Reading Older English Prose and Verse

Handle archaic pronouns, verb endings, and inverted word order in older texts.

Texts written a few centuries ago use features that slow modern readers: pronouns like thou (you, as subject), thee (you, as object), and thy (your); verb endings like -est and -eth ('thou knowest,' 'she walketh'); and inverted word order ('Gone are the days,' 'Him I trust'). These are not obstacles once you translate them automatically. A strategy for inversion is to find the subject and verb and mentally rearrange: 'Long had the traveler waited' becomes 'The traveler had waited long.

' For reading aloud, do not slow down on every archaic word or stress it as exotic; older forms were ordinary speech in their time, and stressing them makes the passage sound like a parody. Keep the rhythm of the sentence and let the meaning carry you. Footnotes and glossaries are tools, not interruptions; glance at them on a first read, then reread the passage straight through so the sense comes together.

• 1Thou = you (subject), thee = you (object), thy = your.
• 2-est and -eth are old verb endings, not new meanings.
• 3Rearrange inversions to find subject and verb.
• 4Read archaic forms naturally, not as exotic words.