N
neophyte
Guest
I’ve been posting on a well-known anti-Catholic stie, and the conversation turned to prayer to the Saints. As I was posting the explanation that to pray to someone means to make a request of them, it occured to me to search the works of Shakespear to come up with examples.
In “All’s Well that Ends Well” I found twenty uses of the word “pray” that have nothing to do with worship, and that are directed not at God but at human beings. I had at first considered seeing how may of these uses I could find in all of Shakespear’s work, but I imagine it runs into many hundreds. This is more than enough to demonstrate that the way Catholics use the word “pray” is standard English usage:
“Pray you, leave me: stall this in your bosom; and I thank you for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon”
“I pray you, sir, are you a courtier?”
“I pray you, make us friends; I will pursue the amity.”
“Pray you, sir, who’s his tailor?”
“Pray, sir, your pardon.”
“I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse.”
“By what observance, I pray you?”
“Pray you, gentlemen, I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief, That the first face of neither, on the start, Can woman me unto’t: where is my son, I pray you?”
“His name, I pray you.”
“But take the High’st to witness: then, pray you, tell me, If I should swear by God’s great attributes, I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths, When I did love you ill?”
“Poor rogues, I pray you, say.”
“I pray you, sir, put it up again.”
“Yet, I pray you: But with the word the time will bring on summer, When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp.”
“Let us go see your son, I pray you: I long to talk with the young noble soldier.”
“Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper.”
“pray you, sir, use the carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed, ingenious, foolish, rascally knave.”
“Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fasten’d to’t.”
“I pray you yet; Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband; Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.”
“What ring was yours, I pray you?”
“How, I pray you?”
In “All’s Well that Ends Well” I found twenty uses of the word “pray” that have nothing to do with worship, and that are directed not at God but at human beings. I had at first considered seeing how may of these uses I could find in all of Shakespear’s work, but I imagine it runs into many hundreds. This is more than enough to demonstrate that the way Catholics use the word “pray” is standard English usage:
“Pray you, leave me: stall this in your bosom; and I thank you for your honest care: I will speak with you further anon”
“I pray you, sir, are you a courtier?”
“I pray you, make us friends; I will pursue the amity.”
“Pray you, sir, who’s his tailor?”
“Pray, sir, your pardon.”
“I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse.”
“By what observance, I pray you?”
“Pray you, gentlemen, I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief, That the first face of neither, on the start, Can woman me unto’t: where is my son, I pray you?”
“His name, I pray you.”
“But take the High’st to witness: then, pray you, tell me, If I should swear by God’s great attributes, I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths, When I did love you ill?”
“Poor rogues, I pray you, say.”
“I pray you, sir, put it up again.”
“Yet, I pray you: But with the word the time will bring on summer, When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp.”
“Let us go see your son, I pray you: I long to talk with the young noble soldier.”
“Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper.”
“pray you, sir, use the carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed, ingenious, foolish, rascally knave.”
“Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, While I was speaking, oft was fasten’d to’t.”
“I pray you yet; Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband; Send for your ring, I will return it home, And give me mine again.”
“What ring was yours, I pray you?”
“How, I pray you?”