GLOSSARY TO SHAKESPEARE. A. a, frequently omitted in exclamations: What fool is she, that knows, &c. ! i. 288; What dish o' poison has she dressed him! iii. 350; Cassius, what night is this! vii. 121; what thing is it that I never Did see man die! viii. 482. abate, to lower, to depress, to cast down in spirit: as most Abated captives, vi. 217 (see note 162, vi. 217). abate, to contract, to cut short: Abate thy hours, ii. 305. abate, to blunt (equivalent to rebate): Abate the edge of traitors, V. 461 (see note 131, v. 461; to which note add, from Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, "With plaints which might abate a Tyrants knife.” and from Milton's Paradise Regained, "To slacken virtue, and abate her edge." Book ii. 455); Which once in him abated, iv. 310. abate, to take away, to except: Abate throw at novum ("Except or put the chance of the dice out of the question," MALONE; and see novum), ii. 241. Abcee-book-An, an A-B-C-book, a primer, which sometimes. included a catechism, iv. II. ("To learne the Horne-booke and the Abcee through." Wither's Abuses Stript and Whipt,—Inconstancy, sig. P 2, ed. 1613.) abhominable, ii. 219: The old mode of spelling abominable: it appears to have been going out of use in the time of Shakespeare, who here ridicules it. abhor, yea, from my soul Refuse you for my judge—I utterly, v. 512 :: "These are not mere words of passion, but technical terms in the canon law. Detestor and Recuso. The former, in the language of VOL X A 2 ABIDE-ABUSE. canonists, signifies no more than-I protest against " (BLACKSTONE): "The words are Holinshed's; ‘— and therefore openly protested that she did utterly abhor, refuse, and forsake such a judge'" (MALONE). abide, to sojourn, to tarry awhile. and yet it will no more but abide, iii. 459; abide within, vii. 245. abide, to answer for, to be accountable for, to stand the consequences of let no man abide this deed, But we the doers, vii. 151; some will dear abide it, vii. 162. abjects-The queen's, "means "the most servile of her subjects (MASON), v. 339. able, “to qualify or uphold" (WARBURTON), "to warrant or answer for" (Nares's Gloss.): I'll able 'em, viii. 98. abode, to forebode, to portend: aboded, v. 472; aboding, v. 326. abodements, forebodements, omens, v. 305. abortive pride, "pride that has had birth too soon, pride issuing before its time" (JOHNSON), v. 180. abridgment have you for this evening?- What, ii. 317; look, where my abridgment comes, vii. 349: In the first of these passages abridgment means a dramatic performance, and in the second it is applied to the players, as being, I presume, the persons who represent an abridgment: "By abridgment our author may mean a dramatic performance, which crowds the events of years into a few hours. It may be worth while, however, to observe, that in the North the word abatement had the same meaning as diversion or amusement. So, in the Prologue to the 5th Book of G. Douglas's version of the Eneid, 'Ful mony mery abaitmentis followis here"" (STEevens). abrook, to brook, to endure, v. 144. absent time—To take advantage of the, To take advantage of the time of the king's absence, iv. 139. absolute, highly accomplished, perfect: contends in skill With absolute Marina, ix. 63. absolute, determined: Be absolute for death, i. 500. absolute, positive, certain: I'm absolute 'twas very Cloten, viii. 467. abuse, deception: This is a strange abuse, i. 544; My strange and self-abuse, vii. 254. abuse, to deceive, to impose upon: I'm mightily abus'd (“I am strangely imposed on by appearances, I am in a strange mist of uncertainty," JOHNSON), viii. 105; The Moor's abus'd by some most villanous knave, viii. 221; You are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion, viii. 399; Abuses me to damn me, vii. 355. ABY ACHERON. aby, the same as to abide (see its second sense), ii. 296, 302. abysm, abyss, i. 200; viii. 332; ix. 388. accept and peremptory answer—. -Pass our, iv. 514: 3 "Deliver our ac ceptation of these articles, the opinion which we shall form upon them, and our peremptory answer to each particular" (MALONE): "Pass our acceptance of what we approve, and pass a peremptory answer to the rest" (TOLLET): See note 167, iv. 514. accite, to call, to summon: we will accite .... all our state, iv. 396; He by the senate is accited home, vi. 276; what accites (moves, impels) your most worshipful thought to think so? iv. 330. accommodated-Better, iv. 354 (twice); Accommodated!—it comes of accommodo, iv. 354; Accommodated; that is... accommodated .... thought to be accommodated, ibid.: Accommodate, which Bardolph so ludicrously attempts to define, was a fashionable word in Shakespeare's days, and often introduced with great impropriety : Jonson, as well as our poet, ridicules the use of it. accomplish'd with the number of thy hours, "when he was of thy age" (MALONE), iv. 127. accordingly valiant, conformably, proportionably, valiant, iii. 243. account, accounted: account no sin, ix. 6. accuse, an accusation: false accuse, v. 153. Acheron, ii. 302; vi. 339; vii. 255: It is not a little amusing to find Malone almost persuaded by a Mr. Plumptre that, in the last of the passages just referred to, the poet was thinking of "Ekron" in Scripture. Did these matter-of-fact commentators suppose that Shakespeare himself, had they been able to call him up from the dead, could have told them "all about it"? Not he;-no more than Fairfax, who, in his translation of the Gerusalemme (published before Macbeth was produced), has made Ismeno frequent "the shores of Acheron," without any warrant from Tasso ; "A Christian once, Macon he now adores, The original has merely "Ed or dalle spelonche, ove lontano Dal volgo esercitar suol l' arti ignote, Vien," &c. : B. ii. st. 2. For instances how loosely the name Acheron is used by our early poets, see, in Sylvester's Du Bartas, ed. 1641, The Second Day of 4 ACHES-ADAM. the First Week, p. 15, The Vocation, pp. 149, 155, and The Fathers, p. 162; also Hubert's Edward the Second, p. 161, ed. 1629. aches, make thee roar-Fill all thy bones with, i. 212; Aches contract and starve your supple joints, vii. 14; Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, vii. 92: In the above lines aches is a dissyllable, according to the usage of the poets of Shakespeare's days and of those of a much later period (Boswell adduces an instance of this pronunciation from Swift; and here is one from Blackmore, Achilles' 66 Cripples, with aches and with age opprest, Eliza, 1705, Book ix. p. 249). spear, Is able with the change to kill and cure,-Like to, V. 210: Telephus having been wounded by Achilles, could be cured only by the rust scraped from the spear which had caused the wound: the particulars of his story (related with some variations) may be found in the mythological writers. ("Così od' io che soleva la lancia D' Achille, e del suo padre, esser cagione Dante, Inferno, C. xxxi. 4. "And fell in speche of Telephus the king, Tasso has Chaucer, The Squieres Tale, v. 10552, ed. Tyrwhitt. "Ahi crudo Amor! ch' egualmente n' ancide which Fairfax chooses to render thus, Gerus. C. iv. 92; Cupids deepe riuers haue their shallow fordes; acknown on't-Be not you, Do not you confess to any knowledge of the matter, be not acquainted with it, viii. 194. aconitum, aconite, monkshood or wolf's-bane, iv. 379. acquittance, to acquit: Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me, v. 412. across-Good faith. See break cross. action-taking. rogue, "A fellow who, if you beat him, would .... bring an action for the assault, instead of resenting it like a man of courage" (Mason), viii. 42. acture, explained by Malone as "synonymous with action," ix. 419. Adam—And called, ii. 79. An allusion to one of the three noted out |
