alderlievest

Great king of England, and my gracious lord, / The mutual conference that my mind hath had / By day, by night, waking, and in my dreams, / In courtly company, or at my beads, / With you mine alderlievest sovereign, / Makes me the bolder to salute my king / With ruder terms, such as my wit affords, / And over-joy of heart doth minister.

1842, William Shakespeare, “Second Part of King Henry VI.”, in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, The Works of William Shakespeare. The Text Formed from an Entirely New Collation of the Old Editions: with the Various Readings, Notes, a Life of the Poet, and a History of the Early English Stage., volume V, London: Whittaker & Co., act I., scene I., page 110

“And at the corner in the yonder house / Heard I mine alderlievest lady dear / So womanly with voice melodious / Singen so well, so goodly and so clear, / That in my soul yet me thinketh I hear / The blissful sound; and in that yonder place / My lady first me took into her grace.”

1855 May 15, Mary Cowden Clarke, “Music among the Poets and Poetical Writers”, in The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, volume VII, number 145, page 6

“Alderlievest!”—Love flatters not! / In the green lemon-wood, / I saw you first. It matters not! / I saw you, loved you and forgot / To call you goddess. Good! / I deemed it no offense, / To task my mother-sense, / In making love to womanhood.

1870 October, W. H. Abney, “Collmead”, in Our Monthly. A Religious and Literary Magazine., volume II, Cincinnati: Sutton & Scott, stanza VI., page 267

And to mine Alderlievest Lorde I must endite / A wofull case, a chippe of sorie chaunce, / A tipe of heaven, a lively hew of hell, / A feare to fall, a hope of high advance, / A life, a death, a drearie tale to tell.

1907, George Gascoigne, edited by John W[illiam] Cunliffe, The Posies (The Complete Works of George Gascoigne; volume I), Cambridge: at the University Press, page 354