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Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics)

Page 46

by William Shakespeare


  92 apprehensive: quick, intelligent

  93 purchase: profit

  100 wrong side: i.e. in the back

  108 use: prostitution

  112 beneficial perjury: lies for a good motive

  114 ports: gates

  119 worthily: appropriately

  120 pen: penis

  129 Unbraced: Clothes loosened

  134 inward: intimate

  146 additions: passages

  150 full sea: high tide

  151 juggling: sexual behaviour

  152 toll-book: record of animals sold at market and, thus, prostituted

  154 by water: i.e. by boat

  156 proclamation: squeaking hinges giving away the secret

  157 a-coining: being coined

  160 flow: talk smoothly

  169 Piato: Vindice’s alter ego; the word means, according to Florio’s Worlde of Wordes (1598): ‘made flat, razed or level to the ground, hidden, squatted, close, hushed, secret, lurking, cowering down flat’

  182 Shadows: Covers

  191 warily: secretly

  199 cross: thwart

  2 twisted: entwined

  7 ope: open

  12 heaves: groans

  14 in heaven: i.e. kill my soul because unconfessed

  25 forfend: forbid

  26 strumpet: ‘a debauched or unchaste woman’ (OED)

  27 ’file: defile

  37 SDdissemble a flight: leave stealthily

  49 out o’th’ socket: out of joint

  68 Puritan: Hypocritical

  90 sound: complete

  95 face: boldness

  96 Honey: Sweet words

  98 vildlier: more vilely

  107 moon: temporary madness

  122 lawn: thin linen

  128 suddenly: immediately

  147 denial: rejection

  148 hot: lecherous

  149 green: youthful

  7 skin: covering

  9 set by: put aside

  19 occasion: opportunity

  20 packed: finished off

  28 set an edge: prepare

  2 present: immediate

  12 betimes: early

  15 hies: comes near

  25 black: sinful

  4 unmindful: forgetful

  7 delivery: release

  19 lie in: with a pun on childbirth

  63 hate salt water: because of the dangers and unfamiliarity of the sea

  69 Duns: Duns Scotus, medieval theologian associated with specious arguments

  75 headsman: executioner

  78 cozens: tricks

  81 Stay: Hold

  85 sign: astrological sign

  4 ceiling: sky

  11 prates: babbles

  15 blushless: shameless

  17 shape: disguise

  27 missed me: left me out

  39 stoop: submit

  40 be common: be sexually experienced

  43 bare: bareheaded

  44SD tires: costume

  54 surfeiter: indulger

  75 lordships: estates

  77 falsify highways: obscure, perhaps suggesting highway robbery or impersonating the higher classes

  79 refine: make more refined

  80 valours: strengths

  85 self-affecting: vain

  86 Camphor: White, scented substance used as a cosmetic

  88 superfluous: excessive

  92 forgetful: not conscious of death

  102 property: stage prop

  110 quaintness: cunning

  113 sign: show

  116 fleets: leaves

  149 white devil: hypocrite

  171 slobbering: Q flobbering

  177 frowns: disfavour

  187 brow: location of the cuckold’s horns

  196 quitted: requited

  208 quittance: repay

  209 wink: close his eyes

  209 brooking: bearing

  213 Whist: Hush

  218 doubtful: uncertain

  224 hasped: embraced

  233 state: stately

  234 head: leader

  3 policy: strategy

  54 woo: persuade

  62 ’Las: Alas

  70 savour: smell

  113 murrain: plague

  9 humour: mood

  14 prefer: recommend

  15 wittily: wisely

  20 will: intentional

  25 Fie: Exclamation expressing disgust or reproach

  29 rac’d: scratched

  40 iron age: fetters

  50 apply: spend

  64 speed: kill

  96 toy: whim

  97 light: foolish

  98 oracle: truth

  2 shifts: roles; plots

  5 fallacy: error

  10 tongue: speech

  14 clad in clay: buried

  17 joy: enjoy

  21 fetch about: digress

  24 tripped: caught out

  25 doubtful: careful

  40 Beshrew me: The devil take me

  43SDlegs: bows

  45 don: Vindice’s country accent

  55 Anno quadragesimo secundo: forty-second year

  56 Anno sextagesimo tertio: sixty-third year

  59 pullin: poultry

  61 terms: Law Court sessions

  64 canvassed: heard before a judge

  65 Barbary: barbarous

  68 sasarara: legal term for an appeal to the highest court

  70 bent: tendency

  75 chest: treasury

  78 obligations: promissory notes for payment of money

  86 published: reputed

  107 colours: painting

  129 unbrace: reveal

  147 quit: requite

  147 wrought: worked, persuaded

  183 mark: sight

  218 vassals: feudal tenants

  224 cloven: hoofed, like the devil

  237 conveyed: transported; communicated

  248 sluggy: sluggish

  252 substantial: sound

  258 in grain: engrained, firm OSD seemeth: acts

  7 iron nipples: daggers

  10 quarled: soured

  11 Cut: Shorten

  41 nimble: quick-witted

  43 confuted: silenced; disproved

  46 give aim: in archery, to guide one in their aim

  57 infectious: infected

  66 seld: seldom

  68 wax: impressionable, malleable

  74 Green-coloured: Virginal

  75 hire: prostitution

  82 cold blood: calm reflection

  90 elf: spirit

  103 forehead: countenance, expression

  112 usury: associating prostitution with moneylending at interest

  130 intellectual: spiritual

  144 present: true

  158 try: test

  167 Be: Q buy glass: example

  4 lay: reckoning

  9 Michaelmas term: the law term had eight weeks; Vindice seems to imagine eight versions of their situation

  10 enow: enough

  11 single: alone

  13 flesh-flies: bluebottles; flatterers

  15 fly-flop: perhaps a fly-swat

  19 hugger-mugger: secretly

  20 catastrophe: the end of a tragedy

  24 paint: use make-up

  57 golls: hands

  60 nake: unsheathe

  65 bear us out: support us

  88 raiment: clothes

  96 geal’d: congealed

  114 prodigious: unlucky

  126 cast: rejected

  148 post-horse: swift couriers

  161 feet … twelves: tongues bigger than their feet

  187 firm: secure

  10 toward: imminent

  15 pattern: copy

  19 strain: of music

  23 Weightily: Heavily

  effectually: effectively

  OSD possessing: installation

  OSD blazing star: comet

  9 incontinent: lascivious

  12 subsidies: contributions

/>   23 bushing: spreading like a bush

  27 locks: the tail of the comet, like hair

  59 SD measure: stately dance

  89 Law: Expression of surprise

  96 marrow: food for revenge

  111 unlikely: unsuited

  114 silver age: in Greek mythology, an age of peace

  140 conscience: moral qualms

  150 witch: predictor of the future

  153 clipped: beheaded

  158 closed: concealed

 

 

 


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