CJTranslations - Henry IV part 2

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A peace is of the nature of a conquest, For then both parties nobly are subdued, And neither party loser.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2 ACT/SCENE: 4.1 SPEAKER: Archbishop CONTEXT: JOHN OF LANCASTER
The word of peace is rendered. Hark how they shout.
MOWBRAY
This had been cheerful after victory.
ARCHBISHOP
A peace is of the nature of a conquest,
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser. DUTCH: Een vrede is éen van aard met overwinnen;
De twee partijen zijn met eer bedwongen,
En geen partij verliest. MORE:
Burgersdijk notes:
De vrede is uitgeroepen enz. Misschien ware, als letterlijker, te verkiezen: ,Vrede is het wachtwoord; hoort eens, welk gejuich”! Topics: resolution conflict, remedy

A rascally yea-forsooth knave, to bear a gentleman in hand and then stand upon security!

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Let him be damned like the glutton! Pray God his tongue be
hotter! A whoreson Achitophel, a rascally yea-forsooth
knave, to bear a gentleman in hand and then stand upon
security! The whoreson smoothy-pates do now wear
nothing but high shoes and bunches of keys at their girdles;
and if a man is through with them in honest taking up, then
they must stand upon security. I had as lief they would put
ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with “security.”

DUTCH:
Zoo ‘n hondsvot van een Achitofel! zoo’n schoftige ja-waarachtig-schelm! een man van stand aan den praat te houden, en dan op een borgtocht te staan!

MORE:
Yea-forsooth=Too ready to with the oath
Bear in hand=Assure
Stand upon=Demand
Smoothy-pates=Short-haired Puritan businessmen
Keys at their girdles=Self-important, with keys implying assets
Had as lief=Would just as soon
Ratsbane=Rat poison

Compleat:
To bear one in hand (to make fair pretences that a thing shall be done)=Iemand met schoone beloften paaijen
To stand (or insist) upon one’s privilege=Op zyne voorrechten staan, dezelven vorderen
To stand upon his reputation=Op zyne eere staan
I had as lief=Ik wilde al zo lief

Topics: insult, security, business

Against ill chances men are ever merry, but heaviness foreruns the good event.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
MOWBRAY
You wish me health in very happy season,
For I am on the sudden something ill.
ARCHBISHOP
Against ill chances men are ever merry,
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
WESTMORELAND
Therefore be merry, coz, since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus: “Some good thing comes tomorrow.”

DUTCH:
Als onheil naakt, is steeds de mensch blijmoedig;
Zwaarmoedigheid verkondigt goed geluk./
Bij slechte kansen zijn mensen altijd vrolijk, maar depressies kondigen een gunstige afloop aan

MORE:

Happy season=The appropriate time
Something=Somewhat
Heaviness=Sorrow, sadness, melancholy
Forerun=Precede

Compleat:
Season (a proper time to do a thing)=Een bekwamen tyd om iets te doen
In due season=Ter rechter tyd, recht van pas
Something (somewhat)=Iets, iet, wat
Heaviness (or sadness)=Verdriet, droefheid, leetweezen

Topics: fate/destiny, wellbeing, sorrow

An habitation giddy and unsure Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
Let us on,
And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice.
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited.
An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many, with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be.
And being now trimmed in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him
That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up.

DUTCH:
Een duiz’lig en onveilig huis bewoont
Wie op het harte van de menigt’ bouwt.

MORE:

Publish=Announce
Surfeited=Glutted, satiated
Vulgar=Common, of the people
Fond=Foolish
Trimmed=Dressed, furnished
Cast=Vomit

Compleat:
To publish=Openbaarmaaken, bekendmaaken
To surfeit=Ergens zat van worden; zich overlaaden
Vulgar= (common) Gemeen
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Trim (or furnish)=Opleggen, voorzien
To cast=Werpen, smyten, gooijen, smakken; overslag maaken

Topics: integrity, preparation

An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself when a knave is not.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Davy
CONTEXT:
I grant your Worship that he is a knave, sir, but yet, God
forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his
friend’s request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for
himself when a knave is not. I have served your Worship
truly, sir, this eight years; an if I cannot once or twice in a
quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, I have
a very little credit with your Worship. The knave is mine
honest friend, sir; therefore I beseech you let him be
countenanced.

DUTCH:
Een eerlijk man, heer, kan voor
zichzelf spreken, als een schelm het niet kan

MORE:

Countenance=Favour, support
Bear out=Support
Knave=Rascal, villain
Credit=Good opinion and influence derived from it

Compleat:
To bear out=Goedmaaken, staande houden, bewyzen, voorstaan’
Knave=Een guit, boef
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam

Topics: honesty, truth, law/legal

Are these things then necessities? Then let us meet them like necessities.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Warwick
CONTEXT:
Such things become the hatch and brood of time,
And by the necessary form of this,
King Richard might create a perfect guess
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness,
Which should not find a ground to root upon
Unless on you.
KING
Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities.
And that same word even now cries out on us.
They say the Bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong.

DUTCH:
Zijn deze dingen noodzaak?
Dijn haar bejegend, als men noodzaak doet!

MORE:

Proverb: He that once deceives is ever suspected

Guess=Conjecture
False=Betraying

Compleat:
Guess=Gissen, raamen, raaden
False (treacherous)=Verraderlyk

Topics: betrayal, age/experience, necessity

Away, you mouldy rogue, away!

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Doll Tearsheet
CONTEXT:
DOLL
Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What, you poor, base, rascally, cheating lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.
PISTOL
I know you, Mistress Dorothy.
DOLL
Away, you cutpurse rascal, you filthy bung, away!
By this wine, I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy
chaps an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away,
you bottle-ale rascal, you basket-hilt stale juggler,
you. Since when, I pray you, sir? God’s light, with
two points on your shoulder? Much!

DUTCH:
Voor mij? Loop heen, gij smerige hondsvot! Wat!
Zoo ‘n arme, gemeene, schelmachtige, zwendelende sinjeur
Zonderhemd! Weg, gij beschimmelde schavuit, weg!
Ik ben een lekkerbeetjen voor uw meester.

MORE:

Proverb: To be meat for another’s mouth (1598)

Bung=Cutpurse; sharper. In thieving, nipping a bung was to cut a purse. Later also used to describe a pocket.
Cuttle=Knife used by sharpers to cut the bottom of purses (worn hanging from a belt).
Two points=Mark of a commission

Compleat:
Sharper=Een die door behendigheid, ‘t zy met recht of onrecht, iets poogt te bekoomen, een inhaalige vent

Topics: insult, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

But since all is well, keep it so. Wake not a sleeping wolf.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
Well, I am loath to gall a new-healed wound. Your day’s
service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night’s
exploit on Gad’s Hill . You may thank th’ unquiet time for
your quiet o’erposting that action.
FALSTAFF
My lord.
CHIEF JUSTICE
But since all is well, keep it so. Wake not a sleeping wolf.

DUTCH:
Wij willen het er bij laten, maar laat gij liet er ook bij! maak geen slapenden wolf wakker!

MORE:

Proverb: It is evil (ill, not good) waking of a sleeping dog

Schmidt:
Gall=To hurt by friction, to excoriate
O’erpost=Get over quickly (get away with)

Compleat:
To gall=’t Vel afschuuren, smarten
Unquiet=Ongerust, onrustig

Topics: good and bad, caution

By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.4
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
PETO
The King your father is at Westminster,
And there are twenty weak and wearied posts
Come from the north, and as I came along
I met and overtook a dozen captains,
Bareheaded, sweating, knocking at the taverns
And asking everyone for Sir John Falstaff.
PRINCE HENRY
By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame
So idly to profane the precious time
When tempest of commotion, like the south
Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt
And drop upon our bare unarmèd heads.—
Give me my sword and cloak.—Falstaff, good night.

DUTCH:
Bij God, Poins, ik gevoel mij zeer te laken;
Dat ik den eed’len tijd zoo wuft ontwijd

MORE:
Posts=Messengers
Bareheaded=Not properly dressed in public
Commotion=Tumult, sedition; violent weather

Compleat:
Post (messenger that carries lettrrs)=Een post, boode
Bareheaded=Blootshoofds
Commotion=Beweeging, beroerte, oproer, oploop

Topics: time, preparation

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

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

Fie, what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation?

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
MISTRESS QUICKLY
It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all I have. He hath eaten me out of house and home. He hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his. (to FALSTAFF)
But I will have some of it out again, or I will ride thee o’ nights like the mare.
FALSTAFF
I think I am as like to ride the mare if I have any vantage of ground to get up.
CHIEF JUSTICE
How comes this, Sir John? Fie, what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own?

DUTCH:
Foei, welk een rechtgeaard
man zou zulk een storm van verwenschingen dulden?
Schaamt gij u niet, dat gij een arme weduwe tot zulke
middelen dwingt om aan het hare te komen?

MORE:
Onions:
Exclamation=loud complaint, ‘vociferous reproach’.
Vantage=Advantage of high ground to mount the horse
Eaten out of house and home: This phase was not coined by Shakespeare; it dates back to the beginnings of the English language and even appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1129.

Topics: excess, claim

Flatt’ring himself in project of a power

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Lord Bardolph
CONTEXT:
LORD BARDOLPH
It was, my lord; who lined himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flatt’ring himself in project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts,
And so, with great imagination
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death
And, winking, leapt into destruction.
HASTINGS
But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope.

DUTCH:
Geheel, Inylord; hij voedde zich met hoop,
Met de’ ijdlen klank van toegezegden bijstand,
Zich vleiend met het droombeeld eener macht,
Die minder bleek zelfs dan zijn minste raming;

MORE:

Proverb:
Look before you leap

Schmidt:
To eat the air=To be deluded with hopes, living on nothing
Likelihood=Probability, chance
Project of=A chalking out, a forming in the mind, an idea
Wink=To shut the eyes or to have them shut so as not to see
Forms of hope=Hopeful plans

Compleat:
To line=To fortify, to strengthen
To wink=Door de vingeren zien
Likelyhood=Waarschynlykheid

Topics: hope/optimism, promise, imagination, madness

From Rumour’s tongues They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1 Prologue
SPEAKER: Rumour
CONTEXT:
But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword,
And that the King before the Douglas’ rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumoured through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
Where Hotspur’s father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour’s tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

DUTCH:
Waar Heetspoors vader, graaf Northumberland,
Sluw krank ligt. Moede boden komen aan,
Doch geen brengt ander nieuws dan ik hem leerde,
Elk zoeten schijntroost, komende uit mijn mond,
Veel erger dan een waar bericht, dat wondt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
To noise abroad=Verb meaning to report or spread rumour
Peasant=Condescending description of village inhabitants as ignorant
Crafty-sick=Feigning illness
Post=Courier, messenger

Compleat:
To noise abroad=Uitbrommen, uittrompetten
Peasant=Landman, boer
Crafty=Loos, listig, schalk, doortrapt, leep

Topics: betrayal, deceit, appearance, perception, language

Had they been ruled by me, You should have won them dearer than you have.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
LANCASTER
A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
FALSTAFF
And a famous true subject took him.
COLEVILE
I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither. Had they been ruled by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.
FALSTAFF
I know not how they sold themselves, but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis, and I thank thee for thee.

DUTCH:
Ik weet niet, waarvoor zij zich verkocht hebben; maar
gij, goede jongen, gaaft uzelven voor niet weg, en ik
dank u voor u.

MORE:

You should have won them dearer=Victory would have cost you more

Topics: life, dispute, achievement

He came ever in the rearward of the fashion.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
When he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. He was so forlorn that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible. He was the very genius of famine, yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him “mandrake.” He came ever in the rearward of the fashion, and sung those tunes to the overscutched houswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and swore they were his fancies or his good-nights. And now is this Vice’s dagger become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John o’ Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him, and I’ll be sworn he ne’er saw him but once in the tilt-yard, and then he burst his head for crowding among the Marshal’s men.

DUTCH:
Hij kwam altijd een paar modes achteraan en zong aan de afgeranselde vrouwmenschen de deuntjens voor, die hij van karrelieden had hooren fluiten, en zwoer dan dat het zijn eigen minneliederen of nachtgroeten waren.

MORE:

Overscutched or overscotched=Scutch or scotch is a cut with lash, rod or whip.
Rearward=The last troop, rearguard
Ever in the rearward of the fashion=Always behind the times, out of fashion
Carmen=Carters
Mandrake=The plant Atropa mandragora, the root of which was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness and even death, when torn from the ground
Fancies=Fastasias, improvised music
Good-nights=Serenades
Genius=Embodiment
Thick sight=Short-sightedness

Compleat:
The rear of an army=De agterhoede van een leger
Mandrake=Alrin, Mandragora

Topics: fashion/trends, leadership

He hath a tear for pity and a hand Open as day for melting charity.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love,
Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
By seeming cold or careless of his will.
For he is gracious if he be observed;
He hath a tear for pity and a hand
Open as day for melting charity;
Yet notwithstanding, being incensed he is flint,
As humorous as winter, and as sudden
As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
His temper therefore must be well observed.

DUTCH:
Den traan van ‘t meêlij heeft hij, en een hand
Voor weeke goedheid open als de dag;

MORE:

He is gracious if he be observed=If he is shown respect
Humorous=Changeable (as the weather in winter)
Omit=Disregard, ignore
Careless=Heedless, having no regard to, indifferent to
Flint=Proverbial hard, source of fire
Melting=Feeling pity

Compleat:
Careless=Zorgeloos, kommerloos, achteloos, onachtzaam
Omit=Nalaaten, overslaan, voorbygaan, verzuimen
Flint=Een keisteen, vuursteen, keizel, flint
Humoursom (humerous)=Eigenzinnig, koppig, styfhoofdig, eenzinnig

Topics: pity, emotion and mood, respect, flaw/fault

He is not his craft’s master. He doth not do it right.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Shallow
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
Come, manage me your caliver: so, very well, go to, very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, chopped, bald shot. Well said, i’ faith, Wart. Th’ art a good scab. Hold, there’s a tester for thee.
SHALLOW
He is not his craft’s master. He doth not do it right. I remember at Mile End Green, when I lay at Clement’s Inn— I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur’s show—there was a little quiver fellow, and he would manage you his piece thus. And he would about and about, and come you in, and come you in. “Rah, tah, tah,” would he say. “Bounce,” would he say, and away again would he go, and again would he come. I shall ne’er see such a fellow.

DUTCH:
Hij is nog geen meester in het handwerk, hij doet het
nog niet goed.

MORE:

Caliver=Type of (light) musket
Shot=Rifleman
Scab=Rascal
Tester=Sixpence

Compleat:
Caliver=Een klein stukje Kanon, dat men op Zee gebruikt
Scab=Schurft; een roof
Tester=Een stukje van zes stuivers

Burgersdijk notes:
Op de Vogelweide. In het Engelsch wordt de gemeenteweide van Mile-end genoemd. Daar werden hij schuttersfesten gecostumerde optochten gehouden en met name het hof van koning Arthur voorgesteld, waartoe de sedert 1485 herhaalde malen gedrukte Morte d’Arthur, alsmede volksgezangen, rijkelijk aanleiding gaven. Bij een dezer feesten had Zielig Sir Dagonet, d. i. Arthurs hofnar, voorgesteld.

Topics: skill/talent merit, work

He may keep his own grace, but he’s almost out of mine, I can assure him.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
The juvenal, the Prince your master, whose chin is not yet
fledge—I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm
of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek,
and yet he will not stick to say his face is a face royal.
God may finish it when He will.
’Tis not a hair amiss yet.
He may keep it still at a face royal, for a barber
shall never earn sixpence out of it,
and yet he’ll be crowing as if he had writ man
ever since his father was a bachelor.
He may keep his own grace, but he’s
almost out of mine, I can assure him.

DUTCH:
Een prinselijke genade kan hij zijn en
blijven, maar bij mij is hij bijna uit de genade, dat kan
ik hem verzekeren

MORE:

Juvenal=Youth
Amiss=Out of time and order, wrong
Not a hair amiss=Not a hair out of place
Fledge=Covered with down
Stick=Hesitate
Face royal=Majestic face
Writ man=Having reached maturity, manhood
Barber shall never earn a sixpence=Barber would have nothing to shave

Compleat:
Stick=Schroomen
To stick at a thing (to make a conscience or a scruple)=Geweetenswerk ergens van maaken
He sticks at nothing for lucre’s sake=Hij ontziet niets om voordeels wille
Grace (agreeableness)=Bevalligheid
Grace=Genade
Fledged=Met veeren voorzien

Topics: insult, patience, pity, respect, age/experience

He was indeed the glass Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Lady Percy
CONTEXT:
(…) Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost, yours and your son’s.
For yours, the God of heaven brighten it.
For his, it stuck upon him as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven, and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs that practiced not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse
To seem like him. So that in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,
In military rules, humours of blood,
He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashioned others.

DUTCH:
Ja, hij was de spiegel,
Waar heel de jeugdige adel zich voor tooide.

MORE:
Speaking thick=Speaking fast
Accent=Speech pattern
Glass=Mirror
Affectations of delight=Recreations
Humours of blood=Temperament

Compleat:
Humours of the body=De humeuren van het lichaam
Affectation=Een al te nauwkeurige naaaping, gemaaktheid, waanwysheid; gemaakt

Topics: fashion/trends, honour, leadership

His wit’s as thick as Tewksbury mustard.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
DOLL TEARSHEET
They say Poins has a good wit.
FALSTAFF
He a good wit? Hang him, baboon. His wit’s as thick as
Tewksbury mustard. There’s no more conceit in him than is
in a mallet.
DOLL TEARSHEET
Why does the Prince love him so then?
FALSTAFF
Because their legs are both of a bigness, and he plays at quoits well, and eats conger and fennel, and drinks off candles’ ends for flap-dragons, and rides the wild mare with the boys, and jumps upon joint stools, and swears with a good grace, and wears his boots very smooth, like unto the sign of the Leg, and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories, and such other gambol faculties he has that show a weak mind and an able body, for the which the Prince admits him; for the Prince himself is such another. The weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois.

DUTCH:
Hij nog al geest? aan den galg met den baviaan! Zijn
geest is zoo dik als Tewksburger mosterd, hij heeft niet
meer vernuft, dan er in een wilden woerd zit.

MORE:
Tewkesbury mustard, reputedly the finest in England, was only sold in the form of mustard balls. Renowned for its sharp flavour. Legend has it that Henry VIII was presented with gold leaf-covered Tewkesbury Mustard Balls when he visited Tewkesbury.

Schmidt:
Conceit=Wit, imagination
Mallet=Heavy wooden hammer
Quoits=Game in which metal rings are thrown at a pin in the ground
Conger and fennel=Eel (thought to blunt the wit) seasoned with fennel
Flapdragons=Drinking game
Wild-mare=See-saw
Bate=Quarrel
Avoirdupois=Weight

Compleat:
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Conger=Een soort van groote paling
Avoirdupois=Gewigt van xvi oncen in ‘t pond

Topics: insult, imagination, intellect

How quickly nature falls into revolt When gold becomes her object!

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
The Prince hath ta’en it hence. Go seek him out.
Is he so hasty that he doth suppose my sleep my death?
Find him, my Lord of Warwick. Chide him hither.
This part of his conjoins with my disease
And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are,
How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!
For this the foolish overcareful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts,
Their brains with care, their bones with industry.
For this they have engrossèd and piled up
The canker’d heaps of strange-achievèd gold.
For this they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises—
When, like the bee, tolling from every flower
The virtuous sweets,
Our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey,
We bring it to the hive and, like the bees,
Are murdered for our pains. This bitter taste
Yield his engrossments to the ending father.

DUTCH:
Ziet, zoons, wat wezens zijt gij! Met welk een spoed vervalt natuur tot opstand, Als goud haar doelwit wordt!/
Hoe snel komt de mens in opstand, wanneer het goud zijn doel wordt?

MORE:

Part=Action
Thoughtful=Heedful
Engrossèd=Gathered together
Cankered=Corroded
Strange-achieved=Gained abroad; by devious means
Tolling=Collecting
Engrossment=Accumulation

Compleat:
Part=Plicht, post
To engross=Te boek stellen, in’t net stellen’ opkoopen, na zich neemen
Strange (foreign)=Vreemd, uitheemsch

Topics: still in use

I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears, and I care not if I do become your physician.
FALSTAFF
I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient. Your Lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me in respect of poverty, but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself.

DUTCH:
Ik ben zoo arm als Job, mylord, maar zulk een lijdzaam lijder zou ik niet zijn. Uwe lordschap kan mij den drank der gevangenschap opdringen; maar of ik als lijder uwe voorschriften zou opvolgen, daarover kan de wijze wel een grein van een scrupel koesteren, ja geheel scrupuleus zijn.

MORE:

Proverb: To have the patience of Job

“To punish you by the heels” is another reference to the punishment of baffling. This was formally a punishment of infamy inflicted on recreant nights, which included hanging them up by the heels.

Schmidt:
Minister to=Administer (medicines), to prescribe, to order
Scruple=The third part of a dram; proverbially a very small quantity
Make a dram of a scruple=Quibble
Potion=Medicine, remedy

Compleat:
Dram=Vierendeel loods; een zoopje, een borrel
Scruple=Een gewigtje van xx greinen
To scrupule=Zwaarigheid maaken

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

I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of this
foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent
anything that tends to laughter more than I invent, or is
invented on me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause
that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath
overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the Prince put
thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off,
why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake,
thou art fitter to be worn in my cap than to wait at my heels.
I was never manned with an agate till now, but I will inset
you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send
you back again to your master for a jewel.

DUTCH:
Het brein van die dwaas samengestelde klei, die mensch heet, is niet in staat iets uit te denken, wat tot lachen dient, dan wat ik uitdenk, of wat over mij wordt uitgedacht; ik heb niet alleen geest in mijzelf, maar ben ook oorzaak, dat andere menschen
geestig zijn.

MORE:

Schmidt:
To gird at=To quiz, to taunt
Foolish-compounded=Clay made of folly
Overwhelmed=Squashed
Set me off=Make me look good, show me to my best advantage (by contrast)
Mandrake=The plant Atropa mandragora, the root of which was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness and even death, when torn from the ground
Worn in my cap=As an ornament
Agate=Small person (from the little figures cut in a stone of the flint kind, often worn in rings)

Compleat:
To gird=Boerten
Compounded=Saamengezet, bygelegd, afgemaakt, vereffend
To set off a thing=Iets fraai voor doen
Mandrake=Alrin, Mandragora
Agate=Agaat

Topics: intellect, respect

I am only old in judgement and understanding.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Mylord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head and something a round belly. For my voice, I have lost it with halloing and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old in judgement and understanding. And he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box of the ear that the Prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents.
Marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.

DUTCH:
Verder mijn jeugd bewijzen wil ik niet; de waarheid is, dat ik alleen oud ben in verstand en doorzicht, en wie met mij om een duizend mark luchtsprongen wil maken, moge mij het geld leenen en dan toezien.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Sack=The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines
Caper=A leap, a spring, in dancing or mirth
Sack-cloth=Coarse cloth worn in mourning and mortification:
Checked=Rebuked

Compleat:
Sack=Sek, een soort van sterke wyn
Caper=Een Kaper, als mede een Sprong
Check=Berispen, beteugelen, intoomen, verwyten
Sack-cloth=Zak-doek. Sack-cloth and ashes=Zak en assche

Topics: fashion/trends, age/experience, understanding, wisdom

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 can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse.
Borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is
incurable. Go bear this letter to my Lord of Lancaster, this
to the Prince, this to the Earl of Westmoreland; and this to
old Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry
since I perceived the first white hair on my chin. About it.
You know where to find me.

DUTCH:
Ik weet geen middel tegen die uittering van de beurs; borgen rekt en rekt de ziekte, maar de kwaal is ongeneeslijk,

MORE:

Proverb: He is purse-sick and lacks a physician

Linger=To protract, to draw out, not to bring to a speedy end
Consumption=A wasting disease
Ursula=Name meaning ‘bear’

Compleat:
Consumption=Verquisting, vertier
To linger=Leuteren, draalen

Topics: remedy, excess, money

I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe. My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me. Here comes our general.

DUTCH:
Ik heb een gansche school van tongen in dezen mijnen
buik, en geen van al die tongen spreekt een ander woord dan mijn naam.

MORE:

Indifferency=Average, moderate measure
Womb=Belly

Compleat:
Indifference=Onverschilligheid; middelmaatigheid

Topics: language, identity, skill/talent

I have in equal balance justly weighed What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer, And find our griefs heavier than our offences.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
Wherefore do I this? So the question stands.
Briefly, to this end: we are all diseased,
And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it; of which disease
Our late King Richard, being infected, died.
But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
I take not on me here as a physician,
Nor do I as an enemy to peace
Troop in the throngs of military men,
But rather show awhile like fearful war
To diet rank minds sick of happiness
And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance justly weighed
What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,
And find our griefs heavier than our offences.

DUTCH:
Ik heb op juiste schalen streng gewogen,
Wat leed onze oorlog brengt, wat leed wij lijden,
En vind de grieven zwaarder dan ‘t vergrijp.

MORE:
Surfeiting=Gluttony, self-indulgence
Bleed=Be bled
Take on me=Assume the role of
Rank=Sick, corrupted, morbid

Compleat:
To bleed one=Iemand bloed aftappen, laaten; bloedlaating, bloeding
To surfeit (satiate or glut)=Ergens zat van worden, het moede worden
Surfeiting=Overlaading van de maag

Topics: excess, judgment, remedy, resolution

I know not the phrase, but I will maintain the word with my sword

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Lord Bardolph
CONTEXT:
Pardon, sir; I have heard the word—“phrase” call you it? By this day, I know not the phrase, but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldierlike word, and a word of exceeding good command, by heaven. “Accommodated,” that is when a man is, as they say, accommodated, or when a man is being whereby he may be thought to be accommodated, which is an excellent thing.

DUTCH:
Neem niet kwalijk, heer; ik heb het woord van hooren zeggen. Phrase noemt gij het? Bij den hemel, de phrase ken ik niet; maar het woord wil ik met mijn zwaard volhouden, dat het een goed soldatenwoord is, en een uitmuntend goed woord om te commandeeren…

MORE:
Burgersdijk notes:
Blz. 333. III. 2. 72. Geaccommodeerd. Een modewoord uit Sh.’s tijd, zooals die in groote steden soms opkomen en dan telkens en telkens gebruikt worden; Bardolf kent het woord dus van hooren zeggen; op het land raken zulke uitdrukkingen slechts langzaam bekend of in gebruik; van hier Zieligs verbazing. Ben Jonson bespot het woord ook in zijn “Every man in his humour.”

Topics: language, understanding

I muse you make so slight a question.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Westmoreland
CONTEXT:
WESTMORELAND
That is intended in the General’s name.
I muse you make so slight a question.
ARCHBISHOP
Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule,
For this contains our general grievances.
Each several article herein redressed,
All members of our cause, both here and hence,
That are insinewed to this action,
Acquitted by a true substantial form
And present execution of our wills
To us and to our purposes confined,
We come within our awful banks again
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.

DUTCH:
Dit ligt reeds in den naam van generaal;
‘k Verbaas mij over zulk een ijd’le vraag.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Muse=Wonder that
Slight (a question)=Insignificant, worthless, frivolous
Confined=No more than (ourselves and our purposes)
Hence=There (elsewhere)
Insinew=Impart vigour to
Form=formal agreement
Awful=Inspiring awe (awe-full)

Compleat:
Muse=Bepeinzen
Slight=Van weinig belang, een beuzeling
Confined=Bepaald, bedongen; gevangen

Topics: agreement, purpose

I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an end.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
And now is this Vice’s dagger become a squire, and talks as
familiarly of John o’ Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother
to him, and I’ll be sworn he ne’er saw him but once in the
tilt-yard, and then he burst his head for crowding among the
Marshal’s men. I saw it and told John o’ Gaunt he beat his
own name, for you might have thrust him and all his apparel
into an eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion
for him, a court. And now has he land and beefs. Well, I’ll
be acquainted with him, if I return, and ’t shall go hard but
I’ll make him a philosopher’s two stones to me. If the young
dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of
nature but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an
end.

DUTCH:
Als de jonge voren een hapjen is voor een ouden
snoek, dan zie ik naar het natuurrecht geen reden, waarom
ik niet naar hem zou mogen happen. Komt tijd, komt
raad, — en daarmee uit.

MORE:

Proverb: The great fish eat up the small

Sworn brother=Comrade in arms
Hautboy=Musical instrument similar to modern oboe
But I’ll=If I don’t
Trussed=Packed (some versions have thrust …into)
Dace=The fish Cyprinus Leuciscus

Compleat:
Sworn-brothers=Eedgenooten, vloekverwanten
To truss=Inpakken
Dace=Een zekere visch, een daas

Topics: proverbs and idioms, achievement, poverty and wealth, time

I then did use the person of your father; The image of his power lay then in me.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me.
And in th’ administration of his law,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your Highness pleasèd to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the King whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment,
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority
And did commit you.

DUTCH:
Toen was ik plaatsvervanger van uw vader,
De drager, ‘t zichtbaar beeld van zijne macht.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Use the person of=acting for, in the place of, with the authority of
Place=position, rank
Presented=represented

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

Topics: authority, status, justice

I will not excuse you. You shall not be excused. Excuses shall not be admitted. There is no excuse shall serve. You shall not be excused.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Shallow
CONTEXT:
By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away tonight. What, Davy, I say!
FALSTAFF
You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow.
SHALLOW
I will not excuse you. You shall not be excused. Excuses shall not be admitted. There is no excuse shall serve. You shall not be excused. Why, Davy!

DUTCH:
Ik wil u niet ontschuldigen; gij zult niet ontschuldigd
worden; ontschuldigingen worden niet aangenomen; geen
ontschuldiging helpt u; gij zult niet ontschuldigd worden.
Kom toch, David!

MORE:

Schmidt:
Cock and pie=Mild oaath meaning God and the book
Cock=Corruption or rather disguise of the name of God

Topics: still in use, identity, understanding, independence

I would to God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they
have a good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs
say I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.
CHIEF JUSTICE
Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your expedition!
FALSTAFF
Will your Lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth?
CHIEF JUSTICE
Not a penny, not a penny. You are too impatient to bear crosses. Fare you well. Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland.

DUTCH:
Gave God, dat mijn naam bij den vijand niet zoo geducht ware als hij is; ik wierd liever van roest geheel verteerd, dan tot niets afgeschuurd door eeuwig-durende beweging.

MORE:

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

Onions:
Trick=custom, habit, way; art, knack, skill
Compleat:
Trick=Een looze trek, greep, gril

Burgersdijk notes:
Gij staat niet vast genoeg op uw beenen enz. In ‘t Engelsch: you are too impatient to bear crosses.
Crosses beteekent: ongemakken, rampen, en ook munten, waarvan de stempel een kruis vertoont.

Topics: law/legal, respect

If we can make our peace Upon such large terms and so absolute As our conditions shall consist upon, Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Hastings
CONTEXT:
MOWBRAY
There is a thing within my bosom tells me
That no conditions of our peace can stand.
HASTINGS
Fear you not that. If we can make our peace
Upon such large terms and so absolute
As our conditions shall consist upon,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
MOWBRAY
Yea, but our valuation shall be such
That every slight and false-derivèd cause,
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,
Shall to the King taste of this action,
That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love,
We shall be winnowed with so rough a wind
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.

DUTCH:
Vrees dit geenszins! Gelukt het ons, den vrede
Zoo hecht te vesten op zoo breeden grondslag,
Als die, waar onze vord’ring zich aan houdt,
Dan is de vrede onwrikbaar als een rots.

MORE:

Schmidt:
False-derivèd cause=Not based on truth
Wanton=Capricious, frivolous
Winnowed=Sifted, tried. Winnowed opinions: probably truisms

Compleat:
To winnow corn=Koorn wannen

Topics: contract, hope/optimism, good and bad

In poison there is physic, and these news, Having been well, that would have made me sick, Being sick, have in some measure made me well.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
In poison there is physic, and these news,
Having been well, that would have made me sick,
Being sick, have in some measure made me well.
And as the wretch whose fever-weakened joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper’s arms, even so my limbs,
Weakened with grief, being now enraged with grief,
Are thrice themselves. Hence therefore, thou nice crutch.
A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
Must glove this hand.

DUTCH:
k Zal lang genoeg hierover kunnen treuren.
In gift schuilt artsenijkracht; en dit nieuws,
Dat, ware ik wel, mij krank gemaakt zou hebben,
Maakt, nu ik krank ben, bijna mij gezond

MORE:

Physic=Medicine
Having been=Had I been
Fit=Illness
Keeper=Nurse
Nice=Effeminate, not manly

Compleat:
Physick=Artseny, medicyn, geneesmiddel
To physick=Geneesmiddelen gebruiken, medicineeren

Topics: wellbeing, remedy

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one of another.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
If I had a suit to Master Shallow, I would humor his men with the imputation of being near their master; if to his men, I would curry with Master Shallow that no man could better command his servants. It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one of another. Therefore let men take heed of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out of six fashions, which is four terms, or two actions, and a’ shall laugh without intervallums.

DUTCH:
Het is zeker , dat zoowel een wijs gedrag als een onnoozele wijs van doen aanstekelijk zijn, zooals de menschen kwalen krijgen, de een van den ander; daarom moet de mensch toezien, met wie hij omgaat.

MORE:

Curry=Curry favour, flatter
Carriage=Behaviour
Six fashions=Four terms (one year for the legal profession) or two actions
Intervallum=Interval, interruption

Compleat:
To curry favour+Smeerschoenen, flikflooijen
To curry with one=Zyn hof by iemand maaken
Carriage=Gedrag, aanstelling, ommegang

Topics: wisdom, emotion and mood, friendship, flattery

It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
POINS
How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?
PRINCE HENRY
Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
POINS
Yes, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing.
PRINCE HENRY
It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
POINS
Go to. I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.

DUTCH:
Het zal voor geesten, die niet hooger staan dan gij, zijn dienst kunnen doen.

MORE:

Push=A thrust, calculated either to overturn something, or to set it in motion; hence attack, onset
Stand the push=Withstand the attack
Wits=intellects

Compleat:
To push=Stooten, duwen

Topics: intellect, equality, learning/education

It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Lancaster
CONTEXT:
LANCASTER
It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.
FALSTAFF
I know not. Here he is, and here I yield him. And I beseech
your Grace let it be booked with the rest of this day’s deeds
or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with
mine own picture on the top on ’t, Colevile kissing my foot;
to the which course if I be enforced, if you do not all show
like gilt twopences to me, and I in the clear sky of fame o’ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element (which show like pins’ heads to her), believe not the word of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.

DUTCH:
Dat was meer zijne hoffelijkheid dan uwe verdienste.

MORE:

Courtesy=good manners, good breeding; act or show of politeness
Booked=Recorded, documented
Particular ballad=Special ballad devoted to person or occasion
Gilt twopences=Gilded to give the appearance of a half a crown
Cinders of the element=Stars
Desert=Promise, worth, merit
Mount=Rise

Compleat:
Courtesy=Beleefdheid, hoflykheid,, eerbiedigheid; genyg, nyging; vriendelykheid
To book=Te boek stellen, boeken
Desert (from to deserve)=Verdienste, verdiende loon
Mount=Opklimmen, opstygen

Topics: civility, achievement

Let the end try the man.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the
devil’s book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and
persistency. Let the end try the man. But I tell thee,
my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick;
and keeping such vile company as thou art hath in
reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.

DUTCH:
Het eind zal ‘t leeren.

MORE:

Proverb: The end crowns (tries) all

Schmidt:
Obduracy=Hardness of heart, impenitence in wickedness
Ostentation=External show, display (here not boastful)

Compleat:
Ostentation=Beroeming, snorkery, ydele eer, roemzucht, gebral
Obduracy=Hardnekkigheid, verstoktheid

Topics: time, life, age/experience, appearance

Let us take any man’s horses. The laws of England are at my commandment.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.3
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Come, Pistol, utter more to me, and withal devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow. I know the young King is sick for me. Let us take any man’s horses. The laws of England are at my commandment. Blessed are they that have been my friends, and woe to my Lord Chief Justice!

DUTCH:
Laten wij paarden nemen, waar wij ze vinden; de wetten van Engeland staan mij ten bevele. Wel hun, die mijn vrienden waren, en wee den lord opperrechter!

MORE:
“Let us take any man’s horses. The laws of England are at my commandment. ” Falstaff is abusing the right of ‘purveying’ here.

Topics: caution, status, value, law/legal

Like one that draws the model of a house Beyond his power to build it

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Lord Bardolph
CONTEXT:
Much more in this great work,
Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up, should we survey
The plot of situation and the model,
Consent upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite. Or else
We fortify in paper and in figures,
Using the names of men instead of men,
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it, who, half through,
Gives o’er and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds
And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny.

DUTCH:
Versterken wij ons met papier en cijfers,
Met menschennamen slechts en niet met menschen,
Als iemand, die een plan maakt van een huis,
Ver boven zijn vermogen, ‘t bouwt ter helfte,
Het opgeeft, en zijn stukwerk-kost’lijkheid
Aan ‘t weenend zwerk als naakte speelpop laat,
Aan ‘s barren winters will’keur als een buit.

MORE:
This great work=The impending war
Pluck=Pull down by force
Plot of situation=Punning on plot (plan) and plot (of land)
Churlish=Rough, violent, brutal
Fortify=To strengthen and secure by works of defence
Consent upon a sure foundation=Agree, be certain of a sound basis

Compleat:
Churlish=Woest, boersch, onbeschoft
Pluck=Rukken, plukken

Topics: preparation, value

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

My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You call honourable boldness “impudent sauciness.” If a man will make curtsy and say nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor. I say to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the King’s affairs.

DUTCH:
Mylord, ik kan mij deze terechtwijzing niet stilzwijgend laten welgevallen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Sneap=Reprimand, snubbing
I will not be your suitor=I will not be submissive
Deliverance=Release
Hasty employment=Urgent work

Compleat:
Hasty=Haastig
Deliverance=Borg stellen voor ‘t wederleveren van iets
Suiter in chancery=een Pleiter in de Kanselarij

Burgersdijk notes:
Ik zeg u, dat ik van deze gerechtsdienaars ontslagen wensch te worden. Falstaff geeft blijk, dat hij de wet wel kent; hij roept hare bescherming in, quia profecturus, zooals ‘t heet.

Topics: reply, respect

Never a man’s thought in the world keeps the roadway better than thine.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
PRINCE
What wouldst thou think of me if I should weep?
POINS
I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
PRINCE
It would be every man’s thought, and thou art a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks. Never a man’s thought in the world keeps the roadway better than thine. Every man would think me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful thought to think so?

DUTCH:
Dat zou iedereens gedachte zijn; en gij zijt een gezegend schepsel, dat gij denkt, zooals iedereen denkt; geens stervelings gedachten houden den grooten weg beter dan de uwe.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Accite=To cite, to summon
Keeps the roadway=Is in line with public opinion, predicably common

Topics: time, life

Never so few, and never yet more need.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
MORTON
(…) But now the Bishop
Turns insurrection to religion.
Supposed sincere and holy in his thoughts,
He’s followed both with body and with mind,
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
Of fair King Richard, scraped from Pomfret stones;
Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;
Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more and less do flock to follow him.
NORTHUMBERLAND
I knew of this before, but, to speak truth,
This present grief had wiped it from my mind.
Go in with me and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety and revenge.
Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed.
Never so few, and never yet more need.

DUTCH:
Werft vrienden, werft ze ras, met brief en bode;
Nooit waren zij zoo schaarsch, en zoo van noode.

MORE:

Supposed=Considered to be
Enlarge=Spread, extend
Bestride=Stand over in defence
More and less=Higher and lower ranks

Compleat:
Supposed=Vermoed, ondersteld, gewaand
Bestrride=Beschryden

Topics: friendship, leadership, integrity, honesty

Note this: the King is weary Of dainty and such picking grievances.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
Note this: the King is weary
Of dainty and such picking grievances,
For he hath found to end one doubt by death
Revives two greater in the heirs of life;
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
And keep no telltale to his memory
That may repeat and history his loss
To new remembrance.

DUTCH:
Neen, neen, mylord. Bedenk: de koning is
Dat vergezocht, spitsvondig wrokken moe.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Dainty=minute, detailed
Picking=fastidious
Wipe his tables clearn=A tablet of slate or ivory

Compleat:
Picking=Poikking, pluizing; pikkende
Tell-tale=Een verklikker, klikspaan

Topics: memory, truth, patience

O foolish youth, Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.
I stay too long by thee; I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth,
Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.

DUTCH:
Uw wensch was vader dier gedachte, Hendrik./
Je wens is de vader van de gedachte

MORE:

Proverb: The wish is father to the thought

Hunger for =Longing to see
Wilt needs=Must

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use

Past and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
They that, when Richard lived, would have him die
Are now become enamored on his grave.
Thou, that threw’st dust upon his goodly head
When through proud London he came sighing on
After th’ admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Criest now “O earth, yield us that King again,
And take thou this!” O thoughts of men accursed!
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.

DUTCH:
Booze vloek, dat wij ‘t verleden
En ‘t morgen prijzen, ‘t heden staag vertreden!

MORE:

Accursed=Cursed, doomed to misery and destruction
Heels=Applied to persons attended or pursued by others

Topics: hope/optimism, ingratitude, value

Presume not that I am the thing I was.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.5
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:
Presume not that I am the thing I was,
For God doth know—so shall the world perceive—
That I have turned away my former self.
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots.
Till then I banish thee, on pain of death,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders.
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evils.
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strengths and qualities,
Give you advancement.
Be it your charge, my lord,
To see performed the tenor of my word.—
Set on.

DUTCH:
En waan niet, dat ik ben, wat ik eens was!
De hemel weet, en zien zal ‘t nu de wereld,
Dat ik den rug keerde aan mijn vroeger ik,
En ‘t hun zal doen, die eertijds met mij waren.

MORE:
Feeder=Inciter
Competence=Pension, sufficient means of subsistence

Topics: flaw/fault, regret, good and bad, poverty and wealth

Rather, an ’t please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
It hath it original from much grief, from study, and perturbation of the brain. I have read the cause of his effects in Galen. It is a kind of deafness.
CHIEF JUSTICE
I think you are fallen into the disease, for you hear not what
I say to you.
FALSTAFF
Very well, my lord, very well. Rather, an ’t please you, it is
the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that
I am troubled withal.
CHIEF JUSTICE
To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of
your ears, and I care not if I do become your physician.

DUTCH:
Een tuchtiging op uw voetzolen zou de oplettendheid van uw ooren beter maken; en ik zou er niet tegen opzien, uw arts te worden.

MORE:

It original=Its cause, origins
Galen=Second century Greek physician regarded as a medical authority
“To punish you by the heels” is another reference to the punishment of baffling. This was formally a punishment of infamy inflicted on recreant nights, which included hanging them up by the heels.

Schmidt:
Perturbation=Disturbance, disorder, disquiet

Compleat:
To lay one by the heels (send to prison)=Iemand gevangen zetten
Perturbation=Ontroering, beroering, verstooring
To mark=Opletten

Burgersdijk notes:
Een tuchtiging op uwe voetzolen. In ‘t Engelsch staat eigenlijk aan de hielen; de straf met het voetblok is bedoeld, welke aan landloopers werd opgelegd. In Koning Lear wordt Kent zoo gestraft.

Topics: respect, punishment

Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the feared.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Warwick
CONTEXT:
It cannot be, my lord.
Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared. Please it your Grace
To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord,
The powers that you already have sent forth
Shall bring this prize in very easily.
To comfort you the more, I have received
A certain instance that Glendower is dead.
Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill,
And these unseasoned hours perforce must add
Unto your sickness.

DUTCH:
Dit kan niet zijn, mijn vorst.
‘t Gerucht verdubbelt, als de stem der echo,
Het tal van wie men ducht

MORE:

Like the voice and echo=As an echo doubles the voice
Unseasoned=Unrasonable, irregular hours
Instance=Proof

Compleat:
Unseasoned=Ontoebereid
Unseasonable=Ontydig
Instance=Een voorval, voorbeeld, exempel; aandringing, aanhouding; blyk

Topics: language, truth

Rumour is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1 Prologue
SPEAKER: Rumour
CONTEXT:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defense,
Whiles the big year, swoll’n with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wav’ring multitude,
Can play upon it.

DUTCH:
Een fluit is het Gerucht,
Waar gissing, argwaan, ijverzucht op blaast,
Met kleppen, zoo gemakk’lijk voor den greep,
Dat zelfs het stomp, ontelbaar-hoofdig monster,
De wisselzieke, steeds verdeelde menigt’,
Er op kan spelen

MORE:

Proverb: As many heads as Hydra
Proverb: A multitude of people is a beast of many heads

Blunt monster with uncounted heads=Hydra, a many-headed monster (used to describe the common people)

Schmidt:
Stop=In music, the holes in a flute or pipe to regulate the sounds
Still=Continuously
Discordant=Disagreeing
Blunt=Dull in understanding

Compleat:
Discordant=Tweedragtig, oneenig; – wanluidende.
Blunt=Stomp, bot, plomp, onbebouwen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, good and bad, consequence

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

Sir, I will be as good as my word. This that you heard was but a color

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE:
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this. I shall be sent for in private to him. Look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancements. I will be the man yet that shall make you great.
SHALLOW
I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give me your doublet and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.
FALSTAFF
Sir, I will be as good as my word. This that you heard was but a color.

DUTCH:
Heer, ik zal zoo goed als mijn woord zijn; wat gij
daar gehoord hebt, was maar voor den schijn.

MORE:
Proverb: An honest man is as good as his word

Topics: promise, appearance

Some about him have too lavishly Wrested his meaning and authority.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Lancaster
CONTEXT:
I like them all, and do allow them well,
And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father’s purposes have been mistook,
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning and authority.
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redressed;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours, and here, between the armies,
Let’s drink together friendly and embrace,
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
Of our restorèd love and amity.

DUTCH:
En enk’len om hem hebben al te stout
Des konings meening en bevel verdraaid.

MORE:

Discharge=dismiss, disperse

Schmidt:
Amity=good understanding, friendship
To wrest=turn the wrong way, misinterpret
Too lavishly wrested=misinterpret to advantage, overstepped
(Ill-wresting=misinterpreting to disadvantage)

Onions:
Shakespeare first to use discharge to mean ‘letting off a firearm’; ’emission’; ‘payment’; ‘performance or execution’.

Compleat:
To wrest=verdraaijen, wringen
To wrest one’s words maliciously=Iemands woorden kwaadaardig verdraaijen
To wrest a thing from one=Iemand iets ontwringen, iemand iets afpersen

Topics: friendship, leadership, duty, resolution

That argues but the shame of your offence. A rotten case abides no handling.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Westmorland
CONTEXT:
WESTMORELAND
Mowbray, you overween to take it so.
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear.
For, lo, within a ken our army lies,
Upon mine honor, all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
Our armor all as strong, our cause the best.
Then reason will our hearts should be as good.
Say you not then our offer is compelled.
MOWBRAY
Well, by my will, we shall admit no parley.
WESTMORELAND
That argues but the shame of your offence.
A rotten case abides no handling.

DUTCH:
Dit tuigt slechts van de schendigheid uws doens;
Een etterbuil laat geen betasting toe.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Overween=To be arrogant or presumptuous
Within a ken=In sight, within eyeshot
Parley=A conversation or conference tending to come to an agreement
Admit no parley=We will not negotiate
A ken=Boundary of sight

Compleat:
Overwean or overween=Al te veel van zich zelven houden, zich vleijen
Parley=Een gesprek over voorwaarden, onderhandeling, gesprekhouding
Beyond the ken (or keen) of vulgar understanding=Het begrip des gemeenen volks te boven

Topics: evidence, dispute, still in use, proverbs and idioms

The first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
Yet, for all this, say not that Percy’s dead.
I see a strange confession in thine eye.
Thou shak’st thy head and hold’st it fear or sin
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so.
The tongue offends not that reports his death;
And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
Not he which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell
Remembered tolling a departing friend.

DUTCH:
Toch, de eerste brenger van onwelkom nieuws
Heeft een ondankb’ren post, en later klinkt
Zijn tong steeds als een doffe klank en doet
Ons de uitvaart eens verscheiden vriends herdenken.

MORE:

Proverb: To belie the dead is a sin

Strange=Reluctant, uncompliant
Hold=Believe to be
Belie=Slander
Losing office=Thankless task
Sullen=Mournful

Compleat:
To hold a thing to be true=Iets staande houden of verdedigen, waar te zyn
Thankless=Ondankbaar, geen dankens waard
Office (service)=Dienst; (part or duty)=Plicht

Topics: duty, memory

There is a history in all men’s lives

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Warwick
CONTEXT:
KING
(…) But that necessity so bowed the state
That I and greatness were compelled to kiss—
“The time shall come,” thus did he follow it,
“The time will come that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption”—so went on,
Foretelling this same time’s condition
And the division of our amity.
WARWICK
There is a history in all men’s lives
Figuring the nature of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life, which in their seeds
And weak beginnings lie intreasurèd.
Such things become the hatch and brood of time,
And by the necessary form of this,
King Richard might create a perfect guess
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness,
Which should not find a ground to root upon
Unless on you.

DUTCH:
Elk menschenleven is als een geschied’nis,
Die de natuur des dooden tijds herspiegelt.

MORE:

Proverb: He that once deceives is ever suspected (falseness)

Intreasured=Laid up, as in a treasury
Main chance=General probability
Gathering head=Coming to a head, a push

Compleat:
Now my designs gathering to a head=Nu beginnen myn voornemens ryp te worden
To look to the main chance=Het hoofdzaakelyke betragten

Topics: necessity, life

There is no need of any such redress, Or if there were, it not belongs to you.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Westmoreland
CONTEXT:
WESTMORELAND
When ever yet was your appeal denied?
Wherein have you been gallèd by the King?
What peer hath been suborned to grate on you,
That you should seal this lawless bloody book
Of forged rebellion with a seal divine
And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge?
ARCHBISHOP
My brother general, the commonwealth,
To brother born an household cruelty,
I make my quarrel in particular.
WESTMORELAND
There is no need of any such redress,
Or if there were, it not belongs to you.

DUTCH:
Niets geeft het recht om zoo dien eisch te doen,
En ware er recht, dan komt dit u niet toe.

MORE:

Commotion’s bitter edge=The edge of commotion, bitter strife
Consecrate=It was a custom for the Pope to consecrate the general’s sword

Schmidt:
Quarrel=Any dispute or contest that cannot be settled by words; a private difference as well as a dissension and combat for a public cause and on a larger scale

Compleat:
Consecrate=Heiligen, wyen, toewyen
Burgersdijk notes:
Mijn algemeene broeder, onze staat enz. Deze drie regels zijn in het oorspronkelijk zeer gewrongen; de plaats is zeker bedorven, maar de beteekenis is niet twijfelachtig.

Topics: rights, claim, remedy, justification

There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed But peace puts forth her olive everywhere.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Westmorland
CONTEXT:
Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all
Are brought to the correction of your law.
There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed
But peace puts forth her olive everywhere.
The manner how this action hath been borne
Here at more leisure may your Highness read
With every course in his particular.

DUTCH:
Niet één rebellenzwaard is meer ontbloot;
De vrede doet de’ olijf alom ontspruiten.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Correction=Chastisement
Peace puts forth her olive=The olive branch of peace is extended

Topics: mercy, justice, resolution

They flock together in consent like so many wild geese

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
It is a wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men’s spirits and his. They, by observing of him, do bear themselves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justice-like servingman. Their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society that they flock together in consent like so many wild geese.

DUTCH:
Hun ziel en zijn zie-reclhterachtige zijn onder den invloed van hun onderlingen omgang zoo met elkander getrouwd, dat zij zich eendrachtig opeendringen als even zoovele wilde ganzen.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Semblable=resembling, similar
Birds of a feather flock together wasn’t invented by Shakespeare but was already in use in the mid 16th century.

Compleat:
Semblable=Gelijk. Semblably=Desgelyks
Semblance of truth=Schyn van waarheid

Topics: leadership, friendship

Thou art a summer bird, Which ever in the haunch of winter sings The lifting up of day.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: King
CONTEXT:

KING
O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,
Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
The lifting up of day.
Enter HARCOURT
Here comes more news.
HARCOURT
From enemies heaven keep your Majesty,
And when they stand against you, may they fall
As those that I am come to tell you of.
The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph,
With a great power of English and of Scots,
Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown.
The manner and true order of the fight
This packet, please it you, contains at large.

DUTCH:
O, Westmoreland, gij zijt een zomervogel,
Die aan des winters verz’nen steeds den opgang
Des nieuwen dags bezingt.

MORE:

Haunch=Hind part, towards the end (of winter)
Shrieve=Sheriff

Topics: emotion and mood, wellbeing

Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought.

DUTCH:
Uw wensch was vader dier gedachte, Hendrik./
Je wens is de vader van de gedachte

MORE:

Proverb: The wish is father to the thought

Hunger for =Longing to see
Wilt needs=Must

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use

To mock the expectation of the world, To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out Rotten opinion,

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Prince Hal
CONTEXT:
There is my hand.
You shall be as a father to my youth,
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practiced wise directions.—
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you:
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections,
And with his spirit sadly I survive
To mock the expectation of the world,
To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now.
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament,
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best governed nation

DUTCH:
En ‘k overleef hem ernstig, met zijn geest,
Om dwaas te maken, wat de wereld wacht,
Profeten te beschamen, en de meening,
Die, voos, alleen naar mijnen schijn, mij boekte,
Te niet te doen.

MORE:

Intent=Intention
Affections=Wild inclinations
Raze out=Erase
Mock=Flout
Rotten=Unwholesome
Seeming=Outward appearance
Vanity=Folly, futility
Proudly=Imperiously, overbearingly
Limbs=Members

Compleat:
Intent=Oogmerk, einde, opzet
To raze out=Uitschrabben, doorhaalen, uitkladden, uitveegen
A man rotten to the core=Een man die van binnen niet deugt
Proudly=Hovaardiglyk, verwaandelyk, hoogmoediglyk
Limbs=Leden

Topics: work, integrity, duty

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

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

Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, The which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1 Prologue
SPEAKER: Rumour
CONTEXT:
Open your ears, for which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth.
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world.

DUTCH:
Voortdurend zweeft er laster op mijn topgen,
En dien verkondig ik in elke taal ,
Der menschen oor met valsche tijding vullend.
Van vrede spreek ik, als verholen haat,
Schijngoedig lachend, diep de wereld wondt;

MORE:

Stop=Block
Vent of hearing=Ears
Post-horse=A horse kept at a post-house or the inn for messengers or travellers; emblem of swiftness
Drooping=West, where the sun sets
Unfold=Reveal

Compleat:
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Drooping=Neerslagtig, moedeloosheid; quynenende

Topics: betrayal, deceit, appearance, perception, language

Use his men well, Davy, for they are arrant knaves and will backbite.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Shallow
CONTEXT:
SHALLOW
Yea, Davy. I will use him well. A friend i’ th’ court is better than a penny in purse. Use his men well, Davy, for they are arrant knaves and will backbite.
DAVY
No worse than they are back-bitten, sir, for they have marvellous foul linen.
SHALLOW
Well-conceited, Davy. About thy business, Davy.

DUTCH:
Onthaal zijn manschappen goed, David, want zij zijn aartsschelmen en achter den rug maken zij iemand zwart.

MORE:

Proverb: A friend at court is as good as a penny in the purse.

Schmidt:
Conceited=possessed with an idea; fanciful, imaginative
Marvellous foul=very dirty; filthy
Backbite=to slander one absent
Use=treat

Onions:
Conceited=full of imagination or fancy, ingenious; possessed of an idea

Compleat:
Backbite=Achterklappen, belasteren
Marvellous=Wonderlyk

Burgersdijk notes:
Achter den rug maken iemand zwart. In ‘t Engelsch een dergelijke woordspeling met backbite.

Topics: law, authority, offence, punishment

Virtue is of so little regard in these costermongers’ times

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
Not so, my lord. Your ill angel is light, but I hope he that
looks upon me will take me without weighing. And yet in
some respects I grant I cannot go. I cannot tell. Virtue is of
so little regard in these costermongers’ times that true valor
is turned bear-herd; pregnancy is made a tapster, and hath his
quick wit wasted in giving reckonings. All the other gifts
appurtenant to man, as the malice of this age shapes them,
are not worth a gooseberry. You that are old consider not the
capacities of us that are young. You do measure the heat of
our livers with the bitterness of your galls, and we that are in
the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

DUTCH:
De deugd is in deze kruidenierstijden zoo weinig in aanzien, dat echte dapperheid berenhoeder moet worden.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Angel=A coin (ill angel=false coin, a coin that is light (clipped)) (Every person was traditionally thought to have a good angel and a bad angel, sometimes appearing in the morality plays)
Regard=Opinion, estimation, or judgement
Costermonger=A petty dealer, a mercenary soul, (In these costermonger times: These times when the prevalence of trade has produced that meanness that rates the merit of every thing by money. Johnson)
Bear-herd (other passages have berrord, berard and bearard)=Bear leader
Pregnancy=Cleverness
Malice=Malignity, disposition to injure others
Liver=Regarded as the seat of love and passion
Gall=Source of bile, hence seat of rancour
Vaward=Vanguard
Wag=Light-hearted youth, joker

Compleat:
Costermonger (one who sells fruit)=Fruitkooper
Pregnancy of wit=Doordringendheid van verstand
Malice=Kwaadaardigheid, boosheid, spyt, kwaadheid
Wag=Een potsemaaker, boef
Vaward=Voorhoede

Topics: virtue, age/experience, money, honesty

We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Hastings
CONTEXT:
We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone.

DUTCH:
De tijd beheerscht ons, en de tijd eischt spoed

MORE:

Topics: time

What trust is in these times?

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Archbishop
CONTEXT:
What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard lived, would have him die
Are now become enamored on his grave.
Thou, that threw’st dust upon his goodly head
When through proud London he came sighing on
After th’ admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Criest now “O earth, yield us that King again,
And take thou this!” O thoughts of men accursed!
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.

DUTCH:
Wie kan deze eeuw betrouwen?

MORE:

Accursed=Cursed, doomed to misery and destruction
Heels=Applied to persons attended or pursued by others

Topics: trust

What, you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
What, you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.
FALSTAFF
A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow. If I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.
CHIEF JUSTICE
There is not a white hair on your face but should have his effect of gravity.

DUTCH:
Denk, gij zijt als een kaars, waar de beste helft van is opgebrand.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Wassail=A drinking-bout, carousing, quaffing and a candle used at festivities
Wax=Punning on growth (wax and wane)
Approve=Prove

Compleat:
Wassail=Een slempmaal, slemp-feest

Topics: insult, excess

When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model,

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Lord Bardolph
CONTEXT:
Yes, if this present quality of war—
Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot—
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds, which to prove fruit
Hope gives not so much warrant as despair
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model,
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection,
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then but draw anew the model
In fewer offices, or at last desist
To build at all?

DUTCH:
Vóor wij gaan bouwen,
Bezien wij eerst het erf, en teek’nen ‘t plan;
En, als wij de gedaante zien van ‘t huis,
Dan ramen wij de kosten van den bouw;

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW:
Williams Engineering, Ine. v. Goodyear, 496 So.2d 1012, 1017 n. 17 La. 1986) (Watson, J.).(In a dispute between a builder and his client over whether the builder should have completed what tumed out to be a too costly and unworkable design.)

Schmidt:
Rate=To estimate, to value
Ability=Wealth, means, a state of being provided with something
Office=A room or apartment intended for particular duties attached to the service of a house

Compleat:
Ability=Vermogen, macht, bekwaamheid
Rate=Waarderen, schatten
Office (room for mean uses in a house)=Spys-kamer; provisiekelder

Topics: cited in law, preparation

Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself Out of the speech of peace

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Westmoreland
CONTEXT:
With your fair honours. You, Lord Archbishop,
Whose see is by a civil peace maintained,
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touched,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutored,
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessèd spirit of peace,
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war,
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
To a trumpet and a point of war?

DUTCH:
Waarom vertaalt gij thans zoo slecht uzelf,
Uit zulk een liefdevolle spraak des vredes
In deze woeste, ruwe taal des krijgs,
Verkeert ge uw inkt en schrift in bloed en graven,
Uw pen in oorlogslans, uw priestermond
In schrille krijgsklaroen en strijdsignaal?

MORE:

Civil=Grave, decent
Graves=This could be glaives (polearm weapon) or greaves (armour for the legs)
Figure=Symbolise, represent
Investments=Vestments
Good letters=Learning

Compleat:
Boisterous=Onstuimig, stormachtig, windig
Investment=Omcingeling, insluiting

Topics: learning/education, language, understanding

Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title leaf, Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Northumberland
CONTEXT:
LORD BARDOLPH
Who, he?
He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
The horse he rode on and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
NORTHUMBERLAND
Yea, this man’s brow, like to a title leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness’d usurpation.

DUTCH:
Ja, ‘t voorhoofd van dien man spelt, als de titel
Eens treurzangs, reeds den aard van zijn bericht.

MORE:

Strand=beach
Imperious flood=raging flood
Usurpation=Illegal occupation
Leaf=Page
A witness’d usurpation=“An attestation of its ravage” (STEEVENS)

Compleat:
Imperious=Heerschzuchtig
Usurpation=Een onrechtmaatige bezitneeming, of indrang, dwanggebruik, overweldiging

Topics: appearance, sadness

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

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

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

MORE:

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

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

Topics: insult, status, order/society

Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, have yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Falstaff
CONTEXT:
FALSTAFF
My good lord. God give your Lordship good time of the day.
I am glad to see your Lordship abroad. I heard say your
Lordship was sick: I hope your Lordship goes abroad by
advice. Your Lordship, though not clean past your youth,
have yet some smack of an ague in you, some relish of the
saltness of time in you, and I most humbly beseech your
Lordship to have a reverent care of your health.

DUTCH:
Uwe lordschap is wel is waar de jeugd nog niet geheel voorbij, maar heeft toch reeds een kleinen
bijsmaak van ouderdom, een zweem van den pekel des
tijds.

MORE:
Saltness=Not fresh
Abroad=Up and about
By advice=On medical advice

Topics: age/experience, wellbeing

Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Chief Justice
CONTEXT:
CHIEF JUSTICE
Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.
FALSTAFF
He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.
CHIEF JUSTICE
Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.
FALSTAFF
I would it were otherwise. I would my means were greater and my waist slender.

DUTCH:
Uw middelen zijn zeer klein en uw vertering zeer groot.

MORE:

Schmidt:
Infamy=Disgrace
Slender=Small, inconsiderable, insufficient

Compleat:
Infamy=Eerloosheid, Schandvlek
Slender (small, sorry, pitiful)=Klein, gering, armoedig
To have but a slender estate=Een gering kapitaal hebben

Topics: appearance, money, excess