alderliefest: most dear

all amort: dejected, miserable

apple squire: pimp, a harlot’s servant

argosy: large merchant ship

arquebus, arquebusier, hagbut, hackbut: matchlock weapon, muzzle-loading. The trigger brings the end of a slow-burning match into contact with the gunpowder that discharges the ball.

arras: tapestry or hanging of rich fabric with woven figures and scenes

attaint: to stain, disgrace, condemn; lose standing and property

auto-da-fé: execution of sentence of the Spanish Inquisition, often including a parade and sometimes including burnings of heretics

backed: dead

ban-dog: ferocious dog kept tied up

bark: small ship with standard rigging and build

bastardly gullion: bastard’s bastard

baudekin: brocade of gold thread and silk (the richest cloth)

beast: Antichrist (Puritan view of Pope and Roman Catholic priests)

bees, a head full of: full of crazy notions

bellman: watchman, town crier

belly-cheat: slang term for an apron

Bess o’Bedlam: madwoman

black book: prison register

blackjack: leather beer jug sealed with tar on the outside

bluecoat: serving-man

bodies (a pair of): bodice

brabble: quarrel, wrangle, noisy altercation

breechclout: cloth worn by American Indians about their waist

bridale: wedding feast

broadcloth: fine, wide, black plaincloth (such as a Puritan might wear)

bruit: to spread by rumor

buckler: small round shield

buttery: larder, service room for ale and general food stores

caliver: light musket fired without a rest

callet: whore or lewd woman

canary: light, sweet wine from the Canary Islands

careen: to turn a ship on its side to scrape its hull of weed and barnacles, and caulk

carrack: large merchant ship that could be converted into a warship. Three-master, square-rigged with high castles, fore and stern.

catchpole: arresting officer, a sheriff’s sergeant

churl: ill-bred, surly, base fellow; farmworker

coif: a lawn or silk cap

coining: forging money

coney, cony: a dupe

copesmate: comrade

coter: author, person responsible for a work

couch a hogshead: to lie down to sleep

cousin, cozen, cozenage, cozener: to dupe or cheat

cresset: iron basket (usually on top of a pole) in which pitch or oil is burned for light

crossbiter, crossbiting: swindler, swindling

culverin: long-range cannon with bore of about five inches, firing shot of seventeen to twenty pounds

cunning man: a sort of local detective; someone possessing keen intelligence or magical knowledge

daub: mud for building

dell: young vagrant girl, a wench

doddypoll: fool

dogswain: sort of makeshift covers or bedding

doublet: close-fitting jacket, with or without sleeves

doxy: loose woman, a vagrant’s wench

drab: low, sluttish woman, a whore

drink-penny: tip, gratuity

drolleries: comic entertainment of a fantastical kind

ducat: Spanish gold coin, eighth of an ounce. A silver ducat was worth five shillings six pence; a gold ducat, seven shillings.

electuary: medicine, a medicinal conserve or paste mixed with honey or syrup

Essex’s cheap knights: those he knighted after failed sorties such as Azores

factor: collecting agent

fain: to be inclined, compelled

fairy, faerie: spirit, often evil

fall in: to copulate

figure caster: astrologer

Flota: Spanish treasure fleet from the New World

flowers: menstruation, period

foreign officer: parish official charged with seeking out vagrants

foreparts: stomachers, ornamental clothing for women

frantic: insane

freebooter: plunderer

French hood: fashionable hood for women

French marbles, pox, crown, welcome: venereal disease

frenzy: madness

gage of booze: quart of ale

gamekeeper: keeper of whores

garnish: bribe, especially in prison

gentry cove: upper-class man

gentry mort: upper-class woman

gibbet: gallows, especially one where the dead criminal was left to rot

glaziers: eyes

gong: a privy or its contents

gong farmers, night-soil men: sewage collectors

gossip: friend, especially female, perhaps godparent

greased priest: Catholic priest (anointed with oil)

groat: coin worth four pence

guarded: trimmed with lace or braid, as in “guarded coat”

hair o’ the same wolf: hair of the dog—a hangover cure

halberd, halberdier: long-staffed weapon with a point, axe on one side and billhook on the other

halek: astrologer and physician Simon Forman’s secret word for copulation

hand-fasting: betrothal, solemnizing of wedding vows

headborough: parish officer, petty constable

headsman: executioner (with axe)

hedge-priest: itinerant preacher

hewing and punching: slashing the neck followed by a stab in the belly

hogshead: large cask containing 52.5 gallons

hole: worst prison cell

hornbook: board with letters or prayers with thin, transparent horn covering

hospitaller: man in charge of admissions and discharges from hospital and of seeing that funds and supplies were accounted for and that valuables brought in by patients were safeguarded

instrument: male member

intelligencer: spy

intrigant: one who intrigues

jakes, jaques, house of easement: privy, toilet

jerkin: close-fitting jacket, often leather

jet: to strut about, swagger

jetty: protruding story of house

ken: house, especially one where villains lodge or meet

kennel: surface street gutter

kern: Irish warrior, foot soldier, one of the poorer class of the Irish

kersey: worsted cloth, coarse and narrow, woven from long wool and usually ribbed

kine: cattle

king pest: the plague

kirtle: outer petticoat or skirt; the garment under the mantle

knell: bell-tolling to mark a death

languishing sickness: depression or any illness where energy is lost

lawn: a fine linen, resembling cambric

lewd: immoral and worthless

light-heeled: wanton, loose

link: torch made of tow and pitch (or wax and tallow), carried in the street at night

linsey-woolsey: thin flax-wool material, usually of inferior quality, or a dress made of the material

maling cord: rope for tying packs onto horses

malkin: a kitchen slut or an effeminate man

manchet: high-quality wheaten bread flour or a small round loaf of the same

mark: monetary unit—two-thirds of a pound

maund: to beg

maunderer: professional beggar

meet: suitable, appropriate

mercer: dealer in textiles, especially expensive ones

miasma: foul vapors, unwholesome air carrying disease

mistress of the game: prostitute, brothel madam

mittimus: letter from a justice of the peace or other authorized official committing a person into custody (an arrest warrant)

mixen, midden: dunghill

mooncalf: born fool, simpleton

mortbell: funeral bell

motion-man: puppet-master

murrain: plague

murrey: dark, blood red

musket: long-barreled weapon, fired using a stand and capable of penetrating armor. A heavier version of the arquebus, using same matchlock principle.

Mussulman: Muslim

netherstocks: stockings, tights, hose

occupy: euphemism for copulate

ordinary: eating house, pub

ostler: person who attends horses at an inn

pack-saddle: saddle for carrying goods

palfrey: lady’s horse

palliasse: straw mattress

pantoufles: slippers

petronel: heavy pistol carried in the belt, used especially by cavalry

philtrous powder, philter: love potion or charm

pike, pikestaff: long-handled weapon with a sharp point

pikeman: man who carries a pike

pizzle: male member

platter: flat dish of pewter or wood

poniard: small, slim dagger

postern: back door or gate; small private door—distinct from the main entrance

powder: gunpowder

powder corns: grains of gunpowder

prigger of prancers: horse thief

projector: agent provocateur

puckrel: witch’s familiar spirit; imp

pursuivant: state officer with power to enforce warrants

pynner: coif with two long strips on either side for fastening (worn by women of quality)

quean: slut, whore

quent merchant: pimp

reiver: plunderer from across the border. From reave—to rob (archaic Scots).

revenger: one who takes vengeance

rich-guarded: richly embroidered

roarer: one who swears a lot; a loudmouth, bully, roisterer

ruffler: sturdy beggar or rogue claiming to be an ex-soldier

runagate: vagabond, fugitive, renegade

rutter: navigators’ chart showing prominent coastal features; or a swindler

scarlet whore of Babylon: Roman Catholic church (as seen by Protestants)

sconce: (1) small fortress; (2) lantern or candlestick with screen to keep from wind; (3) a bracket candlestick fixed to the wall

scryer: crystal-ball gazer, fortune-teller

scutes: small fishing boats

searcher, Searcher of the Dead: pathologist (person appointed to view dead bodies and to make report upon the cause of death)

seminary: Catholic priest from one of the European seminaries

smock: (1) shift or under-petticoat; (2) wench, derogatory term for a woman

snaphaunce: early flintlock weapon from Germany

snout-fair: handsome

solar: upper room with large window to let in sunlight

sotweed: tobacco—worth its weight in silver, says the seventeenth-century historian John Aubrey

souse: pickled pork, especially ears and trotters

sovereign: gold coin of varying values up to thirty shillings

stairs, water-stairs: landing stage on river

stayed him: stopped him in his tracks

stew: brothel

Stilliard, Steelyard: London premises of the Hanseatic merchants, from German Stalhof (warehouse)

stomacher: ornamental covering for chest or abdomen, worn under the lattice of a bodice (also called foreparts)

stones: testicles

stow you: shut up

stranger: foreigner, immigrant

strumpet: loose woman

subtlety: exquisite, sugary dish, often ornamental

sumpter: packhorse or mule; beast of burden

swain: young man; a lover or suitor, particularly rustic

swive: to copulate

tables: backgammon

tallow: cheap, smelly, smoky candle wax made of sheep fat

tilt-boat: large rowing boat with an awning (tilt)—a river taxi

tipstaff: sheriff’s officer; constable or bailiff

Tom o’Bedlam: madman or ex-inmate of Bedlam

tow: strands of flax, hemp, or jute used in torches

toy: (1) trifle or small object; (2) whim

trencher: large, flat plate of wood

trillibub: bag of guts, entrails

trug: slut, whore

trugging-house: brothel

turnkey: jailer, gaoler

unspotted lamb of the Lord: a Puritan

vaulting-house: brothel

verinshe: superior tobacco from Venezuela

viol: stringed instrument of five to seven strings, played with a bow

wainscot: paneling

wanton: lascivious, immoral

wattle, wattlework: twigs and poles for building; wickerwork. Used with daub.

wheel-lock: matchless gun. A serrated steel wheel is spun against a plate—the resultant sparks ignite the gunpowder.

wherry: light rowing boat used to ferry goods and people on rivers; a large river barge

whittawer: a glover, one who works with white leather

Winchester geese: prostitutes (Southwark, where many whores plied their trade, was largely owned by the Bishops of Winchester.)

wink at: to overlook an indiscretion

wit: cleverness

yard: male member