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to ask for in advance:
to bespeak the reader’s patience.
to reserve beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for:
to bespeak a seat in a theater.
Literary. to speak to; address.
to show; indicate:
This bespeaks a kindly heart.
Obsolete. to foretell; forebode.
Historical Examples

Permit me most earnestly to bespeak this confidence, as we pursue our investigations in respect to the Will.
Doctrine of the Will Asa Mahan

I hate to tell you, but as I wish to bespeak your kind offices, I must do so.
The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton Wardon Allan Curtis

It is one which would follow that of your public life and bespeak it the work of the same great hand.
Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 John Frederick Schroeder

The reply of Ossaroo did not bespeak any very sanguine hope on his part.
The Cliff Climbers Captain Mayne Reid

Please to bespeak something else; I have everything in the house.
The Beaux-Stratagem George Farquhar

The colour of his skin, with the moustache, bespeak him a white man, and not an Indian.
The Lone Ranche Captain Mayne Reid

In surrendering myself and those under my command, I bespeak for the others an immunity from all vexatious detention.
Horse-Shoe Robinson John Pendleton Kennedy

Was there one, even one, whose counsel he could ask, or whose assistance he could bespeak?
One Of Them Charles James Lever

The Colonel is a fine man for County Judge, and we bespeak for him the suffrages of every voter who wants an honest judiciary.
The Boss of Little Arcady Harry Leon Wilson

They bespeak more than concerns the interests of our country.
Fiesco or, The Genoese Conspiracy Friedrich Schiller

verb (transitive) -speaks, -speaking, -spoke, -spoken, -spoke
to engage, request, or ask for in advance
to indicate or suggest: this act bespeaks kindness
(poetic) to speak to; address
(archaic) to foretell
v.

Old English besprecan “speak about, speak against, complain,” from be- + sprecan “to speak” (see speak). A common Germanic compound (cf. Old Saxon bisprecan, Dutch bespreken, Old High German bisprehhan, German besprechen); originally “to call out,” it evolved a wide range of meaning in English, including “speak up,” “oppose,” “request,” “discuss, “arrange,” and “to order (goods)” (1580s).

The connection of the senses is very loose; some of them appear to have arisen quite independently of each other from different applications of BE- pref. [OED]