Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8Sylvester, Charles Herbert
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Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8
Sylvester, Charles Herbert
Children's literature; Literature -- Collections
[424-3] _Standard_ may be read _standard-bearer_.
[424-4] Trinculo means that Caliban is too drunk to stand.
[424-5] Trinculo is always jesting, even at his own expense. He means he
is so drunk he would pick a quarrel with a constable.
[424-6] _Debosh'd_ means _debauched_.
[425-7] A _natural_ is a fool or a simpleton.
[425-8] Stephano means "You shall be hanged on the next tree."
[425-9] As Ariel is invisible, each thinks another has spoken.
[425-10] "_This thing_" is Caliban himself.
[426-11] The court fools or jesters of that day wore clothes of many
colors--were _pied_, that is, _dappled_.
[426-12] _Patch_ is another word referring to the parti-colored clothing
of the jester.
[426-13] The _quick freshes_ are the running springs of fresh water.
[426-14] _Stock-fish_ is a word used in the writings of that period to
mean some kind of a fixture, which men struck with their fists or with
cudgels in practicing boxing and fighting.
[427-15] Stephano speaks first to Caliban, then to Trinculo.
[427-16] The _weazand_ is the windpipe or throat.
[427-17] _Sot_ in this place means _fool_, not _drunkard_. Caliban
thinks Prospero's books are the source of his magic power over such
spirits as Ariel and those he commands.
[427-18] _Brave_ here means _beautiful_ or _showy_.
[428-19] This speech of Ariel's is made aside, that is, out of hearing
of the three conspirators.
[428-20] _Troll the catch_ means _sing the jolly song_.
[428-21] _While-ere_ means _awhile since_.
[428-22] "I will do anything reasonable," says Stephano.
[428-23] "What is this music I hear?"
[428-24] A common sign in those times was called the picture of Nobody.
It consisted of a head upon two legs, with arms.
[429-25] Stephano probably means, "Take a blow from my fist," and speaks
to the invisible spirit or devil that he now thinks to be near them,
because of Ariel's curious interruptions.
[429-26] _Sometime_ is again used for _sometimes_.
[430-1] _By our lady!_ was a common exclamation. A diminutive form of
this was _by our ladykin_ which was contracted into _by our lakin_.
[430-2] _Forth-rights_ are straight lines.
[430-3] _Meanders_ are crooked lines.
[430-4] _Attach'd with_ means _seized by_.
[430-5] _Frustrate_ means _defeated_ or _baffled_.
[430-6] _Throughly_ means the same as _through_. Sebastian means that
the next time he will carry his purpose through.
[431-7] A _drollery_ was an amusing show of the _Punch and Judy_ kind,
where the characters were puppets. In a _living_ drollery, the
characters would be alive instead of puppets.
[431-8] The _phoenix_ was a fabled bird of antiquity which lived a
hundred years and then died in flames, only to rise young and strong
again from its ashes. There was but one such bird in the world, and
somewhere in Arabia was a tree, different from any other in the world,
in which the phoenix built its nest.
[431-9] _Certes_ means _for a certainty_.
[432-10] _Muse_ here means _wonder at_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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