68 th’embossèd … evils swellings and sores caused by venereal disease
70 disgorge vomit
71 pride sexual desire/arrogance
72 tax … party censure any particular individual
74 weary … ebb the very stuff it feeds on is exhausted and used up
77 cost of princes i.e. excessively costly garments
78 come in come forward in the law court/intervene
80 function occupation
81 bravery fine clothes
81 not … cost none of my business as I did not pay for it
82 suits fits/dresses
83 mettle spirit/substance
85 do him right speak truly of him
86 free innocent
89 Forbear stop
92 Of … of? Where has this young cockerel sprung from?
94 rude uncivilized
96 touched … first hit it with your first suggestion
98 inland bred civilized
99 nurture education, good upbringing
101 answerèd satisfied
102 reason may pun on “raisin” (grape), possibly part of the fruit at the meal
103 gentleness nobility/civilized conduct
109 countenance appearance/expression
112 melancholy dark, gloomy
115 knolled rung (to summon people)
119 enforcement constraint
126 upon command at will
127 wanting needs
133 weak causing weakness
136 waste consume
138 unhappy ill-fated
146 acts actions/divisions of a play
147 Mewling whimpering, mewing
153 strange foreign
153 bearded … pard with a bristling beard like a leopard’s whiskers
154 Jealous in quick to defend his
157 capon chicken (technically a castrated cockerel)
159 saws sayings
159 modern instances everyday examples
161 pantaloon in Italian comedy, the foolish elderly man who wore spectacles, pantaloons (type of trousers), and slippers
163 hose breeches
164 shank leg
166 his its
167 history history play/narrative
168 mere complete
169 Sans without
169 eyes eyesight
175 fall to eat
177.1 Song often sung by Amiens, assuming he is among the lords onstage for this scene
179 unkind cruel/unnatural
181 keen sharp
183 rude rough
189 nigh close
191 warp wrinkle/become corrugated by turning to ice
196 faithfully convincingly/truly
197 effigies likeness
198 limned portrayed
204 fortunes adventures
Act 3 Scene 1
3.1 Location: the court
1 him i.e. Orlando
2 better greater
2 made made of
3 argument subject
4 present being present (i.e. I would vent my wrath on you instead)
7 turn return
10 seizure taking legal possession of
11 quit … mouth acquit yourself by means of your brother’s own testimony
16 of … nature whose responsibility it is
17 Make … upon seize
18 expediently promptly
18 turn him going send him packing
Act 3 Scene 2
3.2 Location: the forest (where all remaining scenes are set)
2 thrice-crownèd … night the goddess of the moon, hunting, and chastity, known as Luna/Cynthia/Phoebe in the heavens, Diana/Artemis on earth, and Proserpina/Hecate/Lucina in the underworld
4 Thy huntress i.e. Rosalind
4 sway rule
6 character write
10 unexpressive inexpressible
16 private lonely
18 spare frugal
18 humour temperament
19 plenty abundance/comforts of life/food
20 stomach inclination/appetite
22 wants lacks
26 art education
27 complain of lament the lack of/complain about
28 natural instinctive/foolish/rustic
32 hope i.e. hope not
33 ill-roasted … side eggs were roasted in the hot ashes of the fire and required turning for even cooking
37 manners proper behavior/morals
39 parlous perilous
43 but you kiss without kissing
45 Instance evidence/give an example
46 still always
46 fells fleeces
49 grease sweat
54 tarred … sheep tar, having antiseptic properties, was applied to injured sheep
56 civet musky substance used in perfume and obtained from the anal glands of the civet cat
57 worms-meat i.e. rotten flesh
57 respect of comparison with
59 perpend consider
60 flux flow
60 Mend improve
61 rest cease (Touchstone shifts sense to “remain”)
63 make incision cut, as raw meat is scored and salted for cooking/cut, for the medical purpose of letting blood (and curing folly)/graft on (wisdom), as a plant is cultivated
63 raw inexperienced/ignorant/uncooked
64 that what
64 get earn
66 content … harm patient in my own afflictions
68 simple foolish
69 offer presume/venture
70 cattle animals/whores
70 bawd pimp
70 bell-wether leading male sheep of a flock (with a bell around its neck)
71 crooked-pated with crooked/curled horns
72 cuckoldly a cuckold (man with an unfaithful wife) was traditionally said to grow horns
72 out of beyond the limits of
77 Ind Indies
81 lined drawn
82 black to dark-complexioned, foul compared to
84 fair beauty/light complexion
85 together continuously
86 It … market i.e. the predictable verse resembles either the jogging to market of country women in a cart or the eager lust of a whore to put herself to sale
86 butter-women butter sellers/lecherous women/whores
87 rank movement in line/lustful
90 hart male deer
90 hind female deer
92 after kind act according to its nature (proverbial; plays on the sense of “have sex”)
94 Wintered worn in winter/old
94 lined plays on notion of sex between dogs, giving bawdy connotations to the next line (i.e. Rosalind will lose her slenderness to pregnancy)
96 reap perhaps with slang sense of “have sex”
96 sheaf and bind tie the crop into bundles (perhaps with suggestion of pregnancy)
97 cart transport the crop in a cart/punish a prostitute by publicly carrying her in or whipping her behind a cart
98 nut plays on the sense of “vagina”
100 rose plays on the sense of “vagina”
101 prick thorn/penis
102 false gallop canter
105 fruit plays on sense of “genitals”
106 graff graft i.e. make one plant grow onto another (plays on the sense of “have sex”)
107 medlar tree bearing applelike fruits/medlar fruit (resembles the vagina)/pun on “meddler” (prostitute)
108 rotten infected with venereal disease
108 right virtue true character
114 For because
116 civil sayings civilized reflections
118 his erring its wandering
119 span distance from thumb to little finger
120 Buckles in encompasses
127 quintessence purest essence/extract
127 sprite spirit
128 in little in miniature (i.e. in the form of Rosalind)
129 Nature charged ordered Natur
e
131 wide-enlarged (that had been) widely dispersed
132 presently immediately
133 Helen’s … heart i.e. Helen of Troy’s beauty but not her deceitful heart; when Paris carried Helen off to Troy war broke out between the Greeks and the Trojans
134 Cleopatra famous Egyptian queen
135 Atalanta’s better part presumably her beauty or perhaps athletic skill; Atalanta declared that she would marry only the man who could defeat her in a race, whereas losing suitors would be killed
136 Lucretia’s modesty raped by Tarquin, Lucretia was so ashamed she committed suicide
138 synod assembly/conjunction of planets
140 touches features
141 would willed
142 I to that I should
143 Jupiter, king of the gods who carried off the beautiful youth Ganymede
146 Back (to Corin and Touchstone) move back
147 sirrah sir (used to an inferior)
149 bag and baggage collective property of an army
149 scrip and scrippage nonce phrase referring to a shepherd’s pouch (scrip) and its contents
153 feet i.e. metrical feet
160 seven … wonder from the phrase “a nine days’ wonder” (so Rosalind has been wondering about the verses for quite a while)
162 Pythagoras Greek philosopher who believed in the transmigration of souls from humans to animals
162 that when
163 Irish rat supposedly the Irish could kill rats with rhyming incantations
164 Trow know
166 And a chain i.e. yes, it is, and one with a chain
167 Change you colour? Are you blushing?
169 friends plays on the sense of “lovers”
169 friends … encounter inversion of the proverb “friends may meet, but mountains never greet”
169 encounter plays on the sense of “sexual union”
173 possible i.e. that you do not know
174 I … vehemence I earnestly beg you
176 wonderful incredible
177 out … whooping beyond what all shouts of astonishment can express
179 Good my complexion! Oh (have mercy on) my temperament/curiosity!
180 caparisoned dressed
181 South … discovery i.e. as lengthy as an exploratory voyage over the South Seas
182 apace swiftly
188 belly stomach/womb (playing on drink in its slang sense of “have sex”)
189 of God’s making i.e. a real man
193 stay wait for
197 sad … maid i.e. seriously and truly
204 Wherein went he? What was he wearing?
204 makes he is he doing
208 Gargantua the giant in François Rabelais’ book Gargantua (1534)
210 particulars details
210 catechism series of set questions and answers used as a form of instruction by the Church
214 atomies motes, atoms
214 resolve the propositions answer the questions
216 relish flavor
216 good observance close attention
218 Jove’s tree oak trees were associated with Jove
220 Give me audience listen to me
222 along out
225 “holla” stop (used to a horse)
225 curvets leaps about
226 furnished dressed
227 heart puns on “hart” (male deer)
228 burden chorus
232 bring me out make me forget what I was saying
232 Soft! Wait a moment!
235 lief willingly
237 society company
243 ill-favouredly poorly
245 just exactly
251 pretty clever
252 acquainted plays on the sense of “sexually familiar”
252 conned learned by heart
253 rings which had verses engraved on them (also slang for “vaginas”)
254 right painted cloth in the manner of a cheap hanging depicting commonplace mythological scenes
255 questions topics
257 Atalanta famed for her swiftness
259 breather i.e. living being
262 change exchange
264 troth faith
268 figure image (Orlando plays on the sense of “number”)
269 cipher zero
274 saucy lackey insolent minion
275 habit appearance
275 play the knave play a boy/trick him
282 detect reveal
286 divers various
291 hard with an uneasy pace, with difficulty
292 contract … marriage formal betrothal
293 se’nnight week (seven nights)
299 lean unrewarding/thin
299 wasteful time-wasting/causing one to waste away
300 tedious troublesome/painful
304 softly slowly
306 vacation period during which the law courts are suspended
307 term period appointed for the sitting of courts of law
309 skirts outskirts
312 cony rabbit
312 kindled born
314 purchase acquire
314 removed remote
316 religious pious/monastic/scrupulous
317 inland of civilized society
317 courtship court life/wooing
319 touched tainted
320 generally without exception
326 his its
328 physic medicine
329 haunts who hangs around
332 fancy-monger dealer in love
334 quotidian daily recurring fever
337 marks signs, symptoms
338 cage of rushes i.e. flimsy prison
341 blue i.e. with dark circles
342 unquestionable unwilling to be questioned
344 your … revenue your beard is like a younger brother’s income (i.e. small)
346 ungartered not tied up
346 unbanded without a colored hatband
349 point-device immaculate
349 accoutrements clothes
349 as as if
353 apter more likely
355 still always
356 sooth truth
363 dark … do imprisonment in the dark and whipping were “treatments” for the insane
365 profess practice, have knowledge in
370 moonish changeable
371 fantastical fanciful, impulsive
372 apish foolish
374 cattle … colour beasts of this kind
375 entertain welcome, treat well
376 forswear deny, reject
376 that so that
377 drave drove
377 living genuine
379 merely utterly
381 liver thought to be the seat of the passions
381 sound healthy
385 cote cottage
387 by on
Act 3 Scene 3
1 apace quickly
2 how what
3 simple feature plain appearance (Audrey may understand “specific part/penis”)
4 warrant protect
6 capricious lascivious, fickle (from the Latin caper meaning “goat”; the wordplay is reinforced by goats/Goths having similar pronunciations)
6 Ovid … Goths Roman poet Ovid, author of The Art of Love, was banished to live among the Goths; he complained that they did not understand his verses
7 ill-inhabited poorly lodged
7 Jove … house having been turned away by others, the disguised Jove and his son Mercury were welcomed into the humble dwelling of Philemon and Baucis
10 seconded backed, supported
10 forward precocious
11 great … room large bill for insubstantial accommodation; some critics see a reference to the 1593 tavern murder of playwright Christopher Marlowe, supposedly the result of a dispute about the bill
14 honest respectable/genuine
17 f
eigning imaginative/deceitful
21 honest truthful/chaste
25 hard-favoured ugly
27 material meaningful, full of matter/concerned with earthly things
30 foul loathsome/filthy/ugly
30 slut woman of slovenly habits/kitchen maid/whore
31 meat food (plays on the sense of “penis”)
31 dish plays on the sense of “vagina”
35 Sir Oliver Martext “Sir” was sometimes used for priests who were not university graduates;
36 Martext (mar-text) suggests an uneducated priest who could not expound upon the Scriptures
36 next nearest
37 couple marry (plays on the sense of “get us to have sex”)
38 fain willingly
38 meeting encounter/sexual union
41 stagger falter
42 assembly congregation
42 horn-beasts suggestive of cuckolds
42 what though what of it
43 necessary inevitable
44 knows … goods i.e. is very well off
47 deer plays on the sense of “dear”
48 rascal young or inferior deer in a herd/ordinary husband
49 walled i.e. fortified
51 defence possibly plays on type of fortification known as “hornwork”
52 to want be lacking
55 dispatch us settle (i.e. marry)
58 on as the
62 What-ye-call’t probably a joking reluctance to say “Jaques” (i.e. “jakes” meaning “lavatory”)
63 ’ild yield (i.e. reward)
63 last most recent (i.e. present)
64 toy in hand trifle to attend to
65 covered i.e. put on your (respectfully removed) hat
67 bow yoke
67 curb restraining strap attached to the bit
68 bells attached to the falcon’s leg
69 bill stroke beak with beak
69 nibbling having sex/seizing
73 wainscot wooden paneling
74 green not dried thoroughly/unseasoned
75 warp shrink/go wrong
76 I … but I am inclined to think that
77 of by
77 like likely
78 well properly
82 bawdry lewdness
84 “O … thee” lines from a lost Elizabethan ballad, originally paired with a reply; Touchstone rejects the lines of the abandoned woman, in favor of the dismissive answer
84 brave fine, worthy
87 Wind wend, go
90 fantastical capricious, mad
91 flout mock/jeer
Act 3 Scene 4
6 dissembling deceitful
6 dissembling … Judas i.e. reddish, traditionally the hair color of Judas, the disciple who betrayed Christ with a kiss
7 his … children refers to the kiss with which Judas betrayed Christ
10 your this
11 only i.e. most desirable
13 holy bread bread blessed and distributed to those who had not taken Communion; after the Reformation, bread provided for the Eucharist