Of green-gowns, fuz-balls, and sperrables
Browsing through The Poems of Robert Herrick, ed. L. C. Martin (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), I noticed that at the back there’s a "Select Glossary of Uncommon Words and Meanings," presumably in lieu of footnotes to the poems themselves. Among the highlights:
Bestrutted: Swollen.
Bruckel’d: Grimy.
Candidate: In a white sheet.
Cup-shot: Drunk.
Dew-locks: Dewy hair.
Ding-thrift: Spendthrift.
Fasting-Spittle: Saliva of a person fasting; supposed to have medicinal value.
Forked-fee: Fee taken from both parties in a lawsuit.
Fuz-ball: Puff-ball (fungus).
Green-gown: Gown soiled by lying on grass.
Grutch: Complain.
Hoofy: Struck by hoof of Pegasus to create the fountain Hippocrene.
July-flower: Perversion of Gillyflower.
Maukin: Mop.
Perpolite: Highly polished.
Prick-madam: House-leek.
Purfling: Embellishing.
Respasses: Raspberries.
Sleeded silk: Silk separated into its filaments; floss-silk.
Sperrables: Headless nails.
Thumblesse: Clumsy, helpless.
Tittyries: A brotherhood in London about 1623-4, who called themselves "Tityre, tu’s" (Virgil, Ecl. 1.1.)
Whorry: Obsolete form of Hurry.
This, to my eyes, reads like a distillation of all Herrick’s poems into a few highly concentrated pages. I wish more scholarly editions had this kind of glossary.
What a lovely list of words.
Lovely indeed, but I’m as unsure what a “house-leek” is as I am about a “prick-madam”
The OED says a house-leek is “a succulent herb with pink flowers and thick stem and leaves, the latter forming a dense rosette close to the root, which grows commonly on walls and the roofs of houses.” Though that doesn’t really give me a clearer idea of the plant.
I first read the entry for Tittyries as a brothel in London… now I have a name in case I ever need to open a cathouse.
And more on house-leeks; they’re apparently related to jade plants and sedum.