Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village: Hugo–Constance

by Laura Amy Schlitz
Through vivid verse monologues, Laura Amy Schlitz brings the diverse inhabitants of a medieval English village to life.

Here are links to our lists for the collection: Hugo–Constance, Mogg–Edgar, Isobel–Pask, Piers–Giles
30 words 850 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tutor
    a person who gives private instruction
    The Feast of All Souls, I ran from my tutor—Latin and grammar—no wonder!
  2. scimitar
    a curved saber used in Eastern countries
    The snort of the boar, its foul mouth foaming, its tusks like scimitars—those tusks can slice a man, groin to gorge—but that’s not the worst: the man that dies from the wound of a boar loses his soul, and burns in hell.
  3. fatigue
    temporary loss of strength and energy from hard work
    Two relays of hounds, squealing most sore—the third was faint with fatigue.
  4. rank
    very offensive in smell or taste
    I could smell my sweat, rank with fear, and then—it was like my dream—the underbrush moved, and the sticks shattered.
  5. bristle
    react in an offended or angry manner
    I saw it—bristling, dark as the devil, huge as a horse—and my bowels turned to water.
  6. lunge
    make a thrusting forward movement
    It charged—my uncle lunged and I behind him—thrust!—felt the spear pierce.
  7. kindle
    cause to start burning
    Right there in the wood, we kindled a fire and butchered the boar.
  8. gleaming
    bright with a steady but subdued shining
    The kidneys were mine, gleaming with fat.
  9. restless
    lacking physical or mental ease
    Nine days it’s been since the Maying, and I am restless yet.
  10. likely
    having a good chance of being the case or of coming about
    Mother says I’ll likely not marry at all.
  11. gaze
    look at with fixed eyes
    Leading his horse and the horse limping, head down, head down, as fine a horse as I’ve ever seen—a fair gray palfrey, a wondrous horse—but I was gazing at the boy.
  12. grievous
    causing or marked by grief or anguish
    I ran my hand down the lame leg, picked up the hoof, and saw: a stone, caught between hoof and shoe—a grievous thing.
  13. anvil
    a heavy block on which hot metals are shaped by hammering
    Thinking that, I bent my bead, and saw, lying on the anvil, a miracle: that sprig of hawthorn—from his cloak, on the anvil.
  14. harvest
    the yield from plants in a single growing season
    There was so much walking between the fields, and the strips of land were so small, our harvest wasn’t worth a rotten apple.
  15. fertile
    marked by great fruitfulness
    This made sense in many ways: the labor of working a field that required a lot of plowing was shared, as was the harvest from a fertile field.
  16. fleece
    the outer coat of an animal, especially sheep and yaks
    All my life, I’ve lived with sheep, drunk their milk, eaten their meat, washed their fleece, carded their wool.
  17. restore
    return to life; get or give new life or energy
    So all that day and all that night, I stayed by Jill and sang: “God restore thee, thou heavenly sheep, hark to my music and heal in thy sleep.”
  18. forsake
    leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
    I sang it over and over and the stars came out—“Do not forsake me, my sister, my sheep, slumber ye gently and heal in thy sleep.”
  19. hoarse
    deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness
    I sang until my voice was hoarse, and I was shivering so hard, I couldn’t go on.
  20. vanquish
    defeat in a competition, race, or conflict
    When first you see a sick man, feel his brow and say, “You should have called me before now! If given time, I vanquish all complaints, but as it is, we’ll have to ask the saints."
  21. venison
    meat from a deer used as food
    Make sure you pray, and that your heart is quiet, and think of ways to simplify your diet—that trencher full of venison I see is much too rich!
  22. recover
    get over an illness or shock
    If he recovers, it was all your skill that brought him back to life.
  23. conceal
    prevent from being seen or discovered
    When I come back, I will have no need of a heavy cloak to conceal me.
  24. seize
    take hold of; grab
    He sought to seize her against her will but her love of God inspired her.
  25. smite
    inflict a heavy blow on, with the hand, a tool, or a weapon
    And when she refused him, full of dread, he took up his sword, and smote off her head—but there was the miracle!
  26. scorn
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    But though she recovered, the magical spring comes forth clear and clean to this selfsame day, and so, though my journey be long and hard,
    I will kneel by the shrine of the well and pray, for a hunchback’s life is a life of scorn.
  27. martyr
    one who voluntarily suffers death
    During the Middle Ages, thousands of pilgrims traveled to pray in the presence of a saint’s body, or close to the spot where a saint had been
    martyred.
  28. remote
    located far away spatially
    During the Middle Ages, the journey from England to this remote site was a long and difficult one, but that didn’t stop people from going.
  29. atone
    make amends for
    Medieval travelers were a hardy bunch, and sometimes walked hundreds of miles in order to atone for a sin or pray for a miracle.
  30. relic
    an antiquity that has survived from the distant past
    They were convinced that water from a shrine or relics from a saint could cure disease—and it may well be that these “faith cures” were as reliable as the hodgepodge of astrology and folk medicine practiced by medieval doctors.
Created on Thu Feb 06 20:12:09 EST 2014 (updated Thu Aug 16 14:26:23 EDT 2018)

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