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Pervinca Took · 04-23-2019, 10:15 AM

It is a word I first learned from Shakespeare, but from 'Hamlet' :-

'Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.'

(Or something very similar to that).

The bilboes were apparently fetters in the form of an iron bar that both feet were shackled to. Hamlet is referring to the mutineers of the ship he is on, lying below deck in irons.

I meant literally 'in bonds.' Not like barrels before their release.

And looking it up confirmed that bilboes only exist in the plural form.

There is a single noun bilbo, but I think it means a sword.

04-23-2019, 10:15 AM	#5145
Pervinca Took Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: The Treetops, C/O Great Smials Posts: 5,035	It is a word I first learned from Shakespeare, but from 'Hamlet' :- 'Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.' (Or something very similar to that). The bilboes were apparently fetters in the form of an iron bar that both feet were shackled to. Hamlet is referring to the mutineers of the ship he is on, lying below deck in irons. I meant literally 'in bonds.' Not like barrels before their release. And looking it up confirmed that bilboes only exist in the plural form. There is a single noun bilbo, but I think it means a sword. __________________ "Sit by the firelight's glow; tell us an old tale we know. Tell of adventures strange and rare; never to change, ever to share! Stories we tell will cast their spell, now and for always." Last edited by Pervinca Took; 04-23-2019 at 10:34 AM.