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Naiads, The Tempest, iv. 1.
Nail, one, drives out another, Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4 ;
dead as nail in door, //. Henry IV., v. 3. See PROVERBS.
Name, a good, shamed by falsehood, Comedy of Errors, ii. 1;
an enemy what's in a, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2 ; where lodges the,
Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 3 ; good, Othello, ii. 3 ; robbery of a good,
Hi. 3; Lucrece, I. 820. See also REPUTATION.
Names, forgetting of, King John, i. 1; comparison of, Julius
Caesar, i. 2.
Naples, Alonzo, King of. See ALONZO.
Naples, Reignier, King of. See REIGNIER.
Narbon, Gerard de, father of Helena in All's Well that Ends
Well, mentioned in i. 1 ; ii. 1.
Narcissus, Venus and Adonis, 1. 161 ; Lucrece, L 265 ; Antony
and Cleopatra, ii. 5. A beautiful youth, who fell in love with his
own image in a fountain.
Nathaniel, Sir, a curate in Love's Labour's Lost, introduced in
iv. 2, "a foolish, mild man, an honest man, look you, and soon
dashed."
Nation, a miserable, Macbeth, iv. 3.
Nature, requires interest for her gifts, Measure for Measure, i.
1; office of, As You Like It, i. 2; sale-work of, As You Like It, Hi.
5 ; brings together what Fortune separates, All's Well that Ends
Well, i. 1, end; will betray folly, A Winter's Tale, i. 2; itself
makes the art that improves it, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4i "Say
there be," etc. ; gifts of, King John, Hi. 1; one touch of, Troilus
and Cressida, iii. 3 ; horrible places of, Titus Andronicus, iv. 1;
bounteous housewife and common mother, Timon of Athens, iv. 3 ;
goddess, King Lear, i. 2 ; foster-nurse of, King Lear, iv.4; redeems
from curse, King Lear, iv. 6 ; needs of, King Lear, ii. 4 / the sparks
of, hard to hide, Cymbeline, iii. 3 ; against fancy, Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2 ; hath meal and bran, Cymbeline, iv. 2 ; a forger, Venus
and Adonis, I. 728 ; lends, not gives, Sonnet iv.; bankrupt, Sonnet
Ixvii. ; shows false art, Sonnet Ixviii. ; mistress over wrack, Sonnet
cxxvi. ; labouring art can never ransom, All's Well that Ends Well,
ii. 1 ; the products of, good or evil, according as they are applied,
Ilomeo and Juliet, ii. 3.
Naught awhile, be (be hanged to you ?), As You Like It, i. 1.
Navarre, a province of Spain, once a kingdom, scene of Love's
Labour's Lost.
Nay-word, or aye-word (watch-word, countersign), Merry Wives
of Windsor, ii. 2, and others ; by-word, Twelfth Night, ii. 3.
Nazarite, the, Merchant of Venice, i. 2. Nazarene, Jesus.
Neapolitan Prince, one of the suitors of Portia, mentioned in
the Merchant of Venice, i. 2.
Near-legged (starting with the left, or interfering), Taming
of the Shrew, iii. 2.
Neat-slave (one to take care of neat cattle), King Lear, ii. 2.
Nebuchadnezzar, All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 5.
Necessity, virtue of, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 1; honour
hidden in, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2 ; the fairest grant, Much
Ado about Nothing, i. 1 ; plea of, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1 ; All's
Well that Ends Well, i. 3. " He must needs go," etc. ; no virtue like,
Richard II., i. 3 ; sworn brother to, Richard II., v. 1 ; Hamlet, v. 1,
"The cat will mew," etc.; sharp pinch of, King Lear, ii. 4> can
make vile things precious, King Lear, Hi. 2.
Nedar, father of Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. 1.
Need, and faith, King John, lii. 1.
Negligence, fit for a fool to fall by, Henry VIII., Hi. 2 ; danger of, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3 ; omittance is no quittance, As
You Like It, Hi. 5.
Neif (fist), Midsummer Night' s Dream, iv. 1; II. Henry IV.,
ii. 4.
Neighbour, a bad, is an outward conscience, Henry V., iv. 1.
Ne intelligis (do you not understand ?), Love's Labour's Lost,
v. 1.
Nell, the fat cook in the Comedy of Errors, described in ni. 2.
Nemean lion, the, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1; Hamlet, i. 4.
It was killed by Hercules.
Nemesis, avenging goddess, /. Henry VI., iv. 7.
Neoptolemus, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. Incorrectly used as
a name of Achilles. He was a son of Achilles.
Neptune, The Tempest, i. 2 ; v. 1; A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4;
II. Henry IV., Hi. 1; Hamlet, Hi. 2 ; Antony and Cleopatra, iv.
12 or 14; Midsummer Night 's Dream, ii. 2 ; would not flatter him
for his trident, Coriolanus, Hi. 1; England his, park, Cymbeline,
Hi. 1. The god of the ocean.
Nerissa, the waiting-maid of Portia in the Merchant of Venice,
first appears in *. 2, a bright, pert imitator of Portia, somewhat resembling Lucetta in the Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Nero (Emperor of Rome, born 37, died 68 A. D.), King John, v.
2; I. Henry VI., i. 4; III. Henry VI., Hi. 1; the soul of, Hamlet,
Hi. 2. He is said to have murdered his mother ; an angler in th
lake of darkness, King Lear, Hi. 6. See SMULKIN. Lear was hundreds of years before Nero.
Neroes, ye bloody, King John, v. 2.
Nervii, the, Julius Ccesar, Hi. 2. A tribe of the Belgae, the victory over whom was one of Csesar's greatest achievements.
Ness-us, All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 3; Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 10 or 12. A centaur killed by Hercules, who told Dejanira,
the wife of Hercules, to save some of his blood for a charm with
which to keep the love of Hercules. This she did, and afterward
unwittingly poisoned him by using it on the robe sent for by him.
Nestor, one of the Grecian generals, distinguished for his wisdom and experience and his powers of persuasion. His name has
become a synonym for the wisdom of ripe experience. He is introduced in i. 3 of Troilus and Cressida, and in the same scene Ulysses describes how Patroclus mimics the infirmities of age -in, him to amuse Achilles. Other allusions, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; Merchant of Venice, i. 1; I. Henry VI., ii. 5; III. Henry VI., Hi. 2;
in a painting, Lucrece, 1. 1401.
Netherlands, the, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 2.
Nettle, from the, danger, pluck the flower, safety, Z Henry /F,
ii. 3.
Neville. See WARWICK.
Neville, Ralph. See WESTMORELAND.
New, nothing, Sonnet lix.
Newness, in authority, zeal of, Measure for Measure? i. 3.
News, good and bad, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 1 ; resentment toward the bearer of, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1; the
bearer of ill, King John, Hi. 1 ; II. Henry IV., i. 1 ; Macbeth, iv. 3 ;
Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2 ; ii. 5 ; fitting to the night, King John,
v. 6 ; bearer of good, II. Henry IV., iv. 4, " Thou art a summer
bird," etc.; impatience for, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 5; Hi. 2; bad,
Cymbeline, Hi. 4; of war, II. Henry IV., i. 1; ii. 4; of carnal,
bloody, and unnatural acts, Hamlet, v. 2 ; King John, iv. 2 ; Julius
Ccesar, v. 3 ; wonderful, A Winter's Tale, v. 2 ; fresh, every minute,
Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 7 ; the bearer of strange, Macbeth, i. 2 ;
stale, Hamlet, i. 5 ; old (great), Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 1.
Nice (foolish or trivial), Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 1 ; Romeo and
Juliet, v. 2.
Nicholas, Saint, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 1 ; clerks of, Z
Henry IV., ii. 1. Robbers were so called.
Nick (reckoning made by notches in sticks), out of all, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 2.
Nicks, like a fool (cuts his hair like a fool's or jester's), Comedy
of Errors, v. 1.
Night, beauty of a, Merchant of Venice, v. 1; makes the ear
more quick, Midsummer Night's Dream, in. 2 ; time for fairies and
ghosts, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 2, " Now the hungry lion," etc.; for plotting crime, King John, in. 3 ; crimes in the, Richard 11., Hi. 2; the tragic, //. Henry VL, iv. 1; sober-suited, Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 2 ; a dark, Macbeth, ii. 1, " There's husbandry in heaven ; " an unruly, Macbeth, ii. 3, 4 ', description of, Macbeth, Hi.
2 ; is long that, Macbeth, iv. 3 ; the witching time of, Hamlet, Hi.
2; Lucrece, lines 117, 162, 764, 1081; wakefulness in the, Sonnet
Ixi. ; imagination at, Sonnets xxvii., xxviii. /unwelcome, Passionate
Pilgrim, xv. ; the dragon-wing of, Troilus and Cressida, v. 9. See
also MIDNIGHT.
Night-crow, III. Henry VL, v. 6.
Nightingale, the, Two Gentlemen of Verona, v.4; Merchant of
Venice, v. 1 ; Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 5 ; Midsummer Night's Dream,
i. 2 ; Taming of the Shrew, induction, 2 ; ii. 1 ; Twelfth Night, Hi.
4; Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 8 ; King Lear, Hi. 6; Passionate Pilgrim, xxi.; allusion to the belief that she sings with her breast
against a thorn, Lucrece, I. 1135.
Night-mare, the, King Lear, Hi. 4.
Night-raven, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3.
Nile, the, serpent of old, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5 ; overflowing of, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7 ; presageth famine, Antony and
Cleopatra, i. 2.
Nine Worthies, the. See WORTHIES.
Ninny (Ninus), tomb of, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi. 1 ; v. 1.
Niobe, all tears, Hamlet, i. 2 ; Troilus and Cressida, v. 2, She
wept herself into stone for the loss of her children.
No, meant for ay, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2.
Noah, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 2 ; Twelfth Night, Hi. 2; his ark,
As You Like It, v. 4.
Nobility, fearless, II. Henry VL, iv. 1 ; loss of, Richard III.,
i. 3. See BLOOD, RANK.
Noble, the, in adversity, Coriolanus, iv. 1.
Nobleman, a, 111. Henry VL, Hi. 2. The king was taken by
the servants of Sir James Harrington.
Nobleman, as one should live, /. Henry IV., v. 4, end ; blood
of a, compared with learning, Henry VIII.
Nobleness, in the wilds, Cymbeline, iv. 2.
Nobody, picture of, The Tempest, Hi. 2. A common sign.
No longer mourn for me when I am dead, Sonnet Ixxi.
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done, Sonnet XXXV.
No more dams I'll make for fish, song, The Tempest, ii. 2.
Nook-shotten (shut into a nook, or diversified with nooks),
Henry V., Hi. 5.
Noon, to bed at. See PROVERBS, etc.
Norbury, Sir John, is mentioned in Richard, II., ii. 1, as one of
the companions of Bolingbroke. Henry, after his accession, made
him Governor of Guisnes and treasurer of the exchequer.
Norfolk, Robert (correctly Roger) Bigot, Earl of, character in
King John, introduced in iv. 3. He was one of the twenty-five
barons opposed to John.
Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, character in Richard II.
He enters in the first scene, where he is unjustly accused of the murder of Gloucester, and challenged by Bolingbroke on that account.
After their meeting, i. 3, he is sentenced by the king to perpetual
exile, although he is a friend of the king, while Bolingbroke, whom
the king hates and fears, receives but a limited term of banishment.
His death at Venice, iv. 1. This occurred in 1400. His eldest son
did not bear the title on account of the attainder, but was simply
Lord Mowbray, under which name he appears in //. Henry IV.
The title was, however, restored to the second son, John, and his
grandson bears it in III. Henry VI.
Norfolk, John Mowbray, Duke of, character in III. Henry VI.,
introduced in i. 1. He belongs to the York party. He was the last
Mowbray that was Duke of Norfolk ; the title descended to the Howards through his daughter, who married Sir Robert Howard, and her
son, John Howard, is the Norfolk of Richard III.
Norfolk, John Howard, Duke of, character in Richard III., first
appears in v. 3. The incident in that scene of the warning rhyme
placed on his tent the night before Bosworth is historical. He fell
on Bosworth field, v. 5. He was the first Howard that became Duke
of Norfolk ; he was also Earl Marshal of England ; both of which
titles still remain in the Howard family.
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of, character in Henry VIII.,
introduced in i. 1. He is an enemy of Wolsey. There were two
Dukes of Norfolk during the time of this play. The first was the
Surrey of Richard III., son of the Norfolk who fell at Bosworth.
He died in 1524, and was succeeded by his son of the same name,
the Earl of Surrey in this play.
Normandy, the loss of, to England, //. Henry VI., iv. 7.
Normans, the English, called, Henry V., Hi. 5.
North, of opinion, the, Twelfth Night, Hi. 2.
North, monarch of the. See WITCHCRAFT.
Northampton, scene of a part of King John.
Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl of, a powerful nobleman,
character in Richard II., introduced in ii. 3, and in the two parts of
Henry IV., introduced in i. 3 and in i. 1. He joins in rebellion
against Richard with Bolingbroke, and, after helping to seat the
usurper on the throne, joins in rebellion against him. At Shrewsbury he is " crafty-sick," and fails to go to the aid of his son and
allies. In II. Henry IV. he again fails his allies, and the rebellion
is quelled. Warwick says [Part II., Hi. 1\ :
" King Richard might create a perfect guess,
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness."
" It is Northumberland, now smooth and flexible, now rough and
unfeeling, that first speaks of Richard with the omission of his title ;
he it is that repeats more solemnly and forcibly the oath of Bolingbroke that his coming is but for his own : he it is who, in the scene
of deposition, maliciously torments Richard with the reading of his
accusation ; and he it is who would arbitrarily arrest the noble Carlisle for high treason after the outbreak of his feelings of right and
his civic fidelity." GERVINUS.
Northumberland, Lady, a character in //. Henry IV., appears
in ii. 3 only. She was Hotspur's step-mother, the Lady Maud Lucy,
who was the widow of the Earl of Angus before she married Northumberland.
Northumberland, third Earl of, character in 111. Henry VI.,
introduced in i. 1. He is a Lancastrian. His father, who fell at the
first battle of St. Alban's, was the son of Hotspur. This earl fell at
Towton, March 29, 1461.
Northumberland, the melancholy, Richard III., v. 3.
Norweyan lord, the (Sweno, King of Norway), Macbeth, i. 2.
Nose(s), an embellished, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 2 ; a good, is
requisite, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 ; twenty of the dog-days in a. Henry
VIII., v. 3 ; why it is in the middle of the face, King Lear, i. 5 ;
liberty (license) plucks justice by the, Measure for Measure, i. 4;
to be led by the, Othello, i. 3; Heaven stops the, Othello, iv. 2; Bardolph's, see BARDOLPH ; Alexander's, see ALEXANDER.
Nose-bleed, the, ominous, Merchant of Venice, ii. 5.
Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck, Sonnet xiv.
Nothing, an infinite deal of, Merchant of Venice, i. 1 ; prologue
to, AU J s Well that Ends Well, ii. 1, " Thus he his special nothing
ever prologues"; all the world is, A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; can come
of nothing, King Lear, i. 1.
No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change, Sonnet
cxxiii.
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments, Sonnet Iv. Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul, Sonnet cvii.
Nott-pated (crop-headed), /. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Novelty, in request, Measure for Measure, Hi. 2 ; Henry VIII.,
i. 3 ; Troilus and Cressida, in. 2, " All praise new-born gauds."
Novem, or novum (a game at dice), Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.
Novi hominem, etc., Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. I know the
man as well as you.
Nowl (head), Midsummer Night's Dream, in. 2.
Numbers, odd. See ODD NUMBERS.
Nunnery, advice to enter a, 'Hamlet, Hi. 1.
Nuns, life of, Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1; Measure for
Measure, i. 5 ; Lover's Complaint, 1. 232 ; As You Like It, Hi. 4.
Nurse, character in Titus Andronicus, first appears in iv. 2, and
is killed in the same scene.
Nurse, Juliet's, in Romeo and Juliet, first appears in i. 3. She
is coarse, garrulous, deceitful, and time-serving, first helping on the
marriage of Juliet with Romeo, and then counselling her, after his
banishment, to marry Paris, trusting to the chance of Romeo's never
turning up again a proposal that reveals her real baseness to Juliet,
who calls her " ancient damnation."
Nuthook (used by thieves to take things out of windows), Measure for Measure, i. 1 ; (slang for bailiff), II. Henry 1 V., v. 4.
Nutmeg, a gilt, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. A common gift.
Nym, a character in the Merry Wives of Windsor and in Henry
V., a corporal under Falstaff, and a great rogue. His conversation
is marked by the use of " humour " as a catch-word. In Henry V.
he appears in i. 1, in a quarrel with Pistol, and he is described by
the boy in Hi. 2, and at the end of iv. 4, where he says that Bardolph and Nym are both hanged. His name is a word that means
to filch, " Convey, the wise it call," as Pistol says in the Merry Wives
of Windsor, i. 3.
Nymphs, cold, The Tempest, iv. 1.
O, this wooden, Henry IV., chorus to act i. This was the Globe
Theatre, which was circular inside. This little 0, the earth, Antony
and Cleopatra, v. 2; an without a figure, King Lear, i. 4; the
stars, fiery Oes, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi. 2 ; so deep an,
Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 3.
Oak, Jove's tree, The Tempest, v. 1; As You Like It, Hi. 2 ; an
ancient, As You Like It, ii. 1; iv. 3 ; garland of, Coriolanus, i. 3 ;
ii. 1, 2 ; Herne's, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4 ; strength of, Measure for Measure, ii. 2 ; Julius Caesar, i.3 ; to hew down with rushes,
Coriolanus, i. 1. See HERNE.
Oatcake, Hugh, mentioned in Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3.
Oath(s), weakness of, The Tempest, iv. 1 ; his, are oracles, Two
Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7 ; lose our, to find ourselves, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3, near end; Celia's, to make restitution, As You
Like, It, i. 2 ; not the many, that make the truth, All's Well that
Ends Well, iv. 2; administered, A Winter's Tale, iii. 2 ; never to
marry, A Winter's Tale, v. 1 ; obligation of, King John, iii. 1 ; of
vengeance, King John, iv. 3 ; of enemies not to be reconciled, Richard II.. i. 3 ; of the king, /. Henry IV.,v. 1 ; a sin to keep sinful,
II. Henry VI., v. 1 ; III. Henry VI., v. 1, " To keep that oath were
more impiety than Jephthah's," etc. ; binding, III. Henry VI., i. 2 ;
Henry's, III. Henry VI., ii. 2 ; needlessness of, Julius Cmsar, ii. 1 ;
on a sword, Hamlet, i. 5 ; no better than the word, Pericles, i. 2;
deep, Sonnet clii ; are straws, Henry V., ii. 3 ; are in heaven, Merchant of Venice, iv. 1; stronger thnn Hercules in breaking, All's
Well that Ends Well, iv. 3. See also Vows and PERJURY.
Oaths (exclamatory), face the matter out with, Taming of the
Shrew, ii. 1 ; approve manhood, Twelfth Night, iii. 4, " Go, Sir Andrew," etc. ; the right kind of, I. Henry IV., iii. 1.
Oaths and Exclamations: Richard III. swears by St. Paul,
his favourite oath according to tradition (Richard III., i. 2, 3 ; iii.
4 ; v. 3), and " by my George " (iv. 4), that is, the figure of St. George
on the badge of Knights of the Garter, though that was first used in
the reign of Henry VII. A favourite exclamation with Henry VIII.
was " Ha ! " frequently used in the play ; Hamlet swears by St. Patrick (*. 5], by our lady (ii. 2\ and by the rood (iii. Jf) ; Polonius, by
the mass (Hamlet, ii. 1} ; Parson Evans, by God's lords and his ladies,
'od's (God's) plessed will, and the tevil and his tarn (Merry Wives of
Windsor, i. 1} ; Mrs. Page, by the dickens (Merry Wives of Windsor,
iii. 2) ; Nym, by welkin and her star (i. 3) ; Dr. Caius, by gar (i. 4;
iii. 3) ; Shallow and Page, by cock and pie (Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1 ; II. Henry IV., v. 1), possibly referring to the cock and
magpie, a common alehouse sign ; by cock, Taming of the Shreiv,
iv. 1; Hamlet, iv. 5 ; perdy (par Dieu), Comedy of Errors, iv. 4;
Henry V., ii. 1 ; 's lid (by God's lid), Merry Wives of Windsor, iii.
4; Twelfth Night, iii. 4; 'od's lifelings (God's dear life), Twelfth Night, v. 1 ; by my halidom (holy dame, or holy dom, salvation ?),
Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 2 ; Taming of the Shrew, v. 2 ; Henry
VIII., v. 1 ; Romeo and Juliet, i. 3 ; holy Mary, Henry VIII., v. 2 ;
's death (God's death), Coriolanus, i. 1 ; by God's sonties (? sanctities), Merchant of Venice, ii. 2 ; 's blood (God's blood), I. Henry
IV., i. 3 ; zounds (God's wounds), King John, ii. 2 ; I. Henry IV.,
i. 3 ; ii. 3 ; iv. 1; bodikins (little body), Merry Wives of Windsor,
ii. 3; marry (supposed corruption of Mary), in numberless passages ;
rivo, a drinking exclamation of unknown meaning, I. Henry IV.,
ii. 4; by my hood (? manhood), Merchant of Venice, ii. 6; by the
rood, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; mort du vinaigre (a nonsensical
expression, literally, death of the vinegar), All's Well that Ends Well,
ii. 3 ; darkness and devils life and death, King, Lear, i. 4 > "vengeance, plague, death, confusion my breath and blood death on my state, the blest gods, King Lear, ii. 4 ; by Cheshu (Jesu), King Henry V., Hi. 2 ; by Chrish (Christ), King Henry V., Hi. 2 ; by
Apollo, King Lear, i. 1 ; by Jupiter, by Juno, King Lear, ii. 4 ; by
two-headed Janus, Merchant of Venice, i. 1; by Pluto and hell,
Coriolanus, i. 4 ; immortal gods, Taming of the Shrew, v. i ; Mehercle (? Hercules), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2 ; the good year, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4 ; by St. Jeronimy, Taming of the Shrew, induction, 1 ; by St. Jamy, induction, 2 ; gramercies, Taming of the Shrew, i. 1; St. Denis to St. Cupid, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2;
'i fecks (? in effect) grace to boot, A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; by my fay
(faith), Taming of the Shrew, induction, 2.
Oats, wild, Hamlet, ii. 1.
Ob (obolus, half-penny), 1. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Obedience, to one's appointed work, Henry V., i. 2, " Therefore
doth Heaven divide," etc. ; is for those that cannot rule, //. Henry
VI., v. 1 ; princes love, Henry VIII., Hi. 1. See DISOBEDIENCE.
Oberon, king of the fairies, introduced in ii. 1 of Midsummer Night's Dream. The name is French, from Alberon or Alberich, a
fairy dwarf in old German poems. In French it became Auberich
and Auberon. See FAIRIES.
Obidicut, a fiend, King Lear, iv. 1. See MAHU.
Oblivion, alms for, Troilus and Cressida, in. 3; formless
ruins of, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5 ; the gulf of, Richard III.,
Hi. 7.
Observation, places crammed with, As You Like It, ii. 7; need
of, in men of the time, King John, i. 1 ; prophecy from, //. Henry
IV., Hi. 1.
Obstinacy, in folly, A Winter's Tale, i. 2, " You may as well
forbid," etc.
O call not me to justify the wrong, Sonnet xxxix.
Occupation, necessary to enjoyment, /. Henry IV., i. 2, " If all
the year," etc. ; Troilus and Cressida, i. 2, " Joy's soul lies in the
doing ; " gone, Othello, Hi. 3.
Ocean, encroachments of the, Sonnet Ixiv.
Octavia, Antony's wife, character in Antony and Cleopatra, introduced in ii. 3 ; her marriage proposed by Agrippa, ii. 2 ; parting
with Caesar, Hi. 2; described to Cleopatra, Hi. 3 ; attempts to reconcile Antony and Caesar, Hi. 4 ; her appearance at Kome, Hi. 6.
" The character of Octavia is merely indicated in a few touches,
but every stroke tells. We see her ' with downcast eyes sedate and
sweet, and looks demure,' with her modest tenderness and dignified
submission the very antipodes of her rival." MRS. JAMESON.
Octavius Caesar. See C^SAR.
Oddity, in dress, Merchant of Venice, i. 2.
Odd numbers, superstition about, Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 1.
Odds, foolhardiness of taking great, Coriolanus, Hi. 1.
Ods pittikins (God's dear pity), Cymbeline, iv. 2.
Oeillades (glances), Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3 ; King Lear,
iv. 5.
O'erlooked (bewitched), Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5.
O'erraught (overreached), Comedy of Errors, i. 2 ; (overtook),
Hamlet, Hi. 1.
Offence, a pardoned, may gall the innocent afterward, Measure
for Measure, ii. 2; a man that is a general, All's Well that Ends
Well, ii. 3 ; not a time to criticise every slight, Julius Ccesar, iv. 3 ;
a rank, Hamlet, Hi. 3.
Offender, sorrow of an, Sonnet xxxiv.
Office, abuse of those in, Henry VIII., i. 2. See AUTHORITY,
GREATNESS.
Offices, sale of, Julius Ccesar, iv. 3.
O for my sake do you with fortune chide, Sonnet cxi.
O from what power hast thou this powerful might, Sonnet cl.
O how I faint when I of you do write, Sonnet Ixxx.
O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, Sonnet
liv.
O how thy worth with manners may I sing, Sonnet
xxxix.
Old age. See AGE.
Oldcastle, Sir John, was the name first given to Falstaff, as it
was the name of the character in the old play that furnished the
hint for him. It was changed because it was taken to be intended
for a real Sir John Oldcastle, who had been page to the Duke of
Norfolk (said of Falstaff in II. Henry IV., Hi. 2], and was afterward, as Lord Cobham, a Lollard or Wickliffite, who fell a martyr
to his faith. The Protestants were scandalized and the Catholics
gratified by the supposed portrait of the Lollard martyr. Shakespeare
then changed the name, and in the epilogue to //. Henry IV. says,
speaking of Falstaff, " For Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not
the man." In I. Henry IV., i. 2, the prince calls him "my old lad
of the castle."
O lest the world should task you to recite, Sonnet Ixxii.
Oliver, a character hi As You Like It, elder brother of Orlando,
appears in the first scene. " In this eldest son of the brave Rowland
de Boys there flows the same vein of avarice and envy as in the duke.
He strives to plunder his brother of his poor inheritance ; he undermines his education and gentility ; he first endeavors to stifle his
mind, and then he lays snares for his life ; all this he does from an
undefined hatred of the youth who, he is obliged to confess, is * full
of noble device,' but who, for this very reason, draws away the love
of all his people from Oliver to himself, and on this account excites
his envious jealousy." On Orlando's saving his life, he "experiences
a sudden change of heart, and proposes to give up all his possessions
to Orlando, marry the supposed shepherdess Aliena, and live and
die a shepherd."
Olivers, /. Henry VI., i. 2. Oliver was one of Charlemagne's
twelve peers.
Olivia, character in Twelfth Night, introduced in i. 5, beloved
by the duke, whom she rejects, and falls in love with his man Cesario, who comes to urge his master's suit. She anticipates Priscilla
Mullens by telling the ambassador:
" But would you undertake another suit,
I had rather hear you to solicit that
Than music from the spheres."
Olympian games, III. Henry VI., ii. 3 ; Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5.
Olympus, Hamlet, v. 1; Coriolanus, v. 3 ; Titus Andronicus,
ii. 1. The mountain of the gods.
Omens, unnatural reasons, Midsummor-Nighfs Dream, ii. 2; five moons, King John, iv. 2 ; of anarchy, Richard II., ii. 4,' nightowls, Richard II., Hi. 3 ; at Glendower's birth, I. Henry IV., Hi. 1; of evil, //. Henry IV., iv. 4 ; Gloucester's dream, II. Henry VI., i. 2; at Richard's birth, III. Henry VI., v. 6; Stanley's dream, Richard III., in. 2 ; a stumbling horse, Richard III., Hi. 4; a tempest
after a treaty of peace, Henry VIII., i. 1 ; irregularity of planets,
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 ; Andromache's dream, Troilus and Cressida, v. 3 ; stumbling at graves, Romeo and Juliet, v. 3 ; dreams,
Julius Ccesar, i. 3 ; ii. 2 ; v. 1; the raven is hoarse that croaks,
Macbeth, i. 5; the owl, Macbeth, ii. 2, 3; of death, Macbeth, ii. 3,
4; the ghost of Caesar's death, Hamlet, i. 1; swallows' building,
Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 10 or 12 ; should have shown the death
of Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, v. 1; of success, Cymbeline, iv.
2, " Last night the very gods," etc. ; fear caused by, Venus and
Adonis, I. 924; the three suns. See SUNS. See also DREAMS and
PORTENTS.
O me what eyes hath love put in my head, Sonnet cxlviii.
O mistress mine, song, Twelfth Night, ii. 3.
Omittance, is no quittance, As You Lik& It, Hi. v.
Omne bene.(all well), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.
On a day, alack the day, Passionate Pilgrim, xvii.
One fair daughter, Hamlet, ii. 2. Part of an old ballad beginning:
" I have read that many years agoe,
"When Jephtha, judge of Israel,
Had one fair daughter and no moe."
One, the number, Romeo and Juliet, i. 2 ; Sonnet cxxxvi., " One
is no number."
O never say that I was false of heart, Sonnet cix.
Onions, to draw tears, Taming of the Shrew, induction, 1 ; All's
Well that Ends Well, v. 3, near end; Antony and Cleopatra, i. 3 ;
iv. 2.
Ooze, of the Nile, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7.
Opal, thy mind is a very, Twelfth Night, ii. 4.
Ophelia, heroine of Hamlet, introduced in i. 3 ; her madness,
iv. 5 or 2; her death, iv. 7 or 4; burial, v. 1.
" Whenever we bring her to mind, it is with the same exclusive
sense of her real existence, without reference to the wondrous power
that called her into life. The effect and what an effect ! is produced by means so simple, by strokes so few and so unobtrusive, that we take no thought of them. It is so purely natural and unsophisticated, yet so profound in its pathos, that, as Hazlitt observes, it takes us back to the old ballads ; we forget that, in its perfect artlessness, it is the supreme and consummate triumph of art. ... As
the character of Hamlet has been compared, or rather contrasted,
with the Greek Orestes, being like him called on to avenge a crime
by a crime, tormented by remorseful doubts, and pursued by distraction, so, to me, the character of Ophelia bears a certain relation to
that of the Greek Iphigenia, with the same strong distinction between
the classical and the romantic conception of the portrait. Iphigenia
led forth to sacrifice, with her unresisting tenderness, her mournful
sweetness, her virgin innocence, is doomed to perish by that relentless power which has linked her destiny with crimes and contests in
which she has no part but as a sufferer ; and even so poor Ophelia,
' divided from herself and her fair judgment,' appears here like a
spotless victim offered up to the mysterious and inexorable Fates."
MRS. JAMESON.
Opinion, may be worn on both sides, like a leather jerkin, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3 ; if I bleed for my, I. Henry VI., ii. 4; sovereign mistress of effects, Othello, i. 3 ; fool's gudgeon, Merchant of
Venice, i. 1; a fool, Pericles, ii. 2 ; (dogmatism), Love's Labour's
Lost, v. 1, " Learned without opinion ; " (reputation), lost, /. Henry
IV., * *
Opinions, holding popular, II. Henry IV., ii. 2, " Never a man's
thought," etc.; golden, Macbeth, i. 7 ; caution in expressing, Hamlet, i. 3; influenced by conduct, Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 11,
"When we in our viciousness," etc.; new and dangerous, Henry
VI1L, v. 2; depend on one's own character, I. Henry VI., v. 4;
Sonnet cxxi. ; on the time, Coriolanus, iv. 7 ; there's nothing good
or bad but thinking makes it so, Hamlet, ii. 2.
Opportunity, The Tempest, i. 2, " I find my zenith," etc. ; to
sin, Measure for Measure, ii. 1 ; King John, iv. 2 ; let slip, Twelfth
Night, Hi. 1, " She did show," etc. ; Richard II., Hi. 2 ; III. Henry
VI., iv. 8, " A little fire," etc. ; Julius Ccesar, iv. 3, " There is a tide,"
etc. ; once lost, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7, " Who seeks and will
not take when once 'tis offered," etc. ; guilt of, Lucrece, I. 876. See
also DELAY.
Oppression. See TYRANNY.
Oppressors, league of, King John, Hi. 1.
Oracle, I am Sir, Merchant of Venice, i. 1.
Oracle, the Delphic, appealed to, A Winter's Tale, Hi. 1; the
answer, Hi. 2 ; fulfilled, v. 2 ; of Jupiter, Cymbeline, v. 5.
Oracles, ambiguous, //. Henry VI., i. 4
Orator, I am no, Julius Ccesar, Hi. 2 ; to play the, III. Henry
VI., i. 2 ; Hi. 2 ; Richard. 111., iii. 5.
Oratory, popular, Coriolanus, iii. 2.
Orbs (orbits), Pericles, i. 2.
Orchard (garden), Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3 ; Romeo and
Juliet, ii. 1.
Order, results of disregard of, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.
Order and Dates of the Plays and Poems. The following
table shows the dates of publication of the plays and poems, so far
as is known, together with the order in which they were written and
the dates of writing as nearly as can be determined from contemporary allusions, the decisions of critics on internal evidence, etc.
The more or less sparing use of rhyme is one of the chief tests, the
earlier plays abounding in it much more than the later.
--
PLAYS.
Supposed date of writing.
--
Titus Andronicus,
Love's Labour's Lost,
Comedy of Errors,
Midsummer Night's Dream,
Two Gentlemen of Verona,
I. Henry VI.,
II. and III. Henry VI.,
Romeo and Juliet,
Venus and Adonis,
Lucrece,
Richard II.,
Richard III.,
A Lover's Complaint,
Merchant of Venice,
King John,
Taming of the Shrew,
I. Henry IV.,
II. Henry IV.,
Merry Wives of Windsor,
Sonnets,
Henry V.,
Much Ado about Nothing,
As You Like It,
The Phoenix and the Turtle,
Twelfth Night,
Julius Caesar,
All's Well that Ends Well,
--- 1585-'90,
1588-'90,
1589-'93,
1590-'92 (1593-'94),
1590-'92 (1592-'93),
1590-'92,
--
First publication.
1600
1598
1623
1600
1623
1623
--
1590-'4 (worked over, 1600-'3), 1623
1591-'93, revised 1596, 1597
1592-'93, 1593
1593-'94, 1594
1593-'97, 1597
1593-'94, 1597
1595-'97, 1609
1594-'96, 1600
1595-'96, 1623
1596-'97, 1623
1596-'98, 1598
1597-'99, 1600
1597-1601, 1602
before 1598, 1609
1599, 1600
1598-1600, 1600
1599-1600, 1623
1600, 1601
1600-'!, 1623
1600-'!, 1623
1601-'3 (in present form), 1623
===
PLAYS. Supposed date of writing. First publication.
Hamlet, 1600-'3, 1604
Measure for Measure, 1603-'4, 1623
Othello, 1604, 1622
King Lear, 1605-'6, 1608
Antony and Cleopatra, 1605-'8, 1623
Macbeth, 1605-'9, 1623
Troilus and Cressida, 1606-'8, 1609
Timon of Athens, 1607-'10, 1623
Coriolanus, 1607-12, 1623
Pericles, 1608, 1609
The Tempest, 1610, 1623
Cymbeline, 1610-12, 1623
A Winter's Tale, 1611, 1623
Henry VIII., 1612-13, 1623
Ordinaries, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 3. Meals at an ordinary or inn.
Orgulous (proud), Troilus and Cressida, prologue.
Original sin, A Winter's Tale, i. 2, " The imputation hereditary
ours."
Or I shall live your epitaph to make, Sonnet Ixxxi.
Orisons, Henry V., iv. 2 ; III. Henry VL, i. 4; Romeo and
Juliet, iv, 3 ; Hamlet, Hi. i; Cymbeline, i. 4.
Orlando, hero of As You Like It, introduced at the beginning.
He is foully wronged by his elder brother, who is jealous of his noble
qualities and the love they gain for him, and, not satisfied with
wronging him out of his patrimony, wishes to degrade him by neglect into a churl. " Throughout we see the healthful, self-contained,
calm nature of a youth which promises a perfect man. . . . What a
shaming contrast to the calumniator Jaques, whom he thus answers, when he invites him to rail with him against the deceitful
world : ' I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against
whom I know most faults ! ' "
Orleans, Charles d'Angouleme, Duke of, character in Henry V.,
first appears in Hi. 7. He was taken prisoner at Agincourt, and was
kept in the Tower for twenty-five years. His son reigned as Louis XII.
Orleans, the Bastard of. character in 7. Henry VI., spoken of in
i. 1, first appears in i. 2. He was Count of Dunois and Longueville, and is known under the former name as one of the greatest
soldiers of his time.
Orleans, siege of (1428-'29), I. Henry VI., i. 1, 2, 4, 5; ii. 1.
Ornament, the world deceived with, Merchant of Venice,
in. 2.
Ornaments, oft prove dangerous, A Winter's Tale, i. 2.
Orodes, Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 1.
Orpheus, the lute of, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 2 ; legend
of, Merchant of Venice, v. 1 ; song, Henry VIII., iii. 1 ; playing of,
Lucrece, I. 553. A traditionary poet, musician, and philosopher of
Greece, whose skill at the lyre was such that the wild beasts of the
forests gathered around him to hear his playing. In his grief at the
loss of his wife, Eurydice, he determined to descend to Hades to
induce the powers there to release her. The music of his lyre so
charmed the deities of the lower world that they agreed to let Eurydice follow him to the upper world, on condition that he should
not look back on her till they had passed the borders of Hades. But
he could not keep the condition, and she vanished.
Orsino, Duke of Illyria, character in Twelfth Night, introduced
in the first scene, in love at first with Olivia after a sentimental and
unconsciously insincere fashion, but of a refined and lovable nature
" Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth,
In voices well divulged, free, learned, and valiant."
Orthography, rackers of, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1.
Ort(s) (scraps, leavings), Timon of Athens, iv. 3 ; Troilus and
Cressida, v. 2.
Or whether doth my mind, being crowned with you,
Sonnet cxiv.
Osprey, the, Coriolanus, iv. 7. Allusion to a supposed fascination the osprey exercised over fish.
Osric, a courtier, character in Hamlet, appears in v. 2. His
affected manner, which is ridiculed by Hamlet and Horatio, is probably a satire on the foppish gallants of Shakespeare's own time.
Ossa, Hamlet, v. 1. A mountain in Thessaly, one of those that
the giants were said to have piled upon Olympus in their war with
the gods, in order to reach heaven.
Ostent (appearance, display), Merchant of Venice, ii. 2, 8.
Ostentation, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ; Coriolanus, i. 6 ; II.
Henry IV., ii. 2 ; Hamlet, iv. 5; of mourning, Much Ado about
Nothing, iv. 1.
Ostrich, eat iron like an, II. Henry VI., iv. 10.
Oswald, the knavish steward of Goneril in King Lear, introduced in i. 3; Kent's opinion of him, ii. 2 ; his death, iv. 6.
"The only character of utter, irredeemable baseness in Shakespeare." COLERIDGE.
O that you were yourself, Sonnet xiii.
Othello, is introduced in the second scene of the play ; his defence before the senate, i. 3 ; in Cyprus, ii. 1; his jealousy aroused,
Hi. 3; confirmed, iv. 1; kills Desdemona and himself, v. 2.
" He is of a free and noble nature, naturally trustful, with a kind
of grand innocence, retaining some of his barbaric simpleness of soul
in midst of the subtle and astute politicians of Venice. He is great
in simple heroic action, but unversed in the complex affairs of life,
and a stranger to the malignant deceits of the debased Italian character." DOWDEN.
" The noblest man of man's making." SWINBURNE.
" Between lago arid Othello the position of Desdemona is precisely that defined with such quaint sublimity of fancy in the old English by-word, ' Between the devil and the deep sea.' Deep and pure
and strong and adorable always, and terrible and pitiless on occasion
as the sea, is the great soul of the glorious hero to whom she has
given herself ; and what likeness of man's enemy, from Satan down
to Mephistopheles, could be matched for danger and for dread
against the good, bluff, soldierly, trustworthy figure of honest
lago f " SWINBURNE.
Othello, the Moor of Venice. This play was first published in
1622, though it had been on the boards for years, and was a favourite play. The first authentic mention of it is in a diary kept by one
Wurmsser, who was in the suite of the Duke of Wurtemberg when
he visited England in 1610. The allusion to the new heraldry in
Hi. 4 is to the new order of baronetage established by the king in
1611, a red hand being on the arms of the order. But this may
have been introduced long after the play was written. It is generally agreed that it is of the same period as Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear. The source whence Shakespeare drew the outline of the plot and the name of the heroine was an Italian story by Giraldo Cinthio, published in 1565. The time of the play is the year 1570,
when Cyprus was invaded by the Turks.
"The picturesque contrasts of character in this play are almost
as remarkable as the depth of the passion. The Moor Othello, the
gentle Desdemona, the villain lago, the good-natured Cassio, the
fool Roderigo, present a range and variety of character as striking
and palpable as that produced by the opposition of costumes in a
picture. ' ' H AZLITT.
Othergates (otherwise), Twelfth Night, v. 1.
O thou my lovely boy, Sonnet cxxvi.
truant Muse, what shall be thy amends, Sonnet ci.
Otter, the, neither fish nor flesh, J. Henry IV., Hi. 3.
Ottomites, Othello, i. 3; ii. 3. Turks.
Ouches (bosses of gold), //. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Ouphes (elves), Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4 ; v. 5.
Ousel (blackbird), the, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi. 1; II.
Henry IV., Hi. 2.
Outcast, an, Macbeth, Hi. 1; I. Henry IV., iv. 3.
Outlaws, a band of, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 1 ; v. 3.
Outside, a fair, Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 2, "serpent heart," etc.,
Cymbeline, i. 1.
Outward man, an, All's Well that Ends Well, Hi. 1. One not
in the secrets of state.
Overdone, Mistress, a procuress in Measure for Measure, introduced in i. 2.
Ovid, allusions to his story of Philemon and Baucis entertaining
Jove in their thatched cottage, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1 ; As
You Like It, Hi. 3 ; as Ovid be an outcast, Taming of the Shrew, i.
1; Metamorphoses of, Titus Andronicus, iv. 1; quotations from,
Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 1; Hie ibat, etc., Venus and Adonis,
motto ; Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.
Owe (own), AlTs Well that Ends Well, ii. 1, 5; King John, ii. 1;
Macbeth, i. 4> Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 8, and elsewhere.
Owl, the, The Tempest, v. 1, song ; Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2,
song ; allusion to the superstition that it sucks the blood of infants
and changes the favour of children, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2 ; of evil
omen, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1; I. Henry VI., iv. 2 ; II.
Henry VI., Hi. 2; III. Henry VI., ii. 6; v. 6; Richard III., iv. 4;
Julius CcBsar, i. 3 ; Macbeth, ii. 2 ; ii. 4; Richard II., iii.3; Titus
Andronicus, ii. 3 ; Lear, ii. 4 ; mocked at by day, III. Henry VI.,
v. 4; was a baker's daughter, Hamlet, iv. 5 ; allusion to the story
that a baker's daughter reproved her father for giving bread to
Christ, crying, "Heugh ! heugh !" in derision, and was turned into
an owl as a judgment. An owlet's wing was placed in their cauldron
by the witches, Macbeth, iv. 1.
Oxford, John de Vere, thirteenth Earl of, character in III. Henry VI. and in Richard III., an adherent of the House of Lancaster,
and one of the most powerful supporters of Richmond. In Richard III., ii. 1, he is spoken of as having been at Tewksbury, as he
was not in reality, having fled to France after the battle of Barnet.
He afterward seized St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, was besieged,
taken, and imprisoned at Hamnes Castle in Picardy, III. Henry VI., v. 5. He went with the governor of the castle to join Richmond,
and fought for him at Bosworth. Henry VII., with whom he was
high in favour, bestowed various offices upon him. He is introduced
in Hi. 3 of the former play ; v. 2 of the latter. His father and brother were attainted and beheaded on the accession of Edward IV. He
speaks of it in Hi. 3.
Oxford University, Henry VIII., iv. 2.
Oxlips, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4; Midsummer Night's Dream,
ii. 2.
Oyster, the world's my, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. There
was a saying, "The Mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his
dagger." Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell, King Lear, i. 5;
love may transform me to an, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3 ; this
treasure of an, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5 ; as much as an apple
doth resemble an oyster, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 2; off goes his
bonnet to an oyster-wench, Richard, II., i. 4.
Pace, Doctor Richard, Henry VIII., ii. 2. He was Vicar of
Stepney, and one of Wolsey's secretaries.
Packing (plotting), Taming of the Shrew, v. 1, and elsewhere.
Pacorus, son of Orodes, King of Parthia, killed by Ventidius,
Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 1.
Paddock, the toad, Macbeth, i. 1. Toads as well as cats were
familiars of witches.
Padua, Italy, scene of the Taming of the Shrew; called the
nursery of arts, i. 1.
Pagan(s), I. Henry IV., ii. 3 ; II. Henry IV., ii. 2; Henry
VIII., i. 3; most beautiful, Merchant of Venice, ii. 3.
Page, a, in Richard III., iv. 2, supposed to be John Green, who
was rewarded for his share in the murder of the princes by the receivership of the lordships of Porchester and the Isle of Wight.
Page, Anne, character in the Merry Wives of Windsor, introduced in i. 1. She has seven hundred pounds left her by her grand-father, and is sought by three suitors one favoured by her father,
one by her mother, and the third by herself.
Page, George, character in the Merry Wives of Windsor, introduced in i. 1. Unlike Ford, he has confidence in his wife. They
are both outwitted by their daughter, who marries Fenton while
they are trying to outwit each other and marry her, the one to Doctor Caius, the other to Slender, Page, Mistress, one of the Merry Wives of Windsor. See FORD, MISTRESS.
Page, William, a school-boy in the Merry Wives of Windsor,
examined in Latin by Parson Evans in iv. 1.
Pageant(s), As You Like It, ii. 7; Hi. 4; Richard III., iv.4;
of spirits, The Tempest, iv. 1; of clouds, Antony and Cleopatra, iv.
12 or 14 ,' Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 3 ; Troilus and Cressida,
iv. 3 ; Othello, i. 3. The pageants were a kind of play like that of
the Nine Worthies in Love's Labour's Lost.
Pages, characters in, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, and
Romeo and Juliet.
Paid, he is well, that is well satisfied, Merchant of Venice,
iv. 1. >
Pain(s), delights that are purchased with, Love's Labour's Lost,
i. 1; one lessened by another, Romeo and Juliet, i. 2 ; pays for every
treasure, Lucrece, I. 334*
Painted cloth, (tapestry), As You Like It, Hi. 2 ; Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ; Lazarus in the, I. Henry IV., iv. 2 ; maxims on,
Lucrece, I. 245. See also TAPESTRY.
Painter, a, character in Timon of Athens, introduced in the first
scene, where he is seeking patronage from Timon. In v. 1, having
heard that Timon has found a treasure, he returns to flatter him.
Painter, mine eyes have played the, Sonnet xxiv.
Painting, Taming of the Shrew, induction, i. ; praise of a, Timon of Athens, i. 1 ; of the siege of Troy, Lucrece, I. 1368.
Painting, of the skin, Cymbeline, Hi. 4; Timon of Athens, iv.
3 ; Hamlet, Hi. 1.
Pajock (peacock), Hamlet, Hi. 2. The peacock had a reputation
for evil passion as well as vanity.
Palabras (words), Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 4.
Palace, full of tongues, etc., Titus Andronicus, ii. 1.
Palaces, gorgeous, The Tempest, iv. 1.
Palatine, the Count, one of the suitors of Portia, mentioned in
the Merchant of Venice, i. 2.
Pale (encircle), ///. Henry VI., i. 4.
Pallas, Minerva, goddess of wisdom, Titus Andronicus, iv. 1.
Palliament, Titus Andronicus, i. 1 or 2. The robe worn by
the candidate, who was so called from candidus, white, its colour.
Palm, an itching, Julius Ccesar, iv. 3.
Palmer(s), AWs Well that Ends Well, Hi. 5; Richard II., Hi.
3; II. Henry VI., v. 1; Romeo and Juliet, i. 5.
Palmistry, Merchant of Venice, ii. 2, Launcelot's speech ;
Othello, Hi. 4 ; Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2.
Pandarus, a character in Troilus and Cressida, uncle of the latter, introduced in i. 1. His office was the origin of the noun pander. In Hi. 2, at the end, he says, "Let all goers-between be called
to the world's end after my name."
"Pandarus, in Chaucer's story, is a friendly sort of go-between,
tolerably busy, officious, and forward in bringing matters to bear :
but in Shakespeare he has ' a stamp exclusive and professional ' ; he
wears the badge of his trade ; he is a regular knight of the game.
The difference of the manner in which the subject is treated arises
perhaps less from intention, than from the different genius of the
two poets. There is no double entendre in the characters of Chaucer ; they are either quite serious or quite comic. In Shakespeare the
ludicrous and ironical are constantly blended with the stately and
.impassioned." HAZLITT.
Allusions to, Measure for Measure, i, 3 ; Twelfth Night, Hi. 1 /
Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3 ; Much Ado about Nothing, v. 2 ;
Hamlet, Hi. 4.
Panders, origin of the word, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 2, end ;
ill requited, Troilus and Cressida, v. 11.
Pandion, King, Passionate Pilgrim, xxi.
Pandulph (Pandulphus de Masca), Cardinal, legate of the pope
in King John, introduced in Hi. 1, a wily and subtle agent in the
management of a difficult business. It was not he but Cardinal
Gualo who tried to persuade the dauphin to wind up his "threatening colours," v. 2.
Pannonians, Cymbeline, Hi. 1, 7. Pannonia was a Roman prov-.
ince, including in part what is now Hungary.
Pantaloon, the lean and slippered, As You Like, It, ii. 7 ; the
old, Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 1.
"Pantaleone was a stereotyped character in old Italian comedy, always aged, lean, slippered, and wearing loose pantaloons."
WHITE.
Panthino, servant of Antonio, the Two Gentlemen of Verona,
i.3.
Pansy, the, Hamlet, iv. 4; called love-in-idleness, Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.
Paper bullets, of the brain, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3.
Paphos, in Cyprus, The Tempest, iv. 1; Pericles, iv., induction;
Venus and Adonis, I. 1193. Paphos was sacred to Venus.
Paracelsus, AWs Well that Ends Well, ii. 3. A philosopher, physician, and reputed magician, 1493-1541, who used metallic medicines, while Galen preferred vegetable.
Paradise, the offending Adam out of, Henry V., i. 1 ; what fool
is not so wise to lose an oath to win a, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3.
Paradox(es), Timon of Athens, iii. 5 ; Troilus and Cressida, i.
3; Othello, ii. 1.
Parasite(s), Timon of Athens, i. 2; ii. 2 ; iii. 6 ; King Lear, ii.
4; A Winter's Tale, ii. 3 ; King John, iv. 2; Richard II., iii. 2;
hope is a, Richard II., ii. 2. See FLATTERERS.
Parchment, dangerousness of, //. Henry VI., iv. 2.
Pard, the, more pinch-spotted than, The Tempest, iv. 1; bearded
like, As You Like It, ii. 7.
Pardon, nurse of second woe, Measure for Measure, ii. 1 ; goddess of the night, song, Much Ado about Nothing, v. 3 ; prayers for,
Richard II., v. 3; offer of, to rebels, I. Henry IV., iv. 3 ; v. 1; II.
Henry IV., iv. 1 ; II. Henry VI., v. 8 ; royal if given when least
expected, Coriolanus, v. 1 ; when the offence is continued, Hamlet,
iii. 3. See FORGIVENESS, MERCY.
Parent, a, suing to a son, Coriolanus, v. 3. See FATHER,
MOTHER.
Parental love, III. Henry VI., ii. 2 ; v. 5 ; A Winter's Tale,
i. *2 ; Coriolanus, v. 3 ; Macbeth, iv. 2.
Paris, scene of a part of All's Well that Ends Well, and of 7.
Henry VI., iii. 4; iv. 1.
Paris, son of Priam, King of Troy, whose elopement with Helen
caused the Trojan war, character in Troilus and Cressida, introduced
in i. 2. Alluded to in Taming of the Shrew, i. 2 ; Lucrece, lines
1473, 1490; I. Henry VI., v. 6.
Paris, a character in Romeo and Juliet, introduced in i. 2. He
is a kinsman of the prince and a suitor for Juliet, who is commanded
by her parents to accept him. He is killed by Romeo at Juliet's
tomb, v. 3.
"The well-meaning bridegroom, who thinks that he has loved
Juliet right tenderly, must do something out of the common way ;
his sensibility ventures out of its every-day circle, though fearfully,
even to the very borders of the romantic. And yet how far different
are his death-rites from those of the beloved ! How quietly he scatters his flowers ! Hence I cannot ask : * Was it necessary that this
honest soul, too, should be sacrificed 1 Must Romeo a second time
shed blood against his will ? ' Paris belongs to those persons whom
we commend in life, but do not immoderately lament in death ; at
his last moments he interests us especially by the request to be laid
in Juliet's grave. Here Romeo's generosity breaks forth, like a flash of light from darksome clouds, when he utters the last words of blessing over one that has become his brother by misfortune." SCHLEGEL.
Paris-garden, Henry VIII., v. 4. A bear-garden on the Bankside, London.
Parish-top, Twelfth Night, i. 3. A large top was usually kept
in each village in England for the amusement of the villagers.
Paritors, Love's Labour's Lost, iii. 1, end. Officers of the spiritual court who serve citations.
Parle (talk), Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2, and elsewhere.
Parliament, at Westminster, 111. Henry VI., i. 1 ; at Bury St.
Edmund's, II. Henry VI., iii. 1.
Parlous (perilous), As You Like It, iii. 2, and elsewhere.
Parolles, a character in All's Well that Ends Well, introduced
in the first scene. The name signifies "words." and Parolles is
wordy, a braggart, and a treacherous coward. His duplicity is revealed to Bertram in an amusing scene, the third of the fourth act.
Parricides, King Lear+ ii. 1 ; Macbeth, iii. 1.
Parrots, prophesy like the. Comedy of Errors, iv. 4. It was a
custom to teach them phrases like the one in the above passage, and
say they prophesied. Discourse will grow commendable in none
but, Merchant of Venice, iii. 5 ; clamourous before rain, As You
Like It, iv. 1; quaint wings of the popinjay, I. Henry IV., i. 3 ; of
fewer words than a, /. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Parrying, skill in, Twelfth Night, v. 1; I. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Parson, dreams of a,. Romeo and Juliet, i. 4.
Parted (endowed)^ Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3.
Parthians, Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 1 ; fight flying, Cymbeline, i. 7.
Parting, of lovers, Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. & ; Merchant
of Venice, ii. 7 ; Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2 ; iii. 5 ; Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4; Antony and Cleopatra, i. 3; iv. 4, 12, 15; II. Henry
VI., iii. 2 ; of husband and wife, I. Henry IV., iii. 1 ; Cymbeline,
i. 4 ; of brother and sister, Hamlet, i. 3 ; Antony and Cleopatra, iii.
2; of friends. Merchant of Venice, ii. 8 ; Julius Caesar, v. 1; Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 2; of Launce from his family, Two Gentlemen of Veronas r ii. 3 ; of Cromwell from Wolsey, Henry VIII., v. 2.
Partition, a witty, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1.
Partition, of England among conspirators, 7. Henry IV., iii. 1.
Partlet, Dame, A Winter's Tale, ii. 3 or 4; I. Henry IV., 1;
iii. 3. The hen in "Reynard the Fox."
Partridge, the, in the puttock's nest, //. Henry V., iii. 2.
Pash. (smash), Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3.
Pass (care), IL Henry VI., iv. 2.
Pass (thought), of pate, The Tempest, iv. 1.
Pass, defence of a, Cymbeline, v. 3.
Passado (pass in fencing), Love's Labour's Lost, i. 2, end ; Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4 >' **'*' !
Passes (doings or trespasses), Measure for Measure, v. 1.
Passing-bell, the, //. Henry IV., i. 1; Venus and Adonis, I
701 ; Sonnet Ixxi.
Passion, that hangs weights on the tongue, As You Like II, i.
2; dangers of, //. Henry VI., v. 1, "Take heed lest by your heat,"
etc.; Henry VIIL, i. 1; man not the slave of, Hamlet, Hi. 2; a,
torn to tatters, Hamlet, Hi. 2; of Lear, King Lear, Hi. 1, 2, 4; between extremes of, King Lear, v. 3.
Passionate Pilgrim, The, the name given to a collection of
poems usually included in Shakespeare's works, though many of them
are known not to be from his hand. They were collected and printed
with his name in 1599 by a piratical publisher. Of the poems composing it, five are known to be Shakespeare's namely, those beginning, " When my love swears," "Two loves I have," "Did not the heavenly," " If love make me forsworn," " On a day, alack the day," the first two of which are in the Sonnets (cxxxviii. and cxllv.\ and
the others in Love's Labour's Lost, published in 1598. Two of them
are by Richard Barnfield, those beginning, "If music and sweet
poetry," "As it fell upon a day." The one beginning, ' Live with
me and be my love," is by Marlowe ; and the answer, "If that the
world," is generally attributed to Raleigh. No. xviii., "My flocks
feed not," is from Weelkes's "Madrigals," published in 1597. The
authorship of the others is doubtful. Swinburne says of them :
" The rest of the ragman's gatherings [excepting the poems from
Shakespeare], with three most notable exceptions [Marlowe's and Barnfield's], is little better, for the most part, than dry rubbish or disgusting refuse ; unless a plea may haply be put in for the pretty
commonplaces of the lines on a ' sweet rose, fair flower,' and so
forth ; for the couple of thin and pallid, if tender and tolerable,
copies of verse on ' Beauty ' and ' Good-Night,' or the passably light
and lively stray of song on ' Crabbed age and youth.' "
The second title given to the latter part of the collection, " Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music," was in the original.
Passy-measures. See PAVAN.
Past, the, and the to-come, seem best, //. Henry IV., i. 3 ; good
deeds .of, forgotten, Troilus and Cressida y Hi. 3.
Pastors, that do not practise what they preach, Hamlet, i. 3.
Pastry (room for pastry), Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 4.
Patay, battle of, /. Henry VI., iv. 1.
Patch, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 1, 2 ; Macbeth, v. 8, and others.
Fool ; originally a jester in a patched dress.
Patches, worse than rents, King John, iv. 2.
Patchery (roguery), Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3; Timon of
Athens, v. 1.
Paths, walking in trodden, As You Like It, i. 3.
Patience, at others' troubles, Comedy of Errors, ii. 1 ; exhortation to, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 1, Balthazar's speech ; under sorrow, Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1 ; opposed to fury, Merchant of
Venice, iv. 1 ; on a monument, Twelfth Night, ii. 4 ; is cowardice
in nobles, Richard II., i. 2 ; what goddess she be, Troilus and Cressida, i. 1 ; cool, Hamlet, Hi. 4 ; prayer for, King Lear, ii. 4 ; makes
a mockery of injury, Othello, i. 3 ; they are poor that have not,
Othello, ii. 3 ; past, Othello, iv. 2 ; is sottish, Antony and Cleopatra,
iv., end ; gazing on kings' graves, Pericles, v. 1 ; a tired mare, Henry
V., ii. 1 ; grief and, Cymbeline, iv. 2 ; badge of the Jews, Merchant
of Venice, i. 3 ; sovereign aid of, Tempest, v. 1.
Patience, an attendant of Queen Katharine in Henry V1IL, introduced in iv. 2.
Patines, Merchant of Venice, v. 1.
" A patine is a small, flat dish or plate (for holding the bread)
used with the chalice in the administration of the sacrament." DYCE.
Patricians, complaint against, Coriolanus, i. 1 ; dividing their
power, Coriolanus, Hi. 1.
Patrick, Saint, Hamlet swears by, i. 5.
Patriotism, King John, v. 2 ; Richard II., ii. 1; Hi. 2 ; I.
Henry IV., iv. 3, " The king is kind," etc. ; a woman's, Coriolanus,
i. 3 ; of Comenius, Coriolanus, Hi. 3 ; of Macduff, Macbeth, iv. 3 ;
and friendship, Julius Ccesar, i. 2, speech of Brutus, " Passions of
some difference," etc. ; professed, of Brutus, Julius Ccesar, Hi. 2.
Patroclus, a Grecian general, character in Troilus and Cressida,
introduced in ii. 1. In i. 3 Ulysses describes his mimicry of the
other Greek leaders for the amusement of Achilles.
Pauca verba (few words), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.
Paucas pallabris (few words), Taming of the Shrew, induction, 1.
Paul, by Saint, a favourite oath of Richard III., i. 1, 3; Hi. 4;
v.3.
Paulina, an important character in A Winter's Tale, a champion
of the queen against the jealous king.
" Such are some of the words that boil over from the stout heart
of Paulina, the noblest and most amiable termagant we shall anywhere find, when, with the new-born babe in charge, she confronts
the furious king. He threatens to have her burnt, and she replies
instantly :
"'I care not;
It is an heretic that makes the fire,
Not she which burns in't.'
If her faults were a thousand times greater than they are, I could
pardon them all for this one little speech ; which proves that Shakespeare was, I will not say a Protestant, but a true Christian intellectually, at least, and far deeper in the spirit of his religion than a large
majority of the Church's official organs were in his day, or, let me
add, have been any day since. . . . With a head to understand
and a heart to reverence such a woman [Hermione], she unites a
temper to fight and a generosity to die for her. . . . Loud, voluble,
violent, and viraginous, with a tongue sharper than a sword, and an
eloquence that fairly blisters where it hits, she has, therewithal, too
much honour and magnanimity and kind feeling either to use them
without good cause, or to forbear t using them at all hazards when
she has such cause." HUDSON.
Paul's, I bought him in, II. Henry IV., i. 2. St. Paul's was a
resort for all kinds of idlers, and men out of service were to be found
there as at an intelligence-office. See under PROVERBS.
Pavan, Twelfth Night, v. 1. The pavan is a grave, formal
dance. This word is in some texts paynim, in which case " a passy-measures paynim " is interpreted, a heathen past measure. With
pavan, passy-measures may be understood to mean pacing-measure.
Payment, fair, for foul words, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1.
Peace, Heaven's, but not the King of Hungary's, Measure for
Measure, i. 2 ; soldiers and, Measure for Measure, i. 2 ; to all that
dare not fight, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1 ; made, King John, ii. 1 ;
Hi. 1; fat ribs of, King John, Hi. 3; attempt to make, between
challenger and challenged, Richard II., i. 1; a breathing-space for,
/. Henry IV., i. 1; made, II. Henry IV., iv. 2; Henry V., v. 3; I.
Henry VI., v. 1; II. Henry VI., i. 1; Henry VIIL, i. 1; virtues
becoming in, Henry V., Hi. 1; one unfitted for the piping time of,
Richard III., i. 1; desire for, Richard III., ii. 1; above earthly
dignities, Henry VIIL, Hi. 2; prophesied in the time of Elizabeth,
Henry VIIL, v. 4 ; shallow boats in time of, Troilus and Cre&sida,
i. 3; an apoplexy, etc., Coriolanus, iv. 5 ; made by women, Coriolanus, v. 3; ratified, Cymbeline, v. 5, end.
Peace-maker(s), King Edward as a, Richard III., ii. 1 ; God's
blessing on, Macbeth, ii. 4>
Peacocks, Juno's, The Tempest, iv. 1 ; pride of, Comedy of Errors, iv. 3 ; I. Henry VI., Hi. 3 ; Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3 ; Hamlet, Hi. 2.
Pearls, in a foul oyster, As You Like It, v. 4; tears transformed to, Richard III., iv. 4 ; alluding to the notion that pearl-oysters open on a certain day in the year to receive rain-drops, which
then become pearls ; in India, Troilus and Cressida, i. 1 ; a union
(a large pearl), Hamlet, v. 2; a rich, thrown away, Othello, v. 2.
Pears, poperin, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 1; warden, A Winter's
Tale, iv. 3.
Peas-blossom, a fairy in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Hi. 1.
Peascod, wooing a, As You Like It, ii. 4. Alluding to the custom of using the pods of peas in divinations of lovers.
Peat (pet), Taming of the Shrew, i. 1.
Peck, Gilbert, Henry VIII., i. 1 ; ii. 1.
Pedant, a, a character in the Taming of the Shrew, introduced
in iv. 2, who takes the name of Vincentio. Another pedant in the
plays is Holof ernes in Love's Labour's Lost.
Pedantry, ridiculed in Love's Labour's Lost.
Pedascule (pedant), Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 1.
Pedlar, a, Autolycus in A Winter's Tale.
Pedro, Don, Prince of Aragon, character in Much Ado about
Nothing, introduced in i. 1, a good-humoured meddler.
Peeled (bald, tonsured), /. Henry VI., i. 3.
Peer out, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2. Allusion to a children's rhyme to a snail
" Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal."
Peevish (foolish), Comedy of Errors, iv. 1, 4; Richard III., iv.
4; (saucy), Twelfth Night, i. 5.
Peg-a-Ramsey, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. The heroine of an old
song, mistress of James I. of Scotland.
Pegasus, I. Henry IV., iv. 1 ; Henry V., Hi. 7. The winged
horse of the Muses.
Pegasus, the, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 4. An inn in Genoa.
The arms of the Middle Temple, and a popular sign.
Peise or peize (to weigh), Merchant of Venice, Hi. 2 ; King
John, ii. 1.
Pelican, the, Richard II., ii. 1; Hamlet, iv. 5 or 2; King Lear, Hi. 4. Allusion to the notion that young pelicans were fed on their mother's blood.
Pelion, Mount (a range in Thessaly), Merry Wives of Windsor,
ii. 1; Hamlet, v. 1. The giants piled Ossa upon Pelion in order to
climb into heaven.
Pelting (paltry), Richard II., ii. 1, and elsewhere.
Pembroke, William Marshall, Earl of. character in King John,
introduced in the first scene. He did not go over to the French interest, as represented in the play, but his son, of the same name,
joined the Dauphin.
Pembroke, William Herbert, Earl of, character in III. Henry
VI., introduced in iv. 1. He was a partisan of York. He was beheaded in 1469. Sir Walter Herbert in Richard III. was his son.
Pembroke, Jasper Tudor, Earl of, Richard III., iv. 5. He was
an uncle of Richmond.
Pembroke, Marchioness of, Anne Boleyn receives the title of,
Henry VIIL, ii. 3.
Penalties, unenforced, Measure for Measure, i. 4. See PARDON.
Penance, for a jealous tyrant, A Winter's Tale, Hi. 2, " A thousand knees," etc.
Pendragon, I. Henry VI., Hi. 2. Uther, father of Arthur.
Penelope, her spinning, Coriolanus, i. 3.
Penelophon (or Zenelophon), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1. The
beggar-maid loved by King Cophetua.
Penitence, the signal for mercy, The Tempest, v. 1; enough,
Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4> f r another's fault, Comedy of
Errors, i. % ; in ashes, King John, iv. 1.
Penker, Friar, Richard 111., Hi. 5. Provincial of the Augustine friars, and a popular preacher. See SHAW.
Pensioners, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2 ; Midsummer Night' Dream, ii. 1. Allusion to Elizabeth's tall gentlemen pensioners, who wore an abundance of gold lace.
Pentapolis, scene of a part of Pericles.
Pentecost, pageants at, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4*
Penthesilea, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. The queen of the Amazons.
People, dislike of being gazed at by the, Measure for Measure,
i. 1; courting the common, Richard II., i. 4; liking of the, in
their eyes, Hamlet, iv. 3 or v. 7 ; sympathy of the, King Lear, iv. 3,
" To pluck the common bosom ; " fickleness of the, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2, 4; are the city, Coriolanus, Hi. 1. See also PLEBEIANS.
k Pepin, King, when he was a boy, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1 ; a physician that could raise, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1; his title to the throne, Henry V., i. 2 ; counsellors to, Henry VIII., i. 3.
Percy, Henry. See NORTHUMBERLAND, and HOTSPUR.
Percy, Lady, wife of Hotspur, character in /. Henry IV., introduced in ii. 3, and as Hotspur's widow in II. Henry IV., ii. 3, where
she upbraids Northumberland for sacrificing his son by his delay.
Her name, called Kate in the play, was Elizabeth. She was a sister of Mortimer.
Percy, Thomas. See WORCESTER.
Perdita, the lost daughter of Leontes and Hermione in A Winter's Tale, is brought up as a shepherdess, but restored to her parents
at the age of sixteen. Her natural grace and the delicacy and elevation of her nature, the strong features of her mother's softened by
inexperience and girlish light-heartedness, make her one of the most
attractive among the heroines of the plays. Her character is exhibited chiefly in iv. 4.
Perdu, King Lear, iv. 7. A soldier sent on a forlorn hope.
Perdy (par Dieu), Comedy of Errors, iv. 4, and elsewhere.
Peregrinate (of a foreign cast), Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1.
Perfect (certain), A Winter's Tale, Hi. 3 or 4, and elsewhere.
Perfection, AW 8 Well that Ends Well, ii. 1, " All that life can
rate," etc. ; Othello, ii. 1, " She that was ever fair," etc. ; no absolute,
Lucrece, I. 853.
Performance, Henry VIII., i. 2 ; a kind of testament, Timon,
of Athens, v. 2.
Perge (go on), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.
Periapts, charms worn to guard from danger, /. Henry VI., v. 3.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, a drama first published in 1609 ; it was
not included in the folio of 1623. Some critics suppose it to be the
joint production of Shakespeare and another or others ; that the first
three acts were not his, and that this accounts for its omission from
the folio. Others think he wrote it at an early period, and rewrote
the better part in his maturer years. It is known to have been very
popular on the stage. The plot is taken from an old story in the
" Gesta Romanoruin," translated into Anglo-Saxon, and afterward
into English (1576), by Lawrence Twine, under the title, " The Pattern of Painful Adventures." Gower rendered it into English verse,
and included it in his " Confessio Amantis." The play is apparently
from the version of Gower, who appears as chorus in it. Apollonius
is the name of the prince in those versions ; and it has been conjectured that Pericles is a form for Pyrocles, name of the hero of Sidrney's " Arcadia," published in 1590 ; the more so, as the character in
the play, and some of the incidents and ideas, resemble those of Sidney's work. The period of action extends over from fifteen to twenty
years. The play as a whole is not regarded as of any great value,
but portions of it are in Shakespeare's best manner. " No poetry of
shipwreck and the sea has ever equalled the great scene of ' Pericles ; ' no such note of music was ever struck out of the clash and contention of tempestuous elements."
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, introduced in the first scene of the
drama, where he solves the riddle of Antiochus, who seeks his life in
revenge, and he, by the advice of Helicanus, goes away to travel ; relieves Tharsus, *'. 4; is shipwrecked, ii. 1; victor in a joust, ii. 8;
marries Thaisa, ii. 5 ; is wrecked a second time, Hi., prologue ; finds
his daughter, v. 1 ; his wife, v. 3.
" His depth of soul and intellect, and a touch of melancholy, produce in him that painful sensitiveness, which indeed, as long as he
is unsuspicious, leaves him indifferent to danger ; but, after he has
once perceived the evil of men, renders him more faint-hearted than
bold, and more agitated and uneasy than enterprising." GERVINUS.
Perigenia, Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.
Perigort, Lord, Love's Labour's Lost, ii. 1.
Perjurer, wearing papers, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. A perjurer was punished by being compelled to wear a paper on the breast
naming his crime.
Perjury, King John, in. 1 ; of lovers, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2 ;
plagues for, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ; Merchant of Venice, iv. 1 ;
Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1; As You Like It, i. 2.
Perpend (consider), Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1 ; Twelfth
Night, v. 1 ; Samlet, ii. 2.
Perpetual motion, scoured to death with, //. Henry IV., i. 2.
Perplexity, expression of, Cymbeline, Hi. 4.
Perseus, Henry V., Hi. 7; Troilus and Cressida, i. 3; iv. 5.
The hero that took the Gorgon's head.
;. Perseverance, keeps honour bright, Troilus and Cressida, Hi.
3; Venus and Adonis, 1. 565; after repulse, The Tempest, Hi. 3.
Perspective, Twelfth, Night, v. 1 ; Richard II., ii. 2. The name
was applied to all kinds of optical instruments, some of which produced illusions, and it was also a name for pictures painted so as to
show the design only from a certain point of view at one side.
Perversion, from natural use, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3 ; of the
fairest things, Sonnets xciv.-xcvi.
Pestilence, Coriolanus, iv. 1; Romeo and Juliet, v. 2 ; Antony
and Cleopatra, iii. 8 ; judgment of God, Richard II., iii. 3 ; "the
Benedick," Much Ado about Nothing, i. 1.
Petar (petard), hoist with his own, Hamlet, iii. 4, end.
Peter, Saint, Othello, iv. 2 ; Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1;
Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5.
Peter of Pomfret, a character in King John, appears in iv. 2.
He was a hermit reverenced by the common people as a seer. It is
said that for his prophecy, which was really made in 1213, he was
dragged at horses' tails and afterward hanged on a gibbet with his
son. He was said to have been instigated to utter the prophecy
against John by the pope's legate and the barons ; it was supposed
also that his words moved John to come to a speedier agreement
with the pope.
Peter, a friar in Measure for Measure, introduced in iv. 5.
Peter, assistant of the armourer in //. Henry VI., introduced
in i. 3 ; his combat with his master, ii. S.
Peter, servant of the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, appears in ii.
4 and iv. 5.
Petitions, of maidens, Measure for Measure, i. 5.
Peto, one of the companions of Falstaff in the two parts of Henry IV., introduced in the first part in ii. 2, and in the second in
ii. 4. He was Falstaff's lieutenant in his " charge of horse."
Petrarch, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.
Petrifaction, Hamlet, iv. 7 or 4.
Petruchio, character in the Taming of the Shrew, who marries
Katherina the shrew, first appears in i. 2.
" Petruchio appears the only rational character of the piece ; yet
even he is driven, by the pervading folly of all the rest, at least to
play the part of a fool, and so becomes ridiculous, even though eventually the laugh is on his side. All the characters except Petruchio
and Katherina are sketched with a light touch ; the very composition of the piece forbids a nicer and more accurate delineation, and
yet Shakespeare has succeeded in giving to all the stamp of individuality. One trait in Katherina's conduct appears false : it is not
easy to see how so self-willed and stubborn a disposition could have
been so easily persuaded into a marriage with Petruchio. . . . The
true motive, evidently, was the surprise and irresistible impression
which an energetic mind and manly resolution made upon her. In
Petruchio she meets for the first time in her life a man worthy of
the name ; hitherto she has been surrounded with mere women in
male attire. A genuine man she cannot but admire, nay, more, love.
The very pride and somewhat overweening energy of her womanly
nature is a sufficient reason, psychologically, for her hearty submission." ULRICI.
Pew-fellow (companion), Richard III., iv. 4.
Phaeton, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 1; Richard II., in. 3;
111. Henry VI., i. 4> H-6 ; Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 2. He attempted
to drive for one day the chariot of his father, the Sun. The horses
ran away. The world was set on fire, and Jove, at the petition of
the Earth, hurled a thunderbolt at the unhappy charioteer, who fell
headlong into the river Eridanus.
Pharamond, King, and the Salic law, Henry V., i. 2.
Pharaoh., lean kine of, I. Henry IV., ii. 4> soldiers of, Much
Ado about Nothing, Hi. 3.
Pheezar (conqueror), Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3.
Pheeze (to chastise or humble), Taming of the Shrew, induction,
1 ; Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3.
Philadelphos, of Paphlagonia, Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 6.
Philario, an Italian, friend of Posthumus in Cymbeline, introduced in i. 4.
Philemon. See OVID.
Philemon, servant of Cerimon in Pericles, appears in Hi. 2.
Philip, name for a sparrow, King John, i. 1, so called from its
note, which is thought to sound like the name.
Philip and Jacob, Saints, Measure for Measure, Hi. 2. A holiday falling on May 1st.
Philip (Augustus) II., King of France from 1180 to 1223, a
character in King John. He is introduced at the beginning of the
second act. He was the great enemy and rival of Co3ur-de-Lion.
Philippi, the battles of : decision to give battle, Julius Caesar,
iv. 3 ; the action, Julius Caesar, v. 1-5; they were separated by an
interval of twenty days, though spoken of in v. 3 as being on the
same day ; Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 9 or 11.
Philo, character in Antony and Cleopatra, introduced in i. 1,
friend of Antony.
Philomel, Titus Andronicus, ii. 4 or 5 ; iv. 1 ; Lucrece, lines
1079,1128; Sonnet cii. ; Passionate Pilgrim, xv; Cymleline, ii. 2.
See TEREUS.
Philosopher, a, never could endure toothache, Much Ado about
Nothing, v. 1 ; the weeping (Heraclitus), Merchant of Venice, i. 2 ;
desiring to eat a grape. As You Like It, v. 1.
Philosopher's stone, the, All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3,
" Plutus himself," etc. ; two stones, //. Henry IV., Hi. 2 ; alluded
to as a great medicine, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5.
Philosophy, a school of, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1; a shepherd's, As You Like It, Hi. 2 ; adversity's milk, Romeo and Juliet,
Hi. 3 ; make no use of, Julius Ccesar, iv.3 ; things not dreamt of in,
Hamlet, i. 5; pretended, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 3.
Philostrate, character in the Midsummer Night's Dream, introduced in i. 1. He is Theseus's master of the revels.
Philoten, daughter of Cleon, Governor of Tarsus, mentioned in
Pericles, iv., prologue.
Philotus, servant of one of the creditors of Timon of Athens,
introduced in Hi. 4>
Phisnomy (physiognomy), All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 5.
Phoebe (the moon), Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1; Titus Andronicus, i. 2.
Phoebe, a shepherdess and rustic beauty in As You Like It, with
" inky brows, black silk hair, bugle eyeballs, and cheeks of cream,"
beloved by Silvius, appears first in Hi. 5. She " is quite an Arcadian
coquette ; she is a piece of pastoral poetry."
Phoebus Apollo, god of the sun, The Tempest, iv. 1; Much
Ado about Nothing, v. 3 ; A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4; III. Henry
VI., ii. 6; Hamlet, Hi. 2 ; Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 8 ; v. 2 ; Cymbeline, ii. 3 ; I. Henry IV., i. 2; Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 2.
Phcanix, the, The Tempest, Hi. 3 ; Comedy of Errors, i. 2 ; III.
Henry VI., i. 4; Henry VIII., v. 5; Cymbeline, i. 6; Sonnet xix.;
Lover's Complaint, 1. 93; As Yon Like It, iv. 3; I. Henry VI., v.
1 ; Timon of Athens, ii. 1. A fabled Arabian bird, which, after living five hundred years, made for itself a funeral pyre, from the ashes
of which rose a hew phoenix. ,
Phoenix and the Turtle, The, was printed as Shakespeare's in a
book which appeared in 1601, " Love's Martyr, or Rosalin's Complaint." Its authorship is doubtful.
Phraseless (indescribable), Lover's Complaint, I. 225.
Phrases, red-lattice (alehouse), Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5 ;
not soldier-like, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1 ; a mint of, Love's
Labour's Lost, i. 1.
Phrygian Turk, base, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3.
Phrynia, a mistress to Alcibiades, character in Timon of Athens,
introduced in iv. 3.
Physic, throw, to the dogs, Macbeth, v. 3. See MEDICINE.
Physical (medicinal), Coriolanus, i. 4 ; Julius Ccesar, ii. 1.
Physician(s), ridicule of, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 3; ironical praise of, Merry Wives of Windsor, Hi. 1 ; skill of a, All's Well
that Ends Well, i. 1; a woman, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1; trust not the, Timon of Athens, iv. 3 ; kill the, and bestow the fee on the disease, King Lear, i. 1 ; give what they would not take, Pericles, i. 2 ; sleeps while the patient dies, Lucrece, I. 904 >' an angry, Sonnet cxlvii.
Physicians. See BUTTS, CAIUS, CERIMON, CORNELIUS, NARBON,
and Doctors in MACBETH and KING LEAR.
Physiognomy, Macbeth, i. 1, "There is no art to find the
mind's construction in the face."
Picardy, scene of a part of Henry V., and mentioned in //.
Henry VI., iv. i.
Picked (nice, fastidious), Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1.
Pickpocket, a, Autolycus in A Winter's Tale.
Pickthanks (parasites), I. Henry IV., Hi. 2.
Pickt-hatch, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. " A disreputable
neighbourhood in London, where the hatches or half-doors were protected against rogues by spikes or pickets."
Picture, of we three, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. Allusion to a common sign representing two fools and the legend beneath, " We three
fools be."
Pictures, two contrasted, Hamlet, Hi. 4 ; description of, Taming of the Shrew, induction, 2; the sleeping and the dead are as,
Macbeth, ii. 2. See PERSPECTIVES and PAINTING.
Piedness, in flowers, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4.
Pierce of Exton, Sir. See EXTON.
Piety, rewards by fairies for, Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5 ;
cruel, irreligious, Titus Andronicus, i. 2.
Pigeons, carrier, Titus Andronicus, iv. 3.
Pight (pitched, set), King Lear, ii. 1 ; Troilus and Cressida, v. 2.
Pigrogromitus and the Vapians, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. This
is probably an invention of Shakespeare's, used in fun.
Pilate, Pontius, Richard II., iv. 1 ; Richard III., i. 4.
Pilcher (scabbard), Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 1.
Pilgrim, a true devoted, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 7.
Pilgrimage(s), All's Well that Ends Well, iv.3; to Canterbury.,
I. Henry IV., i. 2 ; to atone for guilt, Richard II., v. 6.
Pillage, forbidden to soldiers, Henry V., Hi. 6.
Pillar of the world, the triple [or third], Antony and Cleopatra, i. 1. Alluding to the three triumvirs.
Pilled (despoiled, from the same root as pillage), Richard II., ii.
1 ; Richard III., i. 3.
Pillicock, sat on, etc., King Lear, Hi. 4. A nursery rhyme.
Pillory, the, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4; Taming of the
Shrew, ii. 1.
Pimpernel!, Henry, mentioned, Taming of the Shrew, induction, 2.
Pin and web (cataract on the eye), A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; King
Lear, Hi. 4*
Pinch, a schoolmaster in the Comedy of Errors, introduced in
iv. 4 >' described by Antipholus in v. 1.
Pindarus, a servant of Cassius in Julius Ccesar, appears in iv. 2.
Pine-trees, knots in, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.
Pioned (covered with peonies), The Tempest, iv. 1.
Pip out, a, Taming of the Shrew, i. 2. " A phrase applied to a
drunken person, borrowed from a game of cards, Bone-ace, or One
and Thirty."
Pipe, a, for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleases,
Hamlet, Hi. 2 ; of Hermes, Henry V., Hi. 7.
Pirate(s), Twelfth Night, v. 1; II. Henry VI., i. 1; Suffolk
dies by, iv. 1; Hamlet, iv. 6 or 3 ; Antony and Cleopatra, i. 4; ii.
6 ; the sanctimonious, Measure for Measure, i. 2.
Pisa, renowned, Taming of the Shrew, i. 1 ; iv. 2.
Pisanio, servant to Posthumus in Cymbeline, introduced in i.l;
ordered to kill Imogen, Hi. 2 ; his scheme to save her, Hi. 4.
Pistol, a swaggering bully, one of Falstaff's companions in //.
Henry IV., the Merry Wives of Windsor, and Henry V. He is at
first ancient or ensign, afterward lieutenant, and marries Mistress
Quickly, the tavern hostess. In the Merry Wives of Windsor he
conspires with Nym to defeat Falstaff. His character is set forth by
Falstaff in ii. 2. His conversation is distinguished by the use of
classical allusions. He is introduced in //. Henry IV. in ii. 4, where
he rants snatches of plays and ballads. In Henry V., ii. 1, he appears as the husband of Mistress Quickly, and quarrels with Bardolph, who had been troth-plight to her. He goes to the war in
France, appearing on the battle-field in iv. 4, and is last seen in v. 1.
The names of Bardoulph and Pistail are said to be on the muster-roll
of artillerymen serving under the Earl of Arundel in 1435.
Pitch, they that touch, are defiled, Much Ado about Nothing,
Hi. 3 ; I. Henry IV., ii. 4> II* Henry VI., ii. 1; Love's Labour's
Lost, iv. 3.
Pitchers, have ears, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 4; Richard III.,
ii. 4.
Pity, and justice, Measure for Measure, ii. 2 ; even beasts know, Richard III., i. 2; for the falling, Henry VIII., Hi. 2 ; leave, with our mothers, Troilus and Cressida, v. 8 ; the virtue of the law, Timon of Athens, Hi. 5 ; like a new-born babe, Macbeth, i. 7 ; 'tis true, 'tis, Hamlet, ii. 2 ; for the poor, King Lear, Hi. 4, " Poor naked
wretches," etc. ; implored, As You Like It, ii. 7 ; Cymbeline, iv. 2 ;
Henry VIII., prologue ; for a begging prince, Richard III., i. 4;
want of, Richard II., v. 2 ; Timon of Athens, Hi. 2 ; iv. 3.
Piu por dulzura, que por fuerza, Pericles, ii. 2. More by
gentleness than by force.
Place and greatness, Measure for Measure, iv. 1.
Plague, the : inscription on infected houses, " Lord have mercy
on us," Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ; of Greece, Troilus and Cressida,
ii. 1, sent by Apollo on the Grecian army ; of both your houses, Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 1 ; of custom (conventionality), King Lear, i. 2.
Plain-speaking, Julius Ccesar, i. 2, " Rudeness is a sauce," etc. ;
Julius Ccesar, Hi. 2, " I have neither wit nor words," etc. ; King
Lear, ii. 2, " These kind of knaves I know," etc.
Planched (planked), Measure for Measure, iv. 1.
Planetary influence. See ASTROLOGY.
Planets, the, disorder of, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.
Plantagenet. For Edmund, see RUTLAND. For Edward, see
EDWARD IV. For George, see CLARENCE. For Richard, Duke of
York, see YORK. For Richard, see RICHARD III.
Plantain, the herb, used for wounds, Love's Labour's Lost, Hi.
1 ; Romeo and Juliet, i. 2.
Plashy, Richard II., i. 2; ii. 2. Castle of the Duchess of Gloster in Essex.
Platforms (plans), I. Henry VI., ii. 1.
Plautus, Hamlet, ii. 2. A Roman comic dramatist, died in the
year 184 B. c.
Player(s), a strutting, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3, " The great
Achilles," etc. ; Taming of the Shrew, induction, 1; Hamlet, ii. 2;
life like a, Macbeth, v. 5 ; advice to, Hamlet, Hi. 1. See ACTORS.
Play(s), life a, As You Like It, ii. 7 ; remorse oft aroused by,
Hamlet, ii. 2 ; names of, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1; good for
melancholy, Taming of the Shrew, induction, 2.
Plea, of " not guilty," A Winter's Tale, Hi. 2.
Pleached (intertwined), Much Ado about Nothing, i. 2, and
elsewhere.
Pleasure, deaf to reason, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2 ; turned
ill, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 2; dearly bought, Lucrece, I. 211.
Plebeians, of Rome, revolt of, Coriolanus, i. 1. This incident
in the play is placed in a street of Rome ; but, according to Plutarch,
the plebs withdrew to Mons Sacer, the holy hill. Wrongs and faults
of, Coriolanus, i. 1 ; cowardice of, Coriolanus, i. 4, 6 ,' abuse of, Coriolanus, ii. 1; flatterers of, Coriolanus, ii. 2, 3 ; Hi. 2 ; wits of the,
Coriolanus, ii. 3 ; denounced, Coriolanus, Hi. 1 ; contempt for, Coriolanus, Hi. 1-3 ; defied, Coriolanus, Hi. 3 ; repent the banishment,
Coriolanus, iv. 6. See PEOPLE, POPULACE.
Plenty, breeds cowards, Cymbeline, Hi. 6.
Plodding, in books, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1; prisons the
spirits, Lovers Labour's Lost, iv. 3.
Plots : against Falstaff , Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1 ; Hi. 3,
5 ; iv. 2, 4 ; v. 2-5 ; Ford's, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2 ; against
Benedick and Beatrice, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3; Hi. 1;
against Hero, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 2 ; of Hortensio and
Petruchio, Taming of the Shrew, i. 2 : of Lucentio and Tranio, Taming of the Shrew, i. 1 ; of Helena, All's Well that Ends Well, Hi. 7 ;
against Parolles, All's Well that Ends Well, Hi. 6 ; iv. 1 ; to commit
murder, A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; to rob, A Winter's Tale, iv. 2 or 3 ;
of the Abbot of Westminster, Richard II., iv. 1 ; v. 2, 3, 6 ; of the
Percys, I. Henry IV., i. 3 ; ii. 3 ; against Clarence, Richard III.,
i. 1 ; against Hamlet, Hamlet, iv. 7 or 4 ; of Edmund against Edgar,
King Lear, i. 2 ; ii. 1; of lago, Othello, ii. 1, last part ; of Pisanio,
Cymbeline, Hi. 4; of Cloten, Cymbeline, Hi. 5.
Plunder, soldiers', /. Henry IV., iv. 2, "They'll find linen
enough on every hedge ; " wrangled over, Richard III., i. 3.
Plurisy (plethora, superabundance), Hamlet, iv. 7.
Pluto, god of the infernal regions, Titus Andronicus, iv. 3 ; Lucrece, 1. 553 ; II. Henry IV., ii. 4 ; Coriolanus, i. 4 ; Troilus and
Cressida, v. 2.
Plutus, god of riches, mine of, Julius Ccesar, iv. 3 ; alchemy of,
All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3 ; god of gold, Timon of Athens, i. 1.
Po, the river, King John, i. 1.
Pocket-picking, Falstaff's charge of, /. Henry IV., Hi. 3.
Poet(s), ink of the, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; imagination of
the, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1 ; one early dead, Sonnet xxxii. ;
read for his love, Sonnet xxxii. ; a rival, Sonnets Ixxx., Ixxxiv., Ixxxv.
Poet, a, character in Timon of Athens, introduced in the first
scene, seeking patronage from Timon. In v. 1 he comes to get gold,
having heard of the treasure Timon has found.
Poet (Marcus Favonius), a character in Julius Ccesar, who breaks in on the quarrel of Brutus and Cassius in iv. 3, and is thrust out by
Brutus.
Poetry, the force of, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 2; directions for making, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 2 ; lovers given to,
As You Like It, Hi. 3; of love, Twelfth Night, i. 5, "Write loyal
cantons," etc. ; contempt for, /. Henry IV., Hi. 1 ; spontaneous, Timon of Athens, i. 1 ; beauty perpetuated in, Sonnets xv.-xix. ; Ixiii.,
Ixv., ci., cvii. ; of love, Sonnets xxi., xxxii., xxxviii., Iv. ; enduring,
Sonnets Iv., Ix. ; sameness in, Sonnet Ixvi. ; immortality in, Sonnet
Ixxxi. ; beauty the inspiration of, Sonnets Ixxviii.-lxxx. ; Ixxxiv.;
defeats time, Sonnet c. ; inadequacy of, Sonnet ciii. ; and music, Passionate Pilgrim, viii. ; the muse of, invoked, Love's Labour's Lost, i. 2 ; golden cadence of, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2 ; bootless rhymes, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.
Poins, or Pointz, one of the companions of the prince, introduced
in /. Henry IV., in i. 2, and in II. Henry IV., in ii. 2. In ii. 4, of
the second part^ Falstafl explains why the prince loves him.
Point-device (foppish, neat), Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1; As
You Like It, Hi. 2; Twelfth Night, ii. 5.
Points, Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 2 ; A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or
4, and elsewhere. Tags to fasten doublet and hose together.
Poison(s), The Tempest, Hi. 3 ; alluding to the custom of having a taster for the food of the great, to prevent the administering
of, King John, v. 6; effect of, King John, v. 7; physic in, II. Henry IV., i. 1, 2; mentioned, I. Henry VI., v. 4; Romeo and Juliet,
H. 3; King Lear, Hi. 4; Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2 ; penalty for
selling, Romeo and Juliet, v. 1 ; supposed to swell the body, King
John, v. 6; Julius Ccesar, iv. 3 ; effects of, Hamlet, i. 5 ; in the ear,
Hamlet, Hi. 2 ; iv. 7 ; given to Regan, King Lear, v. 3 ; asked for,
Cymbeline, i. 5 ; v. 5.
Peking-sticks, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4. Instruments to
plait ruffles with.
Polacks, the sledded, Hamlet, i. 1 ; iv. 4.
Poland, winter in, Comedy of Errors, Hi. 2.
Pole, the north, Othello, ii. 1.
Polemon, of Mede, Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 6.
Policy, in war, contempt for, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 ; in ill
opinion, Troilus and Cressida, v. 4; combined with honour, Coriolanus, Hi. 2; a heretic, Sonnet cxxiv ; plague of your, Henry VIII.,
Hi. 2; is from the devil, Timon of Athens, Hi. 3.
Politeness. See COURTESY.
Politician(s), management of, Coriolanus, ii. 8 ; a dead, Hamlet, v. 1; a scurvy, King Lear, iv. 6.
Polixenes, King of Bohemia, in A Winter's Tale. The jealousy
of Leontes is aroused against him, and he would be murdered but
for Gainillo, who warns him and flees with him. Ho opposes the
marriage of his son with the shepherdess, but gives consent when
she is found to be the daughter of Leontes, King of Sicily. He first
appears in i. 2.
Polonius, the lord chamberlain in Hamlet, first appears in *. .
His advice to his son, i. 3, is said to be copied from John Lilly's romance of "Euphues: the Anatomy of Wit," published in 1580;
his advice to his daughter, i. 3 ; his death, iii. 4. Polonius is officious, confident in his own wisdom and vain of it. " Hamlet's
ugly sarcasms seem disproportioned to his offences, which are the
harmless folly of an old man, until we remember the annoyance and
irritation one experiences when in deep feeling or perplexity, at
the confident, self-satisfied, shallow judgment of some worldly-wise
person who imagines his system of weights and measures to be infallible."
Polydore. See GUIDERIUS.
Pomanders, A Winter's Tale, iv. 8 or 4. Little perfumed balls
of paste worn as amulets.
Pomegranate, /. Henry IV., ii. 4. Name of a room in an
inn. See BUNCH OF GRAPES.
Pomewater (a kind of apple), Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.
Pomfret (Pontefract), in Yorkshire, scene of Richard II., v. 5.
Richard was confined in the dungeon of the castle ; Richard III.,
ii. 4 ; iii. 2, 3.
Pomp, what is, III. Henry VI., v. 2 ; loss of, Henry VIII., ii.
3 ; take physic, King Lear, iii. 4 >' the gate too narrow for pomp to
enter, Airs Well that Ends Well, iv. 5.
Pompeius, Cneius, Pompey the Great (106-48 B. c.), incorrectly
mentioned as one of the nine worthies, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1;
wars of, Henry V., iv. 1 ; celebration of the victory over his faction,
Julius Ccesar, i. 1; ingratitude toward, *. 1; at Pharsalia, v. 1;
death of, II. Henry VI., iv. 1. He was killed as he was leaving a
boat in which he was landing on the shore of Egypt, at the instance
of the king's officers, who desired to propitiate Csesar.
Pompeius, Sextus, Pompey the Younger, character in Antony
and Cleopatra, introduced in ii. 1. His rebellion, i. 8, 4; ii. 1; his
motives, ii. 6.
" The young Pompey, a frank but thoughtless soul, the image of
political levity, opposed to the moderate Octavius, fights for the
cause of freedom in company with pirates, foolishly brave, without
friends. . . . This confidence rests on the predictions of hope, on the
command of the sea, on the love of the people, on all the most deceitful things in the world." GEEVINUS.
Pompey, servant of Mrs. Overdone in Measure for Measure, introduced in i. 2, a circumlocutory rascal.
Pompey's Porch, Julius Ccesar, i. 8. At the theatre built by
Pompey on the Campus Martius. Caesar was slain at the foot of the
statue of Pompey, which stood there, not in the capitol.
Pont, King of, Antony and Cleopatra, in. 6.
Pontic Sea, the, Othello, in. 3.
Ponton, Lord, I. Henry VI., i. 4.
Poor, the, pride of, Twelfth Night, in. 1 ; sleep of, Henry V.,
iv. 1; sufferings of fable of rich and, Coriolanus, i. 1; neglected,
As You Like It, ii. 1 ; Timon of Athens, iv. 2. See also ADVERSITY, POVERTY.
Poor-John (dried and salted hake), The Tempest, ii. 2; Romeo
and Juliet, i. 1.
Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, Sonnet cxlvi.
Pope, the (Innocent III.), his quarrel with John of England,
King John, Hi. 1 ; the reconciliation, King John, v. 1, 2.
Pope, the (Clement VII.), Henry VIIL, ii. 2; Hi. 2.
Popilius Lena, a senator in Julius Ccesar, introduced in Hi. 1.
Popinjay (parrot), a, I. Henry IV., i. 3.
Poppy, the, Othello, Hi. 3.
Populace, the, excitement of, King John, iv. % ; treatment of
the kings by, Richard II., v. 2 ; fickleness of, II. Henry IV., i. 8;
Julius Ccesar, i. 1; Hi. 2 ; applause of, Julius Ccesar, i. 2. See
PEOPLE, PLEBEIANS.
Popularity, Richard II., i. 4; v.2 ; I. Henry IV., iii.2 ; iv. 3 ;
II. Henry IV., i. 3; Henry V., iv., chorus; Julius Ccesar, i. 3 ;
Merchant of Venice, Hi. 2 ; Coriolanus, ii. 1, 3 ; ii. 2 ; Hamlet, iv.
S, 5; Timon of Athens, i. 1 ; fickle, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 4; IL
Henry VI., iv. 8; III. Henry VI., ii. 6; Hi. 1; iv. 8; (familiarity
with the people), Henry V., i. 1.
Pork, the eating of, Merchant of Venice, i. 3 ; Hi. 5.
Porpentine (porcupine), //. Henry VI., Hi. 1; Troilus and
Cressida, ii. 1; the fretful, Hamlet, i. 5 ; an inn called the, Comedy
of Errors, in. 1 ; v. 1.
Porpoises, signs of storm, Pericles, ii. 1.
Porringer, a pinked, Henry VIII., v. 4. A cap shaped like a
porringer.
Port (gate), Antony and Cleopatra, i. 8, and elsewhere.
Portage (port-holes), Henry V., Hi. 1.
Portance (carrying on, progress), Othello, i. 3.
Portents, Julius Ccesar, i. 3 ; ii. 2; Hamlet, i. 1; King John,
Hi. 4; Richard III., ii. 3 ; I. Henry IV., iv 1. See also OMENS.
Porter, a, character in Macbeth, ii. 3. His speeches are generally attributed to some other hand, though Dowden thinks they
show that of Shakespeare. Schiller in his translation substitutes a
pious morning hymn for the porter's speech. Coleridge is positive
that the actors interpolated the character, and Shakespeare, finding
it take with the mob, added the words from " I'll devil-porter it no
further." Quite a different view is taken of the part by Ulrici, who
says : " But the ordinary and every-day portion of society having
been introduced, it must be depicted in complete truth, and therefore also in the comic light which is thrown upon it from its disproportionateness. Even the part of the Porter in Macbeth, over whose
drunken drowsiness and silly meditations the fearful destiny which
is to affect him and his country so deeply sweeps by without a trace,
possesses so solemn a seriousness and tends so greatly to heighten
the tragic effect that it could on no account be left out."
Portia, the heroine of the Merchant of Venice, first appears in
i. 2. She is, perhaps, in the variety and degree of her fine qualities,
the noblest character among Shakespeare's women. Though a child
of fortune, she is full of ready sympathy for those who suffer ;
though impulsive and ardent, her high sense of honour will not permit her to give her lover the slightest hint as to the caskets in the
choice that involves her whole happiness ; though provided with a
decision that will do her intellect the greatest honour in the court-room, she does not bring it forward until she has done her utmost
by womanly persuasion to bring the Jew to relent on considerations
of mercy and humanity. She is witty, clear-sighted, generous, elastic in temperament, prompt and decided in action.
Portia, wife of Brutus, character in Julius Ccesar, first appears
in i. 2 ; her death, iv. 3. Unwilling to be excluded from the counsels of her husband, Portia inflicted a wound upon herself to prove
her courage and fortitude. When Brutus fled from Rome after Antony's success, she fell into despair and slew herself.
Portrait(s), description of a, Merchant of Venice, Hi. 2 ; two
contrasted, Hamlet, Hi, 4; love of a, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 4.
Portugal, Bay of, As You Like It, iv. 1.
Possess (inform), Merchant of Venice, i. 3, and elsewhere.
Possession, Much Ado about Nothing, iv. 1, " What we have
we prize not," etc. ; disillusionment of, Troilus and Cressida, i. 2,
"Women are angels," etc.; Antony and Cleopatra, i.4; Lucrece,
1. 867 ; have is have, King John, i. 1.
Possessions, that men glory in, Sonnet xci.
Post, Comedy of Errors, i. 2. Allusion to the practice of scoring
accounts on posts.
Posthumus Leonatus, character in Cymbeline, Imogen's husband, introduced in the first scene, where he is described. His
wager, i. 4 / he orders the death of Imogen, Hi. 2 ; his vision, v. 4 ,'
his bravery, v. 5.
" His jealousy is not heroic, like Othello's ; it shows something of
grossness unworthy of his truer self. In due time penitential sorrow
does its work ; his nobler nature reasserts itself." DOWDEN.
Posy (motto), of a ring, Hamlet, Hi. 2.
Potato, the, Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5.
Potents (powers or forces), King John, ii. 1 or 2.
Pouncet-box, I. Henry IV., i. 3. A perforated box for carrying
perfumes in.
Pourquoi (why), Twelfth Night, i. 3.
Poverty, desperate my, consents, not my will, Romeo and Juliet, v. 1 ; is bold, Timon of Athens, Hi. 4 ; enforced, and willing,
Timon of Athens, iv. 3; appearance of, King Lear, ii. 3 ; sufferings
of, King Lear, Hi. 4; makes vices apparent, King Lear, iv, 4;
makes tame, King Lear, iv. 6. See ADVERSITY and POOR, the.
Powder, food for, I. Henry IV., iv. 2; a skill-less soldier's,
Romeo and Juliet, Hi. 3 ; (to salt), I. Henry IV., v. 4.
Power, just, The Tempest, v. 1 ; abuse of, Measure for Measure,
ii. 4,' worn out before well put on, Coriolanus, Hi. 2 ; of a soldier
in time of peace, Coriolanus, iv. 7 ; corrupting influence of, Macbeth, iv. 3 ; cannot bear remonstrance, King Lear, i. 1 ; do courtesy
to wrath, King Lear, Hi. 7 ; unlimited, Henry VIII., ii. 2. See
also AUTHORITY, GREATNESS.
Poysam, the Papist, All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3.
Practice, and preaching, Merchant of Venice, i.2; I. Henry
VI., in. 1 ; Hamlet, i. 3.
Practice (strategy, trickery), Measure for Measure, v. 1 ; King
Lear, ii. 1; Othello, v. 2.
Practisants (plotters), 7. Henry VI., Hi. 2.
Preemunire, Henry VIII., Hi. 2. A writ against one who sets
up another authority than the king's.
Prague, hermit of, Twelfth Night, iv. 2.
Praise, of a daughter, The Tempest, iv. 1 ; of Angelo, Measure
for Measure, i. 1; ironical, Measure for Measure, v. 1; of self,
Much Ado about Nothing, v. 2 ; Troilus and Cressida, i. 3, speech
of .ZEneas ; for the sake of, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1 ; a seller's,
Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; envy roused by, As You Like It, ii. 3 ;
v. 1 ; of what's lost, All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3; in poetry, generally feigned, Twelfth Night, i. 5 ; influence of, on women, A Winter's Tale, i. 2, " Cram us with," etc. ; Falstaff's, of himself, I. Henry IV., ii. 4; for bravery, Goriolanus, i.9 ; ii. 2 ; bought, Timon of
Athens, ii. 2 ; daily, found harmful, Timon of Athens, iv. 3; of
Posthumus, Cymbeline, i. 1; in verse, Sonnet xvii.; gross, Sonnet
Ixxxii. ; cry amen to, like unlettered clerk, Sonnet Ixxxv.
Prat, Mother, name applied to Falstaff in disguise, Merry Wives
of Windsor, iv. 2.
Prayer(s), The Tempest, i. 1 ; assaults mercy. The Tempest, v.,
epilogue ; for another, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1 ; fault of being given to, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4; true, Measure for
Measure, ii. 2 ; temptation where, cross, Measure for Measure, ii.
2 ; empty, Measure for Measure, ii. 4,' death believed to be hastened by, I. Henry VI., i. 1 ; daily, II. Henry VI., ii. 1, " Let never
day nor night," etc. ; of Edward IV., III. Henry VI., ii. 3; of the
king, Henry V., iv. 1 ; pretence of, Richard III., Hi. 7 ; of Richmond, Richard III., v. 3, 5; twofold force of words, without
thoughts, Hamlet, Hi. 3 ; for Othello, ii. 1 ; before death, Othello,
v. 2 ; profit in loss of one's, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 1; in a storm,
Pericles, Hi. 1 ; need of, Romeo and Juliet, iv. 3 ; the Lord's, see
LORD'S PRAYER, THE.
Preaching, and practice. See PRACTICE.
Precaution, before building, II. Henry IV., i. 3 ; in time of
feast, Timon of Athens, iv. 3.
Precedent (first draft), King John, v. 2.
Precept(s), and practice, offered in sorrow, Much Ado about
Nothing, v. 1. See PRACTICE.
Precepts (warrants), II. Henry IV,, v. 1.
Precipices. See CLIFFS.
Precision, of a hypocrite, Measure for Measure, i. 4, 5.
Predictions. See PROPHECY.
Preferment, goes by favour, Othello, i. 1.
Prejudice, All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3; Hamlet, i. 4 ; religious, Merchant of Venice, Hi. 1.
Prejudice (injure), I. Henry VI., Hi. 3.
Prenzie. See GUARDS.
Presages, ill, Venus and Adonis, I. 467. See also OMENS, PORTENTS, PRESENTIMENTS.
Present, the, should be used, All's Well that Ends Well, v. 5,
" Let's take the instant," etc. ; Timon of Athens, v. 1, " When the
day serves," etc. ; seems worst, _ZZ Henry I V., i. 3 ; worth of what
is done in, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3 ; this ignorant, Macbeth, i.
5 ; sacrifice of the future to, Antony and Cleopatra, i. 4.
Presentiments, of the dying, Richard II., ii. 1 ; of evil, Richard II., ii. 2; Richard III., ii. 3 ; of untimely death, Romeo and
Juliet, i. 4, end ; Hi. 5 ; in a haunting song, Othello, iv. 3, " My
mother had a maid," etc.
Presents, to the rich, Timon of Athens, i. 2.
Prest (ready), Merchant of Venice, i. 1.
Pre.ster John, length of his foot, Much Ado about Nothing,
ii. 1.. Prester John was a name applied to the Kings of Ethiopia or
Abyssinia. It is said to be a corruption of Belul Oian, precious
stone, the first word having been translated and then corrupted
into Presbyter, and then Prester. The precious stone was in a legendary ring said to have been given to the Queen of Sheba by Solomon, and left by her to her descendants.
Presumption, in ascribing to the act of men the help of Heaven, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1.
Pretence (plot), the undivulged, Macbeth, ii. 3.
Prevent (anticipate, forestall), Twelfth Night, Hi. 1 ; I. Henry
VI., iv. 1.
Prevention (discovery), Julius Cc&sar, ii. 1.
Priam, King of Troy, character in Troilus and Cressida, introduced in ii. 1; allusions to: All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3; II.
Henry IV., i.' 1; III. Henry VI., ii. 5 ; Hamlet, H. 2; Lucrece,
lines 1448, 1466, 1485, 1548.
Priapus, Pericles, iv. 6.
t Pribbles, and prabbles, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1 ; v. 5.
Prick-song, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. Written music.
Pride, of authority, Measure for Measure, ii. 2 ; fallen with fortunes, As You Like It, i. 2; universality of, As You Like It, ii. 7 ;
without contempt or bitterness, All's Well that Ends Well, i. 2;
must have a fall, Richard II,, v. 5; loses men's hearts, I. Henry IV., Hi. 1 ; of a plebeian, Henry VIII., i. 1 ; broken, Henry V11L,
Hi. 2 ; Troilus and Cressida, i. 3, end ; ii. 3 ; no glass but, Troilus and
Cressida, Hi. 3 ; of blood and rank, Coriolanus, i. 1 ; ii. 1 ; Hi. 1,
% ; ever taints the prosperous, Coriolanus, iv. 7; in humiliation,
Timon of Athens, iv. 3, " Not by his breath," etc. ; accusation of,
King Lear, i. 1; in possessions, Sonnet xci ; of the poor, Twelfth
Night, Hi. 4 ; Eve's legacy, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 1 ; small
things make base men proud, //. Henry VI., iv. 1.
Priest(s), no, shovels in dust, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4. It
was customary for the priest to throw in earth in the form of a cross.
A meddling, King John, Hi. 1 ; churlish, Hamlet, v. 1 ; when, are
more in word than matter, King Lear, Hi. 2.
Primero, or prime, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 5 ; Henry
VIII. , v. 1. An old game of cards.
Primogeniture, rights of, As You Like It, i. 1.
Primroses, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4 ; Midsummer Night's
Dream, i. 1 ; II. Henry VI., Hi. 2; Cymbeline, iv. 2.
Primrose Way, the, to the everlasting bonfire, Macbeth, ii. 3 ;
the primrose path of dalliance, Hamlet, i. 3.
Prince(s), must maintain their dignity, Comedy of Errors, i. 1 ;
lions will not touch a true, I. Henry IV., ii. 4; unworthy conduct
of a, /. Henry IV., Hi. 1; empty honours of, Richard III., i. 4;
favours of, Henry VIII., Hi. 2 ; deaths of, foreshadowed, Julius
Ccesar, ii. 2 ; like tops of trees, Pericles, i. 2 ; a model, Pericles, ii.
2 ; glass for subjects, Lucrece, 1. 615 ; favourites of, Sonnet xxv.
Princes in the Tower, the, Richard III., Hi. 1 ; iv. 1 ; their
murder planned, iv. 2 ; executed, iv. 3 ; their ghosts, v. 3. See also
EDWARD and RICHARD.
Princox (a pert boy), Romeo and Juliet, i. 5.
Print, in (with exactness), Love's Labour's Lost, Hi. 1.
Prints (impressions), credulity to, Measure for Measure, ii. 4.
Priscian, a little scratched, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. He was
a Roman grammarian, who flourished about 500 A. D.
Priser (fighter), As You Like It, ii. 3.
Prison(s), scenes in, Measure for Measure, ii. 3 ; Hi. 1; A Winter's Tale, ii. 2; a, compared with the world, Richard II., v. 5; the
mind makes a, Hamlet, ii. 2 ; let's away to, King Lear, v. 3.
Prisoners, description of, Measure for Measure, iv. 3 ; dispute
about, I. Henry IV., i. 3; slaughter of, at Agincourt, Henry V.,
'iv. 7 ; it is not for, to be too silent in their words, Love's Labour's
.Lost, i. 2,
Prisoner's base, allusions to the game of, Two Gentlemen of
Verona, i. 2 ; Cymbeline, v. 3.
Probal (probable), Othello, ii. 3.
Process (summons), Antony and Cleopatra, i. 1. '
Procession, coronation, Henry VIII., iv. 1.
Proclamation, Measure for Measure, i. 2.
Procrastination, cowardly, Hamlet, iv. 4 or 1. See DELAY.
Proems, not Shafalus to, was so true, Midsummer Night's
Dream, v. 1. Alluding to the story of Cephalus and his wife Procris. She was told that he had been overheard to say when resting
from the chase, " Sweet Aura (air), come and fan me ! come, gentle
Aura ! " Supposing Aura to be a woman, she was aroused to jealousy, and crept through the bushes one day to surprise him at his
resting-place. But he, hearing the rustling, and supposing a wild
beast was about to spring upon him, discharged an arrow, by which
Procris was mortally wounded.
Proculeius, a friend of Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra, introduced in v. 1, where Caesar sends him with a message to Cleopatra ;
his interview with her, v. 2.
Prodigality, Timon of Athens, i. 1, 2.
Prodigal son, the, the calf that was killed for, Comedy of
Errors, iv. 3 ; chamber painted with the story of, Merry Wives of
Windsor, iv. 5 ; alluded to, 1. Henry IV., iv. 2.
Prodigies. See OMENS, PORTENTS.
Prodigious (prodigal), Two Q-entlemen of Verona, ii. 3.
Proditor (traitor), /. Henry VI., i. 3.
Preface (pro vi faccia, may it do you good), //. Henry IV., v. 3.
Proffers, unaccepted, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1.
Profligacy, burns out, Richard II.. ii. 1.
Progeny (progenitors), Coriolanus, i. 8.
Progne, Titus Andronicus, v. 2. Sister of Philomela and wife
of Tereus. She was changed into a swallow. See TEREUS.
Prolixious (delaying), Measure for Measure, ii. 4.
Prologue, to a special nothing, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1.
Prologues or choruses are introduced at the beginning of each
act in Henry V., of Acts i. and ii. of Romeo and Juliet, and at the
beginning of Henry VIII.
Promethean fire, the, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; Promethean
heat, Othello, v. 2. Prometheus stole fire from heaven for men, and
was condemned to perpetual imprisonment on Mount Caucasus,
where a vulture continually gnawed his vitals.
Prometheus, tied to Caucasus, Titus Andronicus, ii. 1.
Promise, and performance, Timon of Athens, v. 1 ; kept to the
ear, Macbeth, v. 7.
Promises, Timon of Athens, i. 2, " His, so fly beyond his state,"
etc. ; Merchant of Venice, iv. 1, " Liberal in offers ; " like Adonis's
gardens, I. Henry VI., i. 6 ; mighty, Henry VIII., iv. 2 ; of the
king, /. Henry IV., iv. 3.
Promontory, a strong-based, The Tempest, v. 1; the earth a
sterile, Hamlet, ii. 2.
Promotion, service for, As You Like It, ii. 3 ; many so arrive
at second masters, upon their first lord's neck, Timon of Athens,
iv. 3.
Promptness, AW a Well that Ends Well, v. 3, "Let's take the
instant," etc. ; Julius CcBsar, iv. 3, " There is a tide," etc. ; Macbeth,
i. 7, " If 'twere done when 'tis done," etc. ; anticipating time, Troilus
and Cressida, iv. 5 ; we must do something, and in the heat, King
Lear, i. 1. See also OPPORTUNITY.
Pronunciation, criticism on, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1.
Proof, of men, the true, Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 ; the ocular,
Othello, Hi. 3 ; let, speak, Cymbeline, Hi. 1 ; let the end try the
man, II. Henry IV., ii. 2.
Proof, lapped in (covered with armour of proof), Macbeth,
i.2.
Proper-false (handsome and deceitful), Twelfth Night, ii. 2.
Propertied (taken possession of), Twelfth Night, iv. 2 ; (endowed), Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2.
Property, in slaves, Merchant of Venice, iv. 1.
Prophecy, by magic art, The Tempest, i. 2 ; a, King John, iv.
2; gift of, at death, Richard II., ii. 1; of Merlin, I. Henry IV., Hi.
1 ; the king was the moldwarp, and the conspirators a dragon, a
lion, and a wolf, that should divide the realm among themselves ; of
Richard II., //. Henry IV., Hi. 1; may be drawn from history, 11.
Henry IV., Hi. 1; of the king's death, //. Henry IV., iv. 4, end; of
Henry V., I. Henry VI., v. 1; as to Henry VI., I. Henry VI., Hi. 1;
regarding Suffolk, //. Henry VI., i. 4 ; iv. 1 ; regarding Somerset,
II. Henry VI., i. 4; v.2; "The Castle "was the sign of an ale-house; by Margaret, Richard III., i. 3 ; iv. 4; v. 1; regarding the
princess, Richard III., i. 1 ; regarding Richmond, Richard III., iv.
2 ; of Nicholas Hopkins, Henry VIII., i. 2; Wolsey's, of his death,
Henry VI1L, iv. 2 ; Cranmer's, concerning Elizabeth and James I.,
Henry VIIL,v,5; of Cassandra, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2; of Ulysses, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5 ; of Hector's death, Troilus and Cressida, v. 3 ; to Caesar, Julius Ccesar, i. 2 ; of the witches, Macbeth, i. 3; Hi. 1; of the fool, King Lear, Hi. 2, end; found by Posthumus, Cymbeline, v. 4.
Prophets, jesters oft prove, King Lear, v. 3 ; lean-looked, Richard II., ii. 4.
Propontic, the, Othello, Hi. 3.
Proposing (conversing), Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 1.
Propriety, the proper self, Twelfth Night, v. 1.
Prorogue (prolong), Pericles, v. 1.
Proscription, by Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, Julius Ccesar,
iv. 1. It really took place, not in Rome, but on an island near
Bologna.
Proserpina, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 or 4; Troilus and Cressida, ii. 1.
Prosperity, the bond of love, A Winter's Tale, iv. 3 ; begins to
mellow, Richard III., iv. 4 / all men akin in, Troilus and Cressida,
i. 3 ; dangerous, Julius Ccesar, ii. 1, " It is the bright day," etc. ;
friends in, Hamlet, ii. 2, " It is not very strange," etc.
Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, character in The Tempest,
introduced in i. 2. He has acquired magic art by long study, which
cost him his throne, for his brother Antonio has taken advantage of
his inattention to outside affairs to usurp his throne, and send him
and his little daughter to perish at sea. On the island where they
are cast he makes use of his magic art to hold in subjection Caliban
and the spirits of the air. Though a fine and noble character, and a
most loving and tender father, Prospero repels us by his severity with Ariel ; but this severity we excuse on further study of the airy
spirit. See ARIEL.
" Prospero, the great enchanter, is altogether the opposite of the
vulgar magician. With command over the elemental powers, which
study has brought to him, he possesses moral grandeur and a command over himself, in spite of occasional fits of involuntary abstraction and of intellectual impatience ; he looks down on life, and sees
through it, yet will not refuse to take his part in it. ... It has been
suggested that Prospero, the great enchanter, is Shakespeare himself,
and that when he breaks his staff, drowns his book, and dismisses
his airy spirits, going back to the duties of his dukedom, Shakespeare
was thinking of his own resigning of his powers of imaginative enchantment, his parting from the theatre, where his attendant spirits
had played their parts, and his return to Stratford." DOWDEN.
Protector, the Lord, Gloucester's (Richard III.'s) title after the
death of Edward IV., as guardian of the young king.
Protestations, of innocence, A Winter's Tale, Hi. 2 ; of love,
Richard III., iv. 4i too many, Hamlet, Hi. 2.
Proteus, III. Henry VI., in. 2. He was a son of Neptune, and
changed his shape at will.
Proteus, one of the Two Gentlemen of Verona, keener and
brighter than his friend Valentine, whom he tries to supplant, but
fickle and treacherous.
Proud, the, respect only the proud, /. Henry IV., i. 3.
Proverbs, on tapestry and in rings, As You Like It, Hi. 2.
Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions, quoted or alluded to :
A crafty knave needs no broker, II. Henry VI., i. 2 ; a finger in
every pie, Henry VI1L, i. 1 ; a fool's bolt is soon shot, As You Like
It, v. 4; Henry V., Hi. 7 ; a friend in the court is as good as a penny
in the purse, II. Henry IV., v. 1 ; a good candle-holder proves a good
gamester, Romeo and Juliet, i. 4 / a little pot is soon hot, Taming of
the Shrew, iv. 1; all men are not alike, Much Ado about Nothing,
Hi. 5 ; all's well that ends well, All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 4;
v. 1 ; all that glisters is not gold, Merchant of Venice, ii. 7 ; a man
must not choose a wife in Westminster, a servant in Paul's, or a
horse in Smithfield, lest he choose a quean, a knave, or a jade, II.
Henry IV., i. 2 ; see PAUL'S ; an old cloak makes a new jerkin,
Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 3; an old man is twice a child, Hamlet,
ii. 2 ; an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind, Much Ado
about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; a pair of shears went between us, Measure
for Measure, i. 2, 3 ; a pox of the devil, Henry V., Hi. 7 ; as mad as
a March hare, Two Noble Kinsmen, Hi. 5 ; a smoky house and a
railing wife, I. Henry IV., Hi. 1 ; a snake in the grass, II. Henry
VI., Hi. 1 ; as sound as a bell, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 2 ; a
staff is quickly found to beat a dog, 11. Henry VI., Hi. 1 ; as true as
steel, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 2 ; at hand, quoth pick-purse, 1.
Henry IV., ii. 1 ; a wise man may live anywhere, Richard II., i. 3 ;
a woman will not tell what she does not know, /. Henry IV., ii. 3 ;
a world to see, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; ay, tell me that and
unyoke, Hamlet, v. 1. Bairns are blessings, All's Well that Ends
Well, i. 3 ; be jogging while your boots are green, Taming of the
Shrew, Hi. -2 ; beggars mounted run their horses to death, III. Henry VI., i. 4; better a witty fool than a foolish wit, Twelfth Night,
i. 5 ; better fed than taught, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 2 ; birds
of a feather, III. Henry VI., Hi. 3 ; black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes, Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 2 ; blessing of your
heart, you brew good ale, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Hi. 1 ; blush like a black dog, Titus Andronicus, v. 1 ; bought and sold, Comedy
of Errors, Hi. 1 ; King John, v. 4 ; Richard III., v. 3 ; Brag's a
good dog, but Hold-fast is better, Henry V., ii. 3 ; buttered the
horse's hay, King Lear, ii. 4. Cake is dough, Taming of the Shrew,
i. 1; v.l ; care killed a cat, Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1 ; carry
coals to Cancer, Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 ; come cut and long-tail,
Merry Wives of Windsor, Hi. 4 ; comparisons are odorous, Much Ado
about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; confess and be hanged, Othello, iv. 1 ; cry
him and have him, As You Like It, i. 3 ; cry you mercy, I took you
for a joint-stool, King Lear, Hi. 6 ; cucullus non facit monachum
(the cowl does not make the monk), Measure for Measure, v. 1 ;
Twelfth Night, i. 5 ; Henry VIII., Hi. 1. Dance barefoot at the
wedding, Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1 (said of an elder unmarried
sister); dead as a door-nail, //. Henry IV., v. 3 ; II. Henry VI., iv.
10 ; death will have his day, Richard II., Hi. 2 ; delays are dangerous, /. Henry VI., Hi. 2 ; diluculo surgere saluberrimum est (to rise
early is most healthful), Twelfth Night, ii. 3 ; dogs must eat, Coriolanus, i. 1 ; dun's the mouse, Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. Empty vessels
sound loudest, Henry V., iv. 4; every dog has his day, Hamlet,
v. 1 ; every man at forty is a fool or a physician, Merry Wives of
Windsor, Hi. 4,' every man to his trade, Romeo and Juliet, i. 2 ;
every why has a wherefore, Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. Familiarity
breeds contempt, Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1; fast bind, fast
find, Merchant of Venice, ii. 5 ; feast-won, fast-lost, Timon of
Athens, ii. 2 ; finis coronat opus (the end crowns the work), All's
Well that Ends Well, iv. 4; II. Henry VI., v. 2; Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5 ; fire that's closest kept burns most of all, Two Gentlemen
of Verona, i. 2 ; fly pride, says the peacock, Comedy of Errors, iv.
3 ; friends may meet, but mountains never greet, -4.5 You Like It,
Hi. 2. Give the devil his due, I. Henry IV., i. 2 ; Henry V., Hi. 7;
God's a good man, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; God sends a
cursed cow short horns, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1 ; God sends
a fool fortune, As You Like It, ii. 7 ; good hanging prevents bad
marriage, Twelfth Night, i. 5 ; good liquor will make a cat talk, The
Tempest, ii. 2 ; good wine needs no bush, As You Like It, v. 4, epilogue ; to bed at noon, to supper, etc., King Lear, Hi. 6. Hanging and
wiving go by destiny, Merchant of Venice, ii. 9 ; happy man be his
dole, Taming of the Shrew, i. 1; A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; I. Henry
IV., ii. 2 ; happy the child whose father went to the devil, ///.
Henry VI., ii. 3 ; have is have, however men do catch, King John,
i. 1; Heaven's above all, Richard II., Hi. 3 ; Othello, ii. 3; he must needs go that the devil drives, All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3 ; he
that dies pays all debts, The Tempest, Hi. 2; he that eats with the
devil needs a long spoon, The Tempest, ii. 2 ; Comedy of Errors, iv.
3 ; he that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding, Troilus and Cressida, i. 1 ; honest as the skin between his eyebrows, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; Honour's train is longer
than his f oreskirt, Henry VIII., ii. 3 ; hunger breaks stone walls,
Coriolanus, i. 1. If that you will France win, Then with Scotland
first begin, Henry V., i. 2 ; ill blows the wind that profits nobody,
II. Henry IV., v. 3 ; III. Henry VI., ii. 5; ill-gotten goods never
prosper, III. Henry VI., ii. 2 ; I'll make a shaft or a bolt, Merry
Wives of Windsor, iii. 4; Ill-will never said well, Henry V., Hi. 7;
it is a foul bird that defiles its own nest, As You Like It, iv. 1; it is
an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers, Romeo and Juliet, iv. 2 ;
it is a poor dog that is not worth the whistle, King Lear, iv. 2 ; it is
easy stealing a shive from a cut loaf, Titus Andronicus, ii. 1 ; it's a
dear collop that's cut from one's own flesh, /. Henry VI., v. 4. Jack
shall have Jill, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2; Midsummer Night's
Dream, iii. 2 ; John Drum's entertainment, All's Well that Ends
Well, iii. 6. Know a hawk from a hand-saw, Hamlet, ii. 2. Laid on
with a trowel, As You Like It, i. 2 ; lead apes in hell, Much Ado
about Nothing, ii. 1; Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1; fits all, like a
barber's chair, All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 2; losers have leave
to talk, Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 ; lost teeth in the service, As You
Like It, i. 1. Make hay while the sun shines, III. Henry VI., iv. 8 ;
measure for measure, Measure for Measure, v. 1 ; meat was made
for mouths, Coriolanus, i. 1 ; misfortunes come not singly, Hamlet,
iv. 5 ; more water glides by the mill than the miller wots of, Titus
Andronicus, ii. 1. Neither fish nor flesh, I. Henry lV.,iii. 3 ; not a
word to throw at a dog, As You Like It, i. 3; now she sharpens;
well said, Whetstone, Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. Omittance is no
quittance, As You Like It, iii. 5 ; one born to be hanged will never
be drowned, The Tempest, i. 1 ; one fire drives out one fire, Coriolanus, iv. 7 ; one is no number, Romeo and Juliet, i. 2 ; one may see
day at a little hole, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ; one nail drives out
another, Coriolanus, iv. 7 ; out of God's blessing into the warm sun,
King Lear, ii. 2. Past cure, past care, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2 ;
patience perforce is medicine for a mad dog, Romeo and Juliet, i. 5;
pitch and pay, Henry V., ii. 3; pitchers have ears, Taming of the
Shrew, iv. 4 ; poor and proud, Twelfth Night, iii. 1 ; praise in departing, The Tempest, iii. 3. Rules the roast, II. Henry VI., i. 1.
Satis quod sufficit, Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1; seldom comes the
better, Richard III., ii. 3 ; service is no heritage, All's Well that
Ends Well, i. 3 ; si f ortuna, etc. (if fortune torment me, hope will
content me), //. Henry IV., v. 5 ; she has the mends in her own
hands, Troilus and Cressida, i. 1 ; sink or swim, /. Henry IV., i. 3 ;
sits the wind in that corner, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3 ; small
herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace, Richard III., ii. 4 ;
sold for a song, All's Well that Ends Well, Hi. 2 ; sow cockle, reap
no corn, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3 ; speak by the card, Hamlet, v.
1; springes to catch woodcocks, Hamlet, i. 3 ; steal an egg from a
cloister, All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 3 ; still swine eat all the
draff, Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2 ; still waters run deep, //.
Henry VI., Hi. 1; strike while the iron is hot, ///. Henry VI., v.
1. Take all, pay all, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2 ; take eggs for
money (bear insults), A Winter's Tale, i. 2 ; take mine ease in mine
inn, /. Henry IV., Hi. 3 ; tell the truth and shame the devil, /. Henry IV., Hi. 1; the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet,
Macbeth, i. 7 ; the end crowns all, see FINIS, etc. ; the ewe that will
not hear her lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when it
bleats, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 3 ; the fool thinks he is wise,
but the wise man knows he is a fool, As You Like It, v. 1; the
galled jade will wince, Hamlet, Hi. 2 ; the grace of God is gear
enough, Merchant of Venice, ii. 2 ; the hare's valour plucks dead
lions by the beard, King John, ii. 1 ; the raven chides blackness,
Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 ; there is flattery in friendship, Henry V.,
Hi. 7; the third pays for all, Twelfth Night, v. 1; the weakest goes
to the wall, Romeo and Juliet, i. 1 ; the world on wheels, Antony
and Cleopatra, ii. 7 ; three women and a goose make a market,
Love's Labour's Lost, Hi. 1 ; touch pitch and be defiled, Much Ado
about Nothing, Hi. 3 ; I. Henry IV., ii. 4>' IL Henry VI., ii. 1;
truth should be silent, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2 ; two may keep
counsel when the third's away, Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. Walls hear
without warnings, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1; we burn daylight, Romeo and Juliet, i. 4 ; wedding and ill-wintering tame man
and beast, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 1; when the age is in, the wit
is out, Much Ado about Nothing, Hi. 5 ; while the grass grows, oft
starves the steed, Hamlet, Hi. 2; woo in haste and wed at leisure,
Taming of the Shrew, Hi. 2.
Providence, work of. All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1; we are
in God's hand, Henry V., Hi. 6 ; Heaven has an end in all, Henry
VIII., H. 1; there's a divinity that shapes our ends, Hamlet, v.2;?? denies us for our good, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 1 ; a special, in the
fall of a sparrow, Hamlet, v. 2. See HEAVEN.
Provincial, here (of this province), Measure, for Measure, v. 1.
Provost, a, or jailer, character in Measure for Measure, introduced in i. 3, a merciful man who seeks to mitigate the severity of
Angelo's justice.
Prudence, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1, " Let every eye negotiate for itself," etc.; Henry V., ii. 3, "Trust none," etc.; Henry
VIII., i. V'Be advised," etc.; Henry VIIL, i. V Things done
well," etc. ; Richard 1IL, Hi. 3, " When clouds are seen," etc. ; when
about to build a house or a kingdom, //. Henry IV., i. 3 ; men do
their broken weapons rather use than their bare hands, Othello, i. 3.
Psalm, the hundredth, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1.
Psalmist, the, //. Henry IV., Hi. 2.
Ptolemy, Antony and Cleopatra, Hi. 6.
Publican, a fawning, Merchant of Venice, i. 3.
Publius, son of Marcus, in Titus Andronicus, introduced in iv. 3.
Publius Silicius, a senator and a friend of Caesar's, character
in Julius Ccesar, introduced in ii. 2.
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, a fairy in the Midsummer Night's
Dream, introduced in ii. 1. He is a merry jester, a sort of clown
among the other daintier fairies. A book of his " Mad Pranks and
Merry Jests" is known to have been published in 1628, but it is
supposed that an edition had appeared forty years earlier.
Pueritia (boyhood), Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1.
Pugging (thieving), A Winter's Tale, iv. 2 or 3.
Puke-stocking (puce, a dark colour), 1. Henry IV., ii. 4.
Pulpiter, most gentle, As You Like It, Hi. 2. Jupiter in some
editions.
Punctuation, Midsummer Night's Dream, v. l,prologue, " Standing upon points."
Punishment, capital, argument on, Measure for Measure, ii. 2.
Punishments, mentioned. See BAFFLE, CROWN, HACK, PILLORY, RACK, STIGMATIC, STOCKS, STRAPPADO, WHEEL, WHIPPING,
WISP.
Punning, Merchant of Venice, Hi. 5, "How every fool can
play upon the word ; " Twelfth Night, Hi. 1.
Punto (thrust), Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 3 ; reverse (back-handed), Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4.
Purchase, fourteen-years, Twelfth Night, iv, 1. Twelve was
the usual time.
Purchase (profit), /. Henry IV., ii. 1. Purchase was also a
slang term for stolen goods.
Purgation (examination), As You Like, It, v. 4.
Purgatory, Hamlet, i. 6 ; Othello, iv. 3.
Puritan(s), allusions to: Wear the surplice over the gown
meet Papists, All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3; Malvolio a kind of,
Twelfth Night, ii, 3 ; sings psalms, A Winter's Tale, iv. 2 or 3 ;
"Tribulation of Tower Hill," in Henry VIIL, v. 4, is by some supposed to be an allusion to the Puritans. See LIMEHOUSE.
Purples, Hamlet, iv. 7. The early purple orchis.
Purpose, let not, be shaken with compunction, Macbeth, i. 5;
the deed should go with the, Macbeth, iv. 1 ; slave to memory, Hamlet, Hi. 2, speech of Player King ; must weigh with the folly, II. Henry 1 V., ii. 2.
Pursuit, pleasure of, Merchant of Venice, ii. 6; Troilus and
Cressida, i. 2 ; Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 7 ; III. Henry VI., ii. 5.
Push-pin, game of, Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. It was played
by simply pushing pins across one another.
Putter-out of five for one, The Tempest, Hi. 3. That is, of
money, as was done by voyagers to distant countries. If they did
not appear to claim the five hundred per cent., the borrower kept
the principal.
Puttock (kite), Cymbeline, i. 1.
Pygmalion, Measure for Measure, Hi. 3. Allusion to the ivory
statue that he made, which was endowed with life by Venus.
Pyramids, the, Sonnet cxxii ; Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7 ; v. 2.
Pyramus, a character in the play acted in the Midsummer Night's Dream before the duke. The part is taken by Bottom. In
the old story, Pyramus was the handsomest youth, and Thisbe the
fairest maiden, in all Babylonia, where Semiramis reigned ; allusion
to, Titus Andronicus, ii. 3 or 4.
Pyramus and Thisbe, the play acted before the duke in Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 2 ; Hi. 1 ; v. 1.
Pyrrhus, Troilus and Cressida, Hi. 3; Hamlet, ii. 2 ; Lucrece,
lines 1449, 1467. He killed Priam.
Pythagoras, doctrine of (transmigration of souls), Merchant of
Venice, iv. 1; As You Like It, Hi. 2 ; Twelfth Night, iv. 2.
Index A to C
Index D to F
Index G to J
Index K to M
Index Q to S
Index T to V
Index W to Z
Shakespeare's plays in order of date written
First performance and first published dates
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