CJTranslations - Shakespeare quotes on corruption

QUOTES BY TOPIC

’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down,
and the worser allowed by order of law a furred gown

PLAY: Measure for Measure ACT/SCENE: 3.2 SPEAKER: Pompey CONTEXT: ’Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the
merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by
order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and
furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that
craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. DUTCH: Met het vroolijk leventjen in de wereld is het uit, sinds,
van twee woekerzaken, de vroolijkste verboden is en aan
de slechtste van de twee bij de wet een pelsrok werd
toegekend om zich warm te houden, MORE: Schmidt:
Usury=The practice of taking interest for money
Craft=Cunning, artifice, guile
Compleat:
To lend upon usury=Op rente leenen
I shall pay you with usury=Ik zal het met woeker betaalen
Craft=List, loosheyd Topics: law/legal, offence, corruption, status, money, order/society

A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness. My son corrupts a well-derived nature with his inducement

PLAY: All’s Well that Ends Well
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Countess
CONTEXT:
COUNTESS
Parolles, was it not?
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Ay, my good lady, he.
COUNTESS
A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness.
My son corrupts a well-derived nature
With his inducement.
FIRST GENTLEMAN
Indeed, good lady,
The fellow has a deal of that too much,
Which holds him much to have.
COUNTESS
You’re welcome, gentlemen.
I will entreat you, when you see my son,
To tell him that his sword can never win
The honour that he loses: more I’ll entreat you
Written to bear along.

DUTCH:
Een recht nietswaardig wezen, vol van slechtheid ;
Mijn zoon verderft zijn eigen goeden aard
Door zijn verleiding .

MORE:
Well-derived=Inherited from birth
Inducement=Power of persuasion
A deal of that too much=An excess (of that inducement)
Holds him much=From which he profits
Compleat:
Derived=Afgeleyd, voortgekomen
Inducement=Aanleyding, beweegreeden
Inducer=Aanleyder, aanvoerder, overreeder

Topics: corruption, manipulation, honour

Be but duteous, and true preferment shall tender itself to thee

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Pisanio
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
Bring this apparel to my chamber; that is the
second thing that I have commanded thee. The
third is that thou wilt be a voluntary mute to my design.
Be but duteous, and true preferment shall
tender itself to thee. My revenge is now at Milford.
Would I had wings to follow it! Come, and be true.
PISANIO
Thou bidd’st me to my loss, for true to thee
Were to prove false, which I will never be,
To him that is most true. To Milford go,
And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
You heavenly blessings, on her. This fool’s speed
Be crossed with slowness. Labour be his meed.

DUTCH:
Doe je plicht maar, en een goede bevordering zal van zelf volgen

MORE:
Proverb: He has his labour for his pains

Preferment=Preference given, precedence granted
Design=A work in hand, enterprise, cause
Compleat:
Preferment=Verhooging, voortrekking, bevordering tot Staat
Design=Opzet, voorneemen, oogmerk, aanslag, toeleg, ontwerp
He had labour for his pains=Hy had zyn moeite tot een belooning

Topics: proverbs and idioms, duty, plans/intentionsauathority, corruption, conspiracy

But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 5.1
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
My business in this state
Made me a looker on here in Vienna,
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
Till it o’er-run the stew; laws for all faults,
But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop,
As much in mock as mark.

DUTCH:
Ik zag er, hoe ‘t bederf hier kookt en bobbelt
En overschuimt; een wet op elke zonde,
Doch zonde zoo in gunst, dat strenge wetten
In tel zijn als de wetten van een bierhuis,
Gelezen, maar belachen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Countenanced=To keep in countenance, to support, to favour
CITED IN US LAW:
Tomasi v. Township of Wayne, 126 N.J. Super 169,177, 313 A.2d 229, 233 (1973)(Schwartz, J.). (In a case concerning the regulation of barber shops.)
Burgersdijk notes:
Het Engelsch heeft: Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop, dus als de boeten, die in een barbierswinkel verschuldigd zijn. Wie een letterlijke vertaling begeert, leze dus in plaats van bierhuis scheerhuis. Maar men bedenke, dat in den ouden tjjd barbierswinkels plaatsen waren, waar de menschen samenkwamen om den tjjd te dooden, met elkander te praten en te redetwisten, en dat er ook wel hier te verkrjjgen was, zoodat tot handhaving der orde eenige bepalingen niet overtollig waren; deze hingen dan ook wel aan den muur, maar werden lang niet altjjd geeerbiedigd. Al worden er ook thans by barbiers allerlei gewichtige zaken verhandeld, een scheerwinkel was in vroeger tjjd wat anders dan tegenwoordig.

Topics: cited in law, law/legal, business, corruption, offence, respect

Didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.
But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?
And happy always was it for that son
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell?
I’ll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind;
And would my father had left me no more!
For all the rest is held at such a rate
As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep
Than in possession and jot of pleasure.
Ah, cousin York! Would thy best friends did know
How it doth grieve me that thy head is here!

DUTCH:
Schoon toonde Clifford daar zijn redekunst
En voerde gronden aan van groot gewicht.
Maar, Clifford, zeg mij, hebt gij nooit gehoord,
Dat slecht verworven goed steeds slecht gedijt?

MORE:

Proverb: Evil-gotten (ill-gotten) goods never prove well (prosper, endure)
Proverb: Happy is the child whose father goes to the devil

Full well=Very well
Inferring=Adducing
Success=Result
Happy=Fortunate
Rate=Price

Compleat:
Jot=Zier
To hord up=Opstapelen, vergaaren, byeenschraapen

Burgersdijk notes:
II.2.48. Wiens vader om zijn schrapen voer ter helle. Het spreekwoord, waarop hier gezinspeeld wordt, luidt : Happy the child, whose father went to the devil; „Gelukkig het kind, welks vader door den duivel is gehaald!” Als een vader, die op zondige wijze rijk geworden is, sterft, erft de zoon wel het goed, maar heeft voor de zonden niet meer te boeten. Koning Hendrik betwijfelt blijkbaar de juistheid van het spreekwoord.

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, corruption, fate/destiny

Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: King Henry VI
CONTEXT:
KING HENRY VI
Full well hath Clifford play’d the orator,
Inferring arguments of mighty force.
But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear
That things ill-got had ever bad success?
And happy always was it for that son
Whose father for his hoarding went to hell? I
‘ll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind;
And would my father had left me no more!
For all the rest is held at such a rate
As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep
Than in possession and jot of pleasure.
Ah, cousin York!
Would thy best friends did know
How it doth grieve me that thy head is here!

DUTCH:
Schoon toonde ClifTord daar zijn redekunst
En voerde gronden aan van groot gewicht.

MORE:

Proverb: Evil-gotten (ill-gotten) goods never prove well (prosper, endure)
Proverb: Happy is the child whose father goes to the devil

Full well=Very well
Inferring=Adducing
Success=Result
Happy=Fortunate
Rate=Price

Compleat:
Jot=Zier
To hord up=Opstapelen, vergaaren, byeenschraapen

Topics: proverbs and idioms, invented or popularised, still in use, corruption, fate/destiny

I do wish thou wert a dog, that I might love thee something

PLAY: Timon of Athens
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Timon
CONTEXT:
ALCIBIADES
What art thou there? speak.
TIMON
A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart,
For showing me again the eyes of man!
ALCIBIADES
What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee,
That art thyself a man?
TIMON
I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind.
For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,
That I might love thee something.
ALCIBIADES
I know thee well;
But in thy fortunes am unlearned and strange.

DUTCH:
Ik ben Misanthropos en haat het menschdom.
Wat u betreft, ik wenschte, dat ge een hond waart;
Dan, moog’lijk, hield ik iets van u.

MORE:
Canker=Canker worm; Ulcer
Misanthropos=Hater of mankind
Strange=Ignorant
Compleat:
Canker=Kanker
Strange=Vreemd, uitheemsch

Topics: corruption

I know a discontented gentleman whose humble means match not his haughty spirit

PLAY: Richard III
ACT/SCENE: 4.2
SPEAKER: Page
CONTEXT:
KING RICHARD
Know’st thou not any whom corrupting gold
Will tempt unto a close exploit of death?
PAGE
I know a discontented gentleman
Whose humble means match not his haughty spirit.
Gold were as good as twenty orators,
And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything.

DUTCH:
Ik ken een ontevreden edelman,
Wiens armoe met zijn hoogmoed kwalijk strookt;
Geen twintig reed’naars roerden zoo zijn hart
Als goud, om hem tot alles te verlokken.

MORE:
Close=Secret
Exploit of death=Murder
Humble means=Lack of assets
Haughty=Proud
Compleat:
Close=Beslooten, dicht, naauw
To exploit=Uytvoeren, verrichten
Humble=Ootmoedig, nederig, deemoedig
Haughty=Hoogmoedig, verwaand, opgeblaazen, trots

Topics: corruption, temptation, money

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

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

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

MORE:

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

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

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

Ill deeds is doubled with an evil word

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Luciana
CONTEXT:
LUCIANA
And may it be that you have quite forgot
A husband’s office? Shall, Antipholus,
Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot?
Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?
If you did wed my sister for her wealth,
Then for her wealth’s sake use her with more kindness.
Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth—
Muffle your false love with some show of blindness.
Let not my sister read it in your eye;
Be not thy tongue thy own shame’s orator;
Look sweet, be fair, become disloyalty;
Apparel vice like virtue’s harbinger.
Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted.
Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint.
Be secret-false. What need she be acquainted?
What simple thief brags of his own attaint?
‘Tis double wrong to truant with your bed
And let her read it in thy looks at board.
Shame hath a bastard fame, well managèd;
Ill deeds is doubled with an evil word.
Alas, poor women, make us but believe,
Being compact of credit, that you love us.
Though others have the arm, show us the sleeve;
We in your motion turn, and you may move us.
Then, gentle brother, get you in again.
Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife.
‘Tis holy sport to be a little vain
When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife.

DUTCH:
Door fraaie taal redt schande vaak den schijn,
Maar booze taal is dubbel-booze daad.

MORE:
Proverb: Fine words dress ill deeds

Attaint=Offence, disgrace, corruption
Well-managed=Put a good spin on
Bastard fame=Illegitimate honour
Compact of credit=Made of credulity, entirely believable
Compleat:
To attaint=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainted=Overtuigd van misdaad, misdaadig verklaard
To compact=In een trekken, dicht t’saamenvoegen
Credit=Geloof, achting, aanzien, goede naam

Topics: offence, truth, corruption, deceit, vanity, intellect, proverbs and idioms

In the corrupted currents of this world
offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice

PLAY: Hamlet
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Polonius
CONTEXT:

In the corrupted currents of this world
offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above.
There is no shuffling. There the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.
All may be well.

DUTCH:
In de verdorvenheid van deze wereld kan ’t recht door de vergulde hand der misdaad opzijgeschoven worden, en de wet
met bloedgeld worden omgekocht/
In den verdorven stroom der wereld kan Zonde’s vergulde hand het recht wegduwen; En vaak gezien werd, dat de schandprijs zelf Omkocht de wet. /
In ‘t boos gedwarrel dezer wereld schuive Der wandaad gulden hand het recht op zij; Gewis, de vrucht der misdaad koopt wel vaak De wetten om;/
In den verdorven loop van ‘s werelds taken Duwt misdaads gouden hand soms ‘t recht op zij En dikwijls ziet men, dat de booze buit De straffen afkoopt.

MORE:
Schmidt:
Currents=course
Gilded=supplied with money (here: stolen)
Shove=To push or drive by main force
Shuffle=To practise shifts, to play tricks
Compleat:
Gild=Schuld
To shuffle=Door malkanderen schieten, omwegen zoeken,
To shuffle off a business=Een zaak afschuiven
To shift or shuffle off a fault to another=De schuld op een ander werpen
To shuffle (to dodge)=Slinksche wegen inslaan, listen gebruiken, niet oprecht zyn

Topics: corruption, law/legal, justice

Is this her fault or mine? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
From thee, even from thy virtue!
What’s this, what’s this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
Ha!
Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

DUTCH:
Wat is ‘t? is ‘t hare schuld of is ‘t de mijne?
Wie is de grootste zondaar, die verzocht wordt,
Of die verzoekt?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Virtuous=Powerful, efficacious by inherent qualities, beneficial
Virtuous season=With the benign influence of summer weather and sunshine
Betray=Seduce
Compleat:
Betray=Verraaden, beklappen
Virtuous=Deugdelyk, deugdzaam, vroom
Burgersdijk notes:
Men heeft het woord evil hier en in Koning Hendrik Vill, II.1.61 ook wel verklaard met ,heimelijk gemak” en zou dan hier kunnen vertalen: Om juist daar Ons drekhuis op to slaan. O, foei, foei, foei!

Topics: temptation, virtue, offence, good and bad, corruption

Mere prattle without practice is all his soldiership

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

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

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

MORE:

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

No man that hath a name by falsehood and corruption doth it shame

PLAY: The Comedy of Errors
ACT/SCENE: 2.1
SPEAKER: Adriana
CONTEXT:
LUCIANA
Self-harming jealousy, fie, beat it hence.
ADRIANA
Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense.
I know his eye doth homage otherwhere,
Or else what lets it but he would be here?
Sister, you know he promised me a chain.
Would that alone o’ love he would detain,
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed.
I see the jewel best enamelèd
Will lose his beauty. Yet the gold bides still
That others touch, and often touching will
Wear gold; yet no man that hath a name
By falsehood and corruption doth it shame.
Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I’ll weep what’s left away, and weeping die.
LUCIANA
How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!

DUTCH:
Ik zie het nu, de fijnst geslepen steen
Verliest zijn glans, en blijve goud ook goud,
Hoe vaak betast, zijn vol gewicht behoudt.
Het niet aldoor; en op den schoonsten naam
Werpt valschheid en verleiding vaak een blaam.

MORE:
The confusion about the delivery of a gold chain is a reference to a cause célèbre case in 1591 and 1592, Underwood v Manwood. This would have been appreciated by the audience in Gray’s Inn in 1594.Proverb: Iron (Gold) with often handling is worn to nothing

To let=To prevent (what lets it but=what else would prevent)
Keep fair quarter=Keep good order or keeping proper place, quarter being a military term for lodging
Compleat:
To let=Beletten, verhinderen
No quarter given=Daar was geen lyfsgenade; daar wierdt geen kwartier gegeven

Topics: reputation, honesty, corruption, integrity, law/legal

O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 3.2
SPEAKER: Duke
CONTEXT:
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
How may likeness made in crimes,
Making practise on the times,
To draw with idle spiders’ strings
Most ponderous and substantial things!

DUTCH:
O, hoe boos kan ‘t harte zijn,
Schoon de mensch een engel schijn’ !

MORE:
Schmidt:
Likeness=Semblance, resembling form. (Specious or seeming virtue)
Corrupt passage: how may likeness made in crimes etc.
Spiders’ strings=webs (flimsiness)
Ponderous=Heavy

Topics: deceit, appearance, integrity, conspiracy, corruption

Preferment goes by letter and affection

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

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

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

MORE:

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

See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief.

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.6
SPEAKER: King Lear
CONTEXT:
What, art mad? A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears. See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a farmer’s dog bark at a beggar?

DUTCH:
Zie hoe die
rechter daar to keer gaat tegen dien onnoozelen dief./
Zie je hoe die rechter daar zo’n armzalige dief ervanlangs
geeft? Ik fluister het je in: verwissel ze van plaats, en rara,
in welke hand zit de rechter, in welke de dief?

MORE:
Schmidt:
Handy-dandy=Game involving sleight of hand by which something imperceptibly is changed from one hand into the other.
Simple=Humble, ordinary or weak-witted
Compleat:
Simple=De zwakken; Eenvoudig, onbeschadigende
Handy-dandy=Handje klap

Topics: law, justice, corruption, understanding, intellect

Shall we now contaminate our fingers with base bribes…?

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
Remember March, the ides of March remember.
Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake?
What villain touched his body, that did stab,
And not for justice? What, shall one of us
That struck the foremost man of all this world
But for supporting robbers, shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
And sell the mighty space of our large honours
For so much trash as may be graspèd thus?
I had rather be a dog and bay the moon
Than such a Roman.

DUTCH:
Denk gij aan Maart, aan de’ Idusdag van Maart ;
Stierf niet de groote Julius om het recht?
Zou een, die toestiet, schurk geweest zijn? treffend,
En niet om ‘t recht? Wat! spreek, zou een van ons,
Die de’ eersten man der wereld nederstieten,
Slechts wijl hij roovers steunde, zouden wij
Door lage giften onze hand bezoed’len,
Der eereposten groot gewicht verkoopen
Voor zooveel slijks als grijpbaar is? Veel liever
Ware ik een hond, die bast bij ‘t zien der maan,
Dan zoo Romein.

MORE:
CITED IN US LAW: Re. definition of “contaminate”: Hi-G, Inc. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 283 F.Supp. 211 (D. Mass. 1967)

Proverb: The dog (wolf) barks in vain at the moon

What villain=Who was so villainous
Contaminate our fingers=Dirty our hads
Base=Bowly
Honours=Reputations
Trash=Money
Compleat:
Contaminate=Besmetten
Base=Ondergeschikt
Trash=Lompige waar, ondeugend goed

Topics: proverbs and idioms, cited in law, corruption

That is, what villainy soe’er I bid thee do to perform it directly and truly

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.5
SPEAKER: Cloten
CONTEXT:
CLOTEN
It is Posthumus’ hand, I know ’t. Sirrah, if
thou wouldst not be a villain, but do me true service,
undergo those employments wherein I should
have cause to use thee with a serious industry—
that is, what villainy soe’er I bid thee do to perform
it directly and truly—I would think thee an honest
man. Thou shouldst neither want my means for thy
relief nor my voice for thy preferment.
PISANIO
Well, my good lord.
CLOTEN
Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and
constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune of
that beggar Posthumus, thou canst not in the
course of gratitude but be a diligent follower of
mine. Wilt thou serve me?

DUTCH:
Kerel, als gij eens geen schurk wilt wezen, maar mij trouw
dienen, en dus met ernstigen ijver alle werkzaamheden
verrichten, waarvoor ik reden heb u te gebruiken, — ik
bedoel, iedere schurkerij, die ik u opdraag, terstond en
eerlijk wilt uitvoeren, — dan zou ik u voor een braven
kerel houden; en dan kunt gij rekenen op mijn geld
voor uw onderhoud en op mijn voorspraak voor uw bevordering.

MORE:
Undergo=Undertake
Bare=Poor
Preferment=Preference given, precedence granted
Compleat:
Undergo=Ondergaan, doorgaan
Bare (of money)=Geldeloos
Preferment=Verhooging, voortrekking, bevordering tot Staat

Topics: corruption, conspiracy, offence, work, duty

The choice and master spirits of this age

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Antony
CONTEXT:
ANTONY
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
—I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar’s death’s hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die.
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.

DUTCH:
Leefde ik duizend jaar,
Nooit ben ik zoo geheel ter dood bereid;
Geen plaats zal mij, geen sneven zoo behagen,
Als hier bij Caesar vallen, en door u,
De grootste heldengeesten onzer eeuw.

MORE:
Purpled=Bloodied
Reek and smoke=Steam
Apt=Ready
Mean=Means
Choice=Select
Master=Commanding
Compleat:
Reek=Rook, wassem
Apt=Gereed
Choice=Uytgeleezen, keurlyk
Choicest men of the city=De treffelykste van de stad
To master=Vermeesteren, bedwingen

Topics: authority, death, corruption, status

The love of wicked men converts to fear; That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both To worthy danger and deserved death.

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

The time shall not be many hours of age More than it is ere foul sin gathering head Shalt break into corruption.

DUTCH:
De tijd zal niet veel ouder zijn dan nu,
Eer booze zonde rijpt en zich verzamelt
En openbreekt

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, time

They say ‘ A crafty knave does need no broker;’

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 2
ACT/SCENE: 1.2
SPEAKER: Hume
CONTEXT:
They, knowing Dame Eleanor’s aspiring humour,
Have hired me to undermine the duchess
And buzz these conjurations in her brain.
They say ‘ A crafty knave does need no broker;’
Yet am I Suffolk and the cardinal’s broker.
Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near
To call them both a pair of crafty knaves.
Well, so its stands; and thus, I fear, at last
Hume’s knavery will be the duchess’ wrack,
And her attainture will be Humphrey’s fall.
Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all.

DUTCH:
Geen sluwe schelm, zoo zegt men, neemt een helper;

MORE:

Proverb: A cunning (crafty) knave needs no broker

Modern usage: Mum’s the word
Not invented by Shakespeare: the word was first used in the 14th century, although Shakespeare probably helped to make it popular. The word ‘mum’ may refer to the humming sound made by a closed mouth.
Asketh=Demands, requires
Buz=(or buzz) Whisper
Conjurations=Incantations; obsecration
Wrack=Ruin
Attainture=Shame; conviction

Compleat:
Knave=Een guit, boef
To buzz into one’s ears=Iemand in ‘t oor blaazen
Conjuration=Samenzweering, eedgespan, vloekverwantschap, bezweering
Wrack=(a ship): Een schip aan stukken stooten
To go to wrack=Verlooren gaan, te gronde gaan
To attaint=Overtuigen van misdaad, schuldig verklaaren, betichten; bevlekken, bederf aanzetten
Attainture (of blood)=Bederving of aansteeking des bloeds

Topics: proverbs and idioms, ambition, corruption, ruin

Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves

PLAY: Measure for Measure
ACT/SCENE: 2.2
SPEAKER: Angelo
CONTEXT:
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live!
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves.

DUTCH:
De dief heeft volmacht voor zijn roof, indien
De rechter zelve steelt

MORE:
Schmidt:
Foully=Impurely
CITED IN US LAW:
Re. The definition of “theft”: Putnam v The Manitba, 104 F. 145 (SDNY 1900);

Topics: cited in law, offence, corruption, justice

This fool’s speed be crossed with slowness. labour be his meed

DUTCH:
Daal, ‘s hemels zegen, daal
Op haar, en worde dezen dwaas zijn spoed
Door tegenspoed gestremd, met leed begroet!

MORE:
Proverb: He has his labour for his pains

Topics: proverbs and idioms, duty, plans/intentionsauathority, corruption, conspiracy

Thou shouldst neither want my means for thy relief nor my voice for thy preferment

DUTCH:
Kerel, als gij eens geen schurk wilt wezen, maar mij trouw dienen, en dus met ernstigen ijver alle werkzaamheden verrichten, waarvoor ik reden heb u te gebruiken, — ik bedoel, iedere schurkerij, die ik u opdraag, terstond en eerlijk wilt uitvoeren, — dan zou ik u voor een braven kerel houden; en dan kunt gij rekenen op mijn geld voor uw onderhoud en op mijn voorspraak voor uw bevordering.

Topics: corruption, conspiracy, offence, work, duty

Though those that are betray’d do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor stands in worse case of woe

PLAY: Cymbeline
ACT/SCENE: 3.4
SPEAKER: Imogen
CONTEXT:
IMOGEN
Why, I must die;
And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master’s. Against self-slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here’s my heart.
Something’s afore’t. Soft, soft! we’ll no defence;
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All turn’d to heresy? Away, away,
Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are betray’d
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up
My disobedience ‘gainst the king my father
And make me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness: and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory
Will then be pang’d by me. Prithee, dispatch:
The lamb entreats the butcher: where’s thy knife?
Thou art too slow to do thy master’s bidding,
When I desire it too.

DUTCH:
Van hier, van hier,
Die mijn geloof vervalscht hebt! Weg! niet langer
Dekt gij mij ‘t hart! O, arme dwazen schenken
Geloof aan valsche leeraars. Doch hoe diep
‘t Verraad ook de bedroog’nen griev’, toch treft
Hem, die verraadt, veel erger wee.

MORE:
Disedged=Blunted, with the edge taken off (Cf. Hamlet 3.2, “It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”)
False teachers=Teachers of heresy
Stomacher=Ornamental covering for the breast worn by women
To tire=To prey or feed ravenously “upon”, rend prey to pieces
Pang=To afflict with great pain, to torment
Compleat:
To blunt=Stomp maaken, verstompen
A false prophet=Een valsch Propheet
A false (erroneous) opinion=Een dwaalend gevoelen

Topics: corruption, manipulation, betrayal, order/society, memory, consequences

Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind

PLAY: King Lear
ACT/SCENE: 4.1
SPEAKER: Gloucester
CONTEXT:
Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.
Do as I bid thee. Or rather, do thy pleasure.
Above the rest, be gone.

DUTCH:
Het is de plaag
van onze tijd dat gekken blinden leiden./
‘t Is de kwaal des tijds, dat gekken blinden leiden .
Doe wat ik vroeg, of liever, wat gij wilt,
Maar hoe dan ook, ga heen.

MORE:
Schmidt:
The time’s plague=The curse of the age/time
Madmen=Mad rulers
Blind=Unseeing, ignorant

Topics: authority, madness, corruption, order/society

What makes robbers bold but too much lenity?

PLAY: King Henry VI Part 3
ACT/SCENE: 2.6
SPEAKER: Clifford
CONTEXT:
For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air?
And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity?
Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds;
No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight:
The foe is merciless, and will not pity;
For at their hands I have deserved no pity.
The air hath got into my deadly wounds,
And much effuse of blood doth make me faint.
Come, York and Richard, Warwick and the rest;
I stabb’d your fathers’ bosoms, split my breast.

DUTCH:
En wat maakt roovers stout dan te veel zachtheid?
Vruchtloos zijn klachten, zonder baat mijn wonden.

MORE:

Cherish=Encourage (growth)
Bootless=Hopeless, futile, wasted
Plaints=Complaints
Cureless=Incurable
Effuse=Outpouring

Compleat:
Plaint=Klagte, aanklagte
Bootless=Te vergeefs, vruchteloos
Plaint=Klagte, aanklagte
To be past cure=Ongeneeslyk zyn
Effusion=Uitstorting, uitgieting, vergieting
A great effusion of blood=Een groote bloedvergieting, bloedstorting

Topics: corruption, pity

Yet have I a mind that fears him much, and my misgiving still falls shrewdly to the purpose

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 3.1
SPEAKER: Cassius
CONTEXT:
BRUTUS
I know that we shall have him well to friend.
CASSIUS
I wish we may. But yet have I a mind
That fears him much, and my misgiving still
Falls shrewdly to the purpose.
BRUTUS
But here comes Antony.—Welcome, Mark Antony.
ANTONY
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
—I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.

DUTCH:
Ik hoop het ; maar toch heb ik een gevoel,
Dat zeer hem vreest ; en als ik onheil ducht,
Komt mijn beduchtheid altijd uit.

MORE:
Well to friend=On our side
Shrewdly=Astutely; grievously
To the purpose=Accurate
Shrunk=Distilled
Rank=Infected, corrupt
Compleat:
Shrewdly=Doortrapetelyk, vinniglyk; sterk
Shrunk=Gekrompen
To the purpose=Ter zaake
Rank=Vunsig, garstig, oolyk

Topics: corruption, caution, trust, merit

You fools! I and my fellows Are ministers of fate.

PLAY: The Tempest
ACT/SCENE: 3.3
SPEAKER: Ariel
CONTEXT:
You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in ’t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you—and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit, you ’mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad,
And even with suchlike valor men hang and drown
Their proper selves.
You fools, I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate. The elements
Of whom your swords are tempered may as well
Wound the loud winds or with bemocked-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters as diminish
One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers
Are like invulnerable.

DUTCH:
Gij dwazen! mijne makkers
En ik zijn ‘s noodlots dienaars

MORE:
Surfeit=To feed to excess, to cloy (used only in the partic. –ed: “the never –ed sea,”)
Ministers=Agents, servants
Dowl(e)=Fibre of down in a feather (“diminish one d. that’s in my plume”)
Still-closing=Always coalescing again

Topics: fate/destiny, power, corruption

You wronged yourself to write in such a case

PLAY: Julius Caesar
ACT/SCENE: 4.3
SPEAKER: Brutus
CONTEXT:
CASSIUS
That you have wronged me doth appear in this:
You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella
For taking bribes here of the Sardians,
Wherein my letters, praying on his side
Because I knew the man, were slighted off.
BRUTUS
You wronged yourself to write in such a case.
CASSIUS
In such a time as this it is not meet
That every nice offence should bear his comment.
BRUTUS
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemned to have an itching palm,
To sell and mart your offices for gold
To undeservers.
CASSIUS
I “an itching palm”!
You know that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
BRUTUS
The name of Cassius honours this corruption,
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.

DUTCH:
Door zulk een brief deedt gij uzelven onrecht.

MORE:
Meet=Appropriate
Nice=Trivial
Bear his comment=Be criticised
Itching palms=According to superstition, an itching palm means that money (here, a bribe) was on its way (the superstition is said to be based on the use of silver to cure diseases, which developed into the superstition that the itch meant silver was coming).
Compleat:
Meet=Dienstig
Nice=Keurig, vies
Itching palms =Jeukende handpalmen

Topics: corruption, money

You yourself are much condemned to have an itching palm

DUTCH:
Laat ik u zeggen, Cassius, dat gijzelf
Gelaakt wordt, wijl de holle hand u jeukt,
En wijl ge onwaardigen voor goud uw ambten
Te koop biedt.

Topics: corruption, money