English citations of thou


Pronoun: nominative singular of you edit

1611 1678 1742 1843 1882 2014
ME « 15th c. 16th c. 17th c. 18th c. 19th c. 20th c. 21st c.
  • 1611, The Holy Bible, [] (King James Version), London: [] Robert Barker, [], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:14:
    [...] Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall giue thee light.
  • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: [], London: [] Nath[aniel] Ponder [], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, [], 1928, →OCLC:
    This Book will make a Travailer of thee, / If by its Counsel thou wilt ruled be; / It will direct thee to the Holy Land, / If thou wilt its Directions understand: / Yea, it will make the sloathful, active be; / The Blind also, delightful things to see.
  • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: [], London: [] Nath[aniel] Ponder [], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, [], 1928, →OCLC, page 2:
    I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a Man named Evangelist coming to him, and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry?
  • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: [], London: [] Nath[aniel] Ponder [], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, [], 1928, →OCLC, page 3:
    Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto, so shalt thou see the Gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.
  • 1739, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, “Wrestling Jacob [Come O, Thou Traveller Unknown]”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, London: [] William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton, []; and at Mr. Bray’s, [], →OCLC, part II, stanza 1, page 115:
    Come, O Thou Traveller unknown, / Whom still I hold, but cannot see, / My Company before is gone, / And I am left alone with Thee, / With Thee all Night I mean to stay, / And wrestle till the Break of Day.
  • 1742 April 4, Charles Wesley, A Sermon Preached on Sunday, April 4, 1742. Before the University of Oxford, London: Printed by J. Paramore, [], published 1783, →OCLC, page 10:
    Art thou in earnest about thy soul? and canst thou tell the Searcher of Hearts, Thou, O God, art the thing that I long for? Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I would love thee?
  • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, [], →OCLC, page 137:
    Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion!
  • 1882 November 25 (first performance), W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, music, [] Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri, London: Chappell & Co., [], published [1885?], →OCLC, act I, page 10:
    And everyone who'd marry a Ward / Must come to me for my accord, / And in my court I sit all day, / Giving agreeable girls away, / [...] / And one for thou—and one for thee— / But never, oh never a one for me! / Which is exasperating, for / A highly susceptible Chancellor!
  • 2014 October 30, Ben Brantley, “When the head leads the heart: ‘The Real Thing,’ With Ewan McGregor and Maggie Gyllenhaal, opens on Broadway [print version: When the witty head is far ahead of the heart: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Ewan McGregor star in revival of ‘Real Thing’, International New York Times, 4 November 2014, page 9]”, in The New York Times[1], archived from the original on 11 July 2019:
    [I]ts main character, Henry (Mr. [Ewan] McGregor), is a successful, intellectual dramatist who seems quite capable of churning out fizzy, challenging works about brilliant but ambivalent revolutionaries, philosophers, etc. [...] But this cleverer-than-thou creature gets his comeuppance in "The Real Thing," showing that a very human heart – just like those possessed by the less sesquipedalian – beats beneath his fancy words.