Shakespeare's sexual language : a glossary

361 Pages·2006·15.323 MB·English

by  Shakespeare, William, Williams, Gordon, Shakespeare, William

SHAKESPEARE'S SEXUAL LANGUAGE
STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Series Editor
Sandra Clark (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Shakespeare's Legal Language B. J. Sokol and Mary Sokol
Shakespeare's Military Language Charles Edelman
Shakespeare's Theatre Hugh Richmond
Shakespeare's Books Stuart Gillespie
Shakespeare's Non-Standard English N. F. Blake
Shakespeare's Sexual Language Gordon Williams
STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY
Shakespeare's
Sexual Language
A Glossary
By GORDON WILLIAMS
continuum
LONDON • NEW YORK
Continuum
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038, USA
First published in 1997 by The Athlone Press
This edition published in 2006
© Gordon Williams 1997
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Gordon Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 0-8264-9134-0
The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover
edition as follows
Williams, Gordon, 1935-
A glossary of Shakespeare's sexual language / Gordon
Williams,
p. cm.
Supplement to: Dictionary of sexual language and imagery
in Shakespearean and Stuart literature.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-485-11511-5 (cloth). - ISBN 0-485-12130-1 (pbk.)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Language-Glossaries,
etc. 2. English language-Early modern, 1500-1700-Gloss-
aries, vocabularies, etc. 3. English language-Early modern,
1500-1700-Slang-Dictionaries. 4. Erotic literature, English-
Dictionaries. 5. Figures of speech-Dictionaries. 6. Sex in
literature-Dictionaries. 7. Sex symbolism-Dictionaries. 8.
Sex-Dictionaries. I. Williams, Gordon, 1935- Dictionary
of sexual language and imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart
literature. II. Title.
PR2892.W55 1997
822.3'3-dc21 96-49008
CIP
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddies Ltd., King's Lynn, Norfolk
To Rose
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Contents
Introduction 1
Method, Scope, and Conventions of the Glossary 15
Signs and Abbreviations 17
Glossary 20
Select Bibliography 348
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Introduction
Although reference is made to my Dictionary of Sexual Language
and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, the present
work is on the whole supplementary rather than derivative.
The approach is necessarily different: the one endeavours
to map out broad areas of use, the other must take account
of more personal and idiosyncratic aspects. Here patterns
of innuendo are apt to loom larger than firm linguistic
usage, though dividing lines become blurred. In the earlier
work, other writers than Shakespeare are often preferred to
illustrate common uses. Here, it is Shakespearean practice
that is the object of attention and a path has been sought
between ultraconservatism and the if-it-can-it-must approach.
Even the personal and idiosyncratic must make sense in terms
of Elizabethan mental habits rather than those of today,
especially as they show in the configurations of dramatic
speech. There is neither space nor need to argue this point
in the majority of cases. But occasionally, where it has seemed
worth while to enable those consulting the glossary to make
up their own minds, the evidence has been set out at some
length.
A large number of entries is to be expected. The sexual
element in Shakespeare is extensive, varied and, although
this is necessarily hard to establish, probably innovative at
times. Indeed, in the seventeenth century, his authorial
identity was very much bound up with the use of sexual
language and treatment of erotic themes. It was Venus
and Adonis which established his reputation as erotic poet,
Middleton (A Mad World, My Masters I.ii.48) linking it
with Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 'two luscious marrow-
bone pies for a young married wife' (marrowbone was