PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.7
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valor
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ”
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.

DUTCH:
Wilt gij dat bezitten,
Wat gij des levens sieraad schat, en wilt gij
In eigen schatting als een lafaard leven,
Die „’k Durf niet” volgen laat op: „O, ik wilde!”
Als de arme kat in ‘t spreekwoord?
Ik durf en waag al wat een man betaamt; Wie meer durft, is geen man.

MORE:
The cat in the adage: “The Cat would eat fish but she will not wet her feet” (1225).
P.G. Wodhouse quoted this in Right Ho, Jeeves:
“I remember. Yes, I recall the Sipperley case. He couldn’t bring himself to the scratch. A marked coldness of the feet, was there not? I recollect you saying he was letting–what was it?–letting something do something. Cats entered into it, if I am not mistaken.”
“Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’, sir.”
“That’s right. But how about the cats?”
“Like the poor cat i’ the adage, sir.”
“Exactly. It beats me how you think up these things. And Gussie, you say, is in the same posish?”

Topics: courage, ambition, purpose

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold:
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.

DUTCH:
Wat hen bedwelmde, heeft mij stout gemaakt;
Wat hen verdoofde, gaf mij vuur

MORE:

Topics: courage, ambition, purpose