Re: 16th century verbs
ellen wrote:
Hello
I wonder about the use of 'be' in phrases such as :'Lies be scant' ;
'truth be told', 'death be proud', highly frequent in Shakespeare's
writing. I have looked in Crystal but to no avail. Could it be regional
or simply influence from Latin?
Anyone know anything about word order in Shakespeare's writing?
There are plenty of grammars of Shakespeare's English.
How would such phrases be "influence from Latin"? What construction does
Latin have that's like that?
Those three phrases are unfamiliar from Shakespeare; the present-day
expression "truth be told" appears to be an ellipsis of "if the truth be
told," an ordinary subjunctive; "Death, be not proud" is an ordinary
imperative; I don't know what "lies be scant" might be.
Oh, and Shakespeare is essentially early 17th century.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@xxxxxxx
.
Relevant Pages
- Re: 16th century verbs
... I wonder about the use of 'be' in phrases such as:'Lies be scant'; ... How would such phrases be "influence from Latin"? ... expression "truth be told" appears to be an ellipsis of "if the truth be ...
(sci.lang) - Re: 16th century verbs
... It's an alteration of "Death, be not proud" which also isn't Shakespeare but his contemporary, John Donne. ... Google has no hits for "Lies be scant", so it certainly isn't Shakespeare or any other writer whose works are reproduced in full all over the Internet. ... Are you sure "truth be told" is from Shakespeare? ...
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