The Tragedy of Arthur_ A Novel - Arthur Phillips [174]
11. The Master was going to say “Arthur” again.
Act III, Scene III
1. imbecile puny, weakened. No implication of mental deficiency.
2. durst dared.
3. decay downfall, ruin.
4. doubted feared.
5. meacock effeminate, cowardly.
6. crotchet whimsical fancy.
7. dandled pampered.
8. mazed bewildered, perplexed.
9. abrook tolerate.
10. each We learn in IV.i that the queen has already miscarried twice. [RV]
11. conceitful imaginative, witty. In this context, it echoes also the question of her lack of conception, as in fertility. [RV]
12. Mordred’s Short Man Disease is now confirmed. My father once said to Ted Constantine, while being led out of yet another courtroom, “Status can never make up for stature, Ted. You’ll be U.S. attorney general and you’ll still feel my balls resting on your hairpiece.”
13. Admire wonder, marvel.
14. wide-lipped open-mouthed.
15. rav’ning bloodthirsty, voracious.
16. clout rag [especially with menstrual connotation. —RV]
17. tire woman’s headdress.
18. Note short line. A pause as Cumbria prepares to speak the treasonous next line. [RV]
19. fealty The word tended to take three syllables early in Shakespeare’s career and two syllables later. Here it takes three. [RV]
20. misprising misunderstanding.
Act V, Scene I
1. lady-whifflers female ushers.
2. re-breathed apparently Shakespeare’s coinage. Next attested use is in 1606. [RV]
3. re-breathed my heir “in whom I have again conceived a child.”
4. “I abdicate my reign [to you].” (Latin)
5. sharp sharpen.
6. tut an exclamation of impatience.
7. puling whining.
8. wink turn a blind eye.
9. Imprimis “In the first place.” [A common legalism to introduce a list, the following points beginning with “Item.”—RV]
10. St. Lambert’s Day September 17.
11. bosky covert bushy grove.
12. mellay melée, the open combat portion of a jousting tournament.
13. unmitigated Shakespeare uses “mitigate” on a few occasions, but “unmitigated” only twice, here and in Much Ado About Nothing. Apparently it didn’t catch on; it doesn’t appear again in the OED until 1814, when Jane Austen picks up on it. [RV]
14. two and dozen branches A sonnet has fourteen lines.
15. ban condemn, rather than forbid.
16. tick-tack an early form of backgammon.
17. tomboy immodest woman; geese fools, but also slang for prostitute.
18. empery rule.
19. sharp … neck … edge “Keep talking like that and your tongue will get your head cut off.”
20. compulsatory involuntary, required. [Another case where Shakespeare used a word twice and never again: here and in Hamlet. See “Have I Twice Said Well” by David Crystal in Around the Globe magazine, 23, p. 11. —RV]
21. rudesby an insolent fellow.
22. ballade a poetic form of between twenty-five and thirty-five lines.
23. masque an elaborate music, dance, and verse entertainment.
24. Martinmas November 11.
25. sorts agrees, suits, conforms.
26. manuals books on etiquette and chivalric love, presumably.
27. phoenix … ash The mythical phoenix bird was thought to consume itself in flame and then be reborn from its own ashes.
28. plenish up replenish.
29. titely quickly.
30. knife and fork hand knives and pitchforks. The dining fork did not appear in England for another decade. [RV]
31. bestrut to strut, walk pompously.
32. pick pike.
33. stalls market stands.
34. beshrew curse.
35. plaud applaud.
36. This may be a reference to the story of King Cnut, who demonstrated the limits of royal authority when he commanded the tide of a river to stop. [RV]
37. proditor traitor.
38. Croesus an ancient Lydian king renowned for wealth.
39. Soldan supreme medieval ruler of a Muslim power, though usually not the Turks. [RV]
40. false conceptions miscarriages.
41. entail assign, as in a will.
42. conditionally on condition that.
43. Cod up thy will “Get hold of yourself.” Literally,