NP Misc.. ON SHAKESPEARE. Re: IV: Coyly, he asks: Did this come up about Coy during our read?

[Mark Kohut]

Wonderful fulness David sends; wonderful stuff...I hope he did not have to type 
it all!

Here's the misc. Decades ago, in my twenties, when I was working very hard and 
otherwise caught up in life
I had little time to really read....so I decided let it be some Shakespeare, so 
I read in fits and starts, even
for a time, it took a long time. memorizing (many of) the sonnets......

I read the usual footnotes to 'get' the Elizabethan words and 
allusions.........................

Now, rereading some Shakespeare, including those sonnets, there has of course 
been half-a-lifetime
of Shakespearean scholarship......most of which I am not going after BUT here is 
how some "scholarship'
comes at one that seems so FINE.............................................

Seems that the Arden editors have sourced about every word .......and for THE 
SONNETS say, 

new hidden meanings are not found [unlike TRP, sometimes], and the sonnets are 
not hard to get on the surface BUT.............................

They show how Shakespeare's language was so connected to resonant--what Empson 
called 

'ambiguous''--internal meanings. When Shake could have chosen one word, the one 
he chose, when sourced,
usually shimmered with overtones and undertones of meaning relating to other 
words or Shake's metaphors
......................and within his own other work....

Amazing. 



----- Original Message ----
From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
To: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, August 10, 2010 11:35:48 AM
Subject: RE: IV: Coyly, he asks: Did this come up about Coy during our read?


Here's the full listing of the online OED's definitions with the etymologies in 
brackets and a note from me regarding the etymology of verb 1, which is what 
Mark K. just suggested as a fourth possibility:

Noun 1:
[a. Du. kooi, formerly côye, in same sense, a parallel form to MDu. couwe = MHG. 
kouwe, köuwe:WGer. cawia, cauwia, a. L. cavea hollow, enclosure, CAGE.] 

1. A place constructed for entrapping ducks or other wild-fowl; a DECOY. 
2. A lobster-trap. dial. 
3. = COY-DUCK. Also fig. 
4. attrib. and Comb., as coy-bird, -dog, -house, -man, -pool. Also COY-DUCK. 

Noun 2 (obs):
[Seems to go with COY v.2: but may be from COY v.1] 
Encouragement of an animal by clapping the hands or the like. 

Noun 3 (obs):
[a. F. coy ‘a sinke’, or as fosse coye ‘a priuie, jakes, house of office’, 
Cotgr. (lit. ‘quiet or retired ditch’.)] 

? A sink. 

Adj:
[a. F. coi (fem. coite) earlier quei = Pr. quetz:L. *qutus, from quitus at rest, 
still, quiet.] 

1. Quiet, still. Chiefly in to bear, hold, keep (oneself) coy. Obs. 
1b. of things. Obs. 
1c. Cf. a quiet hint. 
2. Not demonstrative; shyly reserved or retiring.    a. Of a person. Displaying 
modest backwardness or shyness (sometimes with emphasis on the displaying); not 
responding readily to familiar advances; now esp. of a girl or young woman. 

2b. of actions, behaviour, looks, etc. 
2c. of animals; and fig. 
2d. transf. Of a place or thing: Withdrawn from view or access, inaccessible, 
secluded. 

2e. Const. of or inf.: Reserved, backward. 
2f. Unwilling to commit oneself (about a matter); archly reticent or evasive. 
3. Of distant or disdainful demeanour. Also quasi-adv. Obs. 
4. to make it coy: to affect reserve, shyness, or disdain. Obs. 
5. Lascivious. (? an error; but cf. COY v.1 3.) 

Verb 1:
[f. COY a.: or perh. originally an aphetic form of acoy, ACCOY, OF. acoier vb.] 
1. trans. To render quiet; to calm, appease. 
2. To stroke or touch soothingly, pat, caress. 
3a. To blandish, coax, court, gain over by caresses or coaxing. Obs. 
3b. To coax, entice, allure into, from, etc. Obs. (Here, app. associated with 
COY n.1, DECOY v.) 

3c. intr. to coy with: to coax, blandish. 
4a. intr. To act or behave coyly; to affect shyness or reserve. Chiefly in to 
coy it. arch. 

4b. To disdain. Obs. rare. 
5. fig. To withdraw itself, recede into the background. 
6. trans. To disguise or slight in a demure manner. rare. 
Hence coying vbl. n.1, fondling, coaxing, blandishing. 

Note from Dave Payne regarding verb 1: OED for accoy says: [a. OFr. acoie-r, 
acoye-r to calm, appease, f. à to + coi quiet, calm:L. quit-um QUIET.] To still, 
calm, quiet, or appease; hence, to soothe or coax (the alarmed or shy), to tame, 
silence, or daunt (the forward or bold).

Verb 2:
[See COY n.2] 
To instigate or stir up to action. Hence coying vbl. n.2