What does Shakespeare mean by ''till in her ashes she lie buried''?

Answer 1

The quotation is from Henry V:

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur

Till in her ashes she lie buried.

"Her" and "she" refer to the city of Harfleur which is being given a feminine gender here. "Till" is of course the word "until". And Shakespeare has done one of those reversals for poetry's sake which are so common with him and many other poets: "Down the road I walked" instead of "I walked down the road" or "Over the hill she lives" instead of "She lives over the hill" The word "lie" is not "lies" because it is in the subjunctive mood, a grammatical usage becoming less and less frequent among English speakers, but going strong in many other languages.

So, "I will not leave . . . Harfleur"

1. "Till in her ashes she lie buried"

2. "Till in its ashes it lie buried" (reversing feminine gender)

3. "Until in its ashes it lie buried" (changing contraction)

4. "Until it lie buried in its ashes" (reversing poetic syntax)

5. "Until it lies buried in its ashes" (subjunctive to indicative)

I hope you could figure it out long before we got to 5.