1. In "The Tempest," Act IV, Scene 1:
- "We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
In this context, "weedy" is juxtaposed with "stuff" and "dreams." It suggests that human existence is fragile, fleeting, and insubstantial, like weeds that grow quickly but have shallow roots.
2. In "Hamlet," Act I, Scene 3:
- "But, two months dead! nay, not so much, not two;
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she should hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on; and yet, within a month,
Let me not think on't: Frailty, thy name is woman!
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears—why she, even she—
O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned longer!"
In this soliloquy, Hamlet expresses his disgust at his mother's hasty remarriage after his father's death. He uses "weedy" in reference to his mother's grief, implying that her sorrow withered quickly, much like weeds.
3. In "The Rape of Lucrece," Stanza 155:
- "But she, that never coped with stranger eyes,
Could pick no meaning from their parling looks,
Nor read the subtle-shining secrecies
Writ in the glassy margents of such books.
She touched no unknown baits, nor feared no hooks;
Nor could she moralize his wanton sight,
More than his eyes were opened to the light.
He stories to her ears her husband's fame,
Won in the fields of fruitful Italy;
And decks with praises Collatine's high name,
As reeking incense tends the sun's bright sky."
In this stanza, Shakespeare uses "weedy" in a figurative sense. He depicts Lucrece's innocence and lack of experience as a "weedy ground," which is vulnerable to the advances of Tarquin.
Overall, Shakespeare's usage of "weedy" in these examples points to its negative connotations of fragility, shallowness, and insignificance.