候そろ

auxiliary

to be (archaic polite)

Archaic polite auxiliary used after で or に as a copula, replacing ある in classical Japanese. Found in historical documents and formal pre-modern writing.

• これは古ふるい文ぶん書しょに「…に候そう」とある。

  In old documents, you see '…に候' meaning 'it is …'.

auxiliary

to do (archaic polite)

Archaic polite auxiliary used in place of ます in classical Japanese, often attached to the continuative form of verbs. See also 候ふ (sense 2).

See also: 候ふ

• 古こ文ぶんでは「書かき候そう」のように使つかわれた。

  In classical Japanese, it was used like '書き候' to mean 'I write (politely)'.