Wordsmith Wednesday

It's a tradition we call Shakespeare In A Week.  It's happening right now at Grant's school as they prepare for this year's performance: Romeo & Juliet.  (Grant is Benvolio...in case you're wondering!)  The students and parents devote a full week to preparation: set construction, costumes, hair & makeup, blocking, etc. is done during this week.  Lines are distributed at Christmas break and ideally are memorized ahead of time, but the majority of the work takes place during this one week of concentrated effort.  It's fun...and a wee bit stressful for those in charge...but a tradition I don't think anyone is ready to forego. 

I love Shakespeare's humor, his insight into life and people, his poetic ability, but I also love his sheer brilliance and playfulness with words.  The man possessed a dynamic vocabulary and even made up a few words of his own along the way...words which have made their way into the English vernacular!  Here are a few to remember from Romeo & Juliet:

addle (adj) - muddled; confused 

Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat; and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg for quarrelling.

prolixity (n) - longwindedness; verbosity

The date is out of such prolixity.

doff (v) - to take off; put aside; discard 

Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

sententious (adj) - pithy; trite; moralizing 

R is for the- No; I know it begins with some other letter; and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

jocund (adj) - pleasant; cheerful 

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

paramour (n) - lover 

Shall I believe That unsubstantial Death is amorous, And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Thee here in dark to be his paramour?

gossamer (n) - a filmy cobweb floating in the air or spread on bushes or grass 

A lover may bestride the gossamer That idles in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

penury (n) - scarcity; lack of necessities 

Noting this penury, to myself I said, 'An if a man did need a poison now Whose sale is present death in Mantua, Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.'

bandy (v) - to toss back and forth 

Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She would be as swift in motion as a ball; My words would bandy her to my sweet love, And his to me...

 

culling (v) - to pick out; select; gather 

I do remember an apothecary, And hereabouts 'a dwells, which late I noted In tatt'red weeds, with overwhelming brows, Culling of simples.

abate (v) - to deduct; terminate; diminish 

And this shall free thee from this present shame, If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear Abate thy valour in the acting it.

troth (n) - faithfulness; promise 

By my troth, it is well said.

sallow (adj) - a sickly pale yellow 

What a deal of brine Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!

descry (v) - to discern; discover; detect 

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry.

supple (adj) - easily bent or twisted; flexible 

Take thou this vial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off...Each part, depriv'd of supple government, Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death...

antic (adj) - fantastic; odd; grotesque 

What, dares the slave Come hither, cover'd with an antic face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?

inexorable (adj) - not able to be persuaded  

The time and my intents are savage-wild, More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

pernicious (adj) - fatal; deadly; wicked 

What, ho! you men, you beasts, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins!

feign (v) - to invent; fabricate; pretend 

But old folks, many feign as they were dead- Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.