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Shakespeare's language was English and modern English at that. The word "wither" which we meet in Henry VI Part 3 Act 3 Scene 2 when Richard of Gloucester says "to shrink my arm up like a withered shrub" means exactly what it means today. Look it up in the dictionary: it means to shrivel.

There is another meaning to wither which we see in Hamlet Act 3 Scene 2 when he says, "Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung." Again, this is a modern meaning, but one known only to people who have a lot to do with horses, which isn't as many as it used to be. The withers of a horse are the part of the spine where the shoulder joins, just behind the neck. To gall means to irritate (as in "I find his behaviour galling") and a jade is an old horse (here is one word where a modern dictionary might set you on the wrong track). His horsey metaphor is that only an irritated or chafed horse would wince when he's being saddled, just as only a murderer would take offence at a depiction of a murder.

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