Page 370 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

GLOSSARY 263

BARREN, unresponsive, intellect- BETTER (vb.), improve, perfect
ually sterile (the opposite of oneself; 5. 2. 261
'capable' q.v.); 3. 2. 4.0 BEVY. Technical name for a covey
BATED, excepted (cf. Temp. 2. 1. of quails or lapwings (v. N.E.D.);
99 'Bate,. I beseech you, 5. 2. 190
widow Dido'); 5. 2. 23 BIAS, V. assay, 2. 1. 62
BEAT (vb.), think persistently BILBOE, a kind of stocks used on
l
3- *• 77 board ship, 'a long iron bar,
BEAUTIFIED, endowed with beauty furnished with sliding shackles to
(cf. Two Gent. 4. 1. 55 'you are confine the ankles of prisoners,
beautified with goodly shape'); and a lock by which to fix one
2. 2. n o end of the bar to the floor or
BEAVER, visor (cf. 2 Hen. IF, ground' (N.E.D.); 5. 2. 6
4. 1. 120 and Sk.Eng. i. 130)5 BISSON, lit. blind; (here) blinding
1. 2. 230 (N.E.D.); 2. 2. 510
BEDDED, flat (as in bed), laid or BLANK (sb.), mark, lit. the white
strewn in a flat layer, matted; spot in the centre of a target;
3. 4. 121 4. 1. 42
BEETLE (vb.), overhang. Prob. BLANK (vb.), to blanch; 3. 2. 219
derived from Sidney, Arcadia, BLAST IN PROOF, burst when tested
'A pleasant valley of either side (a metaphor from cannon-
of which high hills lifted vp their practice); 4. 7. 153
beetle-browis, as if they would BLASTMENT, shrivelling up, wither-
ouer looke the pleasantnesse of ing; 1. 3. 42
their vnder prospect,' and 'ap- BLAZE (sb.), momentary flash, e.g.
parently used as a nonce-word of lightning, anger, passion (cf.
by Shakespeare, from whom it Rich. If, 2.1. 33 'His rash fierce
has been taken by later writers' blaze of Ryot cannot last' and
(N.E.D.); 1. 4. 71 Greene, Never Too Late, p. 71
BEGET, produce (cf. L.L.L. 2. 1. 'Lightning, that beautifies the
69)5 3. 2. 7 heauen for a blaze'); 1. 3. 117
BEND (vb.), incline; 1. 2. 115 BLAZON, proclaiming, making pub-
BENT, the extent to which a bow lic (orig. a term of heraldry);
•may be bent or a spring wound 1. 5. 21
up, limit of capacity; 2. 2. 30; BLENCH, flinch, quail (often of the
3. 2. 386 eyes); 2. 2. 601
BERATTLE, fill with din(cf.AT. John, BLOOD, passions; 3. 2. 67} 'in
5.2.172)52.2.345 blood' = in the vigour of youth
BETEEM, allow; 1. 2. 141 (used of stags in rut; cf. L.L.L.
BETIMES, in good time, at the right 4. 2. 3 'the deer was...in
moment, before it is too late blood'); 1. 3. 6
(N.E.D. quotes from 1545 'Re- BLOWN, blooming; 3. 1. 1625
pent betymes, and...fall dili- 'broad blown,' in full bloom;
gently to prayer'andMilton,P<jr. 3-3- i
8
Lost, III. 186 'To appease betimes BOARD (vb.), accost; 2. 2. 170
Th'incensed Deity'); 5. 2. 222 BODKIN, dagger; 3. 1. 76