cousin

Cousin

The kinship term, cousin - often familiarly abbreviated as coz or cuz - is very much broader in its Shakespearean use in than we find today. In modern English, it is primarily used for the relationship between the children of brothers and sisters (first cousins), with some extension permitted, such as for the children of first cousins (second cousins, or cousins once removed) and their children.

But in Shakespeare we find it used for virtually any relative beyond the immediate family, both for blood relatives and relatives through marriage, and often as a term of affection between socially equal people who are not relatives at all, such as monarchs of different countries.

Example	Speaker and addressee	Text	Relationship
AYL I.iii.40	Duke Frederick to Rosalind	You, cousin	Rosalind is his niece
R2 I.ii.46	Duchess of Gloucester to John of Gaunt	Our cousin Hereford	Hereford is her nephew
Ham III.ii.102	Claudius to Hamlet	How fares our cousin Hamlet?	Hamlet is his stepson
R3 II.ii.8	Duchess of York to Clarence’s children	My pretty cousins	The children are her grandchildren
TN I.v.123	Olivia to Feste, of Sir Toby	seek the crowner, and let him sit o’ my coz	Sir Toby is her uncle
1H4 III.i.49	Mortimer to Hotspur	Peace, cousin Percy	Hotspur is his brother-in-law
1H4 III.i.53	Glendower to Hotspur	I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil	Hotspur is his son-in-law’s sister’s husband
1H4 I.i.31	King Henry to Westmoreland	my gentle cousin	Westmoreland’s wife is Henry’s half-sister
RJ III.i.113	Romeo to himself, after marrying Juliet	Tybalt, that an hour / Hath been my cousin	Tybalt is Juliet’s cousin
1H6 IV.i.114	King to Richard and Somerset	Good cousins both	They are kinsmen through different marriages of Henry’s great-grandfather
TNK I.i.222	Theseus to Pirithous	Cousin, I charge you	They are long-standing comrades

FAMILY