Definition of "composition"

Ste. What do'st thou know me for? Kent. A Knave, a Rascall, [...] one that would'st be a Baud in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a Kave, Begger, Coward, Pandar, and the Sonne and Heire of a Mungrill Bitch, one whom I will beate in to clamours whining, if thou deny'st the least sillable of thy addition.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], page 291, column 2

And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Exodus 30:37

John of Gaunt. O how that name befits my composition!Old Gaunt indeed, and gaunt in being old:Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?

1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene 1]

It seemed that the milk of human kindness had not been left out of his composition.

1932, Frank Richards, The Magnet - Bunter's Night Out

It will stoope and yeeld upon better compositions to him that shall make head against it.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], lines 1-3

That nowSweno, the Norways’ king, craves composition:Nor would we deign him burial of his menTill he disbursed at Saint Colme’s inchTen thousand dollars to our general use.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

with an incredible courage they advanced to the push of the Pike with the defendants, that with the like courage repulsed […], that the Turks retired and fled into the Castle, from whence by a flag of truce they desired composition.

1630, John Smith, True travels, Kupperman, published 1988, page 50

[…] the Britons, by rendering the war thus bloody, seemed determined to cut off all hopes of peace or composition with the enemy.

1754, David Hume, The History of England‎, volume I, London: T. Cadell, published 1773, page 8

He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, of a most chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in the spoil of her honour: he hath given her his monumental ring, and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition.

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

That all and every person and persons already convicted or prosecuted in order to conviction of recusancy […] shall be thenceforth exempted and discharged from all the penalties, seizures, forfeitures, judgments, and executions, incurred by force of any of the aforesaid Statutes, without any composition, fee, or further charge whatsoever.

1688, Parliament of England, Toleration Act 1688, section 3

Insidious death! should his strong hand arrest, No composition sets the prisoner free.

1742, [Edward Young], “Night the”, in The Complaint, London: […]

[…] and how good Mrs. West could have written such books and collected so many hard words, with all her family cares, is still more a matter of astonishment. Composition seems to me impossible with a head full of joints of mutton and doses of rhubarb.

1818, Jane Austen, A letter dated 8 September 1818

There is no composition in these newsThat gives them credit.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]

The investigation of difficult things by the method of analysis ought ever to precede the method of composition.

1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […]