[PW] Meaning of Shakespeare quote: Puck: "Now to scrapetheserpent's tongue"

[Dan Clinton]

If we spirits have offended.....

Puck is addressing that audience which, as I have heard, could be
rather bluntly honest in it's likes and dislikes. The hissing would
seem to be the audience's...if the actors have offended....

On 4/22/08, Sylvia Milne <sylviamilne at btinternet.com> wrote:
> The Oxford English Dictionary has:
> "In proverbial and allusive phr. referring to the serpent's guile,
> treachery, or malignancy. the serpent's tongue  vulgarly supposed to be the
> 'sting'; allusively used for 'venomous' speech; also (nonce-use) for
> hissing."
> It quotes Puck's speech as an example:
> 1590 Shakes.  Mids. N. V. i. 440 Now to scape the Serpents tongue, We will
> make amends ere long.
>
> Sylvia Milne
>
> Please visit me at
> http://www.sylviamilne.co.uk
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sharon Custer" <sharon.custer at eccles-lesher.org>
> To: <list at project-wombat.org>; <mutts at cox.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 5:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [PW] Meaning of Shakespeare quote: Puck: "Now to
> scrapetheserpent's tongue"
>
>
> > The actual section of the monologue is:
> > Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
> >             We will make amends ere long;
> >             Else the Puck a liar call.
> >             So, good night unto you all.
> >             Give me your hands, if we be friends,
> >             And Robin shall restore amends.
> >
> > I had always thought that "escape the serpent's tongue" meant to escape
> > lies, however my annotated Shakespeare says that "serpent's tongue" means
> > hissing, which never made any sense to me.
> >
> > Sharon Custer
> > Eccles-Lesher Memorial Library
> > 673 Main Street
> > PO Box 359
> > Rimersburg, PA  16248
> > (814) 473-3800
> > FAX: (814) 473-8200
> > Sharon.Custer at eccles-lesher.org
> >
> > "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> > safety
> > deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
> > [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
> > Dianne
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:26 PM
> > To: list at project-wombat.org
> > Subject: [PW] Meaning of Shakespeare quote: Puck: "Now to scrape
> > theserpent's tongue"
> >
> >
> > A middle school teacher would like to know this one:
> >
> > "In Puck's final monolog from Midsummer Night's Dream:
> > What is the meaning of the phrase  'Now to scrape the serpent's tongue'?"
> >
> >  I'm not having much luck trying to decipher it.
> >
> >  Many thanks.
> >
> >  Dianne Parham
> >  San Diego State University
> >  Liberal Studies Program
> >  (retired from San Diegp Public Library)
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > list at project-wombat.org
> > http://www.project-wombat.org/
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
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>


-- 
Dan Clinton
US Census Bureau Library
Washington, DC

"A well-read fool is the most pestilent of blockheads." --Leszczynski Stanislaus