paxwax has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 1 list, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
paxwax has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 1 list, listed 0 words, written 1 comment, added 0 tags, and loved 0 words.
Comments by paxwax
paxwax commented on the word quaint
Can be a noun too. as in Shakespeare's "Midsummer-Night's Dream" Act 2 Sc. 2, where Titania says to Oberon:"The nine-men's morris is filled up with mud; and the quaint mazes in the wanton green...". In some editions a glossary explains that a 'quaint-maze' (sic) is a unicursal running maze in the shape of figure of eight. But there is no doubt that Shakespeare was contrasing here phallic and muliebrile elements via the Chaucerian faux-archaic 'queynte'. i.e. quaint-mazes were medieval mazes shaped like a queynte, and are the long spiral-shaped ones depicted on ancient coins, having no nodes.
October 1, 2008