Shakespeare's Bawdy by Partridge Eric;

Author:Partridge, Eric; [ERIC PARTRIDGE: SHAKESPEARE’S BAWDY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

lie on. To coït with (a woman). ‘Iago. Lie— Othello. With her?— Iago. With her, on her; what you will.—Othello. Lie with her! lie on her!’: IV i 34–35.

lie on one’s back. In reference to the female posture during sexual intercourse. (Concerning Mab, Queen of the Fairies) ‘This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them, and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage’, R. & J., I iv 91–93.—See defend one’s belly.

Cf. lie, v., and fall backward.

lie under. Mistress Page, referring to the amorous Falstaff, ‘I had rather be a giantess, and lie under Mount Pelion’, Merry Wives, II i 78–79. Cf. the implications of succubus.

lie with. To have sexual intercourse with; chiefly of a man in reference to a woman. King Edward to Lady Grey, ‘To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee’, 3 Henry VI, III ii 69.—Richard III, I ii 108–113, elaborates the theme of ‘lying in a lady’s bedchamber . . . with her’; v iii 337.—R. & J., IV v 36.—The M. of V., v i 259–262.— Merry Wives, II ii 283.—Measure, III ii 283– 284.—See lie on.—Pericles, IV ii 22.—And elsewhere (see, e.g., Sonnets quotation at lie, v.).

Perhaps the oldest euphemism for ‘to copulate’ in the English language; cf. the also long-prevalent sleep with.

light, adj. ‘Light wench’, Com of Errors, IV iii 51.—L.L.L., I ii 118 and IV iii 382 and v ii 15.—R. & J., II i 141.—Much Ado, II iv 41–43 and III iv 75–76.—‘Women are light at midnight’, Measure, v i 278.

The sense, then, is ‘sexually immoral’ or ‘given to— engaged in—prostitution’. But why light? Probably because a light woman is easy to persuade, to move, to participation in sexuality.

lightness. Female wantonness or immodesty or unchastity. 2. Henry IV, I ii 49 (see quotation at horn).—‘Can it be That modesty’—woman’s modesty—‘may more betray’—i.e., seduce—‘our sense Than woman’s lightness?’, Measure, II ii 168–170 (Angelo, overcome by suppliant Isabella’s charm and modesty).

See light and levity.

like, v.; liking, n. To be amorously fond of; amorous fondness.

‘If you like elsewhere, do it by stealth’, Com. of Errors, III ii 7.—

R. & J., I iii 98–99, ‘Lady Capulet. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love?—Juliet. I’ll look to like, if looking liking move’.—

All’s Well (see at board).

The basic sense of to like (of common-Teutonic origin) is ‘to be equal, to be like or similar to’, thence (as Wyld remarks) ‘to be harmonious, suitable, agreeable’.

line. To coït with (a woman), as in As You Like It, III ii 106–107, ‘Winter garments must be lined, So must slender Rosalind’. To line is to cover (originally, with linen) on the inside; hence, to fill as if with lining; hence, to cram, to stuff. (See The O.E.D.) Cf. the slang ‘to stuff’.

ling, old. Woman as pudend; what, in modern vulgarism, is known generically as ‘cunt’. ‘Clown. I have no mind to Isbel, since I was at court: our old ling and our Isbels o’ th’ country’—cf. country matters, q.

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