All 3 Uses of
reprove
in
Henry IV, Part 1
- The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.†
Scene 1.2 *reproof = criticism
- He holds your temper in a high respect, And curbs himself even of his natural scope When you do cross his humour; faith, he does: I warrant you, that man is not alive Might so have tempted him as you have done, Without the taste of danger and reproof: But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.†
Scene 3.1
- So please your Majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse As well as I am doubtless I can purge Myself of many I am charged withal: Yet such extenuation let me beg, As, in reproof of many tales devised By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,—Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,—I may, for some things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wander'd and irregular, Find pardon on my true submission.†
Scene 3.2
Definitions:
-
(1)
(reprove) express disapproval or criticism -- typically in a mild manner & sometimes even in a friendly manner
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely (though often from Shakespeare), the form reproof describes punishment rather than merely criticism.