ALACK, A LIST
Getting to know Shakespeare’s high-frequency archaic sight words
GUESS THE MEANING OF:
 Adieu
 Good-bye, farewell
 Anon
 Soon, immediately
 Hark
 Listen
 Ne’er
 Never
 Woo
 To seek and gain (seduce)
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Alas, then she is drowned!”
Alas: Expresses sorrow
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
Wherefore: Why
Art: Are
Thou: You
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Well, sir, I’ll bring you to our master Lear, and leave
you to attend him.”
Attend: to wait upon; to pay attention
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”
“O, coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!”
Dost, doth: Do, does
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“List, list, o list! If ever thou didst thy old father
love—revenge his foul and most unnatural murder!”
List: Listen
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Fie on’t! Ah, fie! ’Tis an unweeded garden that
grows to seed.”
Fie: A curse
’Tis: It is
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Perchance she weeps because they killed her
husband, perchance because she knows them
innocent.”
Perchance: Maybe
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat.”
Prithee: I pray thee; please
Thy: Your
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Resolve me, with all modest haste.”
Resolve: To answer; to reply
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Peace, sirrah! You beastly knave, know you no
reverence?”
Sirrah: A lowly person
Knave: A villain
BONUS!!! MODERNIZE THIS SENTENCE
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of
this great world.”
Troth: Belief
WORDS IN CONTEXT
“Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench. O, how I
long to have some chat with her!”
Wench: A female person; varies in tone from
tenderness to contempt
BONUS!:
WEIRD OLD INSULTS
 Dotard
• Old fool
 Maltworm
• Heavy drinker
 Flirt-gill
• Loose woman