CJTranslations

QUOTES BY TOPIC

‘Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Diana
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
How have I sworn!
DIANA
‘Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth,
But the plain single vow that is vowed true.
What is not holy, that we swear not by,
But take the High’st to witness: then, pray you, tell me,
If I should swear by God’s great attributes,
I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths,
When I did love you ill? This has no holding,
To swear by him whom I protest to love,
That I will work against him: therefore your oaths
Are words and poor conditions, but unsealed,
At least in my opinion.
BERTRAM
Change it, change it;
Be not so holy-cruel: love is holy;
And my integrity ne’er knew the crafts
That you do charge men with. Stand no more off,
But give thyself unto my sick desires,
Who then recover: say thou art mine, and ever
My love as it begins shall so persever.

DUTCH:
Een tal van eeden maakt de trouw niet hecht;
Een eed, eenvoudig, waar en trouw, volstaat;
Men zweert slechts bij wat heilig is, vooral
Bij de’ Allerhoogste;

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

The many=The number of
Single=One; sincere
Ill=Poorly; not at all
Unsealed=Without a (validating) seal
Compleat:
Ill=Quaad, ondeugend, onpasselijk
Sealed=Gezegeld, verzegeld
To set a seal to a thing=Een zegel aan iets steeken/hangen

Topics: truth, honesty, love, promise

“Was” is not “is.”

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Celia
CONTEXT:
CELIA
Yes, I think he is not a pick-purse nor a
horse-stealer, but for his verity in love, I do think
him as concave as a covered goblet or a worm-eaten nut.
ROSALIND
Not true in love?
CELIA
Yes, when he is in, but I think he is not in.
ROSALIND
You have heard him swear downright he was.
CELIA
“Was” is not “is.” Besides, the oath of a lover is no
stronger than the word of a tapster. They are both the
confirmer of false reckonings. He attends here in the
forest on the duke your father.
ROSALIND
I met the duke yesterday and had much question with
him. He asked me of what parentage I was. I told him, of
as good as he. So he laughed and let me go. But what
talk we of fathers when there is such a man as Orlando?

DUTCH:
Was is geen is; bovendien, de eed van een minnaar is niet meer waard dan de eed van een tapper; zij zijn beide de bekrachtiging van valsche rekeningen

MORE:
Verity=Truthfulness
Concave=Hollow
Downright=Directly, without stopping short, without further ceremony, plainly
Tapster=Barman (traditionally considered dishonest)
False=Not right, wrong, erroneous
Reckoning=The money charged by a host (a Bill)
Question=Conversation
Compleat:
Verity=Waarheyd
Concave=Hol
Downright (plain and clear)=Eenvoudig and clear
Downright (plain or open)=Duidelyk of openhartig
A downright contradiction=Een rechtstrydede zaak
Tapster=Een tapper, biertapper
False=Valsch, onwaar; nagemaakt, verraderlyk
Reckoning=(in a public house) Gelach

Topics: language, clarity/precision, truth, honesty

A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: Prologue
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
PROLOGUE
If we offend, it is with our good will.
That you should think we come not to offend,
But with good will. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider then we come but in despite.
We do not come as minding to contest you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here. That you should here repent you,
The actors are at hand, and by their show
You shall know all that you are like to know.
THESEUS
This fellow doth not stand upon points.
LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to
speak, but to speak true.

DUTCH:
Mishagen we u, we wenschen dit als gunst.
Dat gij ons ijvrig denkt uw lof te winnen,
‘t Kan dwaling zijn. Dit toonen onzer kunst,
‘t Is toch het eind, waarmee we thans beginnen.

MORE:
Quince alters the meaning of the Prologue completely by speaking punctuation in the wrong places.

Minding=Intending
Stand upon=Be concerned with
Points=Punctuation
Compleat:
Minded=Gezind, betracht
To stand upon punctilio’s=Op vodderyen staan blyven
To point=Met punten of stippen onderscheyden, punteeren

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

A man is never undone till he be hanged

PLAY: The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Lance
CONTEXT:
SPEED
Lance, by mine honesty, welcome to Milan!
LANCE
Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I reckon this always, that a man is never undone till he be hanged, nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid and the hostess say “Welcome!”
SPEED
Come on, you madcap, I’ll to the alehouse with you presently, where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with Madam Julia?

DUTCH:
Doe geen valschen eed, beste jongen, want ik ben niet
welkom. Ik reken dit altijd : een mensch is niet eer
verloren, dan als hij gehangen wordt, en ook niet eer
ergens welkom, dan als hij een zeker gelag heeft betaald,
en de waardin zegt: ,,welkom!”

MORE:
To forswear=To swear falsely, commit perjury
Undone=Ruined
Shot=Tavern bill
Madcap=Fool
Compleat:
To forswear one’s self=Eenen valschen eed doen, meyneedig zyn
To forswear a thing=Zweeren dat iets zo niet is
Shot=Het gelag
A mad-cap=Een gek, zotskap

Burgersdijk notes:
Welkom in Milaan. In den tekst der Folio-uitgave staat Padua, zooals in III. 1. en V.4. Verona voor Milaan. Het is mogelijk, dat Shakespeare zelf zoo geschreven heeft, voor hij vast bepaald had, waar hij het stuk zou laten spelen, maar ‘t kan ook aan een omwerker liggen.

Topics: truth, ruin, honesty, civility, debt/obligation

Alas, I sent you money to redeem you

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Thou hast suborned the goldsmith to arrest me.
ADRIANA
Alas, I sent you money to redeem you
By Dromio here, who came in haste for it.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
Money by me! heart and goodwill you might,
But surely, master, not a rag of money.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Went’st not thou to her for a purse of ducats?
ADRIANA
He came to me, and I delivered it.
LUCIANA
And I am witness with her that she did.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS
God and the rope-maker bear me witness
That I was sent for nothing but a rope.
PINCH
Mistress, both man and master is possessed.
I know it by their pale and deadly looks.
They must be bound and laid in some dark room.

DUTCH:
Helaas, ik zond u geld voor uw bevrijding,
Door Dromio hier, die ‘t ijlings hebben moest.

MORE:
Suborned=Arranged for
Rag of money=Smallest coin
Redeem=Bail out
Bound and laid in a dark room=Treatment for madness (see Twelfth Night 4.2)
Compleat:
To suborn=Heymelyk beschikken, besteeken, uytmaaken
Redeem=Verlossen, vrykoopen, lossen

Topics: money, debt/obligation, madness, truth

All these you may avoid but the lie direct, and you may avoid that, too, with an ‘if’

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 5.4
SPEAKER: Touchstone
CONTEXT:
TOUCHSTONE
Upon a lie seven times removed.— Bear your body more
seeming, Audrey.— As thus, sir: I did dislike the cut of
a certain courtier’s beard. He sent me word if I said
his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was.
This is called “the retort courteous.” If I sent him word
again it was not well cut, he would send me word he cut
it to please himself. This is called “the quip modest.”
If again it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment.
This is called “the reply churlish.” If again it was not
well cut, he would answer I spake not true. This is
called “the reproof valiant.” If again it was not well
cut, he would say I lie. This is called “the
countercheck quarrelsome,” and so to “the lie
circumstantial” and “the lie direct.”

DUTCH:
Die allen kunt gij ontduiken,
behalve de rechtstreeksche logenstraffing; en
ook die kunt gij ontduiken, met een „indien”.

MORE:
CITED IN UK LAW: McNally v Snap Heath Ltd [1998] UKEAT 1013_97_2306 (23 June 1998)
‘and had been met, to quote Shakespeare, by the “countercheck quarrelsome”‘.

Topics: law/legal, cited in law, truth, deceit, dispute, language

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

An adder did it, for with doubler tongue than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Hermia
CONTEXT:
HERMIA
Out, dog! Out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden’s patience. Hast thou slain him then?
Henceforth be never numbered among men!
Oh, once tell true, tell true even for my sake—
Durst thou have looked upon him being awake,
And hast thou killed him sleeping? O brave touch!
Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
An adder did it, for with doubler tongue
Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.

DUTCH:
Is ‘t niet een slang, een adder, die zoo doet?
Een adder deed het, ja; en valscher beet
Deed nooit een slang, dan dien gij, adder, deedt.

MORE:
Brave touch=Noble move
Worm=Snake
Doubler=More forked
Compleat:
Brave=Braaf, fraai, treffelyk, dapper
Touch=Aanraaking, gevoel; toets

Topics: insult, truth, deceit, truth

As thou art a knave, and no knave. What an equivocal companion is this!

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
PAROLLES
He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman.
KING
How is that?
PAROLLES
He loved her, sir, and loved her not.
KING
As thou art a knave, and no knave. What an equivocal companion is this!
PAROLLES
I am a poor man, and at your majesty’s command.
LAFEW
He’s a good drum, my lord, but a naughty orator.

DUTCH:
Zooals gij een schelm en geen schelm zijt. Wat is dat een dubbeltongige kerel!

MORE:
Naughty (nichtig)=Worthless
Equivocal=Ambiguous
Compleat:
Knave=Een guit, boef
Equivocal=Dubbelzinnig

Topics: truth, honesty

Ask me what question thou canst possible

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Joan la Pucelle
CONTEXT:
JOAN LA PUCELLE
(…)Ask me what question thou canst possible,
And I will answer unpremeditated:
My courage try by combat, if thou darest,
And thou shalt find that I exceed my sex.
Resolve on this, thou shalt be fortunate,
If thou receive me for thy warlike mate.
CHARLES
Thou hast astonish’d me with thy high terms:
Only this proof I’ll of thy valour make,
In single combat thou shalt buckle with me,
And if thou vanquishest, thy words are true;
Otherwise I renounce all confidence.

DUTCH:
Vraag mij naar alles wat gij vragen kunt,
Onvoorbereid zal ik u antwoord geven;
Toets in den strijd, indien gij durft, mijn moed,
Bevinden zult gij, meer ben ik dan vrouw.
Neem uw besluit; — gij hebt geluk op aard,
Wanneer gij mij als strijdgenoot aanvaardt.

MORE:
Resolve=Be assured, know this
High terms=Pompous words
Proof=Trial
Buckle=Grapple
Confidence=Trust

Compleat:
To resolve upon something=Iets bepaalen
I know not what to resolve on=Ik weet niet wat ik besluiten zal
Proof=Beproeving
To buckle together=Worstelen, schermutselen
To repose an entire confidence in one=Een volkomen betrouwen op iemand stellen

Topics: trust, language, dispute, truth

Away with him!
He has a familiar under his tongue.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.7
SPEAKER: Cade
CONTEXT:
I feel remorse in myself with his words; but I’ll bridle it:
he shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for his life.
Away with him! He has a familiar under his tongue;
he speaks not o’ God’s name. Go, take him away,
I say, and strike off his head presently;
and then break into his son-in-law’s house,
Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head,
and bring them both upon two poles hither.

DUTCH:
Weg met hem! hij heeft een dienstbaren duivel onder zijn tong, hij spreekt niet in den naam van God

MORE:

Bridle=Rein in, constrain
Familiar=Demon or spirit
An be it but for=If only for

Compleat:
To bridle=Intoomen, breidelen, beteugelen
Familiar=Een gemeenzaame geet, queldrommel

Topics: language, deceit, truth, punishment, regret

Besides these, other bars he lays before me

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

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

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

Topics: truth|marriage|status|money

But I can give the loser leave to chide.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Queen Margaret
CONTEXT:
SUFFOLK
Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here
With ignominious words, though clerkly couch’d,
As if she had suborned some to swear
False allegations to o’erthrow his state?
QUEEN MARGARET
But I can give the loser leave to chide.
GLOUCESTER
Far truer spoke than meant: I lose, indeed;
Beshrew the winners, for they play’d me false!
And well such losers may have leave to speak.
BUCKINGHAM
He’ll wrest the sense and hold us here all day:
Lord cardinal, he is your prisoner.

DUTCH:
Hem, die verliest, vergun ik ‘t wel, te schimpen.

MORE:

Proverb: Give losers leave to speak (talk)

Twit=To reproach
Clerkly couched=Cleverly expressed, articulated
Suborn=Institgate to perjury
Wrest=Distort, spin, misinterpret
Beshrew=(or beshrow): mild curse

Compleat:
To suborn a witness=Eenen getuige opmaaken of omkoopen
To twit in the teeth=Verwyten
He ever twits me in the teeth with it=Hy werpt het my gestadig voor de scheenen
Twitting=Verwyting, verwytende
To suborn a witness=Eenen getuige opmaaken of omkoopen
To wrest=Verdraaijen, wringen
To wrest one’s words maliciously=Iemands woorden kwaadaardig verdraaijen
Beshrew=Bekyven, vervloeken

Topics: truth, manipulation, proverbs and idioms

But if it prove true, … have you any way then to unfool me again?

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Ford
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS FORD
Go, sirs, take the basket again on your shoulders:
your master is hard at door; if he bid you set it
down, obey him: quickly, dispatch.
FIRST SERVANT
Come, come, take it up.
SECOND SERVANT
Pray heaven it be not full of knight again.
FIRST SERVANT
I hope not; I had as lief bear so much lead.
FORD
Ay, but if it prove true, Master Page, have you any
way then to unfool me again? Set down the basket,
villain! Somebody call my wife. Youth in a basket!
O you panderly rascals! there’s a knot, a ging, a
pack, a conspiracy against me: now shall the devil
be shamed. What, wife, I say! Come, come forth!
Behold what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching!

DUTCH:
Ja, maar als het toch waar blijkt te zijn, vriend Page,
weet gij dan een middel, om mij zotskap-af te doen
zijn?

MORE:
Proverb: Speak the truth and shame the devil

Hard at=Close by
Youth in a basket=Exclamation
Knot=Group, crowd
Ging=Gang
Compleat:
Knot=Een rist of trop
Gang=Gezelschap, rot, trop

Topics: proverbs and idioms|remedy|truth

But in this point all his tricks founder, and he brings his physic after his patient’s death

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Chamberlain
CONTEXT:
SUFFOLK
The Cardinal’s letters to the Pope miscarried
And came to th’ eye o’ th’ King, wherein was read
How that the Cardinal did entreat his Holiness
To stay the judgment o’ th’ divorce; for if
It did take place, “I do,” quoth he, “perceive
My king is tangled in affection to
A creature of the Queen’s, Lady Anne Bullen.”
SURREY
Has the King this?
SUFFOLK
Believe it.
SURREY
Will this work?
CHAMBERLAIN
The King in this perceives him how he coasts
And hedges his own way. But in this point
All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic
After his patient’s death: the King already
Hath married the fair lady.

DUTCH:
Nu merkt de koning, hoe de paap zijn wegen
Omsluipt, doorsnuffelt; doch thans helpen hem
Zijn treken niets; thans komt hij met zijn drankjen
Na ‘s lijders dood.

MORE:
Proverb: After death the doctor
Miscarried=Wrongly delivered
Creature=Servant
To coast=Wander, change course (in allegance)
To hedge=Shift
Compleat:
Miscarry=Mislukken, quaalyk uytvallen
The letter was miscarry’d=De brief was niet wel besteld
To coast along=Langs de strand (of kust) vaaren
To hedge=Beheynen, omheynen

Topics: conspiracy, discovery, truth, proverbs and idioms

But men are men, the best sometimes forget

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Touch me not so near.
I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio.
Yet I persuade myself to speak the truth
Shall nothing wrong him. This it is, general:
Montano and myself being in speech,
There comes a fellow crying out for help
And Cassio following him with determined sword
To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman
Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause,
Myself the crying fellow did pursue,
Lest by his clamour—as it so fell out—
The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot,
Outran my purpose, and I returned then rather
For that I heard the clink and fall of swords
And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight
I ne’er might say before. When I came back—
For this was brief— I found them close together
At blow and thrust, even as again they were
When you yourself did part them.
More of this matter cannot I report.
But men are men, the best sometimes forget.
Though Cassio did some little wrong to him,
As men in rage strike those that wish them best,
Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received
From him that fled some strange indignity
Which patience could not pass.
OTHELLO
I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee,
But never more be officer of mine.

DUTCH:
Meer kan ik van ‘t voorval
U niet berichten. — Doch, steeds blijft de mensch
Een mensch, en zich vergeten kan de beste.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Lindros v. Governing Board of the Torrance Unified School District, 9 Cal.3d 524, 540, 510 P.2d 361, 371, 108 Cal. Rptr. 185, 195 (1973)(Torriner, J.)(en banc).

Proverb: To mince the matter (Tell sparingly or by halves)

Forget=Forget themselves
Indignity=Contemptuous injury, insult
Patience=Self-control
Pass=Overlook
Compleat:
Indignity=Smaad
Pass, pass by=Passeren, voorbygaan, overslaan
Mince=Kleyn kappen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, cited in law, truth, error, disappointment

But that slander, sir, is found a truth now: for it grows again fresher than e’er it was

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Second Gentleman
CONTEXT:
SECOND GENTLEMAN
I am confident,
You shall, sir: did you not of late days hear
A buzzing of a separation
Between the king and Katharine?
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Yes, but it held not:
For when the king once heard it, out of anger
He sent command to the lord mayor straight
To stop the rumour, and allay those tongues
That durst disperse it.
SECOND GENTLEMAN
But that slander, sir,
Is found a truth now: for it grows again
Fresher than e’er it was; and held for certain
The king will venture at it. Either the cardinal,
Or some about him near, have, out of malice
To the good queen, possess’d him with a scruple
That will undo her: to confirm this too,
Cardinal Campeius is arrived, and lately;
As all think, for this business.

DUTCH:
Maar die lastertaal
Blijkt waarheid nu; zij groeit op nieuw, en frisscher
Dan ooit, weer aan.

MORE:
Proverb: It may be a slander but it is no lie
Buzzing=Rumours
Durst=Ventured to, dared to
Fresher=Stronger (than ever)
Possessed with a scruple=Sowed suspicion
Compleat:
Durst=Durfde
Scruple=Zwaarigheyd, schroom

Topics: proverbs and idioms, conscience, truth

By indirections find directions out.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

DUTCH:
Op averechtsche wijs den rechten weg /
Zo gaan wij, de slimmen en bekwamen, langs kronkelpaden recht op ons doel af.

MORE:
The effectiveness of indirect questioning (see “your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth”).
Schmidt:
Indirection=oblique course or means
Compleat:
The directing of one’s intentions=Het bestieren van iemands voorneemen

Topics: truth, discovery, intellect, skill/talent

Cannot a plain man live and think no harm, but thus his simple truth must be abused?

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Richard, Duke of Gloucester
CONTEXT:
RICHARD
They do me wrong, and I will not endure it!
Who is it that complains unto the king
That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter and look fair,
Smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abused
With silken, sly, insinuating jacks?

DUTCH:
Kan geen eenvoudig man meer vreedzaam leven,
Dat niet zijn eerlijk hart belasterd wordt,
Door zijden, sluw, indringend vleigeboefte?

MORE:
Endure=Put up with
Forsooth=Of all people
Smooth=Flatter
Cog=Cheat
Duck with French nods=Bow pretentiously
Apish=Clumsy
Silken=Ingratiating (and possibly wearing silk)
Jacks=Nobodies, knaves
Compleat:
To endure=Verdraagen, harden, duuren
Forsooth=Zeker, trouwens
To smooth=Glad maaken, stryken
To cog the dice=de Dobbelsteenen valschelyk zetten
A crafty jack=Een looze boef

Topics: news, communication, truth

Cannot a plain man live and think no harm, but thus his simple truth must be abused?

DUTCH:
Kan geen eenvoudig man meer vreedzaam leven,
Dat niet zijn eerlijk hart belasterd wordt,
Door zijden, sluw, indringend vleigeboefte?

Topics: news, communication, truth

Chief architect and plotter of these woes

PLAY: Titus Andronicus
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Marcus Andronicus
CONTEXT:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
Now is my turn to speak. Behold this child:
Of this was Tamora delivered;
The issue of an irreligious Moor,
Chief architect and plotter of these woes:
The villain is alive in Titus’ house,
And as he is, to witness this is true.
Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge
These wrongs, unspeakable, past patience,
Or more than any living man could bear.
Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?
Have we done aught amiss,—show us wherein,
And, from the place where you behold us now,
The poor remainder of Andronici
Will, hand in hand, all headlong cast us down.
And on the ragged stones beat forth our brains,
And make a mutual closure of our house.
Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall,
Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall.

DUTCH:
Nu is ‘t aan mij te spreken. Ziet dit kind;
Aan dezen knaap schonk Tamora het leven;
De telg is ‘t van een godvergeten Moor,
Den hoofdontwerper, smeder dezer jamm’ren.
De booswicht is in Titus’ huis, nog levend,
En moet getuigen, dat dit waarheid is.

MORE:
Unspeakable=Indescribable
Past=Beyond
Patience=Endurance
Ragged=Rugged
Closure=End
Compleat:
Unspeakable=Onuytspreekelyk
Past=Verleegen, geleden, voorby, over, gepasseerd
I am past my Latin (at my wits’ end)=Ik ben het kluwen quyt, ik weet er niet meer uit te komen
Past hope=Geen hoop meer over
Patience=Geduld, lydzaamheid, verduldigheid
Ragged=Aan slenteren gescheurd, versleeten, haaveloos
Rugged=Ruig, schor, oneffen, ruuw; Onbeschaafd; Gestreng
To close=Overeenstemmen; besluiten; eindigen

Topics: revenge, offence, truth, punishment

Damnable both-sides rogue!

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
Damnable both-sides rogue !
FIRST SOLDIER
[Reads] ‘When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it;
After he scores, he never pays the score:
Half won is match well made; match, and well make it;
He ne’er pays after-debts, take it before;
And say a soldier, Dian, told thee this,
Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss:
For count of this, the count’s a fool, I know it,
Who pays before, but not when he does owe it.
Thine, as he vowed to thee in thine ear, Parolles.’
BERTRAM
He shall be whipped through the army with this rhyme
in’s forehead.
SECOND LORD
This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold linguist and the armipotent soldier.

DUTCH:
Die vervloekte, dubbeltongige schurk!

MORE:
Both-sides=Double-tongued, two-faced
Score=(1) Hit the mark (2) Bill
Half-won=Well negotiated is half the game
After-debts=Money payable upon receipt
Mell=Meddle, mess around with (sexually)
Pays before=Pays in advance
Armipotent=Mighty in arms
Manifold=Multiple
Compleat:
Jack on both sides=Slinks en rechts
To score=Op rekening zetten
Score=Rekening, kerfstok
Manifold=Veelvoudig, veelvuldig

Topics: insult, offence, integrity, truth

Faith, there had been many great men that have flattered the people, who ne’er loved them

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Second officer
CONTEXT:
FIRST OFFICER
That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.
SECOND OFFICER
Faith, there had been many great men that have
flattered the people, who ne’er loved them; and there
be many that they have loved, they know not
wherefore: so that, if they love they know not why,
they hate upon no better a ground: therefore, for
Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate
him manifests the true knowledge he has in their
disposition; and out of his noble carelessness lets
them plainly see’t.

DUTCH:
Nu, er zijn vele groote mannen geweest, . die het volk gevleid hebben en het toch nooit mochten lijden; en er zijn er velen, waar het volk van hield, zonder dat het wist waarom.

MORE:
Manifest=Make obvious, evident, not doubtful
Disposition=Natural constitution of the mind, temper, character, sentiments
Carelessness=Lack of concern, indifference
Compleat:
To manifest=Openbaaren, openbaar maaken
Carelessness=Zorgeloosheid, kommerloosheid, onachtzaamheid, achteloosheid
Disposition of mind=Gesteltenis van gemoed
The greatness of his disposition=Zyn grootmoedige, zyn uitmuntende gesteltenis

Topics: truth, flattery, deceit, love, respect

For it will come to pass that every braggart shall be found an ass

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
FIRST SOLDIER
You are undone, captain, all but your scarf; that has a knot on’t yet
PAROLLES
Who cannot be crushed with a plot?
FIRST SOLDIER
If you could find out a country where but women were
that had received so much shame, you might begin an
impudent nation. Fare ye well, sir; I am for France too: we shall speak of you there.
PAROLLES
Yet am I thankful if my heart were great
‘Twould burst at this. Captain I’ll be no more;
But I will eat and drink, and sleep as soft
As captain shall: simply the thing I am
Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
Rust, sword! cool, blushes! and, Parolles, live
Safest in shame! being fooled, by foolery thrive!
There ‘s place and means for every man alive.
I’ll after them.

DUTCH:
Wie zich pocher weet,
Hij lette op mij; dan ziet hij, dat in ‘t end
Elk pocher steeds als ezel wordt herkend.

MORE:
Impudent=Shameless
Braggart=Boaster
Found an ass=Shown to be an ass
Shame=Dishonour, disgrace
Compleat:
Impudent=Onbeschaamd, schaamteloos
Shame (reproach, ignominy)=Schande
Shamefull=Schandelyk, snood; Op een schandelyke wyze

Topics: truth, honesty, discovery

For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard of what that want might ruin

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Volumnia
CONTEXT:
VOLUMNIA
Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people; not by your own instruction,
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but rooted in
Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom’s truth.
Now, this no more dishonours you at all
Than to take in a town with gentle words,
Which else would put you to your fortune and
The hazard of much blood.
I would dissemble with my nature where
My fortunes and my friends at stake required
I should do so in honour: I am in this,
Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles;
And you will rather show our general louts
How you can frown than spend a fawn upon ’em,
For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard
Of what that want might ruin.
MENENIUS
Noble lady!
Come, go with us; s peak fair: you may salve so,
Not what is dangerous present, but the loss
Of what is past.

DUTCH:
En toch, gij wilt aan ‘t lomp gemeen veeleer
Uw fronsblik toonen, dan ‘t met vleien winnen,
Om, door hun gunst, te redden, wat hun haat
Te gronde richten zal.

MORE:
General louts=Vulgar clowns in the community, “common clowns” (Johnson)
Bastards=Not truly coming from the heart
Of no allowance… truth=Not reflecting true feelings
Take in=Capture, occupy
Inheritance=Acquisition or merely possession
That want=Absence of that acquisition
Salve=Rescue
Compleat:
Lout=Een boersche ongeschikte vent
Inheritance=Erfenis, erfdeel
Want=Gebrek

Topics: manipulation, deceit, honour, appearance, truth

For truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
It is not truer he is Angelo
Than this is all as true as it is strange:
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.

DUTCH:
Niet warer is het, dat hij Angelo,
Dan dat dit alles even waar als vreemd is;
Ja, het is tienmaal waar, want waar is waar,
Als eind van alle reek’ning.

MORE:
Still in use.

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

Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
PAROLLES
Away ! th’ art a knave.
CLOWN
You should have said, sir, before a knave th’ art a knave; that ‘s, before me th ‘rt a knave: this had been truth, sir.
PAROLLES
Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee.
CLOWN
Did you find me in yourself, sir, or were you
taught to find me ?

DUTCH:
Loop, loop, gij zijt een schelmsche nar; ik heb u in
mijn zak

MORE:
In yourself=By your own efforts
Knave=Rascal, villain
Found thee=Seen through you
Compleat:
Witty=Verstandig, vernuftig, schrander
Knave=Guyt, boef

Topics: truth, identity, independence

God and the rope-maker bear me witness

DUTCH:
God en de touwverkooper zijn getuigen:
Niets anders moest ik halen dan een touw.

Topics: money, debt/obligation, madness, truth

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

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

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

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

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

He’s very near the truth in this

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER:
CONTEXT:
BERTRAM
All’s one to him. What a past-saving slave is this!
FIRST LORD
You’re deceived, my lord: this is Monsieur
Parolles, the gallant militarist,—that was his own
phrase,— that had the whole theoric of war in the
knot of his scarf, and the practise in the chape of
his dagger.
SECOND LORD
I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword
clean. Nor believe he can have every thing in him
by wearing his apparel neatly.
FIRST SOLDIER
Well, that’s set down.
PAROLLES
Five or six thousand horse, I said,— I will say
true,—or thereabouts, set down, for I’ll speak truth.
FIRST LORD
He’s very near the truth in this.
BERTRAM
But I con him no thanks for’t, in the nature he
delivers it.

DUTCH:
In dit opzicht komt hij de waarheid zeer nabij .

MORE:
Chape=Dagger tip
Clean=Polished
Knot of his scarf=Tied by the lady giving a knight her favour
Con him no thanks=Give no gratitue
Nature=Manner
Compleat:
Chape=’t Beslag onder aan de scheede
Clean=Schoon, zuyver, reyn, net
To wear a favour=Een lint of iets dergelyks van zyne minnares draagen
Nature=Natuur, aardt

Topics: deceit, conflict, truth, trust, , appearance

His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend.
His backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Stephano
CONTEXT:
STEPHANO
Come on your ways. Open your mouth. Here is that which will give language to you, cat. Open your mouth. This will shake your shaking, I can tell you, and that soundly. You cannot tell who’s your friend. Open your chaps again.
TRINCULO
I should know that voice. It should be—But he is drowned, and these are devils. Oh, defend me!
STEPHANO
Four legs and two voices—a most delicate monster. His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend. His backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. Come.
(CALIBAN drinks)
Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth.

DUTCH:
Vier beenen en twee stemmen! een allerkostelijkst
monster. Zijn voorstem dient zeker om goed te spreken
van zijn vriend, zijn achterstem voor achterklap en laster.

MORE:
Cat=Reference to the proverb ‘Good liquor (ale) will make a cat speak’.
Chaps=Jaws, chops
Delicate=Pleasant, delightful
Compleat:
To turn cat in pan=Overloopen, van party veranderen
The chaps=’t Bakkus
Delicate=Teer, zacht, lekker

Topics: proverbs and idioms, excess, truth

His speech was like a tangled chain. Nothing impaired,
but all disordered. Who is next?

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Theseus
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt. He knows
not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to
speak, but to speak true.
HIPPOLYTA
Indeed he hath played on his prologue like a child on a
recorder—a sound, but not in government.
THESEUS
His speech was like a tangled chain. Nothing impaired,
but all disordered. Who is next?

DUTCH:
Zijn aanspraak was als een verwarde keten, geen schakel
stuk, maar heel en al warboel.

MORE:
Recorder=Child’s instrument
Government=Control
Disordered=Jumbled
Compleat:
Recorder=een Zeker slach van fluyt
Government=Bestiering, heersching
Disordered=In wanorde gebragt, in de war gebragt

Topics: truth, language, communication

How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath /
To say to me that thou art out of breath?

PLAY: Romeo and Juliet
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Juliet
CONTEXT:
How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?
The excuse that thou dost make in this delay
Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad? Answer to that.
Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance.
Let me be satisfied. Is ’t good or bad?

DUTCH:
Gij buiten adem? en gij hebt toch adem,
Dat gij me uw buiten-adem-zijn vertelt?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Stay=Wait for
Circumstance=Particulars, detail
Compleat:
Stay (to tarry or sejourn)=Verblyven
Circumstance=Omstandigheid
A fact set out in all its circumstances=Een geval in alle zyne omsandigheden verhaalen.

Topics: time, good and bad, reason, reply, truth

How high a pitch his resolution soars!

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
How high a pitch his resolution soars!
Thomas of Norfolk, what say’st thou to this?
THOMAS MOWBRAY
O, let my sovereign turn away his face
And bid his ears a little while be deaf,
Till I have told this slander of his blood,
How God and good men hate so foul a liar.
KING RICHARD II
Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears:
Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom’s heir,
As he is but my father’s brother’s son,
Now, by my sceptre’s awe, I make a vow,
Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood
Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize
The unstooping firmness of my upright soul:
He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou:
Free speech and fearless I to thee allow.

DUTCH:
Wat vlucht ten wolken neemt zijn koene geest!
Thomas van Norfolk, wat zegt gij hierop?

MORE:

Pitch=Highest point of soaring flight for a hawk or falcon
Neighbour nearness=Extremely close proximity
Partialize=Prejudice
Unstooping=Unbending (Stoop is another falcony ref. meaning to come down or pounce on the prey)
Fearless=Bold
Blood=Ancestry

Compleat:
To stoop=Buigen, bokken of bukken
A hawk that makes a stoop at a partridge=Een valk die op een Patrys valt
Fearless=Schroomeloos, onbevreesd, onvertzaagd, onbeschroomd, onverschrokken

Topics: resolution, strength, truth, relationship, honour

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

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

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

MORE:
Proverb: The truth shows best being naked

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

Topics: proverbs and idioms, ruin, truth, discovery

I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner
of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a
confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration. You have, as it appears to me, practiced upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and in person.

DUTCH:
Sir John, Sir John, ik ken zeer wel uw manier van doen, van de ware toedracht van een zaak te verdraaien.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Wrench=To pull by violence, to wrest
Sauciness=Impertinent boldness, impudence
Brow=Aspect, appearance
Throng=A crowd pressing forward to some purpose
Thrust (fig.)=Drive, force
Level=Equipoised, steady

Compleat:
To wrench=Verdraaijen, verwringen
Sauciness=Baldaadigheid, brooddronkenheid
Throng=Gedrang, een menigte volks
Brow=Vrypostigheid

Topics: truth, deceit, honesty manipulation

I cannot daub it further

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
I cannot daub it further

DUTCH:
Ik kan niet langer veinzen.

MORE:
Daub it further=Keep dissembling. (Old French ‘dauber’, whitewash).
See also Richard III: “So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue.” (Richard, 3.5)

Topics: truth, honesty

I cannot flatter and look fair, smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog

DUTCH:
Wijl ik niet vleien kan, niet mooi kan praten
Toelachen, streelen, foppen en bedriegen
Strijkages op zijn Fransch, recht aap’rig, maken,
Moet ik volstrekt een wrokkend vijand zijn.

Topics: news, communication, truth

I cannot flatter and look fair, smile in men’s faces, smooth, deceive and cog

DUTCH:
Wijl ik niet vleien kan, niet mooi kan praten
Toelachen, streelen, foppen en bedriegen
Strijkages op zijn Fransch, recht aap’rig, maken,
Moet ik volstrekt een wrokkend vijand zijn.

Topics: news, communication, truth

I do beseech you, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking and to say no more.

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Cardinal Wolsey
CONTEXT:
CARDINAL WOLSEY
I do profess
You speak not like yourself; who ever yet
Have stood to charity, and display’d the effects
Of disposition gentle, and of wisdom
O’ertopping woman’s power. Madam, you do me wrong:
I have no spleen against you; nor injustice
For you or any: how far I have proceeded,
Or how far further shall, is warranted
By a commission from the consistory,
Yea, the whole consistory of Rome. You charge me
That I have blown this coal: I do deny it:
The king is present: if it be known to him
That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound,
And worthily, my falsehood! yea, as much
As you have done my truth. If he know
That I am free of your report, he knows
I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him
It lies to cure me: and the cure is, to
Remove these thoughts from you: the which before
His highness shall speak in, I do beseech
You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking
And to say so no more.

DUTCH:
Hooge vrouwe,
Ik smeek u, dat gij, eer zijne hoogheid spreekt
Wat gij gezegd hebt, ongedacht wilt maken,
En nimmermeer zoo spreekt.

MORE:
Ever yet=Always until now
O’ertop=Exceed, surpass
Spleen=Ill will, malice
Gainsay=Contradict, deny
Consistory=Council chamber
Blown this coal=Fanned the fire
Free of your report=Innocent of your accusations
Unthink=Take back, retract
Compleat:
To overtop=Te boven gaan, overschryden
Spleen=Een wrok
To have a spleen against one=Eenen wrok tegen iemand hebben
To gainsay=Tegenspreeken, Wederspreeken.
To gainsay truth=De waarheid wederspreeken of bestryden
Consistory=De Kerkenraad, Pauzelyke raad, Kardinaals vergadering

Topics: truth, punishment, innocence

I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is false, or as I despise one that is not true

PLAY: The Merry Wives of Windsor
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Sir Hugh Evans
CONTEXT:
SLENDER
Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
SIR HUGH EVANS
Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
SLENDER
I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.
SIR HUGH EVANS
Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot gifts.
SHALLOW
Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff there?
SIR HUGH EVANS
Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do
despise one that is false, or as I despise one that
is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I
beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will
peat the door for Master Page.

DUTCH:
Zou ik u foorliegen? ik feracht een leugenaar, zooals
ik iemand feracht, die falsch is, of zooals ik iemand
feracht, die niet te fertrouwen is.

MORE:
Your well-willers=Wellwishers
Gifts=Qualities
Possibilities=Prospects (for inherited wealth)
Peat=Knock
Compleat:
Well-wisher=Een die ‘t beste wenscht
Gift=Gaaf, talent
A well wisher to one=Een die iemand alles goeds wenscht

Topics: truth, honesty, legacy, money

I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Poins
CONTEXT:
I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I’ll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty at least he fought with, what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.

DUTCH:
t Mocht wat; twee van hen ken ik voor zoo volbloedlafaards,
als er ooit de hielen gelicht hebben; en de derde, als hij langer vecht dan hij raadzaam acht, wil ik nooit meer een zwaard ter hand nemen

MORE:
Schmidt:
Forswear=To refuse or renounce upon oath, to swear that one will have nothing to do with a person or thing
Jest=Any thing ludicrous and amusing uttered or done
Ward=Guard made in fencing, posture of defence
Compleat:
Forswear (or renounce)=afzweeren
To ward off a blow=Eenen slag afweeren

Topics: courage, honesty, truth

I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Rosalind
CONTEXT:
PHOEBE
Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together.
I had rather hear you chide than this man woo.
PHOEBE
Sweet youth, please keep scorning me all year long. I would
rather hear your scolding than this man’s wooing.
ROSALIND
He’s fall’n in love with your foulness.
And she’ll fall in love with my anger. If it be so, as
fast as she answers thee with frowning looks, I’ll sauce
her with bitter words.
– Why look you so upon me?
PHOEBE
For no ill will I bear you.
ROSALIND
I pray you, do not fall in love with me,
For I am falser than vows made in wine.
Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house,
‘Tis at the tuft of olives, here hard by.
—Will you go, sister?— Shepherd, ply her hard.
—Come, sister.— Shepherdess, look on him better,
And be not proud. Though all the world could see,
None could be so abused in sight as he.
—Come, to our flock.

DUTCH:
Ik bid u, word toch niet op mij verliefd;
Want valscher ben ‘k, dan eeden bij de wijnkan;
En voorts, ik mag u niet.

MORE:
Chide=Rebuke, scold
Foulness=Ugliness
Sauce=Sharply rebuke
In wine=When drunk
Tuft of olives=Olive grove
Compleat:
Chide=Kyven, bekyven
Foulness=Vuilheid, slordigheid, vervuildheid; leelykheid; schandelykheid
Tuft=Een bos, kuif

Topics: deceit, appearance, truth, honesty

I stand on fire: come to the matter

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: Cymbeline
CONTEXT:
CYMBELINE
I stand on fire:
Come to the matter.
IACHIMO
All too soon I shall,
Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus,
Most like a noble lord in love and one
That had a royal lover, took his hint;
And, not dispraising whom we praised,—therein
He was as calm as virtue—he began
His mistress’ picture; which by his tongue being made,
And then a mind put in’t, either our brags
Were crack’d of kitchen-trolls, or his description
Proved us unspeaking sots.
CYMBELINE
Nay, nay, to the purpose.

DUTCH:
Ik sta op kolen, kom toch tot de zaak.

MORE:
Brags=Boasts
Cracked=Blustered
Of=About
Trolls=Maids
Unspeaking=Inarticulate
Sot=Fool
To the purpose=Get to the point
Compleat:
To brag=Pochen, roomen, opsnyen
To crack=Kraaken, barsten, splyten; pochen
Young trollop (serving maid)=Jong meisje, dat eerst begint te dienen
Sot (blockhead)=Zot, domkop

Topics: patience, sorow, truth

I will follow thee to the last gasp with truth and loyalty

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Adam
CONTEXT:
ORLANDO
O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed.
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
Where none will sweat but for promotion,
And having that do choke their service up
Even with the having. It is not so with thee.
But, poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree
That cannot so much as a blossom yield
In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry.
But come thy ways. We’ll go along together,
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent,
We’ll light upon some settled low content.
ADAM
Master, go on, and I will follow thee
To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty.
From seventeen years till now almost fourscore
Here livèd I, but now live here no more.
At seventeen years, many their fortunes seek,
But at fourscore, it is too late a week.
Yet fortune cannot recompense me better
Than to die well, and not my master’s debtor.

DUTCH:
Ik volg u, meester; ga slechts voor en bouw
Tot aan mijn jongsten snik vast op mijn trouw.

MORE:
Constant=Faithful
Antic=Ancient; (O. Edd. promiscuously antick and antique, but always accented on the first syllable), adj. belonging to the times, or resembling the manners of antiquity
Sweat=Toil, labour
Constant=Faithful
Choke up (Reflectively)=Oppress, make away with, kill; Stop, cease
Low content=Humble contentment
Meed=Reward, recompense, hire
Compleat:
Meed=Belooning, vergelding, verdiensten
Constant=Standvastig, bestending, gestadig
To choke=Verstkken, verwurgen
Contentment=Vergenoeging, vergenoegdheyd, voldoening

Topics: truth, loyalty, work, age/experience, life

I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword clean. Nor believe he can have every thing in him by wearing his apparel neatly

DUTCH:
Ik wil nooit meer iemand vertrouwen, omdat hij zijn
degen blank houdt, en evenmin gelooven, dat er wel iets
in hem kan zitten, omdat hij zijn kleeding met zwier
draagt.

Topics: deceit, conflict, truth, trust, , appearance

I will not do’t, lest I surcease to honour mine own truth

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Coriolanus
CONTEXT:
CORIOLANUS
Well, I must do’t:
Away, my disposition, and possess me
Some harlot’s spirit! my throat of war be turn’d,
Which quired with my drum, into a pipe
Small as an eunuch, or the virgin voice
That babies lulls asleep! the smiles of knaves
Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys’ tears take up
The glasses of my sight! a beggar’s tongue
Make motion through my lips, and my arm’d knees,
Who bow’d but in my stirrup, bend like his
That hath received an alms! I will not do’t,
Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth
And by my body’s action teach my mind
A most inherent baseness.
VOLUMNIA
At thy choice, then:
To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour
Than thou of them. Come all to ruin; let
Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear
Thy dangerous stoutness, for I mock at death
With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list
Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck’dst it from me,
But owe thy pride thyself.

DUTCH:
Neen, ‘k wil ‘t niet doen,
Ik zou mijns harten waarheid zelf onteeren,
En door mijns lichaams kromming ook mijn geest
Tot eeuw’ge laagheid doemen.

MORE:
Tent=Camp
Surcease=Cease
Stoutness=Stubbornness
Compleat:
Surcease=Ophouden, staaken
Stoutness=(stiffness or sturdiness) Styfheid, onverzettelykheid, steiloorigheid

Topics: communication, persuasion, truth, pride

I’ll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Pompey
CONTEXT:
I’ll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the constable’s wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.

DUTCH:
Nu, ik wil op den bijbel afzweren, dat zijn gezicht het
slechtste is, dat aan hem te vinden is.

MORE:
Supposed = deposed (malapropism): I would swear on the Bible

Topics: justice, honesty, truth

If your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why then the worse for my friends and the better for my foes

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
FOOL
Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me, now
my foes tell me plainly I am an ass. So that by my foes,
sir I profit in the knowledge of myself, and by my
friends, I am abused. So that, conclusions to be as
kisses, if your four negatives make your two
affirmatives, why then the worse for my friends and the
better for my foes.
ORSINO
Why, this is excellent.
FOOL
By my troth, sir, no—though it please you to be one of
my friends.

DUTCH:
Wel, heer, zij prijzen mij en maken mij tot een ezel;
maar mijn vijanden zeggen mij ronduit, dat ik een ezel
ben; zoodat ik door mijn vijanden, heer, vooruitga in
zelfkennis en door mijn vrienden bedrogen word; zoodat,
wanneer het met gevolgtrekkingen is als met kusjes,
dat vier ontkenningen twee bevestigingen zijn, het mij
slecht gaat met mijn vrienden en goed met mijn vijanden.

MORE:
Proverb: God send me a friend that may tell me my faults; if not, an enemy, and to be sure he will
Proverb: Two negatives make an affirmative

The argument being that if, as in grammar, four negatives make two affirmatives, if someone says ‘No, no, no, no’, the first no negates the second and the third negates the fourth, turning it into ‘Yes, yes’.

Topics: truth, honesty, friendship, language, clarity/precision

In the end truth will out.

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
GOBBO
Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman. But I
pray you, tell me, is my boy, God rest his soul, alive
or dead?
LAUNCELOT
Do you not know me, Father?
GOBBO
Alack, sir, I am sand-blind. I know you not.
LAUNCELOT
Nay, indeed if you had your eyes, you might fail of
the knowing me. It is a wise father that knows his own
child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son.
Give me your blessing. Truth will come to light. Murder
cannot be hid long—a man’s son may, but in the end truth
will out.

DUTCH:
De waarheid komt altijd aan het licht; een moord kan niet lang verborgen blijven, wel de zoon van een vader; maar toch, ten langen leste, komt de waarheid uit.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Reed v. King, 145 Cal. App.3d 261, 193 Cal. Rptr. 130 (1983)(Blease, J.), concerning the obligation of a house seller to disclose that the house had been the site of a murder: “Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.”;
Retirement Bd. of the Police Retirement Sys. of Kansas City, 652 S.W.2d 874 (Mo., 1983)
Simpson v. Blackburn, 414 S.W.2d 795, 805 (Mo., 1967)
June B. v. Edward L., 69 A.D.2d 612, 614 (N.Y., 1979)
: REFERENCED IN E&W LAW:
Jacques & Anor (t/a C&E Jacques Partnership) v Ensign Contractors Ltd [2009] EWHC 3383 (TCC) (22 December 2009)
‘The case put together by the Referring party relies entirely on ignoring the Contract between the parties…
Paraphrasing Shakespeare, ‘lies cannot be hid long; but at length the truth will out’.’

Proverb: It is a wise child (father) that knows his own father (child)
Truth will come to light/Truth will out invented/popularised by Shakespeare
Compleat:
Wise (learned, skill’d, cunning, whitty)=Wys, geleerd, ervaaren, listig, schrander.
A wise man may be caught by a fool=Een wys man kan door een gek gevangen worden

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name?

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Petruchio
CONTEXT:
Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name? Faith, here’s an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator.

DUTCH:
Klop, klop, klop! wie is
daar, in naam van Beëlzebub?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Equivocator=One who uses ambiguous language
Compleat:
Equivocate=Dubbelzinnig spreeken

Topics: still in use, language, clarity/precision, truth

Let not his smoothing words
Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Cardinal
CONTEXT:
So, there goes our protector in a rage.
‘Tis known to you he is mine enemy,
Nay, more, an enemy unto you all,
And no great friend, I fear me, to the king.
Consider, lords, he is the next of blood,
And heir apparent to the English crown:
Had Henry got an empire by his marriage,
And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,
There’s reason he should be displeased at it.
Look to it, lords! Let not his smoothing words
Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect.
What though the common people favour him,
Calling him ‘Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester,’
Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice,
‘Jesu maintain your royal excellence!’
With ‘God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!’
I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss,
He will be found a dangerous protector.

DUTCH:
Lords, zorgt er voor, dat niet zijn gladde taal
Uw hart beheks’, weest wijs en op uw hoede!

MORE:

Smoothing=Flattering
Flattering gloss=Sheen
What though=Never mind, so what if

Compleat:
Gloss=Uitlegging
To set a gloss upon a thing=Iets een schoonen opschik geeven
To smooth one up (coaks)=Iemand streelen

Topics: language, deceit, truth, caution, wisdom

Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
As I return, I will fetch off these justices. I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying. This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street, and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk’s tribute. I do remember him at Clement’s Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese paring.

DUTCH:
Heere, Heere, wat zijn wij oude menschen met de ondeugd van het liegen behept!

MORE:

Schmidt:
Fetch=shift, strategem; derive, infer from a source. Fetch+in=apprehend, seize. Fetch+off=make away with, make a prey of.
See the bottom of=know thoroughly (see through)
Prate=tattle; talk idly, especially in a bragging manner
Thick sight=poor vision

Compleat:
Fetch+in=Inhaalen. Fetch+out=uithaalen. Fetch+over=overhaalen. Fetch+off=afhaalen.
To fetch one off of his opinion=Iemand van gevoelen doen veranderen.

Burgersdijk notes:
Turnbullstraat. Eigenlijk Turninillstraat, een te slechter faam staande straat in Londen.

Topics: truth, justice

No, I will speak as liberal as the north

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
Oh, heaven! Oh, heavenly powers!
IAGO
Zounds, hold your peace.
EMILIA
‘ Twill out, ’twill out.—I peace?
No, I will speak as liberal as the north.
Let heaven and men and devils, let them all,
All, all cry shame against me, yet I’ll speak.
IAGO
Be wise, and get you home.

DUTCH:
Het moet, het moet er uit; — ik zwijgen? neen, man,
Neen, ik wil spreken, vrij als noordervlagen

MORE:

Liberal=Freely
North=North wind
Compleat:
Liberal=Mild, milddaadig, goedertieren, gulhartig, openhartig
Northerly wind=Een Noordelyke wind

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

Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him

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

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

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

Topics: loyalty, disappointment, failure, truth, discovery

Now you have heard the truth, what say you, Romans?

DUTCH:
En nu gij alles weet, spreekt nu, Romeinen:
Is iets door ons misdreven?

Topics: revenge, offence, truth, punishment

O gentle lady, do not put me to ’t, for I am nothing, if not critical

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
What wouldst write of me, if thou shouldst praise me?
IAGO
O gentle lady, do not put me to ’t,
For I am nothing, if not critical.
DESDEMONA
Come on, assay. There’s one gone to the harbour?
IAGO
Ay, madam
DESDEMONA
I am not merry, but I do beguile
The thing I am by seeming otherwise.
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?

DUTCH:
Wat schreeft gij wel van mij, om mij te loven?

MORE:
Put (me) to it=Compel, oblige, force, push
Assay=Try, make an attempt
Beguile=Deceive
Compleat:
To assay=Trachten
Beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuin leiden

Topics: temptation, honesty, truth, value

O perilous mouths, That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Isabella
CONTEXT:
To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof;
Bidding the law make court’sy to their will:
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws!

DUTCH:
Wien kan ik klagen? Zoo ik dit verhaalde,
Bij wien vond ik geloof? O booze monden,
Die met een enk’le, met dezelfde tong,
Ter dood verdoemen of hun bijval schenken,
De wetten buigen doen naar hunnen wil

MORE:
Schmidt:
Perilous=Dangerous

Topics: law/legal, honesty, truth, deceit, manipulation, dispute, lawyers

Only sin and hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue, that truth should be suspected

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law:
God shield you mean it not! daughter and mother
So strive upon your pulse. What, pale again?
My fear hath catched your fondness: now I see
The mystery of your loneliness, and find
Your salt tears’ head: now to all sense ’tis gross
You love my son; invention is ashamed,
Against the proclamation of thy passion,
To say thou dost not: therefore tell me true;
But tell me then, ’tis so ; for, look, thy cheeks
Confess it, th’ one to th’ other; and thine eyes
See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours,
That in their kind they speak it: only sin
And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue,
That truth should be suspected. Speak, is ‘t so ?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clew;
If it be not, forswear ‘t : howe’er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

DUTCH:
Slechts zonde
En wederspannige onwil boeit uw tong,
Dat die de waarheid heel’.

MORE:
Proverb: In being your own foe, you spin a fair thread
Proverb: You have spun a fine (fair) thread

Gross=Palpable
Grossly=Conspicuously
Clew=Ball of thread
Compleat:
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Clew=Een kluwen (garen)

Topics: truth, deceit, love, appearance, proverbs and idioms

Prove true, imagination, O, prove true

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Viola
CONTEXT:
VIOLA
Methinks his words do from such passion fly,
That he believes himself. So do not I.
Prove true, imagination, oh, prove true,
That I, dear brother, be now ta’en for you!
SIR TOBY BELCH
Come hither, knight. Come hither, Fabian. We’ll whisper
o’er a couplet or two of most sage saws.
VIOLA
He named Sebastian. I my brother know
Yet living in my glass. Even such and so
In favour was my brother, and he went
Still in this fashion, colour, ornament,
For him I imitate. Oh, if it prove,
Tempests are kind and salt waves fresh in love!

DUTCH:
Hoe toont zijn woord, de gloed, waarmee hij spreekt,
Een vast geloof, dat mij, helaas! ontbreekt.
Toch hoop ik, — o verbeelding, niet te stout! —
Dat, dierb’re broeder, hij voor u mij houdt!

MORE:
So do not I=I do no
Saws=Sayings
Glass=Mirror
Favour=Appearance
Prove=Proves true
Compleat:
An old saw=Een oud zeggen
Glass=Spiegel
Well-favoured=Aangenaam, bevallig
To prove (become, come to pass)=Uitvallen, bevinden, worden

Topics: language, persuasion, deceit, truth, appearance, imagination

Say as you think, and speak it from your souls

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: York
CONTEXT:
YORK
‘Tis York that hath more reason for his death.
But, my lord cardinal, and you, my Lord of Suffolk,
Say as you think, and speak it from your souls,
Were’t not all one, an empty eagle were set
To guard the chicken from a hungry kite,
As place Duke Humphrey for the king’s protector?
QUEEN MARGARET
So the poor chicken should be sure of death.
SUFFOLK
Madam, ’tis true; and were’t not madness, then,
To make the fox surveyor of the fold?
Who being accused a crafty murderer,
His guilt should be but idly posted over,
Because his purpose is not executed.

DUTCH:
Doch spreekt, lord kardinaal en gij, lord Suffolk,
Zegt eens ronduit, spreekt zooals ‘t in uw hart is

MORE:

Proverb: To speak as one thinks
Proverb: Give not the wolf (fox) the wether (sheep) to keep
Proverb: Make not the wolf your shepherd

For his death=To want him dead
Idly=Foolishly
Posted over=Disregarded

Compleat:
Idly=Zottelyk
To talk idly=Ydelyk of gebrekkelyk praaten; zotte klap uitslaan

Topics: proverbs and idioms, honesty, truth

Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
Who will believe thee, Isabel?
My unsoil’d name, the austereness of my life,
My vouch against you, and my place i’ the state,
Will so your accusation overweigh,
That you shall stifle in your own report
And smell of calumny. I have begun,
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,
That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,
But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I’ll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true.

DUTCH:
Ik blijk hem een tyran. Gij mij betichten !
O spreek vrij waar, mijn valschheid doet het zwichten.

MORE:
Onions:
Prolixious=Tedious
Nicety=Coyness
Lay by=Take off, put off, set apart

Topics: law/legal, honesty, truth, deceit, manipulation, dispute

See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
Why, he is dead.
See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
He that but fears the thing he would not know
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others’ eyes
That what he feared is chancèd. Yet speak, Morton.
Tell thou an earl his divination lies,
And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.
MORTON
You are too great to be by me gainsaid,
Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

DUTCH:
Gij zijt te groot, dan dat ik mag weerspreken;
Uw geest spelt al te waar, uw vrees te juist.

MORE:

Gainsaid=Contradicted
Divination=Prophecy
Chanced= Has come to pass, happened
Spirit=Instinct, intelligence

Schmidt:
Disgrace=Offence, ill treatment, humiliation

Compleat:
To gainsay=Tegenspreeken, Wederspreeken.
To gainsay truth=De waarheid wederspreeken of bestryden
Spirit (wit, liveliness)=Verstand, vernuft

Topics: suspicion, fate/destiny, truth

Show his eyes and grieve his heart.

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Witches
CONTEXT:
Show his eyes and grieve his heart.
Come like shadows; so depart!

DUTCH:
Wenscht zijn hart zich leed, verschijnt!
Komt als schimmen, en verdwijnt!

MORE:
Schmidt:
Grieve his heart=make him sorry

Topics: fate/destiny, disappointment, truth, regret

Sir, my circumstances, being so near the truth as I will make them, must first induce you to believe.

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Iachimo
CONTEXT:
POSTHUMUS
If you can make ’t apparent
That you have tasted her in bed, my hand
And ring is yours. If not, the foul opinion
You had of her pure honour gains or loses
Your sword or mine, or masterless leave both
To who shall find them.
IACHIMO
Sir, my circumstances,
Being so near the truth as I will make them,
Must first induce you to believe; whose strength
I will confirm with oath, which I doubt not
You’ll give me leave to spare when you shall find
You need it not.

DUTCH:
t Bericht, dat ik omstandig geven zal,
En dat den stempel van zijn waarheid draagt,
Zal tot geloof u dwingen

MORE:
Question=Hold debate
Circumstances=Details, particulars, incidental proofs
Compleat:
Circumstance=Omstandigheid
A fact set out in all its circumstances=Een geval in alle zyne omstandigheden verhaalen

Topics: truth, honesty, manipulation, language

So befall my soul as this is false he burdens me withal

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
AEGEON
Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,
I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there,
She whom thou gav’st to me to be my wife,
That hath abusèd and dishonoured me
Even in the strength and height of injury.
Beyond imagination is the wrong
That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.
DUKE
Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.
ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS
This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me
While she with harlots feasted in my house.
DUKE
A grievous fault.—Say, woman, didst thou so?
ADRIANA
No, my good lord. Myself, he, and my sister
Today did dine together. So befall my soul
As this is false he burdens me withal.

DUTCH:
Neen, eed’le vorst; hijzelf, ik en mijn zuster,
Wij aten samen thuis. God straf mijn ziel,
Als hij mij daar niet gruwlijk valsch beticht.

MORE:
Dote=Lose a grip on reality
Shameless=Shamelessly
Thrown on=Laid against
Just=Fair
Grievous=Deserving censure, severe
Burden=Charge, accuse
Compleat:
To dote=Suffen, dutten, mymeren
Shamelesly=Schaamtelooslyk
Thrown=Geworpen, gesmeeten
Just (righteous)=Een rechtvaardige
Just=Effen, juist, net
Grievous=Moeijelyk, lastig, byster, gruwelyk
Burden=Last, pak, vracht

Topics: justice, honour, blame, truth, offence

So they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm!
It is hypocrisy against the devil.
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so,
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
IAGO
So they do nothing, ’tis a venial slip.
But if I give my wife a handkerchief—
OTHELLO
What then?
IAGO
Why then ’tis hers, my lord, and, being hers,
She may, I think, bestow ’t on any man.
OTHELLO
She is protectress of her honour too.
May she give that?
IAGO
Her honour is an essence that’s not seen,
They have it very oft that have it not.
But for the handkerchief—

DUTCH:
Als niets geschiedt, dan is ‘t wel te vergeven;
Maar als ik aan mijn vrouw een zakdoek geef,

MORE:
Tempt heaven=By behaving badly, they are asking for punishment from heaven
Venial=Pardonable
Slip=Fault, offence
They have it oft that have it not=Credited with something they don’t have
Compleat:
To tempt=Aanvechten, verzoeken, bekooren, bestryden
Venial=Vergeeffelyk; vergiffelyk
Venial sins=Vergeevelyke zonden
Slip=Een misslag, vergissing

Topics: temptation, honesty, truth, offence

Take and give back affairs and their dispatch with such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing

PLAY: Twelfth Night
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Sebastian
CONTEXT:
SEBASTIAN
This is the air, that is the glorious sun.
This pearl she gave me, I do feel ’t and see ’t,
And though ’tis wonder that enwraps me thus,
Yet ’tis not madness. Where’s Antonio, then?
I could not find him at the Elephant.
Yet there he was, and there I found this credit,
That he did range the town to seek me out.
His counsel now might do me golden service.
For though my soul disputes well with my sense
That this may be some error, but no madness,
Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune
So far exceed all instance, all discourse,
That I am ready to distrust mine eyes
And wrangle with my reason that persuades me
To any other trust but that I am mad—
Or else the lady’s mad. Yet if ’twere so,
She could not sway her house, command her followers,
Take and give back affairs and their dispatch
With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing
As I perceive she does. There’s something in ’t
That is deceivable. But here the lady comes.

DUTCH:
Of dat de jonkvrouw ‘t is; en toch, dan kon
Zij niet haar huis en dienaars zoo regeeren,
Haar zaken nagaan en met vaste hand
Besturen, kalm en zacht in al haar doen,
Zooals ik opmerk, dat zij is. Hoe ‘t zij,
Begooch’lend is het. Maar daar komt de jonkvrouw.

MORE:
Proverb: Seeing is believing
Proverb: As true as touch
Proverb: To catch one like a trout with tickling

Credit=Report
Range=Roam, wander
Disputes=Reasons (disputes well=concurs with)
Instance=Precedent
Discourse=Reasoning, argument
Trust=Belief
Sway=Manage, run, rule
Dispatch=Disposal, winding up
Deceivable=Deceptive
Compleat:
Range (ramble or jaunt)=Reize
To dispute=Twistredenen, betwisten, zintwisten, disputeeren
To dispute=(Agitate, or maintain a question) Een verschil verdedigen, handhaven
Instance=Een voorval, voorbeeld, exempel; aandringing, aanhouding; blyk
Discourse=Redeneering, reedenvoering, gesprek, vertoog
Trust=Vertrouwen, betrouwen, toeverlaat, belang
To sway=(govern) Regeeren. To sway the scepter=Den schepter zwaaijen
Dispatch=Afvaardiging, verrichting, beschikking, vervaardiging
Deceivable=Bedriegbaar, ligt om te bedriegen, verleidelyk

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, truth, evidence, perception

That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Enobarbus
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more.
ENOBARBUS
That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot.
ANTONY
You wrong this presence. Therefore speak no more.
ENOBARBUS
Go to, then. Your considerate stone.
CAESAR
I do not much dislike the matter, but
The manner of his speech, for ’t cannot be
We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
So diff’ring in their acts. Yet if I knew
What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
O’ th’ world I would pursue it.

DUTCH:
Dat de waarheid zwijgen moet, had ik bijna vergeten./
Ik had haast vergeten, dat de waarheid moet zwijgen.

MORE:
Proverb: The truth should be silent

Presence=Company
Considerate stone=Still, silent and capable of thought
Conditions=Dispositions
Staunch=Strong, watertight
Compleat:
Presence=Tegenwoordigheyd, byzyn, byweezen
Considerate=Omzigtig, bedachtzaam
Condition=Aardt, gesteltenis

Topics: truth, status, honesty, proverbs and idioms

The complaints I have heard of you I do not all believe; ’tis my slowness that I do not

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
I will now hear; what say you of this gentlewoman?
STEWARD
Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I
wish might be found in the calendar of my past
endeavours; for then we wound our modesty and make
foul the clearness of our deservings, when of
ourselves we publish them.
COUNTESS
What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah:
the complaints I have heard of you I do not all
believe: ’tis my slowness that I do not; for I know
you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability
enough to make such knaveries yours.
CLOWN
‘Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.
COUNTESS
Well, sir.
CLOWN
No, madam, ’tis not so well that I am poor, though
many of the rich are damned: but, if I may have
your ladyship’s good will to go to the world, Isbel
the woman and I will do as we may.

DUTCH:
[D]e klachten, die ik over u hoorde, wil ik niet alle gelooven; ‘t is uit lankmoedigheid, dat ik het niet doe; want ik weet, dat het u niet aan dwaasheid ontbreekt om zulke streken te begaan, en dat gij handigheid genoeg hebt om ze uit te voeren .

MORE:
Slowness=Dullness of intellect or comprehension (OED)
Folly=Perversity of judgment, absurdity
Knaveries=Roguish tricks
Even=Make even, even out
Compleat:
Slowness=Traagheyd, loomheyd
Folly (vice, excess, imperfection)=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid
Knavery=Guitery, boertery
To even=Effenen, vereffenen, effenmaaken, gelykmaaken

Topics: insult, offence, integrity, truth, trust, gullibility

The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Banquo
CONTEXT:
But ’tis strange.
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ’s
In deepest consequence.

DUTCH:
t Is vreemd; doch vaak
Verkonden, om ons in ‘t verderf te lokken,
De werktuigen der duisternis ons waarheid,
En winnen ons door eerlijkheid in ‘t kleine,
Om in het grootste ons te verraden!

MORE:
Schmidt:
To win=To gain in a moral sense; to move and prevail with by persuasion or any kind of influence

Topics: deceit, reason, betrayal, truth

The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Gonzalo
CONTEXT:
SEBASTIAN
You were kneeled to and importuned otherwise
By all of us, and the fair soul herself
Weighed between loathness and obedience, at
Which end o’ th’ beam should bow. We have lost your son,
I fear, forever. Milan and Naples have
More widows in them of this business’ making
Than we bring men to comfort them.
The fault’s your own.
ALONSO
So is the dearest o’ th’ loss.
GONZALO
My lord Sebastian,
The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
And time to speak it in. You rub the sore
When you should bring the plaster.
SEBASTIAN
Very well.
ANTONIO
And most chirurgeonly.
GONZALO
It is foul weather in us all, good sir,
When you are cloudy.

DUTCH:
Mijn prins Sebastiaan, wat gij waars daar zegt,
Mist zachtheid en den juisten tijd voor de uiting;
Gij schrijnt de wond, die gij verbinden moest.

MORE:
Schmidt/Arden:
Importune (in the sense of ‘ask urgently and persistently’ usu. with a person as obj.)
Weighed=Considered, balanced (between loathness and obedience)
Loathness=Unwillingness, reluctance; repulsion, dislike
Dearest=Bitterest, heaviest, coming at a high price
Time=The appropriate time
Chirurgeonly=In the manner of a surgeon:
Compleat:
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
Loathsomness=Walgelykheid
Chirurgery=De heelkunst, wondheelkunde
Chirurgion=een Heelmeester, wondheeler, wondarts. Beter ‘Surgeon’
Dear-bought experience=Een duurgekogte ondervinding

Topics: truth, language, civility, emotion and mood

The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Edgar
CONTEXT:
The weight of this sad time we must obey.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most. We that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

DUTCH:
Wij hebben ons bij rampspoed neer te leggen.
Zeg wat je voelt, niet wat wij moeten zeggen./
Ons dwingt van dezen tijd het droef gewicht;
Wij spreken ons gevoel, niet onzen plicht.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Weight=Burden, load
Obey=Comply with, submit to
Compleat:
Weight (importance, consequence)=Gewigt, belang
Obey=Gehoorzaamen
REFERENCED IN E&W LAW: Chambers v Director of Public Prosecutions [2012] EWHC 2157 (Admin) (27 July 2012)
Given the submissions by Mr Cooper, we should perhaps add that for those who have the inclination to use “Twitter” for the purpose, Shakespeare can be quoted unbowdlerised, and with Edgar, at the end of King Lear, they are free to speak not what they ought to say, but what they feel.

Topics: truth, honesty, age/experience, language, wisdom, caution

There’s no composition in this news that gives them credit

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
There’s no composition in this news
That gives them credit.
FIRST SENATOR
Indeed, they are disproportioned.
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys.
DUKE
And mine a hundred and forty.
SECOND SENATOR
And mine, two hundred.
But though they jump not on a just account—
As in these cases, where the aim reports
‘Tis oft with difference—yet do they all confirm
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus.
DUKE
Nay, it is possible enough to judgment.
I do not so secure me in the error,
But the main article I do approve
In fearful sense.

DUTCH:
Het nieuws is zeer verschillend in die brieven,
Dus niet betrouwbaar.

MORE:
Composition=Consistency
Credit=Credibility
Disproportioned=Inconsistent
Jump=Agree
Just=Exact
The aim=Conjecture, estimates
Secure=Find false security
Error=Discrepancy
Main article=The main point of the message
Fearful sense=Concerning, worrying
Compleat:
Composition=Bylegging; t’Zamenstelling, toestelling, afmaaking, t’zamenmengsel, vermenging
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam
Disproportion=Ongelykheid, onevenmaatigheyd, onevenredenheyd
To aim=(Guess) Mikken
To secure=In veyligheyd stellen, in zekerheyd brengen, redden, bergen; in vezekering neemen
Error=Fout, misslag, dwaaling, dooling
Fearful=Vreesachtig, vreeslyk, schroomelyk

Topics: news, security, truth, clarity/precision

They lie deadly that tell you have good faces

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Menenius
CONTEXT:
MENENIUS
Why, then you should discover a brace of
unmeriting, proud, violent, testy magistrates, alias
fools, as any in Rome.
SICINIUS
Menenius, you are known well enough, too.
MENENIUS
I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that
loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying
Tiber in’t; said to be something imperfect in
favouring the first complaint; hasty and tinder-like
upon too trivial motion; one that converses more
with the buttock of the night than with the forehead
of the morning: what I think I utter, and spend my
malice in my breath. Meeting two such wealsmen as
you are—I cannot call you Lycurguses—if the drink
you give me touch my palate adversely, I make a
crooked face at it. I can’t say your worships have
delivered the matter well, when I find the ass in
compound with the major part of your syllables: and
though I must be content to bear with those that say
you are reverend grave men, yet they lie deadly that
tell you you have good faces. If you see this in
the map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known
well enough too? what barm can your bisson
conspectuities glean out of this character, if I be
known well enough too?

DUTCH:
En hoewel ik het mij getroosten moet hen te laten uitspreken, die u eerbied-wardige mannen van gewicht noemen, vertellen toch zij, die zeggen, dat gij redelijk goede gezichten hebt, een leugen om van te barsten.

MORE:
Humorous=Capricious, whimsical
Converses more=Is more conversant with
Too trivial motion=Too trifling a provocation
Spend my malice in my breath=Vent my anger in words
Weal=(1) Welfare, prosperity, happiness; (2) Commonwealth, body politic
Wealsmen=Legislators
Testy=Easily angry, fretful, peevish
Motion=Incitement
Delivered=Spoken, presented
Good faces=(1) Honest faces; (2) Handsome faces
Reverend=Entitled to respect, venerable
Bisson (beesom)=Purblind
Conspectuities=Sight, vision
Glean=Conclude, infer
Map of my microcosm=Face
Compleat:
To deliver (or speak out in discourse)=Een redevoering doen
Purblind=Stikziende
The common-weal=’t Welvaaren van ‘t algemeen
A common-wealths man=Een republyks gezinde
Testy=Korzel, kribbig, gramsteurig, gemelyk
Crooked=Krom, geboogen, scheef

Topics: insult, perception, appearance, truth, honesty, deceit

They told me I was everything: ’tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
They flattered me like a dog and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones were there. To say “Ay” and “No” to everything that I said “Ay” and “No” to was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me once, and the wind to make me chatter, when the thunder would not peace at my bidding—there I found ’em, there I smelt ’em out. Go to, they are not men o’ their words. They told me I was everything. ‘Tis a lie, I am not ague-proof.

DUTCH:
Zij zeiden mij, dat ik alles en nog wat was ;
gelogen is ‘t – ik kan niet eens tegen de koorts op./
Loop heen, hun woorden betekenden
niets, ze zeiden dat ik alles voor hen was. Dat is een leugen.
Ik ben niet onvatbaar voor koorts.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Ague-proof=Able to resist the causes which produce agues (also: Immune to severe chill)
Divinity=Theology
Compleat:
Ague=Koorts die met koude komt, een verpoozende koorts

Topics: flattery, deceit, truth, promise, betrayal

This fellow doth not stand upon points.

DUTCH:
Die knaap let niet bijzonder op komma’s en punten.

MORE:
Quince alters the meaning of the Prologue completely by speaking punctuation in the wrong places.

Topics: language, offence, life, truth, honesty

Thou hast astonish’d me with thy high terms:

DUTCH:
Ik sta verbaasd van uwe fiere taal;
En deze proef slechts wensch ik van uw moed

MORE:
Resolve=Be assured, know this
High terms=Pompous words
Proof=Trial
Buckle=Grapple
Confidence=Trust

Topics: trust, language, dispute, truth

Though the truth of it stands off as gross As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.

PLAY: King Henry V
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry
CONTEXT:
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel,
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature?
Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels,
That knew’st the very bottom of my soul,
That almost mightst have coined me into gold,
Wouldst thou have practiced on me for thy use—
May it be possible that foreign hire
Could out of thee extract one spark of evil
That might annoy my finger? ‘Tis so strange
That, though the truth of it stands off as gross
As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it.
Treason and murder ever kept together
As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause
That admiration did not whoop at them.

DUTCH:
Het is zoo vreemd,
Dat, schoon de waarheid scherp en duid’lijk afsteek
Als wit en zwart, mijn oog ze nauw’lijks zien wil.

MORE:

Use=Advantage
Grossly=Palpably, evidently
Admiration=Astonishment
Key=Control, mastery or knowledge of the inner workings

Compleat:
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Admiration=Verwondering

Topics: evidence, good and bad, deceit, truth, conspiracy, loyalty

Though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our will

PLAY: Coriolanus
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: Third Citizen
CONTEXT:
THIRD CITIZEN
And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very
many of us: that we did, we did for the best; and
though we willingly consented to his banishment, yet
it was against our will.
COMINIUS
Ye’re goodly things, you voices!
MENENIUS
You have made
Good work, you and your cry! Shall’s to the Capitol?
COMINIUS
O, ay, what else?
SICINIUS
Go, masters, get you home; be not dismay’d:
These are a side that would be glad to have
This true which they so seem to fear. Go home,
And show no sign of fear.

DUTCH:
Dat deed ik ook; en, om de waarheid te zeggen, dat
deden velen van ons. Wat wij deden, dat deden wij om
bestwil; en al hebben wij vrijwillig in zijn verbanning
toegestemd, toch was het tegen onzen wil.

MORE:
Willingly=Readily
Will=Wishes
Shall ‘s to=Shall we make our way to
Compleat:
Willingly=Gewilliglyk

Topics: free will, independence, truth

Tis slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
PISANIO
Please you, read;
And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
The most disdain’d of fortune.
IMOGEN
[Reads] ‘Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the
strumpet in my bed; the testimonies whereof lie
bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak surmises,
but from proof as strong as my grief and as certain
as I expect my revenge. That part thou, Pisanio,
must act for me, if thy faith be not tainted with
the breach of hers. Let thine own hands take away
her life: I shall give thee opportunity at
Milford-Haven. She hath my letter for the purpose
where, if thou fear to strike and to make me certain
it is done, thou art the pandar to her dishonour and
equally to me disloyal.’
PISANIO
What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper
Hath cut her throat already. No, ’tis slander,
Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam?

DUTCH:
Wat is hier zwaard van noode ? Reeds de brief
Heeft haar de keel doorpriemd. — Neen, neen, ‘t is laster;
Diens vlijm is scherper dan het zwaard; zijn tand
Is giftiger dan ‘t giftigst Nijlgebroed.

MORE:
Slander is sharper than the sword (see Winter’s Tale, 2.3, and Measure for Measure, 3.2)
Worms=Serpents
Outvenom=Is more venomous than
Posting=Swift, fleet
Belie=Misrepresent
Compleat:
Slander=Laster, lasterkladde
In post-haste=Met groote spoed, te post
Belie (Bely)=Beliegen; lasteren
His actions bely his words=Zyn bedryf logenstraft zyne woorden; hy spreekt zich zelf tegen door zyn gedrag

Topics: language, law/legal, abuse, truth

To devise a lodging and say he lies here, or he lies there, were to lie in mine own throat

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Clown
CONTEXT:
CLOWN
I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
lodging and say he lies here, or he lies there, were to
lie in mine own throat.
DESDEMONA
Can you inquire him out and be edified by report?
CLOWN
I will catechise the world for him, that is, make
questions, and by them answer.
DESDEMONA
Seek him, bid him come hither. Tell him I have moved my
lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.
CLOWN
To do this is within the compass of man’s wit, and
therefore I will attempt the doing it.

DUTCH:
Ik weet niet waar hij verblijf houdt, en als ik u een verblijf verzin en zeg: hij schuilt hier of hij schuilt daar, dan verschuil ik mij achter een leugen.

MORE:
Devise=Invent
Lies=Lodges
Lie in the throat=A deliberate lie
Inquire out=Seek out by asking
Edified=Instructed
Catechise=To try by questions (allusion to instructional method)
Compass=Scope
Compleat:
To devise=Bedenken, verzinnen, uytvinden
Catechise=In ‘t geloof onderwyzen, katechizeren; een vermaaning geven
Compass=Omtrek, omkreits, begrip, bestek, bereik
It is not within the compass of humane skill=’t Gaat het bereik van ‘s menschen verstand te boven
Edify (to set examples of piety)=Stichten door een goed voorbeeld

Topics: truth, honesty, persuasion, skill/talent

To do this is within the compass of man’s wit

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Clown
CONTEXT:
CLOWN
I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a
lodging and say he lies here, or he lies there, were to
lie in mine own throat.
DESDEMONA
Can you inquire him out and be edified by report?
CLOWN
I will catechise the world for him, that is, make questions, and by them answer.
DESDEMONA
Seek him, bid him come hither. Tell him I have moved my lord on his behalf, and hope all will be well.
CLOWN
To do this is within the compass of man’s wit: and therefore I will attempt the doing of it.

DUTCH:
Dit te doen valt binnen het bereik van een gewoon menschenverstand en daarom wil ik wel beproeven het te doen.

MORE:

Devise=Invent
Lies=Lodges
Lie in the throat=A deliberate lie
Inquire out=Seek out by asking
Edified=Instructed
Catechise=To try by questions (allusion to instructional method)
Compass=Reach, range, scope Is it beyond the wit of man?)
Compleat:
Compass=Omtrek, omkreits, begrip, bestek, bereik
It is not within the compass of humane skill=’t Gaat het bereik van ‘s menschen verstand te boven
Catechise=In ‘t geloof onderwyzen, katechizeren; een vermaaning geven
Edify (to set examples of piety)=Stichten door een goed voorbeeld

Topics: skill/talent, intellect, truth, honesty

Truth tired with iteration

PLAY: Troilus and Cressida
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Troilus
CONTEXT:
TROILUS
O that I thought it could be in a woman—
As, if it can, I will presume in you—
To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love;
To keep her constancy in plight and youth,
Outliving beauty’s outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
Or that persuasion could but thus convince me,
That my integrity and truth to you
Might be affronted with the match and weight
Of such a winnowed purity in love;
How were I then uplifted! but, alas!
I am as true as truth’s simplicity
And simpler than the infancy of truth.
CRESSIDA
In that I’ll war with you.
TROILUS
O virtuous fight,
When right with right wars who shall be most right!
True swains in love shall in the world to come
Approve their truths by Troilus: when their rhymes,
Full of protest, of oath and big compare,
Want similes, truth tired with iteration,
As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
As sun to day, as turtle to her mate,
As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,
Yet, after all comparisons of truth,
As truth’s authentic author to be cited,
‘As true as Troilus’ shall crown up the verse,
And sanctify the numbers.

DUTCH:
Bij Troilus niet zweert, wanneer zijn lied,
Vol eeden reeds en prachtgelijkenissen ,
Een beeld behoeft, daar trouw die oude wraakt:

MORE:
Proverb: As true as truth itself

Affronted=Confronted
Winnowed=Separated, sifted grain from chaff
Uplifted=Overjoyed
War=Argue
Approve=Attest
Protest=Protestation
Big compare=Exaggerated comparison
Wants=Lacks
Turtle=Turtle dove
Adamant=Magnet
Compleat:
To affront=Hoonen, beschimpen; trotseeren
To winnow corn=Koorn wannen
To war=Oorlogen, kryg voeren
To approve=Beproeven, goedkeuren
Protestation=Betuyging, aantuyging, aankondiging, opentlyke verklaaring, vrybetuyging, tegeninlegging
Want=Gebrek
Adamant=Een diamant

Burgersdijk notes:
Als groeikracht aan de maan. Aan de maan werd groote invloed op den groei der planten toegeschreven.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, integrity, truth

Truth’s a dog that must to kennel.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Fool
CONTEXT:
Truth’s a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped out, when Lady Brach may stand by th’ fire and stink.

DUTCH:
De waarheid is een hond en moet in ‘t hok; ze moet afgeranseld worden, terwijl juffer hazewindjen aan den haard mag staan en stinken.

MORE:
Fools and jesters were whipped when they got out of line.
Schmidt:
Brach=”kind of scenting-dog”. We still see Brak or Braque breeds today.

Topics: truth, honesty, punishment

Truths would be tales, where now half-tales be truths

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Agrippa
CONTEXT:
CAESAR
Say not so, Agrippa.
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserved of rashness.
ANTONY
I am not married, Caesar. Let me hear
Agrippa further speak.
AGRIPPA
To hold you in perpetual amity,
To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
With an unslipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife, whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men,
Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealousies, which now seem great,
And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,
Where now half-tales be truths. Her love to both
Would each to other and all loves to both
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,
For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.

DUTCH:
Wordt nietige ijverzucht, die ‘t kleine groot maakt,
En groote vrees, die met gevaar thans dreigt,
Tot niets; wat nu een waarheid is, wordt sprookjen,
Terwijl thans halve sprookjes waarheid zijn.

MORE:
Rashness=Haste
Well-deserved=Befitting
Jealousies=Suspicions
Import=Bring with them
Tales=Hearsay
Half-tales=Unsubstantiated rumours
Present=Immediate, unconsidered
By duty=As a duty
Ruminated=Considered
Compleat:
Rashness=Voorbaarigheyd, haastigheyd, onbedachtheyd
Deserved=Verdiend
Deservedly=Naar verdienste; naar behoore
Jealousy (Jealoesie)(or suspicion)=Agterdogtig
Full of jealousies=Zeer agterdenkend
To import=Medebrengen, betekenen; invoeren
His words seemed to import thus much=Zyne woorden, zo ‘t scheen, bragten zoveel mee
To tell tales=Verklikken
Hearsay=Hooren zeggen
Present=Tegenwoordig
Duty=Eerbiedenis
To ruminate upon (to consider of) a thing=Eene zaak overweegen

Topics: truth, communication, friendship, unity/collaboration, resolution

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

Under the greenwood tree

PLAY: As You Like It
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Amiens
CONTEXT:
Under the greenwood tree,
Who loves to lie with me
And tune his merry note,
Unto the sweet bird’s throat;
Come hither, come hither, come hither.
Here shall he see No enemy
But winter and rough weather
…
Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i’ the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

If it do come to pass
That any man turn ass,
Leaving his wealth and ease,
A stubborn will to please,
Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame:
Here shall he see
Gross fools as he,
An if he will come to me.

DUTCH:
Al wie in ‘t groene woud
Van vredig leven houdt,
En graag een liedjen zingt,
Als ‘t vogelkeeltjen klinkt,
Die vlij’ zich hier neder, hier neder;
Niets, dat in ‘t veld
Hem grieft of kwelt,
Dan kou soms en ruw weder.

MORE:
Proverb: A bad bush is better than the open field

“Under the Greenwood Tree” has been used since, e.g. Name of a song, Novel by Thomas Hardy. The phrase is said to have originated from before Shakespeare’s time, in the Robin Hood balllads: ‘We be yemen of this foreste / Vnder the grene wode tre’.

Topics: provebs and idioms, still in use, nature, truth

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

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

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

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

Topics: sadness, guilt, truth, status

We must obey the time

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
OTHELLO
My life upon her faith!—Honest Iago,
My Desdemona must I leave to thee.
I prithee, let thy wife attend on her,
And bring them after in the best advantage.
Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour
Of love, of worldly matter and direction,
To spend with thee. We must obey the time.

DUTCH:
Kom, Desdemona; slechts een enkel uur
Is mij voor liefde en reeg’ling van ons huis
Met u vergund; de tijd beheerscht ons doen.

MORE:
In the best advantage=Most favourable opportunity
Obey the time=Time is pressing
Compleat:
To give one the advantage=Iemand de voortogt geven
Advantage=Voordeel, voorrecht, winst, gewin, toegift

Topics: time, plans/intentions, life, deceit, truth, opportunity

We’ll sift this matter further

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
KING
Thou speak’st it falsely, as I love mine honour;
And makest conjectural fears to come into me
Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove
That thou art so inhuman,—’twill not prove so;—
And yet I know not: thou didst hate her deadly,
And she is dead; which nothing, but to close
Her eyes myself, could win me to believe,
More than to see this ring. Take him away.
My fore-past proofs, howe’er the matter fall,
Shall tax my fears of little vanity,
Having vainly feared too little. Away with him!
We’ll sift this matter further.
BERTRAM
If you shall prove
This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy
Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence,
Where yet she never was.
KING
I am wrapp’d in dismal thinkings.

DUTCH:
Hoe ‘t loope, wat ik vroeger van hem zag,
Spreekt van lichtvaardigheid mijn argwaan vrij ,
Want al te arg’loos was ik. Weg met hem!
Wij onderzoeken ‘t nader.

MORE:
As I love mine honour=Upon my honour
Conjectural=Based on conjecture, guesswork
Fain=Gladly
Tax=Charge, accuse
Vanity=Foolishness
Fore-past=Antecedent
Compleat:
Fain=Gaern
Conjectural=Op gissing steunende
Vanity=Ydelheid
To tax=Beschuldigen

Topics: truth, honesty, evidence

Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh

PLAY: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Helena
CONTEXT:
LYSANDER
Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
Scorn and derision never come in tears.
Look, when I vow, I weep. And vows so born,
In their nativity all truth appears.
How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
Bearing the badge of faith to prove them true?
HELENA
You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish holy fray!
These vows are Hermia’s. Will you give her o’er?
Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh.
Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
Will even weigh, and both as light as tales.

DUTCH:
Uw dubbelhartigheid wordt zonneklaar;
Doodt trouwe trouwe, o booze heil’genstrijd !
Uw eed heeft Hermia; verzaakt gij haar?
‘t Weegt niets, die eeden, haar en mij gewijd;
Leg de’ eed aan haar, aan mij elk in een schaal,
Beide even licht, licht als een droomverhaal !

MORE:
In scorn=In mockery
Badge of faith=Tears
Advance=Increase
Cunning=Deceit
Truth kills truth=One truth cancels out another
Tales=Lies
Compleat:
In scorn=Spotswyze
Badge=Teken
Advance=Vordering, voortgang
Cunning=Loosheyd, listigheyd, behendigheyd
To tell tales=Verklikken, sprookjes vertellen

Topics: truth, appearance, love, promise, honesty

What madness rules in brainsick men,
When for so slight and frivolous a cause
Such factious emulations shall arise!

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
YORK
Will not this malice, Somerset, be left?
SOMERSET
Your private grudge, my Lord of York, will out,
Though ne’er so cunningly you smother it.
KING HENRY VI
Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men,
When for so slight and frivolous a cause
Such factious emulations shall arise!
Good cousins both, of York and Somerset,
Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace.

DUTCH:
God! welk een waanzin heerscht in dolle mannen,
Als om zoo nietige en zoo ijd’le reden
Zoo vinnige partijschap zich verheft! —

MORE:
Be left (leave)=To cease, desist, discontinue
Factious=Dissentious, rebellious, partisan
Emulation=Rivalry

Compleat:
Factious=Oproerig, muitzuchtig, muitziek
Emulation=Naayver, volgzucht, afgunst

Topics: dispute, envy, truth, madness

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, can the devil speak true?

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Banquo
CONTEXT:
ROSS
And, for an earnest of a greater honor,
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane,
For it is thine.
BANQUO
What, can the devil speak true?
MACBETH
The thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
In borrowed robes?

DUTCH:
Wat! spreekt de duivel waarheid?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Earnest=Subst., handsel, part paid beforehand as a pledge
Compleat:
Handsel, Hansel=Handgift
To give/take hansel=Handgift geeven/ontvangen
To hansel something=een ding voor ‘t eerst gebruiken
I took hansel before my shop was quite open=Ik ontving handgeld voor dat myn winkel nog ter deeg open was.

Topics: truth, good and bad, honesty, money, business

When his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it
is that he will steal himself into a man’s favour and
for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but
when you find him out, you have him ever after.
BERTRAM
Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of
this that so seriously he does address himself unto?
SECOND LORD
None in the world; but return with an invention and
clap upon you two or three probable lies: but we
have almost embossed him; you shall see his fall
to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship’s
respect.
FIRST LORD
We’ll make you some sport with the fox ere we case
him. He was first smoked by the old lord LAFEW:
when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a
sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this
very night.
SECOND LORD
I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.

DUTCH:
Wij zullen een grap met den vos hebben, eer wij hem
het vel aftrekken. De oude heer Lafeu was de eerste,
die de lucht van hem heeft gekregen; als zijn vermomming hem is afgerukt, zeg mij dan eens, welk een katvisch gij hem bevindt ; gij zult het nog deze nacht zien .

MORE:
Steal himself=Creep furtively, insinuate himself
Make no deed=Do nothing
Embossed=Ambushed, cornered (hunting term)
Smoked=Scented, smoked from its hole
Twigs=Trap (often smeared with bird lime)
Compleat:
Steal=Doorsluypen
Emboss=Dryven
To emboss a deer=Een hart in ‘t woud jaagen
Bird-lime=Vogellym

Topics: truth, discovery, promise, debt/obligation, work

When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
About a certain question in the law

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Basset
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VI
What is that wrong whereof you both complain?
First let me know, and then I’ll answer you.
BASSET
Crossing the sea from England into France,
This fellow here, with envious carping tongue,
Upbraided me about the rose I wear;
Saying, the sanguine colour of the leaves
Did represent my master’s blushing cheeks,
When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
About a certain question in the law
Argued betwixt the Duke of York and him;
With other vile and ignominious terms:
In confutation of which rude reproach
And in defence of my lord’s worthiness,
I crave the benefit of law of arms.

DUTCH:
Toen die de waarheid vinnig had weerstreefd
Bij zeek’ren redetwist om recht en wetten,
Dien hij gehad had met den hertog York,
Met verdre lage schimp- en lastertaal

MORE:
Wrong=Wrongdoing, offence, trespass
Envious=Malicious, spiteful, jealous of another’s good fortune
Carping=Mocking
Upbraid=To reproach
Sanguine=Blood-red
Repugn=Reject
Confutation=Legal refutation
Law of arms=A duel

Compleat:
Wrong=Nadeel
Envious=Nydig, afgunstig, wangunstig
To upbraid=Verwyten, smaadelyk toedryven
Sanguine=Bloed-rood
To repugn=Wederstreeven, bestryden, tegenstryden, wederstaan
Confutation=Wederlegging

Topics: dispute, envy, truth, language

Why, do you think he will really make no attempt at all to do this thing he so seriously vows to do?

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.6
SPEAKER: Bertram
CONTEXT:
FIRST LORD
You do not know him, my lord, as we do: certain it
is that he will steal himself into a man’s favour and
for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but
when you find him out, you have him ever after.
BERTRAM
Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of
this that so seriously he does address himself unto?
SECOND LORD
None in the world; but return with an invention and
clap upon you two or three probable lies: but we
have almost embossed him; you shall see his fall
to-night; for indeed he is not for your lordship’s
respect.
FIRST LORD
We’ll make you some sport with the fox ere we case
him. He was first smoked by the old lord LAFEW:
when his disguise and he is parted, tell me what a
sprat you shall find him; which you shall see this
very night.
SECOND LORD
I must go look my twigs: he shall be caught.

DUTCH:
Dus meent gij inderdaad, dat hij niets zal doen van
dat alles, dat hij met zooveel ernst op zich genomen heeft?

MORE:
Steal himself=Creep furtively, insinuate himself
Make no deed=Do nothing
Probable=Plausible
Embossed=Ambushed, cornered (hunting term)
Smoked=Scented, smoked from its hole
Twigs=Trap (often smeared with bird lime)
Compleat:
Steal=Doorsluypen
Emboss=Dryven
To emboss a deer=Een hart in ‘t woud jaagen
Bird-lime=Vogellym

Topics: truth, discovery

You have often Begun to tell me what I am;
but stopp’d. And left me to a bootless inquisition

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Miranda
CONTEXT:
PROSPERO
‘Tis tIme
I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand
And pluck my magic garment from me. So,
Lie there my art. Wipe thou thine eyes, have comfort;
The direful spectacle of the wreck which touched
The very virtue of compassion in thee,
I have with such provision in mine art
So safely ordered, that there is no soul –
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel
Which thou heard’st cry, which thou sawst sink.
Sit down, For thou must now know further.
MIRANDA
You have often
Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp’d.
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding “Stay: not yet.”

DUTCH:
Vaak begont gij
Mij te vertellen, wie ik ben, doch telkens
Hieldt ge op, en al mijn vragen was vergeefsch;
Het eind was steeds: „Nog niet.”

MORE:
Provision=Prevision, foresight
Perdition=Loss
Bootless inquisition=Fruitless inquiry
Compleat:
Provision=Voorzorg
Perdition=Verderf, verlies, ondergang
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos

Topics: sorrow, grief, mercy, discovery, truth

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

DUTCH:
Uw leugenig lokaas vangt dien waren karper /
Met kunstaas haalt men echte karpers op

MORE:
Schmidt:
Indirection= oblique course or means
Windlasses=Roundabout ways
Bias (in a bad sense)=that which is from the straight line, indirect ways, shifts
Compleat:
To bias=Overhellen, doen overzwaaijen
Windlass=Een katrel met verscheidene schyven, een windaas

Topics: truth, discovery, intellect, skill/talent