|
Shakespeare's word |
Meaning (in the sample usage) |
# |
Reference(s) |
Sample usage |
|
galliard |
lively five-step dance, ending in a leap |
4 |
TN 1.3 |
why dost thou not go to church in a galliard |
|
gallow |
scare, frighten, terrify |
1 |
Lear 3.2 |
the wrathful skies Gallow the very wanderers of the dark, |
|
gamut |
musical scale (all in Shrew 3.1) |
4 |
Shrew 3.1 |
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort |
| garboils, garboyles | uproars, disorders | Ant 1.1.372 | Look here, and at thy Sovereign leisure read The Garboyles she awak'd: |
|
|
gaskins |
loose breeches |
1 |
TN 1.4 |
if both break, your gaskins fall. |
|
gasted |
terrified |
1 |
Lear 2.1 |
Or whether gasted by the noise I made, |
|
germens, -ans |
seeds, embryos, offspring |
7 |
Lear 3.2 Oth 1.1 |
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill . . . coursers for cousins and jennets for germans |
|
gleek |
play practical jokes |
4 |
Mids 3.1 |
I can gleek upon occasion |
|
glose |
flatter; wheedle; fawn; talk smoothly |
1 |
Rich II |
they whom youth and ease have taught to glose |
|
goodman |
husband, commoner? |
14 |
Shrew Ind. |
Are you my wife and will not call me husband? / . . . I am your goodman. |
|
got |
begot, (also in modern sense) |
Lear 2.1 |
I never got him. |
|
|
grin |
show one's teeth, grimace |
11 |
2 HVI 3.3 |
the pangs of death do make him grin |
When
I was in college, struggling through my Signet volume of
Shakespeare, I didn't have the time, money, or inclination to buy audio
tapes of the plays. I've done so recently, and what a difference.
In part, because Shakespeare was meant to be heard (and seen), and in part, because the English language has changed, listening to King Lear, or any of the plays, while reading the text, adds a whole new dimension.
The humor becomes clearer; anger is better conveyed; the
reader/listener at once can absorb so much more of the play. For King Lear this version with Sir Laurence
Olivier