QUOTES BY TOPIC

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 4.8
SPEAKER: Clarence
CONTEXT:
WARWICK
What counsel, lords? Edward from Belgia,
With hasty Germans and blunt Hollanders,
Hath pass’d in safety through the narrow seas,
And with his troops doth march amain to London;
And many giddy people flock to him.
KING HENRY VI
Let’s levy men, and beat him back again.
CLARENCE
A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being suffer’d, rivers cannot quench.

DUTCH:
Een kleine vlam is schielijk uitgetreden ;
Maar woelt zij voort, dan bluscht een stroom haar niet.

MORE:

CITED IN HONG KONG LAW:
Murder trial of Nancy Ann Kissel v HKSAR (FACC 2/2009)

Proverb: Of a little spark a great fire

Amain=In haste
Giddy=Fickle
Levy=Collect, raise (e.g. raising a force for war)
Suffer=Tolerate

Compleat:
Amain=Zeer geweldig, heftig
To levy=(soldiers) Soldaaten ligten, krygsvolk werven
Giddy=Duizelig.
Giddy-headed=Ylhoofdig, hersenloos, wervelziek
Suffer=Gedoogen, toelaaten

Topics: cited in law, caution, wisdom, consequence

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Exeter
CONTEXT:
EXETER
Well didst thou, Richard, to suppress thy voice;
For, had the passions of thy heart burst out,
I fear we should have seen decipher’d there
More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils,
Than yet can be imagined or supposed.
But howsoe’er, no simple man that sees
This jarring discord of nobility,
This shouldering of each other in the court,
This factious bandying of their favourites,
But that it doth presage some ill event.
‘Tis much when sceptres are in children’s hands;
But more when envy breeds unkind division;
There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.

DUTCH:
t Is erg, indien een kind den scepter zwaait,
Maar erger nog, zoo haat verdeeldheid broedt,
Dan gaan we ellende en omkeer te gemoet.

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Schmidt:
Deciphered=Be revealed, detected
Rancorous=Malignant, hateful
Broil=(a) tumult, noisy quarrel, contention; (b) war, combat, battle
Simple=Common
Jarring=Clashing, discordant
Bandy=To beat to and fro (fig. of words, looks)
Shoulder=To push with violence and with a view of supplanting
Unkind=Unnatural

Compleat:
Deciphered=Ontcyferd
Rancorous=Nydig, vik afgunst en nyd
Broil=Oproer, beroerte, gewoel
Simple=Eenvoudig, onnozel
To jar=Krakkeelen, twisten, harrewarren, oneens zyn, kyven
Bandy=Een bal weer toeslaan; een zaak voor en tegen betwisten
Shoulder=Schouderen

Topics: envy, conflict, consequence, ruin

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Reignier
CONTEXT:
REIGNIER
Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends,
Enter and cry “The Dauphin!” presently,
And then do execution on the watch.
TALBOT
France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears,
If Talbot but survive thy treachery.
Pucelle, that witch, that damned sorceress,
Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares,
That hardly we escaped the pride of France.

DUTCH:
Thans niet getalmd! Elk uitstel eindigt boos;
Dringt binnen; roept terstond dan: „De Dauphijn!”
En slaat de wachters aan de poort ter neer.

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Proverb: Delay breeds danger (is dangerous)

The watch=The sentinels
Do execution on=Kill
Unawares=Undetected
Hardly=With difficulty

Compleat:
Unawares=Onverhoeds verrassen; Onbedacht, onvoorzigtig, by vergissing
The watch=De wacht
Hardly=(with much ado) Bezwaarlyk, met veel moeiten

Topics: proverbs and idioms, time, consequence

PLAY: King Henry IV Part 1
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Hotspur
CONTEXT:
Diseas—d nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers.

DUTCH:
Niet zelden breekt een ziekte der natuur
In dolle krampen uit; de zwangere aard
Wordt vaak, als door koliek gekweld, genepen;

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Beldam=old woman
Teeming=Fruitful

Topics: nature, life, consequence

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 4.4
SPEAKER: Officer
CONTEXT:
OFFICER
Masters, let him go.
He is my prisoner, and you shall not have him.
PINCH
Go, bind this man, for he is frantic too.
ADRIANA
What wilt thou do, thou peevish officer?
Hast thou delight to see a wretched man
Do outrage and displeasure to himself?
OFFICER
He is my prisoner. If I let him go,
The debt he owes will be required of me.
ADRIANA
I will discharge thee ere I go from thee.
Bear me forthwith unto his creditor,
And, knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.—
Good Master Doctor, see him safe conveyed
Home to my house. O most unhappy day!

DUTCH:
t Is mijn gevang’ne; ontsnapt hij mij, dan wordt,
Wat hij betalen moet, op mij verhaald

MORE:
Cited in Shakespeare’s Legal Maxims (William Lowes Rushton)
“If a sheriff or gaoler suffers a prisoner to escape upon mesne process (that is, during the pendency of a suit), he is liable to action on the case.” (Cro. Eliz. 625, Bennion v Watson)

Peevish=Silly, spiteful
Displeasure=Offence, harm
Outrage=Rude violence, contempt shown to law and decency
Compleat:
Peevish=Kribbig, gemelyk
Outrage=Smaad, spyt, overlast, leed
Displeasure=Misnoegen, mishaagen, ongenade
To do a displeasure to one=Iemand verdriet aandoen

Topics: law/legal, debt/obligation, punishment, remedy, consequence

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 5.2
SPEAKER: Parolles
CONTEXT:
CLOWN
Here is a purr of fortune’s, sir, or of fortune’s
cat,—but not a musk-cat, —that has fallen into the
unclean fishpond of her displeasure, and, as he
says, is muddied withal: pray you, sir, use the
carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed,
ingenious, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his
distress in my similes of comfort and leave him to
your lordship.
PAROLLES
My lord, I am a man whom fortune hath cruelly
scratched.
LAFEW
And what would you have me to do? ‘Tis too late to
pare her nails now. Wherein have you played the
knave with fortune, that she should scratch you, who
of herself is a good lady and would not have knaves
thrive long under her? There’s a quart d’ecu for
you: let the justices make you and fortune friends:
I am for other business.

DUTCH:
Edel heer, ik ben een man, die door Fortuin wreed
gekrabd is.

MORE:
Purr or pur=Piece of dung, pun on cat’s purr; asl pun on the knave in a deck of cards
Carp=(1) Fish and (2) Some who talks or complains a lot
Withal=From it, as a consequence
Musk-cat=Musk-deer, valued for its scent (also known as muscat)
Similes of=Comparative
Compleat:
Musk-cat=Civet cat
Carp=Karper
To carp=Bedillen, muggeziften
Simile=Gelykenis, vergelyking

Topics: consequence, fate/destiny

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 1.7
SPEAKER: Macbeth
CONTEXT:
If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly. If th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all

DUTCH:
Ware ‘t gedaan, als ‘t is gedaan, dan waar’
Het goed, zoo ‘t ras gedaan werd

MORE:
Allusion to the proverb “The thing done has an end” (c1380). Also Chaucer, “But that is don, is not to be done” (c1380).
Be-all and end-all (OED hyphenates)=the whole thing, perfection, ultimate goal.
Dyce:
Trammel up= To tie up or net up (a trammel is both a kind of draw net and a contrivance for teaching horses to pace or amble).
Compleat:
Tramel=Zekere slach van een vischnet
Trammel=Een beugel

Topics: offence, death, consequence, achievement, risk

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topics: proverbs and idioms, good and bad, consequence

PLAY: Antony and Cleopatra
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Caesar
CONTEXT:
DERCETUS
I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.
CAESAR
The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack. The round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets
And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony
Is not a single doom. In the name lay
A moiety of the world.
DERCETUS
He is dead, Caesar,
Not by a public minister of justice,
Nor by a hirèd knife, but that self hand
Which writ his honour in the acts it did
Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword.
I robbed his wound of it. Behold it stained
With his most noble blood.

DUTCH:
Wat? Volgt geen grooter slag en schok op ‘t vallen
Van zoo iets groots?

MORE:
A greater crack=More disruption
Civil=City
Moeity=Half share
Self=Same
Compleat:
Civil=Burgerlyk; Heusch, beleefd
Moeity=De helft

Topics: consequence, death, legacy

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Carlisle
CONTEXT:
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
Go, some of you convey him to the Tower.
KING RICHARD II
O, good! convey? conveyers are you all,
That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
HENRY BOLINGBROKE
On Wednesday next we solemnly set down
Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves.
ABBOT
A woeful pageant have we here beheld.
BISHOP OF CARLISLE
The woe’s to come; the children yet unborn.
Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.

DUTCH:
Nog volgt het wee; de thans nog ongeboor’nen
Zal deze dag eens steken, fel als doornen.

MORE:

Proverb: As sharp as a thorn

Convey=Carry, transport; to carry away mysteriously (and hence used to mean ‘steal’)
Conveyer=Thief
Pageant=Spectacle

Compleat:
Convey=Voeren, leiden, overvoeren, overdraagen (rechten)
Convey away=Wegvoeren
Conveyer=Overvoerder, vervoerder
Pageant=Een trioomfboog; grootsche vertooning, pracht

Burgersdijk notes:
Inhalen? goed! — Inhalig zijt gij allen. In ‘t Engelsch staat: O, good! convey? conveyers are you all. Convey beteekent: wegbrengen , weggeleiden, maar ook stelen.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, fate/destiny, consequence

PLAY: Richard II
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: King Richard II
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD II
Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal
The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,
The time shall not be many hours of age
More than it is ere foul sin gathering head
Shalt break into corruption: thou shalt think,
Though he divide the realm and give thee half,
It is too little, helping him to all;
And he shall think that thou, which know’st the way
To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,
Being ne’er so little urged, another way
To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.
The love of wicked men converts to fear;
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.

DUTCH:
Bij snoode vrienden wordt licht liefde vrees,
De vrees tot haat, en haat brengt éen van beiden,
Of beiden, welverdiend gevaar en dood.

MORE:
Wherewithal=With which, by means of which (he is using your ladder)
Gathering head=Coming to a head
Sin=Transgression of the divine law
Helping=Having helped
Unrightful=Illegitimate
So little urged=With only the slightest encouragement
Headlong=Unceremoniously

Compleat:
Now my designs gathering to a head=Nu beginnen myn voornemens ryp te worden
Urged=Gedrongen, geprest, aangedrongen
Headlong=Vlak voorover, plotseling

Topics: loyalty, betrayal, conspiracy, corruption, consequence

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Clarence
CONTEXT:
FIRST MURDERER
Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.
CLARENCE
Have you that holy feeling in your souls
To counsel me to make my peace with God,
And art you yet to your own souls so blind
That thou will war with God by murd’ring me?
O sirs, consider: they that set you on
To do this deed will hate you for the deed.
SECOND MURDERER
What shall we do?
CLARENCE
Relent, and save your souls.
Which of you—if you were a prince’s son
Being pent from liberty, as I am now—
If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
Would not entreat for life? Ay, you would beg,
Were you in my distress.

DUTCH:
Bedenkt het wel: die u heeft aangezet
De daad te doen, zal om de daad u haten.

MORE:
Set you on=Urged
Pent=Restrained
Entreat=Beg
Compleat:
To set on=Aandryven, ophitsen
Pent up=Beslooten, opgeslooten
To entreat=Bidden, ernstig verzoeken

Topics: conscience, guilt, consequence, manipulation

PLAY: King Henry VIII
ACT/SCENE: 1.1
SPEAKER: Buckingham
CONTEXT:
BUCKINGHAM
O, many
Have broke their backs with laying manors on ’em
For this great journey. What did this vanity
But minister communication of
A most poor issue?
NORFOLK
Grievingly I think
The peace between the French and us not values
The cost that did conclude it.
BUCKINGHAM
Every man,
After the hideous storm that followed, was
A thing inspired and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy: that this tempest,
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on ’t.

DUTCH:
En wat deed die pronk,
Dan dat hij diende voor een samenkomst,
Die luttel vruchts droeg?

MORE:
Proverb: To break one’s back
Manors=Estates
Vanity=Folly
Minister communication=Put into effect
Issue=Outcome
Not values the cost=Isn’t worth the price paid
Dashing=Battering
To abode=To be a (bad) omen
Compleat:
Manor-house=Een huys of slot van den ambachtsheer
Vanity=Ydelheyd
To minister=Bedienen
Issue=Een uytgang, uytslag, uytkomst
Value=Waarderen, achten, schatten
To dash=Slaan, stooten, verbryzelen, spatten
To bode=Voorzeggen, voorspellen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, still in use, consequence, value

PLAY: Macbeth
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Lady Macbeth
CONTEXT:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

DUTCH:
Wat behoeven wij te duchten, dat iemand het te weten
komt, als niemand onze macht ter verantwoording kan
roepen

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

Topics: law/legal, authority, guilt, suspicion, consequence, punishment

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 1.4
SPEAKER: Second murderer
CONTEXT:
FIRST MURDERER
What, art thou afraid?
SECOND MURDERER
Not to kill him, having a warrant, but to be damned
for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend
me.

DUTCH:
Eerste Moordenaar.
– Wat! zijt gij bang?
Tweede Moordenaar.
– Niet om hem to dooden, want daartoe heb ik een volmacht,
maar voor de verdoemenis, als ik hem dood ;
want daartegen kan geen volmacht mij lets helpen .

MORE:
Warrant=Authorisation
From the which=From which
Compleat:
Warrant=Een schriftuurlyke order, volmagtiging

Topics: offence, caution, foul play, consequence

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