Weeds so loathly

[tuppera shiva]

Refer Act 4 Scene I of The Tempest lines 13 to 23 PROSPERO’S dialog.
Then as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter. But
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be ministered,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both. Therefore take heed,
AS hymen’s lamps shall light you.
[2] Weeds so loathly: Read these words carefully. Please note that Shakespeare is using plural form in case of first word i.e. WEEDS. The meaning of the singular word WEED is “wild herb growing where it is unwanted”, therefore the strewing of the nuptial’s i.e. first night’s bed with weed is ruled out. But if we take the meaning of the word when used as plural i.e. WEEDS [refer page 1220 of the oxford dictionary seventh edition edited by JB Sykes.] the meaning is DEEP MOURNING WORN BY WIDOW i.e. PROSPERO is putting a scare in the hearts of these children that union before marriage would lead to widow hood or grievous or a separation of some permanent nature. Roma Gill of the oxford university translates weeds as flowers strewn over the nuptials bed. Even if we consider weeds as flowers, why are they strewn loath fully? If the meanings given by the translators trusted by oxford do not agree with the oxford dictionary then what should be our recourse???

[kasie]

The plural of 'weed' is 'weeds' - I believe it may have been the same in Shakespeare's day as it is today. Today in our obsession with regulated gardening, we think of a weed as a 'plant in the wrong place' therefore all uncultivated plants are weeds but I believe in the sixteenth century the distinction was merely between cultivated and uncultivated plants.

Compare for example the 'weedy trophies' of Ophelia:

There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down the weedy trophies and herself
Fell into the weeping brook.Hamlet IV.6.151-158

And the flowers of Perdita: rosemary and rue, carnations, gillyvors, lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, marigold, daffodils, violets, primroses, oxlips, crown imperial, lilies of all kinds.(Winter's Tale IV.4) The named flowers come with an extended image of gardening improving on nature by cross-cultivation.

The strewing of a bridal bed with sweet flowers (as mentioned by Gertrude in the same scene) would have been with the sweetest of garden flowers and wild 'weeds', to make it Perdita's 'bank for love to lie and play on' or Oberon's 'bank where wild thyme blows'. Prospero's threat that Discord should strew the bed with 'weeds so loathly' suggests a collection of harmful plants: who would want to lie on a bed of nettles and thistles or, by extention, endure the pain of a marriage begun and continued in discord?

[My2cents]

I would assume WEED is meant in the modern sense which would make WEEDS in the quoted context logical. It's either that or Shakespeare was a clumsy buffoon like one one his characters inclined to malapropisms.

[tuppera shiva]

dear kaise,
your desperate effort to defend oxford versions is laudable but how would you explain the attached i.e. SO LOATHLY?

[OrphanPip]

dear kaise,
your desperate effort to defend oxford versions is laudable but how would you explain the attached i.e. SO LOATHLY?

Kasie has answered that question. They are not strewn loathly, the weeds are loathful, i.e. they are disgusting/unpleasant weeds. The modern English word would be loathsome: the bed is strewn with loathsome weeds.

[prendrelemick]

It's all imagery anyway. Such careful dissection of grammer is a bit pointless.

"-Discord shall sow the union of your bed with weeds so loathly- " Is a warning of bad things ,reinforced by allusions to the words he chooses