if(!sessionStorage.getItem("_swa")&&document.referrer.indexOf(location.protocol+"//"+location.host)!== 0){fetch("https://counter.dev/track?"+new URLSearchParams({referrer:document.referrer,screen:screen.width+"x"+screen.height,user:"shainave",utcoffset:"2"}))};sessionStorage.setItem("_swa","1");

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this
Jew, my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts
me, saying to me, “Gobbo,” “Launcelot Gobbo,” “Good
Launcelot,” or “Good Gobbo,” or “Good Launcelot Gobbo”
—“use your legs, take the start, run away.” My
conscience says, “No. Take heed, honest Launcelot. Take
heed, honest Gobbo,” or as aforesaid, “Honest Launcelot
Gobbo, do not run. Scorn running with thy heels.” Well,
the most courageous fiend bids me pack. “Fia!” says the
fiend. “Away!” says the fiend. “For the heavens, rouse
up a brave mind,” says the fiend, “and run.” Well, my
conscience, hanging about the neck of my heart, says
very wisely to me, “My honest friend Launcelot, being an
honest man’s son”—or rather an honest woman’s son, for
indeed my father did something smack, something grow to.
He had a kind of taste.—Well, my conscience says,
“Launcelot, budge not.” “Budge!” says the fiend. “Budge
not,” says my conscience. “Conscience,” say I, “you
counsel well.” “Fiend,” say I, “you counsel well.” (…)

DUTCH:
Nu, mijn geweten dan zegt: „Lancelot, blijf’, „blijf niet” zegt de booze; „blijf”, zegt mijn geweten. Geweten, zeg ik, uw raad is goed; Booze, zeg ik, uw raad is ook goed.

MORE:
Still in use (budge, budge an inch)
Budge=stir
To budge [bouger, Fr] To stir; to move off the place. A low word. Sir T Herbert uses it not as such [Samuel Johnson:].
They cannot budge till you release, Shakespeare, The Tempest
The mouse ne’er shunn’d the cat, as they did budge from rascalas worse than they. Shakespeare, Coriolanus.
Fiend [Saxon, a foe]1. An enemy; the great enemy of mankind; the devil. “Tom is followed by the foul fiend.” Shakesp.
2. Any infernal being.
Compleat:
Budge=Schudden, omroeren, beweegen
Fiend=Een vijand.
The devil is a foul fiend=De duivel is een booze vyand.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Tarry a little. There is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood.
The words expressly are “a pound of flesh.”
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh,
But in the cutting it if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are by the laws of Venice confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.

DUTCH:
De schuldbrief hier geeft u geen druppel bloeds; De woorden zijn uitdrukk’lijk: een pond vleesch.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
United States Aviation Underwriters, Inc. v. Fitchburg-Leominster, 42 F.3d 84, 86 (1994);
Jones v. Jones, 189 Misc. 186, 70 N.Y.S.2d 111, 112 (N.Y. Civ. Ct. 1947)(Panken, J.)

Tarry a little=Just one moment
Confiscate=Confiscated
Compleat:
To confiscate=Verbeurd maaken, verbeurd verklaaren

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
A Daniel come to judgment, yea, a Daniel!—
O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!

DUTCH:
Een Daniël, die rechtspreekt! ja, een Daniël! —
O wijze, jonge rechter, hoe ‘k u eer!

MORE:
Origin of the phrase ‘A Daniel come to judgment’. Believed to refer to Daniel (5:14 King James Version): “I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.”
CITED IN US LAW:
People v. De Jesus. 42 N.Y.2d 519, 523 (1977).

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
You look not well, Signor Antonio.
You have too much respect upon the world.
They lose it that do buy it with much care.
Believe me, you are marvelously changed.
ANTONIO
I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano—
A stage where every man must play a part,
And mine a sad one.

DUTCH:
Gij ziet er niet goed uit, Antonio,
Gij trekt te veel u ‘s werelds zaken aan;
Die daar zijn hart op zet, verliest zijn rust.
Geloof me, uw uitzicht is geheel veranderd.

MORE:
A stage where every man must play a part=Still in use today.
Too much respect upon=Too much regard/concern for the world, worldly care
Marvelously=Extraordinarily, very much
To hold=To consider; to regard; to judge with regard to praise or blame

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.7
SPEAKER: Morocco
CONTEXT:
MOROCCO
O hell, what have we here?
A carrion death, within whose empty eye
There is a written scroll. I’ll read the writing.
[reads]“All that glisters is not gold—
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgment old,
Your answer had not been inscrolled.
Fare you well. Your suit is cold—
Cold, indeed, and labor lost.”
Then, farewell, heat, and welcome, frost!
Portia, adieu. I have too grieved a heart
To take a tedious leave. Thus losers part.

DUTCH:
Al wat blinkt, is nog geen goud

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Deborah Leslie, Ltd. v. Rona, Inc., 630 F. Supp. 1250, 1251 (R.I.,1986) on the marking of items containing silver; “The Bard of Avon, dealing with a somewhat different (but equally suspect) precious metal, captured the essence of the plaintiff’s jeremiad poetically: ‘All that glitters is not gold/ Often have you heard that told.”;
B. F. Hirsch, Inc. v. Enright Ref. Co., 617 F. Supp. 49 (N.J., 1985).
Johnson v. Commissioner, T. C. Memo 1992-369 (1992) (Ref to “All that glitters is not gold” when referring to a failure to demand and recover bad debts).
‘Glisters’ is sometimes replaced by glistens or glitters in more modern versions.
The idea already existed, but this expression as still used today was coined by Shakespeare.
Samuel Johnson:

Proverb: All is not gold that glisters (glitters)
To Glister=To shine, to be bright. Elsewhere in Shakespeare: “A glistering grief”; “in his glist’ring coach”; “All that glisters”.
Compleat:
Glister=Glinsteren, blinken.
*All is not gold that glisters*=Is al geen goud dat ‘er blinkt.
Carrion death=Skull
Tedious=Long drawn out
Part=Depart
Suit is cold=unwelcome, disagreeable
Inscroll=recorded on a scroll (registered)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
That ever holds. Who riseth from a feast
With that keen appetite that he sits down?
Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first? All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
How like a younger or a prodigal
The scarfèd bark puts from her native bay,
Hugged and embraced by the strumpet wind!
How like the prodigal doth she return,
With overweathered ribs and ragged sails
Lean, rent, and beggared by the strumpet wind!

DUTCH:
Ja, dat gaat door: wie staat ooit van een feest
Met zooveel eetlust op, als hij ging zitten?
Waar is het paard, dat op zijn lange baan
Terugdraaft met hetzelfde ondoofb’re vuur,
Waarmee het steig’rend wegstoof? Ieder ding
Wordt met meer vuur begeerd dan wel genoten.

MORE:
Current use e.g. The chase is better than the catch.
Untread=retrace (a path, steps)
Unbated=unabated, undimished
Younger=Younger son
Scarfèd=Bedecked, decorated with streamers
Bark (or barque)=Ship
Compleat:
Scarf=Een sluyer
Bark=Scheepje

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this—
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

DUTCH:
En aardsche macht zweemt meest naar die van God,
Wanneer genade ‘t recht doortrekt

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
United States v. Magalong, 2002 CCA LEXIS 141, (2002)
United States v. Brownd, 6 M.J. 338, 345 (1979)
De La Garza Perales v. Casillas, 903 F.2d 1043 (1990).
United States v. Healy, 26 M.J. 394, 395 (1988): “Shakespeare made this distinction when, in the “Merchant of Venice,” he wrote, “And earthly power doth then show likest God’s, When mercy seasons justice.” Act IV, Scene 1, line 184. See United States v. Lanford, supra at 378, 20 C.M.R. at 94. Both the Old and the New Testaments contain exhortations to be just and merciful; but, apparently there, too, these qualities are viewed as distinct. See, e.g., Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23.”

Sway=Rule, dominion
Compleat:
Sway=Macht, gezach, heerschappy
Scepter=Een ryksstaf.
To bear sway or rule=Heerschen, regeeren, ‘t bewind hebben
To sway the scepter=Den Scepter zwaaijen.
To season a denial with kind words=Eene weigering met vriendelyke woorden temperen.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Solanio
CONTEXT:
SOLANIO
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
Because you are not merry— and ’twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,
And other of such vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

DUTCH:
Natuur brengt soms toch rare snuiters voort:
Die knijpt voortdurend de oogen toe van ‘t lachen,
Als bij een doedelzak een papegaai;
En de ander heeft zoo’n uitzicht van azijn,
Dat hij van ‘t lachen nooit zijn tanden toont,
Al deed een grap ook de’ ouden Nestor schaat’ren.

MORE:
Laugh like parrots at a bagpiper=parrots were thought of as foolish, bagpipe music as melancholy.
Vinegar aspect=sour (‘sowr’) disposition.
Janus=A Roman God with two faces, one at the front and one at the back of his head (although not thought to have expressed contrasting moods). Janus was the god of beginnings duality, gates and doors, passages and endings.
Nestor, legendary wise King of Pylos in Homer’s Odyssey.
Compleat:
To sowr=Zuur worden, zuur maaken, verzuuren.
Sowred=Gezuurd, verzuurd. Sowrish=Zuurachtig.
To look sowrly upon one=Iemand zuur aanzien

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this—
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

DUTCH:
Daarom,
Beroept ge u, jood, op ‘t recht, bedenk ook dit,
Dat, naar gerechtigheid, geen onzer ooit
Behouden wordt; wij bidden om genade;
En de eigen bede leert ons, zelf aan and’ren
Genade te oef’nen.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Monroe v. United Air Lines, Inc., Docket No. 79 C 360, 3 slip opinion (Ill., 1983)

The justice=the justness, merit (of your argument)
Needs (always used with must or will): indispensably, absolutely
Compleat:
Salvation=Zaligheid, behoudenis
It must needs be so=Het moet noodzaakelyk zo zyn
Do it no more than needs must=Doet het niet meer als volstrekt noodzaakelyk is.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Salerio
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
Why, yet it lives there unchecked that Antonio hath a
ship of rich lading wracked on the narrow seas. The
Goodwins I think they call the place—a very dangerous
flat, and fatal, where the carcasses of many a tall ship
lie buried, as they say, if my gossip report be an
honest woman of her word.
SOLANIO
I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever
knapped ginger or made her neighbors believe she wept
for the death of a third husband. But it is true,
without any slips of prolixity or crossing the plain
highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the honest
Antonio—oh, that I had a title good enough to keep his
name company!—
SALERIO
Come, the full stop.
SOLANIO
Ha, what sayest thou? Why, the end is he hath lost a
ship.

DUTCH:
Maar het is waar, — zonder in wijdloopigheid te vervallen, en van den effen grooten weg van het gesprek af te wijken

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
FDIC v. Municipality of Ponce, 708 F. Supp. 464 (1989), incorporated into the body of the decision:
“On July 12, 1983, two agreements were executed by Girod Trust Company, Codfish Corporation, and the Municipality of Ponce, the first entitled “Loan Agreement” and the second “Open End Credit,” whereby Girod lent to Codfish $500,000.00 and $750,000.00 respectively. Both instruments were signed by Erasto Rodríguez, on behalf of the Municipality, as guarantor.
Codfish’s “ship of rich lading wreck’d on the narrow seas;” it defaulted on the loans and eventually filed for bankruptcy. In the meantime, it was “never heard a passion so confus’d, so strange, outrageous, and so variable as [Girod] did utter in the streets. ‘My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!'” Girod’s daughter ran off with its ducats, and it was declared insolvent and turned over to the FDIC as receiver. The loans at issue in this case were then sold to the FDIC in its corporate capacity.”

Goodwins=The Goodwin sands
Gossip report=Rumour
Knap=Take small bites
Come to the full stop=Get to the point
Prolixity=Verbosity, wordiness
Crossing the plain highway=Deviating from plain speech
Compleat:
Gossip=Een doophefster, gemoeder, peet
A tattling gossip=Een Labbey, kaekelaarster

Burgersdijk notes:
De Goodwins, gevaarlijke ondiepten nabij den mond van de Theems, worden ook vermeld in Koning Jan, V. 3, 2. — Dat oude vrouwen gaarne gember knauwen reg. 10, (to knap is: in kleine stukjens bijten) wordt ook vermeld in Maat voor maat, IV, 3, 8,

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
But little. I am armed and well prepared.—
Give me your hand, Bassanio. Fare you well
Grieve not that I am fall’n to this for you,
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom. It is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty—from which lingering penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off.
Commend me to your honourable wife.
Tell her the process of Antonio’s end.
Say how I loved you. Speak me fair in death.
And when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt.
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I’ll pay it presently with all my heart.

DUTCH:
Slechts luttel; ‘k ben bereid en welgewapend! —
Geef mij de hand, Bassanio, vaar gij wel!

MORE:
But little=Just a little
Use=Habit
Process=Tale
Repent but you=Only regret

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
More than the wildcat. Drones hive not with me.
Therefore I part with him, and part with him
To one that would have him help to waste
His borrowed purse. Well, Jessica, go in.
Perhaps I will return immediately.
Do as I bid you. Shut doors after you.
Fast bind, fast find.
A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.

DUTCH:
Doe wat ik zeide en sluit de deuren goed;
„Een dichte kast, weert meen’gen gast ;”
Zoo spreekt een elk, die op zijn zaken past.

MORE:
Proverb: fast bind, fast find. (Also: Safe bind, safe find.)
According to the 1917 Dictionary of Proverbs, this Proverb teaches that people being generally ‘loose and perfidious’, it is a great Point of Prudence to be upon our Guard against Treachery and Impositions, in all our Dealings and Transactions, either in Buying, Selling, Borrowing, or Lending, in order to preserve a good Understanding and a lasting Friendship among natural Correspondents

Patch=Fool
Profit=Advancement
Compleat:
To bind=Binden, knoopen, verbinden.
To bind with benefits=Verbinden of verpligten door weldaaden
To bind one by covenant=Iemand door een verdrag verbinden
To bind with an earnest=Verpanden, een koop sluiten met een Gods penning

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
‘Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
How much I have disabled mine estate,
By something showing a more swelling port
Than my faint means would grant continuance.
Nor do I now make moan to be abridged
From such a noble rate. But my chief care
Is to come fairly off from the great debts
Wherein my time something too prodigal
Hath left me gaged. To you, Antonio,
I owe the most in money and in love,
And from your love I have a warranty
To unburden all my plots and purposes
How to get clear of all the debts I owe.

DUTCH:
Antonio, ‘k ben aan u
Het meeste schuldig, geld niet slechts, maar liefde;
Diezelfde liefde is mij een borg, dat ik
U oop’ning doen mag van mijn plan, om al
Die schulden, die mij drukken, af te werpen.

MORE:
Disabled=Impaired, damaged
Swelling=Pompous
Make moan=Complain
I have a warranty=Gives me permission
Abridged=Reduced
Rate=Manner, style
Gage=Pledge
Compleat:
Disable=Onvermogend maaken
Moan or make a moan=Een geklag maaken, jammeren
Abridge=Verkorten, intrekken, besnoeijen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Farewell. I’ll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO
Thanks, i’ faith, for silence is only commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried and a maid not vendible.
ANTONIO
Is that any thing now?
BASSANIO
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than
any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff —you shall seek all day
ere you find them, and when you have them they are not
worth the search.

DUTCH:

Gratiano praat oneindig veel, dat niets is

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Crowley Marine Services, Inc. v. National labour Relations Board, 344 U.S. App. D.C. 165; 234 F.3d 1295 (2000): Used by the judge to introduce her dissenting opinion, stating:
“His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall
seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search. …
The court’s per curiam opinion knocks down the modest, but real, requirement that a union requesting information from an employer explain, at the time of its request, the relevance, or at least potential relevance, of information not ordinarily pertinent to its role as bargaining representative…’
Kneale v. Kneale, 67 So. 2d 233, 234 (Fla., 1953).

You speak an infinite deal of nothing: still in use today.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand
Such as I am. Though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To wish myself much better, yet for you
I would be trebled twenty times myself—
A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more
rich—
That only to stand high in your account
I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends
Exceed account. But the full sum of me
Is sum of something which, to term in gross,
Is an unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticèd;
Happy in this—she is not yet so old
But she may learn. Happier than this—
She is not bred so dull but she can learn.
Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours to be directed
As from her lord, her governor, her king.
Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
Queen o’er myself. And even now, but now,
This house, these servants, and this same myself
Are yours, my lord’s. I give them with this ring,
Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
Let it presage the ruin of your love
And be my vantage to exclaim on you.

DUTCH:
Een meisjen, zonder kennis of ervaring,
Die zich gelukkig rekent, dat zij niet
Voor leeren te oud is; nog gelukkiger,
Dat zij voor ‘t leeren niet te stomp zich acht

MORE:
In gross=Frankly speaking
Dull [Welsh, Saxon]=Stupid, doltish, blockish, unapprehensive, indocile, slow of understanding. (Samuel Johnson)
Dulbrained=Stupid, doltish, foolish
Converted=Transferred
Happy=Lucky
Account=Estimate
But now=Just now
Vantage=Opportunity
Exclaim on=Accuse
Compleat:
To tell in general terms=In ‘t gros vertellen
Dull=Bot, stomp, dof, dom, loom, vadsig, doodsch
Dull-witted=Dom van verstand
Dull-pated=Haardhoofdig, dom
It dulls my brains=Het maakt myn verstand stomp

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
God made him and therefore let him pass for a man. In
truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he!— why,
he hath a horse better than the Neapolitan’s, a better
bad habit of frowning than the Count Palatine. He is
every man in no man. If a throstle sing, he falls
straight a-capering. He will fence with his own shadow.
If I should marry him, I should marry twenty husbands.
If he would despise me I would forgive him, for if he
love me to madness I shall never requite him.

DUTCH:
Hij is iedereen en niemand; als een lijster zingt, begint hij dadelijk kapriolen te maken; bij zou kunnen vechten met
zijn eigen schaduw. Als ik hem nam, nam ik vijftig
mannen te gelijk.

MORE:
Said of M. le Bon, whose efforts to outdo the other suitors are such as to cloak his own identity.
Throstle=Trush
A-capering=Dancing

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
He is well paid that is well satisfied;
And I, delivering you, am satisfied,
And therein do account myself well paid:
My mind was never yet more mercenary.
I pray you, know me when we meet again:
I wish you well, and so I take my leave.

DUTCH:
Die weltevreden is, is wel betaald;
Ik ben tevreden, dat ik u bevrijdde,
En reken daardoor reeds mij wel betaald

MORE:
Job satisfaction is payment enough
Satisfied=contented
Exposition=interpretation
Compleat:
To satisfy, content=Voldoen
I will content him for his pains=Ik zal hem voor zyne moeite voldoen
Satisfaction, content=Voldoening
Exposition=Uitlegging

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
This is Signor Antonio.
SHYLOCK
How like a fawning publican he looks!
I hate him for he is a Christian,
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out money gratis and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
If I can catch him once upon the hip,
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
He hates our sacred nation, and he rails,
Even there where merchants most do congregate,
On me, my bargains and my well-won thrift,
Which he calls “interest.” Cursed be my tribe
If I forgive him!

DUTCH:
Hoe lijkt hij een deemoedig tollenaar!
Ik haat hem reeds dewijl hij Christen is,
En meer nog, wijl, in lage onnoozelheid,
Hij gratis geld leent en de rente drukt,
Die we anders in Veneti  konden maken.

MORE:
Rate of usance=interest rate.
Catch on or upon the hip=get the better of, an advantage over.
Feed fat the ancient grudge=satisfy a long-held grudge
Compleat:
Usance=Koopmans gebruik, Uso, een woord onder de Koopluiden gebruikelyk omtrent de betaaling der Wisselbrieven, betekenende een maand tyd; en tusschen dit en Spanje, enz. twee maanden.
Double usance=Op dubbel Uso

De rente in Venetië. Een Engelsch schrijver over Italië (1561) schrijft, dat de joden in Venetië zeer rijk
werden, daar de gewone rente, die zij bij het uitleenen van geld wisten te maken, vijftien ten honderd ‘s jaars bedroeg.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Farewell. I’ll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO
Thanks, i’ faith, for silence is only commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried and a maid not vendible.
ANTONIO
Is that any thing now?
BASSANIO
Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than
any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of
wheat hid in two bushels of chaff —you shall seek all day
ere you find them, and when you have them they are not
worth the search.

DUTCH:
Zijn verstandige gedachten zijn als twee tarwekorrels in twee schepels kaf; gij kunt er den geheelen dag naar zoeken, eer gij ze vindt.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Crowley Marine Services, Inc. v. National labour Relations Board, 344 U.S. App. D.C. 165; 234 F.3d 1295 (2000);
Kneale v. Kneale, 67 So. 2d 233, 234 (Fla., 1953).

His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff=Ill-reasoned argument.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
That light we see is burning in my hall.
How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
NERISSA
When the moon shone we did not see the candle.
PORTIA
So doth the greater glory dim the less.
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Until a king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters. Music, hark.

DUTCH:
Dat licht daar, dat wij zien, brandt in de zaal;
Hoe verre licht die kleine kaars! zoo straalt
Een goede daad in deze booze wereld.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Maier v. Secretary of the Air Force, 754 F. 2d 973, 980 n.6 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (Markey, C.J.): “A federal court has now ordered the Air Force to do far more, i.e., to reenlist Maier as of 1977, with the promotions, longevity pay, and six-year earlier retirement she would have received if she had never been discharged.*
*So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, V, i, 90.”

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark
When neither is attended, and I think
The nightingale, if she should sing by day
When every goose is cackling, would be thought
No better a musician than the wren.
How many things by season seasoned are
To their right praise and true perfection!
Peace! How the moon sleeps with Endymion
And would not be awaked.
LORENZO
That is the voice,
Or I am much deceived, of Portia.
PORTIA
He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo—
By the bad voice.

DUTCH:
Hoe menig ding wordt op zijn tijd alleen, naar waarde en naar volkomenheid geschat!

MORE:
Proverb: A bird is known by its note and a man by his talk
Endymion=a youth loved by the goddess of the moon.
To season=To temper, qualify
Samuel Johnson:
To season=To fit for any use by time or habit; to mature; to grow fit for any purpose.
Compleat:
Seasoned=Toebereid, bekwaam gemaakt, getemperd.
Children should be season’d betimes to virtue=Men behoorde de kinderen by tyds aan de deugd te gewennen.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
To excuse the current of thy cruelty.
SHYLOCK
I am not bound to please thee with my answers.

DUTCH:
Moet ik dan antwoord geven naar uw zin?

MORE:
The current=course or progress
Compleat:
The current=stroom

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
I am sorry for thee. Thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.
ANTONIO
I have heard
Your grace hath ta’en great pains to qualify
His rigorous course. But since he stands obdurate
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy’s reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury, and am armed
To suffer with a quietness of spirit
The very tyranny and rage of his.

DUTCH:
Ik ben in zorg om u; gij hebt te doen
Met een, die harder is dan steen, een onmensch,
Voor medelijden doof, in wien geen vonkjen
Erbarmen huist.

MORE:
Answer=Reply to a charge, defend, account
Stony=Hard, pitiless
Dram=Small measurement, trace
Qualify=Moderate
Envy=Malice
Compleat:
Stony=Steeneig, steenachtig
Dram=Een vierendeel loods; een druppel
Qualify=Maatigen, temperen
Envy=Benyd

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
My deeds upon my head. I crave the law,
The penalty, and forfeit of my bond.
PORTIA
Is he not able to discharge the money?
BASSANIO
Yes, here I tender it for him in the court—
Yea, twice the sum. If that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart.
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth.—
And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority.
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.

DUTCH:
Mijn daden op mijn hoofd; ik eisch de wet,
De boete, de voldoening van mijn schuldbrief

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

Bond=A deed by which one binds oneself to another to make a payment or fulfil a contract
Compleat:
Bond=een Bond, verbinding, verbindschrift, obligatie
Bond of appearance=een Borgstelling van voor ‘t Recht te zullen verschynen
Enter into a bond=In een verband treeden, zich verbinden

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this.
These things being bought and orderly bestowed,
Return in haste, for I do feast tonight
My best esteemed acquaintance. Hie thee, go.

DUTCH:
Ik bid u, Leonardo, denk hieraan;
En kom, is dit gekocht en alles klaar,
Terstond terug, want al mijn goede vrienden
Onthaal ik dezen avond. Haast u, ga.

MORE:
To feast=Entertain (for a meal)
Compleat:
To feast=Gastmaal houden, vergasten, onthaalen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste
as Diana unless I be obtained by the manner of my
father’s will. I am glad this parcel of wooers are so
reasonable, for there is not one among them but I dote
on his very absence. And I pray God grant them a fair
departure.

DUTCH:
Ik ben blij, dat dit partijtjen
vrijers zoo verstandig is, want er is er niet een
bij, of ik smacht naar zijn afzijn, en ik bid God, hun
een voorspoedige heenreis te verleenen.

MORE:
Sibylla=The Sibyl (female prophet in Ancient Greece who asked Apollo for longevity but forgot to ask for eternal youth)
Shakespearean wordplay with the word dote.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
I have possessed your grace of what I purpose,
And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my bond.
If you deny it, let the danger light
Upon your charter and your city’s freedom.
You’ll ask me why I rather choose to have
A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
Three thousand ducats. I’ll not answer that
But say it is my humour. Is it answered?
What if my house be troubled with a rat
And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats
To have it baned? What, are you answered yet?
Some men there are love not a gaping pig,
Some that are mad if they behold a cat,
And others, when the bagpipe sings i’ th’ nose,
Cannot contain their urine. For affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer:
As there is no firm reason to be rendered
Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;
Why he, a harmless necessary cat;
Why he, a woollen bagpipe, but of force
Must yield to such inevitable shame
As to offend, himself being offended—
So can I give no reason, nor I will not
(More than a lodged hate and a certain loathing
I bear Antonio), that I follow thus
A losing suit against him. Are you answered?

DUTCH:
Ik deelde uw hoogheid mee wat ik verlang,
En ik bezwoer bij onzen heil’gen sabbath,
Te vord’ren, wat mij toekomt door mijn schuldbrief.

MORE:
To possess=To inform, acquaint (To put one in possession of)
Due and forfeit=Debt and penalty
Humour=Whim
Baned=Poisoned
Affection=Impulse
Of force=Perforce
Lodged=Deep-seated
Bond=A deed by which one binds oneself to another to make a payment or fulfil a contract
Compleat:
To possess one with an opinion=Iemand tot een gevoelen overbaalen, voorinnemen
Light on (his head)=’t zal op zyn kop aankomen
Enter into a bond=In een verband treeden, zich verbinden
Bane=Verderf, vergif

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
I thank you for your wish, and am well pleased
To wish it back on you. Fare you well, Jessica.
Now, Balthazar,
As I have ever found thee honest true,
So let me find thee still.
Take this same letter,
And use thou all th’ endeavour of a man
In speed to Padua. See thou render this
Into my cousin’s hands, Doctor Bellario.
And look what notes and garments he doth give thee,
Bring them, I pray thee, with imagined speed
Unto the traject, to the common ferry
Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,
But get thee gone. I shall be there before thee.
BALTHAZAR
Madam, I go with all convenient speed.
PORTIA
Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand
That you yet know not of. We’ll see our husbands
Before they think of us.

DUTCH:
Nerissa, kom; ik heb een plan in ‘t hoofd,
Waarvan gij wel niet droomt, dat we onze mannen,
En voor ze ‘t denken, zien.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Commonwealth v Griffith, 204 Mass. 18, 21, 90 N.E. 394, 395 (1910). Re. the definition of “work”:
“The word “work” is of broad signification. One of its primary meanings, as it is defined in Webster’s International dictionary, is “Effort directed to an end,” and the author quotes from Shakespeare Portia’s call:
“Come on, Nerissa; I have work in hand That you yet know not of.”
The object of the statute forbids restriction of the word to a narrow meaning.”

Imagined speed=As fast as you can imagine
Traject=Ferry
Common=Public
Convenient=Appropriate

Burgersdijk notes:
Breng, dat ….. naar ‘t veer, waarmee men…. Venetië bereikt. Bring them…. Unto the
traject, to the common ferry, which trades to Venice. Traject (voor het zeker bedorven tranect gesteld) is geen zeer gewoon Engelsch woord, en wordt daarom verklaard; het is het Italiaansche tragetto.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Then meet me forthwith at the notary’s.
Give him direction for this merry bond,
And I will go and purse the ducats straight,
See to my house left in the fearful guard
Of an unthrifty knave, and presently
I will be with you.
ANTONIO
Hie thee, gentle Jew.
The Hebrew will turn Christian. He grows kind.
BASSANIO
I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.
ANTONIO
Come on. In this there can be no dismay.
My ships come home a month before the day.

DUTCH:
k Vertrouw geen goedheid van een boos gemoed

MORE:
There can be no dismay=No cause for concern
Compleat:
Dismay=Vreeze

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
I never did repent for doing good,
Nor shall not now; for in companions
That do converse and waste the time together
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must be needs a like proportion
Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit,
Which makes me think that this Antonio,
Being the bosom lover of my lord,
Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
How little is the cost I have bestowed
In purchasing the semblance of my soul
From out the state of hellish cruelty!
This comes too near the praising of myself.
Therefore no more of it. Hear other things.
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
The husbandry and manage of my house
Until my lord’s return.
For mine own part,
I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow
To live in prayer and contemplation,
Only attended by Nerissa here
Until her husband and my lord’s return.
There is a monastery two miles off,
And there will we abide. I do desire you
Not to deny this imposition,
The which my love and some necessity
Now lays upon you.

DUTCH:
Nooit heeft mij nog een goede daad berouwd,
En deez’ zal ‘t ook niet doen; want trouwe makkers,
Die samen immer leven en verkeeren,
Wier zielen saam een juk van vriendschap dragen,
Gelijk verdeeld, die moeten wel gelijk zijn
In wezenstrekken, geest en wijs van doen;

MORE:
Waste=Spend
Lineaments=Features
Semblance=Similarity
Husbandry=Care, cultivation, tillage
Manage=Management
Deny=Refuse
Imposition=Charge
Compleat:
Waste=Doorbrengen
Lineament=Een trek
Semblance=Gelykenis, schyn
Husbandry=Huysbezorging
Manage=Bewind, bestiering
Imposition=Oplegging, opdringing, belasting

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
With all my heart.—Some three or four of you
Go give him courteous conduct to this place.—
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.
[reads]“Your grace shall understand that at the receipt of
your letter I am very sick, but in the instant that your
messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a
young doctor of Rome. His name is Balthazar. I
acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the
Jew and Antonio the merchant. We turned o’er many books
together. He is furnished with my opinion,
which—bettered with his own learning, the greatness
whereof I cannot enough commend—comes with him at my
importunity to fill up your grace’s request in my stead.
I beseech you, let his lack of years be no impediment to
let him lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so
young a body with so old a head. I leave him to your
gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish
his commendation.”

DUTCH:
Ik verzoek u dringend, laat zijn jeugdige leeftijd geen oorzaak wezen om hem eerbiedige achting te doen derven, want nooit zag ik een jong hoofd, zoo grijs in kennis.

MORE:
Proverb: An old head on young shoulders

Reverend=Testifying veneration, humble
Estimation=Value, worth
Publish=bring to light, show
Commendation=Value
Let=Cause (him to)
Compleat:
Reverent=Eerbiedig
Estimation=Waardeering, schatting
Publish=Openbaarmaken, bekendmaken

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
I would have stayed till I had made you merry
If worthier friends had not prevented me.
ANTONIO
Your worth is very dear in my regard.
I take it your own business calls on you
And you embrace th’ occasion to depart.

DUTCH:
Geloof me, heeren, ik waardeer u hoog,
Maar reken, dat uw zaken thans u roepen,
En gij nu vrijheid vindt om heen te gaan.

MORE:
Your worth is very dear…=You are very worthy (in my view)
Compleat:
Worth=Waarde
Worthy=Waardig, eerwaardig, voortreffelyk, uytmuntend, deftig
Occasion=Gelegenheyd, voorval, oorzaak
He took occasion to blame me for it=Hy nam oorzaak om my daarover te beschuldigen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Arragon
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
“What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
And well said too—for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

DUTCH:
Ik wil mij niet naar lage geesten schikken,
Niet voegen bij den grooten dommen hoop.

MORE:
CITED IN EWCA LAW:
Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 748 (21 June 2013)
DeRonde v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 102 Cal. App. 3d 221 (1980): “We close with a quotation from Shakespeare, who so eloquently reminds us that competition on the basis of merit alone is the lifeblood of a democratic society: ‘For who shall go about….’.”

Fool multitude=Foolish commoners
Fond=Doting, simple.
Fond eye=What meets the eye
Jump with=Agree with
Barbarous=Ignorant, unlettered
Cozen=Cheat
Undeservèd=Unmerited
Dignity=Elevated rank, high office
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, het gepeupel
Jump (to agree)=Het ééns worden, overenstemmen.
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altijd saamenCozen=Bedriegen
Merit=Verdienste.
What ever may be said of him wil fall short of his merit=Alles wat men van hem zeggen kan, is minder dan zyne verdienste.
Dignity (Merit, importance)=Waardigheid, Staat-ampt, verdiensten.
Dignity (Greatness, Nobleness)=Grootheid, Adelykheid.

Burgersdijk notes:
Als de zwaluw. De huiszwaluw, in het Engelsch martlet (Hirundo urbica), maakt haar nest aan de buitenzijde van gebouwen; meestal vindt men er verscheidene dicht bijeen, zooals Sh. uitvoeriger in Macbeth I. 6.4. beschrijft. Sh. wist, welke soort hij koos; de boerenzwaluw (Hirundo rustics) nestelt
binnenshuis, b.v. in stallen, of, in onbewoonde streken, in rotsholten enz.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh.
What’s that good for?
SHYLOCK
To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it
will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered
me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my
gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled
my friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I
am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian
is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us,
do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if
you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you
in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew
wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a
Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach
me I will execute—and it shall go hard but I will better
the instruction.

DUTCH:
Om er visch mee te vangen; en als niets anders er mee gediend is, dan is mijn wraak er mee gediend

MORE:
Scorn=Be contemptuous of
Hinder=To stop, obstruct, keep back (caused loss of)
Thwart=Counteract, interfere with, hinder
Compleat:
Scorn=Versmaading, verachting, bespotting
Hinder=Hinderen, verhinderen, beletten, weerhouden
To hinder one’s time (to make one lose one’s time)=Iemand verletten, zyn tyd beneemen.
To thwart (or traverse)=Dwarsboomen, beletten, verhinderen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
I am as like to call thee so again,
To spet on thee again, to spurn thee too.
If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
As to thy friends, for when did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?
But lend it rather to thine enemy,
Who, if he break, thou mayst with better face
Exact the penalty.
SHYLOCK
Why, look you how you storm!
I would be friends with you and have your love,
Forget the shames that you have stained me with,
Supply your present wants and take no doit
Of usance for my moneys—and you’ll not hear me!
This is kind I offer.
BASSANIO
This were kindness.

DUTCH:
Wilt gij dit geld ons leenen, leen het niet
Als aan uw vrienden, — vriendschap zou geen vrucht
Van dood metaal ooit eischen van zijn vriend, —
Maar leen ‘t veeleer uw vijand uit, want blijft
Die in gebreke, des te scherper kunt gij
Het uiterste eischen.

MORE:
Take a breed for barren metal=Charge interest
For=For the sake of
With better face=With no loss of face
Storm=Rage
Doit=Coin of little value
Usance=Interest
Kind=Kindness, an act of generosity
Compleat:
Face=’t Aangezigt, gelaat, gedaante
To storm=Bestormen, raazen en tieren
He storms and rages mightily=Hy buldert en raast geweldig
Doit=Een duyt (achttste deel van een stuyver)
Usance=Koopmans gebruik, Uso, een woord onder de Koopluiden gebruikelyk omtrent de betaaling der Wisselbrieven, betekenende een maand tyd; en tusschen dit en Spanje, enz. twee maanden.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it
will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me and hindered
me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my
gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled
my friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I
am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian
is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us,
do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if
you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you
in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew
wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a
Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach
me I will execute—and it shall go hard but I will better
the instruction.

DUTCH:
Als gij ons een messteek geeft, bloeden wij dan
niet? als gij ons vergiftigt, sterven wij dan niet? en als
gij ons beleedigt, zullen wij dan geen wraak nemen?

MORE:
If you prick us with a pin, don’t we bleed? If you tickle us, don’t we laugh? If you poison us, don’t we die? And if you treat us badly, won’t we try to get revenge? If we’re like you in everything else, we’ll resemble you in that respect

CITED IN EWCA LAW:
In a direct quotation or “borrowed eloquence” psychiatric injury also prompted Lady Justice Hale in Sutherland v Hatton and other appeals [2002] EWCA Civ 76 at [23] to differentiate it from physical harm saying: “Because of the very nature of psychiatric disorder … it is bound to be harder to foresee than is physical injury. Shylock could not say of a mental disorder, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed?’” (https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/quote-or-not-quote-…)
CITED IN US LAW:
National Life Ins., Co. v. Phillips Publ., Inc., 793 F. Supp. 627 (1992) – in reference to commercial interests: “A corporation’s reputation interest is primarily commercial. To paraphrase Shylock, ‘If you prick them they do not bleed.’ Nor do corporations have the same intense interest in dignity that so defines society’s interest in protecting private individual plaintiffs.”

Hindered me=Lost me, cost me
Bargain=Deal, contract
Thwart=Frustrate, interfere with
Cooled my friends=Turned my friends against me
Compleat:
To hinder=Beletten, weerhouden, verhinderen
Bargain=Een verding, verdrag, koop
Thwart=Dwarsdryven, draaiboomen, beleetten
To wrong=Verongelyken, verkoten
He wrongs me=Hy verongelykt my. I was very much wronged=Ik wierd zeer veerongelykt.
To revenge=Wreeken. To revenge an affront=Een belédiging wreeken.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
(…) Look on beauty,
And you shall see ’tis purchased by the weight,
Which therein works a miracle in nature,
Making them lightest that wear most of it.
So are those crispèd snaky golden locks
Which maketh such wanton gambols with the wind,
Upon supposèd fairness, often known
To be the dowry of a second head,
The skull that bred them in the sepulcher.
Thus ornament is but the guilèd shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty—in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore then, thou gaudy gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee.
Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
‘Tween man and man. But thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threaten’st than dost promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!

DUTCH:
In één woord, schijnwaarheid, tooisel van den sluwen tijd, Om wijzen te verstrikken.

MORE:
Cunning=dexterous and trickish in dissembling.
Guilèd=Armed with deceit, treacherous
Crispèd=Curled
Drudge=Labourer
Compleat:
Cunning=Listigheid
To entrap=Verstrikken, vangen, betrappen (van Trap, een val.)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
So may the outward shows be least themselves.
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk,
And these assume but valour’s excrement
To render them redoubted…

DUTCH:
In ’t recht, wat zaak is ooit zoo voos en valsch,
Die niet, door schrandre en gladde tong verfraaid,
Den schijn van ’t kwaad bemantelt?

MORE:
: CITED IN IRISH LAW:
Kirwan & Ors -v- The Mental Health Commission [2012] IEHC 217 (28 May 2012)
CITED IN US LAW:
McCauley v. State, 405 So.2d 1350, 1351 (Fla., 1981) (cited in opinion: “In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt but, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil?”);
United States v. Powell, 55 M.J. 633, 642 (2001): “The standard of review in this area of the law is difficult to apply because a judge is attempting to peer into an attorney’s heart by relying on his or her words. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt / But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil.”;
Day v. Rosenthal, 170 Cal. App. 3d 1125, 1180 (1985).

To season=To temper, qualify
Gracious voice=Attractive, graceful, elegant
To season=To fit for any use by time or habit; to mature; to grow fit for any purpose (Samuel Johnson)
Compleat:
Seasoned=Toebereid, bekwaam gemaakt, getemperd.
Children should be season’d betimes to virtue=Men behoorde de kinderen by tyds aan de deugd te gewennen.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself

DUTCH:
k Weet waarlijk niet, hoe ik zoo somber ben;
Ik ben het moe; gij zegt, dat zijt gij ook;
Maar hoe ‘t mij aanwoei, hoe ik er aan kwam,
Van welken aard het is, en hoe ontstaan,
Dat is me een raadsel;
Die somberheid maakt mij tot zulk een zwakhoofd,
Dat ik te nauwernood mij zelf herken.

MORE:
Antonio opens the play with a description of his inexplicable sadness, his language (‘caught’, ‘came by’) implying a curse or an infection.
In sooth=In truth (Note: sometimes misquoted with “Forsooth” instead of “In sooth”.)
Want-wit=Idiot(ic).
Compleat:
Sooth=Zéker, voorwaar

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

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

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

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

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

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Good sentences, and well pronounced.
NERISSA
They would be better if well followed.
PORTIA
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages
princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his
own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were
good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine
own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood,
but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree. Such a hare
is madness the youth—to skip o’er the meshes of good
counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the
fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word “choose!”
I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
dislike—so is the will of a living daughter curbed by
the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that
I cannot choose one nor refuse none?

DUTCH:
Hij is een goed preeker die zijn eigen voorschriften nakomt /
Het is een goed geestelijke, die zijn eigen voorschriften opvolgt

MORE:
Proverb: Practice what you preach
Divine=Priest
Compleat:
A divine=Een Godgeleerde

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

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

DUTCH:
Het is een knappe vader, die zijn eigen kind kent /
Dàt is eerst een knappe vader die zijn eigen kind kent.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
American Radio-Telephone Serv. v. PSC of Maryland. Opinion “It was the Bard of Avon who first suggested, ‘It is a wise father that knows his own child.’” And in the same case: “In this case, the Public Service Commission of Maryland has had greater difficulty in determining thelineage of a ‘grandfather.'”
Retirement Board of the Police Retirement System of Kansas City, Missouri v. Noel, 652 S.W.2d 874, 880 (Mo.Ct. App. 1983)(paternity);
Simpson v. Blackburn, 414 S.W.2d 795, 805 (Mo. App.Ct. 1967)(paternity);
American Radio-Telephone Service, Inc. v. Public Service Commission of Maryland, 33 Md. App.
423, 365 A.2d 314 (1976).

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

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
There is more difference between thy flesh and hers
than between jet and ivory, more between your bloods
than there is between red wine and rhenish. But tell us,
do you hear whether Antonio have had any loss at sea or
no?
SHYLOCK
There I have another bad match!— a bankrupt, a prodigal
who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto, a beggar
that was used to come so smug upon the mart. Let him
look to his bond. He was wont to call me usurer; let him
look to his bond. He was wont to lend money for a
Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond.
SALERIO
Why, I am sure, if he forfeit thou wilt not take his flesh.
What’s that good for?

DUTCH:
Dat is ook al weer een kwade zaak voor me; een
bankroetier, een verkwister, die te nauwernood zijn gezicht
op den Rialto durft laten kijken; — een bedelaar,
die altijd als een groot heer op de markt kwam, — laat
hem denken aan zijn schuldbrief; hij noemde mij altoos
een woekeraar, — laat hem denken aan zijn schuldbrief;
hij leende altijd geld uit christelijke liefelijkheid , — laat
hem denken aan zijn schuldbrief!

MORE:
Match=bargain. Bad match=bad deal.
Rhenish (“Reinish, Rennish, Renish”)=Rhine wine
Bond=A deed by which one binds oneself to another to make a payment or fulfil a contract.
Usurer=lender of money who charges interest (which was thought disreputable in Shakespeare’s time)
Compleat:
Rhenish=Rinse (of Rhynse) wyn
Usurer=woekeraar
Enter into a bond=In een verband treeden, zich verbinden
To sute with (or agree)=Overeenkomen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Arragon
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
And so have I addressed me. Fortune now
To my heart’s hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
“Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.”
You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
What says the golden chest? Ha, let me see.
“Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.”
“What many men desire”—that “many” may be meant
By the fool multitude that choose by show,
Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
Which pries not to th’ interior, but like the martlet
Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force and road of casualty.
I will not choose what many men desire
Because I will not jump with common spirits
And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
Why then, to thee, thou silver treasure house.
Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
And well said too—for who shall go about
To cozen fortune and be honorable
Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
To wear an undeserved dignity.
Oh, that estates, degrees and offices
Were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer!
How many then should cover that stand bare!
How many be commanded that command!
How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
From the true seed of honor! And how much honor
Picked from the chaff and ruin of the times
To be new varnished! Well, but to my choice.
“Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.”
I will assume desert.—Give me a key for this,
And instantly unlock my fortunes here.

DUTCH:
Dat niemand
Een onverdiende waardigheid zich eigen’!
O, werden goed’ren, rang en ambten nooit
Op laakb’re wijs verworven; eere steeds
Onwraakbaar, door verdienste alleen, gekocht!

MORE:
CITED IN EWCA LAW:
Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWCA Civ 748 (21 June 2013)
DeRonde v. Regents of the Univ. of California, 102 Cal. App. 3d 221 (1980): “We close with a quotation from Shakespeare, who so eloquently reminds us that competition on the basis of merit alone is the lifeblood of a democratic society: ‘For who shall go about….’.”

Fool multitude=foolish commoners
Fond=doting, simple.
Fond eye=what meets the eye
Jump with=agree with
Barbarous=ignorant, unlettered
Cozen=cheat
Undeservèd=unmerited
Dignity=Elevated rank, high office
Compleat:
Multitude=Menigte, veelheid, het gemeene volk, het gepeupel
Jump (to agree)=Het ééns worden, overenstemmen.
Their opinions jump much with ours=Hunne gevoelens komen veel met de onzen overeen
Wits jump always together=De groote verstanden beulen altijd saamenCozen=Bedriegen
Merit=Verdienste.
What ever may be said of him wil fall short of his merit=Alles wat men van hem zeggen kan, is minder dan zyne verdienste.
Dignity (Merit, importance)=Waardigheid, Staat-ampt, verdiensten.
Dignity (Greatness, Nobleness)=Grootheid, Adelykheid.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.5
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica.
Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-necked fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on Christian fools with varnished faces.
But stop my house’s ears—I mean my casements—
Let not the sound of shallow foppery enter
My sober house. By Jacob’s staff, I swear,
I have no mind of feasting forth tonight.
But I will go.—Go you before me, sirrah.
Say I will come.

DUTCH:
t Geraas dier flauwe zotternij niet hoore. —
Ik zweer bij Jakobs staf, ik heb geen zin
Om buitenshuis van avond feest te vieren

MORE:
Masque=Masked ball, party
Shallow foppery=wantonness
I have no mind of = I am not in the mood to
Compleat:
Foppery=Zotte kuuren, grillen, snaakerij.
‘T is a mere foppery=Het is loutere dwaasheid

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my usances.
Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog,
And spet upon my Jewish gaberdine—
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help.
Go to, then! You come to me and you say,
“Shylock, we would have moneys.” You say so!—
You, that did void your rheum upon my beard
And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
Over your threshold! Moneys is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say,
“Hath a dog money? Is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?” Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman’s key
With bated breath and whispering humbleness
Say this: “Fair sir, you spet on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me such a day; another time
You called me ’dog’—and for these courtesies
I’ll lend you thus much moneys?”

DUTCH:
Signore Antonio, meermalen, vaak,
Hebt gij me op den Rialto doorgehaald
Ter zake van mijn leenera en mijn rente

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Eckles v. State, 306 Ore. 380, 402 (1986) (contractual obligations): “Were specific performance required, the state, if it made an unwise or unfortunate bargain, might find itself in the position of Antonio, who, having agreed to forfeit a pound of his flesh upon failure to repay 3000 ducats, could not obtain mercy from Shylock even though friends offered to repay the debt many times over. Obligees with less of a point to prove than Shylock would nonetheless be in a position to extract an onerous settlement from the state.”
Rialto=Venetian Stock Exchange where merchants met to transact business deals
Rated = berated
My moneys and my usances=money and charging of interest
Compleat:
Usance=Koopmans gebruik, Uso, een woord onder de Koopluiden gebruikelyk omtrent de betaaling der Wisselbrieven, betekenende een maand tyd; en tusschen dit en Spanje, enz. twee maanden.
Double usance=Op dubbel Uso

Burgersdijk notes:
Zooals ik op den Rialto vernam. Onder Rialto is de plaats te verstaan, die als beurs diende. Een tijdgenoot van Sh. beschrijft die als een groot gebouw met open galerijen, waar de kooplieden tweemaal daags samenkwamen, ‘s morgens tissen 11 en 12 en ‘s namiddags tusschen 5 en 6 uren.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Most heartily I do beseech the court
To give the judgment.
PORTIA
Why then, thus it is:
You must prepare your bosom for his knife.

DUTCH:
Van ganscher harte smeek ik ’t edel hof
Om uitspraak in mijn zaak.

MORE:
Beseech=to entreat, to ask
Compleat:
Beseech=Bidden, smeeken
Besought=Gebéden, verzocht

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Antonio is a good man.
BASSANIO
Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?
SHYLOCK
Ho, no, no, no, no. My meaning in saying he is a good
man is to have you understand me that he is sufficient.
Yet his means are in supposition. He hath an argosy
bound to Tripolis, another to the Indies. I understand
moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at Mexico, a
fourth for England, and other ventures he hath
squandered abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors but
men. There be land rats and water rats, water thieves
and land thieves—I mean pirates—and then there is the
peril of waters, winds, and rocks. The man is
notwithstanding sufficient.

DUTCH:

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Brooks v. Martin, 69 U.S. 70, 76-77 (1864): “What profits the concern would ultimately give was a matter which, like the ‘means’ of Signor Antonio in the Merchant of Venice, was still ‘in supposition’”

Sufficient=Having sufficient wealth
In supposition=Uncertain
Argosy=Large merchant ship
Squander=Scatter

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Believe me, no. I thank my fortune for it—
My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
Nor to one place, nor is my whole estate
Upon the fortune of this present year.
therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.

DUTCH:
Geloof mij, neen, want, dank zij mijn geluk,
Ik heb mijn goed niet aan een schip vertrouwd,
Niet aan een plaats, en mijn vermogen hangt

MORE:
Proverb: Venture not all in one bottom
Bottom=ship.
Merchandise=trade, business.
Compleat:
Bottom=Een Schip
Merchandize=Koopmanschappen, koopmanschap doen, dingen
Merchantly=Als een koopman

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Solanio
CONTEXT:
SOLANIO
Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
Because you are not merry— and ’twere as easy
For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry
Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time.
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper,
And other of such vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

DUTCH:
Natuur brengt soms toch rare snuiters voort:
Die knijpt voortdurend de oogen toe van ‘t lachen,
Als bij een doedelzak een papegaai;
En de ander heeft zoo’n uitzicht van azijn,
Dat hij van ‘t lachen nooit zijn tanden toont,
Al deed een grap ook de’ ouden Nestor schaat’ren.

MORE:
Laugh like parrots at a bagpiper=parrots were thought of as foolish, bagpipe music as melancholy.
Vinegar aspect=sour (‘sowr’) disposition.
Janus=A Roman God with two faces, one at the front and one at the back of his head (although not thought to have expressed contrasting moods). Janus was the god of beginnings duality, gates and doors, passages and endings.
Nestor, legendary wise King of Pylos in Homer’s Odyssey.
Compleat:
To sowr=Zuur worden, zuur maaken, verzuuren.
Sowred=Gezuurd, verzuurd. Sowrish=Zuurachtig.
To look sowrly upon one=Iemand zuur aanzien

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Salerio
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
Not one, my lord.
Besides, it should appear that if he had
The present money to discharge the Jew,
He would not take it. Never did I know
A creature that did bear the shape of man
So keen and greedy to confound a man.
He plies the duke at morning and at night,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state
If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,
The duke himself, and the magnificoes
Of greatest port have all persuaded with him.
But none can drive him from the envious plea
Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.

DUTCH:
De Doge zelf, en de magnifico’s
Die ‘t meest vermogen, deden al hun best,
Maar geen weerhoudt hem van den boozen eisch
Van het verbeurde, ‘t recht en het kontrakt.

MORE:
Discharge=Pay
Keen=Eager
Confound=Destroy
Impeach=Reproach
Persuaded=Tried to convince
Port=Dignity, rank
Envious=Malicious
Magnifico=Venetian grandee
Compleat:
Discharge=Ontslag, oorlof, quytschelding, quitanci
To discharge=Onstlaan, lossen, quytschelden
Keen=Scherp, bits, doordringend
Impeach=Betichten, beschuldigen, aanklaagen
Port=Voorkomen, houding
Envious=Wangunstig

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Of a strange nature is the suit you follow,
Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.—
You stand within his danger, do you not?

DUTCH:
Van vreemden aard is de eisch, dien gij hier doet,
Maar in den vorm, zoodat Venetië’s wet
Bij ‘t voeren van ‘t geding u niet kan wraken.

MORE:
Strange=Surprising
Suit=Case
Rule=Order
Within his danger=At his mercy

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
Well, keep me company but two years more,
Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
ANTONIO
Farewell. I’ll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO
Thanks, i’ faith, for silence is only commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried and a maid not vendible.

DUTCH:
Zeer goed, want weet, dat zwijgen nooit behaagt,
Dan van gerookte tong en van een schuchtre maagd.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
United States v. Mayendia-Blanco, 905 F.3d 26 (1st Cir. 2018) : “Mayendía was as silent as a neat’s tongue dried with respect to either the PSR or the district court’s failure to subtract the value of the properties from the loss. (Merchant of Venice, 1.1)”

Grow=Become
Gear=Stuff
A neat’s tongue dried=Dried ox tongue
Vendible=Saleable; marketable (as in marriage)
Compleat:
Neat=Een rund, varre
Neat’s tongue=Ossen-tong, koe-tong
Vendible=Verkoopelyk, verkoopbaar

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
So may the outward shows be least themselves.
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk,
And these assume but valour’s excrement
To render them redoubted…

DUTCH:
Hoe vaak is ‘t uiterlijk aan ‘t wezen vreemd!
Steeds wordt de wereld door vertoon bedrogen.

MORE:
: CITED IN IRISH LAW:
Kirwan & Ors -v- The Mental Health Commission [2012] IEHC 217 (28 May 2012)
CITED IN US LAW:
McCauley v. State, 405 So.2d 1350, 1351 (Fla., 1981) (cited in opinion: “In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt but, being seasoned with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil?”);
United States v. Powell, 55 M.J. 633, 642 (2001): “The standard of review in this area of the law is difficult to apply because a judge is attempting to peer into an attorney’s heart by relying on his or her words. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt / But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil.”;
Day v. Rosenthal, 170 Cal. App. 3d 1125, 1180 (1985).

To season=To temper, qualify
Gracious voice=Attractive, graceful, elegant
To season=To fit for any use by time or habit; to mature; to grow fit for any purpose (Samuel Johnson)
Compleat:
Seasoned=Toebereid, bekwaam gemaakt, getemperd.
Children should be season’d betimes to virtue=Men behoorde de kinderen by tyds aan de deugd te gewennen.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
For the intent and purpose of the law
Hath full relation to the penalty,
Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
SHYLOCK
‘Tis very true. O wise and upright judge!
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA
Therefore, lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK
Ay, his breast.
So says the bond. Doth it not, noble judge?
“Nearest his heart”—those are the very words.

DUTCH:
Zoo zegt mijn stuk; — niet waar, hoogedel rechter?

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Crockett v. First Fed. S & L Assn. of Charlotte, 289 N.C. 620, 642 (1976): “In my view the money lender’s withholding of the approval of the transfer under these circumstances is unconscionable. The defendant, like Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, says, “So says the bond, doth it not, Noble Judge? * * * Those are the very words.” Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1. The majority opinion agrees that it is “so nominated in the bond” and, therefore, reverses the judgment of the Superior Court.”

Bond=A deed by which one binds oneself to another to make a payment or fulfil a contract
Compleat:
Bond=een Bond, verbinding, verbindschrift, obligatie
Bond of appearance=een Borgstelling van voor ‘t Recht te zullen verschynen
Enter into a bond=In een verband treeden, zich verbinden

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Nerissa
CONTEXT:
NERISSA
You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the
same abundance as your good fortunes are. And yet for
aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much
as they that starve with nothing. It is no mean
happiness, therefore, to be seated in the mean.
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency
lives longer.
PORTIA
Good sentences, and well pronounced.
NERISSA
They would be better if well followed.

DUTCH:
Het is daarom geen middelmatig geluk juist in de middelmaat
te zijn; overvloed krijgt vroeger grijze haren, maar juist van pas leeft langer.

MORE:
Superfluity=Surplus
Comes sooner by=Acquires sooner (to come by something)
Sentences=Maxims
Compleat:
Superfluity=Overtolligheyd, overvloedigheyd
Sentence=Spreuk, zinspreuk

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Gobbo
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myself, as your worship shall know by this honest old man—and though I say it, though old man, yet poor man, my father
BASSANIO
One speak for both. What would you?
LAUNCELOT
Serve you, sir.
GOBBO
That is the very defect of the matter, sir.
BASSANIO
I know thee well. Thou hast obtained thy suit.
Shylock thy master spoke with me this day,
And hath preferred thee.

DUTCH:

Ja, dat is het, dat wij u willen opponeeren, heer.

MORE:
Gobbo using a malapropisms here: defect = effect.
Impertinent=Pertinent
Preferred=Recommended
Defect=Gist (malapropism: effect)
Compleat:
To take effect=Stand grypen, gelukken
Effect=Uitkomst, uitwerking, gewrocht
Gedicht van Nicolaas Beets uit 1882:
“Gelijk men zegt: ‘Ik zoek, ik zocht,
Ik breng, ik brocht,’
Zoo zei men ook: ‘Ik werk, ik wrocht,’
Zoolang het volk zijn taal verstond.
Thans hoor ik, uit geleerden mond:
‘Ik wrocht, ik wrochtte, heb gewrocht’….
Nu ja! – een wangedrocht!”

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Good sentences, and well pronounced.
NERISSA
They would be better if well followed.
PORTIA
If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages
princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his
own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were
good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine
own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood,
but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold decree. Such a hare
is madness the youth—to skip o’er the meshes of good
counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the
fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word “choose!”
I may neither choose whom I would nor refuse whom I
dislike—so is the will of a living daughter curbed by
the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that
I cannot choose one nor refuse none?

DUTCH:
Het brein kan wel wetten voor het gestel uitdenken, maar een vurig bloed springt over een koel voorschrift heen / De hersenen kunnen wel wetten uitdenken voor het bloed; maar een vurige natuur springt over een koel gebod

MORE:
Meshes=net.
“…reasoning is not in the fashion”=This line of reasoning
Compleat:
Fashion=wyze, manier

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
Mark you this, Bassanio,
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
SHYLOCK
Three thousand ducats—’tis a good round sum.
Three months from twelve, then. Let me see. The rate—
ANTONIO
Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you?

DUTCH:
Merk dit op, Bassanio;
De duivel zelf beroept zich op de schrift.
Een boos gemoed, dat heil’ge woorden spreekt,
Is als een fielt met liefelijken lach;
Een schijnschoone appel, maar in ‘t hart verrot;
O, glanzend schoon is ‘t uiterlijk der valschheid!

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW – some examples:
In re Amy B, 1997 Conn. Super LEXIS at 28;
Harris v. Superior Court, 3 Cal. App. 4th 661, 666 (Cal. 1992);
Shattuck Denn Mining Corporation v. National labour Relations Board, 362 F.2d 466, 469 (9th Cir. 1966);
Middleton Development Corp v Gust, 44 Mich. App.71, 79, 205, NW 2d.39,43 (1972);
Delmarva Power and Light Company of Maryland v. Eberhard, 247 Md. 273, 230 A.2d 644 (Md. Ct. App, 1966);
United States ex rel. Green v. Peters, WL 8258, 17, n. 11 (1994), where the court clarified that “its figure of speech does not of course suggest that the Attorney General has literally joined the forces of darkness”. (!)

Proverb: Sodom apples outwardly fair, ashes at the
Beholding=Beholden, indebted

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Antonio
CONTEXT:
ANTONIO
The duke cannot deny the course of law.
For the commodity that strangers have
With us in Venice, if it be denied,
Will much impeach the justice of his state,
Since that the trade and profit of the city
Consisteth of all nations. Therefore go.
These griefs and losses have so bated me,
That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
Tomorrow to my bloody creditor.—
Well, jailer, on.—Pray God Bassanio come
To see me pay his debt, and then I care not.

DUTCH:

De Doge kan den loop van ‘t recht niet stuiten

MORE:
Commodity=Wares, merchandise, convenience
Impeach=Call into question, discredit, disparage
Justice=Operation of laws
Bated=Weakened, diminished
Compleat:
Commodity=Koopmanschap.
Impeach=Zich aankanten
Justice=Recht, gerechtigheid

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Lorenzo
CONTEXT:
LORENZO
The reason is your spirits are attentive.
For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood—
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music.
Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods
Since naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
But music for the time doth change his nature.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

DUTCH:
Heeft iemand in zichzelve geen muziek; roert hem de meng’ling niet van zoete tonen; die man deugt tot verraad, tot list en roof.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
In re Fraley, 189 Bankr. 398, 400 (1995). Court: “Moreover, should we not trust the debtors’ request to have music in his house? After all, ‘the man that hath no music in himself… let no such man be trusted.’”
People v. Ziegler, 29 Misc.2d 429, 436 (1961).

Feign=Imagine, invent
Stockish=Unfeeling
Erebus=place of darkness, hell
Affections=Natural disposition, mental tendency
Compleat:
Affection=Geneegenheid, toegeneegenheid, aandoening

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchased slave,
Which—like your asses and your dogs and mules—
You use in abject and in slavish parts
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you,
“Let them be free! Marry them to your heirs!
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made as soft as yours and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands”? You will answer,
“The slaves are ours.” So do I answer you.
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought. ‘Tis mine and I will have it.
If you deny me, fie upon your law—
There is no force in the decrees of Venice.

DUTCH:

Zie, dit pond vleesch, dat ik van hem verlang, ’t Is duur gekocht.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
By 1993, “pound of flesh” had been used 120 times in courts without reference to Shakespeare. (See William Domnarski, Shakespeare in the Law)
Gates v. United States 33 Fed. Cl. 9 , 13 (1995);
Leasing Service Corporation v. Justice, 673 F.2d 70, 71 (2d Cir. 198l)(Kaufman,J.);
Eldridge v. Burns, 76 Cal. App.3d 396, 432, 142 Cal. Rptr. 845,868 (1978);
Jones v. Jones, 189 Mise. 186, 70 N.Y.S.2d lll, 112 (N.Y. C1v. Ct.1947).

Fie=Exclamation of contempt or dislike
Force=validity
Viands=Dressed meat, food
Compleat:
Fie (or fy)=Foei
Fy upon it! Fy for shame!=Foei ‘t is een schande!

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thron d monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this—
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence ‘gainst the merchant there.

DUTCH:
Genade wordt verleend, niet afgedwongen;
Zij drupt, als zachte regen, uit den hemel
Op de aarde neer, en dubblen zegen brengt ze,
Zij zegent hem, die geeft, en die ontvangt

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW – some examples:
People v. Willett, 44 Ill. App. 3d 545, 547 (1976). Decision of the reviewing court after an ‘unintelligible’ brief (‘When the defendant first appeared in Court, it was involuntarily, he being already in the custody of a fellow Shakespeare would probably have called old ‘Bottom’ the weaver, but who we all know as the Sheriff from down there at the County Slammer’): “We would be perfectly justified in striking defendant’s brief, but, as Shakespeare would probably have said, ‘The quality of mercy is not strain’d.’ The State’s motion is denied.”;
Clinton Mun. Separate Sch. Dist. v. Byrd, 477 So. 2d 237, 242 (Miss., 1985);
In re Freligh, 894 F.2d 881, 886 (1989);
Hector Costa Del Moral v. Servicios Legales De Puerto Rico, 63 F. Supp. 2d 165, 172-173 (1999);
Perales v. Casillas, 903 F.2d 1043, 1053 (5th Cir. 1990);
In the Matter of Grand Jury Proceedings Empaneled May 1988, 894 F.2d 881, 886 (7th Cir. 1990);
US v. France, 886 F.2d 22.3, 228 (9th Cir. 1989);
Johnson v. State, 501 So.2d 158, 159 (Fla. Ct. App. 1987);
In Re Green, 1988 III. LEXIS, at 142;
TKU-Queens Corp., Inc. v. Mabel Food Corp., 90 Misc.2d 48, 393 NYS.2d 272, 273 (NY Civ.Ct. 1977);
Miceli v. Parisi, 44 Misc.2d 712,714,255 NYS 2d 377, 379 (NY Sup. Ct. 1964)(Fitzpatrick, J.): “Were this court able to communicate with Shakespeare, it would be bound to inform him that while mercy cannot be strained in quality, it certainly can be strained in practice. The defendant again defaulted in obeying the directions of the court…”.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
Yes, truly, for look you, the sins of the father are to
be laid upon the children. Therefore I promise ye I
fear you. I was always plain with you, and so now I
speak my agitation of the matter. Therefore be o’ good
cheer, for truly I think you are damned. There is but
one hope in it that can do you any good, and that is but
a kind of bastard hope neither.

DUTCH:
Ja, waarlijk! want ziet ge, de zonden des vaders worden
bezocht aan de kinderen; daarom, ik verzeker u, hen ik bang voor u.

MORE:

CITED IN US LAW:
Fogleman v. Mercy Hospital, Inc., 283 F.3d 561 (2002);
Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 183-84 (1987). In discussing the need for sentencing to “respond to the reasonable goals of punishment”, Justice White added in a footnote “Thy fathers’ sins, O Roman, thou, though guiltless, shall expiate”.
United States v. Auerbach, 745 F.2d 1157, 1160 (1984);
Miller v. CIR, T. C. Memo 1989-461 (1989): “With deference to Shakespeare, the fraud of the father is not the fraud of the son”;
Misenheimer v. Misenheimer, 312 N.C. 692, 698 (1985);
Adams v. Franco, 168 Misc.2d 399, 403 (N.Y., 1996).

Agitation=emotion, disturbance
Neither=Following a negative by way of enforcing it (i.e. for all that, yet)
Bastard (hope)=spurious, adulterate
Compleat:
Agitation=Schudding, beweeging, beroering
Bastard=Valsch. A bastard generosity=Een valsche édelmoedigheid

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
(…) I tell thee what, Antonio—
I love thee, and ’tis my love that speaks—
There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
And do a willful stillness entertain
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!”
O my Antonio, I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing, when I am very sure
If they should speak, would almost damn those ears
Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
I’ll tell thee more of this another time.
But fish not with this melancholy bait
For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.—
Come, good Lorenzo.—Fare ye well awhile.
I’ll end my exhortation after dinner.

DUTCH:
Er is een slag van lieden, wier gelaat
Steeds ondoorschijnend is als stilstaand water,
Die eigenzinnig zwijgen altijd door,
Met doel om zich een dunk en roep te geven
Van wijsheid, waardigheid en diepen zin,

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Jaszai et al. v. Christie’s et al., 279 A.D. 2d 186, 188-189 (2001).

Proverb: All dogs bark not (no dogs shall bark) at him
Proverb: Fools are wise as long as silent
Proverb: Few words show men wise

Cream=To gather a covering on a surface, to mantle.
Mantle=A green surface on a standing pool. To mantle=to cloak.
Standing pond=stagnant pond
Gudgeon=Small fish
Compleat:
Mantle=Deken
To mantle=Schuimen of werken. The hawk mantles=De valk spreidt zyne wieken uit.
Gudgeon=Een Grundel [zekere visch]To swallow a gudgeon=Een hoon verdraagen

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
So may the outward shows be least themselves.
The world is still deceived with ornament.
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
How many cowards whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk,
And these assume but valour’s excrement
To render them redoubted…

DUTCH:
Ge§en boosheid, die de slimheid mist, om zich
Met de’ uiterlijken schijn van deugd te sieren.

MORE:
No vice so simple=any vice can be disguised.
‘Stairs of sand’ to convey the idea of weakness and instability was coined by Shakespeare.
Also used as the title for a 1929 silent film.

See also:
In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?

Simple=Silly, witless, weak in intellect.
Livers white as milk – white livers used to signify cowardice. Hence lily-livered (Macbeth, 5.3) and milk-livered (King Lear, 4.2), both compounds coined by Shakespeare
Compleat:
White livered=Een die ‘er altyd bleek uitziet, een bleek-neus, kwaaraardig, nydig.
Simple=Zot, dwaas, onnozel

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
This ring, good sir—alas, it is a trifle.
I will not shame myself to give you this.
PORTIA
I will have nothing else but only this.
And now methinks I have a mind to it.
BASSANIO
There’s more depends on this than on the value.
The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
And find it out by proclamation.
Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.
PORTIA
I see, sir, you are liberal in offers.
You taught me first to beg, and now methinks
You teach me how a beggar should be answered.

DUTCH:
t Is om de waarde niet, ‘t is om den ring;
Den kostbaarste’ in Venetië geef ik u,
Dien openbare navraag vinden laat;
Slechts deze’ alleen, ik bid u, vraag dien niet.

MORE:
Have a mind=My mind is set on doing
Trifle=Worthless
Depends=Is involved
Compleat:
Trifle=Een beuzeling, kleynigheid
I have a mind to go there=Ik ben geneegen/van zin/van meening om daar te gaan
I have a great mind to see it=Ik heb een groote begeerte om het te zien
Proclamation=Eene afkondiging, afleezing, uytroep, plakkaat

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
This kindness will I show.
Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond, and—in a merry sport—
If you repay me not on such a day,
In such a place, such sum or sums as are
Expressed in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.

DUTCH:
Ik doe die vriendlijkheid.— Ga mee naar den notaris, teeken daar Uw schuldbrief op uw naam.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
Miller v. Niedzielska, 176 Pa. 409, 411 (1896): “An examination of the records now before us leads us to the conclusion that this is a proper case for the application of the principle enunciated by Portia in a celebrated case reported by Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice. The plaintiff was permitted in that case to secure the pound of flesh, ‘nominated in the bond,’ if he could do so without taking a drop of blood. Blood had not been stipulated for in the covenant on which the plaintiff sued. This limitation did not deny the right, but it affected the remedy. This case presents a somewhat similar question.”
Henslee v. D. M. Cent. Transp., Inc., 870 F. Supp. 764 (1994): “This is a suit by a law firm to recover under a contingent fee agreement. The underlying lawsuit was settled for cash and a promise of re-employment by the client acting alone and against the firm’s advice. The contract states that the law firm is entitled to 25% of “the gross amount … realize[d] on this claim.” With Shakespearian “kindness,” the law firm argues that “the gross amount” includes not only the cash settlement received, but also the dollar value of all compensation connected with the re-employment.”
In re Keniston, 60 Bankr., 742 (1986): “In question is the fortuitous circumstance that he is now remarried to a fairly wealthy woman. The record of the trial of this matter, involving the literal language of the “document you signed” as opposed to the underlying intent of the parties, has a good bit of the flavor of Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” in that regard.”
In re Estate of Shoptaw, 54 Wash. 2d 602, 606 (1959): “What makes this result particularly irksome is the realization that in some areas the United States does not exact the pound of flesh merely because it is “so nominated in the bond” (Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1).”.
Queen City Coach Co. v. Carolina Coach Co., 237 N.C. 697, 705 (1953): “We turn to the courtroom scene in The Merchant of Venice for the conclusive answer to the argument of Virginia that the policies and endorsements imposed on Liberty and Lloyds contractual duties to make good to Queen the loss arising out of the collision of the Queen bus and the Perkins car.It was not ‘so nominated in the bond.'”
CITED IN HONG KONG LAW:
Tins’ Industrial Co Ltd v Kono Insurance Ltd (CACV 136/1987)

Seal=authenticate, attest or confirm or final addition to complete and secure
In a merry sport=just for fun
Compleat:
To set his seal to a thing=Zyn zégel aan iets steeken (of hangen)
To put the seal upon=Zégelen
A private seal for letters=Een byzonder signet voor brieven

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
LORENZO
Your husband is at hand. I hear his trumpet.
We are no tell-tales, madam. Fear you not.
PORTIA
This night methinks is but the daylight sick.
It looks a little paler. ‘Tis a day
Such as the day is when the sun is hid.

DUTCH:
Deez’ nacht is, dunkt me, slechts een kwijnend daglicht;
Zij ziet wat bleeker, maar het is nu dag,
Zooals de dag is bij beloken zon.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
People v. Cacioppo, 264 Cal. App. 2d 392, 398 (1968) (Court): “Perforce ‘[this] night methinks is but the daylight sick.’ The judgment of conviction is affirmed.”

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
I’ll have my bond. Speak not against my bond.
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
Thou calledst me dog before thou hadst a cause.
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs.
The duke shall grant me justice.—I do wonder,
Thou naughty jailer, that thou art so fond
To come abroad with him at his request.
ANTONIO
I pray thee, hear me speak.
SHYLOCK
I’ll have my bond. I will not hear thee speak.
I’ll have my bond, and therefore speak no more.
I’ll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool
To shake the head, relent and sigh, and yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not.
I’ll have no speaking. I will have my bond.

DUTCH:
Gij hebt me een hond geroemd, en hadt geen reden;
Mijd thans, als ik een hond ben, mijn gebit.

MORE:
: CITED IN US LAW:
Prays v. Perryman, 213 Cal. App. 3d 1133, 1134 (1989): In a dog bite case: “Since I am a dog, beware my fangs.”

Naughty=Wicked
Fond=Foolish
Dull-eyed=Easily fooled

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Is that the law?
PORTIA
Thyself shalt see the act.
For as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest.

DUTCH:
Gij zult de keur zelf zien;
Gij eischtet recht, en, wees verzekerd, recht
Zal u geworden, meer dan gij verlangt.

MORE:
Urgest=put forward a strong plea or argument (see also Timon 3.2, “urged extremely for”
Compleat:
Urge (to press to sollicitt)=Aandringen, persen
To urge (incense, porovoke or exasperate)=Iemand verbitteren, tergen of woedend maken
To urge one (to follow him close in a dispute)=Iemand in een geschil voet by ‘t stuk houden.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
Yes, here I tender it for him in the court—
Yea, twice the sum. If that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart.
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth.—
And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority.
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.

DUTCH:
Om waarlijk recht te doen, pleeg luttel onrecht,
En toom dien boozen duivel in zijn vaart.

MORE:
Curb=restrain from
Wrest=Turn the worng way, misinterpret
Malice=Hate, enmity, ill will.
To bear down=Overturn, overwhelm, crush
Compleat:
To curb=Betoomen, intoomen, bedwingen, beteugelen
To curb the licentiousness of the stage-Poets=De moedwilligheid van de Toneeldichters beteugelen
To curb one’s ambition=Iemands hoogmoed fnuiken
To wrest=Verdraaijen, wringen
To wrest one’s words maliciously=Iemands woorden kwaardaardig verdraaijen
To bear malice=Iemand nydig zyn, iemand een kwaad hart toedraagen
CITED IN US LAW:
People v. Hampton, 384 Mich. 669, 685 (1971).

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.9
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
ARRAGON
What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot
Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.—
How much unlike art thou to Portia!
How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
“Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves”!
Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?
Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better?
PORTIA
To offend and judge are distinct offices
And of opposèd natures.

DUTCH:
t Misdoen en ‘t vonnis slaan zijn steeds gescheiden;
Het een strijdt tegen ‘t ander.

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
Unlike my hopes and deservings=Not what I hoped for or deserve
Schedule=scroll
Fool’s head=Ass-head, fool
Distinct=Separate, different positions/functions
Compleat:
Buffle-head=Buffelskop, een plomperd, dom-oor
Desert=Verdienste, verdiende loon
Distinct=Onderscheyden, afzonderlyk, duydelyk
Opposed=Wéderstaand, tégenstrydig, Tegenstaaning

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Portia
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
Yes, here I tender it for him in the court—
Yea, twice the sum. If that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o’er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart.
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth.—
And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority.
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.
PORTIA
It must not be. There is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree establishèd.
‘Twill be recorded for a precedent,
And many an error by the same example
Will rush into the state. It cannot be.

DUTCH:
t Wierd aangehaald als voorbeeld voor ’t vervolg;
En menig misbruik vond, na zulk een voorgang,
Wel ingang in den staat; het mag niet zijn.

MORE:
CITED IN EU LAW:
Regione Siciliana v Commission (Regional policy) [2006] EUECJ C-417/04 (02 May 2006)
The late A-G Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer quoted this, adding the following explanation in a footnote:
“W. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: reply by Portia, passing herself off as a
young lawyer from Rome, to Shylock’s demand for enforcement of the penalty
provided for in a loan on the ground that the three thousand ducats owed have not
been repaid by the due date; the penalty is that the borrower should surrender a
pound of flesh cut from his chest. Shylock refuses to show any form of mercy.
Bassanio begs Shylock to overlook the literal meaning of the terms of the bond so as
to avoid the cruelty involved in its enforcement.”
CITED IN US LAW:
In re Durrett, 187 Bankr. 413, 418 (N.H., 1995): “This case can be distinguished from the fact pattern before this Court regarding a personal cause of action that did not arise from an interest in property of the estate but rather from an interest literally in the body of the debtor. It is not clear that Congress intended by chapter 11 to give creditors a legal right in that body. Cf. “Merchant of Venice” by William Shakespeare.”
FDIC v. Municipality of Ponce, 708 F. Supp. 464 (1989): “To hold that the Municipality’s guarantee of the loan was not for a public purpose and was in violation of the Puerto Rico constitution would be to throw out decades of economic progress as a result of legislation consistently upheld by the Puerto Rico courts. ‘It must not be; there is no power in Venice that can alter a decree established; ‘Twill be recorded for a precedent, and many an error, by the same example, Will rush into the state; It cannot be.’”
Power, Inc. v. Huntley, 39 Wash. 2d 191, 203 (1951).
Commonwealth v. Pierce, 515 Pa. 153, 172 (1986);
Wright v. State, 707 P.2d 153, 160 (1985);
United States v. Durrive, 902 F.2d 1221, 1225 (1990);
Tatum v. Schering Corp., 523 So. 2d 1042, 1063 (1988).

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
DUKE
With all my heart.—Some three or four of you
Go give him courteous conduct to this place.—
Meantime the court shall hear Bellario’s letter.
[reads]“Your grace shall understand that at the receipt of
your letter I am very sick, but in the instant that your
messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a
young doctor of Rome. His name is Balthazar. I
acquainted him with the cause in controversy between the
Jew and Antonio the merchant. We turned o’er many books
together. He is furnished with my opinion,
which—bettered with his own learning, the greatness
whereof I cannot enough commend—comes with him at my
importunity to fill up your grace’s request in my stead.
I beseech you, let his lack of years be no impediment to
let him lack a reverend estimation, for I never knew so
young a body with so old a head. I leave him to your
gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish
his commendation.”

DUTCH:
Wij hebben samen vele rechtsgeleerde werken nageslagen;
hij is volkomen met mijn inzichten bekend

MORE:
Proverb: An old head on young shoulders

Reverend=Testifying veneration, humble
Estimation=Value, worth
Turned o’er=Consulted
Publish=bring to light, show
Commendation=Value
Let=Cause (him to)
Compleat:
Reverent=Eerbiedig
Estimation=Waardeering, schatting
Publish=Openbaarmaken, bekendmaken

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Launcelot
CONTEXT:
LAUNCELOT
The old proverb is very well parted between my master
Shylock and you, sir—you have “the grace of God,” sir,
and he hath “enough.”
BASSANIO
Thou speak’st it well.—Go, father, with thy son.—
Take leave of thy old master and inquire
My lodging out.—
Give him a livery
More guarded than his fellows’. See it done.
LAUNCELOT
Father, in. I cannot get a service, no. I have ne’er a
tongue in my head.
Well, if any man in Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book, I shall have good fortune. Go to, here’s a simple line of life. Here’s a small trifle of wives. Alas, fifteen wives is nothing! Eleven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man. And then to ’scape
drowning thrice and to be in peril of my life with the
edge of a feather-bed—here are simple ’scapes. Well, if
Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this
gear.—Father, come. I’ll take my leave of the Jew in the
twinkling.

DUTCH:
Ik moet zeggen, als Fortuin een vrouw is, dan
is zij in dat opzicht een goeie meid. — Kom, vader; ik
zal in een ommezientjen klaar wezen met dat afscheidnemen
van den jood.

MORE:
Guarded=Edged with braid
Table=Hand palm
Simple=Ordinary
Coming-in=Income
This gear=This matter
Compleat:
Geer or gear=Optooisel, stof
To be in his geers=Gereed staan, vaerdig zyn

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
DUKE
How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none?
SHYLOCK
What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
You have among you many a purchased slave,
Which—like your asses and your dogs and mules—
You use in abject and in slavish parts
Because you bought them. Shall I say to you,
“Let them be free! Marry them to your heirs!
Why sweat they under burdens? Let their beds
Be made as soft as yours and let their palates
Be seasoned with such viands”? You will answer,
“The slaves are ours.” So do I answer you.
The pound of flesh which I demand of him
Is dearly bought. ‘Tis mine and I will have it.
If you deny me, fie upon your law—
There is no force in the decrees of Venice.

DUTCH:
Doge.
Hoopt ge op gena, gij die er geen bewijst?
Shylock.
Wat vonnis zou ik duchten ? ‘k Doe geen onrecht.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
By 1993, “pound of flesh” had been used 120 times in courts without reference to Shakespeare. (See William Domnarski, Shakespeare in the Law)
Gates v. United States 33 Fed. Cl. 9 , 13 (1995);
Leasing Service Corporation v. Justice, 673 F.2d 70, 71 (2d Cir. 198l)(Kaufman,J.);
Eldridge v. Burns, 76 Cal. App.3d 396, 432, 142 Cal. Rptr. 845,868 (1978);
Jones v. Jones, 189 Mise. 186, 70 N.Y.S.2d lll, 112 (N.Y. C1v. Ct.1947).

Fie=Exclamation of contempt or dislike
Force=validity
Viands=Dressed meat, food
Compleat:
Fie (or fy)=Foei
Fy upon it! Fy for shame!=Foei ‘t is een schande!

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
BASSANIO
Every offence is not a hate at first.
SHYLOCK
What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?

DUTCH:
Laat gij u tweemaal bijten van een slang?

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital v. Great West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, 38 F. Supp. 497, 509 and n. 28 (1999)
Offence=displeasure, mortification (affront)

A hate=cause of hatred (not pre-Shakespearean)
Compleat:
Offence=Affront, belédiging. Proverb: Good breeding is shewn, rather in never giving offence, than in doing obliging things=Een goede opvoeding word beter getoond met niemand te belédigen als met verplichtende dingen te doen.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
Madam, you have bereft me of all words.
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins.
And there is such confusion in my powers
As after some oration fairly spoke
By a belovèd prince there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleasèd multitude,
Where every something, being blent together,
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
Expressed and not expressed. But when this ring
Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence.
O, then be bold to say Bassanio’s dead!

DUTCH:
Gelijk zich, als een aangebeden vorst
Door schoone taal de schare heeft geboeid,
Een blij gemurmel onder ‘t volk doet hooren,
Waar iedre klank en elk gebaar, schoon niets,
Tot de uiting samensmelt van loutre vreugd,
Welsprekend zonder spraak

MORE:
Pleasèd multitude=gratified, amused crowd.
A wild=wilderness
Blent=Blended
Bold=Have confidence
Bereft me=Robbed me
Powers=Vital organ, physical or intellectual faculties
Compleat:
Wilds=wildernissen
Bereft=Beroofd

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.3
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
SHYLOCK
O Father Abram, what these Christians are,
Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!—Pray you, tell me this:
If he should break his day, what should I gain
By the exaction of the forfeiture?
A pound of man’s flesh taken from a man
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say,
To buy his favor I extend this friendship.
If he will take it, so. If not, adieu.
And for my love I pray you wrong me not.

DUTCH:
O vader Abram! hoe de christ’nen toch,
Omdat zij zelf hardvochtig zijn, van andren
Hetzelfde denken!

MORE:
Hard dealings=harsh treatment/experience.
Suspect=Mistrust
Break his day=Fails to pay on the stipulated date (break the deadline)
Compleat:
Dealings=Verkeering
Basely dealt with=Slecht behandeld

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Gratiano
CONTEXT:
GRATIANO
Let me play the fool.
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
And let my liver rather heat with wine
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
Why should a man whose blood is warm within
Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster,
Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice
By being peevish?

DUTCH:

’k Wacht dartlend, lachend, rimplige’ ouderdom /
Laat mij maar rimpels krijgen van ‘t lachen en de vrolijkheid /
Laat de oude rimpels komen met gelach

MORE:
Jaundice was thought to be caused by excess choler ( one of the four humors)
Compleat:
Sooth=Zéker, voorwaar
Jaundice=De Geelzucht
Peevish=Kribbig, gémelyk, korsel, ligt geraakt.
Early 16c corsel (now ‘korselig’) (J. de Vries (1971), Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, Leiden)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Bassanio
CONTEXT:
BASSANIO
Good signors both, when shall we laugh? Say, when?
You grow exceeding strange. Must it be so?

DUTCH:
Vrienden, zegt,
Wanneer weer eens een prettig samenzijn?
Wij zien elkaar zoo weinig; waartoe dit?

MORE:
To grow exceeding strange=to see less of someone, be estranged. (As in “Don’t be a stranger”)

CITED IN US LAW:
United States v. Tarek Obaid, D.C. No. 2:17-cv-04446- DSF-PLA, No. 18-56657 Opinion, September 11, 2019
(It would be “exceeding strange”; shift in meaning)

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Shylock
CONTEXT:
PORTIA
Why, this bond is forfeit!
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh to be by him cut off
Nearest the merchant’s heart.— Be merciful.
Take thrice thy money. Bid me tear the bond.
SHYLOCK
When it is paid according to the tenor.
It doth appear you are a worthy judge.
You know the law. Your exposition
Hath been most sound. I charge you by the law,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
Proceed to judgment. By my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me. I stay here on my bond.

DUTCH:
Gij kent de wet, en uw betoog was juist
En bondig; ik bezweer u bij de wet,
Waarvan ge een hechte steunpilaar u toont,
Sla ‘t vonnis nu.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW:
State of South Dakota v. Allison, 607 N.W. 2d 1, 20, n.4 (S.D. Sup. Ct., 2000) (The court’s position being that the most appropriate course of action was a civil remedy): “Even Shakespeare’s creditor in The Merchant of Venice was denied his pound of flesh nearest the heart.”

According to the tenor=To the letter
Bond=A deed by which one binds oneself to another to make a payment or fulfil a contract
Tenor=Conditions
Exposition=Interpretation, explanation
Compleat:
According to the tenor=Naar uitwyzen des briefs
Enter into a bond=In een verband treeden, zich verbinden

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

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

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

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

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

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

PLAY: The Merchant of Venice
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Salarino
CONTEXT:
SALERIO
Your mind is tossing on the ocean,
There, where your argosies with portly sail,
Like signors and rich burghers on the flood—
Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea—
Do overpeer the petty traffickers
That curtsy to them, do them reverence
As they fly by them with their woven wings.
SOLANIO
Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
The better part of my affections would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,
Peering in maps for ports and piers and roads.
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to my ventures out of doubt
Would make me sad.

DUTCH:
Uw geest wordt op den oceaan geslingerd,
Waar uw galjoenen, fier het zeil in top,
Als eed’len en grootburgers van de zee,
Door statigheid hun hoogen rang verkonden
En neerzien op de kleine handelslul,
Die needrig buigend hem begroeten, als
Zij langs hen vliegen met geweven vleug’len.

MORE:
Argosies=Large merchant ships
Portly=Stately, imposing.
Overpeer=Rise above, look down on
Trafficker=Merchant
Do reverence=accord respect
Compleat:
Portly=Deftig van gestatalte, wel gemaakt.

Topics: emotion and mood, misquoted

Go to Top