 1] we
have
((
'a cunning grief,
That's only fac'd with sables for a show,
But gawdy-hearted.'
Hamlet's jest lies in the ambiguity of the word: sables,
the fur, and sable, the black of heraldry. See iv. 7. 81,
whence it appears that sables were the livery of 'settled
age.' What an age since my father died! I am quite an
old gentleman! (with an ambiguity of apparent self-contra-
diction in Hamlet's manner, on the meaning black); I mean
to be rich and comfortable, and the devil must be the only
personage who always wears black, his accustomed garb."
(DowDEN.)
sack-A butt of, Tp. ii. 2. 126; hath drowned his tongue in
sack, iii. 2. 15; hath drunk so much sack, 31; this can sack
and drinking do, 88; you love sack, M.W. ii. 1. 9: burnt sack,
223; iii. 1. 112; a morning's draught of sack, ii. 2. 153; a
quart of sack, iii. 5. 3; pour in some sack, 22; a pottle of sack,
30; to taverns, and sack, and wine, v. 5. 167; a cup of sack,
Shr. Ind. 2. 2; 1H4. ii. 2. 49; 129; ii. 4. 140; 345; etc.; I
ne'er drank sack in my life, Shr. Ind. 2. 6; burn some sack,
12N. ii. 3. 206; old sack, 1H4. i. 2. 3; cups of sack, 8; Sir
John Sack-and-sugar, 125; here's lime in this sack, ii. 4. 137;
SACK.
421
bombard of sack, 497; to taste sack, 501; sack and sugar,
516; Sack, two gallons, 587; this intolerable deal of sack! 592;
the sack that thou hast drunk me, iii. 3. 50; a bottle of sack,
iv. 2. 2; purge, and leave sack, v. 4. 169; steep this letter in
sack, 2H4. ii. 2. 147; give's some sack, ii. 4. 194; Give me
some sack, ibid; A good sherris-sack, iv. 3. 104; is nothing
without sack, 124; till sack commences it, ibid.; addict them-
selves to sack, 135; drunk too much sack, v. 3. 15; he cried
out of sack, H5. ii. 3. 29: Sack, earlier called seck, Fr. vin
sec, Span. vino seco, lit. dry wine, a term that covered
Spanish wines generally, but was specially applied to the
vino seco of Xeres or Sherris, whence Sherris-sack, and our
sherry. Sack and sherry were long used as convertible terms,
and our old plays and bacchanalian songs abound in allusions
to the wines. Canary sack, from the island so-named, was
a sweet wine, and seems to have been somewhat like the
modern marsala. Howell (Fam. Lett. ii. 60) informs us that
"Sherries and Malagas well mingled pass for Canaries in
most taverns, more often than Canary itself." Ben Jonson
mentions his receiving a present of Palm Sack, that is, from
the island of Palma. Markham (English Housewife, p. 118)
says: "Your best Sacks are of Xeres, in Spain,-your
smaller, of Gallicia and Portugal; your strong Sacks are of
the islands of the Canaries and of Maligo; and your mus-
kadine and malmseys are of many parts, of Italy, Greece,
and some special islands. Falstaff's exclamation: "You
rogue, here's lime in this sack too," (1H4. ii. 4. 137) which
has been thought to allude merely to the adulteration of
sack by the vintners, (See Froth and lime), throws in fact
much light on its genuine qualities, and proves it to be of
the same nature as the wines still manufactured, in Spain
and other countries, from the ripest grapes, which receive
a sprinkling of burnt lime or gypsum, before they are
pressed and introduced into the vat. Sir Richard Hawkins
(Obs. on a Voyage into the South Sea, 1622) says: “Since
the Spanish Sacks have been common in our taverns [prob.
introd. in Henry VIII.'s time], which for conservation are
mingled with the lime in the making, our nation complains
of calentures, of the stone, the dropsy, and infinite other
distempers, not heard of before this wine came into common
use." The Spaniards seem to have borrowed the practice
of putting lime on the grapes from the earlier makers of
Romanie wine, the Greeks of the Ionian islands. No doubt
vintners added lime to inferior sack to give it the Xeres'
flavour, and perhaps also to help their customers to "raise
a thirst." (Abridged from Dyce's article of 5 pages, quoted
from Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines,
pp. 298-308).
422
SACKERSON—SAD.
Sackerson, a very celebrated bear at Paris-Garden on the
Bank-side, M.W. i. 1. 307.
sacred aunt-My, Troil. iv. 5. 134: "It is remarkable that the
Greeks give to the uncle the title of Sacred, bɛoc. Patruus
avunculus, & πρÒS TATρÒS BETоs, Gaz. de Senec.: patruus,
ὁ πρὸς μητρὸς θεῖος, avunculus, Budæi Lexic: θεῖος is also
used absolutely for pòç Taтpòs elos, Euripid. Iphigen.
Taurid. 1. 930,
ατ
Ιφι. Η που νοσούντας θεῖος ὕβρισεν δόμους;
And Xenoph. Kupou Taid. lib. i. passim" (VAILLANT): "This
circumstance may tend to establish an opinion I have
elsewhere expressed, that this play was not the entire
composition of Shakspeare [see vi. 2], to whom the Grecism
before us was probably unknown" (STEEVENS). [Sacred is
regularly used by Sh. as an epithet of royalty. Cf. Sonn. 7;
Err. v. 1. 33; W.T. i. 2. 76; K.J. iii. 1. 148; etc.]
sacred wit To villany and vengeance consecrate- Our Empress,
with her, Tit. ii. 1. 120 ["such as must be kept holy, entitled
to awe and veneration," SCHMIDT]: Tamora's wit, says Capell
"has an epithet that marks the Author's Latinity; for
'sacred' is there-accursed, after the usage of that language:
the next line explains it so, and both that and the epithet
are spoken jocularly;" and so, too, Capell's successors
interpret sacred: but though Aaron perhaps uses the word
ironically and with a quibble, can there be a doubt that
Tamora's wit is called sacred as belonging to an empress?
The author of Titus Andronicus has sundry classical allu-
sions: and compare Martial, vii. xcix. 4,
"Namque solent sacra Cæsaris aure frui."
and Statius, Sylvæ, iv. ii. 5.
"Ast ego, cui sacræ Cæsar nova gaudia cœnæ,
Nunc primum, dominaque dedit consurgere [considere ?] mensa,"&c.
sacring bell-The, H8. iii. 2. 295: "The little bell, which is
rung to give notice of the Host approaching when it is
carried in procession, as also in other offices of the Romish
Church, is called the sacring or consecration bell; from the
French word, sacrer" (THEOBald).
sad, serious, grave: sad talk, 2G. i. 3. 1; W.T. iv. 4. 316; sad
conference, Ado, i. 3. 62; in silence sad, M.N.D iv. 1. 100;
a sad ostent, M.V. ii. 2. 205; Sad Lucretia's modesty, A.Y.L.
iii. 2. 156; sad brow, Ado, i. 1. 185; A.Y.L. iii. 2. 227; sad
and civil, 12N. iii. 4. 5; a sad face, 80; that sad dog, (“that
grave, that gloomy villain," STEEVENS), R2. v. 5. 70; Sad,
high, and working, H8. Prol. 3; Narcissus was a sad boy,
2N.K. iv. 2. 32; Sad pause, Lucr. 277; sad-ey'd (with serious
eye or look), H5. i. 2. 202; with slow-sad gait, Lucr. 1081.
SADLY SAGITTARY.
423
sadly, seriously, gravely, soberly: the conference was sadly borne
(carried on), Ado, ii. 3. 229; And with his spirit sadly I
survive, 2H4. v. 2. 125; But sadly tell me who, Rom. i. 1. 207.
sadness, seriousness: In good sadness, M.W. iii. 5. 125; iv. 2.
93; Shr. v. 2. 63; A.W. iv. 3. 230; the sadness of my suit,
3H6. iii. 2. 77; Tell me in sadness, Rom. i. 1. 205.
safe, to make safe, Ant. i. 3. 55; saf'd, iv. 6. 26.
safety-Deliver him to, Put him in custody, K.J. iv. 2. 158.
saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of
a nation in his colour- Whose vilianous, A.W. iv. 5. 2: In
this passage there seems to be, as Warburton observes, an
allusion both to the fashionable and fantastic custom of
wearing yellow, and to that of colouring paste with saffron
("I must have saffron, to colour the warden-pies, W.T. iv.
3. 48. [Harrison's Descr. of England, III. viii. N.S.S.]
sag, to hang down heavily, to droop, to flag, Mcb. v. 3. 10.
("The Horizons il-levell'd circle wide
Would sag too much on th' one or th' other side."
Sylvester's Du Bartas, Third Day of First Week, p, 24, ed. 1641).
Sagittary-The dreadful, Troil. v. 5. 14: ""Beyonde the royalme
of Amasonne came an auncyent kynge, wyse and dyscreete,
named Epystrophus, and brought a M. knyghtes, and a
mervayllouse beste that was called sagittayre, that behynde
the myddes was an horse, and to fore, a man: this beste
was heery lyke an horse, and had his eyen rede as a cole,
and shotte well with a bowe; this beste made the Grekes
sore aferde, and slewe many of them with his bowe.' The
Three Destructions of Troy, printed by Caxton" (THEOBALD):
“A more circumstantial account of this sagittary is to be found
in Lydgate's Auncient Historie, &c., 1555 [Book Second, sig. M 6];
And with hym Guydo sayth that he [i.e. Epystrophus] hadde
<
A wonder archer of syght meruaylous,
Of fourme and shap in maner monstruous:
For lyke myne auctour as I reherse can,
Fro the nauel vpwarde he was man,
And lower downe lyke a horse yshaped:
And thilke parte that after man was maked,
Of skinne was blacke and rough as any bere,
Couered with here fro colde him for to were;
Passyng foule and horrible of syght,
Whose eyen twain were sparkeling as bright
As is a furneis with his reade leuene,
Or the lyghtnyng that falleth from ye heauen;
Dredefull of loke, and reade as fyre of chere,
And, as I reade, he was a good archer,
And with his bowe both at euen and morowe
Upon Grekes he wrought moche sorowe,
And gasted them with many hydous loke;
So sterne he was that many of them quoke,' &c." (STEEVENS).
424
SAGITTARY-SALUTATION.
Sagittary the raised search-Lead to the, Oth. i. 1. 159; Send
for the lady to the Sagittary, i. 3. 115: "The Sagittary means
the sign of the fictitious creature so called, i.e. an animal
compounded of man and horse, and armed with a bow
and quiver" [see the preceding article] (STEEVENS); "This
is generally taken to be an inn. It was the residence at
the arsenal of the commanding officers of the navy and
army of the republic. The figure of an archer, with his
drawn bow, over the gates, still indicates the place" (KNIGHT).
[Brandes, Sh. i. 139 (Archer's tr.) says "it now appears that
the commanding officer never had any residence in the
arsenal, and that no figure of an archer ever existed there."}
said-Well: see well said.
sain, said, L.L.L. iii. 1. 83.
Saint Bennet,-The bells of, 12N. v. 1. 42: "St. Benedict's, just
opposite the Globe Theatre" (HERFORD).
sale-work - Nature's, "Those works that nature makes up care-
lessly and without exactness. The allusion is to the practice
of mechanics, whose work bespoke is more elaborate than
that which is made up for chance-customers, or to sell in
quantities to retailers, which is called sale-work" (WAR-
BURTON), A.Y.L. iii. 5. 43: [ready-made goods].
sallet, or salade, a close-fitting headpiece ("Salade: A Salade,
Helmet, Headpeece." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.), 2H6.
iv. 10. 11; 16 (with a quibble).
sallets in the lines, i.e. salt (ribald) words or allusions: Hml.
ii. 2. 462.
sallied, Q1, 2, reading for 'solid' (flesh) in Hml. i. 2. 129, defended
(as = 'attacked') by Dr. Logeman in Furnivall Memorial
Volume, p. 278.
salt, a salt-cellar: The cover of the salt hides the salt, 2G. iii.
1. 370: "The ancient English salt-cellar was very different
from the modern, being a large piece of plate, generally
much ornamented, with a cover to keep the salt clean.
There was but one salt-cellar on the dinner-table " (MALONE):
"The tables being long, the salt was commonly placed about
the middle, and served as a kind of boundary to the dif-
ferent quality of the guests invited. Those of distinction
were ranked above; the space below was assigned to the
dependents, inferior relations of the master of the house,
&c." Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. i. p. 170,
ed. 1813.
salt-A man of, A man of tears, Lr. iv. 6. 199.
salt, lecherous, M.M. v. 1. 406.
Saltiers, W.T. iv. 4. 334: “He means Satyrs. Their dress was
perhaps made of goat's skin" (MALONE).
salutation to my sportive blood-Give, Sonn. 121; cf. H8. ii. 3.
103, salute my blood, = move or exhilarate (Staunton).
SAMINGO-SARUM.
425
Samingo, a corruption or abbreviation of, or intended blunder
for, San Domingo, and used as the burden to a drinking-
song, 2H4. v. 3. 79. In Nash's Summer's Last Will (Hazl.
Dodsl. viii. 59)
"Mounsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass,
In cup, in corn, or glass,
God Bacchus, do me right,
And dub me knight,"
Domingo."
"Why St. Domingo should have been considered as the
patron of topers I know not; but he seems to have been
regarded in this light by Gonzalo Berceo, an old Castilian
poet, who flourished in 1211. He was a monk, much of
the same cast with our facetious Arch-deacon Walter de
Mapes. In writing the life of the saint, he seeks inspira-
tion in a glass of good wine.
-De un confessor sancto quiero fer una prosa,
Quiero fer una prosa en Roman Paladino,
En qual suele el pueblo fablar a su vecino,
Ca no son tan lettrado por fer otro Latino,
Bien valdra, come creo, un vaso de buen vino."
(Boswell—Addenda to Malone's Shakespeare, vol. xxi. p.
467). ["May owe its origin to the type of Mingo Revulgo
(z.e. Domingo vulgus) in the famous Spanish coplas. See
Ticknor, Hist. Span. Lit. i. 232-3." Ward, Eng. Dram.
Lit. i. 425, n; cf. 231.]
sanctuarize, to protect as a sanctuary does, to shelter, Hml.
iv. 7. 128.
sand-bag fastened to it-Bearing his staff with a, 2H6. ii. 3.
Dir: "As, according to the old laws of duels, knights were
to fight with the lance and sword; so those of inferior rank
fought with an ebon staff or battoon, to the farther end of
which was fixed a bag crammed hard with sand. To this
custom Hudibras has alluded in these humorous lines;
'Engag'd with money-bags, as bold
As men with sand-bags did of old"" (WARBURTON):
"Mr. Sympson, in his notes on Ben Jonson, observes, that
a passage in St. Chrysostom very clearly proves the great
antiquity of this practice" (STEEVENS).
sand-blind, very dim-sighted, purblind ("Berlué. Purblinded,
made sand-blind." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict. M.V. ii.
2. 37; 77. [Perhaps a corruption of O. E. sam-, half.]
sanded, of a sandy colour, M.N.D. iv. 1. 125.
sans, without (Fr.), Tp. i. 2. 97; Err. iv. 4. 76; L.L.L. v. 1.
91; v. 2. 415; A.Y.L. ii. 7. 32; 166; K.J. v. 6. 16; Troil. i.
3. 94; Tim. iv. 3. 122: Hml. iii. 4. 79; Oth. i. 3. 64.
Sarum plain, Salisbury plain, Lr. ii. 2. 89.
426
SATIRE-SAW.
satire to decay-If any, be a, Sonn. 100: "[Here] satire is satir -
ist," WALKER; who cites from Jonson's masque of Time
Vindicated, Works, vol. viii. p. 5, ed. Gifford,
ઃઃ
Fame. Who's this?
Ears. 'Tis Chronomastix, the brave satyr,
Nose. The gentleman-like satyr, cares for nobody," &c,;
from The Poetaster of the same writer, vol. ii. p. 524,
tr
The honest satire hath the happiest soul;"
from Shirley's Witty Fair One, Works, vol. i. p. 284, ed.
Gifford and Dyce, "prithee, Satire, choose another walk,
and leave us to enjoy this;" and from Goffe's Courageous
Turk, p. 141, ed. 1656,
tr
"Poore men may love, and none their wils correct;
But all turne Satyrs of a kings affect."
satisfy your resolution &c.-Do not, M.M. iii. 1. 170; nor with-
out cause Will he be satisfied, J.C. iii. 1. 48. [Satisfy denoted
sometimes to discharge an account, and has this sense in
the passage from M. M. "Do not let false hopes discharge
the good resolution you formed just now." In the second
passage, cause=good reason, and the interest of the line
is chiefly due to Jonson's statement that originally it ran:
Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause."]
66
sauce, to treat insolently, to abuse: I'll sauce her with bitter
words, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 69.
sauce (in vulgar language), to serve out: I'll sauce them, M.W.
iv. 3. 11.
savage stock—Our scions, put in wild and, H5. iii. 5. 7: “Savage
is here used in the French original sense for silvan, un-
cultivated" (JOHNSON).
savageness in unreclaimèd blood, Of general assault-A, A
wildness in untamed blood, to which all young men are
liable, Hml. ii. 1 34.
savagery, barbarity, cruelty: the wildest savagery, K.J. iv.
3. 48.
savagery, wild growth: deracinate such savagery, H5. v.
2. 47.
saved by my husband—I shall be, M.V. iii. 5. 21: “From St.
Paul: ‘The unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband'"
(HENLEY).
Savoy-Pull down the, 2H6. iv. 7. 2: “This trouble had been
saved Cade's reformers by his predecessor Wat Tyler. It
was never re-edified till Henry VII. founded the hospital"
(RITSON).
saw, a saying, a maxim, a discourse, L.L.L. v. 2. 932; A.Y.L.
ii. 7. 156; iii. 5. 82; Lr. ii. 2. 167; Lucr. 244.
SAWN-SCAMELS.
427
sawn, sown, L. Compl. 91,-where Malone wrongly explains
it "seen" (Compare Barclay's Ship of Fooles,
"And to cause the christen to him to geue confidence
By the false seeds of errour that they sawe
Before his comming, against our fayth and lawe.”
fol. 215, ed. 1570:
and Ross's Helenore or the Fortunate Shepherdess, a modern
Scottish poem of great merit, first printed in 1768,
"Such were the notes that swell'd alang the grove,
Where birds amid the shade declar'd their love,
And might hae sawn content in ony breast,
With grief like hers that had na been opprest."
p. 201, ed. Longmuir, 1866.
say, an assay, a sample, a taste: some say of breeding, Lr. v. 3. 143.
say, thou serge, nay, thou buckram lord!—Thou, 2H6. iv. 7. 27:
"It appears from Minsheu's Dict., 1617, that say was a kind
of serge. It is made entirely of wool," &c. (MALONE):
Cotgrave has "Seyette: Serge, or Saye," and "Say (stuffe),
Seyette." Fr. and Engl. Dict.
say'd, Per. i. 1. 59: who have assayed.
sayst-There thou, There thou sayest true, "say'st something,
speak'st to the purpose" (CALDECOTT), Hml. v. 1. 29.
scald, properly "scabby," but used as "a word of contempt,
implying poverty, disease, and filth" (JOHNSON): rascally,
scald, H5. v. 1. 5 (Globe, scauld); scald knave, 33 (D0);
scald rhymers, Ant. v. 2. 215.
scald such chickens as you are—She's e'en setting on water to,
Tim. ii. 2. 71: "Randle Holme, in his Academy of Arms
and Blazon, B. iii. ch. ii. p. 441, has the following passage;
'He beareth Argent, a Doctor's tub (otherwise .called a
Cleansing Tub), Sable, Hooped, Or. In this pockifyed, and
such diseased persons, are for a certain time put into, not
to boyl up to an heighth, but to parboil,' &c." (Steevens):
"It was anciently the practice, and in inns perhaps still
continues, to scald off the feathers of poultry instead of
plucking them. Chaucer hath referred to it in his Romaunt
of the Rose, 6820, 'Without scalding they hem pulle'"
(HENLEY): and see tub, &c.
scaled, weighed in the balance, M.M. iii. 1. 266.
Scaling his present bearing with his past, "Weighing his past
and present behaviour" (JOHNSON), Cor. ii. 3. 257.
scall, used by Sir Hugh Evans for scald (see third article above),
M.M. iii. 1. 123.
scamble, to scramble, K.J. iv. 3. 146; scambling, [hustling],
Ado, v. 1. 94; H5. i. 1. 4; v. 2. 218.
scamels, Tp. ii. 2. 176: Scamels has been explained as the
dimin. of scams, limpets, but rock seems cliff; or as a
428
SCANTLING-SCORED.
misprint for staniels, kestrels: 'staniel' is misprinted 'stallion'
in 12N. ii. 5. 124; or seamells, gulls, seamews. Drayton,
Eglogs, p. 108, Spens. Soc. ed. has; "The greedy seamaw
fishing for the frie." The misprint c for e is common, and
the old written w was almost undistinguishable from 7, so
the word should probably be seamews.
scantling, a certain proportion, a portion, Troil. i. 3. 341.
scape, a sally, an irregularity, a freak: No scape of nature,
K.J. iii. 4. 154 (Globe, scope); thousand scapes of wit, M.M.
iv. 1. 63 (Gl. escapes).
scape, an act of lewdness: sure, some scape .. I can read
waiting-gentlewoman in the scape, W.T. iii. 3. 73; day
•
night's scapés doth open lay, Lucr. 747: compare escape.
scar for-Than a band of Clotens Had ever, Cymb. v. 5. 305:
i.e. scar "for meriting, or in attempting to merit." CAPELL.
scarf, to put on loosely like a scarf: My sea-gown scarf'd about
me, Hml. v. 2. 13.
scarf, to cover as with a bandage: Scarf up the tender eye of
pitiful day, Mcb. iii. 2. 47.
scarf, to adorn with flags and streamers: The scarfed bark puts
from her native bay, M.V. ii. 6. 15.
Scarlet and John, two well-known companions of Robin Hood,
-used as an address to Bardolph in allusion to his scarlet
face, M.W. i. 1. 177. Silence sings a line (the first word
altered) from the ballad of The Folly Pinder of Wakefield
(see Ritson's Robin Hood, ii. 16).
scathe, hurt, damage, KJ. ii. 1. 75; 2H6. ii. 4. 62; R3. i. 3. 317;
Tit. v. I. 7.
scathe, to hurt, to injure, Rom. i. 5. 86.
scatheful, hurtful, destructive, 12N. v. 1. 59.
scattered, "divided, unsettled, disunited" (JOHNSON): this
scatter'd kingdom, Lr. iii. 1. 31.
science, knowledge, acquaintance, A.W. v. 3. 103.
sconce, a round fortification: I must get a sconce for my head,
Err. ii. 2. 37. [Sconce has three meanings in this passage:
1. head; 2. rounded fort or block-house; 3. cap or hood.
Florio gives: capuccio, a little round hood or skonce; a cap,
also a hood or cowl, a friar's bonnet." And it is on this
sense that Dromio puns in 1. 37. v. Edin. Rev. Oct. 1872,
no. 278]; at such and such a sconce, H5. iii. 6. 76.
sconce, a head: that merry sconce of yours, Err. i. 2. 79; your
sconce, ii. 2. 34; my unbarb'd sconce, Cor. iii. 2. 99; knock
him about the sconce, Hml. v. 1. 110.
sconce, to ensconce, to hide: I'll sconce me even here, Hml. iii.
4. 4. (O. Edd. silence; corr. Hanmer).
score: see twelve score.
scored me? Have you, Have you set a mark or brand on me?
Oth. iv. 1. 130.
*
SCORN-SCYLLA.
429
scorn-To take: see take scorn.
scorn-To think: see think-scorn.
scornful, scorned: The scornful mark of every open eye, Lucr. 520.
scotch, to make incisions, to score or cut slightly, Err. v. 1. 183
(Globe, scorch); scotch'd, Cor. iv. 5. 198; Mcb. iii. 2. 13.
[Milton, Animad. upon the Rem. Defence, i.: "the mangled
pieces of a gashed serpent, that now begun to close, and
grow together again." This explains the force of scotched
the snake.]
scotches, cuts, Ant. iv. 7. 10.
scrimers, fencers (Fr. escrimeurs), Hml. iv. 7. 101.
scrip, a slip of writing, a list, M.N.D. i. 2. 3.
scrippage, the contents of a scrip (pera), A.Y.L. iii. 2. 171.
scrowl, Tit. ii. 4. 5: Qq. scrowle; Fr. scowle, which Capell
explains: "show her anger." The Qq. word is not found
elsewhere. Herford explains: "write vaguely and wildly in
the air."
scroyles, scabby fellows (a term of contempt:-Fr. escrouelles),
K.J. ii. 1. 373. ["Hang them, Scroyles," says Master Stephen,
Every M. in his H., i. 1.]
scrubbed boy, M.V. v. 1. 162; 261: Here scrubbed is generally
explained "stunted:" but Cotgrave has "Marpaut. An ill-
favoured scrub, a little ouglie or swartie wretch." Fr. and
Engl. Dict.; and Coles, "A Scrub (mean person), Homo
misellus," and "Scrubbed, squalidus." Lat. and Eng. Dict.
sculls, shoals: like scaled sculls, Troil. v. 5. 22.
'scuse, an excuse, M.V. iv. 1. 444; Oth. iv. 1. 80.
scut, a tail, M.W. v. 5. 20.
Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother-When
I shun, M.V. iii. 5. 19: "Originally from the Alexandreis
of Philippe Gaultier; but several translations of this adage
were obvious to Shakespeare [it occurs over and over again
in our old writers]. . . . Philippe Gaultier de Chatillon . . .
was born towards the latter end of the 12th century. In
the Fifth Book of his heroic poem, Darius (who, escaping
from Alexander, fell into the hands of Bessus) is thus
apostrophized;
"Nactus equum Darius, rorantia cæde suorum
Retrogrado fugit arva gradu. Quo tendis inertem,
Rex periture, fugam? nescis, heu! perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem;
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.'. . .
The author of the line in question (who was unknown to
Erasmus [see his Adagia, &c., pp. 493-4, ed. 1629]) was
first ascertained by Galeottus Martius, who died in 1476
(see Menagiana, vol. i. p. 173, ed. 1715); and we learn from
Henricus Gandavensis, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis [i.e
Henry of Gaunt], that the Alexandreis had been a common
430
SEA-SEARCH. .
school-book" (Steevens).... After all, the substance of the
line, Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim," has been
traced to St. Augustine, who writes as follows; "Distingue
intelligentiâ, noli separare perfidiâ; ne iterum, quasi fugiens
Charybdim, in Scyllam incurras . . . a Charybdi quidem
evasisti, sed in Scyllæis scopulis naufragisti. In medio naviga,
utrumque periculosum latus evita." In Johannis Evang.
cap. 8. Tractatus xxxvi. Opp. t. iii. p. 726, ed. 1797.
sea of wax, Tim. i. 1. 47: see wax-Sea of.
sea-bank, the sea-shore, Oth. iv. 1. 138; sea-banks, M.V. v. I. II.
sea-maid, a mermaid, M.M. iii. 2. 115; M.N.D. ii. 1. 154.
seal your knowledge with showing them-1 will not, "I will not
strengthen or complete your knowledge," &c. (JOHNSON),
Cor. ii. 3. 115; [sealed up my expectation, confirmed my fore-
bodings, 2H4. iv. 5. 104].
sealed quarts, quart-measures officially stamped to show that
they would hold the proper quantity, Shr. Ind. 2. 90.
seam, grease, lard, Troil. ii. 3. 195. See Enseamed.
sea-monster-With no less presence, but with much more love,
Than young Alcides, when he did redeem The virgin tribute
paid by howling Troy To the, M.V. iii. 2. 57: "See Ovid.
Metamorph. lib. xi. ver. 199 et seqq. Shakespeare, however,
I believe, had read an account of this adventure in The
Destruction of Troy [see vi. 2]; 'Laomedon cast his eyes all
bewept on him [Hercules], and was all abashed to see his
greatness and his beauty. See B. i. p. 221, 4th edit. 1617"
(MALONE).
sea-monster-More hideous.... Than the, Lr. i. 4. 283:
Steevens quotes, and seemingly with approbation, the remark
of Upton, that here the sea-monster means “the hippopotamus,
the hieroglyphical symbol of impiety and ingratitude:" but
that animal is a river monster.
seamy side without-The, "That is, inside out" (JOHNSON),
Oth. iv. 2. 146.
sear, the yellow leaf-Fall'n into the, Mcb. v. 3. 23: Here some
critics consider sear to be a substantive, "the state of
being withered."
sear up my embracements from a next With bonds of death!
Cymb. i. 1. 116. Dyce explains "close up;" Schmidt:
dry up, deprive of vitality?" Grant White reads cere,
which Steevens suggested; Singer reads seal. Probably
sear up, with treble reference, to sear, wither; cerecloth
and wax seal.
search, to probe: And thus I search [=apply a remedy to]
it with a sovereign kiss, 2G. i. 2. 116; Now to the bottom
dost thou search my wound, Tit. ii. 3. 262; with this good
sword .. search (pierce) this bosom, J.C. v. 3. 42;
searching of thy wound, A.Y.L. ii. 4. 44.
SEA-ROOM-SECURELY.
sea-room, Per. iii. 1. 45. See Room.
431
season, to confirm, to establish: my blessing season ("infix in
such a manner as that it never may wear out," JOHNSON)
this in thee! Hml. i. 3. 81 [Schmidt: mature, ripen, prepare]
(where Caldecott explains season “give a relish to, quicken;
or, it may be, keep alive in your memory"); to take From
Rome all season'd office ("all office established and settled
by time, and made familiar to the people by long use,'
JOHNSON), Cor. iii. 3. 64 [Schmidt, qualified, tempered};
Directly seasons him his enemy, Hml. iii. 2. 219.
season, in “a culinary sense, to preserve by salting” (MALONE):
the best brine a maiden can season her praise in, A.W. i. 1. 55;
all this to season A brother's dead love, 12N. i. 1. 30; the
spice and salt that season a man, Troil. i. 2. 278.
season, to temper: When mercy seasons justice, M.V. iv. 1. 197:
Season your admiration for a while, &c., Hml. i. 2. 192.
season-A day of, A seasonable day, A.W. v. 3. 32.
season-Oƒ, and of the season, In season: We kill the fowl of
season, M.M. ii. 2. 85; buck; and of the season too, M.W.
iii. 3. 169.
second and the third, nine, and some five-The, W.T. ii. 1. 145,
i.e. the second, nine; and the third, about five.
seconds - Which is not mixed with, Sonn. 125: “Seconds is a
provincial term for the second kind of flour, which is col-
lected after the smaller bran is sifted. That our author's
oblation was pure, unmixed with baser matter, is all that
he meant to say” (STEEVENS).
seconds- You have sham'd me In your condemned: see condemned
seconds, &c.
sect, sex: So is all her sect, 2H4. ii. 4. 41. (So Swift, in his Four-
nal to Stella, writes, "See your confounded sect." Works,
vol. ii. p. 119, Scott's sec. ed.).
sect, a cutting: a sect or scion, Oth. i. 3. 336.
secure, careless, over-confident: a secure fool, M.W. ii. 1. 241;
a secure ass, ii. 2. 315; a secure and wilful Actæon, iii. 2.
43; secure, fool-hardy king, R2. v. 3. 43; Surety secure, Troil.
ii. 2. 15; my sécure ("unguarded," CALDECOTT) hour, Hml.
i. 5. 61; not jealous, nor secure, Oth. iii. 3. 198; in a secure
couch ("in a couch in which he is lulled into a false security
and confidence in his wife's virtue," MALONE), iv. I. 72.
secure thy heart, assure thy heart,-be confident, Tim.
ii. 2. 185.
securely, carelessly, over-confidently: she dwells so securely, &c.,
M.W. ii 2. 252; securely perish (“perish by too great con-
fidence in our security," MALONE), R2. ii. 1. 266; 'Tis done
like Hector; but securely done (done with “a negligent secur-
ity arising from a contempt of the object opposed," WAR--
BURTON), Troil. iv. 5. 73.
432
SECURITY-SELF.
security, carelessness, over-confidence: through our security,
R2. iii. 2. 34; too much security, H5. ii. 2. 44; security Is
mortals' chiefest enemy, Mcb. iii. 5. 32.
security enough to make fellowships accursed, M.M. iii. 2. 241:
"The speaker here alludes to those legal securities into
which fellowship leads men to enter for each other"
(MALONE).
seedness, seed-time, M.M. i. 4. 42.
seel, to close up the eyes, to blind; properly a term of falconry,
to seel a hawk meaning to close up her eyelids either par-
tially or entirely, by running a fine thread through them,
in order to make her tractable and endure the hood ("Siller
les yeux.
To seele, or sow up, the eye-lids; (& thence also) to
hoodwinke, blind, keepe in darknesse, depriue of sight." Cot-
grave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.: "To seel a hawk, Accipitris
oculos consuere." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): when light-
wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness My
speculative and offic'd instruments, Oth. i. 3. 270 (where, ac-
cording to Nares in his Gloss., is probably an allusion to
seeling the eyelids with a small feather, which was some-
times used instead of a thread: but qy.?); To seel her father's
eyes up, iii. 3. 210; the wise gods seel our eyes, Ant. iii. 13.
112; Come, seeling night, Mcb. iii. 2. 46.
seeming, "specious" (STEEVENS): the so seeming Mistress Page,
M.W. iii. 2. 42; that little seeming substance, Lr. i. 1. 201.
seeming, fair appearance: these keep seeming and savour, W.T.
iv. 4. 75.
seeming, seemly, becomingly: bear your body more seeming,
A.Y.L. v. 4 72.
"
seen in thought, seen in silence, without notice or detection"
(JOHNSON), R3. iii. 6. 14.
seen-Well: see well seen.
seethe, to boil, Tim. iv. 3. 433; seethes, Troil. iii. 1. 43; seething,
M.N.D. v. I. 4.
segregation, a separation, a dispersion, Oth. ii. 1. 10.
seiz'd, possessed (a law-term): all those his lands Which he
stood seiz'd of, Hml. i. 1. 89.
seld, seldom, Troil. iv. 5. 150; P. Pilg. 175.
seldom comes the better, R3. ii. 3. 4: A not uncommon pro-
verbial saying, of great antiquity. (Douce cites an account
of its origin from a Ms. collection of stories in Latin com-
piled about the time of Henry III.)
seldom-when, rarely, not often, M.M. iv. 2. 89; 2H4. iv. 4. 79.
(Globe om. - ).
seld-shown flamens, "priests who seldom exhibit themselves
to public view" (STEEVENS), Cor. ii. 1. 229.
self, self same: one self mate and mate (“the same husband and
the same wife," JOHNSON), Lr. iv. 3. 36.
SELF-SENSE.
433
self exhibition-That, That very allowance or pension (see
exhibition), Cymb. i. 6. 122.
self-abuse: see first abuse.
self-admission, self-allowance, self-approbation, Troil. ii. 3. 176.
self-bounty, "inherent generosity" (WARBURTON), Oth. iii.
3. 200.
self-cover'd thing-Thou changed and, Lr. iv. 2. 62: "I cannot
but think that by self-cover'd the author meant, thou that
hast disguised nature by wickedness, thou that hast hid the
woman under the fiend" (JOHNSON): "By 'thou self-cover'd
thing,' the poet, I think, means, thou who hast put a covering
on thyself which nature did not give thee. The covering
which Albany means is, the semblance and appearance of
a fiend" (MALONE).
self-figur'd knot-A, “A knot formed by yourself [themselves]"
(JOHNSON), Cymb. ii. 3. 124.
self-sovereignty, &c.—Do not curst wives hold that, L.L.L. iv.
1. 36: "Not a sovereignty over, but in, themselves. So, self-
sufficiency, self-confidence, &c." (MALONE).
self-unable motion, his own feeble means: A.W. iii. 1. 13.
semblable, a resemblance, a likeness: His semblable (= fellow-
creature), yea, himself, Timon disdains, Tim. iv. 3. 22; his
semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his
umbrage (shadow), nothing more, Hml. v. 2. 124.
semblable, like, resembling, similar: the semblable coherence of
his men's spirits and his, 2H4. v. 1. 72; thousands more Of
semblable import, Ant. iii. 4. 3.
semblably, in like, in similar manner, 1H4. v. 3. 21.
semblative, resembling, 12N. i. 4. 34-
seniory, seniority, R3. iv. 4. 36.
sennet, a particular set of notes on the trumpet or cornet
(the etymology of the word being doubtful), 2H6. iii. 1;
3H6. i. 1; H8. ii. 4; Troil. i. 3; Cor. ii. 2; J.C. i. 2: Mcb.
iii. 1; Ant. ii. 7; all in Dir.
Senoys, the Siennese, the people of the republic of Sienna,
A.W. i. 2. 1. [The use of the French form of this word
(Senois) shows that Shakespeare followed Painter's Palace
of Pleasure; Boccaccio has "i Fiorentini guerregiavano co'
Sanesi," Giorn. iii. N. 9.]
sense, sensual passion: motions of the sense, M.M. i. 4. 59;
modesty may more betray our sense Than woman's lightness,
ii. 2. 169; Their wives have sense like them, Oth. iv. 3. 95;
my sanctity Will to my sense bend no licentious ear, Per. v.
3 30; [my sense breeds with it, M.M. ii. 2. 142: her sense
(meaning) and my sense (desire) unite to engender new
thoughts in my mind.]
sense, sensation: That it is proof and bulwark against sense,
Hml. iii. 4. 38.
28
434
SENSE-SERVICE.
sense-Spirit of, [essence of delicate sensation], Troil. i. 1. 58;
iii. 3. 106.
sense-I've rubb'd this young quat almost to the: see quat.
sense', for senses: their sense' are shut, Mcb. v. 1. 29.
senseless --And therein you are, And therein you are not to
understand her, Cymb. ii. 3. 58.
senses rule-Let, "Let prudence govern you, conduct yourself
sensibly" (STEEVENS), H5. ii. 3. 51.
separable spite-A, “A cruel fate, that spitefully separates us
from each other. Separable for separating" (MALONE),
Sonn. 36.
septentrion-The, The north, 3H6. i. 4. 136.
sequent, a follower: a sequent of the stranger queen's, L.L.L
iv. 2. 142.
sequester, a sequestration, a separation: Oth. iii. 4. 40.
sequestration-An answerable, Oth. i. 3. 351: Steevens believes
that here sequestration is used for sequel; but he allows that
it may mean no more than "separation,"-which, no doubt,
it does. [Division, rupture, divorce. SCHMIDT.]
sere-The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle
o' the, Hml. ii. 2. 337: i.e. those who are asthmatical, and
to whom laughter is most uneasy. This is the case (as I
am told) with those whose lungs are tickled by the sere or
serum” (STEEVENS). "The clown shall make even these
laugh whose lungs are tickled with a dry cough or huski-
ness; by his merriment shall convert even their coughing
into laughter" (SINGER, after DOUCE): tickled o' sere, accord-
ing to Mr. Halliwell, means "wanton," an explanation
which he feels confident is all right, but which is inconsistent
with the words "lungs." [Cf. Telltrothes N.Y. Gift, N.S.S.
ed. p. 199. Those who are easily set laughing. The sere
or sear is part of a gun-lock that catches in the trigger.
When finely adjusted it was said to be tickle-easily set
off, like a 'hair-trigger.' Shakespeare probably had the sere
of a cross-bow in his thought. See Clar. Press ed.]
sergeant, a bailiff, a sheriff's officer: this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest, Hml. v. 2. 347.
I
serpigo, a sort of tetter or dry eruption on the skin, M.M.
iii. 1. 31; Troil. ii. 3. 81.
servant, a lover: Sir Valentine and servant, 2G. ii. 1. 106;
thank you, gentle servant, 114; And so, good morrow, servant,
140; Sil. Servant,—Val. Mistress? ii. 4. 1; Servant, you are
sad, ibid.; Who is that, servant, 36; &c. [1H6. i. 2. 111,
see 113.]
servanted, subjected, Cor. v. 2. 89.
service is no heritage, a proverbial expression, A.W. i. 3. 25:
Ray gives "Service is no inheritance." Proverbs, p. 155,
ed. 1768.
(
SESSA-SET.
435
sessa, Shr. Ind. 1. 6; Lr. iii. 4. 104; iii. 6. 77: This, according
to Theobald, is the Spanish “Cessa, i.e. be quiet;” accord-
ing to Hanmer, "Peace, be quiet, Lat. Cessa;" according
to Capell, a corruption of cessa (Ital.) and cessez (Fr.),
both deriv'd from the Latin word cessa, and both signifying,
as that does, 'leave, have done, let alone;"" and Johnson
(with whom Nares in Gloss. agrees) takes it "to be the French
word cessez . . . . an interjection enforcing cessation in any
action, like be quiet, have done." (I must confess that I do
not feel satisfied with these notes on sessa: qy. if the word,
as used in at least the second and third of the passages
above referred to, may be illustrated by the following lines
of Sylvester's Du Bartas, ed. 1641? Joshua urges on his
troops;
"Sa sa, my Hearts! turn, turn again upon them,
They are your own; now charge, and cheerly on them."
The Captaines, p. 182;
where the original; has "Cà, cà, tournons visage, allons,"
&c.: Jezebel being killed,
"The Dogs about doe greedy feed upon
The rich-perfumed, royall Carrion;
And Folk by thousands issuing at the Gate
To see the sight, cry thus (as glad thereat)
Ses, ses, here Dogs, here Bitches! doe not spare
This Bitch that gnaw'd her subjects' bones so bare."
The Decay, p. 229;
where the original has "Sus, lyces, deschirez," &c.) Com-
pare too; "Spa. Well played, dog! well played, bear!
Sa, sa, sa! to't, to't!" Ford's Fancies Chaste and Noble, act
iv. sc. 1. [Schmidt accepts this and adds: “compare the
German sasa."]
set, to set by, to value, to estimate: coldly set Our sovereign
process, Hml. iv. 3. 64. To stake, 1H4. iv. 1. 46; 47.
set a match, make an appointment (in the cant language of
thieves, plan a robbery), 1H4. i. 2. 119.
set of wit well play'd-A, L.L.L. v. 2. 29: "A term from
tennis. So in King Henry V. [i. 2. 262] 'play a set,' &c."
(STEEVENS).
set. Jul. As little by such toys as may be possible-Your ladyship
can, 2G. i. 2. 81 : Here, of course, by set Lucetta means "set
a song to music," while, in Julia's rejoinder, set by signifies
“make account of." (Mr. Chappell remarks that this passage,
your ladyship can set, “adds one more to the many proofs
of the superior cultivation of the science [of music] in those
days. We should not now readily attribute to ladies, even
to those who are generally considered to be well educated
and accomplished, enough knowledge of harmony to enable
436
SET-SEWER.
them to set a song correctly to music, however agile their
fingers may be." Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c.
vol. i. p. 221, sec. ed.)
set cock-a-hoop!-You will: see cock-a-hoop, &c.
set from London, set out from London, H5. ii. Prol. 34.
set up one's rest—To: see rest—To set up one's.
V.
Setebos, Tp. i. 2. 373; v. 1. 261: ".... Perhaps [Shakespeare]
had read Eden's History of Travayle, 1577, who tells us,
p. 434, that the giantes, when they found themselves fettered,
'roared like bulls and cried upon [their great devil] Setebos
to help them'" (FARMER): "We learn from Magellan's
Voyage that Setebos was the supreme god of the Patagons,
and Cheleule was an inferior one" (TOLLET): "Setebos is
also mentioned in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1598" (MALONE):
"In Dr. Farmer's note it should have been added that the
passage from Eden's History of Travayle was part of
Magellan's Voyage; or in Mr. Tollet's that Magellan was
included in Eden's collection” (Douce).
setter, one who watches, and points out to comrades, the
persons to be plundered: 0, 'tis our setter, 1H4. ii. 2. 53.
seven [sins]-The deadly, Pride, envy, wrath, sloth, covetous-
ness, gluttony, lechery, M.M. iii. 1. 111.
seven stars,- we have seen the, 2H4. ii. 4. 201: the Bear, or
Charles's wain. Milton, Il Pens. 87: "Out-watch the Bear."
Pistol means they have spent nights carousing together.
several they be-My lips are no common, though, L.L.L. ii. 1.
223; Why should my heart think that a several plot, Sonn.
137: "Fields that were enclosed were called severals, in
opposition to commons, the former belonging to individuals,
the others to the inhabitants generally. When commons
were enclosed, portions allotted to owners of freeholds,
copyholds, and cottages, were fenced in, and termed severals:
so Maria says, playing on the word,-my lips are not common,
though they are certainly several, once part of the common;
or, though my lips are several, a field, they are certainly
no common. According to Mr. Hunter [New Illust. of
Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 267], 'severals, or several lands, are
portions of common assigned for a term to a particular
proprietor, the other commoners waiving for the time their
right of common over them;' but, although the term may
have been used in this and some other restricted senses,
there can be no doubt but that the meaning was generally
accepted in accordance with the explanation given above"
(HALLIWELL).
severals and unhidden passages, &c.-The, H5. i. 1. 86; [Troil.
i. 3. 180]: “that which concerns a particular person or
question" (SCHMIDT).
sewer, an officer, who placed the dishes on the table, took
SHADOW—SHAW.
437
them off, &c.: a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes,
Mcb. i. 7. Dir.
shadow, a shade, a shady place: I'll go find a shadow, A.Y.L.
iv. I. 222.
Shafalus.
Procrus, blunders for Cephalus . . . . Procris,
M.N.D. v. I. 200.
shaft or a bolt on't—Make a: see make a shaft, &c.
shaft, I shot his fellow, &c.—When I had lost one, M.V. i. 1.
140: "This method of finding a lost arrow is prescribed
by P. Crescentius in his treatise De Agricultura, lib. x. cap.
xxviii., and is also mentioned in Howel's Letters, vol. i.
p. 183, edit. 1655, 12m0" (Douce).
shales, shells, the outer coats of fruit, H5. iv. 2. 18.
shard-borne beetle--The, "The beetle borne along the air by
its shards or scaly wings [properly wing-cases]" (STEEVENS),
Mcb. iii. 2. 42. (“The beetle is furnished with two large
membranaceous wings, which are protected from external
injury by two very hard, horny wing-cases, or, as entomo-
logists term them, elytra. The old English name was
‘shard.'... These shards or wing-cases are raised and
expanded when the beetle flies, and by their concavity
act like two parachutes in supporting him in the air.
Hence the propriety and correctness of Shakspeare's
description, 'the shard-borne beetle,' a description embodied
in a single epithet." Patterson's Letters on the Nat. Hist. of
the Insects mentioned in Shakspeare's Plays, p. 65).
sharded beetle-The, Cymb. iii. 3. 20: see the preceding article.
shards, and he their beetle-Thy are his, "i.e. They are the
wings [properly wing-cases] that raise this heavy lumpish
insect from the ground" (STEEVENS), Ant. iii. 2. 19: see
shard-borne beetle.
shards, fragments of broken pottery, of pots, of tiles, &c.:
Shards, flints, and pebbles, Hml. v. 1. 254.
share-Half a, Hml. iii. 2. 290: “Alluding to the shares, or
proportions, into which the receipts at a theatre were
divided, and given to the performers, according to their
several rates of interest, or rank in the company” (COLLIER):
The words which immediately follow here- A whole one, 1
(and which Malone most improperly proposed altering
to "A whole one, ay")-mean, "I think myself entitled
to a whole one" (STEEVENS), or "A whole one, say I”
(CALDECOTT).
shark'd up, "picked up without distinction, as the shark-fish
collects his prey" (STEEVENS), "collected in a banditti-like
manner" (Nares's Gloss.), "snapped up with the eager
voracity of a shark, caught up from any or all quarters
for a bellyful" (CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 1. 98.
Shaw.
to Friar Penker-- To Doctor, R3. iii. 5. 103: “Shaw
438
SHE-SHENT.
[brother of the Lord Mayor] and Penker [Provincial of the
Augustine Friars] were two popular preachers" (MALONE).
she, often used substantively, woman: that she beloved knows
nought, Troil. i. 2. 314.
shealed, shaled, shelled, Lr. i. 4. 219.
shearman, one who shears woollen cloth, 2H6. iv. 2. 141.
shears between us-There went but a pair of, "We are both of
the same piece" (JOHNSON), M.M. i. 2. 29: this proverbial
expression is common enough.
sheav'd hat, a straw hat, L. Compl. 31.
sheen, brightness, splendour: borrow'd sheen, Hml. iii. 2. 167.
sheen, shining, bright: starlight sheen, M.N.D. ii. 1. 29.
sheep, formerly often pronounced (as it still is in certain
counties) ship, and even so written: hence the quibbles,-
Twenty to one, then he is shipp'd already, And I have play'd
the sheep in losing him, 2G. i. 1. 73; Why, thou peevish sheep,
What ship of Epidamnum stays for me? Err. iv. 1. 93;
Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry. Boyet. And wherefore not
ships L.L.L. ii. 1. 220. (Compare Dekker's Satiromastix,
1602; "A hood shall flap vp and down heere, and this
shipskin-cap shall be put off." Sig. F 3 verso: That in Dryden's
time ship was occasionally pronounced sheep appears from
a rhyme in his translation of Virgil;
'With whirlwinds from beneath she toss'd the ship,
And bare expos'd the bosom of the deep."
En. B, i. 64;
and that such was the case even at a later period is shown
by a couplet in Nereides or Sea-Eclogues, 1712, by a poetaster
named Diaper, who is several times mentioned in Swift's
Journal to Stella;
"You'll find the fish, that stays the labouring ship,
Tho' ruffling winds drive o'er the noisy deep."
sheep-biter, a cant term for a thief, 12N. ii. 5. 6.
sheep-biting, thievish, thief-like, M.M. v. 1. 359.
Ecl. x. p. 44)..
sheer, pure: Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain, R2.
v. 3. 61.
sheer ale-Fourteen pence on the score for, Shr. Ind. 2. 25:
Here, according to some expositors, sheer ale is "ale alone,
nothing but ale," rather than "unmixed ale."
shekels, see sickles.
shent, the pret. and past part. of shend, to chide, to rate, to
scold: He shent our messengers, Troil. ii. 3. 86; I am shent
for speaking to you, 12N. iv. 2. 112; Do you hear how we
are shent, Cor. v. 2. 104; How in my words soever she be
shent ("reproved harshly, treated with rough language,"
STEEVENS; "hurt, wounded, punished," HENDERSON), Hml.
iii. 2. 416.
shent, treated roughly, ruined, undone: We shall all be shent
SHERIFF'S—SHOVE-GROAT.
"
439
(where some take shent to mean chidden, scolded"),
M.W. i. 4. 38.
sheriff's post-Like a, 12N. i. 5. 157: At the doors of sheriffs
were usually set up ornamented posts, on which royal and
civic proclamations were fixed.
sherris-sack: 2H4. iv. 3. 104: see sack, &c.
shift his being, "change his abode" (JOHNSON), Cymb. i. 5. 54.
shine, brightness, lustre: Thou show'dst a subject's shine, Per.
i. 2. 124; they borrow'd all their shine, Ven. 488; obscures
her silver shine, 728.
shipman's card-The: see card-The shipman's.
ship-tire,- The, A sort of head-dress, perhaps adorned with
ribbons as a ship is with streamers; or perhaps a head-
dress formed to resemble a ship, M.W. iii. 3. 60.
shive-Easy it is Of a cut loaf to steal a, Tit. ii. 1. 87: shive,
i.e. slice: Ray gives "Tis safe taking a shive of a cut loaf."
Proverbs, p. 48, ed. 1768.
shock, "to meet force with force" (Todd's Johnson's Dict.),
And we shall shock them, K.J. v. 7. 117.
shoe-This left, 2G. ii. 3. 16: "Shoes, in Shakespeare's time,
appear to have been adapted to the right and left foot, a
fashion revived in our time. So, in King John, [iv. 2. 197:]
Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contráry feet'"
shog, to jog, H5. ii. 1. 47; ii. 3. 47.
shoon, shoes, 2H6. iv. 2. 195; Hml. iv. 5. 26.
(MALONE).
shore, to set on shore: if he think it fit to shore them again,
W.T. iv. 4. 869.
short, to come short of: I shall short my word By lengthening
my return, Cymb. i. 6. 200.
shot-A little, lean, old, chapped bald, 2H4. iii. 2. 295: “Shot
is used for shooter, one who is to fight by shooting"
(JOHNSON).
shot-free at London, &c.-Though I could scape, 1H4. v. 3. 30:
"A play upon shot, as it means the part of a reckoning,
and a missive weapon discharged from artillery" (JOHNSON).
shotten herring, a herring that has cast its spawn, 1H4. ii. 4. 143.
shoughs, a shaggy kind of dogs, Mcb. iii. 1. 94.
shoulder'd in, pushed with violence into, R3. iii. 7. 128. Johnson
conj. smoulder'd, — smothered.
shoulder-shotten, sprained, dislocated in the shoulder, Shr.
iii. 2. 56.
shove-groat shilling, a shilling used at the game of shove-groat,
which appears to have differed little, if at all, from that
of shovel-board (see Edward shovel-boards), 2H4 ii. 4. 206.
(According to Douce, "shovel-board seems to have been
only a variation of shove-groat on a larger scale"). [From
440
3
SHOW-SIEGE.
Every Man in his Humour, iii. 2: "and made it run as
smooth off his tongue as a shove-groat shilling": it would
appear that worn, smooth coins were used at the game.]
show-The harmless, "The harmless painted figure" (MALONE),
Lucr. 1507.
shrew, to beshrew, quod vide: shrew my heart, W.T. i. 2. 281:
shrew me, Cymb. ii. 3. 147.
shrieve, a sheriff; the shrieve's fool (see fool-The shrieve's),
A.W. iv. 3. 213.
shrift, confession, and, sometimes, absolution (see shrive), M.M.
iv. 2. 223; 3H6. iii. 2. 107; R3. iii. 4. 97; Rom. i. 1. 165;
ii. 3. 56; ii. 4. 192; ii. 5. 68; iv. 2. 15; Oth. iii. 3. 24.
["Where Pinabell was shriv'n without confession." Haring-
ton, Orl. Fur. xxiii. 28 = slain.]
shrill-gorg'd, shrill-throated, shrill-voiced, Lr. iv. 6. 58.
shrive, to confess as a priest does a penitent ("To shrive, Confi-
tentem absolvere." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), Err. ii. 2. 210;
M.V. i. 2. 144; shriv'd, Rom. ii. 4. 194; shrives, 1H6. i. 2. 119.
shriver, a confessor (see shrive), 3H6. iii. 2. 108.
shriving-time (see shrive), Hml. v. 2. 47.
shriving-work (see shrive), R3. iii. 2. 116.
shrow, a shrew. Dyce's reading, for rhyme's sake, Shr. v. 2.
28; 188.
shrowd, shelter, protection: And put yourself under his shroud,
Ant. iii. 13. 71 (Globe, shroud).
shut up, “immured” (Douce), “enclosed" (Boswell): shut up
In measureless content, Mcb. ii. 1. 16 (Here shut up is
glossed by Steevens and Malone "concluded,"-wrongly, I
apprehend, though the words have frequently that meaning,
as in the last sentence of "The Allegorie of the Poem
prefixed to Fairfax's translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme,
"the Poem is shut up in the praiers of Godfrey"). [In
Oth. iii. 4. 121, Schmidt explains: “make up my mind by
confining myself."]
"}
shuttle-Life is a. M.W. v. 1. 25: "My days are swifter than
a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope." Fob vii. 6.
sib, akin, related to, 2N.K. i. 2. 72.
sickles, the Folio spelling of shekels, M.M. ii. 2. 149.
side-Hardly shall I carry out my: see carry out my side, &c.
side sleeves, long hanging sleeves, Ado, iii. 4. 21 (where round =
round about). "Her garment side," &c. Fairfax's transla-
tion of Tasso's Gerusalemme, B. ix. st. 8.
siege, a seat (Fr. siège): the very siege of justice, M.M. iv. 2. IOI.
("Who thus from loftie siege [the original has seggio] his pleasure told."
Fairfax's translation of Tasso's Gerusalemme, B. x, st. 35.)
siege, place, rank: Of the unworthiest siege, Hml. iv. 7. 77;
men of royal siege. Oth. i. 2. 22.
SIEGE-SIMPLICITY.
441
siege, a stool (in the dirtiest sense of the word): the siege of
this moon-calf, Tp. ii. 2. 110.
Sienna's brother, Cymb. iv. 2. 341 (Globe Syenna's): “i.e. (as
I suppose Shakespeare to have meant) brother to the Prince
of Sienna: but, unluckily, Sienna was a republic. See W.
Thomas's Historye of Italye, 4to, bl. l. 1561, p.7 b” (Steevens).
sieve-Unrespective, Troil. ii. 2. 71: see second unrespective.
sigh, That hurts by easing-A spendthrift, Hml. iv. 7. 123; sighs
of love, that cost the fresh blood dear, M.N.D. iii. 2. 97; blood-
consuming sighs, 2H6. iii. 2. 61; blood-drinking sighs, 63;
blood-sucking sighs, 3H6. iv. 4. 22: "All alluding to the an-
cient supposition, that every sigh was indulged at the ex-
pense of a drop of blood" (Steevens).
sightless, unsightly; sightless stains, K.J. iii. 1. 45.
sightless, invisible: your sightless substances, Mcb. i. 5. 50; the
sightless couriers of the air ("winds, air in motion," JOHNSON),
i. 7. 23.
sights of steel, "the perforated part of their helmets, through
which they could see to direct their aim. Visiere, Fr."
(STEEVENS), 2H4. iv. 1. 121.
sign, to show, to denote, to mark: You sign your place and
calling, H8. ii. 4. 108; Quoted, and sign'd, to a deed of shame,
K.J. iv. 2. 222; Sign'd in thy spoil, J.C. iii. 1. 206.
significant, affectedly used by Armado in the sense of "letter,"
L.L.L. iii. 1. 131; significants, quoted in Todd's Johnson's
Dict. under the head of "that which expresses something
beyond the external mark," 1H6. ii. 4. 26.
signs of war -The, The ensigns of war, H5. ii. 2. 192.
signs well-It, "It is a good sign, it bodes well" (STEEVENS),
Ant. iv. 3. 15.
silenc'd with that, "Wrapped in silent wonder at the deeds
performed by Macbeth, &c." (MALONE), Mcb. i. 3. 93.
silent of the night-The, The silence of, &c., 2H6. i. 4. 19.
silver pillars, a silver pillar was part of a Cardinal's insignia,
H8. ii. 4. Dir.
silly, harmless, inoffensive: silly women (here" a term of affec-
tion, not of reproach. It denotes that which appealed to
the stronger sex for protection in its innocence and simpli-
city." Hunter's New Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 106),
2G. iv. 1. 72: silly sheep, L.L.L. v. 1. 53. [= hapless, 2H6.
i. 1. 225.]
silly, plain, simple: it is silly sooth (truth), 12N. ii. 4. 47; a
fourth man, in a silly habit, Cymb. v. 3. 86.
silly-cheat- The W.T. iv. 3. 28: "One of the technical terms
belonging to the art of coney-catching or thievery. I think
it means picking pockets" (STEevens).
simplicity, folly: The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up
simplicity, L.L.L. iv. 3. 54; profound simplicity, v. 2. 52;
442
SIMULAR-SIR.
To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity, 78; And simple truth
miscall'd simplicity, Sonn. 66.
simular, a simulator, Lr. iii. 2. 54.
simular, counterfeited: with simular proof, Cymb. v. 5. 200.
Sinel's death-By, Mcb. i. 3. 71: This name of Macbeth's father
is from Holinshed, who followed Bellenden's version of
H. Boethius.
sinew, to knit together as by sinews, to unite: So shalt thou
sinew both these lands together, 3H6. ii. 6. 91.
sinew-A rated: see rated sinew-A.
single, weak, feeble: a single thing, Tp. i. 2. 432; your wit
single, 2H4. i. 2. 207; my single state of man, Mcb. i. 3. 140.
single, simple, void of guile: I speak it with a single heart,
H8. v. 3. 38.
single-soled jest, a poor, feeble, silly jest (with a quibble on
soled), Rom. ii. 4. 69 ("Bas relief. Gentilhōme de bas relief.
A thredbare, or single-soled Gentleman, a Gentleman of low
degree." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict., sub "Relief").
singled forth,-Are, have thus secluded yourselves, Tit. ii.
3. 69.
singularities, curiosities, rarities, W.T. v. 3. 12.
sink-a-pace, a corruption of cinque-pace (quod vide), 12N. i. 3. 139.
Sinon in his fire, Lucr. 1556. Cf. Dante, Inferno, xxx. 98.
Sins-The deadly seven: see seven, &c.
sins do bear their privilege on earth-Some, "There are sins
that, whatever be determined of them above, are not much
censured on earth" (JOHNSON), K.J. i. 1. 261.
sir, a gentleman: the worthiest sir, Cymb. i. 6. 160; a sir so
rare, 175.
sir, a gallant, a courtier: which now again you are most apt to
play the sir in, Oth. ii. 1. 176.
sir: "A title formerly applied to priests and curates in general;
for this reason: dominus, the academical title of a bachelor
of arts, was usually rendered by sir in English at the
Universities; so that a bachelor, who in the books stood
Dominus Brown, was in conversation called Sir Brown.
This was in use in some colleges even in my memory.
Therefore, as most clerical persons had taken that first
degree, it became usual to style them sir [though they had
not received a degree from the Universities]." Nares's Gloss.:
Sir Hugh, M.W. i. 1. 1; 216, etc.; Sir Oliver Martext,
A.Y.L. v. 1; Sir Oliver, ib.; Sir Topas, 12N. iv. 2; Sir John
Hume, 2H6. i. 2. 88; Sir John, R3. iii. 2. 111; Sir Christopher
Urswick, R3. iv. 5.
sir, used by a speaker in soliloquy; Now, sir, the sound that
tells what hour it is, R2. v. 5. 55; see note 132, iv. 190: to
the passages there cited I have to add one from Sir Walter
Scott, who makes Jeanie Deans, while soliloquising, use the
SIRE-SKAINS-MATES.
443
address sirs; and doubtless those Scotchmen who read the
passage see no impropriety in it; "Dear sirs,' SHE SAID TO
HERSELF, 'I wonder how my cousin's silk manty, and her
gowd watch,'" &c. The Heart of Midlothian, vol. iii. p. 283,
ed. 1818.
sire, to beget, base things sire base, Cymb. iv. 2. 26.
sirrah, used not as a word of disrespect, but as a familiar
address: Ah, sirrah, a body would think, &c., A.Y.L. iv. 3. 166;
sirrah, I have cases of buckram, 1H4. i. 2. 200; Ah, sirrah!
Tit. iii. 2. 75; Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well,
Rom. i. 5. 31; Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late, 128;
Sirrah, your father's dead, Mcb. iv. 2. 30 (Malone having
observed, and rightly, that "in our author's time sirrah was
not always a word of disrespect," Steevens and Douce
choose to understand him as having said that "it was never
a word of disrespect").
sirrah, used as an address to a woman: sirrah Iras, go, Ant.
V. 2. 229 (Swift, in his Journal to Stella, over and over
again applies "sirrah" to Stella and "sirrahs" to Stella and
Mrs. Dingley; see, for instances, his Works, vol. ii. pp.
24, 26, 33, 36, 65, 74, 84, 90, 102, Scott's sec. ed.).
sir-reverence, a corruption of save-reverence (salvâ reverentiâ),
an old formula of apology for introducing any too free or
indelicate expression: without he say "sir-reverence," Err.
iii. 2. 93: but in Romeo and Juliet, according to the oldest
reading (followed in the present edition) the word is used
nearly in the sense which it still retains among the vulgar,—
draw thee from the mire Of this sir-reverence love, Rom. i. 4. 42.
sirs, used as an address to women: Good sirs, take heart, Ant.
iv. 15. 85.
sister, to resemble closely: her art sisters the natural roses,
Per. v. Gow. 7.
sister, to be near to: a sistering vale, L. Compl. 2.
sit in gold-He does: see gold-He does, &c.
sit you out, L.L.L. i. 1. 110: an expression borrowed from the
card-table.
sith, since, 2G. i. 2. 126; M.W. ii. 2. 195; M.M. i. 3. 35; iv. I.
74; Shr. i. I. 216, etc.
sithence, since, A.W. i. 3. 124; Cor. iii. 1. 47.
sitting, a sitting of the king and council, an audience, W.T.
iv. 4. 572.
sizes, allowances (an academic term signifying "certain portions
of bread, beer," &c.): to scant my sizes, Lr. ii. 4. 178.
skains-mates, Rom. ii. 4. 162: On this term, which has given
rise to much dispute, Mr. Staunton has the following note;
"The word skain, I am told by a Kentish man, was formerly
a familiar term in parts of Kent to express what we now
call a scape-grace or ne'er-do-well; just the sort of person
444
SKILL—SKOGAN'S.
the worthy old Nurse would entertain a horror of being
considered a companion to. Even at this day, my informant
says, skain is often heard in the Isle of Thanet, and about
the adjacent coast, in the sense of a reckless dare-devil sort
of fellow." [Variously explained: Steevens says: “A skein or
skain was either a knife or a short dagger. By skains-mates
the Nurse means his loose companions who frequent the
fencing school with him" [perhaps "lay knife aboard" in
1. 214 suggests an alternative interpretation?] Douce takes
skeins =“skeins of thread, so that the good nurse may mean
nothing more than sempstresses." Nares is inclined to think
that the old lady meant roaring or swaggering companions,
but does not trace the meaning. Mason read his kins-
mates, but if this be right, we should take the word rather
to be hiskinnes mates, cf. alleskinnes = of all sorts, and
explain: I am none of his sort of mates, low companions.
I cannot find any trace of Staunton's Kenticism.]
skill, reason: I think you have As little skill to fear, &c.
W.T. iv. 4. 152 (That here Warburton was right in ex-
plaining skill to mean "reason" is certain, though Malone
and Mason thought otherwise: compare "For in that desert
is fulle gret defaute of watre: and often time it fallethe,
that where men fynden watre at o tyme in a place,
it faylethe another tyme. And for that skylle, thei make
none habitaciouns there." The Voiage and Travaile of
Sir John Maundevile, &c., p. 78, ed. 1725:
"Hence Englands heirs apparant haue of Wales bin princes, till
Our queene deceast conceald her heire, I wot not for what skill.”
Warner's Continuance of Albions England, 1606, p. 415).
skills not-It, It matters not, it makes no difference: It skills
not much, Shr. iii. 2. 134; 12N. v. 1. 295; It skills not greatly,
2H6. iii. 1. 281.
skinker: see under-skinker.
skipper, a youngster, Shr. ii. 1. 341.
skirr, to move rapidly, to scour, H5. iv. 7. 64; Mcb. v. 3. 35.
Skogan's head—I saw him break, 2H4. iii. 2. 33: It appears
that there were two Skogans of considerable celebrity;
Henry Skogan, [1361?-1407] a poet, who lived in the reign
of King Henry the Fourth, and John Skogan, [fl. 1480] a
facetious personage, educated at Oriel College, Oxford,
who lived at a later period in the fifteenth century; and
that, in spite of the anachronism, Shakespeare here alludes
to John Skogan: "Holinshed, speaking of the great men of
Edward the Fourth's time, mentions Scogan, a learned
gentleman, and student for a time in Oxford, of a plea-
saunte witte, and bent to mery deuises, in respect whereof
he was called into the courte, where, giuing himselfe to his
naturall inclination of mirthe and pleasaunt pastime, he
SLAB-SLEAVE.
445
plaied many sporting parts, althoughe not in suche vnciuill
maner as hath bene of hym reported (RITSON): "The
geystes of skoggon, gathered together in this volume,” were
entered in the Stationers' Books by Thomas Colwell in
1565-6 (see Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers'
Company, &c., edited by Mr. Collier for the Shakespeare
Soc., vol. i. p. 120); and no doubt the said Colwell put
forth an edition of them,-perhaps, however, only a reprint
of an impression by Wyer, whom he succeeded as printer
and bookseller (see Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's Introduction to
Scoggins' Fests, 1866): but the earliest edition now known
to exist is dated 1626, with the following title—The First
and Best Part of Scoggins Fests. Full of Witty Mirth and
Pleasant Shifts, done by him in France and other places:
being a Preservative against Melancholy. Gathered by Andrew
Boord, Doctor of Physicke. London. Printed for Francis
Williams, 12° b.l.: if we are to believe Anthony Wood.
who is not always to be trusted, these Jests have been
"unjustly fathered on Dr. Borde." [See Dict. N. Biog. li. 2.]
slab, slabby, glutinous, Mcb. iv. 1. 32.
slack, to be remiss in, to neglect: what a beast am I to slack it!
M.W. iii. 4. 115; If then they chanc'd to slack you, Lr. ii. 4. 248.
slack his haste—And I am nothing slow to, Rom. iv. 1. 3: "there
is nothing of slowness in me, to induce me to slacken
or abate his haste" (MALONE); “I am not slow in my own
preparations for the wedding, to give him any reason to
slacken his hasty proceedings" (STAUNTON).
slanderous, "the object of slander, here used for obloquy" (Wal-
KER). base, ignominious: slanderous death's-man, Lucr. 1001.
slave of nature, R3. i. 3. 230: "The expression slave of nature
alludes to the ancient custom of masters branding their
profligate slaves; by which it is insinuated that his mis-
shapen person was the mark that nature had set upon him
to stigmatise his ill conditions:" WARBURTON. Walker (Crit.
Exam, &c. ii. 307) says: “Does slave here mean anything
more than villain, abandoned wretch? This use of slave
(compare the Italian cattivo, whence our caitiff) is frequent
in old plays: Othello, v. 2: 'Some cogging, cozening
slave,' &c." And a little after (p. 309) he observes: "There-
fore, a slave of nature will mean neither more nor less,
I think, than a born villain."
slave without a knock-Answering A, "Answering that abusive
word slave," &c. (Mason), Cymb. iv. 2. 72.
slaves your ordinance—That, "Who, instead of paying the
deference and submission due to your ordinance, treats it
as his slave," &c. (HEATH), Lr. iv. 1. 71.
sleave and sleave-silk, soft floss silk, used for weaving ("Sleaue
silke. Capiton, soye flosche," Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.):
446
SLEDDED-SLIGHT.
the ravell'd sleave of care, Mcb. ii. 2. 37; skein of sleave-silk,
Troil. v. 1. 35.
sledded Polacks, Hml. i. 1. 63. Sledded poleaxe, Schmidt says,
"probably having
having a sled or sledge, i.e. a heavy ham-
mer, to it, or similar to a heavy hammer. Qq. sleaded.
Hamlet, provoked to anger in a conference with the King
of Norway, struck the ice with his pole-axe as with a
mighty hammer. Almost all M. Edd. the sledded Polacks,
i.e. Polanders conveyed on sledges, whom Hamlet is suppos-
ed to have fought and defeated on a field of ice. But
the whole scene is evidently taken from a war against Nor-
way, where ice-fields may he expected; besides, he smote
the Polacks cannot well be he beat or defeated the
Polacks, but only he struck them." The balance of the
clauses supports sledded Polacks; a poleaxe-which differs
from a battle-axe-is scarcely the weapon that a king
would bear either during a parley, or in a fight; and while
sledded Polacks would naturally be on the ice, it is not the
place for a Norwegian conference. The Polackes, as we
learn from Hoby's Courtier (Tudor Transl. p. 167), did
parley upon the ice, when they came to trade sables!
sleeping upon benches: see benches, &c.
sleeve, worn as a favour: Wear this sleeve, Troil. iv. 4. 72;
keep this sleeve, v. 2. 66; You look upon that sleeve, 69; That
sleeve is mine, 169; lose my arm, or win my sleeve, v. 3.96;
young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his helm, v. 4. 4.
sleeve-hand, a cuff, a wrist-band, W.T. iv. 4. 211 (Has been
improperly altered to sleeve-band: but compare Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict. "Poignet de la chemise. The wrist-
band, or gathering at the sleeuehand, of a shirt”).
sleeveless errand, Troil. v. 4. 9: In this expression, which is
scarcely yet obsolete, sleeveless means, of course, "useless,
unprofitable,”—a meaning (of uncertain origin) which the
word had long anterior to Shakespeare's time, and before
it was more particularly used as an epithet to “errand.”
("Meant to shake him off with a sleeuelesse answere."
Greene's Carde of Fancie, sig. G 3, ed. 1608.)
["And that he may his pleasure surely warrant,
He sends the servants of a sleevelesse arrant,"
Harington, Orl. Fur. xiii. 19.]
sleided silk, "untwisted silk, prepared to be used in the
weaver's sley or slay" (PERCY), Per. iv. Gow. 21; L. Compl.
48: in the latter passage referred to is an allusion to the
practice of putting raw silk round letters and sealing on
the ends of the silk.
sleight, an artifice ("A sleight, Dolus astutia." Coles's Lat.
and Engl. Dict.), 3H6. iv. 2. 20; sleights, Mcb. iii. 5. 26.
slight, 12N. ii. 5. 38; iii. 2. 14: This is generally explained to
SLIGHTED—SMILE.
447
be a contraction of by this light; but is it not rather for
by his (God's) light?
slighted me into the river, pitched me, threw me hastily and
carelessly, &c., M.W. iii. 5. 9.
slighted off—Were, Were treated with disregard, J.C. iv. 3. 5.
slip, a piece of false money, synonymous with counterfeit; and
hence the words are frequently played upon by our early
writers: What counterfeit did I give you? Mer. The slip, sir,
the slip; can you not conceive? Rom. ii. 4. 51: in the follow-
ing passage, too, slips seems to be used with a quibble; for
fear of slips Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips, Ven.
515 and see second counterfeit. ["It's no matter, let the
world think me a bad counterfeit, if I cannot give him the
slip at an instant." Every Man in his H. ii. 3; “Make me
a slip, and let me go but for ninepence." Marston, Anto-
nio and Mellida, v. p. 59; cf. Troil. ii. 3. 28.]
slip, the noose by which greyhounds were held before they
were allowed to start for the game: I see you stand like
greyhounds in the slips, H5. iii. 1. 31.
slip, or let slip (a sporting term), to loose the hounds from the
slip; see the preceding article: Before the game's a-foot, thou
still lett'st slip, 1H4. i. 3. 278; let slip the dogs of war, J.C.
iii. 1. 273; Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, Shr. v. 2. 52.
sliver, a slip, a slice, a portion cut or broken off, ("A slive,
Sliver, segmen." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.) a small branch,
Hml. iv. 7. 174.
sliver, to cleave, to split, to cut off, to slice off, to tear off
("To slive, Sliver, Findo." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.)
Lr. iv. 2. 34. Sliver'd, Mcb. iv. 1. 28.
slobbery, sloppy, wet, floody, H5. iii. 5. 13.
slop, large loose trousers or breeches, L.L.L. iv. 3. 59; Rom.
ii. 4. 47; slops, Ado, iii. 2. 36; 2H4. i. 2. 34.
slough, the cast-off skin of a snake: cast thy humble slough,
12N. ii. 5. 161; iii. 4. 76; With casted slough and fresh leger-
ity, H5. iv. 1. 23; the snake .. With shining checker'd
slough (used simply here for "skin"), 2H6. iii. 1. 229.
slow'd, made slow, retarded, Rom. iv. 1. 16.
•
slubber, to do carelessly or imperfectly: Slubber not business,
M.V. ii. 8. 39.
slubber, to obscure, to soil: to slubber the gloss of your new
fortunes, Oth. i. 3. 227.
sluttish spoils of opportunity, "corrupt wenches, of whose
chastity every opportunity may make a prey" (JOHNSON),
Troil. iv. 5. 62.
smatch, a smack, a taste, a tincture, J.C. v. 5. 46.
smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs-With a kind of, "With
a smile not indicating pleasure, but contempt" (JOHNSON),
Cor. i. I. III.
•
448
SMILETS—SNUFFS.
smilets, the diminutive of smiles, Lr. iv. 3. 21.
smirch, to smut, to soil, to obscure, A.Y.L. i. 3. 114; smirched,
Ado, iii. 3. 145; iv. 1. 135; H5. iii. 3. 17.
smites, blows: there shall be smites, H5. ii. 1. 6 (O. Ed. Globe,
smiles).
Smithfield-He'll buy me a horse in, 2H4. i. 2. 56: see Paul's, &c.
smoke, detect, suspect, observe, A.W. iii. 6. 111; iv. 1. 30.
smooth, "in ancient language, is to stroke, to caress, to fondle"
(STEEVENS), to flatter: smooth, deceive, and cog, R3. i. 3. 48;
For I can smooth, Tit. iv. 4. 96; smooth and speak him fair,
V. 2. 140; what tongue shall smooth thy name, Rom. iii. 2.
98; smooth every passion, Lr. ii. 2. 81; Seem'd not to strike,
but smooth (“To smooth in this place means to stroke," HOLT
WHITE), Per. i. 2. 78; That smooth'st it so with king and
commonweal! 2H6. ii. 1. 22; smoothing words, i. 1. 156; R3.
i. 2. 169; smoothing titles, Lucr. 892.
smoothpates, crop-haired puritanical citizens, 2H4. i. 2. 43.
smug, neat, spruce, trim, M.V. iii. 1. 49; 1H4. iii. 1. 102.
Smulkin, Lr. iii. 4. 146: A fiend; whose name our poet seems
to have derived from Harsnet's Declaration of egregious
Popish Impostures, 1603,—where it is spelt Smolkin, pp. 47, 181.
smutch'd, blackened with soot, W.T. i. 2. 121.
snake—A tame, A poor contemptible fellow, a wretch: love hath
made thee a tame snake, A.Y.L. iv. 3. 71.
snare―The world's great, “i.e. the war” (STEEVENS) Ant. iv. 8. 18.
snatches, shuffling, quibbling [catchy] answers: Come, sir,
leave me your snatches, M.M. iv. 2. 6.
snatches, fragments, scraps: snatches of old tunes, Hml. iv. 7. 178.
snatches in his voice, And burst of speaking-The, " An abrupt
and tumultuous utterance" (JOHNSON), Cymb. iv. 2. 105.
sneak-cup, one who sneaks from his cup, balks his cup, 1H4.
iii. 3. 99. [A shirker who does not drink fair.]
Sneak's noise: see noise-Sneak's.
sneap, a check, a rebuke, a snubbing, 2H4. ii. 1. 133.
sneap, to check, to nip: give the sneapèd birds more cause to
sing, Lucr. 333; an envious sneaping frost, L.L.L. i. 1. 100;
No sneaping winds, W.T. i. 2. 13.
sneck-up, an exclamation of contempt equivalent to "Go and
hang yourself!" 12N. ii. 3. 101. [See sneak-cup.]
snipe, a silly fellow, Oth. i. 3. 391.
snuff, an object of contempt: to be the snuff of younger spirits,
A.W. i. 2. 59.
snuff-To take in, to be angry, to take offence (used with a
quibble in the following passages): You'll mar the light by
taking it in snuff, L.L.L. v. 2. 22; Took it in snuff, 1H4. i.
3. 41; it is already in snuff, M.N.D. v. i. 254.
snuffs, angers, offence-takings: snuffs and packings of the dukes,
Lr. iii. 1. 26.
SODDEN-SOLICITINGS.
449
sodden business! there's a stewed phrase indeed, Troil. iii. 1. 44:
alluding to the sweats prescribed for the lues venerea, and
to the term 'the stews.'
so ho! the cry of sportsmen when the hare is found in her
seat, 2G. iii. 1. 189.
soil, see solve.
soiled horse, Lr. iv. 6. 124: "Is a term used for a horse that
has been fed with hay and corn in the stable during the
winter, and is turned out in the spring to take the first
flush of grass, or has it cut and carried in to him. This
at once cleanses the animal and fills him with blood"
(STEEVENS).
soilure, stain, defilement, Troil. iv. 1. 56.
solace, to render mirthful, to amuse: We will with some strange
pastime solace them, L.L.L. iv. 3. 377.
solace, to be mirthful, to take pleasure: This sickly land might
solace as before, R3. ii. 3. 30; But one thing to rejoice and
solace in, Rom. iv. 5. 47; solace I' the dungeon by a snuff,
Cymb. i. 6. 86.
sole Arabian tree, Phœn. 2: The Palm. In Greek phoinix,
and meaning both palm and phoenix. See Chester's Love's
martyr, N.S. Soc. ed. Grosart, p. 241; cf. Tp. iii. 3. 23.
sole earth's heaven, my only heaven on earth, Err. iii. 2. 64.
solely, alone: Leave me solely, W.T. ii. 3. 17.
solicit Henry with her wondrous praise, 1H6. v. 3. 190: How
he solicits heaven, Himself best knows, Mcb. iv. 3. 149; So
tell him, with th' occurents, more or less, Which have solicited,
Hml. v. 2. 369: “Solicit, like many other words derived
from the Latin,-as religion for worship or service, &c.,—
had not yet lost its strict Latin meaning." Walker's Crit.
Exam., &c., vol. iii. p. 274; where the editor of that work
adds the following note; "The original signification of the
Latin word seems to have been to move, and the various
meanings attached to it by lexicographers are but modifi-
cations of this primary one. In the language of Shakes-
peare, Edward solicited, or moved, heaven by means known
to himself [Mcb.]; Suffolk proposed to solicit, or move,
Henry by speaking of the wonderful endowments of Mar-
garet [1H6]; and Hamlet, though his speech was cut short
by death, seems to have been thinking of the events that
had solicited, or moved, him to recommend Fortinbras as
successor to the throne [Hml.]:" The meaning of solicited,
as used by the dying Hamlet, is uncertain. ["Invited,
prompted:" DOWDEN.]
soliciting, solicitation, "incitement" (JOHNSON): This super-
natural soliciting, Mcb. i. 3. 130.
solicitings, solicitations,-courtship, hath his solicitings. . . .
All given to mine ear, Hml. ii. 2. 126.
29
450
SOLICITS—SOOTHE.
solicits, solicitations, -courtship, Cymb. ii. 3. 52 (Fı solicity;
Fa solicits; Globe, soliciting).
2
solidares, Tim. iii. 1. 46: “I believe this coin is from the mint
of the poet" (STEEVENS); Is it worth while to mention that
Florio, in his Ital. and Engl. Dict., has "Soldo, a coine
called a sould or shilling?
solve, solution, Sonn. 69. I find that here the Cambridge edi-
tors print soil [now solve], because "as the verb 'to soil'
is not uncommon in old English, meaning 'to solve,' so
the substantive 'soil' may be used in the sense of 'solu-
tion:"" but surely the reading of the quarto "solye" is
more likely to be a misprint for "solve" than for "soyle,"
which is substituted in ed. 1640.
sometime, sometimes: sometime he angers me, 1H4. iii. 1. 148;
Sometime he talks as if, &c., 2H6. iii. 2. 374; Sometime she
gallops, Rom. i. 4. 77; sometime comes she, 79; sometime she
driveth, 82; Which sometime hath his hour, J.C. ii. 1. 251; some-
time is our trouble Mcb. i. 6. 11; though he took up my legs
sometime, ii. 3. 46; sometime Accounted dangerous folly, iv. 2.
76; sometime a divided sigh, 2NK. ii. 1. 39; sometime he
scuds far off, Ven. 301; Sometime her grief is dumb
Sometime 'tis mad, Lucr. 1105; sometime “ Tarquin" was
pronounced plain, 1786.
sometime, formerly, in other times: As I was sometime Milan,
Tp. v. 1. 86; Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
M.W. iv. 4. 29: Good sometime queen, R2. v. 1. 37; Fove
sometime went disguis'd, 2H6. iv. 1. 48.
sometimes, formerly, in other times: sometimes from her eyes
I did receive, &c., M.V. i. 1. 163; my sometimes master's
face, R2. v. 5. 75; Sometimes our brother's wife, H8. ii. 4.
181; In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did some-
times march? Hml. i. 1. 49.
song of good life, a moral song, 12N. ii. 3. 36.
sonnetist, a sonneteer, L.L.L. i. 2. 90. So Dyce. (Fi, Globe,
turn sonnet compose a sonnet).
sonties-By God's: see God's sonties-By.
soon at, about: Soon at five o'clock, Err. i. 2. 26; soon at supper-
time, iii. 2. 179; soon at night, M.W. i. 4. 8; ii. 2. 295;
M.M. i. 4. 88; 2H4. v. 5. 96; soon at after supper, R3. iv.
3. 31.
Sooth here does proclaim a peace, when signior, Complaisance,
Per. i. 2. 44.
sooth, truth: It is silly (simple) sooth, 12N. ii. 4. 47; He looks
like sooth, W.T. iv. 4. 171.
sooth, sweetness, softness; [with conciliatory speeches, referring
to 1. 131]: With words of sooth! R2. iii. 3. 136.
sooth, true: if thy speech be sooth, Mcb. v. 5. 40.
soothe, to flatter: And soothe the devil that I warn thee from♪
SOOTHE-SORT.
451.
R3. i. 3. 298; And sooth'st up greatness, K.J. iii. 1. 121; You
sooth'd not, therefore hurt not, Cor. ii. 2. 77; In soothing
them, we nourish, &c. Cor. iii. 1. 69.
soothe your forgery and his-To, 3H6. iii. 3. 175: "To soften
it, to make it more endurable; or perhaps, to soothe us,
and to prevent our being exasperated by your forgery and
his" (MALONE). [Mitigate, tone down, the deceit.]
soothers, flatterers, 1H4. iv. 1. 7.
soothing, flattery: Made all of false-fac'd soothing ! Cor. i. 9. 44.
sop o' the moonshine-A, Lr. ii. 2. 35: "It is certain that an
equivoque is here intended by an allusion to the old dish
•
of eggs in moonshine, which was eggs broken and boiled in
salad-oil till the yolks became hard. They were eaten with
slices of onions fried in oil [or] butter, verjuice, nutmeg,
and salt" (Douce).
sore (or soare), a buck of the fourth year, L.L.L. iv. 2. 60.
sorel, a buck of the third year, L.L.L. iv. 2. 62.
sorrow drinks our blood-Dry, Rom. iii. 5. 59: “It was an
ancient notion that sorrow consumed the blood, and shorten-
ed life" (MALONE): Compare sigh, That hurts, &c.
sorry, sorrowful, dismal: sorry execution, Err. v. 1. 121; a sorry
sight, Mcb. ii. 2. 21; sorriest fancies, Mcb. iii. 2. 9.
sort, a set, a company, a crew: that barren sort, M.N.D. iii. 2.
13; many in sort, 21; a sort of traitors, R2. iv. 1. 246; A sort
of naughty persons, 2H6. ii. 1. 167; a sort of tinkers, iii. 2.
277; A sort of vagabonds, R3. v. 3. 316.
sort, rank, quality: men of sort and suit (see third suit), M.M.
iv. 4. 19; few of any sort, Ado, i. 1. 7; none such in the
army of any sort, 33; none of noble sort, M.N.D. iii. 2. 159;
a gentleman of great sort, H5. iv. 7. 142; prisoners of good
sort, iv. 8. 80 (Compare, in Fletcher's Noble Gentleman,
act iv. sc. 4,
"God save ye!
For less I cannot wish to men of sort”).
sort, a lot (Lat. sors): draw The sort to fight with Hector,
Troil. i. 3. 376.
sort, to class, to rank: I will not sort you with the rest of my
servants, Hml. ii. 2. 274.
sort, to choose, to select: To sort some gentlemen well skill'd
in music, 2G. iii. 2. 92; I'll sort some other time, 1H6. ii.
3. 27; I will sort a pitchy day, 3H6. v. 6. 85; Ill sort occasion,
R3. ii. 2. 148; When wilt thou sort an hour, Lucr. 899.
sort, to suit, to accord, to fit: Well may it sort, that this
portentous figure, &c. ("The cause and effect are pro-
portionate and suitable," JOHNSON), Hml. i. 1. 109; It sorts
well with your fierceness, H5. iv. 1. 63; Why, then it sorts
(accords with our wishes), 3H6. ii. 1. 209; His currish riddles
452
SORT-SOWL
sort not with this place, v. 5. 26; this woman's answer sorts
(is congruous, appropriate), Troil i. 1. 109.
sort, to fit, to adapt, to frame: sorts a sad look to her lady's
sorrow, Lucr. 1221; sort thy heart to patience, 2H6. ii. 4. 68.
sort, to associate, to consort: before it was ill sorted, 2H4. ii.
4. 162; sometime sorteth with a herd of deer, Ven. 689.
sort, to bring to a good issue, (and simply) to bring to an
issue: But God sort all! M.V. v. 1. 132; if God sort it so,
R3. ii. 3. 36.
sort, to fall out, to happen in the issue: if it sort not well,
Ado, iv. 1. 242; I am glad that all things sort so well, v. 4. 7;
And so far am I glad it so did sort, M.N.D. iii. 2. 352; Sort
how it will, 2H6. i. 2. 107.
"(
sortance, suitableness, agreement, 2H4. iv. 1. II.
sorted to no proof-And all my pains is, "And all my labour
has ended in nothing, or proved nothing" (JOHNSON):
Rather--all my labour is adapted to no approof, or I have
taken all this pains without approbation" (DOUCE), Shr. iv. 3. 43.
sorts, classes or orders of persons: of all sorts enchantingly
beloved, A.Y.L. i. 1. 174.
sorts, "different degrees" (STEEVENS), "portions or companies
(DOUCE): They have a king, and officers of sorts, H5. i. 2. 190.
sot, a fool, Tp. iii. 2. 101; M.W. iii. 1. 119; Err. ii. 2. 196;
12N. i. 5. 129; v. 1. 202; Lr. iv. 2. 8; sots, Cymb. v. 5. 178.
Soto, Shr. Ind. 1. 88: Theobald supposes that this means the
Soto in Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleased, "who,"
he observes, "is a farmer's son, and a very facetious serving-
man:" but, as Tyrwhitt remarks, the Soto in that play
does not woo any gentlewoman.
soud, soud, soud, soud! Shr. iv. 1. 145: “These words seem
merely intended to denote the humming of a tune, or some
kind of ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find
out a meaning" (MASON): “This, I believe, is a word coined
by our poet, to express the noise made by a person heated
and fatigued" (MALONE).
"
"}
soul-fearing, soul-terrifying, K.J. ii. 1. 383.
souse, to rush down on and strike with violence, as eagles,
falcons, &c., do to their prey: To souse annoyance that comes
near his nest, K.J. v. 2. 150.
soused gurnet—A: see gurnet, &c.
sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth-The, Mcb. ii. 4. 30:
“Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in the succession to the
crown, immediately after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm,
Duncan's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of whom
was the mother of Duncan, the youngest the mother of
Macbeth. Holinshed" (STEEvens).
sowl, to lug, to seize, Cor. iv. 5. 213 (The word is still used
in certain counties: Moor gives "Sowle. To seize a swine
SOWTER-SPECULATIVE.
453
by the ear. 'Wool 'a sowle a hog?' is a frequent inquiry
into the qualifications of a dog," &c. Suffolk Words, &c.).
Sowter,-i.e. Cobbler,-the name of a hound, 12N. ii. 5. 135.
span-counter, 2H6. iv. 2. 166: "Boss out, or boss and span,
also called hit or span, wherein one bowls a marble to
any distance that he pleases, which serves as a mark for
his antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the
marble first bowled, or lay his own near enough to it for
him to span the space between them and touch both the
marbles; in either case he wins; if not, his marble remains
where it lay, and becomes a mark for the first player, and
so alternately until the game be won.-Span-counter is a
pastime similar to the former, but played with counters
instead of marbles. I have frequently seen the boys for
want of both perform it with stones." Strutt's Sports and
Pastimes, p. 340, sec. ed.
spaniel'd, followed like a spaniel, Ant. iv. 12. 21.
spavin, H8. i. 3. 12; spavins, Shr. iii. 2. 53: A disease in horses;
either an enlargement of the little bag, containing a mucous
substance, on the inside of the hock at its bending; or a
distention by accumulated blood of the vein which passes
over that bag; the former being called a bog-spavin, the
latter a blood-spavin; also an affection of the bones of the
hock-joint called bone-spavin, which generally appears in the
form of a tumour where the head of the splint-bone is
united with the shank, and in front of that union: see The
Horse, by Youatt, p. 247, &c., and pp. 363-4, ed. 1848.
speak i' the nose: see Naples, &c.
speak thick, Cymb. iii. 2. 58; speaking thick, 2H4. ii. 3. 24:
"Speaking thick is speaking fast, crowding one word on
another" (STEEVENS); "without proper intervals of articula-
tion," Johnson's Dict., sub "thick" (In Chapman's Com-
mentary on the Iliad, B. iii. we find πiтρоxádný, signifying
velociter, properly modo eorum qui currunt; he spake fast or
thicke." p. 48;-"which agreeth not the lesse with his fast
or thicke speaking.” p. 49, ed. folio): and see thick.
speak within door, “do not clamour so as to be heard beyond
the house" (JOHNSON), Oth. iv. 2. 144.
specialty of rule-The, "The particular rights of supreme au-
thority" (JOHNSON), Troil. i. 3. 78.
speciously, a blunder of Mrs. Quickly for specially, M.W. iii.
4. 113; iv. 5. 114.
speculation, vision, faculty of sight: speculation turns not to itself,
Troil. iii. 3. 109; no speculation in those eyes, Mcb. iii. 4. 95.
speculations-Which are to France the spies and, Lr. iii. 1. 24,
abstract, for concrete speculators.
speculative, visual: My speculative and offic'd instruments,
Oth. i. 3. 271.
454
SPED-SPLAY.
sped-You two are, Shr. v. 2. 185: “¿e. the fate of you both
is decided; for you have wives who exhibit early proofs of
disobedience" (STEEVENS).
speed, hap, fortune, "uncertain, at the time of mentioning it,
how it would turn" (Nares's Gloss.): happy be thy speed!
Shr. ii. 1. 139;. with mere conceit and fear of the queen's
speed, W.T. iii. 2. 146.
spell him backward, "Alluding to the practice of witches in
uttering prayers" (STEEVENS), "Turn his good gifts to
defects" (STAUNTON), Ado, iii. 1. 161.
sperr, to shut, to bar, to make fast, Troil. Prol. 19.
'spials, espials, spies, 1H6. i. 4. 8. (Globe, espials)
spider steep'd-A, W.T. ii. 1. 40; I have drunk, and seen the
spider, 45; Toad, or Adder, Spider, Cymb. iv. 2. 90; thy
spiders, that suck up thy venom, R2. iii. 2. 14; adders, spiders,
toads, R3. i. 2. 19: In Shakespeare's time it was a prevalent
notion that spiders were venomous.
spill, to destroy: all germens spill at once, Lr. iii. 2.8; It spills
itself in fearing to be spilt, Hml. iv. 5. 20.
spilth, a spilling, an effusion, Tim. ii. 2. 169.
spirit is too true-Your, "The impression upon your mind, by
which you conceive the death of your son," (JOHNSON),
2H4. i. 1. 92.
spirit of sense, Troil. i. 1. 58; iii. 3. 106: essence of delicate sensation.
spit white, 2H4. 1. 2. 237: "The meaning of the words is
plain; but the application of them may be doubted, when
Falstaff says that, when the armies join,
•
If it be a hot day, an I brandish anything but my bottle, I
would I might never spit white again.'
2 Hen IV. i. 2.
His meaning is, may I never again have wine enough to
produce that effect: or rather, perhaps, may I never have
a debauch over-night, to make me thirsty in the morning.
I fear we must condemn the intemperance of our ancestors,
when we find that this effect was often observed and alluded
to. Spungius says, in Massinger,
'Had I been a pagan still, I should not have spit white for want
of drink.'
That is, for want of more drink, to remedy the effect of what
he had taken before. It was noticed also as a consequence
of habitual intemperance. The unlucky pages in Lyly's
Mother Bombie say that their masters had sodden their
livers in sack for forty years, and,
C
That makes them spit white broath, as they do.' Act. iii. sc. 1.'
Nares's Gloss.
spital, a hospital, H5. ii. 1. 78; spital-house, Tim. iv. 3. 39.
splay, M.M. ii. 1. 243. Spay (as some edd. read), castrate.
"
SPLEEN-SPOT.
455
spleen, "humour, caprice, and inconstancy" (JOHNSON): rudesby
full of spleen, Shr. iii. 2. 10; Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen,
1H4. v. 2. 19.
spleen, haste in excess: That in a spleen, unfolds both heaven
and earth, M.N.D. i. 1. 146; With swifter spleen than powder
can enforce, K.J. ii. 1. 448; spleen of speed, v. 7. 50.
spleen, violent mirth: in this spleen ridiculous (“ridiculous fit
of laughter," JOHNSON; "the spleen was anciently supposed
to be the cause of laughter," STEEVENS), L.L.L. v. 2. 117;
abate the over-merry spleen, Shr. Ind. 1. 137; If you desire the
spleen, and will laugh yourselves into stitches, 12N. iii. 2. 72;
In pleasure of my spleen, Troil. i. 3. 178.
spleens-The performance of our heaving, "The execution of
spite and resentment" (JOHNSON), Troil. ii. 2. 196.
spleeny, ill-tempered, peevish, H8. iii. 2. 99.
splinter, to splint, to secure by splints: this broken joint be-
tween you and her husband entreat her to splinter, Oth. ii.
3. 329; But lately splinter'd, knit and join'd together, R3. ii.
2. 118.
split-Make all: see make all split.
spoom her before the wind, make her go right before the wind
without any sail, 2N.K. iii. 4. 9. (Vide Smith's Seaman's
Grammar, &c., 1691, p. 82:-but it is doubtful if "spoom"
be the true reading in the present passage.) [Qo. Vpon].
spoon,-I have no long, Tp. ii. 2. 103; he must have a long
spoon that must eat with the devil, Err. iv. 3. 64: Ray gives
this well-known proverb thus, "He had need of a long
spoon that eats with the devil." Proverbs, p. 97, ed. 1768:
Tyrwhitt cites from Chaucer's Squieres Tale, 10,916,
CC
Therfore behoveth him a ful long spone
That shal ete with a fend."
spoons-Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your, H8. v. 3. 168;
The spoons will be the bigger, sir, v. 4. 40: Spoons of silver
gilt-called apostle-spoons because the figure of an apostle
was carved at the extremity of the handle of each-were
in the time of Shakespeare (and much earlier) the usual
present of sponsors at christenings to the child: "Such,"
says Steevens, "as were at once opulent and generous,
gave the whole twelve [apostles]; those who were either
more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expense of
the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented them-
selves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the
figure of any saint, in honour of whom the child received
its name:" Even in Dryden's days the practice of sponsors
giving spoons at christenings was not obsolete.
sport, see colour.
spot-A fine, Cor. i. 3. 56: a pretty spot of embroidery?
456
SPOTTED—SQUARE.
spotted, stained, polluted ("As spotless is innocent, so spotted
is wicked," JOHNSON): this spotted and inconstant man,
M.N.D. i. 1. 110; their spotted souls, R2. iii. 2. 134; Spotted,
detested, and abominable, Tit. ii. 3. 74; Let die the spotted,
Tim. v. 4. 34.
sprag, or sprack, ready, quick, alert, M.W. iv. 1. 84.
spring, a young shoot of a tree: This canker that eats up Love's
tender spring, Ven. 656; Unruly blasts wait on the tender
spring, Lucr. 869; Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs
rot, Err. iii. 2. 3; To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish
springs, Lucr. 950.
spring, a beginning: the middle summer's spring, M.ND. ii. 1. 82;
flaws congealed in the spring of day, 2H4. iv. 4. 35; and
see, in the preceding article, “the spring of love."
springhalt, H8. i. 3. 13: Or "stringhalt. This is a sudden
and spasmodic action of some of the muscles of the thigh
when the horse is first led from the stable. One or both
legs are caught up at every step with great rapidity and
violence, so that the fetlock sometimes touches the belly;
but, after the horse has been out a little while, this usually
goes off, and the natural action of the animal returns. In
a few cases it does not perfectly disappear after exercise,
but the horse continues to be slightly lame." The Horse,
by Youatt, p. 151, ed. 1848.
sprited with a fool, "haunted by a fool as by a sprite"
(STEEVENS), Cymb ii. 3. 144.
spritely shows, "groups of sprites, ghostly appearances"
(STEEVENS), Cymb. v. 5. 428.
spriting - My, My offices as a sprite or spirit, Tp. i. 2. 298
(Globe, spiriting).
spurs, "the lateral shoots of the roots of trees" (Nares's Gloss.):
by the spurs pluck'd up The pine and cedar, Tp. v. 1. 47;
Mingle their spurs together, Cymb. iv. 2. 58.
spurs so long-His heels have deserved it, in usurping his, A.W.
iv. 3. 119: Alluding "to the ceremonial degradation of a
knight" (STEEVENS).
spy-I, "the usual exclamation at a childish game called Hie,
spy, hie" (STEEVENS), Troil. iii. 1. 102.
spy o' the time—The perfect, Mcb. iii. 1. 130: “I apprehend it
means the very moment you are to look for or expect, not
[as Malone explains it] when you may look out for, Banquo"
(BOSWELL).
squandered, dispersed, scattered: other ventures he hath squan-
dered abroad, M.V. i. 3. 22.
squandering glances of the fool, “random shots of a fool”
(JOHNSON), A.Y.L. ii. 7. 57.
square, equitable, fair: it is not square to take On those that
are revenges, Tim. v. 4. 36.
SQUARE-STAFF.
457
"
square, quadrate, suitable: if report be square to her, Ant. ii. 2. 190.
square of sense, Lr. i. 1. 76: "Compass, comprehension.
(JOHNSON); [? concordance.]
square on't-The work about the, W.T. iv 4. 212: Tollet explains
this to mean "the work or embroidery about the bosom
part of a shift;" and he cites from Fairfax's translation of
Tasso's Gerusalemme, B. xii. 64,
Between her breasts the cruel weapon rives
Her curious square, emboss'd with swelling gold,"
an apt enough quotation; but probably he never looked
into the original, which throws no light on the word square;
E la veste, che d' or vago trapunta,
CC
Le mammelle stringea tenera e leve,
L'empie d'un caldo fiume."
square, to quarrel: But they do square, M.N.D. ii. 1. 30; such
fools To square for this? Tit. ii. 1. 100; 'Twere pregnant
thy should square, Ant. ii. 1. 45; Mine honesty and I begin
to square, iii. 13. 41.
["Her haire was gray, and red, and black and blew,
And hard, and soft, in laces some she twists,
Some hangeth downe, upright some standeth staring,
As if each haire with other had bene squaring."
Description of Discord, in Harington's
Orl. Fur. xv. 72.]
squarer, a quarreller, Ado, i. 1. 82.
squares, squadrons: our squares of battle, H5. iv. 2. 28; the
brave squares of war, Ant. iii. 11. 40.
squash, an unripe peascod, M.N.D. iii. 1. 191; 12N. i. 5. 166;
W.T. i. 2. 160.
squiny, to look asquint, Lr. iv. 6. 140.
squire of low degree-A, H5. v. 1. 38: An allusion to a celebrated
early metrical romance, entitled The Squyr of Lowe Degre;
which is reprinted in Ritson's Anc. Engl. Metrical Romanceés,
vol. iii. p. 145.
squire, a square, a rule (Fr. esquierre): by the squire, L.L.L.
v. 2. 474; W.T. iv. 4. 348; 1H4. ii. 2. 13. [Globe, squier].
stables, where I keep my wife—I'll keep my: see keep my stables, &c.
stablish, to establish, 1H6. v. 1. 10.
stablishment, an establishment, a settled inheritance, a king-
dom, Ant. iii. 6. 9.
staff... broke cross: see break cross, &c.
staff more reverend than one tipped with horn—No, Ado, v. 4.
125: Douce was the first who made an approach towards
the true interpretation of this passage: "it is possible," he
observed, "that the walking-sticks or staves used by elderly
people might be intended, which were often headed or
tipped with a cross piece of horn or sometimes amber. They
seem to have been imitated from the crutched sticks, or
458
STAGE-STALE.
potences as they were called, used by the friars, and by
them borrowed from the celebrated tau of Saint Anthony:"
"The double meaning," says Mr. Halliwell, "is obvious,-
the Prince, when he marries, as Benedick jócularly implies,
will be tipped with horn, and no staff is more reverend
than one so fashioned."
stage, to exhibit publicly, to represent on the stage, M.M. i.
1. 69; Ant. v. 2. 217; stagèd, Ant. iii. 13. 30.
stagger, to make to stagger, to make to reel: That staggers
thus my person, R2. v. 5. 110. [I stagger in: I am undecided con-
cerning, M.M. i. 2. 169.]
staggers, a kind of apoplexy which attacks horses, commencing
with dulness, staggering, sleepiness, and sometimes ending
with convulsions and blindness: see The Horse, by Youatt,
pp. 138-9, &c., ed. 1848: "A violent disease in horses;
hence, metaphorically, any staggering or agitating distress."
Nares's Gloss.: stark spoiled with the staggers, Shr. iii. 2. 55;
I will throw thee from my care for ever Into the staggers
("One species of the staggers, or the horse's apoplexy, is a
raging impatience, which makes the animal dash himself
with a destructive violence against posts or walls. To this
the allusion, I suppose, is [here] made" (JOHNSON), ["perplex-
ity, bewilderment," SCHMIDT], A.W. ii. 3. 170; How come
these staggers (this "wild and delirious perturbation," JOHNSON)
["giddiness, vertigo," SCHMIDT] on me? Cymb. v. 5. 234.
stain, tincture: some stain of soldier in you, A.W. i. 1. 122.
stain, disgrace: stain to all nymphs (that sullies by contrast,
throws into shade all nymphs), Ven. 9.
stale, a decoy, a bait (a term in fowling,-either a real bird,
or the form of a bird, set up as an allurement: “Estalon .
a stale (as a Larke, &c.) wherewith Fowlers traine sillie birds
vnto their destruction." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.): For
stale to catch these thieves, Tp. iv. 1. 187.
stale, a stalking-horse, a pretence, a mask (see stalking-horse):
poor I am but his stale (“Adriana unquestionably means to
compare herself to a stalking-horse, behind whom [which]
Antipholus shoots at such game as he selects," MALONE),
Err. ii. 1. 1OI.
stale, a cant term for a prostitute: a contaminated stale, Ado,
ii. 2. 26; a common stale, iv. 1. 66 (Compare
"For what is she but a common stall [stale],
That loues thee for thy coine, not for thy name?
Such loue is beastly, rotten, blind, and lame."
The Faire Maide of bristow, 1605, sig ▲ 3 verso).
stale, seems to be nearly equivalent to "laughing-stock" in
the following passages: “I pray you, sir, is it your will To
make a stale of me amongst these mates? [perhaps alluding to
stale-mate: SCHMIDT] (where stale is generally and wrongly
STALE-STAMP.
459
explained "harlot; " and where I once thought that Katherine
meant, "Is it your will to set me up as a decoy among
these fellows, in order that, if you can get either of them
to marry me, you may carry out your project with respect
to my sister's marriage"), Shr. i. 1. 58; Had he none else to
make a stale but me? Then none but I shall turn his jest to
sorrow, 3H6. iii. 3. 260; I'll trust, by leisure, him that mocks
Was there none else in Rome to make a stale,
But Saturnine? Tit. i. 1. 304.
me once
•
stale, to render stale, to make cheap or common: Must not so
stale his palm, nobly acquir'd, Troil. ii. 3. 201; To stale't a
little longer, Cor. i. 1. 95; To stale with ordinary oaths my
love, J.C. i. 2. 73; nor custom stale Her infinite variety, Ant.
ii. 2. 240; out of use, and stal'd by other men, J.C. iv. 1. 38.
stalk, to creep stealthily and stoopingly, as the fowler does towards
his game: stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits, Ado, ii. 3. 95.
stalking-horse, either a real horse or an artificial one, under
cover of which the fowler approached towards and shot at
his game: He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, A.Y.L. v.
4. III. ("It is particularly described in the Gentleman's
Recreation; 'But sometime it so happeneth that the fowl
are so shie, there is no getting to shoot at them without
a stalking-horse, which must be some old jade trained up
for that purpose, who will, gently, and as you will have
him, walk up and down in the water, which way you please,
flodding [flodgin? see Dial. Dict.] and eating on the grass
that grows therein.' Fowling, p. 16, 8vo. He then directs
how to shoot between the horse's neck and the water, as
more secure and less perceivable than shooting under his
belly. But 'To supply the want of a stalking-horse, which
will take up a great deal of time to instruct and make fit
for this exercise, you may make one of any pieces of old
canvas, which you must shape into the form of an horse,
with the head bending downwards, as if he grazed, &c.'
Ibid. He directs also to make it light and portable, and to
colour it like a horse." Nares's Gloss. in v.)
stall, to dwell: we could not stall together In the whole world,
Ant. v. I. 39.
stall, to keep as in a stall, to keep close: stall this in your
bosom, A.W. i. 3. 131.
stall, to install, to invest: Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art
stall'd in mine! R3. i. 3. 206.
stamp about their necks-Hanging a golden, Mcb. iv. 3. 153:
"This was the coin called an angel. So Shakespeare, in
The Merchant of Venice [ii. 7. 57];
'A coin that bears the figure of an angel
Stamped in gold,' &c."
and see third angel.
(STEEVENS);
460
STAMP'D-STANIEL.
stamp'd the leasing-Have almost, "Have almost given the lie such
a sanction as to render it current" (MALONE), Cor. v. 2. 22.
stanch, not to be broken, united: What hoop should hold us
stanch, Ant. ii. 2. 117.
stanchless, not to be stanched, insatiate, Mcb. iv. 3. 78.
stand the course-I must: see course-bear-like, &c.
stand upon, or on, to concern, to interest, to be of consequence
to: Consider how it stands upon my credit, Err. iv. 1. 68: It
stands your grace upon to do him right, R2. ii. 3. 138; for
it stands me much upon, R3. iv. 2. 59; Does it not, think'st
thee, stand me now upon, Hml. v. 2. 63; my state Stands on
me to defend, Lr. v. 1. 69; It only stands Our lives upon,
Ant. ii. 1. 50; I stand on sudden haste (It greatly concerns
me to be speedy), Rom. ii. 3. 93. (With the above passages
compare Drayton's Battaile of Agincourt,
And therefore now it standeth them vfon,
To fight it brauely, or else yeeld, or dye." p. 44, ed, 1627;
And Shelton's translation of Don Quixote, "Tell me your
name; for it stands me very much vpon to know it." Part
Second, p. 482, ed. 1620: Even Horace Walpole writes to
the Countess of Ossory, Oct. 19, 1788, “It stands me upon,
Madam, to hurry my answer, when I have to thank you
for your very pretty and very flattering poetry." Letters,
vol. ix. p. 155, ed. Cunningham.)
stand upon, to pride one's self on: This minion stood upon her
chastity, Tit. ii. 3. 124.
stand upon, to insist on: stand upon security, 2H4. i. 2. 42; 47.
stand with honesty, be consistent with fair-dealing, A.Y.L.
ii. 4. 90.
standard, a standard-bearer, an ensign: Thou shalt be my lieu-
tenant, monster, or my standard, Tp. iii. 2. 19.
standing, continuance, duration: will continue The standing of
his body, W.T. i. 2. 431.
standing!-How this grace Speaks his own, Tim. i. 1. 31: Ex-
plained by Steevens, "How the graceful attitude of this
figure proclaims that it stands firm on its centre, or gives
evidence in favour of its own fixure."
standing-bed, and truckle-bed-His, M.W. iv. 5. 7: In Shakes-
peare's time a bed-room was generally furnished with a
standing-bed and a truckle-bed; the former for the person of
superior rank, the latter for the inferior or for an attendant:
in the daytime the truckle-bed (so named from trochlea, a
castor) was wheeled under the standing-bed.
standing-bowl, a bowl resting on a foot, Per. ii. 3. 65; stand-
ing-bow's, H8. v. 4. Dir.
stands at a guard with envy, "stands cautiously on his defence,
&c." (Mason), M.M. i. 3. 51.
staniel, another name for the kestrel or windhover, falco tin-
STAR-STATION.
461
nunculus, an inferior, but beautiful, species of falcon (see
Yarrell's Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 57, sec. ed.); 12N.
ii. 5. 124 stand-gale, stonegall, stannel, windhover].
star-The, The pole-star: there's no more sailing by the star,
Ado, ii. 4. 58.
star-Out of thy, Hml. ii. 2. 141. (F2 out of thy sphere.) Out of
thy star, Boswell says, is "placed above thee by Fortune."
stare-Hair to: see hair to stare, &c.
stark, stiff: stark, as you see, Cymb. iv. 2. 209: When the words
stark and stiff occur together, as in the following passages,
the expression comes under the head of pleonastic; Many
a nobleman lies stark and stiff, 1H4. v. 3. 42; stiff and stark
and cold, Rom. iv. 1. 103. (This pleonasm is of very con-
siderable antiquity; so in The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and
Dame Ragnell;
"Her arayment was worth iii мl mark,
Of good red nobles styff and stark,”
starkly, stiffly, M.M. iv. 2. 70.
Madden's Sir Gawayne, p. 298 r.).
starr`d, influenced by the stars, fated, W.T. iii. 2. 100.
starting-hole, an evasion ("Stertyng hole, ung tapynet, lieu de
refuge." Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de La Lang. Fr. 1530,
fol. lxvii., Table of Subst.; "A starting-hole, Subterfugium.'
Cole's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), 1H4. ii. 4. 290.
start-up, an upstart, Ado, i. 3. 69.
starve, to deprive of power: Aches contract and starve your
supple joints! Tim. i. 1. 257. [freeze?]
starving for a time Of pell-mell havock and confusion ("impa-
tiently expecting a time," &c. MALONE), 1H4. v. 1. 81.
state, an estate: to give half my state, 2N.K. iv. 3. 59; According
to the measure of their states, A.Y.L. v. 4. 181.
state, a raised chair, with a canopy over it, a chair of state:
sitting in my state, 12N. ii. 5. 50; this chair shall be my
state, 1H4. ii. 4. 418; He sits in his state, Cor. v. 4. 22; Our
hostess keeps her state, Mcb. iii. 4. 5.
state, a person of high rank (the word with this signification
being generally used in the plural): your greatness and this
noble state (this train of nobles, persons of high rank), Troil.
ii. 3. 118; kings, queens, and states, Cymb. iii. 4. 39.
state-Here stands all your, "The whole of your fortune
depends on this" (JOHNSON), Rom. iii. 3. 166.
state of floods - The, "The majestic dignity of the ocean, the
chief of floods" (MALONE), 2H4. v. 2. 132.
station, a mode of standing, an attitude: A station like the
herald Mercury, Hml. iii. 4. 58.
station, the act of standing, the state of repose: Her motion
and her station are as one, Ant. iii. 3. 22.
462
STATIST-STEEPY.
statist, a statesman, Cymb. ii. 4. 16; statists, Hml. v. 2. 33.
statua, a statue, 2H6. iii. 2. 80; J.C. ii. 2. 76; iii. 2. 192; statuas,
R3. iii. 7. 25; [Fol. mis-spells statues].
statue, synonymous with "picture:" My substance should be
statue in thy stead, 2G. iv. 4. 206.
statute of thy beauty thou wilt take-The, Sonn. 134: “Statute
has here its legal signification, that of a security or obligation
for money" (Malone).
statute.caps—Better wits have worn plain, L.L.L. v. 2. 281;
statute-caps, i.e. woollen caps: "Probably [certainly] the
meaning is, Better wits may be found among the citizens,
who are not in general remarkable for sallies of imagination'
(STEEVENS): In 1571, an act of Parliament was passed, for
the benefit of cappers, that all persons above the age of
six years (with the exception of the nobility and some
others) should wear woollen caps on sabbath-days and
holidays, upon penalty of ten groats.
"}
statutes, his recognizances—His, Hml. v. 1. 113: Here “statutes
are (not acts of parliament, but) statutes-merchant and staple,
particular modes of recognizance or acknowledgment for
securing debts, which thereby become a charge upon the
party's land. Statutes and recognizances are constantly
mentioned together in the covenants of a purchase-deed"
(RITSON).
staves, the wood of the lances,-lances: Their armed staves
in charge, 2H4. iv. 1. 120; Look that my staves be sound,
and not too heavy, R3. v. 3. 65 ("As it was usual to carry
more than one into the field, the lightness of them was
an object of consequence," STEEVENS) [spare staves would
be carried by a squire or yeoman; if the lances were
too heavy the knight would tire sooner]; your broken
staves, 341; hir'd to bear their staves (= lances), Mcb. v. 7. 18.
stay—A, K.J. ii. 1. 455: For stay (a feeble word here if genuine,
hindrance), Johnson conj. flaw ("indisputably right,"
Walker); Spedding, storm.
stead, to assist, to benefit, Tp. i. 2. 165; 2G. ii. 1. 119; M.M.
i. 4. 17; M.V. i. 3. 7; Shr. i. 2. 266; A.W. iii. 7. 41; v. 3. 87;
Rom. ii. 3. 54; Oth. i. 3. 244; Per. iii. Gow. 21; cf. Bested.
stead up, to fill up instead of another: we shall advise this
wronged maid to stead up your appointment, M.M. iii. 1. 260.
steely bones-Virtue's, rigid, unyielding, A.W. i. 1. 114; (seely
has been proposed, but cf. Tit. iv. 3. 47.)
steepy night-Hath travell'd on to age's, Sonn. 63: "So in the
7th Sonnet,
'Lo, in the orient, when the gracious light
Lifts up his burning head-
And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill
Resembling strong youth in his middle age.'
STELL'D-STINT.
463
These lines fully explain what the poet meant by the steepy
night of age" (Malone).
stell'd, A face where all distress is, Lucr. 1444; hath stell’d
thy beauty's form in table of my heart, Sonn. 24: In these
passages stell'd is explained “fixed,”—from stell, a “lodge,
or fixed place of abode:" see Nares's Gloss. [A.S. stealde;
stellan, to place].
stelled, starry, Lr. iii. 7. 61 (also explained 'fixed stars').
stem, the prow or fore-part of a ship ("The stem of a ship,
Rostrum." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): And fell below
his stem, Cor. ii. 2. 111; From stem to stern, Per. iv. 1. 64.
Stephano-0 King, &c., Tp. iv. 1. 221: an allusion to a
celebrated ballad, a portion of which is quoted in Othello,
ii. 3. 92.
Stephen Sly, Shr. Ind. 2. 95; “there was a genuine Stephen
Sly who was in the dramatist's day a self-assertive citizen
of Stratford." Lee, Life of Sh. p. 167.
stern, 1H6. i. 1. 177; helm, steerage, 2H6. iii. 2. 91.
sternage, steerage, H5. iii. Prol. 18.
stewed prune—A: see prune—A stewed.
stickler-like, Troil. v. 8. 18: “A stickler was one who stood
by to part the combatants when victory could be determined
without bloodshed. They are often mentioned by Sidney.
'Anthony,' says Sir Thomas North, in his translation of
Plutarch, 'was himself in person a stickler to part the young
men when they had fought enough'" (STEEVENS): "A Stickler.
Arbitre, arbitrateur, moyenneur. Sticklers. Personnes inter
posees. A Stickling. Arbitrage." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
stiff, hard, unpleasant: This is stiff news, Ant. i. 2. 104.
stigmatic, "one on whom nature has set a mark of deformity,
a stigma" (STEEVENS), 2H6. v. 1. 215; 3H6. ii. 2. 136.
stigmatical in making, marked by nature with deformity, Err.
iv. 2. 22.
still an end (or most an end), almost perpetually, without inter-
mission, generally, 2G. iv. 4. 67 ("The expression, which
is not yet worn out, is of great antiquity." Gifford's note
on Massinger's Works, vol. iv. p. 282, ed. 1813).
still music, soft music, M.N.D. iv. 1. Dir.; A.Y.L. v. 4. Dir.
still swine eat all the draff, M.W. iv. 2. 109: Ray gives "The
still sow eats up all the draught." Proverbs, p. 159, ed. 1768:
and see draff.
still-piecing air, air ever-closing up again, A.W. iii. 3. 113.
[Globe, still-peering].
stilly, gently, softly, lowly, H5 iv. Prol. 5.
sting, sexual impulse: As sensual as the brutish sting itself,
A.Y.L. ii. 7. 66.
stint, to cease: And stint thou too, Rom. i. 3. 58; she'll never
stint, Per. iv. 4. 42; it stinted, and said "Ay," Rom. i. 3. 48; 57.
L
464
STINT-STONES.
stint, to stop, to cause to stop: We must not stint Our necessary
actions, H8. i. 2. 76; Half stints their strife, Troil. iv. 5. 93 ;
He can at pleasure stint their melody, Tit. iv. 4. 86;
peace stint war, Tim. v. 4. 83.
stitchery, needlework, Cor. i. 3. 75.
make
stithied, formed on the stith or anvil, Troil. iv. 5. 255.
stithy, the place where the stith or anvil stands,-a smithy, a
forge, Hml. iii. 2. 89.
stoccado, a thrust in fencing; from the Italian stoccata (see
the next article): your passes, stoccadoes, M.W. ii. 1. 234.
stoccata, a thrust in fencing (Ital.): Alla stoccata carries it away,
Rom. iii. 1. 77.
stock, an abbreviation of stoccado (see above): thy stock, thy
reverse, M.W. ii. 3. 26.
stock, a stocking: knit him a stock, 2G. iii. 1. 311; a linen
stock, Shr. iii. 2. 67; a flame-coloured stock, 12N. i. 3. 144:
in the last two passages it would seem that stock means
"a long close stocking."
stock, to put in the stocks: Who stock'd my servant? Lr. ii.
4. 191; Stocking his messenger, Lr. ii. 2. 139.
stock-fish of thee-Make a, Beat thee as stock-fish (dried cod)
is beaten before it is boiled, Tp. iii. 2. 79.
stockings-Tall, "stockings drawn high above the knee" (FAIR-
HOLT), H8. i. 3. 30.
stock-punished, punished by being put in the stocks, Lr.
iii. 4. 140.
stole all courtesy from heaven-I: see courtesy from heaven, &c.
stomach, stubborn resolution, courage: An undergoing stomach
(an enduring stubbornness), Tp. i. 2. 157; Gan vail his
stomach ("Began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink
under his fortunes," JOHNSON), 2H4. i. 1. 129; some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't (that requires stubborn resolution
or courage), Hml. i. 1. 100.
stomach, anger, resentment: kill your stomach on your meat,
2G. i. 2. 168; these nobles should such stomachs bear! 1H6.
I. 3. 90; The winds grow high, so do your stomachs, lords,
2H6. ii. 1. 55.
stomach, pride, arrogance: an unbounded stomach, H8. iv. 2. 34;
vail your stomachs, Shr. v. 2. 176.
stomach, to resent, to bear an angry remembrance of: if you
must believe, Stomach not all, Ant. iii. 4. 12.
stomaching, resentment, anger, Ant. ii. 7. 9.
stone, to make like stone, to harden: thou dost stone my heart,
Oth. v. 2. 63.
stone-bow, a cross-bow for shooting stones, or rather bullets,
12N. ii. 5. 51. [Query, a two-stringed bow for pellets].
stones in heaven But what serve for the thunder?-Are there
no, Oth. v. 2. 234: see thunder-stone.
STONISH'D—STORE.
465
stonish'd, astonished, [bewildered], Ven. 825.
stool-ball, 2N.K. v. 2. 74: “Stool-ball is frequently mentioned
by the writers of the three last centuries, but without any
proper definition of the game. Doctor Johnson [in his Dict.]
tells us, it is a play where balls are driven from stool to
stool, but does not say in what manner or to what purpose.
I have been informed, that a pastime called stool-ball is
practised to this day in the northern parts of England,
which consists in simply setting a stool upon the ground,
and one of the players takes his place before it, while his
antagonist, standing at a distance, tosses a ball with the
intention of striking the stool; and this it is the business
of the former to prevent by beating it away with the hand,
reckoning one to the game for every stroke of the ball;
if, on the contrary, it should be missed by the hand and
touch the stool, the players change places [Note. I believe
the same also happens if the person who threw the ball
can catch and retain it when driven back, before it reaches
the ground]; the conqueror at this game is he who strikes
the ball most times before it touches the stool. Again, in
other parts of the country a certain number of stools are
set up in a circular form, and at a distance from each
other, and every one of them is occupied by a single
player; when the ball is struck, which is done as before
with the hand, they are every one of them obliged to alter
his situation, running in succession from stool to stool, and
if he who threw the ball can regain it in time to strike
any one of the players, before he reaches the stool to which
he is running, he takes his place, and the person touched
must throw the ball, until he can in like manner return to
the circle. Stool-ball seems to have been a game more
properly appropriated to the women than to the men; but
occasionally it was played by the young persons of both
sexes indiscriminately," &c. Strutt's Sports and Pastimes,
p. 89, see ed.
stoop, a term in falconry-to rush down violently from a height
in the air upon the prey ("Stoup or Stouping on the Wing,
is when the Hawk is aloft upon her wings, and then descends
to strike her Prey." R. Holme's Acad. of Armory and Blazon
(Terms of Art used in Falconry, &c.), B. ii. ch. xi. p. 240):
till she stoop she must not be full-gorg'd, Shr. iv. 1. 194;
when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing, H5. iv. 1. 112;
the way which they stoop'd eagles, Cymb. v. 3. 42; the holy
eagle Stoop'd as to foot us, v. 4. 116.
stoop, or stoup, sometimes used to signify a cup, sometimes
a much larger vessel, 12N. ii. 3. 14; 129; Hml. v. 1. 68;
Oth. ii. 3. 30; stoops, Hml. v. 2. 278.
store-For, "To be preserved for use" (MALONE): those whom
30
466
STORM-STRACHY.
Nature hath not made for store, Sonn. 11. [Store may have
the sense of breeding (-stock); cf. store-cattle, see store-farmer
in Ogilvy's Dict. cf. Sonn. i. 1. 1; xii. 1. 14; xiv. 1. 12;
Chaucer, Prol. 598; Pard. Prol. 365 "his beestes and his stoor
shall multiplye."]
storm of fortunes, braving of fortunes, Oth. i. 3. 250. (Q0. 1622:
scorne.)
story, to relate, to give an account of: stories His victories,
Ven. 1014; He stories to her ears her husband's fame, Lucr.
106; rather than story him in his own hearing, Cymb. i. 4. 34.
stout, unbending, obstinate, stubborn: I will be strange, stout
(haughty), in yellow stockings, 12N. ii. 5. 186 (conj. strut in);
For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout, K.J. iii. 1. 68
(Globe, stoop); As stout and proud as he were lord of all,
2H6. i. 1. 187; correcting thy stout heart, Cor. iii. 2. 78.
stoutness, obstinacy, stubbornness: Thy dangerous stoutness,
Cor. iii. 2. 127; his stoutness When he did stand for consul, v. 6. 27.
6.27.
stover, Tp. iv. 1. 63: “Stover. Fodder and provision of all
sorts for cattle; from estovers, law-term, which is so explained
in the Law Dictionaries. Both are derived from estouvier,
in the old French, defined by Roquefort, 'Convenance,
nécessité, provision de tout ce qui est nécessaire.' Dictionn.
de la Langue Rom." Nares's Gloss.: "Stover (in Cambridge-
shire and other counties) signifies hay made of coarse rank
grass, such as even cows will not eat while it is green.
Stover is likewise used as thatch for cart-lodges and other
buildings that deserve but rude and cheap coverings"
(STEEVENS): "Stover, Pabulum." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.
Strachy-The lady of the, 12N. ii. 5. 45: An allusion to some
story which is not now known. Hanmer thought that
Strachy "should be perhaps Stratarch, which (as well as
Strategue) signifies a general of an army, a commander-in-
chief:" Payne Knight remarked; "The Governors employed
by the Greek Emperors in Sicily and Italy, from the sixth
to the tenth century, were called ETPATHгOI, Generals or
Prætors, corrupted by the Italians, partly through their
own, and partly through the Byzantine pronunciation, to
stratici, pronounced stratichi; which continued to be a title
of magistracy in many states long afterwards; and this word
strachy, which has so puzzled all the commentators, is only
a further corruption of it acquired in its passage through
successive French and English translations of some old
Italian novel, in which the widow of one of those magi-
strates had married an inferior officer of her household.
See Giannone, Hist. di Napoli, 1. xi. c. vi:" "The lady of
the Strachy," writes Mr. Halliwell, "is the lawyer's or judge's
lady or widow. The term is now only preserved in the
Russian language; but it was probably taken by Shakespeare
STRAIGHT-STRAIN.
467
from some novel or play, upon which he may have founded
the comic incidents of this drama. '[Corroboration can,
however, be derived] from the list of all the Crown servants
of Russia, sent every year to the State Secretary of the
Home Department at St. Petersburg; in which, for 1825
and 1826, Procureur Botwinko was reported to be imprisoned
at Vilna for the above case, and that the Strapchy of
Oszmiana was acting in his stead as Procureur pro tem.'
Household Words, March 15th, 1851." (After all, are we not
as far as ever from having ascertained the meaning of
Strachy?) [the explanation will perhaps be some day found
in one of the Romances of chivalry. "My lady the empress
in love with Hippolito her squire" is an incident in Tirante
the White; vide Don Quixote i. 6. Or in some continental
story of a Stracci or a Strozzi? See Arber's Garner iii.
16; Busbecq's Life & Letters, ii. 146.]
straight-Make her grave, Hml. v. 1. 4: Here straight, which
Johnson erroneously explains "from east to west in a direct
line parallel to the church," means merely "straightway,
immediately.”
straight-pight, straight-pitched, straight-built, upright (see pight),
Cymb. v. 5. 164.
strain, a turn, a tendency, an inborn disposition: unless he
know some strain (evil tendency, "vicious conduct,” GIFFORD,
Introd. to Ford's Works, p. cxlvii.) in me, M.W. ii. 1. 91;
all of the same strain, iii. 3. 197; so degenerate a strain as
this, Troil. ii. 2. 154; your valiant strain, Lr. v. 3. 40 (in
this passage Mr. Grant White explains strain "lineage:"
but would Albany here compliment on his "lineage" the
man whom he soon after calls "half-blooded fellow '?).
strain, a stock, a race, a lineage: he is of a noble strain, Ado,
ii. 1. 394; he is bred out of that bloody strain, H5. ii. 4. 51;
The strain of man's bred out Into baboon and monkey (“Man
is exhausted and degenerated; his strain or lineage has
worn down into a monkey," JOHNSON,-who in his Dict.
quotes this passage as an example of "strain" meaning
"hereditary disposition"), Tim. i. 1. 259; the noblest of thy
strain, J.C. v. I. 59; of what a noble strain you are, Per.
iv. 3. 24.
660
strain, &c.-And, in the publication, make no, Troil. i. 3. 326:
And make no difficulty, no doubt, when this duel comes
to be proclaimed, but that Achilles, dull as he is, will discover
the drift of it.' So afterwards, in this play, Ulysses says,
'I do not strain at the position.' [iii. 3. 112].
¿.e. I do not hesitate at, I make no difficulty of it" (THEOBALD).
strain courtesy, Rom. ii. 4. 55; Ven. 888: On the latter passage
now referred to, Mr. Staunton observes; "When any one
468
STRAIN'D-STRANGELY.
hesitated to take the post of honour in a perilous under-
taking, he was sarcastically said to strain courtesy. Tuberville
applies the expression to dogs, as Shakespeare does; 'for
many hounds will strain courtesie at this chace.'
strain'd, t'appear thus-With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have: see encounter so uncurrent, &c.
strain'd,- The quality of mercy is not, M.V. iv. 1. 184: forced,
constrained; replying to 'compulsion.'
strains of honour—The fine, "The niceties, the refinements [of
honour]" (JOHNSON), Cor. v. 3. 149.
strait, strict, rigorous: some strait decrees, 1H4. iv. 3. 79; such
a strait edict, 2H6. iii. 2. 258; his creditors most strait, Tim. i.
1.96; Proceed no straiter'gainst our uncle Gloster, 2H6. iii. 2. 20.
strait, niggardly: you are so strait, And so ingrateful, you deny
me that, K.J. v. 7. 42.
straited For a reply, Put to difficulty, puzzled for a reply,
W.T. iv. 4. 365.
strange, coy, shy, reserved: Or strange, or self-affected! Troil.
1
ii. 3. 250; more cunning to be strange, Rom. ii. 2. 101; I
should have been more strange, 102; strange love, grown bold,
iii. 2. 15 [wild, shy, untamed]: and see make strange.
strange, foreign, a stranger: As strange unto your town as to
your talk, Err. ii. 2. 151; he Is strange and peevish, Cymb.
i. 6. 54; I am something curious, being strange, i. 6. 191; a
strange soul, Troil. iii. 2. 10 (freshly arrived).
strange Even to the disposition that I owe, &c.— You make me,
Mcb. iii. 4. 112: "You prove to me that I am a stranger
even to my own disposition, when I perceive that the very
object which steals the colour from my cheek permits it to
remain in yours.' In other words, 'You prove to me how
false an opinion I have hitherto maintained of my own
courage, when yours, on the trial, is found to exceed it’”
(STEEVENS): "You render me a stranger to, or forgetful
of, that brave disposition which I know I possess, and
make me fancy myself a coward, when I perceive that I
am terrified by a sight which has not in the least alarmed
you'” (MALONE): "I believe it only means, 'you make me
amazed'" (REED): "To owe here means to owe or possess.
The sense expressed is, You make me feel as strange or
unnatural, the very disposition to fear, which belongs or is
natural to me on beholding such sights, when I see you
so wholly unaffected by them" (ELWIN).
strange-achieved gold, 2H4. iv. 5. 72: “gained and yet not
enjoyed; acquired not for one's own self, but for the benefit
of others." (SCHMIDT).
strangely, "Used by way of commendation, merveilleusement,
'to a wonder'" (JOHNSON): Hast strangely stood the test
Tp. iv. 1. 7.
STRANGELY—STRIKE.
469
strangely, with a distant reserved manner: pass strangely by
him, Troil. iii. 3. 39.
strangeness, coyness, shyness, distant behaviour, reserve:
ungird thy strangeness, 12N. iv. 1. 16; the savage strangeness
he puts on, Troil. ii. 3. 135; your strangeness and his pride,
iii. 3. 45; in strangeness stand no further off, Oth. iii. 3. 12;
She puts on outward strangeness, Ven. 310; Measure my
strangeness with my unripe years, 524.
stranger'd, estranged, alienated, Lr. i. 1. 207.
strangle--I will acquaintance, "I will put an end to our
familiarity" (MALONE), Sonn. 89.
strangle thy propriety — That makes thee: see propriety.
strappado-The, 1H4. ii. 4. 262: "The Half Strappado is to
have the Mans hands tyed cross behind his Back, and so
by them to be drawn up to a considerable height, and so
let down again; this, in the least of it, cannot but pull
either the Shoulder or Elbows or both out of Joynt.—The
Whole Strappado is when the person is drawn up to his
height, and then suddenly to let him fall halfway with a
jerk, which not only breaketh his Arms to pieces, but also
shaketh all his Joynts out of Joint; which Punishment is
better to be Hanged than for a Man to undergo."
R. Holme's Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. iii. c. vii.
p. 310: "It was," observes Douce, "a military punish-
ment... The term is evidently taken from the Italian
strappare, to pull or draw with violence."
stratagem, a dreadful, a disastrous event, a calamity: the
father of some stratagem, 2H4. i. 1. 8; What stratagems,
how fell, how butcherly, 3H6. ii. 5. 89; that heaven should
practise stratagems upon, &c., Rom. iii. 5. 211.
strawy, straw-like, no better than straw, Troil. v. 5. 24.
stray, "act of wandering" (Johnson's Dict.), a dereliction; I
would not from your love make such a stray, &c., Lr.
i. 1. 212.
stray, stragglers: pursue the scatter'd stray, 2H4. iv. 2. 120.
stray, to make to stray, to mislead: Hath not else his eye
Stray'd his affection, &c.. Err. v. 1. 51.
strength of limit, "the limited degree of strength which it is
customary for women to acquire before they are suffered
to go abroad after child-bearing" (MASON), W.T. iii. 2. 107.
stretch our eye-How shall we, "How wide must we open our
eyes" (JOHNSON), H5. ii. 2. 55.
stricture, strictness, M.M. i. 3. 12.
stride, to over-stride, to over-pass: To stride a limit, Cymb.
iii. 3. 35.
strike (a naval term), to lower the sails: And yet we strike not,
but securely perish, R2. ii. 1. 266; Than bear so low a sail,
to strike to thee, 3H6. v. 1. 49 [cf. iii. 3. 5.] (The second
470
STRIKE-STRIKERS.
passage at least includes the idea of lowering the colours
in token of surrender).
strike, "to blast or affect by sudden and secret influence”
(Nares's Gloss.): then no planets strike, Hml. i. 1. 162.
[Cf. Every M. in his H., iv. 5, Bobadill's excuse: "sure I
was struck by a planet thence [from heaven], for I had no
power to touch my weapon."]
strike, to tap: Strike the vessels, ho! Ant. ii. 7. 103 (Weber was
the first to explain rightly the meaning of strike in this line,
comparing it with a passage in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas,
act v. sc. 10, “Home, Launce, and strike a fresh piece of
wine:" that it should have puzzled Johnson, Steevens,
Ritson, and Holt White, is the more extraordinary, because
the word occurs with the same signification in a well-known
modern poem;
"L'Avare, not using half his store,
Still grumbles that he has no more;
Strikes not the present tun, for fear
The vintage should be bad next year," &c.
Prior's Alma, C. iii.).
strikers-No long-staff, sixpenny, 1H4. ii. 1. 82; "No fellows
that infest the road with long staffs, and knock men down
for sixpence" (JOHNSON): Cotgrave has "Haut à la
main. a striker, one with whom there is but a word
and a blow." Fr. and Engl. Dict.: “I rather believe in this
place, 'no six-penny striker' signifies 'not one who would
content himself to borrow, i.e. rob you for the sake of
six-pence.' That to borrow was the cant phrase for to
steal, is well known; and that to strike likewise signified
to borrow, let the following passage in Shirley's Gentleman
of Venice confirm;
:
<
· Cor. You had [were] best assault me too.
Mal, I must borrow money,
And that some call a striking,' &c.
Again, in Glapthorne's Hollander, 1640;
The only shape to hide a striker in.'
Again, in an old Ms. play [printed in 1824] entitled The
Second Maiden's Tragedy;
'one that robs the mind,
Twenty times worse than any highway striker'
(STEEVENS):
"In Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592, under the table
of Cant Expressions used by Thieves; the cutting a
pocket or picking a purse is called striking;' again, '—who
taking a proper youth to be his prentice, to teach him
the order of striking and foisting"" (COLLINS): "See also
The London Prodigal, 1605; "Nay, now I have had such
a fortunate beginning, I'll not let a six-penny-purse escape
me'"
STRINGS-SUBSCRIBE.
471
(MALONE.) [See Wright's Piers Ploughman, (Creed),
vol. ii. p. 455: "Raken," and p. 456 "over lond straketh,"
as illustrating rakers and strikers here.]
strings to your beards-Good, M.N.D. iv. 2. 36: The strings
were to prevent the false beards from falling off.
strong, determined: Strong and fasten'd villain! Lr. ii. 1. 79.
strossers-In your strait, In your tight close drawers, H5. iii.
7. 57: Theobald thought that here strait strossers meant
'naked skin;" but he was certainly mistaken, for these
Irish strossers (a form of trossers) are frequently mentioned:
he also altered strossers to trossers,-an improper alteration
which Mr. Collier persists in retaining (“ij payer of black
strocers." Inventory of theatrical dresses,—Malone's Shake-
speare, by Boswell, vol. iii. p. 310: "Nor the Danish sleeve
sagging down like a Welch wallet, the Italian's close strosser,
nor the French standing collar." Dekker's Gull's Hornbook,
p. 40, reprint 1812: “Or, like a toiling usurer, sets his son
a-horseback in cloth-of-gold breeches, while he himself goes
to the devil a-foot in a pair of old strossers." Middleton's
No Wit, no Help like a Woman's, act ii. sc. 1, Works,
vol. v. p. 39, ed. Dyce).
stroy'd, destroyed, Ant. iii. 11. 54.
stuck, more properly stock, an abbreviation of stoccado; see
first stock: he gives me the stuck-in with such a mortal
motion, 12N. iii. 4. 303; your venom'd stuck, Hml. iv. 7. 162.
stuck upon him, as the sun, &c.- It (i.e. His honour), 2H4.
ii. 3. 18; and therein stuck A sun and moon, Ant. v. 2. 79:
To modern readers there is perhaps something odd in
this use of the word stuck; but it was familiar enough to
those of Shakespeare's days;
"While Lucifer fore-shewes Auroras springs,
And Arctos stickes aboue the earth vnmou'd," &c.
Chapman's Byrons Tragedie, sig N 4 verso, ed. 1608:
"No black-eyed star must sticke in vertues spheare.'
Dekker's Satiromastix, 1602, sig L 2.
stuff, luggage, movables: fetch our stuff from thence, Err. iv. 4.
153; to get our stuff aboard, 162.
stuffed, filled, stored: stuffed with all honourable virtues, Ado,
i. 1. 56; Of stuff'd sufficiency, "Of abilities more than
enough" (JOHNSON), W.T. ii. 1. 185.
style-Aggravate his: see aggravate, &c.
subject, subjects, people: the greater file of the subject, M.M.
iii. 2. 145; And let the subject see, v. 1. 14; physics (acts as
a cordial to) the subject, W.T. i. 1. 43.
subscribe, "to agree to" (STEEVENS): As I subscribe not that,
nor any other, But in the loss of question, M.M. ii. 4. 89.
[Perhaps But in lack or absence of an actual case in point.]
472
SUBSCRIBE-SUCCESS.
“But in idle supposition, or conversation that tends to nothing.”
STEEVENS. “Question is used here, as in many other places,
for conversation." MALONE. "In the embarrassment of dis-
cussion; simply as a means or making my point clear."
HERFORD.
subscribe, to yield, to give way, to surrender: when I had
subscrib'd To mine own fortune, A.W. v. 3. 96; subscrib'd
his power! Lr. 1. 2. 24; All cruels else subscrib'd (all cruelty
or inhumanity "yielded, submitted to the necessity of the
occasion," JOHNSON), Lr. iii. 7. 65; Hector...subscribes To tender
objects, Troil. iv. 5. 105; Death to me subscribes, Sonn. 107.
subscribe for thee-To the possibility of thy soldiership, will,
A.W. iii. 6. 89: "I will subscribe' (says Bertram) 'to the
possibility of your soldiership.' His doubts being now raised,
he suppresses that he should not be so willing to vouch
for its probability" (STEEVENS): "I believe Bertram means
no more than that he is confident Parolles will do all that
soldiership can effect. He was not yet certain that he was
'a hilding"" (MALONE).
subscription, submission, obedience, Lr. iii. 2. 18.
substance, Whose grossness little characters sum up, Troil. i.
3. 324: "Substance is estate, the value of which is ascertained
by the use of small characters, i.e. numerals. So, in the
Prologue to King Henry V.,
'a crooked figure may
Attest, in little space, a million." (STEEVENS).
substractors, detractors, 12N. i. 3. 37.
subtilties o' th' isle-You do yet taste Some, Tp. v. 1. 124:
"This is a phrase adopted from ancient cookery and con-
fectionery. When a dish was so contrived as to appear
unlike what it really was, they called it a subtilty. Dragons,
castles, trees, &c., made out of sugar, had the like denomina-
tion. See Mr. Pegge's Glossary to the Form of Cury, &c.,
Article Sotiltees. Froissart complains much of this practice,
which often led him into mistakes at dinner," &c. (STEEVENS).
subtle, smooth: Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground, Cor. v.
2. 20 (where Johnson, in his Dict., and Malone understand
subtle to mean “deceitful").
deceitful"). "Seeming smooth and even,
but in fact uneven and treacherous." (SCHMIDT).
succeeding, a consequence: not to be understood without bloody
succeeding, A.W. ii. 3. 199.
success, a succession: In whose success we are gentle (By
succession from whom we have our gentility), W.T. i. 2.
394; success of mischief shall be born, 2H4. iv. 2. 47.
success, the issue, the sequel, the consequence of a thing:
success Will fashion the event, Ado, iv. 1. 236; give me leave
to try success, A.W. i. 3. 253; their opinions of success, J.C.
ii. 2. 6; Mistrust of my success (of what had been the issue
SUCCESSANTLY SUGGESTION.
473
with me), v. 3. 65; Mistrust of good success, 66; My speech
should fall into such vilesuccess, Oth. iii. 3. 222; what is the
success? Ant. iii. 5. 6: what the success will be A.W. iii. 6. 86.
successantly, Tit. iv. 4. 113. Rowe, successfully, Capell, incessantly.
"By successantly "I suppose he meant successfully." MALONE.
successive title-My, "My title to the succession" (MALONE),
Tit. i. I. 4.
successively, "by order of succession" (JOHNSON): So thou
the garland wear'st successively, 2H4. iv. 5. 202; But as
successively, from blood to blood, R3. iii. 7. 135.
sudden, hasty, precipitately violent: her sudden quips, 2G. iv.
2. 12; sudden and quick in quarrel, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 151; Sudden,
malicious, Mcb. iv. 3. 59; sudden in choler, Oth. ii. 1. 279.
[sudden as flaws, brittle as ice-flakes, hasty, 2H4. iv. 4. 35.
Here sudden is to be taken with in the spring of day, i.e.
when the sun rises they become brittle.]
sue his livery: see livery, &c.
suffered, allowed, not restrained: being suffer'd in that harmful
slumber, 2H6. iii. 2. 262; being suffer'd with (allowed to
engage with) the bear's fell paw, v. 1. 153 [Query read:
who being suffered, with ... paw, who being permitted
(to engage the bear), when he feels, etc. par = blow of paw.]
Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench, 3H6. iv. 8. 8;
Else, suffer'd, it will set the heart on fire, Ven. 388.
sufficiency-Of stuff'd: see stuffed.
sugar mixed with wine: see wine and sugar-Such.
suggest, to tempt, to incite, to seduce: suggest thee from thy
master, A.W. iv. 5. 47; Suggest ("Prompt, set on by injurious
hints," STEEVENS) his soon-believing adversaries, R2. i. 1. 101;
suggest by treasons, H5. ii. 4. 114; We must suggest (“ prompt,"
STEEVENS) the people in what hatred, &c., Cor. ii. 1. 261;
suggest at first with heavenly shows, Oth. ii. 3. 358; do suggest
me still, Sonn. 144; tender youth is soon suggested, 2G. iii.
1. 34; Suggested us to make them, L.L.L. v. 2. 780; what
Eve, what serpent, hath suggested thee, R2. iii. 4. 75; Suggested
this proud issue of a king, Lucr. 37; suggests the king our
master, H8. i. 1. 164; sweet-suggesting Love, 2G. ii. 6. 7.
suggestion, temptation, enticement, seduction: They'll take
suggestion ("any hint of villany," JOHNSON) as a cat laps
milk, Tp. ii. 1. 288; the strong'st suggestion Our worser
Genius can, iv. 1. 26; their blood, Mingled with venom of
suggestion ("Though their blood be inflamed by the temp-
tations to which youth is peculiarly subject," MALONE),
2H4. iv. 4. 45; why do I yield to that suggestion, Mcb. 1. 3.
134; Suggestions are to others as to me, L.L.L. i. 1. 159; in
those suggestions for the young earl, A.W. iii. 5. 18.
suggestion Tith'd all the kingdom-One that by, [Dyce reads
Tith'd, follg. Hanmer: Fol. Ty'de: Globe Tied]: “The word
474
SUIT-SUITED.
suggestion, says the critic [Dr. Warburton], is here used
with great propriety and seeming knowledge of the Latin
tongue: and he proceeds to settle the sense of it from the
late Roman writers and their glossers. But Shakespeare's
knowledge was from Holinshed, whom he follows verbatim;
"This cardinal was of a great stomach, for he computed
himself equal with princes, and by craftie suggestions got
into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on
simonie, and was not pitifull, and stood affectionate in his
own opinion: in open presence he would lie and seie
untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning: he
would promise much and perform little: he was vicious of
his bodie, and gave the clergie evil example.' Edit. 1587,
p. 922" (STEEVENS): The above passage was borrowed by
Holinshed from Hall: In the line of our text Nares (Gloss.)
understands suggestion to mean "crafty advice." [Probably
used in the sense of instigating Promoters or informers,
entrapping men by spying instigators.]
suit, a court-solicitation, a petition or request made to a prince
or statesman: It is my only suit (with a quibble on the
double meaning of suit-"apparel" and "petition"), A.Y.L.
ii. 7. 44; And then dreams he of smelling out a suit, Rom. i. 4.
78; For obtaining of suits (repeated with a quibble on suits—
petitions" and "clothes of a person hanged"), 1H4. i. 2. 81.
suit, a love-suit: Which late her noble suit in court did shun
("Who lately retired from the solicitation of her noble
admirers," MALONE), L. Compl. 234.
suit, suit-service, due to a superior lord: Give notice to such
men of sort and suit As are to meet him, M.M. iv. 4. 19:
"In the feudal times all vassals were bound to hold suit
and service to their overlord; that is, to be ready at all
times to attend and serve him, either when summoned to
his courts, or to his standard in war. 'Such men of sort
and suit as are to meet him,' I presume, means the Duke's
vassals or tenants in capite." Edinburgh Magazine. Nov.
1786: and see second sort. [Fuller, Worthies (Devon, i. 273,
ed. 1811): “and being out of sorts, is unable for the present
time and place to recruit himself with cloaths."] See suits.
suit, to clothe, to dress: Description cannot suit itself in words, &c.,
H5. iv. 2. 53; suit myself As does a Briton peasant, Cymb.
V. I. 23; one meaning well suited (one meaning put into
different suits or dresses), Ado, v. 1. 231; How oddly he is
suited! M.V. i. 2. 79; richly suited, but unsuitable, A.W. i.
1. 170; So went he suited to his watery tomb, 12N. v. 1. 241;
suited In like conditions as our argument, Troil. Prol. 24;
Be better suited (Put on better clothes), Lr. iv. 7. 6.
suited, suited to each other, arranged: how his words are suited,
M.V. iii. 5. 70.
SUITS-SUN-BURNED.
475
suits with fortune-Out of," turned out of her service, and stripped
of her livery" (STEEVENS), A.Y.L. i. 2. 258. See third suit.
sullen, heavy, dismal, melancholy, dark: sullen passage, K.J. i.
1. 28; sullen bell, 2H4. i. 1. 102; Sonn. 71; sullen sorrow,
R2. i. 3. 227; The sullen passage of thy weary steps Esteem
as foil, &c., 265; sullen black, v. 6. 48; like bright metal on
a sullen ground, 1H4. i. 2. 236; the sullen earth, 2H6. i. 2.
5; sullen dirges, Rom. iv. 5. 88.
sullens, moroseness: And let them die that age and sullens have,
R2. ii. 1. 139 ("Like you, Pandion, who, being sick of the
sullens, will seeke no friend." Lyly's Sapho and Phao, sig.
D 2, ed. 1591).
sum-The, "Be brief, sum thy business in a few words" (JOHN.
SON), Ant. i. 1. 18.
sumless, not to be computed, inestimable, H5. i. 2. 165.
summer's story, Sonn. 98: "By a summer's story Shakspeare
seems to have meant some gay fiction" (Malone).
summoners, "officers that summon offenders before a proper
tribunal" (STEEVENS), Lr. iii. 2. 59.
sumpter, a horse to carry necessaries on a journey, Lr. ii. 4. 219.
sun-I am too much i' the, Hml. i. 2.67: "He perhaps alludes
to the proverb, 'Out of heaven's blessing into the warm
sun' (JOHNSON): See heaven's benediction com'st To the
warm sun! - Thou out of.
175
sun-Our half-fac'd, 2H6. iv. 1. 98: "Edward the third bare
for his device the rays of the sun dispersing themselves
out of a cloud." Camden's Remains concerning Britain, &c.
(Impresses), p 451, ed. 1674.
sun of York—Made glorious summer by this, R3. i. 1. 2: An
allusion to the cognizance of Edward IV.; see suns? (Here
perhaps a quibble was intended: compare 3H6. ii. 1. 39-41.)
sun-Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the, 3H6. ii. 1. 92.
Watson, Hecatomp. xcix., refers to Aristotle, Hist. Animal.
lib. 9, and Pliny, x. 1, for the original sources of the idea
that the eagle exposed her young to the sun's radiance
thereby her owne to knowe. Those that beheld it not with
"
open eye, She lette them fall, not able yet to fly."
suns? Do I see three, 3H6. ii. 1. 25: “This circumstance is
mentioned both by Hall and Holinshed; '—at which tyme
the son (as some write) appeared to the earle of March
like three sunnes, and sodainely joyned altogither in one,
upon whiche sight hee tooke such courage, that he fiercely
setting on his enemyes put them to flight; and for this
cause menne ymagined that he gave the sun in his full
bryghtness for his badge or cognisance.' These are the
words of Holinshed" (MALONE). [See Fuller, Worthies, (Here-
ford), i. 447, ed. 1811.]
sun-burned, uncomely, homely, ill-favoured: I am sun-burned,
476
SUNDAY-SURE.
Ado, ii. 1. 331; The Grecian dames are sunburnt, Troil. i.
3. 282.
Sunday-we will be married o', Shr. ii. 1. 326. Most probably
a quotation from some old ballad. At the end of Ralph
Roister Doister, 1566, one of "Certaine songs to be sung
by those which shall use this Comedie or Enterlude," be-
gins thus:
'I mun be married a Sunday,
I mun be married a Sunday,
Whosoever shall come that way,
I mun be married a Sunday.'
p. 87, ed. 1818.
superfluous, possessed of more than enough: Cold wisdom
waiting on superfluous folly ("Cold for naked, as superfluous
for over-clothed," WARBURTON; but the text has been question-
ed), A.W. i. 1. 116; our basest beggars Are in the poorest
thing superfluous, Lr. ii. 4. 268; Let the superfluous ("one living
in abundance," WARBURTON) and lust-dieted man, iv. 1. 70.
superflux, a superfluity, Lr. iii. 4. 35.
superpraise, to overpraise, M.N.D. iii. 2. 153.
superserviceable, over-officious, Lr. ii. 2. 19.
supervise, an inspection: on the supervise (on the sight of the
document), Hml. v. 2. 23.
supervise, to inspect, to overlook, L.L.L. iv. 2. 124.
supervisor, an inspector, an overlooker, a looker-on, Oth. iii.
3. 395.
suppliance of a minute, “i.e. what was supplied to us for a
minute, or, as Mr. M. Mason supposes, an amusement to fill
up a vacant moment and render it agreeable" (STEEVENS),
"the means of filling up the vacancy "(CALDECOTT), Hml. i. 3. 9.
supplications in the quill-Deliver our, 2H6. i. 3. 3. see quill.
supplyant, suppletory, auxiliary, Cymb. iii. 7. 14.
supplyment, a continuance of supply, Cymb. iii. 4. 182.
supposal, a notion, a belief, Hml. i. 2. 18.
suppose, a supposition: we come short of our suppose, Troil. i.
3. 11; on vain suppose, Tit. i. 1. 440; counterfeit supposes,
Shr. v. 1. 120 (where supposes is equivalent to "persons.
supposed to be not what they really were:" compare, at
the conclusion of act ii. "I see no reason but suppos'd
Lucentio Must get a father, call'd-suppos'd Vincentio").
supposed-I'll be, Pompey's blunder for I'll be deposed,
M.M. ii. 1. 162.
sur-addition, a surname, an additional name, Cymb. i. 1. 33.
surance, an assurance, Tit. v. 2. 46.
surcease, a cessation, Mcb. i. 7. 4.
surcease, to cease, Cor. iii. 2. 121; Rom. iv. 1. 97; Lucr. 1766.
sure, safe, out of danger: If we recover that, we're sure enough,
2G. v. 1. 12.
SURECARD-SWATH.
477
surecard (Qo. Soccard), 2H4. iii. 2. 95. Schmidt refers to Tit.
V. I. 100, as sure a card as ever won a set, to illustrate the
significance of the name.
surety, false confidence, lack of vigilance, Troil. ii. 2. 14.
surfeiter, a glutton, a feaster, a reveller, Ant. ii. 1. 33.
surmise, "speculation, conjecture concerning the future"
MALONE): function Is smother'd in surmise, Mcb. i. 3. 141.
surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart-It will
wear the, A.W. i. 3. 99: “This passage refers to the sour
objection of the puritans to the use of the surplice in
divine service, for which they wished to substitute the black
Geneva gown. At this time the controversy with the
puritans raged violently. Hooker's Fifth Book of Ecclesi-
astical Polity, which, in the 29th chapter, discusses this
matter at length, was published in 1597. But the question
itself is much older-as old as the Reformation," &c.
Note signed "S." in Knight's Shakspere.
sur-reined, over-reined, over-worked, H5. iii. 5. 19 [cf. Fack
Drum, iv. 44: "a surreined jaded wit, but 'a jogs on."]
suspect, suspicion, Err. iii. 1. 87; 2H6. i. 3. 139; iii. 1. 140
(O. Edd. suspence); iii. 2. 139; 3H6. iv. 1. 142; R3. iii. 5.
32; Tim. iv. 3. 519; 521; Ven. 1010; Sonn. 70 (twice);
suspects, R3. i. 3. 89.
suspiration, the act of drawing the breath from the bottom
of the breast, Hml. i. 2. 79.
suspire, to breathe, 2H4. iv. 5. 33; K.J. iii. 4. 80.
sustaining garments-Their, Tp. i. 2. 218: This, I believe,
means the garments that bore them up (not, as Mason
supposes, their garments which bore, without being injured,
the drenching of the sea).
swabber, a sweeper of the deck of a vessel, Tp. ii. 2. 48;
12N. i. 5. 217.
swag-bellied, having a large loose heavy belly, Oth. ii. 3. 80.
swam in a gondola, A.Y.L. iv. 1. 38: "That is, been at Venice"
(JOHNSON).
swart or swarth, black, dark, dusky, Err. iii. 2. 104; K.J. iii.
1. 46; 1H6. i. 2. 84; swart-complexion'd, Sonn. 28.
swarth, see swath, i.
swashers, swaggerers, braggadocios, H5. iii. 2. 30.
swashing, swaggering, blustering, “dashing" (Nares's Gloss.):
a swashing and a martial outside, A.Y.L.. i. 3. 122.
swashing blow, a blow that comes down with noise and
violence, an overpowering blow, Rom. i. 1. 70 [some Qq.
and F1: washing). (“To swash (or clash with swords and
armour), Chamailler." Cotgrave's Fr. and Eng. Dict.).
swath, a line or row of grass as left by the scythe: the mower's
swath, Troil. v. 5. 25; utters it by great swaths, 12N. ii. 3.
162 (O. Edd. Globe, swarths).
478
SWATH-SWIFT.
swath, a linen bandage for a new-born child,-infancy: from
our first swath, Tim. iv. 3. 252.
swathing clothes, Cymb. i. 1. 59, (the same as swaddling
clouts, Hml. ii. 2. 401); swathling-clothes, 1H4. iii. 2. 112;
linen bandages for newborn children. See swath 2. ["thy
swading clothes": Twine, Patt. Painful Adv., c. x.]
sway of earth-All the, “The whole weight or momentum of
this globe" (JOHNSON), All “the balanced swing of earth"
(CRAIK), J.C. i. 3. 3.
sway, to incline: Now sways it this way.
•
•
Now sways it
that way, 3H6. ii. 5. 5 ; swaying more upon our part, H5. i. 1. 73.
sway on-Let us, 2H4. iv. 1. 24 [move resolutely on.]
swayed in the back, Shr. iii. 2. 56: “Of the swayinge of the
backe. This is called of the Italians mal feruto, and,
according to Russius and Martins opinions, commeth either
by some great straine, or else by heavie burthens: you
shall perceive it by the reeling and rolling of the horses
hinder parts in his going, which will faulter many times,
and sway, sometime backward, and sometime sideling, and
bee ready to fall even to the ground, and the horse being
laid is scant able to get uppe." Blundevile's Order of Curing
Horses Diseases, 1609 (quoted by Halliwell).
swear'st thy gods in vain-Thou, Thou swearest by thy gods,
&c., Lr. i. 1. 163.
sweat-Till then I'll, Troil v. 10. 56: An allusion to the cure
of the venereal disease by means of sweating: see tub.
sweat, what with the gallows,-What with the, M.M. i. 2. 84:
Here, it would seem, the sweat means "the sweating-sickness,"
and not the method used for the cure of the venereal disease.
sweet-and-twenty, twenty times sweet, 12N. ii. 3. 52: A term
of endearment: Steevens cites, from The Merry Devil of Ed-
monton, "his little wanton wagtailes, his sweet and twenties," &c.
sweet mouth-She hath a, 2G. iii. 1. 330: Here a sweet mouth
is equivalent to "a sweet tooth;" but Launce, in his rejoinder,
chooses to understand the words literally.
sweeting, a kind of sweet apple, and used as a term of
endearment in all the passages now referred to, except the
fourth, Shr. iv. 3. 36; 12N. ii. 3. 43; 1H6. iii. 3. 21; Rom.
ii. 4. 83; Oth. ii. 3. 252.
sweetmeats, perfumed sugar-plums (see kissing-comfits): Because
their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are, Rom. i. 4. 76: and
such perhaps is the meaning of sweetmeats, M.N.D. i. 1 34.
sweetness-Their saucy, M.M. ii. 4. 45: Here Steevens under-
stands sweetness to mean "lickerishness."
sweet-suggesting, sweetly tempting, 2G. ii. 6. 7: see suggest.
swet, sweated, (Globe, sweat) M.V. iii. 2. 205; A.Y.L. ii. 3. 58;
H8. ii. 1. 33.
swift, ready, quick: so swift and excellent a wit, Ado, iii. 1. 89;
SWINGE-BUCKLERS—SWORD.
479
he is very swift and sententious, A.Y.L. v. 4. 65; A good
swift simile (with a quibble), Shr. v. 2. 54.
swinge-bucklers, riotous blades, roisterers, 2H4. iii. 2. 24.
swinged, whipped, beaten, chastised, 2G. ii. 1. 88; iii. 1. 392;
M.W. v. 5. 197; M.M. v. 1. 130; K.J. ii. 1. 288; 2H4. v.
4. 21; 23.
Swinstead, K.J. v. 3. 8: The name ought to be Swineshead:
but the error was derived from the old play, The Trouble-
some Raigne of John, &c. (see iv. 3), and from ballads
concerning that king.
Swithold, Lr. iii. 4. 125: The contraction of Saint Withold
(supposed by Tyrwhitt to mean St. Vitalis), who, it appears,
was commonly invoked against the nightmare. (Globe
S. Withold).
Switzers, Hml. iv. 5. 97: The Swiss in Shakespeare's days, as in
recent times, were ready to serve for pay in any part of Europe.
swoop, the sudden descent of a bird of prey on its quarry,
Mcb. iv. 3. 219.
swoopstake, "by wholesale, undistinguishingly" (CALDECOTT),
Hml. iv. 5. 142.
sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones-No trophy, Hml. iv. 5. 214:
"It was the custom, in the times of our author, to hang a
sword over the grave of a knight" (JOHNSON): "This practice
is uniformly kept up to this day," &c. (SIR J. HAWKINS).
sword-To swear by a: “The singular mixture of religious and
military fanaticism which arose from the crusades, gave
rise to the extraordinary custom of taking a solemn oath
upon a sword. In a plain unenriched sword, the separation
between the blade and the hilt was usually a straight
transverse bar, which, suggesting the idea of a cross, added
to the devotion which every true knight felt for his favourite
weapon, and evidently led to this practice; of which the
instances are too numerous to be collected. The sword,
or the blade, were often mentioned in this ceremony, with-
out reference to the cross." Nares's Gloss.: "In consequence
of the practice of occasionally swearing by a sword, or
rather by the cross or upper end of it, the name of Jesus
was sometimes inscribed on the handle or some other
part. Such an instance occurs on the monument of a crusader
in the vestry of the church at Winchelsea," &c. (Douce):
Swear by this sword, W.T. ii. 3. 168; Swear by my sword,
Hml. i. 5. 147-160: Hence Falstaff says jestingly that
Glendower swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross
of a Welsh hook, 1H4. ii. 4. 371; see Welsh hook, &c. (The
custom of swearing by a sword prevailed even among the
barbarous worshippers of Odin; "The Scythians commonly
substituted a sword as the most proper symbol to represent
the supreme god. It was by planting a spear in the middle
480 SWORD-AND-BUCKLER-SYMPATHY.
of a field, that they usually marked out the place set apart
for prayers and sacrifices: and when they had relaxed from
their primitive strictness, so far as to build temples and set
up idols in them, they yet preserved some traces of the
ancient custom, by putting a sword in the hands of Odin's
statues. The respect they had for their arms made them
also swear by instruments so valuable and so useful, as
being the most sacred things they knew. Accordingly, in
an ancient Icelandic poem, a Scandinavian, to assure him-
self of a person's good faith, requires him to swear 'by the
shoulder of a horse, and the edge of a sword.' This oath
was usual more especially on the eve of some great engage-
ment: the soldiers engaged themselves by an oath of this
kind, not to flee though their enemies should be never so
superior in number." Mallet's Northern Antiquities, &c.,
transl. by Percy, vol. i. p. 216, ed. 1770).
sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales-That same, That same
Prince of Wales who brawls and fights in the lowest
company, 1H4. 1. 3. 230: "Upon the introduction of the
rapier and dagger, the sword-and-buckler fell into desuetude
among the higher classes, and were accounted fitting weapons
for the vulgar only, such as Hotspur implies were the
associates of the prince" (STAUNTON). ("My olde master
kept a good house, and twenty or thirty tall sword and
buckler men about him.” Wilkins's Miseries of Inforst
Marriage, sig. E 4, ed. 1629.)
sworder, a swordsman, a cut-throat, a gladiator, 2H6. iv. 1. 135.
sword-hilts: see hilts.
sworn brother, an expression originally derived from the fratres
jurati, who, in the days of chivalry, mutually bound them-
selves by oath to share each other's fortune, Ado, i. 1. 73;
W.T. iv. 4. 607; R2. v. 1. 20; 1H4. ii. 4. 7; 2H4. iii. 2. 345;
sworn brothers, H5. ii. 1. 13; iii. 2. 47.
sworn-out house-keeping—I hear your grace hath, I hear your
grace has forsworn, renounced, housekeeping, L.L.L. ii. 1. 104.
swounds, swoons, Lucr. 1486: In this passage, of course, the
•
rhyme requires the former spelling to be preserved.
sycamore tree,—The poor soul sat sighing by a, Oth. iv. 3. 41.
See Percy, Rel. 1. 208, ed. 1794; Chappell, Pop. Music of
the Olden Time, i. 207, sec. ed. See Willow.
Sycorax, Tp. i. 2. 258; 263; 290; 331; 340; iii. 2. 109: see
wicked dew.
Syenna's, see Sienna's.
sympathy-If that thy valour stand on, R2. iv. 1. 33: “Aumerle
has challenged Bagot with some hesitation, as not being his
equal, and therefore one whom, according to the rules of
chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a noble life was
not to be staked in a duel against a baser. Fitzwater then
TABLE "TAILOR”.
48I
throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him
that if he stands upon sympathies, that is, upon. equality of
blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank
not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident
at once to two subjects. This community of affection
implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet
transferred the term to equality of blood" (JOHNSON). [Cf.
Tit. iii. 1. 48: similarity (of woe, as here of rank)].
T.
table, a board, a panel, the surface on which a picture is painted:
In our heart's table, A.W. i. 1. 106; Drawn in the flattering
table of her eye, K.J. ii. 1. 503; in table of my heart, Sonn. 24.
table, “in the language of palmistry or chiromancy, the whole
collection of lines on the skin within the hand" (Nares's
Gloss.), a space between certain lines on the skin within
the hand" (HALLIWELL): if any man in Italy have a fairer
table, M V. ii. 2. 167.
table and tables, a memorandum-book: the table wherein all
my thoughts, &c., 2G. ii. 7. 3; the table of my memory, Hml.
i. 5. 98; lisping ("making love, saying soft things," MALONE)
to his master's old tables, 2H4. ii. 4. 289; wipe his tables
clean, iv. 1. 201; My tables,—meet it is I set it down, Hml.
i. 5. 107; Thy gift, thy tables, Sonn. 122.
table-book, a memorandum-book (see the preceding article),
W.T. iv. 4. 610; Hml. ii. 2. 136.
tabled, set down in writing, Cymb. i. 4. 6.
tables, backgammon (and other games played with the same
board and dice): when he plays at tables, L.L.L. v. 2. 326.
tabor, a sort of small drum, beaten with a single stick, and
generally accompanied by a pipe, which the taborer him-
self played, Tp. iv. 1. 175; Ado, ii. 3. 15; L.L.L. v. 1. 161;
12N. iii. 1. 2—10; (where Douce remarks, "This instrument
is found in the hands of fools long before the time of
Shakespeare"); W.T. iv. 4. 183; Tabors, Cor. i. 6. 25.
taborer, a player on the tabor, Tp. iii. 2. 160; 2N.K. iii. 5. 23:
see tabor.
tabourines, small drums,-drums, Troil. iv. 5. 275; Ant. iv. 8. 37.
tackled stair, ladder made of ropes, Rom. ii. 4. 201.
tag-The, The common people, the rabble, Cor. iii. 1. 248 (so,
the tag-rag people, J.C. i. 2. 260.)
tail-A rat without a: see rat without a tail, &c.
“tailor” cries, M.N.D. ii. 1. 54: "The custom of crying tailor
at a sudden fall backwards, I think I remember to have
observed. He that slips beside his chair, falls as a tailor
squats upon his board" (JOHNSON): It may be doubted if
this explains the text.
31
482
TAILOR-TAKE.
tailor, or be redbreast teacher-'Tis the next way to turn, 1H4.
iii. 1. 264: “The plain meaning is, that he who makes a
common practice of singing, reduces himself to the condition
either of a tailor [tailors being often mentioned as much
given to singing], or a teacher of music to birds" (Malone):—
the next way, the nearest way. See Record, and Red-breast.
taint, tainted, touched, imbued: a pure unspotted heart, Never
yet taint with love, 1H6. v. 3. 183; Nero will be tainted with
remorse (touched with compassion), 3H6. iii. 1. 40.
tainture, defilement, 2H6. ii. 1. 188.
take, to captivate, to delight: which must Take the ear strangely,
Tp. v. 1. 313; play'd to take spectators, W.T. iii. 2. 38; take
The winds of March with beauty, iv. 4. 119.
take, to bewitch, to affect with malignant influence, to strike
with disease: takes the cattle, M.W. iv. 4. 32; No fairy takes,
Hml. i. 1. 163; You taking airs, Lr. ii. 4. 166.
take, to strike, [to 'fetch']: take you a blow o' the lips, 12N. ii.
5. 75; Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy sword,
R3. i. 4. 159 (Take in this sense is of considerable antiquity;
so in the ballad of Little John, the Beggar, and the Palmers,
"But one of them tooke little Iohn on his head,
Bishop Percy's folio Ms.
The blood ran over his eye."
printed by the Early English Text Society, vol. i. p. 49).
take, to leap: make you take the hatch, K.J. v. 2. 138.
take, to take refuge in: for God's sake, take a house! Err. v. 1. 36.
take all is, I believe, properly, as Mr. Collier observes, "an
expression from the gaming-table, meaning, let all depend
upon this hazard, and let the successful competitor 'take
all':" And bids what will take all, Lr. iii. 1. 15; I'll strike,
and cry
"Take all" ("Let the survivor take all; no com-
position; victory or death," JOHNSON), Ant. iv. 2. 8. (There
was a game at dice called Take-all.)
+
take all, pay all, M.W. ii. 2. 123: Ray gives "Take all and pay
all" among proverbs communicated by a Somersetshire
gentleman, Proverbs, p. 273, ed. 1768.
take away, to remove, to make away: Let me still take away
the harms I fear, Lr. i. 4. 352.
take eggs for money?-Will you: see eggs for money, &c.
take-For I can, H5. ii. 1. 55: "Means, 'I can take fire.'
Though Pistol's cock was up, yet if he did not take fire,
no flashing could ensue. The whole sentence consists in
allusions to his name" (MASON).
take his haste-Let him, Tim. v. 1. 213, equivalent to take
haste, make haste.
"And to mete him he toke his pase full right."
Lydgate's Fall of Prynces, B. ix. fol. xxxiiii. verso,
ed. Wayland;
TAKE.
To the Bruers gate he took his race.'
483
Song how a Bruer meant to make a Cooper cuckold—among
Seventy-nine Black-Letter Ballads, &c., 1867, p. 61.
take in, to conquer, to subdue: take in the mind, W.T. iv. 4.
588 [In R3. 1. 4. 151: Take the devil in thy mind, 'take' =
give admittance to; the Devil=Satan; "him" in the fol-
lowing clause = conscience]; take in many towns, Cor. i. 2. 24;
take in a town, iii. 2. 59; Take in that kingdom, Ant. i. 1. 23;
take in Toryne, iii. 7. 24; take in some virtue, Cymb. iii. 2. 9;
With his own single hand he'd take us in, iv. 2. 121 (where
Johnson, and Nares in Gloss., wrongly explain take in by
"apprehend as an outlaw or felon"); taking kingdoms in,
Ant. iii. 13. 83.
take it on one's death-To: see death-Took it, on his: and
compare
rr
Gripe. But I am sure she loues not him.
Will, Nay, I dare take it on my death she loues him."
Wily Begvilde, sig. C verso. ed. 1606.
take me with you, let me understand you ("go no faster than
I can follow," JOHNSON), 1H4. ii. 4. 506; Rom. iii. 5. 142.
take, oh take those lips away, M.M. iv. 1. 1: This song occurs
in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bloody Brother, v. 2, with an
additional stanza:
Hide, oh hide those hills of snow
Which thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears!
But first set my poor heart free,
Bound in those icy chains by thee."
take on, which commonly signifies "to grieve" ("To take on,
Doleo, Egre ferre." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), appears
to be used by Shakespeare in the sense of "to be angry,
to rage:" she does so take on with her men, M.W. iii. 5. 40;
How will my mother for a father's death Take on with me,
3H6. ii. 5. 104; he so takes on yonder with my husband,
M.W. iv. 2. 22 (Malone compares Nash's Pierce Pennilesse
his Supplication to the Diuell; "Some wil take on like a
mad man, if they see a Pig come to the table.” Sig. D 3,
ed. 1595).
take on, to simulate, to pretend: take on as you would follow,
M.N.D. iii. 2. 258.
take order, to adopt measures, to make necessary dispositions:
If your worship will take order for the drabs, &c., M.M. ii
1. 246; take order for the wrongs, Err. v. 1. 146; I'll order
take, A.W. iv. 2. 55; I will take such order, 2H4. iii. 2. 198;
take some order in the town, 1H6. iii. 2. 126; take order for
mine own affairs, 2H6. iii. 1. 320; to take some privy order,
}
484
TAKE.
R3. iii. 5. 106; take order for her keeping close, iv. 2. 53;
Some one take order Buckingham be brought, &c., iv. 4. 539;
this order hath Baptista ta'en, Shr. i. 2. 126; there is order
ta'en for you, R2. v. 1. 53; Iago hath ta'en order fort,
Oth. v. 2. 72.
take out, to copy: Take me this work out, Oth iii. 4. 180; I
must take out the work? iv. 1. 156; 159; I'll have the work
ta'en out, iii. 3. 296.
take peace with, to forgive, to pardon, H8. ii. 1. 85.
take place, see fourth place.
take scorn, to disdain: Take thou no scorn, A.Y.L. iv. 2. 14;
take foul scorn, 1H6. iv. 4. 35; takes no scorn, H5. iv. 7. 107.
take the head, "to act without restraint, to take undue liberties
(JOHNSON), "to take away or omit the sovereign's chief and
usual title" (DOUCE): to shorten you, For taking so the head,
your whole head's length, R2. iii. 3. 13.
take thought, "to turn melancholy" (JOHNSON), J.C. ii. 1. 187:
see thought.
take toy: see second toy.
take a truce and take truce, to make peace: With my vex'd
spirits I cannot take a truce, K.J. iii. 1. 17; Could not take
truce with the unruly spleen of Tybalt, Rom. iii. 1. 162; The
seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce, Troil. ii. 2. 75.
take up, to settle, to make up: And how was that [quarrel]
ta'en up? A.Y.L. v. 4. 50; when seven justices could not take
up a quarrel, v. 4. 104; I have his horse to take up the
quarrel, 12N. iii. 4. 320.
("And chiefe Marsilio and Sobrino sage
Advise King Agramant to stay the fight,
And these same champions furie to asswage,
And to take up the quarrell if they might," &c.
Sir J. Harington's translation of the Orlando Furioso,
B. xxx. st. 26;
where on the 28th st. is the following marginal note; "This
is almost the chiefe cause why quarrels betweene Princes.
and great states be so seldom taken up.")
take up, to obtain goods on credit, to take commodities upon
trust: take up commodities upon our bills (with a quibble;
see first bill), 2H6. iv. 7. 135; a goodly commodity, being
taken up of these men's bills (with a quibble both on taken
up-the common meaning of which is "apprehended"-
and on bills), Ado, iii. 3. 191; yet art thou good for nothing
but taking up, A.W. ii. 3. 218 (“When Lafeu adds, ‘and that
thou'rt scarce worth,' the intention is to play upon another
sense of the words, that of taking from the ground," Nares's
Gloss.); if a man is through with them in honest taking-up,
2H4. i. 2. 46.
TAKE-TALE.
485
take up, to levy: You have ta'en up, Under the counterfeited seal
of God, The subjects of his substitute, 2H4. iv. 2. 26.
taken with the manner: see manner, &c.
taking, witchery, malignant influence: star-blasting and taking,
Lr. iii. 4. 61.
tale, my lord: "it is not so, nor 'twas not so; but indeed, God
forbid it should be so"-Like the old, Ado, i. 1. 218: “I
believe none of the commentators have understood this;
it is an allusion, as the speaker says, to an old tale, which
may perhaps be still extant in some collections of such
things, or which Shakespeare may have heard, as I have,
related by a great-aunt, in his childhood.
"Once upon a time, there was a young lady (called Lady
Mary in the story), who had two brothers. One summer
they all three went to a country-seat of theirs, which they
had not before visited. Among the other gentry in the
neighbourhood who came to see them was a Mr. Fox, a
bachelor, with whom they, particularly the young lady, were
much pleased. He used often to dine with them, and
frequently invited Lady Mary to come and see his house.
One day that her brothers were absent elsewhere, and she
had nothing better to do, she determined to go thither;
and accordingly set out unattended. When she arrived at
the house, and knocked at the door, no one answered.
At length she opened it, and went in; over the portal of
the hall was written Be bold, be bold, but not too bold:' she
advanced; over the staircase, the same inscription: she
went up; over the entrance of a gallery, the same: she
proceeded; over the door of a chamber ‘Be bold, be bold,
but not too bold, lest that your heart's blood should run cold.
She opened it: it was full of skeletons, tubs full of blood, &c.
She retreated in haste: coming down stairs, she saw out
of a window Mr. Fox advancing towards the house, with
a drawn sword in one hand, while with the other he dragged
along a young lady by her hair. Lady Mary had just time
to slip down, and hide herself under the stairs, before Mr.
Fox and his victim arrived at the foot of them. As he
pulled the young lady up stairs, she caught hold of one
of the banisters with her hand, on which was a rich bracelet.
Mr. Fox cut it off with his sword: the hand and bracelet
fell into Lady Mary's lap, who then contrived to escape
unobserved, and got home safe to her brother's house.
After a few days, Mr. Fox came to dine with them as
usual (whether by invitation, or of his own accord, this
deponent saith not). After dinner, when the guests began
to amuse each other with extraordinary anecdotes, Lady
Mary at length said, she would relate to them a remarkable
dream she had lately had. I dreamt, said she, that as you,
486
TALE.
Mr. Fox, had often invited me to your house, I would go
there one morning. When I came to the house, I knocked,
&c., but no one answered. When I opened the door, over
the hall was written 'Be bold, be bold, but not too bold.' But,
said she, turning to Mr. Fox, and smiling, 'It is not so, nor
it was not so;' then she pursues the rest of the story con-
cluding at every turn with 'It is not so, nor it was not so,'
till she comes to the room full of dead bodies, when Mr.
Fox took up the burden of the tale, and said 'It is not so,
nor it was not so, and God forbid it should be so:' which
he continues to repeat at every subsequent turn of the
dreadful story, till she came to the circumstance of his
cutting off the young lady's hand, when, upon his saying
as usual, 'It is not so, nor it was not so, and God forbid it
should be so,' Lady Mary retorts, 'But it is so, and it was
so, and here the hand I have to show, at the same time
producing the hand and bracelet from her lap: whereupon
the guests drew their swords, and instantly cut Mr. Fox
into a thousand pieces.
"Such is the old tale to which Shakespeare evidently
alludes, and which has often 'froze my young blood,' when
I was a child, as, I dare say, it had done his before me.
I will not apologize for repeating it, since it is manifest.
that such old wives' tales often prove the best elucidation
of this writer's meaning" (BLAKEWAY).
The above may really be a modernised version of "the
old tale" alluded to by Shakespeare: but Blakeway was
not aware that one of the circumstances in the good lady's
narrative is borrowed from Spenser's description of what
Britomart saw in the castle of Busyrane; [F.Q. iii. 11, st. 50
and 54]. . . . Another illustration of the present passage
of Shakespeare is supplied to me by my friend, the Rev.
Canon Harness. "My nurse," he says, "used, with con-
siderable dramatic effect, to tell me in my childhood the
following story. A very wicked king had killed his beautiful
daughter. The act, from beginning to end, was overseen
by one of his courtiers. This person took occasion to
relate, as fiction, all the circumstances of the transaction
to his master, continually interrupting the tale, as he perceived
the conscience of the murderer excited, by the words, 'But
it is not so, and it was not so, and God forbid it should be so.'
At last, having brought his tale to its conclusion, he exclaimed,
at the same time stabbing the wicked king to the heart,
But it is so, and it was so; and you are the man that made
it so.'-It is very nearly seventy years since I heard this
story, and I may have confused it in some respects with
others, of which old nurse had a glorious collection. My
impression is-but of that I am not certain-that the wicked
TALENT-TALL.
487
king killed his daughter by shutting her up and leaving
her to starve inside a Golden Bull which he had made,
and that The Golden Bull was the name of the story."
talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent—If a,
L.L.L. iv. 2. 64: Here the quibble positively requires that
the old form talent (i.e. talon) be retained. (In 1H4. ii. 4.
363, the earliest quartos and the first three folios have “an
eagles talent;" and in Per. iv. 3. 48, all the old eds. have
"thine eagles talents:" compare, also, "Or buying armes
of the herald, who giues them the Lion without tongue,
taile, or talents." Nash's Pierce Pennilesse his Supplicatian, &c.,
sig. F. ed. 1595:
"The Griffin halfe a bird, and halfe a beast,
Strong-arm'd with mightie beak, tallents, and creast.
""
Baxter's Sir P. Sidney's Ourania, 1606, sig. H.
A second Phoenix rise, of larger wing,
Of stronger talent, of more dreadfull beake," &c.
Dekker's Whore of Babylon, 1607, sig. F 2 verso.)
talents of their hair, "lockets, consisting of hair platted and
set in gold" (MALONE), L. Compl. 204.
Tales-The Hundred Merry, Ado, ii. 1. 135: This work—A. C.
Mery Talys-was not known to exist till 1815, when a large
portion of an undated edition of it (forming the pasteboard
covers of an old volume) was discovered by the Rev. J. J.
Conybeare, and reprinted the same year in Singer's Shakes-
peare's Fest-Book: and, a comparatively short time ago, a
complete copy of an edition dated 1526 was found in the
Royal Library of the University of Göttingen by Dr. Herman
Oesterley, who put forth a careful reprint of it in the year
1866. Both the old editions are from the press of Rastell,
but differ very considerably in the text. Dr. Oesterley has
been at great pains in tracing the sources of these tales:
many of them, however, are unquestionably original. The
collection, with all its nonsense, is amusing enough; that
it should have a sprinkling of indecency was only to be
expected.
tall, able, bold, stout: tall fellows, M.W. ii. 1. 237; ii. 2. II;
tall ship, M.V. iii. 1. 6; Oth. ii. 1. 79; as tall a man as any's
in Illyria, 12N. i. 3. 20; tall fellow, Shr. iv. 4. 17; W.T.
V. 2. 177; 181; 183; 1H4. i. 3. 62; R3. i. 4. 156; tall ships,
R2. ii. 1. 286; 2N.K. ii. 2. 12; tall gentleman, 2H4. iii. 2. 67;
Thy spirits are most tall, H5. ii. 1. 72; a very tall man,
Rom. ii. 4. 31; yond tall anchoring bark, Lr. iv. 6. 18; much
tall youth, Ant. ii. 6. 7; a tall young man, 2N.K. iv. 1. 82;
a taller man than I, Shr. iv. 1. 11. (I may notice that tall
sometimes conveyed the idea of a good figure; "Tal, or
semely, Decens, elegans." Prompt. Parv.; “A goodly and a
:
:
488
TALL-TASSEL-GENTLE.
comely man, or a tall man. Homo eleganti forma." Hormanni
Vulgaria, sig. G v. ed. 1530).
tall man of his hands-As: see hands-As tall, &c.
tallow-keech, (Globe, tallow-catch). 1H4. ii. 4. 252. See Keech.
tame the present peace And quietness of the people, which before
Were in wild hurry-His remedies are, Cor. iv. 6. 2: Steevens
understands this to mean, His remedies are "ineffectual in
times of peace like these. When the people were in commo-
tion, his friends might have strove to remedy his disgrace
by tampering with them; but now, neither wanting to employ
his bravery, nor remembering his former actions, they are
unfit subjects for the factious to work upon:" and see note
in loc. [Corrupt passage].
tamed piece—A flat, “A piece of wine out of which the spirit
is all flown" (WARBURTON), Troil. iv. 1. 62.
tang, a twang, a ringing bell-like sound: a tongue with a tang,
Tp. ii. 2. 52. [“had a tang of the cask," Fuller, Wor. ii. 287].
tang, to twang, to ring out: let thy tongue tang arguments of
state, 12N. ii. 5. 163; iii. 4. 78.
tanlings, persons "subject to the tanning influence of the sun
(Nares's Gloss.), or embrowned by it, Cymb. iv. 4. 29.
tardy, to delay, to hinder: But that the good mind of Camillo
tardied My swift command, W.T. iii. 2. 163.
targe and target: targe and shield, L.L.L. v. 2. 556; targes,
Ant. ii. 6. 39; Cymb. v. 5. 5; target, 1H4. ii. 4. 224; 3H6.
ii. 1. 40; H8. Prol. 15; Cor. iv. 5. 126; Hml. ii. 2. 334;
Ant. i. 3. 82; iv. 8. 31; Per. i. 1. 140; ii. 1. 143: Though in
one passage-see above-Shakespeare makes a distinction
between targe and shield, he probably had no very precise
notion concerning the shape and size of the former; and,
indeed, we find targe, or target, variously described by writers.
on armour and lexicographers: in all other passages our
poet uses targe and target as synonymous with "shield."
[target and shield used defence, protection, Per. ii. 1.
132; 143.]
tarre, to provoke, to incite, to set on, to encourage in an attack,
K.J. iv. 1. 117; Troil. i. 3. 392; Hml. ii. 2. 370.
tarriance, a stay, a tarrying, 2G. ii. 7. 90.
Tartar, Tartarus, 12N. ii. 5. 226; [Err. iv. 2. 32; H5. ii. 2. 123].
task, to keep busy, to occupy: task our thoughts, H5. i. 2. 6;
task his thought, 309; tasking of their minds, M.W. iv. 6. 30.
task, to challenge: I task the earth to the like, R2. iv. 1. 52.
task, to tax: task'd the whole state, 1H4. iv. 3. 92.
tasking, a challenging: How show'd his tasking? 1H4. v. 2. 51.
tassel-gentle, properly tiercel-gentle, the male of the goshawk,
Rom. ii. 2. 160 ("Tiercelet. The Tassell, or male of any
kind of Hawke, so tearmed, because he is, commonly, a third
part lesse then the female." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.:
TASTE-TAURUS?
489
"Tiercell, Tercell, or Tassell, is the general name for the
Male of all large Hawks." R. Holme's Academy of Armory
and Blazon, B. ii. c. xi. p. 240): This bird is said to have
been called gentle on account of its tractable disposition,
and the facility with which it was tamed.
taste a trial: an essay or taste of my virtue, Lr. i. 2. 47.
taste to him—Who did? K.J. v. 6. 28; Even he that led you to
this banquet shall Taste to you all, 2N.K. v. 4. 23: Allusions
to the royal taster, whose office it was to give the say
(Prælibare)—to taste and declare the goodness of the wine
and dishes.
taste, to try, to prove: Taste your legs, 12N. iii. 1. 87; to taste
their valour, iii. 4. 267; let me taste my horse, 1H4. iv. 1. 119,
(“Though nought will be woon here, I say, yet yee can
Taste other kinsmen, of whom yee may get," &c.
John Heywood's Dialogue on Prouerbs, Part First, Workes,
sig. D 3, ed. 1598:
I thinke it good to taste you with a motion,
That no way can displease you."
Thomas Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, First Part,
p. 42, ed. 1631).
[= test; v. Trans. N.S.S. 1880, p. 226].
taste, is Lepidus but so—And, in some, J.C. iv. 1. 34: "In some
taste' is another way of saying, not 'in some sense,' but
'in some measure or degree”” (CRAIK).
tatter'd battlements, R2. iii. 3. 52 ("Boswell suggested that
tottered [the spelling of the two earliest quartos, ¿.e. rugged,
weather-beaten and battered-looking] was put for totter-
ing. ... if the battlements were tottering, they would have
been no very good defence for the king." COLLIER). See
tattering.
tattering colours clearly up-And wound our, (Fol., Globe,
tottering, the old spelling of tattering), K.J. v. 5. 7.
Taurus? &c.-Were we not born under, 12N. i. 3. 147: “Allud-
ing to the medical astrology still preserved in almanacs,
which refers the affections of particular parts of the body
to the predominance of particular constellations" (JOHNSON):
In Arthur Hopton's Concordancy of Yeares, 1615, “1. We
have an Adonis-like figure, surrounded by the twelve signs
of the zodiac. Taurus claps his hoof on the neck of the
said figure to denote his government of that part. Sagittarius,
Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, intimate, by various
pictorial devices, their influence over the lower limbs. 2. In
the calendar which precedes the aforesaid figure, we are
assured that Taurus 'gouerneth the necke, throat, and voyce;'
and, moreover, that it is a 'fortunate signe in most things.'
490
TAWDRY-LACE-TEMPER.
The above facts, or reputed facts, serve to illustrate the
characters of the two renowned knights. Sir Toby, whỏ
is a merciless wit, artfully draws in Sir Andrew to betray
his ignorance, and then misleads him by a confident, 'No,
sir; it is legs and thighs'-in order to make him give proof
of his boastful pretension, Faith, I can cut a caper!'" (BOLTON
CORNEY, in Notes and Queries, Sec. Series, vol. vii. p. 400.)
tawdry-lace, a sort of ornament worn by women, generally
round the neck,-a rustic necklace; said to have its name
from Saint Audrey (Etheldreda), W.T. iv. 4. 253. (“ Tawdry
lace is thus described in Skinner by his friend Dr. Hen-
shawe: Tawdry lace, (i.e.) astrigmenta, fimbriæ, seu fasciola,
emtæ nundinsi fano Sanctæ Etheldredæ celebratis: Ut recte
monet Doc. Th. H.' Etymol. in voce." T. WARTON.)
tawny coats, 1H6. i. 3. 47; 56; iii. 1. 74: the dress of persons
belonging to the ecclesiastical courts, and of the retainers
of a bishop.
taxation, censure, satire, invective: whipped for taxation, A.Y.L.
i. 2. 91.
taxing, censure, satire, invective, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 86.
teen, grief, trouble, vexation, Tp. i. 2. 64; L.L.L. iv. 3. 164;
R3. iv. 1. 97; Rom. i. 3. 13.
teeth-Did it from his, Ant. iii. 4. 10: This expression, not
understood by Steevens, is rightly explained, “to appearance
only, not seriously," by Pye, who also cites from Dryden's
Wild Gallant, "I am confident she is only angry from the
teeth outwards."
Telamon for his shield-More mad Than, "i.e. than Ajax
Telamon for the armour of Achilles, the most valuable part
of which was the shield" (STEEVENS), Ant. iv. 13. 2.
tell, to count: One:-tell, Tp. ii. 1. 15; Tell the clock there,
R3. v. 3. 276; as thou canst tell in a year, Lr. ii. 4. 55.
tell ten, 2N.K. iii. 5. 79: She means-if he cannot count ten,
he is, as she has just pronounced him to be, a fool. "There
are many [among the American tribes] who cannot reckon
farther than three; and have no denomination to distinguish
any number above it." Robertson's Hist. of America, vol.
i. p. 310, ed. 1777, 4to.)
tell-I cannot, I cannot tell what to think of it, what to make
of it, Shr. iv. 3. 22; iv. 4. 91; 2H4. 1. 2. 190; H5. ii. 1. 22;
R3. i. 3. 70; Cor. v. 6. 15. (This expression has been
frequently misunderstood: yet it is common enough; so
Greene; "I cannot tell, they preach faith, faith, and say
that doing of almes is papistry," &c. Quip for an Vpstart
Courtier, sig F 4, ed. 1620.)
temper, temperament, constitution: A man of such a feeble
temper, J.C. i. 2. 129.
temper, to mould, to work, to fashion: When you may temper
TEMPER-TEMPTATION.
491
her, 2G. iii. 2. 64; And temper him, with all the art I have,
To, &c., Tit. iv. 4. 109; I have him already tempering between
my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him,
2H4. iv. 3. 140; What wax so frozen but dissolves with
tempering? Ven. 565; That tempers him to this extremity,
R3. i. 1. 65.
temper, to compound, to form by mixture: The poison of that
lies in you to temper, Ado, ii. 2. 21; a poison, I would temper
it, Rom. iii. 5. 98; To temper poisons for her, Cymb. v. 5. 250
(where, according to Mr. Collier, temper does not mean
merely to prepare or compound, but render them of a
peculiar strength); a poison temper'd by himself, Hml. v. 2. 339.
temper, to work together to a proper consistence: temper clay
with blood of Englishmen, 2H6. iii. 1. 311; with this hateful
liquor temper it, Tit. v. 2. 200; cast you, with the waters
that you lose, To temper clay, Lr. i. 4. 326.
temper with the stars, "conform their temper to their destiny"
(JOHNSON), "accept their destiny without complaint" (STAUN-
TON), 3H6. iv. 6. 29.
temperance, temperature: of subtle, tender, and delicate tempe-
rance, Tp. ii. 1. 42: on the immediately following speech,
Temperance was a delicate wench, Steevens observes that
"in the puritanical times it was usual to christen children
from the titles of religious and moral virtues."
temple-First, forward to the, M.V. ii. 1. 44: As these words.
completely puzzled Mr. Keightley, who felt confident that
'temple" should be altered to "table" (see Notes and Queries,
Third Series, vol. iv. p. 121), I may observe that the Prince of
Morocco was to go "forward to the temple," there to take
the oath required from each of Portia's suitors before the trial
of the caskets: this is to be gathered from the rest of the
passage; [ii. 1. 38-45]: and it becomes perfectly certain
from the dialogue between Portia and the Prince of Arragon
in [ii. 9. 4—19]: which concluding words Steevens rightly
explains, "I have prepared myself by the same ceremonies:
"The temple" we may suppose to have been somewhere
in the grounds of Portia at Belmont; but Shakespeare
doubtless troubled himself no more about its exact locality
than he did about the impropriety of a Moorish prince
taking an oath in a Christian place of worship. [Perhaps
he had in mind the Knightes Tale].
}}
temporary meddler, "one who introduces himself, as often as
he can find opportunity, into other men's concerns" (HENLEY),
M.M. v. 1. 145.
temptation, Where prayers cross-For I Am that way going to,
M.M. ii. 2. 158: "The petition of the Lord's Prayer, ‘lead
us not into temptation,' is here considered as crossing or
intercepting the onward way in which Angelo was going;
492
TEN-TENNER.
this appointment of his for the morrow's meeting being a
premeditated exposure of himself to temptation, which it
was the general object of prayer to thwart" (HENLEY).
ten bones-By these, By these fingers, 2H6. i. 3. 193.
ten commandments-My, The nails of my fingers, 2H6. i. 3. 145.
ten groats is for the hand of an attorney-As fit as, A.W. ii. 2. 22 :
This sum, three shillings and fourpence, was formerly his fee.
ten groats too dear-Groom. Hail, royal prince! K. Rich. Thanks,
noble peer; The cheapest of us is, R2. v. 5. 68: "It must be
recollected that royals and nobles were names of coins"
(BOSWELL): see royal [10s.] and second noble [6s. 8d.] in the
present Glossary. [Does Richard mean: "I, who am now really
of less value than you, am made by you (calling me royal)
ten groats dearer than I make you (whom I call noble)"? Peer
implies that R. equalises himself with the noble, and there-
fore as a royal is ten groats too dear. Compare M.V. ii. 8.
85; A.W. i. I. 117.]
ten masts at each, (which means, I believe, 'ten masts joined
each to the other,'-has given rise to sundry bad con-
jectural emendations), Lr. iv. 6. 53.
ten [godfathers] more-Thou shouldst have had, “i.e. a jury of
twelve men, to condemn thee to be hanged" (THEOBALD),
M.V. iv. I. 399.
tench-I am stung like a, 1H4. ii. 1. 17: see loach, &c.
tender, offer, Rom. iii. 5. 186 (when good fortune presents
itself to her).
tender, regard, kind concern, care: And show'd thou mak'st some
tender of my life, 1H4. v. 4. 49; in the tender of a wholesome
weal, Lr. i. 4. 230.
tender, "dear, the object of tenderness and care" (MALONE):
Whose life's as tender to me as my soul, 2G. v. 4. 37.
tender, to regard, to esteem, to take care of, to have conside-
ration for, to look upon with kindness or affection: And
how does your content Tender your own good fortune? Tp.
ii. 1. 270; I thank you, madam, that you tender her, 2G. iv.
4. 145; He shall not die, so much we tender him, Err. v. 1. 132;
By my life, I do, which I tender dearly, A.Y.L. v. 2. 77;
tender well my hounds, Shr. Ind. 1. 16; But we our kingdom's
safety must so tender, H5. ii. 2. 175; I tender so the safety
of my liege, 2H6. iii. 1. 277; As well I tender you and all of
yours! R3. ii. 4. 72; I tender not thy beauteous princely daugh
ter! iv. 4. 405; Tender yourself more dearly, Hml. i. 3. 107;
Tender my suit, Lucr. 534; Tendering my ruin ("Watching
me with tenderness in my fall," JOHNSON), 1H6. iv. 7. 10.
tender-hefted, Lr. ii. 4. 174:" Hefted seems to mean the same
as heaved. Tender-hefted, i.e. whose bosom is agitated by
tender passions" (STEEVENS): compare hefts.
tenner, tenour (so written for the rhyme), 2N.K. iii. 5 123.
TENT-TESTIMONIED.
493
tent, a roll of lint for searching or cleansing a wound or sore,
a probe: the tent that searches To the bottom of the worst,
Troil. ii. 2. 16; Who keeps the tent now (quibbled upon),
Troil. v. I. II; Nor tent to bottom that, Cymb. iii. 4. 118.
tent, to search with a tent, to probe (see the preceding article):
And tent themselves with death, Cor. i. 9. 31; You cannot tent
yourself, iii. 1. 236; I'll tent him to the quick, Hml. ii. 2. 626.
tent in my cheeks-The smiles of knaves, Cor. iii. 2. 116: Here,
says Johnson, "to tent is to take up residence;" which, I
believe, is the right explanation.
tents, and canopies - Costly apparel, Shr. ii. 1. 354: Here tents
has been explained "hangings."
tercel, for all the ducks i' the river-The falcon as the, Troil.
iii. 2. 56: see tassel-gentle: "Pandarus means that he'll match
is niece against her lover for any bet. The tercel is the
male hawk; by the falcon we generally understand the
female" (THEOBALD): "Mr. M. Mason observes, that the
meaning of this difficult passage is, 'I will back the falcon
against the tiercel,-I will wager that the falcon is equal to
the tiercel'" (STEEVENS).
Tereus, &c.-Some, Tit. ii. 4. 26: "Tereus having ravished
Philomela his wife's sister, cut out her tongue, to prevent
a discovery" (MALONE). [Cf. iv. 1. 48.]
Termagant-Whipped for o'erdoing, Hml. iii. 2. 15: Termagant
(a Saracen ["female," CRAIG] deity, at least such according
to the crusaders and the old romance-writers) was, like
Herod, along with whom Shakespeare here mentions him,
a character in our early Miracle-plays.
terminations, words, terms, Ado, ii. 1. 256.
termless, beyond the power of terms or words to describe
justly, L. Compl. 94.
test-overt, "open proofs, external evidence" (JOHNSON), Oth.
i. 3. 107.
testament of bleeding war- The purple, R2. iii. 3. 94: “I believe
our author uses the word testament in its legal sense.
Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of war, that he
may peruse what is decreed there in his favour. Purple is
an epithet referring to the future effusion of blood"
(STEEVENS).
tested gold, gold brought to the test, pure, M.M. ii. 2. 149.
tester, a coin, the value of which in Shakespeare's days was
sixpence, M.W. i. 3. 96; 2H4. iii. 2. 296. (The word was
variously written,-teston, tester, testern, testril,-and derived
from a silver French coin named teston, because it had the
king's head (teste) on it.)
testerned me, give me a testern, 2G. i. 1. 153: see the preceding
article.
testimonied, witnessed, tested, tried, M.M. iii. 2. 153.
494
TESTRIL-THICK-SKIN.
testril, a sixpence, 12N. ii. 3. 34: see tester.
tetchy, touchy, peevish, fretful, R3. iv. 4. 168; Troil. i. 1. 99;
Rom. i. 3. 32.
tetter, to infect with tetter, scab, scurf, Cor. iii. 1. 79.
Tewksbury mustard, 2H4. ii. 4. 262: It "was famous very early.
Shakespeare speaks only of its thickness, but others have
celebrated its pungency." Nares's Gloss. [See Fuller's
Worthies, Gloucestershire].
than, a form of then, for the sake of the rhyme; and than Retire
again, Lucr. 1440.
thane, "a title of honour, used among the ancient Scots, which
seems gradually to have declined in its signification
(Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scottish Language, where
much will be found concerning the term), Mcb. i. 2. 45,
48; etc.
thanking, thanks, A.W. iii. 5. 101; thankings, M.M. v. 1. 4;
Rom. iii. 5. 153; Cymb. v. 5. 407.
tharborough, a corruption of thirdborough (quod vide), L.L.L.
i. 1. 185.
thatch your poor thin roofs With burdens of the dead, Tim.
iv. 3. 144: When our author wrote this play, the wearing of
false hair was in high fashion among ladies: compare his
lxviiith Sonnet.
their high wrongs I am struck to the quick-Though with,
Though with the high wrongs done by them to me &c.,
Tp. v. 1. 25; that their punishment Might have the freer
course, that the punishment inflicted by Cornwall and Regan
on Gloster might, &c., Lr. iv. 2. 95.
then-I thought so, Oth. v. 2. 192: “i.e. at the instant when she
gave Desdemona's handkerchief to Iago: for even then
Emilia appears to have suspected it was sought after for
no honest purpose, and therefore asks her husband, ‘What
will you do with it?' &c." (Steevens).
theoric, a theory, A.W. iv. 3. 162; H5. i. 1. 52; Oth. i. 1. 24.
thews, muscular strength, bodily vigour, 2H4. iii. 2. 276; J.C.
i. 3. 81; Hml. i. 3. 12 (“ Thews . . . qualifications or qualities,
bodily or mental." Richardson's Dict.: “In all the three
passages by thews Shakespeare means unquestionably brawn,
nerves, muscular vigour." CRAIK).
thick, in quick succession, rapidly: As thick as hail, Mcb. i. 3. 97 ;
Why do you send so thick? Ant. i. 5. 63; Weak words, so
thick come in his poor heart's aid, &c., Lucr. 1784; My heart
beats thicker than a feverous pulse, Troil. iii. 2. 38; thick-
coming fancies, Mcb. v. 3. 38; [thick and profound melancholy,
oppressive, deep, 2N.K. iv. 3. 43.]
thick-Speak: see speak thick.
thick-pleached, thickly interwoven, Ado, i. 2. 10: see pleached.
thick-skin, a numskull, a lout, M.W. iv. 5. 2; M.N.D. iii. 2. 13.
THILL-HORSE—THOUGHT-EXECUTING. 495
thill-horse, see fill-horse.
think, and die, give way to thought or melancholy and die,
Ant. iii. 13. 1: see thought.
think scorn, to disdain: I think scorn to sigh, L.L.L. i. 2. 66;
these lovers think no scorn, M.N.D. v. 1. 138; the nobility
think scorn, 2H6. iv. 2. 13; their blood thinks scorn (is
indignantly impatient), Cymb. iv. 4. 53.
thinks't thee, (thinkst Fol.); the Qq. have thinke thee; Globe
as Dyce, who quotes Walker, p. 281: "thinks it thee occurs
in the Elizabethan poets in the sense of ãv doneï 001; cf.
A.W. ii. 3. 269 (where Globe, methinks, Fol. mee-think'st):
Hml. v. 2. 63.
thirdborough, Shr. Ind. 1. 12: "The office of thirdborough is
the same with that of constable, except in places where there
are both, in which case the former is little more than the
constable's assistant" (RITSON).
thirds his own worth... When that his action's dregg'd
with mind assur'd,' 'Tis bad he goes about?—What man,
2N.K. i. 2. 96: "The meaning is, what man can exert
a third part of is powers when his mind his clogged
with a consciousness that he fights in a bad cause, &c.?"
(MASON.)
this, used for thus: What am I, that thou shouldst contemn me
this? Ven. 205.
Thomas Tapster, M.M. i. 2. 115: "Why does she [Mistress
Overdone] call the clown by this name, when it appears
from his own showing that his name was Pompey? Perhaps
she is only quoting some old saying or ballad" (DOUCE):
No; Thomas or Tom was the name commonly applied to
a tapster; for the sake of the alliteration, it would seem:
see the passage cited from Greene under froth and lime.
[Perhaps Thomas tapster, like Tom cat, = male tapster. The
tapsters of inns were frequently females, as the suffix
implies.]
pare:
thought, melancholy: that was begot of thought, A.Y.L. iv. I.
217; take thought and die for Cæsar, J.C. ii. 1. 187 [com-
Goe widow, make some younger brother rich, and
then take thought and die, and all is well." Sir J. Davies,
ed. Grosart, ii. 78; and: "The maister answered, our owner
is sicke and weake with sorrowe and taking thought, and
needes will die." L. Twine, Patterne of Painefull Adventures,
chap. xvi.]; the pale cast of thought, Hml. iii. 1. 85;
Thought and affliction, iv. 5. 188; but thought will do't, Ant.
iv. 6. 35 (To this sense of thought Malone refers She pin'd
in thought, 12N. ii. 4. 115; but, as Douce observes, "melan-
choly" occurs in the next line).
thought-executing, "Doing execution with rapidity equal to
thought" (JOHNSON), Lr. iii. 2. 4.
496
THOU’RT—THREE-FARTHINGS.
thou'rt, thou wert: be quick, thou'rt best, Tp. i. 2. 366.
"thou'st” him, 12N. iii. 2. 48: To "thou" any one, except
persons of very inferior condition, was formerly considered
as a mark of insult.
thread of mine own life-A, Tp. iv. 1. 3, Fol. third; Globe,
thrid. In early books we occasionally find third for thrid,
i.e. thread: In a volume which I published in 1853, I observed;
"In case any future editor should still be inclined to make
Prospero term Miranda ‘a third of his life' (the folio having
here 'third' thrid, thread), it may be well to remark, that
in the language of poetry, from the earliest times, a beloved
object has always been spoken of, not as the third, but as
the HALF of another's life or soul: so Meleager úpσí KEV
uxis; and Horace, animæ dimidium meæ." [1866. So, too,
in prose; "But when I came againe to my selfe, and saw
my selfe alone in that Galley, and the other steering a
contrary course, and gone cleane out of sight from us,
carrying away with them the one halfe of my soule [Leonisa],
or, to say better, all of it, my heart was clouded anew," &c.
Mabbe's translation of Cervantes's Exemplarie Novells, The
Liberall Lover, p. 125, ed. 1640]. [Query, does Prospero
connect filia with filum?]
thread and thrum, M.N.D. v. 1. 291: “An expression borrowed
from weaving; the thread being the substance of the warp,
the thrum, the small tuft beyond, where it is tied." Nares's
Gloss.
Thracian fatal steeds-The, 3H6. iv. 2. 21: "We are told by
some of the writers on the Trojan story, that the capture
of these horses was one of the necessary preliminaries to
the fate of Troy" (STEEVENS).
Thracian poet's feet-At the, Orpheus, Tit. ii. 4. 51.
Thracian tyrant-The, Polymestor or Polymnestor, Tit. i. 1. 138.
Dyce gives Theobald's reading (in her tent) and note: “¿.e.
in the tent where she and the other Trojan captive women
were kept; for thither Hecuba by a wile had decoyed
Polymnestor, in order to perpetrate her revenge. This we
may learn from Euripides' Hecuba," &c.
thrasonical, boastful (from Thraso), L.L.L. v. 1. 14; A.Y.L.
V. 2. 34.
Three-The picture of We, 12N. ii. 3. 17: "Shakespeare had in
his thoughts a common sign, in which two wooden heads
are exhibited with this inscription under it, 'We three
loggerheads be.' The spectator or reader is supposed to
make the third" (MALONE): "The original picture, or sign
as it sometimes was, seems, to have been two fools.
Sometimes, as Mr. Henley has stated, it was two asses
(Douce).
"three-farthings goes!-Look, where," K.J. i. 1. 143: An allusion
THREE-HOOPED-THREE-PILED.
497
to the three-farthing silver pieces of Queen Elizabeth, which
were very thin, and had the profile of the sovereign with
a rose at the back of her head: and we must remember
that in Shakespeare's time sticking roses in the ear was a
court-fashion.
three-hooped pot-The: see hoops, &c.
three-inch fool, a fool three inches long (alluding to Grumio's
diminutive size), Shr. iv. 1. 27.
three-man beetle-fillip me with a, 2H4. i. 2. 255: “A diversion
is common with boys in Warwickshire and the adjoining
counties, on finding a toad, to lay a board about two or
three feet long, at right angles, over a stick about two or
three inches diameter. Then placing the toad at one end
of the board, the other end is struck by a bat or large
stick, which throws the creature forty or fifty feet perpen-
dicular from the earth, and its return in general kills it.
This is called Filliping the Toad.—A three-man beetle is an
implement used for driving piles; it is made of a log of
wood, about eighteen or twenty inches diameter, and fourteen
or fifteen inches thick, with one short and two long handles.
A man at each of the long handles manages the fall of
the beetle, and a third man, by the short handle, assists
in raising it to strike the blow. Such an implement was,
without doubt, very suitable for filliping so corpulent a
being as Falstaff" (JOHNSON, the architect).
three-man songmen, singers of songs in three parts, W.T. iv. 3. 44.
Three merry men, 12N. ii. 3. 81: Alluding to an old ballad,
of which a stanza is given in Peele's The Old Wives Tale:
"Three merry men, and three merry men,
And three merry men be we;
I in the wood, and thou on the ground,
And Jack sleeps in the tree."
three-nook'd, "Having three corners or angles" (Craven Gloss.):
the three-nook'd world, Ant. iv. 6. 6. (Compare, in the con-
cluding speech of King John, “Come the three corners of
the world in arms," &c.)
three-pence bow'd would hire me—A, H8. ii. 3. 36: An allusion,
as Mr. Fairholt observes, to the old custom of ratifying an
agreement by a bent coin: but there were no three-pences
so early as the reign of Henry VIII.
three-pile, three-piled velvet, velvet of the richest and costliest
kind, W.T. iv. 3. 14, cf. M.M. iv. 3. 11.
three-piled, used metaphorically; see the preceding article:
thou'rt a three-piled piece, M.M. i. 2. 33; Three-pil'd hyper-
boles, L.L.L. v. 2. 407: In the former passage three-piled
seems to mean "first-rate," but with a quibbling allusion;
see piled: in the second passage Three-piled is equivalent
to "high flown."
32
498
THRENE-TICE.
threne, a funeral song, a dirge, Phœn. 49.
thrice-crowned queen of night, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 2: "Alluding to
the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana"
(JOHNSON). [See triple Hecate's.]
thrice-repured, thrice-repurified thrice purified, Troil. iii. 2. 23.
throng--A short knife and a, Go and cut purses in a crowd
(purses being formerly worn at the girdle), M.W. ii. 2. 18:
compare Nor cutpurses come to throngs, Lr. iii. 2. 88.
thronged, crowded, pressed: earth is throng'd By man's oppres
sion ("The earth is oppressed by the injuries which crowd
upon her," BoSWELL), Per. i. 1. 101; A man throng'd up
(pressed up, drawn together, shrunk up?) with cold, ii. 1. 77 ;
Here one, being throng'd, bears back, Lucr. 1417.
throstle, the thrush (properly the song-thrush), M.N.D. iii. 1.
130; M.V. i. 2. 65.
throughfare, a thoroughfare, Cymb. i. 2. 11; throughfares,
M.V. ii. 7. 42.
throughly, thoroughly, Tp. iii. 3. 14; 2G. i. 2. 115; M.W. i. 4.
95; M.M. v. 1. 260; Ado, iv. 1. 202; M.V. iv. 1. 173; Shr.
iv. 4. 11; W.T. ii. 1. 99; H8. v. 1. 110; Hml. iv. 5. 136;
Lr. iv. 7. 97; Cymb. ii. 4. 12; iii. 6. 36.
throw- You can fool no more money out of me at this, 12N. v.
1. 45: Here perhaps throw is used with a quibble,—the
word meaning both "a throw of the dice" and "time"
(the latter signification being common in our earliest poets).
thrum: see thread and thrum.
thrummed hat, a hat composed of weaver's thrums (see thread
"(
and thrum) or of very coarse woollen cloth, M.W. iv. 2. 80.
thumb at them-I will bite my: see bite my thumb, &c.
thump, then, and I flee, L.L.L. iii. 1. 66; thumped him with thy
bird-bolt, iv. 3. 23: Thumping was a technical term in
shooting, applied to the stroke of the bullet or arrow
(HALLIWELL).
thunder-stone, J.C. i. 3. 49; Cymb. iv. 2. 271; Are there no
stones in heaven But what serve for the thunder? Oth. v. 2.
235: "Thunder-stone. The same as thunderbolt; both formed
upon an erroneous fancy, that the destruction occasioned
by lightning was effected by some solid body." Nares's
Gloss.: "The thunder-stone is the imaginary product of
the thunder, which the ancients called Brontia, mentioned
by Pliny (N. H. xxxvii. 10) as a species of gem, and as
that which, falling with the lightning, does the mischief.
It is the fossil commonly called the Belemnite, or Finger-
stone, and now know to be a shell" (CRAIK).
thwart, perverse, Lr. i. 4. 305.
Tib, a low, common woman ("A tib, mulier sordida." Coles's
Lat. and Engl. Dict.), A.W. ii. 2. 24; Per. iv. 6. 176.
tice, to entice, W.T. i. 2. 416 [where Fol. and Globe: to vice.
TICK-TACK-TILLY-VALLY.
499
A vice had formerly the meaning of a screw, Ado, v. 2. 21;
see pikes]; tic'd, Tit. iii. 3. 92.
tick-tack, properly, a game at tables, a sort of backgammon,
M.M. i. 2. 196: "Jouer au tric-trac' is used in French in
a wanton sense (MALONE). (In Weaver's Lusty Juuentus,
Hipocrisye, seeing Lusty Juuentus kiss Abhominable Lyuing,
says,
What a hurly burly is here!
Smicke smacke, and all thys gere!
You well [will] to tycke take, I fere,
Yf thou had tyme,"
Sig. D i verso, ed. 4to, n. d.)
tickle, tottering, unsteady: thy head stands so tickle on thy
shoulders, M.M. i. 2. 177; the state of Normandy Stands on
a tickle point, 2H6. i. 1. 216. See sere.
tickle-brain, a cant name for a species of strong liquor,
1H4. ii. 4. 438.
tickled [Globe, tickle] o' the sere: see sere-The clown, &c.
tickling Commodity, K.J. ii. 1. 573: flattering, alluring, self-
interest.
tide-Even at the turning o' the, H5. ii. 3. 14: "It has been a
very old opinion, which Mead, De imperio solis, quotes as
if he believed it, that nobody dies but in the time of ebb:
half the deaths in London confute the notion; but we find
that it was common among the women of the poet's time"
(JOHNSON). [See Trans. N.S.S. 1880, p. 212].
tide of times-In the, "In the course of times" (JOHNSON),
J.C. iii. 1. 257.
tides, times: high tides (“solemn seasons, times to be observed
above others," STEEVENS), K.J. iii. 1. 86; he keeps his tides
well (with a quibble), Tim. i. 2. 57.
tidy, in good condition, seasonable for the fair, 2H4. ii. 4. 250.
tied were lost-It is no matter if the, 2G. ii. 3. 41: Boswell
traces this quibble to Heywood's Three Hundred Epigrams;
"The tide tarieth no man, but here to scan,
Thou art tide so, that thou taryest euery man,"
Ep. 170, sig. 0 4, Workes, 1598.
Tiger-Master o' the: see Aleppo, &c.
tight, adroit, alert: my queen's a squire More tight at this than
thou, Ant. iv. 4. 15.
tightly, adroitly, alertly, smartly: M.W. i. 3. 88; ii. 3. 67.
tike, a dog, a cur: Base tike (as a term of reproach), H5. ii. 1. 31;
bobtail tike, Lr. iii. 6. 73.
tilly-fally: see the next article.
tilly-vally, 12N. ii. 3. 83: An interjection of contempt: its
etymology is quite uncertain; Steevens would derive it
from the Latin titivilitium; according to Douce, it is properly
500
TILTH-TINCT.
a hunting phrase borrowed from the French: The Hostess
corrupts it to tilly-fally, 2H4. ii. 4. 90.
tilth, land tilled, cultivated, prepared for sowing: Bourn, bound
of land, tilth, vineyard, none, Tp. ii. 1. 152; Our corn's to
reap, for yet our tilth's to sow, M.M. iv. 1. 76: see tithe.
tilth, tillage: Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry, M.M. i. 4. 44.
time and the hour, Mcb. i. 3. 147: A pleonastic expression not
unfrequent in our early writers.
Time Goes upright with his carriage, Tp. v. 1. 2: "Alluding to
one carrying a burden. This critical period of my life
proceeds as I could wish. Time brings forward all the
expected events, without faltering under his burden”
(STEEVENS).
time of life, full and complete time; the period, duration of
life, J.C. v. 1. 106; 1H4. v. 2. 82.
timeless, untimely, 2G. iii. 1. 21; R2. iv. 1. 5; 2H6. iii. 2. 187;
3H6. v. 6. 42; R3. i. 2. 117; Tit. ii. 3. 265; Rom. v. 3. 162;
timeless-cruel, 1H6. v. 4. 5.
timely, early: to call timely on him, Mcb. ii. 3. 51; too timely
shaded, P. Pilg. 133; timelier than my purpose, Ant. ii. 6. 52.
timely-parted ghost-A, 2H6. iii. 2. 161: Here, as frequently
in our early writers, the word ghost signifies "a dead body:
"A timely-parted ghost means a body that has become
inanimate in the common course of nature; to which
violence has not brought a timeless end. The opposition
is plainly marked afterwards by the words 'As guilty of
Duke Humphrey's timeless death'" (MALONE): "It has been
very plausibly suggested that timely signifies in proper time,
as opposed to timeless; yet in this place it seems to mean
early, recently, newly" (DOUCE). (That the word ghost
continued to be used in the sense of "dead body" long
after Shakespeare's days is shown by the following lines;
"What stranger who had seen thy shriv❜led skin,
Thy thin, pale, gastly face, would not have been
Conceited he had seen a ghost i' th' bed,
New risen from the grave, not lately dead?"
An Elegie on the death of Mr. Frear, &c.,
Hookes's Amanda, 1653, p. 207. [107].)
time-pleaser, "one who complies with prevailing opinions
whatever they be" (Johnson's Dict.), 12N. ii. 3. 160; Time-
pleasers, Cor. iii. 1. 45.
tinct, colour, dye, stain: As will not leave their tinct, Hml. iii.
4. 91; blue of heaven's own tinct, Cymb. ii. 2. 23.
tinct, tincture, the grand elixir of the alchemists: the tinct and
multiplying medicine, A.W. v. 3. 102 [the art of making or
multiplying gold by the alchemical 'stone']; that great
medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee, Ant. i. 5. 37; (see
medicine hath With, &c.).
T
1
TINCTURES-TIRING-HOUSE.
501
tinctures, stains-Great men shall press For, J.C. ii. 2. 89:
Tinctures and stains are understood both by Malone and
Steevens as carrying an allusion to the practice of persons
dipping their handkerchiefs in the blood of those whom
they regarded as martyrs. And it must be confessed that
the general strain of the passage, and more especially the
expression 'shall press for tinctures,' &c., will not easily
allow us to reject this interpretation. Yet does it not make
the speaker assign to Cæsar by implication the very kind
of death Calphurnia's apprehension of which he professes
to regard as visionary? The pressing for tinctures and
stains, it is true, would be a confutation of so much of
Calphurnia's dream as seemed to imply that the Roman
people would be delighted with his death;
'Many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.'
Do we refine too much in supposing that this inconsistency
between the purpose and the language of Decius is intend-
ed by the poet, and that in this brief dialogue between
him and Cæsar, in which the latter suffers himself to be
so easily won over,-persuaded and relieved by the very
words that ought naturally to have confirmed his fears,-
we are to feel the presence of an unseen power driving
on both the unconscious prophet and the blinded victim?”
(CRAIK).
tire, to pull, to tear, to seize eagerly, to feed ravenously; often
used metaphorically (a term in falconry, and frequently
applied to other birds of prey, as well as to hawks: Fr. tirer):
Tire on the flesh of me and of my son, 3H6. i. 1. 269; And
in his will his wilful eye he tir'd ("glutted," STEEVENS),
Lucr. 417; Tires with her beak on feathers, flesh, and bone,
Ven. 56; disedg'd by her That now thou tir'st on, Cymb.
iii. 4. 97; Upon that were my thoughts tiring, Tim. iii. 6. 5.
tire, to attire: the tired horse (the horse adorned with ribbons
or trappings), L.L.L. iv. 2. 131: Farmer chose to fancy that
Bankes's horse (see horse-The dancing) is here alluded to.
tire, an attire, a dress: in that tire Shall Master Slender steal
my Nan away, M.W. iv. 4. 74: Theobald's reading; Globe
follows Fol. time.
tire, a head-dress: If I had such a tire, 2G. iv. 4. 190; any tire
of Venetian admittance, M.W. iii. 3. 61; I like the new tire
within, Ado, iii. 4. 13; my tires and mantles, Ant. ii. 5. 22.
tire about you-Rich, Per. iii. 2. 22: qy. does tire here mean
bed-clothes (Tρúpata)?
tire-valiant-The, Some sort of fanciful head-dress, M.W.
iii. 3. 61.
tiring-house, attiring-house,-dressing-room of a theatre, M.N.D
iii. 1. 4.
502
TIRRITS-TO.
tirrits, perhaps twitters; or a Quicklyan Latinism, from terret,
2H4. ii. 4. 220.
tithe's to sow,- Our corn's to reap, for yet our, M.M. iv. 1. 76.
Dyce accepts Warburton's conjecture: tilth's to sow, but
tithe may be right. For although. Southey, Common-
place Book, i. 498, refers to Tusser, p. 195, for the statement:
"a tenth of the corn harvest allowed for rent."
tithing to tithing-From, Lr. iii. 4. 140: "A tithing is a division.
of a place, a district; the same in the country as a ward.
in the city" (Steevens).
title-leaf-Like to a, 2H4. i. 1. 60: “In the time of our poet,
the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf,
was totally black" (STEEVENS): He means, I believe, that the
title-page exhibited the title in white letters on a black ground:
the intermediate leaves were, of course, quite black.
Titler, contender about a title: the two bold titlers at this
instant are hand to hand at it, 2N.K. v. 3. 83. Qo. tytlers
-many Edd. tilters, wrongly, as is shown by Daniel's
Musophilus, 11. 126-9:
Whilst titlers their pretended rights decide.
•
Then where is that proud Title of thy name,' &c.
to, a prefix very common in our earliest writers: And, fairy-
like, to-pinch the unclean knight, M.W. iv. 4. 57; And all to-
topple, Per. iii. 2. 17 (Globe, all-to topple); the gods to-bless
your honour! Per. iv. 6. 23; It was not she that call'd him
all to-naught, Ven. 993: “To, in composition with verbs, is
usually augmentative, but sometimes pleonastic." Madden's
Glossary to Havelok the Dane: In such sentences when all
precedes to, some editors print all-to. [New Eng. Dict. p. 227:
all emphasised the particle combined with a verb.
especially the prefix to asunder. . . . Thus all to-broken
(Ger. all zerbrochen) 'quite broken in pieces.' As these
derivative vbs. were at length rarely used without all, the
fact that the to- belonged to the verb was lost sight of, and
it was written separate, or even joined to all as al to-torn,
al to torn, alto torn. Obsolete.”
to, compared with: To other regions France is a stable, A.W. ii.
3. 300; There is no woe to his correction, Nor to his service
no such joy on earth! 2G. ii. 4. 138; much too little
to his great worthiness, L.L.L. ii. 1. 63; undervalu'd to Cato's
daughter, M.V. i. 1. 165; undervalu'd to tried gold, ii. 7.53;
To the dark house and the detested wife, A.W. ii. 3. 309;
No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd, 1H6. iii. 2. 25;
these are but switches to 'em, H8. v. 4. 9; to this preservative,
of no better report, &c., Cor. ii. 1. 129; Impostors to true
fear, Mcb. iii. 4. 64; no life to ours, Cymb. iii. 3. 26.
to, in addition to: to his shape, were heir to all this land, K.J.
TO-TOM.
503
i. 1. 144; Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant,
Troil. i. 1. 8; to that dauntless temper of his mind, Mcb. iii. 1. 52.
to, the exclamation of ploughmen to their draught-oxen: to,
Achilles! to, Ajax! to! Troil. ii. 1. 120.
toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head
-The, A.Y.L. ii. 1. 13: The belief that the head of the
toad contained a stone possessing great medicinal virtues
was among the vulgar errors of Shakespeare's time: this
might be shown by many quotations from our early writers,
who treat the subject with perfect seriousness: the "precious
jewel" in question was known by the name of the toad-stone.
toast, bread scorched and put into liquor: put a toast in't,
M.W. iii. 5. 3; a toast for Neptune, Troil. i. 3. 45.
toasts-and-butter, 1H4. iv. 2. 22: “This term of contempt is
used in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money [act
iv. sc. 2]; 'They love young toasts and butter, Bowbell
suckers'" (STEEVENS).
toaze. See touse, of which it is probably another form, if
indeed we should not read tease.
tod, twenty-eight pounds of wool: every tod yields, &c.,W.T. iv. 3. 33.
tods-Every 'leven wether, Every eleven wethers produce a tod,
that is, twenty-eight pounds, of wool, W.T. iv. 3. 33.
toge, a gown, a robe (Lat. toga), Cor. ii. 3. 122.
toged, gowned, robed, Oth. i. 1. 25.
token'd pestilence-The, The spotted pestilence (spots on the
body, which denoted the infection of the plague, being
called tokens), Ant. iii. 1o. 9: compare death-tokens of't-
The, and Lord's tokens—The.
toll, to take toll, to collect, K.J. iii. 1. 154.
toll him, A.W. v. 3. 149. [Fol. reads: I will buy me a sonne in
Law in a faire, and toule for this. Ile none of him. Second
Fol. tries to amend the obviously corrupt reading of F1 by:
and toule him for this. At first I thought that possibly the
two end-words had become transposed and that the text
stood: and toll for him: I'll none of this. Toll meant to
enter the purchase on the Toll-book at a fair to prevent
other claims being subsequently made to the animal pur-
chased. So toll means pay a fee and register the purchase.
Now it strikes me that the passage is verbally correct, but
has been muddled by mispunctuation. Read: I will buy me
a son-in-law in a fair, and toll. For this, I'll none of him.
Compare what the widow says in Hudibras, (vol. i. p. 190,
ed. Bell):
CC
Can I bring proof
Where, when, by whom, and what y' were sold for,
And in the open market toll'd for?"]
Tom Drum-Good, A.W. v. 3. 322: see Drum's entertainment
-John.
504
TOM.
Tomo Bedlam, Lr. i. 2. 148; Bedlam beggars, ii. 3. 14; poor
Tom, ii. 3. 20; iii. 4. 38; 43; 51; 61; 134; 152; iii. 6. 31;
iv. 1. 59; Tom's a-cold, Lr. iii. 4. 59; 85; 152; iv. 1. 54; the
Bedlam, iii. 7. 103; poor mad Tom, iv. 1. 28: Toms o' Bedlam,
or Poor Toms, or Bedlams, or Bedlam beggars, or Abraham-
men, were sturdy vagabonds, who, in the days of Shake-
speare, were to be found in various parts of England:
"These Abraham men be those that fayn themselues to
haue bene mad, and haue bene kept either in Bethelem,
or in some other pryson a good time, and not one amongst
twenty that euer came in prison for any such cause: yet
will they say how pityously and moste extremely they haue
bene beaten and dealt withall. Some of these be mery
and very pleasaunt, they will daunce and sing, some others
be as colde and reasonable to talke withall. These begge
money, eyther when they come at farmoures houses, they
will demaund baken, eyther cheese, or wool, or any thinge
that is worth money, and if they espye small company
within, they will with firce countenance demaunde some-
what. Where for feare the maydes will giue them largely
to be ryd of them," &c. Harman's Caueat or Warening
for Common Cursetors, &c., 1573, cap. ix. p. 29, reprint
1814: "Of all the mad rascalls (that are of this wing) the
Abraham-man is the most phantastick: The fellow (quoth
this old Lady of the Lake vnto me) that sat halfe naked
(at table to day) from the girdle vpward, is the best.
Abraham-man that euer came to my house, & the nota-
blest villaine: he sweares he hath bin in Bedlam, and
will talke frantickly of purpose; you see pinnes stuck in
sundry places of his naked flesh, especially in his armes,
which paine hee gladly puts himselfe to (beeing indeede
no torment at all, his skin is either so dead with some
fowle disease, or so hardned with weather), onely to make
you beleeue he is out of his wits: he calls himselfe by
the name of Poore Tom, and coming neere any body,
cryes out, Poore Tom is a cold. Of these Abraham men
some be exceeding mery, and doe nothing but sing songs,
fashioned out of their owne braines; some will dance, others
will doe nothing but either laugh or weepe; others are dogged
and so sullen both in looke and speech, that spying but
small company in a house, they boldly and bluntly enter,
compelling the seruants through feare to giue them what
they demaund, which is commonly bacon, or some thing
that will yeelde ready money. The Vpright-man and the
Rogue are not terribler enemies to poultry ware than Poore
Tom is." Dekker's Belman of London, &c., sig. D 2, ed.
1608: The following account from Aubrey's unpublished
Natural History of Wiltshire was, I believe, first cited by
1
TOMBOYS-TORCH.
505
D'Israeli in his Curiosities of Literature; I now give it as
quoted by Mr. Halliwell from Royal Soc. Ms.; "Till the
breaking out of the Civil Warres, Tom ô Bedlams did
trauell about the countery. They had been poore distracted
men that had been putt into Bedlam, where recovering to
some sobernesse, they were licentiated to goe a begging.
E.G. they had on their left arm an armilla of tinn, printed
in some workes, about four inches long; they could not
get it off: they wore about their necks a great horn of an
oxe in a string or bawdric, which, when they came to an
house for almes, they did wind; and they did putt the drink
given them into this horn, whereto they did putt a stopple.
Since the warres I doe not remember to have seen any
one of them:" A later hand has added, "I have seen them
in Worcestershire within these thirty years, 1756.” [See
Wm. Basse's Works, p. 135, for a Tom a Bedlam song; cf.
Percy's Rel.]
tomboys, coarse strumpets, Cymb. i. 6. 122.
tongs and the bones-The, M.N.D. iv. 1. 32: The music of the
tongs was produced, I believe, by striking them with a key,
while the bones were played upon by rattling them between
the fingers.
tongue, to talk, to prate: such stuff as madman Tongue, and
brain not, Cymb. v. 4. 147.
tongue, to chide, to rate: How might she tongue me! M.M.
iv. 4. 28.
too much for him-I will not take, Tp. ii. 2. 80: "Too much
means any sum, ever so much" (STEEVENS): "I will get as
much for him as I can" (Boswell).
took toy: see second toy.
toothpick-He and his, K.J. i. 1. 190: Toothpicks (said to have
been invented in Italy) were ostentatiously used by those
who had travelled or who affected foreign fashions.
top-Parish: see parish-top.
top, to rise above, to surpass: to top Macbeth, Mcb. iv. 3. 57;
top the legitimate, Lr. i. 2. 21; top extremity, v. 3. 207; topp'd
my thought, Hml. iv. 7. 89; topping all others in boasting,
Cor. ii. 1. 23.
top, to prune: like to groves, being topp'd, Per. i. 4. 9.
topless, supreme, without superior, Troil. i. 3. 152.
topple, to tumble, to fall down: Though castles topple on their
warders' heads, Mcb. iv. 1. 56; the deficient sight Topple
down headlong, Lr. iv. 6. 24; to rend, And all to-topple (see
first to), Per. iii. 2. 17; down topples she, M.N.D. ii. 1. 53.
topple, to make to tumble, to throw down: and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers, 1H4. iii. 1. 32.
torch-Give me a, Rom. i. 4. 11; A torch for me, 35: see the
next article.
.
506
TORCH-BEARER—TOWARD.
torch-bearer, M.V. ii. 4. 24; 40; ii. 6. 40; Rom. iii. 5. 14;
torch-bearers, M.V. ii. 4. 5: It would seem that no masque
(at least if performed by night) was complete without torch-
bearers: Steevens aptly quotes from Dekker's and Webster's
Westward Ho; "He is just like a torch-bearer to maskers;
he wears good clothes, and is ranked in good company,
but he doth nothing." Webster's Works, p. 213, ed.
Dyce, 1857.
torcher, torch-bearer,—the sun, A.W. ii. 1. 165.
tortive, twisted, Troil. i. 3. 9.
toss-Good enough to, Good enough to toss upon pikes, 1H4.
iv. 2. 71.
tottering, hanging in tatters, K.J. v. 5. 7. See tattering.
touch, a touchstone: I play the touch, R3. iv. 2. 8; O thou touch
of hearts, [gold], Tim. iv. 3. 390.
touch, true metal, tried qualities: My friends of noble touch,
Cor. iv. I. 49.
touch, a feat: O brave touch, M.N.D. iii. 2. 70.
touch, a sensation, a perfection: a touch, a feeling Of their
afflictions, Tp. v. 1. 21; the inly touch of love, 2G. ii. 7. 18;
no touch of consanguinity, Troil. iv. 2. 103; He wants the
natural touch, Mcb. iv. 2. 9; a touch more rare (“a more
exquisite feeling, a superior sensation," STEEVENS, "a smart
or throe more exquisite," STAUNTON), Cymb. i. 1. 135; more
urgent touches ("things that touch me more sensibly, more
pressing motives," JOHNSON), Ant. i. 2. 187.
touch, a trait: the touches dearest priz'd, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 160; Some
lively touches of my daughter's favour, v. 4. 27.
touch, "spice or particle" (JOHNSON): a touch of your condition,
R3. iv. 4. 157.
touch of your late business—Some, "Some hint of the business
that keeps you awake so late" (JOHNSON), H8. v. 1. 13.
touch, "exact performance of agreement" (Johnson's Dict.):
will the dainty domine, the schoolmaster, Keep touch, 2N.K.
ii. 3. 41; If he keep touch, he dies for't, iii. 3. 53 (“He does
not keep touch, Non facit quod dixerit." Coles's Lat. and
Engl. Dict.).
touch, to test by the touchstone: a suit Wherein I mean to
touch your love indeed, Oth. iii. 3. 81; which, being touch'd
and tried, Proves valueless, K.J. iii. 1. 100; they Have all been
touch'd, and found base metal, Tim. iii. 3. 6.
touse, to pull, to pluck, to tear, to draw, M.M. v. 1. 313. In
W.T. iv. 4. 760, Dyce reads touse; F2 and Globe or toaze;
F1 at toaze.
toward and towards, in a state of preparation, forthcoming,
at hand; What, a play toward! M.N.D. iii. 1. 81; We have
a trifling foolish banquet towards, Rom. i. 5. 124; Here's a
noble feast toward, Tim. iii. 6. 68; What might be toward,
TOWARD-TRADE.
507
Hml. i. 1. 77; What feast is toward, v. 2. 376; no likely
wars toward, Lr. ii. 1. 11.
toward, tractable, Shr. v. 2. 182; bold, 3H6. ii. 2. 66 (CRAIG).
tower, a verb particularly applied to certain hawks, &c., which
tower aloft, soar spirally to a station high in the air, and
thence swoop upon their prey: My lord protector's hawks
do tower so well, 2H6. ii. 1. 10; A falcon, towering in her
pride of place, Mcb. ii. 4. 12; (see second place); like a
falcon towering in the skies, Lucr. 506; And, like an eagle
o'er his aery towers, K.J. v. 2. 149. (“Shee [the hobby] is of
the number of those Hawkes that are hie flying and towre
Hawks." Turberville's Booke of Falconrie, p. 53, ed. 1611:
Donne, addressing Sir Henry Goodyere, and speaking of
his hawk, says,
"Which when herselfe she lessens in the aire,
You then first say, that high enough she toures."
Poems, p. 73, ed. 1633:
compare, too, a passage of Milton, which some of his
editors have misunderstood;
<<
The bird of Jove, stoopt from his aerie tour [airy tower],
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove."
Par. Lost, B. xi. 185).
toy, a trifle: a toy, a thing of no regard, 1H6. iv. 1. 145; Each
toy seems prologue to some great amiss, Hml. iv. 5. 18; As
little by such toys, 2G. i. 2. 82; Immoment toys, Ant. v. 2. 166;
lamenting toys, Cymb. iv. 2. 193.
toy, a fancy, a freak of imagination: If no inconstant toy, nor
womanish fear, Rom. iv. 1. 119; the hot horse, hot as fire,
Took toy (became freakish, began to play tricks) at this,
2N.K. v. 4. 66; fairy toys (“odd stories, silly tales," Johnson's
Dict.), M.N.D. v. 1. 3; such-like toys as these, R3. i. 1. 60;
toys of desperation, Hml. i. 4. 75.
toys, "rumours, idle reports" (STEEVENS), "or tricks, devices,
&c., for Shakespeare uses the word with great latitude
(STAUNTON): There's toys abroad, K.J. i. 1. 232: qy. is this
equivalent to "There are strange things going on"?
trace, to follow: all my joy Trace the conjunction! H8. iii. 2. 45 ;
all unfortunate souls That trace (succeed) him in his line,
Mcb. iv. 1. 153.
}}
tract of every thing Would by a good discourser lose some life,
Which action's self was tongue to-The, "The course of
these triumphs and pleasures, however well related, must
lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which
were expressed in the real action" (JOHNSON), H8. i. 1. 40.
trade, resort, traffic, general course: Some way of common trade,
R2. iii. 3. 156; trade of danger, 2H4. i. 1. 174; in the gap
and trade ("the practised method, the general course,"
JOHNSON) of moe preferments, H8. v. 1. 36.
508
TRADE-TRASH.
trade, business, dealing: if your trade be to her, 12N. iii. 1. 83;
Have you any further trade with us? Hml. iii. 2. 346.
traded, practised, versed, experienced, K.J. iv. 3. 109; Troil.
ii. 2. 64.
tradition, form, and ceremonious duty, R2. iii. 2. 173.
'Seems
here used for traditional practices: that is, established or
customary homage." JOHNSON. Roderick suggests addition,
which seems right (Dyce).
traducement, calumny, Cor. 1. 9. 22.
traffic is sheets, &c.—My, W.T. iv. 3. 23: “Autolycus means,
that his practice was to steal sheets and large pieces of
linen, leaving the smaller pieces for the kites to build
with" (MALONE): see lesser linen, &c.
trains, artifices, stratagems: Macbeth by many of these trains
hath sought, &c., Mcb. iv. 3. 118.
trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease,
success-If th' assassination Could, If the assassination could
tie up, or net up, the consequences of it, and, along with
its cessation, stop, or conclusion, catch success, Mcb. i. 7. 3
(A trammel means both a kind of draw-net and a contrivance
for teaching horses to pace or amble).
tranect, M.V. iii. 4. 53. Supposed to be derived from Italian
tranare,—the passage-boat on the Brenta, at about five
miles from Venice, being drawn out of the river, and
lifted over a dam or sluice by a crane. But Rowe substituted
traject, from It. tragetto, a ferry.
tranquillity, 1H4. ii. 1. 84, persons of leisured life.
translate, to transform, to change: translate thy life into death,
A.Y.L. v. 1. 58; translate his malice towards you into love,
Cor. ii. 3. 197; the force of honesty can translate beauty into
his likeness, Hml. iii. 1. 113; The rest I'll give to be to you
translated, M.N.D. i. 1. 191; bless thee! thou art translated,
iii. 1. 122; sweet Pyramus translated, iii. 2. 32; to present
slaves and servants Translates his rivals, Tim. i. 1. 72.
transport, to remove from this world to the next: to transport
him in the mind he is Were damnable, M.M. iv. 3. 72; Out
of doubt he is transported, M.N.D. iv. 2. 4.
trash, a worthless person: this poor trash of Venice, Oth. ii. 1.
312; I do suspect this trash (= strumpet), v. 1. 85. (With the
second of the above passages compare
"I heare say there's a whore here that draws wine,
And I would see the trash."
Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, First Part, p. 35, ed. 1631.)
trash, to check the pace of a too forward hound by means
of a trash; which-whether a strap, a rope dragging loose
on the ground, or a weight-was fastened to his neck:
this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash For his quick hunting,
TRASH.
509
Oth. ii. 1. 312. Trash Merriman; The poor cur is emboss'd,
Shr. Ind. 1. 17. [Hanmer reads Leech (= bleed?), Johnson
conj. Bathe, Mitford Breathe, Dyce Trash. The folio has
'Brach Meriman.' Brach cannot be right here, for Merriman
would not be the name of a female dog! Cf. "And albeit
some of this sort [Bloodhounds] in English are called
Brache, in Scottish Rache, the cause hereof resteth in the
sex, and not in the general kind. For we Englishmen call
bitches, belonging to the hunting kind of dogs, by the term
above-mentioned." So says Dr. Caius, in his treatise Of
English Dogs (see Arber's Garner, iii. 237). Besides, the
Master adds "and couple" &c., showing that he is giving
a second order. As the hunt was over for the day, nothing
remained but to couple up the hounds. Hence Trash
cannot possibly be the reading. If a hound was led on to
the stage to increase the realism, the master might give
this order: "Breathe Merriman: you're choaking him, look
how he's foaming." But if no hound was brought on (merely
a 'cry' being imitated outside) the order might well be:
"Leash Merriman. He is tired and covered with foam.”
Leash him (by himself, that is), so that he may not be more
tired by having another hound tugging him as when coupled.
A leash seems to have been usually carried for this purpose.
Cf. Lodge's Phillis, xxxi:
For leash I bear a cord of careful grief;
For brach I lead an overforward mind;
My hounds are thoughts," &c.
The printer probably set up Leash as Brach, through his
eye catching that word in the next line. The words were
not dissimilar when written. Or else the order was: Lash
Merriman, as the following, from Lyly's Mydas, iv. 3 (p. 49
ed. Fairholt), suggests:
CC
Petulus. There was a boy lasht on the single, because when
he was imbost, he took soyle.
Min. What is that?
Pet. Why, a boy was beaten on the taile with a leathern thong,
because when he fomde at the mouth with running, hee went into
the water."
Apparently Petulus is quibbling on lasht-leasht; and, unless
lashing was looked on as a remedy for exhaustion, the
'poor cur' Merriman was probably only sentenced to be
'leashed.' As to coupling hounds, cf. Titus, ii. 2. 3; and
the old Taming of A shrew:
"Cupple vppe the hounds and let vs hie vs home,
And bid the huntsman see them meated well,
For they haue all deseru'd it well to daie,"]
510
TRASH-TREBLE-DATED.
trash for over-topping-Who t' advance, and who To, Tp. i. 2. 81:
"To trash, as Dr. Warburton observes, is to cut away the
superfluities. The present explanation may be countenanced
by the following passage in Warner's Albion's England,
1602, b. x. ch. 57:
'Who suffreth none by might, by wealth or blood to overtopp,
Himself gives all preferment, and whom listeth him doth lop.'
Again, in R2. iii. 4. 33-5" [not a parallel here, but to
Per. i. 4. 9] STEEVENS: It may be added, that in Davenant
and Dryden's alteration of The Tempest, the passage now
in question runs thus,
"whom to advance,
Or lop for over-topping."
[The Davenant-Dryden change to lop is very impressive,
and the notion of cutting back an overshadowing courtier
is in harmony with the political philosophy of the time.
Overtop is not found in any hunting sense. Note finally
that Shakespeare carries on the metaphor of overgrowth:
"that now he was the ivy which had hid my princely
trunk, and suck'd my verdure out on't." Following Nares,
The Diary of Mr. Wm. Silence, p. 40, finds a hunting
metaphor here.]
travel?-How chances it they, Hml. ii. 2. 343: Here travel is
equivalent to the modern term "stroll." [More modern
"tour in the provinces "].
travel,-my youthful, 2G. iv. 1. 34: labour, study.
traverse, athwart the heart of his lover, &c.-Breaks them
bravely, quite: see break cross, &c.
traverse, (a term in fencing) to use a posture of opposition,
or to oppose a movement: to see thee traverse, M.W. ii. 3. 25.
traverse, (a military term) to march (“ Traverse' (says Bullokar),
'to march up and down, or to move the feet with propor-
tion, as in dancing,"" MALONE): Hold, Wart, traverse; thus,
thus, thus, 2H4. iii. 2. 291; Traverse, go, Oth. i. 3. 378.
travers'd arms, crossed arms, Tim. v. 4. 7.
tray-trip, “a game at cards, played with dice as well as with
cards, the success in which chiefly depended upon the
throwing of treys" (HALLIWELL), 12N. ii. 5. 208.
treachers, traitors, Lr. i. 2. 133.
treasury, treasure: a mass of public treasury, 2H6. i. 3. 134;
sumless treasuries, H5. i. 2. 165.
treaties, entreaties, supplications, Ant. iii. 11. 62.
treble-dated crow, Phoen. 17. Steevens quotes Lucretius, 5. 1053:
"Cornicum ut secla vetusta.
Ter tres ætates humanas garrula vincit
Cornix."
*
TREBLES—TRIBULATION.
511
Trebles thee o'er--I am more serious than my custom: you Must
be so too, if heed me; which to do, Tp. ii. 1. 221: "This
passage is represented to me as an obscure one. The meaning
of it seems to be 'You must put on more than your
usual seriousness, if you are disposed to pay a proper
attention to my proposal; which attention if you bestow,
it will in the end make you thrice what you are. Sebastian
is already brother to the throne; but, being made a king
by Antonio's contrivance, would be (according to our
author's idea of greatness) thrice the man he was before.
In this sense he would be trebled o'er" (STEEVENS).
trench, to cut, to carve: trenched, 2G. iii. 2. 7; Mcb. iii. 4. 27 ;
Ven. 1052; trenching, 1H4. i. 1. 7.
trenchant, cutting, sharp, Tim. iv. 3. 115.
trencher-knight, one who holds a trencher, a parasite, L.L.L.
v. 2. 464.
.
Tribulation of Tower-hill, or the Limbs of Limehouse, their
dear brothers, are able to endure-These are the youths that
thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples; that no
audience, but the, H8. v. 4. 65: The allusion is, I believe,
to certain puritanical congregations: one of the characters
in Jonson's Alchemist is named "Tribulation-Wholesome, a
pastor of Amsterdam;" and Mr. Grant White notices that
"within the memory of men now living 'Tribulation' was
a common name among New-England families of Puritan
descent:" Steevens observes; "I can easily conceive that
the turbulence of the most clamorous theatre has been
exceeded by the bellowings of puritanism against surplices
and farthingales. . . . The phrase dear brothers is very
plainly used to point out some fraternity of canters allied
to the Tribulation both in pursuits and manners, by
tempestuous zeal and consummate ignorance:" When Mr.
Staunton asked, "Can any thing be more evident than that
by the 'Tribulation of Tower-hill' and the 'Limbs of
Limehouse' are meant the turbulent and mischievous 'long-
shore rabble, the only congenial audience at a play-house
for their 'dear brothers,' 'the Hope of the Strand'?"—he
failed to perceive that the "dear brothers" mean the
so-called brothers of "the Tribulation of Tower-hill," and
assuredly not those of "the youths that thunder at a play-
house." (Here Steevens cites from Skelton's Magnyfycence,
"Some fall to foly them selfe for to spyll,
And some fall prechynge on [at the] Toure Hyll."
Works, vol. i. p. 295, ed. Dyce;
and evidently supposes that some fall prechynge at the
Toure Hyll" means some set up for preachers on Tower-
hill," while it really means "some finish their course by
512
TRIBUNAL-TRIPLE.
being executed on Tower-hill, where, in their last moments,
they make an exhortation to the reprobate.")
tribunal plebs, Tit. iv. 3. 92: Perhaps the clown means, as
Hanmer conjectures, tribunus plebis.
trick, a peculiarity: every line and trick of his sweet favour,
A.W. i. 1. 107; The trick of's frown, W.T. ii. 3. 100; a trick
of Cœur-de-lion's face, K.J. i. 1. 85; a villanous trick of thine
eye, 1H4. ii. 4. 446; The trick of that voice, Lr. iv. 6. 108
(This is properly a heraldic term, meaning a delineation
of arms, in which the colours are distinguished by their
technical marks, without any colour being laid on: see my
Memoir of Shakespeare, p. 41. note 27.)
trick, a course, a manner, a habit: I spoke it but according to
the trick, M.M. v. 1. 510; It is our trick, Hml. iv. 7. 188.
trick, "knack, faculty" (CALDECOTT): an we had the trick to
see't, Hml. v. I. 99.
trick, a toy, a puppet: a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick For
them to play at will, W.T. ii. 1. 51: compare pinch'd thing-A.
trick up with new-tuned oaths, deck out, adorn with, &c.,
H5. iii. 6. 80: properly a heraldic term; see first trick.
trick'd With blood of fathers, &c.-Horridly, Hml. ii. 2. 479:
Here trick'd is equivalent to "painted, smeared:" properly
a heraldic term; see first trick.
tricking, decoration, dresses, M.W. iv. 4. 79: see first trick.
tricksy, clever, adroit, dextrous: My tricksy spirit! Tp. v. 1. 226.
tricksy, quaint, affected: a tricksy word, M.V. iii. 5. 74.
trifle, a phantom: some enchanted trifle, Tp. v. 1. 112.
trifle, to make trifling, of no importance: Hath trifled former
knowings, Mcb. ii. 4. 4.
Trigon-The fiery, 2H4. ii. 4. 288: "Trigonum igneum is the
astronomical [astrological] term when the [three] upper
planets meet in a fiery sign" (STEEVENS): Trigon, triangle:
"When the three superior planets met in Aries, Leo, or
Sagittarius, they formed a fiery trigon." Nares's Gloss.
trill'd, trickled, Lr. iv. 3. 14.
trip and go, L.L.L. iv. 2. 144: Mr. Chappell remarks that this
-the name of a favourite morris-dance-"seems to have
become a proverbial expression. In Gosson's Schoole of
Abuse, 1579, 'trip and go, for I dare not tarry.'
dare not tarry.' In The
two angrie Women of Abington, 1599, ‘Nay, then, trip and
go.' In Ben Jonson's Case is altered, 'O delicate trip and
go,'" &c. Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. i.
P. 131, sec. ed.
triple, third, one of three: a triple eye, A.W. ii. 1. 111; The
triple pillar of the world, Ant. i. 1. 12.
triple Hecate's team-The, M.N.D. v. 1. 391: An allusion to
her triple character,- Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and
Hecate in the nether world. [See thrice-crownded.]
TRIPLE-TURN’D—TROW.
513
triple-turn'd whore! Ant. iv. 12. 13: “Cleopatra was first the
mistress of Julius Cæsar, then of Cneius Pompey, and
afterwards of Antony" (MALONE): "She first belonged to
Julius Cæsar, then to Antony, and now, as he supposes, to
Augustus. It is not likely that in recollecting her turnings,
Antony should not have that in contemplation which gave
him most offence" (MASON).
triplex, triple time in music, 12N. v. 1. 41.
tristful, sad, sorrowful, 1H4. ii. 4. 434; Hml. iii. 4. 50.
triumph, a general term for public exhibitions of various
kinds: with pomp, with triumph, M.N.D. i. 1. 19; the triumph-
day, R2. v. 2. 66; a perpetual triumph, 1H4. iii. 3. 46; at a
triumph, 1H6. v. 5. 31; this day of triumph, R3. iii. 4. 44;
Are the knights ready to begin the triumph♪ Per. ii. 2. 1;
an honour'd triumph, 53; With triumphs, mirth, and rare
solemnity, 2G. v. 4. 161; those justs and triumphs, R2. v. 2.
52; those triumphs held at Oxford, v. 3. 14; With stately
triumphs, 3H6. v. 7. 43; In honour of whose birth these
triumphs are, Per. ii. 2. 5; honouring of Neptune's triumphs,
V. I. 17.
triumph-False-play'd my glory Unto an enemy's, Ant. iv. 14.
20: "Shakespeare, I think, only intended to say, that
Cleopatra, by collusion, played the great game they were
engaged in falsely, so as to sacrifice Antony's fame to that
of his enemy. The playing false to the adversary's trump
card, (as Dr. Warburton explains the words) conveys no
distinct idea" (MALONE).
triumviry, a triumvirate, L.L.L. iv. 3. 53.
Trojan, a cant term, used in various meanings, sometimes as
a term of reproach, sometimes of commendation: Hector
was but a Trojan in respect of this, L.L.L. v. 2. 639 (Globe
Troyan); unless you play the honest Trojan, 681 (do); Base
Trojan, H5. v. 1. 20; 32; there are other Trojans, 1H4. ii. 1. 77.
troll, to sing with volubility, Tp. iii. 2. 126.
troll-my-dames, W.T. iv. 3. 92: The game of Troll-madam,
was borrowed from the French (Trou-madame): an old
English name for it was Pigeon-holes, as the arches in
the machine through which the balls are rolled resemble
the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-house" (STEEVENS);
"Trou Madame. The Game called Trunkes, or the Hole."
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.
tropically, figuratively, Hml. iii. 2. 247.
trot, an old woman, Shr. i. 2. 80. [M.M. iii. 2. 52, Lucio calls
Pompey trot, bawd.]
trow, to think, to conceive, to believe,—with the pronouns I
or you sometimes understood ("To Trow, cogito, puto."
Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), M.W. i. 4. 140; ii. 1. 64;
Ado, iii. 4. 59; L.L.L. v. 2. 279; A.Y.L. iii. 2. 189; Shr. i.
33
514
TROWEL-TRY.
2. 4; 165; R2. ii. 1. 218; 1H6. ii. 1. 41; v. 1. 56; H8. i. 1.
184; Rom. i. 3. 33; ii. 5. 64; Cymb. i. 6. 47; Trowst, 2H6.
ii. 4. 38; 3H6. v. 1. 85; trowest, Lr. i. 4. 135.
trowel-Laid on with a, A.Y.L. i. 2. 112: Ray has "That was
laid on with a trowel." Proverbs, p. 70, ed. 1768.
Troy-The hope of, 3H6. ii. 1. 51. Cf. iv. 8. 25: Hector, of
course, is meant.
truant, to play the truant, Err. iii. 2. 17.
truce-Take a: see take a truce, &c.
truckle-bed: see standing-bed, &c.
true, honest (a true man formerly signifying an "honest man,
in opposition to a thief): Then say if they be true, Tp. v.
1. 268; every true man's apparel fits your thief, M.M. iv. 2.
46; if you meet a thief, you may suspect him
to be no
true man, Ado, iii. 3. 54; a true man or a thief, L.L.L. iv.
3. 187; that ever cried "stand" to a true man, 1H4. i. 2. 122;
as I am a true man. . as you are a false thief, ii. 1. 101;
to turn true man, ii. 2. 24; The thieves have bound the true
men, 98; the blood of true men, ii. 4. 343; So true men yield,
with robbers so o'ermatch'd, 3H6. i. 4. 64; there is no time so
miserable but a man may be true, Tim. iv. 3. 463; I am
no true man, J.C. i. 2. 263; Which makes the true man kill'd,
and saves the thief, Cymb. ii. 3. 76; Rich preys make true
men thieves, Ven. 724. [Cf. Harman, Caveat, p. 64.]
true-penny, Hml. i. 5. 150: Forby, in his Vocab. of East
Anglia, gives "True-penny, generally 'Old truepenny,' as it
occurs in Sн. Hamlet [a mistake,-but "old True-penny
occurs in Marston's Malcontent] ... Its present meaning
is, hearty old fellow; staunch and trusty; true to his pur-
pose or pledge." ("It ['true-penny'] is, as I learn from Mr.
Pryme, Mr. Kennedy of Sheffield, and other authorities,
a mining term, and signifies a particular indication in the
soil of the direction in which ore is to be found," COLLIER).
trumpet, H5. iv. 2. 61, explained trumpeter, but from the
passage in Holinshed quoted under guidon it would seem
that the instrument is here meant.
})}
truncheon, to beat with a truncheon or club, 2H4. ii. 4. 154.
truncheoners, persons armed with truncheons or clubs, HS.
v. 4. 54.
trundle-tail, a curly-tailed dog, Lr. iii. 6. 73.
trunk sleeve, a large, wide sleeve, Shr. iv. 3. 142.
trust, Like a good parent, did beget of him A falsehood, &c.-
My, Tp. i. 2. 93: “Alluding to the observation, that a father
above the common rate of men has commonly a son below
it. Heroum filii noxæ" (JOHNSON). [I'll trust, by leisure, I
shall be in no hurry to trust, Tit. i. 1. 301. (Herford)].
See leisure.
try, a trial, a test, Tim. v. I. II.
TRY-TUN.
515
try with main-course, To: see main-course, &c.
tub-She is herself in the, M.M. iii. 2. 59; the powdering-tub of
infamy, H5. ii. 1. 79; season the slaves for tubs, Tim. iv. 3.
86: Allusions to the process of curing the lues venerea by
sweating (R. Holme calls it "parboiling"-see scald such
chickens, &c.), in a heated tub for a considerable time,
during which the patient was to observe strict abstinence.
tub-fast--The, Tim. iv. 3. 87: see the preceding article.
tuck, a rapier, 12N. iii. 4. 244; 1H4. ii. 4. 274.
tucket, a certain set of notes on the trumpet, a flourish (Ital.
toccata), M.V. v. 1; A.W. iii. 5; Lr. ii. 4; tucket sonance (the
sounding, the signal, of the tucket), H5. iv. 2. 35.
tuft, a cluster, clump, A.Y.L. iii. 5. 75; W.T. ii. 1. 34 ; R2. ii. 3. 53.
tuition, protection, Ado, i. 1. 283
Tully's Orator, Tit. iv. 1. 14: "Tully's Treatise on eloquence,
addressed to Brutus, and entitled Orator" (MALONE).
tumbler's hoop-- And wear his colours like a, L.L.L. iii. 1. 190;
"Tumblers' hoops are to this day bound round with ribbons
of various colours" (HARRIS).
tun-dish, a wooden funnel, M.M. iii. 2. 182.
tun of treasure, H5. i. 2. 255: The meaning of tun (Fol. tunne)
here is not quite certain. Holinshed, Chron. 545/1/1 (cited
by Stone, ed. H5. p. x, N.S.S.) relates how during Lent,
1414, when Henry was at Kenilworth, ambassadors came
to him from the Dauphin and presented "a barell of Paris
balles . . . a token that was taken in verie ill part, as
sent in scorne, to signifie that it was more meet for the
king to pass the time with such childish exercise, than to
attempt any worthy exploit." Caxton (also cited by Mr. Stone)
says: a toune of tenys balles." In The Famous Victories
of Henry V. the scene is thus given:
((
Archb. An it please your Maiestie,
My Lord Prince Dolphin greetes you well,
With this present. He delivereth a tunne of Tennis Balles.
Henry V. What a gilded tunne?
I pray you, my lord of Yorke, look what is in it?
Yorke. An it please your Grace,
Here is a Carpet and a tunne of tennis-balles."
[On the "Carpet," see Weber, Metrical Romances, i. 299;
Alis. 1704]. The Archbishop expounds the gift thus:
My lord, hearing of your wildnesse before your
Fathers death, sent you this, my good lord,
Meaning that you are more fitter for a Tennis Court
Then a field, and more fitter for a carpet then the Camp."
The writer of the able article in Edin. Rev. for Oct. 1872,
No. 278, p. 308, considered that in the passage as it stands
in Shakespeare the word tun means a goblet, or drinking-
2
516
TUNE-TURLYGOOD.
cup, and gilded, like the parcel-gilt goblet on which Falstaff
swore (2H4. iv. 2). Tun had in Shakespeare's day two widely
different meanings, viz. a cask, and a goblet or drinking-cup.
"A tunne, or nut to drink in, cubilite," Minsheu, which is
explained "a drinking-cup of silver, or such a cup as jugglers
use to show their divers tricks by." The passage in the
Famous Victories seems to use the word in both senses.
(though I doubt if this was meant). The Archbishop
delivers a tun, a small cask, and when York is told to look
“inside it” he finds a carpet and a tun (i.e. goblet?) of
tennis-balls. Clearly a goblet could not hold a carpet; nor,
on the other hand, would an Archbishop carry a barrel
full of tennis-balls, though his servants might do so! As
Shakespeare omits the carpet, probably he meant the balls
to be either in some large goblet, or else in a small
gilded keg.
tune, accent, voice, Cymb. v. 5. 238.
turbans on-Giants may jet through and keep their impious,
Cymb. iii. 3. 6: "The idea of a giant was, among the
readers of romances, who were almost all the readers of those
times, always confounded with that of a Saracen" (JOHNSON).
Turk Gregory, 1H4. v. 3. 46: "Meaning Gregory the Seventh,
called Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost
invincible obstacles to deprive the emperor of his right of
investiture of bishops, which his predecessors had long
attempted in vain. Fox, in his History, hath made Gregory
so odious, that I don't doubt but the good Protestants of
that time were well pleased to hear him thus characterised,
as uniting the attributes of their two great enemies, the
Turk and Pope, in one" (WARBURTON).
Turk, that two-and-fifty kingdoms hath, &c.—The, 1H6. iv. 7. 73:
"Alluding probably to the ostentatious letter of Sultan
Solyman the Magnificent to the Emperor Ferdinand, 1562;
in which all the Grand Seignor's titles are enumerated.
See Knolles's History of the Turks, 5th edit. p. 789” (GREY).
Turk—Turn, “a figurative expression for a change of condition
or opinion" (Gifford's note on Massinger's Works, vol. ii.
p. 222, ed. 1813): if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with
me, Hml. iii. 2. 287; an you be not turned Turk, Ado, iii. 4.
57; [Oth. ii. 3. 170, a different idea].
Turlygood, Lr. ii. 3. 20. [Qq. Turlygood; Fol. Turlygod.
Warburton would read Turlupin; Hanmer, Turluru; " Turly
good is the corrupted word in our language. The Turlupins
were a fanatical sect that overran France, Italy, and Germany,
in the 13th and 14th centuries. They were at first known
by the names of Beghards or Beghins, and brethren and
sisters of the free spirit. Their manners and appearance
exhibited the strongest indications of lunacy and distraction..
•
TURN-TWELVE.
517
The common people alone called them Turlupins; a
name ... connected with the wolvish howlings which
there people in all probability would make when influenced
by their religious ravings. Their subsequent appellation of
the fraternity of poor men might have been the cause why
the wandering rogues called Bedlam beggars, and one of
whom Edgar personates, assumed or obtained the title of
Turlupins or Turlygoods, especially if their mode of asking
was accompanied by the gesticulations of madmen. Turlupino,
Turluru are old Italian terms for a fool or madman; and
the Italians had a proverb, as unfortunate as Turlupin and
his children” DOUCE. Nares says: "seemingly a name for
the sort of beggar described in the preceding lines, which
Sh. calls a bedlam-beggar. I cannot persuade myself that
this word, however similar in meaning, has any real connec-
tion with turlupin.... It seems to be an original English term.”]
turn-I owe you a good, M.M. iv. 2. 62: Here by turn Pompey,
with a quibble, ineans “a turn off the ladder.'
turn, to change, to alter: If you turn not, you will return the
sooner, 2G. ii. 2. 4; turn so much the constitution Of any
constant man, M.V. iii. 2. 249.
turn, to return: turn thou no more To seek a living in our
territory, A.Y.L. iii. 1. 7; Ere from this war thou turn a
conqueror, R3. iv. 4. 184; tarry with him till I turn again,
Tit. v. 2. 141.
turn his girdle-He knows how to: see girdle-He knows, &c.
Turn-bull-street, 2H4. iii. 2. 329: Properly Turnmill-street, near
Clerkenwell; a street notorious as the residence of prostitutes.
Saint John's streete is on both sides replenished with
buildings up to Clarkenwell; on the left hand of which
streete lyeth a lane called Cow-crosse of a crosse some
time standing there, which lane turneth downe to another
lane called Turnemill streete, which stretcheth up to the
west side of Clarkenwell, and was called Turnemill streete for
such cause as is afore declared.' Stow's Survay of London,
1618, p. 816. Stow here refers to a previous statement, to
the effect that it had its name from a river or brook
formerly there, whereon stood several mills" (HALLIWELL).
turquoise-It was my, M.V. iii. 1. 126: Shylock valued his
turquoise, not only as being the gift of Leah, but on account
of the imaginary virtues ascribed to the stone; which was
supposed to become pale or to brighten according as the
health of the wearer was bad or good.
["As a compassionate turcoyse, which doth tell,
By looking pale, the wearer is not well."
Donne, Funeral Elegies, ii. 343.]
twelve score, twelve score yards (not feet): as easy as a cannon
will shoot point-blank twelve score, M.W. iii. 2. 34; his death
518
TWIGGEN TWO.
will be a march of twelve-score ("It will kill him to march
so far as twelve-score yards," (JOHNSON), 1H4. ii. 4. 598;
'a would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score (he would
have hit the clout at twelve score yards; see clout),
2H4. iii. 2. 52.
twiggen, made of, or cased in, twigs or wicker-work, Oth. ii. 3.
152 [may not bottle mean bundle, fagot of twigs: I'll beat
him into shreds?]
twink, a twinkling of the eye, Tp. iv. 1. 43; Shr. ii. 1. 312.
twinn'd, like as twins: the twinn'd stones Upon the number'd
beach, Cymb. i. 6. 35 [freq. used to indicate close resem-
blance, e.g. twinning cherries, (lips) 2N.K. i. 1. 178; our
fortunes were twinned together, ii. 2. 64; and in Cymb. v. 5.
120: one sand another not more resembles].
twire, to peep out, to gleam or appear at intervals, Sonn. 28.
twist, a string, Cor. v. 6. 96.
two of the first, like coats in heraldry, Due but to one, and
crowned with one crest, M.N.D. iii. 2. 213: "It may be
doubted whether this passage has been rightly explained,
and whether the commentators have not given Shakspeare
credit for more skill in heraldry than he really possessed,
or at least than he intended to exhibit on the present
occasion. Helen says, 'we had two seeming bodies, but
only one heart.' She then exemplifies her position by a
simile-'we had two of the first, i.e. bodies, like the double
coats in heraldry that belong to man and wife as one person,
but which, like our single heart, have but one crest” (DOUCE):
"The plain heraldical allusion is to the simple impalements
of two armorial ensigns, as they are marshalled side by
side to represent a marriage; and the expression 'Two of
the first,' is to that particular form of dividing the shield,
being the first in order of the nine ordinary partitions of the
Escutcheon. These principles were familiarly understood
in the time of Shakespeare by all the readers of the many
very popular heraldical works of the period, and an extract
from one of these will probably render the meaning of the
passage clear. In 'The Accedence of Armorie,' published by
Gerard Leigh, in 1597, he says, 'Now will I declare to
you of IX sundrie Partitions:-the First whereof is a partition
from the highest part of the Escocheon to the lowest. And
though it must be blazed so, yet is it a joining together. It
is also a mariage, that is to say, two cotes; the man's on
the right side, and the woman's on the left: as it might
be said that Argent had maried with Gules.' In different
words, this is nothing else than an amplification of Helena's
own expression,
seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition.'
TWO-AND-THIRTY-UNANEL'D.
519
The shield bearing the arms of two married persons would
of course be surmounted by one crest only, as the text
properly remarks, that of the husband. In Shakespeare's
day, the only pleas for bearing two crests were ancient
usage, or a special grant. The modern practice of introduc-
ing a second crest by an heiress has been most improperly
adopted from the German heraldical system; for it should
be remembered, that as a female cannot wear a helmet,
so neither can she bear a crest" (STAUNTON).
two-and-thirty,-a pip out? Shr. i. 2. 33: An expression derived
from the game of Bone-ace, or One-and-thirty: pip is a spot
upon a card: "To be two and thirty, a pip out,' was an
old cant phrase applied to a person who was intoxicated"
(HALLIWELL).
Tybalt? Mer. More than prince of cats-Why, what is, Rom. ii. 4. 17;
Tybalt, you rat-catcher, iii. 1. 78; Good king of cats, 80: For
some undiscovered reason a cat was called Tybert or Tybalt;
in the admirable old romance, Thystorye of Reynard the
Foxe, we find "The complaynt of Curtoys the hound and
of the catte Tybert, Capitulo iij.,"-"How the kynge sent
Tybert the catte for the foxe, Capitulo x. ;" and Nash, in
his Haue with you to Saffron-Walden, 1596, has "Not Tibault
or Isegrim [read "Isegrim or Tibault"] Prince of Cattes
were euer endowed with the like Title." Sig. H 3.
type, a distinguishing mark: the type of King of Naples, 3H6.
i. 4. 121; The high imperial type of this earth's glory, R3.
iv. 4. 244.
U.
umber, a sort of brown colour (a species of ochre, first obtained
from Umbria), A.Y.L. i. 3. 114.
umber'd, embrowned as if darkened with umber, H5. iv. Prol. 9.
umbrage, a shadow, Hml. v. 2. 125.
unaccommodated, unfurnished with the conveniences of life,
Lr. iii. 4. III.
unaccustom'd fight aside-And set this, 1H6. iii. 1. 93: Here
“unaccustom❜d is unseemly, indecent" (JOHNSON).
unaccustom'd dram-An, "A dram which he is not used to
(JOHNSON), "Such as is uncommon, not in familiar use"
(STEEVENS), Rom. iii. 5. 91.
unadvised wounds-Friend to friend gives, Lucr. 1488: "Friends
wound friends, not knowing each other. It should be re-
membered that Troy was sacked in the night" (MALONE).
unanel'd, Hml. i. 5. 77. Unhousell'd is, without having received
the housel, the Eucharist, or Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Disappointed, if the right reading, must be ill-appointed,
520
UNAVOIDED-UNCAPE.
unappointed, unprepared. Unanel'd is not aneled, aneiled,
or anoyled, not oiled, or anointed,-without extreme unction.
unavoided, unavoidable, inevitable, R2. ii. 1. 268; 1H6. iv.
5. 8; R3. iv. 1. 56; iv. 4. 217.
unbarbed, unshorn, untrimmed, Cor. iii. 2. 99.
unbated, unabated, undiminished: th' unbated fire, M.V. ii. 6. 11.
unbated, unblunted, without a button on the point; A sword
unbated, Hml. iv. 7. 139; Unbated and envenom'd, v. 2. 328.
unbid, uninvited, unwelcome, unexpected: O unbid spite! 3H6.
V. I. 18.
unbolt, to open, to explain: I'll unbolt to you, Tim. i. 1. 51.
unbolted, unsifted, gross, utter, Lr. ii. 2. 71.
unbonneted, &c.-My demerits May speak, Oth. i. 2. 23: “ Bonneter
(says Cotgrave) is to put off one's cap. Unbonneted may
therefore signify, without taking the cap off [though unbonneted
occurs in Lr. iii. 1. 14, with the directly contrary significa-
tion]" (STEEVENS): Unbonneted is uncovered, revealed, made
known” (A. C.): Fuseli's explanation of the passage is,
"I am his equal or superior in rank; and were it not so,
such are my demerits [i.e. merits], that, unbonneted, without
the addition of patrician or senatorial dignity, they may
speak to as proud a fortune," &c.,-the bonnet, as well as
the toge, being at Venice a badge of aristocratic honours
to this day. [Hamlet, v 2. 94, says to Osric: “Put your
bonnet to his right use: 'tis for the head" (the dialogue
here that closely recalls Peterson's Galateo, 1576, p. 50),
and 'to bonnet' may to 'cap,' to salute; unbonneted, with-
out vailing the bonnet. The berretta may be a signorial
emblem; but Far di berretta means to pull off the cap, to
salute. Hence one has a choice of meanings: "without
saluting, on equal terms" (CRAIG), which might be soldier-
like rudeness; and "with all courtesy and humility," which,
as Schmidt suggests, "must be accompanied by a correspond-
ing gesture." He notes that the word u. is in the folio
enclosed in (), as if to imply action.]
unbookish, ignorant, Oth. iv. 1. 102.
unbraided, W.T. iv. 4. 204 [prob. used by clown in the sense
of braided or embraided, embrouded.]
unbreath'd, unexercised, unpractised, M.N.D. v. 1. 74.
uncape, M.W. iii. 3. 176: Explained by Warburton, "dig out
the fox when earthed;" by Capell, "turn the dogs off;
and by Steevens, "turn him out of the bag;" while Nares
(in Gloss.) writes thus, "It seems to imply throwing off the
dogs. Falstaff is the fox, and he is supposed to be
hidden, or kennel'd, somewhere in the house; no expression,
therefore, relative to a bag-fox can be applicable, because
such a fox would be already in the hands of the hunters.
The uncaping is decidedly to begin the hunt after him;
•
UNCHARGE-UNDER.
521
when the holes for escape had been stopped." [Cape in
Sh.'s time meant a much smaller article than at present,
and was probably used (by him, here at least) as denoting
a collar; so uncape means uncollar, uncouple, begin the
hunt. See Edin. Rev. No. 278, Oct. 1872, p. 348. Cf. Diary
of Mr. Wm. Silence, p. 177.]
uncharge the practice, “acquit the expedient [stratagem] pursued
of blame" (CALDECOTT), Hml. iv. 7. 68.
uncharged ports, unassaulted gates, Tim. v. 4. 55.
unchary, incautious, 12N. iii. 4. 222.
unchecked, uncontradicted: it lives there unchecked, &c., M.V.
iii. 1. 2.
unchilded, deprived of children, Cor. v. 6. 153.
unclew, to unwind to undo, Tim. i. 1. 168.
uncoined constancy, H5. v. 2. 161: “To coin is to stamp and
to counterfeit. He [Shakespeare] uses it in both senses;
uncoined constancy signifies real and true constancy, unrefined
and unadorned” (JOHNSON): “Uncoined constancy, resembling a
plain piece of metal that has not yet received any impression.
Katharine was the first woman that Henry had ever loved”
(A. C.). "Which has not the current stamp on it (viz. insinuat-
ing words, etc.) and, being therefore unfit for circulation,
must for ever remain in one and the same place" (SCHMIDT).
uncomprehensive, incomprehensible, mysterious, Troil. iii.
3. 198.
unconfirmed, "unpractised in the ways of the world" (WAR-
BURTON): That shows thou art unconfirmed, Ado, iii. 3. 124.
uncouth (meaning properly "unknown"), unusual, strange: an
uncouth fear, Tit. ii. 3. 211; What uncouth ill event, Lucr. 1598.
uncouth, wild: this uncouth forest, A.Y.L. ii. 6. 6.
uncross'd-Keeps his book, Cymb. iii. 3. 26: "The tradesman's
book was crossed when the account was paid" (COLLIER).
uncurrent, &c.-With what encounter so: see encounter so
uncurrent, &c.
uncurse, to free from execration, R2. iii. 2. 137.
undeaf, to free from deafness, R2. ii. 1. 16.
undeeded, "not signalized by action" (Johnson's Dict.), Mcb.
v. 7. 20.
under fiends-The, Cor. iv. 5. 98: Steevens and Malone having
disputed about the meaning of this expression, Boswell
observed, "Under fiends, I apprehend, means no more
than the common phrase, the fiends below."
under generation—Th', men below or under the sun: M.M. iv.
3. 93. Hanmer, th' under: Ff. to yond.
under globe-This, Lr. ii. 2. 170. See preceding article.
under praise. Jew. What, my lord! dispraise?-Sir, your jewel
Hath suffer'd, Tim. i. 1. 165: "The Jeweller understands
Timon as saying underpraise" (WALKER).
522
UNDER-BEAR—UNDERTAKER.
under-bear, to undergo: which I alone Am bound to under-bear,
K.J. iii. 1. 65; patient underbearing of his fortune, R2. i. 4. 29.
underbear, to guard, to face, to trim: skirts round (round
about) underborne with a bluish tinsel, Ado, iii. 4. 21.
undercrest your good addition, support the honourable distinction
or title you have bestowed on me (see first addition), Cor.
i. 9. 72.
undergo, to undertake: What dangerous action would l
not undergo for one calm look? 2G. v. 4. 42; if you will not
change your purpose, But undergo this flight, W.T. iv. 4. 554;
You undergo too strict a paradox, Tim. iii. 5. 24; To undergo
with me an enterprise Of honourable-dangerous consequence
("We should now rather say to undertake where there is
anything to be done," CRAIK), J.C. i. 3. 123; I am the master
of my speeches; and would undergo what's spoken, I swear,
Cymb. i. 4. 153.
undergo, "to be subject to" (STEEVENS): Claudio undergoes my
challenge, Ado, v. 2. 57.
•
>7
undergo, to sustain, to support; To undergo such ample grace
and honour, M.M. i. 1. 24; Any thing, my lord, That my
ability may undergo, W.T. ii. 3. 164; Is't not I That undergo
this charge? K.J. v. 2. 100; How able such a work to undergo,
2H4. i. 3. 54; Their virtues else. As infinite as man
may undergo (“As large as can be accumulated upon man,'
JOHNSON), Hml. i. 4. 34.
undergo, to endure with firmness: Thrice-blessèd they that
master so their blood, To undergo such maiden pilgrimage,
M.N.D. i. 1. 75; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach,
Tp. i. 2. 157; undergoes, More goddess-like than wife-like,
such assaults, &c., Cymb. iii. 2. 7.
under-skinker, an under-drawer, 1H4. ii. 4. 26: “A.S. Scencan,
to give drink, to play the Scinker (Sommer). Dut. Schenken,
Ger. Schenken, to pour, to pour (wine: and consequentially,
to serve wine, when poured)." Richardson's Dict. in v.
"Skink."
undertake, to engage with, to attack: you'll undertake her no
more? M.W. iii. 5. 127; I would not undertake her in this
company, 12N. i. 3. 61; It is not fit your lordship should
undertake every companion that you give offence to, Cymb.
ii. 1. 29.
undertake, to take charge of: Sir Nicholas Vaux, Who under-
takes you to your end, H8. ii. 1. 97.
undertake, “to venture, to hazard" (Johnson's Dict.): It is the
cowish terror of his spirit, That dares not undertake, Lr.
iv. 2. 13.
undertake, to assume: His name and credit shall you undertake,
Shr. iv. 2. 106.
undertaker,
"
one who undertakes or takes up the quarrel or
1
UNDERTAKER-UNFURNISH.
523
business of another" (RITSON): if you be an undertaker, I
am for you, 12N. iii. 4. 349.
undertaker-And for Cassio,-let me be his, let me be the
person who engages to do for him-to dispatch him; unless
undertaker here means simply "attacker, assailant,".
first undertake, Oth. iv. i. 224.
undervalu'd, held inferior, unworthy to be compared, M.V.
i. 1. 165; ii. 7. 53.
underwrite in an observing kind His humorous predominance,
subscribe, submit, with respectful attention, to his, &c.,
Troil. ii. 3. 137. Cf. subscribe, 1. 156.
under-wrought, underworked, undermined, K.J. ii. 1. 95.
undeserving praise, praise undeserved, L.L.L. v. 2. 366.
undistinguish'd space of woman's will, space whose limits are
not to be distinguished, Lr. iv. 6. 278.
unear'd, unploughed, untilled, Sonn. 3: see car.
unearned luck, better luck than we have deserved, M.N.D.
V. I. 439.
uneath, scarcely, hardly, 2H6. ii. 4. 8.
uneffectual fire, Hml. i. 5. 90: Here, according to Warburton,
uneffectual means "shining without heat;" according to
Steevens, "that is no longer seen when the light of morn-
ing approaches: "The former explanation is, I apprehend,
the true one. (Compare Nash; "The moral of the whole
is this, that as the ostrich, the most burning-sighted bird of
all others, insomuch as the female of them hatcheth not
hir eggs by covering them, but by the effectual raies of hir
eies," &c. The Vnfortunate Traveller, Or the Life of Facke
Wilton, 1594, sig. H 4).
unequal, unjust: a heavy and unequal hand, 2H4. iv. 1. 102;
To punish me for what you make me do Seems much unequal,
Ant. ii. 5. 101.
unexperient, inexperienced, L. Compl. 318.
unexpressive, inexpressible, ineffable, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 10.
unfair, to deprive of fairness, of beauty, Sonn. 5.
unfather'd heirs, “equivocal births; animals that had no animal
progenitors; productions not brought forth according to the
stated laws of generation" (JOHNSON), 2H4. iv. 4. 122 (Mr.
Staunton gives a strange interpretation of these words: he
says, "the unfather'd heirs, whom Prince Humphrey is
alarmed to see the people reverence, were certain so-called
prophets, who pretended to have been conceived by miracle,
like Merlin," &c.)
unfold the evil, bring to light, M.M. v. 1. 117.
unfolding star, the star that bids the shepherd un-fold his
flock, the morning star, M.M. iv. 2. 218.
unfurnish, to deprive, to divest: that which may Unfurnish
me of reason, W.T. v. 1. 123.
524
UNFURNISH'D—UNIMPROVED.
unfurnish'd-And leave itself, unprovided with a companion
or fellow, M.V. iii. 2. 126.
ungartered—For going, 2G. ii. 1. 79: “This is enumerated by
Rosalind in A.Y.L. iii. 2. 398, as one of the undoubted
marks of love; ‘Then your hose shall be ungartered, your
bonnet unbanded,' &c." (MALONE).
unhack'd, K.J. ii. 1. 254; Ant. ii. 6. 38. See unhatch'd.
unhair, to strip off hair, Ant. ii. 5. 64.
unhair'd sauciness, unbearded sauciness, K.J. v. 2. 133 (O. Edd.
unheard.)
unhappied, made unhappy, R2. iii. 1. 10.
unhappily, mischievously: I should judge now unhappily (wag-
gishly), H8. i. 4. 89; Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily
(“Though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet
there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it,"
WARBURTON), Hml. iv. 5. 13; And purest faith unhappily
(wickedly) forsworn, Sonn. 66.
unhappiness, mischief: she hath often dreamed of unhappiness
(some "wild, wanton, unlucky trick," WARBURTON), [mis-
hap?] Ado, ii. 1. 361; heir to his unhappiness ("a disposition
to mischief," STEEVENS), R3. 1. 2. 25.
unhappy, mischievous: O most unhappy (wicked) strumpet,
Err. iv. 4. 127; a shrewd unhappy gallows, L.I.L. v. 2. 12;
A shrewd knave and an unhappy, A.W. iv. 5. 66 (in the
two last passages "roguish, waggish").
unhatch'd practice, "treason that has not taken effect" (JOHNSON),
or "not brought to light, undisclosed," Oth. iii. 4. 141.
unhatched rapier (Dyce unhack'd), 12N. iii. 4. 257: unhacked,
never seen service.
unhearts, discourages, Cor. v. I. 49.
unhoused free condition-My, Oth. i. 2. 26: Here unhoused
has been explained "free from domestic cares," "unmarried"
-an Italianism ("Casare, to house, to marrie, to wed." Florio's
Ital. and Engl. Dict.).
unhousell'd, Hml. i. 5. 77. See unanel'd.
unicorn, pride and wrath would confound thee, &c.-Wert thou
the, Tim. iv. 3. 339; That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,
J.C. ii. 1. 204: "The account given of the unicorn is this:
that he and the lion being enemies by nature, as soon as
the lion sees the unicorn he betakes himself to a tree; the
unicorn in his fury, and with all the swiftness of his course,
running at him, sticks his horn fast in the tree, and then
the lion falls upon him and kills him. Gesner, Hist. Animal."
(HANMER): Compare Spenser, F. Q. II. v. 10.
unimproved, unreproved, uncensured, unimpeached, Hml. i.
1. 96. [From the double sense of mettle (metal), it is prob-
able that unimproved means untempered, thence intemper-
ate.]
UNION—UNPOSSESSING.
525
union, a pearl of the finest kind (Lat. unio), Hml. v. 2. 283; 337.
unjust, dishonest: unjust serving-men, 1H4. iv. 2. 30.
unkind, not according to kind or nature, unnatural: Thou art
not so unkind, A.V.L. ii. 7. 175; unkind division, 1H6. iv.
1. 193; Titus, unkind, and careless of thine own, Tit. i. 1. 86;
Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind, Lr. i. 1. 263;
his unkind daughters, iii. 4. 73; but died unkind (childless),
Ven. 204. See kin.
unking'd, deprived of kingship, of royalty, R2. iv. 1. 220;
v. 5. 37.
unlick'd bear-whelp, 3H6. iii. 2. 161: "It was an opinion which,
in spite of its absurdity, prevailed long, [e. g. Dunciad,
i. 100], that the bear brings forth only shapeless lumps of
animated flesh, which she licks into the form of bears"
(JOHNSON): see, for instance, Pliny's Hist. Nat. L. viii.
c. 54 (36).
unlike, unlikely: That which but seems unlike, M.M. v. 1. 52;
Not unlike, sir; that may be, L.L.L. ii. 1. 208; Not unlike,
Each way, to better yours, Cor. iii. 1. 48; more Unlike than
this thou tell'st, Cymb. v. 5. 354.
unliv'd, bereft of life, Luc. 1754.
unlucky charge my fantasy--Things, J.C. iii. 3. 2: Fol. unluckily
(which Globe follows).
unlustrous, devoid of lustre, Cymb. i. 6. 109.
unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks-Hood my, Rom. iii. 2. 14:
see hood, &c.
unmaster'd, unrestrained, licentious, Hml. i. 3. 32.
unmeritable, devoid of merit, R3. iii. 7. 155; J.C. iv. 1. 12.
unowed interest-Th', The unowned interest ("the interest
which is not at this moment legally possessed by any one,
however rightfully entitled to it," MALONE), K.J. iv. 3. 147.
unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the
famous ape, &c., Hml. iii. 4. 193: “Sir John Suckling in one
of his letters, may possibly allude to [a variant of] the
same story. 'It is the story of the jackanapes and the
partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee,
and then let'st out another, and starest after that till it is
gone too"" (WARNER).
unpink'd, not pierced with eyelet-holes, Shr. iv. 1. 136.
unpitied whipping-An, "An unmerciful one" (STEEVENS),
M.M. iv. 2. 13.
((
unplausive, not applauding, not approving, Troil. iii. 3. 43.
unpolicied-Call great Cæsar ass, an ass without more policy
than to leave the means of death within my reach, and
thereby deprive his triumph of its noblest decoration "
(STEEVENS), Ant. v. 2. 311.
unpossessing, having no possessions, incapable of possessing
or inheriting, Lr. ii. 1. 69.
526
UNPREGNANT-UNREST.
unpregnant, unready, inapt, unable: This deed unshapes me
quite, makes me unpregnant, M.M. iv. 4. 23: "In the first
scene the Duke says that Escalus is pregnant, i.e. ready in
the forms of law. Unpregnant, therefore, in the instance
before us, is unready, unprepared" (STEEVENS): The present
passage is cited by Nares in his Gloss. under “Unpregnant.
Dull, stupid: the contrary to pregnant in its sense of acute,
sagacious, &c."
unpregnant of my cause, Hml. ii. 2. 595: "Unpregnant for
having no due sense of" (WARBURTON): "Rather, 'not
quickened with a new desire of vengeance, not teeming
with revenge'" (JOHNSON): "unpregnant of is not quickened
with or [not] having a lively sense of" (CALDECOTT).
unprizable, not of estimation, of small account: For shallow
draught and bulk unprizable, 12N. v. 1. 58.
unprizable, inestimable, priceless: your brace of unprizable
estimations, Cymb. i. 4. 99 (Coles may be cited as illu-
strating the double meaning of this word: "Unprisable,
inæstimabilis." "Inæstimabilis, Inestimable, not to be valued,
also [see the preceding article] of no value").
unpriz'd, not valued, Lr. i. 1. 262.
unprofited, profitless, 12N. i. 4. 22.
unproper, not peculiar to an individual, common, Oth. iv. 1. 69.
unproportion'd, “irregular, disorderly" (CALDECOTT), Hml.
i. 3. 60.
unprovide, "divest of resolution " (Johnson's Dict.), Oth. iv. 1. 218.
unqualitied, unmanned, deprived of his faculties, Ant. iii.
II. 44 (but Malone would understand it to mean
"un-
soldiered,”—quality being formerly common in the sense
of "profession").
unquestionable spirit-An, A spirit averse to conversation,
A.Y.L. iii. 2. 393: compare first question and questionable.
unrak'd-Where fires thou find'st, "i.e. unmade up, by covering
them with fuel, so that they may be found alight in the
morning" (STEEVENS), M.W. v. 5. 48.
unready, undressed, 1H6. ii. 1. 39.
unrecalling crime-His, His unrecallable crime, Lucr. 993.
unreconciliable, irreconcilable, Ant. v. 1. 47.
unrecuring, incurable, Tit. iii. 1. 90.
unrespected, unnoticed, unregarded, Sonn. 43; 54.
unrespective, inconsiderate, unthinking, "devoid of cautious
and prudential consideration" (MALONE): unrespective boys,
R3. iv. 2. 29.
unrespective, unregarded, unvalued: unrespective sieve, "a com-
mon voider" (JOHNSON), or basket for carrying out the
relics of a meal, Troil. ii. 2. 71.
unrest, disquiet, uneasiness, unhappiness, R2. ii. 4. 22: R3. iv.
4. 29: v. 3. 320; Tit ii. 3. 8; iv. 2. 31; Rom. i. 5. 122.
}
UNROLLED—UNTIMEABLE.
527
unrolled, W.T. iv. 3. 130: struck off the roll of vagabonds.
Lettsom: unrogu'd.
unrough, unbearded, Mcb. v. 2. 10.
unseasoned, unseasonable: this unseasoned intrusion, M.W. ii.
>>
2. 174; these unseason'd hours, 2H4. iii. 1. 105.
unseason'd, "unformed, not qualified by use (Johnson's
Dict.): 'tis an Unseason'd courtier, A.W. i. 1. 80.
unseal'd, unratified, A.W. iv. 2. 30.
unseam'd, ripped, cut open, Mcb. i. 2. 22.
unseeming, not seeming, L.L.L. ii. 1. 156.
unseminar'd, deprived of virility, Ant. i. 5. II.
unshak'd of motion: see motion-Unshak'd of.
unshapes, confounds, M.M. iv. 4. 23.
unshout the noise, retract the noise made by shouts, Cor. v. 5. 4.
unshunned, inevitable, M.M. iii. 2. 62.
unsifted, unwinnowed,―untried, inexperienced, Hml. i. 3. 102.
unsinew'd, nerveless, weak, Hml. iv. 7. 10.
unsisting, never at rest, M.M. iv. 2. 92 [perhaps a misprint
for unresisting, cf. reliver for redeliver, iv. 4. 6.]
unsmirched, unsmutted, undefiled, Hml. iv. 5. 119.
unsorted, not suitable, 1H4. ii. 3. 13.
unsquar'd-Terms, Troil. i. 3. 159: Here, says Steevens, unsquar'd
is "undapted to their subject, as stones are unfitted to the
purposes of architecture while they are yet unsquared.”
[Cf. 2N.K. iv. 3. 83: out of square.]
unstanched, urinæ [?] incontinens: an unstanched wench, Tp.
i. I. 51.
unstanched, insatiate: unstanched thirst, 3H6. ii. 6. 83.
unstate, to deprive of state, to degrade: I would unstate myself,
to be in a due resolution, Lr. i. 2. 108 (see resolution); Unstate
his happiness (Descend from his high and prosperous condi-
tion), Ant. iii. 13. 30.
unswear, to recant what is sworn, K.J. iii. 1. 245; Oth. iv. 1. 31.
untaught, rude, unmannerly: O thou untaught! what manners
is in this, &c., Rom. v. 3. 214.
untempering, unpersuasive, H5. v. 2. 241.
untent his person, bring his person out, come out, of his tent,
Troil. ii. 3. 178.
untented woundings, wounds not yet treated—or so severe and
deep that they will not admit of being treated-by the
insertion of the surgeon's tent (see first tent), Lr. i. 4. 322.
unthread the rude eye of rebellion, (Theobald conj. untread,
retr:ce; but unthread the eye of rude rebellion is a metaphor
from unthreading a needle; and means here: retract your
rebellious intentions. Cf. Comus, 614). K.J. v. 4. 11; [cf.
L. ii. 1. 121].
untirieable, not in good time. So Theobald and Dyce; Fol.
and Globe: untuneable, A.Y.L. v. 3. 37.
528
UNTRADED-UP-CAST.
untraded oath. “a singular oath, not in common use” (MALONE),
an unhackneyed oath, Troil. iv. 5. 178.
untried Of that wide gap-And leave the growth, W.T. iv. I.
6:
'Our author attends more to his ideas than to his words.
"The growth of the wide gap' is somewhat irregular; but
he means, the growth, or progression of the time which
filled up the gap of the story between Perdita's birth and
her sixteenth year. To leave this growth untried' is 'to
leave the passages of the intermediate years unnoted and
unexamined'" (JOHNSON).
untrimmed bride, K.J. iii. 1. 209: disarrayed (i.e. either 'divested
of her wedding-robe,' or 'with her hair hanging loose')
HERFORD.
untrue-My most true mind thus maketh mine, (Globe: makes
mine eye untrue): Sonn. 113.
untrussing, untying the points or tagged laces which attached
the hose or breeches to the doublet, M.M. iii. 2. 190 (So,
on the contrary, to truss the points was the usual term for
tying them).
untruth, disloyalty: So my untruth had not provok'd him,
R2. ii. 2. IOI.
untruth, unfaithfulness in love: Let all untruths stand by thy
stainèd name, Troil. v. 2. 179.
unvalu❜d, invaluable: unvalu'd jewels, R3. i. 4. 27.
unvalu'd, not prized, ordinary: unvalu'd persons, Hml. i. 3. 19.
unwapper'd, unworn, not debilitated, 2N.K. v. 4. 10. See
Wappen'd.
unwashed hands-Do it with, 1H4. iii. 3. 206: "Do it immedi-
ately, or the first thing in the morning, even without staying
to wash your hands" (STEEVENS): "It appears to me that
Falstaff means to say do it without retracting or repenting
of it" (MASON).
unweighed, not considerate, careless, [unbalanced]: M.W. ii. 1. 23.
unwish'd five thousand men-Thou hast, "Thou hast wished
five thousand men away" (JOHNSON), H5. iv. 3. 76.
unwitted, deprived of understanding, Oth. ii. 3. 182.
unyoke, to loose from the yoke, to have done working: tell
me that, and unyoke ("unravel this, and your day's work is
done, your team you may then unharness," CALDECOTT;
whose explanation is perhaps right), Hml. v. I. 59.
up, shut up, in confinement: so the poor third is up, till death
enlarge his confine, Ant. iii. 5. 13.
up and down, exactly, for all the world: here's my mother's
breath up and down, 2G. ii. 3. 32; Here's his dry hand up
and down, Ado, ii. 1. 124; up and down she doth resemble
thee, Tit. v. 2. 107.
up-cast (a term at the game of bowls), a [final?] cast, Cymb.
ii. 1. 2. [Cf. upshot].
UPPER GERMANY-URN.
529
upper Germany, H8. v. 3. 30: alluding to the tumults in
Germany; the rising of the Rhenish Knights under Sickingen,
1522; the terrible insurrection of the German peasants, in
1524-5 (there had been earlier revolts—the Bundschutz,
1502, and the League of poor Conrad, 1514). The revolt
assumed serious proportions in 1525, spreading through
Suabia, Franconia, Lorraine, Alsace, and the Palatinate.
They were striving for social and political reform (serfdom,
tithes and taxes, penal laws,) as well as religious liberty.
Among their leaders were Ulrich, Metzler, Götz von Ber-
lichingen, and Thomas Münzer, Pfeiffer leading the Ana-
baptists.
uproar, to throw into confusion, Mcb. iv. 3. 99.
up-spring reels-The swaggering, Hml. i. 4. 9: "It appears from
the following passage in Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany,
by Chapman, that the up-spring was a German dance;
'We Germans have no changes in our dances,
An almain and an up-spring, that is all’"
(STEEVENS):
Karl Elze, who has recently reprinted Chapman's Alphonsus
at Leipzig, remarks that the word up-spring "is the 'Hupfauf,
the last and consequently wildest dance at the old German
merry-makings. See Ayrer's Dramen, ed. by Keller, iv.
2840 and 2846;
Ey, jtzt geht erst der hupffauff an.
Ey, Herr, jtzt kummt erst der hupffauff.
No epithet could therefore be more appropriate to this
drunken dance than Shakespeare's 'swaggering.' I need
hardly add, that 'upspring' is an almost literal translation
of the German name.
up-staring-With hair: see hair to stare, &c.
up-swarm'd, raised in swarms, 2H4. iv. 2. 30.
up-trimmed-New, Newly dressed-up, decorated, K.J. iii. 1.
209. See untrimmed.
upon the gad-Done: see gad-Done upon the.
upright, upwards: Would I not leap upright, Lr. iv. 6. 27.
upward, the top: from th' extremest upward of thy head,
Lr. v. 3. 136.
urchin, a hedgehog: Ten thousand swelling toads, as many
urchins, Tit. ii. 3. 101.
urchin, a particular sort of fairy: urchins Shall.... All exercise
on thee, Tp. i. 2. 326; we'll dress Like urchins, M.W. iv. 4. 49.
urchin-shows, fairy-shows, Tp. ii. 2. 5.
urchin-snouted, with
with a snout like that of a hedgehog,
Ven. 1105.
urn, used in the sense of "tomb:" the most noble corse that ever
herald Did follow to his urn, Cor. v. 6. 146; in-urn'd, Hml.
34
530
URSWICK-USE.
i. 4. 49:=intombed. (In a passage of Fortiguerra's Ricciar-
detto, the "avello" or "tomba" wherein Serpedonte shuts
up Despina alive is called "urna;"
"S' empie lo Scricca tutto di stupori
A quelle voci, e fassi aprir la porta
Dell' urna, ed alla figlia egli si porta."
C. xv. 50.)
Urswick-Sir Christopher, R3. iv. 5. 1: This person-who was
chaplain to the Countess of Richmond, and afterwards
almoner to King Henry VII.-is called Sir as being a priest:
see third sir.
usance, interest of money: M.V. i. 3. 46; 142; usances, 109.
use, usance, interest of money: Both thanks and use, M.M. i.
I. 41; I gave him use for it, Ado, ii. 1. 288; being kept
together and put to use, 12N. iii. 1. 57; gold that's put to
use, Ven. 768; That use is not forbidden usury, Sonn. 6.
use, to render it, Upon his death, &c.—The other half in, M.V.
iv. 1. 383: "Antonio tells the duke, that if he will abate
the fine for the state's half, he (Antonio) will be contented
to take the other, in trust, after Shylock's death to render
it to his daughter's husband. That is, it was, during Shylock's
life, to remain at interest in Antonio's hands, and Shylock
was to enjoy the produce of it" (RITSON): “That is, in
trust for Shylock during his life, for the purpose of securing
it at his death to Lorenzo. Some critics explain in use,
upon interest—a sense which the phrase certainly sometimes
bore; but that interpretation is altogether inconsistent, in
the present passage, with the generosity of Antonio's char-
acter. In conveyances of land, where it is intended to give
the estate to any person after the death of another, it is
necessary that a third person should be possessed of the
estate, and the use be declared to the one after the death
of the other; or the estate to the future possessor would
be rendered insecure. This is called a conveyance to uses,
and the party is said to be possessed, or rather seised to
the use of such an one, or to the use that he render or
convey the land to such an one, which is expressed in law
French by the terms seisie al use, and in Latin, seisitus in
usum alicujus, viz. AB or CD. This latter phrase Shakespeare
has rendered with all the strictness of a technical convey-
ancer, and has made Antonio desire to have one half of
Shylock's goods in use, to render it upon his, Shylock's,
death, to Lorenzo" (ANON., apud HALLIWELL).
use, present possession: my full heart Remains in use with you,
Ant. i. 3. 44 (“The poet seems to allude to the legal distinction
between use and absolute possession," JOHNSON).
use, profit, benefit: lose the use of all deceit, K.J. v. 4. 27; make
use now, H8. iii. 2. 420.
USE-VAIL.
531
use, custom, common occurrence: these things are beyond all use,
J.C. ii. 2. 25.
use, to continue, to make a practice of: If thou use to beat me,
Troil. ii. 1. 52.
usurer's chain, Ado, ii. 1. 197: Gold chains were formerly
worn by rich merchants; and merchants were the chief
usurers of those days.
utis-Old, "Festivity in a great degree" (STEEVENS), "rare fun"
(Staunton), 2H4. ii. 4. 22; see first old: "Utis, or rather
Utas, quasi huitas; from huit, French. The eighth day, or
the space of eight days, after any festival. It was a law-
term, and occurs in some of our statutes: now more com-
monly called the octave, as the octave of St. Hilary, &c.
'Any day between the feast and the eighth day was said to
be within the utas.' Cowell, &c. See Dr. Wordsworth's
Eccles. Biogr. i. 62.” Nares's Gloss.
utter, to sell ("To utter is a legal phrase often made use of
in law-proceedings and Acts of Parliament, and signifies
to vend by retail," REED): Money's a meddler, That doth
utter all men's ware-a, W.T. iv. 4. 330; but Mantua's law
Is death to any he that utters them, Rom. v. 1. 67.
utter what thou dost not know-Thou wilt not, 1H4. ii. 3. 114:
Ray gives "A woman conceals what she knows not." Proverbs,
p. 46, ed. 1768.
utterance!-Come, fate, into the list, And champion me to th',
Mcb. iii. 1. 72; Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
Behoves me keep at utterance, Cymb. iii. 1. 73: Utterance is
from the French,-combattre à outrance meaning "to fight
to extremity, till one of the combatants was slain:" but in the
second of the above passages, as Steevens observes, keep at
utterance is equivalent to "keep at the extremity of defiance."
utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues-Beauty is bought by
judgment of the eye, Not, L.L.L. ii. 1. 16: "The meaning
is, that—the estimation of beauty depends not on the uttering
or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer
(JOHNSON): Here Mr. Staunton explains utter'd “put forth:
it is perhaps intended to convey the double sense of
proclaiming and vending: see first utter.
uttered-Till death be, Ado, v. 3. 20: expressed, commemorated
in song.
uttermost, Or else a breath-Either to the, Troil. iv. 5. 91:
Here to the uttermost has the same meaning as to the utter-
ance: see utterance, &c.
√.
vade, to fade, vaded, P. Pilg. 131; 174; 176; vadeth, 170.
vail, to lower, to let fall, M.M. v. 1. 20; Shr. v. 2. 176; 2H4.
532
VAIL-VANITY.
i. 1. 129; 1H6. v. 3. 25; Troil. v. 8. 7; Cor. iii. 1. 98; Per.
ii. 1. 157; Vail (= do homage) to her mistress Dian, Per. iv.
Gow. 29; vailed, Hml. i. 2. 70; Ven. 956; vailing, M.V.
i. 1. 28; angels vailing clouds ("letting those clouds which
obscured their brightness sink from before them," JOHNSON),
L.L.L. v. 2. 297; vails, Ven. 314.
vail, a sinking, a setting: the vail and darkening of the sun,
Troil. v. 8. 7.
'vailful, availful, Hanmer's emend. Fol. to vaile full, M.M. iv. 6. 4.
vails, perquisites: certain vails, Per. ii. 1. 157.
vain, "light of tongue, not veracious" (JOHNSON): 'Tis holy sport,
to be a little vain, Err. iii. 2. 27.
valanced, fringed (with a beard), Hml. ii. 2. 442.
Valdes-The great pirate, Per. iv. 1. 97: "The Spanish Armada,
I believe, furnished our author with this name. Don Pedro
de Valdes was an admiral in that fleet, and had the command
of the great galleon of Andalusia. His ship being disabled,
he was taken by Sir Francis Drake, on the twenty-second
of July 1588, and sent to Dartmouth. This play therefore,
we may conclude, was not written till after that period.
The making one of this Spaniard's ancestors a pirate was
probably relished by the audience in those days” (Malone):
"In Robert Greene's Spanish Masquerado, 1589, the curious
reader may find a very particular account of this Valdes,
who was commander of the Andalusian troops, and then
prisoner in England" (STEEVENS).
Valentine is past—Saint, M.N.D. iv. 1. 444: “Alluding to the
old saying, that birds begin to couple on St. Valentine's day"
(STEEVENS).
Valentine's day, &c.-To-morrow is Saint, Hml. iv. 5. 48: "This
song alludes to the custom of the first girl seen by a man
on the morning of this day being considered his Valentine
or true love.... The custom of the different sexes choosing
themselves mates on St. Valentine's Day, February 14th,
the names being selected either by lots or methods of
divination, is of great antiquity in England. The name so
drawn was the valentine of the drawer" (Halliwell).
validity, worth, value, A.W. v. 3. 192; 12N. i. 1. 12; Rom. iii.
3. 33; Hml. iii. 2. 199; Lr. i. 1. 83.
valu'd file- The: see first file.
Vanity the puppet's part—Take, Lr. ii. 2. 39: The commentators
may be right in seeing here an allusion to the character
of Vanity in some of the early Moralities or Moral-plays:
but we occasionally meet with similar passages where there
does not appear to be any such allusion; e.g.
"Young Mistris Vanity is also sad,
Because the parrat's dead she lately had," &c.
Withers's Abuses Stript and Whipt,-Foy, p. 141, ed, 1617:
VANITY-VEAL.
533
In supposing that in the present passage Kent alludes to a
puppetshow, Mr. Collier is perhaps mistaken: here, as in
many other passages of our old writers, "puppet" may be
nothing else than a term of contempt for a female.
vanity, a magical show or illusion: Some vanity of mine art,
Tp. iv. 1. 41: "So, in the romance of Emare [Ritson's Anc.
Engl. Metrical Romanceés, vol. ii. p. 208];
'The emperour sayde on hygh,
Sertes, thys ys a fayry,
Or ellys a vanytè'
(STEEVENS).
vantage, an opportunity; when the doctor spies his vantage ripe,
M.W. iv. 6. 43: With his next vantage, Cymb. i. 3. 24.
vantage-To the, "To boot, over and above" (STEEVENS),
Oth. iv. 3. 86.
vantbrace, "A vambrace-Avant bras, or armour for the fore
arm" (Meyrick's Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour, &c.,
vol. ii. p. 155, ed. 1842), Troil. i. 3. 297.
varlet, a servant to a knight or warrior, (also simply) a servant
(“A Varlet, Lixa, servus mediastinus." Coles's Lat. and Engl.
Dict.): A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, 2H4.
v. 3. 13; My horse! varlet, H5. iv. 2. 2; Call here my varlet,
I'll unarm again, Troil. i. 1. I.
varlet-Male, Troil. v. 1. 19: which Thersites explains.
varletry, a rabble, Ant. v. 2. 56.
vary, variation, caprice: With every gale and vary of their
masters, Lr. ii. 2. 85.
vast, a waste: that vast of night, Tp. i. 2. 327; shook hands,
as over a vast, W.T. i. 1. 33;
of the night, Hml. i. 2. 118;
Per iii. I. I.
In the dead vast and middle
Thou god of this great vast,
vastidity, vastness, immensity, M.M. iii. 1. 69.
vastly, like a waste, Lucr. 1740.
vasty, vast, M.V. ii. 7. 41; 1H4. iii. 1. 52; H5. Prol. 12; ii. 2.
123; ii. 4. 105.
vaunt, the van, -the beginning, Troil. Prol. 27.
vaunt-couriers, forerunners, precursors (Fr. avant-coureurs),
Lr. iii. 2. 5.
vaward, the forepart (properly, of an army,-"The Vaward,
Prima acies." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.), M.N.D. iv. 1. 110;
2H4. i. 2. 199; H5. iv. 3. 130; 1H6. i. 1. 132; Cor. 1. 6. 53.
veal, quoth the Dutchman:—is not veal a calf? L.L.L. v. 2. 247 :
“I suppose by veal she means well, sounded as foreigners
usually pronounce that word; and introduced merely for
the sake of the subsequent question" (MALONE): "The
same joke occurs in The Wisdome of Dr. Dodypoll; ' Doctor.
Hans, my very special friend; fait and trot, me be right
glad for to [dele to] see you veale. Hans. What, do you
make a calfe of me, M. Doctor?' [sig. c 3, ed. 1600]”
534
VEGETIVES-VENUE.
(BOSWELL): Dr. Wellesley has discovered that, in "this
miserable skirmish of puns," certain words "make up the
syllables of Lord Longaville's name, compounded of long
calf veal, or langue half veal." Stray Notes on the Text of
Shakespeare, p. 17.
vegetives, vegetables, plants, Per. iii. 2. 36.
velure, velvet, Shr. iii. 2. 62.
velvet-guards, 1H4. iii. 1. 261: By this expression is meant,
""
as Malone observes, "the higher rank of female citizens,'
whose gowns (at least their holiday ones) were guarded
(¿.e. faced, trimmed) with velvet: see guard and guards.
veneys: see venue.
venge, to avenge, R2. i. 2. 36; H5. i. 2. 292; 1H6. iii. 4. 42;
3H6. ii. 1. 87: Rom. iii. 5. 87; Lr. iv. 2. 80; Cymb. i. 6. 92.
vengeance, mischief, harm: That could do no vengeance to me,
A.Y.L. iv. 3. 48.
Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country's earth-At, R2.
iv. 1. 97: "This is not historically true. The Duke of Nor-
folk's death did not take place till [long] after Richard's
murder" (MALONE).
Venice-If Cupid have not spent all his quiver in, Ado, i. 1.
274: Long before this comedy was produced, various writers
had characterised Venice as the place where Cupid "reigns
and revels:" and compare Greene; "Hearing that of all
the citties in Europe, Venice hath most semblance of Venus
vanities. . . . Because therefore this great city of Venice
is holden Loues Paradice," &c. Neuer too late, Part Second,
sig. Q 2 and Q 2 verso, ed. 1611: The publication of Coryat's
Crudities, 1611, made the Venetian courtesans well known
in England.
venom, where no venom else, R2. ii. 1. 157: According to the
legend, St. Patrick banished all venomous reptiles from
Ireland.
venomous wights, "venifici, those who practice nocturnal
sorcery" (STEEVENS), Troil. iv. 2. 12.
vent-Full of, [outlet for energy?] rumour, materials for dis-
course, Cor. iv. 5. 238.
ventages, small holes or apertures, Hml. iii. 2. 373.
ventures, chance lemans, Cymb. i. 6. 123: or else = ven-
turers.
venue or veney, (a fencing term) a thrust, "a coming on, an
onset; a turn or bout; a hit. The commentators on Shake-
speare have produced a great variety of instances; and
differ in their explanations only because they mistake
application for meaning" (Richardson's Dict.): venue, (used
metaphorically) L.L.L. v. 1. 62; veneys, M.W. i. 1. 296
(Compare Jonson's Every Man in his Humour; "Mat. But
one venue, sir. Bob. Venue! fie; most gross denomination
a
VERBAL VICE.
535
as ever I heard: O, the stoccata, while you live, sir; note
that." Works, vol. i. p. 39, ed. Gifford).
verbal, "verbose, full of talk" (JOHNSON), "plain-spoken"
(KNIGHT): By being so verbal, Cymb. ii. 3. III.
Veronesa—A, There has been considerable dispute about the
word Veronesa (spelt in the old editions Veronessa and
Verennessa). Malone has the following note:-" This ship has
already been described as a ship of Venice. It is now called
a Veronesé; that is, a ship belonging to and furnished by
the inland city of Verona for the use of the Venetian
state; and newly arrived from Venice. 'Besides many other
towns [says Contareno], castles, and villages, they [the
Venetians] possess seven faire cities: as Trevigi, Padoua,
Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, and Crema.' Common-
wealth of Venice, 1599." Oth. ii. 1. 26.
versing, expressing in verse, M.N.D. ii. 1. 67.
vestal throned by the west-A fair, M.N.D. ii. 1. 158: I have
already noticed this charming compliment to Queen Eliza-
beth in the Memoir of Shakespeare, i. p. 98.
via, away! an interjection of exultation or encouragement ("Via,
an aduerbe of encouraging much vsed by commanders, as also
by riders to their horses, Goe on, forward, on, away, goe to,
on quickly." Florio's Ital. and Engl. Dict.), M.W. ii. 2. 159;
L.L.L. iv. 2. 14; V. I. 156; V. 2. 112; M.V. ii. 2. 11; H5.
iv. 2. 4; 3H6. ii. 1. 182.
•
Vice ... Who, with dagger of lath, &c.—Like to the old, 12N.
iv. 2. 134; that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, 1H4. ii. 4.
499; now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, 2H4. iii. 2.
343; like the formal Vice, Iniquity, R3. iii. 1. 82; a vice of
kings. A king of shreds and patches, Hml. iii. 4. 98:
These passages allude to an important character in the old
Moral-plays, the Vice, so named doubtless from the vicious
qualities attributed to him: "As the Devil," says Mr. Col-
lier, "now and then appeared without the Vice, so the Vice
sometimes appeared without the Devil. Malone tells us that
'the principal employment of the Vice was to belabour the
Devil;' but although he was frequently so engaged, he had
also higher duties. He figured now and then in the reli-
gious plays of a later date, and, as has been shewn, in The
Life and Repentance of Mary Magdalen, 1567, he performed
the part of her lover, before her conversion, under the
name of Infidelity: in King Darius, 1565, he also acted a
prominent part, by his own impulses to mischief, under
the name of Iniquity, without any prompting from the
representative of the principle of evil. Such was the general
style of the Vice, and as Iniquity he is spoken of by Shake-
speare (R3. iii. 1. 82) and Ben Jonson (Staple of News,
second Intermean). The Vice and Iniquity, seem, however,
536
VICE-VIE.
sometimes to have been distinct persons; and he was not
unfrequently called by the name of particular vices: thus,
in Lusty Juventus, the Vice performs the part of Hypocrisy;
in Common Conditions, he is called Conditions; in Like will
to Like, he is named Nichol New-fangle; in The Trial of
Treasure, his part is that of Inclination; in All for Money,
he is called Sin; in Tom Tyler and his Wife, Desire; and
in Appius and Virginia, Haphazard..... Though Mr. Douce
is unquestionably correct when he states that the Vice was
'generally dressed in a fool's habit' [hence the expression
in Hamlet, 'A King of shreds and patches'], he did not by
any means constantly wear the parti-coloured habiliments
of a fool; he was sometimes required to act a gallant, and
now and then to assume the disguise of virtues it suited his
purpose to personate.... The Vice, like the fool, was some-
times furnished with a dagger of lath, and it was not unusual
that it should be gilt.... Tattle [in Jonson's Staple of News]
observes, 'but there [here] is never a fiend to carry
him [the Vice] away;' and in the first Intermean of the
same play, Mirth leads us to suppose that it was a very
common termination of the adventures of the Vice for
him to be carried off to hell on the back of the devil:
'he would carry away the Vice on his back, quick to hell,
in every play where he came.' In The Longer thou livest
the more Fool thou art, and in Like will to Like, the Vice
is disposed of nearly in this summary manner: in the first,
Confusion carries him to the devil, and in the last, Lucifer
bears him off to the infernal regions on his shoulders. In
King Darius, the Vice runs to hell of his own accord, to
escape from Constancy, Equity, and Charity. According
to Bishop Harsnet (in a passage cited by Malone,-Shake-
speare by Boswell, iii. 27), the Vice was in the habit of
riding and beating the devil, at other times than when he
was thus carried against his will to punishment." Hist. of
English Dram. Poetry, &c., vol. ii. pp. 265–270.
vice, see tice.
vicious in my guess, &c.-Though I perchance am, Oth. iii. 3.
145: "Vicious in my guess' doth not mean that he is an
ill guesser [Warburton's explanation], but that he is apt to
put the worst construction on every thing he attempts to
account for" (STEEVENS): "Iago, I apprehend, means only,
'though I perhaps am mistaken, led into an error by my
natural disposition, which is apt to shape faults that have
no existence (MALONE).
victuallers, 2H4. ii. 4. 375: "The brothels were formerly
screened under pretext of being victualling-houses and
taverns” (STEEvens).
(6
vie was to hazard, to put down, a certain sum upon a hand
VIEWLESS—VIPER.
537
of cards [at various old games]; to revie was to cover it
with a larger sum, by which the challenged became the
challenger, and was to be revied in his turn, with a propor-
tionate increase of stake. This vying and revying upon
each other continued till one of the party lost courage and
gave up the whole; or obtained, for a stipulated sum, a
discovery of his antagonist's cards; when the best hand
swept the table." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. i.
p. 106: To vie (compete in) strange forms with fancy, Ant.
v. 2. 98; so With the dove of Paphos might the crow Vie
feathers white, Per. iv. Gow. 33; kiss on kiss She vied so
fast, Shr. ii. 1. 311. See Outvied.
viewless, invisible, M.M. iii. I. 124.
vigitant would seem to be intended as a blunder of Dogberry
for "vigilant" (which is the word substituted in the second
folio), Ado, iii. 3. 100.
viliaco, 2H6. iv. 8. 48. Fol. (and Globe) crying villiago. It
means a worthless dastard, from Ital. vigliacco, which Florio
explains: “a rascall, a base varlet," &c. [“Now out, base
viliaco," E. M. out of his Humour, v. 3.]
villagery, "district of villages" (Johnson's Dict.), villages,
M.N.D. ii. 1. 35.
villain, a bondsman, a slave: A trusty villain, Err. i. 2. 19;
I am no villain, A.Y.L. i. 1. 58 (here “the word villain is
used by the elder brother for a worthless, wicked, or bloody
man; by Orlando, in its original signification, for a fellow
of base extraction," JOHNSON); My villain! Lr. iii. 7. 78;
The homely villain, Lucr. 1338.
villany, mischief, roguery: I will consent to act any villany
against him, M.W. ii. 1. 102.
vinewedst, most mouldy, Troil. ii. 1. 15.
viol-de-gamboys, a base-viol or viol da gamba, 12N. i. 3. 27:
"It appears, from numerous passages in our old plays,
that a viol de gambo was an indispensable piece of fur-
niture in every fashionable house, where it hung up in the
best chamber, much as the guitar does in Spain, and the
violin in Italy, to be played on at will, and to fill up the
void of conversation. Whoever pretended to fashion affected
an acquaintance with this instrument." Gifford's note on
Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 125.
violenteth, becomes violent, acts with violence, rages, Trol. iv. 4. 4.
viper, Per. i. 1. 65: In Wilkins's Miseries of Enforced Marriage,
iii. 3; p. 522, Hazl. Dodsl. ix.
"he is more degenerate
Than greedy vipers that devoure their mother,
They eat on her but to preserve themselves," &c.
The parallel is interesting in connection with the relation
of Wilkins to the two plays.
538
VIRGINAL-VOIDING-LOBBY.
virginal, maidenly, pertaining to a virgin: tears virginal, 2H6.
v. 2. 52; the virginal palms of your daughters, Cor. v. 2. 45;
without any more virginal fencing, Per. iv. 6. 62.
virginalling, playing with her fingers as upon the virginals,
W.T. i. 2. 125.
virginals—The, 'The more usual name for the musical instru-
ment, the virginal, 2N.K. iii. 3. 34: "The virginals (probably
so called because chiefly played upon by young girls)
resembled in shape the 'square' pianoforte of the present
day, as the harpsichord did the 'grand.' The sound of
the pianoforte is produced by a hammer striking the strings;
but when the keys of the virginals or harpsichord were
pressed, the ‘jacks' (slender pieces of wood, armed at the
upper ends with quills) were raised to the strings, and acted
as plectra, by impinging or twitching them." Chappell's
Popular Music of the Olden Time, &c., vol. i. p. 103, sec.
ed.: and see first jacks.
virgin'd it, played the virgin, Cor. v. 3. 48.
Virginius, &c.-Was it well done of rash, Tit. v. 3. 36: But,
as Steevens observes, "Virginia died unviolated."
virgin-knot, virgin-zone, Tp. iv. 1. 15: Allusions to the zones
worn by young women among the ancients: concerning
the loosing of the zone see Schrader's Animad. on Musæus,
p. 340 sqq. ed. 1742.
virtue, essence: The very virtue of compassion in thee, Tp. i. 2. 27.
virtue, valour: Trust to thy single virtue, Lr. v. 3. 103.
virtuous, salutiferous, beneficial: this virtuous property, M.N.D.
iii. 2. 367; the virtuous sweets, 2H4. iv. 5. 76 [virtuous season,
beneficent savour, adjacent savour of purity, M.M. ii. 2. 168.]
visit Caliban my slave-We'll, We will look after Caliban, &c.,
Tp. i. 2. 308.
visiting and visitating, inspecting, surveying: the visiting moon,
Ant. iv. 15. 68; the visitating sun, 2N.K. i. 1. 146.
visitor-The, One who visits the sick or the distressed in order
to console them: The visitor will not give him o'er so,
Tp. ii. I. II ("In some of the Protestant churches there
is a kind of officers termed consolators for the sick,
JOHNSON).
vizaments (in Sir Hugh's dialect advisements), considerations,
M.W. i. 1. 39.
voice, to nominate, to vote: to voice him consul, Cor. ii. 3. 242.
voice, to rumour, to report, to proclaim: th' Athenian minion,
whom the world Voic'd so regardfully? Tim. iv. 3. 81.
void, to quit: void the field, H5. iv. 7. 62.
void, to emit: void your rheum, M.V. i. 3. 118; spit and void
his rheum, H5. iii. 5. 52.
'voided, avoided, Cor. iv. 5. 88.
voiding-lobby, a lobby that receives those who are voided (see
VOLQUESSEN-WAFTURE.
539
void) from the apartments of the house, [an ante-chamber],
2H6. iv. 1. 61.
Volquessen, K.J. ii. 1. 527: "This is the ancient name for
the country now called the Vexin; in Latin, Pagus Velo-
cassinus. That part of it called the Norman Vexin was in
dispute between Philip and John" (STEEVENS): “This and
the subsequent line (except the words, 'do I give') are
taken from the old play [The Troublesome Raigne of Iohn,
&c., see vol. iv. 3]” (Malone).
voluntary, a volunteer: Ajax was here the voluntary, Troil. ii.
1. 103; fiery voluntaries, K.J. ii. 1. 67.
votarist, a votary, Tim. iv. 3. 27; Oth. iv. 2. 190; votarists,
M.M. i. 4. 5.
vouchers-Double: see double vouchers, &c.
vox-You must allow, 12N. v. 1. 304:
1. 304: “The Clown, we may
presume, had begun to read the letter in a very loud tone,
and probably with extravagant gesticulation. Being repri-
manded by his mistress, he justifies himself by saying, ‘If
you would have it read in character, as such a mad epistle
ought to be read, you must permit me to assume a frantic
tone'" (MALONE).
voyage, a course, an attempt, an enterprise: If he should intend
this voyage toward my wife, &c., M.W. ii. 1. 189; if you
make your voyage upon her, &c., Cymb. i. 4. 170.
vulgar, common: 'tis a vulgar proof, 12N. iii. 1. 135; the vulgar
air, K.J. ii. 1. 387; any the most vulgar thing to sense, Hml.
i. 2. 99; Most sure and vulgar (of common report), Lr. iv.
6. 214, &c.
vulgarly, publicly, openly, M.M. v. 1. 160.
vulgars, the common people, W.T. ii. 1. 94.
vulture of sedition Feeds, &c.-The, 1H6. iv. 3. 47: “Alluding
to the tale of Prometheus" (JOHNSON).
W.
wade in crimes, Malone's conj. for Folio made in crimes, M.M.
iii. 2. 287.
waft, to beckon: who wafts us yonder? Err. ii. 2. 111; Whom
Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her, Tim. i. 1. 70;
[waft her love to come again, M.V. v. 1. 1I.]
waft, to turn, to direct: Wafting his eyes to the contrary, W.T.
i. 2. 372.
waft, wafted: Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er,
K.J. ii. 1. 73.
waftage, a passage by water, Err. iv. 1. 95; Troil. iii. 2. 1I.
wafture, the act of waving, a motion, J.C. ii. 1. 246.
"
540
WAG-WALKS.
wag, to go, to pack off: let them wag, M.W. i. 3. 7; shall we
wag? ii. 1. 238; let him wag, ii. 3. 74; Let us wag, then, 101;
Bid sorrow wag, Ado, v. 1. 16.
wag, to stir, to move: the empress never wags But, &c., Tit.
V. 2. 87.
wage, to pay wages to, to remunerate: He wag'd me with his
countenance ("the countenance he gave me was a kind of
wages," Nares's Gloss.), Cor. v. 6. 40.
wage, to stake in wager: as a pawn To wage against thine
enemies, Lr. i. 1. 158; I will wage against your gold, gold to
it, Cymb. i. 4. 144.
wage, to be opposed as equal stakes in a wager: His taints
and honours Wag'd equal with him ("Were opposed to each
other in just proportions, like the counterparts of a wager,"
(STEEVENS), Ant. v. 1. 31; nor the commodity wages not with
the danger (“i.e. is not equal to it," STEEVENS), Per. iv. 2. 34.
wage, to prosecute, to continue to encounter: To wake and
wage a danger profitless, Oth. i. 3. 30.
wage, to contend, to strive: To wage against the enmity o' th'
air, Lr. ii. 4. 212.
waggon, a chariot: Dis's waggon, W.T. iv. 4. 118; thy vengeful
waggon, Tit. v. 2. 51; waggon-wheel, 54; waggon-spokes,
Rom. i. 4. 59.
waggon, a travelling wagon, such as was formerly used even
by nobility: Our waggon is prepar'd, A.W. iv. 4. 34.
waggoner, a charioteer, Tit. v. 2. 48; Rom. i. 4. 64; iii. 2. 2.
waist, "that part of a ship which is contained between the
quarterdeck and forecastle," &c. (Falconer's Marine Dict.,
ed. 1815): Now in the waist, the deck, Tp. i. 2. 197. [See
Arber's Garner, iii. 417].
wake, to hold a late revel: The king doth wake to-night, Hml.
i. 4. 8 (So, in poets of a much earlier date, we find the
the words watch and watching employed as equivalent to
"debauch at night;'
Hatefull of harte he was to sobernes,
Cherishyng surfetes, watche and glotony," &c.
Lydgate's Fall of Prynces, B. ii. fol. L. ed. Wayland:
"Withdraw your hand fro riotous watchyng."
Id. B. ix. fol. xxxi. verso:
His hede was heuy for watchynge ouer nyghte."
Skelton's Bowge of Courte, Works, vol. i. p. 43, ed Dyce:
so, too, in a tract of later date than Hamlet, “Late watchings
in Taverns will wrinckle that face." The Wandering Jew,
1640, sig. D).
walk, a district in a forest [a beat]: the fellow of this walk,
M.W. v. 5. 29; My parks, my walks, my manors that I had,
3H6. v. 2. 24.
walks my estate in France!—How wildly, then, K.J. iv. 2. 128:
WALL-EY'D—WARDER.
541
"¿.e. How ill my affairs go in France!-The verb to walk
is used with great license by old writers. It often means
to go, to move" (MALONE).
wall-ey'd, having eyes with a white or pale-gray iris,—glaring-
eyed, fierce-eyed, K.J. iv. 3. 49; Tit. v. 1. 44: (“A Whall,
ouer-white eye. Oeil de cheere." Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl.
Dict.)
walls are thine-the, F2; F1: the walls is thine, Lr. v. 3. 76:
"a metaphorical phrase taken from the camp, and signi-
fying to surrender at discretion" (WARBURTON).
wanion-With a, With a vengeance, with a plague, Per. ii. 1. 17
(The origin of this common phrase has not, I believe, been
ascertained).
wann'd, turned pale, Hml. ii. 2. 580.
wanting, not possessing, not skilled in: Wanting the manage
of unruly jades, R2. iii. 3. 179.
wanton, a childish, feeble, effeminate person: A cocker'd silken
wanton, K.J. v. 1. 70; you make a wanton of me, Hml. v. 2.
310 (With the second of these passages compare “Mignoter.
To... handle gently . vse tenderly, make a wanton of."
Cotgrave's Fr. and Engl. Dict.).
wappen'd, over-worn, Tim. iv. 3. 38 [see unwapper'd; cf. R3. i. 1.
81: o'erworn widow.] (See Harman's Caueat or Warening
for Common Cursetors, &c., 1573, last sentence of p. 69,
reprint 1814; Dekker's English Villanies, &c., ed. 1632, 2 [3]d
stanza of the Canters' Song, sig. o verso; and Grose's Class.
Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue in v. “Wap").
ward-To whom [i.e. his majesty] I am now in, A.W. i. 1. 5:
The heirs of great estates, by a feudal custom, were under
the wardship of the sovereign, who had the power even
of giving them in marriage.
ward, custody, confinement: ere they will have me go to ward,
2H6. v. I. 112.
ward, a guard in fencing, a posture of defence (used meta-
phorically in some of the following passages): come from
thy ward, Tp. i. 2. 471; the ward of her purity, M.W. ii. 2.
258; beat from his best ward, W.T. i. 2. 33; Thou knowest
my old ward, 1H4. ii. 4. 215; at what ward you lie, Troil.
i. 2. 283; Omit a ward, 2N.K. v. 3. 63; what wards, what
blows, 1H4. i. 2. 212; at all these wards I lie, Troil. i. 2. 288.
ward, to defend, to protect: God will, in justice, ward you as
his soldiers, R3. v. 3. 254; a hand that warded him From
thousand dangers, Tit. iii. 1. 195.
warden-pies, pies made of wardens, large baking-pears,
W.T. iv. 3. 48.
warder, a guard, a sentinel: memory, the warder of the brain,
Mcb. i. 7. 65; Where be these warders, 1H6. i. 3. 3; castles
topple on their warders' heads, Mcb. iv. 1. 56.
542
WARDER-WARRIOR.
warder, a sort of truncheon, the throwing down of which
was a solemn mode of prohibiting a combat: the king hath
thrown his warder down, R2. i. 3. 118; the king did throw
his warder down, 2H4. iv. 1. 125.
Ware-The bed of, 12N. iii. 2. 51: This celebrated bed, made
of oak richly carved, is still preserved: it measures seven
feet six inches in height, ten feet nine inches in length,
and ten feet nine inches in width. At what inn in Ware
it was kept during Shakespeare's days is uncertain: but,
after being for many years at the Saracen's Head, it was
sold there by auction in September 1864, and knocked
down at a hundred guineas (the newspapers erroneously
adding that Mr. Charles Dickens was the purchaser).
'ware pencils, ho!.... My red dominical, my golden letter...
so full of O's, L.L.L. v. 2. 43: "Rosaline says that Birom
had drawn her picture in his letter; and afterwards, playing
on the word letter, Katharine compares her to a text B.
Rosaline in reply advises her to beware of pencils, that is,
of drawing likenesses, lest she should retaliate; which she
afterwards does by comparing her to a red dominical letter,
and calling her marks of the small-pox oes" (MASON): It
must be remembered that Rosaline was a darkish beauty,
Katharine a fair one. (I may notice that our early writers are
fond of alluding, in comparisons, to the Dominical Letter: e.g.
(6
'she sweares a lookes for all the world like the Dominicall
Letter, in his red coate." Cupid's Whirligig, sig. c 2, ed.
1611: "Especially that at large, if you can, in red, like a
Dominicall letter." Dekker's If it be not good, the Diuel is
in it, 1612, sig. c 3.)
warm slaves, comfortable, 1H4. iv. 2. 19.
warm sun!—Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st To the: see
heaven's benediction com'st To the warm sun, &c.; and see wit.
warn, to summon: to warn them to his royal presence, R3. i. 3.
39; to warn us at Philippi here, J.C. v. 1. 5; warn'd us to
the walls, K.J. ii. 1. 201; That warns my old age to a
sepulchre, Rom. v. 3. 207.
warp--Though thou the waters, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 187: In this pas-
sage warp has been variously interpreted: the following
explanation by Whiter is probably the right one; "The
cold is said to warp the waters, when it contracts them into
the solid substance of ice, and suffers them no longer to
continue in a liquid or flowing state" (According to John-
son,-whom Steevens pronounces to be "certainly right,”
-warp means here nothing more than "changed from their
natural state:" and Nares would understand it as equivalent
to "weave").
warrior- my fair, Oth. ii. 1. 184; unhandsome warrior
("unfair assailant," JOHNSON) as I am, iii. 4. 151: "This
WASH'D-WASHFORD.
543
phrase [warrior] was introduced by our copiers of the French
Sonnetteers. Ronsard frequently calls his mistresses guer-
rieres; and Southern, his imitator, is not less prodigal of
the same appellation. Thus, in his Fifth Sonnet;
'And, my warrier, my light shines in thy fayre eyes,
Again, in his Sixth Sonnet;
'I am not, my cruell warrier, the Thebain,' &c.
Again ibid.;.
'I came not, my warrier, of the blood Lidian.'
Had not I met with the word thus fantastically applied, I
should have concluded [no doubt correctly,] that Othello
called his wife a warrior because she had embarked with
him on a warlike expedition, and not in consequence of
Ovid's observation-' Militat omnes amans, et habet sua
castra Cupido'" (STEEVENS).
wash'd a tile, laboured in vain, 2N.K. iii. 5. 40: a Latinism,
Laterem lavare, to lose one's labour.
Washford-Earl of, 1H6. iv. 7. 63: "It appears from Camden's
Britannia and Holinshed's Chronicle of Ireland, that Wex-
ford was anciently called Weysford. In Crompton's Mansion
of Magnanimitie it is written as here, Washford. This long
list of titles is taken from the epitaph formerly fixed on
Lord Talbot's tomb in Roüen in Normandy. Where this
author found it, I have not been able to ascertain, for it
is not in the common historians. The oldest book in which
I have met with it is the tract above mentioned, which
was printed in 1599, posterior to the date of this play.
Numerous as this list is, the epitaph has one more, which,
I suppose, was only rejected, because it would not easily
fall into the verse, 'Lord Lovetoft of Worsop.' It concludes
as here; 'Lord Falconbridge, Knight of the [most] noble
order of St. George, St. Michael, and the Golden Fleece,
Great Marshall to King Henry VI. of his realm in [of]
France, who died in the battle of Bordeaux [in the year
of our Lord] 1453' [The Mansion of Magnanimitie, 1599,
4to, sig. E 4]” (Malone): “Wexford was sometimes written
Washford, even so late as the time of Sir William Temple;
see my Memoirs of him, i. 384.—This enumeration of titles
and honours is clearly conformable to a monumental inscrip-
tion, said by Brooke the herald to have existed at Rouen;
but this herald was imposed upon, and the enumeration
is erroneous in the particulars which I have distinguished
[“Lord Cromwell of Wingfield,”—“ The thrice-victorious Lord
of Falconbridge"].-I suppose that Brooke's work [no,
Crompton's] is the tract printed after this play, in which
Malone says he found the titles from the monumental
544
WASSAIL-WATER-GALLS.
plate at Rouen; but Talbot was buried at Whitchurch in
Shropshire, where there is, or was, a correct description
of him. See Vincent upon Brooke, pp. 451—4, and Camden's
Shropshire, i. 659." Courtenay's Comment. on the Historical
Plays of Shakspeare, vol. i. pp. 234-6.
wassail, festivity, intemperance, drinking-bout (from the Saxon
was hal, “be in health," the form of health-drinking),
Mcb. i. 7. 64; Hml. i. 4. 9; wassails, L.L.L. v. 2.
318;
Ant. i. 4. 56.
wassail-candle-A, &c., 2H4. i. 2. 179: "A wassail-candle is
a large candle lighted up at a feast. There is a poor quibble
upon the word wax, which signifies increase as well as
the matter of the honeycomb" (JOHNSON): see the preced-
ing article.
waste-The night grows to, "The night is wasting apace"
(MALONE), Oth. iv. 2. 250.
wasteful cock—A, Tim. ii. 2. 171. [? Cf. Chaucer, Reeve's Prol.
C.T. A. 3890].
Wat, a familiar name for a hare, Ven. 697. [Basse, Wks. p. 130.]
watch-Give me a, R3. v. 3. 63: Steevens was, no doubt, right
when he observed; "I believe that particular kind of candle
is here meant which was anciently called a watch, because,
being marked out into sections, each of which was a certain
portion of time in burning, it supplied the place of the
more modern instrument by which we measure the hours.
I have seen these candles represented with great nicety in
some of the pictures of Albert Durer."
watch her, as we watch these kites, &c.—That is, to, Shr. iv. 1.
198; I'll watch him tame, Oth. iii. 3. 23; you must be watched
ere you be made tame, Troil. iii. 2. 45: These passages allude
to the method of taming hawks by keeping them from
sleep; but I do not believe (with Mr. Staunton) that there
is the same allusion either in I think we've watch'd you
now, M.W. v. 5. 107, or in Had that was well worth watch-
ing, Cymb. ii. 4. 68.
watch-case, a sentry-box, 2H4. iii. 1. 17 (SCHMIDT).
water-False as, "As water, that will support no weight, nor
keep any impression" (JOHNSON), Oth. v. 2. 134.
water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of-More, Tit.
ii. 1. 85: Ray gives, among English proverbs, "Much water
goes by the mill the miller knows not of. Assai acqua passa
per il molino che il molinaio non vede. Ital.;" and, among
Scottish proverbs, "Meikle water runs where the miller
sleeps." Proverbs, pp. 136, 299, ed. 1768.
watering, drinking, 1H4. ii. 4. 17. See breathe.
water-galls, secondary rainbows, Lucr. 1588 (This word, far
from common even in our early writers, is several times
used by Horace Walpole; "False good news are always
WATER-RUGS—WAX.
545
produced by true good, like the watergall by the rainbow;
again, "Thank heaven it is complete, and did not remain
imperfect like a watergall;" again, "But what signifies
repeating the faint efforts of an old watergall opposed to
its own old sun!" Letters, vol. i. p. 310, and vol. vi. pp. 1,
187, ed. Cunningham: In The Dialect of Craven we find
Weather-gall, A secondary or broken rainbow. Germ.
wasser-galle, repercussio Iridis").
water-rugs, [Either water-drawers (Qy. rugs should be tugs),
see Arber's Garner, iii. 256, or rough-coated water-spaniels,
Mcb. iii. 1. 94.]
water-work: see German Hunting, &c.
waters -I am for all, “I can turn my hand to any thing, I
can assume any character I please" (MALONE), 12N. iv. 2.
68; the origin of the expression is quite uncertain.
watery star-The, The moon, W.T. i. 2. I.
wax, to grow: to make his godhead wax (with a quibble), L.L.L.
V. 2. 10; Old I do wax, H5. v. 1. 89; a full eye will wax
hollow, v. 2. 170; the elder I wax, 247; waxèd pale, 2G. iii.
I. 228; waxed shorter, Tim. iii. 4. 11; waxen (increase) in
their mirth (Farmer being wrong in supposing that here
waxen is a corruption of the [O. E. yexen], to hiccup),
M.N.D. ii. 1. 56; waxen deaf, 2H6. iii. 2. 76.
wax, A man of, Rom. i. 3. 76 [cf. iii. 3. 126]; a sea of wax,
""
Tim. i. I. 47. [Abridging a long controversial note, the
former may be said to mean: a model of a man, “a man as
perfectly formed as if he had been modelled in wax
(Dyce). But allusions seem to suggest a possible secondary
meaning of wax here vigour, assertiveness: as Dr. Ingleby
(Still Lion) puts it: "a man of full growth." Falstaff puns
on the ambiguity, 2H4. i. 2. 180. Compare too: "when
he's in his scarlet clothes, he looks like a man of wax, and
I had as lief have a dog of wax; I do not think but he
lies in a case o'nights" (Amends for Ladies, Hazl. Dodsl.
xi. 134; cf. ix. 485; and Jonson's Tale of a Tub, ii. 1). Dyce
quotes from Faire Em:
"A sweet face, an exceeding daintie hand;
A body, were it framed of wax
By all the cunning artists of the world,
It could not better be proportioned—'
JJ
which certainly strengthens the man modelled of wax inter-
pretation. Cowper, Letters, May 29, 1786, says: "We shall
be as close-packed as two wax figures in an old-fashioned
picture-frame." In a sea of wax, "if the text be right, there
is," Dyce thinks, "an allusion to the practice of writing
with a style on table-books covered with wax"; but Ingleby
maintains that-as "free drift" also suggests,—the tide is
flowing, the sea is waxing, not halting particularly, not at
35
546
WAX-WAY.
standing water. Ingleby cites Tit. iii. 1. 95, and Cor. ii. 2. 103.
It seems to me that the Athenian poet contrasts the con-
fluence of his ideas with "this confluence, this great flood
of visitors." His ideas all drift strongly, like a flood tide,
in one direction of devotion to Timon: the visitors are on
the contrary actuated by various selfish motives.]
wax Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire-As a form of,
K.J. v. 4. 24; like a waxen image 'gainst a fire, 2G. ii. 4. 201
Allusions to the alleged practice of witches in roasting
before a fire images of the persons they wished to torment
or destroy; whose bodies, it was supposed, wasted away
as the images melted. [Cf. 33 Henry VIII. cap. 8; and
Daniel's Delia: "The sly enchanter," &c.].
waxen coat, R2. i. 3. 75: soft and penetrable as if it were
made of wax. Cf. the ballad of Hardyknute (modern though
it be);
"Tho' Britons tremble at his name,
I sune sall make him wail
That eir my sword was made sae sharp,
Sae saft his coat of mail."
waxen epitaph-Not worshipp'd with a, H5. i. 2. 233: worshipp'd,
i. e. honoured: "Steevens says that the allusion is 'to the
ancient custom of writing on waxen tablets;' and Malone
proves, at the expense of two pages, that his friend has
mistaken the poet's meaning, and that he himself is—just
as wide of it. In many parts of the continent it is customary,
upon the decease of an eminent person, for his friends to
compose short laudatory poems, epitaphs, &c., and affix
them to the herse, or grave, with pins, wax, paste, &c. Of
this practice, which was once prevalent here also, I had
collected many notices. . . . To this practice Shakespeare
alludes. He had, at first, written 'paper' epitaph, which
he judiciously changed to 'waxen,' as less ambiguous, and
altogether as familiar to his audience. Henry's meaning
therefore is, 'I will either have my full history recorded
with glory, or lie in an undistinguished grave; not merely
without an inscription sculptured in stone, but unworshipped
(unhonoured) even by a waxen epitaph, i.e. by the short-
lived compliment of a paper fastened [by wax] on it.”
Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol. ix. p. 58.
waxen image 'gainst a fire-Like a: see wax Resolveth, &c.
way, way of thinking, religious opinion: you're a gentleman Of
mine own way, H8. v. 1. 28; that way I am wife in, my
mode of conduct as a wife, iii. 1. 38.
way of life, life, Mcb. v. 3. 22: Johnson and others read: May
of life.
way-There was but one, A kind of proverbial expression for
WE-WEED.
547
"death," H5. ii. 3. 16 (So, in The Famous Historye of Cap-
taine Thomas Stukeley, 1605,
*
'O maister Stukley, since there now remaines
No way but one, and life must heere haue end," &c. Sig L. 3 verso).
We Three: see Three-The picture of We.
weak masters though ye be, &c., Tp. v. 1. 41: “That is, ye are
powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to yourselves;—your
employment is then to make green ringlets and midnight
mushrooms, and to play the idle pranks mentioned by
Ariel in his next song:-yet by your aid I have been
enabled to invert the course of nature. We say proverbially,
'Fire is a good servant, but a bad master (BLACKSTONE).
weaken motion, Oth. i. 2. 75: impair the faculties. Theobald:
weaken notion; Hanmer: waken motion.
weals-men, commonwealth men, legislators, Cor. ii. 1. 59.
wealth, weal, benefit, advantage: I once did lend my body for
his wealth, M.V. v. 1. 249.
wear, fashion: it is not the wear, M.M. iii. 2. 78: Motley's the
only wear, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 34; I like the wear well, A.W. i. 1. 219.
wear, used as an intransitive verb: the brooch and the toothpick,
which wear not now, A.W. i. 1. 172. (Fol. were.)
wear his cap with suspicion, "subject his head to the disquiet
of jealousy" (JOHNSON), [by marrying]: Ado, i. 1. 200.
wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise, A.Y.L. ii. 4. 38.
(F2. Globe: wearying).
weather-To keep the, “A nautical phrase, which means, to
'keep to windward, and thus have the advantage" (Staunton):
Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate, Troil. v. 3. 26.
weather-fends, defends from the weather, shelters, Tp. v. 1. 10.
weaver - A catch that will draw three souls out of one, 12N.
ii. 3. 61 ["a comic hyperbole for the common saying that
music 'haled souls out of men's bodies,' Much Ado, ii. 3."
HERFORD]: I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms
or any thing, 1H4. ii. 4. 146: "The weavers were most of
them Calvinists in this author's time, and refugees from the
Netherlands; addicted mainly to Psalmody, which their
libertine neighbours said was all their religion” (CAPELL).
web and the pin-The: see pin-and-web-The.
wee, very small, diminutive, shrunk up, M.W. i. 4. 22.
weed, a garment, a dress, M.N.D. ii. 1. 256; Cor. ii. 3. 229;
And keep invention in a noted weed (“in a dress by which
it is always known, as those persons are who always
wear the
the same colours," STEEVENS), Sonn. 76; weeds,
2G. ii. 7. 42; Ado, v. 3. 30; M.N.D. ii. 2. 71; 12N. v. I.
262; 280; W.T. iv. 4. 1; Troil. iii. 3. 239; Cor. ii. 3. 161;
Tit. ii. 1. 18; iii. 1. 43; Hml. iv. 7. 81 ; Lr. iv. 7. 7; mourning-
weeds, 3H6. iii. 3. 229; iv. 1. 104; Tit. i. 1. 70; v. 3. 196.
548
WEEK!-WEIRD.
week!-0, that I knew he were but in by the, L.L.L. v. 2. 61:
"This I suppose to be an expression taken from hiring
servants or artificers; meaning, I wish I was as sure of his
service for any time limited, as if I had hired him. The
expression was a common one" (STEEVENS): Mr. Halliwell
explains in by the week to mean ensnared in my meshes,
imprisoned in my bonds," and cites, from a Ms. dated
1619, “Captus est; he is taken, he is in the snare, he is in
for a byrd, he is in by the weeke."
((
week, "a period of time indefinitely" (CALDECOTT): too late a
week, A.Y.L. ii. 3. 74.
ween, to think, to suppose, to imagine, H8. v. 1. 135; weening,
1H6. ii. 5. 88.
weeping philosopher-The, Heraclitus, M.V. i. 2. 53.
weeping-ripe, ripe for weeping, ready to weep, L.L.L. v. 2.
274; 3H6. i. 4. 172.
weeping tears-With, A.Y.L. ii. 4. 53: This expression, which
now appears absurd, was not unfrequently used, and seriously,
by our early writers, who perhaps considered it as equivalent
to "flowing tears" ("And thenne sire Lamorak knelyd
adoune, and vnlaced fyrst hys vmberere, and thenne his
owne, and thenne eyther kyssed other with wepynge teres.”
Morte Darthur, B. viii. c. 41, vol i. p. 310, ed. Southey:
CC
Many a wydowe with wepyng teyres
Ther makes they fette away.'
The Battle of Otterbourne,-Percy's Rel. of A. E. P.
vol. i. p. 33, ed. 1794:
"the weeping teares
Of widdows, virgins, nurses, sucking babes."
A pleasant Commodie called Looke about you,
1600, sig. B),
weet, to know, Ant. i. I. 39.
weigh out, to outweigh, to counterbalance: They that must
weigh out my afflictions, H8. iii. 1. 88.
weird sisters,-The, Mcb. i. 3. 32; 1. 5. 8; ii. 1. 20; iii. 4. 133;
iv. 1. 136; the weird women, iii. 1. 2: "Weird Sisters, the
Fates. This corresponds to Lat. Parca.
'The remanant hereof, quhat euer be it,
The weird sisteris defendis that suld be wit.' Doug. Virgil, 80. 48;
i.e. forbid that it should be known.
(
The weird sisters wandring, as they were wont then,' &c,
Montgomerie, Watson's Coll. iii. 12
•
A. S. wyrd, fatum, fortuna, eventus; Wyrde, Fata, Parcæ,"
&c. Jamieson's Etym. Dict. of the Scot. Lang. &c.: “Cloto...
anglice, one of the thre wyrde systers." Ortus Vocabulorum,
ed. 1514: Holinshed (on whose narrative Shakespeare form-
ed his Macbeth), speaking of the "three women in strange
WELKIN-WELL.
549
and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder world,"
who prophesied to Macbeth and Banquo, and then disappear-
ed, observes, “afterwards the common opinion was, that
these women were either the weird sisters, that is (as ye
would say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs
or feiries," &c. Chronicles (Scotland), vol. v. pp. 268-9,
ed. 1807-8.
welkin, the sky, Tp. i. 2. 4; M.W. i. 3. 101; L.L.L. i. 1. 221;
iii. 1. 68; iv. 2. 5; M.N.D. iii. 2. 356; Shr. Ind. 2. 47 ;
12N. ii. 3. 59; iii. 1. 65; K.J. v. 2. 172; v. 5. 2; R3. v. 3.
341, etc.; let the welkin roar, 2H4. ii. 4. 182: “Part of the
words of an old ballad entitled, what the father gathereth
with the Rake, the Son doth scatter with the Forke:
<
Let the welkin roare,
Ile never give ore,' &c."
STEEVENS.
welkin eye, a sky-coloured, as sky-blue eye, W.T. i. 2. 136.
well, at rest, happy: the former queen is well, W.T. v. I. 30;
seeing that she is well, Rom. iv. 5. 76; Then she is well,
V. I. 14; we use To say the dead are well, Ant. ii. 5. 31.
well-advised: see advised.
well-appointed: see appointed.
well desir'd, "much solicited by invitation" (STEEVENS): you
shall be well desir'd in Cyprus, Oth. ii. 1. 206.
well-favoured, good-looking, 2G. ii. 1. 54; 57; M.W. ii. 2. 285 ;
Ado, iii. 3. 15; 12N. i. 5. 169; Lr. ii. 4. 259; Per. iv. 1. 86:
see favour.
well-fitted, "well-qualified" (JOHNSON): Well-fitted in arts,
L.L.L. ii. 1. 45.
well-a-near, Per. iii. Gow. 51: "This exclamation is equivalent
to well-a-day, and is still used in Yorkshire, where I havè
often heard it. The Glossary to The Praise of Yorkshire
Ale, 1697, says-wella-neerin is lack-a-day or alas, alas!"
(REED): So in Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict., “Well a day,
Well a-neer, Well a way, Eheu."
well-found-In what he did profess, A.W. ii. 1. 105: Here
Steevens explains well-found "of known, acknowledged
excellence," Mr. Grant White "well furnished;" well skilled?
well-liking, good-conditioned, plump, L.L.L. v. 2. 268: see liking.
well said, equivalent to "well done:" Well said! thou lookest
cheerly, A.Y.L. ii. 6. 14; Well said, Hal! 1H4. v. 4. 75;
Well said, i' faith, Wart, 2H4. iii. 2. 295; well said, Davy,
V. 3. 10; Well said, my masters, 2H6. i. 4. 16; Why, that's
well said, iii. 2. 8; Well said, my lord, Troil. iii. 1. 61; 0,
well said, Lucius! Tit. iv. 3. 63; Well said, my hearts! Rom.
i. 5. 88; 0, that's well said;-the chair, Oth. v. 1. 98; Well
said, well said, Per. iii. 2. S7.
550
WELL-WHEESON-WEEK.
well seen, well-skilled, proficient, Shr. i. 2. 134.
Welsh hook-Upon the cross of a, 1H4. ii. 4. 372: A Welsh
hook was a sort of bill, hooked at the end, and with a long
handle: "Minsheu, in his Dict. [sub "Hooke"], 1617, explains
it thus; 'Armorum genus est ære in falcis modum incurvato,
perticæ longissimæ præfixo.' Cotgrave calls it 'a long hedging-
bill, about the length of a partisan'" (MALONE): and see
sword-To swear by a.
wend, to go, M.M. iv. 3. 150; Err. i. 1. 158; M.N.D. iii. 2. 372.
wesand, the throat, Tp. iii. 2. 99 (Globe, wezand).
westward ho! 12N. iii. 1. 146: one of the exclamations of the
water-men who plied on the Thames (So in Peele's Edward I.;
'Q. Elinor. Ay, good woman, conduct me to the court,
That there I may bewail my sinful life,
And call to God to save my wretched soul,
Woman, what noise is this I hear?
"
C
[A cry of Westward, ho!'
Potter's Wife. An like your grace, it is the watermen that call for
passengers to go westward now.' Works, p. 409, ed. Dyce, 1861:
and in Day's Isle of Guls; “A stranger? the better welcome:
comes hee East-ward, West-ward, or North-ward hoe?"
Sig A 2, ed. 1606).
whales-bone-As white as, L.L.L. v. 2. 332: Our ancient
writers appear to have supposed that ivory, formerly made
of the teeth of the walrus, was part of the bones of the
whale (This simile was a standard one with the earliest
English poets). ["There is perhaps some malice intended"
(SCHMIDT).]
what is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness? Ado,
i. 3. 49: The expression what is he for a fool is equivalent
to "what manner of fool is he? what fool is he?"
(Compare Middleton's A Mad World, my Masters; "What
is she for a fool would marry thee, a madman?" Works,
vol. ii. p. 421, ed. Dyce: and Warner's Syrinx, &c.; “And
what art thou for a man that thou shouldest be fastidious
of the acquaintance of men?" Sig. Q 4 verso, ed. 1597.)
wheel becomes it!--O, how the, Hml. iv. 5. 172: Malone was
"inclined to think that wheel is here used in its ordinary
sense, and that these words allude to the occupation of the
girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Ophelia:"
but most critics seem now to agree with Steevens in suppos-
ing that wheel signifies the burden or refrain of the song.
wheels! That it (the world) might go on, Ant. ii. 7. 99: A
proverbial expression; which Taylor the water-poet made
the title of one of his pamphlets,- The World runnes on
wheeles, or, Oddes betwixt Carts and Coaches.
Wheeson-week, the Hostess's blunder for Whitsun-week, 2H4.
ii. I. 96.
WHELK'D—WHERE.
551
whelk'd, "twisted, convolved. A welk or whilk is a small
shell-fish ["The Welke (a shell-fish): Turbin." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.]" (MALONE), Lr. iv. 6. 71.
whelks, wheals, pustules ("A whelk, Papula, pustula." Coles's
Lat. and Engl. Dict.), H5. iii. 6. 108.
when? an expression of impatience: Come, thou tortoise! when?
Tp. i. 2. 316; Why, when, I say? Shr. iv. 1. 146; When,
Harry? when? R2. i. 1. 162; Nay, when? 3H6. v. 1. 49;
When, Lucius, when? J.C. ii. 1. 5 (This expression is occasion-
ally found in dramatists long after Shakespeare's time; e.g.
in the Duke of Buckingham's Rehearsal; "Where the devil
is he?--Why, Prettyman? why, when, I say?" Works, vol. i.
p. 63, ed. 1775).
when? can you tell? Err. iii. 1. 52; when? canst tell? 1H4. ii.
1. 43: a proverbial expression.
("Still good in Law; ile fetch him ore of all,
Get all, pursse all, and be possest of all,
And then conclude the match, marie, at least,
When, can you tell?" Day's Law-Trickes, 1608, sig. D 3)
when Arthur first in court, 2H4. ii. 4. 36: from the ballad of
Sir Lancelot du Lake (Percy's Reliques).
whenas, when: Whenas your husband, all in rage, Err. iv. 4.
140; Whenas the enemy hath been ten to one, 3H6. i. 2. 75;
Whenas the noble Duke of York was slain, ii. 1. 46; whenas he
meant all harm, v. 7. 34; Whenas the one is wounded with
the bait, Tit. iv. 4. 92; Whenas a lion's whelp shall, &c.,
Cymb. v. 4. 138; v. 5. 435; Whenas I met the boar, Ven.
999; Whenas thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Sonn. 49;
Whenas himself to singing he betakes, P. Pilg. 114; Whenas
thine eye hath chose the dame, 299.
wher, whether, M.N.D. iii. 1. 156; iii. 2. 81; M.V. v. 1. 302;
1H6. iv. 7. 25; Cor. iii. 1. 251; Tit. i. 1. 395; J.C. ii. 1. 194;
Hml. ii. 2. 17; Oth. i. 1. 39.
where, whereas: where I thought the remnant of mine age, &C.,
2G. iii. 1. 74; Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance,
L.L.L. ii. 1. 103; where thou now exact'st the penalty, M.V.
iv. 1. 22; Where I was wont to feed you with my blood,
1H6. v. 3. 14; Where Reignier sooner will receive than give,
v. 5. 47; Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad,
2H6. iii. 2. 394; where th' other instruments Did see and
hear, Cor. i. 1. 104; where I thought to crush him, i. 10. 14;
where, if you violently proceed, Lr. i. 2. 89; Where now
you're both a father and a son, Per. i. 1. 127; Where now his
son's like glow-worm in the night, ii. 3. 43; Where this man
calls me traitor, 2N.K. iii. 6. 160; Where now I have no
one to blush with me, Lucr. 792.
where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd-Have
552
WHERE—WHIP.
now the fatal object in my eye, 3H6. v. 6. 17: (In this passage
(which Shakespeare retained from The True Tragedie, &c.)
where is very licentiously used.
where that, whereas: And where that you have vow'd to study,
L.L.L. iv. 3. 296.
where is the life that late I led, Shr. iv. 1. 143; 2H4. v. 3.
147: Sir W. Scott, Marmion, Intr. to C. iv, ascribes this
line to "an ancient minstrel," apparently meaning Shake-
speare. In Clement Robinson's Handful of Pleasant Delights
(p. 14, ed. Arber) is given a song with this heading, which
seems to be rather an answer to some older song on the
subject than the original itself.
whereas, where: Whereas the king and queen do mean to hawk,
2H6. i. 2. 58; Whereas no glory's got to overcome, Per. i. 4. 70;
whereas he stood, P. Pilg. 83.
wherein went he? how was he dressed? A.Y.L. iii. 2. 234.
whether, whichever, which of the two: whether ... can force
his cousin, 2N.K. iii. 6. 293; Whether I lov'd, iv. 2. 48.
whiffler, H5. v. Prol. 12: “The term is undoubtedly borrowed
from whiffle, another name for a fife or small flute; for
whifflers were originally those who preceded armies or
processions as fifers or pipers. . In process of time the
term whiffler, which had always been used in the sense
of a fifer, came to signify any person who went before
in a procession" (DOUCE).
while, until: While we return these dukes what we decree,
R2. i. 3. 122; Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come,
iv. 1. 269; while then, God b' wi' you! Mcb. iii. 1. 44 (The
word occurs with this meaning even in Defoe's Colonel
Fack; "I could not rest night or day while I made the
people easy from whom the things were taken," p. 55,
ed. 1738).
whileas, while: Whileas the silly owner of the goods, 2H6. i. 1.
225 (where by mistake is printed "While as").
while ere, ere-while, some time before, Tp. iii. 2. 127.
while the grass grows, the proverb is something musty, Hml.
iii. 2. 358: Malone quotes this proverb in full from Whet-
stone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578,
CC
Whylst grass doth growe, oft sterves the seely steede;"
and from The Paradise of Daintie Devises, 1578 [first ed. 1576],
"While grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves:"
"J
I find it, with a variation, in Whitney's Emblemes, 1586;
"While grasse doth growe, the courser faire doth sterue. p. 26.
whiles, until: Whiles you are willing it shall come to note,
12N. iv. 3. 29.
whip of your bragg'd progeny-That was the, Cor. i. 8. 12: of
= possessed by. Jervis conj. prop.
WHIPPING-CHEER--WHITHER.
553
whipping-cheer, 2H4. v. 4. 5: "Whipping-cheer, Verbera."
"Verberibus accipere, to give one whipping Chear." Coles's
Lat. and Engl. Dict.
whipstock, the stock or handle of a whip, sometimes put for
the whip itself, 12N. ii. 3. 28; Per. ii. 2. 51 (where, as
Steevens observes, it means "the carter's whip "); 2N.K. i. 2.86.
whisper'd faithfully, A.Y.L. ii. 7. 191. Orlando's speech to
this effect is not given, so he is supposed to have confided
the information in the byplay of whispering during the
song.
whist, still, hushed, Tp. i. 2. 379 [cf. Hoby, Courtier, p. 266].
whistle her off, and let her down the wind, To prey at fortune
—I'd, Oth. iii. 3. 262: "Ajetter un oiseau. To cast, or
whistle, off a hawke; to let her goe, let her flie." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.: "The falconers always let fly the
hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind
her, she seldom returns. If therefore a hawk was for
any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind,
and from that time shifted for herself, and preyed at fortune"
(JOHNSON).
white-The; see clout: though you hit the white (with a quib-
bling allusion to the name Bianca), Shr. v. 2. 186.
White Hart in Southwark-That you should leave me at the,
2H6. 4. 8. 25: A quibble (white heart),—" that you should
desert me like cowards:" The White Hart is described as
having stood "on the east side of the Borough of South-
wark, towards the south end;" see Cunningham's Handbook
for London.
white herring-Two, Two fresh (opposed to red) herrings, Lr.
iii. 6. 33.
white-livered, H5. iii. 2. 34; R3. iv. 4. 465: “Pusillanime.
Dastardly, cowardly, faint-hearted, white-livered." Cotgrave's
Fr. and Engl. Dict.
whitely, whitish: A whitely wanton, L.L.L. iii. 1. 198 (Globe,
wightly). (In illustration of this passage, the Rev. W. R.
Arrowsmith, having remarked that "whiteness is a peculiar
attribute of dark features," cites from Heywood's Troja
Britannica,
"That hath a whitely face, and a long nose,
And for them both I wonderous well esteeme her." Cant. v. st. 74;
"which lines,” he says, "do not merely furnish an instance
of the epithet 'whitely,' but, in such company as parallels
Shakespeare's coupling of it with 'a wanton;'" for "wanton-
ness' and 'a long nose were considered by our early
writers as near allied: see Shakespeare's Editors and Com-
mentators, p. 4, note).
whither, whithersoever: Whither I go, thither shall you go too,
554
WHITING-TIME-WIDE.
1H4. ii. 3. 118; A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes!
1H4. v. 3. 22.
whiting-time, bleaching-time, M.W. iii. 3. 140.
whitsters, bleachers of linen, M.W. iii. 3. 14.
whittle, a small clasp-knife, Tim. v. 1. 183.
whoobub, a hubbub, W.T. iv. 4. 629; 2N.K. ii. 6. 35.
who, for whoever: "Who's a traitor, Gloster he is none," 2H6.
iii. 1. 222.
whoop, do me no harm, good man, W.T. iv. 3. 199. “This tune
is preserved in a collection entitled. Ayres, to sing and play
to the Lute and Basse Viol, with Pauins, Galliards, Almaines,
and Corantos, for the Lyra Violl. By William Corkine, 1610,
fol." (RITSON).
whoop, to exclaim with surprise: That admiration did not
whoop at them, H5. ii. 2. 108 (Globe, hoop).
whooping-Out of all, Out of all measure, A.Y.L. iii. 2. 202 (Gl.
hooping). (Akin to this are the phrases Out of all cry and Out
of all ho).[" beyond all exclamations of wonder." HERFORD.]
whores indulgences to sin-Thou that giv’st, 1H6. i. 3. 35: The
stews in Southwark were under the jurisdiction of the
Bishop of Winchester.
wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd With raven's feather,
&c.-As, Tp. i. 2. 321: Here, of course, wicked must be
explained "baneful:" but I suspect it is not Shakespeare's
word, and has been repeated from just above. "The follow-
ing passage in Batman uppon Bartholome his booke De pro-
prietatibus rerum, 1582, folio, will not only throw consider-
able light on these lines, but furnish at the same time
grounds for a conjecture that Shakespeare was indebted to
it, with a slight alteration, for the name of Caliban's mother
Sycorax the witch. [?] 'The raven is called corvus of
CORAX .... it is said that ravens birdes be fed with deaw
of heaven all the time that they have no black feathers by
benefite of age.' Lib. xii. c. 1o. The same author will also
account for the choice which is made, in the monster's
speech, of the South-west wind. [?] 'This Southern wind is
hot and moyst. . . . Southern winds corrupt and destroy
they heat and maketh men fall into sicknesse.' Lib. xi. c. 3
(DOUCE): "Her [Sycorax's] name, I suppose it has been
remarked before, is Greek. Psychorrhagia is the death-
struggle; and Psychorrhax may be translated 'heartbreaker'
(uxopp)"[?] (W. W. LLOYD).
wide, wide of the mark: so wide of (deviating from) his own
respect, M.W. iii. 1. 58; that he doth speak so wide, Ado,
iv. 1. 63; you are wide, Troil. iii. 1. 97; Still, still, far wide,
Lr. iv. 7. 50; You're wide, 2N.K. iii. 3. 45.
wide o' the bow-hand, a good deal to the left of the mark,
L.L.L. iv. I. 135.
WIDOW-WILD-GOOSE.
555
widow, to endow with a widow's right, M.M. v. 1. 429.
widowhood, estate settled on a widow, Shr. ii 1. 125.
wife-Damn'd in a fair, Oth. i. 1. 21. [Either the line-a
fellow . . . wife-is interjected by Roderigo, or it is spoken
parenthetically by Iago. In either case does it not seem
to refer to Othello?
wight, a person, male or female, M.W. i. 3. 23; 40; L.L.L. i.
1. 178; H5. ii. 1. 64; Oth. ii. 1. 159; ii. 3. 96; Per. i. Gow. 39;
wights, Troil. iv. 2. 12; wightly, see whitely.
wild, rash, precipitate: in an act of this importance 'twere Most
piteous to be wild, W.T. ii. 1. 182; a wild dedication of your-
selves To unpath'd waters, iv. 4. 577.
wild into his grave-My father is gone, 2H4. v. 2. 123: “My
father is gone wild into his grave, for now all my wild
affections lie entombed with him; and I survive with his
sober spirit and dispositions, to disappoint these expectations
the public have formed of me" (THEOBALD). [Cf. H5. i. 1.
25-27. HERFORD.]
wild horses' heels-Present me Death on the wheel or at, Cor.
iii. 2. 2: The punishment of the wheel was not known
at Rome; but we read of Mettius Tuffetius . . . . being
torn asunder by quadrigæ driven in opposite directions:
However, as Shakespeare has coupled this species of
punishment with another that certainly was unknown to
ancient Rome, it is highly probable that he was not apprized
of the story of Mettius [Tuffetius], and that in this, as in
various other instances, the practice of his own time was
in his thoughts; for in 1594 John Chastel had been thus
executed in France for attempting to assassinate Henry the
Fourth" (MALONE): [cf. Epist. Ho-Eliana, xviii]. "Shake-
speare might have found mention of this punishment in
our ancient romances. Thus, in The Sowdon of Babyloyne,"
&c. (SteevensS): (Compare too,
"Zef ony Chrystyn be so hardy his [i.c. Mahownde's] feyth to denye,
Or onys to erre ageyns his lawe;
On gebettys with cheynes I xal hangyn hym heye,
And with wylde hors the traytorys xal I drawe.”
'King Herod,' in The Coventry Mysteries, p. 290, ed. Shak. Soc.)
[See Callot's etching: Supplicium Sceleri Frænum.]
wild-goose chase-The, Rom. ii. 4. 75: "One kind of horse-
race, which resembled the flight of wild-geese, was formerly
known by this name. Two horses were started together;
and whichever rider could get the lead, the other was obliged
to follow him over whatever ground the foremost jockey
chose to go. That horse which could distance the other
won the race. This barbarous sport is enumerated by
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, as a recreation much
556
WILDERNESS-WIND.
in vogue in his time among gentlemen: 'Riding of great
horses, running at ring, tilts and turnaments, horse-races,
wild-goose chases, are the disports of great men.' P. 266,
edit. 1632, fol." HOLT WHITE).
wilderness, wildness, wild growth: such a warped slip of wilder-
ness, M.M. iii. 1. 142.
wildly, disorderly: How wildly, then, walks my estate in France,
K.J. iv. 2. 128: see walks my estate, &c;
wild-mare- Rides the: see mare-Rides, &c.
wilful-blame-Too, 1H4. iii. 1. 177: too blame in the sense of
too blameable was a current expression. Compare: "Blush,
and confess that you be too too blame!" Harington, Ep. i. 84.
(NARES). “In the 16—17th century the to was misunderstood
as too, and blame taken as adj. = blameworthy, culpable."
(New Engl. Dict.)
will doth mutiny with wit's regard-Where, "Where the will
rebels against the notices of the understanding” (JOHNSON),
R2. ii. 1. 28.
William cook, William the cook, 2H4. v. I. 12; 17: compare
Robin Ostler.
wimpled, hooded, veiled, blindfolded, L.L.L. iii. 1. 181.
Winchester-goose, 1H6. i. 3. 53: a cant term for a certain
venereal sore, because the stews in Southwark were under
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester [see whores
indulgences and Camelot]; to whom, in the present passage,
Gloster tauntingly applies the term ("Poulain . . . . a botch
in the groine, a Winchester Goose." Cotgrave's Fr. and
Engl. Dict.: According to Mr. Collier, "there is no necessary
reference to it in the text:" but, though various words of
reproach-such as lurdan, ribald, &c. &c.-were formerly
used without any reference to their original significations.
Winchester-goose (even if it had not been applied to the
Bishop of Winchester) was too peculiar an expression to be
ever employed as a general term of abuse. Gloster means
here to taunt Winchester with his licentious life: he after-
wards, iii. 1. 17, tells him;
"Thou art a most pernicious usurer;
Froward by nature, enemy to peace;
Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems
A man of thy profession and degree").
Winchester-Some galled goose of, Some one suffering from
the venereal disease, who would be galled by my words,
Troil. v. 10. 55: see the preceding article.
Wincot, the usual corruption of Wilmecote, a village near
Stratford-upon-Avon (where our poet's maternal grandfather
lived): Shr. Ind. ii. 23. [See Lee's Life of Sh. p. 165].
wind, to scent: if she wind you once, Tit. iv. 1. 97.
WINDGALLS-WINDMILL.
557
windgalls, Shr. iii. 2. 53: "In the neighbourhood of the fet-
lock there are occasionally found considerable enlargements,
oftener on the hindleg than the fore-one, which are denominat-
cd wind-galls. Between the tendons and other parts, and
wherever the tendons are exposed to pressure or friction,
and particularly about their extremities, little bags or sacs
are placed, containing and suffering to ooze slowly from
them a mucous fluid to lubricate the parts. From undue
pressure, and that most frequently caused by violent action
and straining of the tendons, or, often, from some pre-
disposition about the horse, these little sacs are injured.
They take on inflammation, and sometimes become large
and indurated. There are few horses perfectly free from
them. When they first appear, and until the inflammation
subsides, they may be accompanied by some degree of
lameness; but otherwise, except when they attain a great
size, they do not interfere with the action of the animal,
or cause any considerable unsoundness. The farriers used
to suppose that they contained wind-hence their name,
wind-galls; and hence the practice of opening them, by
which dreadful inflammation was often produced, and many
a valuable horse destroyed. It is not uncommon for wind-
galls entirely to disappear in aged horses." The Horse, by
Youatt, p. 344, ed. 1848.
windmill in Saint George's field-The, 2H4. iii. 2. 207: "It
appears from the following passage in Churchyard's Dreame,
a poem that makes part of the collection entitled his Chippes,
4to, 1578 [first ed., according to Ritson, 1565], that this
windmill was a place of notoriety;
And from the windmill this dreamd he,
Where hakney horses hired be.'
(STEEVENS):
"In Faithorne's Map of London, 1658; an engraving so
rare, that only one perfect copy is known to exist, in the
Royal Library at Paris; we see more of Southwark than in
any of our early maps. It delineates the entire line of
houses from London Bridge to their termination in St.
George's fields, and shows the Windmill beyond them.
Beyond St. George's Church; a single row of houses line
the highway, with small gardens; bounded by a continuous
ditch; a rail crosses the road where the houses end; and
all is open land beyond; the roadway being marked by a
line of palings on both sides. Judging from the apparent
length of the houses here represented; and the present state
of the same locality; they appear to have terminated about
the spot where Suffolk and Trinity street[s] branch off
Blackman street; and the Windmill must have stood between
there and Horsemonger Lane; nearly opposite the present
King's Bench Prison" (FAIRHOLT).
558
WINDOW—WINE.
window-In at the, K.J. i. 1. 171. A proverbial expression
applied to illegitimate children: Compare hatch-O'er the.
window-bars-The, Tim. iv. 3. 116: “the lattice of her chamber"
(JOHNSON): “It is barely possible that Timon... might...
mean by the window-bars the handkerchief which confined"
the breasts (BOSWELL): “The cross-bars or lattice-work, worn,
as we see it in the Swiss women's dress, across the breasts.
In modern times these bars have always a bodice of satin,
muslin, or other material beneath them; at one period they
crossed the nude bosom" (STAUNTON).
window'd, placed in a window: Wouldst thou be window'd in
great Rome, Ant. iv. 4. 72.
window'd, broken into openings: Your loop'd and window'd
raggedness, Lr. iii. 4. 31.
windy side of care, to the windward of care, Ado, ii. 1. 327.
wine-He calls for, &c., Shr. iii. 2. 172: “The fashion of intro-
ducing a bowl of wine into the church at a wedding, to be
drunk by the bride and bridegroom and persons present, was
very anciently a constant ceremony; and, as appears from
this passage, not abolished in our author's age [It was, in
fact, then very common]. We find it practised at the
magnificent marriage of Queen Mary and Philip, in Win-
chester Cathedral, 1554: 'The trumpets sounded, and they
both returned . . . to their traverses in the quire and
there remayned untill masse was done; at which time wyne
and sopes were hallowed and delyvered to [unto] them
both.' Leland's Collect. Append. vol. iv. p. 400, ed. 1770"
(T. WARTON): Muscadel (called also Muscadine) and
hippocras were the usual beverages: cakes, too, were some-
times introduced.
•
wine and sugar—Such, M.W. ii. 2. 70; to sweeten which name
of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even
now into my hand by an under-skinker, 1H4. ii. 4. 26: In
Shakespeare's time it was a common custom in England
to mix sugar with wine. On the second of these passages
Steevens observes; "It appears from the following passage
in Look about You, 1600, and some others, that the drawers
kept sugar folded up in papers, ready to be delivered to
those who called for sack;
'but do you hear? [but heere ye, boy?]
Bring sugar in white paper, not in brown.' [Sig. F verso.]
Shakespeare might perhaps allude to a custom mentioned
by Decker, in The Gull's Horn Book, 1609; ‘Enquire what
gallants sup in the next roome, and if they be any of your
acquaintance, do not you (after the city fashion) send them
in a pottle of wine, and your name sweetened in two pittiful
papers of sugar, with some filthy apologie cram'd into the
mouth of a drawer,' &c. [p. 159, reprint, 1812]."
WINTER-GROUND—WISP.
559
winter-ground thy corse-To, Cymb. iv. 2. 229: "To winter-
ground a plant is to protect it from the inclemency of the
winter-season by straw, dung, &c., laid over it. This
precaution is commonly taken in respect of tender trees
or flowers, such as Arviragus, who loved Fidele, represents
her to be" (STEEVENS). (In Sylvester's Du Bartas I find a
similar compound to winter-ground; there the mower
"Cuts-cross the swathes to winter-feed his farm."
The Captaines, p. 187, ed. 1641.)
winter's sisterhood – A nun of, A.Y.L. iii. 4. 17: By winter's sister-
hood "Shakespeare meant an unfruitful sisterhood, which
had devoted itself to chastity” (WARBURTON): “Shakespeare
poetically feigns a new order of nuns, most appropriate
to his subject” (Douce).
wipe-A slavish, “The brand with which slaves were marked”
(MALONE), Lucr. 537.
wis-I: see I wis.
wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it, 1H4. i.
2. 99: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in
the streets. . . . I have stretched out my hand, and no
man regarded.” Proverbs, i. 20, 24.
wise fellow and had good discretion, that, being bid to ask what
he would of the king, desired he might know none of his
secrets-A, Per. i. 3. 4: "Who this wise fellow was, may
be known from the following passage in Barnabie Riche's
Souldier's Wishe to Briton's Welfare, or Captaine Skill
and Captaine Pill, 1604, p. 27; 'I will therefore commende
the poet Philipides, who being demaunded by King
Lisimachus, what favour he might doe unto him for that he
loved him, made this answere to the king, that your majesty
would never impart unto me any of your secrets'" (SteevenS).
wise gentleman, equivalent to wise-acre, witling: "Certain," said
she, "a wise gentleman," Ado, v. 1. 166.
wise woman, was a term formerly applied to female impostors
who dealt in fortune-telling, palmistry, the recovering of
things lost, physic, &c.: the wise woman of Brentford, M.W.
iv. 5. 27 (see Brentford, &c.); Carry his water to the wise
woman, 12N. iii. 4. 114.
wish, to recommend: To wish him wrestle with affection, Ado,
iii. 1. 42; I will wish him to her father, Shr. i. 1. 113; And
wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife, i. 2. 60; When man
was wish'd to love his enemies, Tim. iv. 3. 473.
wishful sight, longing sight, 3H6. iii. 1. 14.
wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns, To make this
shameless callet know herself—A, 3H6. ii. 2. 144: A wisp,
or small twist, of straw or hay was often applied as a mark
of opprobrium to an immodest woman, a scold, or similar
offenders; even the showing it to a woman was, therefore
560
WIST-WIT.
considered as a grievous affront.... Earle, in his character
of a scold says, 'There's nothing mads or moves her more
to outrage, then but the very naming of a wispe, or if you
sing or whistle while she is scoulding.' Microcosmog. p. 278,
ed. Bliss.
C
Nay, worse, I'll stain thy ruff, nay, worse than that,
I'll do thus.
[Holds a wisp.
M. Fost. Oh my heart, gossip, do you see this was ever
Woman thus abus'd?'
A New Wonder, a Woman never vex'd, by W. Rowley, 1632.
So perfyte and exacte a scoulde that woman mighte geve place,
Whose tatling tongues had won a wispe. Drant's Horace, Sat. 7.
A wispe appears to have been one badge of the scolding
woman in the ceremony of Skimmington [v. Hudibras]....
C
Good gentle Jone, with-holde thy hands,
This once let me entreat thee,
And make me promise never more
That thou shalt mind to beat me:
For feare thou weare the wispe, good wife,
And make our neighbours ride.'
Pleasures of Poetry, cited by Malone."
Nares's Gloss. (in which article Nares is indebted to Steevens
as well as to Malone).
wist, knew, 1H6. iv. 1. 180.
wistly, wistfully, eagerly, R2. v. 4. 7; Ven. 343; Lucr. 1355;
P. Pilg. 82.
wit, the mental power, wisdom, sense: Hath the fellow any wit
that told you this? Ado, i. 2. 17; who would set his wit to
so foolish a bird? M N.D. iii. 1. 137; Where will doth mutiny
with wit's regard, R2. ii. 1. 28; of an excellent And unmatch'd
wit and judgment, H8. ii. 4. 47; Hector shall not have
his wit this year, Troil. i. 2. 92; Where is my wit? iii.
2. 158; Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait, Tit. ii. 1. 10;
our empress, with her sacred wit (see sacred wit, &c.), 120;
He that had wit would think, &c., ii. 3. 1; brevity is the
soul of wit, Hml. ii. 2. 90.
wit, contrivance, stratagem: my admirable dexterity of wit,
M.W. iv. 5. 121; Let me if not by birth, have lands by wit,
Lr. i. 2. 199.
wit, to know: Now please you wit The epitaph, &c., Per. iv.
4. 31; As witting I no other comfort have, 1H6. ii. 5. 16.
wit enough to keep himself warm-If he have, Ado, i. 1. 68;
Am I not wise? Kath. Yes; keep you warm, Shr. ii. 1. 268:
“Such a one has wit enough to keep himself warm is a
proverbial expression [sufficiently obscure]" (STeevens).
"Wit, whither wilt?" A.Y.L. iv. 1. 167: A proverbial expression,
not unfrequent in writers of the time.
WITCH-WOE.
561
witch, a wizard, a charmer: such a holy witch, That he
enchants societies into him, Cymb. i. 6. 166.
witch-1 forgive thee for a, Ant. i. 2. 40: “From a common
proverbial reproach to silly ignorant females,-'You'll never
be burnt for a witch'” (STEEVENS).
with, equivalent to by: unfolded With one that I have bred?
Ant. v. 2. 171.
with himself-He is not, He is not himself, he is beside himself,
Tit. i. 1. 368 ("Vix sum apud me, ita animus commotu'st
metu," &c. Terence, Andria, v. iv. 34).
with that face? see face?—With that.
Withold, see Swithold, Lr. iii. 4. 125.
without contradiction, suffer the report-Which may, “Which,
undoubtedly, may be publicly told" (JOHNSON), Cymb.
i. 4. 59.
witness'd usurpation-A, "An attestation of its ravage
(STEEVENS), 2H4. i. 1. 63.
wits-Four of his five, Ado, i. 1. 66; your five wits, 12N. iv.
2. 92; our five wits, Rom. i. 4. 47; my whole five [wits],
ii. 4. 78; thy five wits, Lr. iii. 4. 59; iii. 6. 60; my five wits
nor my five senses, Sonn. 141: "The wits seem to have been
reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets
of ideas" (JOHNSON): "From Stephen Hawes's poem called
Graunde Amoure [and La Belle Pucel], ch. xxiv. ed. 1554,
it appears that the five wits were 'common wit, imagination,
fantasy, estimation [i.e. judgment], and memory.' Wit in
our author's time was the general term for the intellectual
power" (MALONE): But sundry passages might be adduced
from early writers, who considered the five wits to be the
five senses (see, for instance, the passage from the interlude
of The Four Elements cited by Percy on act iii. sc. 4 of
King Lear apud the Varior. Shakespeare; and the passages
from Larke's Book of Wisdom and King Henry the Eighth's
Primer in Hunter's New Illust. of Shakespeare, vol. ii. p. 271);
though in the second of the above quotations from Shake-
speare, 12N. iv. 2, wits cannot mean senses, and in the
last of them, Sonn. 141, he expressly makes a distinction
between wits and senses.
wit-snapper, "one who affects repartee" (Johnson's Dict.),
M.V. iii. 5. 55.
wittol-cuckold, a tame, contented cuckold, M.W. ii. 2. 313.
(Globe: Wittol!- Cuckold!)
wittolly, cuckoldly, M.W. ii. 2. 283.
witty, knowing, sagacious, of sound judgment: Witty, courteous,
liberal, 3H6. i. 2. 43; The deep-revolving witty Buckingham,
R3. iv. 2. 42; you must be witty now, Troil. iii. 2. 32; our
witty empress, Tit. iv. 2. 29.
woe, woeful, sorry: I'm woe for't, Tp. v. 1. 139; Woe, woe
36
562
WOE-WOODBINE.
are we, Ant. iv. 14. 133; Woe is my heart, Cymb. v. 5. 2;
If thinking on me then should make you woe, Sonn. 71.
woe to that land that's govern'd by a child! R3. ii. 3. 11: "Woe
to thee, O land, when thy king is a child." Ecclesiastes, x. 16.
woman-If I were a, &c., A.Y.L. Epil. 18: It must be remem-
bered that in Shakespeare's time female characters were
performed by boys or young men.
woman me, "affect me suddenly and deeply, as my sex are
usually affected" (STEEVENS), A.W. iii. 2. 53.
woman of the world-A: see world-A woman of the.
woman'd, accompanied, haunted by a woman, Oth. iii. 4. 195.
woman-queller: see man-queller, &c.
woman-tir'd, woman-pecked, hen-pecked, W.T. ii. 3. 74: see
first tire.
wombs, encloses, contains, W.T. iv. 4. 501.
womby, hollow, capacious, H5. ii. 4. 124.
Woncote, 2H4. v. i. 42: Woodmancote, still pronounced Woncot,
where the family of Visor or Vizard has flourished since
the sixteenth century: near Stratford. The adjoining Stinch-
combe Hill (still familiarly known to the natives as 'the
Hill') was in the sixteenth century the home of the family
of Perkes. See Lee, Life of Sh., p. 168.
wonder'd, able to effect wonders, marvellously gifted: So rare
a wonder'd father, Tp. iv. 1. 123.
wood, mad: like a wood woman, 2G. ii. 3. 30; wood within
this wood, M.N.D. ii. 1. 191; raging-wood, 1H6. iv. 7. 35;
frenzies wood, Ven. 740.
woodbine, the bindweed, the convolvulus: So doth the woodbine
the sweet honeysuckle Gently entwist; the female ivy so Enrings
the barky fingers of the elm, M.N.D. iv. 1. 47: On the words
in Jonson's Vision of Delight,
::
behold,
How the blue bindweed doth itself infold
With honeysuckle," &c.,
Gifford remarks; "This passage settles the meaning of the
speech of Titania in Midsummer-Night's Dream. . . . The
woodbine of Shakespeare is the blue bindweed of Jonson:
in many of our counties the woodbine is still the name
for the great convolvulus." Jonson's Works, vol. vii. p. 308:
My friend the late Rev. John Mitford, an excellent botanist,
who at one time had maintained in print that Gifford's
explanation of "woodbine" was wrong, acknowledged at
last that it was the only true one. (What an odd notion
of poetic composition must those interpreters have who
maintain that here woodbine and honeysuckle are put in
apposition as meaning the same plant-and who, of course,
consider entwine to be an intransitive verb!—a notion which
Mr. Beisly (Shakspere's Garden, &c., p. 37) thus most ridicul-
WOODCOCK—WORK.
563
ously amplifies; "The name 'woodbine' denotes its character
as a climbing plant; 'honeysuckle' the property of the
flower, which contains a sweet juice"!)
woodcock, a cant term for a simpleton (the woodcock being
proverbial as a foolish bird, perhaps because it is easily
caught in springes or in nets), Ado, v. i. 158; Shr. i. 2. 161;
A.W. iv. I. 100; 12N. ii. 5. 92; iv. 2. 64: woodcocks, L.L.L.
iv. 3. 82; Hml. i. 3. 115.
wooden 0: see second O.
wooden thing-A, "An awkward business, an undertaking not
likely to succeed" (STEEVENS), 1H6. v. 3. 89: [compared
with wooing her for myself, it is a dull business wooing
her for another.]
woodman, a forester, a huntsman ("seems to have been an
attendant or servant to the officer called Forrester. See
Manwood on the Forest Laws, 4to, 1615, p. 46,” Reed):
prov'd best woodman, Cymb. iii. 6. 28; He is no woodman,
Lucr. 580.
woodman, one who hunts female game [little dears?] a wencher:
Am I a woodman, ha? M.W. v. 5. 30; a better woodman
than thou takest him for, M.M. iv. 3. 170.
woollen-Lie in the, Ado, ii. 1. 33: "I suppose she means-
between blankets, without sheets" (STEEVENS).
woollen bagpipe, M.V. iv. 1. 56. So O. Edd. and Globe.
Wawling, swollen, bollen, have been suggested. See bollen.
woolward for penance—I go, L.L.L. v. 2. 717: To go woolward
was to wear woollen, instead of linen, next the skin,-a
penance often formerly enjoined by the Church of Rome.
("make
Their enemies like Friers wool-ward to lie."
Exchange Ware at the Second Hand, &c, 1615, sig. B.)
woo't, for wilt, 2H4. ii. 1. 63; Hml. v. I. 298; Ant. iv. 2. 7:
iv. 15. 59.
word, a watch-word: Now to my word; It is, "Adieu," &c.,
Hml. i. 5. 110 (on which passage Steevens remarks, “Hamlet
alludes to the watch-word given every day in military service,
which at this time he says is Adieu, adieu! remember me!
So in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy [by B. Barnes], 1607,
'Now to my watch-word""); Give the word. Edg. Sweet mar-
joram. Lear. Pass, Lr. iv. 6. 93.
word, a motto: The word, Lux, &c., Per. ii. 2. 21; The word,
Me pompa, &c., 30; The word, Quod me, &c., 33-
word—I moralize two meanings in one: see moralize.
words me-He, He plies me with words, Ant. v. 2. 191. [words
him . . . . from the matter, increases his fame dispropor-
tionately, Cymb. i. 4. 16.]
work, "a term of fortification" (STEEVENS): and let 'em win
the work, H8. v. 4. 61.
564
WORKINGS-WORSHIP.
workings, "labours of thought" (STEEVENS): our dull workings,
2H4. iv. 2. 22.
workings, acts: mock your workings in a second body (“treat
with contempt your acts executed by a representative,"
JOHNSON), 2H4. v. 2. 90.
world-To go to the, To be married, to commence housekeeper,
A.W. i. 3. 20; Thus goes every one to the world but I, Ado,
ii. 1. 331.
world -A woman of the, A married woman, A.Y.L. v. 3. 5:
see the preceding article.
world may laugh again-The, 2H6 ii. 4. 82: "The world may
look again favourably upon me" (JOHNSON); "Equivalent
to-Fortune may smile again" (STAUNTON).
world, to see-It is a, It is a wonder to see, Ado, iii. 5. 38;
Shr. ii. 1. 313 (This expression was in use as early as the
time of Skelton, who has in his Bowge of Courte,
"It is a worlde, I saye, to here of some."
Works, vol. i. p. 47, ed. Dyce:
and it is found even in the Second Volume of Strype's
Annals of the Reform., which was first published in 1725,
and must have been written only a few years earlier; " But
it was a world to consider, what unjust oppressions of the
people and the poor this occasioned, by some griping
men, that were concerned therein." p. 209).
world-without-end bargain-A, "An everlasting bargain"
(MALONE), L.L.L. v. 2. 799; the world-without-end hour, "the
tedious hour that seems as if it never would end" (MALONE),
Sonn. 57.
worm, a serpent: the soft and tender fork Of a poor worm,
M.M. iii. 1. 17; a worm, an adder, do so much, M.N.D. iii.
2. 71; The mortal worm, 2H6. iii. 2. 263; eyeless venom'd
worm (the blind-worm), Tim. iv. 3. 182; the worm, that's
fled, Mcb. iii. 4. 29; the pretty worm of Nilus, Ant. v. 2.
243; all the worms of Nile, Cymb. iii. 4. 37.
worm, used in the sense of "creature," as a term of commis-
eration, sometimes of contempt: Poor worm, thou art
infected, Tp. iii. 1. 31; the poor worm doth die for't, Per. i.
1. 102; to reprove these worms for loving, L.L.L. iv. 3. 154;
you froward and unable worms, Shr. v. 2. 169.
wormwood to my dug-Laid, In order to wean the child,
Rom. i. 3. 26.
worship, honour, dignity: rear'd to worship, W.T. i. 2. 314;
the worship of revenge, K.J. iv. 3. 72; the slightest worship
of his time, 1H4. iii. 2. 151; give me worship and quietness,
3H6. iv. 3. 16; As I belong to worship, H8. i. 1. 39; Wherein
the worship ("dignity, authority," JOHNSON) of the whole
world lies, Ant. iv. 14. 86; The worships of their name, Lr.
i. 4. 288 (query, worship or names).
WORSHIP-WREN.
565
worship, to honour, to dignify: worship me their lord, 2H6.
iv. 2. 81; Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph, H5. i. 2.
233 (see waxen epitaph, &c.).
worth, substance, wealth: To be of worth and worthy estima-
tion, 2G. ii. 4. 56; But, were my worth, as is my conscience,
firm, 12N. iii. 3. 17; They are but beggars that can count
their worth, Rom. ii. 6. 32; all my outward worth, Lr. iv. 4. 10.
worth of contradiction-His, Cor. iii. 3. 26 (if right,
= penny-
worth).
worthied him, rendered him worthy, Lr. ii. 2. 128.
Worthies-The Nine, L.L.L. v. 1. 125; 130; 138; 161; v. 2.
486, etc.; 2H4. ii. 4. 238: “The genuine worthies were Joshua,
David, Judas Macabeus, Hector, Alexander, Julius Cæsar,
Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bulloigne, or some-
times in his room Guy of Warwick. Why Shakespeare, in
the five of them only whom he has introduced by name,
has included Hercules and Pompey, remains to be accounted
for" (DOUCE).
worthy feeding-A, 12N. iv. 4. 169: substantial.
worts, all kinds of pot-herbs, and sometimes, as in the present
passage, with a more confined signification,-coleworts,
cabbages: Good worts! good cabbage, M.W. i. 1. 123 (where
Falstaff is ridiculing Sir Hugh's pronunciation of words).
wot, to know, 2G. iv. 4. 30; Err. v. 1. 148; M.N.D. iii. 2. 422; etc.
wo't, wilt, 2H4. ii. 1. 63. See woo't.
would, equivalent to "would have:" sorrow would solace, and
mine age would ease, 2H6. ii. 3. 21.
wound with adders, enwrapped, encircled, by adders, Tp. ii. 2. 13.
wounds Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh-Dead
Henry's, R3. i. 2. 55: “It is a tradition very generally
received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch [or
the approach] of the murderer. This was so much believed
by Sir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain
the reason" (JOHNSON).
wrack, wreck, destruction, ruin, Mcb. v. 5. 51; Per. iv. Gow. 12;
Ven. 558; Lucr. 841; 966; Sonn. 126.
wrath, wrathful, angry: Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
M.N.D. ii. I. 20.
wreak, revenge, Cor. iv. 5. 91; Tit. iv. 3. 33.
wreak, to revenge, to avenge, Tit. iv. 3. 51; Rom. iii. 5. 102.
wreakful, revengeful, wrathful, Tit. v. 2. 32; Tim. iv. 3. 229.
wreaks, fits of rage or violence, Tit. iv. 4. II.
wren of nine-The youngest, 12N. iii. 2. 70: "The wren is
remarkable for laying many eggs at a time, nine or ten,
and sometimes more; and as she is the smallest of birds,
the last of so large a brood may be supposed to be little
indeed; which is the image intended here to be given of
Maria" (HANMER).
566
WREST-WROTH.
wrest, a tuning-key for drawing up the strings of musical
instruments; used metaphorically in what follows: this
Antenor, I know, is such a wrest in their affairs, Troil. iii. 3. 23.
wretch, a term of endearment: The pretty wretch, Rom. i. 3.
44; Excellent wretch! Oth. iii. 3. 90.
wretched, vile, hateful, utterly bad ("A wretched fellow,
Deplorate malus." Coles's Lat. and Engl. Dict.): The wretched,
bloody, and usurping boar, R3. v. 2. 7; O wretched villain,
Oth. v. I. 41.
wring, to writhe with anguish: those that wring under the load
of sorrow, Ado. v. 1. 28; He wrings at some distress, Cymb.
iii. 6. 79.
wring it-An you'll not knock, I'll, Shr. i. 2. 16 (Globe, ring):
Here seems to be a quibble between ringing at a door
and wringing a man's ears (STEEVENS).
wringer, a person who wrings the water out of clothes,
M.W. i. 2. 5.
writ and the liberty-For the law of, Hml. ii. 2. 421. See Law.
write, to write or style one's self, to write one's self as the
possessor of something, "to call one's self, to be entitled,
to use the style of" (Johnson's Dict.): I must tell thee,
sirrah, I write man, A.W. ii. 3. 208; About it; and write
happy when thou hast done, Lr. v. 3. 35: I'd give bay curtal
and his furniture, My mouth no more were broken than these
boys', And zerit as little beard, A.W. ii. 3. 67; as if he had
writ man ever since his father was a bachelor, 2H4. i. 2. 30.
writhled, wrinkled, 1H6. ii. 3. 23 (So in Sir J. Harington's
version of the Orlando Furioso; ["Her face was wan, a
leane and writhled skin," B. vii. st. 62, and]
"To scorne her writheld skin and evill favour." B.xx. st. 76.)
[“cold writhled eld," Marston, Sc. of villainy, I. iv.]
wrong-I fear you've done yourself some, “I fear that in assert-
ing yourself to be King of Naples, you have uttered a
falsehood which is below your character, and, consequently,
injurious to your honour" (STEEvens), Tp. i. 2. 443.
wrongs, and chase them to the bay-To rouse his, wrongers,
R2. ii. 3. 128, (abstr. for concr.).
wroth-Patiently to bear my, M.V. ii. 9. 78: "The old editions
read 'to bear my wroath. Wroath is used in some of the
old books for misfortune; and is often spelt like ruth, which
at present signifies only pity, or sorrow for the miseries of
another. Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, &c.,
1471, has frequent instances of wroth. Thus, also, in Chap-
man's version of the 22nd Iliad,
'born to all the wroth
Of woe and labour':
(STEEVENS):
Qy. have we not here only a various spelling of wrath
for the sake of the rhyme? and does it not mean
WROUGHT-YELLOWS.
567
angry vexation" ("torturing anger," Richardson's Dict.
sub "wrath")?
wrought, worked, agitated: Would thus have wrought you,
W.T. v. 3. 58; my dull brain was wrought, Mcb. i. 3. 149.
wrying, swerving, going astray, Cymb. v. 1. 5.
wry-neck'd fife, M.V. ii. 5. 30: "The old English flute had
a beak-shaped mouthpiece. The context makes this sense
more likely than that of the musician, whose attitude in
playing equally justified the epithet, as in Barnaby Riche's
Aphorisms: A fife is a wry-neckt musician, for he always
looks away from his instrument."" (HERFORD.)
Y.
yare, ready, brisk, active, nimble, handy, Tp. i. 1. 7; 37; v. I.
224; M.M. iv. 2. 61; 12N. iii. 4. 244; Ant. iii. 7. 39; iii. 13.
131; V. 2. 286.
yarely, readily, briskly, actively, handily, Tp. i. 1. 4; Ant. ii.
2. 216.
Yaughan, Hml. v. 1. 68. [“Here's a slave about the town here,
a Jew, one Yohan." Ev. Man out of his Humour, v. 4.
And see Overbury's Character of a Drunken Dutchman.]
yaw, to move on unsteadily, to swagger, to vacillate (“To yaw
[as a ship], huc illuc vacillare, capite nutare." Coles's Lat.
and Engi. Dict.), Hml. v. 2. 120. (The substantive "yaws"
occurs in Massinger's Very Woman, Works, vol. iv. p. 297,
ed: 1813,-where Gifford remarks, “A yaw is that unsteady
motion which a ship makes in a great swell, when, in
steering, she inclines to the right or left of her course").
y-clad, clad, 2H6. i. 1. 33.
ycleped, called, named, L.L.L. i. 1. 242.
ycliped, another form of the preceding, L.L.L. v. 2. 602 (where
this spelling is required for the quibble, "clipt,”) in the
next speech).
Yead, an abbreviation of Edward, M.W. i. 1. 160.
yearn, to grieve, to vex, M.W. iii. 5. 45; H5. ii. 3. 3; 6; yearn'd,
R2. v. 5. 76; yearns, H5. iv. 3. 26; J.C. ii. 2. 129.
Yedward, a familiar corruption of Edward, still retained in
some counties, 1H4. i. 2. 149 (Towards the end of the first
act of Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, Clod, who speaks in the
Lancashire dialect, says, "Why, 'tis Sir Yedard Hartfort's").
yellow, the colour of jealousy: 'mongst all colours no yellow
in't, W.T. ii. 3. 107.
III.
yellowness, jealousy, M.W. i. 3. 111.
yellows - The, Shr. iii. 2. 54: "Jaundice, commonly called the
yellow's is the introduction of bile into the general
circulation .... The yellowness of the eyes and mouth,
568
YEOMAN-YOUNG RAVENS.
and of the skin where it is not covered with hair, mark it
sufficiently plainly," &c. The Horse, by Youatt, p. 311,
ed. 1848.
yeoman, a sergeant's or bailiff's follower: Where's your yeoman?
2H4. ii. 1. 4.
yeoman's service-It did me, Hml. v. 2. 36: “¿.e. as good service
as a yeoman performed for his feudal lord" (CALDECOTT).
yerk, to jerk, to fling out, to kick: Yerk out their armed heels,
H5. iv. 7. 83.
yerk, to strike with a quick smart blow: yerk'd him here under
the ribs, Oth. i. 2. 5.
yest, "the spume on troubled water, foam" (Johnson's Dict.),
W.T. iii. 3. 94.
yesty, spumy, foamy, frothy, Mcb. iv. 1. 53; Hml. v. 2. 199.
yew: see double-fatal yew, &c.
yield, to requite: the gods yield you for't! Ant. iv. 2. 23.
young, early: this is yet but young, H8. iii. 2. 47; Is the day
so young? Rom. i. 1. 166.
young Charbon the Puritan and old Poysam the papist, young
good-flesh and old Fish-diet (in Lent). Chair bonne and
Poisson: A.W. i. 3. 55. This explanation (quoted by Prof.
Herford) seems preferable to Schmidt's Firebrand and
poison!
young men, whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear moral Philo-
sophy, Troil. ii. 2. 166. [Here Shakspere seems to coincide
closely with Bacon, Advancement of learning, II. xxii. 13,
1605: "Is not the opinion of Aristotle worthy to be regarded,
wherein he saith, that young men are not fit auditors of
moral philosophy, because they are not settled from the
boiling heat of their affections, nor attempered with time
and experience." Aristotle (Ethics, i. 3.) said political phi-
losophy, and gave as his reason that a young man is not
sufficiently versed in affairs to study political science ad-
vantageously. Ethics, or "moral and civil knowledge" as
Bacon (II. xviii. 5) calls it, Aristotle considered to be a
branch of political science, and a few lines lower down Bacon
shows that he knows this. The anachronism of making Priam
quote Aristotle is as obvious as it is unimportant from the
point of view of "the Eternal Verities." (cf. ii. 3. 258). The
context makes it look as if Shakespeare had actually this
passage of the Advancement in his thought when writing or
revising Hector's speech, and 1. 184-"these moral laws of
nature and of nations”—as if he too interpreted moral
philosophy in the wide Aristotelian sense.]
young ravens must have food, M.W. i. 3. 38: Ray has “Small
birds must have meat," Proverbs, p. 80, ed. 1768: “Either
Shakespeare, or the adage, if it be one, has borrowed from
Scripture. See Psalm cxlvii. 9, or Fob xxxviii. 41" (DOUCE)
YOUNKER-ZODIACS.
569
younker, a youngster, a young gallant: like a younker or a
prodigal, M.V. ii. 6. 14; Trimm'd like a younker, 3H6. ii. 1. 24.
younker, a novice, a greenhorn: will you make a younker of
me? 1H4. iii. 3. 92.
you're, you were: Madam, you're best consider, Cymb. iii. 2. 79.
your release-They cannot budge till, They cannot budge till
the release of them by you, Tp. v. 1. 11; Your wrongs do
set a scandal on my sex, The wrongs done by you do set,
&c., M.N.D. ii. 1. 240; I am sorry For your displeasure, I
am sorry for the displeasure you have incurred, Oth. iii. 1. 45.
Z.
zany, a buffoon, a merry-andrew, a mimic, L.L.L. v. 2. 463;
the fools' zanies (wrongly explained by Douce the “fools'
bawbles, which had upon the top of them the head of a
fool"), 12N. i. 5. 96.
zed, thou unnecessary letter! Lr. ii. 2. 69: "Zed is here properly
used as a term of contempt, because it is the last letter in
the English alphabet, and as its place may be supplied by
S; and the Roman alphabet has it not; neither is it read
in any word originally Teutonick. In Baret's Alvearic,
or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, it is quite omitted, as the
author affirms it to be rather a syllable than a letter"
(STEEVENS): "This is taken from the grammarians of the
time. Mulcaster says, 'Z is much harder amongst us, and
seldom seen: S is become its lieutenant-general. It is
lightlie expressed in English, saving in foren enfranchise-
ments (FARMER).
zenith, (in an astrological sense) the highest point of one's
fortune, Tp. i. 2. 181.
zodiacs-Nineteen, Nineteen years, M.M. i. 2. 172. (There can
be little doubt that either "nineteen" in this passage should
be "fourteen," or that "fourteen years" in the next scene
should be "nineteen years.")
ADDENDA.
(1).—Estridge, which Dyce explains to mean ostrich (Lyly
spells it Estrich in Euphues, p. 124, cf. p. 54, Arber), is shown
by Vice-Chancellor Madden (Diary of Master William Silence,
pp. 144, 155 m.) to be the goshawk (Fr. austour, autour, Lat.
astur) not only in Ant. iii. 13. 195, but also in 1H4, iv. 1. 97,
although in the latter passage the word thus understood "does
570
ADDENDA.
not afford so striking a simile as the plumes of an ostrich."
(Possibly the words like estridges that with the winds Bated
were intended to be cancelled, leaving the simile all plumed,
like eagles having lately bathed. The full text as in the Folio
certainly does seem weak and obscure).
(2). The suggestion that Ducdame in A.Y.L. may mean duc
damné should be attributed to Professor Dowden.
(3).—The derivation of resty is merely a popular etymology—
it is said to be from Lat. restare..
(4).-On Gentle (= gentleman) Astringer (keeper of goshawks)
see the Diary of Master Wm. Silence, pp. 145—7.
JAN 6 1922
151
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