View words begining with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Glossary (words starting with C)

cabinet (literally) a case for the safe custody of jewels, or other valuables (OED n. 5) but here used in the sense that the beloved is such a store of treasures

cabinet a case for the safe custody of jewels, or other valuables (OED n. 5)

cadzooks a variant of 'gadzooks', a mild oath

caitiff (expressing contempt, and often involving strong moral disapprobation) a base, mean, despicable 'wretch', a villain (OED 3), often also implying misery and wickedness

calamity disaster

calculated ascertained through astrology

calendared registered in the calendar of saints or saints' days

calenture a disease incident to sailors within the tropics, characterized by delirium in which the patient, it is said, fancies the sea to be green fields, and desires to leap into it: used figuratively (OED 2)

call call for, demand (OED call v, 4f)

call attract, lure (used in the sense of attracting animals when hunting by a particular ‘call’) (OED v. 4b)

call /In "to withdraw...from free action" (OED v. 29b)

call home summon, take command of

callet a variant of 'calotte', meaning a small decorative cap (though Brome perhaps intends us to hear a feint pun on 'callet', a scold or lewd woman)

calling business, trade

calm of weather, freedom from agitation or disturbance; windlessness (OED n1. 1)

camp-royal great number, originally a military term describing a great body of troops (OED camp n2, 2c)

can are capable of; can speak (see OED v1. 8)

can to know, to have learned (OED v1. BI 1)(cf. to ken)

can-quarrelling not in OED; a ‘can’ is a drinking vessel, so ‘can-quarrelling’ probably refers to alcohol-fuelled aggression

canaries a lively Spanish dance, the idea of which is said to have been derived from the aborigines of the Canary Islands (OED n. 1.)

Canary wine from the Canary Islands (popular throughout the period and the favourite drink of Ben Jonson, among others)

cancel annul (a legal document), render void or invalid, by drawing cross-hatched lines across it (OED v. 1a)

candy crystallised sugar, made by boiling and evaporating a sirup of it

cannikin a diminutive of 'can', a drinking-vessel, usually large

cannon-shot ammunition shot from a cannon; cannon-balls

cannoneer an artillery man who manages the laying or firing of a cannon (NB: here the term is reapplied to refer to the management of legal canons)

canon law, rule, edict (OED 2a)

canonization sainthood (admission in the Roman Catholic faith to the calendar of saints)

canopy of state covering or hangings suspended over a throne or a royal bed

canters rogues and vagabonds who speak the ‘cant’ or special language of thieves; one of the ‘canting crew’

cap-à-pie from head to foot (OED, adv.)

caparisons cloths or coverings spread over the saddles or harnesses of horses, often gaily ornamented (OED n. 1)

caperingly as in dancing, in which to caper is to leap vigorously and prance

capital chief, head (OED adj. 6); punishable by death (OED adj. 2a); of or relating to the head or top (OED adj. 1); deadly (OED adj. 3); most serious, radical (OED adj. 4)

capital pertaining to the head

capitulate treat, parley (OED v. 2); make conditions (OED v. 2b); make terms about (OED v. 3)

capon castrated cock or rooster (the object is to make a larger fowl, almost the size of a small turkey, for cooking than one would expect with a hen)

captious carping, likely to find fault

captivated taken prisoner

caput head

carcanet necklace or collar, usually of gold or set with jewels

carcanetted wearing an ornamental collar or necklace, usually of gold or set with jewels (OED cites The City Wit 4.1. for this usage of a verbalised noun)

care protection; concern, attention

care duty, responsibility

care affectionate concern

care (v) worry, feel anxious

care concern, attention

care charge, design

careering moving at speed, galloping, used figuratively to mean energetically

careful concerned, anxious

careful painstaking

careful full of care in the sense of being worried about something, weighed down by concern

careless unconcerned (OED 2); inattentive, negligent (OED 3) (for Brome, the word ‘careless’ carries a large degree of moral opprobrium: see the name of the anti-hero of A Mad Couple Well Matched, George Careless)

careless unconcerned (OED 2); inattentive, negligent (OED 3)

caresses ‘an action of endearment, a fondling touch or action, a blandishment’ (OED)

carmen carters or carriers

carnal sexual

carnifex executioner

carriage morally upright behaviour

carriage action of carrying

carriage conduct, behaviour (OED n. 15a and 15b)

carriage bodily deportment, the correct ways of moving/behaving

carriage behaviour (OED n. 14a)

carriage burden, load; something which is carried (OED 18a)

carriage deportment, bearing

carriage carrying out, the doing or execution of (a plot)

carriage military transport vehicles, as in 'gun-carriage'

carriage bearing

carriages ways of bearing oneself; deportments

carried managed, conducted (OED carry v, 22a); Wat may pun on alternate meanings: taken as the result of effort, won (OED carry v, 15a); borne, sustained (OED carry v, 26a)

carries conducts, manages (OED v. 22a)

carries completes, perfects (the cure); takes away the adverse effects of (something); also with the idiomatic sense, "wins the day"; brings safely through a crisis

carrions something disgusting and corrupt (OED carrion n, 6); but here, preceded by mankind, also implying that the prostitutes are human versions of flesh-eating birds or animals (OED carrion-crows)

carry hold, position

carry manage (OED v. 22a); do

carry take captive (OED v. 5b), arrest, charge

carry succeed in obtaining (OED v. 15a); manage (OED 22a); bear up (as in sexual intercourse) (Williams, 1: 207-8)

carry it behave

carry-tale tell-tale

cart a two-wheeled vehicle used to convey prisoners, such as vagrants, bawds, and whores, through the streets for increased public exposure to their chastisement, usually whipping (OED 2c) (sometimes the offender, wearing only a shirt or smock, was tied to the back of the cart and whipped through the streets by the beadle)

carver one who carves (meat) at table

carving to helping to serve (someone) at a meal (OED, carve, v. 8a)

case covering, clothing

case circumstance, state of affairs

case condition

case vagina, punning on 'a thing fitted to contain or enclose something else; a receptacle or holder; a box, chest, bag, sheath, covering, etc.; in very early use a reliquary' (OED case n1, 1a)

case (v.) close up

casemate a vaulted chamber built in the thickness of the ramparts of a fortress, with embrasures for the defence of the place; 'a bomb-proof vault, generally under the ramparts of a fortress, used as a barrack, or a battery, or for both purposes' (Stocqueler 1853; OED 1)

casement window

cashier dismiss (a military term originally, frequently misapplied to relations between master and servant)

cashiered dismissed; in the army this generally involved 'disgrace and permanent exclusion' (OED cashier v, 2)

cast calculated (see OED 37)

cast give (money), with the sense of 'throw away'; in context, also playing on 'castaway'

cast rejected (here used of a person)

cast reckoned, calculated, as in astrology; interpreted or forecast

cast thrown; ‘cast’ can also mean ‘beaten in a law suit’ (OED ppl. a, 2), and Brookall may pun on this sense

cast designed (with a pun on ‘cast’ meaning ‘to throw dice’)

cast (usually of garments) thrown aside, cast-off, rejected (OED 5)

cast (v) take off

cast summed it up, reckoned it (OED 6c)

cast (v) cast (a thought)

cast a glance, a look, expression

cast calculated, estimated (OED v. 38)

cast contrived, devised (OED v. 43b)

cast away throw away, e.g. for money, frivolously spend

cast away ruined (OED v. XIII 72d)

cast-off a person who has been 'cast off', or sacked, by their employer

castaway one rejected

castaways those cast away with the Queen

casting devising, contriving (OED cast, 43b)

casting devising, contriving (OED cast, 43b); rolling of dice

castingtop a variant of 'pegtop', a game in which an opponent knocks over another's pegs with a spinning 'top'

casual produced by chance, fortuitous (OED adj. 1a); uncertain, not to be relied on (OED adj. 2); uncertain, precarious (OED adj. 5a)

casualty chance, accident

cat-a-mountains wildcats

catalogue list, register

catastrophe a climactic change or reversal of fortune which brings about the conclusion of the plot, the denouement

catch apprehend, intuit

catched caught out, tricked, entrapped

catchers those who sing catches, which were originally short compositions for three or more voices, sung to the same melody, with the second singer beginning the first line as the first goes on to the second line, and so with each successive singer; otherwise called a round; ‘The catch was for each succeeding singer to take up or catch his part in time’ (OED n1. 14)

catches catch: round in which the words are so arranged that one singer picks up the word[s] of another (OED n1. 14)

catches rounds in which the words are so arranged that one singer picks up the word[s] of another (OED n1. 14)

catchpoles sergeants, especially officers who arrest debtors (OED 2)

caterwauling crying like a cat in heat, but also lecherous (OED vbl.n, 1 and 2)

Catilinarian conspiratorial, treacherous: after the Roman politician Catiline, who was implicated in the so-called Catilinarian conspiracy attempting to overthrow the Roman Republic in the first century BCE and was ‘sometimes taken as the type of a profligate conspirator’ (OED Catiline, a.)

catstick a bat or stick used in games of tip-cat and trap-ball (see [NOTE n5066])

cattle livestock; vermin (OED n. 7)

caudle (cup of) ‘a warm drink consisting of thin gruel, mixed with wine or ale, sweetened and spiced, given chiefly to sick people, esp. women in childbed; also to their visitors’ (OED n. 1a); aphrodisiac

cause good, proper or adequate ground for action (OED 3a)

cause affair, business (OED n. 10); in legal discourse, the subject of a lawsuit, or the case made by one of the parties (OED n. 7)

cautelous cautious

cavalier a knight, a courtly gentleman, a gallant (derived from the French, chevalier

cavalier originally a horse-man, or a gallant; also, a roistering swaggering fellow.

cavaliers gentlemen trained to arms, gallants

cavalry knighthood; an order of chivalry (OED 2, where Brome's The Court Beggar> is the latest example given for this now-obsolete sense)

ceased killed

cedes gives way, surrenders

celestial heavenly

cellar wine-cellar

cement cohere, stick (the word in context carries an aural echo of "semen")

censorious faultfinding, severely critical (OED adj. 1)

censure judgment, not necessarily adverse (Jonson habitually used the term for positive as well as negative feedback from the audience. See the Induction of Every Man Out of his Humour, where the playwright Asper explains to the spectators the importance of an audience's censure, or judgment, in commending a play.)

censure formal judgements or opinions of an expert, referee, etc. (OED 2)

censure judgement (especially, though not always, adverse judgment)

censure (v) judge

censured condemned (OED censure v, 5)

Centaurs Greek mythological creatures who were half human and half horse

centre true state of mental balance

cerebrum brain

certes certainly

certiorari Law Latin: A writ, issuing from a superior court, upon the complaint of a party that he has not received justice from an inferior court, or cannot have an impartial trial, by which the records of the case are called up for trial in the superior court (OED)

ceruse white lead, used in make-up

chafe (v) become irritated

chafes becomes vexed, angry; displays irritation

chaff husks of corn or grain

chains a series of interconnecting links of gold or silver creating a necklace

chamber room or apartment in a house (OED n. 1a)

chambered lodged in a (bed)chamber

chambermaid lady's maid

chameleon inconstant or variable person (after the power of the lizard to change its colour)

champ make a biting and chewing action or movement with the jaws and teeth, especially of horses chewing on the bit

champion supported, either through martial support (as in the tournaments on Eulalia’s marriage to the King) or in sexual intercourse

champion support

champions defenders; those who fight on behalf of another

champkin According to the OED (which quotes Mad Couple as its only citation), 'champkin' is a nonce-word, comparable to 'bumpkin'. While the latter speaks to Phoebe's country roots, the word seems more specifically to refer to 'child'.

chance opportunity, chance of success

chance falling out or happening of events; in this context, mischance

chanced happened, occurred (the falling out of events)

Chances an archaic synonym for accident; in the plural, matter which falls out or happens; a fortuitous event or occurrence; often, an unfortunate event, mishap, mischance (OED 2)

chandler a maker or seller of candles

chandler’s chandler: a tradesman who manufactures and sells candles

change (v) exchange

change alteration (OED n. 4); exchange (OED n. 2a); exchange of merchandise (OED n. 2b); substitution of one thing for another or succession of one thing in place of another (OED n. 1a); changeableness, caprice (OED n. 4b); a change of partners in dancing (OED n. 1c)

changed exchanged

changeling a fickle or inconstant person; a waverer, turncoat

chapman merchant, trader, dealer

chapmen merchants, dealers

chaps jaws (OED chap n2, 2)

chapwoman female trader

character handwriting

charge command

charge duty, responsibility

charge a person in one's care

charge instruction (i.e. about his responsibilities)

charge give order, command

charge trouble, expense, responsibility (OED n. 11)

charge (v) accuse

charge (n) task, duty, commission (OED n. 12)

charge (n) cost, expense

charge A grammatical and linguistic compression: charge here carries a double meaning. First: require ("this officer") or command (him); and secondly: to bring a charge against "this woman", or to take (her) in charge.

charge (n) an impetuous attack (OED n. III 18a)

chargeable costly, expensive (obs., OED 4)

charged accused (OED charge v, 15a); challenged

charged challenged

charged loaded, laden (OED ppl, 1)

charges expenses (OED 10a)

charily carefully

charitable kindly, well-disposed; ‘Inclined to think no evil of others, to put the most favourable construction on their actions’ (OED adj. 5)

charitable kindly, well-disposed

charm (v) (1) work charms, use enchantments or spells, practise magic; (2) persuade, induce

charm magic spell, enchantment

charm magical ability, such as a particular spell

charmed influenced by magic power, bewitched, under a spell

charming fascinating, pleasing (used ironically)

charms spells, enchantments; ‘any quality, attribute, trait, feature, etc., which exerts a fascinating or attractive influence, exciting love or admiration’ (OED n1. 3)

charter established laws and practices

chary careful, cautious, circumspect, wary (OED 4)

chawing a variant of chew (OED)

cheat tricks, ways of cheating

cheat specific to dice, i.e. false dice (OED 6)

cheat deceptions

cheat one who tricks another

cheaters dishonest gamblers (OED 2); swindlers (OED 3)

check rebuke, reproof

check restrain, put in danger of attack in which the opponent is likely to lose (a term from chess)

check restrain, hold in check, curb, control (OED check v1, 14a)

checked restrained, controlled

checked at tried to restrain/hold back

cheer comfort

cheer fare, provisions, viands, food (OED n. 6a)

cheer what is provided by way of entertainment: fare, provisions, viands, food (OED n. 6a)

chequins gold coins, a currency in Italy and Turkey (each was valued by Hakluyt c.1599 as the equivalent then of "seven shillings and two pence sterling" (OED), which in today's currency would equal roughly £36

cherishing fostering, sustaining; nourishing

chid scolded

chidden scolded, rebuked

chide give loud and angry expression to dissatisfaction and displeasure; scold (OED 1b)

chides scolds; fights; rebukes

chief principal

chiefly pre-eminently, most particularly (OED adv. 1)

chilblain an inflammatory swelling, used as an insult

child daughter, girl (northern dialect); reference to the male was either 'boy' or 'son' (OED n. 1b and see the 1611 citation. Lady Anne Clifford, in her diary recounting events up to 1618, refers to her daughter consistently as 'child'.)

Children a company of child actors

Chimeras in classical Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fire-breathing monster (part lion, part goat, and part serpent) who was slain by the Corinthian hero, Bellerophon

chine the spine, backbone, or vertebral column (OED n2. 1)

chink (v) (of coins or glasses) make a ringing sound (OED v3), i.e. sounds

chinky full of fissures or cracks

chippings parings of the crust of a loaf (OED 2a)

chips fragments of wood often used as kindling for a fire

choice worthy

choice select, sophisticated

choicer more select or sophisticated

choler bile, one of the four humours of Renaissance physiology, supposed to cause irascibility of temper (OED n1. 1)

choleric having choler as the predominant humour; being of bilious temperament

chop in intervene, break in (OED chop v 1, 8)

choplogical argumentative, disputatious (OED chop-logic 3); OED cites only one other example, William Tindale, The Obedience of a Christen Man (London, 1528): ‘Where he sayeth the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life, "lo", say they, "the literal sense killeth and the spiritual sense giveth life". We must therefore say they seek out some choplogical sense’ (sig. Cxxxiii)

chopping thriving

chops literally jaws and/or lips (as used here in combination with "mumbling", the phrase is a comic inversion of the popular idiom of the period, "nimble-chops", meaning a talkative person)

chrisom-child newly baptised (and thus both innocent and very young) baby: from `chrisom', a white garment or piece of cloth which is used in the Christian ritual of baptism

churchman clergyman

churchwarden a lay honorary officer of a parish or district church, elected to assist the incumbent in the discharge of his administrative duties, to manage such various parochial offices as by custom or legislation devolve upon him, and generally to act as the lay representative of the parish in matters of church-organization (OED)

churl used as a term of disparagement, e.g. villain, base fellow

churl a countryman, often used contemptuously of a low-bred villain, especially (since Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, first performed 1599) referring to a grain-hoarder, who withheld grain from the market, driving up the price and causing great hardship among the poor (hence the curse of weeds in the field choking out the grain)

cipher a nonentity, a person who merely fills a place (OED n. 2); the original meaning of the word is 'An arithmetical symbol or character (o) of no value by itself, but which increases or decreases the value of other figures according to its position' (OED n. 1a)

circled in encircled, surrounded

circumspectly cautiously, warily

circumstances surroundings (OED circumstance n, 1)

circumvent cheat, outwit

citiner citizen: according to OED, in Scots and Northern English dialect, but it is used in other London-based comedies, often with a mocking undertone: compare Chapman, Jonson and Marston, Eastward Ho (Queen’s Revels, 1605), in which the aspiring citizen’s daughter Gertrude tells her mother, ‘you talk like yourself and a cittiner in this, i’faith’ (Eastward Ho, ed. R.W. Van Fossen [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979], 5.1.141-2), and Dekker and Webster, Northward Ho (Children of Paul’s, 1605), in which Bellamont comments, ‘when your citizen comes into his inn, wet and cold, dropping, either the hostess or one of her maids warms his bed, pulls on his night-cap, cuts his corns, puts out the candle, bids him command ought if he want ought: and so after master citiner sleeps as quietly as if he lay in his own low-country of Holland’ (Bowers, ed., vol. 2, 5.1.66-70).

citizen Londoner with full municipal rights

City The City of London, the ancient capital and commercial area with its own system of power and government; often contrasted with the Royal Court, based a few miles down the Thames at Westminster and Whitehall, a rival base of power, authority, and culture

civil polite, courteous

civil most sophisticated, subtle, advanced

civil orderly, well-governed (OED adj. 7); civilised (OED adj. 8); polite, well-bred (OED adj. 9); humane (OED adj. 11)

civil well-mannered, polite, courteous

civil orderly, well-governed (OED adj. 7); civilised (OED adj. 8); polite (OED adj. 9)

civil civic, municipal (OED adj. 4); sober, decent, grave (OED adj. 10)

civil gentle (OED adj. 11)

civil of the citizens (OED adj. 2); orderly, well-governed (OED adj. 7); civilised (OED adj. 8)

civil educated; well-bred; refined, polished, ‘polite’ (OED adj. 9)

civil among the citizens; in the City of London

civil of apparel: sober, decent, grave (OED adj. 10)

civilly behaving in a polite (civilised) manner

civilly lawfully, as permitted by the town's civil code

civilly courteously (OED adv. 6); soberly (OED adv. 7)

clap put into fine clothes (OED, clap v1. 10a; bravery, 3b)

clap sudden blow or stroke (but with a specifically sexual meaning in The Northen Lass, 4.3.)

clap conventionally with the meaning "made pregnant" but here simply "had sex with"

clap get hold of

clap (v) to pat as a mark of endearment, 'to pat fondly' (OED v. 9a)

clap (n) sudden blow or stroke

clap gonorrhea (OED n. 2)

clap up imprison

clapped literally affected with the clap (i.e. a sexual disease), but also seduced sexually

clapped up hastily settled (OED clap v1, 13b); applauded

clapperclaw to claw or scratch with the open hand and nails; to beat, thrash, drub (OED)

clapperdudgeons born beggars (cant)

claret red wines generally

clarissimo a Venetian grandee; a magnifico, a magnate

clary ‘A sweet liquor consisting of a mixture of wine, clarified honey, and various spices, as pepper and ginger’ (OED n1).

clean pure, chaste (OED adj. 4a); elegant, free from faults (OED adj.7); ‘neatly made’, ‘not unwieldy’ (OED adj. 10a); clever, skilful (OED adj. 11)

clean neat

clear innocent

clear (adj) bright, splendid, brilliant

clear brighten (OED v. 1)

clearer more absolute (OED clear a, 17)

cleave split, hew (OED v1. 1)

cleft clung or held fast to each other, remained faithful and attached to each other (OED cleave v2, 4)

cleft split asunder

clemency mercy, leniency

clerk cleric

clime climate, region

clinches settles the matter

clinquant glittering with gold or silver (OED a and n)

clip hug, embrace, clasp with the arms

clip "to mutilate (current coin) by fraudulently paring the edges" - a common practice among thieves at this and later periods, which was a treasonable or criminal offence (OED clip v2, 4a)

clipped mispronounced (clip: ‘to cut [words] short; to omit by indistinct or hurried utterance syllables and parts of words; to pronounce imperfectly’ [OED clip v2, 5b])

clod blockhead (OED 5 fig)

clogged obstructed, or hindered escape (based on the clogs or blocks of heavy wood, or the like, attached to the leg or neck of a man or beast, to impede motion or prevent release from captivity)

clogged impeded

clogging halting (one's steps), as if hampered by fetters or chains (clogs)

close secretive, sometimes with the implication of stingy, niggardly (OED a. and adv, 7 and 8)

close hidden (OED a and adv, 4a)

close secret, covert (OED adj. 4a)

close two senses are apt here: nearby (close to) and also covert, hidden (closed to view)

close closed, shut (OED a and adv, 1a)

close comes into close contact for the purpose of hand-to-hand fighting

close two meanings are relevant in context: intently and secretly, covertly

close strictly confined

close (v) unite, join

close secretive, reserved, reticent, uncommunicative (OED adj. 7)

close up hidden, locked away

close-stool a toilet or chamber pot enclosed in a box

closer both the sense of a nearer proximity and of greater intimacy or privacy are implicit in the situation here; also the sense of arguing more forcefully

closes with comes to close quarters or to grips with; engages in hand-to-hand fight, grapples with (OED v. 13)

closet 'little chamber, or wardrobe, wherein one keeps his best, or most esteemed, substance' (Cotgrave, in LEME)

closet private room, study

closet a small side-room or recess for storing utensils, provisions, medicines (OED n. 3b)

closing concluding, final

Clotpoll a blockhead or dolt (OED 2)

cloud hide, conceal

clouded troubled, obscured

clouted covered with, or wrapped in, a cloth (OED ppl, a1, 4)

clouts rags, patches

cloven divided, like the hoof of ruminant quadrupeds

clown fool; unrefined man

clown countryfolk

clown man without refinement or culture; an ignorant, rude, uncouth, ill-bred man (OED clown n, 2), opposed to `courtier'

clown rustic, yokel, country bumpkin

clownish rough, coarse, rustic

clowns rustics, country people (Andrea probably also puns on his own occupation as a professional clown or fool)

clowns countryfolk

cloyed satisfied, satiated (OED v1. 8a)

club share of a group charge or billing, especially in a tavern

clubbed distorted, defective (defect of the foot, thickened into a stunted lumpy shape like a club)

cluster a number of persons, animals, or things gathered or situated close together; an assemblage, group, swarm, crowd (OED n. 3a)

clutterdepouch an old dance. It was possibly accompanied by continuous or repeated noise or clatter, but no description of the dance remains.

cly take, or get (cant)

co-actors fellow actors/agents

coarse rough, unrefined

coat profession (it would be possible in a world were sumptuary laws obtain for the precise garb to indicate the profession)

coats petticoats, or skirts of a dress (OED n. 2a)

cobble patch, mend clumsily (often used of mending shoes, which continues Phyllis’s line of imagery)

cobble patch, mend clumsily

cobbler someone who makes his business from mending shoes

cock-broth broth made from a boiled cock; aphrodisiac

cockatrice 'a serpent, identified with the BASILISK, fabulously said to kill by its mere glance, and to be hatched from a cock's egg'; 'cockatrice' is used prominently in the Bible and maybe has this connotation in particular in this period; but it is also used as a term for prostitute (see Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight (1608), 3.267: 'the Cockatrice that hatcheth all these eggs of evils' (Williams) and The Guls Horne-book (1609): 'whether that young conjurer (in Hogsheads) at midnight, keeps a gelding now and then to visit his Cockatrice' (p. 33)

cockered indulged, treated with excessive care (OED cocker v, 1)

cockpit Cockpit Theatre (where Mad Couple was performed, rival to the Salisbury Court theatre for which the play was initially written).

cockpit place for cock-fighting.

cockscombly foolish: professional fools had worn caps which resembled cocks' combs in shape and colour (OED `cockscomb' 1)

codling applied to a raw youth (OED, codling2, 2)

codling roasted apple, sold hot by vendors in London streets (OED codling2 1c)

codling variety of apple

Cods variant of 'God's', an oath

coffers treasure chests; strong boxes in which money or valuables are kept

coheir joint heir

cohered agreed (OED cohere v, 4b)

coif close-fitting cap

coifs ‘small caps covering the back and sides of the head, worn as an indoor head-dress’; they were made of linen, embroidered and often edged with lace or made of drawn work (Marie Canning Linthicum, Costume in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936], 223); for illustrations of late sixteenth century coifs in the Victoria and Albert Museum see John L. Nevinson, Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London: HMSO, 1950), plates LX-LXIII. For a seventeenth-century coif see the Victoria and Albert Museum's online images: http://images.vam.ac.uk/.

coil bother; disturbance, fuss (OED n2. 1 and 3)

coil fuss, noisy row

coil a bother, an ado (OED n. 3)

coition meeting, coming together; also, copulation

cold (a) chilling (OED adj. 10a); gloomy, dispiriting (OED adj. 9); the opposite of cordial or friendly (OED adj. 8); the term ‘cold shoulder’ is a nineteenth-century expression, but Brome’s use of ‘cold’ may carry something of the same sense

collation light meal

collect compose, control

collect infers, concludes (OED `collect' v, 5a)

collect conclude (OED v. 5)

collect recollect, remember

colour flag

colour disguise (OED v. 3)

colours flag, ensign, or standard of a regiment (plural was generally used because of heraldic significance)

colours paints, pigments (OED colour n1, 8A)

coltish tooth 'usually spoken of an old man that is wanton and petulant' (Williams, p. 275); associated with lascivious desires since the phrase refers to a horse's first set of teeth. See also Shakespeare's Henry VIII, 1.3., where the Lord Chancellor comments on Lord Sands' 'colt's tooth' with reference to his joy at hearing of the departure of foreign visitors who have dominated the ladies' attention with their charm.

combustible easily kindled to violence or passion (OED, a. and n. 2)

combustion disorders, commotions (OED 5b)

combustion disorder, commotion (OED 5b)

come come your ways: come along

come came on: arrived (OED, come, v. 66a)

come come on: approach, advance towards (for discussion)

come come (as an imperative of conversational encouragement): proceed, out with it, keep talking

come

come about come round, changed tack

come about come round (to a person's way of thinking)

come away come hither, approach

come close be intimate, confidential

come near get close to the truth

Come your way come along

come-well come into this world, birth (Haaker); or perhaps simply constructed with go-well as an analogy to 'come and go', a good wish for successful travelling, or the freedom to travel freely

comedians actors

comely pleasing (OED adj. 2); becoming, proper (OED adj. 3)

comfort aid, support; consolation

comfort happiness, joy

comfortable strengthening, cheering (morally and physically)

comfortabler more cheerful, encouraging, strengthening

comforted strengthen (morally or spiritually); encourage, hearten (OED, comfort, v. 1a)

comforts 'Relief or support in mental distress or affliction' (OED comfort, n. 5.a); 'A thing that produces or ministers to enjoyment and content' (OED comfort, n. 7; usually plural)

coming off a coming off the field of action; a finish-up, a conclusion; an issue (OED 1)

comings in income (OED, coming, vbl. n1. 7c)

commend praise

commendable praiseworthy

commendably laudably

commendation expression of approval (OED 2)

commission authoritative charge or direction to act in a prescribed manner; order, charge, instruction (OED 1a)

commission the magistracy, Justices of the Peace; Commission of the Peace: the authority given under the Great Seal empowering certain persons to act as Justices of the Peace in a specified district; hence on the commission: having the office of Justice of the Peace (OED 2c)

commitment being sent to prison

committed put in prison

commodity 'A parcel of goods sold on credit by a usurer to a needy person, who immediately raised some cash by re-selling them at a lower price, generally to the usurer himself' (OED 7b, citing this reference).

commodity thing produced for use or sale

commodity goods, merchandise (OED 6a)

common ‘free to be used by every one’ (OED adj. 6a); used to describe criminals and offenders (OED adj. 8); inferior

common general, public; used to describe criminals and offenders (OED adj. 8); inferior

common general

common courtship general flirtation

common hostess mistress of a public tavern or ordinary eating-house.

common-councilman member of the administrative body of London (see OED, council, n. 15b; council-man)

common-councilman "A member of a common council, a common councillor" (this OED reference (council n, 15b) notes that the term is used especially of the City of London and cites a usage in Jonson's unfinished tragedy The Fall of Mortimer [Scene 1.24])

commons common table or refectory

commons common people, community; also those who represent them (in England, the Lower House of Parliament)

commonwealth state, community

communicable commonly applicable (OED adj. 3c): OED’s earliest and only citation is from 1661: Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England (London, 1662): ‘The Engine. This general Word, communicable to all Machines or Instruments’ (2: 191)

commutate change (OED records first usage in The Love-Sick Court)

commuting buying off or ransoming one obligation with another; redeeming or get off an obligation by a money payment

compact confederacy, plot, conspiracy (OED n1. 2, now obsolete) in the pejorative sense; also the word may imply the pact with the devil that early modern witchcraft authorities believed is what started a witch's career in evil (the usual pact involved sexual congress with the devil, and the regular feeding of a 'familiar', or personal demon, with the witch's blood)

company group, in a general sense; but also, specifically, a term for a group of actors

company (travelling) companions

company City of London trade guild (OED n. 6a) which both regulated the practices of its members and also was part of the political organisation of the City

comparative comparable with, equal to

comparatively by way of comparison; somewhat, rather (OED)

compass range, reach (OED n1. 9a)

compass contrive, accomplish (OED)

compass due limits, moderation (OED n1. 2)

compass to get at, attain, obtain, win (an object) (OED v. 11b)

compellation name by which a person is addressed (OED 2b)

compentence adequate supply

competent adequate, sufficient (OED adj. 3a); moderate, sufficient but not excessive (OED adj. 3b)

competently suitably, adequately (merry); that is, not to the point of being drunk and disorderly

competitioners competitors; fellow-petitioners, co-petitioners (OED 1 and 2)

complaint lamentation

complaint legal statement of grievance

complementasters petty complimenters (OED's only recorded usage of the term)

complements qualities or amounts that complete (OED n. 4a); complementing accessories (OED n. 6)

complements accessories that complement the overall appearance

complexion a colouring preparation used by women to give themselves a fairer complexion (OED, 6)

compliable inclined to comply

compliment seems to refer to the wine which Dryground is about to give the gallants in welcome; OED’s earliest citation for this sense of ‘compliment’ (n, 3) dates from 1722; but compare Joseph Beaumont, Psyche, or Love’s Mystery, in XXIV Cantos … The Second Edition, with Corrections Throughout, and Four New Cantos, Never Before Printed (London, 1702), Canto 14, Stanza 69 (p. 214):

’Tis true, his lips were complimented by
A draught of wine; but ah, the compliment
Cruelly mocked him by the treachery
Of bitterness, which made his taste repent.
Besides, he had resolved to swallow down
No blood of grapes, till he had shed his own.

compliment ceremonial act as a tribute of courtesy (OED n. 1)

compliment greeting

complimenter one who employs ceremony or formal courtesy in act or expression (OED `complimenter' & `compliment' vb 1: intrans)

compliments tributes of courtesy and polite praise

complot (as verb) to combine (with others) in planning or plotting, to plan a concerted action (OED indicates that the word usually carries the implication that the plan is likely to be criminal)

complot plot or scheme

complotter fellow conspirator; one who joins in a plot

composition the settling of debt, liability or claim (in legal terms) (OED 12)

composition sum of money paid for the settlement of a claim (OED 25b)

composition reasoning and reflection on all factors

composition settlement of a lawsuit out of court by mutual agreement of terms, which usually involves financial payment

composition assembling, putting together, amassing

composition agreement

composure literary, musical, or artistic composition

compound come to a settlement

compound strike a deal, bargain

compound (v) strike a deal

compounded settlement agreed (in a dispute, in financial terms)

compter an obsolete spelling of ‘counter’ (a prison attached to a local magistrate’s court): used specifically in the seventeenth century to refer to London’s debtors’ prisons (OED compter; OED counter n3, 7)

compters debtors' prisons of London

compulsive driven on, forced onwards (OED adj. 1b), which cites Shakespeare, Othello, 3.3.454-5: ‘The Pontic sea, whose icy current, and compulsive course, / Ne’er keeps retiring ebb’); enforced (OED adj. 2)

compunction remorse

con study, learn (OED v1. II 3)

conceit witty observation

conceit conception, notion, idea

conceit opinion, estimation (OED nII, 4)

conceit morbid seizure of the mind (OED n. 11)

conceit notion

conceit conception, fancy, whim, clever trick

conceited believed

conceited whimsical, fantastical (OED ppl a, 4)

conceits notions

conceive become possessed with; puns on conceive as 'to become pregnant'

conceive understand (OED v. 9c)

conceive become possessed with

conceive think

conceived considered, believed (in context, there is also the potential for a pun on the meaning "got with child")

conceived devised; thought of

concloyded concluded (dialect)

conclusion result

concupiscence libidinous appetite, lust

concupiscence sexual lust

condition something demanded or required as a prerequisite to the granting or performance of something else (OED I, 1a)

condition agree terms or conditions, bargain

condition state, way of life

condition provision in a contract (OED n. 2a); state of being (OED n. 9a)

condition state, circumstance

conditionally on the condition that, only if

conditioned settled on conditions; stipulated; bargained (for); according to the agreed terms (OED cites only The Novella as an instance of this sense [adj, 4] but it also occurs in The Court Beggar)

conditions occupations, trades

condole grieve with, grieve alongside

conduct guide (OED n1. 3)

conducts leads, guides

coney-catchers literally 'rabbit catchers'; but used proverbially in early modern England to mean cheaters or con artists

confederate ally (OED n. 1)

confederates conspirators

conference meeting, opportunity for conversation

conference conversation

confines region (the OED takes this to be the principal meaning up to 1670)

confirmation ratifying (of a legal document) (OED 2)

confiscated forfeited to the sovereign by way of penalty (OED, confiscate v, 1)

conflux flowing together

conformable compliant, adaptable, submissive, disposed

confound defeated, overthrown, silenced

confound defeat, ruin

confounded stunned, thrown into confusion (OED confound v, 4); can also mean ‘put to shame’ (OED confound v, 3), though this is generally used in ecclesiastical contexts

confounded dumbfounded, flabbergasted; so surprised and confused that a person loses for the moment any presence of mind, or discernment of what to do

confounded confused

confounded utterly confused

confute confound (in argument), disprove, refute

confute overcome

confuting proving wrong, confounding, putting to silence

congee ceremonial bow (usually as a leavetaking)

congee bow (OED v.)

conjectures medical opinions (but with the suggestion that they lack sufficient authority)

conjoin unite in marriage (OED v. 1c)

conjunction joining, as in marriage

conjurations swearing of oaths, sometimes to invoke spirits

conjure command, constrain

conjure cast spells; consult with spirits or devils

conjure magically enchant

conjure call upon or summon (an evil spirit) (OED v. 5a)

conjure constrain by putting under oath (OED v. 3)

conjure entreat (OED v. 4)

Conjured charmed, bewitched; ordered through supernatural means (punning on Sir Amphilus’ ‘conjurer’ (exorcist); [DM 2.1.speech313])

conjurer someone who conjures spirits or devils; a wizard or magician

conjurer exorcist

conned studied, learned

connive have a covert understanding with (a person); to take part or co-operate with (others) privily (OED 3b)

connive At shut one's eyes to a thing or person held in contempt; pretend to take no notice of

conscience-struck hit by your conscience

consideration in law, anything regarded as recompense for what one does or undertakes for another's benefit (OED 6)

considered thought of, recommended

considered respected, recommended

consistencies qualities, states, or facts of being consistent with component parts; elements in agreement or harmony (OED 4)

consort fellowship or company gathered together for a specific purpose (the term is often used of a group of musicians)

consort companion, queen

constitute compose, determine

constrain force, compel

constrained forced, compelled

construction speculations

construction the interpretation put upon conduct, action, facts, words, etc.; the way in which these are taken or viewed by onlookers; usually with qualification, as to put a good, bad, favourable, charitable (or other) construction upon (OED n. 8a)

construction arrangement of words (OED 5a); translation (OED 6); interpretation (OED 7)

construe interpret, decipher

construe a grammatical term meaning to analyse or trace the grammatical construction of a sentence, especially in the study of a classical language, adding a word for word translation (OED v. 3)

construed interpreted

constr’ing that is, construing: interpreting, putting a legal construction on his papers (OED construe v, 5 and 6)

consume use up, spend, waste

contagion disease, sickness, plague

contagious infectious

contemn despise, scorn, slight (OED 1)

content satisfaction, contentedness

contentings satisfactions, delights (OED contenting vbl. n, 1)

contentment satisfaction, contentedness; enjoyment, delight

continuance maintaining, prolonging (OED 1)

contract marriage contract, engagement

contracted formally betrothed, or engaged (in the early modern period, this contract was as binding as a marriage, especially if accompanied by the ritual of handfasting)

contrary hostile, unfavourable

contrition penitence, sorrow for fault

control challenge (OED v. 3.b.), hold in check, curb, restrain (OED v. 4.b.)

control take control of, seize hold of

control dominate (OED v. 4); hinder (OED v. 4b)

convenient appropriate, suitable (with sexual innuendo)

convenient appropriate, suitable

conveniently appropriately

convention (literally) an assembly or gathering of persons for some common object; a formal assembly met for deliberation on matters ecclesiastical, political, or social; (figuratively, as here) a theatre audience

conversion transformation in character (with a suggestion of religious conversion)

convertite convert

convertite one reformed, converted to an approved way of life

convey lead, carry, conduct, guide

conveyed carried off clandestinely; stolen away furtively

cony-catched literally caught like a rabbit, but the term means conned, tricked

cony-catching conning, deceiving, tricking

cony-caught literally caught like a rabbit, but cony-catching generally meant conning, defrauding

cook-maid female servant employed in cooking.

cooks' shops public eating houses

cool of a thing or action: characterized by or exhibiting calmness, composure, or a lack of passionate emotion (OED adj, 2c)

cooler vessel for cooling (OED 2a)

cope meet (OED, v.²)

cope manage, deal with, but also barter

coped met

copesmate comrade, partner (OED 2); accomplice in cheating (OED 3)

copy specimen of handwriting/penmanship for a pupil to copy

copy model, example, master-copy

corantoes newletters or newpapers (newspapers were banned between 1632-38, but other sources of information about current events - broadside ballads, criminal tales masquerading as true reports, plays - were not) (OED 2)

corantoes dances characterized by a running or gliding step (as distinguished from leaping) (OED)

cordial invigorating, hearty

cordial a medicine, food, or beverage which invigorates the heart and stimulates the circulation (OED n. 1)

Corinna The object of Ovid's amorous attentions in Elegies VIII, XIII and XVII of his love poetry, known as the Amores

cormorants large and voracious black sea-birds; hence, insatiably greedy persons (OED 1, 2)

corn-cutter person who cuts corns off feet; chiropodist

corps corpses: now-obsolete spelling which into the 18th century could indicate either singular or plural (OED corpse n, 2c)

corps corpse (OED n. 1)

correct rebuke, admonish; punish

correction rebuke, reprehension for faults of character or conduct (OED, 3)

correction corporal punishment (OED 4)

correspondency agreement (prearranged)

corse-bearers carriers of the sedan chair ('corse' meaning 'corpse' or living, rather than dead, body)

corsives = corrosive (obsolete seventeenth-century usage)

cost expenditure, outlay (OED n2. 1b)

costard applied humorously or derisively to the head (OED 2); literally an apple

couch a hogshead lie down to sleep (cant) (OED couch v1, 1e)

coulter iron blade fixed in front of a plough

council consultation, deliberation

counsel secret

counsel a legal advisor or counsellor, an attorney

counsel deliberation, consultation (OED n. 1a)

counsel advice, direction

counsel deliberate, consult (together)

counsel legal adviser, barrister (OED n. 8b)

counsel-keeper confidant (OED counsel n, 9)

counsellor-at-law one who gives legal advice to clients, barrister

counsels secrets (OED n. 5, especially 5d)

count consider

countenance face

countenance position, standing, dignity (OED n. 10)

countenance expression; emotion

countenance give sanction or credit to

countenances expressions, faces, emotions

countenancing favouring, sanctioning

countercheck check or arrest by counteraction (OED v. 2)

counterfeit impostor, dissembler (OED n. 2)

counterfeit forged (writing), imitated, false

counterfeit pretended, spurious, feigned, acted (OED adj. 2)

counterfeits impostors

counterfeits pretends, simulates (OED v. 4); passes herself off (OED v. 5)

countermands orders the opposite, reverses

counterpanes copies of legal deeds

counterscarp the outer wall or slope of the ditch, which supports the covered way; sometimes extended to include the covered way and glacis (OED 1)

counting-house building, room or office used for business (OED c)

countries counties; rural regions outside of London/Middlesex and Westminster; generally, neither court nor city

country countryside, including the idea of home town or county area, not necessarily a foreign nation

country sleep supposedly deep sleep, untroubled by the anxieties that disturb the slumbers of city-dwellers

couple copulate

coupler one who joins or links people (and things) together, with obvious pun on 'copulation'

courante a dance, using fluent, gliding footwork

course proceed in his habitual way, i.e. debauched and pleasure-loving

course term for attacks on the bear by the dogs in bear-baiting; also used of other hunting, e.g. with hares and deer (OED n. 27b and 7b)

course sexual bout, derived from a pun on the 'courses' involving animal baiting and hunting (see Williams)

course line (course) of action, procedure (but with the suggestion too of a planned series of actions or medical prescriptions to effect a cure)

course method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n. 22a)

course action

course programme of study (OED n. 23a)

course proceedings (OED course n, 22b)

course way of proceeding, action; also trick, way of gaining money illicitly

course hunt, chase, especially the pursuit of hares with greyhounds (the term may also refer to the hare itself or other prey being coursed or hunted)

coursed chased (as a hare would be by a greyhound)

Court (when capitalised) the royal court based in Westminster and Whitehall, surrounding the monarch; often contrasted with the City of London, a rival base of power, authority, and culture

court woo

court-carriage the kind of behaviour and deportment thought appropriate to the royal court

court-circumlocutions use of roundabout speech or excess of language as favoured at court

court-suit supplication or petition made to the monarch or prince in order to obtain a position or privilege which was in royal gift

courtesy sexual favour

courtesy graceful politeness or considerateness in dealings with others; polite and courtly behaviour

courtesy generosity, politeness, standing on ceremony

courtesy act of politeness or consideration

courtesy favour, good deed

courtesy considerateness in dealing with others (OED 1a)

courtier a wooer; also one of high social standing (in this instance both senses are relevant)

courtliest having the manners or breeding appropriate for the court (OED courtly a, 2a); refined, elegant

courtly in a polished or refined manner (as befitting the court)

courtly befitting a courtier, refined, well-mannered

courtship behaviour fitting a courtier, but also carries implications of the other meaning of courtship as wooing

courtship behaviour fitting a courtier

Cousin generally used in speaking to or of kin, whether nephew or actual cousin, or any other relationship by blood or marriage outside the immediate nuclear family

covenant a mutual agreement between two or more persons, a contract, a legal undertaking, pledge

covenant formally contract

covenant (n) a mutual agreement: (the) bargain

covenanted agreed legally

Covenanter subscriber or adherent of the Scottish Presbyterians' national covenant, signed 28 February 1638, for the defense of reformed religion and resistance to episcopacy

covent the early form of convent, regularly in common use down to the seventeenth century and surviving in some proper names, as in Covent Garden, London

cover person who covers up for

cover verb - to copulate with; usually of a stallion and mare (OED v. 1 6a)

covered OED dates the use of this word to refer to the matching of a bet (v, 7a) to the mid nineteenth century, but it is also used in the context of gaming in another 1630s play, James Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1635; published London, 1637), in which a servant describes Sir Thomas’s newly extravagant behaviour to Aretina:

The dice are notable devourers, Madam,
They make no more of pieces than of pebbles,
But thrust their heaps together to engender.
‘Two hundred more the caster!’ cries this gentleman,
’I am w’ ye.’ ‘I ha’ that to nothing, sir,’ the caster;
Again, ‘’Tis covered!’, and the table too,
With sums that frighted me (sig. H4r)

covered to spread a cloth or the like over the upper surface of (a table); especially in preparation for a meal, to lay the cloth; survives in 'cover charge' (OED v. 1d)

covered wearing a hat

covernants contracts

covert hiding-place or shelter; in a hunting reference, this means a thicket or a hole in which the hunted animal might hide (OED 2a)

covert-barne a corruption of covert-baron: the condition of being subject to a superior, usually applied to a married woman as under the command of her husband, her lord (OED covert a, 4, which gives several instances beside this of a humorous application of the word to a married man)

covertly secretly, privately

covet desire, wish for (OED v. 1)

covet desire, long for (what belongs to another)

covetise covetousness; excessive desire for the acquisition and possession of wealth; especially of possessing what belongs to another (OED 2)

covetous greedy, grasping, avaricious

covey family or party (figurative meaning) based on a brood of birds

cov’tousness covetousness: greed; desire to possess someone else’s belongings

coward (a.) cowardly

cowshards cow-dung

coxcomb perhaps, foolish head?

coxcomb Doughty refers both to the fool's cap and to the barnyard cock's crowing, when he puns on Old Seely's folly and the manservant Lawrence's power over the master, who 'overcrows' or raises his voice to intimidate the other men in the household.

coxcomb fool, from the hat in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by jesters (see the professional fool in Queen and Concubine)

coxcomb head

coxcomb fools

coxcomb head; fool

coxcomb cap in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by a professional fool (OED 1)

coxcomb conceited ass (the term is derived from the cap worn by professional fools, which was shaped like a cock's crest or comb, which came to be the natural substitute for the word "fool", the emblem representing the man)

coxcombs fools (from the hat in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by a professional fool)

coy shy, disdainful

coy shy, retiring, modest

coyness shy reserve or unwillingness

coz abbreviated form of 'cousin' used both for family members and in the wider sense

cozen cheat, defraud

cozen deceive, dupe, beguile, impose upon (OED 2)

cozenage fraud, duplicity

cozenages acts of deception, e.g. thieving and robbery.

cozened duped, cheated, imposed on

cozened beguiled, deceived

cozening cheating, defrauding

cozening cheating, fooling

crab common name of wild apple, Malus sylvestris

crabbed of a disagreeably forward or fractious nature

crack talk big, boast, brag (OED v. 6a)

crack split, break into pieces; the term also has secondary meanings associated with joking

crack [i]vulvae, cunt; [ii] rupture of chastity (Partridge,Shakespeare's Bawdy)

cracked damaged (OED v. 4; figurative)

craft There may be a punning use of the word here embracing both the sense of cunning and that of the tools of the pedlar-woman's trade (her box of wares).

craft cunning, ingenuity

crag neck (OED n2. 1 which describes this usage as regional, including Northumbria)

cramming stuffing the mouth with food; gorging

crank jolly, cheerful, pleasant, gamesome: 'We may say, as crank as a Cocke Sparrow' (Randle Cotgrave, A Dictionary of the French and English Tongues, 1611, in LEME); like 'frolic', this word has a sexual edginess, appropriate to wedding festivities

crash a brief bout of activity

crash colliding of bodies, i.e. sexual act

crave demand; entreat (but with authority or absolute right)

crave ask for; desire

crave ask, beg

cravened worn out, made spineless

craves desires, entreats

creation i.e. the way I was created by God

creation conferring of titles, ennobling

creature animals

creature one who owes his fortune and position to a patron; one who is actuated by the will of another, or is ready to do his or her bidding; one who is the instrument of another (OED 5)

creature human being; OED notes that it is often used in ‘admiration, approbation, affection, or tenderness’ (3b)

creature one ready to do another's bidding, puppet (through patronage or devotion) (OED 5)

credit financial credit: ‘trust or confidence in a buyer’s ability and intention to pay at some future time’ (OED n. 9)

credit reputation, personal honour

credit financial credit: ‘Trust or confidence in a buyer’s ability and intention to pay at some future time’ (OED n. 9); reputation

credit belief, trust

credulity belief, faith; naivety, readiness to believe

creed set of articles of belief (compare to OED n. 1: ‘A form of words setting forth authoritatively and concisely the general belief of the Christian Church, or those articles of belief which are regarded as essential’)

creep to move timidly or diffidently; to proceed humbly, abjectly, or servilely

crew 'crew' could be neutral, meaning a gathering or group, but here the pejorative meaning is clear: 'a number of persons classed together (by the speaker) from actual connexion or common characteristics; often with derogatory qualification or connotation; lot, set, gang, mob, herd' (OED n1. 4)

crib wickerwork basket in which food was stored (OED 7a, 6b)

cribbage card game involving 2 to 4 persons and full pack of 52 cards (OED), said by Aubrey to have been invented by Sir John Suckling

cried at proclaimed, advertised, offered for sale (OED cry v, 5a and 5b)

cried up extolled, praised

cringe cower; behave obsequiously or with mean submissiveness; show base or servile deference

criss-cross alphabet (because, on horn-books used to teach young children to read, the alphabet was customarily preceded by a cross representing Christ's cross)

critic censorious, carping, fault-finding (OED adj. 2)

critter creature (dialect)

crooked deformed

crop-sick with an upset stomach, often from over-eating

cross cross the path of

cross misfortune

cross oppose, debar from, deprive of

cross a vexation, a misfortune (OED n. 10b)

cross oppose, contradict

cross thwart, obstruct

cross encounter, meet aggressively

cross originally refers to a cross stamped on a coin and, by extension, the coin itself, and a coin generally (OED n. 20); compare Middleton, More Dissemblers Besides Women (King’s Men, c. 1614), in which Aurelia, disguised as a gypsy, says to the Governor, ‘Bless me with a silver cross, / And I will tell you all your loss’ (4.2.237-8)

cross thwart, oppose

cross (of events) against one's liking; unfavourable (OED adj. 4)

cross (n) trial of one’s patience, because it crosses (thwarts) one’s purposes or intentions

cross (v) thwart, forestall; contradict; afflict, go against

cross across (OED prep)

cross match a pair of marriages between members of two families

cross-blow counter-blow, indirect blow (OED)

crossed thwarted, opposed, obstructed

crossed frustrated, jinxed; (literally) run across (one's path)

crosses misfortunes, vexations

crossing thwarting, opposing, or contravening (OED vbl n, 8)

crotchets perverse fancies or peculiar notions (usually held in opposition to common opinion (OED n1. 9a)

crouch bow, bend humbly, stoop

crouse in high spirits (OED 3)

crowd a musical instrument, a fiddle

crown a coin (once gold, subsequently silver) to the value of five shillings; probably with sexual innuendo, as the metaphorical horns of the cuckold are often referred to as a ‘crown’ (see Williams, 1: 337)

crown top of the head

crown (v) bless, amplify, give honour to (OED v1, 11); bring to a happy conclusion (OED crown v1, 10)

crown a coin (once gold, subsequently silver) to the value of five shillings (its spending power in terms of the currency of 2009 would be £21.45p)

crupper-bone tail-bone, coccyx (crupper: buttocks); The Queen and Concubine is OED’s only citation, but it also appears in John Hilton, Catch That Catch Can, or, A Choice Collection of Catches, Rounds and Canons for 3 or 4 Voices (London, 1652), p. 43, and in Nicholas Culpepper's translation of Jean Riolan's A Sure Guide, or, The Best and Nearest way to Physic and Chirurgery (London, 1657), pp. 19, 77, 250-1, 276, 285

crupper-cramped seized with cramps in the posterior from too confined or narrow a space

crust crusty (i.e. bad-tempered, harsh) person (OED n. 12)

cry entreat, beg

cry shout indignantly (about), proclaim, pronounce

cry pack of hounds (OED n. 13a)

cry mercy beg her pardon

cry mercy beg pardon (sarcastically)

cry mercy beg pardon

crying shouting, clamorous (OED ppl. a, 1); wailing, weeping (OED ppl. a, 2); notorious (OED ppl. a, 3)

crystal bright, clear

cuckold man with an unfaithful wife, traditionally thought of as having horns on his head

cuckold (v) for a woman to commit adultery and so reduce one's partner to the status of being a cuckold

cuckolded made into a cuckold [GLOSS gg1331]

cuckoldry adultery: the act of making a man a cuckold

cuckolds men whose wives have been unfaithful to them

cuckoo-pintles penises (of men or animals)

cuckquean to make a woman into female cuckold (that is a wife whose husband commits adultery)

cuckquean a female cuckold, that is a wife whose husband commits adultery

cuckqueans (v) for a man to commit adultery and make a cuckquean (female cuckold) of his wife

cud-chewing refers literally to the food that a ruminating animal (such as a cow) brings back into its mouth from its first stomach and chews (OED cud n, 1a); might also refer figuratively to meditating or ruminating

cudgel club, or short thick stick used as a weapon

cudsho an oath, where 'cuds' is a 'deformation of the word God's, in oaths and exclamations' (OED) . Not entirely convincing is Spove's gloss: 'by God's toe'.

cuff blow

cuff-devil one who cuffs or beats the devil (not in OED)

culled chosen, selected, picked (OED cull v1, 1)

cullion a testicle, hence, figuratively, a rascal

cullis a strong meat broth

Cupid blind boy-god of love or infatuation, son of Venus

cupping-glass a glass used in cupping the body, that is, drawing blood by scarifying the skin and applying the glass, the air in which is rarefied by heat (OED n. 1)

curate In the Church of England, a clergyman engaged for a stipend or salary, and licensed by the bishop of the diocese to perform ministerial duties in the parish as a deputy or assistant of the incumbent (OED n. 2a)

curb restrain, rein in

cures medical treatments (OED n1. 5)

curious exquisitely prepared, dainty, delicately flavoured (OED 7b)

curious particular, fastidious, choosy (OED adj. 2)

curious unusual, distinctive, intricate

curious skilful, clever, inventive (OED curious a, 4)

curiously excellently

curls locks of hair of a spiral or convolute form either used as a hair-extension or as a keepsake if made of the lover's own hair; wreaths of jewels on wires to adorn the hair

curried rubbed down with a comb (as in a horse) (OED ppl a, 1)

currier One whose trade is the dressing and colouring of leather after it is tanned (OED n1. 1)

curry-comb metal comb used for currying or grooming horses

curry-comb time the time at which horses are groomed for the day with an iron comb

currying action of rubbing down or grooming (a horse) with a curry-comb

curs cowards, ill-bred or unmannerly people (OED 1b)

cursed damnable, heinously evil (OED adj. 2)

cursen Christian (dialect)

curtain the plain wall of a fortified place; the part of the wall which connects two bastions, towers, gates, or similar structures (OED 4a)

curtal horse with a docked or cropped tail; but also therefore used figuratively of someone whose ears had been cropped as a form of official punishment

custard 'A kind of open pie containing pieces of meat or fruit covered with a preparation of broth or milk, thickened with eggs, sweetened, and seasoned with spices' (OED).

custom habitual manner

customed customary, habitual

cut vagina, genitals, 'cunt' (see Williams, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, p. 358)

cut fashion (OED n2. III 17a)

cut capers to dance extravagantly

cut off put to death

cut work openwork embroidery

cutpurse one` who steals by the method of cutting purses, a common practice when men wore their purses at their girdles'; hence, a pickpocket, thief, robber (OED)

cutpurses A term often generally used for thieves in the period, but specifically it denotes robbers who slit open purses attached to belts to steal the contents therein, or cut through the laces by which purses were so hanging to run off with purse and contents.

Cythaeron mountain range in Greece, between Attica and Boetia, in classical Greek mythology, the scene of the dismemberment of Pentheus by the crazed Bacchantes, worshippers of Dionysus