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I´m writing a script using 1608 17th century british english language. I would like to know if the meaning of hence can be used as follows.

  1. Hence, he needeth me. (For this reason, he needs me.)

  2. Get thee hence. (Get out of here.)

  3. I will not drink henceforth. (I will not drink anymore.)

  4. I spake to him to set me free thence. (I spoke to him to set me free from there.)

  5. It matters not whence it came. (It does not matters from where it came.)

  6. He cannot even rise thence. (He cannot even get up from there).

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    This is rather like asking us to do some early modern English proofreading. But yes, all of those uses are available for the time period.
    – TimR
    Commented Feb 25 at 18:54
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    Your every use of hence means "from here." Kinda.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Feb 25 at 23:53
  • Please get it into your head that British English needs capital letters!
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 26 at 9:20

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As I said in response to another question, the King James Bible is a great source for contemporary language. So is Shakespeare (he was still active in 1608). Honestly, if you're writing a book set in 1608 without having read both, you haven't done your homework. Examples taken mostly from the Bible because it's easier for me to search.

  1. This usage is significantly less common for the time period. There are no examples in the Bible (instead it uses "therefore" or "wherefore" for logical reasoning). Shakespeare has at least one that fits, from All's Well That Ends Well: "They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors..." However, this is the only case I found in the first hundred or so uses of "hence" that could be argued to mean "for that reason".
  2. Matthew 4:10 "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan". (also "from hence" - see Deuteronomy 9:12 "Arise, get thee down quickly from hence).
  3. Matthew 26:29 "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine..." This does seem to have a bit more finality than "I'm done for today" though. You can also use "thenceforth", meaning "from that time" as opposed to "from this time".
  4. Genesis 26:17 "And Isaac departed thence." Note though that "from thence" is more common than "thence" alone.
  5. Joshua 2:4 "There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were." Again, "from whence" is more common, though to a lesser extent than "thence".
  6. I don't see any logical distinction with #4.

Edit: To be honest, I think you can do this search as well as I can.

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  • where did you find out that "from whence" and "from thence" were more common? According to my research "from" is already implied. "Whence" means "from where". "Thence" means "from there".
    – Dylan Lozano
    Commented Mar 4 at 15:39
  • Just searching for use cases and then counting noses. "Thence" without "from" is rare in the Biblical usage (but there are examples). "Whence" without "from" is less rare (but still more often with). Didn't analyse Shakespeare, but since he's writing poetry in any case I suspect he's prone to adding or dropping words for rhythm. As far as meaning, your research is correct. "Thence" already implies "from there", so "from thence" is redundant. Nevertheless it's what we see in contemporary literature.
    – Guest
    Commented Mar 5 at 6:15
  • @Dylan Lozano FWIW, I know ngrams is a shaky source that far back, but it suggests that "from whence" and "from thence" are more or less half as common as "whence" and "thence" respectively. Obviously an example of the first is also an example of the second, so that implies that they're used without "from" only about half the time. In short, either way is correct and there's no need even to be consistent.
    – Guest
    Commented Mar 5 at 6:21

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