The Tragedy of Arthur: A Novel (63 page)

24.
hest
command.

25.
new-dyed
brand-new.

26.
unction
anointment with oil.

27.
hindmost rank
rearguard unit.

28.
heel
Achilles’ heel.

29.
range
roam, wander.

30.
too hard upon your first assay
too soon after your first battle.

31.
bend not to my impose
refuse to obey my orders.

32.
thick-sinew’d
muscle-bound.

33.
saucy
impertinent, insolent.

34.
revolve upon
consider, meditate over.

35.
truant
negligent.

36.
Short-tongued
taciturn.

37.
Outrav’ling
untangling, clarifying.

38.
gallop up anon
catch up soon.

39.
notable
significant.

40.
stay
detain, delay.

41.
cock and pie
a mild oath.

42.
you … skin
“My armor and coat of arms (
painted skin
) will reflect my royalty, even if they are on you.” [
RV
]

43.
chartered … gainsay
“Though you are permitted to question kings …”

Act II, Scene V

1.
“Noble speeches require a lot of gas.”

2.
pudding-bags
a mold or bag for making pudding.

3.
turned
twisting.

4.
bend thy brows
scowl.

5.
skirr
to flee.

6.
dragon
presumably a cannon carved into the shape of a dragon. [Anachronism. —
RV
]

7.
ordnance
artillery. [Anachronism. —
RV
]

8.
coneys
rabbits.

9.
yellow
blond.

10.
giving thee “rest you merry”
“Sending you on your way with best wishes.” [
RV
]

11.
butter … cream
He was shaking so much from fear that he would have churned cream into butter.

12.
canker
an insect larva that attacks plants.

13.
a fig
an obscene, contemptuous gesture.

14.
powder tubs
thought to be a cure for venereal diseases, such as syphilis, the so-called French sickness. [
RV
]

15.
Pard’s Head
the Leopard’s Head, presumably an inn or pub.

Act II, Scene VII

1.
displays his haunch
turns tail.

2.
Four-fold … stealth
“We found hidden here four times the force we were expecting.”

3.
proud flesh
scar tissue, raised as if proud.

4.
recreant
cowardly.

5.
shard bestrewn
dung-covered.

6.
fledgèd
fully plumed, feathered.

7.
tower
in falconry (continuing the imagery of “fledgèd”), the action of flying to a high point before swooping down to kill. [
RV
]

8.
unhonest
dishonorable, immoral.

9.
as friar
King Arthur is disguised for safe travel alone from York to Lincoln. As his words below indicate, he is also—in modern parlance—on a “walk of shame,” and his changeable mood in this scene is typical of those early-morning retreats from regrettable adventures.

10.
errant
wandering.

11.
clean searched
cleaned, as a wound.

12.
shent
exempt, pure.

13.
A modern director has some interpretive choice as to when, precisely, Gloucester realizes that the “friar” is Arthur. [
RV
]

14.
whisper
confess.

15.
bishopric, fish, pear, burst
a rapid-fire series of double entendres: Arthur claims to visit the Bishop of Caerleon and engage with him in orgies. [
RV
]

16.
carbonado
sliced and grilled meat.

17.
take me for a joint-stool
take me for granted.

18.
That’s my dad at the quill there, no question.

19.
bales
bundles, as in agriculture or commerce, implying, too, that the prisoners are bound.

20.
tithing
a tenth, as in the amount of tax owed to the church.

21.
lower world
earth. [
RV
]

22.
extirped
uprooted.

23.
hanging
morose.

24.
murrained
infected.

25.
shrike
shriek.

26.
disease
scrofula, a lymphic disorder, was thought curable by being touched by the sovereign.

27.
From Aesop’s fables. [
RV
]

28.
disloignèd
removed to a distance.

29.
iron men
men at arms.

30.
manet
indicates that a character remains when others exit.

31.
cock-a-prance
swaggering fop. [
RV
]

32.
beadsman
someone paid to pray for others.

33.
Bright-armored
clean-armored, as he supposedly had not fought. [
RV
]

Act II, Scene VIII

1.
inspect
inspection.

2.
gripes
vultures.

3.
forepast
in the past.

4.
reeves … shire
a supervising official with royal jurisdiction. [
Shire-reeve
is the etymology of “sheriff.” —
RV
]

5.
boot
use.

6.
It is interesting to note the brief shift to prose here: old friends, once intimates, now talk as intimates, before returning to affairs of state in
line 41
, where Arthur also returns them to the more formal “you.” A similar case of shifting to prose between two characters of the same class can be found at the end of
Henry IV, Part One
, III.i, between Hotspur and his wife. [
RV
]

7.
to make a match of heaven
to make a perfect match.

8.
pastance
recreation, pastime.

9.
strived
As an example of stylometry, the computer report
of Arthur
noted that Shakespeare tended to use “strived” early in his career and “strove” later. [
RV
]

10.
wit
mind, awareness. No implication of comic acuity. [
RV
]

11.
blasted
damaged, ruined, stricken.

12.
hale
haul.

13.
addeemed
adjudged.

14.
jade
contemptuous term for low-quality horse.

15.
cote
overtake. [A term from hunting with dogs. —
RV
]

16.
imperfect
incomplete.

Act II, Scene IX

1.
balsamo
balsam.

2.
thanes
Scottish nobility.

3.
birlinns
the large rowboats of western Scotland’s chieftains.

4.
Colmekill
the traditional burial site of Scottish kings, on the northwestern Scottish island of Iona; cf
Macbeth
II iv. 33. [
RV
]

5.
clan
Again, as with
birlinn
, Shakespeare’s use of Scottish dialect is noteworthy. [
RV
]

6.
The line is short by two syllables, implying a pause, perhaps indicating that Mordred waits for Loth to reply. [
RV
]

7.
singly
in single combat.

8.
raught
reached for, grasped.

9.
It is not clear whether the messenger is still delivering Arthur’s words or is expressing his own (understandable) feelings. [
RV
]

10.
site
grief. [Only in Scottish use in the sixteenth century. One is tempted to imagine Shakespeare quizzing Scottish friends for dialect words.—
RV
]

11.
“You would hold my own correct criticism against me.” [
RV
]

12.
Note short line for stage business: removal of head, reaction. [
RV
]

13.
unjointed
incoherent.

14.
malt-horse
brewer’s horse, an idiot.

15.
Again, a short line. Mordred hears Loth say something? Or pretends to hear something? Or realizes his opportunity? Here, again, a director will have a chance to make the play his or her own. [
RV
]

16.
table
writing tablet. “The slate is clean.”

17.
gimmaled
hinged or ringed, as in armor. [Used by Shakespeare twice more, in
Edward III
and
Henry V
.—
RV
]

18.
loquacity
earliest recorded use. The
OED
shows subsequent usage in 1603. [
RV
]

Act III, Scene I

1.
Mon duc de Gloosestayre
The French ambassador presumably has a thick accent. His efforts to pronounce “Gloucester” are transliterated in a three-syllable mock-French concoction: Glue-suh-stair. Shakespeare did, on occasion, mock the French and did try to transcribe the sound of foreign accents in his plays. However, in this case, I am unable to shake the memory of my father’s fondness for the Warner Brothers cartoon skunk Pepé Le Pew.

2.
Arthur
In the ambassador’s accent, “Arthur,” a troublesome trochee (AR-thur) becomes a convenient iamb (ar-TOOR). [
RV
]

3.
German Ocean
the North Sea.

4.
Rebels
again, spoken with a French accent, presumably this is iambic: re-BELS. [
RV
]

5.
revolter
a rebel. [Perhaps a faux-French neologism, but it appears in English as of 1602, though nowhere else in Shakespeare.—
RV
]

6.
girdle
not a ladies’ undergarment, just a belt, though still the image is quite odd! [
RV
]

7.
portrait covered
The stage business with the foreign princess’s portrait may give another clue to
Arthur
’s disappearance. Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, agreed to wed his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, based on a portrait of her. He sued for an annulment after meeting her. This episode of Arthur and Matilde may have been viewed as too close to home. [
RV
]

8.
doge
the supreme ruler of Venice.

9.
cavilling
petty argument.

10.
prate
idle talk.

11.
weal
well-being, prosperity.

12.
Mend my soul
a very mild oath, probably used ironically here, as in “Heavens to Betsy!” [
RV
]

13.
peroration
rhetoric.

14.
synecdoche
Arthur plays dim, claiming not to understand Gloucester’s point, but his request for less synecdoche is surely ironic, since “this crowned head” is an example of synecdoche. [
RV
]