Dear Ed, I feel sure that 'ways be foul' means that the roads (such as they were in those days)were hard to travel on due to the weather. So 'blood is nipp'd' is, I think, a straightforward reference to the cold. 'Roasted crabs' are crab apples, not the crustaceans! This is all straightforward word painting rather than the poetry of complex multiple meanings that you get elsewhere in Shakespeare.
Best wishes, Denys Quoting Ed Durbrow <[email protected]>: > I've set the following text for lute and voice and am still revising. > I am wondering about line 23. What do you think it means? Just simply > cold, as in 'a nip in the air'? or does 'blood' have something to do > with 'foul'? I don't get 'ways be foul'. I guess tu-whit is > onomatopoeia and not 'to wit' meaning that is to know" but I am not > an ornithologist. > > Winter > > 19 When icicles hang by the wall, > 20 And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, > 21And Tom bears logs into the hall, > 22 And milk comes frozen home in pail, > 23When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul, > 24Then nightly sings the staring-owl, > 25 Tu-who; > 26Tu-whit, tu-who--a merry note, > 27While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. > > 28 When all aloud the wind doth blow, > 29 And coughing drowns the parson's saw, > 30And birds sit brooding in the snow, > 31 And Marian's nose looks red and raw, > 32When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, > 33Then nightly sings the staring owl, > 34 Tu-who; > 35Tu-whit, tu-who--a merry note, > 36While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. > Notes > 18] nail: blow one's nails, so as to keep one's hands warm. > "saw"speech > 27] keel: cool the pot by stirring, straining, etc. > 32] crabs: crab-apples. > > > Original text: William Shakespeare, Loves Labours Lost (1598); facs. > edn. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957). PR 2750 B22 1957 Victoria > College Library > First publication date: 1598 > Composition date: 1594 - 1595 > Rhyme: ababccdee > > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > [email protected] > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > > > > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ---------------------------------------------- This mail sent through http://www.ukonline.net
