Chapter 6 of The Way of the World is here in full — 283 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
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Chapter VI
Chapter 6 of The Way of the World is here in full — 283 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
FOIB. O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp. Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already. MRS. FAIN.
Chapter 6 of The Way of the World is here in full — 283 sentences across 57 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/56 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
From this reading “O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.”
a lawman with less authority and jurisdiction than a sheriff
From this reading “O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.”
having made preparations
From this reading “FAIN.”
a plant fiber
From this reading “O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.”
the quality of being just or fair
From this reading “O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.”
possessive form of “lady” — a polite name for any woman
a woman of refinement
From this reading “O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.”
a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment
From this reading “Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
prior to a specified or implied time
From this reading Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
a lawman with less authority and jurisdiction than a sheriff
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
having made preparations
From this reading FAIN.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading FOIB.
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
destroyed or killed
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
a plant fiber
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
the quality of being just or fair
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
possessive form of “lady” — a polite name for any woman
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
a woman of refinement
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
a form of address for a married woman
From this reading MRS.
belonging to the person speaking
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
a nonmetallic bivalent element that is normally a colorless odorless tasteless nonflammable diatomic gas; constitutes 21 percent of the atmosphere by volume; the most abundant element in the earth's crust
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
deserving or inciting pity
From this reading Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already.
a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment
From this reading Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already.
put into a certain place or abstract location
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
used with I and we for the future, or to offer and suggest
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading O madam, my lady’s gone for a constable; I shall be had to a justice, and put to Bridewell to beat hemp.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Poor Waitwell’s gone to prison already.
Chapter 6 of The Way of the World by William Congreve holds 283 sentences, grouped into 57 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the public-domain source, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 6 holds 283 sentences of The Way of the World, unabridged, divided into 57 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 6 of The Way of the World by William Congreve exactly as it stands in the public-domain source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 283 sentences, grouped into 57 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 57 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 57 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 6 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The Way of the World by William Congreve on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 1971 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #1292 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #1292, a public-domain edition. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 164 minutes of reading across 395 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Way of the World section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 7 chapters of The Way of the World to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The Way of the World, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
