Bedene is an archaic word of uncertain origin and vague meaning. It was commonly used in Middle English verse, often, apparently, because it was word that rhymed with a lot of other words and could be added in without changing the overall meaning.

It might mean, depending on context: together, altogether, sometimes perhaps, continuously, straight on, one after another, forthwith, or in a little while. It might also be used simply as a mild exclamation or intensifier, as one might use 'indeed'.

As one expects from Middle English, spelling variations were legion. Common variants include bydene, bydeene, bidene, biden, be dene, and bee dene, any of which might be written with a hyphen. The separation of the 'be' and the 'dene' led to some writers to use it as if it were a noun in constructions such as 'by dene' and 'with dene'. To make things even more confusing, bedene was quite often preceded by the word 'all', which could often be compounded into the word; allbedene, albedene, and all the various additional spellings you might imagine appear in various writings.



A brief survey of the various uses of bedene in Middle English can be found at the University of Michegan's Middle English Dictionary.

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