How do you say why in Elizabethan English?
Why. Or wherefore. Your choice. Shakespeare used both,
frequently in the same sentence. e.g.
Say, wherefore didst thou lock me forth to-day?
And why dost thou deny the bag of gold? (Comedy of Errors,
4,4)
Say, why is this? wherefore? What should we do? (Hamlet,
1,4)
Why bastard? wherefore base? (King Lear, 1,2)