What is the definition of a' in elizabethian era language?

Answer 1

The Elizabethan Era was the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, 1558-1603. Basically the second half of the sixteenth century. The language they spoke was English, Modern English, readily comprehensible by twentifirst century English speakers, although it was a different dialect. In the same way that you do, they sometimes shortened words for speaking purposes. These are called contractions, like when you say "can't" instead of "can not", or "I'll" instead of "I will". The "a" with (and sometimes without) an apostrophe could be a short form for many words, particularly "he" (apostrophe before), "at" (apostrophe after) and "have" (apostrophe both before and after). However, the frequent use of this particular contraction was peculiar to Shakespeare: neither Marlowe, Lyly, Spenser, Nashe or Webster ever use it, and it does not appear in the King James Bible either. Jonson uses it once in Every Man in His Humour as a contraction for "he". The use of this contraction would appear to be part of Shakespeare's Warwickshire dialect, and not a general part of Elizabethan English at all.