QUOTES BY TOPIC

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1 ACT/SCENE: 3.2 SPEAKER: King CONTEXT: God pardon thee. Yet let me wonder, Harry,
At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,
Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood.
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruined, and the soul of every man
Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. DUTCH: Had mij een roemloos balling laten blijven,
Als een, die niets was, niets verwachten liet. MORE: Schmidt:
Hold a wing quite from=flight contrary to, away from (possibly borrowed from falconry language)
Hope and expectation of thy time=the promise of youth
Forethink= Anticipate
Common-hackneyed, vulgarized
Vulgar company=mixing with common people
Opinion=Public opinion
Reputeless=Obscure, inglorious
Mark=Notice taken, observance, note
Likelihood=Probability, chance
Possession=Opinion had still kept loyal (to the actual occupant/possessor of the crown) Topics: reputation, punishment, dignity, failure, respect

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Agamemnon
CONTEXT:
AGAMEMNON
Princes,
What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?
The ample proposition that hope makes
In all designs begun on earth below
Fails in the promised largeness: checks and disasters
Grow in the veins of actions highest reared,
As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Nor, princes, is it matter new to us
That we come short of our suppose so far
That after seven years’ siege yet Troy walls stand;
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought
That gave’t surmised shape. Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abashed behold our works,
And call them shames? which are indeed nought else
But the protractive trials of great Jove
To find persistive constancy in men:
The fineness of which metal is not found
In fortune’s love; for then the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft seem all affined and kin:
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass or matter, by itself
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled.

DUTCH:
Doch als zij ‘t voorhoofd fronst, en stormt, en loeit,
Komt zifting, met een groote wan, en doet
Met krachtig schudden ‘t lichte kaf vervliegen;
Maar wat gewicht en echt gehalte heeft,
Blijft liggen, rijk in waarde en onvermengd.

MORE:
Design=A work in hand, enterprise, cause
Checks=Obstacles
Conflux=Confluence
Tortive=Twisted
Errant=Wandering
Suppose=Intention, expectation
Bias=Awry
Answering=Fulfilling
Unbodied=Abstract
Surmised=Imaginary
Shame=Disgrace
Protractive=Protracting
Persistive=Persistent
Metal=Mettle, spirit
Artist=Scholar
Unmingled=Pure
Compleat:
Design=Opzet, voorneemen, oogmerk, aanslag, toeleg, ontwerp
Check=Berispen, beteugelen, intoomen, verwyten
Conflux=’t Zamenvloed, vermenging van wateren
Tortile=Geboogen, gerekt, verdraaid, gekronkeld
Errant=Doolende, omzwervende
Suppose=Vermoeden, denken, onderstellen
To run bias=Schuin loopen
Surmise=Een vermoeden, waan
Shame (reproach, ignominy)=Schande
To protract=Uytstellen, verlengen
Persisting=Aanhoudende, byblyvende
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
Unmingled=Ongemengd

Topics: plans/intentions, advice, failure, adversity, disappointment

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ALONSO
Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attached with weariness
To th’ dulling of my spirits. Sit down and rest.
Even here I will put off my hope and keep it
No longer for my flatterer. He is drowned
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.
ANTONIO
I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
Do not for one repulse forego the purpose
That you resolved t’ effect.
SEBASTIAN
The next advantage
Will we take throughly.

DUTCH:
Ik ben verheugd, dat al zijn hoop vervloog.
Geef niet het plan, waartoe gij vast besloot,
Om één mislukking op.

MORE:
Repulse=Failure, disappointment
Attached with (used figuratively in its legal sense)=Seized by
Throughly=Thoroughly
Compleat:
Repulse=Weigering, tegenstand
Attached=Beslagen

Topics: adversity, achievement, failure

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Come, leave your tears. A brief farewell. The beast
With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother,
Where is your ancient courage? You were used
To say extremities was the trier of spirits;
That common chances common men could bear;
That when the sea was calm, all boats alike
Showed mastership in floating; fortune’s blows
When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves
A noble cunning. You were used to load me
With precepts that would make invincible
The heart that conned them.
VIRGILIA
O heavens! O heavens!
CORIOLANUS
Nay! prithee, woman,—
VOLUMNIA
Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome,
And occupations perish!

DUTCH:
Gij zeidet steeds,
Dat overmaat van leed de geesten toetst;
‘t Gewone draagt ook de gewone mensch;
Bij kalme zee toont elke boot in ‘t zeilen
Gelijke kunst; doch, als des noodlots slagen
Fel treffen, kalm te blijven, eischt een geest
Van eed’len aard; gij gaaft mij steeds een schat
Van grootsche lessen, die, in ‘t hart geprent,
Dit onverwinn’lijk moesten maken.

MORE:
Proverb: Calamity (extremity) is the touchstone of a brave mind (unto wit)
Proverb: In a calm sea every man may be a pilot

Beast with many heads=The multitude, the people
Gentle wounded=Bearing damage/wounds with dignity
Cunning=Skill
Load=To furnish or provide in abundance, to adorn, to reward
Precept=Instruction, direction
To con=Learn by heart
Compleat:
Cunning=Behendig
Precept=(instruction) Onderwys; (commandment) Bevel, gebod
To conn=Zyne lesse kennen, of van buiten leeren

Topics: proverbs and idioms, order/society, authority, failure

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Sir Stephen Scroop
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared;
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, ’twas my care
And what loss is it to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We’ll serve Him too and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God as well as us:
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP
Glad am I that your highness is so arm’d
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
White-beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; boys, with women’s voices,
Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

DUTCH:
t Verheugt mij, dat mijn vorst gewapend is,
Om tijdingen van onheil te vernemen.

MORE:

Care=Worry, responsibillity
His fellow=Equal
Mend=Remedy
Bear the tidings of calamity=Cope with calamitous news
Women’s voices=High, shrill voices
Double-fatal=Dangerous or deadly in two ways (on account of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and of the wood being used for instruments of death)
Billls=Weapons
Distaff=The staff from which the flax is drawn in spinning

Compleat:
Care=Zorg, bezorgdheid, zorgdraagendheid, zorgvuldigheid, vlytigheid
He has not his fellow=Hy heeft zyns gelyk niet, hy heeft zyn weerga niet
Bill=Hellebaard, byl
Distaff=Een spinrok, spinrokken

Topics: preparation, strength, fate/destiny, failure, conflict

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Mine ear is open and my heart prepared;
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold.
Say, is my kingdom lost? why, ’twas my care
And what loss is it to be rid of care?
Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?
Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,
We’ll serve Him too and be his fellow so:
Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;
They break their faith to God as well as us:
Cry woe, destruction, ruin and decay:
The worst is death, and death will have his day.
SIR STEPHEN SCROOP
Glad am I that your highness is so arm’d
To bear the tidings of calamity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day,
Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,
As if the world were all dissolved to tears,
So high above his limits swells the rage
Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land
With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel.
White-beards have arm’d their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; boys, with women’s voices,
Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:
The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows
Of double-fatal yew against thy state;
Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills
Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,
And all goes worse than I have power to tell.

DUTCH:
Mijn oor is open, voorbereid mijn hart;
Wereldsch verlies is ‘t ergst, wat gij kunt melden.

MORE:

Care=Worry, responsibillity
His fellow=Equal
Mend=Remedy
Bear the tidings of calamity=Cope with calamitous news
Women’s voices=High, shrill voices
Double-fatal=Dangerous or deadly in two ways (on account of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and of the wood being used for instruments of death)
Billls=Weapons
Distaff=The staff from which the flax is drawn in spinning

Compleat:
Care=Zorg, bezorgdheid, zorgdraagendheid, zorgvuldigheid, vlytigheid
He has not his fellow=Hy heeft zyns gelyk niet, hy heeft zyn weerga niet
Bill=Hellebaard, byl
Distaff=Een spinrok, spinrokken

Topics: preparation, strength, fate/destiny, failure, conflict

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Gremio
CONTEXT:
VINCENTIO
Fear not, Baptista, we will content you. Go to. But I
will in to be revenged for this villainy..
BAPTISTA
And I, to sound the depth of this knavery.
LUCENTIO
Look not pale, Bianca. Thy father will not frown.
GREMIO
My cake is dough, but I’ll in among the rest,
Out of hope of all but my share of the feast.

DUTCH:
Mijn koek ligt in de asch, maar ik ga mee naar binnen;
Want buiten het maal heb ik niets meer to winnen .

MORE:
Proverb: My cake is dough (cake that isn’t properly baked)

Content=Satisfy
Go to=Don’t worry
Sound=Find out
Compleat:
To content=Voldoen, te vreede stellen, genoegen geeven
Go to=Wel aan, wakker
To sound=Peilen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, satisfaction, revenge, failure

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Angus
CONTEXT:
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

DUTCH:
Thans voelt hij recht, hoe los zijn waardigheid
Om ‘t lijf hem hangt

MORE:
Schmidt:
Faith-breach= Breach of fidelity, disloyalty
Minutely=Continual, happening every minute
Revolt= Desertion, going to the enemy
Upbraid=Reproach; with an accusation of the thing

Topics: loyalty, disappointment, failure, truth, discovery

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
SOMERSET
If York, with all his far-fet policy,
Had been the regent there instead of me,
He never would have stay’d in France so long.
YORK
No, not to lose it all, as thou hast done:
I rather would have lost my life betimes
Than bring a burthen of dishonour home
By staying there so long till all were lost.
Show me one scar character’d on thy skin:
Men’s flesh preserved so whole do seldom win.

DUTCH:
Toon mij éen wond, éen schram, die tuigt van moed;
Slechts zelden wint, wie zoo zijn vleesch behoedt.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Far-fet=(far-fetched): Layered, deep, cunning (without modern connotation of unlikely)
Betimes=Early, at an early hour
Burthen=Burden
Charactered=Written, inscribed, marked

Compleat:
Betimes=Bytyds, vroeg
Far-fetched=Ver gehaald
Burden=Last, pak, vracht
Character=Een merk, merkteken, letter, afbeeldsel, uitdruksel, print, stempel, uitgedruktbeeld, uitbeelding

Topics: age/experience, appearance, failure, evidence

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
Of Salisbury, who can report of him,
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
If Salisbury be lost.

DUTCH:
Wie weet iets van den ouden Salisbury?
Dien winterleeuw, die in zijn fiere woede
Den storm en al het leed des tijds vergeet

MORE:

Aged contusions=The marks of age
Brow=Prime
Repair=Revive
Occasion=Action

Compleat:
Contusion=Kneuzing, plettering
The brow (of a hill)=De top van een berg
To occasion=Veroorzaaken

Topics: age/experience, conflict, failure

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
And ’tis not done. Th’ attempt and not the deed
Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done ’t.

DUTCH:
Het pogen, niet de daad, ware ons verderf

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Schmidt:
Confound=To destroy, ruin, make away with

Topics: law/legal, plans/intentions, failure

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
SOOTHSAYER
To none but thee, no more but when to thee.
If thou dost play with him at any game,
Thou art sure to lose, and of that natural luck
He beats thee ’gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens
When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him,
But, he away, ’tis noble.
ANTONY
Get thee gone.
Say to Ventidius I would speak with him.
He shall to Parthia. Be it art or hap,
He hath spoken true. The very dice obey him,
And in our sports my better cunning faints
Under his chance. If we draw lots, he speeds.
His cocks do win the battle still of mine
When it is all to naught, and his quails ever
Beat mine, inhooped, at odds. I will to Egypt.
And though I make this marriage for my peace,
I’ th’ East my pleasure lies.

DUTCH:
Het is zoo; zelfs de dobbelsteenen dwingt hij;
In ieder spel schiet mijne kunst te kort
Bij zijn geluk; bij loting treft hij ‘t steeds.

MORE:
Lustre=Brightness
Thickens=Becomes dull, dim
Art=Skill
Hap=Luck
Better=Superior
Cunning=Skill
Faints under=Surrenders to
Speed=Succeed
Cocks=Fighting cocks
All to naught=Against the odds
Inhooped=Confined in hoops
Compleat:
Luster=Luyster, glans
Art (cunning or industry)=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid
Hap=Het luk, geval, toeval
Betters=Meerderen
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid; Listigheid
Faint=Bezwyken
To speed=Voortspoeden, voorspoedig zyn, wel gelukken
Cock=Haan. Cock-fighting=Haanekamp
Nought=Niets, niet met al
Hooped=Met hoepels beleyd

Topics: fate/destiny, corruption, achievement, failure

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
We know your drift: speak what?
BRUTUS
There’s no more to be said, but he is banish’d,
As enemy to the people and his country:
It shall be so.
CITIZENS
It shall be so, it shall be so.
CORIOLANUS
You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate
As reek o’ the rotten fens, whose loves I prize
As the dead carcasses of unburied men
That do corrupt my air, I banish you;
And here remain with your uncertainty!
Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts!
Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes,
Fan you into despair! Have the power still
To banish your defenders; till at length
Your ignorance, which finds not till it feels,
Making not reservation of yourselves,
Still your own foes, deliver you as most
Abated captives to some nation
That won you without blows! Despising,
For you, the city, thus I turn my back:
There is a world elsewhere.

DUTCH:
Ook elders is een wereld!

MORE:
Plume=Feathers which serve to adorn, particularly a tuft of feathers worn as an ornament
Making not reservation (in some versions “making but reservations”)
Abated=Humbled, discouraged
Ignorance=Stupidity
Compleat:
Plume=Pluim, veder
He had a white plume of feathers upon his hat=Hy had witte pluimen op zyn hoed
To abate one’s pride=Iemands hoogmoed fnuiken

Topics: life, free will, independence, failure

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
The army of the queen hath got the field:
My uncles both are slain in rescuing me;
And all my followers to the eager foe
Turn back and fly, like ships before the wind
Or lambs pursued by hunger-starved wolves.
My sons, God knows what hath bechanced them:
But this I know, they have demean’d themselves
Like men born to renown by life or death.
Three times did Richard make a lane to me.
And thrice cried ‘Courage, father! fight it out!’
And full as oft came Edward to my side,
With purple falchion, painted to the hilt
In blood of those that had encounter’d him:
And when the hardiest warriors did retire,
Richard cried ‘Charge! and give no foot of ground!’
And cried ‘A crown, or else a glorious tomb!
A sceptre, or an earthly sepulchre!’
With this, we charged again: but, out, alas!
We bodged again; as I have seen a swan
With bootless labour swim against the tide
And spend her strength with over-matching waves.

DUTCH:
Wij deinsden weer, zooals ik vaak een zwaan
Vergeefs den springvloed tegenroeien zag,
Zijn kracht in de onweerstaanb’re golven spillend.

MORE:

Eager=Impetuous
Turn back=Turn their backs (run away from the enemy)
Bechanced=Happened to
Demeaned=Behaved
Make a lane=Cut a pathway to
Falchion=Curved sword
Bodge=Flinch, budge (yield, give way)
Bootless=Hopeless, futile, wasted
Overmatching=Too powerful

Compleat:
Eager=Graag, happig, greetig; heftig, vuurig, vinnig
To demean himself=Zich draagen, aanstellen
Falchion=Een klein kromachtig zwaerd, sabeltje (also fauchion)
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos

Topics: haste, risk, failure

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Albany
CONTEXT:
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
Filths savor but themselves. What have you done?
Tigers, not daughters, what have you performed?
A father, and a gracious agèd man,
Whose reverence even the head-lugged bear would lick,
Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded.

DUTCH:
Verstand en goedheid zijn voor het lage laag: vuiligheid geniet alleen van zich zelf./
Wijsheid en goedheid zijn den lagen laag .
‘t Vuile lust slechts het vuile.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Savour=Like, relish
Head-lugged=Pulled, seized, by the ears
To mad=To madden
Reverence=A character entitled to particular regard
Compleat:
Lug (of the ear)=Het oor-lapje
To lug by the ears=Bij de ooren trekken
To lug (hale or tug)=Sleepen, voorttrekken
To lug one to the gallows=Iemand naar de galg sleepen

Topics: wisdom, good and bad, duty, ingratitude, failure

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
Unapt to stir at these indignities,
And you have found me, for accordingly
You tread upon my patience. But be sure
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty and to be feared, than my condition,
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect
Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.

DUTCH:
Te koel en te gematigd was mijn bloed,
Niet vatbaar om hij zulk een hoon te koken;
En dit hebt gij ontdekt, want daarom treedt gij
Op mijn lankmoedigheid;

MORE:
Schmidt:
Temperate=moderate, calm
Found me=Found me out, have my measure
Unapt=Not propense or ready
Condition=Quality
Tread upon (in a moral sense)=To trample, to set the foot on in contempt
Indignity=Contemptuous injury, insult
Title of respect=Claim to respect, respect to which I have title
Compleat:
Unapt=Onbekwaam
Temperate=Maatig, gemaatigd
To tread upon=Optreeden, vertreeden
To tread underfoot=Met den voet treeden

Topics: identity, dignity, failure, respect, patience, authority

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