'^^y ■ -^ J" .^^'^- •it it ^ -^^' :^^>^^^ ■ •^ O' N^ ' ^ ■ o"^- '^/. H/MSv^ o 0' m^^ A ., ., \ ' B * . ''/■' >0 N^' ^^ >t \> .\ A-'' .0 ,^^ ■%.. '/<;>; .^^ ^«fe <^ "^ * * . s > ,# '") .'\^ O ir ..^ ^0^^. <^ ^r. I'^^^ ^ ,-^0 THE Shakespeare Cyclopedia AND NEW GLOSSARY 3establi8be& 1870. The Shakespeare Cyclopaedia AND New Glossary GIVING Tte meaning of tlie Old and Unusual Words found in Shakespeare's Works and of the Ordinary Words used in Unusual Senses and in unusual forms of Construction— Explanations of Idiomatic Phrases and of Mytho- logical, Biographical and Antiquarian References— Notes on Polk-I^ore, lyocal Traditions, IVegends, Allusions, Proverbs, Old i^nglish Customs, l^tc, Etc., WITH THE Most Important Variorum Readings INTENDED AS A SUPPLEMENT TO ALL THE ORDINARY EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS JOHN PHIN Author of "Shakespearean Notes and New Readings;" "Practical Dictionary of Apiculture;" " How to Use the Microscope ;" " How to Become a Good Mechanic ;" etc., etc. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD DOWDEN Litt.D., LL.D., Dublin; LL. D., Edin.; D.C.L., Oxon.; Pro^essi)r,'o^ Englisl^ Liteiajtara ' ; in the University of Dublin \ ] I , , !,,;',,'', NEW YORK THE INDUSTRIAL PUBLICATION COMPANY 1 90 2 TflTXraftARv OF CONGRESS. Two CowEe Recbveo AUG. 15 1902 COfMMHT ENTRV CLAS9 ^XXa No. COPY 8. Those who would enjoy Shakespeare fully, must understand him thoroughly. To read Shakespeare's Works even superficially, is entertainment ; to linger over them lovingly and admiringly, is enjoyment ; to study them profoundly, is wisdom, moral and intellectual. — Mary Co wden- Clarke. Copyright, 1902, by John Phin. Entered at Stationers' Hall All rights reserved. e e c c e e e» TO HEKRY PflRKE, K. D., of Patersoq, N. J., U. S. R., WitlioiJt v^tiose ter\der care ai\d scientific s^iH tlriese pages v^ould i\ever l\ave seer\ ttie ligtit, T]:\is volilnqe is dedicated by His grateful frier\d, THE JIUTHOR CONTENTS. PAGE. Preface, ix Introduction by Professor Dowden: "The Language of Shakespeare considered as an Encyclopaedia of Con- temporary Knowledge, " ' . xv How to Read for Pleasure and Profit, 1 Shakespeare Clubs and Societies, 8 The Text of Shakespeare, 10 The Sources and Causes of Errors in the Text, .... 14 On the Choice of a Copy of Shakespeare's Works, . . . 18 A Short List of Helpful Books, 31 The Bacon- Shakespeare Controversy, 24 The Cyclopaedia and Glossary, 33 Addenda, 387 Note.— Readers of this Cyclopaedia who fail to find in the body of the work, the word of which they desire an explanation, should consult the Addenda which contain a large number of cross-references as well as several words which were overlooked in the preparation of the earlier pages. Even while the Addenda were passing through the press some subiects have been suggested as requiring elucidation. The insertion of these mars somewhat the symmetry of the work, but it adds very considerably to its usefulness, and the author has always con- sidered that the latter is of far more importance than the former. PREFACE. HE purpose for which this volume was written is to furnish those MhY'^A ^®^^^^s and lovers of Shakespeare who have not easy access to an 1^^^^ elaborately annotated copy of the poet's works, with such notes and explanations of obsolete words, obscure passages and unfamiliar allusions as will enable them to get close to the mind of the great dramatist and thus derive from his works an amount of pleasure and profit which otherwise would be unattainable. For while it is undoubtedly true that there is not a single play which, as a whole, cannot be easily understood by any one who has a fair common school education, and this without any aid from glossaries or commentaries, it is also true that there are in Shakespeare many obsolete words as well as many allusions and expressions which, although quite clear to those whose reading has been extensive, are not familiar to many who are really anxious to fully enjoy their Shakespeare. For example : When Hamlet likens his mother to "Niobe, all tears," the intelligent reader would like to know something about Niobe and the cause of her grief. So, too, when, in The Tempest, Sebastian says of Gonzalo that "his word is more than the miraculous harp," it would certainly add to the pleasure and profit of the earnest reader to have this allusion explained. Then, again, in regard to old customs : When, in Love's Labour's Lost, Biron says of Longaville that "he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers," the expression carries no force unless we have a knowledge of the old custom on which it was based. In addition to this there are many words which have lost their original significance and consequently have not to present-day readers that force and beauty which they formerly had. Such, for example, is the word silly. As usually defined it has no special significance in the speech of the British Captain in Gymheline, Act V, Sc. 3, line 86, but as it is explained for the first time in these pages it has a force and beauty which are truly Shakespearean— lighting up with a single word the whole story of a daring exploit. To thoroughly enjoy Shakespeare we must fully understand him, and, unfor- tunately, the " Glossaries " which are appended to most copies of Shakespeare's works are too meagre to give us the information that is required. It is to supply this want in compact form and at a moderate cost that this book has been written; and we have not hesitated to take the element of cost into consideration in this connection, although bibliophiles and collectors may generally regard a cheap book as a poor one. But to the class to whom this volume is addressed — the common people whose whole education has been ac(|uired in our common (ix) PREFACE. schools, this point is one of considerable importance. Fortunately, cheap and really good editions of Shakespeare's works are easily procured. A copy with sound text, legible type, good paper and neat and durable cloth binding may be obtained in this country for a dollar or even less, and in England the "Shilling Shakespeare " is a feature of every book-stall. If to one of these cheap copies any person who desires to read Shakespeare understandingly should add the present volume, I think he will have a fairly good outfit for the intelligent enjoyment of the poet's works. It is very obvious that in a work like the present there is not much opportunity for originality, but in a few cases I have offered new glosses which I think must commend themselves to those who are competent to form a sound opinion in the matter. Indeed, they have already received the commendation of some of our foremost Shakespearean scholars. On turning to the words childed, kindlesSy odd-even, prick, silly, silly cheat, the reader will find examples of what I mean ; and there are a few passages in which the sense is, I think, obscured by typographical errors in the generally accepted text for which I have suggested a correction. I take this opportunity to say, however, that I am in entire accord with those who deprecate any interference with the text of the old editions for the purpose of what some are pleased to call "improvement "; I think that even the Cambridge edition has gone too far in this direction. It is only in the case of the most obvious typographical errors that we are justified in making an alteration. This subject I have discussed at greater length on a subsequent page under the heading " Sources of Error in the Text." As regards the sources upon which I have depended for information, a few words may not be out of place, especially as I have not thought it necessary to give a formal list of the books which I have read or consulted. In executing a work of this kind the shelves of public libraries, however accessible thej^ may be, and however attentive and efficient the librarians may prove, must be regarded as accessory helps and not as a chief dependence. Occasionally they may enable us to make an indispensable reference to some rare book, but the great bulk of the work of study, comparison and extracting must be done where the writer has continuous control of a large number of volumes. Now, the extent of even a moderate collection of Shakespeareana is sufficient to appall most private collectors. The number of volumes would easily run into five figures — a library which is beyond the reach of most men, myself included. It is, therefore, obvious that most workers in this department have to content themselves with a careful selection of moderate extent. For many years I have been accumulating a small collection of such books as I found useful or interesting in my Shake- spearean reading, and when I came to put my work into final shape I endeavored to add to these such books and editions as were absolutely necessary. For the early Folios and Quartos I have had, of course, to depend upon public libraries or reprints — volumes costing from $500 to !|9,000 being entirely out of the PREFACE. xi question. Of the First Folio, however, there are several excellent reproductions; two of these I have, as well as the admirable reprint of Lionel Booth. It happens also that several of the modern editions of Shakespeare have added to their contents exact reprints of some of the Quartos, so that no earnest student need be greatly handicapped in this respect. Of the editions between Kowe and Malone, such as those of Theobald, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens and others, it is easy to procure copies, and I have endeavored to quote from the books themselves and not at second-hand. Outside of these the great source of information in regard to early glosses and comments has been the Third Variorum of 1821, in twenty-one volumes. Boswell, to whom Malone left all his notes and materials for a new edition, seems to have been most painstaking and judicious, and his work must always prove indispensable so far as old glosses and comments are concerned. For the various readings of different editions and suggested new readings, I have depended upon the "Cambridge Shakespeare," edited by William Aldis Wright (9 vols., 1891). This might well be known as the Fourth Variorum. The editions of Singer, Knight, Collier, Verplanck, Hazlitt, Hudson, Dyce, White, Staunton, C. and M. Clarke, Eolfe, The Eugby, The Clarendon Press, "The Leopold" (Delius and Furnivall), "The Henry Irving" (Marshall, Symonds, Verity and Adams), Dowden, Craig and others have all been laid under con- tribution, as well as the "English of Shakespeare," by Craik ; "The Shake- spearian Grammar," by Abbott; the "Shakespeare-Lexicon," by Schmidt, and the works of Douce, Nares, Caldecott, Dyer, Patterson, Ellacombe, Beisley, Grindon," etc., and I freely acknowledge the aid I have derived from them. Special acknowledgment is due to " The New Variorum " edition of Dr. Horace Howard Furness. This must form the foundation stone of all future collections of Shakespearean literature ; it is so thorough, accurate and comprehensive that after consulting it upon any disputed point the student feels that he has heard all that is to be said upon the subject. In the thirteen volumes already issued (twelve plays), one is pretty sure to find a discussion of the most important Shakespearean words, allusions and dark passages which occur in the other plays, and by the aid of a Concordance it is easy to see just where to look for what is wanted. Some may think that I have drawn too freely from this noble work, but at most I have merely dipped my little bucket into the tide of a full flowing river and given my readers a taste of its pure and refreshing waters. For information in regard to Mythology and Classical Biography I have gone to the great storehouse of such knowledge, the " Dictionary of Greek and Eoman Biography and Mythology," edited by William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D., and I cannot too fully acknowledge my indebtedness. To those who wish to extend their studies in this direction this work is invaluable. In regard to credits in the body of the "Cyclopaedia" my rule has been as follows : Wherever I have made an exact quotation and was sure of the author I have placed the extract within quotatioit marks ?ind have appended the author's xii PREFACE. name. In many cases, however, the exigencies of space have compelled me to abridge or condense, and where this has been done the author's name has been retained, but the quotation marks have been omitted. Where the definition or explanation has so far become common property that I have been unable to trace the originator, no credit has been given. In this connection I would remark that perhaps the reader may notice a number of glosses for which I have given no credit, but which in recent Shakespearean literature have been credited to Schmidt, which in general means his " Shakespeare-Lexicon." My reason for this omission is that they have long been the common property of Shakespearean commentators, and why Rolfe, Fleming and others should credit to Schmidt that which belongs to his predecessors is not easily understood, but that they have done so every careful student knows. A curious result of Schmidt's habit of omitting credit may be found in the writings of the late Eichard Grant White. White wrote a justly severe criticism of the "Shakespeare- Lexicon " for the AtlantiG Monthly and, provoked no doubt by the abusive insolence which Schmidt so often exhibits towards commentators of English blood, his remarks are sometimes rather bitter. But in the case of one of his most severe notes, his condemnation is directed against a gloss which originated, not with Schmidt, but with Dr. Johnson from whom Schmidt " conveyed" it ! In every case my sole object has been to discover and present the meaning which Shakespeare himself actually intended, and not that which he might have intended or, as some of the early commentators have actually put it, which he ought to have intended. Imaginative interpretations are so easily devised that, with many, the temptation to let fancy run riot becomes very great. The attentive reader cannot fail to notice the number of instances in which I have referred to Scottish literature and lexicons for explanations and illustra- tions of the language of Shakespeare. With a single exception, I know of no Shakespearean commentator who has given special attention to the light which the language of the lowland Scotch throws upon many of the dark passages in Shakespeare's writings. That exception is Dr. Charles Mackay, who has pub- lished a " Glossary of the Obscure Words and Phrases in Shakespeare." Dr. Mackay, however, being a highlander, depends more on Gaelic than upon low- land Scotch, and his etymologies often differ widely from those of Skeat, Mahn and other recognised authorities. I notice, however, that Dr. Furness and one or two others are turning their attention in this direction and with good results. But in order to make effective use of this source of information there is needed something more than an acquaintance with dictionaries. Having been familiar from childhood with the Scottish language as a living and spoken tongue, I feel confident that I have been able to give a correct interpretation of several words and phrases of which the explanations hitherto given have, to say the least^ not been quite satisfactory. I do not refer, of course, to the purely Scottish words which so frequently occur in Shakespeare, such as bonny, chapman, neif, pash, PREFACE. xiii reek, wee, yeild, etc., etc., but to the peculiar shades of meaning which many modern English words have in Shakespeare and which differ from the meanings ordinarily assigned to them, a striking instance of which is found in the word silly. A.nd here it may be well to note that by the Scottish language I do not mean that corrupted jargon which has become familiar to the American public under the name of "kail-yard literature." The Scottish language has its dialects just as we find a dialect for every county in England and for every State in our Union, and our " kail-yard" friends do not always choose the best. Shakespeare ridiculed this very form when he put it into the mouth of Captain Jamy, but the number of true Scottish words which he himself uses shows the intimate relations which existed between that language and his speech. This relation was freely acknowledged long after the days of Shakespeare. I have on my shelves "A Complete Commentary on Milton's Paradise Lost," published in 1744, by James Paterson, M. A., in which he claims to explain, amongst others, the words of "Old English or Scottish." Not only the meaning, but the pronunciation of many words was nearly alike in the two languages and frequently very different from the English of the present day, so that, as I have noted under the word shovel, if Shakespeare were to appear in London or New York in one of his own plays it is more than probable that only educated Scotchmen could understand him. In pursuing this line of study, however, I have endeavored to prevent my natural predilection for my mother tongue from leading me into the swamp of forced definitions and fanciful etymologies; in other words, I have tried to pre- vent a valuable line of investigation from degenerating into a "fad." Those who are familiar with Elizabethan literature know that, however the morals of Shakespeare's time may compare with those of the present day, it cannot be denied that the language then in common use, not only amongst men, but women and even "ladies of quality," was such as would not now be tolerated anywhere except perhaps in the very lowest society ; and while, in the matter of decency, Shakespeare stands head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries, there are, nevertheless, in his plays many words and phrases which cannot be read aloud, much less discussed where young people are present. In preparing this Cyclo- pedia I have kept constantly in mind the fact that it is intended for use in families, and I have therefore excluded every subject which cannot be freely discussed in the family circle. The line-numbers which I have used are those of the " Globe," chiefly because this is the standard adopted by the great majority of those who have occasion to give a reference to a passage in Shakespeare. Even where the reader is using an edition in which the lines are not numbered, these line-numbers are a great aid to the quick finding of any required passage ; and by taking a slip of cardboard and marking off spaces showing 10, 15, 20 and 25 lines as measured on the copy in use, it is very easy to get quite close to any passage without incurring the trouble of actually counting. But it is to be hoped that in future xiv PREFACE. all editions of Shakespeare will have the lines numbered according to some generally recognised standard. This is something that might be easily done even with an abridged edition ; and it is greatly to be desired that future editions of the "Globe" should have the line-numbers at intervals less infrequent than those in the present edition. Jumps of more than one hundred lines are alto- gether too great ; the index numbers should appear at every tenth line at least. It has not always been an easy matter to decide just what words should be admitted to this glossary and what ones omitted, and the room wJiich exists for tJie exercise of good judgment in this matter is well shown by a comparison of the different glossaries appended to the various editions of Shakespeare's works. A large percentage of words that are admitted to some glossaries are not found in others and vice versa. Dr. Johnson stated this difficulty very clearly in his famous preface. He says : " It is impossible for an expositor not to write too little for some, and too much for others. He can judge what is necessary oniy by his own experience; and how long soever he may deliberate, will at last explain many lines which the learned will think impossible to be mistaken, and omit many for which the ignorant will want his help. These are censures merely relative, and must be quietly endured." Where I have presented views of my own which differ from those usually held, I have endeavored not only to give sound reasons for my own peculiar opinions, but to present also, in an unprejudiced manner, the arguments of the other side. To do this has sometimes demanded more space than the subject under discussion would have seemed to require, but if by any means we can attain to the truth, all considerations of space and labor must give way. I am fully aware of the fact that I have frequently laid myself open to the charge of presumption by offering definitions and interpretations which differ from those of the great lights of Shakespearean exegesis, but I cannot help that. Perhaps the atmosphere of New Jersey leads to that kind of independence. Some years ago we had in our city a Justice of the Peace whose legal attainments were of a grade which frequently led to a reversal of his decisions, though, like the British at Waterloo, he never seemed to know when he was beaten. On one occasion, when a case of more than usual importance was being tried in his court, a prominent lawyer, who had been engaged by one of the litigants, very respectfully called his honor's attention to certain decisions of the Supreme Court which seemed to be adverse to the views which he had propounded. Nothing abashed, however, he simply retorted : " Mister Smith, I would have you to understand that that is where I differ from the Shuprame Coort. " And so in these cases, even at the risk of being considered a copesmate of our Paterson Justice, I can only say : That is where I differ from Furness, Rolfe, Schmidt and the acknowledged authorities. Paterson, N. J., April, 1902. JOHN PHIN. INTRODUCTION. TLhc %am\xaQC of Sbal^espeare donst^ereb as an Bnci^clop^Ma of Contemporari? IRnowleDge, BY EDWARD DOWDEN, LiTT.D., LL.D., Dublin; LL.D., Edin. ; D.C.L., Oxon. ; Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin. INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD DOWDEN, LiTT.D., LL.D., Dublin; LL.D., Edin. ; D.C.L., Oxon. ; Professor of English Literature in the University of Dublin. jANY readers, I believe, will feel that they owe a debt to Mr. Phin for helping them to understand Shakespeare better. By his own studies and by a judicious use of the work of his predecessors he has brought together, within a moderate compass, a large body of information ; and he has so arranged the store of knowledge as to make it readily accessible to one who cares to learn. In work so comprehensive and so full of detail, errors are no doubt inevitable ; nor can everything be included which a student may desire to find. But if we are to be grateful only to those who are infallible, the range of our gratitude may have to suffer some contraction. The reader of Shakespeare cannot fail to obtain from this "Cyclopaedia" much that will instruct and interest him. To reach the spirit of Shakespeare should be our aim and end ; but in order to reach the spirit of Shakespeare we must conceive aright the xvii xviii INTRODUCTION. meaning of what lie wrote, and to do this is not always easy. There is nothing worse, the greatest of critics, Goethe, tells us, " than for * any one to make pretensions to the spirit of a thing, while the sense and letter of it are not open and clear to him," And this is true of a sentence or a phrase as well as of an author's entire work. It may require, for example, a little fortitude to dismiss from our minds the amiable misconception or misapplication, which has become general, of the line " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin " ; but we gain more in the end by understanding what Shakespeare's Ulysses really meant, and by recognising the place which that meaning occupies in the large worldly-wisdom of Ulysses, than by reading into his words some sentiment of our own, or some pleasant doctrine of fraternity which has its grounds in the common heart of humanity. Apart from the wisdom and the passion which are conveyed through the words of Shakespeare, the very language is a record of thoughts and things which has a high value and interest of its own. The vocabulary of Shakespeare is by far the largest collection of ideas and of facts, reduced to verbal representation, which any English writer has made and has put into circulation. The student of Shakespeare's language is more than a mere specialist, for he is called on to explore almost every province of life, almost every department of knowledge. Of course a large proportion of these words are still current coin, and pass every day from hand to hand. But many of the coins are out of date, bearing strange devices on the obverse and reverse, and it needs some inquiry to estimate their value. Here, in Shakespeare's vocabulary, are preserved for us, as in a museum, the relics of our forefathers' lives and minds; their manners and customs, their modes of salutation, their peculiarities of costume, their domestic economy, their field-sports, their indoor games, their music of the virginal and the lute, the furniture of their bouses, their arts and crafts, their military weapons, their superseded laws, the lore of their schools, their quaint notions of natural history, their faith in the virtues of herbs and of stones, their astronomical theories, their theories of man's physical and mental constitution, INTRODUCTION. XIX their belief in the supernatural, their demonology of witchcraft, their tidings from fairy-land, their omens of fear or hope drawn from the conjunction of planets or the lines of the palm. All these things, and much besides, are displayed in the rich museum of Shakespeare's language. And if we are interested in its contents, every old curiosity shop of^a minor dramatist or obscure pamphleteer becomes interesting to us, for amid its dusty lumber we may light upon something which fills a gap, or supphes a link, or interprets a puzzle in the treasures of our museum. Let us take, for example, some words which are still in common use, and which therefore cannot all be expected to appear in such a volume as the present, the words elements, hmnours. complexion, melancholy, choler, temper, spirits. How much of primitive physio- logical theory lies behind their famihar meanings! "Does not our life consist of the four elements ?" asks Sir Toby in Twelfth Night, In a companion pair of Sonnets (XLIV, and XLV.) Shakespeare finds in the theory to which Sir Toby refers the explanation of the sadness and the gladness which he experiences in absence from his friend; the heavier elements of earth and water in his composition cannot fly across the distance which separates him from the man he loves; the "quicker elements" of air and fire pass to and fro, and, returning with tidings of joy, "recure" the composition of his life. " I am fire and air," exclaims Cleopatra when about to fly to Antony through the portal of death, " my other elements I give to baser life." With one of these four elements, according to ancient and mediaeval physiology, each of the fluids or humours of the body— blood, choler, phlegm, melancholy— was specially connected, and as one of these humours predominated in the composition of a man his temperament or complexion was determined; it was cold or hot or moist or dry. By, a fashion of speech in Shakespeare's day the word "humour" was detached from its scientific meaning, and was loosely applied to any self-willed oddity or freak of fancy, and Nym in King Henry V. adorns his vocabulary with the much-abused expression. Against which popular misappHcation of the term Ben Jonson, the dramatist XX INTRODUCTION. of the humours, having explained the correct meaning, thinks it needful to protest : But that a rook by wearing a pyed feather The cable hatband, or the three-piled ruff, A yard of shoe-tye, or the Switzer's knot On his French garters, should affect a humour ! 0, it is more than most ridiculous. When the elements, and the humours connected with each of these, were duly proportioned in a man, then he was of perfect " temper " (see the word in the " Cyclopsedia ") ; such was the character of Shakespeare's Brutus, as described in the eulogy of Mark Antony at the close of Julius Ccesar : His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up. And say to all the world "This was a man!" But in addition to the humours, the "spirits" also play a large part in our life. " Forth at your eyes," cries the alarmed Queen to Hamlet, "your spirits wildly peep!" And Cressida's wanton "spirits" look out "at every joint and motive of her body." The word is intelligible to every reader, but again an antiquated theory of physiology lies behind the word. As we learn from that mediaeval historian of nature, Bartholomew Glanvil, whose work in its Elizabethan form, "Batman upon Bartholome," 1582, is a valuable storehouse of Shakespearian illustrations, " the spirit is a certain substance, subtle and airy, that stirreth and exciteth the vertues of the body in their doings and works." A smoke arising from the liver, where the blood seethes and boils, is purified and made subtle in the veins; this is the "natural spirit," which causes the motion of blood through the body. By "smiting together the parts of the heart" it is further "pured" and rarified, so becoming the "vital spirit," which " worketh in the artery veins the pulse of life." Passing upward to " the dens of the brain," and there being rendered yet finer and more subtle, it is converted into the "animal spirit," which INTRODUCTION. xxi in part spreads itself over "the limbs of feeling," in part remains in the brain in order that '* common sense, the common wit, and the virtue imaginative may be made perfect." And these three spirits, natural, vital, and animal, without which sensation and motion could not exist, are diverse forms of one and the same spirit, by whose instrumentality the soul operates upon the body and the body upon the soul. Thus, by tracing a few words back to their original uses, we are conducted into the strange realms of mediaeval science. And those who read Shakespeare with attention and put Mr. Phin's '' Cyclo- paedia " to good use will find as strange a cosmology and natural history. The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre Observe degree, priority, and place, says Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida. " This centre," for Shake- speare's astronomy (see sphere in the " Cyclopaedia ") is Ptolmaie, and the earth stands as the fixed centre of the universe. Around it revolve the spheres or orbs of the Seven Planets, of which the moon is one and " the glorious planet Sol " is another, each celestial body being whirled around the earth by the motion of its sphere. In the eighth sphere are planted the fixed stars, which themselves are fiery substances : Doubt thou the stars are fire ; Doubt that the sun doth move. Even Bacon maintained that " the celestial bodies, most of them, are true fires or flames, as the Stoics held." And it was a beautiful fancy, coming down from old philosophy, and one to which Shake- speare lent an ear, that the revolving spheres express the harmony of their movement in a spheral music, or, as Lorenzo puts it, that the planets and stars themselves are heavenly choiristers : There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubias, xxii INTRODUCTION. The voice of Antony, as it lives in Cleopatra's memory "was propertied as all the tuned spheres." Shakespeare's acquaintance with the quarters of our globe and its lands and seas was as exact and as inexact as that of his average contemporaries, and was at least sufficient for the purposes of poetry. He names America once, in connection with the Indies — "India" being, indeed, a name which was formerly given to America — as a land of wealth and of precious stones. He had certainly read for " The Tempest " some of the literature connected with the wreck of Sir George Somers upon the " still- vexed Bermoothes " in 1609 ; and there are indications that he had more than glanced into Hakluyt's Travels. But while he shows his intimacy with many parts of his native country, an acquaintance whether at first or second hand we cannot eay, with Scotland, and a curiously exact knowledge of portions of Italy, his geography is often poetical rather than scientific. His Africa is the Africa of maps which made its untravelled spaces interesting with pictures of marvellous creatures— the region of deserts and a torrid sun and the serpent ; his Bohemia, like Greene's, has its sea-coast ; his forest of Arden, its palm-trees and its lion ; his Lapland is the haunt of sorcerers and of witchcraft. Though Gesner and others had written much, Shakespeare's geological vocabulary is not in any special degree remarkable. But of gem a and precious stones he tells us something, for these are closely allied to the interests of humanity with which he deals. It is her mother's diamond that Imogen gives Posthumus at his departure from Britain, and Shakespeare may have thought of those virtues of which we read in the later Gemmarius Fidelius of Nichols: " It asswages the fury of a man's enemies * * * dowes away the terrors of the night, and frustrates all the maligne contageous power of poysons " ; Italy, for which Posthumus was bound, had an evil reputation in Shakespeare's day for its skill in the art of poisoning. The carbuncle, that stone which blazes in the chariot of the sun, and to which in Hamlet the eyes of Pyrrhus are compared, is, according to the same authority, a ruby of unusual size, and "for its innate INTRODUCTION. xxiii glory " it " containeth within itself tlie resemblance of a flame of fire." The chrysolite, as the reader will learn from the ^^ Cyclopaedia," was sometimes identified with the topaz ; the Gemmarius distinguishes the one from the other, but says that the names were often used interchangeably. The turquoise, gift of his dead Leah to Shylock "when a bachelor," had virtues ascribed to it which "nothing but excesse of faith can beheve " ; besides those virtues which the "Cyclopaedia" notes, it has this — that it takes away all enmity between man and wife ; but to possess its peculiar virtues, it must be, as with Shylock's stone, presented, not purchased : " these virtues," says Nichols, "are said not to be in this gemm except the gemm be received of gift." The liquid drops of tears which you have shed Shall come again, transformed to orient pearl, says Bichard III., addressing Queen Elizabeth. And the Gemmarius, which treats of the pearl as an object that comes within the range of the lapidary's art, reminds us that, according to Pliny, this "excellent geniture" of the oyster is "conceived of a certain maritime dew," to which piece of fictitious natural history the king's words may allude. The pearl, which Claudius feigns to throw, in the fashion of Cleopatra, into the drinking-cup, is named "an union"; "if they be great," says Nichols, "they are called Unions, because they are then found single in a shell. If they be small, they are called Margarites^ One precious stone, not dug from mines, is spoken of by the banished Duke in his sunny adversity of Arden forest — that worn in his head by the toad. This is the " Lapis bufonius," and sometimes, as we read in Johnston's History of the Wonderful Things in Nature, it bears in it the image of the toad ; but you may often find a toad without the stone, for " it never grows but in those that are very old." It draws poison out of the heart, which may also be among the " uses of adversity." The botany of Shakespeare is in itself a large subject on which volumes, such as Canon Ellacombe's Flant-Lore and Mr, Beisly's xxiv INTRODUCTION. Shakespeare' s Garden, have been written. Sometimes we come across an obsolete theory in vegetable physiology, as in that line of Troilus and Cressida which ascribes the knots in trees to the " conflux of meeting sap." Often we are reminded of the processes of gardening-craft, or the arrangement of "thick-pleached alleys," where hedges formed the borders, and of curious "knots " — knots, in this sense, meaning beds of quaint pattern, shaped with tiles, and often raised above the paths. We learn something of pruning and grafting; the production of variety of colours in flowers by that artificial impregnation, which Perdita regards as a wrong done to nature ; and the old custom of placing side by side certain plants which were supposed to suck different juices from the earth, each thus serving the other by leaving it the appropriate nourishment and removing what is adverse to its growth. The names of Shakespeare's flowers and herbs and trees are very numerous, and the identification of the plant is sometimes difficult. Thus "mary-bud" is correctly explained in the " Cyclopaedia " as the flower of the marigold ; but is the garden marigold {calendula officin- alis) meant, or Tennyson's " wild marsh marigold," quite a different plant, or, last, the corn marigold, a species of chrysanthemum? Canon Ellacombe, with little hesitation, gives his vote for the first of these. With the help of the Herbals of Dodoens, and Gerard, and Parkinson such questions can generally be answered. It is often the beauty of the flower which impresses Shakespeare's imagination, as in those immortal lines which describe the daffodil ; but often also there is a reference, expressed or implied, to the " virtues," to which the old herbalists devoted so much attention. Thus, as Mr. Phin notes, when Margaret in Much Ado recommends "carduus bene- dictus " to Beatrice, it is evident that she plays upon the name of Benedick, and has in her mind the singular virtue of the blessed thistle, recorded in The Gardener's Labyrinth of 1608, against "perilous diseases of the heart." Sometimes again it is what we may call a botanical myth that Shakespeare turns to poetical uses. Around no plant had gathered more terrible associations — terrible, INTRODUCTION. xxr yet also grotesque — than around the mandrake. It was vegetable, but at the same time it was half human ; when torn from the earth, as Suffolk and as Juliet remembered, it groaned and shrieked ; it had a kinship with the gallows and the corpse of the criminal; when wisely used it brought the blessing of sleep ; but for one who dealt rashly with its life, the mandrake became a fierce avenger, the envoy of madness or of death. The lore of beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles to be found in Shake- speare is extensive, and for the modern reader it frequently calls for some elucidation. His natural history of animals is partly founded on personal observation, but in large part it is an inheritance from classical and mediaeval writers. Troilus reproaches Hector with a "vice of mercy," "Which better fits a lion than a man. And from Pliny and his mediaeval disciple, Bartholomew, we learn what this vice of mercy is : " Their mercie is known by many and oft ensamples ; for they spare them that lie on the ground," pleading for pity by this act of prostration. "Tou are lions too," says Prince Henry, "you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince" — for the lion, being the King of beasts, will not attack a royal person. Richard addresses Edward, who has spoken of his valiant father : Kay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird, Show thy descent by gazing at the sun. *' Bird " here means the young one or nestling ; and we read in Bartholomew : " There is also one manner Eagle that is full sharp of sight, and she taketh her own birds in her claws, and maketh them look even on the sun * * * and if any eye of any of her birds watereth in looking on the sun, she slayeth him," "The elephant hath joints," says Ulysses, with a reference to the stubborn Achilles, "but none for courtesy." Shakespeare's natural history had advanced beyond that of many classical authorities, against whom Sir Thomas Browne, in Vulgar Errors (Bk. Ill, Chap. I) argues that " the xxvi INTRODUCTION. elephant hath joints " ; the Hortus Sanitatis, before Shakespeare's day, adhered to the old opinion, and though the jointless legs of the young elephant could bend, this power, we are told, was lost by the animal in its maturity. *' What sayst thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch ? " asks Prince Henry of Falstaff. And in Turbervile we read that the hare "is one of the most melancholicke beasts that is, and to heale her own infirmitie she goeth commonly to sit under , the wild succory." But in addition to the natural history which is in part truth, ii part fable, there is in Shakespeare and his contemporaries a natural] history which is wholly fabulous. The most illustrious of imaginary^ creatures w&s probably the phoenix (see "Cyclopaedia"). The sole Arabian bird alights for a moment on many a bough in the forest of Elizabethan poetry. At the close of Robert Chester's strange poem of 1601, "Love's Martyr," some of the most eminent of Shakespeare's fellows, and Shakespeare himself with them, unite in celebrating ideal love under the allegory of the phoenix and the turtle. In Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas (Fifth day of the First Week) her legend is told in detail, and we see the brilliant creature as she was seen by Shakespeare's fancy — her sparkling eyes, her crest of " starry sprigs," the golden down about her neck, her scarlet back and pur23le breast, her wings and train of "orient azure and incarnadine." She is consumed and reborn in the perfumed flame. But the salamander, which is a pestilent and venomous beast, lives in and feeds upon the fire; "his song," says Bartholomew, "is crying"; and, if he should please, "he quencheth the fire that he toucheth as ice does, and water frore." This fabulous natural history will be found more abundantly in the pages of Lyly than in those of Shakespeare ; but Shakespeare is pre-eminent among Elizabethan writers for his intimate knowledge of beast and bird as they are seen in the field-sports of England. His vocabulary here is extraordinarily rich and in its application it is almost infallibly exact. A delightful and learned guide to this province of Shakespearian study will be found in Mr. Justice INTRODUCTION. xxvii Madden's volume, "The Diary of Master William Silence." If the sporting terms which Mr. Phin has explained, each in its proper place, were brought together, the collection would form a little glossary of hawking, hunting, coursing, fowling, and other recreations of rural England. The falconer, who trains the long-winged hawks, may be disposed to throw a slight upon such a "gentle astringer" as appears in a stage-direction of AlTs Well, for the goshawk or "estridge," the bird of the astringer, is of inferior flight. It is the falcon that "towers" in her pride of place. And, as Mr. Justice Madden instructs us, you may take your hawk from the nest as an " eyas " (nestling) or you may capture a full-grown hawk, a "haggard," and by training reclaim or "man" the bird. "Eyasses," writes Tur- bervile " * * * do use to cry very much in their feedings " ; and Hamlet's little eyases, the boy actors, "cry out on the top of question." The unreclaimed haggard is, as we find in Othello, the very emblem of worthless inconstancy ; when captured she must be tamed by hunger and "watching." "I'll watch him tame," says Desdemona of her husband, promising to keep him sleepless until he yields to her request. The bird, when brought out upon the fist, must be "hooded" or she will "bate" (flutter the wings); " 'tis a hooded valour," says the Constable of France, when depreciating the Dauphin's courage, "and when it appears it will bate." I have followed and reduced to narrow space a few of Mr, Justice Madden's notes, and similar explanations will be found in the " Cyclopaedia. " And so we might go on almost without end, illustrating the remark- able familiarity of Shakespeare with the wholesome out-of-door mirth of England. Every point of a horse was known to him; and all the " terms of manage." Thus, Mr. Phin rightly explains the words of Benedick, "Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career," as referring to the tilt-yard, and the word " career " is itself a " term of manage," meaning not an advance which has no definite end, but a gallop which has an abrupt ending — the "stop " (as explained and illustrated by Madden) " by which the horse was suddenly and firmly thrown upon his haunches. Wherever Shakespeare uses the word the stop xxviii INTRODUCTION. is present to his mind. Leontes * * * spoke terms of manage when he marked 'stopping the career of laughter with a sigh' as a *note infalhble of breaking honesty.'" I have illustrated from a few departments the interest which lies in the study of Shakespeare's language ; and the illustration could be indefinitely extended. But Mr. Phin in the " Cyclopaedia " deals with much more than the vocabulary of Shakespeare. He is now historical, now topographical, and often, where questions of textual correctness arise, he is critical. Into the hazardous discussion of doubtful readings I shall not attempt to follow him. Here, more perhaps than elsewhere, there is room for differences of opinion. In some cases the difficulties are probably insoluble ; but from the days of EiOwe, and Pope, and Theobald a real progress has been made. The advance of knowledge in several instances where doubts existed or questions were raised, has justified the original readings. And on the whole it may safely be affirmed that a conservative text is the best text. But no one who has studied the Quartos or the First Folio can retain a superstitious reverence for them as exact records of what Shakespeare wrote ; and more violence is done to the original by forcing an unnatural meaning upon it than by accepting an emend- ation which accords at once with common sense and with the genius of our language as it was written in the age of Elizabeth. HOW TO READ FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. EVEK, since tlie dawn of civilization, have the opportunities offered to the people at large for the acquisition of knowledge and for intellectual culture been as great and as accessible as they are at the present day. The enormous output of books from the presses of the pub- lishers gives the widest range for selection, and the grades of these works are so varied that the most highly-trained mind may find a field for intellectual exercise, while at the same time the simplest and least learned may find mental food suited to its capacity. Added to this we have the recent unprecedented multipli- cation of free libraries which place all this store of knowledge within the reach of the poorest ; and when we examine the reports of these libraries we find that the people are not slow to take advantage of the facilities offered for reading. But while this condition of things has gladdened the hearts of all true philan- thropists and w^orkers for progress, there has crept into the minds of our most earnest thinkers a well-founded suspicion that, like almost all other beneficent in- stitutions, the free public library is not altogether an unmixed good, and that unless its patrons receive proper guidance it may actually become a source of dissipation and enervation. These views are not by any means new, and some years ago they found utterance in a small volume by the present writer under the title, *' A Book About Books." From it we shall borrow a few passages in a modified form. Most of the everyday reading that is done by ordinarily intelligent people is for pleasure, and the subjects chosen are usually fiction, poetry, travels and the more vivid and exciting parts of history. Fiction, however, forms the great bulk of such reading, and this is shown not only by the reports of all our circulating and free public libraries, but by the condition of the books on their shelves. It will be found that while the novels and story-books are thumbed to pieces, the more substantial works, even though occasionally drawn out, are never read so thoroughly and frequently as to be subjected to much tear and wear. So strongly has this fact impressed itself upon those interested in promoting the efficiency of our public libraries as educational inflaences, that a prominent benefactor of these institutions has actually proposed to exclude from their shelves all works of fiction that are not from one to three years old 1 It is evident, however, that such a proposition, if carried out, could effect no good, and the absurdity of the suggestion is seen at once when we reflect that under Buch conditions novels like Scott's "Ivanhoe" or the "Antiquary," if just pub- lished, would be excluded, while novels of the " penny-dreadful " class might be admitted if they were three years old ! Obviously, a much better plan would be to limit the department of fiction to a certain percentage of the amount expended for new books and to exercise a reasonable degree of supervision over the THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPAEDIA character of the books selected, irrespective of the desires expressed by the readers of that class of literature. Such a system, if supplemented by simple instructions in regard to the best methods of reading, would do much to advance the educational efficiency of our public libraries. If read in a proper manner, works of fiction (in which class may be included not only novels, but poetry and the drama) may be a very efficient means of culture both as regards language and ideas, but as ordinarily read by those who haunt our , free libraries they do anything but good ; and it unfortunately happens that some : eminent librarians have urged the formation of what they are pleased to call "the ' reading habit," no matter what the character of that habit maybe. This is a great mistake. The "reading habit" acquired by a large class of the community is almost as evil in its influences as the opium habit, or the whisky habit. This may seem a strange assertion, but it is true, nevertheless, and the writer speaka on this point not only from general deductions, but from very favorable and extensive personal opportunities for observing the actual effects of inordinate novel reading upon ordinary readers — especially upon females and young people. My experience has been that those who rapidly read novel after novel never do more than skim over the plot so as to indulge in the mental excitement which all stories of a romantic turn and intense action are sure to produce, and it matters not whether the novels that are read are the masterpieces of Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, Cooper or others of our best writers or the latest productions of the dime novel press, the effect on the mind is the same and is only evil, and that continually. For there is another habit which is far more valuable than the reading habit and of which the reading habit, as too often acquired, is utterly destructive, and that is the thinking habit. The confirmed novel reader does not think ; she (for such readers are mostly females and young people) dreams and lives in a land of seemingly pleasant delights, but of good, healthy thinking she knows nothing. On the other hand, if we make a judicious selection of any of our standard authors and read according to a proper system, we shall gain not only in knowledge, but in that which is far better— culture and training. Under such a method we shall find that new beauties of diction and of thought will reveal themselves at every step of our progress, and we shall gradually acquire those habits of thought which sympathy with a writer of strength and refinement is sure to induce. Of course, the reading of the inferior productions of sensational writers never can effect this. We may so read Scott, Cooper and Dickens as to obtain from them all the evil effects of the dime novel, but we can never obtain from the dime novel the culture and improvement which the writings of Dickens, Scott and Cooper are capable of affording if properlj^ used. In view of these incontrovertible truths, this question forcibly presents itself : How shall we read so as to avoid the evils we have mentioned and attain the greatest benefit as well as the truest and highest pleasure from a perusal of recent I AND NEW GLOSSARY. authors as well as from the greatest of all the literary productions in the English language, the works of Shakespeare? That this question is not always answered wisely is very clearly shown by the reply given net long ago by the editor of a prominent journal to a young enquirer who had not had large oppor- tunities for self-improvement, but who had been attracted to the writings of Shakespeare by the force and beauty of some of the best known passages and by seeing some of the plays acted on the stage. Therefore, that he should have asked, "What is the best way to read Shakespeare?" was the most natural thing in the world. The reply was that " the best way to read Shakespeare is to read him"! and it is probable that this is the answer which the beginner will get in nine cases out of ten when he applies to some one who has a pseudo-reputation as a "Shakespearean." In this bald shape such an answer is either a truism or a very gross mistake. It is certainly true that we cannot read the works of any author without reading them, but if we take up the works of Shakespeare and read straight through from the beginning to the end of the volume, we can never obtain that instruction and pleasure which we might derive from a wiser and more systematic course. Shakespeare's writings cannot be regarded as one homogeneous piece, every part of which is united to the rest by a single aim. His works consist of thirty- seven plays and several pieces of poetry, and of these there are but few which have an intimate connection with any of the others. It is his plays, however, which have made his name a household word. It would be difficult to find any person, able to read English, who has not heard of Hamlet, Csesar, Lear, Falstaff or Shylock ; but not one in a thousand has ever heard of "The Passionate Pilgrim," or "The Phoenix and the Turtle." All the most important plays have in themselves a completeness and distinctness which render it possible to study them without reference to anything else; and while a true lover of Shakespeare will not rest content until he has made the entire volume his own, those whose opportunities as regards time, etc., are limited, will do well to master thoroughly one-half or a third of the three dozen plays rather than form a mere general acquaintance with the whole. I have seen it stated somewhere that if you wish to test any person's familiarity with the writings of Shakespeare, ask him if he has read Oymheline, and I presume that the conclusion must be that those who have not read this play are to be set down as knowing little or nothing of the great dramatist. Now, although Cymheline is a play which no lover of Shakespeare can afford to neglect, it is quite possible that one might not only be an ardent admirer of Shakespeare's works, but have made very important advances in Shakespearean study, and yet might not have read that play. Given two young people of equal talents and equal, but comparatively limited, opportunities as regards leisure and means of study; if one should read all Shakespeare's works and the other should devote the same amount of time and study to tenor a dozen of the most important plays, the latter would un- THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA doubtedly become a more thorough Shakespearean than the other ; and what is more : The second would probably have attained a higher degree of mental culture, a greater amount of knowledge and, I will venture to say, more real pleasure than the other. In reading any one of Shakespeare's plays there are several distinct points which demand our attention. Thus we have : 1. The plot or story ; 2. The various individual characters and their development ; 3. The peculiarities of language and expression and the special meanings borne by words used in their old senses ; 4. The various allusions to old time customs, mythology, history, etc. Other points, such as the style of the different plays, indicating the period at which they were written, will also present themselves, but it is hardly to be expected that beginners will have the critical insight which will enable them to derive much profit from this at the start, that is, if they are not under the personal guidance of some teacher of experience. The first thing which the reader should try to attain is a clear idea of the general run of the play and of the incidents which mark each stage of its progress. It is a notable feature of all Shakespeare's plays that they may be read with profit even if numerous passages should remain obscure ; and this is true not only in regard to isolated words and expressions, but as to passages of consider- able length. Dr. Johnson, in his famous "Preface," calls special attention to this point in the following words : " Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils. Let him, that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation. When his attention is strongly engaged, let it disdain, alike to turn aside to the name of Theobald and Pope. Let him read on through brightness and obscurity, through integrity and corruption ; let him preserve his comprehension of the dialogue and his interest in the fable; and when the pleasures of novelty have ceased, let him attempt exactness, and read the commentators." At this point the reader will no doubt ask: "Which of Shakespeare's plays ought we to select for the first half-dozen?" This is a puzzling question and one to which probably no two authorities would give the same answer. It would be impossible to name ten plays and not omit others equally deserving of attention; nevertheless, if we are to read at all, we must begin somewhere. Perhaps as good a play as any to commence with would be The Merchant of Venice. From this the beginner may pass to tragedy as shown in Hamlet, Othello, Lear or Macbeth, or to lively, mirth-provoking comedy as found in Much Ado About Nothing, the two parts of Henry the Fourth, etc. There is no doubt that great advantage may be derived from following the development of Shakespeare's artistic faculty as shown in the characteristics of the different plays, and for this no better guide can be AND NEW GLOSSARY. found than Professor Dowden's little " Primer." But it seems to nie that in order to appreciate Dowden, or any other writer on Shakespeare, we must first read a little of Shakespeare himself. If we would study a plant we must first become familiar with the general appearance of the plant itself ; after that, let us follow the instructions of the botanists. No difficulty should be found in the effort to grasp the main incidents of the play, and almost all the finer passages may be easily understood, but the reader will find scattered through Shakespeare's writings a few words which are now entirely obsolete, and for an explanation of these, reference must, of course, be made to a special glossary or to one of the large dictionaries. But such words rarely cause any trouble, and need never mislead the reader. It is otherwise, however, with many words employed by Shakespeare and which are still in use, but which now bear a meaning very different from that which they had in the time of Queen Elizabeth. This is apt to give the reader a wrong impression in regard to the meaning of certain passages and to so far mislead him as to make him think that he understands every word, while the truth is that the sense, as it appears to him, is very different from that originally intended. One of the best helps to an understanding of Shakespeare is to witness the representation of his plays by really good actors. It was said of one famous actor that to witness his representation of Macbeth was to read Shakespeare by flashes of lightning; and those who have seen Booth in Hamlet smd Othello; Forrest in King Lear,- Charlotte Cushman as Lady Macbeth, or Irving in The Merchant of Venice, must fully realise the appropriateness of the expression. It has been well said that a thorough study of Shakespeare is sufiScient to impart a liberal education. This is no doubt true, but to attain such an end the study must be something more than the ordinary slip-shod reading with which so many are content. We use the word "slip-shod" advisedly, because if any one who has made a careful study of some such play as The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, or Othello, should discuss its chief features |with the average reader who is fond of quoting the finer or, rather, the more expressive sentences of Shakespeare, he will soon find how vague and inaccurate are the ideas which many people have in regard to the details of most of the plays. Indeed, we find that many who claim to be careful students, and even some who aspire to be teachers and critics, have not read the works of the great master of dramatic literature with a closeness sufficient to give them a clear and accurate knowledge of many very important points. That this is not too strongly stated is easily shown by a reference to our current periodical literature. It is not long since one who has written much about Shakespearean matters, and has published several books professing to deal with Shakespearean interpretation, actually told us, through a prominent literary journal, that Hamlet murdered his mother and then com- mitted suicide! ! Another instance I may be seen in a modern and somewhat pretentious edition THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA of Shakespeare's works, in which we are told, in the introduction to one of the volumes, which, by the way, happens to have two editors, that Shakespeare represents Macbeth as curing a " crew of wretched souls " by touching for the king's evil. A reference to Mcb. IV, 3, 140, will show that Shakespeare does nothing of the kind. I have now before me a recent commentary on Shakespeare, written for the use of young students and readers, in which we are gravely told that Desdemona keeps the office opposite to Saint Peter, whereas, as any intelligent boy or girl may see, it is Emilia to whom that function is assigned. These mistakes are evidently not mere slips of the pen, but are due entirely to imperfect methods of reading. Neither do they involve any of those obscure or doubtful points which have puzzled learned and astute commentators ; they relate to plain and obvious details of the play which certainly ought to be clear to the average schoolboy. This careful and attentive mode of reading is particularly necessary in the case of certain points which are not obvious to those who merely skim over the text, but which develop themselves under careful study and persistent thought, and then are seen to be not really either doubtful or very subtle. Take, for example, the death scene in Othello, Act V, Sc. 2. Many who have seen this play on the stage, or who have read it in the usual manner, get the idea that Desdemona's life was ended by smothering; and in a recent issue of one of the literary journals an amateur critic throws a good deal of ridicule on Shakespeare, claiming that his method of treating the subject borders on the absurd and really involves impossibilities. "How," he exclaims, "could Desdemona be fatally smothered, then come to life again, carry on an intelligent conversation and immediately afterwards, apparently without further cause, die ?" And, as presented by many actors, these obj ections seem to hold good. But on careful examination the reader will see that smothering may not have been the ultimate and effective cause of her death ; and on turning to the words So, so, in this Cyclopaedia it will be found that Shakespeare has not described an un- natural, not to say au impossible scene. The same rules which apply to the study of Shakespeare's works apply to the reading of all literature. It is not from a first or even second perusal that the reader gains the full benefit which any really good work of fiction is capable of affording, and if the book is of such a character that it will not bear going over more than once, that very fact is strong evidence of its worthlessness. In pursuing such a method of reading it will be found that where really good books are selected, great advantage will be derived from the companionship of two or more persons in the work. Hence the advantage of those little clubs or societies whose members read and discuss a favorite author together. It may be well, therefore, to devote a page or two to a consideration of the formation and conduct of such associations AND NEW GLOSSARY. SHAKESPEARE CLUBS AND SOCIETIES. "Get one or two likely friends to join you in your Shakspere work, if you can, and fight out all your and their difficulties in common ; worry every line ; eschew the vice of wholesale emendation. Get up a party of teu or twelve men and four or six women to read the plays in succession, at one another's houses, or elsewhere, once a fortnight, and discuss each for half an hour after reading. Do all you can to further the study of Shakspere, chronologically and as a whole." FurnivaWs Introduction to " The Leopold Shakspere. " PLEASURE that is shared with another is doubled, and in nothing is this more true than in intellectual enjoyments. Hence it follows that the satisfaction obtainable from the study of any favorite author may be greatly enhanced by the co-operation of a small number who unite as a little club or society for the purpose of reading and discussion. But it is not the pleasure only that is increased. When several minds are thus brought together to work on a common object, tbe stimulus of association enables them to attain results which none of them could reach singly. This is well seen in the effect of competition and encouragement on young people who, instead of studying alone, join a class and work in concert. The solitary reader or student may no doubt derive a great deal of the highest pleasure and instruction from quiet communion with one of the greatest minds of all the ages, but it never- theless remains true that just as it is easy to make a hot lire with half a dozen sticks, any one of which would soon become cold if separated from the rest, so the association of a few earnest minds not only adds to the enthusiasm of the piarsuit, but if each one brings his or her contribution of new ideas, however small that contribution may be in itself, the aggregate will prove a surprise to those who have had little or no experience in such matters. Of course, there may be many who will join such a club merely for the name of the thing or for the sociability which it offers ; they would like to have the reputation of being literary, and especially of being supposed to be admirers and students of Shake- speare without doing the hard work, which alone can entitle them to that distinction. Let them come. It will be impossible to bring a dozen people together and get them to read a play or even part of a play by Shakespeare without imparting new ideas to most of them, and thus improving the minds of all. On Fokming a Club.— It is not difficult to form a Shakespeare club ; the difficulty is to sustain it. There are very few places of from 3,000 to 5,000 in- habitants in which it would be difficult to find a dozen persons specially interested in those subjects which come within the legitimate scope of such an association. The problem is to bring them together so as to form an organization having a local habitation and a name. To effect this it is necessary that two or three individuals should take the initiative and, by appeals either to personal friends or to the public in general, gather in those who are interested. THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA The organization of a club should be as simple as possible ; the offices should not be unnecessarily numerous ; the rules should be few and the expenses should be cut down to the lowest point compatible with efficiency. A President, Secretary and Treasurer are, of course, indispensable ; and there must be Rules and By-laws regulating the conditions of membership, the dates for regular meetings and the order of business ; but beyond these, the less the action of the club is hampered the better. Where a regular Society (which may include several clubs) is established, a more elaborate organization may be necessary, but even in that case it will be found that simplicity is an important element of success. The Size of the Club. — Clubs for the reading and study of Shakespeare are most enjoyable and consequently most efficient when small — say, not over a dozen or twenty members, which would mean an average attendance of ten to fifteen persons. In such clubs every member knows all the others, and it is possible to have such pleasant social relations as are not easily maintained in very large associations. In cities of some size several such clubs may be organized and sustained ; I know of one place of not over 25,000 inhabitants in which there are three flourishing clubs. While there is certain work which can be done better in small clubs than in large societies, the latter are the most efficient where the reading and after- discussion of carefully prepared papers form the chief features of the exercises. The advantages which belong to both might be easily realized by occasionally holding union meetings when some special subject of general interest is to be brought forward. Or, perhaps it might be a yet better plan to have the clubs, while still retaining their individuality, unite so as to form a Shakespeare Society, which need not meet as often as the clubs, and at which meetings papers by members might be read, lectures and readings by noted Shakespeareans delivered and such other work accomplished as might be more suitable for a public meeting than for a small social gathering. Club Wokk. — There are many ways in which a club may occupy its evenings ; merely reading a play, each member taking a part, furnishes a delightful enter- tainment. Those who take part in such exercises should carefully study their "casts" so that the speeches may be rendered intelligently and with proper emphasis. This leads not only to a more perfect understanding of the plays, but it gives efficient training in that most delightful of all accomplishments — the art of reading aloud with ease and grace. It will frequently be found that the sense that may be derived from a passage of Shakespeare depends largely upon the manner in which it is read and the gestures employed. In some passages the entire meaning is changed by a difference in emphasis or gesture. See under the word take in this "Cyclopaedia." This forms a pleasant and instructive subject for discussion after the reading exercises have closed. The Selection of an Edition for Reading. — Where plays are thus read by AND NEW GLOSSARY. members of a club, it is obviously essential that all the members should use the same edition, particularly in those cases where the text has been expurgated or abridged, and as a general rule the edition used under such circumstances should be expurgated— that is, all the indelicate words and passages should be omitted. To the earnest student, reading alone or with two or three companions of the same sex, an expurgated edition is an abomination, but for the family or a club where young persons of both sexes are present, it is a necessity. All the so-called school editions are, of course, expurgated. On a subsequent page the reader will find hints for the selection of a copy of Shakespeare's works for private reading and study, but for the use of clubs, somewhat different rules must guide us. The following points deserve attention : 1. The type should be clear and of good size so that it may be easily read even when not held close to the eye. 2. The volume should be light and easily held in one hand. Consequently, those editions in which each play is contained in a separate volume are to be preferred. 3. The books should be cheap, so that the owner may feel no regret at being obliged to mark, in pencil or ink, what are known as "cuts." It would be a pity to subject a finely-illustrated and annotated copy to such an indignity. Among the cheap editions, of which separate plays are sold for a small sum, we may note the following : Eolfe's edition, now published by the American Book Company. This is elaborately annotated, and the type is large and clear. Single plays are sold at 36 cents in paper, and 56 cents in cloth. The Hudson School Shakespeare, published by Ginn and Company, of Boston, is also an admirable edition. Single plays, 35 cents in paper, and 50 cents in cloth. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, of Boston, issue very neat editions of the principal plays, carefully edited, expurgated and annotated, at 15 cents in paper and 25 cents in linen. A very excellent edition, at the small price of 10 cents per play, in paper, is published by Cassell and Company in their "National Library Series," edited by Professor Henry Morley. It has no notes and is unexpurgated. The "Clarendon Press Series," published for the University of Oxford by Henry Frowde (with a New York branch), is elaborately annotated, but unex- purgated. There are seventeen plays mostly edited by W. Aldis Wright, and the prices range from 30 cents to 40 cents. The "Eugby" editions are also excellent. They are copiously annotated, but unexpurgated. They are published by the Bivingtons, of London. Samuel French, of New York, publishes nearly all the plays in 15 cent paper- covered editions. I have not had an opportunity to examine them, but I believe they are designed chiefly for amateur theatricals. 10 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA Music. — It generally happens that such clubs include members who have musical talents and acquirements, and they will find the old-time music of Shake- speare a new source of delight for themselves and for their fellow members. Several books have been published on this subject, two of which may be mentioned : "Handbook of Shakespeare Music," by A. RofEe (London, 1878), and "Shakespeare and Music," by E. W. Naylor (London and New York, 1896). Society Woek. —While the reading of Shakespeare is peculiarly appropriate to clubs, the larger Societies will find their proper field in the reading and sub- sequent discussion of papers on special points, such as the study of the language, folk-lore, historical characters, mythology, and other subjects upon which the plays touch. All these afford material for interesting discussions ; they lead easily and pleasantly to a study of the poet's works, and a thorough study of Shakespeare is equivalent to a liberal education. Social Featubes. — Where the meetings are held in private houses it has been found that it adds much to the interest and sociability of the gathering to have some simple refreshments at the close of each session. Care must be taken, however, not allow this part of the exercises to dominate the intellectual features of the occasion ; and it is hardly necessary to say that any attempt at display or any indulgence in expensive entertainments, while to some it may increase the pleasures of a single evening, will inevitably work ultimate injury to the club. The meetings will be sure to degenerate into Society Eeceptions, which will take the place of Literary Gatherings. Those who are interested in the formation and conduct of Shakespeare Societies and Clubs will find many practical and sensible directions in Professor Eolfe's Introduction to Fleming's "How to Study Shakespeare." Published by Double- day and McClure Company, New York. THE TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS. U^i^/N reading books and articles on Shakespeare we often meet such expres- i^ll^ sions as "the accepted text," " the standard text" ; and sometimes we ^yi^) even find the statement: "As Shakespeare wrote it." Then, on the other hand, we find innumerable "new readings," "emendations,'' "corrections," etc., which claim to be "restorations" of what is said to be "the true and correct text." All this is rather puzzling to the unlearned, and it seems to be confusing even to some whose scholarly attainments have acquired for them notable college degrees, evidence of this last being easily found in the correspondence columns of our literary journals. As a clear understanding of this matter will help the reader to form a proper estimate of the real value of many of the comments and suggestions which are found in the annotated AND NEW GLOSSARY. 11 editions, glossaries, etc., a few words on the subject will not be out of place. Those who desire to study the subject thoroughly will find the material facts very fully given in Lee's "Life of William Shakespeare," and in the Introduction to Craik's "English of Shakespeare," and the Preface to "The Cambridge Shake- speare." None of Shakespeare's dramas was ever published with his authority or under his supervision. The reason for this is not far to seek: Shakespeare wrote for the theatres, and to them he sold the entire right to his plays. The companies that owned these theatres held the opinion that it would be against their interests to have these manuscripts printed and published, and, consequently, the only editions that were placed on the market were those that were issued by piratical publishers. Of the plays which now form parts of Shakespeare's acknowledged works, seventeen were published in this way, these editions being known as "The Quartos." Shakespeare was connected with two theatres — the Blackfriars and the Globe — but his relations with the latter were more intimate than those with the former. On June 29th, 1613, the Globe Theatre was totally destroyed by fire, and all the dresses, prompt-books, etc., were consumed. It may have been that the original manuscripts of many of the plays were destroyed at that time. Shakespeare died three years later — on April 23, 1616— without having collected or edited his own works, and, with the exception of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, there is not a single line of all his writings that was published with his authority or under his supervision. In 1623, seven years after his death, two of his fellow actors, Heminge and Condell, brought out an edition of the plays, now known as the First Folio. They claimed, and so stated on the title-page, that in the production of this volume they used "the true originall copies," but we have the most positive evidence that many of the plays were reprinted from the Quartos which they had so bitterly denounced as " diuerse stolne and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the fraudes and stealthes of incurious impostors that exposed [published] them." Upon this point Lee says: "But it is doubtful if any play were printed exactly as it came from his pen. The First Folio text is often markedly inferior to that of the sixteen pre-existent Quartos, which, although surreptitiously and imperfectly printed, followed play-house copies of far earlier date." The First Folio contained thirty-six plays, Perides having been omitted. Pericles had, however, been printed in Quarto in 1609 and 1611. The Second Folio (1632) was almost a reprint of the First ; in the Third (1664) Perides and six spurious plays were added to the text of the First Folio. The Fourth (1685) is merely a reprint of the Third with the spelling somewhat modernised. A consideration of these facts leads to the unavoidable conclusion that we have no authoritative Shakespearean text ; that there is not a line in any edition 12 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA of Shakespeare's plaj^s upon which we can lay our finger and say : "This is as Shakespeare wrote it." In the case of modern writers we have the knowledge that they corrected the proofs of their works; and it is known also that both Ben Jonson and Spenser saw their writings through the press and were careful to secure the utmost possible accuracy. It was not so with Shakespeare ; of none of his plays have we any copy that was ever authorised or revised by him. Of course, the prob- ability that very much that we now regard as his writings has come down to us just as he produced it, is so great that we are compelled to accept it as his, but there is always room for doubt. Writing on this point, Dr. Johnson says : "His works were transcribed for the players by those who may be supposed to have seldom understood them ; they were transmitted by copiers equally unskilful, who still multiplied errors ; they were, perhaps, sometimes mutilated by the actors, for the sake of shortening the speeches, and were at last printed without correction of the press." The text which is now generally accepted is that of the First Folio, with additions and corrections obtained by carefully collating this volume with the Quartos, of which editions the Cambridge editors say : " In other cases the Quarto is more correctly printed, or from a better MS. than the Folio text, and therefore of higher authority. For example, in Midsummer I^lghfs Dream, in Love's Labour's Lost, and in Richard the Second, the reading of the Quarto is almost always preferable to that of the Folio, and in Hamlet we have computed that the Folio, when it differs from the Quartos, differs for the worse in forty-seven places, while it differs for the better in twenty at most." In addition to changes in the text of the Folio made by collating it with the Quartos we have what are known as " conjectural" emendations in which letters, words and sentences are so altered as to make sense where previously this was impossible. All are now agreed that this should be strictly confined to the correction of errors introduced by printers and copyists; and certainly none but blind worshippers of the old text will deny that the printers who set the type for the Quartos and Folios were quite as apt to make mistakes as their more modern brethren. Consequently, where the change of one or two letters enables us to convert a passage which we cannot understand in its present condition, into one that is clear, sensible and forcible, we have a right to make or, at least, to suggest such an emendment. "We know positively that there are passages in which the change of one or more letters has converted nonsense into sense ; see oisson, rother, etc.; and we also know that there are lines in which certain words (ullorxals, as Dr. Ingleby calls the.m) are acknowledged by all to be hopelessly corrupt. Therefore, it is not presuming too far to suppose that there may be other passages from which a better sense than any that has yet been extracted may be obtained by a typographical correction, See dare, flax, larmen, etc. The typographical errors which mar even the most carefully printed books are AND NEW GLOSSARY. 13 a matter of common observation to all careful readers. In most cases these errors do little harm, since they are obvious and easily corrected, but in some instances they affect the sense very materially, and they show a wonderful vitality through successive editions. For example, even those editions of the Waverly novels which claim to be edited with great care exhibit gross errors, evidently due originally to the blunders of the printer. Thus in "Woodstock," in Vol. II, Chap. XV, p. 308, of the edition of 1829, we find the types making Scott speak of turning up a "swathe" (i.e., grass left in a long row after the scythe) with a . plough! ! The original word was no doubt " sward" or sod; swathe makes utter nonsense of the passage, while sward is forcible and to the point; and yet the editor of a fine edition recently published in Edinburgh continues this blunder and the publishers defend it! So, too, in "Waverly," Vol. I, p. 117 (same edition), Scott enumerates the delicacies which loaded the breakfast-table of the Baron of Bradwardine, and the printer has put "rein-deer hams " in the list. The rein-deer had been extinct in Scotland for over six hundred years, as Scott very well knew; beyond all question, what he wrote was red-deer, but the error keeps on its way in the best or, at least, the most expensive editions.* If such gross and important errors are to be found in a work published within a few years and the proofs of which were carefully revised by the author, what may we not expect in books published under the conditions which gave birth to the First Folio? Upon this point Prof. Craik, one of the ablest and most independent of Shakespearean critics, expresses himself as follows : " As a typo- graphical production it is better executed than the common run of the English popular printing of that date. It is rather superior, for instance, in point of appearance, and very decidedly in correctness, to the Second Folio, produced nine years later. Nevertheless, it is obviously, to the most cursory inspection, very far from what would now be called even a tolerably well-printed book. There is probably not a page in it which is not disfigured by many minute in- accuracies and irregularities, such as never appear in modern printing. The punctuation is, throughout, rude and negligent, even when it is not palpably blundering. The most elementary proprieties of the metrical arrangement are violated in innumerable passages. In some places the verse is printed as plain prose ; elsewhere, prose is ignorantly and ludicrously exhibited in the guise of verse. Indisputable and undisputed errors are of frequent occurrence, so gross that it is impossible they could have been passed over, at any rate in such numbers, if the proof-sheets had undergone any systematic revision by a qualified person, however rapid. They were probably read in the printing office, with more or less attention, when there was time, and often, when there was any * Scott's poems have fared even worse at the printer's hands, as may be seen in the edition issued under the care of Prof. Rolfe, who has corrected them with great knowledge and good judgment, 14 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA hurry or pressure, sent to press with little or no examination. Everything betokens that editor or editing of the volume, in any proper or distinctive sense, there could have been none. The only editor was manifestly the head workman in the printing-office. *'0n closer inspection we detect other indications. In one instance, at least, we have actually the names of the actors by whom the play was performed prefixed to their portions of the dialogue instead of those of the dramatis personce. Mr. Knight, in noticing this circumstance, observes that it shows very clearly the text of the Play in which it occurs (Much Ado About Nothing) to have been taken from the playhouse copy, or what is called the prompter's book. ['Library Shake- speare,' II, 366.] But the fact is that the scene in question is given in the same way in the previous Quarto edition of the Play, published in 1600 ; so that here the printers of the Folio had evidently no manuscript of any kind in their hands, any more than they had any one over them to prevent them from blindly following their printed copy into the most transparent absurdities. The Quarto, to the guidance of which they were left, had evidently been set up from the prompter's book, and the proof-sheets could not have been read either by the author or by any other competent person." " The English of Shakespeare " (1859), p. 14. J And again, on p. 27, he says : " No modern editor has reprinted the Plays of * Shakespeare exactly as they stand in any of the old Folios or Quartos. Neither the spelling, nor the punctuation, nor the words of any ancient copy have been retained unaltered, even with the correction of obvious errors of the Press. It has been universally admitted by the course that has been followed that a genuine text is not to be obtained without more or less of conjectural emendation: the a only difference has been as to the extent to which it should be carried." Since Prof. Craik wrote the above. Dr. Furness has brought out several plays in which the First Folio is followed with great accuracy, even to broken letters, crooked lines and bad work of that kind. But all such reprinting has been rendered unnecessary by the photographic reproductions of the volume. In these we have that liability to error which attends all hand printing, entirely eliminated, and such copies are so cheap that they are within the reach of every student. Another reproduction of this kind, one which promises to be the finest ever issued, is now in course of preparation by the Oxford Press, under the able supervision of the well-known Shakespearean, Sidney Lee. I look forward with eager interest to the reception of my copy of this magnificent, though low-priced, piece of work. It is greatly to be wished that the good work will not stop here, but that the publishers will go on and give us similar reproductions of the other Folios. The Sources and Causes of Errors in the Text, ^ The sources and causes of typographical mistakes in the writings of Shake- speare and other authors form a most interesting subject of study, not only on general grounds, but because in many cases they afford a clue to the correction AND NEW GLOSSARY. 15 of errors and to the true reading. It is more than likely that the chief sources of error in the production of the old copies of the plays, as indeed of all printed matter, were the following : 1 . It is probable that most of the Quartos were set up from copy taken down by shorthand reporters from the recitations of actors either in the theatre or in coffee-houses. Under such circumstances the reporter would be very likely, in some cases, to put down words having a similar sound, but a meaning very different from the true one. That errors have thus crept in is almost certain. 2. Mr. Theodore De Vinne, who is high authority on all that relates to typo- graphy, tells us that in the old continental printing offices the printers set up the matter from dictation and not from written copy placed before them, and Dr. Furness thinks that this accounts for many errors hitherto attributed to the reporters; but, while this may be true in a few cases, it is doubtful if it obtained to any great extent, for although the system of setting type from the voice of a reader is known to have obtained on the continent, we have no evidence that it was followed to any great extent in England and, indeed, it has been claimed that much of the type-setting done on books in London was done in the homes of the workmen themselves, just as weaving was carried on chiefly in the homes of the operatives and not in large factories as at present. The same was true of many trades, such as nail-making. In any case, the setting up of the matter from dictation would only be an additional source of error; the original influence, as affecting the copy used by the reader, must have remained in full force. 3. One of the most fruitful sources of error in printed matter, including books, is the illegibility of the MS. or " copy." When the compositor * is unable to read the MS. without difficulty or doubt, conjectural emendation begins in its most dangerous form. 4. Closely akin to original illegibility is the wearing of the copy, by which certain words and sentences become unreadable. That this has happened to several places in the original copy of the plays is altogether more than probable, being caused by ordinary use in the theatres. In such cases the blank might be filled up by some actor who remembered the lines — accurately, perhaps, in some cases, inaccurately in others. 5. A very common error in printing offices is what is known as a "doublet." The compositor loses his place and sets up a few words, more or less, twice. If he should make any change in the wording of the second set, this error would be apt to pass unobserved in an office where a strict system of copy-holding and proof-reading was not maintained. We have reason to believe that the Eliza- bethan printers were quite loose in this respect. 6. The converse of the preceding is still more apt to occur. When the same set of three or four words occur within a short distance of each other, after the compositor has set up the first set and a few of the words that follow, he is very =*= The workman who sets up the type is, in technical language, called a " compositor,'" 16 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA apt, in again looking at his copy, to resume his work after the second set of words, and he may thus be led to omit words- and even lines. Such omissions are technically termed "outs," and are of constant occurrence in modern printing offices. The sj^stem now in use, however, is such that "outs" rarely escape the proof-reader, but under the old practice they frequently passed unnoticed. It is believed that there are several such "outs" in the Shakespearean text and that they have caused much perplexity to the commentators. 7. Errors in which single letters play a part are sometimes caused by the compositor picking up the wrong letter, but more frequently by letters getting into the wrong box or compartment. As many of our readers know, type is arranged in trays or "cases " as they are called. These cases are divided into com- partments or "boxes," one for each letter, and the boxes are so arranged that those letters which are most frequently required are placed within easy reach. The printer soon learns the location of each box, and the placing of his hand on the required letter becomes a second nature with him, so that the chance of picking up the wrong one is very small indeed. But in " distributing " the type, that is, placing it back in the boxes after it has been used, mistakes are somewhat more likely to occur, and when a letter gets into the wrong box it, of course, causes an error when the compositor picks it up the next time. He may detect this error at once and correct it, but sometimes it passes unnoticed until it appears in the proof, and if the proof-reading be careless it gets into the printed book. 8. Another way in which a letter may get into the wrong box and thus cause a mistake is this : When the boxes are very full the compositor frequently gives the case a light shake to cause the type to settle down, and in doing this it some- times happens that letters slide from one box into another. One more way is, that as the cases are placed on the stands in a slanting position so as to be more easily reached by the compositor, letters sometimes slide from one box to another and thus cause errors. In the year 1819 Mr. Z. Jackson published a stout volume in which he attempted to use these facts in the correction of the Shakespearean text. He was a practical printer who had spent eleven years in a French prison at the time of the revolu- tion, and during all that time he was constantly under the shadow of the guillo- tine. In all these dreary years his greatest solace was the study of Shakespeare, and when he returned to England he published a small pamphlet containing several proposed emendations. This was so well received that he published a large volume, but, unfortunately, Mr, Jackson did not confine himself to mere typographical corrections ; he gave a loose rein to his imagination, and most of the seven hundred notes in his "Genius of Shakespeare Justified " are the wildest kind of conjectures. Nevertheless, some of his suggestions, based on his typo- graphical experience, deserve serious attention, as any one who has had much to to do with printing offices must realize. 9. New errors, which are apt to escape the author, except undesr the best AND NEW GLOSSARY. Vt regulations, are frequently introduced during the correction of old mistakes. Words and even sentences become disarranged, and in bringing them together again the printer fails to get the proper connection. 10. A singular source of error consists in the insertion of that which was intended to be merely a direction to the printer. This has given rise to some very funny "cross-readings." Parallel instances are to be found in the First Folio where actor's names and perhaps stage directions have been introduced as part of the original matter. 11. Curious errors may arise from the fact that the confidence and zeal of the printer sometimes outrun his knowledge. Thus Burton, in his "Book- Hunter," speaking of an author who prided himself upon his accuracy, says: "It happened to him to have to state how Theodore Beza, or some contemporary of his, went to sea in a Candian vessel. This statement, at the last moment, when the sheet was going through the press, caught the eye of an intelligent and judicious corrector, more conversant with shipping- lists than with the literature of the sixteenth century, who saw clearly what had been meant, and took upon himself, like a man who hated all pottering nonsense, to make the necessary correction without consulting the author. The consequence was that the people read, with some surprise, under the authority of the paragon of accuracy, that Theodore Beza had gone to sea in a Canadian vessel." An error which may have occurred in the same way, and which is equally ridiculous, is to be found in the essays of a noted Shakespearean critic. All who have given close attention to Shakespearean comments know that Steevens, although he was one of the keenest and ablest of Shakespearean editors, was unquestionably a most unscrupulous falsifier. No quotation given by him can be accepted without verification (see prince of cats in this glossarj^), and no state- ment made by him is entitled to belief without full corroborative evidence. He was a forger of the meanest kind and, as I have elsewhere stated, I am inclined to believe that the forgeries for which poor Collier suffered were really the handiwork of Steevens. Now, when he wished to publish some atrociously vile note, something which he did not dare to issue over his own name, he used the names of Eichard Amner or John Collins, two quiet, inoffensive and highly respectable clergj^men. As Amner's name was most frequently abused in this way, these notes came to be known among Shakespearean students as the "Amnerian" notes, but in the essays to which I have alluded they are referred to as Steevens's American notes ! In applying these facts to the correction of the accepted text of any author, Shakespeare included, it must be borne in mind that we have no right to intro- duce mere improvements however much they may, to our thinking, better the present reading. It is only when the sense is absolutely obscured that it is permissible to suggest a correction or emendation. 18 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA. ON THE CHOICE OF A COPY OF SHAKESPEARE'S WORKS. HE very large number of editions of Shakespeare's works that have been issued within a few years is apt to confuse any one seeking for a good serviceable copy, so that a very common question addressed sometimes to booksellers and sometimes to those who are supposed to be familiar with the poet's writings is : Which is the best edition of Shakespeare's works? To give a direct answer to this question as it stands would be not only invidious, but diflScult, since that which would prove the best edition for one person might not be at all suitable for some one else. It is necessary, there- fore, first of all, to give some consideration to the different needs and purposes of the prospective purchasers. Those who desire a handsome copy of Shakespeare's writings, one which may take its place on the center table beside the family Bible, will find no difiSculty in gratifying their desires. Nearly every publishing house that deals in what are known as "subscription books" can supply a copy printed in fine large type, abundantly illustrated with attractive engravings and bound in handsome style, with plenty of gold distributed over the surface. Such editions, however, are not those generally sought by students and real lovers of Shakespeare. It is not likely that the man with abundant means who wishes to fit up in his library a nook specially devoted to Shakespeare, will come to us for advice, but if he should do so, the best hint we can give him is to study the subject carefully and to "go slow." He will, of course, desire to have a few of the rare and costly editions and several of those that are elaborately annotated. If his taste should run to graphic illustrations, he will find ample scope for the exercise of good judgment and the use of abundant means. A few thousand dollars may be easily expended upon choice copies, though a very much smaller amount, judiciously laid out, will suffice to provide a Shakespearean collection in which the owner may justly feel not only satisfaction, but pride. It is not often, however, that a beginner sets out with "malice aforethought" to form a library of this kind. The owners of such collections are generally led on gradually by reading and correspondence to the accumulation of their treasures. In other words, they develop from mere casual readers into collectors and students. One of the first subjects that must occupy the attention of those who wish to make a really valuable collection of this kind is the bibliography of this depart- ment of literature, and this is now so extensive that it would fill an entire volume AND NEW GLOSSARY. 19 much larger than the present. Those who have a taste for collecting and desire to turn it in the direction of Shakespeareana may obtain substantial aid from Bohn's edition of Lowndes' "Bibliographer's Manual," Part VIII, which is very complete up to the date of its publication (1864); the catalogue of the "Shake- speare Memorial Library," Birmingham ; and the catalogues of the Shakespearean collections in the British Museum and the Boston Public Library. The article on Shakespeare in the last edition of the Encylopsedia Britannica also contains much valuable bibliographical information, as do the several volumes of "The New Variorum," by Dr. Furness. Catalogues of second-hand books will also give valuable aid ; and it is only by careful study and close attention to the different books and editions that the collector can avoid filling his shelves with trash. The number of editions of Shakespeare which show notably distinctive features is usually said to be over two hundred, though I think this is an over-estimate. But of the mere reprints, which differ from each other in size, form, illustrations, quality, etc., there are many times that number. Of the editions which are provided with ample explanatory notes, that by Dr. Furness easily stands first. It must form the foundation of all future collections, and of all the public libraries now being established throughout the country, not one, of any pretensions at all, can afford to be without it. Of other editions we have space for merely the names of the editors, which w^e arrange alphabetically: Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke, Collier, Craig, Deighton, Delius, Dowden, Dyce, Halliwell, Hudson, Innes, Knight, Moberly, Kolfe, Singer, Staunton, Verplanck, White, Whitelaw, Wright. We should, however, make special mention of " The Henry Irving Shakespeare." This beautiful edition was undertaken by the lamented F. A. Marshall in co-operation with Sir Henry Irving, but Marshall's health failed at an early period of its progress, and the assistance of Messrs. Adams, Beeching, Evans, Symons and Verity w^ascalled in. They did good work on several of the plays. This edition may very well be called the player's edition, for while the full text is given in every case, those parts which may be most properly omitted in acting or reading are clearly marked. This and some other special features give it particular value as a work of reference for clubs and schools. All these editions, with the exception of those of E.olfe and Hudson, are unexpurgated. The editions of these two commentators omit all those passages which cannot be read in schools and families, as explained in our preface. Most of these editions, however, are somewhat expensive, and it is for a copy of more moderate price (under $2.00) that readers of this work will probably enquire. Such copies are generally in one or two volumes, without notes or engravings, but with a small glossary appended. Of these, the "Globe" is a good example, though the type is so small that Dr. Furnivall says : "Do not ruin your eyes reading the 'Globe.'" Moreover, "'tis true 'tis pity; and pity 'tis 'tis true " that this famous edition does not seem to improve by time, the latest 20 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA issue being, to my eyes, not quite as legible as one I purchased several years ago. The "Oxford," edited by Craig, is also an admirable edition, but the type is not much better than that of the "Globe." The result of this is that many prefer some of the American reprints of the " Globe " since the type is a little larger. Clubs and reading circles who desire copies of single plays will find a note on that subject under the heading " Shakespeare Societies and Clubs." New editions of Shakespeare's works are issued from the press at short in- tervals, so that the choice of to-day may be superseded by the edition of to-morrow. Therefore, instead of describing individual issues I will suggest a few points which should guide the purchaser in making a selection. 1. See that the reading matter is as near the generally accepted text as possible. At present this is acknowledged to be that of the "Cambridge," the "Globe," or the "Oxford." 2. See that the type is clear and not too small. Small type, however, if well printed, is less trying to the eyes than type that is one or two sizes larger, but badly printed on poor paper. 3. Avoid a paper with a highly-glazed surface. Dealers will sometimes tell you that such paper looks better and is more expensive, and they will talk about its being "aesthetic" and "high-toned," and such rubbish. The fact is, that a really good paper with a dull surface costs more than a common grade of paper, even though the latter be highly calendered. Paper with a shiny surface is very trying to the eyes and, except where the printing is of the very highest class, it does not take as clear an impression as that which is dull. If you value your eyes, avoid shiny paper. 4. Eeject any copj'' in which the lines are not numbered. Forty years ago the numbering of the lines was a thing unknown, and the compilers of diction- aries and other works of reference thought that they did well enough when they referred their quotations to " Shakespeare." (See the Imperial Dictionary of an edition as late as 1883.) To search for a quotation with such a reference for a guide is worse than hunting for a needle in a "bottle of hay." To-day the best dictionaries, such as the "New English Dictionary " and the "Century," give not only the Play, but the Act, the Scene and the number of the line in the Scene. A reference to the Act and Scene is not close enough, for some of the Scenes contain a thousand lines, but with the line-number given the time required to find a word or a sentence is the work of but a few moments. The " Globe" has been accepted as the standard for line-numbers, and all references in general literature are made to it. It is obvious that where a passage is inverse, there can be no difficulty about the numbering of the lines, but where the speech is in prose the length of the lines and, consequently, their numbers will be governed by the tj^pe and the size of the page or column. Hence, we find that, the numbers of the "Cambridge" and the "Oxford" do not always agree with those of the "Globe." "The Henry Irving" seems to follow line for line. AND NEW GLOSSARY. 21 Where an edition is expurgated, as is the case with that of Dr. Eolfe, the dis- crepancy frequently becomes very great and, as a consequence, it is sometimes quite a task to look up a passage in that excellent edition. The same is true of the "New Variorum" of Dr. Furness. His line-numbers sometimes vary widely from those of the "Globe." These serious annoyances might be easily avoided by adopting a standard, such as the "Globe," and giving all lines positive and unvarying numbers, leaving a gap where passages are omitted and adding starred numbers (or their equivalents) where the text is redundant. Any bright school- boy or girl could devise a practicable way of doing this; but under any circumstances, a new edition without line-numbers will hereafter be almost unmarketable unless its literary merits are very extraordinary. A SHORT LIST OF HELPFUL BOOKS. 3UT of the immense number of books which have been published in regard to the works of Shakespeare I have selected a short list of those which I think will prove most helpful to the ordinary reader and student. There is, of course, great room for difference of opinion in regard to the value of particular books of this class, and some one else would probably suggest a very different catalogue. I give my views for what they are worth. I have not mentioned the works of Gervinus, Brandes, Schlegel, Ulrici and others, which stand facing me as I write, because it is only the advanced student who can profit by them. A' few of those which I regard as most valuable for the beginner I have marked with an asterisk (*) and to some I have added the price. Biography and Personal Relations, Halliwell, James O. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. 2 Vols. In these volumes is accumulated all the information that we have about Shakespeare. Somewhat expensive and not always to be had. Lee, Sidney. A Life of William Shakespeare. 1898. Macmillan. This is now the standard life of the poet. It contains the most recent inform- ation and presents the matter in a clear and orderly form. Mabie, Hamilton W. William Shakespeare : Poet, Dramatist and Man. Mac- millan. A popular and pleasantly-written life which gives all the known facts and places before the reader the conditions under which Shakespeare must have been brought up and which undoubtedly exerted a powerful influence on his develop- 22 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPAEDIA. ment. Beautifully Illustrated. An edition at a moderate price ($3.50) has been brought out recently. Wise, John R. Shakespeare : His Birthplace and Its Neighbourhood. London. $1.00. Grammars and Lexicons. * Abbott, E. A. A Shakespearian Grammar. An Attempt to Illustrate some of the Differences between Elizabethan and Modern English. Macmillan. $1 .50. This is one of the two or three books which every careful student must add to his copy of Shakespeare's works. * Ceaik, George L. The English of Shakespeare Illustrated in a Philological Commentary on His Julius Caesar. Second Edition. Full of valuable information. An excellent edition of this work has been published in this country under the editorship of Dr. Rolfe. Schmidt, Alexander Shakespeare-Lexicon. A Complete Dictionary of all the English Words, Phrases and Constructions in the Works of the Poet. 2 Vols. Eoyal8vo. $10.00 to $15.00. This work has received the highest possible praise from such Shakespeareans as Skeat, Dowden, Eolfe, Furness and others of that class, men "whose judge- ments in such matters cry in the top of mine" immeasurably. Richard Grant White is the only writer that I can call to mind who dissents from this almost universal chorus of praise, and he has spoiled his criticism by "running amuck;" and yet, with all this array of commendation, I cannot recommend this work to the ordinary reader or even student of Shakespeare. That Dr. Schmidt is a profound grammarian and a classical scholar of the highest attainments is true beyond any question, but when it comes to the explaining of the idiomatic expressions of the English language, his ignorance is equalled only by the insolence and arrogance which he exhibits towards commentators of English blood ; and yet, strange to say, he has exerted a surprising influence over recent interpreters of Shakespeare, many of whom not only adopt his errors, but credit to "Schmidt^' many of those sound definitions and explanations which really belong to Johnson, Nares, Steevens, Malone and others. Nares, Robert, F.R.S. A Glossary. New Edition by James 0. Halliwell and Thomas Wright. 2 Vols. Dtce, Alexander. A Glossary to the Works of William Shakespeare. This forms Vol. X of the latest edition of Dyce's Shakespeare. It has been sold separately, but is almost useless to those who do not own the entire set, as the references are to page and volume of Dyce's edition and not to the Act and Scene of the plays. Dyce never numbered his lines, and his latest publishers have not seen fit to remedy a defect which detracts greatly from the value of his edition. Bartlett, John. A New and Complete Concordance. 1900 pages. Macmillan. $7.50. This Concordance has taken the place of that of- Mrs. Mary Cowden Clarke because it gives not only the Act and Scene, but the number of the required line. See our note on this point under the heading "On the Choice of a Copy of Shakespeare's Works." It includes the poems as well as the plays. AND NEW GLOSSARY. ^ 23 Other Aids to Study, * DowDEN, Edwaed, LL.D. Shakspere. In the " Literature Primers. " Published in this country by The American Book Company. 35 cents. If the reader of Shakespeare should be able to add but one book to his copy of the poet's works, this must be the volume. The beginner will get more solid information from this little book than from many a volume ten times its size. — . Introduction to Shakespeare. Charles Scribner's Sons. This is the Introduction to " The Henry Irving Shakespeare," printed separately and somewhat expanded. . Shakespeare : His Mind and Art. "Attempts to trace the growth of Shakespeare's genius and character through his works, studied chronologically." Fleming, William H. How to Study Shakespeare. 2 Vols. Doubleday and McClure Co. $1.50. The idea which led to the production of this work was an excellent one and it has been well carried out. It gives explanations of the difficult passages in several of the plays and a series of examination questions which call the attention of the student to those points which require careful consideration. It is a pity that such a valuable work should be marred by a defect which might have been easily avoided. If Mr. Fleming had placed the Act and Scene at the top of his pages and appended line-numbers to the words calling for definitions, much time would have been saved to his readers, and in these days even general readers, not to speak of students, cannot afford to waste time. Prefixed to the first volume is a very thorough, practical and sensible article by Prof. Rolfe on the organization and conduct of Shakespeare clubs. * Lamb, Charles and Maby. Tales from Shakespeare. There are several editions of this charming little book in market, some at a very low price. It gives the story of several of the plays, told as nearly as possible in Shakespeare's own words, but in the form of a story and not of a drama. Admirable for young beginners. Ellis, A. J. Early English Pronunciation, with Special Reference to Chaucer and Shakespeare. LouNSBUKT, Thomas R., LL.D. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. With an Account of His Reputation at Various Periods. 1902. Charles Scribner's Sons. FuENivALL, F. J. Introduction to "The Leopold Shakespeare." This has not been published separately, but as there is a cheap edition of "The Leopold" (Cassell and Co., $1.50) it is within the reach of most students. In addition to a critical discussion of each play it contains a chronology of Shakespeare's works. Hudson, Henry N. Life, Art and Characters of Shakespeare. 2 Vols. * Jameson, Anna. Characteristics of Women. Essays upon the Women of Shakespeare's plays. Houghton, Mifflin and Co. $1.25. Coleridge, S. T. Lectures on Shakespeare. Bohn. $1.00. Very much misquoted by the Baconians. Dyer, T. F. Thistleton. Folk Lore of Shakespeare. London : Griffith and Farran. New York : E. P. Dutton and Co. 24 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY. MT is now nearly half a century since the reading public was startled by the astonishing proposition that the author of the writings commonly known as the works of Shakespeare was, in reality, not Shakespeare, but Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. Like many other astounding theories, it attracted considerable attention, so much so that by 1884, when Mr. Wyman published his bibliography of the subject, he had collected 255 titles, of which over forty were separate publications in book and pamphlet form, the rest being articles in reviews, magazines and newspapers. Since that time the number of books and pamphlets issued has been much more than doubled, and the number of notable articles in the journals has correspondingly increased. A journal advocating the new theory was started in Chicago and one also, I believe, in Boston, but I do not find either one in the latest list of periodicals, so that I presume they have been discontinued. There is, however, a journal published in London, called Baconiana, which has a very considerable circulation. It would be out of place to enter into an extended discussion of the subject in these pages, but as the question has attracted so much attention, and since even now the young people to whom this volume is specially addressed make frequent enquiries in regard to the matter, it will not do to ignore it entirely. Therefore, although I firmly believe that William Shakespeare, of Stratford-on-Avon, was the author of all the important writings generally attributed to him, I will endeavor to present the subject in a calm and dispassionate manner, for it is greatly to be regretted that in some recent discussions abuse has taken the place of argument, not to say of dignified protest. A notable instance of this was exhibited by a writer in The New York Times Saturday Beview about a year ago. It would seem that the best argument that this writer could find against the Baconian hypothesis was to call its advocates "mattoids."* I have been told that the author of the article is a professional alienist ; if this be so, the best advice that could be given to him is that contained in Luke iv, 23. While the authorship of various portions of the accepted works of Shakespeare has long been the subject of dispute, and while several whole plays have been attributed to him, in the production of which it is very certain that he had no hand, it was not until the year 1848 that it was boldly claimed that he was not the author of any of the works ordinarily credited to him, and the question was * This term originated with Lombroso and signifies a monomaniac characterised by- stupidity. This definition certainly does not apply to many staunch and earnest Baconians. AND NEW GLOSSARY. 25 raised : Who were the able literary men who wrote the dramas of which he is the reputed author ? This question was put forward in that year by Col. Joseph Hart, but Miss Delia Bacon was the first to advance the hypothesis that a coterie of wits, including Bacon, Ealeigh, Spenser and others were the real authors, and that the plays infolded a system of Philosophy and Political Economy which they did not dare to publish over their own names, and so were glad to get the otherwise incon- spicuous actor, William Shakespeare, to father them. Miss Bacon's theory was never fully published by herself . The first suggestion was made in an article published in Putnam's Magazine for January, 1856, but this article was to have been the first of iour, and the others were never put in type, the manuscripts having been lost by an unfortunate accident. This first article was exceedingly brilliant in its language and imagery, but utterly pointless, except in the matter of abuse of poor Shakespeare, against whom she uses language which no sane woman would have employed. Prior to the publication of the article she had gone to England with the intention of having Shakespeare's tomb opened, as she felt sure that there she would find absolute proof to substantiate her theor3^ It is needless to say that although she made very earnest efforts to accomplish her purpose, she was not allowed to disturb that grave which has been a Mecca to so many pilgrims. While in England, however, she completed one-half of her book and had it published under the title "The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded." In bringing out her book she was aided by Emerson, Hawthorne and Carlyle, every one of whom showed her the utmost kindness and consideration, although none of them had any faith in her pro- position. The book was a complete failure, and no wonder. Although, like her first article, it contained brilliant sentences and some fine ideas, beautifully expressed, yet, as a whole, it had no distinct objective point. It did not even embody the main points of her theory ; this she reserved for her second volume, which never came out. In a later work * of his, Hawthorne, who wrote a preface to Miss Bacon's volume, says : " I believe that it has been the fate of this remarkable book never to have had more than a single reader. I, myself, am acquainted with it only in insulated chapters and scattered pages and paragraphs." I have gone over the book with some care and find it brilliant, but incoherent. The author seems to have been oppressed with the idea that she was in posses- sion of a secret too sacred and too important to be lightly divulged to the people at large ; there is a continual promise of a revelation which, however, is never revealed. In fact, her brilliancy is due in a large measure to the looseness of her methods of thinking and her wonderful powers of expression, which are entirely untrammeled by sound logic and a broad generalization of facts. =*= " Our 014 Home," chapter ou Recollections of a Gifted Woman, 26 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPAEDIA The etliereal, though somewhat nebulous, hypotheses propounded by Miss Bacon soon assumed the more concrete, though cruder, form in which they are now generally presented, the authorship of the plays being attributed wholly to Lord Bacon, and the esoteric language and delicate mysteries becoming, in the hands of the Donnelly's, the Owens and the Gallups, a mere cryptographic puzzle embodied in the material form of types, ink and paper, in which it is asserted that Bacon's claims are set forth. The language in which these claims are embodied certainly never had its origin during the reign of Elizabeth. Those who will take the trouble to look over the books of these writers with any degree of attention will find that the authors are quite unfamiliar with Elizabethan language and literature ; Mr. Donnelly certainly did not understand some of the plainest passages in Shakespeare's works. Through a supposed interpretation of their alleged cipher, Dr. Owen and Mrs. Gallup claim that Bacon asserts that he and Essex were the children of Queen Elizabeth, she having been married to Leicester while they were both imprisoned in the Tower. Mrs. Gallup also asserts that Bacon claims the authorship of ' ' The Anatomy of Melancholy " and of most of the writings of Marlow, Greene, Peele and others. But Mrs. Gallup made a fatal mistake when she claimed that Bacon had translated Homer and embodied the Iliad in cipher in " The Anatomy of Melancholy." "What possible object Bacon could have had in concealing a translation of Homer, it must, of course, puzzle the ordinary mind to imagine, and yet, notwithstanding this very obvious objection, Mrs. Gallup found strenuous support in quarters from which a convertite was hardly to have been expected. But Mr. Marston in The Nine- teenth Century gives this claim the coup de grace by showing that the Baconian translation, as deciphered by Mrs. Gallup, is simply a transformation of Pope's famous metrical translation. In other words, it is Pope's poetry turned into very mediocre prose. But I think it is generally true that the most earnest and intelligent Baconians have very little confidence in these ciphers. Indeed, some of them allege that. Mr. Donnelly's "Great Cryptogram " did much more harm than good to the cause, and they rely upon arguments of an entirely different class. We have not space here to present these arguments at length ; those who desire to inform themselves upon the subject will find the Baconian side of the question very fully and ably set forth in " The Authorship of Shakespeare," by Nathaniel Holmes, and "Bacon vs. Shakspere," by Edwin Keed. On the other side we have "Notes on the Bacon-Shakespeare Question," by Charles Allen, and a very pleasant little book, "What We Eeally Know About Shakespeare," by Mrs. Caroline Healey Dall. After a pretty careful study of the subject, I find that the chief arguments of the Baconians are based upon (1) the alleged illiteracy of Shakespeare, showing that he was utterly incompetent to produce the works which go under his name; (2) Shakespeare's alleged dissolute and so-called profane life ; and (3) the fact AND NEW GLOSSARY. 27 that there are so many parallelisms and correspondences between the plays and the known writings of Bacon that the cumulative evidence that they were both written by the same hand amounts almost to positive proof. Any one who has carefully studied the subject with an unprejudiced mind must conclude that the charge of illiteracy is an entire assumption and one that is opposed to the little that we do know of Shakespeare's attainments. In other words, this argument of the Baconians is a complete begging of the question. They first ask us, on a mere assumption, to admit that Shakespeare was illiterate, and then they argue from this that he could not have written the plays ! But we have the most positive evidence that he was not illiterate. That he had some Latin and some Greek we have. the testimony of Ben Jonson ; if he had any Greek at all, he must have been able to read Latin freely, for in his time all Greek text- books were in Latin, and, in addition to this, Aubrey tells us that Shakespeare understood Latin fairly well. To a man of Shakespeare's abilities it would have been a trifling undertaking to have acquired a knowledge of such other languages as he required, and we have not a particle of evidence to show that he did not do so. Indeed, we have some very positive evidence that his knowledge of French was acquired by book study and not from skilled teachers. His pronunciation of the language shows this. See the words bras and pense in this Glossary. Bacon, who spoke French fluently, never would have written the passages in which these words occur. In this connection much stress is laid upon the fact that he spells his name two or three different ways. To put forward such an argument as that argues profound ignorance of Elizabethan writing and printing on the part of those who advance it. Their idol, Bacon, once spelled his name Bakon in a letter of attorney ; Sir Walter Ealeigh spelled his name five different ways, and I have now before me an old law book consisting of a series of reports, issued con- secutively, in which the printer, who ought to have been able to spell if any one could, spells his own name differently in each separate issue ! In the face of these facts, the attempt to differentiate between Bacon and Shakespeare by assuming that "Shakespeare" was the 7iom de plume of Bacon, while "Shakspere" was the real name of the man of Stratford-on-Avon — the actor — is, to say the least, certainly illogical. In the language of Dr. Furnivall, "the tomfoolery of it is infinite," As for the parallelisms and correspondences which are found in Bacon's works and in the plays, no person of any breadth of reading would give the slightest weight to them. The majority of the correspondences brought forward by Mrs. Potts are merely well-known phrases, expressions and quotations, many of them from the Bible ; and the richest part of the joke is that a very large proportion of the so-called parallelisms are not parallelisms at all ; a few M^ords may be the same in each, but the ideas are radically different. In the few cases in which there is an identity of idea, Dr. Abbott, who wrote a preface to Mrs. Potts' edition 28 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA of the "Promus," comes to the conclusion that Bacon borrowed from Shakespeare, and not Shakespeare froin Bacon. This part of Dr. Abbott's testimony in the case is omitted by Mr. Eeed in his quotation on page 54 of his "Bacon vs. Shakspere"(1897). But against the very illogical assumptions of the Baconians we have the direct testimony, as to authorship, of numerous contemporaries of Shakespeare — Jonson, Meres, Digges, Hey wood, etc., and in the years immediately succeeding his death the number of laudatory notices which appeared, and all of which attributed the plays to Shakespeare, of Stratford-on-Avon, is very large. As Jonson was the friend both of Bacon and of Shakespeare, he must have known the truth of the matter. The Baconians say, however, that he was in the plot to deceive the public and that the others were simply "fooled." To ask us to believe that all the prominent literary men of the early years of the seventeenth century were either knaves or fools is to ask for a degree of credulity compared with which a belief that Francis, the underskinker of the Boar's-Head Tavern, Eastcheap, wrote the plays, would be a rational form of faith. It is an interesting fact that of all the prominent literary men who were connected with Miss Bacon and Mrs. Potts, not one accepted the Baconian hypothesis. Carlyle, Emerson, Hawthorne, Abbott and Oliver Wendell Holmes all rejected it as being utterly untenable, though they all urged that the Baconian view be given a fair hearing. Spedding, the biographer of Bacon and one of his most earnest defenders, says : "I doubt whether there are five lines together in Bacon which could be mistaken for Shakespeare or five lines in Shakespeare which could be mistaken for Bacon by one who was familiar with the several styles and practised in such observation. * * * jf there were any reason for supposing that the real author was somebody else, I think I am in a condition to say that, whoever it was, it was not Francis Bacon." And Holmes,* while he went so far as to say, in a letter to Mrs. Potts, that if the Shakespeareans would not listen to reasonable arguments he would have a starling taught to say nothing but "Verulam" and hang it up where they would be compelled to listen to it, did not accept the Baconian doctrine. In the last book that he wrote, " Our Hundred Days in Europe " (1887), he characterises Miss Bacon's ideas as "insane," and in that book, written three or four years after he had written his pleasant and much misquoted letter to Mrs. Potts, he writes of his visit to Stratford-on-Avon: "It is quite impossible to think of any human being growing up in this place which claims Shakespeare as its child, about the streets of which he ran as a boy, on the waters of which he must have floated, without having his image ever present." That does not sound as if Holmes had been a Baconian. * Some confusion has been caused by the fact that both Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Shakespearean, and Nathaniel Holmes, the Baconian, were Professors in Harvard University, AND NEW GLOSSARY. 29' HINTS TO READERS AND EXPLANATIONS OF THE CON- TRACTIONS USED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES. O doubt to some persons many of the following " hints and explanations" will appear trivial and unnecessary. It must be borne in mind, however, that the book is not addressed to experienced students and readers, but to those who have merely a common school education and whose facilities for reference and enquiry are quite limited. CONTRACTIONS USED FOR THE TITLES OF THE PLAYS AND POEMS. In adopting these contractions I have endeavored to select those which are as suggestive as possible, so that any person who has ever looked over the works of Shakespeare carefully, need not be at any loss in regard to the meaning of the letters used to designate each play. For example: The usual contraction for AWs Well that Siids Well is A. TF, This is not quite as suggestive as AlVs, Particular care has been taken to avoid all risk of leading the reader into error; it would be impossible to apply Wiv., Tio,, Unil. or Gms^ to any play except the one intended. This cannot be said of the contractions used in many works of reference — the new Glossary of the famous "Globe" edition, for example: T, K. suggests Timon of Athens quite as much as it does Titus Andronicus^ The reader must think a little before he can decide, and this thinking might be applied to a better purpose. The contractions are nearly the same as those used by Dr. Schmidt, in his " Shakespeare Lexicon," and they economize space more thoroughly than any set that I have seen. It is a great pity that in these days of universal scientific standards and interchangeable mechanical parts some uniform system cannot be adopted. If you own a Waltham or an Elgin watch, or a Smith & 30 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA Wesson revolver, and any part should break, you can send from " the furthest steppes of India " to the factory and have a duplicate of the broken part mailed to you, and it will be sure to fit. Let us have, then, a set of standard contractions authorized by competent authority, and let it be universally adopted. Ado — Much Ado about Nothing. All's— All's Well that Ends Well. Ant. — Antony and Cleopatra. Arg . — Argu m en t . As — As You Like It. Caes. — Julius Csesar. Chor. — Chorus. Compl, — A Lover's Complaint. Cor. — Coriolanus . Cym. — Cymbeline. Epi. — Epilogue. Err. — Comedy of Errors. Gent. — The Two Gentlemen of Verona. IHIV.— Henry IV, First Part. 2HIV.— Henry IV, Second Part. HV.— Henry V. IHVI.— Henry VI, First Part. 2HVI.— Henry VI, Second Part. 3HVI.— Henry VI, Third Part. HVIII.— Henry VIII. Hml. — Hamlet. Ind. — Induction . John — King John. Kins. — Two Noble Kinsmen. LLL. — Love's Labour's Lost. Lr.-King Lear. Lucr. — The Rape of Lucrece. Mcb.— Macbeth. Meas. — Measure for Measure. Merch. — The Merchant of Venice. Mids. — A Midsummer Night's Dream. 0th.— Othello. Per. — Pericles. Phoen. — The Phoenix and the Turtle. Pilgr. — The Passionate Pilgrim. Prol. — Prologue. EIL— Eichard 11. EIIL— Richard III. Eom. — Eomeo and Juliet. Shr.— The Taming of the Shrew. Sonn. — Sonnets. Tim. — Timon of Athens. Tit. — Titus Andronicus. Tp.— The Tempest. Troil. — Troilus and Cressida. Tw.— Twelfth Night. Ven. — Venus and Adonis. Wint.— The Winter's Tale. Wiv. — The Merry Wives of Windsor. EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES TO VARIOUS PASSAGES. To those who first take up a book like the present, such letters and figures as Mcb, II, 2, 37, have a cabalistic appearance, not very in- telligible to the untrained eye. But a little thought and, if neces- sary, a reference to the preceding key will show that Mcb. stands for Macbeth ; the Koman numerals, II, give the number of the Act ; the AND NEW GLOSSARY. 31 next figure denotes the number of the Scene, and the figures 37 are the number of the required line in that Scene, When traced up, we find the passage : Sleep that knits up the ravelVd sleave of care. All modern editions of any value have the lines numbered, and to those who- use such an edition, the finding of any passage or of any word in Shakespeare is a matter of but a few moments. This subject we have discussed at greater length on a preceding page under the heading, " On the Choice of a Copy of Shakespeare's Works." In the following pages all quotations from Shakespeare are printed in Italics, and not placed within quotation marks. This enables the reader to trace them with great ease. EXPLANATION OF OTHER CONTRACTIONS. adj. — ad j ecti ve adv. — adverb. ante — before ; that is : In a preceding article in this volume. bk. — book. cap. — chapter (Latin, caput). Cent. Diet.—" The Century Dictionary." cf. — con/er (Latin); compare. circa — (Latin) ; about ; near that time. Coll. MS.— An MS. correction found in the copy of the Second Folio be- longing to J. P. Collier, and some- times called "The Perkins Folio." It is now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. It is almost universally charged that these cor- rections and emendations were forgeries perpetrated by Mr. Col- lier. Having examined the evi- dence with some care I am con- vinced that Mr. -Collier has been unjustly dealt with in this matter. corns. — commentators. Cot. — "A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongves." Compiled by Eandle Cotgrave. London, 1611. diet. — dictionary. dr.p. — dramatis persona or personaa (Latin) ; a character or characters in the play. ed. — editor or edition. eds. — editors or editions. e.g. — for example (Latin, exempli gratia). et seq. — and following; usually refer- ring to lines. Fl.— The First Folio. The first collect- ed edition of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. F2.— The Second Folio; 1632. F3.— The Third Folio ; 1664. F4.— The Fourth Folio ; 1685. FF.— All the Folios. g. a. — generally accepted. In the ear- lier articles the expressions ' 'stand- ard text" and "accepted text" will be found. This does not mean that we have any really authoritative text of the works of Shakespeare ; it is intended simply as a reference to the text as generally received. For a further discussion of this ques- tion see a preceding page under the i i 32 THE SHAKESPEARE CYCLOPEDIA. heading, "The Text of Shake- speare." id. — idem (Latin) ; the same. i.e. — id est (Latin) ; that is. m. eds. — modern editors. N.E. D.— "The New English Diction- ary." Edited by Dr. Murray. Q. — Quarto edition. Qq — The Quartos. q. V. — quod vide (Latin), which see ; that is : Look for it under the word in question. Sc. — Scene. Schm. —Schmidt's " Shakespeare-Lexi- con." Sh. Gram. — "A Shakespearian Gram- mar." ByE. A. Abbott, D.D. New Edition. 1886. s. V. — sub verho (Latin), under the word, that is: It will be found under that word or heading. Scot. — Scotch or Scottish. Sh. — Shakespeare or Shakespeare's. sic — so ; that is : It is so in the original. SrdVar.— The Third Variorum. The Plays and Poems of William Shake- speare, edited by Malone, and pub- lished after his death under the edi- torial supervision of James Boswell, the son of Johnson's biographer. = The algebraic sign signifying equal to; here used to indicate having the same meaning. [ ] Brackets are used in quotations to indicate that words and sen- tences thus enclosed are not found in the original from which the quo- tation was taken. USEFUL HINTS FOR THOSE WHO CONSULT THIS OTGLOPiEDIA AND GLOSSARY. In the case of obsolete or unusual words no directions are needed ; they will be found in their proper places, either in the body of the work or, in a few instances, in the Appendix. And the same is true in regard to proper names, such as Hecuba, Heme's Oak, Niobe, Nereides, Nymphs, etc. Some passages, however, are obscure as a whole, while the individual words seem plain enough ; such passages will generally be found explained under some prominent word which they contain. Instances of this will be found under priest, print, rake, relative, etc. In order to make such reference as easy aa possible, we have added an Appendix in which a very large number of cross references are given, as well as a few words which were omitted by accident. This Appendix really serves as a very efficient index. Except in a few special cases, I have not given at length the passages to which reference is made. To have done so would have greatly and needlessly increased the size of the volume, for it is a fact well known to students that a short quota- tion, such as is ordinarily given in Concordances and Glossaries, gives no adequate idea of the general scope of the word or expression under consideration. The course which is always most safe and satisfactory is to read the j)assage in con- nection with the full context and to look up and carefully read any of the other passages to which reference may be made. THE Shakespeare Cyclopaedia AND New Glossary* 1. The indefinite article, formed from the Anglo- Saxon, an, the n being dropped except before vow- el sounds (see an). In Sh. writings it is frequently repeated where modern usage omits it, as in Rom. II, 5, 56 : an honest gentleman and a courteous and a kind. Also often omitted where modern usage would insert it : What fool is she that knows, Gent. I, 2, 53 ; Did see man die ! Cym. IV, 4, 35 ; Cassius, ivhat night is this ! Caes. I, 3, 44. In Sh. as frequently in the older writers, the article is sometimes transposed, as in Troil. V, 6, 20, much more a fresher man ; and in LLL. 1, 1, 65, too hard a keeping oath. See also John, IV, 2, 27 ; Err. Ill, 2, 186. 2. Frequently with the sense of one (equivalent to the same): He and his 2}hysicians are of a '>nind, All's. I, 3, 244. Rose at an instant, As. I, 3, 76. 3. A contraction of have : God-a-mercy, Hml. IV, 5, 199. 4. A corruption or dialect form of he : a rubs him^self. Ado. Ill, 2, 50. 5. A mere expletive, void of sense : Merrily hent the stile-a, Wint. IV, 3, 133. For a thorough discussion of the use of the article in Sh. see Abbott's *' Shakespearian Grammar." Aaron, dr. p. The name of the Moor be- loved by Tamora. Tit. abandon. In addition to the usual mean- ing, to leave, to desert (As. V, 1, 52), this word in Sh. time signified to ban- ish, to drive away. Shr. Ind. 2, 118. abate, vb. 1. To overthrow, to humble, to depress. Cor. Ill, 3, 132. 2. To shorten. Mids. Ill, 2,432. 3. To blunt. RIII. V, 5, 35. 4. To except ; to leave out. Abate throw at novum, LLL. V, 2, 547. 5. To reduce, to depreciate. Cym. I, 4 73. 6.' To lessen. Hml. IV, 7, 116. abatement. 1. Diminution. Lr. I, 4, 64. 2. Lower estimation. Tw. I, 1, 13. Abbot of Westminster, dr. p. RII. Abcee=book, ) An A-B-C book. A prim- Absey-book. ) er. John, I, 1, 196. Abergavenny, George Neville, Lord, dr.p. HVIII. abhominable. The old mode of spelling abominable. LLL. V, I, 26. It is so spelled in the Promptorium Parvul- orum. It appears to have been going out of use in the time of Shakespeare (Dyce), and Shakespeare seems to ridicule the old fashions used by Nathaniel. abhor. 1. To protest against or reject sol- emnly; an old term of canon law, equiv- alent to detestor. HVIII. II, 4, 81. (33) ABH 34 ABY 2. To loathe; to detest. The common meaning. HVIII. II, 4, 236. Abhorson, dr. p. The name of the execu- tioner in Meas. abide. 1. To answer for. Caes. Ill, 2, 118. See aby. 2. To wait for. Mids. Ill, 2, 422. abjects. Servile or degraded persons. RIII. I, 1, 106, The word is also found in this sense in Psalm xxxv, 15. able, vh. To warrant or answer for. Lr. IV, 6, 172. abode, vh. To foretell ; to foreshadow. 3HVI. V, 6, 45 ; HVIII. I, 1, 93. abodement. Omen. 3 HVI. IV, 7, 13. abortive. Monstrous ; unnatural. 2HVI. IV, 1, 60. Abraham. 1. The name to which the patri- arch's first name (Abram) was changed by divine command. 2. The passage in Rom. II, 1, 13, now generally printed : " Young Adam Cu- pid," reads : " Abraham Cupid " in the Fl, and also in the quartos. " Adam " was a conjecture of Upton's, founded on the name of the famous archer, Adam Bell (see Adam) . Knight conject- ures that Cupid was called Abraham because he is such a cheat — Abraham- man being slang for a cheating beggar. To this it has been objected that Abra- ham is not used elsewhere in Shakes^ peare in this sense — an objection of no force whatever, as there are many words used only once by Shakespeare. The term is old slang, of which a dic- tionary was published as early as 1610, and it occurs in Awdeley's " Fraternity e of Vagabondes " (1565), so that the word was no doubt familiar to Shakespeare. Schmidt rejects "Adam Cupid," which he notes as being used "by modern editors quite preposterously, ' ' and then tells us that " Young Abraham Cupid " is used " in derision of the eternal boy- hood of Cupid, though, in fact, he was as old as Father Abraham." This explanation, besides being very far- fetched as well as un-Shakespearean, is obviously far less forcible than if applied to " Adam Cupid," since, even on Schmidt's line of thought, Adam was older than Abraham, and Cupid's age no doubt reached back to that of the father of mankind. 3. The Christian name of Slender. Wiv. I, 1, 57 and 239. 4. dr. p. Servant to Montague. Rom. Abram. 1. At first the name of Abraham, the patriarch. Used in Merch. I, 3, 73 and 162, to conform to the metre. 2. A form of the word auburn. In Cor. II, 3, 23, the First Folio reads: Our heads are some browne, some blacke, soTYie Abram, some bald, etc. In the Fourth Folio Abram was changed to au- burn. This led subsequent editors to suppose that Abraham in Rom. II, 1, 13, is a misprint for Abram, and so the word was changed by Theobald to au- born. See auburn. abridgement. 1. That which cuts short, as in Hml. II, 2, 439, where he refers to the players who cut short his speech. 2. A pastime, or that which makes the time seem short. Mids. V, 1, 39. abroach. Literally to set a-running, as the liquor runs from a cask when it is broached. 2HIV. IV, 2, 14; Rom. I, 1, 111. abrook. vb. To bear ; to abide ; to brook. 2HVI, II, 4. abruption. A stopping short ; breaking off. Troil. Ill, 2, 70. absey-book. See abcee-book. absolute. 1. Authoritative; positive. Hml. V, 1, 148. 2. Complete. 0th. II, 1, 193. 3. Perfect. Kins. II, 1. Absyrtus. Medea's brother, whom she cut to pieces when she fled from Col- chos with Jason. See Medea. abuse, n. Deception. Meas. V, 1, 205 ; Hml. IV, 7, 51. abuse, vb. To deceive. Tp. V, 1, 112 ; Hml. II, 2, 632 ; Lr. IV, 1, 24 ; do IV, 7, 77. Abuse young lays (Kins. V, 1) = the colloquial expression, "murder the [love] songs." Skeat. aby. To answer for ; to atone for ; to expiate ; to pay the penalty for. Mids. III, 2, 175. " See abide. ABY 35 ACR abysm. An abyss ; unfathomable depth. Tp. I, 2, 50 ; Ant. Ill, 13, 147. accept, n. Pass our accept and peremp- tory answer. HV. V, 3, 82. The mean- ing generally given to the word accept here is acceptance, i.e., " pass [or trans- mit] our acceptance of what we approve and our peremptory answer to the rest" {Toilet). Malone and the Collier MS. reads "or" for "our," making the sense : " reject or accept," and send a peremptory answer. accite. 1. To cite ; to summon. 2HIV. V, 2, 141 ; Tit. I, 1, 27. 2. To incite to ; to instigate. 2HIV. II, 2, 64. Schmidt and some others think that accites in this passage in the First Folio is a misprint for excites, which is the word given in the Third Folio. accomodate. In Shakespeare's time it was fashionable to introduce this word, properly or improperly, on all occa- sions. Ben Jonson calls it "one of the perfumed terms of the time." The in- definite use of it is well ridiculed by Bardolph's vain attempt to define it. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 80. accomplish. To make complete ; to fur- nish what is lacking. Merch. Ill, 4, 61 ; RII. II, 1, 177 ; HV. IV, Prol. 12. accuse, n. Accusation. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 160. acerb. Harsh to the taste ; bitter. 0th. 1, 3, 355. Acheron. One of the rivers of hell ; Sh. seems to regard it as a lake. Mids. Ill, 2, 357 ; Tit. IV, 8, 44. Various dark lakes and rivers which flowed into caves were thought to be openings to hell, and this is supposed to be the meaning in Mcb. Ill, 5, 15. achieve. 1. To conquer. HV. IV, 3, 91. 2. To obtain possession of. Merch. Ill, 2, 210 ; 0th. II, 1, 61. Achilles, dr.p. Troil. Also in the by- play, LLL.V, 2, 635. The hero of Homer's Illiad. Alluded to 2HVI. V, 1, 100. Achilles wounded Telephus, King of Mysia, and the Del- phic Oracle, on being consulted, an- swered: "The wounder shall heal." Telephus thought " the wounder " must be Achilles, but Achilles failed to effect a cure. Then Ulysses suggested that the spear was the wounder. On apply- ing some of the rust of the weapon to the wound, it was quickly healed. Achilles was the son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidones in Phthiotis, in Thessaly, and of the Nereid Thetis. He was taught eloquence and the art of war by Phoenix, and Chiron the cen- taur taught him the art of healing. He was the great bulwark of the Greeks against the Trojans, and previous to his quarrel with Agamemnon he rav- aged the country around Troy, des- troyed twelve towns on the coast and eleven in the interior. When Agamem- non was obliged to restore Chryseis to her father, he forced Achilles to give up Briseis in her stead, and this caused a mortal quarrel between the heroes. Achilles refused to take further part in the war and "sulked " in his tent. No entreaties or promises could move him until his friend Patroclus was killed, when he took the field to avenge him. He slew Hector and many other Tro- jans, but was himself killed before Troy was taken. Achitophel. The counsellor of Absalom, cursed by David (2 Samuel, xv, 35). 2HIV. I, '2, 41. acknow. To acknowledge ; to confess. Be not acknown on''t=do not confess that you know anything about it. 0th. Ill, 3, 319. In the life of Ariosto, appended to Harrington's translation of the Or- lando Furioso (1591) we read, "some say he was married to her privUie, but durst not be acknowne of it. " acquit. To be rid of. Wiv. I, 3, 27. acquittance, n. 1. Acquittal ; vindica- tion. Hml. V, 7, 1. 2. Receipt ; discharge. LLL. II, 1, 161; Wiv. 1, 1, 10. acquittance, vb. To acquit ; to clear. RIII. Ill, 7, 233. across. This word, as it occurs in several passages, evidently refers to the prac- tice of the tilt-yard, where it was con- sidered disgraceful to break the spear ACT ADO across the body of the adversary in- stead of by a push in a direct line. Ado. V, 1, 139 ; As. Ill, 4, 44 ; All's. II, 1, 70. act. 1. Agency ; operation. Hml. I, 2, 205. 2. Doing ; being active. All's. I, 2, 30. Actffion. A famous hunter who incurred the wrath of Diana, and was by her turned into a stag, so that he was torn to pieces by his own hounds. The horns which grew from his head are the sym- bols of cuckoldom. Wiv. II, 1, 122 ; do. Ill, 2, 44 ; Tit. II, 3, 63. action=taking. Going to law ; "a fellow, who, if you beat him, would bring an action for the assault instead of resent- ing it like a man of courage." Mason. Lr. II, 2, 18. acture. Performance ; action. Compl. 185. acutely. WittUy. AU's. I, 1, 221. Adam. 1. dr. p. The old gardener in As. Also Shr. IV, 1, 139. 2. Picture of old Adam new-apparelled. Err. IV, 3, 13. This means the sergeant, an evident play upon the word buff, which in slang means naked, as Adam was ; the sergeant wore a suit of buff. We still speak of being ' ' stripped to the buff." 3. Let hhn he clapped on the shoulder and called Adam. Ado. I, 1, 261. The allusion is to Adam Bell, the famous archer. Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough {i. e. Clem or Clement of the Cleugh [Sco. ] or Cliff), and "William of Cloudesly were three noted outlaws, whose skill in arch- ery made them as famous in the North of England as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the Midland counties. Their abode was in the forest of Engle- wood (firewood or wood for burning in the ingle), not far from Carlisle. They were generally believed to have lived before Robin Hood, and were outlawed for the usual ci-ime — killing deer. Two of them were bachelors ; the third (Will- iam of Cloudesley), had a wife and family, and becoming homesick, he ven- tured into Carlisle to see them, was taken prisoner and at once condemned to death, a brand new gallows being set up for his execution. A little swine- herd carried the news to his two com- rades, and the story of his rescue forms the subject of a stirring ballad which may be found in Percy's "Reliquesof Ancient English Poetry." 4. The name Adam was substituted (er- roneously, we think,) for Abraham in Rom. II, 1, 13. See Abraham. adamant. 1. The lodestone or magnet. Mids. II, 1, 195 ; Troil. Ill, 2, 186. 2. Hesiod and some later writers speak of adamant as a very hard, impenetra- ble metal used for making armour. This, no doubt, led to the use of the word as descriptive of an imaginary material of great hardness and strength. Used in this sense in IHVI. I, 4, 52. The modern word diamond is a mere corruption of adamant. — Skeat. addiction. Inclination. 0th. II, 2, 6. addition. 1. Title ; mark of distinction. AU's. II, 3, 134; Hml. I, 4, 20; II, 1, 47. 2. Exaggeration. Hml. IV, 4, 17. address. To set about doing ; to prepare ; to make ready. Troil. IV, 4, 148 ; Wiv. Ill, 5, 135. addressed. Prepared. LLL. II, 1, 83. admiration. Wonder ; astonishment. Hml. I, 2, 192. admire. To wonder. The word has now lost much of this meaning. Tp. V, 1, 154 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 165. admittance. Of high fashion ; admitted into the best company. Wiv. Ill, 3, 61 ; do. II, 2, 235. Adonis. A beautiful youth beloved by Venus. He was killed by a wild boar while hunting, and Venus sprinkled his blood with nectar, which caused a red anemone to spring up on the place where he fell. Every year festivals were held in his honor, at which women carried about earthen pots with some lettuce or fennel growing in them. These pots were called "Adonis Gardens," and as they were thrown away the day after the festival the name became a pro- verbial expression for things which grow fast and soon decay. Sh. however in IHVI. 1, 6, 6, seizes upon the idea of ADO 37 AFE rapid growth and ignores that of rapid decay. adoptions. Given by adoption ; not real. AU's. I, 1, 190. adornings. See bends. adsum. A Latin word signifying " I am here." 2H VI. I, 4, 26. advance. 1. To promote; to increase the value of. Tim. I, 2, 176. 2. To present ; to show. LLL. V, 2, 123. 3. To push forward. LLL. IV, 3, 367. advantage. 1. Favorable opportunity. 3HVI. Ill, 2, 192 ; Tp. Ill, 3, 13. 2. Interest upon money. Merch. I, 3, 71 ; IHIV. II, 4, 599. advantageable. Advantageous ; profit- able. HV. V, 2, 88. advertise. To inform, 2HVI. IV, 9, 23. advertisement. 1. Intelligence ; informa- tion. IHIV. Ill, 2, 172. 2. Admonition ; advice. All's. 3, 240 ; IHIV. IV, 1, 36. advice. Consideration ; discretion. Gent. II, 4, 207 ; 2HVI. II, 2, 68. advise. 1. To consider; to reflect. Tw. IV, 2, 102 ; HV. Ill, 6, 168. 2. To inform ; to instruct. Gent. Ill, 1, 122 ; 2HIV. I, 1, 172. advised. Considerate ; deliberate. 2HVI. V, 2, 47. advocation. Pleading. 0th. Ill, 4, 123. ^cides. This term means a descendant of ^acus, " ides " being a patronymic suf- fix. See Ajax. Shr. Ill, 1, 52. sedile. An officer in ancient Rome who had charge of the public buildings and streets. At first the office was of great honor and importance, but later the aed- iles became little better than police-of- ficers, such as Sh. represents them. For this Schm. takes him to task. iCmilia, dr.p. An abbess at Ephesus ; Wife to ^geon. Err. JEneaSy dr.p. One of the Trojan com- manders. Troil. ^neas was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, and was born on Mount Ida. On his father's side he was related to the royal house of Troy. At first he took no part in the Trojan war, but when Achilles attacked him and drove away his flocks, he led his Dardanians against the Greeks, and he and Hector were the great bulwarks of the Tro- jans. On the fall of the city he bore his aged father on his shoulders through the flames. His wife, Creusa, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, was lost in the hurry of flight. Hence the allusion, Tp. II, 1, 79, to "widower ^neas." His landing at Carthage and his meet- ing with Dido are irreconcilable with chronology. The Romans long held that he was their ancestor, Ascanius being the progenitor of Numitor, grand- father of Romulus and Remus. >Eolus. The god of the winds. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 92. aery. See aiery. .. A French physician, in love with Anne Page. Wiv. Caius, dr.p. Name assumed by Earl of Kent during his banishment. Lr. Calchas, dr.p. A Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks. Father of Cres- sida. Troil. In Sh. play Calchas is represented as a Trojan, who has deserted his country and gone over to the enemy, but there is no trace of this story in the ancient legends. See Cressida. He was the son of Thestor of Mycenae, a high-priest, and the wisest soothsayer amongst the Greeks. He foretold the duration of CAL 68 CAM the Trojan war, even before the Greeks sailed from Aulis, and while they were engaged in the war he explained to them the cause of the anger of Apollo. An oracle had declared that Calchas should die if he should meet with a soothsayer superior to himself ; and this came to pass at Claros, for Calchas met the famous soothsayer Mopsus in the grove of the Clarian Apollo, and was defeated by him in not being able to state the number of figs on a wild fig- tree, or the number of pigs which a sow was going to give birth to — things which Mopsus told with perfect accuracy. Hereupon Calchas is said to have died of grief. Another story about his death runs thus : A soothsayer saw Calchas planting some vines in the grove of Apollo, near Grynium, and foretold him that he would never drink any of the wine produced by them. When the grapes had grown ripe and wine was made of them, Calchas invited the soothsayer among his other guests. Even at the moment when Calchas held the cup of wine in his hand the sooth- sayer repeated the prophecy. This ex- cited Calchas to such a fit of laughter that he dropped the cup and choked. calf's skin. The phrase, and hang a calfs skin on those 7-ecreant limbs, is thus explained by Sir John Hawkins : " Fools, kept for diversion in great families, were often distinguished by coats of calf skin, with buttons down the back. Therefore, Constance and Faulconbridge mean to call Austria a fool in that sarcastic line so often re- peated. " To this Ritson replies : " But it does not appear that Constance means to call Austria a fool, as Sir John Hawkins would have it; but she cer- tainly means to call him coward, and to tell him that a calfs skin would suit his recreant limbs better than a lion's." John III, 1, 129. Caliban, dr.p. A savage and deformed slave; the son of Sycorax. Tp. Some coms. contend that the name Caliban is an anagram of cannibal, but there does not seem to be any good ground for this. It has been suggested that the idea of Caliban is of Hebraistic, or at least of Oriental origin, and is, in fact, no other than the fish-god Dagon of the Philistines. For a full exposition of this theory see Hunter's "New Illus- trations," Vol. I, p. 183, or Furness's "Tempest," p. 65. calculate. To prophesy. Cses. I, 3, 65. This application of the word evidently had its origin in the practice of as- trology. Is our Americanism, "I cal- culate," a relic of this old use of the word and brought over by the first settlers ? caliver. A hand gun, less and lighter than a musket, and fired without a rest. Dyce. IHIV. IV, 2, 21; 3HVI. Ill, 2, 289. Calipolis. A character is Peele's hem.- bastic tragedy, "The Battle of Alcazar." Feed and be fat, my fair C. (2HIV. II, 4, 193) is a travesty of one of the lines. calling. Appellation; title. As. I, 2, 245. callat, ) A woman of bad character. callet, [ Wint. II, 3, 90 ; 2HVI. I, 3, 86; callot. ) ^ 0th. IV, 2, 121. calm. A Quicklyism for qualm. 2HIV. II, 4, 40. Calpurnia, dr.p. Wife of Julius Caesar. Cses. Calydon. The princess heart of Calydon. 2HVI. I, 1, 235. See Meleager. Cambio, dr.p. Name assumed bj fiiucen- tio in Sh. Cambridge, Earl of, dr.p. A conspirator. HV. Cambyses. King of ancient Pei'sia. In King Cambyses vein (IHIV. II, 4, 425); an allusion to Preston's play entitled: " A lamentable Tragedie * * * c®n- taining the life of Cambises, King of Percia * * * and his odious d-eath by God's lustice appointed." Camillo, dr.p. A Sicilian lord. Wint. Camelot. The place where Arthur kept his court in the west. In the parts of Somersetshire, near Cahielot, there are CAM 69 CAP many lai'ge moors, upon which great numbers of geese are bred. In Lr. II, 5, 90, there is, perhaps, a double alhi- sion to Camelot as famous for its geese, and to those knights who were van- quished by the Knights of the Round Table being sent to Camelot to yield themselves vassals to King Arthur. Campeius, Cardinal, dr.p. HVIII. can. An old way of spelling gan (began). Pilgr. 232 ; LLL. IV, 3, 106 ; Per. Ill, Prol. 36. can. To know ; to be skilful in. Hml. IV, 7, 85. canakin. A little can ; a mug. 0th. II, 3, 71. See clink. canary. A quick and lively dance. All's. II, 1, 77. canary. A blunder of Mrs. Quickly for quandary. Wiv. II, 2, 61 and 64. Dr. Schmidt objects to this interpretation on the ground that "this word is un- known to Sh." The word (quandarie) was used by Greene in his " Mamillia " (printed 1593). Greene died in 1592, and as he had lampooned Sh. , Sh. may have ridiculed some of his expressions. Sh. was well acquainted with Greene's works, for the "Winter's Tale" is a dramatization of one of Greene's stories, Pandosto. candidatus. A Roman name for a suitor for a high office, so called from his white gown. Tit. I, 1, 185. Canidius, dr.p. Lieutenant-general of Antony. Ant. canker. The dog-rose. Ado. I, 3, 28. canker^bloom. The flowers of the wild rose. Sonn. LIV, 5. canker=blossom. A worm that preys on blossoms. Mids. Ill, 2, 282. candle. See hell^ hook, and candle. candle's ends. " It may, perhaps, be asked why drinking off candle's ends for flap-dragons should be esteemed an agreeable qualification ? The answer is, that as a feat of gallantry, to swallow a candle'' s-end formed a more formidable and disagreeable flap-dragon than any other substance, and therefore afforded a stronger testimony of zeal for the lady to whose health it was drunk." Naves. 2HIV. II, 4, 267. See fiap- dragon. candle=niine. A huge mass of tallow. 2HIV. II, 4, 326. candle=waster. One who sits up at night either for study or revelry. Ado. V, I, 18. cannibal. One who eats human flesh. 3HVI. I, 4, 152; Oth. I, 3, 143. In 2HIV. II, 4, 180, Pistol, in his bombastic speech, evidently uses cannibals for Hannibals, and in Meas. II, 1, 183, Elbow uses Hannibal for cannibal. canstick. A candlestick. IHIV. Ill, 1, 131. Canterbury, Archbishop of, Bourchier, dr.p. RIII. Canterbury, Archbishop of, Chicheley, dr.p. HV. Canterbury, Archbishop of, Cranmer, dr.p. HVIII. cantle. A piece ; a part. IHIV. Ill, 1, 100 ; Ant. Ill, 10, 6. canton. A song. Tw. 1, 5, 289 and III, 1, 100. canvass. To toss, as in a blanket. In 2HIV. II, 4, 243, this is undoubtedly the signification, but in IHVI. I, 3, 36, this meaning does not apply so well. To tumble the bishop into his hat and toss him therein is not very feasible. A writer in the Edinburgh Review (Oct. 1872) suggests that canvass here means to trap or to ensnare, canvass being a technical name for a net used for catch- ing wild hawks. The hat being the emblem of his position, which he abused by granting immoral licences, he would be caught in it. canzonet. A song ; a ditty. [Ital. can- zonetta.] LLL. IV, 2, 125. cap. A covering for the head ; meta- phorically, the top. Tim. IV, 3, 363; Hml. II, 2, 233, and cf., our collo- quial : " that caps all. " capable. Capacious. Oth. Ill, 3, 459. cap=a=pe. From head to foot. Wint. IV, 4, 761 ; Hml. I, 2, 200. In some eds. cap-a-pie, the old French form. Caphis, dr.pi. A servant. Tim. CAP 70 CAR caper. The unexpanded flower of the caper-bush, used for pickling. For quibble, see mutton. capitulate. 1. To make head. IHIV. III, 2, 120. 2. To treat with; to raake agreement. Cor. V, 3, 82. capocchia. (Ital.) A simpleton. Troil. IV, 2, 33. capon. Besides the usual and well-known meaning of the word as applied to certain kinds of fowl (Gent. IV, 4, 10 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 100), it is also applied as a term of reproach (Err. Ill, 1, 32 ; Ado. V, 1, 155, where the inference is obvi- ous). It has been suggested that in Cym, II, 1, 25, there is a quibble (capon = cap on = coxcomb). In LLL. IV, 1, 56, the word capon evidently means a love-letter. Theobd;ld, in reference to this passage, says : " Our poet uses this metaphor as the French do their poulet, which signifies a young fowl and a love-letter. The Italians use the same manner of expression when they call a love-epistle ima pollicetta [polizzetta] amorosa. I ow'd the hint of this equi- vocal use of the word to my ingenious friend Mr. Bishop. ' ' Farmer, the famous Sh. critic, 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. ' ' ' See also carve and break. capriccio. (Italian.) Caprice ; fancy. All's. II, 3, 310. capricious. / am here tvith thee and thy goats, as the most c. j^oet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths. As. Ill, 3, 8. Meaning here is uncertain. The pun on Goths and goats (the th having fre- quently the sound of t in Sh. time) is obvious. Ovid may here be called "capricious," as being notedly amatory (See his Art of Love), and the goat is one of the most salacious of animals. (0th. Ill, 3, 403.) captious. Various meanings have been given to this word as it occurs in All's. I, 3, 208. Schm. makes it = " capaci- ous." Here, as in many other cases, Sh. probably gave it the purely ety- mological meaning, taking, so that "captious and intenible " would mean " taking and not holding." captivate, adj. Captive. IHVI. II, 3, 42. Capucius, dr.p. Ambassador from Charles V. HVIII. Capulet, dr.p. Father of Juliet. Rom. Capulet, Lady, dr.p. Wife of Capulet, and mother of Juliet. Rom. car. In the expression : Though our silence he drawn from lis with cars (Tw. II, 5, 71), the meaning has never been satisfactorily ascertained. John- son makes cai's = carts. Perhaps Fabian means though our silence be drawn from us by ivhippiyig at the carVs tail, a well known mode of punishment at that time. Jackson suggested cats, meaning, of course, the cat-o'-nine-tails. But was this word in use then in that sense ? Hanmer suggested ears, and this reading is adopted by Rolf e. carack. A large ship of burden. (Ital. caracca.) Cot. tells us that a carraqtie is : " The huge ship tearmed a carricke. " Err. Ill, 2, 140 ; 0th. 1, 2, 50 ; Kins. Ill, 4. caraways. Comfits made with caraway seeds. 2HIV. V, 3, 3. carbonado. Meat scotched for broiling. IHIV. V, 3, 61. carcanet, [ A necklace ; a collar of carkanet. ] jewels. Err. Ill, 1. 4 ; Sonn. LII, 8. card, V. To debase by mixing. IHIV. Ill, 2, 62. This use of the word was not uncom- mon in Sh. time. Thus, in Greene's "Quip for an Upstart Courtier" we find : " You card your beer, if you see your guests begin to be drunk, half small, half strong." card, n. 1. The face of a mariner's com- pass. Mcb. I, 3, 17. 2. Printed or written rules. Hml. V, Ij 149. See face. A "cooling card" is a stroke whicb CAR 71 CAS suddenly turns the tables. IHVI. V, 3, S4. Cardecue. A quarter of a French crown. (quart cVecu). All's. IV, 3, 311. Cardinal Beaufort, dr. p. Bishop of Win- chester. 2HVI. Cardinal Bourchler, dr.jo. Archbishop of Canterbury. RIII. Cardinal Campeius, dr. p. HVIII. Cardinal Pandulph, dr.j). The Papal legate. John. Cardinal Wolsey, dr.j). HVIII. Carduus Benedictus. The blessed thistle. This plant was reputed to cure all diseases^even the plague. Cogan in his "Haven of Health," published in 4to. in 1586, says: "This her be may worthily be called Benedictus or Onini- morbia, that is, a salve for every sore, not knowen to physitians of old time, but lately revealed by the speciall pro- vidence of Almighty God. " It is alleged that Luther was cured of " a congeal- ing of blood about the breast " by diinking the water of Carduus Bene- dictus. It is evident that in Ado. Ill, 4, 74, Margaret twits Beatrice with her love for Benedick, and recommends Carduus Benedictus as a remedy for heart disease. career. Defined by Schm. as: 1. The ground on which a race is run ; 2. The race itself. This scarcely gives the idea intended in some passages. In Ado. V, 1, 135, I shall meet your wit in the career, certainly does not mean that Benedick will vieet Claudio's wit in the race ; that would be impossible, as con- testants in a race never meet. The term is borrowed from the tilt-yard, and means that he will meet him in the fuU rush of his attack. So in Ado. II, 3,250: The ' career of his humour means when his humour is intense or in full swing. Also in RII. I, 2, 49 : first career means the first encounter. The word occurs seven times in the plays and has this signification in each case, except HV. II, 1, 132, where it has no meaning at all, being nonsensically used by Nym (not by Pistol, as Schm. gives it). Bardolph's speech, Wiv. I, 1, 184, is evidently thieves' Latin intended to confuse Slender, and any attempt to make sense of it would simply be a waste of time. carl. A churl ; a fellow. Cym. V, 2, 4. Carlisle, Bishop of, dr.jD. RII. carlot. A peasant ; a churl. As. Ill, 5, 108. carnal. Carnivorous, RIII. IV, 4, 56. carpet. He is a kyiight, dubbed tvith un- hatched rapier and on carjpet con- sideration. Tw. Ill, 4, 258. ^'CarjJet knights were dubbed at court by mere favour — not on the field of battle for their military exploits. Our early writers constantlj^ speak of them with great contempt, and carpet knight became a term for an effeminate per- son." Dyce. See also Nare's " Gloss- ary, " where it is stated that "trencher- knight ' ' is probably synonymous. carpet=monger. One who frequents car- pets and ladies' bowers. Ado. V, 2, 32. carpets. Table-cloths. Shr. IV, 1, 52. carrack. See carack. carve. In Hml. I, 3, 20, the phrase carve for himself obviously means : to shape his own destiny. In Wiv. I, 3, 48, and probably in LLL. V, 2, 323, the word has a special meaning first pointed out by Hunter in his " New Illustrations of Shakespeare, " Vol. I, p. 215. In these passages the word means ' ' to make certain signs with the fingers, indicating a desire that the person to whom they are ad- dressed should be attentive and pro- pitious." In "A Very Woman" we find : ' ' 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." Casca. dr.p, A Roman conspirator, and friend of Brutus. Caes. case, n. Skin. The skin of a fox is called its case. Tw. V, 1, 168. case, V. To strip off the skin. All's. Ill, 6, 110. cf. uncase. casque. A helmet. RII. I, 3, 81. CAS 72 CAT Cassandra, dr.p. A prophetess. Troil. Cassandra was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She and her twin brother Helenus, when young, were left asleep in the sanctuary of Apollo, when their ears were purified by serpents, so that they could understand the divine sounds of nature and the voices of birds. After- wards, Cassandra sometimes used to sleep in the same temple, and when she grew up her beauty won the lo\ e of Apollo. The god endowed her with the gift of prophecy upon her promising to comply with his desires, but when she had become possessed of the pro- phetic art, fhe refused to fulfil her promise. Thereupon the god, in anger, ordained that no one should believe her prophecies. She predicted to the Trojans the ruin that threatened them, but no one believed her ; she was looked upon as a madwoman, and according to a late account was shut up and guarded. On the capture of Troy she fled into the sanctuary of Minerva, but was torn from the statue of the goddess by A jax, son of O'lleus, and, according to some accounts, was even ravished by him in the sanctuary. On the division of the booty she fell to the lot of Agamemnon. See Agaif)%einnon. Cassibelan. A king of Britain in the time of Julius Caesar. After his death Theomantius, the youngest son of Lud, was made king. He reigned twenty- two years and left the kingdom to his son Cymbeline or Kymbeline. Cym. I, 1,30. Cassio, dr.p. Lieutenant to Othello. Oth. Cassius, dr.p). A Roman conspirator and friend of Brutus. Caes. cassock. A military cloak. All's. IV, 3, 193. cast. 1. Dismissed. Oth. I, 1, 150. 2. This was the word used by quacks to describe the inspection of the urine by which diseases were found out. Mcb. V, 3, 50. cf. Tw. Ill, 4, 113. Castalion=King=Urinal. A nonsensical word coined by the host. It doubtless has a satirical reference to the Doctor's system of medical practice. Sometimes printed Castillian. Wiv. II, 3, 34. Castiliano vulgo. Schm. calls this " Span- ish of Sir Toby's own making and not easily translated. ' ' Warburton suggest- ed volto for vulgo, and explained it as = "Put on your Castilian counten- ance ; that is, your grave solemn looks." Tw. I, 3, 45. castle. A very strong helmet. In Mal- lory's "History of King Arthur" (Camelot Classics, p. 294), we find this passage : " ' Do thou thy best,' said Sir Gawaine ; ' therefore, hie thee fast that thou wert gone : and wit thou well, we shall soon come after, and break the strongest castle that thou hast upon thy head.'" HoUinshed has : "Then suddenlie, with great noise of trumpets, entered sir Thomas Knevet in a casteU of cole blacke." This is also the mean- ing in Tit. Ill, 1, 170 ; Troil. V, 2, 187. The expression : My old lad of the castle ! IHI V. I, 2, 48, is equivalent to "my old buck." It has been claimed that this is a reference to the old play in which Falstaff appears as Sir John Oldcastle. But this opinion is now relinquished. The expression "old lad of the castle " is an old one. Catalan. A Chinaman ; a native of Cathay. A cant term for a sharper or thief. Wiv. II, 1, 147. cater=>cousin. A corruption of the French quatre-cousin = fourth cousin. Gobbo perhaps used it as meaning that t^o persons ate together. Merch. II, 2, 139. cates. Delicacies ; dainty food. IHIV. Ill, 1, 163 ; Shr. II, 1, 190. (A pun or quibble.) Catesby, Sir William, dr.p. RIII. His name was inade the subject of a rhyme by one Collingbourne : The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell our dog Doe rule all England under a Hog ; The crooke backt boore the way hath found To root our roses from our ground. The Cat was Catesby; the Rat, Rat- cliff ; Lovell was Lord Lovel ; the Hog CAT 73 CER was Richard III. , whose cognizance was a boar. Collingbourne was executed for making this rhyme. Catesby was taken prisoner at Bosworth and exe- cuted. catlings. Fiddle-strings ; catgut. Troil. Ill, 3, 306. Cato, the Younger, dr.p. A friend to Brutus. Cses. caudle. A warm, cordial di'ink made of gruel, with ale or wine, and spices, given to the sick — especially to women and their gossips. Hempen caudle = execution by hanging ; help of hatchet = decapitation, both being certain cures for all diseases. 2HVI. IV, 7, 95 ; cf. Cym. V, 4, 169, et seq. This passage has caused trouble to some, but the meaning seems obvious. See help. cautel. Deceit. Hml. I, 3, 15, cautelous. False ; deceitful ; insidious. Cor. IV, 1, 33 ; Cses. II, 1, 129. caviare. The roe of the sturgeon, pre- served by salting. The taste for caviare is an acquired one, and to ' ' the general ' ' it is not acceptable, hence Hamlet's comparison. Hml. II, 2, 457. cease. Decease ; death. Hml. Ill, 3, 15. Celia, dr.p. Daughter of the usurping Duke Frederick, and companion of Rosalind. As. censer. A pan for burning perfumes. " The censers had pierced convex covers and stood on feet. They not only served to sweeten a barber's shop, but to keep his water warm and dry his cloths on." Steevens. The reference in Shr. IV, 3, 91, is to the perforations in the cover. The portable censers, used for burning perfumes in dwelling houses, had thin embossed figures in the middle of the lid, and it has been sug- gested that it is to these figures that reference is made in 2HIV. V, 4, 21. White's idea is that the thin officer wore some kind of cap which Doll Tear- sheet likened to a censer, and this is certainly a very satisfactory explana- tion. censure, n. Judgment. IHVI. II, 3, 10 ; RIII. II, 2, 144 ; 0th. II, 2, 3, 193. censure, v. 1. To pass sentence upon. Meas. I, 4, 72. 2. To judge ; to criticise. Gent. I, 2, 19. Cephalus. Corrupted by Bottom to Shafa- lus. Mids. V, 1, 200. Alluded to as "the morning's love" in Mids. Ill, 2, 389. Cephalus was the son of Deion, the ruler of Phocis. He was married to Procris or Procne, to whom he was sincerely attached. Once when the handsome Cephalus was amusing him- self with the chase, Aurora approached him with loving entreaties which, how- ever, he rejected. The goddess then bade him not break his vow until Procris had broken hers, but advised him to try her fidelity. She then meta- morphosed him into a stranger, and gave him rich presents with which he was to terapt Procris. Procris yielded, when he discovered himself to her, whereupon she fled in shame to Crete and discovered herself to Diana, who gave her a wonderful dog and spear which were never to miss their object. She then returned home in the disguise of a youth and went out with Cephalus to hunt. When he saw the excellence of the dog and spear he wished to buy them, but she would sell them only for love. When he promised to love her she discovered herself to him, and they were reconciled. As she still feared Aurora, however, she always jealously watched him while hunting, and by accident he killed her with the spear, mistaking her for a wild animal. Grrief led him to kill himself. cere=cloth. Waxed cloth sometimes used to enwrap dead bodies. Merch. II, 7, 51. ceremonies. 1. Honorary ornaments; tokens of respect. Caes. I, 1, 70. Here they mean scarfs. See Caes. I, 2, 289. 2. Omens ; signs deduced from sacri- fices or other ceremonial rites. Cses. II, 1, 197; do. II, 2, 13. Ceres, dr.p. Represented by one of the spii-its called up by Prospero. Tp. Cei'es, whom this spirit represented, was one of the great divinities of the Greeks, and was the daughter of Cro- CEB 74 CHA nus (Saturn) and Rhea, and sister of Ju- piter, by whom she became the mother of Proserpine. She was the goddess of agriculture and of all the fruits of the earth. It has been claimed (see Tp. IV. I, 66) that she was not the goddess of trees and forests; but the ancient legends tell us that she punished with fearful hunger Erysicthon, who cut down her sacred grove. Cerimon, dr. p. A lord of Ephesus. Per. cess. Measure ; reckoning. IHIV. II, 1,8. cestron. A cistern. Eans. V, 1. certify. To convince. Merch. II, 8, 10. chaffless. Without chaff; without any imperfection. Cym. I, 6, 178, chair days. A time of repose ; the even- ing of life. 2HVI. V, 2, 48. chamber. 1. A small piece of ordnance. HVIII. I, 4, 47 (stage direction); 2HIV. II, 4, 57. (quibble.) 2. London was anciently called "Camera Regis " (King's Chamber). This title it began to have immediately after the Norman Conquest. RIII. Ill, 1, 1. chamberer. An effeminate man ; a car- pet knight. 0th. Ill, 3, 265. chameleon. A species of lizard, notable for its power of changing its color so as to resemble the object on which it rests; said, also, to live upon air. It feeds upon insects, which it captures so dex- terously that few eyes are sharp enough to observe the process. Gent. II, 4, 26 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 98. changeable. Varying in color. Tw. II, 4, 75. changeling. The belief that fairies were in the habit of carrying off human chil- dren and leaving their own in place of them was anciently common all over Europe, and in some countries it sur- vived until a comparatively recent pe- riod. The child was stolen before it was baptized; it could not be stolen after that. The motive which led to the change was that every seven years the fairies were compelled to sacrifice one of their number to the devil, and they tried to substitute a human child for one of themselves. A baptized in- fant the devil could not accept. It was always believed that certain charms would compel the fairies to return the stolen child and take back their own; but the most effectual way was said to be to close doors, windows and even the chimney, and then throw the fairy brat on the fire. Its screams would call its own people to its rescue, and the real child would be returned to its mother. Mids. II, 1, 22. Much has been said about the term changeling being here applied to the human child, but, of course, it was a changeling to the fairies, just as the elfin youngster was a changeling to the human parent. In this case, however, there seems to have been no exchange. chanson. A song. Hml. II, 2, 438. The 4to of 1603 has : "the first verse of the godly ballet. " This explains the mod- ern reading. chape. The metal part at the end of a scabbard. All's. IV, 3, 164. chapeless. Without a chape. Shr. Ill, 2, 48. chapless. The jaw being gone. Rom. IV, 1, 83 ; Hml. V, 1, 97. chapman. A dealer ; a trader ; a pedlar. LLL. II, 1, 16 ; Troil. IV, 1, 75. charact. A distinctive mark. Meas. V, 1, 56. character. To write ; to inscribe. Hml. 1, 3, 59. characterless. Unrecorded. Troil, III, 2, 195. charactery. Writing. Wiv. V, 5, 77. chare, n. Work ; a piece of drudgery. Ant. IV, 15, 75 ; do. V, 2, 231. chare, vb. To do a job. AWs char''d = the business is finished. Kins. Ill, 2. charge=house. A school-house, but of what kind is uncertain. LLL. V, 1, 87. Some read church-house. Charles, dr. p. The Dauphin of France. IHVI. Charles VI., dr. p. King of France. HV. Charles, dr.}}. A wrestler. ■ As. Charles' wain. The constellation known as Ursa Major, or the G-reat Bear. Also CHA 75 CHI called the Dipper. See wain. IHIV. II, 1, 2. charm. To check or restrain. Shr. IV, 2, 58 ; 2HVI. IV, 1, 64 ; 3HVI. V, 5, 31 ; 0th. V, 2, 183. charmer. A sorceress. 0th. Ill, 4, 57. Charmian, d7\p. One of Cleopatra's attendants. Ant. charneco. A species of sweet wine. 2HVI. II, 3, 63. chace ) A term of tennis-play, used chase. ) by Sh. as = match played at tennis. HV. I, 2, 266. Chatham, the Clerk of, dr.p. A non- entity in history. {Douce.) 2HVI. IV, 2, 92. Chatillon, dr.p. Ambassador from France. John. chats him. The explanations given of this phrase are not quite satisfactory, but the best seems to be that of the Rugby Sh. " Talks Coriolanus," as we say a man "talks horse." Various emendations have been suggested ; none of much value. Cor. II, 1, 224. chaudron. Entrails. Mcb. IV, 1, 33. cheater, ) 1, A swindler ; a decoy. cheater. ) 2HIV. II, 4, 111. 2. A corruption of escheator, an officer who collected the fines to be paid into the exchequer. In Wiv. I, 3, 76, there seems to be a quibble based on the two different meanings of the word. check. A term in falconry. When a falcon flies at a bird which is not her proper game, she is sa,id to check at it. Tw. II. 5, 125 ; III, 1, 71. checks. Generallj^ considered a misprint for ethics in Shr. I, 1, 32. cheer, n. Countenance ; face. Mids. Ill, 2, 96; IHVI. I, 2, 48; Kins. I, 5. It is the old French word chere, defined by Cot. as "face, visage, countenance." cheer, vb. To encourage; to raise the spirits. Mcb. V, 3, 20. See disease. chequin. A zechin, or sequin ; an Italian gold coin worth a little more than $2. Per. IV, 2, 28. cherry=pit. A game in which cherry-pits are thrown into a hole. Tw. Ill, 4, 129. cheveril. Kid or roe-buck leather ; a symbol of elasticity, as in a c. glove, Tw. Ill, 1, 13 ; a c. conscience, HVIII. II, 3, 32; a c. wit, Rom. II, IV, 87. che vor ye. Somerset dialect for I warn ye. Lr. IV, 6, 246. chewit. A chough. IHIV. V, 1, 29. childed. Occurs in the following lines : How light and portable my pain seems now, When that which makes me bend makes the king bow, He childed as I fathered. Lr, in, 6. 11 r. The word is found nowhere else in Sh. Schm. gives the meaning of c/it^ded as "having children." The Century Dictionary gives "provided with or having a child or children, ' ' both quoting this passage. There are two meanings which may be suggested and which do not strain the sense : 1. To child = to become as a child. Lear grew more childlike as Edgar became stronger or more like a father. 2. The king seemed to adopt Edgar as a child in proportion as Edgar adopted him as a father by rendering son-like duty to him. childing. Fruitful ; prohfic. Mids. II, 1, 112. Some have suggested that childing is a misprint for chilling or chiding, but it is now generally accepted with the meaning given above. childe. Thus in PI., but usually spelled child. Lr. Ill, 3, 187. Byron's " ChUde Harold" has made the term quite familiar. According to Warburton, vol. VI, p. 85: "In the old times of chivalry, the noble youths who were candidates for knighthood, during the season of their probation, were called Infans, Varlets, Damoysels, Bache- liers. The most noble of the youth, particularly, Infans. " Infans = chUd. Rowland is the same as Roland. Edgar evidently mixes up a ballad about the Child Rowland, and lines from a popular rhyme about Jack the Giant- KHler. childness. Childish disposition. Wint. I, 2, 170. ch'ill. I wiU. (Somerset dialect.) Lr. IV, 6, 239, and 247. CHI 76 CLE chine. The spine ; a piece of the spine cut for cooking. 2HVI. IV, 10, 61; HVIII, V, 4, 26. See mose. chinks. Money. Rom. I, 5, 118. So called from its " chinking " sound. The term still survives as a slang word. chirurgeonly. In the manner of a sur- geon. Tp. II, 1, 140. chopine. A shoe or clog with a very high heel. Hml. II, 2, 447. Some of these chopines were more like stilts than shoes, being 18 inches high, and when a lady who wore them went abroad she required one or two assistants to walk by her side and keep her from falling. choppy. Chopped. Mcb. I, 3, 44. Christendom. The state of being a Chris- tian. John IV, 1, 16. christom. Mrs. Quickly means chrisoni child = a chUd just christened. Infants dying within a month of christening were called chrisonis. The term is also applied to the face-cloth or piece of linen put upon the head of a child newly baptised. HV. II, 3, 12. chuck. A chicken ; a term of endear- ment. LLL. V, 1, 117. ; 0th. Ill, 4, 49. chuff. A coarse, unmannered clown, at once sordid and wealthy. IHIV. II, 2, 94. chrysolite. Literally gold-stone — a pre- cious stone, evidently at one time in high repute amongst jewellers. Some- times identified with the topaz, but probably a very different and much more valuable mineral. The chrysolite of the modern mineralogist has no value as a jewel. 0th. V, 2, 145. Chiron, dr. p. Son of Tamora. Tit. Cicero, dr.p. A Roman senator. Cses. cincture. A belt or girdle. John IV, 3, 155. The word is center in the folio, and this Schm. glosses as soul. The word cincture was pronounced center in Sh. day (R. G-. White), hence the mistake in spelling. Cinna, dr.p. A conspirator against Julius Caesar. Cses. Cinna, dr.p. A poet. Plutarch tells us that the populace mistook him for Cinna the conspirator and put hina to death. cinque-^pace. A lively dance, the steps of which were regulated by the number five. From the French cinq = five. Literally five-step. Ado. II, 1, 77. See sink-a-jjace. cipher. To decipher. Lucr. 208. circumstance. Phrases ; ceremony. Hml. I, 5, 127 ; 0th. I, 1, 13 ; 2HVI. I, 1, 105. cite. To call ; to incite. Gent. II, 4, 85. citizen. Town-bred ; effeminate. Cym. IV, 2, 8. . cittern. A guitar. LLL. V, 2, 614. The allusion here is to the fact that the cittern usually had a head grotesquely carved at the extremity of the neck and the finger-board. Nares. clack=dish. A wooden dish carried by beggars, with a movable cover, which they clapped and clattered to show that it was empty. In this they received the alms. Nares. Meas. Ill, 2, 135. Also called clap-dish, and sometimes jocularly applied to a woman's mouth from the noise it is supposed to make. " Widow, hold your clap-dish " (Greene's " Tu Quoque ") means, do not speak. clap. By itself this word has the usual meaning ; to clap on the shoulder was the sign of arrest by bailiffs, and this (and not a sign of applause, as is the usual interpretation,) is evidently the meaning in As. IV, 1, 48. clap i' the clout. To shoot an arrow into the bull's eye of the target. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 51. Clarence, George, Duke of, dr.p. Son of the Duke of York, and brother of Edward IV. and Richard III. 3HVI. and RIII. Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, dr.p. Son of Henry IV. 2HIV. Claudio, dr.p. Brother of Isabella, and condemned to death. Meas. Claudio, dr.p. A young Florentine lord in love with Hero. Ado. Claudius, dr.p. King of Denmark. Uncle and stepfather to Hamlet. Hml. Claudius, dr.p. Servant to Brutus. Caes. claw. To flatter. Ado. I, 3, 18. Cleomenes, dr.p. A Sicilian lord. Wint. CI,E 77 CLO Cleon, dr. 23. Governor of Tarsus. Per. Cleopatra, (ir.p. Ant. The Cleopatra who makes such a figure in history and in Sh. play was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes, and was born 69 B.C. At the age of seven- teen she was left heir to the kingdom jointly with her younger brother, Ptolemy, whose wife, in accordance with Egyptian custom, she was to become. Being deprived of hei- king- . dom by her guardians, she withdrew into Syria and prepared to recover her kingdom by force of arms. At this time she met Julius Caesar, who had followed Pompey into Egypt, and Csesar, smitten with her charms, at once took her part, defeated the Ptole- my who had usurped her rights, and replaced her on the throne, in conjunc- tion with the younger brother, to whom she was contracted in marriage. On Csesar's return to Rome, Cleopatra fol- lowed him with her young husband, of whom, however, she got rid by poison, but on the assassination of Caesar she returned to Egypt. Some years before this she had met Antony, and made such a deep impression upon him that he followed her to Egypt, where they lived together in the most unbridled and wanton luxury. They assumed the names of "Osiris " and " Isis," and gave themselves out as divinities. War was, however, declared against them by Oc- tavianus Caesar (Augustus), and the rest of her history is given in the play. She had three children by Antony and a son called C^sarion by Julius Caesar. Caesarion was executed by order of Augustus. clepe. To call ; to name. Hml, I, 4, 19. Clifford, Lord, dr.p. A Lancastrian. 2HVI. and 3HVI. Clifford, Young, dr.p. Son of Lord Clifford. 2HVL climature. Region. Hml. I, 1, 125. cling. To waste away. Mcb. V, 5, 40. clink. To make a ringing sound : IHIV. II, 4, 51 ; 0th. II, 8, 71. In the latter passage the "clink" is supposed to be made by touching mugs or glasses, as is even now a common fashion. clinquant. Grlittering ; shining. HVIIL I, 1, 19. clip. To embrace ; to enclose. 0th. Ill, 3, 464 ; 2HVI. IV, 1, 6. clipper. A def acer of coin. HV. IV, 1,249. Clitus, dr.p. Servant to Brutus. Caes. closely. Secretly ; privately. John IV, 1, 133 ; Hml. Ill, 1, 29. Cl3ten, dr.}}. Son of the queen, and thn rejected lover of Imogen. Cym. clothier's yard. An arrow the length of a clothier's yard. Lr. IV, 6, 88. cloud. A dark spot between the eyes of a horse. This gives him a sour look, and being supposed to indicate an ill-temper is regarded as a great blemish. Steevens. Ant. Ill, 2, 51. clout. 1. A rag or piece of cloth. John, III, 4, 58 ; RlII. I, 3, 177 ; Hml. II, 2, 529. Schm. suggests that in Ant. IV, 7, 6, clouts = cuffs [blows]. Surely not. It is true that there is a Scotch word clout, which signifies a blow, but here the word means broken heads tied up with cloths. 2. The white mark fixed in the center of the target at which archers shot for practice. LLL. IV, 1, 136 ; 2HIV. Ill, 2, 51 ; Lr. IV, 6, 92. Nares derives the word from the French clouette, which is not to be found in the^ ordinary French dictionaries. Cot. has "■ clouet, a little nayle." But none of the forms or combinations of the English word clout have any rela- tion to the French clou, a nail. A clout nail, or as Cot. has it, "a clowte nayle," is a nail with a very broad head used for nailing cloth, canvass, leather, and similar materials to wood, and cl'out, as used here, has direct re- ference to the purpose for which it is used — i.e., nailing clouts. In this case the small head of the common nail would go through the material and would not hold. Hunter, in his " New Illustrations of Shakespeare," vol. II, page 70, quotes the " accompts of re- pairs at Woodstock, in the sixth year CLO 78 coc of King Edward the Fourth, ' Item solut. Roberto Austyn pro c. cloute neyle pro le goters in Rosamond.' " The clout of the archer was a piece of white cloth nailed to the center of the butt. See hob-nail and clap. clouted. There is a difference of opinion as to whether this word signifies patched or studded with clout or hob-nails in 2HVI. IV, 2, 195, and Cym. IV, 2, 214. In the second quotation it certainly means studded with nails. Arviragius puts off his " clouted brogues " for fear of making too much noise ; patched brogues would not make a noise, biit brogues studded with nails would. In 2H VI. the order is to spare poor people — those whose coarse shoes, studded with nails, gave evidence that they were peasants. Surely the mere accident that a peasant's shoes were not patched would not have condemned him to death. The soles of the shoes of the upper classes were not so studded with nails. Hunter, to whose work we have already referred, quotes from Poole's "English Parnassus," the following lines referring to small-pox : which ploughs up flesh and biood, And leaves such prints of beauty if he come, As clouted shoon do upon floors of lome. Patched shoes would not leave imprints resembling small-pox upon floors of loam. That clouted sometimes means jyatched is undoubtedly true. See Joshua ix, 5. See brogue. clown, dr.p. Pompey, servant to Mrs. Overdone. Meas. clown, dr.p. Peste, servant to Olivia. Tw. cloy. To stroke with the claw. "An accustomed action with hawks and eagles." Steevens. Cym. V, 4, 118. coast. 1. To creep along the coast. Err. I, 1, 135 ; HVIII. Ill, 2, 38. 2. To advance. V. and A., 870. coasting. Inviting ; amorous approach ; courtship. Troil. IV, 5, 59. In some eds. accostmg. cob=loaf. A coarse, uneven loaf with a round top to it. A term of contempt applied to a man. Troil. II, 1, 41. The meaning of cob is a round lump. Thus a cob, said of a horse, means a dumpy animal ; a cob-nut is a round nut ; a cobble-stone is a stone of a round form, such as is used for pavement, and a cobble is a boat wide in proportion to its length. cobweb. The fiber spun by spiders. Country people consider it an excellent styptic, hence Bottom's words in Mids. Ill, 1, 186, where, if he cut his finger, he will desire a cobweb to stanch the bleeding. cock. 1. A male bird. 2. A small boat ; a cock-boat. Lr. IV, 6, 19. 3. A minced form of God, frequently used in oaths. Same as cox. Cock''s passion = God's passion, that is, the suff'erings of Christ. Shr. IV, 1, 121. By cock-and-jne. Wiv. I, 1, 316. An oath of uncertain derivation. Cock is supposed to stand for God (as it does elsewhere) and pie to mean the service book of the Romish Church. Dyce. cock=a=hoop. To cast off all restraint. Rom. I, 5, 85. cocatrice. A fabled animal, said to be hatched from the egg of an old cock. It was said to have eight feet, a crown on its head and a hooked and recurved beak. It was supposed to have such deadly power that it killed by the very glance of its eye (Rom. Ill, 2, 47) ; but it was also believed that the animal could not exercise this faculty unless it first perceived the object of its wrath before it was itself seen by it ; if first seen, it died. Also called the basilisk, q.v. Cockatrice was a popular name for a loose woman, probably from the fasci- nation of the eye. cockle. 1. The shell of the cockle (not mussel, as Schm. has it). Shr. IV, 3, 166; Per. IV, 4, 2. The cockle-sheU was the badge of pilgrims bound for places beyond the sea. Hml. IV, 5, 25. coc 79 COL 2. An obnoxious weed; the darnel. LLL. IV, 3, 383; Cor. Ill, 1, 70. See darnel. cockney. Both the meaning and origin of this word are quite uncertain. For a good discussion of the subject see " Century Dictionary." s.v. cockney. In Lr. II, 4, 123, it has been interpreted to mean cook; in Tw. IV, 1, 15, it is evidently intended to mean an ignorant person. cockscomb. See coxcomb. cockshut. A large net suspended between two poles, employed to catch or shut in woodcocks, and used chiefly in the twi- light ; hence it came to be used for twi- light. Also in the form cockshut time = the time for catching woodcocks — twilight. Some say the time when cocks and hens go to roost. RIII. V, 3, 70. Cocytus. A river in Epirus, a tributary of the Acheron. Like the Acheron, the Cocytus was supposed to be con- nected with the lower world, and hence came to be described as a river in the lower world, cf. Acheron. Homer makes the Cocytus a tributary of the Styx. Tit. II, 3, 236. cod's head. To change the cocfs head for the sahnon tail = to give up the best part of a homely thing for the worst part of something very fine. White. Oth. II, 1, 156. White here uses homely in the Ameri- can sense of inferior or ill-looking, not in the British sense of like home. An unfortunate euphemism. coffin. The crust of a pie. Tit. V, 2, 189. coign. A corner; a projecting corner- stone. Mcb. I, 6, 7 ; Cor. V, 4, 1. coil. Tumult ; turmoil ; bustle. Tp. I, 2, 207. Shuffled off this mortal coil = when we have got rid of all the turmoil of mortality. Hml. Ill, 1, 67. coistrel. See coystrel. Colbrand. A Danish giant, whom Guy of WarvTlck discomfited in the presence of King Athelstan. Johnson. John, I, 1, 225 ; HVIII. V, 4, 22. collied. Blackened; darkened. Oth. II, 3,206. collier. A term of reproach, not only from the black appearance of colliers, but from their reputation as cheats and swindlers. Tw. Ill, 4, 130 ; Rom. I, 1, 3. Collier here means seller or pedlar of coal rather than a miner. collop. A slice of flesh. ,Wint. I, 2, 137; IHVI. V, 4, 18. An old English word found in the " Promptorium Parvulorum " and else- where, and still in common use in Scot- land, where "minced collops " are a favorite dish. Schm. says, ' ' part of a man's flesh," but this is true only metaphorically, as in the text. Colme=kill. The cell or chapel of St. Columba, situated on a barren islet now known as Icolmkill or lona, about eight miles north of Staffa. Mcb. II, 4, 33. Here St. Columba, an Irish Christian preacher, founded a monastery in A.D. 563, and here he died about a.d. .597, or at the time when Augustine landed in Kent to convert the English. From this monastery in lona, Christianity and civilization spread, not only through Scotland, but even to the Orkneys and Iceland. Hence the island came to be considered holy ground, and there was a traditionary belief that it was to be specially favored at the dissolution of the world. According to the ancient prophecy, Seven years before that awful day When time shall be no more, A watery deluge shall o'ersweep Hibernia's mossy shore ; The green-clad Isla, too, shall sink, While with the great and good Columba' s happier isle shall rear Her towers above the flood. It is not to be wondered at that nion- archs desired to be buried in this sacred spot, and that thus it became the ceme- tery where, as CoUins has sung. The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid — Scotland, Ireland and Norway. No trace of their tombs now remains, the oldest monuments left on the island be- ing those of Irish ecclesiastics of the COL 80 COM 12th century. Besides these there are the ruins of a chapel (of the 11th cen- tury), of a nunnery (founded about 1180), and of the cathedral church of St. Mary, built early in the 13th cen- tury. Of the three hundred and fifty sculptured stone crosses which formerly adorned the island, only two are still standing. One is called "Maclean's Cross," and is a beautifully carved monolith, eleven feet high; the other, " St. Martin's Cross," is about fourteen feet high. All the other crosses were thrown into the sea, about the year 1560, by order of the anti-Popish Synod of Argyll. Rolfe. The beautiful tribute to the ruins of lona by Dr. Johnson must be fresh m the mind of every cultivated person. Columbine. The Aquilegia vulgai-is. This was termed of old a thankless flower — the emblem of ingratitude, and also of cuckoldom on account of the horns of its nectaria. It was also em- blematical of forsaken lovers. The name Columbine originated in a fancied resemblance of its petals and sepals to the heads of pigeons round a dish. LLL. V, 2, 661; Hml. IV, 5, 180. All Ophe- lia's flowers seem to be emblematic of something, but coms. are not agreed as to what the columbine signified in this case. Perhaps iiigratitude. Colville, Sir John, dr. 2^- -^^ enemy to Henry IV. 2HIV. comart. Bargain ; covenant. Hml. 1, 1, 93. In most eds. rendered covenant. combinate. Betrothed ; contracted ; prom- ised. Meas. Ill, 1, 231. comeddle. In most modern editions, com- mmgle, which means the same thing. Hml. Ill, 2, 74. cf. meddle. comfect. Comfit ; dry sweetmeat. See Count Comfect. Cominius, dr.p. A Roman general em- ployed against the Volscians. Cor. comma. The smallest break or stop. Hml. V, 2, 42. commandments. My ten command- ments =--■ my ten fingers ; an old slang expression. 2HVI. I, 3, 145. commodity. A quantity ; a parcel. Meas. IV, 3, 5 ; Tw. Ill, 1, 50. comonty. Slv's blunder for comedy. Shr. Ind. 2, i40. comparative, n. One who makes com- parisons ; a scoffer. IHIV. Ill, 2, 67. comparative, adj. Quick at compari- sons. IHIV. I, 2, 90. compass. The circle of the sun through the heavens ; a year. 0th. Ill, 4, 71. compassed window. A bow window. Troil. I, 2, 120. Perhaps a circular window. compassionate. Complaining ; asking for compassion. RII. I, 3, 174. complement. Outward form ; show ; ceremony. LLL. I, 1, 169. complexion. 1. Temperament ; natural disposition. Merch. Ill, 1, 32 ; Hml. I, 4, 27. 2. General appearance. Tp. I, 1, 32; Wiv. V, 5, 9 ; Hml. II, 2, 477. 3. Color of the skin. Err. Ill, 2, 103 ; Ado. II, 1, 305. The passage in As. Ill, 2, 204, Good my complexion, has puz- zled some. Theobald emended to odd^s my complexion, and Nares, perhaps following Ritson, asks if Rosalind does not mean to swear by her complexion, as in " Good heavens ! ' ' Referring back to line 192, we find Celia, after hinting at the presence of Orlando, asking: "Change you colour?" And now Rosalind uses to her complexion a form of expression found in ' ' Good my lord," " Good my mother," " Good my glass," etc., and implies that her com- plexion has shown her sex, and then claims that this is quite as it ought to be. comply with. To compliment ; to ofl'er formal courtesy. Hml. II, 2, 390 ; do. V, 2, 195. compose. To agree ; to come to an un- derstanding. Ant. II, 2, 15.. composition. Agreement ; compact. Meas. I, 2, 2 ; John, II, 1, 561 ; Mcb. I, 2, 59. No composition in these news = no consistency or agreement in these statementr. 0th. I, 3, 1. compromise. To agree ; literally : to promise together. Merch. I, 3, 79. COM 81 CON comptible. Sensitive. Tw. I, 5, 187. con. 1. To give ; to acknowledge. All's. IV, 3, 174 ; Tim. IV, 3, 428. 2. To learn by heart. Conned them out of rin gs = learned by heart the mottoes or posies found in rings. As. Ill, 2, 289. conceit. As found in As. V, 2, 59. Most commentators give the meaning as in- telligence ; wit. Schm. defines it as extraction, birth, and says : " Rosahnd, in order to convince Orlando of her pretended knowledge of mysteries, says to him : ' I know you are a gentleman of good conceit.' This cannot be = a gentleman of good parts, of wit ; ' for there needs no magician to tell him this.'" concernancy. Relation ; bearing ; im- port. Hml. V, 2, 128. conclusion. 1. An experiment. Ant. V, 2, 856 ; Hml. Ill, 4, 195. 2. Inference. Ant. IV, 15, 28. concolinel. A scrap of a song, but whether the beginning or the burden has not been determined. Some have claimed that it is part of an Irish song. LLL. Ill, 1, 3. concupy. A contraction of concupiscence; lust. Troil. V, 2, 177. condolement. Grief; mourning. Hml. 1, 2, 93. coney, ) A rabbit. As. Ill, 2, 357 ; cony. S Cor. IV, 5, 226. coney=catch. See cony-catch. confirmity. A blunder of Mrs. Quickly's for infirmity. 2HIV. II, 4, 64. confound. To consume ; to waste away. IHIV. 1,3,100. congrue. To agree; to mean the same thing. HV. I, 2, 182; Hml. IV, 3, 66. congruent. Fitting ; suitable. LLL. I, 2, 14, and V, 1, 97. conger. A sea eel. 2HIV. II, 4, 266. Applied as a term of reproach, probably because the conger is known to be a foul-feeding, mud-loving fish. 2HIV. II, 4, 58. See fennel, conject. To guess ; to conjecture. 0th. III, 3, 149. conjunctive. Closely united. Hml. IV, 7, 14 ; 0th. I, 3, 374. Conrade, dr.p. A follower of Don John. Ado. considerance. Consideration; reflection. 2HIV. V, 2, 98. consideration. See carpet. consign. 1. To agree; to confederate. 2HIV. V, 2, 143 ; HV. V, 2, 90. 2. To assign ; to allot. Troil. IV, 4, 47. consolate. To console ; to comfort. AU's. Ill, 2, 131. consort. A number of persons or a com- pany, as a band of musicians. Gent. Ill, 2, 84. conspectuity. Sight. Cor. II, 1, 70. Constable of France, The, dr.}}. Charles Delabreth, or D'Albret. He was slain at the Battle of Agincourt. HV. Constance, dr.jJ. Mother of Prince Ar- thur. John. constancy. Consistency. Mids. V, 1, 26. constant. Firm ; unshaken. Tp. I, 2, 207. constantly. 1. With firmness. Caes. V, I, 92. 2. Certainly ; for certain. Meas. IV, 1, 21. constant=qualified. Faithful. Cym. I, 4, 65. conster. To construe. So spelled in some editions. constringe. To condense ; to cramp. Troil. V, 2, 173. construe. To interpret ; to explain. Tw. Ill, 1, 63 ; Cses. II, 1, 307 ; 0th. IV, 1, 102. consul. A Venetian senator. 0th. 1, 1, 25. contemptible. Contemptuous; scornful. Ado. II, 3, 187. contemptuous. Despicable ; contempti- ble. 2HVI. I, 3, 86. continent. 1. That which contains and encloses anything. Hml. IV, 4, 64 ; Lr. Ill, 2, 58; LLL. IV, 1, 111. In Mids. II, 1, 92 = the banks of rivers. 2. That which is contamed; contents. 2HIV. II, 4, 309. contraction. A contract. Hml. Ill, 4, 46. In this instance, the marriage con- tract. This form of the word is very unusual, and has given occasion for CON 82 COR much discussion, but the meaning seems obvious. contrarious. Adverse ; contradictory. IHIV. V, 1, 52; Meas. IV, 1, 62. contrary, v. To oppose. Rom. I, 5, 87. contrive. 1. To conspire ; to plot. Hml. IV, 7, 136 ; Mids. Ill, 2, 196. 2. To pass away the time. Shr. I, 2, 276. Some claim that in this passage it means to scheme. The word generally has a bad sense, but not necessarily. Perhaps it here means simply to asso- ciate together. convent, v. 1. To summon. Meas. V, 1.58 ; HVIII, V, 1, 52. 2. To be convenient ; to suit. Tw. V, 391. convertite. A convert. Lucr. 743; John, V, 1, 19. convey. Besides the usual signification is cant for steal. Wiv. I, 3, 32 ; Cym. I, 1, 63. conveyance. Theft ; fraud ; trickery. IHVI. I, 3, 2; 3HVI. Ill, 3, 160. conveyer. A cheater ; a thief. RII. IV, 1, 317. convict. Convicted. RIII. I, 4, 192. convicted. Usually defined as defeated ; overpowered. John, III, 4, 2. This word is evidently a misprint. " Con- vected, " " con vented, " " collected, ' ' and several other words have been sug- gested as the true reading. convince. To overpower ; to defeat. Mcb. I, 7, 64, and IV, 3, 142 ; Cym. I, 4, 104. convive. To feast. Troil. IV, 5, 272. coney=catch. To swindle; to steal; the coney or rabbit being considered a very simple animal. Wiv. I, 1, 128, and I, 3, 36. "It has been shown, from Decker's 'English Villanies,' that the system of cheating, or as it is now called, swindling, was carried to a great length early in the seventeenth century ; that a collective society of sharpers was called a warren, and their dupes rab- bit-suckers (that is, young rabbits) or conies. One of their chief decoys was the selling goods or trash to be resold at a loss. They had several other terms of their art, all derived from the warren." Nares. In Shr. IV, 1, 45, the word is used to express foolery or trickery ; but this is not the generally accepted use of the term. cooling=card. See card. copatain liat. A hat with a high and pointed crown, like a sugar loaf. Shr. V, 1. 69. cope. V. 1. To reward; to equal; to meet. Merch. IV, 1, 412. 2. To meet with ; to encounter. 0th. IV, 1, 87. cope, n. The firmament. Per. IV, 6, 132. copesmate. A companion. Lucr. 925. copped. Rising to a prominent top, head or cop. Per. I, 1, 101. copy. Copyhold ; tenure. Mcb. Ill, 2, 38. coragio. Courage. Tp. V, 1, 258 ; All's. II, 5, 96. coram. A Latin preposition, supposed by Slender to be a title. Wiv. I, 1, 6. ScJim. Part of a term {coram nobis) used in certain writs. R. G. White glosses it as a blunder for quorum. Improbable. coranto. A quick, lively dance. All's, II, 3, 49 ; Tw. I, 3, 137. Cordelia, dr. p. The youngest daughter of King Lear. Lr. Corin, dr. p. A shepherd. As. Corintli. A cant term for a disorderly house. Tim. II, 2, 73. Corinthian. A licentious person, Corinth having been proverbial for its immor- ality. In IHIV. II, 4, 13, it probably means a lad of mettle ; a spirited young fellow. Coriolanus, Caius Marcius, dr. p. A noble Roman. Cor. corky. Shrivelled, like the rough and cleft bark of the cork tree. Lr. Ill, 7, 29. corn. In England this word signifies wheat ; in some parts of Ireland and Scotland, oats; in Arabia the equiva- lent term signifies barley ; in the United States, maize. See robin. cornuto. A cuckold. Wiv. Ill, 5, 71. Cornelius, dr. p. A courtier. Hml. COR 83 COTJ Cornelius, dr.p. A physician. Cym. Cornwall, Duke of, dr.p. The husband of Regan. Lr. corollary. A surplus. Tp. IV, 1, 57. coroner. Literally a crowner. An offi- cer whose original duty was to take charge of the property of the crown. Afterwards this office was confined to holding inquests on dead bodies. The word which is rendered "coroners" in As. IV, 1, 105, is "chronoclers " in the Folios. Chroniclers is retained in the Cambridge ed. , but coroners is the read- ing in the Globe and many others. As Schm. says : " The Sh. form of the word is crowner." corporal, adj. Corporeal. Mcb. I. 3, 81. corporal=of=the=field. An aide-de-camp. LLL. Ill, 1, 189. corroborate. A word used nonsensically by Pistol. HV. II, 1, 130. corrigible. 1. Docile ; submissive to cor- rection. Ant. IV, 14, 74. 2. Corrective. 0th. I, 3, 329. corrival. A companion. IHIV. IV, 4, 31. corruption. Perversion ; false represent- ation. HVIII. IV, 2, 71. Hml. I, 4, 35. corsive. Corrosive ; irritating. IHVI. Ill, 3, 3. Costard, dr.p. A clown. LLL. costard. Slang for head. Lr. IV, 6, 247. costermonger, adj. Peddling ; mercen- ary. 2HIV. I, 2, 191, cote, n. A cottage. As. II, 4, 83. cote, vb. 1. To overtake; to pass. Hml. II, 2, 330. 2. To quote ; to instance. LLL. IV, 3, 87. Cot=quean. A man who busies himself with women's affairs ; a molly-coddle ; a cot-betty. Rom. IV. 4, 6. Hunter has this note on the word : *' A cot-quean is the wife of a faithless husband, and not as Johnson, who knew little of the language of Sh. time, ex- plains it, ' a man who busies himself about kitchen affairs. ' It occurs twice in Golding's translation of the story of Tereus. The nurse is speaking to Lady Capulet, and the word calls forth all the conversation which follows about jealousy." But Johnson merely fol- lowed Phillips' ' ' New World of Words, ' ' or Bailey, by both of whom it is thus defined. Many editors give the speech in which it occurs to Lady Capulet on the ground that the Nurse has been sent away for spices. But in most eds., including Fl, the Nurse and Lady Cap- ulet leave after line 12, and not before. Rom. IV, 4, 7. Count Comfect. A gallant composed of affectation. " A nobleman made of sugar." Steevens. "My Lord Lolli- pop." Staunton. Ado. IV, 1, 318. countenance, n. In addition to the usual significations, it means : 1. Author- ity ; credit. Sonn. LXXXVI, 13 ; Wiv. II, 2, 5 ; Lr. V, 1, 63. 2. Fair show; specious appearance. Meas. V, 1, 118. countenance, vh. To favor ; to support. 2HIV. IV, 1, 35 ; 2HIV. V, 1, 41. counter. 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 (Err. IV, 2, 39) are therefore inconsistent. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word counter., which means the wrong way in the chase and also a prison in London. The officer that arrested Antipholus was a sergeant of the counter. See counter-gate. counter. A round piece of metal used in calculations, and of little or no value. As. II, 7, 63. counter=caster. An accountant ; a busi- ness clerk and not a military man. 0th. I, 1, 31. Counter=gate. The gate of the prison in London called Counter. Wiv. Ill, 3, 85. counterpoint. A counterpane. Literally a stitched quilt. Counterpane is a cor- rupted form of the word. Cot. gives, " Contrepointer. To quilt; to worke the backe stitch or to work with the back stitch." Shr. II. 1, 353. Countess of Auvergne, dr.p. IHVI. cou coz Count of Rousillon, dr. p. Bertram. All's. Countess of Rousillon, dr.p. Mother of Bertram. All's. county. Count ; a title ; originally near- ly equivalent to earl. Rom. I, 2, 68. couplet. A pair. Hml. V, 1, 310. The dove always lays two eggs for a sitting, and when the young are newly hatched the yellow down gives them a golden hue. course. In regard to Tp. I, 1, 45, Holt says, " The courses meant in this place are two of the three lowest and largest sails of a ship, which are so called be- cause, as largest, they contribute most to give her way through the water, and, consequently, enable her to feel her helm, and stear her course better than when they are not set or spread to the wind. " This explains the passage in Kins. Ill, 4. courser's hair. It was an old belief » that a horse hair when placed in water acquired life and became a slender snake. Two facts contributed to es- tablish this erroneous belief : 1 — When a horse hair is placed in water, the ab- sorption of moisture causes it to move, just as a very thin shaving will curl and move when laid on a damp sur- face; 2 — There is a peculiar parasite, the Gordius Aquaticus, which passes a portion of its life in stagnant pools, and which in outward appearance and size closely resembles the hair of a horse. I have met those who could not be convinced that they had not seen hairs turned into snakes. Ant. I, 2, 200. Court, dr. p. A soldier in army of Henrv V. HV. court=cupboard. A sort of movable side- board, without doors or drawers, on which were displayed the plate of an establishment — the flagons, beakers, cups, etc. Difce. Rom. I, 5, 8, court holy=water. Flattery ; fair words. Lr. Ill, 2, 10. Cot. gives : " Eau beniste de Cour. Court holie water ; comple- ments, f aire words, flattering speeches. " courtship. Courtly breeding ; elegance of behaviour. LLL. V, 2, 363 ; 0th. II, 1, 171. cousin. Besides the usual meaning, it often signifies nephew or niece. Hml, I, 2, 64. Tw. V, 1, 813. In I, 3, 1, Sir Toby calls Olivia his niece. Kings and princes usually give this title to the noblemen in their train. cousin = german. A first cousin. Troil. IV, 5, 121. covent. Convent. Meas. IV, 3, 133. An old form of convent, still sur- viving in the name Covent Garden, London, which was originally the garden of the convent at Westminster. cover. To lay the table for a meal. Mereh. Ill, 5, 65. cowish. Cowardly. Lr. IV, 2, 12. cowl=staff. A pole on which a weight is borne between two persons. Wiv. Ill, 3, 156. cox. A minced form of God. Same as cock, q.v. Cox my pas.sion = by G-od's passion. All's. V, 2, 42. coxcomb. 1. A fool's cap. It was the fashion to decorate the head of the domestic fool with a comb, like that of a cock, and. frequently the apex of the hood took the form of the neck and the head of a cock. Shr. II, 1, 226 ; Lr. I, 4, 105. Shall I have a. c. of frizef (Wiv. V, 5, 146), = shall I have a fool's cap of frize ? meaning shall I be made a fool of by a Welsh- man ? — Wales being famous for this kind of cloth. Sometimes used for the head, as in Tw. V, 1, 179, where Ague- cheek speaks of a bloody coxcomb. 2. A conceited fool. HV. IV, 1, 79; LLL. IV, 3, 84. coy. V. 1. To disdain. Cor. V. 1, 6. 2. To caress. Mids. IV, 1, 2. coystrel. A paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, not to use them ; a mean, paltry fellow. Tw. I, 3, 43 ; Per. IV, 6, 176. cozen=Qernians. German swindlers. A word of Evans's making. Wiv. IV, 5, 79. cozier. A botcher ; a patcher ; a cobbler. Tw. II, 3, 97. CEA 85 CRE Crab. The dog owned by Launce. Gent. II, 3, 5. crab. 1. The wild apple. It is used, when roasted, to flavor hot ale and as an ingredient in " Lambs- wool, " which was the favorite liquor of the gossip's bowl. Lambs-wool consisted of ale, nutmeg, sugar, toast, and roasted crabs. Mids. II, 1, 48. The crab is very sour ; hence used as a name for a morose person. Shr. II, 1, 230 ; Lr. I, 5, 16. 2. A well-known animal concerning which the popular idea is that it walks backwards. Hml. II, 2, 206. crab=tree. The wild apple-tree. The wood is noted for its great weight and toughness. HVIII. V, 4, 7. crack. 1. A flaw ; a breach. Wint. I, 2, 322 ; 0th. II, 3, 330. 2. A pert little boy. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 34 ; Cor. I, 3, 74. cracked within the ring. A simile taken from the cracking of coin, but evidently referring to the change of voice which occurs in boys at a certain age. Cal- decott suggests a voice broken in conse- quence of licentious indulgence, but there is no ground for this. In Sh. time female parts were acted by boys and young men {see female), and Hamlet, ac- costing the boy who had formerly acted a female part, addresses him as "my young lady, and mistress," and remarks that he has grown taller, and then adds: "Pray God that your voice be not cracked," as it is apt to be with the approach of manhood. This, of course, would have injured him for playing female parts. In regard to coin, Gif- ford, in his notes to Jonson's works, explains the expression thus : ' ' The ^old coin of our ancestors Avas vei"y thin, and therefore liable to crack. It still, however, continued passable until the crack extended beyond the ring — i.e., beyond the inmost round which circumscribed the inscription; when it became unciirrent, and might be legally refused." Hml. II, 2, 448. c.f. The mannish crack. Cym. IV, 2, 236. cracker. A blu£,terer; swaggerer; boaster. John, II, 1, 147. crack=hemp. A rogue that deserves to be hanged. Shr. V, 1, 46. crafty = sick. Feigning illness. 2HIV. Ind. 37. crank. A winding passage. Cor. 1, 1, 141. cranks. Crooked streets. Kins. I, 2. cranking. To run winding. Ven. 692; IHIV. Ill, 1, 98. Cranmer, Thomas, dr.p. Archbishop of Canterbury. HVIII. crants. A garland carried before the bier of a maiden and hung over her grave. Hml. V, 1, 255. crare. A small vessel or skiff. Cym. IV, 2, 205. craven, sh. A dunghill cock, Shr. II, 1, 228. craven, v. To make cowardly. Cym. Ill, 4, 80. craver. A beggar. Per. II, 1, 92. credent. 1. Credulous. Hml. I, 3, 30. 2. Credible. Wint. I, 2, 142. 3. Creditable. Meas. IV, 4, 29. credit. 1. Report. Tw. IV, 3, 6. 2. Credibility. 0th. II, 1, 296. creek. A rivulet. Cym. IV, 2, 151. This word has gone entirely out of use in England in this sense, but is common in the United States. crescive. Growing; increasing. HV. I, 1, 66. cresset. An iron cage or basket for hold- ing burning fuel. IHIV. Ill, 1, 15. Cressida, dr.}:). Daughter of Calchas. Troil. The Cressida of Chaucer and of Sh. play has no existence in classic legend, being entirely an invention of the mid- dle ages. Of the origin of the story Saintsbury gives the following account: " As far as can be made out, the inven- tion of Cressid (called by him and for some time afterwards, Briseida, and so identified with Homer's Briseis) belongs to Benoist de Ste. More, a trouvere of the 12th century, who wrote a Roman de Troie of great length, as well as a verse chronicle of Normandy. The story is told by Benoist in no small de- CRE 86 CRI tail, and the character of Briseida (which Dryden has entirely spoiled by making her faithful) is well indicated. After Benoist, Guido delle Colonne reproduced the story in a very popular Latin work, "The Historia Trojana." Cressid is here still Briseida, or rather Briseis. From Gruido the story passed to Boccac- cio, who seems himself to be responsible for the character of Pandarus, and from Boccaccio to Chaucer. See Calehas. crestless. Of low birth ; not dignified with a crest. IHVI. II, 4, 85. crewel. Worsted. Crewel or worsted garters were a cheap and common kind. Lr. II, 4, 7. See cruel. crib. A hovel. 2HIV. Ill, 1, 9. cribbed. Confined to a small hut. Mcb. Ill, 4, 24. cride=game, \ The expression, cry aim, cried game, las it occurs in Wiv. Ill, 2, cried I aim. ) 45, and John, II, 1, 196, means to encourage, to applaud (see aim) ; but the words, cried I aim, as found in Wiv. II, 3, 93, are cride-game in Fl, and no quite satisfactory explan- ation of them has yet been given. Ver- planck, in discussing this passage, says : " Halliwell, one of the most learned old-English scholars of his day, con- fesses, in his late curious edition of the original sketch of this play, that he can- not clear up the obscurity. The fact seems to be that the phrase having been merely colloquial, and not preserved in books, is so obsolete that the meaning can only be guessed at." Various emendations have been pro- posed, such as. Tried game ; Cock 'o the game ; Cry aim,; Curds and cream, and others. Cried I aim. = do I en- courage you ? seems as good as any. Ingleby thinks that it is a phrase bor- rowed from hare-coursing, and means : " Did I find the game ? " which, in this case, is, of course, Anne Page. But this requires an emendation, and if we emend at all we may as well do it thor- oughly. On this passage poor old Jack- son, whose ideas, though often wild, were frequently original, has the fol- lowing note, which is worth reproduc- ing : "Let it be considered, that the Host avails himself of Caius's ignorance of the English language, and conveys gross abuse under the mask of friend- ship. In one place he calls him Heart of Elder, which means a spiritless fel- low — the elder tree having no heart, its interior being all pulp. In another place, he gives him the genteel name of Monsieur Miick-water, which he in- terprets, valour, bully : again, — He ivill clajjper-claw thee tightly, bully : which he interprets — He will make thee amends. But the epithet which he gives him at present is even worse than these : the grossest he could use to a man going to court a young and beauti- ful damsel ; yet, for this, Caius's ignor- ance of what the other says, is such that he promises to procure him guests of the first distinction : — de good guest, de earl, de knight, de lords, de gentle- tnen, etc. , and all this for being called Dry'd game, i.e., an old, sapless fellow, in whom the animal juices that could create passion are extinct." And so he would read : I ivill bring thee where Mistris Anne Page is, at a Farm-house a Feasting : ayid thou shalt ivooe her : Dride-game, said Iivellf (Copied from Fl, with the change of a single letter). crisp. Curled. Tp. IV, 1, 130 ; Tim. IV, 3, 183. Crisp heaven, alluding to the curled clouds. Tim. IV, 3, 183. Crispian, ) Crispin and Crispinian were Crispin. \ natives of Rome, and becom- ing converted to Christianity, travelled to Soissons, in France, in order to preach the gospel. Desiring to be independent, they worked at their trade of shoemak- ing and furnished shoes to the poor at extremely low prices. When the gov- ernor of the town learned that they maintained their Christian faith and tried to make proselytes, he caused them to be beheaded. They were canonized, and the 25th of October was set apart as their festival. The shoemakers adopt- . ed them as their patron saints. The battle of Agincourt was fought on this CRI 87 CRO day; hence the alkision in HV. IV, 3, 40. critic. A cynic ; a carper. Troil. V, 2, 128. Cromwell, Thomas, dr.p. Servant to Wolsey. HVIII. Wolsey's advice to Cromwell (HVIII, III, 2, 429) is known to every reader of Sh. The king made him Earl of Essex, and he became chancellor and vicar- general. He so far gained the confidence of the king that he became the monarch 's chief advisor, and it was mainly through his influence that the Church of England separated from the Papacy. He brought about the marriage of Henry with Anne of Cleves, but after that he fell into disfavour, was accused of treason, and beheaded July 28, 1540, cross. A piece of money. In old times most money had a cross deeply stamped into it so that it could be broken into two or four pieces, each of a propoi'tion- ate value. This fact gave rise to many puns or quibbles. LLL, I, 3, 36; As. II, 4, 12 ; 2HIV. I, 2, 253. cross. Of the passage in Hml. I, 1, 127, two explanations have been given : 1 — It was a prevalent notion that a person who crossed the spot on which a spectre or ghost was seen, became subject to its malign influence ; 2 — That Horatio expressed his intention of summoning it by the sign of the cross. The first is that which is generally accepted. crosses, holy. In reference to Merch. V, 1, 31, Knight tells us that " Crosses by the wayside still, as of old, bristle the land in Italy and sanctify the sea. Besides those contained in churches, they mark the spot where heroes were born, where saints rested, where travel- lers died. They rise on the summits of hills, and at the intersections of roads ; and there is now a shrine of Madonna del Mare in the midst of the sea between Mestre and Venice, and another between Venice and Palestrina, where the gon- dolier and the mariner cross themselves in passing, and whose lamp nightly gleams over the waters, in moonlight or storm. The days are past when pilgrims of all ranks, from the queen to the beggar maid, might be seen kneeling and praying ' for happy wed- lock hours,' or for whatever else lay nearest their hearts ; and the reverence of the passing traveller is now nearly all the homage that is paid at those shrines. ' ' crossways. The bodies of suicides not being admitted to burial in sanctified ground, were buried in crossroads as being a place generally marked with a cross and the next best place to a churchyard. Mids. Ill, 2, 383. See floods. cross=gartered. Wearing the garters crossed on the leg. The garters were often highly ornamented, and were worn in sight. Tw. II, 5, 167. See caddis-garter. cross=row. The alphabet. The alphabet was called the Christ-cross row, some say because a cross was prefixed to the alphabet in the old primers. Others derive the name from a superstitious custom of writing the alphabet in the form of a cross, by way of a charm. RIII. I, 1, 55. crow = keeper. Either a scarecrow (a stuffed figure) or a person employed to keep crows away from a newly-planted field. Lr. IV, 6, 88 ; Rom, I, 4, 6. crown. It has been suggested that the reference to a red-hot crown of steel in RIII. IV, 1, 61, may be an allusion to the red-hot crown sometimes employed as a punishment for rebels and usurpers, but the general trend of the passage does not seem to warrant this conclu- sion. crowner. See coroner. crownet. Coronet. Troil. Prol. 6. Ant, V, 2, 91, crown imperial. The Fritillaria im- per talis. A well-known liliaceous gar- den plant, noted for its beautiful flowers. Also called the crown thistle. Wint. IV, 3, 126. Of this beautiful flower the following pretty G-erman legend is told: "The CRU cue flower was originally white and erect, and grew in its full beauty in the garden of Grethsemane, where it was often noticed and admired by our Lord ; but in the night of agony, as He passed through the garden, all the other flowers bowed their heads in sorrowful adora- tion, the Crown Imperial alone remain- ing with its head unbowed — but not for long ; sorrow and shame took the place of pride ; she bent her proud head, and blushes of shame and tears of sorrow soon followed ; and so she has ever con- tinued, with bent head, blushing color, and ever-flowing tears." Gerard tells us that " in the bottome of each of the bells there is placed six drops of most clear, shining, sweet water, in taste like sugar, resembling in shew f aire Orient pearles, the which drops, if you take away, there do immediately appear the like ; notwith- standing, if they may be suff'ered to stand still in the floure according to his owne nature, they will never fall away, no, not if you strike the plant until it be broken. ' ' The crown imperial is easily culti- vated in any rich soil, and not only makes a fine show, but is interesting from its associations. cruel. Hard-hearted. As. IV, 3, 31. The passage in Lr. Ill, 7, 65, all cmiels else subscribe, is acknowledged to be inexplicable. Page upon page of at- tempted explanations have been offered, but none that is satisfactory. In Lr. II, 4, 7, he wears cruel garters, there is a quibble on the words crewel (worsted) and cruel, alluding to the stocks in which Kent's legs were placed. See crewel and caddis-garter. crusado, ]^ A Portuguese gold coin cruzado. \ worth about $3.50. It was so called because it had a cross stamped upon it. 0th. Ill, 4, 26. crush a cup. To take a drink. Rom. I, 2, 85. A common expression in the old plays. We still say "crack a bottle." Steevens. crusty. See curst and batch. cry, n. A company, or pack ; as a cry of players. Hml. Ill, 2, 289. A cry of curs. Cor. Ill, 3, 120. cry, vb. 1. To weep. Troil. II, 2, 101. 2. To shout ; to utter in a loud voice. Mcb. II, 2, 22. To cry aim. See aim and cride- game. crystals. Eyes. HV. II, 3, 56. cub=drawn. Sucked by cubs until hungry and ravenous. Lr. Ill, 1, 12. cubiculo. Apartment ; lodging. Tw. Ill, 2, 56. cuckold, n. A man whose wife is false to him. Hml. IV, 5, 118. See Wittol. cuckold, vb. To treat in the same way that the cuckoo serves other birds, viz., by laying an egg in their nest. Wiv, III, 5, 140. cuckoo. 1. A bird well known in Europe ; the cuctdus canorus. The name is derived from its cry, which, as O. W. Holmes jokingly says, is an exact imi- tation of the sound made by the ordi- nary cuckoo-clock. The chief peculiar- ity which makes the bird interesting to readers of Sh. is its habit of laying its eggs in the nests of other birds, gener- ally smaller than itself. When the cuckoo eggs hatch out, the young cuckoo usually manages to throw out the young of the owner of the nest so that it may obtain all the food brought by its foster-parents. In Lr. I, 4, 236, the fool speaks of the hedge-sparrow having "it head bit off by it young," but this never occurs. The young cuckoo destroys the nestlings of its foster-parents by pressing them to death by its greater bulk and weight ; IHIV. V, 1 , 60. From this habit of the cuckoo, the bird is the symbol of cuckoldom, and, indeed, the source of that word. LLL. V, 2, 910. Hence the term slan- derous cuckoo. Elins. 1, 1. The cuckoo was one of the birds of ill-omen. 2. A fool; a simpleton. IHIV. II, 4, OOi. cucullus non facit monachum. A hood does not make a monk ; and the clown would infer that motley does not make CUE 89 CUR a fool. Tw. I, 5, 62. Also Meas. V, 1, 263. cue. The last words of an actor's speech which is the signal for the next actor to begin. Wiv. Ill, 3, 39; Ado. II, 1, 316; Lr. I, 2, 147. Hence it sometimes means sign, hint, motive. Hml. II, 2, 587 ; 0th. I, 2, 83. cuisses. Armour for the thighs. IHIV. IV, 1, 105. cullion. A mean wretch. Shr. IV, 2, 20. culverin. A kind of cannon; the early cannon bore representations of snakes (old French couleuvres) and other ven- omous reptiles, and this was probably the origin of the name. Some say be- cause it was long, like a snake, cf. bas- ilisk. imV. II, 3, .56. cunning, n. Skill, without the suggestion of slyness. Hml. II, 2, 461. cunning, adj. Skilful; knowing. Ven. 686 ; Ado. V, 1, 234. Cupid. The god of love. A favorite deity with the poets. Referred to fifty- one times in the plays of Sh. Cupid is usually described as the son of Venus (Aphrodite), but various fathers have been assigned to him (Mars, Jupiter, Mercury), and some- times it is claimed that he had no father at all. He was first represented as a handsome youth, but in later times as a wanton boy of whom a thousand cruel tricks were related, and from whom neither gods nor men were safe. He is generally represented with golden wings, and his eyes are sometimes covered so that he acts blindly. Hence the allusions to blind Cupid ; Mids. I, 1, 235; Lr. IV, 6, 141, and elsewhere. By the earlier poets, however, he is not described as blind; this was a later thought. His arms consist of a bow and arrows, which he carries in a golden quiver. He also bears torches which no one can touch with impunity. His arrows are of difterent powers ; some are golden and kindle love in the heart they wound ; others are blunt and heavy with lead, and produce aversion to a lover. This explains the passage in Mids. I, 1, 169, Cupid''s flower = heartsease. Mids. IV, 1, 78. See Dan; Dian\s bud and hare-finder. Curan, dr. p. A courtier. Lr. curb. To bend. Hml. Ill, 4, 1.55. In Fl. this passage reads, courb and woe for leave ; in the ' ' Globe ' ' and most other eds. the reading is c^l^b and woo. The original meaning of curb is to bend, the Middle English being courben, to bend ; but the word curb has now changed its meaning to such an extent that it might be well to retain the old spelling courb whenever the old idea is to be conveyed. curdy. To congeal. Cor. V, 3, 66. Curio, dr.p. An attendant on the Duke of lUyria. Tw. curious. 1. Elegant. Cym. V, 5, 362. 2. Careful ; anxious. Cym. I, 6, 191. curiosity. Scrupulosity ; exactest scru- tiny. Lr. I, 1, 6. currance. Current ; flow. HV. I, 1, 34. currents. Occurrences. IHIV. II, 3, 58. curst. Cross ; ill-tempered. Ado. II, 1, 22; Mids. Ill, 2, 300; Shr. I, 2, 128. The word crusty as applied to a per- son who has a bad temper, is simply a variant, by metathesis, of curst. The letter r is peculiarly liable to this change. Crusty = ill-tempered ; and crusty = covered with crust, as bread, are two entirely difterent words. See batch. curstness. Quarrelsomeness ; shrewish- ness. Ant. II, 2, 25. curtal. Having the tail cut short, as in dogs, or " docked," as in horses. Nares defines a "curtal dog" as "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 in running. [Not in running, but in turning. A greyhound could not course if his tail were cut off, and one with a weak or light tail is sure to fail at the turn.] In later usage, curtal dog means either a common dog, not meant for sport, or a dog that missed his game. " It has the latter sense in CUR 90 CYM Wiv. II, 1, 114. Used of a horse in All's. II, 3, 65. curtail. Same as curtal. Curtis, dr. p. Servant to Petruchio. Shr. curtle=axe. A cutlass ; a short, slightly- curved sword. As. I, 3, 119. The word is a corruption of cutlass, French coutelas. The weapon was not an axe, and had no relation to that implement. In Fl. the word is cur- telax. cushes. The old form of cuisses. q.v. cushion. A kind of sack or bag stuffed for a seat. From the casque to the cushion = from war to peace. Cor. IV, 7, 43. custalorum. Shallow's corruption of Gustos Rotulortim, the Keeper of the Rolls or records of the session, and the chief civil officer of the county. Wiv. I, 1, 7. custard. Like him that leaped into the custard. All's. II, 5, 41. "It was a foolery practised at city entertainments, while 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." Theobald. custard^coffin. The upper crust covering a custard-pie. Shr. IV, 3, 82. customer. A prostitute. AU's. V, 3, 287 ; 0th. IV, 1, 123. cut. A horse. IHIV. II, 1, 6 ; Tw. II, 3, 203 ; Kins. Ill, 4. That the word was a common name for a horse is very evident. In the old ballad, "The Pynning of the Basket," we read : " He spurred his cutte. " As to whether the word had reference to the docking of the tail or to gelding, the coms. are not agreed. Sir Toby's re- mark may mean merely ' ' call me horse, ' ' or it may have had a more offensive intimation. cut and longtail. All kinds. Dogs wuth cut tails {see curtal) were of the lowest degree ; long tail dogs, used for hunting, were the first of their kind, and the expression as a whole includes all kinds of dogs. Used metaphorically of men. Wiv. Ill, 4, 47. cuttle. Evidently means a swaggerer or swash-buckler. Perhaps a misprint for cutter, or perhaps a specimen of Doll's "frittering" of English. Cot. has '■^ taille-hras : a hackster, arme-slasher, cutter, swaggerer, swash - buckler. " Sometimes defined as the slang name for the knife used by cut-purses, but this does not seem quite appropriate in the only passage in which it occurs in Sh. 2HIV. II, 4, 139. Halliwell tells us that a foul-mouthed fellow was called a cuttle, in reference to the habit of the cuttle-fish which, when pursued, ejects an inky and black juice that fouls the water. But this, I am afraid, is too far-fetched to be accurate. Cyclopes. The meaning of this name is "round-eyed," and they were said to be of gigantic size, and to have a single, large, round eye in the center of the forehead. Various accounts are given of their origin and habits, but the story to which Sh. refers in Hml. II, 2, 511, is the later tradition, in which they are represented as the assistants of Vulcan who used the principal volcanoes as their workshops. They made the metal armour and arms for gods and heroes. According to the earlier tra- dition, they were three in number, and were killed by Apollo because they supplied Jupiter with the thunderbolts with which he killed ^sculapius. Cymbeline, dr.p. King of Britain. Cym. cyme. The identity of this purgative drug has never been fully decided. The word is cyme in Fl. and in most edi- tions, but in F4. the reading is senna, and this has been followed by many. The old spelling of senna was sene or scene. Ingleby, in his " Hermeneutics," p. 35, thinks that by cyme is meant the sprouts of the colewort, of which an old name is cyma, and which was known to be a gentle laxative. But what Mcb. wanted was a violent cathartic that CYN 91 D^D would "scour these English hence," not a mild, laxative. Mcb. V, 3, 55. cynic. A snarler ; so called after the Greek word for a dog. The term is applied not only to a follower of Antis- thenes and his pupil Diogenes, but to any habitual sna rling fault-finder. Caes . IV, 3, 133. Cynthia. A poetical name of Diana, the goddess of the moon and of chastity. Hence used as a name for the moon itself. The names Cynthia (Diana) and Cynthius (Apollo) are derived from Mount Cynthus in the island of Delos, which was their birthplace. cypress, ) Crape. Wint. IV, 4, 221. Cyprus, f Tw. Ill, 1, 132. It is claimed with much reason that in Tw. II, 4, 53, cypress means a coflSn made of cypress wood, and not a shroud or wrapping of crape. A few lines lower down, the shroud is expressly mentioned by itself. Cypress wood was a favourite material for coffins owing to its durability when laid in the ground, and it is very likely that cypress here means wood, while in other passages it means crape, as certainly in Wint. IV, 4, 221. Cyrus. The Cyrus referred to in HVI. II, 3, 6, was Cyrus, the elder, the son of Cambyses, and King of Persia. His grandfather, Astyages, having dreamed that his unborn grandson should be ruler of Asia, gave the child, as soon as born, to his confidential attendant, Harpagus, with orders to kill it. Instead, however, he was reared as the son of a herdsman, and the story of the re- velation of his real parentage is deeply interesting, but too long for our pages. He dethroned his grandfather, con- quered the Babylonians, and attempted the subjugation of the Massagetse, a Scythian people, who defeated and slew him. Their queen, Tomyris, cut off his head and threw it into a bag filled with human blood so that he might satiate himself (as she said) with gore. Cytherea. Venus or Aphrodite. She was so called after a mountainous island off the south-western point of Laconia. Into this island the Phoeni- cians introduced her worship, and for this it became celebrated. According to some traditions it was in the neigh- bourhood of this island that she first rose from the foam of the sea. Shr. Ind. II, 53 ; Wint. IV, 4, 122 ; Cym. II, 2, 14. /EDALUS. A mythical person- age, under whose name the Greek vsaiters personified the earliest development of the arts. The name itself implies skill, and the earliest works of art which were attributed to the gods were called daidala. Daedalus was the reputed inventor of the saw, the axe, the plumb- line, the augur or gimlet and glue. He was said to have been taught the art of carpentry by Minerva. He instructed his sister's son, Calos, Talus, or Perdrix, who soon came to surpass him in skill and ingenuity, and Daedalus killed him through envy. Being condemned to death for this murder he fled to Crete, where the fame of his skill obtained for him the friendship of Minos, but when Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, gave birth to a monster (the Minotaur) Daedalus, who aided Pasiphae, was imprisoned. Pasiphae released him, and as Minos had seized all the ships on the coast of Crete, Daedalus made wings for himself and his son Icarus, fastening them on DAP S2 DAB with wax. Daedalus himself flew safely over the -^Egean, but as Icarus flew too near the sun, the wax by which his wings were fastened on was melted, and he dropped down and was drowned in that part of the ^gean which was called after him the Icarian Sea. 3H VI. V, 6, 21 ; IHVI. IV, 6, 54. daff. 1. To put off. A variant of doff. 0th. IV, 2, 176 ; Compl. 297. 2. To push ; to turn aside. Ado. II, 3, 176 ; IHIV. IV, 1, 96. dagger of lath. See Vice. Dagonet, Sir. A fool at the court of King Arthur. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 303. Arthur " loved him passing well, and made him knight with his own hands." The courtiers played all manner of tricks on him. On one occasion they persuaded him to attack Mark, King of Cornwall, who was in reality an arrant coward. Mark, supposing him to be Lancelot of the Lake, ran awaj^, but met another knight, who at once attacked Dagonet and tumbled him from his horse. For other tricks and a full discussion of the Arthur's show see Dyce's " Glossary. " See also Arthur'' s Shoiv, ante, p. 45. damask. 1. Of a pink color, like the damask rose. Cor. II, 1, 232. 2. Having the colors mingled. LLL. V, 2, 296; Tw. 11,4, 11.5. Damascus. Damascus was supposed to be the place where Cain slew Abel. Hence the allusion in IHVI. 1, 3, 39. In regard to this passage Ritson quotes " Polychronicon, " Fol. XII: "Damas- cus is as moche to say as shedynge of blood. For there Chaym slowe Abell and hidde hym in the sonde. ' ' damn. To condemn. Caes. IV, 1, 6. Dan. Lord ; master. A corruption of Dominus. (Dyce.) Dan Cupid = Master Cupid. LLL. Ill, 1, 182. Daniel. The allusion in Merch. IV, 1, 223, is to the story of Susannah and the elders in "The Apocrypha." She was the wife of Joiachim, and being accused of adultery was condemned to death. *' But the Lord raised up the holy spirit of a young youth, whose name was Daniel," who proved her innocence and turned the tables on her accusers, who were put to death instead. dancing horse. A performing horse belonging to one Bankes, a Scotchman. LLL. I, 2, .58. See horse. dancing rapier. A sword worn only for di'ess occasions. Tit. II, 1, 39. danger. 1. Power; reach. Merch. IV, 1, 180. You stand within his danger == under obligation to him. 2. Pern ; hazard. Tw. V, 1, 87. dank. Damp. IHIV. II, 1, 9. Dansker. A Dane. Hml. II, 1, 7. Daphne. A beautiful maiden beloved by Apollo and Leucippus, both of whose suits she rejected. In order to win her, Leucippus disguised himself as a maiden, but Apollo's jealousy caused his disco\ ery, and he was killed by the companions of Daphne. Apollo now pursued Daphne, and she was on the point of being overtaken by him when she prayed for aid and was metamor- phosed into a laurel-tree, which became, in consequence, the favourite tree of Apollo, and of the boughs of which he made himself a wreath. Shr. Ind. II, 59 ; Mids. II, 1, 231 ; Troil. I, 1, 101. Dardanian. Trojan, the name being derived from Dardanus, the mythical ancestor of the Trojans and through them of the Romans. Merch. Ill, 2, 58. cf. Lucr. 1428-1436. Dardanius, dr.p. Servant to Brutus. Caes. dare, n. Boldness. IHIV. IV, 1, 78. dare. To terrify. In this sense it is a term in falconry where the game is afraid to rise for fear of the hawk. H V. IV, 2, 36. For larks and small birds mirrors and pieces of scarlet cloth were used. This is referred to in HVIII. Ill, 2, 282, where the allusion evidently is to the scarlet hat of the cardinal. The passage in Meas. IV, 4, 26, has given rise to much discussion. But that her tender shame Will not proclaim against her maiden loss DAE 93 DAY How she might tongue me 1 Yet reason dares her no ; For my authority bears of a credent bulk, etc., etc. It is impossible to make sense of these lines, punctuate them how you will, and all ways have been tried, as well as other conjectural emendations. White suggests dares her on, but this does not quite meet the case. But if we change the letter n in no to at all difficulty vanishes. Yet reason dares her to, i. e. , to tongue me. As the box containing the n's in the printer's case is just above that containing the f 's, it was easy for an n to slip into the t box and so cause this confusion. Darius. The rich-jeivelVd coffer of Da- rius. IHVI. I, 6, 25. " When Alexan- der the Great took the city Gaza, the metropolis of Syria, amidst the other spoUs and wealth of Darius treasured 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 opin- ions, he told them, he esteemed nothing so worthy to be preserved in it as Ho- mer's Iliads." Malone. By day this casket and its contents were carried with him, and at night the poems were laid under his pillow. darker. More secret; less known. Lr. I, 1, 37. dark house. A mad house ; sometimes a darkened room for confining madmen. Err. IV, 4, 97 ; As. Ill, 2, 421 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 148 ; All's. II, 3, 309. darkling. In the dark. Mids. II, 2, 86 ; Lr. I, 4, 237. darnel. This name seems to have been applied to any hurtful weed especially to those growing amongst corn. HV. V, 2, 45; Lr. IV, 4, 50. By darnel, bot- anists generally understand Lolium Te- mulentum. According to the old herb- ahsts, darnel, when it got into bread or drink, was injurious to the eyes, caus- ing temporary blindness. Steevens sug- gests that this is alluded to in IHVI. Ill, 2, 44, where La Pucelle intimates that the corn she carried with her had produced this effect on the guards of Rouen, otherwise they would have seen through her disguise and defeated her stratagem. darraign. To set in array; to range. 3HVI. II, 2, 72. dash. n. A stigma; mark of infamy. Wint. V, 2, 127 ; Lucr. 206. "In the books of heraldry a particular mark of disgrace is mentioned, by which the escutcheons of those persons were anciently distinguished who discourt- eously used a widow, maid or wife against her will. " Malone. dash. vb. To frustrate; to set aside. LLL. V, 2, 462 ; 3HVI. II, 1, 118. daub. 1. To smear ; to color. IHIV. I, 1,6. 2. To disguise ; to counterfeit. Lr. IV, 1, 54. daubery. Imposition ; a crude, but art- ful trick. Wiv. IV, 2, 186. daughter=beamed. A quibble on sun- beamed (son-beamed). LLL. V, 2, 171. cf. 3HVI. II, 1, 41. Dauphin. The eldest son of the King of France, and heir - apparent to the crown. He bore on his crest three dolphins, and in Sh. time the word was generally spelled Dolphin. In IHVI. I, 4, 107, there is a pun on the word as meaning both the prince and a fish. See dolphin. Dauphin, Louis, the, dr. p. John. See Melun. Davy, dr.p. Servant to Shallow. 2HIV. day = bed. A sofa ; a lounge. Tw. II, 5, 54. daylight, to burn. To waste time. Wiv. II, 1, 54 ; Rom. I, 4, 43. day-woman. A dairy-maid. LLL. I, 3, 136. Schm. defines the word as "a woman hired by the day," which is clearly wrong. The word is well known, and is used by Scott as = dairy-maid in " The Fair Maid of Perth." Our word dairy "is hybrid, being made by suflBxing the French erie to DEA 94 DEL to the Middle English deye, a maid, a female servant, especially a dairy- maid." Skeat. dead-killing. Deadly. Lucr. 540 ; RIII. IV, 1, 36. dear. In Sh. time this word not only had the sense of highly-esteemed, as IHIV. V, 4, 108; beloved, as in Tp. I, 2, 17 ; of great price as in RII. V, 5, 68 ; and Hml. II, 2, 282 ; but of intense, excessive, superlative, whether used in a good or a bad sense. Thus dearest foe = bitterest foe (Hml. I, 2, 182) ; dearest speed = greatest speed (IHIV. V, 5, 36) ; dear peril = great peril (Tim. V, 2, 231). The same is true in regard to dearly, q.v. The origin of these various meanings has given rise to much discussion. The reader who desires to study the subject thoroughly would do well to consult Dr. Furness's Var. ed. of Romeo and Juliefc under the sentence, / must use In dear employ- ment. Act V. 3, 32. dearly. Grievously ; bitterly. Err. II, 2, 132; Hml. IV, 3, 43; As. I, 3, 35. How dearly ever parted = however excellently endowed. Troil. Ill, 3, 96. See dear and parted. dearn. 1. Lonely. Per. III. , Prol. 15. 2. Dreadful. Lr. Ill, 7. 63. death. See funeral. death=tokens. Plague spots. Troil. II, 3, 189. See tokeyi'd. debile. Weak. All's. II, 3, 39. Deborah. A Jewish heroine. In regard to the sword of Deborah (IHVI. I, 2, 105) there is no record of her evei* hav- ing used a sword. decent. Becoming. HVIII. IV, 2, 146. Decius Brutus. See Brutus, Decius. deck. A pack of cards. 3HVI. V, 1, 44. This word was in use in England in Sh. time, but became obsolete except as slang. It was undoubtedly brought to this country by the first settlers, and like many others which have gone out of use in England it stiU survives here, and is called " an Anaericanism ! " See Bartlett's ' ' Dictionary. " deck. To bedew. Probably a form of the verb to dag or deg, now a provincial word meaning to sprinkle. Tp. I, 2, 155. decline. To consider ; to recount ; to go over carefully. The word is still used in this sense in grammar as in going through the cases of a noun. RIII. IV, 4, 97 ; Troil. II, 3, 55. deedless. Inactive. Troil. IV, 4, 59. deem. Idea ; thought. Troil. IV, 4, 61. deep=fet. Deep-fetched. 2HVI. II, 4, 33. defeat. 1. To disfigure. 0th. I, 3, 346. 2. To destroy. Hml. I, 2, 10 ; 0th. IV, 2, 160. defeature. Disfigurement. Err. II, 1, 98 ; do. V, 1, 299. defence. The art of fencing. Hml. IV, 7,98. defend. To prohibit ; to forbid. Ado. IV, 2, 21 ; IHIV. IV, 3, 38. In Sh. time this word had the double meaning of protecting and prohibiting, as is now the case with the French word defendre. defensible. Able to fight; having the power to defend. 2HIV. II, 3, 38. defunction. Death. HV. I, 2, 58. defunctive. Funereal. Phoen. 14, defuse. To make uncouth or irregular. Lr. I, 4, 2. In some of the old copies defuse is used instead of diffuse in some passages. See diffused. defused. Deformed ; shapeless. RIII. I, 2, 78. defy. To renounce; to despise. Tw. I, 5, 133 ; IHIV. IV, 1, 6. degree. A step or round of a staircase or ladder. Cses. II, 1, 26. Deiphobus, dr. p. Son of Priam. Troil. delation. A conveying ; imparting. Close delations = hidden intimations. 0th. Ill, 3, 123. delighted. 1. DeUghtful. 0th. 1,3,291; Gym. V, 4, 102. 2. As it occurs in Meas. Ill, 1, 119, the word has given rise to considerable dis- cussion. The usual meanings fit so poorly with the general sense of the passage that various words have been suggested as the correct reading : be- nighted, dilated, delinquent, etc DEL 95 DEN Schm. interprets it as " having the power of giving delight ;" others, " framed for delight," which meets the sense. It has also been suggested that Sh. used the word in its etymological sense (as he does many other words) , and that in this instance it is de-lighted = deprived of light. deliverly. Neatly ; adroitly. Elins. Ill, 5. Delphos or Delphi. A small town in Greece, but one of the most celebrated on account of its being the seat of the oracle of Apollo. The modern name is Kastri. It is situated six miles from the Corinthian Gulf, at the foot of Mount Parnassus. Sh. evidently sup- posed that it was an island. Wint. Ill, 1,2. In this he followed Greene, in whose novel, "Pandosto, the Triumph of Time" (1.588), afterwards published under the title of ' ' The Pleasaunt and Delightful History of Dorastus and Fawnia" (1588), the queen desires the king to send six of his noblemen, whom he best trusted, to the isle of Delphos." It has been suggested that Greene confounded Delphi ("Delphos") with Delos, the island which was the birth- place of Apollo and his sister Artemis or Diana. In "Pandosto" Sh. found the plot of "The Winter's Tale." Delphi was regarded as the central point of the whole earth and hence was called "the navel of the earth." It was said that two eagles sent forth by Jupiter, one from the east and one from the west, met at Delphi at exactly the same time. Besides the great temple of Apollo, it contained numerous sanc- tuaries, statues, and other works of art. The temple contained immense treasures ; for not only were rich offer- ings presented to it by kings and private persons, who had received favorable replies from the oracle, but many of the Greek states had in the temple separate thesauri, in which they de- posited, for the sake of security, many of their valuable treasures. Xerxes attempted to take possession of these treasures, and was defeated, but they were ultimately seized by various suc- cessful robbers. In 1893 the French began to excavate the site of the temple and its surroundings, and great hopes are entertained that important dis- coveries will soon be made. See Oracle. demerit. This word " was formerly synonymous with merit and that sense was more classical than the contrary, which has since prevailed, demereo being even stronger than ynereo.'''' Nares. It is used in the sense of "merits" or "deservings" in Cor. I, 1, 276 ; Obh. I, 2, 22, and elsewhere. Our present sense of the word comes from the Fi-ench, and both appear to have been upon the change about the time of Elizabeth. Demetrius, dr.p. A friend of Anthony. Ant. Demetrius, dr.p. Hermia's lover. Mids. Demetrius, d?'.j:>. A son of Tamora. Tit. demi=AtIas. Half an Atlas, bearing half the world. Ant. I, 5, 23. See Atlas. demi=cannon. A kind of ordnance. Shr. IV, 3, 88. demi=natured. Sharing the nature of ; half grown together. Hml. IV, 7, 88. demi>=puppets. In regard to this expres- sion Furness says : " There must have been some reason for the use of ' demy, ' but what it is I cannot say." To define it as " half a puppet " throws no light whatever on the meaning. The only idea that suggests itself to me is that Sh. meant to indicate the very small size of the fairies that dance in these fairy rings (see Mids. Ill, 1), demi be- ing used in a general sense for small. demi=wolves. A cross between dogs and wolves, like the Latin lycisci, John- son. Mcb. Ill, 1, 94. demurely. Solemnly. Ant. IV, 9, 31. demuring. Looking demurely. Ant. IV, 15, 29, den. An abbreviation for evening. Rom. II, 4, 116. denay. Denial. Tw. II, 4, 127. denier. A s^ery small piece of money; the 12th part of a French sol. RIII. I, 2, 252 ; Shr. Ind. I, 9. LEN 96 DIA. Dennis, d7\p. Servant to Oliver. As. Denny, Sir Anthony, dr.p. HVIII. depart, n. Death. 3HVI. II, 1, 110. depart, vb. To part ; to separate. 3HVI. II, 6, 43 ; Tim. I, 1, 263. depend. To be in service. Lr. I, 4, 271. depending. See brands. depose. To put under oath. RII. I, 3, 30. deprave. To slander; to detract from. Tim. I, 2, 145. depravation. Detraction. Troil. V, 2, 132. deputation. That to which one has been deputed or appointed. Thy topless deputation he ]3%its on (Troil. I, 3, 152) means that he imitates you in the supreme position to which you have been deputed or appointed. See topless. deracinate. To extirpate. HV. V, 2, 47. Dercetas, dr.p. A friend to Anthony. Ant. derogate. Corrupt ; depraved. Lr. I, 4, 302. dern. ^ee dearn. descending. Lineage. Per, V, 1, 130. Desdemona, dr.p. Daughter of Braban- tio and wife to Othello. 0th. despatch, ) To deprive ; to rob. Hml. dispatch. \ I, 5, 78. despised time. My despised time = my miserable old age. 0th. I, 1, 162. detect. To charge ; to blame. Meas. Ill, 2, 130; 3HVI. 11,2, 143. determine. To end; to conclude. Cor. 111,3,43; do. V, 3,120. Deucalion. The Noah of the Greeks. He was the son of Prometheus and Cly- mene, and when Zeus, after the treat- ment he had received from Lycaon, had resolved to destroy the human race, Deucalion, on the advice of his father, built a ship and stored it with provi- sions, so that when Zeus sent a flood all over Hellas, which destroyed its in- habitants, Deucalion and Pyrrha, his mf e, alone were saved. After floating about for nine days, the ship landed on Mount Parnassus. Wint. IV, 4, 442; Cor. II, 1, 102. deuce=ace. One and two thrown at dice. LLL. I, 2, 49. devest. To undress. 0th. II, 3, 183. dewberry. The fruit of the Rubus Coisius. This plant grows on the borders of fields and on the banks of hedges and ditches. It generally grows close to the ground ; the fruit is ripe in September, and is very pleasant to the taste. Mids. Ill, 1, 173. dew=lap. Flesh or skin hanging loosely from the throat. Mids. IV, 1, 127 ; do. II, 1, 50. Schm., in the latter quotation, explains the word as ' ' hanging breasts, " which is certainly wrong. It means simply a double chin. In Tp, III, 3, 46, the passage, mount- aineers Dew-lapp'' d like bulls, evidently refers to persons afflicted with goitre, a disease common in Switzerland and some other mountainous countries. Diana, dr.p. Daughter of a widow in Florence. All's. Diana, dr.p. The goddess ; she appears in a vision. Per. Diana was an ancient Italian divinity, whom the Romans identified with the Greek Artemis. Hence she was said to be the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and the twin sister of Apollo, and as Apollo was the god of the sun, so Diana represented the moon. As sister of Apollo, Diana is armed with bow, arrows and quiver, and is the goddess of hunting. In the Trojan war she sided with the Trojans. She is the virgin goddess, never conquered by love. She slew Orion because he made an attempt upon her chastity, and she changed Actaeon into a stag and had him torn to pieces with his own hounds, merely because he accidentally obtained a view of her while she was bathing. Diana, being goddess of the moon, has also been identified with Selene, but the two characters do not harmonize very well together. Hee Endymion. At a later period she was identified with Hecate (q.v.), a mysterious divinity, whose threefold character has led some to suppose that it was to this that Sh. referred in the passage : And thou. DIA dt DIE thrice-croicned queen of niglit, As. Ill, 2, 2. In the classics she is often spoken of as ''triple." Johnson ex- plains the expression as "alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same Goddress." Dian's buds. The buds of Agnus Castus, or Chaste Tree. Mids. IV, 1, 78. An old herbal tells us that "the vertue of this herbe is that he wyll kepe man and woman chaste. ' ' Chaucer, in " The Flower and the Leaf," has the following lines : " See ye not her that crowned is," quoth she, "All in white ?"—" Madame," quoth I, "yes," " That is Diane, goddess of chastite. And for because that she a maiden is, In her hond the braunch she beareth this, That agnus castus men call properly ; And all the ladies in her company. Which ye se of that hearbe chaplets wears. Be such as ban kept alway hir maiden- head." dich. A corruption of do it. Tim. 1, 2, 73, Dick, dr. p. A butcher ; a follower of Jack Cade. 2HVI. dickens. A mincing word for devil. Wiv. Ill, 2, 19. Dido. The reputed founder of the ancient city of Carthage, built where Tunis now stands. She was the daughter of Belus, Eang of Tyre, and the sister of Pygmalion, who succeeded to the crown after the death of his father. She was married to her uncle, Acerbas or SichsBus, a priest of Hercules, who was very wealthy. Pygmalion, coveting his wealth, murdered him. Dido then secretly fled to the north coast of Africa, where she purchased as much land as could be encircled by a bull's hide. By cutting the hide into exceedingly thin strips, she surrounded a space on which she was able to build a strong citadel, which was called Byrsa — the Greek name for a bull's hide. Here she reigned for some years until a neigh- bouring king demanded her hand in marriage, and on her refusal threat- ened war. To escape a fate which was odious to her, she erected a funeral pile on which she stabbed herself in the presence of her people. All this occurred three hundred years after the capture of Troy, but Virgil makes ^neas contemporary with Dido, who faUs in love with him under the influence of Cupid, who assumed the form of Ascanius (q.v.) for this pur- pose. Tp. II, 1, 76 ; Merch. V, 1, 9 ; Tit. V, 3, 82. die. To kiU. As. Ill, 5, 7. diet. The usual meaning is food ; and in most cases it refers to the restricted quantity and kind of food given in sickness and convalescence. A popu- lar, though erroneous, etymology of the word connected it with the Latin dies, a day, especially a set day, and it may be that this idea con- trolled its use in All's. IV, 3, 35, where Parolles is said to be dieted to his hour, i.e., strictly bound to his appointment. In the same play, V, 3, 221, You, that have ttirned off a first so noble wife, May justly diet me, is a passage that has puzzled the coms. Malone explains it thus: "may justly loathe or be weary of me, as people generally are of a regimen or prescribed and scanty diet." Steevens thinks diet me == deny me the rights of a wife. Marshall, the ed. of "The Henry Ir- ving Shakespeare," explained it thus: " You may prescribe rules for me and give me just as much or as little as you please." None of these explanations is very satisfactory, and while I dislike conjectural emendations, may not diet be a misprint for do it ? The reading then would be : You that have turned off a first so noble wife, may justly do it me. That is : May serve me in • just the same manner, the to being omitted, as it frequently is in similar passages in Shakespeare. Dieu. French for God. Occurs in vari- ous passages. See mort. DIE 98 BIS Dieu de batailles. Grod of battles. (Fr. ) Not quoted from the scriptures as some would have us believe. HV. Ill, 5, 15. diffuse. To confuse. Lr. I, 4, 3. diffused. Wild ; confused ; uncouth. Wiv. IV, 4, 54; HV. V, 2, 61. See defuse, difference. A term in heraldry. Clark, in his "Introduction to Heraldry," defines it as " certain figui-es added to coats of arms, to distinguish one branch of a family from another, and how distant younger branches are from the elder." Ado. I, 1, 69 ; Hml. IV, 5, 183. See rue. digress. To transgress ; to offend. RII. V, 3, 66. digression. Transgression. LLL. I, 2, 121. dig=you=den. G-ive you [good] evening. LLL. IV, 1, 42. dildo. The chorus or burden of a song, Wint. IV, 4, 195. diluculo surgere. Part of a sentence from Lilly's Grammar. The rest is : saluberrimum est, and the whole is Latin for "to rise early is most health- ful." Tw. II, 3, 2. dint. Stroke. Cses. Ill, 2, 198. cf. 2HIV, IV, 1, 128. Diomedes, d7\p. A Greek general for whose sake Cressida deserted Troilus. Troil. Diomede, 3HVI. IV, 2, 19, or Dio- medes, Troil. , was, next to Achilles, the bravest hero in the Greek army. He went to the Trojan war with eighty ships and fought the best of the Trojans — Hector, vEneas, and others. He and Ulysses carried off the palladium from the city of Troy, as it was believed that Troy could not be taken so long as the palladium was within its walls. Homer tells how he and Ulysses acted as scouts against the Trojan army. When on theu' way they met Dolon, a Trojan scout, and compelled him to describe to them the plan of the Trojan camp. Amongst other things, Dolon pointed out the camp of the Thracians, who had just come to the help of the Trojans, bringing with them much wealth and several magnificent white horses of wonderful swiftness. They then slew their guide, Dolon, and fell upon the Thracians whom they found fast asleep. They killed the Thracian king. Rhesus, and eleven of his followers, and carried off the horses. It is to this incident that Warwick alludes in 3HVI. IV, 2. Diomedes, dr. p. An attendant on Cleo- patra. Ant. Dion, dr.p. A Sicilian lord. Wint. Dionyza, dr.p. Wife to Cleon. Per. direction. Judgment ; skill. RIII. V, 3, .16. directitude. A word coined by a ser- vant and not understood by his fellow servant. He probably meant undeter- mined. Cor. IV, 5, 222. disable. To disparage. Merch. II, 7, 30 ; As. V, 4, 80. Dis. The god Pluto. Tp. IV, 1, 89; Wint. IV, 4, 118. See Pluto and Pro- serpine. disannul. To annul completely ; to can- cel. Err. I, 1, 145; 3HVI. Ill, 3, 81. "Prom Latin dis, apart, here used in- tensively." Skeat. A somewhat rare use of this prefix and one that seems to have escaped Prof. Abbott. See his " Shakespearian Grammar," § 439. disappointed. Unprepared ; unready. Hml. I, 5, 77. See appointment. disbench. To drive from one's seat. Cor. II, 2, 75. discandy. To melt; to dissolve. Ant. IV, 12, 22. disease. To undress. Tp. V, 1, 85 ; Wint. IV, 4, 648. disclose, v. To hatch. Hml. V, 1, 309. disclose, n. The coming forth of the young bird from the shell. Used meta- phorically in Hml. Ill, 1, 175. discomfit, n. Discouragement. 2HVI. V, 2, 86. discomfit, v. 1. To defeat. IHIV. I, 1, 67. 2. To discourage. Shr. II, 1, 164. discontent. A malcontent. IHIV. V, 1, 76 ; Ant. I, 4, 39. discourse. Power of reasoning. HmL IV, 4, 36. DIS MG discoverer. A scout. 2HIV. IV, 1, 3. disdained. Disdainful. IHIV. I, 3, 183. dis-eate. A word found in Fl. in the passage (Mcb. V, 3, 20) : this push Will cheers me euer or dis-eate me now. The words cheer and dis-eate have greatly puzzled the corns. , although the general meaning of the passage is quite obvious. Indeed, this is a marked feature of Sh. writings ; in many pass- ages particular words may be difficult to explain, while the general meaning does not admit of doubt. Two meanings have been attached to these words. Some say that cheer means to encourage ; to make happy ; and that dis-eate is a misprint for dis- ease, of which one of the old meanings is to annoy, to make unhappy. To others this does not seem quite forceful enough, and they give another inter- pretation, according to which cheer = chair, and dis-eate = disseat, the mean- ing being that this push or effort will either place him firmly in the chair, i.e., on the throne, or will for ever unseat him. I confess that on account of its more decisive character the latter seems to nie the true gloss. The fact that Sh. nowhere else uses these words with precisely these meanings, has, with me, very little weight. Sh. frequently gives special meanings to words, and uses words of special meaning only once. disedge. To surfeit ; to take the edge off appetite. Cym. Ill, 4, 96. dislimn. To disfigure ; to efface. Ant. IV, 14, 10. disme. A tithe or tenth. Troil. II, 2, 19. dispark. To convert a private park into public conunons by destroying fences, etc. RII. Ill, 1, 23. disponge, ) To let drop as from a dispunge. ) sponge. Ant. IV, 9, 13, dispose, n. 1. Disposal. Gent. II, 7, 86; Err. I, 1,21, 2. Disposition ; temper, 0th. I, 3, 403. dispose, V. To conspire. Ant. IV, 14, 133. disputable. Disputatious. As. II, 5, 36. dissembly. Dogberry's word for as- sembly. Ado. IV, 2, 1. distain. To soil ; defile ; to stain. RIII. V, 3, 322, distance. Hostility ; alienation, Mcb, III, 1, 116. distaste. To render unsavoury. Troil, IV, 4, 50. distil. To melt ; to dissolve. Hml. I, 2, 204. distraction. Detachment; division. Ant. Ill, 7, 77. distraught. Distracted ; mad, RIII. Ill, 5, 4 ; Rom. IV, 3, 49. disvouch. To contradict. Meas. IV, 4, 1. dividual. Different ; separate. More than in sex dividual, i.e., where the sex of the parties is different. Kins. I, 3. diverted. Turned from the course of nature. As. II, 3, 37. division. A passage in a melody. Rom. Ill, 5, 29. Doctor, dr.2?. Eans. Doctor, dr.p. Mcb. Two doctors, one English and one Scotch appear in Macbeth. It is the Scotch doctor, attendant on Lady Macbeth to whom reference is generally made. Doctor Butts, dr.p. Physician to Henry VIII. HVIII, Doctor Caius, dr.p. A French physician in love with Anne Page. Wiv. document. Instruction. Hml. IV, 5, 177. This word is an interesting and striking example of the change from the etymo- logical meaning to a meaning which must be regarded as chiefly conven- tional. The word occurs but once in Sh., and in his time it had the meaning given to the French word document by Cot. in his ' ' Dictionarie. ' ' He defines it as : precept ; instruction ; admonition. It now means written or printed matter. doff. To put off ; to evade, 0th. IV, 2, 176, dog-^ape. A male ape. As. II, 5, 26. Much learning has been wasted on this term. Thus, Dyce suggests that by dog-ape is meant the dog-faced ucfC DOG loa DOU baboon, and most annotated editions have much to say about cenophes and cenocephales , forgetting that Jaques is not talking of dog-faced or dog-headed apes, but of dog-apes, i.e., male apes that, like most males of the lower animals, quarrel and fight when brought together; e.g., two bulls, or two rams (c/. As. V, 2, 34), or two stallions. And the apes would chatter, and grin, and claw, so as to be the best illustration Jaques could have chosen in this par- ticular case. Even the acute and judicious Dr. Furness seems to accept the dog-faced gloss which to my mind is certainly wrong. The prefix dog is frequently used to indicate male. See clog-fox. Dogberry, dr.p. A blundering, con- ceited constable. Ado. dog=fish. This is a true fish, a species of shark, the squalus acanthius. It is not at all related to the dolphin. IHVI. I, 4, 107. dog=fox. A male fox. A common ex- pression amongst hunters. The prefix dog is also applied to other animals, indicating the male, as, for example, dog-wolf. Thersites speaks of that same dog-fox Ulysses, because the recognised characteristic of Ulysses was craftiness or foxiness. Troil. V, 4, 13, Schm. suggests that dog here = " bloody- minded, cruel," but Thersites, three lines above, calls him crafty, and says nothing of cruelty. dog=hearted. Unfeeling ; inhuman. Lr. IV, 3, 47. dog=hole. A kennel. All's. II, 3, 291. dog = weary. Extremely weary. Shr. IV, 2, 60. doit. A very small coin ; a trifle. Tp. II, 2, 83. Dolabella, dr.p. A friend to Octavius Caesar. Ant. dole. 1. Share; portion, Wiv. Ill, 4, 68 ; All's. II, 3, 176 ; IHIV. II, 2, 81. 2. Grief ; sorrow ; dolour. Hnil. I, 2, 13 ; Per. Ill, Prol. 42 ; Kins. I, 5. Doll Tearsheet, dr.p. 2HIV. See road. dolphin. 1, The Delphinus delphis, a mammal allied to the whales. It is not a fish, as Schm. states. It abounds in the Mediterranean and the temperate parts of the Atlantic, and is also known as the porpoise or as Sh. spells it, por- pus, q.v. The dolphin or porpoise is exceedingly active, tumbling about in the waves and catching fish upon which it feeds. Hence the allusion in All's. II, 3, 31. For the story of Arion and the dolphin, see A7Hon. A merm,aid on a dolphiTi's hack (Mids. II, 1, 150). See tnermaid. 2. The word dauphin was formerly spelled daulphin, and in the older editions of Sh. is generally spelled dol- phin. See dauphin. 3. Dolphin chamber. See tavern. dominical. The red letter which in church almanacs was used to denote Sunday. LLL. V, 2, 44. Rosaline here twits Katherine with having her face marked with the small- pox and consequently of a redder complexion than usual. See letters B and O. Domitius Enobarbus, dr.p. Ant. Don Adriano de Armado, dr.p. A fan- tastical Spaniard. LLL. Donalbain, dr.p. Son of King Duncan. Mcb. Don John, dr.p. Bastard brother to Don Pedro. Ado. doom. 1. Judgment. 2HVI. I, 3, 214. 2. The day of judgment; the last day. Hml. Ill, 4, 50; Mcb. IV, 1, 117. Dorcas, dr.p. A shepherdess. Wint. Doricles. The name assumed by Prince Florizel when he visited the shepherd's cottage, Wint. IV, 4, 146, etc. Dorset, Marquis of, dr.p. RIII. Thomas Grey, first Marquis of Dor- set, joined Buckingham's rebellion, and on its failure escaped to Brittany, Lady Jane Grey was his great-grand- daughter, double. It should be observed that dou- ble and single anciently signified strong and weak when applied to liquors and to other objects. In this sense the for- mer word may be employed by lago in DOIT 101 LRU 0th. I, 2, 14 : A voice poteyitial As dou- ble the Duke''s. And the latter, by the Chief Justice, speaking to Falstaff in 2HIV. I, 2, 207 : Is not yoxir wit single? So, too, in Mcb. I, 3, 140, his single state may mean his weak and debile state of mind. double=fatal. See yew. double=henned. This phrase appears to have caused some confusion. Schm., followed by Rolf e, explains as a spar- row with a double hen, i.e., with a fe- male married to two cocks, and hence false to both. This does not sound En- glish, and hence not Shakespearean. The plain meaning of the words is, a man doubly married. Thersites is hounding Paris against Menelaus — the cuckold-maker against the cuckold — and calls him a double-henned sparrow, because he had two wives, the first, CEnone, who was still alive, and the second, Helen, whom he stole from Menelaus. Troil. V, 7, 11. doucets. Correspond to lambs' fries or "mountain oysters." Kins. Ill, 5. Douglas, Archibald, Earl of, dr. p. IHIV. dout. To do out ; to quench. HV. IV, 2, 11 ; Hml. IV, 7, 192. dove. This bird was sacred to Venus, and was employed to draw her chariot. Tp. IV, 1, 94. In Raleigh's "History of the World " we are told that Mahomet had a dove "which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear ; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet'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." It is to this that allusion is made in IHVI. I, 2, 140. dowlas. A kind of coarse towelling. IHIV. Ill, 3, 79. dowle. One of the fibers which go to make up a feather. Tp. Ill, 3, 65. down=gyved. Fallen down to the ankle, after the fashion of gyves or fetters. Heath. Hml. II, 1, 80. down sleeves. Hanging sleeves. Ado. Ill, 4, 20. down=roping. Hanging down in glutin- ous strings. HV. IV, 2, 48. Dowsabel. A nickname jocularly applied to a very fat servant. Err. IV, 1, 110. Her real name was Nell. Err. Ill, 2, III. The name means sweet and beau- tiful (French douce et belle), and M^as a favorite with a certain class of poets. Here used ironically. doxy. A mistress. A cant word. Wint. IV, 2, 2. drabb. A loose woman. Meas. II, 1, 247 ; Mcb. IV, 1, 31. drabbing. Following loose women. Hml. II, 1, 26. draff. Dregs ; refuse. Wiv. IV, 2, 112. dram. 1. The eighth part of an ounce; a very small quantity. Merch. IV, 1, 6; Hml. 1,4, 36. 2. Poison; a poisonous draught. Wint. I, 2, 320 ; 0th. I, 3, 105 ; Cym. V, 5, 381 ; Kins. I, 1. draw dry=foot. To follow game by scent. Err. IV, 2, 39. See counter. drawer. A tapster. Wiv. II, 2, 167; IHIV. II, 4, 7. drawn. Having their swords drawn. Tp. II, 1, 308. drawn fox. A fox turned out of his earth. IHIV. Ill, 3, 128. dresser. A table or sideboard on which meat was carved and dishes prepared for guests. Shr. IV, 1, 166. dribbling. Falling weakly like a drop. Meas. I, 3, 2. It has been suggested that the word is a misprint for drib- bing, dribber and dribbed being terms in archery signifying a bad shot. drollery. A humorous picture. 2HIV. II, 1, 156. Dromio of Ephesus, ^ dr.jJ. Twin broth- Dromio of Syracuse. ) ers, attendants on the twins Antipholus. Err. drug. A drudge according to most corns. Tim. IV, 3, 254. Sometimes spelled drugge, as in Fl. That drug is an old mode of spelling drudge there is abund- ant evidence. Schm. suggests that in the passage cited it may mean, "all things in passive subserviency to salu- tary as well as pernicious purposes," \ DRTT 103 DUN but English-speaking readers will hardly accept this gloss. drum. A well-known musical (?) instru- ment. In order to understand Parolles' distress at the loss of the drum, we must ' ' remember that the drums of the regiments of his day were decorated with the colors of the battalion. It was therefore equivalent to the loss of the flag of the regiment — a disgrace all good soldiers deeply feel. ' ' Fairholt. Has led the drum before the En- glish tragedians. It was the custom in England for players to have a drum beaten so as to give notice of their ar- rival in any town where they intended to perform. All's. IV, 3, 298. Drum, Jack. The old joke, "Jack Drum's entertainment," which meant a sound threshing, is obvious enough. The drum gets a beating and so does Jack. It is like "hickory oil," "strap oil," and sundry other euphemisms for a beating. Sometimes called " Tom Drum's entertainment." All's. Ill, 6, 41 ; also 322. There was a play pub- lished in 1601, the title of which was Jack Driim''s Entertainmeyit. It is republished in Simpson's " The School of Shakspere," vol. II. drumble. To dawdle; to be sluggish. Wiv. Ill, 3, 156. dry=beat. To thresh; to cudgel. LLL. V, 2, 264. dry=foot. Hunting by scent. Err. IV, 2, 39. See counter. dub me knight. This refers to the cus- tom 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. Dyce. 2HIV. V, 3,78. ducat. A silver coin. The Venetian du- cat was nearly equal in value to a United States dollar. March. I, 3, 1. ducdame. Undoubtedly a meaningless word, coined by Jaquesforthe occasion. As. II, 5, 56. It has served admirably the purpose for which he claims that it was intended and has called a multitude of ' ' fools into a circle ' ' to discuss its meaning, their lucubrations filling three solid pages of small type in the New Variorum ed. That it is not a misprint like larmen and Ullorxa is evident. Hanmer tells us that it is Latin, modi- fied from due ad me (bring him to me). But Jaques himself tells us that it is Greek, which is defined in the old slang dictionaries as "lingo, cant, or gibber- ish." See "Lexicon Balatronicum,"s.'j;. Greek. Others say that it is the cry used by farmers' wives to call their poultry. Others, again, make it out to be Gaelic, Welsh, Italian, French, etc. In coining this word and calling it "a Greek invocation to call fools into a circle," Jaques evidently "builded better than he knew. ' ' dudgeon. The handle of a dagger. Mcb. II, 1, 46. due. To endue. IHVI. IV, 2, 34. Duke, the banished, dr. p. Living in the Forest of Arden. As. Duke, the usurper, dr. p. Brother to the banished duke. As. Duke. For the various dukes who appear as dr. p., see Albany, Alen^on, Aumerle, Bedford, Buckingham (2), Burgundy (2), Clarence (2), Cornwall, Exeter (2), Florence, Gloucester (3), Lancaster, MUan (2), Norfolk (3), Orleans, Oxford, Somerset, Sufi'olk (2), Surrey, Venice (2), York (3). Dull, dr. p. A constable characterised by his name. LLL. Dumain, dr. p. A lord attendant on the King of Navarre. LLL. dumb. To put to silence. Ant. I, 5, 50. dump. A melancholy strain in music. Gent. Ill, 2, 85; Rom. IV, 5, 108. (Pe- ter's absurd speech.) dun. 1. A color of no very certain shade. The colors of the mouse and of the deer are said to be dun. In Rom. I, 4, 40, there is a quibble between done and dun., and this seems to be the only meaning to be di'avvn from the saying of Mercutio, in reply to Romeo's "I am done" — "Tut, dun's the mouse." But why this should be "the consta- DUN 108 EAL ble's own word" has never been ex- plained. Some say that it is a slang phrase meaning "keep quiet," "be still," like the modern slang, "cheese it." And in " Patient GrissU," a com- edy by Dekker, Chettle and Houghton (1603), we find " yet don is the mouse, He still." 2. A name for an old cart-horse, corre- sponding to Dobbin ; hence applied to an old game called " Drawing Dun out of the mire," which is thus described by Gilford : " 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 com- pany advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when Dim 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." It would seem that it is to this that Mer- cutio refers in Rom. I, 4, 41. Duncan, rfr.p. King of Scotland. Mcb. dungy. Coarse ; filthy. Ant. I, 1, 35. dunghill, ad. Costard's blunder for ad unguem, at the nail, or, as he expresses it, at the fingers' ends. LLL. V, 1, 80. dup. To open. Hml. IV, 5, 53. durance. A very durable material made to imitate the buff leather which in for- mer days was used for making the clothing of the lower classes. Hence a name for a prison dress. Err. IV, 3, 27. ^^ Durance is still familiarly used for confinement, especially in the phrase durance vile for imprisonment. ' ' In the use of the word there seems to be a hint of a pun between the two meanings, durability and sufferance (enduring). cf. IHIV. I, 2, 49. Dictynna. One of the names of Diana. LLL. IV, 2, 38. So called from the legend that Minos had loved and pur- sued her till she leapt into the sea, and was saved by being caught in a fisherman's net. In this character she was chiefly the goddess of seafarers, and as such was widely worshipped on the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. duties. Compliments; homage. IHIV. V, 2, 56. ^^j2^ lACH, AT, This phrase, as found J^^^S ^^ ^^" ^^^' ^' ^^' ^^^ occasioned needless trouble to the Pris- cians. Ten masts at each (So in Fl.) evidently means arranged separately, i.e., end to end, and not in a bundle. Warburton called it non- sense ; Johnson would accept it only if some precedent could be found ; R. G. White, so censorious in regard to emend- dations by others, says: "Evidently, we should read * * * reach''''; Singer reads at eche, for which he suggests an Anglo-saxon derivation ; "at eke;" "a- stretch;" "at least;" "at length," etc., etc., ad nauseam. All which affords another good illustration of the truth that while it may frequently be difficult to give a technical explanation of the words in many passages of Sh., the general meaning admits of no doubt. eager. 1. Sharp ; sour. Hml. I, 5, 69. See aigre. 2. Keen ; biting. Hml. I, 4, 2. eale. A combination of letters for which, so far as we know, no meaning has yet been found. The passage in which it occurs, Hml. I, 4, 36 : the dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal, EAN 104 EAV has thus far defied the corns. , although the general meaning is obvious and may be paralleled by Ecclesiastes x, 1. The two words which cause the diflficulty are eale and doubt, and the number of emendations which have been proposed is quite large. The new Var, gives six solid pages to a discussion of the various readings that have been suggested. The most plausible changes, and those that seem to meet the sense most closely, are the substitution of ill or evil for eale, and dout (= do out, or extinguish, as in HV. IV, 2, 11, and Hml. IV, 7, 193) for doubt. The reading then would be : the dram of ill [evil] Doth all the noble substance often dout To his own scandal. This meets the required sense. ean. To yean; to bring forth young. Merch. I, 3, 88 ; Per. Ill, 4, 6. From the Anglo-saxon ednian, to bring forth young. In yean the pre- fixed y represents the very common Anglo-saxon prefix ge, readily added to any verb without aftecting the sense. This prefix ge was very common both as applied to substantives and verbs. Is this the origin of the y so frequently prefixed to Scottish and early English words ? See Yedward. eanling. A young lamb, just born. Merch. I, 3, 80. ear, n. The organ of hearing. You may prove it by my long ears (Err. IV, 4, 29), meaning that his master had lengthened his ears by frequently pull- ing them. Steevens. I will bite thee by the ear (Rom. II, 4, 81). To bite the ear was once an expression of en- dearment. Giflt'ord, in his edition of Jonson's works, has the following note : " This odd mode of expressing pleasure, which seems to be taken from the prac- tice of animals, who, in a playful mood, bite each other's ears, etc., is very com- mon in our old dramatists. " ear, v. To till; to cultivate. All's. I, 3,47. ear=kissing. Confidential ; private. Lr. II, 1, 9. In some eds. ear-bussing. Earl Berkeley, dr.j?. A follower of the Duke of York. RII. Earl of Cambridge, dr.j). A conspirator against Henry V. HV. Earl of Douglas, Archibald, dr.p. A Scottish noble. IHIV. Earl of Essex, Geoffrey Pitz-Peter, dr.p. John. Earl of Gloucester, dr.p. Lr. Earl of Kent, dr.p. Lr. Earl of March, Edward Mortimer, dr.p. IHIV. - Earl of March, dr.p. Afterwards Ed- ward IV. 3HVI. Earl of Northumberland, dr.jD. RII. Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy, dr.p. IHIV. and 2HIV. Earl of Northumberland, dr.p. A Lan- castrian. 3HVI. Earl of Oxford, dr.p. RIIL Earl of Pembroke, William Mareschall, dr.p. John. Earl of Pembroke, dr.p. A Yorkist. 3HVI. Earl of Richmond, dr.p. 3HVI. and RIII. Earl Rivers, dr.p. RIII. Earl of Salisbury, William Longsword, dr. 2). John. Earl of Salisbury, dr.p. RII, Earl of Salisbury, dr.p. A Yorkist. IHVI. and 2HVI. Earl of Suffolk, dr.p. IHVI. Earl of Surrey,' dr.p. Son to Duke of Norfolk. RIII. and HVIII. Earl of Warwick, dr.p. 2HIV. Earl of Warwick, dr.jD. HV. Earl of Warwick, dr.jj. A Yorkist. IHVI., 2HVI. and 3HVL Earl of Westmoreland, dr.p. Friend to Henry IV. and V. IHIV. 2HIV., and HV. Earl of Westmoreland, dr.p. A Lan- castrian. 3HVI. Earl of Worcester, Thomas Percy, dr.p. IHIV. and 2HIV. eaves. The dipt edge of a thatched roof. The word is singular, and the plural should be eaveses. Skeat. Tp. V, 1, 17. cf. reed. eaves=dropper. One who stands under ECH 105 EGY and catches the drippings from the eaves ; hence, metaphorically, a secret listener. RIII. V, 3, 221. eche. To piece out. Merch. Ill, 2, 33. In modern eds. generally spelled eke, ecstasy. Any state of being beside one- self ; extreme delight ; madness. Merch. Ill, 2, 112 ; .Hml. Ill, 4, 138. In the usage of Sh. and writers of that time, it stood 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 the etymology. Nares. Edgar, dr. p. Son to Earl of Grloucester. Lr. Edmund, dr. p. Earl of Rutland. 3HVI. Edmund, dr.p. Bastard son to Earl of Gloucester. Lr. Edmund Mortimer, dr. p. Earl of March. IHIV. Edmund Mortimer, dr. p. Earl of March. IHVI. Edmund of Langley, dr. p. Duke of York. RII. Edward IV., dr. p. RIII. Edward, dr.p. Son to Plantagenet. 2HVI. Edward, Prince of Wales, dr.p. RIII. Edward, Prince of Wales, dr.p. Son to Henry VI. 3HVI. Edward, Earl of March, dr.p. After- wards Edward IV. 3HVI. Edward shovel=boards. The broad shil- lings of Edward VI, used for playing at the game of shovel-board. Wiv. I, 1, 159. See shovel-board and shove groat. effect. Expression; intimation. 2HIV. I, 2, 183. Answer in the effect of your reputation (2HIV. II, 1, 142) = answer in a manner suitable to your character. Johnson. eft. Convenient ; ready. Ado. IV, 2, 38. eftsoons. By and by ; after a while. Per. V, 1, 256. egal. Equal. Tit. IV, 4, 4. Egeus, dr. 23. Father to Hermia. Mids. ©SS* ill=roasted. Roasting seems to have been a popular mode of cooking eggs in the olden time, if we may judge by the number of proverbs relating to the pro- cess. They required constant turning during the operation. Steevens says there is a proverb that a fool is the best roaster of eggs because he is always turning them. But Skeat gives an- other proverb with an opposite trend : " There goes some reason to the roast- ing of eggs." As. Ill, 2, 38; Kins. II, 3. eggs for money. The proverbial expres- sion : Will you take eggs for money ? Wint. I, 2, 161, seems to be rightly ex- plained, ' ' Will you suffer yourself to be bullied or imposed upon." Dyce. cf. Cor. IV, 4, 21, not worth an egg. He will steal an egg out of a cloister, (AU's. IV, 3, 280) =-- he will steal any- thing, however trifling, from any place, however holy. Johnson. Eglamour, dr.p. Agent for Silvia in her escape. Gent. egma. Costard's blunder for enigma. LLL. Ill, 1, 73. Egyptian thief. The allusion in Tw, V, 1, 121, is to " 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 Thyamis's party, he was in such fear for his mistress that he had her shut into a cave with his treasure. It was customary with those barbarians, when they despaired of their own safe- ty, first to make away with those whom they held dear, and desired for com- panions in the next life. Thyamis, therefore, benetted round with his ene- mies, 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. £IS 106 ELD eisel. Vinegar. So defined in most of the glossaries. In Sonn. CXI, 10, it certainly means vinegar. But in regard to this word as it occurs in Hml. V, 1, 299, Dr. Furness says: "With the ex- ception of the dram of eale, no word or phrase in this tragedy has occasioned more discussion than this Esill or Esile, which as it stands represents nothing in the heavens above, or the earth be- neath, or the waters under the earth. " While some suppose that Hamlet challenges Laertes to drink vinegar (a most puerile idea) others suggest that he refers to a river Oesil, which is said to be in Denmark, or if not, Sh. might have thought there was. The question was much disjDuted between Steevens and Malone, the former being for the river and the latter for vinegar. Nares says : " The challenge to drink vinegar, in such a rant, is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, that we must decide for the river, whether its name can be exactly found or not. To drink up a river, and eat a crocodile with his impenetrable scales, are two things equally impossible. There is no kind of comparison between the others." In attempting to form an opinion, we should bear in mind that Hamlet's challenge to feats impossible of execu- tion is but a reply to the equally im- possible deeds which Laertes has just ordered the gra\ e-diggers to perform, viz. , to make a mountain that would o'er-top old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus. For a man so deeply in earnest as was Hamlet, to match such a piece of bom- bast by a suggestion to drink vinegar, "In order to produce 'a vinegar as- pect,' " as suggested by Dr. Schmidt in his "Lexicon," or to eat the dried or pickled crocodile of the apothecary's shop, as some coms. would have it, seems to me entirely inappropriate, to say the least. In Fl the word is spelled Esile, and in italics. Capitals did not count for very much with the printers of 1623, but throughout the play proper names are capitalized, and this at least indicates a suggestion of Esile's being a proper name. Strange to say, the Globe edition, which claims to follow the old copies so closely, does not use a capital letter here. Dr. Furness "believes Esill and Esile to be misprints for Eysell." New Var., Hamlet. Vol. I, p. 409. eke. 1. Also. Wiv. 1, 3, 105. 2. To add to ; to piece out. As. I, 2, 208. Elbow, dr. p. A constable. Meas. eld. Old age. Wiv. IV, 4, 36. elder. A shrub or small tree, the Sam- bucus nigra. Our American elder (the SambuGus Canadense) is a closely al- lied species. Both are well known from the peculiarity of the wood and fruit, the latter being a favorite for the mak- ing of spiced wine. The wood is fre- quently used as a substitute for box- wood in the manufacture of the cheaper rules and straight-edges. The young trees and shoots have a very large, pithy center. Hence heart of elder, Wiv. II, 3, 30, means a weak, spiritless creature; opposed to the familiar phrase, "heart of oak." See cride- game. The leaves of the elder have a strong and disagreeable odor; hence called stinking elder, Cym. IV, 2, 59. The elder has, from time immemorial, possessed a bad reputation, and has been regarded as a plant of ill omen. One of the traditions connected with it is that Judas was hanged on an elder, LLL. V, 2, 610. This legend is found scattered through all the literature of the time of Sh. and that immediately preceding. Sir John Mandeville (1364) tells us in his ' ' Ti-avels ' ' that at Jeru- salem he was shown the identical ' ' tree of Elder that Judas hange himself up- on, for despeyr that he hadde when he soldo and betrayed owre Lord." Concerning another species, the Sam- bucus Ebulus, or Dwarf Elder, the tradition runs that it grows most where blood has been shed either in battle or murder. In Welsh it is called "plant , of the blood of man," and Sh. may have had this piece of plant-lore in ELD 101 ENG mind when he represents Bassanius as killed at a pit beneath an elder tree. This is the pit and this the elder' tree. Tit. II, 3, 277. elder=gun. A pop-gun. So called be- cause usually made by boys out of a branch of elder from which the pith has been removed. It was capable of inflicting a sharp stinging blow with its pellets of moistened tow, but could not cause any serious injury. Hence the al- lusion in HV. IV, 1, 210. Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, dr.p. 2HVI. eleven and twenty. That teacheth tricks eleven and tiventy long. Shr. IV, 2, 57. A phrase of which the origin is unknown. Probably similar to the American phrase forty - eleven. See " The Professor at the Breakfast Table. ' ' elf. To mat the hair together. The elves or fairies were supposed to tangle the hair for mischief. Lr. II, 3, 10. elMock. A lock of hair tangled or matted together by the fairies. Rom. I, 4, 90. Elinor, Queen, dr.p. Mother of King John. John. Elizabeth Woodville, dr.p. Lady Grey and queen to Edward IV. 3HVI. and Ely, Bishop of, dr.p. John Morton. mil. Ely, Bishop of, dr.p. HV. emballing. The ceremony of carrying the ball, as queen, at a coronation. The word is one of Sh. manufacture, and has given some trouble to the coms. The above is Johnson's explanation, and is clearly the best out of many. Some are offensive and improbable. emboss. To hunt to death. All's. Ill, 6, 106. embossed. 1. Swollen. As. II, 7, 67. 2. Foaming at the mouth from hard running. Shr. Ind., I, 17; Ant. IV, 11,3. . ^. embarguement. Hindrances ; impedi- ments. A word of doubtful origin and significance. Cor. I, 10, 22. embrasure. Embrace. Troil. IV, 4, 39. Emilia, dr.p. Sister to Hippolyta. Kins. Emilia, dr.p. Wife to lago. 0th. Emilia, dr.p. A lady attending on Her- mione. Wint. emmew. A term in falconry, signifying to cause the game to lie close for fear. Meas. Ill, 1, 91. empery. 1. Empire; dominion. HV. I, 2 226. 2. Country over which sway is held. RIII. Ill, 7, 136. empiricutic. Quackish. Undoubtedly a coined word. Cor. II, 1, 128. emulous. Jealous; envious. Troil. II, 3, 242. enactures. Action; representation. Schm. Hml. Ill, 2, 207. Johnson gives "re- solutions" as the meaning. In the Folio of 1623 the word is ennectors ; enactures is the word in the Quarto. end. Still an end = ever and anon. Gent. IV, 4, 67. Qu. Corrupted from " still and anon. " endart. To shoot forth. Rom. I, 3, .98. endeared. Bound. 2HIV. II, 3, 11 ; Tim. 1. 2, 236. Endymion. A beautiful youth, said to have been a hunter or shepherd who fell asleep in a cave of Mount Latmus, and while there was visited by Selene (the moon, Luna) who fell in love with him, and kept him in a perpetual slum- ber so that she might be able to kiss him without his knowledge. By him she is said to have had fifty daughters. Such is the generally accepted story, but there are various poetical versions of the legend. Merch. V, 1, 109. See Diana. enfeoff. To give in vassalage ; to grant out as a feoff or estate. IHIV. Ill, 2, 69. enforce. To exaggerate; to lay stress upon. Cses. Ill, 2, 42 ; Ant. V, 2, 125. englut. To swallow at a gulp. Tim. II, 2 175. engraffed. Deep-fixed. Kins. IV, 3. engross. 1. To make fat. RHL 7, 76. 2. To amass. IHIV. Ill, 2, 148 ; 2HIV. IV, 5, 71. 3. Seizing the whole ofo All's. Ill, 2, 68 ; Rom. V, 3, 115. ENK 108 ETE enkindle. To incite; to make keen. Mcb. 1, 3, 121. Enobarbus, Domitius, dr. p. A friend to Anthony. Ant. enseamed. Gross ; defiled ; filthy. Hml. Ill, 4, 92. See seam. ensear. To dry up. Tim. IV, 3, 187. ensconce. To hide ; to cover. Wiv. II, 2, 27 ; do. Ill, 3, 96. enskyed. Heavenly ; raised above earthly things. Meas. I, 4^ 34. ensteeped. Lying under water. 0th. II, 1, 70. entail. Hereditary right to property. All's. IV, 3, 343. entertain. Encounter. HV. I, 2, 111. entreatments. Interviews ; entertain- ments. Hml. I, 3, 122. Ephesian. A cant term for jolly com- panion; a toper. Wiv. IV, 5, 19. Ephesians ^ '^ * of the old church = companions of the old sort. 2HIV. II, 2, 164. equipage. A word of equivocal meaning as it occurs in Wiv. II, 2, 3. Schm. notes it " quite unintelligible ; " War- burton says it is a carit term for stolen goods; Farmer is certain that it is a cant word, but of unascertained mean- ing. (It is not found in modern slang dictionaries.) Steevens thinks it means attendance. Ercles. A contraction of Hercules. Mids. I, 2, 31. erewhiie. A short time since. LLL. IV, 1, 99 ; As. II, 4, 89. eringo. Sea-holly, much used as a deli- cacy and believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac. Wiv. V, 5, 33. Eros, dr. p. A friend to Antony. Ant. Erpingham, Sir Thomas, dr. p. An officer in the English army. HV. err. Besides the usual meaning, this word in Sh. time signified wandering (without any suggestion of evil) . Hml. I, 1, 154; 0th. I, 3, 362. See extravaga7it. Escalus, dr. p. A lord of Vienna. Meas. Escalus, dr. p. Prince of Verona. Rom. Escanes, dr.p. A lord of Tyre. Per. escape. A freak ; an escapade. Tit. IV, 2, 114 ; 0th. I, 3, 136. escape. Escapes of wit = sallies of wit. Meas. IV, 1, 63. escapen. The old form of escaped. Per. Il, Prol. 36. escot. To pay for ; to maintain. Hml. II, 2, 362. Cot. gives " disner a escot = a dinner at an ordinarie ; or where every guest payes his part." Esile. See eisel. esperance. Hope. The motto of the Percies. IHIV. II, 3, 74. espial. A spy. Hml. Ill, 1, 32. Essex, Earl of, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, dr.p. John. estimation. Conjecture. IHIV. I, 3, 272. estridge. An ostrich. IHIV. IV, 1, 98. By some = goshawk. Ant. Ill, 13, 197. eternal. In many passages this word is evidently not used in the sense of "without end." Mrs. Ford (Wivs. II, 1, 50) speaks of an eternal moment; Emilia of an eternal villain (0th. IV, 2, 130), and Cassius of the eternal devil (Caes. I, 2, 160). The expression efernai blazon (Hml. I, 5, 21,) has given rise to considerable discussion. Schm. gives the meaning as "this account of the things of eternity " ; others suggest that it is a misprint for infernal. It is probable that it here means simply great, tremendous. As it occurs in some passages Schm. explains the word as " used to express extreme abhor- ence ; ' ' but this does not apply in many cases where it evidently does not mean ' ' without end. ' ' Thus ' ' the propitiatory address to the reader in the ante-natal edition of Troilus and Cresida, 1609, begins : ' Eternall reader, you have here a new play, never staled with the stage, etc. I remember other like sentences, but have not time to look them up ; nor is there any need ; one such example is as good as forty. Mani- festly, this writer did not intend to open his address in favor of his new play by ' expressing extreme abhorence ' of his reader with Dr. Schmidt, or by calling him ' infernal reader, ' with Mr. ■ Walker. And yet the word is used just ETE 109 EXP as it is in the passages quoted above from Sh., and as the rustic Yankee uses it in 'tarnal.' In all these cases the word is used merely as an expletive of excess. It means simply boundless, immeasurable, and corresponds very nearly in its purport to the word egregious, as it is used by some of our elder writers, and nowadays in Spanish, egregio autore.''^ R. G. White. eterne. Eternal. Mcb. Ill, 2, 38 ; Hml. II, 2, 512. eternize. To immortalise. 2HVI. V, 3, 31. Europa. According to common tradition, the daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor. Her surpassing beauty charmed Jupiter, who assumed the form of a bull (Wiv. V, 5, 4) and mingled with the herd as Europa and her maidens were sporting on the seashore. En- couraged by the tameness of the animal, Europa ventured to mount upon his back, whereupon Jupiter rushed into the sea and swam with her in safety to Crete. Here she became, by Jupiter, the mother of Minos, Radamanthys, a nd Sarpedon . She afterwards married Asterion, King of Crete, who brought up the children whom she had had by the King of the Gods. Referred to in Shr. I, 1, 173. Europe, as a division of the world, was believed to ha\ e derived its name from this fabulous Phoenician princess. Euphronius, dr.p. An ambassador. Ant. Evans, Sir Hugh, dr.p. A Welsh parson famous for his "frittering " of English. Wiv. even=Christian. Fellow Christian. Hml. V, 1, 32. even=pleached. Hedges so interwoven and trimmed as to have an even sur- face. HV. V, 2, 42. evil. 1. A privy. Meas. II, 2, 172 ; HVIII. II, 1, 67. 2. The king's evil. Mcb. IV, 3, 148. A scrofulous disease which was so called because the kings and queens of Eng- land were supposed to have the power of curing it by a touch. Many of our readers will remember that Dr. Johnson, when a child, was carried to London by his mother so that he might be touched by Queen Anne and cured. evitate. To avoid. Wiv. V, 5, 241. examine. To doubt ; to call in question. All's. Ill, 5, 66. excrement. Hair, beard and other things growing out of the body. Merch. Ill, 2, 87 ; Err. II, 2, 79. The etymological meaning of excrement is something which groivs out, and it is in this sense that it is used in Sh., with, perhaps, a single exception (Tim. IV, 3, 445). It is doubtful if even this passage furnishes an exception. exercise. Religious services. RIII. Ill, 2, 112. Exeter, Duke of, dr.p. Uncle to Henry V. HV. and 3HVI. exhale. To draw out. In Pistol's speech (HV. II, 1, 66) he means "draw your sword." exhibition. Pension ; allowance. Gent. 1, 3, 69 ; Lr. I, 2, 25 ; 0th. I, 3, 238. Used blunderingly in Ado. IV, 2, 5. We have the exhibition to examine = we have the examination to exhibit. Steevens. . exigent. 1. Decisive moment; pressing necessity. Cses. V, 1, 19. Ant. IV, 14, 63. 2. The end ; death. IHVI. II, 5, 9. exion. Mrs. Quickly's blunder for action. 2HIV. II, 1, 32, exorcise. This word (and words formed fi'om it — exorcism, exorcist, etc.) was employed by Sh. in the sense of raising spirits, not laying them, as is the modern use. 2HVI. 1, 4, 5 ; Cym. IV, 2, 276. expedience. 1. Haste. RII. II, 1, 287. 2. Campaign; expedition. IHIV. I, 1, 33; Ant. 1,2, 185. expedient. Expeditious ; swift. John, II, 1, 60; 2HVI. Ill, 1, 288. This is the etymological meaning of the word. The meaning was about to change at this time, and the word does not appear in Sh. in plays wiitten after 1596. Fleay, EXP 110 EYS expediently. Quickly; expeditiously. As. Ill, 1, 18. See expedient. expiate. Completed : brought to a close. Sonn. XXII, 4 ; RIII. Ill, 3, 23. expire. To bring to an end ; to conclude. Rom. I, 4, 109. expostulate. To expound ; to explain. Hml. II, 2, 86. exposture. Exposure ; the state of being exposed. Cor. IV, 1, 36. It has been suspected that this word is an error of the press, as it has not been found any- where else except in this passage. expulse. To expel ; to drive out. IHVI. Ill, 3, 25. exsufflicate. Contemptible ; abomina- able. 0th. Ill, 3, 182. This word is found nowhere else, and the meaning is rather uncertain. Some explain it as blown up, but this would be tautology. Nares, following Du Cange, derives it from low Latin ex- sufflare, used in an old ecclesiastical form of renouncing the devil. extend. A law term meaning to seize upon. Ant. I, 2. 105. extent. Seizure. As. Ill, 1, 17. Lord Campbell regards Sh. use of this term as indicating a deeper technical knowledge of law than could be ob- tained by mere ordinary observation. " The usurping Duke, Frederick, wish- ing all the real property of Oliver to be seized, awards a suit of extent against him, in the language which would be used by the Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Make an extent upon his house and lands — an extendi facias applying to houses and lands, as Bi fieri facias would apply to goods and chattels, or a capias ad satisfaciendum to the person." extenuate. To undervalue ; to detract from. Cses. Ill, 2, 42. extirp. To extirpate ; to root out. Meas. Ill, 2, 110. extracting. Distracting. Tw. V, 1, 288. extraught. Extracted; descended. 3HVI. II, 2, 142. extravagancy. Wandering ; v^agrancy. Tw. II, 1, 12. extravagant. Wandering; straying be- yond bounds. LLL. IV, 2, 68 ; Hml. I. 1, 154; 0th. 1, 1, 137. The word occurs but three times in Sh. , and is always used in the old and strictly etymological sense. Never with the meaning which now attaches to it. extreme. 1. Extravagance of conduct. Wint. IV, 4, 6. 2. Extremity. Rom. IV, 1, 62. extremity, in. Extremely. Mids. Ill, 2, 3. eyas. A nestling ; a young hawk. Hml. II, 2, 855. " Mais : a nestling ; a young bird taken out of a neast. " Also, under niez : " a niais hawke. ' ' Cot. eyas musket. A young male sparrow- hawk. Wiv. Ill, 3, 22. eye. 1. Aglance ; anoeilliade. g.u Tp. I, 2,441. 2. A shade of color, as in shot silk. Tp. II, 1, 55. Phillpotts suggests that " the jesting pair mean that the grass is really tawny (tanned, dried up), and that the only ' green ' spot in it is Gon- zalo himself. In the passage in Hml. I, 3, 128, the reading in many eds. is dye ; in the folios, eye. Eye formerly signified a shade of colour, and it was also said to mean a very small quantity of any- thing, in proof of which Malone quotes from an old work on Virginia, "not an eye of sturgeon has yet appeared in the river." But may not eye here mean a single sturgeon, just as we might say of fish, "not a fin," and of cattle, "notahoof "? The expression, an eye of death, IHIV. I, 3, 143, is explained by Johnson and Steevens as "an eye menacing death," but Mason's gloss, "an eye expressing deadly fear," seems better. See 7. eye-beam. A glance ; a look. LLL. IV, 3, 28. eye=glass. The lens of the eye. (Not the retina, as Schm. has it.) Wint. I, 2, 268. eyliad. See oeilliade. eyne. The old form of the plural of eye, LLL. V, 2, 206. eysell. See eisel. FA in FAD A. R. G. White notes that Sh. often shows that he was a musician as well as a lover of music, and the frequent refer- ences to the notes of the gamut show this. See LLL. IV, 2, 102; Shr. HI, 1, 76, as well as the jocular reference in Rom. IV, 5, 121. The use of fa, sol, la, mi in Lr. I, 2, 149, has been the occasion of some display of musical learning. Dr. Burney, as quoted by Furness, says: "Sh. shows by the context that he was well acquainted with the pro- perty of these syllables in solmization, which imply a series of sounds so un- natural that ancient musicians pro- hibited their use. The monkish writers on music say : mi contra fa est dia- bolus : the interval fa mi, including a tritonus, or sharp 4th, consisting of three tones without the intervention of a semitone, expressed in the modern scale by the letters F, G, A, B, would form a musical phrase extremely dis- agreeable to the ear. Edmund, speak- ing of eclipses as portents and pro- digies, compares the dislocation of events, the times being out of joint, to the unnatural and offensive sounds, fa sol la mi. See gamut. On the other hand it is claimed that the humming of these notes by Edmund is merely the act of one who wishes to seem not to observe the approach of another. Moberly suggests that "the sequence ' fa sol la mi ' (with ' mi ' des- cending) is like a deep sigh, as may be easily heard by trial." Fabian, dr.p. Servant to Olivia. Tw. face. 1. To bully ; to lie with effrontery. Faced it with a card of ten (Shr. II, 1, 407) is, according to Nares, ' ' a common phrase, originally expressing the confi- dence or impudence of one who with a ten, as at brag, faced or outfaced one who had really a faced card." 2. To trim with facings. IHIV. V, 1, 74 ; Shr. IV, 3, 123. In the latter quotation there is a quibble between /ace, to trim, and /ace, to bully. Also between brave, to defy, and brave, to make fine or well-dressed. See brave. 3. To carry a false appearance ; to play the hypocrite. Johnson. IHVI. V, 3, 142. 4. To patch. IHIV. IV, 2, 34. See ancient. In regard to the passage in Caes. II, 1, 114, if not the face of men, the corns, are, as Craik says, "all alive here." For face it has been proposed to read fate, faiths, etc. " It is difficult to see much difficulty in the old reading, understood as meaning the looks of men. It is preferable, at any rate, to anything which has been proposed." Craik. face royal. A pun upon a royal face and the face upon a royal or ten-shilling piece of gold. 2HIV. I, 2, 26. See royal. facinerious. Claimed by some to be a word coined by ParoUes, and without meaning. All's. II, 3, 35. But ParoUes was a linguist, and did not make blun- ders of this kind like Pistol and Quickly. Steevens therefore corrected it to faci- norus, a well-established word which signifies atrociously wicked. And this meaning fits very well. FacineiHous is probably a printer's error. fact. Something done ; deed. Meas. IV, 2, 141 ; All's. Ill, 7, 47 ; Wint. Ill, 2, 86. Schm. defines it as = evil deed, crime. This word does not of itself imply evil, but in Sh. it seems to be always used in connection with crime. factious. Active ; urgent. Cses. I, 3, 118. This is the etymological meaning of the word, and in this passage it conveys no hint of wrong, but elsewhere in Sh. it has the usual evil sense. factionary. Taking part in a quarrel or dissension. Cor. V, 2, 30. fadge. To suit ; to fit ; to succeed. LLL. V, 1, 154; Tw. 11,2,34, FAD 112 FAS fading. A kind of burden or ending to a song. Wint. IV, 4, 195. fail. FaUure. Wint. II, 3, 170 ; HVIII. II, 4, 198. fair. Beauty. As. Ill, 2, 99. An adjec- tive used as a substantive. fairing. A present. LLL. V, 2, 2. A word still used in Scotland in this sense, as in Burns's " Tarn O'Shanter : " Ah Tarn ! ah Tarn ! thou'l get thy fairin'. When lads and lasses, who are friends, meet at a fair, the lad is in duty bound to give the girl "her fairing." The word occurs but once in Sh., and has been erroneously explained by some as "making fair." I am told that the word is in use to-day all over England in the sense that I have given. fairy. An enchantress. Ant. IV, 8, 12. faithed. Credited. Lr. II, 1, 72. faitor. Evil-doer ; deceiver ; rogue ; vaga- bond. 2HIV. II, 4, 173. fall. 1. To let fall; to drop. As. 111,5,5. 2. To befall ; to happen to. Ven. 472 ; John I, 1, 78. Still used in Scotland in this sense. See Burns's "Address to a Haggis": Fair fa' [fall] your honest sonsie face. 3. To bring forth; to give birth to. Merch. I, 3, 89. fallible. Liable to error. Used impro- perly by the clown in Ant. V, 2, 258. In the First Folio it is printed falliable, which may possibly be an intentional vulgarism. fallow. Fawn colored. Wiv. I, 1, 91. false, V. To perjure ; to falsify. Cym. II, 3, 74. falsing. Deceptive. Err. II, 95. Falstaff, Sir John, dr.ij. IHIV; 2HIV and Wiv. fame. To make famous. Sonn. LXXXIV, 11. familiar. 1. A particular friend. LLL. V, 1, 101 ; Tim. IV, 2, 10. 2. A familiar spirit ; usually one attend- ant on a sorcerer. LLL. I, 2, 177 ; 2HVI. IV, 7, 114. fancies. Love songs : a name foi* a sort of light ballads or airs. Nares. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 342 ; Shr. Ill, 2, 70. fancy. Love. Lucr. 200 ; Wint. IV, 4, 493 ; 0th. Ill, 4, 63. fancy=free. Untouched by love. Mids. II, 1, 164. f ancy=monger. A love-monger ; one who makes love his business. As. Ill, 2, 382. fancy=sick. Love-sick. Mids. Ill, 2, 96. Fang, dr.p. A sheriff's officer. 2HIV. fang. To seize with the teeth or fangs ; to tear. Tim. IV, 3, 23. fangled. Fond of finery. Cym. V, 4, 134. fantasied. Filled with fancies or imagin- ation. John IV, 2, 144. fap. Drunk. Wiv. I, 1, 183. farced. Stuffed ; extended. HV. IV, 1, 280. fardel. A pack ; a burden. Hml. Ill, 1, 76. far=fet. Literally, far-fetched; full of deep stratagems. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 293. farrow. A litter of pigs. Mcb. IV, 1, 65. farthingale. A hooped petticoat. G-ent. II, 7, 51 ; Wiv. Ill, 3, 69. fartuous. Mrs. Quickly's form of virtu- ous. Wiv. II, 2, 100. fashions. A skin disease in horses ; now caUed farcy. Shr. Ill, 2, 54. fast and loose. This was a cheating game much practised in Sh, time, where- by gipsies and other vagrants beguiled the common people of their money, and hence very often seen at fairs. Its other name was "pricking at the belt or girdle ;" and it is thus described by Sir J. Hawkins: "A leathern belt was made up into a number of intricate folds and placed edgewise upon a table. One of the folds was made to resemble the middle of the girdle, so that whoever could thrust a skewer into it would think he held it fast to the table ; whereas, when he had so done, the person with whom he plays may take hold of both ends, and draw it away." It \^'as an easy matter for a juggler to make the belt either fast or loose at his FAS 113 FEA option after the skewer had been in- serted. It is frequently alluded to by old writers. Thus Drayton, in his "Mooncalf," tells us: He like a gypsy oftentimes would go, All kinds of gibberish he hath learned to know ; And with a stick, a shortstring, and a noose, AVould show the people tricks at fast and loose. This is what is referred to in Ant. IV, 11, 28, and Nares thinks that it is this trick of the sharper's trade that Falstaff reconunends to Pistol (Wiv. II. 2, 19) when he says: "Go. A short knife and a throng. To your manor of Pickt- hatch ! Go." It is throng in Fl, but Pope emended to thong. The usual interpretation of this passage is that Falstaff recommends the cutting of purses in a throng, and for this advises him to get a short knife. At that time purses were usually carried suspended from the girdle. Hence the term cut- purse. This seems to be the most natural explanation of the passage. Fastolfe, Sir John, dr. p. IHVI. fat. Dull. LLL. Ill, 1, 105 ; Tw. V, 1, 112. fat. It is generally believed that the de- scription of Hamlet — fat and scant of breath — applied to Burbage, the famous actor of Sh. time, who was the first im- personator of Hamlet. Fates, The. The three sisters who pre- sided over the destinies of men. Their names were Clotho, Lachesis and Atro- pos. According to Hesiod, it is Clotho who spins the web of man's destiny ; Lachesis who assigns to man his fate, and Atropos who cuts the thread of life. Hence Pistol's saying Come, Atrojjos, I saij! 2HIV. II, 4, 213. In works of art they are represented as grave maidens, with different attributes, viz. , Clotho with a spindle or a roll (the book of fate) ; Lachesis pointing with a staff to the horoscope on the globe, and Atropos with a pair of scales, or a sun- dial, or a pair of shears. father. The passage in As. I, 3, 11, my child'' s father , is by many regarded as corrupt, the claim being that the proper reading is iny father'' s child. The usual argument in favor of the latter reading is the indelicacy of the former one ; but this does not count for much in Sh. , the manners and habits of those times being so different from what they are now. I think, however, that a careful read- ing of the whole passage shows that it is for herself, i.e., her father'' s child., and " for the burs in her heart " that Rosa- lind is depressed. The thought embod- ied in the reading of the Fl is so far- fetched and, under the circumstances, so strained, that it points with almost certainty to a typographical error. fathered. See childed. fatigate. Fatigued. Cor. II, 2, 121. Faulconbridge, Lady, dr. p. Mother to Robert and Philip Faulconbridge. John. Faulconbridge, Philip, dr.p. Bastard son to Richard I. John. Faulconbridge, Robert, dr.p. Son of Sir Robert Faulconbridge. John. favour. Countenance; feature; aspect. IHIV. Ill, 2, 136. Defeat thy favour with a usurped heard (0th. I, 3, 346) = disguise yourself with a false beard. fay. Faith. Rom. I, 5, 128. fear, v. To affright; to terrify. Meas. II, 1, 2 ; 2HIV. IV, 4, 121. fearful. 1. Timorous. As. Ill, 3, 49. 2. Terrible; inspiring fear. Lucr. 1741; Tp. V, 1, 106. It will be seen from the above (1 and 2) that this word is used to convey two very different meanings. Just which of these meanings it should carry in the passage found in Tp. I, 2, 470, he''s gen- tle and not fearful., has caused some discussion. Furness favors the inter- pretation given by Ritson : " Do not rashly determine to treat him with se- verity, he is mild and harmless and not in the least terrible or dangerous.''^ Others would accept that of SmoUett, quoted by Reed from Humphrey Clink- er: "How have your commentators been puzzled by [this passage] as if it FEA 114 FEE was a paralogism to say that being gen- tle, he must of course be couy^ageous ; but the truth is, one of the original meanings, if not the sole meaning, of that word was noble, high-minded ; and to this day a Scotch woman in the situation of the young lady in The Tempest would express herself in nearly the same terms. Don't provoke him ; for, being gentle, that is, high-spirited, he won't tamely bear an insult. Spen- ser, in the v ery first stanza of the Faierie Queene, says : ' A gentle knight was pricking o'er the plain,' which knight, far from being tame and fearful, was so stout that ' Nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad. ' " See gentle. feat, V. To make neat. Cym. I, 1, 49. feat, adj. Neat ; handy ; dextrous. Cym, V, 5, 88 ; Tp. II, 1, 373. feather. A forest of feathers, referring to the extravagant use of feathers as an ornament to the hat at one time. Hml. Ill, 2, 286. featly. Nimbly ; daintily, Tp. I, 2, 380. feature. Beauty, Cym. V, 5, 163. Feeble, dr.p. One of Falstaff's recruits. 2HIV. feeder. 1. One who feeds and cares for animals, as sheep in As. II, 4, 99. Cer- tainly not an idler in this case, as de- fined in a recent glossary. 2. One who eats ravenously ; a servant or perhaps a parasite. Tim. II, 2, 168. 3. One who encourages. 2HIV. V, 5,66. fee=farm. A kiss in fee-farm (Troil. Ill, 2, 53) "is a kiss of a duration that has no bounds, a fee-farm being a grant of lands in fee," that is for ever, re- serving a certain rent." Malone. fee=grief . A grief peculiar to one person ; literally, the peculiar property of one. Mcb, IV, 3, 196. fee==siinple. Absolute fee ; a fee that is not qualified ; absolute property in. Compl. 144 ; Wiv. IV, 2, 225 ; All's. IV, 3, 312. fedary. Accomplice. Meas. II, 4, 122. federary. Same as fedary; an accom- plice. Wint. II, 1, 90. fehememtly. Evans's blunder for ve- hemently. Wiv. Ill, 1, 7. felicitate. Made happy. Lr. I, 1, 76, fell, n. Hide ; the entir e skin and wool or hair of an animal. As. Ill, 2, 55 ; Mcb. V, 5, 11, fell, adj. Fierce ; savage ; cruel, Mids. II, 1, 20 ; 0th. V, 2, 362. fell=lurking. Lurking to do mischief. 2HVI. V, 1, 146. fellowly. Sympathetic. Tp. V, 1, 64. female actors. In the early dramas aU female characters were acted by boys or men. If the face did not exactly suit, they took advantage of the fashion of wearing masks, and then the actor had only his voice to modulate. Thus in Mids. I, 2, 50, Flute objects to play- ing a woman because he has a beard coming, and is told that he may play it in a mask and speak as small as he will. See cracked within the ring and hoy. This frequently gave rise to the most absurd situations. Thus Jordan, writ- ing in 1662, says : For to speak truth, men act, that are be- tween Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen ; With bone so large, and nerve so incom- pliant. When you call Desdemona— enter Giant ! According to Collier, the first attempt to introduce women as actors on the English stage occurred in 1629, when a company of French comedians per- formed at the Blackfriars Theatre. Malone tells us that it is the received tradition that Mrs. Saunderson, who afterwards married Betterton, was the first English actress. These facts explain many passages in Sh. , especially Hml. II, 2, 449, and As. Epilogue. fence. Art or skill in defence. 2HVI. II, 1, 52 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 312. Fenton, dr.p. Lover and finally husband of Anne Page. Wiv. Ferdinand, dr.p. King of Navarre. LLL. Ferdinand, dr.p. Son to the King of Naples. Tp. FEE 115 riL feodary. One who holds an estate by suit or service to a superior or lord ; hence one who acts under the direction of another. Cym. Ill, 2, 21. fere. A companion; a mate (husband or wife). Tit. IV, 1, 89. fern=seed. The seed of the fern, of which Holt White says : " The ancients, who often paid more attention to received opinions than to the evidence of their senses, believed that ferns 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 wearing this seed about them would become invisible." Hence it was a most important object of superstition, being gathered mystically, especially on Midsummer Eve. The superstition survived even to the days of Addison, who tells us that it was " impossible to walk the streets of London without having an advertisement thrust into your hand of a doctor who had arrived at the knowledge of the green and red dragon, and had discovered the female fern seed." This explains the remark of Gadshill, we have the receipt of fernseed, we ivalk invisible. IHIV. II, 1, 96. ferret, v. To worry. HV. IV, 4, 30. ferret, adj. Such ferret and such fiery eyes. Cses. I, 2, 186. Sharp and pierc- ing, like those of a ferret. According to Schm. and others, red or albino-like. A doubtful gloss. Some ferrets have red eyes, but Cicero was not an albino. It is more probable that ferret and fiery mean sharp and brilliant. Redness in eyes does not mean piercing. Feste, dr. p. A clown ; servant to Olivia. Tw. festinate. Hasty. Lr. Ill, 7, 10. fet. Fetched. HV. Ill, 1, 18. fetch, n. A trick ; a stratagem. Hml. II, 1, 38 ; Lr. II, 4, 90. fetch off. To make away with. Wint. I, 2, 334. fettle. To dress ; to prepare. Rom. Ill, 5, 154. fewness. Rarity ; brevity. Meas. 1, 4, 39. fico. A fig. (Spanish.) Wiv. I, 3, 33. ^eefig. fidiused. A word jocularly formed from the name of Aufidius, and meaning dealt with ; beaten. Cor. II, 1, 144. field. Battle ; combat ; war. LLL. Ill, I, 189 ; Mcb. V, 1, 4. field=bed. A camp-bed. Rom. II, 1, 40. fielded. Engaged in fight ; on the battle- field. Cor. I, 4, 12. fig, n. Literally, a well-known fruit, but as a token of worthlessness, as in the expression, "a fig for Peter" (2HVI. II, 3, 67), it undoubtedly arose from the verb to fig, as explained in next article. As Nares well says : " Figs were never so common in England as to be proverbially worthless." cf. Ant. I, 2, 32. Perhaps, however, it may be merely " fig's-end " shortened. A fig's-end is certainly a very worthless object, and it is, moreover, an old synonym for a thing of little value. Thus, in Withal's Dictionary we find Fumi umora non Smerim, rendered by " I will not give a fig's-end for it. " And in Oth. II, 1, 386, lago employs "Blessed fig's-end" as an expression of contempt. It seems to have been a common opinion that the fig was a favorite vehicle, as a physician would say, for administering poison. Dyce thinks Pistol alludes to this in his "fig of Spain." HV. Ill, 6, 62. Nares quotes several allusions to this in works near Shake- speare's time. fig, V. To insult by thrusting out the thumb between the two first fingers of the clenched hand. The custom was originaUy Spanish. 2HIV. V, 3, 123. fights, n. Cloth or canvas hung round a ship to conceal the men from the enemy. Wiv. II, 2, 142. f igo. See fico. file, n. 1. A list; a catalogue; a roll. All's. IV, 3, 189 ; Mcb. Ill, 1, 95 ; do. V. 3, 8. FIL 116 FLA 2. A wire upon which papers are strung. All's. IV, 3, 231. file, V. 1. To polish. Sonn. LXXXV, 4 ; LLL. V, 1, 12. 2. To defile ; to stain. Mcb. Ill, 1, 65. 3. To march in line ; to keep pace with. HVIII. Ill, 2, 171. fill. The thiU of a carriage. Troil. Ill, 2, 48. This word is still in use in this sense in New England. fill-horse. Shaft horse; i.e., the horse that goes between the shafts. When two horses are driven tandem, one is the fill- or thill-horse and the other the fore-horse. Merch. II, 2, 100. See fore-horse. fillip. In Troil. IV", 5, 45, the word evi- dently means a stroke given by a jerk of the finger, but this is not the mean- ing in 2HIV, I, 2, 255, as given by Schm. The reference there is to a com- mon and cruel diversion practiced by boys. They lay a board two or three feet long, at right angles over a transverse piece two or three inches thick, then placing a toad at one end of the board, the other end is struck by a bat or large stick, which throws the poor ani- mal forty or fifty feet in the air, killing it, of course. Falstaif was so large and heavy that no ordinary bat or beetle would have served in his case. It would have required such a beetle as was used for driving piles, etc., and was worked by three or more men. filth. A coarse name for a common wo- man. Tim. IV, 1, 6. fine, n. The end. Ado. I, 1, 247 ; Hml. V, 1, 115. fine, V. To make fine or specious. Lucr. 936 ; HV. I, 2, 72. In the latter passage many eds. readj^nd. fineless. Endless ; infinite. 0th. Ill, 3, 173. This word occurs nowhere else in Sh. firago. Sir Toby's blunder for virago. Tw. Ill, 4, 302. fire=brand brother. See Althea and Paris. fire. To expel ; to drive out. Sonn. CXLIV, 14; Lr. V, 3, 23. fire-drake. A fiery dragon; a Will-o- the-wisp; a meteor. Used jocularly for a man with a red face. HVIII. V, 4, 45. fire=new. Brand-new ; newly-made — said of things in metal which are worked by fire, and applied metaphorically to others. LLL. I, 1, 179. firk. To beat. HV. IV, 4, 29. fishmonger. A seUer of fish. Hml. II, 2, 174. Malone suggests that a pun was here intended, as fishmonger was a cant term for a licentious person. fisnomy. Physiognomy. AU's. IV, 5, 42. fit, A canto or division of a song. Troil. III, 1, 62. fitchew. A polecat; supposed to be very amorous ; hence used as an illustration of wantonness. Lr. IV, 6, 124 ; 0th. IV, 1, 150. fitted. Worked or vexed by paroxysms or fits. Sonn. CXIX, 7. Fit2;=Peter, Geoffrey, Earl of Essex, dr. p. John. Fitzwater, Lord, dr.p. RII. fives. A disease of horses, consisting of an inflammation of the parotid glands. Shr. Ill, 2, 54. five=f inger=tied. Tied by giving her hand. Troil. V, 2, 157. flamen. A priest of ancient Rome. Cor. II, 1, 229. Flaminius, dr.p. Servant to Timon. Tim. flannel. A well-known woolen stuff. A ludicrous name for a Welshman, Wales being noted for its flannel. Wiv. V, 5, 172. flap=dragon, n. " 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 gaUants used to vie with each other in drinking off flap-di'agons 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 FLA 117 FLU mouth and swallowed." Dyce. LLL. V, 1, 46. See candles'' end. flap=°dragon, v. To swallow as gallants in their revels swallow a flap-dragon. Wint. Ill, 3, 100. flap=jack. A pancake. Per. II, 1, 87. flap=mouthed. Havhig broad hanging lips. Ven. 920. (A dog is here meant. ) flat. Positive ; certain. IHIV. IV, 2, 43. fIat=!ong. With the flat side down ; not edgewise. Tp. II, 1, 181. flatness. Depth ; completeness. Wint. Ill, 2, 123. Flavius, dr. p. A Roman tribune. Caes. Flavius, di'.p. Steward to Timon. Tim. flaw, n. 1. A fragment; a breach; a crack. LLL. V, 2, 415 ; Lr. II, 4, 288. 2. Misfortune. Ant. Ill, 12, 34. 3. A sudden gust of wind. Hml. V, 1, 239. 4. Fits of passion. Meas. II, 3, 11 ; Mcb. Ill, 4, 63. flaw, V, To break ; to crack. HVIII. I, 1, 95 ; Lr. V, 3, 196. flax, A bag of flax? Wiv. V, 5, 159. As flax was never packed in bags and has no significance in this passage, should we not read fiux f See ' ' Shake- spearean Notes and New Readings," p. 10. flax=wench. A woman whose occupation it is to dress flax. One of the lowest occupations assigned to women, and hence an indication of low position and character. Wint. I, 2, 277. Fleance, dr.p. Son of Banquo. Mcb. flecked. Spotted ; dappled. Rom, II, 3, 3. In some eds. fleckled and fleckered. fleer. To sneer ; to grin in scorn. LLL. V, 2, 109; Ctes. I, 3, 117. Palsgrave, as quoted by Halliwell, explains it as mak- ing "an yvil countenaunce with the mouthe by uncoueryng of the tethe." Fleet, The. A famous London prison, formerly standing on Farringdon Street, and long used for debtors. Stowe speaks of it as " the Fleete, a prison house, so called of the fleet or water running by it. ' ' Yroraflede., the Anglo- saxon for stream. It was abolished in 1844, and the "stream" is now a cov- ered sewer. 2HIV. V, 5, 96. A good description of the internal economy of The Fleet may be found in "Little Dorritt." fleet. 1. To float. Ant. Ill, 13, 171. 2. To pass quickly. 2HVI. 11,4,4. To make to pass quickly. As. I, 1, 124. fleeting. Inconstant. Lucr. 212 ; RIII. I, 4, 55. flesh. 1. To give flesh to ; to satiate. All's. IV, 3, 19 ; 2HIV. IV, 5, 133. 2. To initiate in slaughter ; to feed with flesh for the first time. IHIV. V, 4, 133. 3. Savage ; hardened ; eager for slaugh- ter. HV. Ill, 3, 11 ; RIII. IV, 3, 6. fleshment. The act of fleshing; fierce- ness. Lr. II, 2, 130. fleshmonger. A fornicator. Meas. V, I, 337. flewed. Having large hanging chaps. Mids. IV, 1, 125. flight. A long, light arrow. Ado. I, 1, 40. flighty. Swift. Mcb. IV, 1, 145. flirt=gill. A woman of light behaviour. Rom. II, 4, 162. flock. A tuft of wool. IHIV. II, 1, 7. floods. That "floods" and deep waters were sometimes the abode of " damned spii'its " was an old and popular super- stition. The spirits of those who were drowned and who never had proper burial rites bestowed on their bodies were supposed to wander for a hundred years. Mids. Ill, 2, 383. Florence, Duke of, dr. p. All's. Florence, a widow of, dr. p. All's. Florizel, dr.p. Son to Polixenes. Assumes the name of D orioles. Wint. flote. Wave ; sea. Tem. I, 2, 234. flourish, n. Ostentatious embellishment. LLL. II, 1,14; do. IV, 3, 238. flourish, V. To excuse; to gloss over. Meas. IV, 1, 75. Fluellen, dr.p. An oflBcer in Henry V's army. HV. flurted. Scorned. Kins. I, 2. flush. In its prime ; full of vigor. Hml. Ill, 3, 81 ; Anfc. I, 4, 52. Flute, dr.p. A bellows mender who takes part in the play of Pyramus and Thisbe. Mids. FOB 118 FOB fob. To cheat ; to trick. 0th. IV, 2, 197. See fuh. fobbed. Cheated. IHIV. I, 2, 68. foil. 1. Defeat. IHVI. V, 3, 23. 2. Blemish. Tp. Ill, 1, 46 ; Ant. I, 4, 24. foin. To make a thrust as in fencing. 2HIV. II, 4, 252 (with an evident quibble). foison. Plenty. Mcb. IV, 3, 88. fond. 1. Foolishly affectionate. 0th. I, 3, 320. 2. Foolish; without any indication of affection. IHVI. II, 3, 4.5. 3. Slight ; trifling ; trivial. Meas. II, 2, 149; 0th. II, 1, 139. fondly. Foolishly. RII. Ill, 3, 186. fool=begged. Absurd. Err. II, 1, 41. fool' s= head. The emblems of a fool as worn on the head ; a coxcomb. Wiv. I, 4, 134. foot=cloth. A saddle-cloth hanging down to the ground. 2HVI. IV, 7, 51. foot=land=raker. A pedestrian vagabond. IHIV. II, 1, 81. foppish. Foolish. Lr. I, 4, 182. forbid. Cursed ; outlawed. Mcb. I, 3, 21. forbod. Forbidden. Comp. 164. force. 1. To reinforce ; to strengthen. Mcb. V, 5, 5. 2. To attribute falsely. Wint. II, 3, 78. "Leontes had ordered Antigoniis to take up the bastard; Pauline forbids him to touch the princess under that appellation. Forced is false, uttered with violence to truth." Johnson. 3. To stuff. (A form of farce.) Troil. II, 3, 232. 4. To hesitate ; to care about doing a thing. LLL. V, 2, 440. As an illustration of this use of force. Collier quotes from the interlude of Jacob and Esau (1568) • O, Lorde ! some good body, for God's sake, gyve me meate, I force not what it were, so that I had to eate. Ford, dr.p. A gentleman dwelling at Windsor ; assumes the name of Brook. Wiv. Ford, Mrs., dr.p. One of "the wives." Wiv. fordo. 1. To undo ; to destroy. Hml. II, 1, 103. 2. To tire ; to exhaust. Mids. V, 1, 381. foregoers. Ancestors. All's. II, 3, 144. forehorse. In a team the horse which goes foremost. At one time the fore- horse was gaily ornamented with tufts and ribbons and bells. All's. II, 1, 30. Bertram here complains that he will have to squire and usher in ladies instead of going to the wars. Qee fill- horse. foreign. Of another country ; foreign man = one living abroad. HVIII. II, 2, 129. forepast. Antecedent. All's. V, 3, 121. foreslow. To delay. 3HVI. II, 3, 56. fore=spurrer. One that rides before ; a harbinger. Merch. II, 9, 95. foreward. The vanguard. RIII. V, 3, 293. forefoot. Pistol's word for the hand. HV. II, 1, 71. forfend. To avert ; forbid. 3HVI. II, 1, 191 ; Lr. V, I, 11. forgery. In v^ention; devising. Hml. IV, 7, 90. forgetive. Inventive ; full of imagina- tion. This and the word forgery are derived from the word forge in the sense of to make. 2HIV. Ill, 1, 8. fork. 1. The tongue of an adder or snake. Meas. Ill, 1, 16, 2. A barbed arrow-head. Lr. I, 1, 146. forked. Horned ; a reference to cuck- oldom. Wint. I, 2, 186 ; Oth. Ill, 3, 276. forspeak. To speak against. Ant. Ill, 7,3. forspent. 1. Previously bestowed. Cym. II, 3, 64. 2. Past ; foregone. HV. II, 4, 36. 3. Weary ; exhausted. 2HIV. I, 1, 37. forted. Fortified ; strengthened. Meas. V, 1, 12. forth. Out of. Mids. I, 1, 164; 2HVL III, 2, 89. forth-right. A straight path. Tp. Ill, 3, 3 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 158. See meander. , Fortinbras, dr.p. Prince of Norway. Hml. FOR 119 FRO for wearied. Quite worn out ; exhausted. John, II, 1, 233. fosset=seller. One who sells fossets or faucets ; pipes to be inserted in casks so as to allow the liquor to be drawn off. Cor. II, 1, 79. foutra. A corruption of an indecent French word, not unfrequently used of old by the gross and vulgar as an ex- pression of contempt. Pistol did not know its meaning, and his readers need be no wiser than he. White. SHI V. V, 3, 103. See Cotgrave. fox. A sword. Most glossaries give this word as a cant term, but there is good reason for supposing that it was a specific name for a sword of a particular English manufacture, not German, as stated by some. Thus, in an old play, The White Devil, we find : O, what blade is it? A Toledo or an English Fox ? In the same way old sportsmen used to speak of a "Joe Manton," meaning thereby a choice gun made by that celebrated gunsmith. So in The Cap- tain, by Beaumont and Fletcher, we find: Put up your sword, I've seen it often ; 'tis a fox. The name is said to have originated from the figure of a fox (not a wolf) engraved on the blade. Halliwell thinks it was so called because the blade was red. This is a very probable suggestion , as it may have been " browned " like a gun-barrel, partly to keep it from rusting, and partly to bring out the beautiful grain of well-wrought steel. HV, IV, 4, 9. foxship. Cunning and selfishness. Cor. IV, 2, 18. fraction. 1. Breach ; discord. Troll. II, 3, 107. 2. Fragment ; scrap. Troil. V, 2, 158 ; Tun. II, 2, 220. frampold. Uneasy ; vexatious ; quarrel- some. Wiv. II, 2, 94. France, King of, dr. p. All's. France, King of, dr. p. Lr. France, Princess of, dr.p. LLL. Francisca, dr.p. A nun. Meas. Francisco, dr.p. A soldier. Hml, Francisco, dr.p. A lord of Naples. Tp. frank. A pen or enclosure. Cot. defines franc as " a franke or stie, to feed and fatten hogs in. " 2HIV. II, 2, 160. frank, v. To shut up in a frank or sty. RIII. I, 3, 314. franklin. A yeoman ; a freeholder. Wint. V, 2, 173 ; Cym. Ill, 2, 79. fraught, n. Load ; cargo ; contents. 0th. III, 3, 449. fraught, vh. To load ; to burden. Cym. I, 1, 126. fraughtage. Freight ; cargo. Err. IV, I, 87. Frederick, dr.p. Brother to the banished duke. As. freeze. See frieze. fresh. A spring of fresh water. Tp. Ill, 3,75. fresh=new. Unpractised; inexperienced. Per. Ill, 1, 41. fresh=fish. A novice. HVIII. II, 3, 86. fretted. Variegated ; adorned. Caes. II, 1, 104; Hml. II, 2, 313; Cym. II, 4, 88. friar. Robin Hood''s fat friar (Gent. IV, 1, 36) is, of course, the famous Friar Tuck of the ballads, the Holy Clerk of Copmanshurst of Ivanhoe, and the Curtal Friar of Fountain's Abbey. For Robin Hood see Hood, Robin. Friar Francis, dr.p. Ado. Friar John, dr.p. A Franciscan. Rom. Friar Laurence, dr.p. A Franciscan. Rom. friend, v. To befriend ; to favor. TroU. I, 2, 84; HVIII. I, 2, 140; Cym. II, 3, 52. frieze. A thick woolen cloth of loose texture to which birdlime would stick very firmlv. Freeze in Fl ; frize in the Globe. 0th. II, 1, 127. frippery. A shop where old clothes are sold. Tp. IV, 1, 225. frize. See frieze. from. 1. Away from; far from. Tim. IV, 3, 533. 2. Contrary to, Mcb. Ill, 1, 100; Hml. III, 2, 22. FRO 130 FUN So in the passage, Write from it if you can, in hand or phrase (Tw. V, 1, 340), the meaning obviously is : Write in a different manner if you can. front. The passage HVIII. 1, 2, 42, has caused some discussion, which seems superfluous. To front is to present one's face, and Wolsey claims to do this, but in that file where others tell steps with him. frontlet. A band worn on the forehead ; hence, metaphorically, a look. Lr. I, 4, 208. frontier, 1. An outwork in fortification. IHIV. II, 3, 55. 2. Opposition. IHIV. I, 3, 19. Froth, dr. p. A foolish gentleman. Meas. froth. To fill up a pot of beer by causing the liquid to froth. This was sometimes done by putting a little soap in the bot- tom of the tankard. Wiv. I, 3, 15. See lime. fruitful. In addition to the sense to which this word is now almost entirely confined, we find it used in Sh. with two other and distinct meanings. 1. Plenteous; copious. Meas. IV, 3, 161; Tim. V, 1, 153 ; Hml. I, 2, 80. 2. Liberal ; bountiful. HVIII. I, 3, 56 ; 0th. II, 3, 347. In the passage in Cym. V, 4, 55, fruitful evidently means rich in good qualities. fruitfully. Copiously in Lr. IV, 6, 270. But it is doubtful if it has this meaning in All's. II, 2, 73, as Schm. gives it. It may mean completely, but why not the usual sense ? The countess asks the clown if he understands her ; he replies "most fruitfully," and promises instant action, i.e., that his understanding of her wishes will inamediately bring forth fruit. frush. To bruise; to batter. Troil. V, 6, 29. frustrate. Vain; ineffectual. Tp, III, 3, 10. fub off. To put off ; to delay. 2HIV. II, 1,37. See/o6. full. Complete ; perfect. 0th. II, 1, 36. As used in Ado. I, 1, 110, is an ex- pression evidently borrowed from the tilt-yard. You have it full = your adversary has made a straight push without swerving or missing. Or, as Furness says: "In sporting language of to-day, Don Pedro would have said : ' You have sl facer, Benedick.' " Or in the still more recent slang of the prize ring : " Benedick, you have got it in the solar plexus. " But it certainly has not the meaning given to it by the learned Dr. Schmidt in his " Shakespeare- Lexicon " : " You are the man, you will do." full=acorn'd. Fully fed with acorns, the most invigorating and exciting food that can be given to swine. Cym. II, 5, 16. cf. larmen. fullam. The cant name for some kinds of false dice. Wiv. I, 3, 94. There were high ftillams and low fullams, probably from being full or loaded with some heavy metal on one side so as to produce a bias, which would make them come high or low as they were wanted. Dyce suggests that in the passage (Wint. V, 1, 207) The odds for high and low^s alike, there is an allusion to high and low dice, with a quibble, of course. See gourd. fulsome. 1. Lustful. Merch. I, 3, 87. 2. Disgusting. Tw. V, 1, 112. fume. 1. To be dull ; stupifled. Ant. II, 1 24. 2.' To be in a rage. Shr. II, 1, 253. fumiter, ) The fwtnaria officinalis, fumitory. ) a weed common in cornfields. Lr. IV, 4, 3; HV. V, 2, 45. function. Power of thinking and acting. 0th. II, 3, 354 ; Mcb. I, 3, 140. On the latter passage Johnson has the following comment: "All powers of action are oppressed and crushed by one over- whelming image in the mind, and nothing is present to me but that which is really future. Of things now about me I have no perception, being intent wholly on that which has yet no exist- ence. " funeral. The folk-lore of death, burials and funerals, as found in Sh. , is quite FUH 121 riTS extensive. We can touch upon only one or two points. In Cym. IV, 2, 256, Guiderius says : We must lay his head to the east ,' my father hath a reason for H. On this R. Gr. White remarks : " The reason was that the British people, whom our Anglo-saxon and pagan forefathers supplanted, were Christians ; and antiquarians now de- termine the nationality of ancient sepulchral remains in England by the direction of the graves in which they are found. If the graves are oriented, the remains are those of ancient Britons ; if not, of Anglo-saxons or Danes., But how did this man, Shakespeare, know all these things ? Amongst curious superstitions current in the time of Sh. was that which held that death was delayed till the ebb of the tide. In various accounts of deaths recorded in parish registers and else- where it is noted that the death occurred just at the turning of the tide. And this is referred to in HV. II, 3, 13, in Mrs. Quickly's description of Falstaff 's death. Another interesting custom of the ancients was the use of lamps in the sepulchres of the dead. This is referred to in Per. Ill, 2, 63, and ac- cording to some, in Troil. Ill, 2, 167. In most cases these lamps were probably kept burning by loving hands, but there was a legend that the ancients possessed the art of constructing per- petual lamps, i.e., lamps that burned forever without any attention. Of this legend, writers on the "lost arts " have made much, but there is no reason to believe that there was any truth in it. Furies. These were the Avenging Deities, three in number, Tisiphone, the avenger ; Alecto, the unresting, and Mega?ra, the jealous. Alecto alone is mentioned by name by Sh. In the works of later writers they gradually assumed the character of goddesses who punished men after death, and they seldom ap- peared on earth. Homer describes them, under the name of Erinyes, as pursuing the living. He represents them as inhabitants of Erebos, where they remain quiet until some curse pro- nounced upon a criminal calls them into activity. They took away from men all peace of mind and led them into misery and misfortune. furnace. To exhale like a furnace. Cym. I, 6, 66. furnishings. This word, as it occurs in Lr. Ill, 1, 29, has been interpreted in several different ways. Steevens suggested that the word here meant samples^ and cites Greene's GroaVs worth of Witte for an example : "For to lend the world a furnish of witte she layes her own to pawne." Hudson explains it as mean- ing : ' ' These things are but the trim- mings or appendages, not the thing itself, but only the circumstances or furniture of the thing." Kolfe adopts Johnson's gloss: "Colors; external pretences." It would seem that what is really meant by furnishings here is what might be called in miners' lan- guage, surface indications. furred pack. A wallet or knapsack of skin with the hair outward. Johnson. Evidently home-made of untanned hide, and consequently of cheap, and, -perhaps, stolen material. 2HVI. IV, 2, 51. furrow weeds. Weeds growing in the furrows of a grain field where, owing to the moisture, they grew more rank than elsewhere. Lr. IV, 4, 3. fust, V. To grow fusty, rusty, or mouldy. Hml. IV, 4, 39. fustian, n. 1. A coarse cotton stuff. Shr. IV, 1, 49. 2. High-sounding nonsense. 0th. II, 3, 282. fustian, adj. High-sounding, and at the same time nonsensical. Tw. II, 5, 119 ; 2HIV. II, 4, 203. fustilarian. A low term of contempt, perhaps derived from fusty, but more probably a nonsensical word coined by Falstaff for the occasion and used for its mere sound, as were other words in the same sentence. 2HIV. II, 1, 66. fusty. Mouldy. Troil. I, 3, 161. GAB 133 GAN >ABERDINE. According to Cot. the " gabbardine " was "a long coat or cassock of course [i.e., coarse] and for the most part motley or partie-colored stuffe." See Cot. s.v. galleverdme. It was made with or without a hood or sleeves, and was the distinctive dress of the Jews when their manner of dressing was prescribed by law. Merch. I, 3, 113. It must have been worn quite loose by common people, since Trinculo could find room to creep under the gaberdine of Caliban. Tp. II, 2, 40. gad. A goad ; a sharp-pointed instru- ment. Upon the gad (Lr. I, 2, 26) = suddenly ; upon the spur of the mom ent. Gadshill, dr.p. A follower of Sir John Falstaff. IHIV. gain=giving. Misgiving. Hml. V, 2, 226. gait. Going ; advance ; way. Hml. I, 2, 31. Go your gait (Lr. IV, 6, 242) = go your way. (Scotch.) Sometimes spelled gate, as in other gates, q.v. gall. To scoff ; to jest. HV. V, 1, 78. galliard. A nimble and lively dance. . Tw. I, 3, 127. gallias. A large gaUey. Shr. II, 1, 380. gallimaufry. A medley ; a hotch-potch. Wiv. II, 1, 119 ; Wint. IV, 4, 335. gallow. To frighten. Lr. Ill, 2, 44. gallows. One who ought to be executed on a gallows. LLL. V, 2, 13. gallowglasses. Heavy-armed foot-sol- diers of Ireland and the Western Isles. 2HVI. IV, 9, 26 ; Mcb. I, 2, 13. Galloway nags. One of Pistol's bom- bastic phrases of which he himself evidently did not understand the mean- ing. 2HIV. II, 4, 205. See nag. Johnson explains the term as "com- mon hackneys," and most eds., follow- ing his hint, add : " The Galloway horses were a small and inferior breed." They certainly were not "inferior," although small. They have always been noted for their speed and en- durance. In the old play of The Trouble- some Raigne of King John, the Bastard tells the king that : Myselfe upon a galloway right free, well pac'd, Outstript the flouds that followed wave by wave, I so escap'd to tell this tragicke tale. So, too, Dumple, the famous horse of of Dandle Dinmont, was a Galloway. Johnson did not know much about horses ; witness his definition of pastern as " the knee of a horse ! ! " Qallus, dr.p. A friend to Csesar. Caes. gamester. 1. A frolicsome fellow ; a merry rogue. As. I, 1, 170; Shr. II, 1, 402. 2. A courtizan. AU's. V, 3, 188; Per. IV, 6, 81. gamut. The diatonic scale in music. The names of the notes were taken from certain initial syllables of a monk- ish hymn to St. John, and at first were ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si. The name ut was displaced by the more sonorous syllable do. In Sh. time, and until a comparatively recent date, the syl- lables for solmization, instead of do re mi fa sol la si were fa sol la fa sol la mi. Shr. Ill, 1, 67. See /a. Ganymede. The name assumed by Rosa- lind when she fled to the forest of Arden. As. I, 3, 127. Ganymede was said to be the most beautiful of aU mortals. He was carried off by the gods so that he might live amongst the eternal deities and serve as cup-bearer to Jupiter. Jupiter compensated the father of Ganymede (Tros) with the present of a pair of divine horses, and Hermes or Mercury, who dehvered the horses, comforted him by the information that by the wiU of Jupiter, Ganymede had become immortal and exempt from old age. The idea of Ganymede being the cup- bearer of Jupiter subsequently gave GAO 133 GEN rise to his identification with the divinity who was believed to preside over the sources of the Nile, and of his being placed by astronomers among the stars under the name of Aquarius. Kins. IV, 2. Another legend is that AUrora or Eos fell in love with him and carried him off, as she did several others. See Aurora. In works of art Ganymede is fre- quently represented as a beautiful youth with the Phrygian cap. He appears either as a companion of Jupiter or in the act of being carried off by an eagle or of giving food to an eagle from a patera. Handsome slaves, who officiated as cup-bearers, were sometimes called Ganymedes. Gaoler, dr.p. Kins. Gaoler's Daughter, dr.p. Kins. garboil. Disturbance ; tumult ; uproar. Ant. I, 3, 61. gardon. Costard's blunder for guerdon. LLL. Ill, 1, 171. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, dr.p. HVIII. Gargantua. A giant described by Rabe- lais. The name, according to Cot., means great throat. He had an enor- mous appetite, and a mouth so large that at one mouthful he swallowed, by accident, five pilgrims, with their staves and all, in his salad. Hence Celia's expression about Gargantua 's mouth and big words. The term was applied to Dr. Johnson on account of his using ' ' words which required the mouth of a giant to pronounce them." See Boswell's " Life of Johnson." Pope spelled the name erroneously Gara- ga,ntua, and this error is found in many eds. As. HI, 2, 238. Qargrave, Sir Thomas, dr.p. IHVI. gaskins. Loose breeches. Tw. I, 5, 27. gasted. Frightened. Lr. II, 1, 57. gastness. Ghastliness. 0th. V, 1, 106. gaudy. In addition to other meanings, signifies festive, as in Ant. Ill, 13, 183. gave. Misgave ; doubted. My mind gave me (HVIII. V, 3, 109) = I was afraid ; I suspected. gawds. Toys ; knick-knacks. Mids. I, 1, 33. gaze. An object of wonder. Mcb. V, 8, 24. gear. 1. Stuff; dress. Rom. V, 1, 60; LLL. V, 2, 303. 2. Affair; business. Merch. II, 2, 176; 2HVI. I, 4, 17. geek. A dupe ; a fool. Tw. V, 1, 351. Geoffrey Fitz=Peter, Earl of Essex, dr.p. John. George. The figure of Saint George on horseback, worn by Knights of the Gar- ter. 2HVI. IV, 1, 29 ; RIII. IV, 4, 366. George, dr.p. A follower of Jack Cade. 2HVL George, Duke of Clarence, dr.p. 3HVI. and RIII. geld. 1. To deprive of an essential part. LLL. II, 1, 149 ; RII. II, 1, 237 ; IHIV. III, 1, 110. 2. To castrate. Meas. II, 1, 242. geminy. A pair. Wiv. II, 2, 9. gender. Kind ; race. Phoenix, 18 ; Hml. IV, 7, 18 ; 0th. I, 3, 326. general. The common people. Hml. II, 2, 457 ; Meas. II, 4, 27. general of our gracious empress. The allusion here, HV. V, Prol. 30, is to the Earl of Essex, and the prophecy was a most unfortunate one. In April, 1599, he went to Ireland to suppress the re- bellion of Tyrone. His departure was marked by an ovation in which all ■ranks and conditions joined, pressing around him and cheering and blessing him. Becoming fearful that because of his absence from court his influence with the queen was waning, he re- turned, without leave, in September of the same year, solitary and in secret, and although kindly received by her majesty, this was the beginning of his downfall. generosity. Nobility. Cor. I, 1, 217. generous. Of noble birth. Meas. IV, 6, 13 ; Oth. Ill, 3, 280. gennet. A horse of the race of the Barbs, Oth. I, 1, 113. GEN 124 GOB gentle, vb. To ennoble. HV. IV, 3, 63. gentry. 1. People of high social stand- ing. All's. I, 2, 16; Mcb. V, 2, 9. 2. Rank by birth. Lucr. 569 ; Wiv. II, 1,53. 3. Courtesy; conduct becoming a gen- tleman. Hml. II, 2, 22. germens. Germs ; seeds. Mcb. IV, 1, 59 ; Lr. Ill, 2, 8. Qerrold, dr. p. A schoolmaster. Kins. Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, dr. p. Hml. gest. A lodging or stay for rest in a progress or journey. Kersey. The gest was appointed not only for place but for length of stay. Wint. I, 2, 41. gests. Deeds ; exploits. Ant. IV, 8, 2. ghasted. Frightened. Lr. II, 1, 57. Ghost of Hamlet's father, dr.p. Hml. ghost. In the days of Sh. , and for some years after, the word ghost was used to signify the dead body as well as the soul or spirit. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 161. gibbet. Usually, to hang on a gallows, but sometimes, to hang on or upon any- thing. Thus, in 2HIV. Ill, 2, 282, swifter than he that gibbets on the breiver^s bucket, alludes to the manner of carrying a barrel by putting it on a sling made for the purpose. To hang or gibbet a barrel on the pole must be done by a quick movement, as there are two hooks which must both be attached at the same time. Qibbet=maker. The clown's blunder for Jupiter. Tit. IV, 3, 80. gib=cat. A male cat. IHIV. I, 2, 83. Tibert is old French for Gilbert, and appears as the name of the cat in the old story of "Reynard the Fox." Chaucer, in " The Romaunt of the Rose," gives " Gibbe our cat" as the translation of " Thibert le cas." V, 6204. From Thibert, Tib also was a common name for a cat, gig. A top. LLL. IV, 3, 167. giglet, ) 1. A lewd woman. Meas. V, 352. giglot. i 2. A giddy girl (riot necessarily bad). IHVI. IV, 7, 41 ; Cym. Ill, 1, 31. gilder. See guilder. gilt. Money. HV. II, Prol. 26. gimmal. Made with links or rings. HV. IV, 2, 49. gimmor. A contrivance; an invention. IHVI. I, 2, 41. gin. To begin. Mcb. I, 2, 25. Usually supposed to be a contraction of begin, but, as shown by Todd, really from the Saxon gynnan. It is very common in all old writers, and is used through all the tenses, which can no longer be thought extraordinary now that it is known to be the original form. In Fl., Hml. I, 4, 90, there is no apostrophe before gins, as is generally the case in modern eds. ging. A gang ; a pack. Wiv. IV, 2, 123. gird, n. A gibe ; a sarcasm. Shr. V, 2, 58. gird, V. To make fun of. It is the word gride, to cut ; to pierce ; the position of the r being changed. 2HIV. I, 2, 7. gird. To gibe. 2HIV. 1, 2, 7. OriginaUy to cut as with a switch ; now to cut with wit. Qis. A corruption of Jesus. Hml. IV, 5, 58. Qlansdale, Sir WiUiam, dr.p. IHVI. glass=faced. Reflecting as in a mirror the looks of another. Tim. I, 1, 58. gleek, n. A scoff. IHVI. Ill, 2, 123. gleek, V. To scoff. Mids. Ill, 1, 150. Qlendower, Owen, dr.p. IHIV. glib. To emasculate. Wint. II, 1, 149. Gloucester, Duchess of, dr.p. RII. and 2HVI. Gloucester, Duke of, dr.p. Brother to Henry V. HV. Gloucester, Duke of, dr.p. Uncle and Protector to Henry VI. HVI. Gloucester, Duke of, dr.p. Afterwards Richard III. RIII. Gloucester, Earl of, dr.p. Lr. Gloucester, Prince Humphrey of, dr.p. Son to Henry IV. 2HIV. gloze. A tirade ; words not to the pur- pose. LLL. IV, 3, 370. glut. To swallow. Tp. I, 1, 63. Gobbo, Launcelot, dr.p. Servant to Shylock. Merch. Gobbo, Old, dr.p. Father to Launcelot Gobbo. Merch. GOD 125 GRA God. In the third year of James I. an act was passed prohibiting the use of the name of God on the stage. As a con- sequence, we find that in many passages where the word God was originally used, the text has been changed. Thus, heaven was substituted for God in Hml. 1, 2, 195, and in the same play, IV, 5, 198, God ha"* mercy was changed to Gramercy, which does not make sense. See gramercy. god, i;. To idolize. Cor. V, 3, 11. God before. With God's help. HV. I, 2, and III, 6. An old expression found in Chaucer. God=den. See good-den. Godgigoden. God give you a good evening. Rom. I, 2, 58. Thus in the First Folio. Modern form is God gi god-den. Godild, I A corruption of God yield, God ild. ) i.e.y God requite you. As. Ill, 3, 76. It occurs without contraction in Ant. IV, 2, 33. god=kissing. See kissing. God's bread. An oath like " God's wounds." Probably an allusion to the eucharist. Rom. Ill, 5, 177. God's sonties. It is not quite settled whether this is a corruption of "God's saints," or "God's sanctity," or " God's sant6," i.e., health. Merch. II, 2, 47. Qogs=wouns. A mincing oath corrupted , from God's wounds. Shr. Ill, 2, 162. golden shaft. See Cupid. Goneril, dr. p. Daughter of King Lear. Lr. QonzsL\o.,dr.p. Councillor of Naples. Tp. Good=conceited. WeU-devised; fanciful. Cym. II, 8, 18. good=deed. In very deed. Wint. I, 2, 42. good=den. Good evening. Rom. II, 4, 116. good=3er. See good years. good years. (The form in the First Folio.) Supposed to be corrupted from the French goujere, i.e., the French disease. Lr. V, 3, 24. A form which appears elsewhere is good-jer (Wiv. I, 4, 129), used there apparently as a synonym for the j^ox. What the good- jer = what the pox, which in Sh. time referred always to the small-pox. gorbellied. Having a large protruding paunch. IHIV. II, 2, 98. gorget. A piece of armour to defend the throat. Troil. I, 8, 174. gospelled. Fixed in Christian faith. Mcb. Ill, 1, 88. goss. Gorse ; Scotch, whins. Tp. IV, 1, 180. Sh. seems to make a distinction between goss and furze, but the best authorities regard them as the same. It is claimed, however, that goss or gorse is often used to denote brushwood in general, and not any particular plant. goujere. See good years. gourd. A species of false dice, with an internal cavity bored out for the pur- pose of giving them a bias. Wiv. I, 3, 94. ^eefullams. gout. A drop. Mcb. II, 1, 46, Gower, dr.p. The poet, iutroduced as chorus. Per. Gower, dr.p. Of the king's party. 2HIV. Gower, dr.p. Officer in Henry V's ar- my. HV. graff. A scion; a shoot. Per. V, 1, 60; Lucr. 1062. gramercy. Properly, great thanks ; many thanks. (French grand inerci.) Often wrongly taken for grant mercy, and so used by many old writers. In the First Folio the last Kne of Ophelia's song (Hml. IV, 5, 199) has gramercy; the Quarto and most modern eds., God a mercy, which is undoubtedly the true reading. In many other passages (Shr. 1, 1, 41 ; Tim. II, 2, 74) the meaning is evidently " many thanks." grand guard. A piece of defensive ar- mour, thus described by Meyrick : "It has over the breast for the purpose of justing, what was called the grande garde, which is screwed on by three nuts, and protects the left side, the edge of the breast, and the left shoulder." Kins. Ill, 6. Grandpre, dr.p, A French lord. HV. G£A 1?26 GTJA grate. To irritate. Ant. I, 1, 18; Wiv. II, 2, 6. Qratiano, dr.p. Brother to Brabantio. 0th. Qratiano, dr.p. Friend to Antonio and Bassanio. Merch. gratify. To reward. Cor. II, 2, 45. gratillity. A word formed by the fool in Tw. II, 3, 27. Meaning uncertain, but generally supposed to be a corrup- tion of gratuity. gratulate. To gratify ; to give pleasure to ; also to congratulate, but with a slight difference of meaning. Tim. I, 2,131; mil. IV, 1, 10. grave. 1. To bury. RIL III, 2, 140 ; Tim. IV, 3, 166. 2. To cut slightly ; to graze. Ven. 376. 3. To engrave ; to carve. Lucr. 755 ; Merch. II, 7, 36. gravel=blind. Worse than sand-blind; pur- blind. Merch. II, 2, 38. See sand-blind. gravel = heart. Usually interpreted as stoney-heart. Meas. IV, 3, 68. Of this expression White says, in his "Riverside" edition, "Incomprehen- sible ; but no satisfactory substitute has been proposed, unless it be ' grovelling beast ' in the Collier Folio, 1632. '' White does not adopt this reading in his latest (" Riverside ") ed., but in his ed. of 1858 he incorporated it in his text with these remarks: "The folio has 'O gravell heart,' which means nothing, although many have tried to persuade themselves and others to receive it for ' O stoney heart. ' The misprint [gravell heart for grovelling beast] is an easy one, and the sense which it [the new reading] gives, most appropriate." gravelled. Stuck ; brought to a stop as if stuck in sand or gravel. As. IV, 1, 74. greasily. Grossly ; foully. LLL. IV, 1, 139. great morning. Broad daylight. Troil. IV, 3, 1. great oneyers. These words are hy- phenated by Schm., but there is no hyphen in Fl., and in most modern eds. See oneyers. gree. To agree. Meas. IV, 1, 42. Greek. Then she''s a merry Greek, in- deed. Troil. I, 2, 118. Upon this passage Nares comments as follows: " The G-reeks were proverbially spoken of by the Romans as fond of good living and free potations ; and they used the terra grcecari^ for to indulge in these articles. Hence we also took the name of a Greek for a jovial fellow, which ignorance has since corrupted into grig ; saying ' as merry as a grig, ' instead of 'as a Greek.'" See "John Brent," page 181. greenly. Foolishly. Hml. IV, 5, 83. Green, dr.p. " Creature " to Richard II. RII. greet. To weep. Tim. I, 1, 90. So de- fined in the Globe glossary and some others. But here the meaning seems rather to be, to salute. Gregory, dr.p. Servant to Capulet. Rom. Qremio, dr.p. Suitor to Bianca. Shr. Grey, Lady, dr.p. Queen to Edward IV. 3HVI. and RIII. Grey, Lord, dr.p. RIII. Grey, Sir Thomas, dr.p. A conspirator. HV. grief=shot. Sorrow-stricken. Cor. V, 1,45. Griffith, dr.p. Gentleman-usher to Queen Katherine. HVIII. grize. A step ; a degree. Tw. Ill, 1, 135 ; Tim. IV, 3, 16. groundling. A spectator in the pit of a theatre. Hml. Ill, 2, 12. grossly. Palpably. HV. II, 2, 107; 'Lr. I, 1, 295. grow. Among other meanings signifies to accrue ; to be due. Err. IV, 1, 18 ; do. IV, 4, 124. grow to. To have a strong flavour. Merch. II, 2, 18. Grumio, dr.p. Servant to Petruchio. Shr. guard. To decorate. Merch. II, 2, 164 ; John IV, 2, 10. guardage. Guardianship. 0th. I, 2, 70. guards. Ornaments; trimmings. Meas. III, 1. 97 ; LLL. IV, 3, 58. GUA 127 GUI guards of th' ever=fixed pole. 0th. II, 1, 15. Several opinions have been ex- pressed in regard to the identification of these stars. Johnson says: "Allud- ing to the star Arctophylax.'''' The names Arctophylax and Arcturus both mean guards of the hear. Rolfe has "no doubt that the guards of the pole here are the two stars commonly called the Pointers. " A correspondent of "Notes and Queries," quoted in H. Irving Sh., writes as follows: "The guards are the two stars Beta and Gam- ma Ursse Minoris, on the shoulder and foreleg of the Little Bear, as usually depicted, or sometimes on the ear and shoulder. They were more observed in Shakespeare's time than now for the purposes of navigation. Norman's 'Safeguard of Sailers,' 1587, has a chapter, ' Howe to Knowe the houre of the night by the Guards.' They were even made the subject of mechan- ical contrivances for facilitating calcu- lation, one of which is described in ' The Arte of Navigation ; trans, by Richard Eden from the Spanish of Martin Cor- tez,' 1561, consisting of fixed and mov- able concentric circles with holes, through which to observe 'the two starres called the Guardians, or the mouth of the home.' " Guiderius, dr. p. Son to Cymbeline ; as- sumed the name of Polydore. Gym. guidOHo " A Standard, Ensigne or Ban- ner, under which a troupe of men of Armes doe serve ; also he that beares it. ' ' Cot. Grose tells us that "the guidon, according to Markham, is inferior to the standard, being the first colour any commander of horse can let fly in the field." The folios have guard: on. This was corrected by Bann, and also by Dr. Thackeray, and the correction is confirmed by a reference to Holinshed, the source of Sh. information. HV. IV, 2, 60. Quildenstern, dr. p. A courtier. Hml. guilder. A Dutch coin worth about forty cents. Err. I, 1, 8. Guildford, Sir Henry, dr. p. HVIII. guiltless blood=shedding. The shedding of innocent blood. 2HVI. IV, 7, 108. guitnea=heii. A term of contempt for a woman; a cant term for a woman of bad repute. 0th. I, 3, 317. Quiiiover. Variously spelled in the old Arthurian romances Guinevere, Guin- ever, Geneura, Ganore, etc. LLL. IV, 1, 125. Guineveer or, as she is called by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Guanhumara, was daughter of Leodograunce of Camelyard, and was said to be the most beautiful woman in the universe. Her stature was noble and elegant, her com- plexion fair, and the expression of her countenance lively, yet dignified, but somietimes tender. Her eyes were said by some to be of the finest blue of heaven, though she was generally called the " grey-eyed." She was the wife of King Arthur, but entertained a guilty passion for Sir Lancelot of the Lake, one of the Knights of the Round Table. During the absence of King Arthur in his expedition against Leo, King of the Romans, she "married" Modred, her husband's nephew, whom he had left in charge of the kingdom. As soon as Arthur heard of this he hastened back. Guinever fled from York and took the veil in the nunnery of Julius the Martyr, and Modred set his forces in array at Cambula, in Cornwall. Here a desperate battle was fought in which Modred was slain, and Arthur mortally wounded. Guinever was buried at Meigle, in Strathmore, and her name has become the synonym of a wanton, or adulteress. One of Tennyson's "Idyll's of the King" has Guinevere for its subject, and is marked by its delicacy and its sadness. Lancelot be- came a monk, and spent his last years saying masses for the souls of his old companions in arms. gules. Red. Hml. II, 2, 479 ; Tim. IV, 3, 59. A term in heraldry. This word is nothing but the plural of the French gueule, the mouth, though the reason GITL 1:28 HAC for the name is not very clear, unless the reference be, as is probable, to the color of the open mouth of the (heraldic) lion, Skeat. The term is frequently used by the poets, as in The Eve of St. Agnes (Keats) : Full on this casement shone the wintry moon And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast. gulf. The throat; the gullet. Mcb. IV, 1, 23. gull. A fool; a simpleton. Tw. V, 1, 351. Literally an unfledged nestling. gun=stones. Cannon-balls of stone, used in former times as missiles. HV. I, 2, 282. Even after the introduction of iron shot for heavy artillery, the name gun- stone was retained in the sense of "bul- let." Dyce. Qurney, James, dr.p. Servant to Lady Paulconbridge. John. gust, n. 1. A violent blast of wind. Merch. IV, 1, 77. 2. Taste ; relish. Sonn. CXIV, 11 ; Tw. I, 3, 33. 3. Notion; idea; conception. Tim. Ill, 5, 54. gust, V. To form an idea of ; to perceive. Wint. I, 2, 219. Guy, Sir. A famous warrior of gigantic size. He was the son of Siward, Baron of Wallingford, and became Earl of Warwick through marriage with Felicia, daughter of Rohand, a warrior of the time of Alfred. He was nine feet high, and is said to have perfornaed many wondrous feats. Amongst others he overcame the Danish giant, Colbrand, at Winchester. See Colbrand. He also killed the famous dun cow on Dunsmore Heath, a gigantic animal whose bones are still to be seen in the porter's lodge at Warwick Castle. The bones are probably those of some large extinct mammal allied to the elephant or mastodon. His sword, shield, hel- met, breastplate and staff are also kept there on exhibition. His "porridge- pot," which is capable of containing 102 gallons, is in the great hall. After his battle with Colbrand, Sir G-uy retired to a hermitage at G-uy's Cliff, where he died in 929. HVIII. V, 4, 22. J^ For the letter that begins them all, H. Ado. Ill, 4, 56. "Margaret asks Beatrice for what she cries heigh-ho ; Bea- trice answers for an H, that is, for an ache or pain.'''' Johnson. The word ache was formerly pronounced like the letter H. habit. You know me by my habit. HV. Ill, 6, 121. "That is, by his herald's coat. The person of a herald being in- violable, was distinguished in those times of formality by a peculiar dress, which is likewise yet worn on particu- lar occasions. " Johnson. habitude. Condition of body. Compl. 114. hack. The passage (Wiv. II, 1, 52), these knights ivill hack, is very obscure. " About the meaning of it, sundry con- jectures have been offered, the most probable one, perhaps, being that there is an allusion to the extravagant num- ber of knights created by King James, and that hack is equivalent to ' become cheap or vulgar.'" Dyce. But this play was written for Queen Elizabeth, and, moreover, it is not likely that Sh. would have ventured to ridicule the the acts of James. But the interpreta- tion is quite plausible so far as the word is concerned. Johnson would read : These knights we''ll /lacfc, meaning, "it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to be made a knight, for we'll degrade all these knights in a little time by the usual form of hacking off their spurs." HAG 129 HAK Other interpretations have been given, but these are the most plausible. haggard, n. An untrained hawk. Tw. Ill, 1, 71. haggard, adj. Wild ; unprincipled. 0th. Ill, 3, 260. hag=seed. The offspring of a hag. Tp. I, 3, 365. hai, ) A home-thrust in fencing. Rom, hay. S II, 4, 27. hair. 1. Against the hair = against the grain. Wiv. II, 3, 41. A similar idea is found in the expression, " rub the fur the wrong way. ' ' 2. Peculiar nature. IHIV. IV, 1, 61. 3. The appearance of the bride in dis- hevelled hair, apparently a classic cus- tom, betokened virginity, and was in use up to Jacobian times, at least (about 1625). Speaking of the marriage of the Countess of Essex to Somerset, Wilson, in his "Life of James I.," says : " She, thinking all the world ig- norant of her slie practices, hath the impudence to appear in the habit of a Virgin, with her hair pendent almost to her feet; which Ornament of her body (though a fair one) could not cover the deformities of her soul." Kins. I, 1. (Stage direction.) halberd. A kind of battle-axe fixed to a long pole. 3HVI. IV, 3, 20. halcyon. A kingfisher. It is a vulgar opinion that the dead body of this bird if hung up will always turn its breast to the wind, and by that means show from what point it blows. Miss Charlotte Smith, in her "Natural His- tory of Birds," tells us that she found this superstition prevalent amongst English cottagers. Lr. II, 2, 84. It was also a superstition that the bird built its nest on the surface of the water and had the power of calming the waves of the ocean so that no storms ai'ose during its breeding season. Hence the calm days of this period were called halcyon days. IHVI. I, 2, 131. half=caps. Caps half taken off; slight salutions. Tim. II, 2, 221. balf°checked bit. One which is muti- lated ; of which only one part remained. According to Clarke it means "a bit that but half does its duty of checking the horse." Shr. Ill, 2, 58. half=kirtles. See kirtles. Half=nioon. See tavern. half=pence. She tore the letter into a thousand half-pence (Ado. II, 3, 147) = into a thousand little pieces. As Douce remarks, the half -pence of Eliza- beth were of silver and very small. half =sword, at. Within half the length of of a sword ; at close fight. IHIV. II, 4, 182. halidom, ) Sanctity; salvation. Gene- halidome. j rally used as a mild oath. Gent. IV, 2, 136. See holydame. hall. 1. A large room. LLL. V, 2, 924. 2. A manor house. Shr. II, 1, 189 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 134. 3. An exclamation, formerly common, to make a clear space in a crowd. Dyce. Especially space for dancing. Rom. I, 5,28. Hallowmas. The feast of All Saints (1st of November). Meas. II, 1, 128 ; Gent. II, 1, 27. "On AU Saints' Day poor people went from parish to parish begging in a certain lamentable tone for a kind of cakes." The cakes were called soul cakes, and the beggars pro- mised to pray for the souls of the givers' departed friends. Nares. Hamlet, dr. p. Hml. This is the longest of Sh. plays. The accepted text contains 3,928 lines. The next longest is RIII. with 3,506 lines. See fat. handfast. Betrothal. Cym. I, 5, 78. hand, n. See hones ; also pickers. hand, v. To handle. Tp. I, 1, 25. handsaw. See hawk. handy=dandy. Sleight of hand ; changing quickly from one hand to another so as to deceive the spectator. Lr. IV, 6, 157. Hannibal. A famous Carthaginian gene- ral, born B.C. 247. He was only nine years old when his father, Hamilcar, took him with him to Spain, and it was upon this occasion that he was made to swear upon the altar eternal hostility HAN ISO HAE to Rome. After the assassination of Hasdrubal, the soldiers unanimously proclaimed him commander-in-chief, and this the government at Carthage at once ratified. Hannibal was then in his twenty-sixth year. After establish- ing the Carthaginian power in Spain, he invaded Italy, defeated the Romans in several pitched battles, inflicting the most disastrous losses on them, though with terrible losses on his own part. After several years war, the Romans sent Scipio into Africa to attack the enemy. Hannibal returned home to oppose him, but was utterly defeated at the battle of Zama, After various vicissitudes, he found refuge at the court of the Bithynian king, but on the Romans threatening that monarch with war if the refugee were not delivered up, Hannibal took poison and ended his life about the year B.C. 183, The allusion to him in IHVI. I, 521, refers to his stratagem to escape by fixing bundles of lighted twigs on the horns of oxen and driving them towards the enemy's camp. Elbow, the constable, confounds his name with cannibal in Meas. II, 1, 183, and Pistol makes a mistake exactly the reverse in 2HIV. II, 4, 180. hanged, because they could not read, thou hast hanged them. 2HVI. IV, 7, 49. ' ' That is, they were hanged because they could not claim the benefit of clergy. " Johnson. hangman boys. Young rascals. Gent. IV, 4, 61. hap. Chance; fortune. Err. I, 1, 39; Ado. Ill, 1, 105 ; Hml. IV, 3, 70. happy, V. To make happy. Which hap- pies those that pay. Sonn. VI, 6. happily. Haply ; perchance. The soul of your granddam might happily in- habit a bird (Tw. IV, 2, 57) = might perchance inhabit a bird. So in various other passages. Harcourt, dr.p. A Lancastrian. 2HIV. hardiment. Bold exploit ; daring. IHIV. I, 3, 101. hare=finder. The passage in Ado. I, 1, 185, Do you play the flouting Jack to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder and Vulcan a rare carpenter f has caused some discussion. R, Gr. White explains it thus : "Do you mean to tell us that the blind boy has the eyes of a greyhound, and that Vulcan's forge and anvil are used to work wood ? " But the greyhound was not the hare -finder, but the hare- catcher, and nothing is said about Vulcan's forge and anvil. Of course, the general drift is : Are you in earnest (sad) or are you trying to fool us ? To say that Cupid, who is said to be blind, a few lines further on (256) is good at that which requires the keenest sight, is to state an absurdity ; but why Vulcan, who was a good mechanic, although a worker in iron, should not be skilful with car- penters' tools is not quite so apparent. But although not quite so forcible as an illustration, as the blind god, he fur- nishes an example good enough for the purpose, X)iz., that of applying talents to wrong purposes, against which Lyly in his Euphues gives a strong caution, telling us that "It is vnseemly for the Painter to feather a shafte, or the Fletcher to handle the pencill. " The hare-finder was a well-known functionary in the coursing of hares. The greyhounds were taken to the field in a leash ; the hare-finder found and started the hare and the dogs were slipped. To find a hare on her form requires experience and very sharp eyes, so that the absurdity of suggesting blind Cupid for a hare-finder is obvious. Ulrici suggests that Vulcan, if a car- penter, would supply Cupid with his shafts, apparently forgetting that arrows were not made by carpenters but by fletchers, and Schmidt suggests that the proper reading may be hair- finder, and refers to the German Haar- finden, meaning one who easily finds fault. He also suggests an indecent quibble. All of which is entii'ely out of place in this connection. harlock. Charlock or wild mustard. Lir. HAB 131 HAW IV, 4, 4. Many eds. give burdock. The Quartos have "hor-docks" and the Fo- lios "hardokes" or "hardocks." The burdock is a common weed in En- gland, but is not usually found " in our sustaining corn, " while charlock or har- lock is a well-known pest in the farm- er's grain fields. See corn. harlot, adj. Base, Wint. II, 3, 4. harpies, that is, the Robbers or Spoilers, are in Homer nothing but personified storm-winds who were said to carry off any one who suddenly disappeared from the earth, but later writers represent them as most disgusting monsters, being birds with the heads of maidens, long claws, and faces pale with hunger. They were sent by the gods to torment Phineus, a blind soothsayer, who had cruelly treated his sons, putting out their eyes, and otherwise maltreating them. Whenever a meal was placed before him the harpies descended and either devoured the food themselves or rendered it unfit to be eaten. It is pro- bably from this story that Sh. took the idea of Ariel's appearing at the banquet (Tp. Ill, 3) and carrying off the food. Other references are Ado. II, 1, 279 and Per. IV, 3, 46. harry. To vex ; to tease ; to harass. Ant. Ill, 3, 43. Hastings, Lord, dr. p. A Yorkist. 3HIV., 3HVI, and RIII. hatch. The lower half of a door cut in two horizontally. It was common in houses of the lower class to have the door thus cut so that pigs, poultry, etc. , might be kept out and small children kept in, while at the same time light and air were allowed to enter. In at the window or else o''er the hatch = entering unlawfully, and hence a pro- verbial phrase for illegitimacy. John I, 1, 171. Dogs leap the hatch means that they are so terrified that they try to escape by forbidden ways. Lr. Ill, 6, 76. Make you take the hatch =so terrify you that you will not wait to open the door but will leap over the hatch. John V, 3, 138. hatched. Engraved. Troil. I, 3, 65. Hatched in silver has been interpreted to mean with grey or silver hairs such as Nestor was known to have, and Steevens quotes a passage from Love in a Maze, " thy chin is hatched in silver," to sustain this view. But Johnson makes this comment : " Ulysses begins his oration with praising those who had spoken before him, and marks the characteristick excellencies of their different eloquence, strength and sweetness, which he expresses by the diffi'erent metals on which he re- commends them to be engraven for the instruction of posterity. The speech of Agamemnon is such that it ought to be engraven in brass, and the tablet held up by him on the one side and Greece on the other, to shew the union of their opinion. And Nestor ought to be exhibited in silver, uniting all his audience in one mind by his soft and gentle elocution. Brass is the com- mon emblem of strength, and silver of gentleness. We call a soft voice a silver voice, and a persuasive tongue a silver tongue. ' ' And certainly it would seem that if "brass" did not refer to the personality of Agamemnon, the "silver" cannot properly refer to the personality of Nestor, so that the argu- ments in favor of Johnson's view are very strong. haught. Haughty. 3HVI. II, 1, 169; RII. IV, 1, 254. haunch. The latter end. 2HIV. IV, 4, 93. haunt. Company ; the coming in contact with people in general. Hml. IV, 1, 18 ; Ant. IV, 14, 54. haver. Possessor. Cor. II, 3, 89. having. Possession ; property ; estate. Wiv. Ill, 3, 73 ; Cym. I, 3, 19 ; 0th. IV, 3, 93. Probably signifies allowance or pin- money in the latter passage. havoc. To cry " havoc " signifies to give no quarter. Caea. HI, 1, 373 ; Hml. V, 3, 378. hawlc. I know a hawk from a handsaw. Hml. II, 3, 397. Over this expression HEA 1S2 REG of Hamlet's much Christian ink has been shed in the effort to make sense out of that which probably never was intended to bear strict examination. According to Nares, the proverb, in the form used by Hamlet, is older than Sh. And then, consider the ridiculous com- parisons that creep into proverbs of this kind, such as "don't know him from a side of sole leather;" "don't know a B from a bull's foot ; " "smil- ing as a basket of chips," etc., etc. The most important emendation is that of hernsew for handsaw, hernsew be- ing another name for a heron, and the meaning then being that he knew the hawk from its prey. The word hawk has been explained by White as a car- penter's tool, and that there is such a tool is certain, but what a carpenter's hawk and handsaw have to do with the direction of the wind is another matter. Furness is inclined to accept the hern- sew emendation, and it certainly is the best, if any such explanation is desired; but on the whole, I cannot help think- ing that Hamlet used a proverb then in common use, but without specific meaning, merely a sort of jingle like many others. head^borough. The office of borough was similar to that of a constable ; the head-borough was the chief constable. Shr. Ind. 1, 12. head^lugged. Dragged by the head, and consequently made savage. Lr. IV, 2, 42,. hearted. Roflted in the heart. 0th. I, 3, 373. heartlings. ''ocfs heartlings, Wiv. Ill, 4, 59, an exclamation similar to 'od's bodikins. See ^od^s. heat, n. A course, as in a horse race. Seven years'' heat (Tw. I, 1, 26) has been interpreted as seven courses of the sun, and also as the heats of seven summers. The Fl. has heate, modern- ized to heat in most eds. Some eds., however, read hence. heat, V. To run a course or heat ; hence to run over. Wint. I, 2, 96. heaves. Deep sighs. Yfint. II, 3, 35 ; Hml. IV, 1, 1. hebenon. A word of doubtful meaning ; probably henbane, but identity uncer- tain. Hml. I, 5, 62. The yew, ebony and hemlock have aU been suggested. The Quartos have he- bona ; hebenon in Fl. Henbane or hyoscyamus nigra, sometimes called stinking nightshade, is a poisonous plant, especially destructive to domestic fowls ; whence the name. ' It does not, indeed, produce any leprous symptoms ; but in Sh. time the doctrine of signatures was a matter of very general belief, and the idea of its leprous effects may have been founded on the clammy appear- ance of the plant. Elton, in his "Origins of English History," speaks of "the henbane or insane root, which the Gauls used for their poisoned arrows. ' ' Strong claims have been advanced for " the double-fatal yew." It is said by Dodoeus to be " altogether venem- ous and against man's nature. Such as do but only slepe under the shadow thereof become sicke, and sometimes they die." Grindon's "Shakespeare Flora," p. 46. Hecate, dr.p. A witch, or rather the goddess or mistress of witches. Mcb. This mysterious divinity is described as a mighty and formidable deity, iden- tified with Selene or Luna in heaven, with Diana on earth, and Proserpine in the lower world. Being thus, as it were, a three-fold goddess, she is described with three bodies or three heads, the first of a horse, the second of a dog, and the third of a lion. From her be- ing an infernal divinity, she came to be regarded as a spectral being, who sent at night all kinds of demons and terri- ble phantoms from the lower world, who taught sorcery and witchcraft, and dwelt at places where two roads crossed, on tombs and near the blood of murdered persons. She herself wan- dered about with the souls of the dead, and her approach was announced by HEC 133 HEL the whining and howling of dogs. Hence regarded as the guide and ruler of witches. Reginald Scott, in his " Disco verie of Witchcraft," tells us that "Certeine generall councels, by their decrees, have condemned the con- fusions and erronious credulitie of witches, to be vaine, fantasticall and fabulous * * * to wit ; their night- walkings and meetings with Herodias and the Pagan gods : etc. * * * The words of the councell are these ; It may not be omitted that certeine wicked women following Sathans pro- vocations, being seduced by the illusion of divels, beleeve and professe that in the night times they ride abroad with Diana, the goddesse of the Pagans, or else with Herodias, with an innumer- able multitude, upon certeine beasts, and passe over manie countries and nations, in the silence of the night, and doo whatsoever those fairies or ladies command." See Acheron and witch. hectic. A fever. Hml. IV, 3, 68. Hector, dr.p. Son of Priam. Troil. Hector was the chief hero amongst the Trojans in their defence of Troy against the Greeks. He was the son of Priam and Hecuba, and the husband of Andromache. He fought with the brav- est of the Greeks. After Paris had fled from Menelaus, Hector challenged the latter, who only saved himself by flight. He fought with A jax, and slew Patro- clus, taking off the armor of the Greek and putting it on himself. Achilles, en- raged at the death of his friend, attacked Hector and slew him. Dr. Schmitz, in his article on Hector in Smith's Diction- ary, says : "Hector is one of the noblest conceptions of the poet of the Illiad. He is the great bulwark of Troy, and even Achilles trembles when he ap- proaches him. He has a presentiment of the fall of his country, but he per- severes in his heroic resistance, pre- ferring death to slavery and disgrace. But besides these virtues of a warrior, he is distinguished also, and, perhaps, more so than Achilles, by those of a man ; his heart is open to the gentle feelings of a son, a husband and a father." Hecuba. Hecuba was the wife of Priam, King of Troy, and the mother of Hector, Paris, and other children. When Troy fell, she and her daughters, Cassandra and Polyxena, were carried off as prisoners by the Greeks. Hecuba had hoped to meet in Thrace her son, Poly- dorus, whom Priam had sent as a child, with much treasure, to Polymestor, the Thracian King, to be kept until the war was over. The ghost of Polydorus appeared to Hecuba and told her that he had been murdered by Polymestor for the treasure, whereupon Hecuba tore out the eyes of Polymestor and slew his children. The Thracians attempted to kill her, but the gods changed her into a dog. Ultimately she committed suicide by leaping into the sea at a place named from this cir- cumstance Cynossema, or the dog's grave, hedge. To skulk. Wiv. II, 2, 27 ; TroH. Ill, 1, 66. This word has again come into use in this sense amongst politicians and other gainblers. hedge=born. Born outside of a home ; of mean birth. IHVI. IV, 1, 43. hedge=priest. A priest who performs the offices of the church in the shelter of a hedge, having no church. A priest of the lowest order. LLL. V, 2, 545. heel, V. To dance. Troil. IV, 4, 88. hefts. Heavings. Wint. II, 1, 44. Helecanus, dr.p. A lord of Tyre. Per. Helen, dr.p. Wife of Menelaus. Troil. Helen, dr.p. A lady attending on Imo- gen. Cym. Helena, dr.p. A gentlewoman protected by the Countess of Rousillon. All's. Helena, dr.p. In love with Demetrius. Mids. Helenus, dr.p. Son of Priam. Troil. Helicons. As used by Pistol (2HIV. V, 3, 108), this word probably carried mere sound without meaning. Nevertheless it may be well to explain what it would have meant if Pistol had understood it. HEL 134 HEB Helicon is a celebrated range of mount- ains in Boeotia, and was sacred to Apol- lo and the Muses. Here sprung the cele- brated fountains of the Muses, Agan- ippe and Hippocrene. At the fountain of Hippocrene was a grove sacred to the Muses, which was adorned with some of the finest works of art. On the slopes and in the valleys of the mount- ains grew many medicinal plants, which may have given occasion to the worship of Apollo as the healing god. hell. One that, before judgment, carries poor souls to hell. Err. IV, 2, 40. That is, 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. Dyce. helm. To steer ; to manage ; to guide. Meas. Ill, 2, 151. helpless. 1. Incurable. Lucr. 756. 2. Incapable of giving help. RIII. I, 2, 13. help. See caudle and hempen. hemlock. A poisonous herb, Conium maculatum, well known in Europe, often the cause of fatal accidents, and whose name is associated with the darkest deeds from the fact that it is supposed to have been the poison ad- ministered to Socrates. In an American Glossary it is proper to note this lest the name hemlock should convey to the reader the idea of the hemlock tree, a kind of spruce {Tsuga Canadensis), which supplies im.mense quantities of cheap lumber, and whose bark is used in tanning. It has no poisonous or noxious properties whatever, and would convey no suggestion of evil if it were the plant named in the incantations of the witches in Macbeth. HV. V, 2, 45 ; Mcb. IV, 1, 25 ; Lr. IV, 4, 4. hempen. Made of hemp; the material of which ropes are made. Hempen cau- dle = a hangman's halter, which is supposed to be a cordial for all dis- eases. See caudle. hemo-seed. Mrs. Quickly's word for homicide. 2HIV. II, 1, 64. henchman. A page or attendant. Mids. II, 1, 121. Henry, dr.p. Earl of Richmond. 3HVI. and RIII. Henry Bolingbroke, dr.p. Afterwards Henry IV. RII., IHIV. and 2HIV. Henry Percy, dr.p. Son of Earl of Northumberland. RII. Henry Percy (Hotspur), dr.p. Son of Earl of Northumberland. IHIV. and 2HIV. Henry, Prince, dr.p. Son of King John, John. Henry, Prince of "Wales, dr.p. Son of Henry IV., and afterwards Henry V. IHIV., 2HIV. and HV. Henry IV., dr.p. RII., IHIV. and 2HIV. Henry V., dr.p. IHIV., 2HIV. and HV. Henry VI., dr.p. IHVI., 2HVI. and 3HVI. Henry VIIL, dr.p. HVIII. hent, V. To take, in the sense of the horseman's "taking" a fence; to cross; to pass beyond. Wint. IV, 3, 133; Meas. IV, 6, 14. hent, n. Opportunity; taking. Hml. III, 2, 88. herblets. Small herbs. Gym. IV, 2, 287. herb of grace. Rue. RII. Ill, 4, 105. Herbert, Sir Walter, dr.p. RIII. Hercules and his load, too. This allu- sion may be to the Globe playhouse on the Bankside, the sign of which was Hercules carrying the Globe. Steevens. Malone says : " I suppose Shakespeare meant that the boys drew greater audiences than the elder players of the Globe Theatre." Hml. II, 2, 378. Hermes. See Mercury. Hermia, dr.p. Daughter to Egeus. Mids. Hermione, dr.p. Queen of Sicilia. Wint. hermit. A beadsman, q.v. Mcb. I, 6, 20. Heme's Oak. The legend of Heme the hunter would seem to have been anciently current at Windsor and in times gone by a certain oak was identi- fied as that immortalized by Sh. HaUi- well says that ' ' the general opinion is that it was accidentally destroyed in 1796, through an order of George III. to the bailiff, Robinson, that all the I HER 135 HOB unsightly trees in the vicinity of the castle should be removed ; an opinion confirmed by a well-established fact that a person named Grantham, who contracted with the bailiff for the re- moval of the trees, fell into disgrace with the king for having included the oak in his gatherings." In regard to the present condition of the site, the following from ' ' The Windsor G-uide ' ' is interesting: "Heme's Oak, so long an object of much curiosity and en- thusiasm, 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 Heme's Oak stood." Hero, dr. p. Daughter to Leonato. Ado. hest. Command. Tp. I, 2, 274. hewgh. A word imitative of the sound of an arrow as it whistles through the air. Lr. IV, 6, 93. hide=fox, and all after. The game of hide and seek. Hml. IV, 2, 32. high. Fully ; quite. 0th. IV, 2, 249. In use in this sense at the present time in "high noon." high and low. Kinds of false dice. Wiv. I, 3, 93. high=battled. At the head of a victori- ous army. Ant. Ill, 11, 29. high=day. Holiday. Merch. II, 9, 98. high=fantastical. In many eds. high fantastical. Tw. I, 1, 15. Highly imaginative. The meaning of the -passage is that love (fancy) alone is capable of forming the highest and noblest conception of things. high=lone. Standing alone on her feet ; a nursery expression. Rom. I, 3, 36. hight. Called ; named. LLL. I, 1, 171 ; Mids. V, 1, 140. high=viced. Conspicuously wicked. Tim. IV, 3, 110. hild. Held (used for the sake of the rhyme). Lucr. 1257. hilding. Base; menial. (From the Saxon healdan; one who is held or kept.) 2HIV. I, 1, 57. hip. 1. The upper part of the thigh ; in deer, the haunch. To have on the hip has received two interpretations. Johnson, in his notes to Shake- speare, says that it is taken from the art of wrestling, and this is prob- ably the view of most modern readers, since it is well known that when a wrestler can throw his adversary across his (the wrestler's) hip he can give him the severest of all falls, tech- nically termed a cross-buttock. It was to this, doubtless, that the countryman alluded when he exclaimed (Kins. II, 3) : My mind misgives me, This fellow has a vengeance trick o' the hip. The other interpretation refers to the action of the hound in hunting deer. When the hound has caught the deer by the hip he may feed himself fat on his flesh. This seems to accord with Merch. I, 3, 47. Halliwell, in Nares' Glossary, applies this to 0th. II, 1, 314. Johnson, in his Dictionary, adopts the hunting explanation. Furness, how- ever, brings forward fresh proof in favor of the wrestling origin of the expression, which is no doubt the true one. 2. The fruit of the briar or dog-rose, Rosa canina. Tim. IV, 3, 422. Hippolyta, dr. p. Queen of the Amazons ; betrothed to Theseus. Mids. and Kins. For details see Theseus. hive. A kind of bonnet. Lov. Compl. 8. hoar. To become mouldy or rotten. Tim. IV, 3, 155. hobby=horse. 1 . A principal part in the morris-dance. Hml. Ill, 2, 144. 2. A light woman. Ado. Ill, 2, 75; 0th. IV, 1, 158. hob^nail. A short nail with a large coni- cal or pyramidal head — not flat. The nail with a broad, flat head is a clout nail. IHIV. II, 4, 398 ; 2HVI. IV, 10, 63. Hobnails were used by shoemakers who drove them thickly into the soles of shoes for the purpose of protecting the leather from wear. Distinct from clout nails, but often confounded with them. See clouted. HOI 136 HOO In Sh. time nails were sold by count. IHIV. II, 4, 398, and see also ante under clout, where a bill will be found for "C. [one hundred] cloute neyle." From this we may infer that a nail which sold for sixpence per hundred was a sixpenny nail. Hence our terms sixpenny, tenpenny, etc., as applied to nails. All our large dictionaries make the mistake of supposing that penny is here a corruption of the word pound. See "Shakespearean Notes and New Readings " for a discussion of this question. The hob-nail was not the nail used for shoeing horses as stated by Schm. hoise. To hoist up ; to overthrow. 2H VI, I, 1, 169. hold. See bow-strings. holding. 1. The burden of a song. Ant. II, 7, 118. 2. Sense ; congruity. All's. IV, 2, 27. holidame, ) The same as halidom, q.v. holydame. j" Shr. V, 2, 99. The original word was halidom, which signifies simply holiness, the aflBx dam being the same as that in kingdom and other words. The corruption arose from supposing that the word meant holy dame i.e., the Virgin Mary. Holofernes, dr. p. A schoolmaster. LLL. It is frequently asserted that Holo- fernes is a caricature of the Italian teacher John Florio, who translated Montaigne's Essays, and is the author of a weU-known Italian-English Dic- tionary. Florio had criticised the En- glish dramas as being "neither right comedies nor right tragedies, but per- verted histories without decorum." But, as Marshall has pointed out, it may be doubted whether Sh. would have ridiculed one who was so especial a protege of the Earl of Southampton as Florio was. It is more probable that under cover of a character found, as the Pedant, in many old Italian comedies, Sh. intended to satirize the silly display of Latinity which Lilly was so fond of making in his plays. hQly=ales. Rural festivals. Per. I, Prol. 6. hoIy=cruel. Cruel by being too virtuous. All's. IV. 2, 32. homager. A vassal. Ant, I, 1, 31. honest. Chaste. As. I, 2, 40. honey=heavy. Very sweet. Caes. II, 1, 280. honey=seed. A Quicklyism for homicide. 2HIV, II, 1, 57, honey=stalks. Clover. Tit. IV, 4, 90. honey=suckle. Mrs. Quickly's blunder for homicidal. 2HIV. II, 1, 56. honorificabilitudinitatibus. Dr. Johnson says that "the word, whencesoever it comes, is often mentioned as the longest word known. ' ' There are longer words in Elliott's Indian Bible. Hunter, in his "New Illustrations," Vol. I, p. 264, after denying that it is a word, says : " This is a mere arbitrary and unmean- ing combination of syllables, devised merely to serve as an exercise in pen- manship, a schoolmaster's copy for persons learning to write. It is of some antiquity. I have seen it on an Ex- chequer record, apparently 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 manuscriDt in the Harleian Library, No. 6113. It is even still in use. " LLL. V, 1, 44. Hood, Robin. A famous outlaw whose exploits form the subject of numerous stirring ballads. According to some legends he was the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon, but in some of the ballads it is positively asserted that he was a yeoman. He was said to have been born at Locksley, in Nottinghamshire, about the year 1100, and from this cir- cumstance Scott gave him the name of Locksley in " Ivanhoe." One of the old historians tells us that he entertained a hundred tall men, all good archers, with such spoils and thefts as he got from the rich. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested. Poor men's goods he spared, abundantly relieving them with that which he got from abbeys and the houses of rich carles. After living for HOO 137 HOR many years in Sherwood Forest and Barnesdale, in Yorkshire, he at length fell a victim to the treachery of a nun to whom he had applied for blood-let- ting, and who bled him to death. He is referred to several times in Sh. Gent. IV, 1, 36; As. I, 1, 132 ; 2HIV. V, 3, 107. hoodman. The person blinded in the game of blind man's buff. All's. IV, 3, 137. hoodman=bUnd. Now caUed blind man's buff. Hml. Ill, 4, 77. hoop. Whoop. Out of all hoop- ing, As. Ill, 2, 203, = beyond all shouts of admiration, hope. To expect; to suppose. Often used to express expectation without the desire which it indi- cates at present. HV. Ill, 7, 77; Ant. II, 1,38. Horatio, dr. p. Friend to Hamlet. Hml. horn=book. A primer. LLL. V, 1, 49. Hornbooks were so called because the paper or parchment on which the alphabet, etc., were printed or written, was covered with a thin transparent sheet of horn, so as to protect it from the dirty hands of the scholars. The paper and horn were usually tacked to a board which had a handle at its lower end as shown in the accompanying cut. horned. Furnished with horns; cuckolded. 0th. IV, 1, 63. Horner, Thomas, dr.p. An arm- ourer. 3HVI. horn=niad. The usual signification attached to this word is mad or angry at having been made a cuckold, and that this is the meaning in Wiv. Ill, 5, 155 is evident. But how this could be the meaning in Wiv. I, 4, 52 is not so clear. Gains was not married nor even engaged, so that the idea of cuckoldom or even jealousy could not enter into the case except on a very far-fetched supposition. Again, in Err. II, 1, 57, Dromio repudi- ates the cuckold theory. When he tells Adriana that her husband is horn-mad, she seems at once to seize the idea of cuckold mad, and then A HORNBOOK. Dromio says : I mean not cuckold-mad, hut, sure, he is stark mad. How the expression originated is not clear, Wright thinks that horn is a corruption of the Scotch hams or Hon 138 HOE brains, so that the word would literally he brain-mad; but the connections in which it occurs render this improbable. It is well known to stock-raisers that there is a disease called horn-ail from which cattle sometimes suffer intensely and, like all animals suffering acute pain, become irritable and angry. To couple the idea of a bull, mad with the pain of horn-ail, and a man mad with the sense of wearing a cuckold's horns does not require a great stretch of imagination. The word occurs four times in Sh. In two of these it undoubtedly implies cuckoldom ; from the other two the idea seems to be excluded. In addition to the passages named it is found in Ado. I, 1, 273. horn=maker. A maker of cuckolds. As. IV, 1, 63. hornpipe. A country dance of a lively and hilarious character. The name is also applied to the music appropriate to such dances. Wint. IV, 3, 46. " An allusion to a practice, common at this time amongst the Puritans, of burlesquing the plein chant of the Pa- pists, by adapting vulgar and ludicrous music to psalms and pious composi- tions." Douce. horologe. A clock. HeHl watch the ho- rologe a double set = stay awake for twenty-four hours. 0th. II, 3, 135. horse. 1. Iama2)eppercornorbrewer'''s horse. IHIV. Ill, 3, 9. This compari- son of Falstaff's has "bothered" the commentators. Boswell suggested that the key to it was to be found in a conundrum in The DeviVs Cabinet Opened : What is the difference be- tween a drunkard and brewer's horse ? the answer to which is, that the one carries all his liquor on his back and the other in his belly. But as regards Falstaff's saying, this is unsatisfactory. May it not be that Falstaff compares himself to the inferior animals used by small brewers for grinding their malt ? Such horses travelled in a circular path, dragging the arms of the mill, and were frequently blind. Malt-horse is used as an epithet of contempt in Err. Ill, 1, 32, and Shr. IV, 1, 132. It was also common amongst the dramatists of the time. 2. The dancing horse will tell you. LLL. I, 2, 57. The horse here alluded to was the famous horse, Morocco, which was owned and taught by a Scotchman named Bankes, and hence was generally known as "Bankes's Horse. " This horse, from all accounts, showed an intelligence almost human, and a docility such as has never been equalled. It is said that his most wonder- ful feat was his ascending to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1600, but to my mind this was nothing very extraordi- nary ; it was the descending that was the marvellous feature of this performance, as every one familiar with horses must know. Raleigh, in his " History of the World," says : " If Bankes had lived in older times, he would have shamed all the inchanters in the world ; for who- soever was most famous among them could never master or instruct any beast as he did his horse." He had sil- ver shoes, and Bastard, in his "Epi- grams," thus describes his acquire- ments : Bankes hath a horse of wondrous qualitie. For he can fight, and dance and lie, And find your purse, and tell what coyne ye have : But, Bankes, who taught your horse to smell a knave ? This famous horse was exhibited aU over Europe. While in France, Bankes and his horse were accused of being in league with the devil, but Bankes made the animal kneel down to the crucifix and kiss it, and they were thus cleared of the charge, as it was held that ' ' the divell had no power to come neare the crosse. " But it was said that in Home they did not get off so easily, and that both the horse and his owner were burned at the stake by order of the Pope. Mr. Halliwell, however, has discovered records which show that HOR 139 HUN Bankes was alive in 1637, and that he followed the occupation of a vintner in Cheapside. 3. The otninous horse. Hml. II, 2, 476. This refers, of course, to the wooden horse by means of which Troy was taken. The Greeks having tried in vain to take Troy by force of arms at length accomplished their purpose by deceit. By the advice of that sly dog-fox Ulysses, they constructed an immense wooden horse in whose inside several of their best warriors, including Ulysses and Menelaus, lay concealed. The Greeks then embarked as if they had given up their attempt to capture Troy, leaving the wooden horse on the shore. Of course, the Trojans came out to examine such a curious object, and while gazing in amazement at it a Greek (see Sinon), who claimed to have been maltreated by his country men, and who had mutilated himself to giv^e color to his story, came up and asked their pro- tection. He told them that the Greeks had constructed it as an offering to Minerva, and that if they would take it into their city and oiler it to the goddess they would obtain her favor and she would enable them to make a successful invasion of Greece. The Trojans took this advice and carried the horse within their walls. During the night Sinon undid the fastenings and allowed the enclosed Greeks to come out and open the gates of Troy to their comrades, who had in the meantime returned. In this way Troy was taken and burned. Hortensio, dr.p. Suitor to Bianca. Shr. Hortensius, dr\p. A servant. Tim. host, V. To lodge. Err. I, 2, 9 ; AU's. • III, 5, 97. Hostess, dr.p. A character in the In- duction. Shr. Hostess, dr.p. Dame Quickly of "The Boar's Head." IHIV. and 2HIV. And as wife of Pistol in HV. Hotspur, Henry Percy, dr.p. Son to the Earl of Northumberland. IHIV. and 2HIV. hot at hand. Not to be held in. Caes. IV, 2, 23. hot=house. A bagnio. Meas. II, 1, 6Q. hounds. The allusion in Tw, I, 1, 22, is to the hounds of Actason. Actseon, while returning from the chase, surprised Diana bathing. This so enraged the goddess that she changed him into a stag and he was torn to pieces by his own dogs, housel. The Eucharist, or Lord's Supper. See unhouseled. hox. To hough ; to hamstring. "Wint. I, 2, 244. hoy. A small vessel. Err. IV, 3, 40. Hubert de Burgh, dr.p. Chamberlain to King John. John. hugger=mugger. Secresy ; privacy. Hml. IV, 5, 84. hull, V. To float. Tw. I, 5, 217. hulling. Floating at the mercy of the waves. HVIII. II, 4, 197. Hume, dr.p. A priest. 2HVI. humorous. 1. Moist ; damp. Rom. II, 1,31. 2. Capricious. As. I, 2, 278; John III, 1, 119. 3. Afflicted with "humours;" sad. LLL. Ill, 1, 177 ; As. IV, 1, 19. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, dr.p. 2HVI. Humphrey, Prince of Gloucester, dr.p. 2HIV. hunt. Game killed in the chase. Cym. Ill, 6, 89. Huntsman, dr.p. A character in the Induction. Shr. hunt=counter. So printed in First Folio, but in most modern editions given as two words. See counter. hunts=up. 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. Drayton (1604) has the following lines : And now the coeke, the morning's trumpeter, Played huntsup for the day star to appear. Butler in his " Principles of Musick " HTTR 140 lAR (1636) defines a hunVs-up as "morning music," and Cot. defines Besveil as a hunts-up or morning song for a new- married wife. Chappell's " Popular Music of the Olden Time." Rom. Ill, 5, 34. hurly. Tumult ; commotion. Shr. V, 1, 306 ; 2HIV. Ill, 1, 25. hurly=burly. Uproar ; tumult. Mcb. I, 1, 3. Used as an adjective in IHIV. V, 1, 78. hurtle. 1. To pass rapidly through the air so as to make a noise. Caes. II, 2, 22. 2. To dash together ; making a great noise. As. IV, 3, 132. husbandry. Thrift ; economy. Mcb. II, 1,4. huswife. A housewife. Cor. I, 3, 76. The Globe glossary defines huswife here as " a jilt, " but surely without any reasonable grounds. From the word housewife or huswife comes the word hussy, which frequently conveys a suggestion of evil or, at least, of con- tempt, but with the possible exception of 0th. IV, 1, 95, housewife is always used by Sh. in a good sense. hyen. A hyena. As. IV, 1, 163. hypocrisy. The meaning of the passage in 0th. IV, 1, 9, It is hypocrisy against the devil, is not very clear. Johnson says this means "Hypocrisy to cheat the devil. As common hypocrites cheat men, by seeming good and yet live wickedly, these men would cheat the devil by giving him flattering hopes, and at last avoiding the crime which he thinks them ready to commit." Warburton says " this observation seems strangely abrupt and un occa- sioned ;" and Marshall ("The Henry Irving Shakespeare," Vol. VI, p. 97) considers the opening of the scene diffi- cult and the distribution of the speeches unsatisfactory. This leads him to suggest a somewhat different arrange- ment. In expurgated or "Bowdler- ized ' ' editions the difficulty is greatly enhanced, and indeed this line becomes nonsense and should be omitted. (^g^y In books printed in Sh. time £^i||^ and even later, this letter is ^1^) used not only for the personal ^S^ pronoun but for the affirmative aye. This has given rise to numerous quibbles, as in Rom. Ill, 2, 46, and Tw. II, 5, 147 and 148. Sir Thomas Samwell proposes that the passage, Hml. I, 2, 188, / shall not look ujjon his like again, should read Eye shall, etc. , as more in the true spirit of Sh. This is certainly more forcible when read, but when spoken (as Sh. dramas are in- tended to be) it is not easily appreciated. This is probably the reason why the lamented Marshall did not take note of it in the "Henry Irving Shakespeare," although that edition was prepared with special reference to stage effect. The same phrase occurs in Ado. I, 1, 184. Dr. Furness prefers the interpretation eye in both passages. lachimo, dr.p. A friend to Philaris. Cym. lago, dr.p. Ancient to Othello. 0th. larmeti. This unintelligible word occurs in Cym. II, 5, 16, and is evidently a misprint. In Fl. and F2. the words are: Like a full Acorn'd Boare, a larmen on. Ro we suggested that "larmen" was a misprint for "German," and Mai one defends this on the ground that boars were not hunted in Britain in the time of Sh. — a foolish argument, since a " full acorn'd " boar is not necessarily a hunted boar, or even a wild one. Warburton suggested a ' ' churning on, " and Collier's M.S. Corrector "a foam- ing one. " The word which puzzled the compositors who set up the First Folio ICE 141 IMP was most probably "human." Not being able to read it, they simply put together such letters as the copy looked like, and "larmen" was the result. That "human " makes good sense is ob- vious. We speak of a "human ti- ger," meaning a man with the char- acteristics of a tiger. So we might speak of a "human boar," meaning a man with the characteristics of a " full acorn'd boare." See "Shakespearean Notes and New Readings," p. 7. ice=brook. A brook with ice-cold water. 0th. V, 2, 253. The brook here referred to is sup- posed to be the rivulet Salo (now Xalon) near Bilbilis. It is a fact well known to mechanics that some water enables the workman to give a much finer tem- per to steel than others. Iden, Alexander, dr. p. A gentleman of Kent. The slayer of Jack Cade. 2HVI. i'fecks. In faith ; a mild oath. Wint. I, 2, 120. Fecks or faix is the Scotch form of faith. ignomy. Ignominy; disgrace. Meas. II, 4, 111. 'ild. A contraction of yield. As. Ill, 3, 76. See God Hid, ill=inhabited. Poorly lodged. As. Ill, 3, 10, Not badly peopled, as our modern use of the word would signify. illustrious, ) Without lustre or bright- illustrous. f ness ; giving no light. Cym. I, 6, 109. Illustrious in the First Fo- lio ; illustrous and unlustrous in mod- ern editions. imbar, \ To bare ; to lay open. HV. imbarre. ) I, 2, 94. Schmidt adopts the definition to bar ; to exclude ; but this is evidently not the sense of the passage. Knight and Clarke and Wright read imbar, and explain it as to bar in ; to secure. But the context certainly does not bear out this rendering. immanity. Ferocity. IHVI. V, 1, 13. immask. To cover or hide with a mask. IHIV. I, 2, 201. immediacy. Nearness; close connection. Lr. V, 3, 65. immoment. Unimportant. Ant. V, 2, 166. immortal. Exempt from death; living for ever. Used improperly by the clown in Ant. V, 2, 247. He, of course, means mortal. immure. A wall. Troil. Prol. 8. Imogen, dr.p. Daughter of Cymbeline and wife to Fosthumus. Cym. imp, n. A shoot ; a graft ; an offspring. LLL. I, 2, 5 ; 2HIV. V, 5, 46. imp, V. A term borrowed from falconry. "When the wing-feathers of a hawk were dropped or forced out by any accident it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called to imp a hawk.'''' Steevens. RII. II, 1, 292. impawn, ) To pawn ; to pledge. HV. impone. \ I, 2, 21 ; Hml. V, 2, 155. impeach. A reproach; an accusation. Err. V, 1, 269; 3HVI. I, 4, 60. impeachment. Hindrance. (French em- pechenient.) HV. Ill, 6, 151. impercieverant, ) Dull of perception ; imperseverant. S thoughtless. Cym. IV, I, 15. impeticos. A word coined by the fool and evidently meaning to pocket. Tw. II, 3, 27. Johnson proposes to read impetticoat, and gives as a reason that fools were kept in long coats and that the allowed fool was occasionally dressed in petti- coats. But Malone, supported by Dyce and many others, urges that the reading of the old copy should not be disturbed. importance. 1. Meaning. Wint. V, 2, 20. 2. Consequence; weight. Wint. II, 1, 181. 3. Subject ; matter. Cym. I, 4, 45. 4. Importunity. Tw. V, 1, 371. important. Importunate. Lr. IV, 4, 26; Err. V, 1, 138. importing. Significant; expressive. All's. V, 3, 136. In the passage. Than settled age his sables and his weeds, importing health and graveness (Ilml. IV, 7, 81), the word health has received much com- IMP 142 IND ment. Schm. defines it as "wellfare, prosperity;" Malone and others explain it = care for health. Warburton ob- jects that a warm-furred gown implies sickness rather than health, and pro- poses to emend by reading ivealth. Johnson undoubtedly struck the true explanation when he gave to importing its etymological meaning, as Sh. does to so many other words, as noted in this glossary. Johnson says: ''Import- ing here may be, not inferring by logical consequence, but producing by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, an old man health.''^ impose. Injunction ; command. Gent. IV, 3, 8. imposition. 1. Imposture ; means of de- ception. 0th. II, 3, 269. 2. Charge ; command. Lucr. 1697 ; Merch. I, 2, 114. 3. Accusation; imputation. Meas. I, 2, 194 ; Wint. I, 2, 74. Upon the latter passage Warburton makes the following note: "Setting aside original sin ; bating the imposi- tion from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to heaven." imposthume. An abscess. Troil. V, 1, 24. imprese, \ n. A device with a motto impress, ii engraved or painted on any- thing. RII. Ill, 1, 25. impress, v. To compel to serve ; to force into service. Mcb. IV, 1, 95. incapable. Unconscious. Hml. IV, 7, 179. incardinate. A blunder for incarnate. Tw. V, 1, 185. incarnadine, ) To make red. Mcb. incarnardine. \ II, 2, 62. incense. Nares tells us that besides the usual meanings, this word is a Stafford- shire provincialism signifying to in- form; to instruct; to school. And this seems to be the sense in which it is used in HVIII. V, 1, 43; RIII. Ill, 1, 152; Ado. V, 1,242. incision. Blood-letting. God make in- cision in thee (As. Ill, 2, 75) = God cure thee. Blood-letting was one of the most common methods of cure in the time of Sh. The passage : A fever in your blood ! why then incision ivould let her oxit in saucers, LLL. IV, 3, 98, "has been erroneously explained as containing an allusion to the mad fashion of lovers stabbing themselves and drinking their blood in honor of their mistresses ; it merely means ' if your mistress reigns a fever in your blood, get yourself blooded, and so let her out in saucers. ' " Dyce. incli^meal. By inches. Tp. II, 2, 3. An example of the modern use of meal in this sense is seen in piece-meal. See also limb-meal. inclining. Compliant. 0th. II, 3, 346. inclip. To embrace ; to enclose. Ant. II, 7, 74. include. To end ; to conclude. Gent. V, 4, 160 ; Troil. I, 3, 119. incontinent. Immediately. As. V, 2, 44. incontinently. Immediately. 0th. I, 3, 307. incony. A word apparently coined by Costard, and meaning fine, delicate. LLL. Ill, 1, 136; do. IV, 1, 144. incorporate. Identified with ; forming part of the same body. Caes. I, 3, 135. incorpsed. Made one bod}^ Hml. IV, 7, 88. incorrect. Rebellious; ill-regulated. Hml. I, 2, 95. indent. To bargain ; to compromise. IHIV. I, 3, 87. indenture. Agreement ; contract. IHIV. II, 4, 53 ; Hml. V, 1, 119. "Indentures were agreements made out in duplicate, of which each party kept one. Both were written on the same sheet, which was cut in two in a crooked or indented line, in order that the fitting of the two parts might prove the genuineness of both in case of dis- pute." Clark and Wright. This was no doubt the original meaning. But cf. IHIV. Ill, 1, 80. index. Explanatory preface or prologue. RIII. IV, 4, 85 ; Hml. Ill, 4, 52. Indian, In the Fl. the reading is Like IND 143 INH the base Judean in 0th. V, 2, 347. Some defend this reading on the ground that the allusion may be to the well- known story of Herod and Mariamne. Boswell, however, quotes several pre- cisely parallel passages from the older dramatists in which ignorant Indians are represented as throwing away valu- able gems, supposing them to be worth- less pebbles. Thus Howard, in The Womaifi's Conquest, says : Behold my queen— Who with no more concern I'll cast Than Indians do a pearl that ne'er did know Its value. indict. To accuse ; to convict. Hml. II, 2, 464; 0th. Ill, 4, 154. (In some editions, both old and recent, this word is spelled indite.) indite. Used blunderingly for invite. 2HIV. II, 1, 30. In Rom. II, 4, 135 the word is probably used by Benvolio in derision of the nurses " confidence." indifferency. Moderation. 2HIV. IV, 3, 23. indifferent. Neither good nor bad; ordinary ; commonplace. Hml. II, 2, 231. indifferently. 1. In a reasonable degree ; tolerably. Hml. Ill, 2, 41. 2. ImpartiaUy. Tit. I, 1, 430. indigest, n. A chaos. John V, 7, 26. indigest, ac?/. Chaotic ; formless. Sonn. CXIV, 5. indign. Disgraceful. 0th, I, 3, 274, indubitate. Evident; without doubt. A word coined by Armado. LLL, IV, 1, 67. induction . Beginning; introduction. IHIV. Ill, 1, 2 ; RIII, I, 1, 32. indrenclied. Covered with water. Troil. 1, 1, 51. indued. Adapted to ; destined for. Hml. IV, 7, 180. indurance. Delay. HVIII. V, 1, 122. According to some, indurance here is equivalent to suffering ; according to others, it is durance or confinement. In some editions it is spelled endurance. inexecrable. That cannot be suflaciently execrated. Merch. IV, 1, 128. infamonize. Armado's word for disgrace. LLL, V, 2, 684. infect. To affect. John IV, 3, 69. infection. A contagious disease. InVen. 508 "the poet evidently alludes to a practice of his own age, when it was customary, in time of plague, to strew the rooms of every house with rue and other strong-smelling herbs, to prevent infection, ' ' Malone. infer. To bring in ; to introduce. The radical or etymological sense of the word, RIII, IV, 4, 343 ; do. V, 3, 314 ; Tim. Ill, 5, 73. Sh, sometimes uses the word in its modern sense of deducing, p7'oving, as in HV. I, 2, 204. infinite, n. Utmost power. Ado. II, 3. 106. infinitive. Quicklyismfortw/int^e. 2HIV. II, 1, 26. inform. 1. To take shape. Mcb, II, 1, 48, 2. To animate; to inspire. Cor. V, 3, 71. informal. Crazy. Meas. V, 1, 230. ingener. One possessed of great natural gifts. Steevens. 0th. II, 1, 65. " An ingenious person, a deviser, an artist, a painter ; but the reading is questionable. ' ' Dyce. ingraft. Made to form a part of the in- dividual, as a graft forms part of a tree. 0th. II, 3, 145. Some editions, engraffed. inliabit. Mcb. Ill, 4, 105. This passage has been discussed to such an extent, both as to the proper reading and also as to the meaning of the word, that it would seem almost impossible to reach a positive conclusion on these points. But amidst all this confusion and doubt, the general idea which Sh. wished to con- vey stands out clear and indubitable. inhabitable. Not habitable. RII. 1, 1, 65. inhabited. Lodged. See ill-inhabited. inherit. 1. To take possession. Tp. II. 2,179; Gent. Ill, 2, 87. 2. To put in possession. RII. I, 1, 85. inhibition. Prohibition ; hindrance. Hml. II, 2, 346. Probably an allusion to a law passed in 1600 forbidding theatrical INH 144 INT performances in the city of London, except at the Globe and the Fortune. Hence many players were forced to travel into the country. inhooped. Enclosed in a hoop. Cocks or quails were sometimes made to fight within a broad or, perhaps i-ather, a deep hoop to prevent them from run- ning away from each other. Ant. Ill, 3,38. Iniquity. "One name of the Vice, who was the established buffoon in the old Moralities and other imperfect dramas. He had the name soixietimes of one vice, sometimes of another, but most com- monly of Iniquity, or vice itself. He was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger of lath ; and one of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil, leap- ing on his back and belabouring him with his dagger of lath, till he made him roar. The devil, however, always carried him off in the end, the morality of which representation clearly was that sin, which has the wit and courage to make merry with the devil, and is allowed by him to take great liberties, must finally become his prey. This is the regular end also of Punch, in the puppet-shows, who, as Dr. Johnson rightly observed, is the legitimate suc- cessor of the old Iniquity ; or, rather, is the old Vice himself transposed from living to wooden actors. His successors on the stage were the fools and clowns, who so long continued to supply his place, in making sport for the common people. Harlequin is another scion from the same stock. ' ' Nares. Continumg, this author says : " Fraud, covetousness, vanity and vices [or sins] enumerated by Ben Johnson [in " The Devil is an Ass "] were the most com- mon. Vanity is even used for the Vice occasionally." Sh. gives us the Vice, Iniquity and Vanity together in IHIV. II, 4, 499. The Vice and his functions are frequently referred to in Sh. See Tw. IV, 2, 130. injointed. Joined. 0th. I, 3, 35. ink. See B. ink=horn mate. A bookish man ; an ecclesiastic ; a term of contempt. IHVI. Ill, 1, 99. inkle. A kind of inferior tape. LLL. Ill, 1, 140 ; Wint. IV, 4, 208. inland. Civilized ; probably living near a town. Caldecott says : ' ' Uplandish in our early writers and dictionaries is interpreted ' unbred, rude, rustical, clownish, because,' says Minsheu (1fil7), ' the people that dwell among moun- tains are severed from the civilitye of cities.'" As. II, 7, 96. cf. Scotch Landwart. inly, adj. Inward. Gent. II, 7, 18 ; 3HVI. I, 4, 171. inly, adv. Inwardly. Tp. V, 1, 200; HV. IV, Chor. 24. innocent. An idiot. All's. IV, 3, 214; Per. IV, 3, 17 ; Kins. IV, 1. inquisition. Search ; inquiry. Tp. I, 2, 35 ; As. II, 2, 20. insane root. Supposed to be either hemlock or henbane. Mcb. I, 3, 84. See hemlock. The best authorities, however, are agreed that it is impossible to decide just what plant Sh. meant. insanie. Madness. (A word coined by Holof ernes.) LLL. V, 1, 28. insconce. 1. To hide ; to shelter. Wiv. Ill, 3, 96. 2. To protect ; to fortify. Err. II, 2, 38. insculped. Engraved ; cut. Merch. II, 7, 57. inseulpture. An inscription cut in stone. Tim. V, 4, 67. insisture. Persistency. Troil. I, 3, 87. instance. 1. Motive. Hml. Ill, 2, 194. 2. Proof. 2HIV. Ill, 1, 103. intelligencer. An agent ; a go-between, mil. IV, 4, 71. intend. 1. To pretend. Lucr. 121; Ado. II, 2, 35. 2. To lead to ; to tend. 2HIV. I, 2, 9. 3. To set forth ; to exhibit. Mids. Ill, 2, 333. 4. Used by Dr. Caius in the sense of the French entendre = understand. Wiv. I, 4, 47. intending. Regarding. Tim. II, 2, 219. INT 145 IRI intendment. Intention; purpose. 0th. IV, 2, 206. intenible. Unretentive. All's. I, 3, 210. intentively. Attentively ; with close ap- plication. 0th. I, 3, 155. interessed. Interested ; connected with. Lr. I, 1, 87. intermission. Delay. Mcb. IV, 3, 232. interpret. To explain. I could inter- pret between you and your love if I could see the pujDpets dallying. Hml. Ill, 2, 256. This is an allusion to the puppet-shows or motions in which the actions of the puppets were always explained oi* interpreted to the audience by the interpreter. See motion. intrenchant. That cannot be cut. Mcb. V, 8, 9. intrinse. Intricate ; entangled. Lr. II, 2, 81. Such is the meaning given to this word by all English-speaking authorities so far as we have been able to find. Schm. deJfines it as "intimate ; internal; deep-rooted." intrinsicate. Intricate. Ant. V, 2, 307. invectively. Reproachfully. As. II, 1, 58. invention. 1. Forgery ; falsehood. Mcb. Ill, 1, 33. 2. Imagination. Ven. Ded. 5 ; 0th. II, 1, 126. 3. Activity of mind. Meas. II, 4, 3. invincible. Invisible; not to be made out. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 337. Some eds. read invisible. Invitus nubibus. Latin, the meaning of which is : In spite of the clouds. Malone quotes Camden as follows : " Edward III bore for his device the rays of the sun dispersing themselves out of a cloud. " 2HVI. IV, 1, 99. inward. An intimate friend ; one privy to the thoughts of another. Meas. Ill, 2, 138. inwardness. Intimacy. Ado. IV, 1 , 247. lo. And how she was beguiled and sur- prised. Shr. Ind. II, 57. lo w^as the daughter of Inachus, the first King of Argos and the founder of the worship of Hera, with whom the Romans identified their goddess Juno. Jupiter fell in love with her and aroused the jealousy of Juno. In order to pro- tect lo, Jupiter transformed her into a beautiful heifer, but Juno, suspecting the intrigue, requested the heifer as a gift, and the request was granted. Juno then placed lo under the charge of Argus, who tied her to an olive tree and watched her with his hundred eyes, two of which only were ever closed at a time. See Argus. It is also said that under the surveil- lance of Argus she wandered about on different pastures, and on one occasion came to her former home, where her father and sisters were mourning for her absence, believing her to be dead. They fed and petted the beautiful heifer and lo let them know who she was by writing her name, " lo," in the sand with her foot. Jupiter at last, in answer to her prayers, sent Hermes or Mercury to deliver her. Mercury ap- peared as a shepherd and so won upon Argus by his singing and playing that at last he put the giant to sleep and cut off his head. But lo's wanderings con- tinued for a long time after the death of Argus. Some writers tell us that she was tormented by the stings of a gadfly sent by Juno, and that she was driven in a frenzy from land to land over the whole earth. The Bosporus is said to have derived its name from the fact that she swam across it. At length she found rest on the banks of the Nile, where she reco\'ered her original form, and bore to Jupiter a son who was named Epaphus. Accord- ing to some, she afterwards married Telegonus, King of Egypt, and was identified with the Egyptian Isis. Iras, dr. p. Attendant on Cleopatra. Ant. Iris, dr. p. A spirit. Tp. Iris was the daughter of Thaumas and of Electra, and sister of the Harpies. Iris appears to have been originally the personification of the rainbow, for this brilliant phenomenon in the skies, which vanishes as quickly as it appears, was regarded as the swift messenger of the IBB 146 JAC gods. Some poets describe Iris as the rainbow itself, while others represent the rainbow as only the road on which Iris travels, and which therefore appears whenever the goddess wants it, and vanishes when it is no longer needed. lu the earlier poets Iris appears as a virgin goddess, but in the later she is the wife of Zephyrus and the mother of Eros. irregulous. Lawless ; unprincipled. Cym. IV, 2, 315. iron=witted. Unfeeling ; insensible. RIII. IV, 2, 28. Isabel, dr.p. Queen of France. HV. Isabella, dr.p. Sister to Claudio. Meas. Isls. The references to this goddess are found only in the play of Antony and Cleopatra. She was one of the chief of the Egyptian divinities, and was the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus, the Egyptian god of the sun. As Osiris, the god of the Nile, taught the people the use of the plough, so Isis invented the cultivation of wheat and barley, which were carried about in the pro- cessions at her festivals. In works of art Isis appears in figure and counten- ance like Juno ; she wears a long tunic and her upper garment is fastened on her breast by a knot ; her head is crowned with a lotus flower, and her right hand holds the sistrum, a kind of musical instrument in which the sounds are produced by shaking. isle. Fertile the isle. Wint. Ill, 1, 2. Delphos was not situated on an island. See Delphos. iterance. Repetition. 0th. V, 2, 148. iteration. Repetition. IHIV. I, 2, 101 ; Troil. Ill, 2, 183 ; 0th. V, 2, 150. Iwis, ) Assuredly ; certainly. A modi- I wis. ) fied form of the Anglo-saxon ge-ivis. Merch. II, 9, 68 ; RIII. I, 3, 102. "It is to be particularly noted that the Middle-English prefix i (= A. s. ge) is often written apart from the rest of the word, and with a capital letter. Hence, by a mistake of editors, it is sometimes printed I wis, and explained to mean ' I know. ' Hence, further, the imaginary verb wis, to know, has found its way into our dictionaries. But it is pure fiction ; the verb being wit." Skeat. In the Fl. the reading is Iwis. ACK. 1. A form of John used familiarly, as in 2HIV. II, 2, 143. Jack Falstaff with my familiars, John with "my brothers and sisters, and Sir John with all Europe. 2. A term of contempt denoting a mean, low fellow. Ado. V, 1, 91 ; Rom. II, 4, 160 ; Cor. V, 2, 67. 3. A drinking measure. Shr. IV, 1, 51. A play upon the words jacks and jills, which signify two drinking measures as well as men and maid-servants. Steevens. 4. The small bowl (sometimes called the mistress) aimed at in the game of bowl- ing. Cym. I, 2, 2, To kiss the jack is a state of great advantage. Johnson. 5. A key of the virginal. Sonn. CXXVIII. 5, 13. Jack'=a=Lent. A puppet thrown at during Lent, as cocks were thrown at on Shrove Tuesday. Wiv. Ill, 3, 27. jack=an=apes. An ape ; a monkey. Wiv. IV, 4, 67 ; Cym. II, 1, 4. jack=dog. A term of contempt coined by Dr. Caius. Wiv. II, 3, 65. Jack guardant. A Jack-in-ofiice ; a low fellow occupying a position of import- ance. Cor. V, 2, 67. Jack=o»=lantern, or Will-o' -the- Wisp. A certain luminous vapor or ignis fatuus. ' Tp. IV, 1, 198. cf. Ado. I, 1, 186. Jack»o'°the°clock. In old clocks a. figure JAC 147 JET which struck the bel'l to mark the hours. RII. V, 5, 60. Jack Cade. See Cade. Jack=sauce. A saucy fellow. HV. IV, 7, 149. Jack=slave. A mean fellow. Cym. II, 1, 22. jadery. Jade's tricks. Kins. 5, 4. jade, n. A worthless, wicked or mal- treated horse. Meas. II, J, 269 ; Ado. I, 1, 145 ; 2HI V. 1, 1, 45. Also applied as a term of contempt to men and women. Shr. II, 1, 202 ; John II, 1, 385. Sh. frequently refers to "jade's tricks. ' ' These are of an " infinite varie- ty." The reference in Ado. I, 1, 145, You ahvays end with a jade''s trick, is thus explained by Dr. Furness : ' ' Re- ferring to Every Man in his Humour, III, 2, Cob says, ' An you offer to ride me with your collar, or halter either, I may hap shew you a jade's trick, sir. ' Cash replies : 'O, you'll slip your head out of the collar. ' As soon as Beatrice has fairly collared Benedick, he says, 'he is done,' and by this jade's trick slips his head out of the collar, and Beatrice may talk to the empty air. ' ' Pistol's expression : Hollow pamperhl jades of Asia, which cannot yo but thirty miles a-day (2IIIV. II, 4, 178) is a corruption of a line in the Second Part of Marlowe's Tamburlane, IV, 4 : Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia 1 What 1 Can ye draw but twenty miles a-day ? The jades were the conquered kings whom Tamburlane compelled to draw his chariot. jade, V. To make ridiculous or contempt- ible. Tw. II, 5, 180. Jakes. A privy. Lr. II, 2, 59, A coarse pun on Ajax. LLL. V, 2, 581. James Qurney. See Gurney. Jamy, dr.p. An oflBcer in the army of Henry V. HV. jane. A kind of cheap cotton cloth. The word is still in use with a variation in the spelling. Kins. Ill, 5. jangle. To sound discordantly. Hml. Ill, 1, 166. Jaquenetta, dr.p. A country girl. LLL. Jaques, dr.p. Son to Sir Rowland de Bois. As. Jaques, dr.p. A lord attendant on the banished Duke. " The melancholy Jaques." As. jar, n. The tick of a clock. Wint. I, 2, 43. jar, V. To tick as a clock, RII. V, 5, 51. jaunce, v. To ride hard ; to harass the horse. RII. V, 5, 94. jaunce. A rough journey ; a wild tramp. Rom. II, 5, 26. In some eds. jaunt. jay. A loose woman. Wiv. Ill, 3, 44; Cym. Ill, 4, 51. jennet. See gennet. Jeronimy. The phrase, Go by, Jeronimy, iised by Sly (Shr. Ind. I, 9) is a mean- ingless expression intended, it is said, to ridicule a play by Thomas Kyd, which was quite popular in its time. The play was entitled: The Spanish Tragedy, containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio and Bel-Imperia with the pitiful death of Old Hiero- nimo. Numerous sarcastic allusions to this play are to be found in the dramas of Shakespeare's tijne, and this saying of Sly's is a quotation of a line from the fourth act. As the play was quite popular, this line may ha\ e become a popular ' ' gag. ' ' Instances of meaning- less sayings taken from popular plays and used as slang expressions are quite common now. Jeronimy is supposed to be a corruption of Hieronomo. 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." Nar-es. 0th. Ill, 3, 261. Jessica, dr.p. Daughter to Shylock. Merch. jest. A play or masque. RII. I, 3, 95. jet. 1. To strut; to stalk. Cym. Ill, 3, 5. 2. To exult over; to treat with insolence. RIII. II, 4, 51. jet, V. 1. To stalk ; to strut. Tw. II, 5, 36 ; Cym. Ill, 3, 5. 2. To insult ; to flout. RIII. II, 4, 51. \ JEW M8 JOH Jewes eye. Thus in Fl. Most modern eds. read Jewess^ eye. Merch. II, 5, 43. " Worth a Jew's eye " was a com- mon expression for something of great value, the Jews being frequently com- pelled to pay a large ransom or, in default, to have an eye put out. There is probably a pun intended ; " worth a Jewess' eye " meaning worthy the attention of a Jewess, and "worth a Jew's eye" meaning of great value. Grant White objected to the use of the word Jewess on the ground that it is modern, but Dyce shows that it was in use in Tyndale's Bible (1525). Grant White, Ingleby and some others have made bad mistakes by founding im- portant claims upon the alleged fact that certain words were not in use in the time of Sh. jig. A facetious metrical composition ; a humorous ballad ; a merry dance. Pilg. 253 ; Hml. II, 2, 522 ; Ado. II, 1, 77. jig=maker. A writer or composer of jigs. Hml. Ill, 2, 131. Joan. The name of a woman ; also a hawk. 2IIVI. II, 1, 4. In this passage the meaning is that "the wind was so high it was ten to one that old Joan [the hawk] would not have taken her flight at the game." Percy. Joan La Pucelle, d?\p. Commonly called Joan of Arc. IHVI. Joan, or rather Jeanne d'Arc or Dare, known also as the Maid of Or- leans, was born about 1411 at Domremy, a small village partly in Champagne and partly in Lorraine. Her father was Jaques Dare, a peasant proprietor of Domremy. She never learned to read or write, but was brought up most religiously by her mother. In early girlhood she was remarkable for physical vigor and energy, but without the least tendency to coarseness or unfeminine ways. She was a most duteous daughter, and her kindness of heart and good temper made her a favorite with all her neighbors. Up to about her seven- teenth year she tended her father's sheep, and during the solitude of this occupation her imagination led her to hear voices and see visions. At this time France was in hard straits, for the English had greatly extended their con- quests through an alliance with Philip of Burgundy. At length Joan believed that the Virgin Mary appeared to her and commanded her to arise and deliver her country from the oppressor. It is doubtful if in her seclusion she had ever heard of the famous prophecy by Merlin that France was to be delivered from oppression by a chaste virgin, but this prophecy was current among the people, and perhaps prepared the way for the events that occurred. Her in- troduction to Charles ; her raising of the siege of Orleans ; her victory at Patay and the capture of Troyes are well-known matters of history. At the defence of Compiegne against the Duke of Burgundy she was made prisoner by the Burgundians and sold to the English, who delivered her to the Inquisition, by whom she was burned at the stake in the streets of Ptouen. According to the best historical authorities of modern times, with, perhaps, a single exception, the filthy- minded Voltaire, Joan d'Arc was a woman of the most pure and noble char- acter, and it is greatly to be regretted that Sh. should have cast upon her the vile slurs which are found in IHVI. But Sh. took his information from the sources which he found most readily at hand, Hall and Holinshed, and as his great object in producing these plays was to make money, he too often sacrificed the truth of history to the existing likes and dislikes of the public that patronised his theatre. But it is pleasant to know that amongst the tributes offered to the memory of the Maid of Orleans, none have been more sincere or more lauda- tory than those paid by the descendants of her enemies. John, dr. p. A follower of Jack Cade. 2HVI. John, Don, dr.p. Bastard brother to Don Pedro. Ado. JOH 149 JUM John, Friar, dr. p. A Franciscan. Rom. John of Qaunt, dr.p. Duke of Lan- caster. John, Prince of Lancaster, dr.p. Son to Henry IV. IHIV. and 2HIV. John Talbot, dr.p. Son to Lord Talbot. IHVI. John a=dreanis. A dreamy, idle fellow. Hml. II, 2, 595.- jOint=ring. 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 centuries. Fairholt. 0th. IV, 3, 73. joint=stool. The phrase, Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint stool (Lr. Ill, 6, 54), seems to have been a common slang expression in the time of Sh. Like similar slang phrases of the present day, it probably had no meaning and was used by those who wished to appear "smart." jole. Bee jowl. joll, / V. To knock or dash. AU's. I, 3, jowl, ) 60 ; Hml. V, 1, 83. jolthead. A blockhead. Shr. IV, 1, 169. Jordan. A slang name for a chamber utensil. IHIV. II, 1, 23. The history of this word is not very clearly made out. It appears as early as 1383. The most probable origin seems to me to be from the name of the river Jordan. Pilgrims on their return from the Holy Land brought back a bottle of the water of the sacred river for baptismal purposes, and the bottles themselves, which seem to have re- sembled the well-known Florence flask in shape, when emptied, continued to be looked upon as somewhat sacred. Hence, they were employed by chemists for their more delicate operations, and also by certain quack doctors. Owing to the use made of them by the latter the name came to be applied to any vessel used for a similar purpose. It is not probable that the original bottles ever became so common as to be so used. See Skeat's " Etymological Dic- tionary" and the " Promptorium Parvu- lorum," Vol. 1, page 367. The word has no connection with joram, as intimated in a recent glossary. Joram signifies a bowl of punch. Jourdain, Margery, . A witch. 2HVI. Margery Jourdain was a real charac- ter, also known as the witch of Eye. It was laid to her charge that she and her confederates had, at the request of the Duchess of Gloster, devised an image of wax representing the king, which by their sorcery a little and a little consumed, intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person and so to bring him to death. Margery was burnt in Smith- field, and one of her confederates, Roger Bolingbroke, was drawn and quartered, at Tyburn, protesting his innocence with his last breath. journal. Daily. Gym. IV, 3, 10. journeyman, A man who, having passed his apprenticeship, is hired to work by the day. French, journe'e, a day's work. RII. I, 3, 274 ; Hml. Ill, 3, 37. Jove. See Jupiter. Jovial. 1. Like Jupiter or Jove. Cym. IV, 3, 311, and V, 4, 105. 2. Merry. Mcb. Ill, 3, 38. Judas. See Cain-colored. Judean. See Indian. judicious. Critical. Wiv. I, 3, 68. Jug. Whoop, Jug ! I love thee ! Com- mentators are not agreed as to the meaning of this expression of the fool. It probably had no special meaning and was merely a sort of "explosive" ex- clamation, perhaps taken from some old song. " Jug" was a nickname for Joan. Lr. I, 4, 345. Julia, dr.p. A lady of Verona. Gent. Juliet, dr.p. Betrothed to Claudio. Meas. Juliet, dr.p. Daughter to Capulet. Rom. July, the sixth of. Wright points out that this was old Midsummer Day and an appropriate date for such midsummer madness. Ado. I, 1, 285. jump, n. A stake ; a hazard. Ant. Ill, 8, 6. jump, adv. Exactly ; pat. Hml. I, 1, 65. JUN 150 JUV Junius Brutus. See Brutus. junkets. Dainties. Shr. Ill, 3, 250. Juno, dr.}}. A spirit. Tp. Juno was the chief goddess in the Roman mj^thology. She was identified by the Romans with the Greek Hera, who was the daughter of Cronos and Rhea, and sister and wife of Zeus or Jupitei". She was the goddess who pre- sided over all the important affairs of women. As the most important period in a woman's life is marriage, she was supposed to preside over this event, and the month of June, which is said to have been originally called Junonius, was considered to be the most favorable period for marrying. Her most promi- nent characteristic was jealousy, and she bitterly persecuted all the children of Jupiter by mortal mothers — Hercules, Bacchus and others. In art she is usually represented as a mature woman of majestic appearance, with a beauti- ful forehead, large and widely-opened eyes, and a grave expression command- ing reverence. The peacock was sacred to her. See Argus and lo. In As. I, 3, 77, Celia says: like Juno's sivans, Still went ive coupled and inseparable. This is a mistake. The SM^an was sacred to Venus. Jupiter. The supreme deity of the Romans and identified by them with the Greek Zeus, who was a son of Cronos and Rhea. He is called the father of gods and men, the most high and powerful among the immortals and the one whom all others obey. Being the lord of heaven, he was worshipped as the god of rain, storms, thunder and lightning, the epithets Pluvius, Ful- gurator, Tonans, etc., being given to him in each special case. He is the hero of numerous amatory intrigues, many of which are alluded to in Sh., and the details of which will be found under Europa, lo, Leda, etc. Jupiter was regarded as the guardian of law, the protector of justice and virtue, and the maintainer of the sanctity of an oath ; hence, perhaps, the frequent invocation of Jupiter or Jove in the oaths of the ancients. As he was lord of heaven and prince of light, the white color was sacred to him ; consequently white animals were sacrificed to him ; his chariot was drawn by white horses, and his priests were dressed in white. The eagle, the oak and the summits of mountains were sacred to him. Ac- cording to the belief of the Romans, he determined the course of all earthly and human affairs ; he foresaw the future and the events happening in it were the result of his will. In works of art his usual attributes are the scepter, eagle, thunderbolt and a figure of Victory in his hand. The name Jupiter signifies father or lord, being a contraction of Diovis pater or Diespiter. jure. A word manufactured by Falstaff for the occasion and evidently having no definite meaning. Grant White says : " Falstaff 's exclamation, 'You are grand jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, i' faith,' seems to be based on an in- tended whimsical misunderstanding of ' we ' and 'ours ' in the Traveller's out- cry ; ' ours ' having probably been pro- nounced oars in Shakespeare's day." just. Besides the usual meanings em- bodying ideas of justice and right, this word is used by Sh. both as an adjec- tive and as an adverb to signify exact- ness and precision. Merch. IV, 1, 327 ; Ado. I, 1, 375; AU's. V, 3, 221; 0th. II, 8, 129. In Ado. II, 1, 28, just = exactly so. just, V. To tilt as in a tournament. Per. II, 1, 116. Justice Sliallow. See Shallow. justicer. A judge. Lr. Ill, 6, 59 ; Cym. V, 5, 214. jut. 1. To encroach. RIII. II, 4, 51. Also spelled Je^. 2. To project ; to thrust forth. Tim. I, 2, 237. jutty, n. A projection. Mcb. I, 6, 6. jutty, V. To project. HV. Ill, 1, 13. , juvenal. A youth. LLL. I, 2, 8 ; 2HIV. I, 2, 22. KAM 151 KIN |W/MariUAM. Crooked ; awry ; wrongj. Lil^*v3 C'Zean kavi (Cor. Ill, 1, 304) ^fr^^j = entirely wrong. Sometimes ^ ^ w written cam. This word, like crank, is no doubt connected with the mechanical idea involved in the device known as a cam or crank. Kate. See Percy, Lady. Kate. In The Taming of the Shrew Sh. introduces several puns on this word ; thus in II, 1, 190 : For dainties all are Kates is evidently a pun on cates and Kates. In the same Act and scene, line 279, some see a play upon ivild cat and wild Kate, but this seems to me rather far-fetched. Still, in the rollick- ing "chaflE" between Petruchio and Katharina we may imagine almost anything in the way of puns and quibbles. Katharina, dr.p. The shrew. Shr. Katharine, dr.p. A lady in attendance on the Princess of France. LLL. Katharine, Princess, dr.p. Daughter to Charles VI, King of France. HV. Katharine, Queen, dr.p. Wife to Henry VIII. HVIII. kecksy. The dried stem of hemlock or similar plant. HV. V, 2, 52, keech. The fat of an ox, rolled up into a round lump ; hence the name given to a fat person. 2HIV. II, 1, 101; HVIII. I, 1, 55. keel. According to some, this word means to cool ; according to others it means to skim. LLL. V, 2, 930. keep, n. Custody ; guard. Shr. I, 2, 118. keep, V. To restrain ; to control. Gent. IV, 4, 11. Keisar. Caesar ; emperor. Wiv. I, 8, 9. ken, n. Sight ; seeing distance. 2HIV. IV, 1, 151 ; 2HVI. Ill, 2, 113. ken, V. 1. To descry ; to see. 3HVI. Ill, 2, 101. 2. To know. TroU. IV, 5, 14 ; Wiv. I, 3,40. Kent, Earl of, dr.p. Attendant on King Lear. Lr. kerne, j or from the Western Isles ; a boor. Mcb. I, 2, 13 ; V, 7, 17. kettle. A kettle-drum. Hml. V, 2, 286. key. A tuning key. Tp. I, 2, 83. key=cold. Cold as a key ; stone cold. RIII. I, 2, 5. Lucr. 1774. kibe. 1. A chilblain. Temp. II, 1, 284. 2. A chap on the heel. Hml. V, 1, 252 ; Wiv. I, 2, 35. kick at. To turn away from with loath- ing and disgust. Cor. II, 2, 129. This expression seems to have again come into use in a slangy way. kick=shaws. Toys ; trifles ; a made dish. 2HIV. V, 1, 29 ; Tw. I, 3, 122. A cor- ruption of the French quelques choses. kicksy=wicksy, j A ludicrous term for kicky=wicky. f a wife. AU's. II, 3, 297. kill. Kill, kill, kill, was the ancient cry of the English troops when they charged the enemy. Ven. 652 ; Lr. IV, 6, 191. killen. To kill. Per. II, Prol. 20. kiln=hole. English coms. explain as the ash-hole under a kiln or oven; Schm., followed by "Century Dictionary," calls it the opening of an oven. Wiv. IV, 2, 59; Wint. IV, 4, 247. Harris says: "Kiln-hole is pronounced kill- hole in the Midland counties, and gener- ally means the fire-place used in making malt, and is still a noted gossiping place." kind. This word, as an adjective with the usual meanings, occurs very fre- quently in Sh., but in the passage, A little more than kin and less than kind (Hml. I, 2, 64), these meanings do not seem to quite fill Hamlet's intention. Johnson suggested that the word here meant child or son, and this I believe to be the correct interpretation of the line. The King had just called Hamlet his cousin, and then, on second thoughts, called him son. Hamlet is at once struck with the peculiarity of the King's address, and in an aside says : " A little more than cousin and less than son, KIN 152 EIB else why did he hesitate." The words kin and kind (pronounced kinn''d) being used instead of cousin and son for the sake of the jingle, as is very common in Sh. works, as in Mcb. II, 3, 146 : the near in blood, The nearer bloody. That Sh. was addicted to these allitera- tive jingles, notwithstanding the ridi- cule which he throws upon them in LLL. IV, 2, 57, is well known to all attentive readers of his works. Johnson's gloss has not been accepted by any prominent com. or actor that I know of except Mr. Wilson Barrett, but I am confident that it is correct. The chief objection that has been made is that by Steevens, w^ho claims that the word kind is not to be found anywhere else with this sense. But to any in- telligent student of Sh. this is the feeb- lest of all reasons. Sh. cared nothing for precedents; he uses many words only once and to many words he gives special forms and meanings and then casts them aside, not to be used again. To bolster up the common interpreta- tion of the word the coms. have filled pages with utterly irrelevant quotations from dramatists of the period. See kindless and unkind in this glossary and " Shakespearean Notes and New Readings," page 19. kindle. 1. To bring forth young; also to be born. Always applied to rabbits, hares, cats and similar animals. As. Ill, 2, 358. 2. To inflame; hence, to stimulate; to incite. As. I, 1, 179. kindless. This word occurs but once in all English literature, so far as I have been able to find. In Hml. II, 2, 609, we find "remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain. " The usual meaning given to the word as here found is without affection or kindness; unnatural — a weak and ineffective meaning considering the strong adjec- tives that have preceded it. Some years ago I suggested that the word meant childless, such a reproach having been considered very degrading in the early times of all nations. On sub- mitting this gloss to the late Edwin Booth he made the objection that Ham- let was not likely to have "made a kick at the old king's sterility." It seems to rne that this is just what he would have done, for he boasts to Ophelia of his own virility. See Hml. Ill, 2, 260. The combination of the affix less with an adjective is, to say the least, unusual. It is almost always used with nouns, as childless, homeless, ar^mless, etc., etc. See kind. kindly, adj. Natural ; in keeping with the natural qualities or properties of things. Thus, by " the kindly fruits of the earth " is meant the natural fruits. In As. II, 3, 53, frosty, but kindly means suited to his age. In IHVI. Ill, 1, 131, the bishop has a kindly gird has re- ceived various interpretations. Some make it "a rebuke appropriate to the occasion;" others explain it as "a gentle rebuke;" others again as "a reproach in kind. " kindly, adv. 1 . Pertinently ; aptly. Rom. II, 4, 59. 2. In a manner suited to the occasion. Shr. Ind. I, 66. King Edward IV, dr.p. RIII. King Henry IV, dr.jo. IHIV. and 2HIV. King Henry V, dr.p. HV. King Henry VI, dr.p. IHVI., 2HVI. and 3HVI. King Henry VIII, dr.p. HVIII. King John, dr.p. John. King of France, dr.p. AU's. King of France, dr.p. Lr. King Richard II, dr.p. RII. King Richard III, dr.p. RIII. kirtle. "Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commen- tators on our old plays as this, and all for want of knowing that it is used in a two-fold 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. " Gifford. KIS 153 KNO Under the word half-kirtle Nares tells us that it was a common dress of courtesans ; it seems to have been a short-skirted loose-bodied gown ; but not a bed-gown, though it might also be worn as such. Pilgr. 363; 3HIV. II, 4, 297. kiss. No need of a definition, but there are two passages that will bear remark. In Tw. V, 1, 22, the expression conclu- sions to he as kisses, if your /o?tr negatives make your two affirma- tives, has occasioned some comment. Warburton says: "What monstrous absurdity have we here ? The Cloivn is affecting to argue seriously and in form. I imagine the poet wrote, so that conclusion to he asked is, i.e., so that the conclusion I have to demand of you is this, if your four, etc. " Upon this, Coleridge remarks : "Surely War- burton could never have wooed by kisses and won, or he would not have flounder-flatted so just and humorous, nor less pleasing than humorous an image into so profound a nihility. In the name of love and wonder, do not four kisses make a double affirmative ? The humor lies in the whispered ' No ' and the inviting 'Don't ! ' with which the maiden's kisses are accompanied, and thence compared to negatives, which by repetition constitute an af- firmative." The line in Hml. II, 2, 182, heing a god-kissing carrion, has drawn forth much discussion. Furness fills four closely-printed pages with the observa- tions of the coms., and then the mean- ing is not made clear. In the Folios and Quartos it reads good kissing. Warburton changed good kissing to god-kissing, and has been followed by many modern eds. His remarks are more in the nature of a sermon than a note. It must be borne in mind that in all his conversations with Folonius, Hamlet apparently seeks to puzzle and befog the old man. This probably ac- counts for the intricacy of thought and expression in the present case. It is easy to imagine satisfactory and beautiful ex- planations of this passage, but whether they embody Sh. ideas or not is another question. kissing=comfits. Sugar-plums perfumed to sweeten the breath. Wiv. V, 5, 22. kitchen, v. To entertain in the kitchen. Err. V, 1, 418. knap. 1. To break off short. Merch. Ill, 1, 10. 2. To rap. Lr. II, 4, 12.5. knave. 1. A boy. Often used without implying badness, and frequently as a term of endearment. LLL. Ill, 1, 144. In Scotch, often used to signify a male, as in knave-bairn. 2. A servant. Lr. II, 2, 144; 0th. I, 1, 126. In old versions of the New Testament "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ," is rendered "a knave of Jesus Christ." knee. Lend me your knees = aid me in my supplication. Meas. V, 1, 436. knoll. Sounds ; probably a variant of knell. Kins. I, 1. knot=grass. A common weed, the Poly- gonum avicidare. It is low, straggling and having numerous and prominent joints, whence the name. It was a common superstition that children and other young animals fed upon a decoc- tion of knot-grass became stunted or dwarfed. Some say that the term " hindering " applied to it in Mids. Ill, 2, 329, means that it clogs the plow or harrow and thus hinders the workman. But the connection in which it occurs points to the first interpretation as being the true one. Furness suggests that "hindering" applies not only to knot-grass but to Hermia ; hence it becomes in reality, a botanical pun. knot=pated. Thick-headed. IHIV. II, 4, 79. knots. Beds or plots in which a garden is laid out. RII. Ill, 4, 46. know. To acknowledge ; to realize. Mcb. II, 2, 73. known. Been acquainted with each other. Ant. II, 6, 86 ; Cyra. I, 4, 86. LA 154 LAM 3 A. 1. An exclamation signifying Look ! There now ! Tw. Ill, 4, 111 ; Wint. II, 8, 50. 2. Probably a euphemism for Lord, and used as a mild form of as- severation. Wint. I, 1, 86 ; Hml. IV, 5, 57. 3. A musical note in Guido's scale. LLL. IV, 2, 102 ; Lr. I, 2, 149. laborsome. Elaborate. Hml. I, 2, 59 ; Cym. Ill, 4, 167. labras. (Spanish.) Lips. Wiv. I, 1, 166. lace. To adorn with ; material fastened on. Sonn. LXVII, 4 ; Mcb. II, 3, 118 ; Cym. II, 2, 22. See mutton. lade. To empty ; to drain. 3HVL III, 2, 139. Lady Anne, dr.p. Widow to Edward, Prince of Wales, and daughter to Earl of Warwick. RIII. Lady Capulet, dr.p. Wife to Capulet and mother to Juliet. Rom. Lady Faulconbridge, dr.p. Mother to Robert and Philip Faulconbridge. John. Lady Grey, dr.p. Afterwards queen to Edward IV. 3HVI.; RIII. Lady Macbeth, dr.p. Wife to Macbeth. Mcb. Lady Macduff, dr.p. Mcb. Lady Montague, dr.p. Wife to Mon- tague. Rom. Lady Mortimer, dr.p. Daughter to Glen- dower. IHIV. Lady Northumberland, dr.p. 2HIV. Lady Percy, dr.p. Wife to Hotspur. See Percy, Lady. IHIV. lady=bird. Staunton claims that this term was usually applied to women of loose manners, and that the " God for- bid " in the nurse's exclamation means, " God forbid that such a terra should be applied to her." But Dyce sees in it only a term of endearment, and that the " God forbid " is properly an ellipsis of "God forbid that any accident should keep her away. ' ' Dyce is most probably Wife to Macduff. correct. Halliwell, in his "Dictionary of Archaic Words," gives ladybird with Staunton's meaning, bub there is only one instance of such use thus far discovered. It does not appear to have been in common use in this sense. Rom. I, 3, 5. lady=smock. The plant cardaniine pra- tensis. LLL. V, 2, 903. Laertes, dr.p. Son to Polonius. Hml. Lafeu, dr.p. An old lord. All's. lag, n. The last or lowest class of people. Tim. Ill, 6, 90. lag, adv. Late ; tardy ; coming short of. RIII. II, 1, 90 ; Lr. I, 2, 6. Dag, V. To move slowly. RII. I, 3, 214. lag=end. The latter end ; the last part. IHIV. V, 1, 24 ; HVIII. I, 3, 35. laid. Waylaid. The country is laid = set on its guard to arrest. 2HVI. IV, 10, 4. lakin. A contraction of lady kin == little lady, an endearing term applied to the Virgin Mary, and used as a mincing oath. Tp. Ill, 3, 1 ; Mids. Ill, 1, 14. Lammas=tide. The first of August in the old calendar ; now the twelfth. So- called from the Anglo-saxon hlaf-moesse = loaf -mass or bread-mass, because on this day the first fruits of the harvest were offered at mass. In Scotland and the North of England this is the time when the lambs are sold, and numerous fairs, known as "Lammas Fairs," are held in different parts of the country. Hence, some have erroneously derived the name from lamb. Lamond. In the Fl. Lamound. It has been suggested that Sir W. Raleigh was the original of this character, but without good grounds. Mr. C. E. Brown thinks that it is an allusion to Pietro Monte, a famous cavalier and swordsman, who is mentioned by Cas- tiglione as the instructor of Louis the Seventh's Master of Horse. lampass. A disease which affects the LAN 155 LAU mouths of horses. Shr. Ill, 2, 53. " 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.'''' Youatt. Lancaster, Duke of, dr.p. Uncle to Richard II. RII. Lancaster, Prince John of, dr.p. Son to Henry IV. IHIV. and 2HIV. lances. Lancers ; men armed with lances. LLL. V, 2, 650 ; Lr. V, 3, 50. land. Lawn. Tp. IV, 1, 130 ; LLL. V, 2, 310. land=carrack. See carrack. land=damn. A word of which the mean- ing is entirely conjectural. It occurs but once in Sh., and certainly means to inflict extreme punishment, but what or how we know not. Wint. II, 1, 143. land=raker. A vagabond. IHIV. II, 1, 81. lank, V. To shrink ; to become lank. Ant. I, 4, 71. lantern, | A louvre; a window-turret. lanthorn. f Rom. V, 3, 84. lap. To wrap up. Mcb. I, 2, 55 ; Cym. V, 5, 361. lapwing. A bird ; the Vanellus crista- tus ; called also the peewit or peewee from its cry. It is about as large as a pigeon, and is familiar to every one who has had occasion to cross waste lands in Great Britain. Like some other ground-nesting birds it has a habit of luring intruders away from its nest by fluttering along the ground as if it were w^ounded or had a broken wing, and in this way enticing the would-be capturer to a distance, when it suddenly takes flight and regains its nest by a circuitous route. This habit of decep- tion has made the lapwing a symbol of insincerity, and has given rise to the proverb : " The lapwing cries most far- thest from her nest." Ray's "Prov- erbs." Ado. Ill, 1, 25 ; Err. IV, 2, 27. Another characteristic which the lap- wing shares with some other ground- nesting birds is that the young are so forward that the moment the shell is hatched the young -are able to run about, and often do so with part of the shell adhering to their bodies. Most writers speak of the shell adhering to the head, but this I have never seen ; but even the newly-hatched chickens of common barn-door fowl are often seen carrying portions of the shell on their backs. Hml. V, 2, 193. lapsed, p.p. Surprised ; taken ; appre- hended. Tw. Ill, 3, .36 ; Hml. Ill, 4, 107. lard. To ornament. Hml. IV, 5, 38. large. Unrestrained ; free ; licentious. Mcb. Ill, 4, 11 ; Ado. II, 3, 206; Rom. II, 4, 102. largess. Donation ; bounty. Mcb. II, 1, 14. lark. The European sky-lark, famed for its song while soaring in the heavens. Cym. II, 3, 21 ; Rom. Ill, 5, 31. " The toad having very fine eyes and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying among the people that the toad ayid lark had changed eyes.''^ Warburton. laroon. A thief. (French, larron.) Wiv. I, 4, 71. lass=lorn. Forsaken by his mistress or sweetheart. Tp. IV, 1, 68. latch. 1. To catch ; to lay hold of . Mcb. IV, 3, 195. 2. To anoint ; to besmear. Mids. Ill, 2, 36. Schm. doubts the propriety of this definition of the word, but there seems to be good authority for it. lated, p.p. Belated ; benighted. Mcb. III, 3, 6 ; Ant. Ill, 11, 30. lath. A wooden sword used by clowns ; hence, a contemptuous term for a sword in the hands of a wealding. Tit. II, 1, 41. latten. A coarse kind of brass ; a metal incapable of taking a fine temper or holding a keen edge. Wiv. I, 1, 165. Launce, dr.p. Servant to Proteus. Gent. Launcelot Qobbo, dr.p. Servant to Shy- lock. Merch. laund. A glade or open space in the woods. The old form of lawn. 3HVI, III, 1, 2 ; Kins. Ill, 1. launder. To wash. Compl. 17. LATT 156 L'EN Laurence, Friar, dr. p. A Franciscan. Rom. Lavache, dr.p. A clown. All's. Lavinia, dr.p. Daughter to Titus An- dronicus. Tit. lavolta. A dance consisting chiefly in high bounds and whirls. Troil. IV, 4, 88. Iaw=day. A court day ; a day on which the judges sit to administer justice. 0th. Ill, 3, 140. lay. A wager. 0th. II, 3, 330 ; Gym. 1, 4, 59. leading. The power of leading ; general- ship. IHIV. IV, 3, 17. leaguer. A camp ; generally used to signify the camp of the assailants in a siege. All's. Ill, 6, 27. Leander. A youth of Abydos who was in lo\e with Hero, the priestess of Venus in Sestus. Guided by a lamp displayed by Hero, he swam across the Hellespont every night to meet her and returned before daybreak. One stormy night his strength was unequal to the task and he was drowned. JStext morn- ing his body was cast up on the shore of Sestus, whereupon Hero cast herself into the sea and perished. The story of Hero and Leander is alluded to several times in Sh. Gent. Ill, 1, 117 ; Rom. II, 4, 44 ; As. IV, 1, 100. Lear, (ir.p. King of Great Britain. Lr. learn. To teach. Tp. I, 2, 365; Ado. IV, 1, 31 ; RII. IV, 1, 120. A use of the word which is now regarded as in- correct. leash. A set of three, from the string or thong for leading greyhounds, to which usually three dogs were attached. The leash of drawers are Tom, Dick and Francis, who have just been named. . IHIV. II, 4, 7. leasing. Lying. Tw, I, 5, 105 ; Cor. V, leather=coats. The apples generally known as golden russets or russetings. 2HIV. V, 3, 44. leave, n. License; licentiousness. Ven. 568 ; 3HVI. Ill, 2, 34. leave, v. 1. To part with. Hml. Ill, 4, 91. 2. To desist from: to leave off. Gent. II, 6, 17 ; Merch. V, 1, 43. Le Beau, dr.p. A courtier. As. Leda. The daughter of Thestius and wife of Tyndareus. She was a very beauti- ful woman, and Jupiter fell in love with her. In order to gain access to her he transformed himself into a swan. Wiv. V, 5, 7. The accounts given by the ancient writers of the paternity of her children are very much confused. She was the mother of Castor and Pollux and other children, including the famous Helen, the wife of Menelaus and the cause of the Fall of Troy. leech. A physician. Tim. V, 4, 84. leer. 1. An amorous and smiling look. Wiv. I, 3, 50. 2. Complexion; color. As. IV, 1, 67; Tit. IV, 2, 119. leese. To loose. Sonn. V, 14. leet. A manor court or private juris- diction for petty offences ; also a day on which such court is held. Nares. Shr. Ind. II, 89 ; 0th. III. 3, 140. See sealed. leg. A bow ; an obeisance. Cor. II, 1, 78 ; Tim. I, 2, 241. lege. To allege. Shr. I, 2, 28. leiger, ) Ambassador or messenger. leidger. ) Meas. Ill, 1, 59 ; Cym. I, 5, 80. See also lieger. legerity. Lightness; nimbleness. HV. IV, 1, 23. legs. As proper a man as ever went on four legs. Tp, II, 2, 62. The usual form of the proverb is : " As proper a man as ever went on two legs," but Stephano, seeing four legs sticking out from under one gaberdine, thinks this a man with four legs and alters the proverb to suit. See neaVs-leather. leman. A lover ; a paramour (either masculine or feminine). Wiv. IV, 2, 172 ; Tw. II, 3, 26. Lennox, dr.p. A Scottish nobleman. Mcb. Leonardo, dr.p. Servant to Bassanio. Merch. lenten. Spare (like the fare in Lent). Tw. I, 5, 9 ; Hml. II, 2, 329. I'envoy. A technical term (old French) signifying a sort of postscript ; a fare- well or moral at the end of a poem or LET 157 LIM prose piece. LLL. Ill, ], 72, 73, etc. The expression the Venvoy, fouud in lines 88 and 89, is rather awkward as using both the English and French articles together before the same noun, P He) being the French for the. But this form was and still is in common use. let, n. A hindrance. HV. V, 2, 65. let, V. To hinder. Gent. Ill, 1, 113; Hml. I, 4, 86. lethe. 1. A river in Hades whose waters were said to have the property of causing those who drank of them or bathed in them to forget everj^thing that had occurred in their past lives. Hml. I, 5, 33 ; Tw. IV, 1, 66 ; 2HIV. V, 2, 72. 2. Death. Caes. Ill, 1, 206. level, 71. The direction of an aim. All's. 11, 1, 159 ; HVIII. I, 2, 2. level, V. To aim, RIII. IV, 4, 202; Merch. I, 2, 41 ; Ant. V, 2, 339. lets. Hindrances. Kins. Ill, 5. Lepnato, clr.jy. Governor of Messina. Ado. Leonatus Posthumus, dr.p. Husband to Imogen. Cym. Leonine, dr.p. Servant to Dionyza. Per. Leontes, dr.j). King of Sicilia. TVint. Lepidus, Marcus ^milius, dr.p. A tri- umvir. Ant. lewdly. Wickedly ; badly. 2HVI. II, 1, 167. lewdster. A libertine. Wiv. V, 3, 23. libbard. A leopard. LLL. V, 2, 551. "The knee-caps in old dresses and in plate-armour frequently represented a libbard's (i.e., a leopard's) head." Dyee. liberal. Licentious ; wanton. Ado. IV, 1, 93; Hml. IV, 7, 171; 0th. II, 1, 165. liberty. Freedom from rules. Hml. II, 2, 421. This passage has given rise to a great deal of conjecture. See tvrit. license. Licentiousness. Meas. Ill, 2, 216. Lie has. He was the attendant or servant of Hercules and was sent by the latter to his wife, Deianira, for a robe suitable for him to wear while offering a sacri- fice to Jupiter. Deianira sent a garment steeped in the blood of Nessus, and as soon as it had grown warm on the body of Hercules, the latter suffered the most excruciatmg tortures. Maddened by the pain which he endured, he threw his faithful servant, Lichas, into the sea. Merch. II, 1, 33; Ant. IV, 12, 45. lictors. Officers who attended the magis- trates in ancient Rome, clearing the way and performing other duties. Ant. V, 2, 214. lie. To dwell; to abide. Gent. IV, 2, 137; Shr. IV, 4, 56 ; Tw. Ill, 1, 8. liefest. Best beloved. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 164. lifter. A thief. Troil. I, 2, 129. (Punning.) lieger. An ambassador. Cym. I, 5, SO. "A lieger ambassador is one that resides in a foreign court to promote his master's interests. " Johnson. Ug. To rest; to lie. HV. Ill, 2, 125. Sh. puts this word in the mouth of the Scottish captain, Jamy, as a Scotticism, It is old English and is used by Spencer and Chaucer. As a dialect word it is used to-day in the North of England more than in Scotland. See Tennyson's ' ' Northern Farmer. ' ' Ligarius, dr.p. A Roman conspirator. Cses. liggens. Shallow's oath, by God''s liggens. 2HIV. V, 3, 69. Said to be manufactured for Shallow, but this is doubtful. lightly. Usually ; commonly. RIII. Ill, 1, 94, Nares. light=o'=love. " An old tune of a dance, the name of which made it a proverbial expression of levity, especially in love matters. Sir John Hawkins recovered the original tune from an old MS. , and it is inserted in the notes to Much Ado About Nothing.'''' Nares. The music and some of the words may be found in the New Variorum Ed. of Ado., by Dr. Furness, page 181. Limander. Bottom's blunder for Leander. q.v. Mids. V, 1, 198. limbeck. An alembec; a still. Sonn. CXIX, 2 ; Mcb. I, 7, 67. limber. Easily set aside. Wint. I, 3, 47. limb=meal. Limb by limb. Cym. II, 4, 147. See inch-meal. LIM 158 LIV limbo (limbus). 1. The bwrders of hell or hell itself ; usually supposed to be a region outside of hell where those who have not received the grace of Christ, while living, and yet are not actually condemned, have their abode. Limbus patruyn, a prison on the outer circle of hell where are confined those righteous who died before the coming of Christ. 2. A cant expression for prison. Err. IV, 2, 32 ; HVIII. V, 4, 67. Lincoln, Bishop of, dr. p. HVIII. lime, n. 1. A well-known substance of which mortar is made. It is strongly alkaline and was frequently added to wine and beer to correct acidity. IHIV. II, 4, 137. 2. Bird-lime; a sticky substance used for catching birds. Tp. IV, 1, 246 ; Gent. Ill, 2, 68 ; Mcb. IV, 2, 34. lime, V. 1. To smear with bird-lime. 2HVI. 1,3, 91; Tw. Ill, 4, 82; Hml. III, 3, 68. 2. To add lime to wine to correct its acidity. Wiv. I, 3, 15. limit. To appoint. Meas. IV, 2, 175 ; Mcb. II, 3, 58. limn. To draw ; to paint. As. II, 7, 194. line. 1. To draw ; to delineate. As. Ill, 2,97. 2. To pad ; to stuff. Tim. IV, 1, 14. 3. To bribe. Cym. II, 3, 72. 4. To fortify ; to strengthen. John II, 1, 352 ; IHIV. II, 3, 86; Mcb. I, 3, 112. line=grove. Supposed to be a misprint for lime-grove. Tp. V, 1, 10. ling. 1, A fish {molva vulgaris) which is extensively used as food in a salted and dried condition like codfish. This is probably what the clown means in All's. Ill, 2, 14. " The clown probably uses ling for meagre food in general, as he uses Isbels for waiting- women generally." Cowden Clarke. 2. The name is also applied to moorland plants — heather, broom, etc., and Dyce and some others claim that the word "long"inTp. I, 1,70 should be "ling." lining. Padding ; stuffing ; something to fill out. LLL.' V, 2, 791, link. A torch. Shr. IV, 1, 137. It was a common trick to color or blacken old hats by holding them over the smoky flame of a pitch torch. In Mihil Mumchance (wrongly attributed by Steevens to Greene) we read : "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." linsey=woolsey. Cloth made of flax and wool ; hence a mixture of ill-assorted things ; a farago. All's. IV, 1, 13. linstock. " A curved stick with a cock at one end to hold a gunner's match, and a sharp point at the other to stick it upright in the ground." "Kersey's Dictionary." The old means of firing a cannon. HV. Ill, chor. 33. Lion. A character in the interlude. Mids. lip, V. To kiss. 0th. IV, 1, 72. Lipsbury pinfold. The location of Lips- bury has never been found out. Capell says: "This we may know, and with certainty, that it was some village or other famed for boxing ; that the boxers fought in a ring or enclosed circle and that this ring was called ' Lipsbury pinfold.'" Nares thought it might "mean the teeth as being the pinfold within the lips." Collier's MS. gives "Finsbury," and Jennen's suggests "Ledbury." Kent evidently meant a place or enclosure where he could thrash Oswald without fear of interruption. Lr. II, 2, 9. list. Boundary ; enclosure. Meas. I, 1, 6 ; Hml. IV, 5, 99. lither. Soft ; pliant. IHVI. IV, 7, 21. litigious. Doubtful ; precarious. Per. III, 3, 3. littered. Born ; a term generally applied to puppies and kittens, but used by Autolycus in regard to himself. Wint. . IV, 3, 25. livelihood. Semblance of life. AU's. I, 1, 58. livery. A law phrase, signifying the act of delivering a freehold into the posses- sion of the heir or purchaser. RII. II, 3, 129 ; IHIV. IV, 3, 62. IIV 159 LOR living. Active ; present ; convincing. 0th. Ill, 3, 409. lizard. The common gray lizard of England is the Lacerta agilis, a slender animal with four legs and a long tail. In Shakespeare's time it was a general belief that the harmless little lizard was armed with a venomous little sting (2HVI. Ill, 2, 325), and the same idea is quite common even at the present time. This was probably the reason why the lizard and a very similar-look- ing, though radically different, animal, the newt, formed an ingredient in the broth of witches. It is needless to say that the lizard is quite harmless and, indeed, forms a very pretty and inter- esting pet. Like the chameleon it lives wholly upon insects. See newt. loach. A kind of fish. IHIV. II, 1, 23. The comparison here has drawn forth much comment from Sh. editors, but without satisfactory results. See haivk. lob, n. A lout ; something large or thick. Thou lob of spirits. Mids. II, 1, 16, Johnson correctly says that the word indicates inactivity of body and dulness of mind. Dyce says that as Puck could fly ' ' swifter than arrow from the Tar- tar's bow," and could "put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes, ' ' the Fairy could hardly mean, as Mr. Collier supposes, "to reproach Puck with heaviness." This is all well enough for a man to say, because even a Verne did not suggest that he could do it in less than eighty days. But light would go round the world while Puck was making a couple of flaps with his wings, and electricity in still less time. If the fairy could have done it in forty seconds she might well call Puck a slow, loutish creature. That the word indicates large size is seen in the name lob-worm given to a large, slow-moving kind of earth-worm often used by anglers for bait. lob, V. To hang down in a wearied and sluggish manner. HV. IV, 2, 47. lockram. A cheap kind of linen. Cor. II, 1, 225. So called from Locrenan, the place in Brittany where it was made. locusts. Undoubtedly the fruit (long pods) of the carob tree (ceratonia siliqua) and not insects. 0th. I, 3, 354. These pods, when in good condition, are quite sweet. They are known as " John the Baptist's bread." lodestar. The leading star ; the pole star. Lucr. 179 ; Mids, I, 1, 183. Lodovico, dr.j). Kinsman to Brabantio. Merch. lodged. Growing grain is said to be lodged when it is laid flat by wind and rain. RII. Ill, 3, 162 ; Mcb. IV, 1, 55. See bladed. loffe. To laugh. Mids. II, 1, 55. loggats. A popular game in which small logs are thrown at a stake fixed in the ground. Hml. V, 1, 100. Hanmer, Capell and most of the small glossaries make it the same as nine-pins, but Nares shows that this is a mistake. loggerhead. A blockhead ; a dolt. LLL. IV, 3, 204; IHIV. 11,4,4. long. To belong. Meas. II, 2, 59 ; HV. II, 4, 80 ; Per. II, Intro. 40. Longaville, dr.p. A lord attendant on the King of Navarre. LLL. longly. Fondly ; lovingly. Shr. 1, 1, 170. long of. On account of ; because of. Mids. III, 2, 339 ; Cym. V, 5, 272. Iong=staff sixpenny strikers. Fellows that infest the road with long staves and rob men of sixpences. IHIV. II, 1, 82. Longsword, William, dr.p. Earl of Salisbury. John. loof. To luff ; to bring close to the wind. Ant. Ill, 10, 18. loon. A low contemptible feUow. Mcb. V, 3, 11. looped. Full of holes. Lr. Ill, 4, 31. loose, V. To discharge an arrow. HVIIL V, 4, 60. loose, >i. The discharge of an arrow. LLL. V, 2, 750. Lord, A, dr.p. A character in the Induc- tion. Shr. Lord Abergavenny, dr.p. HVIIL Lord Bardolph, dr.p. An enemy to the king. 2HIV. LOR 160 LUC Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, dr.p. 3HIV. Lord Clifford, dr.p. A Lancastrian. 2HVI. and 3HVI. Lord Fitzwater, dr.p. RII. Lord Grey, dr.p. Son to Lady Grey. RIII. Lord Hastings, dr.iJ. 2HIV., 3HVI. and RIII. Lord Lovel, dr.p. RIII. See Lovel. Lord Mowbray, dr.p. An enemy to the king. 2HIV. Lord Rivers, dr.p. Brother to Lady Grey. 3HVI. Lord Ross, dr.p. RII. Lord Sands, dr.p. HVIII. Lord Say, dr.p. 2HVI. Lord Scales, dr.p. Governor of the Tower. 2HVI. Lord Scroop, dr.p. An enemy to the king. HV. Lord Stafford, dr.p, A Yorkist. 3HVI. Lord Stanley, dr.p. RIII. Lord Talbot, dr.p. Afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. IHVI. Lord Willoughby, dr.p. RII. "Lord have mercy on us.' The in- scription which used to be placed on the doors of houses visited by the plague to warn persons not to approach them. LLL. V, 2, 419. Lord's tokens. Plague spots. It was supposed that when these appeared there was no hope of recovery. LLL. V, 2, 424. Lorenzo, dr.p. The lover of Jessica. Merch. lots to blanks. Very great odds. Cor. V, 2, 10. lottery. A prize; that which falls to one's share by lot. Ant. II, 2, 248. Louis, dr.p. The Dauphin of France. John. Louis, cZr .p. The Dauphin of France. HV. Louis XI, dr.p. King of France. 3HVI. lout, ) n. An awkward, foolish fellow ; lowt, ) a bumpkin. Gent. IV, 4, 71 ; Wint. I, S, 301 ; Gym. V, 2, 9. lout, ) V. To make a fool of. IHVI. lowt, \ IV, 3, 13. love=day. A day for the amicable settle- ment of differences. Tit. I, 1, 4. Lovel, Lord, dr.p. A friend to Richard III. This was Francis, Lord Lovell and Holland, who is referred to in the famous lines quoted ante under Catesby. He escaped from the battle of Bosworth and reached Flanders and Burgundy, whence he returned with two thousand men to support the impostor Lambert Simnel. Some say that he was slain at the battle of Stoke ; others, that he es- caped and found refuge in a secret vault in his old home. In 1708 there was found in this vault a skeleton, with remnants of jars, etc. It is supposed that the skeleton was his and that he had eventually starved to death. Lovell, Sir Thomas, dr.p. HVIII. loves. Of all loves = for love's sake, i.e., for the sake of the love between us. Wiv. II, 2, 119 ; Mids. II, 2, 154. In 0th. Ill, 1, 13 the Fl. and most modern eds. read for love''s sake ; the Quarto reads of all loves. love=in=idleness. The pansy or heart's- ease — viola tricolor. Mids. II, 1, 168 ; Shr. I, 1, 156. lown. A base feUow. 0th. II, 3, 96; Per. IV, 6, 19. Same as loon. lozel. A faint-hearted, cowardly, worth- less feUow. Wint. II, 3, 109. lubber. A heavy, inactive fellow. Gent. II, 5, 47 ; Tw. IV, 1, 14 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 139. Mrs. Quickly uses Lubber's head for Libbard's head in 2HIV. II, 1, 30. luce. A British fish, very similar in ap- pearance and habits to the American pickerel. It is called a jack when small, a pike when in its middle stage, and a luce or lucie when full grown. Sir Thomas Lucy, the poet's old enemy, bore three luces in his coat of arms. Slender increases them to a dozen, and Evaus, seeming to understand the word according to his own pronunciation, calls them "louses;" the word louse in old English, Scottish, and some English dialects being pronounced loos or luce. He therefore remarks that a dozen white louses do become an old coat well, that it is a familiar beast to LUC 161 LUC man and signities love, because, as Boswell says, "it does not desert man in distress. " Some have detected a pun in the "salt fish" and the "luce salt- ant " (leaping) ; but the proper word for that, in the case of fish, is haurient. But then we must not look for accuracy at the hands of Shallow. Commenting on this passage, Verplanck says : "The English commentators have been much perplexed here, and pronounce the passage 'an heraldic puzzle.' Did not Shakespeare merely intend to ridicule the pedantry of heraldry so common in his days, and doubtless, like all other pedantry, often blundering?" Wiv. I, 1, 16 ; and see prick. It has been suggested that Sh. found a hint for the speeches of Slender, Shallow and Evans in Hollin- shed's "Chronicles of Ireland." This is quite possible, for Sh, would seize upon any facts or even forms of expres- sion that suited his purpose, no matter where they came from. To such an extent is this true that somebody gave him the sobriquet of " The Great War- wickshire Thief. ' ' The passage in ques- tion reads as follows : " Having lent the king his signet to seal a letter, who having powdered erinuts ingrailed in the seal ; ' Why, how now, Yf ise, ' quoth the king, ' what, hast thou lice here ? ' 'And if it like, your majesty,' quoth Sir William, ' a louse is a rich coat, for by giving the louse I part arms wdth the French king, in that he giveth the flower de lice.' Whereat the king heartily laughed to hear how prettily so biting a taunt was suddenly turned to so pleasant a conceit." In view of this passage, Schm. sug- gests that the luce of Slender and Shallow maybe the "flower-de-luce!" No one can read the line I, 1, 22 in- telligently and adopt Schm. idea. Luce, dr. p. Servant to Adriana. Err. Lucentio, dr.p. Son to Vicentio. Shr. Lucetta, dr.p. Waiting-woman to Julia. Gent. Luciana, dr.p. Sister to Adriana. Err. Lucifer. Satan. Wiv. 1, 3, 84; 2Hiv'. II, 4, 360 ; HV. IV, 7, 145. The name literally means the light-bringer, hence its application to the common lucif er or light-bringing match. The poets claim that before his fall Satan was called Lucifer, and in the authorized version of the Bible (Isaiah xiv, 12) the name is applied to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. It is to this passage, doubt- less, that Sh. makes Wolsey refer in his speech (HVIII. Ill, 2, 371) : And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Lucilius, dr.p. A friend to Brutus and Cassius. Caes. Lucilius, dr.p. Servant to Timon. Tim. Luc in a. The Roman goddess, who pre- sided over the birth of children. Her name is derived from the Latin word lux, light, because she brings children into the light. Cym. V, 4, 43. Lucio, dr.p. A fantastic. Meas. Lucius, dr.p. A lord, flatterer of Timon. Tim. Lucius, dr.p. A servant. Tim. Lucius, dr.p. Servant to Brutus. Caes. Lucius, dr.p. Son to Titus. Tit. Lucius, Cains, dr.p. General of the Roman forces. Cym. lucky days. In Sh. time great attention was paid to this surperstitious fancy, and se\ eral allusions to it are found in the plays. Thus, in Wint. Ill, 3, 142, the shepherd says to the clown : ' Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'' II do good deeds o^Vt. In the old almanacs the days supposed to be favorable or un- favorable are enumerated, allusion to which occurs in Webster's Duchess of Malfy (1623) : By the almanac, I think, To choose good days and shun the critical. This was no doubt the controlling idea of the speakers in John HI, 1, 86 and Mcb. IV, 1, 134. Even at this day the superstition has a deep hold on the popular mind, e.g., the widespread feel- ing that it is unlucky to begin any im- portant undertaking on Friday. LUC 162 LXJR Lucullus, dr.p. A lord, flatterer of Timon. Tim, Lucy, Sir William, dr.p. IHVI. Lud's=Town. The ancient name of Lon- don. Cym. Ill, 1, 32. " Trinovantum, called Caer Lud, and by corruption of the word Caer London, and in process of time London, was rebuilt by Lud, Cassibelan's elder brother. ' ' Grey. lug. To drag ; to pull. Tim. IV, 3, 31 ; Hml, III, 4, 212. Lxig is also an old word for the ear — whether of an animal or the projection on some inanimate object like a jug or pail. Hence, lugged signifies not only dragged but eared. Thus a lugged bear (IHIV. I, 2, 83) has been held by many coms. to mean a bear whose ears had been pulled by dogs. Others as one that was merely lugged or dragged through the streets. Lugged seems also to have signified gelded, and a lugged^ bear has been ex- plained as a gelded bear (see "Century Dictionary"), a doubtful gloss, as we have no evidence that bears were ever gelded. lumpish. Heavy; dull; spiritless. Gent. Ill, 2, 62. lunes. Mad freaks ; fits of lunacy. Wint. II, 2, 30. Also in modern editions of Wiv. IV, 2, 22, and Troil. II, 3, 139, lunes has been substituted for lines. Lupercal, The Feast of. "The Roman festival of the Lujoercalia {-uim or -ioriwn), whatever may be the etymology of the name, was in honor of the god Pan. It was celebrated annually on the Ides (or 13th) [15th?] of February, in a place called the Lupercal at the foot of Mount Aventine. A third company of Luperci, or priests of Pan, with Antony for its chief, was instituted in honor of Julius Caesar. " Craik. It is a tradition that the grotto near the western angle of the Palatine Hill in ancient Rome was the den of the she- wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus. Near it was the Ficus Ruminalis, the fig-tree beneath which Romulus and Remus were left by the retiring waters of the Tiber. The Luperci assembled on the day of the Lupercalia, and to the god they sacrificed goats and young dogs as ap- propriate sacrifices to Lupercus, the god of fertility. After the sacrifice was over, the Luperci partook of a meal, at which fliey were plentifully supplied with wine. They then cut the skins of the goats which they had sacrificed into pieces, with some of which they covered parts of their body in imitation of the god Lupercus, who was represented half -naked and half -covered with goat- skin. The other pieces of the skins they cut into thongs, and holding them in their hands they ran through the streets of the city, touching or striking with them all persons whom they met in their way, and especially women, who even used to come forward voluntarily for the purpose, since they believed that this ceremony rendered them fruitful. Cses. I, 1, 72, and III, 2, 100. lurch. 1. To filch ; to steal. Wiv. II, 2,26, Schm. defines this word as "to lurk," and lurk is defined as "to lie hidden and in wait. " So also Skeat. But Cot- grave in defining the word Fortraire explains it as " to lurch ; to purloyne ; withdraw from," And it would seem on a careful reading of Falstaff' s words that this is the meaning here. Ben Jonson in The Silent Woman has: " You have lurched your friends of the better half of the garland by concealing this part of the plot." 2. As it occurs in Cor. II, 2, 105, He lurched all swords of the garland, Skeat, followed by Schin. , defines it as to "pilfer, steal, rob, plunder." But surely not to pilfer or steal in the brunt of seventeen battles. The meaning, of course, is evident, and as Malone puts it : "To ' lurch all swords of the gar- . land ' was to gain from all other warriors the wreath of victory with ease and in- contestable superiority," The expres- sion in this case is probably from an old game mentioned by Cotgrave and called "Lurche," and "a lurch" was LTJR 163 LYC the term used in this game when one person gained every point before an- other made one. lure. A figure stuffed to resemble a bird and used by falconers to allure the hawk. Shr. IV, 1, 195. luscious. In 0th. I, 3, 354, this word evidently has the usual meaning — sweet to excess. As it occurs in Mids. II, 1, 251, it may have the same meaning applied to the sense of smell. Thus Drayton, in his " Polyolbion," has : The azur'd Hare-bell next, with them, they neatly mixt ; To allay whose lushious smell, they Woodbine placet betwixt. But some give it the sense of lush, q.v. , and Theobald changed it from luscious, as in the Fl., to lush. Of this Johnson tells us : " On the margin of one of my folios an unknown hand has written lush Woodbine, which I think is right. " And Ritson says: '"'' Lush is clearly preferable in point of sense and ab- solutely necessary in point of metre." In regard to the latter point Furness notes : " It can be no disgrace to accept this line as an Alexandrine : Quite 6 I ver can | oped | with lils | - ciotis I woodbine, where the resolved syllables of ' lus-ci- ous ' need not be harshly nor strongly emphasised." lush. Juicy; succulent; fresh. Tp. II, 1,52. lust. 1. Desire; wish. Troil. IV, 4, 134. 2. Pleasure; delight. Lucr. 1,384; Tim. IV, 3, 492. lustig {lustique in the Fl). Lusty ; cheer- ful. All's. II, 3, 45. This word occurs frequently in old plays. Capell notes that "An old play, that has a great deal of merit, called The Weakest goeth to the Wall (printed in 1600 ; but how much earlier written, or by whom written, we are no where informed), has in it a Dutchman called Jacob Van Smelt, who speaks a jargon of Dutch and our language, and upon several occasions uses this very word, which in English is lusty." lustihood. Vigor ; energy ; high animal spirits. Ado. V, 1, 76. Reason and respect tnake livers paZe and lustihood deject. Troil. II, 2, 50. The liver was supposed to be the seat of courage and energy. luxurious. Lustful ; unchaste. Ado. IV, 1, 42 ; HV. IV, 4, 20. luxury. Lust ; lasciviousness. Meas. V, 1, 506; Hml. I, 5, 83; Lr. IV, 6, 119. This is the only sense in which this word is used by Shakespeare. Lychorida, dr. p. Nurse to Marina. Per. Lycurgus. The famous legislator of Sparta. Referred to in Cor. II, 1, 60. He was the son of Eunomus, King of Sparta, and brother of Polydectes. The latter succeeded his father as king of Sparta and afterwards died, leaving his wife with child. She proposed to Lycurgus to destroy her offspring if he would share the throne with her. He seemingly consented ; but when the child was born he openly proclaimed him king, and as next of kin acted as his guardian. But being charged by the opposite party with ambitious de- signs, he left Sparta and travelled ex- tensively during many years. Mean- while things in Sparta fell into disorder, and on his return he was hailed as the one man who could restore order. He undertook the task and, having con- sulted the Delphic oracle, he obtained for his institutions the approval of the god. He then exacted from the people a promise that they would not make any alteration in his laws before his return. And now he left Sparta to finish his life in voluntary exile in order that his countrymen might be bound by their oath to preserve his constitution inviolate for ever. Where and how he died nobody could tell. He vanished from the earth like a god, leaving no traces behind but his spirit, and he was honored as a god at Sparta, with a temple and yearly sacrifices down to the latest times. The date of Lycurgus is variously given, but it is impossible to place it later than B.C. 825. I LYM 164 MAC lym. A bloodhound ; so called because it was held by the hunter in a lym, leani or leash until slipped in pursuit of the game. Lr. Ill, 6, 72. Lymoges. O, Lymoges! O, Austria! John III, 1, 115. " Shakespeare, in the person of Austria, has conjoined the two well-known enemies of Richard Coeur-de-Lion. Leopold, Duke of Aus- tria, 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." Blake. The cause of the siege, as related by French, was that a vassal of Vidomar found, as was re- ported to King Richard, a treasure of golden statues, representing a Roman emperor, with his wife, sons and daugh- ters, seated at a golden table, and was required to yield up the prize to Richard, Suzerain of the Limousin. On Vido- mar's refusal he was besieged in his castle at Chaluz-Chabrol, before which the heroic king received the wound of which he died twelve days after, viz., April 6, 1 199. The archer who pierced his shoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. Austria in the old play [The Trouble- sotne Raigne of King John] is called Lymoges, the Austrich duke. HoUin- shed says : * ' The same year Philip, bastard sonne to King Richard, to whom his father had given the castell and honour of Coniacke, killed the Vis- count of Lymoges in revenge of his father's death." Lysander, dr. p. In love with Hermione. Mids. Lysimachus, dr.p. Governor of Mity- lene. Per. ^^j^^AB. The queen of the fairies. %[( Wti ^^^' ■^' ^' ^^' "^^^^ passage *5^ mi/j is the first that has been dis- f^ — n— ^ covered containing the name Mab as that of the fairy queen. There has been much discussion as to the origin of the name, but no satisfactory conclusion has been reached. Macbeth, dr.jD. General of the Scottish army. Mcb. Macbeth, Lady, dr.p. Wife to Macbeth. Mcb. Shakespeare's play has made the names of Macbeth and his wife known wherever the English language is spoken. It is therefore greatly to be regretted that he should have given such an erroneous and unjust view of of their characters as he has embodied in his drama, and it is well for the reader to bear in mind that Macbeth and the other dramatis personce of the play are purely the creations of the poet ; grand and wonderful creations, no doubt, but entirely fictitious and not at all historical. Indeed, several of the characters have no place whatever in history, and the main facts are merely imaginary. Macbeth, instead of being the bloodthirsty and unscru- pulous tyrant that Sh. represents him to be, was a just and wise monarch, and the best authorities agree that his reign was one of unusual peace and prosperity. Sir "Walter Scott condenses the real history of Macbeth as follows : "Duncan, by his mother, Beatrice, a grandson of Malcolm II, succeeded to the throne on his grandfather's death in 1033 ; he reigned only six years. Macbeth, his near relation, also a grand- child of Malcolm II, though by the mother's side, was stirred up by am- bition to contest the throne with the possessor. The Lady of Macbeth also, whose real name was Graoch, had deadly injuries to avenge on the reign- ing prince. Sho was the granddaughter of Kenneth IV, killed 1003 fighting against Malcolm II ; and other causes MAC 165 MAL for revenge animated the mind of her who has been since painted as the stern- est of women. The old annalists add some instigations of a supernatural kind to the influence of a vindictive woman over an ambitious husband. Three women of more than human stature and beauty appeared to Mac- beth in a dream or vision and hailed him successively by the titles of Thane of Cromarty, Thane of Moray (which the king afterwards bestowed on him), and finally by that of King of Scots; this dream, it is said, inspired him with the seductive hopes so well expressed in the drama. " Macbeth broke no law of hospitality in his attempts on Duncan's life. He attacked and slew the king at a place called Bothgowan, or the Smith's House, near Elgin, in 1039, and not, as has been supposed, in his own castle of Inverness. The act was bloody, as was the complexion of the times ; but, in very truth, the claim of Macbeth to the throne, according to the rule of Scottish succession, was better than that of Duncan. As a king, the tyrant so much exclaimed against was in reality a firm, just and equitable prince. Ap- prehensions of danger from a party which Malcolm, the eldest son of the slaughtered Duncan, had set on foot in Northumberland, and still maintained in Scotland, seem, in process of time, to have soured the temper of Macbeth and rendered him formidable to his nobility. Against Macdufl:, in particular, the powerful Maormor of Fife, he had uttered some threats which occasioned that chief to fly from the court of Scot- land. Urged by this new counsellor, Siward, the Danish Earl of ISTorthum- berland, invaded Scotland in the year 1054, displaying his banner in behalf of the banished Malcolm. Macbeth en- gaged the foe in the neighbourhood of his celebrated castle of Dunsinane. He was defeated, but escaped from the battle, and was slain at Lumphanan in 1056." Macmorris, dr.p. An Irish officer in Henry the Fifth's army. HV. maculate. Stained; impure. LLL. 1, 2, 98. mad. Wild ; untrained. IHVI. V, 3, 191. made. Endowed with a fortune. Tw. Ill, 4, 57. Maecenas, dr.p. A friend to Octavius Caesar. Ant. maggot=pie. A magpie; a bird whose color is partly black and partly white, and which is noted for its power of mimicry. Mcb. Ill, 4, 125. magnifico. A title given to Venetian grandees. Merch. Ill, 2, 282; 0th. 1, 2, 12. Maid Marian. A character in the morris dance. IHIV. Ill, 3, 128. mailed. Covered as with a coat of mail. 2HVI. II, 4, 31. main. 1. A hand at dice. IHIV. IV, 1, 47. 2. The mainland. Lr. Ill, 1, 6. main=course. A main-sail. Tp. I, 1, 40. mained. Maimed. 2HVI. IV, 2, 176. Cade evidently gives it this form so as to make a pun on Maine. Some eds. suppose that mained is a misprint for maimed and correct it, thus destroying the joke. mainly. Forciblv ; mightily. IHIV. II, 4, 222 ; Troil. IV, 4, 87. makeless. Mateless; widowed. Sonn. IX, 4. malady. Disease. Of man and beast the infinite malady = " every kind of disease incident to man and beast." Johnson. R. G-. White suggests in- fectious for infinite. Tim. Ill, 6, 109. Malcolm, dr.p. Son to King Duncan. Mcb. Malkin. A famUiar name for Mary, hence kitchen malkin = a servant wench. Cor. II, 1, 224; Per. IV, 3, 34. Mall. A diminutive of Mary ; old form of our Moll. Tp. II, 2, 50. There has been much speculation as to the identity of Mistress Mall, referred to in Tw. I, 3, 135, but without reaching a positive conclusion. Steevens claimed that the reference was to Mary Frith, better known as Mall Cutpurse, the heroine of Middleton and Dekker's comedy. The Roaring Girl, but this MAL 166 MAB Mall was only eleven or thirteen when Sh. play was written. The best author- ities are agreed that the allusion is to a mere impersonation and not to any particular individual. mallecho. Mischief. Probably from the Spanish malhecho = mischief. Hml. Ill, 2, 146. malt=horse. See horse. maIt=worm. One who drinks malt liquor. IHIV. II, 1, 83. Malvolio, dr. p. Steward to Olivia. Tw. Mamillius, dr.p. The young prince of Sicilia. Wint. tnammering. Hesitating; muttering. 0th. III, 3, 70. mammet. A puppet ; a doll. Rom. Ill, 5, 186 ; IHIV. 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 maiuTYiets perhaps means (as G-ifford first suggested) "breasts" (from mam- ma). Dyce. mammock. To tear in pieces. Cor. I, 3, 71. man. To tame a hawk. A term in fal- conry. Shr, IV, 1, 196. manage. 1. Management. Tp. I, 2, 70; Merch. Ill, 4, 25. 2. Measures; means. RII. I, 4, 39. 3. Training ; government. RII. Ill, 3, 179. mandragora, \ A plant noted for its mandrake. f soporific qualities. The root usually has two branches, and this gives it a resemblance to the human figure. It was said to utter shrieks when uprooted and to cause madness and even death to those who tore it from the ground. 2HI V. I, 2, 17 ; Rom. IV, 3, 47 ; 0th. Ill, 3, 330. mankind, adj. Masculine. Wint. II, 3, 67 ; Cor. IV, 2, 18. manned. Furnished with a servant. 2HIV. I, 2, 18 and 59. manner. Custom ; practice. Hml. I, 4, 16. We give this common and simple word a place so as to have the oppor- tunity of saying that in the foregoing passage it is not a misprint for manor. A suggestion of this kind seems to have perennial vitality amongst unfledged Shakespearean critics. manner. To be taken with the manner == to be caught in the act. LLL. I, 1, 202 ; Wint. IV, 4, 752. man=queller. A slayer of men ; a mur- derer. 2HIV. II, 1, 58. manure. To cultivate. 0th. I, 3, 329. This word has entirely changed its meaning; it originally signified "to work with the hand, ' ' being a contracted form of manoexivre. mappery. The study of maps ; theory as opposed to real practice in warfare. Troil. I, 3, 205. marble. Everlasting ; like marble. Tim. IV, 3, 192. marble=constant. Firm as marble. Ant. V, 2, 240. Marcellus, dr.p. An officer. Hml. Marcellus, dr.p. A Roman tribune. Cses. March, Earl of, dr.p>. Edward Mortimer. IHIV. March = chick. A chicken hatched in March ; precocious. Ado. I, 3, 58. marches. Frontiers; borders. HV. I, 2, 140. marchpane. A kind of sweet biscuit composed largely of sugar and pounded almonds. Rom. I, 5, 9. Marcius, Caius, dr.p. A noble Roman, surnamed Coriolanus. Cor. Marcius, Young, dr.p. Son to Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Cor. Marcus Andronicus, dr.p. A tribune and brother to Titus Andronicus. Tit. Marcus Brutus, dr.p. A conspirator against Julius Caesar. Cses. Mardian, dr.p. Attendant on Cleopatra. Ant. mare. The nightmare. 2HIV. II, 1, 86. " The Hostess had' threatened to ride Falstaff like the Incubus or Nightmare; but his allusion (if it be not a wanton one) is to the Galloivs^ which is ludic- rously called the Timber or Two-legged Mare." Steevens. To ride the wild mare = to play at see-saw. 2HIV. II, 4, 238. This is MAR 167 MAS the interpretation given by Douce and accepted by most corns. But it seems to me that Falstaff 's expression means more than this. Mareschall, William, dr. p. Earl of Pem- broke. John. Margarelon, dr. p. Bastard son to Priam. Troil. Margaret, dr.p. Attendant on Hero. Ado. Margaret, dr.p. Daughter to Reignier {Renee), Eang of Anjou ; queen and afterwards widow to Henry VI. IHVI. , 2HVI., 3HVI. andRIII. Margery Jourdain, dr.p. A witch. 2HVI. See Joiirdain. margent. 1. Margin. LLL. V, 2, 8. 2. Glosses or comments frequently printed on the margins of old books. Hml. V, 2, 162. Maria, dr.p. A lady attending on the Princess of France. LLL. Maria, dr.p. Attendant on Olivia. Tw. Mariana, dr.p. A neighbour to a widow of Florence, All's. Mariana, dr.p. The betrothed of Angelo. Meas. Marina, dr.p. Daughter to Pericles. Per. marie. God bless the mark. Merch. II, 2, 25. God save the mark. Rom. Ill, 2, 53. See bless. Marie Antony, dr.p. The Roman trium- vir. Caes. Marquis of Dorset, dr.p. Son to Lady Grey. RIII. Marquis of Montague, dr.p. A Yorkist. 3HVI. married. Exainine every married linea- ment. Rom. I, 3, 83. In the Fl. and all other early texts except the Quartos this passage reads, several lineaments. Prof. DowdeH, in his new ed. of this play, says : ' ' The word, as used here for mutually dependent, is illustrated by the ' well-tuned sounds By unions married ' of Sonn. VIII ; but several has the authority of all texts except Q. " m arry . An exclamation supposed to ha ve been derived from the name of the Virgin Mary. Gent. I, 1, 130 ; Tw. IV, 2, 109 ; Cym. I, 1, 76. marry=trap. An exclamation of insult when a man was caught in his own stratagem. Johnson. Wiv. I, 1, 170. Mars. An ancient Roman god subse- quently identified with the Greek, Ares. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and next to Jupiter enjoyed the highest honors at Rome. He was worshipped as the god of war, and his priests, the Salii, danced in full armour, and the place dedicated to warlike exercises was called after his name. Campus Martins. The wolf was sacred to him in his char- acter of war-god, and the wood-pecker was dedicated to him as to a god gifted with prophetic powers. He is generally represented as driving a chariot drawn by his sister, Bellona. Mars'' hot minion (Tp. IV, 1, 97) = Venus. Her son, of course, is Cupid. See Venus. Mars. One of the planets. The astrologers claimed that the influence of this planet on the destinies of humanity was very great. All's. I, 1, 206; IHVI. I, 2, 1. mart. To traflfic. Cym. I, 6, 151. Martext, Sir Oliver, dr.j). A vicar. As. Martins, dr.p. Son to Titus Andronicus. Tit. Martlemas. A corruption of Martinmas. The feast of St. Martin, which occurs November 11th. Used of a person in the decline of life. 2HIV. II, 2, 110. mary=buds. Flowers of the marigold. Cym. II, 3, 25. mastic. A word of no well-ascertained meaning which occurs in Troil, I, 3, 73. In the Fl. it reads Masticke. Rowe changed this to mastiff; Bos well sug- gested masfive, and Orger, nasty. R. G. White notes that "mastix, said to be the feminine of mastigia, was used to mean a whip or scourge, especially of a moral kind," and quotes a passage from the Arcadia in support of its use here. He further says mastic " has generally been regarded as an error for ' mastiff ' — an epithet, the appro- priateness of which to the jaws of Thersites I cannot see, as he was one of those barking dogs that never bite." Fleay, who thought that the character I MAT 168 MED of Thersites was a satirical portrait of Dekker, sees in mastic an allusion to the Histrio-7nastix, or, The Player Whipt of that writer, one of whose lines was probably aimed at Shak;^- speare. The line is That when he shakes his furious speare. But is it not possible that the epithet was applied to Thersites because he was such an incessant talker that his jaws were always moving as if he were chewing (masticating) ?" match. An appointment. Wiv. II, 2, 304. mate. To confound ; to paralyze. Mcb. V, 1, 86. maund. A hand-basket. Compl. 36. mazed. Confused ; bewildered ; literally, lost in a maze or labyrinth. Mids. II, I, 113; IHVI. IV, 2, 47; HVIII. II, 4, 185. This word is not a contraction of amazed as it is sometimes printed and glossed. mazzard. The head. A modification of mazar, a bowl. Hml. V, 1, 97 ; 0th. II, 3, 157. meacock. Tame ; cowardly ; spiritless. Shr. II, 1, 315. meal'd. Johnson defines this word, as it occurs (Meas. IV, 2, 86) : " sprinkled, defiled." Blackstone: " mingled, com- pounded," from the French meler. But is it not rather a form of the A. S. mcel, a part or portion, and meaning : were he art and part with that which he corrects, as the Scotch would say. meander. A winding way. Through forthrights and meanders = straight paths and crooked or winding ways. Tp. Ill, 3, 3. measles. Originally signified leprosy, though now used for a very different disorder. The origin is the old French word vieseau or mesel, a leper. Cot- grave has " meseau, a meselled, scurvy, leaporous, lazarous person. ' ' The word still retains somewhat of its original meaning in the case of hogs or pork, and we speak of measly pork. Cor. III, 1, 78. measure. 1. Reach. Gent. V, 4, 137. 2. A grave and dignified dance. The word is frequently used in a punning sense, as in Rom. I, 4, 10 and RII. Ill, 4,7. meazel. The old spelling of measle ; a leper; spoken in contempt of a mean person. Cor. Ill, 1, 78. mechanical, n. A handicraftsman ; a mechanic. Mids. Ill, 2, 9 ; Caes. I, 1, 3. medal. Defined by Schm. and others as "a portrait in a locket." Wint. I, 2, 307. meditance. Premeditation. Kins. I, 1. medius fidius. "An old Latin oath, apparently short for Tne dius Fidius adiuvet, may the divine Fidius help me ! If fidius stands for filius, then it means, may the divine son of Jupiter help me ! The reference in that case is most likely to god Hercules. ' ' Skeat ' Kins. Ill, V. meddle. 1. To mix; to mingle. Tp. I, 2, 22. 2. To have to do with. Tw. II, 4, 275. In this instance = to fight, cf. comeddle. Medea was the daughter of JEtes, King of Colchis. She M^as celebrated for her skill in magic. When Jason came to Colchis in search of the golden fleece, she fell in love with the hero, assisted him in accomplishing the object of his adventure and afterward fled with him as his wife to Greece, taking her younger brother Absyrtus with her. Her father pursued her and when she was nearly overtaken, she murdered Absyrtus, cut his body into pieces and strewed them on the road so that her father might be delayed in gathering the limbs of his child. (2HVI. V, 2, 59.) When Jason and she reached lolcus they found ^son, the aged father of Jason, still alive, and Medea restored him to youth by injecting the juice of magic herbs into his veins. (Merch. V, 1, 15.) After some years, however, Jason deserted Medea in order to marry Glauce or Creusa, daughter of Creon, the king of the country. Medea took fearful vengeance for the insult. She killed her two children that she had by MED 169 MEL Jason and sent Grlauce a poisoned gar- ment which burned her to death when she put it on. Creon likewise perished in the flames. She then fled to Athens in a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Others relate that she fled to Hercules at Thebes, he having promised her his assistance, while yet in Colchis, in case of Jason being unfaithful to her. She cured Hercules, who was seized with madness. At length Medea is said to have become immortal, to have been honored with divine worship, and to have married Achilles in Elysium. medicine. A physician. (French medi- cin.) All's. II, 1, 75 ; Wint. IV, 4, 598 ; Mcb. V, 2, 27. medlar. A tree, the fruit of which is small and in shape like an apple, but flat at the top and only fit to be eaten when very ripe or mellow. The Mespi- lus germanica. EUacombe tells us that "Shakespeare only used the common language of his time when he described the medlar as only fit to be eaten when rotten. But, in fact, the medlar when fit to be eaten is no more rotten than a ripe peach, pear or strawberry, or any other fruit which we do not eat till it has reached a certain stage of softness. There is a vast difference between a ripe and a rotten medlar, though it would puzzle many of us to say when a fruit (not a medlar only) is ripe, that is, fit to be eaten. The Japanese always eat their peaches in an unripe state ; they regard a ripe peach as rotten." Chaucer gives the medlar a very pro- minent place in his description of a beautiful garden ; and certainly a fine medlar-tree "ful of blossomes " is a handsome ornament on any lawn. In As. Ill, 2, 125 there is an obvious pun between meddler and medlar. Also in Tim. IV, 3, 307. In Meas. IV, 3, 184 it is used as a term of contempt for a woman, undoubtedly with the same meaning implied in Rom. II, 1, 38, but which cannot be discussed here. In the early days of printing the wood of the medlar-tree was used for making type, it being close-grained like that of the pear and apple. meed. 1. Reward; hire. As. II, 3, 58; RIII. I, 3, 139 ; Cym. Ill, 5, 168. 2. Merit ; worth. 3HVI. II, 1, 36 ; Tim. I, 1, 288. meered, ) This word has given rise to mered. ) much discussion. It is tneered in the Fl ; mered in some other editions. Schm. explains it as sole, entire [mere) ; Nares, as defined, limited. To mear (meaning to bound) occurs in Spenser and in North's "Plutarch," and 'tneere- stone is an old word for boundary stone. Ant. Ill, 13, 10. meliercle. By Hercules. LLL. IV, 2, 80. meiny, | A company belonging to or menie. f attending upon a particular person; from ?nesme, old French, which Roquefort defines, "famille, maison, tons ceux qui la composent." Nares. Often, but erroneously, confounded with the English word many. Lr. II, 4, 35. Meynie, in Cor. Ill, 1, 66, is in most modern editions changed to many and, perhaps, properly so. Meleager. This name does not occur in Sh., but there are several references to him. Prince's heart of Caly don, 2H.V1. I, 1, 235, and the boar of Thessaly, Ant. IV, 13, 2. He was the son of CEneus and Althea, and was one of the most famous ^tolian heroes of Caly- don. He took part in the Argonautie expedition, and on his return home he found the fields of Caly don wasted by an enormous boar which Diana had sent against the country as a punish- ment, because OEneus, the king, once neglected to offer up a sacrifice to the goddess. Meleager, with a band of heroes, went out to hunt the boar. Amongst the company was the fair maiden Atalanta, bub the heroes refused to hunt with her until Meleager, who was in love with her, overcame their opposition, Atalanta gave the animal the first wound, and it was then slain by Meleager. He presented the hide to Atalanta, but his mother's brothers, the sons of Thestius, took it from her, MEL 170 MER whereupon Meleager, in a rage, slew them. This, however, was the cause of his own death, for which see Althea. Althea, repenting too late of what she had done, put an end to her life, and his wife, Cleopatra (not the heroine of Sh, play), died of grief. mell. To meddle ; to have to do with. All's. IV, 3, 257. Melun, dr.p. A French lord. John. Matthew Paris tells us that Melun, before his death, made the confession which is given in John V, 4. In the old play of The Troublesome Raigne of King John, may be found the details of the agreement between the dauphin and sixteen of his nobles, and the oath by which they bound themselves to execute their English allies and deprive their heirs of their seigniories. Melun was one of the sixteen. memorize. To make memorable ; to make glorious. HVIII. Ill, 2, 52; Mcb. I, 2,40. Menas, dr.p. Friend to Pompey. Ant. Menecrates, dr.p. Friend to Pompey. Ant. Menelaus, dr.p. Brother to Agamemnon. Troil. Menelaus was the son of Plisthenes or Atreus and the younger brother of Agamemnon. He was king of Lace- daemon, and married to the famous Helen, by whom he became the father of Hermione. When Helen had been carried of by Paris, Menelaus and Ulysses sailed to Troy in order to demand her restitution. Menelaus was hospitably treated by Antenor, but the journey was of no avail, and the Trojan, Antimachus, even advised his fellow- citizens to kill Menelaus and Ulysses. Thereupon Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon resolved to march against Troy with all the forces that the Greeks could muster. Agamemnon was chosen the commander-in-chief. In the Trojan war Menelaus was under the special protection of Juno and Minerva, and distinguished himself by his bravery in battle. He killed many illustrious Trojans, and would have slain Paris also in single combat had not the latter been carried off by Venus in a cloud. Menelaus was one of the heroes con- cealed in the wooden horse (see horse), and as soon as Troy was taken he and Ulysses hastened to the house of Dei- phobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, and put him to death in a barbarous manner. Menelaus is said to have been secretly introduced into the chamber of Deiphobus by Helen, who thus became reconciled to her former husband. He was among the first that sailed away from Troy, ac- companied by his wife, Helen, and Nestor, but he was eight years wander- ing about the shores of the Mediterranean before he reached home. Henceforth he lived with Helen at Sparta in peace and wealth, and his palace is said to have shone in its splendor like the sun or the moon. Menenius Agrippa, dr.jJ. Friend to Corio- lanus. Cor. Menteith, dr.p. A Scottish nobleman. Mcb. Menteith. A district in the south of Perthshire, Scotland, laying between the Leith and the Forth. It is not a county as Schm. says. IHIV. I, 1, 73. Mephistophilus. A disparaging nick- name applied by Pistol to Slender. Wiv. I, 1, 132. Mephistophilus was the name of a supposed familiar spirit in the old legend of Sir John Faustus, and con- sequently the principal agent in Mar- lowe's play of Dr. Faustus. Mercade, dr.p. A lord attending on the Princess of France. LLL. mercatante. Italian for merchant and used in same sense. Shr. IV, 2, 63. In some editions 'inarcautant. See mer- chant. merchant. A fellow ; a chap ; probably equivalent to peddler or chapman. IHVI. II, 3, 57 ; Rom. II, 4, 153. Used also in a better sense. Merch. Ill, 2, 242. Mercurial. Like Mercury; swift-footed. Mercury had wings on his feet. Cym. IV, 2, 310. See Mercury MEB 171 MER Mercury. This was the name of the Roman god of commerce and gain, the origin of the word being exactly the same as that of our word tner chant. His statue in Rome had a purse in its hand to signify his functions. The Romans of later times identified this god of merchants and tradespeople with the Greek, Hermes, and transferred all the attributes and myths of the latter to the former. But the Fetiales or College of Priests never recognized the identity of the two, and instead of a caducexLs used a sacred branch as the emblem of peace. In all the references in Sh., however, the allusions are to the attributes of Hermes, who was the son of Jupiter and Maia, the daughter of Atlas. He was born in a cave of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. A few hours after his birth he escaped from his cradle, went to Pieria and stole some of the oxen of Apollo. That he might not be discovered by the traces of his footsteps he wore sandals and drove the oxen to Pylos, where he killed two and con- cealed the rest in a cave. When he returned to Cyllene he found a tortoise at the entrance of his native cave. He took the shell of the animal, drew strings across it and thus invented the lyre, on which he immediately played. Apollo, by his prophetic power, had, in the meantime discovered the thief and charged Hermes with the crime before his mother, Maia. She showed to the god the child in its cradle, but Apollo carried him before Jupiter who com- manded him to return the oxen. Hermes then conducted Apollo to Pylos and restored to him his oxen, but when Apollo heard the sounds of the lyre he was so charmed that he allowed Hermes to keep the cattle. An account of the adventures of Mercury (Hermes) and the services that he rendered to the gods would fill a large book. His principal function was that of herald to the gods, hence he was regarded as the god of eloquence, since eloquence is one of the most im- portant of the arts employed by heralds and messengers. And as messengers should also be endowed with cunning, he was known as the god of thieves and liars. Tw. I, .5, 105. He was also the acknowledged author of many inven- tions. His principal attributes are : 1. A travelling hat, with a broad brim, which in later time was adorned with two little wings. 2. His staff, which, instead of being entwined with white ribbons like the ordinary herald's staves, was entwined with two sei'pents. See caduceus. The staff, in later times, is further adorned with a pair of wings expressing the swiftness with which the messenger of the gods moved from place to place. 3. The sandals. They were beautiful and golden, and carried the god across land and sea with the rapidity of the wind. At the ankles they were provided with wings. The planet Mercury is evidently re- ferred to by Autolycus. Wint. IV, 3. 25. The old astrological beliefs were strongly held in the days of Sh., and the influence of the planet Mercury upon human destiny was supposed to tend powerfully towards an endowment of the characteristics of the god whose name it bore. Mercutio, dr.p. Friend to Romeo. Rom. mere. Complete ; entire. 0th. II, 2, 3 ; Cym. IV, 2, 92. Used as an adverb (= merely) in All's. Ill, 5, 58. mere, ) Entire; absolute; only. 0th. mered. \ II, 2, 3 ; Troil. I, 3, 111 ; Ant. Ill, 2, 10 ; Cym. V, 5, 335. merely. Simply ; absolutely ; quite. Tp. I, 1, 59 ; Hml. I, 2, 137. mermaid. A fabulous creature, half woman and half fish. Schm. says the word is synonymous with siren, but this is not strictly correct, although Sh. frequently applies the word interchange- ably, as in Err. Ill, 2, 45 and 168, and elsewhere. See siren. Mermaid was old slang for a woman of bad char- acter. Of the passage : And heard a mermaid on a dolphh^s hack, etc. (Mids. II, 1, 150), Furness tells us that MER 17r3 MES "this speech of Oberon has been the subject of more voluminous specu- lation than any other twenty-five lines in Shakespeare. Perhaps, not unnatur- ally. Let an allegory be once scented and the divagations are endless." Ac- cording to Rowe, it amounted to no more than a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who is meant by the "fair vestal, throned by the west. " In regard to this all are agreed. But Warburton went further and claimed that the mer- maid was Mary, Queen of Scots, the dolphin being the dauphin of France, son of Henry II, to whom Mary was married. See dauj^hin. The superla- tive abilities and attractions of Mary are set forth in the line : uttering such dulcet and harmoyiious breath; and by the stars that shot madly from their sjoheres are "meant the eai-ls of North- umberland and Westmoreland, who fell in her quarrel ; and principally the great duke of Norfolk, whose projected marriage with her was attended with such fatal consequences. ' ' The allegory is certainly very close. Marshall and others think it refers to the entertain- ment given to Elizabeth at Kenilworth in 1575, and that the stars that shot madly from their spheres were fire- works! ! But this is certainly a very unpoetioal conception and one entirely unworthy of the passage under consider- ation. He identifies the mermaid on the dolphin with Arion " riding aloft upon his old friend the dolphin,'''' as described by Laneham in his account of the festivities. Arion must have made a rare old mermaid. It is worthy of note in this connection that Mary, in her own day, was carica- tured under the symbol of a mermaid. See Strickland's " Queens of Scotland," art. Mary. The point is one of intense interest, and those who desire to study the sub- ject thoroughly will find the material in Furness's ed. of Midsummer NighV s Dream, where nearly seventeen closely printed royal octavo pages are devoted to it. The following quotation from Furness cannot fail to interest our readers : "In the copy of Hanmer's ' Shakespeare,' which Mrs. F. A. Kemble used in her Public Readings, and which she gave to the present editor, there is in the margin opposite this passage the following MS. note by that loved and venerated hand : ' It always seems to me the crowning hardship of Mary Stuart's hard life to have had this precious stone thrown at her by the hand of Shakespeare — it seems to me most miserable, even when I think of all her misery, that she should have had this beautiful, bad record from the humanest man that ever lived, and, for her sins, the greatest poet — and she that was wise (not good) and prosperous, to have this crown of stars set on her narrow forehead by the same hand.' " But although Sh. as a poet paid Eliza- beth this glowing compliment, evidently before he realized her true character, when she came to die he had not one word of sorrow or of praise to utter in her behalf. Merops. A king of the Ethiopians. His wife, Clymene, became the mother of Phaethon by Helios (the Sun). See Phadhon. Gent. Ill, 1, 153. meshed. Mashed ; brewed. Tit. Ill, 2, 38. mess. 1. A party eating together ; a company. John I, 1, 190; Hml. V. 2, 89. Lower m,esses = persons of inferior rank; properly those who, at meals, sat below the salt — at the lower end of the table. Wint. I, 2, 227. 2. A party of four. Thus Cotgrave gives; "A messe. (Vulgairement) Le nombre de quatre." Mess came to signify a set of four, because at great dinners the company was usually ar- ranged into fours, which were called messes. LLL. IV, 3, 207 ; do. V, 2, 361 ; 3HVI. I, 4, 73. 3. A small quantity ; as much as would serve for a meal. 2HIV. II, 1, 103; 0th. IV, 1, 211. Messala, dr. p. Friend to Brutus and Cassius. Caes. MET 173 MIL metaphysical. Supernatural. Mcb. 1, 5, 30. Metellus Cimber, dr. p. Conspirator against Julius Caesar. Cses. mete=yard. A measuring yard. Shr. IV, 3, 153. mew. " 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. " Holme's "Academy of Armory and Blazon." Shr. I, 1, 87; John IV, 2, 57; RIII. I, 1, 38, and 133. mettle. 1. Material ; quality. HV. Ill, 1, 27 ; Mcb. I, 7, 73. 2. Disposition; courage; temper. Tw. Ill, 4, 300 ; Tp. II, 1, 182 ; IHI V. II, 4, 13. meyny. The multitude ; probably a form of many. Cor. Ill, 1, 66. Michael, dr .p. A follower of Cade. 2HVI. Michael, Sir, d7\p. Friend to Archbishop of York. IHIV. and 2HIV. micher. A sneak; a truant. IHIV. II, 4, 450. miching. Secret; sneaking. Hml. Ill, 2, 146. mickle. Much ; great. Err. Ill, 1, 45 ; HV. II, 1, 70 ; Rom. II, 3, 15. A word almost obsolete in the time of Sh. , but still in use in Scotland in the form "muckle," which is a mere variant. There is an old proverb: "Many a pickle make a mickle," or, as Ray gives it: " Many littles make a mickle. " By a strange perversion this proverb is frequently altered to "Many a mickle make a muckle," which is nonsense, as mickle and muckle are merely different forms of the same word^ Midas. The son of Gordius and Cybele, is said to have been a wealthy but effeminate king of Phrygia, a pupil of Orpheus and a great patron of the worship of Bacchus. It is said that while a child, ants carried grains of wheat into his mouth to indicate that one day he should be the richest of all mortals. On one occasion Silenus, the companion and teacher of Bacchus, had gone astray in a state of intoxication and was caught by the country people in the rose gardens of Midas. He was bound with wreaths of flowers and led before the king. Midas received Silenus kindly, and after treating him with hospitality he led him back to Bacchus who, in his gratitude, allowed Midas to ask a favor of him. Midas, in his folly, desired that all things which he touched should be changed into gold. The request was granted, but as even the food which he touched became gold he implored the god to take his favor back. Bacchus accordingly ordered him to bathe in the source of Pactolus, near Mount Tmolus. This bath saved Midas, but from that time the river always had abundance of gold in its sand. Merch. Ill, 2, 102. On one occasion, when Pan and Apollo were engaged in a musical contest on the flute and lyre, Midas was chosen to decide between them. The king decided in favor of Pan, whereupon Apollo changed his ears into those of an ass. Midas con- trived to conceal them under his Phrygian cap, but the servant who used to cut his hair discovered them. The secret so much harassed this man that, as he could not betray it to a human being, he dug a hole in the earth and whispered in it ; " King Midas has ass's ears." He then filled the hole up again and his heart was relieved. But on the same spot a reed grew up which in its whispers betrayed the secret. Midas is said to have killed himself by drinking the blood of an ox. middest. The middle ; the thick. 2HVI. IV, 8, 64. middle=earth. The world. A man of Tniddle-earth (Wiv. V, 5, 86) evidently means one who belongs to the space between the sky and the infernal regions. Milan, Duke of, dr.p. Father to Silvia. Gent. milch. Moist ; shedding tears. Hml. II, 2, 548. milliner. A man dealing in fancy articles. Wint. IV, 4, 192. mill=sixpence. A coin (sixpence) on which the impression was made by a screw MIL 174 MIN press instead of with a hamnier. Such coins were introduced about 1572 and were, in many respects, superior to the old ones. Wiv. I, 1, 158. millstones. " To weep millstones " is a proverbial expression signifying not to weep at aU. RIII. I, 3, 353. TroU. I, 2, 157. mince. 1. To make small ; hence to extenuate or palliate. 0th. II, 3, 247 ; Ant. I, 2, 109. 2. To act in an affected and delicate manner, as, for example, to take small steps. Wiv. V, 1, 9 ; Merch. Ill, 4, 67 ; Troil. I, 2, 279. For the passage in Lr, IV, 6, 119, it has been suggested by Collier's MS. corrector that minces is a misprint for mimics. This is certainly a good sug- gestion ; counterfeiting or mimicking virtue seems more expressive here than m,incing, even if we accept an old definition of mincing given by Cotgrave {s.v. Tnineux) — squeamish, quaint, coy. mine. To undermine ; to sap ; to destroy. As. 1, 1, 22. mineral. Anything that is mined or dug out of a mine. Hml. IV, 1, 26. See oi^e. Minerva. Identified by the Romans with the Greek goddess Athena. Various accounts are given of her birth and parentage, one being that she was the daughter of Jupiter without a mother. Jupiter being tormented with severe pains in his head ordered Vulcan to split his skull open. This was done, and Minerva sprang forth with a mighty shout and clad in complete armour. She was the goddess of all wisdom and of the arts and sciences, and her in- ventions are many and important. She was believed to have invented nearly every kind of work in which women were employed, and she herself was skilled in such work, as witness her contest with Arachne. See Arachne. She assumes the character of a warlike divinity, but, unlike Mars, she preserves men from slaughter when prudence demands it and repels the savage love of war shown by Mars, and conquers him. In the reign of Cecrops both Neptune and Minerva contended for the possession of Athens. The gods re- solved that whichever of them produced a gift most useful to mortals should have possession of the land. Neptune struck the ground with his trident and straight- way a horse appeared. Minerva ( Athena) then planted the olive. The gods there- upon decreed that the olive was more useful to man than the horse and gave the city to the goddess. From her it was called Athenae. minikin. Small and pretty. Lr. Ill, 6, 45. minion. The best ; the choice. Mcb. II, 4, 15. From the French mignon, which Cot. defines as pleasing, gentle, kind. Skeat suggests that the use of the word with a sinister meaning was probably borrowed from the Italian mignone, a favorite. But the transition from favor- ite, in the good sense of one well-beloved, to favorite, a servile follower, is obvious and easy. minimus. Anything very small. Mids. Ill, 2, 329. Minos. A king and lawgiver of Crete. His wife, Pasiphse, gave birth to a monster, Minotaurus, which had a buU's body and a human head. Others say a human body and a bull's head. The monster was kept in the labyrinth con- structed by Daedalus at Cnosus. See Dcedahis. Minos made war against the Athenians and Megarians and compelled the former to send either every year or every nine years, a tribute of seven youths and seven maidens who were devoured in the labyrinth by the Mino- taurus. The monster was slain by Theseus. 3HVI. V, 6, 22. Minotaur. IHVI. V, 3, 189. See Minos. minute=jacks. Fickle time-servers ; liter- ally, fellows that watch their minutes to make their advantage. Tim. Ill, 6, 107. minutely. Every minute. Mcb. V, 2, 18. This word, in this sense, has now fallen into disuse, like the word pre- sently as meaning at present, which is used only in Scotland, where they speak MIR 175 MON of a person as " presently residing " — meaning residing at present. In Sh. time this was one of the ordinary sig- nifications of the word. mirable. Admirable. Troil. IV, 5, 142. miraculous harp. The reference in Tp. II, 1, 87, to the miraculous harp may be either to that of Amphion or that of Apollo. Amphion and his brother Zethus having taken Thebes and put Lycus, the king, and his wife, Dirce, to death because Lycus had repudiated their mother, they fortified the city by a wall, and it is said that when Amphion played the lyre the stones moved of their own accord and formed the wall. Apollo, by means of his harp, raised the walls of Troy. Phillpotts says : " If Gonzalo makes Carthage and Tunis into one city, his word has more power than Amphion 's harp, which raised the walls of Thebes." Miranda, dr.p. Daughter to Prospero. Tp. miscreate. Illegitimate. HV. I, 2, 16. misdoubt, n. Suspicion ; apprehension. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 332. misdoubt, v. To mistrust. Wiv. II, 1, 192; LLL. IV, 3, 194. miser. A miserable wretch. Not neces- sarily a hoarder of money. IHVI. V, 4,7. misery. Wretchedness; poverty. Cor. II, 2, 131. Generally explained here as avarice, but, as Schm, well says, quite unnecessarily. misgraffed. Ill-placed. Mids. I, 1, 137. misprise, ) 1. To undervalue ; to slight. misprize. ) As. I, 1, 177 ; Troil. IV, 5, 74. From the French mepriser. 2. To mistake. Mids. Ill, 2, 74. misprised. Mistaken. Mids. Ill, 2, 74. misprision. 1. The taking of one thing for another ; mistake ; error. Ado. IV, 1, 187 ; LLL. IV, 3, 98 ; IHIV. I, 3, 27. 2. Contempt; undervaluing. AU's. II, 3, 159. miss. Misconduct. Ven. 53. missingly. With regret. Wint. IV, 1, 34. missive. A messenger. Mcb, I, 5, 7 ; Ant. II, 2, 78. mist. To bedew ; to cover with mist. Lr. V, 3, 264. mistempered. 1. Badly tempered or hardened (as steel). Rom. I, 1, 94. 2. Ill-tempered ; angry. John. Vj 1, 12. misthink. To think ill of . 3HVI. II, 5, 108. mistreadings. Sins. IHIV. Ill, 2, 11. mistress. 1. A term of courtesy used in Sh. time in speaking of or to women (except those of high rank) indiscrimin- ately, whether they were married or not. Even in the beginning of the last century it w as customary to style an un- married lady, mistress. Wiv. V, 5, 194. 2. The small ball at the game of bowls, now called the Jack, at which the players aim. Nares. Troil. Ill, 2, 52. mixture. But when the planets In evil mixture to disorder xvander. T^-oil. I, 3, 95. " I believe the poet, according to astrological opinions, means when the planets form malignant configura- tions, when their aspects are evil to- wards one another. This he terms evil mixture.'''' Johnson. mobled. Having the head wrapped up or muffled. Hml. II, 2, 525. modern. Commonplace. As. II, 7, 156 ; AU's. II, 3, 2. Mcb. IV, 3, 170. module. An image ; not the real thing. John V, 7, 58. moe. More. RII. II, 1, 239. moiety. A portion. Lr. 1, 1, 7. Properly a half, from the Latin niedius, the middle. It has this meaning in All's. Ill, 2, 69. moist star. The moon. Hml. I, 1, 118. See moon. moldwarp. A mole. {Scotch mody wart.) IHIV. Ill, 1, 149. mome. A dolt; a blockhead. Err. Ill, 1,32. momentany. Lasting but a moment ; momentary. Mids. I, 1, 143. Monarch©. The nickname of a crack- brained Italian who attracted a great deal of attention just before Sh. time. He fancied that he was emperor of the world. LLL. IV, 1, 101. Montague, dr. p. At variance with Capu- let. Borneo's father. Rom. MON 176 MOB Montague, Lady, dr.p. Wife to Mont- ague. Rotn. Montague, Marquis of, dr.p. A Yorkist. 3HVI. Montano, dr.p. Governor of Cyprus. 0th. Montgomery, Sir John, dr.p. 3HVI. montant. An old fencing term, meaning an upright blow or thrust. Cot. Wiv. II, 3, 27. cf. Montanto, applied by Beatrice to Benedick. Ado, I, 1, 30. month's mind. Sometimes defined as monthly commemoration of the dead, but used ludicrously to mean a great or strong desire. Croft explains it as a woman's longing such as sometimes occurs in pregnancy. Gent. I, 2, 137. Montjoy, dr.p. A French herald. HV. monumental. Ancestral. All's. IV, 3, 20. mood. Anger. Gent. IV, 1, 51 ; Rom. III, 1, 13. moon. The moon was believed not only to govern the tides (Hml. I, 1, 118) and to exert a powerful influence over the condition of men and plants (Troil. Ill, 2, 184), but to be the source of dew. The dew-drops were supposed to be the tears of the moon. Mids. Ill, I, 204 ; Mcb. Ill, 5, 24. moon=calf. Literally, a person or con- ception influenced by the moon; an abortion ; a monster. Tp. II, 2, 115. moonish. Inconstant; capricious; change- able like the moon. As. Ill, 2, 430. Moonshine, dr.jJ. A character in the Interlude. Mids. moonshine, sop o' th'. Kent's emphatic threat : Fll make a soj) o' th^ moon- shine of you (Lr. II, 2, 35) has called forth nauch comment, "some of which seems more realistic than poetical. Thus Nares even goes so, far as to suggest that Kent threatens to convert Oswald into a dish known as "eggs in moon- shine," and in illustration of his ex- planation he actually gives a cookery recipe for this culinary preparation ! Entwisle says : " Plainly, Kent's in- tention is to make a ' sop ' of him in the sense of steeping him in his own blood, by the consenting light of the moon." Clarke thinks that Kent means: "I'll beat you flat as a pancake." It is evident that none of these conveys a meaning precisely equivalent to that intended by Sh. Moonshine has always been regarded as one of the most un- substantial of entities; "a sop o' the moonshine ' ' is the next thing to nothing ; to convert Oswald into that, would be to almost annihilate him, so that Kent's threat is equivalent to saying, in the vernacular, though, perhaps, less poetic language, of to-day : "I won't leave a grease spot of you." The moon was shining and so there was light enough for " thrust and ward." mop, n. A nod ; a grimace. Tp. IV, 1, 47. mop, V. To make grimaces. Lr. IV, 1, 64. mopping. Making grimaces, Lr. IV, 1,62, Mopsa, dr.p. A shepherdess. Wint. moral. A hidden meaning. Ado. Ill, 4, 78 ; Shr. IV, 4, 79 ; HV. Ill, 6, 35. Morgan, dr.p. Assumed name of Belarius, Cym. Morocco, Prince of, dr.p. Suitor to Portia, Merch. Morisco. A morris dancer, 2HVI. Ill, I, 365. morning's love. See Aurora and Cepha- lus. morris. 1. A morris-dance, q.v. All's, II, 2, 25. 2. The nine tnen^s m,orris. Mids. II, 1, 98. In the Var. Sh, (1821) James ex- plains this as follows : " In that part of Warwickshire where Shakespeare was educated, and in the neighbouring parts of Northamptonshire, the shepherds and other boys dig up the turf with their knives to represent a sort of im- perfect chessboard. It consists of a square, sometimes only a foot in dia- meter, sometimes three or four yards. Within this is another square, every side of which is parallel to the ex- ternal square, and these squares are joined by lines di-awn 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 MOR 177 MOB 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 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 up with mud." Cotgrave, Douce, Strutt, Wright and others describe various modifications of the game which in some forms is a very old one. inorns=dance. The morris dance, or Moorish dance, was used on festival occasions, particularly on May Day and other seasons of great licence. HV. II, 4, 25. It appears that a certain set of personages were usually represented in the May Day morris-dance, who have been thus enumerated. 1. The Bavian or fool. 2. Maid Marian or the Queen of May, the celebrated mistress of Robin Hood. 3. The friar, that is, Friar Tuck, chaplain to the same personage. 4. Her gentleman-ushei; or paramour. 5. The hobby-horse. 6. The clown. 7. A gentleman. 8. The Maypole. 9. Tom Piper, 10, 11. Foreigners, perhaps Moris- cos. 12. The domestic fool or jester. It is not to be supposed that all these personages were always there, but allusions to all, or most of them, are found in various places. It is difficult to trace any part of these dances clearly to Moorish origin, and the presumption is chiefly founded upon the names Morris and Morisco. Nares. morris pike. A formidable weapon used often by the English mariners and some- times by soldiers. Supposed to be of Moorish origin, hence the name. Err. IV, 3, 28. mort. French for death ; hence a hunt- ing term for a certain flourish or notes blown at the death of the deer. Wint. I, 2, 118. mortal. In the passage mortal in folly (As. II, 4, 56), this word has given the commentators some trouble. Johnson explains it as abounding in folly, the word mortal being an English pro- vincialism for much or very, as mortal tall, mortal little. Other meanings have been suggested, but none are satisfactory, and Staunton thinks that there is a meaning that we have not yet discovered. Rosalind's reply: "Thou speakest wiser than thou art ware of, ' ' would seem to indicate a deeper meaning. The expression, human mortals, (Mids. II, 1, 101) has given rise to a question as to whether the fairies, with Oberon and Titania, were mortal, like men, or immortal, and the argument has been conducted with some bitter- ness. In line 135 Titania speaks of a human female, a votaress of her order, who ' ' being mortal of that boy did die, ' ' which would seem to imply that Titania herself was not mortal. But this ques- tion, like everything else connected with these creations of the imagination, is unsettled, and will no doubt remain so. morrow. To-morrow. Mids. I, 1, 223 ; Rom. II, 2, 186. mort de ma vie. French for death of my life ; a common French oath. HV. Ill, 5, 11. mort=du=vinaigre. Literally, death of vinegar ; a ridiculous and probably meaningless oath used by Parolles. All's. II, 3, 50. mort Dieu. French for death of God; same as 'Sdeath, which is a contraction for God's death. 2HVI. I, 1, 123. mortified. 1. Dead ; insensible ; numb. Lr. II, 3, 15 ; Gees. II, 1, 324. 2. Ascetic ; retired from the world. Mcb. V, 2, 5 ; LLL. I, 1, 28. The phrase, the mortified m,an (Mcb. V, 2, 5), may mean either a hermit, i.e., one who is dead to the world and its passions, or a man who is physically dead. The Clarendon Press ed. takes the latter view, and adds: "If 'the mortified man ' really means the dead, the word bleeding in the former line may have been suggested by the well- known superstition that the corpse of a murdered man bled afresh in the pre- sence of the murderer. It is true that this interpretation gives an extravagant MOB 178 MOT sense, but we have to choose between extravagance and feebleness." Mortimer, Edmund, dr. p. Earl of March. IHIV. Mortimer, Lady, dr.p. Daughter to Glendower. IHIV. Mortimer, Sir Hugh, dr.p. Uncle to the Duke of York. 3HVI. Mortimer, Sir John, dr.p. Uncle to the Duke of York. 3HVI. Morton, John, dr.p. Bishop of Ely. R,III. Morton, dr.p. Servant to the Earl of Northumberland. 2HIV. mose. " To mose in the chine, a disorder in horses, by some called mourning in the chine." Nares. Shr. Ill, 2, 51. mot. Motto , device. Schm. Motto, or word, as it was sometimes called. Rolfe. Lucr. 830. These definitions seem to me scarcely to meet the case. That the word mot is French for the English term word is true, but here it evidently has a sinister meaning. Cotgrave gives as one of the definitions of mot : a quip ^ cut, nij}, frutnpe, scoffe, jeast. Here it evidently signifies a mark of disgrace. Moth, dr.p. A fairy, Mids, Moth, dr.p. Page to Armado, LLL. mother. The disease hysterica passio. Lr, II, 4, 56. The disease called the Tnother or hxisterica passio in Sh. time was not thought peculiar to women. Percy. The passage in Cym. Ill, 4, 51 : Some jay of Italy Whose mother was her painting, is one of the crtices of the play. Johnson explains it as: "The creature not of nature, but of painting. ' ' In support of this, reference has been made to Lr, II, 2, 60, a tailor made thee. And in Cym. IV, 2, 82, we find : No, nor thy tailor, rascal. Who is thy grandfather ; he made those clothes, Which, as it seems, make thee. Clarke and Wright say : " If the text be right, the meaning probably is, whose mother aided and abetted her daughter in her trade of seduction." A rather forced gloss, of which Ingleby properly remarks: "By no ingenuity is it possible to make ' whose mother was her painting ' ' mean ' ' whose mother was her bawd.' " Various emendations have been pro- posed. Thus, Theobald read "plant- ing" for "painting;" Hanmer read "feathers" for "mother;" and the Collier MS. corrector read: "Who smothers her with painting." Hallo- well wrote a pamphlet in condemnation of this emendation, and Singer ("Shake- speare Vindicated," page 307) makes some quite severe, though erroneous remarks. The emendation is quite as good as any that has been proposed, but Johnson's explanation seems to remove any need for alteration. moth of peace. A mere idler ; one who consumes, but does not work. 0th, I, 3, 257, motion, n, 1. Motive; that which makes to move. Cor. II, 1, 56, 2. Impulse; tendency of the mind or feelings ; will, Meas. I, 4, 59 ; Merch, V, 1, 86 ; John IV, 2, 255 ; 0th, I, 3, 9.5, 3. Offers ; requests, Meas. V, 1, 541 ; Err, I, 1, 60 ; Cor. II, 2, 57. 4. A puppet show, and also a single puppet, Lucr, 1326; Wint, IV, 3, 103; Gent, II, 1, 100, The passage in Meas, III, 2, 118, has given rise to some discussion, but the best authorities define motion there as puppet. See interpret. In Meas, III, 1, 120, the expression, this warm motion, does not seem to refer wholly to the mere movement of the limbs and organs. The term motion, generally applied to puppets, etc, is here used metaphorically to signify the human body, JJnshaked of m.otion. Cses, III, 1, 70, Malone, with whom Dyce agrees, says " unshaked by suit or solicitation, of which the object is to move the person addressed," Craik explains as "unshaken in his motion," but this is not in accordance with the facts, the pole star being supposed to have no motion. The obvious meaning is " un- moving," the of here having the sense MOT 179 MTJC of by, as in Hml, I, 1, 25, and II, 1, 64 : And thus do we of tvisdoin and of reach. motion, v. To propose ; to counsel. IHVI. 1, 3, 63. motive. 1. Cause; one who moves. Tim. V, 4, 27; Ant. 11,2,96. 2. Instrument ; that which mo ves. All's. ly, 4, 20 ; Troil. IV, 5, 57. motley, n. 1. The parti-colored dress worn by fools ; hence, sometimes used for the fool himself. As. II, 7, 34, 58 ; do. Ill, 3, 79 ; Lr. I, 4, 160. motley, adj. Of different colors ; so-called because spotted ; originally applied to curdled milk. Skeat. As. II, 7, 43. A long motley coat, guarded with yellow. HVIII., Prol. 16. Yellow was the fool's color. See guarded. motley -minded. Foolish; having the mind of a motley or fooL As. V, 4, 41. mould. Earth ; men of tnould = mortal men, i.e., made of the earth. HV. Ill, 2, 23. "Mr. Grant White is altogether mistaken when he says that ' a man of moxdd is a man of large frame, and so of strength, of prowess.' " Dyce. The word, in the sense we have given, was in frequent use among the old poets. If Nym, Bardolph and Pistol had been men of strength and prowess they would not have asked mercy of Fluellen. Mouldy, dn.p. A recruit. 2HIV. Mountanto. See montanto or montant. Beatrice calls Benedick Signer Moun- tanto to indicate that she considered him a mere fencer. Ado. I, 1, 30. mountebank, n. One who mounts on a bench (banco) to advertise his nostrums at fairs and street corners. Err. V, 1, 238 ; Hml. IV, 7, 142. mountebank, v. To impose upon after the manner of a quack. Cor. Ill, 2, 132. mouse, n. A term of endearment very common in old authors and therefore presumably in frequent use in Sh. time. Hml. Ill, 4, 183. mouse, V. To tear in pieces. John II, 1, 354. mouse=hunt. A weasel, sometimes a stoat. As all animals of this family are believed to be very amorous (see ante, fitchew), the name was often applied to men who were inclined to run after women. Some think that the origin of the word was mouse, used as a term of endearment (see mouse), hence mouse-hunt = a hunter after dears. Rom. IV, 4, 11. mouth, n. Voice or cry. Mids. IV, 1, 122; IHVI. II, 4, 12. Not the bark as some corns, explain it. mouth, 17. To join mouths; to kiss. Meas. Ill, 2, 194. mouthed, adj. Open ; gaping. Sonn. LXXVII, 6 ; IHIV. I, 3, 97. mow. A grimace. Tp. IV, 1, 47. moy. A word originated by Pistol from a misunderstanding of the French moi (me) which he supposed to be something valuable offered as ransom by the French soldier. HV. IV, 4, 14. John- son thought that by moy Pistol under- stood a piece of money, probably a moidore ; Douce laughs at this and suggests muy or muid, a French measure for corn. But if Pistol did not understand moi it is very unKkely that he would have understood muid. Be- sides, hQ8iBks,it pardonnez moi (pardon me) means a ton of moys. It is evident that this word, like much else that Pistol utters in this passage, is mere gibberish, and that is where the humor lies. Mowbray, Thomas, dr. p. Duke of Nor- folk, nil. Mowbray, Lord, dr. p. In league against Henry IV. 2HIV. muck=water. A word of uncertain mean- ing. Mock-ivater in the Fl. "A jocular term of reproach used by the Host, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, to the French Dr. Caius. Considering the profession of the Doctor and the coarse- ness of the Host, there can be no doubt, I think, that he means to allude to the mockery of judging of diseases by the water or urine, which was the practice of all doctors, regular and irregular, at that time, and the subject of much, not ill-placed, jocularity. Mock-water MUD 180 MUS must mean, therefore, ' you pretending water-doctor.^ A very few speeches before, the same speaker calls Dr. Caius King Urinal, and twice in the following scene Sir Hugh threatens to knock his urinals about his costard or head. Can any thing be more clear ? Mr. Steevens' interpretation, relating to the water of a jewel, would be good if anything had led to the mention of a Jewell, or the alluding to it." Nares. See cride- game. muddy=mettled. Dull-spirited; irresolute. Hml. II, 3, 594. cf. mettle. mulled. Insipid ; flat. Cor. IV, 5, 240. multipotent. Almighty. Troil. IV, 5, 129. niutnble=news. A tell-tale; a prattler. LLL. V, 2, 464. muniments. Expedients ; instruments. Cor. I, 1, 122. mural. Wall. Mids. V, 1, 208. In the Fl. tnorall ; changed by Pope to mural. White says that "the use of 'mural' for ' wall ' is an anomally in English, and is too infelicitous to be regarded as one of Shakespeare's daring feats of language." In his first edition he re- tained moral; in his later edition he adopted the emendation of Collier's MS. and gave wall down. Hanmer read mure all down. Mure, meaning wall, is found in 2HIV. IV, 4, 119, and the compound immure, in Troil. , Prol. 8. Mural is properly an adjective. murdering=piece. A cannon loaded with case and sometimes with chain shot. Hml. IV, 5, 95. mure. A waU. 2HIV. IV, 4, 119. murmur. Rumour. ''Twas fresh in murmur = was a recent rumour. Tw. I, 2, 32. murrion. Aflflicted with the murrain. Mids. II, 1, 97. Muses. According to the earliest writers the Muses were the inspiring goddesses of song and, according to later notions, divinities presiding over the different kinds of poetry and over the arts and sciences. As regards their parentage, the most common notion was that they were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne and born in Pieria, at the foot of Mount Olympus. They were worshipped chiefly on Mount Helicon, in Pieria, and on Mount Parnassus. Near the latter mountain was the famous Castalian Spring, weU known as sacred to the Muses. They were nine in number, their names and attributes being as follows : 1. Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, represented with a tablet and stylus, or reed pen, and sometimes with a roll of paper. 2. Clio, the Muse of history ; appears in a sitting atti- tude, with an open roll of paper, or an open chest of books. 3. Euterpe, the Muse of lyric poetry, with a flute. 4. Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy, with a tragic mask, the club of Hercules, or a sword ; her head is surrounded with vine leaves, and she wears the cothurnus or buskin, such as were worn by tragic actors. 5. Terpsichore, the Muse of choral dance and song ; appears with a lyre and the plectrum, an instrument for striking the lyre. 6. Erato, the Muse of erotic poetry and mimic imita- tion ; sometimes also has the lyre. 7. Polymnia or Polyhymnia, the Muse of the sublime hymn ; usually appears without any attribute, in a pensive or meditating attitude. 8. Urania, the Muse of astronomy ; with a staff point- ing to a globe. 9. Thalia, the Muse of comedy and of merry and idyllic poetry; appears with a comic mask, a shepherd's staff, or a wreath of ivy. Sometimes the Muses are seen with feathers on their heads, alluding to their contests with the Sirens. See Sirens. None of the Muses is referred to by name in Sh. The nine Muses are referred to in Mids. V, 1, 52. References to Muse in this sense are found in HV., Prol. 1, and 0th. II, 1, 128. muset, ) The opening in a fence or musit. [ thicket through which a hare or other beast of sport is accustomed to pass. Nares. Ven. 683. In Kins. Ill, 1, the word does not mean "hiding- place," but the opening through which the hiding-place is reached. MUS 181 MYS music. Of the phrase " Let him ply his music " (Hml. II, 1, 73) no quite satis- factory explanation has been given. Clarke explains it: "Let him conduct himself in any style and at any rate he chooses. ' ' Hudson : ' ' Let him fiddle his secrets out." Schm. : " Apply himself to his music." muss. A scramble; a row. Ant. Ill, 11, 91. This word is classed as colloquial or slang, and in Farmer's " Slang and Its Analogues " it is set down as American. Another instance of the survival, on this side of the Atlantic, of Elizabethan words which have fallen into disuse in England. It is a common colloquial word with us. Mustardseed, dr.p. A fairy. Mids. mutes. Actors who appear on the stage but do not speak. Hml. Ill, 2, 141 ; do. V, 2, 346. mutine, n. A rebel ; a mutineer. John 11,1,378; Hml. V, 2, 6. mutine, v. To rebel. Hml. Ill, 4, 83. mutiner. A mutineer. Cor. I, 1, 254. Mutius, dr.jj. Son to Titus Andronicus. Tit. mutton. 1. A sheep, i.e., the animal itself. Merch. I, 3, 168. 2. The flesh of sheep. Tw. I, 3, 130 ; 2HIV. V, 1, 28. In the passage in T w. I, 3, 129 : Sir And. : Faith, I can cut a caper. Sir Toby : And I can cut the mutton to't, there is evidently a pun on caper as a sauce, and caper as a frolicsome skip or spring. It is evident from this that mutton and caper sauce together are at least as old as the time of Sh. 3. A woman, especially in the carnal sense, but not necessarily with an evil meaning. Thus, most glossaries define laced tmitton (Gent. I, 1, 102) as a cant expression for a courtesan, and a quibble is suggested — courtesans being notori- ously fond of finery and also frequently subjected to the whip. Thus Du Bartas speaks of "Lacing with lashes their unpitied skin. ' ' But surely in applying this term to the chaste and faithful Julia, Speed never intended a sug- gestion of evil. The truth seems to be that many of these cant phrases with objectionable meanings are good ordin- ary terms degraded to euphemisms. Myrmidons, The. An Achaean race in Thessaly, over whom Achilles ruled and who accompanied him to Troy. Troil. V, 7, 1. They are said to have inhabited originally the island of ^gina, and to have emigrated with Peleus into Thes- saly. Of the origin of their name two accounts are given. One is that they are descended from Myrmidon, the son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa, daughter of Clitos, whom Jupiter deceived in the disguise of an ant. Her son was for this reason called Myrmidon, from the Greek word for an ant. Another ac- count is that Jupiter, designing ^gina for the kingdom of his son, yEacus, fur- nished the originally uninhabited island with people by changing ants into men. The speech of the clown in Tw. II, 3, 29, that the Myrmidons are no bottle- ale houses, is evidently intended for big words without any meaning, and has caused a great waste of critical ingenuity. Our word myrmidon, which signifies a devoted, but unscrupulous, adherent, is derived from the name of these followers of Achilles. mystery. 1. A secret. Cor. IV, 2, 35; Hml. Ill, 2, 382. 2. A trade. In Sh, time, and even down to the present day, even the most com- mon trade is called a mystery. Th us, the shoemaker's trade is spoken of as "the art and mystery of shoemaking." In Sh. wi'itings we find the term applied to the trade of the hangman (Meas. Ill, 2, 30), and even to thieving (Tim. IV, 3, 458), and to the business of the bawd (0th. IV, 2, 30), In the latter passage the expression: Your mystery, your mystery — betake you to your trade, 3. Secret rites. Lr, I, 1, 112. These rites were practised only by certain in- itiated persons, and formed the most solemn modes of ancient worship. They consisted of purifications, sacrificial offerings, processions, hymns, dances, dramatic performances and the like. NAG 182 NAK AG. A horse ; usually applied to a small horse, but not necessarily a poor or worth- less horse as Schm. has it. The word conies from neigh, the sound made by a horse. It would seem that originally it did not even imply a small horse, but simply a horse. In the " Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy ' ' . we find "He neyt as a nagge." This does not seem to imply that the word was used in the sense of poor, or even small. The word occurs thrice in Sh. , and in each case with a qualifying adjective, two of which denote in- feriority. IHIV. Ill, 1, 135; 2mV. II, 4, 205 ; Ant. Ill, 10, 10. Schm. gives as a second meaning : ' ' Term of contempt for a loose woman ; ' ' but this is scarcely correct. In both instances in which Sh. uses the word in this connection, it will be found that the expression of contempt is to be found in the accompanying adjective and not in the mere word nag, and in one of the instances (2HIV. II, 4, 205) it is very evident that the speaker uses bombastic language which he does not understand. See Galloiuay. Naiades. A general name for the nymphs, or female divinities, who presided over fresh water, whether of rivers, lakes, brooks or springs. Tp. IV, 1, 128. See Nyynphs. nail. 1. The horny growth at the ends of the fingers and toes. Tp. II, 2, 172 ; Err. IV, 4, 107, and numerous other passages. 2. A spike of wood or metal. Gent. II, 4, 193 ; All's. II, 2, 26. The original idea conveyed by the word nail was a piercer. In regard to the expression "dead as nail in door" (2HIV. V, 3, 126), Steevens says: "This proverbial expression is often er used than under- stood. The door-nail is the nail on which, in ancient doors, the knocker strikes. It is therefore used as a com- parison to any one irrecoverably dead, one who has faUen (as Virgil says) multa morte, that is, with abundant death, such as iteration of strokes on the head would naturally produce." This explanation is interesting and ingenious, but to us it seems too subtle and far-fetched for an everyday pro- verb. Doors in the olden time were not the light paneled affairs now in use, but heavy and battened so as to resist the blows even of a hammer. The old door of the Tolbooth in Edinburgh re- sisted the fiercest assaults of the Porteus mob, who used sledge hammers and crowbars, and was only reduced by fire. (See Heart of Mid-Lothian.) In the time of Sh. the nails used in common doors were hand-made of wrought iron, and were bent over or clinched so that their usefulness as nails was destroyed until re-forged. They were therefore mechanically dead. There were many such nails in the door. But the proverb is one of those common and often meaningless comparisons which the common people are apt to use. We have heard "dead as a stone," "dead as a hammer," etc. See hob-nail and handsaw. See also "Shakespearean Notes and New Readings. " 3. A measure equal to 2}^ inches (the one-sixteenth of a yard). Shr. IV, 3, 109. naked. 1. Without clothing. Wint. Ill, 2, 212. Naked bed (Ven. 397); "a person undressed and in bed was form- erly said to be ' in naked bed. ' It may be observed that down to a certain period those who were in bed were literally naked, no night linen being worn." Nares. 2. Drawn ; unsheathed. Err. IV, 4, 148 ; Rom. I, 1, 39. 3. Unarmed. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 234 ; 0th. V, 2, 234. 4. Destitute. Hml. IV, 7, 44. NAR 183 NAT Narcissus. A beautiful youth, who was wholly inaccessible to the feeling of love, and the nymph. Echo, who was enamoured of him, died of grief. One of his rejected lovers, however, prayed to Nemesis to punish him for his unfeeling heart. So one day, when Narcissus was tired with the chase, he lay down to rest by a stream in the wood. Stooping to drink, he saw his own image in the water, and Nemesis caused him to fall in love with it. But as he could not approach or embrace the object of his affection, he gradually pined away arid his corpse was metamorphosed into the flower which bears his name. In the land of Shades he gazes continually at his own image in the river Styx, Ant. II, 5, 96. Nathaniel, Sir, dr. p. A curate. LLL. native, n. Origin ; source. Cor. Ill, 1, 129. native, acZy. Real. Native act and figure of my heart = my real thoughts. 0th. 1, 1, 62. Which native she did owe (LLL. I, 2, 111) = which she naturally possessed. Native seems to be an adverb here. natural. An idiot. Tp. Ill, 2, 37 ; As. I, 2, 52 ; Rom. II, 4, 96. nature. 1. Life. All's. IV, 3, 272 ; Mcb. 1, 5, 51 ; Hml. I, 5, 12. 2. Innate affection of the heart and mind. Hml. 1, 5, 82 ; Mcb. I, 5, 46. The sentence, One touch of nature makes the whole world kin (Troil. Ill, 3, 175), is quoted by thousands who do not know the occasion of its utterance and, indeed, scarcely know that it is from Shakespeare. Therefore, it is not to be wondered at that it is generally misunderstood. In an article in the Galaxy for Feb., 1877, Grant White calls attention to its true meaning, which is : " There is one point on which all men are alike, one touch of human nature which shows the kindred of all mankind — that they slight familiar merit and prefer trivial novelty. * * * It has come to be always quoted with the meaning implied in the following indication of emphasis : ' One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' Shakespeare wrote no such sentimental twaddle. Least of all did he write it in this play, in which his pen ' pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' The line which has been thus perverted into an exposition of sentimental brotherhood among all man- kind, is, on the contrary, one of the most cynical utterances of an undis- putable moral truth, disparaging to the nature of all mankind, that ever came from Shakespeare's pen. * * * The meaning [as shown by the context] is too manifest to need, or indeed, admit a word of comment, and it is brought out by this emphasis : One touch of nature makes the ivhole world kin'' — that one touch of their common failing being an uneasy love of novelty. Was ever poet's or sage's meaning so per- verted, so reversed ! And yet it is hope- less to think of bringing about a change in the general use of this line and a cessa- tion of its perversion to sentimental purposes, not to say an application of it as the scourge for which it was wrought ; just as it is hopeless to think of changing by any demonstration of unfitness and unmeaningness a phrase in general use — the reason being that the mass of users are utterly thought- less and careless of the right or the wrong, the fitness or the unfitness, of the words that come from their mouths, except that they serve their purpose for the moment. That done, what care they ? And what can we expect, when even the Globe edition of Shakespeare's works has upon its very title-page and its cover, a globe with a band around it, on which is written this line in its per- verted sense, that sense being illustrated, enforced and deepened into the general mind by the union of the band-ends by clasped hands. I absolve, of course, the Cambridge editors of the guilt of this twaddling misuse of Shakespeare's line; it was a mere publisher's con- NAU 184 NEA trivance ; but I am somewhat surprised that they even should have ever allowed it such sanction as it has from its appear- ance on the same title-page with their names." But the most surprising case of in- attention to these obvious points, which are familiar to all close readers of Sh., occurs in " The Henry Irving Shake- speare." This admirable ed. was, as some of our readers are no doubt aware, prepared with special reference to dramatic production, either on the stage or in private readings. This, of course, involves the omission of certain portions of the text which, if retained, would make the play too long, and we are told that "the passages placed between brackets are those which may, without any detriment to the story or action of the play, be left out." In the standard text the passage under consideration reads as follows : One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. That all with one consent praise new- born gawds, Though they are made and moulded of things past, And give to dust that is a little gilt More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. Now, can it be believed that in this passage all the lines after kin are marked for omission, thus striking out the very keynote of this part of the speech of Ulysses and literally putting in his mouth a meaning the very opposite to that intended ? Verily, this is equalled only by the preacher who chose for his text a well- known passage from the Gospel accord- ing to St. Matthew: "Hang all the law and the prophets ! " It is very certain that Sir Henry Irving never read the proof of this part of the edition which has been published under his name. naught. Improper ; licentious. Hml. Ill, 2, 157. A meaning still retained in our modern word naughty. Do wden quotes from "Grace Abounding," where Bun- yan declares that he never " so much as attempted to be naught with women." nave. The navel. The expression in Mcb. I, 2, 22 : Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps, has been the subject of some discussion. A blow which would make a cut " from the navel to the jaws " seems to be a rather awkward one ; "from the chaps to the navel" would seem to be the more usual stroke. Consequently, Warburton would read nape. But these reversals of direction are not unusual in Sh. , cf. As. Ill, 5, 7, he that dies and lives. With the old two-handed sword, strokes which would have "unseamed" from the chaps to the navel were not un- known. nayward. Towards nay; inclining to a negative. Wint. II, 1, 64. nayword. A watchword. Wiv. II, 2, 131. In Tw. II, 3, 146, we find nayword in most modern editions, but in Fl. and some of the older editions it is ay word. Here, however, it evidently means by- word or laughing-stock — not watch- word, as Schm. has it. neaf, ) The hand. Mids. IV, 1, 20 ; neif. f 2HIV. II, 4, 200. near. To come near = to touch in a tender spot. IHIV. 1, 2, 14 ; Rom. 1, 5, 24. near=Iegged. Knock-kneed. Shr. Ill, 2, 58. neat, n. Horned cattle are known as neat. Hence, neaVs leather = leather made from the hide of an ox. Such leather is especially fitted for making the soles of shoes ; hence the expression : As proper men as ever trod upon neaVs leather. Caes. I, 1, 29 ; also Tp. II, 2, 72. neat, adj. Foppish. IHIV. I, 3, 33. The meaning of the word neat in the sentence. You neat slave, strike ! (Lr. II, 2, 45) has given rise to much dis- cussion. Steevens, followed by Dyce, Schmidt, Wright, Moberly and others, defines it as foppish, finical, Johnson suggested that it meant "mere slave, very slave," and Walker carries out this idea by the definition, pure, un- mixed, just as unmixed liquor is to-day NEB 185 NEP spoken of as "neat." Staunton gave to neat a meaning connecting it with neat cattle, and suggesting that Oswald was to be graded with cattle. Furness is inclined to accept Walker's interpre- tation, which is certainly the most forcible. Rolfe objects to Johnson's definition (as modified by Walker) that Sh. nowhere else has neat = pure, un- mixed, but, as we have often noted in this glossary, such an objection carries very little weight. Sh. writings are full of instances of the single use or mode of use of a word. neb. Now signifies the beak of a bird, but Sh. probably uses it in the Scotch sense in which it means the nose in particular, but sometimes the face or countenance. Wint. I, 2, 183. necessitied. So poor as to urgently need aid. All's. V, 3, 85. needful. Full of need ; wanting supplies. 3HVI. II, 1, 147. needly. Absolutely. Rom. Ill, 2, 117. neeld. A needle. Mids. Ill, 2, 204 ; John V, 2, 157. neeze. To sneeze. Mids. II, 1, 56. neglection. Want of care; disregard. IHVI. IV, 3, 49 ; Per. Ill, 3, 30. negligence. Disregard ; contempt. Hml. IV, 5, 134. See spied. Ne intelligis? Latin for do you not understand? LLL. V, 1, 28. Ne intelli- gis in Fl ; anne intelligis in some eds. Nemean lion. The valley of Nemea, between Cleonse and Phlius, was in- habited by a monstrous lion, the off'- spring of Typhon and Echidna. Burys- theus ordered Hercules to bring him the skin of the monster. After using in vain his club and arrows against the lion, he strangled the animal with his own hands. He returned, carrying the dead lion on his shoulders, but Eurys- theus was so frightened at the gigantic strength of the hero that he ordered him in future to deliver the account of his exploits outside the town. The slaying of the Nemean lion was the first of the twelve labors of Hercules. LLL. IV, 1,90; Hml. 1,4,83. Nemesis. A Greek goddess, who is usually described as the daughter of Night, though some call her a daughter of Erebus or of Oceanus. She is a per- sonification of the moral reverence for law, of the natural fear of committing a culpable action, and hence of con- science. From this arose the idea of her being an avenging and punishing fate, who, like Justice, sooner or later overtakes the sinner. She is usually represented in works of art as a virgin divinity. In the more ancient works she seems to have resembled Aphrodite or Venus, whereas in the later ones she was more grave and serious. IHVI. IV, 7, 78. nephew. Properly the son of a brother or sister, but used by old writers with great latitude. Thus, in IHVI. II, 5, 64, it signifies cousin ; in 0th. 1, 1, 112 = grandchild. See niece. Neptune. Referred to quite often in the plays, and, by a sort of metonomy, the name is frequently used instead of the ocean itself, as in Tp. V, 1, 35, and elsewhere. Neptune was chief marine divinity of the Romans, who identified him with the Greek Poseidon and trans- ferred to him all the legends and attri- butes of that god. Poseidon or Neptune was the son of Saturn and Rhea, and was therefore a brother of Jupiter, Pluto, Juno, Vesta and Ceres. It was determined by lot that he should rule over the seas. His palace was in the depths of the sea near ^gae, in Euboea, where he kept his horses with brazen hoofs and golden manes. With these horses he rides in a chariot over the waves of the sea, which become smooth as he approaches, and the monsters of the deep recognise him and play around his chariot. In conjunction with Apollo he built the walls of Troy for Laomedon. Laomedon refused to give these gods the stipulated reward and even dismissed them with threats. Thereupon Neptune sent a marine monster which was on the point of devouring Laomedon 's daughter when it was killed by Hercules. N£R 186 NER As a consequence Neptune sided with the Greeks in the war with Troy. He was regarded as the creator of the horse (see Minerva) and horse and chariot races were held in his honor on the Corinthian isthmus. In works of art Neptune may be easily recognised by his attributes, the dolphin, the horse or the trident. His figure does not present the majestic calm which charac- terises his brother Jupiter, but as the state of the sea is varying, so also is the god represented sometimes in violent agitation and sometimes in a state of repose. There is no legend that he ever metamorphosed himself into a ram, though he did assume the form of a horse in order to deceive Ceres (Demeter ) . The statement of Florizel, in Wint. IV, 4, 28, is probably based on the story that Neptune was concealed among a flock of lambs to save him from being devoured by his father, Saturn. See Saturn. A well in the neighbour- hood of Mantinea, in Arcadia, where this is said to have happened, was believed from this circumstance to have been called "Arne," or the Lamb's Well. Nereides. The marine nymphs of the Medi- terranean, in contradistinction to the Naides or the nymphs of fresh water, and the Oceanides or the nymphs of the great ocean. There were fifty of them, daughters of Nereus and Doris. Their names are not the same in all writers ; one of the most celebrated was Thetis, the mother of Achilles. They are des- cribed as lovely divinities, dwelling with their father at the bottom of the sea, and were believed to be propitious to all sailors, and especially to the Argonauts. They were worshipped in several parts of Greece, but more especially in her seaport towns. The epithets given them by the poets refer partly to their beauty and partly to their place of abode. They are fre- quently represented in works of art, and commonly as youthful, beautiful and naked maidens, and they are often grouped with Tritons and other marine beings. Sometimes they appear on gems as half maidens and half fishes. Ant. II, 2, 211. See Nymphs. Nerissa, dr.p. Waiting-maid to Portia. Merch. Nero. An infamous Roman emperor. He was the son of the Cn. Domitius Aheno- barbus and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus Caesar and sister of Cali- gula. Born December 15th, a.d. 37; when sixteen he married Octa via, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina. His mother had married her uncle, the Emperor Claudius, and on the death of her hus- band she secured the succession for her son, to the exclusion of Britannicus, the son of Claudius. Nero and Agrip- pina soon quarreled, however; the mother threatened to take sides with Britannicus and place him on the throne, and Nero caused his rival to be poisoned. Afterwards he caused his mother to be assassinated. This is referred to in Hml. Ill, 2, 412, Upon this passage Dowden, in his edition of Hml., remarks : "Per- haps the coincidences are accidental, that Agrippina was the wife of Claudius, was accused of poisoning a husband, and of living in incest with a brother." After this the history of Nero became a mere succession of crimes. He caused the deaths of the most eminent men in Rome, amongst them being Seneca, the famous philosopher. The burning of Rome is generally laid to his charge, and, to divert the odium from himself, he tried to throw it on the Christians, many of whom were put to death in a most cruel manner. It is said that while the city was burning he played on a musical instrument, and this is alluded to in IHVI. I, 4, 95. Against such a monster a revolt was sure to come. He was driven from his palace and committed suicide by stabbing in the year a.d. 68, in his thirty-first year. His name has become a synonym for cruelty and licentiousness, John V, 2, 152. NES 187 NET Nestor, dr.p, A Grecian commander, Troil. Nestor was King of Pylos, and in his youth and early manhood he was a distinguished warrior. He defeated both the Arcadians and Eleans. He took part in the fight of the Lapithae against the Centaurs, and he is mentioned amongst the Calydonian hunters and the Argonauts. Although far advanced in age, he sailed with the other Greek heroes against Troy. Having ruled over three generations of men, his advice and authority were deemed equal to that of the gods, and he was renowned for his wisdom, his justice and his knowledge of war. After the fall of Troy he returned home and arrived safely in Pylos, where he lived to a full old age, surrounded by brave and in- telligent sons. Outside of Troilus and Cressida, in which play he makes a prominent figure, he is referred to in LLL. IV, 3, 169; Merch. 1, 1, 56; IHVI. II, 5, 6 ; 3HVI. Ill, 2, 188. Nessus. A Centaur, who carried travelers across the river Evenus for a small sum of money. When Hercules and his wife, Deianira, went into exile they had to cross this river ; Hercules himself forded it, but he entrusted his wife to the Centaur to carry her across. Nessus attempted to outrage her, and Hercules, hearing her screams, shot him through the heart with a poisoned ari-ow dipped in the gall of the Lernaean Hydra. The dying Centaur told Deianira to take his blood with her as it was a sure means of preserving the love of her husband. Some time after, Hercules prepared to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter and sent his servant to Deianira for a suitable garment for the ceremony. She sent one, but first dipped it in the blood of the Centaur, as she was afraid that lole, whom Hercules had carried off as a prisoner, would supplant her in his affections. As soon as the robe be- came warm on the body of Hercules, the poison penetrated all his limbs and caused him the most excruciating agony, and when he tried to pull off the gar- ment, he tore off great masses of flesh with it. His torture was so great that he put an end to his life. All's. IV, 3, 281 ; Ant. IV, 12, 43. See Lichas. nether=stocks. The lower part of the hose or leg-covering, as distinguished from the trunk-hose or thigh covering. IHIV. II, 4, 130. nettle. In the Fl. the passage Tw. II, 5, 17 reads : How now, my Mettle of India f This was changed in the F2. to iny nettle of India, a reading which has been followed by some eds. In defence of the latter reading Mason says : "The nettle of India is the plant that produces the cow-itch, a substance only used for the purpose of tormenting by its itching quality," and the allusion is supposed to be to Maria's ability to torment and irritate. I cannot find in the old pharmacopoeias that "nettle of India " was a synonym for cow-itch or cowhage (Macima pruriens). Mason is mistaken in supposing that cow-itch is used only for playing tricks ; it was an important item in the old materia medica, being used as a vermifuge or anthelmintic, and if " nettle of India " had been a synonym, it is probable that it would have been mentioned as such. White gives the scientific name as Urtica Marina, which is Latin for "sea nettle." But the sea nettle is a jelly fish, and Maria was no jelly fish. The word nettle, both as noun and verb, occurs frequently in Sh., and always in reference to the common nettle ( Urtica dioica) and its action. It seems to me that the Fl. reading is to be preferred. White makes my metal of India ='-''xaj lass of gold;" Rolfe explains it as: " my golden girl, my jewel, an expres- sion quite in Sir Toby's vein. " EZnight asks: "Was Sir Toby likely to use a common figure or one so far-fetched ? If Shakespeare had wished to call Maria a stinging nettle, he would have been satisfied with naming the indigenous plant — as he has been in RII. and HIV. —without going to the Indian seas." NEW 188 NIC news. In Rom. Ill, 5, 124, the sentence : These are news indeed ! as found in the Fl., is spoken by Juliet. Collier's MS. corrector gives them to Lady Capulet, and they certainly might come appro- priately from her. But it is always best to follow the old reading where possible, and as Dyce observes, Juliet's words refer to Lady Capulet's promise (line 105) : Pll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. newt. Said by Schmidt and others to be a lizard, w hich it is not. Sh. speaks of both lizards and newts, but whether he recognised them as essentially different animals may be an open question, but in Lr. Ill, 4, 135, he evidently makes a distinction and speaks of the wall-newt and the water, i.e., the water-newt. The word was originally evet or eft, and the n of the article became attached to the word so that an ewt became a newt, just as mine uncle became my nuncle. The opposite took place in some words ; thus, nadder became au adder ; nauger became an auger. The original meaning of eft is a water animal or inhabitant of a stream. Skeat. Why the harmless and pretty little newt should have become an object of horror and an ingredient in the broth of witches it is hard to tell. It forms a curious and interesting pet when kept in the aquarium and may be handled with impunity, but, unfortunately, like that most useful insect, the dragon-fly or devil's darning-needle, which is quite harmless and a most efiicient destroyer of the mosquito and other pestiferous insects, most people, out of sheer ignor- ance, regard it as venomous. nice. 1. Foolish. Shr. Ill, 1, 80. 2. Trivial. Rom. Ill, 1, 159. niceness, ) Coyness. Meas. II, 4, 163 ; nicety. \ Cym. Ill, 4, 158. Nicholas. St. Nicholas' clerks is a cant term for highwaymen and robbers, but though the expression is very common, its origin is still uncertain. That he was the patron saint of scholars is well known, and to this there is an allusion in Gent. Ill, 1, 300. Douce tells us that there was a legend according to which the saint was accorded this honor be- cause he discovered that a wicked host had murdered three scholars on their way to school. By his prayers Saint Nicholas restored them to life. By the statutes of St. Paul's School, the scholars are required to attend divine service at the cathedral on the anniver- sary of this saint, and the parish clerks of London were incorporated into a guild, with Saint Nicholas for their patron. Warburton explains the adoption of St. Nicholas by thieves as their patron saint thus : '■'■St. Nicholas was the Patron Saint of scholars ; and Nicholas or Old Nick is a cant name for the Devil. Hence, he equivocally calls robbers St. Nicholas's clerks." This seems rather far-fetched. Knight gives the follow- ing : ' ' Scholars appear, from the ancient statutes against vagrancy, to have been great travellers about the country. These statutes generally recognise the right of poor scholars to beg, but they were also liable to the penalties of the gaol and the stocks unless they could produce letters testimonial from the chancellors of their respective univer- sities. It is not unlikely that in the journeys of these hundreds of poor scholars they should have occasionally ' taken a purse ' as well as begged ' an almesse, ' and that some of ' St. Nicholas's clerks ' should have become as celebrated for the same accomplishments which distinguished Bardolph and Peto at Gadshill as for the learned poverty which entitled them to travel with a chancellor's license." However this might have been, it is certain that the expression was a com- mon one in the time of Sh. Steevens quotes "A Christian turned Turk" (1612) : " St Nicholas' clerks are stepp'd up before us ;" and in " The Hollander " Glapthorne has : "divers rooks and St. Nicholas' clerks." But Donnelly, in his "Great Cryptogram," page 5S3, NIC 189 NIO tells us that the name Saint Nicholas was "dragged into " this passage so as to bring the name of Nicholas Bacon into the cipher, and intimates that pre viously Saint Nicholas was not known at all in this connection ! ! nick, n. 1. The exact spot; the very moment. 0th. V, 2, 317. 2. In some of the uses of this word re- ference is evidently made to the nicks cut on tallies or sticks for keeping scores or accounts. Gent. IV, 2, 76, nick, V. To cut notches in ; to injure or destroy. Ant. Ill, 13, 8. Nicks him like a fool (Err. V, 1, 175), that is, 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. niece. Granddaughter. RIII. IV, 1, 1. See nejohew. nightingale. It is an old idea that the nightingale sings with its breast pressed against a thorn. Lucr. 1135 ; Pilgr. 380 ; Kins. Ill, 4, 25. Sir Thomas Brown, in his "Vulgar Errors," asks "whether the nightingale's sitting with her breast against a thorn be any more than that she placeth some prickles on the out- side of her nest, or roosteth in thorney, prickly places, where serpents may least approach her." In the "Zoolo- gist " for 1863, the Rev. A. C. Smith men- tions the discovery on two occasions of a strong thorn projecting upward in the center of the nightingale's nest. Another popular error is that the nightingale never sings by day. Portia says (Merch. V, I, 103) : / thiyik the nightingale, if she could sing by day, etc., and cf. Rom. Ill, 5, 1, et seq. But the nightingale often sings as sweetly in the day as during the night. There is an old superstition that the nightin- gale sings all night to keep herself awake lest the glow-worm should devour her. That the nightingale frequents the pomegranate trees in preference to any other is said to be a fact, and it is well known that no birds are more faithful to a favorite locality. Year after year they will frequent the same spot and pour forth their songs from the same bushes. Rom. Ill, 5, 1. In referring to the nightingale, all poets and other writers speak of the female bird only as the one that sings. This is an error. The female does not sing, but the male bird sings almost continually from pairing to hatching time, after which he is too busy helping his mate to feed the young to sing much. Such are some of the legends which have been woven round this interesting bird. For the story of the unhappy Philomela see Philomel. night=cap. A cap worn at night or when at work. Cses. I, 2, 247 ; 0th. II, 1, 316. In the latter case with a metaphorical quibble. night=crow. The identity of this bird is not well established. The night-heron, the owl and the night- jar have all been suggested and urged as being the bird meant by Sh. 3HVI. V, 6, 45. nighted. 1. Black. Hml. I, 2, 68. 2. Darkened. Lr. IV, 5, 13. night=rule. Night revel ; diversion. Mids. Ill, 2, 5. See rule. nill. Will not. Shr. II, 1, 273. ; Hml. V, 1, 19 ; Per. Ill, Prol. 55. n!ne=fold. This, according to Tyrwhitt, is put for the rhyme instead of nine foals; according to Malone, it means " nine familiars. " Lr. Ill, 4, 126. ninny. A fool ; a jester. Tp. Ill, 2, 71. Niobe. She was the daughter of Tantalus, the sister of Pelops and the wife of Amphion, King of Thebes, by whom she had a large number of children, the most commonly received account being seven sons and seven daughters. Being- proud of the number of her children she deemed herself superior to Latona, who had given birth to only two, Apollo and Diana. These two divinities, being indignant at the insult thus offered to their mother, slew all Niobe's childi-en with their arrows. For nine days the bodies lay in their blood unburied, because Jupiter had changed the people into stones, but on the tenth day the NIT 190 NOB gods themselves buried them, and Niobe was metamorphosed into stone as she sat weeping on Mount Sipylus. Hml. I, 2, 149. It is said that this stone always sheds tears during the summer. The story of Niobe and her children was a favorite subject with the ancient artists. One of the most celebrated of the ancient works of art still extant is the group of Niobe and her children, which filled the pediment of the temple of Apollo Sosianus at Rome, and which was discovered in the year 1583, or about eighteen or nineteen years before Sh. play of Hamlet was written. This group is now at Florence, and consists of the mother, who holds her youngest daughter on her knees, and thirteen statues of her sons and daughters, besides a figure usually called the paeda- gogus of the children. nit. The egg of an insect, especially that of th.e pediculiis. Originally, it meant the insect itself. Applied to Moth on account of his small size. LLL. IV, 1, 150; Shr. IV, 3, 110. nobility. Greatness; magnitude. Hml. I, 2, 110. noble. A gold coin worth 6s. 8d. ; RII. 1, 1, 88. The royal went for 10s. ; the noble only for 6s. 8d., and upon this is founded numerous jests, as in IHIV. I, 2, 156, and II, 4, 331. The last 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 Tio&Ze queen ; " upon which, says the queen: "What, am I ten groats worse than I was ? ' ' nobody. Played by the picture of no- body. Tp. Ill, 2, 136. The allusion here is either to the print of Nobody, as prefixed to the anonymous comedy of No-Body and Some-Body, without date, but printed before 1600 (Reed), or to the very singular engraving on the old and popular ballad of The Well- sjDoken Nobody (Halliwell). nod. " To give the nod ; " a term in the game of cards called "Noddy." Troil. I, 2, 209. noddy. A fool ; a simpleton. Gent. I, 1, 119. noise. A company of musicians. 2HIV. II, 4, 13. "This term, which occurs perpetually in our old dramatists, means a company or concert. In Jonson's days they sedulously attended taverns, ordinaries, etc., and seem to have been very im- portunate 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.'' " — Gifford''s note on '■'' Jonson'^ s Works. ^^ The term continued in use down to the time of Dryden. Dyce calls attention to the fact that Wycherly , in The Plain Dealer, 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." nole, \ A grotesque word for head, nowl. f like pate, noddle. Mids. Ill, 2, 17. Some of the old books on magic gave receipts which were said to enabl^e the reader to make "a man's head seeme an asse head. ' ' Receipts from Albertus Magnus and from Scot's " Disco verie of Witchcraft ' ' are quoted by Wright in the Clarendon ed. of A Midsummer NighVs Dream. Also by Douce. nonce. Literally, for the once; for the one time ; for this particular occasion. IHIV. I, 2, 201 ; IHVI. II, 3, 57; Hml. IV, 7, 161. nook=sIiotten. Shooting out into capes, promontories and necks of land. War- burton. Or, perhaps, thrust into a corner apart from the rest of the world. HV. Ill, 5, 14. cf. Cym. Ill, 4, 141. Norfolk, Duke of, dr.p. RII. and RIII. Norfolk, Duke of, dr.p. Of the Duke of York's party. 8HVI. Norfolk, Duke of, dr.p. Father to the Earl of Surrey. HVIII. north. 1. The north wind, proverbial for its coldness and violence. Hence, KOR 191 NUN in 0th. V, 2, 30, as liber^al as the north, that is, as loudly and freely as the north wind blows. In Cym. I, 3, 36, the re- ference is to the cold and frosty charac- ter of the north wind and its blighting effects on vegetation, cf. Tp. I, 2, 256. Applied metaphorically to the bad opinion of any one, as in Tw, III, 2, 28, the north of my lady''s opinion. 2. "The north was always supposed to be the particular habitation of bad spirits. Milton, therefore, assembles the rebel angels in the north. ' ' Johnson. Hence, Sh. makes La Pucelle appeal to those who are substitutes. Under the lordly monarch of the north (IHVI. V, 8, 6). Read article on Joan La Pucelle. " The monarch of the north was Zimi- mar, 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, presidents and earls. They are all enumerated from Wier, De Proestigiis dop.m,onum, in Scot's ' Discoverie of Witchcraft.' Book xv., c. 2." Douce. Northumberland, Earl of, dr. p. 3HVI. Northumberland, Earl of, dr.}:). Henry Percy. RII. ; IHIV. and 2HIV. nose. It was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding. Merch. II, 5, 24. In Sh. time bleeding at the nose was considered ominous. In regard to LLL. V, 2, 568, see Alexander. note. A stigma ; a mark of reproach. RII. I, 1, 43. noted. D isgraced ; marked with a stigma. Cses. IV, 3, 2. not ever. Not ever is an uncommon ex- pression and does not mean 7iever, but not always. Mason. HVIII. V, 1, 130. not=pated. Having the hair cut close. IHIV. II, 4, 78. According to some, it means bull-headed ; stubborn. Nares calls attention to the fact that beardless wheat has been called 7iot wheat, cf. Line 251 in same scene — knotty-pated. Also Chaucer's description of the Yeo- man (" Canterbury Tales," Prol. line 109) : "A not-hed hadde he, with a broune visage." nourish. This word, as it occurs in IHVI. I, 1, 50 : Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears, has occasioned some dis- cussion. The usual interpretation is that the isle would be made a nurse or nourisher of salt tears, and the singular expression in the preceding line : When at their mother'' s moist eyes babes shall suck, lends color to this view. That nourish, nourice or norice is an old form of nurse is easily shown (Nares gives several examples) . Pope, however, objected to this reading and changed nourish to marish or marsh, and this has been adopted by several eds. — Delius, Rolfe, Craig, etc. In support of marish, Ritson quotes Kyd in the Spanish Tragedy: "Made mountains marsh with spring- tides of my tears," but this idea is a common one. Marshall, in "The Henry Irving" ed., retains nourish, with the remark that " Pope's ingenious emendation marish has been very generally adopted ; but on mature consideration we have rejected it." Novi hominem tanquam te. Latin for Iknotv the man as well as I do you. LLL. V, 1, 10. novum. '■'■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. Dyce. LLL. V, 2, 547. noyance. Injury. Hml. Ill, 3, 13. numbered. Having full numbers; richly stored. Cym. I, 6, 36. Thus, in the Fl. Theobald changed to unnumber''d, and this reading has been adopted by many. In support of the change, refer- ence is made to Lr. IV, 6, 21 : The mur- muring surge, That on the unnumber''d idle pebbles chafes. Numerous other emendations have been suggested, such as humbled, umbr''d, cumber''d, etc., but none has been accepted. See twinned. nuncle. A contraction of mine uncle, and the usual address, it appears, of the domestic fool to his superiors. Lr. I, 4, 117, and elsewhere in this play. In the NTJR 192 NYM same style the fools called each other cousin. Nares. Nurse, dr. p. (Of. Juliet.) Rom. It may be interesting to our readers to know the fate of the nurse, as related in Brooke's poem from which Sh. un- doubtedly drew much of his material, Dowden summarises the fates of the subordinate actors as follows: "The nurse is banished because she hid the marriage ; Romeo's servant is allowed to live free ; the apothecary is hanged ; Friar Laurence is discharged, retires to a hermitage two miles from Verona, and after five years, there dies." nut=hook. Properly, a pole with a hook at the end used for gathering nuts ; a cant term for a catchpole or bailiff. Wiv. I, 1, 173 ; 2HIV. V, 4, 8. nuzzling. Nosing; thrusting in the nose. Ven. 1,115. Nym, dr. p. A soldier in the king's army, HV, Nym, dr. p. A follower of Falstaff, Nymphs. 1. A class of inferior female divinities who are described as the daughters of Jupiter. They were be- lieved to dwell on earth, in groves, on the summits of mountains, in rivers, streams, glens and grottoes. Homer describes them as presiding over game, accompanying Diana, dancing with her, weaving in their grottoes purple gar- ments and kindly watching over the fate of mortals. The early Greeks saw in all the phenomena of ordinary nature some manifestation of the deity ; springs, rivers, grottoes, trees and mountains, all seemed to them fraught with life ; and all were only the visible embodi- ments of so many divine agents. The salutary and beneficient powers of nature were thus personified and re- garded as so many divinities ; and the sensations produced on man in the con- templation of nature, such as awe, terror, joy, delight, were ascribed to the agency of the various divinities of nature. L. Schviitz. The nymphs were divided into various species, according to the different parts of nature of which they are the repre- sentatives. The most prominent were: 1. Nymphs of the watery element. To these belong, first, the nymphs of the ocean, the Oceanides ; and next, the nymphs of the Mediterranean or inner sea, the Nereides. The rivers were represented by the Potanieides, who were named after their particular rivers. The nymphs of fresh water, whether of rivers, lakes, brooks or springs, were also designated by the general names of Naiades. Even the rivers of the lower regions were described as having their nymphs. Many of these nymphs pre- side over waters or springs which were believed to inspire those who drank of them, and the nymphs themselves were thought to be endowed with prophetic power and to inspire men with the same, and to confer on them the gift of poetry. 2. Nymphs of mountains and grottoes, called Oreades. 3. Nymphs of forests, groves and glens were believed sometimes to appear to and frighten solitary travelers, 4. Nymphs of trees were believed to die together with the trees which had been their abode and with which they had come into existence. They were called Dryades and Hamadryades. The sacrifices offered to nymphs usually consisted of goats, lambs, milk and oil, but never of wine. They were worshipped and honored with sanctu- aries in many parts of G-reece, especially near .springs, groves and grottoes. Nymphs are represented in works of art as beautiful maidens, either quite naked or only half covered. Later poets sometimes describe them as having sea- colored hair. There are numerous references in the plays to these nymphs. See Naiades, Nereides, Sirens, Thetis. 2. The nymphs being beautiful and benevolent female divinities, the term nymph has been frequently applied to an attractive and beautiful young woman, as in Gent. V, 4, 12; Mids. II, 1, 245; Hml. Ill, 1, 89, and other passages. 193 OBE ^ The fifteenth letter of the alphabet, often used as a synonym for other things, such as : 1. A circle ; a sphere or globe. Ant. V, 2, 81. 2. The arithmetical cipher. Lr. I, 4, 212. 3. The Globe Theatre, on the Bankside, which was circular within. HV., Prol. 13. See theatre. 4. Orbs ; stars (fiery O's). Mids. Ill, 2, 188. 5. A sigh ; an affliction. Rom. Ill, 3, 90. 6. Marks of the small-pox (round pits). LLL. V, 2, 45. oak. To him who saved the life of a citizen in battle the Romans awarded a crown or garland of oak, inscribed with the words " ob civem servatum. " Such a crown was accounted more honorable than any other. Cor. I, 3, 16 ; Kins. IV, 2, 187. The oak was sacred to Jupiter. Tp. V, 1, 45. See -Heme's Oafc. oar. To row as with oars. Tp. II, 1, 118. Oberon, dr.p. King of the Fairies. Mids. With the exception of the name, the Oberon of the Midsuminer Nighfs Dream, is purely a Shakesperean crea- tion. The name he may have found in Spenser's "Faerie Queene," in the description of Sir Guyon (Book II, cant. I, Z 6) : Well could he tourney and in lists debate, And knighthood tooke of good Sir Huon's hand, When with King Oberon he came to Faryland. The name Oberon, or, as Greene has it in his "Scottish History of James IV," Oberam, is the same as that of the dwarf Elberich, who aided the Emperor Otnit or Ortnit to gain the daughter of the Paynim Soldan of Syria, as told in Keighfcley's "Fairy Mythology." Ac- cording to Grimm, as stated by Keight- ley, the change was made as follows : " From the usual change of I into u (as al, au, col, cou, etc.) in the French language, Elberich or Albrich (derived from Alp, Alf ) becomes Auberich ; and ich, not being a French termination, the diminutive on was substituted, and so it became Auberon or Oberon; a much more likely origin than the usual one from Uauhe dujour.''^ " Shakespeare seems to have at- tempted a blending of the Elves of the village with the Fays of romance. His fairies agree with the former in their diminutive stature — diminished, indeed, to dimensions inappreciable by village gossips — in their fondness for dancing, their love of cleanliness and their child- abstracting propensities. Like the Fays, they form a court ruled over by the princely Oberon and the fair Titania. There is a court and chivalry. Oberon would have the queen's sweet change- ling to be a ' knight of his train to trace the forest wild. ' Like earthly monarchs, he has his jester, 'the shrewd and knavish sprite, called Robin Good-fel- low." Keightley. Commenting on Lamb's alleged state- ment that Sh. "invented the fairies," Furness says : " No one was ever more competent than Lamb to pronounce such an opinion, and nothing that Lamb ever said is more true. There were no real fairies before Shakespeare's. What were called ' fairies ' have existed ever since stories were told to wide-eyed listeners round a winter's fire. But these are not the fairies of Shakespeare, nor the fairies of to-day. They are the fairies of Grimm's 'Mythology.' Our fairies are spirits of another sort, but unless they wear Shakespeare's livery they are counterfeit. The fairies of Folk-lore were rough and repulsive, taking their style from the hempen homespuns who invented them ; they were gnomes, cobbolds, lubber-louts, OAT 194 ODD and descendants though they may have been of the Greek Nereids, they had lost every vestige of charm along their Northern route. ' ' That the fairies were very diminutive creatures is insisted upon whenever they are described. Thus Sh. tells us that they could "creep into acorn-cups and hide them there," and Titania speaks of making her small elves coats from the leathern wings of bats. And yet these pigmies are said to be in love with human beings — Titania with The- seus, and Oberon with Hippol3^ta ; and Oberon is said to have had ' ' credit ' ' with the "bouncing Amazon." But this apparently contradictory absurdity is accounted for by the fact that these beings could, like the gods of Greece, assume any form that they chose. Thus, Puck takes the form of a crab- apple and a filly foal, and in wooing Hippolj^ta, Oberon may have taken on the form of an attractive young man. See loh, Pxick and Titania. oathable. Fit to be sworn. Tim. IV, 3, 135. obscene. Offensive; abominable. LLL. I, 1, 244 ; RII. IV, 1, 131 ; IHIV. II, 4, 252. obscenely. Used blunderingly for obs- curely or in secret. Mids. I, 2, 1 11, and probably for some very different word in LLL. IV, 1, 145. Perhaps it may in both instances be a blunder for seemly. obscure. 1. To hide. Meas. V, 1, 395; Merch. Ill, 2, 77 ; As. V, 4, 34. 2. To degrade ; to make mean. Wint. IV, 4, 8 ; Lr. II, 2, 175. obsequious. In a manner suited to one who performs funeral obsequies. 3H VI. II, 5, 118 ; Hml. I, 2, 92 ; Tit. V, 3, 152. obsequiously. In the character of a mourner. RIII. I, 2, 3. observation. The observance of proper rites and ceremonies. Mids. IV, 1, 109. In this passage the reference is to the rites due to the morning of May. The passage in Tp. Ill, 3, 8, ivith good life and observation strange, has called forth some comment. Good life is ex- plained as "done to the life," and observation strange may possibly mean unusual performances, a sense similar to that found in our first quotation; so that the meaning of the whole passage is that Prospero's meaner ministers have carried out their strange performances in a life-like manner. obstacle. An illiterate shepherd's blun- der for obstinate. IHVI. V, 4, 17. Occident. The west. Gym. IV, 2, 372. occulted. Hidden. Hml. Ill, 2, 85. occupation. The persons engaged in the trades. Cor. IV, 6, 97. occurrent. An event; an incident; an occurrence. Hml. V, 2, 368. Octavia, dr.p. Wife to Antony. Ant. Octavius Csesar, dr.p. Triumvir of Rome. Csps. and Ant. 'od, ^ A corruption or contraction for od's. ) God or God's. Wiv. I, 1, 273 ; As. Ill, 5, 43 ; 0th. IV, 3, 75. odd, ) Uneven; not divisible by 2. odds. ) LLL. Ill, 1, 86. In this passage there is an evident error unless Sh. meant to introduce confusion. Adding 4 to 3 will not make an even number ; adding 1 (the goose) to 3 will make an even number. Perhaps adding is a mistake for making, so that we should read : Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by making four. odd=even. Irregular; untimely. 0th. I, 1, 124. The explanation that is usually given of this expression is that the time was "between twelve at night and one in the morning," and the passage from Mcb. Ill, 4, 127, where, in reply to Macbeth's question : " What is the night ? " Lady M. replies : " Almost at odds with morning, which is which," is quoted as confirming this view, although the meaning, as well as the form of the expression, is evidently very different. From twelve to one is even-odd, not odd-even, and we have no indication that this was the exact time of Desde- mona's flight. Various emendations, such as ' ' odd season, " " odd hour, ' ' etc. , m 195 OLI have been suggested, but they are not needed. The expression obviously sig- nifies irregularity, and that is just what is meant and all that is meant. oeillades. Amorous glances ; ogles. Wiv. I, 3, 68 ; Lr. IV, 5, 25. o'er=dyed. Dyed over ; colored with an- other dye; o''er-dyed blacks (Wint. I, 3, 132) = black things dyed with another color, through which the ground will soon appear. o'ercrow. To overpower ; to triumph over, as a victorious cock crows over his adversary. Hml. V, 2, 864. Ore- crows in Fl. ; Pope and some other eds. change to ore-growes. o'erlook. To bewitch. Wiv. V, 5, 87; Merch. Ill, 2, 15. In allusion to the superstition of the evil eye . o'er-flourished. Varnished or painted over. Tw. Ill, 4, 404. o'er-off ice. To get the better of and lord over by virtue of an office. Hml. V, 1, 87. The Quartos have o''er-reaehes. o'er=parted. Having assigned to him a part too difficult or beyond his parts or abilities. LLL. V, 2, 588. o'erpeer. To overtop ; to rise above. Cor. II, 3, 128. o'er=perch. Usually explained as "to fly over." Rom. II, 2, 66. Grant White says: " O'er-perch cannot mean to fly over, as perch does not mean fly. In the only passage in which Shakespeare uses it, Romeo's ' with love's light wings I did o'er-perch these walls,' it is a picturesque word showing us the young lover touching for an instant the top of the wall as he surmounted it. " o'er=raught. 1. Over-took ; literally, over-reached. Hml. Ill, 1, 17. 2. Over-reached ; cheated. Err. I, 2, 96. See raught. o'er=sized. Covered over a,s with size or glue. Hml. II, 2, 493. o'er=teemed. Worn out by bringing forth children. Hml. II, 2, 531. o'erwhelm. To cover ; to conceal. Hml. I, 2, 258 ; Per. Ill, 1, 64. oes. The plural of o. Sometimes spelled o's. See O. off=capped. Took off their caps in the usual form of courtesy. 0th. I, 1, 10. offendendo. Se offendendo is the grave- digger's blunder for se defendendo — in self-defence. Hml. V, 1, 9. offer. To challenge. IHIV. IV, 1, 69 ; 2HIV. IV, 1, 219. office. 1. Service. Wiv. I, 1, 102 ; All's. IV, 4, 5. In 0th. IV, 2, 92, the passage, that have the office opposite to Saint Peter, means the position held by Emilia, viz., that of gate-keeper to hell, as Saint Peter is gate-keeper in Heaven. A recent commentary assigns this office to Desdemona, but that is surely wrong. It is Emilia that is meant. And cf. line 22 in same act and scene. [To Emilia.] Some of your function, mistress. 2. An act of worship. HVIII. Ill, 2, 144 ; Cym. Ill, 3, 4. old, n. Wold; downs. Lr. Ill, 4, 125. See Swithold. old, adj. The use of this word in the sense of great, very much, frequent, etc. , seems to have been as common in the time of Sh. as it is at present. Just as we speak of "a high old time" we find in Sh. an old abusing of God''s patience and the King''s English (Wiv. I, 4, 5) ; Yonder''s old coil at home (Ado. V, 2, 98) ; here ivill be old Utis (2HIV. II, 4, 21). Generally, old means of great age, but not always. The question: "How old are you ?" might be addressed to a child or to a centenarian, the word old being equivalent to age, which may be more or less. This is evidently the meaning of the word in Hml. II, 2, 206. The word young might have been substituted for old here with propriety. Most of our readers will remember the joke of the genial Autocrat who claimed that he was seventy years young, not seventy years old. The ideas are similar, though not identical. Old Gobbo, dr.p. Father to Launcelot Gobbo. Merch. olive. The emblem of peace. Tw. I, 5, 226; 2HIV. IV, 4, 87; Ant. IV, 6, 7. on 196 OMN Oliver, dr.p. Son to Sir Rowland de Bois. As. Olivia, dr. p. A rich countess. Tw. Olympian Games. Referred to in 3HVI. II, 3, 53. Usually called the Olympic Games, the greatest of the national festivals of the Greeks. They were celebrated at Olympia, in Elis, which seems not to have been a town, but rather a collection of temples and public buildings. The origin of the Olympic games is buried in obscurity. They were said to have been first established by Hercules, who, in a contest with his four brothers, won a footrace. He thereupon established a contest which was to be celebrated every five yeai's, because he and his brothers were five in number. Later, the celebration occurred every fourth year, and the period of four years was called an Olympiad and was the most celebrated chronological era among the Greeks, The Olympiads began to be reckoned from the victory of Coroebus in the footrace, which hap- pened in the year B.C. 776. At first the contest consisted merely of a footrace aiid occupied but one day, but after- wards contests of wrestling, boxing, quoit and javelin throwing, horse-racing and chariot-racing were introduced, and the contest lasted for five days. There were no combats with any kind of weapons. The " Student's Greece" gives the following account of these games: "The only prize given to the conqueror was a garland of olive ; but this was valued as one of the dearest distinctions in life. To have his name proclaimed before assembled Hellas was an object of ambition with the noblest and wealthiest of the Greeks. Such a person was considered to have conferred everlasting glory upon his family and his country, and was rewarded by his fellow citizens with distinguished hon- ours. His statue was generally erected in the Altis or sacred grove of Jove, at Olympia ; and on his return home he entered his native city in a triumphal procession, in which his praises were sung, frequently in the loftiest strains of poetry. He also received still more substantial rewards. He was generally relieved from the payment of taxes, and had a right to the front seat at all public games and spectacles. An Athenian victor in the Olympic Games received, in accordance with one of Solon's laws, a prize of 500 drachmas and a right to a place at the table of the magistrates in the prytaneum or town hall; and a Spartan conqueror had the privilege of fighting on the field of battle near the person of the king. ' ' Olympus. A mountain which forms part of the chain which constituted the boundary of ancient Greece proper. Its shape is that of a blunt cone, with its outline picturesquely broken by minor summits. Its height is about nine thou- sand seven hundred feet, and its chief summit is covered with perpetual snow. In the Greek mythology Olympus was the chief seat of the third dynasty of gods, of which Jupiter was the head, and this was a really local conception with the early poets, to be understood literally, and not metaphorically, and it was only in the later years that the abode of the gods was transferred from the top of the mountain to the blue vault above it. Homer describes the gods as having their several palaces on the summit of Olympus ; as spending the day in the palace of Jupiter, round whom they sit in solemn conclave, while the younger gods dance before them and the muses entertain them with the lyre and song. They are shut in from the view of men upon the earth by a wall of clouds, the gates of which are kept by the Hours. There are in Sh. several references to Olympus, generally citing it merely as a very high mountain. Hml. V, 1, 277 ; 0th. II, 1, 190. Thou great thunder- darter of Olympus, refers to Jupiter. Troil. II, 3, 11. omne bene. Latin for all well. LLL. IV, 2, 33. I. ON 197 ORA on. Sometimes has a meaning = o/, as in Sonn. XXIX, 10; Liicr. 87; Ven. 160 ; Tp. IV, 1, 157 ; Mids. I, 2, 9. Some- times confounded with o/, as in IHIV. II, 1, 33 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 306. once. 1. Onetime. 2. Used to add emphasis to the fact of something having been done : Like soldiers xvJien once their cai^tain doth but yield, they basely fly, Ven. 893 ; have I once lived to see two honest men f Tim. V, 1, 59. 3. Or of something to be done. Wiv. III, 4, 103 ; Mids. Ill, 2, 68 ; Tp. Ill, 2, 24. 4. Enough. (Hudson.) Ado. I, 1, 319. Nearly equivalent to "once for all." See nonce. Of the phrase, all at once, in As. Ill, 5, 36, and HV. I, 1, 36, Singer says it has been asked, "What 'all at once' can possibly mean here ? It would not be easy to give a satisfactory answer." Staunton says it " was a trite phrase in Shakespeare's day, though not one of his editors has noticed it," and then gives several examples from the old dramatic writers. Steevens paraphrases the passage in As. thus: "That you insult, exult and that too all in a breath, ' ' and Furness thinks this is near enough. one. This word was formerly written o7i and probably pronounced like on. Hence the pun in Gent. II, 1, 3, between on and one. oneyers. This word has given rise to much conjecture and many suggested emendations. A common definition is banker ; others suggest great ones ; Schm. hyphenates it with great and explains as men who converse with great ones. IHIV. II, 1, 84. ope, adj. Open. Mcb, II, 3, 72 ; Cses. I, 2, 267. ope, V. Open. Rom. V, 3, 283 ; Gym. V, 4, 81. open, ad/. Evident; plain. Meas.- II, 1, 21 ; IHIV. II, 4, 250. open, V. To give tongue as a hound on scent or on view of game. Wiv. IV, ^2, 209. operance. Operation. Kins. I, 3. operant. Active. Tim. IV, 3, 25 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 184. Ophelia, d/'.p. Daughter to Polonius. Hml. opinion. The passage in 0th. IV, 2, 109, that hemight stick The smalVst opinion on my least misuse ? is said by Schm. to be "peculiar." Furness gives the following paraphrase, which he says is substantially the same as that of the Clarkes : " How have I been behaved that he could find the smallest possible fault with my smallest possible mis- deed?" opinioned. Dogberry's blunder tor pin- ioned. Ado. IV, 2, 69, opposeless. Irresistible. Lr. IV, 6, 38. opposite. Adversary. Tw. Ill, 2, 68; 2HIV. I, 3, 55 ; Hml. V, 2, 62. opposition. Combat. IHIV. I, 3, 99 ; 0th. II, 3, 184. The meaning usually given to the word in Cym. IV, 1, 14, is single combats. Schm. suggests : when compared as to particular accomplish- menjts. oppression. 1. Tyranny. Hml. II, 2, 606 ; Lr. I, 2, 52. 2. Pressure. RII. Ill, 4, 31; Rom. I, 4,24. 3. Embarrassment ; difiiculty. Ant. IV, 7,2. 4. Affliction; misery. Rom. I, 1, 190, and V, 1, 70. oppugnancy. Opposition. Troil. 1, 3, 111. or. Before ; sooner than. Hml. 1, 2, 183, and V, 2, 30; Mcb. IV, 3, 173. Oracle. 1. The god who revealed to men the will of the gods ; sometimes applied to the place where the temple of the oracle was located and sometimes to the revelations uttered by the oracle. There were numerous oracles in ancient times, the most famous being the oracle of Delphi, the most celebrated of the oracles of Apollo. It was to this that Leontes sent a deputation to inquire into the chastity of Hermione. Wint. Ill, 2. See isle. In the center of this temple there was a small opening in the ground from which, from time to time, intoxicating ORA 198 OKI smoke arose. Over this opening stood a high tripod on which the Pythia took her seat whenever the oracle was to be consulted. The smoke affected her brain in such a manner that she fell into a state of delirious intoxication, and the sounds which she uttered in this state were believed to contain the revelations of Apollo. These sounds were carefully written down by the attending prophets and afterwards communicated to the per- sons who had come to consult the oracle. These utterances were generally quite ambiguous, so that they truthfully ap- plied to the event, no matter what the outcome might be. Thus, Pyrrhus, being about to make war against Rome, was told: " Aio te, JEtacida., Romanos vincere posse," or, in English : "I say that you, the son of JE,a.cus, the Romans can conquer." This may mean either that he would conquer the Romans or the Romans would conquer him. Hence the quotation in 2HVI. I, 4, 65. 2 . A person of great wisdom or authority. Merch. 1, 1, 93. orange. Civil as an orange. Ado. II, 1, 305. Upon this expression Dyce has the following note : "It may be noted that a ' civil (not a Seville) orange ' was the orthography of the time. See ' ' Cot- grave's Dictionary " in ' Aigre Douce ' and in 'orange.' " Turning to Cot. we find: " Aigre-douce : f. A ciule Orange ; or, Orange, that is between sweet and sower," Which, as Furness says, is exactly what Claudio was, neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well, but between sweet and sour. orbed. Circular. Orbed continent (Tw. V, 1^ 378) =the sun. Tellus'' orbed ground (Hml. Ill, 2, 166) = the round earth. orchard. In Sh. time was generally sy- nonymous with garden. Now is usually confined to a plantation of fruit trees. Tw. Ill, 2, 8 ; Hml. I, 5, 35. order. 1. Necessary measures or steps. Meas. II, 1, 246 ; Err. V, 1, 46; RII. V, 1,53; 0th. V, 2, 72. 2. A fraternity or society. Wiv. V, 5, 65 ; Mids. II, 1, 123 ; Rom. Ill, 3, 114. ordinance. Order ; rank. Cor. Ill, 2, 12. ordinant. Ruling ; ordaining. Hml. V, 2,48. ordinary, n. 1. The general mass. As. Ill, 5, 42. 2. A meal ; a repast. All's. II, 3, 311 ; Ant. II, 2, 230. ore. In Sh. time the word ore signified the metal itself, and not the mineral from which the metal was extracted. Thus, in Paradise Lost, XI, 570, we find: The liqiiid ore he drain'd Into fit moulds prepared. And in the "English-French Diction- ary," appended to Cotgrave, the word ore is confined to gold. In the Fl, the reading in Hml. IV, 1, 25, is some ore; Walker suggested and Furness adopted the reading fine ore, but if ore was generally understood to mean gold, there is no need for any change. In the only other passage in the plays in which the word ore occurs (All's. Ill, 6, 40, to what tnetal this counterfeit lump of ore will be melted) the meaning seems to be gold. Johnson says : " Shake- speare seems to think ore to be Or, that is, gold. Base metals have ore no less than precious." But Johnson seems to forget that the language had changed since Sh. day. organ=pipe. The tube which serves to produce sound in an organ. Hence used for the throat or wind-pipe. On the passage, Tp. Ill, 3, 98, and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe pronounced The name of Prosper— Dr. Schm. makes the sage remark : " Apparently not the pipe of a musical organ, which would have been unable to pronounce a name." Dr. Schm. is apparently deficient in the poetical faculty. orgillous, ) Proud; haughty. Troil., orgulous. \ Prol. 2. orient. Bright ; shining. Mids. IV, 1, 59. Orient generally means the east, and Wright gives this explanation of the ORI 199 OTH way it came to have this special sig- nification: "The epithet appears to be originally applied to the pearl and other gems as coming from the orient or east, and to have acquired the general sense of bright and shining from the objects which it most conunonly de- scribes. Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, I, 546 : Ten thousand banners rise into the air, With orient colours waving." orifex. Opening ; aperture. Troil. V, 2, 151. Orlando, dr.p. Son to Sir Rowland- de Bois. As. Orleans, Duke of, dr. p. HV. Orpheus. A famous musician, the son of CEagrus and the Muse, Calliope. He lived in Thrace in the time of the Ar- gonauts and accompanied them in their expedition. Presented with the lyre by Apollo and instructed by the Muses in its uses, he enchanted with its music not only the wild beasts, but trees and rocks so that they moved from their places to follow the sound of his golden harp. These powers enabled him to aid the Argonauts materially ; at the sound of his lyre the Argo glided down into the sea ; the Argonauts tore themselves away from the pleasures of Lemnos, and the Colchian dragon, which guarded the golden fleece, was lulled to sleep. After his return from the Argonautic ex- pedition he took up his abode in a cave in Thrace. His wife was a nymph named Eurydice. She was killed by the bite of a serpent, and Orpheus fol- lowed his lost wife into the abodes of Hades, where the charms of his lyre suspended the torments of the damned and won back his wife from the most inexorable of all deities, but only upon condition that he should not look at her until they reached the upper world. But just on the confines of Hades Orpheus foi'got himself, looked back to see if his wife was following him, and lost her forever. He wandered about inconsolable, and his grief led him to treat with repugnance the approaches of the Thracian women. They, being angry at this, attacked him while under the influence of their Bacchic frenzy and tore him to pieces. It is this that is referred to in Mids. V, 1, 49. Other references to Orpheus are found in Gent. Ill, 2, 78; Merch. V, 1, 79; HVIII. Ill, 1, 3. Orsino, dr. p. Duke of Illyria. Tw. o's. See oes. osprey. The fishing-hawk. It was sup- posed to have the power of fascinating the fish on which it preyed, and it is probably to this that allusion is made in Cor. IV, 7, 34. orts. Leavings ; remnants ; refuse. Lucr. 985 ; Troil. V, 2, 158 ; Tim. IV, 3, 400. Osric, dr. p. A courtier. Hnil. ostent. Show; appearance. Merch. II, 8, 44. In Per. I, 2, 25, where old eds. give stint of war, modern eds. give ostent of war. ostentation, n. 1. Display; show; ex- hibition. Hml. IV, 5, 215 ; Ant. Ill, 6, 52 ; RII. II, 3, 95, 2. A spectacle. LLL. V, 1, 118. Oswald, dr. p. Steward to G-oneril. Lr. Othello, dr. p. The Moor of Venice. Oth. Connected with the play of Othello there are two questions which have been the subject of much discussion. The first is : Was Othello really black ? The second relates to the means by which he efl'ected the death of Desdemona. The latter question will be considered under the words "So, So," which the reader will find in their proper place. Other questions, such as the real nature of the relations between Othello and Desdemona (to which an entire volume has been devoted) may be of interest to speculative minds, but they have not, to any great extent, attracted the at- tention of Shakespearean students in general. As to the color of Othello, the widest range of opinion prevails amongst the corns. Some, like Professor Wilson (Christopher North), maintain that he was black — with negro characteristics — OTH 200 OTH a veritable Blackamoor. Others, again, side with Coleridge, who says that ' ' it would be something monstrous to con- ceive this beautiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable negro." And one writer, Mary Preston, in her "Studies in Shakespeare," holds posi- tively to the opinion that Othello was absolutely white — not a blonde, of course, but simply a very dark brunet. * That black, as an epithet, has been frequently applied to dark-complexioned men of pure Caucasian extraction is common knowledge. Witness the well- known historical characters, ' ' The Black Douglas " and " Black Colin Campbell. " But it is evidently not in this sense that the word "black" is used by Sh. in this play, and I confess I cannot agree with those who hold that Othello, instead of being really black, was nothing more than a white man with a. very dark complexion. It seems to me that the mistake made by the majority of writers on both sides of the question, consists in treating it as if it were a real historical problem and not a mere dramatic one. We all know that there never was such a I'eal historical person as Othello. He is wholly a creation of Sh. genius, and the point to be decided is not : Was he really a black man ? but : Did Sh. in- tend to portray a black man ? and I think that the answer to the latter question must be in the affirmative. The following passages are far too strong and far too pointed to be explained away by any mere sentimental antipathy to the marriage, or even by making large allowance for dramatic intensiveness of expression on the part of the actors : What a full fortune doth the thick- lips owe. 0th. I, 1, 66. Bun froin her guardage to the sooty bosom of such a thing as thou. I, 2, 70. To fall in love with what she feared to look on. I, 3, 98. Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. I, 3, 291. * Brunette applies only to females. In this speech of the duke the fairness of the mental and moral qualities of Othello are contrasted with his physical blackness ; the speech would have en- tirely lost its point if Othello had not been actually black. Her-'" name that was as fresh As Dian''s visage is now begrimed and black as mine own face. Ill, 3, 387. It must be obvious to every attentive reader that the blackness of Othello is the pivotal incident of this drama. It is upon this that lago harps in his talk with Roderigo, and even in the dialogue with Othello himself, his argument is based chiefly on this point when he says : Not to affect many proposed matches Of her own clime, complexion and degree. Ill, 3, 229. So, too, even in the mind of Othello himself the first thought, when he is debating with himself the reasons for her supposed desertion, is Haply, for I am black. Ill, 3, 263. And it is notice- able that while he tries to soften the fact that he is " declined into the vale of years," and says, by way of paren- thesis, "yet that's not much," he does not say anything in excuse of his acknowledged blackness, as did the Prince of Morocco, Merch. II, 1, 1. Of course, there are negroes and negroes, and Sh. would not have made Othello a mere black savage from Guinea, but it is equally certain that he intended to describe a man of a race and color the very opposite to that of Desdemona. The traditions of the stage seem to vary as much as do the opinions of the coms., but the closer we get to the time of Sh. the darker do the Othellos be- come. Hawkins, in his ' ' Life of Edmund Kean," tells us that " Betterton, Quin, Mossop, Barry, Garrick and John Kemble all played the part with black faces, and it was reserved for Kean to innovate, and Coleridge to justify, the attempt to substitute a light brown for the traditional black." * My in the Second and Third Quartos. OTH 201 OVE othergates. Otherways ; in another man- ner. Tw. V, 1, 198. The word gate here is an old English and Scotch word which signifies way or road. Thus, in Tarn 0''Shanter we find : As market days are wearing late An' folk begin to tak the gate. ouches. Ornaments. 2HIV. II, 4, 53. ought. Owed. IHIV. Ill, 3, 151. ouphe. Anelf; a goblin. Wiv. IV,4, 49. " Oujjh, Steevens complacently tells us, in the Teutonic language, is a fairy ; if by Teutonic he means German, and we know of no other, he merely showed his ignorance. Ouph is the same as oaf (formerly spelt aulf ) and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed from elf by the usual change of I into it." Keightley. ousel cock. The blackbird. Mids. Ill, 1, 128. Spelled woosel in old eds. This bird is very different from our American blackbird. See robin. The meaning of the phrase, a black ousel (3HIV. Ill, 3, 8) is not very clear. The Clarkes merely note: "Master Silence speaks with mock-modest dis- paragement of his pretty dark-haired daughter." Dj^er thinks the phrase corresponds to our modern one, "a black sheep," but this seems to me very doubtful. out. 1. Abroad ; in foreign countries. Gent. I, 3, 7 ; Lr. 1, 1, 33. 2. Fully ; completely. Tp. I, 3, 41. 3. Not knowing what to say. LLL. V, 3, 153 ; As. IV, 1, 76. 4. Torn ; ragged. Cses. I, 1, 18. out=breasted. Out-sung. Kins. V, 4. See breast. out=dure. To outlast. Kins, III, 6. out=face. 1. To put on a good appear- ance. As. I, 3, 134. 2. To put down by terror. Outfaced infant state. John II, 1, 97. Marshall says : " The meaning of this phrase is somewhat vague. ' ' The general meaning seems obvious, though the phraseology is rather peculiar. Marshall explains it thus: "Philip means that John has shamelessly disregarded the rights of the infant (Arthur) to the throne." The Clarkes paraphrase it: " Brazenly outraged a child's rights." out=herod. To give vent to excessive rage and bombast. Hml. Ill, 3, 15. The reference here is to the Herod of the old mysteries who was one of the most violent characters on the stage. Douce describes the Coventry play of The Nativity, in which a bombastic speech is followed by the stage direction : ' ' Here Erode ragis in thys pagond [pageant] and in the strete also. ' ' out=look. To look bigger than; to face down. John V, 2, 115. out=peer. Surpass ; excel. Cym. Ill, 6, 86. out=prize. To overrate. Cym. I, 4, 88. Not "exceed in value " as Scbm. has it, but to over-estimate. See prize. outrage. Passionate utterance. Rom. V, 3, 315. Collier's MS. reads outcry, and Collier refers to the same act and scene, line 193, where Lady Capulet says : AH run With open outcry. See also IHVI. IV, 1, 136. Schm. explains as "an out- break of rage and fury." out=tongue. To speak louder than. 0th. I, 3, 19. outvied. Beaten by a higher card. Shr. II, 1, 379. out=waIl. Exterior ; appearance. Lr. III, 1, 45 ; cf. wall in Tw. I, 3, 48, and John 111, 3, 30. outward, n. Personal appearance ; form. Sonn. LXIX, 5; Troil. Ill, 3, 169; Cym. I, 1, 33. outward, adj. Not admitted to state secrets. All's. Ill, 1, 11. overbuy. To pay too much for. Cym. I, 1, 146. Overdone, Mrs., dr. p. Keeper of a dis- orderly house. Meas. over=scutched. Over whipped. Over- scutched huswives. 3HIV. Ill, 3, 340. In this passage huswives undoubtedly carries an evil sense. Nares suggests " whipped, probably at the cart's tail," a common method of punishing certain classes of evil-doers. Of the meaning of the words there can be no doubt. Skeat derives scutch or scotch from OVE 202 PAC scutcher, a riding whip. Cot. defines verge as "a rod, wand, switch or scutcher to ride with. " The word scutch is also a technical term used in flax- dressing and means to beat so as to separate the coarse outer covering from the fine inner fibre. overseen. Bewitched. Lucr. 1206. See o''erlook. overshot. Put to shame ; outdone in shooting. LLL. I, 1, 141 ; HV. Ill, 7, 134. In the last passage it has been suggested that overshot means tipsy. overture. 1. Disclosure ; communication. Wint. II, 1, 172 ; Lr. Ill, 7, 89. 2. Proposal ; offer. All's. IV, 3, 46 ; Tw. I, 5, 225. This word in Cor. 1, 9, 46, has never been satisfactorily explained, and is supposed to be a corruption. overween. To be sel f -conceited ; to be arrogant. 2HIV. IV, 1, 149; Tit. II, 1,29. overwhelm. In addition to the usual meaning which this word has in Ado. V, 1, 9 ; 2HIV. I, 2, 13, and elsewhere, it has the sense of overhang in Ven. 183; HV. Ill, 1, 11 ; Rom. V, 1,39. owe. To own ; to possess. Tp. Ill, 1, 45 ; John IV, 2, 99 ; 0th. Ill, 3, 332. Owen Qlendower, dr. p. IHIV. owl. A well-known bird. They say the owl ivas a baker''s daughter. Hml. IV, 5, 42. This alludes to a common legend according to which our Saviour went into a baker's shop and asked for bread. The mistress put a piece of dough in the oven to bake, but was reprimanded by her daughter for giving such a large piece. The daughter re- duced it to a very small size, but it immediately began to swell and soon became of enormous bulk, whereupon the daughter cried out, ' ' heugh, heugh, heugh," and was immediately changed into an owl. Oxford, Duke of, dr.p. A Lancastrian. 3HVI. Oxford, Earl of, dr.p. RIII. oyes. The word of the court crier signi- fy mg Hear ye ! Hear ye ! (French, oyez. ) Wiv. V, 5, 45 ; Troil. IV, 5, 143. ACE, n. A step. He has no pace, but 7'uns where he will. All's. IV, 5, 70. Johnson ex- plains this as having " a cer- tain or prescribed walk ; so we say of a man meanly obsequious, that he has learned his paces, and of a horse who moves irregularly, that he has no paces." The passage : That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose It hath to climb (Troil. I, 3, 128) = "That goes backward step by step, with a design in each man to aggrandise himself, by slighting his immediate superior. ' ' John- son. Cowden Clarke paraphrases it thus: "By neglecting to observe due degree of priority, men lose ground while striving to advance ; since each person who pushes on regardless of his superiors will be pushed back in turn by them." pace, V. To train ; to teach proper move- ments. A horse-trainer's term some- times applied to men and women. Meas. IV, 3, 137 ; Per. IV, 6, 68. pack, n. 1. A confederacy for a bad purpose. Wiv. IV, 2, 123 ; Err. IV, 4, 105. 2. A budget or bag. See furred. pack, V. To plot ; to conspire, Shr. V, 1, 121 ; Err. V, 1, 219 ; Ado. V, 1, 308. She has packed cards with Ccesar (Ant. IV, 14, 19) = conspired with Csesar. packing. Plotting. Lr. Ill, 1, 26. paction. Contract ; agreement. HV. V, 2, 393. PAD 203 PAI In the Fl. the word is pation, and it has been rendered passion by some eds. Paction is a good old English woi-d which is still in common use in Scot- land. paddock. A toad. Hml. Ill, 4, 190. In Mcb. 1, 1, 9, the name of a familiar spirit, probably in the shape of a toad. The familiar spirits of witches frequently took the form of cats and toads, as may be seen in HeLl Brugel's painting of St. James (1560). In the Scottish language paddock or puddock signifies a frog. Thus, in a Scotch rhyme we have : Half a paddock, half a toad, Half a yellow yorling, showing that the paddock was not a toad. Cotgrave gives : " G-renouille : f. A Frog, a Paddocke." And in the later Wickliffite version the frogs that came up on the land of Egypt are called ' ' paddockis. ' ' On the other hand, there are numerous examples in which pad- dock means toad. Thus the " Prompt- orium Parvulorum " gives: "Paddok, toode. Bufo.''^ It seems very certain that in Sh. paddock always means toad. The toad has always been regarded with a degree of dislike and disgust which is not shown towards the frog, and when Milton transforms Satan into a loathe- some and devilish object it is into a toad. Him they found, Squat like a toad close at the ear of Eve. This feeling arises partially from a belief that the toad is poisonous or venomous. Upon this point Mr. Prank Buckland, in his " Curiosities of Natural History," says : " Toads are generally reported to be poisonous ; and this is perfectly true to a certain extent. Like the lizards, they have glands in their skin which secrete a white, highly acid fluid, and just behind the head are seen two emin- ences like split beans ; if these be pressed this acid fluid will come out — only let the operator mind that it does not get into his eyes, for it generally comes out with a jet. There are also other glands dispersed through the skin. A dog will never take a toad in his mouth, and the reason is that this glandular secretion burns his tongue and lips. It is also poisonous to the human subject. Mr. Blick, surgeon, of Islip, Oxfordshire, tells me that a man once made a wager, when half drunk in a village public- house, that he would bite a toad's head off ; he did so, but in a few hours his lips, tongue and throat began to swell in a most alarming way, and he was dangerously ill for some time. " pagan. This word "seems to have been a cant term, implying irregularity either of birth or manners." Steevens. What a pagan rascal is this? IHIV. 11,3, 31. What pagan [prostitute] inay that he ? 2HIV. II, 2, 168. Also Hml. Ill, 2, 36, and 0th. I, 2, 99. Page, Mr., dr. p. A gentleman dwelling at Windsor. Wiv. Page, Mrs., dr. p. Wife to Mr. Page. Wiv. Page, Anne, dr. p. Daughter to Mr. Page. Wiv. Page, William, dr. p. Son to Mr. Page. Wiv. pageant, v. To mimic as actors do in a pageant or theatrical representation. Troil. I, 3, 151. painted cloth. This was cloth or canvas used as hangings for rooms, painted in oil, representing various subjects, with devices and mottoes or proverbial say- ings interspersed. It has been errone- ously explained to mean Tapestry. Dyce. Lucr. 245 ; LLL. V, 2, 579 ; As. Ill, 2, 290 ; IHIV. IV, 2, 28. painted. Artificial, in the sense of unreal ; counterfeit. John III, 1, 105 ; Tim. IV, 2, 36. My most painted word (Hml. Ill, 1, 53) = my most hypocritical speech. Whose TYiother was her pain ting. Cym. Ill, 4, 52. See mother. Painted one way like a Gorgon, The other way''s a Mars. 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 PAI 204 PAN owl.' And Chapman, in All Fools'' , Act I, sc. 1 : But like a couzening picture, which one way Shows like a crow, another hke a swan." Staunton, Such pictures are now in common use for changeable signs which show one set of letters from the front, another set from one side and a third set from the other side. painful. Laborious. Tp. Ill, 1, 1 ; Sonn. XXV, 9. pajock. Hml. Ill, 2, 295. This word has given rise to much discussion. Paddock (toad) has been urged as the proper reading, and other words, such as mea- cock, puttock, etc. , have been suggested. Dyce says : ' ' Here pajock certainly means peacock. I have often heard the lower classes in the north of Scot- land call the peacock a pea- jock, and their almost invariable name for the turkey-cock is ' ' bubbly-jock. ' ' Furness thinks ' ' Dyce's testimony is conclusive. ' ' That the word that Hamlet uttered was peacock, I think there can be no doubt, but it is obv ious that the word which he at first meant to use was ass. Note Horatio's remark : You might have rhymed. palabras. Paucas pallabris, a mutila- tion and corruption of the Spanish pocas palabras = few words. Ado. Ill, 5, 18 ; Shr. Ind. I, 5. Palamon, dr. p. Nephew to Creon, King of Thebes. Kins. pall. 1. To wrap up ; to cloak. Mcb. I, 5, 52. 2. To decay ; to wane ; to go to wreck. Hml. V, 2, 9. palled. Ruined. Ant. II, 7, 88. pale, n. An enclosure, or, rather, the fence or paling surrounding an en- closure. Err. II, 1, 100 ; Hml. I, 4, 28. The line : For the red blood reigns in the ivinter''s pale (Wint. IV, 3, 4), has given some trouble to the coms. Farmer calls attention to the fact that "the English pa^e and the Irish pale were frequent expressions in Shake- speare's time " and explains the passage thus : " The red, the sp)ring blood now reigns o'^er the parts lately under the dominion of winter.'''' And in "The Henry Irving Shakespeare " it is sug- gested that there is a double meaning — pale = paleness, and pale = enclosure. But it is improbable that it means any- thing more than ' ' the red blood reigns in the place of the pale blood of winter. " Dyce. There is too much of this read- ing of far-fetched and irrelevant ideas into the writings of Sh. pale, V. 1. To enclose as with a paling. HV. V, Chor. 10 ; Ant. II, 7, 74. 2. To make pale or wan. Hml. I, 5, 90. palliament. A robe. Tit. I, 1, 182. palmer. A pilgrim ; one who bears a palm branch in token of having made a pilgrimage to Palestine. AU's. Ill, 5, 38 ; Rom. I, 5, 102. palmy. Flourishing ; prosperous ; superior, as if crowned with palm. Hml. 1, 1, 113. Pandarus, dr. p. Uncle to Cressida. Troil. The Pandarus of Sh, is a modern creation and has no resemblance to the original character as described in the lUiad, The Pandarus of Homer was a son of Lycaon or Lycian and commanded the inhabitants of Zeleia, on Mount Ida, in the Trojan war. He was distinguished in the Trojan army as an archer, and was said to have received his bow from Apollo. He was slain by Diomedes or, according to others, by Sthenelus and was afterwards honored as a hero at Pinara, in Lycia. The Pandarus of later romance and of Sh. is a mere go-between or procurer from whose name has been coined a synonym for such brokers. Troil. Ill, 2, 211. For the origin of the modern form of the story see Cressida. Pandulph, Cardinal, dr.p. The Pope's legate. John. pang, V. To pain ; to torment. HVIII. II, 3, 15 ; Cym. Ill, 4, 98. pantaloon. An old fool; taken from a character in an Italian comedy. As. II, 7, 158 ; Shr. Ill, 1, 37. Panthino, dr.p. Servant to Antonio. G-ent. PAW 205 FAB pantler. A servant in charge of the pantry. Wint. IV, 4, 56 ; 2HIV. II, 4, 258 ; Cjm. II, 3, 129. panyn. In the Fl., Tw. V, 1, 206, Sir Toby says of Dicke Surgeon that /le's a Rogue, and a passy measures panyn. The later Folios read Pavin. Pope changed to a ptcist ineasuy^e pyainim ; Rann to : and after a passy measure or a piavin. Halliwell and Steevens have expended a great deal of learned investigation on the two dances, passy- measure and pavin, q.v., but the re- levancy is not very obvious. That the drunken Sir Toby should use the not very common names of tAvo dances as terms of reproach, or rather of Billings- gate, is, to say the least, far-fetched. It is therefore more than probable that panyn is either a misprint or a drunken mispronunciation of paynim (the old word for pagan) which has always been considered a scurrilous epithet, and passy-measures ,mstesid of being a cor- ruption of the Italian name of a dance {%eQ passy -measure), is quite as likely to be a corruption of past meastire or ' passing measure, so that what Sir Toby meant to say was : "he is a rogue and beyond measure a paynim or pagan." See pagan. The interpretation which makes passy-measures and pavin the names of two dances is that genei'ally accepted, and the ed. of '"The Henry Irving Shakespeare" says: "A metaphor de- rived from dances comes very character- istically from Sir Toby." See Tw. I, 3, 136, et seq. But for all that, it seems to me that the scurrilous word paynim is the most appropriate here. papers. In Sh. time all criminals pun- ished by exposure to public view were compelled to bear on their breasts, papers describing their crime. It is to this that reference is made in LLL. IV, 3, 48. On September 27th, 1631, John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, had a play (said to have been Midsununer Nighfs Dream) acted at his house in London. For this he was severely punished and the court also made the following order in regai'd to the getter-up of the ex- hibition : ' ' Likewise we doe order, that Mr. Wil- son, because hee was a speciall plotter and contriver of this business and did in such a brutish manner act the same with an Asses Head, and therefore he shall uppon Tuisday next, from 6 of the clocke in the morning till 6 of the clocko at night, sitt in the Porter's Lodge at my Lords Bishopps House, with his feet in the stocks and attyred with his asse head, and a bottle of hay sett before him, and this subscription on his breast : Good people I have played the beast And brought ill things to passe ; I was a man, but thus have made My selfe a silly Asse." Paphos. The name of two towns on the western coast of Cyprus and called respectively "Old Paphos" and "New Paphos. ' ' Old Paphos was situated near the coast, while New Paphos lay more inland. Old Paphos was the chief seat of the worship of Venus, who is said to have landed there after her birth among the waves. Hence, Venus is frequently called the Paphian goddess. In Old Paphos, Venus had a celebrated temple, the high priest of which exercised a kind of religious superintendence over the whole island which, in consequence, is frequently regarded as the home of sensual love, as is seen in the word Cyprian. Every year there was a grand procession from New Paphos to the temple of the goddess in the old city. There can be no doubt of the Phoenician origin of Old Paphos and that the worship of Venus (Aphrodite) was introduced here from the east. This would connect the rites with those of Astarte. Ven. 1193 ; Tp. IV, 1, 93 ; Per. Prol. 32. paradise, fool's. A common expression in Sh. time. Rich, in his " Farewell to Military Profession" (1581), has: "By praising of our beautie, you [men] think to bring us into a foole's paradise." The memiing is obvious — a belief in a, PAE 206 PAR good fortune which does not really exist. Rom, II, 4, 176. parallel. The word as ordinarily used requires no explanation, but as it occurs in Troil. I, 3, 168 : as near as the ex- tremest ends Of parallels, it presents some difficulty. Johnson says: "The parallels to which the allusion seems to be made are the parallels on a map ; as like as East to West." Schm., followed by several corns., explains it as "the opposed extremities of two parallels." But the opposed extremities of two parallels may be infinitely near to each other, and the implication here is that they are very far asunder. Johnson's explanation is probably the true one. Parcae. The three Fates. HV. V, 1, 21. See Fates. parcel. In part ; partly. Thus, parcel- bawd = partly bawd. Meas. II, 1, 63 ; parcel-gilt =^-pa.Ttlj gilt. 3HIV. 11, 1,94. parcel, v. To make into a parcel or lot. That mine own servant should Parcel the sum of my disgraces by Addition of his envy. Ant. V, 2, 163. Schm. explains pa?' ce^ here as "to enumerate by items; to specify." But this is an unusual meaning, although it is adopted by the "Century Dictionary." The idea here evidently is to fill up or com- plete. parcelled. Particular ; not general. RIII. II, 2, 81. pard. A leopard. Tp. IV, 1, 262 ; Mids. II, 2, 31. pardonnez moi. French for ' ' pardon me ' ' or " beg pardon. " RII. V, 3, 117 ; HV. IV, 4, 22 ; HV. V, 2, 108. Paris, dr.2J. A young nobleman ; lover of Juliet. Rom. Paris, dr. 23. Son to Priam. Troil. Paris was the second son of Priam and Hecuba. Before his birth Hecuba dreamed that she had brought forth a firebrand which had destroyed the whole city. Accordingly, as soon as the child was born, he was given to a shepherd with orders to expose him on Mount Ida. After five days the shep- herd returned to Mount Ida and found the child still alive and fed by a she- bear. Thereupon he carried the boy home and brought him up along with his own child, and called him Paris. When Paris had grown up, he distinguished himself as a valiant defender of the flocks and shepherds, and hence received the name of Alexander, i.e., defender of men. He also succeeded in discover- ing his real origin and was received by Priam as his son. He now married OEnone, the daughter of the river god, Cebren. But the event which has made his name so generally known was his abduction of Helen. This was brought about as follows : When Peleus and Thetis solemnized their nuptials, all the gods were invited to the marriage with the exception of Eris or Strife. En- raged at this slight, Eris threw amongst the guests a golden apple inscribed : "To the fairest." Juno, Venus and Minerva each claimed the apple for her- self, and Jupiter ordered Mercury to take the goddesses to Mount Ida, to the beautiful shepherd Paris, who was to decide the dispute. Juno promised him the sovereignty of Asia and great riches ; Minerva, great glory and renown, and Venus, the fairest of women for his wife. He decided in favour of Venus, and, of course, incurred thei enmity of Juno and Minerva. Under the pro- tection of Venus, Paris now sailed for Greece and was hospitably received in Sparta by Menelaus, whose wife, Helen, was the most beautiful woman in the world. Some say that he carried her off by force ; others claim, that under the influence of Venus, she accompanied him willingly. He also treacherously carried off much treasure from the hospitable house of Menelaus. These acts led to the Trojan war. Homer describes Paris as a handsome man, fond of the female sex and of music, and not ignorant of war, but as dilatory and cowardly, and detested by his own friends for having brought upon them the fatal war with .the Ureeks . He fought with Men elaus before PAR 207 PAR the walls of Troy and was defeated, but was carried off by Venus. He is said to have killed Achilles either by one of his arrows or by treachery in the temple of the Thymbraen Apollo. He, himself, was wounded by Philoctetes with one of the poisoned arrows of Hercules. He returned to his abandoned wife, CEnone, and asked her to heal him, but she, re- membering the wrongs she had suffered, refused. He then went back to Troy, and CEnone, repenting too late, hastened after him with those remedies which she, as the daughter of a god, knew so well how to apply. Paris died, and CEnone, in her grief, hung herself. In works of art Paris is represented as a beautiful youth, without a beard, with a Phrygian cap, and sometimes with an apple in his hand, in the act of presenting it to Venus. Paris=garden, ' ' The place on the Thames bankside at London where the bears are kept and baited. It was anciently so called from Robert de Paris, who had a house and garden there in Richard the Second's time." BlounVs Glosso- graphia. HVIII. V, 4, 2. Parish=garden. A vulgarism for Paris- garden, q.v. parish top. A large top ^''as formerly kept in every village to be whipped in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise and out of mischief while they could not work." Steevens. Tw. I, 3, 44. paritor. An apparitor;- "an officer of the Bishop's Court who carries out citations ; as citations are most fre- quently issued for fornication the pari- tor is put under Cupid's government." Johnson. LLL. Ill, 1, 188. parle. A parley ; a talk ; a conference. Gent. I, 2, 5. Break the parle (Tit. V, 3, 19) = break off this kind of talk. Angry parle (Hml. I, 1, 62) = angry conference. See Polaeks. parlous. 1. Perilous, of which it is a corruption. As. Ill, 2, 45 ; Rom. I, 3, 54. 2. Amazing ; wonderful ; great. Used in the generic sense of excessive. Halli- well. Mids. Ill, 1, 14 ; RIII. Ill, 1, 1.54 ; Kins. II, 3. parmaceti. Spermaceti. IHIV, I, 3, 58, Parolles, dr.p. A follower of Bertram, All's. parrot. The sentence : Or rather, the prophecy like the parrot, '•'■beware the ropers ewcZ " (Err. IV, 4,45), "alludes to people's teaching that bird unlucky words ; with which, whenever any pass- enger was offended, it was the standing joke of the wise owner to say : ' Take heed, sir, my parrot prophecies.' To this Butler hints, where, speaking of Ralph's skill in augury, he says (Hudi- bras p. 1, c. 1) : 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." Warburton. partake. 1. To side with; to take the part of another. Sonn. CXLIX, 2. 2. To communicate ; to impart. Wint. V, 3, 132 ; Per. I, 1, 153. parted. 1. Endowed with abilities ; dearZi/ parted = having good parts. Troil. Ill, 3, 96. 2. Parted eye (Mids. IV, 1, 194) = the eyes being out of unison so that the images in the two eyes do not coincide so as to form one picture. Certainly not "divided into pieces" as Schmidt ex- plains this particular passage. partial. A partial slander = a reproach of partiality. RII. I, 3, 241. parti=coated, | Dressed in a coat of party =coated. ) divers colors, like a fool. LLL. V, 2, 776. partizan. A kind of halberd or pike ; " a sharp, two-edged sword placed on the summit of a staff." Fairholt. Rom. 1, 1, 80; Hml. I, 1, 140; Cym. IV, 2, 399. Partlet. " The name of the hen in the old story-book of Reynard the Pox; and in Chaucer's tale of The Cock and the Fox, the favorite hen is called dame Pertelote.''^ Steevens. So called from her ruff. Wint. II, 3, 75 ; IHIV. Ill, 3,60. PAR 208 PAT party=verdict. Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave (RII. I, 3, 234) = "you had yourself a part or share in the verdict that I pronounced. ' ' Malone. pash,n. The head. Wint. I, 2, 128. A Scotch word only used humorously. pashj-u. To strike ; to knock down. Troil. II, 3, 213 ; V, 5, 10. pass, n. 1. Act; proceeding; course. Meas. V, 1, 375. 2. A term in fencing having two mean- ings : {a) a push ; a thrust. Hml. V, 2, 61. ^eex>ractice. (6) A bout of fencing continued until one of the combatants is hit. Hml. V, 2, 173. 3. Passage. Hml. II, 2, 77. Between the pass a7id fell incensed points (Hml. V, 2, 61), that is, to come between two combatants and, as Moberly says, " so as to get the dangerous wound which comes from the ' redding-straik. ' ' ' The Scotch have a proverb: "Beware of the redding-straik," that is, the stroke which one is apt to get when attempting to settle or " red " a quarrel. It is said to be the most fatal of all blows. See Scott's " G-uy Mannering," Vol. I, p. 278, of ed. 1829. pass, V. 1. To practise upon ; to make a sally of wit at one's expense. Tw. Ill, 1,48. 2. To care for ; to have regard for. 2HVI. IV, 2, 136. passado. A pass or motion forward ; a term in fencing. LLL. I, 2, 188. passage. 1. Passers-by; no passage (0th. V, 1, 37) = no one passing. Stir- ring passage (Err. Ill, 1, 99) = passing crowds. 2. Occurrence. Common passage (Cym. III, 4, 94) = ordinary occurrence. passing, adj. Excessive ; egregious. Gent. I, 2, 17 ; 3HVI. V, 1, 106. passing, adv. Exceedingly. Ado. II, 1, 84 ; Mids. II, 1, 20 ; Hml. II, 2, 427. passion, -u. To feel pain and sorrow. Tp. V, 1, 24 ; Gent. IV, 4, 172. passionate, adj. Sorrowful. Gent. I, 2, 124 ; LLL. Ill, 1, 69 ; John. II, 1, 544. passionate, v. To express sorrow. Tit. Ill, 2, 6. passy measures. Said by some to be corrupted from passamezzo, the Italian name of a slow, stately dance. For this reason the two words are hyphenated in many eds. Tw. V, 1, 206. Malone explains the expression thus : In this passage " Sir Toby means that the surgeon is a grave and solemn coxcomb. ' ' But see panyn. pastry. The room where pastry is made. Rom. IV, 4, 2. patch. Properly, a domestic fool, so called from his wearing a patched or parti-colored dress. Tp. Ill, 2, 71 ; Err. III, 1, 32 ; Merch. II, 5, 46. But it was used also to denote a mean or paltry fellow, as in Mids. Ill, 2, 9 ; Mcb. V, 3, 15. patched. Parti - colored ; motley. A patched fool = a fool in a parti-colored coat. Johnson. Mids. IV, 1, 208. Schm. gives paltry as the meaning, but no prominent com. agrees with him . Staun- ton describes a picture representing "a grand al fresco entertainment of the description given to Queen Elizabeth during her ' Progresses,' in which there is a procession of masquers and mum- mers, led by a fool or jester, whose dress is covered with many-coloured coarse patches from head to heel." patchery. Roguery ; bungling hypocrisy. Troil. II, 3, 77; Tim. V, 1, 99. patent. 1 . Privilege ; right. My virgin patent (Mids. I, 1, 80) = my right to remain a virgin. 2. Warrant ; title. All's. IV, 5, 69 ; 0th. IV, 1, 209. The word paieni literally means open ; hence, letters patent (RII. II, 3, 130) = open letters, and such were issued to those to whom monopolies and special privileges were granted. path, V. In Gees. II, 1, 83, the word path has given rise to much discussion. The PI. reads : ' ' For if thou path thy native semblance on," etc. Modern eds. place a comma after path, and some place one after For. Coleridge is convinced that we should read "if thou pnt thy native semblance on;" Knight and Dyce agi'ee with him. Pope suggested PAT 209 PAU march; Grant White, hadst, others, pace or pass. Path is used as a verb by Drayton, but not exactly in this sense ; he speaks of patbing a passage and of pathing a way, that is, making or smoothing a passage or way. Sh. would not have hesitated to use 2JCiih in anyway that suited his purpose, so that Johnson's paraphrase: "If that walk is thy true form," may be accepted as the intended sense. pathetical. Caldecott's definition of this word (As. IV, 1 , 19(3) is "piteously moaning ; passionate. " Whiter explains it as : "A whining, canting, promise- breaking swain." Patience, dr. 20. Woman to Queen Kath- arine. HVIII. patient, v. To compose one's self ; to make patient. Tit. I, 1, 121. patine. "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 commonlj'- made of gold." Malone. Merch. V, 1, 59. Patrick, St. Hamlet's reference to the patron saint of Ireland has given rise to some comment. Warburton says it was because "at this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland, to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this saint." Tschischwitz remarks that if Sh. had wished to be historically correct, he would have made a Dane swear by St. Ansgarius. But since the subject concerned an unexpiated crime, he naturally thought of St. Patrick, who kept a Purgatory of his own. Fur- ness corrects the learned German by quoting a passage from The Honest Whore., in which St. Patrick is said to ' ' keep Purgatory ' ' and not a Purgatory of his own. Moberly explains the use of this saint's name here by hinting that St. Patrick was the patron saint of all blunders and confusion. Hml. I, 5, 137. Patroclus, dr.p. A Grecian commander. Troil. Patroclus was the son of Menoetius, who was a brother of ^acus, the grand- father of Achilles, so that Patroclus and Achilles were kinsmen as well as friends. While still a boy, Patroclus accidentally slew Clysonymus, son of Amphidamas, in consequence of which misfortune he was taken by his father to Peleus at Phthia, where he was educated with Achilles, thus bringing the two boys very close together. Therefore, when Achilles joined the expedition against Troy, Pati'oclus accompanied him. He fought bravely and slew many enemies, but was struck by Apollo and rendered senseless. In this state Euphorbus ran him through with his lance from behind and Hector gave him the last and fatal blow. Hector then took possession of his armor, and a long struggle ensued between the Greeks and the Trojans for the possession of his body, but the former gained the day and brought the body to Achilles, who burned it with funeral sacrifices. patronage, v. To maintain ; to make good. IHVI. Ill, 1, 48 ; III, 4, 32. pattern, v. To be an example or pattern for. Meas. II, 1, 30 ; Wint. Ill, 2, 37 ; Tit. IV, 1, 57. pauca. A Latin word signifying few. It was adopted as a slang or cant term, and meant "be brief." Wiv. I, 1, 134; HV. II, 1, 83. pauca verba. Pew words. (Latin. ) Wiv. I, 1, 123. paucas. See pallahris. Paul, St. The body of old St. Paul's Church, in London, was a constant place of resort for business and amuse- ment. Advertisements were fixed up there, bargains made, servants hired, politics discussed, etc. , etc. Nares. In "The Choice of Change," by N. Breton, 1598, it is said : " A man must not make choyce of three things in three places — of a wife in Westminster, of a servant in Paule's, or of a horse in Smithfield ; lest he chuse a queane, a knave, or a -'" 'e." Malone quotes from Osborne's 1 .vlemoirs of James I.": "It was the PAU 210 PEE fashion in those times .... for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions, not merely mechanicks, to meet in St. Paul's Church by eleven, and walk in the middle aisle tUl twelve, and after dinner from three to six; during which time some dis- coursed of business, others of news. Now, in regard of the universal com- merce — there happened little that did not first or last arrive here." Paulina, dr. p. Wife to Antigonus. Wint. paunch, v. To rip up. Tp. Ill, 2, 101. paved. Pebbly; stoney. Paved fouyitain (Mids. II, 1, 84) = a fountain whose bed was covered with clean gravel or pebbles and whose water was consequently clear and not easily muddied like that of a rushy brook, whose bed would be muddy or oozy. His paved bed (Meas. V, 1, 439) = his grave, because paved or covered with a stone. pavilioned. Tented ; lying in tents. H V. I, 2, 129. The meaning of this passage is that although the bodies of the Eng- lish are still here, their hearts or spirits are in France eager for combat. The force and earnestness of this imagina- tive address is quite in Sh. style. pavin. Explained by some as a grave Spanish dance. Tw. V, 1, 207. But see p)anyn. pax. Peace. (Latin.) HV. Ill, 6, 42. The pax was the symbol of peace, and was a small plate of metal (either precious or common) which, during a certain part of the Mass, was tendered to the laity to be kissed, the priest say- ing : '■''Pax Domini sit setyiper vobis- cw9n" (The peace of the Lord, may it be always with you) ; it was also named osculatorium. On its surface was en- graved or embossed some religious subject, generally the Crucifixion. Sometimes erroneously confounded with pix. pay. To hit or kill in fighting. Tw. Ill, 4, 305 ; IHIV. II, 4, 213. peach. To turn King's or State's evidence. Meas. IV, 3, 12. This is a common slang word at the present day. peak. To grow thin ; to mope. Mcb. I, 3, 23 ; Hml. II, 2, 602. peaking. Sneaking. Wiv. Ill, 5, 73. pearl. A cataract in the eye. Gent. V, 2, 13. A quibble or pun. Peaseblossom, dr.jJ. A fairy. Mids. peascod. Properly, a peapod, but in As. II, 4, 52, Touchstone evidently uses peascod for a peastalk. ' ' Our ancestors were frequently accustomed in their love afEairs to employ the divination of a peascod by selecting one growing on the stem, snatching it away quickly, and if the omen of the peas remaining in the husk were preserved, then pre- senting it to the lady of their choice.'' Halliwell. And in his " Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words ' ' Halli- well gives the following extract from Mr. Davy's MS. " Suffolk Gloss " : "The efficacy of peas cods in the affairs of sweethearts is not yet forgotten among our rustic vulgar. The kitchen-maid, when she shells green peas, never omits, if she finds one having nine peas, to lay it on the lintel of the kitchen door, and the first clown who enters it is infallibly to be her husband or at least her sweet- heart." peat. A pet ; a darling. Shr. 1, 1, 78. peck. To strike ; to throw. HVIII. V, 4, 94. In some eds. pick. Probably a mere variant of pitch. peculiar. Preserved ; guarded. Meas. I, 2, 96. Pedant, cZr.p. Personates Vincentio. Shr. pedascule. A pedant; a schoolmaster, Shr. Ill, 1, 50. Of this word Warburton says: "He would have said Didascale, but think- ing this too honourable, he coins the word Pedascale in imitation of it, from Pedant.'''' It evidently means teacher. Shr. Ill, 1, 50. Pedro, Don, dr.p. Prince of Aragon. Ado. peeled. 1. Having the bark removed. Merch. I, 3, 85. 2. Shaved. IHVI. I, 3, 30. peer, v. 1. To come in sight ; to appear. Ven. 86 ; Wiv. IV, 2, 26 ; Shr. IV, 3, PEE 211 PEL ] 76. For some ridiculous comments on this word as it occurs in Wiv. IV, 2, 26, see Donnelly's "Great Cryptogram," page 520. Ford's exclamation, "Peer out, peer out !" as he buffets himself on the forehead evidently refers to the horns, which are the well-known insignia of cuckoldom and M^hich he thinks ought now to appear on his head. 2. To bi'ing inta sight ; to let appear. Lucr. 472. peevish. Silly ; foolish. Tw. I, 5, 321 ; RIII. IV, 2, 96 ; Rom. IV, 2, 14. Dow- den explains peeuis/i, in this passage, as childish, thoughtless, foolish, and quotes from Lyly's "Endimion," I, 1: "There never was any. so peevish to imagine the moone either capable of affection or shape of a mistris," and adds : ' ' Perhaps childishly perverse is implied." peg, V. To wedge. Tp. I, 2, 295. Peg=a=Ramsey. The name of an old song alluded to by Sir Toby. Tw. II, 3, 81. Percy says it was an indecent ballad. The tune is preserved, but the words are lost. Scott makes one of his characters apply it in a contemptuous manner to a young woman. Pegasus. A famous winged horse which sprang from Medusa when Perseus struck off her head. His name, which means "a spring," was given to him because he was believed to have made his appearance near the sources of the Oceanus, which was believed to be a great river. He plays a prominent part in various mythological legends. Per- seus was riding on this horse when he delivered Andromeda from the sea- monster. See Perseus. Hence the al- lusion in HV. Ill, 7, 22, to a beast for Perseus. It was by the aid of Pegasus that Bellerophon slew the Chimgera. The association of Pegasus with the Muses is based on the following legend : When the nine Muses engaged in a contest with the nine daughters of Pierus on Mount Helicon, all became darkness when the daughters of Pierus began to sing ; whereas, during the song of the Muses, heaven, the sea and all the rivers stood still to listen, and Helicon rose heavenward with delight until Pegasus, on the advice of Nep- tune, stopped its ascent by kicking it with his hoof. From this kick there arose Hippocrene (the horse's well), the inspiring well of the Muses on Mount Helicon. Pegasus is often seen repre- sented in ancient works of art along with Minerva and Bellerophon. He is referred to twice by name in Sh. plays, IHIV. IV, 1, 109, and HV. Ill, 7, 15. In the latter passage he is described as having "nostrils of fire" — chez les narines clefeu, and is spoken of as le cheval volant, or the flying horse, pegs. The pins of an instrument by which the strings are brought into tune. 0th, II, 1, 203. peise, [ 1. To poise ; to balance. John peize. J II, 1, 575. 2. To weigh down ; to render slow and heavy. Merch. Ill, 2, 22 ; RIII. V, 3, 105. pelican. From time immemorial this bird has served as an illustration of parental care and self-sacrifice, and it was adopted by some of the fathers as an emblem of Jesus Christ, ' ' by whose blood we are healed. " Various fables have been told of this bird, one being that when the young ones begin to grow they rebel against the male bird and provoke his anger so that he kills them ; the mother returns to the nest in three days, sits on the dead birds, pours her blood over them, revives them, and they feed on the blood. The common superstition is that when the mother pelican finds her- self unable to provide food, she tears open her own • breast and feeds her young with her blood. Thus, Sir Thomas Browne, in his " Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors," discusses "the picture of the Pelican opening her breast with her bill, and feeding her young ones with the blood distilled from her." It is needless to say that these ideas have no foundation in fact, the young being fed on fish, caught by the mother PEL 212 PEN and brought to the nest in the large pouch which hangs under her bill. Caldecott, in a note on Hml. IV, 5, 145, quotes the following from Dr. Sherwen : " It is not often that the grossest fables obtain currency without some founda- tion, or at least the semblance of truth ; and so by the pelican's dropping upon its breast its lower bill to enable its young to take from its capacious pouch, lined with a fine flesh-coloured skin, this appearance is, on feeding them, given." It is quite as possible that the idea may have arisen from the fact that the breast of the pelican is sometimes smeared with the blood of the fish which are frequently crushed or reduced to small pieces while in the pouch. This supposed character- istic of the pelican is referred to in RII. II, 1, 126, and Lr. Ill, 4, 77. In the Fl. the passage Hml. IV, 5, 145, reads : "And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician," upon which comic misprint Mr. Arthur Symons (" The Henry Irving Shakespeare," Vol. VIII, page 140) makes the following pertinent remarks : "I can fancy that, had not the Quartos preserved the true reading, comment- ators would have been found to defend the reading of Fl. even on grounds of sentiment. Might not the politician become a beautiful illustration of the patriot, feeding his country with his own blood ? It is still not too late for a German editor to take up the point." pellet, V. To form into balls or pellets. Compl. 18. Pelleted storm = a storm of hail. Ant. Ill, 13, 165. Pelops. The legend relating to Pelops' shoulder, referred to Kins. IV, 2, 21, is as follows : Pelops was the grandson of Jupiter and the son of Tantalus and Dione, the daughter of Atlas. He was King of Pisa, in Elis, and from him the great southern peninsula of Greece was believed to have derived its name of Peloponnesus. Tantalus, the favoi-ite of the gods, once invited them to a re- past, and on that occasion killed his own son, and having boiled him, set the flesh before them that they might eat. But the immortal gods, knowing what it was, did not touch it ; Ceres (Demeter) alone, being absorbed by grief for her lost daughter, Proserpine, consumed the shoulder of Pelops. Hereupon, the gods ordered Mercury (Hermes) to put the limbs of Pelops into a cauldron and thereby restore him to life. When the process was over, Clotho took him out of the cauldron, and as the shoulder consumed by Ceres was wanting, the goddess supplied its place by one made of ivory ; his descendants (the Pelopidee), as a mark of their origin, were believed to have one shoulder as white as ivory. pelt, V. To chafe with anger. Lucr. 1418. pelting. Paltry; insignificant. Meas. II, 2, 113 ; Mids. II, 1, 91 ; Troil. IV, 5, 267; Lr. II, 3, 18 ; Kins. II, 2, 269. Pembroke, Earl of, dr.jD. William Mare- schall. John. Pembroke, Earl of, dr.p. A Yorkist noble. 3HVI. pen. The expression in All's. II, 1, 80, To give great Charle'inain a pen in''s hand, probably refers to the fact that Charlemain, late in life, vainly at- tempted to learn to write. Dyce. Penelope. Referred to but once in the plays. The allusion in Cor. I, 8, 93, will be best understood from her history. She was the daughter of Icarius and Periboea, of Sparta. There were many suitors for her hand, and her father promised to give her to the hero who should conquer in a foot-race. Ulysses won the prize, but Icarius tried to per- suade his daughter to remain with him and not accompany Ulysses to Ithaca. Ulysses allowed her to do as she pleased, whereupon she covered her face with her veil to hide her blushes, and thus intimated that she would follow her husband. Icarius then desisted from further entreaties, and erected a statue of Modesty on the spot. By Ulysses she had an only child, Telemachus, who was an infant when her husband sailed against Troy. During the long absence of Ulysses she was besieged by many importunate suitors, whom she deceived PEN 213 PEP by declaring that she must finish a large robe which she was making for her aged father-in-law, Laertes, before she could make up her mind. During the day- time she accordingly worked at the robe, and in the night she undid the work of the day. By this means she succeeded in putting off the suitors. But at length her stratagem was be- trayed by her servants and the suitors became more and more urgent. Just at this time Ulysses arrived after an absence of twenty years. Having re- cognised her husband by several signs, she heartily welcomed him, and the days of her grief and sorrow were at an end. See Ulysses. Penelophon. In most eds. this name is wrongly spelled ZenelojJhon, q.v. Pendragon. Referred to in IHVI. Ill, 2, 95. ' ' This hero was Uther Pendragon^ brother to Aurelius, and father to King Arthur. Shakespeare has imputed to Pendragon an exploit of Aurelius, who, says Hollinshed, 'even sicke of a flixe as he was, caused himself to be carried forth in a litter : with whose presence his people [the Britons] were so encour- aged, that encountering with the Saxons they wan the victorie. ' " Steevens. " Hardy ng ('Chronicle,' chap. 72) gives the following account of Uter Pendragon : 'For whiche the kyng ordeyned a horse litter- To beare hym so then vnto the Vero- lame, Wher Occa laye, and Oysa also in feer. That Saynt Albones now hight of noble fame. Bet downe the walles ; but to hym forth they came, Wher in battayU Occa and Oysa were slayne. The felde he had, and thereof was full fayne.' " Grey as quoted by Dyce penetrative. Affecting the feelings power- fully. Ant. IV, 14, 75. penner. A case for holding pens. Kin'? Ill, 5, 126. pense. French for ^^mfcs. (3rd pers. sing.) Pronounced as one syllable, the final e being silent. In Wiv. V, 5, 73, hq^ii soit qui mal y pense, the metre requires that this word should be pronounced as two syllables, so that the final e must be sounded. The word occurs also in HV. Ill, 4, 10 and 29 ; also in same, IV, 4, 2 and 59, but these passages are in prose. Is it not quite possible that Sh. obtained his knowledge of French from books alone, and consequently had but a slight knowledge of the French pro- nunciation ? See also bras for his pro- nunciation of that word. One thing is certain : Bacon had nothing to do with this part of Sh. works, for he had lived in Prance and spoke French fluently. pensioners. Gentlemen in the personal service of the sovereign. Wiv. II, 2, 79 ; Mids. II, 1, 10. Warton tells us : " This was said in consequence of Queen Elizabeth's fashionable establishment of a band of military courtiers, by the name of pensioners. They were some of the handsomest and tallest young men of the best families and fortune that could be found. Hence, says Mrs. Quickly, and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, loensioners. They gave the mode in dress and diversions. ' And Halliwell notes that Holies, in his " Life of the First Earl of Clare," says : " I have heard the Earl of Clare say that when he was pensioner to the Queen he did not know a worse man of the whole band than himself, and that all the world knew he had then an inheritance of £4,000 a year." "They were the handsomest men of the first families— tall as the cowslip was to the fairy, and shining in their spotted gold coats like that flower under an April sun." Knight. pensived. Pensive. Lov. Compl. 219. Pepin. Surnamed " The short," was the son of Charles Martel, King of the Franks and founder of the Carlo vingian dynasty. He died in 768, and conse- quently the time when he lived is re- ferred to in LLL. IV, 1, 122, as being FEN 214 PER very long ago. HV. I, 2, 65 ; HVIII. I, 3, 10. Penthesilea. A famous queen of the Amazons. She was the daughter of Mars and Otrera. After the death of Hector, she came to the assistance of the Trojans, but was defeated and killed by Achilles, who mourned over the dying queen on account of her beauty, youth and valor. Thersites ridiculed the grief of Achilles and treated the body of Penthesilea with contempt. For this he was slain by Achilles, who buried her on the banks of the Xanthus. Others say that Diomedes, a relative of Thersites, threw the body into the river Scamander. In Tw. II, 3, 193, Sir Toby calls Maria, Penthesilea, probably be- cause she was very small, the queen of the Amazons being presumably large and strong. So in Act I, 5, 218, Viola speaks of her as " your giant." penthouse. A corruption ot pentice, the ice being corrupted into house. It means a sloping roof or shed projecting from the main wall or placed over a door or window. Ado. Ill, 3, 110 ; Merch. II, 6, 1. In Meb. I, 3, 20, it is used metaphorically of the eyelid. perch. By many a dern and painful perch. Per. Ill, Prol. 1.5. " 'A perch is a measure of five yards and a half,' says Steevens, 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 Mil- ton did about that of a rood, when he tells us that Satan ' lay floating many a rood.'''''' Dyce. The word has also been explained as a resting or stopping place, but the exposition given above is probably the true one. Percy, Henry, dr. p. Earl of Northum- berland. IHIV. and 2HIV. Percy, Henry, dr.p. Son to Earl of Northumberland. IHIV. and 2HIV. Percy, Lady, dr.p. Wife to Hotspur. IHIV. and 2HIV. Sh. seems to have been so fond of the name Kate that he makes Hotspur call his wife Kate although her name ^as Eliza- beth. She was the daughter of Edmund Mortimer, third Earl of March, and her mother was Philippa Plantagenet, granddaughter of Edward III. She was born in 1371, and was named after her grandmother, Elizabeth de Burgh, wife of Lionel Clarence. Percy, Thomas, dr.p. Earl of Worcester. IHIV. and 2HIV. perdie, [ A mincing oath; a contraction perdy. \ of French par Dieu = by God. Err. IV, 4, 74; Hml. Ill, 2, 305 ; Lr. II, 4, 86. Perdita, dr.p. Daughter to Leontes and Hermione. The name signifies "the lost one. " Wint. perdition. Diminution ; loss. Tp. I, 2, 80 ; Hml. V, 2, 117. perdona=nii. Undoubtedly a corruption of i^ardonnez moi, q.v. Mercutio is ridiculing the affected style of speaking adopted by some of the young "bloods. " Rom. II, 4, 35. In the Fl., pardon- mee''s. Cambridge eds. read perdona- mfs. perdu. French for lost. A soldier sent on a forlorn hope. Lr. IV, 7, 35. perdurable. Lasting. HV. IV, 5, 7; 0th. I, 3, 343. perfect, v. To instruct fuUy. Tp. I, 2, 79 ; Meas. IV, 3, 146 ; Per. Ill, 2, 67. perfect, adj. Certain; well-informed. Wint. Ill, 3, 1 ; Mcb. I, 5, 2 ; Cym. Ill, 1, 73. perfections. The passage in Tw. I, 1, 37-39, reads thus in the Fl. : When Liuer, Braine and Heart, These soueralgne thrones, are all sup- ply'd and flU'd Her sweete perfections with one self e king. It has given rise to much discussion. Warburton proposed to emend by read- ing Three for These, but the change is evidently unnecessary. He also changed Her siveete loerfections to : (O ! sweet perfection!), made it a parenthesis and placed commas after supply'' d and fiWd, but in this he was not followed by John- PER 215 PER son, who was the next editor. Several editors note that in the time of Sh. the liver, brain and heart were admitted, in poetry, to be the seat of passion, judgment and sentiment respectively, and Steevens adds: "These are what Sh. calls her sweet perfections. " Knight thinks this a mistaken interpretation and adopts Warburton's substitution of perfection tov perfections, the meaning of perfection being the completion of womanhood by marriage ; and in sup- port of this he quotes, from Froissart, the soliloquy of the rich Berthault of Malines, who was desirous to marry his daughter to the noble Earl of Guerles : "My daughter should be happy if she might come to so great a perfection as to be conjoined in marriage with the Earl of Guerles." C. and M. Clarke adopt this explanation and refer to John II, 1, 437; also to Tw. II, 4, 41, where "perfection " is held to mean not only the full-blown state in the rose, but completed loveliness in woman when matched with h er chosen manly counter- part. This, however, not only requires an emendation, but seems to me a some- what forced interpretation. In 3HVI. III, 2, 85, All her per feet ions challenge sovereignty, " perfections " simply means good qualities. Where so manj^ able editors have been unable to agree, it would be somewhat presumptuous to offer a positive opinion as to the meaning of the passage ; never- theless, a suggestion may not be out of place. The liver, brain and heart are evi- dently the thrones which are to be sup- plied with occupants. Whether they are to be supplied and filled or whether they are to be supplied and the sweet perfections filled with one self king seems to be the question which has caused most of the difficulty. According to Warburton, the thrones were to be supplied and filled with one self king, "her sweet perfections," or, as he made it, "(O! sweet perfection!)," being an apostrophe addressed to her good qualities. But the other reading, which is, that the thrones are to be supplied and her sweet perfections filled with one self king seems to me more in ac- cordance with the Polio text. Self, here, as in many other passages, is equivalent to same and implies one only. See self. But, however difficult it may be to work out the gramnaatical construction of the passage, there can be no difficulty or doubt as to its general meaning. It is a mere expansion, or, rather, an attempted philosophical explanation of the idea contained in the first half of the Duke's speech, worked out accord- ing to the psychological theories of that age. perforce. By force. Forceperforce = by very force ; an emphatic form of per- force. 2H VI. 1, 1, 258 ; 2HIV. IV, 1, 116. periapts. Amulets; charms. Cotgrave gives: " Periapte. A medicine hanged about any part of the body. " Usually about the neck. IHVI. V, 3, 2. Generally, however, they consisted of written charms, portions of the first chapter of St. John being considered especially potent. In illustration of this use of that particular passage, Malone quotes the following story from "Wits, Fits and Fancies" (1595): "A cardinal, seeing a priest carrying a cudgel under his gown, reprimanded him. His excuse was that he had only carried it to defend himself against the dogs of the town. ' Wherefore, I pray you,' replied the cardinal, 'serves St. John's Gospel?' ' Alas, my lord,' said the priest, ' these curs understand no Latin.'" Pericles, dr.p. Prince of Tyre. Per. Perigenia. Called Perigouna in North's " Plutarch, " and sometimes Perigune. The account given in North's trans- lation of "Plutarch," which was no doubt the source of Sh. information, is as follows : Theseus, having set out to rid the country of robbers, slew a robber called Periphetes, and then ' ' going on further, in the Straits of Peloponnesus, PER 316 P£B he killed another, called Sinnis, sur- nanied Pityocamtes, that is to say, a wreather or bower of pineapple trees [fir-trees], whom he put to death in that self -cruel manner that Sinnis had slain many other travelers before. [Sinnis killed his victims by fastening them to the top of a fir-tree, which he curbed or bent down, and then let spring up again.] Not that he had experience thereof, by any former practice or exercise, but only to shew that clean strength could do more than either art or exercise. This Sinnis had a goodly fair daughter called Perigouna, which fled away when she saw her father slain : whom he followed and sought all about. But she had hidden herself in a grove full of cer- tain kinds of wild pricking rushes, called stoebe, and wild sperage [asparagus] which she simply, like a child, intreated to hide her, as if they had heard and had sense to understand her ; promising them, with an oath, that if they saved her from being found, she would never cut them down or burn them. But Theseus, finding her, called her, and swore by his faith he would use her gently and do her no hurt nor dis- pleasure at all. Upon which promise she came out of the bush and bare unto him a goodly boy, which was called Menalippus. Afterwards Theseus mar- ried her unto one Deioneus, the son of Euretus, the CEchalian. Of this Menalip- pus, the son of Theseus, came loxus : the which with Ornytus brought men into the county of Caria, where he built the city of loxides. And hereof cometh that old ancient ceremony, observed yet unto this day by those of loxides, never to burn the briars of wild sperage, nor the stoebe, but they have them in some honour and reverence. ' ' Mids. II, 1, 78. See Theseus. perishen. To perish. Per. II, Prol. 35. perjure. A perjurer. LLL. IV, 3, 48. Dyce says : " This word was formerly conunon enough (which I mention because here some editors print ' per- jured.')" In Sh. time convicted per- jurers and, indeed, all criminals exposed to public view, while undergoing pun- ishment, were obliged to wear on their breasts papers describing their off'ence. See pajoers. perked up. Dressed up ; adorned. HVIII. II, 8, 21. perpend. To reflect ; to consider. Wiv. II, 1, 117 ; As. Ill, 2, 69. per se. By himself. (Latin.) Troil. I, 2, 17. " These words are used by Chaucer and other old authors to denote super- excellence or pre-eminence." Toone's "Glossary." Perseus. The son of Jupiter and Danae, and grandson of Acrisius. An oracle having told Acrisius that he was doomed to perish by the hands of Danae's son, he shut his daughter up in a tower of brass or stone. But Jupiter metamor- phosed himself into a shower of gold, came down through the roof of the prison and becarue by Danae the father of Perseus. As soon as Acrisius dis- covered that Danae had given birth to a son, he put both mother and son into a chest and threw them into the sea. Jupiter, however, caused the chest to float to the island of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades. where Dictys, a fisherman, found them and carried them to Poly- dectes, the king of the country. They were treated with kindness, but Poly- dectes fell in love with Danae, and not being able to gratify his passion in con- sequence of the presence of Perseus, who, meantime, had grown up to man- hood, he sent Perseus on an expedition to fetch the head of Medusa, one of the Gorgons. Guided by Mercury and Minerva, Perseus first went to the Grseee, the sisters of the Gorgons, took from them their one tooth, and their one eye, and would not restore them until they showed him the way to the nymphs who possessed the winged sandals, the magic wallet and the helmet of Pluto, which rendered the wearer invisible. He also received from Mer- cury a sickle, and from Minerva a mirror, and with these he mounted into PER 217 PET the air and arrived at the Gorgons, who dwelt near Tartessus, on the coast of the ocean, and whose heads were covered like those of serpents, with scales, and who had large tusks like boars, brazen hands and golden wings. He found them asleep and cut off the head of Medusa, looking at her figure through the mirror, for a sight of the monster herself would have changed him into stone. Perseus put her head in the wallet which he carried on his back, and as he went away he was pursued by the two other Gorgons,. but his hel- met, which rendered him invisible, en- abled him ta escape. He then went to -35thiopia, where he found Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope, the king and queen of the country, chained to a rock, an oracle having declared that the sacrifice of a maiden was necessary to appease a sea monster which was laying waste the land. Per- seus slew the monster and married Andromeda. After many wanderings, Perseus, Andromeda and Danae re- turned to Argos. Acrisius, remember- ing the oracle, escaped to Larissa, but Perseus followed him and tried to per- suade him to return. The King of Larissa, in the meantime, celebrated games in honor of his guest, Acrisius, and Perseus, taking part in them, ac- cidently hit the foot of Acrisius with the discus and caused his death. HV. III, 7, 22. person. The old form of parson. LLL. IV, 2, 85. Parson is a mere variant of persona, and persona ecclesicc, "the representative of the Church, ' ' was the term applied to clergymen. Holof ernes makes a clumsy pun — person = pers- one = j)ierce one, which he and Costard elaborate between them. perso n age . Figure ; personal appearance. Mids. Ill, 2, 292 ; Tw. I, 5, 164. perspective. Shakespeare has several references to optical arrangements which cause things to present an ap- pearance very different from the reality. Douce says that in Sh. time a j^erspec- tive meant a glass that assisted the sight in any way. Some of these " per- spectives," however, were probably arrangements like the anamorphoscope in which distorted drawings were made to assume their proper appearance by viewing thein either in a curved mirror or from a particular point of view ; or, by means of glasses ground with differ- ent curves and facets, objects may be made to assuine the most extraordinary forms or be multiplied to any extent. Such glasses are described in Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft" (1584), and Douce says that they cannot be exceeded in number by any modern optician's shop in England. References to this are found in Sonn. XXIV, 4 ; All's. V, 3, 48 ; RII. II, 2, 18. The effect which the Duke suggests in Tw. V, 1, 224, might be produced by a piece of glass with two facets arranged at an angle to each other. A single object, such as a person, seen through a glass of this kind would appear double, as the Duke describes. pert. Lively. Mids. I, 1, 17. In Sh. this word was not used in the somewhat bad sense given to it later. "Pert is still a common word in New England, used exactly in the Sh. sense and pro- nounced as it is spelled in the quartos peart, i.e., peert." Furness. perttaunt=Iike. A word of which the meaning has not yet been ascertained. LLL. V, 2, 67. Peter, dr.p. A friar. Meas. Peter, dr.p. Horner's apprentice. 2HVI. Peter, dr.p). Attendant on nurse. Rom. Peter of Pomf ret, dr.p. A prophet. John. Peto, dr.p. One of Falstaff's followers. IHIV. and 2HIV. Petrucio, dr.p. A gentleman of Verona ; the tamer of the Shrew. Shr. pettish. Capricious. Troil. II, 3, 140. pettitoes. The feet. Originally it meant pig's feet, but afterwards came to be applied in a jocular or colloquial way to the human feet, especially as used in dancing. Wint. IV, 4, 619. It does not necessarily indicate contempt, as som© PEW 218 PHI have it, any more than "fore-foot," as applied to the hand in HV. II, 1, 71. pew. A stall or pen. Lr. Ill, 4, 54. Milton (1659) uses the word in reference to the pens in which sheep were kept in Smith- field Market; now used only in refer- ence to seats in churches. pew=feIlow. A companion ; a comrade. RIII. IV, 4, 58. Phaethon. The son of Apollo by the Oceanid Clymene, the wife of Merops. His father gave him the significant name of Phaethon, that is, "the shining," and afterwards he was ambitious and pre- sumptuous enough to request his father to allow him, for one day, to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens so that he might prove their relationship. After long persuasion by himself and his mother, Clymene, Apollo consented, but Phaethon was too weak to con- trol the fiery horses, which broke away from him, rushed out of their usual track, and came so near the earth as almost to set it on fire. Tellus then appealed to Jupiter for protection, and he hurled a thunderbolt which struck Phaethon and dashed him headlong into the river Po, where he was drowned. His sistei's, who had yoked the horses to the chariot, while standing lamenting his fate, were turned into poplar trees and their tears into amber. Gent. Ill, 1, 153 ; Rom. Ill, 2, 3 ; 3HVI. I, 4, 33. See Phosbus. phantasime. A fantastical person. LLL. IV, 1, 103. phantasma. A vision. Caes. II, 1, 65. Pharamond. A king of the Franks who instituted the Salic law in a.d. 424. This law was afterwards ratified by Clovis I, in a council of state. HV. I, 2, 37. Phebe, d7\p. A shepherdess. As. Phebe, v. To serve as Phebe does; to treat cruelly. As. IV, 3, 39. Pheezar. A nonsensical word coined by the Host. Malonesays, " A made word from p/iee^e," but this is doubtful. Most probably "made out of his own head." Wiv. I, 3, 10. pheeze. In the Fl. this is spelled p^ese in Troil. II, 3, 215 ; pheeze in Shr. Ind. I, 1 ; and in the old play fese. It has caused some trouble to the corns. Halli- well, in his "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words," has "pheeze, to beat; to chastise; to humble." He refers to Sh. and Ben Jonson, and adds : "Forby has pheesy, fretful, irritable, which he supposes to be connected with this word." He also quotes from an MS. Devon Glossary : ^' To pheaae, i.e., to pay a person off for an injury." In Ray's "Proverbs"! find: "I'll vease thee. i.e. Hunt or drive thee. Somer- set.'''' It is probably equivalent to the colloquial expression, " I '11 take him down," used whether physical force or mere banter is employed. Rolf e quotes Mr. J. Crosby: "In the North of England they have a word pronounced p/ia.^e, meaning to make an impression upon, to stir up, to tousle, to arouse ; as in 'I called the man a scoundrel, but it never j^hazed him;" "I hit the door with all my might, but could not p/ia^e it. ' " Mr. Crosby thinks that perhaps this may be Shake- speare's word. We have a colloquialism in common use — to faze or to be fazed, which means to be astonished, dazed, daunted. The "Century Dictionary" gives as an illustration a quotation from Trans. Amer. Philo. Ass. XVII, 39, being the expression of a Vanderbilt professor in regard to a Kentucky teacher — ' ' nothing /a^es him. ' ' May it not be a variant of daze ? I have never heard it applied to material things, but the "Standard Dictionary" illustrates by, "the chisel will not fase this steel " (no reference), cf. The Scotch fazart, a coward. Phibbus. Bottom's blunder for Phoebus, q.v. Mids. I, 2, 37. Philario, d7\p. A friend to Posthumus. Gym. Philemon, dr.2?. Servant to Cerimon. Per. Philemon. An aged Phrygian who, with his wife, Baucis, lived in a poor "thatched house." As. 1X1,3, 11, Jupiter PHI 219 PH(E and Mercury once upon a time assumed the form of ordinary mortals, and in the guise of poor travelers wandered into Phrygia and visited a village where every one refused to receive them. At last they came to the hut of Philemon, where the two gods were treated most kindly. After the meal the gods as- sumed their true forms and astonished their hosts by their size and splendour. The poor old couple were frightened at first, but Jupiter reassured them and bade them follow him to a neighbouring height from which all the district was visible. Here the}^ saw the whole vil- lage, with the exception of their own hut, submerged and destroyed. The hut was metamorphosed into a temple, and Jupiter asked his hosts what favor they desired of him. Their prayer was that they might be made priest and priestess of the temple and die together at the same time. Jove granted their wishes; they served in the temple for many years, and at last one day when standing in the door of the temple they were metamorphosed into two trees whose branches met and closely en- twined with each other. Alluded to in Ado. II, 1, 99. Philip, dr.jy. King of France. John. Philip Faulconbridge, dr.jx Bastard son to Richard I. John. Philip. A sparrow. John I, 1, 231. Philip was, and still is, a name for the common sparrow, perhaps from its note, j^hip, phip; the speaker, now Sir Richard, disdains his old name Philip. Di/ee. Philip and Jacob. The first of May ; the festival of St. Philip and St. James. (Jacobus.) Meas. Ill, 2, 218. Philo, dr.p. A friend to Antony. Ant. Philomel. 1. The nightingale, g.u. Lucr. 1079 ; Sonn. CII. 7; Mids. II, 2, 13. 2. The daughter of Pandion. Lucr. 1128; Tit. II, 3, 43; Cym. 11,2,46. Pandion, King of Attica, who had two daughters, Philomela and Procne, called in the assistance of Tereus, son of Mars and King of the Thracians, against some enemy, and gave him in marriage his daughter Procne, by whom he had a son, Itys. Diiferent accounts are given of his treatment of Procne and Philomela, but the following is the one generally received : After five years of married life, Procne longed to see her sister, and Tereus went to fetch Philomela. As soon as he saw his sister- in-law he fell in love with her, and on the journey home he dishonored her. Philomela, having upbraided him for his perfidy, he cut out her tongue and shut her up in a tower, and on his return told Procne that her sister was dead. But Philomela wove the story of her wrongs into a peplus or kind of shawl and sent it to Procne, who took advantage of the Bacchic I'evels to go and liberate her sister. The two women then returned to the palace of Tereus and revenged themselves by killing Itys and serving up his body to Tereus, who partook of the horrible dish and was then told what he had eaten. He tried to kill Procne and Philomela, but they fled and he pursued them with an axe. When the sisters were overtaken, they prayed to the gods for help and were metamorphosed into birds, Procne be- coming a swallow, Philomela a nightin- gale and Tereus a hawk. Philostrate, dr.p. Master of the revels. Mids. Philotus, dr.p. A servant. Tim. Phoebe. The feminine form of Phoebus. It is a surname of Diana in her capacity as the goddess of the moon (Luna), the moon being regarded as the female Phoebus or sun. LLL. IV, 2, 39 ; Mids. L 1,209; Tit. I, 1,316. Phoebus. An epithet of Apollo, signify- ing The Bright or Pure, and used to signify the brightness and purity of youth. At a later time, when Apollo became connected with the sun. the name Phoebus was also applied to him as the sun-god. The references to him in Sh. are numerous. Tp. IV, 1, 31 ; Merch. II, 1, 5 ; Lr. II, 2, 114, and else- where. See Apollo and Phcethon. The allusion in Kins, I, 2, 85, to Phoebus, PH(E 220 FIG when he broke his whipstock, is to the story of Phgethon in Ovid. The day after Phsethon's death Phoebus could hardly be persuaded to drive the chariot of the sun once more, and wreaked some of his anger upon the horses, which he lashed severely." Skeat. phoenix. A fabled bird of Arabia, said to live 500 years, when it makes a nest of spices in which it burns itself to ashes and then rises with life renewed for another 500 years. There is said to be but one phoenix living at a time, hence it is a synonym for matchless ex- cellence. As. IV, 3, 17 ; Cym. I, 6, 17. The palm, or aate tree was said to be the habitation or throne of the phoenix, and Lyly tells us that "as there is but one phoenix in the world, so is there but one tree in Arabia wherein she buildeth." Tp. Ill, 3,23. It is to the spiced nest in which the phoenix is burned that reference is made in Kins. I, 3, 70 — where, Phoenix-like, They died in perfume. phraseless. Indescribable. Lov. Compl. 225. Phrynia, rfr.p. Mistress to Alcibiades. Tim. physic. To maintain in health. Cym. Ill, 2, 34. physical. Wholesome ; medicinal. Cor. I, 5, 18 ; Cffis. II, 1, 261. pia mater. Properly, the membrane which covers the brain, but used by Sh. for the brain itself. LLL. IV, 2, 71 ; Tw. I, 5, 123 ; Troil. II, 1, 77. piclc, V. To pitch. Cor. 1, 1, 206 ; HVIII. V, 4, 96. picked. Quaint ; punctilious. Not neces- sarily "refined," as Schm. gives it, but probably the opposite, according to the modern acceptation of the word. The term was common in Sh. time in this sense and is found in LLL. V, 1, 14; John I, 1, 193; Hml. V, 1, 151. In the first passage Johnson reads piqued, which he explains thus : " To have the beard piqued or shorn so as to end in a point, was, in our author's time, a mark of a traveller affecting foreign fashions; so says the Bastard in K. John : I catechise My piqued man of countries.'''' And on Hml. V, 1, 151, he remarks : " There was, I think, about that time, a picked shoe, that is, a shoe with a long pointed toe, in fashion, to which the allusion seems likewise to be made." But I think the use of the word by Cot- grave settles the true meaning. Thus he has the word "Miste: com. Neat, spruce, compt, quaint, picked, minion, trickesie, fine, gay .'" The Clarendon ed. thinks there may possibly be a covert reference here to the pointed shoes, but the context does not seem to favor that idea. pickers. The hands ; the fingers. Schm. defines the word as "thieves," which seems scarcely correct. The phrase pickers and stealers (Hml. Ill, 2, 348) means simply the hands, and is taken from the church catechism, where the catechumen, in his duty to his neighbour, is taught to keep his hand from pick- ing and stealing. Whalley. " By these hands" or "by these bones" was an old form of oath. See bones. picking. Petty; insignificant. 2HIV. IV, 1, 198. Schm. defines as "sought in- dustriously," but all the best English coms. give "insignificant." pickle = herring. The ' ' pickle-herring ' ' of Sir Toby (Tw. I, 5, 129) was no doubt not only "preserved in salt liquor," but flavored with spices. It was an ai'ticle often eaten by topers to create an ap- petite for liquor. The learned lexico- grapher. Dr. Schmidt, who seems to be entirely destitute of all sense of humor, tells us tliat " Sir Toby seems to suffer from heart-burning." Not at all. He is drunk, but just sober enough to know that he is drunk, and the joke consists in his attributing his drunken condition to the herring instead of to the wine. Almost as rich is the comment by C. and M. Clarke, who quote the Spectator to show that " pickled herring " is used as a nickname, and add; "Thus Siv PIC 231 PIN Toby, asked what sort of gentleman the youth at the gate is, intends to describe him scoffingly, while a reminiscence of his last-eaten provocative to drink dis- turbs hnn in the shape of a hiccup." The judicious Rolfe doubts whether any such double meaning was intended. On the plural "herring" in the usually singular form, Rolfe notes: "Many of the editors have followed Malone in changing this to ' pickle-herrings ' ; but it is a legitimate plural, like trout, sal- mon and other names of fishes, cf. Lr. Ill, 6, 33: 'two white herring.' The regular form of the plural is also used [2HVI. IV, 2, 36], as in the case of some other nouns of this class. ' ' pick=thanks. Officious fellows. IHIV. Ill, 2, 25. Pickt=hatch. A place in London noted as the resort of bad characters. Wiv. 11, 2, 19. The exact position of this celebrated locality has never been fully determined. It lay amongst certain scattered col- lections of small tenements, generally with gardens attached to them, and the name was probably derived from the iron spikes placed over the half-door or hatch, one of the characteristics of houses of a certain kind. See hatch. pie. 1. The magpie. 3HVL V, 6, 48. 2. The service-book of the Romish Church, supposed to be meant in the oath hy cock and pie = by God and his worship. Wiv. 1, 1, 316 ; 2HIV. V, 1, 1. piece. The usual meaning is, a part ; a portion. And in this sense it is fre- quently used by Sh., e.g., Tp. I, 2, 8 ; Wiv. V, 5, 86, and many other passages. But there are some passages, such as Tp. I, 2, 56 ; Wint. IV, 4, 31, and V, 3, 38 ; HVIII. V, 5, 27 ; Troil. IV, 1, 61 ; Gym. V, 5, 439; Per. IV, 2, 48, in which R. G. White claims that piece means a woman, and that in Sh, time the word was commonly used with that meaning. Thus in Constance of Cleveland ("Rox- burghe Ballads ") we find the lines : The knight with his fair piece At length the lady spied. And in Drayton's "English Heroicall Epistles " the word is used in the same sense : Nor by Ambitious Lures will I be bought In my chaste breast to harbour such a thought As to be worthy to be made a Bride A Piece unfit for Princely Edward's side. For a full discussion of the question, see White's "Riverside Edition," Vol. 1, pp. XIV, et seq. pied. Variegated ; parti-colored. Tp. Ill, 2, 71 (in allusion to the motley or parti- colored coat worn by fools) ; LLL. V, 2, 904 ; Merch. I, 3, 80. pieled. An old way of spelling peeled, q.v. Pierce, Sir, of Exton, dr.j^. RII. pight. An obsolete preterite and past participle of pitch. Pitched ; fixed. Troil. V, 10, 24. Resolved ; determined. Lr. II, 1, 67. See straight-pight. Pigrogromitus. See Queiibus. pike. See rake ; also vice. pilchard, | 1. A fish much resembling pile her. ) the herring. Tw. Ill, 1, 39. 2. A scabbard (cant and contemptuous). Rom. Ill, 1, 84. "No other example known as used here for scabbard ; probably the same as pilch, sl leather coat or cloak, and hence applied to scabbard." Doioden. Staunton con jectures pitch, sir ; Singer reads pitcher; Warburton, pi7c/te; in the Fl., Pilcher. piled. In the passage, piled as thou art piled, for a French velvet (Meas. I, 2, 35), there is an obvious 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. Dyce. pill, V. To rob ; plunder ; pillage. RII. II. 1, 246 ; RIII. I, 3, 159 ; Tim. IV, 1, 12. pin. According to Gifford, the clout is "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, PIN 222 PIT of course, synonymous." This explana- tion has been quoted quite extensively, but its accuracy is doubtful. See clout, ante. Mai one explains it thus: "The clout or white mark at which the arrows are directed was fastened by a black join placed in the center." This gloss is sustained by a passage in Middleton's No Wit, No Help Like a Wotnan''s, II, I, 27 : " And I'll cleave the black pin in the midst of the white." LLL. IV, 1, 138 ; Rom. II, 4, 15. pin and web. A disease of the eye ; cataract. Wint. 1, 2, 291 ; Lr. Ill, 4, 120. pinch. 1. To trick ; to make ridiculous. Shr. II, 1, 373 ; Wint. II, 1, 51 ; Ant. II, 7, 7. 2. To steal. Wint. IV, 4, 622. Pinch, dr.p. A schoolmaster and con- juror. Err. Pindarus, dr.p. Servant to Cassius. Cses. pinfold. A pound ; a place where stray cattle are kept. Gent. I, 1, 114 ; Lr. II, 2, 9. pinked. Worked in eyelet-holes. HVIII. V, 4, 50. pink eyne. Eyes, small and half-closed as if looking through an eyelet-hole. See pinked. The word has no relation to pink, a color. Ant. II, 7, 121. pioned. Explained by some as overgrown with marsh-marigold. Tp. IV, 1, 64. The marsh-marigold is even at present called peony in the neighborhood of Stratford. Others define it as trenched or dug (pionered ?). The line has given rise to much discussion. See twilled. pioner. A soldier whose ofiice is to dig, level, remove obstructions, form trenches and do all work executed with unwarlike tools, as spades, etc. Captain Grose gives instances to show that the situation of a pioner or pioneer was formerly a degradation. A soldier, of course, considers himself superior to a mere laborer, consequently it must be a degradation to him to be turned into that corps. Nares. Hml. 1, 5, 163 ; Oth. Ill, 3, 346. In "The Laws and Ordinances of War," established by the Earl of Essex, and printed in 1640, is the follow- ing : " If a trooper shall loose his horse or hackney, or a footman any part of his arms, by negligence or lewdness, by dice or cardes, he or they shall remain in qualitie of pioners or scavengers, till they be furnished with as good as were lost, at their own charge." Walker shows that the spelling pioner must be retained on account of the verse. A pioneer is now a honorable desig- nation, and the work of preparing the way for the army is confided to a highly trained corjjs, the Sappers and Miners. pip. A spot on a card. Shr. I, 2, 33. A 2np out = intoxicated, with reference to a game called " one and thirty." pipe=wine. Wine from the butt or pipe. Wiv. Ill, 2, 94. A play upon the other meaning of pipe ; a musical instrument to which country people often danced. Pirithous, dr.j}. An Athenian general. Kins. Pisanio, dr.p. Servant to Posthumus. Gym. Pistol, dr.p. One of Falstaff' s followers and a soldier in the army of Henry V. Wiv.,2HIV. andHV. pistol's length. Evidently not the mere length of the weapon, but its range or the distance at which it is effective. Per. I, 1, 168. This is, of course, a gross anachronism, and, indeed, the same is true of the mention of the pistol in every play ex- cept, perhaps. The Merry Wives of Windsor. Steevens notes that Beau- mont and Fletcher in The Humorous Lieutenant have equipped Demetrius Poliorcetes, one of the immediate suc- cessors of Alexander the Great, with the same weapon. But these mistakes do not detract in the slightest from the effect of the play. pitch, n. The height to which a falcon soars. RII. I, 1, 109; 2HVI. II, 1, 6. In Sonn. VII, 9, it refers to the position of the sun at noon. The meaning of the passage (HVIII. II, 2, 49), Into what pitch he please, is not very clear. Hanmer reads ' ' pinch ;' ' Theobald suggests "batch;" Rolfei de- PIT 223 PLA fines pitch here as stature, height ; Schm. , height ? or baseness ? pitch, V. To place firmly ; to set. Meas. II, 2, 172 ; RIII. V, 3, 1. " To understand the allusion in IHVI. III, 1, 103, it must be remembered that before beginning a battle it was cus- tomary for the archers and other foot- men to encompass themselves with sharp stakes firmly pitched in the ground to prevent their being overpowered by the cavalry." Staunton. This is clearly described in same play, I, 1, 115, et seq. The expression pitch and play, HV. II, 3, 51, was a proverbial one in Sh. time, and meant to pay down at once or pay on delivery. The origin is obscure, though the meaning is well settled. Middleton's Blurt, Master Constable, I, 2, 171, has, But will you pitch and pay, or will your worship run ? In Herod and Antipater we find, He that will purchase this Must pitch and pay. It is said that the expression is derived from the term pitching as used in market places, meaning to secure a stand. One of the old laws of Black well Hall was that "a penny be paid by the owner of every bale of cloth for pitch- ing." Nares. pittikins. Little pity. Being pity with the addition of the aflSix kin {lainbkin, bodikins, etc). Cym. IV, 2, 293. See 'Od's. pity. The phrase, it were pity of my life, Mids. Ill, 1, 44, has a peculiar con- struction. See " Shakespearean Gram- mar," sec. 174. The meaning is, "it were a sad thing for my life, that is, forme." Wright, cf. Wiv. I, 1,40; Meas. II, 1, 77. placket. This word occurs five times in Sh., and although it was common and well-understood in his day, it has given rise to no little discussion amongst modern coms. It has been taken to mean a petticoat, an under petticoat, a stomacher, a woman's pocket, a slit in a petticoat and, figuratively, a woman. That it has the last meaning in LLL. Ill, 1, 186, and Troil. II, 3, 22, is very obvious. In Wiut. IV, 4, 622, it prob- ably means a woman's pocket ; pinching a placket and gelding a codpiece of a purse are similar expressions, strictly in Autolycus's line, he being confessedly a pickpocket and thief. Pinch is even now a slang word for certain kinds of theft. See "Lexicon Balatronicum. " We may here note that the placket or woman's pocket was not " a pocket in a woman's dress," as stated in the " Cen- tury Dictionary." Elderly men, whose memory goes back to the time when their grandmothers or, perhaps, mothers wore the old-fashioned pocket or placket, will remember that it was a peculiarly shaped bag which was carried by being tied round the waist by means of strong tape, and was reached through a hole in the dress or even petticoat, called the placket-hole. Old-country boys of seventy years ago, if now living, must remember these pockets with delight. They were quite capacious and always contained a store of good things. So far then, the meaning of placket in three out of the five passages seems obvious, but in Wint. IV, 4, 245, and Lr. Ill, 4, 100, the application is not so clear and, indeed, can scarcely be dis- cussed fully in this place. That placket sometimes meant a petticoat is certain. Thus, in Crowme's " Sir Courtly Nice," II (1685), we find, " The word Love is a fig-leaf to cover the naked sense, a fashion brought up by Eve, the mother of jilts ; she cuckolded her husband with the serpent, then pretended to modesty, and fell a making plackets presently." The conclusion reached by White is this : " It is clear, at least, that the placket, in Shakespeare's time and after, was an article of feminine apparel so secret as not to admit description, and so common as not to require it ; and that, consequently, the thing having passed out of use, the word statnoniinis umbra.'''' Furness, referring to the use of this word in Wint. IV, 4, 245, says : PLA 224 PLE "It is quite sufficient to comprehend that the clown asks in effect, Will you wear as an outer garment that which should be an inner one?" Those who desire to look further into the subject should consult White's "Studies in Shakespeare," p. 342, and Halli well's " Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words." s.v. placket. plain song. "By which expression the uniform modulation or simplicity of the chaunt was anciently distinguished, in opposition to prick-song or variegated music sung by note. ' ' T. Warton. Mids. Ill, 1, 134; HVIII. 1,3,45. plaited. Folded ; intricate. Lr. 1, 1, 183, plane hed. Made of planks or boards. Meas. IV, 1, 30. plant. The sole of the foot. Ant. II, 7, 2. plantage. Anything planted ; vegetation. Ellacombe, however, thinks it means plantain. Troil. Ill, 2, 184. Warburton thinks that this passage refers distinctly to the influence of the moon upon grow- ing plants. That this idea was a very common one at that time is shown by the directions given by Tusser in his "Five Hundred Points of Good Hus- bandry," under February, where he says: Sow peason and beans, in the wane of the moon, Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon. That they with the planet may rest and arise. And ilourish, with bearing most plen- tiful wise. The superstition is not yet extinct. Many of the Dutch farmers in Penn- sylvania observe the waxing and waning of the moon and in their agricultural operations follow its indications most religiously. Plantagenet, Richard, dr. p. Duke of York. IHVI., 2HVI. and 3HVI. The nsLvne Plantagenet literally means broom-plant, which was the emblem of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. His son, Henry II, founded the Plantagenet line of English kings. The origin of the term is very uniquely given in the well-known lines of Barham : A very great king who'd an Angevin hat. With a great sprig of broom, which he wore as a badge in it, Named from this circumstance, Henry Plantagenet. There were eight kings in this line, ending with Richard II, who died in 1399. plantain. A common plant of which there are several species. Still in com- mon use by country people as a healing application for wounds. It seems to act as a styptic when bruised or chewed and laid on a cut. LLL. Ill, 1, 75. plantation. Colonizing ; establishing ; founding of laws and manners. Tp. II, 1, 143. The colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts were called "planta- tions," not from any reference to the setting out of trees or other plants, but because the word was in use as a sjaionym for colony. plash. A pool of water. Shr. I, 1, 23. plate, n. A flat piece of metal, hence money. Ant. V, 2, 92. plate, V. To clothe in armor. RII. I, 3, 28 ; Lr. IV, 6, 169; Ant. I, 1, 4. platform. Scheme ; plan. IHVI. II, 1, 77. plausibly. By acclamation. Lucr. 1854. plausive. Plausible ; pleasing ; specious. All's. I, 2, 53 ; Hml. I, 4, 30. Players, dr.p. Characters in the Induc- tion. Shr. Players, dr.p. Characters in the play. Hml. play=feres. Playmates. Kins. IV, 3, 92. See fere. pleached. Interwoven; intertwined. Ado. Ill, 1, 7; Ant. IV, 14, 73. "In Ado. I, 2, 10, it may be that it is the sides of the ' alley ' that are 'pleached,' but in III, 1, 7, it would appear that the bower is pleached over- head by the honey -suckles. The over- head pleaching seems more in accord- ance with the Italian practice, but thick pleached hedges are better adapted to conceal listeners. " Furness. PLE 225 PLU pleas=man. An ofiicious or servile person who courts favor ; a pick thank. LLL. V, 2, 463. pledge. Used by a sort of metononiy for drink. To pledge one in a cup is to drink with one. The triumph of his pledge (Hml. I, 4, 12) = his glorious achievement as a drinker, cf. Burns's ballad of The Whistle, of the origin of which he gives the following account: "In the train of Anne of Denmark, when she came to Scotland with our James the Sixth, there came over also a Danish gentleman of gigantic stature and great prowess and a matchless champion of Bacchus. He had a little ebony whistle, which at the commence- ment of the orgies he laid on the table ; and whoever was last able to blow it, everybody else being disabled by the potency of the bottle, was to carry off the whistle as a trophy of victory. * * * After many overthrows on the part of the Scots, the Dane was encountered by Sir Robert Laurie, of Maxwelton, who, after three days and three nights hard contest, left the Scandinavian under the table and 'blew on the whistle his re- quiem shrill.' " So it would appear that the reputation of the Danes for potency in drinking was generally acknowledged in the time of Shakespeare. plighted. Folded ; intricate. Lr. I, 1, 28.3. pluck up. To rouse up. Pluck up, my heart, and be sad (Ado. V, 1, 207) = rouse yourself and be serious. See sad. plume up. This phrase, as it occurs in 0th. I, 3, 399, has generally been ex- plained as to cause to triumph, some- what in the sense in which we use the expression "he plumes himself upon such or such a feat, ' ' and Cowden Clarke, accepting it in this sense, has the fol- lowing note: "This, in lago's mouth, has most characteristic effect ; as if any project that involved reduplication of knavery were a feather in the cap of his depraved will — a thing to plume himself upon as a feat of intellectual volition. The words Shakespeare chooses are so significant, so inclusive, that thoy suggest a crowd of images in their ex- pressive conciseness." And yet I doubt the accuracy of the gloss. lago is study- ing how to undermine Cassio; he has made his decision and determines to " plume up" — that is, to strengthen or brace up his will so that this determina- tion may be carried out. The glory, if such it might be called, would not accrue to his will, but to his inventive powers; and he tries to get his will in good feather, like a vigorous bird, and not like one whose feathers droop. The First Quarto has ma/ce instead of plume, which seems to confirm my suspicion. pluresie, \ Superabundance; unnatural pluresy. ) excess ; plethora. Hml. IV, 7, 117 ; Kins. V, 1, 66. This word is not the same as the name of the disease known to modern medicine as pleurisy. Pleurisy is the name now given to inflammation of the pleural covering of the lungs. The word pluresy is "evidently formed as if from Latin pluri — crude form of plus, more — by an extraordinary confusion with pleurisy.'''' Skeat. Pluto. The god of the infernal regions. He was the son of Saturn and Rhea and brother of Jupiter and Neptune. In the division of the world among the three brothers Pluto obtained the nether world, the abode of the shades over which he reigns. He carried off Proser- pine (see Proserpine) and made her his wife. He possessed a helmet which rendered the wearer invisible, and the old legends say that both gods and men were honored by Pluto with the tem- porary use of it. (See Perseus.) His character is described as fierce and inexorable, whence of all the gods he was most hated by mortals. He was called by the Greeks Hades and by the Romans Orcus, Tartartis and Dis. He is represented as an elderly man with a dignified, but severe, aspect, and often as holding in his hand a two-pronged fork. His ordinary attributes are the key of Hades and Cerberus. Referred PLTJ 236 POL to in several passages, amongst others, 2HIV. II, 4, 169 ; Troil. IV, 4, 129 ; Cor. 1, 4, 36. Plutus. The god of gold and riches ; re- garded as the personification of wealth. He was the son of lasion and Ceres. It is said that at the wedding of Harnionia, the sister of lasion, Ceres fell in love with him and in a thrice-ploughed field became by him the mother of Plutus. It is said that Jupiter deprived him of sight so that he might not bestow his favors on righteous men exclusively, but that he might distribute his gifts blindly and without regard to merit. In ancient art he seems to have been commonly represented as a boy with a cornucopia. All's. V, 3, 101 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 197; Tim. I, 1, 287. ply. See music. Poins, dr. p. One of Falstaff 's followers. IHIV. and 2HIV. point. 1. "A tagged lace, common in ancient dress — points being generallj^ used to fasten the hose or breeches to the doublet, but sometimes serving merely for ornament. Shr. Ill, 2, 49. Ties his points = acts as his body servant. Ant. Ill, 13, 157. Very obvious punning in Tw. I, 5, 25 ; IHIV. II, 4, 238 ; Wint. IV, 4, 206. 2. A signal given by the blast of trum- pet. 2HIV. IV, 1, 52. Hence = direc- tion; command. Cor. IV, 6, 125. 3. A quibble on the French negative ne point = not at all. No 2ioint in English is a punning form of not at all in French. LLL. II, 1, 190; V, 2, 277. Touching now the 'point of hutnan skill (Mids. II, 2, 119) = having reached the height of discernment possible to man. point = blank. Without elevating the muzzle ; hence, direct^. Wiv. Ill, 2, 35 ; 2HVI. IV, 7, 28. Schm. defines it as "with a certain aim, so as not to miss." But this does not at all convey the idea, which is rather that of " with- in easy range." point=device, ) 1. Affectedly nice; finical. point=devise. j A translation of the old French : d point devis = according to a point that is devised or imagined. As. Ill, 2, 401. 2. Exactly. Tw. II, 5, 176. poking=sticks. Irons for setting out ruffs. Wint. IV, 3, 228. Polack. The Polanders. Said by some to be used in the singular as " Dane " is in Hml. I, 2, 44. The cases are different, however. Is it not rather an adjective, people being understood as when we say the British ? At any rate, the meaning is obvious in Hml. II, 2, 75 ; do. IV, 4, 23, and V, 2, 388. In the Fl. the modes of spelling in these passages are, Poleak in the first, and Polake in the third. The sentence containing the second quotation is omitted from the Fl., and a long passage has here been supplied to the g. a. text from the Quartos. The word as used in this sense is probably adopted from the French Polaque. But the meaning of the word found in Hml. I, 1, 63, has given rise to a good deal of discussion. In the Fl. the spelling is " Pollax," and under this word we will consider it. See Pollax. pole. The passage in Ant. IV, 15, 65, The soldiers'' p)ole is falVn, is taken by Johnson to mean: "He at whom the soldiers pointed, as at a pageant, held high for observation." Upon which Bos well remarks: "The pole, I appre- hend, is the standard.'''' pole=clipt vineyard. " A vineyard in which the poles are clijJt (embraced) by the vines." Dyce. See clip. Schm. explains it as a vineyard "hedged in with poles," but it is doubtful if vine- yards were ever so protected. War- burton emended to pale-clipt, i.e., sur- rounded with a fence. This makes good sense, but the meaning given by Dyce is probably the correct one. Tp. IV, 1, 68. Polixenes, dr.jJ. King of Bohemia. Wint. Pollax. This word is spelled Polacks in the g. a. text (Hml. 1, 1, 63) and is taken to mean natives of Poland. See Polack. Polacks has been adopted by the Cam- bridge eds. In the Fl. the word is Pollax, and not Pollax as stated in the POL 237 POL "Cambridge Shakespeare," in which the variorum readings are all printed in italics. It is pollax in the First, Second, Third and Fourth Quartos; Pollax in the Fifth and Sixth Quartos and the Second Folio ; Polax in the Third Folio and Pole-axe in the Fourth Folio. The question which has arisen is : Does the expression "sledded Pollax" of the Fl. mean Polanders (Polacks) seated in sleighs or sledges, or does it mean a battle-axe or pole-axe with a long handle and a heavy sledge or ham- mer attached to the head, or, rather, forming a part of it ? Rowe adopted the spelling ' ' Pole-axe ' ' from the Fourth Folio ; Pope, who printed from Rowe, changed this to "Polack," appending the following note : ' ' He speaks of the Prince of Poland whom ho slew in battle. He uses the word Polack again. Act 2, Sc. 4." Malone added an s so as to make the pronunciation of the word corre- spond to that of the word in the early editions, and the whole credit of the so-called emendation has generally been given to him, though it is evident that to Pope belongs the credit, if credit it can be called, of the first suggestion. Furness says that ' ' the German com- mentators have found more diflSculty in this phrase than the English," and devotes nearly two pages to a discussion of the subject, but he advances no arguments of his own on either side and makes no decision in the matter. But from the fact that, notwithstanding his well-known prepossession in favor of the Fl., he adopts "Polacks" into his text, it is to be assumed that he favors the " Polander " gloss. Most of the corns, who have adopted the "Polacks" reading pour unmiti- gated ridicule upon those who claim that the phrase means a pole-axe or battle-axe. R. G. White, in his review of Schm. " Lexicon," who, by the way, adopts the pole-axe explanation, says : "There could not be better evidence of Dr. Schmidt's superfluity as a Shake- spearean lexicographer than this amaz- ing, and I must be pardoned for saying ridiculous, explanation. The absurdity of it is felt by every English-minded reader more easily than it is explained. It is so laughably inconsistent with the tone of this scene, awful with the wraith of the majesty of buried Denmark, to picture the royal Dane smiting the ice with his pole-axe, like a testy old heavy father in a comedy." "Studies in Shakespeare," p. 304. Rolfe, after adopting " Polacks" into his text, explains "sledded Polacks" as "Polanders on sleds or sledges," and after a short discussion of the question adds : ' ' Furness gives nearly two pages of comical German com- ments on the passage, with some English ones equally amusing," and he illustrates the line with an en- graving taken from Verplanck's edition, in which the elder Hamlet is represented on horseback smiting the "Polack," who is sitting in a sledge and defending himself with his sword against the Dane, who is represented as armed with a sledded battle-axe, i.e., a. battle-axe with a sledge or hammer on the head or part opposite the edge ! 1 This is certainly a rich joke. How Dr. Rolfe could have used this cut to illustrate a "parle," however "angry," passes my compre- hension. In "The Henry Irving Shakespeare " the editor (the lamented Marshall, who lived to edit only to Act I, Sc. 8, in this play) adopts the emendation " Polacks " into his text, and in his notes he offers corroborative evidence from Caldecott tending to show that Polack means a Polander. But of this there is no doubt. The testimony would be to the point if the word Polack had appeared in any of the old editions in this passage, but it does not, and it may be stigmatised as a modern corruption. Further on he says : " It is very unlikely that the elder Hamlet, who is represented as a man of great dignity and self-restraint, should have struck at a number of the POL 228 POU enemy at a parley, however angry.'''' Mr. Marshall's "chief diflSculty in accepting pole-axe lies in the word sledded,'''' the reading of the Folios, and he seems to think that weighted ivith lead appears to be the only way out. I think not. A battle-axe with lead attached to the head would be very liable to accident, and we have no evi- dence that weapons loaded or weighted in this way were ever employed by any except executioners, and they only struck two or three blows at a time. But all battle-axes or pole-axes seem to have been sledded or furnished with a sledge (a well-known Anglo-saxon name for a hammer, in use even at this day, as may be found by inquiring in any blacksmith's shop), so that they could strike a blow on a hard substance without injuring the sharp edge, and the pole-axe figured in Dr. Rolfe's cut shows the sledge part very distinctly. I think that the arguments on both sides may be fairly summed up as fol- lows — and first for those in favor of " pole-axe" : 1. The spelling in all the old editions, with the very distinct spelling "Pole- axe " of the Fourth Folio, would seem to favor the " pole-axe " reading. That pollax was the usual spelling of pole-axe in those days may be shown b}^ numer- ous instances. Thus, in the address to the reader in "Euphues' Golden Leg- acie " we find : "I'll down into the hold and fetch out a rustle pollax." And in Stanyhurst's " Description of Ireland " he tells us that " the gallowglasse useth a kind of pollax for his weapon." And, which is still more to the point, in LLL. V, 2, .580, the word which, in the g. a. text, is spelled pole-axe (and correctly so, since that is what it means), is spelled Pollax in the Fl. On the other hand, Polack, where it undoubtedly means a Polander, is spelled Poleak, Polake, Polacke, Polack (Second, Third and Sixth Quartos), Polak and Pollock, but never Pollax. 2. There is no intimation of a war between Poland and Denmark. It was ' ' the ambitious Norway ' ' that Hamlet combated, and although Poland is men- tioned twice in the play, nothing is said about a war between the Danes and that country. 3. Horatio speaks of a " parle," not a fight or a battle. Now, if there was a " parle " or conference, there must have , been a truce, and for Hamlet to have smitten a Polander in that "parle," however angry, would have been an act of treachery to which his nature, as it is portrayed to us, would have been entirely repugnant. 4. Horatio s a 10 him frown ; therefore, he must have seen his face, which must have been exposed, an unlikely condition in the event of a battle or even a sudden onslaught. The first thing he would have done would have been to pull down his beaver. See beaver. 5. The difficulty raised by the word sledded can only arise in the minds of those who are not familiar with the construction of the old battle-axe. A sled, sledge or hanmier seems to have formed an essential part of that wea^Don. See sledded. In favor of the interpretation " Po- lacks" (Polanders) I can find no argu- ment — nothing but the arbitrary cor- ruption of Pope, a reading which he evidently evolved out of his own im- agination, and which modern eds. sup- port only by ridicule of the other gloss. Consequently, I, for one, am compelled to reject it without hesitation. To the unknown editor of the Fourth Folio is due the true reading, in modern form, "pole-axe." I have, perhaps, devoted more space to this word than its real importance would justify. The fact that almost all the coms. favor the side opposite to that which I have taken is my only excuse. polled, I 1. Shorn ; bald-headed. Kins. poul'd. ) V, 1, 85. 2. Bare; stripped; plundered. Cor. IV, 5, 215. POL 229 POS Polonius, dr.p. Lord Chamberlain. Hml. Polydore, dr. p. Name assumed by Guide- rius. Cym. pomander. This term was applied both to a ball composed of perfumes and to the case used for carrying them about the person. It would be difficult to say which is meant in Wint. IV, 4, 609. Po- manders were carried either in the pocket or suspended from the neck or girdle and were sometimes looked upon as amulets, sometimes as an efficient means of preventing infection. An old recipe for making them directs a mix- ture of carefully prepared garden soil, labdanum, benzoin, storax, ambergris, civet and musk. These, when well in- corporated, are warranted "to make you smell as sweet as my lady's dog, if your breath be not too valiant. " Pomegarnet. A blunder for Pomegran- ate ; the name of a room in a tavern. IHIV. II, 4, 42. See tavern. pomewater. A kind of apple. LLL. IV, 2, 4. The name has been applied to a particular variety of apple, but it seems to have been also used for apples in general. Thus, in The Puritan we read of the "pomewater of his eye," meaning the apple of his eye. Pompeius Sextus, dr.p. A friend to Antony. Ant. Pompey, dr.p. Servant to Mrs. Over- done. Meas. poop. To strike fatally. Per. IV, 2, 25. Poor=John. Hake ; a cheap kind of fish, salted and dried. Tp. II, 2, 28 ; Rom. I, 1, 37. Sometimes written poor John. poperin. A variety of pear named after Poperingue^ a town in French Flanders, two leagues distant from Ypres. Rom. II, 1, 38. popinjay. A parrot ; hence a name for a fop or coxcomb. IHIV. I, 3, 50. Popilius Lena, dr.p. A Roman senator. Caes. popish. Bigoted. Tit. V, 1, 76. popular. Vulgar. HV. IV, 1, 38; Cor. II, 1, 233. popularity. Vulgarity. IHIV. Ill, 2, 69. poring dark. Darkness which makes one strain his eyes. HV. IV, Chor. 2. porpentine, n. 1. A porcupine. 2HVI. Ill, 1,363; Hml. 1,5, 20. 2. The name of an inn. Err. Ill, 1, 116. porpentine, v. To prick or irritate as the porcupine does with its quills. It was an old superstition that the porcupine could dart its quills at an enemy. Troil. II, 1, 27. In Dekker's Satiro-Mastix, Tucca, one of the characters, says: " Thoul't shoot thy quills at me, when my terrible back's tui-n'd, for all this, wilt not. Porcupine ? " porringer. A shallow vessel used for holding liquids ; hence applied to a head- dress shaped like such a vessel. Shr. IV, 3, 64; HVIII. V, 4, 50. port. 1. Deportment ; bearing. HV. Prol. 6 ; 2HVI. IV, 1, 19 ; Ant. IV, 14, 52. 2. Pomp; state; importance. Merch. I, I, 124, and III, 2, 283 ; Shr. I, 1, 208. 3. A gate. All's. Ill, 5, 39 ; 2HIV. IV, 5, 24 ; Cor. I, 7, 1. 4. A natural or artificial harbor which vessels can enter and lie safe from injury by storms. Mcb. I, 3, 15. portable. Bearable. Mcb. IV, 3, 89 ; Lr. III, 6, 115. portage. 1. A port-hole; an opening. HV. Ill, 1, 10. 2. Port-dues. Per. Ill, 1, 35. portance. Conduct; deportment. Cor. II, 3, 232 ; 0th. I, 3, 139. Portia, dr.p. A rich heiress. Merch. Portia, dr.p. Wife to Brutus. Caes. portly. 1 . Good - looking ; of a stately appearance. Merch. I, 1, 9 ; Troil. IV, 5, 162. 2. Well-behaved ; of good deportment. Rom. I, 5, 68. posie, ) A short motto, often inscribed posy. \ on rings and other tokens. Merch. V, 1, 151 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 164 ; Kins. IV, 1, 90. See con. possess. To inform ; to give one the knowledge of what was intended or what had happened. Meas. IV, 1, 45 ; Ado. V, 1, 290 ; Merch. I, 3, 65, and IV, 1, 35 ; Tw. II, 3, 149. FOS ■230 POW Posthumus Leonatus, dr.p. A gentle- man ; husband to Imogen. Cym. post, in. In haste. Rom. V, 3, 273. Some- times jpos^-/iasie (Hml. I, 1, 107) ; some- times pos^-posi-/ia6*^e (0th. I, 3, 46) and also haste-iDost-haste (0th. I, 2, 38). The expression Haste-Post-Haste — Ride for your life — your life — these, was a common inscription on letters and packages sent by express in Sh. time and much later. pot, to the. To sure destruction. Cor. I, 4, 47. potato. The potato mentioned by Sh. in. Wiv, V, 5, 21, and Troil. V, 2, 56, is not the common or " Irish " potato, the solaiiiini tiibei-osiiin, as Dr. Schm. states it is. The common potato was carried to Europe from this country and was first cultivated on the estate of Sir Walter Raleigh, near Cork. The Irish farmers, to whom the plant was entirely new, supposed that the potato grew on the stems just as tomatoes are developed on the tomato plant, and when they saw no "fruit," except little, round apples, they concluded that the enterprise was a failure and that pota- toes would not grow in Ireland, so they ploughed them up to get rid of them, and then, to their great astonishment, they found the tubers in abundant quantity. This was later than 1588, and the first printed description of the potato appears in Gerard's "Herbal," published in 1597. Gerard gives this description: "The roote is thick, fat and tuberous ; not much differing either in shape, color or taste from the com- mon potatoes, saving that, the rootes hereof are not so great nor long ; some of them as round as a ball, some oual or egg-fashion, some longer and others shorter ; which knobbie rootes are fast- ened unto the stalks with an infinite numbei' of threddie strings. ' ' The ' ' com- mon potatoes" of which Gerard speaks are the tubers of convolvidus batatas, or sweet potato. W. G. Smith tells us in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " that " the cultivation of the potato in England made but little progress, even though it was strongly urged by the Royal Society in 1663," so that it is very certain Irhat the "Irish" potato was not the one alluded to by Sh. And I have never read that any aphrodisiac properties were attributed to it. The sweet potato was imported into England in considerable quantities from southern Europe. Gerard tells us that he bought those he experimented with at the Exchange in London, and he gives an interesting account of the uses to which they were put, the manner in which they were prepared for "sweet- meats," and the invigorating properties claimed for them. They were too ex- pensive to be used as an article of com- mon food. potch. To thrust at ; to push violently. Cor. I, 10, 15. potent. A potentate. John II, 1, 358. pottle. A large tankard ; more specific- ally, a measure holding two quarts. Wiv. II, 1, 223 ; 0th. II, 3, 87. pottle=deep. To the bottom of the pottle or tankard. 0th. II, 3, 56. pottle=pot. A tankard containing two quarts. 2HIV. II, 2, 83. poulter. A dealer in poultry and game ; an old form of poulterer. IHIV. II, 4, 480. Upon the phrase, " poulter's hare," Johnson remarks : " The jest is in com- paring himself to something thin and little. So a poulter'' s hare ; a hare hanging by the hind legs without a skin is long and slender." And especially thin when it has been eviscerated, as such hares always are. pouncet=box. A box with a perforated lid used for carrying perfumes. IHIV. 1, 3, 38. Pouncet-boxes or pounce-boxes were also used until quite recent times for holding pounce or sand for sprinkl- ing over fresh writing on paper instead of using blotting-paper. pound. To shut up in a pin-fold. Gent. I, 1, 110 ; Cor. I, 4, 17. pourquoi, ) French for Why ? Tw. I, pourquoy. S 3, 95. powder. The expression, Like powder POW SSI PRE in a skilless s ol elder'' s flash, Is set afire by thine own ignorance (Rom. Ill, 3, 132), may not be easily understood in these days of fixed ammunition. " The ancient English soldiers using match- locks * * * were obliged to carry a lighted match, hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder." Steevens. The powder and bullets were carried loose ; cartridges had not been invented. powder, v. 1. To salt. IHIV. V, 4, 112. 2. An old-time cure for certain diseases ; see poivdering-tub. Meas. Ill, 2, 62; HV. II, 1, 79. powdering = tub. An apparatus for the cure of certain diseases. HV. II, 1, 79. Powle. St. Paul. RIII. I, 1, 138. Powle's. St. Paul's Church, the principal cathedral of London. IHIV. II, 4, 576 ; HVIII. V, 4, 16 ; 2HIV. I, 2, 58. See PauVs. pox. This word is frequently used as a mild form of oath, and some have con- sidered it rather coarse, especially in the mouth of a princess, as in LLL. V, 2, 46. Farmer, in reply to Theobald, stated that only the small-pox is meant, and Rolfe seems to agree with him. Dyce, under the wordpoa?, says : " Need I observe that, in Shakespeare's time, this imprecation undoubtedly referred to the small-pox ?" Surely this is going too far. The subject is not one for ex- tended discussion in these pages, but that, in Sh. time, the word often had the same meaning that it now has, is easily seen by examining the numerous passages in which it occurs. The ex- planation of its use in the mouths of ladies and peojjle of the better class is simply that in those dajs the language was broader than it is now, and even re- fined people "called a spey'd a spey'd." Sh. puts expressions quite as indelicate as this in the mouths of refined women. The times tolerated it, and it is not best to disguise or deny this fact. We might, perhaps, be charitable enough to sup- pose that these ladies did not understand the meaning of the words they used. I have heard respectable girls use words which would have horrified them if they had known their true meaning. practic. Practical. While Sh. uses ^/i^o?-ic elsewhere, the only passage in which practic occurs is HV. I, 1, 51. Johnson explains the passage thus : ' ' His theory must have been taught by art and practice; which, he says, is strange, since he could see little of the true art or practice among his loose companions, nor ever retired to digest his practice into theory. ' ' practice. Treachery ; artifice ; trick ; wicked device. Meas. V, 1, 107; Ado. IV, 1, 190 ; Tw. V, 1, 360 ; HV. II, 2, 90 ; Hml. IV, 7, 68. In Hml. IV, 7, 138, and in a pass of practice Requite him for your father, the word practice has been explained both as a treacherous thrust ( Clarendon) and as a favorite pass, one that Laertes was well practised in. In line 68 of this scene it undoubtedly means treachery ; but here it seems to have the meaning usually given to it at the present day. practisant. One who carries out or aids in a practice or artifice. IHVI. Ill, 2, 20. practise, v. To plot. As. I, 1, 158. praemunire. A writ issued against one who has committed the off'ence of intro- ducing a foreign authority or power into England. HVIII. Ill, 2, 340. " The word is low Latin for prcemon- ere. The writ is so called from the first words of it, which forewarn the person respecting the often ce of intro- ducing foreign authority into England. " Rolfe. praise. To appraise; to estimate the value of. Tw. I, 5, 213 ; 0th. V, 1, 66. pranlc. To dress up ; to adorn. Tw. II, 4, 89; Wint. IV, 4, 10 ; Cor. Ill, 1, 23. preachment. A sermon ; a discourse. 3HVI. I, 4, 72. precedent. 1. A rough draft. John V, 2, 3. 2. A prognostic ; an indication. Ven. 26. precept. A summons issued by a court. 2HIV. V, 1, 14 ; HV. Ill, 3, 26. PRE 232 PRE preceptial. Instructive. Ado. V, 1, 24. precious. Employed by Sh. with the usual meanings, such as of great value, As. II, 1, 14, and elsewhere. The ex- pression, precious villain (0th. V, 2, 235), is explained by Schm. as an ironical use of the word, and in this he is fol- lowed by Rolfe, Fleming and some others, but irony seems rather out of place here. The word is frequently used in the sense of excessive, just as is dear in the passage dearest foe. See dear. In " Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby " we find, " It's hard enough to see one's way, a precious sight harder than I thought last night. " Boston ed. p. 351. Precious villain means thorough, great villain, and precious varlet, in Cym. IV, 2, 83, simply means " you wretched varlet. ' ' Cloten had no brains to spare for irony and used the word in a thoroughly idiomatic sense. preciously. Valuably; i.e., in business of great importance, Tp. I, 2, 241. precisian. A puritan ; a precise person. This word is found in Wiv. II, 1, 5, in the Folies. In the g. a. text it has been changed t© physician. The reading, physician, was suggested by Theobald, and upon it Johnson has the following H®te: "Of this word [precisian] I do not see any meaning that is very ap- posite to the pref ent intention. Pei'haps Falstaff said, Though love use reason as his physician he admits him not for his counsellor. This will be plain sense. Ask not the reason of my love ; the Business of Reason is not to assist love, but to cure it." Dyce was the first to introduce physician into the text. precurrer. Forerunner. Phoen. 6. predominance. Superior power or in- fluence. Troil. II, 3, 138 ; Mcb. II, 4, 8. See sjiherical. predominate. To oversway. Wiv. II, 2, 294 ; Tim. IV, 3, 142. prefer. 1 . To recommend ; to commend. Lr. I, 1, 277; Caes. V, 5, 6:J; Shr. I, 1, 97. Reed tells us that '' to prefer seems to have been the established phrase for recommending a servant." Upon this. Craik (" English of Shakespeare," p. 344) remarks: "But to prefer was more than merely to recommend. It was, rather, to transfer or hand over." 2. To present; to offer. In several passages Sh. gives to this word its radical meaning. Commenting on it as it occurs in Mids. IV, 2, 34, Theobald says : " This word is not to be under- stood in its most common acceptation here, as if their play was chosen in pre- ference to the others (for that appears not to be the fact), but means that it was given in among others for the Duke.'s option." See also Caes. Ill, 1, 28, pregnancy. Cleverness ; fertility of in- vention. 2HIV. I, 2, 192. pregnant. This word occurs fifteen times in the plays, and as its meaning has given rise to considerable discussion we give references to all the passages in which it is found. They are : Meas. I, 1, 12, and II, 1, 23; Tw. II, 2, 29 ; do. Ill, 1, 100 and 101; Wint. V, 2, 34; Troil. IV, 4, 90 ; Ant. II, 1, 45 ; Lr. II, 1, 78, and IV, 6, 227; Hral. II, 2, 212, and III, 2, 66; 0th. II, 1, 239 ; Cym. IV, 2, 325 ; Per. IV, Prol. 44. In addition to these, pregnancy occurs once (2HIV. I, 2, 192); pregnantly once (Tim. I, 1, 92), and unpregnant twice (Meas. IV, 4, 23, and Hml. II, 2, 595). The student can easily refer to these passages and consider the word in relation to its con- text. The " Century Dictionary " classifies the various meanings of the word under nine heads, between some of which, however, it is a little diflBcult to see any great difference. Nares arranges the different meanings under four divisions which may be briefly described as : 1. Stored with information- 2. Ingenious, full of art or intelligence. 3. Appre- hensive, ready to understand, 4. Full of force or conviction ; and he adds : "The word was, however, used with great laxity, and sometimes abused, as fashionable terms are; but generally may be referred to the ruling sense of being full or productive of some- PRE 233 PRE thing." There can be no doubt about this being the sole meaning of the word at the present time, whether it is used with a strictly physiological meaning or metaphorically. Sh. never uses the word in its physiological or, as some have called it, its literal sense, though there are more than a score of passages in which the condition is stated in other words. Furness, in his comments on Lr. II, I, 78, devotes considerable space to the subject. He agrees with Nares and says that in all the passages in which the word occurs it has this meaning, ' ' produ ctiv e of something. ' ' After giv- ing the views of Wright, Caldecott, Keightley and others on the passage found in Hm.l. Ill, 2, 66, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning, he« adds : "Pregnant because untold thrift is born from a cunning use of the knee." It is always unsafe to differ from Dr. Furness, because he is evidently in the habit of giving laborious and conscien- tious study to his subject, and always with a judicial mind. Nevertheless, I can scarcely agree with him in his views on this question, and will look forward with much interest to his forthcoming volume for an explanation of pregnant * * * ear, as found in Tw. Ill, 1, 100. After very careful consideration, I cannot avoid the thought that the word is found in Sh. bearing two entirely opposite meanings — one, that of being productive, and the other, that of being receptive of something. Thus, in Hml. II, 2, 212, in the expression. How preg- nant sometimes his reiMes are ! we evidently have the physiological word used metaphorically, the being pro- ductive^ i.e., bringing forth apt and wise thoughts. But in Tw. Ill, 1, 100, where Viola speaks of Olivia's ear as being pregnant, it is evident that the sense is that her ear is receptive ; that it takes hold of what is offered to it. And I am convinced that the cause of this seeming confusion lies in the fact that we have here, not one word with two or more meanings, but two entirely different words; dift'erent in their origins and different in their meanings, but, by mere accident, alike in spelling and pronunciation. The first word is derived from the Latin proegnare, to be about to bear. It takes the form " pregnant " and has the usual physiological meaning with metaphorical applications to other things, and, as Nares very properly says, it has the ruling sense of being full or productive of something. The second word, which has the same spelling and pronunciation, is from the French prendre.,^ prenant, and signi- fies to grasp ; to take hold ; to appre- hend. The word piregnahle (a slightly different form) is from ' the same root. And it is this word which is found in Tw. Ill, 1, 100, and Lr. IV, 6, 227, while it is the first word that is found in Hml. II, 2, 212. t As in other cases of this kind, the meanings of these two words tended to shade off into each other and to become confounded until it often became difficult to determine just which word was the one used, and finally one became obso- lete and extinct, as has happened also in the case of the two lets and others. Keeping these points in mind, I think the reader will have no difficulty in reaching the correct meaning of any passage in which the word pregnant occurs. As used in the passage. Crook the pregyiant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning, Johnson * Prendre is defined in French dictionaries as, to take, to apprehend, to assume, to contract, to imbibe, to undertake. It has a wide range of meaning. t This etymology of the word is an old one; it was adopted by the "Imperial Dic- tionary," but was not accepted by the " Century," which was based on the "Imperial." PEE 234 PRE long ago defined pregnant as "ready." It is the fawning that is productive ; the readiness of the hinges to crook themselves may contribute to the fawn- ing, and the more so in that they are prompt and ready ; but surely the hinges themselves cannot be said to be " full and productive. " In the passage in Meas. II, 1, 23 : 'Tis very pregnant The jewel that we find we stoop and tak't Because we see it, pregnant certainly means obvious, evi- dent, or, as Johnson has it, plain ; and the idea conveyed is that the thought takes hold of us. We might, with per- fect conformity to the sense, substitute taking for pregnant, and this meaning was given to it long before the German coms. were born. Again, the passage in Wint. V, 2, 34 : Most tr-iie, if ever truth were preg7iant by circumstance, is explained by Dr. Furness as, "if ever truth were stored full by circumstance." But surely this gloss does not convey the meaning that Sh. wished to express, which is, that the truth is proved by circumstance, or, in other words, that by circumstance we are enabled to take hold of it. In his comments on Lr. II, 1, 78, Dr. Fur- ness says that in Wint. V, 2, 34, preg- nant is ' ' used in so metaphorical a sense that one may give to it almost any meaning that his mother wit suggests as applicable to the passage." But I think this dictum will not hold true if we only get rid of the idea of productive- ness and accept that of receptivity. Such, in a very condensed form, are the conclusions to which a very careful study of the subject has led nie ; but before the reader adopts my views, which are in a large measure those of the older coms. , he should by all means examine the comments of Dr. Furness on Lr. II, 1, 78; Hml. Ill, 2, 56, and Wint. V, 2, 34. pregnantly. Clearly; forcibly. Tim. I, 1,92. premised. Pre-sent; sent before their time. Dyce. 2HVI. V, 2, 41. prenominate. 1. To forename ; to fore- tell. Troil. IV, 5, 250. 2. Aforesaid ; just named. Hml. II, 1, 43. prenzie. Symons, in " The Henry Irving Shakespeare," tells us that " few words in Shakespeare have given rise to so much controversy as this word prenzie.''^ It occurs twice : Meas. Ill, 1, 95, and 98. In the F3. the reading is princely. Hanmer emended to pr-iestly, and this has been accepted by many, amongst others, by Professor Rolfe, who says that prenzie is " pretty clearly a mis- print tor priestly or some other word," his chief reason being that it is not English. "Saintly," "pensive" and many other words have been suggested. It seems to me very clear, however, that "priestly" cannot have been the word ; Angelo was not a priest and there is no indication that he ever pre- tended to be one. That he was a prince we know, and therefore the pinncely of the F2. might be accepted. But the suggestion that prenzie is merely a modified form of the Scottish or old EnglishpriHisie (prim, demure) removes the need of emendation, as well as Pro- fessor Rolfe's objection that it is not English. Sh. employs a great many Scottish words, and words still retained in modern English, but which he uses in the Scottish sense. See silly. pre=ordinance. Old established law. Caes. Ill, 1, 38. presence. Presence-chamber; room of state. RII. 1, 3, 289 ; HVIII. Ill, 1, 17; Rom. V, 3, 86. present. In hand ; thus, present money = ready money. Err. IV, 1 , 34. presenter. An exhibiter ; an actor. Shr. I, 1 (stage direction). press. 1. An impress; a commission to foi-ce persons into military service. IHIV. IV, 2, 13. 2. A printing press. Wiv. II, 1, 80. There is an evident pun here upon printing press and a press for squeezing. pressed. Impressed. Cor. I, 2, 9. This PEE 235 PHI word has been defined bj^ some as ready Iseeprest), but the best authorities give the definition we have adopted. Wright says: "Nothing to do with prest, ' ready, ' which could not be used as an active participle. " prest. Ready. Merch. 1, 1, 160 ; Per. IV, Prol. 45. It is the old French word 23rest, now j)ref, ready. Prester John. A fabulous eastern mon- arch. Ado. II, 1, 278. His title of Prester John originated, according to that veracious traveler. Sir John Mandeville, in the following cir- cumstance : The said king having gone with a Christian knight into a church in Egypt, was so pleased with the ser- vice that he determined no longer to be called king or emperor, but priest, "and that he wolde have the name of the first priest that wente out of the chirche : and his name was John." Dyce. pretence. Intention ; purpose ; design. Gent. Ill, 1, 47 ; Wint. Ill, 3, 18 ; Mcb. II, 3, 137. pretend. 1. To intend. Gent. II, 6, 37 ; Mcb. II, 4, 24. 2. To portend. IHVI. IV, 1, 16. pretended. Predetermined ; intended. Kins. I, 1, 210, The word is here used with its etymological meaning. pretenders. Aspirants ; not in a bad sense. Skeat. Kins. V, 1, 158. pretty. Bold ; strong. Merch. Ill, 4, 64. In former times a pretty man did not mean a good-looking man, but a strong, courageous man. Pretty vaulting = strong vaulting. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 94. prevent. To come before ; to forestall ; to be beforeha,nd with ; to anticipate. Merch. I, 1, 61; Tw. Ill, 1, 94; IHVI. IV, 1, 71 ; Hml. II, 2, 305. In these passages the word is used in its etymological or radical jneaning, which was the usual sense in Sh. time. Thus, in Psalm CXIX, 147, we find, " I prevented the dawning of the morning, ' ' i.e., I anticipated the dawning ; not that the Psalmist obstructed the dawning of the morning. Priam, dr. p. King of Troy. Troil. Priam was King of Troy during the Trojan war. He was a son of Laomedon and Strymo, and his original name is said to have been Podarces, or "the swift-footed," which was changed to Priamus, "the ransomed," because his sister Hesione ransomed him after he had fallen into the hands of Hercules. His first wife is said to have been Arisbe, daughter of Merops, but afterwards he gave her up to Hyrtacus and married Hecuba, by whom he had nineteen sons. Hence the allusion in Hml. II, 2, 531. By other women he is said to have been the father of many fnore, the Homeric tradition crediting him with the father- hood of fifty sons, to whom others add an equal number of daughters. At the commencement of the Trojan war Priam was already advanced in years and took no part in the fighting. Once only did he venture upon the field of battle, to conclude the agreement respecting the single combat between Pai'is and Mene- laus. After the death of Hector, Priam, accompanied by Mercury, went to the tent of Achilles to ransom his son's body for burial and obtained it. When the Greeks entered Troy, the aged king put on his armor and was on the point of rushing against the enemy, but was prevailed on by Hecuba to take refuge wibh herself and her daughters as a suppliant at the altar of Jupiter. While he was tarrying in the temple, his son, Polites, pursued by Pyrrhus, rushed into the sacred spot and expired at the feet of his father; whereupon, Piiam, overcome with indignation, hurled his spear with feeble hand against Pyrrhus, but was forthwith killed by the latter. Hml. II, 2, 490, et seq. There are numerous references to Priam outside of Troilus and Cressida. For the allusion in 2HIV. I, 1, 72, Sh. probably had recourse to his imagination. The account given by Virgil is very different. In the reference to Helen in All's. I, 3, 77, there is probably a mistake — Prian? for Paris. PRI 236 PRI prick, n. 1. A dot or spot. This is the original sense of the word. Sharp points, punctures, etc., came after. Skeat. LLL. IV, 1, 134. Used for the points marking time on the dial. Noon-tide prick (3HVI. I, 4, 34) and prick of noon (Rom. II, 4, 119) = the mark on the dial which denotes noon. 2. A thorn (see nightiyigale) ; the sharp quills of a hedgehog. Tp. II, 2, 12. 3. A wooden skewer. Lr. II, 3, 16. 4. The act of pricking or piercing ; the usual action of the needle. HV. II, 1, 36. 5. A hurt caused by a sharp point. HVIII. II, 4, 171. 6. The word, as it occurs in Troil. I, 3, 348, is defined by Schm. as "a small roll;" Johnson defined small pricks as small points compared with the volumes. Rolfe, the ed. of "The Henry Irving Shakespeare " and most English coms. adopt Johnson's interpretation. It is true that prick is a nautical term for a small roll of tobacco or spun yarn, but that it was ever used for a small volume may be doubted. 7. In LLL. IV, 1, 140, the expression she is too hard for you at %)^^^^^^i means that she excels you in shooting at a mark ; shooting ' ' at pricks ' ' being a technical term in archery, opposed to shooting "at rovers." Schm. entirely mistakes the naeaning of the phrase in this passage, and explains pricks as "a hurt made by a prickle, a sting, a stitch." prick, V. 1. To mark by a dot or other check-mark ; to mark down. LLL. V, 2, 548; 2HIV. Ill, 2, 121; Cees. Ill, 1, 216. In LLL. V, 2, .548, the reading is pick out in the Globe, the Cambridge and many other eds. It is pricke in the Folios and Q2; picke in Ql. In many eds., amongst others " The Henry Irving Shakespeare," the reading of the Fl. is retained. Marshall, the editor, says " The expression prick out is much more characteristic." Precisely the same expression is found in Cses. Ill, 1, 216. 2. To stick in. Shr. Ill, 2, 70. In this sense the word is still in use in horticulture ; the gardener speaks of "pricking out" young plants, that is, setting them out with a dibble. 3. To erect ; to point. Tp. IV, 1, 176. 4. To hurt ; to wound. This is un- doubtedly the meaning in 2HIV. Ill, 2, 122, I was 2oricked well enough before. Schm. explains it as "dressed up; trimmed ;" but it is doubtful if Sh. ever used the word in that sense. As it occurs in line 164, same Act and scene, if he had been a 7nan\s tailor, heHd ha'' pricked you, Schm. again defines the word prick as "to dress up, to trim," and fails to see the slur here thrown at Justice Shallow, of whomSh. old enemy. Sir Thomas Lucy, was the prototype. Lucy bore as his coat of arms three luces or pike, or, as Parson Evans calls them (Wiv. 1, 1, 16), louses. Now, the cant name for a man's tailor was prick-louse, a word which will be found in Burns and is used by Sir R. L'Estrange (see the "Imperial Dictionary," s.v. prick-louse). Therefore, if Feeble had been a man's tailor, he would have pricked the luces (louses) which repre- sented Lucy or Shallow. See " Shake- spearean Notes and New Readings," p. 16. prick-eared. Having pointed ears. HV. II, 1, 44. This epithet was commonly applied by the English cavaliers to the Puritans because, their hair being cut close all around, their ears stood out prominently. pricket. A buck in his second year. LLL. IV, 2, 12, etc. prick=song. Music sung from notes. Rom. II, 4, 21. pride. In HV. I, 2, 112 ; IHVI. Ill, 2, 40, and IV, 6, 15, pride, according to War- burton, means "haughty power." Col- lier thinks that in IHVI. Ill, 2, 40, the pride of France means La Pucelle, but a careful reading of the context shows that he is manifestly wrong. Dyce. priest. The passage in Wint. IV, 4, 471, Where no priest shovels in dust, is PRI 237 PHI explained by Grey as "meaning that he should be buried under the gallows, without burial service. In the Greek Church the putting earth upon the body was thought absolutely necessary, and the priest enjoined to do it in the form of a cross ; and in the Pojpish office, before the Reformation, the priest, or person oflBciating, was ordered to put earth upon the body of the deceased in the form of a cross, with other cere- monies." prig. A thief. Wint. IV, 3, 108. primal. First ; earliest. HmLIII, 3, 37; Ant. I, 4, 41. prime. The spring of the year. Lucr. 332 ; Sonn. XCVII, 7. primer. More important. HVIII. I, 2, 67. primero. A game at cards, which was very fashionable in Sh. time, and which seems to have been, from the meagre accounts we have of it, "a very com- plicated amusement." Gifford. It seems to be now unknown. Wiv. IV, 5, 104 ; HVIII. V, 1, 7. primrose=beds, faint. It has been ques- tioned whether the word faint refers to the color or to the odor in Mids. I, 1, 215. The point has not been decided. Wright says : ''^ faint prinirose-beds, on which those rest who are faint and weary. This proleptic use of the ad- jective is common in Shakespeare." primy. Early or, perhaps, flourishing. Hml, I, 3, 7. Prince, The Black. The allusion to Ed- wai'd, the Black Prince, in HV. I, 2, 105, refers to the battle of Cressy, where the king refused to send aid to his son because he did not wish to diminish the credit which would be due to him in the event of victory. prince of cats. Tybalt is a name with various modifications — Tibert, Tybert, Tyber, all from Thibault. In "The History e of Reynard the Foxe " (of which Caxton published two editions, 1481 and 1490) the cat is named Sir Tibert, and Jonson speaks of cats as tiberts. The expression. More than 'prince of cats^ applied to Tybalt by Mercutio in Rom. II, 4, 19, is sometimes said to be derived from Dekker's Satiro- Mastix or The Unti'ussing of the Humorous Poet, but this was not pub- lished until 1603 {Romeo and Jtdiet had been published five years before that) and, as Marshall has pointed out in "The Henry Irving Shakespeare," the term there is "prince of rattes." The mistake originated with SteeveiiS and , has been followed by almost all sub- sequent coms., including Furness, Rolfe, White, down to the latest edition by Dowden. The passage, as it is found in Vol. III. of "The Origin of the English Drama," by Hawkins, p. 189, reads : " And then you keep a revelling and arrainging, and a scratching of men's faces, as though you were Tyber, the long-tail'd prince of rats, do you ?" These words are addressed by Tucca to Horace, under which name Ben Jonson is ridiculed or " untrussed. " I cannot help thinking that this so- called mistake on the pai't of Steevens w^as intentional. We all know that he was a forger of the meanest kind ; that he introduced readings and glosses for the mere purpose of confusing his suc- cessors, and it is not at all unlikely that he was the author of some of the forged papers for which poor Collier was blamed. But in Have with you to Saffron Waldon (1596) we have the phrase "not Tibalt, prince of cats,'*'' showing that it was in common use. Prince Henry, dr. p. Son to King John and afterwards Henry III. John. Prince Humphrey of Gloucester, dr.p. Son to Henry IV. 2HIV. and 2HVI. Prince John of Lancaster, dr.p). Son to Henry IV. 2HIV. Prince of Aragon, dr.p. Suitor to Portia. Merch. Prince of Morocco, dr.p. Suitor to Portia. Merch. Prince of Wales, dr.p. Edward, son to Edward IV. RIII, Prince of Wales, dr.p. Henry, after- wards Henry V. IHIV. and 2HIV. Princess Katherine, dr.p. Daughter to PRI 238 PRO Charles VI, afterwards Queen of Eng- land. HV. Princess of France, dr.p. LLL. principality. 1. According to some, a person of the highest dignity, but in Gent. II, 4, 152, it evidently means something more. It was a common Elizabethan word to signify a high order among the angels, and that is evidently its meaning here. In Romans viii, 38, we find "nor angels, nor prin- cipalities." Milton ("Paradise Lost," Book VI) has : "Next upstood Nisrock of Principalities the prime." Scot, in his " Disco verie of Witchcraft," tells us that principalities were the seventh of the nine orders of angels. 2. In Ant. Ill, 13, 19, the word evidently means the territory of a prince. principals. The corner beams of a house. Per. Ill, 2, 16. princox. A pert young coxcomb. Rom. I, 5, 88. print. The phrase in print (LLL. Ill, I, 173) means accurately. So in Gent. II, 1, 175, / speak w print = to the letter; with great precision. Dyce re- marks that this phrase was not obsolete even in the time of Locke, and quotes from "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." When Mopsa declares that she loves " a ballad in print o' life, for then we are sure they are true," she gives ex- pression to a feeling that seems to be common at this day. Wint. IV, 4, 264. Priscian. In the Fl., the line LLL. V, 1, 31, reads : " Bome boon for boon, prescian, a little scratched, 'twil serue. " In the Globe ed. the reading is : "Bon, bon, fort bon, Priscian I a little scratched, 'twill serve." In the g. a. text, it is : " Bone? — bone for bene: Priscian a little scratched, 'twill serve." This emend- ation is by Theobald and has been ac- cepted by Warburton, Johnson, Dyce, Rolfe and others. It is probably the true reading. For a discussion of the passage see Rolfe's ed., p. 154. The phrase, " Priscian a little scratched " is a paraphrase of a common expression, " Diminuis Prisciani caput," which, as Theobald says, was applied to such as speak false Latin. Priscian was the most celebrated Latin grammarian, and lived about 500 A. D., or somewhat before Justinian. Of his work " Institutiones Grammati- cae " over one thousand MS. copies were made and deposited in all the great libraries. It may fairly be said that from the beginning of the sixth century until recently, Priscian has reigned over Latin grammar with almost as generally recognised an authority as Justinian has over Roman law. For an excellent account of Priscian and his works see " Encyclopaedia Britannica, " Vol. XIX, p. 743. priser. A champion or challenger ; one who has taken prizes in athletic contests. As. II, 3, 8. prize, n. 1. Value; estimation. Cym. Ill, 6, 76. 2. Privilege. 3HVI. 1, 4, 59 ; do. II, 1, 20. prize, V. To value ; to estimate. Ado. Ill, 1, 90. probal. Satisfactory; reasonable ; another form oi probable. 0th. II, 8, 347. process. An account or detailed state- ment. Hml. I, 5, 38. Clark and Wright think that perhaps the word has here the sense of an official narrative, coming nearly to the meaning of the French proces verbal. Procrus. A corruption of Procris, the wife of Cephalus. Mids. V, 1, 200. See Cephahis. Proculeius, dr.p. Friend to Octavius Caesar. Ant. procurator. Substitute; proxy. 2HVI. I, 1, 3. procure. To cause ; to prevail with to some end ; to bring. Rom. Ill, 5, 58. prodigious. Portentous ; in the nature of a prodigy. Rom. I, 5, 143 ; Mids. V, 1, 419. Not necessarily monstrous as some have it. PRO 239 PRO proditor. A traitor. IHVI. I, 3, 31. preface, inter j., means " Much good may it do you!" 2HIV. V, 3, 30. This expression, used in this sense, seems to have been common in Sh. time. It is so explained by Florio in his " Second Frutes. " profane. Irreverent ; outspoken ; gross. 0th. I, 1, 11.5; II, 1, 165. profanely. Grossly. Hml. Ill, 2, 34. Progne. A mistake for Procne, the sister of Philomela, q.v. The reference in Tit. V, 2, 196, is to the killing of Itys and the serving of his flesh to his father, Tereus. prognostication. The passage, in the hottest day prognostication claims (Wint. IV, 4, 817) is explained by John- son as the hottest day foretold in the almanac. Malone tells us that " al- manacs were in Shakespeare's time published under this title: "An Al- manac and Prognostication made for the year of our Lord God 1.595." progress. A journey made by a sovereign through his dominions. Hml. IV, 3, 33. project. To define ; to shape. Ant. V, 2, 121. prolixious. Tedious ; causing delay. Meas. II, 4, 163. prologue arm'd. " 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 ' descends slowly ' ; then, after ' the third sounding,' ' as she disappears, enter Prologue hastily in armour. ' Jon- son's Prologue was armed as if to defend the poet against his detractors ; Shake- speare's only to suit the martial action of the play which he introduced. " Grant White. Troil. I, Prol. 23. Prometheus. A famous Titan whose name signifies "forethought." He was the son of the Titan lapetus and Clymene. On one occasion Jupiter wanted to destroy the whole of man- kind, whose place he proposed to fill with an entirely new race of beings, but Prometheus prevented the execution of the scheme and saved mankind from destruction. He is said to have stolen fire from heaven and to have brought it down to earth, where he instructed men in its use. He also taught them architecture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, navigation, medicine, the art of working metals and other useful knowledge, but as he did all this against the will of Jupifcef, the latter ordered Vulcan to chain him to a rock in Scy thia. As he still remained rebellious, Jupiter hurled both the rock and Prometheus down to Tartarus. After a long time, Prometheus returned to the upper world, but only to endure a fresh course of suffering, for he was now fastened to Mount Caucasus and his liver devoured by an eagle during the day, while at night it was rene wed, so that he under- went perpetual torment. Tit. II, 1, 17. There is also a legend according to which Prometheus created men out of earth and water, at the very beginning of the human race, or after the flood of Deu- calion, and that he stole from heaven the fire which endowed them with life. It is to this legend that reference is made in LLL. IV, 3, 304, and 0th. V, 2, 12. prompture. Instigation; suggestion. Meas. II, 4, 178. prone. 1. Eagerly ; ready. Gym. V, 4, 208. 2. Peculiar passage in Meas. I, 2, 188, explained by some as "speaking fer- vently and eagerly without words." According to Malone, "prompt, sig- nificant, expressive." Cotgrave defines prone sls "readie * * * easily mouing," and it is in this sense, no doulbt, that Sh. uses it. proof. 1. Temper; impenetrability. Arm- our of proof = armour hardened till it will abide a certain trial. Johnson. RII. I, 3, 73 ; RIII. V, 3, 219 ; Mcb. I, 2, 54. 2. Strength of manhood. Ado. IV, 1, 46. propagation. This word occurs but once in Sh. (Meas. I, 2, 154) and has given PRO 240 PRO work to the corns., who have offered several emendations. In the Fl. it is propogation ; in the other Folios pro- pagation ; Malone suggested proroga- tion ; Jackson, procuration, and Grant White, preservation. Marshall explains ifc as improvement or increase, and this is the sense which the verb (propagate) has in All's. II, 1, 200 ; Rom. I, 1, 193, and Tim. 1, 1, 67. Claudio and Julietta were anxious to keep their marriage secret so that Julietta's dower might not be lost, it being still in the possession of her friends. Other suggestions have been offered, but in the face of this very forcible explanation emendations are unnecessary. propagate. 1. In Per. I, 2, 73, this word has the usual meaning and is used in the usual sense — to beget. 2, To improve ; to increase ; to augment ; to advance. All's. II, 1, 200 ; Rom. I, 1, 193 ; Tim. I, 1, 67. propend. To incline. Troll. II, 2, 190. propension. Inclination. Troil. II, 2, 133. proper. 1. One's own; what specially belongs to an individual. Tp. Ill, 3, 60 ; Tw. V, 1, 327. Proper deformity seems not in the fiend so horrid as in woman (Lr. IV, 2, 60) is thus explained by Warburton : " Diabolic qualities ap- pear not so horrid in the dev il, to whom they belong, as in woman who unnatur- ally assumes them." In this sense it is evidently an adoption of the French projire. 2. Appropriate; suitable; peculiar. Meas. I, 1, 31 ; 2HI V. I, 3, 32 ; Hml. II, 1, 114 ; Lr. IV, 2, 60. 3. Honest ; respectable (used of women). All's. IV, 3, 240 ; 2HIV. II, 2, 169. 4. Handsome ; fine looking. Tp. II, 2, 63 ; As. Ill, 5, 51 ; RIII. I, 2, 2.55; 0th. IV, 3, 35. Schm. confines the use of the word in this sense to men, but in As. Ill, 5, 51, proper is applied to a woman, and evidently in regard to her physical qualities. proper=faIse. Handsome and deceitful. Tw. II, 2, 30. Johnson strangely misunderstood this passage and reversed its meaning. He says : " The meaning is, hoiu easy is disguise to women; how easily does their own falsehood, contained in their waxen changeable hearts, enable them to assume deceitful appearance." The meaning of the passage is evidently just the reverse of this. It is : How easy is it for handsome and deceitful persons to impress their forms on the hearts of women. property, n. 1. Ownership. Lr. I, 1, 116; Phoen. 37. 2. Scenes, dresses, etc., used in a theatre. Wiv. IV, 4, 78 ; Mids. 1, 2, 108. Wright, Clarendon ed., defines properties as "a theatrical terna for all the adjuncts of a play except the scenery and the dresses of the actors." This is probably tech- nically correct, as it is understood by theatre managers. property, i;. 1. To endow with properties or qualities. Ant. V, 2, 83. 2. To take possession of; to make pro- perty of. Tw. IV, 2, 99 ; John V, 2, 79 ; Tim. I. 1, 57. Prophetess, Cassandra, the, dr.2?. Troil. See Cassandra. propose, n. Conversation. Ado. Ill, 1, 12. propose, V. 1. To place before; to pro- mise as a reward. RIII. I, 2, 170 ; Caes. I, 2, 110; Hml. Ill, 2, 204. 2. To call before the mind's eye ; to imagine. 2HIV. V, 2, 92 ; Troil. II, 2, 146. Hence = to meet ; to encounter. Tit. II, 1, 80. 3. To speak. Ado. Ill, 1,3; 0th. 1, 1, 25. propinquity. Nearness ; kindred. Lr. I, 1, 116. propriety. Individuality ; consciousness of self . Tw. V, 1, 1.50. Hence = proper state or condition. 0th. II, 3, 176. propugnation. Means of opposition or defence. Troil. II, 2, 136. prorogue. To draw out ; to lengthen ; to extend. Ant. II, 1, 26 ; Per. V, 1, 26. Proserpina. The daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. The Greek form of the name is Persephone. Jupiter, without the knowledge of Ceres, promised Proser- pina to Pluto or Dis (Wint. IV, 4, 118), 5R0 241 PUB and as her mother objected to her going down to Hades, Jupiter advised Pluto to carry her off. He accordingly seized her while she was gathering flowers with Diana and Minerva and bore her away to his realms below the earth. Ceres was absent when this happened, but as soon as she missed her daughter she sought for her all over the earth with torches, until at last she discovered the place of her abode. She also, in her wrath, smote with sterility the fields over which she passed, thus causing a fearful famine upon the earth, nor would she let the crops grow again until Proserpina was restored to her. Jupiter, pitying the sufferings of men, consented that Ceres should have her child again, provided the latter had eaten nothing during her sojourn in Hades. But Pluto had given her the kernel of a pomegran- ate to eat, whereby she became doomed to the lower world. It was, therefore, agreed that she should spend part of the year with her mother and part with Pluto. Even with the ancients, the story of Proserpina was supposed to be sym- bolical of vegetation, which during a portion of the year is hid under the ' earth, and when spring comes shoots forth and reappears in all its glory. In the mysteries of Eleusis the return of Cora (I.e., maiden or daughter) from the lower world was regarded as the symbol of immortality, and hence she was frequently represented on sar- cophagi. In the mystical theories of the Orphics she is described as tlie alJ- pervading goddess of nature who both produces and destroys everything. In works of art Proserpina is seen very frequently ; she bears the grave and severe character of an internal Juno, or she appears as a mystical divmity with a sceptre and a little box, but sbe was mostly represented in the act of being carried off by Pluto. She is referred to in Tp. IV, 1, 89. Prospero, dr.p. The rightful Duke of Milan. Tp. See Sycorax. Proteus, dr.p. A gentleman of Verona. Gent. Proteus. The Proteus referred to in 3HVI. Ill, 2, 193, was the herdsman of Neptune and attended to the flocks of that god, which, however, were not sheep, but seals. He was also called "the prophetic old man of the sea," because he had the gift of foretelling the future, and was also endowed with the power of assuming various shapes. His habit was to rise from the flood at midday and sleep in the shadow of the rocks of the coast while the monsters of the deep lay around him. Any one wishing to compel him to foretell the future was obliged to catch hold of him at that time ; he would then call into play his power of assuming every pos- sible shape and thus try to escape. But whenever he saw that his endeavors were of no avail, he resumed his usual appearance and told the truth. When he had finished his prophecy he returned into the sea. In art he is sometimes represented as riding through the sea in a chariot drawn by Hippocampae. proud=pied. Goi-geously variegated. Sonn. XCVIII, 2. provand. Food ; provender. Cor. II, 1, 267. provincial. Belonging to or under the jurisdiction of a province. Nor here provincial (Meas. V, 1, 318) = nor sub- ject to the ecclesiastical authorities of this province. Dyce. See Roses. provision. Foresight ; provident care. Tp. I, 2, 28 ; Lr. I, 1, 176. prune. 1. To dress up ; to adorn. LLL. IV, 3, 183. 2. To preen ; to dress or trim the feathers as birds do. Cym. V, 4, 118. Publius, dr.p. A Roman senator. Caes. Publius, dr.p. Son to Marcus Andronicus. Tit. Publius. Who is your sister''s son, Mark Antony. Cses. IV, 1, 6. This is a mistake of the poet, as Upton has shown ; the person meant, Lucius Caesar, was uncle by the mother's side to Mark Antony. PUC 242 PTJG Pucelle, Joan La, cZr .p. IHVI. LaPucelle is French for the maid. Pucelle df Or- leans = the maid of Orleans. See Joan la, Pucelle. Puck, d7\p. A fairy. Mids. The name of Sh. "merry wanderer of the night " is a modification of pouke — an old name for the devil, and Keightley tells us that "it is first in Sh. that we find Puck confounded with the House- spirit and having those traits of char- acter which are now regarded as his very essence." Of the origin of pouke or Puck much has been written. In Icelandic, Puki is an evil spirit, and this name easily became Puck, Pug and Bug ; and finally, in Friesland the Kobold or evil spirit is called Puk. The pranks to which this being is addicted are well described in A Midsummer NighVs Dream.. To what is there said we may add what Reginald Scot tells of him in regard to his doing the work of those to whom he took a liking : " Indeed, your grandam's maids were wont to set a bowl of milk before him (Incubus) and his cousin Robin Goodfellow for grind- ing of malt or mustard and sweeping the house at midnight ; and you have also heard that he would chafe exceed- ingly if the maid or good wife of the house, having compassion on his naked- ness, laid any clothes for him beside his mess of white bread and milk, which was his standing fee; for in that case he saith : ' What have we here ? Hempten, hamten. Here will I never more tread nor stampen.' " About the year 1584 there was pub- lished in London, by an unknown author, a little work called " The Mad Pranks and Merry Jests of Robin Goodfellow," and it is thought that from this book Sh. derived some of his ideas of Puck. In it we are told that Robin was the offspring of " a proper young wench by a hee-f ayrie, ' ' a king or something of that kind among them. By the time he was six years old he was so mischievous and unlucky that his mother undertook to give him a whipping and he ran away. After various adventures, he lay down to sleep by the wayside, and in his sleep he had a vision of fairies. When he awoke, he found lying beside him a scroll, evidently left by his father, which, in verses written in letters of gold, informed him that he should have any thing he wished for, and have also the power of turning himself "to horse, to hog, to dog, to ape," etc., but he was to harm none but knaves and queans, and was to " love those that honest be, and help them in necessitie. " Amongst many other adventures, he came to a farmer's house and took a liking to a "good handsome maid " that was there. In the night he did her work for her, breaking hemp and flax, bolting meal, etc. Having watched one night and seen him at work, and ob- served that he was rather bare of clothes, she provided him with a waistcoat by the next night, but when he saw it he started and said : " Because thou lay est me hlmpen hampen I will neither bolt nor stampen. 'Tis not your garments, new or old, That Robin loves ; I feel no cold. Had you left me milk or cream, You should have had a pleasing dream; Because you left no drop or crum, Robin never more will come." Those who are interested in this curious department of folk-lore will find much interesting matter in Keightley's " Fairy Mythology " and Dyer's " Folk- Lore of Shakespeare," from which we have condensed the above account. pudding. He''ll yield the crow a pudding (HV. II, 1, 91) = he will become food for crows — a rude way of intimating that he has not long to live. puddle. To make muddy ; to befoul ; metaphorically, to confuse. Err. V, 1, 173; 0th. 111,4, 143. pudency. Modesty. Cym. II, 5, 11. pugging. Of this word, as it occurs in Wint. IV, 3, 7, Johnson says: "It is PUI 243 PTJR certain that ' pugging ' is not now under- stood. But D7\ Thirlhy observes that this is the cant of gipsies." It is not found in the slang glossaries with any meaning applicable to this passage, the cant meaning of i^ug being inferior. It is generally defined as thievish, and it is supposed to be used in the same way that we speak of a person's having "a sweet tooth " when he is fond of sweets. Another interpretation of the passage is this : Autolycus, thinking of the white sheets which he sees on the hedges, has his appetite for ale sharpened when he thinks how he might steal the sheet and at the ale-house exchange it for a quart of ale. And Furness thinks that the connection between sheets and ale in this passage is confirmed by the following quotation from The Three Ladies of London (Hazlitt's ed. of "Dodsley,"p. 347): Our fingers are lime-twigs, and barbers we be. To catch sheets from hedges, most pleasant to see ; Then to the ale-wife roundly we set them to sale. And spend the money merrily upon her good ale. But all this does not explain "pug- ging." Collier thinks it is a misprint for prigging, and in this he is perhaps right. For various other suggestions see Furness's ed. of The Winte7^''s Tale, p. 164. puisny. Unskilful. As. Ill, 4, 44. puissance. 1. Strength. HV. Ill, Chor. 21 ; 2HVI. IV, 2, 173. 2. Armed forces. John III, 1, 339 ; 2HIV. 1,3,9; RIII. V, 3, 299. puke=stocking. Puke = dark - colored ; perhaps puce. IHIV. II, 4, 79. pump. A light shoe. Rom. II, 4, 64. See roses. pun. To beat ; to pound. Troil. II, 1, 42. This word still survives in the dialects of some of the counties of England. punished. For the fate of the surviving characters, as referred to in Rom. V, 3, 308, see nurse. punto. A stroke or thrust ; a term in fencing. Wiv. II, 3, 26. punto reverse. A back-handed stroke in fencing. Rom. II, 4, 28. According to Sa viola "you may give him [your adversary] a punta either dritta or ri versa. " purctiase, n. 1. A cant term for stolen goods. IHIV. II, 1, 101 ; RIII. Ill, 7, 187. 2. Profit; gain; advantage. Per., Prol. 9. The expression found in Tw. IV, 1, 24, after fourteen years purchase, evi- dently means at a high rate or price. "Fourteen (or any other number of) years purchase " is a technical term, much used in England in the purchase or sale of land, but almost unknown in the United States. It means a present sum equal to the entire rent for fourteen years. It seems that the current rate in Sh. time was about twelve years purchase, so that fourteen years would be a rather high rate. purctiase, v. 1. To acquire; to obtain. As. Ill, 2, 360 ; in Cor. II, 1, 155, true purchasing = desert earned by exertion. 2. Obtained by unfair means. 2HIV. IV, 5, 200. Dyce. Puritan. An adherent of the sect which intended to restore the Church to the pure form of apostolic times ; generally disliked and ridiculed by the young bloods of the time. All's. I, 3, 56 ; Tw. II, 3, 152 ; Wint. IV, 3, 46. See horn- pipe. purl. -To curl ; to run in circles. Lucr. 1407. purlieus. The grounds on the borders of a forest. As. IV, 3, 77. purples, long. " This is the early purple orchis (orchis niascida), which blossoms in April and May ; it grows in meadows and pastures, and is about ten inches high ; the flowers are purple, numerous and in long spikes. 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 PUR 244 PYG mistook one of the other orchids, having pahnated roots, for long purples. The orchis inascula 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 Shake- speare's time. The spotted palmate orchis {orchis maculata) and the marsh orchis [orchis lati folia) have palmated roots and are called ' dead men's fingers, ' which they somewhat resemble." Beis- ley's "Shakspere's Garden." The vari- ous names given to this plant in the herbals are too gross for repetition ; Malone tells us that one of the grosser names which Gertrude had a particular reason to avoid was the rampant widoiv. Hml. IV, 7, 170. purple=in=grain. A color obtained from the kertnes or coccus, an insect which feeds on oak and various other plants. It was very durable and was so manip- ulated as to give a great number of different shades. For a discussion of grain in the sense of a dye, the reader will do well to consult Marsh's "Lec- tures on the English Language ' ' (revised ed.), pp. 56-65. Also Furness's New Variorum ed. of A Midsummer NighVs Dreayn, p. 41. See also grain in ap- pendix to this book. pursy. Fat and shortwinded. Hml. Ill, 4, 153. Cotgrave gives : " Poulsif : ' Pursie, shortwinded.'''' push. 1. An emergency ; a special occa- sion. Wint. V, 3, 129; Mcb. V, 3, 20. Schm., following Delius, defines push in the first quotation as: "an impulse given; a setting in motion." But, as Furness says, the explanation given above, which is that of the Clarkes, " seems to be the best." 2. An expression of contempt; an old form of "pish! " Ado. V, 1, 38. Boswell and some others think that push here means defiance, resistance ; but Collier's ex- planation, which we adopt, seems to be preferred by the best English coms. push=pin. A childish game. LLL. IV, 3, 169. put over. To refer. John I, 1, 62. putter=on. 1. Inventor; author. flVIIL I, 2, 24. 2. Instigator. Wint. II, 1, 141. putter=out. Schm. defines this as "one who goes abroad," but this is certainly wrong. The phrase : Each putter out offiuefor one, as it stands in the Fl., Tp. Ill, 3, 48, alludes to a practice which was common in Sh. time, and which, as Furness says, "in effect reverses [the practice of] the modern Travellers'' Insurance Compianies.'''' It is fully ex- plained in Jonson's Every Man out of His Humour, II, 1, where Puntarvolo says : " I do intend, this year of jubilee coming on, to travel ; and because I will not altogether go upon expense, I am determined to put forth some five thou- sand pound, to be paid me five for one. upon the return of myself, my wife and my dog from the Turk's court in Con- stantinople. If all or either of us mis- carry in the journey, 'tis gone; if we be successful, why, there will be five and twenty thousand pound to entertain time withal." Objection has been made to the ex- pression of five for one, and some have claimed that it should be one for five. J Theobald emended to on five for one, i but the phrase seems to have been one in common use, and well understood to mean " at the rate of five for every one put out." For a full discussion see Furness's ed. p. 179. puttock. A kite. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 191; Cym. I, 1, 140. puzzel. A hussy ; a foul drab. IHVI. I, 4, 107. The word is from the Italian puzzolente, and was in common use in Sh. time. Sometimes spelled pussle. The play on pucelle, a chaste maid, and puzzel, a foul drab, is obvious. Pygmalion. A famous king of Cyprus. I He was a skilful sculptor and is said to have fallen in love with the ivory image of a maiden which he himself had made. At the festival of Venus he prayed to the goddess that the statue might be endowed with life. His prayer was granted, and Pygmalion married the PYG 245 PYR animated image which he so loved, and she became bj^ him the mother of Paphus. The name given to the image-maiden is Galatea in the modern vei'sions of the legend, but it is apocryphal. Meas. Ill, 2, 48. The editor of the " Century Cyclo- paedia of Names" confounds the Pyg- malion of the image legend vs^ith an entirely different character, Pygmalion , the brother of Dido and the murderer of Acerbas or Sichseus, the husband of the latter. See Dido. Pygmies. A race of dwarfs who were so called because their height was that of a pygme, a Greek measure equal to the distance between the elbow and the hand. According to Homer they had every year to sustain a war against the cranes on the banks of Oceanus, which was supposed by the ancients to be a huge river encompassing the earth. Various stories are told of them, such as that they cut down each stalk of wheat with an axe. When Hercules came into their country they climbed with ladders to the edge of his goblet to drink from it, and when they attacked the hero, three whole armies combined in the assault. Ovid relates that CEnoe, the mother of the pygmies, was changed by Juno into a crane because she entered into a contest with the goddess, and in this form she was obliged to make war upon her own people. There was also a legend of northern pygmies who lived in the neighborhood of Thule; they are described as very short Mved, small and armed with spears like needles. Another account tells of a race of Indian pygmies who lived under the earth on the east of the river Ganges. Aristotle did not believe that the accounts of the pygmies were altogether fabulous, but that they were a tribe in Egypt who had exceedingly small horses and dwelt in caves. And modern dis- covery has revealed the existence of Afi'ican races of dwarfish size, but nothing comparable to that of the old legends. Ado. II, 1, 278. It is quite probable that like many other myths, that of the pygmies was originally based on the accounts given by travelers of people who really existed, these accounts being afterwards dis- torted and magnified by the poets. pyramides. A pyramid. Ant. V, 2, 61. pyramis. A pyramid. IHVI. I, 6, 21. Pyramus, dr. p. A character in the inter- lude. Mids. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is found in Ovid's Metamoi^phoses, and is not by any means a burlesque as originally told. The lovers lived in ad- joining houses in Babylon and often conversed secretly with each other through an opening in the wall, as their parents would not sanction their marri- age. The rendezvous at the tomb of Ninus (or Ninny as Bottom calls him), the lion and all the rest are pretty much as set down in the play. Ovid relates that Thisbe, with her last breath, com- manded the mulberry tree, under which she and her dead lover lay, to bear thenceforth black fruit instead of white, and that the gods so decreed. Pyrrhus. The Pj^rrhus mentioned in Hml. II, 2, 472, et seq. , was the son of Achilles, and was so called either because of his fair hair or because his father, when disguised as a girl, bore the name of Pyrrha. He was also called Neoptole- mus. He was brought up in Scyros in the palace of Lycomedes, and was brought thence by Ulysses to join the Greeks in the war against Troy, Helenus having prophesied that Neoptolemus and Philoctetes were necessary for the capture of Troy. He was one of those concealed in the wooden horse. When Troy was taken he killed Polites, a son of Priam, before the eyes of the latter, and when the old king upbraided him for this act, Pyrrhus brutally slew him also at the sacred hearth of Jupiter, and then sacrificed Polyxena to the spirit of his father. When the Trojan captives were distributed among the conquerors, Andromache, the widow of Hector, was given to Pyrrhus, and by her he became PYT 246 auA the father of Molossus, the ancestor of the Molossian kings. He was finally slain at Delphi, but the circumstances connected with his death ai'e variously related. Pythagorus. A celebrated philosopher, the events of whose life are shrouded in the mists of antiquity. The date of his birth is placed at about 582 B. c, and that of his death about 80 years later. He was born in Samos in Greece, and ultimately settled at Crotona, one of the Dorian colonies in the south of Italy. Here he founded the Pythagorean brotherhood. He is said to have been the discoverer of several valuable geo- metrical truths, the most important being that known as the Pythagorean proj^osition. It forms the famous forty- seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid, that the square on the hypoth- enuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares erected on the sides. But the doctrine by which he is most generally known is that of the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, an idea probably adopted from the Orphic mysteries. The bodily life of the soul, according to this doctrine,, is an imprisonment suffered for sins committed in a former state of exist- ence. At death the soul reaps what it has sown in the present life. The re- ward of the best is to enter the cosmos, or the higher and purer regions of the universe, while the direst crimes re- ceive their punishment in Tartarus. But the general lot is to live afresh in a series of human or animal forms, the nature of the bodily prison being deter- mined in each case by the deeds done in the life just ended. Xenophanes men- tions the story of his interceding on behalf of a dog that was being beaten, professing to recognise in its cries the voice of a departed friend. He himself is said to have pretended that he had been Euphorbus in the Trojan war, as well as various other characters — a tradesman, a courtezan, etc. Merch. IV, 1, 131 ; As. Ill, 2, 187 ; Tw. IV, 2, 54. See rat and verse. ^UAIL, n. 1. A bird somewhat resembling our American quail, or, as it is sometimes called, partridge (Bob White), but rather smaller. The ancients trained them to fight just as the moderns train gamecocks. Ant. II, 3, 37. See inhoojoed. 2. Cant term for a loose woman. Troil. V, 1, 57. quail, V. 1. To quell; to crush. Mids. V, 1,293; Ant. V, 2, 85. 2. To faint; to slacken; to be terrified. As. II, 2, 20 ; IHIV. IV, 1, 39 ; Cym. V, 5, 149. In the lines : And let not search and inquisition quail To bring again these foolish runaivays (As. II, 2, 20), it has been suggested that quail is a misprint for fail, and certainly the latter word seems most appropriate. But Cotgrave makes quaile and faile synonymous. Douce cites from The Choise of Change the following line in support of the claim that quail means to slacken, re- lax, diminish: "Thus Hunger cureth love, for love quaileth when good cheare faileth." But quail here may mean to become afraid, its usual sig- nification. quaint. 1. Neat ; pretty ; dainty. Wiv. IV, 6, 41; Shr. IV, 3, 102; Mids. II, 2, 7. 2. Ingenious ; clever ; artful. Tp. I, 2, 316; Merch. Ill, 4, 69; Shr. Ill, 2, 149; 2HVI. Ill, 2, 274. " The word is derived from the Latin cognitus, which in old French became coint, Cotgrave gives ' Coint * * * Quaint, compt, neat, fine, spruce, brisk, QUA 247 QUA smirke, smug, daintie, trim, tricked vp.' " Wright. quaintly. Prettily; daintily; pleasantly. Gent. II, 1, 128 ; III, 1, 117 ; Hml. II, 1, 31. quake. To cause to tremble. Cor. I, 9, 6. Steevens quotes from T. Heywood, Silver Age (1613): "We'll quake them at that bar where all souls wait for sentence." Whitelaxv. qualification. Appeasement; pacification. Whose qualification shall come into no true taste again (0th. II, 1, 282) = "whose resentment shall not be so qualified or tempered, as to be well tasted, as not to retain some bitterness. ' ' Johnson. qualify. To moderate ; to soften. Lucr. 421 ; Meas. I, 1, 66 ; John V, 1, 13 ; Lr. I, 2, 176; 0th. II, 3, 41 (slily mixed with water). quality. 1. Profession ; calling. Gent. IV, 1, 58 ; Meas. II, 1, 59 ; Hml. II, 2, 363. 2. Rank. Lr. V, 3, 120 ; V, 3, 111 ; HV. IV, 8, 95. 3. Cause ; occasion. Troil. IV, 1, 44 ; Tim. Ill, 6, 117. Peculiar passage in IHIV. IV, 3, 36 ; probable meaning : are not of our kind, i.e., of our party. quantity. Besides the usual meanings, we have: 1. Proportion; corresponding degree. Mids. 1, 1, 232 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 177. 2. Very small portion. Shr. IV, 3, 112 ; John V, 4, 23. ' Falstaff says (2HIV. V, 1, 70) : If I were sawed into quantities [little pieces] / should tnake four dozen of such bearded hermits staves as Master Shallow. quarrel. Cause ; suit. 2HVI. Ill, 2, 233. The passage in HVIII. II, 3, 14, if that quarrel fortune do divorce it from the hearer, has occasioned much discussion. Warburton takes quarrel to mean arroiv. This makes good sense. Johnson reads "quarreler," and other emendations have been suggested. Quar- rel, in the sense of arrow, is used by Spenser, and in "Hakluyt's Voyages" we find : " A servaunt * * * was found shooting a quarrell of a crossbow with a letter." The "Century Dictionary" gives " quarrel = quarreler," but with- out any authority except this passage, which seems hardly sufficient. In Mcb. I, 2, 14, the sentence, And Fortune on his damned quarrel smil- ing has given rise to comments which fill a full page of the " New Variorum." Johnson explains quarrel here as cause, a meaning which it has in other passages. Others read "quarry." But the sense of the above and the following line seems to be that Fortune, while she ap- peared to smile on his accursed cause, deceived him (Macdonwald). In the Fl. the reading is Quarry; Johnson proposed quarrel, and Fur- ness adopts this reading. The word quarrel is used by Hollinshed in the very passage which Sh. here used : "For out of the Western Isles there came unto him a great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist him in that rebellious quarrel, and out of Ireland in hope of the spoil came no small number of Kernes and Gallow- glasses. ' ' Numerous attempts have been made to trace the origin of Touchstone's dis- sertation on quarrels in As. V, 4, 94 : O, Sir, we quarrel in print by the book, etc. It seems that the "bloods " of Sh. time studied the art of duelling as laid down in several books which had been published on the subject. Warburton, Malone and others give the titles of some of them, and some endeavor to point out the particular book which Sh. had in view, but it is more than probable that reference was made to no special treatise, but to the general fact that the science of quarreling and the art of self-defence were favorite studies with those whom Theobald calls "the boistei'- ous Gallants in Queen Elizabeth's reign." quarrelous. Disposed to quarrel; quarrel- some. Cym. Ill, 4, 162. quarry. As used by Sh. signifies a heap of slaughtered game. Cor. I, 1, 202 ; QUA 248 QUE Mcb. I, 2, 14 ; do. IV, 3, 206 ; Hml. V, 2, 375. This word is derived from the French crtre'e, which Cotgrave defines as "a (dogs) reward ; the hounds fees of, or part in, the game they have killed." The word was also written cuyerie, and came into English in the form of querre or querry. {Defendre la curee, to keep the dogs from the game till it was properly prepared for them). From this it came to mean simply the slain animal. This is certainly better than the derivation from carree, the square enclosure into which the game was driven. Whitelaiv. quart d'ecu. A quarter of a French crown or fifteen pence. All's. IV, 3, 311 ; V, 2, 35. See cardecue. quarter, n. This word, as used in Err. II, 1, 108, and 0th. II, 3, 180, is explained by Schm. as peace ; friendship ; concord. Others think it means at the appointed station or post. To keep fair quarter ivith his bed can hardly mean to keep peace with his bed, but rather to keep the set appointment with his bed ; to be in his proper place. The plural, quarters = lodging or encampment. quarter, v. 1. To place the arms of an- other family in the compartments of a shield. Wiv. I, 1, 24. 2. Lodged; stationed. RIII. V, 3, 34; Caes. IV, 2, 28. Behold their quartered fires (Cym. IV, 4, 18) = their camp fires; the fires burning in their quarters. quartered. Slaughtered. Cor. I, 1, 205. quat. A pimple. 0th. V, 1, 11. See sense. quatch=buttock. Squat or flat buttock. All's. II, 2, 19. queasy. 1. Squeamish ; nauseated. Ado. II, 1, 399 ; Ant. Ill, 6, 20. 2. Ticklish ; nice. Lr. II, 1, 19. queasiness. Nausea; disgust. 2HIV. I, 1, 196. Queen, dr.p. Wife to Cymbeline. Cym. Queen Elizabeth, dr.p. Wife to Edward IV. 3HVI. and RIII. Married Sir John Grey, and after- wards Edward IV. The tree in Whittle- bury Forest, near Grafton, under which Elizabeth waited, with her two young sons, to petition King Edward for the restitution of their father's lands, is still known as the Queen's oak. Queen Isabella, dr.p. Wife to Richard II. Rll. Queen Katharine (of Aragon), dr.p. Wife to Henry VIII. HVIII. Queen Margaret (of Anjou), dr.p. Wife to Henry VI. IHVI., 2HVI., 3HVI. and RIII. quell. Murder. Mcb. I, 7, 72. quench. To grow cool. Cym. I, 5, 47. quern. " A handmill for grinding corn [wheat] made of two corresponding stones. It is one of our oldest words and with slight variations is found in all northern languages." Brockett. Mids. II, 1, 36. Delius makes quern = churn, but this is unquestionably wrong. Johnson sees a difficulty in the fact that the Fairy mixes up good and bad acts by Puck, but we must remember that she is re- counting all his tricks, as he himself does in The Pranks of Puck, as reprinted in Percy's "Reliques." See Puck. quest. 1. A search. Per. Ill, Prol. 21. 2. A body of searchers. 0th. I, 2, 46. 3. Inquiry. Meas. IV, 1, 62. 4. Inquest ; an impanelled jury. RIII. I, 4, 189; Hml. V, 1, 24. questant. A seeker ; aspirant. All's. II, 1, 16. question, n. 1. Conversation. As. Ill, 4, 37 ; Merch. IV, 1, 73. 2. The subject of conversation or inquiry. A7}y constant question (Tw. IV, 2, 53) = settled, determinate, regular question. Johnson. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol. Cses. Ill, 2, 40. " The word question is here used in a somewhat peculiar sense. It seems to mean the statement of the reasons." Cro.ik. Cry out on top of question (Hml. II, 2, 356) = recite at the very highest pitch of their voices. Tts the way To call hers exquisite, in question more. Rom. I, 1, 235. The QUE 249 QUI usual explanation of this passage is ' ' to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation." Malone. And he further adds that question here does not mean to doubt or dispute, but conversation. On the other hand we must remember that the passage is a reply by Romeo to Ben- volio's advice to compare Rosaline with others ; it seems to me, therefore, that a correct paraphrase of Romeo's speech would be : " The way to make her beauty appear superior to others is to call it more in question by comparing them." question, V. To converse ; to talk. Lucr. 132. questionable. That may be questioned or talked with; inviting conversation. Hml. I, 4, 43. questrist. One who goes in quest or search of another. Lr. Ill, 7, 17. queubus. A nonsensical word probably used by the clown and quoted by Sir Andrew in Tw. II, 3, 25; bombastic language manufactured by Feste ; big words without any sense. quiclc. 1. Alive ; living. Wiv. Ill, 4, 90; Tim. IV, 3, 44 ; Hml. V, 1, 137. 2. Lively; sprightly. LLL. I, 1, 162; RIII. I, 3, 5 ; Ant. V, 2, 216. 3. In action, as running springs of water. Tp. Ill, 2, 75. 4. Pregnant. LLL. V, 2, 682. 5. The quick = the sensitive nerves. Hml. II, 2, 6S6. quiclcen. 1. To come to life. Lr. Ill, 7, 39 ; 0th. Ill, 3, 277 ; Ant. IV, 15, 39. 2. To bring to life. Tp. Ill, 1,6; All's. II, 1, 77. Quiclcly, Mrs., dr.jJ. Hostess of a tavern and afterwards wife to Pistol. IHIV., 2HIV. and HV. Quickly, Mrs., dr. p. Maid of all work to Dr. Caius ; "in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer." Wiv. I, 2, 3, et seq. quiddit, j Equivocation; subtlety; cavil. quiddity. \ IHIV. 1, 2, 51 ; Hml. V, 1, 107. quid for quo. Tit for tat. IHVi. V, 3, 109. quietus. Final settlement of an account ; audit. Sonn. CXXVI, 12; Hml. Ill, 1, 75. From the law term, quietus est, used in the settlement of accounts. quill. Pipe; voice. Mids. Ill, 1, 131. The wren with little quill = the wren with small voice or note. In this passage Schm. makes it " the strong feather of the wing of a bird." But it certainly has not that meaning here. cf. Milton's "Lycidas," line 188: He touched the tender stops of various quills. In the quill = all together ; in a body. 2H VI. 1, 3, 4. There has been considerable diversity of opinion in regard to the meaning of this phrase. In the coil or confusion ; in proper form, i.e., as ruffs, etc. , were quilled ; penned or written, just as we say, in print, etc., etc. But Ains worth, in his "Latin Dictionary" (1761), explains in the quill by "acting in concert" {ex compacto agunt), and in the Devonshire DaviseVs Frolic, where a bevy of girls are described as swimming close together, we find : Thus those females were all in a quill And following on their pastimes still. quillet. A sly trick in argument ; chi- canery. LLL. IV, 3, 288 ; IHVI. II, 4, 17; Hml. V, 1, 108 ; Oth. Ill, 1, 25. Quince, dr.p. The carpenter. Mids. quintain. A post or figure set up for tyros in chivalry to practise at. At first it was a mere post ; then a figure dressed like a Saracen ; afterwards it was made more complicated and turned round on a pivot or axis. The object of this was that if the horseman did not direct his lance with sufficient dexterity to strike the figure fair in the center it would turn round and give the awkward filter a blow with the wooden sword which it held in its hand. This was considered a disgrace to the horseman and was a source of great merriment to the spectators. As. I, 2, 263. Quinapalus. An author of whom nothing IS known. The name was evidently manufactured for the occasion by Festew Tvv. I, 5, 31. QUI 250 RAC Quintus, dr. p. Son to Titus Andronicus. Tit. quip. A sharp jest ; a taunt. Gent. IV, 2, 12 ; Ado. II, 3, 249 ; As. V, 4, 79. quire, n. 1. A company. Mids. II, 1, 55 ; 2HVI. I, 3, 92. 2. A place for singers. Cym. Ill, 3, 43. quire, v. To sing in concert. Merch. V, 1, 63; Cor. Ill, 2, 113. quirk. 1 . A sudden turn ; an evasion. Per. IV, 6, 8. 2. A shallow conceit. Ado. II, 3, 258 ; 0th. II, 1, 63. quit. To repaj^ ; to requite ; to pay off. Meas. V, 1, 416; 3HVI. Ill, 3, 128 ; Hml. V, 2, 68 ; V, 2, 280. quital. Requital ; retaliation. Lucr. 236. quittance, n. 1. A discharge from obliga- tion or debt. Wiv. 1, 1, 10 ; As. Ill, 5, 133. 2. Return ; acquital. HV. II, 2, 34; Tim. I, 1, 291. Rendering faint quit- tance (2HIV. I, 1, 108) = giving faint return of blows. All use of quittance (Tim. I, 1, 291) = all the customary re- turns made in discharge of obligations. Warburton. quittance, v. To requite ; to retaliate. IHVI. II, 1, 14. quiver, adj. Nimble ; active. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 301. quoif. A cap or hood generally worn by women and sick people. Wint. IV, 4, 226 ; 2HIV. I, 1, 147. quoit. To pitch as one does a quoit. 2HIV. II, 4, 205. quondam. Former ; that used to be. HV. II, 1, 82. Quondam day (LLL. V, I, 7) = yesterday. The play occupies two days according to Daniel, and this speech was made on the second day. quote. 1. To note; to observe. Gent. II, 4, 18 (a pun upon quote and coat). Troil. IV, 5, 233 ; Hml. II, 1, 112; Rom. 1, 4, 31. 2. To construe; to interpret. LLL. V, 2, 796. 3. To note ; to set down as in a note- book. LLL. II, 1, 246 ; All's. V. 3, 205 ; John IV, 2, 222. quotidian. A fever whose paroxysms return every day. As. Ill, 2, 383. In HV. II, 1, 124, the Hostess speaks of a burning quotidian Tertian., thus mixing up big words so as to make nonsense. See Tertian. THE eighteenth letter. Rom. II, 4, 223. 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, and Ben Jon- son, 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." rabato. A kind of ruff or band (French rabat). Ado. Ill, 4, 6. " Menage saith it comes from rabattre., to put back, because it was at first nothing but the collar of the shirt or shift turned back towards the shoulders." Hawkins, rabbit=sucker. A young rabbit. IHIV. II, 4, 480. Some editors make rabbit-sucker = a weasel, but in Lyly's "Endymion " we find: "I prefer an old coney before a rabbit-sucker. " Th e context shows that a young rabbit was meant. Weasels were not hung by the heels in con- nection with poulter's hares." See poulter. rabblement. The rabble. Cs8s. I, 2, 245. race. A root. Wint. IV, 3, 50. cf. raze. rack, n. Floating vapor ; a cloud. Sonn. XXXIII, 6 ; Tp. IV, 1, 156 ; Hml. II, 2, 506 ; Ant. IV, 14, 10. rack, V. 1. To move as clouds. SIIVI, II, 1, 27. BAD 251 RAN 2. To extend; to stretch; to strain. Ado. IV, 1,223; Merch. I, 1,181. In LLL. V, 2, 828, the word racked, which is the reading of the old eds. , seems inexphcable. Rowe emended to rank, which seems the true meaning. cf. Hml. Ill, 3, 36 : O, ')ny offence is rank, it smells to heaven. raddock. See ruddock. rag. A terra of contempt applied to persons. Wiv. IV, 2, 194 ; Shr. IV, 3, 112 ; RIII. V, 3, 328 ; Tim. IV, 3, 271. raged. Chafed. RII. II, 1, 70. raging=wood. Raving mad, IHVI. IV, 7, 35. cf. ivood. rake, n. This well-known implement was the symbol of leanness, probably because in that condition the ribs showed regu- larly like the teeth of a rake. In Cor. I, 1, 21, there is probably a play on the words pikes and rakes, both being used in agriculture, one for gathering together, the other (pike or pitch-fork) for tossing into place. rake, v. 1. To search for as with a rake. HV. II, 4, 87 and 97. 2. To cover up. Before the invention of lucifer matches, fires were " raked " every night, i. e. , covered with ashes or culm so that they would keep in all night. See Wiv. V, 5, 48: Where fires thou find''st unrak''d, etc. Lr. IV, 6, 281 : here in the sands thee Fll rake tip. Rambures, dr. p. A French lord. HV. ramp. A wanton wench. Cym. I, 6, 134. The meaning given by Schm. is "a leap," a definition which utterly des- troys the sense of the passage. Cotgrave gives " Rampeau. Droict de ramp. A priuiledge, or power, to lecher. " Mid- dleton and Dekker use the word in the sense we have given : The bouncing ramp, that roaring girl, my mistress. — Roaring Girl, III, .3. rampallian. A term of lo^v abuse. 2HIV. II, 1, 67. Probably formed from the word ramp, q.v. rampant. Rearing ; standing on the hind legs as if preparing to spring. 2HVI. V, 1, 203. ramping. Rampant ; or it may have the sense in which Chaucer uses ravipen, ' ' to rage, be furious with anger. ' ' IHI V. Ill, 1, 152. rank, n. The expression : The right butter-women'' s rank to market (As. Ill, 2, 103) has puzzled the coms. , but here, as in many other passages, although the precise definition of some of the words may be subject to doubt, the general meaning of the passage is clear enough. Touchstone means to ridicule the sing- song cadences of Orlando's rhymes. Various emendations have been pro- posed for rank, such as rate, rant, racke, etc. Whiter says: "The right butter- women's 7"an/c to market' means the jog-trot rate (as it is vulgarly called) with which butter-women uniformly travel one after another in their road to market; in its application to Orlando's poetry it means a set or string of verses in the same coarse cadence and vulgar uniformity of rhythm." Here rank means row or file. rank, adj. 1. Swollen. Ven. 71. 2. Lustful; rutting. Merch. I, 3, 81. 3. Strong, in the sense of offiensive, noi- some, rancid. Sonn. LXIX, 12 ; Wiv. Ill, 5, 93 ; Hml. Ill, 3, 36 ; Tw. II, 5, 136. 4. Luxuriant ; gross. HV. V, 2, 45 ; Hml. Ill, 4, 152 ; Lr. IV, 4, 3. The passage in As. IV, 1, 85, I should think my honesty ranker than my wit, has puzzled the coms. Schm> defines rau/cer here as "greater;" this seems to me the very opposite of what is meant. Collier's MS. Corrector changes to " I should thank my honesty rather than my wit," a reading which White says has found some favor, but which Dyce condemns. Furness, after quoting these three, leaves the matter where he finds it. It seems to me that the meaning is not far to seek. Rank here has the sense of strongly offensive ; rancid ; and Cotgrave has "Ranci: Mustie, fustie, reasie, restie, tainted, stale, putrified, wafted, stinking, unsauorie, ill-smell- ing." Rosalind evidently means that RAN 252 RATI she would think her honesty more tainted than her wit. The line 0th. II, 1, 315, which in the g. a. text, reads : Abuse him, to the Moor in the rank garb (the reading of the Quartos), is right garb in the Folios. Rank is defined by Malone as " lascivi- ous " ; Steevens, "grossly, i.e., without mincing the matter"; Rolfe, "in the coarsest fashion. " Furness thinks that the reading of the Folio is the true one : " lago's plans are not yet settled, all is ' but yet confused, ' details will depend on circumstances as they arise ; the main point is to get Cassio on the hip and then abuse him to the Moor in the right garb, in the best fashion, what- ever that fashion maybe." For garb = fashion, see Lr. II, 2, 104, and Hml. II, 2, 390. ransom, v. 1. To redeem. Err. I, 1, 23; Cym. V, 5, 85. 2. To release for ransom. LLL. I, 2, 64 ; Cor. I, 6, 36. rap. To transport with emotion. Cym. I, 6, 51 ; Cor. IV, 5, 122 ; Mcb. I, 3, 57 ; Tim. V, 1, 67. rapture. 1. A fit; a passion. Cor. II, 1, 235. 2. A violent seizure. Per. II, 1, 161. rarely. Early. Sometimes spelt rearly. Kins. IV, 1, 110. rascal. A deer lean and out of season. As. Ill, 3, 58. " Certain animals, not accounted as beasts of chace, were so termed * * * the hart, until he was six years old, was accounted rascayle.''^ Way. After- wards applied to men. rascaUlike. Like lean and worthless deer. IHVI. IV, 2, 49. rash. To strike as does a boar with his fangs, Percy, in the glossary to the ' ' Re- liques of Ancient English Poetry," says : " Rashing seems to be the old hunting term to express the stroke made by the wild boar with his fangs." It occurs in some eds. of Sh. in Lr. Ill, 7, 58 {sticks In the Fl.) ; RIII. Ill, 2, 11. (Generally rased.) rat. A well-known animal with whifh many superstitions are connected. Thus, in Tp. I, 2, 147, Prospero says of the old hulk aboard which he was placed that the very rats instinctively had quit it. This is a universal superstition amongst sailors. So, too, with houses ; rats are said to forsake a house that is in danger of falling. These ideas may have arisen from the fact that rats are quite sensitive to any unusual motion indicating weakness in a structure. Rats are also known to migrate in large numbers from one barnyard to another, and even from one part of a country to another. The same is true of squirrels. That they have a motive for this, the reason of which we may not be able to see, is beyond question. The supply of food and drink are probably great incentives to such migrations. A story is told of a cunning Welsh captain who wanted to get rid of rats that infested his ship, then lying in the Mersey at Liverpool. Having found out that there was a vessel laden with cheese in the basin, and getting alongside of her about dusk, he left all his hatches open and waited till all the rats were in his neighbor's ship and then moved off. See tail and verses. Ratcliff, Sir Richard, dr.p. RIII. He was the " rat " of CoUingbourne's rhyme (see Catesby) and was such a cruel, bloodthirsty wretch that he was called "the jackall" of Richard. He shared his master's fate at the battle of Bos worth. rat=catcher. A cat; a pun on Tybalt's name. Rom. Ill, 1, 78. See Tybalt and Prwice of Cats. rate, n. Estimate. Tp. I, 2, 92 ; II, 1, 109 ; Mids. Ill, 1, 157. In the latter passage it probably means rank or worth. rate, V. 1. To apportion. Ant. Ill, 6, 25. 2. To equal in value. Ant. Ill, 11, 69. ratolorum. Slender's blunder for rotu- lorum. Wiv. I, 1, 8. raught. Reached; an old form of the past tense and participle of the verb to reach. LLL. IV, 2, 41 ; HV. IV, 6, 21 ; 3HVL I, 4, 68 ; Ant. IV, 9, 30. RAV 253 RED ravel. To unravel. RII. IV, 1, 228; Hml. Ill, 4, 186. ravined. Gorged with prey. Mcb. IV, I , 24. Mason thought that it meant the opposite, starved, but the word seems to have been used by writers of that period in the sense that we have given. ravish'd. Snatched from. Kins. II, 2, 22. raw^ly. Without due preparation and provision. HV. IV, 1, 147. rawness. Unprepared and unprovided condition. Mcb. IV, 3, 26. rayed. 1. Defiled; dirtied. Shr. IV, 1,3. 2. Afflicted; sick, Shr. Ill, 2, 54. raze, n. A root or, perhaps, a package. IHIV. II, 1, 27. razed. Slashed or streaked in patterns. Hml. Ill, 2, 293. reach. Par sightedness. We of wisdoin and of reach = we who are endowed with wisdom and reach. Hml. II, 1, 64. cf. We of taste and feeling. LLL. IV, 2, 30. rear=niouse. See rere-mouse. rearward. The last troop; the rearguard. IHVI. Ill, 3, 33. Figuratively in Sonn. XC, 6; Rom. 111,2, 121. reason. 1. To converse; to talk. Merch. II, 8, 27 ; John IV, 3, 29 ; RIII. IV, 4, 537. 2. To argue ; to debate. HV. V, 2, 165; Lr. V, 1, 28. rebate. To blunt; to take off the edge. Meas. I, 4, 60. rebeck. A three-stringed fiddle. Used as a name in Rom. IV, 5, 135. recheat. " A recall or retreat ; from the old French recept or recet. A. hunting term for a certain set of notes sounded on the horn to call the dogs off. In Ado. I, 1, 243, the meaning is : "I will supply horns for such a purpose " (Nares), i.e., for sounding a recheat, alluding, of course, to the threadbare joke of the cuckold's horns. For a full discussion of recheat, see Furness's "New Variorum," Ado. p. 32. receipt. 1. The thing received; money. • RII. I, 1,126; Cor. I, 1, 116. 2. Capacity; power of receiving. Sonn. CXXXVI, 7. 3. Receptacle ; a place for receiving and containing anything. HVIII. II, 2, 139 ; Mcb. I, 7, 66. receive. 1. To accept (intellectually) ; to acknowledge ; to believe. Gent. V, 4, 78; Meas. I, 3, 16; Tw. Ill, 4, 212; Mcb. I, 7, 74. 2. To understand. Meas. II, 4, 82 ; re- ceiving = capacity or understanding. Tw. Ill, 1, 131. reck. To heed ; to care ; to mind. Ven. 283; As. II, 4, 81 ; Hml. I, 3, 51 ; Cym. IV, 2, 154. record. 1. To witness. Tit. I, 1, 255; Tim. IV, 2, 4. 2. To sing. Gent. V, 4, 6 ; Per. IV, Prol. 27. recordation. Remembrance. 2HIV. II, 3, 61; Troil. V, 2, 116. In the latter instance, perhaps = recall to mind. recorder. A kind of flute or flageolet. Mids. V, 1, 123; Hml. Ill, 2, 303. recourse. Frequent flowing. Troil. V, 3, 55. The word is evidently used here in its radical or etymological sense. recover the wind. To get the windward of the game so that it may not scent the hunter and thus prevent him from approaching it and driving it into the toil. Hml. Ill, 2, 368. recure. To restore to health ; to heal. Ven. 465 ; Sonn. XLV, 9 ; RIII. Ill, 7, 130. cf. unrecuring. rede. Advice ; counsel. Hml. I, 3, 51. This word is still in use in Scotland. Compare the closing lines of Burns's " Epistle to a Young Fi'iend " : And may ye better reck the rede Than ever did th' adviser ! red=Iattice. It is said that a lattice window painted red was formerly a common distinction of an alehouse; hence, red-lattice phrases = alehouse talk. 2HIV. II, 2, 86. Other colors seem also to have been used, as appeal's from the following note by Gifford on the Green Xa^h'ce mentioned in Jonson's Every Man in His Humour : " In our author's time the windows of alehouses were furnished with lattices of various colors (glass, probably, was too oostlj RED 354 REG and too brittle for the kind of guests which frequented them). Thus we hear of the red, the blue and in this place of the G-reen Lattices. 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." May not different alehouses have been dis- tinguished by different colors, and may not the "Red Lattice" have had the reputation of being low ? red plague. According to Steevens = the erysipelas ; Dr. Krautt believes it to be the leprosy. In the ' ' General Practise of Physicke " (1605), p. 675, three different kinds of the plague-sore are mentioned — 'sometimes it is red, other whiles yellow, and sometimes blacke, which is the very worst and most venimous.' " Halliwell. Tp. I, 2, 364; Troil. II, 1, 20; Cor. IV, 1, 13. reduce. 1. To bring back; HV. V, 2, 63 ; RIII. V, 5, 86. 2. To bring ; to convey. RIII. II, 2, 68. tn all these instances the word bears the etymological meaning. reed, n. Any tall, broad-leaved grass growing on the margins of streams or other wet places. The common reed was extensively used for thatching buildings, and the dripping rain falling from the eaves furnishes a striking simile in Tp. V, 1, 17. Musical pipes were also made of the hollow stems of reeds ; hence, simile in Merch. Ill, 4, 67. See eaves and eaves- dropper. reed, adj. Piping. Merch. Ill, 4, 67. See reed, n. re=edify. To rebuild. RIII. Ill, 1, 71. This is the radical or etymological meaning of the word. reek, n. Smoke ; vapor. Wiv. Ill, 3, 86 ; Cor. Ill, 3, 121. The word reek (both as noun and verb) is still used in Scot- land. The city of Edinburgh is known as " A aid Reeky " from the great quantity of smoke produced by the com- bustion of bituminous coal. reek, v. To emit smoke or vapor ; to per- spire. Ven. 555; LLL. IV, 3, 140; HVIII. II, 4, 308 ; Lr. II, 4, 30. reeky. Smoky ; squalid ; stinking. Rom. IV, 1, 83 ; Ado. Ill, 3, 143. reeling ripe. See ripe. refel. To refute. Meas. V, 1, 94. refer, v. refl. 1 . To appeal. Wint. Ill, 2, 116; 0th. 1,2,64. 2. To have recourse to. Meas. Ill, 1, 255. 3. To devote one's self to ; to give one's self up. Cym. I, 1, 6. Regan, cZr.p. Daughter to King Lear. Lr. regiment. G-overnment; sway. Ant. Ill, 6, 95. region. 1. A tract of country ; a neigh- bourhood ; a locality. IHVL II, 1, 9 ; Cor. IV, 6, 103 ; Lr. I, 1, 147. 2. Place; rank; station; dignity. Wiv. Ill, 2, 75 ; Cym. V, 4, 93. The word, as it occurs in Hml. II, 2, 509, is thus explained by the " Clarendon Press " ed. : "Originally, a division of the sky marked out by the Roman augurs. In later times the atmosphere was divided into three regions — upper, middle and lower. " And this meaning has been generally given to the word in this passage, as also in line 509 of same act and scene, and in Rom. II, 2, 21. But the usual meaning, viz., a locality, a tract, seems to fit all these cases. The "region kites" may mean simply the kites of that neighborhood ; Hamlet cer- tainly does not mean all the kites that frequent the upper regions of the whole atmosphere. So, too, in Rom. II, 2, 21 ; the very expression "airy region" shows that region did not specially de- note the air in Sh. mind. Reignier (Renee), dr.p. Duke of Anjou. IHVI. regreet, n. Salutation ; greeting. Merch. II, 9, 89 ; John III, 1, 241. regreet, v. 1. To greet again; to re- salute. RII. I, 3, 142. 2. To greet ; to salute. RII. I, 3, 67. reguerdon, n. Reward ; requital. IHVI. III, 1, 170. reguerdon, v. To reward. IHVI. Ill, 4, 23. I REJ 255 REN rejourn. To adjourn. Cor. II, 1, 80. relative. Applicable ; pertinent ; conclu- sive. Hml. II, 2, 633. Synions truly observes that the best comment which has been made on these lines is to be found in Mr. Irving's acting. This is described by Marshall, in his " Study of Hamlet," as follows : " He takes his tablets out of his pocket before speaking the words — I'll have grounds More relative than this. The precise meaning of the word ' this ' and what it refers to, never seemed very clear ; but this action explains it. lir the first act, after the Ghost has left him, it will be remembered that Hamlet has written down in his tablets that Claudius was a villain. These same tablets he holds now in his hand; in them he is going to put down some ideas for the speech which he intends to in- troduce into the play to be performed before Claudius with the object of making his occulted guilt * * * itself unkennel. Can there be any more natural action than this, that he should touch those tablets with the other hand while he says: I'll have grounds More relative than this, i.e., 'than this record of my uncle's guilt which I made after the interview with my father's spirit.' " relume. To light again. 0th. V, 2, 13. remainders. In the passage Cym. 1, 1, 129, it is obvious that by good remainders Posthumus means those that are to abide at the court. Evans thinks that there is a touch of irony here, and points it out thus : " Posthumus prays for a blessing on the good people left at court when it was relieved of the burden of his un- worthiness." Surely this is a mistake. Imogen, his wife whom he worshipped, was there. Did he throw his ironical slurs at her ? There was no thought of irony or of his own unworthiness, as Schm. suggests, but an expression of feeling for the loved ones he was com- pelled to leave. remediate. Medicinal ; able to furnish a remedy. Lr. IV, 4, 17. remember. To remind. Sonn. CXX, 9 ; Wint. Ill, 3, 231 ; IHIV. V, 1, 32 ; Lr. 1, 4, 72. cf. learn. remorse. Pity. Meas. II, 2, 54 ; Hml. II, 2, 513 ; Lr. IV, 2, 73. This word, as it occurs in 0th. Ill, 3, 468, And to obey shall be in me remorse, is not easily explained, and it has been suggested that the passage is probably corrupt. In the same act and scene, line 369, the word remorse would seem to mean conscience rather than pity, and it may have the same meaning here. remorseful. Tender-hearted ; compassion- ate. Gent. IV, 3, 13 ; 2HVI. IV, 1, 1 ; RIII. I, 2, 156. remotion. Removal ; keeping aloof ; non- appearance. Tim. IV, 3, 346 ; Lr. II, 4, 115. remove, n. A post stage. All's. V, 3, 131. removed. 1. Remote ; sequestered. Meas. 1, 3, 8 ; As. Ill, 2, 360 ; Hml. I, 4, 61. 2. The passage in As. V, 4, 71, a lie seven times removed, is explained by Schm. as "seven steps in the scale of grada- tion." Perhaps, however, the word is here used in its radical sense and means simply, repeated — re-moved, each time becoming more offensive than the pre- ceding. For a full discussion of the whole passage, see the "New Variorum " of Furness. As it occurs in IHIV. IV, 1, 35 : On any soul rem,oved but on his own, Johnson explains as : " On any less near to himself ; on any whose interest is remote. ' ' render. Statement ; account. Cym. IV, 4,11. renege. To renounce ; to deny. Lr. II, 2, 84 ; Ant. I, 1, 8. Still in use in this country as a term in card-playing. renown. Goodness; praiseworthy quality. Cym. V, 5, 203. rent. To rend ; to tear. Mids. Ill, 2, 215. renying. Denying ; disowning ; becoming a renegade. Pilgr. 250. EEP 256 RET repair. To comfort. All's. I, 2, 30. repasture. Food. LLL. IV, 1, 96. A sense somewhat similar to repast^ i.e., a meal. repeal, n. Recall from exile. Gent. Ill, 1, 234 ; Cor. IV, 1, 41. repeal, v. To recall from exile. Gent. V, 4, 143 ; RII. II, 2, 49. replenished. Consummate. Wint. II, 1, 78 ; RIII. IV, 3, 18. replication. 1. Echo; reverberation. Caes. I, 1, 50. 2. Answer. Hml. IV, 2, 13. report. Reputation. Cym. Ill, 3, 57. reportingly. On hearsay. Ado. Ill, 1, 116. reprisal. Prize. IHIV. IV, 1, 118. reprobation. Perdition. 0th. V, 2, 209. In some eds. the word here is rei^ro- bance. q.v. reprobance. Perdition ; damnation. 0th. V, 2, 209. reproof. 1. Refutation. IHIV. I, 2, 213. Troll. I, 3, 33 ; Cor. II, 2, 37. 2. Contradiction. HV. IV, 1, 216; Per. I, 2, 42. 3. Check ; reprimand. As. V, 4, 82. repugn. To oppose ; to resist. IHVI. IV, 1, 94. repugnancy. Opposition. Tim. Ill, 5, 46. requiem. Mass for the dead, so called because it begins with the words, ' ' Re- quiem eternam dona eis, Domine." Hml. V, 1, 260. rere=mouse. A bat. (Plural, rere-mice). Mids. II, 2, 4. The word is a form of the Anglo- saxon hrere-mus, hrere being from hrer-an, to stir, to agitate. The name corresponds to the old word flitter- TYioiise, which is used by Jonson in the Alchemist, V, 2 : My fine flitter-mouse. My bird o' the night. Schm. gives rear-nioiise as the correct mode of spelling, but this is decidedly wrong. reserved. As it occurs in Cym. I, 1, 87, Johnson explains the expression thus : "I say I do not fear my father, so far as I may say it without breach of duty. ' ' resolutes. Desperadoes. Hml. I, 1, 98. respect, n. 1. Deliberation; reflection. Lucr. 275; LLL. V, 2, 792; John IV, 2, 214. 2. Reason ; consideration. Ado. II, 3, 176 ; RIII. Ill, 7, 175 ; Hml. Ill, 1, 68. The passage in Merch. V, 1, 99, No- thing is good, I see, ivithout 7^espect, evidently means that the good or bad qualities of things depend upon circum- stances. respect, v. Misapplied by Elbow and Pompey instead of suspect. Meas. II, 1, 169; do. 176, 177, 183, 184. respective. 1. Caring for; regardful. Merch. V, 1, 156 ; Rom. Ill, 1, 128. 2. Worthy of being cared for. Gent. IV, 4, 200. respectively. Respectfully. Tim. Ill, 1, 8. responsive. Correspondent : suited. Hml. V, 2, 1.59. 'rest. To arrest. Err. IV, 2, 42. rest. "To set up one's rest," meaning that the speaker is perfectly determined on 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 particular game, as is sometimes done, is extremely incorrect." Gifford's note in "Massinger's Works. " The expression occurs quite frequently in Sh. Lr. I, 1, 125 ; Merch. II, 2, 110. The metaphor is generally said to be taken from the play of primero, a game at cards. Dowden, in a note on Rom. IV, 5, 6, says : " As I understand it, the stake was a smaller sum, the rest a larger sum, which if a player were con- fident (or desperate) might all be set or set up, that is, be wagered. In the game of primero, played in dialogue, in the ' Dialogues ' (p. 26) appended to Minsheu's 'Spanish Dictionary.' 'two shillings form the stake, eight shillings the rest.' Florio explains the Italian restare, ' to set up one's rest, to make a rest, or play upon one's rest at pri- mero. ' ' ' resty. Lazy ; slothful. Cym. Ill, 6, 34. retail. To tell ; to hand down. 2HIV. I, 1, 32 ; RIII. Ill, 1, 77 ; IV, 4, 335. RET 257 UKt retire, n. 1. Retreat. IHIV. II, 3, 54; Cor. 1,6,8; Cym. V, 3, 40. 2. Return. Lucr. 573 ; John II, 1, 258. retire, v. 1. To return. Ven. 906 ; Troil. I, 8, 281. 2. To answer. Troil. I, 8, 54. 3. To withdraw. RII. II, 2, 46. reverb. To echo ; to resound. Lr. I, 1, 156. reverence. This word, as used by Sh., has in general the~ usual signification, viz., respect and veneration. In some cases, as in HV. 1, 2, 20, it is used towards church dignitaries much as the word "worship " is used towards judges, etc. — a sort of title of honor. As it occurs in As. I, 1, 54, it has called forth a long note in most annotated editions. Thus, after quoting the passage, Warburton remarks as follows: "This is sense, indeed, and may be thus understood — The reverence due to my father is, in some degree, derived to you, as the first-born — but I am persuaded that Orlando did not here mean to compli- ment his brother, or condemn himself ; something of which there is in that sense. I rather think he intended a satirical reflection on his brother, who by letting him feed with his hinds, treated him as one not so nearly related to old Sir Robert * as himself was. I imagine, therefore, Shakespear might write, — albeit your coming before Tne is nearer to his Revenue, i.e., though you are no nearer in blood, yet it must be owned, indeed, you are nearer in estate." There was no irony here; it was all sober earnest, and Orlando spoke strictly according to the facts as they were recognised in England. The eldest son inherited the title and honors and these carried the revenues, so that Warbur- ton's alteration is no improvement. Caldecott's explanation is evidently the true one. He makes nearer to his * A strange mistake, seeing that the true name, Sir Rowland, occurs only five lines lower down. Warburton prob- ably had old Sir Robert Faulconbridge In his mind. reverence = "more closely and directly the representative of his honours ; the head of the family, and thence entitled to a larger proportion of derivative respect ; so Prince Henry to his father : My due from thee is this imperial crown. Which, as immediate from thy place and blood. Derives itself to me. 2HIV. IV, 5, 41, e^seg." In regard to Oliver's sudden outburst of violence, Furness says; "It is evi- dently the irony in the tone, whatever - the word, which inflames Oliver. " But surely no irony was needed. It was Orlando's direct and bitter upbraidings (no irony about them) that excited Oliver into the attempt to lay violent hands on his brother. revolt. A deserter. John V, 2, 151 ; V, 4, 7 ; Cym. IV, 4, 6. Reynaldo, fZr.jj. Servant to Polonius. Hml. rheum. 1. Tears. Ado. V, 2, 85 ; Hml. II, 2, 529. 2. Saliva. Merch. I, 3, 118. 3. Rheumatism. Meas. Ill, 1, 31. This is the usual explanation, but it is possibly wrong. See rheumatic. rlieumatic. Malone (Variorum ed., Vol. V, p. 216) says: "Rheumatic diseases signified in Sh. time not what we now call rheumatism, but distillations from the head, catarrhs, etc. ' ' In the Sydney " Memorials " it is said of the health of Sir Henry Sydney that ' ' He hath verie much distemporid divers parts of his bodie ; as, namelie, his hedde, his stomack, etc. And thereby is alvvaj-s subject to distillacions, coughes and other rumatick diseases." And in Hol- land's " Translation of Plinj'^'s Natural History," bk. XIX, cap. 23, occurs: " And these are supposed to be singular for thoses fluxes and catarrhes which take a course to the belly and breed fluxes called by the Greeks Rheu- matisms.'''' Mids. II, 1, 105. The accent is on the first syllable, as in Ven. 135 : O'erworn, despised, rheumatic and cold. The word is used blunderingly by Mrs. RHE S58 EIC Quickly in HV. II, 3, 40. It is not very clear what word she meant to use ; lunatic and fanatic have been sug- gested ; perhaps erratic. Rhesus. A son of King Eioneus in Thrace and an ally of the Trojans in their war with the Greeks. He possessed horses white as snow and swift as the wind, which were carried off by night by Ulysses and Dioniedes, the latter of whom murdered Rhesus himself in his sleep. 3HVI. IV, 2, 20. Rhodope. A famous Greek courtezan of Thracian origin. Her name signifies "the rosy-cheeked," and she was a fellow slave with -^sop, the poet, both of them belonging to ladmon, a Samian. She afterwards became the property of Xanthes, another Samian, who carried her to Naucratis, in Egypt, in the reign of Amasis, and at this great seaport, the Alexandria of ancient times, she carried on the trade of an hetsera for the benefit of her master, Charaxus, the brother of Sappho, having come to Naucratis in the way of business, fell desperately in love with her and ran- somed her from slavery. She continued to live at Naucratis after she obtained her freedom and, pursuing her old occupation, amassed so much wealth that it is said that she was able to build the third pyramid. It is to this that allusion is made in IHVI. I, 6, 22. Herodotus tries to prove that there was no truth in this story, and it is claimed that the third pyramid was built by Nitocris, an Egyptian queen, famous for her beauty. On the other hand, it is claimed that Rhodope and Nitocris are the same, and the following account of the way in which she became queen is given : As Rhodope was one day bathing at Naucratis, an eagle took up one of her sandals, fiew away with it, and dropped it in the lap of the Egyptian king, as he was administering justice at Memphis. Struck by the strange oc- currence and the beauty of the sandal, he did not rest until he had found out the fair owner, and as soon as he had discovered her he made her his queen, ^lian calls the king " Psammitichus, " but the accuracy of this is doubtful. The passage in IHIV. I, 6, 22, reads Then Rhodophe''s or Memphis ever was in the Fl. Capell suggested that or was a misprint for of, which it un- doubtedly is, and this emendation was adopted by Dyce and is now usually found in the g. a. text. rhymed. See rat and verses. Rialto. The meaning of this name is thus given by Florio in his "Italian Dictionary " : " As it were, Rivo Alto, a high shore. * * * An eminent place in Venice where Marchants commonly meet." The name Rialto was applied to three different objects : A large island on which the Exchange was built ; the Exchange itself, and the bridge which connected the island with St. Mark's Quarter. Sh. always refers to the Exchange. Coryat, in his " Crud- ities " (1611), thu s describes the building : "The Rialto, which is at the furthest side of the bridge as you come from St. Mark's, is a most stately building, being the Exchange of Venice, where the Venetian gentlemen and the merchants doe meete twice a day, betwixt eleuen and twelue of the clocke in the morning, and betwixt fine 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 before mentioned, and hath a prety quadrangular court adioyning to it. But it is inferior to our Exchange in London, though indeede there is a farre greater quantity of building in this then in ours." Merch. I, 3, 20. rib, i;. To enclose and protect from injury. Merch. II, 7, 51 ; Cym. Ill, 1, 19. ribaudred. Lewd ; ribald. Ant. Ill, 8, 20. Richard, dr.2J. Afterwards Duke of Gloucester and Richard III. 3HVL and RIII. Various attempts have been made to show that Richard was not the monster that he is generally represented in RIC 259 HIM history, but without success. Walpole, in his " Historic Doubts," was amongst the first. The consensus of opinion now is, that instead of representing him in the play as blacker than he was, Sh. has really done him more than justice. Richard, dr.p. Son to Plantagenet, Duke of York. 2HVI. Richard Coeur=de=llon. The passage (John I, 1, 267), Nor keep his princely heart from Richard'' s hand, alludes to a story told in the old metrical romance of "Richard Coeur de Lyon," a very full account of which will be found in the Introduction to the Third Series in Percy's " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry." In this romance we are told that Richard, on his return from the Holy Land, having been discovered in the habit of "a palmer in Almaye," was seized as a spy and thrown into prison. Wardrewe, the king's son, hearing of Richard's great strength, desires the jailor to let him have a sight of his prisoners. Richard being the foremost, Wardrewe asks him "if he dare stand a buffet fi'om his hand?" and that on the morrow he shall return him another. Richard consents and re- ceives a blow that staggers him. On the morrow, having previously waxed his hands, he waits his antagonist's arrival. Wardrewe "held forth as a trewe man" and Richard gave him a blow that broke his jaw-bone, and killed him on the spot. The king, to revenge the death of his son, orders, by the advice of one Eldrede, that a lion, kept purposely from food, shall be turned loose upon Richard. But the king's daughter, having fallen in love with him, she not only told him of the plot, but furnished him with forty ells of white silk " kever-chefes " ; these " aboute his arme he wonde," and when the lion attacked him he thrust his arm, thus pi'otected, down the lion's throat "And rente out the herte with his honde Lounge and all that he there fonde, The lyon fell deed to the grounded: Richard felte no wem," i.e., wound or hurt. Rastell, in his " Chronicle," makes mention of this memorable feat, but adds : " 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." The reference to Great Coeur-de- lion's heart in IHVI. Ill, 2, 83, is to Holinshed's account of Richard's last directions as to the disposal of his body after death, which is as follows: " Fi- nallie remembring himselfe also of the place of his buriall, he commanded that his bodie should be interred at Fonteu- vard at his father's feet, but he willed his heart to be conueied vnto Rouen, and there buried in testiinonie of the loue which he had ever found in the citizens there. His bowels he or- deined to be buried in Poictiers, as in a place naturallie vnthankefull and not worthie to reteine any of the more honorable parts of his body." It is said that in accordance with the above directions the heart of Richard was buried in Rouen Cathedral, and is now in the museum of that town. For an account of the death of Richard, see Lymoges, Richmond, Henry Tudor, Earl of, dr.p. Afterwards Henry VII. 3HVI. and RIII. rid. To destroy. Tp. I, 2, 364; RIL V, 4, 11 ; 3HVI. V, 5, 67. riggish. Wanton ; lewd. Ant. II, 2, 245. right, n. Satisfaction. Do me right (All's. V, 1, 149) = meet me in combat. Same expression in 2HIV. V, 3, 77 = pledge me in drink. right, adj. True; exact; downright. Mids. Ill, 2, 302 ; As. Ill, 2, 103 ; also 127 and 290. rigol. A circle. Lucr. 1745; 2HIV. 5, 36. rim. Some part of the abdomen not very well defined. HV. IV, 4, 15. "The original reading [the Fl.] is rymme, which Capell, judging from the main object of the speaker, boldly RIN 260 »IV pronounced to signify money; others have wished to read ryno, but that term is probably not of such antiquity, and the conjecture supposes the original word to be rym, which it is not. Pistol, with a very vague notion of the anatom- ical -meaning of rymme, seems to use it in a general way for any part of the intestines; his object being to terrify his prisoner. The slender rimme too weak to part The boyling liver from the heart. Gorge''s Lucan. In the latter passage it seems more like the diaphragm, as Mr. Steevens inter- prets it, but it is not properly so. Nares. ring. See cracked and rush. ringlets. The curious rings which are frequently seen in pastures and on hill- sides were supposed to be caused by the fairies. They are of two kinds, one in which the grass is of a brighter green than elsewhere, and which were supposed to be kept in good condition by being watered and tended by these strange beings. Mids. II, 1, 9, and Wiv. V, 5, 72. In the others the grass is poor and the ground almost bare. In these the grass was supposed to be injured by the dancing of the bad fairies. The refer- ences to these rings or ringlets in the older literature are quite numerous. In addition to those already quoted from Sh., see Tp. V, 1, 37; Mids. II, 1, 86 ; Mcb. IV, 1, 42. Drayton thus refers to them in his "Nymphidia " : And in their courses make that round In meadows and in marshes found, Of them so called the f ayrie ground Of which they have the keeping. Douce, in his note on Mids. II, 1, 9, says : ' 'When the damsels of old gathered the May dew on the gi'ass, and which they made use of to improve their com- plexions, they left undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy rings ; apprehensive that the fairies should, in revenge, destroy their beauty. Nor was it reckoned safe to put the foot within the rings lest they should be liable to the faii'ies' power." The cause of these rings was for a long time a mystery, but it is now generally believed that they are due to the growth of a species of fungus which spreads from a centre, gradually dying down and enriching the soil as it decays, fungi being, as is well known, very rich in nitrogen. While the fungus is grow- ing, it crowds out the grass and causes an appearance of barrenness ; after it dies out or becomes dormant the grass springs up with renewed vigor. Mar- shall says that he has examined many of these fairy rings, but never could find any trace of the fungi. I think I ha\ e seen it stated that they are microscopic. ring time. In some eds. these words are hyphenated, but in the Cambridge Sh. and most others, as well as in the Edin- burgh MS., they are given as two words. In the Folios the word is rang time; Johnson suggested rank tiine, and Steevens conjectured ring thne, i. e. , " the aptest season for marriage. " Douce notes that ' ' in confirmation of Mr. Steevens's reading, it appears from the old calenders that the spring was the season of marriage." Steevens's con- jecture was confirmed by the finding of an old MS. which, as Knight says, " cannot have been written later than sixteen years after the publication of the present play," i.e.. As You Like It. The meaning given by Steevens and Douce is, no doubt, the true one, though Schm. gives an explanation slightly different. As. V, 3, 20. See rye. ripe. Mature; brought to completion. Thus reeling ripe (Tp. V, 1, 279) = ready to reel or stagger; in this case from drunkenness. Also, in LLL. V, 2, 274, weejnng-rijDC = ready to weep. So, too, in Err. I, 1, 78, sinking-ripe = ready to sink. In Chapman's May Day we find rope-ripe, i.e., ready for hanging. Ripe, of itself, does not mean drunk, though we have seen it so defined. rivage! The shore. HV. Ill, Chor. 14. rival. An associate ; a companion ; a partner. Mids. Ill, 2, 156 ; Hml. 1, 1, 13. This word, which now means a com- RIV 261 ROB petitor or antagonist, is derived from rival is, one who uses the same brook as another, a neighbour. Even in Sh. time it was beginning to change its meaning. Thus one of Cotgrave's de- finitions is: "A competitor in loue," and it is used in this sense in several passages. Mids. Ill, 2, 155 ; Lr. I, 1, 47. c/. rivality. rivality. Co-partnership ; equality. Ant. Ill, 5, 8. rive. To discharge ; to flre. IHVI. IV, 2, 29. rivelled. Corrugated ; wrinkled. Troil. V, 1, 26. Rivers, Earl, dr.p. Antony Woodville, brother to Lady Grey. 3HVI. andRIII. The name of Antony Woodville will be known as long as men give any attention to the history of English letters. He was one of the most learned men of his age and was the patron of Caxton, who, under his auspices, pro- duced the first book printed in England. He was also the translator of the second book printed by Caxton, viz., "The Dictes and Sayeings of the Philosophers translated out of French by Antone Erl Ryuyers." This was published in folio in 1477. rivo. A word of doubtful meaning ; a bacchanalian exclamation. IHIV. II, 4, 126. road. 1. A roadstead; a place where ships may ride at anchor in safety. Merch. I, 1, 19 ; Sh. II, 1, 377. 2. A journey ; a stage. HVIII. IV, 2, 17. 3. An inroad ; a foray. H V. I, 2, 138 ; Cor. Ill, 1, 5. Probably a variant of raid. In 2HIV. II, 2, 183, Doll Tearsheet is said to be a common road, evidently meaning that she was easily accessible. As an instance of emendation run mad we find the reading Doll Tearstreet suggested. roast. The passage, 2HVI. I, 1, 109, in the g. a. text reads, 7nde the roast. In all the Folios the word is rost, and some doubt has been expressed as to whether rost should be rendered roast or roost. i.e., whether the reference is to the master who sits at the head of the table and rules the feast or to some one who is "cock of the walk," i.e., master of the hens that roost with him. It has also been suggested that it is the word roust, "the turbulent part of a channel or firth occasioned by the meeting of rapid tides," but how this could be ruled is not easily seen. Another suggestion is that it is roadst or council. This would be most appropriate provided any authority could be produced for the word roadst. rob. To plunder. In 0th. I, 1, 87, the expression: ''Zo%inds,sir, you''rerohh''d; for shame, 2Jut on your goivn, as it is found in the g. a. text, reads, Sir, y''are ro6'd, for shame put on your Gowne, in the Fl. * As found in the Fl. there seems to be a pun upon "robb'd" and "rob'd," which is lost in the modern reading. The admonition — init on your Gowne, lends force to this. Theobald thinks that goivn does not mean a nightgown, but his senatorial gown. cf. toga. This would be as much as to say : Put on your senatorial dignity and powers. In a note communicated to Dr. Fur- ness by the late Edwin Booth we are told that "Brabantio should be seen through the open window at his books or papers ; this would account for his appearance, instead of his servants, at this ' terrible summons. ' lago should keep in shadow during this." It must seem desperately presumptuous for a mere amateur like myself to differ from two such high authorities, but surely they are not sustained by the context. Brabantio could not read his books and papers without a light, and yet the first thing he does after he realises the situation, is to ask for a taper. Why should he order the serv- * The " Cambridge Shakespeare," which professes to give all important vari- orum readings, reads "robb'd" and makes no note of the readiiig of the Fl. £0B HOE ants to "strike on the tinder" if be already had a lamp burning ? And if he sat reading at his papers, he would have been dressed and lago's joke about "robbing" and " robing " would have fallen flat. I have no doubt that Sh. intended to have Brabantio in bed when Roderigo and lago roused him. See rouse and tinder. Robert Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, dr.p. John. Robert Faulconbridge, dr.p. Lawful son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge. John. Robin, dr.p. Page to Sir John Falstaff. Wiv. Robin Goodfellow, dr.p. A fairy. Mids. See Puck. Robin Hood. See Hood, Robin. robin = redbreast. A bird well known in Europe, but not an inhabitant of America, our robin not being a robin at all, but a thrush — the Turdus tnigra- torius or migratory thrush. The English robin is known to ornithologists as the Erithacus rubecula. It is not quite as large as the English sparrow, being about 53^ inches long and 9 inches in extent of wing, while the sparrow is 6 inches long and 9^ inches in extent of wing. It has an olive-brown back and a red breast, the color of the latter being much brighter than that of our American robin. It is so great a favorite "with all classes in Great Britain that it is looked upon as almost sacred, so that amongst the common people it is con- sidered almost a crime to kill one. On the continent, however, it is regarded as a great delicacy for the table and is caught in enormous numbers by pro- fessional birdcatchers. It is a migratory bird, and on the approach of winter presses in myriads towards the south, although a certain number always re- main in their old haunts, so that in the coldest winter they may be seen even in Scotland, where they approach the houses and become quite familiar. It is curious that this favorite bird is men- tioned only three times in Sh. : Gent. II, 1, 21 ; IHIV. Ill, 1, 265, and Cym. IV, 2, 234, where it is called the "rud- dock " ("Raddocke" in Fl). In the latter passage allusion is made to that common belief which is embodied in the ballad of The Babes in the Wood, and which holds that the ruddock or red- breast always covers with leaves or moss any dead body that it may find exposed. In the passage in IHIV. Ill, 1, 265, referring to a redbreast teacher, a teacher or trainer of singing birds is undoubtedly meant. On this point, however, Marshall ("The Henry Irving Shakespeare") says: "Bullfinches are commonly taught to pipe ; redbreasts rarely. We might have supposed the bullfinch to be the bird here meant, but robin redbreast is not, so far as I know, a name given to that bird." It may be well to note here that the English names given to American plants and animals are often misleading to American readers. When the first English colonists landed here they saw a bird which appeared to resemble the robin of their old home, much larger in size, it is true, but with a reddish breast, and so they gave it the name of ' ' robin. ' ' The grouse they called a pheasant, and a bird half way between a partridge and a quail they sometimes called quail and sometimes partridge. Other names were misapplied, and if we wish to know with any approach to accuracy just w^hich plant, bird, beast or fish is meant, the only way is to use the scientific name. robustious. Rough ; stout ; sturdy. Hml. Ill, 2, 10 ; HV. Ill, 7, 159. rocked. Shook ; trembled. Lucr. 262. Roderigo, dr.p. A Venetian gentleman. 0th. roe. This word, as used by Mercutio, Rom. II, 4, 41, has afforded some fun if nothing else. Benvolio. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mercutio. Without his roe, like a dried herring. Here roe can scarcely mean anything BOO 263 EOS else tliau the roe of a fish. Dowden, in his edition of this play, gives the follow- ing interesting note on the passage : " Seymour has the grotesque notion that Romeo without his roe is vieo or O, me/ a lover's sigh. Rolfe thinks roe may mean mistress (from the female deer). Why, has not some 'ingenious gentle- man ' said that roe stands foriJo-saline? ' A herring without a roe ' is the crown- ing comparison of Menelaus with con- temptible creatures put into Thersites' mouth. Troilus and Cressida, V, 1, 168." Rogers, dr.p, A Sicilian gentleman. Wint. roguing. Vagrant; roaming. Per. IV, I, 97. roisting. Bullying ; blustering. Troil. II, 2, 208. romage. Bustle ; turmoil. Hml. 1, 1, 107. That this word, as used in this passage, has the meaning we have given to it all the coms. are agreed, but its origin is not so obvious. The words roomage and rummage are nautical terms almost equivalent to stowage. .Rummage has acquired the sense of to turn over, to search, and this change of meaning is not greater than has occurred in the case of many other words. Various origins have been suggested, but none that seem to aid matters. It is just possible that the word, as here used, may be a variant of roamage, a roaming or running to and fro in the land. Rome. That this word was, sometimes at least, pronounced room is evident from John III, 1, 180, and Cses. I, 2, 147. Romeo, dr. p. Son to Montague and lover and husband of Juliet. Rom. For note on fate of subordinate actors in this play, see nurse. rondure. Circle. Sonn. XXI, 8. ronyon. A mangy, scabby creature. (French, rogneux.) Wiv. IV, 2, 195; Mcb. I, 3, 6. rood. The crucifix. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 3; Rom. I, 3, 36; Hml. Ill, 4, 14. "It would appear that, at least in earlier times, the rood signified not merely the cross, but the image of (Jhrist on the cross." Dyce. rook, n. A cheater ; a thief. Wiv. I, 3, 2. (In bully-rook.) rook, i;. To perch; to roost. 3HVI. V,6,47. rooky. Misty ; gloomy. Perhaps full of rooks or crows. Mcb. Ill, 2, 51. rooted. Learned by heart. Cor. Ill, 2, 55. roots. The word roots, as it occurs in Hml. I, 5, 34, is rots in the Folios, and this has been followed in many modern eds. The Quartos have rootes. Either word makes sense, but roots seems the most forcible as well as the true reading. Rotting with ease does not convey as striking an idea as rooting with ease, and, as White remarks, the opposition of roots to stir in the next line also supports this reading. ropery. Probably the nurse's word for roguery. Rom. II, 4, 154. rope=tricks. Roguery. Shr. I, 2, 112. It has been suggested this word is here confounded with rhetoric. Others ex- plain it as " tricks such as are played by a rope-dancer." Malone says: '■'■ Ropery or rope-tricks oi'iginally sig- nified abusive language, without any determinate idea ; such language as parrots are taught to speak. " Another explanation is: "tricks deserving the rope, that is, hanging." Why not de- serving or calling for a whipping with a rope or rope's end ? cf. Err. IV, 1, 16. roping. Dripping. HV. IV, 2, 48. cf. do wn-r opting. Rosalind, dr. p. Daughter to the banished duke. As. Rosaline, dr. p. A lady attending on the Princess of France. LLL. Rosaline. Romeo's first love. Rom. II, 3, 44, and elsewhere. She was prob- ably a Capulet (Rom. I, 2, 72), as her name was on the list of Capulet's in- vitations. See rote. rosemary. This plant was considered as a symbol of remembrance, and used at weddings and funerals. At weddings it was usual to dip the rosemary in the cup, and drink to the health of the newly-married couple. Sometimes it ROS 364 ROU made a garnish for the meats. Rose- mary was also carried at funerals, probably for its odour, and as a token of remembrance of the deceased, which custom is noticed as late as the time of Gay, who refers to it in his Pastoral Dirge. Nares. Dekker, in The Won- derful Year, has: "Death rudely lay with her and spoild her of a maiden- head. * * ♦ the rosemary that was washt in sweete water to set out the Brid- all is now wet in teares to furnish her buriall." Rolfe quotes from Sir Thomas More: "I lett it run alle over my garden walls, not onlie because my bees love it, but because tis the herb sacred to remembrance, and therefore to friendship, whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh it the chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and in our buriall grounds. " It was said to have the power of strengthening the memory. Rosencrantz, dr. p. A courtier. Hml. roses. In Hml. Ill, 2, 288, with two pro- vincial roses on my razed shoes, Hamlet is, of course, speaking of the ornamental shoe-ties called roses, con- sisting of ribands gathered into large knots. Dyce. A great deal has been said in this connection about the different kinds of roses, but such discussion is out of place here. Huiiter, "New Il- lustrations," Vol. II, p. 254, says : " The wearing of roses in the shoes was a fashion or, rather, folly of the times, it was carried to such an extreme. The roses may be seen in many portraits of the distinguished men of that age. The fashion is thus noticed by Peacham in The Truth of Our Times, 1638, in the chapter Of Following the Fashions : ' A sempstress in Holborn told me that there are shoe-ties which go under the name of roses from thirty shillings to three, four and five pounds the pair.' Yea, a gallant of the time not long since payed thirty pounds for a pair." The Clarendon Press eds. quote Randle Holme, "Academy of Armorie": " Pinked or raised shooes have the over leathei's gi-ain part cut into Roses or other devices." Ross, dr. p. A Scottish nobleman. Mcb. Ross, Lord, dr.p. A partisan of Boling- broke. RII. rote. To read by rote (Rom. II, 3, 88), is to repeat phrases learned by heart, but without intelligence or understand- ing. The friar tells Romeo that Rosa- line knew that his love for her was a mere mechanical passion as was clearly shown by his sudden change. rother. An ox or other bovine. An old English word, now obsolete. It occurs but once in Sh., Tim. IV, 8, 12. The reading in the Fl. is : It is the Pastour lards, the Brother'' s sides. This, as it stands, is nonsense, but it was changed to : It is the pasture lards the rother'' s sides, and this has been adopted in all recent eds. That the word rother in this sense was familiar to Sh. cannot be doubted. There was a ' ' Rother Market ' ' in Stratford, and out of it led " Rother Street." The word is also found in J many compounds, as Rotherham. ^ Rutherford is probably a variant of Rotherford or cattleford — fords in the olden time being notable places and giving names to villages, cities and even private mansions, e.g., Abbofsford. In an old dictionary (Baret's "Alvearie") we find : "the Dewlap of a rudder-beast, hanging downe vnderthe necke." Rotherham, Thomas, dr.p. Archbishop of York. RIIL rough=cast. A kind of plaster formed of lime and gravel, ruade quite thin by water and dashed against the wall to which it adheres and soon hardens. Mids. Ill, 1, 71. round, n. A crown. Mcb. I, 5, 29. round, adj. Unceremonious; plain-spoken. HV. IV, 1, 216 ; Hml. Ill, 1, 191 ; Lr. I, 4, 58. To be round with = to speak plainly to. Err. II, 1, 82 ; Tw. II, 3, 104. round, v. To grow round ; euphemistic- ally = to advance in pregnancy. Wint. II, 1, 16. roundel. A dance in a circle. Mids. II, 2,1. ROTT 265 ROY roundly. Plainly ; directly. As. V, 3, 12. roundure. Round; circle. John II, 1, 259. rouse, n. 1 . A bumper ; a copious draught of liquor. Hml. I, 2, 127 ; do. I, 4, 8 ; 0th. II, 3, 66. 2. A carouse ; a drinking bout. Hml. II, 1, 58. In a note on Massinger's The Duke of Milan, Gifford tells us that "a rouse was a large glass, ' not past a pint,' as lago says, in which a health was given, the drinking of which by the rest of the company formed a carouse. Barnaby Rich is exceeding angry with the in- ventor of the custom, which, however, with a laudable zeal for the honour of his country, he attributes to an English- man, who, it seems, 'had his brains beat out with a pottle-pot ' for his in- genuity. There could be no rouse or carouse unless the glasses were emptied. In process of time, both these words were used in a laxer sense. They are used in their primal and appropriate signification in : 'I've ta'en, since sup- per, a rouse or two too much,' etc. Knigh t of Malta . ' ' And Gifford alleges that the word has a fixed and deter- mmate sense, and that Johnson and Steevens are wrong in defining it other- wise. But in this Gifford is surely mis- taken. There was nothing definite about either a rouse or a carouse ; the one was simply a drinking bout and the other a large, but indefinite draught, otherwise there could not have been a "little one." 0th. II, 3, 68. Skeat says: "I have little doubt that the original sense was simply 'noise ' or uproar." rouse, i;. To awaken ; to start game in hunting. 3HVI. V, 1, 65 ; RII. II, 3, 128. Rolfe tells us that in the passage in 0th. I, 1, 69 : Call up her father, Rouse him : make after him, poison his delight, Proclaim him in the streets, "the first him refers to Brabantio, the second to Othello." Upon which Furness remarks : "Which is true if we follow Dr. Johnson's punc- tuation. But I prefer to follow Fl., where clearly Othello alone is referred to in both cases. * * * The main idea is to rouse and disturb Othello and poison his delight. " Rolf e's punctuation differs both from the Fl. and Dr. John- son's ed. Edwin Booth favored the interpretation given by Rolfe. See rob. Rousillon, Count of, dr.p. Bertram. All's. Rousillon, Countess of, dr. p. Mother to Bertram. All's. rout. 1. A mob; a crowd. Err. Ill, 1, 101 ; Cses. I, 2, 78. 2. A brawl. 0th. II, 3, 212. royal. A gold coin of the value of ten shillings (about $2.50). Hence Falstaff's saying : Thou earnest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings. IHIV. I, 2, 157. Also in IHIV. II, 4, 320 : " Give him as much as will make him [the nobleman] a royal man," the pun is between noble (6s. 8d.) and royal (10s). See noble. royal merchant. Commenting on Merch. IV, 1, 29, Warburton tells us that " we are not to imagine the word royal to be only a ranting sounding Epithet. It is used with great propriety, and shows the Poet well acquainted with the history of the People whom he here brings upon the stage. For when the French and the Venetians, in the be- ginning of the thirteenth century, had won Constantinople, the French, under the emperor Henry, endeavoured to extend their conquests into the provinces of the Grecian empire on the Terra Firma ; while the Venetians, who were masters of the sea, gave liberty to any subject of the Rupublic who would fit out vessels to make themselves masters of the isles of the Archipelago, and other maratime places ; and to enjoy their conquests in sovereignty ; only doing homage to the Republic for their several principalities. By virtue of this licence the Sanudo''s, the Justiniani, the Grimaldi, the Summaripo''s and others, all Venetian merchants, erected principalities in several places of the Archipelago (which their descendants enjoyed for many generations) and 4 ROY 266 RUE thereby became truly and properly royal merchants, which, indeed, was the title generally given them all over Europe. Hence the most eminent of our own merchants (while public spirit resided amongst them and before it was aped by faction) were called royal Trier chants.'''' Upon this, Johnson remarks: "This Epithet was in our Poet's time more striking and better understood, because Gresharn was then commonly dignified with the title of the royal merchants.'''' {sic. ) To which Hunter in his "New Illus- trations," Vol. I, p. 308, adds: "War- burton does not appear to have caught the precise effect of the term. ' A royal merchant, in the middle ages, was a merchant who transacted business for a sovereign of the time. ' ' roynish. Paltry; mangy; scabby. (French rogneux.) As. II, 2, 8. rub, n. A term used in the game of bowls ; an impediment. John III, 4, 128 ; RII. Ill, 4, 4 ; H V. II, 2, 188 ; Cor. Ill, 1, 60. In ' ' British Rural Sports, ' ' by Stone- henge, in the article on the game of bowls, rub is thus defined: ^^ Bub or set. — When a jack or bowl, in its transit, strikes or touches any object or thing on the green which alters or impedes its motion. * * * If a running bowl before it has reached the parallel of the jack do 7'ub or set on any person (not of the playing party), or on a bowl or jack belonging to another party, it can be played again. ' ' So that the meaning of rub, in this connection, is "to come into contact with any obstacle animate or inanimate." Swift has, "without rub or interruption," and Stanihurst makes the following comparison : "Like a bovvle that runneth in a smooth allie, without any rub." rub, V. In the passage, rub on and kiss the mistress (Troil. Ill, 2, 52), "The allusion is to bowling. What we now call the jack seems, in Shakespeare's time, to have been termed the mistress. A bowl that kisses the jack or mistress, i.e., remains touching the jack, is in the most advantageous position. Rub on is a term at the same game." Malone. rubious. Red like a ruby. Tw. I, 4, 32. ruddock. The robin redbreast. Cym. IV, 2, 224. See robin redbreast. rudesby. A rude fellow. Shr. Ill, 2, 10 ; Tw. IV, 1, 55. rue. A bushy, woody plant known to botanists as Ruta graveolens. As rose- mary was a symbol of remembrance, so rue was a symbol of grace. Hence the allusion in Wint. IV, 4, 74. It was called "herb of grace" in Sh. time; thus we find in Cotgrave: "Rue: f, Rue, Hearbe Grace.'''' And in RII. Ill, 4, 104, we find : Here in this place, I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace : Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen In the remembrance of a weeping queen. Why it was called "herb o' grace," and especially why called "herb o' grace o' Sundays," has been the subject of much discussion. Warburton (prob- ably following Jeremy Taylor), in a note on Hml. IV, 5, 181, tells us that " Herb of grace is the name the country people give to Rue. And the reason is because that herb was a principal in- gredient in the potion which the Rotnish priests used to force the possessed to swallow down when they exorcised them. Now, these exorcisms being per- formed generally on a Sunday, in the church before the whole congregation, is the reason why she says, we call it herb of grace o' Sundays." On the the other hand, Malone (Variorum of 1821, Vol. VII, p. 422) objects to this on the ground that " Herb of grace was not the Sunday name, but the every- day name of rtte. " And he further says: "Ophelia only means, I think, that the Queen may, with peculiar pro- priety on Sundays, when she solicits pardon for that crime which she has so much occasion to rue and repent of, call her rue herb of grace.'' ^ But it RTTE 267 RTJN seems hardly likely that Ophelia, even though mad, would have thus insulted "'the beauteous majesty of Denmark." On the question of the queen's wearing it "with a difference," much has been written. The term is one in heraldry (see difference), but whether so used here or not may be doubted. Steevens explains it thus: "You, madam (says Ophelia to the queen), may call your rue by its Sunday name, herh of grace, and so wear it with a difference to dis- tinguish it from mine, which can never be anything but merely rue, i.e., sorrow." Skeat makes the following note : " There is no difficulty here if we do not force the words into some heraldic phrase. It merely means this : I offer you rue, which has two meanings : it is sometimes called herh of grace and in that sense I take some for myself ; but with a slight difference of spelling it means ruth, and in that respect it will do for you. This explanation is not mine — it is Shakespeare's own. See RII. Ill, 4, 105 [quoted above]." But in the passage from RII., referred to by Skeat, there is no reference to "difference." Schm. gives the following explanation : " with a difference, because you are old and I am young," and he then gives a note on the supposed therapeutic effects of rue. It seems to me, however, that the expression is derived from heraldry. Ophelia and the queen were both to wear rue, and as their social positions were vastly different, Ophelia apologises to the queen for seeming to place herself on a level with majesty by suggesting that she wear it with a difference. Much has been said about the letter of Edward Alleyn to his wife in which he speaks of "rue and herbe of grace," and in the reply of his parents they speak of using " wormwode and re we." This would seem to imply that worm- wood was known as "herb of grace," but this may be a mistake on the part of Alleyn's parents. We all know how ready such people are to make mistakes in these matters, and Ophelia herself says, "we may call it [rue] herb of grace." That rue was used for such purposes is shown by Warburton's quotation from Sandys: "At Grand Cairo there is a species of rue much in request with which the inhabitants per- fume themselves, not only as a pre- servative against infection, but as very powerful against evil spirits." ruffle. To be boisterous. Lr. II, 4, 304. Rugby, Jack, dr.p. Servant to Dr. Caius. Wiv. rug=headed. Rough-headed. RII. II, 1, 157. ruinate. To ruin. Lucr. 944 ; 3HVI. V, 1, 83. rule. Usually defined as behaviour ; con- duct. Tw. II, 3, 133. Nares, referring to this passage says : " Apparently put for behaviour or con- duct ; with some allusion perhaps to the frolics called mis-rule." Dyce believes it is equivalent to rev el, noisy sport. See night-rule. The word night-rule has been supposed to be a contraction of night-revel, which in Sh. time would be printed night-reuel. Halliwell quotes the old statutes of London given by Stowe : " No man shall, after the houre of nine at the night, keep any rule whereby any such sudden outcry be made in the still of the night, as making any affray, etc. ' ' runip=fed. There has been great diversity of opinion in regard to the meaning of this word. Some say it means pampered ; others, fed on offal. Mcb. I, 3, 6. Rumour, dr.p. As a Prologue. 2HIV. run=away's. This word, as it occurs in Rom. Ill, 2, 6, has been a puzzle to the corns. Furness, in the ' ' New Variorum, ' ' fills twenty-eight royal 8vo. pages of fine type with a condensed account of the various emendations and annota- tions that have been made on it. In the Fl. the passage reads as follows : Ivl. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steedes, Towards Phoebus lodging : such a Wagoner RUN 268 RUN As Phaeton would whip you to the west, And bring in Cloudie night immedi- ately. Spread thy close Curtaine Loue-per- f orming night, That run-awayes eyes may wincke, and Romeo Leape to these armes, vntalkt of and vnseene. The comments on this word may be divided into two classes : Those which seek to explain the text as it stands and those which suggest an emendation. Of the latter there is a very large number — between thirty and forty. We give some of them, omitting the originators' names as this would occupy too much space. These are specimens : curious, Cynthia's^ enemies', envious, in no ways, Luna's, neighbouring, noon- day's, renoniy's, ribald's, roavinge, rude day's, rumourous. Rumour's, run-about's, runagates' , run-astray's, runaway spies, run-i-th' -ways', soon day's, sun awake's, sun away's, sun- a,weary, sunny day's, sun-weary's, surveyor's, Titan's, unawares, un- ivary, Uranus, Veronese, wandering, wary ones', yonder. Most of these emendations speak for themselves; that is, to say, the line of thought which led their authors to put them forth is quite obvious. The first ed. who attempted an ex- planation of the passage as it stands was Warburton, and as his interpreta- tion has been adopted by several pro- minent eds. and coms., including the latest and one of the ablest (Prof. Dow- den), we quote it verbatim from War- burton's ed. of 1747, He says : " That runaways eyes may wink. What runaways are these, whose eyes Jidiet is wishing to have stopt ? Mac- beth we may remember, makes an in- vocation to Mght much in the same strain : Come seeling Night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, etc. So Juliet here would have Night's darkness obscure the great eye of the the Sun, whom considering in a poetical light as Phoebus, drawn in his carr with fiery-footed steeds, and post- ing thro' the heavens, she very properly calls him, with regard to the swiftness of his course, the Runaway. In the like manner our Poet speaks of the Night in The Merchant of Venice : For the close night doth play the Run- away." [Merch. II, 6, 47.] To which note Johnson (1765) appends the remark: "I am not satisfied with this emendation, yet have nothing better to propose." In the same year Heath published his "Revisal of Shake- speare's Text," in which he protested very strongly against Warburton's ex- planation and offered "Rumour's" as an emendment. In the elaborate resume of the sub- ject appended by Dr. Furness to his ed. of Romeo and Juliet, the earliest note from Steevens is dated 1773, but as early as 1765 Steevens contributed the following note to the Appendix to the eighth vol. of Johnson's edition : " I am no better satisfied with-D?\ Warburton'' s emendation than the present editor, but tho' I have none I have a good opinion of, to propose in its room, will yet offer at an explanation. Jidiet wishes the night may be so dark that none of those who are obliged to run away in it, on some account or other, may meet with Romeo, and know his person, but that he may Leap to her arms untalk'd of and un- seen. The runaway in this place cannot be the sun, who must have been effectually gone before night could sf)read its curtain, and such a wish must have taken place before the eyes of these run-aways could be supposed to wink. The "Revisal" reads, T/ia^ Rumour's eyes may wink, and he might have sup- ported his conjecture from the figure of Fame, i.e., Rumour, as described by Virgil, Tot vigiles ocvli subter, etc. And yet this is but a conjecture, though RUN 269 RUS a very ingenious one." Neither this note nor a synopsis of it appears in the Variorum of 1821, but it is substantially the explanation adopted by Schm. and Rolfe, who credits it to Hunter. It is also adopted by Marshall in ' ' The Henry Irving Shakespeare." In his " Shakespeare's Scholar " (1854 Grant White suggested "Rumour" for "runaway," and defended it by remind- ing us of "the vital importance of the secrecy of Juliet's nuptials," and that " Romeo might be seen entering her chamber window by no one who would talk of or rumor it." But in his ed. of 1858 he adopts Warburton's explana- tion, and in his review of Schm. " Lexi- con" he says: "Of all the many in- acceptable and needless explanations of this word (of which I myself once fur- nished one), Dr. Schmidt adopts that which is the most unacceptable, one presenting an idea which it is quite im- possible that Shakespeai'e should have had in mind : ' people who ramble about the streets at night to spy out the doings of others.' The inconsistency of this meaning with the context is mani- fest at a glance. These people (to whom it would be absurd to apply the term run-axvay) ramble about the Streets at night ; they need night for their occu- pation, and therefore, we are asked to believe, Juliet prays for night to come^: and prays for it ' that runaways eyes may wink,' i.e., because the darkness which is the necessary condition of their eavesdropping, and which they desire, will surely cause them to go to sleep. Moreover, Juliet cared for, thought of, no one who might be in the streets. She knew well enough that she was secure against all such spying. The Capulet mansion was no street-side house to be pryed into by any passer-by. Juliet's window, her balcony, her loggia, were separated from all that by a gar- den and a wall ; at Romeo's passing of which Shakespeare makes her wonder. This explanation given in the ' Lexicon ' is the most futile of all which have been elicited by this passage. Juliet's run- away is merely the sun." Mr. Halpin wrote an elaborate article to prove that the runaway is Cupid. Douce thinks that the runaway is Juliet herself, who nas rxm away from her duty. Various other explanations have been offered, but the great majority of coms. seem to be divided between those of Warburton and Steevens — the sun and observers in the streets. In the latter case runaivays = runagates, q.v. runagate. A vagabond. RIII. IV, 4, 465. So defined by Schm., followed by Rolfe. That the word is now used almost wholly in this sense is certain, but in Sh. time it seems to have been almost synonymous with runaway, and in the four passages in which it occurs in the plays it may bear the meaning of " one who runs away " quite as well as that of vagabond. And in "A New General English Dictionary," by Rev. Thomas Dyche (1735), runagate and runaway are given as synonyms and defined as "a dissenter, a rover, or wanderer." And in Rom. Ill, 5, 90, runagate evidently means " one who has run away." Even in RIII. IV, 4, 465, it seems to me that "white liver 'd runagate " means a coward who has run away rather than one who is a mere vagabond or wanderer. Runagate is a corruption of renegate, which is derived from low Latin rene- gatus, to deny again ; hence = an apostate, a deserter. " It is remarkable that when renegate had been corrupted into runagate, we borrowed the word over again, in the form renegade, from Spanish renegado. It is a pity we could not do without it altogether." Skeat. The other passages in which runagate occurs are Gym. I, 6, 137, and IV, 2, 62. running banquet. In the original sense, a hasty refreshment. In HVIII. I, 4, 12, the sense is obviously lascivious. In HVIII. V, 4, 71, it is a slang term for a whipping. rush, A well - known plant. Before BUS 270 »us the general introduction of carpets, the floors of dwelling houses, even amongst the higher classes, were strewed with rushes, E,om. I, 4, 36, It would also seem that for processions connected with great state occasions the pavements were strewed with rushes, 2HIV. V, 5, 1 . Man hut a rush against Othello's breast. 0th. V, 2, 270. Staun- ton tells us that this is an allusion to the mock tournaments, in which the combatants were armed with rushes in place of spears. This has been generally accepted. Perhaps it is correct. As TWs rush for Tom''s forefinger. All's. II, 2, 24. This probably refers to the practice of marrying with a rush ring. This seems to have been common both in England and other countries, Breval, in his "Antiquities of Paris," mentions it as a kind of espousal used in Prance by such persons as meant to live together in a state of concubinage, but in England it was scarce ever prac- tised, except by designing men, for the purpose of corrupting those young women to whom they pretended love. Hawkins. As Tom is the man and Tib the woman, Hawkins suggested that it should be TonVs rush for TiVs fore- fin ger. But Mason tells us that it was the practice in former times for the woman to give the man a ring as well as for the man to give her one, and refers to the account given by the priest of Olivia's marriage in the last scene of Twelfth Night, in which he speaks of inter changenient of your rings. Be- sides, if we were to adopt the amend- ment of Sir J, Hawkins, it is probable that we would have to change fore- finger, as that is not the finger upon which the bride's ring is usually placed. For a discussion of the subject see Third Variorum, Vol, X, p, 870, and Brand's "Popular Antiquities" (Bohn's ed,), Vol. II, p. 107. rush aside, to. To push aside. Rom. Ill, 3, 26. rush-candle. "A candle made of a rush dipped in tallow. " Schmidt. It would be diflicult to make a serviceable candle in that way. The rnsh-candle or rush- light was made by using the pith of the rush (not the rush itself) for a wick. This was dipped in the melted tallow or used in a mould. Rush-lights were in use in Great Britain up to the time of the discovery of kerosene oil. Shr. IV, 5, 14. rushling. Mrs. Quickly's form of rustle. Wiv. II, 2, 68. russet=pated. Grey-headed. The word russet is still used in the sense of grey as desci'iptive of a variety of apple — the russet. The russet-pated chough (Mids. Ill, 2, 21) is undoubtedly the jackdaw, whose ear-coverts and neck is grey. Bennet suggested that for russet- pated we should read russet-patted or red-legged. (French, a jyattes rousses. ) The emendation was adopted by Wright in the Clarendon ed. , but was abandoned by him after more mature consideration. See ' ' The Henry Irving Shakespeare, ' ' Vol. II, p. 377. rust. In the g. a. text Rom. V, 3, 169, part of the speech of Juliet reads : This is thy sheath [stabs herself] ; there rust and let vie die. This is the reading of the Folios. The First Quarto has rest for rust, and upon this Dyce remarks : " In several earlier passages of the play, the 4to., 1597, alone supplies the true reading ; and I suspect that here, too, it is right — I mean so far as it has ' rest ' instead of ' rust. ' The former appears to me the more natural expres- sion : at such a moment, the thoughts of Juliet were not likely to wander away to the future rusting of the dagger ; she only wishes it, by resting in her bosom as in its sheath, to give her instant death. " Dyce's "Remarks," p. 177. Grant White, in his "Shakespeare's Scholar," p. 388, commenting on this passage, says: "'There rust' is an obvious misprint for ' there rest, ' which appears in the First Quarto, 1597." But in the notes to his first ed. of Sh. he says, referring to this Quarto, "where ' rest ' RUT 271 SAB has induced the supposition (to which, when I was green in judgment, I hastily agreed) that rust of the Quarto of 1599 and subsequent old copies is a misprint. Its best support is Mr, Dyce's remark that 'at such a moment the thoughts of Juliet were not likely to wander away to the future rusting of the dagger.' But Juliet's thoughts do not wander ; they go forward, though not to the literal end. Her imagination is excited, and looking beyond her suicidal act, she sees her dead Romeo's dagger, which would otherwise rust in its sheath, rust in her heart ; and with fierce and amoi'ous joy, she cries — ' This is thy sheath ; there rust, and let me die. ' ' ' Clarke says: "The expression, 'Oh, happy dagger,' though meaning 'Oh, happily - found dagger ! ' ' Opportune dagger ! ' yet conveys an included sense that is in keeping with the word ' rest, ' which also affords antithetical effect with 'let me die.'' Poetically calling her bosom the ' sheath ' to Romeo's dagger, ' rest ' seems more in harmony than 'rust' with the image presented." ruth. Pitv. RII. Ill, 4, 106; Cor. I, 1, 203. rye. A kind of grain well known in this country and on the continent of Europe, but not so well known in Great Britain. It is mentioned twice in the plays, while wheat is mentioned seven times under its own name and thirty-five times under that of corn. See corn. It is mentioned under peculiar circumstances in the song sung by the two pages in As. V, 3 : Between the acres of the rye, With a hey and a ho, and a hey nonino, These pretty country folks would lie, In spring time, the only pretty ring time, Etc., etc. In regard to this, W. Ridgeway, in "The Academy" for October 20, 1883, asks : " Is there not here a reference to the ancient system of open-field culti- vation ? The corn-field being in the singular [see line 19] implies that it is the special one of the common fields which is under corn for the year. The common field being divided into acre- strips by balks of unploughed turf, doubtless on one of these green balks,. ' Between the acres of the rye, These pretty country folk would lie.' '' This calls to mind the old song " Com- ing Thro' the Rye," and the discussion as to whether the Rye there mentioned was a river or a rye-field ? The weight of evidence in the case of the song, as modified by Burns, is for the river, but there seems to have been a very old, and somewhat indelicate form of the song (now lost) in which the rye- field may have been meant. See ring- time. ABA. The queen of Sheba. HVIII. V, 5, 24. The name Sheba seems to have been un- known in English and Latin literature until after the translation of the Bible — Saba being the form pre- viously used. It occurs frequently in the works of Marlowe, Peele and others. Saba was a kingdom in Yemen, in south- western Arabia, and the person who ceime to vigit Solomon was queen of Sheba or Saba. Her name is unknown, but in the Koran she is called Balkis. * She was said to be a descendant of Sheba, the grandson of Cush. See Genesis x, 7. Josephus, however, says that Sheba was the ancient name of the city of Meroe, and that the queen who visited Solomon came thence. It is generally believed that the Abyssinians * This has a suspicious resemblance to BasiUissa, the Greek for Queen. SAB 272 SAC are descended from a colony sent out from Sheba or Yemen, and the Abys- sinians themselves have a tradition that after the return of their queen to her own country she bore a son to King Solomon, and that from him their present race of kings is descended. sables. A rich kind of fur. Hml. IV, 7, 80. The passage in Hml. Ill, 2, 137, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables, has not been quite satis- factorily explained. It has been sug- gested that sables is another form of sabell, which means flame color or a fawn color, a good deal brightened with red. This, of course, would be a striking contrast to the black worn by the devil. Capell thought that Hamlet simply ex- pressed an intention to have an ex- pensive and showy suit in opposition to the plain apparel usually worn during the period of mourning. The Clarendon Press eds. think that there may be a quibble between sables (black garments) and robes trimmed with the fur of the sable. sack. A kind of wine. The name is sup- posed to be derived from the French seCj dry, and to have been applied to wines imported from Spain and the Canary Islands. It was a white wine and was frequently taken with sugar. Henderson says that "they probably came into favor in consequence of their possessing greater strength and dur- ability, and being more free from acidity than the white wines of France and Germany, and owed their distinctive appellation to that peculiar sub-astrin- gent taste which characterises all wines prepared with gypsum. ' ' That gypsum or sulphate of lime was added to the juice of grapes before fermentation seems to be well established, but it also seems to have been the practice of the lower classes of vintners to add lime to wines which were too acid for the taste of their customers. IHIV. II, 4, 137. It is quite probable that the lime was added in the form of common limestone (carbonate of lime) ground to a fine powder. This would not only correct the acidity of the wine, but would give it ' ' life ' ' by the action of the carbonic acid gas which would be liberated. Sackerson. The name of a famous bear at Paris Garden on the Bank side, prob- ably named after his keeper. Wiv. I, 1, 30. Sacrament. 1. The Eucharist. RII. I, 1, 139. 2. To take the sacrament = to take au oath. All's. IV, 3, 156 ; RII. IV, 1, 328; PHI. V, 5, 18. sacred. 1. Hallowed; entitled to rever- ence. Meas. IV, 3, 150 ; Merch. I, 3, 49, and elsewhere. In the passage (Troil. IV, 5, 134), thy mother, my sacred aunt, Steevens sees a Grecism, since "the Greeks give to an uncle the title of Sacred." And he further adds: " This circumstance may tend to estab- lish an opinion I have elsewhere ex- pressed, that this play was not the entire composition of Shakespeare, to whom the Grecism before us was probably unknown." Rolfe quotes this without dissent, but I see no force in it, and it appears to be decidedly far-fetched ; sacred here is probably = revered, a very common expression at the present day. 2. Accursed ; damned (in the vulgar sense), or as a well-known French dic- tionai'y explains socre, "bloody." This is a Latinism which Malone illustrates by aiiri sacra fam^es, the accursed hunger for gold. It literally means "devoted to a deity for destruction." Riddle. The expression in Tit. II, 1, 120, our empress ivith her sacred luit To villany and vengeance consecrate, is thus ex- plained in the Third Vai-iorum, Vol. XXI, 291, and this interpretation has been accepted by most coms. , but Schm. gives it the usual meaning (as in 1) and Rolfe advocates this view on the ground that it is "more in keeping with Aaron's character to consider this ironical than to explain it as a Latin- ism." But I think the context scarcely SAC 373 SAa bears out this view, and besides, it was not only a Latinism, but a Gallicism. sacrificial. Reverend ; made as if to a god in sacrificing. Tim. I, 1, 81. sacring bell. A bell rung when the elements are consecrated at Mass. HVIII. Ill, 2, 296. sad. Serious. Gent. I, 3, 1 ; Err. Ill, 1, 19 ; Ado. II, 1, 358. Telling the saddest tale (Mids. II, 1, 51) = telling the most grave or serious story, sadly. Seriously. Ado. II, 3, 299 ; Rom. I, 1, 207. sadness. Seriousness. Ven. 807; Wiv, III, 5, 125 ; Shr. V, 2, 63. saffron, n. The plant Crocus sativus or autumnal crocus. The coloring matter is extracted from the stigmas of the flowers, and it takes over four thousand flowers to yield an ounce of the stigmas. The color is a deep yellow or orange, audit is still used to color confectionary, cakes and pies. Wint. IV, 3, 48. In All's. IV, 5, 2, the expression, whose villayious sa.fft^on would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in his color, is thought by War- burton to be "an allusion both to the fashionable and fairtastic custom of wearing yellow, and to that of colouring paste with saffron." Sagittary. A terrible monster described in the mediaeval romances of the Trojan war. He is represented as a Centaur, armed with a bow and arrows, and having eyes of fu-e which struck men dead. In " The Three Destructions of Troy," printed by Caxton, this "beste " is thus described : ' ' Beyonde the royalme of Amasonne came an auncyente kynge, wyse and dyscreete, named Epystrophus, and brought a M [a thousand] 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 like an horse, and had his eyen rede as a cole, and shotte well with a bo we : this beste made the Grekes sore aferde, and slew many of them with his bo we. " A more circum- stantial account of this Sagittary is to be found in Lydgate's "Auncient His- torie." This is quoted in the Third Variorum, Vol. VIII, p. 451. Also in Dyce's "Glossary," and Rolfe's ed. of Troilus and Cressida. Troil. V, 5, 14. The Sagittary referred to in 0th. I, 1, 159, has not been clearly identified. Knight says: "This is generally taken to be an inn. It was the residence at the arsenal of the commanding oflScers of the navy and army of the republic. The figure of an archer, with his drawn bow, over the gates, still indicates the place. Probably Shakspere had looked upon that sculpture. ' ' Upon this Rolf e makes the following remarks (see his ed. of Othello, p, 211): "The figure mentioned by K. is not ' over the gates, ' but is one of four statues standing in front of the structure. It represents a man holding a bow (not ' drawn') in his hand, but is in no respect more con- spicuous than its three companions. If S. was ever in Venice he probably saw the statue (if it is as old as the gateway, which was built in 1460), but we cannot imagine why it should suggest to him to call the place the Sagittary. That word means, not an ordinary archer, but a Centaur with a bow, as in the familiar representations of the Zodiacal sign Sagittarius. This is its sense in the only other passage in which S. uses it (Troil. V, 5, 14) : ' The dreadful Sagit- tary,' etc. That the Sagittary in the present passage cannot be the Arsenal, is, however, sufliciently clear from I, 3, 121. The Arsenal was by far the largest and most prominent public building, or collection of buildings, in all Venice, its outer walls being nearly two miles in circuit. To suppose that anybody in the employ of the government would need the help of lago in finding the place is absurd." Dr. Rolfe evidently speaks from personal observation. Be- sides, if the Sagittary had been the residence of the commanding ofllcers, surely Cassio would not have asked lago : " Ancient, what makes he here ?" I, 2, 49, Verity, in " The Henry Irving SAI 274 SAL Shakespeare," has the following note: "I may mention, too, an incidental point of evidence, viz., that Coryat, in his 'Crudities,' gives a minute and detailed account of the Arsenal, and had the Sagittary formed a portion of the latter, it would hardly have passed without mention. Perhaps, after all, the name was a mere invention on the part of Shakespeare ; in which case it is a thousand pities that he has not had the satisfaction of laughing at the tor- tures to which he unwittingly subjected generations of editors." The name is not found in any list of the inns of Venice of that day, so it probably existed only in the imagination of Shakespeare. sain. Said. LLL. Ill, 1, 83. This archaic form of the word is used by Armado for ' the sake of the rhyme. salad, n. Raw herbs, dressed with salt, etc., to make them savory, and generally with fragrant and piquant herbs to add to their flavor. All's. IV, 5, 15; Hml. II, 2, 462. The meaning in this passage is that there was no "high seasoning of loose ribaldry and luscious double meanings " in the play. {Heath.} See sallet. salad, adj. Unripe ; green. Ant. I, 5, 75. Salanio, [ dr.j). Friends to Antonio and Salarino. \ Bassanio. Merch. Salerio, dr. 23. A messenger from Venice. Merch. sale work. "Those works that nature makes up carelessly and without exact- ness. 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.'''' Warburto7i. As. Ill, 5, 43. sallad. So spelled by Schm. See salad. sallet. 1 . A close-fitting helmet or head- piece. 2HVI. IV, 10, 12. 2. Salad or savory herbs dressed raw for food. In Hml. II, 2, 462, this word evidently means stirring passages or, perhaps, ribaldries. Pope suggested salt as the true reading, and this has been adopted by some on the ground that salt gives a high flavor and also that it has the double meaning of licen- tious, cf. 0th. II, 1, 244. See salt. Moreover, Baret, in his Dictionary de- fines salt as " a pleasaunt and merrie word that maketh folks to laugh and sometimes pricketh." The g. a. text reads sallets, and the meaning usually adopted is that given under salad, q. v. Salisbury, Earl of, dr.p. William Long- sword. John. Salisbury, Earl of , dr.p. A Yorkist. HV., IHVI. and 2HVI. Salisbury, Earl of, dr.p. RII. salt, n. 1. Flavor; spirit. Wiv. II, 3, 50. 2. Tears. Cor. V, 6, 93 ; Lr. IV, 6, 199; cf. also John V, 7, 45, and Hml. I, 2, 154. In Gent. Ill, 1, 369, the cover of the salt hides the salt, this word evidently has two meanings, the salt itself and the salt-cellar. Malone (Third Vari- orum, Vol. IV, p. 86) tells us that " 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, w^hich was placed near the top of the table ; and those who sat below the salt were, for the most part, of an inferior condition to those who sat above it." Hence the expression "placed above the salt." A man of salt (Lr. IV, 6, 199) = a man of tears. salt, adj. 1. Preserved in salt ; old; as distinct from new and fresh. Wiv. I, 1, 22. Schm. defines "salt fish " in this passage as "a fish from salt water," a strange misconception. This is not the meaning of the word as commonly used by English-speaking people, and it spoils the humor of the saying. 2. Sharp ; bitter. Troil. I, 3, 371. 3. Lecherous. Meas. V, 1, 406 ; 0th. II, 1,244; Ant. II, 1,21. The two words salt = saline, and salt = lecherous are entirely different words from entirely distinct roots. Of their separate origin there can be no SAL SAN doubt, and they furnish another illus- tration of the reuiarks made on this point under pregnant, q. v. saltiers. Satyrs or hairy men. Wint. IV, 4, 334. "A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the nobles person- ated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or shagged all over to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and set fire to his satyr's garb ; the flame ran instantly over the loose tufts and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him ; a great number of the dancers were cruelly scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extin- guish them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him." Johyison. For a more elaborate account of these frolics, illustrated with a curious en- graving, see Third Variorum, Vol. XIV, p. 371. saltness. Flavor ; effect. 2HI V. 1, 2, 113. salve. In LLL. Ill, 1, 75, et seq., there is a good deal of punning over salve, an ointment, and salve, a salutation or farewell. The learned Dr. Farmer re- marks on this: "I can scarcely think that Shakespeare had so far forgotten his little school-learning as to suppose the Latin verb salve and the English substantive, salve, had the same pro- nunciation ; and yet without this the quibble cannot be preserved." But the pun seems to have been common in Sh. time. Steevens notes that "the same quibble occurs in Aristippus, or The Jovial Philosopher (1630) : Salve, Master Simplicius. Salve me ; 'tis but a surgeon's com- plement. Costard seems to think that enigma, riddle and 1 'envoy all mean various kinds of salve. &>eeplantain and P envoy. Samkigo. A contraction of Saint Dom- ingo, the patron saint of drinkers. 2HIV. V, 3, 77. Sampson, dr. p. Servant to Capulet. Rom. sand=bag:. "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 bat- toon, to the further 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. This mode of fighting is described in 2HVI. II, 3. sand=blind. Half -blind ; purblind. Merch. II, 2, 37. This word is hyphenated in the g. a. text as well as the Fl. But in high- gravel blind, high and gravel are hyphenated, but not gravel and blind. In the Fl. it is high grauel blinde; some eds. high-gravel-blind. The word sand- blind is in common use in Scotland ; stone-blind is a common expression wherever the English language is spoken, and Launcelot finds a degree between these — gravel-blind. Hales thinks that sand-blind means half-blind (Anglo- saxon, sdm), but this is not probable. More likely it signifies a condition of the sight resembling that blinking state caused by sand getting into the eyes. sanded. Of a sandy color ; explained by some as, marked with yellow spots. Mids. IV, 1, 126. Sands, Lord, dr. p. HVIII. sans. French for without. Thus, in Tp. I, 2, 97, we have sayis limit = without bound. Nares tells us that "a general combination seems to have subsisted among all our poets to introduce this French word, certainly very convenient for their verse, into the English lan- guage ; but in vain, the country never received it ; and it has always appeared as an exotic, even though the elder poets Anglicized its form into saunce or gave it the English pronunciation. 'SAR 276 Sat * * * It seems to have been generally pronounced as an English word and not with the French sound. Shakespeare, who used it four times in one line, must ' strongly have felt the want of a mono- syllable bearing that sense : Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. As, II, 7, 166. It seems, indeed, quite impossible to substitute any equivalent expressions, in the place of this very energetic line." He then goes on and gives seven instances of its use by con- temporary writers. 0th. I, 3, 64. The line, Sans sans, I pray you (LLL. V, 2, 416), means leave out the sans; your love is not without crack or flaw. sarcenet, ) A fine, thin silk stuff, plain sarsenet. ) or twilled, especially valued for its softness. Troil. V, 1, 36. In the passage. And givest such sar- cenet surety for thy oaths (IHIV. Ill, 1, 256), sarcenet means delicate, soft, affected. Schm. explains it as meaning " such as becomes a mercer's wife," but this does not exactly correspond to the idea involved. Satis quod sufficit. Latin for enough is sufficient, or, as the proverb goes, " enough is as good as a feast." LLL. V, 1, 1. Saturn. The oldest of the gods, known in Greek mythology as Cronos (Time). He was the son of Uranus (Heaven) and Ge (the Earth), and was the father of Jupiter (Zeus), NejDtune (Poseidon), and Pluto (Hades), At the instigation of his mother, Cronos unmanned his father for having thrown the Cyclopes, who were likewise his children by Ge, into Tartarus. Out of the blood thus shed sprang up the Erinnyes or Furies. See Furies. When the Cyclopes were de- livered from Tartarus, the government of the world was taken from Uranus and given to Cronos, who in turn was dethroned by Zeus, or Jupiter. The Ronaans identified their god, Saturn, with Cronos, and the legend runs that he came to Italy during the reign of Janus and introduced agi'icul- ture and the habits of civilised life in general. His reign on earth was known as the Golden Age (see age, golden). Like many other mythical kings, he suddenly disappeared, the fable being that he had been removed to the abodes of the gods. A statue was erected to him, which was hollow and filled with oil, probably to denote the fertility of Latium in olives. He is represented as holding in his hand a crooked pruning knife, his feet being surrounded with a woollen ribbon. In the pediment of the temple of Saturn were seen two figures resembling Tritons, with horns, and whose lower extremities grew out of the ground. The ancients assigned the seven known planets and seven metals to certain gods. The common names of the planets are the same as the names of the gods, but the common names of the metals and their relations to the planets ai'e not so generally known. In the old alchemical system gold was Sol, the sun ; silver was Luna, the moon, hence the salts of silver were called lunar salts, e.g., lunar caustic, or silver nitrate ; the metal Mercury and the planet have the same common name ; copper was Venus, and salts of copper were known as Venereal salts or salts of Cyprus (see Paphos) ; iron was ilfars, and salts of iron were known to the old pharmacists as martial salts ; tin was Jupiter, and salts of tin were called jovial salts ; lead was Saturn, and even to-day, lead ointment is known as Saturnine ointment. Lead, being a dull, heavy metal, was supposed to correspond to the qualities of the planet, which is not very bright and of a dull, cold color. Hence, Saturn was the emblem of coldness and apathy. Sonn. XCVIII, 4 ; Cym. II, 5, 4 ; Tit, II, 3, 31. Among the astrologers Saturn was regarded as an evil planet. This is well set forth in a note by Dr. Furness on Ado. I, 3, 12, in which he quotes from "Batman vppon Bartholome" as fol- lows : " Saturnus is an euill willed Planet, colde and drie, a night Placet' SAT SCA and heauie. And therefore by fables he is painted as an old man, his circle is most farre from the earth, and neuer- thelesse it is most noifull to the earth. And for that he is far from the earth, he f ul endeth not his course before 30. yeres. And greeueth more when he goeth backwarde than when he goeth forth right. * * * And therefore a child & other broodes, that be conceiued & come forth vnder his Lordship, dye, or have full euill qualities. For * * * he maketh a man browne and fowle, misdoing slowe, and heauie, eleinge [ailing ?] and sorie, seldom gladde and merrye or laughing. " For the rest we must refer the reader to Dr. Furness's admirable ed. of Ado. p. 51. Saturtiinus, dr.jD. Emperor of Rome. Tit. Satyr. A creature generally represented as half man, half goat and of a very sensual expression. Hml. I, 2, 140. The Satyrs were a class of beings in Greek mythology who ai-e inseparably connected with the worship of Dionysus (Bacchus), and represent the luxuriant vital powers of nature. In their ap- pearance they somewhat resembled goats or rams. The appearance of the Satyrs is described by later writers as robust and rough, though with various modifications, but their general features are as follows : The hair is bristly, the nose round and somewhat turned up- wards, the ears pointed at the top like those of animals ; they generally have little horns or, at least, two horn-like protuberances, and at or near the end of the back there appears a little tail like that of a horse or goat. In works of art they are represented at different stages of life ; the older ones, commonly called Seilens or Silens, usually have bald heads and beards, and the younger ones are termed Satyrisci. All kinds of Satyrs belong to the retinue of Dionysus (Bacchus) and are always described as fond of wine, whence they often appear either with a cup or a thyrsus (see Bacchus) in their hand. They are devoted to every kind of sensual pleasure, whence they are seen sleeping, playing musical instruments or engaged in voluptuous dances with nymphs. Like all the gods dwelling in forests and fields, they were greatly dreaded by mortals. Later writers, especially the Roman poets, confound the Satyrs with the Pans and the Italian Fawns, and accord- ingly represent them with larger horns and goat's feet, although originally they were a quite distinct kind of beings, and in works of art, too, they are kept quite distinct. Satyrs usually appear with flutes, the thyrsus, syrinx, the shepherd's staff, cups or bags filled with wine. They are dressed with the skins of animals and wear wreaths of vine, ivy or fir. Representations of them are still very numerous, but the most celebrated in antiquity was the Satyr of Praxiteles at Athens. saucy. 1. Wanton ; lascivious. Meas. II, 4, 4.5 ; All's. IV, 4, 23. 2. Insolent ; outrageous. 0th. I, 1, 189. " Used in a stronger sense than merely malapert. Compare Mcb. Ill, 4, 25 : / am * * * hound in to saucy doubts and fears. ' ' Furness. saw. A maxim ; a moral saying. As. II, 7, 156 ; Hml. I, 5, 100 ; Lr. II, 2, 167. sawn. Sown. Compl. 91. Not seen as Malone defines it. The form is still used in Scotland and may be found in Burns. say. 1. A kind of silk. 2HVLIV,7, 27 2. Assay; taste ; relish. Lr. V, 3, 143. Say, Lord, dr.p. 2HVI. 'sblood. A contraction of " God's blood. " In some eds. the word is uniformly sup- pressed in obedience to a law passed in 1606 prohibiting the use of the name of God on the stage. See God. IHIV. I, 2, 82 ; Hml. II, 2, 384 ; 0th. I, 1, 4. scaffoldage. The floor of the stage. Troil. 1, 3, 156. scald. Bailey gives scaley head or scurvy or scabby head. HV. V, 1, 5 ; Ant. V, 2, 215. See scall. scale. To weigh ; to measure. Meas. Ill, SCA 278 SCR 1, 266; Cor. II, 3, 257. Some make scaled, as it occurs in Meas. Ill, 1, 266 = stripped of scales ; unmasked. In Cor. I, 1, 95, the word stale, as found in the g. a. text, is scale in the Folios. To stale, of course, is to make old or threadbare. For a discussion of scale in this connection, see the Rugby ed. of Coriolanus, by Whitelaw. Scales, Lord, dr. p. Brother to Lady Gray. 2HVI. scall. Usually explained as Evans's word for scald, q.v. Wiv. Ill, 1, 123. Per- haps = puny ; unfledged. A scall is a dialect term for a young nestling. scamble. To struggle ; to scramble for. Ado. V, 1, 94; John IV, 3, 146 ; HV. V, 2, 218. scamels. This word has given rise to pages of ' ' conjectural emendations, ' ' and its meaning is still in doubt. Sea- mews, limpets, staniels, etc., etc., have all been suggested. Probably some rock-breeding bird was intended. Sea- mews are called sea-tnells in some localities. Tp. II, 2, 176. scantling. A small portion. Troil. I, 3, 341. Schm. explains it as "a pattern, a sample." Verity says it "signifies not so much a ' sample ' as ' a measure, ' proportion.'" Properly, it means "a cut piece of timber.'' Malone quotes from Florio's translation of Montaigne's "Essays " : " When the lion's skin will not suffice, we must add a scantling of the fox's." scape. A mutilated form of escape. Skeat. Still retained in the compounds scapegoat, scapegrace. From the Latin ex capxid, out of one's cape or cloak. The word scape is frequently used by Sh. Sometimes printed 'scape, but, as Skeat says, the apostrophe is unneces- sary. Tp. II, 1, 146 ; Meas. Ill, 2, 197 ; Mcb. IV, 3, 234. scarf, V. 1. To cover as with a bandage or scarf. Mcb. Ill, 2, 47. cf. Rom. I, 4,4. 2. To decorate with flags and streamers. Merch. II, 6, 15. 3. To put on loosely like a scarf. Hml, V, 2, 13. Scarlet and John. These were two famous companions of Robin Hood. 2HIV. V, 3, 107. In Wiv. I, 1, 177, Falstaff addresses Bardolph and Nym as Scarlet and John, names which were quite appropriate as they were his companions in robbery. Warburton says that the humour con- sists in the allusion to Bardolph's red face. Perhaps. scarre. This is one of the words which have defied satisfactory explanation or emendation. The passage is hopelessly corrupt. We give a few of the pro- posed emendations and then leave it to our readers. In the Fl., All's. IV, 2, 38 and 39, read : I see that men make rope's in such a scarre That wee'l forsake ourselues. Give me that Ring." Rowe suggested : " make hopes in such alTairs" ; Malone: "make hopes, in such a scene"; Mitf ord : "make hopes in such a case ' ' ; Halliwell : " may cope's in such a sorte " ; Staun- ton : "make hopes, in such a snare"; Eannear : "have hopes, in such a cause. " None of these is satisfactory. Scarus, dr.p. Friend to Antony. Ant. scathful. Destructive ; damaging. Tw. V, 1, 59. scene individable. A play which observes unity of place; "poem unlimited" means a play which disregards the unities." Dowden. scholar. In Sh. time this term usually meant one who spoke Latin. In Hml. I, 1, 42, on the appearance of the Ghost, Marcellus says: Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio, and the force of this speech lies in the fact that it has always been a vulgar notion that spirits and supernatural beings can only be spoken to with propriety or effect by persons of learning. Thus Toby, in The Night Walker, by Beaumont and Fletcher, says : " It grows still longer, 'Tis steeple-high now; and it sails away, nurse. SCH Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil." In like manner the honest Butler, in Mr Addison's Drummer, recommends the bte ward to speak Latin to the Ghost m that play. Reed. In Ado. II, 1, 263, Benedick says of Beatrice: You shall find her the in- ternal Ate m good apparel. I xvould to Grod some scholar would conjure her. This follows the same line of thought. On this passage Furness quotes Tschischwitz: " Evil spirits were not exorcised by the sign of the cross alone, but cried out to the exorciser the Latin hexameter Signa tesigna, temere me tangis et angis, a verse which being a palindrome [reading forwards and backwards alike], reveals its dia bolic origin." Boswell gives as a reason for this popular idea in regard to this use of Latin that it was "because the church service was in Latin. " Third Variorum, Vol. VIII 145. But the general idea seems to be that it was because the exorcisms were in Latin. schooL In several passages in the plavs school IS synonymous with universitv As. 1,1, 6;Hml. I, 2, 113. Verity, in a note on the first passage, tell us that, even m the seventeenth century, the birchmg of undergraduates was by no means unusual, and further states that at Oxford the whipping of students is a contingency for which the statutes still provide. sconce, w. 1. A fortification. HV III 6 76 ; Err. II, 2, 87. • ' ' 2. The head. Err. I, 2, 79; Hml.V, 1,110 ^TrT^i ^' "^^ ensconce ; to hide. Hml. Lli, 4, 4. ril sconce me even here Ihis IS the reading iu the g. a. text. In the Quartos and Polios it is silence me Ihe emendation is due to Hanmer. cf Wiv. Ill, 3, 96 and 97. Some eds., how- ever, retain "silence " and give strong reasons for so doing. scot. Contribution; tax. IHIV V 4 115. This word has the same origin as 279 scs shot (the reckoning at a tavern) q.v., and has no reference to Scotland. scored. The meaning of this word, as it occurs in 0th. IV, 1, 1.30, is not very easily made out, chiefly because we have no connected context to guide us. Steevens (3rd Var., IX, 420) says : " To score originally meant no more than to cut a notch upon a tally, or to mark out a form by indenting it on any sub- stance. Spenser, in the first canto of his Fairy Queen, speaking of the Cross, says : ' 'Upon his shield the like was also scor'd.' But it was soon figuratively used for setting a brand or mark of disgrace on any one. 'Let us score their backs,' says Scarus in Ant. and Cleo. ; and it IS employed in the same sense on the present occasion. " To this Collier (2nd ed.) adds: "The sense usually attached to the phrase has been: Have you marked me like a beast, which you have made me by giving nie horns." Johnson explains It thus: "Have you made my reckon- ing ? have you settled the term of mv life?" Which Delius elaborates by saying : " Othello applies to Desdemona lago s words, ' you shall marry her ' and asks, 'Have you made out mV reckoning ? Are you finished with me « ' It is not until Othello is out of the way that a marriage with her is possible " ^. J^f^ German-like gloss seeing that Othello did not hear the words of the speakers, but guessed at what they were saying from their pantomime. If Othello had heard the conversation, lago could not have fooled him. It was this trick, as set forth to Othello by lago in lines 82 to 88, that led Othello astray. scotch, V. To cut with shallow incisions • J^ cut slightly. Cor. IV, 5, 198; Mcb.' III, L, 13. scotch, n. A cut ; a slight wound. Ant IV, 7, 10. scrimer. A fencer. (French, escrimeur) Hml. IV, 7, 101. ' SCR 280 SEA scrip. 1. A written list. Mids. I, 2, 3. 2. A wallet ; a small pouch. As. Ill, 2, 171. When Touchstone opposes scrip and scriijpage to hag and baggage, it is evidently on the ground that a shep- herd's scrip or pouch is a trifling affair compared to the equipment of an array. Scroop, dr. p. Archbishop of York. IHIV. and 3HIV. Scroop, Lord, cZr.p. A conspirator. HV. Scroop, Sir Stephen, dr. p. RII. scrowl. Perhaps a variant of scrawl ; evidently means to write. Tit. II, 4, 5, scrowles, ) Shabby fellows ; rascals ; scroyles. ) " mangy fellows. " (French, escrouelles.) John II, 1, 373. scrubbed. Stunted. Merch. V, 1, 162. scull. A shoal ; a school of fish. Troil. V, 5, 22. scullion. A kitchen wench ; a domestic servant of the lowest grade. 2HIV. II, 1, 65 ; Hml. II, 2, 616. scut. The short, stubby tail of hares, rabbits and deer. Wiv. V, 5, 20. Scylla and Charybdis. These were two dangerous rocks between Italy and Sicily. They were quite close together, and ships in trying to steer clear of one were almost certain to be wrecked on the other. Hence the proverb, "In trying to avoid Scylla he runs against Charybdis." This is the allusion in Merch. Ill, 5, 19. In the rock nearest to Italy there was a cave in which dwelt Scylla, a daughter of Cratseis, a fearful monster, barking like adog, with twelve feet, and six long necks and heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. On the opposite rock, which was much lower, grew an immense fig-tree under which dwelt Chai^ybdis, who tbrice every day swallowed down the waters of the sea, and thrice threw them up again. One tradition relates that Scylla was a beautiful maiden who often played with the nymphs of the sea, and was beloved by the marine god Grlaucus. The latter applied to Circe for means to make Scylla return his love, but Circe, jealous of the fair maiden, threw magic herbs into the well in which Scylla was wont to bathe, by means of which the lower part of her body was changed into the tail of a fish or serpent surrounded by dogs, while the upper part remained that of a woman. Charybdis is also described as a daughter of Neptune and Terra, and a voracious woman, who stole oxen from Hercules, and was hurled by the thunderbolt of Jupiter into the sea. *sdeath. A contraction of God^s death; a common oath in the time of Sh. Cor. 1, 1, 221. See 'sblood. sealing. Sleeping. Ant. Ill, 2, 3. sealed quarts. Quart measures officially stamped to show that they would hold the proper quantity. Shr. Ind. II, 90. " In the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, there was a very wholesome law that, for the protection of the public against ' false measures, ' ale should be sold only in sealed vessels of the standard capacity ; and the violation of the law was to be presented at the ' Court Leet,' or ' View of Frankpledge,' held in every hundred, manor, or lordship, before the steward of the leet." Lord Campbell. sea=maid. A mermaid. Meas. Ill, 2, 11.5 ; Mids. II, 1, 154. See mermaid. sea-mark. An object serving for a direc- tion to mariners. 0th. V, 2, 267. seam. 1. A line of union or separation ; the joint made by sewing. Per. II, 1, 1.56. 2. Grease; fat. Troil. II, 3, 195. cf. enseamed. seamy. Having seams, cf. seam, 1. In 0th. IV, 2, 146, the passage : that turned your wit the seamy side without, means, that turned your wit the wrong side out and exposed the coarse side of the seams, i.e., the most unfavorable side of your wit. sear, ^. 1. To brand. All's. II, 1, 176; Wint. II, 1, 73. 2. To harden; to wither. Compl. 14. Seared is very properly substituted for fear'' d in most modern eds. in Meas. II, 4, 9, and Cym. II, 4, 6. The old form of s greatly resembled /, the only difference being the absence of the cross- line. Collier says that in Lord Ellesmere's SEA 281 SEL copy of theFl. the reading is sear''d not fear'd, which is the reading in most other copies. The misprint seems to have been corrected while the sheets were passing through the press ; this was often done in old-time books, the slow process of printing by hand-press in those days giving an opportunity for such changes. In the Cambridge Sh., Note IX, on Meas. it is claimed that the change was made by erasure, and this on the authority of Ingleby's " Com- plete View," p. 24. But on the pre- ceding page of this work, a question asked by Ingleby shows him to be a partisan whose bitterness overcomes his discretion, and to my mind his word in such matters is to be taken cum " &ar- relo " salts. See sere. search. To probe ; to sound so as to apply a remedy. Gent. I, 2, 116 ; Troil. II, 2, 16. season, n. Preserver ; that which keeps fresh. Mcb. Ill, 4, 141. Perhaps = preservation in Ado. IV, 1, 144. season,!;. 1. To establish ; to ripen ; to confirm. Cor. Ill, 3, 64 ; Hml. 1, 3, 81 ; III, 2, 219. 2. To temper; to moderate. Hml. I, 2, 192. seated. Situated. Lucr. 1144. Sebastian, dr.jj. Brother to the King of Naples. Tp. Sebastian, dr.p. Brother to Viola. Tw. sect. 1. A cutting ; a scion. Oth. I, 3, 336. 2. As used in 2HIV. II, 4, 41, this word is usually supposed to mean sex, and Steevens gives numerous examples of its use in that sense. But in this pas- sage it probably means trade or pro- fession. secure, acZy. Careless ; unguarded. Wiv. II, 1, 241; IHVI. II, 1, 11; Hml. I, .5, 61 ; Kins. I, 1, 154. secure, v. To make careless ; to throw off one's guard. Tim. II, 2, 185 ; Lr. IV, 1, 22. securely. Carelessly; confidently. Lucr. 89; Wiv. II, 2, 252; RII, II, 1, 266; Troil. IV, 5, 74, security. Carelessness. Cses. II, 3, 8 ; Mcb. Ill, 5, 32. seedness. Sowing of the seed. Meas. I, 4, 42. seek him with candle. Steevens remarks on this passage in As. Ill, 1, 6, that it is probably an allusion to Luke xv, 8. But it might be to Diogenes and his lantern. The meaning evidently is : Make a most minute search. seel. To close up the eyes; to blind. Properly a term of falconry, to seel a hawk meaning to close up her eyelids, either partially or entirely, by running a fine thread through them in order to make her tractable and endure the hood. Mcb. Ill, 2, 46 ; Oth. I, 3, 270 ; Ant. Ill, 13, 112. seeming. This word, as used in As. V, 4, 72, is equivalent to seemly. Daniel suggests, however, that the word should be sivhnniing, and cites numerous ex- amples of the use of this latter word to describe a movement of the body then much in fashion (of. the schoolmaster's advice to the girls in Kins. Ill, 5, 28 : Swim with your bodies) ; but swimming was a movement and Audrey was standing still. seen. Well seen — well versed ; pro- ficient. Shr. I, 2, 134. segregation. Dispersion; separation. Oth. II, 1, 10. seld. Seldom. Troil. IV, 5, 149. Seld- shown — rarely exhibited. Cor. II, 1, 232. Seleucus, dr. p. Attendant on Cleopatra. Ant. self. The same. Err. V, 1, 10; Merch. I, 1, 148 ; Lr. I, 1, 71. self=bounty. Inherent goodness ; innate kindness. Oth. Ill, 3, 200. self=cover'd. The passage in which this word occurs (Lr. IV, 2, 62), Thou changed and self-covered thing, for shame, Be-monster not thy feature, is so obscure that it has never been satis- factorily explained, and numerous emendations have been proposed, none of which, however, has been generally accepted. The whole speech of Albany SEL 282 SEN and the reply of Goneril are omitted in the Folios. Theobald suggested self- converted; Becket, self -convict; Singer, false-covered ; Moberly, self-coloured ; Crosby, sex-covered ; Beale, devil-cov- ered ; and this does not nearly exhaust the list. But none of them, except, perhaps, that of Crosby, has attracted much attention. Johnson explains it as : Thou that hast hid the woman under the fiend. Ma- lone : Thou who hast put a covering on thyself which nature did not give thee. Rolfe, whose whole note on the passage deserves careful attention, says: "The meaning, then, is : " Thou perverted creature, who hast lost thy proper self (either thy womanly self, or thy self as it seemed to me, the ideal of my affection) and hast become a fiend, do not thus make a monster of thyself." Furness, after giving a page of opinions from others, winds up thus: "Is it over-refinement to suppose that this revelation to Albany of his wife's fiend-like character transforms, in his eyes, even her person ? She is changed, her true self has been covered ; now that she stands revealed, her whole outward shape is be-monstered. No woman, least of all Goneril, could remain un- moved under such scathing words from her husband. Goneril's 'feature' is quivering and her face distorted with passion. Then it is that Albany tells her not to let her evil self, hitherto covered and concealed, betray itself in all its hideousness in her outward shape. " This is very clear and forcible. The only point on which we would ven- ture to differ from Dr. Furness, for which see apology in our preface, is in regard to the meaning of the word /ea^u?"e. Dr' Furness, misled, I think, by Schmidt, who is certainly poor authority on the interpretation of English words, makes it mean her "shape, exterior, the whole turn or cast of the body. " (See his note on line 63). I think there is an error here. Goneril's face would exhibit her fiendish character, but surely her body. covered as it was by her dress, could hardly do so. For further note on feature see 3rd Var., Vol, X, p. 203, and the ^ord feature in our Addenda. semblable, adj. Similar; like. 2HIV. V, 1, 73 ; Ant. Ill, 4, 3. semblable, n. Like ; equal. Tim. IV, 3, 23 ; Hml. V, 2, 134. semblably. Similarly. IHIV. V, 3, 21. Sempronius, dr. p. A lord ; a flatterer of Timon. Tim. senior=junior. Older and younger. The passage is evidently a collection of con- trarieties. In the Fl. it is "signior lunios gyant drawfe," and numerous conjectural emendations have been offered. The emendment generally adopted (senior- junior) was suggested to Theobald, but not adopted into the text by him, though he greatly approved of it. Upton suggested : ' ' This signior Julio's giant-dwarf," the idea being that Sh. intended to compliment Julio Romano, referred to in Wint. V, 1, 106. Upton tells us that this sculptor drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf, but no one has ever discovered the sketch. Senior-junior is most probably the true reading. LLL. Ill, 1, 183. In the old tragedy of Gis monde of Salerne Cupid is called" the little greatest god." And in this play (V, 3, 11) Rosaline says : " That was the way to make his god- head wax. For he hath been five thousand years a boy." The evident misprint, signior for senior, occurs also in Ei'r. V, 1, 432, which in the Fl. reads : WeeH draw Cuts for the Signior. seniory. Seniority; eldership. RIII. IV, 4, 36. Senoys. The Siennese ; the people of Sienna. All's. I, 3, 1. sennet. A flourish of trumpets. Occurs frequently as a stage direction. sense. 1. Feeling; perception. AK's. I, 3, 178 ; III, 4, 39 ; 0th. I, 3, 73 ; V, 1, II. In the latter passage, to the sense means, to the quick. The passage in Hml. I, 3, 99, the most vulgar thing to sense, SEN 283 SES is explained by Caldecott as : "addressed to sense ; in every hour's occurrence offering itself to our observation and feelings." See vulgar. The passage in the same play, III, 4, 71, Sense stire you have, Else could you not have motion, has received several explanations. Staunton says the meaning is: "Sense {i.e., the sen- sibility to appreciate the distinction between external objects) you must have, or you would no longer feel the impulse of desire. ' ' The Clarendon ed. explains ' motion ' as = emotion. 2. Sensuality. Meas. I, 4, 59 ; II, 2, 169. senseless=obstinate. Unreasonably ob- stinate. RIII. Ill, 1, 44. sensible. Feeling. Merch. II, 8, 48 ; Hml. IV, 5, 150. septentrion. The north. 3H VI. 1, 4, 136. The word septentrion is derived from the Latin septem, seven, and triones, ploughing oxen. The name was given by the Romans to the seven stars known as the "Great Bear," the "Dipper," " Charles Wain," etc. As they lie near the North Pole and two of the stars (known as the j^ointers) are nearly in a line with the Pole-star, the word sep- tentriones came in time to signify the north. sequester. Seclusion. 0th. Ill, 4, 40. sequestration. 1. Separation; divorce. 0th. I, 3, 351. 2. Seclusion. HV. I, 1, 58; IHVI. II, 5, 25. sere. 1. Dry ; withered. Err. IV, 2, 19. The passage : The Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled a' th'' sere (Hml. II, 2, 337), has been ex- plained in various ways. Steeveiis made sere = serum ; Capell explained it as "delighted with dry jokes"; Malone acknowledges that he is puzzled. The interpretation given by Nicholson in "Notes and Queries" for July 22, 1871, seems to be the true one : "The sere or, as it is now spelt, sea?' (or scear) of a gun-lock is the bar or balance-lever interposed between the trigger on the one side, and the tumbler and other mechanism on the other, and is so-called from its acting the part of a serre or talon in gripping that mechanism and preventing its action. It is, in fact, a pawl or stop catch. When the trigger is made to act on one end of it, the other end releases the tumbler, the mainspring acts, and the hammer, flint or match falls. Hence, Lombard (1596), as quoted in Halli well's ' Archaic Dic- tionai'y,' says, 'Even as a pistole that is ready charged and bent will flie off by-and-by, if a man do but touch the scare. ' Now, if the lock be so made of purpose, or be worn, or be faulty in construction, this sear or grip may be so tickle or ticklish in its adjustment that a slight touch or even a jar may displace it, and then, of course, the gun goes off. Hence, 'light,' or 'tickle of the sear' (equivalent to, like a hair- trigger), applied metaphorically, means that which can be started into action at a mere touch, or on the slightest provocation, or on what ought to be no provocation at all. " sergeant. 1. A sheriff's officer. Err. IV, 2, 56 ; Hml. V, 2, 347. 2. A non-commissioned officer in the army. Mcb. I, 2, 3. serpent's tongue. The phrase: If we have unearned luck, Notv to scape the serpenVs tongue (Mids. V, 1, 440), means, if we escape being hissed. Johnson. So in J. Markham's " English Arcadia '' (1607): "But the nymph, after the custom of distrest tragedians, whose first act is entertained with a snaky salutation, etc.''"' Steevens. See worm. serpigo. A kind of tetter or dry erup- tion of the skin. Meas. Ill, 1, 31 ; Troil. II, 3, 81. serviceable. OflBcious. Lr. IV, 6, 257. Serviceable vows = vows promising service. Gent. Ill, 2, 70. Servilius, d?-.p. Servant to Timon. Tim. sessa. A word of which the meaning is not very clear. Some regard it as a mere exclamation. As it occurs in Lr. III, 4, 104, Johnson thinks it may be the French cessez == stop ! spoken to an SET 284 SHA imaginary horse trotting by ; Steeven's thinks that in III, 6, 77, it is a corrup- tion of Cecilia, spoken to an imaginary beggar-woman. In Shr. Ind. I, 6, it is possible that it is equivalent to Johnson's cessez, but it is very unlikely that Sly got it from the French. More likely it is simply a low form of cease, meaning "shut up." set. Has the usual and easily compre- hended significations in most of the passages in which it occurs in Sh. As found in Cym, III, 4, 90, it obviously means to instigate ; to prompt. As it occurs in Hml. IV, 3, 64, several mean- ings have been given. Malone thinks it means to "set by"; Mason suggests "set at nought"; Singer thinks it means "to set or tell the price." Re- ference has also been made to Sonn. LXXXVIII, set me light = esteem me lightly; and RII. I, 3, 298, sets it light — makes light of it, i.e., sorrow. The general meaning, as we have pointed out in regard to many other passages in Sh., is obvious enough, and it seems to me that the word here has its original meaning, viz. , to place ; fix ; plant ; lay down. The adverb cofclly qualifies this sense sufSciently, and the phrase is equivalent to, coldly lay down. Setebos. The god of Sycorax, dam of Caliban. Said to have been the god of of the Patagonian giants, a description of whom had been published in Eden's "History of Travayle" (1577), and the name of their god Setebos given. Eden tells us that the giants, when they found themselves fettered, "roared like bulls and cried upon [their great devil] Sete- bos to help them. " Farmer. setter. A spy ; one who watches for travelers so as to give information to thieves. 1 HIV. II, 2, 70. several, n. 1. An individual; a single person. Wint. I, 2, 226. 2. (In the plural.) Particulars; details. HV. I, 1, 86 ; Troil. I, 3, 180. several, (ad/.?). The passage: My lips are no common, though several they be (LLL, II, 1, 224), is thus explained by Halliwell: "Fields that were enclosed were called severals, in opposition to commons, the former belonging to in- dividuals, the others to the inhabitants generally." Rolfe prefers Staunton's explanation : " If we take both as places devoted to pasture — the one for general, the other for particular use — the mean- ing is easy enough. Boyet asks permis- sion to graze on her lips. ' Not so,' she answers ; ' my lips, though intended for the purpose, are not for general use.' " But it seems to me that this does not bring out so clearly the joke between several and common, cf. Sonn. CXXXVII, 9. See though. sewer. An officer whose duty originally was to taste the dishes placed on the royal table. Mcb. 1, 7, stage direction, line 2. 'sfoot. Corrupted from (rOcZ's/ooi. Troil. II, 3, 6. See 'shlood. Sextus Pompeius, dr.p. A friend to Antony. Ant. Seyton, dr.p. Officer attending on Mac- beth. Mcb. Shadow, dr.p. One of Falstaff's recruits. 2HIV. Shafalus. A blunder for Cephalus. Mids. V, 1, 200. See Cephalus. shaft. An arrow, i.e., the long arrow used with the long-bow, as distinguished from the short arrow, bolt or quarrel vised with the cross-bow. Mids. II, 1, 161 ; Lr. I, 1, 145, and elsewhere. In regard to the passage in Merch. I, 1, 140, Douce tells us that this method of finding a lost arrow is prescribed by P. Crescentius in his treatise " De Agricultura," lib. X, cap. XXVIII. For ril make a shaft or a holt onH, see holt. When the rich golden shaft (Tw. I, 1, 35), is thus explained : Cupid carried two kinds of arrows or shafts ; one, with a golden head, inspired pure and deep love ; the other kind was headed with lead and produced indifference or aver- sion. See also Mids. I, 1, 170. See Cupid and holt. shales. Husks ; shells. HV. IV, 3, 18. , , SKA 285 SHE Shallow, 'Robert, dr. p. A country justice. Wiv. and2HIV. It is generally accepted that in Justice Shallow we have a caricature of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, near Strat- ford. The tradition is that, among his youthful escapades, Sh., with some other young fellows, killed some of Lucy's deer and for this Lucy had him severely punished. Sh., in revenge, is said to ha V e written a most bitter ballad against Lucy ; this led to further persecution, and it is alleged that this was the chief cause of Sh. leaving Stratford. At- tempts have been made to discredit the the whole story, but all authorities are agreed that there is a considerable basis of truth for the legend. See luce and prick, shall's. A contraction of shall us. An ungrammatical colloquialism. Cor. IV, 6, 148. shard. 1. A shred; a fragment of pottery or potsherd. Hml. V, 1, 254. 2. The "wing-case or elytron of a beetle. Ant. Ill, 2, 20. Steevens thus explains the line : They are his shards and he their beetle : " They are the wings that raise this heavy lumpish insect from the ground. " This involves an error in natural history. The wang-cases are not the members used by the beetle in flying ; the wings perform that function. The shards, wing-cases or elytra serve chiefly to protect the wings, which are delicate membranous parts that would be easily injured when the beetle entered holes, etc. It is quite possible, how- ever, that they may be used to give the beetle a first start from the ground. See shard-home. shard=borne. Upheld by shards or wing- cases. Mcb. Ill, 2, 43. This is probably an error, though a trifling one. See shard. Patterson, in his "Letters on the Natural History of the Insects Mentioned in Shakespeare's Plays," has this note on the subject : " 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. * * * [The other meaning] most applicable is that given by Mr. Toilet, as quoted in the notes to Ayscough's edition of Shak- speare, that 'shard-born beetle is the beetle born in cow-dung ; and that shard expresses dung is well known in the north of Staffordshire, where cow's shard is the word generally used for cow-dung.' * * * A long and very interesting note on the subject was published in the 'Zoological Journal,' No. XVIII, p. 147." It seems to me that by shard-borne Sh. undoubtedly meant, supported by shards or wing-cases. To the ordinary observer these wing-cases appear to be the wings themselves, and Sh. object was to make an impression upon minds to whom the droning beetle was a familiar sight. If Sh. had given a minute and accurate description of the flight of the beetle his audience would not have understood him and his words would' have fallen dead. sharded. Having wing-cases like beetles. Cym. Ill, 3, 20. shark. To snatch up without distinction as a shark does his prey. Hml. I, 1, 98. shealed. Shelled. Lr. I, 4, 219. she. This word is frequently used by Sh. as a noun. See Tw. I, 5, 259 ; Cym. I, 3, 29 ; All's. II, 1, 82. But the passage in Wint. I, 2, 44, behind What Lady she her Lord, as it stands in the Fl., has made trouble for some coms., un- necessarily it seeins to me. Several eds. have even gone so far as to offer emend- ations. Collier and Dyce read should instead of she on the ground that " she " is a misprint for shd., the contracted form of should. Staunton hyplienates lady and she, and this has been adopted in the Globe ed., but not in the Cam- bridge ed. Keightley suggests lady soe''er, and Hudson, lady e'er. But it seems to me that all this is unnecessary. " Lady " is here an adjective and " she " a noun, just as in Wint. IV, 4, 360. No hyphen necessary. The meaning is obvious: "I love thee not a jar o' tho SHE a86 SH9 clock behind what any noble woman does her lord." And, as Furness well says : " We must doggedly adhere to the original text as long as it conveys any good and intelligible meaning." To which, however, I would add : Pro- vided that meaning is obviously the one which Sh. intended, and not one marred by an evident typographical error as in Wiv. V, 5, 159. shearman. One who shears cloth. 2HVI. IV, 2, 145. sheaved. Made of straw, Compl. 31. sheen, n. Light. Mids. II, 1, 29; Hml. Ill, 2, 167. Some, Johnson among others, make it an adjective = shining ; bright ; gay. sheep. This word was often pronounced ship in the time of Sh., and, indeed, this is still the pronunciation in some parts of England. Hence the puns in Gent. I, 1, 73 ; Err. IV, 1, 93 ; LLL. II, 1, 219. sheep=biter. A cant term for a thief. Dyce. W. A. Wright says it is a term of reproach taken from a vicious dog. "It usually denotes a niggard. A dog that has once bitten or worried sheep be- comes so worthless and incorrigible that it has to be incontinently killed, or, as Taylor, the Water- Poet, says : And in some places I have heard and scene That currish sheep-biters have hanged been." Hence, like many such phrases, it came to be used as a general term of contempt equivalent to "cowardly cur." Dr. Furness quotes from Nashe's Pierce Penniless : " What curre will not bawle, and be ready to flye on a mans face, when he is set on by his master, who, if hee bee not by to encourage him, he casts his taile betwixt his legges, and steales away like a sheepe-byter." Tw. II, 5, 6. See sheep-biting. sheep=biting. The expression, show your sheep-biting face, as found in Meas. V, 1, 359, is defined by Schm. as "morose, surly, malicious." But surely the duke showed himself anything but morose and surly, even to Lucio. The meaning here is undoubtedly cowardly and mean, as the duke seemed afraid to show his face. sheer. Clear ; pure ; unmixed. RII. V, 3, 61. Also in Shr. Ind. II, 25, where the word has also been interpreted as "shire" — shire ale in this case being ale made in the shire or county. In some parts of England shire is still pro- nounced sheer. shent. Reproved harshly ; treated with rough language. Wiv. I, 4, 38 ; Troil. II, 3, 86 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 416. Shepherd. The epithet, Dead Shepherd, in As. Ill, 5, 82, refers to Marlowe, who was killed in a duel in 1593, aged 27 years. The "saw of might" is from his Hero and Leander, published in 1598, and the title " Shepherd " is taken from his famous poem, " The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." The saying, "saw of might," recalls Ben Jonson's well-known expression, "Marlowe's mighty line." sheriff's post. " At the doors of sheriffs were usually set up ornamented posts, on which royal and civic proclamations were fixed." Dyce. Tw. I, 5, 157. shield. 1. To protect. Lr. IV, 2, 67. 2. To forbid; to avert. Meas. Ill, 1, 141 ; Airs. I, 3, 174; Rom. IV, 1, 41. shift. To change. To shift his being = to change his dwelling. Cym. I, 5, 54. ship=tire. A particular kind of head- dress worn at that period. Wiv. Ill, 8, 60. See tire. shive. A slice. Tit. 11,1,87. "'Tissafe taking a shive of a cut loaf " is a very old proverb. shoes. The expression over shoes, for moderately deep, occurs in Mids. Ill, 2, 48, and Gent. I, 1, 24. In the latter passage it is contrasted with over boots, which is deeper yet. In John II, 1, 144, the word shows, of the g. a. text, reads shoes in the Fl. In the 3rd Var., Vol. XV, p. 229, the old reading is retained, and Steevens cites numerous passages to support it. The emendation is due to Theobald. The SHO 387 SHO very obvious meaning is, "As Hercules' hon's skin (the skin of the Wemean lion which he wore) shows upon the back of an ass." F. A. Marshall. See slipj^er. shoeing=horn. Awell-known toilet article; metaphorically, a subservient tool or instrument. In applying the term to Menelaus, Thersites, no doubt, had in mind the time-worn joke about horns and cuckolds. Troil. V, 1, 61. See transformation. shog. To move on. HV. II 1 47 shoots. In Wint. I, 2, 128,' shoots evi- dently means the horns of the cuckold Henley (the old Sh. com.), in the 3rd Var. (1831), Vol. XIV, p. 249, thus paraphrases the words of Leontes : " To make thee a calf thou must have the tuft on thy forehead and the young horns that shoot up in it,* as I have " It has been objected that " he gives no authority for his explanation of ' pash ' by tuft.'' But he does not explain "pash " by tuft; the pash is the head (see pash) and the rough pash which Leontes speaks of is a pash with a tuft of hair such as usually grows on the head of a young bull. See also Ad- denda, s.v. pash. Shootie. The name of Master Shooty the great traveller, as it reads in the g. a. text (Meas.IV, 3, 18), is "Shootie" m the Fl., and it has been suggested that It is a sort of pun on shoe tie Warburton reads Shooter, and the 3rd Var. and some others Shoe-tie. See Sure-card. shot. 1. Range; reach. Tit. II 1 2 • Hml. I, 3, 35. ' ' ' 2. In 2HIV. Ill, 2, 395, shot "is used for shooter, one who is to fight by shooting ' ' Johnson. At the present day it is in common use as a synonym for marks- man, but in Sh. time it was equivalent to musketeer, as in IHVI. I, 4, 53, and HVIII. V, 4, 59. This was the meaning among writers of the time as quoted by Steevens and Malone. Thus in Stowe's " Annales," speaking of a body of men, he says: "the greater part whereof were shot, and the other were pikes and halberts in faire corslets." 3. A tavern reckoning or one's share thereof. Gent. II, 5, 7; Cym. V, 4, 158 'The literal sense is ' contribution, ''that which IS ' shot ' into the general fund." Skeat. In IHIV. V, 3, 30, there is a pun upon the two meanings of the word —a tavern reckoning and also a missile discharged from a gun. shotten herring. One that has shed its roe and is consequently lank and lean. Coioden Clarke. Hunter makes it "a herring gutted and dried." Clarke's definition is probably correct IHIV II, 4, 145. ^ ni^l'94'^ kind of shaggy dog. Mcb. shoulder. The word itself requires no explanation, but some of the passages in which it occurs have called forth comment. In As IV, 1, 48, Cupid hath clapt htm o the shoulder, but Fll warrant him heart-whole, has been explained in two ways : (1) to clap on the shoulder in token of friendly encouragement, as in T "^1 ^' 1' 261;LLL. V, 3, 107, and Troil. Ill 3, 138; and (3) to arrest, as m Cym. V, 3, 78, and Err. IV, 2, 37 bchm. and some others prefer the latter explanation, but Purness thinks that on the whole, the former interpreta- tion seems preferable." Ifcappearsso to me. h urness seeuas to think that "there IS colour for [Schmidt's] preference in the use of the word 'warrant' im- mediately following. " But " warrant " here is not a writ of attachment, but a verbal guarantee, and if Cupid had attached the supposed delinquent lover by way of arrest, there would have been no escape for him. He would not have remained "heart-whole." Verity ("The Henry Irving Shakespeare") explains the expression as "lightly touched." Othello's description of men wliose heads Do groiv beneath their shoulders was, no doubt, taken from Sir John Mandeville's account of his travels in which he tells us that "in another Yle SHO 288 SIB toward the South, duellen folk of foule Stature and of cursed kynde, than have no Hedes ; and here Eyen ben in here Scholdres." This seems to have im- pressed itself upon the people of Sh. time, for it is alluded to again in Tp. Ill, 3, 47. shoulder, v. To push with violence ; to displace. IHVI. IV, 1, 189 ; RIII. Ill, 7, 128. sfaoulder^shotten. Sprained ; dislocated in the shoulder. Shr. Ill, 2, 56. shove=groat shilling. A smooth shilling used in the game of shove-groat. 3HIV. II, 4, 205. At first the game was played with the silver groats of the time, then nearly as large as modern shillings. When the broad shillings of Edward VI were coined they were substituted for the groats in this game. See Edward shovel-boards. shovel. To throw with a shovel. In Wint. IV, 4, 471, the metre requires that this word should have the Scottish or old English pronunciation — shool. The spelling in the Fl. is shouel, but this is of no weight, as the u was gener- ally substituted for v under certain con- ditions, as in aduenture in line 472. I think it very probable that if Sh. him- self were to appear on an English or American stage in one of his own plays, none but educated Scotchmen would be able to understand him. See priest. Dr. Furness seems to appreciate this, and in his recent volumes gives more and more attention to the Scottish language as found in Sh. And there is yet room. See silly. shovel=board. Steevens seems to imply that shove-groat and shovel-board were the same, but Douce claims that they were different. The game consisted in shoving or sliding smooth pieces of metal (groats or shillings) so as to land them near certain marks on a smooth board. Wiv. I, 1, 159. See Strutt's *' Sports and Pastimes," and Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare." Showed. Appeared. In Mcb. I, 2, 15, the meaning is that Fortune, while she smiled on him, deceived him. Malone. shrewd. 1. Bad; mischievous. Wiv. II, 2, 233 ; Meas. II, 1, 263 ; Shr. I, 1, 185 ; John. V, 5, 14; RII. Ill, 2, 59; 2HIV. II, 4, 228. 2. Cunning; artful. Mids. II, 1, 38; Troil. I, 2, 206. shrewdly. To a great and mischievous extent ; mischievously. Ado. II, 1, 84 ; All's. Ill, 5, 91 ; HV. Ill, 7, 52 ; do. 163; Hml. I, 4, 1. shrieve. A sheriff. AU's. IV, 8, 218; 2HIV. IV, 4, 99. shriving=time. Opportunity or time for confession and repentance. Hml. V, 2, 47. shroud. To cover ; to take shelter. Tp. II, 2, 42 ; LLL. IV, 3, 137. shrow. A shrew (a mere variation in spelling, like sew and sow). LLL. V, 2, 46. shrowd, n. Shelter ; protection. Ant. III, 13, 71. Shylock, dr.p. A Jew. Merch. sib. Related by blood ; nearly akin. (Scotch.) Kins. I, 2, 72. See gossip. Sibyl. The name by which several pro- phetic women are designated. The first Sibyl, from whom all the rest are said to have derived their name, is called a daughter of Dardanus and Neso. They are generally described as of great age (0th. Ill, 4, 70), and their number is variously stated at from four to ten. The most famous of the Sibyls was the Cumgean, who guided ^neas into Hades. She is said to have come to Italy from the East, and she is the one who, according to tradition, appeared before Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, with nine books containing the Roman des- tinies, which she offered him for three hundred pieces of gold. The king re- fused the offer, thinking the price too high, whereupon the Sibyl burnt three of the books and demanded the same price for the remaining six. The king again refused, and again she departed and burnt three of the books, and on her return again demanded the same price for the remaining three books. SIC SII Tarquin consulted the pontiffs, and by their advice paid the three hundred gold pieces for the three books that were left. These books were kept with great care at Rome ; they were called the Sibylline Books, and two magistrates were appointed to consult them in every crisis. In IHVI. I, 2, 56, the number of Sibyls is given as nine ; as the num- ber of the Sibyls is nowhere given as nine, it is supposed that in this case Sh. has made the mistake of giving the number of Sibylline Books for the num- ber of the Sibyls. sides. Shekels. Meas. II, 2, 149. ~^^ Sicinius Velutus, dr.p. Tribune of the people. Cor. side=sleeves. Loose, hanging sleeves (in some eds. not hyphenated). Ado. Ill, 4,21. Siege. 1. Seat. Meas. IV, 2, 101. 2. Rank ; degree ; place. Hnil. IV, 7, 77 ; 0th. I, 2, 22. This use of the word is derived from definition 1, because people sat at table and elsewhere in order of precedence. 3. Excrement; faecal matter. Tp. II, 2, 110. The use of the word in this sense is far-fetched, but very obvious. See 3rd Var., Vol. XV, p. 100. sieve. In most passages (Ado. V, 1, 5 ; Airs. 1, 3, 208 ; Mcb. I, 3, 8), the ordinary sifter or sieve is meant. In this form the holes with which the bottom is per- forated, allow water and fine powders to pass through freely. But there was another vessel, also called a sieve and made in the form of a sieve, but with a closely woven bottom. Such sieves were and are used for carrying and measuring grain, etc. , and were used in former times to receive the refuse of the table. This is undoubtedly the article alluded to in Troil. II, 2, 71. Such sieves or flat-bottomed baskets when used at table were called voiders. The reading in the Quarto is sine, a common form in old books for " sive '' or "sieve." The Fl. reads sa?ne ; the other Folios, place, and DeUus, sink^ a Grer- man emendation which looks very much like a technological anachronism. sighted. Having eyes. Wint. I, 2, 388. sightless. 1. Invisible. Mcb. I, 5, 50. 2. Unsightly; offensive. John III, 1, 45. sights. The perforated part of their helmets, through which they could see to direct their aim. Steevens. 2HIV. IV, 1, 131. sign. 1. To mark ; to denote. John IV, 2, 222 ; HVIII. II, 4, 108 ; Cses. Ill, 1, 206. 2. To be an omen. Ant. IV, 3, 14. Silence, dr.p. A country justice, cousin -to Justice Shallow. 2HIV. Silius, dr.p. An ofiicer of Ventidius's army. Ant. silken point. A tagged lace used for supporting the hose and other parts of the dress. 2HIV. I, 1, 54. Here evi- dently equivalent to " a trifling matter. " silly. Skeat tells us that this " word has much changed its meaning. It meant timely; then lucky, happy, blessed, innocent, simple, foolish." The old form was seely or sely, and that it also bore the meaning of poor, trifling, weak, both as to intellectual and material things, can easily be shown. Thus, in the " Travels " of Sir John Mandeville we find, ' ' to apparay He with our Bodyes, we usen a sely litylle clout." And in Spenser's Sonn. LXIII, the word occurs in the same sense : After long storms * * * In dread of death and dangerous dis- may, With which my silly bark was tossed sore, I do at length descry the happy shore. And in Burns's lines " To a Mouse " he says : Thy wee bit * housie too in ruinl Its silly wa'st the win"s are strewin. The word is now used almost wholly in the sense of foolish or weak-minded, * These words were hyphenated in the first ed. of Burns's poems, but not in the Edinburgh ed., pubUshed under the poet's supervision, and- not in the best subsequent eds, t Walls. SIL 290 SIL but by Sh. it is used with a variety of meanings. Schmidt, in his "Lexicon," notes the following : 1. "Harmless, innocent, helpless." In some of his instances, as Lucr. 167, it may bear this meaning, but in 8HVI. I, 1, 243, and Gent. IV, 1, 72, the word weak would be a closer synonym. 2. " Plain, simple. " That the word has this meaning in Tw. II, 4, 47 {cf. silly- sooth) is no doubt correct, but surely this is not the meaning in IHVI. IV, 7, 7'2 : Here is a silly stately style indeed, for this would be a contradiction in terms. If we make silly = foolish in this passage, I think we get nearer to the true sense. And it certainly is not the meaning in Wint. IV, 3, 28. See silly cheat. Again : As found in Cym. V, 3, 86 : There was a fourth man, in a silly habit. That gave the affront ivith them, Schm. gloss— " plain, simple" — robs the British captain's speech of its entire point and force. Steevens explained the word here as "simple or rustick, ' ' and in this he has been followed by most coms. Malone's note on this passage is as follows : " So in the novel of Boccace, on which this play is formed: *The servant, who had no great good will to kill her, very easily grew pitifull, took off her upper garment, and gave her a poore ragged doublet, a silly chapperone, etc' 'The Decameron,' 1620. ' ' But Sh. could not hav e obtained the expression from this book, which did not appear until many years after Cymbeline had been placed upon the stage. And even here "simple or rustic " does not seem to give the true sense. A ' ' poore ragged doublet ' ' would be one that was weak to defend from the weather, and this is evidently just what is meant. In Cym. V, 3, 86, pre- cisely as in the lines quoted from Burns, the word means physically or materially weak — incapable of resisting spear- thrust or sword-cut. It was a grand and emphatic testimony to the bravery and skill of Posthumus that, without armour, "in a siUy habit," he should have fought with the steel-clad Roman soldiers and overcome them. It calls to mind the song of " The Bloody Vest " in Scott's "Talisman," where the hero at his lady's behest exchanged A hauberk of steel for a kirtle of thread And charged, thus attired, in the tournament dread, acquitting himself with such credit as to deserve the praises of minstrels and the hand of the princess. But to make silly mean "plain," "simple," or "rustic" takes the very life out of this noble tribute to the chivalrous daring of Posthumus. 3. Schmidt's third class is defined as "poor (a) as a term of pity (6) as a term of contempt," and afterwards he gives examples in which it is equivalent to "simple, witless, foolish." But in most of the passages cited in this class, the nearest equivalents are probably foolish and weak. Bearing these points in mind, the reader will find no difficulty in extract- ing the ti'ue sense from any passage in which the word occurs. silly cheat. Of this phrase, as found in Wint. IV, 3, 28 ("silly Cheate" in the Fl.), Furness says: "Neither 'silly* nor ' cheat ' is difficult of comprehension, nor is any difficulty added when they are combined." Certainly not if, in the first place, we manage to get the right meaning of the separate words. Dr. Furness does not attempt to tell us what that meaning is, evidently think- ing that the words are too simple to need explanation, and the ordinary dic- tionaries, even the large ones, give us no special information on the point. Hanmer felt so puzzled over the ex- pression that he suggested an emend- ment : sly for silly ; for this Warburton took him severely to task, saying that "silly means simple, low, mean," and implying that the combination was merely another mode of saying that he (Autolycus) was "a snapper -up of unconsidered trifles." Steevens says: StL 291 siir " The silly cheat is one of the technical terms belonging to the art of coney- catching or thievery, which Greene has mentioned, among the rest, in his treatise on that ancient and honorable science. I think it means picking pockets.'''' But Furness says: "As a ' technical term ' I have not noted it in Greene." Schm., followed by Rolfe, defines it as " petty thievery." Any one of these explanations makes very good sense, but does it give the meaning that Sh. had in view ? Autoly- cus was supposed to be an adept in slang; now, in slang, "cheat" or *'chete" means a thing or person, e.g., grunting-cheat = a pig ; lullaby-cheat = a baby. This word, or affix rather, is found in the earliest rogue's lexicon, that by Harman, published in 1566. So that silly-cheat would mean a foolish person, and this, I think, is the mean- ing of the words here. It may be objected to this that Auto- lycus says that his reveyiue is the silly cheat, and the strict sense of revenue is income. But the word was sometimes used for the source of the income as well as for the income itself, a sort of metonymy which is not uncommon in Sh. cf. Tp. I, 1, 98. See silly. silly sooth. Plain, simple truth. John- son. See sooth. Silvia, dr. p. Daughter to the Duke of Milan. Gent. Simonides, dr.p. King of Pentapolis. Per. Simpcox, dr.p. An impostor. 2HVI. Simple, dr.p. Servant to Slender. Wiv. simple, n. A medicinal herb. Wiv. I, 4, 65 ; Rom. V, 1, 40. simple, adj. Foolish ; silly. Gent. II, 1, 38 ; Horn. II, 5, 38 ; Hml. I, 2, 97. simular. Counterfeit ; false ; hypocritical. Lr. Ill, 2, 54; Gym. V, 5, 200. single. Simple ; silly ; weak. 2HIV. I, 2, 207 ; Cor. II, 1, 40 ; Mcb. I, 3, 140. See double. singleness. Silliness ; simplicity. Rom. II, 4, 73. In Sonn. VIII, 8, it means the state of "single blessedness." single=soled. Threadbare ; weak ; foolish. Rom. II, 4, 72. There is here an obvious pun upon single sole and single soul. The meaning of the word as it was understood in Sh. time is very fully settled. Cotgrave, s. v. " Relief " has : " Bas relief. Gentilhome de bas relief. A thred-bare or single-soled Gentle- man; a Gentleman of low degree.'''' Furness and the 3rd Var. give numerous examples of its use in this sense. singularity. 1. Peculiarity; distinction. Tw. 11,5, 164; Cor. 1,1,282. 2. A rarity ; a curio. Wint. V, 3, 11. sinister. Left. Bight and sinister = right and left. Mids. V, 1, 162. Wright says Snout uses this word for two reasons: "first, because it is a long word, and then because it gives a sort of rhyme to whisper." sink=a°pace. A corruption of cinque- pace {q. V). Tw. I, 3, 139. In Ado. II, 1,'82, there is an evident pun between cinque-pace and sink-a- pace. Beatrice says : falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. Collier's MS. cor- rector emended to '•'• sink a-pace into his grave. ' ' This Halli well calls ' ' an alter- ation of singular ingenuity," and even Dyce, an avowed enemy of Collier, says : "There is no denying that, in this instance at least, Mr. Collier's MS. cor- rector has drawn on his invention with considerable success." Furness says: " The chief est objection to Collier's text, apart from its lack of authority, is to me, its obviousness ; the play upon words is amply evident without it." Yes, when the play is read at leisure by cultivated persons; but Sh. wrote for the multitude whom he wished to attract to his theatre, and many of his puns are very obvious. sinking^ripe. See ripe. Sinon. According to Virgil, he was a grandson of Autolycus and a kinsman of Ulysses whom he accompanied to Troy. Tradition relates that he allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, after he had mutilated himself SIN 292 SIB in such a manner as to make them believe that he had been illtreated by the Greeks. He told the Trojans that he was hated by Ulysses and had been selected by him to be saci'iflced, because Apollo had ordered a human sacrifice to be offered that the Greeks might safely depart from the coast of Troy, and, he added, that he had escaped death by flight. When he was asked what was the purport of the wooden horse, he told them that it had been constructed as an atonement for the Palladium which had been carried off:. For the rest of the story see horse, 07ninous. 3HVI. Ill, 2, 190 ; Gym. Ill, 4,61. sins. The seven deadly sins referred to in Meas. Ill, 1, 111, are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, covetousness, gluttony, lechery. Dyce. sir. 1. Used in a sense corresponding to she, q.v. Thus in Gym. V, 5, 145, a nobler sir ne''er lived. 2. "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 conver- sation 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. ' ' Nares. 3. A gallant; a courtier. To play the sir = to act the gallant. 0th. II, 1, 176. Siren. In Sh. tiiiie the terms siren and 7nermaid seem to have been synonym- ous. In the old mythology the Sirens were sea-nymphs who, by their singing, fascinated those who sailed past their island, and enticed sailors to throw themselves into the sea. The number is variously stated at two, three or more. Homer tells us that Ulysses, forewarned by Girce, stopped the ears of his crew with wax so. that they might pass the isles of the Sirens with safety. He himself wisk«d to hear their song, so he caused the sailors to tie him to the mast, with strict injunctions not to untie him, however strongly he might plead or command, until they had passed the isle of the enchantresses. When the Argonauts passed by the Sirens, the latter began to sing, but in vain, for Orpheus rivalled and surpassed them ; and as it had been decreed that they should live only until some one hearing their song should pass by unmoved, they threw themselves into the sea and were metamorphosed into rocks. It is said that the Sirens were origin- ally the attendants of Proserpina, and when their mistress was carried off by Pluto they were metamorphosed into birds, some say at their own request, that they might fly over the sea in search of Proserpina, while others say that Geres so transformed them as a punishment for not having guarded their mistress more faithfully. They were deprived of their wings because they had the presumption to challenge the Muses to a singing contest. In woi'ks of art they are represented as having the head, arms and generally the bust of a young woman, and the wings and lower part of the body, or sometimes only the feet, of a bii'd. Sonn. GXIX, 1 ; Err. Ill, 2, 47 ; Tit. II, 1, 23. sir reverence. A corruption of save- reverence (salva revei-entia) an old formula of apology for introducing any too free or indelicate expression. It was considered a sufficient apology for anything indecorous. It corresponds to the vulgar formula, saving your pre- sence. In Err. Ill, 2, 93, Droniio of S. evidently wishes to suggest that he could not speak of the fat cook without using words unfit for ears polite. In Rom. I, 4, 42, the Fl. reads, Or saue your reuerence loue; the g. a. text. Of this sir-reverence love, which Knight explains thus: "Mercutio saj^s he will draw Romeo from the ' mire of this love,' and uses, parenthetically, the ordinary form of apology for speaking SIS 293 SKI so profanely of love." He then gives quotations illustrating the use of the phrase. Gifford, referring to this ex- pression, says : " An allusion to the good old custom of apologizing for the introduction of a free expression, by bowing to the principal person in com- pany and saying : ' Sir, with reverence, ' or 'Sir, reverence.'" In Ado. Ill, 4, 32, Margaret twits w^hat she thinks is Hero's prudishness by suggesting that she should use this phrase in speaking of a husband. sister, v. To resemble closely. Per. V, Prol. 7. sistering. Neighboring. Compl. 2. sith. Since. Hml. II, 2, 12. sithence. Since. Cor. Ill, 1, 47 ; All's. I, 3, 124. Siward, dr.p. Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces. Mcb. See Macbeth. Siward, Young, dr. p. Son to Siward. Mcb. sizes. Settled portions or allowances. Lr. II, 4, 178. From this comes the word sizar, the name given to a poor college student, from the sizes or allowances given to him. skains=mates. An expression which has never been clearly explained. Malone made it " cut-throat " companions, and Steevens has a long note explaining that shein or skain is a knife or short dagger, and that by skains-mates the nurse meant his loose companions who fre- quented the fencing-school with him. (3rd Var., Vol. VI, p. 109.) That skeen or skein means a knife is true, but irrelevant, as it would be difficult to imagine the old nurse going with a lot of young bloods to a fencing school. Dyce thought the meaning remained to be discovered, but accepted Staunton's explanation, which is : " The word skain, I am told by a Kentish man, was for- merly 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 the worthy old Nurse would entertain a horror of being considered a companion [or mate] to." Rom. II, 4, 162. Douce supposes that sem^sf?'esse6' is meant, from '* skein " of thread, and Dowden thinks this not improbable, for sempsters (fem.) had an ill-repute. skill. 1. Cunning. Wint. II, 1, 166. 2. Reason; motive. Wint. IV, 4, 152. To this explanation, first offered by Warburton, Mason and some others objected that there was no example of its use in this sense, but Halliwell and Dyce bring forward several instances. Thus, in "The Voiage and Travaile " of Sir John Maundeville, we find : ' ' 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 habita- ciouns there. " And in Warner's ' ' Con- tinuance of Albions England " (1606) are the lines : Hence Englands heires apparant haue of Wales bin princes, till Our queene deceast concealed her heire, I wot not for what skill. skill, V. To be of importance ; to signify ; to matter. Shr. Ill, 2, 134 ; T w. V, 1, 295 ; 2HVI. Ill, 1, 281. skilless. Ignorant ; unacquainted with. Tp. Ill, 1, 53; Troil. I, 1, 12; Tw. Ill, 3, 9. skillet. A small iron pot, generally made with three feet. 0th. I, 3, 274. skimble-skamble. Wandering; disjointed; confused. IHIV. Ill, 1, 154. skin. The expression, holiest as the skin betiveen his brows (Ado. Ill, 5, 13), seems to have been a common saying. It occurs twice in Gammer Gurton''s Needle (1551). Furness makes the very ingenious suggestion that the phrase may have arisen "from the fact that it was on the forehead that the brand of shameful conduct was set." Conse- quently, an unbranded brow would denote honesty. This is a better ex- planation than can be found for most phrases of the kind. See hawk. The saying of the clown in All's. II, SKI 294 SLE 2, 29, as fit * * * as the pudding to his skin, is easily understood when we remember the old practice of filling the emptied and cleansed intestines of pigs and sheep with pudding-stuff, just as we now fill them with sausage-meat. In Sh. x>udding often means intestine, as in Wiv. II, 1, 32. The original meaning of pudding was simply a bag, afterwards applied to the material with which the bag was filled. skinker. A drawer of liquor ; a tapster. IHIV. II, 4, 26. skipper. A thoughtless fellow. Shr. II, 1, 333. skirr. To scour ; to move rapidly. HV. IV, 7, 64 ; Mcb. V, 3, 35. slab. Slimy ; glutinous. Mcb. IV, 1, 32. slack. To neglect. Lr. II, 4, 248 ; 0th. . IV, 3, 88. The expression in Rom. IV, 1, 3, / am nothing slow to slack his haste, seems, at first sight, to convey a mean- ing directly opposite to that intended. Malone explains it as : " There is nothing of slowness in me to induce me to slacken or abate his haste." Knight makes it: "I am nothing slow (so as) to slack his haste." This Dowden thinks is the right explanation. slander. 1. Disgrace; reproach. RIII. I, 3, 231. 2. Ill report ; bad name. Cym. I, 1, 71. slanderous cuckoo. By some explained as "because supposed to tell tales of unfaithful wives." But if the wives were unfaithful, the tales would not be slanderous. Probably it means that the cuckoo accuses all alike, the good and the bad, and consequently slanders many virtuous women. Kins. I, 1, 19. See cuckoo. slave. To turn to base or slavish uses. Lr. IV, 1, 71. sleave, ) Floss silk. Troil. V, 1, 35 ; sleave silk. ) Mcb. II, 2, 38. ^eesleided. sledded. This word occurs but once in Sh. and the corns, are divided as to whether it means seated in a sled or sledge, or provided with a sledge or hammer. It is an unusual word, and the only instance of its use, given in the dictionaries, is this passage. The letters s-1-e-d-g-e represent, not one word with two different meanings, but two entirely different words, having entirely different origins, and whose spelling and pronunciation are the same merely by accident. That this is the case with several words in common use is well known (see 2^^^9'^^ct'^i ^^^d salt 3), and it has given rise to some con- fusion when not taken fully into con- sideration. Sledge, meaning a vehicle, is derived from the same Teutonic base as slide, and conveys the idea of sliding ; sledge, a hammer, comes from the Anglo-saxon slecge, a hammer. The inflections, etc., of both words are now the same. Whether we shall adopt the vehicle or the hammer gloss for the word under consideration must depend upon the meaning given to "Pollax," which it qualifies in Hml. I, 1, 63. See Pollax, where the subject is treated exten- sively. Various emendations of sledded have been proposed, but all futile. Sleaded, Rochester; leaded, Moltke; sturdie, Leo, are not needed. If Polanders, seated in sledges or sleds, are meant, then sledded is the proper word, and its meaning is obvious. If "Pollax" means a pole-axe, then sledded, i.e., furnished with a sledge or hammer, is equally appropriate, and no emendation is re- quired. sleeve=hand. A wrist-band or cuff. Wint. IV, 4, 212. sleeveless. Useless; unprofitable. Troil. V, 4, 9. " I suspect that sleeveless, which has puzzled etymologists, is that which can- not be sleaved, sleided or unravelled; and therefore useless : thus, a sleeveless errand would be a fruitless one." Singer. sleided. Untwisted silk prepared to be used in the weaver's sley or slay is said to be sleided. Troil. V, 1, 35 ; Per. IV, Prol. 21 ; Compi. 48. In the latter pass- SLE 295 SLU age reference is made to the practice of tying up letters with sleided or floss silk, the ends of which were fastened with seals, sleight. An artifice ; a trick. 3HVI. IV, 2, 20 ; Mcb, III, 5, 26. Slender, dr.jJ. Cousin to Justice Shallow. Wiv. The word is slang for "country gentleman." slice. This word, as it occurs in Wiv. I, 1, 134, is usually defined as a mere in- terjection and consequently meaning- less. Schm. gives the common defini- tion (a thin piece cut off), and then says : ' ' A term applied to Mr. Slender by Nym, " intending, we suppose, that Nym is chaffing or guying Slender on his thin, lank appeai-ance. But is it not more probable that Nj'^m uses the word in the sense of "cut it shoi't " ; "shut up," or, as modern slang has it, " cheese it"? 'slid. Said to be a mincing contraction of "God's lid," the meaning of which is not very clear. Some say it means "Grod's eyelid" and refer us to Acts xvii, 30, Schm. says: "A mean oath used by such persons as Mr. Slender and Sir Andrew." Probably in common use and no meaner than ^sblood or ''slight, or any "pretty oaths that are not dangerous." (As. IV, 1, 192.) Wiv. Ill, 4, 24 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 427. It is God's lid in Troil. I, 2, 228. See 'shlood. 'slight. A minced oath. Nares saj^s it is " a contracted form of ' by this light,' a familiar asseveration." In this he is followed by some coms. who seem anxious to soften the coarseness of the real origin, which is undoubtedly "God's light," just as in the case of ^sblood, ''swounds {q. v). Some even go so far as to make ''slid = by this light, but cf. Troil. I, 2, 228, where the uncontracted form is given "flat-footed," if we may be pardoned a slang, but expressive, phrase. If these expressions are ob- jectionable, leave them out, but do not misstate the facts. slip. 1. A leash; a kind of noose in which greyhounds are held before they are allowed to start for the game. So called because by slip2oing one part the dog is set free. HV. Ill, 1, 31. 2. A piece of false money. Ven. 51.5 ; Rom. II, 4, 51 (punning), cf. Troil. II, 3,27. slipper, adj. Slippery. 0th. II, 1, 246. slippers. The passage in John IV, 2, 197, which his nimble haste had falsely thrust upon contrary feet, called forth the following curious note from Dr. Johnson: "I know not how the com- mentators understand this important passage, which, in Dr. Warburton's edition, is marked as eminently beauti- ful and, on the whole, not without justice. But Shakespeare seems to have confounded the man's shoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally admit either foot. The author seems to be disturbed by the disorder which he describes." Johnson's Edition (1765), Vol. Ill, p. 475. The 3rd. Var., Vol. XV, p. 325, contains a page and a half of explanatory notes on this passage, prefaced by the follow- ing from Bos well : " The following notes afford a curious specimen of the diffi- culties which may arise from the fluc- tuations of fashion. What has called forth the antiquarian knowledge of so many learned commentators is again become the common practice at this day." That is to say, in 1765 shoes were not made rights and lefts ; in 1821 they were so made, and thus the whirli- gig of time biHngs in his revenges, which are sometimes very amusing. sliver. To break or tear off. Mcb. IV, I, 28 ; Lr. IV, 2, 34. This is a common word on this side of the Atlantic, though English coms. seem to think it necessary to explain it. slobbery, adj. Wet ; sloppy ; flooded. HV. Ill, 5, 13. slops. Large, loose trousers or breeches. Ado. Ill, 2, 36; 2HIV. I, 2, 34; Rom. II, 4, 47. slubber. 1. To soil; to sully. 0th. I, 3, 227. cf. beslubber. SLTJ 296 SNO 2. To slur over ; to do carelessly. Mercb. II, 8, 39. sluttish spoils. Johnson explains sluttish spoils of opportunity (Troil, IV, 5, 62) as " corrupt wenches, of whose chastity every opportunity may make a prey." Sly, Christopher, dr. p. A drunken tinker. Shr. Ind. smack. A smattering. All's. IV, 1, 18. small. Not loud, but high-toned and clear. Cor. Ill, 2, 114; Tw. I, 4, 33. cf. quill. smatch. Smack ; taste. Cses. V, 5, 46. smatter. To prate ; to chatter. Rom. III, 5, 172. smilet. Diminutive of smile. Lr. IV, 3, 21. Smith the Weaver, dr. p. A follower of Jack Cade. 2HVI. smoke. The passage in Ado. I, 3, 61, as I was smoking a inusty room, sounds queerly to modern ears. But in the time of Sh. the practice of fumigating rooms for " the swetynynge of the house " (Sir John Fuckering's directions to his steward) was quite common. Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melan- choly," tells us that "the smoake of juniper is in great request with us at Oxford, to sweeten our chambers." 3rd Var., Vol. VII, p. 32. After quoting various notes on this passage, Dr. Furness, in his elaborate ed. of Ado., makes the following re- mark : "It has been noted (first, I think, by Thornbury ; but I speak under correction) that Shakespeare nowhere alludes to tobacco. It is clear that those who make this claim did not read their Shakespeare in either Rowe's Second Edition or in Pope, where Borachio is made to say that he was 'smoking in a musty room." This is a capital hit at super - serviceable emendators. smooth, adj. Bland; insinuative. As. V, 4, 47 ; IHIV. II, 4, 79. smooth, V. 1. To make bland and in- sinuative. Pilgr. 306. 2. To flatter. 2HVI. I, 1, 156 ; Tit. IV, 4, 96 ; Per. I, 2, 78. snaffle. A bridle consisting of a slender mouth- bit with a single rein and with- out a curb. Ant. II, 2, 63. Schm. defines it as a " bridle which crosses the nose," certainly an imperfect descrip- tion. A snaffle is one of the easiest forms of bit (for the horse), hence Antony's expression : which with a snaffle you may pace easy, that is, without a severe bit, such as a curb. Snare, dr. p. A sheriff's officer. 2HIV. sneck up. Usually defined as an ex- clamation of contempt, equivalent to " Go and hang yourself ! " So in Nares, Dyce, Schm., etc. Tw. II, 3, 101. I think it quite as probable that in this case it means "shut up!" A sneck is an old word for latch (still used in Scotland) ; sneck the door = shut or latch the door. Either definition makes good sense in this passage, the only one where the word occurs in Sh. In the 3rd Var. the comments on this passage include several quotations which favor the " go hang yourself " gloss. sneap, n. A reprimand ; a taunt ; a snub. 2HIV. II, 1, 133. sneap, v. To check; to nip. LLL. I, 1, 100 ; Wint. I, 2, 13. snipe. The smallest of game birds, hence a synonym for a trifling, insignificant creature. 0th. I, 3, 390. War burton calls it "a diminitive woodcock," which it certainly is not, as it belongs to an entirely different species. snipt=-taffeta. Ribbons or snippings of taffeta. All's. IV, 5, 2. A contemptu- ous expression used by Lafeu in allusion to Parolles' would-be fine clothes, orna- mented with ribbons or snippings of taffeta. See taffeta. snore, v. To breathe with a rough, hoarse noise in sleep. Tp. II, 1, 217 and 300; \ Cym. Ill, 6, 34. snore, n. A breathing with a harsh noise in sleep. Tp. II, 1, 218 ; Mcb. II, 2, 6. This word as verb and noun occurs nine times in the plays. It is, no doubt, an imitative or onomatopoetic word, akin to snarl. Snore and snort seem to be from the same root, and it is prob- able that, as Wedgwood suggests, the SNO 297 SNTT effect of the final t is to express abrupt- ness or discontinuity. In Sh. time the two words were clearly differentiated, and it would seera that snoring would be more appropriate than snorting in Oth. I, 1, 90. When we consider Fal- staff's "robustious" characteristics, snorting would, perhaps, be a permis- sible word to use in his case. IHIV. II, 4, 578. snorting. Snoring. Oth. 1, 1, 90 ; IHIV- II, 4, 578. See snore. Snout the Tinker, dr. p. Mids. snow. The line in Mids. V, 1, 59, That is, hot ice mid strange snow, involves a difficulty which is not easily solved. The speech of Theseus has for its object the setting in opposition of various con- tradictory qualities ; hot ice is easily understood, but strange snow does not seem to convey any clear idea. Pope omitted the line altogether. Others have emended by reading "shew" for "snow"; "black snow"; "strong snow"; "seething snow"; "swarthy snow"; "staining snow"; "sable snow." Steevens explained the expres- sion as : " hot ice and snow of as strange a quality." The Cowden-Clarkes, how- ever, explain strange, as it occurs here and in some other passages, as " anom- alous, unnatural, prodigious," and this seems to give a good sense as the line stands. snow=broth. The cold, foamy product of melted snow. Meas. I, 4, 58. This expression has puzzled some, but it is a common one amongst Scotch anglers, who know that "snaw-broo" spoils the water for fishing. snuff. The radical meaning of this word is the black carbonaceous deposit which gathers on the wick of an old-fashioned candle and which, in the early part of the last century, was removed every little while by means of a pair of "snuffers," some of which were of the most beautiful and elaborate designs and costly materials. In these days of electricity, acetylene, gas, kerosene and patent candles which require no " snuff- ing," the force of some of Sh. expres- sions in which "snuff" is used is not evident to modern readers. Thus, in Cym. I, 6, 86, To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace P the dungeon by a snuff, a ' 'snuff ' ' means an unsnuff ed candle, i.e., one of which the wick is laden with snuff and which consequently gives a poor light. (Rolfe explains as a " snuffed candle," meaning, no doubt, a candle with much snuff ; but this is an unusual use of the word "snuffed.") See also Hml. IV, 7, 116, and Lr. IV, 6, 39. From this darkening of the light by the accumulation of snuff, the word snuff came to mean offence or huff, as in LLL. V, 2, 23, and Mids. V, 1, 254, and also an object of contempt, as in All's. I, 2, 59, all which uses, allusions and quibbles are easily understood when the facts relating to their origin are known. Snug the Joiner, dr.p. Mids. In a note upon Bottom's direction to Snug, in Mids. Ill, 1, 46 : Let him name his na')ne ; and tell them plainly, he is Snug the joiner, Malone (SrdVar., Vol. V, p. 246) says: "There are prob- ably many temporary allusions to par- ticular incidents and characters scat- tered through our author's plays, which gave a poignancy to certain passages, while the events were recent, and the persons pointed at yet living. In the speech now before us, I think it not improbable that he meant to allude to a fact which happened in his time, at an entertainment exhibited before Queen Elizabeth. It is recorded in a manu- script collection of anecdotes, stories, etc., entitled Merry Passages and Jeasts, MS. Harl. 6395 : " ' There was a spectacle presented to Queen Elizabeth upon the water, and, among others, Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon the Dolphin's backe ; but finding his voice to be verye hoarse and unpleasant, when he came to perform it, he tears off his disguise and swears he xvas none of Arion, not he, hut even honest Harry Golding- so so ham; which blunt discoverie pleased the queene better than if it had gone through in the right way : — yet he could order his voice to an instrument ex- ceeding well. ' " The collector of these Meri-y Passages appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Estrange." Sir Walter Scott in his "Kenilworth," Vol. II, p. 202 (ed. of 1831), makes Mike Lambourne the hero of this story, and refers in a note to Laneham's account of the queen's entertainment, "a very diverting tract, written by as great a coxcomb as ever blotted paper." so, so! These words (0th. V, 2, 86), standing as they do, without any stage direction, are apt to puzzle the ordinary reader. Indeed, within a few weeks a most energetic, though, evidently, not a very well-informed correspondent has addressed a letter to one of our journals In which he scores poor Sh. unmercifully for what he calls the absurdity of this scene. If he had turned to the New Variorum edition of Dr. Furness, he would have found nearly six solid pages of fine type in which the subject is fully explained. The difficulty arises from the apparent contradiction of first having Desdemon a smothered, then having her revive so as to speak intelligently and afterwards die without apparent cause. This was noted by Steevens (see 3rd. Var., Vol. IX, p. 473), who says : " I am of opinion that some theatrical direction has been omitted, and that when Othello says — ' Not dead ? not yet quite dead ? * * * So, so ! ' he then stabs her, repeating the two last words as he repeats the blow." Verplanck says: "There is no stage direction at this place in the original copies ; but it is most probable that the Poet intended Othello here to stab Des- demona, according to the practice of the modern stage. His previous resolu- tion, 'I'll not shed her blood,' is for- gotten in the agony and terror of the moment, when he says — ' Not dead ! not yet quite dead ?' " That "the practice of the modern stage ' ' is the tradition of the past seems ntore than probable. Collier published an old ballad, found amongst the Eger- ton papers, in which we are told that Othello sought his lady as she layde Within her virgin bed, And there his hands of blackest shade He dyed to gory red. The antiquity of the ballad has been called in question, and Collier himself points out some errors in it, but it is apparently hot quite as modern as Dr. Ingleby would have us believe. That Garrick used the dagger is well known, but it is not quite settled whether he followed an old practice or intro- duced an innovation, the apologies that were offered for his so doing favoring the latter idea. Amongst modern actors, Booth, Fechter, Davenport and several others adopt the stabbing method ; Sal- vini thinks that "So, so" " means that Othello kneels on her breast to hasten her death." I am told that on the German stage stabbing is the usual practice. Of the editors, Steevens, Rann, Knight, Verplanck, Collier, Hudson, approve of stabbing ; the Clarkes think that probably Othello merely heaped more clothes around her ; Dyce, Staun- ton, White, Rolfe and Purnell are silent (Furness). Strange to say, "The Henry Irving Shakespeare " (Marshall and Verity), which is supposed to be the actor's special edition, passes the subject by without a word of comment. Furness, with his usual indefatig- able thoroughness, has not only dis- cussed the subject from the historical point of view, but he has insti- tuted a series of physiological en- quiries which throw much light on the subject. He very naively gives his reason for so doing : " For Shakespeare's credit I felt no concern, but I did feel mortified for Nature, on whose behalf it seemed that if ever our best medical wisdom were to be unmuzzled, this was so 309 SOI the hour." He therefore sent a marked copy of Act V, Scene 2, to seven of the most prominent medical men of the country and obtained from each his opinion as to the cause of death and the mode of its infliction. The results he gives at length on pages 304, et seq., of his edition of Othello. The details are altogether too voluminous to be quoted here and we must, therefore, refer to the work just-cited. That stabbing removes all the physio- logical objections which have been urged against Sh. description of this murder seems well established. Against the practice there has been urged the de- claration of Othello himself, Yet Fll not shed her blood. But it is to be observed that the stabbing is used only after the attempt to smother has failed ; that Othello should, in the intense ex- citement of the moment, entirely forget his first resolution, is no violation of the natural course of things. Again ; he uses the simile : Pale as thy smock, and this was the point which seemed to Dr. Furness to be an over- sight on the part of Sh. , for if Desde- mona were smothered, her face, accord- ing to the common ideas of such matters, would be dark and congested, and if stabbed, her smock would be red. But aside from the fact that mere smother- ing does not always cause a discoloration of the face, the stabbing would make it pale, and the blood, if any flowed out of the wound, would descend, by the action of gravity, to the bed, so that that part of the smock that was in sight would remain unstained and white. I cannot see any difficulty here. Another objection to the stabbing theory has been found in the words : WJiose breath, indeed, these hands have newly stopj^ed. This has been taken to mean that he stopped her breath by smothering, not by stabbing. But if we take the words in an absolutely literal sense, he must have held his hands over her mouth or round her throat ; he could nob have used the bed- clothes or a pillow, as has always been the custom in the first stage of the murder and as is, indeed, implied in the stage direction in the Fl. — Smothers her. Her breath might have been stopped by his hands, using a dagger or a pistol bullet, as really as if he had, by his proper hands, fractured ' ' the cricoid cartilage of the larynx," as Dr. Hunt claims he did. The reader who wishes to study the subject thoroughly must consult the ed. of Dr. Furness. sob. This word, as it occurs in Err. IV, 3, 25, has been pronounced nonsense, though, perhaps, the usual meaning of sob — " a convulsive sigh " (Worcester), is not so very inapt. A man would be likely to give a convulsive sigh when suddenly arrested. It is the reading in the Fl., the s being the old long form, which is very like an /. Consequently, Rowe amended to fob, giving this word the meaning of " a tap on the shoulder," a meaning which has been adopted by most modern dictionaries on the strength of this very passage, certainly a most unwarranted proceeding. Han- mer emended to "bob"; Dyce to " sop," and G.White to "stop." " Bob," in the sense of a light blow (cf. As. II, 7, 55) makes good sense, but a reason- ably good meaning is conveyed by "fob," and this was adopted by Mar- shall in "The Henry Irving Shake- speare." And we may here note that in the old printer's case the boxes for/ and the long s were placed side by side so that an exchange was easy. The known meanings of. fob are (1) to cheat; to trick ; (3) to beat or maltreat ; (3) to be put out of breath by running. The last, which is an old English or Scotch meaning, gives not a bad sense. Rolfe adopts "bob " which, after all, is prob- ably the true reading. soiled. Kept in a stall and fed upon fresh grass or other green forage (vetches are frequently used) cut and brought to it. Such rich food and the limiting of exercise is apt to make an animal high- SOI 300 SON spirited and boisterous. The practice and the word are both in use at the present day. Lr. IV, 6, 124. Schm. explains it as "high-fed with green food," omitting mention of the confinement, and Furness, following Heath (1765), says: "This is the term used for a horse that is turned out in the spring to take the first flush of grass." A pastm-e-fed horse is not usually known as a soiled horse. For obvious reasons this mode of feeding is specially applicable to stud horses. soilure. Defilement. Troil. IV, 1, 56. solemnity. A feast ; a festival. Rom. I, 5, 59 ; and c/. All's. II, 3, 187 ; Mcb. Ill, 1, 14, and Mids. IV, 1, 190. Hunter, "New Illustrations," Vol. II, p. 136, has this note upon the word : " The application of the word solemn is a relic of the sentiment of remote ages, when there was something of the religious feeling connected with all high festivals and banquettings. The history of the word solemn would form an interesting philological article, pre- senting as it does so many phases in succession. ' ' Ariosto, translated by Har- rington, has : never did young lady brave and bright Like dancing better on a solemn day. solidare. A small coin. Tim. Ill, 1, 46. Solinus, c?r. p. Duke of Ephesus. Err, Solon. The reference to Solon in Tit. I, 1, 177, that hath aspired to Solon'' s happiness^ is to the famous reply of that sage to Croesus, the last king of Lydia, who aslied him : Who was the happiest man he had ever seen? Solon answered that no man could be called happy till he had finished his life in a happy way. Alarmed at the growing power of the Persians, Croesus sent to consult the oracle of Apollo, at Delphi, whether he should march against the Persians, and received for answer that if he did so he would overthrow a great empire. Hereupon he collected a great army, marched against Cyrus, and after some indecisive battles he returned to Sardis where Cyrus besieged him, and after fourteen days captured the city. Croesus was taken alive and condemned to be burned to death. As he stood before the pyre, the warning of Solon came to his mind, and he thrice uttered the name of the sage. Cyrus enquired who it was that he called on ; and, upon hearing the story, repented of his purpose, and not only spared the life of Croesus, but made him his friend. Croesus survived Cyrus and accom- panied Cambyses in his expedition against Egypt. Solon was one of the seven sages. He lived to a ripe old age (about eighty) and died about 558 B. c. solve. Solution. Sonn. LXIX, 14. Somerset, Duke of, dr. p. A Lancastrian. 2HVI. and 3HVI. Somerville, Sir John, dr.p. 3HVI. sometime. Former or formerly. Tp. V, 1, 86; Cor. V, 1, 2; Hml. I, 2, 8, and III, 1, 114. sometimes. Formerly. RII. I, 2, 54; Hml. I, 1, 49 ; do. I, 2, 8. sonance. Sound ; tune. HV. IV, 2, 35. songs. Although this work makes no pretensions to the character of a con- cordance, it may not be out of place to give here a list of the songs found in Sh. A reference to the act and scene is all that is required, as such passages are easily found. A cup of wine that's brisk and fine. 2HIV. V,3. And will he not come again? Hml. IV, 5. Be merry, be merry, my wife has aU. 2HIV. V,3. Black spirits and white. Mcb. IV, 1. Blow, blow, thou winter wind. As. II, 7. Come away, come away, death. Tw. 11, 4. Come unto these yellow sands. Tp. I, 2. Come, thou monarch of the vine. Ant. II, 7. Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer. 2HIV. V, 3. Fear no more the heat b' the sun. Cym. IV, 2. Fie on sinful fantasy. Wiv. V, 5. Fools had ne'er less grace in a year. Lr. 1, 4. FuU fathom five thy father lies. Tp. I, 2. Get you hence, for I must go. Wint. IV, 4. Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings. Cym. II, 3. SON 301 SOU He that has and a little tiny wit. Lr. Ill, 2. Honour, riches, marriage - blessing, Tp. IV, 1. How should I your true love know? Hml. IV, 5. I am gone, sir, and anon, sir. Tw. IV, 2. I shall no more to sea, to sea. Tp. II, 2. It was a lover and his lass. As. V, 3. King Stephen was a worthy peer. Oth. II, 3. Lawn as white a driven snow. Wint. IV, 4. Love, love, nothing but love, still morel Troil. Ill, 1. Now the hungry lion roars. Mids. V, 1. Now, until the break of day. Mids. V, 1. Oh ! mistress mine, where are you roaming? Tw. II, 3. On a day — alack the day ! LLL. IV, 3. Orpheus with his lute made trees. HVIII. III, 1, Over hill, over dale. Mids. II, 1. Pardon, goddess of the night. Ado. V, 3. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Ado. 11,3. Take, O take those lips away. Meas. IV, 1. Tell me, where is fancy bred? Merch. Ill, 2. The ousel-cock, so black of hue. Mids. Ill, 1. The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree. Oth. IV, 2. Then is there mirth in heaven. As. V, 4. To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day. Hml. IV, 5. To shallow rivers, to whose fall. Wiv. HI, 1, Under the greenwood tree. As. II, 5. Was this fair face the cause? quoth she. All's. I, 3. Wedding is great Juno's crown. As. V, 4. What shall he have that killed the deer? As. IV, 2. When daisies pied, and violets blue. LLL. V,2. When daffodils begin to peer. Wint. IV, 3. When that I was and a little tiny boy. Tw. V,l. Where the bee sucks, there suck I. Tp. V, 1. While you here do snoring lie. Tp. II, 1. Who is Silvia? What is she? Gent. IV, 1. Willyoubuy any tape? Wint. IV, 4. You spotted snakes, with double tongue. Mids. II, 2. sonties. Dyce is in doubt as to whether this word in old Gobbo's oath (March. II, 3, 47) is God^s saints, or God^s sanctity, or God''s sante (health). sooth, n. Truth. Tw. II, 4, 47 (see silly- sooth) ; HV. Ill, 6, 151 ; Oth. Ill, 4, 97. sooth, adj. True. Mcb. V, 5, 40. sop. Something, such as bread or cake, soaked in a liquid. RIII. I, 4, 163 ; Troil. I, 3, 113 ; Lr. II, 3, 35. The cakes or wafers placed in the wine drank at festivities. Shr. Ill, 3, 175. "At weddings, cakes, wafers and the like were blessed and put into the sweet wine which was always presented to the bride on those occasions. " Nares. See wine and moonshine. sore. A buck in his fourth year. The old spelling was soare. LLL. IV, 3, 59. sorel. A buck in his third year. LLL. IV, 3, 60. sort. 1. Rank; quality. Meas. IV, 4, 19 ; Ado. I, 1, 7 ; Mids. Ill, 3, 159 ; HV. IV, 7, 143. The word, as used in this sense, has given rise to considerable discussion. Gr. White claims that it simply means "kind" or "species," and Marshall seems to be of the same opinion. Upon this point Furness very judiciously remarks: "The fact is that this word, like many others, has various shades of meaning, ranging from class to rank; the particular shade must be determined by the context according to the insight of the reader. ' ' 2. Set; company. RIL IV, 1, 346; 3HVI. II, 1, 167 ; Mids. Ill, 3, 13 and 31. 3. Lot or chance. Troil. I, 3, 376. sort, V. 1. To select ; to find. 3HVI. V, 6, 85. 2. To turn out ; to result. Mids. Ill, 3, 353 ; 3HVI. I, 3, 107 ; Hml. I, 1, 109. 3. To ordain ; to govern. Merch. V, 1, 133 ; RIII. II, 3, 36. 4. To associate with. Ven. 689. sortance. Suitableness. 3HIV. IV, 1, 11. sot. A fool ; a blockhead. Wiv. Ill, 1, 119; Tw. I, 5, 139; Lr. IV, 3, 8. soud. A word imitative of a noise made by a person heated and fatigued. Shr. IV, 1, 145. souls. The expression in Tw. II, 3, 60, that will draiv three souls out of one weaver, has given rise to some queer comments. Warburton, after referring to Ado. II, 3, 61, says: "Why he says ' three souls ' is because he is speaking of a catch in three parts ; and the peri- sou 302 SOW patetic philosophy, then in vogue, very liberally gave every man three souls: The vegetative or plastic, the animal and the rational. To this, too, Jonson alludes in his ' Poetaster ' : ' What, will I turn shark upon my friends? or my friend's friends? I scorn it with my three souls.'' '^ Upon which Coleridge remarks: "O, genuine and inimitable (at least, I hope so) Warbur- ton ! This note of thine, if but one in five millions, would be half a one too much." But Warburton having given the hark-away, the idea of three souls in one man was worked " for all it was worth." Jackson suggested that the souls here mentioned are French sous or halfpence, and as weavers were an impecunious set, it must have been wonderful music that could draw three halfpence out of one of them! Few of the coms. give any satisfactory explan- ation of the passage and, perhaps, none is needed. Wright's interpretation is probably the correct one: "To draw three souls out of one starved weaver can be nothing more than a humorously exaggerated consequence of the power exerted by music, and to bring this about by a drinking song was a greater triumph still, for weavers were given to psalms." See weaver. soul=fearing. Terrifying the soul. John II, 1, 383. cf. fear. sound, n. This word, as it occurs in Tw. I, 1, 5, has given rise to much discussion. Rowe changed to wind, and Pope to south, and the latter emendation has been very generally adopted. But the objections to south are strong ; except in a single instance (Wint. V, 1, 161), Sh. always speaks of the south as an evil. See As. Ill, 5, 50 ; Tp. I, 2, 323 ; Cym. II, 3, 136. White asks : " But did Pope, or the editors who have followed him, ever lie musing on the sward at the edge of a wood and hear the low, sweet hum of the summer air as it kissed the coyly shrinking wild flowers upon the banks, and passed on loaded with fragrance from the sweet salute? If they ever did, how could they mak«5 this change of sound to south ? and if they never did, they ai'e unable to en- tirely appreciate the passage, much less to improve it." Schm. explains the passage thus : " Like the sweet talk of lovers upon a bank of violets, perfuming the air and perfumed by it." Rolfe, in his ed. of Twelfth Night, has given elaboi'ate consideration to the passage, and his notes are well worth consulting. sound, V. 1. To fathom ; to measure the depth of, in a literal sense. Tp. Ill, 3, 101 ; 2HIV. IV, 2, 51 ; Tit. IV, 3, 7. 2. To examine or try to find out. No. 1 used figuratively. Wiv. II, 1, 246 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 383 (with a pun). 3. To proclaim ; to give utterance to. John IV, 2, 48; Per. Ill, Prol. 36. The word, as it occurs in HVIII. V, 2, 13, is generally explained as "to pro- claim," " to give utterance to" (Rolfe, "The Henry Irving Shakespeare," and others). But it seems to me that to fathom gives even a better sense. Cran- Hier would probably hope that Dr. Butts would not see the full measure of his disgrace rather than wish that he might not prattle about it. In Rom. Ill, 2, 126, the word may mean either to give utterance to or to sound as with a plummet. The whole passage is obscure. Furness and Rolfe offer no comment on it, and there is none to be found in the 3rd Var. of 1821. souse. To pounce upon ; to swoop down on as does a bird of prey. John V, 2, 150. soused. Pickled. IHIV. IV, 2, 13. A word in common use in the U.S. as well as in many parts of England, though the coms. seem to think it necessary to give an explanation. Southwell, dr.p. A priest. 2HVI. sow. A sow of lead = a large bar of lead. Kins. V, 3, 120. In casting lead and iron into masses for future melting (not into special forms) the metal is poured into a central gutter, from which branches lead off on each side. The sow 303 SPA central bar thus formed is called a sow, and the bars at the sides, pigs. Hence the terms pig-iron and pig-lead. sowl. To pull ; to drag. Cor. IV, 5, 213. Sowter. Usually" explained as the name of a hound. Tw. II, 5, 135. Much learning has been expended on this word and many passages cited, very unnecessarily it seems to me, to prove that sowter means a cobbler or shoemaker. The word was common in old English and is still in general use in Scotland. The Souter Johnnie of ' ' Tarn o' Shanter " should be reference enough, but if another should be needed, let us take the old song : It's up wi' the souters o' Selkirk And doon wi' the Yerl o' Hume And up wi' a' the braw lads That sew the single-soled shoon. All this is plain enough ; a sowter is a cobbler, but that there is any relation between the characteristics of a cobbler and a hound is not so apparent. Beckford (1781), in his " Thoughts on Hunting," gives a long list of names suitable for hounds, but Sowter is not among them, Saunter being the nearest. Furness, in his ed. of Twelfth Night, which has reached me just as these pages are going through th§ press, makes an ingeniou s suggestion. He says : "But are we certain that ' Souter ' (so spelled in the foregoing quotation from Greene) [if Appelles * * * suffer the greasie Souter to take a view of his curious worke] was not pronounced Shouter? — just as suitor was pronounced shooter. Would there then be absolutely no meaning, as a hound's name, in ' Shouter ' ? Would it not be as appro- priate as Echo ? ' ' But is it necessary that the name of a hound should ha.ve a meaning? And if so, what is the meaning of " Clowder " in Shr. Ind. I, 18 ? And are we sure that the word was intended for the name of a hound ? Souter, like cozier and botcher, was a contemptuous epithet, and may here meaa no more than lout, lubber or botcher. The addition of a hunting phrase, making a sort of mixed meta- phor, would not be out of place in the mouth of Sir Toby. The expression would then mean : Although as unskil- ful as a botcher, cozier or souter, he will again pick up the scent, since it is as rank as a fox. For though = since, see though. space. Upon this word, as it occurs in Lr. I, 1, 56, Craig makes the following note: "Schmidt explains space, 'space in general (the world) ' and liberty ' the freedom to enjoy it ' ; but I rather take the meaning to be absolute, complete freedom, 'ample room and verge enough.' " See undistinguished. Spain. For the fig of Sjmin (HV. Ill, 6, 63) see fig. The only other passage in which Spain is mentioned and which requires notice is that in 0th. V, 2, 253 : It was a sword of Spain. That Spain in the time of Sh. was famous for its swords is well known. See Rom. I, 4, 84. Jonson speaks of them frequently. Referring to ice-brook''s temper, John- son tells us that "steel is hardened by being put red-hot into very cold water." This is true, but most modern eds. tell us that "steel is tempered by being plunged in cold water," which is not true. See temper. span=counter. A boyish gaine, played with counters instead of marbles. Strutt says : " I have frequently seen the boys, for want of both, perform it with stones. This sport is called in French tapper, a word signifying to sti'ike or hit, because if one counter is struck by the other, the game is won." 2HVI. IV, 2, 170. spaniel. To follow subserviently. Ant. IV, 10, 34. Spartan dog. Hanmer explains this epithet by saying that ' ' the dogs of Sparta were reckoned among those of the most fierce and savage kind." Singer, probably more correctly, says : " The reference seems to be to the determined silence of lago and to the proverbial silence of the Spartans under SPA 304 SPH suffering, as well as to the savageness of the dogs. " Oth. V, 3, 361. spay, I To remove the ovaries. Meas. splay, j II, 1, 242. specialty. The specialty of rule (Troil. I, 3, 78) = "the particular rights of supreme authority. " Johnson. speciously. Dame Quickly's blunder for especially. Wiv. Ill, 4, 113, and IV, 5, 1 14. speculation. 1. Vision ; sight. Troil. Ill, 3, 109 ; Mcb. Ill, 4, 95. Also in Lr. Ill, I, 24, where the abstract is put for the concrete. 2. The act of beholding. HV. IV, 2, 31. sped. Dispatched ; done for. Merch. II, 9, 72; Shr. Ill, 2, 53; Rom. Ill, 1, 94. Speed, dr. p. A clownish servant. Gent. speed. Fortune ; protecting power. Shr. II, 1, 139 ; Cym. Ill, 5, 167 ; As. I, 2, 232 ; Oth. II, 1, 67. speken. Obsolete form of speak. Per. II, Prol. 12. spell. To spell backward is to reverse the usual order of the letters ; hence, to understand or explain in an exactly contrary sense ; to turn inside out ; to reverse the character or intention of. Ado. Ill, 1, 61. Steevens says: "Al- luding to the practice of witches in uttering prayers. "(? ) See scholar. A similar train of thought is found in Lyly's "Anatomy of Wit" (1581), as quoted by Steevens : "if he be cleanly, they [women] term him proude ; if meene in apparel, a sloven ; if tall, a lungis ; if short, a dwarf ; if bold, blunt ; if shamefast, a cowarde," etc. spend. See to spend. spendthrift sigh. The allusion in Hml. IV, 7, 123, is to the current notion, that sighs shorten life by drawing blood from the heart. The same idea is found in Mids. Ill, 2, 97. sperr. To shut; to make fast. Troil., Prol. 19. The word is " stirre " in the Fi., changed to sperr by Theobald. It is an old word signifying to defend by bars. Spenser has : The other that was en trad, labourM fast To sperre the gate, i^ And in Warner's "Albion's England ": " When chased home into his holdes, there sparred up in gates." The use of s2oar as an equivalent of har is now obsolete except in ship-building and some of the mechanic arts. sphere. In the passage : Swifter than the inooyi''s sphere (Mids. II, 1, 7), the reference is not to the orhit in which the moon moves as Schm. and some others have it, for certainly the orhit of the moon does not move. " At the date of this play the Ptolemaic sy.stem was believed in, and the moon and all the planets and stars were supposed to be fixed in hollow crystalline spheres or globes. These spheres were supposed to be swung bodily round the earth in twenty-four hours by the top sphere, the priniuni mobile, thus making an entire revolution in one day and night." Furnivall in "New Shakespearean Society Transactions." It did not re- quire any great knowledge of geometry to see that even if the moon were at a distance from the earth much less than that which we know it to be, the velocity of the sphere which carried the moon must have been greater than anything else of which the men of Sh. time had any knowledge. spherical. Planetary in the astrological sense. In Sh. time the sun and moon were included among the planets. By spherical predominance (Lr. I, 2, 134) means, through some special star being predominant or ruling at the hour of our birth. See AU's. I, 1, 211. See predominance. sphery. Starlike. Mids. II, 2, 99. " Sphere " is used by Sh. to denote the star itself as well as the crystalline sphere which was supposed to carry it round the earth. See sphere. Sphinx. The Sphinx was a female monster, daughter of Orthus and Chimaera. Various accounts are given of the cause of her being sent to Thebes, but when thei-e she settled on a rock and put a riddle to every Theban that passed by, and whoever was unable to solve it was SPl 305 SPl devoured. Two forms of the riddle are given : 1. A bein^ with four feet, has two feet and three feet, and only one voice ; but its feet vary, and when it has most it is weakest? 3. What animal is that which walks on four legs in the morning, on two during the day and on three in the evening? The latter form is the one most generally known. After many Thebans had been devoured, CEdipus solved the riddle as follows: The animal is man who creeps on hands and knees in infancy, walks upright on two legs during the noonday of life and in the evening or old age leans on a staff. This, of course, is the solution of both forms. On the riddle being solved, the Sphinx threw herself from the rock and was killed. Other accounts say that she threw herself into the sea. The Greek Sphinx had the form of a winged lion, the breast and upper part being the figure of a woman. Some- times it appears with the face of a maiden, the breast, feet and claws of a lion, the tail of a serpent and the wings ofabird. TheSp hinxes were represented in various attitudes and were frequently introduced by Greek artists as orna- ments of architectural works. The Egyptian Sphinx is the figure of a lion without wings in a lying attitude, the upper part of the body being that of a human being. The Sphinxes ap- pear in Egypt to have been set up in avenues forming the approaches to temples. spial. A spy. IHVI. I, 4, 8. In many eds. espials. spied. Perceived. 0th. I, 1, 77. That this word makes utter nonsense in this passage must be evident to every thoughtful reader. Warburton, in his ed. (1747), Vol. VIII, p. 278, suggests that spied is a misprint for spread, which in the Fl. is generally spelt spred (see Hml. Ill, 4, 151 ; do. IV, 7, 176 ; Cor. Ill, 1, 311, all spelled spred in the Fl.) and consequently might give rise to a very probable misprint. The substitu- tion of spread or spred for spied makes perfect sense, and it is surprising that it has not been adopted. Various at- tempts have been made to bring good sense out of the passage as it stands, but, to my mind, none are reasonably successful. See ' ' Shakespearean Notes and New Readings," p. 12. spill. To destroy ; to spoil. Hml. IV, 5, 20 ; Lr. Ill, 2, 8. spilth. Spilling ; waste. Tim. II, 2, 169. spinner. A spider. Mids. II, 2, 21 ; Rom. I, 4, 59. I have retained the generally accepted definition of spinner given by the best Sh. coms. and by Palsgrave and the " Promptorium Parvulorum," but I doubt if any species of spider was the insect meant in these two passages. I incline to some species of th^ Tipulidce or daddy-long-legs, which in my boy- hood were called spinners and jenny- spinners, from their motion when de- positing their eggs at the roots of plants. Long-legged spiders do not spin webs and they are quite sluggish in their movements. Paterson, in his " Insects Mentioned in Shakespeare," p. 215, seems to think that spiders are meant ; Dyer and Furness are silent, and Do wden quotes Fox's "Acts and Monuments" : " Where the bee gathereth honey, even there the spinner gathereth venome." But in Mids. II, 2, spiders and spinners •are mentioned separately as if they were regarded as distinct species : Weaving spiders come not here ; Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence! Spit. This word of itself requires no gloss, but there are two passages in which it occurs knd which require a note. In Shr. Ill, 1, 39, Bianca says, 0,fie! the treble jars. On which Lucentio remarks : Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. Schm, gives a special de- finition (5) for "hole" here, making it mean "the hollow of the palm" and explaining the whole passage as "spit in your hand, take courage and make a new effort." And this is substantially repeated under "spit." R. G. White makes the following remarks upon this SPI 306 SPO very absurd gloss : "It seems almost trifling to say that what he was told to do was to spit in the peg-hole in the neck of the instrument, so that the peg would hold when he screwed up the string. Moreover, even in Shakespeare's time, gentlemen did not spit into their , hands in the presence of ladies, if at all." " Studies in Shakespeare," p. 339. The other passage occurs in 2HIV. I, 2, 237, where Falstaff says: And I brandish anything hut a bottle, I would I might never S2nt white again. RoJfe calls this a perplexing expression, and Nares and Dyce explain spitting white as the result of intemperance, so that Falstaff 's remark would mean, may I never g^ drunk again. Furni vail quotes "Batman upon Bartholonie" to the effect that spitting white is a sign of health, and E,olfe accej^ts this as the key to the puzzle. R. G. White thinks that it means, may I never be thirsty again so that I can relish a good drink, spitting white or "spitting cotton" being a well-known sign of intense thirst. There is an old joke about a sea-captain who always preferred very salt food because after a little while it produced a thirst for which he would not take ten dollars. I am inclined to think that this is what Falstaff means. spital, ) An hospital. HV. II, 1, spital house. ) 78 ; Tim. IV, 3, 39. Schm. says that this term is used "in con- tempt. ' ' Hardly ; merely low colloquial. spite. 1 . Despite ; scornful defiance. Rom. 1, 1, 85. 2. Vexation ; mortification. Mids. Ill, 2, 194; Tw. V, 1, 131 ; IHVI. II, 4, 106. 3. Ill-luck; bad fortune; trouble. Hml. I, 5, 189. The rather singular expression spite of spite is found three times in Sh. : Err. II, 2, 191 ; John V, 4, 5, and 3HVI. II, 2, 5. Schm. explains it as "come the worst that may, notwithstanding anything that may happen." That it has this meaning in the third quotation is no doubt true, but in the other pass- ages this does not seem to give a good sense — certainly not in the first. There, it seems to me, that O spite of spites simply means extraordinary bad luck, just as we might say ill of ills, or horror of horrors. In John V, 4, 5, the first spite is evi- dently equivalent to despite, and the second to ill-luck or bad fortune. The passage in Tim. IV, 3, 272, in spite p)ut some stuff, is explained by Schm. as "against her will. This seems a very erroneous interpretation. Spite, here, does not mean in spite of or forcibly ; it indicates a desire to indulge spite or malice against humanity. splenitive. Easily excited to anger. Hml. V, 1, 284. In Sh. time the spleen was supposed to be the seat of anger. split. To make all split (Mids. I, 2, 25) means to cause a great uproar ; to make every one laugh and act boisterously. The phrase is a nautical one, but to split one's sides with laughter is a com- mon colloquialism. spoons. The passages referring to spoons in HVIII. V, 3, 168, and V, 4, 40, are not easily understood unless we know the customs of the times. "Spoons of silver gilt — called apostle-spoons be- cause the figure of an apostle was carved at the extremity of the handle of each — were, in the time of Sh. (and much earlier), the usual present of sponsors at christenings to the child. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve ; those who were either more moderately rich or liberal escaped at the expense of the four evangelists; or, even, sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint in honour of whom the child received its name. ' ' Steevens. Then follows numerous references to the literature of the day, to which Malone adds the following story, given on the authority of Donne : " Shakespeare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christening, being in deep study, Jonson came to cheer him up, and asked him why he SPO 307 satr was so melancholy. No 'faith, Ben, says he, not I ; but I have been con- sidering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my godchild, and I have resolv'd at last. I pr*y thee, what ? says he. I' faith, Ben, I'll give him a douzen good latten [Latin] spoons, and thou shalt translate them. " See latten. sport. When Celia (As. I, 2, 108) asks Le Beau, Sport! of what colour ? she glances apparently at Le Beau's affected or dandified pronunciation of sporty he having got it nearer to sjpot than sport. Hudson. Schni. explains colour as meaning kind, but the context does not seem to favor this as much as Collier's gloss, as adopted by Hudson. Spot. 1. A piece of embroidery. Cor. 1, 3, 56. 2. A stain; a disgrace. M.Mason. John V, 2, 30, and V, 7, 107. Spotted, Embroidered. 0th. Ill, 3, 435. Spotted with strawberries = having figures of strawberries worked on it ; it does not mean stained with strawberries. cf. Cor. I, 3, 56. Sprag. Alert ; quick ; spry. (A mispro- nunciation of sprack.) Wiv. IV, 1, 84. Spring. 1. The rise; the beginning. Mids. II, 1, 82 ; 2HIV. IV, 4, 35. cf. Luke i, 78. 2. The season after winter. Farewell, thou latter spring! (IHIV. I, 2, 177) evidently means an old man renewing youthful geniality and jollity. See all- halloivn. 3. A young shoot. Ven. 656. Springe. A snare for catching birds. Wint. IV, 3, 36; Hml. I, 3, 115; do. V, 2, 317. Pronounced sprinj. Spring=halt. A nervous disease in horses which causes them to twitch up the legs suddenly when they take a step. Some- times called string-halt. HVIII. I, 3, 13. sprited. Haunted. Cym. II, 3, 144. In some eds. sprighted. spriglitly, I Having the likeness of a spritely. i" spirit. Cym. V, 5, 428. spur. The root of a tree. Tp. V, 1 , 47 ; Cym. IV, 2, 58. Malone says : "Spurs are the longest and largest leading roots of trees." 3rd Var., Vol. XIII, p. 149. But I think the word applies to roots in general and especially to the branches of the roots. Pope, in his note on Cym. IV, 2, 58, says : " Spurs, an old word for the fibres of a tree." spy. Of this word, as it occurs in Mcb. Ill, I, 130, Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, Johnson says : " What is meant by this passage will be found difficult to explain," and he suggests an emendation — a perfect sp>y o' the time for the perfect sp)y o' the time. This correction was also suggested by Collier's MS. corrector and has been adopted by White. Monk Mason says: "'With' has here the force of by ; and the mean- ing of the passage is : I will let you know by the person best informed of the exact moment in which the business is to be done." As noted by the Clarendon eds. , there are two interpretations which may be given to the passage : 1. It may mean that Macbeth would acquaint the mur- derers with the most accurate observa- tion of the time ; or, 2. The " spy o' the time " may mean the third murderer who joins them and delivers their offices. The latter meaning was that adopted by Dr. Johnson. squander. To scatter. Merch, I, 3, 22. In Howell's " Letters " (1650) bespeaks of "islands squandered in the vast ocean. ' ' Here it does not mean ' ' wasted ' ' as is the modern signification. squandering. Rambling; going at ran- dom. As. II, 7, 57. square. 1. Regularity; propriety. Ant. II, 3, 6. (Masonic?) 2. A squadron or troop. HV. IV, 2, 28. As the word occurs in Ant. Ill, 11, 40, it is generally defined as squadrons. But may it not possibly mean fights or battles ? This seems to give better sense, and see next articles. 3. The front of the female dress, near the bosom, generally worked or em- broidered. Wint. IV, 4, 212. The passage in Lr. I, 1, 76, which the SQU 308 STA most preciotis square of sense j^os- sesses, has given rise to much discussion. The Folios readpro/esse.s ; the Quartos, possesses, and the latter has been adopted in the g.a. text. Many eds. think that the entire passage is corrupt. Warburton thinks that square refers to the four nobler senses : sight, hearing, taste and smell; Moberly explains it as: "the choicest estimate of sense"; Wright as : " the most delicately sensi- tive part of my nature." Verity says : " The critics see the general sense, which is obvious enough, and try to express it in a way that will best square with square; but no one succeeds, I think, in making the connection really natural. Furness, in his note on professes (the reading which he adopts), says : "What- ever meaning or no-meaning we may attach to 'square of sense,' it seems clear to me that Regan refers to the joys which that ' square ' ' professes ' to bestow ; I therefore follow the Folios." To my mind the objection to pro/e.9ses lies in the fact that it requires the elaborate filling up of an ellipsis. Verity suggests that the compositor was led astray by his eye having caught pro/ess two lines above. square, v. 1. To quarrel. Mids. II, 1, 30 ; Tit. II, 1, 100. 2. To judge. Troil. V, 2, 132. squarer. A quarreller. Ado. I, 1, 82. squash. An unripe peascod. Mids. Ill, 1, 191. Not yet old enough for a. man, nor young enough for a boy ; as a squash is before 'tis a peascod. Tw. I, 5, 166. squier, \ A square, rule or measure. squire, f LLL. V, 2, 474 ; Wint. IV, 4, 348 ; IHIV. II, 2, 13. squiny. To look asquint. Lr. IV, 6, 140. Stafford, Lord, dr. p. A Yorkist. 3HVI. Stafford, Sir Humphrey, dr. p. 2HVI. stages. Actors. Hml. II, 2, 358. Theo- bald suggested that the word stages here is a misprint for stagers. To define it as "the floor on which theatrical per- formances are exhibited" (Schm.) hardly meets the sense in this passage. staggers. A disease in horses which sometimes causes dulness, blindness, etc., and at others great excitement. Johnson suggests that it is to the latter (" wild and delirious perturbation ") that allusion is made in Cym. V, 5, 233. But allusion to either form would make sense. All's. II, 8, 170 ; Shr. Ill, 2, 55. stain. 1. To eclipse. Sonn. XXXV, 3; RII. Ill, 3, 66 ; Ant. Ill, 4, 27. 2. To pervert; to corrupt. Sonn. CIX, 11 ; All's. II, 1, 123. stair. The passage in Ado. V, 2, 6, shall I always keep below stairs? has re- ceived several interpretations, that generally accepted being : Shall I always be a servant and never a mistress? which, perhaps, also conveys a sub- audition of, shall I never get married? Theobald emended and read above stairs, but as Steevens says : " There is danger in any attempt to reform a joke two hundred years old." stale, n. 1. A decoy; bait. Tp. IV, 1, 187; Shr. Ill, 1, 90. Cotgrave gives: "Estalon * * * a stale (as a Larke, etc.) wherewith Fowlers traine sillie birds unto their destruction." 2. A stalking-horse, q.v.; a mask. Err. II, 1, 101. So Malone, Dyce and some others gloss the word in this passage. Thus Malone : " Adriana unquestion- ably means to compare herself to a stalking horse [from] behind whom Antipholus shoots at such game as he selects. " Others render it as in 3. 3. Laughing-stock ; dupe, which it un- doubtedly means in 3HVI. Ill, 3, 260, and Tit. I, 1, 304. 4. A wanton of the lowest type (Furness) ; a prostitute. Ado. II, 2, 26, and IV, 1, 66. 5. The urine of horses. Ant. I, 4, 62. In Wiv. II, 3, 30, the term " bully stale " is used by the host in derision of the Doctor's method of practice. See scale. In Shr. I, 1, 58, this word has been defined by some as harlot, but I can- not think that it will bear that signifi- cation there. Rather, a laughing-stock, or pei'haps an old maid whose attractions STA 309 STA have become stale. That it has an opprobrious meaning in some passages is beyond question, stalk, V. To steal quietly upon game so as to get within shooting distance. Lucr. 365 ; Ado. II, 3, 95. stalking-^horse, n. A horse trained to approach game quietly, feeding all the time, while the gunner or archer con- ceals himself behind the animal and is thus enabled to get within shooting distance. Sometimes an artificial or stuffed horse mounted on wheels was used. As. V, 4, 111. stall. 1. To dwell ; to lodge. Ant. V, 1, 39. 2. To keep close as in a stall ; to keep secret. All's. I, 3, 131. stammer. To use language imperfectly. Stammers 'em = speaks stammeringly concerning them ; does them but small justice. Skeat. Kins. II, 1, 26. stamp, n. 1, At our stamp (Mids. Ill, 2, 25), i.e., at hearing the footsteps of the fairies, which were powerful enough to rock the ground. See IV, 1, 85. Wright. Johnson could not see how the stamps of fairies could be heard, and read stump, the idea being that the "patches" were tripped up by some stump well known to the fairies. Fur- ness gives a note from Allen (MS.) to the effect that: "It cannot be our; there was no xve in the case; [have fairies no editors to disseminate their news?] no fairy but Puck alone ; and it was nobody's stamp that made the boors scatter ; it was merely the sight of Bottom's new head. Pe^'haps: ' at one stamp ' — as we might say at one bound, at one rush ; * * * anticipative of stampede.'''' 2. A coin. Wiv. Ill, 4, 16 ; Cym. V, 4, 24. In the passage in Mcb. IV, 3, 153, Hanging a. golden stanix> about their necks, the stamp was the coin called an angel. See angel (6). Also evil (2). Holinshed thus describes the gift of curing the evil which was alleged to exist in the person of Edward the Con- fessor : " As it has been thought, he was inspired with the gift of prophecy, and also to have the gift of healing infirmi- ties and diseases. He used to help those that were vexed with the disease com- monly called the king's evil, and left that virtue as it were a portion of in- heritance unto his successors the kings of this realm. ' ' According to the Claren- don ed., " there is no warrant in Holin- shed for the statement that the Con- fessor hung a golden coin or stamp about the necks of the patients. This was, however, a custom which prevailed in later days. Previously to Charles II's time some current coin, as an angel, was used for the purpose, but in Charles's reign a special medal was struck and called a ' touch piece. ' The identical touch piece which Queen Anne hung round the neck of Dr. Johnson is pre- served in the British Museum." stamp, V. To give currency to. Cor. V, o oo stand. The station or hiding-place of a huntsman waiting for game. Wiv. V, 5, 248; Cym. Ill, 4, 111 ; LLL. IV, 1, 10 ; 3HVI. Ill, 1, 3. Some of the editors appear to suppose that stands were only for the use of lady hunters, but it is evident from some of these passages that this is a mistake. Rolfe. . standing bowl. A footed goblet. Per. II, 3, 64. standing=tuck. A rapier standing on end. IHIV. II, 4, 274. Not hyphenated in the old editions. staniel. Another name for the kestrel or windhover, an inferior but beautiful species of falcon. Tw. II, 5, 124. The word in the Fl. is stallion; "the men- tion of ' wings ' and ' checking ' makes Hanmer's stanyel an emendatio cer- tissima.'" Furness. Stanley, Sir John, dr.p. 2HVI. Stanley, Lord, dr.p. Called also Earl of Derby. RIII. Stanley, Sir William, dr.p. 3HVI. star. "A celestial body shining in the night." Schm,idt. In IHIV. I, 2, 16 ; 2HIV. II, 4, 201, and Lr. I, 5, 38, we find references to the seven stars. This term is usually STA 310 STA understood to refer to the Pleiades, a well-known group of stars whose rising, in ancient times, was supposed to indi- cate the time of safe navigation. The actual number of stars in the group, when seen through a telescope of very- moderate power, is quite large, but to the ordinary eye only six are visible, and hence the tradition of a lost Pleiad. It is said, however, that some eyes can clearly distinguish a seventh. They are referred to in Job xxxviii, 31, in a way which shows the regard in which they were held in ancient times, and Tennyson's lines in " Locksley Hall" must be familiar to all readers : Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of flre-flies tangled in a silver braid. Furness, in a note on Lr. I, 5, 38, expresses the opinion that the Great Bear, known also as The Dipper and as Charles's Wain, was meant, his chief reason being that these "seven stars are the most conspicuous group in the circle of perpetual apparition in the Northern Hemisphere, so conspicuous, indeed, that the Latin word for ' North ' was derived from them. See Septen- trion. But while the stars of the Great Bear are much more brilliant than those of the Pleiades, the close grouping of the latter make them, if anything, more notable as a constellation. The reference in Hml. I, 1, 36, yond same star thaVs westward from the pole, is to a star the identity of which could be determined only if we knew the hour and season when the observa- tion was made. It certainly cannot be " polar is or the pole star " as stated in a recent Shakespearean text-book. The watery star (Wint. I, 2, 1) and the moist star (Hml. I, 1, 118) both mean the moon. Compare Mids. II, 1, 104 — the moon the governess of floods. Pale in her anger, washes all the air. Upon this passage Marshall comments : " Every one must have seen the moon when she is pale coloured and blurred with a faintly luminous mist, in which state she is generally called by country people ' a wet moon. ' This appearance of the moon is one of the most unfailing precursors of rainy weather." In Hml. I, 1, the passage including lines 117 and 118 is held by most coms. to be hopelessly corrupt. Furness fills nearly two pages with the various attempts that have been made to make it read well, but none is satisfactory. In the 3rd Var. the line immediately preceding 117 is left blank (a mere suc- cession of dashes), and the Cambridge Shakespeare follows this example, in both cases indicating that a line is sup- posed to have been dropped out. It may be well to note that lines 108 to 135 are not found in the Fl. A very superficial reading of the lines 116, 117 and 118 as they stand in the Globe ed. shows that something is wanting : Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets : As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star, etc. As in many other passages, although the continuity of the speech is evidently broken, the general sense is clear enough. The expression. Earth treading stars that make dark heaven light (Rom. I, 2, 25), has called forth emendations from Warbirrton {dark even) \ Mason {heaven'' s light) ; Daniel {that mock dark heaven^s light). But surely no emendation is required. We speak of a fire actually "illuminating the heavens," and the gorgeous beauties which Capulet had in mind might be supposed to do so metaphorically. 2. Sphere ; fortune. Hml. II, 2, 141. c/. Tw. II, 5, 156. stark. Stiff. Rom. IV, 1, 103 ; Cym. IV, 2, 209. "Stark and stiff" is an ac- knowledged pleonasm, but a very old expression. starkly. Stiffly. Meas. IV, 2, 70. starred. Fated. Wint. Ill, 2, 100. starve. In Sh. time this word signified STA 811 STI not only to inflict or to suffer from hunger, but from cold, and the word is still used in this sense in many parts of Ireland — one of the numerous survivals of the Elizabethan language in that country. Gent. IV, 4, 159 ; 2HVI. Ill, 1, 343 ; Tit. Ill, 1, 252 ; Cym. I, 4, 180. The word starveth, as found in Rom. V, 1, 70, was changed to stareth by Rowe who followed Otvvay's modified plagiarism of the line in his Caius Marius. Many eds., including Dyce, Singer, Grant White (Riverside ed.) have adopted the emendation, which has been strongly defended by Ritson. Starveling the Tailor, d7\2). Mids. state. 1. The chair in which persons of very high office are seated. T w. II, 5, 50. 2. A person of high rank. John II, 1, 395; Troil. II, 3, 118 ; Cym. Ill, 4, 39. station. Act or mode of standing. Mcb. V, 8, 42 ; Hml. Ill, 4, 58 ; Ant. Ill, 3, 22. statist. A statesman. Hml. V, 2, 33 ; Cym. II, 4, 16. statua. A statue. RIII. Ill, 7, 25. So written in this and other passages where the metre requires a trisyllabic word. statue. Image. Gent. IV, 4, 206. statute. A bond ; obligation ; security. Sonn. CXXXIV, 9 ; Hml. V, 1, 113. statute caps. Woollen caps ordered by Act of Parliament (passed in 1571) to be worn on Sabbath days and holidays by all persons above the age of six years, with the exception of the nobility and a few others. The act was passed for the benefit of the cappers or cap-makers, and the penalty for violating it was ten groats. The obvious meaning of the passage (LLL. V, 2, 281) is that Better wits may be found ainongst the coni- tnon people. staves. The wood of the lances and sometimes used for the lances them- selves. Mcb. V, 7, 18 ; RIII. V, 3, 65. Some light will be thrown on the second passage if we remember that it was usual to carry more than one into the field, and hence the lightness of them was an object of consequence. Steevens. stead. 1. To profit; to be of advantage; to help. Tp. I, 2, 165; Gent. II, 1, 119 ; Meas. I, 4, 17 ; Merch. I, 3, 7. 2. With ttp; to supply ; to replace. Meas. Ill, 1, 260. stealers. Seepicfcers. steep down. Precipitous. 0th. V, 2, 380. stelled. 1. Starry; stellar. Lr. Ill, 7, 61. 2. Fixed. Lucr. 1,444; Sonn. XXIV, 1. It has been suggested that in the latter passages the word is a variant of stalled or placed in a stall. Others regard the word as a doubtful reading. Stephano, dr.p. A drunken butler. Tp. Stephano, dr.p. Servant to Portia. Merch. sternage. Steerage. HV. Ill, Prol. 18. sticking place. This expression, as found in Mcb. I, 7, 60, is "a metaphor, per- haps, taken from the screwing-up the chords of string-instruments to their proper degree of tension, when the peg remains fast in its sticking-place, i.e., in the place from which it is not to move." Steevens. stickler. " 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 him- self in person a stickler to part the young men when they had fought enough.' " Steevens. stickler=like. Like a stickler. Troil. V, 8, 18. stigmatic. One on whom nature has set a mark of deformity — a stigma. 2HVI. V, 1, 215 ; 3HVI. II, 2, 136. stigmatical. Deformed. Err. IV, 2, 22. stile. A device for passing over a fence, usually consisting of a double set of stairs. Wint. IV, 3, 133. In Ado. V, 2, 6, In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it, Delius sees a pun on style and stile, and again a play on the words "come over it," which may mean either to surpass or to cross over it. In the PI. the word is spelt stile. See also LLL, I, 1, 201, and IV, 1, 98. See stair. STI 312 STO still, adv. Constantly. Tp. I, 2, 229 ; RIII. IV, 4, 344. still, adj. Constant ; continual. Tit. Ill, 2, 45. (Silent ; calm ; patient. Schmidt. ) still=stand. An absolute stop. 2HIV. II, 3, 64. We now invert the order of the two words and use "stand-still." stilly. Softly. HV. IV, Prol. 5. stinking. It was suggested by Mason that stinking, as it occurs in Lr. II, 4, 72, should read sinking as being more expressive of fallen fortunes, and re- ferred to Ant. Ill, 10, 26, for confirma- tion of this view; upon which Malone made the following remark : "Mankind, says the fool, may be divided into those who can see and those who are blind. All men, but blind men, though they follow their noses, are led by their eyes ; and this class of mankind, seeing the king ruined, have all deserted him : with respect to the other class, the blind, who have nothing but their noses to guide them, they also fly equally from a king whose foi'tunes are declining ; for of the noses of twenty blind men there is not one but can smell him, who 'being muddy 'd in fortune's mood, smells somewhat strongly of her dis- pleasure.' [All's. V, 2, 4.] You need not therefore be surprised at Lear's coming with so small a train." stint. To cease. Rom. I, 3, 48 ; Per. IV, 4, 42. stithy, n. A smith's forge ; literally, the place where the stith or anvil (Scotch, studdy or stuthy) stands. Hml. Ill, 2, 89. stithy, V. To forge ; to form on an anvil. Troil. IV, 5, 255. stoccado, ) A thrust in fencing. Wiv. stoccata. \ II, 1, 234; Rom. Ill, 1, 77. stock, n. 1. A stocking. Gent. Ill, 1, 312 ; Shr. Ill, 2, 67. 2. A thrust in fencing ; a stoccado. Wiv. II, 3, 26. stock, V. To put in the stocks. Lr. II, 2, 139 ; do. II, 4, 191. stock=fish. Dried cod. Meas. Ill, 2, 116 ; IHIV. II, 4, 271. Make a stock-fish of thee == beat thee as stock-fish is beaten before it is boiled. Tp. Ill, 2, 79. stockings, tall. "Stockings drawn high above the knee." Fairholt. HVIII. I, 3, 30. stomach, n. 1. Anger; resentment. Gent. I, 2, 68 ; IHVI. I, 3, 90 ; Lr. V, 3, 74. 2. Courage ; stubbornness. Tp. I, 2, 157; 2HIV. I, 1, 129. See quotation from Rastell under Richard Coeur-de~ Lion. 3. Pride; arrogance. Shr. V, 2, 176; HVIII. IV, 2, 34. stomach, v. To be angry at ; to resent. Ant. Ill, 4, 12 ; do. II, 2, 9. stone=bow. A cross-bow from which stones or bullets were shot. T w. II, 5, 51. stones, a philosopher's two. Warbur- ton explains Falstaff's expression, I will make him a philosopher'' s two stones to me (2HIV. Ill, 2, 35.5), thus: "One of which was an universal medicine, and the other a transmuter of base metals into gold." Johnson took ex- ception to the assertion that the uni- versal medicine was a stone and sug- gested that Falstaff meant a stone of twice the value of the usually recognised philosopher's stone. That the elixir was supposed to be a stone is shown by a passage in Churchyard's " Commenda- tion," etc. (1593) : Wrate sundry workes, as well doth yet appeare Of stone for gold, and shewed plaine and cleare, A stone for health. Falstaff evidently meant that he would get health and wealth from Shallow. He got the wealth to the extent of a thousand pounds. (See 2HIV. V, 5, 12.) The 3rd Var., Vol. XVII, p. 141, et seq., contains lengthy notes on the point. stool ball. A game still played in some parts of England. It is played only by women and girls and is almost like cricket. Kins. V, 2, 69. stool for a witch. Upon this expression, which occurs in Troil. II, 1, 46, Johnson has the following note: "In one way of trying a witch they used to place her upon a chair or stool, with her legs tied across, that all the weight of her STO 313 STR body might rest upon her seat ; and by that means, after some time, the cir- culation of the blood in some hours would be much stopt, and her sitting would be as painful as the wooden horse." stoop. To swoop or pounce down upon prey. HV. IV, 1, 113 ; Cym. V, 3, 42. stop. In Mids. V, 1, 120, this word is, according to Wright, a technical term in horsemanship, cf. Compl. 109. stored. Filled. Per. II, 3, 49. stout. Proud ; overbearing. Tw. II, 5, 185; 2HVI. I, 1, 187. stover. Fodder for cattle. Tp. IV, 1, 63. From estovers, a law term, which is so explained in the law dictionaries. Both are derived from the old French word estouvier, which signifies pro- vision. Strachy. A title of which no explanation has yet been given. Tw. II, 5, 45, Furness in his ed. of this play fills nearly five pages with suggested emend- ations and explanations, but as he him- self says, they do not bring us any nearer to a true understanding of the subject. There needs no ghost come from the grave to tell us that in all ages there have been women who married beneath them, and unless we can find the particular story to which Malvolio alluded, all conjectures as to what Strachy might mean are futile. That there was such a story current at the time this play was brought out and that it appealed to the theatre- going public is more than probable, but thus far we have found no trace of it. straight=pight. Straight-built; straight- fixed ; standing erect. Cym. V, 5, 164. strain, n 1. Difficulty; doubt. Troil. I, 3, 326. 2. Disposition; motion of the mind. Wiv. II, 1, 91 ; Ado. II, 1, 394 ; LLL. V, 2, 770; Troil. II, 2, 113. 3. Stock ; race. HV. II, 4, 51 ; Tim. I, 1, 259. strain, 17. 1. To filter ; to purify. Troil. IV,. 4, 26 ; do, IV, 5, 169. 2. To wrench ; to constrain. Rom. IV, 1,47; Merch. IV, 1, 184. Strain courtesy = overdo courtesy ; to decline to go first. Rom. II, 4, 53. On this passage Mr. Staunton observes : " When anyone hesitated to take the post of honour in a perilous undertaking he was sarcastically said to strain courtesy. Turberville applies the ex- pression to dogs as Sh. does : ' for many hounds will strain courtesie at this chace.'" straited. At a loss; straitened. Wint. IV, 4, 365. strange. This word literally means ' ' that which is without " (Skeat); hence foreign and outlandish. Metaphorically, it might mean abnormal ; beyond all rule ; extra- ordinary. Schm, also gives the mean- ing "enormous," no doubt equivalent to very great, and in this sense explains it as it occurs in Lr. II, 1, 79, in the Folios. See strong. strangely. 1. As a thing belonging to another country or to another people. Wint. II, 3, 182. 2. Distantly ; reservedly ; as if unac- quainted. Sonn. XLIX, 5 ; 2HIV. V, 2, 63 ; Troil. Ill, 3, 39. strangeness. Reserve; coyness; distant behavior. Ven. 310; Tw. IV, 1, 16; Troil. Ill, 3, 45. stranger, n. A foreigner. HVIII. II, 2, 102. stranger, adj. Foreign. John V, 2, 27. strappado. "A military punishment. * * * the term is evidently taken from the Italian strappare, to pull or draw with violence." Douce. IHIV. II, 4, 262. Holmes, in his " Academy of Armory and Blazon," thus describes it: "The Half Strappado is to have the Mans hands tyed 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 Shoulders 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 half STR 314 STY way with a jerk, which not only break- eth 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." Strato, dr. p. Servant to Brutus. Caes. straw. " A wisp, or small twist of straw or hay, was often applied as a mark of opprobrium to an immodest woman, a S6old, or similar offender; even the showing it to a woman was, there- fore, considered as a grievous affront." Nares. 3HVI. II, 2, 144. strewments. Strewing ; things strewed. Hml. V, 1, 256. From the context {virgin crantz, maiden strewments) and what is afterwards said, this term seems to refer to more than the mere affectionate strewing of flowers upon the grave, such as the queen offered. Was it the strewing of earth on the coffin— "Dust to dust"? Evidently some special ceremony. See priest. stricture. Strictness. Meas. I, 3, 13. strike. 1. A naval term signifying to submit ; to give way. 2HIV. V, 2, 18 ; RII. II, 1, 266. 2. To tap ; to broach. Ant. II, 7, 103. The word strike in this passage puzzled Johnson, Steevens, Ritson, Holt White and many others. Some claim that it means to strike the drinking cups to- gether as is now the custom with some drinkers, and as is supposed to be meant by lago in his song, "Let me the cana- kin clink, clink." See clink. It occurs in the sense of broach in Prior's " Alma " : 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. Etc., etc. 3. To blast ; to destroy (used in regard to planetary influences). Wint. I, 2, 201; Hml. 1,1,162. striker. A thief; a robber; a dissolute fellow. IHIV. II, 1, 82. " Long-staff sixpenny strikers = " fellows that in- fest the road with long staffs and knock naen down for sixpence." Johnson, Malone says that " a sfHfcer had some cant signification with which at present we are not exactly acquainted." In Greene's "Art of Coney catching " (1592) under the table of " Cant Expressions used by Thieves," the cutting a pocket or picking a purse is called "striking," and in "A Collection of the Canting Words and Terms, both Ancient and Modern, used by Beggars, etc.," ap- pended to Vol. II of Bailey's Dictionary (1760), the definition given of the word strike is "to beg ; to rob ; also to borrow money," and a long list of expressions containing the word is given. The word has to-day the same meaning in modern slang, and ' ' to strike any one " is a well-known expression. strong. Reckless ; determined. Tim. IV, 3, 45 ; Lr. II, 1, 79. In the latter pass- age the word is strong in the Qnartos, strange in the Folios. Both the Cam- bridge and the Globe eds. read strong, and this is the reading in the g.a. text. See strange. strossers. Trousers ; tight drawers or breeches. HV. Ill, 7, 57. stuck. Stoccado, a thrust in fencing; more properly stock, a contraction of stoccado. Tw. Ill, 4, 303 ; Hml. IV, 7, 162. In some eds. stuckin or stuck-in. studied. Practised. Merch. II, 2, 211; Mcb. I, 4, 9. stuff. The most important element ; the essential part. 0th. I, 2, 2. stumbling night. A night which causes one to stumble. John V, 5, 18. Styga. Per Styga, per Manes vehor (Latin) = I am borne through the Styx, through the kingdom of the dead. Tit. II, 1, 135. style, n. Title. Large style = long list of titles. 2HVI. I, 1, 111. See stile. style, V. To fix or determine the style or rank. Kins. I, 1, 83. Styx. The principal river in the nether world, around which it flows seven times. The name is derived from the Greek verb to hate or to abhor. Styx is described as a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. As a nymph she dwelt at SUB 315 SUG the entrance of Hades, in a lofty grotto which was supported by silver columns. As a river, Styx is described as a branch of Oceanus, flowing from its tenth source; and the River Cocytus, again, is a branch of the Styx. By Pallas, Styx became the mother of Zelus (zeal), Nice (victory), Bia (strength) and Cratos (power). She was the first of all the immortals who took her children to Jupiter to assist him against the Titans ; and in return for this, her children were allowed forever to live with Jupiter, and Styx herself became the divinity by whom the most solemn oaths were sworn. When one of the gods had to take an oath by Styx, Iris fetched a cup full of water from the Styx, and the god, while taking the oath, poured out the water. See Charon. subscribe. To yield ; to give up. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 38 ; Troil. IV, 5, 105 ; Tit. IV, 2, 130 ; Lr. I, 2, 24. The passage in Lr. Ill, 7, 65, All cruels else subscribed, is rather obscure. The Folios read subscribe; the Quartos subscriVd. That the word here means yielded or submitted seems the general opinion ; cruels is held by some to mean cruel creatures like the wolves men- tioned two lines above ; others think it means cruel habits, acts or practices. Craig, in his ed. of Lear, just out, ex- plains it thus : " gave up for a time their cruel habits and fierceness" — "their" evidently referring to the wolves. Fur- ness, after quoting many comments, says : " This is to me the most puzzling phrase in this play, more puzzling even than ' runaways' eyes ' or ' the dram of eale. ' * * * None of the interpreta- tions are to my mind satisfactory. ' ' His explanation in condensed form is : "Acknowledge the claims of all crea- tures, however cruel they may be at other times." subscription. Submission ; obedience ; allegiance. Lr. Ill, 2, 18. substractors. Probably Sir Toby's blun- der for detractors. Tw, I, 8, 37. It is ,a, curious fact that subtraction is fre- quently pronounced substruction in some parts of Great Britain. subtilties. Referring to this word, as it occurs in Tp. V, 1, 124, Steevens says : " This is a phrase adopted from ancient cookery and confectionary. When a dish was so contrived as to appear un- like what it really was, they called it a subtilty. Dragons, castles, trees, etc., made out of sugar had the like denomin- ation. * * * Froissart complains much of this practice, which often led him into mistakes at dinner. success. 1. Succession. 2HIV. IV, 2, 47. In whose success (Wint. I, 2, 394) = in succession from whom. Johnson. 2. Issue ; consequence. 0th. Ill, 3, 222. In this passage the word has its radical or etymological sense of succeeding or following after and does not in any degree carry its present meaning of good fortune. successantly. In succession. Tit. IV, 4, 112. successor. Having a right of succession or inheritance. Sonn. CXXVII, 3 ; 2HVL III, 1, 49 ; Tit. I, 1, 4. sucking dove. Wright calls attention to Bottom's "blunder of 'sucking dove' for 'sucking lamb.' " Mids. I, 2, 85. Is it a blunder ? Has Wright given care- ful attention to the manner in which young doves are fed ? Did he ever hear of "dove's milk"? Sh. knew some things which even the coms. do not seem to know. suffer'd. Let alone; allowed to go on. 2HVL III, 2, 262. Suffolk, Duke of, dr.p. A Lancastrian. 2HVI. Suffolk, Duke of, dr.p. HVIII. Suffolk, Earl of, dr.p. Afterwards duke. IHVI. and 2HVI. suggest. To tempt ; to seduce. Gent. Ill, 1, 34 ; All's. IV, 5, 47 ; HVIII. I, 1, 164; 0th. II, 3, 358. "The verb to suggest, in Sh., has generally the sense of to tempt, to incite to evil." Craig. suggestion. Temptation; seduction. An expression taken from Holinshed, meaH- SUF 316 SUN ing, perhaps, any underhand practice. 2HIV. IV, 4, 45 ; HVIII. IV, 2, 35. sufferance. 1. Connivance. As. II, 2, 3. 2. Death by execution. HV. II, 2, 159. 3. Damage ; loss. Oth. II, 1, 23. 4. Suffering. Troil. I, 1, 28. suffigance. Dogberry's blunder for suf- ficient. Ado. Ill, 5, 56. suit. To clothe ; to dress. As. I, 3, 118 ; Cym. V, 1, 23. sullen. Sad ; melancholy. John 1, 1, 28 ; 2HIV. I, 1, 102. sullens. Moroseness ; dumps. RII. II, 1, 139. summer. When Sh. makes Perdita say (Wint. IV, 4, 107) : These are flowers Of middle summer, and, I think, they are given To men of middle age, he, no doubt, had in mind that in heraldry certain flovs^ers were, as the heralds say, "given" to certain ages. Hunter ("New Illustrations," Vol. I, p. 420) quotes from Sir John Feme's " Blazon of Gentry " (1586) as folio vs^s : Infancy.— The Lilly and White Rose. Puerility.— The Blue Lilly. Adolescence.— The Mary Gold. Lusty Green Youth.— All manner of verdures or green things. Virility.— Gillofer and Red Rose. Grey Hairs.— The Violet. Decrepitude. — The Aubifaine. The word aiibifaine is not to be found in our dictionaries, but Cotgrave gives " Aubifoiu : the weed Blew-bottle, Blew- blow, Corne-flower, Hurtsickle." La Pucelle's promise in IHVI. I, 2, 131, Expect St. Martin''s Summer, halcyon days, means: "Expect pros- perity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun." Johnson. Saint Martin's Day is the 11th of November, and about this time there is frequently a period of mild weather, which in Great Britain is called St. Martin's summer. It seems to correspond to our Indian summer. So that La Pucelle means to say, in other vrords, after the winter of mis- fortune will come the summer of suc- cess. See halcyon. For all-hallown summer see all- hallown, and for middle summer''s spring see spring. summered. Provided, as cattle are with pasture. HV. V, 2, 334. sumpter. A sumpter-horse is a pack- horse ; a horse that carries provisions, etc. In Lr. II, 4, 219, the word is usu- ally explained as " a pack- horse driver," but more probably it has the meaning given by Cotgrave, s.v. "Sommier: A sumpter-horse ; (and generally any toyling, and load-carrying, drudge, or groome. ) sun. The proverb which Kent in his soliloquy addresses to Eang Lear : Thou out of heaven'' s benediction comestto the warm sun (Lr, II, 2, 169) is fre- quently found in the literature of that time. The meaning is obviously to go from better to worse, but how it came to take this form is not so clear. Han- mer observes that it is a proverbial saying, applied to those who are turned out of house and home to the open weather; to which Johnson adds: "It was perhaps used of men dismissed from an hospital, or house of charity, such as was erected formerly in many places for travellers. Those houses had names properly enough alluded to by heaven^s benediction.''^ Furness, following Ma- lone, objects that Lear "is not yet homeless. " How Furness could be thus misled is a puzzle to me. Lear had just been turned away from Goneril'shome; on going to Regan's he had found the place closed and the owners departed for the castle of Gloucester, whither he fol- lows them only to be turned out except upon conditions to which his kingly pride would not submit. It is true that Lear had not yet found this out, but shrewd old Kent, in whose mouth the speech is put, saw it all clearly, and events turned out precisely as Hanmer's interpretation describes — the old king was at that very time practically turned out of house and home. The most recent attempt at SITN 317 SUB explanation is that of Craig in his ed. of Lear, p. 93 : " Can it refer to the folly of leaving some grateful and beneficent shade, as of a spreading tree, to journey or toil in the extreme heat of the mid- day sun?" Did Craig have in mind that passage in Isaiah xxxii, 2: "As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land " ? See sun-burnt. Referring to Hamlet's speech, / mn too much V the sun (Hml. I, 2, 67), Dowden remarks: "Hamlet's delight in ambiguous and double meanings makes it probable that a play is intended on 'sun ' and 'son.' He is too much in the sunshine of the court, and too much in the relation of son — son to a dead father, son to an incestuous mother, son to an uncle-father. It was suggested by Johnson that there is an allusion to the proverbial expression (see Lear II, 2, 168) : ' Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun,' which means to be out of house and home ; Hamlet is deprived of the throne. Schmidt takes it to mean merely, 'I am more idle and careless than I ought to be. ' " Our half -faced sun. This expression, found in 2HVI. IV, 1, 98, is thus ex- plained : " Edward the third bare for his device the rays of the sun dispersing themselves out of a cloud." Camden quoted by Dyce. The motto, Invitis nubibus, means : In spite of the clouds. sun=burnt. This word, as it occurs in Ado. II, 1, 331, Thus goes every one to the world, but /, and I am sun-burnt, has received various explanations. Steevens says sun-burnt means: "I have lost my beauty and am conse- quently no longer such an object as can tempt a man to marry." And Collier says the meaning is : " her beauty is damaged." Hunter, in his "New Illus- trations," devotes four pages and a half to showing that the expression "sun- burnt " meant destitute of family rela- tions, and paraphrases the passage as follows: "Thus every one finds her mate and I am left alone in the world, a solitary woman." Halliwell, Staunton, Wright and Rolfe seem to agree with Steevens, but Fur- ness accepts Hunter's explanation on the ground that " any interpretation is better than that of supposing that Beatrice was angling for a compliment, which the disparaging remark of a woman on her own good looks always is. " In this it seems to me that Furness is unquestionably right. That sun-burnt had generally the plain, obvious meaning of tanned by the sun, as in Tp. IV, 1, 134, and con- sequently connoted the destruction of beauty, as in HV. V, 2, 154, and Troil. I, 3, 282, is unquestionable. But it may also have had an idiomatic meaning, and this it probably has in Ado. See world. Sundays. Benedict's expression : Sigh away Sundays (Ado. I, 1, 204), is said by Warburton to be a proverbial one to signify that " a man has no rest at all," but there is no instance of such a pro- verb. Wright explains it as, "when you will have most leisure to reflect on your captive condition "; to which Fur- ness adds: "And when, owing to the domesticity of the day, you cannot escape from your yoke-fellow." superflux. Superfluity. Lr. Ill, 4, 35. supervise, ) Inspection ; mere sight of. supervize. f Hml. V, 2, 23. suppliance. Supply ; gratification ; diver- sion. Hml. I, 3, 9. suppliant. Auxiliary; furnishing sup- plies. Cym. Ill, 7, 14. Spelt supplyant in some eds. supply. 1. To gratify; to content. Meas. V, 1, 212 ; 0th. IV, 1, 28. 2. To fill a place. Shr. Ill, 2,249; Tw. I, 1, 38. supposal. Opinion. Hml. I, 2, 18. supposes, n. Tricks ; deceptions ; assumed characters. Shr. V, 1, 120. sur=>addition. Extra title; surname. Cym. I, 1, 33. surcease, n. Cessation ; stop ; death. Mcb. I, 7, 4. surcease, v. To cease. Cor. Ill, 2, 121 ; Rom. IV, 1, 67. STIR 318 SWE Sure^card. A name which occurs in 2HIV. Ill, 2, 95. This was a term used for a boon com- panion, so lately as the latter end of the last century, by one of the trans- lators of Suetonius. It is observable that many of Sh. names are invented and characteristical. Master Foi^th- light, the tilter; Master Shoe-tie, the traveller ; Master Smooth, the silkman, etc., etc. Malone. To which we may add Borachio, which in Spanish signifies a vessel made of the skin of a beast in which wine is kept; figuratively, a drunkard. sur=reined. Over-ridden ; used up. HV. Ill, 5, 19. Surrey, Duke of, dr. p. RII. Surrey, Earl of, dr.p. Son to the Duke of Norfolk. RIII. and HVIII. suspire. To breathe. 2HIV. IV, 5, 33 ; John III, 4, 80. swabber. The one who sweeps the deck ; a very inferior personage in the ship's crew. Tp. II, 2, 48; Tw. I, 5, 217. In the latter passage Viola takes up the nautical metaphor of hoist sail and turns it contemptuously against Maria. Rolfe. swart. Black. Err. Ill, 2, 104; John III, 1, 46 ; Tit. II, 3, 73 ; Gent. II, 6, 26. In some eds. swarthy or swarty. Swarth, n. A corruption of swath (1), a heaped row of mown grass. Tw. II, 3, 162. swasher. A braggart ; a bully. HV. Ill, 2, 30. swashing. 1. Swaggering; hectoring. As. I, 3, 122. 2. Sweeping ; crushing. Rom. I, 1, 70. This word is washing in the Folios and in the 2nd and 3rd Quartos; swashing in 4th and 5th Quartos. It is possible that washing may be right, as it seems that it was a technical term in quarter-staff play. swath. 1. A line of grass as it is cut and thrown in a lengthened heap by the scythe. Troil. V, 5, 25. 2. The bandages wrapped round new- born children. Tim. IV, 3, 252. swathling. Same as swaddling ; bandages for new-born children. IHIV. Ill, 2, 113. sway. To move. 2HIV. IV, 1, 24. swear. Thou swear'' st thy gods in vain. Lr. 1, 1, 163. The preposition by is here omitted ; Sh. frequently omits such prepositions. See " Sh. Gram. , " § 200. The passage in Wint. I, 2, 424, Swear his thought over by each particular star in heaven, is said by Dr. Furness not to be obscure. Nevertheless it has been the subject of some comment and emendation. The meaning is obvious : Even if you should outswear his asser- tions you cannot overcome his jealousy. Hotspur's injunction to his wife (IHIV. II, 1, 258), Swear me Kate, like a lady, receives'the following note from Clarke: " Very characteristic of Harry Percy in his wishing his wife to abjure minc- ing oaths, and to come out with good round sonorous ones. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's wonted imprecations were of this kind ; and some of them, recorded as being familiar in her mouth, were of a character sufiiciently potential to become the lips of the daughter of Henry VIII., and warrant the drama- tist in making Hotspur say ' Like a lady as thou art ' to his wife. " swearer. One who uses profane language, hence, a dissolute person. Per. IV, 6, 13. sweet. Perfumed. Tit. II, 4, 6 ; Rom, V, 3, 14. See rosemary. sweet and twenty. See twenty. sweeting. 1. A kind of apple used for sauce. Rom. II, 4, 83. 2. A term of endearment. Shr. IV, 3, 36 ; 0th. II, 3, 2.52, sweetmeats. As mentioned in Rom, I, 4, 76, are explained by Malone as " kiss- ing-comfits. These artificial aids to per- fume the breath are mentioned by Falstaff in the last act of the M. W. of W.," and this gloss has been accepted by most coms,, Rolfe, Schmidt, Dowden and even the sagacious Dr. Furness. I regard it as very doubtful. The breath was probably tainted by the indigestion caused by eating articles of various kinds preserved in sugar or honej^. SWI 319 SYM which was extensively used for sugar in the old times. That Sh. recognised the effects of sweets on digestion is seen in RII. I, 3, 286, Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. So in Mids. I, 1, 34, sweetmeats probably meant no more than sweet articles. Kissing- comfits were, no doubt, extensively used, but were called by their proper name. swift. Prompt ; ready. Ado. Ill, 1, 89 ; LLL. Ill, 1, 63; As. V, 4, 65. "Swift had a special meaning, 'ready at re- plies,' or, as we should say, 'good at repartee.'" Marshall. switch and spurs. In the Fl. swits and spurs. By this Romeo means, " whip up your flagging wits." Rom. II, 4, 70. See wild-goose. swill. To swallow ; to gulp down. HV. III, 1, 14. swinge. To beat ; to strike. Gent. II, 1, 91 ; Wiv. V, 5, 197 ; 2HIV. V, 4, 23. Swinge=buckler. A roisterer ; a swash- buckler. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 24. Swithold. Probably a corruption of Saint Vitalis, a saint that was specially in- voked against the night-mare. Lr. Ill, 4,125. The 3rd Var., Vol. X, p. 160, has a couple of pages of notes on this subject. See also the ed. of Lear by Furuess, p. 195. See wold. Switzers. Hired guards, so called because at first they came from Switzerland. Malone quotes Nash, "Christ's Teares over Jerusalem" (1594) : "Law, logicke and the Switzers may be hired to fight for anybody." But Reed says : " In many of our old plays the guards attendant on kings are called * Switzers,' and that without any regard to the country where the scene lies." Hml. IV, 5, 97. Swoop=stake. Wholesale ; entirely. Hml. IV, 5, 141. Swoopstakes or sweepstakes is a game of cards in which a player may win all the stakes or take all the tricks. sword=and=buckler. " When the rapier and dagger were introduced they be- came the distinctive weapons of gentle- men, while the sword and buckler were used by serving men and brawling, riotous fellows ; therefore, Percy coins this epithet for Prince Hal, to intimate that he was but one of those low and vulgar fellows with whom he was associated." Clarke. IHIV. I, 3, 230. Stowe speaks of a time "when every serving-man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his sword, " and Steevens, in confirmation, says : " I have now before me a poem entitled ' Sword and Buckler, or The Serving- Man's Defence,' by William Bas, 1602." sworder. A gladiator. 2HVI. IV, 1, 135. sworn=brother. This word is not hyphen- ated in the Fl. , and many eds. follow that text. Furness thinks, however, that Capell was " unquestionably right in joining these two words with a hyphen." On the meaning of the word as it occurs in Ado. I, 1, 73, Hunter ("New Illustrations," Vol. I, p. 244), has the following note : "This is one of the popular phrases of England to denote strict alliances and amities, and has survived the recollection of the circumstances in which the term arose. The fratres conjurati were persons linked together in small fellowships, perhaps not more than two, who under- took to defend and assist each other in a military expedition under the sanction of some stricter tie than that which binds the individuals composing a whole army to each other. They are found in genuine history as well as in the romances of chivalry." cf. IHIV. II, 4,7. swound. To swoon. Rom. II, 2, 56. 'swounds. See zounds. Sycorax. The name of Caliban's mother. "Tp. I, 2, 258, etc. Of this name Ruskin, in his ' ' Munera Pul veris, ' ' says : ' ' Pros- per© [which signifies for hope], a true governor, is opposed to Sycorax, the mother of slavery, her name, 'Swine- raven,' indicating at once brutality and deathf ulness. " Sylvius, dr.p. A shepherd. As. sympathy. Equality; just proportion. 0th. II, 1, 232. TAB 320 TAI ABLE. 1. Referring to Rom. I, 5, 29, turn the tables up, Steevens says: "Before this phrase is generally intelligible, it should be observed that ancient tables were flat leaves, joined by hinges, and placed on trestles. When they were to be removed, they were therefore turned up." Toone, s.v. board, says "they were loose boards." It is doubtful if they were merely hinged and laid on trestles; this would make a very un- reliable support ; it is more likely that they were battened and that the turning up was simply standing them on edge. In this way they would occupy but little room, less, indeed, than if they were hinged. See board. 2. The canvas or panel on which a pic- ture is painted. John II, 1, 503. 3. The palm of the hand or, rather, " the space between certain lines on the skin within the hand." Halliwell. Nares says : " The whole collection of lines on the skin within the hand." A term in palmistry. Merch. II, 2, 174. tabled. Set down. Cym. I, 4, 7. tables. 1. Tablets; a pocket-book for containing memoranda, usually made of prepared ass's skin. Hml. I, 5, 107. See relative. 2. The game of backgammon. LLL. V, 2, 327. Nares gives a quotation from the " Witts Recreation" : Man's life's a game at tables, and he may Mend his bad fortune by his wiser play. tackled stair. A rope-ladder. Rom. II, 4, 203. tabor. A small drum, beaten with a single stick, and generally accompanied by a pipe which the taborer played himself. Douce tells us that "this in- strument is found in the hands of fools long before the time of Sh." Tw. Ill, 1, 2 and 10 ; Tp. IV, 1, 175; Wint. IV, 4, 183. taborer. A player on the tabor. Tp. Ill, 2, 160. tabourine. A drum. Troil. IV, 5, 275 ; Ant. IV, 8, 37. " The tambourine, both of ancient and modern times, seems to be a different thing, having parchment on one side only, and played with the fingers." Nares. taffeta. A thin, soft silk. LLL. V, 3, 159 ; Tw. II, 4, 76. See snipt. tag. The mob; the common people. Cor. Ill, 1,247. tag=rag people. The common people; the "great unwashed." Caes. I, 2, 259. tailor. See prick. tailor cries. This expression (Mids. II, 1, 54) has never been satisfactorily ex- plained. Johnson says: "The custom of crying tailor at a sudden fall back- ward I think I remember to have ob- served. He that slips beside his chair falls as a tailor squats upon his board." Furness says : "It needs scarcely an ounce of civet to sweeten the imagina- tion if it be suggested that the slight substitution of an e for an o in the word ' tailor ' will show that, as boys in swimming take a ' header ' the wisest Aunt was subjected to the opposite." These explanations might be accepted if the expression had been uttered by the spectators, but as Sh. puts it in the mouth of the subject of the accident they seem to me untenable. In the ed. of Nares, by Halliwell and Wright, taylor or tailor is given as equivalent to thief, which has always been a com- mon term of reproach, and they quote " Pasquil's Night-Cap " : Thieving is now an occupation made. Though men the name of tailor do it give. This seems the most probable explana- tion. A suggested reading is rails or cries for tailor cries; another suggested emendation is traitor for tailor, but here, as elsewhere, emendations are out TAI 321 TAN of place when a good, sound sense may be obtained from the text as it stands. taint, p.^. Used instead of tainted. IHVI. V, 3, 183. tainture. Defilement. 2HVI. II, 1, 188. take. 1. To infect; to bewitch. Wiv. IV, 4, 32 ; Wint. IV, 4, 119 ; Hml. I, 1, 163 ; Lr. II, 4, 166. 2. To take out = to copy. Oth. Ill, 4, 179. 3. Take up = make up. As. V, 4, 104 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 323. 4. Take up = reprove. Gent. I, 2, 132. 5. Take me with yon = make me under- stand you. Rom. Ill, 5, 142. 6. Took it at his death = at his death protested^or took it on his oath. John I, 1, 110. See also IHIV. II, 4, 9, and V, 4, 154. Take this fro'tn this, if this be other- wise. Hml. II, 2, 157. " Theobald here added a stage direction, ' Pointing to his head and shoulders ' ; he has been followed by many editors. Stage tra- dition may have guided Theobald. But see lines 166, 167. May not ' this from this ' mean the chamberlain's staff or wand and the hand which bears it ?" Dowden, This stage direction is adopted in the Cambridge, the G-lobe, Furness's Var. and almost all eds. since Theobald. But I think that, " in contempt of ques- tion," Dowden is right. Talbot, John, dr.p. Son to Lord Talbot. IHVI. Talbot, Lord, dr.p. Afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury. IHVI. tale. Reckoning ; counting. Mcb. I, 3, 97. The sentence in the Fl. is : As thick as tale Can post with post : and the meaning usually given is : As fast as the posts could be counted. In modern eds. the reading is : As thick as hail Came post with post : In the Globe ed. the Glossary defines "tale" in this passage as above, but the text gives the second reading ! alents. 1. In most modern eds. means a ; sum of money. Cym. I, 6, 80. 2. A locket containing hair or other souvenir. Compl. 204. In LLL. IV, 2, 65, Dull puns on talent and talon. Talon is spelt talent in the old eds. tall. Able ; bold ; strong. Merch. Ill, 1, 6 ; Oth. II, 1, 79 ; Wiv.^II, 1, 237 ; Rom. II, 4, 31. taller. Stronger ; more robust. Shr. IV, 1,11. tallow=catch. It is uncertain whether tallow-ketch (= a tub of tallow) or tal- low-keech (= the tallow of an animal rolled into a lump or "keech" to be sent to the chandler) is meant in IHIV. II, 4, 252. Either reading makes good sense. tame. Spiritless; cowardly. Wiv. Ill, 5, 153 ; Mids. Ill, 2, 259. The passage in Lr. IV, 6, 225, made tame to fortune'' s blows reads lame by in the Quartos. Malone retained this reading on account of its similarity to Sonn. XXXVII, 3, So I, made lame by fortune''s dearest spight. Tamora, dr.p. Queen of the Goths. Tit. tang, n. A sharp sound. Tp. II, 2, 52. tang, V. To utter with a sharp voice. Tw. II, 5, 163. tanling. One who is scorched or tanned by the sun. Cym. IV, 4, 29. Tantalus. The particulars of his history vary, but all authorities agree that he was a very wealthy king, some say of Lydia, others of Argos or Corinth. The legend goes that he was the son of Jupiter and Pluto who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. He is celebrated in ancient story for the very severe punishment inflicted upon him in the lower world after hife death. Various reasons are given for this punishment, but the one most generally accepted is that Jupiter invited him to his table and communicated to h:lm his divine counsels. Tantalus divulged the secrets intrusted to him, and the gods punished him by placing him in the nether world in the midst of a lake, but rendering it impossible for him to drink when he was thirsty, the water always receding TAR TAS when he stooped, towards it. Moreover, branches laden with fruit hung over his head, but when he stretched forth his hand to reach them they withdrew. And over his head was suspended a huge rock ever threatening to crush him. This story gave rise to a proverb amongst the ancients and from it the English have derived the verb to " tan- talize," i.e., to hold out hopes or pros- pects which cannot be realized. Another tradition relates that he, wanting to try the gods, cut his son, Pelops in pieces, boiled them and set them before the immortals. See Pelops. Tantalus is referred to in Ven. 599, and Lucr. 858, tarre. To set on (as if a dog) ; to urge on. John IV, 1, 117; Troil. I, 3, 392; Hml. II, 2, 370. tarriance. The act of tarrying; delay. Genf. II, 7, 90 ; Pilgr. 74. Tartar. 1. A native of Tartary. Wiv. IV, 5, 21 ; Merch. IV, 1, 32. On the passage in Rom. I, 4, 5, a Tar- tar''s painted bow of lath, Douce re- marks that Tartarian bows resembled in their form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see on medals and bas- reliefs. Sh. uses the epithet to distin- guish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a circle. 2. Hell. Tw. II, 5, 225 ; HV. II, 2, 123. In Err. IV, 2, 32, a comparison is made between a prison (for which hell was the cant term) and the real hell. See hell. task. 1. To tax (as ask was sometimes spelt ax in old writings). IHIV. IV, 3,92. 2. To challenge. IHIV. V, 2, 51. 3. To keep busy ; to occupy. Wiv. IV, 6, 30 ; HV. I, 2, 6. tassel=gentle. Properly tercel-gentle or tiercel-gentle, the male of the goshawk. Rom. II, 2, 160. "Tiercel or tassel is the general name of the male of all large hawks. ' ' Holme's "Academy of Armoiy and Blazon." "This bird is said to have been called gentle on account of its tractable dis- position and the ease with which it was tamed." Dyce, Madden notes that in using the term there was a subtle tribute paid by Juliet to her lover's nobility of nature. See tercel. taste. The original meaning of taste was to touch, to feel carefully, and it was de- rived, through several mutations, from the Latin tangere. See Skeat, s.v. taste. Hence it came to mean to try, to test, although the latter is an entirely differ- ent word and from an entirely differ- ent root. The word taste has now lost much of its old sense, but even in Sh. time it retained the meaning of to try. Troil. Ill, 2, 98 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 267. In his speech : Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion (Tw. Ill,- 1, 87), Toby uses the word in a sense quite common in Sh., but Viola's reply, that she does not understand what he means by bidding her "taste her legs," has mis- led the coms. Hotspur uses the word in the same sense in IHIV. IV, 1, 119, Come, let me taste my horse, (over- looked by Schm.), where "taste" does not mean to test the actual flavor of horse-flesh. And yet Halliwell tells us that " Sir Toby is perhaps ridiculing the effeminate appearance of Viola and tells her to taste her legs, they are so tender and delicate." ! ! And so Rolfe, misled no doubt by Schm. , says : " Prob- ably meant as another bit of affectation, and not an ordinary metaphor, 'like taste their valour ' in III, 4, 267." I do not think so. Toby uses the word in a sense evidently quite common at the time, but Viola puns upon it, gives it the meaning found in Rom. I, 3, 30, when it did taste the wormwood, and pretends not to understand. It was Viola, not Sir Toby, who used "a bit of affectation," and she would probably have continued it if Olivia had not ap- peared just at that moment. The ex- pression "taste their valour," in III, 4, 267, is not "an ordinary metaphor," but a legitimate use of the word in its original sense which it had not then quite lost. TAT TEL The expression, who did taste to hiin? in John V, 6, 28, and also the passages in RII. V, 5, 99, and Kins. V, 3, 23, refer to the old practice of having a prominent oflBcial taste all food offered to kings and other great personages as a precaution against poison. Dyce says : " Allusions to the royal taster, whose 'oflGlce it was to give the say (prae libare), to taste and declare the goodness of the wine and dishes." By "goodness " Dyce probably means freedom from anything injurious. tattering. In the Fl. (John V, 5, 7) this word is tott'ring. Pope suggested tattered, and Malone tattering, which emendation is adopted in the G-lobe ed. ; tottering in the Cambridge. Some ex- plain the word as torn or ragged ; others as waving. Taurus, dr. p. Lieutenant - General to Octavius Caesar. Ant. Taurus. The Bull, one of the signs of the Zodiac. Tw. I, 3, 147; Tit. IV, 3, 69. Johnson remarks that the allusion in Tw. is to the medical astrology still preserved in almanacs which refers the affections of particular parts of the body to the predominance of particular constellations. As Douce says, both knights are wrong in their astrology according to the almanacs of the time, which make Taurus govern the neck and throat. Their ignorance is, perhaps, intentional. Upon which Furness re- marks that Sir Andrew's ignorance was genuine, but Sir Toby wanted merely a pretext for a coarse allusion. tavern. It was the custom in old times and, indeed, is yet the pi'actice in some old-fashioned places, to give a fancy name to each room in the house, as, for example, " The Bunch of Grapes " (Meas. II, 1, 133); "The Half-Moon" (IHIV. II, 4, 31); "The Pomgarnet" (Pome- granate) (IHIV. II, 4, 42). At the present day, at the Shakespeare Hotel, in Stratford, the rooms, instead of being numbered, are named after the Shake- spearean plays. Rooms in mansions and palaces were also so named, as the "Jerusalem Chamber," 2HIV. IV, 5, 235. tawdry=Iace. A rustic necklace. Wint, IV, 4, 253. Tawdry is a corruption of Saint Audrey or Ethelreda, on whose day, the 17th of October, a fair was held in the Isle of Ely, where gay toys of all sorts were sold. There is a tradi- tion that St. Audrey died of a swelling in the throat which she considered a special judgment for having been ad- dicted to wearing fine necklaces in her youth. tax. To censure ; to condemn ; to re- proach. Meas. II, 4, 79 ; Troil. I, 3, 197 ; Hml. I, 4, 18 ; Hml. Ill, 3, 29. Now used in the sense of to accuse, cf. task. taxation. 1. Demand ; claim. Tw. I, 5, 225. 2. Censure; satire; invective. As. I, 2, 91. You'll be whipped for taxation one of these days (As. I, 2, 91) = you'll be whipped for using your tongue too freely. Tearsheet, Doll, dr. p. A woman of bad repute. 2HIV. See road. tedious. The brief and the tedious of it — Parolles form for the long and the short of it. All's. II, 3, 34. teen. Vexation ; grief ; pain. Ven. 808 ; Tp. I, 2, 64; LLL. IV, 3, 164; Rom. I, 3, 13. In the latter passage the F2. and F4. read teeth, which spoils the play on fourteen. teeth. The expression, did it from his teeth, (Ant. Ill, 4, 10) is thus explained by Pye : "To appearance only, not seriously." He also cites from Dry den's Wild Gallant ; " I am confident she is only angry from the teeth Outwards,'' Dyce. In words merely, not from the heart. See tooth-pick and tooth, coWs. Telamon. The father of A jax the Great, who is therefore frequently called the Telamonian Ajax to distinguish him from Ajax, the son of Oileus. Telamon was the son of ^acus and the brother of Peleus. He was one of the Calydonian hunters and one of the Argonauts. In Ant. IV, 13, 2, the reference to the madness of Telamon is no doubt a mis- TEI 324 TEM take, Ajax being intended, but in 2HVI. V, 1, 26, Ajax is properly called Ajax Telamonius and his madness is alluded to. He is tnore mad than Telatnon for his shield refers, of course, to the shield of Achilles, which was the most valuable part of the armor, and to the dispute with Ulysses in regard to its possession. See Ajax. tell. To count. Ven. 277; Wint. IV, 4, 185 ; Lr. II, 4, 55. The word survives in the term teller, one who counts votes at a meeting. Also one who counts money in a bank. Tell ten, that is, count ten. " It was a trial of idiocy to make the person count his fingers." Weber. Kins. Ill, 5, 80. Tellus. Another form for Terra, the name under which the earth was per- sonified among the Romans, as Ge was among the Greeks. She was rSgarded as one of the deities of the nether world, and Hesiod tells us that she was one of the first beings that arose out of Chaos and that she gave birth to Uranus (Coelus) and Pontus. Sh. uses the name as a synonym for the earth in Hml. Ill, 2, 166, and Per. IV, 1, 14. temper. The original meaning of this word is to make " a right admixture. " Thus Trench says: "What has been .said under the word 'humour' [see Addenda, s. v. humou7^] will also ex- plain 'temper,' and the earlier uses of it which we meet. The happy 'temper ' would be the happy mixture, the blend- ing in due proportions of the four prin- cipal ' humours ' of the body. ' ' This meaning still survives in the use of the word in regard to mortar ; the mason speaks of "tempering" mortar when he works and mixes it ; and this very meaning is found in 2HVI. Ill, 1, 311; Lr. I, 4, 326 ; Tit. V, 2, 200. Schmidt gives a special signification to the word in these p^^ssages : "to wet ; to moisten (dry things).'' Not at all; the fact of moistening, or of the things being dry, is a mere accident ; mortar that is too wet may be tempered by the addition and thorough mixing of dry lime and sand. The word has also the same meaning in Ado. II, 2, 21 ; Rom. II, Chor. 14; Hml. V, 2, 339 ; Cym. V, 5, 250. In the case of metals the meaning evidently is to give such a mixture of qualities (hardness, toughness, elasticity, etc.,) as may be best suited to the pur- pose in view, Schm. gives the absurd definition : " to make hard by cooling." But metals may be tempered by ham- mering as well as cooling, and hardening is not tempering, and never was. It is an easy thing to make steel hard, but to give it that special mixture of quali- ties which fits it for special purposes is an art which is not understood even by all metal-workers. That Sh. understood all this is evident from his writings. See ice-brook. In a recent Shake- spearean commentary we find the fol- lowing : "The way of tempering steel is by plunging it red-hot into cold water, and the colder the water, the higher the temper attained." A sword tempered in this way would fly to pieces like a strip of glass on the first encounter with a Spanish blade. The vitality of these absurd views is something wonder- ful. Even the scientific Rolfe has em- bodied a similar statement (unthink- ingly, I have no doubt) in his note on 0th. V, 2, 253. I believe Booth made the subtle sug- gestion that when Othello spoke of the ice-brook he alluded to the temper- i ing of sword blades by means of waters ' possessing certain charmed qualities. That some of the old fabricators did use incantations to cover up their mechani- cal secrets is more than probable. That the alchemists did so is well known ; and i we also know that the ancients attri- buted supernatural powers to those j streams and fountains which were sacred to certain divinities (Naiades) who, if properly propitiated, would assure success to those who used the waters over which they presided. See Nymphs temperance. Temperature. Tp. II, 1, 42. temporize. This word, as a verb, occurs TEN 325 TEN four times in Sh., viz., in Ado. I, 1, 27G ; John V, 2, 125; Troil. IV, 4, 6, and Cor. IV, 6, 17. Also as tempornzer in Wint. I, 2, 303. The meaning now usually given to the word temporize is to delay, to put off, and this is the meaning given to it by Rann in the passage from Ado : You will temporize with the hours. Schm. explains it as, "to come to terms; to compromise," and Rolfe, "you will come to terms in course of time. " Furness suggests that the word should be tetnperise, " that is, you will become attempered by the hours ; your temper will change and become more pliant and yielding." It seems to me that tempering or modifica- tion is, as Furness indicates, the chief idea conveyed by Sh. in his use of the word. tend. To attend. Hml. IV, 3, 47 ; Mcb. I, 5, 38. tender, i;. To take care of ; to treat with kindness ; to have consideration for. Tw. V, 1, 129 ; RII. I, 1, 32 ; RIII. II, 4,72; Rom. Ill, 1,74. The phrase which occurs in Hml. I, 3, 107: tender yourself more dearly; Or — not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus — you''ll tender me a fool, has received various inter- pretations. Dowden asks : " Does this mean. You will present yourself to me as a fool ? or, present me to the public as a fool?" There is evidently a play upon the word tender. Rolfe and Fur- ness are both silent in regard to it ; the 3rd Var. has several notes, but none very satisfactory. tender=hefted. The expression, thy ten- der-hefted nature shall not give thee d^er to harshness (Lr. II, 4, 174), has never been clearly explained. The words are hyphenated in the Fl. Steevens says : '•'•Hefted seems to mean the same as heaved. Tender-hefted, i.e., whose bosom is agitated by tender passions. * * * Shakespeare uses hefts for heavings in Wint. II, 1, 45. Both the Quartos, however, read ' tender- hested ' nature ; which may mean a nature which is governed by gentle dispositions. Hest is an old word signi- fying command." Rowe emended to tender-hearted. The coms. have gone to a good deal of unnecessary ti'ouble to prove that haft or heft means a handle. Of course it does ; the word in this sense being common. And reference is made to Cotgrave and others to show that the corresponding French word em- manche (helved) was used in reference to the person. This would make tender- hefted = set in a delicate bodily frame, and Wright, who suggests this inter- pretation, states that Regan was less masculine than Goneril — a somewhat bold assertion in the face of the fact that Regan was the one who seized a sword and slew the servant who pro- tested against the tearing out of Glou- cester's eyes. Grant White says that "'tender-hefted' is inexplicable con- sistently with common sense and Shake- speare's use of language. " The "finely sheathed" or "delicately housed" gloss he pronounces " a most manifest mare's nest, and one at which every editor of Shakespeare must have looked and passed by on the other side. Lear's thought has no reference to Regan's body but to her soul. * * * There is possibly a misprint of tender-hearted, although we all shun such a simple relief of our difficulty, and linger in the sweet obscurity of tender-hefted.''^ Of "tender-hearted" Rolfe says: it "is ' tolerable and not to be endured. ' Sh. could never have written 'tender- hearted nature. ' " A somewhat danger- ous assertion. Among the many desperate attempts to make sense of the passage, Craig, in the latest ed. of this play, picks up a Shropshire meaning for the word: "a dead heft = a weight that cannot be lifted," and suggests that " tender- hefted might simply mean 'pliable, manageable.' " He then falls into the singular mistake of saying that " 'hefty' has in Ainerica the meaning of easy to lift or handle. " Speaking for that part TEN TES of America known as the United States, I should say that the meaning is just the opposite. Hefty simply means heavy (heft being an old form of heaved)^ and a thing that is hefty is one that is not easily lifted. tent, n. A probe for searching a wound. Troil. II, 2, 16; do. V, 1, 11. In the latter passage there is a pun on tent, which signifies both a temporary house and a surgeon's probe. tent, u 1. To probe. Hml. II, 2,626; Cym. Ill, 4, 118. 2. To cure. Cor. I, 9, 31. cf. untented. 3. To lodge as in a tent. Cor. Ill, 2, 116. tercel. The male of the goshawk, ac- cording to Nares, but Cotgrave (s.v. tiercelet) says it is the tassel or male "of any kind of Hawke." The word literally means "thirdling," and Cot- grave says it was " so tearmed, because he is, commonly, a third part lesse then the female." Others say that the name originated in the popular belief that the female hawk laid three eggs and that the third or last laid was sure to pro- duce a male. The falcon was the female hawk, and in the nomenclature of hawking there were several kinds of falcons, but the male corresponding to each kind was called the tercel. See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," Book I, chap. 2. The falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks V the river (Troil. Ill, 2, 56) has been the subject of emendation. Rowe and Pope read has the tercel; Tyrwhitt conjectured at the tercel. Cressida, of course, was the falcon and Troilus the tercel, and the meaning suggested by Tyrwhitt is that Cressida would make the attack. There seems to be no need of emendation ; the meaning is that Cressida is the equal of Troilus, and on this Pandarus is willing to bet "all the ducks i' the river," not that Cressida will take to the water and go duck- hunting as some have explained it. See tassel-gentle. Tereus. See Philomel. Termagant. According to the Crusaders and old romance-writers, Termagant, Termagaunt or Turmagant was a god of the Saracens. Like Herod, he was often introduced into the early Miracle- or Mystery-plays and was represented as a most violent character. IHIV. V, 4, 114; Hml. 111,2, 15. termless. Indescribable. Compl. 94. terms. The expression, recollected terms (Tw. II, 4, 5), is somewhat obscure. Knight says that "term" forms no part of the technical language of music and suggests tunes as an emendment. Perhaps the word may have been turns, defined in the Cent. Diet. (6) as "a melodic embellishment or grace, etc." Whether or not this word was in use in the time of Sh. I do not know. In in- distinct writing turns and terms much resemble each other. But see note at end of she. Wright explains the word as " phrases gathered with pains, not spontaneous. Knight proposed tunes, but we have already had the tunes in the ' airs ' and the ' terms ' must there- fore be the words set to music. ' ' Wright's gloss is unquestionably one of the best and clearest. And this is the meaning given to " terms " in Ado. V, 2, 41, and LLL. V, 2, 406. terrene. Earthly. Ant. Ill, 13, 153. terrible. Afllrighted ; suffering from terror. Lr. I, 2, 32. cf. fear. tertian. A fever whose paroxysms re- turn every third day, according to Bailey, Worcester, Skeat and others; every second day, according to Schm., Cent. Diet., Imperial, etc. ; Johnson says two fits in three days. Mrs. Quickly made an obvious jumble when she spoke of a " quotidian tertian," but the lexicographers seem to be in almost as great confusion. HV. II, 1, 124. See quotidian. test. Testimony ; evidence. Troil. V, 3, 122 ; 0th. I, 3, 107. tester. A slang term for sixpence. 2HI V. Ill, 2, 299. Apparently used by Pistol for money in general. Wiv. I, 3, 94. testern. To give money to (probably sixpence). Gent. I, 1, 155. TES 327 THE testril. A' sixpence (probably the clown's variant of tester). IV. II, 3, 36. testy. Quarrelsomet fretful. Mids. Ill, 3, 358. tetchy. Peevish; touchy. RIII. IV, 4, 169. Thaisa, dr.jJ. Daughter to Simonides. Per. Thaliard, dr. p. A lord of Antioch. Per. tharborough. A constable (corrupted from third-borough). LLL. I, 1, 185. " The office of third-borough 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. thatched, ^ee Philemon emA visor. theatre. The following notes, condensed from Vol. Ill of the 3rd Var., throw light on many passages and allusions in the plays : In the time of Sh. there were seven principal theatres : three private houses, viz., that in Blackfriars, that in White- friars, and The Co(^kpit or Phoenix in Drury Lane, and four that were called public theatres, viz. , The Globe on the Bankside, The Curtain in Shoreditch, The Red Bull at the upper end of St. John's Street, and The Fortune in Whitecross Street. The last two were chiefly frequented by citizens. There were, however, but six companies of conaedians, for the playhouse in Black- friars and The Globe belonged to the same troop. Beside these se ven theatres, there were for some time on the Bank- side three other public theatres: The Swan, The Rose and The Hope ; but The Hope being used chiefly as a bear-garden and The Swan and The Rose having fallen to decay early in King James's reign, they ought not to be enumerated with the other regular theatres. All the established theatres that were open in 1598 were either without the city of London or its liberties. All the plays of Sh. appear to have been performed either at The Globe or the theatre in Blackfriars. These be- longed to the same company of come- dians, namely, his majesty's servants. which title they obtained after a licence had been granted to them by King James in 1603. Like the other servants of the household, the performei's en- rolled into this company were sworn into office, and each of them was allowed four yards of bastard scarlet for a cloak and a quarter of a yard of velvet for the cape every second year. The Globe was built not long before the year 1596 ; it was situated on the Bankside (the southern side of the river Thames) nearly opposite to Friday Street, Cheapside. It was an hexagonal building, partly open to the weather and partly thatched. Like all the other theatres of that time, it was built of wood. It was of considerable size, and the plays were always acted by day- light. On the roof of this and the other public theatres a pole was erected, to which a flag was affixed. These flags were probably displayed only during the hours of exhibition ; and it would seem from one of the old comedies that they were taken down in Lent, in which time, in the early part of King James's reign, plays were not allowed to be represented, though at a subsequent period this prohibition was dispensed with. It is probable that The Globe was denominated only from the sign painted on its side. This was a figure of Hercules supporting the Globe, under which was written : Totus Mundus agit histrionem. This theatre was burnt down on the 29th of June, 1613, but it was rebuilt in the following year and decorated with more ornament than had been originally bestowed upon it. The exhibitions at The Globe seem to have been calculated chiefly for the lower class of people ; those at Black- friars, for a more select and judicious audience. One of these theatres was a winter and the other a summer house. As The Globe was partly exposed to the weather, and they acted there usually by day-light, it is probable that this was the summer house. Some difficulty has been occasioned THE 328 THE by the fact that Sh. speaks of The Globe theatre as this wooden O (HV. Prol. 13). But aside from the license usually ac- corded to poets, a hexagon on the scale that the theatre was built is near enough to a circle to justify the title in a general way. Many of the ancient dramatic pieces were performed in the yards of carriers' inns, in which, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then first united themselves in companies, erected an occasional stage. The form of these temporary playhouses seems to be preserved in our modern theatre. The galleries in both are ranged over each other on three sides of the building. The small rooms under the lowest of these galleries answer to present boxes, and it is observable that these, even in theatres which were built in a subsequent period expressly for dramatic exhibitions, still I'etained their old name and are frequently called rooms by the old writers. The yard bears a sufficient resemblance to the pit as at present in use. We niay suppose the stage to have been raised in this area, on the fourth side, with its back to the gateway of the inn, at which the money for admission was taken. Hence, in the middle of The Globe, and probably of other public theatres in the time of Bh., there was an open yard or area where the common people stood to see the exhibition ; from which circumstance they are called by our author "groundlings," and by Ben Jonson " the xiuder standing gentlemen of the ground.'''' The galleries, or scaffolds as they are sometimes called, and that part of the house which in private theatres was called the pit, seem to have been at the same price, the usual cost of admission being sixpence in houses of reputation, while in some of the meaner theatres it was only a penny or, perhaps, twopence. ' The price of admission to the best rooms or boxes was one shilling in Sh. time, though afterwards it rose to two shillings and half a crown. From several passages in our old plays we learn that spectators were admitted on the stage and that the critics and wits of the time usually sat there. Some stood or lounged around ; others sat on stools, the price of which was either sixpence or a shilling, according to loca- tion. And they were attended by pages, who furnished them with pipes and tobacco, which was smoked here as well as in other parts of the house. But it would seem that persons were suffered to sit on the stage only in the private playhouses (such as Blackfriars, etc.) where the audience was more select and of a higher class ; and that in The Globe and the other public theatres no such license was permitted. The stage was strewed with rushes, which in those days formed the usual covering for floors. See rush. The curtain, instead of being raised as at present, was parted in the middle and drawn to each side. How little the imaginations of the audience were as- sisted by scenical deception and how much necessity the dramatist had to call on them to " piece out imperfections with their thoughts ' ' may be collected from Sir Philip Sydney, who, describing the state of the drama and the stage in his time (about 1583), says : " Now you shall have three ladies walk to gather flowers, and then we must beleeve the stage to be a garden. By and by we heare news of shipwreck in the same place; then we are to blame if we accept it not for a rock. Upon the back of that comes out a hidious mon- ster with fire and smoke ; and then the misei'able beholders are bound to take it for a cave ; while in the mean time two armies fly in, represented with four swords and bucklers, and then what hard hart wil not receive it for a pitched battle." At this time all female characters were represented by boys. This we have noted under the head female actors. THE THE then. The word than is almost always spelled then in the old eds., and some modern eds. follow the old style. theoric. Theory (opposed to practice). All's. I, 1, 52 ; IV, 3, 163 ; 0th. I, 1, 24. See practiG. thereafter. According as. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 56. Thereafter as they he = accord- ing to their condition. Thersites, dr. p. This deformed and evil- minded Greek is alluded to in Cym. IV, 2, 252. According to Homer, he was the son of Agrius and was the most impudent talker among the Greeks at Troy. Once, when he had spoken in the assembly in an unbecoming manner against Agamemnon, he was severely chastised by Ulysses. According to the later poets, he pulled the eyes out of the dead body of Penthesilea, the beautiful queen of the Amazons, who had been slain by Achilles. For this Achilles slew him. See Penthesilea. Theseus, dr.p. Duke of Athens. Kins. Theseus, dr.p. Duke of Athens. Mids. The great hero of Attic legend seems to have taken strong hold of the imagin- ation of Sh. , for we find him the prin- cipal* character in two plays, besides being mentioned elsewhere (Gent. IV, 4, 173) . His reputed father was Neptune or Poseidon, and the Troezenians for many ages pointed to the Holy Isle where his mother, iEthra, met the god. But his real father was ^geus. King of Athens, who, being childless, went to consult the oracle at Delphi, and after- wards went to TroBzen where he met -(35thra, the daughter of Pittheus, the king. Before the birth of Theseus, ^geus left Troezen, telling ^thra that he had deposited his sword and boots under a certain heavy rock and that if she gave birth to a boy who, on reach- ing maturity, should he able to lift the rock and remove the sword and boots, she was to send him secretly to his father at Athens. In due time Theseus lifted the rock, secured the sword and boots and set out for Athens. Accord- ing to some accounts, it was on this journey that he slew the robber Cory- netes (the club-carrier) and carried off his club, and shortly after he killed Sinnis and had an adventure with his daughter. See Perigenia. He also slew a mon- strous boar or sow ; he flung over his own cliff, Sciron, who, while his guests were perforce washing his feet, used to kick them over into the sea; he wrestled with and killed Cercyon, and a little further on he slew Procrustes, who had only one bed for all comers : if his guest was too short for the bed, he stretched him out ; if he was too long, he cut him down. (From his name comes our word Procrustean.) As he passed through the streets of Athens, his curls and long garment, reaching to his ankles, drew on him the derision of some masons who were putting on the roof of the new temple of Apollo Delphinius: "Why," they asked, " was such a pretty girl out alone?" In reply, Theseus took the bullocks out of their cart and flung them higher than the roof of the temple. He found his father married to Medea, the sorceress, who had fled from Corinth. Medea knew Theseus before his father did and attempted to poison him, but ^geus recognised the sword and ac- knowledged the bearer as his son. The sons of Pallas, the brother of ^geus, who had hoped to succeed to the sup- posedly childless monarch, attempted to secure the succession by violence and declared war, but were betrayed by the herald Leos and were destroyed. His next exploit was the capture of the flame- spitting bull of Marathon which he brought alive to Athens and sacrificed to Apollo. The time now arrived when the Athenians had to send to Minos (see Minos) their tribute of seven youths and seven maidens. The- seus voluntarily offered himself as one of the youths with the design of slaying the Minotaur or perishing in the attempt. When they reached Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus and provided him with a sword, with which he killed the Minotaur, and THE 330 THI a clue of thread by which he was able to retrace his steps and escape from the labyrinth. After a time, Theseus set sail from Crete, taking Ariadne with him, but he abandoned her on the island of Naxos. Gent. IV, 4, 173 ; Mids. II, 1, 80. The vessel on which the youths and maidens sailed carried a black sail, and Theseus promised his father that if they were successful and returned in safety the black sail should be changed for a white one. But he forgot his promise, and when old -iEgeus saw the black sail he threw himself down from the cliff on which he had been watching and was killed. Of his adventures with the Amazons there are different accounts. Some give the name of the Amazon queen who opposed him as Antiope ; others make it Hippolyta. Other accounts say that Antiope and Hippolyta were sisters and that Theseus made love to both. However we may reject many of the evidently fabulous stories and adven- tures which relate to Theseus, his legend seems to contain recollections of his- torical events, the most important of which was the unification of the various small townships into the single nation- ality of Attica. Thessaly. A district which in ancient times formed the northeastern division of Greece. In it are the mountains Ossa, Pelion and Othrys, and through it ran the river Peneus which traversed the famous vale of Tempe. Many of its cities, mountains and valleys were cele- brated in Grecian history and its in- habitants were aristocratic and pro- Persian. Explanations of the references to Thessaly will be found under boar and Meleager. Thetis. A marine divinity, one of the daughters of Nereus and Doris. She was the wife of Peleus, by whom she became the mother of Achilles. Her wedding was attended by all the gods except Bris or Strife. See Paris. Like her sisters, the Nereids, she dwelt in the depths of the sea with her father, Nereus. In Troil. I, 3, 39, and Per. IV, 4, 39, her name is used as a personification of the sea, and in Ant. Ill, 7, 61, Antony addresses Cleopatra by this name as if she governed the sea. Schni. points out that the goddess of the ocean was Tethys, the wife of Oceanus, and not Thetis. thewes, ) Muscles ; sinews. 2HIV. Ill, thews. \ 2, 276 ; Cees. I, 3, 81 ; Hml. I, 3, 12. "It is a remarkable evidence of Shakespeare's influence upon the English language that while, so far as has yet been observed, every other writer, one single instance excepted, employs ' thews ' in the sense of manners, quali- ties of mind and disposition, the fact that, as often as he employs it, it is in the sense of nerves, muscular vigor, has quite overborne the other use ; which, once so familiar in our literature, has now quite passed away. " Trench. See also Craik's "English of Shakespeare," §124. thick, adj. Dim ; with defective sight. Wint. I, 2, 269 ; 2HIV. Ill, 2, 336 ; Cses. V, 3, 21. thick, adv. Rapidly. 2HlV. II, 3, 24 ; Mcb. I, 3, 97 ; Cym. I, 6, 67 ; do. Ill, 2, 58. thicken. 1. To strengthen. Oth. Ill, 3, 430. 2. To grow dim. Mcb. Ill, 2, 50; Ant. II, 3, 27. cf. thick. thick=eyed. Not = by, and the sense of the passage is : not disposed of by base sale (or pro- clamation) of chapmen's tongues. So in Wint. IV, 4, 330, utter = dispose of. The passage in Ado. V, 3, 20, has re- ceived many explanations, for which see Furness's ed. of the play, p. 275. The chief interpretations are : 1. The cry, graves yawn, etc., shall be raised till death. Schm. 2. That death is to be expelled (outer-ed) by the power of Heaven. An obscure allusion to the resurrection. White and others. 3. " Till death be uttered " means till death be overcome, vanquished to the utterance. Furness. utterance. Extremity; the " bitter end. " Mcb. Ill, 1, 72 ; Cym. Ill, 1, 73. On the first quotation, champion me to the utterance, Johnson remarks : " A chal- lenge or a combat a Voutrance [French], to extremity, was a fixed term in the law of arms, used when the combatants engaged with an odiu'in internecinum, an intention to destroy each other, in opposition to trials of skill at festivals, or on other occasions, where the contest was only for reputation or a prize." ACANCY. Unoccupied and idle time. If he filled his vacancy with his voluptuousness . Ant. I, 4, 26. On the passage in Ant. II, 2, 221, Whistling to the air; which, hut for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra, too, War burton makes a note: "Alluding to an axiom in the peripatetic philosophy then in vogue, that Nature abhors a vacttuwi." In other words : The air was chained to the spot lest its absence should create a vacuum. Line 223, And made a gap in nature, seems to confirm this view. vade. To fade. Pilgr. 131 ; RII. I, 2, 20. vail, n. A going down ; a setting. Troil, V, 8, 7. vail, V. To lower ; to let fall. Ven. 314 ; Meas. V, 1, 20 ; Hml. I, 2, 70. vagrom. A blunder for vagrant. Ado. III, 3, 26. vailful. Available; advantageous. Meas. IV, 6, 4. vails. Payment for services. Per. II, 1, 157. This word, like the word wages, is generally used in the plural. It has given some trouble to the coms., some of whom make it = avails and print it 'vails. "The Henry Irving Shake- speare" explains it as "perquisites. ' But it seems to have been a legitimate word for payment for services. It is used by Cotton (1670) in this sense, as the following extract from his " Voyage to Ireland " shows : A guide I had got, who demanded great vails For conducting me over the mountains of Wales ; Twenty good shillings, which sure very large is : Yet that would not serve, but I must bear his charges. From this it is very clear that the " per- quisites ' ' were extra and were not the "vails." vainly. Erroneously. 2HIV. IV, 5, 239. vainness. 1. Falseness. Tw. Ill, 4, 389. 2. Vanity ; boastfulness. HV. V, Chor. 20. valance, n. A short curtain or fringe; generally used upon a bedstead, Shr. II, 1, 356. valance, v. To fringe or decorate with a valance ; used figurately in regard to the beard. Hml. II, 2, 451. Valdes. Name of a pirate in Per. IV, 1, 97. It is noticeable that an admiral in the Spanish Armada bore the same name. Valentine. Halliwell has this note on Hml. IV, 5, 50: "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." VAL 357 VAS Valentine, dr. p. A geutleinan of Verona. Gent. Valentine, dr. p. Attendant on the Duke of Illyria. Tw. Valeria, dr.20. Friend to Virgilia. Cor. Valerius, dr.p. A Theban nobleman. Kins. validity. 1. Efficacy. Hml. Ill, 2, 199. 2. Value. All's. V, 3, 192 ; Lr. I, 1, 83. 3. Woi'th or dignity. Johnson. Rom. Ill, 3, 33. valued. Having the value of each item estimated. Valued file = a list in which the good are distinguished from the worthless. Mcb. Ill, 1, 95. vanish'd. Dowden, in his valuable ed. of the play, has this note on Rom. Ill, 3, 10, A gentler judgement vanished from his lips : "No such use of vanish is found elsewhere In Sh., for breath vanishing from the lips like smoke (in Lucr, 1041) is not a parallel. Massinger, however, in the Reyiegado, V, 3, has : ' Upon those lips from which those sweet words vanished,' which Keightley sup- poses was written on the authority of the present passage. Heath conjectured issued. I suspect that banishment in the next line misled the printer ; but possibly (and it is strange that this has not been suggested) Shakespeare wrote : A gentler judgment — ' banish'd ' from his lips." Vanity. On this passage in Lr. II, 2, 39, Dyce has this note: "The coms. 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 pass- ages 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, etc. — ^Wither's Abuses Stript and Wliipt — Joy, p. 141, ed. 1617." Here, as in many other passages of our old writers, "puppet" may be nothing else than a term of contempt for a female. See Iniquity. vantage. 1. In addition to ; to boot. Hml. Ill, 3, 33 ; 0th. IV, 3, 86. 2. Fa voidable condition. Gent. I, 3, 82 ; Mcb. I, 3, 113. 3. Superiority. Lucr. 249 ; Mids. I, 1, 102 ; HV. Ill, 6, 153. vara. Costard's way of pronouncing very. LLL. V, 2, 487. Varrius, dr.j). Friend to Pompey. Ant. varlet. 1. A servant to a kni'ght (used without implying reproach). HV. IV, 2, 2 ; Troil. I, 1, 1. Really the same word as the modern valet. 2. A term of reproach; knave; rascal. Tp. IV, 1, 170; Wiv. I, 3, 106; IHIV. II, 2, 25. varletry. Rabble ; mob. Ant. V, 2, 56. Varro, dr.p. Servant to Brutus. Cses. vary. Change ; caprice. Lr. II, 2, 85. vant brace. Armor for the arm. Troil. I, 3, 397. cf. brace. Vapians. Sir Andrew's quotation from Feste's nonsensical speech: "the Vapians passing the Equinoctial of Queubus," which, as Leigh Hunt says, is "some glorious torrid zone, lying beyond three o'clock in the morning" has caused some discussion without any result, and no wonder. It is mere nonsense, but very good nonsense or, as Sir Andrew calls it, "very gracious fooling." Brewer, in his "Reader's Handbook," says of it : " ' The Equinoctial of Queu- bus,' a line in ' the unknown sea ' passed by the Vapians on the Greek kalends of the Olympiad era, B.C. 777, according to the authority of Quinapalus." After some discussion of this "gracious fool- ing," Furnesssays, in a sort of tentative manner : "It is not exclusively to Rabelais that we should look for light, but also to Astrology and to conjuring. And this leads to the only feeble little ray that here dawns on me. At the risk of being deemed a copesmate of Sir Andrew, I am willing to confess that in the distorted ' Pigrogromitus ' I think we may possibly find Sir Andrew's version of the Tetragramviaton.''^ vast. A waste (sea or land). Wint. I, 1, 33 ; Per. Ill, 1, 1. Vast of night = the VAS im VEN dead void of night when living things have aU retired. Tp. I, 2, 327 ; Hml. I, 2, 198. A number of extended comments have been written about this expression and various readings have been suggested, e.g., waist, intimating the middle of the night and waste = dead or void. The word vast as used here needs no anaend- ment and scarcely a gloss. It is one of those expressions of Sh. which convey precisely the idea he intended to impart, and this often without our being able to accurately define the words employed. "In the dead vast and middle of the night" impresses us with just that " eerie " feeling appropriate to all the circumstances of the case. Vast, ac- cording to Skeat, is a 16th century word, and both waste and vast are originally the same. About the time of Sh. the two words seem to have been differ- entiated as to their meanings, but vast seemed to carry with it the idea of waste as well as of immensity. vastidity. Immensity. Meas. Ill, 1, 69. vastly. Like a waste. Lucr. 1740. See vast. vasty. Boundless ; vast. Merch. II, 7, 41 ; IHIV. Ill, 1, 52; HV., Prol. 12. Vaughan, Sir Thomas, dr.p. RIII. vaultages. Caverns. HV. II, 4, 124. vaulty. Arched; vaulted. John III, 4, 30, and V, 2, 52; Rom. Ill, 5, 22. vaunt. 1. The beginning. Troil., Prol. 27. From the French avant. 2. Boast; brag. 2HVI. Ill, 1, 50. vaunt=courier. A forerunner. Lr. Ill, 2, 5. Vaux, dr.p. 2HVI. Vaux, Sir Nicholas, dr.p. HVIII. vaward. 1. The vanguard of an army. HV. IV, 3, 130; Cor. I, 6, 53. In IHVL 1, 1, 132, he being in the vaward, placed behind, the term vaward has given rise to an apparent contradiction which Hanmer and Theobald have tried to avoid by changing vaward to rearward. But the vaward of an army is not a mathematical line without breadth or thickness ; it has a front and a rear of its own, and this may explain the ap- parent confusion. Clarke's explanation is : Fastolfe, being in the front line of his own troop, at the head of his own division, was placed behind the main body of the army. 2. The forepart of anything. Mids. IV, I, 110 ; 2HIV. I, 2, 199. vegetives. Vegetables. Per. Ill, 2, 36. Velutus, Sicinius, dr.p. Tribune of the people. Cor. velure. Velvet. Shr. Ill, 2, 62. velvet guards. Velvet trimmings on ladies' dresses. IHIV. Ill, 1, 261. By this expression is meant the higher class of female citizens whose gowns (at least their holiday ones) were guarded with velvet. Malone. See guards. veney. A term in fencing; literally, a coming on or onset ; a turn or bout ; a hit or touch. Used metaphorically for a repartee or sally of wit. Wiv. I, 1, 296 ; LLL. V, 1, 62. Also spelled venue, venew and veny. vengeance, n. Mischief ; injury. As. IV, 3, 48 ; Tim. II, 3, 113. vengeance, adv. Excessively; very. Cor. II, 2, 6. As an adj. in Kins. II, 3, 71, it means either dangerous or that he is very expert at the " trick o' the hip." Venice, Duke of, dr.p. 0th. and Merch. Venice. In regard to the passage in Ado. I, 1, 273, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, Capell tells us that "Venice was in Shakespeare's time, and is now, of such celebrity for its dissolute gallantries, that there is small occasion for extracts from any writer to prove the fitness of making that city the exhauster of all Cupid's quiver." All the writers of the 18th century agree in representing Venice in the same light as the ancients did Cyprus. vent, n. Escape; utterance. All's. II, 3, 213 ; Ant. V, 2, 352. This word, as it occurs in Cor. IV, 5, 238, full of vent, has been explained as " like wine, full of working, effervescent, opposed to 'mulled.' " It has also been claimed that it is a hunting term, mean- VEH 359 VER iug to wind or scent game, and it is sup- posed that war is conceived as a dog full of the excitement of the chase and straining at the leash. But Sh, nowhere uses the word in this sense, and uses it often, both as verb and noun, in its ordinary sense. Here it signifies the escape or relief of boisterous spirits. vent, V. 1. To void ; to get rid of. Tp, II, 2, 111 ; Cym. I, 2, 5 ; Cor. I, 1, 229. 2. To utter ; to give expression to. As. II, 7, 43 ; Tw. IV, 1, 10. ventages. The holes in a flute or flageo- let which regulate the note. Hml. Ill, 2, 373. Ventidius, dr.p. One of Timon's false friends. Tim. Ventidius, dr.p. A friend to Antony. Ant. ventricle. A cavity. LLL. IV, 2, 70. Venus. The goddess of love ; referred to many times in Sh. works. Before she was identified with the Greek goddess, Aphrodite, she was one of the least im- portant of the Roman divinities, al- though her worship was established at an early date. But the Romans identi- fied her with the Greek goddess and all the legends pertaining to the latter were attributed to Venus. She is said to have surpassed all the other goddesses in beauty and to have had the power to make others beautiful and beloved. She had a magic girdle and whoever wore it immediately became the object of love and desire. Through her influence Paris won Helen from her husband, Menelaus. See Paris. In the Iliad she is said to have been the daughter of Jupiter and Dione ; later traditions make her the daughter of Saturn, but the poets most f i-equently relate that she arose from the foam of the sea. She was the wife of Vulcan, but was faithless to him and carried on an intrigue with Mars, whence she is called, in Tp. IV, 1, 98, Mars's hot minion. Vulcan caught them both in an invisible net and exposed thena to the ridicule of the assembled gods. In the vegetable kingdom the myrtle, rose, apple, poppy, etc., were saci'ed to her. The animals which are sacred to her are the sparrow, the dove, the swan and the swallow, and they are men- tioned as her messengers or as drawing her chariot. The planet, Venus, and the month of April are likewise sacred to her. See Cytherea. The wicked bastard of Venus (As. IV, 1, 216) is, of course, Cupid. Ver. The spring ; season after winter. Kins. I, 1, 7. verbal. 1. Literal ; word for word. Ven. 831. 2. Expressed in words. Lr. IV, 3, 26. Furness explains this line thus: "Did she give you to understand her meaning by words as well as by the foregoing external testimonies of sorrow ? " 3. Plain-spoken or, according to some, verbose. Cym. II, 3, 111. verdict. Literally, a true saying. IsH a verdict? = do I say right ? are we agreed ? Cor. I, 1, 11. verge. Space ; bound ; compass. RII. II, I, 103 ; RIII. IV, 1, 59. Verges, dr.p. A foolish old oflUcer. Ado. Vernon, dr.p. Of the White Rose or York faction. IHVI. Vernon, Sir Richard, dr.p. IHIV. versal. A corruption of universal. Rom. II, 4, 219. verses. The line. By magic verses have contrived his end (IHVI. 1, 1, 27) refers to the notion which was prevalent for a long time that life might be taken away by metrical charms. " As superstition grew weaker, these charms were imag- ined only to have power on irrational animals. In our author's time it was supposed that the Irish could kill rats by a song." Johnson, cf. As. Ill, 2, 188. The fanciful idea that rats were com- monly rhymed to death, in Ireland, arose probably from some metrical charm or incantation used for that pur- pose. Sir W. Temple seems to derive it from the Runic incantations; for, after speaking of them in various ways, he adds : "And the proverb of rhyming VES 360 VIC rats to death came, I suppose, from the sam.e root." Vesta. Although her name does not occur in Sh., the word Vestal cannot be well understood without a knowledge of her mythological character. She was one of the great Roman divinities and was the goddess of the hearth. In the ancient Roman house the hearth was the central part, and around it all the inmates daily assembled for their common meal ; every meal thus taken was a fresh bond of union and affection among the members of a family, and at the same time an act of worship of Vesta combined with a sacrifice to her and the Penates. Every dwelling-house, therefore, was, in some sense, a temple of Vesta, but a public sanctuary united all the citizens of the state into one large family. This sanc- tuary stood in the Forum, between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, and not far from the temple of the Penates. The goddess was not represented in her temple by a statue, but the eternal fire burning on her hearth or altar was her living symbol. This fire was believed to have been brought by JEneas from Troy along with the images of the Penates, and it was continually watched and kept up by Vestals who were sup- posed to be chaste and pure maidens. The extinction of this fire was con- sidered as the most fearful of all pro- digies and emblematic of the extinction of the state. If such misfortune befell and was caused by the carelessness of the priestess on duty, she was stripped and scourged by the Pontif ex Maximus, in the dark and with a screen inter- posed, and he rekindled the flame by the friction of two pieces of wood from afelix arbor. Supreme importance was attached to the purity of the Vestals, and a terrible punishment awaited her who violated the vow of chastity. When condemned by the college of pontifices, she was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, attired like a corpse and borne to a small underground vault which had been previously pre- pared. There she was actually buried alive, the earth over the vault being leveled and made to conform to the surrounding ground. In every case the paramour was publicly scourged to death in the Forum. To compensate for this life of priva- tion they had numerous and important privileges and honors, and after a ser- vice of thirty years they might retire, re-enter life and even marry. Vestal, n. A priestess of Vesta. Ven. 752 ; Lucr. 883 ; Ant. Ill, 12, 31 ; Per. IV, 5, 7. Hence, a chaste woman. Mids. II, 1, 158, and ironically in Err. IV, 4, 78, the allusion being to her taking care of the kitchen fire. See Vesta and of. tinder. very. True. Gent. Ill, 2, 41; Merch. III, 2, 226. Vestal, adj. Pure ; chaste. Rom. II, 3, 8 ; Per. Ill, 4, 10. via. 1. Off with you! go! Merch. II, 2, 11. 2. Florio, in his " Italian and English Diet.," gives: "Via, an adverbe of encouraging much used by commanders, as also by riders to their horses, Goe on, forward, on, away, goe to, on quickly." 3HVI. II, 1, 182. As it occurs in LLL. V, 1, 156, it evidently means "speak out." The word has various meanings according to the words to which it is joined. vice, n. 1. A well-known mechanical tool consisting of two jaws which may be forced together with a screw. Hence it signifies a tight grasp or hold. 2HIV. II, 1, 34. As it occurs in Ado. V, 2, 21, it probably has the same meaning. Some have defined it as a screw, from the French vis (from which it is un- doubtedly derived), but the tool which is known to us as a vice is described by Moxon (1677) under that name. Thoms calls attention to the well-known fact (as shown in numerous engravings) that the circular bucklers of the 16th century, now called more commonly "targets," had f i-equently a central spike or ' 'pike * ' VIC 361 VIN which was usually screwed into the center of the buckler. It is evident that to turn this screw in with sufficient force to make it hold firmly, must have re- quired the use of a vice. But there is evidently a coarse quibble in Bene- dict's speech, and the word might mean either a vice or a screw. 2. A character in the old Moralities or Moral-plays frequently referred to by Sh,, and evidently so named from the vicious qualities attributed to him. Usually he was a mischievous buffoon ; he wore sometimes the parti-coloured dress of a fool, a feature which Dyce thinks gave rise to the expression "a king of shreds and patches." Like the fool, he was sometimes furnished with a dagger of lath, and it was not unusual that it should be gilt. With this he belabored the devil till he made him roar. Tw. IV, 2, 134; Hml. Ill, 4, 98. Bee iniquity; nails; vanity. vice, V. Generally explained as, to screw. Wint. I, 2, 416; and c/. Tw. V, 1, 135. vicious. Blameable ; wrong. 0th. Ill, 3, 145 ; Cyrn. V, 5, 65. victualler. In 2HIV. II, 4, 375, all victu- allers do so, Steevens notes that "the brothels were formerly screened, under pretext of being victualling houses and taverns, ^^ just as they are in New York at present under the name of " Raines' Law Hotels." vie. 1. To compete ; to rival. Ant. V, 2,98; Per. 111,1,26. 2. A term at gleek, Primero and other games signifying to challenge or invite. In one of G-ifford's notes on Jonson's works we read : "To vie was to hazard, to put down, a certain sum upon a hand at cards; to retn'e 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 proportionate increase of stake. This vying and re- vying upon each other continued till one party lost courage and gave up the whole, or obtained, for a stipulated j sum, a discovery of his antagonist's | cards, when the best hand swept the table." Shr. II, 1, 311. viewless. Invisible. Meas. Ill, 1, 124. vigitant. Evidently a blunder of Dog- berry for vigilant. Ado. Ill, 3, 100. villagery. Either a district of villages or simply a village and its outlying houses. Mids, II, 1, 35, This is the only known instance of the occui'rence of this word, villain. 1. Originally this word signified merely a feudal serf who belonged to the land and whose rights as regards property, real or personal, were quite limited. Contrary to the definition given by many authors (Schm. and others), "the villain was not a slave, but a freeman minus the very important rights of his lord." {E. A. Freeman, "Norman Conquest.") For full dis- cussion see Cent. Diet., s.v. villain. Hence, a base-born person ; a peasant ; a clown. Lucr. 1338 ; As. I, 1, 59 ; Tit. IV, 3, 73; Lr. 111,7,78. 2. A rascal ; a scoundrel. Tp, I, 2, 309; Hml. I, 5, 106 J do. I, 5, 108 ; Oth. 1, 1, 118. On the passage in Hml. I, 5, 123, There^s ne''er a villain dwelling in all Denmark but he^s an arrant knave, Seymour remarks: "Hamlet begins these words in the ardour of sincerity and confidence; but suddenly alarmed at the magnitude of the disclosure he is going to make, not only to Horatio, but to another besides, he breaks off hastily : ' There's ne'er a villain in all Denmark ' that can match (perhaps he would have said) my uncle in villainy ; and then, recollecting the danger of such a declar- ation, he pauses for a moment and then abruptly concludes : ' but he's an arrant knave.' " 3. Sometimes used as a term of endear- ment, just as we hear children fondly called " little rogue" and "little rascal. " Err. I, 2, 19 ; Wint. I, 2, 136; Tw. II, 5, 16; Troil. Ill, 2, 35. villain, adj. Same as preceding (2) but used ad jectively, Merch. II, 8, 4; RIII. IV, 4, 144 ; Cym, IV, 2, 71. villiago. A base coward. (Italian, vigli- acco.) 2HVI. IV, 8, 49. VIN 362 VIX vinaigre. Vinegar. (French; literally, sour wine.) See raort. Vincentio, dr.p. Duke of Vienna. Meas. Vincentio, dr.p. An old gentleman of Pisa. Shr. vindicative. Revengeful. Troil. IV, 5, 107. vinewed'st. Most mouldy, Troil. II, 1, 15. viol. Said to be a six-stringed guitar. RII. I, 3, 163. Viola, dr.p. In love with the Duke of lUyria. Tw. viol=de=gamboys. A base viol or viol da gamba. Tw. I, 3, 27. "It appears, from numerous passages in our old plays, that a viol de gambo was an indispens- able piece of furniture in every fashion- able 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. It was so called because it was held between the legs, gamba being Italian for legs. Violenta, dr.p. Neighbor to Widow of Florence. All's. violenteth. Is violent. Troil. IV, 4, 4. Virgilia, dr.p. Wife to Coriolanus. Cor. virgin, v. To be chaste ; to keep uncon- taminated. Cor. V, 3, 48. virginal, n. Generally used in the plural and frequently, though erroneously, spoken of as a pair of virginals. It was " an instrument of the spinnet kind, but made quite rectangular, like a small piano-forte." Nares. The name was probably derived from their being used by young girls. Kins. Ill, 3, 34. virginal, v. To pat or tap with the finger as if playing upon a yirginal. Wint. I, 2, 125. virgin knight. " Knight, in its original signification, means follower or pupil, and in this sense may be feminine. Helena, in All's. [I, 3, 120], uses knight in the same signification." Johnson. Steevens explains the expression as virgin hero, i.e., one who had not yet achieved any adventure, and adds that " Hero had as yet atchieved no matri- monial one. " Ado. V, 3, 13. But this in- terpretation is not only far-fetched, but clearly inapplicable here. Malone quotes from The Two Noble Kinsmen : O sacred, shadowy, cold and constant queen, — who to thy female knights AUow'st no more blood than will make a blush, Which is their order's robe — Dyce calls attention to Wiv. II, 1, 15 and 16, where night is made to rhyme to knight. virtue. 1. Valor; bravery. Among the Romans the predominant signification of virtus. Cor. I, 1, 41 ; do. II, 2, 88 ; Lr. V, 3, 103 ; Kins. Ill, 6, 82. 2. Accomplishments. Per. IV, 6, 195. 3. Power ; abilitv ; efficiency. Sonn. LXXXI, 13 ; Merch. V, 1, 101 ; HVIII. V, 3, 50 ; 0th. I, 3, 320. 4. The essence ; the ultimate substance. Tp. I, 2, 27 ; Mids. IV, 1, 174. 5. Personification. 2HIV. II, 4, 51; HVIII. Ill, 1, 103 (with a quibble on cardinal virtues). Tim. Ill, 5, 7. virtuous. Powerful; efficacious. Meas. II, 2, 168 ; Mids. Ill, 2, 367 ; 0th. Ill, 4, 111. Sir Toby Belch's question : Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale ? (Tw. II, 3, 123) is thus explained by Lether- land: "It was the custom on holidays and saints' days to make cakes in honour of the day. The Puritans called this superstition ; and [in line 151 of this same act and scene] Maria says that ' Malvolio is sometimes a kind of puri- tan.' See Quarlous's Account of Rabbi Busy, Act I, Sc. 3, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair." visitating. Surveying; viewing. Kins. I, 1, 146. The etymological meaning of the word. visitings. Fits ; attacks. Mcb. I, 5, 46. vixen. Properly, a she-fox ; hence, ap- plied to an ill-tempered, spiteful, snap- pish woman. Mids. Ill, 2, 324. The form of the word is especially in- teresting as being the' only instance in VIZ 363 VUL which the feminine termination en has been preserved. vizaments. The Welsh priest's corrup- tion of advisements. Wiv. I, 1, 39. Vllorxa. See Ullorxa. vlouting stogs. The Welshman's pro- nunciation of flouting-stocks, i.e., laugh- ing-stocks. Wiv. IV, 5, 83. voice, n. Authority ; direction. Mids. I, 1, 54 ; All's. II, 3, 60. voice, V. 1. To report; to proclaim. Tim. IV, 3, 81. 2. To nominate ; to vote for. Cor. II, 3, 242. voiding=lobby. Ante-room. 2HVI. IV, 1, 61. volable. Quick-witted. LLL. Ill, 1, 67. Voltimand, dr.p. A courtier. Hml. voluble. Fickle ; inconstant. Oth. II, 1, 242. Volumnia, dr.p. Mother to Coriolanus. Cor. Volumnius, dr.p. Friend to Brutus and Cassius. Caes. voluntary. A volunteer. John II, 1, 67 ; Troil. II, 1, 106. vomit. The passage in Cym. I, 6, 44 to 46, has called forth explanations from several corns. lachimo, in his pretended rapture, makes a comparison between Imogen and some "jay of Italy," and declares that the latter is, in comparison, so sluttish that to one who has once beheld Imogen, she would cause nausea in the hungry, i.e., in those who are empty. A common idea with the poets. cf. Burns's "Tarn o' Shanter" — gazing on the " wither 'd beldams, auld and droll, " and the poet wondering why it " did na turn his stomach." votaress. A devotee ; one consecrated by a vow or solemn promise. Mids. II, 1, 123 and 163 ; Per. IV, Prol. 4. Also spelt votress. votarist. A votary ; one who has taken a vow ; masculine of votaress. Tim. IV, 3, 27 ; Meas. I, 4, 5 ; Oth. IV, 2, 190. Vox. Latin for voice ; it also means tone ; accent. When Feste tells Olivia that she must allow Vox, he means that she must aUow him to read Malvolio's letter with the appropriate tone, i.e., loud and madman-like. The meaning is obvious, though some corns, have been puzzled over it. Heath says, " this word hath absolutely no meaning." Tw. V, 1, 304. Vulcan. The Roman god of fire whose worship was of considerable political importance at Rome at an early day. The Roman poets transferred all the stories relating to the Greek Hephaestus to their own Vulcan, the two divinities having, in the course of time, been com- pletely identified. According to the Homeric account, Hephaestus or Vulcan was the son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Hera (Juno). He is the god of fire, especially in so far as it manifests itself as a power of physical nature in volcanic districts, and in so far as it is the indispensable means in arts and manufactures, and hence he is regarded as a skilful work- man in all arts carried on by fire. Ado. I, 1, 187. His workshop was at first on Olympus, but later poets assign him some volcanic isle with the Cyclopes, Brontes, Steropes and others as his workmen and assistants. The flames and foul gasses which issue from these places were thus accounted for, and hence the allusion in Hml. Ill, 2, 89. His favorite workshop was on the isle of Lemnos. He is said to have been quite lame, his legs being very weak and sustained by artificial supports skilfully made of gold. Some say he was lame from birth; others, that he was made lame by his fall when Jupiter threw him out of heaven for taking the part of his mother in one of her quarrels with his father. But during the best period of Grecian art, he was represented as a vigorous man, with a beard, and was characterised by his hammer or some other instrument, his oval cap and the chiton which leaves the right shoulder and arm uncovered. He is among the male what Minerva is among the female deities, for, like her, he gave skill to mortal artists and, conjointly with her, he was believed to have taught men the VTJL 364 WAI arts which embellish and adorn life. He had the most beautiful of the god- desses for his wife, but she proved un- faithful and preferred the more showy and handsome Mars to her brainy and skilful husband. Hence, the allusion in Tit. II, 1, 89, to Vulcan'' s badge, i.e., the cuckold's horns. See Venus. vulgar, n. 1. The common people. HV. IV, 7, 80 ; Gees. I, 1, 75 ; Wint. II, 1, 94. 2. The common tongue; vernacular. LLL. IV, 1, 70; As. V, 1, 53. vulgar, adj. Common ; ordinary ; pub- lic. Hml. I, 2, 99; Err. Ill, 1, 100; Lr. IV, 6, 214. In the time of Sh. this word did not convey the opprobrious meaning that it now carries. Thus, in Tw. Ill, 1, 135, Viola says : for His a vulgar proof, that is, a common, an obvious proof. The vulgar heart (2HVI. I, 3, 90) = the heart of the people. A vulgar station (Cor. II, 1, 231) = a standing place in the crowd. vulgarly. Publicly. It does not mean rudely or obscenely. Meas. V, 1, 160. f7?AFER=CAKE. A very thin, brittle cake. For oaths are straws, 'inen''s faiths are wafer-cakes. HV. II, 3, 53. In the old dramatists the wafer- woman bore a somewhat unenviable character as a go-between, and perhaps a not very trustworthy one. See Nares, s.v. wafer- wo77ian. waft. To beckon. Err. II, 2, 111 ; Merch. V, 1, 11 ; Hml. I, 4, 78. waftage. Passage by water. Err. IV, I, 95 ; Troil. Ill, 2, 11. wafture. The act of beckoning. Cses. II, 1, 246. wage. 1. To bet. Hml. V, 2, 154 ; Lr. I, 1, 158. 2. To pay wages to. Cor. V, 6, 40. 3. To counterpoise ; to be in opposition to. Ant. V, 1, 31 ; Per. IV, 2, 34. 4. To contend against ; to fight. Lr. II, 4, 213. In the passage. To wake, and wage a danger pifofitless (0th. I, 3, 30), the word wage is defined by Steevens as to fight, to combat. It has generally been explained, however, as to hazard ; to attempt. In other passages, as in IHI V. IV, 4, 20; To wage an instant trial with the king, and John I, 1, 266, The aweless lion could not wage the fight, it more probably means to carry on the fight. In both cases the ones concerned did hazard the fight, but could not ivage it. waggon. This word as used by Sh. is equivalent to chariot or other vehicle adapted to rapid motion. In England the meaning has entirely changed, and the word is now used to designate heavy, slow-moving conveyances adapted to carry freight. It furnishes another instance of our retention of the same meaning that the word had when first brought over to this country. Wint. IV, 4, 118 ; Tit. V, 2, 51 ; Rom. I, 4, 59. For a full discussion of this point see White's 1st ed., Vol. V, p. 402. wagtail. A familiar bird in Great Britain, of which the most noticeable feature is the continual wagging motion of its tail. Generally known as the " water wagtail," Motacilla lugubris, from its habit of frequenting streams. Kent applies the name as a term of opprobrium to the ducking and wagging Oswald. Lr. II, 2, 73. cf. silly-ducking in line 109 of same scene. wailful. Mournful; doleful. Gent. Ill, 2,69. wain. A wagon. C/iarZes'tt;am= Charles' wagon. See Charles'' wain. IHIV. II, 1, 2. Wain-rojpes = cart-ropes. Tw. 111,2,64. WAI 865 WAN waist. " That part of a ship which is contained between the quarter-deck and forecastle, being usually a hollow space, with an ascent of several steps to either of those places." Wright. Tp. I, 2, 197. waiting=woraen. The suggestion, in Lr. IV, 1, 62, that the fiend Flibbertigibbet, he of "mopping and mowing," pos- sesses chambermaids and waiting- women was thought by Theobald to be an allusion to the three chamber- maids in the family of Mr. Edward Peckham mentioned in Harsnet's "De- claration," from which Malone quotes to the effect that if she "hold her armes and handes stiff e, make antike faces, grinne, mow and mop like an ape — then no doubt — the young girle is owle- blasted and possessed. ' ' Moberly thinks it refers to chambermaids who perform antics before their mistresses' looking- glasses. wake, n. A nightly festival, kept origin- ally on the day of dedication of a parish church ; vigilia. LLL. V, 2, 318 ; Wint. IV, 3, 109; Lr. Ill, 6, 77. Through the large attendance from neighbouring parishes at wakes, devo- tion and reverence grad ually diminished, until they ultimately became mere fairs or markets, characterized by merry- making and often disgraced by indulg- ence and riot. The wake or revel of country parishes was originally the day of the week on which the church had been dedicated ; afterward, the day of the year. Brande. wake, V. To keep late revel. Hml. I, 4, 8. Wales, Henry, Prince of, dr.p. After- wards Henry V. IHIV, and 2HIV. Wales, Edward, Prince of, dr.p. Son to Edward IV. RIII. wall=eyed. Having a large portion of the white of the eye visible, which gives a fierce look to the eye\ glaring-eyed. John IV, 3, 49 ; Tit. V, 1, 44. Certainly not blear-eyed in any known dialect. Yet so stated in a recent " G-lossary." wall=newt. A spec ies of lizard. Lr. Ill, 4, 133. It is not a newt, as the true newt lives in water and very damp places, and not on walls. Mrs. Browning, in her " Aurora Leigh," thus alludes to these "wall-newts": Lizards, the green lightnings of the walls, * * * With such prodigious eyes in such small heads. See lizard and newt. walls. The passage in Lr. V, 3, 76, the walls are thine, has been a subject for discussion. Some think that "the walls " allude to Regan's castle referred to in line 245 of this scene. Warburton explains it as "a metaphorical phrase taken from the camp and signifying, to surrender at discretion. Johnson and Steevens accept this, and Steevens refers to Cym. II, 1, 67, for a parallelism. Rolfe thinks this is the correct inter- pretation. wanned. Turned pale and wan. Hral. II, 2, 580. wannion. Used only in the phrase with a wannion = with a vengeance. Per. II, 1, 17. want. The passage in Mcb. Ill, 6, 8, Who cannot want the thought, has given rise to much discussion. Malone makes this remark: " The sense requires : Who can want the thought. Yet, I believe, the text is not corrupt. Shakespeare is sometimes incorrect in these minutiae." R. G. White, after giving some pretty positive views in his "Shakespeare's Scholar," says in his 1st ed. : "A recol- lection of the mistakes that I have made myself and known others to make have led me unwillingly to the belief that Malone may be right"; and in his "Riverside" ed. he has this note: " Shakespeare meant ' Who can want,' etc. ; an example of heterophemy. " [Heterophemy means saying one thing when another thing is meant.] The word want has two very distinct meanings in Sh., with several varying shades. In some passages, as in Rill. HI, 1, 6, I want more uncles here to welcome me, it signifies desire, need of. In others, as in Tim. Ill, 2, 43, it signi- WAN 366 WAR fies to be without, and in Lr. I, 1, 383, it seems to be used in both senses. That it retains both senses even now is a matter of common knowledge, but that in old English or Scotch the second meaning was more marked than it is to-day is also well known. As an in- stance of this we may cite Burns's famous Selkirk " Grace " : Some hae meat, and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it ; But we hae meat, and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thankit. Here the meaning of the second line is : Some would eat who have no meat. In trying to get at the meaning of the passage in Mcb. we must bear in mind that the whole speech is ironical ; Lennox is saying exactly the opposite of what he means. wanton. In addition to the usual mean- ings, sometimes signifies effeminate ; feeble ; brought up in luxury. John V, 1, 70; RII. V, 3, 10; Hml. V, 2, 210. want- wit. An idiot. Merch. I, 1, 6. wappened. Over-worn; stale. Tim. IV, 3, 38. Other readings, such as ivcmied, vapid, woepined, etc., have been sug- gested, but good authority has been found for the word as it stands, though it would be impossible to discuss its origin in these pages. ward. 1. A guard made in fencing. Tp. I, 2, 471. 2. Prison. 2HVI. V, 1, 112. warden. A large, hard pear, chiefly used for roasting or baking. Warden-X)ies = pies made of w^arden pears. Wint. IV, 3, 48. " They are now generally baked or stewed without crust; and coloured with cochineal, not saffron, as in old times. " Naves. warder. " A kind of truncheon or staff of command carried by a king or by any commander-in-chief, the throwing down of which seems to have been a solemn act of prohibition, to stay pro- ceedings, I do not know that it was called ivarde?' except on such occasions. ' ' Nares. RII. I, 3, 118 ; 2HIV. IV, 1, 125. Ware. A town in Hertfordshire, England, about 21 miles north of London. The allusion in Tw. Ill, 2, 51, to the bed of Ware in England is to a curious piece of furniture, celebrated by Sh. and Jonson. It is still preserved, and is made of oak, richly carved, measuring ten feet, nine inches in length ; ten feet, nine inches in width, and seven feet, six inches in heighth. Nares says that it was reported to be "capable of hold- ing twenty or twenty-four persons; but in order to accommodate that number, it is evident that they must lie at top and bottom with their feet meeting in the middle. " He gives the size as twelve feet square, but the actual measure- ments are as given above. Nares further tells us that "in Chauncy's ' Hertfordshire ' there is an account of its receiving at once twelve men and their wives, who lay at top and bottom, in this mode of arrangement : first, two men, then two women, and so on alter- nately, so that no man was near to any woman but his wife. For the ridiculous conclusion of the story, I refer to that book." In regard to its history Dyce says: " 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 news- papers erroneously adding that Mr. Charles Dickens was the purchaser)." 'ware pencils. See B. warn. To summon. John II, 1, 201 ; Rom. V, 3, 207 ; Cses. V, 1, 5. The phrase God warn us, in As. IV, 1, 1, has been thought by some to be a corruption of God ward us, i.e., guard us. Others explain it as "summon us," as in RIII. I, 3, 39. It undoubtedly means " God protect us," but the idiom is unusual. warning. A summons. Mids. V, 1, 211 ; Hml. I, 1, 152. warp. In the line, Though thou the waters warp (As. II, 7, 187), the mean- WAE 367 WAT ing of warp is not positively clear, but the interpretation of Wright is, no doubt, the correct one. He says : " We may therefore understand by the warp- ing of the waters either the change pro- duced in them by the action of the fi'ost or the bending and ruffling of their surface caused by the wintry wind." Probably the latter. Anyone who has stood by a pond on a wintry day and seen a sharp, cold wind ruffle its surface, must recall the intensely chill- ing and dreary character of the scene, corresponding exactly to the tenor of the song — Blow, blow, thou wintry wind. warrant. The usual explanation of the phrase Lord warrant us (As. Ill, 3, 5), is : Lord protect us ! warrener. A gamekeeper. Wiv. 1, 4, 28. Wart, dr.p. One of Falstaff's recruits. 2HIV. Warwick, Earl of, dr.p. Known as " The King-maker." IHVI. ; 2HVI. ; 3HVI. wary. The expression, hold their honours in a wary distance (0th. 11,3,58), is explained by Rolfe as being sensitive with regard to their honour; quick to take offence at a supposed insult. wash, n. The sea. Hml. Ill, 2, 146. German corns, have expended a great deal of useless conjecture in regard to this word, but the meaning is so obvious that it cannot give rise to a doubt ex- ■ cept under a cloud of useless learning. "The original sense was probably 'to wet, ' hence, to flood with water. ' ' Skeat. The verb, by a common transition, was afterwards used also as a noun, and is in common use in household parlance. It has also been specifically applied to an arm of the North Sea, on the coast of England, between Norfolk and Lin- colnshire, which has been called " The Wash." wash'd. Weeping. Lr. I, 1, 271. The word wash is often applied to weeping, as in Ado. I, 1, 27 ; Mids. II, 2, 93 ; Rom. II, 3, 70, and elsewhere. Washford. The old name of Wexford, in Ireland. XHVI. IV, 7, 63. waspish^headed. Irritable; petulant. Tp. IV, 1, 99. wassail. A drinking bout; a carousing. LLL. V, 2, 318; Mcb. I, 7, 64; Hml. I, 4, 9. In Ant. I, 4, 56, some eds. read vassails, others vassals. wassail candle. ' ' 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 honey-comb." Johnson. SHI V. 1, 2, 179. wat. A name for the hare used colloqui- ally amongst sportsmen. Ven. 697. watch. The watch is referred to several times in Sh., as in Tp. II, 1, 12; LLL. Ill, 1, 194; Tw. II, 5, 66. "The inven- tion of striking watches is ascribed to Peter Hele, of Nuremberg, about the year 1510." Wright. The passage in Tw. II, 5, 66, which in the PI. reads winde up my watch, or play with iny some rich lewell, has a dash after play with tny in the g.a. text. This was inserted by Collier, who says: "It is more natural to suppose that Malvolio, having mentioned his watch, then rather a rarity, wishes to enumerate some other valuable in his possession, and pauses after ' or play with my,' following it up with the words ' some rich jewel,' not being able on the sudden to name any one in par- ticular," Nicholson makes the follow- ing very pertinent suggestion : " There is here a true touch of nature and a most humourous one. While Sir Toby is being fetched to the presence, the Lord Malvolio would frowningly wind up his watch or play with — here, from force of habit, he fingers [his badge of office] and is about to add play with, my chain, but suddenly remembering that he would be no longer a steward, or other gold-chained attendant, he stops short, and then confusedly alters Ms phrase to — ' some rich jewel.' " Apud Furness. watch=case. Generally explained as a sentry-box. 2HIV. Ill, 1, 17. "This alludes to the watchman set in garrison towns on some eminence attending upon WAT 368 WEA an alarum bell, which was to ring out in case of fire or any approaching danger." Hanmer. On the other hand, Holt White, followed by C. and M. Clarke and some others explain the term as referring to an alarm watch or clock. But the fact that 'larum bell is mentioned as well as watch-case would seem to be in favor of Hanmer's gloss. water. 1. A well-known liquid. The expression, But what should go by water (0th. IV, 2, lOi) = by weeping. The clown's saying, / am for all waters (Tw. IV, 2, 68), is generally supposed to mean, " I can turn my hand to anything ; like a fish, I can swim in all waters." To raise waters = to excite tears, Merch. II, 3, 52. 2. The lustre of a diamond. Tim. I, 1, 18 ; Per. Ill, 2, 102. water, u To drink. IHIV. II, 4, 17. cf. the expression, his steeds to water. Gym. II, 3, 28. water=coIours. Literally, colors mixed with water Instead of oil ; hence, thin and transparent. In IHIV. V, 1, 80, it seems to mean flimsy excuses. Others define the term as " weak fellows. " water=gall. A secondary rainbow. Lucr, 1588. waterish. Abounding in water ; weak ; thin ; insipid. Lr. 1, 1, 261. Burgundy abounded in streams, and Burgundiaus boasted that it was the best-watered district in France. The expression is here used contemptuously, as in 0th. Ill, 3, 15. water=rugs. Rough water dogs. Mcb. Ill, 1, 94. water = work. A painting executed in water-colors or in distemper. 2HIV. II, 1, 158. watery. Eagerly desirous (as when the mouth waters). Troil. Ill, 2, 20. wave. To fluctuate. Cor. II, 2, 19. wax. The phrase, a man of wax (Rom. I, 3, 76), is generally explained as well- made ; as if he had been modeled in wax. In support of this interpretation Steeveus quotes Horace; "When you, ' Lydia, praise the waxen arms of Tele- phus;" and White from "Euphues and his England": "So exquisite, that for shape he must be framed in wax. ' ' The line in John V, 4, 24, even as a form of wax Resolveth from, his figure ''gainst the fire ? is, of course, an allu- sion to the images made by witches, Holinshed observes that it was alleged against Dame Eleanor Cobham and her confederates " that they had devised an image of wax representing the king, which, by their sorcerie, by little and little consumed, intending thereby, in conclusion, to waste and destroy the king's person." Steevens. waxen, adj. Made of wax ; impressible ; soft. Lucr. 178 ; RII. I, 3, 75. In Mids. Ill, 1, 172, Sh. adopts the popular error that the pollen with which the bees load their thighs is wax. Bees- wax is not a plant product, and is not found by the bees, but is a fatty pro- duct secreted by the bees themselves and formed out of honey. waxen, v. Mids. II, 1, 56. The only in- stance of waxen, as a verb, in Sh. The explanation given by Johnson is : " That is, increases, as the moon waxes.'''' It was suggested by Dr. Parmer that ivaxen is probably corrupted from yoxen or yexen, to hiccup, and taken in connection with neeze this might seem to be the true meaning. But most ' authorities. Dr. Furness included, agree with Johnson, and if the language were intentionally "an affectation of ancient phraseology," as Steevens alleges, it would probably have remained yaxen, or yexen, or yoxen. wealsmen. Statesmen. Cor. II, 1, 60. wealth. Welfare ; prosperity. Merch. V, I, 249; Hml. IV, 4, 27. wear. Fashion. Meas. Ill, 2, 78 ; As. II, 7, 34: All's. I, 1, 219; Wint. IV, 4, 327. weather. Storm. John IV, 2, 109 ; Merch. II, 9, 29. To keep the weather means to have the advantage ; to keep on the wind- ward side. Troil. V, 3, 26. WEA WEN weather - fend. To defend from the weather. Tp. V, 1, 10. weaver. It seems that weavers were noted for their singing; thus, in IHIV. II, 4, 147, Falstaff says: I would I were a weaver ; I could sing psalms or any- thing. Many of the weavers in England in Sh. time were Calvinistic refugees from the Netherlands and consequently were very much given to singing psalms. Their libertine neighbors said that psahn-singing was all their religion. For the allusion in Tw, II, 3, 61, see soul. web and the pin. An old name for catar- act in the eye. Lr. Ill, 4, 123; Wint. I, 2, 291. wee. Small ; little. Wiv. I, 4, 22. Still in common use in Scotland. weed. A gai-ment. Mids. II, 1, 256; Tw. V, 1, 262 ; Hml. IV, 7, 81. In Meas. I, 3, 20, the word occurs with a peculiar meaning in the passage the needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds. Collier points out that the term weed is still commonly applied to an ill-conditioned horse. The readings steeds and wills have been suggested as emendations. ween. To imagine ; to hope. IHVI. II, 5, 88 ; HVIII. V, 1, 186. cf. overween. week. The phrase, in by the week, is a slang expression for being a close pri- soner. LLL. V, 2, 61. weep. See millstones. weeping=ripe. Ready to weep. 3HVI. I, 4, 172. See ripe. weet. To know. Ant. I, 1, 39. weird. Fate or destiny. The word is used by Sh. as an adjective, but properly it is a noun. It is used by Sh. only as applied to the witches in Mcb. In this connection it occurs six times, the pro- nunciation varying according to the requirements of the metre. Sh. took the word from Holinshed, who, after describing " three women in strange and wild apparell, resembling creatures of the elder world," says : "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 fairies." Mcb. I, 3, 32, and elsewhere. welkin, n. The sky. Ven. 921 ; Tp. I, 2, 4. In LLL. Ill, 1, 68, By thy favor sweet welkin, Armado, with the false dignity of a Spaniard, makes an apology for sighing in its face. Johnson. The passage in Tw. II, 3, 59, shall ive make the welkin dance? is explained by Johnson as "drink till \\ie sky seems to turn round." In Tw. Ill, 1, 65, Feste uses welkin as synonymous with "element," which is sometimes used for sky, for the purpose of avoiding the more familiar word. In his Satiro-mastix, Dekker had ridiculed this word, element, putting it in the mouth of Horace^ who was a caricature of Ben Jonson. welkin, adj. Sky-blue ; according to some, heavenly. Wint. I, 2, 136. well=a-day. Alas ! Wiv. Ill, 3, 106 ; Tw. IV, 2, 116. well=a-near. Alas ! Per. Ill, Prol. 51. well-graced. Graceful ; popular. RII. V 2 24 well=liking. In good condition. LLL. V, 2, 268. well=said. Well done. As. II, 6, 14; IHIV. V, 4, 75 ; 2HIV. V, 3, 10. In some passages, however, it un- doubtedly has the meaning which we now give to " well-said." well=seen. Skilful. Shr. I, 2, 136. welUwished. Popular. Meas. II, 4, 28. Welsh=hook. An old military weapon of the bill kind, but having, in addition to a cutting blade, a hook at the back. IHIV. II, 4, 372. went. The phrase. Wherein went he ? (in As. Ill, 2, 234), means, " How was he dressed ?" wench. This word occurs many times in Sh., but never with a depreciatory meaning, except where such meaning is conveyed by some accompanying word. Prospero t vvice calls his daughter wench in Tp. I, 2, 139 and 412 ; the nurse calls Juliet wench in Rom. II, 5, 45, and Othello addresses Desdemona as wench, not in his insane jealousy, but lovingly, WES 370 WHE after he has fully realized how innocent she was and how her look " would hurl his soul from heaven " (OLh. V, 2, 272) ; and in William of Palerne (Early English Text Society's ed. I, 1901) the writer speaks of "William and his worthie wenche," the wench being a princess. Furness thinks that "there was, nevertheless, a faint sub-audition of inferiority of some kind," but this seems to have been always indicated by the context. The original word meant a child, and hence indicated physical weakness, but physical ideas were very apt to run into the mental and moral, as we see in the case of silly, q.v. Thus, in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale (I, 958), we read : " I am a gentil womnian, and no wenche." That the idea of a depre- ciatory sense attaching to the word was quite common actually led one com. to suggest an emendation of Othello's apos- trophe to Desdemona, the word wench being changed to wretch ! wesand. See wezand. Westminster, Abbott of, dr. p. RII. Westmoreland, Earl of, dr. p. IHIV. ; 2HIV. ; HV. Westmoreland, Earl of, dr. p. 3HVI. Westward Ho I The cry of the watermen on the river Thames. Tw. Ill, 1, 146. -wezand. The wind-pipe. Tp. Ill, 2, 99. what is he for a fool ? An idiomatic form of "what manner of fool is he ?" Ado. I, 3, 49. wheat, white. Wheat that is ripe — ' ' white unto the harvest." Lr. Ill, 4, 128. wheaten garland. An emblem of fertility; also of peace and plenty. Kins. I, 1, in stage direction, and also line 64, wheel, n. The burden or refrain of a song, or else a spinning-wheel at which it was sung. Hml. IV, 5, 171. The wheel is come full circle (Lr. V, 3, 174), that is, the wheel of fortune, cf. Caes. V, 3, 2.5, and the clown's "whirli- gig," Tw. V, 1, 385. Also Lr. II, 2, 180. See also Enid's song in "The Idyls of the King": "Turn, fortune, turn thy wheel." The passage in Err. Ill, 2, 151, and made me turn i' the wheel, is an allu- sion to the old practice of training dogs to turn a wheel so as to cause the spit, which carried the meat, to revolve before the fire. In those days the method generally used for roasting meat and game was to hang them on a spit before the fire and cook them by means of the radiated heat. Various devices were employed for turning the spit so as to have the meat roast evenly, and as the amount of power required was very small, young children and dogs were sometimes employed. So common was this practice in Great Britain, until quite recent times, that the mention of it in this passage does not call forth a single word of comment or explanation in the 3rd Var. of 1821. In ' ' The Henry Irving Shakespeare," we find this note on line 151 : " Referring to the turnspit dogs, a race lately come into fashion again, but in-a less useful capacity than that which they fulfilled in Sh. time." Halliwell fills three folio pages with a description of the various inventions made for doing this work. Weights, acting as they do in clocks, were a favorite source of power ; springs were also used, and in many cases the current of hot air going up the chimney was made to turn the spit. But the dog seems always to have been a favorite for this purpose, and a breed specially adapted to the work, and known as the turnspit^ was generally employed. Top- sell, in his " History of Four- Footed Beasts" (1607), thus describes it: "There is comprehended under the cur res of the coursest kinde, a certain dogge in kitchen service excellent : for when any meat is to be roasted, they go into a wheel, which they turning about with the weight of their bodies, so diligently looke to their businesse, that no drudge nor scullion can do the feate more cunningly." wheel, V. 1. To roam. Troil. V, 7, 2 ; 0th. I, 1, 137. 2. To make a circuit ; to go round. Cor. I, 6, 19. WHE 371 WHI wheeling. As this word occurs in 0th. I, 1, 137, it evidently means circling about, and corresponds to extravagant, which here means wandering. Collier's MS. suggested wheedling, and Staunton whirling, but wheeling is no doubt the true word. Wheeson week. The hostess's blunder for Whitsun week. 3HIV. II, 1, 96. whelk. A swelling; a pustule; a ridge. HV. Ill, 6, 108. whelked. Having wavy ridges like a ram's horn. Lr. IV, 6, 71. whenas, | When. Sonn. XLIX, 3 ; Err. when as. ) IV, 4, 140; 3HVI. I, 2, 75. Printed as one word in some eds. where, n. A place. Lr. I, 1, 264. On this passage Johnson remarks: '■^ Here and where have the power of nouns. where, adv. Whereas. LLL. II, 1, 103; Merch. IV, 1, 23 ; IHVI. V, 5, 47. whey=face. A face white or pale from fear or any other cause. Mcb. V, 3, 17 ; Wiv. I, 4, 22. whiffler. One who goes before in a pro- cession and clears the way. HV. V, Chor. 12. The word "is by no means, as Han- mer had conceived, a corruption fi-om the French huiss ier. He was apparently misled by the resemblance which the office of a whiffler bore in modern times to that of an usher. The terra is un- doubtedly borrowed from ivhiffle, an- other name for a fife or small flute ; for whifflers were originally those who pre- ceded armies or processions as fif ers 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. Minsheu, in his "Dic- tionary" (1617), defines him to be 'a club or staff- bearer.' Sometimes the whifflers carried white staves. ' ' Douce. while. Until. RII. I, 3, 122 ; Mcb. Ill, 1, 44. while=ere. Erewhile ; not long ago. Tp. Ill, 2, 127. whiles. Until. Tw. IV, 3, 29. cf. while. whip. In Cor. I, 8, 12, the passage: Hector, That was the whip of yoxir bragged j^rogeny, is a little awkward. It was the Trojans, not the Greeks, from whom the Romans claimed to be descended ; the of, therefore, must mean belonging to ; i.e.. Hector was the whip belonging to the Trojans, who whipped his enemies. whipping=cheer. A flogging; chastise- ment. 2HIV. V, 4, 5. whipster. A whipper-snapper ; a nimble, restless little fellow ; one who suddenly seizes or whips up anything. 0th. V, 2, 244. whipstock. The handle of a whip. Tw. II, 3, 28 ; Per. II, 2, 51 ; Kins. I, 2, 86. One of the words in common use in England in the 16th century and still retained in this country and in many parts of England, though it would seem to have fallen somewhat into disuse, the "Globe" and other glossaries find- ing it necessary to explain it. The clown's expression in Tw. II, 3, 28, Malvolio^s nose is no whipstock, is not easily understood. It is easy en ough to imagine plausible meanings for it, but that is not the problem. Hutson explains it as follows: "This reply of the Clown is apparently a whimsical series of inconsecutive ideas ; but, ex- amined closely, it will be found not to lack continuity; — ' I pocketed thy trifling gratuity (for he seems to me to mean a hidden sneer by his diminutive), because Malvolio would soon nose me out if I abstracted wine from the steward's stores ; my lady (not Olivia, but the girl Sir Andrew sent him the sixpence for) has too white a hand to condescend to common tipple, and the tavern called the Myrmidons, where I would regale her, is no place for cheap drink. " This is certainly interesting, even if a little far-fetched and imaginative, but it does not explain the connection between Malvolio's nose and a whipstock. Perhaps it may have been because this feature of Malvolio's countenance was somewhat large and prominent, a whipstock being usually quite slender. WHI 372 WHI whir. To hurry awaj^ Per. IV, 1, 21. Some eds. hurrying. whist. The lines in Ariel's song (Tp. I, 2, 378) : Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd The wild waves whist, are thus explained by Wright : " If we take ' kiss'd ' to refer to the fairies, who, before beginning their dance, courtsy to and kiss their partners, the words ' The wild waves whist ' must be read parenthetically, ' the wild waves being silent,' and as it is Ariel's music that stills the waves, and not the fairies, this seems to be the better reading. " Prof. Allen, as quoted by Furness, regards the waves as spectators who are hushed into • silent attention by the sign al of t h e fairies taking hands, courtesying and kissing. But this does not seem quite as fully in accordance with the general action of the play as Wright's interpretation. Hudson's explanation is that the fairies kissed the wild waves into silence, "a delicate touch of poetry that is quite lost as the passage is usually printed, the line, The wild waves ivhist, being made parenthetical, and that, too, with- out any authority from the original." This has been adopted by Rolfe. whistle. Goneril's remark : / have been worth the whistle, is explained by Moberly as meaning: "There was a time when you would not have waited so long without coming to meet me." There is an old proverb : " It is a poor dog that is not worth the whistling," and to this Goneril refers. Lr. IV, 2,29. The phrase, Fid whistle her off and let her down the wind, is taken from falconry, and means to dismiss a hawk from the fist. 0th. Ill, 2, 29. "The falconers always let the hawk fly 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 for- tune. Johnson. white. The center of an archery butt. Shr. V, 2, 186. There is here a pun on the name Bianca, which signifies tvhite. The term white wench, as it occurs in Rom. II, 4, 14, is supposed to be a term of endearment, like " white boy," which is used in The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Mrs. Merrythought to her darling son, Michael: "What says my white boy ? " and in the " Returne from Parnassus, II, 6, the Page says : " When he returns, I'll tell twenty admirable lies of his hawk ; and then I shall be his little rogue and his white villain for a whole week after." See Nares, s. v. white hoy. The meaning of tvhite herring, in Lr. Ill, 6, 33, has not been satisfactorily settled. The term has been applied to salt or pickled herring as opposed to red herring, and also to fresh herring. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, as quoted by Furness, says that ' ' there is no occasion to pickle the herring," but it was done, nevertheless, and pickled herring were called white her- ring. In the " Glossary of Manley and Corringham," Lincolnshire, as pub- lished by the English Dialect Society, white herring is given as meaning fresh herring, so that the authorities seem to be equally divided. white=fac'd shore. England is supposed to be called Albion from the white rocks facing France. Johnson. John II, 1, 23. white=livered. Cowardly; having no blood in the liver. HV. Ill, 2, 34; Bill. IV, 4, 465; and cf. Tw. Ill, 2, 66. whiting=time. Bleaching time. Wiv. Ill, 3, 140. Whitley. Pale-faced. LLL. Ill, 1, 198. A doubtful word; some defined it as faded. It is whitley in the Fl. ; whitely in the F3. and F4. and the Cambridge ed. ; wightly in the 1st Cambridge ed. and in the Globe. See wightly. Whitmore, Walter, dr. p. 2HVI. whitster. A bleacher ; literally, one who makes things white. Wiv. Ill, 3, 14. WHI 373 WIL whittle. A large knife, especially one carried in the belt. Still a good Ameri- can word, though with our cousins it seems to have dropped out of common use. Tim. V, 1, 183. The Scotch still retain it. See Burns's " Death and Dr. Hornbook," Tenth Stanza. whole. Solid ; sound. Mids. Ill, 2, 53 ; Mcb. Ill, 4, 23. whoo = bub. Outcry; clamor; hubbub. Wint. IV. 4, 629. whoop. An interjection, or, rather, an exclamation. Wint. IV, 4, 199 ; Lr. I, 4, 245. Sometimes "hoop," as in As. Ill, 2, 203, out of all hoojying = beyond all exclamation of wonder. Writing of the servant's speech in Wint. IV, 4, Dr. Purness says: "A Bibliography of this old song is given by Chappell on pp. 208, 774, together with the music. A song with this burden is to be found in Fiy's Ancient Poetry, 'but,' adds Chappell, 'it would not be desirable for republication.' Indeed, the humour in the whole of this speech by the Clown [Servant, not Clown] would be relished by an Eliza- bethan audience, to whom the praises bestowed by the Clown [?] on the decency of the ballads, would be at once recognised as one of the jokes." wicked. Mischievous ; baneful ; poison- ous. Tp. I, 2, 321. wide. Distracted ; astray. Ado. IV, 1, 60 ; Lr. IV, 7, 50. widow, V. 1. To give a jointure to ; to endow with a widow's rights. Meas. V, 1, 429. 2, To become a widow to ; to survive a husband. Ant. I, 2, 27. widow=hood. A widow's right in the estate of her deceased husband. Shr. II, 1, 125. wife. lago's speech in 0th. I, 1, 21, A fellow almost da^nn'd in a fair wife, has puzzled not only the corns., but most readers of Sh. Dr. Furness gives five solid pages of fine type to the ex- planations and emendations that have been offered, Johnson says: "This is one of the passages which must for the I3i'esent be I'esigned to corruption and obscurity. I have nothing that I can, with any approach to confidence, pro- pose. " Purness can only say, "I merely re-echo Dr. Johnson's words. " Various emendations have been pro- posed, but none that is in any way satisfactory. wight. A person. Troil. IV, 3, 12 ; Wiv. I, 3, 23 ; Obh. II, 1, 159. wightly. Nimble. LLL. Ill, 1, 198. Whitly, q.v., in the PI. As Rosaline was dark, it may very well be that the reading of the Polios is a printer's error. wild. Weald. IHIV. II, 1, 60. The Weald was originally partly covered with forests and partly desti- tute of them. Topley tells us that even as late as Elizabeth's time, swine ai'e said to have run wild there. wilderness. Wildness. Meas. Ill, 1, 143. wild=goose chase. Holt White describes this as a race of two horses ; the rider who could get the lead might choose what ground he pleased and the other was obliged to follow. That horse which could distance the other won the race. This barbarous sport is enumerated by Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melan- choly," as a recreation much in vogue in his time among gentlemen. This account explains the pleasantry kept up between Romeo and his gay companion: "My wits fail," says Mercutio. Romeo exclaims, briskly, " Switch and spurs, switch and spurs." To which Mercutio rejoins, " Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase," etc. 3rd Var., Vol. VI, p. 103. wilful=blame. IHIV. Ill, 1, 177. This word has given the corns, a world of trouble. It is not hyphenated in the PI . " The present compound is peculiar, as the second part is not an adjective." Rolfe. Johnson suggested " wilful- blunt," "wilful-bent;" Keightley sug- gests " wilful-blamable. " Schm. defines it as "blameable on purpose, on prin- ciple ; indulging your faults, though conscious that they are faults." None of these seem to me to give the meaning WIL 374 WIN of the passage. Careful reading of the context seems to show that the meaning • is : " You are too wilful or obstinate in blaming or finding fault with him." William, dr. p. A rustic. As. William Longsword, dr. p. Earl of Salis- bury. John. William Mareschal, dr. p. Earl of Pem- broke. John. William Page, dr. p. Son to Mrs. Page. Wiv. Williams, dr. p. A soldier in the army of Henry V. HV. Willoughby, Lord, dr.jj. RII. wimpled. Hooded ; veiled ; blindfolded. LLL. Ill, 1, 181. win me and wear me. An old proverb found in Ray's collection and in other works of the time. Ado. V, 1, 82. Winchester, Bishop of, dr.p. Stephen Gardiner. HVIII. The public stews were under the con- trol of the Bishop of Winchester, and a strumpet was called a "Winchester goose." Winchester goose was also a cant term for certain venereal sores. wind. 1. To scent ; to nose. Tit. IV, 1, 97. 2. To blow as on a bugle or horn. Ado. I, 1, 243. Wind me into him (Lr. I, 2, 106) means make cautious, indirect advances and find out his intentions. Let her down the wind. See whistle. windlace, ) A circuit; an indirect method; windlass. \ a shift. Hml. II, 1, 65. window. In HVIII. V, 2, a stage direc- tion says: Enter at a window above, upon which Steevens has the following note: "The suspicious vigilance of our ancestors contrived windows which over- looked the insides of chapels, halls, kitchens, passages, etc. Some of these convenient peep-holes may still be found in colleges and such ancient houses as have not suffered from the reformations of modern architecture. Among An- drew Borders instructions of building a house (see his "Dietarie of Health ") is the following : "Many of the chambers to have a view into the chapel." He then gives several instances of the use of these devices, and concludes that without a knowledge of these facts, the stage arrangements of Shakespeare's time would in many cases be unintelli- gible. window=bars. A sort of embroidery in the form of lattice-work, worn by women across the bosom. Tina. IV, 3, 116. Staunton explains it as " 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 ha\e al- ways a bodice of satin, muslin or other material beneath them ; at one period they crossed the nude bosom. windowed. 1. Pull of holes. Lr. 111,4, 31. 2. Placed in a window. Ant. IV, 14, 72. wind=galls. Swellings consisting of small bags or sacs on the legs of horses and supposed erroneously to contain wind. Shr. Ill, 2, 54. windring. Said to be a misprint in Tp. IV, 1, 128, for either winding or wan- dring. Schra. calls it an " unintelligible lection." For myself, I do not regard it as either a misprint or unintelligible. Sh. would make a word at any time if he wanted one to suit, and would have no hesitation about adding an r for alliteration or if he thought it sounded better. wine. In Shr. Ill, 2, 172, we read that after many ceremonies done, He calls for wine. Upon this there is a series of notes in the 3rd Var. , Vol. V, p. 450. A quotation from Leland reads : " The fashion of introducing a bowl of wine into the church at a wedding, to be drank 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. We find it practised at the magnificent marriage of Queen Mary and Philip, in Winchester Cathedral, 1554 : ' The trumpets sounded, and they both returned to their traverses in the quire, and their remayned untill masse was done : at which tyme, wyne and sopes were hallowed and delyvered to them both. ' ' ' The wine generally used WIN OiO WIT was muscadel or muscadine, and we find in Ben Jonson's Magnetic Lady that the wine drank on this occasion is called the knitting cuj). Middleton, in No Wit Like a TFo?)iau's, calls it the contracting cup. ISteevens saj^s there was a flower called "sops in wine," the name of which was borrowed from this ceremony. We have no w an apple called "sops in wine," but I believe the name is derived from its color. winking. The usual definition is half- closed. This suits very well for the passage in Cym. II, 4, 89, though Col- lier's MS. corrected to ivinged Cupids, which makes fair sense. But Cupid is generally represented as blind ; this does not mean eyes ' ' half-closed ' ' ; and half- closed does not give good sense in Rom. Ill, 2, 6, that runaway'' s eyes may - wink. Juliet wanted to have them en- tirely closed. So, too, the passage in John II, 1, 215, winking gates, can hardly mean half shut ; rather, entirely shut. Malone explains this expression as ' ' gates hastily closed from an apprehension of danger. ' ' It is probable that winking has slightly changed its meaning since Sh. time. winnowed. Wise ; sifted. Hml. V, 2, 201. Winnoived opinions=trmsins. Sc?im. winter, adj. Old. 2HVI. V, 3, 2. winter, n.- Old age. Troil. IV, 5, 24. (The kiss of Nestor, the old man.) winter^ground. To cover over so as to protect from the effects of frost during winter. Cym. IV, 2, 229. This word seems to be found nowhere else than in this passage, and has puzzled the coms. Warburton, followed by Johnson, main- tained that to winter-ground with moss was an absurdity, and suggested ivmier- gown. Collier's MS. suggests winter- guard, but it may have been a technical term in the horticulture of the day. The meaning is obvious. winter's sisterhood. A sisterhood de- voted to perpetual chastity ; hence, cold, bai-ren. As. Ill, 4, 17. wipe. A brand; a mark of infamy. Lucr. 637. wis. See Iwis. wise woman. A witch ; a fortune-teller. Wiv. IV, 5, 59 ; Tw. Ill, 4, 116. wish to. To recommend to. Shr. I, 1, 113. wisp of straw. The badge of a scold. 3HVI. II, 2, 144. See straiu. wistly. 1. Attentively; scrutinisingly. Ven. 343 ; Lucr. 1355. 2. Wishingly ; wistfully. RII. V, 4, 7. wit, 11, Mind ; intellect ; wisdom. Wiv. V, 5, 134 ; Merch. II, 1, 18 ; Caes. Ill, 2 225. By the early writers, the "five wits" were used synonymously with the five senses, as in Ado. I, 1, 66, The passage in LLL. I, 2, 94, she had a green wit, is a very obvious allusion to Judges xvi, 7 and 8, and the story of Samson and Delilah and how she had him bound with green ivithes. Withe was probably pronounced ivit in Sh. time. wit, V. To know. IHVI. II, 5, 16; Per, IV, 4, 31. "A preterit-present verb whose forms have been much confused and misused in modern English. Ce7it. Diet. Witches, The Three, dr.p. Mcb. In the Fl., after line 34 of IV, 1, of Mcb. the stage direction is : Enter Hecat and the other three Witches. As there is no evidence that there were more than three witches present, this has been changed to. Enter Hecate to the other three Witches in the g. a. text. Sh. has been criticised for describing Hecate as a witch, but in this he seems to have confornittd to the opinions of the times and the description of Holinshed. See weird. Lamb, in a note on Middleton's Witch, in his " Specimens of English Dramatic Poets," points out the differ- ence between the "weird sisters" of Sh. and the ordinary witch as : " Though some resemblance may be traced be- tween the Charms in Macbeth and the Incantations in this play, which is sup- posed [probably erroneously] to have preceded it, this coincidence will not detract much from the originality of Shakespeare. His Witches are distin- guished from the Witches of Middleton WIT 376 WOL by essential differences. These are creatures to whom man or woman, plotting some dire mischief, might re- sort for occasional consultation. Those originate deeds of blood and begin bad impulses to men. Froin the moment that their eyes first met Macbeth 's he is spell-bound. That meeting sways his destiny. He can never break the fasci- nation. These Witches can hurt the body ; those have power over the soul. Hecate, in Middleton, has a Son, a low buffoon ; the hags of Shakespeare have neither child of their own, nor seem to be descended from any parent. They are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they are sprung, nor whether they have beginning or ending. As they are without human passions, so they seem to be without human relations. They come with thunder and lightning, and vanish to airy music. This is all we know of them. Except Hecate, they have no names ; which heightens their mysteriousness." Edition of Gollancz (1893), Vol. I, p. 271. And in his note on The Witch of Edmonton, by Rowley, he says : " Mother Sawyer differs from the hags of Middleton or Shakespeare. She is the plain traditional old woman Witch of our ancestors ; poor, deformed and ignorant ; the terror of villages, herself amenable to a justice. That should be a hardy sheriff, with the power of a county at his heels, that would lay hands on the Weird Sisters. They are of another jurisdiction." The same work, Vol. II, p. 17. The passage in IHVI. I, 5, 6, Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch, refers to the current superstition of those times which taught that he that could draw the witch's blood was free from her power. Johnson. In the time of Sh. the word was applied to persons of either sex. Thus, it is applied to males in Err. IV, 4, 160 ; Ant. I, 2, 40 ; Cym. I, 6, 166. The word wizard also occurs four times in the plays. See tail in Supplement. withering. Slowly wasting away, Mids. 1, 1, 6. This phrase is quite apt and expres- sive, though Warburton asserted that it is not good English and emended by changing to wintering on. witliers. The highest part of the back of a horse, between the shoulder-blades and the root of the neck ; it literally means the resisting part. IHIV. II, 1, 8; Hml. Ill, 2, 253. wit=oId. A pun upon wittol, q.v.,ot which horns, two lines lower down, are the "figure." LLL. V, 1, 66. witliout. 1. Beyond. Tp. V, 1, 271; Mids. IV, 1, 158. 2. Except. Gent. II, 1, 38 ; Wint. IV, 2, 16. Macbeth's speech, Tts better thee without than he within (Mcb. Ill, 4, 14) has received several interpreta- tions. Johnson paraphrases thus: "It is better that his blood were on thy face than he in this room." Others 3 " Better on thy face than in his body.'* Hunter has a long note on the passage in which he tries to show that Macbeth's speeches are asides, not addressed to the murderer, and concludes thus : "In what follows, we cannot suppose that Macbeth speaks so as to be heard by the murderer, much less speaks to him, re- vealing the secret purpose and thoughts of his mind." "New Illustrations," Vol. II, p. 191. I think a careful reading of the whole passage will fail to uphold this view. wits. Senses. Ado. I, 1, 66 ; Tw. IV, 2, 93. See wit, n. wittol. A contented cuckold. Wiv. II, 2, 317. wittolly. Wittol-like. Wiv. II, 2, 288. wolf. In regard to Edgar's comparisons in Lr. Ill, 4, 95, et seq., Prof. Skeat remarks that in "The Ancren Riwle'' the seven deadly sins are figured under the names of various animals. Steevens points out that Harsnet, in his " De- claration," says that "the Jesuits pre- tended to cast the seven deadly sins out of Mainy in the shape of those animals that represented them ; and before each WOL 377 WOO was cast out, Mainy, by gestures, acted that particular sin ; curling his hair to show p7'ide, vomiting for gluttony, gaping and snoring for sloth, etc. " Sh. was no doubt familiar with Harsnet's book. Wolsey, Cardinal, dr. p. HVIII. woman. The passage in Tw. II, 4, 30, still let the woman take An elder than herself, has given rise to the most diverse comments. I think the majority of coms. feel that in this line Sh. gives expression to his feelings over the result of a violation of the precept in his own case. "Anne Hathaway, whom Sh. married in June or July, 1582, was then in her twenty-sixth year, that is seven years and a half older than her husband : a disproportion of age which seldom fails, at a subsequent period of life, to be productive of unhappiness, and which, perhaps, about thirteen years afterwards, gave rise to a part of the following beautiful verses on the subject of marriage, which no man who ever felt the passion of love, can read without emotion." Malone, "Life of William Shakspeare." 3rd Var., Vol. II, p. 112. The lines quoted are Mids. I, 1, 133, et seq., particular attention being called to line 137, or else mis- graffed in res2oect of years ; and he adds : " Perhaps, indeed, the same feel- ing suggested the following judicious precept, at a still later period, when our poet was in his forty-third year. " And he then quotes Tw. II, 4, 29, et seq. After giving two pages of quotations, the majority of which agree with Malone, Dr. Furness adds this note : ' ' Not only do I not believe that Shakespeare was here referring to his own experience, but I do not believe that Orsino's assertion itself is true. The record of marriages whei^e the woman is the elder will prove, I think, that, as a rule, such unions, founded as they are, not on the fleeting attractions of youth, which is ' a stuff will not endure, ' but on the abiding elements of intellectual con- geniality, have been unusually happy." I think most men will agree with Sh. and hold that such happy marriages are the exception, and not " the rule " ; and, besides, a mere intellectual partnership is not marriage in the highest sense. For women as actors, see female actors. womb. Belly ; paunch. 2HIV. IV, 3, 24. This is the original meaning of the word which still survives in the Scotch waTne. Thus, in Wiclif 's version of St. Luke we find (xv. 16) : " And he coveitide to fille his wombe of the coddis that the hoggis eeten, and no man gaf hym " ; and in " The Canterbury Tales," by Chaucer : Of this matere, o Poule, well canst thou trete ; Mete unto wombe and wombe eke unto mete. Rolfe thinks that Falstaff uses the word "jocosely," but it seems to me that the joke did not consist in the mere use of this word ; it lay far deeper. wonder'd. Able to perform wonders. Wright. Tp. IV, 1, 128. woodbine. A plant of this name is i-e- ferred to three times in the plays, but it is not quite certain which plant is meant. In Mids. IV, 1, 48, honeysuckle and woodbine are both mentioned, while several authors claim that they are really the same plant. Johnson thought that woodbine was the plant and honey- suckle the flower, and Baret, in his " Alvearie," makes the same distinction and speaks of " Woodbin that beareth the Honiesuckle. " Some, however, have concluded from this that woodbine was a name for any climbing plant. Thus, Steevens claims that it is even applied to the ivy. Various species of Lonicera and convolvulus have been claimed as the true plants. The difficulty arises from the uncertainty which affects all the popular names of plants and animals and which vary with each locality. White, in discussing this subject, mixes up American and English names some- what confusedly. Upon this point, see ante article on robin. The general idea that Sh, wishes to convey, one plant woo WOR twining about another, is clear enough. The other references to this plant are Ado. Ill, 1, 30, and Mids. II, 1, 251. woodcock. A highly-esteemed game-bird, the Scolopax rusticula (sometimes, erroneously, rusticola, as by Schm.) or European woodcock, the American woodcock being a smaller bird of a different species. In former times the woodcock was caught in large numbers in snares or springes, and it was so easily deceived that the term woodcock became a synonym for a foolish person. Some one who evidently had no practical knowledge of the bird attempted to explain this by the assertion that ' ' the bird was supposed to have no brains," and this erroneous statement has found a place in many respectable Shake- spearean commentaries. The truth is that the woodcock's brain is quite large in proportion to the size of the bird and it is regarded as quite a delicious morsel. Ado. V, 1, 158 ; All's. IV, 1, 100; Tw. II, 5, 9:3 ; Hml. I, 3, 115. woodman. A hunter ; one skilled in tracking game. Hence, a pursuer of deer (dears). Wiv. V, 5, 29. Woodville, dr. p. Lieutenant of the Tower. IHVI. woollen. Made of wool. To lie in the woollen (Ado. II, 1, 33) is supposed by Steevens to mean between blankets, without sheets, cf. LLL. V, 2, 717, / have no shirt; I go woolward for penance. The wearing of woollen next the skin was often enjoined by the Church of Rome as a penance. There are numerous allusions to this in the literature of Sh. time. In "Exchange Ware at the Second Hand" (1615) we find: * * * make Their enemies, like Friers, woolward to lie. Some explain the phrase as being buried, as it was at one time the custom to bury, in woollen grave-clothes. In Merch. IV, 1, 56, this term, as used by Shylock, evidently has reference to some special condition connected with "singing in the nose." It is very doubtful if any of the glosses that have been given are correct. The proper place to look for a solution of this crux is amongst skilled bag-pipe players. woolward. Having wool next the skin. LLL. V, 2, 717. See woollen. Worcester, Earl of, dr. p. Thomas Percy. IHIV. and 2HIV. word. As a general rule this term oc- casions no diflficulty. In John III, 4, 110, the reading in the g. a. text is : the sweet world'' s taste; it is word''s taste in the Fl. As it occurs in Hml. IV, 6, 105, The ratifiers and props of every word, it has been emended to " ward," "weal," "work," "worth," etc., but the best coms. think that no emendation is required. Antiquity and custom are the ratifiers and props of every title and of every law, both of which depend upon "a form of sound words." Or, perhaps, as Schm. explains it: "Of everything that is to serve for a watch- word and shibboleth to the multitude." Caldecott says: ^'■Word is term, and means appellation or title ; as lord used before and king afterwards ; and in its most extended sense must import ' every human establishment.' The sense of the passage is — As far as antiquity ratifies, and custom makes every term, denomination, or title known, they run counter to them, by talking, when they mention kings, of their right of chusing and of saying who shall be king or sovereign." Of the passage in Tw. Ill, 1, 24, words are very rascals since bonds disgraced them, Furness says: "I have given every explanation that I can find of this dark passage; and I confess that none of them afl'oi'ds me a ray of light. ' ' The chief explanations are : (1) The restric- tions laid on the Poet's art by an order in Privy Council, June, 1600. These restrictions may be said to have placed words under bonds and so disgraced them. (2) Words are put into bonds {i.e., money bonds) and hence may be said to be in confinement (in bonds' or WOE 379 won shackles) and so disgraced, (o) Bonds have disgraced words by using them in the trickeries of business. To these Furness adds : " Words are placed in bonds wheii they are accurately defined. To have strict, unalterable meanings attached to words could not but have been offensive to Feste, whose delight, and even profession, it was to be a 'corrupter of words.'" But may not the meaning be : In the golden age a man's word was a sufficient obligation and was always accepted as such, but now mere words are discredited or dis- graced because written bonds are always required. The expression, I moralize two mean- ings in one word (RIII. Ill, 1, 83), " signifies either ' extract the double and latent meaning of one word or sentence ' or ' couch two meanings under one word or sentence. ' " Malone. Word here means a saying, a short sentence, a proverb, as motto does in Italian and bon-mot in French. Mason. I am at a word (Wiv. I, 3, 15) = I am as good as my word. He words me girls (Ant. V, 2, 191) means : He puts me off with words. work. A military term signifying a fortification. HVIII. V, 4, 61 ; 0th. Ill, 2, 3. workings. Labours of thought. Steevens. 3HIV. IV, 2, 23. Mock your workings in a second body (2HIV. V, 2, 90) means : Treat with contempt your acts executed by a representative. Johnson. world. In regard to the saying of Beat- rice in Ado. II, 1, 331, thus goes every- one to the world but I, Hunter remarks that there are few phrases which are more decidedly unsophisticated English. It signifies ' ' tying oneself to the world, ' ' and expresses entering on the cares and duties of the married life, just as the nun, betaking herself to the cloister, is said " to forsake the world." See sun- burned. worm. This word is frequently used by Sh. as synonymous with S7iake, as in Meas. Ill, 1, 17; Mids. Ill, 2, 71 ; Ant. V, 2, 243. In Meas. Ill, 1, 16, the Duke makes the popular mistake of supposing that the " fork " or tongue of the snake is its weapon of offence. In Ado. V, 2, 86, and RIII. I, 3, 222, the worm is taken as the emblem of conscience, the suggestion being, no doubt, taken from Mark ix, 48 : " Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." In the old Mysteries or Moralities the conscience was repre- sented under the figure of a worm or a serpent. Halliwell tells us that in the entry of payments for expenses incurred in representing the Coventry Mysteries is the following for dresses : ' ' Item payd to ij wormes of conscience, xvj. d." wormwood. A plant proverbial for its bitterness. The true wormwood, Ar- temisia Absinthium, is a perennial. The common name, wormwood, is a modified form of tvennode. ' ' The com- pound wer-mod unquestionably means ware-mood or ' mind preserver ' and points back to some primitive belief as to the curative properties of the plant in mental affections. " Skeat. LLL. V, 2, 857; Hml. Ill, 2, 191. It has long been in use amongst the common people in weaning children. Rom. I, 3, 26. See 7'ue. worst. Of the passage in Tim. IV, 3, 275, If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer, Johnson says: "Shake- speare has here given a specimen [of his power of satire] by a line, bitter beyond all bitterness, in which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for the vices which he con- demns. " wort. 1. The sweet solution of malt which, when fermented, becomes beer or ale. LLL. V, 2, 233. 2. A plant of any kind, but usually applied to the cabbage or col wort, and used by Falstaff to ridicule Sir Hugh's pronunciation of words. Wiv. I, 1, 124. Frequently appended to the names of plants as in mugwort. Orchard is WOR 380 WRE from the same root and means a plant- yard or garden, in which sense the word is generally used in Sh. worth. Wealth. Tw. Ill, 3, 17. His worth Of contradiction (Cor. Ill, 3, 26) = his full share or proportion of contradiction. worthied. Rendered worthy or deserving. Lr. II, 2, 128. worthies. The " nine worthies " alluded to in LLL. V, 1, 488, were : Joshua, David and Judas Maccabseus ; Hector, Alexander and Julius Caesar ; and Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon. Thus, there were three Jews, three Pagans and three Christian Knights. woundless. Invulnerable. Hml. IV, 1, 44. wounds. The passage in RIII. I, 2, 55, dead Henry''s ivounds open their con- geaVd mouths and bleed afresh ! ret ers to a superstition very common in the time of Sh. Johnson tells us that " it is a tradition, very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby that he has endeavoured to explain the reason." To this Steevens adds several quotations, amongst others, one from T he Widow'' s Tears, by Chapman (1612) : " The captain will assay an old con- clusion often approved ; that at the mui'derer's sight the blood revives again and boils afresh ; and every wound has a condemning voice to cry out guilty against the murderer." And Drayton, in the 46th Idea, has : If the vile actors of the heinous deed Near the dead body happily be brought , Oft 't hath been proved that breathless corps will bleed. Toilet observes that " this opinion seems to be derived from the ancient Swedes or Northern nations, from whom we descend ; for they practised this method of trial in dubious cases." Those who have read Scott's "Fair Maid of Perth " cannot fail to remember the vain at- tempt to bring Bonthron, the brutal murderer of Oliver Proudfute, the Bonnet-maker, to touch the corpse of his victim. wrack. Wreck ; destruction ; ruin. Tp. I, 2, 26 ; Mcb. V, 5, 51. The modern word wreck was always spelled and pronounced wrack in the time of Sh. The "Globe" and many modern eds. change the spelling in some cases to wreck. wrangler. An adversary ; a term in tennis. HV. I, 2, 264. wreak. Revenge, Cor. IV, 5, 91 ; Tit. IV, 3, 33. wreakful. Revengeful. Tit. V, 2, 32; Tim. IV, 3, 229. wreckful. Destructive. Sonn. LXV, 6. wren. This little bird is mentioned nine times in the plays, and in nearly all cases the feature that is most noted is its diminutive size. The only passage, however, in which the wren is spoken of and which requires comment is that in Tw. Ill, 2, 70, where Sir Toby says of Maria, Look ivhere the youngest wren of mine comes. The word tnine of the FF. in this line, was changed to nine by Theobald, and this emendation has been adopted by the " Cambridge," the "Globe," Warburton, Johnson, 3rd Var., Dyce, Knight, White, Hudson, Rolfe, "The Henry Irving Sh.," "The Leopold Sh." (Delius and Furnivall), and almost all the eds. , though, I think, without good grounds. Furness, of course, follows the FL, and Halliwell is one of the very few who retain mine. The reason for the change, as given by Hanmer, is: "The wren is remarkable for laying many eggs at a time [she really lays but one at a time, but let that pass], 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 " ; and Warburton adds : " The women's parts were then acted by boys, ■ sometimes so low in stature that there was occasion to obviate the impropriety by such kind of oblique apologies." (This does not quite agree with Jordan's WEE 381 WRE account. See female actors.) White, in his "Riverside ed.," actually says : "The wren lays nine eggs," though, as a well-known matter of fact, the num- ber varies w ithin wide limits ; and these arguments seem to have been adopted by all subsequent corns. To me these reasons do not seem at all forcible. Why nine'i If a large number be needed, why not make it twelve or fifteen ? Every Old Country boy-naturalist knows that the wren often lays more than nine or ten eggs. To me the speech of Sir Toby carries a very different meaning. Sir Toby was a roysterer and, no doubt, like all men of his kidney, loved to boast of his success with the fair sex. Now, the wren, whether the fli'st or the ninth of the brood, is small, and we know that Maria was small. Sir Toby calls her " the little villain," and Viola speaks of her ironically as "your giant." Moreover, the wa-en is a notoriously amorous bird (Lr. IV, 6, 114), and we know that Maria was so in love with Sir Toby that it had not escaped the observation of the Clown, cf. Tw, I, 5, 29 to 32, where she half acknowledges it ; and we are told in V, 1 , 372, that he marries her. Therefore he had a right to say : " Look where the youngest wren of mine comes ; my youngest [latest] conquest." "In contempt of question," the reading of the Folio is right and gives the best sense, and the rule is imperative that no change should be made unless absolutely necessary. The wren of Great Britain and Ireland differs materially in appearance and habits from any of the wrens found on the American continent. It is the Troglodytes parvulus of the ornitholo- gist, and while it does not live in caves, it generally builds its nest under cover of some kind, most frequently in out- houses. The nest is always covered with a dome, dome and nest foi'ming one structure, and entrance being gained through a hole in the side. In this nest the bird lays its eggs, varying in number from seven or eight to sixteen and even as many as eighteen. There is no bird more intimately con- nected with the folk-lore of Europe than the wren, and the number of names that have been applied to it, is remark- able — the French alone giving it 139 local names. In English also the num- ber is quite large. It is sometimes called "Our Lady of Heaven's hen," and Kitty- wren and Jenny- wren are common terms. The last name will recall that of the Doll's Dressmaker in " Our Mutual Friend." In the old folk-lore the wren is called the " King of Birds," and the following legend is related as accounting for the title : The birds having determined to choose a king, it was finally decided that the bird which could mount highest should have that honor. Of course, the eagle rose higher than any one else, and the assembly were about to pro- claim him king, when a loud burst of song was heard, and out of the feathers on his back rose the triumphant little wren which, unseen and unfelt, had been borne aloft on the back of the giant. So the wren became the king of birds. In Ireland, in South Wales and in the South of France it is customary to " hunt the wren " on St. Stephen's day — the 26th of December. The origin of this cruel and barbarous orgie has never yet been satisfactorily explained. Men and boys go round to the farm houses with the wren in a little box, which is called its coffin, and money is collected for the purpose of giving it " a decent burial." That any excuse is good enough for collecting money for a spree requires no argument, but the connection of the wren with such a frolic or with the Feast of the Three Kings is not quite so evident. wrest, 71. A tuning key ; an instrument for adjusting the tightness of the strings of the harp. Troil. Ill, 3, 23. Johnson explained the word here as meaning distortion, i.e., the loss of Antenor was WEE 383 XAN such a violent distortion of their affairs. Theobald suggested rest, drawing the simile from the use of a rest for sup- porting a musket. But the expression "must slack" shows that the explana- tion of Steevens and Douce (which we adopt) is the correct one. wrested pomp. Grreatness obtained by violence. Johnson. Malone remarks : " Rather greatness wrested from its possessor. But they both come to the same thing. Faulconbridge had just left the mangled remains of Prince Arthur, and it was this that inspired his speech. Schm. suggests " wretched " as an emendment, but the original obviously gives the best sense. wretched. Hateful; vile; utterly bad. RIII. V, 2, 7 ; Lucr. 999. wring. To writhe. Ado, V, 1, 28. wringing. Torture. HV. IV, 1, 253. writ. This word, as it occurs in Hml. II, 2, 431, has given trouble to some. Walker insists that it should be wit, claim- ing that writ for com20osition is not English. Not modern English certainly, but old English or Scotch, very surely. " Hand o' writ" for hand- writing is a common Scotch expression, found, I think, in Scott. The expression: the law of writ and the liberty probably means, "for observing the parts set down for them and for freedom of im- provising." Caldecott explains it as: " For the observance of the rules of the drama, while they take such liberties as are allowable, they are the only men." write. To claim ; to style oneself. All's. II, 3, 67, and II, 3, 208; 2HIV. I, 2, 30; Lr. V, 3, 35. writliled. V^rinkled. IHVI. II, 3, 33. Some have supposed that this word is a mere misspelling of wrinkled, but we find it in Sir J. Harrington's version of the " Orlando Furioso " : To scorne her writhe! d skin and evill favour. —Book XX, Stanza 76. wrong. Prospero's words : / fear you have done yourself some wrong (Tp. 1, 2, 443) , are thus explained by Steevens : " I fear that in asserting yourself to be King of Naples, you have uttered a falsehood which is below your character and, consequently, injurious to your honour." wroth. Calamity; misery; sorrow. Merch. II, 9, 78. wrung, p.p. of ivring. Hurt; galled; chafed ; strained. IHIV. II, 1, 7. wry, V. To swerve. Cym. V, 1, 5. ^^^ANTHIPPE. The wife of Socrates, '^^"^'^^^ the famous philosopher. Her alleged shrewish temper is pro- verbial, and her name has be- come the synonym for a scold. Shr. I, 2, 71. As an illustration of her shrewishness and the mild temper of her husband we are told that on one occasion, a f ter she had scolded him unmercifully until her tongue gave out and yet wdthout draw- ing forth the slightest remonstrance or exciting the least anger on his part, she emptied a vessel of dirty water over him. His only remark was that "after thunder we must naturally expect rain." But, on the other hand, it is claimed that Xanthippe had good cause for her shrewishness. Socrates and his wife had several children, and report says that he did not provide veiy liberally for their wants. Dr. Jackson, of Cambridge (Eng.), in his account of Socrates, tells us that "the eccentricity of Socrates' life was not less remarkable than the oddity of his appearance and the irony of his conversation. His whole time was spent in public — in the market- place, the streets, the gymnasia. * * * XAN 383 YEA He talked to all comers — to the crafts- man and the artist as willingly as to the poet or the politician. * * * His meat and drink were of the poorest; summer and winter his coat was the same ; he was shoeless and shirtless. ' A slave whose master made him live as you do, ' says a sophist in the Me^nora- bilia, 'would run away.'" Now, it stands to reason that if most of his time was spent in wandering about the streets or sitting on a soap-box in some corner grocery holding forth to the assembled idlers of the neighborhood, his wife and family must have fared but poorly. We have no doubt that many a time his wife had to pick up material for a dinner for herself and children as best she could, and we can readily suppose that when her lord and master, impelled by hunger, came home at noon and wanted something to eat, neither his dinner nor his welcome would be very warm. So, perhaps, after all, there may be a good deal to be said for Mrs. Socrates. " The participial prefix y- is only two or three times used in Sh. plays : ' y-clept, ' ' j'-clad, ' ' y-slaked. ' In early English y- is prefixed to other forms of speech besides participles, like the German ge-. But in Elizabethan English the y- was wholly disused except as a participial prefix, and even the latter was archaic. " Abbott, Sh. Gram., §345. yare. Ready ; nimble ; quick. Tp. I, 1, 7; Meas. IV, 2, 61; Tw. Ill, 4, 244; Ant. Ill, 7, 39. yarely. Readily ; actively. Tp. I, 1, 4 ; Ant. II, 2, 216. Yaughan. It is generally supposed that this was the name of a tavern-keeper near the theatre — one who was well known to the frequenters of the Globe and whose name, like all local allusions, would bring down the house. Elze, with German subtlety, supposes that it is an allusion to the name Johan in the sneer- ing "Johannes factotum" that Greene applies to Sh. Hml. V, 1, 68. Like many German comments this is de- cidedly farfetched as well as improb- able. yaw. To move unsteadily as a ship which does not answer the helm. Hml. V, 2, 120. This word has given rise to a good deal of discussion. Johnson suggested that yaw was a misprint for raw. The whole passage is designedly stilted and affected and intended to ridicule Osric. yclad. Clad. 2HVI. I, 1, 33. ycleped, ^ Named; called. LLL. I, 1, yclipped. \ 243 ; do. V, 2, 603. Yead. Same as Ed. , which is a contrac- tion for Edward. Wiv. I, 1, 160. cf. Yedward. Yedward. Same as Edward. IHIV. I, 2, 149. Some claim that the Y is here a contraction of 7iiy. It is more than prob- able that it is the old English addition to many words ; this addition still sur- vives in some parts of Scotland in the words, ale, once, one, oats, etc., of which the Scotch form is, in some localities, yill, yin, yince, etc. [See the "Glossary " appended to the editions of Burns's works issued under his own supervision where yill = ale. It is also heard in Lancashire, and in Shadwell's "Lanca- shire Witches," Clod, who speaks the Lancashire dialect, says: "Why, 'tis Sir Yedard Hartf ort's. ' ' See Y. yea=forsooth, A " yea-forsooth knave " was one who used mild forms of oatk instead of the "red- lattice phrases and bold-beating oaths" of such men as Falstaff, Pistol and others. 2HIV. I, 2, 41. Probably equivalent to rascally Puritan. yean. See ean. yeanling. See eanling. YEA 384 YIE year. The expression, thou heap'st a year's age on me (Cym. I, 1, 133), has given much needless trouble to the corns. E-olfe says: "As the passage stands, this seems an impotent con- clusion, and the defective measure of the preceding line suggests that some- thing may have been lost." Hanmer emended to heapest many; Capell, heap'st instead; Theobald, heap'st a yare age; Johnson, heap'' sty ear s^ ages, etc., etc. The difficulty that seems to strike these eds. is that an extra year's age would be such a trifling matter that it would not be worth mentioning. But to the aged, a year's age, with its in- creasing infirmities, is no such trifling matter, and Cymbeline could not have said "many years" with propriety for his hair had not whitened ; his step did not falter, but he felt that his hopes had gone, and whether the effect of one year or of twenty, was a matter of trifling importance. yearn. To grieve; to vex. Wiv. Ill, 5, 45 ; HV. IV, 8, 26. yellow. The emblem of jealousy. Wint. II, 3, 107. yellowness. Jealousy. Wiv. I, 3, 111. yellows. The jaundice. Shr. Ill, 2, 54. Youatt, speaking of jaundice in horses, says: "Jaundice, commonly called the yellows, is the introduction of bile into general circulation. * * * The yellow- ness of the eyes and mouth and of the skin, where it is not covered with hair, mark it sufficiently plainly." yeoman. 1. A freeholder; one owning a small landed property, but not entitled to wear a crest and, consequently, not rank- ing as a gentleman in the higher sense of that word. IHIV. IV, 2, 16 ; IHVI. II, 4, 81 and 85. c/. Lr. Ill, 6, 11, et seq. 2. An utider-bailiff ; an attendant or as- sistant. 2HIV. II, 1, 4. 3. A gentleman attendant in a royal or noble household, ranking between a sergeant and a groom. Tw. II, 5, 45. "Yeoman's service means "that which is as good service as a yeoman per- formed for his feudal lord. ' ' Caldecott. "The ancient yeomen were famous for their military valor. " Steevens. Hml. V, 2, 36. yerk. To make a sudden push or motion. 0th. I, 2, 5. A mere phonetic variation of jerk. yest. The foam on troubled water. Wint. III, 3, 94. yesty. Foamy; frothy; frivolous. Mcb. IV, 1,53; Hml. V, 2, 199. yew. A tree of slow growth frequently planted in churchyards. The wood of the yew is a favorite for making bows. It is "called double-fatal because its leaves are poisonous and the wood is employed for instruments of death." Warburton. RII. Ill, 2, 117. The poisonous character of the leaves and seeds gave the yew a reputation for evil which caused it to be used in the incantations of witches, as in Mcb. IV, 1, 29. But it was also regarded as the symbol of immortality and of the future life, and sprigs of yew were employed in funeral ceremonies, a cus- tom noted in Tw. II, 4, 56. See hebenon. yield. To reward; to bless. Ant. IV, 2, 33. cf. GodHld. As the word occurs in Lr. IV, 1, 12, Life would not yield to age, it has occasioned some comment. Craig calls this a difficult passage, and undoubtedly so it is, though here, as frequently else- where, the general meaning is very obvious. Malone's explanation is prob- ably correct. It is: "O world! if re- verses of fortune and changes such as I now see and feel, from ease and affluence to poverty and misery, did not show us the little value of life, we should never submit with any kind of resignation to the weight of years, and its necessary consequence, infirmity and death." The word yield seems to be used here in some unusual sense. Is it possible that it is a verb formed from the old word eld or eild with prefixed y, as in Yedward, q. v., and signifying to age or grow old ? The meaning then would be that we would not keep on aging until we were very old; we would tOK 385 YOU rather die by our own band. The word yeild (or yeelde as it is spelled in the Fl.) being substituted for age (verb) to avoid tautology. On turning to the Scottish diction- aries, and especially to the Glossary appended to Sibbald's "Chronicle of Scottish Poetry," I find yeild [sic\ {n) = old age. The word is also given as an adjective, so that its use as a verb in this sense does not seem to be very far- fetched. If so used, the word should be spelled yeild and not yield. Some conjectural emendations have been proposed, but if my gloss is correct they are unnecessary. yoked. Yoked with his that did betray the Best (Wint. I, 2, 419), that is, with Judas who betrayed Christ. The capital B in Best shows this. Douce points out that in the sentence against excom- municated persons there was a clause : " Let them have part with Judas that betrayed Christ. Amen ' ' ; and he sug- gests that "this is here imitated." yoke=devils. Two devils yoked together. HV. II, 3, 106. yokes. In the g. a. text the passage in Wiv. V, 5, 111, reads : do not these fair yokes Become the forest better than the town ? In the Fl. it is yoaks ; in the F3. and F8., okes, and in F4., oakes, and there has been a good deal of discussion as to which is correct. The allusion is ob- viously to the horns, the emblems of cuckoldom, with which Falstaff 's head was adorned, but whether the true sense is yokes or oaks is not so easily deter- mined. Most eds. read yokes. M. Mason . says : " I am confident that oaks is the right reading, I ^gree with Theobald that the words, ' See you these, husband?' relate to the buck's horns; but what resemblance is there between the horns of a buck and a y oak ? W hat connection is there between a yoak and a forest ? [Oxen, with their yokes, are frequently employed in forests. J. P.] Why, none ; whereas, on the other hand, the con- nection between a forest and an oak is evident; nor is the resemblance less evident between a tree and the branches of a buck's horns ; they are, indeed, called branches from that very re- semblance ; and the horns of a deer ai-e called, in French, les bois. Though horns are types of cuckoldom, yoaks are not ; and surely the types of cuck- oldom, whatever they may be, are more proper for a town than for a forest. I am surprised that the subsequent editors should have adopted an amendment which makes the passage nonsense." To this note Steevens adds the re- mark: "Perhaps, however (as Dr. Farmer observes to me), he was not aware that the extremities of yokes for cattle, as still used in several counties of England, bend upwards, and rising very high, in shape resemble horns.'''' But are not yokes generally attached to the neck while the emblems of cuckoldom ornament the head ? It seems to me that oaks is the true reading. yond. Yonder. Hml. I, 1, 36 ; 0th. Ill, 3, 460. York, Archbishop of, dr. p. Scroop. IHIV. andSHIV^. York, Archbishop of, dr. p. Thomas Rotherhara. Kill. York, Duchess of, dr. p. RII. York, Duchess of, dr. p. Mother to Ed- ward IV. RIII. York, Duke of, dr.p. Cousin to Henry V. HV. York, Duke of, dr.p. Uncle to Richard II. RII. York, Duke of, dr.p. Son to Edward IV. RIII. Yorick. Various surmises have been made as to the origin of this name. Some think it is the Danish Georg or Jorg ; Magnusson suggests that it may be a corruption of Borick; Furness points out that Jerick is the name of a Dutch Bowr in Chapman's Alphovisus. Hml. V, 1, 198. young. Recent. HVIII. Ill, 3, 47. young bones = unborn progeny. Lr. II, 4, 165. Young Cato, dr.p. Friend to Brutus and Cassius. Cses. YOTJ 386 20TI Young Clifford, dr.p. Son to Lord Clif- ford. 2HVI. Young Marcius, dr.p. Son to Coriolanus. Cor. Young Siward, dr.p. Son to Si ward. Mcb. your. This word, as it occurs in Mids. Ill, 1, 33 ; Hml. IV, 3, 24 ; Ant. II, 7, 29, is used colloquially, but is regarded as vulgar. Howell, in his "Instructions for Forraine Travel" (1642), says: " There is an odd kind of Anglicism, wherein some do frequently express themselves, as to say, — Your Boores of Holland, sir ; Your Jesuits of Spain, sir ; Your Courtesans of Venice, sir ; whereunto one answered (not impertin- ently) : My Courtesans, sir ? Pox on them all for me ! they are none of my Courtesans." c/. Shr. 1,2, 31, and see me. Also cf. Sh. G-ram., § 221. y ravish. To ravish ; to delight. Per. Ill, Prol. 35. yslaked. To slake ; to abate ; to silence. Per. Ill, Prol. 1. ANI, or ZANY. A subordinate yCry^^^^ buffoon whose office was to ^y^j^^^ make awkward attempts at mimicking the tricks of the professional clown. LLL. V, 2, 463 ; Tw. I, 5, 96. Douce explains zany as the fool's bauble, but, as Hunter points out, not so used by Sh., and he tells us that: "A Zani is explained by old Cole [undoubtedly Elisha Coles whose "English Dictionary " is before me] to mean ' a tumbler who procures laughter by his mimic gestures ; a jack-pudding ;" and a writer in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1869, tells us that "The zany in Shakespeare's day was not so much a buffoon and mhnic as the obsequious follower of a buffoon and the attenuated mime of a mimic." Wright says that "the Italian Zanni (our zany) is a con- traction for Giovanni in the dialect of Bergamo, and is the nickname for a peasant of that place." See bergomask. Zantippe. So spelt in the later Folios. See Xanthippe. zed. The name of the letter Z, Lr. II, 2, 69. " Zed is here probably 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 Teu- tonick." Steevens. Ben Jonson, in his "English Gram- mar," says : " Z is a letter often heard amongst us, but seldom seen." Zenelophon. So given in most eds. in LLL. IV, 1, 67. There can be no doubt about her identity, as the name of Cophetua settles that. It is evident, therefore, that Zenelophon is a mere misprint for Penelophon., and there is no reason why the blame should be laid on Armado. The ballad is found in Richard Johnson's " Crown Garland of Goulden Roses" (1612), 12mo., where it is entitled simply, " A Song of a Beggar and a King." It is given by Percy in his "Reliques," First Series, Book II, 1 No. 6. Zentippe. So spelt in the Fl. See Xanthippe. zenith. A term borrowed from astrology and signifying the highest point of one's fortune. Tp. I, 2, 181. zodiac. The twelve signs through which the sun passes ; hence, a year. Meas. I, 2, 172. "There can be little doubt that either ' niyieteen ' in this passage should be 'fourteen,' or that 'fourteen years ' in the next scene and page should be ' nineteen years.'' " Dyce. zounds. A common oath in former times. It is a variant of 's wounds, which is a a mincing contraction of God's wounds, referring to Christ's sufferings on the cross. The word is frequently omitted in the Fl., as in 0th. II, 3, 163, where it occurs in the g. a. text. See God. ADDENDA. N order to facilitate reference to various passages which, are the subject of annotation, I have added a large number of cross-references that really serve the same purpose as an index. Where the required ex- planation is merely that of some obsolete word, it is readily found, but where the reference is to a line or passage it is not always easy to select the word under which it is given. At the same time I have taken advantage of the opportunity to add a few additional comments and glosses. ADDRESSED. Ready; prepared. Mids. V, 1, 106 ; 2HIV. IV, 4, 5 ; Cees. Ill, ], 29. ad manes /ratrum. {Latin.) To the shades of the brothers. Tit. I, 1, 98. admiration. Something to be wondered at. All's. II, 1, 91. Adrian, cl7\p. A lord of Naples. Tp. Adriana, dr.p. Wife of Antipholus of Ephesus. Err. adulterate. To commit adultery. John III, 1, 56. advertise. To counsel; toinsti'uct. Meas. V, 1, 388. JBgGon, dr.p. A merchant of Syracuse. Err. JBgle. A nymph, the daughter of Pan- opeus. She was beloved by Theseus, • and for her he forsook Ariadne. Mids. II, 1, 79. See Theseus. yCmilius, d7\p. A noble Roman. Tit. i^milius Lepidus, d7'.p. A Roman Trium- vir. Caes. affection. Sympathy ; correspondence of feeling. Merch. IV, 1, 50. This passage has called forth a good deal of comment. In the Fl . the lines read: Cannot containe their Vrine for affec- tion. Masters of passion swayes it to the moode. Of what it likes or loathes. Thirlby suggested a semi-colon after urine and no period after affection, and this has been adopted in the " Cam- bridge," the "Globe" and most eds. With this change the sense is obvious. See passion. Agrippa, dr.p. A friend to Octavius Caesar. Ant. Agrippa, Menenius, dr.p. A friend to Coriolanus. Cor. ale. See pugging. Alengon, Duke of, dr.p. IHVI. ail. This word is frequently used ad- verbially by Sh. RII. II, 2, 126 ; Tim. I, 1, 139. See Sh. Gram., § 28. alliance. The passage in Ado. II, 1, 330, Good Lord, for alliance, has received several interpretations. Capell thinks it means " Good Lord, here have I got a new cousin!" Bos well explains it: "Good Lord, how many alliances are forming," and Furness seems to favor this interpretation. allottery. That which is allotted ; a por- tion or inheritance. As. I, 1, 76. Amuratli. "Anmrath the Third (the sixth Emperor of the Turks) died on January the 18th, 1596. The people being generally disaffected to Mahomet, his eldest son, and inclined to Amurath, one of his younger children, the Em- peror's death was concealed for ten days by the Janizaries, till Mahomet came from Amasia to Constantinople. On his ari'ival he was saluted Emperor (387) ANC 388 ARI by the great Bassas, and others his favourers ; ' which done ' (saysKnolles), ' he presently after caused all his breth- ren to be invited to a solemn feast in the court ; whereuntothey, yet ignorant of their father's death, came chearfully, as men fearing no harm : but, being come, tcere there all most miserably strangled.'' It is highly probable that ►Shakespeare here alludes to this trans- action. " This circumstance, therefore, may fix the date of this play subsequently to the beginning of the year 1596; and perhaps it was written while this fact was yet recent." Malone. 2HIV. V, 2, 48. ancient. Old. The ancient of ivar (Lr. V, 1, 33) = the elders ; old soldiers skilled in the art of war. answer, n. Encounter; contest. Hml. V, 2, 176. answer, v. To encounter ; to resist. Lr. Ill, 4, 106. Anthony, { In the Fl., Ant. V, 2, 86-88, Antony. ) Cleopatra says of Antony : For his Bounty There was no winter in't. An Anthony it was That grew the more by reaping : The g.a. text, including the "Cam- bridge " and the " Globe," read autumn for Anthony, the emendation being Theobald's. In the Fl. the name An- tony is uniformly spelt Anthony. Prof. Corson, in his "Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare," claims that the Folio is right. He gives good reasons for the opinion that "autumn " makes nonsense of the passage, and concludes as follows : "Now, could not the ' less Greek ' which, Ben Jonson tells us, Shakespeare possessed, have led him to see in ' Anthony ' the word anthosf [Greek for a young bud or sprout] and to quibble on the word as meaning a flower garden ? His bounty had no winter in it ; it was a luxuriant, ever- blooming flower garden." This is certainly admirable and not only does away with all necessity for emendation, but gives real sense to the passage, which Theobald's "correction" cer- tainly does not give. Strange to say, however, the new editions all keep in the old track. See note on she and ivren, ante. Antiopa. An Amazon, the sister of Hip- polyta, who married Theseus. Mids. II, 1, 80. When Attica was invaded by the Amazons, Antiopa fought with Theseus against them and died the death of a heroine by his side. ape. " ' Ape of nature ' is a title accorded to more than one painter by his flatterers; it was given, among others, to Giotto's disciple, Stefano. " Symons. Wint. V, 2, 108. argument. This word in As. Ill, 1, 3, evidently means subject and not "cause, reason," as Schm. defines it in this passage. If argument = reason, it cer- tainly could not be absent, Johnson says: "An argument is used for the contents of a book ; thence, Shakespeare considered it as meaning the subject and then used it for subject in another sense." c/. IHIV. II, 4, 310, and Lr. I, 1, 218. Ariadne. A daughter of Minos and Pasi- phae, of Crete. When Theseus arrived in Crete with the tribute sent by the Athenians to Minos, Ariadne fell in love with him and furnished him with the sword with which he killed the Mino- . taur, and the clew of thread by which he found his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus, in return, promised to marry her, and she accordingly left Crete with him, but when he arrived in Naxos he forsook her for the nymph ^gle, the daughter of Panopeus. Mids. II, 1, 79. Various accounts are given of her fate. Some say that she put an end to her own life in despair, while other tradi-- tions relate that Dionysus saved her and, in amazement at her beauty, made her his wife. There are several cir- cumstances in the story of Ariadne which offered the happiest subjects for works of art, and some of the finest ancient work on gems, as w-ell as paint- ARI 389 BAD iugs, of v/hich Ariadne is the subject, are still extant. Gent. IV, 4, 172. See Theseus. arithmetician. A book-keeper; a busi- ness clerk, and not a military man. Otii. I, 1, 19. Steevens explains it as one "that fights by the book of arithmetic." cf. Rom. Ill, 1, 106. arms. The expression, I must change ai'nis at home (Lr. IV", 2, 17), is thus explained hj Craig : " ' I must take the sword out of my weak husband's hands, resigning to him the distaff.' Compare the old terms for husband and wife, ' the spear side ' and ' the spindle side ' ; and see Cym. V, 3, 33-34." article. Importance; moment. Hml. V, as. Upon this word, as it occurs in the - expression, That he should hither come as this dire night (Rom. V, 3, 247), Dowden remarks: "This as used with adverbs and adverbial phrases of time is still common dialectically, but literary English retains only, as yet (N. E. D). I have noticed it frequently in Richard- son's novels, used as in the following from Mrs. 'Delanj''s Autobiog., Ill, 608 (quoted in N. E. D.) : 'To carry us off to Longleat as next Thursday.' Its force was restrictive ; now we regard it as redundant. Compare Meas. V, 1, 74 : As then the messenger.'''' Asmath. The spirit raised in 2HVI. I, 4. The name occurs nowhere else. Some have supposed it to be a corruption of Asmodeus. aspic. This is the archaic form of asp, the name of a very venomous serpent of Egypt. Aspicke is the spelling of the Fl. The word occurs four times in the plays, viz., 0th. Ill, 3, 450; Ant. V, 2, 296, 3.54 and 355. The asp has become celebrated as the means by which Cleo- patra committed suicide, the particular serpent being in all probability the horned viper, which is a snake about fifteen inches long, though the name has also been applied to another species, the Naja haje, which attains a length of three or four feet. The color of tbe horned viper is a mottled gi-een and brown, and the skin of the neck is dilatable, though less so than that of the true cobra. It is of frequent occurrence along the Nile, and is the sacred serpent of ancient Egypt, represented commonly in art as a part of the head-dress of kings and divinities and often connected with their emblems as a symbol of royal power. Cent. Diet. ass. A well-known animal. While it is more than doubtful that there is any pun between ass and as in Hml. V, 2, 43, it is quite obvious that Maria puns upon these two words in Tw. II, 3, 185. See ases. Atliens. This city was named after Atheixa, one of the great divinities of the Greeks. By the Romans she was identified with Minerva. See Minerva and Theseus. The scene of Mids. is laid in Athens and the surrounding country. attest. To stand for. HV., Prol. 16. avaunt. Used as a noun in HVIII. II, 3, 10, meaning dismissal. To give her the avaunt = to send her away contemptu- ously. Johnson. autumn. See Anthony. BACKED. It has been suggested that this word, as it occurs in Hml. Ill, 2, 397, should be becked, i.e., snouted. Hollinshed, in his "Description of England, ' ' has, " if he be wesell-becked, ' ' and Quarles uses the word as a term of reproach in his Virgin Widow: "Go, you weazel-snouted, addle-pated, etc." Steevens. The Q4. and Q5. have black instead of backed, but as weasels are not black, this is probably a typo- graphical error, though it has been adopted by Pope, Theobald and others. Theobald suggested ouzle instead of weasel since ouzles are black, cf. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 9. badge. Douce, in a note on Shr. IV, 1, 93, says ; "In [the reign of] Edward the Fourth the terms livery and badge BAK 890 BIS appear to have been synonymous, the former having no doubt been borrowed from the French language, and signify- ing a thing delivered. The badge con- sisted of the master's device, crest or arms, on a separate piece of cloth, or sometimes silver, in the form of a shield, fastened to the left sleeve " ; and a little further on he gives a cut of men wear- ing badges. Winght says: "A badge was a mark of service ; hence, appro- priately used for a mark of inferiority, and as such an expression of modesty." This explains the use of the word in Ado. I, 1, 23. baker's daughter. See owl. bandy. To toss from side to side. A term in tennis. LLL. V, 2, 29 ; Lr. I, 4, 92. barber=monger. A fop who deals much with barbers, to adjust his hair and beard. Lr. II, 2, 36. barren. Stupid ; unintellectual ; witless. Mids. Ill, 2, 13 ; Tw. I, 5, 90 ; Hml. Ill, 2, 45. bass, V. To utter a deep bass sound ; to proclaim with a bass voice. Tp. Ill, 3, 99. bauble. A trifle ; a thing of no account. Cym. Ill, 1, 27. Sometimes defined as "a small boat " ; surely not so ; a ship may be "a bauble," a trifle; but a trifle or bauble does not signify a ship. Baucis. See Philemon. bawbling. Trifling ; insignificant. Tw. V, 1, 57. beast. An animal of the ox kind. Lr. Ill, 4, 109. A special, but very common application of the word. becomed love. '■'• Becomed for becoming: one participle for the other ; a frequent practice with our author." Steevens. Rom. IV, 2, 26. See Sh. Gram., §374. becoming, n. Grace. Ant. I, 3, 96; Sonn. CL, 5. bell, as sound as a. A very old proverb, still in common use, found in Ado. Ill, 2, 13. As is well known to every old woman who buys crockery and tests its soundness by tapping it and causing it to ring, a bell which has the slightest crack no longer gives a true ringing sound. Steevens, followed by most coms., thinks that "there is a covert allusion to the old proverb: 'As the fool thinketh, So the bell clinketh.'." Wright thinks that the allusion is so covert as to be doubtful, and most sensible readers must agree with him. bend. To direct. RIII. I, 3, 95 ; Lr. IV, 2,74. beshrew. To blame severely. Rom. Ill, 2, 26. Best, The. Jesus Christ. Wint. I, 2, 419. ^ee yoked. bestow. To carry ; to show. As. IV, 2, 85 ; 2HIV. II, 2, 84. betray. See yoked. bias. 1. Awry. Troil. I, 3, 15. 2. Swollen out of shape "as the bowl on the biassed side." Johnson. Troil. IV, 5, 8. biggen. The origin of this word is thus given by Boucher in his "Glossary of Arch, and Pro v. Words": "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 beguins or biggins, from their resem- blance 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." Apud Dyce. bird. Hamlet's speech (Hml. I, 5, 116), Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come, "is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air, when they would have him come down to them." Hanmer. biscuit. Thus defined by Skeat : "A kind of cake baked hard." It was so called because it was twice baked {bis coctus) so as to dry it thoroughly in order that it might keep. In Great Britain the term is always applied to what we call crackers or hard tack. We use it to designate a small loaf, usually prepared without fermentation and used in a fresh and soft state. Even Achilles could not "pun" one of our BIT 391 BBA biscuits into shivers ; a blow would only flatten it. As. II, 7, 39 ; Troll. II, 1, 43. bitumed. Smeared with bitumen. Per. Ill, 1, 72. blaze. To publish; to proclaim. Rom. Ill, 3, 151. cf. blazon. blood. 1. A high-spirited young man. John II, 1, 278 and 461 ; Caes. I, 2, 151. 2. See witch. bloody flag. The signal of war. HV. I, 2, 101 ; Cor. II, 1, 84. blue coats. The common dress of serving- men in Sh. time and long before. Dyce. Shr. IV, 1, 93. boar. See Catesby. bold=beating. Brow-beating. Wiv. II, 2, 28. bonds. See word. bonny. Bonnie in the Fl. in As. II, 3, 8. This word is generally defined as handsome ; fair ; beautiful. But it is also considered synonymous with pretty; now, a "pretty" man in Scotch does not mean beautiful, but strong, and it is quite probable that bonnie has that meaning in the passage quoted (the bonnie priser of the humorous duke), just as "merry" men, in the old English ballads, did not mean jolly fellows, but strong, stout fightez's. The word has given a good deal of trouble to the corns. , as may be seen in the 3rd Var., Pui'ness, Rolfe and others. Emendations have been suggested, but to me it seems certain that Sh. used the word in the old Scottish sense of ' ' pretty ' ' or strong. book. Learning ; scholarship. 2HVI. IV, 7, 76. This is the meaning usually given to this word in this passage, but its accuracy is doubtful. See quarrel. boot. The expression, Grace to boot (As. I, 2, 80), evidently means, " Grace be my help," as in the saying, "St. George to boot," i.e., St. George be our help. boot = hose. Stocking - hose or spatter- dashes. Shr. Ill, 2, 68. bosom. Love ; affection. Lr. I, 1, 275. box=tree. The box-tree mentioned by Maria in Tw. II, 5, 18, was evidently a piece of topiary work, an art in which European gardeners were very skilful. The box-tree lent itself very readily to this art, and no doubt one or more trees, planted close together, had been so trained and cut as to form a rustic arbor or cabin in which two or three persons could easily hide. Dr. Purness (New Var,, Twelfth Night, p. 206) says that box- tree here "means a hedge," but I think this is scarcely the proper term to apply to it. Maria would hardly have told the two knights and Fabian to get " into " a hedge ; if the box-trees had formed a hedge she would have told them to get behind it. brach. In Troil. II, 1, 126, the Folios and Quarto read brooch, which was changed to brach by Rowe and to brock by Malone. Brach, that is, a dog or hound following at the heels of Achilles, seems to be the most natural. Brock (a badger) has no pertinency, and where Malone got the meaning of "fop'.' for brock it is difficult to imagine. Johnson adopts brach as the reading of his text, but in regard to brooch says: "Brooch is an appendant ornament. The meaning may be, equivalent to one of Achilles'^s hangers on.'''' This may satisfy the sticklers for "the original text." bravery. In the g. a. text this word occurs in 0th. 1, 1, 100. Upon malicious bravery dost thou come To start my quiet. This is the reading of the Qq. The FP. read knavery instead of bravery, and it seems to me that this makes better sense. The Clarkes ex- plain it as : " Urged by a malicioiis desire to brave me." As it occurs in Cym. Ill, 1, 18, the natural bravery of your isle, Schm., followed, of course, by most subsequent coms., explains it as "a state of defi- ance." But the usual meaning of the expression, that is to say, courage, gives a much better sense. The defence of the isle was the courage of its in- habitants and its natural advantages. Evans suggests " splendour," which seems to me to be a forced interpretation. BRA 392 CAN brawn. A mass of flesh. The connection of this word with the boar's flesh is merely accidental. IHIV. II, 4, 123; 2HIV. I, 1, 19. brazed. Hardened. Lr, I, 1, 11; Hml. Ill, 4, 37. bred and born. This expression occurs in Tw. 1, 2, 22, and has given no trouble, though it reverses the usual sequence "born and bred." But an apparently- corresponding passage in As. Ill, 5, 7, he that dies and lives by bloody drops ^ has called forth pages of annotation. See die in these Addenda. breed. Progeny ; offspring. Used figur- atively for interest on money in Merch. I, 3, 135. broker. A go-between, frequently in a vile sense. Compl. 173 ; John II, 1, 568 and 582. White says that it was not until the last ten years of the seventeenth century that the word was advanced to the honor of a connection with stock operations. brooded. This word, as it occurs in John III, 3, 52, is generally explained as brooding, that is, vigilant as a bird with a brood of young to care for. For the active use of passive participles, see Sh. Gram., §374. Pope changed 6roode(i to broad-ey''d, and certainly there are strong grounds for the emendment, but the rule is imperative that no change shall be made where a passable mean- ing can be derived from the original. bucklers. To "give the bucklers" was to acknowledge defeat. Ado. V, 2, 17. cf. vice. bulk. This reading in 0th. V, 1, 1, has been generally accepted as meaning a projecting part of a building. In the PI, it reads barke. Singer says: "I feel assured that balke was intended, and not bulk. Palsgrave renders that word by pouste [a variant of post?] and Huloet defines it, ' the chief beanie or piller ot sl house.'" The word still survives in the Scottish "bank," and certainly is more appropriate here than bulk. burthen. ' ' The burthen 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 a verse. * * * Many of these burthens were short, proverbial expres- sions, such as Tis merry in hall when beards wag all. Other burthens were mere nonsense, words that went glibly off the tongue, giving the accent of the music, such as hey nonny, nonny no ; hey derry down. ''^ Chapell. "Popular Music of the Olden Time." Tp. I, 2, 381 ; Wint. IV, 4, 195. burial. See funeral. but. "But, in the sense of except, fre- quently follows negative comparatives, where we should use than. " Sh. Gram. , §127. Mcb. V, 8, 42; Hml. I, 1, 108; 0th. I, 1, 126. button. The very butcher of a silk button (Rom. II, 4, 24), that is to say, one who can direct the point of his rapier to a button's breadth. Staunton quotes Silver, "Paradoxes of Defence" (1599): "Signior Rocca * * * thou that takest upon thee to hit anie English- man with a thrust upon anie button." buzz. Idle, vague rumor. Lr. I, 4, 348. Compare Hml. IV, 5, 90 : buzzers to infect his ear; also Chapman, The Widow^s Tears, II, 1, Shepherd, Works, 1874, p. 315 (a): "Think 'twas but a buzz devised by him to set your brains a- work. ' ' Craig. by and by. Immediately; presently, as often in Sh. Rom. V, 3, 284. Dowden. Not, after a considerable time, as it now generally means with us. CABINET. This word in Ven. 854 means a nest; in Lucr. 442 it means the heart. cakes and ale. See virtuous. call. The exj^ression in John III, 4, 174, they would be as a call, is an image taken from the manner in which birds are sometimes caught ; one being placed for the purpose of drawing others to the net by his note or call. Malone. Cancer. The crab ; the sign in the zodiac CAN 39.^ CAT which the sun enters at the summer solstice. Hence, add tnore coals to Cancer (Troll. II, 3, 206) = increase the heat of summer. The same thought is expressed by Thomson in his " Seasons ' ' : And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze. Hyperion is Apollo or the sun-god. See Hyperion. Candy. Candia, now Crete. Tw. V, 1, 64. candles of the night. The stars. Merch. V, 1, 220; Rom. Ill, 5, 9 ; Mcb. II, 1, 5. canis. Latin for dog. LLL. V, 2, 598. cap. The expression, wear his cap with suspicion (Ado. I, 1, 200) is thus ex- plained by Johnson: "That is, subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy." But the meaning evidently is that a married man cannot wear his cap with- out being suspected of using it to cover his horns— the emblems of cuckoldom. In Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," p. 238, we find: "All they that weare homes be pai'doned to weare their cappes upon their heads." And see 0th. II, 1, 316 ; and 3rd Var., Vol. VII, p. 191. capable. In reference to the passage in Lr. II, 1, 86, Fll wor^k the means To make thee callable, Lord Camp- bell says : " In forensic discussions re- specting legitimacy, the question is put, whether the individual whose status is to be determined is 'capable,' i. e., capable of inheriting ; but it is only a lawyer who would express the idea of legitimising a natural son by simply saying: 'I'll work the means to make him capable.'" "Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements," p. 80. Capitol. In Hitil. Ill, 2, 109, Polonius says : Iivas killed V the Capitol. This error as to the place of Caesar's death appears in Chaucer, Monkes Tale, and in Sh. Julius Ccesar. So Fletcher, The Noble Gentleman., V, 1. Dowden. " It may be just noticed,, as the historical fact, that the meeting of the Senate at which Caesar was assassinated was held, not, as is here assumed, in the Capitol, but in the Curia in which the statue of Pompey stood, being, as Plutarch tells us, one of the edifices which Pompey had built and had given, along with his famous Theatre, to the public. ' ' Craik's "English of Shakespeare," p. 224. card. Various explanations have been given of the phrase we must speak by the card (Hml. V, 1, 149), but all seem rather far-fetched. The obvious mean- ing is : We must speak with precision, but whence derived we know not. carry. See coals. cart. The pun upon court and cart in Shr. I, 1, 55, is an allusion to a common punishment for scolds, which consisted in drawing them about the town in a rough cart and on a very uncomfortable seat. careful. Anxious ; full of care. HV. IV, 1,248. cased. The expression, a cased Hon., as it reads in the Fi., in John III, 1, 259, was emended to chafed Hon by Theo- bald, and this is the reading in the g. a. text, though some eds. retain cased. The meaning of chafed is quite obvious ; cased has been explained as concealed, but this is not quite as forcible as chafed. cat. The cat occupies such a prominent place in the folk-lore as well as the daily life of most peoples that it is no wonder that frequent reference is made to it by Sh. Most of these references, however, require no comment. Hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me (Ado. I, 1, 259) has been explained in various ways. Steevens tells us that it was once a practice to enclose a cat, with a quantity of soot, in a wooden bottle (such as that in which shepherd's carry their liquor) and suspend it on a line. He who beat out the bottom as he ran under it, and was nimble enough to escape the contents was regarded as the hero of this inhuman invention. This, however, is one of Steevens's far- fetched explanations, and it seems to me that it does not quite meet the case. That it was a common practice to shoot at cats and at images of cats numerous references in the literature of the six- CAT! 394 CHA teenth and seventeenth centuries show, but of the details we are ignorant. Pur ! the cat is gray. Lr. Ill, 6, 47. An allusion, no doubt, to the relation of witches and fiends to cats. Malone thinks that Pur may be a fiend ; it is the name of one of the devils mentioned by Harsnet. See Graymalkin and tail. A part to tear a cat in (Mids. I, 2, 32), is supposed by some to be a burlesque upon the killing of the lion by Hercules. See brinded and prince of cats. cause. The passage in 0th. V, 2, 1, It is the cause, it is the cause my soul, has baffled all the coms. The reader will find the most complete discussion of the subject in "The Henry Irving Shake- speare," Vol. VI, p. 104, in a note by Marshall, too long to transfer to these pages and which it would be difiicult to abridge satisfactorily. Centaurs. The word literally means bull- killers, and the name was first applied to a rude and savage race of men who inhabited the mountains of Thessaly, and whose chief pastime and means of subsistence was the hunting of wild cattle. In later writers they are de- scribed as monsters whose bodies were partly human and partly those of horses, and it has been suggested that as they spent the greater part of their lives on horse-back they may, at some early period, have made upon their neighbor- ing tribes the same impression as the Spaniards did upon the Mexicans, namely, that man and horse were one being. The Centaurs are particularly celebrated in ancient story for their fight with the Lapithse, which arose at the marriage-feast of Pirithous. Tit. V, 2, 204. On this occasion a Centaur, named Eurytus, becoming heated with wine, tried to carry off the bride, Hip- podamia. Thereupon, the other Centaurs made similar attempts on other women, and a fierce fight ensued. The Lapithae overcame the Centaurs, killed many of them, and drove the rest from their country, compelling them to take refuge on Mount Pindus, on the frontiers of Epeirus. This fight is sometimes put in connection with a combat of Hercules and the Centaurs, and it is to this that Theseus alludes in Mids. V, 1, 44, et seq. The two Centaurs who are best known by name are Cheiron, famous for his skill in hunting, medicine, music and the art of prophecy, and Nessus, who was killed by Hercules for attempting to carry off Deianira, and whose poison- ous blood caused the death of his slayer. There were also female Centaurs who are said to have been of great beauty, and perhaps it is to this that Lear alludes in Lr. IV, 6, 126. Cerberus. The many-headed dog that guarded the entrance of Hades, into which he admitted the shades, but never let them out again. Hesiod, who is the first that gives his name and origin, calls him fifty-headed, but later writers describe him as a monster with only three heads, with the tail of a serpent and a mane consisting of the heads of various snakes. The place where he kept watch was, according to some, at the mouth of the Acheron, and accord- ing to others, at the gates of Hades. Cerberus is referred to thrice in the plays, viz., LLL. V, 2, 593 ; Troil. II, 1, 37, and Tit. II, 4, 51. Pistol's "King Cerberus" (2HIV. II, 4, 182), is, of course, one of his senseless and bom- bastic utterances. chamber. See tavern. chambermaid. Referring to Maria in T w. I, 3, 54, Furness says: "Let not the modern humble duties of making beds, airing rooms, etc. , be imputed to Maria, who stood in relation to Olivia as a companion and as an assistant at the toilet. In I, 5, 172, Olivia calls her ' my Gentlewoman,' and Malvolio immedi- ately responds by summoning her as 'Gentlewoman.' * * * in tiie end, she marries Sir Toby. " Nerissa also, Portia's maid, is her companion, and marries Gratiano, the companion of Portia's lover and hus- band. Merch. Ill, 2, 200. See waiting-woman. CHA 395 CIB changes. In the g. a. text the line Oth. I, 1, 72, reads : Yet throw such changes of vexation on''t. This is the reading of the Qq.; the FF., with Rowe, Knight, Staunton and a few others, read chances instead of c/iangres. Fur ness says : "I think ' chances ' mean here simply pos- sibilities of vexation, which might dis- color Othello's joy. To read changes of vexation (with the Qq.) renders the contingency of ' may lose ' superfluous. A change of vexation could hardly fail to make his joy lose color." charge. Value or importance. Wint. IV, 4, 261 ; Rom. V, 2, 18. Charlemain. See pen. ^ Charon. The name of the aged and dirty ferryman who conveyed in his boat the shades of the dead across the rivers of the lower world. He carried only those whose bodies had been properly buried, the others being compelled to wait for one hundred years before they could pass to their final rest. For this service he was paid by each shade with an obolus or danace, which coin was placed in the mouth of every dead body previous to its burial. Charon is the ferryman referred to in RIII. I, 4, 46. His name occurs in Troil. Ill, 3, 1 1. Charybdis. See Scylla. cheat. See silly cheat. cheer. As this word occurs in Hml. Ill, 2, 229, it is usually explained as fare or food. But Steevens says: "I believe we should read anchor's chair. So, in the second satire of Hall's fourth book, ed. 1602, p. 18 : Sit seven yeres pining in an anchores cheyre, To win some parched shreds of mini- vere." The word scope in the context supports this interpretaticm. child=changed. Three explanations have been given of this word as it occurs in Lr. IV, 7, 17 : (a) Changed to a child ; made imbecile. Steevens, Henley, Ab- bott, (b) Changed by the conduct of his children. Malone, Halliwell. As simi- larly formed words, Malone cites care- crazed or crazed by care, and wave- xvorn^ i.e., worn by the waves, (c) Delius suggests that it may mean that he has exchanged children, i.e., he has left Regan and Goneril and come to Cordelia. A fourth explanation might be suggested: changed towards his child. Cordelia was at one time his favorite, but he had cast her off — was changed towards her, his child. As this was the great sorrow of Cordelia's life, it is most likely that it would be this that would be present in her thoughts and find expression in her language ; she would pray that he might be restored to his right senses and so turned towards her again. chop=logic. "To chop is to barter, give in exchange ; to chop-logic, to exchange or bandy logic ; a chop-logic is a con- tentious sophistical arguer. Awdelay, Fraternity e of Vacabondes (1561), p. 15, New Sh. Soc. reprint: 'Choplogyke is he that when his master rebuketh him of his fault he wyll geve him xx words for one. ' " Dowden. Rom. Ill, 5, 150. chough. The jack-daw. Mids. Ill, 2, 21. See russet-pated. Circe. A famous sorceress or enchantress who was a daughter of Helios or the Sun, by the ocean nymph Perse. Having murdered her husband, the prince of Colchis, she was expelled by her subjects and placed by her father on the solitary island of -^aea, on the coast of Italy. By the power of magic potions she was able to turn men into various kinds of animals, and when Ulysses visited her island she turned his companions into swine, but Mercury came to the aid of the hero and gave him an herb called Moly, which not only enabled him to resist her spells, but to gain her love. Having compelled her to restore his companions to their proper shapes, Ulysses remained some time on her island, and it is said that she bore him two sons, Agrius and Telegonus, and that in after years he was slain by the CIV 396 COA latter. See Ulysses. At length, when he wished to leave her, she prevailed upon him to descend into the lower world to consult the prophet Teiresias, who warned him of the dangers that he would encounter and advised him how to meet them. Circe is referred to twice in the plays, viz., IHVI. V, 3, 34, and Err. V, 1, 270. civil. Grave ; sober. Tw. Ill, 4, 5 ; E,om. Ill, 2, 10. See orange. cliff. 1. A clef or key. Troil. V, 2, 11. A variant of clef. 2. A steep rock; a precipice. Lr. IV, 1, 76. "The cliff now known as Shake- speare'^s Cliff is just outside of the town of Dover, to the southwest. It has been somewhat diminished in height by fre- quent landslips, but is still about 350 feet high. The surge still chafes against the pebbles, and the samphire-gatherer is still let down in a basket to pursue his perilous trade ; but the cliff is not so perpendicular, nor do objects below seem so small as one would infer from the poet's description. Probably he did not mean to give a picture of this par- ticular cliff, but delineated one ' in his mind's eye ' and more or less ideal. The South-Eastern Railway now runs through the Dover Cliff in a tunnel 1,331 yards long. ' ' Rolfe. Edgar, in describing the cliff to his father, evidently meant to create a deep impression on the old man ; it would be natural to expect that he would ex- aggerate a good deal. cloistress. A nun. Tw. I, 1, 28. close. To come to an agreement. Meas. V, 1, 346 ; Wint. IV, 4, 830; Cses. Ill, 1, 202 ; Hml. II, 1, 45. ** Clubs." The cry formerly used to call forth the London apprentices, who were supposed to employ their clubs for the preservation of the public peace, al- though it probably as often happened that they were used to create a disturb- ance, as in HVIII. V, 4, 53. Malone tells us that it appears from many of our old dramas that in Sh. time it was a common custom on the breaking out of a fray to cry, "Clubs, clubs," to part the combatants. Rom. I, 1, 80. coals. The phrase, we''ll not carry coals (Rom. 1, 1, 1), is thus explained by Nares: "To put up with insults; to submit to any degradation. The origin of the phrase is this : that in every family the scullions, the turnspits, the carriers of wood and coals, were esteemed the very lowest of menials. The latter, in par- ticular, were the set^vi servorutn, the drudges of all the rest." Hence, the origin of the term black-guard, which Nares says was "originally a jocular name given to the lowest menials of the court. " Ben Jonson, in his Every Man out of his Humour, makes Puntarvolo say: "See here comes one that will carry coals, ergo will hold my dog." coats. The passage in Mids. Ill, 2, 213 : So with two seeming bodies, but one heart ; Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, has given rise to some comment. The Fl. has the word life instead of like; this was altered by Theobald, at the suggestion of Folkes, and accepted by most subsequent eds. Wright explains the passage as follows : ' ' Shakespeare borrows the language of heraldry, in which, when a tincture has been once mentioned in the description of a coat of arms, it is always afterwards referred to according to the order in which it occurs in the description ; and a charge is accordingly said to be of the ' first ' 'of the second,' etc., if its tincture be the same as that of the field which is always mentioned first, or as that of the second or any other that has been specified. Hence Douce's explanation is the correct one [See his ' Illustrations,' p. 120, ed. of 1839]: Helen says, 'we had two seeming bodies but only one heart. ' She then exemplifies her posi- tion 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.' " coc 897 COTI cock. The following additional notes may be of interest to some beginners : 4. While the word, when used alone, is generally applied to the male of the barnyard fowl, it sometimes means the woodcock, as in Wint. IV, 3, 36. See woodcock. 5. A pert young man. As. II, 7, 89. 6. The crowing of the cock in the morn- ing. IHIV. II, 1, 20 ; Mcb. II, 3, 27. 7. A faucet or spigot. Tim. II, 2, 171. PistoVs cock is up (HV. II, 1, 55), means that the hammer or cock of his fire-lock is raised ready for firing. The hammer was called a cock because it was originally made in the form of a cock's head. cock=a=hoop. The source of this phrase is obscure. Coles, in his Diet., gives two origins : " At the height of mirth and jollity; the cock or spigot being laid on the hoop, and the barrel of ale stumed, as they say in Staffordshire, that is, drank out without intermission. Or else coq-a-hupe, a cock with a cop, crest or comb." Colchis, ) The country of the golden Colchos. ) fleece. Merch. I, 1, 171. See Jason. cold. Chaste ; modest. Hml. IV, 7, 172. colleagued. In collusion with ; allied to. Hml. 1,2,21. colours. The expression, fear no colours (Tw. I, 5, 6), probably means to fear no enemy. colourable colours. Specious appearances. LLL. IV, 2, 156. comfortable. Strengthening ; supporting. Rom. V, 8, 148, Used as often in the active sense, cf. AlFs. 1, 1, 86. Dowden. commodity. Advantage ; gain, John II. 1, 573 ; 2HIV, I, 2, 278; Lr. IV, 1, 23. companion. Fellow. Mids, I, 1, 15. The words companion and fellow have com- pletely changed their meanings in later usage. Companion is not now used contemptuously as it once was, and as fellow frequently is. cf. 2HI V. II, 4, 132. conceal. Simple's blunder for reveal. Wiv. IV, 5, 45. c;onQealed wells. Steevens explained this phrase, as it occurs in John V, 2, 139, as " wells in concealed or obscure situa- tions ; viz., in places secured from, public notice.'''' Malonesays: "I believe our author, %ith his accustomed license, used concealed for concealing; wells that afforded concealment and protec- tion to those who took refuge there." Rolfe accepts Steevens's gloss, but I think Malone gives the right meaning. Wells are not often placed in concealed situations; there is generally a pretty plain path leading to them. For the use of concealed for concealing see becomed and Sh. Gram., §374, conduce. Evidently used in a peculiar sense in Troil. V, 2, 147, Sometimes ex- plained as " to commence ' ' ; others para- phrase the passage as : A battle is joined ; the opposing forces are brought together. constant=qualified. In Cym. I, 4, 65, these words appear as a compound in most modern eds.— the "Cambridge," the "Globe," Rolfe, Knight, W^hite, Dyce, etc, Delius, Ingleby, " The Henry Irving Shakespeare," and a few others follow the Polio, in which the reading is " Constant, Qualified. " In Capell's ed,, 1768, subsequent to Pope, Warburton, Theobald and Johnson, the comma was changed to a hyphen, greatly to the detriment of the passage, Steevens adopted the corruption and has been followed by most eds., the definition ' ' faithful ' ' being given to the compound word. But ' ' constant ' ' of itself means faithful, and "qualified " is an additional praise- word for which Dr, Ingleby has given abundant authority in his edition of Cymbeline. See qualified. convicted. Some corns, have thought that this word, as it occurs in John III, 4, 2, is a misprint, but Malone shows that it was in use in the time of Sh, in the sense of overcome. See Minsheu's Diet, (1617) : " To convict or convince, a Lat. convictus, overcome." Recent coms. attribute this definition to Schmidt, couragious. O most couragious day! Mids. IV, 2, 27. " It is not worth while to guess what Quince intended to say. COTT ^9S ORE He used the first long word that occurred to him without reference to its meaning, a practice which is not yet altogether extinct." W. A. Wright. counter°sealed. Sealed in dftplicate. Cor. V, 3, 205. couplement. 1. A pair. LLL. V, 2, 535. 2. A union. Sonn. XXI, 5. course. A relay of dogs set on a baited bear. Lr. Ill, 7, 57 ; Mcb. V, 7, 2. So in Brome, Anti'podes : " You shall see two ten-dog courses at the great bear, i.e., two successive attacks of ten dogs. " Craig. courtesy. The phrase, remember thy courtesy (LLL. V, 1, 103), means : " Re- member that you have already complied with the requirement of courtesy; so cover your head." Doivden. c/. Hml. V, 2, 108. courtship. As it occurs in Rom. Ill, 3, 34 = the state of a courtier permitted to approach the highest presence. John- son. Or, familiarity with courts, c/. As. Ill, 2, 364, where there is a pun upon the two meanings of courtshii^. coverture. Cover ; shelter. Ado. Ill, 1, 30. In Cor. I, 9, 46, the word overture of the FF. was changed by Tyrwhitt to coverture, meaning cover. crack, v. IJsually defined as to brag ; to boast. Skeat gives ^^ crake, to boast, an obsolescent word." That it implies boasting in many cases is no doubt true, but it is probable that with Sh. it also had the modern Scottish meaning of to talk, as in the old song : Sit ye doun here, my cronies, and gie us your crack; Let the win' tak' the care o' this life on its back. In Cym. V, 5, 177, the boasting lies in the word brags rather than in "crack'd": Our brags Wei'e crack'd [or spoken] of kitchen trulls. And so a cracker, in John II, 1, 147, may mean simply a talker — one who says much and does little. See the N. E. D. for a very complete discussion of this word. craft, V. To make nice work. Cor. IV, 6, 118. crants. For this word, as found in Quartos 2, 3, 4, 5, in Hml. V, 1, 255, the FF. substituted Rites, and Johnson makes this attempt to explain the change : " I have been informed by an anonymous correspondent that crants is the German word for garlands, and I suppose it was retained by us from the Saxons. To carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is still the practice in rural parishes. " Grants, therefore, was the original word, which the authour, discovering it to be provincial, and perhaps not under- stood, changed to a term more intelligible bat less proper.'' But although the word is generally supposed to be a German expression, it seems to have been in use by the Scot- tish writers and, therefore, was probably familiar to Sh. Jamieson, in his " Ety- mological Dictionary of the Scottish Language," quotes from "A Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Poems," by James Watson (1706), II, 10 : Thair heids wer garnisht gallandlie With costly crancis maid of gold. Nares says the word is German " and probably also Danish, as Rosencrantz, Rosy-garland, is the name of a character in the same play. * * * But how Shakespeare came to introduce a word so very unusual in our language, has not yet been accounted for ; probably he found it in some legend of Hamlet. No other example has been found." Elze, however, has found two instances of its use in Chapman's Alphonsus, so that whether its etymological origin was old Dutch (Skeat) or German it seems to have been a regularly natural- ized word. Cressida was a beggar. Theobald, in a note on Tw. Ill, 1, 61, says: "The Poet in this circumstance undoubtedly had his eye on Chaucer's [?] Testament of Cressid. Cupid, to revenge her pro- fanation against his Deity, calls in: the CEE 399 CRO Planetary gods to assist in his vengeance. They instantly turn her mirth into melancholy, her health into sickness, her beauty into deformity and in the end pronounce this sentence upon her : This sail thow go begging fra hous to hous, With cop and clapper lyke ane lazar- ous." "The Testament of Cresseid," which was once attributed to Chaucer, is not to be found in recent editions of his works. Wright says that it really was the work of Robert Henryson. There is another allusion to the same tradition in HV. II, 1, 80. Cressid's uncle. Pandarus. All's. II, 1, 100. See Pandarus. Crete. The "desperate sire of Crete" referred to in IHVI. IV, 6, 54, is Daeda- lus, father of Icarus. See Dcedalus. crocodile. The passage in 0th. IV, 1, 257: If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile, refers to what was known as the doctrine of "equivocal generation," by which was meant that animals were produced without any parentage, simply by the generative power of various kinds of matter acted upon by heat and moisture. Thus, Virgil tells us that bees may be pro- duced from a dead carcass, and he gives special directions for doing it, though no one has ever succeeded. Worms, too, were supposed to be generated in dead bodies without the access of flies. This doctrine is alluded to in Ant. II, 7, 29 : Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun. It is only within a few years that this hypothesis, more recently known as "spontaneous generation, " has been entirely rejected. Othello says that if a woman's tears, acting on the earth, could produce [teem or bring forth] any animal, it would be a crocodile. It seems that in Sh. time a dead crocodile about nine feet long was exhibited iu London, and the general idea in regard to the animal, as expressed by BuUokar in his "English Expositor" (1616), was that "he will weep over a man's head when he hath devoured the body, and then will eat up the head too. W here- fore in Latin there is a proverbe, croco- dili lachrymcB, crocodile's tears, to signify such tears as are fained and spent only with intent to deceive, or doe harm. ' ' This supposed characteristic is referred to in 2HVI. Ill, 1, 236. crop. This word, as it occurs in Cym. I, 6,* 33, has received various definitions. Warburton says : He is here speaking of the covering of sea and land, and therefore wrote, and the rich cope. Steevens derides this emendation and says : " The crop of sea and land means only the productions of either element. " In this he is followed by most coms., Schm., Rolfe, Gollancz, etc. White has the following note (Riverside Ed.) : "This speech is meant to be extrava- gant ; and Sh. falls into his most re- motely suggestive style ; the rich crop of sea and land = all the products of the earth." None of these explanations seems to be entirely satisfactory. The original sense of crop seems to have been that which sticks up or out, a protuberance, bunch, Skeat. Thus we speak of the out-cropping of rocks. It seems to me, therefore, that Ingleby's explanation comes most nearly to what is meant : "The crop, or out-crop, is that which strikes the eye. It might, however, be contended with some show of probability that ' the rich crop ' is that vast treasury of pebbles which belongs almost as much to the sea as to the land. All other * This Scene is number 7 in the Fl., the 3rd. Var. and several other eds., in which Scene 1 ends at line 69. Rowe combined Scenes 1 and 2, and thus made only six Scenes in the First Act. In this he has been followed by most modern eds., in- cluding the "Globe," ''"Cambridge," Dyce, White, Rolfe, etc. Dr. Ingleby, in his special ed. of this play follows the Fl, CBO 400 CYN interpretations may be safely discount- enanced. Those ' spectacles so precious, ' says the Italian, ' can do two very different things : can see the whole hemisphere of the heavens above and the vast compass of the sea and land beneath ; and also can distinguish be- tween any two objects, either in the heavens (as stars) or on the shore (as stones), which are, to a casual observer, so much alike that they might be taken for twins. It is curious and noteworthy that Johnson expressed himself unable to understand ' twiun'd stones.' " crow. The expression, the crying of your nation'' s crow (John V, 2, 14i), means the crowing of a cock ; gallUs meaning both a cock and a Frenchman. Douce. cry. The expression, cried in the top of mine (Hml. II, 2, 459), means greatly exceeded mine. For the passage, cry out on the top of question, see question. cruels. See subscribe. cuckoo=buds. The corns, are uncertain as to which plant Sti. refers by this name. Some species of ranunculus or crow-foot is probably meant. LLL. V, 2, 906. cue koo=f lowers. Probably the lady-smock or Cardaniine pratensis. Lr. I^^ 4, 4. cunnings. In the g. a. text, in Hml. IV, 7, 156, the FF. read commings ; it is c^lnnings in Ql. Cunnings is explained as skill, as in II, 2, 461, same play. So Cambridge, G-lobe, Dyce, Furness, "The Henry Irving Sh.," Dowden, etc. Cal- decott, Knight and a few others adopt the reading of the Folios, commings, which they explain as "meeting in assault, bout, or pass at fence. " " Com- ming. Gall. Venue." Minsheu. Calde- cott also quotes from Cotgrave : " Venue f. A Commlng; also a venule in fenc- ing. " But this quotation does not apply ; Euclid's first axiom does not hold good here. Because venue = comming (so in Cot.) and venue = vennie in fencing, it does not follow that comming = vennie. TheN. E. D. does not give this definition of comming. So that it looks very much as if the word in the FF. was a mis- print, and that the g. a. text is right. curfew bell. The meaning and origin of this word is plain ; it was the evening signal for covering the fire. Its use in Rom. IV, 4, 4, has, however, given rise to many notes, an evening bell at three o'clock in the morning {foure a clocke in Ql.), having proved puzzling to many. White says that, to him, it is "inexplicable," and Ulrici thinks that old Capulet is so flurried that he does not know what he does or hears. But Professor Dowden, in his excellent ed. of this play, has the following note, which seems to me to fully explain the matter: "Strictly, this was an evening bell {couvre feu) rung at eight or nine o'clock. Shake- speare uses curfew correctly in Meas. IV, 2, 78. The word came to be used of other ringings. Thus, in Liverpool Municipal Records of 1673 and 1704 (quoted in N. E. D.) : ' Ring Curphew all the yeare long at ^ a clock in the morning and at eight at a night. ' " curious. As it occurs in Lr. I, 4, 35, is thus explained by Craig : " Complicated, elaborate, opposed to plain. Schmidt explains, ' elegant, nice. ' Compare the sense of curiosity in North's Plutarch^s Lives (Tiberius and Caius), ed. 1597, p. 865 : ' Tiberius' words * * « being very proper and excellently applied, where Caius' words were full of fine- nesse and curiosity.' " curious=knotted. Laid out in fanciful plots. LLL. I, 1, 249. " The great feature of the Elizabethan garden [was] the formation of the 'curi- ous-knotted garden. ' Each of the large compartments was divided into a com- plication of ' knots,' by which was meant beds arranged in quaint patterns, formed by rule and compass with mathematical precision.'" Ellacombe. Cynthia's brow. In the lines in Rom. Ill, 5, 20 : I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye, 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow, the word broiv was changed to 6o,w in BAM 401 DAM the Collier MS., and Singer, who was bitterly opposed to Collier, accepted the change on the ground that the correc- tion "is quite unexceptionable, as an easy amendment of an evident misprint, which I also find so corrected in my second folio." Singer's "The Text of Shakespeare Vindicated/' p. 2o3. Johnson explained the 2><^f'l& reflex thus: "The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon." Rolfe explains it as "the pale light of the moon shining through or reflected from the breaking clouds," and adds : " the passage would seem to be clear enough without ex- planation, but some of the editors have done their best to obscure it." The word is broiv in all the old eds., and the Clarkes explain it very properly thus : Cynthia, or the moon (see Cynthia) "is classically represented with a crescent moon upon her forehead. It is the pale reflection of this ornament of Luna's, or Cynthia's, brow, therefore, that is here beautifully alluded to." All discussion of the astronomical or physical fitness of the expression or of the alleged scientific facts, is entirely out of place, because Romeo starts out with the assertion that he is "content " and will say that that which both Juliet and he know to be not so is so. DAM'D COLOUR'D. This word, which occux-s in Tw. I, 3, 144, was changed by Rowe to flame-coloured, and this is the reading in the g. a. text. But great doubt has been expressed as to its correctness. Damask-coloured, dun-col- oured, dove-coloured, ijane-coloured, damson-coloured, claret-coloured, etc., have all been suggested. Dam'd colour'd has been defended on the ground that couleur d''enfer was a recognised color in Sh. time. Cotgrave has: "Couleur d'enfer. as much as, Noir-brun en- fume," which, being translated into English, is : " Color of hell, as much as a smoky black-brown." [Couleur de del (heaven) was blue.] R. M. Spence, in " Notes and Queries," March 15, 1879, says: "Shakespeare would never have made a vain coxcomb like Sir Andrew show the good taste to choose so unpre- tending a color as black. By a 'dam'd colour'd stocke ' I understand checkered hose. To this day old people among the peasantry of Scotland [and young ones, too] speak of any checkered garment as being of the ' dam-brod, ' Anglicd^ "draught-board' pattern." He might have told the story of the London clerk who was horrified when a respectable old lady, with a very decided Scotch accent, asked for some dress goods of what he understood to be "ad d broad pattern. " Dam, here, has nothing to do with color, nor is it in the least pro- fane. It is the French word dame (pro- nounced dam) by which the "men" or pieces on the draught-board were known in Scotland; "dam," of itself, in this connection, would mean nothing. So that this explanation cannot be accepted. The word " brod " here is simply hoard with the r transposed, as is frequently done in Scottish or old English. See third. That the passage is corrupt is very probable. After an elaborate re- cital of what has been offered from time to time. Dr. Purness gives the following judicious summing up: "Rowe'semend- ation has the largest following; but then there are eminent critics who dis- pute it. There is such a difference, however, both to the eye and to the ear, between 'dam'd' and y?a?ne that, until some happier substitute be found, I think the text should remain undis- turbed ; and surely Sir Andrew's char- acter is not so exalted as to be seriously lowered by a little profanity." It would seem to be very certain, how- ever, that dani'd is not the word that Sh. wrote. It is true that Sir Andrew uses this word in III, 4, 313, and that in III, 4, 211, he brags thus : Nay, let me alone for swearing. But in every other passage his language is of the mildest kind, and his expletives scarcely rise to the dignity of oaths — certainly DAN 402 DEX they have not the characteristics and flavor of those "good mouth-filling oaths " which Hotspur desired to hear from his wife (IHIV. Ill, 1, 259). Is it possible that the word could have been Cain-colour'd ? Cain-colour was yellow (Wiv. I, 4, 23), or, perhaps, yellow with a slight tinge of red, a most absurd color for stockes or stockings, one ab- horred by Olivia, laughed at by Maria in the case of Malvolio, and therefore a most appropriate hue for the "foolish knight," Sir Andrew, upon whom Sh. so delighted to throw ridicule. Dan. The word "Dan," meaning Lord, is found several times in Chaucer. One instance occurs in Canterhury Tales, Wif of Bathes Tale (5617): Lo, here the wise King Dan Solomon. See Dan, ante. Dane. The King of Denmark as repre- sentative of the Danish people. Hnil. 1, 1, 15, and I, 2, 44. See Milan. date=broke. Not paid when due. Tim. II, 2, 37. death^practised. Having his death in- tended. Lr. IV"', 6, 284. debonair. Courteous ; affable ; of pleasant manners. It is the French de bon air = of good air or carriage. Troil. I, 3, 235. declension. Deterioration ; getting worse and worse. RIII. Ill, 7, 189; Hml. II, 2, 149. deed. The saying in Lr. I, 1, 73, She names my very deed of love, is ex- plained by Wright as : " she exactly describes my love." Deed is sometimes equal to truth ; thus, in very deed = in very truth ; indeed = truly. Regan's speech may be paraphrased : She truly names my love. Deed of saying = the fulfilment of a promise. Tim. V, 1, 28. defeat. Destruction. Hml. V, 2, 58. definite. Positive ; certain. Cym. 1, 6, 43. delated. Set forth in detail. Hml. I, 2, 38. Dilated in the FF. descant. ' ' Since Malone's time, ' descant ' in this passage [Gent. I, 2, 94] has been most strangely interpreted to mean ' variations, ' as of an air in music ; — a definition incorrect in itself andunsuited to the context. The word did come to be loosely and ignorantly used some- what in that sense ; but in Shakespeare's time it meant ' counterpoint ' or the adding one or moi'e parts to a theme, which was called the 'plain song.'" Wliite, 1st Ed. The word is used figuratively in RIII. I, 1, 27. descry. Discovery. The main descry Stands on the hourly thought =«= we expect every hour to see the main body approaching. Lr. IV, 6, 217. Desdemona's death. See So, so! desperate. Reckless. Desperate of shame and state = unattentivetohis character or his condition. Johnson. Tw. V, 1, 67. Schm. makes sf a^e =" danger " ; Deighton thinks that " the point em- phasized seems to be his disreput- able character, not his recklessness of danger." Antonio himself has spoken of the danger which he ran, and said : It " shall seem sport." Tw. II, 1, 49. detect. To expose ; to disclose, 8HVI. II, 2, 143 ; RIII. I, 4, 141. The word detected, as it occurs in Meas. Ill, 2, 129, has been explained as suspected, but the meaning exposed or accused makes better sense. It is used in this sense in G-reen way's translation of "Tacitus" (1622). dexterity. This word occurs five times in the plays and in Lucr. 1389. The meaning which it bears in Lucr.; Wiv. IV, 5, 121 ; IHIV. II, 4, 286 ; Troil. V, 5, 27, and Rom. Ill, 1, 168, is evidently adroitness or skill, and, as it occurs in Hml. I, 2, 157, Dowden explains it as "adroitness. " It strikes me that readi- ness gives a better meaning. In every instance Schm. makes it equal to "nimbleness." In Hml. I, 2, 157, " Walker suspects that Sh. wrote celerity; but elsewhere the idea of adroitness in the word seems to have suggested to Sh. that of quick- ness." Rolfe. In most of the passages in which "dexterity" occurs in Sh. the idea of celerity is expressed by another DRTJ 403 DIE word — quick or speed. Thus, Hamlet's speech is : O, most ivieked speed to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets ! Dexterity here evidently means readiness. dies. The expression dies and lives by bloody drops (As. Ill, 5, 7) has drawn forth many comments and several emendations. If " bloodj- drops " be the means b)" which the executioner lives, it is difficult to see how he "dies" by them, consequently, deals ( Warburton), dyes (Johnson), dines (Collier) thrives (Hanmer), slays (Kinnear) and some others have been suggested as the true reading. Caldecott thinks dies here means kills, that being the means by which the executioner gets his lis'ing. Ingleby, in his " Hermeneutics," p. 59, adopts Dr. Sebastian Evans's paraphrase of the sentence: "A man's profession or calling by which he lives, and failing which he dies." Furness objects that "the felicitousness of the phrase blinds us to the fact that it does not explain the curious inversion of dying and living.''^ But this hysteron proteron (putting the cart before the horse) is not unusual in Sh. See Tw. I, 2, 22, bred and born. It seems to me that the difficulty lies not in the inversion so much as in the idea of a man's dying by that whereby he gets his living. Mus- grave's explanation is: "To die and live by a thing is to be constant to it, to persevere in it to the end " — a slight change in the meaning of the word by. diffidence. Suspicion ; distrust. John I, 1. 65; IHVI. Ill, 3, 10: Lr. I, 2, 1(31. digressing. Varving ; deviating. Rom. Ill, 3, 127. diseases. This word, as used in Lr. I, 1, 177, means discomforts, annoyances, dis-eases. It bears the same meaning in IHVI. II, 5, 44. cf. Tim. Ill, 1, 56, and Cor. I, 3, 117. See dis-eate. disgracious. Wanting grace; not pleasing. RIII. 111,7, 112. dishabited. Dislodged. John II, 1, 220. disorbed. Thrown out of its orbit or sphere. Troil. II, 2, 46. See sphere. dishonest. The reverse of honest. Honest in Sh. is frequently used for virtuous. HV. I, 2, 49; Hml. Ill, 1, 103 and 123. So dishonest — indecent. Wiv. Ill, 3, 196; Tw. 1,5, 46. disposer. A w^ord of which the meaning, as it occurs in Troil. Ill, 1, 95, has never been settled. The whole passage is difficult, and emendations do not help much. See 3rd Var., Vol. VIII, p. 318, for a lengthened discussion. dispute. To discuss ; to reason about ; to consider. Rom. Ill, 3, 63 ; 0th. I, 2, 75. disquantity. To lessen the quantity ; to diminish. Lr. I, 4, 270. ditcli=dog. Generally de&ied as a dead dog found in a ditch. I very much doubt this. More likely it is some of the "small deer"' of which we do not know the exact name. Lr. Ill, 4, 138. disproperty. The expression, Disproper- tied their freedoms (Cor. II, 1, 264), means to take away from their freedom all the properties w^hich make it really freedom. division. Arrangement; order. Ado. V, 1, 230. doctor. A learned man ; not necessarily a physician. The etymological meaning of doctor is teacher. Ado. V, 1, 206. dog. See tvolf. dogged. Cruel; unfeeling. John IV, 1, 129; 2HVI. Ill, 1, 158. dominical. By red dominical and goldeyi letter in LLL. V, 2, 44, Marshall thinks Rosaline means to refer to the "fashion- able " color of Katharine's hair. A very probable conclusion. door. See sweej). door=naiI. See nail. dove. Hee sucking. dread bolted. See thunder. dream, Althaea's. Sh. makes a mistake here. Alrhcea's fire-brand was a real one. It w^as Hecuba who, just before Paris was born, dreamed that she was delivered of a fire-brand. Bardolph's red nose and face leads the page to call him "Althaea's dream."'' 2HIV. II, 2, 92. See Althcea and Paris. DRTT 404 EGL drug=damn'd. The allusion in Cym. Ill, 4, 15, is to the notoriousness of Italian poisoning. Johnson, cf. Ill, 2, 5, of same play. dry. Empty ; a dry hand = a hand with no money or present in it. Tw. I, 3, 77. So, too, a dry fool = an empty fool. Tw. I, 5, 45. Johnson suggested that perhaps by dry in the first passage Maria meant to insinviate that it was not a lover's hand ; not the hand of an amorous person, and reference is made to 0th. Ill, 4, 44, in support of this contention. But it is not likely that Maria had any thought of Sir Andrew as a lover. Sir Toby was her bargain. See same Act and Scene, liQe 29, et seq. dry=beat. A blow that does not draw blood is a dry blow. The N. E. D. quotes Palsgrave, " Lesclarcissement, etc." (1530): "Bio, blewe and grene coloured, as ones bodie is after a dry stroke." LLL. V, 2, 263 ; Rom. IV, 5, 126. duer. More duly. 2HIV. Ill, 2, 330. dust. See sweep. EAR=KISSINQ. Whispered ; told with the speaker's lips touching the hearer's ear. The Quartos read ea?-- bussing, and Collier suggested that there might be a pun upon buzzing and btiss- ing. Lr. II, 1, 9. See buz. ears. The phrase, Oo shake your ears (Tw. II, 3, 134), is a common expression of contempt evidently implying that the ears of the person addressed are of assinine proportions. earth. 1. The passage in Rom. I, 2, 15, She is the hopeful lady of my earth, has been explained in various ways. Johnson suggested that the true reading is : She is the hope and stay of my full years ; Cartwright supposed that earth was a misprint for hearth, and other changes have been suggested. Steevens thought the expression a Gal- licism, fille de terre being the French phrase for an heiress. Mason explained earth as the body (see 2), and this has been accepted by several coms. ; and since to ear, q.v., means to plough, it has been claimed that earth here means ploughing, and this affords another in- terpretation, cf. Ant. II, 2, 233. The Clarkes say : " It is most likely that Capulet intends to include the sense of 'she is my sole surviving offspring in whom I have centred all my hopes.'" 2. In several passages the word means the human body. Sonn. CXLVI, 1 ; Rom. II, 1, 2, and III, 2, 59. In the old church- yard of Melrose Abbey, not far from our family bui'ial plot, is a tombstone with the following curious inscription : THE EARTH GOETH ON THE EARTH GLISTRING LIKE GOLD THE EARTH GOES TO THE EARTH SOONER THEN IT WOLD ; THE EARTH BUILDS ON THE EARTH CAST- LES AND TOWERS ; THE EARTH SAYS TO THE EARTH. ALL SHALL BE OURS. earthquake. Tyrwhitt conjectured that the earthquake referred to in Rom. I, 3, 23, was that felt in England, April 6, 1580, and he inferred that the play, or this part of it, was written in 1591. Malone pointed out that if we suppose that Juliet was weaned at a year old, she would be only twelve; but she is just fourteen. An earthquake happened at Verona 1348 (Knight) and at Verona 1570 (Hunter) ; an account of the Italian earthquakes of 1570 was printed in Lon- don (Staunton). Collier says: "In the whole speech of the Nurse there are such discrepancies as render it impossible to arrive at any definite conclusion." Doivden. ecce signum. Behold the sign ; behold the proof. IHIV. II, 4, 187. eglantine. The sweetbriar. Noted for the delicious fragrance of its leaves, EGO 405 FAL especially when moistened with a gentle shower. Mids. II, 1, 252 ; Cym. IV, 2, 223. Ego et Rex meus. Latin for I and my king. Holinshed says : "In all writings which he wrote to Rome, or any other foreign prince, he wrote Ego et Rex meus, I and my king ; as who should say that the king were his servant." " But, as Wolsey urged in his defence, this order was required by the Latin idiom." Rolfe. HVIIL III, 2, 314. encave. To hide. 0th. IV, 1, 82. ends. The expression, flout old ends (Ado. I, 1, 290), has called forth a good deal of comment. It was suggested by Capell that "old ends" meant the old and formal conclusions of letters as quoted in line 285. Deighton thinks that Benedick "merely says, with mock solemnity : ' Be careful how you ridicule things so venerable and sacred as these old ends. ' " enseamed. Soiled with grease. Seam is the fat of the hog. Hml. Ill, 4, 92. envious. Malicious. Rom. Ill, 1, 173. equinoctial. See Queuhus. equinox. This word, as it occurs in 0th. II, 3, 129, is explained by Schm. as " the equal length of the day and the night." This is not exactly the mean- ing of the word which is equal night not equal day and night, as is its usual application. Cassio's vice of drunken- ness was a night or dark spot equal to his virtue. Sh. uses the word here in its strictly etymological sense. Erebus. Tartarus; hell. Merch. V, 1, 87 ; 2HIV. II, 4, 171 ; Cses. II, 1, 84. erection. Mrs. Quicklj^'s blunder for direction. Wiv. Ill, 5, 41. estimation, lo Reputation ; honor. Meas. IV, 2, 28 ; Gent. II, 4, 56 ; Err. Ill, 1, 102. 2. Conjecture. IHIV. I, 3, 272. except, before excepted. Malone ex- plains this "phrase as being the usual language of leases: "To have and to hold the said demised premises, etc., with their and every of their rights, members, etc. {except before excepted) . ' ' Tw. I, 3, 9. Lord Campbell, in his " Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements," does not allude to this legal expression. A great deal has been written about it. execution. Employment ; exercise. 0th. Ill, 3, 467. cf. Troil. V, 7, 6. exposition. Bottom's blunder for dis- position. Mids. IV, 1, 43. eye of Phoebus. HV. IV, 1, 290. Eye of holy Phoebus. Kins. I, 1, 45. See Phoebus and cf. runaway's eyes. FACE. With that face? LLL. I, 2, 145. Steevens says : " This cant phrase has oddly lasted till the present time ; and is used by people who have no more meaning annexed to it than Fielding had, who, putting it into the mouth of Beau Didapper, thinks it necessary to apologise (in a note) for its want of sense, by adding that 'it was taken verbatim from very polite conversation.' " fairy. See Oberon, Puck and Titania. fall. In 0th. I, 1, 66, the reading of the Fl. is : What a fall Fortune do''s the Thick-lips oive. This line " is ordinarily printed, following the Quarto : What a full fortune does the thick- lips owe. " This is simply, how fortunate he is. The reading of the Folio, which we adopt, conveys a much more Shak- sperian idea. If the Moor can carry it thus — appoint his own officer, in spite of the great ones of the city who capp'd to him, and, moreover can secure Des- demona as his prize — he is so puffed up with his own pride and purposes, and is so successful, that fortune owes him a heavy fall. To owe is used by Shak- spere not only in the ancient sense of to own, to 2^ossess, but in the modern sense of to be indebted to, to hold or possess for another. Fortune here owes the thick-lips a fall, in the same way that we say, ' He owes him a good or an evil turn.' The reading which we adopt is very much in Shakspere's manner of throwing out a hint of coming PAL 406 FEA calamities. The commentators do not even notice this reading. " Knight. This is certainly an admirable mean- ing, true to Shakespeare, and is another instance of how often the accepted emendations of the Fl. text are really mis-readings. See Anthony and yield, both in the body of this " Cyclopaedia " and in the " Addenda." fall away. To desert. Ant. IV, 6, 17; HVIII. II, 1, 129. fallen off. Revolted. Cym. Ill, 7, 6. falling sickness. Epilepsy, Caes. I, 3, 256. The Comitia, or general assembly of the Roman people, was stopped if any one present was attacked by this illness. Hence it was called "Morbus comitialis. " fantastical. See high-fantastical. fastened. Inveterate ; hardened. Lr. II, 1, 79. Perhaps a metaphor from the language of Masonry. In the N. E. D. we find an example from Leoni's ti"ans- lation of Alberti's " Architecture " (1726), I, 366 : " buildings are taken with the frost before ever they have fast- ened. ' ' Craig. father. This word was often used as a respectful mode of addressing an old man. Gent. IV, 2, 59 ; Wint. IV, 4, 353. Hence, in Merch. II, 2, 72 and 76, Launcelot calls old GoV)bo "father" without being recognised as his son. The same occurs in Lr. IV, 6, 223, where Edgar calls Gloucester "father" and is not recognised. fathom. Depth ; ability ; intelligence. 0th. I, 1, 153. favour. In IHIV. V, 4, 96, it means a scarf or similar article of wear. Some- thing worn as a token. In Tw. II, 4, 24 and 25, the word is used ambiguously; in the first line it means countenance ; in the second, permission. But Abbott notes that it may have the same mean- ing in both lines and that the word by in the second line may mean nea7\ Viola was in love with the Duke. fear. 1. In early English and Scotch the verb to fear had the signification of to frighten. So in 3HVI. Ill, 3, 226 ; Merch. II, 1, 9. Spenser has: "words fearen babes," and in Hogg's Queen''s Wake we find, "It fears me muckle," meaning : / am much afraid. 2. In Hml. I, 3, 52, fear me not = fear not for me — the preposition being fre- quently omitted in the case of some verbs. It has this meaning also in Tit. II, 3, 305, and Lr. IV, 2, 31. feature. On p. 114 (ante) this word, as it occurs in Cym. V, 5, 163, is explained as " beauty," the usual definition given in the glossaries. A more careful reading of the passage shows that grace and elegance of form are more nearly what is meant. Dr. Furness, in his ed. of Lear (on IV, 2, 63, p. 246), says : "See Schm. Lex. for proof that this [feature] invariably means in Sh. the shape, ex- terior, the whole turn or cast of the body." This is Schm. definition; it is no doubt correct in many cases, but it seems to me that some of the passages that he cites in support of this conten- tion prove that his assertion is too broad. For example : In Tw. Ill, 4, 387, Viola says to Antonio : Nor know I you by voice or any feature. Viola could not ha ve spoken of " any feature " if there had not been more than one feature ; to make up the whole turn or cast of the body there must have been several " features," and the word prob- ably bears, in some passages in Sh., nearly the same meaning that we give to it now, though in Sh. it is not alto- gether confined to the countenance as is generally the case at present. Even in the passage under consideration (Lr. IV, 2, 63) it is quite as probable that Albany refers to Goneril's countenance, which was visible and would be distorted with passion, as to the general shape of her body, for the latter had suffered no visible change ; and in As. Ill, 3, 3, it is quite as likely that Touchstone refers to his countenance as to the turn or cast of his bod} , even though the word is in the singular. Sh. no doubt used the word in the same sense that it was used by other FEC 40-; FET writers of the time, and examples of both meanings may be found. Thus, Du Bartas (1598 — my copy 1641), in his Fifth Day, tells us : God quicken'd in the sea and in the ri vers, So many fishes of so many features, That in the watei-s we may see all creatures. Features here evidently means shapes. But in Puttenhatm's "Arte of English Poesie " we find : Those louely lookes that fauour amiable, Those sweet features, and" visage full of grace, where features evidently means the lineaments of the face. That the original meaning of the word was make, shape, tout-enseinhle is cer- tain, but the meaning seems to have been changing about the time of Sh. fecks. Faith. Wint. I, 2, 120. The modern Scottish form of this word is faiks. See i fecks. feeding. Pasturage ; a tract of land for the support of sheep and cattle. Wint. IV, 4, 169. feet. The passage in 0th. V, 2, 286, / look down towards his feet, means : "To see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven. " Johnson. fennel. A plant which is still occasion- ally cultivated in gardens, the botanical name being Fceniculum vulgare. It is frequently eaten boiled and in flavor resembles celery, but with a sweet taste and a more delicate odor. It was a great favorite with the Romans and so much used in their kitchens that there were few meats seasoned or vinegar sauces served up without it. The seeds are aromatic, carminative and stimu- lant, and the oil distilled from them was used in the preparation of cordials. It is mentioned twice in Sh. — 2HIV. II, 4, 267, and Hml. IV, 5, 180. In the first passage reference is no doubt made to its stimulating and "provocative" properties, a quality which was also supposed to belong to fish and especially to eels. Ophelia's meaning in offering fennel to the king is not quite clear. Fennel was a well-known emblem of flattery, so much so that Florio, in his Italian Diet., translates Dare flnocchio by, to give fennel ; to flatter ; to dissemble. But this would be a strange offering. So, too, would it be if given for the reason that Staunton suggests, that is, as emblematic of lust. Fennel, how- ever, was supposed to have many vir- tues, as set forth by Longfellow in The Goblet of Life: Above the lowly plants it towers, The fennel, with its yellow flowers, And in an earlier age than ours Was gifted with the wondrous powers Lost vision to restore. It gave new strength and fearless mood ; And gladiators fierce and rude, Mingled it in their daily food; And he wdao battled and subdued, A wreath of fennel wore. '• And these old and well-known reasons were probably those which Sh. had in mind when he, through Ophelia, made fennel a fit offering for a king. We have also an English word (ferula) interesting to schoolboys, and derived from the Latin name of the giant fennel — ferula, communis — the stalks of which were used by the Roman schoolmasters for the same purpose as that for which some modern pedagogues use the caue. ferry. See Charon. ferryman. See Charon. fetch in. As it occurs in Ado. I, 1, 225, is defined by Schm. as "to take in, to dupe." It is not probable that it has this meaning here. Upon this passage White ("Studies in Shakespeare," p. 335) says: " Don Pedro was not taking in or duping his young officer. What occasion had he to do so ? Claudio means, as we all apprehend without conscious thought, that his superior designs, by a gracious compliment to his mistress, to draw him out of the slightly antagonistic attitude into wkich FIG 408 FOX he has been driven by the gibes of Benedick." fig's=end. Blessed fig''s-end (0th. II, 1, 356), an expression of contempt. For its origin see fig. Cotgrave has : " Trut avant. A fig^s-end, no such matter.'''' The French Trut = our tut. filly foal. A female foal, specially attrac- tive to a borse fed on rich and stimu- lating food. Mids. II, 1, 46. Grose, in his "Provincial Glossary," tells us that in Hampshire they give the name of Colt-pixey to a supposed spirit or fairy which, in the shape of a horse, neighs and misleads horses into bogs. It was, no doubt, to this bit of folk-lore that Sh. referred. finder of madmen. Thus explained by Ritson : "'Finders of madmen' must have been those who formerly acted under the writ De Lunatico inquirendo; in virtue of which thf^j found the man mad.'''' This is accepted by Rolf e and others on the ground that for a jury to find a man guilty is a common expres- sion. But were these men ever known as "finders"? Dr. Johnson explains it as "an allusion to the witch-finders." A witch-finder was a well-known ofiicial, and I think Dr. Johnson's suggestion gives the true explanation. Readers of Scott's "Kennilworth" cannot have for- gotten old Gaffer Pinniewinks, the trier (finder) of witches. Tw. Ill, 4, 154. fine. The end. Ado. I, 1, 247. The quibble between fine., the end, and fine, well-dressed and equipped, is ob- vious. fire. The passage, fire us hence like foxes (Lr. V, 3, 23), refers to the old practice of driving foxes from their earths by fire and smoke. first. See coats. fish. When Kent says that he eats no fish he means that he is a good Protest- ant. To eat fish on account of religious scruples was, in Queen Elizabeth's time, the mark of a Papist and an enemy to good government. Warburton. Lr. I, 4, 18. flame°coloured. See darned colour''d. flight. This word, as it occurs in Merch. I, 1, 141, evidently means that combina- tion of length and weight which gives character to an arrow. flowers. As given to different ages, see summer., middle. flushing. Rapid flowing. Hml. I, 2, 155. Schm. makes it : " ere her tears had had time to redden her eyes " ? Wright says "the verb 'flush' is still used transitively, meaning, to fill with water." Hardly. To "flush" is not to fill, but to cause a rapid flow. fool. Fool, in Sh. time, was frequently used as an expression of pity and also endearment. Lr. V, 3, 305. In Tw. V, 1, 377, the word fool is not addressed to the clown, but to Malvolio. Some have supposed that "fool" in Lr. V, 3, 305, refers to the fool or clown, but it certainly refers to Cordelia. Thou art Death^s fool (Meas. Ill, 1, 11), refers to the introduction of Death and a Fool in the rude old plays and dumb shows; the sport being made by Death's endeavors to surprise the Fool and the finally unsuccessful efforts of the latter to elude them. Fool-begged, cf. beg. foot. 1. To seize with the foot or talons. Gym. V, 4, 116. 2. To effect a landing; to settle in a place. HV. II, 4, 143 ; Lr. Ill, 7, 48. forage. This word, as used in John V, 1, 59, has its original sense — to range abroad. Johnson. fork. See worm. formal capacity. Average intelligence; having a mind of the usual form or ability. Tw. II, 5, 127. cf. Err. V, 1, 105. forslow. To delay. 3HVI. II, 3, 56. fortitude. Strength ; power of resistance. 0th. I, 3, 222. fortune. See/aiZ. foundation. God save the foundation was a customary phrase employed by those who received alms at the gates of religious houses. Steevens. Ado. V, 1, 228. fox. Hide fox, and all after. Hml. IV, 2, 33. This is supposed to refer to the FOX 409 GLU boyish game of " AH hid " ; and Sir T. Hanmer expressly tells us that it was sometimes called, "Hide fox, and all after." Collier, ^eewolf. foxes, ^eejire. fraction. Discord ; disagreement ; liter- ally, a breaking. Troil. II, 8, 107. from. Away from, not proceeding from. Cses. II, 1, 196; Tw. I, 5, 301, and V, 1,340. fruit. Dessert. Hml. II, 2, 53. fruitfully. Amply; fully. All's. II, 2, 73 ; Lr. IV, 6, 270. full. QeefalL GAIN = GIVING. Misgiving; doubtful fear. Hml. V, 2, 226. of. gainsay. Also gainstand = withstand, and gainstrive = strive against. gall. Sh. refers clearly to both the animal and the vegetable gall ; to the latter in Tw. Ill, 2, 52; Cym. I, 1, 101. To the former, 2HIV. I, 2, 199 ; Mcb. I, 5, 49 ; 0th. IV, 3, 92. Both kinds of gall are very bitter. gallant=springing. Full of useful pro- mise. RIII. I, 4, 226. Galloway. Referring to Galloway nags (p. 122, ante), I may add that Drayton, in the Polyolbion, III, 28, has : And on his match as much the Western horseman lays As the rank-riding Scots upon their Galloways. A Scot could scarcely be ' ' rank-riding, ' ' i.e., hard-riding, upon an inferior horse. gamester. At p. 122 (ante) this word, as it occurs in As. I, 1, 170, is defined as a frolicsome, merry fellow. This inter- pretation has never quite satisfied me. Caldecott defines it as " disposed to try his fortune at this game." Furness calls attention to a passage in Painter's " Palace of Pleasure," where gladiators are said to be "a certain sort of gam- sters in Rome, which we terme to bee maisters of defence. ' ' Readers of ' ' Tom Brown's School Days at Rugby " cannot have forgotten the trials of skill at " backswording " at the "Veast" de- scribed in the second chapter. The author tells us : "The players are called ' old gamesters,' — why I can't tell you, — and their object is simply to break one another's heads." As here used, the word is undoubtedly a survival from the time of Sh. , and fully explains the expression in the play. gaping. See pig. garb. Fashion; manner. Hml. II, 1, 390 ; Lr. II, 2, 104. geminy. A pair. Wiv. II, 2, 8. gentle, v. To ennoble. HV. IV, 3, 63. gentle, adj. Noble; well-born. Wint. I, 2, 394 ; RIII. I, 3, 73. german, n. A kinsman. 0th. I, 2, 114. german, adj. Akin. Tim. IV, 3, 344; Hml. V, 2, 165. gild. To make drunk. Tp. V, 1, 280. girdle. The expression : He kyiows how to turn his girdle, has never been satis- factorily explained. Some make it out to be a mere proverbial phrase without any reasonable meaning ; others think that it means : He knows how to turn his girdle so as to bring the handle of his sword within reach. The latter seems to be a plausible explanation. Ado. V, 1, 142. given. As used in Wint. IV, 4, 107, is an heraldic tei'm. See summer, middle {ante). For a full explanation, see Hunter's "New Illustrations," Vol. I, p. 419, and Furness's ed. of TheWinter'' s Tale, p. 194. glass. A "glass" is the time required for the sand to run through the hour- glass, or one hour. Two glasses = two hours. Tp. I, 2, 240. Globe Theatre. " Barclay's Brewery has long swallowed it up. Globe Alley, too, and Thrale's house where Dr. Johnson worked, on the site of the Globe Theatre. The Blackf riars and other theatres were closed in 1642, and put down by the Puritans in 1647. The Globe was pulled down in 1644." Furnivall. glutton. The "glutton" referred toby Falstaff (2HIV. I, 2, 39), is Dives, or the rich man mentioned in Luke xvi, DON 410 GYV gondola. Johnson explains the phrase, swam in a gondola (As. IV, 1, 38), thus: "That is, been at Venice, the seat at that time of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen wasted their fortunes, debased their morals and sometimes lost their re- ligion." good. Such phrases as "good my lord," ' ' good my friends, " " good my mother , ' ' frequently occur in Sh. and seem rather awkward to modern ears. Abbott notes: "The possessive adjectives, when un- emphatic, are sometimes transposed, being really combined with nouns (like the French monsieur, milord). " Dear my lord (Caes. II, 1, 255) ; Good my brother (Hml. 1,3, 46). See Sh. Gram., §13. good life. See life. Gordian knot. This familiar phrase is used twice in the plaj^s ; its origin is as follows : Internal disturbances having broken out in Phrygia, an oracle fore- told that a car would bring them a king who should settle their disputes. While the people were discussing the words of the oracle, Gordius, with his wife and his son Midas, drove into the market place and was at once hailed as king. The new king dedicated to Jupiter his car and the yoke to which the oxen had been fastened — this yoke having been attached to the pole of the car by means of a rope of bark tied with a wonderfully intricate knot. An oracle declared that whoever should untie that knot should reign over all Asia, and when Alexander the Great arrived at Gordium, one of the first things he did was to try to untie it. Not being able to succeed, he cut the knot with his sword and applied the oracle to himself. HV. I, 1, 46 ; Cym. II, 2, 34. Qorgon. The Gorgon referred to in Mcb. II, 3, 77, and Ant. II, 5, 116, was Medusa, whose head was cut - off by Perseus and afterwards be- came the boss of Minerva's shield. According to Homer, there was but one Gorgo, who is represented as a frightful phantom in Hades. Hesiod mentions three sisters, Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. They were frightful beings; their heads were covered with hissing serpents instead of hair, and they had wings, brazen claws and enormous teeth. Medusa, who alone was mortal, was at first a beautiful maiden, but having defiled one of the temples of Minerva, the goddess changed her hair into serpents and made her head so fearful that every one who looked at it was changed into stone. Hence the great difficulty which Perseus had in killing her ; for an account of which see Perseus. Qrace to boot. See boot in Addenda. grain, in. While this sometimes means dyed with kermes, a material extracted from the coccus insect, it also means that a color or other quality belongs to the natural substance, fibre or grain of any object, as in Tw. I, 5, 255, and Err. Ill, 2, 108. Thus we speak of evil being "ingrained" in some persons, i.e., ex- isting in the very grain or fibre of their being. In Tw. I, 5, 255, Olivia means to assert that her color is natural, not artificial like a dye or paint. grange. A lonely farm-house. Meas. Ill, 1, 277 ; 0th. I, 1, 106. gravel-blind. See sand-blind. griffin. A fabulous beast found only in the zoology of heraldry. It was half beast, half bird of prey. Mids. II, 1, 232 ; IHIV. Ill, 1, 152. grow to. Sometimes explained as "a household phrase applied to milk when burnt to the bottom of the sauce-pan, and thence acquiring an unpleasant taste." Wright. Others explain it as, having a tendency to. Merch, II, 2, 18. Syves. Fetters. Convert his gyves to graces. Hml. IV, 7, 21. This expres- sion has been the subject of some criticism, but the meaning is evident even though Schm. does call it "an obscure passage not yet satisfactorily explained or amended." It needs no emendation, and the meaning is obvious, HAB 411 HER simple and. appropriate. The king says in effect that if he were to restrain Hamlet, the love of the people (the general gender) for him is such that they would look upon him as a martyr, and his fetters, instead of being a dis- grace, would be graces. Elzeasks: " How can coporeal 'gyves' be converted into incorporeal abstract 'graces'?" and adds: "An abstract noun in this connection ruins the whole metaphor and is illogical." Very il- logical, perhaps, but very expressive. HABITS. 'Johnson explains the phrase, thin habits and poor liklihoods of modern seeming (0th. I, 3, 108), as "weak show of slight appearance." Hunter paraphrases it : "Than the thin garb with which you invest the matter. ' ' hair, men of. See saltiers. hand. The phrase, at any hand (Shr. I, 2, 147) = at any rate ; at all events. Nares. Give me your hands (Mids. V, 1, 444) = applaud by clapping. happy. Lucky ; accidental. Lr. II, 3, 3. harlotry. "Used much as 'slut' might be used at a later date. Compare the description of Lady Mortimer in IHIV. III, 1, 198: 'a peevish, self-will'd har- lotry, one that no persuasion can do good upon.'" Dowden. Bee peevish. harp. See miraculous. hate. See love. haud credo. (Latin) = I do not believe it. LLL. IV, 2, 11. havoc. This quarry cries on havoc (Hml. V, 2, 875) = "This heap of dead pro- claims an indiscriminate slaughtei-." White. health. See importing. heart. See Richard Coeur-de-lion. hedge=pig. A hedge-hog or urchin, Mcb. IV, 1, 2. The urchin, or hedge-hog, from its solitariness, the ugliness of its appear- ance, and from a popular opinion that it sucked or poisoned the udders of cows, was adopted into the demonologic sys- tem, and its shape was sometimes sup- posed to be assumed by mischievous elves. Hence it was one of the plagues of Caliban in The 2'empesi. T. Warton. Hercules. As might well be expected, Sh. refers very frequently to Hercules, who is acknowledged to be the most celebrated hero of all antiquity. Many of these references are merely allusions to him as a symbol of immense strength and prowess, but some of them are con- nected with incidents in his career which must be known before we can fully understand the passages in which they occur. According to Homer, Hercules (Her- acles) was the son of Jupiter by Alcmena, of Thebes, in Boeotia, who was a grand- daughter of Perseus. She was the wife of Amphitryon, in whose likeness Jupiter came to her while her husband was absent warring against the Taphians. On the day on which Hercules was to have been born Jupiter boasted of his becoming the father of a hero who was to rule over the race of Perseus. Juno prevailed upon him to swear that the descendant of Perseus, born that day, should be the ruler, and then she hast- ened to Argos and caused the wife of Sthenelus, the son of Perseus, to give birth to Eur3^stheus, and at the same time she delaj^ed the birth of Hercules, thus robbing him of the empire which Jupiter had destined for him. Jupiter was enraged at the trick played upon him, but he could not violate his oath. Juno, inspired by her hatred of the children of Jupiter by all mortal mothers, sent two serpents to destroy him while yet in his ci'adle, but the infant hero strangled them with his fists. LLL. V, 2, 595. His first great adventure happened while he was still watching the oxen of his step-father, Amphitryon. A huge lion, which haunted Mount Cithaeron, made great havoc among the flocks of Amphitryon and Thespius. Hercules slew the lion and afterwards wore its skin as his ordinary garment, its mouth KER 412 HER and head forming the hehnet. The gener- ally accepted story of the lion's skin, how- ever, is that it was that of the Neniean lion (LLL. IV, 1, 90, and Hml. I, 4, 83). It is related that after some other achievements he was driven mad by Juno, and while in this state killed his children by Megara, and also two of those of Iphicles. He then consulted the oracle at Delphi ; the Pythia called him for the first time Heracles (Her- cules), for his name had hitherto been Alcides or Alcseus, and ordered him to live at Tiryns and do as he was bid by Eurj^stheus. Eurystheus commanded him to perform twelve feats, which are known as "the twelve labours of Her- cules," and proverbial for their diffi- culty. Ado. II, 1, 380. These labours were as follows : 1. The fight with the Nemean lion. This lion was brought up by Juno ; it was a monstrous animal, and after using his club and arrows in vain the hero seized it with his hands and strangled it. He carried the dead lion on his shoulders and presented it to Eurystheus, but the latter was so fright- ened at the gigantic strength of the hero that he ordered him in future to deliver the account of his exploits out- side the town. 2. The destruction of the Lernaean hydra. Like the lion, this monster was brought up by Juno and ravaged the country of Lerna, near Argos. It had nine heads, the middle one being im- mortal. Hercules struck off its heads with his club, but in place of the head he struck off two new ones grew forth each time. A gigantic crab also came to the assistance of the hydra and wounded Hercules. But with the as- sistance of his faithful servant, lolaus, he burned away the mortal heads and buried the immortal one under a huge rock. He then dipped his arrows in the gall of the monster, and this made the wounds inflicted by them incurable. 3. The capture of the Arcadian stag. This aninial had golden antlers and brazen feet. Hercules pursued it for a whole year, and finally wounded it with an arrow and carried it away on his shoulders. 4. The capture of the Erymanthian boar. Hercules was ordered to bring this animal alive to Eurystheus ; he chased it through the snow, tired it out and caught it in a net. 5. His fifth task Avas the cleansing of the stables of Augeas, King of Elis. These stalls had n(jt been cleansed in thirty years, though three thousand oxen were kept in them. Hercules turned the rivers Alpheus and Peneus through them and cleansed them in a single day. 6. The destruction of the Stymphalian birds. These voracious creatures had been brought up by Mars; they had brazen claws, wings and beaks, and used their feathers for arrows. By means of a brazen rattle furnished by Minerva, Hercules startled the birds, and when they attempted to fly away he shot them with his arrows. 7. Capture of the Cretan bull. Ac- cording to some, this bull was the one which had carried Europa across the sea. Hercules caught it and brought it home on his shoulders. 8. The capture of the mares of the Thracian, Diomedes. These animals were fed on human flesh and were very savage. Hercules slew Diomedes and fed his flesh to these mares, after which they became quite tame. 9. Seizure of the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons. Some traditions say that he slew Hippolyta and carried, oflf the girdle, but this does not seem to accord with the account given under Theseus, q. v. 10. The capture of the oxen of Ger- yones. 11. Fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides. Being unable to find them himself, by the advice of Pro- metheus he sent Atlas to fetch them, and in the meantime bore the weight of heaven for him. See Hml. 11, 2, 378» HER 413 IFG 12. Bringing Cerberus from the lower world. This was the most difficult of all his tasks, and he accomplished it only through the assistance of Mercury and Minerva. For other allusions to Hercules see Deianira and Lichas. hereby. When Jaquenetta says, ThaVs hereby (LLL. I, 2, 14 L), she means, that is as it may happen ; Armado takes it in the sense of just by or near by. It has this latter sense in this play, IV", 1, 9. In RIII. I, 4, 94, it has the sense of "by this. " These are the only passages in which the word occurs in the plays. Hero, The priestess of Venus with whom Leander was in love. See Leander. The Helen mentioned in Mids. V, 1, 199, is probably intended for Hero, but in the speeches of these players the names and facts are so confused that it would be a vain task to try to straighten them out. Hesperus. See Lucifer and unfold. Hobgoblin. This name is equivalent to Robin the Goblin, i.e., Robin Good- fellow. See Puck. hog. See wolf. horn. Aubrey, in his " Natural History of Wiltshire " (1656), tells us that "Bed- . lam beggars wore about their necks a great borne of an ox in a string or bawdrie, which, when they came to an house for almes they did wind, and they did put the drink given them into this home whereto they did put a stopple." This explains Edgar's allusion in Lr. Ill, 6, 79. horologe. On page 138 {ante) a double set of the horologe is said to be twenty- four hours, but Halpin, in his " Drama- tic Unities," p. 18, says that the Italian horologe had twenty-four hours upon its dial-plate; this would make the double set equal to forty-eight hours. Twenty-four hours is not a long period to keep awake ; forty-eight hours would be notable. humour. As this word has in Sh. a sense different from that in which we now use it, we add to the definitions pre- viously given the following note from Trench's "Select Glossary": "The four ' humours ' in a man, according to the old physicians, were blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy. So long as these were duly mixed, all would be well. But so soon as any of them un- duly preponderated, the man became ' humourous,' one ' humour ' or another bearing too great a sway in him. As such, his conduct would not be according to the received rule of other men, but have something peculiar, whimsical, self-willed in it. In this self-asserting character of the ' humourous ' man lay the point of contact, the middle term, between the modern use of ' humour ' and the ancient. It was his humour which would lead a man to take an original view and aspect of things, a 'humourous' aspect, first in the old sense, and then in that which we now employ." As. I, 2, 278. Hyperion. By this name Sh. always means either the sun or Apollo. HV. IV, 1, 292 ; Hml. I, 2, 140. ICARUS. The son of Dsedalus. He was drowned in the Icarian Sea, which was named after him. See Dcedalus. ice, hot. See snow. idle. Weak ; foolish. Lr. I, 3, 16. lUyria. Douce suggests that there is a play on Illyria and Elysium in Tw. I, 2, 2. That the name Illyria may have suggested Elysium to Viola is more than probable, but there does not seem to be much room for a play on the words, and Viola certainly w^as not in a punning mood. impone. Osric's affected way of pro- nouncing impawn. Hml. V, 2, 155. impair. Unworthy ; unsuitable. Troil. IV, 5, 103. This being the only instance of the use of the word, Johnson suggested impure, which was adopted by Dyce. inform. To give form or shape. Mcb. II, 1, 48. ingenious. Quick in apprehension, Hml. V, 1, 271 ; Lr. IV, 6, 287. INK 414 JAS ink, license of. This expression, as it occurs in Tw. Ill, 2, 48, is thus explained by Furness : "That is with all the free- dona of speech which the written word allows." May not the phrase be thus paraphrased : Taunt him with a license which you would not dare to use if you were face to face with him ? Sir Andrew was a great coward, and both he and Sir Toby knew it. inoculate. In Hml. Ill, 1, 119, the word is evidently used in the old horticul- tural sense of to "bud," a kind of grafting in which a bud or eye (oculus) was used instead of a branch. The word was in common use among the old gardeners. Bishop Hall has: "That Palatine vine, late inoculated with a precious bud of our royal stem." insinuate. To suggest ; to thrust in. It insinuateth me of iiisanie (LLL. V, 1, 27), evidently means : it maketh me mad. Holof ernes explains it in the next line as, to make frantic, lunatic. The expression has given occasion for con- siderable discussion. insinuation. Thrusting in, Hml. V, 2, 59. Their own insinuation = by their having insinuated or thrust themselves into the employment. Malone. inter' gatories. Questions ; interroga- tories. Merch. V, 1, 298. In regard to this expression Lord Campbell says : "In the court of Queen's Bench , when a complaint is made against a person for a ' contempt,' the practice is that before sentence is finally pro- nounced, he is sent into the Crown Office, and being there ' charged wpon interrogatories,'^ he is made to swear that he will ' answer ' all things faith- fully. Another palpable allusion to English legal procedure. ' ' intendment. Purpose ; intention. As. I, 1, 140 ; 0th. IV, 2, 208 ; HV. I, 2, 144. invention. Imagination. Ven. , Ded. 5 ; LLL. IV, 2, 129; As. II, 5, 49; HV., Prol. 2. invisible. In some eds. this is the reading in John V, 7, 16. Hanmer changed to insensible, and this has been adopted by most of the eds. — Dyce, Staunton, Singer, White and others. It makes good sense. Marshall retains invisible, and says: "But may not invisible be used adverbially, meaning that Death, having preyed upon the body, passed unperceived {invisible) to attack the mind ? But it is only fair to say that insensible is certainly in accordance with the first two lines of this speech." i JANUS. Mentioned twice in Sh. (Merch. I, 1, 50, and 0th. I, 2, 33), and both times as a deity to swear by. Janus is only another form of Dianus, and is from the same root as dies, day. He presided over the beginning of every- thing, and was therefore always invoked first in every undertaking. He opened the year and the seasons, and hence the first month (January) is named after him. He was the guardian deity of gates, and is therefore represented with two heads or faces because every door looks two ways. At Rome, ISTuma is said to have dedicated to Janus the covered passage bearing his name, which was opened in times of war and shut in times of peace. This passage is com- monly, but erroneously, called a temple. Jason. The story of Jason and the golden fleece, alluded to in Merch. I, 1, 172, and III, 2, 244, is as follows : When Phrixus, the son of the nymph Nephele, was about to be sacrificed to Jove by the people of Orchomenus, in Boeotia, Nephele obtained from Mercury the gift of a ram with a golden fleece, which carried off Phrixus and his sister Helle through the air. Phrixus was carried safely to Colchis, but Helle fell off and was drowned in the strait which was called after hei-, Hellespont, i.e., Helle's sea. The ram was sacrificed to Jupiter, and its fleece was nailed to an oak tree and guarded by a fierce dragon. Pelias, the uncle of Jason, having de- prived the latter of his right of suc- cession, wished to destroy him, and accordingly sent him to Colchis to JER 415 LAN obtain the golden fleece. With the aid of Minerva he built the famous ship, the Argo, and sailed for Colchis, which he reached in due time, and by the aid of Medea obtained the fleece. See Medea. Associated with him in the expedition was a band of heroes known as the "Argonauts" after the name of the ship, and this name was, in modern times, applied to those adventurers who, in 1849, set out for California to seek for gold in its mines. Jerusalem Chamber. Of this, as men- tioned in 2HIV. V, 5, 235, Rolfe says : "The Jerusalem Chamber is not a bed- room. The king is holding a council there when he swoons ; and when he asks to be taken to ' some other chamber ' (that is to a bedroom), he is of course obeyed, and the scene shifts to that chamber, where he remains until he asks to be borne back to the Jerusalem Chamber on account of the prophecy concerning his death." Considerable discussion has taken place over the change of scene in this part of this Act, for an excellent exposition of which see Rolfe's ed. of 2HIV., p. 192. -It may be interesting to note that it was in this Chamber that the Assembly of Divines met in 1G43 and, during the five years which followed, drew up the Presbyterian " Confession of Faith," a "Directory of Public Worship," the "Shorter Catechism," etc. jewel. See watch. Jezebel. When Sir Andrew calls Mal- volio Jezebel (Tw. II, 5, 46), " he merely ■ knows this name as a term of re- proach; and his applying a woman's name to a man is of a piece with his other accomplishments." C. and M. Cowden-Clarke. Jove. In most passages where Jove is used as a form of oath, as in Tw. II, 5, 107, it is probable that God was the original word which was altered on account of the statute of James I. HaUiwell. See God, Jupiter and Philemon. KILLINQWORTH. An old form (and even now a local pronunciation) of Kenil worth. Rolfe. 2B.VI.IV, 4,39. One of the places described in Scott's famous novel of that name. kind. Species. Tit. II, 1, 116. kiss. In Sh. time it was the custom for partners to kiss at the beginning of some dances. Tp. I, 2, 378. In HVIII. I, 4, 95, the king says : I were U7i- mannerly, to take you out ayid not to kiss you. kitchen=vestal. See vestal. knap. To strike smartly. Lr. II, 4, 125. Steevens retains the rapp''d of theQ., and says: " Rapp'd must be the true reading, as the only sense of the verb to knap is to snap or break asunder. ' ' But in Scottish or old English knap means to strike. It is so used both by Allan Ramsay and Burns. knife. Heefast and loose. knight. See virgin. LABEL. The seal of a deed. Rom. IV, 1, 57 ; RII. V, 2, 56. " The seals of deeds in our author's time were not impressed on the parch- ment itself on which the deed was written, but were appended on distinct slips or labels afiixed to the deed. Hence, in King Richard II, the Duke of York discovers a covenant which his son, the Duke of Aumerle, had entered into by the depending seal : What seal is that which hangs without thy bosom T^ Malone. Schm. says: "Used for the deed it- self," and cites Cym. V, 5, 430. But surely the label which Posthumus found on his bosom when he awoke was any- thing but a deed. lady=she. See she. lantern, i This word is generally spelt lanthorn. ) lanthorne in the Fl. In the g. a. text this spelling is retained in Mids. Ill, 1, 61, and V, 1, 136, etc., and 2HI V. I, 2, 55, because in these passages there is a quibble upon horn referring in Mids. to the horns of the moon, and LAP 416 LIF in 2HIV. to the horns of the cuckold. Elsewhere, as in Wiv. V, 5, 82, and 2HVI. II, 3, 25, it is spelt properly, lantern. Before glass became so com- mon, the manufacture of thin, trans- parent plates from the horns of the ox was extensively carried on, and in the best lanterns such plates were used to protect the lamp or candle and yet allow the light to shine through. From this fact came the popular, though erroneous, etymology of the word and the consequent spelling, lanthorn. lapsed. The meanings ordinarily given to this word (e. g. , as it occurs in Hml. Ill, 4, 107), do not make sense in Tw. Ill, 3, 36, and Hunter therefore pro- posed to substitute latched, a word which has the meaning of caught, in several passages, e. g., Sonn. CXIII, 6, and Mcb. IV, 3, 195, Schm. makes lapsed = "surprised, taken in the act " both in Tw. and Hml., but by this, as Furness says, " the passage in Hamlet, * who lapsed in fume [sic] * and passion ' is altogether misinterpreted." Lapsed usually signifies fallen, and although the mode of expression is unusual and pi'obably unique, we might, perhaps, thus paraphrase Antonio's saying : If I should fall into their power. lard. 1. To fatten. Tim. IV, 3, 12. 2. To baste, as grease is applied to meat during the process of roasting. IHIV. II, 2, 116. 3. To stuff. Hml. IV, 5, 37. The word as it occurs in HV. IV, 6, 8, has been explained as enriching and also as garnishing. Either definition makes good sense, and the word has both meanings in Sh. lay-by. Stand still. IHIV. I, 2, 40; HVIII. Ill, 1, 11. Learning. The passage in Mids. V, 1, .52, The thrice three Muses mourning for * This word is time in the Fl. and the g. a. text. Collier's MS. suggested /itj/ie, but Furness rejected it in his text, and in his notes gave strong reasons for so doing. He has adopted it in his quota- tion. See his ed. of Tw., p. :313. the death Of Learning, late deceased in beggary, has been supposed by Knight to refer to the death of Greene, which toolc place in 1592, in great poverty and misery. Greene took great pride in the fact that he was a graduate of the University, and the following tJivo lines: This is some Satire keene and criticall, agree very well with the fact that Sh. had no good reason to either respect or love him. Warton thought that it referred to Spenser's Tears of the Muses, but the entire passage does not sustain this idea. Rolfe seems to think that it is nothing more than an allusion to the general neglect of learning in that day. leek. The national plant of the Welsh, who wear a leek on St. David's day (the first of March) in honor of their patron saint. Much doubt exists as to the origin of this custom. According to the Welsh, it is because St. David ordered his Britons to place leeks in their caps that they might be distin- guished in fight from their Saxon foes. Sh. in HV. IV, 7, 101, et seq., puts in the mouth of Fluellen another explana- tion. Dr. Owen Pughe supposes the custom arose from the practice of every farmer contributing his leek to the common repast when they met at Cym- mortha, an association by which they reciprocated assistance in ploughing the land. Dyer. let=alone. The power of preventing it, of saying " Do it not." Craig. Lr. V, 3, 79. lieutenantry. Substitution. Dealt on Lieutenantry = fought by proxy. The etymological or radical meaning of the word. Ant. Ill, 11, 39. life. The phrase, a song of good life, as it occurs in Tw. II, 3, 37, is explained by Malone, Schm. and some others as a good course or manner of living. Steevens thought it meant "harmless mirth and jollity. " Furness thinks that the clown knew his company too well to propose a song of a moral turn, and that Steevens has given the right deflu- LIN 417 MAL ition, the " bariiiless " being possibly omitted. For the expression good life, as it occurs in Tp. Ill, 3, 8, see observa- tion. linger. To delay ; to protract ; to put off. Mids. I, 1, 4; RII. II, 3, 73. Hon. See wolf. lion=fell. A lion's skin. Mids. V, 1, 337. Field suggested lion^s fell or lion-fell. Furness makes this comment : " Field's high deserving lies in his discerning that ' fell ' is a noun and not an adjec- tive; and that by this interpretation point is given to 'lion's dam.' For Snug to say that he is ' neither a lion nor a lioness ' is to me pointless, but all is changed if we suppose him to say that he is a lion's skin, and only because, as such, he encloses a lion, can he be a lioness." The objection to this, in my mind, is that the idea is too subtle to be put into the mouth of a "patch" like Snug, and Sh. generally adapts the language of his characters to their personalities. Daniel conjectures the following : '• I am Snug the joiner in A lion-fell or else a lion's skin." Rowe read No lion for A lion. It would not be a great stretch to paraphrase Snug's words thus: "I, one Snug the joiner, am merely a lion's skin, not even a lioness. ;' The words lion and fell are not hyphenated in the Fl. The hyphen has been adoped in the Grlobe and most modern eds. Hon=sick. Sick of proud heart. Troil. II, 3, 93. live. See die. loam. This word, as it occurs in the Fl. in Mids. V, 1, 163, was changed to lime in 3rd Var. , after a conjectural emend- ation by Capell. Lime is probably the correct reading, as that material, and not loam, forms an ingredient in rough- cast. A very little loa^n would spoil the rough-cast. loathly. Loathingly. Lr. II, 1, 53. Lord. The expression for the Lord''s sake was the supplication of imprisoned debtors to the passers-by. Meas. IV, 3, 31. lost. For this word, as it occurs in Rom. I, 1, 30o, Allen would read left, and Dowden is much inclined to believe that this is the true reading. love. In Rom. Ill, 1, 63, the Fl. reads : Romeo the love I bear thee. In the Ql. the reading is the hate, and this word has been adopted by most eds. in place of love. The use of love indicates irony, and as Dowden says, Tybalt is not given to irony. MADDED. Made mad ; driven insane. Sh. does not use maddened. Lr. IV, 3, 43. made. The expression in Wiv. II, 1, 344, What they made there, is equivalent to what they were doing there. See also Rom. V, 3, 380. magic. See verses. maid. As it occurs in Rom. II, 3, 6, refers to Juliet as "a votary of the virgin Diana. " Dowden. make. A mate; a partner. Lr. IV, 3, 36. It is one self Tnate and make in Ql. ; m,ate and mate in Q3. and Q3. Omitted from Fl. The "Cambridge," "Globe" and most eds. follow the Q3. audQS. The "Oxford," the "Dowden" and some others follow the QL, which to me seems altogether the most Shake- spearean. "Make" or "maik" is a well-known Scotch and old English word found in Chaucer in the same sense, and quite common in old Scottish poetry. The use of the word in this passage avoids tautology and is far more expressive. See Tnakeless. mallet. This word, as it occurs in 3HIV. II, 4, 363, there''s no more conceit in him than is in a mallet, does not seem to afford such a striking comparison as Sh. usually puts into the mouth of Falstaff. If Sh. had sought some in- animate object as an illustration of stupidity and lack of conceit, he cer- tainly could have found something more appropriate than that tool which is the symbol of handicraft and the repre- sentative of activity, work and progress, HAN 418 MIM as seen in the common sign of the mechanic's arm and hammer or mallet. It is more than probable that Sh. com- pared Poins to some stupid animal, and that the word he used was iuullet, the name of a dull, mud-loving fish, and the very emblem of an unimaginative, witless fellow. Three lines below, Fal- staff speaks of another fish, the conger eel. It is true that mullet occurs no- where else in Sh,, but then neither does mallet. The only suggestion of a new reading that I can find is that by Schm., who proposes "mallard " ; but this certainly could not have been the word. The mallard, as Sh. very well knew, is one of the most wide-awake, cunning and intelligent birds known to sportsmen, and one not at all devoid of conceit., which, according to Schm. and others, signifies "mental faculty, comprising the understanding as well as the imagin- ation." manage. 1. The training of a horse to obey the hand and voice. As. I, 1, 13. 2. The management or government of a horse. RII. Ill, 3, 179 ; IHI V. II, 3, 52. marish. See nourish. marriage ceremonies. See hair and wine. martial hand. Probably a bold, free hand with large letters. Tw. Ill, 2, 45. Johnson defines it as " a careless scrawl, such as showed the writer to neglect ceremony." Purness says: "Possibly it may mean with heavy-faced, aggres- sive flourishes." Martin, Saint. See summer. maugre. In spite of. Tw. Ill, 1, 163 ; Lr. V, 3, 131. me. In the following passage : A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull and crudy vapours xvhich environ it. * * * The second, projierty of your excellent sherris ts * * * and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain. amV. IV, 8, 103, et seq. Also Hml. II, 1, 7 : Inquireme first what Danskers are in Paris. The m,e and you in these passages are what is known as the "ethical dative," which is defined as " the dative of a first or second personal pronoun, implying a degree of interest in the person speaking or the person addressed used colloquially to give a lively or familiar tone to the sentence." Ce7it. Diet. See your. meet. Fit for ; equal to. Ado. I, 1, 47, he'' II be meet with you = he'll be a match for you. mellow. Ripe; fit to be disclosed. Tw. 1, 2, 43. mercliant. See royal Tuer chant. Merlin. This famous wizard and prophet is referred to twice in the plays — IHIV. III, 1, 150, and Lr. Ill, 2, 95. There seems to have been two of this name, but the one generally meant is the hero of the Arthurian romances. He is said to have been of miraculous birth and to have been an adept in magic. He fell under the wiles of an enchantress and lies sleeping in some dark tangled wood, guarded by magic from all intrusion. Amongst other famous deeds. Merlin is said to have instituted the Round Table at Carduel. In the days preceding Sh. all this was firmly believed. Tennyson, in his "Idylls of the King," gives an account of Merlin and the enchantress, Vivien. The prophecies attributed to him were written by H6lie de Borron about the year 1200. Merry Tales, The Hundred. See tales. metheglin. A drink made of a solution of honey, fermented. Wiv. V, 5, 168. mettle or metal of India. See nettle. Milan. As it occurs in Tp. V, 1, 8, the word means Duke of Milan. So in Hml. I, 2, 44 : You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, i.e., to the King of Denmark. mimic. An actor; a player. Mids. Ill, 2, 19. Various emendations of this word have been given. Johnson thought it a mere term of contempt ; Ritson read mammock, which he says "signifies a MIN 419 NOB huge misshapen thing." But Malone pointed out that tnimmick is used as synonymous to actor in Decker's " Guls Hornebooke;" and Wright quotes from Herrick's The Wake (II, 63) : Morris-dancers thou shalt see, Marian too in Pagentrie : And a Mimick to devise, . Many grinning properties. "Minnick " in the Ql. ; "Minnock " in the Q3 ; " Mimmick " in the first three Folios. mine. See wren. misuse. To deceive. Ado. II, 2, 28. cf. abuse. mock="Water. See muck-water. mole. A blemish. Hml. I, 4, 2i. monarch. See north. mongrel. In Troil. II, 1, 14, Thersites calls Ajax a "mongrel," pi-obably be- cause his father, Telamon, was a Greek, and his mother, Hesione, a Ti-ojan. cf. same play, IV, 5, 120. See Ajax. moon, ^eeplantage. moral. Moralizing ; like one who utters " wise saws." Lr. IV, 2, 58. moralize. To expound; to interpret. As. II, 1, 44 ; Shr, IV, 4, 81 ; RIII. Ill, 1, 83. mortifying. Killing. Ado. 1, 3, 13 ; Merch. I, 1, 82. Frequently used by Sh. in the literal or etymological sense. murderer. Two murderers appear in RIII. as dr. p., and three in Mcb. A question has arisen as to who the third murderer in Mcb. was. Some think that it was Macbeth himself; others claim that it was merely a messenger sent to inform them in regard to Ban- quo's movements. Johnson, in his note on line 130, says that he was "the perfect spy o' the time." See spy. music, broken. " Some instruments, such as viols, violins, flutes, etc., were for- merly made in sets of four, which when played together formed a ' consort. ' If one or more of the instruments of one set were substituted for the correspond- ing ones of another set the result was no longer a consort but broken music." Jephson. As. I, 2, 150; HV. V, 2, 263. mussel = shell. Open-mouth. Wiv. IV, 5,29. mustachio. In the Fl. this word, in IHIV. II, 1, 83, is hyphenated with the two following, thus, niustachio-pur2:)le- hued, hence some have interpreted it as =" ale-topers ; those who dip their naustachios so deeply and perpetually in liquor as to stain them pui'ple red. ' ' This is doubtful. Mustachios, curled up at the ends, have always been a characteristic of bravado- like fellows who adopted the airs of Spanish bandits. I think the meaning probably is fiery-faced fellows with fierce mustachios. Wine might dye the hair purple, but I doubt if ale would do so. mute. Referring to this word in Tw. I, 2, 63, Schm. gives this extraordinary explanation : " In Turkey, a dumb ofiicer acting as executioner." Upon which Furness very properly remarks : " It is not easy to see the appropriateness of such an ofiicer on the present occasion. " Deighton suggests that the word eunuch in Viola's speech brings to the captain's mind the mutes of the eastern courts. This is very probable, because Viola had just requested his silence as to her true condition. That Sh. sometimes con- nected the "mutes" with the Turkish court and harem is seen in HV. I, 2, 232. mutually. In Wiv. V, 5, 103, and Cor. I, 1, 106, this word evidently means all together, and does not involve the idea of reciprocity, which is the prominent element in its meaning at present. NEIF. The hand or, rather, fist. This word in 2H1V. II, 4, 200, gives rise to half a page of comment in the 3rd Var. It is a common Scotch word. The expression, "a neiv-fu' " is a com- mon Scotch synonym for a handful. night. See vast. nine. See wren. Nine Worthies. See Wo7'thies. Nob. A familiar and somewhat con- temptuous form of Robert. I would not be Sir Nob = I would not be Sir IfOO 420 OUT Robert, i.e., his brother. John I, 1, 147. noon. The expression, Fll go to bed at noon (Lr. Ill, 6, 93), is not unusual in the Elizabethan drama. It was used to signify easy-going idleness. Some have thought that the fool prophecies his own early death, but there seems to be no ground for this. note. Memorandum ; list. Wint. IV, 3, 49. notorious. Egregious ; great. Tw. V, 1, 337. notoriously. Excessively ; egregiously. Tw. V, 1, 388. nursery. Attendance; nursing. Lr. I, 1, 126. OB. An abbreviation of obolus — a halfpenny. IHIV. II, 4, 590. The obolus was the smallest Greek coin and was the silver piece placed in the mouth of each corpse when properly prepared for burial. See Charon. o'er looked. Marshall explains this word, as it occurs in John V, 4, 55, as " over- borne," but a nearer synonym would probably be "risen above." cf. Hml. IV, 5, 99 — the ocean overpeering of his list. old man. Sir Andrew's expression in Tw. I, 3, 126 : and yet I will not compare with an old man, has not been very clearly explained. Theobald changed old man to nobleman, but this does not seem to mend matters. The Clarkes explain it thus: "We take its signification to be, that the knight, by the term ' an old man,' means 'a man of experience," just as he has before deferred to his ' betters ' ; while the use of the word ' old ' gives precisely that absurd effect of refraining from com- peting in dancing, fencing, etc., with exactly the antagonist incapacitated by age, over whom even Sir Andrew might hope to prove his superiority." The contest, however, was not about "danc- ing and fencing," but about "masks and revels," and in these Sir Andrew might be at a disadvantage with a man of greater experience than himself, even though his antagonist should be physic- ally less active. It is sometimes a fruitless task to try to make sense out of the foolish knight's " maunderings," but as a last desperate attempt to extract sense out of what may be mere nonsense, it might be suggested that "compare" here may be a form of "compear," and that Sir Andrew means that he would not ap- pear in a mask with an old man. olive. See three-nooked. one=trunk=inheriting. " Possessing but one trunk, one coffer of effects. To inherit has frequently the sense to possess in Sh. See Tp. II, 2, 179. Here it might have the ordinary meaning. " Craig. Lr. II, 2, 20. opinion. Reputation. Merch. I, 1, 91. orbs. As it occurs in Mids. II, 1, 9, is generally supposed to refer to the ' ' fairy rings" sometimes found in meadows. See ringlets. Bell thinks the fairy means that she gathers dew to wash the eyes of the queen, Maydew being sup- posed to be a wonderful preserver of beauty. orchard. See wort, (2). Orion. A misprint for Arion in Tw. I, 2, 15, occurs in the Pi. and has been copied in some eds. See Arion. orphan heirs. This expression, which occurs in Wiv. V, 5, 43, was changed by Theobald to ouphen-heirs, that is, fairy or goblin heirs. But, as explained by the Cowden-Clarkes, the reading of the Fl. makes very good sense. They explain it as : " Beings created orphans by fate; in allusion to supposed spon- taneous and unnatural births, such as Merlin's and others of his stamp, holding place in popular superstition, who were believed to have been born without fathers." ^ee unfathered. ouphen. See orj^han heirs. outlaw'd. The phrase outlaw'' d from my blood (Lr. Ill, 4, 172), means condemned to outlawry (loss of estate, etc.) through corruption of the blood. Those subject to attainder (stain or corruption of PAN 421 PLU the blood) formerly suffered such loss. Craig, cf. IHVI. Ill, 1, 159. overture. See coverture. owe. See fall. PANDION. King of Athens and the father of Procne and Philomela. Pilgr. 395. In return for assistance in a war against Labdacus, King of Thebes, he gave his daughter, Philomela, to Tereus, in marriage. See Philo'rnela. parts. Of this word, as it occurs in 0th. I, 2, 81, Furness says: "Schmidt and Rolfe agree in interpreting this as mer'its. It seems to me that it is rather the endowments of nature, his natural gifts, like ' 3^our sum of parts ' in Hml. IV, 7, 74." See parted, (1). pash. The head. The comments on this word, as it occurs in Wint. I, 2, 128, fill a page in the 3rd Var. Malone's note is worth reproducing. He says : "I have lately learned that pash in Scot- land signifies a head. The old reading, theref oi'e, may stand. Many words that are now used only in that country, were perhaps once common to the whole island of Great Britain, or at least to the northern part of England. The meaning, therefore, of the present pass- age, I suppose, is this : ' 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.'" The word pash, meaning head, is quite common in Scottish poetry. Ram- say, in his letter to Arbuckle (January, 1719), referring to his occupations of poet, bookseller and wigmaker, says : I theek [thatch] the out an' line the inside O' mony a douse an' witty pash An' baith ways gather in the cash. See ante, under shoots. pass of pate. Sally of wit. Tp. IV, 1, 244. passion. The expression, masters of passion (Merch. IV, 1, 51) = agencies (such as Shylock has been speaking of) that move either the sympathy or anti- pathy of any man. Passion is used in the original sense of feeling or emotion, cf. Caes. I, 2, 48, / have much mistook your passion, etc. Rolfe. See affec- tion. The Globe, Cambridge and some other eds. follow Capell and read mis- tress of passion. perfumer. What we would now call a fumigator. Ado. I, 3, 60. physician. Bee precisian. pig. A young pig dressed whole and with a lemon stuck in its gaping mouth was frequently served at table. Merch. IV, 1, 47. Pigmies. See Pygmies. plummet. A leaden weight (from the luSitin, plumbum, lead). Tp. Ill, 3, 101, and V, 1, 56 ; Wiv. V, 5, 173. The word is sometimes erroneously applied to the line to which the plummet is usually attached. Cotgrave has: "Plombeau: m. A plummet; or weight of lead.'''' Falstaff's saying in Wiv. V, 5, 173, has given rise to a good deal of comment and some curious emendations. Thus Johnson suggested " has a plume o' me," i.e., "plucks me and decks itself with the spoils of my weakness" ; Farmer conjectured: "is a planet o'er me," and there are others. Tyrwhitt explained the passage thus : ' ' ignorance itself is not so low as I am by the length of a plummet-line," evidently forgetting not only that a plummet-line has no definite length, but that Falstaff is speaking of a plummet, and not a plummet-line. R. G. White thinks it means: "ignorance itself points out my deviations from rectitude." Schm. : " ignorance itself sounds my depth and searches my bottom." The Cowden- Clarkes: "ignorance itself can sound the depths of my shallowness in this." Marshall and Daniel: "I am at the lowest point of Fortune's wheel ; ignor- ance, at the highest, triumphs over me"; but what a plummet has to do with Fortune's wheel is not so easily seen. It seems to me that the meaning FOE 422 BOS is simple and obvious: "ignorance itself (the 'Welsh flannel' making ' fritters of English ') is a heavy weight directly over me and crushing me down." So, in Laws of Candy, by Beaumont and Fletcher, IV, 1, we find : For when sad thoughts perplex the mind of man There is a plummet in the heart that weighs And pulls us, living, to tha dust we came from. poem. See scene. point. The expression " at point " means in armed readiness, fully equipped or accoutred, Mcb. IV, 3, 135; Hml. I, 2, 200 ; Lr. I, 4, 347. possessed. Insane. Tw. Ill, 4, 9, In Sh. time madmen were supposed to be possessed of devils. Hence the mock exorcisms in Act IV, Sc. 2, same play. post. See sheriff's post. prick, V. Under def. (4) of this word I have suggested that Sh. refers to the word "prick- louse," which is a cant name for a man's tailor. That this word was in use in the time of Sh. is certain. The earliest use of the word, that I had found, was by Sir Roger L'Estrange (1616-1704), but Professor Dowden has kindly pointed out to me that it occurs in a ballad by the Scottish poet, William Dunbar (1460-1525), en- titled, " The Justis Betuix the Tailyeour and Sowtar," which begins ; Nixt at a Tornament was tryit That lang before in Hell was cryit In presens of Mahoune Betuix a Tailyeour and a Sowtar A priklouss and a hobblU clowtar Thair barrass was maid boune. —Dunbar^s Poems, ed. David Lang, 1834. process. See set. progeny. 1. Offspring; children. LLL, V, 2, 754 ; Mids. II, 1, 115. 2. Progenitors ; ancestry. IHVI. V, 4, 38; Cor. 1,8, 12. Bee ivhip. The first sense is the only one in use now, but Sh. and other authors of the time use the word in both senses. propertied. Endowed with qualities or properties. Ant. V, 2, 83. property, v. To appropriate; to con- vert into property. Tw. IV, 2, 99 ; John V, 2, 79; Tim. I, 1,57. Collier suggested that in Tw. Sh. had some allusion to the properties (as they were then, and ai"e still called) of a theatre, which, when out of use, were thrust into some dark loft or lumber- room. From Sh. familiarity with play- house terms, it is not unlikely that this suggestion may be well founded. Fur- ness seems inclined to accept it. Endowed with all good Shr. IV, 5, 66 ; Cym. I, QUALIFIED. qualities. 4, 65. Ingleby cites Davenant's Unfortunate Lovers, I, 1, for an instance of the use of this word in this sense : But why, Rampino? since this lady is So rarely qualified. See constant-qualified. RAQ. This word, as it occurs in Tim. IV, 3, 271, does not seem to make good sense. Johnson suggested rogue, a word which is probably the correct reading. See 3rd Var. XIII, 391. recollected. See terms. recomforture. Fresh comfort. RIII. IV, 4, 425. red=breast. See robin red-breast. rhyme. See verses. rose. This flower occupies a prominent position in the writings of Sh., and it well deserves it. Ellacombe, in his " Plant - Lore and Garden - Craft of Shakespeare," devotes over ten pages to the rose and its history. The scene in the Temple Garden (IHVI. II, 4), where the White and Red Roses were taken as the colors of the houses of York and Lancaster was the prelude to civil wars which sent thousands of " souls to death and deadly night." Ellacombe tells us that the White ROtr 423 8F£ Rose of York has never been satisfac- torily identified, but he seems to hold that the Red Rose and the Provengal Rose are the colors of Lancaster, and "are no doubt the same and are what we now call R. Centifolia, or the Cabbage Rose." To a rose whose petals were striped with red and white the name of "York and Lancaster" has been given. The wbite rose has a very ancient interest for Englishmen, the flower having been connected with one of the most ancient names of the island. The elder Pliny, in discussing the etymology of the word Albion, suggests that the land may have been so named from the white roses which abounded in it. rounded. Whispered. Wint. I, 2, 217; John II, 1, 566. This use of the word is common in Chaucer and the writers of Sh. time. rowel=head. Defined by most dictionaries and by Schra. as "the axis on which the rowel turns." Surely not. The rowel-head is the fork which serves to hold the rowel and its axis. The ends of the forks prevent the rowel from sinking into the hide ; hence the expres- sion : "up to the rowel-head." 2HIV. I, 1, 46. rushes. See cage. SAMPHIRE. A plant which grows on rocks within the infiuence of sea spray. The name is said to be a corruption of Saint Peter, and the plant was called in Italian, Herba di San Pietro — Peter, as is well known, signifies a rock. In Sh. time the gathering of samphire was a regular trade, and the leaves were used to make a pickle, " the pleasantest sauce, most familiar and best agreeing with man's body," but which has now fallen out of use and is rarely seen, though the plant grows round all the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland wherever there are suitable rocks. Lr. IV, 6, 1.5. sanctuarise. To give a sanctuary or place of refuge to. Even the church should not protect Hamlet, he being the mur- derer of Polonius. Hml. IV, 7, 129. saying. See deed, set. A term in tennis. LLL. V, 2, 29. silver. The piece of silver referred to in Kins. IV, 3, 18, is the obolus, the small- est silver coin among the Greeks. It was placed in the mouth of every corpse that received proper burial. See Charon. sinews. Nerves. Ven. 903; Lr. Ill, 6, 105. In the latter passage (which is omitted from the Folios, but is found in the Quartos) the "Globe" reads senses, which was suggested by Theo- bald. The "Cambridge," Dyce and many others adhere to the reading of the Quartos, which is probably correct. sing. On the passage in Lr. V, 3, 9, We two alone will sing like birds V the cage, Craig has this note: "We must not forget that cage had the meaning of prison. See 2HVL IV, 2, 56." True it had and still has that meaning in the slang of jailbirds and thieves (see latest ed. of the "Lexicon Balatronicum "), but what has that to do with the pure Cordelia and her kingly father ? Even though we learn from our study of "peddler's French" that "cage" is slang for prison, why should we destroy an exquisite metaphor by reading into such a beautiful expression of affection and hope a coarse idea which certainly has no place there ? soothe. To humor. Lr. Ill, 4, 182. Sophy. " The title of Sophy, by which the Shah of Persia was most commonly known in the 16th and 17th centuries, was derived from the Safavi dynasty, founded in 1500 by Shah Ismail, whose descendants occupied the throne until 1736, when the power was seized by Nadir Shah." Wright. Their ambassa- dors spent money so lavishly that their wealth was supposed to exceed anything known to western nations. Tw. II, 5, 197. spear=grass. The identification of this plant has puzzled the coms. Ellacombe thinks it is the couch-grass {Triticum repens), but it is doubtful if the leaves SPE 424 TAK of that plant are rough enough for the purpose indicated in IHIV. II, 4, o4U. spectacles. Eyes; organs to see with. 2HVI. Ill, 3, 113 ; Cym. I, 6, 37. states. Estates. As. V, 4, 181. stelled. This word, as it occurs in Lr. Ill, 7, 61, is explained by Craig as fixed, with, perhaps, a play on the other sense — starry. His note on p. 163 of the "Dowden" ed. of Lear is well worth consulting. stones. See thunder. strange. See snow. swan. When Celia (As. I, 3, 77) speaks of Juno's swans she forgets that the peacock, and not the swan, belonged to Juno. The Swan was sacred to Venus. See Juno and Venus. sweep. The expression, To sweep the dust behind the door (Mids. V, 1, 397), is explained by Halliwell as "to sweep away the dust which is behind the door, ' ' and this is undoubtedly right. Good housewives have a proverb : " Sweep the corners clean and the middle will take care of itself." Wright says: To sweep the dust behind the door, where it would be likely to escape notice — a doubtful gloss. TABLE. In the Fl.thelineHV.il, 3, 17, reads : his Nose was as sharpe as a Pen, and a Table of greene fields. This was changed by Theobald to : his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields, and the emend- ation has not only been generally ac- cepted, but is regarded by the best Shakespearean scholars as one of the happiest restorations that has ever been made in the text. Other readings have been suggested, but none that so well meets the conditions of the case. Desperate attempts have been made to defend the text as it stands, chiefly by the Baconians, who see in it a reference to Hippocrates, a medical writer whose works it is very improbable that Sh. had ever seen, but whose description of the appearances which tisually precede death has been quoted by Bacon. But the fades Hippocratica (the Hippo- cratic face) was well known to the doc- tors, and even to the old women nurses, of Sh. timeand nmst have been common talk amongst them. Theobald's reading is sustained by what is previously said about his playing with flowers and the well-known tendency of the dying to revert to the times of childhood and boyhood, and to dream of wandering about cool streams and green fields. The word is fields in theFl., and not field, which it would naturally have been if used as a synonym for back- ground. tail. Upon the expression in Mcb. I, 3, 9, And like a rat without a tail, Steevens has the following note: "It should be remembered (as 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 want- ing. 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 corre- sponded with the length of tail common to almost all our four-footed creatures "; and in Dyer's "Folk Lore" we find: " In German legends and traditions we frequently find notice of witches as- suming the form of a cat, and displaying their fiendish character in certain dia- bolical acts. It was, however, the absence of the tail that only too often was the cause of the witch being detected in her disguised form. That horrible creature of superstition, the wer-wolf, or human being changed into a wolf, was distinguished by having no tail." Capell makes the following note on this point: ^^ Tails are the rudders of water-animals, as the rat is occasionally, so that it is intimated in effect that she would find her port without a rudder as well as sail in a sieve." take. Although this word is properly defined in its regular place and reference TAL 4?3;^ VEA made to Wint. IV, 4, 119, it may be well to call special attention to it as the ordinary reader frequently fails to per- ceive the exquisite beauty of the ex- pression : * * * daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, [and take The winds of March with beauty. That is : that fascinate or bewitch the winds of March. tales. The book, "A Hundred Mery Talys "was reprinted in 1866, from the only perfect copy known. After going over it attentively, I cannot describe it better than in the language of Dr. Furness: "It is a coarse book, the natural product of coarse times, and its flavor is not unlike the atmosphere of the houses which demanded daily and .prolonged fumigations. Well, indeed, may Beatrice have deeply resented the imputation that from it she drew her wit — and yet there is a tradition that this book, and others like it, were the solace of Queen Elizabeth's dying hours." Ado. II, 1, 135. tears. See crocodile. teem. See crocodile. temperance. Sanity. Lr. IV, 7, 24. throat. On the passage in 2HIV. I, 2, 94, / had lied in my throat, if I had said so, Hunter makes this remark : " The lie in the throat was a lie uttered deliberately ; the lie in the teeth was one for which some excuse was al- lowed on the ground of its having proceeded from haste or some palliating cause." throughly. An early form of thoroughly. It is really the same word. Sh. uses both forms. Tp. Ill, 3, 14 ; Merch. IV, 1, 173, etc., etc. throughfare. Same as thoi-o ugh fare. Merch. II, 7, 42 ; Cym. I, 2, 11. trunks. Upon Antonio's expression, empty trunks o'' erflourish'' d by the devil (Tw. Ill, 4, 404), Steevens has the following note : " In the time of Shake- speare, trunks, which are now deposited in lumber-rooms, or other obscure places, were part of the furniture of apartments in which company was re- ceived. I have seen more than one of these, as old as the time of our poet. They were richly ornamented on the tops and sides with scroll-work, em- blematical devices, etc., and were elevated on feet." UP AND DOWN. Exactly ; out and out. Gent. II, 3, 32 ; Tw. II, 1, 124. This was an idiomatic expression of the time, similar to our present phrase, downright. As found in Mids. Ill, 2, 396; 2HIV. II, 1, 114, and several other passages it has the ordinary meaning. upshot. The result. A common expres- sion at this day. While in some passages it no doubt means the decisive shot (as the word is used in bowls and archery), yet in Tw. IV, 2, 76, it probably has the ordinary meaning. unpossessing. Incapable of inheriting; not lawful issue, and therefore, as Blackstone says : " nullius filius, and therefore of kin to nobody." Lr. II 1, 79. usurp. To counterfeit ; to assume that which does not belong to one. Shr. Ind., I, 131; Tw. I, 5, 198; do. V, 1, 257. An usurped beard = a false beard. 0th. I, 3, 346. VEAL. Upon this word, as used in LLL. V, 2, 247, Vea.l, quoth the Dutchman, Malone says: "I sup- pose by veal, she means well, sounded as foreigners usually pronounce that word ; and introduced merely for the sake of the subsequent question. " Bos- well adds: The same joke occurs in The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll : Doctor : ' ' Hans, my very speciall friend ; fait and trot me be right glad for to see you ueaZe." Hans: "What, do you make a calfe of me, M. Doctor ? " WAL 4:26 WRO WALL. Icicles hang by the wall when they hang from the eaves of a building. LLL. V, 2, 923. well advised. This expression, as it occurs in LLL. V, 2, 434, is explained by Rolfe as "probably = in your right mind. c/. Err. II, 2, 215: 'mad or well advis'd.' See also RIII. I, 3, 318. The ordinary sense of ' acting with due deliberation,' which most editors give here, seems rather tame." whale. The expression in All's. IV, 8, 249, who is a whale to virginity^ is thought by Douce to refer to the story of Andromeda, who, in obedi- ence to the oracle of Amnion, was chained to a rock so that she might be devoured by a sea monster. See Perseus. Douce tells us that in the old prints the monster was very fre- quently represented as a whale. But the allusion to "small fry" and the fact that the whale devours so many of them renders this explanation doubtful. The comparison in LLL. V, 2, 332, as white as a whalers hone, probably owed its origin to the fact that "the ivory of western Europe in the middle ages was the tooth of the walrus." Nares. The simile was a very common one, and is employed by Spenser, Lord Surrey and others. In Turberville's Poems (1567) we find : A little mouth with decent chin, A CO rail lip of hue With teeth as white as whale his bone Ech one in order due. window'd. 1. Placed in a window for exhibition. Ant. IV, 14, 72. 2. Full of holes or windows. Lr. Ill, 4, 31. The original sense of window is "wind-eye," i.e., eye or hole for the wind to enter at; an opening for air and light. Skeat. witch. The phrase, I forgive thee for a witch (Ant. I, 2, 40), is "from the common proverbial reproach to silly, ignorant females— ' you'll never be burnt for a witch. ' ' ' Steevens. When Sir Hugh Evans (Wiv. IV, 2, 202) says of the disguised Falstaff , By yea or no, I think the ^oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a ''onian has a great pear d; I spy a. great pear d under his 7nuffler, he refers to a recognised characteristic of the witch. Thus, in The Honest Man''s Fortune, it is said : "The women that come to us for dis- guises must wear beards, and that's to ' say a token of a witch." wit=snapper. One who affects repartee. Johnson. "One hunting after wit." Schmidt. Merch. Ill, 5, 55. wooden O. This expression, as found in HV., Prol. 13, refers to the Globe theatre, so called because of its hexagonal or nearly round shape. See theatre and O, and also Globe in the Addenda. wooden thing. " An awkward business ; an undertaking not likely to succeed." Steevens. IHVI. V, 3, 89. word. Steevens tells us that when Hamlet says (Hml. 1, 5, 110), ^^ Now to my word: it is '■Adieu, adieu! remember me,' he evidently alludes to the watchword given every day in military service. The ghost had already, in line 91, given him these words. But it would rather seem that by "word" here Hamlet intends a . motto or maxim, as in RIII. V, 3, 349, our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George, Inspire %is. The term watchword is used in both senses, but I think Hamlet uses it here in the second sense and not in that given by Steevens. Dowden suggests that it means "word of command" as given by the ghost. world. The expression found in LLL. V, 2, 799, To make a world-without-end bargain in, means an everlasting, never-ending bargain, alluding, no doubt, to the words of the marriage service "till death do you part." wroth. To our previous explanation of this word, as found in Merch. II, 9, 78, we may add : It is wroath in the PI. ; White thinks it is "used .somewhat in its radical sense, which connects it with the idea of suffering." Steevens tells us that " wroath is used in some of the old books for misfortiuie ; and is often YIE 427 GOO spelt like ruth, which at present signi- fies only pity or sorrow for the miseries of another.''^ YIELD. Referring to the explanation which I have given of this word, as it occurs in Lr. IV, 1, 12, the ob- jection has been made that it calls for an emendation — yeild for yield. But the accepted reading, yield, is quite as much an emendation as yeild. It is yeelde in the Fl. The usually accepted meaning of yield in this passage is that given by Schm. — "to submit," and the reading then would be "life would not submit to age," which cer- tainly is not a forcible expression. Now, when Sh. uses language he generally employs it to express some very clearly defined thought, and if we adopt the old word the meaning is clear and strong and to the point. Moberly 's explanation of this line (adopted by Rolf e) does not seem to me to quite meet the point. It is : " We so hate life that we gladly find ourselves lapsing into old age and ap- proaching death, which will deliver us from it. ' ' The verb to eild, meaning to grow old, is used by the old Scottish poet, Douglas, in his translation of " Virgil ": All thocht he eildit was, or step in age. In Vol. I of Jamieson's Diet. (4 Vols., 4to., 1808) the definition of eild is "to wax old." The y is a common prefix to words of this kind and is often used by Sh. The word eld, signifying old age or old people, occurs in Wiv. IV, 4, 36. bed. Upon the line in Peste's closing song, But when I came unto my beds (Tw. V, 1, 410), Hallivvell has this note from Overbury's " New and Choice Characters " (1615) : " It is said among the folkes heere, that if a man die in his infancsy, hee hath onely broke his fast in this world. If in his youth, hee hath left us at dinner. That it is bedde time with a man at three score and tenne." dolphin. Under this word reference is made to All's. II, 3, 31, and I have adopted Malone's explanation that " dol- phin " here means the so-called "fish " of that name, in support of which he quotes Ant. V, 2, 89. Steevens, how- ever, thinks the reference is to the dauphin, the heir to the throne, a young man who would be likely to be healthy and lusty. The Clarkes, in their ed. of Sh., think there is a punning allusion to both, but in their "Shakespeare Key " they adopt the dauphin sense. Qood morrow. In the year 1883 Mrs. Henry Pott published a book entitled "The Promus of Formularies and Elegancies," by Francis Bacon. This was a sort of common-place book in which Bacon had jotted down various ideas and expressions, presumably for future use, and amongst others was a collection of about a dozen difi'erent forms of salutation such as "good morning," "bon jour," "bon soir," etc. Upon this Mrs. Pott based the amazing assertion that such forms of salutation as "good moi'ning" and "good evening" were not in use in England until introduced by Bacon. See Mrs. Pott's "Introductory Chap.," page 61. And in a work recently issued we are gravely told that " it is evident that Bacon was making an effort in 1594-96 to introduce salutations of this kind into English speech." And again: " ' Grood morrow,' which, it is believed, had been used but once before in England, as a salutation [! !], occurs one hundred and fifteen times in them," i.e., the plays. Mrs. Pott, however, in her book. H£B 428 SUN gives two instances, one from Gascoigne (1587) and one as early as 1548, in the "Interlude" of John Bon and Mast Person. The latter begins : Tlie Parson : " What, John Bon! Good Morrowe to thee." John Bon : " Nowe good morrowe, Mast Parson, so mut I thee." Both these cases she rejects, however, the latter on the ground that it does not appear to have been "used as a morning salutation " ! ! But in Stanihurst's description of Ireland, embodied in Holinshed's "Chronicle"' (1586), the writer tells us that the Irish had by that time borrowed this very phrase from the English and incorporated it in their own language. His words are : ' ' They vse also the con- tracted English phrase, God morrow, that is to sale, God giue you a good morning." And Sh. himself, in 2HVI. Ill, 1, 13, tells us that a morning salutation was common in his time and that the omis- sion of it gave great offence. The words are: * * * and be it in the morning When every one will give the time of day. One of the most dangerous assertions that a literary man can make is to say positively that a certain word or form of words was not in use prior to a cer- tain date. Ingleby, White and several others have tripped up on this. Herculean Roman. Antony traced his descent from Anton, a son of Hercules. Steevens. Ant. I, 3, 84. Hence his reference to his "ancestor," Alcides. Ant. IV, 12, 44. See Alcides. homager. A vassal. Ant. I, 1, 31. moment. Reason; motive. Ant. I, 2, 147. pole. Probably a quarter-staff. LLL. V, 2, 700. The epithet ' ' northern man ' ' is said by some to refer to men of the North of England because they were skilful with the quarter - staff . But the quarter-staff was in use all over England. Strutt mentions the London apprentices and men of Devonshire. Farmer thinks the expression is equiva- lent to "clown," — Vir Borealis. See 3rd Var., IV, 449. sacks. The expression, more sacks to the mill (LLL. IV, 3, 81), is said to refer to a boyish game. serpent. When Cleopatra, in Ant. I, 5, 25, says: Or murmuring '■'■Where'^s my serpent of old Nile ? " she does not use the term "serpent" as indicative of cunning, wisdom, or coiling seduc- tiveness, but as referring to the emblem of Egyptian royalty which is frequently seen as part of the head-dress of kings and divinities in old sculptures. See aspic in Addenda. This is one of those delicate touches which show how thoroughly Sh: identi- fied himself with the feelings and habits of thought of each of his characters. When he puts a speech into the mouth of Cleopatra he becomes, for the time being, the Egyptian queen ; when he writes the philosophy of Hamlet, he becomes veritably Hamlet ; and when he displays the ignorant, but honest, jealousy of Othello or the cunning of lago, he, for the moment, transforms his whole being into an Othello or an lago. And this, it has always seemed to me, is in a large measure the secret of his tremendous power. shave. The expression, I would not shave''t to-day (Ant. II, 2, 8), means, I would not take even that trouble out of respect for him. See line 229 in same Scene, barber''d ten times o''er. skipping. Frivolous; light; unsteady. LLL. V, 2, 771 ; Merch. II, 2, 196. sun. The expression, get the sun of them (LLL. IV, 3, 369), is thus explained by Malone: "In the days of archery, it was of consequence to have the sun at the back of the bowmen, and in the face of the enemy. This circumstance was of great advantage to our Henry the Fifth at the battle of Agincourt. Our poet, however, I believe had also an equivoque in his thoughts." 740 '% ^< A^ ^^„^#' X^>r * '"^ '^^ -J^ , ■^ > Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process , Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Feb. 2nnQ -.< -S'^^ ^<^,^ -> -^^^ ■y :M) .»t;uiiaiiiiiiy dgeni: Magnesi Treatment Date: Feb. 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111 ,<^^ .0 ^^ (P' ^ V 1 0^' ^^^ -% ^^ V^' o o %* -^^ ^ ^ '^^ * /. ^ '%<^^ :SM.^.^^ %A^ ^ .^^' '^y>. <. ^ ^ X ^ A ■i -^ •^/. '^/ .. o ^^o <> fdl//Z^ ^ '-5- ^\ '-^^ ■/- >-■ V 0^ ,-''"« '-^^ .hv -f^/ "^^^^.^ a-^" -"^ ^ ^'^ d^^^^' <^ 0' V ^ ,v xP •\^ -^ '^/ v^^ :.'%. -^j"-<' X _ V, V -^ ''' ^^^"^^-^^ ^^ !1^ " "^, .:^ <^i '^ v^ % ■^oo"^ ,#• C^- :>> *