Definition of "spake"

And God ſpake vnto Noah, ſaying, / Goe foorth of the Arke, thou, and thy wife, and thy ſonnes, and thy ſonnes wiues with thee: […]

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis 8:15–16, columns 1–2

He answered me with pleasure and surprise; / And there was, while he spake, a fire about his eyes.

1815 , William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence

But at last his heart changed,—and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spake thus unto it: Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!

1909 , “Zarathustra's Prologue”, in Thomas Common, transl., Thus Spake Zarathustra, translation of Also sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche