171 from the right distant from the correct way, i.e. legitimacy
172 window with vaginal connotations
172 hatch lower part of a door (with vaginal connotations)
173 stir plays on the senses of “get an erection/engage in sex”
173 walk plays on the sexual sense of “be erect”
174 have (sexual) possession
174 catch seize, get hold of
175 Near … off i.e. to the target (in archery/sexually)
175 shot plays on the sense of “ejaculated”
179 speed travel hastily
180 need necessary
181 adieu good-bye
183 foot degree (may pun on French foutre, i.e. “fuck”)
184 many a many i.e. many (emphatic)
185 Joan typical name for a country or lower-class woman
186 den evening (from “God give you good even”)
186 God-a-mercy God have mercy on you
189 ’Tis i.e. remembering men’s names
189 respective attentive/respectful
190 conversion i.e. newly titled man
191 toothpick ornate toothpicks were fashionable and seen as a foreign sophistication
191 worship’s mess company of people eating together (now honored by his title)
192 stomach appetite
192 sufficed satisfied
193 catechize question
194 picked foppish/having used the toothpick/specially chosen
194 of countries i.e. well-traveled
197 Absey book book of ABC
201 would wants, asks
202 Saving except
202 dialogue of compliment polite/affected conversation
205 supper i.e. supper-time
205 so thus
207 mounting (socially) ascending/aspiring
208 bastard … time not a true son of the current age
209 smack show the characteristics (literally, taste); Folio spelling “smoake” was alternative form of same word, which could also mean “observe, suspect”
209 observation observance of polite, fashionable practices
210 so am I i.e. a literal bastard
211 habit dress
211 device outward show/ingenuity/heraldic design
212 accoutrement formal trappings
213 motion desire, impulse
214 sweet poison i.e. flattery
214 tooth appetite, sweet tooth
215 practise plot
216 to … learn i.e. learn how to spot other people’s deception by studying it myself
217 strew be scattered
217 rising i.e. ascent to greatness
218 riding-robes horse-riding clothes
219 woman-post female messenger
220 blow a horn i.e. to announce her arrival (plays on the fact that her husband has recently been shown to be a cuckold; men with unfaithful wives were popularly imagined to wear horns on their forehead)
223 slave wretch, villain
224 holds in chase hunts
224 up and down in every respect/everywhere
226 Colbrand the Giant part of an invading Danish army defeated by Guy of Warwick, the eponymous hero of a medieval romance story
228 unreverend irreverent, disrespectful
231 give us leave leave us
233 Philip Sparrow the Bastard rejects his former name (since he has been renamed “Sir Richard Plantagenet”) as a common name for sparrows (as it resembles their call)
234 toys trifling matters
234 abroad about, going on
234 anon soon
236 eat i.e. eaten (pronounced “et”)
236 eat … fast “He may his part on Good Friday eat and fast never the worse for ought he shall get” was proverbial
236 in of
238 do perform, achieve/make, produce/copulate
238 marry by the Virgin Mary
238 confess admit/agree
239 Could get i.e. were it possible he could conceive
240 handiwork i.e. his half-brother, Robert Falconbridge
241 beholding beholden, indebted
242 holp helped
244 That you who
245 untoward unmannerly, improper
245 knave scoundrel; the Bastard puns on the meaning “servant”
246 Basilisco a character in a contemporary play who insisted on his knighthood being acknowledged
247 dubbed knighted, by having a sword placed on the shoulder
250 Legitimation legitimacy
252 proper fine/respectable
254 deny renounce
256 suit urging, courtship
258 Heaven may heaven
258 charge account/responsibility
259 issue offspring
259 dear cherished/grievous/costly
260 defence resistance
261 get be conceived
263 privilege immunity
264 folly foolishness/lust
265 dispose disposal, command
266 Subjected obedient/as his royal subject
268 aweless fearless
268 lion … hand as punishment for killing the Duke of Austria’s son, Richard I was imprisoned with a lion, whose heart he tore out by putting his hand down its throat
270 perforce forcibly
273 Who whoever
275 kin (new) relations
277 said him nay refused him
278 was i.e. a sin
2.1 Location: France
2.1 before Angiers in front of the gates of Angiers, on the Loire river
2.1 Dauphin title for heir to the French throne
2.1 Austria historically Leopold V; apparently wearing a lion’s skin, supposedly taken from Richard I
2 that … blood i.e. your predecessor
4 holy … Palestine the Crusades
5 By i.e. at the hand of
6 posterity descendants
7 importance request
8 spread display
8 colours battle flags
9 rebuke repress
10 unnatural i.e. behaving in a manner that contradicts natural kinship
13 offspring descendants
14 Shadowing sheltering
15 powerless i.e. without a military force behind it
16 unstainèd pure, unblemished
19 zealous earnest
20 seal … indenture wax seal on a legal contract
23 pale either adjectival (colorless) or a noun (boundary, enclosure)
23 pale … shore i.e. the chalk cliffs of England’s southeastern coast (hence England)
24 spurns kicks, rejects
25 coops encloses, protects
26 main sea
27 bulwark fortification
27 still always
28 confident from self-assured against
28 purposes plans, i.e. threats of invasion
31 follow arms i.e. take part in military action
34 more requital to greater recompense for
37 bent directed
38 brows i.e. walls/battlements
39 discipline military strategy
40 cull select
40 plots positions, sites
40 advantages i.e. military advantage in attack
43 But we will if necessary to
43 subject to ruled by/answerable to
44 Stay wait
44 embassy message
45 unadvised rashly, without full thought or information
49 indirectly wrongfully
50 lo look
52 England the King of England
52 gentle noble
53 coldly calmly
55 against in preparation for
56 impatient of angered by
58 leisure convenience
58 stayed waited for
59 legions forces
60 expedient rapid
62 Mother-Queen Queen-Mother, i.e. Elinor
63 Ate Greek goddess of discord and revenge
64 niece female relati
ve; actually Elinor’s granddaughter and John’s niece
64 Blanche of Spain daughter of John’s sister Eleanor and Alfonso VIII, King of Castile
65 king’s deceased dead king (Richard I)
66 unsettled humours i.e. unruly persons, malcontents; humours four chief bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, black choler) governing mental qualities and disposition
67 inconsiderate reckless
67 voluntaries volunteers
68 ladies’ faces i.e. beardless and young
68 spleens tempers, impulses
69 sold … backs i.e. they have spent everything on armor and military equipment
71 make … of risk, venture
72 braver more splendid, finer
72 choice selection
73 bottoms keels, i.e. ships
73 waft wafted, i.e. conveyed (suggesting a quick easy journey)
75 scathe damage
76 churlish rough, harsh
77 circumstance details
78 parley negotiate
79 expedition warlike enterprise/haste
82 occasion (needful) circumstances
83 others i.e. troops
85 lineal hereditary
85 own i.e. territories/role of ruler
88 beats drives, forces
89 if that if
91 England’s i.e. Arthur’s
93 toil i.e. supporting Arthur’s cause
93 work duty, undertaking
95 underwrought undermined, sought to overthrow
95 his its
96 sequence of posterity lawful succession
97 Outfacèd defied/intimidated
97 infant state young majesty, i.e. Arthur
99 Geoffrey’s i.e. Arthur’s father’s
101 abstract essence, summary
103 brief summary
109 owe own
110 commission warrant
111 articles points/charges
112 supernal judge i.e. God supernal celestial
116 impeach challenge, accuse
118 Alack exclamation of dissatisfaction, regret
119 Excuse … down preventing (your) usurpation of authority is a good enough excuse
122 Out expression of irritation and scorn
123 check control, discipline
126 Liker in feature more similar in physical appearance
127 in manners (who are) in behavior/character
128 dam mother (devil and parent were proverbially similar)
130 His … mother Constance insults Elinor by suggesting that it is likelier that Geoffrey was a bastard than that Arthur might be one
131 an if if
132 blots slanders
133 grandam grandmother
133 blot defile/erase
135 crier announcing officer in a law court/town crier (a mocking reference to Austria)
137 play the devil i.e. make trouble
138 An a if he
138 catch seize, get hold of
138 hide i.e. lion’s skin
139 hare … beard “even hares may pull dead lions by the beard” (proverbial)
141 smoke subject to smoke/disinfect/beat
141 an if
142 look to’t beware
143 become earn/befit
145 sightly appropriately
146 Alcides Hercules (Greek hero, one of whose twelve labors involved killing a lion, whose skin he then wore); some editors emend “shoes” to “shows,” i.e. distinctive clothing
148 lay on that i.e. inflict blows
149 cracker boaster (playing on the sense of “supposed breaker of shoulders”)
149 deafs deafens
151 straight straight away
153 very sum final summary, absolute essence
158 Bretagne Brittany
163 it its
165 fig fruit/something valueless/rude gesture
169 coil turmoil, fuss
170 shames dishonors, embarrasses
173 pearls i.e. tears
174 in … fee as a bribe for divine support
175 beads teardrops (plays on the sense of “prayer beads on a rosary”)
177 monstrous unnatural
180 dominations dominions
180 royalties royal rights
181 eldest son’s son eldest grandson
182 Infortunate unfortunate
183 visited punished
184 canon … law scriptural rule (that the sins of the parents will be visited upon their children)
185 but only
186 Removèd distant
187 Bedlam i.e. madwoman
190 her sin implies John, whom Constance suggests was conceived adulterously (in sin)
191 removèd issue relative at one remove, i.e. Arthur
191 for because of
192 his injury harm done to Arthur
193 beadle parish officer entitled to punish minor offences, i.e. punisher
195 for because of/instead of
196 unadvisèd rash, thoughtless
197 title legal claim
199 will willfulness, wish
199 cankered corrupt
200 temperate calm
201 beseems befits
201 presence royal company
201 cry aim shout encouragement (archery term)
202 ill-tunèd harsh-sounding
202 repetitions repeated accusations
203 trumpet trumpeter
205 admit grant, recognize
206 warned summoned
207 France, for England i.e. the French king on behalf of Arthur (who should be King of England)
211 gentle peaceful/noble
211 parle negotiation
213 advancèd raised, displayed
214 prospect view
215 endamagement damage, detriment
216 bowels entrails
222 stones i.e. city walls
223 waist belt
224 ordinance artillery
225 lime mortar
226 dishabited dislodged
227 bloody power violent, fierce troops
229 much expedient very hasty
230 countercheck rebuke/check to oppose (the course of something)
232 amazed stunned/overwhelmed
232 vouchsafe permit
233 bullets cannonballs
235 folded … smoke i.e. concealed in deceitful rhetoric
236 faithless error untrustworthy lie
237 accordingly in the same manner/as it deserves
238 laboured exhausted with hard work
239 Forwearied worn out
240 harbourage shelter
241 said finished speaking
242 Lo see
243 right i.e. just claim
246 enjoys possesses
247 downtrodden equity oppressed right
247 tread picks up on downtrodden
248 greens grassy areas
250 constraint compulsion
254 owes owns
256 Save except
256 aspect appearance
256 offence hostility, harm
256 sealed up i.e. prevented
257 spent expended, fired
259 unvexed untroubled/unimpeded
259 retire retreat
260 unhacked unused/undamaged (from battle)
261 lusty vigorous
264 fondly foolishly
264 pass pass up, disregard
265 roundure roundness, circumference
266 messengers of war i.e. cannonballs
267 Though even if
267 discipline skill in warfare
268 rude rough
270 In … which on behalf of him (Arthur) for whom
276 proves proves to be
282 else others, suchlike
284 bloods hot-blooded fellows/noble men
286 in his face against him
287 compound agree
288 for on behalf of
288 hold withhold
290 e
verlasting residence i.e. the grave, death
291 fleet pass, fly off
292 dreadful terrifying, daunting
292 trial contest, putting to the proof
293 chevaliers knights
294 Saint George patron saint of England who famously slew a dragon
294 swinged beat, thrashed
295 Sits … door i.e. as a tavern sign
295 hostess tavern landlady
296 fence fencing skill
297 lioness i.e. Austria’s wife; also means “whore”
298 set … hide i.e. give Austria the cuckold’s horns by sleeping with his wife
299 monster because a combination of lion and ox
303 appointment order, arrangement
304 advantage superior military position/opportunity
306 God … right! a battle cry
306.1 excursions fighting (across the stage)
306.2 Trumpets trumpeters
309 by … France with the help of the French king
312 grovelling prostrate, face down
316 displayed drawn up (if referring to the troops)/ unfurled (if referring to the banners)
321 Commander victor
321 malicious violent, hostile
322 hence from here
323 gilt coated/glittering
324 crest i.e. helmet
325 staff spear/lance
326 colours battle flags
328 like … huntsmen traditionally huntsmen smeared their hands with blood of the kill
333 onset and retire attack and retreat
335 censured judged
338 alike equally
338 like approve
343 passage progress, course
344 native natural, habitual
344 o’erswell flood (John threatens French territory)
347 progress journey (may play on the sense of “official royal tour”)
351 sways rules
351 climate part of the sky
352 just-borne justly carried
353 put thee down defeat you
354 royal number i.e. a king’s name
355 tells of records/counts
357 towers soars, mounts (falconry term)
359 chaps jaws
361 mousing tearing at (like a cat or an owl with its prey)
362 undetermined differences unresolved disagreements
363 fronts faces
364 havoc a call for general slaughter
365 potents potentates, rulers
366 confusion overthrow, destruction
366 part side
367 peace i.e. victory
368 yet admit now recognize
371 hold up support
372 that … here i.e. John has no need for a spokesperson, representing himself as rightful king
374 presence own existence/majesty
378 Kings of i.e. ruled by
379 some certain i.e. one or the other/the particular rightful
379 purged and deposed refers to the fears
380 scroyles scoundrels
380 flout mock, insult
383 industrious ingenious/painstaking/hard-working