PREFACE

The steady advance towards completion of the great Oxford English Dictionary has made it possible for the Delegates of the Clarendon Press to authorize the preparation and issue of this book, which is primarily the outcome of an analysis of Shakespeare's vocabulary conducted in the light of the results published in the Dictionary. The application of these results to the making of a glossary to a single author, if it is to have an independent value and to be true to the facts, must not be a mere mechanical transference of definitions and classifications of meanings such as an industrious compiler might make with small expenditure of time and labour. Such a work as is here attempted is one of diificulty and delicacy, and there are pitfalls even for the expert ; but, relying upon a fifteen years' experience on the editorial staff of the Dictionary, I have allowed myself a wide freedom of adaptation, and trust at the same time to have escaped such errors as would be almost inevitable if a task of this kind were undertaken by one who knew the great book only from the outside and had no adequate training in lexicographical method.

The aim of the Shakespeare glossary now presented to the reader is to supply definitions and illustrations of words or senses of words now obsolete or surviving only in provincial or archaic use, together with explanations of others involving allusions not generally familiar, and of proper names carrying with them some connotative signification or offering special interest or difficulty in the passages in which they occur. Senses still current in general literature have also been occasionally illustrated, chiefly where there is contextual obscurity, or where it seemed desirable, for one reason or another, to give a complete conspectus of a word that has many ramifications of meaning. Words of this last class have received very diverse treatment according to the circumstances of their usage ; but a feature common to the greater number of them is the introduction of the scheme of meanings by a statement indicating how far Shakespeare's uses are those of his contemporaries or are peculiar to him, what senses are first exemplified —as far as present evidence shows—in his works or in those of Elizabethan writers generally, what is the relative frequency of the various senses, or supplying information of a more general character as to their status or origin. The elucidation of idiom, the definition of colloquial phrases, and the detailed illustration of specialized uses of pronouns and of the so-called particles, are points on which I have bestowed much care. I have throughout recorded any important readings and spellings of the original folio and quarto editions, as well as conjectural emendations, even when these are certainly wrong, as is the case with Pope's widely accepted marish. It is hoped that this information as to variant readings will enable the student to take his first steps in textual criticism, and will give him an insight into the problems that have to be solved in establishing the text. I have also made it a part of my plan to bring together evidence to show the relation of the poet's vocabulary to that of the dialects of the midland area, and in particular the dialect of his own county, Warwickshire. Interesting, and here and there entirely fresh, information on this head will be found under the words ballow, Basimecu, batlet, blood-bolter'd, bum-baily, chop, door, elder-gun, father, gallow, geck, grow to (p. 256), honey-stalks, line sb.1, mobled, muss, pash, potch, sheep, sight, soiled, tarre, vails, wheel. Among articles in which non-midland dialects have been drawn upon to illustrate the status or interpretation of a word may be mentioned dispurse, handsaw, overscutched, side vb. In one noteworthy instance—that of minnick or minnock—a collation of dialect evidence has led to the tentative restoration of a word which has been almost universally excluded from the text since the time of Johnson, who regarded it as a genuine word and the right reading. Another special feature of this glossary is that it includes obsolete or technical terms that occur only in stage directions, for example sennet. The common view has been that these form no part of what Shakespeare wrote, but their appearance in the oldest editions of the plays seemed to me sufficient ground for treating them here.

One who enters at this time of day upon so well worked a field of investigation as the language of Shakespeare can hope to do little more in the direction of novelty or originality than present a comparatively few points with a greater degree of clearness or certainty than has been achieved by his many predecessors. The following articles in the present book may, however, be referred to as recording words or facts about words that have been either ignored or imperfectly explained by many previous glossarists :—a-life, enew (a palmary emendation of Keightley's), great-belly and thin-belly doublet, minnick (referred to above), relish (=to warble), salt rheum, the verb sol-fa, washing (= swashing). A long list might be given of words concerning which I have been able to supply information not usually accessible in books of this kind, or to bring forward suggestions to some extent new, bearing upon a textual question or an interpretation ; the following are selected as typical :—accommodation, alarm alarum, Arthur's show, bloat, the two participial adjectives compact, the two adjectives dear, dismal, foregone conclusion, greenfields (see FIELD), holy-ale, hue, humour, inn, Lethe, metal mettle, nonce, ordinate, Provincial rose, Roman hand, the adjective royal, Salique, scrowl, spright sprite, steppe, three-man-song-men, tidy, token, tract, the verb trash, travail travel, unbraided, vale, weird sisters, whinid'st, wilful-blanie, worldly, wot.

This glossary contains considerably more matter than any other select glossary of similar scope, and it is expected that many who glance over its pages will express the opinion that it takes in more than is necessary for the guidance of a reader of average literary knowledge ; but a careful examination made with a view to ascertaining what proportion of the vocabulary here dealt with can be truly described as present-day English will prove such a criticism to be ill-founded. And here it may not be out of place to suggest a method of study to the serious student to whom an accurate and even minute knowledge of the meaning of the poet's words is no bar to the enjoyment of his poetry. He will do well from time to time to examine the articles in the glossary, especially the longer ones and those concerned with words of Latin origin, apart from the reading of any Shakespearian text ; he will in this way discover how much he is in danger of missing or misunderstanding, and will gradually acquire that attitude of alertness which is essential to the appreciation of the richness and subtlety of Elizabethan English.

To make a selection of words and meanings that should satisfy all, and to carry out their illustration in a perfectly consistent manner, would be alike imjjossible, even with an expenditure of double the time that has been given to the present book, the compilation of which has occupied the full working days of a year and a half. It is hoped, however, that the oversights and inconsistencies inevitable in a book which, although of slender dimensions, comprises close upon ten thousand separate articles, will not prove to be so numerous or so serious as to impair its general accuracy and usefulness.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Of the lexical works devoted to Shakespeare I am chiefly indebted to Schmidt's Shakespeare-Lexicon and Bartlett's Concordance. For textual matters the Cambridge Shakespeare has of course been indispensable. The commentaries from which I have derived the greatest help are those of the Clarendon Press series of select plays, edited by W. Aldis Wright and W. G. Clark, and those of the Arden Shakespeare, of which the volumes by the late H. C. Hart must be specially mentioned for the wealth of illustrative quotation which is distributed among the notes. In investigating technical terms I have had recourse as far as possible to treatises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but I have frequently turned with advantage to Rushton's Shakespeare a Lawyer, and Shakespeare and Music by Dr. E. W. Naylor, who has kindly allowed me to consult him on some musical difficulties.

In the preparation of material and the verification of references I have been assisted throughout by Mr. J. W. Birt, of the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary.

                C. T. O.

    May, 1910.

§1. SHAKESPEARIAN EDITORS, COMMENTATORS, AND CRITICS.

Campbell (Thomas) 1777-1844 ; ed. 1838.

Capell (Edward) 1713-81 ; ed. 1768.

Chalmers (Alexander) 1759-1834; ed. 1805.

Clark (W. G.), Glover (J.), and Wright (W. A.) ; ed. 1863-6 [theCambridge Shakespeare], reissued 1891-3.

Clark (W. G. and Wright (W. A.); ed. 1866 [the Globe edition] ; 1868, &c. [select plays, Clarendon Press series].

Clarke (Charles and Mary Cowden); ed. 1860, 1864.

Collier (John Payne) 1789-1883 ; ed. 1844.

Craig (William James) died 1906 ; ed. 1892 [the Oxford Shakespeare].

Delius (Nicolaus) ; ed. 1854 ; 1877 [the Leopold Shakespeare].

Dowden (Edward) living ; ed. plays in the Arden Shakespeare; poems 1903.

Dyce (Alexander) 1798-1869; ed. 1857.

Farmer (Richard) 1735-97.

Furness (Horace Howard) sen. and jun.; ed. 1871, &c.

Halliwell (James Orchard) 1820-89; ed. 1851-3.

Hanmer (Sir Thomas) 1677-1746; ed. 1743-4.

Harness (William) 1790-1869; ed. 1825.

Hart (H. Chichester) died 1908 ; ed. plays in the Arden Shakespeare.

Heath (Benjamin) 1704-66.

Hudson (Henry Norman) 1814-86; ed. 1851-6.

Johnson (Samuel) 1691-1773 ; ed.1765.

Keightley (Thomas) 1789-1872; ed. 1865.

Knight (Charles) 1791-1873; ed. 1839-42, 1867.

Malone (Edmund) 1741-1812; ed. 1790 ; edited by James Boswell the younger 1821 [the third variorum edition],

Nares (Robert) 1753-1829.

Pope (Alexander) 1688-1744 ; ed. 1725.

Reed (Isaac) 1742-1807 ; ed. 1785 ; 1803 [the first variorum edition] ; 1813 with notes by Malone [the second variorum].

Rolfe (William James) ; ed. 1871-96 [the Friendly edition].

Rowe (Nicholas) 1674-1718 ; ed. 1709.

Schmidt (Alexander) 1816-87 ; Shakespeare-Lexicon 1874-5, 1886; 1902.

Singer (Samuel Weller) 1783-1858; ed. 1826.

Spedding (James) 1808-81.

Staunton (Howard) 1810-74 ; 1858-60.

Steevens (George) 1736-1800 ; with Johnson 1773.

Theobald (Lewis) 1688-1744; 1733.

Walker (AVilliam Sidney) 1795-1846.

Warburton (William) 1698-1779; ed. 1747.

White (Richard Grant) 1821-85 ; ed. 1857-9, 1883.

Wright (W. Aldis) : see Clark.

Wyndham (George) living; ed. poems 1898.

§2. AUTHORS AND WORKS CITED.

Ascham (Roger) 1515-68; Toxophilus [treatise on archery] 1545.

Bacon (Sir Francis) 1561-1626.

Bailey (Nathaniel) died 1742 ; An Universal Etymological English Dictionary 1721, &c.

Baret (John) died 1580 (?) ; An Alvearie or triple Dictionarie, in Englishe, Latin, and French 1573 ; An Alvearie or quadruple dictionarie, containing foure sundrie tongues, English, Latine, Greeke, and French 1580.

Blount (Thomas) 1618-79 ; Glossographia; or a Dictionary interpreting all such hard words, of whatsoever language, now used in our refined English tongue 1656, 1661, 1674, &c.; Νομο-Λεξικον; a Law-Dictionary 1670, 1691.

Blundeville (Thomas) ; The Art of Riding [with] The Order of Curing Horses diseases 1580.

Borde (Andrew) died 1549 ; A compendyous Regyment or Dyetary of Helth 1542.

Botoner or Worcester (William) 1415-82 (?); Itinerarium.

Bourne (William) died 1583 ; A Regiment for the Sea : conteyning most profitable rules ... of navigation 1574.

Breton (Nicholas) 1545 (?)-1626(?).

Browne (Sir Thomas) 1605-82.

Caxton (William) died 1491.

Chapman (George) 1559 (?)-1634.

Chaucer (Geoffrey) died 1400.

Coke (Sir Edward) 1552-1634 ; The First Part of the Institvtes of the Lawes of England 1628.

Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall 1604.

Copley (Anthony) 1567-1607 (?) ; A Fig for Fortune 1596.

Cotorave (Handle) died 1634 (?); A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues 1611 [cited as Cotgr.]; (another edition) Whereunto is also annexed, a dictionarie of the English set before the French by S[herwood] 1632 [cited as Sherwood].

Coverdale (Miles) translator of the Bible 1488-1568.

Cowell (John) 1554-1611 ; The Interpreter ; or Booke containing the signification of Words . . . mentioned in the Lawe-writers or Statutes 1607.

Cudworth (Ralph) 1617-88.

Daniel (Samuel) 1562-1619.

Day (John) ; The Ile of Gvls 1606.

Dictionary (A New) of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew. By B. E. Gent, about 1700.

Douglas (Gawin) died 1522.

Drayton (Michael) 1563-1631 ; The Moone-Calfe 1627; Dowsabel 1593.

Dryden (John) 1631-1700.

Dymmok (John) ; A Treaties of Ireland, about 1600.

Elyot (Sir Thomas) died 1546; The Dictionary of syr Thomas Eliot knyght 1538.

Evans (A. B. and S.); Leicestershire Words, Phrases and Proverbs 1881.

Fletcher (John) 1579-1625 ; The Woman hater 1607 ; The Spanish Curate, about 1622.

Florio (John) died 1625 ; A Worlde of Wordes, or most copious and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English 1598, (enlarged ed.) 1611.

Foxe (John) 1516-87 ; Actes and Monuments of these latter and perillous dayes 1563, 1570, &c. [kuown as `The Book of Martyrs'].

Fuller (Thomas) 1608-61 ; The Church-History of Britain 1655.

Gascoigne (George) died 1577 ; The delectable history of Dan Bartholomew of Bath 1572-5.

Gerarde (John) 1545-1612; The Herball, or generall historie of plantes 1597.

Golding (Arthur) died 1605 (?); The XV. Bookes of P. Ovidius Naso entytuled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into English meeter 1567.

Greene (Robert) died 1592 ; The Scottish Historie of James the fourth.

Guillim (John) 1565-1621 ; A Display of Heraldrie 1610

Hall (Edward) died 1547; The Union of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre and Yorke. [ = Hall's Chronicle.]

Hall (Joseph) 1574-1656 ; Virgidemiarum, sixe bookes of . . . satyrs 1597.

Harsnet (Samuel) 1561-1631 ; A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures . . . vnder the pretence of casting out diuels 1603.

Harvey (Gabriel) 1550 (?)-1631.

Heslop (Oliver) ; Northumberland Words 1892-4.

Heywood (John) died 1580 (?) ; A Dialogue, conteyninge the number in effecte of all the Proverbes in the Englishe tunge 1561.

Hoccleve (Tliomas) died 1450 (?).

Holinshed (Raphael) died 1580 (?); The Chronicles of Englande, Scotlands, and Irelande 1577.

Holland (Philemon) 1552-1637 ; The Historie of the World, commonly called the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus 1601 ; The Philosophie, commonly called the Morals, wi-itten by . . . Plutarch of Chaeronea 1603.

Holme (Randle) 1627-99; The Academy of Armory, or a storehouse of armory and blazon 1688.

Jonson (Ben) 1573(?)-1637 ; Epigrams, published 1616 and 1640.

Kyd (Thomas) 1558-94 ; The Tragedie of Soliman and Perseda 1592.

Latham (Simon) flourished 1618 ; Lathams Falconry, or the Faulcons Lure and Cure 1615-18.

Leland (John) died 1552 ; Itinerarium [1534-43].

Lily (William) died 1522; Brevissima Institvitio [Latin grammar].

Marlowe (Christopher) 1564-93 ; The Jew of Malta, about 1590; Tamburlaine 1587-8.

Middleton (Thomas) died 1627 ; The Roaring Girle 1611.

Milton (John) 1608-74; Paradise Lost 1667.

Minsheu (John) flourished 1600-17; Ἡγεμὼν εἰς τὰς γλῶσσας, id est Ductor in Linguas, The Gvide into Tongves 1617.

More (Sir Thomas) 1478-1535.

Nashe (Thomas) 1567-1601.

North (Thomas) died 1601 (?) ; Tho Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes, compared together by . . . Plutarche of Chaeronea: translated out of Greeke into French by J. Amyot, . . . Bishop of Auxerre . . . and out of French into Englishe by T. North 1579.

Overbury (Sir Thomas) 1581-1613.

Palsgrave (John) died 1554; Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse 1530. [French grammar and vocabulary ; cited as Palsgr.]

Peele (George) died 1597 (?) ; The Turkish Mahamet and Hyrin the fair Greek.

Randolph (Thomas) 1605-35.

Ray (John) 1627-1705; A Collection of English Words not generally used ... in two Alphabetical Catalogues. The one of such as are proper to the Northern, the other to the Southern Counties 1674.

Rider (John) 1562-1632 ; Bibliotheca Scholastica, a double Dictionarie. Penned for all those that would have within short space the use of the Latin Tongue, either to speake or write 1589.

Robyn Hode (A Lytell Geste of), about 1500.

Sherwood : see Cotgrave.

Skelton (John) died 1529 ; A . . . tratyse vpon a goodly Garlando or Chapelet of Laurell 1523 ; The boke of Phyllyp Sparowe.

Skinner (Stephen) 1623-67 ; Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae 1671.

Smith (Sir Thomas) 1513-77 ; The Common Welth of England 1583.

Smyth (Sir John) 1534(?)-1607; Certain Discourses . . . concerning the formes and effects of diuers sorts of Weapons, and other verie important matters Militarie 1590.

Spenser (Edmund) died 1599 ; The Faerie Queene 1590-6.

Sternhold (Thomas) and Hopkins (John) ; The whole booke of Psalmes collected into Englyshe Meter 1564.

Stow (John) died 1605 ; A breviat Chronicle contaynynge all the Kynges 1561.

Stubbes (Philip) flourished 1581-93; The Anatomie of Abuses 1583.

Swetnam (Joseph) ; Swetnam the woman-hater, arraigned by women 1620.

Torriano (Giovanni); Vocabolario Italiano & Inglese, a Dictionary Italian & English 1659.

Wright (Thomas) 1810-77 ; Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English 1857.

§3. TEXT AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE QUOTATIONS.

The text used in the illustrative quotations is that of the Oxford Shakespeare, edited by W. J. Craig, except in a few instances where it has been set aside for some special reason. Where its numeration of act, scene, and line differs greatly from that of other widely used editions, a second reference is given within square brackets ; so that the Glossary is available for all unabridged editions of the works.

Variant readings, and interpretations of particular quotations, are placed within round brackets ; words inserted to complete the sense within square brackets; ' &c.' following a quotation reference indicates that more examples occur in the same play or poem.

Paraphrases of passages which are quoted very briefly or indicated by a reference only are sometimes given between inverted commas, e.g. ADVANTAGE sb. 3.

§4. ABBEEVIATIONS OF TITLES OF PLAYS AND POEMS.

Ado = Much Ado about Nothing

All'sW. = All's Well that Ends Well

Ant. = Antony and Cleopatra

Arg. = Argument

AYL. = As You Like It

Caes. = Julius Caesar

Chor. = Chorus

Compl. = A Lover's Complaint

Cor. = Coriolanus

Cym. = Cymbeline

Ded. = Dedication

Epil. = Epilogue

Err. = The Comedy of Errors

Gent. = The Two Gentlemen of Verona

1H4 = The First Part of King Henry IV

2H4 = The Second Part of King Henry IV

H5 = The Life of King Henry V

1H6 = The First Part of King Henry VI

2H6 = The Second Part of King Henry VI

3H6 = The Third Part of King Henry VI

H8 = The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII

Ham. = Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Ind. = Induction

John = The Life and Death of King John

LLL. = Love's Labour 's Lost

Lr. = King Lear

Lucr. = The Rape of Lucrece

Mac. = Macbeth

Meas. = Measure for Measure

Mer.V. = The Merchant of Venice

MND. = A Midsummer-Night's Dream

Oth. = Othello, the Moor of Venice

Per. = Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Phoen. = The Phoenix and the Turtle

Pilgr. = The Passionate Pilgrim

Prol. = Prologue

R2 = The Tragedy of King Richard II

R3 = The Tragedy of King Richard III

Rom. = Romeo and Juliet

Shr. = The Taming of the Shrew

Sonn. = Sonnets

Sonn. Music = Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music

Tim. = Timon of Athens

Tit. = Titus Andronicus

Tp. = The Tempest

Troil. = Troilus and Cressida

Tw.N. = Twelfth-Night; or, What You Will

Ven. = Venus and Adonis

Wint. = The Winter's Tale

Wiv. = The Merry Wives of Windsor

§5. ABBEEVIATIONS OF TECHNICAL TEEMS.

absol. = absolute(ly), i.e. without some usual construction, as a verb without an object, an adjective without a noun

adj. = adjective

adv. = adverb

advb. = adverbial(ly)

app. = apparently

arch. = archaic

attrib. = attributive(ly)

c., cent. = century

cf. = confer, compare

comb. = in combination (with another noun)

comm. = commentators

comp. = compound

concr. = concrete

conj. = (1) conjecture(s), (2) conjunction

constr. = (1) construed with, (2) consti-uction

corr. = corruption

Cotgr. = Cotgrave (see above, p. viii)

dial. = dialect(s), dialectal(ly)

e. g. = for example

edd. = editions

Eliz. = Elizabethan (see p. xii)

ellipt. = elliptical(ly)

esp. = especially

etym., etymol. = etymology, etymological

exx. = examples

F₁F1, &c., Ff = (see p. xii)

fig. = figurative(ly)

foll. = following

Fr. = French

freq. = frequent(Iy)

gen. = general(ly)

i. e. = id est, that is

imper. = imperative

impers. = impersonal

interj. = interjection

intr. = intransitive

It. = Italian

J. = Johnson (see above, p. vii)

L. = Latin

lit. = literal(Iy)

midl. = midland

mod. = modern

mod. edd. = modern editions (from Rowe, 1709, onwards)

obj. = object

obs. = obsolete

occas. = occasional(ly)

O.Fr. = Old French

orig. = original(ly)

Palsgr. = Palsgrave (see above, p. ix)

pa. pple. = past participle

pass. = passive

pa. t. = past tense

phr. = phrase(s)

pl. = plural

post-S. = post-Shakespearian

ppl. adj. = participial adjective

pple. = participle

pre-Eliz. = pre-Elizabethan

pre-S. = pre-Shakespearian

prec. = preceding

prep. = preposition

prob. = probably

Q₁Q1, &c., Qq = (see p. xii)

q. v. = quod vide, which see

ref. = (1) reference, (2) referred, (3) referring

refl. = reflexive

S. = (1) Shakespeare, (2) Shakespearian (see p. xii)

sb. = substantive

scil. = scilicet, that is to say

sing. = singular

spec. = specific(ally)

s.v. = sub verbo, under the word

syll. = syllable(s)

trans. = transitive

transf. = in a transferred sense

usu. = usual(ly)

vb. = verb

vbl. sb. = verbal substantive

viz. = videlicet, namely

§6. SIGNS, SYMBOLS, ETC.

* denotes a word, phrase, or passage the meaning of which is disputed. Alternative explanations of these are arranged under letters (a) (b) (c) ; see e.g. PURELY.

† denotes a conjectural emendation, e.g. MARISH†; or a form of a word substituted by modern editors for the form found in old editions, e. g. STATUA†.

' placed after a vowel marks the Shakespearian stressing of the word in question ; e. g. ASPE'CT ; u'nfelt, unfe'lt in the quotations s.v.

(S.), (Eliz.) placed immediately after a word or a definition mean that the word or the sense defined is peculiar to Shakespeare, characteristic of the Elizabethan period, respectively ; (not pre-S.), (not pre-Eliz.) are used with corresponding implication ; (once), (twice) = occurs only once, twice, in Shakespeare.

-----------------------

In the introductory note (immediately following the headword) of articles in which two or more meanings are treated, the meanings are referred to by their numbers, and the remarks appropriate to each are placed after the respective number. Thus, when expanded, the note s. v. CABIN vb. will read : With sense 1 compare sense 2 of the substantive CABIN ; sense 2 has been echoed by modern writers. The note s. v. LINE sb.1 : Sense 1 involves a metaphor from angling ; sense 7 is recorded only from Shakespeare.

Etymological statements are placed within square brackets. The term 'aphetic' is applied to a form produced by the loss of an unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word, e. g. LEGE, for 'allege'.

F₁F1, F₂F2, F₃F3, F₄F4 = 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Folio edition (of 1623, 1632, 1663, 1685, respectively) ; Ff =all the Folio editions.

Q₁Q1, Q₂Q2, &c. = 1st, 2nd, &c. Quarto edition; Qq = all the Quarto editions of a particular play or poem.

The method of recording variants is illustrated by the following examples: