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Act III: French Scene 8

sawcie Lacky: cheeky footman, or like a saucie (wanton, lascivious) lacky (effeminate man or homosexual)

un-der that habit: in that disguise

play the knave: a) act like a boy; b) trick and defeat him

what would you?: what do you want?

lazie foot of time: Rosalind hints that Time is lazy for this lover because of his lazie (impotent, slack, long in comming) foot (penis).

swifte foot of time?: Orlando counters by asserting that the foot of time is both swift (hot, burning, vehement, quick) and proper (virile). 

ambles with-all: dawdles along with

trots hard with a yong maid: a young maid is "eager to trot" (thrust her hips up and down during copulation) as a trot (common prostitute) even if the interim between the contract of her marriage is only a sennight (seven night, or one week).

solemnizd: consecrated and made legal by the church

softly: leisurely

vacation: period during which the London law-courts are not sitting

skirts: border, edge; meaning like the decorative edge of a petticoat, or like fringe (pubic hair) upon a petticoat (female genitalia)

Conie: (also spelled Cony) a type of European rabbit; also a Conie (whore, wanton) dwells (fornicates) where she is kindled (inflamed with passion or lust). Here Rosalind drops a hint that she has changed gender, as it was widely believed at this time and until the end of the 18th century that rabbits, or hares, were hermaphrodites (having the genitalia of both sexes) that were able to carry children. Rabbits are also known for extreme laviciousness.

inland man: city dweller

Courtship: a) courtly life; b) wooing

Lectors: delivered many warning speeches

giddie: frivolous; or also foolish offenses (sexual transgressions)

tax'd: accused

halfpence: halfpence coined in Elizabeth's reign had identical mint markings, so Rosalind is say that all women's faults are identical to one another

physick but on those that are sick: physick = medicine; "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matthew 9:12)

haunts: frequents

Oades/Elegies: love poems; an "ode" is a lyrical poem, an elegie is a mournful song used in funerals or other passions of sorrow, including the sorrow of love.

Hauthornes: infusions of Hauthornes were thought to be "good for the trembling or passion of the heart" and have long been associate with Mayday fertility rites, and the blossoms are symbolic of the female reproductive organs and sexuality. The Hawthorn flower is also called "Lady's Meat" because its scent supposedly resembles that of the female genitalia.

brambles: blackberry bushes

defying: insulting

Fancie-monger: purveyor of fantasies; if Rosalind could meet him (have sexual intercourse with him) she would give him some good (sexually eager or proficient) counsel (play on "coun sell" / "cunt sell").

Quotidian: fever recurring every day

Love-shak'd: shaken by love-fever

markes: symptoms

cage of rushes: flimsy prison; rushes = straw, twigs

blew eye: dark circles under the eye from lack of sleep; thoughts that are blew (indecent, smutty, obscene)

unquestionable: impatient

is a yonger brothers revennew: because Orlando is so young, the amount of facial hair that he does have is his revennew (revenue: meaning profit, yield, income).

unbanded: without a hat-band (of some rich fabric)

point device in your accoutrements: meticulous in your apparel; the French words may hint a note of mockery

give the lie to their consciences: lie about their real feelings; women are reluctant to give the lie (sexual intercourse) to their consciences (sexual organs); women are reluctant to confesse (play on "con" as "cunt" and "fesse" as "buttocke")

sooth: truth

a darke house, and a whip: Dark house: mental hospital or prison; Love was considered a treatable medical condition like any other illness and the usual Elizabethan therapy for this so-called insanity would be prison and whipping, "thinking by torturing the flesh and externall parts, to extinguish their inward flames." Dark rooms were thought to soothe the minds of the "mad".

professe: am an expert in

moonish: changeable, fickle

fantastical: fanciful, capricious, ruled by a whim

apish: affected, whimsical

cattle of this colour: creatures of this kind

forswear: refuse

drave: drove

mad humour: whimsical affectation

ful stream of the world: the ful stream is the entirety of the world

living humour: real affectation

nooke meerly Monastick: Ganymede's former patient decided to leave a monastic life; Rosalind really hopes that Orlando will live meerly (lecherously; play on "merrily" meaning "lustily") and not to cure him but drive him into her nooke (vagina) like a monk (monks had a lustful reputation; to "monk it" is to "copulate").

take upon mee to wash your Liver: Just like a "rotten" sheep, Orlando has a "Spotted liver" (a symptom of lechery) so his Liver (the supposed seat of sexual passion) is unclean (morally impure) and Ganymede proposes to treat the symptoms by washing it with medicine as was the practice. Then his liver will be as clean as the heart (genitals) of a sheep who is sound (free from venereal disease) and will have not one spot (pox sore, result of venereal disease).

Coat: cottage  

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