Read The Merry Wives of Windsor Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
60
blazon
banner bearing the coat of arms
62
compass
circle (i.e. the Garter ribbon, worn below the knee)
63
Th’expressure
picture, expression (i.e. fairy ring or circle of darker green grass)
65
Honi … pense
“shamed be he who thinks evil (of it)” (the French motto that appeared on the Garter ribbons)
68
Buckled
tied
69
charactery
writing
71
dance of custom
customary dance
75
measure
stately dance
76
man of middle-earth
i.e. a mortal, dwelling on the earth (midway between heaven and hell)
78
cheese
supposedly the favorite food of the Welsh
79
o’erlooked
looked on with the evil eye, bewitched
81
trial-fire
testing fire
81
touch me
touch (
me
is emphatic)
83
turn
expose
83
start
recoil, flinch
86
wood
i.e. Falstaff’s finger
90
About
surround
91
trip
dance/skip
91
still
continually
93
fantasy
imaginings/amorous desire
94
luxury
lechery
green … Anne
the original Quarto stage direction has Caius taking a boy
in red
, Slender one
in green
, and Anne
in white;
see “Text” in Key Facts
95
bloody fire
fire in the blood/lustful fire
99
mutually
all together
103
watched
spied and caught
104
serve your turn
do for you
105
hold … higher
maintain the joke no more
107
yokes
Falstaff’s antlers are shaped like the oxen’s yoke
114
arrested
seized by legal warrant (until the debt is paid)
116
meet
encounter one another amorously
117
deer
puns on “dear”
119
proofs
i.e. his horns
119
extant
apparent/protruding
122
surprise … powers
ambush of my faculties/understanding
123
foppery
trickery, foolery
123
in … of
in spite of, the face of
125
Wit
intelligence
125
Jack-a-Lent
figure of a man traditionally pelted during Lent, butt of jokes
134
wants matter
lacks the means
134
o’erreaching
deception
135
with
by
135
coxcomb
fool’s cap (with a crest like a cock’s comb)
136
frieze
coarse woolen cloth
140
fritters
fried scraps of battered meat
141
late-walking
going out with whores late at night
146
hodge-pudding
pudding made from a random assortment of ingredients
146
bag of flax
sack of flax (plant fibers used for cloth)
147
puffed
swollen
148
intolerable
insufferable/ excessively large/impossible to carry
150
Job
in the Bible, Job suffered great poverty; his
wife
advised him to curse God for it
153
metheglins
spiced liquor of Welsh origin
154
starings
glares
155
theme
subject (of your mockery)
155
start of
advantage over
156
dejected
cast down, humbled, humiliated
156
flannel
coarse woolen cloth
157
Ignorance … me
I am searched to the very depths by ignorance itself (i.e. Evans); may pun on “plumbet” (woolen fabric)
157
plummet
device for measuring the depth of the sea
159
should … pander
were to have been a pimp
162
posset
hot drink made with milk, liquor, and spices
167
this
this time, now
169
dispatched
managed things
171
know
of what
172
Of what
i.e.
174
lubberly
loutish
175
swinged
beaten
177
postmaster
keeper of post horses (which were hired out for the swift conveyance of messages)
178
took the wrong
went wrong (in following instructions); Slender responds to the sense of “made a mistake (in thinking the boy was Anne)”
181
had him
accepted him as my wife/had sex with him
184
green
most editors emend to “white” for consistency with the setup in
5.2
188
white
most editors emend to “green” for consistency with the setup in
4.6
191
paysan
peasant
193
white
most editors emend to “green” for consistency with the setup in
5.3
194
raise
rouse
202
amaze
bewilder
204
proportion … love
balanced, mutual loving relationship
205
contracted
engaged (secretly)
206
sure
firmly bound
209
title
name
209
unduteous title
undutifulness
210
evitate
avoid
214
guide the state
rule matters
217
stand
advantageous position from which a hunter may shoot
218
glanced
struck superficially
222
muse
wonder/grumble