20 May 2022

· Chasing wild Oxwords for Sonnets Day ·

Feel free to skip right to the poem, but recall that my first 154 sonnets appeared in 1609 without commentary, and look at all the fuss that caused.

I hatched a whole flock of new words in my old work. I had to, if English was going to say what I wanted in the way I wanted it said. Most of my fledgelings settled at the warm hearth of common parlance where they’ve been easy to find ever since. Not all, though. An uncongenial little gaggle remained outdoors, elusive.

That gaggle came to mind last week as I sat sharpening ex-hostage pens, wondering what I should write for Sonnets Day. Were any of my strange birds more biddable now? Only one way to find out. Feathers flew.

If the poem covers familiar ground (I don’t mean Southampton) it’s because the geese knew better than I did where they wanted to go. It was all I could do to keep up.
Except where noted, links and line numbers refer to
the works at opensourceshakespeare.org (OSS)

insisture
a fixed position or placement
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3, line 540

co-mates
companions, friends, brothers
As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, line 548

affined
linked or bound by affinity
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3, line 475
Othello, Act I, Scene 1, line 39

congreeing
in full accord (portmanteau congruent+agreeing)
Henry V, Act I, Scene 2, line 327

impair (adjective)
improper, unsuitable, unworthy
Troilus and Cressida, Act IV, Scene 5, line 2582
This links to the Bodleian Library’s First Folio (BFF); OSS has impure. The almost-400-year-old orthography can take some getting used to, but the medial ſs have been replaced in the BFF’s transcribed text. It helps.

oppugnancy
hostile resistance, opposition, with a hint of repugnance
Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene 3, lines 564-65

out-tongue
to argue louder than, literally or as metaphor
Othello, Act I, Scene 2, line 223

bisson conspectuities
(oxymoron) observations made blindly, perceptions lacking insight
Coriolanus, Act II, Scene 1, lines 897-98 (BFF)
Coriolanus, Act II, Scene 1, lines 978-79 (OSS)
This silly goose is made even sillier by mistake. The FF has it as beesome conspectuities. Astute editors correct beesome to bisson. Bisson (not an Oxword) means purblind. Conspectuities are things you can see. Witty patrician Menenius Agrippa is throwing shade as he questions two dim plebeian Tribunes. Beesome, an old name for a broom, turns the insult into nonsense. It’s another of the many compositing errors in the book. OSS got bisson right but mistyped harm as barm in Menenius’s question. There’s no end to these infernal devils.

credent
willing to believe, trusting to the point of gullibility
Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3, line 514
I gave credent a somewhat less negative spin in a couple of other places, but this is the one that’s relevant to the sonnet.

roted
schooled by rote, able to recite but without comprehension
Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 2, line 2045
BFF; OSS has rooted. The FF spells it roated but that’s the old orthography.

mistempered
mistakenly wrathful, or as a hardened steel weapon wrongfully used
King John, Act V, Scene 1, line 2205
Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene 1, line 107

mirable
to be marvelled at, wonderful
Troilus and Cressida, Act IV, Scene 5, line 2763

inhearsed
enclosed as in a coffin or hearse, implying death
Henry VI Part 1, Act IV, Scene 7, line 2300
I forget whether this is mine or just a variant spelling of enhearsed. It’s been a long time.

plantage
the act of planting, or plant life, vegetation
Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 2, line 1827

stelled
starry, pertaining to the stars in the firmament
King Lear, Act III, Scene 7, line 2053
BFF; OSS has steeled.

molet
heraldic star, usually with five points
More wild card than wild goose: the star in the de Vere arms. Also spelled mullet, it signifies neither fish nor hairstyle. Pierced, it’s the business end of a spur. The de Vere molet argent dates to the First Crusade in 1098. I’ll save that story for later but the poem’s context and the star’s luminous history fit perfectly.

relume
re-light, brighten again, bring back to life
Othello, Act V, Scene 2, line 3314

palmy
successful, flourishing, celebratory
Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1, line 130

supplyant
taking action to provide a supply of something
Cymbeline, Act III, Scene 7, lines 2280-81

Will my offish birds join the household words, or are they dead as doornails, good riddance? The ear-biters led me on quite a wild-goose chase, but now the game is up.

Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 4

RELATED POSTS

• • Sonnets Day (20 May 2019)
• • Much Noise No Nuts, Part 1 (23 Apr 2022, relevant section linked)
• · The older post reviews my poetic holiday, the newer adds context

• • Limerick 20: All the Sonnets of Shake-Speare (30 March 2022)
• · A hybrid limerick-sonnet metasonnet

• • Let Him Die For’t (6 May 2016)
• · The Sonnets meet a 3D printer, thanks to Baron Fremont

• Banner photo: ©Charlie Bibby [ft.com] (detail)

• Video: Wild Goose Chase [6:09]
• · Van Beuren animation studio, 1932
• · The cartoon has little if anything to do with a wild goose chase (there is a goose), but it was too amusing not to include anyway. Whatever Van Beuren’s animators partook of as they drew their storyboards, it must have been incredible. The Aesop’s Fables series began as silents with very loose adaptations, then expanded to include additional ‛plots’ and synchronised sound. Dinner Time (1928) preceded Steamboat Willie by a month, but the mouse got all the credit.

VERO NIHIL VERIUS