CJTranslations

QUOTES BY TOPIC

’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down,
and the worser allowed by order of law a furred gown

PLAY: Measure for Measure ACT/SCENE: 3.2 SPEAKER: Pompey CONTEXT: ’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the
merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by
order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and
furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that
craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. DUTCH: Met het vroolijk leventjen in de wereld is het uit, sinds,
van twee woekerzaken, de vroolijkste verboden is en aan
de slechtste van de twee bij de wet een pelsrok werd
toegekend om zich warm te houden, MORE: Schmidt:
Usury=The practice of taking interest for money
Craft=Cunning, artifice, guile
Compleat:
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen
I shall pay you with usury=Ik zal het met woeker betaalen
Craft=List, loosheyd Topics: law/legal, offence, corruption, status, money, order/society

[Y]our scope is as mine own
So to enforce or qualify the laws

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Duke Vincentio
CONTEXT:
My haste may not admit it;
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any scruple; your scope is as mine own
So to enforce or qualify the laws
As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:
I’ll privily away. I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:

DUTCH:
Ook moge, bij mijn eer, u geen bedenking
Doen aarz’len; uwe macht is als de mijne;
Verscherp, verzacht de wetten, – ‘t staat u vrij, –

MORE:
Schmidt:
Scruple=Doubt
Scope=Power
Compleat:
Free scope=de ruimte
I give your anger scope=Ik geef uw kwaadheid de vrye loop

Topics: authority, justice, law/legal, independence, status

A goodly day not to keep house with such whose roof’s as low as ours!

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
A goodly day not to keep house with such
Whose roof’s as low as ours! Stoop, boys. This gate
Instructs you how t’ adore the heavens and bows you
To a morning’s holy office. The gates of monarchs
Are arched so high that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
We house i’ th’ rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

DUTCH:
Een dag te schoon om thuis te blijven, onder
Een dak zoo laag als ‘t onze

MORE:
Keep the house=Stay home
Jet=Strut, swagger
Stoop=Bow down
Impious=Sinful, wicked (turbans: Giants were often depicted in romantic novels as turban-wearing Saracens)
Compleat:
To keep house=Huis houden; binnens huis blyven
To jet or jut=Uitstooten, uitwaards loopen
To stoop=Buigen, bokken of bukken
Impious=Ongodvruchtig, godloos

Topics: nature, life, equality, status, authority

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service; and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition

DUTCH:
Dat je een schurk bent, een gladjakker, een pottenlikker,
een lage, verwaten, leeghoofdige bedelaar; een gratis
livreien dragende;

MORE:

White livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare
Schmidt:
Broken meats=Dcraps, leftovers, such as a menial would eat
Three-suited= Serving men were allotted three suits of clothes
Glass-gazing=Vain
Finical=fussy, fastidious
One-trunk-inheriting=With only enough possessions to fill one trunk
Compleat:
Finical (affected)=Gemaakt, styf
Broken meat=Klieken, overschoten spyze.
Burgersdijk notes:
Bedelachtigen, pronkenigen. Zeer duidelijk zijn de scheldwoorden in het oorspronkelijke niet. Het beggarly zou b. v, wel een bepaling van threesuited kunnen zijn, en dit laatste behoeft dan niet te zien op het vaak verwisselen van kleederen, zooals pronkers doen, maar den dienaar kenschetsen, daar misschien een meester aan zijne knecht drie pakken in ‘t jaar gaf. Het worsted-stocking, dat volgt, ziet op de gewoonte om, zoo het maar even ging, zijden kousen te dragen; wie grofwollen kousen droeg, was niet veel bijzonders.

Topics: insult, invented or popularised, poverty and wealth, order/society, status

A knavish speech sleeps in a fool’s ear

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
HAMLET
Ay, sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry again.
ROSENCRANTZ
I understand you not, my lord.
HAMLET
I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

DUTCH:
Een schelmsch gezegde slaapt in ‘t stump’rig. /
De oren van een dwaas zijn doof voor scherts. /
In zotte ooren valt een schalksch gezegde in slaap.

MORE:
Knavish = sly, villainous

Topics: dignity, deceit, proverbs and idioms, status, order/society

A smaller boon than this I cannot beg and less than this, I am sure, you cannot give

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Proteus
CONTEXT:
PROTEUS
Madam, this service I have done for you,
Though you respect not aught your servant doth,
To hazard life and rescue you from him
That would have forced your honour and your love;
Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look;
A smaller boon than this I cannot beg
And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give.

DUTCH:
Om kleiner gunst kan ik u toch niet smeeken ,
En minder nog dan dit kunt gij niet geven.

MORE:
Respect=Value
Forced=Violated
Vouchsafe=Grant
Meed=Reward
Boon=Favour
Compleat:
Respect=Aanzien, opzigt, inzigt, ontzag, eerbiedigheyd
Forced=Gedwongen, aangedrongen
To vouchsafe=Gewaardigen, vergunnen
Meed=Belooning, vergelding, verdiensten
Boon=Een verzoek, geschenk, gunst, voordeel

Topics: value, loyalty, status

Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals that weakens motion

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t’ incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weakens motion. I’ll have ’t disputed on.
‘Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practicer
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—
Lay hold upon him. If he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril!
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Whither will you that I go
To answer this your charge?

DUTCH:
De wereld oordeele, of ‘t niet zonneklaar is,
Dat gij door euv’le kunsten haar verlokt,
Haar teed’re jeugd door kruid of steen verdoofd,
Verbijsterd hebt

MORE:
Keep up=Put away
Years=Age
Stowed=Hidden away
Refer me=Submit my case
All things of sense=The ‘court’ of common sense
Command with years=Respect for age and status
General mock=Public ridicule
Gross in sense=Palpable, obvious
Weakens motion=Dulls the normal perceptive faculties
Disputed on=Contested, debated
Abuser of the world=Corrupter of society
Attach=Arrest
Palpable to thinking=Obvious, manifest
Compleat:
To put up a sword=Een zwaard in de scheede steeken
To stow=Stuuwen
To refer=Wyzen, gedraagen, overwyzen
To dispute, to agitate, or maintain a question=Een veschil verdedigen, handhaven
To dispute=Twistredenen, betwisten, zintwisten, disputeeren
Disputer=Een twistredenaar, zintwister, woordentwister, disputant
Attach=Beslaan, de hand opleggen, in verzekering neemen
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden
Palpable=Tastelyk, tastbaar
Weaken=Verzwakken, slap maaken, krenken

Topics: status, reputation, resolution, evidence

All’s well, sir: take my power i’ the court for yours

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.6
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
All’s well, sir: take my power i’ the court
for yours.
IACHIMO
My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
To entreat your grace but in a small request,
And yet of moment to, for it concerns
Your lord; myself and other noble friends,
Are partners in the business.
IMOGEN
Pray, what is’t?
IACHIMO
Some dozen Romans of us and your lord—
The best feather of our wing—have mingled sums
To buy a present for the emperor
Which I, the factor for the rest, have done
In France: ’tis plate of rare device, and jewels
Of rich and exquisite form; their values great;
And I am something curious, being strange,
To have them in safe stowage: may it please you
To take them in protection?

DUTCH:
Het zij. — Mijn invloed hier is tot uw dienst.

MORE:
But in=In only
Of moment=Impoortant
Mingled sums=Collected money together
Something=Somewhat
Curious=Nervous
Strange=A stranger
Compleat:
Moment=gewicht, belang. Of great moment=Van groot gewicht.
Of no moment=Van geen belang
Mingled=Gemengd, gemengeld
Something=Iets; iet, wat
Curious=Aardig, keurlyk, keurig, nieuwsgierig, weetgierig, net, kurieus
Strange=Vreemd, misselyk, zeldzaam

Topics: status, authority, business

And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Duke Vincentio
CONTEXT:
What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply,
Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love,
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: what think you of it?

DUTCH:
Hoe, denkt gij, zal hij omen stoel bekleeden?
Want weet, wij kozen hem na rijp’lijk wikken
Tot onzen plaatsvervanger in ons afzijn,
En dragen hem des volks ontzag en liefde,
De rechten en de midd’len, waar wij zelve
Mee heerschen, over. Wat dunkt u hiervan?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Figure=Image, representation
Absence to supply=Substitute, deputise
Compleat:
Figure (or representation)=Afbeelding
Figure (or appearance)=Gedaante, aanzien
To make some figure in the world=Eenig aanzien in de waereld verkrygen
To supply one’s place=Iemands plaats bekleeden
Deputation=Afzending, bezending
To depute=Afzenden, afvaardigen, afschikken

Topics: authority, justice, status

Be collected. No more amazement.
Tell your piteous heart There’s no harm done.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to th’ welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer. A brave vessel
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her
Dashed all to pieces. Oh, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.
PROSPERO
Be collected.
No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart
There’s no harm done.
MIRANDA
Oh, woe the day!
PROSPERO
No harm.
I have done nothing but in care of thee,

DUTCH:
Wees niet ontdaan:
Blijf kalm, en zeg tot uw meewarig hart —
Geen ramp viel voor.

MORE:
There’s no harm done’ still in use today.
By your art=Magic
Welkin=Edge of the sea or sky
Fraughting=Freight, freighted, freighting
Amazement=Terror, horror
Compleat:
Fraught=Bevracht, van “to Freight”
Burgersdijk notes:
O dag van wee! enz. De gewone, overgeleverde tekst luidt: Pros. Tell your piteous heart, There’s no harm done. — Mir. O, woe the day. — Pros. No harm. I have done etc., zoodat Prospero zegt: ,Zeg uw meewarig hart: Geen ramp viel voor” (of: „Geen leed geschiedde”), waarop Miranda, vreemd genoeg na dezen troostgrond, uitroept: „O, dag van wee !” en Prospero herneemt: „Geen ramp (of ,;Geen leed”). Niets deed ik” enz. Veel natuurlijker is het zoo, volgens Elze’s verbetering, Miranda met hare weeklacht haren vader in de reden valt, alvorens deze haar heeft kunnen troosten; zoodra haar vader gezegd heeft: tell your piteous heart , roept zij uit: O woe the day! en op het vertroostend zeggen van haar vader: There ‘s no harm done, vraagt zij verbaasd en verrast: No harm ? waarop Prospero herneemt: I have done nothing etc. Deze gissing van Elze is in de vertaling gevolgd.

Topics: understanding, status, invented or popularised, still in use

Belike that now she hath enfranchised them upon some other pawn for fealty

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Valentine
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Welcome him then according to his worth.
Sylvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio;
For Valentine, I need not cite him to it.
I will send him hither to you presently.
VALENTINE
This is the gentleman I told your ladyship
Had come along with me but that his mistress
Did hold his eyes locked in her crystal looks.
SYLVIA
Belike that now she hath enfranchised them
Upon some other pawn for fealty.

DUTCH:
Zoo heet hem naar zijn waarde welkom hier.
‘k Zeg, Silvia, dit tot u, en u, heer Thurio; —
Want Valentijn heb ik niet aan te manen.
Ik zend hem oogenblikk’lijk naar u toe.

MORE:
Welcome=Receive
According to his worth=Appropriate to his reputation
Cite=Incite, urge
Had=Would have
Belike=Probably
Enfranchised=Liberated
Compleat:
+G38
To enfranchise=Tot eenen burger of vry maaken, vryheyd vergunnen
A thing of great worth=Een Zaak van groote waarde
A person of worth=Een voortreffelyk persoon

Topics: status, order/society, appearance

Besides these, other bars he lays before me

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Fenton
CONTEXT:
FENTON
I see I cannot get thy father’s love;
Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan.
ANNE PAGE
Alas, how then?
FENTON
Why, thou must be thyself.
He doth object I am too great of birth—,
And that, my state being galled with my expense,
I seek to heal it only by his wealth:
Besides these, other bars he lays before me,
My riots past, my wild societies;
And tells me ’tis a thing impossible
I should love thee but as a property.
ANNE PAGE
May be he tells you true.

DUTCH:
Nog and’re hinderpalen werpt hij op, —
Mijn vroeg’re losheid en mijn wilden omgang,
En zegt mij, dat hij ‘t voor onmoog’lijk houdt,
Dat ik u anders lief heb dan om ‘t geld.

MORE:
Nan=Anne
Galled=Grieved, displeased
Expense=Extravagance
Bars=Objections
Societies=Companions
Compleat:
To gall=’t Vel afschuuren, smarten; benaauwen
Moderation in expense=Zuynigheyd, zpaarzaamheyd
Bar=Dwarsboom, draaiboom, hinderpaal, beletsel, traali
Society=Gezelschap, gemeenschap, gezelligheyd, genootschap, maatschap

Topics: truth|marriage|status|money

Between their titles and low name there’s nothing differs but the outward fame.

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Brakenbury
CONTEXT:
BRAKENBURY
Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil,
And, for unfelt imaginations,
They often feel a world of restless cares,
So that betwixt their titles and low name
There’s nothing differs but the outward fame.

DUTCH:
Zoodat van lagen stand een hooge naam
In niets verschilt dan in den tooi der faam.

MORE:
Breaks=Ignores
Reposing=Rest
Unfelt=Unreal
Restless=Ceaseless
Compleat:
Repose=Rust
Restless=Rusteloos, ongerust, onverduldig

Topics: sorrow, appearance, status

But yet my caution was more pertinent than the rebuke you give it

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
Speak, good Cominius:
Leave nothing out for length, and make us think
Rather our state’s defective for requital
Than we to stretch it out.
Masters o’ the people,
We do request your kindest ears, and after,
Your loving motion toward the common body,
To yield what passes here.
SICINIUS
We are convented
Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts
Inclinable to honour and advance
The theme of our assembly.
BRUTUS
Which the rather
We shall be blest to do, if he remember
A kinder value of the people than
He hath hereto prized them at.
MENENIUS
That’s off, that’s off;
I would you rather had been silent. Please you
To hear Cominius speak?
BRUTUS
Most willingly;
But yet my caution was more pertinent
Than the rebuke you give it.
MENENIUS
He loves your people
But tie him not to be their bedfellow.
Worthy Cominius, speak.

DUTCH:
Zeer gaarne, doch mijn voorbehoud was passend,
Veel meer dan uw verwijt.

MORE:
Leave nothing out for length=Omit no detail
Defective of=Inability
Requital=Reward
Stretch it out=To pay enough reward
Motion=Influence
Body=Common people
Convented=Convened
Kinder value=More generous estimation
Off=Off the point
Compleat:
Defective=Gebreklyk, onvolkomen
Requital=Vergelding
Motion=Beweeging, aandryving
In a body=Gezamenlyk (en corps)
To convent=Voor ‘t recht roepen

Topics: news, communication, status, caution

Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again, plead a new state in thy unrivalled merit

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
The more degenerate and base art thou,
To make such means for her as thou hast done
And leave her on such slight conditions.
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress’ love:
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again,
Plead a new state in thy unrivalled merit,
To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman and well derived;
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserved her.
VALENTINE
I thank your grace; the gift hath made me happy.
I now beseech you, for your daughter’s sake,
To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

DUTCH:
Daarom, al wat mij griefde, zij vergeten;
Mijn wrok vervloog; ik roep u weer terug.
Uw onbetwistb’re waarde geeft u aanspraak
Op nieuwen rang; dies zeg ik: Valentijn,
Gij zijt een edelman van besten bloede;
Neem gij uw Silvia, want gij zijt haar waard.

MORE:
Base=Lowly
Make such means=Take such pains
Slight=Insignificant
Conditions=Grounds, terms
Griefs=Grievances
Repeal=Recall
Plead a new state=Request new conditions
Subscribe=Endorse
Derived=Descended
Compleat:
Base=Ondergeschikt
By my means=Door myn toedoen
Slight=Van weinig belang, een beuzeling
Condition=Aardt, gesteltenis
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Repeal=Herroepen, afschaffen, weer intrekken
Subscribe=Onderschryven
Derived=Afgeleyd, voortgekomen

Topics: status, loyalty, merit

Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no clients

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Pompey
CONTEXT:
Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no
clients: though you change your place, you need not
change your trade; I’ll be your tapster still.
Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that
have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you
will be considered.

DUTCH:
Kom, wees zonder zorg; goede raadslui zijn nooit zonder
klanten.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Tapster=One who draws beer and serves the customers of an alehouse
Compleat:
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper

Topics: lawyers, law/legal, justice, status

Contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard—none.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gonzalo
CONTEXT:
SEBASTIAN
‘Scape being drunk for want of wine.
GONZALO
I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things. For no kind of traffic
Would I admit. No name of magistrate.
Letters should not be known. Riches, poverty,
And use of service—none. Contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard—none.
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil.
No occupation. All men idle, all.
And women too, but innocent and pure.
No sovereignty—
SEBASTIAN
Yet he would be king on ’t.
ANTONIO
The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.
GONZALO
All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavor. Treason, felony,
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
Would I not have. But nature should bring forth
Of its own kind all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.

DUTCH:
Geen huur of erfpacht, grenssteen, land- noch wijnbouw,
Geen kennis van metaal, graan, wijn of olie,
Geen ambacht; alle mannen nietsdoend, allen;
De vrouwen ook, maar schuldeloos en rein;
Geen oppermacht;

MORE:
Schmidt:
Commonwealth=Body politic
By contraries=Contrary to usual customs
Letters=Sophisticated learning; also writings, written records
Bound of land” explains “Bourn,” French Borne. (Distinguished from “bourn,” a stream.)
Foison=Rich harvest, abundance
Tilt=Tillage, husbandry
Compleat:
Contraries are best known by their contraries=Tegenstellingen worden best uit tegenstellingen gekend
Lettered=Geletterd, geleerd
A man slenderly lettered=Een man van weinig kennis
Bourn=Een bron
Foison (or plenty)=Overvloed
Tilling=Landbouwing
Burgersdijk notes:
Bij ‘t reg’len van mijn staat enz. De utopische regeeringsplannen, welke door Gonzalo hier op satyrische wijze worden voorgedragen, zijn, gedeeltelijk zelfs woordelijk , ontleend aan Florio’s vertaling van Montaigne’s Essays; men vergelijke Boek I, hoofdstuk 30, On the Caniballes, afgedrukt b.v. in Delius inleiding tot zijne uitgave van dit stuk. Het exemplaar van Florio’s vertaling, dat in het bezit is geweest van Shakespeare, is bewaard gebleven; het is van zijne naamteekening voorzien en bevindt zich in de bibliotheek van het Britsch Museum.

Topics: ambition, nature, status, order/society, law/legal

Custom calls me to’t: what custom wills, in all things should we do’t

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Most sweet voices!
Better it is to die, better to starve,
Than crave the hire which first we do deserve.
Why in this woolvish gown should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick, that do appear,
Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to’t:
What custom wills, in all things should we do’t,
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heapt
For truth to o’er-peer. Rather than fool it so,
Let the high office and the honour go
To one that would do thus. I am half through;
The one part suffer’d, the other will I do.
Here come more voices.
Your voices: for your voices I have fought;
Watch’d for your voices; for Your voices bear
Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six
I have seen and heard of; for your voices have
Done many things, some less, some more your voices:
Indeed I would be consul.

DUTCH:
Dit wil ‘t gebruik? — Maar deden
Wij alles naar den eisch van oude zeden,
Dan wierd het stof des tijds nooit weggevaagd;
De dwaling wies tot berg, en nimmer waagt
De waarheid dan de slechting

MORE:
Proverb: Custom makes sin no sin

Voices=Votes
Hob and Dick=Tom, Dick and Harry
Vouches=Attestations
Custom=(1) Common use, received order; (2) Habit, regular practice
O’erpeer (archaic definition)=Rise or tower above, overcome, excel.
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Custom=Gewoonte, neering
The customary laws of a nation=De gewoone wetten van een Volk
Peer=Gelyk, weergaa

Topics: merit, achievement, status, authority, leadership, proverbs and idioms

Experience, O, thou disprovest report!

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have heard!
Our courtiers say all’s savage but at court:
Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
The imperious seas breed monsters, for the dish
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio,
I’ll now taste of thy drug.
GUIDERIUS
I could not stir him:
He said he was gentle, but unfortunate;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest.
ARVIRAGUS
Thus did he answer me: yet said, hereafter
I might know more.
BELARIUS
To the field, to the field!
We’ll leave you for this time: go in and rest.

DUTCH:
Wat zijn zij goed! 0 goden,
Wat liegt de wereld toch! Gij, hoov’ling, noemt,
Wat niet de hoflucht ademt, woest en ruw,
Hoe logenstraft thans ondervinding u !

MORE:
Imperious=Imperial
Poor=Small, minor
Sweet=Tasty
Stir=Persuade to talk
Gentle=High bred, noble
Dishonestly=In bad faith
Compleat:
Imperious=Heerschzuchtig
Poor=(mean, pitiful) Arm, elendig
To stir=Beweegen; verwekken
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Dishonestly=Oneerlyker wyze

Topics: status, truth, civility, sorrow, honesty

For do we must what force will have us do.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,
As my true service shall deserve your love.
KING RICHARD II
Well you deserve: they well deserve to have,
That know the strong’st and surest way to get.
Uncle, give me your hands: nay, dry your eyes;
Tears show their love, but want their remedies.
Cousin, I am too young to be your father,
Though you are old enough to be my heir.
What you will have, I’ll give, and willing too;
For do we must what force will have us do.
Set on towards London, cousin, is it so?

DUTCH:
Wij moeten doen, wat overmacht gebiedt. —
Naar Londen; — neef, niet waar, daar gaan wij heen

MORE:

Proverb: They that are bound must obey

Redoubted=Feared, respected (often used to address a monarch)
Want=Fail to provide (a remedy)

Compleat:
Redoubted=Geducht, ontzaglyk
Want=Gebrek

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, status, remedy, merit

For some must watch, while some must sleep
So runs the world away

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hamlet
CONTEXT:
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungallèd play.
For some must watch while some must sleep.
So runs the world away.

DUTCH:
Men kan verheugd zijn of benard, Zo is ’t op aard verdeeld. /
Gewaakt er moet, zal slapen eene: Zoo blijft de wereld aan ‘t rollen. /
Wij komen voor- of achteraan, Zoo is de loop der zaken.

MORE:
“For some must watch while some must sleep” is still in use today; also the basis for titles of several works.

Topics: life, still in use, status, order/society, status

From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, the place is dignified by the doer’s deed

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
But follows it, my lord, to bring me down
Must answer for your raising? I know her well:
She had her breeding at my father’s charge.
A poor physician’s daughter my wife! Disdain
Rather corrupt me ever!
KING
‘Tis only title thou disdain’st in her, the which
I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods,
Of colour, weight, and heat, poured all together,
Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off
In differences so mighty. If she be
All that is virtuous, save what thou dislikest,
A poor physician’s daughter, thou dislikest
Of virtue for the name: but do not so:
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer’s deed:
Where great additions swell’s, and virtue none,
It is a dropsied honour. Good alone
Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she’s immediate heir,
And these breed honour: that is honour’s scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour’s born
And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers: the mere word’s a slave
Debauched on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
Of honoured bones indeed. What should be said?
If thou canst like this creature as a maid,
I can create the rest: virtue and she
Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me.

DUTCH:
Ontspruit een edel doen uit lagen staat,
Die wordt verhoogd, geadeld door de daad;
Wie zwelt van trots, op deugd niet, maar op bloed,
Heeft waterzuchtige’ adel.

MORE:
Proverb: There is no difference of bloods in a basin
Proverb: Man honours the place, not the place the man

Additions=Titles
Dignify=To give lustre to, to honour
Swell (swell us or swell is– debated)=Inflate
Dropsied=Diseased (with dropsy)
Dislike=Disapprove, regard with ill-will or disgust
Compleat:
Addition=Bydoening, byvoegsel
Dropsy=Waterzucht
Swell=Swellen, opblaazen; Uitzetten, grootr worden, oploopen; zwellen
Dislike=Mishaagen, misnoegen

Topics: virtue, order/society, status, dignity, status

God save the king! Will no man say amen? Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Lords, you that here are under our arrest,
Procure your sureties for your days of answer.
Little are we beholding to your love,
And little look’d for at your helping hands.
KING RICHARD II
Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Wherewith I reign’d? I hardly yet have learn’d
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs:
Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours of these men: were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry, ‘all hail!’ to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one: I, in twelve thousand, none.
God save the king! Will no man say amen?
Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he;
And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me.
To do what service am I sent for hither?

DUTCH:
Den koning heil! — zegt niemand „Amen”? Moet ik
En priester zijn en leek? Nu goed dan, — Amen!
Den koning ,heil! schoon ik het niet meer zij ;
En Amen óók, erkent de hemel mij. —
Tot welken dienst werd ik hierheen gebracht?

MORE:

Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

Under our arrest=Any restraint upon a person binding him to be responsible to the law, bound to appear on the trial date set (Rest under gage – See: “Lords appellants, Your differences shall all rest under gage”.)
Beholding=Indebted, obliged (beholden)
Procure your sureties=Arrange for guarantors
Days of answer=Defence
Bend my limbs=Bow, go on bended knee
Wherewith=With which
Insinuate=To ingratiate oneself (in a negative sense)
Favour=Face
Clerk=Reader of responses in church service, usually minor cleric or a lay person

Compleat:
Arrest=Raadsbesluit
Beholding, beholden=Gehouden, verplicht, verschuldigt
Surety=Borg, vastigheid
To bend his knees=Zyne knien buigen
Insinuate=Inboezemen, inflyen, inschuiven, indringen
Clerk=Een Kerkelyke, geestelyke, Kerk, schryver; Sekretaris

Topics: law/legal, respect, order/society, status, appearance, defence

Good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Corin
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?
CORIN
No, truly.
TOUCHSTONE
Then thou art damned.
CORIN
Nay, I hope.
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, thou art damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.
CORIN
For not being at court? Your reason.
TOUCHSTONE
Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest good manners; if thou never sawest good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.
CORIN
Not a whit, Touchstone: those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court. You told me you salute not at the court but you kiss your hands. That courtesy would be uncleanly if courtiers were shepherds.
TOUCHSTONE
Instance, briefly. Come, instance.

DUTCH:
Volstrekt niet, Toetssteen; want wat aan het hof goede
gedragingen zijn, is even belachlijk op het land, als de
manieren van het land bespottelijk zijn aan het hof.

MORE:
Wast=Wast thou
Ill-roasted=Unevenly cooked
Manners=Polite behaviour, morals
Parlous=Perilous, in danger
Behaviour=Conduct
Compleat:
Over-roasted=Al te lang gebraaden
Thou wast=Gy waart
Manners=Zeden, manieren, manierlykheid
Parlous=Gevaarlyk, loos; Onvergelykelyk, weergaloos
Behaviour=Gedrag, handel en wandel, ommegang, aanstelling

Topics: order/society, civility, status

Good signior, you shall more command with years than with your weapons

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
IAGO
You, Roderigo! Come, sir, I am for you.
OTHELLO
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signior, you shall more command with years
Than with your weapons.
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t’ incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weakens motion. I’ll have ’t disputed on.
‘Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practicer
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—
Lay hold upon him. If he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril!

DUTCH:
Steekt op uw blanke klingen, want de nachtdauw
Zal die doen roesten. — Edel Heer, uw leeftijd
Dwingt eér ontzag af, dan uw zwaard het doet.

Topics: status, reputation, age/experience, respect

He hath a kind of honour sets him off, more than a mortal seeming

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.6
SPEAKER: Iachimo
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
You make amends.
IACHIMO
He sits ‘mongst men like a descended god:
He hath a kind of honour sets him off,
More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
Most mighty princess, that I have adventured
To try your taking a false report; which hath
Honour’d with confirmation your great judgment
In the election of a sir so rare,
Which you know cannot err: the love I bear him
Made me to fan you thus, but the gods made you,
Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon.
IMOGEN
All’s well, sir: take my power i’ the court
for yours.
IACHIMO
My humble thanks. I had almost forgot
To entreat your grace but in a small request,
And yet of moment to, for it concerns
Your lord; myself and other noble friends,
Are partners in the business.

DUTCH:
Bij troont bij and’re menschen als een god;
Hij heeft een waardigheid, die hem een meer
Dan menschlijk aanzien geeft.

MORE:
Sets him off=Shows him to advantage
Seeming=Appearance
Adventured=Ventured, dared
Try=Test
Taking=Reception
Election=Choice
Fan=Winnow (process of separating wheat from chaff)
But in=In only
Of moment=Important
Compleat:
To set off=Doen afsteeken, oppronken
Seeming=Schynende
Adventure=Avontuur, kans, hach; ‘t Gene men ter zee waagt
To try=Beproeven
Taking=Neeming, vatting
To eleect=Kiezen, verkiezen
To winnow corn with a fan=Koorn met eene wan uytwannen
Moment=gewicht, belang. Of great moment=Van groot gewicht.
Of no moment=Van geen belang

Topics: flattery, honour, anger, truth, status, authority

He hath been most notoriously abused

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Olivia
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
Good madam, hear me speak,
And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come
Taint the condition of this present hour,
Which I have wonder’d at. In hope it shall not,
Most freely I confess, myself and Toby
Set this device against Malvolio here,
Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts
We had conceived against him. Maria writ
The letter at Sir Toby’s great importance,
In recompense whereof he hath married her.
How with a sportful malice it was followed,
May rather pluck on laughter than revenge,
If that the injuries be justly weighed
That have on both sides passed.
OLIVIA
Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee!
FOOL
Why, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.” I was one, sir, in this interlude, one Sir Topas, sir, but that’s all one.
“By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.”—But do you remember? “Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal; an you smile not, he’s gagged?” and thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
MALVOLIO
I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.
OLIVIA
He hath been most notoriously abused.

DUTCH:
Voorwaar, hij is verschrikk’lijk boos gefopt.

MORE:
Taint=Blemish
Uncourteous parts=Uncivil aspects
Condition=Situation
Conceived against=Discerned in
Importance=Importuning
Pluck on=Induce
Baffled=Humiliated
Interlude=Comedy
Whirligig=Spinning top, merry-go-round
Compleat:
To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
Uncourteous=Onbeleefd, onheusch
Condition=Staat, gesteltenis. gelegenheyd
Conceive=Bevatten, begrypen, beseffen, zich inbeelden; scheppen
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To pluck=Rukken, plukken
To baffle=Beschaamd maaken
Whirligig=Een kinder meulentje of draaitolletje

To taint (attaint)=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten

Topics: madness, reputation, leadership, status, honour, conspiracy

He requires your haste-post-haste appearance

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the signiory
Shall out-tongue his complaints. ‘Tis yet to know—
Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate. I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhousèd free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea’s worth. But look, what lights come yond?
IAGO
Those are the raisèd father and his friends.
You were best go in.
OTHELLO
Not I, I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO
By Janus, I think no.
You were best go in.
Not I, I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO
By Janus, I think no.
OTHELLO
The servants of the Duke and my lieutenant?
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?
CASSIO
The Duke does greet you, general,
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

DUTCH:
Veel Senatoren, in der haast ontboden,
Zijn bij den doge. Onmidd’lijk riep men u,
En toen gij niet te huis te vinden waart,
Zond de Senaat drie boden door de stad
Om u te zoeken.

MORE:
Yet to know=Still not public knowledge
Promulgate=Make public
Siege=Seat; social status
Demerits=Deserts, merits
Unhousèd=Unconfined
Put into circumscription=Restrain, confine
Unbonneted=Bare-headed (without humility or embarrassment; on equal terms)
Janus=Ancient Roman god of beginnings, endings, and doorways, who is represented as having two faces
Compleat:
To promulgate=Verkondigen
Demerit=Verdienste [doch in quaaden zin]Circumscription=Omschryving
To circumscribe=Omschryven, bepaalen, beperken

Topics: work, merit, claim, status, independence

He was a kind of nothing, titleless, till he had forged himself a name

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Cominius
CONTEXT:
COMINIUS
He would not seem to know me.
MENENIUS
Do you hear?
COMINIUS
Yet one time he did call me by my name.
I urged our old acquaintance, and the drops
That we have bled together. “Coriolanus”
He would not answer to, forbade all names.
He was a kind of nothing, titleless,
Till he had forged himself a name o’ th’ fire
Of burning Rome.

DUTCH:
Hij was een soort van niets, gansch zonder naam,
Tot hij zich uit de vlam van ‘t brandend Rome
Een naam gesmeed had.

MORE:
To urge=To speak of, to mention
Yet=Only
Forge=To frame in general
Compleat:
Forge=Smeden; uitvinden
To urge=Dringen, pressen, aandringen, aanstaan

Topics: status, authority, reputation

Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home: is this a holiday?

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
Hence! Home, you idle creatures get you home!
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign
Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?
CARPENTER
Why, sir, a carpenter.
MURELLUS
Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
—You, sir, what trade are you?
COBBLER
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as
you would say, a cobbler.
MURELLUS
But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
COBBLER
A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe
conscience, which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad
soles.
MURELLUS
What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?

DUTCH:
Van hier, naar huis! gij, luie vlegels, voort!
Is dit een vrije dag?

MORE:
Mechanical=Labourer, working class
Thou=Use of thou signified familiarity or, as here, contempt
Rule=Punning on (1) ruler and (2) conduct
Cobbler=Punning on (1) shoemender and (2) bungler
Soles=Punning on (1) shoe soles and (2) souls
Compleat:
To cobble=Flikken, lappen, brodden; schoenlappen
Cobbler=(Cobler) Een schoenlapper, schoenflikker, broddelaar
Rule=Regel, lijn; bestieren, regeren

Burgersdijk notes:
Dat gij, als handwerkslieden, enz. Zulke bepalingen bestonden inderdaad, zoowel in Engeland als in
Duitschland .

Topics: status, order/society, work

His currish riddles sort not with this place

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Prince Edward
CONTEXT:
KING EDWARD IV
Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him speak.
What! Can so young a thorn begin to prick?
Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make
For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,
And all the trouble thou hast turn’d me to?
PRINCE EDWARD
Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York!
Suppose that I am now my father’s mouth;
Resign thy chair, and where I stand kneel thou,
Whilst I propose the selfsame words to thee,
Which traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to.
QUEEN MARGARET
Ah, that thy father had been so resolved!
GLOUCESTER
That you might still have worn the petticoat,
And ne’er have stol’n the breech from Lancaster.
PRINCE EDWARD
Let Aesop fable in a winter’s night;
His currish riddles sort not with this place.

DUTCH:
Aesopus moge in winternachten faab’len;
Hier passen zulke hondsche raadsels niet.

MORE:

Gallant=Person of rank
Prick=Incite
Satisfaction=Amends
Turned me to=Caused me
Suppose=Consider, remember
Breech=Trousers
Currish=Malicious

Compleat:
Gallant=Salet jonker
To prick=Prikken, steeken, prikkelen
Satisfaction= (amends) Vergoeding, voldoening
Suppose=Vermoeden, denken, onderstellen
Currish=Hondsch, kwaadaardig

Burgersdijk notes:
V. 5. 25. Aesopus moge in winternachten faab’len. De Prins vergelijkt Richard met den mismaakten
fabeldichter Aesopus.

Topics: remedy, truth, respect, status, order/society, marriage

His worth is warrant for his welcome hither

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Silvia
CONTEXT:
VALENTINE
Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you,
Confirm his welcome with some special favour.
SILVIA
His worth is warrant for his welcome hither,
If this be he you oft have wished to hear from.
VALENTINE
Mistress, it is: sweet lady, entertain him
To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship.
SILVIA
Too low a mistress for so high a servant.
PROTEUS
Not so, sweet lady: but too mean a servant
To have a look of such a worthy mistress.

DUTCH:
Zijn waarde waarborgt hem zijn welkom hier,
Als hij ‘t is, waar gij vaak bericht van wenschtet.

MORE:
Warrant=Justification
Entertain=Employ
High=Superior
Mean=Unworthy
Look of=Look from
Compleat:
To warrant=Staande houden, borg staan
Entertain=Onthaalen, huysvesten, plaats vergunnen
Mean=Gering, slecht

Topics: status, order/society, reputation, respect

However these disturbers of our peace buzz in the people’s ears, there nought hath passed, but even with law

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Saturninus
CONTEXT:
SATURNINUS
Why, lords, what wrongs are these! was ever seen
An emperor in Rome thus overborne,
Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent
Of equal justice, used in such contempt?
My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods,
However these disturbers of our peace
Buzz in the people’s ears, there nought hath passed,
But even with law, against the willful sons
Of old Andronicus. And what an if
His sorrows have so overwhelmed his wits,
Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks,
His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness?
And now he writes to heaven for his redress:
See, here’s to Jove, and this to Mercury;
This to Apollo; this to the god of war;
Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!
What’s this but libelling against the senate,
And blazoning our injustice every where?
A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?
As who would say, in Rome no justice were.
But if I live, his feigned ecstasies
Shall be no shelter to these outrages:
But he and his shall know that justice lives
In Saturninus’ health, whom, if she sleep,
He’ll so awake as she in fury shall
Cut off the proud’st conspirator that lives.

DUTCH:
Gij, heeren, weet, gelijk de groote goden,
Dat, — wat ook vredestoorders mogen blazen
In ‘t oor des volks, — er met de drieste zoons
Van de’ ouden Andronicus niets geschiedde,
Dan volgens wet en rech

MORE:
Overborne=Oppressed, overwhelmed, overruled
For the extent=In return for
Equal=Equitable
Even=In accordance
Wreaks=Vindictiveness
Humour=Disposition, caprice
Ecstasy=Madness
Compleat:
Overbear=Onderdrukken, overtreffen
He overbore him with blows=Hy kreeg hem onder met slagen
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid
To wreak one’s anger upon one=Zynen moed op iemand koelen
Extasy=Verrukking, opgetoogenheid, vertrekking van zinnen

Topics: status, respect, order/society, madness, justice

I am in so far in blood that sin will pluck on sin

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Come hither, Catesby. Rumour it abroad
That Anne my wife is very grievous sick.
I will take order for her keeping close.
Inquire me out some mean poor gentleman,
Whom I will marry straight to Clarence’ daughter.
The boy is foolish, and I fear not him.
Look how thou dream’st! I say again, give out
That Anne my queen is sick and like to die.
About it, for it stands me much upon
To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.
(aside) I must be married to my brother’s daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass.
Murder her brothers, and then marry her—
Uncertain way of gain. But I am in
So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin.
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

DUTCH:
Onzeek’re kans, ja ; maar ik waadde in bloed
Zoo ver, dat zonde zonde baren moet.
Geen schreiend meelij woont er in dit oog.

MORE:
Rumour it=Spread the rumour
Take order=Arrange
Like=Likely
Stands me much upon=Is important to me
Pluck on=Build on
Falling=Dropping
Compleat:
To rumour=Waereldkundig maaken, verspreyden
To order=Schikken, belasten, beveelen, ordineeren
How much does it stand him in=Hoe duur staat het hem; hoe hoog komt het hem te staan?

Topics: news, plans/intentions, status

I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Cobbler
CONTEXT:
COBBLER
A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe
conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad
soles.
MURELLUS
What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?
COBBLER
Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me. Yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.
MURELLUS
What mean’st thou by that? “Mend” me, thou saucy fellow?

DUTCH:
Neen, ik bid u, leg er geen knoop op; want wezenlijk,
als er een steek aan u los is, kan ik u opknappen.

MORE:
Cobbler=Punning on (1) shoemender and (2) bungler
Soles=Punning on (1) shoe soles and (2) souls
“Out” double meaning: first out to mean angry, second out at heel (now down at heel); see also double meaning in a “mender of bad soles”.
Compleat:
To cobble=Flikken, lappen, brodden; schoenlappen
Cobbler=(Cobler) Een schoenlapper, schoenflikker, broddelaar
To be out=Missen, uythebben

Burgersdijk notes:
Het verbeteren van den slechten wandel der menschen. Het Engelsch heeft: a mender of bad soles. De woordspeling met soles en souls is in het Engelsch veel natuurlijker, en wat hier gegeven wordt, is veel te deftig, maar het is moeilijk lets beters te vinden; misschien zou kunnen dienen: Zonder mij ging de wereld op sloffen,” of wel: op sokken”.

Topics: status, order/society, work

I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
Abhorrèd slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour
One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in ’t which good natures
Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
CALIBAN
You taught me language, and my profit on ’t
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!

DUTCH:
Deernis had ik;
En schonk u met veel zorg de spraak, ik leerde
U ieder uur iets nieuws; toen gij, een wilde,
Uzelven niet begreept, en klanken uitstiet
Gelijk het stomste vee, gaf ik u woorden,
Zoodat ge u uiten kondt;

MORE:
Schmidt:
Print=Imprint
Take=To receive as a thing in any way given or communicated
Gabble=Caliban is speaking in another language (incomprehensible to Miranda)
Purpose=That which a person or thing means to say or express, sense, meaning, purport: “I endowed thy –s with words,”
Rid=Destroy
Compleat:
Imprint=Inddrukken, inprenten
To imprint a thing in one’s mind=Iemand iets in het geheugen prenten
Gabble=Gekakel, gesnater
To gabble=Snappen, kakelen, koeteren
To gabble French=Fransch koeteren

Topics: language, learning/education, understanding, status, pity, order/society

I have no exquisite reason for ’t, but I have reason good enough

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
SIR TOBY BELCH
Possess us, possess us, tell us something of him.
MARIA
Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of puritan.
SIR ANDREW
O, if I thought that, I’d beat him like a dog!
SIR TOBY BELCH
What, for being a puritan? Thy exquisite reason, dear
knight?
SIR ANDREW
I have no exquisite reason for ’t, but I have reason
good enough.
MARIA
The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly,
but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass that cons state
without book and utters it by great swaths; the best
persuaded of himself, so crammed, as he thinks, with
excellencies, that it is his grounds of faith that all
that look on him love him. And on that vice in him will
my revenge find notable cause to work.

DUTCH:
Ik heb er nu juist geen uitgelezen grond voor, maar
mijn grond is goed genoeg.

MORE:
Possess=Tell, impart information
Puritan=Member of the Protestant reforming party; claiming to have high moral ideals (including disapproval of the theatre and drinking)
Exquisite=Excellent
Time-pleaser=One who follows the fashion/opinion of the time
Affectioned=Affected
Cons=Memorizes
State=Dignity, deportment
Swaths (swathes, swarths)=Masses (from the hay cut by a scythe)
Best persuaded=High opinion
Compleat:
To possess one with an opinion=Iemand tot een gevoelen overbaalen, voorinnemen
Puritan (one who pretends to a purity of doctrine and worship beyond all other protestants and therefore declines a communion with the Church of England) De fynste Hervormdsgezinden onder de Protestanten van Groot-Brittanje
A puritan (or hypocrite)=Fymelaar, geveinsde
Exquisite=Uittgeleezxen, uitgezocht, keurlyk, raar
To conn=Zyne lesse kennen, of van buiten leeren
To take state upon one=Zich trots aanstellen, het zeil in top haalen
Swathe (of g rass)=Een zwaade (of regel) van afgemaaid gras
Swathed=Gezwachteld, gebakerd
Persuaded=Overreed, overstemd, overtuigd, aangeraaden, wysgemaakt

Topics: status, evidence, reason, flaw/fault

I know you are a gentleman of good conceit

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
I can live no longer by thinking.
ROSALIND
I will weary you then no longer with idle talking. Know
of me then—for now I speak to some purpose—that I know
you are a gentleman of good conceit. I speak not this
that you should bear a good opinion of my knowledge,
insomuch I say I know you are. Neither do I labour for a
greater esteem than may in some little measure draw a
belief from you to do yourself good, and not to grace
me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do strange
things. I have, since I was three year old, conversed
with a magician, most profound in his art and yet not
damnable. If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as
your gesture cries it out, when your brother marries
Aliena shall you marry her. I know into what straits of
fortune she is driven, and it is not impossible to me,
if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set her before
your eyes tomorrow, human as she is, and without any
danger.
ORLANDO
Speak’st thou in sober meanings?

DUTCH:
Dan wil ik u niet langer met ijdele praatjens vermoeien. Verneem dus van mij, — want nu spreek ik niet zonder bedoeling, — dat ik u ken als een edelman van goed begrip.

MORE:
Conceit=Extraction, birth
That=So that
Conversed=Associated
Grace me=Improve my own reputation
Damnable=Wicked
Gesture=Behaviour
Straits of fortune=Situation
In sober meanings=Serious
Compleat:
Conversed=Verkeerd, omgegaan
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Damnable=Verfoeijelyk, verdoemelyk
Gesture=Gebaar, gelaat, aanstelling
Sober= (temperate, modest, wise, staid, grave) Sober, maatig, zedig, wys, deftig

Topics: status, reputation, integrity

I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Arragon
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
“What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
And well said too—for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

DUTCH:
Ik wil mij niet naar lage geesten schikken,
Niet voegen bij den grooten dommen hoop.

MORE:
CITED IN EWCA LAW:
Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 748 (21 June 2013)
DeRonde v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 102 Cal. App. 3d 221 (1980): “We close with a quotation from Shakespeare, who so eloquently reminds us that competition on the basis of merit alone is the lifeblood of a democratic society: ‘For who shall go about….’.”

Fool multitude=Foolish commoners
Fond=Doting, simple.
Fond eye=What meets the eye
Jump with=Agree with
Barbarous=Ignorant, unlettered
Cozen=Cheat
Undeservèd=Unmerited
Dignity=Elevated rank, high office
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, het gepeupel
Jump (to agree)=Het ééns worden, overenstemmen.
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altijd saamenCozen=Bedriegen
Merit=Verdienste.
What ever may be said of him wil fall short of his merit=Alles wat men van hem zeggen kan, is minder dan zyne verdienste.
Dignity (Merit, importance)=Waardigheid, Staat-ampt, verdiensten.
Dignity (Greatness, Nobleness)=Grootheid, Adelykheid.

Burgersdijk notes:
Als de zwaluw. De huiszwaluw, in het Engelsch martlet (Hirundo urbica), maakt haar nest aan de buitenzijde van gebouwen; meestal vindt men er verscheidene dicht bijeen, zooals Sh. uitvoeriger in Macbeth I. 6.4. beschrijft. Sh. wist, welke soort hij koos; de boerenzwaluw (Hirundo rustics) nestelt
binnenshuis, b.v. in stallen, of, in onbewoonde streken, in rotsholten enz.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

I will practise the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man and give it
bountiful to the desirers

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your
voices that I may be consul, I have here the
customary gown.
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have deserved nobly of your country, and you
have not deserved nobly.
CORIOLANUS
Your enigma?
FOURTH CITIZEN
You have been a scourge to her enemies, you have
been a rod to her friends; you have not indeed loved
the common people.
CORIOLANUS
You should account me the more virtuous that I have
not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my
sworn brother, the people, to earn a dearer
estimation of them; ’tis a condition they account
gentle: and since the wisdom of their choice is
rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise
the insinuating nod and be off to them most
counterfeitly; that is, sir, I will counterfeit the
bewitchment of some popular man and give it
bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you,
I may be consul.
FIFTH CITIZEN
We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give
you our voices heartily.

DUTCH:
En daar zij, in de wijsheid-schap, die hunner keus, van mijn hoed meer gediend zijn dan van mijn hart, wil ik het innemend knikken beoefenen en zooveel mogelijk door naaiping met hen op goeden voet zien te komen; dat wil zeggen, vriend, ik wil de tooverkunsten van den een of anderen volkslieveling naapen, en daar mild mee zijn jegens ieder, die er van gediend is.

MORE:
A dearer estimation of them=That they will think more of me, hold me in higher esteem
Be off to them=Doff my cap to them
Counterfeitly=Feigning respect
Condition=Quality, trait
Gentle=Noble, polite
Popular man=A man who courts popular favour
Bountiful=Liberally
Compleat:
Gentle=Aardig, edelmoedig
Counterfeit=Valsch
Popular=By ‘t gemeene volk bemind, wel by ‘t volk gewild, gemeenzaam
He was a popular man=Hy was een man die wel by ‘t volk gewild was; die zig naar ‘t volk voegde, of die de gunst des volks zocht te verkrygen.

Topics: status, deceit, appearance, order/society, authority, manipulation

I would have had you put your power well on, before you had worn it out

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Let them puff all about mine ears, present me
Death on the wheel or at wild horses’ heels,
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
That the precipitation might down stretch
Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
Be thus to them.
A PATRICIAN
You do the nobler.
CORIOLANUS
I muse my mother
Does not approve me further, who was wont
To call them woollen vassals, things created
To buy and sell with groats, to show bare heads
In congregations, to yawn, be still and wonder,
When one but of my ordinance stood up
To speak of peace or war. I talk of you:
Why did you wish me milder? would you have me
False to my nature? Rather say I play
The man I am.
VOLUMNIA
O, sir, sir, sir,
I would have had you put your power well on,
Before you had worn it out.

DUTCH:
Hadt gij uw eervol machtkleed aangedaan,
Aleer gij ‘t hadt versleten!

MORE:
Precipitation=Being thrown headlong off the rock
I muse=I am astonished, I wonder
Woollen vassals=Slaves dressed in rough, coarse clothing
Groats=Pence
Ordinance=Order, rank
Compleat:
To precipitate=(throw down) Plotseling van boven neer storten of werpen, haastig voortdryven, onbedachtelyk verhaasten
Muse=Bepeinzen
Vassal=Leenman, onderdaan
Ordinance=Inzetting, instelling

Topics: authority, appearance, deceit, status

I’ll have’t disputed on; tis probable and palpable to thinking

DUTCH:
Een onderzoek beslisse;
Waarschijnlijk is ‘t, ja, tastbaar voor ‘t verstand.
Deswegens vat ik u, neem u in hecht’nis,
Als een, die ‘t menschdom te verderven traFht ,
Een booze strafb’re kunst beoefe

Topics: status, reputation, resolution, evidence

If I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Bottom
CONTEXT:
BOTTOM
Not so, neither. But if I had wit enough to get out of
this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA
Out of this wood do not desire to go.
Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate.
The summer still doth tend upon my state.
And I do love thee. Therefore go with me.
I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee.
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressèd flowers dost sleep.
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed!

DUTCH:
Och neen, dat ook al niet. Maar als ik nu maar wijsheid
genoeg had om uit dit wond te komen, dan had
ik genoeg om het er mede te stellen.

MORE:
My own turn=My purposes
Rate=Rank
Still=Always
Tend upon=Wait upon (serve)
Grossness=Coarseness, lack of refinement
Compleat:
It will serve my turn=’t is my niet dienstig, ‘t kan my niet te stade komen
Rate=Prys, waardy
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
To attend upon=Opwachten, geleyden

Topics: status, intellect, purpose

If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment or so, I could be knighted

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mistress Ford
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS FORD
O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I
could come to such honour!
MISTRESS PAGE
Hang the trifle, woman! take the honour. What is it? dispense with trifles; what is it?
MISTRESS FORD
If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment or so, I could be knighted.

DUTCH:
O lieve, als er niet een klein ietsjen tegen was, kon
ik tot hooge eer stijgen!

MORE:
Said to be one of President John Adams’ favourite quotes.
Come to such honour=Achieve such dignified status
Hang the trifle=Forget that trivial thing

Topics: status

If she lives till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer than the whole world

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Dromio of Syracuse
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
What is she?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
A very reverent body, ay, such a one as a man may not
speak of without he say “sir-reverence.” I have but lean
luck in the match, and yet is she a wondrous fat
marriage.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE
How dost thou mean a “fat marriage”?
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE
Marry, sir, she’s the kitchen wench, and all grease,
and I know not what use to put her to but to make a lamp
of her and run from her by her own light. I warrant her
rags and the tallow in them will burn a Poland winter.
If she lives till doomsday, she’ll burn a week longer
than the whole world.

DUTCH:
Ik verzeker u, haar plunje en het vet er in branden wel een Laplandschen winter lang; en als zij leeft tot den oordeelsdag, brandt zij een week langer dan de heele wereld.

MORE:
Reverent=Worthy of respect
Sir-reverence=Contraction of ‘saving your reverence’)
Tallow=Animal fat (used for candles and lamps)
Compleat:
Reverent=Eerbiedig
Reverence=Eerbiedigheyd, eerbiedenis, eerbewys
Tallow=Smeer, kaarssmeer

Topics: status, marriage

Is this the honour they do one another? ’Tis well there’s one above ’em yet.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VIII
CONTEXT:
BUTTS
There, my lord:
The high promotion of his Grace of Canterbury,
Who holds his state at door, ’mongst pursuivants,
Pages, and footboys.
KING
Ha! ’Tis he indeed.
Is this the honour they do one another?
’Tis well there’s one above ’em yet. I had thought
They had parted so much honesty among ’em—
At least good manners—as not thus to suffer
A man of his place, and so near our favor,
To dance attendance on their Lordships’ pleasures,
And at the door, too, like a post with packets.
By holy Mary, Butts, there’s knavery!
Let ’em alone, and draw the curtain close.
We shall hear more anon.

DUTCH:
Is dit dus de eer, die zij elkander aandoen?
Eén staat er boven hen, gelukkig.

MORE:
Proverb: To dance attendance
Pursuivant=Low-ranking officer
Parted=Distributed
Suffer=Allow, tolerate
Place=Position, rank
Post=Messenger
Compleat:
Pursuivant=Een ‘s Konings boode
Parted=Gedeelt, gescheyden, geschift
Suffer=Toelaaten, gedoogen
Place=Plaats
Post=Een post, boode

Topics: proverbs and idioms, order/society, status

It is not fit your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Second Lord
CONTEXT:
SECOND LORD
It is not fit your lordship should undertake every
companion that you give offence to.
CLOTEN
No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit
offence to my inferiors.
SECOND LORD
Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.
CLOTEN
Why, so I say.
FIRST LORD
Did you hear of a stranger that’s come to court
to-night?
CLOTEN
A stranger, and I not know on’t!
SECOND LORD
He’s a strange fellow himself, and knows it not.
FIRST LORD
There’s an Italian come; and, ’tis thought, one of
Leonatus’ friends.

DUTCH:
Het gaat niet aan, dat uwe edelheid met Jan en alleman
gaat vechten, wien gij goed vindt te beleedigen.

MORE:
Undertake=Take on, fight
Companion=Fellow
Commit offence=Fight with
Compleat:
To undertake=Onderneemen, by der hand vatten
Companion=Medegezel, medegenoot, maat, makker

Topics: conflict, offence, status, order/society

Let me be privileged by my place and message, to be a speaker free

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Diomedes
CONTEXT:
DIOMEDES
O, be not moved, Prince Troilus:
Let me be privileged by my place and message,
To be a speaker free; when I am hence
I’ll answer to my lust: and know you, lord,
I’ll nothing do on charge: to her own worth
She shall be prized; but that you say ‘be’t so,’
I’ll speak it in my spirit and honour, ‘no.’
TROILUS
Come, to the port. I’ll tell thee, Diomed,
This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head.
Lady, give me your hand, and, as we walk,
To our own selves bend we our needful talk.

DUTCH:
En gun aan mij als afgezant mijn voorrecht
Van vrij te spreken; ben ik van hier weg,
Dan handel ik naar mijnen wil

MORE:
Place=Office, position
Answer to my lust=Do as I please
Charge=Command
Brave=Boast
Needful=Urgent, important
Compleat:
Place=Plaats
Lust=Begeerlykheid
Charge=Belasten, bevelen, opleggen, te laste leggen
To brave=Trotsen, braveeren, trotseeren, moedig treden
Needfull=Noodig, dienstig

Topics: status, free will

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VI
From Scotland am I stol’n, even of pure love,
To greet mine own land with my wishful sight.
No, Harry, Harry, ’tis no land of thine;
Thy place is fill’d, thy sceptre wrung from thee,
Thy balm wash’d off wherewith thou wast anointed:
No bending knee will call thee Caesar now,
No humble suitors press to speak for right,
No, not a man comes for redress of thee;
For how can I help them, and not myself?
FIRST KEEPER
Ay, here’s a deer whose skin’s a keeper’s fee:
This is the quondam king; let’s seize upon him.
KING HENRY VI
Let me embrace thee, sour adversity,
For wise men say it is the wisest course.

DUTCH:
k Wil ‘t bitter lot, dat mij bezoekt, omhelzen;
Dit, zeggen wijzen, is de wijste keus.

MORE:

Proverb: Adversity makes men wise
Proverb: In adversity men find eyes
Proverb: An enemy makes a man to know himself, whereas a friend flatters a man and deceives him

The Arden edition has “adversaries” rather than “adversities”.

Wishful sight=Longing look
Balm=Oil used to anoint kings
Speak for right=Plead for justice
Redress=Amendment, remedy
Keeper’s fee=Gamekeepers were given the horns and skin of hunted deer
Quondam=Former, as was

Compleat:
To speak for=(propose, move) Iets voorstellen, op ‘t tapyt brengen
Redress=Herstelling, verhelping, verbetering, vergoeding, verligting

Topics: adversity, proverbs and idioms, status

Let us do those ends that here were well begun and well begot

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Duke Senior
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
Welcome, young man.
Thou offer’st fairly to thy brothers’ wedding:
To one his lands withheld, and to the other
A land itself at large, a potent dukedom.
—First, in this forest let us do those ends
That here were well begun and well begot,
And, after, every of this happy number
That have endured shrewd days and nights with us
Shall share the good of our returnèd fortune
According to the measure of their states.
Meantime, forget this new-fall’n dignity,
And fall into our rustic revelry.
—Play, music.— And you brides and bridegrooms all,
With measure heaped in joy to th’ measures fall.
JAQUES
Sir, by your patience: if I heard you rightly,
The duke hath put on a religious life
And thrown into neglect the pompous court.

DUTCH:
Maar laat ons, in dit woud, nu eerst volbrengen,
Wat hier zijn oorsprong nam en schoon begin (…)

MORE:
Offer’st fairly=Bring fair gifts
Withheld=Confiscated
Do those ends=Accomplish the objectives
Every=Everyone
Shrewd=Evil, hard
States=Rank
New-fallen=Newly acquired
Pompous=Ceremonious
Compleat:
To confiscate=Verbeurd maaken, verbeurd verkaaren, aanslaan
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
Pompous=Prachtig, staatelyk

Topics: purpose, satisfaction, status

Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
What shall be our sport, then?
CELIA
Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her
wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally.
ROSALIND
I would we could do so, for her benefits are mightily
misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman doth most
mistake in her gifts to women.
CELIA
‘Tis true, for those that she makes fair she scarce
makes honest, and those that she makes honest she makes
very ill-favouredly.
ROSALIND
Nay, now thou goest from Fortune’s office to Nature’s.
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the
lineaments of Nature.

DUTCH:
Laat ons gaan zitten, en die nijvere huisvrouw met dat wiel, Fortuin, door spot er van af jagen, opdat voortaan haar gaven wat onpartijdiger worden uitgedeeld.

MORE:
Wheel=The attribute of Fortune, emblem of mutability
Blind woman=Fortune, the blind goddess
Scarce=Rarely
Misplaced=Unfairly distributed
Honest=Virtous
Lineaments=Features
Compleat:
Wheel=Rad (van avontuur)
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks
To misplace=Verkeerdelyk plaatsen, een onrechte plaats geeven
Honest=Eerlyk, oprecht, vroom
Lineament=Een trek

Burgersdijk notes:
Die nijvere huisvrouw. Alsof het rad of wiel van Fortuin een spinnewiel was. Zie ook „Antonius en Cleopatra”, IV, 15.

Topics: fate/destiny, life, status, poverty and wealth, equality

Like a fair house built on another man’s ground; so that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where I erected it

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Ford
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
Of what quality was your love, then?
FORD
Like a fair house built on another man’s ground; so that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where I erected it.
FALSTAFF
To what purpose have you unfolded this to me?
FORD
When I have told you that, I have told you all.
Some say, that though she appear honest to me, yet in
other places she enlargeth her mirth so far that
there is shrewd construction made of her. Now, Sir
John, here is the heart of my purpose: you are a
gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable
discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your
place and person, generally allowed for your many
war-like, court-like, and learned preparations.

DUTCH:
Zij geleek een schoon huis, op eens andermans grond
gebouwd; zoodat ik mijn gebouw verspeelde, door een
verkeerd erf te kiezen om het te stichten.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
There was a Latin maxim to the effect that if a man built a house using his own materials on another man’s land, has become the property of the owner of the plot. This legal consequence of an innocent mistake was a hot topic for the public and taken up by dramatists of the time. Shakespeare approached it differently by not using the Latin maxim but alluding to it only in ordinary language.

Proverb: Who builds upon another’s ground loses both mortar and stones

Honest=Faithful
Shrewd construction=Suspicion
Great admittance=Admitted to elevated social circles
Authentic=Creditable
Preparations=Accomplishments
Compleat:
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
Construction=Uytlegging, Zamenstelling
Admittance=Toelaating, inwilliging
Authentick, authentical=Eygen-geloofwaardig, goedgekeurd, achtbaar, geloofwaardig
Preparation=Toerusting, voorbereyding, voorbereydsel

Look how imagination blows him

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Fabian
CONTEXT:
FABIAN
O, peace! Now he’s deeply in. Look how
imagination blows him.
MALVOLIO
Having been three months married to her, sitting in my
state—
SIR TOBY BELCH
Oh, for a stone-bow, to hit him in the eye!
MALVOLIO
Calling my officers about me, in my branched velvet
gown, having come from a daybed, where I have left
Olivia sleeping—
SIR TOBY BELCH
Fire and brimstone!
FABIAN
O, peace, peace!
MALVOLIO
And then to have the humour of state, and after a demure
travel of regard, telling them I know my place as I
would they should do theirs, to ask for my kinsman Toby—

DUTCH:
O, stil! Die overpeinzing maakt een prachtigen kalkoenschen haan van hem; wat blaast hij zich op onder zijn uitgespreide veêren !

MORE:
Blows=Puffs up
State=Chair of state
Stone-bow=Catapult
Officers=Attendants
Branched=Embroidered
Gown=Indoor coat
Daybed=Couch
Fire and brimstone=Punishment in hell
Humour of state=Temperament of authority
Demure=Gravely
Travel of regard=Surveying the room
Compleat:
To blow up=Opblaazen
State=Staat, rang
Stone-bow=Key-boog, kluit-boog
Officer=Een amptman, amptenaar, bevelhebber, beampte, bediende, officier
Branched velvet=Gebloemd fluweel
Gown=Een tabbaard, tabberd, samaar
Brimstone=Zwavel, sulfer
Demure=Stemmig, staatig, bedaard, ernstig, deftig

Topics: imagination, authority, status

Lord, we know what we are,
but know not what we may be

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 4.5
SPEAKER: Ophelia
CONTEXT:
Well, God’ield you! They say the owl was a baker’s daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table.

DUTCH:
Wij weten wat we zijn, maar wij weten niet wat we misschien zullen worden /
Ach, heer, wij weten wel wat we zijn, maar niet wat we nog worden kunnen.

MORE:
God yield you= God bless you
The legend had been often used to enkindle kind feelings for the poor and unfortunate. The story, which is current to-day among the nursery tales of Gloucestershire, relates that the Savior in disguise entered a baker’s shop, asking for some bread; and, when the baker charitably put a large piece of dough into the oven to bake for Him, his daughter rebuked him, and for her unkindness was changed into an owl.

Burgersdijk notes:
Men zegt, dat de uil een bakkersdochter geweest is. Ophelia denkt aan een oude legende, die in Glocestershire algemeen in omloop was: de Heiland vroeg eens een bakkersvrouw om brood, wat zij hem ook dadelijk wilde
bakken. De dochter vond, dat hare moeder er te veel deeg voor gebruikte en nam het grootste deel er van weg. Toen zwol het overschot plotseling allergeweldigst op, zoodat de dochter, in haar verbazing, kreten uitte, niet ongelijk aan uilengeschreenw, waarop de Heiland haar in een uil veranderde. Vandaar Ophelia’s zeggen: „wij weten niet, wat wij kunnen worden .” Dit verhaal werd aan kinderen gedaan, om hun barmhartigheid in te prenten.

Topics: status, fate/destiny, life

Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Prospero
CONTEXT:
PROSPERO
To have no screen between this part he played
And him he played it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library
Was dukedom large enough. Of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable, confederates,
So dry he was for sway, wi’th’ King of Naples
To give him annual tribute, do him homage,
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom yet unbowed (alas, poor Milan)
To most ignoble stooping.

DUTCH:
Mij, arme, was mijn boekzaal
Wel hertogdoms genoeg; voor ‘t rijksbestuur
Acht hij mij ongeschikt; sluit een verbond, —
Zoo dorstte hij naar rang!

MORE:
Screen=Means of securing from attack; something that intervenes obstructively; anything that separates or conceals
Schmidt:
Temporal=Pertaining to this life or this world, not spiritual, not eternal: “my library was dukedom large enough.
Dry=Thirsty, eager
Sway=Rule, dominion
Me=”For me” or “As for me”
Ignoble=Of low or dishonourable descent
Compleat:
Temporal (secular, not spiritual)=Waereldlyk
Dry (or penurious)=Inhaalend, gierig
Sway=Macht, gezach, heerschappij
To sway=Heerschen, regeeren, ‘t bewind hebben
Ignoble (of mean birth)=Laag van geboorte, on-edel
Ignoble (or base) action=Een on-edele daad
Ignobly=Laag, snood

Topics: learning/education, ambition, authority, status

More of your conversation would infect my brain

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Come, come, you are well understood to be a
perfecter giber for the table than a necessary
bencher in the Capitol.
MENENIUS
Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall
encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When
you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the
wagging of your beards; and your beards deserve not
so honourable a grave as to stuff a botcher’s
cushion, or to be entombed in an ass’s packsaddle.
Yet you must be saying, Marcius is proud;
who in a cheap estimation, is worth predecessors
since Deucalion, though peradventure some of the
best of ’em were hereditary hangmen. God-den to
your worships: more of your conversation would
infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly
plebeians: I will be bold to take my leave of you.

DUTCH:
Nu, ik wensch uw’ edelbeden goeden avond; mij meer met u in te laten, mocht mijn hersens besmetten.

MORE:
The wagging of your beards=The effort of speaking
Cheap estimation=Lowest possible valuation
Peradventure=Perhaps
Mocker=Scoffer
Botcher=One who mends and patches old clothes (See Twelfth Night, 1.5)
God-den=Good evening (God give you good even.)
Beastly=Coarse, bestial
Plebeians=The common people of ancient Rome
Compleat:
Mocker=Bespotter, schimper, spotvogel
Wagging=Schudding, waggeling
Botcher=Een lapper, knoeijer, boetelaar, broddelaar
Peradventure=Bygeval, misschien
Beastly=Onbeschoft, morsig

Topics: insult, intellect, status, respect

My language! Heavens,
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where ’tis spoken.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Ferdinand
CONTEXT:
MIRANDA
No wonder, sir,
But certainly a maid.
FERDINAND
My language! Heavens,
I am the best of them that speak this speech,
Were I but where ’tis spoken.
PROSPERO
How? The best?
What wert thou if the King of Naples heard thee?
FERDINAND
A single thing, as I am now, that wonders
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me,
And that he does I weep. Myself am Naples,
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld
The king my father wrecked.

DUTCH:
Mijne taal, o hemel! —
Van wie haar spreken ben ik de eerste, ware ik
Slechts daar, waar zij gesproken wordt.

MORE:
Best=Highest in rank
At ebb=Tears have never since stopped
A single thing=(1) Standing alone, without support; (2) One and the same

Topics: language, understanding, status, order/society, independence

My services which I have done the signiory shall out-tongue his complaints

DUTCH:
Hij krenke wat hij kan;
Mijn diensten, aan den Raad bewezen, spreken
Veel luider dan zijn klachten

Topics: work, merit, claim, status, independence

My state being gall’d with my expense, I seek to heal it only by his wealth

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Fenton
CONTEXT:
FENTON
Why, thou must be thyself.
He doth object I am too great of birth—,
And that, my state being gall’d with my expense,
I seek to heal it only by his wealth:
Besides these, other bars he lays before me,
My riots past, my wild societies;
And tells me ’tis a thing impossible
I should love thee but as a property.
ANNE PAGE
May be he tells you true.
FENTON
No, heaven so speed me in my time to come!
Albeit I will confess thy father’s wealth
Was the first motive that I woo’d thee, Anne:
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags;
And ’tis the very riches of thyself
That now I aim at.

DUTCH:
Hij maakt bezwaar; te hoog ben ik van afkomst,
En dat ik, door verkwisting veel verarmd,
Met zijn goed geld hiervoor herstelling zoek.

MORE:
State=Estate, assets
Galled=Eroded
Expense=Spending
Heal=Remedy
Wild societies=Wild company
Stamps in gold=Gold coins
Compleat:
Estate=Staat, middelen
To gall=Tergen, verbitteren; smarten; benaauwen
Moderation in expense=Zuynigheyd, zpaarzaamheyd
Bar=Dwarsboom, draaiboom, hinderpaal, beletsel, traali
Society=Gezelschap, gemeenschap, gezelligheyd, genootschap, maatschap

Topics: money|ruin|advantage/benefit|order/society|status

Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s will

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Third Citizen
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
And to make us no better thought of, a little help
will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he
himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.
THIRD CITIZEN
We have been called so of many; not that our heads
are some brown, some black, some auburn, some bald,
but that our wits are so diversely coloured: and
truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of
one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south,
and their consent of one direct way should be at
once to all the points o’ the compass.
SECOND CITIZEN
Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would
fly?
THIRD CITIZEN
Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man’s
will; ’tis strongly wedged up in a block-head, but
if it were at liberty, ‘twould, sure, southward.

DUTCH:
Nu, uw verstand kan er niet zoo snel uit als dat van
een ander; het is te stevig in een harden kop vastgeklemd;
maar als het eens vrij was , ging het zeker zuidwaarts.

MORE:
Proverb: A multitude of people is a beast of many heads

Stood up about=Rose up, protested/fought about
Many-headed multitude=Proverbial, referring to ficklemess of the masses
Stuck not=Did not hestitate
Wit=Mental faculty, intellectual power of any kind; understanding, judgment, imagination
Of many=By many
Consent of=Agreement on.
Consent of one direct way=Agreement to go in one direction
If all our wishes…out of one skull=To suppose all their wits to issue from one skull, and that their common consent and agreement to go all one way, should end in their flying to every point of the compass, is a just description of the variety and inconsistency of the opinions, wishes, and actions of the multitude.(M. Mason)
Compleat:
To stand up=Opstaan, verdedigen
Coloured=Geverfd, gekleurd, afgezet, geblanket
With one consent=Eendragtiglyk
Wits=Zinnen, oordeel

Topics: status, poverty and wealth, intellect, independence

No man’s pie is freed from his ambitious finger

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Norfolk
CONTEXT:
NORFOLK
All this was order’d by the good discretion
Of the right reverend Cardinal of York.
BUCKINGHAM
The devil speed him! no man’s pie is freed
From his ambitious finger. What had he
To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder
That such a keech can with his very bulk
Take up the rays o’ the beneficial sun
And keep it from the earth.
NORFOLK
Surely, sir,
There’s in him stuff that puts him to these ends;
For, being not propp’d by ancestry, whose grace
Chalks successors their way, nor call’d upon
For high feats done to the crown; neither allied
For eminent assistants; but, spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, he gives us note,
The force of his own merit makes his way
A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys
A place next to the king.

DUTCH:
De duivel haal’ hem! Zijn eergier’ge vinger
Wil ieders brijpan roeren

MORE:
Often misquoted as “People’s good deeds we write in water. The evil deeds are etched in brass”
Proverb: Injuries are written in brass
Live=Live on (are etched)
Manners=Conduct, actions
Speak his good=Speak of his goodness, virtue, charitable deeds
Compleat:
Manners=Manierlykheid

Topics: merit, ambition, work, status, proverbs and idioms

No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons, you are so empty of them

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Helen
CONTEXT:
TROILUS
Fie, fie, my brother!
Weigh you the worth and honour of a king
So great as our dread father in a scale
Of common ounces? will you with counters sum
The past proportion of his infinite?
And buckle in a waist most fathomless
With spans and inches so diminutive
As fears and reasons? fie, for godly shame!
HELENUS
No marvel, though you bite so sharp at reasons,
You are so empty of them. Should not our father
Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons,
Because your speech hath none that tells him so?
TROILUS
You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest;
You fur your gloves with reason. Here are
your reasons:
You know an enemy intends you harm;
You know a sword employed is perilous,
And reason flies the object of all harm:
Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds
A Grecian and his sword, if he do set
The very wings of reason to his heels
And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove,
Or like a star disorbed? Nay, if we talk of reason,
Let’s shut our gates and sleep: manhood and honour
Should have hare-hearts, would they but fat their thoughts
With this crammed reason: reason and respect
Make livers pale and lustihood deject.

DUTCH:
Geen wonder, dat ge op gronden bijtend schimpt,
Gij, zelf zoo arm er aan. Moet onze vader
Zijn heerschersambt vervullen zonder gronden,
Wijl gij, die dit van hem begeert, ze mist?

MORE:
Counters=Blank coins
Past proportion-Measureless
Fathomless=Unmeasureable
Span=Hand span
Bite=Inveigle
Sway=Direction
Fur your gloves=Comfort yourself
Reasons=Rationalisations
Flies=Flees
Hare=Flighty, ready to run
Crammed=Force fed
Lustihood=Energy
Compleat:
Counter=Legpenning, rekenpenningen
To bite=Byten, knaagen, snerpen, steeken, voor de gek houden
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway with one=Gezach over iemand hebben
To furr=Met bont voeren
To hare=Verbaasd maaken, ontstellen
To cram with meat=Met spyze opkroppen, overlaaden

Burgersdijk notes:
Gij voert met gronden uwe handschoen. Met verstand, met omzichtigheid. Gij schroomt het harde
gevest van het zwaard aan te vatten.

Topics: value, respect, reason, status, dispute

O, blessèd, that I might not! I chose an eagle and did avoid a puttock

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
O, blessèd that I might not! I chose an eagle
And did avoid a puttock.
CYMBELINE
Thou took’st a beggar, wouldst have made my throne
A seat for baseness.
IMOGEN
No, I rather added
A lustre to it.
CYMBELINE
O thou vile one!
IMOGEN
Sir,
It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus.
You bred him as my playfellow, and he is
A man worth any woman, overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.

DUTCH:
Wèl mij, ik wachtte niet; ik koos een aad’laar,
En meed een gier.

MORE:
Puttock=Kite, not a hawk worthy of training (a kite, buzzard or marsh harrier)
Overbuys=I am worth but a small fraction of what he gives for me
Baseness=Vileness, meanness
Take=Marry (take in marriage)
Compleat:
Puttock (buzzard)=Een buizard, zekere roofvogel
Baseness=Laagheid, lafhartigheid

Topics: marriage, value, order/society, status, love

O, how full of briars is this working-day world!

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
CELIA
They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday
foolery. If we walk not in the trodden paths our very
petticoats will catch them.
ROSALIND
I could shake them off my coat. These burs are in my
heart.
CELIA
Hem them away.
ROSALIND
I would try, if I could cry “hem” and have him.

DUTCH:
Het zijn maar klissen, nichtjen, uit een zondaagsche dartelheid op u geworpen; als wij niet op de gebaande wegen gaan, vatten onze rokken ze van zelf vast.

MORE:
Working-day (adjectively)=Common, ordinary, trivial vulgar
Burr=Rough head of the burdock
Foolery=Jesting, buffoonery
Compleat:
Burr=Kliskruid

Topics: status, order/society, custom

O, when degree is shaked, which is the ladder to all high designs, then enterprise is sick!

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
(…) O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.
And this neglection of degree it is
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general’s disdained
By him one step below, he by the next,
That next by him beneath; so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
And ’tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.

DUTCH:
O, is de rang geschokt,
Die ladder is naar elk verheven doel,
Dan kwijnt elke onderneming.

MORE:
Design=A work in hand, enterprise, cause
Degrees in schools=Academic standing
Brotherhoods=Guilds
Dividable=Dividing
Laurels=Emblem of exellence
Oppugnancy=Opposition
Sop=Lump of bread soaked in wine
Imbecility=Feebleness (not of mind)
Rude=Violent
Jar=Dispute, conflict
Includes itself in=Is subsumed by
Bloodless=Pallid
Emulation=Envy, jealousy
On foot=Upright
Compleat:
Design=Opzet, voorneemen, oogmerk, aanslag, toeleg, ontwerp
Brotherhood=Broederschap
Crowned with a laurel=Met laurier bekranst, gelaurierd
To oppugne=Bestryden, bevechten, tegenstreeven
Oppugnation=Bestryding, bevechting
A wine sop=Een wynsopje
Imbecility=Zwaklykheid, zwakheid
Rude=Ruuw, groof, onbehouwen, plomp, onbeschaafd
Jar=Krakkeelen, twisten, harrewarren, oneens zyn, kyven
Emulation=Haayver, volgzucht, afgunst

Topics: status, order/society, nature, respect, justice

Of very ill manner. He’ll speak with you, will you or no

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.5
SPEAKER: Malvolio
CONTEXT:
OLIVIA
What kind o’ man is he?
MALVOLIO
Why, of mankind.
OLIVIA
What manner of man?
MALVOLIO
Of very ill manner. He’ll speak with you, will you or
no.

DUTCH:
Hij is recht ongemanierd; hij wil u spreken, of gij
wilt of niet.

MORE:
Proverb: He is (is not) a man of God’s making

Kind=Type, manner
Mankind=The man kind – like any other man
Compleat:
Kind=Soort, slach
Man-kind=Het menschelyk geslacht, de menschen, ‘t menschdom

Topics: proverbs and idioms, order/society, status

Purpose so barred, it follows nothing is done to purpose

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Enough, with over-measure.
CORIOLANUS
No, take more:
What may be sworn by, both divine and human,
Seal what I end withal! This double worship,
Where one part does disdain with cause, the other
Insult without all reason, where gentry, title, wisdom,
Cannot conclude but by the yea and no
Of general ignorance,— it must omit
Real necessities, and give way the while
To unstable slightness: purpose so barr’d,
it follows,
Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you,—
You that will be less fearful than discreet,
That love the fundamental part of state
More than you doubt the change on’t, that prefer
A noble life before a long, and wish
To jump a body with a dangerous physic
That’s sure of death without it, at once pluck out
The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick
The sweet which is their poison: your dishonour
Mangles true judgment and bereaves the state
Of that integrity which should become’t,
Not having the power to do the good it would,
For the in which doth control’t.
BRUTUS
Has said enough.
SICINIUS
Has spoken like a traitor, and shall answer
As traitors do.
CORIOLANUS
Thou wretch, despite o’erwhelm thee!
What should the people do with these bald tribunes?
On whom depending, their obedience fails
To the greater bench: in a rebellion,
When what’s not meet, but what must be, was law,
Then were they chosen: in a better hour,
Let what is meet be said it must be meet,
And throw their power i’ the dust.

DUTCH:
Dit dubbel staatsbewind, (…) ‘t laat, natuurlijk,
Het noodigst ongedaan, aan vooze wuftheid
Den vrijen loop; geen weg naar ‘t doel is vrij,
Dus wordt geen doel bereikt.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

Proverb: He lives long that lives well

Over-measure=Excess
Double worship=Divided allegiance
Nothing is done to purpose=No policy is effective
Conclude=Decide
General ignorance=The ignorant public (crowd)
Jump=Jolt, put at stake, hazard
Unstable slightness=Inconstant and trifling issues
Less fearful than discreet=More out of prudence than timidity
Should become it=The appropriate (integrity)
Bereave=To rob, take from
Multitudinous=Belonging to the multitude
Become=To fit, suit
Compleat:
Become=Betaamen
An invincible ignorance=Een onverbeterlyke domheid
Unstable=Onbestendig, ongestadig
To conclude=Besluiten, sluiten
To no purpose=Niet baaten

Topics: order/society, conflict, intellect, status, integrity

Report speaks goldenly of his profit

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion
bequeathed me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and,
as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to
breed me well. And there begins my sadness. My brother
Jacques he keeps at school, and report speaks goldenly
of his profit. For my part, he keeps me rustically at
home or, to speak more properly, stays me here at home
unkept; for call you that “keeping” for a gentleman of
my birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox?
His horses are bred better, for, besides that they are
fair with their feeding, they are taught their manage
and, to that end, riders dearly hired. But I, his
brother, gain nothing under him but growth, for the
which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to
him as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully
gives me, the something that nature gave me his
countenance seems to take from me. He lets me feed with
his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and, as much
as in him lies, mines my gentility with my education.
This is it, Adam, that grieves me, and the spirit of my
father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny
against this servitude. I will no longer endure it,
though yet I know no wise remedy how to avoid it

DUTCH:
Mijn broeder Jacob heeft hij op school gedaan en de berichten over zijn vorderingen zijn schitterend;

MORE:
But poor=A measly, only (a miserable)
On his blessing=In order to obtain his blessing
Breed=Educate, bring up
School=University
Profit=Progress, advancement
Stays=Detains
Unkept=Unkempt
Fair with=Blossom because of
Manège=Paces
Dearly=Expensively
Bound=Indebted
Countenance=Behaviour, attitude
Hinds=Farmhands
Mines=Undermines
Compleat:
But=Maar, of, dan, behalven, maar alleen
Poor=(mean, pitiful) Arm, elendig
Blessing=Zegening
Breed=Teelen, werpen; voortbrengen; veroorzaaken; opvoeden
Profit=Voordeel, gewin, nut, profyt, winst, baat
To stay=Wagten
Dear=Duurgekocht
Bound=Gebonden, verbonden, verpligt, dienstbaar
Out of countenance=Bedeesd, verbaasd, ontsteld, ontroerd

Topics: learning/education, order/society, status, equality, legacy

Rest on my word, and let not discontent daunt all your hopes

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Titus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Now, madam, are you prisoner to an emperor;
To him that, for your honour and your state,
Will use you nobly and your followers.
SATURNINUS
A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue
That I would choose, were I to choose anew.
Clear up, fair queen, that cloudy countenance:
Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer,
Thou comest not to be made a scorn in Rome:
Princely shall be thy usage every way.
Rest on my word, and let not discontent
Daunt all your hopes: madam, he comforts you
Can make you greater than the Queen of Goths.
Lavinia, you are not displeased with this?
LAVINIA
Not I, my lord; sith true nobility
Warrants these words in princely courtesy.
SATURNINUS
Thanks, sweet Lavinia. Romans, let us go;
Ransomless here we set our prisoners free:
Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum.

DUTCH:
Vertrouw mijn woord, en geen mismoedigheid
Verschrikke uw hoop; die thans u troost, kan grooter
U maken, dat gij bij de Gothen waart

MORE:
Hue=Appearance (not only colour)
Cheer=Expression
Rest=Rely
Can=Who can
Sith=Since
Warrant=Justify
Trump=Trumpets
Compleat:
Hue=Kolour
Cheer or chear=Gelaat, myne, cier, toestel; of good cheer=Goeds moeds
Sith=Naardien, nademaal
Rest on=Op rusten
Warrant (assure, promise)=Verzekeren, belooven, ervoor instaan
Trump=Een blaas-hoorn

Topics: status, punishment, free will

Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt, And anything that may not misbecome The mighty sender

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Exeter
CONTEXT:
Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at.
Thus says my king: an if your father’s Highness
Do not, in grant of all demands at large,
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty,
He’ll call you to so hot an answer of it
That caves and womby vaultages of France
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock
In second accent of his ordinance.

DUTCH:
Uittarting en verachting, hoon en spot,
En alles, wat den grooten zender niet
Onteeren kan.

MORE:

Slight regard=Scant regard, disregard
Misbecome=To suit ill, not to befit, to be unseemly in
In grant of=The act of granting or bestowing, concession, permission
Mock=Ridicule, derision, sneer
Womby=Hollow, capacious
Vaultage=Cavern
Answer=Reply to a charge
Accent=Sound of voice
Second accent=Echo
Ordinance=Artillery

Compleat:
Misbecome=Misstaan, niet wel voegen
It misbecomes him=Het misstaat hem

Topics: status, order/society, value, insult

Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
The business asketh silent secrecy.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Hume
CONTEXT:
Hume must make merry with the duchess’ gold;
Marry, and shall. But how now, Sir John Hume!
Seal up your lips, and give no words but mum:
The business asketh silent secrecy.
Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch:
Gold cannot come amiss, were she a devil.
Yet have I gold flies from another coast;
I dare not say, from the rich cardinal
And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk,
Yet I do find it so; for to be plain,
They, knowing Dame Eleanor’s aspiring humour,
Have hired me to undermine the duchess
And buz these conjurations in her brain.
They say ‘A crafty knave does need no broker;’
Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal’s broker.
Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.
Well, so it stands; and thus, I fear, at last
Hume’s knavery will be the duchess’ wrack,
And her attainture will be Humphrey’s fall:
Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

DUTCH:
Maar wat nu, John Hume?
Steeds mondjendicht; geen ander woord, dan. . . mum!

MORE:

Proverb: A cunning (crafty) knave needs no broker

Modern usage: Mum’s the word
Not invented by Shakespeare: the word was first used in the 14th century, although Shakespeare probably helped to make it popular. The word ‘mum’ may refer to the humming sound made by a closed mouth.
Asketh=Demands, requires
Buz=(or buzz) Whisper
Conjurations=Incantations; obsecration
Wrack=Ruin
Attainture=Shame; conviction

Compleat:
Knave=Een guit, boef
To buzz into one’s ears=Iemand in ‘t oor blaazen
Conjuration=Samenzweering, eedgespan, vloekverwantschap, bezweering
Wrack=(a ship): Een schip aan stukken stooten
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
To attaint=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainture (of blood)=Bederving of aansteeking des bloeds

Topics: secrecy, ambition, status, betrayal, invented or popularised

Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead.

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
O bitter consequence
That Edward still should live “true noble prince”!
Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull.
Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead,
And I would have it suddenly performed.
What sayest thou now? Speak suddenly. Be brief.
BUCKINGHAM
Your Grace may do your pleasure.
KING RICHARD
Tut, tut, thou art all ice; thy kindness freezes.
Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?
BUCKINGHAM
Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord,
Before I positively speak in this.
I will resolve you herein presently.

DUTCH:
Moet ik het zeggen? ‘k Wensch de bastaards dood;
En ik zou willen, dat het ras gedaan wierd.
Wat zegt gij nu? Spreek daad’lijk, zeg het kort.

MORE:
Live=Live as a
Suddenly=Now
Breath=Room to breathe
Resolve you=Give you my answer/determination
Compleat:
Suddenly=Op een schielyke wyze
He spended his breath in vain=Al zyn praaaten was te vergeefs
To resolve=Besluyten, voorneemen, een besluyt neemen, te raade worden; oplossen

Topics: status, fate/destiny, reply

Since every Jack became a gentleman there’s many a gentle person made a Jack.

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the matter.
The king, on his own royal disposition,
And not provoked by any suitor else,
Aiming belike at your interior hatred
That in your outward actions shows itself
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground.
RICHARD
I cannot tell. The world is grown so bad
That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Since every jack became a gentleman,
There’s many a gentle person made a jack.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloucester.
You envy my advancement, and my friends’.
God grant we never may have need of you.

DUTCH:
lk weet niet; – al te slecht is thans de wereld :
‘t Kleinjantjen rooft, waar de aad’laar zich niet waagt;
Sinds elke schooier edelman hier werd,
Werd menig edelman een kale schooier.

MORE:
Mistake the matter=Misunderstand
Provoked=Encouraged
Belike=No doubt
Made a Jack=Reduced to peasant status (allusion to the jack in bowls)
Compleat:
To ly under a mistake=In een misverstand steeken
To provoke=Tergen, verwekken, aanprikkelen, opscherpen, gaande maaken, ophitsen

Burgersdijk notes:
Deed u ontbieden. In het oorspronkelijke staat hier, in de folio-uitgave, slechts den regel : Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground: doet hem nu zenden om den grond te weten; in de quarto-uitgave vindt men:
“Makes him to send, that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.”
In beide is de zinbouw onnauwkeurig, hetzij door toevallige onachtzaamheid van Sh., hetzij om de ontroering der koningin uit te drukken, die vergeet, dat zij den zin met de woorden “De koning” begonnen is.

Topics: fate/destiny, order, society, status

Since every Jack became a gentleman there’s many a gentle person made a Jack.

Topics: fate/destiny, order, society, status

Since I received command to do this business I have not slept one wink

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
PISANIO
O gracious lady,
Since I received command to do this business
I have not slept one wink.
IMOGEN
Do’t, and to bed then.
PISANIO
I’ll wake mine eye-balls blind first.
IMOGEN
Wherefore then
Didst undertake it? Why hast thou abused
So many miles with a pretence? this place?
Mine action and thine own? our horses’ labour?
The time inviting thee? the perturb’d court,
For my being absent? whereunto I never
Purpose return. Why hast thou gone so far,
To be unbent when thou hast ta’en thy stand,
The elected deer before thee?
PISANIO
But to win time
To lose so bad employment; in the which
I have consider’d of a course. Good lady,
Hear me with patience.

DUTCH:
O, eed’le vrouw,
Sinds ik bevel ontving dit werk te doen,
Sloot ik geen oog.

MORE:
Modern usage: I haven’t slept a wink (not coined by Shakespeare. First recorded use in 14th century)
Wake mine eye-balls blind=Stay awake until I’m blind
Purpose=Intend to
Unbent=Bow not taut
Stand=Position
Elected=Selected (prey)
Compleat:
The ball of the eye=De oogappel
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp
Unbent=Ontspannen, geslaakt

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, authority, work, status, duty, debt/obligation

So man and man should be; but clay and clay differs in dignity

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
BELARIUS
You are not well: remain here in the cave;
We’ll come to you after hunting.
ARVIRAGUS
Brother, stay here.
Are we not brothers?
IMOGEN
So man and man should be;
But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.
GUIDERIUS
Go you to hunting; I’ll abide with him.
IMOGEN
So sick I am not, yet I am not well;
But not so citizen a wanton as
To seem to die ere sick: so please you, leave me;
Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me
Cannot amend me; society is no comfort
To one not sociable: I am not very sick,
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here:
I’ll rob none but myself; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

DUTCH:
Menschen moesten ‘t zijn;
Maar stof en stof verschillen wel in rang,
Hoezeer hun asch gelijk zij.

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Journal course=Daily routine
Citizen a wanton=City-bred (soft) “wanton” spoilt child or indulged and self-indulgent youth
Reason=Speak of it
Compleat:
We are but dust and ashes=Wy zyn niet dan stof en asch
Journal=Dag-register, dag-verhaal
Wanton=Onrein, vuil, ontuchtig
To grow wanton with too much prosperity=In voorspoed weeldrig worden

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

Society is no comfort to one not sociable

DUTCH:
Gezelschap helpt niet wie niet gezellig is;

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

Stick to your journal course: the breach of custom is breach of all

DUTCH:
Gaat uw gewonen gang; wordt die gestoord,
Licht wordt de mensch ook zelf verstoord.

MORE:
Proverb: All are of the same dust

Topics: wellbeing, emotion and mood, custom, life, status, proverbs and idioms

Take but degree away, untune that string, and, hark, what discord follows!

DUTCH:
O neemt den rang slechts weg, ontspant die snaar,
En hoort, wat wanklank!

MORE:
Said to be one of President John Adams’ favourite quotes.

Observance=Respect to
Apply=Interpret
Reproof of chance=Reproach from events
Bauble=Insignificant
Boreas=North wind
Thetis=Sea goddess
Moist elements=Water and air
Perseus’ horse=Pegasus, the winged horse
Saucy=Impertinent
But even=Just
Toast=Piece of toast that was floated in wine
Knees=Knee timber, hard wood used for shipbuilding
Compleat:
Observance=Gedienstigheyd, eerbiedigheyd, opmerking, waarneeming
Apply=Toepassen
Reproof=Bestraffing, berisping
Bauble=Spulletje, grol
Saucy=Stout, onbeschaamd, baldaadig
The knees of a ship=De Knies of zystukken van een schip

Topics: status, order/society, nature, respect, justice

That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gregory
CONTEXT:
GREGORY
That shows thee a weak slave, for the weakest goes to the wall.
SAMPSON
‘Tis true, and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall.

DUTCH:
Dat doet je alweer als een zwakken bloed kennen; want de
zwakste houdt zich aan alles vast.

MORE:
Vessel = person
To go to the wall=be pushed aside, succumb in conflict or struggle
Current use=A business that fails, goes bankrupt.
Even in Shakespeare’s time, the phrases were often confused. In the first scene of Romeo and Juliet, two characters engage in wordplay over meanings of the phrase “goes to the wall.” Gregory’s explanation is that being close to the wall is a sign of weakness as they were allowed to walk ‘inside’ to avoid being splashed or jostled. Sampson later describes how women “being the weaker vessels”) are thrust to the wall. The phrase, which dates back to around 1500, may also have its origins from the installation of seating in churches in the Middle Ages.
To give the wall means to allow someone else to walk on the safer side (i.e. the walled side of the street)
Compleat:
The wall (a place of honour in walking the streets)=De muur, de zyde der huizen, zynde in Engeland de hooger hand, als men langs de straat gaat
To give one the wall=Iemand aan de hoogerhand zetten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, status, order/society

The choice and master spirits of this age

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
—I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar’s death’s hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die.
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.

DUTCH:
Leefde ik duizend jaar,
Nooit ben ik zoo geheel ter dood bereid;
Geen plaats zal mij, geen sneven zoo behagen,
Als hier bij Caesar vallen, en door u,
De grootste heldengeesten onzer eeuw.

MORE:
Purpled=Bloodied
Reek and smoke=Steam
Apt=Ready
Mean=Means
Choice=Select
Master=Commanding
Compleat:
Reek=Rook, wassem
Apt=Gereed
Choice=Uytgeleezen, keurlyk
Choicest men of the city=De treffelykste van de stad
To master=Vermeesteren, bedwingen

Topics: authority, death, corruption, status

The courtesy of nations allows you my better, in that you are the first-born

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
Shall I keep your hogs and eat husks with them? What
prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such
penury?
OLIVER
Know you where you are, sir?
ORLANDO
O sir, very well: here in your orchard.
OLIVER
Know you before whom, sir?
ORLANDO
Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you
are my eldest brother, and in the gentle condition of
blood you should so know me. The courtesy of nations
allows you my better, in that you are the first-born,
but the same tradition takes not away my blood, were
there twenty brothers betwixt us. I have as much of my
father in me as you, albeit, I confess, your coming
before me is nearer to his reverence.

DUTCH:
De begunstiging van de volkswet erkent u als mijn meerdere, omdat gij de eerstgeborene zijt; maar ditzelfde aloud gebruik ontneemt mij het recht van mijn geboorte niet, al waren er twintig broeders tusschen ons in.

Topics: learning/education, order/society, status, equality, civility

The dust on antique time would lie unswept

MORE:
Proverb: Custom makes sin no sin

Topics: merit, achievement, status, authority, leadership, proverbs and idioms

The eagle suffers little birds to sing, and is not careful what they mean thereby

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Tamora
CONTEXT:
TAMORA
King, be thy thoughts imperious, like thy name.
Is the sun dimmed, that gnats do fly in it?
The eagle suffers little birds to sing,
And is not careful what they mean thereby,
Knowing that with the shadow of his wings
He can at pleasure stint their melody:
Even so mayst thou the giddy men of Rome.
Then cheer thy spirit: for know, thou emperor,
I will enchant the old Andronicus
With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous,
Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep,
When as the one is wounded with the bait,
The other rotted with delicious feed.

DUTCH:
Wees keizer, heer, in denken als in naam.
Taant ooit de zon, wijl muggen in haar dansen?
Zie, de aad’laar laat de kleine vogels zingen,
En wat zij er meê meenen, deert hem niet

MORE:
Careful=Worried
Stint=Stop
Giddy=Fickle
Honey-stalks=Clover
When as=When
Rotted=The rot (disease in sheep)
Compleat:
Carefull=Zorgvuldig, bezorgd, zorgdraagend, bekommerd
To stint=Bepaalen; bedwingen
Giddy=Duizelig.
Giddy-headed=Ylhoofdig, hersenloos, wervelziek
Rot=Een sterfte onder de schaapen door al te vochtig voedsel

Topics: nature, flattery, status

The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Claudio
CONTEXT:
DUKE VINCENTIO
So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
CLAUDIO
The miserable have no other medicine
But only hope:
I’ve hope to live, and am prepared to die.

DUTCH:
Rampzaal’gen blijft geen andere artsenij
Dan hoop alleen;
Ik hoop te leven, schoon ter dood bereid.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Miserable=Unhappy, wretched
Compleat:
Miserable=Ellendig, deerlyk, jammerlyk, rampzalig
A miserable wretch=Een arm elendig schepzel

Topics: poverty and wealth, order/society, status, fate/destiny

There can be no kernel in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
Fare you well, my lord; and
believe this of me, there can be no kernel in this
light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes.
Trust him not in matter of heavy consequence;
I have kept of them tame, and know their natures.
Farewell, monsieur: I have spoken better
of you than you have or will to deserve at my
hand; but we must do good against evil.

DUTCH:
Vaarwel, mijn heer, en geloof mij, in deze vooze noot kan geen pit schuilen; de ziel van dezen mensch zit in zijn kleederen.

MORE:
Light nut=Lightweight
Consequence=Influence, importance
Compleat:
Consequence=Belang

Topics: status, merit, respect, good and bad, appearance, fashion/trend

There is no ancient gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gravedigger
CONTEXT:
Why, there thou sayst. And the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They hold up Adam’s profession.

DUTCH:
Kom, schoppie, er is geen ouwere adel dan tuinlieden, dood gravers en grafmakers. /
Er bestaat geen oudere adel dan die van tuinlui, sloot-en doodgravers. /
De oudste grondheeren zijn tuinlui, aardwerkers en doodgravers.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Countenance=Authority, credit, patronage
Compleat:
Countenance=Gelaat, gezigt, uytzigt, weezen, bescherming

Topics: poverty and wealth, business, skill/talent, status, order/society

These are the tribunes of the people, the tongues o’ the common mouth: I do despise them; for they do prank them in authority against all noble sufferance

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Behold, these are the tribunes of the people,
The tongues o’ the common mouth: I do despise them;
For they do prank them in authority,
Against all noble sufferance.
SICINIUS
Pass no further.
CORIOLANUS
Ha! what is that?
BRUTUS
It will be dangerous to go on: no further.
CORIOLANUS
What makes this change?
MENENIUS
The matter?
COMINIUS
Hath he not pass’d the noble and the common?

DUTCH:
Daar zijn de volkstribunen, ziet! de tongen
Des grooten volksmonds. Ik veracht hen diep;
Zij pralen met hun ambtsgezag, veel meer
Dan de adel dulden kan.

MORE:
Prank (used contemptuously)=Dress themselves (ostentatiously) in authority.
Against all noble sufferance=In a manner no noble can tolerate
Noble=Of an ancient and illustrious family
Compleat:
To prank up=Opschikken, oppronken
To prank up one’s self=Zich opschikken
Pranked up=Opgeschikt, opgepronkt
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Topics: status, poverty and wealth, authority

These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort,
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
See whether their basest metal be not moved.
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol.
This way will I. Disrobe the images
If you do find them decked with ceremonies.
MURELLUS
May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
FLAVIUS
It is no matter. Let no images
Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets.
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

DUTCH:
Ruk Caesar’s vleugels deze veeren uit ;
Dit houdt zijn vlucht wat lager bij den grond.

MORE:
Sort=Rank
Kiss=Touch
Most exalted=Highest river level
Metal=Punning on mettle: spirit, disposition
Disrobe=Undress
Ceremonies=Caesar’s supporters would put diadems on statues
Trophies=Symbols of the ruler
Lupercal=A fertility festival
Vulgar=Common people
Pitch=Height, highest point of flight. Plucking feathers would prevent Caesar from rising above ordinary Roman citizens.
Compleat:
Sort=Soort
Exalted=Verhoogd, verheven
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
To disrobe=Den tabberd uitschudden; zich ontkleeden
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
Trophy=Een zeegeteken, trofee
Vulgar=(common) Gemeen
Pitch=Pik

Burgersdijk notes:
Laat met Caesar’s zegeteek’nen enz. Plutarchus vermeldt, dat er beelden van Caesar werden opgericht met diademen op het hoofd, en dat de volkstribunen, Flavius en Marullus, die omverhaalden.
Ruk Caesar’s vleugels deze veed’ren uit. Namelijk de gunst van het gepeupel – the vulgar – een paar regels vroeger genoemd. In ‘t Engelsch wordt gesproken van ‘These growing feathers’, „dit wassend gevederte”; in de vertaling is het woord “wassend” weggevallen.

Topics: guilt, ingratitude, order/society, status, leadership

This and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the death. See them deliver’d over.

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Henry Bolingbroke
CONTEXT:
Till you did make him misinterpret me,
Have stoop’d my neck under your injuries,
And sigh’d my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment;
Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark’d my parks and fell’d my forest woods,
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Razed out my imprese, leaving me no sign,
Save men’s opinions and my living blood,
To show the world I am a gentleman.
This and much more, much more than twice all this,
Condemns you to the death. See them deliver’d over
To execution and the hand of death.

DUTCH:
Dit, en veel meer, veel meer dan tweemaal dit,
Veroordeelt u ter dood. — Men stell’ hen dus
Terecht, en geev’ hen in de hand des doods.

MORE:

Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)

One form of punishment was apparently to deface the arms of traitors and rebels. (Camden’s “Remains”: How the names of them, which for capital crimes against majestie, were erased out of the public records, tables, and registers, or forbidden to be borne by their posteritie, when their memory was damned, I could show at large.”) Berkeley also refers to this punishment in 2.3.

Fed upon=Lived off
Signories=Feudal park; estate, landed property of a lord
Dispark=To treat (a private park) as a common (by divesting it of its enclosures etc.)
Household coat=Coat of arms
Raze out=Erase, scrap away
Imprese=A device, emblem engraved or painted
Sign=Distinguishing mark of (aristocratic) status

Compleat:
To raze out=Uitschrabben, doorhaalen, uitkladden, uitveegen
Imprese=De zinspreuk van eenig wapenschild

Topics: law/legal, punishment, status

This argues conscience in your Grace, but the respects thereof are nice and trivial, all circumstances well considerèd

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
My lord, this argues conscience in your Grace,
But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumstances well considerèd.
You say that Edward is your brother’s son;
So say we too, but not by Edward’s wife.
For first was he contract to Lady Lucy—
Your mother lives a witness to that vow—
And afterward by substitute betrothed
To Bona, sister to the king of France.
These both put off, a poor petitioner,
A care-crazed mother to a many sons,
A beauty-waning and distressèd widow,
Even in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
Seduced the pitch and height of his degree
To base declension and loathed bigamy.
By her in his unlawful bed he got
This Edward, whom our manners term “the Prince.”
More bitterly could I expostulate,
Save that, for reverence to some alive,
I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
This proffered benefit of dignity,
If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abusing times
Unto a lineal, true-derivèd course.

DUTCH:
Mylord, dit toont een nauwgezet gemoed;
Doch uw bezwaren zijn gezocht en nietig,
Wanneer gij alles grondig overweegt.

MORE:
Respects=Objections
Nice=Fussy, petty
Purchase=Gain, profit
Pitch=Height
Degree=Status, rank
Declension=Descent
Sparing=Restrained
Draw forth=Rescue
Compleat:
Nice=Keurig, vies
She is very nice in her diet=Z is zeer vies op haar kost
He is a little too nice upon that matter=Hy is wat al te keurig op die zaak
Purchase=Verkrygen
Pitch=Pik
Degree=Een graad, trap
Declension=Buyging of verandering van woorden
Sparing=Spaarzaam, zuynig, karig

Topics: conscience, complaint, dignity, status, respect

Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Kent
CONTEXT:
Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter!—My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar and daub the wall of a jakes with him.—Spare my gray beard, you wagtail?

DUTCH:
Jij smerig, overbodig stuk ellende! Als u mij dat toestaat,
mijn lord, zal ik deze ongebuilde bandiet tot mortel stampen
en daarmee de latrinemuren bepleisteren.

MORE:
In Shakespeare’s time, the letter Z was used even less than it is today: dictionaries of the time ignored the letter. Hence the jibe that as a parasite, Oswald is as unnecessary as the letter Z.
Unbolted=Unsifted, coarse (flour or cement)
Onions:
Jakes=Privy
Wagtail (term of contempt)=Obsequious person
Compleat:
Jakes=Een kakhuis
Jakes-cleanser=Een huisjes ruimer, nachtwerker, stilleveeger.

Topics: insult, language, status

Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is …, it is necessary, look your Grace, that he keep his vow and his oath.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Fluellen
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY
It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.
FLUELLEN
Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace, that he keep his vow and his oath. If he be perjured, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jack Sauce as ever his black shoe trod upon God’s ground and His earth, in my conscience, la.

DUTCH:
Al was hij een zoo goede edelman, als de tuifel het
is, als Lucifer en Pelzepup zelf, toch is het noodig, versta
uwe genade, dat hij zijn gelofte houdt en zijn eed.

MORE:

Proverb: As good a man as ever trod on shoe (neat’s) leather (as ever went on legs)
The answer of his degree=A question of rank (knights were only bound to fight with one of equal rank)

Arrant=Arch
Good=important

Compleat:
An arrant knave=Een overgegeven guit

Topics: status, promise, debt/obligation, reputation, proverbs and idioms

Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not my dagger in my mouth

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Guiderius
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Thou art a robber,
A lawbreaker, a villain. Yield thee, thief.
GUIDERIUS, [as Polydor]To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I
An arm as big as thine? A heart as big?
Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not
My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art,
Why I should yield to thee.
CLOTEN
Thou villain base,
Know’st me not by my clothes?

DUTCH:
Is niet mijn arm
Zoo sterk als de uwe, niet mijn hart zoo sterk?
In woorden kunt gij sterker zijn; ik draag
Mijn dolk niet in mijn mond.

MORE:
Proverb: The tailor makes the man

“My dagger is my mouth” ref. Solimon and Perseda, “I fight not with my tongue; this (pointing to sword) is my oratrix”
Base=Of low station, of mean account, i.e. base metal
Compleat:
A base fellow=Een slechte vent, oolyke boef
Base=Ondergeschikt

Topics: language, learning/education, order/society, status, appearance, proverbs and idioms

To lapse in fullness is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood is worse in kings than beggars

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Two beggars told me
I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie,
That have afflictions on them, knowing ’tis
A punishment or trial? Yes. No wonder,
When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fullness
Is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord,
Thou art one o’ th’ false ones. Now I think on thee,
My hunger’s gone; but even before, I was
At point to sink for food. But what is this?
Here is a path to ’t. ’Tis some savage hold.
I were best not call; I dare not call. Yet famine,
Ere clean it o’erthrow nature, makes it valiant.
Plenty and peace breeds cowards; hardness ever
Of hardiness is mother.—Ho! Who’s here?
If anything that’s civil, speak; if savage,
Take or lend. Ho!—No answer? Then I’ll enter.
Best draw my sword; an if mine enemy
But fear the sword like me, he’ll scarcely look on ’t.

DUTCH:
Liegen zij,
Die armoe, nooddruft lijden, ‘t weten, dat
De ellende een straf of een beproeving is?
Ach ja, geen wonder; want de rijken zelfs
Verdraaien meest de waarheid; en in weelde
Te struik’len is veel erger kwaad, dan slechts
Uit nood te liegen; valschheid is in vorsten
Veel boozer dan in beed’laars

MORE:
Proverb: Afflictions are sent us by God for our good (Will poor folks lie…)

Trial=Test of virtue
To lapse in fullness=Fall from truth in a state of prosperity
Even before=Just before
Hardiness=Bravery
Compleat:
Trial (temptation)=Beproeving
Even=Even. Just now=Zo even
Hardiness=Onvertzaagdheid, stoutheid, koenheid
Hardiness of constitution=Hardheid van gesteltenis

Topics: integrity, honesty, status, proverbs and idioms,

Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength

DUTCH:
Wat aangroeit tot een koorts. ‘t Is deze koorts,
Die Troje staande houdt, niet eigen sterkte.
In ‘t kort gezegd, wat Troje leven doet,
Is onze zwakte, niet zijn kracht en moed.

Topics: status, order/society, nature, respect, justice

Truly I think if all our wits were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, south

DUTCH:
En waarlijk, ik geloof, dat, als al onze verstanden uit ééne hersenkas moesten te voorschijn komen, zij oost, west, noord en zuid zouden vliegen; en een afspraak van hen, om allen éénzelfden rechten weg te volgen, zou er op uitkomen, dat zij allen op eens naar al de streken van het kompas uiteenstoven.

MORE:
Proverb: A multitude of people is a beast of many heads

Topics: status, poverty and wealth, intellect, independence

Truly thou art damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in court, shepherd?
CORIN
No, truly.
TOUCHSTONE
Then thou art damned.
CORIN
Nay, I hope.
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, thou art damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.
CORIN
For not being at court? Your reason.
TOUCHSTONE
Why, if thou never wast at court, thou never sawest good manners; if thou never sawest good manners, then thy manners must be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art in a parlous state, shepherd.
CORIN
Not a whit, Touchstone: those that are good manners at the court are as ridiculous in the country as the behavior of the country is most mockable at the court.
TOUCHSTONE
Instance, briefly. Come, instance.

DUTCH:
Waarachtig, gij wordt gebraden, evenals een slecht gebraden ei, aldoor aan éen kant.

Topics: insult, order/society, status, civility

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
(…) Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the shipboy’s eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafening clamor in the slippery clouds
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

DUTCH:
Hard ligt het hoofd, omsloten door een kroon.

MORE:

Warburton says that “Happy low, lie down!” is a corruption of “Happy lowly clown”. These lines make the lines as follows: “If sleep will fly a king and consort itself with beggars, then happy the lowly clown, and uneasy the crowned head.”

Appliance=Devices, appointments
To boot=In addition
Hurly=Hurly-burly, tumult
Low=Low-ranking persons

Compleat:
Hurly-burly=Een gestommel, dedrang, oproer
What will you give me to boot if we exchange?=Wat wil je my toegeeven indien wy ruilen?

Topics: conscience, leadership, duty, prder/society, status

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:
Great men may jest with saints; ’tis wit in them,
But in the less foul profanation.

DUTCH:
Niet met zichzelf mag men zijn naaste meten

MORE:
Schmidt:
Weigh=To ascertain the weight of, to examine by the balance
That by which a thing is counterbalanced, preceded by against or with
Profanation=The act of violating holy things, irreverence
Compleat:
Profanation=Ontheiliging, schending
Weigh=Weegen, overweegen
To weigh all things by pleasures and sorrows=Van alles oordeelen door het vermaak of de droefheid
His authority weighs more than his arguments=Zyn gezach weegt zwaarder als de argumenten

Topics: judgment, equality, status, order/society, law/legal

We have the advantage of the ground; the lane is guarded: nothing routs us but the villainy of our fears

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Belarius
CONTEXT:
IACHIMO
The heaviness and guilt within my bosom
Takes off my manhood: I have belied a lady,
The princess of this country, and the air on’t
Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl,
A very drudge of nature’s, have subdued me
In my profession? Knighthoods and honours, borne
As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.
If that thy gentry, Britain, go before
This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds
Is that we scarce are men and you are gods.
BELARIUS
Stand, stand! We have the advantage of the ground;
The lane is guarded: nothing routs us but
The villainy of our fears.
ARVIRAGUS
Stand, stand, and fight!

DUTCH:
Staat, staat! Wij hebben ‘t voordeel van ‘t terrein;
De pas is ons; ‘t is niets dan lage vrees,
Die ons verslaat.

MORE:
Belied=Slandered
On ‘t=Of it
Carl=Peasant
Scorn=Contempt
Go before=Surpass
Rout=Defeat
Compleat:
Bely=Beliegen
Carle=Een forse vent, een ruuwe gast; bestevaar
Scorn=Versmaading, verachting, bespotting
Rout (defeat)=Nederlaag

Topics: sadness, guilt, truth, status

We will so: almost all repent in their election

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: All
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
One thus descended,
That hath beside well in his person wrought
To be set high in place, we did commend
To your remembrances: but you have found,
Scaling his present bearing with his past,
That he’s your fixed enemy, and revoke
Your sudden approbation.
BRUTUS
Say, you ne’er had done’t—
Harp on that still— but by our putting on;
And presently, when you have drawn your number,
Repair to the Capitol.
ALL
We will so: almost all
Repent in their election.
BRUTUS
Let them go on;
This mutiny were better put in hazard,
Than stay, past doubt, for greater:
If, as his nature is, he fall in rage
With their refusal, both observe and answer
The vantage of his anger.
SICINIUS
To the Capitol, come:
We will be there before the stream o’ the people;
And this shall seem, as partly ’tis, their own,
Which we have goaded onward.

DUTCH:
Dit willen wij;
De keus berouwt schier allen.

MORE:
Scaling=Weighing
Putting on=Urging
Drawn=Gathered these people
Put in hazard=Risked
Stay=Wait
Past doubt=The certainty of
Observe=Watch
Answer the vantage=Take advantage of
Compleat:
To put to=Opdringen, toedringen
To hazard=Waagen, aventuuren, in de waagschaal stellen
To stay=Wagten
To observe=Waarneemen, gadeslaan, onderhouden, aanmerken, opmerken

Topics: relationship, merit, status, regret

Weep your tears into the channel till the lowest stream do kiss the most exalted shores of all

DUTCH:
Voert ze aan des Tibers oevers, en vergiet
Uw tranen in zijn bedding, tot de stroom
Van ‘t laagste deel de hoogste boorden kust.

MORE:
Sort=Rank
Kiss=Touch
Most exalted=Highest river level
Metal=Punning on mettle: spirit, disposition
Disrobe=Undress
Ceremonies=Caesar’s supporters would decorate statues in his honour
Trophies=Symbols of the ruler
Lupercal=A fertility festival
Vulgar=Common people
Pitch=Height, highest point of flight. Plucking feathers would prevent Caesar from rising above ordinary Roman citizens.
Compleat:
Exalted=Verhoogd, verheven
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
To disrobe=Den tabberd uitschudden; zich ontkleeden
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
Trophy=Een zeegeteken, trofee
Vulgar=(common) Gemeen
Pitch=Pik

Topics: guilt, ingratitude, order/society, status, leadership

What an alteration of honou has desperate want made!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
O you gods!
Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord?
Full of decay and failing? O monument
And wonder of good deeds evilly bestowed!
What an alteration of honour
Has desperate want made!
What viler thing upon the earth than friends
Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends!
How rarely does it meet with this time’s guise,
When man was wished to love his enemies!
Grant I may ever love, and rather woo
Those that would mischief me than those that do!
Has caught me in his eye: I will present
My honest grief unto him; and, as my lord,
Still serve him with my life. My dearest master!

DUTCH:
Is die man daar, in smaad en nood, mijn heer?
Zoo arm en zoo vervallen? O gij toonbeeld,
Gij wonder beeld van slecht beloonde goedheid!
Wat bracht die schrikk’lijke armoê u een omkeer
In eerbetoon en rang!

MORE:
Yond=That
Bestowed=Provided
Time’s guise=Spirit of the time
Alteration of honour=Change of fortune
Rarely=Well, excellently
Meet with=Suit
Mischief=Aim to cause harm
Compleat:
Bestowed=Besteed, aangewend
Guise=Toestel, fatsoen
Rarely well=Zeer wel, ongemeen wel
Meet=Dienstig, bekwaarm, gevoeglyk

Topics: ruin, honour, grief, status

What foul play had we that we came from thence?

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
PROSPERO
Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father
Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir
And princess, no worse issued.
MIRANDA
O, the heavens!
What foul play had we that we came from thence?
Or blessed wast we did?
PROSPERO
Both, both, my girl.
By foul play, as thou sayst, were we heaved thence,
But blessedly holp hither.

DUTCH:
0, hemel!
Wat booze treken dreven ons van daar?
Of brachten zij ons zegen?

MORE:
Piece of virtue=Masterpiece, perfect specimen or
Worse issue=Lower (no worse issued = not of lesser birth than a pricess)
Holp=Short for holpen, helped
Compleat:
Holpen=Geholpen
Holp op=Opgeholpen
Ill holp op=In een slegte staat laaten
Issue=Afkomst, afkomeling

Topics: virtue, understanding, status, foul play, fate/destiny

What poor an instrument may do a noble deed!

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Cleopatra
CONTEXT:
GUARDSMAN
Here is a rural fellow
That will not be denied your Highness’ presence.
He brings you figs.
CLEOPATRA
Let him come in. What poor an instrument
May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty.
My resolution’s placed, and I have nothing
Of woman in me. Now from head to foot
I am marble-constant. Now the fleeting moon
No planet is of mine.

DUTCH:
Welk armzalig werktuig
Doet grootsche daden! Mij brengt hij de vrijheid.
Mijn plan staat vast en ik gevoel in mij
Niets vrouw’lijks meer; de wisselzieke maan
Is mijn gesternte niet.

MORE:
Rural fellow=Country peasant
Poor=Humble
Marble-constant=As firm as marble (stone, rock)
Fleeting=Changeable
Compleat:
Peasant=Landman, boer
Poor=(mean, pitiful) Arm, elendig
Fleeting=Vlietende, voorbygaande

Burgersdijk notes:
Daar is een boerenknaap. De boerenknaap, rural fellow, wordt in het vervolg met de benaming clown aangeduid.

Topics: status, order/society, free will, independence

What sharp stings are in her mildest words!

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
STEWARD
I am Saint Jaques’ pilgrim, thither gone:
Ambitious love hath so in me offended,
That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon,
With sainted vow my faults to have amended.
Write, write, that from the bloody course of war
My dearest master, your dear son, may hie:
Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far
His name with zealous fervor sanctify:
His taken labours bid him me forgive;
I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth
From courtly friends, with camping foes to live,
Where death and danger dogs the heels of worth:
He is too good and fair for death and me:
Whom I myself embrace, to set him free.
COUNTESS
Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words!
Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much,
As letting her pass so: had I spoke with her,
I could have well diverted her intents,
Which thus she hath prevented.
STEWARD
Pardon me, madam:
If I had given you this at over-night,
She might have been o’erta’en; and yet she writes,
Pursuit would be but vain.

DUTCH:
Wat scherpe doornen in haar zachtste woorden! –
Rinaldo, nooit waart gij zoo onbedacht,
Als toen gij haar liet gaan; had ik met haar
Gesproken, ‘k had haar afgebracht van ‘t plan,
Wat zij aldus voorkwam.

MORE:
Sainted vow=Sacred vow (to a saint)
Amended=Made amends, pardoned
Hie=Hurry
In peace=Not at war
Taken=Undertaken
Despiteful=Cruel
To dog=To hunt, pursue
Compleat:
Sanctified=Geheyligd
To hie (hye)=Reppen, haasten
Hie thee=Rep u, haast u
To undertake=Onderneemen, by der hand vatten
Despiteful=Spytig, boosaardig
To dog one=Iemand van achteren volgen

Topics: status, order/society, love, error, promise

When you speak best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your beards

DUTCH:
Als gij het best ter zake spreekt, is het niet eens het schudden
van uw baarden waard;

Topics: insult, intellect, status, respect

Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Claudio
CONTEXT:
Unhappily, even so.
And the new deputy now for the duke—
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,
Or whether that the body public be
A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know
He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in:—but this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties
Which have, like unscour’d armour, hung by the wall
So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me: ’tis surely for a name.

DUTCH:
Zij ‘t, dat aan ‘t ambt de tyrannie verknocht is,
Of aan den hoogen geest van die ‘t bekleedt,
Ik weet niet.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Glimpse=A transient lustre
Eminence=High place, distinction
Stagger=Waver, hesitate
Awake=Metaphorically, to put to action
Zodiacs=Years
Compleat:
Glimpse=Een Blik, flikkering, schemering
Eminence=Uytsteekendheyd, hoogte
Stagger=Waggelen, wankelen, doen wankelen
He staggers in his opinion=Hy wankelt in zyn gevoelen
To awake=Wekken, wakker maaken, opwekken, ontwaaken

Topics: authority, ambition, law/legal, purpose, status

Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Edmund
CONTEXT:
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With “base,” with “baseness,” “bastardy,” “base,” “base” –
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tirèd bed
Go to th’ creating a whole tribe of fops
Got ’tween a sleep and wake?

DUTCH:
Waarom zou ‘k den vloek
Van de oude sleur verdragen, en het dulden,
Dat volksvooroordeel mij onterft, omdat
Mijn broeder twaalf of veertien maneschijnen
Mij voorkwam? Waarom basterd? Wat onecht?

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Levy v Louisiana, 391 US 68, 72, n.6, 88 Supreme Court 1509 (1968) (Douglas, J); Williams v Richardson, 347F. Supp. 544, 551 (WDNC 1972).
Schmidt:
Lag of=Behind
Compact= Composed, formed
Generous= Lofty, magnanimous, as befits a gentleman (see also Hamlet 4.7)
True= Proper, correct
Compleat:
Compact=In een trekken, dicht t’saamenvoegen
Generous=Edelmoedig, grootmoedig

Topics: cited in law, relationship, order/society, status

Why hast thou gone so far, to be unbent when thou hast ta’en thy stand, the elected deer before thee?

DUTCH:
Waarom
Ontspant ge uw boog, nu ‘t uitgekozen wild
Juist binnenscheuts is?

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, authority, work, status, duty, debt/obligation

Witness good bringing up, fortune and truth

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Proteus
CONTEXT:
PROTEUS
Go get thee hence, and find my dog again,
Or ne’er return again into my sight.
Away, I say! Stay’st thou to vex me here?
A slave, that still an end turns me to shame!
Sebastian, I have entertained thee,
Partly that I have need of such a youth
That can with some discretion do my business,
For ’tis no trusting to yond foolish lout,
But chiefly for thy face and thy behavior,
Which, if my augury deceive me not,
Witness good bringing up, fortune and truth:
Therefore know thou, for this I entertain thee.
Go presently and take this ring with thee,
Deliver it to Madam Silvia:
She loved me well delivered it to me.

DUTCH:
Indien mijn zienerskunst mij niet bedriegt, —
Van goeden stand, geluk en trouw getuigen;
Deswegen, weet dit, nam ik u in dienst.
Ga nu terstond, neem dezen ring met u,
En stel aan jonkvrouw Silvia dien ter hand;
Die mij hem gaf, zij heeft mij zeer bemind.

MORE:
Still on end=Continuously
Entertained=Employed, taken into service
That=Because
Augury=Prediction
Witness=Attest to
Compleat:
Still=Steeds, gestadig, altyd
Entertain=Onthaalen, huysvesten, plaats vergunnen
Augury=Wichlery, vogelwaarzeggery
To witness=Getuygen, betuygen

Topics: loyalty, status, status

You are a gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your place and person

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Ford
CONTEXT:
FORD
When I have told you that, I have told you all.
Some say, that though she appear honest to me, yet in
other places she enlargeth her mirth so far that
there is shrewd construction made of her. Now, Sir
John, here is the heart of my purpose: you are a
gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable
discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your
place and person, generally allowed for your many
war-like, court-like, and learned preparations.

DUTCH:
En nu, Sir John, kom ik tot de kern van mijn plan: gij zijt een gentleman van fijne beschaving, bewonderenswaardig talent van praten, in de hoogste kringen gezien, invloedrijk door rang en persoon, algemeen geschat wegens uwe hoedanigheden als soldaat, als hoveling en als geleerde.

MORE:
Honest=Faithful
Shrewd construction=Suspicion
Great admittance=Admitted to elevated social circles
Authentic=Creditable
Preparations=Accomplishments
Compleat:
Honest=Eerlyk, oprecht, vroom
Shrewd=Loos, doortrapt, sneedig, vinnig, fel
Construction=Uytlegging, Zamenstelling
Admittance=Toelaating, inwilliging
Authentick, authentical=Eygen-geloofwaardig, goedgekeurd, achtbaar, geloofwaardig
Preparation=Toerusting, voorbereyding, voorbereydsel

You are not worth another word, else I’d call you knave

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lafew
CONTEXT:
LAFEW
The devil it is that’s thy master. Why dost thou
garter up thy arms o’ this fashion? dost make hose of
sleeves? do other servants so? Thou wert best set
thy lower part where thy nose stands. By mine
honour, if I were but two hours younger, I’ld beat
thee: methinks, thou art a general offence, and
every man should beat thee: I think thou wast
created for men to breathe themselves upon thee.
PAROLLES
This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord.
LAFEW
Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a
kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond and
no true traveller: you are more saucy with lords
and honourable personages than the commission of your
birth and virtue gives you heraldry. You are not
worth another word, else Ied call you knave. I leave
you.

DUTCH:
Gij zijt geen woord verder waard; anders zou ik u een schurk noemen.

MORE:
True traveller=Traveller with a government licence
Vagabond=Tramp
Commission=A warrant by which any trust is held, or power exercised
Heraldry=Rank and accomplishments
Knave=Rascal, villain
Compleat:
Vagabond=Een landlooper, schooijer, zwerver
Commission=Last, volmagt, lastbrief, provisie
Knave=Guyt, boef

Topics: insult, order/society, status, respect

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Murellus
CONTEXT:
MURELLUS
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things,
O you hard hearts, you cruèl men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?
Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

DUTCH:
Gij klompen, steenen, erger dan gevoelloos,
Gij harde harten, Rome’s wreede mannen,
Hebt gij Pompeius niet gekend?

MORE:
Conquest=Victory
Tributaries=Vassals who pay tributes
Grace=Dignify
Senseless=Unfeeling
Livelong=Whole, throughout the day
Replication=Echo
Concave=Hollow
Cull out=Select
Intermit=Interrupt
Light=Land, descend
Compleat:
Conquest=Overwinning, verovering
Tributary=Cynsbaar; schatting onderworpen
To grace=Vercieren, bevallig maaken
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
Replication=Ontvouwing; een weder antwoord [van den klaager op het eerste antwoord des aangeklaagden]Concave=Hol
To cull=Uitpikken, uitkiezen
To intermit=Aflaaten, verpoozen, ophouden; staaken
Light=Neerzetten

Burgersdijk notes:

Ja, schoorsteentoppen zelfs. Begrijpelijk zeker voor het schouwburgpubliek, al schudden oudheidkenners het hoofd bij die Romeinsche schoorsteenen.

Topics: status, order/society, ingratitude, leadership

You have, by fortune and his highness’ favours, Gone slightly o’er low steps.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHERINE
My lord, my lord,
I am a simple woman, much too weak
To oppose your cunning. You’re meek and humble-mouth’d;
You sign your place and calling, in full seeming,
With meekness and humility; but your heart
Is cramm’d with arrogancy, spleen, and pride.
You have, by fortune and his highness’ favours,
Gone slightly o’er low steps and now are mounted
Where powers are your retainers, and your words,
Domestics to you, serve your will as’t please
Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you,
You tender more your person’s honour than
Your high profession spiritual: that again
I do refuse you for my judge; and here,
Before you all, appeal unto the pope,
To bring my whole cause ‘fore his holiness,
And to be judged by him.

DUTCH:
U hief ‘t geluk en zijner hoogheid gunst
Licht over lage trappen tot deez’ hoogte,
Waar grooten uw vazallen, en uw woorden
Uw knechten zijn, u dienen, naar uw luim
Hen tot hun ambt benoemt

MORE:
Sign=Show, display
Full seeming=Every outward appearance
Slightly=Effortlessly, carelessly, complacently
Powers=Those in power
Domestics=Servants (words serving)
Tender=Have regard to, care about
Compleat:
Seeming=Schynende
Slightly=Slechtelyk. To make slight=Verachten, kleynachten
Domestick=Een huysgenoot, dienstboode
To tender=Aanbieden, van harte bezinnen, behartigen

Topics: insult, appearance, merit, status

Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
QUEEN MARGARET
To serve me well, you all should do me duty:
Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects.
O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!
DORSET
Dispute not with her; she is lunatic.
QUEEN MARGARET
Peace, Master Marquess, you are malapert.
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge
What ’twere to lose it and be miserable!
They that stand high have many blasts to shake them,
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

DUTCH:
Stil, jonge marktgraaf, gij zijt ingebeeld ;
Nauw gangbaar is uw pasgemunte rang.

MORE:
Proverb: The higher standing (up) the lower (greater) fall

Duty=Reverence
Malapert=Impertinent
Fire new=Brand new
Scarce current=Is very recent
Compleat:
Duty=Eerbiedenis
Malapert=Moedwillig, stout, baldaadig
Current=Loopende, gangbaar

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, merit, status

Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current

DUTCH:
Stil, jonge marktgraaf, gij zijt ingebeeld ;
Nauw gangbaar is uw pasgemunte rang.

MORE:
Proverb: The higher standing (up) the lower (greater) fall

Duty=Reverence
Malapert=Impertinent
Fire new=Brand new
Scarce current=Is very recent
Compleat:
Duty=Eerbiedenis
Malapert=Moedwillig, stout, baldaadig
Current=Loopende, gangbaar

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, merit, status