在以下这句话中，even though he be a bankrupt.这部分怎么理解？尤其是be这个词。谢谢。

It was the institution of the ‘free lunch’ that I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts
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FROM 27.45.77.*