What does thine mean in Shakespeare?

It’s not always easy to know what shakespeare is really saying when he mangles some of his words. One English writer of his time, Samuel Johnson, wrote that “the want of an equivalent to ‘thine’ is one of the worst that can possibly occur in a writer.” But Shakespeare’s spelling is often so bad that it’s impossible to know what he really wrote. In this post, I’ll look at two different spell

What does the word thine mean in Shakespeare?

The word thine is used in the early plays to refer to property that belongs to someone. For example, in Shakespeare’s comedy The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio refers to his ring as his “prized thine”. If he chose to, he could sell that ring for a large sum of money, and in doing so, he would give up his right to claim any more of his own personal belongings.

What does the word thou mean in King Lear?

When speaking to someone you consider your equal or a servant, you would address them as thou. In Shakespeare’s plays, thou is often used as a means of showing respect, and is used more often in dialogue with lower class characters and servants. Because thou was so often used in dialogue with lower class characters, it was often used to indicate that the speaker was not familiar with a subject, and was therefore being less direct with their information.

What does thou mean in Shakespeare?

Thou is an archaic form of the pronoun you, used in formal writing and conversation. It was used when speaking to an equal or to someone older than you, or even God. Shakespeare used thou when writing dialogue and when giving commands to characters. In case you were wondering if thou was ever used to refer to a woman, the answer is no. Shakespeare’s writing usually avoids gender-based terms to make his work more accessible to a wider audience.

What does the word thine mean in Hamlet?

The word thine is used a total of fourteen times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The word thine is used to address the conscience of the characters in Hamlet, especially Hamlet himself. In many of these instances, the word thine is used to call out Hamlet’s sense of morality. In other situations, thine is used to point out the hypocrisy of Hamlet’s actions and attitudes. For example, when the ghost of Hamlet’s