I don’t know how many of you have read through Shakespeare and glossed over all the words you don’t know, but here’s where I can help a little. Not because of my own knowledge. Oh no. No, I’ve got this handy book that’ll give it to me so I can give it to you. Hopefully this will help in some of the Elizabethan Slang we all get lost in. Maybe joking about maids and maidenheads will be a little funnier to us now. … Probably not.
Abuse (N): Insult, error, offense, crime, deception
“Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse [Or self-deception]
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
We are yet but young in deed.
thanks! Ami” –Macbeth
Abuse (V): Deceive, misapply, maltreat
“Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse [wicked dreams misuse]” –Macbeth
Addition: Something added to one’s name to denote rank; mark of distinction; title
“A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-faking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deny’st the least syllable of thy addition[title]“ –King Lear
Admire: Wonder at
“Celerity is never more admired [or wondered at] than by the negligent”–Antony and Cleopatra
Affect: Aim at, aspire to, incline toward; be fond of; love
“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en. In brief, sir, study what you most affect.”–The Taming of the Shrew
Alarum (A word I’m certain none of us have ever heard before): Signal calling soldiers to arms (in stage directions) (Ah, and that is why. It’s a stage direction specifically meant for soldiers. We’ll keep that in mind for Macbeth)
Anon: At once, soon
“Nurse:
[Within] Madam!
Juliet:
I come, anon“–Romeo and Juliet
Answer: Return, atone for; obey, agree with
“That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I’ll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer [atoning for].” –Measure for Measure
Argument: Subject, theme, reason, cause; story; excuse
“You have heard of the news abroad; I mean the whisper’d ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments? [Only talked about stories]“–King Lear
Assay: Try, attempt; address; challenge
“Why then tonight let us assay [challenge] our plot”–All’s Well That Ends Well
Atone: Reconcile; set at one
“I would do much to atone for them”–Othello
Attach: Arrest, seize
“Every man attach the hand of his fair mistress” –Love’s Labor’s Lost
Aweful, Awful: Commanding reverential fear or respect; profoundly respectful or reverential
“We come within our awful banks again”–King Henry IV
Woof. That’s a lot of glossarizing. Let’s stop for today, eh? A.
Abuse (N): Insult, error, offense, crime, deception
“Come, we’ll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse [Or self-deception]
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use:
We are yet but young in deed.
thanks! Ami” –Macbeth
Abuse (V): Deceive, misapply, maltreat
“Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse [wicked dreams misuse]” –Macbeth
Addition: Something added to one’s name to denote rank; mark of distinction; title
“A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-faking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deny’st the least syllable of thy addition[title]“ –King Lear
Admire: Wonder at
“Celerity is never more admired [or wondered at] than by the negligent”–Antony and Cleopatra
Affect: Aim at, aspire to, incline toward; be fond of; love
“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en. In brief, sir, study what you most affect.”–The Taming of the Shrew
Alarum (A word I’m certain none of us have ever heard before): Signal calling soldiers to arms (in stage directions) (Ah, and that is why. It’s a stage direction specifically meant for soldiers. We’ll keep that in mind for Macbeth)
Anon: At once, soon
“Nurse:
[Within] Madam!
Juliet:
I come, anon“–Romeo and Juliet
Answer: Return, atone for; obey, agree with
“That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,
If that be sin, I’ll make it my morn prayer
To have it added to the faults of mine,
And nothing of your answer [atoning for].” –Measure for Measure
Argument: Subject, theme, reason, cause; story; excuse
“You have heard of the news abroad; I mean the whisper’d ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments? [Only talked about stories]“–King Lear
Assay: Try, attempt; address; challenge
“Why then tonight let us assay [challenge] our plot”–All’s Well That Ends Well
Atone: Reconcile; set at one
“I would do much to atone for them”–Othello
Attach: Arrest, seize
“Every man attach the hand of his fair mistress” –Love’s Labor’s Lost
Aweful, Awful: Commanding reverential fear or respect; profoundly respectful or reverential
“We come within our awful banks again”–King Henry IV
Woof. That’s a lot of glossarizing. Let’s stop for today, eh? A.
