CJTranslations - Timon of Athens

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A dedicated beggar to the air, with his disease of all-shunned poverty

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Second servant
CONTEXT:
SECOND SERVANT
As we do turn our backs
From our companion thrown into his grave,
So his familiars to his buried fortunes
Slink all away, leave their false vows with him,
Like empty purses picked; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunned poverty,
Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.

DUTCH:
En hij, een beed’laar, aan de lucht ter prooi,
Zwerft, met zijn kwaal van schuwgemeden armoê,
Beeld van verachting, eenzaam

MORE:
Familiar=Demon or spirit; false friend
Slink=Sneak
All-shunned=Avoided by everyone
Compleat:
Familiar=Een gemeenzaame geet, queldrommel
To slink away=Wegsluipen, doorsluipen
To slink aside=Zich schuil houden
To shun=Vermyden, ontwyken, ontvlieden

Topics: good and bad, friendship, ruin

Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise the breath is gone whereof this praise is made

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord!
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! Who is not Timon’s?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is
Lord Timon’s?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise,
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made:
Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers,
These flies are couched.

DUTCH:
Ach, rijkdom kocht dien lof; vervloog die, fluks
Vervliegt de lof, die louter adem is;
Wat feesten schonken, neemt het vasten weer;
Eén wintervlaag, en schuil gaan deze vliegen.

MORE:
Prodigal=Wasteful
Bits=Scraps
Englutted=Swallowed
Couched=Concealed, disappear
Compleat:
Prodigal=Quistig, verquistend, quistachtig
To englut=Verkroppen

Topics: money, poverty and wealth, caution, gullibility, manipulation

All this courtesy! The strain of man’s bred out into baboon and monkey

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
TIMON
You must needs dine with me: go not you hence
Till I have thanked you: when dinner’s done,
Show me this piece. I am joyful of your sights.
Most welcome, sir!
APEMANTUS
So, so, there!
Aches contract and starve your supple joints!
That there should be small love ‘mongst these
sweet knaves,
And all this courtesy! The strain of man’s bred out
Into baboon and monkey.

DUTCH:
Zoo, zoo! ziet eens! —
Dat jicht uw leen’ge leden kromm’, verlamme!
Die lieve schelmen meenen in hun hart
Niets van die hoff’lijkheid ! Het menschenras
Is lang ontaard tot aap en baviaan!

MORE:
Must needs=Have to
Sights=Views, perceptions
Strain=Stock, race
Compleat:
It must needs be so=Het moet noozaaklyk zo weezen
Quick-sighed (quici-witted)=Scherp ziende, schrander
Stock (race, family)=Geslacht

Topics: civility, order/society

Ceremony was but devised at first to set a gloss on faint deeds

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
Recanting goodness, sorry ere ’tis shown;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes
Than my fortunes to me.
FIRST LORD
My lord, we always have confessed it.
APEMANTUS
Ho, ho, confessed it! hanged it, have you not?

DUTCH:

Plichtplegingen zijn enkel uitgedacht
Om koele daden, holle vriend’lijkheid
Met glans te sieren; om berouwde goedheid
Vóor ‘t hand’len te herroepen, zijn zij noodig

MORE:
Proverb: Ceremony was but devised at first to set a gloss on faint deeds
Proverb: Full of courtesy full of craft

Ceremony=Rituals, formalities
Set a gloss=Give meaning, make something look good
Recanting=Denying
Hollow=Meaningless
Confessed=Said so, known (not confessed in a criminal or religious sense)
Compleat:
Ceremony=Plegtigheyd
To set a gloss upon a thing=Iets een schoonen opschik geeven
To recant=Herroepen, wederroepen, weer in zyn hals haalen, verzaaken
Hollow=Hol, uytgehold; Hollow-hearted=Geveinst

Burgersdijk notes:
En niet gehangen. Toespeling op het spreekwordelijk zeggen, tegen spitsboeven in gebruik: Confess and be hanged, „Beken en laat je hangen.”

Topics: honesty, manipulation, proverbs and idioms, appearance

Crack the lawyer’s voice, that he may never more false title plead, nor sound his quillets shrilly

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Consumptions sow
In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins,
And mar men’s spurring. Crack the lawyer’s voice,
That he may never more false title plead,
Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen,
That scolds against the quality of flesh,
And not believes himself: down with the nose,
Down with it flat; take the bridge quite away
Of him that, his particular to foresee,
Smells from the general weal: make curled-pate
ruffians bald;
And let the unscarred braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you: plague all;
That your activity may defeat and quell
The source of all erection. There’s more gold:
Do you damn others, and let this damn you,
And ditches grave you all!

DUTCH:
Zaait in der mannen holle beend’ren tering!
Maakt hun de schrale schenkels lam, en breek
Des ruiters kracht, de stem des pleitbezorgers,
Dat die geen onrecht ooit meer steun’, geen schrille
Spitsvondigheên meer krijsche.

MORE:
Consumptions=Infections
Hollow bones=Effect of syphilis
Crack the voice=Effect of syphilis
Quillet=Tricks in argument, distinctions, subtleties, ambiguities
Hoar=Whiten, effect of syphilis
Flamen=Cleric
Braggarts=Boastful
Grave=Entomb
Compleat:
Consumption=Verteering, verquisting, vertier
Hollow=Hol, uitgehold
Quillet=(The querks and quillets of the law): De kneepen en draaijen der Rechtsgeleerden
Hoariness=Beryptheid, grysheid, beschimmeldheid
Braggart, braggard or Braggadochio=Een pocher, Blaaskaak

Topics: insult, lawyers, defence, advantage/benefit

Every grise of fortune is smooth’d by that below: the learnèd pate ducks to the golden fool

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity; below thy sister’s orb
Infect the air! Twinned brothers of one womb,
Whose procreation, residence, and birth,
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes;
The greater scorns the lesser: not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune,
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar, and deny ‘t that lord;
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary,
The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother’s sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares,
In purity of manhood stand upright,
And say, ‘This man’s a flatterer?’ if one be,
So are they all; for every grise of fortune
Is smooth’d by that below: the learnèd pate
Ducks to the golden fool: all is oblique;
There’s nothing level in our cursed natures
But direct villainy. Therefore, be abhorred
All feasts, societies, and throngs of men!
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains:
Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots!
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold! yellow, glittering, precious gold! No, gods,
I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens!
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.

DUTCH:
Geen enk’le trede van Fortuin, die niet
Gevleid wordt door de laag’re; de geleerde
Kruipt voor den gouden domkop. Scheef is alles;
Niets gaat rechtuit in onze vloekb’re wereld,
Dan drieste snoodheid.

MORE:

Breeding=Generative
Sister’s orb=Moon
Residence=Gestation
Scarce=Barely
Dividant=Separate, different
Nature=Human nature
Pasture=Feasting
Want=Lack
Smoothed=Softened, flattered
Pate=The head; used in contempt or in ridicule
Duck=Bow
Oblique=Perverse, misperception
Compleat:
Breeding=Voortteeling, aanfokking, opvoeding
Scarce (or scarcely)=Naauwlyks
To pasture=Weiden
Wamt=Gebrek
Pate=De kop, het hoofd
Grise (grize) (also grice, grece, greese)=Step, degree
To smooth=Glad maaken, stryken
Duck=Met het hoofd buigen
Oblique=Scheef, schuin, krom, overdwars

Burgersdijk notes:
Het is de weide, die het rundvee vetmest. Het Engelsch luidt: It is the pasture lards the brother’s
sides. Houdt men zich aan deze lezing, dan moet zij terugwijzen op het beeld van de tweelingbroeders. — Singer vervangt het woord brother door rother, wat in deze alleenspraak voortreffelijk past. Rother is namelijk, volgens Halliwell , een provincialisme, een noord-Engelsch woord voor hoornvee, dat echter ook elders in Engeland wel bekend was, met name in Warwickshire. In Stratford, Sh.’s geboorteplaats, bestaat nog een Rother-.street, vroeger ook Rother-market geheeten. Doch ook in Londen leeft, volgens de opmerking van K, Elze, het woord voort in Rotherhithe, een gedeelte van Londen op den zuidelijken Theemsoever. Dit woord hithe, uit het Angelsaksisch afkomstig, beteekent een kleine haven, een werf, en wordt in Londen ook aangetroffen in Queenhithe en Lambeth, d. i. Lambhithe. Rotherhithe was dus zeker een laad- en losplaats voor hoornvee, zooals Lambhithe voor klein vee.

Topics: fate/destiny, poverty and wealth, order/society, flattery, money

Every man has his fault, and honesty is his

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Lucullus
CONTEXT:
LUCULLUS
La, la, la, la! ‘nothing doubting,’ says he? Alas,
good lord! a noble gentleman ’tis, if he would not
keep so good a house. Many a time and often I ha’
dined with him, and told him on’t, and come again to
supper to him, of purpose to have him spend less,
and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning
by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty
is his: I ha’ told him on’t, but I could ne’er get
him from’t.

DUTCH:
Iedereen heeft zijn zwak, en grootmoedigheid
is het zijne; ik heb het hem gezegd, maar
ik kon hem er nooit van afbrengen.

MORE:
Proverb: Every man has (no man is without) his faults

Honesty=Decency, propriety
Of purpose=With the aim of
Embrace=Accept
Counsel=Advice
Compleat:
Honesty=Eerbaarheid, vroomheid
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp
Embrace=(to receive or embrace an opinion): Een gevoelen omhelzen
Embrace=(to receive or approve of an excuse)=Een verschooning aannemen, voor goed houden
Counsel=Raad, onderrechting

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, flaw/fault, honesty

For those that were, it is not square to take in those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands, are not inherited

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.6
SPEAKER: Second senator
CONTEXT:
SECOND SENATOR
Nor are they living
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death—
If thy revenges hunger for that food
Which nature loathes—take thou the destined tenth,
And by the hazard of the spotted die
Let die the spotted.
FIRST SENATOR
All have not offended;
For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin
Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.
SECOND SENATOR
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile
Than hew to’t with thy sword.

DUTCH:
Onbillijk waar’ ‘t, voor dooden hen, die leven,
Te laten boeten; zonden gaan niet over
Bij erf’nis, als een land.

MORE:
Motives=Reason
Went out=Were banished
Cunning=Skill
Decimation=Killing one in ten
Tithe=Levy one tenth part
Die=Singular form of dice
Compleat:
Motive=Beweegreden, beweegoorzaak
To decimate=Vertienen, den tienden soldaat by lotinge verstraffen
Decimation=Heffing van tienden, vertienen, straffen van den tienden man
Cunning=Loosheid, listigheid; Behendigheid
Tithe=Tiende
To gather tithes=Tienden inzamelen
Die=Dobbelsteen

Topics: mercy, revenge, reason

Friendship’s full of dregs: methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
What a coil’s here!
Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
That are given for ’em. Friendship’s full of dregs:
Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs,
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on curtseys.
TIMON
Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be
good to thee.
APEMANTUS
No, I’ll nothing: for if I should be bribed too,
there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then
thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long,
Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in
paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and
vain-glories?

DUTCH:
Die vriendschap is vol droesem; ik zou meenen,
Bij ‘t valsche hart behoorden lamme beenen.
‘t Gekniebuig kost een braven nar zijn geld.

MORE:
Coil=Commotion
Serving of becks=Bowing and scraping
Dregs=Impurities
Rail upon=Criticise
Give thyself away=Overextend yourself
Paper=Promissory notes
Vain-glories=Spectacles, celebrations
Compleat:
Coil=Geraas, getier
Beck=Een wenk, knik
Dregs=Droesssem, grondsop
To rail=Schelden
Vain glory=Ydele glorie

Topics: flattery, deceit vanity, gullibility, friendship

Give them title, knee and approbation with senators on the bench

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods,
I am no idle votarist: roots, you clear heavens!
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.
Ha, you gods! why this? what this, you gods? Why, this
Will lug your priests and servants from your sides,
Pluck stout men’s pillows from below their heads:
This yellow slave
Will knit and break religions, bless the accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored, place thieves
And give them title, knee and approbation
With senators on the bench: this is it
That makes the wappened widow wed again;
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
Thou common whore of mankind, that put’st odds
Among the route of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature.

DUTCH:
Die gele ellend’ling schept
Godsdiensten, sloopt ze; zegent wie vervloekt zijn;
Maakt witmelaatschen aangebeen; helpt dieven
Aan titels, eerbetoon en lof, en plaatst ze
Bij senatoren in ‘t gestoelt.

MORE:
Pluck stout men’s pillows=It was a custom to remove the pillow from under a dying man’s head to ease his dying
Sauce=Flavour, enhance
Operant=Active, effective
Idle=Insincere
Votarist=Votary, one who has taken a vow
Clear=Pure
Lug=Convey
Knit=Make
Approbation=Praise
With=Equal to
Wappened=Exhausted, stale
Spital-house=Hospital
Gorge=Vomit
Put’st odds=Creates contention, discord
Compleat:
Operative=Werkzaam
Clear=Klaar, helder, zuiver
Votary=Een die zich door een (religieuse) belofte verbonden heeft; die zich ergens toe heeft overgegeeven
To lug=Trekken
To knit friendship=Vriendschap aangaan
Knit together=Verknocht, t’zamengeknoopt
To set at odds=Twist stooken, oneenigheid verwekken
Approbation=Goedkeuring
Gorge=Keel, krop. To cast the gorge=Braaken

Burgersdijk notes:
Dit rukt aan mannen in des levens vaag ‘t hoofdkussen weg. Zinspeling op het gebruik van aan stervenden, om hun doodstrijd te bekorten, het hoofdkussen weg te trekken; het goud is oorzaak, dat dit ook op mannen in de kracht des levens beproefd, dat hun naar het leven gestaan wordt.

Kom, gij doemwaardige aarde enz. Deze doemwaardige aarde moet natuurlijk het goud zelf zijn; daar dit hier met den naam van het zoogenoemde element, dat hij Sh. steeds als loom en traag bekend staat, wordt toegesproken , is hier ingevoegd „log stof”, onm in de vertaling uit te drukken, wat, naar het mij voorkomt , de bedoeling van den dichter moet geweest zijn. Hierom is ook vertaald: „ik doe u slapen naar uwen waren aard”. In het Engelsch staat alleen: „ik wil u laten doen naar uwen waren aard”. Deze plaats, en ook het volgende, levert moeilijkheden op en wordt verschillend verklaard.

Topics: ambition, poverty and wealth, money, ruin

Grant I may never prove so fond, to trust man on his oath or bond

Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
I pray for no man but myself:
Grant I may never prove so fond,
To trust man on his oath or bond;
Or a harlot, for her weeping;
Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping:
Or a keeper with my freedom;
Or my friends, if I should need ’em.
Amen. So fall to’t:
Rich men sin, and I eat root.

DUTCH:
Geeft, dat ik niemand dwaas vertrouw,
Geen woord noch eed, van man noch vrouw

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Sims v. Manson, 25 Wis.2d 110, 130 N.W.2d 200 (1964)(Gordon, J.).

Proverb: Trust not a woman when she weeps

Tides=Time
Healths=Toasts
Mire=Mud, stain
No odds=No difference
Pelf=Wealth
Fond=Foolish
Compleat:
Tide=Tyd, stond
To drink a health=Een gezondheyd drinken
Mire=Slyk, slik
He is deep in the mire=Hy steekt diep in schulden; hy heeft veel op zyne hoorens
To stick in the mire=In de stik steeken
Odds=Verschil
Pelf=Prullen, slechte goederen [Men gebruykt dit woord als men verachtelyk van goederen spreekt]Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt

Topics: cited in law, contract, honesty, trust, proverbs and idioms

Happier is he that has no friend to feed than such that do e’en enemies exceed

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
What will this come to?
He commands us to provide, and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer:
Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this,
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good:
His promises fly so beyond his state
That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes
For every word: he is so kind that he now
Pays interest for ‘t; his land’s put to their books.
Well, would I were gently put out of office
Before I were forced out!
Happier is he that has no friend to feed
Than such that do e’en enemies exceed.
I bleed inwardly for my lord.

DUTCH:
Gelukkiger, wie, vriendenloos, geen gast
Ooit ziet, dan wie een tal van vrienden voedt,
Die ieder erger dan een vijand doet.

MORE:
Empty coffer=Lack of assets
Fly beyond his state=Exceed his capacity, promising more than he can deliver
Purse=Finances
Put to their books=Mortgaged or signed over to
Bleed=Lament
Compleat:
State=Staat, rang
Purse=Beurs; to purse up money=Geld in zyn zak steeken
To be in any one’s books=Iemands schuldenaar weezen
A book of accounts=Een koopmans schryf-boek, een reeken-boek

Topics: poverty and wealth, debt/obligation, money, friendship

Has almost charmed me from my profession, by persuading me to it

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Third Bandit
CONTEXT:
THIRD BANDIT
Has almost charmed me from my profession, by
persuading me to it.
FIRST BANDIT
‘Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises
us; not to have us thrive in our mystery.
SECOND BANDIT
I’ll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade.
FIRST BANDIT
Let us first see peace in Athens: there is no time
so miserable but a man may be true.

DUTCH:
Hij heeft mij bijna met zijn bezwering het handwerk
tegen gemaakt, door er mij toe aan te zetten.

MORE:
Charmed=Persuaded
Mystery=Trade, craft
Give over=Give up
Compleat:
To charm=Bezweeren, bekooren, beleezen, betoveren
Mysteryor mistery (trade)=Handel, konst, ambacht
To give over=Overgeeven, verlaaten, uitscheiden, opgeeven

Burgersdijk notes:
Ik wil aan hem geloof slaan als aan een vijand. En dus het tegendeel doen van wat hij aanraadt.

Topics: persuasion, skill/talent

Has friendship such a faint and milky heart, it turns in less than two nights?

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAMINIUS
May these add to the number that may scald thee!
Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend, and not himself!
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart,
It turns in less than two nights? O you gods,
I feel master’s passion! this slave,
Unto his honour, has my lord’s meat in him:
Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment,
When he is turned to poison?
O, may diseases only work upon’t!
And, when he’s sick to death, let not that part of
nature
Which my lord paid for, be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour!

DUTCH:
Heeft vriendschap zulk een melkhart, koel en bloedloos,
Dat in twee nachten omslaat?

MORE:
Scald=Burn
Faint=Incompetent
Milky=Opaque, weak
Turns=Curdles, goes off
Nutriment=Nourishment
Compleat:
Scald=Verbroeijen, met heet water branden
Faint=Zwak, machteloos; flaauw
Turn=Doen schiften
Nutriment=Voedsel

Topics: friendship, loyalty regret

Hate all, curse all, show charity to none

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Look thee, ’tis so! Thou singly honest man,
Here, take: the gods out of my misery
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy;
But thus conditioned: thou shalt build from men;
Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
But let the famished flesh slide from the bone,
Ere thou relieve the beggar; give to dogs
What thou deny’st to men; let prisons swallow ’em,
Debts wither ’em to nothing; be men like
blasted woods,
And may diseases lick up their false bloods!
And so farewell and thrive.

DUTCH:
Haat allen, vloek een elk; doe niemand wel;
Schenk aan den beed’laar niets, schoon ‘t maag’re vleesch
Hem van ‘t gebeente valle;

MORE:
Proverb: Hate all, curse all, show charity to none

Singly=Uniquely
Thus conditioned=On one condition
Build from=Take advantage of
Blasted=Withered
Lick up=Drink
Compleat:
Singly=Enkelyk
Fair conditioned=Fraai gesteld
To condition=Bespreeken, bedinge, afspreeken
To condition with one=Met iemand een verdrag maaken
I build upon your word=Ik steun op uw woord
To blast=Doen verstuiven, wegblaazen, verzengen, door ‘t weer beschaadigen
To blast one’s reputation=Iemands goeden naam bezwalken
To lick up=Oplikken
To lick up a piece of work=Een werk beschaaven

Topics: proverbs and idioms, fate/destiny, money, poverty and wealth, good and bad

He speaks the common tongue which all men speak with him

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Jeweller
CONTEXT:
JEWELLER
What, my lord! dispraise?
TIMON
A more satiety of commendations.
If I should pay you for’t as ’tis extolled,
It would unclew me quite.
JEWELLER
My lord, ’tis rated
As those which sell would give: but you well know,
Things of like value differing in the owners
Are prized by their masters: believe’t, dear lord,
You mend the jewel by the wearing it.
TIMON
Well mocked.
MERCHANT
No, my good lord; he speaks the common tongue,
Which all men speak with him.
TIMON
Look, who comes here: will you be chid?

DUTCH:
Neen, beste heer, hij zegt slechts
Wat heel de wereld zegt.

MORE:
Proverb: The worth of a thing is as it is esteemed (valued)

Dispraise=Censure
Satiety=Excess
Extolled=Praised
Unclew=Unravel, ruin (a clew was a ball of thread)
Rated=Valued
Mend=Increase the value
Chid=Reprimanded
Compleat:
Dispraise=Mispryzen, hoonen, verachten, laaken
Satiety=Zotheyd, verzaadigdheyd
To extoll=Verheffen, pryzen, looven
Clew=Een kluwen
To rate=Waardeeren, schatten, op prys stellen
Mend=Beteren, verbeteren
Chide=Kyven, bekyven

Topics: flattery, business, value, proverbs and idioms

He that loves to be flattered is worthy o’th’ flatterer

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Art not a poet?
POET
Yes.
APEMANTUS
Then thou liest: look in thy last work, where thou
hast feigned him a worthy fellow.
POET
That’s not feigned; he is so.
APEMANTUS
Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy
labour: he that loves to be flattered is worthy o’
the flatterer. Heavens, that I were a lord!

DUTCH:
Ja, hij is u waardig, en waardig, dat hij u voor uw
werk betaalt; hij, die zich gaarne laat vleien, is zijn
vleier waardig. 0 hemel, ware ik eens een groot heer!

MORE:
Proverb: Painters and poets have leave to lie
Proverb: He that loves to be flattered is worthy of the flatterer

Feigned=Misrepresented
That I were=If only I were
Compleat:
To feign=Voorwenden, veinzen; beraadslaan

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, insult, flattery

He’s flung in rage from this ingrateful seat

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us!
Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who would be so mocked with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?
To have his pomp and all what state compounds
But only painted, like his varnished friends?
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart,
Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood,
When man’s worst sin is, he does too much good!
Who, then, dares to be half so kind again?
For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord, blessed, to be most accursed,
Rich, only to be wretched, thy great fortunes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!
He’s flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
Of monstrous friends, nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I’ll follow and inquire him out:
I’ll ever serve his mind with my best will;
Whilst I have gold, I’ll be his steward still.

DUTCH:
Die goede meester!
Hij stormde in woede van deze’ ondankszetel,
Van onmensch-vrienden weg;
Niets nam hij meê tot levensonderhoud,
Niets, dat dit koopen kan!

MORE:
Wretchedness=Misery
Compounds=Includes, comprises
Painted=Artificial
Varnished=Disingenuous
Blood=Mood, disposition
Mar=Harm
His mind=Wishes
Compleat:
Wretchedness=Elendigheyd, heylloosheyd, oneugendheyd
To compound=’t Zamenzetten, byleggen, afmaaken, vereffenen, overeenkomen
Painted=Geschilderd, geverwd, geblanket
Varnished=Vernisd
To marr=Bederven, verboetelen, verknoeijen

Topics: sorrow, poverty and wealth, honesty, loyalty

Here’s that which is too weak to be a sinner — honest water —which ne’er left man i’th’mire

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Flow this way! A brave fellow! he keeps his tides
well. Those healths will make thee and thy state
look ill, Timon. Here’s that which is too weak to
be a sinner, honest water, which ne’er left man i’ the
mire:
This and my food are equals; there’s no odds:
Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods.
Immortal gods, I crave no pelf;
I pray for no man but myself:
Grant I may never prove so fond,
To trust man on his oath or bond;
Or a harlot, for her weeping;
Or a dog, that seems a-sleeping:
Or a keeper with my freedom;
Or my friends, if I should need ’em.
Amen. So fall to’t:
Rich men sin, and I eat root.

DUTCH:
Hier heb ik, wat geen kracht tot zonde heeft;
Braaf water, dat nooit iemand in het slijk wierp.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Sims v. Manson, 25 Wis.2d 110, 130 N.W.2d 200 (1964)(Gordon, J.).

Proverb: Trust not a woman when she weeps

Topics: cited in law, contract, honesty, trust, proverbs and idioms

Hinge thy knee, and let his very breath, whom thou’lt observe, blow off thy cap

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
This is in thee a nature but infected;
A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
From change of fortune. Why this spade? this place?
This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft;
Hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods,
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive
By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee,
And let his very breath, whom thou’lt observe,
Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain,
And call it excellent: thou wast told thus;
Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bid welcome
To knaves and all approachers: ’tis most just
That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again,
Rascals should have ‘t. Do not assume my likeness.

DUTCH:
Neen, wordt nu zelf een vleier, tracht te stijgen
Door dat, wat uw verderf was; knik uw knieën,
En laat den ademtocht van wien gij huldigt,
Uw muts afblazen; roem zijn schandlijkste ondeugd
En noem die prachtig.

MORE:
Infected=Corrupted
Cunning=Shrewdness
Carper=Cynic, complainer, censurer
Hinge=Bend
Observe=Follow, flatter
Strain=Characteristic
Tapsters=Barkeepers
Rascal=Rogue
Compleat:
Infected=Besmet; Infected with a false opinion=Door een valsch gevoelen vergiftigd
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
Carper=Een pluizer, muggezifter
To observe=Waarneemen, gadeslaan, onderhouden, aanmerken, opmerken
Strain=Trant
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
Rascal=Een schelm, guit, schobbejak, schurk,vlegel, schavuit

Topics: nature, emotion and mood, fate/destiny, flattery

His days and times are past and my reliances on his fracted dates have smit my credit

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Senators
CONTEXT:

SENATOR
Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon;
Importune him for my moneys; be not ceased
With slight denial, nor then silenced when—
‘Commend me to your master’—and the cap
Plays in the right hand, thus: but tell him,
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn
Out of mine own; his days and times are past
And my reliances on his fracted dates
Have smit my credit: I love and honour him,
But must not break my back to heal his finger;
Immediate are my needs, and my relief
Must not be tossed and turned to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate aspect,
A visage of demand; for, I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing,
Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone.

DUTCH:
Zijn dagen zijn verstreken;
En dat ik rekende op zijn stipt betalen,
Heeft mijn crediet geschokt. Ik eer, bemin hem;
Maar moet mijn hals niet breken, om zijn vinger
Te heelen. Dringend is mijn nood; ik ben
Met toegeworpen woorden niet geholpen,
Maar met terstond betalen.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Brown v. Felsen, 442 U.S. 127, 137, n.8, 99 S.Ct. 2205, 2212, 60 L.Ed.2d 767 (1979)(Blackmun, J.). (The Court turns to Timon of Athens, Shakespeare’s satire on friends and creditors, and writes,
“In the words of a Shakespearean creditor, fearing the worst: ‘When every feather sticks in his own wing,/Which Timon will be left a naked Gull,/Which flashes now a Phoenix.'”) (William Domnarski, Shakespeare in the Law).

Proverb: If ever bird had (should take) his own feathers he should be as rich as a new-shorn sheep (you would be naked)

Importune=Urge, impel
Ceased=Stopped
Uses=Needs
Serve my turn=Protect my interests
Fracted dates=Exceeded deadlines
Smit=Damaged
Importunate=Unrelenting
Gull=Fool
Compleat:
Importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To cease=Ophouden, aflaaten, staaken, uitscheiden, stilhouden, afstaan
To come with cap in hand=Met den hoed in de hand komen
Smit=Getroffen
Serve my turn=Uit eigenbaat
Importunate=Hard aanhoudend, overlastig, moeijelyk, aandringend
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, debt/obligation, claim, money

How shall I understand you?
– I will unbolt to you.

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
PAINTER
How shall I understand you?
POET
I will unbolt to you.
You see how all conditions, how all minds,
As well of glib and slippery creatures as
Of grave and austere quality, tender down
Their services to Lord Timon: his large fortune
Upon his good and gracious nature hanging
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself: even he drops down
The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon’s nod.

DUTCH:
SCHILDER.
Hoe moet ik u verstaan?
dichter
‘k Wil u den zin ontgrend’len.
Gij ziet, hoe alle standen, alle geesten, —
Zoowel die glad en sluip’rig zijn van ziel
Als strenge en stugge mannen, — allen Timon
Ten dienste willen staan.

MORE:
Unbolt=Unfasten, open (fig. reveal)

Topics: communication, understanding, flattery, respect, leadership

I am an humble suitor to your virtues; for pity is the virtue of the law, and none but tyrants use it cruelly

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
I am an humble suitor to your virtues;
For pity is the virtue of the law,
And none but tyrants use it cruelly.
It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy
Upon a friend of mine, who, in hot blood,
Hath stepped into the law, which is past depth
To those that, without heed, do plunge into ‘t.
He is a man, setting his fate aside,
Of comely virtues:
Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice—
An honour in him which buys out his fault—
But with a noble fury and fair spirit,
Seeing his reputation touched to death,
He did oppose his foe:
And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behave his anger, ere ’twas spent,
As if he had but proved an argument.

DUTCH:
Ik ben een need’rig smeek’ling tot uw deugd;
Want mededoogen is de deugd der wet,
En slechts tyrannen kennen geen verschooning.

MORE:
Am a humble suitor to=Humbly appeal to
Virtue=Morality
Stepped into=Was subjected to, came up against
Past depth=Unfathomable
Without heed=Rashly
Buy out=Redeem
Fact=Crime
Sober=Moderate
Unnoted=Calculating
Compleat:
Humble=Ootmoedig, nederig, deemoedig
Suiter (suitor)=Pleiter
Virtue (an habit of the soul, whereby a man is inclined to do good and to shun evil)=Deugd
To step into an estate=In ‘t bezit van groote middelen treeden
Heedless=Achteloos, onachtzaam
Redeem=Vrykoopen
Fact=Daad, feit
Sober (temperate, modest, wise, staid, grave)=Sober, maatig, zedig, wys, deftig

Topics: friendship, reputation, money, honour, claim, anger

I am not of that feather to shake off ny friend when he must need me

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Imprisoned is he, say you?
MESSENGER
Ay, my good lord: five talents is his debt,
His means most short, his creditors most strait:
Your honourable letter he desires
To those have shut him up; which failing,
Periods his comfort.
TIMON
Noble Ventidius! Well;
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help:
Which he shall have: I’ll pay the debt,
and free him.
MESSENGER
Your lordship ever binds him.
TIMON
Commend me to him: I will send his ransom;
And being enfranchised, bid him come to me.
‘Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after. Fare you well.

DUTCH:
Voorwaar, ik ben de man niet, die een vriend,
Die mij behoeft, ooit afschudt. En ik ken hem,
Als alle hulp volwaardig. Zij gewordt hem;
Ik zal zijn schuld voldoen en maak hem vrij.

MORE:
Talent=Unit of weight to measure precious metal value, currency
Periods=Puts an end to
Strait=Strict
Which failing=Without which
Feather=Mood
Binds=Makes indebted
Commend=Send my greetings
Enfranchised=Released
Compleat:
Talent=Een talent; pond
To bring to a period=Tot een eynde brengen
Strait=Eng, naauw, bekrompen, strikt
To bind=Binden, knoopen, verbinden.
To bind with benefits=Verbinden of verpligten door weldaaden
To commend=Pryzen, aanbeloolen, aanpryzen
To enfranchise=Tot eenen burger of vry man maaken, vryheyd vergunnen

Topics: friendship, debt/obligation, wisdom, loyalty

I am rapt and cannot cover the monstrous bulk of this ingratitude with any size of words

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Have I once lived to see two honest men?
POET
Sir,
Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retired, your friends fall’n off,
Whose thankless natures—O abhorred spirits!—
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough:
What! to you,
Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being! I am rapt and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.
TIMON
Let it go naked, men may see’t the better:
You that are honest, by being what you are,
Make them best seen and known.
PAINTER
He and myself
Have travailed in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetly felt it.

DUTCH:
Ik ben mijzelf niet, en bezit geen woorden
Om zulk een monsterachtig grooten ondank
Naar eisch er in te kleeden.

MORE:
Proverb: The truth shows best being naked

Open bounty=Great generosity
Tasted=Enjoyed
Fallen off=Defected, estranged
Rapt=Speechless
Size=Quantity
Compleat:
Bounty=Goedertierenheid, mildheid
Rapt=Met geweld ontnoomen of afgerukt
Tasted=Geproefd, gesmaakt
Rapt=Met geweld ontnoomen of afgerukt

Topics: proverbs and idioms, ruin, truth, discovery

I do wish thou wert a dog, that I might love thee something

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
What art thou there? speak.
TIMON
A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart,
For showing me again the eyes of man!
ALCIBIADES
What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee,
That art thyself a man?
TIMON
I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something.
ALCIBIADES
I know thee well;
But in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.

DUTCH:
Ik ben Misanthropos en haat het menschdom.
Wat u betreft, ik wenschte, dat ge een hond waart;
Dan, moog’lijk, hield ik iets van u.

MORE:
Canker=Canker worm; Ulcer
Misanthropos=Hater of mankind
Strange=Ignorant
Compleat:
Canker=Kanker
Strange=Vreemd, uitheemsch

Topics: corruption

I have not seen you long: how goes the world?
– It wears, sir, as it grows.

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
POET
I have not seen you long: how goes the world?
PAINTER
It wears, sir, as it grows.
POET
Ay, that’s well known:
But what particular rarity? what strange,
Which manifold record not matches? See,
Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.

DUTCH:
t Is lang sinds ik u zag. ‘Hoe gaat de wereld?

MORE:
Proverb: How goes the world?

Wears as it grows=Diminshing and expanding; Up and down
Bounty=Charity, generosity
Spirits=People
Conjured=Summoned
Compleat:
To wear=Slyten, verslyten
Bounty=Goedertierenheid, mildheid
To conjure=t’Zamenzweeren, bezweeren, bemaanen, nadrukkelyk vermaanen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use

I must not break my back to heal his finger

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Senators
CONTEXT:

Proverb: If ever bird had (should take) his own feathers he should be as rich as a new-shorn sheep (you would be naked)
Importune=Urge, impel
Ceased=Stopped
Uses=Needs
Serve my turn=Protect my interests
Fracted dates=Exceeded deadlines
Smit=Damaged
Importunate=Unrelenting
Gull=Fool
Compleat:
Importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To cease=Ophouden, aflaaten, staaken, uitscheiden, stilhouden, afstaan
To come with cap in hand=Met den hoed in de hand komen
Smit=Getroffen
Importunate=Hard aanhoudend, overlastig, moeijelyk, aandringend
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, debt/obligation, claim, money

I never did thee harm.
– Yes, thou spokest well of me.

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
I never did thee harm.
TIMON
Yes, thou spokest well of me.
ALCIBIADES
Call’st thou that harm?
TIMON
Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
Thy beagles with thee.
ALCIBIADES
We but offend him. Strike!

DUTCH:
ALCIBIADES
Ik heb u nooit gekrenkt.
TIMON
Ja, gij spraakt goed van mij.

MORE:
Beagles=Phrynia and Timandra

Topics: reputation, flattery

I will use the olive with my sword, make war breed peace, make peace stint war

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.6
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:
Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked
caitiffs left!
Here lie I, Timon; who, alive, all living men did hate:
Pass by and curse thy fill, but pass and stay not here thy gait.
These well express in thee thy latter spirits:
Though thou abhorredst in us our human griefs,
Scornedst our brain’s flow and those our droplets which
From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit
Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye
On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead
Is noble Timon: of whose memory
Hereafter more. Bring me into your city,
And I will use the olive with my sword,
Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each
Prescribe to other as each other’s leech.
Let our drums strike.

DUTCH:

Daar wil ik bij het zwaard de’ olijftak voeren:
Krijg bare vrede, vrede stremm’ den krijg;
Aan de’ eenen vall’ des and’ren raad ten deel;

MORE:
Corse=Corpse
Thy fill=As much as you like
Gait=Walk
Brain’s flow=Tears
Niggard=Niggardly, miserly
Rich conceit=Wealth of ideas
Olive=Olive branch, peace and reconciliation
Leech=Cure, bloodletting
Compleat:
Corse=Lijk
Take your fill of it=Neemt ‘er uw genoegen van
Niggardly=Vrekachtig
Leech=Bloedzuiger

Burgersdijk notes:
Hier ligt een arm, arm lijf, enz. Voor den dood van Timon is Plutarchus weder de bron geweest. Deze zegt, volgens de vertaling van Thomas North: He died in the city of Thales, and was buried upon the seaside. Now it chanced so, that the sea getting in, it compassed his tomb round about, that no man could come to it; and upon the same was written this epitaph: —
Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft;
Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked wretches left.
It is reported that Timon himself when he lived made this
epitaph; for that which was commonly rehearsed was not his,
but made by the poet Callimachus: —
Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living ,nan did hate;
Pass by and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy gaits.”
De bewerker, of verknoeier, van Shakespeare’s stuk heeft deze twee tegenstrijdige grafschriften letterlijk overgenomen en tot den enkel samengevoegd.

Topics: dispute, patience

I wonder men dare trust themselves with men

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon: I come to
observe; I give thee warning on’t.
TIMON
I take no heed of thee; thou’rt an Athenian,
therefore welcome: I myself would have no power;
prithee, let my meat make thee silent.
APEMANTUS
I scorn thy meat; ‘twould choke me, for I should
ne’er flatter thee. O you gods, what a number of
men eat Timon, and he sees ’em not! It grieves me
to see so many dip their meat in one man’s blood;
and all the madness is, he cheers them up too.
I wonder men dare trust themselves with men:
Methinks they should invite them without knives;
Good for their meat, and safer for their lives.
There’s much example for’t; the fellow that sits
next him now, parts bread with him, pledges the
breath of him in a divided draught, is the readiest
man to kill him: ‘t has been proved. If I were a
huge man, I should fear to drink at meals;
Lest they should spy my windpipe’s dangerous notes:
Great men should drink with harness on their throats.

DUTCH:
Vreemd, dat een mensch een mensch vertrouwt! want ware
.Laat messen thuis” aan gasten voorgeschreven,
‘t Waar’ goed voor ‘t maal en veil’ger voor hun leven.

MORE:
Apperil=Risk
Knives=Guests would bring their own knives
Divided=Shared
Huge=Prominent, high-ranking
Windpipe=Throat
Dangerous=Exposed, at risk
Notes=Marks; reputation
Harness=Armour, protection
Compleat:
Huge rich=Magtig rijk
Wind-pipe=Lucht=pyp
To note=Merken, aanteykenen, aanmerken
Harness=Een harnas, borstwapen

Burgersdijk notes:
Bereid om hem te vermoorden. Wie een ander zijn goed helpt verkwisten, werkt mede om hem tot
wanhoop en zelfmoord te brengen.

Topics: risk, caution, trust

I’ll take the gold thou givest me, not all thy counsel

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Hast thou gold yet? I’ll take the gold thou givest me,
Not all thy counsel.
TIMON
Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven’s curse
upon thee!
TIMANDRA
Give us some gold, good Timon: hast thou more?
TIMON
Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable,
Although, I know, you ‘ll swear, terribly swear
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues
The immortal gods that hear you, —spare your oaths,
I’ll trust to your conditions: be whores still;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up;
Let your close fire predominate his smoke,
And be no turncoats: yet may your pains, six months,
Be quite contrary: and thatch your poor thin roofs
With burthens of the dead;—some that were hanged,
No matter:—wear them, betray with them: whore still;
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face,
A pox of wrinkles!

DUTCH:
Hebt gij nog goud? Uw goud neem ik wel aan,
Doch geenszins al uw raad.

MORE:
Forswear=Renounce
Aprons=Skirts
Mountant=Lifted
Oathable=Capable of having an oath administered
Agues=Fevers
Conditions=Characters
Burthen, burden=Wig made of human hair
Smoke=Attempt at conversion
Thin roofs=Balding scalps
Mire=Sink
Compleat:
To forswear=Afzweeren
Condition=Aardt, gesteltenis
Burden=Last, pak, vracht
Mire=Slyk, slik

Topics: money, deceit

If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, call me before the exactest auditors and set me on the proof

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
O my good lord, the world is but a word:
Were it all yours to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
TIMON
You tell me true.
FLAVIUS
If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood,
Call me before the exactest auditors
And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,
When all our offices have been oppressed
With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept
With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Hath blazed with lights and brayed with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.

DUTCH:
Indien gij mijn beheer
Of eerlijkheid verdenken mocht, zoo stel mij
Tot strenge toetsing voor de stiptste rechters.

MORE:
Husbandry=Honest management, integrity
Set on the proof=Put to the test
Vaults=Cellars
Spilth=Spillage
Minstrelsy=Music
Wasteful cock=Running tap
Compleat:
Husbandry=Huysbezorging
Proof=Beproeving
Vault=Gewelf, verwulft
Wastfulness=Quistigheid
The cock of a tap=De haan van een kraan

Topics: money, integrity, evidence

In life’s uncertain voyage

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
But yet I love my country, and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck,
As common bruit doth put it.
FIRST SENATOR
That’s well spoke.
TIMON
Commend me to my loving countrymen,—
FIRST SENATOR
These words become your lips as they pass
thorough them.
SECOND SENATOR
And enter in our ears like great triumphers
In their applauding gates.
TIMON
Commend me to them,
And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs,
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses,
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes
That nature’s fragile vessel doth sustain
In life’s uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them:
I’ll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades’ wrath.

DUTCH:
Op ‘s levens ongewisse vaart, wil ik
Hun goed zijn en hun leeren, hoe zij ‘t woeden
Des wilden Alcibiades ontgaan.

MORE:
Common=Universal
Wreck=Ruin
Bruit=Rumour
Applauding=Receiving
Throes=Maladies
Fragile vessel=Body
Compleat:
Common=Gemeen
To wreck or go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
Bruit=Gerucht, geraas
To applaud=Toejuichen, pryzen

Topics: ruin, justice

In like manner was I in debt to my importunate business

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: First Lord
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
Upon that were my thoughts tiring, when we
encountered: I hope it is not so low with him as
he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.
SECOND LORD
It should not be, by the persuasion of his new
feasting.
FIRST LORD
I should think so: he hath sent me an earnest
inviting, which many my near occasions did urge me
to put off; but he hath conjured me beyond them, and
I must needs appear.
SECOND LORD
In like manner was I in debt to my importunate
business, but he would not hear my excuse. I am
sorry, when he sent to borrow of me, that my
provision was out.
FIRST LORD
I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all
things go.

DUTCH:
Hetzelfde was ik verschuldigd aan mijne noodzakelijke
drukten, maar hij wilde van mijne verontschuldiging niet
hooren. Het spijt mij, dat mijne kas juist ledig was,
toen hij bij mij zond om geld op te nemen.

MORE:
Tiring=Poring over, tearing up (metaphorical, tear a prey)
Persuasion=Urging
Low=Low in funds
Conjured=Charmed, convinced
Importunate=Unrelenting, urgent
Provision was out=Out of funds
Compleat:
To tire=(weary or be tedious): Verveelen
To conjure=t’Zamenzweeren, bezweeren, bemaanen, nadrukkelyk vermaanen
Importunate=Unrelenting

Topics: money, debt/obligation, adversity

It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Now the gods keep you old enough; that you may live
Only in bone, that none may look on you!
I’m worse than mad: I have kept back their foes,
While they have told their money and let out
Their coin upon large interest, I myself
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this?
Is this the balsam that the usuring senate
Pours into captains’ wounds? Banishment!
It comes not ill; I hate not to be banished;
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I’ll cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
‘Tis honour with most lands to be at odds;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods.

DUTCH:
Nu goed, het zij; verbanning is mij welkom;
Ik heb nu reden voor mijn woede en wrok,
En wil Athene straffen.

MORE:
Worse than mad=Furious
Kept back=Defended against
Told=Counted
Let out=Loaned
Balsam=Salve
Spleen=Anger
Lay for=Captivate
Compleat:
To keep back=Te rug houden
Told=(van to Tell): Gezegd, gezeid, verteld, geteld
Let out=Uitlaaten, uitzetten
Balsam=Balsem, balm
Spleen=De milt
Spleen (Spite, hatred or grudge)=Spyt, haat, wrak

Topics: anger, money, poverty and wealth

Let us make the assay upon him

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Third Bandit
CONTEXT:
FIRST BANDIT
Where should he have this gold? It is some poor
fragment, some slender ort of his remainder: the
mere want of gold, and the falling-from of his
friends, drove him into this melancholy.
SECOND BANDIT
It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.
THIRD BANDIT
Let us make the assay upon him: if he care not
for’t, he will supply us easily; if he covetously
reserve it, how shall’s get it?
SECOND BANDIT
True; for he bears it not about him, ’tis hid.

DUTCH:
Laat ons de proef bij hem nemen; als hij er niet om
geeft, zal hij er gewillig van meedeelen. Maar als hij
het hebzuchtig bewaart, hoe het te krijgen?

MORE:
Ort=Scrap
Remainder=Remainder of his fortune
Want=Lack
Falling-from=Defection, estrangement
Noised=Rumoured
Assay=Test; attack
Shall’s=Shall we
Compleat:
Remainder=Overschot
Want=Gebrek
To noise abroad=Uitbrommen, uitschallen, uittrompetten
Assay=Beproeven, toetsen

Topics: money, friendship, loyalty

Let’s shake our heads, and say, … ‘We have seen better days.’

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
All broken implements of a ruined house.
THIRD SERVANT
Yet do our hearts wear Timon’s livery;
That see I by our faces; we are fellows still,
Serving alike in sorrow: leaked is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck,
Hearing the surges threat: we must all part
Into this sea of air.
FLAVIUS
Good fellows all,
The latest of my wealth I’ll share amongst you.
Wherever we shall meet, for Timon’s sake,
Let’s yet be fellows; let’s shake our heads, and say,
As ’twere a knell unto our master’s fortunes,
‘We have seen better days.’ Let each take some;
Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more:
Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

DUTCH:
Als waar’ ‘t een doodsgelui om ‘s meesters lot:
„Wij kenden beet’re dagen.”

MORE:
To mean coming on hard times, fortunes being in decline/Shakespeare probably didn’t invent the phrase (Sir Thomas Moore, Play, 1590)

Implements=Instruments, objects
Livery=Uniform
Fellows=Comrades
Barque=Ship
Dying=Sinking
Knell=Toll of a bell
Compleat:
Implements=Gereedschap, huisraad
Livery=een Lievry
Fellow=Medgezel
Bark=Scheepje
Knell=De doodklok

Topics: ruin, money, poverty and wealth, equality

May you a better feast never behold, you knot of mouth-friends!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
May you a better feast never behold,
You knot of mouth-friends. Smoke and lukewarm water
Is your perfection. This is Timon’s last;
Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villainy.
Live loathed and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time’s flies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o’er! What, dost thou go?
Soft! take thy physic first—thou too—and thou;—
Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

DUTCH:
Moogt gij een beter gastmaal nimmer zien,
Mondvriendenbende! Wasem en lauw water
Is heel uw wezen.

MORE:
Knot=Group, cluster
Mouth-friends=Sycophants, flatterers
Smoke=Steam
Perfection=What you deserve
Stuck=Fixed
Smooth=Slippery
Trencher-friends=Partying friends, parasites (friends for the duration of a meal (trencher being a plate))
Cap-and-knee=Bowing and scraping, fake; the equivalent of kneel, doff cap, tug forelock greeting
Vapours=Nothings
Minute-jack=A fickle person who changes his mind all the time
Compleat:
Knot=Een rist of trop
Smooth=(courteous) Beleefd, hoffelyk; (easy style) Een vloeiende styl
Trencher=Een tafelbord
Trencher-friend=Panlikker, teljoorlikker, tys tafelbezem
Vapour=Damp, qualm, waassem
Jack=Een dommekragt

Topics: insult, flattery, manipulation, deceit, money

Men must learn now with pity to dispense; for policy sits above conscience

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: First Stranger
CONTEXT:
FIRST STRANGER
For mine own part,
I never tasted Timon in my life,
Nor came any of his bounties over me,
To mark me for his friend; yet, I protest,
For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue
And honourable carriage,
Had his necessity made use of me,
I would have put my wealth into donation,
And the best half should have returned to him,
So much I love his heart: but, I perceive,
Men must learn now with pity to dispense;
For policy sits above conscience.

DUTCH:
Doch dit ervaar ik:
Meêdoogen, o! die zwakheid zij vergeten,
Want slimheid zetelt hooger dan ‘t geweten.

MORE:
Tasted=Received anything from
Bounties=Gifts
Protest=Declare, attest
Carriage=Conduct
Policy=Prudence, management
Sits above=Prevails over
Compleat:
Tasted=Geproefd
Bounty=Goedertierenheid, mildheid
Protest=Betuigen, aantuigen, aankondigen
Carriage=Gedrag, aanstelling, ommegang, handel en wandel
Policy=Behendigheid

Topics: money, poverty and wealth, value, conscience

Men shut their doors against a setting sun

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
Hey-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
They dance! they are mad women.
Like madness is the glory of this life.
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again,
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives that’s not depraved or depraves?
Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends’ gift?
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me: ‘t has been done;
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

DUTCH:
k Zou vreezen: die thans voor mij dansen, treden
Mij eens op ‘t hart; dit is niet ongehoord;
Men sluit voor de ondergaande zon de poort.

MORE:
Proverb: The rising, not the setting, sun is worshipped by most men
Proverb: Men more worship the rising than the setting sun

Hey-day=Expression of surprise
Sweep=Elegance
Oil and root=Plain eating, contrast with pomp
Disport=Amuse
Void=Vomit
Compleat:
Disport=Kortswyl
To void=Ontleedigen, leedigen, lossen, afgaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Bereid om hem te vermoorden. Wie een ander zijn goed helpt verkwisten, werkt mede om hem tot wanhoop en zelfmoord te brengen.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, madness, legacy

Most smiling and smooth, detested parasites, courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.7
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
May you a better feast never behold,
You knot of mouth-friends I smoke and lukewarm water
Is your perfection. This is Timon’s last;
Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries,
Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villainy.
Live loathed and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time’s flies,
Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o’er! What, dost thou go?
Soft! take thy physic first—thou too—and thou;—
Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

DUTCH:
Glad, grijnzend volk, verfoeide tafelschuimers,
Aaimoord’naa.rs, lieve wolven, zachte beren,
Fortuins zotskappen, vleiers, zonnevliegen,
Mutsknievee, dampen, en minutenventjes!

Topics: insult, flattery, manipulation, deceit, money

My wounds ache at you

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Hard fate! he might have died in war.
My lords, if not for any parts in him—
Though his right arm might purchase his own time
And be in debt to none —yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his, and join ’em both:
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I’ll pawn my victories, all
My honours to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his life,
Why, let the war receive ‘t in valiant gore
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.
FIRST SENATOR
We are for law: he dies; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure: friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.
ALCIBIADES
Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.
SECOND SENATOR
How!
ALCIBIADES
Call me to your remembrances.
THIRD SENATOR
What!
ALCIBIADES
I cannot think but your age has forgot me;
It could not else be, I should prove so base,
To sue, and be denied such common grace:
My wounds ache at you.
FIRST SENATOR
Do you dare our anger?
‘Tis in few words, but spacious in effect;
We banish thee for ever.

DUTCH:
Wis roofde u de ouderdom ‘t geheugen; anders
Waar’ nooit mijn waarde zoo van mij geweken,
Dat ik om zulk een gunst vergeefs zou smeeken.
Mijn wonden branden.

MORE:
Deserts=Rewards
Security=Collateral
Pawn=Put up as security
Returns=Repayments (of kindness)
Know me=Understand me
Remembrances=Remember me
Compleat:
Desert=Verdienste, verdiende loon
Security=Verzekering; borg
To pawn=Verpanden, te pande zetten
Return=(Remitment of money)=Een weder betaaling van een somme gelds, remise
Remembrance=Gedachtenis, geheugenis

Topics: fate/destiny, money, security, law/legal, punishment

Never mind was to be so unwise to be so kind

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
No care, no stop! so senseless of expense,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor cease his flow of riot: takes no account
How things go from him, nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue: never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
What shall be done? he will not hear, till feel:
I must be round with him, now he comes from hunting.
Fie, fie, fie, fie!

DUTCH:
Hij berekent niet,
Wat door zijn vingers druipt, wil niet bedenken,
Hoe ‘t voort kan gaan. Nooit was er een gemoed,
Bij zooveel onverstand zoo innig goed.
En wat te doen? Hij hoort niet eer hij voelt;
Toch, als hij van de jacht komt, zal ik spreken.

MORE:
Senseless=Insensitive, having no ear
Flow of riot=Destructive path
Till feel=Until he suffers, experiences
Be round=Speak plainly
Compleat:
Senseless=Gevoeleloos, ongevoelig, zinneloos
To riot=Optrekken, rinkinken, pypestellen
Riot=(in law, the forcible doing of an unlawful thing by three or more persons): Eene geweldenaary door drie of vier persoonen bedreven
To feel=Voelen, tasten, gevoelen, vewaar worden
Roundly=(Honestly, sincerely): Oprechtelyk, voor de vuist

Topics: life, nature, trust, offence, skill/talent

No levelled malice infects one comma in the course I hold

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
POET
Admirable: how this grace
Speaks his own standing! what a mental power
This eye shoots forth! how big imagination
Moves in this lip! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.
PAINTER
It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch; is’t good?
POET
I will say of it,
It tutors nature: artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life.
PAINTER
How this lord is follow’d!
POET
The senators of Athens: happy man!
PAINTER
Look, more!
POET
You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.
I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment: my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax: no levelled malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold;
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on,
Leaving no tract behind.

DUTCH:
Geen fijne boosheid
Vergiftigt éene comma van mijn voortgang;
Die vliegt eens aad’laars vlucht, koen, recht vooruit,
En laat geen spoor zelfs achter.

MORE:
Confluence=Gathering
Rough work=Draft
Beneath world=Earthly world
Amplest=Lavish
Entertainment=Welcome
Free drift=Inspiration, spontaneous thought
Levelled=Targeted
Infect=Affect
Tract=Trail
Compleat:
Confluence=Saamenvloeijing, t’saamenloop, toevloed
A rough draught=Een ruuw ontwerp
Ample=Wydlustig, breed
Drift=Oogmerk, opzet, vaart
Entertainment=Onthaal
Levelled at=Na gemikt, na gedoeld; levelling at=Een mikking, doeling

Burgersdijk notes:
Eeen zee van was. De hoogdravende dichter zinspeelt op schrijftafeltjes, die met was overtogen waren.

Topics: nature, life, imagination

Not a man shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream of regular justice

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
SECOND SENATOR
Throw thy glove,
Or any token of thine honour else,
That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress
And not as our confusion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have sealed thy full desire.
ALCIBIADES
Then there’s my glove;
Descend, and open your uncharged ports:
Those enemies of Timon’s and mine own
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof
Fall and no more: and, to atone your fears
With my more noble meaning, not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream
Of regular justice in your city’s bounds,
But shall be rendered to your public laws
At heaviest answer.

DUTCH:
Geen man der mijnen zal ‘t hem aangewezen
Verblijf verlaten, noch den stroom van ‘t recht,
Dat in uw stad erkend is, tegenstreven,
Of door uw eigen wet wordt hij ten strengste
Ter rekenschap gedaagd.

MORE:
Throw thy glove=It was the tradition to throw down one’s glove, or gauntlet, to initiate a duel.
Redress=Reparation
Confusion=Destroy
Sealed=Satisfied
Uncharged=Not attacked
Reproof=Punishment
Quarter=Scope, assigned area
Remedied to=(some versions have rendered): Surrendered to
Heaviest answer=Most severe punishment
Compleat:
Redress=Herstelling, verhelping, verbetering, vergoeding, verligting
Confusion (ruin)=Verwoesting, bederf, ruine
Sealed=Gezegeld, verzegeld
Reproof=Bestraffing, berisping
Quarter=Lijfsgenade, kwartier
To render=Overgeeven

Topics: dispute, revenge

Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
My lord, you have my voice to it; the fault’s
Bloody; ’tis necessary he should die:
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.
SECOND SENATOR
Most true; the law shall bruise him.
ALCIBIADES
Honour, health, and compassion to the senate!
FIRST SENATOR
Now, captain?

DUTCH:
Ik geef mijn stem er toe; ‘t vergrijp is bloedig;
‘t Is noodig, dat de dader sterv’;
Niets maakt de zonde driester dan erbarmen.

MORE:
Proverb: Pardon makes offenders

Voice=Vote, support
Emboldens=Encourages
Bruise=Crush, destroy
Compleat:
Voice=Stem, recht van stemmen
To embolden (imbolden)=Verstouten, moed inspreeken, aanmoedigen
To bruise=Kneuzen, verpletteren, stooten, blutzen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, mercy, offence, law/legal

Now Lord Timon’s happy hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Second Stranger
CONTEXT:
FIRST STRANGER
We know him for no less, though we are but strangers
to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and
which I hear from common rumours: now Lord Timon’s
happy hours are done and past, and his estate
shrinks from him.
LUCILIUS
Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for money.
SECOND STRANGER
But believe you this, my lord, that, not long ago,
one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow
so many talents, nay, urged extremely for’t and
showed what necessity belonged to’t, and yet was
denied.

DUTCH:
Maar ik kan u iets mededeelen, heer, wat ik bij
geruchte vernomen heb, dat Timon’s gelukkige dagen
over en voorbij zijn, en zijn vermogen hem in den steek
laat.

MORE:
Want for=Lack
Talents=Units of metal, currency
What necessity belonged=What it was for
Compleat:
Want=Gebrek
Talent=Een talent; pond

Topics: ruin, money, poverty and wealth

O, that men’s ears should be to counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
No, I’ll nothing: for if I should be bribed too,
there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then
thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long,
Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in
paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and
vain-glories?
TIMON
Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am
sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell; and come
with better music.
APEMANTUS
So:
Thou wilt not hear me now; thou shalt not then:
I’ll lock thy heaven from thee.
O, that men’s ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery!

DUTCH:
Wilt gij mij thans niet hooren, goed, dan hoort gij
Mij later niet; uw hemel sluit ik u.
Wee, dat de mensch zijn oor voor goeden raad
Steeds afsluit, en voor vleiers openlaat!

MORE:
I’ll nothing=I’ll take nothing
Rail upon=Criticise
Give thyself away=Overextend yourself
Paper=Promissory notes
Vain-glories=Spectacles, celebrations
Heaven=Rescue
Compleat:
To rail=Schelden
Vain glory=Ydele glorie

Topics: vanity, advice, caution, honesty

One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Fourth Lord
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
He’s but a mad lord, and nought but humour sways him.
He gave me a jewel th’ other day, and now he has
beat it out of my hat: did you see my jewel?
THIRD LORD
Did you see my cap?
SECOND LORD
Here ’tis.
FOURTH LORD
Here lies my gown.
FIRST LORD
Let’s make no stay.
SECOND LORD
Lord Timon’s mad.
THIRD LORD
I feel ‘t upon my bones.
FOURTH LORD
One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones.

DUTCH:
Juweelen gaf hij gist’ren, heden steenen.

MORE:
Burgersdijk notes:
Juweelen gaf hij gist’ren, heden steenen. In het op blz 477 vermelde stuk liggen er als artisjokken beschilderde steenen in de schotels en begroet Timon met deze zijn gasten.

Topics: madness

Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes from whence ’tis nourished

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
PAINTER
You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication
To the great lord.
POET
A thing slipped idly from me.
Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes
From whence ’tis nourished: the fire i’ the flint
Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself and like the current flies
Each bound it chafes. What have you there?
PAINTER
A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?
POET
Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
Let’s see your piece.

DUTCH:
Och, iets, geheel van zelf mijn geest ontweld.
Als hars is onze poëzie, ze ontvloeit
Waar zij gevoed wordt; vuur ontspringt den steen
Door slaan eerst, doch onze eed’le vlam ontsteekt
Zichzelf, en vliedt gramstorig, als een stroom,
Al wat haar boeien wil.

MORE:
Proverb: In the coldest flint there is hot fire
Proverb: The stream (current, tide) stopped swells the higher

Rapt=Captivated
Idly=Carelessly, without effort
Poesy=Poetry
Fire from the flint=Spark of inspiration
Gentle flame=Poetry
Provokes itself=Ignites
Bound=Riverbank
Chafe=Rage against, surge (current of the river)
Presentment=Presentation
Upon the heels=Immediately after
Compleat:
Rapt=Met geweld ontnoomen of afgerukt
Idly=Luyachtig, ydelyk
Poesy=Dichtkunst, dichtkunde, poëzy
Flint=Een keisteen, vuursteen, keizel, flint
To provoke=Tergen, verwekken, aanprikkelen, opscherpen, gaande maaken, ophitsen
Bound=Een grens, landperk
To chafe=Verhitten, tot toorn ontsteeken, verhit zyn van gramschap, woeden
Presentment=Een bloote verklaaring der Gezwoorene Mannen of der Gerechtsdienaaren wegens eenige misdaad; een aanklaaging voor ‘t Gerecht; een Vertooning

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent

Promising is the very air o’ the time: it opens the eyes of expectation

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Painter
CONTEXT:
POET
What have you now to present unto him?
PAINTER
Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will
promise him an excellent piece.
POET
I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent
that’s coming toward him.
PAINTER
Good as the best. Promising is the very air o’ the
time: it opens the eyes of expectation:
performance is ever the duller for his act; and,
but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the
deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is
most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
of will or testament which argues a great sickness
in his judgment that makes it.

DUTCH:
Beloven is een echte trek
van onzen tijd; het opent de oogen der verwachting;

MORE:
Visitation=Presence, visit
Intent=Planned work
Air=Spirit
Performance=Fulfilment
But in=Except for
Deed of saying=Performance of a promise
Out of use=Out of fashion
Argues=Shows
Compleat:
Visitation=Bezoeking
Intent=Oogmerk, einde, opzet
Performance=Volbrenging, betrachting
I am not satisfied with words=Ik laat my met geen woorden paaijen, ik houde van daaden

Topics: honesty, promise, ingratitude, friendship, money

Put on a most importunate aspect, a visage of demand

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Senator
CONTEXT:

DUTCH:
Zet een gezicht, dat maant, dat onverbidd’lijk
De kwijting vraagt; ja, want voorwaar, ik vrees,
Steekt ied’re veder in den rechten vleugel,
Dan blijkt deze eed’le Timon, schoon hij thans
Nog als een feniks glans’, een naakte nest’ling.

Proverb: If ever bird had (should take) his own feathers he should be as rich as a new-shorn sheep (you would be naked)

Importune=Urge, impel
Ceased=Stopped
Uses=Needs
Serve my turn=Protect my interests
Fracted dates=Exceeded deadlines
Smit=Damaged
Gull=Fool
Compleat:
Importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To cease=Ophouden, aflaaten, staaken, uitscheiden, stilhouden, afstaan
To come with cap in hand=Met den hoed in de hand komen
Smit=Getroffen
Importunate=Hard aanhoudend, overlastig, moeijelyk, aandringend
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen

Topics: cited in law, proverbs and idioms, debt/obligation, claim, money

Sermon me no further

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Come, sermon me no further:
No villainous bounty yet hath passed my heart;
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack,
To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing,
Men and men’s fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.
FLAVIUS
Assurance bless your thoughts!

DUTCH:
Kom, dit sermoen gestaakt! Geen boosheid huisde
Ooit bij mijn mildheid in mijn hart; mijn geven
Mocht onverstandig zijn, onedel niet.

MORE:
Sermon=Lecture
Ignobly=Dishonourably
Vessels of my love=Friends
Argument of hearts=Playing on friendship
Compleat:
Sermon=Een predikatie
Ignoble (or base) action=Een on-edele daad
Ignobly=Laag, snood

Topics: advice, gullibility, honour, friendship

Strange, unusual blood, when man’s worst sin is he does too much good!

DUTCH:
Mijn arme heer! dien ‘t al te goede hart
Te gronde richtte! Vreemde drift van ‘t bloed;
Zijn ergste feil het doen van te veel goed!

Topics: sorrow, poverty and wealth, honesty, loyalty

Tell him of an intent that’s coming toward him

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Poet
CONTEXT:
POET
What have you now to present unto him?
PAINTER
Nothing at this time but my visitation: only I will
promise him an excellent piece.
POET
I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent
that’s coming toward him.
PAINTER
Good as the best.
Promising is the very air o’ the
time: it opens the eyes of expectation:
performance is ever the duller for his act; and,
but in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the
deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is
most courtly and fashionable: performance is a kind
of will or testament which argues a great sickness
in his judgment that makes it.

DUTCH:
Zoo moet ik hem ook bedienen, en hem vertellen van
een ontworpen gedicht, dat hem is toegedacht.

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty

That nature, being sick of man’s unkindness, should yet be hungry!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
That nature, being sick of man’s unkindness,
Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou,
Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
Teems, and feeds all; whose self-same mettle,
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puffed,
Engenders the black toad and adder blue,
The gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm,
With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
Whereon Hyperion’s quickening fire doth shine;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root!
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,
Let it no more bring out ingrateful man!
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above
Never presented! —O, a root,—dear thanks!—
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas;
Whereof ungrateful man, with liquorish draughts
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips! (…)

DUTCH:
O, dat natuur, reeds ziek van ‘s menschen ondank,
Nog honger lijden moet!

MORE:
Mettle=Spirit
Puffed=Swollen, inflated
Hyperion=The sun
Ensear=Dry up
Upward face=Earth’s surface
Plough-torn leas=Ploughed fields
Liquorish=Sweet
Draughts=Drinks
Unctuous=Greasy
Compleat:
Full of mettle=Vol vuurs, moedig
Puffed up=Opgeblaazen, verwaand
Liquorish=Zoethout
Draught=Teig, dronk
Unctuous=Smeerig

Burgersdijk notes:
Reeds ziek van ‘s menschen ondank. De bedoeling is vooral: van ‘s menschen ondank walgend.

En ‘t blinde hazelwormpjen. In ‘t Engelsch: and eyeless venomed worm. De blindworm is bedoeld, waarvan ook in Macbeth als vergiftig dier gesproken wordt.

Topics: nature, pride

That solder’st close impossibilities, and makest them kiss! that speak’st with every tongue, to every purpose

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Rogue, rogue, rogue!
I am sick of this false world, and will love nought
But even the mere necessities upon ‘t.
Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave;
Lie where the light foam the sea may beat
Thy grave-stone daily: make thine epitaph,
That death in me at others’ lives may laugh.
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
‘Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen’s purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian’s lap! thou visible god,
That solder’st close impossibilities,
And makest them kiss! that speak’st with
every tongue,
To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!
Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!

DUTCH:
Gij, die onmooglijkheden samenwelt,
Ten kus vereent! die spreekt met ied’re tong,
Tot ieder doel! gij toetssteen van de harten!

MORE:
Even the mere=The most basic
Solder=Fuse
Impossibilities=Things that cannot be joined
With every tongue=In every language
Touch of hearts=Touchstone; wounder of hearts
Compleat:
To solder=Soudeeren
The gift of tongues=De gaave der taale
To speak several tongues=Verscheiden taalen spreeken

Topics: value, truth, language, communication, leadership

The fire i’th’ flint shows not till it be struck

MORE:
Proverb: In the coldest flint there is hot fire
Proverb: The stream (current, tide) stopped swells the higher

Topics: proverbs and idioms, skill/talent

The law shall bruise him

DUTCH:
t Is juist; de wet moet hem vergruiz’len.

MORE:
Proverb: Pardon makes offenders

Topics: proverbs and idioms, mercy, offence, justice

The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the extremity of both ends

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the
extremity of both ends: when thou wast in thy gilt
and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much
curiosity; in thy rags thou knowest none, but art
despised for the contrary. There’s a medlar for
thee, eat it.
TIMON
On what I hate I feed not.
APEMANTUS
Dost hate a medlar?
TIMON
Ay, though it look like thee.
APEMANTUS
An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst
have loved thyself better now. What man didst thou
ever know unthrift that was beloved after his means?

DUTCH:
Het middendeel der menschheid hebt gij nooit gekend,
alleen de beide uiterste einden.

MORE:
Proverb: Virtue is found in the middle (mean)

Middle=Moderation, mean
Gilt=Gold
Curiosity=Fastidiousness
Medlar=A fruit cultivated since Roman times
Meddler=Interfering type
Unthrift=Wastefulness
After his means=After losing his money
Compleat:
Middle=Het midden
Gilt=Verguld
Curiosity=Keurigheid
Medlar=Een mispel
Meddler=Een bemoei al, albeschik
Thrift=Zuinigheid
Spendthrift=Een verquister

Burgersdijk notes:
Is een mispel u gehaat? In ‘t Engelsch : Dost hate a medlar? Het woord medlar beteekent zoowel “mispel” als “middelaar”, koppelaar”. De beteekenis van het zeggen wordt verder duidelijk, als men “Elk wat wils” (As you like it) opslaat. Met het oog hierop is ook het volgende zeggen “it looks like thee” met “haar binnenste is als gij” vertaald.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, virtue, money, order/society

There’s none can truly say he gives, if he receives

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
VENTIDIUS
Most honoured Timon,
It hath pleased the gods to remember my father’s age,
And call him to long peace.
He is gone happy, and has left me rich:
Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound
To your free heart, I do return those talents,
Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help
I derived liberty.
TIMON
O, by no means,
Honest Ventidius; you mistake my love:
I gave it freely ever; and there’s none
Can truly say he gives, if he receives:
If our betters play at that game, we must not dare
To imitate them; faults that are rich are fair.

DUTCH:
Neen, gij miskent mijn hart; ik schonk dat alles
Geheel, voor immer; wie verklaart naar waarheid,
Dat hij iets geeft, als hij terug ontvangt?
Zij zulk een spel bij hoog’ren ook gewoon,
Wij doen ‘t niet na; wat grooten doen, heet schoon.

MORE:
Long peace=Everlasting sleep
Free=Generous
Talent=Unit of weight to measure precious metal value, currency
Betters=Wealthier people
Compleat:
Free=Vry, openhartig
Talent=Een talent; pond
Betters=Meerderen

Burgersdijk notes:
Bij hoog’ren. Meermalen wordt in dit stuk aan de Atheensche senatoren woeker te last gelegd

Topics: death, legacy, flaw/fault, debt/obligation, poverty and wealth

These debts may well be called desperate ones, for a madman owes ’em

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Hortensius
CONTEXT:
HORTENSIUS
‘Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their caps
at their money: these debts may well be called
desperate ones, for a madman owes ’em.
TIMON
They have e’en put my breath from me, the slaves.
Creditors? devils!

DUTCH:
Waarachtig, ik merk, dat onze meesters hun mutsen
naar hun geld kunnen gooien; die schulden kan men
wel wanhopig noemen, want een radelooze is ze schuldig.

MORE:
Proverb: He may cast his cap after him for every overtaking him

Throw their caps=Give up
Desperate=Irremediable
Put my breath from=Deprived me of air
Compleat:
Desperate=Wanhopende
To cast one’s cap at one=Zich verwonnen bekennen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, debt/obligation, money, ruin

They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, that now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot do what they would

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
I have been bold—
For that I knew it the most general way—
To them to use your signet and your name;
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.
TIMON
Is’t true? can’t be?
FLAVIUS
They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry—you are honourable,—
But yet they could have wished—they know not—
Something hath been amiss —a noble nature
May catch a wrench—would all were well—’tis pity;—
And so, intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
They froze me into silence.

DUTCH:
Uit éenen mond was aller antwoord, dat
Er eb was in hun beurs; — helaas, zij konden
Niet doen wat zij wel wilden;

MORE:
Signet=Seal
Joint and corporate=United
At fall=Low in funds
Catch a wrench=Suffer misfortune
Hard fractions=Half sentences
Half-caps=Caps half doffed
Cold-moving=Grudging
Compleat:
Signet=Een zegelring, merk-ring
Joint (joynt)=Gezaamentlyk
Wrench=Verdraaijing, verstuiking
Fraction=Breeking; (quarrel)=Krakeel

Topics: authority, claim, debt/obligation

Things of like value differing in the owners are prized by their masters

DUTCH:
De prijs is, heer,
Zooals een koopman zou betalen. Doch
Gij weet, naar de bezitters stijgt of daalt
Der dingen waarde. Ja, zoo gij ‘t juweel
Wilt dragen, beste heer, dan wordt het eed’ler.

MORE:
Proverb: The worth of a thing is as it is esteemed (valued)

Topics: flattery, business, value, proverbs and idioms

This is no time to lend money, especially upon bare friendship, without security

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Lucullus
CONTEXT:
LUCULLUS
I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt
spirit—give thee thy due—and one that knows what
belongs to reason; and canst use the time well, if
the time use thee well: good parts in thee.
Get you gone, sirrah.
Draw nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord’s a
bountiful gentleman: but thou art wise; and thou
knowest well enough, although thou comest to me,
that this is no time to lend money, especially upon
bare friendship, without security. Here’s three
solidares for thee: good boy, wink at me, and say
thou sawest me not. Fare thee well.
FLAMINIUS
Is’t possible the world should so much differ,
And we alive that lived? Fly, damned baseness,
To him that worships thee!
LUCULLUS
Ha! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy master.

DUTCH:
Uw meester is een milddadig edelman; maar
gij zijt verstandig, en weet zoo goed als ik, al komt gij
nu tot mij, dat het tegenwoordig geen tijd is om geld
uit te leenen, en dat wel op loutere vriendschap, zonder
eenige zekerheid.

MORE:
Towardly=Malleable, friendly
Prompt=Timely, efficient
Spirit=Character
Parts=Qualities
Solidare=Coin of little value
Differ=Change
Fit=Appropriate
Compleat:
Towardly=(gentle, good-natured): Goedaardig, gedwee, zagtzinnig; (docile): Leerzaam
Prompt=Vaardig, gereed, snel, gezwind
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Fit=Bequaam, dienstig, betaaamelyk, raadzaam

Burgersdijk notes:
Drie staters. Drie goudstukken; het Engelsch heeft hier solidares, een woord, dat anders nergens voorkomt, maar van het Latijnsche woord solidus, een gouden munt, schijnt gemaakt te zijn.

Topics: money, honesty, security, gullibility

Thou givest so long, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
What a coil’s here!
Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums!
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums
That are given for ’em. Friendship’s full of dregs:
Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs,
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court’sies.
TIMON
Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be
good to thee.
APEMANTUS
No, I’ll nothing: for if I should be bribed too,
there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then
thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest so long,
Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in
paper shortly: what need these feasts, pomps and
vain-glories?

DUTCH:
Gij gaaft reeds
zoo lang, Timon. Ik ben bang, dat gij u nog geheel in
schuldbekentenissen zult weggeven. Wat hebt gij aan die
feesten, optochten en al dien ijdelen pronk ?

Topics: flattery, deceit vanity, gullibility, friendship

Tis not enough to help the feeble up; but to support him after

DUTCH:
Breng hem mijn groet; ik zend het geld terstond;
Zoodra hij vrij is, moet hij tot mij komen.
‘t Is niet genoeg, wie zwak is op te helpen;
Men moet hem verder steunen. — Vaar gij wel.

Topics: friendship, debt/obligation, wisdom

Tis not well mended so, it is but botched

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
First mend my company, take away thyself.
APEMANTUS
So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.
TIMON
‘Tis not well mended so, it is but botched;
if not, I would it were.
APEMANTUS
What wouldst thou have to Athens?
TIMON
Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have.
APEMANTUS
Here is no use for gold.

DUTCH:
t Wordt door die scheuring zeker niet Verbeterd;
Hoe ‘t zij, ik wensch het toch.

MORE:
Mend=Improve
Botched=Spoiled
Have=Have reported
Compleat:
Mend=Beteren, verbeteren
To botch=Lappen, aanflansen; broddelen, knoeijen, boetelen

Topics: insult, money

Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
TIMON
The little casket bring me hither.
FLAVIUS
Yes, my lord. More jewels yet!
There is no crossing him in ‘s humour;
Else I should tell him,—well, i’ faith I should,
When all’s spent, he ‘d be crossed then, an he could.
‘Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,
That man might ne’er be wretched for his mind.

DUTCH:
O, had de mildheid oogen achterwaart!
Veel leeds ware aan een edel hart bespaard.

MORE:
Casket=Jewelry box
Crossing=Contradicting
Crossed=Obstructed, stamped as insolvent
An he=If he
Compleat:
Casket=Kistje, kastje, koffertje
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen

Topics: poverty and wealth, debt/obligation, money

To revenge is no valour, but to bear

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
You cannot make gross sins look clear:
To revenge is no valour, but to bear.
ALCIBIADES
My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
If I speak like a captain.
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust;
But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR
You breathe in vain.

DUTCH:
Uw spreken maakt geen grove zonden goed,
Niet wraakzucht, maar geduld is ware moed.

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

Proverb: Who is man that is not angry?

Bear=Endure
Fond=Foolish
Repugnancy=Opposition
Irons=Shackles
Gust=Conception (murder is the greatest sin)
Impiety=Transgression
Compleat:
To bear=Draagen, voeren, verdraagen; dulden
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Repugnance=Strydigheid, tegenstrydigheid
Gust=Begeerlykheid, lust
Impiety=Ongodvruchtigheid, godloosheid

Topics: proverbs and idioms, law/legal, wisdom, anger, defence

Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Apemantus
CONTEXT:
APEMANTUS
That I had no angry wit to be a lord.
Art not thou a merchant?
MERCHANT
Ay, Apemantus.
APEMANTUS
Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not!
MERCHANT
If traffic do it, the gods do it.
APEMANTUS
Traffic’s thy god; and thy god confound thee!

DUTCH:
De handel moge u te gronde richten, als de goden
het niet doen!

MORE:
Traffic=Trade
Confound=Destroy
Compleat:
To traffic=Handel dryven, handelen
To confound=Verwarren, verstooren, te schande maaken, verbysteren

Burgersdijk notes:
Omdat ik, als ik een groot heer was, enz. In ‘t Engelsch : That I had no angry wit to be a lord.
De woorden kunnen ook beteekenen: “Dat ik er niet boos om was, een Lord te zijn.”

Topics: anger, business

Trust not the physician; his antidotes are poison

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes;
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con
That you are thieves professed, that you work not
In holier shapes: for there is boundless theft
In limited professions. Rascal thieves,
Here’s gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o’ the grape,
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth,
And so ‘scape hanging: trust not the physician;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
Moe than you rob: take wealth and lives together;
Do villainy, do, since you protest to do’t,
Like workmen. I’ll example you with thievery.
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea: the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun:
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears: the earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From general excrement: each thing’s a thief:
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have unchecked theft. Love not yourselves: away,
Rob one another. There’s more gold. Cut throats:
All that you meet are thieves: to Athens go,
Break open shops; nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it: steal no less for this
I give you; and gold confound you howsoe’er! Amen.

DUTCH:
Vertrouwt geen arts;
Zijn tegengift is gift; hij moordt meer menschen,
Dan gij berooft.

MORE:
To con thanks=Be thankful
Limited professions=Restricted professions
Blood of the grape=Wine
Seethe=Boil
Froth=Churn
Resolves=Melts
Composture=Manure of animals, compost
Curb=Restraint
Howsoe’er=Anyway
Compleat:
To conn one thanks=Iemand bedanken
Profession (trade or calling)=Beroep, handteering, kostwinning
To seeth=Zieden, kooken
To froth=Schuimen, opschuimen
To resolve (melt)=Smelten, ontbinden, oplossen
To curb=Betoomen, intoomen, bedwingen, beteugelen
To curb one’s ambition=Iemands hoogmoed fnuiken

Topics: life, nature, trust, offence, skill/talent

We are not thieves, but men that much do want

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Banditti
CONTEXT:
BANDITTI
We are not thieves, but men that much do want.
TIMON
Your greatest want is, you want much of meat.
Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots;
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips;
The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
Lays her full mess before you. Want! why want?

DUTCH:
Geen dieven, neen; maar mannen, zeer in nood.

MORE:
Want=Lack
Hips=Rosehips
Bounteous=Lavish, generous
Compleat:
Want=Gebrek
Bounteous=Milddaadig, goedertieren

Topics: money, poverty and wealth

What a sweep of vanity comes this way!

DUTCH:
Ha! welk een zwerm van ijdelheid komt daar!
Daar dansen zij! waanzinnig is dat vrouwvolk!
Juist zulk een waanzin is de glans des levens,
Als deze praal bij mijnen schralen kost.

MORE:
Proverb: The rising, not the setting, sun is worshipped by most men
Proverb: Men more worship the rising than the setting sun

Hey-day=Expression of surprise
Sweep=Elegance
Oil and root=Plain eating, contrast with pomp
Disport=Amuse
Void=Vomit
Compleat:
Disport=Kortswyl
To void=Ontleedigen, leedigen, lossen, afgaan

Burgersdijk notes:
Bereid om hem te vermoorden. Wie een ander zijn goed helpt verkwisten, werkt mede om hem tot wanhoop en zelfmoord te brengen.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, vanity, madness, legacy

What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself against such a good time, when I might ha’ shown myself honourable!

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Lucullus
CONTEXT:
LUCILIUS
What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself
against such a good time, when I might ha’ shown
myself honourable! how unluckily it happened, that I
should purchase the day before for a little part,
and undo a great deal of honoured! Servilius, now,
before the gods, I am not able to do,—the more
beast, I say:—I was sending to use Lord Timon
myself, these gentlemen can witness! but I would
not, for the wealth of Athens, I had done’t now.
Commend me bountifully to his good lordship; and I
hope his honour will conceive the fairest of me,
because I have no power to be kind: and tell him
this from me, I count it one of my greatest
afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an
honourable gentleman. Good Servilius, will you
befriend me so far, as to use mine own words to him?
SERVILIUS
Yes, sir, I shall.
LUCILIUS
I’ll look you out a good turn, Servilius.

DUTCH:
Welk een snood schepsel ben ik geweest, dat ik mij
van middelen ontbloot heb, nu ik zulk eene gelegenheid
had om mij een man van eer te betoonen!

MORE:
Proverb: One good turn asks (requires, deserves) another

Disfurnish=Deprive
Purchase for a little part=Invest
Undo=Damage
Honoured=Reputation
To use=To borrow from; lend with interest
Conceive the fairest=Think well
Affliction=Shortcoming; misery, suffering of the mind
Compleat:
To undo=Ontdoen; ontbinden, bederven
Honour=Aanzien, glorie, roem
Affliction=Verdrukking, moeijelykheid, wederwaardigheid, verdriet, pyn

Topics: proverbs and idioms, debt/obligation, friendship, money

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 need we have any friends, if we should ne’er have need of ’em

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods
themselves have provided that I shall have much help
from you: how had you been my friends else? why
have you that charitable title from thousands, did
not you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told
more of you to myself than you can with modesty
speak in your own behalf; and thus far I confirm
you. O you gods, think I, what need we have any
friends, if we should ne’er have need of ’em? they
were the most needless creatures living, should we
ne’er have use for ’em, and would most resemble
sweet instruments hung up in cases that keep their
sounds to themselves. Why, I have often wished
myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We
are born to do benefits: and what better or
properer can we can our own than the riches of our
friends? O, what a precious comfort ’tis, to have
so many, like brothers, commanding one another’s
fortunes! O joy, e’en made away ere ‘t can be born!
Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks: to
forget their faults, I drink to you.

DUTCH:
O gij goden, denk ik,
waartoe behoeven wij vrienden te hebben, als wij die
nooit behoeven? zij zouden de nuttelooste schepsels ter
wereld zijn, als wij er nimmer nut van hadden, en zij zouden
gelijken op liefelijke instrumenten, die in hun kasten
zijn opgehangen en hunne geluiden voor zichzelf houden.

MORE:
Needless=Worthless
Benefits=To do good
Command=Have at one’s disposal
Compleat:
Needless=Onnoodig, noodeloos, onnoodzaaklyk
Benefits=Weldaaden
Command=Bevel, gebied
To be at one’s command=Onder iemands gebied staan

Topics: poverty and wealth, flaw/fault, friendship

What shall be done? he will not hear, till feel

Topics: caution, wisdom, money, honesty

What thou wilt, thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile than hew to ’t with thy sword

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Second senator
CONTEXT:
SECOND SENATOR
Nor are they living
Who were the motives that you first went out;
Shame that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread:
By decimation, and a tithed death—
If thy revenges hunger for that food
Which nature loathes—take thou the destined tenth,
And by the hazard of the spotted die
Let die the spotted.
FIRST SENATOR
All have not offended;
For those that were, it is not square to take
On those that are, revenges: crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage:
Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin
Which in the bluster of thy wrath must fall
With those that have offended: like a shepherd,
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.
SECOND SENATOR
What thou wilt,
Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile
Than hew to’t with thy sword.

DUTCH:
Wat gij wenscht,
Dwingt gij veel eerder met een glimlach af,
Dan dat uw zwaard het wint.

Topics: mercy, revenge, reason

What will this come to? He commands us to provide, and give great gifts, and all out of an empty coffer

DUTCH:
Waar moet dit heen?
Altijd, — zoo wil hij ‘t, — rijk onthalen, rijk
Beschenken, alles uit een leêge kist;
En nooit wil hij zijn beurs zien, nooit mag ik
Hem toonen, hoe zijn hart een beed’laar is,
Die niet de macht heeft om naar wensch te geven.

Topics: poverty and wealth, debt/obligation, money, friendship

Who can call him his friend that dips in the same dish?

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: First Stranger
CONTEXT:
FIRST STRANGER
Do you observe this, Hostilius?
SECOND STRANGER
Ay, too well.
FIRST STRANGER
Why, this is the world’s soul; and just of the same piece
Is every flatterer’s spirit. Who can call him
His friend that dips in the same dish? for, in
My knowing, Timon has been this lord’s father,
And kept his credit with his purse,
Supported his estate; nay, Timon’s money
Has paid his men their wages: he ne’er drinks,
But Timon’s silver treads upon his lip;
And yet—O, see the monstrousness of man
When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!—
He does deny him, in respect of his,
What charitable men afford to beggars.

DUTCH:
Zoo is de wereld; van hetzelfde allooi
Is eiken vleiers spel. Is hij mijn vriend,
Die met mij in denzelfden schotel indoopt ?

MORE:
The world’s soul=The way of the world
Piece=Material
Spirit=Character
Dips=Shares
Kept his credit=Paid his debts
Shape=Appearance
Compleat:
Piece=Stuk, brok, lap
Spirit=Moed
Dip=Doopen, indoopen; Dip (mortgage) an estate; Vaste goeden bezwaaren
Shape=Vorm, figuur, gedaante

Topics: friendship, money

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Alcibiades
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
My lords, then, under favour, pardon me,
If I speak like a captain.
Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threats? sleep upon’t,
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then, women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it,
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge,
If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,
As you are great, be pitifully good:
Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood?
To kill, I grant, is sin’s extremest gust;
But, in defence, by mercy, ’tis most just.
To be in anger is impiety;
But who is man that is not angry?
Weigh but the crime with this.
SECOND SENATOR
You breathe in vain.

DUTCH:
O, waarde heeren,
Weest niet slechts groot, maar deernisvol en goed;
Wie gispt den toorn niet licht bij rustig bloed?

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

Proverb: Who is man that is not angry?

Topics: proverbs and idioms, law/legal, wisdom, anger, defence

Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Servant
CONTEXT:
SERVANT
Excellent! Your lordship’s a goodly villain. The
devil knew not what he did when he made man
politic; he crossed himself by ‘t: and I cannot
think but, in the end, the villainies of man will
set him clear. How fairly this lord strives to
appear foul! takes virtuous copies to be wicked,
like those that under hot ardent zeal would set
whole realms on fire: Of such a nature is his
politic love.
This was my lord’s best hope; now all are fled,
Save only the gods: now his friends are dead,
Doors, that were ne’er acquainted with their wards
Many a bounteous year must be employed
Now to guard sure their master.
And this is all a liberal course allows;
Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house.

DUTCH:
Dit is de vrucht
Van mildheid; wie, hoe rijk, zijn geld niet telt,
Niet huishoudt, houdt het huis eens zonder geld.

MORE:
Politic=Scheming, cunning
Crossed=Frustrated, thwarted
Clear=Pure, innocent
Copies=Imitates
Wards=Bolts
Liberal course=Excess generosity
Compleat:
Politick=Burgerlyk, staatkundig; (cunnning)=Slim, schrander, doorsleepen
To cross=Tegenstreeven, dwars voor de boeg komen, dwarsboomen, wederestreeven, kruisen
Copy=Afschrift, dubbeld, kopy
He is of a liberal temper=Hy is goed geefs

Burgersdijk notes:
Beveil’gen binnenshuis. Naar aloud Engelsch rechtsgebruik werd iemand door zijn huis beschermd en mocht daar niet wegens schulden in hechtenis genomen worden.

Topics: good and bad, manipulation, ruin, friendship

Yellow, glittering precious gold? This yellow slave will knit and break religions

Topics: ambition, poverty and wealth, money, ruin

You do yourselves much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
You do yourselves
Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits:
Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.
SECOND LORD
With more than common thanks I will receive it.
THIRD LORD
O, he’s the very soul of bounty!
TIMON
And now I remember, my lord, you gave
Good words the other day of a bay courser
I rode on: it is yours, because you liked it.
SECOND LORD
O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, in that.
TIMON
You may take my word, my lord; I know, no man
Can justly praise but what he does affect:
I weigh my friend’s affection with mine own;
I’ll tell you true. I’ll call to you.–

DUTCH:
Gij doet uzelven onrecht en verkleint
Te zeer uw eigen waarde. — Hier, mijn vriend,
Een klein bewijs van onze vriendschap.

MORE:
Bate=Underestimate
Trifle=Small token
Courser=Horse
Affect=Desire
Weigh=Equate
Compleat:
To bate=Verminderen, afkorten, afsyaan
Trifle=Beuzeling, kleynigheyd
Courser=Een looper, renner
Affect=Liefde toedragen, ter harte gaan, beminnen
To weigh=Weegen, overweegen

Topics: value, loyalty, friendship

You have gone on and filled the time with all licentious measure, making your wills the scope of justice

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
Sound to this coward and lascivious town
Our terrible approach.
Till now you have gone on and filled the time
With all licentious measure, making your wills
The scope of justice; till now myself and such
As slept within the shadow of your power
Have wandered with our traversed arms and breathed
Our sufferance vainly: now the time is flush,
When crouching marrow in the bearer strong
Cries of itself ‘No more:’ now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,
And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.
FIRST SENATOR
Noble and young,
When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear,
We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm,
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

DUTCH:
Tot nu hebt gij den tijd in volle mate
Vervuld van uwen overmoed, uw will’keur
Tot wet doen zijn;

MORE:
Coward=Weak
Lascivious=Lustful
Licentious=Immoral
Measure=Conduct
Making wills the scope of justice=Bending justice to suit
Shadow=Influence
Crouching=Passive
Marrow=Spirit
Breathed=Expressed
Chairs of ease=High office
Pursy=Fat
Balm=Relief
Compleat:
Coward=Een bloodaard, lafhartige, laffe guyl
Lascivious=Geil, dartel, kriel
Licentious=Ongebonden, los, toomeloos
Measure=Maatregel
Shadow=Gunst, bescherming
To crouch=Neerbuigen, neerbogen liggen
Marrow=Merg
Pursy or pursie=(short-winded): Aamorstig; (Fat) Zwaarlyvig, corpulent

Topics: authority, justice

You hear him cog, see him dissemble

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
TIMON
E’en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction,
Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth
That thou art even natural in thine art.
But, for all this, my honest-natured friends,
I must needs say you have a little fault:
Marry, ’tis not monstrous in you, neither wish I
You take much pains to mend.
BOTH
Beseech your honour
To make it known to us.
TIMON
You’ll take it ill.
BOTH
Most thankfully, my lord.
TIMON
Will you, indeed?
BOTH
Doubt it not, worthy lord.
TIMON
There’s never a one of you but trusts a knave,
That mightily deceives you.
BOTH
Do we, my lord?
TIMON
Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,
Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him,
Keep in your bosom: yet remain assured
That he’s a made-up villain.

DUTCH:
Ja, en gij hoort hem liegen, ziet hem huichlen ,
En kent zijn grof geknoei, bemint hem, voedt hem,
Bewaart hem in uw boezem; maar geloof mij,
‘t Is een volleerde schurk.

MORE:
Fiction=Poetry; invention
Swells=Overflows
Even=Equally
Never a one=Both
Compleat:
Fiction=Een verdichtsel, verciering
To swell=Opzwellen
Even=Gelyk

Topics: skill/talent, trust, deceit

You should have feared false times when you did feast

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Flavius
CONTEXT:
FLAVIUS
No, my most worthy master; in whose breast
Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late:
You should have feared false times when you did feast:
Suspect still comes where an estate is least.
That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,
Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind,
Care of your food and living; and, believe it,
My most honoured lord,
For any benefit that points to me,
Either in hope or present, I’d exchange
For this one wish, that you had power and wealth
To requite me, by making rich yourself.

DUTCH:
Neen, beste, dierb’re meester, in wiens borst
Argwaan en twijfel, — ach, eerst thans! — zich vestten.
Argwaan hadde eens, in gulden tijd, gebaat;
Steeds komt hij, als ‘t geluk verdween, te laat.

MORE:
Suspect=Suspicion
False=Uncertain, unreliable
Requite=Reward
Compleat:
Suspect=Wantrouwen, mistrouwen
To requite=Vergelden

Topics: ruin, suspicion, loyalty, poverty and wealth, money, value

You undergo too strict a paradox, striving to make an ugly deed look fair

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
FIRST SENATOR
You undergo too strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair:
Your words have took such pains as if they laboured
To bring manslaughter into form and set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour; which indeed
Is valour misbegot and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly born:
He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill,
What folly ’tis to hazard life for ill!

DUTCH:
Gij onderneemt iets al te wonderspreukigs,
Als gij een daad, zoo zwart, blank wasschen wilt;

MORE:
Paradox=Absurdity
Form=Semblance, formality
Misbegot=Misconceived
Outsides=Clothes
Compleat:
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Form=Fatzoen, figuur, gestalte, formaat; manier, wyze
Misbegot=Onecht gebooren

Topics: appearance, good and bad, language justice

Your greatest want is, you want much of meat

DUTCH:
Uw grootste nood is, dat u spijs ontbreekt.

MORE:
Want=Lack
Hips=Rosehips
Bounteous=Lavish, generous
Compleat:
Want=Gebrek
Bounteous=Milddaadig, goedertieren

Topics: money, poverty and wealth

Your steward puts me off, my lord; and I am sent expressly to your lordship

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Isidore’s Servant
CONTEXT:
VARRO’S SERVANT
‘Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and past.
ISIDORE’S SERVANT
Your steward puts me off, my lord;
And I am sent expressly to your lordship.
TIMON
Give me breath. I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; I’ll wait upon you instantly.

DUTCH:
Dit stuk, heer, is zes weken reeds vervallen,
Ja, langer.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
To help to define “expressly” in Magone v Heller, 150 US 70, 74, 14 Supreme Court 18, 19, 37 L.Ed 1001, 1002 (1893)
As far as we can tell, this was the first quotation of Shakespeare in a legal action. The next one would not be until 1946.

On forfeiture=On the due date
Expressly=Directly, specifically
Breath=Respite
Compleat:
Forfeiture=Verbeuring, verbeurte
Expressely or Expresly=Duidelyk; uitdrukkelyk

Topics: cited in law, debt/obligation, claim, money