CJTranslations - Othello

QUOTES BY TOPIC

A finder out of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and counterfeit advantages

PLAY: Othello ACT/SCENE: 2.1 SPEAKER: Iago CONTEXT: IAGO
Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed.
Mark me with what violence she first loved the Moor, but
for bragging and telling her fantastical lies. To love
him still for prating? Let not thy discreet heart think
it. Her eye must be fed, and what delight shall she have
to look on the devil? When the blood is made dull with
the act of sport, there should be a game to inflame it
and to give satiety a fresh appetite, loveliness in
favour, sympathy in years, manners and beauties. All
which the Moor is defective in. Now for want of these
required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find
itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and
abhor the Moor. Very nature will instruct her in it and
compel her to some second choice. Now sir, this
granted—as it is a most pregnant and unforced
position—who stands so eminent in the degree of this
fortune as Cassio does? A knave very voluble, no further
conscionable than in putting on the mere form of civil
and humane seeming, for the better compassing of his
salt and most hidden loose affection. Why, none, why,
none! A slipper and subtle knave, a finder of occasions
that has an eye, can stamp and counterfeit advantages,
though true advantage never present itself. A devilish
knave. Besides, the knave is handsome, young, and hath
all those requisites in him that folly and green minds
look after. A pestilent complete knave, and the woman
hath found him already. DUTCH: Een geslepen, gladde schelm; een gelegenheidsnajager, met een oog om voordeeltjens te stempelen en na te bootsen, al bood geen echt voordeel zich ooit aan; een verduivelde schelm! MORE: Slipper=Deceitful, slippery
Voluble=Plausible, glib
Conscionable=Conscientious
Humane=Polite, civil
Seeming=Appearance
Salt=Lecherous, lewd
Occasion=Opportunity
Advantages=Opportunities
Pregnant=Evident
Civil and humane=Polite and mannerly
Stamp=Coin, manufacture
Folly=Wantonness
Compleat:
A slippery (or dangerous) business=Een gevaarlyke bezigheid
A voluble tongue=Een vloeijende tong, een gladde tong, een tong die wel gehangen is
Conscionable=Naauw op zichzelven lettende; Gemoedelyk, billyk
Humane=Menschelyk, beleefd, heusch
Seeming=Schynende
Salt=(sault) Hitsig, ritsig, heet
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
Advantage=Voordeel, voorrecht, winst, gewin, toegift
Pregnant=Krachtig, dringend, naadrukkelyk
Stamp=Stempelen, stampen
Folly=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid Topics: deceit, appearance, relationship, reputation, manipulation

Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals that weakens motion

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t’ incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weakens motion. I’ll have ’t disputed on.
‘Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practicer
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—
Lay hold upon him. If he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril!
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Whither will you that I go
To answer this your charge?

DUTCH:
De wereld oordeele, of ‘t niet zonneklaar is,
Dat gij door euv’le kunsten haar verlokt,
Haar teed’re jeugd door kruid of steen verdoofd,
Verbijsterd hebt

MORE:
Keep up=Put away
Years=Age
Stowed=Hidden away
Refer me=Submit my case
All things of sense=The ‘court’ of common sense
Command with years=Respect for age and status
General mock=Public ridicule
Gross in sense=Palpable, obvious
Weakens motion=Dulls the normal perceptive faculties
Disputed on=Contested, debated
Abuser of the world=Corrupter of society
Attach=Arrest
Palpable to thinking=Obvious, manifest
Compleat:
To put up a sword=Een zwaard in de scheede steeken
To stow=Stuuwen
To refer=Wyzen, gedraagen, overwyzen
To dispute, to agitate, or maintain a question=Een veschil verdedigen, handhaven
To dispute=Twistredenen, betwisten, zintwisten, disputeeren
Disputer=Een twistredenaar, zintwister, woordentwister, disputant
Attach=Beslaan, de hand opleggen, in verzekering neemen
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden
Palpable=Tastelyk, tastbaar
Weaken=Verzwakken, slap maaken, krenken

Topics: status, reputation, resolution, evidence

And do but see his vice, ’tis to his virtue a just equinox

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
You see this fellow that is gone before,
He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar
And give direction. And do but see his vice,
‘Tis to his virtue a just equinox,
The one as long as th’ other. ‘Tis pity of him.
I fear the trust Othello puts him in
On some odd time of his infirmity
Will shake this island.
MONTANO
But is he often thus?
IAGO
‘Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep.
He’ll watch the horologe a double set
If drink rock not his cradle.
MONTANO
It were well
The general were put in mind of it.
Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature
Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio
And looks not on his evils. Is not this true?

DUTCH:
Gij zaagt dien jonkman, die ons daar verliet;
Hij is een krijger, waard om nevens Caesar
Bevel te voeren; doch gij ziet zijn fout;
Als aan den eev’naar dag en nacht, zoo zijn
Zijn nachtzijde en zijn deugd gelijk;

MORE:
Just=Exact
Equinox=Counterpart
Odd time=Any point
Evermore=For ever
Prologue to=Precedes
Horologue a double set=Twice around the clock
Prizes=Values
Looks not on=Is blind to
Compleat:
Just=Effen, juist, net
Equinoctal=Gelyknachtig
For ever and ever=In alle eeuwigheyd
Prologue=Voorreeden, inleyding
To prize=Waarderen, achten, schatten, op prys stellen

Topics: leadership, good and bad, virtue, flaw/fault

And let me find a charter in your voice, t’ assist my simpleness

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
Nor would I there reside,
To put my father in impatient thoughts
By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke,
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear
And let me find a charter in your voice,
T’ assist my simpleness.
DUKE
What would you, Desdemona?
DESDEMONA
That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world. My heart’s subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord.
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind,
And to his honours and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind
A moth of peace and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

DUTCH:
Achtb’re Doge,
Leen aan mijn bede een toegenegen oor,
En ondersteun met uw welwillend machtwoord
Mijn schucht’ren wensch.

MORE:
Put in impatient thoughts=Irritate
Unfolding=Proposal
Prosperous=Favourable
Charter=Support, approval
Simpleness=Inexperience
Downright violence=Outright breach (of convention)
Quality=Nature, character
Parts=Qualities
Bereft=Deprived
Compleat:
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
Prosperous=Voorspoedig
Charter=Handvest, voorrecht
Simpleness=Slechtheyd, eenvoudigheyd
Quality=Hoedaanigheyd, aanzien, staat, bevoegdheyd
Bereft=Beroofd

Topics: fate/destiny, loyalty, love, marriage

And the grace of heaven, before, behind thee, and on every hand, enwheel thee round!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
She that I spake of, our great captain’s captain,
Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts
A se’nnight’s speed. Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
Make love’s quick pants in Desdemona’s arms,
Give renewed fire to our extincted spirits
And bring all Cyprus comfort!
O, behold,
The riches of the ship is come on shore!
You men of Cyprus, let her have your knees.
Hail to thee, lady! And the grace of heaven,
Before, behind thee, and on every hand,
Enwheel thee round.

DUTCH:
Heil, eed’le vrouwe, dat des Hemels zegen
U voorga, volge, ja, van alle zijden
U steeds omgeev’!

MORE:
Footing=Landing
Extincted=Extinguished
Enwheel round=To encircle, surround, encompass
Compleat:
Extinct=Uytgebluscht, gedempt; uytgesturven

Topics: civility

And this may help to thicken other proofs that do demonstrate thinly

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Nay, this was but his dream.
OTHELLO
But this denoted a foregone conclusion.
IAGO
‘Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream.
And this may help to thicken other proofs
That do demonstrate thinly.
OTHELLO
I’ll tear her all to pieces!
IAGO
Nay, yet be wise, yet we see nothing done,
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this,
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief
Spotted with strawberries in your wife’s hand?

DUTCH:
Maar die toch wijst op een gepleegde daad;
Dit scherpt den argwaan, zij ‘t ook slechts een droom.
– En dienen kan ‘t om gronden te versterken,
Die zwakker zijn.

MORE:

Still in use: A foregone conclusion=a decision made before (‘afore’) evidence is known; or a certainty, an inevitable result. According to David Franklin (in Of Bench & Bard), this was the first occurrence of foregone conclusion.

Foregone=Gone before, previous
Shrewd=Bad, evil, mischievous
Compleat:
Fore-conceived=Vooraf bevat
A fore-conceived=Voor-opgevatte waan, vooroordeel
Fore-deem=Raamen, gissen

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

And what’s he then that says I play the villain? When this advice is free I give and honest

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
And what’s he then that says I play the villain?
When this advice is free I give and honest,
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? For ’tis most easy
Th’ inclining Desdemona to subdue
In any honest suit. She’s framed as fruitful
As the free elements. And then for her
To win the Moor, were to renounce his baptism,
All seals and symbols of redeemèd sin,
His soul is so enfettered to her love,
That she may make, unmake, do what she list,
Even as her appetite shall play the god
With his weak function. How am I then a villain
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course,
Directly to his good? Divinity of hell!
When devils will the blackest sins put on
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows
As I do now. For whiles this honest fool
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune
And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor,
I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear:
That she repeals him for her body’s lust.
And by how much she strives to do him good
She shall undo her credit with the Moor.
So will I turn her virtue into pitch
And out of her own goodness make the net
That shall enmesh them all.

DUTCH:
En wie beweert, dat ik den schurk hier speel?
De raad, dien ik hem geef, is goed en eerlijk,
Verstandig en de ware weg om weder
Den Moor te winnen.

MORE:
Proverb: The devil can transform himself into an angel of light.

Put on=Incite
Repeal=Recall from exile
Credit=A good opinion entertained of a p. and influence derived from it: Reputation
Pitch=1) Something odious; 2) blackness; 3) with power to ensnare
Compleat:
Pitch=Pik
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam
Repeal=Herroepen, afschaffen, weer intrekken

Topics: advice, honesty, manipulation, proverbs and idioms

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

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

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

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

Topics: preparation, adversity, order/society

Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do all my abilities in thy behalf

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do
All my abilities in thy behalf.
EMILIA
Good madam, do. I warrant it grieves my husband
As if the cause were his.
DESDEMONA
Oh, that’s an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio,
But I will have my lord and you again
As friendly as you were.
CASSIO
Bounteous madam,
Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio,
He’s never anything but your true servant.

DUTCH:
Wees, goede Cassio, hiervan overtuigd:
Wat ik vermag, ik zal het voor u doen.

MORE:
Grieves=Troubles
Bounteous=Generous
Compleat:
To grieve=Bedroeven, smarten, grieven
Bounteous=Milddaadig, goedertieren

Topics: skill/talent, loyalty, work

Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee and love thee after

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars,
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have plucked thy rose
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It must needs wither. I’ll smell thee on the tree.
Oh, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee
And love thee after.
One more, and that’s the last.
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

DUTCH:
Wees, als gij dood zijt, zoo, en ‘k zal u dooden
En voortbeminnen

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Barkauskas v. Lane, 78 F.2d 1031, 1032 (7th Cir. 1989)(Posner, J.); See also Hornstein v. Hornstein, 195 Md. 627, 75 A.2d 103 (Md. Ct. App. 1950)(husband reading from Othello and threatening to treat her as Othello treated Desdemona).

Cause=Ground for the action
Monumental=Used for monuments
Balmy=Fragrant
Sword=Emblem of power and authority
Minister=Aid
Cunning’st pattern=Masterpiece
Repent me=Change my mind
Put out the light, and then put out the light=Extinguish the candle (kill Desdemona)
Relume=Rekindle
Flaming=Carrying a light (Cf. Psalms 104.4; ‘Which maketh he spirits his messengers, and a flaming fire his ministers’.)
Cunning=Dexterously wrought or devised
Promethean heat=Fire that the demigod Prometheus stole from Olympus taught men to use; allusively, fire infuses life
Compleat:
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak
To minister=Bedienen
Cunning=Behendig, Schrander, Naarstig
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
To cast a cunning look=Iemand snaaks aanzien
Repent=Berouw hebben, leedweezen betoonen, boete doen

Topics: life, strength, regret, death, cited in law

Be you well assured no more than he’ll unswear

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou saidst—Oh, it comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infectious house,
Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
That’s not so good now.
IAGO
What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab—
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
He hath, my lord, but be you well assured
No more than he’ll unswear.

DUTCH:
Ja, heer, maar wees verzekerd, liegen heet hij ‘t,
Des noods bij eede.

MORE:
Boding=Ominous (ravens were thought to hover over houses where there was infection)
Abroad=About
Voluntary dotage=Infatuation
Convincèd=Prevailed on
Supplied=Satisfied
Unswear=Deny by oath
Compleat:
Ill-boding=Kwaad voorspellende
Abroad=Buyten
Dotage=Suffery, dweepery
To convince=Overtuygen

Topics: memory, promise, betrayal

But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
O sir, content you.
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That (doting on his own obsequious bondage)
Wears out his time much like his master’s ass
For naught but provender, and when he’s old, cashiered.
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them. And when they have lined their coats,
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end.
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

DUTCH:
In mijn uitwendig doen of mijn gebaren
Zich toont, dan wil ik fluks daarop mijn hart
Ronddragen op de mouw, opdat er kraaien
Naar pikken; dan ben ik mijzelf niet meer.

MORE:
Proverb: Every man cannot be a master (lord)
Proverb: To wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve (1604)

Whipping was a cruel punishment. In the days of Henry VIII an Act decreed that vagrants were to be carried to some market town, or other place, and there tied to the end of a cart, naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market-town, or other place, till the body should be bloody by reason of such whipping. The punishment was mitigated in Elizabeth’s reign, to the extent that vagrants need only to be “stripped naked from the middle upwards and whipped till the body should be bloody”

Content you=Don’t worry
Knave=Servant
Cashiered=Dismissed
Peculiar=Private, personal
End=Purpose
Complement extern=External show, form
Daws: Jackdaws
Not what I am=Not what I seem to be
Doting=to be fond, to love to excess
Knee-crooking=Flattering
Obsequious=Zealous, officious, devoted
Wear out=To spend all of, to come to the end of
Provender=Dry food for beasts
Compleat:
Dote upon=Op iets verzot zyn; zyne zinnen zeer op iets gezet hebben
Obsequious=Gehoorzaam, gedienstig
To cashiere=Den zak geeven, afdanken, ontslaan
Jack daw=Een exter of kaauw
Extern=Uitwendig, uiterlyk
End=Voorneemen, oogmerk

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

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 why should honour outlive honesty?

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
I am not valiant neither,
But ever puny whipster gets my sword.
But why should honour outlive honesty?
Let it go all.
EMILIA
What did thy song bode, lady?
Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan.
And die in music.
Willow, willow, willow —
Moor, she was chaste, she loved thee, cruel Moor.
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true.
So speaking as I think, alas, I die.

DUTCH:
Ik werd een bloodaard,
De zwakste knaap ontweldigt mij mijn zwaard.
Waarom zou de eer de deugd ook overleven ?

MORE:

Whipster=Contemptible fellow (Arden: Whippersnapper)
Puny=Little, petty (meaning invented by Shakespeare)
Compleat:
Valiant=Dapper, kloekmoedig
Puny (a younger brother)=Een jonger broeder
A puny judge=Een jongste rechter (See Puisny. Puisne (or puisny)=a law term for younger; a name given in the house of lords to the youngest baron, and in Westminster hall to the youngest judge. De jongste Lord in ‘t hogerhuis, of de jongste Rechter in de pleitzaal van Westmunster.)

Topics: honesty, strength, honour, reputation

But words are words

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Let me speak like yourself and lay a sentence
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers
Into your favour.
When remedies are past, the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mock’ry makes.
The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief,
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.
BRABANTIO
So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile,
We lose it not, so long as we can smile.
He bears the sentence well that nothing bears
But the free comfort which from thence he hears.
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow
That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow.
These sentences to sugar or to gall,
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal.
But words are words. I never yet did hear
That the bruised heart was piercèd through the ears.
I humbly beseech you, proceed to th’ affairs of state.

DUTCH:
Doch woord blijft woord, en dat het spreuken-hooren
Een krank hart heelde, kwam mij nooit ter ooren.
Ik verzoek u nederig, thans tot de staatszaken over
te gaan.

MORE:
Lay a sentence=Offer a maxim, proverb
Grise=(Grize, grece) Step, degree
Remedies=Opportunities for redress
Patience=Endurance
Injury=Harm caused
Injury=Verongelyking, belediging, smaad, verkorting, laster, ongelykFutile
Sentence that nothing bears=Indifferent platitude
Gall=Bitterness, to embitter
Pierced=lanced (and cured)(See LLL, 5.2: Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief)
Compleat:
Sentence=Een spreuk, zinspreuk
Remedy=Middel
A thing not to be remedy’d=Een zaak die niet te verhelpen is
Take patience=Geduld neemen
Injury=Verongelyking, belediging, smaad, verkorting, laster, ongelyk”

Topics: language, deceit, appearance, emotion and mood, wisdom, understanding

By heaven, I’ll know thy thoughts

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:

IAGO
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ’Tis something,
nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to
thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed
OTHELLO
By heaven, I’ll know thy thoughts.
IAGO
You cannot, if my heart were in your hand,
Nor shall not, whilst ’tis in my custody.

DUTCH:
k Moet weten wat gij denkt

MORE:
Immediate=Direct, without the intervention of another; needs no other considerations to enforce its importance
Trash=Worthless matter, dross, lumber (Also a scornful term to describe money; See J.Caesar 4.3)
Filch=To steal, pilfer
Compleat:
To filch=Ontfutzelen, afhandig maaken, ontloeren, ontsteelen
Trash=Lompige waar, ondeugend goed

Topics: reputation, respect, emotion and mood, confidentiality, secrecy

Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
I do believe it, and I ask your pardon.
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil
body?
IAGO
Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.
From this time forth I never will speak word.
LODOVICO
What, not to pray?
GRATIANO
Torments will ope your lips.
OTHELLO
Well, thou dost best.
LODOVICO
Sir, you shall understand what hath befall’n,
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo,
And here another. The one of them imports
The death of Cassio to be undertook
By Roderigo.

DUTCH:
Vraag niets mij meer; gij weet nu, wat gij weet;
Ik spreek van stonden aan geen enkel woord.

MORE:
Proverb: I know what I know (I wot what I wot, though I few words make (1546))

Demand me=Ask me
Torments=Torture
Ope=Open
Compleat:
To demand=Eyschen, vraagen, verzoeken
Torments=Pynen, pynigingen

Topics: secrecy, proverbs and idioms, still in use

Every way makes my gain

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large
Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him
As gifts to Desdemona.
It must not be. If Cassio do remain
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.
No, he must die. But so, I hear him coming.

DUTCH:
Ik kneep tot berstens toe dien jongen windbuil;
Hij wordt nu boos. Nu, ‘t zij hij Cassio doode,
Of Cassio hem, of dat ze elkander vellen,
Hoe ‘t loop’, ik win er bij.

MORE:
Quat=Contemptible youth; boil or pimple
To the sense=To the quick, raw
Makes my gain=Is to my advantage
Bobbed=Swindled
Unfold=Expose
Compleat:
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden

Burgersdijk notes:
Dien jongen windbuil. In ‘t Engelsch staat quat, welk woord tegelijk een blaar of vin, en een ellendig, verachtelijk wezen beteekent.

Topics: age/experience, learning and education, dispute, appearance, perception

For I mine own gained knowledge should profane if I would time expend with such a snipe but for my sport and profit

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.
For I mine own gained knowledge should profane
If I would time expend with such a snipe
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets
He’s done my office. I know not if ’t be true,
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well.
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio’s a proper man. Let me see now,To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery. How? How? Let’s see.
After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
As asses are.
I have ’t. It is engendered! Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.

DUTCH:
Zoo moet mijn nar mij steeds als buidel dienen.
Want voor mijn groote ervaring ware ‘t schande,
Als ik met zulk een eend mijn tijd verspilde,
Zoo niet tot scherts en voordee

MORE:
Snipe=Bird, also ‘worthless’ fellow, simpleton
Gained knowledge=Practical experience
Profane=Desecrate
In that kind=In that regard
‘Twixt=Betwixt (between)
Surety=Certainty
Holds me well=Respects, has a good opinion of
Purpose=Plan
Compleat:
Snipe=Snip, snep
To profane (prophane)=Lasteren, heilige zaaken enteeren; misbruiken
Surety=Borg, vastigheyd
Betwixt=Tusschen, tusschenbeide
Betwixt the devil and the red sea=Tusschen hangen en worgen
Purpose (design, resolution, project)=Voorneemen, besluit, ontwerp

Topics: money, skill/talent, age/experience, respect, suspicion, advantage/benefit

For naught I did in hate, but all in honour

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
LODOVICO
O, thou Othello, that wert once so good,
Fallen in the practice of a damned slave,
What shall be said to thee?
OTHELLO
Why, anything.
An honourable murderer, if you will,
For naught I did in hate, but all in honour.

DUTCH:
Onverschillig.
Noem mij een eervol moord’naar, als gij wilt;
Want nooit deed haat mij hand’len, enkel de eer.

MORE:

In the practice=Through the machinations
Practice=Artifice, stratagem, insidious device
Slave=Abject person, wretch
Compleat:
Practice (underhand dealing, intrigue, way of proceeding)=Praktyk, bedekten handel, list
Machination=Kwaadstooking, kwaadbrouwing, berokkening

Topics: honour, offence

Give me the ocular proof

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
I had been happy if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. Oh, now forever
Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content!
Farewell the plumèd troops and the big wars
That makes ambition virtue! Oh, farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump,
The spirit-stirring drum, th’ ear-piercing fife,
The royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The immortal Jove’s dead clamours counterfeit,
Farewell! Othello’s occupation’s gone.
IAGO
Is ’t possible, my lord?
OTHELLO
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore,
Be sure of it. Give me the ocular proof
Or by the worth of mine eternal soul
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog
Than answer my waked wrath!
IAGO
Is ’t come to this?
OTHELLO
Make me to see ’t, or at the least so prove it
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!

DUTCH:
Bewijs mij, schurk, dat die ik min, hoereert;
Bewijs het; laat het mij met de oogen zien,
Of, bij de waarde mijner eeuw’ge ziel,
Het ware u beter hond te zijn geboren,
Dan dat mijn wrok u treff’!

MORE:

Ocular=Depending on the eye, offered by sight: “give me the o. proof”
Waked=Awakened
Compleat:
Ocular=’t Geen tot het oog behoort
An ocular withness=Een ooggetuige
An ocular inspection=Een onderzoek of beschouwing met zyn eige oogen

Topics: invented or popularised, evidence, still in use, anger

Give me to know how this foul rout began

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Now, by heaven,
My blood begins my safer guides to rule,
And passion, having my best judgment collied,
Assays to lead the way. If I once stir,
Or do but lift this arm, the best of you
Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know
How this foul rout began, who set it on,
And he that is approved in this offence,
Though he had twinned with me, both at a birth,
Shall lose me. What, in a town of war
Yet wild, the people’s hearts brimful of fear,
To manage private and domestic quarrel?
In night, and on the court and guard of safety?
‘Tis monstrous. Iago, who began ’t?
MONTANO
If partially affined or leagued in office
Thou dost deliver more or less than truth
Thou art no soldier.

DUTCH:
Zoo ‘k mij roer
En dezen arm slechts ophef, valt de beste
Van u bij mijn kastijding. Doe mij hooren,
Hoe ‘t snood krakeel begon, door wien ‘t ontvlamde.

MORE:
Safer guides=Reason
Collied=Darkened, overshadowed
Assays=Attempts
Approved in=Found guilty of
Manage=Conduct
Partially affined=Bound by partiality
Leaged in office=With fellow officers
Compleat:
To colly=Zwart maaken, besmodderen
Brimful=Boordevol
To assay=Trachten
Affinity=Gemeenschap
League=Verbond, verdrag, verbindtenis

Topics: judgment, conflict, offence

Good signior, you shall more command with years than with your weapons

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
IAGO
You, Roderigo! Come, sir, I am for you.
OTHELLO
Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signior, you shall more command with years
Than with your weapons.
BRABANTIO
O thou foul thief, where hast thou stowed my daughter?
Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her!
For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,
If she in chains of magic were not bound,
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy,
So opposite to marriage that she shunned
The wealthy curlèd darlings of our nation,
Would ever have, t’ incur a general mock,
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world if ’tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
That weakens motion. I’ll have ’t disputed on.
‘Tis probable and palpable to thinking.
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee
For an abuser of the world, a practicer
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.—
Lay hold upon him. If he do resist,
Subdue him at his peril!

DUTCH:
Steekt op uw blanke klingen, want de nachtdauw
Zal die doen roesten. — Edel Heer, uw leeftijd
Dwingt eér ontzag af, dan uw zwaard het doet.

Topics: status, reputation, age/experience, respect

Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the devil wrath; one unperfectness shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself.
IAGO
Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your own good.
CASSIO
I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard. Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredience is a devil.
IAGO
Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used ; exclaim no more against it.

DUTCH:
Verzoek ik hem mijn plaats terug, dan zal hij zeggen:
„gij zijt een dronkaard.” En al had ik zooveel monden
als de Hydra, met dit antwoord waren zij allen gestopt.
Een verstandig mensch zijn, kort daarna een dwaas, en
plotseling een beest!

MORE:
Proverb: As many heads as Hydra

Hydra=Serpent in Greek mythology. When one head was cut off, two would grow in its place
Severe=Harsh
Moraler=Moraliser
Ingredience=Content
Familiar=Pertaining to the house and family, attached and serviceable to men
Inordinate=Improper, immoderate
Compleat:
Severe=Streng, straf
A severe judge=Een gestreng Rechter
Befallen=Gebeurd, overgekomen
Moraliser=Een zeedelyke uitlegger
Familiar=Gemeenzaam
Inordinate=Ongeschikt, onmaatig, onordentlyk

Topics: excess, reply, proverbs and idioms

He prated and spoke such scurvy and provoking terms

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience
To do no contrived murder. I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service. Nine or ten times
I had thought t’ have yerked him here under the ribs.
OTHELLO
‘Tis better as it is.
IAGO
Nay, but he prated
And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms
Against your honour
That, with the little godliness I have,
I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir,
Are you fast married? Be assured of this:
That the Magnifico is much beloved
And hath in his effect a voice potential
As double as the Duke’s. He will divorce you,
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance
The law (with all his might to enforce it on)
Will give him cable.

DUTCH:
Neen, maar hij relde,
En sprak op zulk een tergend lage wijs
Uw eer te na,
Dat, met het luttel vroomheid dat ik heb,
Ik nauw mij inhield.

MORE:
Contrived=Premeditated
Yerked=Stabbed
Full hard forbear=Made great effort at restraint
Scurvy=Insulting
Grievance=Injury, punishment
Magnifico=Here meaning Brabantio
Potential=Powerful
Cable=Will give him rope (scope) (nautical)
Compleat:
Contrived=Bedacht, verzonnen, toegesteld
To yerk=Gispen, slaan
Forbear=Zich van onthouden
Scurvy=Kwaad, slecht
Grievance=Bezwaarenis
Potential=Kragtverleenend, vermoogend

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

He requires your haste-post-haste appearance

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Let him do his spite.
My services which I have done the signiory
Shall out-tongue his complaints. ‘Tis yet to know—
Which, when I know that boasting is an honour,
I shall promulgate. I fetch my life and being
From men of royal siege, and my demerits
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune
As this that I have reached. For know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhousèd free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea’s worth. But look, what lights come yond?
IAGO
Those are the raisèd father and his friends.
You were best go in.
OTHELLO
Not I, I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO
By Janus, I think no.
You were best go in.
Not I, I must be found.
My parts, my title, and my perfect soul
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they?
IAGO
By Janus, I think no.
OTHELLO
The servants of the Duke and my lieutenant?
The goodness of the night upon you, friends!
What is the news?
CASSIO
The Duke does greet you, general,
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.

DUTCH:
Veel Senatoren, in der haast ontboden,
Zijn bij den doge. Onmidd’lijk riep men u,
En toen gij niet te huis te vinden waart,
Zond de Senaat drie boden door de stad
Om u te zoeken.

MORE:
Yet to know=Still not public knowledge
Promulgate=Make public
Siege=Seat; social status
Demerits=Deserts, merits
Unhousèd=Unconfined
Put into circumscription=Restrain, confine
Unbonneted=Bare-headed (without humility or embarrassment; on equal terms)
Janus=Ancient Roman god of beginnings, endings, and doorways, who is represented as having two faces
Compleat:
To promulgate=Verkondigen
Demerit=Verdienste [doch in quaaden zin]Circumscription=Omschryving
To circumscribe=Omschryven, bepaalen, beperken

Topics: work, merit, claim, status, independence

He that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
What dost thou mean?
IAGO
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
Who steals my purse steals trash. ‘Tis something,
nothing:
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands.
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
OTHELLO
I’ll know thy thoughts.
IAGO
You cannot, if my heart were in your hand,
Nor shall not, whilst ’tis in my custody.

DUTCH:
Maar hij, die mij mijn goeden naam ontneemt,
Berooft mij van wat hem niet rijker maakt
En mij doodarm.

MORE:
CITED IN EU LAW: LINDON, OTCHAKOVSKY-LAURENS AND JULY v. FRANCE – 21279/02 [2007] ECHR 836 (22 October 2007)/46 EHRR 35, (2008) 46 EHRR 35, [2007] ECHR 836.

CITED IN US LAW:
According to William Domnarski (Shakespeare in the Law, 1993) the second most frequently cited passage in US law (27 times at that time). Some examples:
Milkovich v Lorain Journal Co., 497 US 1, 110 Supreme Court 2695, 2702, 111 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990) (Rehnquist, C.J.). Judge Renquist disregarded the fact that the speaker was Iago, who had anything but a good reputation: this was simply used to illustrate the development of deformation law.

Cited by Abraham Lincoln when he was a defence lawyer.

Immediate=Direct, without the intervention of another; needs no other considerations to enforce its importance
Filch=To steal, to pilfer
Trash=Worthless matter, dross, lumber (Also a scornful term to describe money; See J.Caesar 4.3)
Compleat:
Filch=Ontfutzelen, afhandig maaken, ontloeren, onsteelen
Trash=Lompige waar, ondeugend goed

Topics: reputation, respect, emotion and mood, secrecy, cited in law

He that is robbed, not wanting what is stol’n, let him not know’t, and he’s not robbed at all

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Avaunt! Be gone! Thou hast set me on the rack.
I swear ’tis better to be much abused
Than but to know ’t a little.
IAGO
How now, my lord!
OTHELLO
What sense had I in her stol’n hours of lust?
I saw ’t not, thought it not, it harmed not me.
I slept the next night well, fed well, was free and merry.
I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips.
He that is robbed, not wanting what is stol’n,
Let him not know’t, and he’s not robbed at all.

DUTCH:
Wat iemand ook ontroofd zij, weet hij ‘t niet,
Verzwijg het hem en hij is niet beroofd.

MORE:
Proverb: He that is not sensible of his loss has lost nothing

Wanting=Missing
Abused=Betrayed
Sense=Mental power, faculty of thinking and feeling, spirit, mind
Compleat:
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden
Wanting=In gebreeke
To abuse=Misbruiken, mishandelen, kwaalyk bejegenen, beledigen, verongelyken, schelden

Topics: proverbs and idioms, betrayal, emotion and mood, satisfaction

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

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

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

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

Topics: duty, conflict, order/society

Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Some of your function, mistress,
Leave procreants alone and shut the door.
Cough or cry “hem” if any body come.
Your mystery, your mystery! Nay, dispatch!
DESDEMONA
Upon my knee, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.
OTHELLO
Why, what art thou?
DESDEMONA
Your wife, my lord. Your true and loyal wife.
OTHELLO
Come, swear it, damn thyself.
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double damned,
Swear thou art honest!
DESDEMONA
Heaven doth truly know it.
OTHELLO
Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
DESDEMONA
To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I false?

DUTCH:
God weet, ja, dat gij valsch zijt als de hel.

MORE:
Proverb: As false as hell

Some of your function=Do your work (on look out duty)
Mystery=Trade (brothel)
Motive=Cause
Import=Mean
Compleat:
False (not true)=Valsch, onwaar
False (counterfeit)=Nagemaakt
False (treacherous)=Verraderlyk
To import=Medebrengen, betekenen; invoeren
Motive=Beweegreden, beweegoorzaak
Mystery or mistery (trade)=Handel, konst, ambacht

Topics: honesty, truth, deceit, proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised

Her will, recoiling to her better judgement

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
And yet how nature, erring from itself—
IAGO
Ay, there’s the point. As, to be bold with you,
Not to affect many proposèd matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends—
Foh! One may smell in such a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.
But—pardon me—I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgement,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And happily repent.

DUTCH:
Doch, heer, vergeef, ik pas, wat ik daar zeg,
Niet toe op haar; hoewel ik altijd vrees,
Dat eens haar oogelust, haar rede wrakend,
U toetsend naast haar landgenooten plaats’, —
Wellicht berouw gevoel’.

MORE:
Erring from itself=Acting against its nature
Affect=Prefer
Bold=Frank
Clime=Region
Rank=Sick, corrupted, morbid
Disproportions=Inconsistencies, unnatural tendencies, abnormalities
In position=In those words, in arguing thus
Distinctly=In particular
Recoiling=Reverting
May fall=Happen to be
Her country forms=The like of her countrymen
Happily=Haply (by chance)
Compleat:
Erring=Dwaaling
Affect=Liefde toedragen, ter harte gaan, beminnen
Bold=Stout, koen, vrymoedig, onbevreesd, onverslaagd, vrypostig
Climate=Streek, luchtstreek, gewest
Rank=Vunsig, garstig, oolyk
Disproportion=Ongelykheid, onevenmaatigheyd, onevenredenheyd
Distinctly=Onderscheydentlyk
To recoil=Achteruytspringen, te rug springen, aerzelen
Haply=Misschien

Topics: free will, judgment, intellect

His bark is stoutly timbered and his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle
That so approve the Moor. Oh, let the heavens
Give him defence against the elements,
For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.
MONTANO
Is he well shipped?
CASSIO
His bark is stoutly timbered and his pilot
Of very expert and approved allowance
Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death,
Stand in bold cure.
A VOICE
A sail, a sail, a sail!

DUTCH:
Zijn bark is kloek en sterk gebouwd, zijn stuurman
Staat als ervaren en beproefd bekend;
Dies wacht mijn hoop, geenszins ter dood toe krank,
Een ras en blij herstel.

MORE:
Bark=Ship
Expert and approved allowance=Acknowledged and proven skill
Surfeited=Overfed
In bold cure=Very healthy
Compleat:
Bark=Scheepje
Expert=Eervaaren; bedreeven; wel geoefend
To approve=Beproeven, goedkeuren; goedkennen; toestaan
To surfeit=Ergens zat van worden; zich overlaaden

Topics: defence, dignity, integrity

How poor are they that have no patience

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft,
And wit depends on dilatory time.
Does’t not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee.
And thou, by that small hurt, hath cashiered Cassio.
Though other things grow fair against the sun,
Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe.
Content thyself awhile. In troth, ’tis morning.
Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.
Retire thee, go where thou art billeted.
Away, I say, thou shalt know more hereafter.
Nay, get thee gone.
Two things are to be done:
My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress.
I’ll set her on.
Myself, the while, to draw the Moor apart
And bring him jump when he may Cassio find
Soliciting his wife. Ay, that’s the way.
Dull not device by coldness and delay.

DUTCH:
Armzalig zij, wien ‘t aan geduld ontbreekt!
Geneest een wond ooit anders dan allengskens?

MORE:
Proverb: He that has no patience has nothing

Cashiered=Dismissed
Depends on dilatory time=Time moves slowly
Other things grow fair=Long-term plans blossom slowly
Fruits that blossom first=Preliminary plans (have already borne fruit)
Move for=Plead for
Jump=At that precise time
Device=Plot
When=At the point when
Device=Plan
To dull=To incapacitate, make inert
Coldness=Lack of enthusiasm or energy
Compleat:
To move (to stir up, to egg on, to solicit or persuade)=Aanstooken, oprokkenen
To move to compassion=Tot medelyden beweegen
Dilatory=Uitstel-zoekende
Dull=Bot, stomp, dof, dom, loom, vadsig, doodsch
It dulls my brains=Het maakt myn verstand stomp

Topics: intellect, patience, proverbs and idioms, purpose

I am not merry; but I do beguile
The thing I am, by seeming otherwise.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
I am not merry, but I do beguile
The thing I am by seeming otherwise.
Come, how wouldst thou praise me?
IAGO
I am about it, but indeed my invention
Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze,
It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labours
And thus she is delivered:
If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit,
The one’s for use, the other useth it.

DUTCH:
Ik ben niet vroolijk, neen, maar ik misleid
Wat ik in waarheid ben, door vreemden schijn.

MORE:
Beguile=Divert attention from
Birdlime=Sticky substance put on trees to catch small birds
Frieze=Coarse woollen cloth
Compleat:
Beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuin leiden
Bird-lime=Vogellym
Frieze=Friesdoek

Topics: appearance, perception

I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
It cannot be.
IAGO
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of
the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown cats and
blind puppies! I have professed me thy friend, and I
confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of
perdurable toughness. I could never better stead thee
than now. Put money in thy purse. Follow thou the wars,
defeat thy favour with an usurped beard. I say, put
money in thy purse. It cannot be long that Desdemona
should continue her love to the Moor—put money in thy
purse—nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement
in her, and thou shalt see an answerable
sequestration—put but money in thy purse. These Moors
are changeable in their wills—fill thy purse with
money. The food that to him now is as luscious as
locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as
coloquintida. She must change for youth. When she is
sated with his body she will find the errors of her
choice. Therefore, put money in thy purse. If thou wilt
needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than
drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony
and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and
supersubtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all
the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her. Therefore
make money. A pox of drowning thyself! ‘Tis clean out
of the way. Seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing
thy joy than to be drowned and go without her.

DUTCH:
Ik heb mij uw vriend verklaard en ik erken, dat ik door kabels van de duurzaamste taaiheid aan uw verdiensten verknocht ben; nooit kon ik u nuttiger zijn dan nu.

MORE:
Perdurable=Lasting
Stead=Serve
Defeat thy favour=Change your appearance
Usurped=False, appropriated
Answerable=Corresponding
Sequestration=Termination, separation
Coloquintida=Bitter-apple, a purgative
Supersubtle=Refined, sensitive
Compleat:
Perdurable=Overduurzaam
To stand in good stead=Dienstelyk zyn, goeden dienst doen
To usurp=’t Onrecht aanmaatigen, met geweld in ‘t bezit dringen, overweldigen
Usurpation=Een onrechtmaatige bezitneeming, of indrang, dwinggebruik, overweldiging
Answerable=Verantwoordelyk, overeenkomelyk
Sequestration=Verbeurdmaaking, affscheyding der partyen van ‘t bezit waarover zy in verschil zyn, in bewaarder-hand stelling; alsook de inzameling der inkomsten van een openstaande prove voor den naastkomenden bezitter
Subtil, subtile or subtle=Listig, loos; sneedig, spitsvindig

Topics: loyalty, friendship, debt/obligation, death, money

I do perceive here a divided duty

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DUKE
I think this tale would win my daughter too.
Good Brabantio. Take up this mangled matter at the best.
Men do their broken weapons rather use
Than their bare hands.
BRABANTIO
I pray you, hear her speak.
If she confess that she was half the wooer,
Destruction on my head if my bad blame
Light on the man.— Come hither, gentle mistress.
Do you perceive in all this noble company
Where most you owe obedience?
DESDEMONA
My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty.
To you I am bound for life and education.
My life and education both do learn me
How to respect you. You are the lord of duty.
I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband.
And so much duty as my mother showed
To you, preferring you before her father,
So much I challenge that I may profess
Due to the Moor my lord.

DUTCH:
k Zie, eed’le vader, hier mijn plicht gedeeld;
En ‘t leven dank ik u èn leer voor ‘t leven;
En beide, leer en leven, Ieeren wij
U te eeren, als Wien al mijn eerbied toekomt

MORE:
Mangled matter=Complex situation
Education=Upbringing
Learn=Teach
Challenge=Claim
Compleat:
Mangled=Opgereten, van een gescheurd, hakkelen
A liberal education=Een goede of ruime opvoeding
Learn=Leren
Challenge=Een uitdaaging, uittarting, beschuldiging; uitzondering, verwerping

Topics: duty, debt/obligation, relationship, marriage, learning/education, respect

I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors

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

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

MORE:

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

Topics: order/society, insult

I have no great devotion to the deed and yet he hath given me satisfying reasons

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Roderigo
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
I have no great devotion to the deed
And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons.
‘Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword: he dies.
IAGO
I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,
Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo,
He calls me to a restitution large
Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him
As gifts to Desdemona.
It must not be. If Cassio do remain
He hath a daily beauty in his life
That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor
May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.
No, he must die. But so, I hear him coming.

DUTCH:
Ik heb in deze daad geen rechten lust;
En toch, — hij gaf mij zeer voldoende reed’nen; —
Het is maar één man koud; kom, zwaard; hij sterft.

MORE:
Satisfying=Satisfactory
Quat=Contemptible youth; boil or pimple
To the sense=To the quick, raw
Makes my gain=Is to my advantage
Bobbed=Swindled
Unfold=Expose
Compleat:
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
To bob=Begekken, bedriegen, loeren, foppen
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden

Burgersdijk notes:
Dien jongen windbuil. In ‘t Engelsch staat quat, welk woord tegelijk een blaar of vin, en een ellendig, verachtelijk wezen beteekent.

Topics: persuasion, manipulation, justification

I know my price, I am worth no worse a place

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Despise me
If I do not. Three great ones of the city
(In personal suit to make me his lieutenant)
Off-capped to him, and by the faith of man
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he (as loving his own pride and purposes)
Evades them with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And in conclusion
Nonsuits my mediators. For “Certes,” says he,
“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’ election
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and calmed
By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster
He (in good time) must his lieutenant be
And I, bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient.

DUTCH:
Niets minder komt mij toe, ik ken mijn waarde;

MORE:

Off-capped=Doffed caps
Suit=Petition
Bombast circumstance=Inflated rhetoric, circumlocution
Bombast=Cotton used to stuff out garments (hence ‘stuffed with epithets’)
Non-suit=Rejection of petition, causing withdrawal of petition
Preferment=Advancement, promotion
Letter and affection=Influence and favouritism
Gradation=Regular advance from step to step
Affined=Bound
Just=Conforming to the laws and principles of justice, equitable
Term=Expression, word
Beleeed=To place on the lee, in a positoin unfavourable to the wind
Ancient=The next in command under the lieutenant
Compleat:
Gradation=Een trafspreuk, opklimming in eene reede
To come to preferment=Bevorderd worden
Preferment=Verhooging, voortrekking, bevordering tot Staat
Bombast=Bombazyne of kattoene voering; fustian
Bombast=Hoogdraavende wartaal, ydel gezwets
To bumbast=Met bombazyn voeren
Bumbast: Bombazyn als ook Brommende woorden

Burgersdijk notes:
Een groote cijfermeester, Een Michel Cassio, een Florentijner. Florence was niet, zooals Venetië, telkens in oorlogen gewikkeld; hoe zou Cassio daar de krijgskunst geleerd hebben? Ontvangsten en uitgaven, winsten en verliezen te berekenen, ja. dit kon men zich daar eigen maken. – Het volgende „verslingerd op een schoone vrouw,” heet in het Engelsch : almost damned in a fair wife „bijna verdoemd”. Het gerucht liep, dat Cassio van plan was de schoone Bianca, met wie hij verkeer had, te trouwen Door zulk een huwelijk zou hij zich, naar Jago’s opvatting , in de verdoemenis storten.

Topics: corruption, loyalty, relationship, skill/talent, age/experience

I know thou ‘rt full of love and honesty and weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them breath

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
“Think, my lord?” Alas, thou echo’st me
As if there were some monster in thy thought
Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something.
I heard thee say even now thou lik’st not that
When Cassio left my wife. What didst not like?
And when I told thee he was of my counsel
Of my whole course of wooing, thou cried’st “Indeed?”
And didst contract and purse thy brow together
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me
Show me thy thought.
IAGO
My lord, you know I love you.
OTHELLO
I think thou dost.
And for I know thou ‘rt full of love and honesty
And weigh’st thy words before thou giv’st them breath,
Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more.
For such things in a false disloyal knave
Are tricks of custom, but in a man that’s just
They are close dilations, working from the heart,
That passion cannot rule.

DUTCH:
Ik denk dit, ja!
En wijl ik weet, dat gij, vol liefde en plicht,
Uw woorden weegt, aleer gij ze adem geeft,
Beangstigt mij dit staam’len des te meer

MORE:
The two most favoured interpretations of close dilations are: (1) involuntary delays; and (2) half-hidden expressions

Stops=Sudden pauses
Tricks of custom=Customary artifice, stratagem, device
Just=Honest, upright, to be relied on
Compleat:
Just (righteous)=Een rechtvaardige
Custom=Gewoonte, neering

Topics: honesty, loyalty, language, caution

I shall, in a more continuate time, strike off this score of absence

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
BIANCA
And I was going to your lodging, Cassio.
What, keep a week away? Seven days and nights?
Eight score eight hours? And lovers’ absent hours
More tedious than the dial eightscore times!
Oh weary reckoning!
CASSIO
Pardon me, Bianca,
I have this while with leaden thoughts been pressed,
But I shall, in a more continuate time,
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca,
Take me this work out.
BIANCA
O Cassio, whence came this?
This is some token from a newer friend!
To the felt absence now I feel a cause.
Is ’t come to this? Well, well.
CASSIO
Go to, woman,
Throw your vile guesses in the devil’s teeth
From whence you have them. You are jealous now
That this is from some mistress, some remembrance.
No, in good troth, Bianca.

DUTCH:
Vergeef mij, Bianca,
Ik werd gedrukt door zorgen, zwaar als lood,
Maar doe, in ongestoorder tijd, die reek’ning
Van ‘t afzijn af.

MORE:
Eight-score eight=168
The dial=The hands circuiting the face of the clock
Continuate=Uninterrupted
Strike off=Settle, recompense
This work=Embroidery
Take out=Copy
Compleat:
Dial=Wysplaat
Continuation=Vervolg, achtervolging, standhouding, geduurzaakheyd
To strike out=Doorstryken

Topics: love, relationship, suspicion

I take it much unkindly that thou, Iago, who hast had my purse as if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Roderigo
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
Never tell me. I take it much unkindly
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this.
IAGO
‘Sblood, but you’ll not hear me! If ever I did dream of such a matter, abhor me.
RODERIGO
Thou told’st me
Thou didst hold him in thy hate.
IAGO
Despise me
If I do not. Three great ones of the city
(In personal suit to make me his lieutenant)
Off-capped to him, and by the faith of man
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he (as loving his own pride and purposes)
Evades them with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And in conclusion
Nonsuits my mediators. For “Certes,” says he,
“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine
A fellow almost damned in a fair wife
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’ election
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and calmed
By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster
He (in good time) must his lieutenant be
And I, bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient.

DUTCH:
Geen praatjens, Jago, ‘k duid het u zeer euvel,
Dat gij, die steeds geput hebt uit mijn beurs,
Als waar’ zij de uwe, dit toch zeker wist.

MORE:

Unkindly=In a harsh and ungentle manner
Abhor=To detest to extremity, to loathe; with an accusation
Personal=Done or experienced in one’s own person, not by a representative or other indirect means
Suit=Petition, address of entreaty
Off-capped=Doffed caps
Suit=Petition
Bombast circumstance=Inflated rhetoric, circumlocution
Bombast=Cotton used to stuff out garments (hence ‘stuffed with epithets’)
Non-suit=Rejection of petition, causing withdrawal of petition
Preferment=Advancement, promotion
Letter and affection=Influence and favouritism
Gradation=Regular advance from step to step
Affined=Bound
Just=Conforming to the laws and principles of justice, equitable
Term=Expression, word
Beleeed=To place on the lee, in a position unfavourable to the wind
Ancient=The next in command under the lieutenant
Compleat:
Unkindly: To take a thing unkindly=Iets onvriendelyk opvatten
Abhor=Verfooijen, een afschrik hebben
Personal=In eigen hoofde
Suit=Een verzo+G3ek, rechtsgeding
Gradation=Een trafspreuk, opklimming in eene reede
To come to preferment=Bevorderd worden
Preferment=Verhooging, voortrekking, bevordering tot Staat
Bombast=Bombazyne of kattoene voering; fustian
Bombast=Hoogdraavende wartaal, ydel gezwets
To bumbast=Met bombazyn voeren
Bumbast: Bombazyn als ook Brommende woorden
Just=Effen, juist, net

Burgersdijk notes:
Geen praatjens, Jago. In ‘t Engelsch: Never tell me. Wij vallen hier midden in een gesprek; deze woorden
slaan op iets, dat Jago gezegd heeft; men mag aannemen, dat hij verklaard heeft, niets van de betrekking tasschen Othello en Desdemona geweten te hebben. — Daarop slaat ook Rodrigo’s gezegde in reg. 6: Gij haat hem innig; gij zult hem dus wel gade geslagen en er dus wel van geweten hebben; waarop Jago hem van zijn onderwerp af wil brengen door de redenen van zijn haat uiteen te zetten.

Topics: money, friendship, loyalty, respect

I understand a fury in your words, but not the words

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Some of your function, mistress,
Leave procreants alone and shut the door.
Cough or cry “hem” if any body come.
Your mystery, your mystery! Nay, dispatch!
DESDEMONA
Upon my knee, what doth your speech import?
I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.
OTHELLO
Why, what art thou?
DESDEMONA
Your wife, my lord. Your true and loyal wife.
OTHELLO
Come, swear it, damn thyself.
Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves
Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double damned,
Swear thou art honest!
DESDEMONA
Heaven doth truly know it.
OTHELLO
Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell.
DESDEMONA
To whom, my lord? With whom? How am I false?

DUTCH:
Ach, op mijn knieën, wat beduidt die taal?
De razernij versta ik van uw woorden,
De woorden niet.

MORE:
Proverb: As false as hell

Topics: anger, language, proverbs and idioms

I was – unhandsome warrior as I am – arraigning his unkindness with my soul

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
I prithee, do so.
Something, sure, of state,
Either from Venice, or some unhatched practice
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him,
Hath puddled his clear spirit, and in such cases
Men’s natures wrangle with inferior things,
Though great ones are their object. ‘Tis even so,
For let our finger ache and it endues
Our other healthful members even to that sense
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods,
Nor of them look for such observances
As fit the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia,
I was, unhandsome warrior as I am,
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul,
But now I find I had suborned the witness,
And he’s indicted falsely.
EMILIA
Pray heaven it be
State matters, as you think, and no conception
Nor no jealous toy concerning you.

DUTCH:
k Liet, tegen alle krijgstucht in, daar toe,
Dat wegens stuurschheid hem mijn ziel verklaagde;
Thasn ken ik die getuige als omgekocht
En hem als valsch beticht.

MORE:
Proverb: We are but men, not gods

Unhandsome=Unskilled, unfair, illiberal
Suborned=Influenced to bear false witness
Observancy=Homage
Arraigning=Accusing
Member=Limb
Compleat:
Member=Lid, Lidmaat. Member of the body=Een lid des lichaams
Arraign=Voor ‘t recht ontbieden; voor ‘t recht daagen
To suborn a witness=Eenen getuige opmaaken of omkoopen
Unhandsomly=Op een fatsoenlyke wyze
Abuser=Misbruiker, belediger, smyter en vegter

Topics: proverbs and idioms, nature, life, manipulation

I will indeed no longer endure it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Roderigo
CONTEXT:

RODERIGO
Every day thou daff’st me with some device, Iago, and rather, as it seems to me now, keep’st from me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope.
I will indeed no longer endure it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered.
IAGO
Will you hear me, Roderigo?
RODERIGO
I have heard too much, and your words and performances are no kin together.
IAGO
You charge me most unjustly.
RODERIGO
With naught but truth. I have wasted myself out of my means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver Desdemona would half have corrupted a votaress. You have told me she hath received them and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden respect and acquaintance, but I find none.
IAGO
Well, go to. Very well.
RODERIGO
“Very well,” “go to”! I cannot go to, man, nor ’tis not very well. Nay, I think it is scurvy, and begin to find myself fopped in it.

DUTCH:
Ik wil dit bepaald niet langer verdragen, en ben volstrekt
niet gezind, verder kalm mij te laten welgevallen, wat
ik tot nog toe dwaas genoeg verduurd heb.

MORE:
Proverb: ‘Great promise small performance’ (your words and performances are no kin together.)

Conveniency=Opportunity
Advantage=Increase
Device=Scheme
Daff’st=Fob off (Daff=to put off (clothes)) Variation of doff, do off
Put up in peace=Endure silently
Votaress/Votarist=Nun
Comfort=Encouragement
Fopped=To make a fool of, to dupe
Compleat:
Conveniency=Bequaamheyd, gelegenheyd, geryflykheyd
Votary=Een die zich door een (religieuse) belofte verbonden heeft; die zich ergens toe heeft overgegeeven
Device (cunning trick)=Een listige streek
Device (invention or contrivance)=Uitvinding, vinding
Comfort=Vertroosting, troost, verquikking, vermaak, verneugte
To fob one off=Iemand te leur stellen; voor de gek houden

Topics: proverbs and idioms, perception, language, blame

I’ll have’t disputed on; tis probable and palpable to thinking

DUTCH:
Een onderzoek beslisse;
Waarschijnlijk is ‘t, ja, tastbaar voor ‘t verstand.
Deswegens vat ik u, neem u in hecht’nis,
Als een, die ‘t menschdom te verderven traFht ,
Een booze strafb’re kunst beoefe

Topics: status, reputation, resolution, evidence

I’ll see before I doubt, when I doubt, prove

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!
OTHELLO
Why, why is this?
Think’st thou I’d make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No! To be once in doubt
Is to be resolved. Exchange me for a goat
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsufflicate and blowed surmises,
Matching thy inference. ‘Tis not to make me jealous
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances.
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous.
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt,
For she had eyes and chose me. No, Iago,
I’ll see before I doubt, when I doubt, prove,
And on the proof there is no more but this:
Away at once with love or jealousy!

DUTCH:
Zien moet ik, eer ik twijfel; twijfel ik,
Bewijzen hebben; heb ik die, welnu,
Dan dit slechts: weg èn liefde èn ijverzucht!

MORE:
Proverb: The greatest wealth is contentment with a little

Fineless=Infinite, boundless
Resolved=Convinced, Fixed in a determination
Once=Once and for all
Exsufflicate (Exufflicate)=From exsufflare, probably synonymous to blown=`puffed jup, inflated; empty, unsubstantial, frivolous. Also (morally) diseased; blown, swollen, ulcerated
Doubt=Suspicion
Revolt=Gross departure from duty; unfaithfulness
Inference=Allegations
Compleat:
Resolve (untie, decide, determine a hard question, difficulty etc.)=Oplossen, ontwarren, ontknoopten
Doubt=Twyffel
Resolve (deliberation, decision)=Beraad, beslissing, uitsluitsel
Revolt=Afvallen, oproerig worden, aan ‘t muiten slaan
Inference=Gevolg, besluyt

Topics: suspicion, evidence, virtue, merit, flaw/fault, betrayal, proverbs and idioms

If consequence do but approve my dream my boat sails freely, both with wind and stream

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
If I can fasten but one cup upon him,
With that which he hath drunk tonight already,
He’ll be as full of quarrel and offence
As my young mistress’ dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo,
Whom love hath turned almost the wrong side out,
To Desdemona hath tonight caroused
Potations pottle-deep, and he’s to watch.
Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits
That hold their honours in a wary distance,
The very elements of this warlike isle
Have I tonight flustered with flowing cups,
And they watch too. Now ’mongst this flock of drunkards
Am I to put our Cassio in some action
That may offend the isle. But here they come.
If consequence do but approve my dream
My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream.
CASSIO
‘Fore heaven, they have given me a rouse already.
MONTANO
Good faith, a little one, not past a pint, As I am a
soldier.

DUTCH:
Gelukt het plan, waar ik zoo schoon van droom,
Dan waarlijk zeilt mijn boot voor wind en stroom.

MORE:
With that=On top of that
Pottle-deep=To the bottom of the tankard
Potation=Drink, draught
Hold in a way distance=Are sensitive about
Very elements=Essential substance
Flowing=Overflowing
Approve my dream=Make my dream true
Rouse=Drink (carouse)
Compleat:
Pottle=Een maat van vier Engelsche pinten
Distance=Afstand, tusschenwydte, tusschenheyd
Element=Hoofdstoffe, beginsel, element
To overflow=Overvloeijen
To approve=Beproeven, goedkeuren; goedkennen; toestaan
To carouse=Lustig zuypen

Topics: excess, manipulation

If he say so, may his pernicious soul rot half a grain a day!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Ay, ’twas he that told me on her first.
An honest man he is, and hates the slime
That sticks on filthy deeds.
EMILIA
My husband!
OTHELLO
What needs this iterance, woman? I say thy husband.
EMILIA
O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love!
My husband say that she was false!
OTHELLO
He, woman.
I say “thy husband”—dost understand the word?
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago..
EMILIA
If he say so, may his pernicious soul
Rot half a grain a day! He lies to th’ heart.
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain.

DUTCH:
Als hij dat zegt, dan moog’ zijn onheilsziel
Bij greinen daags verrotten! liegen doet hij ‘t;
Zij was te dol op haar begroesden koop.

MORE:
Proverb: He lies to th’heart (Cf. Macbeth 2.3: “That it did, sir, i’ th’ very throat on me; but I requited him for his lie’)

Iterance=Repetition
Made mocks with=Derided
Grain=The smallest weight
Pernicious=Mischievous, malicious, wicked
Compleat:
Iteration=Herhaaling, hervatting
Pernicious=Schadelyk, verderflyk
Grain=Een greyn

Topics: insult, truth, proverbs and idioms

If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it to the last article

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
I know ’t, I thank you. You do love my lord.
You have known him long, and be you well assured
He shall in strangeness stand no farther off
Than in a polite distance.
CASSIO
Ay, but, lady,
That policy may either last so long,
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet,
Or breed itself so out of circumstances,
That, I being absent and my place supplied,
My general will forget my love and service.
DESDEMONA
Do not doubt that. Before Emilia here
I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee,
If I do vow a friendship, I’ll perform it
To the last article. My lord shall never rest,
I’ll watch him tame and talk him out of patience.
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift,
I’ll intermingle everything he does
With Cassio’s suit. Therefore be merry, Cassio,
For thy solicitor shall rather die
Than give thy cause away.

DUTCH:
Ducht dit geenszins; hier, voor Emilia, blijf ik
U borg voor uw herplaatsing. Wees verzekerd,
Beloof ik iets uit vriendschap, ik volbreng het
Ten einde toe; ik laat mijn gá geen rust;

MORE:
Strangeness=Reserve, distance
Breed=Perpetuate
Doubt=Fear
Friendship=Friendly act
Place supplied=Position filled
Board a shrift=Dinner table, confessional, place of penance
Solicitor=Advocate
Give cause away=Fail the cause
Compleat:
Strangeness=Vreemdheid
Breed=Teelen, werpen; voortbrengen; veroorzaaken; opvoeden
Doubt=Twyffel
Shrive=Biechten
Solicitor (solicitour)=Een verzoeker, vervorderaar, rechtsbevorderaar, solliciteur

Topics: civility, order/society, friendship, loyalty, promise

If imputation and strong circumstances which lead directly to the door of truth will give you satisfaction, you may have ’t

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
And may, but how? How satisfied, my lord?
Would you, the supervision, grossly gape on,
Behold her topped?
OTHELLO
Death and damnation! Oh!
IAGO
It were a tedious difficulty, I think,
To bring them to that prospect. Damn them then,
If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster
More than their own! What then? How then?
What shall I say? Where’s satisfaction?
It is impossible you should see this,
Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys,
As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross
As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say,
If imputation and strong circumstances
Which lead directly to the door of truth
Will give you satisfaction, you may have ’t.
OTHELLO
Give me a living reason she’s disloyal.

DUTCH:
Toch verklaar ik: schenkt
Verdenking ooit, gesteund door sterke gronden,
Die rechtstreeks tot de poort der waarheid leiden,
U zekerheid, dan zal zij u geworden.

MORE:
Supervision=Supervisor, inspection; supernatural vision
Grossly=Stupidly
Tedious=Laborious
Bolster=Make a bolster (lie one on top of another)
Prime=Lecherous
Salt=Lecherous
Imputation=Opinion; reproach, censure
Strong circumstances=Facts (as evidence)
Door of truth=To show the truth
Compleat:
Supervisor=Overziener, naaziener
Gross=Grof, plomp, onbebouwen
You grossly mistake my meaning=Gy vergist u grootelyks omtrent myn meening
Tedious=Langwylig; verdrietig
Salt=(sault) Hitsig, ritsig, heet
Imputation=Verwyt, wyting, aantyging, lastering
Circumstance=Omstandigheid
A fact set out in all its circumstances=Een geval in alle zyne omstandigheden verhaalen

Topics: satisfaction, evidence

If what he might he is not, I would to heaven he were!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
LODOVICO
Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain?
IAGO
He’s that he is. I may not breathe my censure
What he might be. If what he might he is not,
I would to heaven he were!
LODOVICO
What? Strike his wife?
IAGO
‘Faith, that was not so well. Yet would I knew
That stroke would prove the worst!
LODOVICO
Is it his use?
Or did the letters work upon his blood
And new-create his fault?
IAGO
Alas, alas! It is not honesty in me to speak
What I have seen and known. You shall observe him,
And his own courses will denote him so
That I may save my speech. Do but go after
And mark how he continues.
LODOVICO
I am sorry that I am deceived in him.

DUTCH:
Is hij bij zinnen? is zijn brein niet krank?
– Hij is zooals hij is; ik uit geen oordeel.

MORE:
Censure=Opinion (on his soundness of mind)
Use=Custom, habit
Blood=Passion
New-create=Start, instigate
Courses=Actions
Denote him=Explain
Deceived in=Have misjudged
Compleat:
Censure=Bestraffing, berisping, oordeel, toets
Use=Gewoonte, gebruyk
Blood=Disposition, temper
Courses=Wegen of middelen
Denote=Betekenen

Topics: madness, appearance, communication, trust

It is now high suppertime, and the night grows to waste

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
And that you would have me to do!
IAGO
Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He
sups tonight with a harlotry, and thither will I go to
him. He knows not yet of his honourable fortune. If you
will watch his going thence (which I will fashion to
fall out between twelve and one) you may take him at
your pleasure. I will be near to second your attempt,
and he shall fall between us. Come, stand not amazed at
it, but go along with me. I will show you such a
necessity in his death that you shall think yourself
bound to put it on him. It is now high suppertime, and
the night grows to waste. About it!
RODERIGO
I will hear further reason for this.
IAGO
And you shall be satisfied.

DUTCH:
Ja, als gij den moed hebt om uzelven voordeel te verschaffen en
recht. Hij eet van avond bij een lichtekooi, en daar zal ik bij hem komen; hij weet nog niets van zijn eervol geluk

MORE:
Harlotry=Harlot
Honourable fortune=Good luck
Fashion=Arrange
Fall out=Happen
Second=Support
Show you such a necessity=Persuade you of the need for
Night grows to waste=Time is wasting
Compleat:
Harlotry=Hoerery
To fashion=Een gestalte geeven, vormen, fatzoeneeren
To fall out=Uytvallen
To second=Bystaan, byspringen, ondersteunen; te hulp komen

Topics: risk, advantage, benefit, conspiracy, justification

It makes us, or it mars us. Think on that, and fix most firm thy resolution.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Here, stand behind this bulk, straight will he come.
Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home.
Quick, quick! Fear nothing. I’ll be at thy elbow.
It makes us, or it mars us. Think on that,
And fix most firm thy resolution.
RODERIGO
Be near at hand, I may miscarry in ’t.
IAGO
Here, at thy hand. Be bold, and take thy stand.

DUTCH:
Bedenk, het is voor ons er op of onder,
En houd aan uw besluit onwrikbaar vast.

MORE:
Straight=Soon
Put it home=Drive the weapon into him
Fix most firm thy resolution=Be firmly resolved
Miscarry=Fail
Compleat:
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet
To fix=Vast stellen, vast maaken
Miscarry=Mislukken

Topics: persuasion, resolution

It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, to be producted as, if I stay, I shall

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Farewell, for I must leave you.
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,
To be producted as, if I stay, I shall
Against the Moor. For I do know the state
However this may gall him with some check
Cannot with safety cast him, for he’s embarked
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars
Which even now stand in act that, for their souls,
Another of his fathom they have none
To lead their business. In which regard,
Though I do hate him as I do hell pains,
Yet for necessity of present life
I must show out a flag and sign of love,
Which is indeed but sign.
That you shall surely find him,
Lead to the Sagittary the raisèd search,
And there will I be with him. So farewell.

DUTCH:
Vaarwel; ‘k moet u verlaten.
Het geeft geen pas en kon mijn plaats mij kosten,
Zoo ‘k tegen — en dit moet toch als ik blijf,
Den Moor getuigde;

MORE:
Meet=Suitable
Wholesome=Profitable, salutary
Producted=Presented as a witness
Gall=Irritate
Check=Restraint
Cast=Dismiss
Stand in act=Are happening
Fathom=Calibre
Life=Livelihood
Sagittary=Centraur
Compleat:
Meet=Dienstig
Wholesom=Gezond, heylzaam, heelzaam
To produce=Voortbrengen, te voorschyn brengen
To gall (or vex)=Tergen, verbitteren
Check=Berispen, beteugelen, intoomen, verwyten
To cast=Werpen, smyten, gooijen, smakken; overslag maaken
Livelihood=’t Gene waarvan men zich geneert, de Broodwinning, leeftogt
Sagittary=De Schutter

Topics: justice, status

It was a violent commencement in her, and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of
the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself? Drown cats and
blind puppies! I have professed me thy friend, and I
confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of
perdurable toughness. I could never better stead thee
than now. Put money in thy purse. Follow thou the wars,
defeat thy favour with an usurped beard. I say, put
money in thy purse. It cannot be long that Desdemona
should continue her love to the Moor—put money in thy
purse—nor he his to her. It was a violent commencement
in her, and thou shalt see an answerable
sequestration—put but money in thy purse. These Moors
are changeable in their wills—fill thy purse with
money. The food that to him now is as luscious as
locusts shall be to him shortly as bitter as
coloquintida. She must change for youth. When she is
sated with his body she will find the errors of her
choice. Therefore, put money in thy purse. If thou wilt
needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate way than
drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony
and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and
supersubtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all
the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her. Therefore
make money. A pox of drowning thyself! ‘Tis clean out
of the way. Seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing
thy joy than to be drowned and go without her.

DUTCH:
(H)et was hij haar een stormachtig
begin, en gij zult een even zoo plotselinge losscheuring
beleven; — steek maar geld in uw tasch

Topics: loyalty, friendship, love, money, poverty and wealth

Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
That Cassio loves her, I do well believe ’t.
That she loves him, ’tis apt and of great credit.
The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not,
Is of a constant, loving, noble nature,
And I dare think he’ll prove to Desdemona
A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too,
Not out of absolute lust—though peradventure
I stand accountant for as great a sin—
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leaped into my seat. The thought whereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards,
And nothing can or shall content my soul
Till I am evened with him, wife for wife.
Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor
At least into a jealousy so strong
That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to do,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on,
I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip,
Abuse him to the Moor in the right garb
(For I fear Cassio with my night-cape too)
Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me
For making him egregiously an ass
And practicing upon his peace and quiet
Even to madness. ‘Tis here, but yet confused.
Knavery’s plain face is never seen till used.

DUTCH:
Toont schurkerij haar kenn’lijk, waar gelaat.

MORE:
Proverb: To have one on the hip
On the hip=Have the advantage over; have at one’s mercy (See MoV, 1.3 “If I can catch him once upon the hip”)

Apt=Likely
Of great credit=Very believable
Accountant=Accountable
Diet=Feed
Jealousy=Suspicion
Trace=Put in harnass (use for my purposes)
Abuse=Slander
Garb=Manner
Egregiously=In an enormous, shameful manner
Plain=Open, clear, easily understood, evident
Compleat:
Apt=Bequaam, gevoeglyk, gereed
Egregiously=Befaamd, berucht, aankerkelyk (in an ill sense)
An egregious knave=Een beruchte boef
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam
To abuse=Misbruiken, mishandelen, kwaalyk bejegenen, beledigen, verongelyken, schelden
Diet=Spys, kost, het eeten
Jealousy (Jealoesie)(or suspicion)=Agterdogtig
Full of jealousies=Zeer agterdenkend
To abuse=Misbruiken, mishandelen, kwaalyk bejegenen, beledigen, verongelyken, schelden
Garb=Gewaad, dragt
Egregiously=Treffelyk
Plain=Vlak, effen, klaar, duydelyk, slecht, eenvoudig, oprecht

Topics: deceit, appearance, proverbs and idioms, advantage/benefit

Let’s teach ourselves that honourable stop not to outsport discretion

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Let’s teach ourselves that honourable stop
Not to outsport discretion.
CASSIO
Iago hath direction what to do,
But notwithstanding with my personal eye
Will I look to ’t.
OTHELLO
Iago is most honest.
Michael, good night. Tomorrow with your earliest
Let me have speech with you.—
Come, my dear love,
The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue:
That profit’s yet to come ’tween me and you.
Good night.

DUTCH:
Mijn waarde Michaël, houd de wacht in ‘t oog;
En laten wij het eervol voorbeeld geven
Van zelfbedwang, van maat in onzen lust.

MORE:
Stop=Restraint
Direction=Prescription, instruction, order
Outsport=Go beyond lmits in revelling (Celebrate to excess)
Compleat:
Stop=Stuyting, ophouding,verhindering, belet
Direction=Het bestier, aanwijzing
To sport=Kortswyl aanrechten; boerte

Topics: caution, patience, wisdom

Make me to see ’t, or at the least so prove it that the probation bear no hinge nor loop to hang a doubt on

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Make me to see ’t, or at the least so prove it
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life!
IAGO
My noble lord—
OTHELLO
If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more. Abandon all remorse.
On horror’s head horrors accumulate,
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
IAGO
Oh, grace! Oh, heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? Have you a soul or sense?
God buy you, take mine office. O wretched fool
That lov’st to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from hence
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.

DUTCH:
Doe mij het zien, of geef voor ‘t minst bewijzen,
Maar zonder scheur of splinter, waar een twijfel
Zich vast aan haken kan; of wee uw leven!

MORE:
Probation=Proof
Never pray more=Give up on praying
Take mine office=Dismiss me from my position
Make honesty a vice=Take honesty too far, to a fault
Profit=Lesson, improvement
Sith=Since, as, seeing that
Compleat:
Sith=Naardien, nademaal
Sith that=Sedert dat
Profit=Voordeel, gewin, nut, profyt, winst, baat
Probation=Een proef, proeve

Topics: evidence, uncertainty, honesty

Men in rage strike those that wish them best

DUTCH:
Zooals in woede een mensch zijn vriend kan slaan,
Ik houd voor zeker: Cassio ondervond
Van hem, die mij ontkwam, een krenking, dieper
Dan zelfs ‘t Geduld zou dragen.

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, invented or popularised, still in use, cited in law, language, honour, truth, error, anger

Men should be what they seem

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Men should be what they seem;
Or those that be not, would they might seem none!
OTHELLO
Certain, men should be what they seem.
IAGO
Why then, I think Cassio’s an honest man.
OTHELLO
Nay, yet there’s more in this.
I prithee speak to me as to thy thinkings,
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words.
IAGO
Good my lord, pardon me;
Though I am bound to every act of duty,
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to.
Utter my thoughts! Why, say they are vile and false?
As where’s that palace, whereinto foul things
Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure,
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit
With meditations lawful?

DUTCH:
Een mensch zij, wat hij schijnt;
En die ‘t niet is, neme ook den schijn niet aan.

MORE:
Proverb: Be what thou would seem to be
Proverb: Thought is free

Ruminate=To muse, to meditate, to ponder
Leet=A manor court, court-leet, private jurisdiction; a day on which such court is held
Apprehensions=Ideas
Compleat:
To ruminate upon (to consider of) a thing=Eene zaak overweegen
Leet, Court leet=Een gerechtshof
Leet-days=Recht-dagen
Apprehension=Bevatting, begryping; jaloezy, achterdogt

Topics: proverbs and idioms, language, duty, betrayal, appearance

Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:

IAGO
Despise me
If I do not. Three great ones of the city
(In personal suit to make me his lieutenant)
Off-capped to him, and by the faith of man
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he (as loving his own pride and purposes)
Evades them with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And in conclusion
Nonsuits my mediators. For “Certes,” says he,
“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine
(A fellow almost damned in a fair wife)
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’ election
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and calmed
By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster
He (in good time) must his lieutenant be
And I, bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient.
RODERIGO
By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
Why, there’s no remedy. ‘Tis the curse of service.
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to th’ first. Now sir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.

DUTCH:
En die van slagorde even weinig weet
Als oude vrijsters; theorie uit boeken,
Waarvan een raat’lend raadsheer even goed
Als hij kan zwetsen; praatjens, geen praktijk,
Is al zijn krijgskunst

MORE:

Topics: corruption, loyalty, relationship, skill/talent, age/experience

Mine’s not an idle cause

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OTHELLO
What if I do obey?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side
Upon some present business of the state
To bring me to him?
OFFICER
‘Tis true, most worthy signior.
The Duke’s in council and your noble self,
I am sure, is sent for.
BRABANTIO
How? The Duke in council?
In this time of the night? Bring him away.
Mine’s not an idle cause. The Duke himself,
Or any of my brothers of the state,
Cannot but feel this wrong as ’twere their own.
For if such actions may have passage free,
Bondslaves and pagans shall our statesmen be.

DUTCH:
Wat! de Doge
Houdt raad! in ‘t holst der nacht! — Daarheen met hem;
Mijn zaak is van gewicht; de Doge zelf
En elk van mijne broeders in den raad
Voelt dezen smaad als aan hemzelf gepleegd

MORE:
Course of direct session=Regular court hearing
Present=Pressing
Idle=Trivial
Compleat:
Session=Een zitting
Present=Tegenwoordig
Idle=Ydel

Topics: punishment, justice, judgment

My advocation is not now in tune

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
Madam, my former suit. I do beseech you
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I, with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour. I would not be delayed.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit.
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune’s alms.
DESDEMONA
Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio,
My advocation is not now in tune.
My lord is not my lord, nor should I know him
Were he in favour as in humour altered.
So help me every spirit sanctified
As I have spoken for you all my best
And stood within the blank of his displeasure
For my free speech. You must awhile be patient.
What I can do I will, and more I will
Than for myself I dare. Let that suffice you.

DUTCH:
Mijn voorspraak is thans slecht van klank; mijn gade
Is niet mijn gade; ‘k zou hem niet herkennen,
Waar’ zijn gelaat veranderd als zijn stemming.

MORE:
Suit=Case
Office=Devotion
Purposed=Intended
Merit=Good deeds
Futurity=Future
Forced=Pretended
Shut myself up in=Confine myself to
To fortune’s alms=To try my fortune for a pittance
Advocation=Pleading
Favour=Appearance
Humour=Disposition
Blank=Firing line
Compleat:
Suit=Een verzoek, rechtsgeding
To purpose=Voorneemen, voorhebben
Merit=Verdienste
Futurity=Toekomende staat
Forced=Gedwongen, aangedrongen
Alms=Een aalmoes
Humour (or disposition of the mind)=Humeur, gemoeds gesteldheid

Topics: virtue, love, merit, emotion and mood

My services which I have done the signiory shall out-tongue his complaints

DUTCH:
Hij krenke wat hij kan;
Mijn diensten, aan den Raad bewezen, spreken
Veel luider dan zijn klachten

Topics: work, merit, claim, status, independence

My soul hath her content so absolute that not another comfort like to this succeeds in unknown fate.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
My dear Othello!
OTHELLO
It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. Oh, my soul’s joy!
If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have wakened death,
And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas
Olympus-high, and duck again as low
As hell’s from heaven! If it were now to die,
‘Twere now to be most happy, for I fear
My soul hath her content so absolute
That not another comfort like to this
Succeeds in unknown fate.
DESDEMONA
The heavens forbid
But that our loves and comforts should increase,
Even as our days do grow.

DUTCH:
O, nu te sterven
Waar’ ‘t heerlijkst einde; want, ik vrees, mijn ziel
Smaakt thans een zaligheid, zooals het lot,
Ons nog omsluierd, nimmer andermaal
Genieten doet!

MORE:
Gives me wonder=Amazes
Bark=Ship
Like to=The same as
Succeeds=Follows
Our days grow=We get older
Compleat:
To wonder=Zich verwonderen
Bark=Scheepje
To succeed=Volgen

Topics: resolution, satisfaction, emotion and mood

Nay, guiltiness will speak, though tongues were out of use

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
He, he, ’tis he.
Oh, that’s well said—the chair!
Some good man bear him carefully from hence.
I’ll fetch the general’s surgeon.—
For you, mistress,
Save you your labour.—He that lies slain here, Cassio,
Was my dear friend. What malice was between you?
CASSIO
None in the world, nor do I know the man.
IAGO
What, look you pale?—Oh, bear him out o’ the air.—
Do you perceive the gastness of her eye?—Stay you, good
gentlemen.—Look you pale, mistress?—
Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon.—
Behold her well. I pray you, look upon her.
Do you see, gentlemen? Nay, guiltiness
Will speak, though tongues were out of use.

DUTCH:
Gij ziet het, heeren? ja, ‘t geweten spreekt,
Al is de tong geboeid.

MORE:
Gastness=Ghastness, ghastliness, haggard look (fear, terror)
Though tongues out of use=Even without the power of speech
Bear him out o’ the air=Take him inside (fresh air being considered bad for wounds)
Compleat:
Guiltiness=Schuldigheid; misdaadigheid

Topics: guilt, language, appearance

Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain to wake and wage a danger profitless

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: First Senator
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Now, what’s the business?
SAILOR
The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes,
So was I bid report here to the state
By Signior Angelo.
DUKE
How say you by this change?
FIRST SENATOR
This cannot be,
By no assay of reason. ‘Tis a pageant,
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider
Th’ importancy of Cyprus to the Turk,
And let ourselves again but understand
That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes
So may he with more facile question bear it,
For that it stands not in such warlike brace
But altogether lacks th’ abilities
That Rhodes is dressed in. If we make thought of this
We must not think the Turk is so unskillful
To leave that latest which concerns him first,
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain
To wake and wage a danger profitless.

DUTCH:
Dat hij, wat meest hem aangaat, zou verschuiven,
En met versmading van vermoed’lijk voordeel,
Zich nutt’loos in gevaren steken zou.

MORE:
What’s the business=What news?
Preparation=Force
Assay of reason=Test of common sense
False gaze=Looking the wrong way, misdirected
Pageant=Show
Brace=Defence position
Dressed=Equipped
Attempt of ease and gain=Chance at easy victory
Wake and wage=Raise and risk, undertake
Compleat:
Preparation=Bereyding, toerustng, voorbereydsel
To assay=Beproeven, toetsen, onderstaan, keuren
Reason=Reden, overweeging
Pageant=een Triomfhoog, triomfwagen; schijn
To brace=Binden, omringen, spannen, vastbinden
To dress=Optooijen, opschikken, toetakelen, toemaaken, toerechten, havenen
To wage=Onderneemen, wedden

Topics: skill/talent, wisdom

Neither my place nor aught I heard of business hath raised me from my bed

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Brabantio
CONTEXT:
DUKE
Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you
Against the general enemy Ottoman—
I did not see you. Welcome, gentle signior.
We lacked your counsel and your help tonight.
BRABANTIO
So did I yours. Good your grace, pardon me.
Neither my place nor aught I heard of business
Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care
Take hold on me, for my particular grief
Is of so flood-gate and o’erbearing nature
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows
And it is still itself.

DUTCH:
Zoo ik uw hulp. Genadig heer, vergeef mij,
Geen ambtszaak, geen gerucht van wat hier omging,
Riep van mijn bed mij op; geen staatszorg is ‘t,
Die mij vervult;

MORE:
Straight=Immediately
Lacked=Missed
Englut=Engulf
Place=Duty
Floodgate=Overwhelming
Compleat:
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet
To lack=Ontbreeken, van noode hebben
To englut=Verkroppen
Floud-gate=Sluys, doortogt

Topics: emotion and mood, work, satisfaction, sorrow

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

Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant,
I have a stoup of wine, and here without are a brace of
Cyprus gallants, that would fain have a measure to the
health of the black Othello.
CASSIO
Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains
for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some
other custom of entertainment.
IAGO
Oh, they are our friends. But one cup. I’ll drink for you.
CASSIO
I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily
qualified too, and behold what innovation it makes
here. I am unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not
task my weakness with any more.

DUTCH:
Neen, van avond niet, goede Jago. Ik heb uiterst zwakke en ongelukkige hersens om te drinken; ik wenschte wel, dat de wellevendheid een andere wijs van onthalen uitvond.

MORE:
Stoup=Two quarts
Have a measure=Drink a toast
Fain=Gladly, willingly; always joined with would; followed by a clause
Unhappy=Evil, mischievous, fatal, pernicious (but often in a somewhat milder sense)
Courtesy=Politeness
Craftily qualified=Sneakily diluted
Innovation=Disturbance; change (for the worst)
Compleat:
Fain=Gaern
Unhappy=Ongelukkig, rampzalig, rampspoedig
Courtesy=Beleefdheid, hoflykheid
To qualify=Maatigen, temperen
Crafty=Loos, listig, schalk, doortrapt, leep
Innovation=Vernieuwing, verandering maaking, verandering, invoering van nieuwigheyd

Topics: excess, welbeing

Note if your lady strain his entertainment with any strong or vehement importunity

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Farewell, farewell.
If more thou dost perceive, let me know more.
Set on thy wife to observe. Leave me, Iago.
IAGO
My lord, I take my leave. [going]OTHELLO
Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless
Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
IAGO
My lord, I would I might entreat your honour
To scan this thing no farther. Leave it to time.
Although ’tis fit that Cassio have his place,
For sure, he fills it up with great ability,
Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means.
Note if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity.
Much will be seen in that. In the meantime,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears—
As worthy cause I have to fear I am—
And hold her free, I do beseech your honour.
OTHELLO
Fear not my government.

DUTCH:
Toch zoudt gij, als gij draalt met zijn vergiff’nis,
Hem en zijn midd’len beter leeren kennen;
Geef acht, of uwe gade op zijn herstel
Met vuur en ijver aandringt. Daaruit valt
Veel af te leiden

MORE:
Scan=Consider
Unfolds=Reveals
Strain=Insist on, press for
Entertainment=Reinstatement
Importunity=Urgency, pressing request
Free=Innocent
Government=Conduct (including self-control)
Compleat:
To scan=Onderzoeken, uitpluizen
Unfold=Ontvouwen, open leggen
To strain=Dwingen
Entertainment=Huysvesting, onderhoud
Importunity=Overlast, moejelykheyd, overdringing, aandringing
Free=Vry, openhartig
Government=Heersching

Topics: perception, proof, suspicion, patience

Nothing canst thou to damnation add greater than that

DUTCH:
Indien gij haar belastert en mij foltert,
Zoo bid niet meer; verzaak de menschlijkheid;
Hoop gruw’len op des gruwels hoofd; doe daden,
Waarom de hemel weent, heel de aarde rilt;
Want niets kunt gij bij uw verdoem’nis voegen,
Dat dit verzwaart!

Topics: evidence, uncertainty, honesty, trust

O beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger,
But, oh, what damnèd minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts— suspects, yet soundly loves!
OTHELLO
Oh, misery!
IAGO
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend
From jealousy!

DUTCH:
0, behoed u, heer, voor ijverzucht;
Dat alles groen ziend monster, vóór ‘t verslinden
Wreed spelend met zijn prooi

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
State v. Potter, 60 N.O. 183,233 N.W. 650 (1930)(Burke, J.); Van Meter v. State, 30 Md. App. 406, 353 A.2d 850 (1976)(“appellant’s conviction of murder rested heavily upon the testimony of his paramour Debra Turner, who used appellant’s jealousies to bring about his own misfortune, in much the same way as did Othello … “).

Mock the meat=To deride, to ridicule, to laugh to scorn (its victim)
Wronger=One who wrongs or injures
Tells=Counts, numbers
Fineless=Endless
Compleat:
To mock=Bespotten, beschimpen, begekken
To tell (count or compute)=Rekenen, begrooten
Dutch: “monster met groene ogen” (“het groene monster”)

Topics: cited in law, offence, envy

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

Of a free and open nature that thinks men honest that but seem to be so, and will as tenderly be led by th’ nose as asses are

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse.
For I mine own gained knowledge should profane
If I would time expend with such a snipe
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets
He’s done my office. I know not if ’t be true,
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well.
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio’s a proper man. Let me see now,
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery. How? How? Let’s see.
After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
As asses are.
I have ’t. It is engendered! Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.

DUTCH:
De Moor is gul en open van natuur,
Waant ieder eerlijk, die slechts eerlijk schijnt,
En laat zoo zachtkens bij den neus zich leiden,
Als ezels ‘t laten doen

Topics: honesty, gullibility, suspicion, respect, learning/education, age/experience, conspiracy

Oh, it comes o’er my memory, as doth the raven o’er the infectious house

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it.
Thou saidst—Oh, it comes o’er my memory,
As doth the raven o’er the infectious house,
Boding to all—he had my handkerchief.
IAGO
Ay, what of that?
OTHELLO
That’s not so good now.
IAGO
What if I had said I had seen him do you wrong?
Or heard him say—as knaves be such abroad,
Who having, by their own importunate suit,
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,
Convincèd or supplied them, cannot choose
But they must blab—
OTHELLO
Hath he said any thing?
IAGO
He hath, my lord, but be you well assured
No more than he’ll unswear.

DUTCH:
Bij God, hoe gaarne had ik dien vergeten.
Gij hebt gezegd, — o ‘t waart mij voor den geest,
Gelijk een raaf een pestziek huis omzwerft
En onheil spelt, — dat hij mijn zakdoek had.

Topics: memory, promise, betrayal

Oh, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
IAGO
What was he that you followed with your sword? What had
he done to you?
CASSIO
I know not.
IAGO
Is ’t possible?
CASSIO
I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly. A
quarrel, but nothing wherefore. Oh, that men should put
an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!
That we should, with joy, pleasance revel and applause,
transform ourselves into beasts!
IAGO
Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus
recovered?

DUTCH:
Ik herinner mij allerlei dingen, maar niets duidelijk;
een twist, maar niet waarom. — O God, dat de mensch
een vijand in den mond neemt, die zijn hersens hem
ontsteelt! dat wij ons met blijdschap en genot, met gejubel
en toejuiching tot beesten vervormen!

MORE:
CITED IN EU LAW:
Ahokainen and Leppik (Free movement of goods) [2006] EUECJ C-434/04 (28 September 2006) Opinion of A-G Poiares Maduro delivered on 13 July 2006

Nothing wherefore=Not the reason
Pleasance=Gaiety, merriment, delight
Frankly=Unreservedly
Compleat:
Frankly=Vryelyk, mildelyk, openhartig
Pleasantness=Vermaakelyk, geneuglyk, kortswylig, vrolyk

Topics: cited in law, dispute, reason

Oh! My fear interprets

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
No, his mouth is stopped. Honest Iago
Hath ta’en order for ’t.
DESDEMONA
Oh! My fear interprets. What, is he dead?
OTHELLO
Had all his hairs been lives
My great revenge had stomach for them all.
DESDEMONA
Alas, he is betrayed and I undone.

DUTCH:
Mijn angst, o! geeft mij licht. — Spreek, is hij dood?
– Ware elk der haren van zijn hoofd een leven,
Mijn wraak verzwolg die allen!

MORE:
Ta’en order for ’t=Taken steps to bring it about
Fear interprets=I fear I understand your meaning
Stomach=Appetite
Undone=Ruined
Compleat:
Stomach=Gramsteurigheyd
Undone=Ontdaan, losgemaakt

Topics: betrayal, ruin

One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
MONTANO
But good lieutenant, is your general wived?
CASSIO
Most fortunately. He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame,
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens,
And in th’ essential vesture of creation
Does tire the inginer.
How now? Who has put in?
SECOND GENTLEMAN
‘Tis one Iago, ancient to the general.
CASSIO
He’s had most favourable and happy speed.
Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds,
The guttered rocks and congregated sands,
Traitors ensteeped to enclog the guiltless keel,
As having sense of beauty, do omit
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by
The divine Desdemona.

DUTCH:
Dat is hij,
En recht gelukkig; hem gewerd een vrouw,
Die elk verhaal, den roem der faam zelfs, tart,
De hoogste vlucht der stoutste pen beschaamt,

MORE:
Wived=Married
Paragons=Excels, surpasses
Blazoning pens=Flourishes of praise
Inginer= Inventive creator (also in some versions inginiver – Shakespeare’s portmanteau)
Guttered=Furrowed
Congregated sands=Sandbanks
Ensteeped=Submerged
Enclog=Hinder
Compleat:
To wive=Eene vrouw neemen, trouwen
Paragon=Iets zonder weerga
To paragon=Vergelyken
Gutter=Groeve, geut
Congregated=Vergaderd, samengekomen
To steep=Indoopen, te weeken leggen
To clog=Belemmeren, verhinderen, kroppen

Topics: marriage, reputation

Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so
fond, but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO
Virtue? A fig! ‘Tis in ourselves that we are thus or
thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills
are gardeners. So that if we will plant nettles or sow
lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with
one gender of herbs or distract it with many—either to
have it sterile with idleness, or manured with
industry—why, the power and corrigible authority of this
lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not
one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the
blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to
most prepost’rous conclusions. But we have reason to
cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted
lusts. Whereof I take this that you call love to be a
sect or scion.

DUTCH:
Macht? Praatjens! Het ligt aan onszelf of wij zus of
zoo zijn. Onze lichamen zijn tuinen, en onze wil is er
tuinier van; zoodat, of wij brandnetels planten of sla
zaaien, hysop poten en thijm wieden, er eenerlei gewas in
brengen of velerlei er in verdeelen,

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Virtue=Power
Hyssop=A medicinal herb
Corrigible=Corrective
Poise=Counterbalance (also peise)
Sterile=Barren, not fertile
Gender of herbs=Race, kind, sort
Motions=Emotions
Sect or scion=Cutting or offshoot
Compleat:
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Virtue (efficacy, power, propriety)=Kracht, vermogen, hoedanigheid, eigenschap
Hyssop=Hysop
Corrigible=Verbeterlyk
Poise=Weegen, wikken
Steril=Onvruchtbaar

Topics: free will, independence, authority, emotion and mood, reason, intellect

Our general’s wife is now the general

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
You or any man living may be drunk at a time, man. I
tell you what you shall do. Our general’s wife is now
the general. I may say so in this respect, for that he
hath devoted and given up himself to the contemplation,
mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. Confess
yourself freely to her, importune her help to put you in
your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt,
so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her
goodness not to do more than she is requested. This
broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to
splinter, and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming,
this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was
before.
CASSIO
You advise me well.

DUTCH:
Dronken zijn kan u en iederen mensch ter wereld overkomen,
man. Ik zal u zeggen, wat gij te doen hebt.
De vrouw van onzen Generaal is nu de Generaal

MORE:
Proverb: A broken bone is the stronger when it is well set

Denotement=Contemplation; mark, indication: “in a man that’s just they are close –s, working from the heart”.
Importune =Ask urgently and persistently
Parts=Accomplishments, qualities
Compleat:
To importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen
Denotation=Betekening
Parts=Deelen, hoedaanigheden, begaafdheden

Topics: excess, marriage, authority, marriage, love, skill/talent, proverbs and idioms

Poor and content is rich, and rich enough

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough,
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.
Good heaven, the souls of all my
OTHELLO
Why, why is this?
Think’st thou Ied make a life of jealousy,
To follow still the changes of the moon
With fresh suspicions? No, to be once in doubt
Is once to be resolved. Exchange me for a goat
When I shall turn the business of my soul
To such exsufflicate and blown surmises
Matching thy inference. ‘Tis not to make me jealous
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well :
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous. tribe defend
From jealousy!

DUTCH:
Arm en tevreên is rijk, en rijk genoeg;
Maar als de winter arm is de allerrijkste,
Als staag de vrees hem nijpt van arm te worden

MORE:
Proverb: The greatest wealth is contentment with a little

Topics: poverty and wealth, satisfaction, proverbs and idioms, virtue, envy

Preferment goes by letter and affection

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:

IAGO
Despise me
If I do not. Three great ones of the city
(In personal suit to make me his lieutenant)
Off-capped to him, and by the faith of man
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place.
But he (as loving his own pride and purposes)
Evades them with a bombast circumstance
Horribly stuffed with epithets of war,
And in conclusion
Nonsuits my mediators. For “Certes,” says he,
“I have already chose my officer.”
And what was he?
Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine
(A fellow almost damned in a fair wife)
That never set a squadron in the field,
Nor the division of a battle knows
More than a spinster—unless the bookish theoric,
Wherein the toged consuls can propose
As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had th’ election
And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds
Christian and heathen, must be belee’d and calmed
By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster
He (in good time) must his lieutenant be
And I, bless the mark, his Moorship’s ancient.
RODERIGO
By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman.
IAGO
Why, there’s no remedy. ‘Tis the curse of service.
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to th’ first. Now sir, be judge yourself,
Whether I in any just term am affined
To love the Moor.

DUTCH:
Daar helpt niets aan; die vloek rust op den dienst;
Bevord’ring gaat bij gunst en aanbeveling,
Niet als voorheen naar diensttijd, waarbij ieder
Zijn voorman opvolgt

MORE:

Topics: corruption, loyalty, relationship, skill/talent, age/experience

Put out the light, and then put out the light

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars,
It is the cause. Yet I’ll not shed her blood,
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow
And smooth as monumental alabaster.
Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men.
Put out the light, and then put out the light.
If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,
I can again thy former light restore
Should I repent me. But once put out thy light,
Thou cunning’st pattern of excelling nature,
I know not where is that Promethean heat
That can thy light relume. When I have plucked thy rose
I cannot give it vital growth again,
It must needs wither. I’ll smell thee on the tree.
Oh, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade
Justice to break her sword! One more, one more.
Be thus when thou art dead and I will kill thee
And love thee after. (kissing her) One more, and that’s
the last.
So sweet was ne’er so fatal. I must weep,
But they are cruel tears. This sorrow’s heavenly,
It strikes where it doth love. She wakes.

DUTCH:
Doe uit het licht, en dan — doe uit het licht;
O dienstb’re vlam, indien ik uw licht doof,
Dan kan ik u uw vroeger licht hergeven,
Zoo ‘t mij berouwt; maar doof ik eens het uwe,
Gij kunstrijkst werk der scheppende natuur,
Waar vind ik de Prometheus-vonk, die u
Uw licht hergeeft?

MORE:
Cause=Ground for the action
Monumental=Used for monuments
Balmy=Fragrant
Sword=Emblem of power and authority
Minister=Aid
Cunning’st pattern=Masterpiece
Repent me=Change my mind
Put out the light, and then put out the light=Extinguish the candle (kill Desdemona)
Relume=Rekindle
Flaming=Carrying a light (Cf. Psalms 104.4; ‘Which maketh he spirits his messengers, and a flaming fire his ministers’.)
Cunning=Dexterously wrought or devised
Promethean heat=Fire that the demigod Prometheus stole from Olympus taught men to use; allusively, fire infuses life
Compleat:
Cause=Oorzaak, reden, zaak
To minister=Bedienen
Cunning=Behendig, Schrander, Naarstig
A cunning fellow=Een doortrapte vent, een looze gast
To cast a cunning look=Iemand snaaks aanzien
Repent=Berouw hebben, leedweezen betoonen, boete doen

Topics: life, strength, regret, death

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit and lost without deserving

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my
reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
IAGO
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in
reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you
repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways
to recover the general again. You are but now cast in
his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice,
even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he’s
yours.

DUTCH:
Een goede naam is een ijdele en hoogst bedriegelijke
begoocheling, vaak zonder verdienste verkregen
en onverdiend verloren; gij hebt in het geheel geen goeden
naam verloren, tenzij gij uzelven den naam bezorgt,
dat gij dit verlies hebt geleden

MORE:
Proverb: A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so

Cast=Dismissed
Mood=Anger
In policy=Public demonstration
Speak parrot=Nonsense
Fustian=Bombastic, high-sounding nonsense
Imposition=Cheat, imposture
Repute (yourself)=To think, to account, to hold
Compleat:
To cast off=Afwerpen, verwerpen, achterlaaten
To cast his adversary at the bar=Zyn party in rechte verwinnen
To be cast=’t Recht verlooren hebben
Mood=Luym, aardt, wyze
Fustian (or bombast)-Gezwets, snorkery
Fustian language=Grootspreeking, opsnyery
Imposition=Oplegging, opdringing, belasting, bedrog
Repute=Achten

Topics: reputation, merit, honesty, value, integrity, wellbeing

Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my
reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
IAGO
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in
reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you
repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways
to recover the general again. You are but now cast in
his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice,
even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he’s
yours.

DUTCH:
Mijn goede naam, mijn goede naam, niijn goede naam!
0 ik heb mijn goeden naam verloren! Ik heb mijn onsterflijk
deel verloren, en wat mij rest is dierlijk! — Mijn
goeden naam, Jago, mijn goeden naam!

MORE:
Proverb: A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so

Topics: reputation, merit, honesty, value, integrity, wellbeing, proverbs and idioms

Rude am I in my speech, and little blessed with the soft phrase of peace

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta’en away this old man’s daughter,
It is most true. True, I have married her.
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little blessed with the soft phrase of peace,
For since these arms of mine had seven years’ pith
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broils and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnished tale deliver
Of my whole course of love. What drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic—
For such proceeding I am charged withal—
I won his daughter.

DUTCH:
Ruw ben ik in ‘t spreken,
En schaars met vredes zachte taal begaafd;

MORE:
Rude=Raw, unrefined, uncivilized
Pith=Strength, force
Moon=month
Grace=To give, in any manner, a good appearance to, to set off, to adorn, to dignify, to exalt
Proceeding=Doing, action, course taken
Round=Plain
Conjuration=Incantation
Withal=With
Compleat:
Rude=Ruuw, onbeschouwen, plomp
Grace=Genade, gunst, bevalligheyd, fraaigheyd, aardige zwier
Proceeding=Voortvaaring, handeling
Conjuration=Zamenzweering, eedgespan, vloekverwantschap, bezweering

Topics: learning/education, language, defence

She’d come again, and with a greedy ear devour up my discourse

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Her father loved me, oft invited me,
Still questioned me the story of my life
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To th’ very moment that he bade me tell it,
Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth ’scapes i’ th’ imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my traveler’s history.
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak—such was my process—
And of the Cannibals that each others eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Grew beneath their shoulders. These things to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline.
But still the house affairs would draw her hence,
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She’d come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse, which I, observing,
Took once a pliant hour and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard
But not intentively. I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffered. My story being done
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs.
She swore, in faith, ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange,
‘Twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful.
She wished she had not heard it, yet she wished
That heaven had made her such a man. She thanked me
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake.
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Here comes the lady. Let her witness it.

DUTCH:
Bij die verhalen
Was Desdemona steeds gespannen luist’rend,
Maar telkens riep huishoud’lijk werk haar weg;
Doch nauw had ze in der ijl haar taak volbracht ,
Of zij kwam weder en haar gretig oor
Verslond mijn woorden

MORE:
Boyish days=Youth
Portance=Conduct, behaviour
Imminent deadly breach=Imminent death
Taken=Captured
Anthropophagi=Cannibals
Pliant=Suitable
Dilate=Relate accurately
Parcels=Piecemeal
Intentively=Intently
Passing=Exceedingly
Hint=Prompt
Compleat:
Boyish=Kinderachtig
Imminent=Naakend, over ‘t hoofd hangend
Pliant=Buygelyk, buygzaam, dat zig ligt laat buygen
Dilate=Uitbreyden
To parcel=In hoopen verdeelen, in partyen deelen
Intentively=Aandachtiglyk
Passing=Zeer, uitsteekend
Hint=Een leus, waarschouwing, indachtigmaaking, stille gewagmaaking

Topics: age/experience, fate/destiny, life

So shall I clothe me in a forced content, and shut myself up in some other course, to fortune’s alms

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
IAGO
There is no other way. ‘Tis she must do ’t,
And, lo, the happiness! Go and importune her.
DESDEMONA
How now, good Cassio, what’s the news with you?
CASSIO
Madam, my former suit. I do beseech you
That by your virtuous means I may again
Exist, and be a member of his love
Whom I, with all the office of my heart
Entirely honour. I would not be delayed.
If my offence be of such mortal kind
That nor my service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit.
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune’s alms.

DUTCH:
Dan hul ik mij gedwongen in berusting,
En kerker me in een and’re baan, die ‘t Lot
Me uit deernis opent.

Topics: virtue, love, merit, emotion and mood

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

So will I turn her virtue into pitch

DUTCH:
Zoo wil ik hare deugd in pik verand’ren,
En uit haar eigen goedheid weef ik ‘t net,
Dat allen zal omstrikken.

MORE:
Proverb: The devil can transform himself into an angel of light.

Topics: deceit, appearance, manipulation, , reputation, virtue, proverbs and idioms

Stand you awhile apart, confine yourself but in a patient list

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Stand you awhile apart,
Confine yourself but in a patient list.
Whilst you were here o’erwhelmèd with your grief—
A passion most resulting such a man—
Cassio came hither. I shifted him away
And laid good ’scuses upon your ecstasy,
Bade him anon return and here speak with me,
The which he promised. Do but encave yourself,
And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns
That dwell in every region of his face.
For I will make him tell the tale anew
Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when
He hath, and is again to cope your wife.
I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience,
Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen,
And nothing of a man.
OTHELLO
Dost thou hear, Iago?
I will be found most cunning in my patience,
But—dost thou hear?—most bloody.

DUTCH:
Treed thans een poos ter zijde;
Maar sluit u in de perken van ‘t geduld,

MORE:
In a patient list=Within the bounds of patience
Laid good ‘scuses upon=Made plausible excuses for
Ecstasy=Fit, trance
Encave=Conceal
Fleers=Sneers
Notable=Obvious
Scorns=Signs of disrespect
Gesture=Attitude, bearing
Cope=Sleep with
All in all in spleen=All ruled by emotion (splenic)
Cunning=Dexterous, trickish
Compleat:
List=Perk
Extasy=Verrukking, opgetoogenheid, vertrekking van zinnen
Fleer=Stout aankyken
Notable=Merkelyk, uitneemend, zonderling, merkwaardig, berucht, vermaard
To scorn=Verachten, verfooijen
Gesture=Gebaar, gelaat, aanstelling
To cope=Vechten, slaan; Voortkomen; Uitsteeken
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid; Listigheid

Topics: patience, caution, madness

Straight satisfy yourself

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Roderigo
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
Sir, I will answer any thing. But, I beseech you,
If’t be your pleasure and most wise consent
As partly I find it is that your fair daughter
At this odd-even and dull watch o’ th’ night
Transported with no worse nor better guard
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier,
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor,
If this be known to you and your allowance,
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs.
But if you know not this my manners tell me
We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe
That, from the sense of all civility,
I thus would play and trifle with your reverence.
Your daughter if you have not given her leave
I say again, hath made a gross revolt,
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger
Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself.
If she be in her chamber or your house,
Let loose on me the justice of the state
For thus deluding you.

DUTCH:
Ga, overtuig u;
Is ze in haar slaapvertrek of in uw huis,
Zoo straf mij naar de strengheid van de wet,
Wijl ik u laag bedroog.

MORE:
Answer=Answer for, accept responsibility
Odd-even=Turning point, midnight
Dull=Lifeless
Allowance=Permission
Saucy=Insolent
Extravagant=Vagrant
Wheeling=Wandering, roving
Straight=Immediately
Compleat:
Answer for=Verantwoorden, voor iets staan; borg blyven
To play at even and odd=Eeven en oneeven speelen
Dull=Bot, stomp, dof, dom, loom, vadsig, doodsch
Allowance=Verlof, toelaating, inschikking
Saucy=Stout, onbeschaamd, baldaadig
Straightway=Eenswegs, terstond, opstaandevoet

Topics: civility, honesty, respect

Take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble out of his scattering and unsure observance

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
If thou but think’st him wronged and mak’st his ear
A stranger to thy thoughts.
IAGO
I do beseech you,
Though I perchance am vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature’s plague
To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not, that your wisdom,
From one that so imperfectly conceits,
Would take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble
Out of his scattering and unsure observance.
It were not for your quiet nor your good,
Nor for my manhood, honesty, and wisdom
To let you know my thoughts.

DUTCH:
Geen acht doe slaan, en dat ge uzelf niet kwelt,
Met wat hij hier en daar, onzeker, zag.

MORE:
Make his ear a stranger to thy thoughts=Don’t mention your suspicions
Perchance=Maybe
Vicious in my guess=I may be wrong
Jealousy=Suspicion
Imperfectly conceits=Imagines wrongly
Scattering=Random
Observance=Observations
Compleat:
Perchance=By geval
Vicious=Ondeugend, snood
Jealousy (Jealoesie)(or suspicion)=Agterdogtig
Full of jealousies=Zeer agterdenkend
Imperfect=Onvolmaakt, onvolkomen
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Scattering=Verstrooijing, verspreyding
Observance=Gedienstigheid, eerbiedigheid, opmerking, waarneeming

Topics: imagination, conspiracy, secrecy, suspicion

Take note! Take note, o world! To be direct and honest is not safe.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more. Abandon all remorse.
On horror’s head horrors accumulate,
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed,
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.
IAGO
Oh, grace! Oh, heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? Have you a soul or sense?
God buy you, take mine office. O wretched fool
That lov’st to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit, and from hence
I’ll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO
Nay, stay. Thou shouldst be honest.
IAGO
I should be wise, for honesty’s a fool
And loses that it works for.

DUTCH:
Merk, merk op, gij wereld!
Oprecht en eerlijk zijn brengt fel gevaar! —
Ik dank u voor die les en voed voortaan
Geen vriendschap meer, komt dit zoo duur te staan.

Topics: honesty, truth, learning/education

Th’ affrighted globe should yawn at alteration

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
O good my lord, I would speak a word with you!
OTHELLO
Yes, ’tis Emilia.— By and by.— She’s dead.—
‘Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio’s death,
The noise was high. Ha! No more moving?
Still as the grave. Shall she come in? Were ’t good?
I think she stirs again—No. What’s best to do?
If she come in, she’ll sure speak to my wife—
My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife.
Oh, insupportable! Oh, heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that th’ affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration.

DUTCH:
Mij dunkt, verduist’ring moest er zijn, ontzettend,
Van zon en maan, en de aardbol moest, verschrikt,
Opscheuren, gapen bij dien omkeer.

MORE:
Insupportable=Unbearable
Yawn=Split open, gape
Alteration=Change following the death of Desdemona
Compleat:
Insupportable=Onverdraagbaar, ondraagelyk, onlydelyk
Yawn=Gaapen, gegaap
Alteration=Verandering

Topics: death, regret

That errs in ignorance and not in cunning

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Who is ’t you mean?
DESDEMONA
Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord,
If I have any grace or power to move you
His present reconciliation take.
For if he be not one that truly loves you,
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning,
I have no judgment in an honest face.
I prithee, call him back.
OTHELLO
Went he hence now?
DESDEMONA
Ay, sooth, so humbled
That he hath left part of his grief with me
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back.

DUTCH:
Want is hij niet een man, die trouw u mint,
Die onbewust en niet opzett’Iijk dwaalde,
Dan weet ik niets van lezen op ‘t gelaat;
Ik bid u, roep hem weer.

MORE:
Reconciliation=Repentance
In cunning=Deliberately
I have no judgment in=I cannot judge
Compleat:
Reconciliation=Verzoening, bevreediging, overeenbrenging
Cunning=Behendigheid, Schranderheid, Naarstigheid

Topics: authority, judgment, appearance

The bloody book of law you shall yourself read in the bitter letter, after your own sense

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
Ay, to me.
She is abused, stol’n from me, and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks.
For nature so prepost’rously to err,
Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense,
Sans witchcraft could not.
DUKE
Whoe’er he be that in this foul proceeding
Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself
And you of her, the bloody book of law
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter,
After your own sense, yea, though our proper son
Stood in your action.

DUTCH:
En u van haar, het bloedig wetboek zij
Door u gelezen naar zijn strengste letter
In uwen zin, ja, zelfs al gold uw aanklacht
Onze’ eigen zoon.

MORE:
Abused=Deceived
Deficient=Lacking in sense
Beguiled=Tricked
After your own sense=Given your own interpretation
Bitter=Harsh
Stood in=Was the accused
Compleat:
To abuse=Misbruiken, mishandelen, kwaalyk bejegenen, beledigen, verongelyken, schelden
Deficient=In gebreke blyvende, achterlyk
To beguile=Bedriegen, om den tuyn leyden
Sense=Het gevoel; gevoeligheid; besef; reden
Bitter=Bitter, vinnig

Topics: law, understanding, deceit, error

The impediment most profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation of our prosperity

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Sir, he’s rash and very sudden in choler, and haply may
strike at you. Provoke him that he may. For even out of
that will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose
qualification shall come into no true taste again but by
the displanting of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter
journey to your desires by the means I shall then have
to prefer them, and the impediment most profitably
removed, without the which there were no expectation of
our prosperity.
RODERIGO
I will do this, if you can bring it to any opportunity.

DUTCH:
Hij is driftig, man, en zeer opvliegend, en trekt misschien
het zwaard tegen u; terg hem daartoe; want juist
daarmee wil ik die van Cyprus zoo opruien, dat zij niet
tot bedaren zullen komen, voordat Cassio verwijderd is.

MORE:
Rash=Hasty, impetuous
Haply=Perhaps
That he may=So that he will
Qualification=Appeasement; Mitigation
Prefer=Promote
Displant=Depose
Compleat:
Rash=Voorbaarig, haastig, onbedacht, roekeloos
Haply=Misschien
To quality=Maatigen, temperen
To prefer one=Iemand bevorderen
Displant=Ontplanten, uitroeijen

Topics: haste, plans/intentions, manipulation, opportunity

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
God be with you. I have done.
Please it your grace, on to the state affairs.
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.—
Come hither, Moor.
I here do give thee that with all my heart
Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart
I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,
I am glad at soul I have no other child.
For thy escape would teach me tyranny,
To hang clogs on them.— I have done, my lord.
DUKE
Let me speak like yourself and lay a sentence
Which as a grise or step may help these lovers
Into your favour.
When remedies are past the griefs are ended
By seeing the worst which late on hopes depended.
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone
Is the next way to draw new mischief on.
What cannot be preserved when fortune takes,
Patience her injury a mock’ry makes.
The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief,
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

DUTCH:
Wie, schoon bestólen, lacht, besteelt den dief,
Wie nutt’loos treurt, zichzelf, tot nieuwe grief.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Dykes v. State, 264 So.2d 65, 66 n. 1 (Fla. Ct. App. 1972)(Howell, J.).

Proverb: Never grieve for that you cannot help

Grise (grize) (also grice, greese)=Step, degree
Lay a sentence=Apply a maxim
Patience=Endurance
Mockery=Subject of laughter and derision
Bootless=Futile, unavailing
Compleat:
Mockery=Bespotting, spotterny
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos
Patience=Geduld, lydzaamheid, verduldigheid

Topics: adversity, regret, cited in law, proverbs and idioms, remedy

Their best conscience is not to leave ’t undone, but keep’t unknown.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
I am glad of this, for now I shall have reason
To show the love and duty that I bear you
With franker spirit. Therefore, as I am bound,
Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof.
Look to your wife, observe her well with Cassio.
Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure.
I would not have your free and noble nature
Out of self-bounty be abused. Look to ’t.
I know our country disposition well.
In Venice they do let God see the pranks
They dare not show their husbands. Their best conscience
Is not to leave ’t undone, but keep’t unknown.

DUTCH:
Ik ben met onzen landaard wel vertrouwd;
Men laat bij ons den hemel treken zien,
Die de gemaal niet zien mag; ‘t reinst geweten
Zegt daar niet:laat het na”, maar: houdt verborgen.”

MORE:
Proverb: Live charily if not chastely

Secure=Free from suspicion
Self-bounty=Innate generosity
Revolt=Unfaithfulness
Best conscience=Highest morality
Compleat:
To secure=In veyligheyd stellen, in zekerheyd brengen, redden, bergen; in vezekering neemen
Inference=Gevolg, besluy
Secure (fearless or careless)=Onbevreest, zorgeloos
Conscience=Het geweeten
Bounty=Goedertierenheid, mildheid

Topics: love, honesty, trust, betrayal, suspicion, evidence, marriage, proverbs and idioms

Then let them use us well, else let them know, the ills we do, their ills instruct us so

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
Yes, a dozen, and as many to th’ vantage as
would store the world they played for.
But I do think it is their husbands’ faults
If wives do fall. Say that they slack their duties
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
And pour our treasures into foreign laps,
Or else break out in peevish jealousies,
Throwing restraint upon us. Or say they strike us,
Or scant our former having in despite.
Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace,
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know
Their wives have sense like them. They see and smell
And have their palates both for sweet and sour,
As husbands have. What is it that they do
When they change us for others? Is it sport?
I think it is. And doth affection breed it?
I think it doth. Is ’t frailty that thus errs?
It is so too. And have not we affections,
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have?
Then let them use us well, else let them know,
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so.
DESDEMONA
Good night, good night. Heaven me such uses send,
Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend!

DUTCH:
Dus, dat ze ons goed behand’len of bedenken,
Dat, zoo ze ons krenken, zij ons leeren krenken.

MORE:
In despite=Out of spite
Peevish=Silly, spiteful
Galls=Tempers or spirits to cause resentment
Affection=Passion
Compleat:
Peevish=Kribbig, gemelyk
To gall=’t Vel afschuuren, smarten
To gall the enemy=Den vyand benaauwen
Despite=Spyt, versmaading

Topics: marriage, trust, betrayal, revenge, age/experience, equality, respect

There are many events in the womb of time which will be delivered

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue?
IAGO
Thou art sure of me. Go, make money. I have told thee
often, and I re-tell thee again and again, I hate the
Moor. My cause is hearted. Thine hath no less reason.
Let us be conjunctive in our revenge against him. If
thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me
a sport. There are many events in the womb of time
which will be delivered. Traverse, go, provide thy
money. We will have more of this tomorrow. Adieu.
RODERIGO
Where shall we meet i’ th’ morning?

DUTCH:
Staat gij mij ter zijde bij mijne verwachting, als ik het
op den uitslag laat aankomen?

MORE:
Fast=True, loyal
Depend=Rely
Hearted=Heartfelt
Issue=Outcome
Be conjunctive=Join forces, be united
Hearted=Seated in the heart
Cuckold=To make a cuckold
Compleat:
Fast=Vast
Fastness=Vastigheyd, sterkte
To depend=Afhangen, steunen, zich verlaaten, vertrouwen
Issue=Uytkomst, uytslag; afkomst, afkomeling
Conjunction=’t Zaamenvoeging
Cuckold=Hoorndraager

Topics: plans/intentions, time, money, unity/collaboration, revenge, loyalty

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

These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’ th’ alehouse

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’
th’ alehouse.
What miserable praise hast thou for her
That’s foul and foolish?
IAGO
There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
Oh, heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But
what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman
indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did
justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
Never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said “Now I may,”
She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail,
She that could think and ne’er disclose her mind,
See suitors following and not look behind,
She was a wight, if ever such wights were—
DESDEMONA
To do what?
IAGO
To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of
him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you,
Cassio? Is he not a most profane and liberal counselor?
CASSIO
He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the
soldier than in the scholar.

DUTCH:
Dat zijn oude onnoozele spitsvondigheden om zotten in
een bierhuis te doen lachen

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Paradoxes=Tenets, sayings; statement or tenet contrary to received opinion
Foul=Ugly
In the authority=By virtue
Put on the vouch=Compel approval, recommendation from
Fled from her wish=Did not indulge desires
Wrong=Sense of injury, anger; injustice suffered
Stay=Stop
Chronicle=Record, register
Small beer=Trivia (Shakespeare was supposedly the first to use ‘small beer’ to mean something trivial, here in Othello) Also in French petite bière.
Chronicle small beer=Keep household account for trivial amounts
Liberal=Licentious
Scholar=Intellectual
Compleat:
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Foul=Vuyl, slordig
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Wrong=Nadeel. Wronged=Verongelykt, verkort
To chronicle=In eenen kronyk aanschryven
Small beer=Klein bier, dun bier
Liberal=Mild, milddaadig, goedertieren, gulhartig, openhartig
Scholar=Schoolier, student; geleerde

Topics: language, wisdom, free will, intellect

This fellow’s of exceeding honesty and knows all quantities, with a learnèd spirit of human dealings

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
This fellow’s of exceeding honesty
And knows all quantities, with a learnèd spirit,
Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings,
I’d whistle her off and let her down the wind
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black
And have not those soft parts of conversation
That chamberers have, or for I am declined
Into the vale of years—yet that’s not much—
She’s gone, I am abused, and my relief
Must be to loathe her. Oh, curse of marriage
That we can call these delicate creatures ours
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses. Yet ’tis the plague to great ones,
Prerogatived are they less than the base.
‘Tis destiny unshunnable, like death.
Even then this forkèd plague is fated to us
When we do quicken. Look where she comes.
If she be false, heaven mocked itself.
I’ll not believe ’t.

DUTCH:
Die mensch is bij uitnemendheid rechtschapen
En blikt met scherpen geest in alle diepten
Van ‘s menschen doen.

MORE:
Jesses=Straps of leather or silk, with which hawks were tied by the legs
Haggard=Intractable, wild (as an untrained hawk)
Whistle off=Call of falconers (Johnson: the falconers always let fly the hawk against the wind; if she flies with the wind behind her, she seldom returns. If therefore a hawk was for any reason to be dismissed, she was let down the wind, and from that time shifted for herself and preyed at fortune)
Soft parts of conversation=Social arts
Haply=Perhaps
Chamberers=Gallants
Prerogatived=Privileged
Compleat:
Learnèd=Geleerd
Haply=Misschien
Chamberer=Kamermeyd, kamenier

Blijkt zij me een woeste valk. Shakespeare noemt het woord valk niet. maar bezigt het woord haggard,
dat juist voor een valk , die niet gehoorzaam wil worden, maar wild blijft, gebezigd wordt, en spreekt van de jesses, de veters of riemen, waarmee men den valk op de hand vasthoudt, van het gefluit, waarmeê men hem loslaat, en van het laten vliegen met den wind mee of voor den wind, waarna een valk zelden terugkeert, maar voor eigen rekening gaat jagen. In Sh.’s tijd was de valkerij met hare uitdrukkingen algemeen bekend en werd iedere toespeling er op onmiddellijk begrepen.

Burgersdijk notes:

Topics: honesty, learning and education

This is the night that either makes me or fordoes me quite

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
Oh, fie upon thee, strumpet!
BIANCA
I am no strumpet, but of life as honest
As you that thus abuse me.
EMILIA
As I! Fie upon thee!
IAGO
Kind gentlemen, let’s go see poor Cassio dressed.—
Come, mistress, you must tell ’s another tale.—
Emilia, run you to the citadel
And tell my lord and lady what hath happed.—
Will you go on afore? Aside. This is the night
That either makes me or fordoes me quite.

DUTCH:
Dra blijkt, of deze nacht
Mij hoog verhief of diepen val mij bracht.

MORE:
Proverb: To make one tell another tale

Dressed=Wounds are dressed
Fordoes=Ruins
Tell ‘s another tale=Give us a different account
Compleat:
To dress a wound=Een wond verbinden
To fore-do=Benaadeelen
Tale=Vertelling

Topics: fate/destiny, risk, proverbs and idioms

Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, if thou but thinkest him wronged and makest his ear a stranger to thy thoughts

DUTCH:
Neen, Jago, zoo verraadt ge uw vriend, indien gij
Vermoedt, dat hij gekrenkt wordt, en zijn oor,
Wat gij vermoedt, onthoudt.

Topics: imagination, conspiracy, secrecy, suspicion

Thou echo’st me as if there were some monster in thy thought too hideous to be shown

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
What dost thou think?
IAGO
Think, my lord?
OTHELLO
“Think, my lord?” Alas, thou echo’st me
As if there were some monster in thy thought
Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something.
I heard thee say even now thou lik’st not that
When Cassio left my wife. What didst not like?
And when I told thee he was of my counsel
Of my whole course of wooing, thou cried’st “Indeed?”
And didst contract and purse thy brow together
As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain
Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me
Show me thy thought.
IAGO
My lord, you know I love you.

DUTCH:
Denk, heer!
Bij God, hij is mijn echo,
Alsof in zijn gedachte een monster school,
Te afzichtlijk om te zien.

MORE:
Mean=Hint at
Even now=Just now
Of my counsel=In my confidence
Conceit=Idea
Compleat:
Mean=Meenen
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening

Topics: language, advice, secrecy

Thou hast not half that power to do me harm as I have to be hurt

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Ha!
EMILIA
Do thy worst.
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven
Than thou wast worthy her.
OTHELLO
Peace, you were best.
EMILIA
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm
As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt!
As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed—
I care not for thy sword, I’ll make thee known
Though I lost twenty lives.— Help! Help, ho! Help!
The Moor hath killed my mistress! Murder, murder!

DUTCH:
Gij hebt niet half de kracht, mij leed te doen,
Die ik heb om te dulden. O gij speelpop!
Onnooz’le hals! gij hebt een daad gedaan, —
Wat geef ik om uw zwaard?

MORE:

Gull=A person easily deceived, a dupe, a fool
Dolt=blockhead, loggerhead
Compleat:
Gull=Bedrieger
To gull=Bedriegen, verschalken. You look as if you had a mind to gull me=Hete schynt of gy voorneemens waart om my te foppen
Dolt=Plompaard; botmuyl

Topics: insult, gullibility, intellect, revenge

Thou know’st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, and wit depends on dilatory time

DUTCH:
Door sluwheid werk ik, niet door tooverij,
Niet waar? en sluwheid wacht op ‘t dralend uur.

MORE:
Proverb: He that has no patience has nothing

Topics: intellect, patience, proverbs and idioms, purpose

Though I perchance am vicious in my guess

DUTCH:
Ik smeek u dringend,
Daar ik wellicht in mijn vermoeden faal,
Want ja, de vloek is ‘t van mijn wezen, steeds
Wat boos is na te speuren, en mijn argwaan
Schèpt dikwijls feilen;

Topics: imagination, conspiracy, secrecy, suspicion

Though other things grow fair against the sun, yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe

DUTCH:
Hoe veel ook goed gedije in ‘t licht der zon,
Die vrucht, die ‘t eerst gebloeid heeft, rijpt het eerst;

MORE:
Proverb: He that has no patience has nothing

Topics: time, plans/intentions, conspiracy, patience, purpose, proverbs and idioms

Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Othello
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:
Uw trouw, vriendschapp’lijk hart verkleint de zaak
En Cassio’s schuld. — ‘k Ben u genegen, Cassio;
Doch wees voortaan mijn officier niet meer.

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, invented or popularised, still in use, cited in law, language, honour, truth, error, anger

Tis not a year or two shows us a man

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Emilia
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
Is not this man jealous?
DESDEMONA
I ne’er saw this before.
Sure, there’s some wonder in this handkerchief,
I am most unhappy in the loss of it.
EMILIA
‘Tis not a year or two shows us a man.
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food.
To eat us hungerly, and when they are full,
They belch us. Look you, Cassio and my husband!
IAGO
There is no other way. ‘Tis she must do ’t,
And, lo, the happiness! Go and importune her.

DUTCH:
In éen, twee jaren wordt geen man doorgrond;
Zij allen zijn slechts magen, wij hun voedsel;
Zij eten gulzig, om, welras verzadigd,
Ons op te rispen. — Zie, mijn man met Cassio!

MORE:
Wonder=Miracle, magic
In=At
Hungerly=Greedily, with an appetite
Belch=Throw out
Importune=Seeks, beg; urge
Compleat:
To wonder=Zich verwonderen
He eats hungrily=Hij eet alsof hy verhongerd was
Belch=Oprisping
Importune=Lastig vallen, zeer dringen, gestadig aanhouden, overdringen, aandringen

Topics: envy, equality

To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
DESDEMONA
These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i’
th’ alehouse.
What miserable praise hast thou for her
That’s foul and foolish?
IAGO
There’s none so foul and foolish thereunto,
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do.
DESDEMONA
Oh, heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But
what praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman
indeed, one that in the authority of her merit did
justly put on the vouch of very malice itself?
IAGO
She that was ever fair and never proud,
Had tongue at will and yet was never loud,
Never lacked gold and yet went never gay,
Fled from her wish and yet said “Now I may,”
She that being angered, her revenge being nigh,
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly,
She that in wisdom never was so frail
To change the cod’s head for the salmon’s tail,
She that could think and ne’er disclose her mind,
See suitors following and not look behind,
She was a wight, if ever such wights were—
DESDEMONA
To do what?
IAGO
To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
DESDEMONA
Oh, most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of
him, Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you,
Cassio? Is he not a most profane and liberal counselor?
CASSIO
He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the
soldier than in the scholar.

DUTCH:
Die nooit zoo dom was of zoo onbedreven,
Een zalmstaart voor een schelvischkop te geven

MORE:
Fond=Foolish
Paradoxes=Tenets, sayings; statement or tenet contrary to received opinion
Foul=Ugly
In the authority=By virtue
Put on the vouch=Compel approval, recommendation from
Fled from her wish=Did not indulge desires
Wrong=Sense of injury, anger; injustice suffered
Stay=Stop
Chronicle=Record, register
Small beer=Trivia (Shakespeare was said to be the first to use ‘small beer’ to mean something trivial) Also in French petite bière.
Chronicle small beer=Keep household account for trivial amounts
Liberal=Licentious
Scholar=Intellectual
Compleat:
Fond=Zot, dwaas, ongerymt
Paradox=Een wonderspreuk, een vreemde reden die tegen ‘t gemeen gevoelen schynt aan te loopen
Foul=Vuyl, slordig
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Wrong=Nadeel. Wronged=Verongelykt, verkort
To chronicle=In eenen kronyk aanschryven
Small beer=Klein bier, dun bier
Liberal=Mild, milddaadig, goedertieren, gulhartig, openhartig
Scholar=Schoolier, student; geleerde

Topics: language, wisdom, free will, intellect

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

To vouch this is no proof,
Without more wider and more overt test
Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
BRABANTIO
A maiden never bold,
Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion
Blushed at herself. And she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, everything,
To fall in love with what she feared to look on?
It is a judgment maimed and most imperfect
That will confess perfection so could err.
Against all rules of nature, and must be driven
To find out practices of cunning hell
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again
That with some mixtures powerful o’er the blood
Or with some dram, conjured to this effect,
He wrought upon her.
DUKE
To vouch this is no proof,
Without more wider and more overt test
Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods
Of modern seeming do prefer against him.
FIRST SENATOR
But, Othello, speak.
Did you by indirect and forcèd courses
Subdue and poison this young maid’s affections?
Or came it by request and such fair question
As soul to soul affordeth?

DUTCH:
Betuigd is niet bewezen,
Tenzij gij beter gronden hebt, meer klemmend,
Dan ‘t los vermoeden, dat, met krachtloos uitzicht,
En dun gekleed, nu optreedt tegen hem.

MORE:
Proverb: Accusation is no proof

Vouch again=Reaffirm expressly
Wider=Fuller
Test=Testimony, evidence
Thin habits=Scant, insubstantial exterior
Poor=Tenuous
Likelihood=Circumstantial evidence, somethng from which inferences may be drawn, indication, sign
Indirect=Underhand
Forced=Constrained, unnatural, false (against the will of)
Modern seeming=Common assumption
Compleat:
To vouch=Staande houden, bewyzen, verzekeren
Testable=Die volgens de rechten getuigen mag
Indirect=Niet rechts weegs, zydelings. Indirect means=Slinksche middelen
Directly or indirectly=Middelyk of onmiddelyk, voor de vuist of heimelyk
Forced=Gedwongen, aangedrongen
Seeming=Schynende

Topics: proverbs and idioms, nature, error, evidence

Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations
strong as proofs of holy writ.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
EMILIA
If it be not for some purpose of import,
Give ’t me again. Poor lady, she’ll run mad
When she shall lack it.
IAGO
Be not acknown on ’t,
I have use for it. Go, leave me.
I will in Cassio’s lodging lose this napkin
And let him find it. Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ. This may do something.
The Moor already changes with my poison.
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
But with a little act upon the blood
Burn like the mines of sulphur.
I did say so.
Look, where he comes. Not poppy nor mandragora
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday.

DUTCH:
k Verlies in Cassio’s woning dezen zakdoek,
En zorg, dat hij hem vindt. Voor de ijverzucht
Zijn dingen, ijl als lucht, bewijzen, sterker
Dan spreuken uit de Schrift

MORE:
Proverb: As light as air

Napkin=Handkerchief
Conceits=Conceptions, ideas
To distaste=To be distasteful, unsavoury
Drowsy=Sleep-inducing
Mandragora=Opiate
Compleat:
Conceit=Waan, bevatting, opvatting, meening
Distaste=Weersmaak, weerzin, misnoegen
To give distaste=Misnoegen veroorzaaken
To distaste=Geen smaak in iets vinden; (to take distaste)=Een walg krygen
Drowsy=Slaaperig, vaakerig, vadsig, druyloorig

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, envy, perception, imagination

We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
O sir, content you.
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly followed. You shall mark
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave
That (doting on his own obsequious bondage)
Wears out his time much like his master’s ass
For naught but provender, and when he’s old, cashiered.
Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are
Who, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,
Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves
And, throwing but shows of service on their lords,
Do well thrive by them. And when they have lined their
coats,
Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul,
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir,
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago.
In following him, I follow but myself.
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end.
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at. I am not what I am.

DUTCH:
Niet elk kan meester zijn, noch ieder meester
Oprecht gediend zijn. Zie, wat vindt gij meen’gen
Recht lagen kruiper, slovend in zijn juk,
Die, op zijn eigen slavenboei verzot,
Gedwee, als de ezel van zijn heer, om ‘t voêr

MORE:
Proverb: Every man cannot be a master (lord)
Proverb: To wear one’s heart upon one’s sleeve (1604)

Content you=Don’t worry
Knave=Servant
Cashiered=Dismissed, discarded from service
Peculiar=Private, personal
End=Purpose
Complement extern=External show, form
Daws: Jackdaws
Not what I am=Not what I seem to be
Doting=to be fond, to love to excess
Knee-crooking=Flattering
Obsequious=Zealous, officious, devoted
Wear out=To spend all of, to come to the end of
Provender=Dry food for beasts
Compleat:
To content=Voldoen, te vreede stellen, genoegen geeven
Dote upon=Op iets verzot zyn; zyne zinnen zeer op iets gezet hebben
Obsequious=Gehoorzaam, gedienstig
To cashiere=Den zak geeven, afdanken, ontslaan
Jack daw=Een exter of kaauw
Extern=Uitwendig, uiterlyk
End=Voorneemen, oogmerk

Topics: loyalty, deceit, proverbs and idioms, leadership, duty

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

Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it without a prompter

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining and the rest.
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter. Whither will you that I go
To answer this your charge?
BRABANTIO
To prison, till fit time
Of law and course of direct session
Call thee to answer.
OTHELLO
What if I do obey?
How may the Duke be therewith satisfied,
Whose messengers are here about my side
Upon some present business of the state
To bring me to him?

DUTCH:
Steekt op die zwaarden ,
Niet gij slechts aan mijn zij, gij and’ren ook!
Waar’ strijd mijn wachtwoord, ‘k wist het zelf, al blies
Het niemand in. Waar wilt gij, dat ik ga,
Opdat ik mij verantwoord?

MORE:
Hold your hands=Don’t strike
Of my inclining=On my side
Course of direct session=Regular court hearing
Present=Pressing
Compleat:
To hold back=Te rugge houden, onthouden
Inclining=Neyging
Session=Een zitting
Present=Tegenwoordig

Topics: dispute, law/legal, punishment, reply, conflict

What you would ask me that I should deny or stand so mamm’ring on

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Desdemona
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
I shall not dine at home,
I meet the captains at the citadel.
DESDEMONA
Why, then, tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn.
On Tuesday noon, or night, or Wednesday morn.
I prithee name the time, but let it not
Exceed three days. In faith, he’s penitent,
And yet his trespass, in our common reason
(Save that, they say, the wars must make example
Out of her best) is not, almost, a fault
T’ incur a private check. When shall he come?
Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul
What you would ask me that I should deny
Or stand so mamm’ring on. What? Michael Cassio
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a time,
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly,
Hath ta’en your part, to have so much to do
To bring him in? Trust me, I could do much—

DUTCH:
Wat gij mij vragen kunt, dat ik zou weig’ren,
Waar ‘k zoo bij weiflen zou

MORE:
Trespass=Offence
Check=Scolding
Is not, almost=Is not, if at all
Mammering=Stammering, hesitating
Dispraisingly=Critically
Compleat:
Trespass=Overtreeden, zondigen
Check=Berispen, beteugelen, intoomen, verwyten
Dispraising=Mispryzing, verachting, laaking; mispryzende

Topics: offence, punishment

When the blood is made dull with the act of sport

DUTCH:
Als het bloed afgekoeld is door genot, dan is er, om het weer te ontvlammen en aan verzadiging versche begeerte te geven, noodig: een beminnelijk gelaat, overeenstemming van jaren, van zeden, van schoonheid, waarin de Moor geheel en al te kort schiet.

MORE:
Slipper=Deceitful, slippery
Voluble=Plausible, glib
Conscionable=Conscientious
Humane=Polite, civil
Seeming=Appearance
Salt=Lecherous, lewd
Occasion=Opportunity
Advantages=Opportunities
Pregnant=Evident
Civil and humane=Polite and mannerly
Stamp=Coin, manufacture
Folly=Wantonness
Compleat:
A slippery (or dangerous) business=Een gevaarlyke bezigheid
A voluble tongue=Een vloeijende tong, een gladde tong, een tong die wel gehangen is
Conscionable=Naauw op zichzelven lettende; Gemoedelyk, billyk
Humane=Menschelyk, beleefd, heusch
Seeming=Schynende
Salt=(sault) Hitsig, ritsig, heet
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak, nood
Advantage=Voordeel, voorrecht, winst, gewin, toegift
Pregnant=Krachtig, dringend, naadrukkelyk
Stamp=Stempelen, stampen
Folly=Ondeugd, buitenspoorigheid, onvolmaaktheid

Topics: love, life, deceit, benefit/advantage

When these mutabilities so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and main exercise

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Iago
CONTEXT:
IAGO
Blessed fig’s-end! The wine she drinks is made of
grapes. If she had been blessed, she would never have
loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! Didst thou not see her
paddle with the palm of his hand? Didst not mark that?
RODERIGO
Yes, that I did, but that was but courtesy..
IAGO
Lechery, by this hand, an index and obscure prologue to
the history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near
with their lips that their breaths embraced together.
Villainous thoughts, Roderigo! When these mutabilities
so marshal the way, hard at hand comes the master and
main exercise, th’ incorporate conclusion. Pish! But,
sir, be you ruled by me. I have brought you from Venice.
Watch you tonight for the command, I’ll lay ’t upon
you. Cassio knows you not. I’ll not be far from you. Do
you find some occasion to anger Cassio, either by
speaking too loud, or tainting his discipline, or from
what other course you please, which the time shall more
favourably minister.

DUTCH:
Nietswaardige gedachten, Rodrigo! als die vertrouwelijkheden aldus den weg banen, dan worden zij op de hielen gevolgd door de hoofd- en voornaamste handeling, het inlijvende besluit.

MORE:
Paddle=Play
Index=Table of contents
Mutuality=(Reciprocal) intimacy, familiarity
Marshal=Lead
Hard at hand=On their heels
Watch you=Wait, be ready for
Tainting=Discrediting
Minister=Provide
Compleat:
Index=Een wyzer, bladwyzer
To marshal=In orde schikken; plaats toewyzen
At hand=Na by
Watch=Waaken, bewaaken, bespieden
To taint=Besmetten, doen bederven
To minister=Bedienen, toebedienen

Topics: relationship, conspiracy, anger

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Soft you, a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they know ’t.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely, but too well.
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought,
Perplexed in the extreme. Of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe. Of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this,
And say besides that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turbaned Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,
I took by the throat the circumcisèd dog,
And smote him, thus.

DUTCH:
Al deze onzaal’ge daden meldt, zoo spreek
Van mij, zooals ik ben; bewimpel niets,
Stel niets in haat’lijk licht; neen, spreek alsdan
Van iemand, die, verdwaasd, te heftig minde;

MORE:
In the extreme’ coined by Shakespeare

Wrought=Worked on, agitated
Extenuate, 1) to palliate (opposed to aggravate); 2) to mitigate; 3) to undervalue, to detract from
Perplex=To confound, to bewilder
Melting=Yielding or softening to emotion, tender
Tears=Reference to myrrh tree
Medicinable=Medicinal, having the power of healing
Compleat:
Melting=Smelting, smeltende
Perplex=Raadeloos maaken, kwellen, ontstellen, bedrommelen, beteuteren, verwarren, verbysteren
Extenuate=Verkleinen
Wrought=Gewerkt, gewrocht

Topics: still in use, invented or popularised

Whip me, ye devils, from the possession of this heavenly sight!

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
OTHELLO
Behold, I have a weapon.
A better never did itself sustain
Upon a soldier’s thigh. I have seen the day
That with this little arm and this good sword
I have made my way through more impediments
Than twenty times your stop. But, oh, vain boast!
Who can control his fate? ’tis not so now.
Be not afraid, though you do see me weaponed.
Here is my journey’s end, here is my butt,
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail.
Do you go back dismayed? ’tis a lost fear.
Man but a rush against Othello’s breast,
And he retires. Where should Othello go?—
Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starred wench,
Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven
And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl,
Even like thy chastity. O cursed, cursed slave!
Whip me, ye devils,
From the possession of this heavenly sight!
Blow me about in winds, roast me in sulphur,
Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire!—
Oh, Desdemona! Desdemona! dead! Oh! Oh!

DUTCH:
Gij duiv’len, zweept mij
Weg van ‘t genot van dezen hemelaanblik!
Blaast mij in stormen rond en ziedt me in sulfer!
Baadt, dompelt mij in ‘s afgronds vloeibaar vuur!

MORE:
Stop=Ability to stop
Butt=Target, destination
Utmost sail=Final voyage
Sea-mark=Beacon or other marker
Lost=Futile, groundless
Man but a rush=Wield no more than a reed
Retires=Retreats
Compt=Accounting (Judgment Day)
Compleat:
Butt=Een doel of paalsteen
Lost=Verlooren
To retire (withddraw)=Vertrekken, terugtrekken
Accompt=Rekening, begrooting

Topics: fate/destiny, regret

Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ th’ conscience to do no contrived murder

DUTCH:
Schoon ‘t krijgsberoep mij menschen deed verslaan,
Toch was mij dit steeds een gewetenszaak,
Geen moord te doen

Topics: insult, dispute, punishment, law/legal

You are but now cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Cassio
CONTEXT:
IAGO
As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some
bodily wound. There is more sense in that than in
reputation. Reputation is an idle and most false
imposition, oft got without merit and lost without
deserving. You have lost no reputation at all unless you
repute yourself such a loser. What, man, there are ways
to recover the general again. You are but now cast in
his mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice,
even so as one would beat his offenceless dog to
affright an imperious lion. Sue to him again and he’s
yours.
CASSIO
I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? And speak parrot? And squabble? Swagger? Swear? And discourse fustian with one’s own shadow? O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!

DUTCH:
Kom, man, er zijn middelen om den Generaal weder te winnen; hij verstiet u slechts in zijn drift, een straf meer uit staatkunde dan uit boosheid; juist zooals iemand zijn onschuldigen hond zou slaan om een dreigenden leeuw af te schrikken.

MORE:
Proverb: A man is weal or woe as he thinks himself so

Cast=Dismissed
Mood=Anger
In policy=Public demonstration
Speak parrot=Nonsense
Fustian=Bombastic, high-sounding nonsense
Sue=Petition, entreat
Compleat:
To cast off=Afwerpen, verwerpen, achterlaaten
To cast his adversary at the bar=Zyn party in rechte verwinnen
To be cast=’t Recht verlooren hebben
Fustian (or bombast)-Gezwets, snorkery
Fustian language=Grootspreeking, opsnyery

Topics: punishment, judgment, excess, anger, honesty, proverbs and idioms

Your name is great in mouths of wisest censure

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 2.3
SPEAKER: Othello
CONTEXT:
CASSIO
I pray you pardon me, I cannot speak.
OTHELLO
Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil.
The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great
In mouths of wisest censure. What’s the matter
That you unlace your reputation thus
And spend your rich opinion for the name
Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it.
MONTANO
Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger.
Your officer Iago can inform you,
While I spare speech, which something now offends me,
Of all that I do know. Nor know I aught
By me that’s said or done amiss this night,
Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice,
And to defend ourselves it be a sin
When violence assails us.

DUTCH:
Steeds, vriend Montano, toondet ge u bezadigd;
Den ernst, de kalmte van uw jonglingschap
Erkent de wereld, en der wijsten oordeel
Schonk u hun Iof.

MORE:
Wont be=Usually
Gravity and stillness=Discipline and restraint
Censure=Judgement
Unlace=Disgrace, throw away
Spend=Throw away
Rich opinion=Hard-earned reputation
Compleat:
Wont=Gewoonte
Gravity=Deftigheyd, Stemmigheyd, Ernsthaftigheyd, staataigheyd
Censure=Bestraffing, berisping, oordeel, toets
To unlace=Ontrygen, los rygen
To spend=Besteeden, uytgeeven, koste doen, verquisten, doorbrengen, verspillen

Topics: reputation, civility, conflict

Your words and performances are no kin together

PLAY: Othello
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Roderigo
CONTEXT:
RODERIGO
Every day thou daff’st me with some device, Iago, and rather, as it seems to me now, keep’st from me all conveniency than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope.
I will indeed no longer endure it, nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace what already I have foolishly suffered.
IAGO
Will you hear me, Roderigo?
RODERIGO
I have heard too much, and your words and performances are no kin together.
IAGO
You charge me most unjustly.
RODERIGO
With naught but truth. I have wasted myself out of my
means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver
Desdemona would half have corrupted a votaress. You have
told me she hath received them and returned me
expectations and comforts of sudden respect and
acquaintance, but I find none.

DUTCH:
Waarachtig, ik heb te veel naar u geluisterd, want
uw woorden en uw daden zijn elkaar niet verwant.

MORE:
Proverb: ‘Great promise small performance’ (your words and performances are no kin together.)

Topics: proverbs and idioms, perception, language, blame