What is that which causes pity or compassion; misery; distress; a pitiful. [Obs.] It had been hard this ruth for to see. Chaucer. With wretched miseries and woeful ruth. Spenser called?

ruth — That which causes pity or compassion; misery; distress; a pitiful. [Obs.] It had been hard this ruth for to see. Chaucer. With wretched miseries and woeful ruth. Spenser. (Webster's 1913.)

Sources