I'm trying to write some dialogue for a character who lives in 18th century England. I want the dialogue to sound as accurate as possible, but I'm not sure what the proper phrasing should be. I suppose the modern-day equivalent would be:
"She doesn't know me either."
But this sounds wrong for that time period. In 18th century, I feel like they didn't use the word "didn't" or "did not" very often. Instead of saying "I don't want to go." they would say "I wish not to go." and so forth. But in this particular case, I'm not sure what the proper phrasing would be.
Would he say "She doesn't know me either" or "She knows me not either" or "She neither knows me"? The last one doesn't sound right. Any advice would be very helpful. And if anyone can offer some good resources on 18th century British language I would also greatly appreciate it!
Edit: Also I should add that the character is of the upper-class and educated.
Edit 2: Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and recommendations on reading material!
Best Answer
Robinson Crusoe, which was published in 1719, includes the phrases:
It seems that know has fairly 'modern' uses too:
As you can see, the traditionally archaic 'She doth know' isn't actually relevant - I couldn't find 'doth' in Robinson Crusoe. As Spagirl points out in the comments below, admittedly these examples aren't directly proof of your 'She doesn't know me either', but hopefully shows that language was still relatively similar to modern usage.
Worthy of note is that the social class/upbringing of the speaker is extremely significant, as is the origin. You may want to check other, more appropriate books in which case.