3/16/2023 0 Comments Point blank meaning![]() ![]() “ As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,/ Transports his poysned shot” means “ As level as the cannon sends its ball within the limits of its point-blank range”. Transports his poysned shot, may misse our Name,Īnd hit the woundlesse ayre, ô come away, – in The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke (Quarto 2, 1604), when Claudius say to Gertrude:Ĭome Gertrard, wee’le call vp our wisest friends,Īnd let them know both what we meane to doe “ I haue stood within the blanke of his displeasure” means “ I have stood within the lethal range of his displeasure”. My Lord is not my Lord, nor should I know him,Īnd stood within the blanke of his displeasure, – in The Tragœdy of Othello, The Moore of Venice (Quarto 1, 1622), when Desdemona say to Cassio: Shakespeare uses blank for point-blank in this sense for example: The term point-blank therefore also denoted the most lethal part of the course of a projectile. Why this boy will carrie a letter twentie mile as easie, asĪ Canon will shoot point-blanke twelue score. Likewise, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) uses point-blank as an adverb meaning in a horizontal line in The Merry Wiues of Windsor (Folio 1, 1623), when Ford remarks of Falstaff’s page: ![]() Repaire vnto a very leuell ground, as a plaine marrish, that is iust water leuell, and then to finde the right line or point blanke, rayse a butte or banke in that plaine grounde, and then sette vppe a marke the iust height of the peece that lyeth in the carriage. Contayning very necessary matters for all sortes of Seruitoures eyther by Sea or by Lande (London, 1587), by William Bourne (died 1583), a gunner for the English navy he describes the manner of knowingĪt al times how for to shoote iust vnto the mark, especially within point blank, & point blanke, is the direct fleeing of the shot, without any descending from the mouth of the peece vnto the mark, y e mouth of the peece to stand directly with the Horizon, so that it be vpon a plaine and leuell ground, as far as y e peece may cast, hytting any thing that standeth directly as hygh as the mouth of the peece.īourne also writes that “ one of the best wayes, in the finding what distance any peece conuayeth or driueth the shotte vppon the right line” is as follows: This is illustrated by the following passage from The Arte of shooting in great Ordnaunce. This word first appeared as a noun in 1571 in the sense of the maximum range within which a projectile fired horizontally from a gun or cannon flies more or less level with the bore of the firearm before falling appreciably below the line sighted along. The figurative sense plain, blunt, stems from this idea of directness. ![]() Used as an adjective, point-blank means, literally, aimed or fired at a target so close that it is unnecessary to make allowance for the drop in the course of the projectile. Among the sources that have been used is The True Shakespearian Blank, published in Renaissance War Studies (The Hambledon Press – London, 1983), by John Rigby Hale (1923-99), British historian and translator. ![]()
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