This is a quotation from a fairy tale. A young man was turned into a samurai:

> 信じがたきことなれど、拙者サムライでござる。 **かたじけのう** ござる。

I read the first part as 'Although it is hard to believe, I am a samurai'.

What is the grammatical structure used in the second part? Is the word used 忝い
(かたじけな) ?

Is this written in classical Japanese? (It is the き ending of がたい and the use
of でござる that made me think that)
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question
grammar classical-japanese
What is かたじけのう?
This is written in archaic or Classical Japanese style.

信じがたき = 信じがたい "hard to believe". In bungo, い adjectives used attributively
(before the noun) ended in き, but ended in し when used predicatively (after
the noun). Eg: 高き山 "a high mountain" vs 山は高し "the mountain is high" In MSJ, it
would be 高い in both cases, of course.

なれど is the izenkei of the verb なる , "be", plus suffix ど, meaning "although",
so this means "although it is"

So your translation is correct.

The second sentence exemplifies a rule that you are in fact familiar with in
phrases like ありがとうございます、おはようございます and おめでとうございます : い adjectives have a special
form that precedes ござる . This form is made by changing the endings -ai and -oi
to long o and the endings -ii and -ui to long u. Thus: あぶない > あぶのうございます、 ひろい >
ひろうございます、あたらしい > あたらしゅうございます、わるい > わるうございます and so on.

かたじけない is an い adjective meaning "grateful".

So the second sentence means "I am grateful [for that]"

Examples of this form, apart from a few set expressions such as those cited,
are not commonly heard nowadays. A couple that I have come across are
すくのうございます "There are not many", from a very aristocratic lady who spoke
extremely elegant Japanese, and あぶのうございます "It is dangerous [so don't let your
children play on the escalators]" in an announcement over the public address
system in a supermarket.
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answer