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I'm writing a screenplay set in England 17th century 1608. Which was more common "Mayhap" or "Perchance". The meaning is "maybe". Ex: Perchance/Mayhap we will live a long life.

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    Check out books.google.com/ngrams which lets you see the frequency of words in books scanned by Google. You can enter "mayhap, perchance" into the search field and control the time period you are interested in.
    – dubious
    Commented Mar 4 at 15:46
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    Here's my advice: Go to the Searchable Shakespeare. See perchance: opensourceshakespeare.org/search/search-results.php No mayhap at all. So maybe stay away from it? :) Anyway, a good source for you.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 4 at 15:46
  • The King James Bible doesn't seem to have either (but it's not exactly conversational English) thekingsbible.com/Concordance/mayhap
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 4 at 16:10
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    @FumbleFingers - yes, I noticed it.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Mar 5 at 22:48
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    @FumbleFingers - the Pythons were considerable scholars. Terry Jones published a number of books of mediaeval history. I think it's quite possible that they knew what they were doing. It is a cheerful send-up. Dennis the Mud Farmer: Strange women layin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government!
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Mar 6 at 9:39

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