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SHAKESPEARE'S SEXUAL LANGUAGE STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY Series Editor Sandra Clark (Birkbeck College, University of London) Shakespeare's Legal Language B. J. Sokol and Mary Sokol Shakespeare's Military Language Charles Edelman Shakespeare's Theatre Hugh Richmond Shakespeare's Books Stuart Gillespie Shakespeare's Non-Standard English N. F. Blake Shakespeare's Sexual Language Gordon Williams STUDENT SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY Shakespeare's Sexual Language A Glossary By GORDON WILLIAMS continuum LONDON • NEW YORK Continuum The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038, USA First published in 1997 by The Athlone Press This edition published in 2006 © Gordon Williams 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Gordon Williams has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 0-8264-9134-0 The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows Williams, Gordon, 1935- A glossary of Shakespeare's sexual language / Gordon Williams, p. cm. Supplement to: Dictionary of sexual language and imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart literature. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-485-11511-5 (cloth). - ISBN 0-485-12130-1 (pbk.) 1. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616-Language-Glossaries, etc. 2. English language-Early modern, 1500-1700-Gloss- aries, vocabularies, etc. 3. English language-Early modern, 1500-1700-Slang-Dictionaries. 4. Erotic literature, English- Dictionaries. 5. Figures of speech-Dictionaries. 6. Sex in literature-Dictionaries. 7. Sex symbolism-Dictionaries. 8. Sex-Dictionaries. I. Williams, Gordon, 1935- Dictionary of sexual language and imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart literature. II. Title. PR2892.W55 1997 822.3'3-dc21 96-49008 CIP Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd., King's Lynn, Norfolk To Rose This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction 1 Method, Scope, and Conventions of the Glossary 15 Signs and Abbreviations 17 Glossary 20 Select Bibliography 348 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Although reference is made to my Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, the present work is on the whole supplementary rather than derivative. The approach is necessarily different: the one endeavours to map out broad areas of use, the other must take account of more personal and idiosyncratic aspects. Here patterns of innuendo are apt to loom larger than firm linguistic usage, though dividing lines become blurred. In the earlier work, other writers than Shakespeare are often preferred to illustrate common uses. Here, it is Shakespearean practice that is the object of attention and a path has been sought between ultraconservatism and the if-it-can-it-must approach. Even the personal and idiosyncratic must make sense in terms of Elizabethan mental habits rather than those of today, especially as they show in the configurations of dramatic speech. There is neither space nor need to argue this point in the majority of cases. But occasionally, where it has seemed worth while to enable those consulting the glossary to make up their own minds, the evidence has been set out at some length. A large number of entries is to be expected. The sexual element in Shakespeare is extensive, varied and, although this is necessarily hard to establish, probably innovative at times. Indeed, in the seventeenth century, his authorial identity was very much bound up with the use of sexual language and treatment of erotic themes. It was Venus and Adonis which established his reputation as erotic poet, Middleton (A Mad World, My Masters I.ii.48) linking it with Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 'two luscious marrowbone pies for a young married wife' (marrowbone was