“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Vocabulary from Act 2

wrath belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong (personified as one of the deadly sins) Ex: Take heed the queen come not within his sight;For Oberon is passing fell and wrath
knavish marked by skill in deception Ex: Either I mistake your shape and making quite,Or else you are that shrewd and knavish spriteCall’d Robin Goodfellow: are not you heThat frights the maidens of the villagery;
beguile definition: attract; cause to be enamored…. example sentence: I jest to oberon and make him smile When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
wanton lewd or lascivious woman Ex: Tarry, rash wanton: am not i thy lord?
ravish force (someone) to have sex against their will Sentence: Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering nightFrom Perigenia, whom he ravished?
progeny the immediate descendants of a person. Sentence: And this same progeny of evils comesFrom our debate, from our dissension;We are their parents and original.
shun avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of Ex: If you will patiently dance in our roundAnd see our moonlight revels, go with us;If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
chide censure severely or angrily Ex: We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
dulcet extremely pleasant in a gentle way Ex.Dulcet tones of jacqui, they made a really sweet noise.
chaste abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse Ex. The nymph, you see, was a maiden, and like artemis, she preferred to remain chaste.
adamant very hard native crystalline carbon valued as a gem “You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;But yet you draw not iron, for my heartIs true as steel”
entice provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) “Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?”
spurn reject with contempt
impeach challenge the honesty or veracity of
woo make amorous advances towards EX:We cannot fight for love, as men may do;We should be wooed and were not made to woo
disdainful expressing extreme contempt EX:A sweet Athenian lady is in loveWith a disdainful youth
clamorous conspicuously and offensively loud; given to vehement outcry “The clamorous owl that nightly hooks and wonders…”
aloof remote in manner “Hence away! Now all is well, one aloof stand sentential…”
languish lose vigor, health, or flesh, as through grief “Love and languish for his sake, be it ounce or cat or bear”
vile morally reprehensible; Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, Pard, or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear When thou wakest, it is thy dear: Wake when some vile thing is near
dissembling pretending with intention to deceive; What wicked and dissembling glass of mineMade me compare with Hermia’s sphery eyne?
perish pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life; Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
tedious so lacking in interest as to cause mental wearinesse.g.: No; I do repentThe tedious minutes I with her have spent.
flout laugh at with contempt and derisione.g.: Is’t not enough, is’t not enough, young man,That I did never, no, nor never can,Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye,But you must flout my insufficiency?
surfeit the state of being more than full e.g.: For as a surfeit of the sweetest thingsThe deepest loathing to the stomach brings,Or as tie heresies that men do leaveAre hated most of those they did deceive,So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,Of all be hated, but the most of me!
August 6, 2019