Literary notes about lief (AI summary)
The word “lief” is frequently used in literature as an adverb expressing a preference or inclination, essentially meaning “rather” or “instead.” Authors often employ phrases such as “I’d as lief” or “I had as lief” to highlight a character’s willingness to choose one alternative over another, whether it be as whimsical as preferring solitude over company ([1]) or as stark as favoring an undesirable fate over another ([2]). This linguistic choice appears in a range of texts from Shakespearean drama ([3], [4], [5]) to works by Thackeray ([6]) and Hardy ([7]), lending an archaic yet vivid texture to dialogue and narrative. Its use not only conveys personal sentiment but also adds a layer of irony or humor, reflecting the speaker’s distinctive outlook on life ([8], [9]).
- I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as lief have been myself alone. ORLANDO.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I had as lief be dead and done with it.”
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service as a partizan I could not heave.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I had as lief have heard the night-raven, come what plague could have come after it.
— from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare - I had as lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - I would as lief send my servant into the street to get me a wife, as put up with such an Ephesian matron as that.’
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray - He continued, "I'd as lief as not be able to blow into a flute as well as that.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - I remember my Lord Bathurst praising them: but as for reading his books—ma foi, I would as lief go and dive for tripe in a cellar.
— from Roundabout Papers by William Makepeace Thackeray - An't be any way, it must be with valour, for policy I hate; I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
