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Hamlet vocabulary
40 archaic vocabulary words
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beshrew
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tags: [archaic]
► definition
Definition:1. to curse (literally) [archaic]2. a mild expletive for curse
► uses
Uses:
Percy: Beshrew me, Edmund, you're in good form this morning!
Blackadder: Don't say 'beshrew me' Percy, only stupid actors say 'beshrew me'.
BBC Blackadder Season 2: Beer.
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"Now by my faith I shall, ere that I go,
Tell of a Sompnour such a tale or two,
That all the folk shall laughen in this place."
"Now do, else, Friar, I beshrew thy face,"
Quoth this Sompnour; "and I beshrewe me,
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems (1400)
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M. Mumbl. Dame Custance hath promised vs good ale and white bread.
Tib Talk. If she kepe not promise, I will beshrewe her head:
But it will be starke nyght before I shall haue done.
Nicholas Udall. Roister Doister (1552)
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LORD POLONIUS That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle, And meant to wreck thee; but beshrew my jealousy!
William Shakespeare. Hamlet (1600)
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