At the end of chapter VIII of Thomas Deloney's Jack of Newbury, Jack has a discussion with his wife about a certain "gossip" (an archaic term for "familiar acquaintance"), that he does not want to see in his house again. His wife says:
Leave her company? why husband, so long as she is an honest woman, why should I leaue her company? She never gave me hurtfull counsell in all her life, but hath alwaies been ready to tell mee things for my profit, though you take it not so. Leave her company? I am no gyrle I would you should well know, to bee taught what company I should keepe: I keepe none but honest company, I warrant you. Leave her company ketha? Alas poore soule, this reward shee hath for her good will. I wis, I wis, she is more your friend, than you are your owne.
What does "ketha" mean here?
It is worth knowing that the word or phrase "ke-tha" occurred in Act II, Scene 1 of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, namely in the First Quarto of that play. (Pericles was not included in the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays but was one of the plays in the 1619 False Folio.) The relevant lines go as follows (Per. = Pericles; 1. = First fisherman):
Per. What I haue been, I haue forgot to know;
But what I am, want teaches me to thinke on:
A man throng'd vp with cold, my Veines are chill,
And haue no more of life then may suffize,
To giue my tongue that heat to aske your helpe:
Which if you shall refuse, when I am dead,
For that I am a man, pray you see me buried.
1. Die, ke-tha; now Gods forbid't, and I haue a Gowne
heere, come put it on, keepe thee warme: now afore mee a
handsome fellow : Come, thou shalt goe home, and wee'le
haue Flesh for all day, Fish for fasting-dayes and more; or
Puddinges and Flap-iackes, and thou shalt be welcome.
Editors emend "ke-tha" to "quoth-a" (i.e. quoth he), which is plausible, since the words "Die, ke-tha" may be spoken to the second fisherman. However, in the dialogue from Jack of Newbury, there is no third person, and the wife consistently uses "you" and "your" to refer to her husband, so "ketha" cannot plausibly be emended to "quoth-a" here. This leaves us with the question what it actually means.