Summary and Analysis
Act I:
Scene 1
Glossary
unfold yourself to make known or lay open to view, especially in stages or little by little.
most carefully upon your hour exactly when you were expected.
rivals associates or companions in some duty.
liegemen loyal subjects.
pole Polaris, the North Star, long used by navigators as a reliable point of reference.
scholar a person with the necessary knowledge of Latin to exorcise a spirit. This was a common Elizabethan belief.
mark take notice of; heed.
Norway king of Norway.
sledded Polacks the Polish army traveling on sleighs or sleds.
jump precisely.
gross and scope general meaning.
divide distinguish.
prick'd spurred or urged on
seized of put in legal possession of a feudal holding; assigned ownership.
moiety competent sufficient portion.
gaged pledged.
unimproved mettle untested strength, courage, or character
skirts the outer or bordering parts; outskirts, as of a city.
Shark'd gathered indiscriminately; got by fraud or strategems.
lawless resolutes desperadoes.
question subject.
mote speck of dust.
palmy flourishing.
sheeted shrouded.
moist star moon.
precurse sign, indication.
harbingers persons or things that come before to announce or give an indication of what follorws; heralds
partisan a broad-bladed weapon with a long shaft carried by foot soldiers, used especially in the 16ty century.
extravagant and erring vagrant and wandering (both used in their original Latin sense — a common device used by Shakespeare).
confine prison.
probation proof.
no fairy takes Medieval Europeans believed that fairies stole children.
russet Now, usually a reddish-brown color, but here the warm gray tone of homespun cloth.