Proportions of old to modern spellings in five samples

(250 lines) from the First Folio

Play (50 lines)

Old spellings

Modern spellings

Modern/Total (%)

LLL. 1.1-50

46

93

67

Ham. 1.1-50

26

73

74

Temp. 1.1-50

35

92

72

1H4. 1.2.1-50

44

98

69

H5.3.1.1-50

59

132

69

   Total

210

488

70

Note: The table ignores common grammatical words (e.g. the, of, wilt), personal names (e.g. Francisco), and singular/plural variants (e.g. night/nights)

Sample spellings (Ham. 1.1.1-50)

Old spellings

againe, appear'd, appeare, assaile, beleefe, burnes, centinels, downe, eares, fantasie, farewel, hast, heare, houre, intreated, leige-men, peece, reliev'd, saies, seene, selfe, sicke, speake, starre, strook, thinke

Modern spellings

against, all, along, answer, apparition, approve, beating, bed, bell, bid, carefully, come, course, Dane, dreaded, enter, exit, eyes, fortified, friends, get, give, good, goodnight, ground, guard, have, heart, heaven, hold, holla, honest, illume, king, last let, live, long, made, make, meet, minutes, mouse, night, nothing, one, part, place, pole, quiet, rivals, same, say, sight, sit, soldier, stand, stirring, story, take, there, therefore, thing, touching, tush, twelve, twice, two, unfold, watch, welcome, westward, yond