[Vocabulary] shakespear

[julia123]

i would like to know the meaning of this sentence "my conqupine is my cathersis".it was written in antonio and cleopatra by william shakespear and i've searched many dictionaries but never found a meaning so i would like your help .thank you

 

[5jj]

i would like to know the meaning of this sentence "my conqupine is my cathersis".it was written in antonio and cleopatra by william shakespear and i've searched many dictionaries but never found a meaning so i would like your help .thank you

Welcome to the forum, julia.

Please check the spelling of the words in your quotation and of the play itself.


Note that all the letters I have underlined in your post need to be capital letters, and that we leave a space after punctuation marks, not before them.

 

[julia123]

Thanks for your replay and your note i will keep it in mind.
About the sentence there is no spelling mistakes I've made sure of it.

 

[Barb_D]

Welcome to the forum, Julia.
In fact, there are at least four spelling mistakes. Do you want to check again?

(The word is "reply" not "replay.")

By the way, I've tried to find that quote in Antony & Cleopatra, without luck. Which scene is it in?

 

[Tdol]

The nearest I can think of is "my concubine is my catharsis", but I can't find that online and all of Shakespeare's plays are available.

 

[5jj]

I found "I am her concubine, she is my porcupine" in a rap. I wouldn't have thought that was relevant, except for julia's spelling of conqupine.

Julia, those words are not in 'Antony and Cleopatra'.

 

[Barb_D]

Which was written by Shakespeare.

 

[Grumpy]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't find it. That was 20 minutes of my life up the spout yesterday evening....

 

[Gillnetter]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't find it. That was 20 minutes of my life up the spout yesterday evening....

Ah...but what a chance you had to revisit some literature. By the way, why did it go "up the spout"? In the US we say "down the spout", as in water that is wasted.

 

[Grumpy]

Ah...but what a chance you had to revisit some literature. By the way, why did it go "up the spout"? In the US we say "down the spout", as in water that is wasted.

That's an interesting question. I don't know whether that's a general BrE or a personal inclination. I suppose I was influenced by the following ditty, learned at my father's knee. I think he learned it in the Army....

There was a bleedin' spider
Went up a bleedin' spout.
Down came a shower
And washed the bleeder out.

Up came an 'awk
Who spied him in his snuggery.
He swooped down on the little chap
And tore him all to ...pieces.

I believe there is a bowdlerised version involving an "Incy-Wincy Spider", without the sad ending. Google it, and you will see/hear that it also goes UP the water spout.

 

[Tdol]

I think BrE spouts generally go up.;-)

 

[emsr2d2]

"Up the spout" for this BrE speaker too. This is the nursery rhyme I learnt as a child:

Incy Wincy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
So Incy Wincy spider climbed up the spout again.

If you want to hear the tune, click here for an animated and subtitled little video.

I realise that saying that the idiom about something going up the spout is not the same as actually climbing "up a spout". However, the phrase for something going wrong is still "Well, that's that gone up the spout" or similar in BrE.

 

[SoothingDave]

Ah...but what a chance you had to revisit some literature. By the way, why did it go "up the spout"? In the US we say "down the spout", as in water that is wasted.

I'd say "down the drain" to mean wasted.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd say "down the drain" to mean wasted.

So would I.

Down the drain - wasted
Up the spout - gone wrong

 

[bhaisahab]

I think it has its origins in firearms lore.