Courtesans and Cuckolds

A Glossary of Renaissance Dramatic Bawdy

James T. Henke

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351848381
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Théâtre

This title, first published in 1979, is a glossary of the bawdy vocabulary that was used in Renaissance Drama. One of the primary functions of this gloss of literary bawdy is to interpret imaginative uses of the language rather than simply record the generally accepted uses and meanings, with its principal task to make the dialogue of the plays more intelligible to the reader. With examples of bawdy language used in the works of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and John Webster amongst many others, this title will be of great interest to students of literature and performance studies.

Glossary

Glossary

Abate. "To bring down, lower, depress" (OED)--here an innuendo of the seminal emission. A III ii 77. (1) the brethren and sisters will abate the "stiffness of the flesh," i.e., they will depress or repress their stubborn gastronomic appetites; (2) the brethren and the sisters will abate the Stiffness of the flesh, the erected penis. I.e., they will deflate, lower, depress the erection by causing seminal emission through copulation. Quotation at Stiffness of the flesh.

Ability. I.e., "sexual potency" (Ribner). Sebastian to Castabella, who is being forced to marry Rousard, "Poor wench, for thy sake may his ability die in his appetite, that thou beest not troubled with him thou lovest not." AT I iv 140-42. Colman, glossing a pun on Ability in Troilus and Cressida, cites this passage in AT as an example of comparable wit play (p. 182). The euphemism is also present in this contemporary song, Perkin in a Cole-Sack, which tells the story of a wife who is unable to get pregnant but who attempts to trick her husband Ben into believing that she is:

Her petticoats with Cushions rear'd,

Her Belly struts before her;

Her Ben's Abilitys are praised,

And he poor Fool adores her.

(Pills, VI, 255)

See Appetite.

About his own wife's. Lodovico plays on Business = copulation. HWII I i 101. Quotation at Dispatch.

Abroad. Play on (1) "at large, freely moving about" (OED); (2) widely apart, with the limbs widespread (OED)--hence, of the woman, an innuendo of the recumbent position of copulation. Astolfo and Orlando, speaking with Dorothea, one of the whores confined in Bridewell, "Ast. If you spin, then you'll earn money here too? / Dor. I had rather get half-a-crown abroad, than ten here. / Orl.

Abroad? I think so." HWII V ii 343-46. There may also be a glance here at "broad" = indecent (OED). See a similar jest at AT IV v 15. Cf. this use of "abroad" = sexually widespread, in a contemporary song [1656]. The story is of a lecherous young woman who seduces her traveling companion by pretending that her garter is untied.

And when they came into the place,
upon the grass so green

The fair maid spread her legs abroad,
the young man fell between:

Such tying of a garter you have but
seldom seen.

(Bradley, p. 63)

In the 1717-19 ed. of Pills this lyric has been revised, and the "abroad" jest does not appear.

Accessible. Play on "accessible" = sexually open, available. Mammon of Dol, "Is she no way accessible?" A II iii 258.

Cf. Open.

hard Achievements. Play on (1) heroic deeds, dangerous adventures; (2) copulations? KBP III ii 12. See Hard. Quotation at Limbs.

cuckolds are A-coining, apace. I.e., cuckolds are being made right now, this very minute. The quibble is on "a-coining" = being pressed out, as is a coin by the process of impression, with a glance at the pressing or stamping process = the sexual ingression and copulation of adulterous lovers. Vindice repeats "apace" three times--quite probably underscored with some stage-business--to suggest the punching movements of the press and the thrusting action of the penis. RT II ii 143. Quotation at Juggling.

Cf. Stamps.

Acquaintance. Mistress; lover. Castruchio to Bellafront the whore, "How does my sweet acquaintance?" HWI II i 79. Bellafront to Castruchio, "Acquaintance, where supp'd you last night?" HWI II i 113.

Cf. Friend.

Acquainted. With sense of sexually acquainted. Bilioso to Malevole, "I'll make thee acquainted with my young wife ... anything I have, stands open to thee." M I iv 78-82. See Anything, Open.

Cf. Know.

Act, n. Copulation (PSB). "Would you live free from all disease? / Do the act your mistress pleases? / Yet fright all aches from your bones?" Vol II ii 243-45. See Boneache, the Disease, Do, Mistress, Please.

Act, v. Play ori (1) performing a dramatic role; (2) copulating? Wife, speaking of Ralph, her husband's apprentice, "He will act you sometimes at our house that all the neighbors cry out on him; he will fetch you up a couraging part so in the garret that we quake again." KBP Induction 87-92. Unintentionally, the Wife may also be suggesting that the part Ralph "fetches up," i.e., an erection, is so large that the women watching are frightened by its size? See Courage; Fetch up a part; Part, parts.

Action. Sexual intercourse (PSB), referring specifically to the motion of the hips during copulation, III iii 68. Quotation at Virginal.

Act of night. Contextually, an innuendo of adultery. WKK II iii 152.

Act of pleasure. A copulation. c II ii 86. See Pleasure.

Act Ovid's tales. To copulate. Volpone to Celia, "My eunuch sing, my fool make up the antic, / Whilst we, in changed shapes, act Ovid's tales." Vol III vii 219-20. "Ovid's tales" = particularly the Metamorphoses.

Affection. Sexual passion (Ribner). AT II iii 40. Quotation at Generation was asleep.

Affliction. Innuendo of venereal disease. Old Knowell, speaking of the ultimate effect of the engendering of licentiousness in the child by the parents, "And teach 'em all bad ways to buy affliction." EMin II v 41. For further sense of context see quotation at Handle.

Alchemy. Innuendo of copulation. Bacon of Burden's nightly trips to Henley to visit the Hostess, "I'll show you why he haunts to Henley oft ... there to spend the night in alchemy." BB I ii 113-15. A number of the solutions and chemical processes of alchemy are suggestive of ejaculation and copulation. "Spend" = a possible glance at ejaculation. See Spent.

Cf. Distillation.

Amble. A favorite equestrian pace in Elizabethan England. The gait is smooth and rhythmic and does not shake or jolt the rider (SE, II, 416-17). Here the term alludes to the rhythmic hip movements of a woman during copulation. LP V i 395. Quotation at Toy, n.

Cf. Trotting horse.

Amorous. Lustful (PSB). End III iv 85. Quotation at Yield.

Ancome. Boil; felon, with possible pun on Come? EH III ii 48. Quotation at Prick, n.

Androgyne. Volpone's hermaphrodite. The name is taken from "androgyne" = a hermaphrodite (OED). Vol.

Angry. Play on (1) enraged, wrathful, irate (OED); (2) vexatious, trying (OED)--here innuendo of being sexually vexatious and trying to one's sexual partner; (3) possessing an angry red color (OED) or alluding to the condition of being inflamed--hence innuendo of the erected penis? Wife to her husband George, comparing him to the merry old Merrythought, "When wilt thou be so merry, George? Faith, thou art the frowning'st little thing, when thou art angry, in a country." KBP II viii 45-47. As usual, the Wife's comment is a jumble of unintentional sexual innuendo. Note possible play on Thing and Country. Note, also, the possibility of "frowning'st" = glance at wrinkled?

Animates. Play on (1) to quicken, to inspire, to make active (OED); (2) an innuendo of to excite sexually, to cause an erection. The amorous Rousard, "Methinks it animates a man to stand to't when a woman desires to be rid of him at first sight." AT I iii 53-55. See Rid, Stand to it.

Cf. Quick.

Anos. Anus. A IV iii 22.

Anything. (1) punning on "anything" = any thing, where Thing = penis. HWII III i 82. See Waste piece of ground. (2) punning on "anything" = any thing, where Thing = pudendum. KBP I ii 59. Quotation at Tiller.

Appetite. Lust, sexual desire (PSB). Kitely to Cob, "Beware / When mutual appetite doth meet to treat, / And spirits of one kind and quality / Come once to parley in the pride of blood-- / It is no slow conspiracy that follows." EMin II iii 19-23. See Come, Conspiracy, Parley, Pride of blood, Spirit, Treat.

Apple-John. "Intentionally confused" with Apple-squire (Spencer). BF I iii 69-70. Quotation at Fall in.

Apple-squire. Pander, pimp (Spencer); a whore's bully (PDS). EMin IV x 57. PDS speculates that the term may derive from "apple" = a woman's breast. Another possibility is that the association of apple peddlers with pimps or the protectors of whores is a bawdy by-product of the very popular pun on Openarse = (1) a variety of apple; (2) the pudendum.

Cf. Costermonger.

Arise. Of sexual erection. HWI II i 39. Quotation at Falling trade.

Cf. Rising.

Arm. Innuendo of penis. M V i 10. The innuendo functions on the echo of "arm" = weapon, and upon the slang sense of Weapon = penis. Quotation at to Try the strength of a man's back.

Armor. Play on (]) the defensive covering worn by knights; (2) offensive as well as defensive weaponry ("Amour "- OED) --hence innuendo of penis and perhaps testicles; (3) the French word for love, "amour"? Here specifically sexual love or attraction. KBP II iii 7. Throughout the play, Ralph affects the courtly language of the chivalric romance. Perhaps, then, meaning (3) would be made obvious to the audience by Ralph's pronunciation of "armor" as "amour," a pronunciation that he intends as "courtly." Note, also, that the "o" in "armor" and the "ou" in "amour" may have been pronounced identically. See Kokeritz's comments (pp. 229-35). Quotation at Succor.

Cf. Weapon.

Armors. This is a probable quibble on...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Note to the User of This Gloss
• List of Abbreviations of Plays Glossed
• List of Abbreviations of Works Cited in the Gloss
• Introduction
• Glossary
• Cross-Index of Gloss Entries by Play
• Bibliography