CJTranslations - order/society

QUOTES BY TOPIC

“Be not afraid of greatness.” ‘Twas well writ.

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Malvolio
CONTEXT:
MARIA
How do you, Malvolio?
MALVOLIO
At your request! Yes, nightingales answer daws!
MARIA
Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness before my lady?
MALVOLIO
“Be not afraid of greatness.” ‘Twas well writ.

DUTCH:
“Wees niet schroomhartig voor grootheid.” Dat was
mooi gezegd.

MORE:
Proverb: I am no wiser than a daw

Daw=Jackdaw (thought to be a foolish bird)
Answer=Answer to
Boldness=Impudence
Compleat:
Jack daw=Een Bontekraay, met roode bek en pooten
Answer=Beantwoorden; antwoord geven
Boldness=Stoutheyd, koenheyd, vrymoedigheyd, onvertsaagheyd

Topics: proverbs and idioms, wisdom, order/society, civility

A false conclusion. I hate it as an unfilled can

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
SIR TOBY BELCH
Approach, Sir Andrew. Not to be abed after midnight is to be up betimes, and diluculo surgere, thou know’st,—
SIR ANDREW
Nay, my troth, I know not. But I know to be up late is to be up late.
SIR TOBY BELCH
A false conclusion. I hate it as an unfilled can. To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is early, so that to go to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes. Does not our life consist of the four elements?
SIR ANDREW
Faith, so they say, but I think it rather consists of eating and drinking.
SIR TOBY BELCH
Thou’rt a scholar. Let us therefore eat and drink. Marian,
I say! A stoup of wine!

DUTCH:
Een verkeerde redeneering; ik haat die als een leêge
wijnkan. Op te zijn na middernacht en dan naar bed
te gaan, is vroeg; dus na middernacht naar bed te gaan
is tijdig naar bed te gaan. Bestaat ons leven niet uit
de vier elementen?

MORE:
Diluculo surgere=Part of a Latin proverb (‘diluculo surgere saluberrimum est’), meaning to get up at dawn is most healthy
Can=Mug, tankard
Four elements=Water, air, fire, earth
Stoup=Tankard
Compleat:
Cann=Kan
Element=Hoofdstoffe

Burgersdijk notes:
Diluculo surgere. De spreuk: „Diluculo surgere est saluberrimum”, ,Met het morgenkrieken opstaan is allergezondst”, komt in de spraakkunst van Lilly voor, en hieruit was zij Sh. wellicht bekend.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, life, order/society

A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats

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

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

MORE:

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

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

A knavish speech sleeps in a fool’s ear

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

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

MORE:
Knavish = sly, villainous

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

A milksop, one that never in his life felt so much cold as overshoes in snow?

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
(…) What shall I say more than I have inferred?
Remember whom you are to cope withal,
A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants,
Whom their o’er-cloyèd country vomits forth
To desperate ventures and assured destruction.
You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
You having lands and blessed with beauteous wives,
They would restrain the one, distain the other.
And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
Long kept in Brittany at our mother’s cost,
A milksop, one that never in his life
Felt so much cold as overshoes in snow?
Let’s whip these stragglers o’er the seas again,
Lash hence these overweening rags of France,
These famished beggars weary of their lives,
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hanged themselves.
If we be conquered, let men conquer us,
And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobbed, and thumped,
And in record, left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands, lie with our wives,
Ravish our daughters?

DUTCH:
Een melkmuil, die zijn leven lang zich nooit
Tot boven de enkels in de sneeuw gewaagd heeft!

MORE:
Sort=Gang
Lackey=Low-born
O’ercloyed=Overcrowded
Milksop=Coward
Distain=Sully
Fond=Foolish
Bobbed=Drubbed
Compleat:
Sort=Slach, wyze
Lackey (lacquey)=Een voetjongen, volgdienaar, lakkey
To cloy=Overlaaden
Milk-sop=Een Zoetzapige Jorden die zich van ‘t wyf laat regeren
Distain=Bevlekken, besmetten, bezwalken
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Bobbed=Begekt, geloerd

Burgersdijk notes:
Wat heb ik meer te zeggen, dan ik deed? Ongetwijfeld een vreemd begin eener toespraak; men moet er uit vermoeden, dat Richard reeds vroeger zjjne troepen heeft toegesproken en dat wij in deze toespraak slechts eene laatste aansporing hebben te zien, of wel, dat het begin verloren is gegaan. Dat beide veldheeren een aanspraak gehouden hebben tot hun leger, deelt de kroniek van Holinshed mede; van Richard’s toespraak weten wij, dat hij Richmond genoemd heeft “eea Walliser, een onnoozele bloed, zonder moed of ervaring, die aan het hof van Bretagne als een gevangene geleefd heeft op kosten van mij en van mijn broeder .” Aan dit laatste heeft Sh . rep . 324 ontleend: “Long kept in Bretagne at our mother’s cost”. “Die in Bretagne ‘t brood at onzer moeder” . Shakespeare schreef mother, schoon het brother moest zijn; Richard’s broeder, koning Edward, had aan den hertog van Bretagne een jaargeld betaald op voorwaarde, dat hij aan Richmond alle ondernemingen tegen Engeland zou heletten. In den tweeden druk van Holinshed’s kroniek (van 1586) staat to dezer plaatse de drukfout nioother in plaats van brother, en deze druk was het dus zeker, die door Shakespeare gebezigd werd.

Topics: order/society, value

Am I or that or this for what he’ll utter, that will speak any thing?

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
What of him?
He’s quoted for a most perfidious slave,
With all the spots o’ the world taxed and deboshed;
Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth.
Am I or that or this for what he’ll utter,
That will speak any thing?
KING
She hath that ring of yours.
BERTRAM
I think she has: certain it is I liked her,
And boarded her i’ the wanton way of youth:
She knew her distance and did angle for me,
Madding my eagerness with her restraint,
As all impediments in fancy’s course
Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine,
Her infinite cunning, with her modern grace,
Subdued me to her rate: she got the ring;
And I had that which any inferior might
At market-price have bought.

DUTCH:
O, waartoe dit?
Hij staat bekend als trouwelooze schelm,
Bevlekt met ied’re smet en blaam der wereld,
Die ziek wordt , als hij waarheid spreken moet .
En ben ik dit of dat, als hij het zegt,
Die alles zeggen kan?

MORE:
Quoted for=Reputed, known to be
Spots=Vices, stains, blemishes
Perfidious=Faithless, treacherous
Deboshed=Debauched
Compleat:
Quoted=Aangetrokken, bygebragt
Perfidious=Trouwloos
Spot=Een vlek, vlak, smet, plek
To debauch=Verleyden, vervoeren, oprokkenen

Topics: truth, honesty, reputation, order/society

Am I so round with you as you with me, that like a football you do spurn me thus?

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Dromio of Ephesus
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
And he will bless that cross with other beating.
Between you, I shall have a holy head.
ADRIANA
Hence, prating peasant! Fetch thy master home.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither.
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
LUCIANA
Fie, how impatience loureth in your face.

DUTCH:
Zeide ik goedrond de waarheid, ben ik dáárom
Te schoppen als een bal van hier naar ginds?
Gij schopt mij weg, hij schopt gewis mij weder,
Als ik dat uit zal houden, zoo naai mij eerst in leder.

MORE:
Round=Outspoken, plain-speaking
Spurn=Kick
Loureth=Scowl
Compleat:
To have a round delivery (clear utterance)=Glad ter taal zyn
A spurn=Een schop met de voet
To spurn=Agteruit schoppen, schoppen. To spurn away=Wegschoppen

Burgersdijk notes:
Te schoppen als een bal. Het voetbalspel is, zooals bekend is, nog zeer in zwang, en de bal er voor is met leder overtrokken.

Topics: work, civility, order/society, respect

And all the courses of my life do show I am not in the roll of common men.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Glendower
CONTEXT:
Cousin, of many men
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have marked me extraordinary,
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.

DUTCH:
En heel de loop mijns levens toont, dat ik
Niet op de rol sta der gewone menschen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Clamorous=vociferous, loud
Crossings=Contradictions
Onions:
Rolls=list, register (fig.)

Topics: fate/destiny, status, order/society

And if the boy have not a woman’s gift to rain a shower of commanded tears, an onion will do well for such a shift

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: Ind 1
SPEAKER: Lord
CONTEXT:
LORD
Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery
And give them friendly welcome every one.
Let them want nothing that my house affords.
Sirrah, go you to Barthol’mew, my page,
And see him dressed in all suits like a lady.
That done, conduct him to the drunkard’s chamber
And call him “madam,” do him obeisance.
Tell him from me, as he will win my love,
He bear himself with honourable action,
Such as he hath observed in noble ladies
Unto their lords, by them accomplishèd.
Such duty to the drunkard let him do
With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy,
And say, “What is ’t your honour will command,
Wherein your lady and your humble wife
May show her duty and make known her love?”
And then with kind embracements, tempting kisses,
And with declining head into his bosom,
Bid him shed tears, as being overjoyed
To see her noble lord restored to health,
Who for this seven years hath esteemed him
No better than a poor and loathsome beggar.
And if the boy have not a woman’s gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well for such a shift,
Which in a napkin being close conveyed
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.
See this dispatched with all the haste thou canst:
Anon I’ll give thee more instructions.

DUTCH:
Verstaat de knaap de kunst der vrouwen niet,
En kan hij niet, zoo vaak hij wil, een vloed
Van tranen storten, dan moog’ hem een ui
Van dienst zijn, die, verborgen in een zakdoek,
Hem, trots zijn aard, uit de oogen water pers’

MORE:
Buttery=Storehouse
Want=Lack
Do him obeisance=Pay homage
Honourable action=In an honourable manner, honourably, properly
Accomplished=Perfected
Lowly=Humble
Declining=Bowed
Esteemed=Believed
Shift=Purpose
Close=Secretly
Anon=Imminently
Compleat:
Buttery=Een spyskamer, proviziekelder, bottelery
Want=Gebrek
Obeisance=Eerbiedigheid, neerbuiging
To accomplished=Voltooid, vervuld, volmaakt in goede manieren
Low=Nederig, laagjes
Declining=Afwyking, vermyding, schuuwing, daaling, afhelling, buiging; afwykende
Esteem=Achting, waarde
To make a shift=Zich behelpen, zich redden
Close=Besloten
Anon=Daadelyk, straks, aanstonds

Topics: deceit, appearance, civility, order/society, emotion and mood

Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! porridge after meat!

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Pandarus
CONTEXT:
PANDARUS
Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran!
porridge after meat! I could live and die i’ the
eyes of Troilus. Ne’er look, ne’er look: the eagles
are gone: crows and daws, crows and daws! I had
rather be such a man as Troilus than Agamemnon and
all Greece.
CRESSIDA
There is among the Greeks Achilles, a better man than
Troilus.
PANDARUS
Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
CRESSIDA
Well, well.
PANDARUS
‘Well, well!’ why, have you any discretion? have
you any eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not
birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, manhood,
learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, liberality,
and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
CRESSIDA
Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date
in the pie, for then the man’s date’s out.
PANDARUS
You are such a woman! one knows not at what ward you
lie.

DUTCH:
Ezels, dwazen, uilskuikens! kaf en zemelen, kaf en
zemelen! soep na den maaltijd!

MORE:
Chaff and bran=Discarded after winnowing
Daws=Jackdaws (representing foolishness)
Camel=Seen as stupid, obstinate
Birth=Lineage
Discourse=Eloquence
Gentleness=Gentility, nobility
Minced=Emasculated
Compleat:
Chaff=Kaf
Jack daw=Een exter of kaauw
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Gentility=Edelmanschap
To mince it=Met een gemaakten tred gaan
Mincing gait=Een trippelende gang, gemaakte tred

Burgersdijk notes:
Ja, een kruidig man enz. Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date in the pie, for then the man’s date is out. Woordspeling met date, “dadel” en date, “datum, levensduur, tijd”. Evenzoo in Eind goed, al goed”, I. 1. 172: Your date is better in your pie and your porridge than in your cheek. — Evenzoo onvertaalbaar is de volgende woordspeling met ward, “stadswijk” en ward, parade bij het schermen.

Topics: order/society, status, judgment, virtue, reputation

Be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello,
the fortitude of the place is best known to you, and though we have
there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you.
You must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boist’rous expedition.
OTHELLO
The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnise
A natural and prompt alacrity
I find in hardness, and do undertake
These present wars against the Ottomites.
Most humbly therefore bending to your state,
I crave fit disposition for my wife.
Due reference of place and exhibition,
With such accommodation and besort
As levels with her breeding.

DUTCH:
(G)ij moet dieshalve er genoegen
mee nemen, den frisschen glans van uw nieuw
geluk te laten verdooven door deze ruwe en stormachtige
onderneming.

MORE:
Allowed=Acknowledged
Slubber=Sully
Sufficiency=Capability
Safer voice=More reliable, offering more security
Sovereign mistresss of effect=Opinion has greatest effect
Stubborn=Rough, harsh
Boisterous=Wild, intractable, rudely violent, noisy and tumultuous
Alacrity=Eagerness
At levels with=Commensurate with
Hardness=Hardship
Besort=Suitable companionship
Agnise=Acknowledge
Bending to=Bowing to (figuratively)
Disposition=Arrangement, settlement
Compleat:
To know how to be on a level with=Op een gelyken voet weten te stellen
Agnition=Herkenning, wederkenning
Level=Paslood
Hardiness (difficult)=Zwaarigheid
He bends himself wholly to this=Hy is ganschelyk daarop gevallen
Allow=Bekennen
Slubber=Beslobberen
Stubborn=Hardnekkig, wederspannig
Boisterous=Onstuimig, stormachtig, windig
Sufficiency (or capacity)=Bekwaamheid. Sufficiency (ability)=Genoegzaamheid

Topics: preparation, adversity, order/society

Beware the ides of March

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Soothsayer
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry “Caesar!”—Speak. Caesar is turned to hear.
SOOTHSAYER
Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
What man is that?
BRUTUS
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR
Set him before me. Let me see his face.
CASSIUS
Fellow, come from the throng. Look upon Caesar.

DUTCH:
Hoed u voor de’ Idusdag van Maart!

MORE:
Ides of March (15th) were originally the time for settling debts.
English playwright Nicholas Udall probably coined the expression ‘Ides of March’ in 1533 in his translations of descriptions of Caesar’s murder by Terence (Publius Terentius Afer, Roman poet), including: For Spurinna beinge a southsayer hadde warned Cesar before to beware of the Ides of Marche, for he shulde be slayne as that daye, and soo he was.

Press=Crowd
Soothsayer=Foreteller of events
Compleat:
Press=Gedrang
Soothsayer=Waarzegger

Topics: order/society, suspicion

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’th’world,
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That makes ingrateful man.
FOOL
O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this rain-water out o’door. Good nuncle, in, ask thy daughters
blessing. Here’s a night pities neither wise men nor fools.

DUTCH:
Blaas, winden, scheur uw wangen stuk! Raas! Tier!
U, cataracten en orkaanvloed, spuit
de torens weg en overspoel hun hanen!

MORE:
Court holy water=Flattery at court
Schmidt:
Cocks = weathervanes
Thought-executing fires=Lightning that is more rapid than, or precedes, thought
Burgersdijk notes:
Wijwatersprenging. Het geven van mooie woorden, vleien; dit wordt door den Nar aan den koning als middel aanbevolen, om uit den nood te geraken. In ‘t Engelsch staat court holy-water; de Franschen spreken evenzoo van ‘eau bénite du cour’.

Topics: nature, poverty and wealth, order/society, flattery

But I am shepherd to another man and do not shear the fleeces that I graze

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Corin
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold
Can in this desert place buy entertainment,
Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.
Here’s a young maid with travel much oppressed,
And faints for succor.
CORIN
Fair sir, I pity her
And wish, for her sake more than for mine own,
My fortunes were more able to relieve her.
But I am shepherd to another man
And do not shear the fleeces that I graze.
My master is of churlish disposition
And little recks to find the way to heaven
By doing deeds of hospitality.
Besides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed
Are now on sale, and at our sheepcote now,
By reason of his absence, there is nothing
That you will feed on. But what is, come see,
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.
shepherd.
ROSALIND
What is he that shall buy his flock and pasture?

DUTCH:
Maar ik ben scheper in eens anders dienst,
En scheer niet zelf de schapen, die ik hoed;

MORE:
Entertainment=Accommodation
For=For want of
Do not shear the fleeces that I graze=Doesn’t profit from the sheet, except income as a shepherd
Churlish=Rough, violent, brutal
Reck=To take care
Cote=Cottage
Bounds of feed=Pastures growing food
Compleat:
To entertain=Onthaalen, huysvesten, plaats vergunnen
Entertainment=Onthaal
Shear=Scherren
Churlish=Woest, boersch, onbeschoft
Sheep-cote=Schaapen=hok
Pasture=Weyde

Topics: money, poverty and wealth, order/society

But that they call “compliment” is like the encounter of two dog-apes

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Nay, I care not for their names. They owe me nothing.
Will you sing?
AMIENS
More at your request than to please myself.
AMIENS
Only because you ask me, not to please myself.
JAQUES
Well then, if ever I thank any man, I’ll thank you.
But that they call “compliment” is like th’ encounter of
two dog-apes. And when a man thanks me heartily,
methinks I have given him a penny and he renders me the
beggarly thanks. Come, sing. And you that will not, hold
your tongues.
AMIENS
Well, I’ll end the song.—Sirs, cover the while; the
duke will drink under this tree.—He hath been all this
day to look you.

DUTCH:
Nu dan, als ik ooit een sterveling bedank, wil ik u
bedanken; maar wat zij complimenten noemen, is als
de ontmoeting van twee bavianen;

MORE:
Names=Punning on signatures in a legal sense (on bonds or lenders’ records)
Dog-apes=Baboons
Beggarly=Fulsome, exaggerated
Look=Look for
Compleat:
To beggar=Berooid maaken, uitputten, tot den bedelzak brengen

Topics: debt/obligation, civility, order/society

But you, my lord, were glad to be employ’d,
To show how quaint an orator you are

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Suffolk
CONTEXT:
Tis like the commons, rude unpolish’d hinds,
Could send such message to their sovereign:
But you, my lord, were glad to be employ’d,
To show how quaint an orator you are:
But all the honour Salisbury hath won
Is, that he was the lord ambassador
Sent from a sort of tinkers to the king.

DUTCH:
Maar gij, mylord, gij laat u gaarne zenden,
Opdat gij toont, hoe fraai gij spreken kunt;

MORE:

Tinkers=(a) menders of metal pots and pans; (b) beggars and thieves
Hinds=Ignorant country folk
Quaint=Skilled (in speaking)
Sort=Group

Compleat:
Rude=Ruuw; onbeleefd
A rude, unpolished person=Een ruuw, onbeschaafd persoon
A quaint discourse=Een beschaafde reden
To speak quaintly=Cierlyk spreeken

Topics: order/society, language, skill/talent

By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she

PLAY: The Taming of the Shrew
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Grumio
CONTEXT:
CURTIS
By this reck’ning he is more shrew than she.
GRUMIO
Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall
find when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call
forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter,
Sugarsop, and the rest. Let their heads be slickly
combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of
an indifferent knit. Let them curtsy with their left
legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my master’s
horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all
ready?

DUTCH:
Op die manier is hij nog erger helleveeg dan zij.

MORE:
By this reckoning=On that basis, calculation
Blue coats=Uniform
Indifferent=Matching, plain
Curtsy=Show respect
Left legs=To curtsy with the right leg was a sign of defiance
Compleat:
Indifferent=Onvercheelig, middelmaatig, koelzinnig, onzydig, passelyk, taamelyk, tussenbeyde
Curtsy=Nyging, genyg
Make a courtsey (curtsy)=Nygen

Topics: appearance, civility, order/society

By uproar severed, like a flight of fowl scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproar severed, like a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,

Speak, Rome’s dear friend, as erst our ancestor,
When with his solemn tongue he did discourse
To love-sick Dido’s sad attending ear
The story of that baleful burning night
When subtle Greeks surprised King Priam’s Troy,
Tell us what Sinon hath bewitched our ears,
Or who hath brought the fatal engine in
That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound.
My heart is not compact of flint nor steel;
Nor can I utter all our bitter grief,
But floods of tears will drown my oratory,
And break my utterance, even in the time
When it should move you to attend me most,
Lending your kind commiseration.
Here is a captain, let him tell the tale;
Your hearts will throb and weep to hear him speak.

DUTCH:
Ontstelde mannen, Romes volk en zonen,
Verstrooid door ‘t oproer als een vogelzwerm,
Dien wind en stormgeloei uiteen doen spatten
Laat mij u leeren, die verspreide halmen
Op nieuw tot éene garve saam te voegen,
Die stukgereten leden tot éen lijf (…)

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re the definition of: “fowl”: State v Davis, 72 NJL 345, 61 A.2 (1905)

Corn=Grain
Mutual=Unified
Bane=Destroyer
Chaps=Cracks, wrinkles
Erst=Erstwhile, former
Dido=Queen of Carthage, abandoned by Aeneas
Sad-attending=Listening seriously
Sinon=Greek soldier who persuaded the Trojans to accept the wooden horse
Fatal=Deadly
Engine=Instrumenet of war
Civil wound=Wound inflicted in a civil war
Compleat:
Corn=Koorn, graan
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Bane=Verderf, vergif
A chap=Een kooper, bieder
Erst=Voorheen
Sad=Droevig
Fatal=Noodlottig, noodschikkelyk, verderflyk, doodelyk
Engine=Een konstwerk, gereedschap, werktuig; Een list, konstgreep§

Topics: cited in law, mercy, remedy, leadership, order/society, conflict

Conscience is but a word that cowards use, devised at first to keep the strong in awe

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Richard
CONTEXT:
NORFOLK
A good direction, warlike sovereign.
This found I on my tent this morning.
KING RICHARD
Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold.
For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.
A thing devisèd by the enemy.—
Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge.
Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls.
Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.
Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
March on. Join bravely. Let us to it pell mell
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
What shall I say more than I have inferred?
Remember whom you are to cope withal,
A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants,
Whom their o’er-cloyèd country vomits forth
To desperate ventures and assured destruction.
You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
You having lands and blessed with beauteous wives,
(…)

DUTCH:
Geweten is een lafaardswoord, een vond,
Die sterken, geeft men toe, in banden legt;
De vuist zij ons geweten, ‘t zwaard ons recht .

MORE:
Proverb: To be bought and sold

Direction=Plan
Dickon=Richard (Dick)
Bought and sold=Betrayed
Strong arms=Might, power
Be our conscience=Makes us right
Join=Join battle
Compleat:
Direction=Het bestier, aanwijzing
The directing of one’s intentions=Het bestieren van iemands voorneemen
Conscience=Het geweeten

Burgersdijk notes:
Hans Norfolk, tijdig heil gezocht, enz . Dit rijmpjen, waarmede men Norfolk, die aan Richard trouw bleef, hoewel hij zjjn handelingen laakte, tot afval trachtte te bewegen, luidt in de kroniek:
Jocky of Norfolk, be not too bold,
For Dickon thy master is bought and sold .
De folio heeft ten onrechte so in plaats van too; Jocky staat voor John, zooals Dickon voor Richard.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, betrayal, conscience, order/society

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

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

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

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

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

Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence: throw away respect, Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;
All murder’d: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour’d thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king?

DUTCH:
Bedekt uw hoofd, drijft niet door huldebrenging
Den spot met vleesch en bloed; verzaakt den eerbied,
Gebruik en vorm en statig plichtbetoon

MORE:

Antic=Buffoon, practising odd gesticulations (a fool in old farces, whose main purpose was to disrupt the more serious actors)
Tradition=Traditional practices, established or customary homage (‘state’ and ‘pomp’)
Humoured=Indulged
Mock=Treat with exaggerated respect (hence solemn reverence)
Subjected=(a) turned into a subject under the dominion of the king; (b) subjugated, exposed
Monarchize=Play at being King (OED cites this from Nashe (1592) suggesting a mockery that is not so evident in this use of the term)

Compleat:
To humour=Involgen, believen, opvolgen, naar den mond spreeken
Tradition=Overleevering van leerstukken of gevoelens
Mock=Bespotting, beschimping
Subject=Onderworpen; onderdaan

Topics: equality, status, order/society, respect, custom

Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
What can be avoided
Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
CALPHURNIA
When beggars die there are no comets seen.
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
CAESAR
Cowards die many times before their deaths.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

DUTCH:
De lafaard sterft veel malen eer hij sterft;
Nooit smaakt de dapp’re meer dan eens den dood .

MORE:
CITED IN IRISH LAW: Rule against Perpetuities and Cognate Rules, Report on the (LRC 62-2000) [2000] IELRC 62 (1st December, 2000)/[2000] IELRC 62, [2000] IELRC 3. Footnote 34.

Proverb: A coward dies many deaths, a brave man but one

Purposed=Intended
Blaze forth=Proclaim
Never but=Only
Compleat:
To purpose=Voorneemen, voorhebben
To blaze=Opflakkeren
To blaze abroad=Ruchtbaar maaken, uyttrom

Topics: courage, proverbs and idioms, death, order/society, cited in law, poverty and wealth, equality

Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Gardener
CONTEXT:
GARDENER
Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ’d, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.
SERVANT
Why should we in the compass of a pale
Keep law and form and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all upturned, her hedges ruin’d,
Her knots disorder’d and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?

DUTCH:
En gij, sla als een dienaar des gerichts
Den kop af aan die al te weel’ge spruiten,
Die zich te hoog in onzen staat verheffen

MORE:

Apricock=Abricot
Spray=Small branches, shoots
Noisome=Harmful
Compass of a pale=Within a fenced area, enclosure
Firm=Well-ordered, stable
Knots=Intricate flowerbeds and plots

Compleat:
Apricock, abricock=Apricot
Noisom=Besmettelyk, schaadelyk, vuns, leelyk, vuil
Pale=Een paal, bestek
Pale fence=Een afschutsel met paalen
Compass=Omtrek, omkreits, begrip, bestek, bereik
Firm=Vast, hecht
Knot (difficulty)=Eene zwaarigheid
A garden with knots=Een bloemperk met figuuren

Topics: merit, envy, order/society

Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
PRINCE HENRY
Faith, it does me; though it discolors the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?
POINS
Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to remember so weak a composition.
PRINCE HENRY
Belike then my appetite was not princely got, for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature small beer. But indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name, or to know thy face tomorrow, or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast—with these, and those that were thy peach-colored ones—or to bear the inventory of thy shirts, as, one for superfluity and another for use. But that the tennis-court keeper knows better than I, for it is a low ebb of linen with thee when thou keepest not racket there, as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of the low countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland; and God knows whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen shall inherit His kingdom; but the midwives say the children are not in the fault, whereupon the world increases and kindreds are mightily strengthened.

DUTCH:
Misschien dan, dat mijn trek niet van vorstelijke afkomst
is; want, op mijn woord, ik herinner mij nu dien
armen duivel, dat dunnehier

MORE:

Small beer=Inferior, watered down beer
Loosely=Carelessly
Composition=(a)Weak (beer) (b) Details
Low countries=Brothels (with a pun on “Netherlands”)
Made a shift=Contrivance, trick
Holland=Linen
Kindreds=Families, populations

Compleat:
Small beer=Dun bier
Holland (Holland cloth)=Hollands linnen
To wear holland shirts=Hembden van Hollands linneb draagen
To make shift with any thing=Zich ergens mede behelpen

Topics: order/society, status, learning/education, excess

Equality of two domestic powers breed scrupulous faction

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Hear me, Queen:
The strong necessity of time commands
Our services awhile, but my full heart
Remains in use with you. Our Italy
Shines o’er with civil swords. Sextus Pompeius
Makes his approaches to the port of Rome.
Equality of two domestic powers
Breed scrupulous faction. The hated, grown to strength,
Are newly grown to love. The condemned Pompey,
Rich in his father’s honour, creeps apace
Into the hearts of such as have not thrived
Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten;
And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge
By any desperate change. My more particular,
And that which most with you should safe my going,
Is Fulvia’s death.

DUTCH:
De gelijkheid
Van twee partijen in den staat verwekt
Een gisting, die gevaar dreigt. Die gehaat was ,
Werd sterk en wint in liefde;

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Rushton’s reference to this as a legal maxim (Rushton has in mind ‘necessitas est lex temporis’) is challenged by Dunbar Plunkett Barton.

Strong necessity of time=Another pressing engagement
In use=In trust
Scrupulous=Full of doubt and perplexity
Faction=Dissension, opposition
Condemned=Banished
Creeps=Sneaks unseen
State=Government
Quietness=Inactivity
Particular=Personal reason
Compleat:
Necessity=Nood, noodzaaklykheyd, noodwendigheyd
Scrupulous=Schroomagtig, naaw gezet
Faction=Samenrotting, saamenspanning, oproerige party, rot, aanhang, partyschap, verdeeldheid
To banish=Bannen, uytbannen
To creep=Kruypen, sluypen
Quietness=Gerustheyd, stilte
Particular=Byzonder, zonderling, byzonderheid

Topics: love, equality, loyalty, order/society

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

For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!
TOUCHSTONE
I care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary.
ROSALIND
I could find in my heart to disgrace my man’s apparel
and to cry like a woman, but I must comfort the weaker
vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show itself
courageous to petticoat. Therefore courage, good Aliena.
CELIA
I pray you bear with me. I cannot go no further.
TOUCHSTONE
For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you.
Yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you, for I
think you have no money in your purse.

DUTCH:
Wat mij betreft, ik wil liever uw moeheid dan uzelve
verdragen; en toch, als ik u verdroeg, zou ik nog geen
kruisdager wezen; want ik vermoed, dat gij kruis noch
munt in de tasch hebt.

MORE:
Weaker vessel=Woman, wife
Doublet and hose=Male attire (fig. masculinity)
Petticoat=Female attire (fig. femininity)
Cross=(1) Burden, trouble (2) Money, Elizabethan coin stamped with a cross
Compleat:
Vessel=Vat
Petti-coat=Een vrouwe onderrok

Topics: age/experience, life, order/society, work, loyalty

For so work the honeybees, Creatures that by a rule in nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Canterbury
CONTEXT:
Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in diverse functions,
Setting endeavor in continual motion,
To which is fixèd as an aim or butt
Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king and officers of sorts,
Where some like magistrates correct at home,
Others like merchants venture trade abroad,
Others like soldiers armèd in their stings
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor,

DUTCH:
Zoo werken ook de bijen,
Diertjens, die door natuur aan groote staten
Voor ord’lijk doen als voorbeeld zijn gesteld

MORE:

Act=Law
King=The Queen was thought to be a male
Sorts=Ranks
Make boot upon=Plunder

Compleat:
Boot=Toegift, winst
Boot-haling=Roof, vrybuit

Burgersdijk notes:
Zoo werken ook de bijën. Eene dergegelijke vergelijking met een bijënstaat komt voor in het toen
veelgelezen werk van Lyly: „Euphues and his England” (1580). — Ook in het vierde boek van Virgilius’ Georgica zijn verscheiden overeenkomstige beschouwingen te vinden.

Topics: order/society, nature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

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

Good alone is good without a name. Vileness is so: the property by what it is should go, not by the title

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
KING
Good alone
Is good without a name. Vileness is so:
The property by what it is should go,
Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair;
In these to nature she’s immediate heir,
And these breed honour: that is honour’s scorn,
Which challenges itself as honour’s born
And is not like the sire: honours thrive,
When rather from our acts we them derive
Than our foregoers: the mere word’s a slave
Debauched on every tomb, on every grave
A lying trophy, and as oft is dumb
Where dust and damned oblivion is the tomb
Of honoured bones indeed. What should be said?

DUTCH:
Goed is goed,
Ook zonder hoogen naam; en slecht is slecht;
Alleen op wat hij is, gronde elk zijn recht,
Op titels niet.

MORE:
Idiom: “Let’s write good angel on the devil’s horn, ‘Tis not the devil’s crest”

Alone=In and of itself
Name=Title
Property=Quality
Challenges itself=Urges as a right, makes a claim for itself
Foregoers=Forebears
Trophy=Memorial
Compleat:
Property=Eigenschap, natuurlyke hoedaanigheid
He challenges all to himself=Hy eigent zich alles toe
Trophy=Een zeegeteken, trofee

Topics: honour, merit, proverbs and idioms, good and bad, order/society

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

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

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

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

Topics: order/society, civility, status

He goes hence frowning: but it honours us that we have given him cause

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Caius Lucius
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
My lords, you are appointed for that office;
The due of honour in no point omit.
So farewell, noble Lucius.
CAIUS LUCIUS
Your hand, my lord.
CLOTEN
Receive it friendly; but from this time forth
I wear it as your enemy.
CAIUS LUCIUS
Sir, the event
Is yet to name the winner: fare you well.
CYMBELINE
Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords,
Till he have cross’d the Severn. Happiness!
QUEEN
He goes hence frowning: but it honours us
That we have given him cause.

DUTCH:
t Is met gefronst gelaat, dat hij vertrekt;
‘t Is onze schuld, maar ons tot eer.

MORE:
Office=Duty
Due of honour=Honour due
Event=Outcome
Compleat:
Office=Een Ampt, dienst
Event=Uytkomst, uytslag

Topics: order/society, duty, friendship, dispute

He that stirs next to carve for his own rage holds his soul light

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Hold, ho! Lieutenant—sir, Montano—gentlemen,
Have you forgot all place of sense and duty?
Hold! The general speaks to you. Hold, for shame!
OTHELLO
Why, how now, ho! From whence ariseth this?
Are we turned Turks? And to ourselves do that
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites?
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl.
He that stirs next to carve for his own rage
Holds his soul light, he dies upon his motion.
Silence that dreadful bell, it frights the isle
From her propriety. What is the matter, masters?—
Honest Iago, that looks dead with grieving,
Speak, who began this? On thy love, I charge thee.

DUTCH:
Wie ‘t eerst zich roert, zijn woede bot wil vieren,
Hij telt zijn leven niets en sterft terstond.
Dat schrikgelui houde op! het brengt dit eiland
In rep en roer

MORE:
All place=Every position
Place of sense=Sense of place
From whence ariseth this=What’s behind this fight
Put by=Stop
Carve for=Indulge
Holds light=Doesn’t value
Upon his motion=As soon as he moves
Propriety=Proper state
Compleat:
Sense=Zin, gevoel, bezeffing, oordeel, reden
To carve out his own fortune=Zyn eygen voordeel betrachten, zyn fortuyn maaken
Propriety=Eygenschap, eygendom

Topics: duty, conflict, order/society

He that wants money, means and content is without three good friends

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Corin
CONTEXT:
CORIN
And how like you this shepherd’s life, Master
Touchstone?
TOUCHSTONE
Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good
life; but in respect that it is a shepherd’s life, it is
naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very
well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very
vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it
pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court,
it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits
my humor well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it
goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in
thee, shepherd?
CORIN
No more but that I know the more one sickens, the worse
at ease he is, and that he that wants money, means, and
content is without three good friends; that the
property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn; that good
pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the
night is lack of the sun; that he that hath learned no
wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding or
comes of a very dull kindred.

DUTCH:
Niet meer, dan dat ik weet, dat iemand, hoe zieker hij is, zich minder pleizierig voelt; en dat wie geen geld, geen goed en geen tevredenheid heeft, drie goede vrienden minder heeft.

MORE:
Naught=Worthless
Solitary=Contemplative
Private=Deprived of company, lonely
Vile=Base, bad, abject (contemptuous)
Spare=Frugal
Stomach=Inclination (appetite)
No more but=Only
Property=Innate character
Wit=Understanding
Compleat:
Naught=Ondeugend (deugt niet); niet
Solitary=Eenig, heimelyk, afzonderlyk. Eenzaam, stil.
Private=Afgezonderd, geheim, byzonder, gemeen, ampteloos
Vile=Slecht, gering, verachtelyk, eerloos
Spare=Dun, mager
Stomach=Trek (appetite); hart (spirit)
Property=Eigenschap, natuurlyke hoedaanigheid
Wit (understanding)=Vinding, schranderheid, verstand

Topics: order/society, intellect, money, poverty and wealth, nature, understanding

His ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further deed

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: First Officer
CONTEXT:
FIRST OFFICER
If he did not care whether he had their love or no,
he waved indifferently ‘twixt doing them neither
good nor harm: but he seeks their hate with greater
devotion than can render it him; and leaves
nothing undone that may fully discover him their
opposite. Now, to seem to affect the malice and
displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he
dislikes, to flatter them for their love.
SECOND OFFICER
He hath deserved worthily of his country: and his
ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who,
having been supple and courteous to the people,
bonneted, without any further deed to have them at
all into their estimation and report: but he hath so
planted his honours in their eyes, and his actions
in their hearts, that for their tongues to be
silent, and not confess so much, were a kind of
ingrateful injury; to report otherwise, were a
malice, that, giving itself the lie, would pluck
reproof and rebuke from every ear that heard it.

DUTCH:
Hij heeft zich ten hoogste verdienstelijk gemaakt jegens
zijn land; en hij kloth niet op zulk een gemakkelijken
trap naar boven, als zij, die, buigzaam en beleefd jegens
het volk, zich in diens achting en vereering wisten in te
groeten, zonder iets verder gedaan te hebben om die te
verkrijgen;

MORE:
Waved indifferently=Wavered
Discover=Reveal
Seem to affect=Seem to seek, aim for
Bonnetted=Cap-doffing
Report=Opinion
Giving the lie=Showing to be untrue
Compleat:
To waver=Wapperen, waggelen, wankelen, trillen, leuteren, in twyffel staan
To discover=Ontdekken, bespeuren, aan ‘t licht brengen
Affect=Trachten, gezet op iets zyn
To give one the lie=Loogenstraffen

Topics: order/society, honour, authority

His currish riddles sort not with this place

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

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

His honour. clock to itself, knew the true minute when exception bid him speak

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
It is the Count Rousillon, my good lord,
Young Bertram.
KING
Youth, thou bear’st thy father’s face;
Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,
Hath well composed thee. Thy father’s moral parts
Mayst thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris.
BERTRAM
My thanks and duty are your majesty’s.
KING
I would I had that corporal soundness now,
As when thy father and myself in friendship
First tried our soldiership! He did look far
Into the service of the time and was
Discipled of the bravest: he lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on
And wore us out of act. It much repairs me
To talk of your good father. In his youth
He had the wit which I can well observe
To-day in our young lords; but they may jest
Till their own scorn return to them unnoted
Ere they can hide their levity in honour;
So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were,
His equal had awaked them; and his honour.
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him speak, and at this time
His tongue obeyed his hand: who were below him
He used as creatures of another place.
And bowed his eminent top to their low ranks.
Making them proud of his humility.
In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man
Might be a copy to these younger times,
Which, followed well, would demonstrate them now
But goers backward.

DUTCH:
Een echte hoov’ling was hij, fier, niet trotsch,
Hoe scherp, nooit bitter, dan door zijns gelijken
Er toe gedreven; altijd gaf zijn eer,
Zichzelf tot uurwerk, de minuut hem aan,
Waarop hij spreken moest, en als de wijzer
Stond hem zijn tong ten dienst;

MORE:
Copy=Example
Equal=Equal ranking
Exception=Disapproval
Courtier=Paradigm of true courtesy
Used=Treated
Scorn=Derision
Unnoted=Ignored
Goers-backward=Regressives
Compleat:
Equal=Wedergade
Courtier=Hoveling
He made exception=Hy had er iets tegen te zeggen
To take exception=Zich over iets belgen

Topics: civility, life, age/experience, independence, order/society, respect, fashion/trends, understanding

His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Julia
CONTEXT:
LUCETTA
All these are servants to deceitful men.
JULIA
Base men, that use them to so base effect!
But truer stars did govern Proteus’ birth
His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles,
His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate,
His tears pure messengers sent from his heart,
His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth.
LUCETTA
Pray heaven he prove so, when you come to him!
JULIA
Now, as thou lovest me, do him not that wrong
To bear a hard opinion of his truth:
Only deserve my love by loving him;
And presently go with me to my chamber,
To take a note of what I stand in need of,
To furnish me upon my longing journey.
All that is mine I leave at thy dispose,
My goods, my lands, my reputation;
Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence.
Come, answer not, but to it presently!
I am impatient of my tarriance.

DUTCH:
Zijn woord is eed, zijn eed orakeltaal,
Zijn liefde waar, zijn denken rein, zijn tranen
Steeds boden van zijn hart, zijn hart zoo ver
Van elk bedrog, als de aard is van den hemel.

MORE:
Proverb: An honest man’s word is as good as his bond

Servants to=Assist, are a help to
Base=Lowly
Hard=Harsh
Presently=Immediately
Dispose=Disposal
Dispatch me hence=Speed me on my way
Tarriance=Delay
Compleat:
A base fellow=Een slechte vent, oolyke boef
Base=Ondergeschikt
Hard=(rigorous): Gestreng
Presently=Terstond, opstaandevoet
Dispose=Beschikken, schikken
To dispatch=(make haste) Haast maaken
To tarry=Sukkelen, zammelen, leuteren

Topics: proverbs and idioms, status, order/society

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

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

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

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

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

I am not in the giving vein to-day

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: King Richard III
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Because that, like a jack, thou keep’st the stroke
Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
I am not in the giving vein today.
BUCKINGHAM
Why then, resolve me whether you will or no.
KING RICHARD
Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
BUCKINGHAM
And is it thus? Repays he my deep service
With such deep contempt? Made I him king for this?
O, let me think on Hastings and be gone
To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on!

DUTCH:
Wijl tusschen mijn gedachten en uw beed’len
Uw slag steeds komt, als van een klokkeventjen.
Ik ben in geen goedgeefsche luim vandaag.

MORE:
Jack=Figure strike the bell in old clocks
Stroke=Clock sounding the hour
Vein=Mood
Resolve me=Give me your answer/determination
Brecknock=Brecon
Compleat:
Stroke=Slag
Vein=Ader; styl
A crafty jack=Een looze boef
To resolve=Besluyten, voorneemen, een besluyt neemen, te raade worden; oplossen
Resolve me (let me know your mind)=Verklaar my uwe meening: zeg my hoe gy het hebben wilt
Resolve me this question=Los my deeze vraag eens op

Topics: order/society, merit, work, value

I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
The worser welcome;
I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors;
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say
My daughter is not for thee. And now in madness,
Being full of supper and distempering draughts,
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
To start my quiet.
RODERIGO
Sir, sir, sir-
BRABANTIO
But thou must needs be sure
My spirit and my place have in them power
To make this bitter to thee.

DUTCH:
Dan nog minder welkom;
‘k Gelastte u, niet om mijne deur te waren;
En onverholen zeide ik U: mijn dochter
Was niet voor u;

MORE:

Worser=Less
Malicious display=Defiance (Bravery=Ostentatious display.)
Distempering=Deranging, disturbing
Start my quiet=Disturb my peace
Honest plainness=Clearly, frankly
Spirit and place=Character and position
Compleat:
Maliciouos=Boosaardig, quaadaardig
Distemper (or troubles) of the State=Wanorder in den Staat
To distemper (or trouble)=Wanorder veroorzaaken
The plainness (or simplicity) of a discourse=De klaarheid eener redenvoering

Topics: order/society, insult

I have too long borne your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Queen Elizabeth
CONTEXT:
QUEEN ELIZABETH
My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne
Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs.
With those gross taunts that oft I have endured.
I had rather be a country servant-maid
Than a great queen with this condition,
To be so baited, scorned, and stormed at.
Small joy have I in being England’s queen.
QUEEN MARGARET
And lessened be that small, God I beseech Him!
Thy honour, state, and seat is due to me.

DUTCH:
Mylord van Gloster, al te lang verdroeg ik,
Uw plompen smaad en uwen bitt’ren spot ;
Bij God, ik meld nu aan zijn majesteit
Den groven hoon, then ik zoo vaak moest lijden.

MORE:
Baited=Provoked
State=Rank
Due to me=Is rightfully mine
Compleat:
To bait=Aas leggen, lokken, lok-aazen
State=De rang
There is nothing due to him=Hy heeft niets te goed

Burgersdijk notes:
Dat kleine word’ nog minder. Deze verschijning van koningin Margaretha, zij komt op en verdwijnt
als een spook, – is een dichtersvond; na den slag bij Tewksbury werd zij een poos gevangen gehouden en door haar vader Reignier vrjjgekocht; na dien tjjd betrad zij Engelands grond niet weer.

Topics: abuse, complaint, order/society, poverty and wealth, satisfaction

I have too long borne your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs

DUTCH:
Mylord van Gloster, al te lang verdroeg ik,
Uw plompen smaad en uwen bitt’ren spot ;
Bij God, ik meld nu aan zijn majesteit
Den groven hoon, then ik zoo vaak moest lijden.

MORE:
Baited=Provoked
State=Rank
Due to me=Is rightfully mine
Compleat:
To bait=Aas leggen, lokken, lok-aazen
State=De rang
There is nothing due to him=Hy heeft niets te goed

Topics: abuse, complaint, order/society, poverty and wealth, satisfaction

I say they nourished disobedience, fed the ruin of the state

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Whoever gave that counsel to give forth
The corn o’ th’ storehouse gratis, as ’twas used
Sometime in Greece—
MENENIUS Well, well, no more of that.
CORIOLANUS
Though there the people had more absolute power,
I say they nourished disobedience, fed
The ruin of the state.
BRUTUS
Why shall the people give
One that speaks thus their voice?
CORIOLANUS
I’ll give my reasons,
More worthier than their voices. They know the corn
Was not our recompense, resting well assured
They ne’er did service for ’t. Being pressed to th’ war,
Even when the navel of the state was touched,
They would not thread the gates. This kind of service
Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i’ the war,
Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they showed
Most valour, spoke not for them. The accusation
Which they have often made against the senate,
All cause unborn, could never be the motive
Of our so frank donation.

DUTCH:
Schoon daar het volk veel grooter macht bezat,
Die, zeg ik, kweekte muiterij en voedde
‘t Verderf des staats.

MORE:
Was not our recompense=Was not a reward we granted
Cause unborn=No existing cause
Sometime=For a while, used to do
Pressed=Impressed (into military service)
Navel=Centre (of the state)
Thread=Pass through
Compleat:
Press (or force) soldiers=Soldaaten pressen, dat is hen dwingen om dienst te neemen
Recompense=Vergelding, beloning
Sometimes=Somtyds

Topics: poverty and wealth, reason, order/society, claim, work

I see men’s judgments are a parcel of their fortunes

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 3.13
SPEAKER: Enobarbus
CONTEXT:
ENOBARBUS
(aside) Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness and be staged to th’ show
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgments are
A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgment too.

DUTCH:
k Zie, des menschen oordeel
Is één met zijn geluk; wat buiten ons is
Sleept in zijn val ons innigst wezen mee
En alles stort te zaam.

MORE:
High-battled=Commanding many armies
Unstate=Deprive, divest
Staged=Displayed
To the show=To the public
Sworder=Fencer
Parcel=Piece, part
Things outward=External factors
Inward=Internal
All measures=Good and bad fortune
Answer=Respond to
Compleat:
To parcel=In hoopen verdeelen, in partyen deelen
Outward=Uytwendig, uyterlyk
Inward=Inwendig, innerlyk
Answer=Beantwoorden; antwoord geven

Topics: judgment, status, order/society, fate/destiny

I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,
Or gather wealth I care not with what envy

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iden
CONTEXT:
Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court,
And may enjoy such quiet walks as these?
This small inheritance my father left me
Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy.
I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,
Or gather wealth, I care not, with what envy:
Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
And sends the poor well pleased from my gate.

DUTCH:
Hier zoek ik niet door and’rer val te stijgen ,
Niet rijk te worden, aangegluurd door nijd;

MORE:

Turmoiled=In the turmoil of
Sufficieth that=It is enough that (what I have)

Compleat:
Turmoiled=Gehulderd, afgesloofd
Suffice=Genoeg zyn
It suffices that it is so=’t Is genoeg dat het zo is

Topics: order/society, satisfaction, envy

I speak against my present profit, but my wish hath a preferment in ’t

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: First Jailer
CONTEXT:
MESSENGER
Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the king.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Thou bring’st good news; I am called to be made free.
FIRST GAOLER
I’ll be hang’d then.
POSTHUMUS LEONATUS
Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the dead.
FIRST JAILER
Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget
young gibbets, I never saw one so prone. Yet, on my
conscience, there are verier knaves desire to live,
for all he be a Roman; and there be some of them
too that die against their wills. So should I, if I
were one. I would we were all of one mind, and
one mind good. O, there were desolation of jailers
and gallowses! I speak against my present profit,
but my wish hath a preferment in ’t.

DUTCH:
Ik spreek tegen mijn tegenwoordig voordeel, maar er ligt toch een wensch naar bevordering in.

MORE:
Desolation=Destitution, solitariness
Prone=Eagerly inclined
Gibbet=Gallows
Preferment=Promotion
Very=Veritable, true, real. Verier=greater
Speak against my present profit=Arguing against my current gain
Compleat:
Prone=Geneigd
Gibbet=Een mik, halve galg
Preferment=Verhooging, voortrekking, bevordering tot Staat
Very (true or perfect)=Echt. Veriest=Grootste
He is the veriest rogue that ever lived=Hy is de grootste schurk die op twe beenen gaat

Topics: offence, good and bad, unity/collabouration, order/society

I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
Let us kill him, and we’ll have corn at our own price.
Is’t a verdict?
ALL
No more talking on’t; let it be done: away, away!
SECOND CITIZEN
One word, good citizens.
FIRST CITIZEN
We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good.
What authority surfeits on would relieve us: if they
would yield us but the superfluity, while it were
wholesome, we might guess they relieved us humanely;
but they think we are too dear: the leanness that
afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an
inventory to particularise their abundance; our
sufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with
our pikes, ere we become rakes: for the gods know I
speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for
revenge.
SECOND CITIZEN
Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius?
ALL
Against him first: he’s a very dog to the commonalty.

DUTCH:
Laat ons dit wreken met onze pieken, eer wij dun als harken worden! Want de goden weten het, ik zeg dit uit honger naar brood, niet uit dorst naar wraak.

MORE:
Proverb: As lean as a rake

The patricians good=Good (mercantile), meaning wealthy, well monied
Guess=Think, suppose
Object=Spectacle, sight
Accounted=Thought of as
To particularise=Specify
Sufferance=Suffering, misery
Rake=A lean person (as thin as a rake)
Compleat:
As lean as a rake=Zo mager als een hout
Abundance=Overvloed
Sufferance=Verdraagzaamheid, toegeevendheid

Burgersdijk notes:
De patriciërs als goede. Omdat zij arm zijn, worden de plebejers niet voor vol geteld, niet „goed” gerekend. Vergelijk: Koopman v. Venetië”, 1. 3. 16.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, poverty and wealth, order/society, fate/destiny

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

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

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

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

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

I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Clown
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of
your breeding.
CLOWN
I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught:
I know my business is but to the court.
COUNTESS
To the court! why, what place make you special,
when you put off that with such contempt? But to the
court!
CLOWN
Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he
may easily put it off at court: he that cannot make
a leg, put off’s cap, kiss his hand and say nothing,
has neither leg, hands, lip, nor cap; and indeed
such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for the
court; but for me, I have an answer will serve all
men.

DUTCH:
Ik zal mij ten hoogste gevoed en diep geleerd betoonen. Ik weet, dat mijn zending maar naar het hof is .

MORE:
Proverb: Better fed than taught

Put you to=Make you show
Height=Extent
Compleat:
“He is better fed than taught”=Hy is beter vegoed dan onderwezen
Business=Bezigheid, werk, zaak

Topics: order/society, learning/education, proverbs and idioms, civility

I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good

DUTCH:
Ik wenschte, dat wij allen eensgezind waren, en dan
goedgezind.

Topics: offence, good and bad, unity/collabouration, order/society

I would your highness would give it quick consideration, for there is no primer business.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Queen Katherine
CONTEXT:
QUEEN KATHERINE
I am much too venturous
In tempting of your patience; but am bolden’d
Under your promised pardon. The subjects’ grief
Comes through commissions, which compel from each
The sixth part of his substance, to be levied
Without delay; and the pretence for this
Is named, your wars in France: this makes bold mouths:
Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze
Allegiance in them; their curses now
Live where their prayers did: and it’s come to pass,
This tractable obedience is a slave
To each incensed will. I would your highness
Would give it quick consideration, for
There is no primer business.

DUTCH:
O, mocht uw hoogheid
Dit daad’lijk willen overwegen, want
Geen zaak is sterker dringend!

MORE:
Venturous=Daring
Commissions=Taxes, instructions to impose tax
Grief=Complaints, grievances
Substance=Assets, wealth
Spit=Tongues spit out: Refuse with disrespectful language
Tractable=Compliant
Primer=More significant
Compleat:
Venturous=Ligtwaagend, stout
Commission=Last, volmagt, lastbrief, provisie
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Substance=Zelfsandigheyd; bezit
Spit out=Uytspuuwen
Tractable=Handelbaar, leenig, buygzaam, zachtzinnnig
Prime=Eerste, voornaamste

Topics: loyalty, language, order/society, leadership

If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the
motley-minded gentleman that I have so often met in the
forest. He hath been a courtier, he swears.
TOUCHSTONE
If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation.
I have trod a measure. I have flattered a lady. I have
been politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy. I
have undone three tailors. I have had four quarrels, and
like to have fought one.
JAQUES
And how was that ta’en up?
TOUCHSTONE
Faith, we met and found the quarrel was upon the
seventh cause.
JAQUES
How “seventh cause?”—Good my lord, like this fellow.

DUTCH:
Als iemand dit in twijfel trekt, laat hem een gerechtelijken
zuiveringseed van mij vergen

MORE:
Motley-minded=As confused as the jester’s costume
Purgation=Clearing from imputation of guilt, exculpation. Used in theology (Purgatory and declaration of innocence oath) and as a legal term of proving of innocence
Trod a measure=Taken part in a dance
Politic=Diplomatic
Undone=Ruined, bankrupted
Quarrels=Serious disputes
Like=Came near to
Compleat:
Motley=Een grove gemengelde
Purgation (the clearing one’s self of a crime)=Zuivering van een misdaad
Measure (music)=Zang-maat. To beat the measure=De maat slaan
Politick (or cunning)=Slim, schrander, doorsleepen
Undone=Ontdaan, losgemaakt

Topics: order/society, status, innocence, dispute

If that love or gold can in this desert place buy entertainment

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Corin
CONTEXT:
ROSALIND
I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold
Can in this desert place buy entertainment,
Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.
Here’s a young maid with travel much oppressed,
And faints for succour.
CORIN
Fair sir, I pity her
And wish, for her sake more than for mine own,
My fortunes were more able to relieve her.
But I am shepherd to another man
And do not shear the fleeces that I graze.
My master is of churlish disposition
And little recks to find the way to heaven
By doing deeds of hospitality.
Besides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed
Are now on sale, and at our sheepcote now,
By reason of his absence, there is nothing
That you will feed on. But what is, come see,
And in my voice most welcome shall you be.
shepherd.
ROSALIND
What is he that shall buy his flock and pasture?

DUTCH:
Hoor, scheper, biedt dit woeste woud hier ergens
Gastvrijheid aan voor dankbaarheid of goud,
Breng ons er heen om te eten en te rusten.

Topics: money, poverty and wealth, order/society

If we shall stand still in fear our motion will be mocked or carped at, we should take root here where we sit.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
And for me,
I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice, and that not passed me but
By learnèd approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing, let me say
’Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions in the fear
To cope malicious censurers, which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimmed, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours or not allowed; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still
In fear our motion will be mocked or carped at,
We should take root here where we sit,
Or sit state-statues only.

DUTCH:
Zijn wij roerloos,
Bevreesd voor smalen zoo we iets doen, wij moesten
Hier, waar wij zitten, wortel slaan, of als
Staatsbeelden zitten.

MORE:
Approbation=Approval
Traduced=Slandered
Faculties=Qualities
Doing=Actions
Brake=Thicket, as an obstacle
Cope=Face, deal with
Sick=Malicious
Compleat:
Approbation=Goedkeuring
Traduce=Kwaadspreeken, lasteren; (accuse) beschuldigen
Faculties=Vermoogens
Doing=Een doening, daad
Brake=Een Vlas-braak

Topics: intellect, betrayal, order/society, merit

If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad; that cures us both

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
As I am mad, I do:
If you’ll be patient, I’ll no more be mad;
That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir,
You put me to forget a lady’s manners,
By being so verbal: and learn now, for all,
That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,
By the very truth of it, I care not for you,
And am so near the lack of charity—
To accuse myself—I hate you; which I had rather
You felt than make’t my boast.
CLOTEN
You sin against
Obedience, which you owe your father. For
The contract you pretend with that base wretch,
One bred of alms and foster’d with cold dishes,
With scraps o’ the court, it is no contract, none:
And though it be allow’d in meaner parties—
Yet who than he more mean?—to knit their souls,
On whom there is no more dependency
But brats and beggary, in self-figured knot;
Yet you are curb’d from that enlargement by
The consequence o’ the crown, and must not soil
The precious note of it with a base slave.
A hilding for a livery, a squire’s cloth,
A pantler, not so eminent.

DUTCH:
Ik doe het in mijn waanzin;
En die zal wijken, zijt gij slechts verstandig;
Dit doet ons beidegoed. Het is mij leed,
Dat gij mij dwingt, mijn vrouwenaard verlooch’nend,
Zoo sterk te spreken

MORE:
Put=Cause
Verbal=Talkative
Cold dishes=Leftovers
Dependency=People
Pretent=Claim
Beggary=Destitute people
Enlargement=Freedom
Consequence=Importance
Foil=Defile
Note=Renown
Compleat:
Verbal=Woordelyk, mondelyk; Verbality=Woordelykheid
Dependency=Afhangendheyd, afhanglykheyd, vertrouwen, steunsel, steun
To pretend to=Zich aanmaatigen, zich uitgeeven voor; voorwenden
Beggary=Bedelaary
Enlargement=Vergrooting, wyder uitbreiding; Meerder vryheid dan men te vooren had
Consequence=Belang

Topics: patience, anger, emotion and mood, civility, order/society

In faith, he is a worthy gentleman, Exceedingly well read and profited In strange concealments.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Mortimer
CONTEXT:
In faith, he is a worthy gentleman,
Exceedingly well read and profited
In strange concealments, valiant as a lion,
And as wondrous affable, and as bountiful
As mines of India.

DUTCH:
Hij is, geloof me, een waardig edelman,
Van veel belezenheid en door-ervaren
In diepe kunsten,

MORE:
Schmidt:
Worthy=Deserving praise, excellent (implying all the shades of meaning between simple approval and the highest veneration)
Profited=proficient
Concealments=Keeping secrets
Compleat:
A worthy man (man of worth)=Een waardig man
A worthy (virtuous or principled) man=Een man van goede grondbeginzelen
Concealment=Verberging, bedekking, geheimhouding, verzwyging

Topics: value, status, order/society, learning/education

It is a reeling world indeed, my lord, and I believe will never stand upright

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Catesby
CONTEXT:
HASTINGS
Good morrow, Catesby. You are early stirring.
What news, what news in this our tott’ring state?
CATESBY
It is a reeling world indeed, my lord,
And I believe will never stand upright
Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
HASTINGS
How “wear the garland?” Dost thou mean the crown?
CATESBY
Ay, my good lord.
HASTINGS
I’ll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
Before I’ll see the crown so foul misplaced.
But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?

DUTCH:
t Is waar, mylord, hot is een dwarrelwereld;
Zij komt, geloof ik, niet tot vasten stand,
Eer Richard met don krans van ‘t rijk gesierd is.

MORE:
Tottering=Unstable
Reeling=Unsteady
Compleat:
To totter=Schudden, waggelen
To reel=Waggelen, heen en weer zwieren
Reeling=Waggeling; haspeling

Topics: life, news, plans/intentions, order/society

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

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

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

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

Topics: conflict, offence, status, order/society

It never was merry world in England since gentlemen came up.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Holland
CONTEXT:
BEVIS
I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress
the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.
HOLLAND
So he had need, for ’tis threadbare. Well, I say it was never merry world in England since gentlemen came up.
BEVIS
O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handicrafts-men.
HOLLAND
The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons.
BEVIS
Nay, more, the king’s council are no good workmen.

DUTCH:
Dat is ook hoognoodig, want afgedragen is hij. Ik
zeg maar, met hel vroolijk leven is het uit in Engeland,
sinds de edellieden er zoo de baas zijn.

MORE:

Set a new nap=Reform, change direction (the nap of a woven fabric being the direction)
Came up=Arrived, became fashionable
Think scorn=Are contemptuous, disdainful of
King’s Council=Assembly, privy counsellors
Regarded=Valued

Compleat:
The nap of cloth=De wol of noppen van laken
To come up=Opkomen
Regard=Achting

Topics: honesty, status, order/society, skill/talent, value, fashion/trends

It was an answer: how apply you this?

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Note me this, good friend;
Your most grave belly was deliberate,
Not rash like his accusers, and thus answer’d:
‘True is it, my incorporate friends,’ quoth he,
‘That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon; and fit it is,
Because I am the store-house and the shop
Of the whole body: but, if you do remember,
I send it through the rivers of your blood,
Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o’ the brain;
And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The strongest nerves and small inferior veins
From me receive that natural competency
Whereby they live: and though that all at once,
You, my good friends,’—this says the belly, mark me,—
FIRST CITIZEN
Ay, sir; well, well.
MENENIUS
Though all at once cannot
See what I do deliver out to each,
Yet I can make my audit up, that all
From me do back receive the flour of all,
And leave me but the bran.’ What say you to’t?
FIRST CITIZEN
It was an answer: how apply you this?

DUTCH:
Een antwoord was het. Maar hoe past gij ‘t toe?

MORE:
Piercing statutes=Biting laws (See Measure for Measure, 1.3)
True indeed=Ironical
Edicts for usury=Laws, decrees for money-lending
Wholesome=Suitable, beneficial
Eat us up=To devour, to consume, to waste, to destroy
Suffer=To bear, to allow, to let, not to hinder
Compleat:
Usury=Woeker
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen
Wholesom=Gezond, heylzaam, heelzaam
To pierce=Doorbooren, doordringen
Edict=Een gebod, bevel, afkondiging
Eat up=Opeeten, vernielen
Suffer=Toelaten

Topics: blame, nature, order/society, reply

Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Third Outlaw
CONTEXT:
SECOND OUTLAW
Tell us this: have you any thing to take to?
VALENTINE
Nothing but my fortune.
THIRD OUTLAW
Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen,
Such as the fury of ungovern’d youth
Thrust from the company of lawful men:
Myself was from Verona banished
For practising to steal away a lady,
An heir, and near allied unto the duke.
SECOND OUTLAW
And I from Mantua, for a gentleman,
Who, in my mood, I stabb’d unto the heart.

DUTCH:
Weet, een’gen onder ons zijn edellieden,
Die de overmoed der teugellooze jeugd
Uit de gemeenschap stiet van eerb’re lieden

MORE:
To take to=To take recourse to
Fortune=Fate, luck (not wealth)
Lawful=Law-abiding
Practising=Plotting
Near=Closely
Compleat:
Fortune=’t Geval, geluk, Fortuyn
Lawfull=Op een wettige wyze
A near concern=Een zaak die van naby raakt

Topics: fate/destiny, civility, order/society, punishment

Let me put in your minds, if you forget, what you have been ere this, and what you are

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
I was a packhorse in his great affairs,
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends.
To royalize his blood, I spent mine own.
QUEEN MARGARET
Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.
RICHARD
In all which time, you and your husband Grey
Were factious for the house of Lancaster.—
And, Rivers, so were you.— Was not your husband
In Margaret’s battle at Saint Albans slain?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
What you have been ere this, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

DUTCH:
Laat mij, zijt gij ‘t vergeten, u herinn’ren,
Wat gij voordezen waart en wat gij zijt,
Alsook, wat ik geweest ben en nu ben .

MORE:
Packhorse=Beast of burden
Factious=Fighting
Battle=Army
Put in your mind=Remind
Compleat:
Packhorse=Een lastdraagend paerd
Factious=Oproerig
It puts me in mind=Het maakt my indachtig; het brengt my in den zin

Topics: relationship, status, order/society, memory, work

Let me put in your minds, if you forget, what you have been ere this, and what you are

DUTCH:
Laat mij, zijt gij ‘t vergeten, u herinn’ren,
Wat gij voordezen waart en wat gij zijt,
Alsook, wat ik geweest ben en nu ben .

Topics: relationship, status, order/society, memory, work

Let proof speak

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Caius Lucius
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
Thou art welcome, Caius.
Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent
Much under him; of him I gather’d honour;
Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect
That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for
Their liberties are now in arms; a precedent
Which not to read would show the Britons cold:
So Caesar shall not find them.
CAIUS LUCIUS
Let proof speak.
CLOTEN
His majesty bids you welcome. Make
pastime with us a day or two, or longer: if
you seek us afterwards in other terms, you
shall find us in our salt-water girdle: if you
beat us out of it, it is yours; if you fall in
the adventure, our crows shall fare the better
for you; and there’s an end.

DUTCH:
De strijd besliss’.

MORE:
Utterance=Extremity (Fr. ‘outrance’), at any price
Perfect=Fully aware
Read=Follow, interpret
Show=Make appear
Proof=The outcome
Adventure=Attempt
Compleat:
Utter=Gansch, geheel, uiterst
To be perfect n a thing=Iets wel van buiten kennen; in wyn hoofd hebben
Adventure=Avontuur, kans, hach; ‘t Gene men ter zee waagt

Topics: order/society, status, honour, dispute, achievent, failure

Let their heads be slickly combed, their blue coats brushed, and their garters of an indifferent knit

DUTCH:
Laten zij hun haar goed glad kammen, hun blauwe kamizolen goed borstelen en hun kousebanden gelijk strikken ; laten ze een buiging maken met hun linkerbeenen ; en het hart niet hebben om een haar aan te raken van mijn meesters paardestaart, voordat ze hun handen gekust hebben.

Topics: appearance, civility, order/society

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Claudius
CONTEXT:
POLONIUS
We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please.
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief. Let her be round with him,
And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
CLAUDIUS
It shall be so.
Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

DUTCH:
Uw raad staat me aan; ‘n Hooggeplaatste en gek mag vrij niet gaan /
Dat zal ik, want de waanzin van vorstenzonen eist een wakend oog. /
‘t Zij zoo. Onderwijl Waanzin bij grooten eischt een oog in ‘t zeil.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Round=roundly, straightforwardly and without much ceremony:
Compleat:
To have a round delivery (or clear utterance)=Glad ter taal zyn
Round about=Rondt-om

Topics: madness, caution, trust, order/society

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

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

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

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

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

My scars can witness, dumb although they are, that my report is just and full of truth

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Lucius
CONTEXT:
LUCIUS
Then, noble auditory, be it known to you,
That cursed Chiron and Demetrius
Were they that murdered our emperor’s brother;
And they it were that ravished our sister:
For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded;
Our father’s tears despised, and basely cozened
Of that true hand that fought Rome’s quarrel out,
And sent her enemies unto the grave.
Lastly, myself unkindly banished,
The gates shut on me, and turned weeping out,
To beg relief among Rome’s enemies:
Who drowned their enmity in my true tears.
And oped their arms to embrace me as a friend.
I am the turned forth, be it known to you,
That have preserved her welfare in my blood;
And from her bosom took the enemy’s point,
Sheathing the steel in my adventurous body.
Alas, you know I am no vaunter, I;
My scars can witness, dumb although they are,
That my report is just and full of truth.
But, soft! methinks I do digress too much,
Citing my worthless praise: O, pardon me;
For when no friends are by, men praise themselves.

DUTCH:
Litteekens mogen stom zijn, toch getuigen
De mijne, dat ik zuiv’re waarheid spreek.

MORE:
Auditory=Listeners
Fell=Cruel
Cozened=Cheated
Fought out=Fought and settled
Vaunter=Boastful person
Patience=Endurance
Ragged=Rugged
Closure=End
Compleat:
Auditory=Een hoorplaats, gehoorplaaats
To speak before a great auditory=Voor eene groote menigte van toehoorderen redenvoeren
Fell (cruel)=Wreede, fel
To cozen=Bedriegen
To close=Overeenstemmen; besluiten; eindigen
To vaunt=Pochen, snorken, opsnuiven
Patience=Geduld, lydzaamheid, verduldigheid
To fight it out=Een geschil vechtenderhand beslissen

Topics: order/society, revenge, honesty, pride

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

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

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

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

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

No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the king himself.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
LEAR
No, they cannot touch me for coining. I am the king himself.
EDGAR
O thou side-piercing sight!
LEAR
Nature’s above art in that respect. There’s your press- money. That fellow handles his bow like a crowkeeper. Draw me a clothier’s yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace,

DUTCH:
Neen, zij kunnen niets tegen mij doen voor het muntslaan . Ik
ben de koning zelf;/
Ze kunnen me niet van valsemunterij betichten.
Ik ben de koning zelf.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Schmidt:
Coining=Minting coins (a royal prerogative)
Crow-keeper=Scarecrow or person employed to scare off crows; here a bad archer
Clothier’s yard=Full length of the arrow
Press-money=Payment for enlistment or impressment into the king’s army.
Compleat:
To coin=Geld slaan, geld munten
To coin new words=Nieuwe woorden smeeden (of verzinnen)
Press-money=Vroeger hand-, loop- of aanritsgel
Burgersdijk notes:
Zij kunnen mij niets doen voor het muntslaan. Er loopt een draad door de waanzinnige redeneringen van Lear. Hij wil met een legermacht zich op zijne ondankbare dochters wreken. Daarom wil hij geld slaan, om krijgers te werven; maar zich van de deugdelijkheid zijner manschappen overtuigen, door hunne bekwaamheid in de behandeling van den handboog te toetsen; ook komt hem eene uitdaging voor den geest, zoowel eene mondelinge, waarvoor hij zijn handschoen nederwerpt, als een schriftelijke; daartoe ook het toelaten van ontucht om krijgers te erlangen en het bekleeden der paardehoeven met vilt.

Topics: law/legal, justice, punishment, equality, order/society, status

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

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

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

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

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

O, let me teach you how to knit again this scattered corn into one mutual sheaf

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproar severed, like a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O, let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf,
These broken limbs again into one body;
Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself,
And she whom mighty kingdoms court’sy to,
Like a forlorn and desperate castaway,
Do shameful execution on herself.
But if my frosty signs and chaps of age,
Grave witnesses of true experience,
Cannot induce you to attend my words,

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re the definition of: “fowl”: State v Davis, 72 NJL 345, 61 A.2 (1905)

Topics: cited in law, mercy, remedy, leadership, order/society, conflict

Or let us stand to our authority, or let us lose it

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
By the consent of all, we were establish’d
The people’s magistrates.
CITIZENS
You so remain.
MENENIUS
And so are like to do.
COMINIUS
That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation,
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.
SICINIUS
This deserves death.
BRUTUS
Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o’ the people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

DUTCH:
Geen and’re keus: wij moeten voor ons ambt
Pal staan of vallen.

MORE:
Proverb: Men (Men’s love), not walls, make the city (prince) safe

Or=Either
Stand to=Exercise, be firm with
Present=Immediate
Compleat:
Magistrate=Overheid, Overheer, Magistraat

Topics: order/society, law/legal dispute, , proverbs and idioms

Out of these convertites there is much matter to be heard and learned

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Jaques
CONTEXT:
JAQUES
Sir, by your patience: if I heard you rightly,
The duke hath put on a religious life
And thrown into neglect the pompous court.
JAQUES DE BOYS
He hath.
JAQUES
To him will I. Out of these convertites
There is much matter to be heard and learned.
– You to your former honor I bequeath;
Your patience and your virtue well deserves it.
– You to a love that your true faith doth merit.
– You to your land, and love, and great allies.
– You to a long and well-deservèd bed.
– And you to wrangling, for thy loving voyage
Is but for two months victualled.— So to your pleasures.
I am for other than for dancing measures.
DUKE SENIOR
Stay, Jaques, stay.
JAQUES
To see no pastime I. What you would have
I’ll stay to know at your abandoned cave.

DUTCH:
Dan spoed ik mij tot hem; van die bekeerden
Is menig ding, dat nuttig is, te hooren.

MORE:
Pompous=Ceremonious
Convertites=Converts
Compleat:
Pompous=Prachtig, staatelyk
Convert=Een bekeerde

Topics: authority, life, order/society, marriage

Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
The usurer hangs the cozener.
Through tattered clothes great vices do appear;
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks.
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.

DUTCH:
Bepantser zonde met goud, en de sterke lans van rechtvaardigheid zal zonder pijn te doen breken, bewapen het met vodden, en een rietje van een pygmee zal het doorboren./
Dek zonde af met goud;
de sterke lans van ’t recht schampt eropaf;
een vod wordt door een strohalm nog doorboord.

MORE:
Proverb: The great thieves hang the little ones
Proverb: When looked at through tattered clothes, all vices are great
Usery became legal in 1571 and userers were gaining respectabillty.
Cozener=Sharper, cheat
Schmidt:
Plate=Cover in armour plate
Pygmy’s straw=Weak weapon
Compleat:
Usury=Woeker
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen

Topics: poverty and wealth, justice, equality, law/legal, order/society

Purpose so barred, it follows nothing is done to purpose

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

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

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

Proverb: He lives long that lives well

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

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

Sir, the event is yet to name the winner

DUTCH:
De uitslag, heer,
Zal de’ overwinnaar kennen doen. Vaarwel!

MORE:
Office=Duty
Due of honour=Honour due
Event=Outcome
Compleat:
Office=Een Ampt, dienst
Event=Uytkomst, uytslag

Topics: order/society, duty, friendship, dispute

Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
I pray you, speak not. He grows worse and worse.
Question enrages him. At once, good night.
Stand not upon the order of your going,
But go at once

DUTCH:
En staat bij ‘t gaan niet op uw rang, maar gaat.

MORE:
Schmidt:
To stand on=To insist on
The order of= Regular disposition, proper state, settled mode of being or proceeding
Compleat:
To stand (or insist) upon one’s privilege=Op zyne voorrechten staan, dezelven vorderen
To stand upon his reputation=Op zyne eere staan

Topics: order/society, civility, still in use, invented or popularised

Such a man might be a copy to these younger times, which, followed well, would demonstrate them now but goers backward

DUTCH:
Een man als hij kon onzen jong’ren tijd
Een voorbeeld zijn, dat, nagevolgd, zou toonen,
Hoe deze tijd teruggaat.

Topics: civility, life, age/experience, independence, order/society, respect, fashion/trends, understanding

Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, A good mouth-filling oath

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
Not yours, in good sooth! Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker’s wife! “Not you, in good sooth,” and “as true as I live,” and “as God shall mend me,” and “as sure as day”—
And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths
As if thou never walk’st further than Finsbury.Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath, and leave “in sooth,”
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards and Sunday citizens.

DUTCH:
En geeft zoo taffen eedwaarborg, als waart gij
Nooit verder weg geweest dan Finsbury
Zweer als een edelvrouw, zooals gij zijt,
Een vollen eed, die klinkt,—en laat “In ernst”
En zulke peperkoekbetuigingen
Aan fulpgalons en zondagsburgers over.

MORE:
Onions:
Velvet-guards=Guards with velvet-trimmed clothes (trimmings of velvet being a city fashion at the time)
Mouth-filling=Robust
Protest=Oath, protestation
Burgersdijk notes:
En geeft zoo taffen eedwaarborg, als waart gij Nooit verder weg geweest dan Finsbury. Heetspoor kan die makke betuigingen niet lijden, zooals welgestelde burgervrouwtjens, die, het gewaad met fluweel omboord, hare zondagswandeling naar Finsbury richtten, gaarne gebruiken. Zijne vrouw moest ze aan de vrouwen van zijdehandelaars, — vandaar taffen eedwaarborg, — en peperkoekverkopers overlaten. Finsbury lag toen nog buiten de poorten van Londen en was een gewoon doel van de op Zondag wandelende burgers.

Topics: language, civility, order/society, fashion/trends

Tell them that I will not come today. “Cannot” is false, and that I dare not, falser.

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
DECIUS
Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar.
I come to fetch you to the senate house.
CAESAR
And you are come in very happy time
To bear my greeting to the senators
And tell them that I will not come today.
“Cannot” is false, and that I dare not, falser.
I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius.
CALPHURNIA
Say he is sick.
CAESAR
Shall Caesar send a lie?
Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far
To be afraid to tell greybeards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
DECIUS
Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laughed at when I tell them so.
CAESAR
The cause is in my will. I will not come.
That is enough to satisfy the senate.
But for your private satisfaction,
Because I love you, I will let you know.
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home.
She dreamt tonight she saw my statue,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood. And many lusty Romans
Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it.
And these does she apply for warnings and portents
And evils imminent, and on her knee
Hath begged that I will stay at home today.

DUTCH:
En juist te goeder uur zijt gij gekomen,
Om met mijn groeten den senaat de tijding
Te brengen, dat ik heden niet wil komen ;
„Niet kan” waar leugen, en „niet durf’ nog erger ;
lk wil vandaag niet komen ; meld dit, Decius.

MORE:
Happy time=Opportune moment
Greybeards=Old men
Cause=Reason
Compleat:
Happy=Gelukkig, gelukzalig
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak

Topics: language, authority, civility, order/society

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

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

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

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

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

The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hates, but lately splintered, knit, and joined together, must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
DUCHESS
God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD
[standing] Amen. [aside] And make me die a good old
man!
That is the butt end of a mother’s blessing;
I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hates,
But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that with some little train
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
Hither to London, to be crowned our king.

DUTCH:
De tweespalt uwer hooggezwollen harten,
Zoo kortlings eerst gezet, gespalkt, verbonden,
Vereischt een teed’re zorg, verpleging, hoede.

MORE:
Cloudy=Gloomy
Mutual=Common
Load=Weight
Moan=Sorry
Knit=Repaired
But lately=Only recently
Meseemeth=I tseems to me
Train=Group, entourage
Fet=Fetched
Estate=Government
Compleat:
Cloudy=Wolkig, betoogen
Mutual=Onderling, wederzyds
Load=Laading, last, vracht
Moan or make a moan=Een geklag maaken, jammeren
To knit together=t’Zamenknoopen
Knit together=Verknocht, t’zamengeknoopt
Lately=Onlangs, kortelings
I only perceived it now of late=Ik heb ‘t nu onlangs maar eerst bemerkt
Train, retinue attendance.=Gestoet
A retinue of attendance=Een sleep van knechten
Estate=Staat, middelen

Topics: leadership, conflict, order/society, resolution, relationship

The commons, like an angry hive of bees
That want their leader, scatter up and down
And care not who they sting in his revenge.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Warwick
CONTEXT:
It is reported, mighty sovereign,
That good Duke Humphrey traitorously is murdered
By Suffolk and the Cardinal Beaufort’s means.
The Commons, like an angry hive of bees
That want their leader, scatter up and down
And care not who they sting in his revenge.
Myself have calmed their spleenful mutiny,
Until they hear the order of his death.

DUTCH:
t Volk is, als een vergramde bijenzwerm,
Die ‘t opperhoofd verloor, spoorbijster; ‘t zwerft
En vraagt niet wien het steekt, zoo ‘t hem slechts wreekt.
Ik bracht hun felle muiterij tot staan,
Tot zij de wijze van zijn dood vernemen.

MORE:

Commons=common people
Mean=That which is at a person’s disposal; that which is used to effect a purpose: resources, power, wealth, allowance
Spleenful=Bad-tempered, spiteful, enraged
Order=Manner, details

Compleat:
The common (vulgar) people=Het gemeene Volk
Mean=Een middel
Spleen (spite, hatred or grudge)=Spyt, haat, wrok

Topics: order/society, revenge, anger

The estate is green and yet ungoverned

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hates,
But lately splintered, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that with some little train
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
Hither to London, to be crowned our king.
RIVERS
Why “with some little train,” my Lord of Buckingham?
BUCKINGHAM
Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude
The new-healed wound of malice should break out,
Which would be so much the more dangerous
By how much the estate is green and yet ungoverned.
Where every horse bears his commanding rein
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.
RICHARD
I hope the king made peace with all of us;
And the compact is firm and true in me.

DUTCH:
Opdat, mylord, niet door een grooten stoet
De pas geheelde wond des haats zich oop’ne;
Wat des te meer gevaarlijk wezen zou,
Daar alles groen is en nog leiding mist.

Topics: leadership, conflict, order/society, resolution, relationship

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

Then every thing includes itself in power, power into will, will into appetite; and appetite, an universal wolf.

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Ulysses
CONTEXT:
ULYSSES
Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down,
And the great Hector’s sword had lacked a master,
But for these instances.
The specialty of rule hath been neglected:
And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand
Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions.
When that the general is not like the hive
To whom the foragers shall all repair,
What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded,
The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask.
The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre
Observe degree, priority and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office and custom, in all line of order;
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil,
And posts, like the commandment of a king,
Sans cheque to good and bad: but when the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues and what portents! what mutiny!
What raging of the sea! shaking of earth!
Commotion in the winds! frights, changes, horrors,
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate
The unity and married calm of states
Quite from their fixure! O, when degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
Then enterprise is sick! How could communities,
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon,
This chaos, when degree is suffocate,
Follows the choking.
And this neglection of degree it is
That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose
It hath to climb. The general’s disdained
By him one step below, he by the next,
That next by him beneath; so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation:
And ’tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot,
Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length,
Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength.

DUTCH:
t Gezag werd hier verwaarloosd; ziet, zoovele
Hier holle Grieksche tenten staan, zoovele
Partijen zijn er, even hol. En zoo
De veldheer niet den bijenstok gelijk is,
Waar elk inzaam’laar ‘t zijne brengt, hoe kan men
Ooit honig wachten?

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

Topics: law/legal, justice, respect, order/society, nature, learning/education

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

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

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

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

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

There’s none but asses will be bridled so

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
ADRIANA
There’s none but asses will be bridled so.
LUCIANA
Why, headstrong liberty is lashed with woe.
There’s nothing situate under heaven’s eye
But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky.
The beasts, the fishes, and the wingèd fowls
Are their males’ subjects and at their controls.
Man, more divine, the masters of all these,
Lord of the wide world and wild wat’ry seas,
Endued with intellectual sense and souls,
Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,
Are masters to their females, and their lords.
Then let your will attend on their accords.
ADRIANA
This servitude makes you to keep unwed.
LUCIANA
Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed.

DUTCH:
Een ezel is ‘t, die zulk een staf verdraagt!

MORE:
Bridled=Controlled
Headstrong=Obstinate, ungovernable
Situate under heaven’s eye=Under the sun
His bound=Its fixed place
Endued=Endowed
Accords=Permission, wishes
Compleat:
To bridle=Intoomen, breydelen, beteugelen
Headstrong=Weerzoorig, koppig, halsstarrig
A bound=Een grens, landperk
Endowed=Begiftigd, begaafd
Accord=Eendraft, toestemming

Topics: marriage, free will, independence, order/society, authority, equality

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

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

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

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

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

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

They have had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we’ll show ’em in deeds

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: First Citizen
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
What work’s, my countrymen, in hand? where go you
With bats and clubs? The matter? speak, I pray you.
FIRST CITIZEN
Our business is not unknown to the senate; they have
had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do,
which now we’ll show ’em in deeds. They say poor
suitors have strong breaths: they shall know we
have strong arms too.
MENENIUS
Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours,
Will you undo yourselves?
FIRST CITIZEN
We cannot, sir, we are undone already.
MENENIUS
I tell you, friends, most charitable care
Have the patricians of you. For your wants,
Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well
Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them
Against the Roman state, whose course will on
The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs
Of more strong link asunder than can ever
Appear in your impediment. For the dearth,
The gods, not the patricians, make it, and
Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack,
You are transported by calamity
Thither where more attends you, and you slander
The helms o’ the state, who care for you like fathers,
When you curse them as enemies.

DUTCH:
Den senaat is onze zaak niet onbekend; zij hebben al
wel veertien daag aanwijzing van wat wij voorhebben en
wij willen het hun nu door daden toonen.

MORE:
Inkling=An idea, hint
Suitors=Petitioners
Strong breaths=Bad breath
Undo=Undermine, ruin
Patricians=Senators
Curbs=Curb chain (bridle)
Thither=There
Attends=Awaits
Helms=Leaders
Compleat:
Inkling=Weynigje
Suiter in chancery=een Pleiter in de Kanselarij
To undo=Ontdoen; ontbinden, bederven
Patrician=Een Roomsch Edelling
Hither=Herwaards. Hither and thither=Herwaards en derwaards
To attend=Opwachten, verzellen
Helm=Het roer
To sit at the helm=Aan ‘t roer zitten

Topics: order/society, conflict, intellect, purpose

They’ll sit by th’ fire, and presume to know what’s done i’th’ Capitol

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Martius
CONTEXT:
MARTIUS
Hang ’em! They say!
They’ll sit by the fire, and presume to know
What’s done i’ the Capitol; who’s like to rise,
Who thrives and who declines; side factions and give out
Conjectural marriages; making parties strong
And feebling such as stand not in their liking
Below their cobbled shoes. They say there’s
grain enough!
Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
And let me use my sword, I’ll make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter’d slaves, as high
As I could pick my lance.
MENENIUS
Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded;
For though abundantly they lack discretion,
Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you,
What says the other troop?

DUTCH:
Hang ze op! Zij zeggen!
Aan ‘t haardvuur zittend willen ze alles weten,
Wat op het Kapitool geschiedt: wie rijst,
Wie heerscht, wie daalt; partijen doen ze ontstaan,
En gissen echt op echt; verheffen dezen,
En treden niet gelapten schoen op genen,
Die hun mishaagt!

MORE:
Like=Likely
Side=Take the side of, side with
Quarry=A reward (usually dead game) given to hounds
Pick=Pitch, throw
To feeble=Enfeeble, weaken
Ruth=Pity (hence ruthless, which is still used)
Conjectural=Founded on conjecture, formed by guess
Marriages=Unions
Passing=Beyond
Troop=Group of citizens
Compleat:
Quarry=Prooy; Hey gewey, den afval of ‘t ingewand van ‘t geveld hart dat men de honden tot een belooning geeft
Feeble=Zwak, slap
Ruthfull=Mededoogend; medoogens waardig
Conjectural=Op gissing steunende
Passing=Zeer, uitsteekend
Troop=Bende, hoop; tröp

Topics: poverty and wealth, equality, order/society, excess

This butcher’s cur is venom-mouth’d, and I have not the power to muzzle him.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
This butcher’s cur is venom-mouth’d, and I
Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best
Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar’s book
Outworths a noble’s blood.
NORFOLK
What, are you chafed?
Ask God for temperance; that’s the appliance only
Which your disease requires.
BUCKINGHAM
I read in’s looks
Matter against me; and his eye reviled
Me, as his abject object: at this instant
He bores me with some trick: he’s gone to the king;
I’ll follow and outstare him.

DUTCH:
Een giftmuil heeft die slagershond en ik
De macht niet hem te breid’len; ‘t best is dus
Zijn slaap te ontzien

MORE:
Proverb: It is evil (ill, not good) waking of a sleeping dog
Proverb: As surly as a butcher’s dog
Cur=Dog (term of abuse)
Book=Learning
Outworths=Is worth more than
Chafed=Irritated
Temperance=Self-control
Appliance=Remedy (application)
Matter=Substance of a complaint
Abject object=Object of contempt
Bore=To bore into, wound
Trick=Art, knack, contrivance
Outstare=Face down
Compleat:
Cur=Hond (also Curr)
Chafed=Verhit, vertoornd, gevreeven
Temperance=Maatigheyd
Matter=Stoffe, zaak, oorzaak
Abject=Veragt, gering, snood, lafhartig, verworpen
Bore=Booren, doorbooren
Trick=Een looze trek, greep, gril

Burgersdijk notes:
Een giftmuil heeft die slagershond. Wolsey was uit Ipswich geboortig, en, zooals verhaald werd, eens slagers zoon. Twee regels later wordt gesproken van eens beed’laars boekgeleerdheid; het oorspronkelijke heeft, met deze beteekenis : a beggar’s book. — Hij was in 1470 geboren, ontving in Oxford zijne opleiding, werd in 1500 te Lymington als geestelijke geplaatst, in 1505 op aanbeveling van den bisschop van Winchester door koning Hendrik VII tot zijn kapelaan benoemd en in 1507 naar keizer Maximiliaan te Brugge afgevaardigd. De tevredenheid des konings over zijne diensten bleek uit de gunsten, die hem ten deel vielen. Na den dood van Hendrik VII, in 1509, ging Wolsey als aalmoezenier in dienst van Hendrik VIII over, wist zich door zijn geest, geleerdheid en welsprekendheid weldra bij zijn meester onontbeerlijk te maken en steeg ras in rang; in 1514 werd hij aartsbisschop van York en in liet volgend jaar werd hem door paus Leo X de kardinaalshoed verleend. Hij werd rijkskanselier en in 1516 ook pauselijk legaat; later werden hem nog drie andere bisdommen toegekend; bovendien was hem reeds in 1512 de abdij van Sint Albaan verleend. Zijne ruime inkomsten veroorloofden hem een vorstelijken staat te voeren en aan zijne neiging hiervoor gaf hij ruimschoots toe. Zijn trots kende geen grenzen; hertogen en graven des rijks behandelde hij als zijne minderen; als hij de mis las, moesten zij dienst doen. Vertoonde hij zich in het openbaar, dan was hij geheel in het scharlaken, met marterbont om den hals, en droeg in de hand een uitgeholden oranjeappel, die eene in azijn en fijne geurige wateren gedoopte spons bevatte, als voorhoedmidel tegen de slechte lucht in volle zalen; hij liet zijn kardinaalshoed en zijne bisschopskruisen voor zich uitdragen, alsook een beurs met het rijkszegel; een paar edellieden volgden om plaats voor hem te maken, en na dezen trawanten met vergulde hellebaarden; dan kwam hijzelf op een muildier met roodfluweelen schabrak en gouden stijgbeugels, gevolgd door een langen stoet van edellieden. Sh.’s tooneelaanwijzing op blz. 174 is dus ten volle gerechtvaardigd.

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

This chaos, when degree is suffocate, follows the choking.

DUTCH:

Wordt elke rang verwurgd, dan volgt die chaos
Op dezen moord.
En deez’ miskenning is ‘t van al wat rang heet,
Die, als zij streeft omhoog te klimmen, telkens
Een stap teruggaat.

Topics: law/legal, justice, respect, order/society, nature, learning/education

This is the deadly spite that angers me: My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Mortimer
CONTEXT:
WORCESTER
In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,
And, since your coming hither, have done enough
To put him quite beside his patience.
You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault.
Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood—
And that’s the dearest grace it renders you—
Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,
Defect of manners, want of government,
Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain,
The least of which, haunting a nobleman,
Loseth men’s hearts and leaves behind a stain
Upon the beauty of all parts besides,
Beguiling them of commendation.
HOTSPUR
Well, I am schooled. Good manners be your speed!
Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.
MORTIMER
This is the deadly spite that angers me:
My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh.

DUTCH:
Dit is voor mij een dood’lijk grievend leed:
Mijn vrouw verstaat geen Engelsch, ik geen Welsch.

MORE:
Wilful-blame=Blameable on purpose, on principle; indulging faults, though conscious that they are faults. (Arden: blameworthy in the obstinacy or rashness of your behaviour. (…) Others explain as “
wilfully blameworthy” or “wilfully to blame,” comparing “wilful-negligent” in Winter’s Tale, i. ii. 255,)
Haunting=Affecting
Blood=Mettle, spirit
Want of government=Lack of self-control
Opinion= Conceit
Boiling them of commendation=Making them lose respect
I am schooled=I have learned my lesson
Compleat:
Commendation=Pryzing, aanpryzing, aanbeveling
Opinion=Waan
A man of government=Een gemaatigt Man
He hath not the government of his tongue=Hy kan zyn tong niet beteugelen

Topics: learning/education, civility, order/society, respect, language, blame

This is the way to kindle, not to quench

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Sicinius
CONTEXT:
SICINIUS
You are at point to lose your liberties:
Marcius would have all from you; Marcius,
Whom late you have named for consul.
MENENIUS
Fie, fie, fie!
This is the way to kindle, not to quench.
FIRST SENATOR
To unbuild the city and to lay all flat.
SICINIUS
What is the city but the people?
CITIZENS
True,
The people are the city.
BRUTUS
By the consent of all, we were establish’d
The people’s magistrates.
CITIZENS
You so remain.
MENENIUS
And so are like to do.
COMINIUS
That is the way to lay the city flat;
To bring the roof to the foundation,
And bury all, which yet distinctly ranges,
In heaps and piles of ruin.
SICINIUS
This deserves death.
BRUTUS
Or let us stand to our authority,
Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce,
Upon the part o’ the people, in whose power
We were elected theirs, Marcius is worthy
Of present death.

DUTCH:
Dit is om aan te stoken, niet te blusschen.

MORE:
Proverb: Do not blow the fire thou wouldst quench
Proverb: Men (Men’s love), not walls, make the city (prince) safe

Unbuild=To raze, to destroy
Compleat:
Unbuilt=Ongebouwd
Magistrate=Overheid, Overheer, Magistraat

Topics: order/society, law/legal dispute, , proverbs and idioms

Thou art the thing itself.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.—Is man no more than this? Consider him well.—Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here’s three on ’s are sophisticated. Thou art the thing itself.
Unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.
Off, off, you lendings! Come, unbutton here.

DUTCH:
“Ach nee, wij drieën zijn niet werkelijk natuurlijk meer, jij bent
nog helemaal echt. Zonder kleren is de mens niet meer dan
zo’n povere, naakte, gevorkte tweevoeter als jij.

MORE:
Cat=Civet cat, which secretes civet musk used in perfume
Unaccommodated=without the trappings of civilization
Sophisticated=Unadulterated
Forked=Two-legged
Lendings=borrowed clothes
Compleat:
Accommodated=Geriefd

Topics: order/society, nature, life

Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before them about matters they were not able to answer.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Cade
CONTEXT:
Thou hast most traitorously
corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a
grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers
had no other books but the score and the tally, thou
hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to
the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a
paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou
hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and
a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian
ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed
justices of peace, to call poor men before them
about matters they were not able to answer.
Moreover, thou hast put them in prison ; and because
they could not read, thou hast hanged them; when,
indeed, only for that cause they have been most
worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost
thou not?

DUTCH:
Gij hebt vrederechters benoemd, om arme drommels voor zich te roepen over dingen, waar zij niet op konden antwoorden.

MORE:

The score and the tally=The score was a notch made on the tally (stick) to keep accounts
These presence=These presents (these documents)
To answer=To account for

Compleat:
Score=Rekening, kerfstok
Scored up=Op rekening, op de kerfstok gezet
Tally=Kerfstok
To tally=Op de kerfstok zetten
By these presents=Door deezen tegenwoordigen [brief]To answer for=Verantwoorden, voor iets staan, borg blyven

Topics: learning/education, language, order/society

Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Cade
CONTEXT:
(…) Thou hast most traitorously
corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a
grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers
had no other books but the score and the tally, thou
hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to
the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a
paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou
hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and
a verb, and such abominable words as no Christian
ear can endure to hear. Thou hast appointed
justices of peace, to call poor men before them
about matters they were not able to answer.
Moreover, thou hast put them in prison; and because
they could not read, thou hast hanged them; when,
indeed, only for that cause they have been most
worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost
thou not?

DUTCH:
Gij hebt hoogstverraderlijk de jeugd van dit rijk verdorven door het oprichten van een Latijnsche school, en terwijl voordezen onze voorvaders, vroeger, geen andere boeken hadden dan het keepmes en den kerfstok, hebt gij het drukken in zwang gebracht en, tot inbreuk op den koning, zijne kroon en waardigheid, een papiermolen gebouwd

MORE:

The score and the tally=The score was a notch made on the tally (stick) to keep accounts
These presence=These presents (these documents)
To answer=To account for

Topics: learning/education, language, order/society

Thou most excellent devil of wit!

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
MARIA
If you will then see the fruits of the sport, mark his
first approach before my lady. He will come to her in
yellow stockings, and ’tis a colour she abhors, and
cross-gartered, a fashion she detests. And he will smile
upon her, which will now be so unsuitable to her
disposition, being addicted to a melancholy as she is,
that it cannot but turn him into a notable contempt. If
you will see it, follow me.
SIR TOBY BELCH
To the gates of Tartar, thou most excellent devil of
wit!
SIR ANDREW
I’ll make one too.

DUTCH:
Tot aan de poorten der hel, onvergelijkelijk duiveltjen
van geest!

MORE:
Cross-gartered=Laces tied up the leg
Notable=Notorious
Contempt=Object of contempt
Tartar=Hell
Compleat:
Gartered=Gekouseband
Notable=Merkelyk, uitneemend, zonderling, merkwaardig, berucht, vermaard
Contempt=Verachting, versmaading, versmaadheyd
Tartarean (of hell, from the Latin ‘tartarus’)=Helsch

Topics: fashion/trends, civility, order/society, emotion and mood

Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences

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

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

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

MORE:
Proverb: The tailor makes the man

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

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

Time travels in diverse paces with diverse persons

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
And why not the swift foot of time? Had not that been
as proper?
ROSALIND
By no means, sir. Time travels in diverse paces with
diverse persons. I’ll tell you who time ambles withal,
who time trots withal, who time gallops withal, and who
he stands still withal.
ORLANDO
I prithee, who doth he trot withal?
ROSALIND
Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the
contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized.
If the interim be but a se’nnight, time’s pace is so hard
that it seems the length of seven year.
ORLANDO
Who ambles time withal?
ROSALIND
With a priest that lacks Latin and a rich man that hath n
ot the gout, for the one sleeps easily because he
cannot study and the other lives merrily because he
feels no pain—the one lacking the burden of lean and
wasteful learning, the other knowing no burden of heavy
tedious penury. These time ambles withal.
ORLANDO
Who doth he gallop withal?
ROSALIND
With a thief to the gallows, for though he go as softly
as foot can fall, he thinks himself too soon there.
ORLANDO
Who stays it still withal?
ROSALIND
With lawyers in the vacation, for they sleep between
term and term, and then they perceive not how time moves.

DUTCH:
Volstrekt niet, heer; de Tijd reist met verschillende
personen in verschillenden gang. Ik kan u zeggen, met
wie de Tijd den tel gaat, met wie de Tijd draaft, met
wie de Tijd galoppeert en met wie hij stil staat.

MORE:
Withal=With
Proper=Appropriate
Paces=Speeds
Se’ennight=Week
Hard=Slow
Wasteful=Exhausting
Penury=Poverty and indigence
Term=The time in which a court is held for the trial of causes. The legal year was divided into terms with recesses in between
Compleat:
Withall=Daar beneeven, mede, met eene
Proper=Bequaam, van een bequaame lengte
Pace=Een stap, treede, schreede, tred, gang, pas, voortgang
Wasted=Verwoest, vervallen, uitgeteerd
Penury=Behoeftigheid, armoede, gebrek
The four terms of the year=De vier gezette Rechtsdagen in ‘t jaar

Topics: time, lawyers, life, order/society

Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.
Do as I bid thee. Or rather, do thy pleasure.
Above the rest, be gone.

DUTCH:
Het is de plaag
van onze tijd dat gekken blinden leiden./
‘t Is de kwaal des tijds, dat gekken blinden leiden .
Doe wat ik vroeg, of liever, wat gij wilt,
Maar hoe dan ook, ga heen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
The time’s plague=The curse of the age/time
Madmen=Mad rulers
Blind=Unseeing, ignorant

Topics: authority, madness, corruption, order/society

To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honor that thou wert not with me in this action; but, sweet Ned—to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now into my hand by an underskinker, one that never spake other English in his life than “Eight shillings and sixpence,” and “You are welcome,”

DUTCH:
Kortom, ik heb het in een kwartier uur zoo ver gebracht, dat ik mijn leven lang met elken ketellapper in zijn eigen taal drinken kan. Ik zeg u, Edu, veel eer is u ontgaan, dat gij niet met mij bij deze heldendaad geweest zijt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
A proficient=one who has made progress
Tinker=Mender of old brass; Proverbial tipplers and would-be politicians.
Under-skinker=An under-drawer, one that serves liquors
Action=Engagement
Compleat:
Proficient=Vorderende, toeneemende
He is a great proficient in his learning=Hy neemt zeer wel aan zyn leeren.
To skink (to fill drink)=Schenken, inschenken
Skinker=Schenker
Burgersdijk:
Dit stuiverszaksken suiker. In de wijnhuizen kregen de gasten bij den wijn een zakjen suiker. Men mag er uit vermoeden, dat of de wijn of die hem dronk vaak niet al te best van smaak was.

Topics: language, learning/education, order/society

Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl. I meddle with no tradesman’s matters, nor women’s matters.

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Cobbler
CONTEXT:
COBBLER
Why, sir, cobble you.
FLAVIUS
Thou art a cobbler, art thou?
COBBLER
Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl. I
meddle with no tradesman’s matters nor women’s matters,
but withal I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes.
When they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper
men as ever trod upon neat’s leather have gone upon my
handiwork.

DUTCH:
Om de waarheid te zeggen, ja, mijn els is mijn alles .
Ik meng mij niet met koopmanszaken, noch met koopvrouwen, maar mijn els lapt mij alles.

MORE:
Proverb: As good a man as ever trod on shoe (beat’s) leather. (See also The Tempest 2.2: ‘he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather’).
Proverb: Without awl (all) the cobbler’s nobody
Proverb: As good a man as ever trod on shoe leather, stressing the quality and reliability of the cobbler’s craft as well as character. Other relevant proverbs from the time are “Meddle not with another man’s matter” (1584) and “Let not the cobbler go beyond his last” (1539), “Cobbler, stick to thy last” (still in use today).
The origins of the proverb actually existed in Latin when Pliny the Elder composed ‘Naturalis Historia’. Pliny’s original text (ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret) meant ‘the cobbler should not judge beyond his shoe’. (Erasmus omitted the verb ‘judicaret in ‘Adagia’).
The word ‘ultracrepidarian’ also originated from this proverb!

Cobbler=Punning on (1) shoemender and (2) bungler
Neat’s leather=Cowhide.
Awl=Punning on (1) punch for holes in leather and (2) all
Compleat:
To cobble=Flikken, lappen, brodden; schoenlappen
Cobbler=(Cobler) Een schoenlapper, schoenflikker, broddelaar
Last=Leest. Last-maker=een Leestemaaker
Awl=Een els
Neat=Een rund, varre (os of koe)

Burgersdijk notes:
Mijn els lapt mij alles. Het Engelsch heeft een woordspeling met awl en all.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, status, order/society, work

Twitting me with perjury

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Clarence
CONTEXT:
CLARENCE
Untutor’d lad, thou art too malapert.
PRINCE EDWARD
I know my duty; you are all undutiful:
Lascivious Edward, and thou perjured George,
And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all
I am your better, traitors as ye are:
And thou usurp’st my father’s right and mine.
KING EDWARD IV
Take that, thou likeness of this railer here.
GLOUCESTER
Sprawl’st thou? Take that, to end thy agony.
CLARENCE
And there’s for twitting me with perjury.

DUTCH:
En dit, wijl gij van eedbreuk mij beticht!

MORE:

Malapert=Impudent
Undutiful= Not performing duties
Railer=Person who rants, scolds
Sprawl=Writhing (still alive)
Twit=To reproach, accuse

Compleat:
To twit in the teeth=Verwyten
Twitting=Verwyting, verwytende
Malapert=Moedwillig, stout, baldaadig
Undutiful=Ongehoorzaam, ondienstwillig
To rail=Schelden
To twit in the teeth=Verwyten
Twitting=Verwyting, verwytende

Topics: order/society, blame, duty, truth

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself

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

DUTCH:
Niet met zichzelf mag men zijn naaste meten

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

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

We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a power that we have no power to do

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Third Citizen
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to deny
him.
SECOND CITIZEN
We may, sir, if we will.
THIRD CITIZEN
We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a
power that we have no power to do; for if he show us
his wounds and tell us his deeds, we are to put our
tongues into those wounds and speak for them; so, if
he tell us his noble deeds, we must also tell him
our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is
monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful,
were to make a monster of the multitude: of the
which we being members, should bring ourselves to be
monstrous members.
FIRST CITIZEN
And to make us no better thought of, a little help
will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he
himself stuck not to call us the many-headed multitude.

DUTCH:
Wij hebben de macht aan ons om het te doen, maar
dit is een macht, die wij de macht niet hebben te gebruiken.

MORE:
Power=Force, strength, ability, whether bodily or intellectual, physical or moral
Monstrous=Shocking, horrible
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, gepeupel
Power (ability or force)=Vermogen, kracht
Monstrous=Wanschapen, gedrochtig

Topics: rights, ingratitude, authority, order/society

We must not stint our necessary actions, in the fear to cope malicious censurers.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
And for me,
I have no further gone in this than by
A single voice; and that not pass’d me but
By learned approbation of the judges. If I am
Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know
My faculties nor person, yet will be
The chronicles of my doing, let me say
‘Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake
That virtue must go through. We must not stint
Our necessary actions, in the fear
To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new-trimm’d, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow’d; what worst, as oft,
Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act. If we shall stand still,
In fear our motion will be mock’d or carp’d at,
We should take root here where we sit, or sit
State-statues only.

DUTCH:
Volbrenge een elk
Wat moet gebeuren; niemand weif’le uit angst
Voor strijd met booze vitters, die toch steeds
Als vraat’ge visschen ieder vaartuig volgen,
Dat nieuw is uitgerust, doch niets bejagen
Dan ijdel spart’len

Topics: intellect, betrayal, order/society, merit

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

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

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

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

What is the city but the people?

DUTCH:
Is dan de stad iets anders dan het volk?

MORE:
Proverb: Do not blow the fire thou wouldst quench
Proverb: Men (Men’s love), not walls, make the city (prince) safe

Unbuild=To raze, to destroy
Compleat:
Unbuilt=Ongebouwd
Magistrate=Overheid, Overheer, Magistraat

Topics: order/society, law/legal dispute, , proverbs and idioms

What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Le Beau
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue?
I cannot speak to her, yet she urged conference.
O poor Orlando! Thou art overthrown.
Or Charles or something weaker masters thee.
LE BEAU
Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you
To leave this place. Albeit you have deserved
High commendation, true applause, and love,
Yet such is now the duke’s condition
That he misconsters all that you have done.
The duke is humorous. What he is indeed
More suits you to conceive than I to speak of.
ORLANDO
I thank you, sir, and pray you tell me this:
Which of the two was daughter of the duke
That here was at the wrestling?
LE BEAU
Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners,
But yet indeed the smaller is his daughter
The other is daughter to the banished duke,
And here detained by her usurping uncle
To keep his daughter company, whose loves
Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters.
But I can tell you that of late this duke
Hath ta’en displeasure ‘gainst his gentle niece,
Grounded upon no other argument
But that the people praise her for her virtues
And pity her for her good father’s sake;
And, on my life, his malice ‘gainst the lady
Will suddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well.
Hereafter, in a better world than this,
I shall desire more love and knowledge of you.

DUTCH:
Wat hartstocht slaat mijn tong in zwaren boei?
Ik kon niet spreken, schoon zij ‘t wenschte, en drong.

MORE:
Conference=Discourse, discussion
Condition=Disposition
Misconster=Misconstrue
Humorous=Temperamental
Manners=Morals, character
Argument=Reason
Compleat:
Conference=Onderhandeling, t’zamenspraak, mondgemeenschap
Condition=Aardt, gesteltenis
Misconstrue=Misduyden, verkeerd uytleggen
Humoursom (humerous)=Eigenzinnig, koppig, styfhoofdig, eenzinnig
Manners=Zeden, manieren, manierlykheid
Argument=Bewys, bewysreden, dringreden; kort begrip der zaak die te bewyzen staat; inhoud

Topics: emotion and mood, status, civility, order/society

What subject can give sentence on his king?

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bishop of Carlisle
CONTEXT:
Worst in this royal presence may I speak,
Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth.
Would God that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble to be upright judge
Of noble Richard! then true noblesse would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.
What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here that is not Richard’s subject?
Thieves are not judged but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them;
And shall the figure of God’s majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy-elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many years,
Be judged by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present?

DUTCH:
Kan ooit een onderdaan zijn koning richten?
En wie hier is niet Richards onderdaan?

MORE:

Worst=Lowest-ranking, meanest, most unfit (to speak in the royal presence)
Beseeming=Befitting
Learn him=Teach him
Forbearance=Act of abstaining, restraint, refraining from
Figure=Image
Inferior=Subordinate, lower in station

Compleat:
To beseem=Betaamen, voegen, passen
To learn (teach)=Leeren, onderwyzen
Forbearance=Verdraagzaamheid, verduldigheid, lydzaamheid, langmoedigheid
Forbearance is no acquittance=Uitstellen is geen quytschelden
Figure (representation)=Afbeelding
Inferior=Minder, laager

Topics: order/society, status, truth, appearance, guit, judgmnet

What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues that rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, make yourselves scabs?

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Martius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
For that, being one o’ the lowest, basest, poorest,
Of this most wise rebellion, thou go’st foremost:
Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run,
Lead’st first to win some vantage.
But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs:
Rome and her rats are at the point of battle;
The one side must have bale.
Hail, noble Martius!
MARTIUS
Thanks. What’s the matter, you dissentious rogues,
That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion,
Make yourselves scabs?

DUTCH:
Dank. — Wat wil dit hier, oproertuig, dat gij,
Zoodra u ‘t oordeel jeukt, uzelf door krabben
Gansch uitslag maakt?

MORE:
Stiff bats=Cudgels
Bale=Injury, sorrow
Dissentious=Seditious
Rascal=Person of low social status
Compleat:
Bat=Knuppel
Bale=Een baal
Dissentaneous=Tegenstrijdig
Rascal=Een schelm, guit, schobbejak, schurk, vlegel, schavuit
Dissension=Oneenigheid, verdeeldheid
To sow dissentions amongst friends=Onder vrienden tweedracht zaaijen

Topics: insult, status, conflict, leadership, order/society

What’s the new news at the new court?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Oliver
CONTEXT:
OLIVER
Was not Charles, the duke’s wrestler, here to speak
with me?
DENNIS
So please you, he is here at the door and importunes
access to you.
OLIVER
Call him in.
‘Twill be a good way, and tomorrow the wrestling is.
match.
CHARLES
Good morrow to your Worship.
OLIVER
Good Monsieur Charles, what’s the new news at the new
court?
CHARLES
There’s no news at the court, sir, but the old news.
That is, the old duke is banished by his younger brother
the new duke, and three or four loving lords have put
themselves into voluntary exile with him, whose lands
and revenues enrich the new duke. Therefore he gives
them good leave to wander.

DUTCH:
Zoo, monsieur Charles! wat is het nieuwste nieuws aan het nieuwe hof ?

MORE:
Importunes=Seeks, begs
Good leave=Full permission
Compleat:
Importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
To give leave=Verlof geeven, veroorloven

Topics: order/society, news

When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Calphurnia
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
What can be avoided
Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
CALPHURNIA
When beggars die there are no comets seen.
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
CAESAR
Cowards die many times before their deaths.
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

DUTCH:
Kometen ziet men niet als beed’laars sterven,
Doch vorstendood vlamt van den hemel af .

MORE:
CITED IN IRISH LAW: Rule against Perpetuities and Cognate Rules, Report on the (LRC 62-2000) [2000] IELRC 62 (1st December, 2000)/[2000] IELRC 62, [2000] IELRC 3. Footnote 34.

Proverb: A coward dies many deaths, a brave man but one

Purposed=Intended
Blaze forth=Proclaim
Never but=Only
Compleat:
To purpose=Voorneemen, voorhebben
To blaze=Opflakkeren
To blaze abroad=Ruchtbaar maaken, uyttrom

Topics: courage, proverbs and idioms, death, order/society, cited in law, poverty and wealth, equality

When no friends are by, men praise themselves

DUTCH:
Doch stil! mij dunkt, te verre dwaal ik af,
Mijn luttel doen zoo roemend; — o, vergeeft,
Elk prijst, is hem geen vriend nabij, zichzelf.

Topics: order/society, revenge, honesty, pride

When service should in my old limbs lie lame and unregarded age in corners thrown

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Adam
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food,
Or with a base and boist’rous sword enforce
A thievish living on the common road?
This I must do, or know not what to do.
Yet this I will not do, do how I can.
I rather will subject me to the malice
Of a diverted blood and bloody brother.
ADAM
But do not so. I have five hundred crowns,
The thrifty hire I saved under your father,
Which I did store to be my foster nurse
When service should in my old limbs lie lame
And unregarded age in corners thrown.
Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed,
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age. Here is the gold.
All this I give you. Let me be your servant.
Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty,
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility.
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty but kindly. Let me go with you.
I’ll do the service of a younger man
In all your business and necessities.

DUTCH:
Het moest mij voedsterdiensten doen, wanneer
De kracht in de oude leden wierd verlamd
En grijsheid achtloos in den hoek gedrongen.

MORE:
Thrifty hire=Employment savings
Blood=Familial relationship
Lusty=Vigorous
Rebellious=Inflammatory
Unbashful=Bold, without modesty
Compleat:
Thrifty=Zuynig, spaarzaam
Lusty=Lustig
Rebellious=Wederspannig, wederhoorig, muytzuchtig
Bashful=Schaamachtig, bloode

Topics: age/experience, life, order/society

Where the devil should he learn our language?

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Stephano
CONTEXT:
This is some monster of the isle with four legs who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language? I will give him some relief if it be but for that. If I can recover him and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather.

DUTCH:
Dit is het een of ander monster van het eiland met vier pooten, dat, zoo het schijnt, de koorts heeft gekregen. Maar waar, voor den duivel heeft hij onze taal geleerd?

MORE:
Recover=Revive
Neat’s leather=Cowhide.
Proverbial: As good a man as ever trod on shoe (beat’s) leather. (See also Julius Caesar 1.1: ‘As proper men as ever trod upon neat’s leather…).
Compleat:
Neat=Een rund, varre (Os of koe)

Topics: language, civility, order/society

Wherefore do you look upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: First Lord
CONTEXT:
DUKE SENIOR
But what said Jaques?
Did he not moralise this spectacle?
FIRST LORD
Oh, yes, into a thousand similes.
First, for his weeping into the needless stream:
“Poor deer,” quoth he, “thou mak’st a testament
As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more
To that which had too much.” Then, being there alone,
Left and abandoned of his velvet friend,
“’Tis right,” quoth he. “Thus misery doth part
The flux of company.” Anon a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him
And never stays to greet him. “Ay,” quoth Jaques,
“Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens.
‘Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?”
Thus most invectively he pierceth through
The body of the country, city, court,
Yea, and of this our life, swearing that we
Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what’s worse,
To fright the animals and to kill them up
In their assigned and native dwelling place.
DUKE SENIOR
And did you leave him in this contemplation?
SECOND LORD
We did, my lord, weeping and commenting
Upon the sobbing deer.
DUKE SENIOR
Show me the place.
I love to cope him in these sullen fits,
For then he’s full of matter.
FIRST LORD
I’ll bring you to him straight.

DUTCH:
Waarom zoudt gij ook
Naar dien bankroeten armen drommel omzien?

MORE:
Moralise=Draw morals from
Quoth=Said
Worldlings=Mere mortals
Velvet=Smooth, prosperous
Flux=Stream
Anon=Soon
Careless=Carefree
By=Past
Wherefore=Why
Mere=Absolute
Cope=Encounter
Matter=Substance, ideas
Straight=Immediately
Compleat:
To moralize=Een zedelyke uitlegging of toepassing op iets maaken
Quoth=Zeide
Worldling=Een waereldsch mensch, waereldling
Velvet=Fluweel
Flux=De vloed, loop; flux and reflux=Eb en vloed
Careless=Zorgeloos, kommerloos, achteloos, onachtzaam
Wherefore (or why)=Waarom
Mere (meer)=Louter, enkel
Cope=Handgemeen worden; ruilebuiten
Matter=Stoffe, zaak, oorzaak
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet

Topics: advice, language, nature, life, order/society

Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villany? Wherein villanous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
Ungracious boy, henceforth ne’er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man. A tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humors, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloakbag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend Vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein neat and cleanly but to carve a capon and eat it? Wherein cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villany? Wherein villanous but in all things? Wherein worthy but in nothing?
FALSTAFF
I would your grace would take me with you: whom
means your grace

DUTCH:
Gij laat u met geweld wegsleuren van de genade; er is een duivel, die om u waart in de gedaante van een vetten ouden man; een ton van een man is uw kameraad. Waarom verkeert gij met die kist vol grillen, dien builtrog van dierlijkheid, die opgeblazen baal waterzucht, dat buikig stiikvat sek, dat volgepropte darmenvalies, dien gebraden kermisos met den beuling in ‘t lijf, die eerwaardige ondeugd, die grijze verdorvenheid, dien vader losbol, die ijdelheid op jaren?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Ungracious=impious, wicked
Vanity= worthlessness
Take me with you=Explain your meaning
Burgersdijk notes:
In de Oud-Engelsche spelen trad als komische persoon de Ondeugd, Vice, dikwijls op; hij was met een houten zwaard gewapend.
Dien gebraden kermis-os. In’t Engelsch staat: Dien gebraden Manningtree-ox. Manningtree was een plaats in het weide- en veerijke graafschap Essex, waar op de jaarmarkt steeds een geheele os met de ingewanden in ‘t lijf werd gebraden. Bij die gelegenheid werden er dan ook volksschouwspelen, zoogenaamde Moraliteiten , gegeven, waarin doorgaans de allegorische personen Ondeugd, Goddeloosheid of Verdorvenheid, en IJdelheid, Vice, Iniquity en Vanity, optraden. Van daar dat de Prins Falstaff eerst met den os en dan met die allegorische personen vergelijkt.

Topics: insult, offence, value, order/society, understanding

Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity?

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Escalus
CONTEXT:
ESCALUS
Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is
this true?
ELBOW
O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked
Hannibal! I respected with her before I was married
to her! If ever I was respected with her, or she
with me, let not your worship think me the poor
duke’s officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or
I’ll have mine action of battery on thee.

DUTCH:
Wie is hier de snuggerste van de twee, de Gerechtigheid
of de Boosheid? – Is dit waar?

MORE:
See also
“Sparing justice feeds iniquity” (The Rape of Lucrece)
“Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word.” (Richard III, 3.1)
Justice and Iniquity (also called Vice) were common characters in medieval morality plays, with personifications of vices and virtues seeking to gain control of the ‘everyman’ main character.
Justice (personified as female)=equal distribution of right, conformity to the laws and the principles of equity, either as a quality or as a rule of acting
Vice (wickedness, buffoon, comic character).

Topics: law/legal, good and bad, justice, equality, order/society

Why “bastard”? Wherefore “base”?

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

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

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

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

Why should we in the compass of a pale Keep law and form and due proportion

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Servant
CONTEXT:
GARDENER
Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks,
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.
You thus employ’d, I will go root away
The noisome weeds, which without profit suck
The soil’s fertility from wholesome flowers.
SERVANT
Why should we in the compass of a pale
Keep law and form and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate,
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all upturned, her hedges ruin’d,
Her knots disorder’d and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?

DUTCH:
Wat moeten we, in den omvang van een heining,
Naar wet en vorm en juistheid alles reeg’len,

MORE:

Apricock=Abricot
Spray=Small branches, shoots
Noisome=Harmful
Compass of a pale=Within a fenced area, enclosure
Firm=Well-ordered, stable
Knots=Intricate flowerbeds and plots (Curious-knotted: “thy c. garden,” Love’s Labour’s Lost)

Topics: merit, envy, order/society

Why, let her except, before excepted

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Sir Toby
CONTEXT:
SIR TOBY BELCH
What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure care’s an enemy to life.
MARIA
By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o’ nights. Your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours.
SIR TOBY BELCH
Why, let her except, before excepted.
MARIA
Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order.
SIR TOBY BELCH
Confine? I’ll confine myself no finer than I am. These clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too. An they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps.

DUTCH:
Wel, het hindert haar niet; zij kan zelf op haar eigen
tijd gaan liggen.

MORE:
Proverb: Care will kill a cat
Proverb: Care brings grey hair
Proverb: Some complain to prevent complaint

Except before excepted=With the stated exceptions (Exceptis excipiendis)
Modest=Moderate, reasonable
Limits of order=Bounds of behaviour
Confine=Limit
Finer=More refined
Compleat:
Except=Uytzonderen, uytsluyten
Modest=Zeedig, eerbaar
Quite out of order=Geheel uyt zyn schik
Confined=Bepaald, bedwongen; gevangen
Fine=Mooi, fraai, fyn, schoon

Burgersdijk notes:
Het hindert niet. Natuurlijk moesten de woordspelingen met eenige vrijheid overgebracht worden. Hier staat in ‘t Engelsen, in antwoord op het door Maria gebezigde woord exception: ,Let her except, before excepted.” Except is de rechtsuitdrukking voor het wraken van getuigen. Verkiest men het woord afkeuren, dat alsdan ook door Maria gebruikt moet zijn, dan wordt dit: ,Laat haar afkeuren, voor zijzelf afgekeurd wordt “; dan is de vertaler iets nader gebleven aan het oorspronkelijke, maar daarentegen had jonker Tobias dan de woorden niet in een anderen zin gebruikt dan Maria, en dus ware de vertaling uit dit oogpunt weer minder getrouw. Nihil ex omni parte beatum.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, concern , order/society, excess, virtue

Yet you must not think to fob off our disgrace with a tale

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
FIRST CITIZEN
Care for us! True, indeed! They ne’er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there’s all the love they bear us.
MENENIUS
Either you must
Confess yourselves wondrous malicious,
Or be accused of folly. I shall tell you
A pretty tale: it may be you have heard it;
But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture
To stale ‘t a little more.
FIRST CITIZEN
Well, I’ll hear it, sir: yet you must not think to
fob off our disgrace with a tale: but, an ‘t please
you, deliver.

DUTCH:
Nu, wij willen het aanhooren; maar gij moet u niet
verbeelden, ons smadelijk onrecht met een sprookjen weg
te kunnen goochelen! Maar als gij wilt, voor den dag er
mee!

MORE:
Suffer=Allow
Usury=Charging interest
Wholesome=Suitable, beneficial
Piercing=Severe
Stale=Become old, stale (from repetition)
Pretty=Clever
Fob off=Dismiss, evade
Compleat:
Suffer=Toelaten
Usury=Woeker
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen
Wholesom=Gezond, heylzaam, heelzaam
To pierce=Doorbooren, doordringen
To stale=Oud worden
Fobbed off=Bespot
To fob one off=Iemand te leur stellen, voor de gek houden

Topics: abuse, poverty and wealth, order/society

You are a fool granted; therefore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he’s another,
whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger?
FIRST LORD
One of your lordship’s pages.
CLOTEN
Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no
derogation in’t?
SECOND LORD
You cannot derogate, my lord.
CLOTEN
Not easily, I think.
SECOND LORD
You are a fool granted; therefore your
issues, being foolish, do not derogate.

DUTCH:
Zou het staan, als ik eens naar hem toeging om een kijkjen van hem te nemen? Zou dat niet beneden mijn waardigheid wezen?

MORE:
Derogation=Disparagement
Derogate=Do anything derogatory to rank, lower opinion
Issues=What proceeds from you, your acts (with a play on issues to mean offspring)
Compleat:
Derogate=Onttrekken, verkorten, verminderen, benadeelen
To derogate from one’s credit=Iemands achting verkorten
To derogate from one’s self=Zich zelfs benadeelen

Topics: reputation, status, order/society

You scullion. You rampallian. You fustilarian. I’ll tickle your catastrophe

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
HOSTESS
Good people, bring a rescue or two.—Thou
wot, wot thou? Thou wot, wot ta? Do, do, thou
rogue. Do, thou hempseed.
PAGE
Away, you scullion, you rampallian, you fustilarian!
I’ll tickle your catastrophe.

DUTCH:
Weg, gij vatenwaschster! gij holle keel! gij mufmadam!
Ik zal je voor je catastrofe geven!

MORE:

Scullion=lowest domestic servant, potwasher
Fustilarian=Shakespeare’s word is taken from fustilugs, meaning grown fat and lazy, slovenly. Catastrophe=end (or in this case rear end)

Compleat:
Scullion=Keuken-jongen.
The catastrophe of a Tragedy=Laast en aanmerkelykst bedrijf, tot ontknooping van een Treurspel

Topics: insult, status, order/society

You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
DUKE
That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio’s.
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
PORTIA
Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.
SHYLOCK
Nay, take my life and all. Pardon not that.
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house. You take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.

DUTCH:
Gij neemt mijn huis, als gij den steun mij neemt,
Waar heel mijn huis op rust; gij neemt mijn leven,
Als gij de midd’len neemt, waar ik door leef.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Redevelopment Auth. of Philadelphia v. Lieberman, 461 Pa. 208, 336 A.2d 249 (1975). Re. The definition of “to take”: “When ‘property’ is viewed from the standpoint of the mental or abstract concept, the meaning of ‘to take’ is that expressed by Shakespeare, when, after the judgment of the court, the Merchant of Venice says: ‘You take my house when you take the prop/That doth sustain my house; you take my life/When you do take the means whereby I live.’The condemnee In this appeal expressed the same sentiments when testifying about his liquor licence.”

For=As to, as for
Humbleness=Humility
Drive=Reduce
Compleat:
Humbleness=Ootmoedigheyd, nederigheyd

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Orlando
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
Are you native of this place?
ROSALIND
As the cony that you see dwell where she is kindled.
ORLANDO
Your accent is something finer than you could purchase
in so removed a dwelling.
ROSALIND
I have been told so of many. But indeed an old
religious uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in
his youth an inland man, one that knew courtship too
well, for there he fell in love. I have heard him read
many lectures against it, and I thank God I am not a
woman, to be touched with so many giddy offences as he
hath generally taxed their whole sex withal.
ORLANDO
Can you remember any of the principal evils that he
laid to the charge of women?
ROSALIND
There were none principal. They were all like one
another as half-pence are, every one fault seeming
monstrous till his fellow fault came to match it.

DUTCH:
Gij hebt een fijner uitspraak, dan gij in zulk een afgelegen
oord kont opdoen.

MORE:
Coney=Rabbit
Kindled=Born
Purchase=Acquire
Removed=Isolated, remote
Touched with=Corrupted, tainted by
Inland=City dweller, cultured
Taxed=Reproached, censured, accused, blamed
Compleat:
Coney=Konijn
To kindle=Onststeeken, aansteeken
Purchase=Verkrygen
To touch (affect, move)=Aandoen, beweegen
To tax=Beschuldigen

Topics: order/society, love, good and bad