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Full Glossary
quiddities trifling distinctions; quibbles.
quilets quibbles.
quit in answer score a return hit.
rack cloud formations, a broken mass of clouds blown by the wind.
ranker greater.
razed slashed for ornamentation.
recks not his own rede doesn't take his own advice.
recorders a wind instrument with finger holes and a wedgelike part (a fipple) near the mouthpiece; fipple flute.
recover the wind a hunting phrase — to get to windward.
reechy smoky, dirty, foul, or rancid.
the region kites the kites of the air. The kite is a bird of prey in the falcon family.
Rhenish Rhine wine.
rivals associates or companions in some duty.
robustious ranting.
rood a cross as used in crucifixion; specifically, the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
Roscius the most famous of ancient Roman actors.
round Polonius really means straight, but it is his nature to speak indirectly.
rouse a toast in which all glasses must be drained before lowering.
rouse draught of liquor, toast.
rub an obstacle hindrance, difficulty, or impediment.
russet Now, usually a reddish-brown color, but here the warm gray tone of homespun cloth.
Saint Valentine's Day February 14. The old belief was that the first man seen by a maid on that day was destined to be her husband, and vice versa.
sallets tasty bits.
sanctuarize give sanctuary to a murderer.
satyr in Greek mythology, a woodland diety usually represented as having pointed ears, short horns, the head and body of a man, and the legs of a goat, and as being fond of riotous merriment and lechery.
scene individable preserving the unities.
scholar a person with the necessary knowledge of Latin to exorcise a spirit. This was a common Elizabethan belief.
sconce a slang word for head (literally, blockhouse).
scrimers fencers.
scullion a servant doing the rough, dirty work in a kitchen.
se offendendo in self-defense.
sea-gown a skirted garment with short sleeves, worn by seamen.
season qualify.
season ripen.
seized of put in legal possession of a feudal holding; assigned ownership.
Seneca (c. 4? B.C.3A.D. 65); Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman.
sets a blister In Elizabethan England, prostitutes were sometimes branded with a hot iron.
Shark'd gathered indiscriminately; got by fraud or stratagems.
sheeted shrouded.
shent rebuked.
shoon shoes.
shrewdly bitterly.
silence me hide myself.
simples medicinal herbs.
Sith since.
skirts the outer or bordering parts; outskirts, as of a city.
sledded Polacks the Polish army traveling on sleighs or sleds.
snuff accumulation of smoldering wick that caused the candle to smoke and burn less brightly.
so mope be so stupid.
solidity and compound mass the earth.
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