Convert some part of his forces bent
"I [Francis Walsingham] did advise you [William Harborne, the first English ambassador in Constantinople] of a course to be taken there for procuring the Grand Seigneur, if it were possible, to convert some part of his [Sultan Murad III] forces bent, as it should seem by your advertisements, from time to time wholly against the Persians, rather against Spain, thereby to divert the dangerous attempt and designs of the said King from these parts of Christendom." (Conyers Read, Mr. Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth)
What does the emphasized phrase mean?
Top answer
This passage was written in 1585, so you need an Elizabethan dictionary for the definitions. The drift in word meanings is rather substantial over 400+ years. Such a dictionary does not exist, since the first dictionaries did not appear until much later.
- This passage was written in 1585, so you need an Elizabethan dictionary for the definitions.
- The drift in word meanings is rather substantial over 400+ years.
- Such a dictionary does not exist, since the first dictionaries did not appear until much later.
- However, the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary has a good etymology.
- The word "bent" means "intended or directed towards" The word "advertisements" means "advice given, or more closely, "intelligence" So the passage is: ask the Sultan to divert some of his forces that, according to your intelligence, he uses from time to time against his enemy, the Persians, and instead attack the Spanish forces, so as to turn the attention of the King of Spain from England and her allies to the Ottomans.
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This passage was written in 1585, so you need an Elizabethan dictionary for the definitions. The drift in word meanings is rather substantial over 400+ years.
Such a dictionary does not exist, since the first dictionaries did not appear until much later. However, the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary has a good etymology.
The word "bent" means "intended or directed towards"
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