All 5 Uses of
cunning
in
Twelfth Night
- 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on: Lady, you are the cruel'st she alive, If you will lead these graces to the grave, And leave the world no copy.†
Scene 1.5cunning = good at achieving goals through cleverness and deception
- She loves me, sure: the cunning of her passion Invites me in this churlish messenger.†
Scene 2.2
- Give me leave, beseech you: I did send, After the last enchantment you did here, A ring in chase of you; so did I abuse Myself, my servant, and, I fear me, you: Under your hard construction must I sit; To force that on you, in a shameful cunning, Which you knew none of yours.†
Scene 3.1
- Plague on't; an I thought he had been valiant, and so cunning in fence, I'd have seen him damned ere I'd have challenged him.†
Scene 3.4
- his false cunning
Scene 5.1 *cunning = cleverness
Definitions:
-
(1)
(cunning as in: a cunning thief) being good at achieving goals through cleverness -- and typically through deception as well (tricking others)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) At one time, cunning was also used as a synonym for cute.