penury

noun3

1. •
   Extreme need or want; destitution, poverty; (countable) an instance of this.

   • [W]hat prodigall portion haue I spent, that I should come to such penury? — 1598
2. •
   (literary) Often followed by of: a lack of something; a dearth, a scarcity.

   • VVith these and many others as considerable, vvhich partly vvillingly, and partly in the penury of Books, forgettingly I passe, […] — 1650
3. •
   (no longer used) The quality of being miserly; miserliness, parsimoniousness, stinginess.

   • Let them not still be obstinately blind, / Still to divert the Good thou hast design'd, / Or vvith Malignant penury, / To sterve the Royal Vertues of his Mind. — 1685