The Tempest

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The Tempest Page 19

by William Shakespeare


  67 stockfish dried cod; Stephano threatens to beat Trinculo as fish is beaten before cooking; he may also imply that he will take Trinculo's drink away 71 give ... lie accuse me of lying/insult me

  75 murrain plague (literally, disease affecting cattle and sheep) 77 forward go on

  79 enough thoroughly

  83 brain murder, dash out his brains

  85 paunch stab in the stomach

  86 weasand windpipe

  88 sot idiot/drunkard

  90 rootedly deep-seatedly

  91 utensils instruments of magic or alchemy/household goods 92 deck withal decorate/furnish with

  95 nonpareil unsurpassed, one without equal

  100 become befit/grace

  101 brood offspring

  103 'save our graces God save us

  104 viceroys deputy rulers

  113 jocund joyful

  113 troll sing merrily

  113 catch musical round

  114 while-ere a while ago

  115 reason anything within reason

  117 Flout ... 'em insult them and mock them

  120.1 tabor small drum

  122 picture of Nobody i.e. someone invisible

  125 take't ... list take it as you will/do as you wish 133 twangling resonant/twanging

  143 by and by soon/immediately

  143 story scheme

  146 this taborer drummer (i.e. Ariel)

  147 lays it on i.e. bangs the drum with energy Act 3 Scene 3

  1 By'r lakin by our Ladykin (i.e. the Virgin Mary)

  2 maze network of tracks, labyrinth

  3 forth-rights and meanders straight and winding paths

  6 attached seized

  8 put off cast off

  9 for my flatterer to be my indulgent, flattering courtier 11 frustrate fruitless/frustrated

  13 for because of

  13 repulse setback

  13 forgo give up

  17 oppressed worn down

  17 travail labor/traveling

  23 keepers protecting spirits

  24 drollery puppet show/comic entertainment/humorous picture 26 phoenix mythical Arabian bird that was consumed by fire every 500 years, then resurrected from the ashes 29 want credit lack credibility

  35 certes certainly

  36 monstrous unnatural/unusual

  38 generation race

  43 muse wonder at

  47 Praise in departing keep your praise until the occasion is over (proverbial) 48 strangely surprisingly/unnaturally

  50 viands food

  50 stomachs appetites

  54 mountaineers mountain dwellers

  55 Dewlapped with folds of loose skin around the throat 56 Wallets sagging bags

  58 putter-out broker/traveler

  58 putter-out ... one brokers offered the traveler five times an initial sum deposited if he returned safely from his journey with proof that he had reached his destination 60 stand to come forward/begin eating

  61 Although even if (it is to be)

  63.1 harpy mythical monster with a woman's face and body and a bird's wings and claws; sometimes agents of divine vengeance 63.1 quaint device ingenious mechanism/contrivance 65 to instrument at its disposal/as its agent

  65 lower world i.e. the sublunar, mortal world 65 never-surfeited never satisfied, hungry

  70 suchlike valour insane fearlessness

  71 proper selves themselves

  72 elements ... tempered i.e. fire and earth from which your swords are forged (tempered); these two elements are powerless against the other two (winds and waters) 74 bemocked-at scorned

  75 still-closing waters ever-united/self-healing

  76 dowl small feather

  76 plume plumage

  77 like equally

  78 massy heavy

  80 business purpose

  82 requit repaid/avenged

  88 perdition ruin (with connotations of "damnation")

  90 whose ... ensuing i.e. to guard yourselves from the anger of the powers, which will otherwise befall you on this deserted island, you must live a faultless life of profound repentance 94.1 mocks and mows jeering expressions/grimaces and pouts 95 devouring all-consuming (or possibly Ariel has eaten part of the banquet) 96 bated omitted

  97 So likewise

  97 good life great realism/much liveliness

  98 observation strange particular, careful attention

  98 meaner lower ranking

  99 several kinds various/individual roles

  99 high elevated, sophisticated, powerful

  100 knit up tied up, entangled

  101 distractions agitation, temporary madness

  102 fits attacks, turmoil

  108 billows great waves

  111 bass pronounce in a deep, resonant voice

  111 trespass wrong, crime

  112 ooze muddy sand on the sea bed

  113 plummet instrument used to measure the depth of water 113 sounded sank

  114 mudded buried in mud

  115 But ... o'er as long as they come one at a time I'll fight whole armies of devilish spirits 117 second supporter/backup fighter in a duel

  120 spirits faculties, vital powers

  122 ecstasy frenzy

  Act 4 Scene 1

  1 austerely severely

  2 compensation i.e. Miranda

  3 third i.e. a very important part (possibly Miranda is a third of Prospero's age; or she shares his life with his dukedom and his art) 5 tender offer/betroth

  5 vexations afflictions

  7 strangely admirably, exceptionally

  8 ratify formally approve

  9 her of of her

  11 halt proceed lamely

  12 gainst even in the face of

  14 purchased obtained/won

  16 sanctimonious holy

  18 sweet aspersion fragrant shower

  20 bestrew cover

  21 loathly loathsome

  22 Hymen in Greek and Roman mythology, the god of marriage (represented by a young man carrying a lamp) 25 fair issue beautiful children

  27 strong'st ... can most powerful temptation/influence that our bad angel (worser genius) can exert on us 31 or either

  31 Phoebus the sun god, whose horse-drawn chariot carried the sun across the heavens 31 foundered lame

  39 rabble i.e. crowd of more lowly spirits

  43 vanity trifling/dazzling display

  45 presently immediately

  46 with a twink in the wink of an eye

  50 mop and mow grimace and pout

  54 conceive understand

  55 true faithful

  55 dalliance frivolity, amorous conversation

  57 th'fire i'th'blood passion, lust

  58 goodnight farewell to

  61 liver thought to be the seat of sexual desire

  63 a corollary an extra (spirit)

  64 pertly briskly

  64 Iris rainbow goddess and messenger of the gods

  66 Ceres goddess of the harvest and the earth

  66 leas fields

  67 vetches coarse crops, often dried for animal feed

  68 turfy grassy

  69 meads meadows

  69 thatched with stover covered with hay, winter animal feed 70 pioned dug, trenched

  70 pioned ... brims alluding to the agrarian practice of cutting and laying hedges to border or enclose pasture 70 twilled interwoven, plaited branches

  70 brims hedges, borders

  71 spongy rainy, damp

  71 hest command

  71 betrims trims with dew or rain/adorns with blossom 72 cold modest, chaste

  72 crowns coronets of flowers

  72 broom-groves groves of broom (a yellow-flowered shrub) 73 dismissed rejected

  74 lass-lorn forsaken, bereft of a sweetheart

  74 poll-clipped pollarded, pruned

  75 sea-marge coast

  76 air take the air

  76 queen o'th'sky i.e. Juno

  77 wat'ry arch rainbow

  78 these i.e. the la
ndscape described above

  80 sport make merry

  80 peacocks the sacred birds of Juno who drew her carriage 80 amain swiftly

  83 wife of Jupiter Juno, married to the king of the gods 84 saffron orange-red

  85 Diffusest honey drops scatters sweet rain/dew

  86 bow rainbow

  87 bosky bushy, full of thickets

  87 unshrubbed down bare, undulating hills

  88 proud splendid

  91 donation gift, favor

  91 estate bestow

  94 Venus ... son Cupid was son to Venus, goddess of love 96 means that manner in which

  96 dusky Dis dark Pluto, the rich god of the underworld; aided by Venus and Cupid, he kidnapped Ceres' daughter Proserpine, who was forced to spend half of every year with him 97 blind boy's Cupid, god of love, was blind

  97 scandaled disgraceful

  98 forsworn rejected

  101 Paphos city in Cyprus, home to the cult of Venus

  102 Dove-drawn doves, the birds of love, pull Venus' chariot 103 wanton mischievous/lascivious

  104 bed-right i.e. sex

  105 Hymen's ... lighted symbolizing the completion of the marriage ceremony 106 Mars' hot minion i.e. lustful Venus, lover to the god of war 107 waspish-headed peevish, spiteful, and, literally, one who stings (with arrows) 108 sparrows proverbially lecherous birds

  109 be ... out behave in all respects like a boy not a god 111 gait bearing, movement

  112 bounteous generous

  113 twain couple

  116 increasing children/fruitfulness

  117 still always

  119 foison abundance

  120 garners granaries

  123 Spring ... harvest may spring arrive as soon as the autumn harvest is over (so there is no winter) 128 charmingly enchantingly/melodiously/pleasingly

  128 be bold take the liberty, venture

  132 present fancies immediate imaginings/whims

  134 wondered to be wondered at, extraordinary

  137 seriously importantly/solemnly

  140 Naiads water nymphs

  140 windring winding and wandering

  141 sedged made from sedge, a coarse grassy plant growing by rivers 142 crisp channels rippling streams

  144 temperate gentle/abstemious

  145 be ... late come quickly/arrive before the couple make love 146 sicklemen harvesters (a sickle is a hooked knife used for reaping) 147 furrow i.e. fields (literally, groove made by a plough) 150 country footing rustic dance

  150.1 properly habited appropriately clad (i.e. in their harvesting clothes) 150.2 heavily slowly, sadly/suddenly

  154 Avoid be gone

  155 passion agitation, turmoil

  158 distempered disturbed, ill-humored

  159 moved sort distressed state

  161 revels (courtly) entertainment/masque

  162 foretold you told you earlier

  164 baseless without a foundation/illusory

  164 fabric building/structure

  166 globe world (puns on the Globe Theatre)

  167 all i.e. all those, all the people

  167 it i.e. the globe

  168 pageant spectacle/scene

  169 rack shred of cloud, fragment of mist (perhaps with play on "wrack"--i.e. wreck) 171 rounded completed/surrounded (perhaps with play on "crowned") 174 cell humble dwelling

  178 with a thought quickly, as swiftly as I think of you 179 cleave to adhere to, respond rapidly to

  184 varlets rogues

  185 red-hot fired up/red in the face

  186 smote struck

  188 bending turning, proceeding

  190 unbacked colts untrained, unbroken young horses

  191 Advanced opened

  192 As as if

  193 lowing mooing

  194 Toothed prickly

  194 briars ... thorns all types of thorny, coarse shrubs 196 filthy-mantled covered with scum or rotting weeds 197 that so that

  197 lake ... feet i.e. being stirred up, the lake stank even more foully than their feet 200 Thy ... still i.e. remain invisible

  201 trumpery fancy garments, worthless finery

  202 stale bait

  206 Humanely as a human/benevolently

  206 lost wasted on him/corrupted by him

  208 cankers decays, becomes malignant

  209 roaring moaning, wailing

  209 line clothesline/lind (i.e. lime tree)

  209.1 glistering glittering

  210 that so that even

  213 fairy i.e. Ariel

  214 played ... with tricked/played the knave

  219 lost ruined, destitute

  222 hoodwink this mischance cover up this misfortune

  229 fetch off retrieve

  229 o'er ears up to my ears (in the stinking lake)

  233 mischief evil, wrongdoing

  235 aye ever

  238 King ... peer allusion to a popular ballad ("King Stephen was a worthy peer") about kings and their clothing 241 frippery second-hand clothes shop

  246 dropsy disease in which the body accumulates fluid 247 luggage trappings, encumbrances

  250 Make ... stuff transform us into extraordinary material 251 Mistress line i.e. the clothesline/tree

  252 jerkin close-fitting jacket

  252 under the line off the clothesline or tree/at the equator, or metaphorically, genitals, and thus bald from either a sailor's fever or syphilis 253 hair many jerkins were made from animal fur and cured (i.e. "hairless") leather 254 line and level methodically

  254 an't like if it please

  258 pass of pate witty thrust

  260 lime birdlime, a sticky substance spread on branches to snare birds 263 barnacles sea creatures/type of goose (hence connotations of stupidity, as with apes) 264 villainous villainously/vilely (playing on "villain," a servant or lowly person) 265 lay to your use

  266 hogshead large cask

  269.1 diverse various

  270 Mountain ... Tyrant the names of the spirits as hounds, all of which imply their powerful personalities 273 grind torment/crush

  274 dry convulsions painful cramps

  274 shorten up contract

  275 aged cramps pains of old age

  275 pinch-spotted bruised from pinches

  276 pard leopard/panther

  276 cat o'mountain wild cat

  281 air at freedom freedom of the air (i.e. be released) 281 a little short time

  Act 5 Scene 1

  1 project plan (with associations of "alchemical experiment") 1 gather ... head come to fruition/begin to boil (a vital stage in alchemy) 2 crack not do not fail/do not overboil

  2 Time ... carriage Time walks more easily with his burden 3 How's the day? What time is it?

  10 gave in charge instructed

  12 line-grove grove of lime trees

  12 weather-fends shelters

  14 abide remain

  14 distracted distressed/maddened

  17 termed called

  18 winter's ... reeds winter rain from thatched roofs

  20 affections feelings

  27 relish ... Passion feel the force of emotion/suffering as acutely 28 kindlier moved affected with more compassion

  29 high extreme

  29 th'quick most tender part

  31 take part join forces

  31 rarer more unusual/profound

  32 than rather than

  33 drift aim

  38 standing still/stagnant

  39 with printless foot leaving no trace

  40 fly flee

  41 demi-puppets tiny creatures

  42 sour ringlets fairy rings, darker circles of grass supposedly caused by fairies dancing 43 ewe not bites sheep will not eat the grass because it is sour 44 midnight mushrooms mushrooms that grow overnight; toadstools were particularly associated with fairies 45 solemn curfew nine o'clock bell; after the evening curfew, the spirits were free until dawn 46 masters ministers/magicians

  46 bedimmed eclipsed/clouded over

 
48 azured vault blue sky

  49 roaring war i.e. caused a storm

  50 fire i.e. lightning

  50 rifted split

  50 oak a tree particularly associated with the king of the gods 51 strong-based promontory sturdy headland

  52 spurs i.e. roots

  54 oped opened

  55 rough violent/imperfect

  56 abjure solemnly reject

  56 required summoned

  58 end purpose

  60 certain a certain number of

  60 fathoms a fathom was about six feet

  61 plummet instrument used to measure the depth of water 61 sound penetrate

  62.1 frantic mad

  63 air melody

  64 fancy imagination

  65 boil that boil

  66 spell-stopped motionless, arrested by the spell

  68 sociable sympathetic

  68 show sight (Gonzalo is weeping)

  69 Fall fellowly let fall compassionate

  69 apace swiftly

  71 rising awakening

  72 ignorant dull/befuddled

  72 mantle cloak

  74 true honest

  75 follow'st serve

  75 pay ... Home repay the debt in full

  78 furtherer enabler

  80 entertain court/welcome

  81 remorse and nature pity and kinship

  82 inward pinches inner turmoil/tortures of conscience

  85 the ... shore i.e. their awakening senses begin to move them toward understanding 89 hat and rapier signs of a gentleman

  89 rapier sword

  90 discase undress/change costume

  91 As ... Milan as I looked when I was Duke of Milan

  94 cowslip's bell the bell-shaped petals that form the flower 95 couch rest/conceal myself

  105 enforce urge/drive

  106 presently immediately

  107 drink the air i.e. devour the way, travel quickly 108 Or ere before

  111 fearful terrifying/awe-inspiring

  119 trifle illusion, trick

  119 abuse deceive/harm

  122 amends improves

  124 be at all is even real

  125 Thy ... resign Alonso gives up his claims over Milan, a tributary state to Naples 131 be ... not is or is not real

  134 subtleties illusions, magical contrivances (plays on sense of "sugar confections") 136 brace pair

  138 you you as

  144 rankest most grievous

  145 perforce of necessity

  153 woe sorry

  158 the like a similar

  158 sovereign excellent/healing

  159 content satisfied/resigned

  161 as late recent

  161 supportable ... weaker I have far fewer means at my disposal with which to make my grief bearable 167 That i.e. were it necessary in order for that to be the case 171 do ... admire are so astonished

  172 devour their reason their reason is consumed

  172 think ... truth believe their eyes

  173 their ... breath they are speechless

  175 justled jostled

  179 on't of it

  180 chronicle ... day a narrative to be told over many days/one day at a time 181 relation report

  184 abroad elsewhere

  186 requite repay/respond to

  187 wonder puns on Miranda's name

  189 play me false are cheating

  192 a score twenty

  192 wrangle wage war

  197 miracle continues wordplay on Miranda's name

 

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