Contextual meaning of
a few difficult
phrases.
Line 13:
‘jealous in honour’ : The young man takes
great care of his honour, his reputation as a good man.
Line 13:
‘sudden and quick in
quarrel’: ‘quarrel’ is a
slightly old-fashioned word for an argument; ‘sudden’ here means unpredictable
- so in an argument this young man might suddenly become violent.
Line 14:
‘Seeking the bubble
reputation’: a bubble is empty, so by 'seeking the bubble reputation',
Shakespeare means a short lived glory.
Line 15:
‘Even in the cannon's
mouth’: a 'cannon'
large gun, and its 'mouth' was at the front -so the man seeks his
reputation even if it means standing in front of guns.
Line 16:
‘capon lin’d’: ‘to line’ means to
fill something at the edges here, the man was fat from eating good
chicken.
Line 20:
‘lean and slipper'd
pantaloon’
: this phrase describes a thin old man.
Line 23:
‘shrunk shank’: - 'to shrink' means to
grow smaller, and a 'shank' is a piece of meat cut from a leg of an animal
- so man's legs have grown narrower with age.
Line 24:
‘treble’: a treble is the higher
part of a piece of music - so Shakespeare is referring to a boy's
high-pitched voice.
Line 27:
‘oblivion’: if someone is
'oblivious' he/ she doesn't know what is happening around him/her, and
if he/she lives in 'oblivion' he/she is completely forgotten by other people.
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