All 5 Uses of
forswear
in
Romeo and Juliet
- She hath forsworn to love,
p. 22.4forsworn = renounced (sworn to stop engaging in)
- Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it, sight!
For I never saw true beauty till this night.p. 54.0 *forswear = swear it is not trueeditor's notes: In this context, sight is a synonym for eyes. It's like Romeo is asking his eyes to deny something.
- I'll not be forsworn.
p. 178.5forsworn = made a liar
Uses with a meaning too rare to warrant foucs:
- There's no trust,
No faith, no honesty in men. All perjured,
All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers.p. 142.0 *forsworn = liars
- Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais'd him with above compare
So many thousand times?p. 180.9forsworn = made a liar (by breaking vows)
Definitions:
-
(1)
(forswear as in: forswear my country of birth) to decide to stop doing something; or to renounce or disavow something
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) More rarely (especially in the UK), forswear can also mean to commit perjury.