Chapter 1 of The White Devil is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The White Devil is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted? Corn. O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours! Vit. Dearest mother, hear me.
Chapter 1 of The White Devil is here in full — 403 sentences across 81 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 68/80 · 5 reading units · Lines 336–340
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.
expletives used informally as intensifiers
From this reading “I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?”
the ritual placing of a corpse in a grave
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times
From this reading “Corn.”
plural of “herb” — a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
a child's room for a baby
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
(used especially of ideas or principles) deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
the art of sorcery
From this reading “O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!”
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 that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
used with a past participle to form the passive, or with -ing for continuous tenses
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
the past participle of “be”
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
expletives used informally as intensifiers
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
the two together, not just one
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
the ritual placing of a corpse in a grave
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times
From this reading Corn.
a beloved person; used as terms of endearment
From this reading Dearest mother, hear me.
free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception; conforming with established standards or rules
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
preceding all others in time or space or degree
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
intended to be given to, or used by, somebody
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
a plot of ground where plants are cultivated
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
perceive (sound) via the auditory sense
From this reading Dearest mother, hear me.
plural of “herb” — a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
a university degree with honors
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
the person speaking or writing, as the subject of the verb
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
in order that something should not happen
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
produced by a manufacturing process
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
the person speaking, as the object of a verb or preposition
From this reading Dearest mother, hear me.
a woman who has given birth to a child (also used as a term of address to your mother)
From this reading Dearest mother, hear me.
a child's room for a baby
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
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 that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
(used especially of ideas or principles) deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
address a deity, a prophet, a saint or an object of worship; say a prayer
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
on the contrary
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
used to introduce the second part of a comparison
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
used to introduce what somebody said, thought, or felt
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
subsequently or soon afterward (often used as sentence connectors)
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
a fertile plain on the Aegean Sea in east central Greece; Thessaly was a former region of ancient Greece
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Vit.
used to talk about the future, or about willingness
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
the art of sorcery
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
in the company of; together with
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
the person or people being spoken to
From this reading I pray, will you go to bed then, Lest you be blasted?
belonging to the person or people being spoken to
From this reading O that this fair garden Had with all poison'd herbs of Thessaly At first been planted; made a nursery For witchcraft, rather than a burial plot For both your honours!
Chapter 1 of The White Devil by John Webster holds 403 sentences, grouped into 81 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, 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 1 holds 403 sentences of The White Devil, unabridged, divided into 81 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The White Devil by John Webster exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 403 sentences, grouped into 81 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 81 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 81 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 1 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 White Devil by John Webster on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 3118 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #12915 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #12915, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 259 minutes of reading across 624 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The White Devil section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 8 chapters of The White Devil 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 White Devil, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
