Light Then Shadow

Julia started writing an exciting new book called "Light then Shadow: A tale of the Salem Witch Trials."  The story, so far, is about a young woman, Eliza, travelling to the New World with her family, including her siblings Felicity, Paul, Mary, Carrie, and Sara.  Julia is going for extra authenticity in this book, writing with the archaic English pronouns and verbs that might have been used in the Salem Witch Trial era. 

Here are some examples:

"I got pulled out of my daydreams abruptly as Carrie tugged at my skirts.  'Wilt thou play with us, Eliza?'  'Nay, Carrie.  Maybe later.'  'But John and Papa and Sara are all too busy.  Won't thou play?'  I sighed.  'Yey, I wilt play.  But I really was having a wonderful daydream.  Doth Dost thou understand?' She nodded.  Slowly she and I came over to Mary, Paul, and Felicity.  'Eliza!  Thou decided to play!' Felicity exclaimed.  She is my favorite sister and I am hers.  'Yey, Lissie.'  I smiled.  'But don't get thy hopes up because I can't agree to play every time.'  'Methinks thou art just saying that.  Thou loves to play with us,' Lissie grinned.  It was so good to see her smile. 'I'm a young woman now.  I am almost fourteen.'  But it was no use.  I am a child at heart."


"Paul stepped out of the big bath barrel.  'Paul, comb thy hair.  'Tis a mess,' Aunt Amina ordered.  'But auntie, I don't care if my hair is messy.  Methinks it looks styleish.  Mary and Carrie and Felicity told me.'  'Paul!  Thou art five.  Mary art seven.  Carrie art three, and Felicity art eight.  What would thee they know about style?' Sara said."


"Art thou ready to put Carrie and Mary to bed?'  'Uh - um - Yey!  I was only waiting for thou to inquire!'


Now, as you can see, there is a bit of confusion on Julia's part and she sometimes second-guesses her archaic speech.  She was particularly thrown by the use of "doth" versus "dost."  She asked me what the difference was, and I gave her some examples of how the words might be used.  "He doth, they doth," and "Thou dost," for instance. 

I guess that didn't clear it up enough, however.  Yesterday, in frustration, Julia exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't even know if this makes any sense!"  She showed me the sentence that was causing her so much conflict.  I took her notebook and read:

"Ow!  Doth not doth that!"

Hmm.  Well, Julia was right.  It definitely doesn't make any sense.

JULIA: I don't know if I'm supposed to use "doth" or "dost!"
ME: Ummm.  Hmmm.  Well, what exactly are you trying to say?
JULIA: I'm trying to say "Don't do that!"
ME: Yeah...I don't think that's how you would say it.
JULIA: But you told me that "doth" means "do!"
ME: Yeah.  Um.  It does, in a certain context, but I don't think you can use it in this case.  I might try saying something like, "Do not doeth that." 

Julia decided not to take my advice, however, and changed the offending sentence to "Ow!  Do not dost that!"

Still don't think that's correct.  But then again, I am absolutely no expert on archaic English. 

At any rate, I was pleased to see that my explanations on the difference between "thee" and "thou" paid off, because her most recent paragraph uses them both correctly: "I'm going to read thee thy favorite story...but only if thou behaves."

Woo-hoo!  Go Julia, getting all Archaic on us!  (Although I wonder if it should be "behaveth..."  but maybe I'm just overthinking things.  I doth not doth that.)