“Thou must dwell no longer with this man,” said Hester, slowly and
firmly. “Thy heart must be no longer under his evil eye!”“It were far worse than death!” replied the minister. “But how to
avoid it? What choice remains to me? Shall I lie down again on these
withered leaves, where I cast myself when thou didst tell me what he
was? Must I sink down there, and die at once?”
(Nathaniel
Hawthorne,The Scarlet Letter)There is ‘were’ instead of ‘was’ after it. Is the sentence a kind of subjunctive?
Answer
It is indeed subjunctive. Hawthorne is emulating the diction of the 17th century, when the subjunctive was still very much alive. For instance:
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly.
—Macbeth, I,7
Today we would say
If this were [over and] done [with] once it has been done, it would be good to do it quickly.
Similarly, we would translate Dimmesdale’s reply as
“It would be far worse than death!”
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Listenever , Answer Author : StoneyB on hiatus
