Summary and Analysis
Act II:
Scene 2
Glossary
Sith since.
humour behavior.
from occasion by chance.
gentry courtesy.
supply and profit for the fulfillment and profitable conclusion of our hope.
in the full bent completely. Like a bow that is bent as far as it can be bent.
grace to bring honor to, dignify; with a pun on the prayer before meals.
in fine in the end.
assay of arms try to raise.
Perpend ponder.
more above moreover.
fell out occurred.
fain wish.
with sight with an indifferent eye.
round Polonius really means straight, but it is his nature to speak indirectly.
out of thy star beyond your station in life. Stars were believed to govern men's lives.
took the fruits of followed.
watch sleeplessness.
fishmonger a dealer in fish, or someone who sells women.
outstretched aspiring.
fay faith, used in oaths (by my fay!); with a pun on fairy.
fretted having an ornamental pattern of small, straight bars intersecting or joining one another, usually at right angles, to form a regular design, as for a border or in an architectural relief; decorated like the painted ceiling over the stage at The Globe.
coted overtook.
foil and target fencing rapier and small shield.
Humorous Man the player of character parts.
tickle sere made to laugh easily.
half limp.
aery nest.
eyases unfledged birds, especially young hawks taken from the nest for training in falconry.
berattle abuse.
escoted paid.
tarre urge.
mows grimaces (twistings or distortions of the face.
Roscius the most famous of ancient Roman actors.
Buz, buz a slang expression for "tell me something I don't know."
scene individable preserving the unities.
poem unlimited a play that observed none of the ancient rules.
Seneca (c. 4? B.C.3A.D. 65); Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman.
Plautus ( 254?-184 B.C.); Roman writer of comic dramas.
law of writ classical plays.
liberty modern plays.
Jephthah a judge in the Bible who sacrificed his daughter in fulfillment of a vow ( Judg. 11:30-40).
valanced bearded.
chopine a woman's shoe with a very thick sole, as of cork.
digested organized.
sallets tasty bits.
"Twas Aeneas' tale to Dido" the story of the sack of Troy as told to Queen Dido by Aeneas. (Virgil's Aeneid contains the story.)
Priam legendary king of Troy, who reigned during the Trojan War; he was the father of Hector and Paris.
Pyrrhus in Greek mythology, the son of Achilles; one of the Greeks concealed in the famous wooden horse.
Hyrcanian beast tiger from Hyrcania, mentioned in the Aeneid.
total gules completely red.
impasted made into a paste (the slain, not Pyrrhus).
carbuncles precious stones of fiery red color.
Ilium Latin name for Troy
rack cloud formations, a broken mass of clouds blown by the wind.
orb the earth.
Cyclops in Greek mythology, any of a race of giants who have only one eye, in the middle of the forehead; they assisted Vulcan, the god of fire.
proof eterne everlasting protection.
fellies the segments forming the rim of a spoked wheel.
nave rim; the hub of a wheel.
Hecuba in Homer's Iliad, the wife of Priam and mother of Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Cassandra.
mobled wearing ruffled collars popular in Elizabethan England.
bisson rheum blinding tears.
clout a piece of cloth; a rag.
milch milky, moist.
muddy-mettled dull-spirited.
peak mope.
the region kites the kites of the air. The kite is a bird of prey in the falcon family.
this slave's offal the entrails of a butchered animal; here, the king's guts.
scullion a servant doing the rough, dirty work in a kitchen.
blench to shrink back, as in fear; flinch.