Shakespeare

[Emanuelli]

Hello,

I was wondering if you could help me understand the following words:

shrink'st / grow'st / wrinkl'st

I am supposed to use one of them in the following sentence:

"When eternal lines to time thou grow'st"

I know "grow'st" is the right one because I have the answer key but I can't understand the meaning, especially considering the words above.

Another hard word is "Nor shall death brag though wander'st in his shade".

These words were written by William Shakespeare 1609 - Sonnet XVIII.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Anglika]

Hello,

I was wondering if you could help me understand the following words:

shrink'st / grow'st / wrinkl'st shrinkest / growest / wrinklest = archaic form of the present tense : shrinks/grows/ wrinkles

I am supposed to use one of them in the following sentence:

"When eternal lines to time thou grow'st"

I know "grow'st" is the right one because I have the answer key but I can't understand the meaning, especially considering the words above.

Another hard word is "Nor shall death brag though wander'st in his shade". The same as above

These words were written by William Shakespeare 1609 - Sonnet XVIII.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

The 'st is used to ensure the metre of the poem is correct. It means the word is pronounced with a shortened ending syllable.

[blouen]

The 'st is used to ensure the metre of the poem is correct. It means the word is pronounced with a shortened ending syllable.

Hi, Anglika! How about the biblical believeth, loveth, doeth. Are they in the present tense also or in the present perfect?

[Anglika]

I was always under the impression that they are present tense -

"He who believeth in me"> "He who believes in me"; "They that loveth their neighbour">"They that love their neighbour"; "She that doeth good">"She who does good"

[JeffJo]

"When eternal lines to time thou grow'st"

I know "grow'st" is the right one because I have the answer key but I can't understand the meaning, especially considering the words above.

"Growest" simply means "grow." The "-est" ending is an archaic form that was used to end the ordinary present tense of a verb, in company with the word "thou."

'When in eternal lines to time you grow.'

Another hard word is "Nor shall death brag though wander'st in his shade".

"though" - should be "thou"

It simply means the same as.....

'Nor shall death brag you wander in his shade.'

The tense for "-est" verbs is second person singular present indicative.

[BobK]

...



"though" - should be "thou"

It simply means the same as.....

'Nor shall death brag you wander in his shade.'

The tense for "-est" verbs is second person singular present indicative.

Possibly; it is "thou" in many editions. But in the context (she is really growing old, so it would make sense for (personified) Death to boast 'you're wandering in my shadow, i.e. you're about to die'), "though" makes sense too (perhaps more). We can't know which one Shakespeare meant, and his printers might equally have set either, whichever he meant. Perhaps he meant both.

But I'm not a Shakespeare scholar; I just "smell a rat" (get suspicious) when I see words like 'should be' in a context like this.



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