Shakespearean English Contemporary English

art are
anon until later
aroint away

a speech in which the actor turns away from the

other performers and reveals his feelings to the
aside audience
assail (verb)
assault (noun) laying siege to a lady's chastity
aught anything
aye\yea yes
banns notice of an intended marriage

the surreptitious substitution of a virgin wife for

another woman who is sinfully desired (All's Well
bed trick That Ends Well)

unrhymed iambic pentameter (10 syllables in each

line, in which an unaccented syllable is followed by
an accened one); blank verse has five feet, or
beats, per line and every other syllable is stressed;
blank verse can be smooth and dignified, but it can
also mimic the pattern of natural speech more
effectively of the most versatile and flexible verse
forms, a favorite not only of the Renaissance poets
blank verse but also of many later poets

a stock character, the comic figure drawn from

ancient Roman comedy: Falstaff (Heny IV, Parts I
and II) is Shakespeare's most famous use of this
braggart soldier character
 a single folio sheet (half the size of a regular
sheet), printed on one side only; broadsides were
used to publish ballads, proclamations, and other
broadside announcements
bum buttocks
cock penis; God

a reference book that lists every word that an

author used; the Harvard Concordance is the
authoritative Shakespeare concordance; it is
especially useful for authenticating Shakespeare's
concordance works
dost do
doth does
e'en even/evening
ere before
enow enough
fare-thee-well goodbye
fie a curse

a minor character used as a contrast to a main

character -- Banquo, for example, serves as a foil
foil to Macbeth

a book format in which each individual sheet has

been folded once, across the middle of the longer
side, creating two leaves for each sheet; the sheets
vary from 15 by 10 inches to 12 by 8 inches -- with
folio many sizes in between
grammarcy thank you
hast have
hence from here
hie hurry
 the fluids of the human body: bile, phlegm, choler,
and blood; according to Elizabethan medical
theory, disease and emotion were caused by the
humors balance of the humors

a poet foot or unit with one unstressed syllable, as

iamb in the word "a/fraid"

iambic pentameter 10 syllables or beats in each line

marry a mild swear word
mayhap/perchance/belike maybe
miles gloriosis see braggart soldier
morrow day
nay no
ne'r never

a book format in which the individual sheets have

been folded three times, creating eight sheets; the
measurements of an octavo are a fourth of that of
octavo a folio
oft often
prithee/pray please

a book format in which the individual sheets have

been folded twice, creating four sheets; recto the
quarto front of a leaf, always the right-hand page

an elaborate poetic passage that follows the rules

of dramatic oratory; setpieces do not move the
action forward and are often filled with quotations
that become memorable; Hamlet's famous
setpiece soliloquy "To be, or not to be" is a setpiece
 a page; in Shakespeare's day, the size of a sheet
varied a great deal, from 20 by 15 inches to 16 by
sheet 12 inches

a speech in which a character is alone with his

private thoughts; it tells the audience what the
soliloquy character is thinking

sonnet a 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter

a standard character who appeared in many plays

and thus would be instantly recognizable to
stock character members of Shakespeare's audience

the time after which a play could not have been

terminus ad quem written (Latin)
thane a Scotch title equal to "earl"
thee you (object.."to you"
thine or thy your (possessive singular)

thou you (subject, singular, informal)

tis it is

officers appointed to protect the interests of the

people form possible injustice at the hands of
tribunes patrician magistrates
twas it was
verily very/truly

verso the back of a leaf, always the left-hand page

wast were
whence from where
wherefore why
would (he were) I wish (he were)
ye (subject, plural) you
yea even
yon/yonder that one there