The book explores the semantics and pragmatics of epistemic expressions in 16th and 17th century English: verily, in faith, I ween and others. Using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, evidence from texts and collocations, and adducing cultural evidence, the work argues for the existence of a distinct epistemic ethos in 16th and 17th centuryways of thinking and speaking, an ethos of truth, faith, and certainty.